VC Funding Top Ten — October 5, 2026: SignSplit's $400M Seed, AI Dominates, Schneider Buys PTC

Overview

Monday afternoon, October fifth—today's biggest check is a massive four hundred million dollar seed round. SignSplit just locked in $400M at a $1B post-money valuation, in a deal led by W Group. This round signals a major shift in how data is valued in the age of AI. We’ll break down the top ten deals that are shaping

In this show

• Monday afternoon, October fifth—today's biggest check is a massive four hundred million dollar seed round. SignSplit just locked in $400M at a $1B post-money valuation, in a deal led by W Group. This round signals a major shift in how data is valued in the age of AI. We’ll break down the top ten deals that are shaping the markets. With us are our Markets and World desks. Let's get into the numbers.
• Here is today's snapshot. The market saw $486.77M across 10 rounds of disclosed venture funding. The largest round, as mentioned, was SignSplit's $400M seed. The hottest category is AI, accounting for four of the top ten deals. In public markets, the notable signal is Schneider Electric's plan to acquire PTC for $22.6B. And the story of the day: that massive seed round for SignSplit, signaling a new era of data monetization and protection for AI training.
• Let's dive deeper into that number one deal. SignSplit enables people and institutions to protect, license, and receive compensation for their data, work, and likeness. This isn't just about privacy; it's about creating a new asset class. The $400M seed round from W Group, which values the company at $1 billion, is a strategic move to establish a new industry standard for consensual and compensated data contribution. This could fundamentally change how all AI models are trained in the future.
• In at number two, Halluminate raised a $30M Series A led by Oak HC/FT. The company is building an infrastructure platform and data research labs to evaluate and train AI models on complex financial services tasks. This isn't general-purpose AI; it's highly specialized. With the new funding, Halluminate plans to expand its engineering and AI research teams to further develop its financial simulation sandboxes, creating safe, realistic environments for training financial AI agents.
• The third largest round today goes to Living Optics, a hardware company securing a $20M Series A. The oversubscribed round was led by BRV Capital Management. Living Optics develops industry-leading hyperspectral camera platforms. This technology sees light beyond human vision, enabling applications in everything from agriculture to medical diagnostics. The new capital will allow the company to scale the global deployment of its advanced imaging technology across multiple vertical markets.
• At number four, Pandektes has raised a $14.2M Series A led by Alstin Capital. The company provides a legal data infrastructure and AI platform that maps and indexes global legal information for machine learning systems. Essentially, they are creating the data backbone for legal AI. The company will use the capital to expand its core machine learning research and data engineering team, with a focus on accelerating its cross-border jurisdictional data parsing capabilities.
• The fifth deal today is a $10M Seed for Zenithon, led by Backed VC. This is another AI play, but in the deeptech space. Zenithon develops physics-grounded AI models to accelerate complex engineering simulations. Their focus is on extreme environments like fusion energy, aerospace, and semiconductor manufacturing. This funding will support the ambitious development of what they claim will be the world's first AI world models designed specifically for extreme physics applications.
• At number six, Charter Space raises a $5M Seed round led by Crystal Venture Partners. The company operates a software-driven insurance brokerage platform specifically for the growing space economy. This funding is earmarked to scale that platform, providing crucial financial infrastructure for commercial space ventures, from satellite launches to in-orbit operations and beyond. It’s a picks-and-shovels play on the final frontier.
• In Vertical SaaS, Spotable secures a $4.2M Seed round from investors including Jonas Dhaenens and Christophe Morbee. Their platform uses AI to generate 3D measurements of roofs and facades, automating the quoting process for building-envelope contractors. This saves time and increases accuracy in a traditionally manual industry. The company plans to use the funds to build out its product and expand from its home market into France, Germany, and the United States.
• Two more rounds to cover. First, Parisian startup Fleuret AI raises a $4.2M Pre-seed from RAISE Ventures to develop AI agents that conduct automated penetration testing, simulating attacks to find vulnerabilities. And in biotech, Celaid Therapeutics adds a $2.6M Series B extension from Shionogi and Teikoku Ventures. The capital will support manufacturing and clinical development for its ex vivo-expanded hematopoietic stem cell therapies for severe pediatric diseases.
• Rounding out the top ten, Edinburgh's GLORIAH, a women's health brand, closes an oversubscribed $0.77M Seed round to fund UK retail expansion and US market entry. But the big-picture trend today is the rise of 'Signed Data.' SignSplit's massive round signals a new market for verifiable, consensually licensed human data for training AI models. Expect to see a greater focus on data provenance and creator rights, which could ultimately redefine the entire AI economy.
• That's the deal flow for Monday, October 5th. Looking ahead, we're tracking a rumored mega-round for a fusion energy startup expected to close this week. The IPO calendar remains quiet, but all eyes are on the next wave of major AI fund announcements from established VCs. We're back tomorrow afternoon at three PM Pacific with the next term sheets.