FUNDING
Coverage Timeline
newest first- Sep 4, 2026Ex-Replit GC Raises $60M to Build Legal AI$60M Series B→
- Sep 4, 2026Elucid Raises $55M for AI Heart-Disease Imaging$55M Series D→
- Sep 3, 2026Thinking Machines Nears $1B Round at $40B$1B round in talks→
- Sep 3, 2026Wiz Founder Backs Guardio at $1.1B Valuation$40M at $1.1B valuation→
- Sep 3, 2026Crusoe Reportedly Raises $3B at $30B Valuation$3B round→
- Sep 3, 2026Qualcomm Backs Ultrahuman's $70M Smart Ring Bet$70M round→
- Sep 3, 2026Profound Raises $96M to Own AI Search Answers$96M Series C→
- Sep 3, 2026The Startups Building AI Agents That Shop for You→
- Sep 3, 2026Startup ARR Is Less Secure Than Ever→
- Sep 3, 2026HubX Raises $75M, Becomes Turkey's 8th Unicorn$75M Series A→
- Sep 3, 2026August VC Funding Jumped 122% From a Year Ago$42B in August→
- Sep 2, 2026Ex-Apple Engineers' Lyte Raises $165M at $1.6B$165M Series C→
- Sep 2, 2026iPronics Raises $125M for AI Data-Center Optics$125M Series B→
- Sep 2, 2026Lasso Security Raises $30M for CPU-Only AI Guardrails$30M round→
- Sep 2, 2026Wonderful More Than Doubles to $5B in 6 Months$550M Series C→
- Sep 2, 2026Medici Brands Raises $250M as David Protein Scales$250M Series B→
- Sep 2, 2026Miami's Felix Raises $200M for WhatsApp Banking$200M Series C→
- Sep 2, 2026The 10x Markup in Five Months Is the Real Story10x in 5 months→
- Sep 2, 2026August's Megarounds Went to Missiles and Inference$2.63B in a week→
- Sep 1, 2026Thrive Hires Musk's Lawyer Over a Dead $4.2B FIFA Deal$4.2B secondary→
- Sep 1, 2026AfterQuery Becomes YC's Fastest-Ever Unicorn at $3.2B$3.2B valuation→
- Sep 1, 2026AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Use$50M seed→
- Sep 1, 2026AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Are Allowed to Use$50M seed→
- Sep 1, 2026Miami's Felix Raises $200M to Grow Beyond Remittances$200M Series C→
- Sep 1, 2026a16z's Growth Fund Hits $8.5B, Days After a New $1.1B Fund$8.5B growth fund→
- Sep 1, 2026Proptech's $4.53B Half: Fewer Deals, Bigger AI Bets$4.53B H1 2026→
- Sep 1, 2026Sequoia-Incubated Empirik Launches With $21M$21M seed→
- Sep 1, 2026Bitcoin's Best Week in Three Years, By the Numbers+23% weekly gain→
- Aug 31, 2026The AI Capex Supercycle Now Dwarfs Global VC→
- Aug 31, 2026Why I'm Not Buying the Funding Slowdown Story→
- Aug 31, 2026Clipto Hits $250M Valuation on $15M Round$15M at $250M val→
- Aug 31, 2026Clay Nears $7B Valuation in New Wellington-Led Round$7B pre-money valuation→
- Aug 31, 2026Bolt Raises Up to $27M to Survive Its Own CollapseUp to $27M bridge→
- Aug 31, 2026Why Nvidia Just Pulled Back From Its Own Financing Plan$36B program paused→
- Aug 31, 2026Physical AI, Defense and Robotics Own This Year's Capital$47.4B physical AI H1→
- Aug 31, 2026India's Startup Funding Surge Deserves a Second Look$8.91B YTD→
- Aug 31, 2026Blue Voice Raises $6M to Build a Harvey for Cops$6M round→
- Aug 31, 2026The WealthTech Squeeze: A $389M Fintech Week, Explained$389M/week→
- Aug 31, 2026GPU-Backed Debt Is Becoming Its Own Asset Class$100M facility→
- Aug 31, 2026A16Z's Machine Age Fund: What the $1.1B Is Actually For$1.1B fund→
All Coverage
FUNDING$60M Series B
Ex-Replit GC Raises $60M to Build Legal AI
GC AI, founded by former Replit general counsel Cecilia Ziniti, raised a $60 million Series B at a $555 million valuation to sell AI legal software to in-house corporate legal teams rather than law firms.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Elucid Raises $55M for AI Heart-Disease Imaging
FUNDING$55M Series D
Elucid Raises $55M for AI Heart-Disease Imaging
Boston-based Elucid raised $55 million in an oversubscribed Series D to expand its FDA-cleared Plaque-IQ software, which uses AI to read plaque risk from routine CT scans.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Thinking Machines Nears $1B Round at $40B
FUNDING$1B round in talks
Thinking Machines Nears $1B Round at $40B
Accel is reportedly in talks to lead a $1 billion round for Mira Murati's Thinking Machines at a $40 billion valuation -- more than 3x its $12 billion seed mark, but below the $50 billion figure it was targeting late last year.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Wiz Founder Backs Guardio at $1.1B Valuation
FUNDING$40M at $1.1B valuation
Wiz Founder Backs Guardio at $1.1B Valuation
Israeli consumer-cybersecurity startup Guardio raised $40 million at a $1.1 billion valuation, with Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport joining as it crossed 1 million paying customers and $150 million in ARR.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Crusoe Reportedly Raises $3B at $30B Valuation
FUNDING$3B round
Crusoe Reportedly Raises $3B at $30B Valuation
Crusoe, the AI data center developer that pivoted from flared-gas crypto mining, reportedly closed a $3 billion round at a $30 billion valuation, tripling its mark from October and setting up meetings with IPO bankers.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Qualcomm Backs Ultrahuman's $70M Smart Ring Bet
FUNDING$70M round
Qualcomm Backs Ultrahuman's $70M Smart Ring Bet
Ultrahuman raised a $70 million round led by Qualcomm Ventures at a $365 million valuation, a 3x markup, to build custom silicon that turns its smart ring into an on-device computer -- launching the same week rival Oura filed to go public.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Profound Raises $96M to Own AI Search Answers
FUNDING$96M Series C
Profound Raises $96M to Own AI Search Answers
Profound raised a $96 million Series C led by Lightspeed to help brands track and influence how they get cited inside AI chatbot answers, the generative engine optimization category forming as search shifts from links to answers.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
The Startups Building AI Agents That Shop for You
FUNDING
The Startups Building AI Agents That Shop for You
Venture capital is fanning out across every layer of agentic commerce at once -- multipurpose shopping agents, deal-finding assistants, and the payment plumbing agents need to transact -- with real usage and real failures alike.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Startup ARR Is Less Secure Than Ever
FUNDING
Startup ARR Is Less Secure Than Ever
New research from Madrona, a16z and MIT shows enterprises now reevaluate AI vendors every six months, and fewer than half of AI pilots reach production -- meaning AI-era ARR is far less durable than the metric implies.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
HubX Raises $75M, Becomes Turkey's 8th Unicorn
FUNDING$75M Series A
HubX Raises $75M, Becomes Turkey's 8th Unicorn
Turkish app studio HubX raised up to $75 million from Point72 Private Investments at a $1.275 billion pre-money valuation, its first outside funding after bootstrapping to profitability.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
August VC Funding Jumped 122% From a Year Ago
FUNDING$42B in August
August VC Funding Jumped 122% From a Year Ago
Global venture funding hit $42 billion across more than 1,500 startups in August, up 122% year over year but down 25% from July, with seven companies closing billion-dollar rounds led by Databricks at a $190 billion valuation.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Ex-Apple Engineers' Lyte Raises $165M at $1.6B
FUNDING$165M Series C
Ex-Apple Engineers' Lyte Raises $165M at $1.6B
Lyte, a robotics-perception startup founded by former Apple and PrimeSense engineers, raised a $165 million Series C led by Maverick Silicon at a $1.6 billion valuation to scale sensing for warehouse robots.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
iPronics Raises $125M for AI Data-Center Optics
FUNDING$125M Series B
iPronics Raises $125M for AI Data-Center Optics
Spanish photonics startup iPronics raised $125 million co-led by Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital, with Nvidia joining as a strategic investor, to scale optical circuit switches that reconfigure AI data-center networks in sub-millisecond time.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Lasso Security Raises $30M for CPU-Only AI Guardrails
FUNDING$30M round
Lasso Security Raises $30M for CPU-Only AI Guardrails
Lasso Security raised $30 million led by ClearSky to scale LEAP, a transformer-free AI guardrail that screens model inputs and outputs on ordinary CPUs instead of GPUs, cutting the cost of running AI safety checks at enterprise scale.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Wonderful More Than Doubles to $5B in 6 Months
FUNDING$550M Series C
Wonderful More Than Doubles to $5B in 6 Months
Wonderful, an Israeli-Dutch AI agent orchestration startup, raised a $550 million Series C led by Insight Partners at a $5 billion valuation, more than doubling its mark from a $2 billion Series B roughly six months earlier.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Medici Brands Raises $250M as David Protein Scales
FUNDING$250M Series B
Medici Brands Raises $250M as David Protein Scales
Medici Brands, parent of David Protein and the newly launched HallPass candy brand, raised a $250 million Series B as David heads toward $300 million in 2026 revenue.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Miami's Felix Raises $200M for WhatsApp Banking
FUNDING$200M Series C
Miami's Felix Raises $200M for WhatsApp Banking
Felix, a Miami-based WhatsApp remittance platform for Latino immigrants, raised $200 million in a Series C split between $87 million of equity led by Andreessen Horowitz and $113 million of debt from General Catalyst.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
The 10x Markup in Five Months Is the Real Story
FUNDING10x in 5 months
The 10x Markup in Five Months Is the Real Story
AfterQuery went from a $300 million post-money in April to a reported $3.2 billion in September. I think the interesting number is not the valuation but the interval, and what it says about who is actually setting prices in AI services.
TRACE'S TAKE
FUNDING
August's Megarounds Went to Missiles and Inference
FUNDING$2.63B in a week
August's Megarounds Went to Missiles and Inference
In a single mid-August week, six US startups raised $2.63 billion between them, and the two largest -- a hypersonic missile maker and an inference chip company -- accounted for $1.5 billion of it.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Thrive Hires Musk's Lawyer Over a Dead $4.2B FIFA Deal
FUNDING$4.2B secondary
Thrive Hires Musk's Lawyer Over a Dead $4.2B FIFA Deal
Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital retained Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel after UEFA moved against FIFA over a scrapped plan in which Thrive would have led a $4.2 billion purchase of 20% of FIFA's commercial arm at a $20 billion valuation.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
AfterQuery Becomes YC's Fastest-Ever Unicorn at $3.2B
FUNDING$3.2B valuation
AfterQuery Becomes YC's Fastest-Ever Unicorn at $3.2B
AfterQuery, which pays doctors and lawyers to train AI models, reportedly hit a $3.2 billion valuation just five months after its $30 million Series A -- the fastest run from launch to unicorn in Y Combinator's history.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Use
FUNDING$50M seed
AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Use
AIR, founded by two Israeli Unit 8200 veterans, raised $50 million across two seed rounds led by Sequoia and Greenoaks to build a platform that discovers and vets the skills and add-ons AI agents pull into enterprise environments.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Are Allowed to Use
FUNDING$50M seed
AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Are Allowed to Use
AIR, founded by two Israeli intelligence veterans, raised $50 million across two seed rounds to build a firewall that vets the skills and tools AI agents pull from, after finding 17,800 public add-ons linked to untrusted sources.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Miami's Felix Raises $200M to Grow Beyond Remittances
FUNDING$200M Series C
Miami's Felix Raises $200M to Grow Beyond Remittances
Félix, a Miami-based WhatsApp remittance platform for Latino immigrants, raised $200 million -- $87M in equity led by a16z and $113M in debt from General Catalyst -- with its valuation tripling since last year's Series B.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
a16z's Growth Fund Hits $8.5B, Days After a New $1.1B Fund
FUNDING$8.5B growth fund
a16z's Growth Fund Hits $8.5B, Days After a New $1.1B Fund
Andreessen Horowitz expanded its fifth Growth fund to $8.5 billion just three days after closing a separate $1.1 billion fund dedicated to AI hardware -- roughly $9.6 billion in fresh capital disclosed in a single week.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Proptech's $4.53B Half: Fewer Deals, Bigger AI Bets
FUNDING$4.53B H1 2026
Proptech's $4.53B Half: Fewer Deals, Bigger AI Bets
Proptech venture funding reached $4.53 billion across 231 disclosed rounds in H1 2026 -- still well below pre-pandemic peaks, but investors are increasingly concentrating checks on AI-driven construction and real estate tools.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Sequoia-Incubated Empirik Launches With $21M
FUNDING$21M seed
Sequoia-Incubated Empirik Launches With $21M
Empirik, spun out of a 2023 Sequoia incubation, raised $21 million to sell AI-driven infrastructure observability that predicts and prevents outages before they happen, already serving S&P Global and Guardant Health.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Bitcoin's Best Week in Three Years, By the Numbers
FUNDING+23% weekly gain
Bitcoin's Best Week in Three Years, By the Numbers
Bitcoin surged roughly 23% last week to the $80,000 range on nearly $2 billion of spot ETF inflows -- its strongest week in more than three years, with Solana and XRP posting even bigger gains.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
The AI Capex Supercycle Now Dwarfs Global VC
FUNDING
The AI Capex Supercycle Now Dwarfs Global VC
Nvidia's $500B Wall Street platform and TSMC's $64B capex budget together outweigh all global VC raised in H1 2026 -- a scale mismatch that shows where AI's real money is flowing.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Why I'm Not Buying the Funding Slowdown Story
FUNDING
Why I'm Not Buying the Funding Slowdown Story
One slow fintech week doesn't erase a year where physical AI alone raised $47.4B and global VC hit a record $510B in H1 -- the 'funding is slowing' narrative confuses one category's rough week with the whole market's direction.
