Upwind raises $400 million to expand cloud security platform

Xona has successfully raised $250 million in a Series D funding round to scale its commercial satellite navigation network. The leadership of this round was led by Future Ventures, which brought together both new and existing investors. This funding valued the Burlington-based company at $2.45 billion.

Founded in 2019, Xona develops navigation infrastructure in low Earth orbit. Its Pulsar platform aims to improve traditional GPS through stronger signals and increased positioning accuracy. With the latest investment, the company's total funding has exceeded $570 million.

CEO Brian Manning stated that the company is transitioning from technology development to commercial implementation. Xona currently has satellites in orbit, and customers are integrating the Pulsar firmware into their devices. The capital raised will be used to ensure service provision, operational expansion, and satellite manufacturing.

GPS is a critical element for transport, communication, finance, and other vital networks. However, GPS signals can be subjected to jamming or spoofing. Xona plans to offer an alternative navigation method for autonomous systems and devices that provides higher reliability and accuracy.

Xona's Pulsar network transmits navigation signals from specially designed satellites in low Earth orbit. The company claims that its technology can provide centimeter-level accuracy. Furthermore, it states that its signals are 100 times stronger than standard GPS signals.

The platform is designed to resist jamming and spoofing. Xona also aims to enable signal reception indoors, which could potentially expand navigation capabilities in environments where traditional signals struggle. These characteristics could be useful for autonomous vehicles, robotics, aviation, and critical infrastructure.

As more machines operate with limited human involvement, navigation systems are becoming increasingly important. Accurate location determination helps these systems establish coordinates and make timely decisions. More resilient signals can also support applications where navigation failures carry significant risks.

Recently, Xona conducted its largest launch to date, deploying six Pulsar satellites. Four spacecraft are intended to support the initial beta service in several countries starting in early 2027. Two additional satellites will be used to test designs developed and manufactured entirely in-house.

This launch marks a transition toward building a larger commercial constellation. Xona intends to increase production capacity at its headquarters in Burlington. The long-term constellation concept includes approximately 258 satellites.

The company is also working on establishing the operational capabilities necessary for repeatable satellite production. CEO Brian Manning has set a goal of producing 50 satellites annually by the end of 2027. Achieving this level will support the planned expansion of the navigation network.

With the new funds, Xona will accelerate satellite production and begin providing commercial navigation services. The company targets both commercial and government clients. Potential applications include autonomous systems, aviation, and critical infrastructure.

Future Ventures co-founder Steve Yurvetson, a long-time board member of SpaceX and an early investor in Xona, noted that the company has made rapid progress in creating a new global navigation network.

Nevertheless, Xona faces significant implementation challenges. It needs to scale up production, deploy its constellation, and demonstrate reliable performance in various conditions. Commercial adoption will also depend on integration with customer devices and systems.

The $250 million raise provides substantial funding for the next phase. If Xona meets its deployment goals, Pulsar could provide an additional layer of navigation resilience for the global economy.

The corporate artificial intelligence (AI) company RapidCanvas announced on Friday that it has raised $29 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Vertex Ventures SEA & India. Hitachi Ventures also participated in the round, along with existing investors including Accel, Peak XV Partners, Valley Capital Partners, and Titanium Ventures.

This funding increases the total amount raised by the company to $52.5 million. RapidCanvas plans to use these funds to expand its go-to-market teams, as well as to grow its network of private equity and consulting service partners. Furthermore, the company intends to scale up its field AI engineering team in India, the United States, and Brazil.

According to RapidCanvas itself, this round followed an eightfold growth in annual recurring revenue over the last six quarters, as enterprises increasingly demand tangible results from custom AI in production processes. The company reported that over 40 percent of its clients are already using multiple AI use cases in their operations.

RapidCanvas combines its AI platform with field AI engineers to provide tailored AI solutions. In this process, engineers study each client's business processes, develop and create custom AI applications, and remain responsible for achieving the results of these applications after implementation.

The platform includes three products: Enterprise Context Engine allows an enterprise to record how a business process functions, starting from requirements and accumulated knowledge to data schemas and decision history, while the context remains the property of the enterprise. Visual Development Canvas enables AI engineers to quickly create custom AI solutions that comply with industry standards. And Operational Harness manages and monitors AI solutions after they are deployed in the working environment.

