## Polymarket's Funding Ambitions

The prediction market **Polymarket** is in early talks with investors to raise funds at a staggering valuation between **$12 billion and $15 billion**. This represents a more than **10-fold increase** from its valuation just four months ago, highlighting rapid growth in the sector.

## A Rapid Valuation Surge

Polymarket's valuation has skyrocketed recently. In June, **Peter Thiel's Founders Fund** spearheaded a **$200 million funding round** that valued the startup at **$1 billion**. Earlier this month, **Intercontinental Exchange Inc.**, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced plans to invest up to **$2 billion** in Polymarket at a valuation of approximately **$8 billion**, excluding additional funds raised. This strategic investment propelled CEO **Shayne Coplan** to become the **youngest self-made billionaire**.

The prediction market Polymarket is holding early conversations with investors and looking to raise money at a valuation between $12 billion and $15 billion, more than 10 times its value just four months ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

Polymarket's Meteoric Rise: From $1B to $15B Valuation in Just Months

## The European Startup Paradox

Start-ups are booming across the European Union, yet **bureaucratic red tape** is severely hindering their ability to expand across borders. Entrepreneurs face a maze of regulations that cover everything from **hiring requirements** and **environmental laws** to **financial regulations** and **fund-raising rules**, creating significant barriers to growth.

### Growth Amidst Challenges

Despite these hurdles, the number of early-stage companies in the E.U. and Britain surged to **35,000 in 2024**, more than four times the figure from a decade ago. Investment has skyrocketed tenfold to **$426 billion**, with fund-raising rounds now five times larger than they were ten years ago. This growth has supported high-profile companies like the finance app **Revolut** and the artificial intelligence firm **Mistral**.

### The Global Competitiveness Gap

However, European start-ups still lag behind their American counterparts, raising only **two-thirds as much funding relative to output** and achieving just **half the success rate**. An influential report by former European Central Bank president **Mario Draghi** highlighted that excessive paperwork threatens Europe's global competitiveness and called for the creation of a **single capital market** to streamline processes.

![A man and woman standing in front of a world map with 'Gravity Wave' written on the floor](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/10/06/multimedia/06Biz-Europe-Startups-01-jbtm/06Biz-Europe-Startups-01-jbtm-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)
*Caption: Amaia Rodríguez Sola with Ignacio Martí García at Gravity Wave, a Spanish company that recycles ocean plastic and has been slowed by E.U. cross-border transport regulations.*

Start-ups are booming in the European Union, but experts say bureaucracy keeps them from expanding across borders.

Why Europe's Startup Boom Is Being Strangled by Bureaucracy

Silicon Valley powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz is making waves with a massive $10 billion fundraising effort aimed at shaping the future of technology. This bold move signals the firm's confidence in emerging sectors and its commitment to backing innovative startups.

### **Breaking Down the $10 Billion Fund**

The firm is strategically allocating this capital across three key areas:

- **$6 billion for growth-stage investments** - Targeting established companies ready to scale rapidly
- **$3 billion dedicated to AI deals** - Fueling the artificial intelligence revolution
- **$1 billion for US defense tech startups** - Supporting national security innovation

### **Why This Matters for Startups and Entrepreneurs**

This massive capital infusion represents one of the largest venture capital raises in recent history and demonstrates **Andreessen Horowitz's conviction** in these high-growth sectors. For entrepreneurs, this means:

- **Significant funding opportunities** for companies in AI, defense technology, and growth-stage businesses
- **Validation of market trends** as one of Silicon Valley's most influential VCs doubles down on these areas
- **Potential for groundbreaking innovations** across multiple technology domains

The firm's focus on **defense technology** particularly stands out, marking a growing trend of venture capital interest in national security and dual-use technologies.

### **The Bigger Picture**

This fundraising comes at a time when the technology landscape is rapidly evolving, with **artificial intelligence** transforming industries and **geopolitical tensions** driving innovation in defense technology. Andreessen Horowitz's bet could accelerate development in these critical areas and create new opportunities for startups worldwide.

Silicon Valley group seeks $6bn for growth fund, $3bn for AI deals and $1bn to back US defence tech start-ups 

Andreessen Horowitz's $10 Billion Bet: How This VC Giant Is Fueling the Next Tech Revolution

## The High-Stakes Negotiations

In a major development shaking the AI and digital media industries, **Adobe held acquisition talks** with London-based AI video startup **Synthesia** in recent months. The proposed deal would have valued the artificial intelligence company at approximately **$3 billion**, representing a significant premium over Synthesia's $2.1 billion valuation from its January financing round.

