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Risotto Raises $10 Million Seed Round Led by Bonfire Ventures for AI-Powered IT Helpdesk Automating 60% of Support Tickets in Slack
Bonfire Ventures leads seed funding for autonomous AI helpdesk resolving internal support tickets directly in Slack—Gusto reports automating 60% of monthly tickets, saving thousands of hours as platform reduces manual work up to 75% for IT teams. Read more
Flora Raises $42 Million Series A Led by Redpoint Ventures for Node-Based AI Design Platform Used by Nike, Levi's, and Pentagram
Redpoint leads funding for node-based generative AI design platform unifying fragmented tools—professional creatives at Nike, Levi's, AKQA, Lionsgate use platform to build custom creative workflows rather than adapting to rigid software. Read more
Concourse Raises $12 Million Series A Led by Standard Capital for AI Finance Agents Reducing Manual Work 75% at Palo Alto Networks and Front
Standard Capital leads funding as platform launches general availability—finance teams at Palo Alto Networks and Front use AI agents to automate reporting, forecasting, and analysis through natural language queries eliminating spreadsheet manual work. Read more
Dentio Raises $2.3 Million Pre-Seed Led by Andreessen Horowitz for AI Automating Dental Administrative Tasks as 80% of Young Dentists Report Stress
Andreessen Horowitz leads pre-seed for Swedish startup founded by three 23-year-old high school friends—platform automates clinical documentation and insurance billing as 80% of young dentists cite administrative work as major stressor. Read more
Northwood Space Raises $100 Million Series B Plus $50 Million Space Force Contract for Satellite Ground Station Networks Collapsing Deployment Timelines from Years to Months
Washington Harbour Partners and Andreessen Horowitz co-lead Series B as Space Force awards $50M contract—vertically integrated ground infrastructure collapses satellite deployment timelines while scaling capacity from 8 to hundreds of simultaneous links by 2027. Read more
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📢 The Signal Behind the Noise
Vertical AI agents dominate today's funding with $164 million deployed across five sector-specific automation plays. The pattern reveals where AI delivers measurable value—not generic productivity tools but surgical strikes on high-cost manual workflows. Risotto eliminates 60% of IT tickets, Concourse cuts finance work 75%, Dentio targets the 80% of young dentists drowning in paperwork. Meanwhile Northwood's dual commercial and defense traction shows infrastructure plays command premium valuations when they solve genuine bottlenecks rather than creating features searching for problems.
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