Red Sea
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BRKZ raises $31M—$13M equity led by Wa’ed Ventures and 500 Global plus $18M debt from Stride—to scale AI procurement
BRKZ, a procurement platform for construction materials in Saudi Arabia, raised $31 million—$13M equity and $18M growth debt—from Wa’ed Ventures (Aramco), 500 Global, BECO Capital, Anb Seed Fund and Stride Ventures to scale after pricing $1.37B of quote requests and selling $133M of materials since 2022.
FruitScout raises $4M to commercialize AI smartphone app for crop-yield optimization; Bowery Capital, TFX back expansion
Yakima startup FruitScout raised $4 million to build an AI-powered app that uses smartphone images to measure tree trunk size, analyze buds/fruit, and predict optimal crop yields and pruning needs; investors include Bowery Capital and TFX Capital. FruitScout began focused on Washington apple growers and is expanding to agave in Mexico after earlier raising a $350,000 angel round.
Solo, founded by ex-Uber and Convoy vets, raises $5.5M seed to predict and guarantee gig workers' earnings
Seattle startup Solo, founded by ex-Uber and Convoy employees, raised a $5.5 million seed round to provide hour-by-hour earnings predictions and a guarantee to top up gig workers' pay if predictions fall short, with plans to expand into insurance, taxes, and mileage tracking.
