5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: A Credit Card Backed By Mineral Rights, Flying Ferries, And A Foundation AI Model For Plants

This is a monthly column that runs down five interesting startup funding deals that may have flown under the radar. Check out our previous entry here.

In a quarter when nearly two-thirds of global venture capital went to just four companies, it鈥檚 easy to lose track of the many other companies getting funding to tackle interesting problems. Nonetheless, we spotted five companies in just the past month working on issues from cleaner ferries and trains to foundational AI for plants. Let鈥檚 take a closer look.

$55M for a mineral rights-backed credit card

Natural resources can be incredibly valuable financial assets, but you can鈥檛 exactly buy your weekly groceries with oil or water rights.

That鈥檚 an issue that a Dallas-based fintech startup aims to solve. recently raised $50 million in a debt round from to provide a credit card to U.S. households holding mineral rights to natural resources such as oil, natural gas, solar, wind or water.

鈥淔or the millions of mineral rights owners in the United States, these rights are one of the most valuable assets the family owns. But these families are just like the rest of Americans and often are carrying revolving credit card balances at more than 25% [interest],鈥� Frontlands CEO said in a statement. 鈥淗istorically, owners have had few options to access the value trapped inside their mineral rights without selling.鈥�

Its AI system combines machine learning, production data, royalty payment histories, lease terms, commodity price forecasts, geologic data and traditional to automate the underwriting process, the company says. While it鈥檚 historically been difficult for traditional lenders to assess natural resources as collateral, Frontlands says its process typically delivers a same-day credit decision.

The company鈥檚 recent credit facility is in addition to a announced in December from venture investors including , , and .

Frontlands said its average credit line in early markets 鈥� Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wyoming and Oklahoma 鈥� is more than $30,000. It plans to launch its credit card product this summer in partnership with Texas-based sponsor bank .

Frontlands said it also expects to raise a Series A round later this year.

鈥淥ur goal isn鈥檛 to pile on more debt,鈥� Cotter said in a statement. 鈥淏ut the opportunity to help our customers move away from high-interest credit card debt 鈥� and provide a path toward greater financial stability 鈥� is compelling.鈥�

Investment in fintech startups hit a multiyear high in 2025, Crunchbase data shows, though remains well below the peak. Many of the best-funded companies in recent quarters have brought AI to bear on traditionally more manual or cumbersome processes in the financial services industry.

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$32M for 鈥榝lying鈥� electric commuter ferries

As of this writing, oil prices are hovering around $100 a barrel 鈥� down from an even greater peak a few weeks earlier, but still among the highest levels seen in years, as the U.S.-Iran war disrupts global energy markets.

So Swedish electric vessel maker 鈥檚 recent funding of 鈧�30 million (about $32 million) seems timely. The Stockholm-based company makes electric 鈥渇lying鈥� boats that are used as commuter ferries. They differ from traditional vessels by using computer-controlled hydrofoils to lift the hull above the water, an approach the company says dramatically reduces drag and cuts energy use by up to 80% 鈥� enabling faster, smoother, zero-emission travel compared to conventional diesel ferries that push through the water.

鈥淔rom a physics perspective, ships have been essentially the same for hundreds of years,鈥� Candela founder and CEO said in a statement. 鈥淲e’re redefining waterborne transport by effectively creating a new category of vessel. This allows cities and municipalities to finally take full advantage of waterways 鈥� while escaping the fossil-fuel cost trap that has long prevented them from being used efficiently.鈥�

Its P-12 vessels have already been deployed as commuter ferries in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo and Trondheim.

The new funding was led by 鈥檚 arm and included previous investors , , and .

The capital will primarily be used to fund a second factory in Poland. Candela says it has more than 65 vessels on order and planned deployments across markets including India 鈥� where a fleet of 10 of its P-12s will reportedly cut travel times from Navi Mumbai Airport to the city center from around two hours to 35 minutes 鈥斅爐he Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The startup鈥檚 funding defies an overall downturn in clean-tech funding. Funding for clean-tech related startups totaled $26.9 billion in 2025, down 23% year over year and the lowest annual amount since 2020, Crunchbase data shows.

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$30M to electrify trains with batteries and microgrids

Let鈥檚 now turn from waterways to train tracks, with another company that recently raised significant funding aimed at giving centuries-old transportation systems a green overhaul.

, a Philadelphia-based startup, said last month that it raised $30 million in seed funding led by Australian mining company and Israeli venture firm to develop a new way of powering freight rail that avoids the high costs of traditional electrification.

