It’s Wednesday, June 25, 2025, and the midweek tech funding push is powerful. As we speak’s offers reveal the place the neatest cash goes—AI infrastructure, prediction markets, developer instruments, and privacy-first encryption.
From daring Collection C performs to scrappy seed rounds, startups are attracting capital to rewire all the pieces from how we guess on international occasions to how builders deal with person login. And sure, privacy-preserving tech is lastly getting its time within the highlight.
Funding Highlights
Kalshi made waves with a large $185 million Collection C to show public opinion into tradable contracts. Zama raised $57 million to push homomorphic encryption into the blockchain mainstream, whereas OpenRouter banked $40 million to assist devs route AI prompts extra intelligently throughout high fashions. Higher Auth, constructed by a self-taught Ethiopian programmer, pulled in $5 million to simplify app authentication, and ZestyAI secured a $15 million credit score facility to increase its AI threat engine for insurers.
Investor Exercise
Heavyweights like Andreessen Horowitz, Pantera, Paradigm, and Sequoia doubled down on infrastructure and frontier tech, whereas banking companions like CIBC stepped in to gasoline progress with non-dilutive capital. Throughout the board, there’s a transparent theme: buyers need startups with a technical edge and real-world use instances.
From AI routing to encrypted good contracts and climate threat analytics, immediately’s funding slate proves that deep tech is having a second—and it’s getting funded.
Right here’s the complete breakdown of immediately’s startup funding exercise.
Kalshi Raises $185M Collection C for Prediction Market Platform
Kalshi, the prediction market platform the place customers commerce on real-world occasions, has secured a $185 million Series C funding round that values the corporate at $2 billion post-money. The San Francisco-based startup (based in 2018) lets customers place bets on outcomes starting from elections and financial indicators to climate and sports activities.
The spherical was led by crypto-focused funding agency Paradigm, with participation from high backers together with Sequoia Capital, Multicoin Capital, Neo, Bond Capital, and Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao. The contemporary capital will assist Kalshi increase its markets and product choices because it continues to develop its occasion contracts enterprise.
Funding Particulars:
- Startup: Kalshi
- Traders: Paradigm (lead), Sequoia Capital, Multicoin Capital, Neo, Bond Capital, Peng Zhao
- Quantity Raised: $185 million
- Whole Raised: Not disclosed
- Funding Stage: Collection C
- Funding Date: June 25, 2025
OpenRouter Raises $40M for Unified AI Mannequin Platform
OpenRouter, an AI infrastructure startup, has raised $40 million in combined seed and Series A funding to construct a unified API for accessing dozens of huge language fashions. The San Francisco-based firm, based in 2023 by former OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah and Louis Vichy, helps builders route AI prompts to probably the most environment friendly fashions based mostly on velocity, value, and different components.
The funding spherical was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures, with backing from Sequoia Capital and a bunch of distinguished angel buyers. This injection of capital will permit OpenRouter so as to add extra fashions, improve its developer instruments, and scale its infrastructure to serve its quickly rising person base of AI builders.
Funding Particulars:
- Startup: OpenRouter
- Traders: Andreessen Horowitz (lead), Menlo Ventures (lead), Sequoia Capital, notable angel buyers
- Quantity Raised: $40 million
- Whole Raised: $40 million
- Funding Stage: Seed & Collection A
- Funding Date: June 25, 2025
ZestyAI Raises $15M Credit score Facility to Increase AI Danger Analytics
ZestyAI, a California-based insurtech startup that makes use of AI and local weather knowledge to evaluate property threat, has secured a $15 million credit facility from CIBC Innovation Banking. Based in 2017 by Attila Toth and Kumar Dhuvur, ZestyAI’s platform blends property and local weather knowledge to offer insurers a clearer image of threat (equivalent to wildfire and storm injury) on the individual-property stage.
