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Coverbase raises $20M Series A led by Canapi Ventures. Coverbase reduces procurement workloads by 90%, freeing businesses to reduce third-party risks and accelerate the adoption of new technologies. Coverbase, the industry's only security-first third-party AI procurement and risk platform, today announced the successful close of a Series A financing round led by Canapi Ventures, following a prior $3.5 million seed round, bringing the company's total funding to $20 million. This investment will fuel Coverbase's expansion into new verticals and scale its risk-aware procurement platform beyond third-party risk management into the broader procurement lifecycle, including vendor sourcing, intake, contract management, and purchase order creation. The round includes participation from both existing and new investors, including Fika Ventures, TTV Capital, Pear VC, Valley Bank, and Founders You Should Know, underscoring strong conviction in Coverbase's vision and accelerating momentum. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, the share of breaches involving third parties doubled from 2024 to 2025 to 30%, making it one of the prevalent and costliest threats to businesses today. This growth is directly tied to outdated procurement practices, where highly regulated organizations rely on lengthy questionnaires and box-checking instead of real-time risk evaluation, creating blind spots that adversaries routinely exploit. "Traditional procurement isn't just broken, it's actively hindering progress. Risk and compliance teams spend countless hours chasing paperwork instead of identifying and mitigating real threats, which slows innovation adoption while leaving critical risks that are being exploited regularly," said Clarence Chio, CEO and Co-founder of Coverbase. "With AI and agent-based automation, Coverbase is eliminating repetitive, low-value tasks, freeing businesses to focus on reducing risk and accelerating deployment of new technology innovations. We're excited to partner with Canapi Ventures and tap into their expertise as we evolve our platform into a complete procurement orchestration system." Prior to Coverbase, Chio was the Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Unit21, which raised over $90M from Google and Tiger Global to fight financial crime. In this role, he experienced firsthand how slow, manual procurement processes limited technology adoption and increased risk. Chio is joined by Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Kao Zi Chong Kao, who previously led risk engineering at Stripe. Since launching in 2024, Coverbase has turned the procurement bottleneck into a streamlined process where risk, security, and compliance are embedded into decisions from the start. Today, more than 40 customers, including Nationwide Insurance, Navy Federal Credit Union, Coinbase, Okta, Bill, Coastal Community Bank, Live Oak Bank, and ServiceTitan, are experiencing a 90-92% reduction in time spent on procurement tasks. This translates to $180 million in procurement person-hours saved across all customers and a dramatically accelerated path to new technology deployments. "Coverbase has been instrumental in transforming how we manage third-party risk," said Christelle Chau, VP of Security GRC at Okta. "Their forward-thinking, AI-driven platform has streamlined and modernized our security oversight, allowing us to operate with greater efficiency and confidence." "Working with Coverbase has strengthened our third-party oversight, accelerating assessments and ensuring the highest level of protection for our members through AI-driven automation," said Michelle Drake, AVP, Information Security Third Party Risk at Navy Federal Credit Union, the world's largest credit union and an early adopter of Coverbase. "Coverbase is eliminating the inefficiencies in the procurement process at scale with an AI-powered platform that turns vendor onboarding into a competitive advantage. In just over one year, the team has delivered measurable ROI by helping some of the world's most security-conscious organizations cut procurement timelines while reducing third-party risk," said Walker Forehand, Co-founder & General Partner at Canapi Ventures. We're proud to back Coverbase and help it further evolve its offerings and reshape how global enterprises adopt innovation securely and efficiently." Looking ahead, Coverbase will expand beyond highly regulated, security-conscious sectors such as financial services, banks, credit unions, insurance companies, and enterprise technology providers, and into healthcare and pharmaceuticals. It will also add new capabilities that extend beyond its focus on third-party risk assessments to include upstream procurement processes. These include vendor sourcing, spend analysis, contract intelligence, and invoicing. By delivering an end-to-end procurement platform, Coverbase will not only streamline vendor payment workflows, it will also ensure enterprises bring in the right capabilities while minimizing risk exposure. About Coverbase Founded in 2024, Coverbase delivers the industry's only AI-native procurement platform that empowers Fortune 500s, banks, and security-first organizations to embed risk management into every supplier decision. By transforming procurement from an operational burden into a strategic advantage, Coverbase customers are achieving a 90-92% reduction in procurement workloads - saving an estimated $180 million in man-hours - and dramatically accelerating the adoption of new technologies. For more information, please visit www.coverbase.com About Canapi Ventures Canapi is a B2B software and financial technology venture and growth equity platform investing in early to growth-stage companies offering disruptive alternatives to outdated business models and technologies. Backed by the Canapi Alliance - a network of over 70 of the leading financial institutions across the United States - Canapi's partners have decades of hands-on experience in financial services. Canapi brings unmatched sector experience and best-in-class knowledge, connections, and credibility to founders. To learn more about Canapi, visit www.canapi.com.