TRACE'S TAKE
FUNDING
Clipto Hits $250M Valuation on $15M Round
FUNDING$15M at $250M val
Clipto Hits $250M Valuation on $15M Round
Clipto, a profitable AI-powered local file search startup, raised $15 million at a $250 million valuation after reaching $15 million in annual recurring revenue.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Clay Nears $7B Valuation in New Wellington-Led Round
FUNDING$7B pre-money valuation
Clay Nears $7B Valuation in New Wellington-Led Round
Clay, the AI-powered sales and marketing platform, has inked a new round led by Wellington Management at a $7 billion pre-money valuation -- up from $5 billion in January and $3.1 billion a year ago.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Bolt Raises Up to $27M to Survive Its Own Collapse
FUNDINGUp to $27M bridge
Bolt Raises Up to $27M to Survive Its Own Collapse
Bolt is raising up to $27 million in punitive pay-to-play bridge financing to survive after its valuation collapsed 97% from an $11 billion peak.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Why Nvidia Just Pulled Back From Its Own Financing Plan
FUNDING$36B program paused
Why Nvidia Just Pulled Back From Its Own Financing Plan
Nvidia paused deals under its $36 billion AI Compute Partnership after employees flagged antitrust concerns -- a retreat that says as much about how AI infrastructure gets financed next as the $500B platform it announced weeks earlier.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Physical AI, Defense and Robotics Own This Year's Capital
FUNDING$47.4B physical AI H1
Physical AI, Defense and Robotics Own This Year's Capital
Physical AI raised $47.4B across 521 deals in H1, defense tech hit $35.6B YTD (+40%), and robotics topped $18.8B YTD -- three category totals that together explain where 2026's record VC wave is actually landing.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
India's Startup Funding Surge Deserves a Second Look
FUNDING$8.91B YTD
India's Startup Funding Surge Deserves a Second Look
Indian startups have raised $8.91 billion across 620-plus rounds in 2026, even as US VC funding overall is up 113.6% year over year -- a reminder India's boom is real but still small next to where AI capital is concentrating.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Blue Voice Raises $6M to Build a Harvey for Cops
FUNDING$6M round
Blue Voice Raises $6M to Build a Harvey for Cops
Boston-based Blue Voice raised $6 million from SignalFire and Las Olas VC for an AI assistant that answers officers' legal and procedural questions against their own department's rules, now deployed across 225 county agencies in 25 states.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
The WealthTech Squeeze: A $389M Fintech Week, Explained
FUNDING$389M/week
The WealthTech Squeeze: A $389M Fintech Week, Explained
Only $389 million closed across 12 fintech deals last week, the slowest pace in over a month -- and WealthTech, the one bright spot, is quietly absorbing a sector-wide funding contraction happening everywhere else in fintech.
TRACE'S TAKE
FUNDING
GPU-Backed Debt Is Becoming Its Own Asset Class
FUNDING$100M facility
GPU-Backed Debt Is Becoming Its Own Asset Class
Bullish just put $100 million behind a protocol that lends against GPUs the way a bank lends against real estate -- one small piece of a much larger shift toward treating compute capacity itself as collateral.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
A16Z's Machine Age Fund: What the $1.1B Is Actually For
FUNDING$1.1B fund
A16Z's Machine Age Fund: What the $1.1B Is Actually For
A16Z's new $1.1 billion Machine Age Fund isn't a diversification bet -- hardware now makes up more than a fifth of the firm's deal flow, and this fund formalizes a shift that's been building for two years.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Defense Tech's $35.6 Billion Year, By the Comps
FUNDING$35.6B YTD (+40%)
Defense Tech's $35.6 Billion Year, By the Comps
Anduril at $61 billion, Castelion at $13 billion, True Anomaly at $600 million raised -- the named rounds behind defense tech's $35.6 billion year explain what's actually driving the category better than the aggregate number does.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Biotech Funding Held Its Ground While AI Took the Oxygen
FUNDING$36B-$40B annual
Biotech Funding Held Its Ground While AI Took the Oxygen
Global biotech startup investment is tracking to its usual $36 billion to $40 billion range in 2026 despite the AI capital surge, with more than $6 billion of that going to AI-native drug discovery companies.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Icon Raises $30M From Founders Fund for AI Ad Content
FUNDING$30M Venture Round
Icon Raises $30M From Founders Fund for AI Ad Content
Icon raised $30 million led by Founders Fund to scale its human-creator ad production platform, with OpenAI and DeepMind executives and NFL running back Saquon Barkley among the angels in the round.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Physical AI Is Out-Raising the Model Layer This Month
FUNDING
Physical AI Is Out-Raising the Model Layer This Month
Named August rounds for chips, energy and defense hardware -- Castelion, Etched, Groq and Base Power -- total more than $3.2 billion, versus roughly $1.1 billion for consumer and enterprise AI application startups covered on Pulse the same month.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
SoftBank Goes Back for a Second $10B OpenAI Loan
FUNDING
SoftBank Goes Back for a Second $10B OpenAI Loan
SoftBank is seeking another $10 billion loan against its OpenAI stake, just three weeks after its first margin loan closed, pushing its OpenAI-linked borrowing past $50 billion for the year.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Lambda Borrows $1B to Buy GPUs for Microsoft
FUNDING$1B debt facility
Lambda Borrows $1B to Buy GPUs for Microsoft
AI cloud provider Lambda raised $1 billion in short-dated private debt arranged by JP Morgan to purchase chips it will lease to Microsoft, its third nine-figure financing this year ahead of a reported pre-IPO round.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Thrive Backs Retro's $21M Bet Against Feeds
FUNDING$21M Series A
Thrive Backs Retro's $21M Bet Against Feeds
Retro, a friends-only photo sharing app built by two former Instagram engineers, raised a $21 million Series A led by Thrive Capital after roughly 7 million downloads and a subscription-only model.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Regent Raises $120M for Coastal Seagliders
FUNDING$120M Series B
Regent Raises $120M for Coastal Seagliders
Rhode Island-based Regent closed a $120 million Series B led by Mare Liberum and AE Industrial Partners to commercialize its all-electric seaglider, a wing-in-ground-effect vessel for coastal routes.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Emerald AI Hits $1.05B Making Data Centers Grid-Flexible
FUNDING$150M Series A at $1.05B
Emerald AI Hits $1.05B Making Data Centers Grid-Flexible
Emerald AI raised an oversubscribed $150 million Series A at a $1.05 billion valuation co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC for software that throttles data center power in response to grid conditions.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Gatik Raises $200M for Driverless Freight Routes
FUNDING$200M Series D
Gatik Raises $200M for Driverless Freight Routes
Autonomous trucking company Gatik closed a $200 million Series D led by the Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, bringing total funding to roughly $500 million as it targets 100-plus driverless trucks.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Owner Raises $240M at $2.3B to Run Local Businesses
FUNDING$240M at $2.3B
Owner Raises $240M at $2.3B to Run Local Businesses
Owner, the AI platform that runs websites, ordering, marketing and phone support for restaurants, raised $240 million led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives at a $2.3 billion valuation.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
a16z Raises $1.1B to Build AI's Physical Layer
FUNDING$1.1B fund
a16z Raises $1.1B to Build AI's Physical Layer
Andreessen Horowitz has closed a $1.1 billion Machine Age fund dedicated to chips, memory, cooling, power and robotics -- the hardware underneath AI rather than the software on top of it.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Unrivaled Basketball League Valued at $650M
FUNDING$650M valuation
Unrivaled Basketball League Valued at $650M
Unrivaled, the Miami-based 3-on-3 women's basketball league founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, closed an oversubscribed Series C that pushed its valuation to $650 million ahead of its third season.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Town Nears $1B Valuation in Index-Led Round
FUNDING~$1B valuation
Town Nears $1B Valuation in Index-Led Round
Enterprise AI assistant Town is raising at roughly a $1 billion valuation in a round led by Index Ventures, the second personal-assistant startup to reach a billion-dollar mark in a week.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Korean AI Startup Wrtn Raises Series C at $870M
FUNDING$72M at $870M+
Korean AI Startup Wrtn Raises Series C at $870M
Wrtn Technologies, a Seoul-based AI entertainment and companion-app startup, raised roughly $72 million in a Series C round that values the company north of $870 million, the first Korean AI service startup to cross that mark.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
CivilGrid Raises $26M to Map What Is Underground
FUNDING$26M Series A
CivilGrid Raises $26M to Map What Is Underground
CivilGrid, founded by a former PG&E engineer, raised a $26 million Series A led by Spark Capital to aggregate underground utility, property and environmental data into one map for excavation planning.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Yardstik Raises $30M to Watch Workers After Hiring
FUNDING$30M Series B
Yardstik Raises $30M to Watch Workers After Hiring
Yardstik raised a $30 million Series B led by Harbert Growth Partners to extend identity and fraud checks past the point of hire, bringing its total funding to $65 million.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Instinct Hits $2.5B Valuation on $350M Raised
FUNDING$250M Series B at $2.5B
Instinct Hits $2.5B Valuation on $350M Raised
Instinct, the personal AI assistant built by 23-year-old founder Noah Shinn, has raised $350 million in total including a $250 million Series B co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark at a $2.5 billion valuation.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Bose Alumni Raise $12M for AI Hearing Glasses
FUNDING$12M seed
Bose Alumni Raise $12M for AI Hearing Glasses
Legato emerged from stealth with $12 million from Neotribe Ventures, Listen and Village Global to build eyewear with hearing assistance built into the arms, aimed at mild to moderate hearing loss.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
AusperBio Raises $120M for Hepatitis B Cure
FUNDING$120M Series C
AusperBio Raises $120M for Hepatitis B Cure
AusperBio Therapeutics raised a $120 million Series C led by a strategic investor with RA Capital joining, bringing total funding to $360 million as its lead hepatitis B therapy enters Phase 3.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Two Retail CEOs Close a $17M Debut Fund
FUNDING$17M debut fund
Two Retail CEOs Close a $17M Debut Fund
Capital F closed a $17 million debut fund led by former Credo Beauty CEO Dawn Dobras and founder Margaret Coblentz, writing $250K-$1M checks into women's health, digital commerce and AI trust and safety.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Socure Raises $156M at $5.2B, Buys Fravity
FUNDING$156M at $5.2B
Socure Raises $156M at $5.2B, Buys Fravity
Identity-verification firm Socure raised $156 million at a $5.2 billion valuation and simultaneously acquired agentic fraud-investigation startup Fravity, folding its technology into a new RiskOS_Agents product line.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Breedr Raises $27M to Digitize the Beef Supply Chain
FUNDING$27M Series B
Breedr Raises $27M to Digitize the Beef Supply Chain
Breedr raised a $27 million Series B led by Partech's impact fund to expand its cattle-tracking platform, which now covers more than 2 million animals across the US, UK and Australia.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Atorie Raises $9.5M to Sell Luxury Goods Sans Markup
FUNDING$9.5M seed
Atorie Raises $9.5M to Sell Luxury Goods Sans Markup
Fashion startup Atorie raised a $9.5 million seed round to sell handbags and apparel made in the same factories as luxury brands at a fraction of the price, betting on dupe culture and post-pandemic sticker shock.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Runable Raises $21M to Run Businesses, Not Build Them
FUNDING$21M Series A at $65M
Runable Raises $21M to Run Businesses, Not Build Them
Runable raised a $21 million Series A co-led by Susquehanna Venture Capital and Nexus Venture Partners at a $65 million valuation, betting AI agents should grow businesses rather than just generate software.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
SoftBank in Talks for Majority Stake in 1X at $6B
FUNDING$6B valuation
SoftBank in Talks for Majority Stake in 1X at $6B
SoftBank is in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies, the OpenAI-backed humanoid robot maker, at a $6 billion valuation, extending Masayoshi Son's robotics buying spree following its Boston Dynamics exit.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
UAE 'Spy Sheikh' Holds 49% of Trump Crypto Bank
FUNDING49% stake
UAE 'Spy Sheikh' Holds 49% of Trump Crypto Bank
A holding company tied to UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan owns 49% of the entity behind World Liberty Financial's planned bank, while the venture seeks a federal charter under the Trump administration.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Transfyr Raises $25M to Record Science That Gets Lost
FUNDING$25M seed
Transfyr Raises $25M to Record Science That Gets Lost
Transfyr launched with $25 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst to build an observability layer that captures the practical, undocumented details of scientific lab work.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Instinct's Valuation Rockets to $2.5B in Weeks
FUNDING$250M Series B
Instinct's Valuation Rockets to $2.5B in Weeks
Instinct, a four-month-old AI assistant startup led by 23-year-old Noah Shinn, raised $250 million at a $2.5 billion valuation co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark, up fivefold from $500 million just weeks earlier.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Legal Tech Funding Dips Slightly From Record High
FUNDING$7B+ two-year total
Legal Tech Funding Dips Slightly From Record High
Legal tech startups have pulled in more than $7 billion in venture funding over the past two years, and 2026 dealmaking is easing only slightly from an all-time high as Legora and Harvey both go on acquisition sprees.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Datadog Jumps on Report of Past Palo Alto Bid
FUNDING
Datadog Jumps on Report of Past Palo Alto Bid
Datadog shares rose 2.9% after a report that Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora explored acquiring the observability company in spring 2025 when it was valued above $40 billion, talks that never advanced.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Anthropic Signs $45B Cloud Deal With Nscale
FUNDING$45B
Anthropic Signs $45B Cloud Deal With Nscale
Anthropic agreed to pay Nscale $45 billion over six years for AI computing power from a West Virginia data center running Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips, its fourth major compute commitment in recent months ahead of a planned IPO.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Capital F Closes $17M Fund for the 'Female Economy'
FUNDING$17M debut fund
Capital F Closes $17M Fund for the 'Female Economy'
Capital F, an all-female-led VC firm co-founded by Margaret Coblentz and Dawn Dobras, closed a $17 million debut fund targeting women's health, digital commerce and AI tools, with women making up nearly 85% of its LP base.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Runable Raises $21M to Grow Businesses With AI
FUNDING$21M Series A
Runable Raises $21M to Grow Businesses With AI
Runable, a 15-person Bengaluru startup, raised a $21 million Series A at a $65 million valuation to build AI agents that find customers and run marketing for small businesses after they've built a product.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Why AI's Compute Boom Now Runs on Debt, Not Equity
FUNDING$60B+ debt (up to $100B)
Why AI's Compute Boom Now Runs on Debt, Not Equity
Broadcom is negotiating $60 billion-plus in special-purpose-vehicle debt to buy chips leased to Anthropic, the clearest sign yet AI's buildout is financed off-balance-sheet, not through venture equity.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Legato Emerges From Stealth With $12M, AI Glasses
FUNDING$12M seed
Legato Emerges From Stealth With $12M, AI Glasses
Legato, founded by former Bose Frames and Bose hearing-aid leaders, raised $12 million to launch AI-powered hearing glasses that isolate voices from background noise, priced far below traditional hearing aids.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Robotics Startup Generalist Hits $3B Valuation
FUNDING$3B valuation
Robotics Startup Generalist Hits $3B Valuation
Generalist, a two-year-old robot foundation-model startup founded by ex-Google DeepMind researchers, is raising a $200 million extension led by 8VC at a $3 billion valuation, 50% above its $2 billion mark from June.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Ventures Platform Closes $84M Second Pan-Africa Fund
FUNDING$84M Fund II
Ventures Platform Closes $84M Second Pan-Africa Fund
Nigerian VC firm Ventures Platform closed an oversubscribed $84 million Fund II, nearly double its $46 million debut, with EBRD and Norway's Norfund backing a pan-African push beyond Nigeria into Kenya, South Africa and Egypt.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Emerald AI Raises $150M Series A at $1.05B Valuation
FUNDING$150M Series A at $1.05B valuation
Emerald AI Raises $150M Series A at $1.05B Valuation
Emerald AI raised a $150 million Series A at a $1.05 billion valuation to scale its Conductor platform, which makes AI data centers responsive to electric-grid conditions, as it moves from pilots into commercial deployment.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Blank Street Raises $105M at $650M Valuation
FUNDING$105M ($75M primary + $30M secondary)
Blank Street Raises $105M at $650M Valuation
Coffee and matcha chain Blank Street raised $105 million -- a $75 million primary Series C plus a $30 million secondary -- led by General Atlantic at a $650 million valuation, up from roughly $500 million in 2025.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Accel-Backed Keenable Raises $26M to Index Web for AI
FUNDING$26M seed
Accel-Backed Keenable Raises $26M to Index Web for AI
Keenable, founded by former Yandex and Amazon Alexa search engineers, raised a $26 million seed round led by Accel to build a web search index purpose-built for AI agents rather than human browsers.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Tech Giants Are Hiding $3 Trillion in AI Debt, Report Finds
FUNDING
Tech Giants Are Hiding $3 Trillion in AI Debt, Report Finds
Off-balance-sheet AI obligations at major tech giants have reportedly reached roughly $3 trillion, nearly double a July estimate, as Fed officials publicly disagree on the risk.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Trivago's CEO Is Betting AI Can 10x Output With the Same Headcount
FUNDING
Trivago's CEO Is Betting AI Can 10x Output With the Same Headcount
Trivago CEO Johannes Thomas is restructuring the travel-search company around AI, targeting roughly 600 employees operating with the output of 6,000 as AI search threatens the category.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Self-Driving Truck Startup Gatik Raises $200M
FUNDING$200M Series C
Self-Driving Truck Startup Gatik Raises $200M
Autonomous middle-mile trucking startup Gatik raised a $200 million Series C led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, two months after signing a 41-truck driverless deal with PepsiCo's Frito-Lay unit.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Harvard's $699 Startup Bootcamp Runs on AI Professors
FUNDING
Harvard's $699 Startup Bootcamp Runs on AI Professors
A $699 startup bootcamp affiliated with Harvard uses always-available AI clones of professors, part of a broader shift toward low-cost, AI-delivered founder education.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Stability AI Raises $76M From Music, Gaming Giants
FUNDING$76M Series B
Stability AI Raises $76M From Music, Gaming Giants
Stable Diffusion maker Stability AI raised a $76 million Series B from Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Electronic Arts and AMD Ventures, bringing total funding to $232 million as it expands into creative production tools.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Fiat Ventures Rebrands as FGV Capital, Raises $35M
FUNDING$35M Fund II
Fiat Ventures Rebrands as FGV Capital, Raises $35M
Fiat Ventures combined its growth-consultancy and venture-investing arms into a new brand, FGV Capital, and closed a $35 million Fund II targeting fintech, AI, healthcare and commerce startups with $1-1.5 million checks.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Why Bootstrapped Founders Have the Edge Right Now
FUNDING
Why Bootstrapped Founders Have the Edge Right Now
AI has lowered the cost of building and validating a product enough that self-funded, profit-first founders no longer need millions in VC capital to compete, a shift Lateral's Richard de Silva argues favors bootstrapping over blitzscaling.
