🚀 VC Pulse: Top Deals of the Week (Mar 1–7, 2026)
AI Infrastructure, Space Tech & Digital Health Lead a $1.5B+ Deal Week
| Startup | Sector | Round | Key Investors | Valuation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ayar Labs 🇺🇸 | AI Infrastructure / Photonics | Series E — $500M | Neuberger Berman (lead), NVIDIA, AMD, Sequoia Global Equities, ARK Invest, Insight Partners, QIA | $3.75B | MIT spinout replacing copper datacenter interconnects with optical (silicon photonic) co-packaged optics; claims 4–20× better throughput-per-watt vs. copper. IPO signals emerging. Total raised: $870M. |
| Sierra Space 🇺🇸 | Space & Defense Tech | Equity — $550M | LuminArx Capital Management (lead) | $8B | Designs and manufactures satellites, spacecraft, and space subsystems; 5 years old, Colorado-based. Largest deal of the week by valuation. |
| Vast 🇺🇸 | Commercial Space / Orbital | Series A — $500M ($300M equity + $200M debt) | Balerion Space Ventures (lead), QIA, Mitsui, MUFG, Nikon, In-Q-Tel | N/D | Building Haven commercial space stations for LEO research and manufacturing; CEO cited the LEO economy at “a pivotal inflection point.” |
| Science Corp. 🇺🇸 | Neurotech / BCI | Series C — $230M | Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, In-Q-Tel | N/D | Neuralink alums building PRIMA, a rice-grain–sized brain-computer interface implant to restore sight; launching first in Europe; $490M total raised. |
| Grow Therapy 🇺🇸 | Digital Mental Health | Series D — $150M | TCV & Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (co-leads), Menlo Ventures, BCI, Sequoia, SignalFire | N/D | NY-based platform connecting patients with in-network therapists; backed by 125+ insurers covering 220M people. Total raised: $328M. Approaching $1B revenue. |
| Findhelp 🇺🇸 | Healthcare / Care Coordination | Growth — $250M | TPG Rise Fund | N/D | Platform coordinating care across health systems, governments, and benefits providers; Austin-based, founded 2010. Mission-driven social determinants of health play. |
| Rowspace 🇺🇸 | Fintech / AI Analytics | Seed + Series A — $50M | Sequoia Capital (lead), Emergence Capital, Stripe | N/D | AI platform aggregating deal docs, CRM, and accounting data for private equity firms managing hundreds of billions in assets; acting as a “nervous system” for investment data. |
| Nominal 🇺🇸 | Engineering / Defense Tech | Growth — $80M | Founders Fund (lead), Sequoia, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, Lux Capital | $1B | Provides hardware testing tools for defense, automotive, and robotics; now a “manufacturing unicorn” with $155M total raised. |
| Ease Health 🇺🇸 | Digital Health / BehHealth AI | Series A — $41M | Andreessen Horowitz (a16z, lead) | N/D | AI-native operating system for mental health providers, unifying CRM, EHR, and billing into one platform. Launched out of stealth. |
| PLD Space 🇪🇸 | Space / Reusable Rockets | Series C — €180M (~$209M) | Mitsubishi Electric (lead, €50M), Spanish Gov., COFIDES, Nazca Capital | N/D | First private Spanish rocket company, developing Miura 5 reusable orbital launch vehicle; Miura 1 debuted 2023. European space sovereignty theme. |
| 14.ai 🇺🇸 | AI / Customer Support | Seed — $3M | Y Combinator (lead), General Catalyst, SV Angel | N/D | AI-native customer support agency automating tickets across email, phone, chat, and social; founded by two ex-YC founders. |
📊 Trend Commentary & Actionable Insights
1. AI Infrastructure is the New Semiconductor Race. Ayar Labs’ $500M raise underscores a growing consensus that copper interconnect limits are AI’s next hard bottleneck, with NVIDIA and AMD placing direct bets on photonic solutions. This is a picks-and-shovels play — investors should watch the CPO (co-packaged optics) supply chain closely.
2. Commercial Space is Having a Moment. Three separate space deals this week (Sierra Space, Vast, PLD Space) totaling ~$1.26B signal that LEO infrastructure and launch vehicles are graduating from speculative to strategic. Wayve’s $1.2B autonomous vehicle raise and space mega-deals reflect rising investor appetite for deep-tech partnerships with industrials and sovereigns.
3. Mental Health Tech is Consolidating Around Winners. Grow Therapy has become one of the few behavioral health companies to sustain large funding rounds as the market rationalized from COVID-era enthusiasm, now nearing $1B revenue — a sign the sector is entering a high-growth, winner-takes-most phase. Ease Health’s a16z-backed stealth launch signals continued institutional conviction.
4. Sequoia + a16z Domination Continues. Both firms appear in multiple deals this week across fintech (Rowspace), health (Grow Therapy, Ease Health), and deep tech (Nominal, Science Corp.), reinforcing their position as the most active post-seed investors, each participating in 100+ rounds in 2025.
5. Crypto Cooling, AI Heating. Crypto startups raised just $883M in February — a 13% year-over-year decline — as investors shift toward revenue-generating AI and infrastructure plays. Reallocation from Web3 to AI infrastructure is now a macro theme.
Sequoia · a16z · Lightspeed
YC · Founders Fund · TCV