Author: Jesse Landry

There is a moment in every cycle when a sector stops asking for permission and starts asking for capital. Space is in that moment. Not the cinematic version with glossy rockets and billionaire cosplay, but the institutional version where portfolio managers sharpen pencils and policymakers clear their calendars. The global space economy is no longer a novelty line item. It is a line on the balance sheet moving from roughly $630B in 2023 toward projections approaching $1.8T by 2035. That trajectory is not speculation. It is capital formation accelerating in plain sight. On February 23, 2026, inside 11 Wall Street,…

Infleqtion has spent nearly 20 years operating at temperatures colder than space, and now it is operating in the heat of public markets. On February 17, 2026, the Louisville, Colorado–based quantum technology company completed its business combination with Churchill Capital Corp X and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker INFQ. Pre-money valuation: $1.8B. Gross proceeds: $550M+. Minimal redemptions. In a market that has punished speculative science projects, this was not a soft landing. It was a calculated entry into the capital arena, and it lands squarely in serious startup news territory. Founded in 2007 as…

ServiceNow just made it clear that workflow without intelligence is just choreography. On Feb 11, 2026, Globes reported an agreement for ServiceNow to acquire Pyramid Analytics, with CTech confirming coverage across Feb 11-12, 2026. The Israeli-built, Netherlands-incorporated decision intelligence company is being acquired for an estimated $100M+, while ServiceNow declined to disclose financial terms. In serious tech news, the number matters. The positioning matters more. Pyramid Analytics BV is legally headquartered in Amsterdam, but its operational gravity sits in Israel, where 200+ employees anchor R&D, supported by teams across the U.S., U.K., Netherlands, UAE, and Germany. Founded in 2009, with…

Venice just walked out of stealth with $33M in total funding and a message that hits like a well-timed cymbal crash. Privileged access in the AI era cannot run on yesterday’s passwords and polite approval chains. It needs teeth. It needs timing. It needs control that shows up exactly when it should and disappears before trouble clocks in. Congratulations to Rotem Lurie, Co-founder and CEO, and Or Vaknin, Co-founder and CTO, on locking in a $25M Series A led by IVP, with Index Ventures, Vine Ventures, and Holly Ventures in the mix. Cack Wilhelm of IVP did not lean in…

The electric grid is the most important machine in the modern world, and it still runs on hardware designed when disco was considered advanced technology. Transformers humming like they are stuck in 1978 while AI data centers are pulling power like a Vegas residency. That tension right there is where fortunes are made. Heron Power just secured $140M in Series B funding to modernize that bottleneck, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz through American Dynamism and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. That is not loose change. That is conviction capital. Add the earlier $38M Series A led by Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund,…

Some companies raise capital. Others raise standards. Avantos just did both. In 2024, Bassam Chaptini and Rabih Ramadi looked at financial services and saw the same thing every operator sees but few fix. Onboarding stitched together with email. Servicing trapped in swivel chairs and legacy screens. Client data scattered like loose change in different pockets. So they built Avantos, an AI native operating system for client management that does not just sit on top of the chaos but actually organizes it. Now Avantos has secured $35M in total funding, including a $25M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with…

The quiet ones in defense are usually the most dangerous. Not loud. Not flashy. Just focused. ARCYN Defense just closed its seed round, and if you read between the lines, this is less about capital and more about capability. Let’s start with the builders. Congratulations to Dr. Aaron Poynton, CEO, and Dr. Fazel Farahmand, CTO, for getting this round done. Seed capital in defense tech is not a participation trophy. It is earned. Add Lou Schiliro, Head of Operations, and you have a team that understands execution is the only strategy that matters once the wire hits. ARCYN Defense, formerly…

$42M just walked into vulnerability management and did not ask for permission. Cogent Security just closed a $42M Series A led by Bain Capital Ventures, with Greylock Partners and Definition in the mix, plus strategic angels from OpenAI, Abnormal Security, and Datadog. Total funding now sits at $53M. Not bad for a company that stepped out of stealth in July 2025 with an $11M round led by Greylock Partners and backed by Lockstep. Some companies tiptoe into the market. Cogent Security kicked the door in and brought receipts. Congratulations to Vineet Edupuganti, Co-Founder and CEO, Geng Sng, Co-Founder and CTO,…

Braintrust just secured $80M in Series B funding at an $800M valuation. Let that breathe for a second. ICONIQ led the round, with Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, Basecase Capital, and Elad Gil doubling down. When firms like that lean forward instead of sitting back, it is not a courtesy clap. It is conviction. Congratulations to Ankur Goyal, Founder and CEO of Braintrust, for building something the AI world desperately needed but could not quite articulate. And respect to the technical leadership driving the platform forward. This is what happens when operators who have lived the pain decide to architect the cure.…

In cardiology, a chronic total occlusion is the kind of problem that stares back at you. 100% blocked. No wiggle room. No polite workaround. You either cross it or you do not. That tension is where companies are born. Elumn8 Medical, Inc., formerly Simpson Interventions, just announced the initial close of its Series C financing and a corporate rebrand out of Campbell, California on Feb 17, 2026. New name. Same obsession. Sharper edge. When you are building for the moments that decide whether a wire finds true lumen or wanders into trouble, branding is not cosmetic. It is conviction made…