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Nina Castell

Startups and funding correspondent.

Nina Castell covers startups, funding rounds and acquisitions for Venturist. She writes from company announcements, filings and published reporting.

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Articles

  • Blacksmith

    Blacksmith raises $66M Series C led by Sequoia at $1B valuation

    The CI cloud will use the new capital to buy servers and grow its team from 40 to 75, as AI-generated code drives a surge in validation workloads. Revenue is up 17x and customers now top 10,000.

    By Nina Castell, Oct 22
    Photograph: Blacksmith (press image)
  • AI startup M&A

    Big Tech and enterprise software companies snap up AI startups in 2026

    Nvidia agreed to pay nearly $13 billion for Hugging Face, SpaceX closed a $60 billion deal for Cursor, and Chinese regulators forced Meta to unwind its Manus purchase.

    By Nina Castell, Oct 22
    Illustration: Venturist
  • LSEG-Octus acquisition

    LSEG to acquire Octus for $3.535 billion in cash

    Sellers include Permira-advised funds and Octus management, including founder Kent Collier. The deal aims to strengthen LSEG's reach in credit and private market data.

    By Nina Castell, Oct 22
    Illustration: Venturist