Ramp, Nuvacore, Tokenized Funds
Industry
VC Trends
Overview
Reuters reported that semiconductor startups attracted $10.7 billion in the first five months of 2026, already approaching the prior full-year total. TechCrunch and Reuters also tracked large AI financings and secondary transactions, including Ramp's $1.85 billion round at a $60 billion valuation and ElevenLabs' $300 million tender offer at $22 billion. The market is expanding beyond software into chips, defense, robotics, healthcare, and physical infrastructure, but capital remains concentrated in AI-linked opportunities. Governance is becoming a parallel investment issue as Benchmark acknowledged that overlapping AI portfolios make conflicts more likely. Liquidity tools, revenue-linked financing, tokenized funds, and pro rata negotiations are developing in response to longer private-company holding periods.
Key Stories
Nuvacore is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars at an approximately $2.5 billion valuation before launching a product. Reuters reported the raise. Semiconductor startups raised about $10.7 billion in the first five months of 2026, compared with $12.2 billion globally during all of 2025. The data suggests renewed investor appetite for AI hardware despite longer development cycles and higher capital requirements. Nuvacore declined to comment. Reuters also covered ElevenLabs' $300 million tender offer, which valued the company at $22 billion.
Ramp raised $1.85 billion at a $60 billion valuation, four months after a round valuing it at $44 billion. TechCrunch reported the financing. With more than $2 billion in annualized revenue, 85,000 customers, and $275 billion in purchase volume, Ramp is extending from financial operations into AI infrastructure and token-spend management. The round shows that large private financings are still available for companies combining measurable operating scale with an AI expansion narrative.
AI is weakening the traditional venture norm against backing direct rivals. TechCrunch examined the shift. Benchmark partners said rapid company expansion and lower software-building costs will make portfolio overlap more common, increasing the need for confidentiality, transparency, and clear expectations. The issue is illustrated by the Factory-Cognition dispute, covered by TechCrunch, Business Insider, and TechCrunch, where investor overlap intersected with board access and executive hiring.
Longer private-company holding periods are creating a liquidity problem. FORTUNE and FORTUNE focused on that pressure. Solari Capital has deployed $350 million across early-stage, growth, and secondary opportunities, while Fission raised $10 million to facilitate sales of tokenized private-fund shares. Fission says its platform can reduce a typical sale process from about 200 days to 90 seconds or less, although the availability of actual buyers remains a constraint. Bloomberg reported ARK Invest's move to place a $1.3 billion venture fund on Ethereum.
Capital formation is spreading beyond major technology hubs. TechCrunch reported that Endeavor Catalyst raised $320 million for companies outside major technology hubs, with about 90% of its investments outside the United States. CNBC separately reported that India is assembling up to $25 billion for Deep Tech, including $11 billion in government funding. Together, the stories point to broader geographic capital formation, but also show that local ecosystems still need larger domestic checks and stronger later-stage financing channels.
More founders are choosing seed-strapping, revenue growth, and lean operations instead of the traditional Series A and Series B path. Business Insider described the shift. Global venture deals fell from more than 17,000 in the first quarter of 2022 to about 8,500 in the second quarter of 2026, while fewer than one-third of companies that raised seed funding in 2022 reached Series A by 2025. Peak XV's decision to raise its Surge seed ceiling to $5 million, reported by TechCrunch, suggests that larger early checks are increasingly being used to bridge a tougher next round.
