# November 1 to 8, 2026: Fal and Zipline Raise Billions as an AI Stock Sell-Off Tests Funding Momentum > A complete recap of startup and tech news from November 1 to 8, 2026, covering Fal, Zipline, the Nasdaq correction, Wonder's IPO filing and India and Europe funding. - **Author:** Prashant Jagtap - **Published:** 2026-11-08 - **Updated:** 2026-11-08 - **Category:** Funding - **Editorial type:** news - **Topics:** startup-funding, funding-roundup - **Canonical URL:** https://www.todaysstartupnews.com/news/november-1-8-2026-startup-funding-news-recap ## The first week of November 2026 showed a widening gap between private and public technology markets. Generative media platform Fal raised 1.3 billion dollars at a 16 billion dollar valuation, and drone delivery company Zipline raised 1.5 billion dollars at 21.5 billion dollars, while on Thursday the Nasdaq fell into correction territory as AI and chip stocks sold off sharply. India's startup funding more than doubled from the previous week, led by a roughly 100 million dollar round for jewellery brand GIVA, and Europe logged another strong week of funding. Here is a complete recap of the major startup and technology stories from November 1 to November 8, 2026. ## Private Rounds Stay Large as Public AI Stocks Fall ### The Nasdaq Enters Correction on November 5 US technology stocks suffered their worst day since the April 2025 tariff sell-off on Thursday, November 5. The Nasdaq Composite fell about 5.2 to 5.5 percent and closed in correction territory, more than 10 percent below its record close from early October. Nvidia fell about 9 percent, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped more than 12 percent, and the Dow lost about 1,800 points. Market commentary tied the move to investor concern that the results of the US midterm elections could slow the build-out of AI data centers, along with weaker guidance from some chip-sector companies and wider worry over AI spending. Estimates of lost market value ranged from about 2.5 trillion to 3 trillion dollars, depending on the measure. The sell-off came one day after stocks rallied on election results, and analysts pointed to Nvidia's earnings on November 17 as the next major test. ### Wonder Confidentially Files for a US IPO Marc Lore's food delivery and food technology company Wonder said on November 5 that it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO of Class A shares. The New York company has raised more than 3 billion dollars from investors, including a 650 million dollar Series D in July at a 9 billion dollar pre-money valuation backed by Accel, GV and ARK Invest, and has spent at least 1 billion dollars on acquisitions that include Grubhub and Blue Apron. It has not set a share count or price range, and the filing arrives as market volatility makes the IPO window less certain. Wonder also plans to launch a creator platform called Wonder Create on November 17. ## The Week's Largest Funding Rounds ### Fal Raises $1.3 Billion at a $16 Billion Valuation San Francisco based Fal, which hosts and runs AI image, video and audio models for developers and studios, announced a 1.3 billion dollar Series F on November 3 led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Nvidia, Sound Ventures, HOF Capital and T. Rowe Price participating. Bloomberg reported that the valuation of 16 billion dollars is double the 8 billion dollars set in April, when Sequoia Capital led a roughly 350 million dollar Series E, which Fal disclosed for the first time alongside the new round. Together the two rounds bring in about 1.65 billion dollars, and Bessemer partner Talia Goldberg is joining the board. Annualized revenue was reported above 800 million dollars earlier this year, and Fal said demand had grown fast enough over the summer that it had to cap customer usage. The new money will fund compute expansion and a team of about 185. ### Zipline Raises $1.5 Billion at a $21.5 Billion Valuation as Walmart Adds 300 Sites Zipline announced on November 5 that it had raised 1.5 billion dollars at a 21.5 billion dollar post-money valuation, led by Paradigm, WCM Investment Management and Layer Global, with Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, Uber, Tiger Global, J.P. Morgan, ARK Invest and Salesforce Ventures also taking part. The valuation is nearly three times the roughly 7.6 billion dollars reported in January. Alongside the round, Zipline signed a multi-year agreement under which Walmart will add up to 300 drone delivery sites, up from about 21 in operation today. The company said it will use the capital for US manufacturing, hiring and a nationwide delivery network, and it did not disclose the security issued or other terms. ### Harbinger, Ocient, Kalepa and Humble Robotics Add Strong Growth Rounds Industrial electrification company Harbinger raised a 240 million dollar Series D, taking its total funding since 2021 to more than 650 million dollars. Chicago analytics company Ocient raised a 100 million dollar Series C co-led by Boka Capital and OCA Ventures, bringing its total funding to 260 million dollars. New York insurance AI startup Kalepa raised a 75 million dollar Series B led by Updata Partners at a 470 million dollar valuation, and San Francisco autonomous freight company Humble Robotics raised 51 million dollars in a Series A led by Obvious Ventures for cabless electric trucks, taking its total to 75 million dollars. ### Traversal, Lazarus AI and Corridian Extend an Active Seed-to-Series B Stretch Traversal, which builds autonomous AI engineers that diagnose and fix software outages, raised 120 million dollars at a 1 billion dollar valuation. Boston based Lazarus AI raised 43 million dollars for legacy software modernization, and Corridian raised a 38 million dollar seed round from Point72 Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures and DCVC to build autonomous underwater systems. Guava raised 12.5 million dollars and robotics startup Syncere raised an 11 million dollar pre-seed round backed by Andreessen Horowitz SPEEDRUN. ### Thinking