March 24, 2026

Applied AI SaaS·🇩🇪 DE·Led by DN Capital

Builds an AI-agent platform creating "context graphs" for enterprise decision-making.

The Next Web

Applied AI SaaS·Led by 20VC

Develops Depi, a software supply chain security product that maps code dependencies and identifies vulnerabilities.

Alexandre

Cyber Security·Led by Elron Ventures

Provides a runtime application protection platform to secure cloud-native software by monitoring code execution.

Crunchbase Daily

Cyber Security·Led by Khosla Ventures

Operates an AI-powered offensive security platform for continuous testing of applications and infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Crunchbase Daily

FinTech·🇫🇷 FR

Develops an AI-powered accounts-receivable automation startup.

BayelsaWatch

FinTech·🇮🇳 IN

Operates a digital lending marketplace with deep-tech banking integrations.

Entrackr

FinTech·AE

Backed by 1818 Venture Capital, F6 Ventures, Sparked VC, IM Fndg & IVP. Provides AI-driven finance-SaaS for automated reporting, analysis, and forecasting for Gulf-region businesses.

Techloy

Air Defense Technology·🇫🇷 FR

Develops air-defence technology.

The Next Web

Applied AI SaaS·🇺🇸 US·Led by Felicis Ventures

Provides security-infrastructure for AI-native software development.

Qubit Capital

Applied AI SaaS·🇺🇸 US·Led by Andreessen Horowitz

Builds an AI-native platform for high-fidelity reinforcement-learning environments in enterprise workflows.

AlleyWatch

Applied AI SaaS·🇺🇸 US·Led by Emergence Capital

Develops AI-native fund-administration software for private-equity and VC firms.

Qubit Capital

Applied AI SaaS·🇺🇸 US·Led by Accel

Offers an AI platform for security-operations automation.

AlleyWatch

Cloud Infrastructure

Provides managed cloud infrastructure and compliance software for deploying applications within government security frameworks.

Crunchbase Daily

Health Tech·🇫🇷 FR

Commercializes AI-driven biomarker tests to identify and stratify cancer patients in clinical care and trials.

baby vc

AI/E-Commerce·Led by Bajaj Finserv

Provides technology-enabled solutions for cross-border e-commerce, helping brands manage distribution and supply chains.

Crunchbase Daily

FinTech/Health Care·Led by Oak HC/FT

Provides a transaction efficiency platform for healthcare organizations to streamline payment processes.

Crunchbase Daily

AI Infrastructure·EU

Develops world-model AI infrastructure.

Intellizence

FinTech/Health Tech·🇫🇷 FR·Led by Index Ventures

Operates a digital health insurance platform, reaching a €5 billion valuation.

baby vc

Internet Infrastructure·🇺🇸 US

Provides AI-optimized networking infrastructure for data-center and enterprise workloads.

AlleyWatch

FinTech·🇩🇪 DE·Led by Sapphire Ventures and Tencent

Modernizes banking infrastructure with API-based solutions for trading, custody, and back-office operations.

baby vc

FinTech·Led by Bpifrance

Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas. Develops payment and transaction solutions for businesses.

Avolta News

Applied AI SaaS·Led by DFJ Growth

Develops autonomous security testing software that identifies and validates vulnerabilities in web applications and digital systems.

Crunchbase Daily

Oracle's cloud-infrastructure revenue surges due to AI-enabled SaaS.

Oracle's cloud-infrastructure revenue jumped 44% year-over-year to $8.9 billion in Q3 FY 2026, primarily driven by AI-enabled SaaS workloads.

Oracle

ServiceNow expands AI partnerships for workflow automation.

ServiceNow announced new AI partnership deals with Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic to embed copilots and autonomous agents across its workflow platform.

TradingView

Anthropic launches $100M partner network for enterprise AI.

Anthropic launched its "Claude Partner Network," pledging $100 million in funding to help enterprise partners move from proof-of-concept to production deployments.

Artificial Lawyer

AI becomes core feature in 70% of new SaaS products.

A new market-analysis report finds that 70% of SaaS products released in Q1 2026 include AI as a core feature, increasing competitive pressure across all categories.

Voxturr

Mistral AI positions itself as enterprise-focused AI alternative.

Mistral AI announced its role as a founding member of the Nemotron Coalition and launched Mistral Forge, focusing on helping companies and governments build custom AI models from scratch on their own data.

La Machine: France AI

Carbon-credit purchases by large tech firms surge 48%.

Carbon-credit purchases by large tech firms surged by 48% in Q1 2026, with total spend reaching $13.7 billion as companies offset AI-driven emissions.

Carbon Credits

EU AI-compliance regime imposes significant fines.

The EU's new AI-compliance regime, effective 2026, imposes fines up to €35 million or 7% of global turnover for non-compliant AI systems, directly affecting impact-tech providers.

Arctic Wolf

API-related attacks increase 104% over two years.

Akamai's 2026 "State of the Internet" report shows API-related attacks increased 104% over the past two years and a 113% year-over-year rise in daily API attack volume, linked to AI-driven automation.

Quiver Quantitative

Residential Wi-Fi 7 router shipments jump 211% YoY.

Worldwide residential Wi-Fi 7 router shipments increased 211% year-over-year in early 2026, with DOCSIS 4.0 upgrade spending expected to climb sharply through 2026.

RCR Wireless

FCA updates guidance on Payment Services and E-Money Regulations.

