Brief

Catena Labs, a startup focused on enabling AI agents to conduct financial transactions, has secured $30 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by Acrew Capital and a16z crypto, with participation from other notable investors. The company is also seeking a national trust bank charter in New York to process payments and hold customer funds, aiming to build a secure framework for agentic finance. AI

General Catalyst has invested $31 million in Luel, a startup that appears to be a direct competitor to Kled, a company that recently secured $5.5 million in seed funding. This move highlights the intense competition and rapid funding shifts within the AI startup landscape, where investor attention can quickly pivot to seemingly similar ventures. AI

Modal has secured $355 million in Series C funding, valuing the company at $4.65 billion post-money. The company has experienced significant growth, with annualized revenue surpassing $300 million and a fivefold increase in size since September. This funding will support Modal's mission to provide a cloud infrastructure specifically designed for AI workloads, offering elastic compute, safe isolation, and programmatic control for diverse applications. AI