Machines Reportedly in Talks for a $5 Billion Round Tech Funding News reported on November 6 that Accel is set to lead a 5 billion dollar round for Thinking Machines Lab at a 40 billion dollar valuation. The figures come from a report and had not been confirmed by the company at the time of writing. ## Crypto Security Follow-Up ### Binance Hackers Moved a Large Share in One Transaction Blockchain security firm Blockaid said the Binance attackers stole about 2.5 billion dollars, roughly 40 percent of the reported 6.3 billion dollar haul, in a single Ethereum transaction that used wallet permissions and cost about 15 dollars in network fees. The incident, covered in last week's recap, remains the largest crypto theft on record. ## Europe Posts a Strong Week of Deals and Consolidation ### Tech.eu Tracks Over EUR 2.7 Billion Across 55 Deals Tech.eu's Friday recap counted more than 55 tech funding deals worth over 2.7 billion euros during the week, up from 1.3 billion euros the week before, plus more than 5 exits and acquisitions. The headlines included Fal's valuation jump, Station F's 2026 Future 40 list, and Revolut confirming a valuation of 115 billion dollars. In digital identity, Fourthline and Veridas announced they would combine to take on the global market. ### VÆRIDION, Green Voltis and Kabilio Lead the Mid-Sized Rounds Munich based VÆRIDION raised 30 million euros in a Series A2 led by SHIFT Invest and Invest-NL to build a nine-seat electric aircraft for regional routes of about 400 kilometers, the same week the European Commission selected its CAROLUS project for a 94.5 million euro Innovation Fund grant, and the company reports commitments for more than 130 aircraft. Stockholm based Green Voltis raised a 13.5 million euro Series A from Lochpine Capital for an AI system that trades and controls battery storage, Spanish AI accounting platform Kabilio raised 10 million euros led by Picus Capital, and Claimlane raised 5.6 million euros in a Series A. Denmark's EIFO also joined TEKEVER's 580 million dollar Series D as the defense company expanded into Odense. ### Monzo Reportedly Eyes a GBP 7.5 Billion Valuation Tech Funding News reported that Monzo is looking at a valuation of about 7.5 billion pounds after talks with Nubank and private equity firms collapsed, a report that remained unconfirmed by the company. ## India's Funding More Than Doubles, Led by GIVA and EloElo ### Weekly Funding Rebounds Sharply Entrackr counted 258.1 million dollars raised by 28 Indian startups between November 2 and 7, more than double the 115 million dollars of the previous week, with three growth-stage deals accounting for 190.5 million dollars and 17 early-stage deals for 67.6 million dollars. Inc42 counted 255 million dollars across 20 startups between November 2 and 6, and the difference reflects methodology and cut-off dates. ### GIVA Raises INR 975 Crore Led by Multiples Bengaluru jewellery brand GIVA raised about 975 crore rupees, roughly 103 million dollars, in a round led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management with existing investors Epiq Capital and Edelweiss Discovery Fund participating. The round combines primary capital, secondary sales by early investors including India Quotient and Sixth Sense Ventures, and its seventh employee stock buyback, and Multiples will take a board seat. GIVA reported revenue of 865 crore rupees in FY26, up from 505 crore rupees in FY25, and plans to add 160 stores in FY27 and cross 1,000 outlets over the next three to five years. The valuation was not disclosed. ### EloElo Group Raises $80 Million in a Series C Bengaluru consumer AI and entertainment company EloElo Group raised 80 million dollars in a Series C led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal, with MIT Investment Company and existing investors Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners participating. Some coverage reported a valuation of about 500 million dollars, which the company has not confirmed, and the company plans to take its microdrama platform global. ### Clinics On Cloud, Peppermint Robotics, altM and a Wide Base of Early-Stage Rounds Healthtech company Clinics On Cloud raised 120 crore rupees in a Series A led by Model42, and Peppermint Robotics raised 100 crore rupees in a pre-Series B led by pi Ventures and Crane Venture Partners. Specialty chemicals startup altM raised 10.3 million dollars led by Rainmatter and Mela Ventures, clean energy company Two Point O Capital raised 10 million dollars led by Transition VC, and manufacturing startup CapGrid raised 50 crore rupees from Hero Enterprise Partner Ventures. Cosmoserve Space raised a 6 million dollar seed round, and defense technology company Axial Aero, robot developer Ottonomy and biotech startup Venomics AI, which raised 2.7 million dollars, also announced rounds. ### Affle to Buy Perion and UPI Sets a Record Ad technology company Affle agreed to acquire Israeli firm Perion for more than 420 million dollars, and India's UPI payment network processed a record 25.47 billion transactions in October. Elsewhere in the market, Angel One overtook Zerodha to become India's second-largest broker by active clients while Groww added more than 3 lakh clients in October. ## What the First Week of November Signals Two stories pulled in different directions. Private investors kept backing infrastructure and operations-heavy businesses at ever higher prices, with Fal doubling its valuation in seven months and Zipline nearly tripling its own in ten. At the same time, public markets sent a sharp warning about the AI build-out, and the Wonder filing and the large IPO pipeline now have to face a more cautious listing window. Whether the sell-off reaches private valuations is the open question for the weeks ahead, with Nvidia's November 17 earnings and any further moves on data center policy likely to shape sentiment. India's rebound shows that domestic consumer and deeptech rounds remain active, while Europe continues to produce a steady flow of mid-sized deals alongside its occasional mega-rounds.