The brand new debt financing offers the corporate further runway to increase its AI threat fashions into new states and meet rising demand for superior underwriting instruments. ZestyAI has already carried out thousands and thousands of property threat assessments for insurers; this infusion will assist it deepen partnerships and serve extra carriers as insurtech adoption grows.
Funding Particulars:
- Startup: ZestyAI
- Traders: CIBC Innovation Banking (lead lender)
- Quantity Raised: $15 million
- Whole Raised: $15 million
- Funding Stage: Debt Financing
- Funding Date: June 25, 2025
Higher Auth Raises $5M Seed for Developer Authentication Software
Better Auth, a developer-focused authentication startup based by self-taught Ethiopian programmer Bereket Engida, has raised about $5 million in seed funding to speed up its progress. The corporate gives an open-source TypeScript framework that simplifies how builders implement person sign-up, login, permissions, and roles of their functions.
The seed spherical included Peak XV (previously Sequoia India & Southeast Asia) as a lead investor, together with Y Combinator, P1 Ventures, and Chapter One. With this funding, Higher Auth plans to increase its person neighborhood and improve its characteristic set to satisfy robust developer demand for easy-to-integrate authentication options.
Based 10 months in the past by two Ethiopian entrepreneurs, Higher Auth was chosen in March for Y Combinator’s Spring 2025 cohort. Alongside its acceptance, the crew secured $500,000 in seed funding to construct an open-source authentication framework for TypeScript builders in search of an easier, extra versatile option to handle login and person entry.
Funding Particulars:
- Startup: Higher Auth
- Traders: Peak XV (lead), Y Combinator, P1 Ventures, Chapter One
- Quantity Raised: $5 million
- Whole Raised: $5 million
- Funding Stage: Seed
- Funding Date: June 25, 2025
Zama Raises $57M Collection B to Advance Homomorphic Encryption
Zama, a French open-source cryptography startup specializing in absolutely homomorphic encryption (FHE), has raised a $57 million Series B funding round to advance privacy-preserving blockchain functions. The spherical was co-led by blockchain-focused enterprise companies Blockchange Ventures and Pantera Capital, bringing Zama’s whole funding to over $150 million and its valuation above $1 billion.
Zama’s know-how allows computations to be carried out on encrypted knowledge with out decrypting it, permitting delicate info to stay safe in functions. The brand new capital shall be used to launch Zama’s mainnet and FHE protocols (together with its FHEVM), enabling builders to construct confidential good contracts for finance, identification, and different on-chain use instances.
Based in 2024 by Dr. Pascal Paillier and Dr. Rand Hindi, Zama’s know-how powers a variety of privacy-focused functions—from confidential monetary transactions to Web3 platforms and rising community states.
Funding Particulars:
- Startup: Zama
- Traders: Blockchange Ventures (co-lead), Pantera Capital (co-lead)
- Quantity Raised: $57 million
- Whole Raised: >$150 million
- Funding Stage: Collection B
- Funding Date: June 25, 2025
Funding Abstract Desk
| Startup | Traders (Lead and notable buyers) | Quantity Raised | Whole Raised | Funding Stage | Funding Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalshi | Paradigm (lead); Sequoia Capital; Multicoin; Neo; Bond Capital; Peng Zhao | $185 M | Not disclosed | Collection C | June 25, 2025 |
| OpenRouter | Andreessen Horowitz (lead); Menlo Ventures (lead); Sequoia Capital; angel buyers | $40 M | $40 M | Seed & Collection A | June 25, 2025 |
| ZestyAI | CIBC Innovation Banking (lead) | $15 M | $15 M | Debt Financing | June 25, 2025 |
| Higher Auth | Peak XV (lead); Y Combinator; P1 Ventures; Chapter One | $5 M | $5 M | Seed | June 25, 2025 |
| Zama | Blockchange Ventures (co-lead); Pantera Capital (co-lead) | $57 M | >$150 M | Collection B | June 25, 2025 |
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