The FCA released version 7 of its finalised guidance on the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and Electronic Money Regulations 2011 on March 19, 2026, clarifying licence-ownership responsibilities for embedded-finance providers.

Regulation Tomorrow

FINRA's $300 gift rule takes effect.

FINRA's revised $300 gift rule went into effect on March 17, 2026, raising the permissible value for client gifts and prompting firms to overhaul monitoring systems.

FinTech Global

Key regulatory shifts impact fund managers in early 2026.

Saudi Arabia, Guernsey, and Italy introduced new fund-distribution frameworks, and Guernsey's fee schedule changed from January 1, 2026.

FinTech Global

Indian fintechs tighten controls after Fino Payments Bank scandal.

The fallout from the Fino Payments Bank scandal triggered a wave of internal-control tightenings across Indian fintechs, with senior CXOs consolidating risk-ownership responsibilities.

Business Standard

UK banks' IT outages drive shift to licence-ownership.

FinTech Consulting's March 2025 analysis warns that more than one month of IT-outages at major UK banks in the past two years is driving a shift toward licence-ownership and self-hosted infrastructure.

FT Consulting

AI drone company Swarmer sees shares soar 520% on Nasdaq debut.

Swarmer, an AI drone company, saw its shares soar 520% on its first day of trading on the Nasdaq this week, potentially paving the way for other defense tech IPOs.

Crunchbase Daily

Small and mid-sized startup acquisitions rebound in early 2026.

Disclosed U.S. startup acquisitions under $300 million totaled about $8.7 billion last year, with the first few months of 2026 showing a brisker start.

Crunchbase Daily

Partech closes €300 million debut Impact Fund.

Partech closed its inaugural Impact Fund at €300 million on March 20, 2026, targeting European B2B climate-tech firms generating over €10 million annual revenue.

Vestbee

UVC Partners announces €77 million first close for new growth fund.

UVC Partners announced a €77 million first close of a new €150 million growth fund, marking its move into multi-stage investing for European deeptech startups.

baby vc

Entrepreneurs First achieves unicorn status with $200 million raise.

Entrepreneurs First raised $200 million, reaching a $1.3 billion valuation and officially joining the unicorn ranks by backing individuals before startups are formed.

baby vc

360 Capital closes €85 million for deeptech spinout fund.

Italian-French VC firm 360 Capital closed €85 million for Poli360 2, a deeptech fund targeting spinouts from European universities and research centers, aiming for €100 million total.

baby vc

Goldman Sachs forecasts 2026 'megadeal' renaissance.

Goldman Sachs forecasts a 2026 'megadeal' renaissance, expecting M&A activity to increase, driven by AI and energy infrastructure.

FinancialContent

AI boom drives 61% increase in new unicorns in 2025.

A total of 187 companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in 2025, up 61% from the previous year, largely driven by the AI boom.

Crunchbase News

Goldman Sachs lowers India's GDP growth forecast for 2026 to 5.9%.

Goldman Sachs lowered India's GDP growth forecast for 2026 to 5.9%.

BusinessToday

Young worker employment rates decline across sectors.

Employment rates for young workers, both college-educated and non-college, have been in roughly equal decline for the past two years, suggesting a broad challenge in the job market.

a16z

HSBC

Led a $40 million Series C extension for Candex. Candex helps companies automate vendor onboarding and payments, reducing administrative burden.

Crunchbase Daily

OpenAI

Announced plans to acquire a startup making Python tools for developers. This acquisition expands OpenAI's push into coding.

Crunchbase Daily

Uber

Announced a $1.25 billion deal with Rivian to deploy up to 50,000 autonomous R2 robotaxis by 2031. This is Uber's fifth self-driving partnership in eight days.

Evan Armstrong from The Leverage

PitchBook-NVCA

Reported that AI startups dominated US venture capital in February 2026, capturing $55.37 billion across 189 deals, representing 89% of all capital deployed and marking the largest monthly total in US venture history.

AlleyWatch

Matt Ward

Highlighted a shift in Climate VC towards bigger checks, fewer bets, and later-stage investments, noting that despite $40.5 billion invested in 2025, capital is concentrated in the top 10% of deals, requiring early-stage founders to meet higher proof bars.

LinkedIn

Venionaire Capital AG

Argued that North America's 2026 venture market is characterized by strong early-stage activity but capital concentration at the top, centered on AI infrastructure, compute, and data layers, with a shift from capital deployment to capital justification.

LinkedIn

OpenAI & Anthropic Private Equity Joint Ventures

Revealed that OpenAI is offering private equity firms preferred equity stakes with a guaranteed minimum return of 17.5% to accelerate enterprise AI adoption, signaling a new model for AI enterprise investment.

Reuters

a16z (Andrew Chen)

Argued that AI code generation will collapse the effort from "spreadsheet" to "software" to near zero, enabling a billion knowledge workers to build real applications with all the advantages of software.

a16z speedrun

Pelican Acquisition Corporation announced on March 19, 2026, the successful approval of its proposed business combination with Pelican Holdco, Inc., Greenland Exploration Limited, and March GL Company.

GlobeNewswire

CEO Patrick Mollard commented on Mastercard's $1.8 billion acquisition of BVNK, highlighting it as a milestone in digital payments evolution and the acceleration of blockchain and stablecoin infrastructure adoption.

Finopotamus

Its community fundraising campaign attracted 15,000 registrants and €16 million in commitments as of March 20, 2026, with plans to expand its team by about 20 new hires in 2026.

Cryptoast