Daily Funding Roundup:
May 11, 2026
Defense and exotic compute. Helsing closed $1.2B at $18B, the most valuable startup in Germany. Cowboy Space (formerly Aetherflux) raised $275M at $2B to build orbital AI data centers. Nscale stacked another $790M debt for Arctic Circle AI infra. The S&P closed above 7,400 for the first time despite the Iran-Oman talks fizzling.
Rounds
Munich-based defense AI Helsing closed (per reporting) a $1.2B Series E at an $18B post-money valuation led by Dragoneer, with Lightspeed co-leading. Existing backers Accel, Plural, General Catalyst, Greenoaks, Saab, and BDT & MSD all followed. The round vaults Helsing to the most valuable startup in Germany. Daniel Ek-backed through Prima Materia, ~80% European-owned, with an active €1.46B German military drone contract. Chain of marks now reads €100M (2021) to €209M (2023) to €450M at €5B (2024) to €690M at $14B (June 2025) to $1.2B at $18B today.
Cowboy Space (rebranded from Aetherflux) raised $275M Series B at a $2B post-money led by Index Ventures, with IVP, Blossom, and SAIC as new investors. Existing backers Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a16z, NEA, and Interlagos all followed on. Founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt with a $10M personal check in 2024, the company is building vertically integrated orbital data centers: a constellation of solar-powered LEO satellites that double as AI compute nodes, launched on a purpose-built in-house rocket whose second stage IS the data center. Total raised: ~$365M. Index is now the lead on both Cowboy Space and Panthalassa, the two largest exotic-compute-siting plays of the spring.
London-based AI infrastructure company Nscale secured a $790M debt facility led by ABN AMRO with DNB, Eksfin, Nordea, and SEB participating. The facility supports continued expansion of the largest AI data center in Norway (Narvik, Arctic Circle) and includes a $790M uncommitted accordion for additional 115MW expansion. Lands on top of the $2B Series C in March 2026 (co-led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries), a $1.4B delayed draw term loan in February, a $1.1B Series B in September 2025, and the $155M Series A in December 2024. Total raised across equity and debt now $4.5B.
San Francisco AI transformation firm Ciridae emerged from stealth with a $20M seed led by Accel, with a16z, General Catalyst, Sunflower Capital, and Backcountry Ventures. The company embeds with mid-market industrial, restoration, and logistics businesses and rebuilds their core operations into AI-native software, often deploying mission-critical systems in as little as two weeks. Co-founded by Jack Soslow (ex-a16z partner, ex-Meta data scientist) and Jack Weissenberger (ex-Salesforce engineering lead, ex-Head of ML at Teneyx). The pitch lands as the AI-for-real-economy thesis hits its loudest moment of the cycle.
Eindhoven-based deep-tech image-sensor company eyeo (imec spinout) raised €40M ($43M) Series A led by Innovation Industries, with imec.xpand, Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, QBIC Fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds, and Brabant Development Agency. The company's Nanophotonic Color Splitting (NCOS) sensors split light rather than filter it, capturing all incoming light and eliminating the roughly 70% loss imposed by decades-old Bayer filter design. Targets smartphones, VR/XR, automotive, and industrial. Total raised now around €55M.
Also Noted
Tel Aviv-based marine eco-concrete company ECOncrete raised $14M led by Builders Vision, with Barclays Climate Ventures, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Monaco Asset Management (ReOcean Fund), BDT & MSD Partners (Oceans Catalyst), and DCP. Created 90,000 sqm of marine habitat in the last 18 months across Rotterdam, NYC, San Diego, Mediterranean, and NZ projects. Co-founder and CEO Dr. Ido Sella has led since 2012.
Brisbane-based construction procurement platform ProcurePro raised $11M Series B at $80M+ led by QIC Ventures (Queensland sovereign wealth), with Airtree, Glitch Capital, and Bouygues. Deployed on 6,000+ projects representing $90B+ construction value across UK, Ireland, MENA, and ANZ. Founded 2021 by CEO Alastair Blenkin.
Abu Dhabi-based UAE embedded SME lending platform CredibleX raised $15M+ Series A led by Mubadala Investment Company with Further Ventures. API-first credit-as-a-service embedded into 70+ partner platforms across MENA. ADGM-licensed. Total raised across equity and debt now $170M+ following a $100M senior secured credit facility in September 2025. Founded 2023 by CEO Ahmad Malik with co-founders Anand Nagaraj and Hassan Reda.
