The article argues that AI is forcing enterprises to merge CFO and CHRO responsibilities into a new “workforce economics” operating model that treats capital investment and human capability together. It cites an IBM Institute for Business Value CHRO study released on Sept. 21 finding that only 26% of organizations clearly define work across human-led, AI-assisted, and AI-executed activities. As a result, companies are redesigning workflows end-to-end and shifting decisions on hiring, reskilling, and automation into a single finance-and-talent system rather than separate department planning.
Basecamp Research announced it raised $140 million in a Series C round led by S32, with investors including NATO, Nvidia, and a $100 million Anthology Fund venture. The company’s EDEN foundation model was trained on its Trillion Gene Atlas dataset containing information on more than 100 billion genes. It plans to use the funding to accelerate its AI-designed drug development and expand partnerships for bringing those therapies to market.
Enveda raised a $311 million Series E as a biotech startup using AI to find nature-derived drug candidates for clinical trials.
The round valued the company at $2 billion, doubling its valuation from 12 months earlier.
As a result, Enveda can advance multiple AI-discovered therapies in patients, including a severe skin-condition treatment and a weight-maintenance drug after stopping GLP-1s.
Magic AI, a London-based fitness tech startup, raised fresh funding to expand its AI-powered fitness mirror business into the US. The company raised £8m. As a result, it will use the money to support its US expansion plans.
StrictlyVC is hosting an investor-focused session at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to discuss how AI-driven startup scaling is shifting venture capital, dealmaking, and IPO readiness. Registration for the Disrupt Investor Pass requires enrolling by September 25, 11:59 p.m. PT to save $200. The event packages networking and multiple panels into a dated, structured program aimed at founders and investors navigating a new funding landscape.
Bird raised $450 million in debt financing while repositioning as an AI business and cutting its workforce from a claimed peak of 1,000 to 120. The financing included a $400 million term loan plus a $50 million revolving credit facility led by JP Morgan, Capital One, and Citi. The company says the money will add liquidity for existing shareholders (including employees) and that automation is now enabling message, call, and email handling via its AI Agentic Harness platform.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 announced that ticket savings of up to $200 end in three days, ahead of a September 25 deadline for lower prices.
The discounted pricing for Disrupt 2026 ends on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
It also added an option for a second pass at 50% off and promotes AI-powered matchmaking for 1:1 meetings via the TechCrunch Events app.
Basecamp Research raised a $140m Series C to build next-generation biological foundation models with backing from Anthropic and Nvidia. The round totals $140m and was led by S32. It will fund development of the models and use them to move medicines designed through the platform toward clinical use.
Ema Unlimited Inc. raised $77 million to expand agentic AI “employees” that carry out actions inside enterprise HR, IT, and finance systems rather than just answering questions. The Series B round brought in $77M led by Creagis, including larger investments from existing backers. Ema plans to use the funding to speed up development of its autonomous employees and expand go-to-market and executive hiring to deploy them beyond pilots.
Basecamp Research raised a $140m Series C to fund its AI-driven drug discovery and cell therapy work, with Nvidia and Anthropic among the investors. The round is $140 million, and the company plans to use it to train a new generation of its AI models. As a result, Basecamp will advance its pipeline of AI-designed therapeutics toward clinical development.
Mirendil, an AI research startup founded by four former Anthropic/xAI/OpenAI staffers, is reportedly in talks for a $5B valuation after initially raising a $1B seed three months earlier. The proposed valuation is $5 billion. Kleiner Perkins may lead an additional round of up to $1B and Andreessen Horowitz is also negotiating another investment, despite the company still having no public product.
4YFN opened entries for the 4YFN27 Awards to let digital startups apply for investor review and pitching at the event in Barcelona. The overall winner will receive a €20,000 cash prize, with applications due by 26 October 2026 at 17:00 CET. The program adds a Top 20 shortlist that gets €1,500 and an exhibition pod, followed by category finalists pitching on stage for the winner selection.
Phoenix Court announced new long-term partnerships with the British Business Bank and NatWest to back UK science and technology startups from seed stage through scale-up. The British Business Bank’s commitment is part of a multi-hundred-million-pound investment into Phoenix Court’s funds. NatWest will invest in Phoenix Court’s LocalGlobe, Latitude, and Solar funds for the first time while M&G and HSBC continue support, expanding domestic institutional capital for these startups.
Connect Ventures announced the first close of its Fund V, deploying early-stage capital for technical technology startups across Europe. The fund reached $55 million of its $80 million target. Connect will invest $500,000 to $5 million per company in lead pre-seed rounds with a focus on teams with technical expertise driving product and development.
Nscale’s $35 billion IPO filing and exhibits show that ByteDance (TikTok’s parent) used Nscale’s Norway cloud facility to access Nvidia chips it otherwise couldn’t buy in China, via a Singapore subsidiary.
OpenAI is still searching for a chief communications officer after its top candidate for the role declined it months ago. The job has been open for nine months since Hannah Wong stepped down in January 2026. OpenAI has ramped up recruitment with an executive search firm and reorganized its communications leadership around IPO messaging, but the CCO role remains unfilled.
