The Founders Panorama Brief — week of 2 November 2026
$1.3B raised in the week's biggest rounds, 8 companies added to our directory and the events ahead.
By The Editors·Nov 2, 2026
Ten notable funding rounds totalled about $1.3 billion this week, led by South Korea’s FuriosaAI with a $620 million Series D, followed by Firehawk Defense’s $150 million Series D and Collective’s $100 million round. Eight companies were added to the directory, including Ramp, Stripe and GitLab. Ahead on 2 November are AFROTECH Conference 2026 in Houston, Tech Tour Energy & Decarbonisation 2026 in Essen and Hong Kong FinTech Week in Hong Kong.
The biggest rounds
- FuriosaAI raised $620M (Series D) — South Korea. Investors: Cisco Investments, DSC Investment.
- Firehawk Defense raised $150M (Series D).
- Collective raised $100M (Undisclosed).
- Settle raised $100M (Forward-Flow Financing). Investors: 3Jane.
- Collective raised $100M (Funding).
- Wabi raised $55.0M (Funding).
- Wabi (AI assistant) raised $55.0M (Seed) — United States. Investors: Amazon Alexa Fund, Andreessen Horowitz.
- Bites raised $40.0M (Series A) — United States. Investors: Horizon Capital, PeakSpan Capital.
- U&I Ventures raised $32.2M (Debut Fund).
- StimCardio raised $30.0M (Series A).
Added to the directory
- Ramp — Corporate card and spend management platform for businesses · New York, United States
- Stripe — Online payment processing for internet businesses. · United States
- GitLab — DevOps life cycle tool. · United States
- Ebury — Global accounts built for ambitious businesses.
- Eve — AI for plaintiff law firms · San Francisco
- Musivo Group — A group built for the way luxury industries move.
- PRYPCO — Real Estate Freedom for Everyone. · Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Cusp AI — AI-powered materials discovery · United Kingdom
On the calendar
- AFROTECH Conference 2026 — 2 Nov, Houston, United States · website
- Tech Tour Energy & Decarbonisation 2026 — 2 Nov–3 Nov, Essen, Germany · website
- Hong Kong FinTech Week — 2 Nov–6 Nov, Hong Kong, Hong Kong · website
- Humanoid Robots Summit North America 2026 — 3 Nov, Chicago, United States · website
- Pitch to The 300 — 3 Nov · website
- Tech Tour Next Gen IC 2026 — 3 Nov–4 Nov, Eindhoven, Netherlands · website
- TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 — 4 Nov, Berlin, Germany · website
- SOSV Deep Tech Summit — 4 Nov–6 Nov, San Francisco, United States · website
Worth reading
- Khosla Ventures — Khosla Ventures
- The Power of More
- SpaceX + Cursor: It is so, so early — Accel
- Partnering with Whop: Bet on Yourself
- VAST Data Valued at $30 Billion as AI Drives a New Infrastructure Stack
- Be the first to know about private market opportunities — Crunchbase
See the full picture in our rankings, the directory and the events calendar. A new brief is published every Monday.