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DealPotential October 1, 2025

Decoding the $4.4B wave: AI’s dominance and the resurgence of real-world tech

Decoding the $4.4B wave: AI’s dominance and the resurgence of real-world tech

Executive summary

The week of September 22-28, 2025, was a powerhouse for private capital, with over $4.4 Billion deployed across more than 70 disclosed deals. The story is one of a market doubling down on its convictions: Artificial Intelligence is not a trend but the new operating system for business.

However, beneath the AI tsunami, we see strong, resilient funding for Financial services, Climatetech, and Industrial tech, indicating a balanced and maturing investment landscape. Furthermore, a notable uptick in IPO activity for industrial and energy companies suggests growing confidence in the public markets as a viable exit path.

Table of Contents

1. Thematic Analysis: Where the money went

1.1 The AI is unstoppable: The full stack is in play

Artificial Intelligence wasn’t just a vertical; it was the underlying fabric of the entire week, accounting for over 50% of the total capital deployed.

  • Foundational infrastructure: Companies building the core plumbing of AI absorbed massive capital. Deals like Modular ($250M) and Distyl AI ($175M) signify a deep commitment to the next generation of machine learning platforms and compute layers.
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  • AI-enabled everything (The application layer): This category saw the largest rounds, showcasing the scaling of proven business models with AI at their core.
    •          B2B SaaS: The week’s largest deal, Filevine ($400M Series E), showcases late-stage capital flowing into                              established, profitable companies using AI to automate complex workflows (specifically legal tech).
    •          Finance & audit: AppZen ($180M – Deep Learning, RegTech)
    •          Robotics & Industrial: ANYbotics ($149M – Machine Learning)
    •         Automotive: Auterion, Inc. ($130M – AI, Drones) & BizzyCar ($20M – AI, Autonomous Vehicle)
  • Early-stage interface bets: Significant early-stage capital flowed into applied AI, particularly in chatbots and customer interaction, with Obot Chat ($35M Seed), Emergent ($23M), and Juicebox ($30M) all raising substantial rounds, indicating a race to capture enterprise and consumer interfaces.

1.2 Financial services: Building the digital economy's plumbing

FinTech remained a colossal force, with a focus on the infrastructure that enables a digital-first financial world.

  • Blockchain & digital assets: The market is funding the settlement rails. Zero Hash ($104M) and Fnality ($136M) are building the payment and settlement infrastructure for digital currencies and regulated assets, respectively.
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  • Payments & Wallets: Ualett ($150M Debt) and Fnality highlight the innovation in seamless, digital payment processing and back-end infrastructure.
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  • Wealth & compliance tech: Hudson Structured ($110M) and AppZen ($180M) are using technology for wealth management and expense auditing.

Takeaway: The “picks and shovels” of finance (payments, settlement, compliance) are attracting more stable, large-scale funding than consumer-facing fintech apps.

1.3 Climatetech & the industrial renaissance

The energy transition and advanced manufacturing are seeing a powerful convergence of venture capital and public markets. This is the “Hard Tech” moment.

  • IPO Spotlight: Four companies in this domain went public. Jain Metal Group ($140.9M), Saatvik Group ($102.4M), and TruAlt Bioenergy ($28.4M) demonstrate that public markets are now a viable exit path for mature cleantech and industrial companies, signaling market confidence in asset-heavy, tangible businesses.
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  • Renewable tech: From smart grids (Saatvik, CESC) to clean technology (Chakr Innovation, SeaPattern Sweden), the sector is diverse and well-funded across different global regions.

Advanced Manufacturing: Empower Semiconductor ($140M), focused on chips for AI data centers, and Corintis SA ($24M) are key bets on the hardware that will power the next generation of electronics.

2. Deal type & stage analysis

2.1 The return of the IPO and debt financing

The public market showed clear signs of thawing:

  • Four IPOs, raising a combined $271.6M, is a significant data point. It suggests the IPO window is open, particularly for profitable, asset-heavy businesses in sectors like materials and energy that can offer stability and clear revenue.
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  • Debt financing’s role: Large debt rounds for Ualett ($150M) and VinFast ($100M) indicate that more mature, revenue-generating companies are using debt to supplement equity without further dilution.

2.2 Late-stage concentration vs. Early-stage focus

 Massive Late-stage rounds: The week was dominated by Series C and beyond, with 10+ deals over $100M. This points to a significant amount of “dry powder” being deployed into proven winners to scale them into dominant players (e.g., Filevine, Fnality).

 

  • Targeted Early-stage bets: The 22 Seed and Series A deals disclosed tell a story of targeted conviction.
    •           • The early-stage data confirms this targeted approach: while the median Seed Round sat firmly at $5.00M, the                 average was pulled significantly higher to $7.75M by massive outliers like Obot Chat’s $35M round. Similarly,                     Series A rounds were tightly clustered around a median of $20.00M (with an average of $18.46M), indicating                     that VCs are deploying capital only into startups that have already demonstrated clear, scalable conviction.
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    •           • The majority of this early-stage capital went to highly specific, applied AI solutions (chatbots, real estate tech,                   specialized software) and high-value, longer-cycle sectors like HealthTech (Caregility, Daymark Health). The                       market is funding specific solutions, not general ideas.

3. Geographic distribution

3.1 US dominance, Driven by AI infrastructure

The United States continued to be the epicenter of venture activity, accounting for the majority of large deals (Filevine, Modular, AppZen, Distyl AI, etc.). The sheer scale of funding for AI foundational models solidifies this lead.

3.2 India's public market rise

India was not just a source for tech outsourcing; it demonstrated clear maturity as an industrial and cleantech exit hub. The three IPOs in manufacturing and cleantech underscore a powerful trend: the public market is ready to absorb industrial and energy companies scaling in emerging markets.

3.3 Strong European deep-tech hubs

The UK and Switzerland showed remarkable strength. The UK delivered Signal Media ($165M) and Fnality ($136M), while Switzerland produced the industrial robotics firm ANYbotics ($149M) and the semiconductor player Corintis SA ($24M). This cements Central Europe as a reliable hub for advanced manufacturing and deep-tech that combines software and hardware.

Conclusion: A market of conviction

Last week’s data reveals a private capital acting with clear conviction. The era of speculative bets is giving way to targeted deployments in a few key theses:

1. The AI-first future: Capital is aggressively funding the entire AI stack, from foundational models to application-layer B2B SaaS.

2. The rebuilding of the physical world: Climatetech, advanced manufacturing, and industrial tech are now mainstream venture categories with clear exit paths via the public market.

3. Financial system 2.0: The digital transformation of financial infrastructure is underway and well-capitalized.

The diversity of large deals shows a vibrant and complex global ecosystem. The following weeks will tell if this is a one-off surge or a sustained new normal.

Stay tuned for our monthly analysis.

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