Author: devcuration

The Silicon Valley Bank collapse did not just punch a hole in balance sheets. It cracked confidence across the innovation economy. Founders building the future realized their money was parked in systems allergic to volatility, speed, and edge cases. Erebor shows up from that wreckage not as a rebound trade, but as a rebuild with intent. A bank designed by people who understand that capital only matters if it can move fast, stay compliant, and survive chaos without blinking. Palmer Luckey does not operate in reverse. Joe Lonsdale does not fund small ideas. Alongside Trevor Capozza, Aaron Pelz, Jacob Hirshman,…

Steward Partners just dropped a $475 million headline, and it’s not just a number, it’s a statement. Ares Credit funds led the round, joined by existing investors The Cynosure Group and The Pritzker Organization. That’s not a syndicate, that’s a strategic alliance. This brings Steward’s total capital raised to $625 million, but the real figure everyone’s watching is the one that’s not disclosed: valuation. Because when a firm built on ownership starts scaling like this, you can’t price conviction. Founded in 2013 by Jim Gold and Hy Saporta, two Wall Street veterans who swapped corporate ceilings for open skies, Steward…

There’s a new kind of trust being built on the blockchain, and this time, it’s programmable. Coinbax just locked in a $4.2 million seed round led by BankTech Ventures, with backing from Connecticut Innovations, Paxos, SpringTime Ventures, and leaders across banking and payments. That’s not just capital, it’s validation from the institutions that actually keep the economy breathing. Founder and CEO Peter Glyman knows this game. After co-founding Geezeo and steering it into Jack Henry’s orbit, he learned what real financial infrastructure looks like: tight controls, precision, and accountability. Now, he’s teaming up with CTO Justin Seidl, the former founder…

easy.fun was built on the opposite premise. If trading is already emotional, competitive, and public, then stop pretending it is a monk activity and turn it into a multiplayer arena where skill, strategy, and reputation actually matter. Founded in 2025 by Jasper De Maere and Cam Darlington, easy.fun launched publicly in late 2025 as a social first, gamified crypto trading platform built on Hyperliquid. The idea was not to dumb trading down, but to make professional grade execution feel social, accessible, and fast. Think less lonely terminal, more trading floor energy, except the floor is global and the clock never…

A biotech born in Minnesota taking aim at cancer’s chaos, it’s the kind of ambition that doesn’t announce itself. Vyriad isn’t chasing headlines, it’s engineering history. The Rochester-based company just closed a $25 million final tranche of its Series B, bringing the round to $85 million and total funding beyond $100 million. Led by Harry Stine of Stine Seed Farms, with backing from Mayo Clinic, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Mirae Asset, and Southeast Minnesota Capital Fund, this isn’t a cash grab, it’s a calculated move to accelerate a biotech on the edge of a breakthrough. Dr. Stephen J. Russell MD PhD, Co-Founder…

Some startups chase hype. Cellens chases biology that feels. With $6.5 million in fresh Series Seed funding led by SOSV, joined by Labcorp Venture Fund, Blackwood Healthcare Breakthroughs, Kolon Industries, Tufts University, the American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge, CANCER FUND Impact Investments, and TiE Boston Angels, they’re not guessing their way through diagnostics. They’re building a platform that can literally feel cancer. Founded in 2020 out of Tufts University by CEO Phuong Jean Pham and Dr. Igor Sokolov, Cellens translates the physics of disease into data. Their BioFeel™ platform combines atomic force microscopy with machine learning to read nanoscale differences between…

There’s a moment every founder chases, the point where vision meets validation. For Drafted, that moment hit when the Miami-based hiring startup announced a $1.7 million pre-seed round at a $33.4 million pre-money valuation. Not bad for a company that’s only been public since April. But the real story isn’t in the numbers, it’s in how Drafted is reprogramming the hiring equation itself. Drafted isn’t another resume repository pretending to be innovation. It’s an AI-powered hiring platform connecting early career talent with startups through video assessments and cultural matching. No keyword filters. Just real people meeting real opportunity. In a…

It takes a rare kind of vision to stare down saltwater and see opportunity. William J. Walker, Ph.D., did just that, and then built the chemistry to prove it. After four decades in geochemistry and mining, he didn’t just study water, he learned its secrets. In 2018, he turned that obsession into Badwater Alchemy, a company turning brine into business with zero-valent iron nanoparticles that pull the salt, toxins, and cost out of desalination. This week, Badwater Alchemy announced a fresh $2 million seed raise, bringing total funding above $4.4 million. Quiet round, big signal. The Seattle-based company, now expanding…

December 23, 2025 quietly put a flag in the ground for anyone watching fibrosis beyond the noise. Mediar Therapeutics, founded in 2019 on research born inside Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, disclosed a $37.8M Series B via an SEC Form D, part of a $75.7M total offering. No victory laps. No glossy press quotes. Just capital lining up behind a disease category tied to roughly 45% of deaths in industrialized nations. Fibrosis does not shout. It tightens, hardens, and waits. Mediar Therapeutics was built for that kind of opponent. The idea underneath the company is refreshingly direct.…

RheumaGen, Inc. just did something quietly loud, the kind of move that doesn’t scream for attention but changes the temperature in the room. A Series A-1 investment from Beyond Celiac Investments aimed squarely at advancing a celiac disease program that is not interested in managing symptoms or negotiating diets. This is about immune tolerance, precision, and a belief that lifelong does not have to mean forever. The origin story matters here. This company didn’t pop out of a pitch deck factory. It came out of decades of work at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where Brian Freed, PhD,…