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Over the next year, Roku predicts that 100% of the streaming audience will see ads. For growth marketers in 2026, CTV will remain an important “safe space” as AI creates widespread disruption in the search and social channels. Plus, easier access to self-serve CTV ad buying tools and targeting options will lead to a surge in locally-targeted streaming campaigns.
Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.
On Wall Street’s mood board this week: mega seeds, late-stage endurance, and a defense-flavored sprinkle. Infra stayed hot, apps got practical, and checkbooks didn’t flinch.
Lets roll…
🔥 Biggest AI Funding Rounds This Week:
Unconventional AI – $475M (Seed) – San Francisco, CA
Agentic-AI R&D factory from ex-Intel/AI leaders aiming to ship deployable “intelligence units” for real-world tasks.
Harness – $240M (Growth financing) – San Francisco, CA
Developer-platform unicorn doubles down on AI-assisted software delivery at ~$5.5B valuation.
Fal – $140M (Series D) – Palo Alto, CA
Multimodal inference infra at scale; Sequoia-led round to expand “serverless” AI deployments.
Serval – $75M (Series B) – Tel Aviv, Israel
AI identity-risk platform modernizing KYC/AML and fraud controls for banks and fintech.
🗓️ Upcoming Conferences:
CES 2026 – Jan 6–9, 2026 | Las Vegas, NV | More Info CES
World AI Cannes Festival – Feb 12–13, 2026 | Cannes, France | More Info
For a full list of upcoming conferences check out our full list here!
🦄 Startups to Watch:
Pryzm (Seed) - Arlington, VA
If AI wins defense, it’ll be via paperwork first. Pryzm turns bewildering RFPs into winnable proposals—clear wedge, huge budget pool.Cynch AI (Seed) - San Francisco, CA
Enterprises want LLM features, not LLM fiascos. Cynch’s eval/guardrail layer lands right where risk-averse teams live.Surf (Seed) - San Francisco, CA
On-chain agents need brains. Surf’s AI layer for crypto apps could unlock real utility beyond speculation.
📡 Signals – What This Week Tells Us:
Agentic ambitions go mainstream: a $475M seed for Unconventional AI suggests investors are underwriting “AI that does,” not just “AI that chats.”
Infra + enterprise durability: Fal (inference) and Harness (DevOps) show dollars still crowd toward platforms that make AI cheaper to run and easier to ship.
Risk & identity stays hot: Serval’s B-round echoes regulated-industry demand for AI-native fraud/KYC tooling.
Gov/defense wedge: Pryzm’s seed highlights an emerging “AI for acquisition” niche inside defense procurement.
🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions
IBM → Confluent - $11B - Data streaming as the pipe for enterprise gen-AI.
Baseten → Parsed - RL/post-training talent + infra to “own your intelligence.”
Veeam → Securiti AI - $1.725B - Data resilience meets DSPM to guard AI era data flows.
Cision → Trajaan - Folds search intelligence into Brandwatch’s AI stack.
M&A Pulse: Consolidators are arming the data plumbing—streaming, security, and post-training. Eterprises can turn AI from pilot to platform.
Meme of the Week:
📬 Enjoyed the intel?
See you next week.
Until then: ship fast, raise smart, stay curious.
Feed The AI
