Top 5 VC Deals of the Week in AI (12/19/25)

By Christopher Robbins · Dec 18, 2025 Views: 4

Our Top 5 VC Deals of the Week in AI featured funding announcements from Databricks, Harness, Chai Discovery, PolyAI and Adaptive Security

This week we continue our series on the top 5 VC-funded deals in AI.

This week's venture capital funding decelerated towards the end of the year, but nevertheless remained brisk, with three transactions in excess of the $100 million threshold.

The top reported deal, per FinSMEs, came from San Francisco-based Databricks, a data management and engineering company (dovetailing well with our discussions on trust in AI and AI TRiSM), which raised $4 billion in a Series L at a $134 billion valuation. Databricks will use the funds to "advance product development across three strategic products," according to its announcement: Lakebase, Databricks Apps and Agent Bricks. Our second announcement is from San Francisco-based Harness, which raised $240 million in a Series E to "accelerate platform innovation, expand its global footprint, and its development efforts," according to its announcement. Harness is an AI developer ops (DevOps) platform. The top five also included companies in the biochemistry, conversational AI and cybersecurity/fraud prevention spaces.

Smaller funding raises that did not quite make our top 5 this week included announcements from the media intelligence, IT management and asset management sectors.

Below, we highlight the top five venture capital deals, ranked from the highest to the lowest funding amounts, showcasing the companies at the forefront of the AI revolution...

Top 5 Venture Capital Deals from Dec. 11 - Dec. 17

1. Databricks

Location: San Francisco, CA
Description: Databricks is a leading Data and AI company offering a unified analytics platform for data engineering, machine learning, and collaborative data science.
Funding Amount: Over $4 billion
Funding Round: Series L

2. Harness

Location: San Francisco, CA
Description: Harness provides an AI-powered software delivery platform that automates the entire DevOps lifecycle, improving productivity and software quality.
Funding Amount: $240 million
Funding Round: Series E

3. Chai Discovery

Location: San Francisco, CA
Description: Chai Discovery is an AI-driven biotech company that predicts and reprograms interactions between biochemical molecules to advance therapeutic discovery.
Funding Amount: $130 million
Funding Round: Series B (Valued at $1.3 billion)

4. PolyAI

Location: New York City, NY
Description: PolyAI develops enterprise-grade conversational AI solutions designed to power voice assistants in customer support and service roles.
Funding Amount: $86 million
Funding Round: Series D

5. Adaptive Security

Location: New York City, NY
Description: Adaptive Security builds AI-powered platforms to prevent social engineering attacks and secure enterprise communications.
Funding Amount: $81 million
Funding Round: Series B

Make sure to check out our Top 5 VC Deals of the Week in AI right here!

Written & Researched by DWN Staff

VC Deals Synopsized by ChatGPT Research Source: FinSMEs