The efficient use of available power continues to be a key issue impacting both colocation providers and hyperscalers who typically run at between 30-50% utilization simply because they cannot source enough power. So this week, we lead with news that Hammerhead AI has emerged from stealth with USD 10mn in seed funding to support AI factories to orchestrate their workloads within power budgets.

AI research startup Redrob has raised USD 10mn for its Series A round of funding to democratize access to AI infrastructure. The company says that its technical breakthrough enables it to deliver 90% of flagship model performance at just 5% of the cost.

Elsewhere this week:

• BluePill raises $6mn seed round
  BluePill, an AI platform replacing traditional market research, has raised USD 6mn for its seed round led by Ubiquity Ventures, with participation from Pioneer Square Labs and Flying Fish Ventures. The company is simulating how thousands of “digital-twin” AI consumers will react to new products, campaigns and ideas in minutes; with insights continuously benchmarked against live human panels, with humans-in-the-loop to ensure accuracy.
• Shipday raises $7mn for its Series A round
  Delivery and logistics technology platform Shipday has raised USD 7mn for its Series A round of funding, co-led by ECP Growth and Ibex Investors Mobility. With the funding the company will expand its geographic reach, deepen its investments in new platform features, integrations and agentic AI automations. Among these is AgentFlow, an AI-powered automation engine that leverages agents to streamline dispatch, customer support and marketing. This latest round brings its total funding to USD 10mn.
• AI-driven sourcing platform Jiga raises $12mn Series A round
  Aleph has led the Series A round for sourcing platform Jiga, with participation from Symbol and Y Combinator. The capital will expand the platform’s premium production capabilities, deepen AI-driven quality assurance for mission-critical parts and scale enterprise infrastructure to support larger deployments across new manufacturing categories. Jiga is an AI-native manufacturing platform where engineers source and buy custom mechanical parts from vetted suppliers. The platform automates the administrative chaos of custom parts procurement with individuals making the decisions that matter.
• Orion to grow risk intelligence platform with $3.5mn investment
  Orion, an AI-driven risk intelligence company, has secured USD 3.5mn to grow its platform. The round was led by Dynamo Ventures with Bravo Victor Venture Capital, Techstars and Service Provider Capital also participating.
  The company also received a government grant from Puerto Rico.
  Orion is building an intelligence infrastructure that enables teams to see what’s coming. It transforms how they anticipate protests, natural disasters and supply-chain disruptions before they unfold.
• Numeric raises $51mn for Series B round
  AI accounting automation platform Numeric has raised USD 51mn for its Series B round led by IVP. Other investors were Menlo Ventures, Founders Fund, Alkeon, 8VC, Socii Capital, Access Industries, Friends & Family Capital, Long Journey Ventures and Fifth Down. The funding enables Numeric to expand from close management into a multi-product platform. With legacy tools delivering cash match rates below 30%, Numeric says its solution achieves a 90%+ auto-match rate. The company also launched a cash management product alongside the funding announcement.
• Chargeflow completes $35mn Series A funding round
  Chargeflow has raised USD 35mn for its Series A round of funding, which includes a USD 10mn debt facility. The chargeback automation platform will use the funding to drive product innovation and complete its end-to-end chargeback automation suite and accelerate its growth, globally. This new investment brings the total funding to USD 49mn.
  Investors in the round were Viola Growth and Open View Venture Partners.
• Creator-led advertising co. Agentio raises $40mn Series B round
  Agentio, an AI-native platform for creator-led advertising, has raised USD 40mn for its Series B round to expand its infrastructure that enables brands to move digital advertising spend to creators. The round was led by Forerunner with additional investments from Benchmark, Craft Ventures, AlleyCorp, Antler and Starting Line. The latest round brings the total capital raised to USD 56mn and values the company at USD 340mn. Agentio enables brands to build and scale creator programs with the same efficiency, speed, measurement, and control as any digital media buy, while giving creators automated access to enterprise advertising budgets.
• Norm AI secures $50mn from Blackstone Investment
  Norm AI has secured USD 50mn from Blackstone Investment and has launched a new AI-native law firm. This latest commitment brings the total raised by the legal and compliance AI company to more than USD 140mn. The investment will accelerate Norm’s growth across legal and compliance AI for in-house teams and it has launched Norm Law, to offer AI-native legal services with an initial focus on financial services clients. Other investors in the company are Bain Capital, Vanguard, Citi, New York Life, TIAA, Coatue, Craft Ventures and more.