Pigment raised $250 million at a $2.3 billion valuation in a round led by an EQT-managed fund, with Nvidia planning to invest. Eka Robotics reached $1.45 billion at its Series A. Reliable Robotics passed $1 billion with a round that mixed equity and a bank loan, and Daytona hit $1 billion.
Growth investors are still writing large checks at billion-dollar prices for AI and robotics companies. Reading the terms closely shows how varied those checks are.
Four startups announced rounds at valuations of $1 billion or more on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Pigment, a Paris-based business-planning software company, raised $250 million in a Series E round at a $2.3 billion valuation. The round was led by the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, with WIL, Greenoaks, ICONIQ, IVP and Meritech participating and Nvidia planning to invest.
Eka Robotics raised $150 million in a Series A round at a $1.45 billion post-money valuation, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and F-Prime.
Reliable Robotics, which is developing pilotless aircraft systems, added $115 million to its Series D round, bringing the total to $275 million, at a valuation above $1 billion.
Daytona, which is building cloud infrastructure for AI agents, raised $60 million in a Series B led by FirstMark at a $1 billion valuation.
Not every dollar is equity
Reliable Robotics' extension is not all equity. Of the $115 million, $90 million is equity led by Nimble Partners and $25 million is a term loan from SVB. That means about 22% of the new money, by FinancialMarkets.com's arithmetic, is debt that must be repaid, which matters for how the company's valuation is read. The valuation describes the equity, but the headline amount includes borrowing.
A Series A at $1.45 billion
Eka's round stands out for its stage. A Series A is usually a company's first large institutional round. Reaching a $1.45 billion post-money value at that stage means investors are pricing in a great deal of future success before the company has a long operating record, an indication of how much money is chasing physical AI.
A strategic name in a late round
Pigment's round shows a different pattern. A fund managed by the private markets firm EQT led a late-stage software round, and Nvidia's planned participation would put a strategic investor on the cap table. Pigment did not say whether $2.3 billion is the valuation before or after the new money.
Market implications
One reading is that capital remains abundant for AI-linked companies across stages, from Series A robotics to late-stage software, and that billion-dollar valuations are still being set without much difficulty.
A second reading is that the headline figures need care. Rounds that mix debt and equity, valuations that do not specify pre- or post-money, and Series A prices above $1 billion all make it harder to compare deals and easier to overstate the market's strength.
What to watch
Further disclosures of round terms; whether Nvidia completes its investment in Pigment; follow-on rounds for Eka and Daytona; Reliable Robotics' progress toward regulatory approval; and the share of venture rounds that include debt. A rise in the share of debt inside headline round sizes would signal that equity investors are becoming more cautious than the valuations suggest.