Arena, an AI evaluation startup, raised $200 million in a Series B round, reaching a valuation of $3.1 billion. The round was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and others. The company has now raised approximately $450 million in total funding since its inception as a research project at UC Berkeley in 2023.
The company reports its annualized revenue has grown to over $100 million, up from approximately $30 million in January 2026. Arena provides commercial evaluation services for AI models, focusing on verifying agent performance and reliability for enterprise customers. This service addresses the challenge of trusting AI models as they take on more autonomous tasks in business environments.
Scanntech, a retail intelligence firm based in Uruguay with operations in Latin America, secured a $180 million growth investment led by L Catterton, Partners Group, and Bradesco. Approximately half of this transaction involves secondary share purchases from existing investors, including Warburg Pincus, leaving an estimated $90 million in new capital for the company.
Scanntech processes data from supermarket point-of-sale systems, covering over BRL 1 trillion in annual retail sales. The company maintains an annual growth rate of approximately 30% and operates profitably. The investment is reportedly priced at about 5.5 times annual revenue, with new investors expected to control nearly 30% of the business following the deal.
In Japan, THE PHAGE raised ¥570 million through a mix of equity and debt to expand its AI-driven preventive healthcare services. Additionally, Ocean closed the second part of its Series A round with strategic investors from Yamato Holdings and Shizuoka Financial Group to support software updates for Japan's upcoming tax-free shopping refund system.