TRACE'S TAKE
FUNDING
XPeng's Robotics Unit Raises $900M at $6.3B Value
FUNDING$900M+
XPeng's Robotics Unit Raises $900M at $6.3B Value
XPeng Robotics raised over $900 million in its first external funding round, valuing the humanoid-robot unit at more than $6.3 billion, backed by IDG Capital, Alibaba and Tencent ahead of planned IRON robot mass production by year-end.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Hugging Face Reportedly in Talks to Sell for $13B
FUNDING$13B+
Hugging Face Reportedly in Talks to Sell for $13B
Hugging Face, the open-source AI model-hosting hub, is reportedly in acquisition talks at a $13 billion-plus price, nearly triple the $4.5 billion valuation it carried after its 2023 Salesforce Ventures-led round.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Broadcom's AI Chip Debt Deal for Anthropic Tops $60B
FUNDING$60B+ debt (up to $100B)
Broadcom's AI Chip Debt Deal for Anthropic Tops $60B
Broadcom is negotiating over $60 billion in special-purpose-vehicle debt -- potentially $100 billion total -- to fund custom AI chips it will lease to Anthropic, building on a June financing pact with Apollo and Blackstone.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
SEC Probes Situational Awareness Fund's Fire Sale
FUNDING
SEC Probes Situational Awareness Fund's Fire Sale
The SEC is investigating the near-collapse of Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness hedge fund, subpoenaing Wall Street banks over a forced discount sale of its stock portfolio to Citadel after leverage of up to 400% unwound.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
India's Airbound Raises $37M to Rival Trucking With Drones
FUNDING$37M Series A
India's Airbound Raises $37M to Rival Trucking With Drones
Bengaluru-based Airbound raised a $37 million Series A led by Greenoaks and DoorDash to scale its autonomous cargo drones, betting rocket-like vertical-takeoff delivery can reach cost parity with trucking despite still being pre-revenue.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Nvidia Says Groq Racks Go Live This Year After $20B Deal
FUNDING
Nvidia Says Groq Racks Go Live This Year After $20B Deal
Nvidia said its Groq-derived LPX inference racks will be online by the end of the year, giving the roughly $20 billion Groq deal a concrete deployment timeline for the first time since named customers surfaced earlier this week.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Flock Safety's $8B Camera Empire Faces Political Backlash
FUNDING$8B
Flock Safety's $8B Camera Empire Faces Political Backlash
Flock Safety, the a16z- and Tiger-backed license-plate camera startup valued at roughly $8 billion, is drawing sustained political backlash as surveillance infrastructure becomes a 2026 midterm issue.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Fintech and Biotech Lead Where Unicorns Buy Startups
FUNDING
Fintech and Biotech Lead Where Unicorns Buy Startups
Crunchbase data on 2026's startup-buys-startup wave shows the buying concentrated in fintech, AI and biotech, with the pace slowing sharply from over 440 deals in H1 to fewer than 100 so far in H2.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
XPeng Robotics Raises $900M+ at $6.3B Valuation
FUNDING$900M+ at $6.3B valuation
XPeng Robotics Raises $900M+ at $6.3B Valuation
XPeng's robotics unit raised more than $900 million at a $6.3 billion post-money valuation, the largest single-round private raise in China's embodied-AI industry, led by IDG Capital with Tencent and Alibaba as strategic backers.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Nvidia Invests in Power Firm, Preps Perplexity Deal
FUNDING
Nvidia Invests in Power Firm, Preps Perplexity Deal
Nvidia has invested in a data-center power development firm while preparing a separate multibillion-dollar deal with Perplexity, layering equity, credit and licensing across its ecosystem.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Berry Street Merges With India's Healthify on GLP-1
FUNDING
Berry Street Merges With India's Healthify on GLP-1
US nutrition startup Berry Street merged with India's Khosla-backed Healthify to build a combined metabolic-care platform as GLP-1 adoption climbs, with JPMorgan projecting over 30 million Americans on the drugs by 2030.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
OpenAI, Anthropic Lead a Wave of Unicorns Buying Startups
FUNDING
OpenAI, Anthropic Lead a Wave of Unicorns Buying Startups
Crunchbase data shows well-funded AI unicorns making acquisitions the primary exit path for smaller startups this year, with OpenAI alone buying 8 companies in 2026 and Anthropic including a $400 million biotech deal.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Zcash Hits Eight-Year High on ETF Hopes
FUNDING
Zcash Hits Eight-Year High on ETF Hopes
Zcash has climbed to its highest level in eight years amid a broader crypto rally and expectations that a spot ETF could be approved.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
General Intuition Hits $6B Valuation on Robotics Push
FUNDING$6B valuation
General Intuition Hits $6B Valuation on Robotics Push
Valor Equity Partners and Point72 are backing General Intuition at a $6 billion valuation as the spatial-reasoning AI startup extends from video-game agents into physical robotics.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Amazon Hikes Hardware Prices 60% on Memory Shortage
FUNDING
Amazon Hikes Hardware Prices 60% on Memory Shortage
Amazon has raised prices on its own hardware devices by roughly 60%, citing the ongoing memory shortage, passing chip-side cost inflation straight to consumers.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Power Transformers Become AI Data Centers' Killer App
FUNDING
Power Transformers Become AI Data Centers' Killer App
New power transformer technology is becoming a critical enabling investment for AI data centers, as grid interconnection bottlenecks make transformer supply as scarce as chip supply once was.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Unicorns Are Buying Startups at Record Pace
FUNDING
Unicorns Are Buying Startups at Record Pace
Ultra-high-valuation private companies are driving a wave of startup-on-startup acquisitions across AI, fintech and biotech, using their own paper as currency.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Infineon Acquires India's C2i Semiconductors
FUNDING
Infineon Acquires India's C2i Semiconductors
German chipmaker Infineon is acquiring Bengaluru-based C2i Semiconductors, a fabless maker of digital power controllers for AI data centers, to expand its AI-infrastructure power portfolio and India engineering footprint.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Berry Street Merges With Healthify on GLP-1 Demand
FUNDING
Berry Street Merges With Healthify on GLP-1 Demand
US nutrition startup Berry Street is merging with India's Healthify as GLP-1 drug adoption pushes demand for dietitian services and metabolic coaching.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Fasset Hits $1B Valuation on $68M Series C
FUNDING$68M Series C
Fasset Hits $1B Valuation on $68M Series C
SBI Group led a $68 million Series C into stablecoin neobank Fasset, pushing it to unicorn status as it processes more than $40 billion in annualized transaction volume.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Broadcom's AI Chip Debt Deal Balloons Toward $70B
FUNDINGup to $70B
Broadcom's AI Chip Debt Deal Balloons Toward $70B
Broadcom's AI chip financing package, first reported at up to $100B, is now expected to reach upwards of $70B in its latest structuring round, according to CNBC sources -- a real but still-fluid number as lenders finalize terms.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Samsung Plans Up to $80B in Shareholder Returns
FUNDINGup to $80B
Samsung Plans Up to $80B in Shareholder Returns
Samsung Electronics is preparing a shareholder-return package worth up to $80B after SK Hynix's own buyback, as both Korean memory giants ride a chip-pricing surge driven by AI server demand.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Starcloud Raises $250M for Orbital AI Data Centers
FUNDING$250M at $2.3B
Starcloud Raises $250M for Orbital AI Data Centers
Orbital data-center startup Starcloud added a $250M extension at a $2.3B valuation, backed by Nvidia and Cisco, to build satellite-based AI compute as ground-based launch capacity tightens.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
New York Overtakes SF for Tech Talent, CBRE Finds
FUNDING
New York Overtakes SF for Tech Talent, CBRE Finds
New York has displaced San Francisco as the top US market for tech talent for the first time, according to CBRE, a shift with direct implications for where early-stage venture capital concentrates its next wave of office and seed bets.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
America's Debt Load Collides With the AI Spending Boom
FUNDING
America's Debt Load Collides With the AI Spending Boom
Axios reports that soaring US national debt is increasingly competing with private AI infrastructure spending for the same pool of lendable capital, a tension already showing up in how hyperscalers finance chip and data-center buildouts.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Japan's Letara Raises $16M Beyond Satellite Thrusters
FUNDING$16M
Japan's Letara Raises $16M Beyond Satellite Thrusters
Japanese space-propulsion startup Letara raised $16M to expand beyond its core satellite thruster business into broader space-systems work, as Japan's own satellite and launch industry attracts growing venture capital.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Why I'm Wary of the New $1B+ Series A
FUNDING
Why I'm Wary of the New $1B+ Series A
Velaura AI hit a $1B+ valuation on its first priced round. I like the team and the problem -- I'm just not sure a Series A should ever carry a unicorn price tag, no matter how hot the sector.
