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DealPotential October 8, 2025

Weekly deal radar digest: Big bets on AI, Chips, and Sustainability Dominate last week’s funding

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Weekly deal radar digest: Big bets on AI, Chips, and Sustainability Dominate last week’s funding

While the markets may have their ups and downs, one thing remains constant: the relentless pace of innovation and investment.

Last week was a blockbuster for major deals, with billions of dollars flowing into sectors poised to define our future, from AI infrastructure and semiconductors to sustainable energy.

Let’s break down the biggest moves and the trends they reveal.

Industry allocation: Software dominates

The software sector remains the primary destination for investment, securing US$6.61B across 103 deals. Financial Services followed with US$2.01B across 28 deals. This highlights the massive ongoing disruption in the fintech space, including digital banking, payment processing, and blockchain technologies.

Biotechnology and Healthcare also demonstrated their resilience and high-cost R&D nature, pulling in US$1.59B and US$1.5B respectively. These sectors continue to attract major investment as they tackle global health challenges and develop next-generation therapies.

The Top 10: A week of mega-rounds

From a massive sustainability-linked facility in India to a fresh batch of AI unicorns, the diversity and scale of last week’s deals were impressive.

  1. Larsen & Toubro (L&T) – US$700 M – The Indian conglomerate secured a colossal USD 700 million Sustainability Linked Trade Facility with Standard Chartered, signaling a strong corporate shift towards green financing.
  2. Nscale – US$433 M – In a stunning follow-up, the UK company closed a US$433 Million Pre-Series C SAFE round just days after a record-breaking US$1.1 billion Series B, though the specific sector remains a point of intrigue.
  3. Vercel – US$300 M – The US-based cloud platform for frontend developers raised US$300 million in a Series F, co-led by Accel and GIC, skyrocketing its valuation to US$9.3 billion. This underscores the massive demand for modern web development infrastructure.
  4. Rebellions – US$250 M – South Korea’s Rebellions raised US$250 million in a Series C, officially becoming a unicorn with a US$1.4 billion valuation. As an AI chip specialist, its strategic partnership with Arm highlights the global race for efficient, specialized AI hardware.
  5. Entergy Texas – ~US$200 M – The utility company was approved for a major transmission project and awarded approximately US$200 million from the Texas Energy Fund to bolster grid resilience, a critical investment in infrastructure.
  6. CyberCube – US$180 M – The cyber risk analytics provider secured over US$180 million from Spectrum Equity, a major bet on the growing need to quantify and insure against cyber threats.
  7. Gojob – €120 M (~US$147.8 M) – The French AI-powered recruitment scale-up received a massive €120 million investment from Japanese giant Persol, showcasing international confidence in AI-driven HR tech.
  8. Star Therapeutics – US$125 M – The US biotech firm announced an oversubscribed US$125 million Series D, bringing its total funding to US$300 million for developing antibodies for bleeding disorders.
  9. Eve – US$103 M – San Francisco’s Eve hit unicorn status with a US$103 million round, pushing its valuation to US$1 billion. The startup, which builds AI tools for plaintiff-side law firms, attracted top-tier VCs like Spark Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
  10. Hiranandani Financial Services – US$91.5 M – The Indian non-bank lender raised USD 91.5 million from Vitruvan Partners, pointing to continued investor appetite in the diversified financial services sector.

Industry & vertical spotlight: Where was the action?

Beyond the individual headlines, the data reveals clear winning sectors.

By industry (capital invested):

  • •  Software: The undisputed leader, raking in US$1.5B across 21 deals.
  • •  Biotechnology: A strong second with US$329.09M over 8 deals.
  • •  Financial Services: Secured US$259.1M across 6 deals.

By vertical (number of deals):

  • • Manufacturing & SaaS: Tied for the lead with 6 deals each, but Manufacturing led in capital with US$791.7M (driven by L&T’s deal), while SaaS followed closely with US$717.5M.
  • • Machine Learning & E-commerce: Both were active with 5 deals each, though ML attracted significantly more capital (US$38.41M vs. E-commerce’s US$28.1M).
  • • EdTech: Showed steady momentum with 4 deals totaling US$32M.

Global investment heatmap

The United States reaffirmed its position as the global capital of venture funding, with a staggering US$1.26B invested. However, the story doesn’t end there:

  • •  India was a powerful runner-up with US$886.3M, heavily influenced by L&T’s landmark deal.
  • • The UK (US$476.91M) and South Korea (US$250M) posted strong numbers, fueled by their respective tech champions.
  • • France rounded out the top five, thanks to the Gojob deal, with US$147.8M.

The bottom line

Last week painted a clear picture of investor priorities: foundational technology. The massive bets on AI infrastructure (Vercel), specialized AI chips (Rebellions), and AI applications (Eve, Gojob) show a market doubling down on the AI revolution. At the same time, significant capital is flowing into sustainable infrastructure (L&T, Entergy) and groundbreaking biotech (Star Therapeutics), proving that long-term, world-changing solutions remain firmly in vogue.

Stay tuned for our next update to see which sectors and companies capture the market’s attention this week!

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