## Why Synthesia Captured Adobe's Attention

Synthesia has positioned itself at the forefront of **AI-generated video technology**, specializing in creating realistic **video avatars** of people using artificial intelligence. This technology represents a groundbreaking approach to video production, potentially revolutionizing how businesses create training materials, marketing content, and digital presentations.

## The Strategic Implications

The proposed acquisition signals Adobe's aggressive push into **AI-powered creative tools** and reflects the growing importance of **generative AI** in the digital content creation space. At a $3 billion valuation, this would have been one of the largest AI startup acquisitions in recent memory, highlighting the immense value major tech companies see in advanced video generation technology.

## Market Context and Industry Impact

This development comes as major technology companies increasingly compete to integrate **AI video capabilities** into their product ecosystems. The premium valuation suggests Adobe saw significant strategic value in Synthesia's technology, which could have complemented Adobe's existing creative suite and strengthened its position against competitors in the rapidly evolving AI content creation market.

Adobein recent months held talks with Synthesia, a London-based maker of artificial intelligence software that generates video avatars of people, to buy the startup for about $3 billion, a premiumfrom the startup’s $2.1 billion valuation in a January financing, according to a person with ...

Adobe's $3 Billion AI Video Startup Acquisition Talks Revealed - What This Means for the Future of Digital Media

## The Hidden Bottleneck in High-Tech Science

In high-tech science, breakthroughs often hinge on the smallest details – like the step before the experiment even begins.

Before a lab can detect a contaminant in drinking water, find performance-enhancing drugs in an athlete’s blood, or measure volatile compounds in food, scientists must first extract the target chemicals from a tangle of other substances. This step, called **sample preparation**, is one of the most frustrating bottlenecks in analytical science.

Now, a Cornell-born startup called **Quantera Analytical** thinks it has a fix.

## Quantera's Innovative Solution

Quantera’s technology is deceptively simple: a **modular, cartridge-based system** that replaces slow and solvent-heavy workflows with rigid, reusable sample collectors. These cartridges can either absorb vapors above a sample or dip directly into liquids such as blood, juice, or plant extracts.

That means scientists can process dozens of samples at once – **faster, with less waste**, and without relying on costly centralized labs.

![Quantera's modular, cartridge-based system potentially replaces slower and solvent-heavy sample testing with a new reusable sample collection tool.](https://via.placeholder.com/600x400)

## Driving Force: Accessibility and Sustainability

“Our No. 1 company value is **accessibility**. That’s something I’ve always been passionate about,” said Terry Bates, Ph.D. ’23, Quantera’s founder and analytical food chemist. “Small growers and labs are often at a disadvantage because of the cost of this testing.”

Quantera was recently admitted to Cornell’s **Praxis Center for Venture Development**, an incubator that supports early-stage companies with ties to the university. The center provides office and lab space, mentorship, and access to Cornell’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Admission to Praxis is highly competitive and signals that a company has strong commercial potential.

“This technology has the potential to address widely recognized pain points in pre-analytical workflows across multiple fields,” said Bob Scharf, academic administrative director at Praxis. “Quantera hopes to **level the playing field** between large centralized corporate laboratories and in-field testing by reducing dependence on tedious and time-consuming sample preparation steps.”

## Validation and Growth

Admittance into the incubator will provide Bates with help refining his business plan, connecting with investors, and navigating the complex world of product validation and intellectual property.

The startup’s work has already drawn attention from **Bruker**, the German scientific instrument manufacturer where Bates previously worked. Bruker set up a collaboration with Quantera, placing a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer in their lab to help validate the new system – a gesture that reflects the company’s interest in faster, more flexible testing platforms.

“In graduate school, I worked on a technology that made mass spectrometry more accessible, efficient, and rapid,” Bates said. “Bruker had purchased the technology from the company that was making it and developed an instrument that could be used in applied markets.”

The startup has already filed **patents** for its core extraction device and a suite of accessories, including cartridge holders, gaskets, and storage systems designed for high-throughput lab and field use.

## Advantages Over Traditional Methods

Traditional sample preparation, known as **solid-phase microextraction**, uses delicate fibers to capture trace compounds before analysis by gas or liquid chromatography. The process is finicky, expensive, and hard to scale. Quantera’s rigid planar cartridges, arranged in standard well-plate formats, can withstand heavy use and eliminate much of the **solvent waste** that plagues current methods.

That could have implications far beyond the lab bench. It could speed food and beverage testing or environmental monitoring after a spill. And it could open new possibilities for **decentralized analysis**, where testing happens on-site instead of being shipped to central facilities.

“We’ve demonstrated that this approach works across a wide range of commercially relevant compounds, from food quality indicators and smoke-affected grape samples to agriculturally and clinically relevant compounds and markers of fungal contamination,” Bates said. “The next step is **scaling it** so others can use it in their workflows.”