TRACE'S TAKE
FUNDING
Why Late-Stage AI Rounds Keep Doubling in Under a Year
FUNDING
Why Late-Stage AI Rounds Keep Doubling in Under a Year
Higgsfield quadrupled its valuation to $5.4B in eight months, Etched doubled to $21B in under a month, and Rillet closed its Series C in under 48 hours -- late-stage AI markups are compressing from years to weeks.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
August's AI Infrastructure Deals Already Top $8.7B
FUNDING
August's AI Infrastructure Deals Already Top $8.7B
Databricks' $5B raise, Firmus' $2B round, Castelion's $1B Series C and Etched's $700M add up to $8.7B in AI infrastructure and adjacent capital-intensive funding in August alone.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Nvidia Pays Poolside $6B to License AI Models
FUNDING$6B license + $1B invest
Nvidia Pays Poolside $6B to License AI Models
Nvidia agreed to pay AI startup Poolside $6B to license its model-development software and invest $1B more at a $12B valuation, while hiring more than 100 Poolside employees onto its own teams.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Bitcoin Jumps 12% as Crypto Clarity Act Nears Vote
FUNDING12% two-day gain
Bitcoin Jumps 12% as Crypto Clarity Act Nears Vote
Bitcoin surged roughly 12% over two days to about $72,384 as President Trump and crypto industry executives mounted a final push for the Clarity Act, a bill that would settle which federal agency regulates digital assets.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Broadcom Seeks Up to $100B in AI Chip Debt
FUNDINGup to $100B debt
Broadcom Seeks Up to $100B in AI Chip Debt
Broadcom is in talks to borrow up to $100 billion to finance custom AI chip production for Anthropic and OpenAI, with Anthropic alone expected to account for more than 40% of the total.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Vessev Raises $19M to Bring Electric Boats to the US
FUNDING$19M Series A
Vessev Raises $19M to Bring Electric Boats to the US
New Zealand's Vessev raised a $19M Series A led by Blackbird Ventures to launch its electric hydrofoil ferries in the US, naming Lake Tahoe operator FlyTahoe as its first American customer.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Colossal Spinout Astromech Hits $3.8B on Biology AI
FUNDING$20M at $3.8B
Colossal Spinout Astromech Hits $3.8B on Biology AI
Astromech, a Colossal Biosciences spinout co-founded by Ben Lamm and George Church, raised $20M at a $3.8B valuation to build AI models that predict evolutionary biological change.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Twin1 AI Exits Stealth With $20M for Digital Twins
FUNDING$20M seed
Twin1 AI Exits Stealth With $20M for Digital Twins
Twin1 AI raised a $20M seed co-led by Bessemer, Tribeca Venture Partners and Aramco Ventures to build AI digital twins that preserve a professional's judgment and context across an organization.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Fractile Nears $6.5B Value After Anthropic Chip Deal
FUNDING$600M at $6.5B
Fractile Nears $6.5B Value After Anthropic Chip Deal
UK chip startup Fractile is in talks to raise $600M at a $6.5B valuation, more than 6x its May mark, after agreeing to sell Anthropic $250M of unshipped SRAM-based inference chips.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Castelion Hits $13B Value on $1B Hypersonic Missile Round
FUNDING$1B Series C at $13B
Castelion Hits $13B Value on $1B Hypersonic Missile Round
Castelion, the hypersonic-missile startup founded by former SpaceX executives, raised a $1B Series C co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Carlyle and JPMorgan Chase at a $13B valuation, more than double its prior mark.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Muon Space Raises $250M to Build 500 Satellites a Year
FUNDING$250M Series C
Muon Space Raises $250M to Build 500 Satellites a Year
Satellite maker Muon Space raised a $250M Series C at a $1.5B valuation led by Eclipse, with Google and Salesforce Ventures joining, to scale production toward 500 satellites a year by 2027.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Inside OpenRouter's Cap Table Ahead of a Sale
FUNDING
Inside OpenRouter's Cap Table Ahead of a Sale
Newcomer's deep dive into OpenRouter's cap table shows how quickly the AI model-routing startup's ownership structure evolved en route to Stripe's roughly $7.5B acquisition, with early seed investors sitting on outsized returns.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Apollo Atomics Raises $31M to Shrink Nuclear Reactors
FUNDING$31M seed
Apollo Atomics Raises $31M to Shrink Nuclear Reactors
Apollo Atomics, an MIT spinoff, raised a $31M seed to build factory-made compact nuclear reactors with 40x smaller footprints, targeting AI data centers hungry for dedicated power.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
This Week's Funding: $1.1B Across 5 Deals, Etched Takes Most
FUNDING$1.1B in 5 rounds
This Week's Funding: $1.1B Across 5 Deals, Etched Takes Most
Five disclosed rounds this week total roughly $1.1B, with Etched's $700M chip raise alone accounting for about 64% of it -- AI infrastructure still absorbing a disproportionate share of available capital.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Fintech Startup Tabs Hits $400M Valuation on AI Billing
FUNDING$400M valuation
Fintech Startup Tabs Hits $400M Valuation on AI Billing
Tabs, a New York fintech automating revenue recognition and billing with AI, has raised roughly $92M total and is now valued at $400M, built by founder Ali Hussain, who left a PhD track at Oxford to join an early-stage startup.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Early Cerebras Backer Adit Singh Joins Mayfield
FUNDING
Early Cerebras Backer Adit Singh Joins Mayfield
Adit Singh, the Foundation Capital partner who co-led Cerebras's first funding round a decade ago, has joined Mayfield as an infrastructure partner focused on semiconductors, hardware, cybersecurity and physical AI.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Anthropic's Enterprise Venture Ode Buys Casper Studios
FUNDING
Anthropic's Enterprise Venture Ode Buys Casper Studios
Ode, Anthropic's enterprise AI services venture launched in July 2026 at a $1.5B valuation, acquired consultancy Casper Studios to embed Claude into corporate systems -- its second deal after May's Fractional AI purchase.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
UBS Poaches JPMorgan's AI Chief to Lead Banking Push
FUNDING
UBS Poaches JPMorgan's AI Chief to Lead Banking Push
UBS hired Daniele Magazzeni, formerly JPMorgan's chief analytics officer for its investment bank after nearly six years in AI research, to lead its own AI strategy as banks compete for scarce AI talent.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Marvell Gives Google Right to Buy $12.2B in Stock
FUNDING$12.2B stock warrant
Marvell Gives Google Right to Buy $12.2B in Stock
Marvell granted Google warrants to buy up to $12.2B of its shares, vesting as Google buys custom chips through fiscal 2033, in a deal that could bring Marvell roughly $120B in chip sales and diversifies Google away from Broadcom.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Nvidia Plays Matchmaker as Nordic AI Data Centers Boom
FUNDING
Nvidia Plays Matchmaker as Nordic AI Data Centers Boom
Nvidia is connecting GPU-buying customers with Nordic data-center operators as cheap power, available land and cooler climates drive a regional AI infrastructure boom, extending its influence beyond chip sales into deal-brokering.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Rivian Spinout Also Raises $150M for Autonomous Delivery Push
FUNDING$150M
Rivian Spinout Also Raises $150M for Autonomous Delivery Push
Also, the micromobility company Rivian spun out in 2025, raised another $150M to expand from e-bikes and cargo quads into autonomous delivery vehicles, pushing its total funding past $500M.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Bootstrapped Nine Years, Prevalent AI Takes $22M
FUNDING$22M growth
Bootstrapped Nine Years, Prevalent AI Takes $22M
London's Prevalent AI raised $22M from Integrity Growth Partners, its first outside investment in nine years of bootstrapped, profitable operation building an AI data fabric for large enterprises.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Relativity Networks Lands $22M for Faster Data Fiber
FUNDING$22M SAFE
Relativity Networks Lands $22M for Faster Data Fiber
Orlando startup Relativity Networks raised $22M for hollow-core fiber that moves data 47% faster than glass fiber, and landed a $40M follow-on order from an unnamed hyperscaler.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Navi Raises $100M From Prosus, First Outside Capital in 8 Years
FUNDING$100M at ~$1.3B
Navi Raises $100M From Prosus, First Outside Capital in 8 Years
Sachin Bansal's Indian fintech Navi raised $100M from Prosus at a roughly $1.3B valuation -- its first institutional capital after eight years of being funded entirely by its founder.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Rillet Hits $1B Valuation on $100M Series C
FUNDING$100M Series C at $1B
Rillet Hits $1B Valuation on $100M Series C
Rillet raised a $100 million Series C led by ICONIQ at a $1 billion valuation, its third round in a year, pushing total funding past $200 million for an AI-native accounting platform aimed at NetSuite and Sage.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Hopscotch Raises $53M Series D for Value-Based Pediatric Care
FUNDING$53M Series D
Hopscotch Raises $53M Series D for Value-Based Pediatric Care
Chicago-based Hopscotch raised a $53M Series D led by Town Hall Ventures to expand value-based pediatric and behavioral health care, betting outcomes-linked contracts scale better than telehealth access alone.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Etched Raises $700M as Valuation Doubles to $21B
FUNDING$700M at $21B
Etched Raises $700M as Valuation Doubles to $21B
Etched raised $700 million led by Jane Street at a $21 billion valuation, doubling the $10.3 billion mark it set in July after the quant firm tested the startup's inference hardware and installed a rack in its own data center.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Anthro Energy Breaks Ground on Kentucky Electrolyte Plant
FUNDING$24.9M DOE award
Anthro Energy Breaks Ground on Kentucky Electrolyte Plant
Anthro Energy broke ground on a Louisville factory sized for 25 gigawatt-hours of battery electrolytes annually, backed by $24.9 million from the Department of Energy and $18.4 million in investment tax credits.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Daniel Ek's Neko Health Opens First US Clinic in SoHo
FUNDING$700M Series C
Daniel Ek's Neko Health Opens First US Clinic in SoHo
Neko Health will open its first American location on September 24 at 300 Lafayette Street in SoHo, with more than 25,000 New Yorkers already on the waitlist, a month after raising a $700 million Series C.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Physical AI Startups Took $47.4B in the First Half
FUNDING$47.4B in H1 2026
Physical AI Startups Took $47.4B in the First Half
Global venture funding into physical AI reached $47.4 billion across 521 deals in the first half of 2026, nearly 4x the second half of 2025 and more than the entire 2022-2024 period combined.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Reach Capital Closes $265M Fund V in Six Months
FUNDING$265M Fund V
Reach Capital Closes $265M Fund V in Six Months
Reach Capital closed a $265 million Fund V to back AI founders in learning, health and work, raising it in under six months with LPs including Capricorn, the LEGO Foundation and the LA Fire and Police Pensions.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Smack Technologies Raises $61M for Battlefield AI
FUNDING$61M Series B
Smack Technologies Raises $61M for Battlefield AI
Smack Technologies raised a $61 million Series B led by Costanoa Ventures and First In, bringing total funding past $90 million, months after the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a "supply-chain risk" and sent military branches scrambling for alternative AI vendors.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
SoftBank Puts $200M Into Gravis Robotics at $1B
FUNDING$200M Series A at $1B
SoftBank Puts $200M Into Gravis Robotics at $1B
SoftBank sole-invested $200 million into Gravis Robotics, a 75-person ETH Zurich spinout that retrofits excavators with autonomy kits, at a $1 billion valuation -- what the company calls the largest Series A in construction-robotics history.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Gravis Robotics Lands $200M From SoftBank Alone
FUNDING$200M Series A
Gravis Robotics Lands $200M From SoftBank Alone
SoftBank invested $200 million in Gravis Robotics, a Zurich startup that retrofits excavators with autonomous software, in what the company calls the largest Series A in construction-robotics history.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Wispr Raises $280M at $2B on Voice AI Bet
FUNDING$280M at $2B
Wispr Raises $280M at $2B on Voice AI Bet
Voice AI startup Wispr raised a $280 million Series B led by Menlo Ventures at a $2 billion valuation, more than six times its prior mark, as it expands from dictation into meeting notes and other text-box replacements.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Wispr Flow Raises $280M at $2B Valuation
FUNDING$280M Series B at $2B
Wispr Flow Raises $280M at $2B Valuation
Wispr Flow raised a $280 million Series B led by Menlo Ventures at a $2 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $361 million less than ten months after its prior round, and previewed a proprietary speech model that cuts word-error rates from over 30% to as low as 5%.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Chip Giants Backed $250B of Startup Rounds This Year
FUNDING$250B+ in rounds
Chip Giants Backed $250B of Startup Rounds This Year
Semiconductor companies have participated in startup financings collectively valued at more than $250 billion in 2026, with Nvidia alone taking part in a record 59 rounds and leading or co-leading at least 11.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Higgsfield Quadruples Valuation to $5.4B in 8 Months
FUNDING$400M Series B at $5.4B
Higgsfield Quadruples Valuation to $5.4B in 8 Months
AI video and image startup Higgsfield raised a $400 million Series B at a $5.4 billion valuation, four times its mark from eight months ago, on $700 million in annualized revenue.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Nvidia Discloses $21B Stake in SpaceX
FUNDING$21B disclosed stake
Nvidia Discloses $21B Stake in SpaceX
Nvidia disclosed a stake in SpaceX worth roughly $21 billion at the end of Q2, its second-largest equity holding, acquired through its earlier $10 billion investment in xAI before SpaceX absorbed the company.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Groq Raises $350M to Pivot From Chips to Neocloud
FUNDING$350M at $3.5B
Groq Raises $350M to Pivot From Chips to Neocloud
Groq raised $350 million at a $3.5 billion valuation, down from $6.9 billion last September, as it completes a pivot from AI chipmaker to inference cloud provider after Nvidia hired its founder in a $20 billion licensing deal.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Terra Industries Closes $52M Seed for Defense Tech
FUNDING$52M seed
Terra Industries Closes $52M Seed for Defense Tech
Nigerian defense-tech startup Terra Industries closed a $52 million seed round, one of Africa's largest, and is opening a London office while booking $100 million in contracts including a federal deal.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Sound-Powered Fire Startup Raises $15M Seed
FUNDING$15M seed
Sound-Powered Fire Startup Raises $15M Seed
Ohio-based Sonic Fire Tech raised a $15 million round to develop infrasound fire suppression that extinguishes flames with low-frequency sound waves instead of water or chemicals.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Uber Invests in Zipline for Eats Drone Delivery
FUNDINGStrategic investment, undisclosed
Uber Invests in Zipline for Eats Drone Delivery
Uber is making a strategic investment in Zipline as part of a partnership to bring drone delivery to Uber Eats, targeting one million daily drone deliveries by the end of 2029.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Defense Tech's Funding Boom Still Has Room to Run
FUNDING$35.6B H1 defense funding
Defense Tech's Funding Boom Still Has Room to Run
Anduril's talks for a $100 billion valuation, up from $61 billion two months ago, are the headline, but the real story is how deep the defense-tech funding bench has gotten behind it.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Inside AI Infra's Money Trail: Databricks to Fireworks
FUNDING$5B round / $190B valuation
Inside AI Infra's Money Trail: Databricks to Fireworks
Databricks' $5 billion round at a $190 billion valuation, Together AI's doubled $8.3 billion mark, and Fireworks AI's leap to $17.5 billion trace a single financing pattern reshaping AI infrastructure investing.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Live Commerce Defies the AI Narrative at Whatnot
FUNDING$545M Series G
Live Commerce Defies the AI Narrative at Whatnot
Whatnot doubled its valuation to $20 billion in a live-shopping market that has nothing to do with AI, proof that non-AI consumer businesses can still command venture megaround pricing in 2026.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
August's Mega-Rounds Have Already Cleared $9B
FUNDING$9.25B in 5 rounds
August's Mega-Rounds Have Already Cleared $9B
Five disclosed rounds in the first two weeks of August 2026 -- Databricks, Firmus, River AI, Lovable and Form Energy -- total roughly $9.25 billion, with data infrastructure and AI compute taking three quarters of it.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
The Seed Round Is Now an Infrastructure Round
FUNDING$1.1B seed + Series A
The Seed Round Is Now an Infrastructure Round
River AI raised $1.1 billion across a seed and Series A two months after leaving stealth, the clearest example yet of a 2026 pattern where pre-product AI infrastructure companies raise growth-stage sums at formation.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Founders, Stop Chasing the Unicorn Math
FUNDING
Founders, Stop Chasing the Unicorn Math
Forty companies crossed $1 billion in valuation in July alone, the fastest monthly pace in four years -- but a rising share of that math is markup, not revenue, and founders optimizing for the headline number are optimizing for the wrong thing.