The Weekly Notable Startup Funding Report: 10/27/25. The Weekly Notable Startup Funding Report takes us on a trip across various ecosystems in the US, highlighting some of the notable funding activity in the various markets that we track. The notable startup funding rounds for the week ending 10/25/25 featuring funding details for Wolf Games, Findem, Anrok, and sixteen other deals representing $1.63B in new funding that you need to know about. Bluwhale - $10.0M. Santa Clara-based Bluwhale is a platform for decentralized knowledge data that enables Dapps to add intelligence via API calls. Founded by Adam Rowell and Han Jin in 2022, Bluwhale has now raised a total of $119.1M in total equity funding and is backed by Arbitrum, Cardano, CMY Ventures, DataSpike, High Cosmos, Movement Labs, New Heritage Capital, PAID, SBI Group, Sublime Ventures, Sui Foundation, Tezos, and UOB Venture. knownwell - $26.1M. Needham-based Knownwell is a plug-and-play platform designed to consolidate data from various sources. Founded by Angela Fitch and Brooke Pratt in 2022, knownwell has now raised a total of $50.6M in total equity funding and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, CVS Health Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Geoff Price, Intermountain Ventures, and MassMutual Catalyst Fund. Sesame - $250.0M. San Francisco-based Sesame is a voice tech startup focused on developing AI voice assistants that create natural and emotionally resonant conversations. Founded by Ankit Kumar and Brendan Iribe in 2022, Sesame has now raised a total of $307.6M in total equity funding and is backed by Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital. LangChain - $125.0M. San Francisco-based LangChain is a platform that provides open-source frameworks and tools for engineering and deploying language model agents. Founded by Ankush Gola and Harrison Chase in 2022, LangChain has now raised a total of $160.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Amplify Partners, Benchmark, CapitalG, Cisco Investments, Databricks Ventures, Datadog, Frontline Ventures, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, ServiceNow Ventures, and Workday Ventures. Connect with NYC's most influential tech leaders & decision-makers. The AlleyWatch network reaches the exact audience you need to connect with - NYC's most innovative startups, tech companies, and business leaders who are reshaping industries globally. Our engaged audience includes: * C-suite executives and key decision-makers * Founders and entrepreneurs * Venture capitalists and investors * Technology and innovation leaders ShopMy - $70.0M. New York-based ShopMy connects brands and creators for seamless partnership and monetization. Founded by Christopher Tinsley, Harry Rein, and Tiffany Lopinsky in 2020, ShopMy has now raised a total of $175.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Aimee song, Alex Mondre, Avenir, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Gregg Renfrew, Jacopo Moschin, Menlo Ventures, Raissa Gerona, and Sofia Richie. Coverbase - $20.0M. San Francisco-based Coverbase is an AI-native procurement platform that automates vendor intake, risk, and contracts to streamline purchasing securely. Founded by Clarence Chio, Gus Cuddy, and Zi Chong Kao in 2024, Coverbase has now raised a total of $20.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Canapi Ventures, Fika Ventures, Lockstep, Pear VC, and TTV Capital. OpenEvidence - $200.0M. Cambridge-based OpenEvidence provides AI-powered medical search and clinical decision support. Founded by Daniel Nadler and Zachary Ziegler in 2021, OpenEvidence has now raised a total of $517.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Blackstone Group, Bond, Coatue, Craft, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and Thrive Capital. Wolf Games - $9.0M. Los Angeles-based Wolf Games is a game development studio that focuses on creating AI-driven cinematic games and interactive storytelling experiences. Founded by Elliot Wolf and Noah Rosenberg in 2022, Wolf Games has now raised a total of $13.