· Investment Strategies · 4 sources
August 12–13 VC News Roundup: Multi-Day Batteries, Vibe Coding & Enterprise Agents
Gap-fill investment news for Aug 12–13: Form Energy, Lovable, Thrive Holdings, CodeRabbit, Blacksmith, and Skan AI — who uses the products and why these funds fit.
Editorial team
Earlier August batches already covered River AI, Neros, Flagler, Obsidian, and the defense/optics clusters. This roundup is the Aug 12 gap-fill — six deals that still needed VCT-style write-ups: who uses the product, why now, and why this capital.
Snapshot table
| Company | Amount | Stage | Key capital | Job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thrive Holdings | $2B | Growth platform | SoftBank, D1, Altimeter | AI inside acquired services firms |
| Form Energy | $750M | Series G | T. Rowe; Sequoia, Coatue | Multi-day iron-air grid storage |
| Lovable | $400M | Series C @ $13.3B | Menlo Ventures | Vibe-coding / app generation |
| CodeRabbit | $143M | Series C @ $1.5B | Atomico/Smash; CRV, Scale | Agentic change management |
| Skan AI | $63M | Series C | Cathay + Dell Tech Capital | Context graph of work |
| Blacksmith | $45M | Series B @ $550M | Peak XV; YC, GV | AI-era CI compute |
Theme 1 — Power for the AI buildout
Form Energy is not a four-hour Megapack clone. It sells ~100-hour iron-air for utilities and large buyers (Xcel, Google, Crusoe among disclosed projects). Sequoia joining a T. Rowe-led Series G with Coatue returning is manufacturing + offtake capital.
Pair with earlier August coverage of Base Power: residential VPP vs multi-day utility storage — same grid-flexibility boom, different duration.
Same August 12 tape, different factory: Heaviside raised $60M at $600M (Felicis) and named Nammo as warhead supplier. That is three months after a $28M stealth A. Revenue was not disclosed. Menlo and Cantos returned. Google still ranks the May launch.
Theme 2 — The AI software factory splits into layers
Lovable generates ($500M ARR claim, $13.3B print, Menlo lead again).
Blacksmith validates (CI cores + autofix as PR volume spikes).
CodeRabbit judges (triage, explainability, post-merge security at $1.5B).
One tape, three jobs: create → validate → govern.
Theme 3 — Enterprise AI needs owned workflows and observed work
Thrive Holdings buys accounting/IT firms and installs OpenAI-aligned agents — PE distribution, not another seat of SaaS.
Skan AI maps how work actually runs before agents automate it; Citi and State Farm invested after buying.
How to use these pages
| Audience | Start here |
|---|---|
| Founders (devtools) | Lovable vs CodeRabbit vs Blacksmith — pick your layer |
| Founders (climate) | Form Energy — offtake + factory before chemistry poetry |
| Investors / scouts | Follow /fund/menlo-ventures, /fund/sequoia, /fund/thrive-capital |
| Operators | Skan for process truth; Thrive Holdings for AI-inside services preview |
Browse more funds in the directory.
Sources
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Editorial note: AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.