TRACE'S TAKE
FUNDING
Air Taxis Consolidate: Archer Buys Wisk, Joby Buys Defense
FUNDING$500M Joby deal
Air Taxis Consolidate: Archer Buys Wisk, Joby Buys Defense
Archer Aviation acquired Boeing's Wisk Aero along with SkyGrid and Insitu, giving Boeing a 16.5% stake in Archer, while Joby paid $500 million for Resonant Sciences to launch a defense arm.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Why VCs' Biggest August Checks Went to Reactors, Not Apps
FUNDING
Why VCs' Biggest August Checks Went to Reactors, Not Apps
Five of the month's largest venture rounds funded nuclear reactors, home batteries, GPU-training infrastructure and automated factories rather than software, a distribution that says more about where capital is scarce than about any single pitch deck.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Harvard's Endowment Discloses $2.2B SpaceX Stake
FUNDING$2.2B stake
Harvard's Endowment Discloses $2.2B SpaceX Stake
Harvard Management Company's 13F filing showed a $2.2 billion SpaceX position, the largest single stock in its disclosed U.S. equity book, turning a venture bet placed more than a decade ago into the endowment's biggest public holding.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
18 Fusion Startups Have Now Raised Over $100M Each
FUNDING
18 Fusion Startups Have Now Raised Over $100M Each
At least 18 fusion-energy companies have raised more than $100 million each in private capital, led by Commonwealth Fusion Systems at roughly $3.94 billion and Helion at $3.2 billion in committed capital.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
AI Coding Tools Have Minted Five $1B+ Companies
FUNDING
AI Coding Tools Have Minted Five $1B+ Companies
Five AI coding-tool startups now carry valuations above $1 billion after this month's rounds, a cluster of pricing that says more about how much capital is chasing the category than about any one company's product lead.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Defense Tech's Funding Surge Shows No Sign of Slowing
FUNDING
Defense Tech's Funding Surge Shows No Sign of Slowing
August alone has produced a $250 million Neros Technologies round and a fresh $1.37 billion Hadrian raise, extending a defense-tech funding pace that has now outrun every full prior year on record.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Form Energy Raises $750M to Scale Grid Batteries
FUNDING
Form Energy Raises $750M to Scale Grid Batteries
Form Energy raised $750 million led by T. Rowe Price to scale its 100-hour iron-air grid battery technology, the third-largest round in Crunchbase's tracking of this week's biggest U.S. deals behind Databricks and River AI.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Thrive Capital Finds Its Own VC Lane
FUNDING
Thrive Capital Finds Its Own VC Lane
A Newcomer profile describes Thrive Capital settling into three distinct strategies: a $9 billion growth fund, a $1 billion early-stage vehicle, and Thrive Holdings, which buys into AI-transformation bets inside existing companies.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Nvidia Reveals $21B SpaceX Stake, $30B in Intel
FUNDING$21B + $30B stakes
Nvidia Reveals $21B SpaceX Stake, $30B in Intel
A regulatory filing disclosed Nvidia's SpaceX and Intel stakes are now worth roughly $51 billion combined, the first time the chipmaker has put a number on its SpaceX position since folding its xAI investment into the company.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
40 Companies Joined the Unicorn Board in July
FUNDING
40 Companies Joined the Unicorn Board in July
Crunchbase counted 40 new companies crossing $1 billion in valuation in July 2026, the highest monthly total in more than four years, led by three decacorns that added a combined $49 billion in value.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Orbital Data Centers Open Talks With Space Insurers
FUNDING
Orbital Data Centers Open Talks With Space Insurers
Companies backed by SpaceX and Blue Origin have begun early talks with insurers about covering orbital AI data centers, a nascent risk category where global space-insurance premiums total only $500-750 million a year today.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Thrive's Joshua Kushner Buys the Lakers for $12.5B
FUNDING
Thrive's Joshua Kushner Buys the Lakers for $12.5B
Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner has agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion, one of the largest sports franchise transactions ever, extending a venture investor's reach deep into professional sports ownership.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
The 2026 Repricing Sprint: What This Week Means for Term Sheets
FUNDING
The 2026 Repricing Sprint: What This Week Means for Term Sheets
This week's Databricks, Cognition and Anthropic developments show valuation cycles for AI leaders compressing from years to months, forcing founders and investors to rethink how long a primary valuation should even hold.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
What This Week's SEC Filings Say About the IPO Pipeline
FUNDING
What This Week's SEC Filings Say About the IPO Pipeline
A cluster of S-1 and S-1/A filings hit the SEC this week, including two blank-check acquisition vehicles, pointing to renewed small-cap IPO and SPAC registration activity even as attention concentrates on mega-cap AI listings.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
By The Numbers: Why Mega-Rounds Now Carry Two Valuations
FUNDING
By The Numbers: Why Mega-Rounds Now Carry Two Valuations
A growing share of 2026's largest AI funding rounds are being priced across two separate valuation tranches in the same raise, a structure that lets late-stage investors buy in at different price points within one deal.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Khartis Emerges From Stealth With $95M for a Thyroid Pill
FUNDING$50M Series B
Khartis Emerges From Stealth With $95M for a Thyroid Pill
Khartis Therapeutics emerged from stealth with $95 million in total funding, including a new $50 million Series B, to develop an oral alternative to injectable treatments for thyroid eye disease.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Mindgard Raises $30M to Red-Team Enterprise AI Systems
FUNDING$30M Series A
Mindgard Raises $30M to Red-Team Enterprise AI Systems
Mindgard raised a $30 million Series A led by Album VC to scale an automated red-teaming platform for AI systems, after its research uncovered a zero-day flaw in Cursor and defects in Google Antigravity and ChatGPT.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Databricks Closes $5B Round at $190B Valuation
FUNDING
Databricks Closes $5B Round at $190B Valuation
Databricks closed a $5 billion round at a $190 billion valuation led by Coatue, after the company said it crossed a $7 billion annualized revenue run-rate with more than 80% year-over-year growth.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Investors Sue Selena Gomez Over Wondermind's Collapse
FUNDING
Investors Sue Selena Gomez Over Wondermind's Collapse
Five investors who put $1.2 million into Selena Gomez's mental-health startup Wondermind are suing her and her mother, alleging securities fraud and breach of contract after the company quietly collapsed without informing backers.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Bridge to Life Raises $110M for Organ Preservation
FUNDING$110M Series C
Bridge to Life Raises $110M for Organ Preservation
Bridge to Life closed $110 million in Series C equity funding plus additional debt financing for its organ preservation and perfusion technology, part of a broader wave of biotech capital chasing transplant and longevity-adjacent medtech in 2026.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Heaviside's Valuation Jumps 21x in Three Months
FUNDING$60M at $600M
Heaviside's Valuation Jumps 21x in Three Months
Precision-munitions startup Heaviside raised a $60 million Series B at a $600 million valuation, more than 21 times its Series A price three months ago, and partnered with Norwegian defense manufacturer Nammo to supply warheads.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Trunk Tools' Founder Went From Teenage Carpenter to AI CEO
FUNDING
Trunk Tools' Founder Went From Teenage Carpenter to AI CEO
Trunk Tools founder Sarah Buchner, a former carpenter and general contractor, has grown the construction-AI startup's revenue fourfold in the past year on top of a $40 million Series B valuing it at $325 million.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Cognition in Talks to Raise at $40B Valuation for Devin AI
FUNDINGTalks at $40B+ valuation
Cognition in Talks to Raise at $40B Valuation for Devin AI
Cognition, maker of the AI coding agent Devin, is reportedly in early talks to raise more than $1 billion at a valuation above $40 billion, up from $26 billion three months ago, as its revenue run rate nears $1 billion.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Cognition Nears $40B Valuation, Up 50%+ Since Spring
FUNDING$40B+ (in talks)
Cognition Nears $40B Valuation, Up 50%+ Since Spring
AI coding startup Cognition is in early talks for a new round that could value it above $40 billion, more than 50% above the $26 billion mark it set in May, as it approaches a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Thrive Holdings Raises $2B to Buy and Rewire Firms With AI
FUNDING$2B at $12B valuation
Thrive Holdings Raises $2B to Buy and Rewire Firms With AI
Thrive Holdings, the Thrive Capital spinout that acquires services businesses and rebuilds them with AI, raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation from SoftBank, D1 Capital and Altimeter, with OpenAI as an equity holder.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Form Energy Raises $750M for 100-Hour Grid Batteries
FUNDING$750M Series G
Form Energy Raises $750M for 100-Hour Grid Batteries
Form Energy raised a $750 million Series G led by T. Rowe Price to expand its iron-air batteries, which store power for up to 100 hours and are being bought by Google, Xcel Energy and Crusoe for AI data center power.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
CodeRabbit Raises $143M at $1.5B Valuation
FUNDING$143M Series C
CodeRabbit Raises $143M at $1.5B Valuation
CodeRabbit raised $143 million in a Series C led by Atomico and Smash Capital at a $1.5 billion valuation, with revenue up more than 5x as the AI-code-review startup pitches itself as the governance layer for a flood of AI-generated code.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Lovable Confirms $13.3B Valuation, Raises Another $400M
FUNDING$400M at $13.3B valuation
Lovable Confirms $13.3B Valuation, Raises Another $400M
Vibe-coding startup Lovable closed a $400 million Series C at a $13.3 billion valuation, doubling its worth from December, after crossing $500 million in annualized revenue and projecting $600 million by month's end.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Skan AI Raises $63M Betting Work-Observation Is the Missing Layer
FUNDING$63M Series C
Skan AI Raises $63M Betting Work-Observation Is the Missing Layer
Skan AI raised a $63 million Series C co-led by Cathay Innovation and Dell Technologies Capital to expand a platform mapping how employees actually work, arguing AI agents fail from missing context, not weak models.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
ClearJet Raises $25M to Build the 'Uber of Cargo'
FUNDING$25M Series B
ClearJet Raises $25M to Build the 'Uber of Cargo'
ClearJet, an Austin logistics startup that fills unused cargo space on commercial flights, raised a $25 million Series B led by Edison Partners after tripling revenue and approaching nine figures in annual sales while already profitable.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Blacksmith's Valuation Jumps 10x to $550M in Under a Year
FUNDING$45M at $550M val.
Blacksmith's Valuation Jumps 10x to $550M in Under a Year
Blacksmith, a code-testing and validation startup, raised a $45 million Series B led by Peak XV Partners at a $550 million valuation, up from $60 million less than a year earlier, as AI-generated code drives demand for faster validation.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Reservoir Raises $8M Seed for Grid-Friendly Water Heaters
FUNDING$8M seed
Reservoir Raises $8M Seed for Grid-Friendly Water Heaters
Reservoir, a Boston-area startup, raised an $8 million seed round led by Asymmetric Capital Partners to sell heat pump water heaters that shift electricity use to off-peak hours and act as a distributed grid asset.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Lovable Doubles Valuation to $13.3B in Eight Months
FUNDING$400M at $13.3B
Lovable Doubles Valuation to $13.3B in Eight Months
Swedish vibe-coding startup Lovable raised $400 million at a $13.3 billion valuation, doubling its worth in eight months as annualized revenue approaches $600 million.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Fitness Startup Funding Rebounds to $3.6B in H1 2026
FUNDING$3.6B, H1 2026
Fitness Startup Funding Rebounds to $3.6B in H1 2026
Fitness and wellness startups raised $3.6 billion in H1 2026, a third higher than 2025's six-year funding low, though the recovery is concentrated in fewer, larger AI-enabled rounds.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
General Catalyst Leads $1.1B Round Into 2-Month-Old River AI
FUNDING$1.1B
General Catalyst Leads $1.1B Round Into 2-Month-Old River AI
River AI, founded by xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, raised $1.1 billion led by General Catalyst just two months after stealth, betting enterprises can train AI models without a dedicated infra team.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Neros Raises $250M Series C at $2.5B for Defense Drones
FUNDING$250M Series C at $2.5B
Neros Raises $250M Series C at $2.5B for Defense Drones
Neros Technologies raised a $250 million Series C co-led by Sequoia Capital and the American Strategic Technology Fund at a $2.5 billion valuation, funding a push to build 1 million US-made drones a year by 2028.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Accel Raises $3.5B for Early-Stage Global AI Bets
FUNDING$3.5B fund
Accel Raises $3.5B for Early-Stage Global AI Bets
Accel closed a $3.5 billion early-stage fund split across the US, Europe/Israel and India, its second major AI-focused vehicle in four months after backing Anthropic, Cursor and Perplexity.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Flagler Health Raises $50M to Fix Musculoskeletal Care
FUNDING$50M Series B
Flagler Health Raises $50M to Fix Musculoskeletal Care
Flagler Health raised a $50 million Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners to build an AI-native platform coordinating clinical and administrative workflows for musculoskeletal care providers.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Vaderis Raises $152M Series B for Rare Disease Trial
FUNDING$152.5M Series B
Vaderis Raises $152M Series B for Rare Disease Trial
Vaderis Therapeutics closed an oversubscribed $152.5 million Series B co-led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and TCGX to fund a global Phase 3 trial of its drug for a rare blood vessel disorder.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Accel's India Fund Closes Oversubscribed in Weeks
FUNDING$550M fund
Accel's India Fund Closes Oversubscribed in Weeks
Accel closed its ninth India-focused fund at $550 million, oversubscribed and completed within weeks, even though the firm still has more than 55% of its prior $650 million India vehicle left to invest.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
Infinimmune Raises $75M for Human-Derived Antibody Drugs
FUNDING$75M Series A
Infinimmune Raises $75M for Human-Derived Antibody Drugs
Infinimmune raised a $75 million Series A co-led by Regeneron Ventures and Playground Global to advance two atopic dermatitis antibody candidates built from its human-derived Anthrobody platform.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
AI Agent Security Funding Tops $435M in Two Weeks
FUNDING$435M combined
AI Agent Security Funding Tops $435M in Two Weeks
Corma, Zenity and Horizon3 raised a combined $435 million in the first ten days of August for AI-agent and AI-driven cybersecurity defense, three separate bets that defensive tooling is under-capitalized relative to offensive AI capability.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Yulu Raises $93M as Quick-Commerce Fuels E-Bike Demand
FUNDING$93M Series C
Yulu Raises $93M as Quick-Commerce Fuels E-Bike Demand
Yulu, a Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler subscription platform, raised $93 million in Series C funding as India's quick-commerce boom drives delivery-driver demand ahead of an eventual IPO.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Aureka Biotechnologies Raises $100M for Biology AI Models
FUNDING$100M Series B
Aureka Biotechnologies Raises $100M for Biology AI Models
Aureka Biotechnologies raised a $100 million Series B led by Granite Asia to train biological foundation models for drug discovery, bringing the AI-native TechBio company's total funding to nearly $200 million.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Point2 Technology Extends Series B to $136M With Arm
FUNDING$136M Series B
Point2 Technology Extends Series B to $136M With Arm
Point2 Technology expanded its Series B to $136 million as chip designer Arm joined as a strategic investor, backing the San Jose startup's RF-over-plastic interconnect technology for AI data center scale-up systems.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
inKind Secures $414M to Fund 8,500 Restaurants
FUNDING$414M financing
inKind Secures $414M to Fund 8,500 Restaurants
inKind, an Austin-based restaurant commerce platform, closed an oversubscribed $414 million financing tranche led by Citi and Cross River, pushing its total capital raised past $1.2 billion.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Corma Raises $60M Seed to Build Defensive Cyber AI
FUNDING$60M seed
Corma Raises $60M Seed to Build Defensive Cyber AI
Corma, a Tel Aviv and San Francisco startup, emerged from stealth with a $60 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital to build what it calls the first foundation model purpose-built for defensive cybersecurity.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Anduril Backers Give Cambridge Aerospace $3.4B Valuation
FUNDING$300M Series C
Anduril Backers Give Cambridge Aerospace $3.4B Valuation
Cambridge Aerospace, a British drone-and-missile interceptor startup, raised a $300 million Series C led by DFJ Growth at a $3.4 billion valuation, taking its total raised past $630 million in under two years.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Aurelius Systems Raises $40M for Laser Defense
FUNDING$40M Series A
Aurelius Systems Raises $40M for Laser Defense
Aurelius Systems raised a $40M Series A to scale Archimedes, its autonomous laser system for tracking and neutralizing small drones, co-led by Draper Associates and KAS Venture Partners.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Cover Genius Hits $1.9B Valuation on $100M Raise
FUNDING$100M at $1.9B val.
