Today's headline: Supabase, Ramp, and Helion fuel a mega-round week. Welcome to Startup Fundraising. From CNBC:
The startup, which makes back-end tools for building artificial intelligence apps, said on Thursday that it raised $500 million at a valuation of $10.5 billion, the latest sign that venture investors are seeking to pour money into all corners of the AI market that are showing signs of growth.
Supabase: $500 million in, $10.5 billion valuation — roughly double its October mark. CNBC has the number and Copplestone on the record. The cap table? Nowhere. No lead named, no terms disclosed. Back-end tech for vibe coders. That phrase is wearing a lot of makeup. Copplestone launched this in 2020, so the product's real — but a jump to ten and a half billion in eight months tells you how hard the AI tailwind is blowing. And here's the detail that actually matters: Copplestone says Claude Code and Codex now drive the majority of databases on the platform, with Claude Code the biggest contributor in 2026. Right, so the valuation is riding somebody else's hype cycle. What's the churn on a vibe-coded app when the vibe passes? How much of this revenue is production workloads versus a weekend prompt that gets abandoned Monday? Here's The Next Web:
Ramp raised $750 million in a Series F led by ICONIQ, GIC, and Ontario Teachers’ at a $44 billion valuation. The spend management platform is expanding into AI token cost management and accounting, with revenue past $1 billion and 170% TPV growth.
Ramp: $7.65 billion two years ago, $44 billion now. That's a 5.75x move, and for once there's a P&L underneath it — past a billion in annualized revenue, free cash flow positive, TPV up 170 percent year over year. And 170 percent at twenty times the size they were the last time they hit that pace. You can actually kick the tires on this number — there's a transaction stack behind it. The lead structure is the weird part. ICONIQ, GIC, and Ontario Teachers' are co-leading — three institutions, no single name setting the price. So who actually anchored $44 billion? My concern is the AI token cost management add-on. The spend platform earns the number. The token-management pitch is the part I'd want to see revenue on before it carries the multiple. Tim De Chant, writing in TechCrunch:
Helion, the fusion startup backed by Sam Altman, announced on Thursday that it had raised $465 million in a new funding round that values the company at $15.5 billion. The cash infusion lands as Helion is racing to complete Orion, its first power plant.
Helion — $465 million, Series G, $15.5 billion valuation. And the thing I actually like here: there's a named buyer. Microsoft has a deal for power on the grid as early as 2028. And this time it's Tim De Chant at TechCrunch carrying it — not a company blog post. Thrive Capital leads, with Lux, Lightspeed, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in the participant column. But with Helion, I'm back where I was on RWE: is Microsoft a contractual offtake, or is it a front-row seat? 'If it can deliver on the terms' is the phrase to press on. What are the terms? $425 million in January 2025, $465 million now — barely a step up on the check, but the valuation's $15.5 billion. The price moved a lot faster than the capital did. 2028 for fusion on the grid. That's two years out. For that to happen, Orion actually has to work — and nobody's put net power on a grid yet, anywhere, ever. From TechCrunch:
Benchmark Capital, the storied Silicon Valley VC firm known for early investments in eBay, Snap, Uber, and Twitter, is breaking with one of its signature traditions: keeping its funds to about $425 million and backing only young startups.
Now we've got the full picture we teased yesterday. Benchmark closed $2 billion across two funds, and $1.25 billion of that is a dedicated growth vehicle. WSJ broke it, TechCrunch has the structure. For twenty-three years, they stayed around $425 million a fund and tried to take a 20 percent bite of every company. Now they're walking away from that model. And the reason's right there in the article — $425 million doesn't buy you a seat at Anthropic or OpenAI. They sat out the entire foundation-model wave because the checks were too big for their own rules. So the thing I was asking Thursday: is this adaptation, or is Benchmark blinking? Partial answer: they're moving fast enough to be in the Supabase round the same week Ramp closes at $44 billion. You don't get into that round if you're truly late. Here's the part nobody's saying out loud: Benchmark seeds a company at a price they set. Now the same firm can follow on in that company's growth round. If you're a founder negotiating your Series C, your earliest backer is suddenly on the other side of the table — and they're the ones who set your first valuation. Yeah, that's a genuine conflict for both LPs and founders. The firm that priced you low gets to price you again. This one's from Markets Insider:
BARCELONA, Spain, June 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ona Therapeutics (“Ona”), a global biopharmaceutical company pioneering first-in-class antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to address treatment-resistant cancers, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed $86.6 million Series B financing.
Ona Therapeutics out of Barcelona — $86.6 million Series B, oversubscribed, co-led by Columbus Venture Partners and Mérieux Equity Partners. And for once the cap table is the whole story: every existing investor named — Bpifrance, CDTI, Ysios, the lot. Two new co-leads, named, and the money has a job — push ONA-255 into the clinic in breast cancer, advance the colorectal program. Those are milestones you can check, not a vibe. And the 'oversubscribed' framing actually means something when all the existing investors re-up — inside money voting with the follow-on, not just a headline adjective. The risk is right there in the language: 'first-in-class ADC' and 'clinical proof of concept' in the same breath. $86 million gets you to read-out, maybe. ONA-255 has to show signal before this runs dry, because there's no revenue under this, just biology. Pre-clinical to clinical-stage transition for eighty-six million — modest by this week's standards. After Ramp at forty-four billion, it's almost relaxing to read a round where the number matches the stage. If Startup Fundraising helps you stay sharp, take a second to subscribe wherever you're listening. And if you can leave a quick review, it really helps other founders and operators find the show.
You'll find links to every story we covered in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, you can dig into the original reporting there. Thanks for spending part of your Friday with us. That's Startup Fundraising for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.