The startup positions its technology as a way to decarbonize one of the world鈥檚 most efficient but still fossil-fuel-dependent transport systems. It鈥檚 targeting a major pain point for the rail industry: its heavy reliance on diesel. In North America alone, the six largest freight rail operators spend roughly $11 billion annually on diesel fuel, while full electrification of rail networks could cost more than $1 trillion, according to Voltify.

Instead of relying on overhead wires, Voltify says it鈥檚 building a system that combines battery-equipped railcars with technology that allows trains to recharge while moving. The goal is to help rail operators cut emissions and fuel costs without requiring massive infrastructure overhauls.

Its approach 鈥� using mobile batteries and distributed charging via microgrids 鈥� aims to sidestep those costs by retrofitting existing trains and building localized energy systems rather than rebuilding entire rail networks.

CEO and co-founder that the company has signed a paid pilot agreement with a Class 1 railroad, though she declined to name the customer, citing a confidentiality agreement.

She noted in a that raising funding for a transportation company in the current market was difficult. 鈥淪ecuring capital in the hardware space and traditional industries is challenging,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淚t is not the 鈥榠n鈥� space; there is no FOMO at play, so we need to focus on metrics and execute quickly. With some of the top 5 largest rail companies globally and a large order pipeline, we are determined to keep moving at lightning speed.鈥�

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$7M for foundation AI for biology

Funding to foundational model AI startups surged last quarter, reaching $178 billion, per Crunchbase data. But the vast majority of that funding went to AI giants like and that are building general-purpose GenAI models.

Such models are fundamentally lacking for hard sciences, argues , a startup based in Paris and Berkeley, California, that last month raised $7 million in seed funding to develop foundation AI for biology trained on DNA, RNA and data from other 鈥溾€� fields, rather than human text.

The company鈥檚 first family of transformer models is called Botanic and is trained on data from 43 plant species. Living Models noted that it鈥檚 starting with the commercial crop industry, a massive global market that has abundant data, well-established research infrastructure, and fewer regulatory concerns and faster commercialization timelines than the pharmaceutical industry.

鈥淧lant biology combines three properties that make it an ideal first domain for biological foundation models: genomic data is abundant and largely unrestricted, the commercial need is acute and quantifiable, and the feedback loop between computational prediction and real-world validation is well established through existing breeding infrastructure,鈥� the company said in a statement.

The global seed industry is also dominated by a handful of incumbents, it noted: , , , and 鈥斅燾ompanies that already spend billions of dollars a year on breeding research.

鈥淏iology is an information problem at every scale, from a single cell to an entire ecosystem. The genomic data exists across many domains; what’s been missing is a model architecture capable of learning from it at scale,鈥� , Living Models鈥� CTO and co-founder, said in a statement. 鈥淲e start with plants because the data is rich and the breeding cycle is a clear bottleneck, but the same approach applies wherever sequence data meets slow, empirical discovery.鈥�

The company鈥檚 recent funding was led by , , and . Other included and

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$2.1M for a brain-stimulating consumer wearable

Billions of dollars a year are spent on therapy and other mental-health treatments, yet measuring progress can be elusive.

That鈥檚 one of the issues that San Francisco-based aims to take on with a neuromodulation wearable headset that it says can reduce stress, improve attention span and mood, and more quantitatively measure mental health scores.

Mave鈥檚 device uses transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, a noninvasive technique that delivers a low electrical current to the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp, with the aim of modulating neural activity. The technology is when used by adults as directed in controlled settings.

Mave's neuromodulation wearable headset — Mave’s neuromodulation wearable headset. (Courtesy photo)

The company last month raised $2.1 million in seed funding led by , with participation from individual investors including Autopilot AI lead .

Crucially, Mave says it does not plan to pursue medical-device approval for its product, which sells for $495. Instead, it is positioning the gadget as a wellness tool that consumers can use on a daily basis to improve their mental well-being and better measure the outcomes of talk therapy or other treatments.

鈥淚f you ask a psychologist how do you know if a person is making progress, their response to it is very standard, which is that it鈥檚 not about progress. It鈥檚 about process [鈥 But for somebody with depression who is spending a lot of time in therapy, progress is important. So how do you know whether they鈥檙e making progress or not? And even these basic questions were not being answered,鈥� co-founder .

Mave鈥檚 funding comes amid an overall downturn in investment for wellness and fitness-related companies, although select wearables makers including and have raised significant funding in recent years.

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