Cover Genius Hits $1.9B Valuation on $100M Raise
Cover Genius, a New York-based embedded-insurance platform, raised $100M from Vista Credit Partners at a $1.9B valuation, backed by 50% year-over-year revenue growth.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Digital Health VC Funding Hits $7.4B in 2026
FUNDING$7.4B H1 total
Digital Health VC Funding Hits $7.4B in 2026
Digital health venture funding reached $7.4 billion in the first half of 2026, with 19 companies raising 20 megadeals of $100 million or more -- 45% of all capital invested in the sector.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Robotics Startups Have Raised $23B So Far in 2026
FUNDING$23B+ 2026 total
Robotics Startups Have Raised $23B So Far in 2026
Robotics startups have raised more than $23 billion in 2026, nearly matching all of 2025, with humanoid-specific funding alone reaching $8.6 billion -- 1.8 times last year's full-year total with five months still to go.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
AI Chip Startups Have Raised $4.16B So Far in 2026
FUNDING$4.16B YTD
AI Chip Startups Have Raised $4.16B So Far in 2026
AI chip and semiconductor startups have closed roughly $4.16 billion in disclosed venture funding in 2026, with the large majority of deals clearing $50 million, led by Etched's $300 million round at a $10.3 billion valuation.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Enterprise AI Raised Another $590M You Missed
FUNDING~$590M combined
Enterprise AI Raised Another $590M You Missed
Simile, CAIS, Eliyan and Freehand raised a combined $590M in the last two weeks of July for synthetic-user modeling, alternative-investment AI, chip interconnects and supply-chain agents — infrastructure and tooling money the model-layer headlines mostly missed.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Defense Tech's Valuation Ladder Gains a New Rung
FUNDING~$100B talks
Defense Tech's Valuation Ladder Gains a New Rung
Anduril remains in talks to raise at a roughly $100B valuation just weeks after Hadrian's own 5x step-up to $7.87B — two data points suggesting defense-tech valuations are compounding faster than the underlying contract backlogs are being disclosed.
BRIEF
FUNDING
The AI Infrastructure Tally Just Crossed $19.5B
FUNDING~$19.5B tally
The AI Infrastructure Tally Just Crossed $19.5B
Lumilens' $700M+ raise pushes this week's tally of AI physical-infrastructure funding -- reactors, batteries, fabs and now optical networking -- to roughly $19.5B across four distinct layers of the stack.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
This Week's Mega-Rounds, By the Numbers
FUNDING~$2.13B combined
This Week's Mega-Rounds, By the Numbers
Hadrian's $1.37B round, Function Health's $450M raise and OLIX's $312M photonic-chip round pushed this week's three largest US-linked venture rounds past $2.1B combined, none of it going to a foundation model.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Whatnot's $20B Round Is the Best AI News This Week
FUNDING$545M Series G at $20B
Whatnot's $20B Round Is the Best AI News This Week
Live-shopping platform Whatnot raised $545 million at a $20 billion valuation without an AI story to tell -- proof that durable consumer businesses still get funded on their own merits.
TRACE'S TAKE
FUNDING
AI's App Layer Raised $832M in a Single Week
FUNDING
AI's App Layer Raised $832M in a Single Week
K2 Space, Zenity, HappyRobot and Convex raised a combined ~$832M in eight days -- satellites, AI-agent security, enterprise agents and AI-native backend infrastructure, not a single foundation model among them.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Firmus Grid Raises $2B for AI Factories in APAC
FUNDING$2B at $10.5B
Firmus Grid Raises $2B for AI Factories in APAC
Australian AI infrastructure builder Firmus Grid closed a fully subscribed $2 billion round from Nvidia, Coatue and Blackstone, pushing its valuation above $10.5 billion to fund AI-factory expansion across Australia and Asia-Pacific.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Ex-Bitcoin Miner Firmus Raises $2B for AI Factories
FUNDING$2B at $10.5B+
Ex-Bitcoin Miner Firmus Raises $2B for AI Factories
Former bitcoin miner Firmus Grid raised a $2 billion strategic round from Nvidia, Coatue and Blackstone, pushing its post-money valuation above $10.5 billion to build AI data centers across Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
The Real AI Bottleneck This Week Was Power
FUNDING$18.8B combined
The Real AI Bottleneck This Week Was Power
Three separate US infrastructure rounds this week -- Valar Atomics' $1B nuclear raise, Base Power's $1B grid battery round, and Tesla-SpaceX's $16.8B chip fab -- show investors funding the physical layer beneath AI as heavily as the models themselves.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Naive Raises $28.5M for AI Agents That Run Companies
FUNDING$28.5M Series A
Naive Raises $28.5M for AI Agents That Run Companies
Naive raised a $28.5M Series A led by Nexus Venture Partners to let AI coding agents like Cursor and Claude Code provision payments, phone numbers and US LLC incorporation through a single API.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Hadrian Raises $1.37B to Automate Defense Factories
FUNDING$1.37B Series D
Hadrian Raises $1.37B to Automate Defense Factories
Hadrian raised a $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation -- roughly 5x its prior mark -- to build automated factories that machine precision parts for SpaceX, Anduril and other aerospace and defense suppliers.
BRIEF
FUNDING
This Week's AI Infra Rounds Already Top $3.5B
FUNDING
This Week's AI Infra Rounds Already Top $3.5B
Six rounds priced between August 3 and 6 -- Base Power, Valar Atomics, ICEYE, Olix, Obsidian Security and Faye -- add up to roughly $3.5B in fresh capital, almost all of it flowing to physical AI infrastructure, not software.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Hadrian Valuation Hits $7.9B on Defense Boom
FUNDING$1.37B round
Hadrian Valuation Hits $7.9B on Defense Boom
Hadrian raised $1.37 billion led by Baillie Gifford and JPMorgan Strategic Investment Group at a $7.9 billion valuation, more than quadrupling its January mark as investors pour capital into AI-driven defense manufacturing.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Faye Raises $50M to Scale Travel Protection
FUNDING$50M Series C
Faye Raises $50M to Scale Travel Protection
Faye raised a $50M Series C led by Madrona at an estimated $500M valuation, funding growth for its AI-powered travel protection platform that pays claims directly instead of routing through legacy insurers.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Omilia Raises $67M for Customer Support AI
FUNDING$67M Series B
Omilia Raises $67M for Customer Support AI
Omilia, a Cyprus-based conversational AI company, raised a $67M Series B led by Expedition Growth Capital after growing annual recurring revenue tenfold to $60M, its first raise since a $20M round in 2020.
BRIEF
FUNDING
DeepSeek Resumes Funding Talks, Preps Price Hikes
FUNDING~50B yuan target
DeepSeek Resumes Funding Talks, Preps Price Hikes
DeepSeek resumed a funding round targeting 50 billion yuan at a roughly 500 billion yuan pre-money valuation, expected to close in late August, while separately warning developers of significant API price increases ahead.
BRIEF
FUNDING
OpenAI Buys Patents From Altman-Backed Rain AI
FUNDING
OpenAI Buys Patents From Altman-Backed Rain AI
OpenAI acquired patents from Rain AI, the Sam Altman-backed chip startup, after a full acquisition fell through when Rain AI's own $150M funding round failed to attract investors.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Moove Raises $250M to Fuel Robotaxi Fleets
FUNDING$250M Series C
Moove Raises $250M to Fuel Robotaxi Fleets
Moove raised a $250M Series C led by Mubadala at a $2.1B valuation, repositioning its 42,000-vehicle ride-hailing fleet business as financing and operations infrastructure for the robotaxi industry, including future Waymo purchases.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Klaviyo Acquires Elias Torres' AI Startup Agency
FUNDING
Klaviyo Acquires Elias Torres' AI Startup Agency
Klaviyo agreed to acquire Agency, the three-year-old AI customer-success startup founded by Elias Torres, who backed Klaviyo's 2015 seed round as an angel and will now join as chief product officer.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Jeff Dean Launches Discovery Loop With Google Backing
FUNDING
Jeff Dean Launches Discovery Loop With Google Backing
Jeff Dean left Google after 27 years to co-found Discovery Loop, an AI research startup automating scientific discovery, with Google staying on as a founding investor and cloud partner.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
ICEYE Raises 1B EUR, Tops 10B EUR Valuation
FUNDING1B EUR Series F
ICEYE Raises 1B EUR, Tops 10B EUR Valuation
Finnish satellite radar company ICEYE raised a 1B EUR Series F including a 450M EUR primary round at a valuation above 10B EUR, with the EU-backed Scaleup Europe Fund co-leading its first-ever investment.
BRIEF
FUNDING
Apollo Names AI Sector Head to Chase Megadeals
FUNDING
Apollo Names AI Sector Head to Chase Megadeals
Apollo Global Management named a dedicated AI sector head to coordinate financing teams and pursue repeat megadeals with chipmakers, building on its $35 billion Broadcom AI infrastructure financing struck in June.
BRIEF
FUNDING
MagicSchool Raises $63M After VCs Said No
FUNDING$63M total raised
MagicSchool Raises $63M After VCs Said No
MagicSchool AI, an AI teaching-assistant platform founded by a former school principal, has raised $63M total after early investors initially passed, and now serves educators in nearly every US school district.
FUNDING
The Educator Who Built a $63M AI Edtech Startup
FUNDING$63M total raised
The Educator Who Built a $63M AI Edtech Startup
MagicSchool AI, founded by a former school principal who says VCs initially refused to fund an educator, has now raised $63M and reaches an educator in nearly every US school district.
FUNDING
Robinhood Lets Retail Investors Back Y Combinator Startups
FUNDINGUp to $200M fund
Robinhood Lets Retail Investors Back Y Combinator Startups
Robinhood is listing a publicly tradable fund that invests in current and former Y Combinator startups, opening up to $200M of early-stage venture exposure to any retail investor for the first time.
FUNDING
WindBorne Raises $37M to Fly Its Own Weather Data
FUNDING$37M
WindBorne Raises $37M to Fly Its Own Weather Data
WindBorne Systems raised $37M for its balloon-based atmospheric sensor network, selling proprietary weather data to forecasters and insurers who say government satellite and balloon coverage has thinned in the wrong places.
FUNDING
St. Louis Lands $25B in AI Data Centers
FUNDING~$25B
St. Louis Lands $25B in AI Data Centers
St. Louis has attracted roughly $25B in announced data center investment, a sign the AI infrastructure buildout is spreading well beyond the traditional hubs of Northern Virginia and Texas.
FUNDING
Volta Emerges From Stealth With a $10B Anthropic Deal
FUNDING$300M Series A
Volta Emerges From Stealth With a $10B Anthropic Deal
AI cloud startup Volta launched out of stealth with a $300M seed and Series A at a $2.4B valuation plus a six-year, roughly $10B compute deal reportedly with Anthropic, tied to a 133MW Norway site built with Bitdeer.
FUNDING
Volta Exits Stealth With $10B Anthropic Compute Deal
FUNDING$10B compute deal
Volta Exits Stealth With $10B Anthropic Compute Deal
Seven-month-old startup Volta Infra emerged from stealth with a $10B, six-year compute deal to supply Anthropic from a Norway data center built with Bitdeer, plus a separate $5B financing program to fund more sites.
FUNDING
Robinhood Opens Y Combinator Startups to Retail
FUNDINGUp to $200M raise
Robinhood Opens Y Combinator Startups to Retail
Robinhood's second closed-end venture fund, set to list publicly on August 13 at $25/share, will let any retail investor buy exposure to Y Combinator startups for the first time.
FUNDING
Can WindBorne Make AI Weather Forecasting Lucrative?
FUNDING$37M Series B
Can WindBorne Make AI Weather Forecasting Lucrative?
WindBorne Systems, which raised $37M at a $250M valuation earlier this year, is now testing whether AI weather forecasts accurate enough to beat government agencies can also be a real business, not just a research feat.
FUNDING
Indian EV Startup River Raises $120M Series C
FUNDING$120M Series C
Indian EV Startup River Raises $120M Series C
River, an Indian electric two-wheeler startup, raised a $120M Series C after scaling production with a single motorcycle model, betting on India's fast-growing EV two-wheeler market.
FUNDING
Indian EV Maker River Raises $120M Series C
FUNDING$120M Series C
Indian EV Maker River Raises $120M Series C
Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler maker River raised $120M led by Elev8 and Claypond Capital, taking total funding to $144M as it scales manufacturing and launches new models.
FUNDING
Volta's $10B AI Contract Hinges on a Norway Site
FUNDING
Volta's $10B AI Contract Hinges on a Norway Site
Days after its $2.4B valuation round, Volta Infra disclosed it will lease Norway-based capacity from Bitdeer to help deliver its reported $10B, six-year compute contract with a leading AI developer.
FUNDING
Obsidian Security Raises $85M, Crosses $1.1B Value
FUNDING$85M Series D
Obsidian Security Raises $85M, Crosses $1.1B Value
Obsidian Security raised an $85M Series D led by Crescent Cove Advisors at a $1.1B valuation, becoming a unicorn on demand for securing AI agents and non-human identities inside enterprises.
FUNDING
HappyRobot Hits $1.2B With $150M for Logistics Agents
FUNDING$150M Series C
HappyRobot Hits $1.2B With $150M for Logistics Agents
Prysm Capital and Eurazeo led a $150M Series C for HappyRobot at a $1.2B valuation, backing AI agents that handle the phone calls, emails and documents moving freight between brokers, carriers and shippers.
FUNDING
Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B, an 88% Markdown
FUNDING$1.28B acquisition
Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B, an 88% Markdown
Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Airtable for $1.28B in cash, its first deal since going public -- an 88% markdown from Airtable's $11B peak valuation during the 2021 boom.
FUNDING
July Set a Record: 14 Billion-Dollar Venture Rounds
FUNDING
July Set a Record: 14 Billion-Dollar Venture Rounds
Fourteen startups raised billion-dollar-plus rounds in July, the most in a single month ever, with $65B in total mega-round capital deployed -- up 100% year-over-year.
FUNDING
HappyRobot Hits Unicorn Status With $150M Series C
FUNDING$150M Series C
HappyRobot Hits Unicorn Status With $150M Series C
HappyRobot raised $150M at a $1.2B valuation just eight months after its Series B, with a16z and Eurazeo betting AI voice agents can expand from freight brokering into insurance, energy and airlines.