According to the company, by 2026 alone, over 75 enterprises in the manufacturing, financial services, retail, business services, and infrastructure sectors will have made 1.4 million AI-driven decisions using applications built on RapidCanvas. RapidCanvas serves enterprises with revenues between $100 million and $10 billion that have AI budgets and mandates from top management.

Rahul Pangam, co-founder and CEO of RapidCanvas, stated: 'AI can be a great equalizer, but so far the most significant successes have gone to companies on the Fortune 100 list. We want to provide equal opportunities to every company.' He added that 'Vibe coding simplified getting started with AI, but reliable and secure deployment of AI into production remains the biggest challenge. Our growth over the last six quarters proves that AI in the corporate sector is moving beyond pilot projects and into real operation.'

Piyush Harbanda, General Partner at Vertex Ventures SEA & India, noted: 'Most enterprises are still looking for a real return on their AI spending. RapidCanvas delivers this return by combining an AI platform that is enhanced with every deployment and engineers who work on the ground and are responsible for the final outcome. The proof is that clients continue to expand the use of new features and scenarios.'

North.cloud has successfully raised $60 million in a Series B funding round. These funds will be used to develop the company's financial operating system, which covers cloud services, artificial intelligence, and data handling.

Investors participating in this round include Peak Span Capital, Liquidity Ventures, Companyon Ventures, Alpaca, Uncommon Denominator, Gaingels, and Mana Ventures. The secured capital will allow for increased investment in product development, as well as ensuring a higher degree of automation and adding new integrations.

North enables enterprises to reduce infrastructure costs across all leading cloud service providers and modern data platforms, including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. The company aims to replace fragmented processes related to various pricing models, usage requirements, and reporting tools inherent in each system (whether it is cloud infrastructure, a data model, or a service).

Thanks to the North platform, clients have saved over $400 million against total managed cloud spending, which approaches two billion dollars. Among the company's clients are AssemblyAI, Atlan, Tines, SnapLogic, Emplifi, and Imply. The platform addresses a growing problem for finance and engineering departments.

Traditionally, teams often use spreadsheets and separate dashboards to understand infrastructure costs, which consumes significant time without automatically eliminating costly inefficiencies. North combines cost analytics with automated optimization, helping businesses identify waste, manage cloud commitments, and increase computing value. This approach provides finance and engineering teams with a unified view of infrastructure economics.

The latest funding followed the release of North v3, which expanded support to Microsoft Azure, thus completing support for three major hyperscalers. Furthermore, native integrations with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Snowflake were implemented, and the Autobot automatic commitment scaling mechanism was enhanced.

Artificial intelligence is creating new challenges in business financial management. The increasing use of models adds an extra layer of complexity to existing cloud service and data expenditures. North is expanding its platform to help companies manage these interconnected costs.

TokenFlow's offering integrates model usage, attribution, budgeting, and financial control into a single system. Businesses can use these features alongside existing cloud infrastructure management, reflecting the growing overlap between AI and traditional infrastructure costs.

North believes that effective cost management requires more than just dashboards for companies. Automated systems can help teams detect changes, improve resource allocation, and leverage optimization capabilities, which can reduce manual workload as AI adoption accelerates.

AssemblyAI reported an effective savings rate of about 50% through its work with North. The company noted that its coverage expanded in parallel with infrastructure growth, allowing the team to focus on customer-centric development.

North plans to reinvest the Series B funds into increasing the number of integrations and strengthening autonomous optimization. Funds will also be invested in additional AI cost management tools and new personnel hiring. These investments will help North realize its vision of fully automating the infrastructure cost lifecycle.

The company demonstrates a customer retention rate of 98.8% and reports over $400 million saved by its clients. North's current clientele includes several large technology companies, and the company believes its results can be leveraged to target other cost categories. As AI plays an increasingly vital role in software development, infrastructure costs are becoming less separate from the product and the business it supports. North is building a platform designed to help such enterprises manage these expenses without stifling innovation.