## Challenges and Future Outlook

Any new testing platform must pass rigorous validation before it can be used in clinical or regulatory settings, Scharf cautions, and scaling production hardware is no small feat. But Cornell’s entrepreneurial support system – from its business incubators to alumni investors – has given Quantera a launchpad.

For New York state, it’s also part of a larger story: how research universities are turning deep science into real-world innovation.

“We’re engineers and chemists,” Bates said. “But our goal goes beyond the technology; it’s about **stewardship**. We’re building tools that make analytical workflows more efficient, sustainable, useful, and accessible, helping the scientific community push the boundaries of discovery.”

Newly admitted into the Praxis Center business incubator, Quantera aims to improve scientific sample collection.

Quantera's Game-Changing Tech: Faster, Greener, and Cheaper Lab Testing Is Here

## Oklo's Stock Plunge and High-Profile Coverage

Oklo, a nuclear energy startup, has continued to see its stock **extend losses** on the NYSE under the ticker OKLO. This downturn comes as the **Financial Times** published a detailed profile highlighting the company's unique position: it has achieved a **stock market valuation above $20 billion** despite having **no revenue** to date.

The article underscores how Oklo has ridden a wave of **investor enthusiasm**, propelling its market cap to staggering heights. This phenomenon raises questions about the sustainability of such valuations in the **nuclear energy sector**, especially for pre-revenue companies.

Key factors driving this investor interest include potential breakthroughs in **advanced nuclear technology** and growing global demand for **clean energy solutions**. However, the lack of revenue streams poses significant risks, as highlighted by recent stock performance.

As the story unfolds, it serves as a cautionary tale and a beacon of innovation in the high-stakes world of startup investing.

Oklo extended losses as the Financial Times profiled the company that has ridden a wave of investor enthusiasm to propel its stock market valuation above $20 billion.

The $20 Billion Mystery: How Oklo, a Nuclear Startup with Zero Revenue, Captured Wall Street's Imagination

## Modern Treasury Acquires Beam in $40 Million All-Stock Deal

**Modern Treasury**, a payments infrastructure company valued at **$2.1 billion**, has acquired the stablecoin startup **Beam**, the companies announced Wednesday. The acquisition was an **all-stock transaction worth about $40 million**, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Founded in 2022, **Beam provides banks and other corporations with software to send and receive stablecoins**, or cryptocurrencies pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar. Modern Treasury, first incubated in the summer 2018 cohort of **Y Combinator**, pitches itself as a **one-stop shop for corporations to handle money movement**.

“We were coming with the **fiat DNA**,” said Modern Treasury CEO Matt Marcus, referring to currencies backed by governments. “And they [Beam] had the **stablecoin DNA**.”

Marcus, Modern Treasury’s cofounder and CEO, and Dan Mottice, cofounder and CEO of Beam, declined to disclose financial details of the acquisition.

## Stablecoin Fever Grips Fintech

Modern Treasury has built its business **simplifying payments across traditional financial rails** like wires and ACH. Its decision to dive into the stablecoin business is the latest sign that **fintech companies are taking the rise of dollar-backed cryptocurrencies seriously**.

Proponents say **stablecoins**, designed to stay stable as opposed to more volatile tokens like **Bitcoin** and **Ethereum**, are a **quicker and cheaper means to send and receive money** than existing options.

While stablecoins have been a facet of crypto trading for more than a decade, **mainstream interest in the tokens heated up** after the fintech giant **Stripe** said in October 2024 that it had **acquired the stablecoin startup Bridge for $1.1 billion**. That deal, as well as **recent legislation** that creates a regulatory framework for the tokens and a **blockbuster IPO from the stablecoin giant Circle**, have made stablecoins one of the **buzziest topics in Silicon Valley** outside of AI.

The crypto and stablecoin infrastructure company **Zerohash**, the stablecoin issuer **Agora**, and the team behind a Stripe-backed payments **blockchain** have raised **hundreds of millions of dollars** since January. And **Mastercard** and **Coinbase** have held **late-stage talks to acquire another stablecoin startup for around $2 billion**.

Beam has raised a more modest **$14 million** since it first launched almost three years ago. Its last round valued the company at **$44 million**, according to data from Pitchbook. Mottice, who used to help lead **Visa’s crypto team**, declined to comment on his company’s prior valuations.

The Beam founder will join Modern Treasury as part of the deal and help lead the company’s **expansion into stablecoin payments**.

“I wouldn’t say that it’ll be a push for stablecoins to be plugged into every use case ever, but we will definitely include that as a **key part of the arsenal**,” said Mottice.

The deal comes one year after the fintech giant Stripe said it would acquire the stablecoin firm Bridge.