FUNDING
Base Power Raises $1B at $13B for Home Batteries
FUNDING$1B Series D
Base Power Raises $1B at $13B for Home Batteries
A consortium led by JPMorgan's Strategic Investment Group put $1B into Base Power at a $13B valuation, backing a company that leases home batteries and sells the aggregated capacity back to the grid.
FUNDING
Convex Raises $57M for an AI-Native App Backend
FUNDING$57M Series B
Convex Raises $57M for an AI-Native App Backend
Insight Partners led a $57M Series B for Convex, the reactive TypeScript backend now powering close to 2 million applications, with a16z and Spark Capital returning and OpenAI among its customers.
FUNDING
Ambrook Raises $30M to Bring Fintech to Farms
FUNDING$30M Series B
Ambrook Raises $30M to Bring Fintech to Farms
Ambrook raised a $30M Series B led by Lachy Groom to build accounting and financial-management tools built specifically for farmers, ranchers and rural businesses.
FUNDING
Antioch Raises $31M to Simulate Robots Before Building
FUNDING$31.4M
Antioch Raises $31M to Simulate Robots Before Building
Antioch raised $31.4M for a simulation platform that lets robotics teams build, test and deploy autonomous systems entirely in software before touching physical hardware.
FUNDING
Nvidia, Dell Back AI Cloud Startup Volta at $2.4B
FUNDING$300M @ $2.4B val
Nvidia, Dell Back AI Cloud Startup Volta at $2.4B
Volta Infra raised $300M at a $2.4B valuation from a16z, Altimeter, Nvidia and Michael Dell, plus a $10B, six-year cloud-capacity contract reportedly with Anthropic.
FUNDING
QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Drug Trials
FUNDING$45M Series B
QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Drug Trials
QuantHealth raised a $45M Series B led by Qumra Capital to expand AI simulation of clinical trials before patients enroll, a platform already used by 12 of the world's top 20 pharma companies.
FUNDING
MagicSchool Built an 8M-Educator AI Tool on $63M
FUNDING~$63M total raised
MagicSchool Built an 8M-Educator AI Tool on $63M
Founded by a former assistant principal who says VCs initially wouldn't fund an educator, MagicSchool has raised nearly $63M and now counts roughly 8 million educator sign-ups across 160 countries.
FUNDING
Ambrook Raises $30M to Take Farm Accounting Wider
FUNDING$30M Series B
Ambrook Raises $30M to Take Farm Accounting Wider
Lachy Groom led a $30M Series B for Ambrook, whose bookkeeping and bill-pay software grew from 2,500 to 8,000 businesses in a year and is now expanding from farms into trucking, contracting and real estate.
FUNDING
July Sets Record With 14 Billion-Dollar Rounds
FUNDING
July Sets Record With 14 Billion-Dollar Rounds
Fourteen startups raised billion-dollar-plus rounds in July, the highest monthly count on record, with $65B in combined capital led by a $10B round for Blue Origin.
FUNDING
Why VCs Are Writing Bigger Checks Into Fewer AI Deals
FUNDING
Why VCs Are Writing Bigger Checks Into Fewer AI Deals
US startup funding has already hit $415B through July across roughly 4,660 rounds -- a deal count that's not growing nearly as fast as the dollar total, meaning capital is concentrating into fewer, larger checks rather than spreading wider.
FUNDING
QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Clinical Trials
FUNDING$45M Series B
QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Clinical Trials
Qumra Capital led a $45M Series B for QuantHealth, which builds AI simulations of clinical trials so drug developers can test protocol designs before enrolling a single patient.
FUNDING
Enterprise AI's Quiet Money: Compliance, Payroll, Credit
FUNDING
Enterprise AI's Quiet Money: Compliance, Payroll, Credit
Beneath the mega-rounds, a steady stream of $10-30M seed and Series A checks is funding unglamorous back-office AI -- compliance, payroll, private-credit operations -- and that's where a lot of near-term enterprise revenue is actually landing first.
FUNDING
AI Cybersecurity's Arms Race Is Now a Funding Race
FUNDING
AI Cybersecurity's Arms Race Is Now a Funding Race
As attackers adopt AI-driven tooling, defenders are getting funded to match -- autonomous penetration-testing and AI-governance startups have both posted billion-dollar-plus valuations within the same month.
FUNDING
Defense Tech's Capital Keeps Compounding, Not Cooling
FUNDING
Defense Tech's Capital Keeps Compounding, Not Cooling
Defense tech has already pulled in more venture funding in 2026 than all of 2025 combined, and the checks keep landing even as public defense-tech comps wobble -- a split between private conviction and public market patience.
FUNDING
The Physical AI Funding Wave, By The Numbers
FUNDING
The Physical AI Funding Wave, By The Numbers
This week's largest venture checks all went to physical infrastructure -- nuclear power, chips, energy -- not software, and the dollar totals now dwarf what's going into application-layer AI startups.
FUNDING
Ore Energy Raises $43M for Iron-Air Batteries
FUNDING$43M Series A
Ore Energy Raises $43M for Iron-Air Batteries
Amsterdam's Ore Energy raised a $43M Series A from Plural and HV Capital to commercialize iron-air batteries that store renewable power for up to 100 hours at roughly a tenth of lithium-ion's cost.
FUNDING
Parallel Raises $100M to Build Search for AI Agents
FUNDING$100M Series B
Parallel Raises $100M to Build Search for AI Agents
Parallel raised a $100M Series B led by Sequoia, with Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins participating, to build a search engine designed specifically for AI agents rather than human browsers.
FUNDING
Valar Atomics Triples to $6B for Factory Nuclear
FUNDING$1B Series B
Valar Atomics Triples to $6B for Factory Nuclear
Valar Atomics raised a $1B Series B led by Sequoia at a $6B valuation, tripling its mark since April, months after using a fission reaction to power an Nvidia chip for the first time.
FUNDING
Defense Startup Twenty Technologies Raises $100M at $1B
FUNDING$100M @ $1B val
Defense Startup Twenty Technologies Raises $100M at $1B
Arlington-based cybersecurity and defense startup Twenty Technologies raised a $100M Series B led by Accel at a $1B valuation, joining a growing cohort of defense-tech companies crossing unicorn status this year.
FUNDING
Zenity Raises $125M to Police Enterprise AI Agents
FUNDING$125M Series C
Zenity Raises $125M to Police Enterprise AI Agents
Norwest led a $125M Series C for Zenity, which monitors and governs the AI agents enterprises are wiring into sensitive systems, bringing the New York- and Tel Aviv-based company's total funding to about $185M.
FUNDING
Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B in Cash
FUNDING$1.28B acquisition
Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B in Cash
Bending Spoons agreed to buy Airtable for $1.285B in its first acquisition since going public, a steep comedown from Airtable's $11B peak valuation in 2021 and its more recent $4B secondary-market price.
FUNDING
Valar Atomics Raises $1B at $6B for Factory Nuclear
FUNDING$1B Series B
Valar Atomics Raises $1B at $6B for Factory Nuclear
Sequoia led a $1B Series B for Valar Atomics at a $6B post-money valuation, tripling the mark it carried in April, weeks after the startup used a fission reaction to power an Nvidia AI chip.
FUNDING
Base Power Raises $1B, Launches Home Battery
FUNDING$1B Series D
Base Power Raises $1B, Launches Home Battery
Base Power raised $1B at a $13B valuation and launched Base Core, a 39.2 kWh home battery built in Austin -- a bet that AI-driven grid strain shows up first at the household level.
FUNDING
Baselayer Raises $20M to Automate Fraud Checks
FUNDING$20M Series A
Baselayer Raises $20M to Automate Fraud Checks
Baselayer raised a $20M Series A to automate fraud and risk checks for the 1,900+ banks and government agencies it already serves, betting the long-tail-institution market beats chasing megabanks.
FUNDING
P-1 AI Raises $50M to Automate Engineering Design
FUNDING$50M Series A
P-1 AI Raises $50M to Automate Engineering Design
P-1 AI raised a $50M Series A led by NEA for Archie, an AI agent that performs mechanical and electrical design work -- one of the few funding stories this week aimed at industrial engineering rather than software.
FUNDING
Base Power Raises $1B More for Grid Batteries
FUNDING$1B @ $13B val
Base Power Raises $1B More for Grid Batteries
Base Power closed a $1B Series D at a $13B valuation, less than a year after its last billion-dollar round, to keep installing home batteries at roughly 100 per day.
FUNDING
TwelveLabs Raises $100M to Build Video Superintelligence
FUNDING$100M Series B
TwelveLabs Raises $100M to Build Video Superintelligence
TwelveLabs raised a $100M Series B co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures to expand beyond video-understanding models into a full-stack agentic system combining perception, knowledge and reasoning for video.
FUNDING
Horizon3.ai Triples to $2B in AI Cyber Arms Race
FUNDING$250M Series E
Horizon3.ai Triples to $2B in AI Cyber Arms Race
Horizon3 closed a $250M Series E at a $2B+ valuation, tripling its mark from a year ago as its autonomous 'AI Hacker' pentesting platform posts 120% ARR growth and 7,000+ customers.
FUNDING
Sequoia Leads $1B Round for Nuclear Startup Valar
FUNDING$1B @ $6B val
Sequoia Leads $1B Round for Nuclear Startup Valar
Valar Atomics closed a $1B Series B led by Sequoia at a $6B valuation, tripling its April mark, weeks after its microreactor became the first in US history to power an Nvidia AI chip.
FUNDING
Lyzr's AI Agent Helped Raise Its Own $100M Round
FUNDING$100M Series B
Lyzr's AI Agent Helped Raise Its Own $100M Round
Lyzr raised a $100M Series B at roughly a $500M valuation after using its own AI agent, SivaClaw, to field questions from more than 130 investors and draft investment memos.
FUNDING
Base Power Raises Another $1B for Home Batteries
FUNDING$1B @ $13B val
Base Power Raises Another $1B for Home Batteries
Base Power, founded by Zach Dell, raised another $1B Series D at a $13B valuation to keep installing backyard home batteries it never sells to customers -- it owns and monetizes them as grid assets.
FUNDING
Sequoia Leads $1B Bet on Mass-Produced Nuclear Reactors
FUNDING$1B Series B at $6B
Sequoia Leads $1B Bet on Mass-Produced Nuclear Reactors
Nuclear startup Valar Atomics raised a $1 billion Series B led by Sequoia Capital at a $6 billion valuation, tripling its valuation as it works to mass-produce small reactors to power AI data centers.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
OLIX's $312M Bet Against Nvidia's Chip Shortage
FUNDING$312M Series B
OLIX's $312M Bet Against Nvidia's Chip Shortage
OLIX raised $312M to build a photonic inference chip that skips the HBM shortage bottlenecking Nvidia -- backed by Arm, Hudson River Trading and Reed Hastings, and a real signal that the AI chip market is finally getting a credible non-GPU challenger.
FUNDING
Seed Investors Are Still Funding Wonderfully Boring Ideas
FUNDING
Seed Investors Are Still Funding Wonderfully Boring Ideas
Bidbus's $15 million round for live-dealer car auctions and Smallest.ai's $13 million round for narrowly-focused voice models show seed-stage capital still backing unglamorous, defensible niches even as headlines chase AI infrastructure mega-rounds.
FUNDING
Government Money Is Becoming a Legitimate AI Infrastructure LP
FUNDING
Government Money Is Becoming a Legitimate AI Infrastructure LP
The Department of Energy converting a Cold War-era Kentucky uranium site into a $100 billion AI data-center complex, funded with private capital, shows federal real estate becoming a repeatable co-investment template for AI infrastructure.
FUNDING
Singularity Emerges From Stealth With $80M for Air Defense
FUNDING
Singularity Emerges From Stealth With $80M for Air Defense
Defense startup Singularity emerged from stealth with an $80M Series A led by Khosla Ventures and Felicis at a $400M valuation, betting on next-generation air defense technology as venture defense-tech financing keeps accelerating.
FUNDING
The AI Boom's First Real Leverage Casualty Landed Quietly
FUNDING
The AI Boom's First Real Leverage Casualty Landed Quietly
Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI-focused hedge fund shrank from roughly $45 billion to about $10 billion in weeks after a leveraged momentum trade reversed -- proof a correct AI thesis doesn't protect against leverage-driven liquidation.
FUNDING
Healthcare AI Funding Is Splitting Into a Barbell
FUNDING
Healthcare AI Funding Is Splitting Into a Barbell
Function Health's $450 million growth round at a $2.5 billion valuation and Assured's $19 million Series A, closing within a day of each other, show healthcare AI capital concentrating at the very top and very bottom of the check-size range at once.
FUNDING
Fintech's Boring AI Infrastructure Bets Are Compounding
FUNDING
Fintech's Boring AI Infrastructure Bets Are Compounding
CAIS crossing a $2 billion valuation on 37% organic revenue growth, and a Cadre-founder-led AI startup landing $50 billion in design-partner AUM before its Series A, show fintech's unglamorous back-office infrastructure layer quietly compounding.
FUNDING
AI Infrastructure's Real Exit Ramp Is M&A, Not IPOs
FUNDING
AI Infrastructure's Real Exit Ramp Is M&A, Not IPOs
Three separate deals in the past week -- Nscale buying Anyscale, Okta buying Permiso, and IonQ closing on SkyWater -- show strategic acquisitions, not public listings, are becoming AI infrastructure's dominant exit path this cycle.
FUNDING
Horizon3 Hits $2B Valuation as AI Threats Force a Security Rethink
FUNDING
Horizon3 Hits $2B Valuation as AI Threats Force a Security Rethink
Horizon3 raised a $250 million Series E at a $2 billion valuation, betting that AI-accelerated attacks require continuous, autonomous penetration testing rather than the periodic audits most enterprises still rely on.
FUNDING
Menlo Ventures Calls This a 'Rare Land-Grab Moment' in AI
FUNDING
Menlo Ventures Calls This a 'Rare Land-Grab Moment' in AI
Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy says the firm is putting $3 billion in fresh capital to work on the belief that AI's current phase is a rare, short-lived land-grab window rather than a normal cycle to wait out.
FUNDING
A Benioff-Backed Startup Bets AI Can Fix AI Deployment
FUNDING
A Benioff-Backed Startup Bets AI Can Fix AI Deployment
A Marc Benioff-backed startup is building tooling that uses AI itself to solve the notoriously messy last-mile problem of deploying AI systems into real enterprise environments.
FUNDING
Onyx Security Hits $640M Valuing AI Agent Governance
FUNDING
Onyx Security Hits $640M Valuing AI Agent Governance
Onyx Security raised $113M in a Series B at a $640M valuation just four months after emerging from stealth, governing what autonomous agents are allowed to do once inside enterprise systems.
FUNDING
MediaTek Commits $5B to Chase the AI Datacenter Boom
FUNDING
MediaTek Commits $5B to Chase the AI Datacenter Boom
MediaTek is lining up a $5 billion war chest to push into AI datacenter chips, a direct bid to grab share of the custom-silicon business Nvidia and Broadcom have dominated as hyperscaler AI spend keeps climbing.
