Defense and industrial manufacturing dominated this week's largest deals, with Hadrian and Base Power both landing billion-dollar-plus rounds, while Whatnot is reportedly in talks to double its valuation to $20bn. Elsewhere, Airtable is acquired by Bending Spoons for $2.25bn and HappyRobot joined the AI agent unicorn ranks.

Defense and industrial manufacturing dominated this week's largest deals, with Hadrian and Base Power both landing billion-dollar-plus rounds, while Whatnot is reportedly in talks to double its valuation to $20bn. Elsewhere, Airtable is acquired by Bending Spoons for $2.25bn and HappyRobot joined the AI agent unicorn ranks.

Whatnot in Talks to Raise Funding at Roughly $20bn Valuation

Whatnot operates a livestream shopping marketplace where sellers auction and sell items such as sneakers, trading cards, apparel and collectibles in real time. The company is in talks to raise a new funding round at a valuation of roughly $20bn, nearly double the $11.5bn it was valued at in its Series F round last October. The round is still being negotiated and terms could change. Whatnot generated $8bn in live sales last year and has continued to expand into new categories.

Whatnot is an underlying asset of VenCap 6, VenCap 13B, VenCap 15, VenCap 16, and VenCap 17.

Base Power Raises $1bn Series D at $13bn Valuation, Launches US-Built Home Battery

Base Power installs subscription-based home batteries in customers' backyards. The company has raised $1bn in Series D financing at a $13bn post-money valuation, roughly tripling its price tag in ten months, and used the announcement to launch Base Core, a new home battery built at its Austin, Texas factory that stores up to 78.4 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The round takes Base Power's total funding past $2.5bn with returning backers including Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital. The company says it is now installing around 100 batteries a day and aims to double that pace by year end.

 

Base Power is an underlying asset of VenCap 16 and VenCap 17.

Hadrian Raises $1.37bn at $7.87bn Valuation to Scale Automated Defence Factories

Hadrian builds highly automated factories that manufacture precision parts for rockets, submarines and other defence and aerospace systems. The company has raised $1.37bn in Series D financing, taking its valuation to $7.87bn, nearly five times the level it commanded in January. JPMorganChase's Strategic Investment Group anchored the round, which will fund additional highly automated factories beyond Hadrian's existing four sites, and expand production of munitions, shipbuilding and autonomous-systems components as US demand for domestic manufacturing capacity continues to outstrip supply. Existing backers including Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund also participated.

Hadrian is an underlying asset of VenCap 16 and VenCap 17.

Jeff Dean Departs Google to Launch AI Start-Up Discovery Loop

Discovery Loop is a newly launched public benefit corporation that aims to use AI to automate scientific and engineering research. The start-up is being founded by Jeff Dean, Google's long-serving chief scientist, alongside fellow departing Google researchers Sanjay Ghemawat, Quoc Le and Oriol Vinyals. The company is raising a seed financing round, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed and Doerr Capital, while Alphabet is backing the venture as a founding investor and cloud partner. Discovery Loop initially plans to focus on automating machine-learning research and engineering, before expanding into areas such as drug discovery and clean energy.

Discovery Loop is an underlying asset of VenCap 18 and VenCap 19.

Function Health Secures $450m Growth Financing from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund

Function Health offers a membership-based platform giving consumers access to more than 160 biomarker lab tests alongside MRI and CT imaging for early disease detection. The company has secured $450m in growth financing from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund, a non-dilutive vehicle that ties capital to customer growth rather than equity, so the deal does not reset Function's valuation of $2.5bn set at its Series B last November. The financing follows two recent acquisitions, of at-home blood-draw network Getlabs and supplement platform SuppCo, and will help Function extend its testing and imaging services to more members. The company says it has grown to more than 500,000 members and completed over 100 million lab tests since its 2023 launch.

Function Health is an underlying asset of VenCap 6, VenCap 13B, VenCap 15, VenCap 16, and VenCap 17.

Airtable Acquired by Bending Spoons for $2.25bn Equity Value

Airtable is a cloud-based platform that lets teams build custom databases and spreadsheets to organise data and manage workflows without writing code. Bending Spoons, the Italian technology holding company, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Airtable in an all-cash transaction valuing the business at an enterprise value of $1.285bn. Airtable's annual recurring revenue grew more than 20% year-on-year to approximately $480m as of June 2026, and the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval, with completion expected later this year.

Airtable is an underlying asset of VenCap 6, VenCap 10A, and VenCap 13A.

Mariana Minerals Raises $310m Series B at $1.5bn Valuation

Mariana Minerals is a software-first critical minerals company that engineers, builds and operates mines and refineries using its proprietary MarianaOS platform to run capital projects, mining and refining as a single AI-driven operation. The company has raised $310m in Series B financing, taking its valuation to $1.5bn and its total capital raised to approximately $400m. New participants including Mitsubishi Corporation and In-Q-Tel joined returning backers Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The financing will accelerate Mariana's goal of developing ten commercial-scale critical minerals projects over the next decade to strengthen domestic US supply of materials such as copper and lithium.

Mariana Minerals is an underlying asset of VenCap 16 and VenCap 17.

HappyRobot Raises $150m Series C, Reaches $1.2bn Unicorn Valuation

HappyRobot builds AI agents that handle the phone calls, emails and scheduling behind complex enterprise operations. The company has raised $150m in Series C funding, taking its post-money valuation to $1.2bn and pushing it past the unicorn threshold less than two years after its first institutional round. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Base10 Partners and Y Combinator returned to back the round, alongside strategic participants including Koch Disruptive Technologies. HappyRobot now works with more than 150 enterprise customers and says its business has grown fivefold since its Series B late last year.

HappyRobot is an underlying asset of VenCap 16 and VenCap 17.