Modern Treasury's $40M Stablecoin Acquisition: The Fintech Giant's Bold Move Into Crypto Payments

**Apex**, a Los Angeles-based satellite manufacturing startup, is investing its own capital to demonstrate it can build and deploy interceptors in space for **Golden Dome**, a planned missile defense system directed by President Trump.

The company on October 22 revealed plans to launch a demonstration mission in June 2026 to prove it can design and operate the kind of orbital weapons the Trump administration says will be needed to protect the nation. By pursuing the project without government funding, Apex hopes to show that ambitious defense capabilities can move on **commercial timelines**, outside of traditional government procurement channels.

“This is going to be something that is critically important for the U.S. and our allies,” Ian Cinnamon, Apex’s CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews.

The company plans to invest **$15 million** in the demonstration of space-based interceptors, called **Project Shadow**.

## Why Space-Based Interceptors

In January, the White House published an executive order directing development of a multi-layered missile defense architecture that explicitly calls for deploying space-based interceptors to be “proliferated”— not just a handful, but enough to ensure reliable coverage.

Existing ground and sea-based missile defense systems are designed to engage threats during midcourse or terminal phases, often after warheads have separated and countermeasures deployed. **Space-based interceptors** operating from orbit would be positioned to detect launches, receive fire-control commands and respond within seconds — ideally neutralizing missiles before they leave adversary airspace or release additional threats or decoys.

Founded in 2022, Apex manufactures three types of satellite buses — the Aries, Nova, and Comet — with payload capacities ranging from 100 to 500 kilograms. For the demonstration, the company will use a **Nova bus** as its host platform, which the company has named the “orbital magazine.”

The orbital magazine will deploy two interceptors in space, each equipped with a high-thrust solid rocket motor. The test will prove the host platform’s ability to environmentally control the interceptors, issue a fire control command and establish an in-space cross-link to transmit updates after deployment.

“Closing that cross link is really important,” Cinnamon said. The satellite will use a software-defined radio capable of transmitting and receiving **Link-182 messages** — a data link standard that the U.S. Space Force has adopted for its future MILNET communications data relay network in low Earth orbit.

The interceptors themselves present technical challenges that Apex will seek to solve. Solid rocket motors are difficult to thermally control in the vacuum of space. “So we’re proving out all of that technology,” Cinnamon said. The Nova platform will carry a couple of infrared sensors to track both interceptors once they deploy.

But Apex will not be firing these interceptors at any objects. “We’re not going to create space debris. We’re not going to intercept anything in this demonstration,” Cinnamon said. The objective is to prove the spacecraft can release and track the interceptors in the space environment.

![Illustration of space-based interceptor](https://i0.wp.com/spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-21-at-6.57.22-AM.png?resize=780%2C466&ssl=1)

Apex will deploy the satellite at 500 kilometers above Earth, the altitude where SpaceX typically drops off rideshare satellites for low Earth orbit missions.

Cinnamon said he has already briefed the leaders of the Golden Dome program office at the Pentagon about the demonstration. He brought in experts from the defense industry for technical guidance but declined to identify specific corporate partners.

The Pentagon’s current missile defense contractors have deep institutional knowledge of interceptor technology. Where they may lack capabilities, however, is in mass production and space deployment at scale. “We can be a really good partner for them as they go after those contracts,” Cinnamon said of Apex’s potential role.

Apex recently completed a Series D funding round, securing a **valuation exceeding $1 billion** and solidifying its status as one of the fastest-growing aerospace startups in the country. Though the company has launched only one satellite to date, in 2024, Cinnamon said orders are being filled for commercial and government customers, including the **U.S. Space Force**. He emphasized that Apex’s manufacturing approach allows it to ramp production up or down based on demand.

“It’s all about the ability to go hit that number and the ramp rate to get to that number, as opposed to just producing satellites and having them sit on the shelf,” he said. “We already have a lot of customers … and we have a nice, healthy backlog.”

With regard to Golden Dome, there is still uncertainty surrounding how it will actually be built and bought.

“We’re finally at a point in time where all of the technology needed to do space-based interceptors is available,” Cinnamon said. “It’s all disconnected, but it’s all available. We have boosters, we have seekers, we have kill vehicles, we have satellites.” The challenge now, he added, is integration and scaling. “I don’t know how the government’s going to procure this, or how the money will flow.”

Startup takes on space-based missile defense — with its own cash

Polymarket's Meteoric Rise: From $1B to $15B Valuation in Just Months

Summary:

Polymarket's Funding Ambitions

A Rapid Valuation Surge

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Apex's $15M Bet: How This Startup Is Building Space-Based Missile Defense on Its Own Dime