The UAE is prioritizing satellites as a strategic national asset while shifting its space activity toward commercial communications, Earth observation, and deep-space efforts. The UAE-backed Space42 plans Equatys with Viasat, committing up to $1 billion in equity and starting with fewer than 200 satellites before expanding to 2,800. This accelerates investment and operations across UAE satellite connectivity and geospatial intelligence, with satellite projects increasingly feeding national-security and infrastructure use cases rather than staying purely exploratory.
Climate-focused venture capital has shifted back into focus as AI increases demand for energy for data centers while climate-tech fundraising has weakened. Fundraising for climate-specialist VCs in 2025 was down nearly 40% from 2024 even as energy and related startups drew much more capital. Investors say AI is pulling more deal activity toward climate-compatible energy and storage, and climate investors are increasingly co-investing alongside generalists on a larger share of caps tables.
Fearn launched an AI-native patent firm and began offering fixed-fee patent filings built around its FearnOS system and in-house former Big Law reviewers. It charges $2,500 for a provisional application and $9,000 for a non-provisional, with a refund if no claims are allowed. This shifts patent work from selling drafting software to operating a full prosecution team that aims to cut turnaround time while moving efficiency gains and fee risk onto Fearn.
Ema raised $77 million in a Series B round to expand its AI agents that automate enterprise processes across HR, IT, and finance. The funding increases Ema’s total funding to $140 million and more than quadruples its valuation from its 2024 round. As a result, Ema will push further into go-to-market and expand its market coverage, including Asia-Pacific, South America, and parts of the Middle East.
Bleetz Network launched an automated agent-to-agent network to help startups match with venture funds by screening fit and handling initial pitches. The service matches a startup’s AI agent with 2,000+ simulated agents and returns YES/NO/MAYBE. A YES result unlocks the selected fund’s contact details, while the offer is described as free with no strings attached.
OpenRouter launched a batch API that lets providers schedule batch processing within a 24-hour window at a reduced per-token rate. The beta on 230k+ completed batches saw a median completion time of 7 minutes, with 90% finishing within 1 hour. Jobs can now be run asynchronously and waited on later, with up to 30-day retention for inputs and results and per-request results returned together in a completed batch response.
TEKEVER announced the first close of its Series D financing for AI-powered autonomous systems, including AI-enabled drones and related intelligence software. The round closed at $580 million, valuing the company at S$6.4 billion. TEKEVER says the funding and planned additional Series D closings will let it move faster, scale internationally, and expand industrial, technological, and acquisition capabilities.
mika, a Berlin-based vertical AI startup, raised a €6M seed round to build an AI-native financial operating system for German SMEs’ bookkeeping and tax filing workflows. The funding includes participation from Smedvig Ventures and Care4 AG, with the round valuing the effort at €6 million. The company will expand usage and use the capital to support growth and further develop its platform as more SMEs adopt it.
Palma.ai raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding to build an enterprise runtime governance layer for AI agents. The round was led by D11Z and includes participation from Plug and Play Ventures, Deel, Scale Now Ventures, and angels such as executives from Cisco and Deel. The funding will support expanding go-to-market and engineering teams to bring centralized policy enforcement and tamper-evident auditing for MCP-connected agents to more enterprise customers.
OpenAI hired Sam Yam and two former Patreon executives to lead its creator product strategy. Sam Yam joined to lead Creator Product after co-founding Patreon 13 years ago. OpenAI says it will build with creators and provide early access to new creator tools as a result.
F13 emerged from stealth as a vector-graphics foundation-model company and secured $5 million in pre-seed funding. The round totals $5 million and will fund bringing its first model to market plus expanding compute, talent, and data. It is now offering early access via a developer API and web platform, with a public launch planned later this year.
Subscrr launched its 3rd release, adding a beta financial plan feature and a beta Subscrr AI tool. The AI tool is available in beta alongside the financial plan that lays out your year month by month. As a result, the app now helps you compare planned spending with what happened and identifies which subscriptions you may be overpaying for so you can cancel yourself.
ChatGPT Ads expanded to Southeast Asia and Taiwan for eligible businesses. The rollout covers more than 60 countries. Businesses in those regions can now use ChatGPT Ads to reach people there.
Snorkel AI raised funding as an AI training data provider, disclosing a Series E round led by Insight and S32. The company raised $350 million at a $3.5B valuation. It will use the money to hire engineers, invest in AI safety, and develop open-source model evaluation benchmarks while expanding its data-as-a-service offerings for supervised and reinforcement learning.
Andreessen Horowitz launched the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a one-year, non-accredited San Francisco program with no degree or federal student aid and no job guarantees. The academy will invest $42 million and enroll about 50 students starting Sept. 2027, with tuition-free attendance alongside $50,000 in compute credits and a $5,000 travel budget. It plans to seek approval for a two-year version in 2028 that would charge $60,000 to $90,000 per year, with paid and interview-focused partner co-ops used to shape student outcomes.
OpenAI and Grab launched GO Forward with AI to help partners in Southeast Asia develop practical AI skills. The program will train 30,000 partners across the region. This expands access to AI training through a coordinated regional initiative.
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