Top Funding: SumUp secures $306.6M in growth funding to navigate fintech turbulence

Here are some of the top funding stories happening in tech today.

• SumUp secures $306.6M in growth funding
• French AI startup Mistral soars to $2B valuation
• Liquid AI secures $37.6M in seed funding round
• Datacebo surges forward with $8.5M in funding
• Fuse launches $10M grant program to fuel web3 innovation

SumUp secures $306.6M in growth funding

The European fintech company SumUp, which offers small businesses payment solutions, has raised an additional $306.6 million for expansion. This big funding round for SumUp comes amid worries about the larger fintech scene, but it also comes after a period of rapid expansion for the company.

The funding round was led by Sixth Street Growth, with participation from existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Fin Capital, and Liquidity Group.

Established in 2012, SumUp serves over 4 million businesses, providing them with a reliable platform for receiving payments. According to PitchBook data, the company has successfully secured about $1.5 billion in funding.

This new injection of capital will fuel SumUp's continued growth and expansion into new markets, as well as support the development of new products and services.

French AI Startup Mistral Soars to $2B Valuation

A $2 billion valuation has been reached by Mistral AI, a French startup that is creating cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, following the completion of a significant $415 million funding round.

With the completion of this most recent round, they have raised more than $528 million in capital in just seven months, following their initial $113 million seed funding in June.

The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, a renowned venture capital firm with a strong track record in backing successful technology companies. Other notable participants include Lightspeed Venture.

Founded by Guillaume Lample and Timothée Lacroix, Mistral's AI rise stems from its focus on building large language models(LLMs). The company's technology is seen as a potential rival to established players like OpenAI and Google, prompting significant investor interest.

Liquid AI secures $37.6M in Seed Funding Round

A Boston-based startup called Liquid AI has raised $37.6 million in seed funds to create both general-purpose and domain-specific artificial intelligence systems. OSS Capital and PagsGroup led the round.

The funding will be used to further develop their technology and bring it to market.

Liquid foundation models, which aim to be more malleable and flexible than traditional neural networks, are the source of inspiration for Liquid AI's technology.

The goal of Liquid AI is to develop AI systems that can be applied to a wide range of domains, from natural language processing to computer vision.

Some experts believe that Liquid AI's approach could lead to more powerful and versatile AI systems in the future.

Datacebo surges forward with $8.5M in funding

DataCebo introduces Synthetic Data Vault (SDV) Enterprise, an enhanced version surpassing their initial offering, the Synthetic Data Vault software. The latter, an open-source library, aids enterprises in generating synthetic data.

Datacebo is co-founded by Kalyan Veeramachaneni.

The $8.5 million in seed funding was spearheaded by Link Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners, with additional participation from Uncorrelated Ventures.

With this funding, they will be able to further develop their synthetic data technology and build a go-to-market team.

Fuse launches $10M grant program to fuel web3 innovation

The global leader in Web3 infrastructure, Fuse Network, has unveiled a ground-breaking $10 million grant program to assist and empower Web3 startups.

By accelerating the creation and uptake of cutting-edge Web3 solutions, this initiative called Fuse Web3 Business Grants, seeks to maximize the potential of the decentralized Internet.

This program includes both funding and infrastructure support and is designed to help businesses build and use Web3 payment technologies.

Eligible businesses, according to Fuse, include those starting Web3 startups that need an EMV-compatible network, Fintechs deploying non-custodial mobile solutions, CEXs seeking a non-custodial wallet solution, apps hoping to create branded stablecoins, and local payment solutions hoping to go global.

The goal of the program is to help businesses take advantage of the benefits of Web3 technology, while also supporting the growth of the Web3 ecosystem. It's a really exciting initiative that has the potential to make a big impact on the future of payments.