NYC-based Boundary Labs raised $2M pre-seed led by Galaxy Ventures with BlackWood and FirstBlock Capital. Building USBD, a verifiable institutional-grade overcollateralized stablecoin launching on Ethereum mainnet in early summer 2026. CEO Matthew Mezger was previously at Deutsche Bank and Digital Currency Group; CTO Roman Drapeko leads engineering on the on-chain verification stack.
News & Signals
Iran-US 4th round nuclear talks in Oman wrap inconclusively
Talks lasted three-plus hours and were called 'difficult but constructive' by both sides. US envoy Steve Witkoff afterward insisted Iran must dismantle Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan enrichment facilities for any deal, hardening the US position. Markets started the week processing Trump's Sunday Truth Social post calling Iran's response 'TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.' Despite the setback, the equity tape grinded higher; the geopolitical optionality is now treated as a swing factor rather than a dominant force.
S&P 500 closes above 7,400 for the first time
The S&P 500 closed Monday at 7,412.84 (+0.19%), its first close above 7,400, despite the Iran setback. Continued AI-infrastructure optimism plus the Friday jobs beat carried the rally forward. Nasdaq held its record. The melt-up is now the longest weekly winning streak since 2024, with the bull case widening into prediction markets, defense, and orbital compute alongside the traditional Mag 7 plus Anthropic narrative.
Index Ventures doubles on exotic compute siting (orbital + ocean)
Index Ventures led both Cowboy Space ($275M Series B today) and Panthalassa ($140M Series B last week, May 5), making it the lead investor in the two largest exotic-compute-siting plays of the spring. The implicit thesis: the AI build-out needs unprecedented power, and earthbound data centers cannot absorb the demand curve alone, so the next leg of AI infrastructure will siphon power from the ocean and the sun (in orbit) directly. Climate Tech and Aerospace are now infra-spending categories, not impact ones.
Citrini's 2028 hangover continues to color sentiment
Citrini Research's viral 'The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis' Substack from the weekend continued to color Monday's tape. Rotation out of consumer-facing payments and marketplaces (Visa, Mastercard, Uber, DoorDash all down Friday on the post's framing of AI-driven white-collar job destruction). Most desks called the piece 'scenario, not prediction,' but the meme is now in every AI-skeptic's macro deck. The growth investors' implicit positioning shift: stop adding to consumer AI exposure, double down on AI-as-physical-infrastructure (chips, power, satellites, defense).
Wingreens Farms acquires Safe Harvest in clean-label food rollup
Indian clean-label food company Wingreens Farms closed a ₹120 crore (~$12.6M) Series D led by Ashish Kacholia simultaneously with a 100% share-swap acquisition of Safe Harvest (chemical-free food brand). Three-brand portfolio now: Wingreens Farms, Raw Pressery, Safe Harvest. Total raised: $76.5M. The deal marks Wingreens reaching EBITDA profitability in FY26 and consolidating the clean-label segment in India.
VC Mood on X
VC Twitter on Monday was a defense-tech parade. Helsing's $18B had every European fund subtweeting the same line: "We told you sovereignty was a thesis." Index Ventures' double-tap into orbital AI (Cowboy Space today, Panthalassa last week) shifted the AI-infra meme away from earthbound data centers and toward orbital, marine, and grid-edge compute. Spencer Hakimian, Packy McCormick, and a wave of climate-tech investors all picked up the thread.
Underneath the cheerleading, there's unmistakable nervousness about the AI consumer trade. Citrini's 2028 thought experiment got passed around like a chain letter through the weekend; even Founders Fund and Initialized partners were quote-tweeting fragments. Several growth investors started openly questioning whether DoorDash, Uber, and payment-network multiples can hold if AI productivity gains compress white-collar payrolls the way the Citrini scenario draws. The implicit positioning shift: stop adding to consumer AI exposure, double down on AI as physical infrastructure (chips, power, satellites, defense).
On macro: muted reaction to the Iran round-4 fizzle. The S&P closing at a fresh record above 7,400 was treated almost ironically, with "markets refuse to care" the dominant tone. Seasoned macro folks flagged that 30-year yields north of 5% and a hot CPI print due Wednesday could be the first real wobble of the quarter. The events the timeline is actually pricing toward: Isomorphic Labs' reported $2.1B mid-week, Google I/O on May 19-20, and Anthropic's $900B board target on May 26.
Rounds and signals sourced from SEC filings, press releases, and verified news reports. All amounts in USD unless noted. Reporting reflects information available at time of publication.