· Venture Capital Tracker · investment-strategies · 4 min read
August 25–26 VC News: Emerald AI $1.05B, Gatik $200M, Stability $76M
Aug 25–26, 2026: Emerald AI $150M at $1.05B, Gatik $200M Series D (no valuation), Stability AI $76M Series B (not the 2022 dump). Alice $140M, Gamma×Lica, MotherDuck×Tower, Unitree’s post-IPO slide, Ventures Platform $84M. Generalist $3B remains sources.
August 25–26, 2026 is the power-and-freight tape. Emerald AI printed $1.05B. Gatik added $200M with no valuation. Stability AI raised $76M — not the 2022 dump. For the month map, use August 2026 VC news. Last verified August 26, 2026.
Snapshot table
| Company / firm | Amount | Stage | Key capital | Job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emerald AI | $150M @ $1.05B | Series A | Energize + DCVC; NVIDIA; GC scout | Grid-flexible AI load |
| Gatik | $200M (no valuation) | Series D | QIA + Koch | Driverless middle-mile |
| Stability AI | $76M (no valuation) | Series B | EA, UMG, Sony, Warner; Coatue returning | Licensed creative tools |
| Alice (ex-ActiveFence) | $140M | Unlabeled (press: D) | Apax Digital; CRV, Norwest returning | AI trust & safety |
| Gamma → Lica | Undisclosed | Acquisition | Accel on both sides (TC exclusive) | Design research lab |
| MotherDuck → Tower | Undisclosed | Acquisition | First deal in four years (company) | Pipeline runtime |
| Ventures Platform | $84M | Fund II | Pan-African VC | Pre-seed / seed, now beyond Nigeria |
Amounts from company posts or named press. Generalist is not in this closed table.
Theme 1 — Power is the Series A unicorn
Emerald AI closed $150 million at $1.05 billion (Business Wire, Aug 25). Energize Capital and DCVC co-led. NVIDIA is on the list. The 100 GW line is a company estimate. Revenue was not disclosed. That is the same bottleneck Starcloud tried to leave the planet to solve on Aug 21, and Form Energy tried to store on Aug 12.
Theme 2 — $200 million does not mean Series A
Gatik printed $200 million Series D the same day Gravis printed $200 million Series A last week. Gatik: >$600 million contracted revenue (company backlog claim), 85,000 driverless orders. No valuation. QIA and Koch led.
Smaller verified items
Stability AI — $76 million Series B, Aug 25 (company). EA, UMG, Sony, Warner, AMD Ventures, Pacific Alliance Ventures. Coatue and Greycroft returning; Thomas Laffont to the board. Company total $232 million under Akkaraju (equity + notes). No valuation. Full memo: Stability $76M.
Alice (formerly ActiveFence) — $140 million, Apax Digital lead, Aug 25 (company). Total $280 million. Company: 8 of 10 top AI labs, >$3 billion people protected (company wording), approaching $100 million ARR, AI business >500% over two years. CRV and Norwest returning. Valuation is not in the company post. Globes: $800 million (sources). Ctech: $700–800 million. Do not freeze a mark.
Gamma × Lica — Gamma acquired Accel-backed Lica (TechCrunch exclusive, Aug 25). No price. Lica: $4 million in 2024 (Accel, South Park Commons, Village Global). Co-founders lead a new design research lab. Gamma last mark: $68 million / $2.1 billion (Nov 2025). Accel has no /fund/ page here.
MotherDuck × Tower — MotherDuck acquired Tower Computing (company). No price. First acquisition. Tower already powered Flights (sandboxing, scheduling, observability). a16z is on the directory cap table from the 2022 A.
Ventures Platform Fund II — $84 million, oversubscribed, Aug 26 (TechCrunch). Fund I was $46 million (2022). Checks up to $3 million. Already deployed to five companies in Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt. No /fund/ page here.
QuantumLight Fund II — €432 million, Aug 25 (VCWire). London firm co-founded by Revolut’s Nik Storonsky. Portfolio names in that write-up include Together AI and Function Health. No /fund/ page here.
Hypercubic — $5.3 million seed, CIV lead, Aug 19 (Finsmes). YC in. Mainframe-modernization / digital-twin lane. Missed by the Aug 19–20 morning pass. Roundup only.
Gamgee — $4 million seed, Founders Fund lead. YC Summer 2026; public launch Aug 17. AI-designed mRNA cancer vaccines for dogs. Dealroom / Finsmes-era coverage. Roundup only.
Liner — $36.1 million Series C, LB Investment lead, Aug 25. Same Korean house that extended Point2’s Series B on Aug 10. Seoul + SF AI search. Roundup only.
Unitree follow-up — Shares steadied Aug 25 after three down sessions, about 45% below the debut pop (Straits Times / Reuters). Yicai: Aug 24 close 603.08 yuan, -10.3%, cap about CNY 243.9 billion. The 845 yuan BBC close is day-one, not live. Updated memo: Unitree IPO.
W4 Games — $18 million Series B, Tencent lead, Aug 25. Godot commercialization. Roundup only.
Talks — do not paste as closed
- Generalist ~$200 million / $3 billion — TechCrunch (Aug 25), two people plus a regulatory filing for the dollars. Extension of June’s $400 million B at $2 billion (Radical). 8VC led the add-on, people said. Company and 8VC did not comment. Last company mark remains the June B. USV is an early name in that TC recap.
- Hugging Face ~$13B, Perplexity >$30B, General Intuition ~$6B — still talks (see Aug 21–25 tape).
- Temporal $12B and EliseAI $3.7B remain talks.
Do not add as this week’s news
- Stability $101 million / Coatue / Oct 2022 rows on aggregator sheets.
- OpenAI × NextSlide — disclosed Aug 8, closed earlier in 2026 (founder: “a few months late”). Context for Gamma, not Aug 25 tape.
- Higgsfield $400M / $5.4B reprints.
- Blackbird $1.05B — already on the Aug 21–25 roundup; not /startup/blackbird.
Where to go next
Diligence memos: Emerald AI $1.05B, Gatik $200M, Stability $76M. Prior tape: Aug 21–25. Directory: /directory.
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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.
