Podcast Summary: AI Hustle

Episode: AI Companies That Raised Over $100M+
Hosts: Jaeden Schafer & Jamie McCauley
Date: December 29, 2025

Main Theme

This episode gives a year-end roundup of the most influential U.S. artificial intelligence startups that raised over $100 million in 2025. Jaeden and Jamie dive into noteworthy funding rounds, discuss trends in the AI venture landscape, and offer firsthand insights based on their experience using some of these tools. The hosts focus on what these funding milestones reveal about industry growth and which sectors are seeing the fastest maturation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

State of AI Funding in 2025

• The number of AI companies surpassing $100 million in funding this year matches that of 2024, indicating sustained, rapid growth in the industry.
• More companies are closing larger funding rounds, suggesting increased investor enthusiasm and industry “maturity.”

Quote:
"The whole industry as a whole is progressing and growing and maturing, which is an interesting trend to watch happen."
— Jaeden [01:18]

Company Spotlights and What Stands Out

1. ElevenLabs

Funding: $180M Series C (Jan 2025)
Valuation: $3+ Billion
Investors: a16z, Sequoia, NEA, Salesforce Ventures
Focus: Generative AI for audio (text-to-speech and voice synthesis)

• Hosts highlight ElevenLabs as a foundational AI audio company with continued momentum and widespread adoption, even among the show's audience.
• Jamie expresses surprise that their valuation isn't even higher, given their prominence.

Quote:
"I feel like we've been talking about ElevenLabs for almost two years now... They're one of the main tools we use... I feel like it should be—they should be raising more money."
— Jamie [02:58]

2. Hippocratic AI

Funding:

• $141M Series B (Jan 9, 2025) at $1.6B valuation

• $126M Series C (late 2025) at $3.5B valuation
  Investors: a16z, Nvidia, General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins
  Focus: Safe, compliant generative AI agents for healthcare (HIPAA-compliant chatbots/agents)

• Noted as a standout in the highly regulated healthcare sector, which demands rigorous security and compliance.

• Jaeden highlights their branding as “the safest healthcare generative AI agents.”

• Massive dual fundraising rounds—almost $300 million in one year—signal both investor confidence and sector complexity.

Insight:
"Anytime that you’re in these… regulated industries like healthcare and finance, there is a lot of money to go around and they need a lot of very specific tools to make sure that everything is HIPAA compliant."
— Jaeden [04:03]

Memorable Moment:
"Spoiler alert. They also just raised a Series C. So they're double dipping… that puts them at, you know, almost $300 million this year alone that they've been able to raise. So well done to Hippocratic AI."
— Jaeden [05:07]

3. Together AI

Funding: $305M Series B (Feb 2025)
Valuation: $3.3 Billion
Investors: General Catalyst, Salesforce Ventures, Nvidia, Lux Capital
Focus: Open source generative AI models, model hosting, and development infrastructure

• Jamie admits not having heard much about them before this raise.
• Jaeden shares direct experience as a customer: Together provides APIs for open source models hosted on their GPUs, removing the hassle of managing custom infrastructure.
• Highlighted as critical infrastructure for developers wanting scalable, API-accessible open source AI.

Quote:
"What they have that's really cool is they have a whole bunch of open source models. They will put the open source models on their own GPUs… and I just have to pay a usage fee… I think Together AI is awesome. I mean $3.3 billion, this is a no brainer."
— Jaeden [06:30]

Industry Trend:

• Nvidia often invests in companies like this because they end up buying Nvidia’s chips to run large compute operations.

Memorable Moment:
"I'm using them as a major part of the infrastructure for my company, and you know, AI Box is, is doing great. I imagine there’s millions of other AI companies that are probably using them and, or probably hundreds of thousands at least."
— Jaeden [06:50]

Notable Quotes

• "The whole industry as a whole is progressing and growing and maturing, which is an interesting trend to watch happen."
  — Jaeden [01:18]

• "We've been talking about ElevenLabs for almost two years now ... I feel like it should be—they should be raising more money.”
  — Jamie [02:58]

• "It’s harder for just everyday companies to break into this. It feels like Hippocratic AI has done a phenomenal job. And yeah, no shock here that they’ve been able to raise this much money.”
  — Jaeden [04:03]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–01:18: Episode intro and state of AI funding in 2025
• 01:18–02:58: 11 Labs’ $180M raise and industry context
• 02:58–05:07: Hippocratic AI’s dual fundraising, regulatory complexity in healthcare AI
• 05:07–08:11: Together AI’s $305M raise, infrastructure for open source models, direct user experience

Tone & Takeaways

Friendly, knowledgeable, and entrepreneur-focused. Both hosts emphasize practical relevance: these aren’t just funding headlines, but indications of where opportunities and tools are emerging for side hustlers, founders, and AI app builders. They highlight actionable ways listeners can benefit—either by studying these companies’ approaches or directly using their tools.

If you’re tracking the business side of AI or looking for inspiration and practical insights, this episode delivers a concise, up-to-date guide to who is making the biggest waves in AI funding for 2025.