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Dick Wolf, Jimmy Iovine, Main Street Advisors, Maverick Carter, Paul Wachter, Rashid Johnson, and Tom Werner. Findem - $36.0M. Redwood City-based Findem is a talent-acquisition technology firm that offers an AI-driven platform to for companies to identify and engage with candidates. Founded by Hariharan Kolam and Raghu Venkat in 2019, Findem has now raised a total of $90M in total equity funding and is backed by Four Rivers Group, Harmony Capital, SLW, and Wing Venture Capital. You are seconds away from signing up for the hottest list in NYC Tech! Cala Health - $50.0M. San Mateo-based Cala Health is a bioelectronic medicine company that develops wearable neuromodulation devices for the treatment of chronic diseases. Founded by Kate Rosenbluth and Scott Delp in 2014, Cala Health has now raised a total of $248.3M in total equity funding and is backed by Niterra Ventures. Uniphore - $260.0M. Palo Alto-based Uniphore is a business-software company that provides a secure AI platform that deploys agentic AI across every enterprise function. Founded by Ravi Saraogi and Umesh Sachdev in 2008, Uniphore has now raised a total of $866.8M in total equity funding and is backed by AMD, BNF Capital, Databricks Ventures, March Capital, National Grid Partners (NGP), New Enterprise Associates, NVIDIA, Prosperity7 Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures. AdsGency AI - $12.0M. San Francisco-based AdsGency AI is a provider of an agent-based advertisement system for retail brands. Founded by Bolbi Liu in 2023, AdsGency AI has now raised a total of $15.3M in total equity funding and is backed by Amity Ventures, Hat Trick Ventures, HF0 Residency, Index Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, and XYZ Venture Capital. Arbor Energy - $55.0M. Los Angeles-based Arbor Energy is a clean power company that creates compact systems to generate clean, dependable electricity with zero emissions. Founded by Brad Hartwig in 2022, Arbor Energy has now raised a total of $61.5M in total equity funding and is backed by Cantos, Gigascale Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Marathon Petroleum, and Voyager Ventures. Redwood Materials - $350.0M. Carson City-based Redwood Materials is a battery recycling startup that makes electric vehicles and sustainable materials for circular supply chains. Founded by JB Straubel in 2017, Redwood Materials has now raised a total of $2.2B in total equity funding and is backed by Eclipse Ventures and NVentures. The AlleyWatch audience is driving progress and innovation on a global scale. There are a number of options to reach this audience of the world's most innovative organizations and startups at scale including strategic brand placement, lead generation, and thought leadership in front of an audience that comprises the vast majority of key decision-makers in the NYC business community and beyond. Learn more about advertising to NYC Tech, at scale. Starbridge - $42.0M. New York-based Starbridge provides a go-to-market intelligence platform designed for companies that sell to government and educational institutions. Founded by Justin Wenig in 2023, Starbridge has now raised a total of $52.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Autotech Ventures, Commonweal Ventures, Craft Ventures, and Owl Ventures. Anrok - $55.0M. San Francisco-based Anrok is a global sales tax solution platform that automates sales tax compliance for modern commerce. Founded by Kannan Goundan in 2020, Anrok has now raised a total of $109.3M in total equity funding and is backed by Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital. CurbWaste - $28.0M. New York-based CurbWaste is an operating system designed for independent waste haulers, providing real-time fleet management and project management tools. Founded by Michael Marmo in 2018, CurbWaste has now raised a total of $49.2M in total equity funding and is backed by B Capital, Flourish Ventures, Socium Ventures, Squarepoint Capital, and TTV Capital. Carbon Robotics - $20.0M. Seattle-based Carbon Robotics is an AI-powered farming robotics company enhancing efficiency with precision agriculture tools. Founded by Paul Mikesell in 2018, Carbon Robotics has now raised a total of $163.9M in total equity funding and is backed by Giant Ventures. Catalyst OrthoScience - $15.0M. Naples-based Catalyst OrthoScience is an early-stage medical device company. Founded by Steven Goldberg in 2014, Catalyst OrthoScience has now raised a total of $86.6M in total equity funding and is backed by Derace Schaffer, Mutual Capital Partners, RC Capital, and Western Alliance Bank.