Date: 2026-05-11

Brief: AI, fintech and Web3 companies that raised <$10M in the last 3–6 months across US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, plus active PR / marketing roles.

Note: Run 6 focuses on fresh deals from the May 5–11 window plus late-April deals not surfaced in Run 5. New regional coverage: a Hong Kong + Asia-axis Web3 raise (Stockcoin.ai, May 6) finally clears the sub-$10M HK gap from earlier runs. Singapore is thin this week — no verifiable sub-$10M fresh raises beyond Run 5's Muun + OnSite. Recommend a Tracxn / DealStreetAsia pull next run for Singapore.

1. Recently funded companies (sub-$10M, Dec 2025 – May 2026)

Company Sector Round / Amount Date Location What they do Key investors
Astrada Fintech AI / data infra Seed — $3.8M May 5, 2026 New York, US Data layer for autonomous finance — unified API for real-time card transaction data across all networks Bain Capital Ventures, QED Investors, Nyca Partners (co-leads), Mastercard, Visa
Altara AI / physical sciences Seed — $7M May 5, 2026 San Francisco, US Scientific intelligence platform — agentic AI that turns fragmented R&D data into actionable insights for semiconductors, batteries, advanced materials Greylock (lead), Neo, BoxGroup, Liquid 2 Ventures, Jeff Dean + OpenAI / AMD angels
Round (Round Treasury) Fintech AI Seed — $6M Apr 13, 2026 London, UK AI-powered finance automation for treasury, AP, payments, FX and payroll — serves Cleo, PostHog Alstin Capital (lead), Backed VC, Love Ventures, Passion Capital, Paul Forster (Indeed co-founder), Monzo / Tide / GoCardless angels
Checkstep AI Trust & Safety Seed extension — £3M (~$3.8M) Apr 29, 2026 London, UK AI-powered content moderation + regulatory compliance — automates 98%+ of moderation decisions; serves Trustpilot, JustGiving, Daily Mail Alea Capital Partners (lead), Slow Ventures, LookAI
Manifest AI / ad agency ops Pre-seed — A$2M (~$1.3M) Apr 29, 2026 Sydney, AU / Auckland, NZ AI operational intelligence platform for ad agencies — auto-captures time, effort, workflows across teams + AI tools Brand Fund by Previously Unavailable (lead), Antler, Icehouse Ventures, Techstars, Huljich & Bhatnagar Family Offices
Stockcoin.ai Web3 / AI trading Seed — undisclosed May 6, 2026 Hong Kong (Asia-axis) AI-native trading OS piping on-chain signals into stocks + crypto futures; adding HK IPO + US Pre-IPO subscription access Amber Group (lead), crypto + TradFi angels
First Voyage Consumer AI Seed — $2.5M Dec 15, 2025 San Francisco, US Momo Self-Care — AI companion app that helps users build habits via a gamified digital pet a16z speedrun, SignalFire, True Global

Coverage notes:

2. Founders + growth/marketing leads + LinkedIn

Company Founder / CEO Founder LinkedIn Marketing / Growth lead Notes
Astrada Salman Syed (Founder + CEO, ex-CEO Fidel API, ex-Marqeta North America lead through IPO) https://www.linkedin.com/in/salmanhsyed/ Founder-led GTM today; no public head-of-marketing Company: linkedin.com/company/goastrada
Altara Eva Tuecke (Co-founder + CEO, ex-Fermilab particle physics, ex-SpaceX Starlink); Catherine Yeo (Co-founder, ex-Warp / IBM Research / Harvard / MIT) Catherine Yeo: search "Catherine Yeo Altara" on LinkedIn (recent founding post linked under Run 6 sources) Founder-led; technical-heavy team Greylock-backed; very high media interest right now
Round (Round Treasury) Pac O'Shea (Co-founder + CEO); Hayyaan Ahmad (Co-founder, product + tech) Pac O'Shea: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pac-o-shea/
Hayyaan Ahmad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayyaan/ Founder-led; hiring growth / marketing now post-seed Entrepreneur First alumnus; UK fintech adjacency to Monzo / Tide / GoCardless
Checkstep Guillaume Bouchard (Co-founder + CEO, ex-Bloomsbury AI (acquired by Facebook 2018), ex-Meta AI Integrity) https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-bouchard-2494882/ Founder-led; serves trust & safety leaders at Trustpilot, JustGiving, Daily Mail, MoneySavingExpert EU DSA compliance is a major narrative wedge
Manifest Freddie McKenzie (Co-founder + CEO); Henry Collinson (Co-founder + CPO); Tom Reid (CTO, ex-Microsoft AI) Henry Collinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-collinson-shutterspeed/
Freddie McKenzie: search "Freddie McKenzie Manifest" on LinkedIn Founder-led; rolling out across Sydney / Melbourne / Auckland agencies Trans-Tasman team; ad agency vertical AI play
Stockcoin.ai Founders not yet publicly indexed in English-language press Company on X: @stockcoinai; LinkedIn presence still emerging Founder-led; Amber Group portfolio support Operating between HK + Asia broadly
First Voyage Founders covered in TechCrunch piece (Dec 2025) Search "First Voyage Momo" on LinkedIn for current team Founder-led; consumer growth-focused a16z speedrun + SignalFire = strong founder credibility

3. Recent media coverage (anchor links)

Company Coverage
Astrada BusinessWire: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260505235880/en/Astrada-Raises-Seed-Round-to-Build-the-Data-Layer-for-Autonomous-Finance ; PYMNTS: https://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2026/astrada-raises-3-8-million-to-expand-autonomous-finance-offering/ ; Fintech Global: https://fintech.global/2026/05/05/astrada-raises-3-8m-seed-for-autonomous-finance/
Altara TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/05/altara-secures-7m-to-bridge-the-data-gap-thats-slowing-down-physical-sciences/ ; Greylock: https://greylock.com/portfolio-news/introducing-altara-ai-for-the-physical-sciences/ ; AIwire: https://www.hpcwire.com/aiwire/2026/05/05/altara-raises-7m-to-accelerate-scientific-and-industrial-breakthroughs-with-agentic-ai/
Round TechFundingNews: https://techfundingnews.com/round-6m-seed-finance-automation/ ; Fintech Global: https://fintech.global/2026/04/13/round-raises-6m-seed-to-automate-finance-teams-with-ai/ ; EU-Startups: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/04/londons-round-treasury-raises-e5-1-million-to-build-ai-powered-finance-automation-platform-for-modern-finance-teams/ ; Tech.eu: https://tech.eu/2026/04/13/round-raises-6m-to-scale-its-ai-powered-finance-automation-platform/
Checkstep Checkstep blog: https://www.checkstep.com/checkstep-raises-3-million-alea-capital ; StartupMag: https://www.startupmag.co.uk/funding/uk-startup-funding-report-08-05-2026/
Manifest Campaign Brief: https://campaignbrief.com/manifest-raises-2m-pre-seed-round-to-get-agencies-battle-ready-for-the-ai-era/ ; SmartCompany: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/manifest-raises-2-million-help-ad-agencies-eliminate-timesheets/ ; B&T: https://www.bandt.com.au/ai-based-agency-operations-platform-startup-manifest-raises-2m/ ; Marketing-Interactive: https://www.marketing-interactive.com/manifest-launches-with-2m-backing-to-help-agencies-navigate-ai-s-operational-reset
Stockcoin.ai Crypto.news: https://crypto.news/stockcoin-ai-raises-seed-round-from-amber-group-to-fuse-ai-stocks-and-crypto/ ; MEXC News: https://www.mexc.com/news/1074418
First Voyage TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/15/first-voyage-raises-2-5m-for-its-ai-companion-helps-you-build-habits/

4. Personalized organic-PR outreach (drafts)

Each message is short, anchored to the founder's actual raise + narrative gap, and ends with a soft CTA pointing to shilikajain.com.

Astrada — Salman Syed