FUNDING
Altman's $3.3B Net Worth Came From Thiel's Advice, Not OpenAI Equity
FUNDING
Altman's $3.3B Net Worth Came From Thiel's Advice, Not OpenAI Equity
Sam Altman says investing advice from Peter Thiel helped him build a $3.3 billion net worth almost entirely outside his OpenAI equity -- founder wealth and company equity as separate tracks.
FUNDING
Dash Bio Raises $30M to Rebuild Drug Development Infrastructure
FUNDING
Dash Bio Raises $30M to Rebuild Drug Development Infrastructure
Dash Bio raised $30 million to build software infrastructure for drug development, part of a small but genuine wave of AI-native infrastructure plays targeting biotech's notoriously fragmented data and workflow problems.
FUNDING
June AI Raises $20M to Fix Enterprise Software Rollouts
FUNDING
June AI Raises $20M to Fix Enterprise Software Rollouts
NYC-based June AI raised $20 million to build an AI-native implementation layer for enterprise software, targeting the deployment friction that's increasingly the real bottleneck in enterprise AI adoption.
FUNDING
Baselayer Raises $20M to Automate Fraud and Risk Checks
FUNDING
Baselayer Raises $20M to Automate Fraud and Risk Checks
Baselayer raised $20M in Series A funding to automate business risk assessment and fraud prevention for financial institutions and government agencies, bringing its total raised to $47M.
FUNDING
Dili Raises $15M to Automate Prevailing Wage Compliance
FUNDING
Dili Raises $15M to Automate Prevailing Wage Compliance
Dili raised $15M in Series A funding for an AI-native compliance platform monitoring prevailing wage and certified payroll -- a narrow but durable niche tied directly to federal infrastructure spending.
FUNDING
Why AI Agents Are Turning Data Pipes Into a Category
FUNDING$40M Series B
Why AI Agents Are Turning Data Pipes Into a Category
DataBahn's $40 million Series B for a platform that governs which enterprise data streams reach which downstream systems is a preview of how quickly "who gets to see the data" becomes its own funded category once AI agents get live production access.
FUNDING
Follow-On Rounds Are Coming Faster Than Ever
FUNDING
Follow-On Rounds Are Coming Faster Than Ever
Simile went from a $100 million Series A to a $200 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation in five months; Onyx Security raised its Series B four months after stealth -- evidence the time between funding rounds for hot AI startups keeps compressing.
FUNDING
K2 Space's $6.8B Mark Is a Bet on Sovereign Satellites
FUNDING
K2 Space's $6.8B Mark Is a Bet on Sovereign Satellites
K2 Space's $500 million Series D at a $6.8 billion valuation is the clearest recent proof that satellite manufacturing -- not just launch -- is where investors think the next infrastructure cycle gets built.
FUNDING
AI Agent Security Is Minting New Unicorns Fast
FUNDING
AI Agent Security Is Minting New Unicorns Fast
Glow's $180M endpoint-security raise and Onyx Security's $113M agent-governance round show AI-agent security has become one of 2026's fastest-funded categories, with multiple companies reaching $500M+ valuations within months of launch.
FUNDING
AI and Robotics Still Dominate the Unicorn Board
FUNDING
AI and Robotics Still Dominate the Unicorn Board
Crunchbase's new-unicorn tracker shows AI and robotics companies topping the list for consecutive months in 2026 -- 10 new unicorns in June alone, led by DeepSeek -- confirming unicorn creation is concentrated almost entirely in frontier tech.
FUNDING
AI Agents Are Quietly Becoming Observability's Buyer
FUNDING
AI Agents Are Quietly Becoming Observability's Buyer
Groundcover's $100 million Series C, betting that AI agents rather than human engineers are now observability tooling's primary users, is a preview of an entire category of dev-tools infrastructure getting rebuilt around AI consumers instead of people.
FUNDING
Why Infrastructure Keeps Winning Venture's Biggest Checks
FUNDING
Why Infrastructure Keeps Winning Venture's Biggest Checks
2026's largest venture rounds keep going to capital-intensive, physical-infrastructure bets -- fusion, satellites, thermal storage, AI compute -- rather than software, a pattern that has held for months and looks structural, not seasonal.
FUNDING
Why 2026's VC Boom Keeps Getting More Concentrated
FUNDING
Why 2026's VC Boom Keeps Getting More Concentrated
Global startup funding hit a record $510 billion in H1 2026, but the gains are concentrating in fewer, much larger checks -- a pattern this week's megarounds from Commonwealth Fusion, K2 Space and Antora Energy all reinforce.
FUNDING
Why This Week's Biggest Rounds All Fund the Same Bottleneck
FUNDING
Why This Week's Biggest Rounds All Fund the Same Bottleneck
This week's largest rounds -- satellites, thermal batteries, alt-investment infrastructure -- are one thesis: capital is chasing the bottlenecks between AI's compute buildout and its return on capital.
FUNDING
Function Health Raises $450M From General Catalyst
FUNDING$450M Growth Round
Function Health Raises $450M From General Catalyst
Function Health raised $450 million in growth financing from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund, eight months after a $298 million Series B, to keep scaling its lab-testing-and-imaging preventive health platform nationwide.
FUNDING
Bidbus Raises $15M Series A for Live Dealer Car Auctions
FUNDING$15M Series A
Bidbus Raises $15M Series A for Live Dealer Car Auctions
Bidbus raised a $15 million Series A led by Ibex Investors to scale its real-time marketplace where licensed car dealers bid directly against each other for vehicles sourced straight from consumers.
FUNDING
Cadre Founder Raises $10M Seed for Private Credit AI
FUNDING$10M seed
Cadre Founder Raises $10M Seed for Private Credit AI
Ryan Williams, co-founder of real estate platform Cadre, emerged from stealth with $10 million in seed funding for Ellis, an AI-native platform aimed at fixing private credit managers' fragmented data workflows.
FUNDING
Smallest.ai Raises $13M to Build Ultra-Fast Voice AI
FUNDING$13M
Smallest.ai Raises $13M to Build Ultra-Fast Voice AI
Smallest.ai raised $13 million led by Seligman Ventures to keep building voice AI models focused narrowly on speed and human-sounding speech rather than general-purpose foundation model scale.
FUNDING
DataBahn Raises $40M to Manage AI's Data Pipes
FUNDING$40M Series B
DataBahn Raises $40M to Manage AI's Data Pipes
DataBahn closed a $40 million Series B led by Insight Partners for its platform that collects, governs and routes security, IoT and observability data across enterprise systems and AI models.
FUNDING
Simile Raises $200M to Simulate Human Behavior at Scale
FUNDING$200M Series B
Simile Raises $200M to Simulate Human Behavior at Scale
Simile raised a $200 million Series B led by Greenoaks at a $2 billion valuation, just five months after its $100 million Series A, to build foundation models that simulate how humans will respond to products and decisions before they ship.
FUNDING
Okta Buys AI Identity Security Startup Permiso for ~$200M
FUNDING~$200M acquisition
Okta Buys AI Identity Security Startup Permiso for ~$200M
Okta agreed to acquire AI identity security startup Permiso for roughly $200 million in an almost all-cash deal, aiming to extend threat detection to autonomous AI agents and other non-human identities.
FUNDING
Simile Raises $200M at $2B to Simulate Human Behavior
FUNDING$200M Series B
Simile Raises $200M at $2B to Simulate Human Behavior
Synthetic-user startup Simile closed a $200 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation, just five months after its $100 million Series A, to scale AI simulations that predict how real people will behave.
FUNDING
K2 Space Raises $500M Series D at $6.8B Valuation
FUNDING$500M Series D
K2 Space Raises $500M Series D at $6.8B Valuation
K2 Space raised a $500 million Series D co-led by Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ, valuing the large-satellite manufacturer at $6.8 billion as it targets building up to 100 large satellites a year for commercial and defense customers.
FUNDING
Assured Raises $19M to Automate Healthcare Ops
FUNDING$19M Series A
Assured Raises $19M to Automate Healthcare Ops
Assured raised $19 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners to build AI agents that automate healthcare provider back-office operations, with First Round Capital and Kindred Ventures also returning.
FUNDING
Commonwealth Fusion Raises $1B More, Total Hits $4B
FUNDING$1B raise
Commonwealth Fusion Raises $1B More, Total Hits $4B
Commonwealth Fusion Systems raised another $1 billion from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and industrial partners, bringing total capital raised to $4 billion as it builds Sparc and designs its first commercial Arc power plant.
FUNDING
Inforcer Raises $50M to Ready SMBs for AI Security Risk
FUNDING$50M Series C
Inforcer Raises $50M to Ready SMBs for AI Security Risk
Inforcer raised a $50 million Series C led by Insight Partners to help managed service providers secure small and midsize businesses' Microsoft 365 environments against a new wave of AI-driven threats.
FUNDING
K2 Space Raises $500M at $6.8B Valuation
FUNDING$500M Series D
K2 Space Raises $500M at $6.8B Valuation
K2 Space raised a $500 million Series D at a $6.8 billion valuation, co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Iconiq, to scale production of large, high-power satellites for data-heavy communications and defense missions.
FUNDING
CAIS Raises $170M Series D, Tops $2B Valuation
FUNDING$170M Series D
CAIS Raises $170M Series D, Tops $2B Valuation
CAIS raised a $170 million Series D led by Vista Equity Partners at a valuation above $2 billion, funding the alternative-investment platform's push to expand access for the more than 65,000 independent financial advisors already on its network.
FUNDING
Antora Energy Closes $550M for Thermal Batteries
FUNDING$550M Series C
Antora Energy Closes $550M for Thermal Batteries
Antora Energy closed a $550 million Series C, one of the year's largest cleantech rounds, to scale thermal batteries that store electricity as heat for industrial and data-center customers.
FUNDING
CAIS Raises $170M Series D at $2B+ Valuation
FUNDING$170M Series D
CAIS Raises $170M Series D at $2B+ Valuation
CAIS raised $170 million in Series D funding led by Vista Equity Partners at a valuation above $2 billion, adding strategic investors including Blue Owl, Carlyle, and Fortress to scale its alternative-investments platform for independent financial advisors.
FUNDING
Groundcover Raises $100M to Take On Datadog
FUNDING$100M Series C
Groundcover Raises $100M to Take On Datadog
Groundcover raised a $100 million Series C led by One Peak at a $500 million valuation, betting that AI agents -- not just human engineers -- are now the primary users of observability tooling.
FUNDING
Onyx Security Raises $113M Series B With Bessemer
FUNDING$113M Series B
Onyx Security Raises $113M Series B With Bessemer
Onyx Security closed a $113 million Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners, adding to a wave of nine-figure cybersecurity rounds closing the same week as ThreatLocker's $190 million raise.
FUNDING
Freehand Raises $75M Series B, Tops $100M Total
FUNDING$75M Series B
Freehand Raises $75M Series B, Tops $100M Total
Freehand raised a $75 million Series B led by Battery Ventures, bringing total funding to $100 million for its AI system that negotiates, adjudicates and settles complex procurement spend.
FUNDING
Breakthru Medicine Launches With $60M Molecular Glue Bet
FUNDING$60M Series A
Breakthru Medicine Launches With $60M Molecular Glue Bet
Breakthru Medicine emerged from stealth with a $60 million Series A to build a molecular glue platform and a pipeline of small molecules and antibody-drug conjugate payloads.
FUNDING
Ex-Perplexity Engineer's Polar Raises $5.7M for AI Browser
FUNDING$5.7M Seed
Ex-Perplexity Engineer's Polar Raises $5.7M for AI Browser
Polar, an AI browser startup founded by a former Perplexity engineer who worked on Comet, raised $5.7 million in seed funding led by Madrona to automate hours of repetitive browser-based knowledge work.
FUNDING
ThreatLocker Raises $190M Series F for Zero Trust
FUNDING$190M Series F
ThreatLocker Raises $190M Series F for Zero Trust
ThreatLocker raised $190 million in Series F funding led by Elephant to extend its zero-trust cybersecurity platform to govern AI agents, pushing total funding toward $500 million on top of a prior $1.6 billion valuation.
FUNDING
ThreatLocker Raises $190M Series F for AI Agent Security
FUNDING$190M Series F
ThreatLocker Raises $190M Series F for AI Agent Security
Zero-trust security vendor ThreatLocker raised a $190 million Series F led by Elephant with new backing from Koch Disruptive Technologies, pushing total funding toward $500 million as it extends its platform to secure AI agents.
FUNDING
Eliyan Hits Unicorn Status With $145M Series C
FUNDING$145M Series C
Eliyan Hits Unicorn Status With $145M Series C
Eliyan raised $145 million in Series C funding at a $1 billion valuation, becoming a unicorn as it scales chiplet interconnect technology designed to fix the data bottleneck that leaves AI chips idle much of the time.
FUNDING
Freehand Raises $75M Series B for AI Supply Chains
FUNDING$75M Series B
Freehand Raises $75M Series B for AI Supply Chains
Freehand raised $75 million in Series B funding co-led by Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners to expand its enterprise AI platform for supply-chain automation, bringing its total funding to $100 million.
FUNDING
Freehand Raises $75M to Automate Supply Chains
FUNDING$75M Series B
Freehand Raises $75M to Automate Supply Chains
Freehand raised a $75 million Series B to scale AI agents that manage Fortune 500 supply-chain spend, with customers including Meta, Unilever, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson already live on the platform.
FUNDING
Encore AI Lands $30M Series A for Enterprise Ops
FUNDING$30M Series A
Encore AI Lands $30M Series A for Enterprise Ops
Encore AI raised a $30 million Series A led by Team8, Planven, and The Garage to automate enterprise customer operations for banks and insurers, with several commercial banks and insurance companies joining as strategic investors.
FUNDING
Encore AI Raises $30M for Agents That Learn From Calls
FUNDING$30M Series A
Encore AI Raises $30M for Agents That Learn From Calls
Encore AI raised a $30 million Series A led by Team8 to build AI agents that improve by learning directly from recorded customer service calls rather than static training data.
FUNDING
Encore AI Raises $30M to Train Agents on Calls
FUNDING$30M Series A
Encore AI Raises $30M to Train Agents on Calls
Encore AI, which analyzes company call and chat data to train AI agents on what top performers actually do, raised a $30 million Series A led by Team8 after rebranding from its original Insait IO identity.
FUNDING
InvestiFi Raises $20M to Bring Investing to Credit Unions
FUNDING$20M
InvestiFi Raises $20M to Bring Investing to Credit Unions
InvestiFi raised $20 million led by Vibe Credit Union to expand its digital-investing platform for credit unions and community banks, with eight additional credit unions joining the round as strategic backers.
FUNDING
Nvidia Partner ChipAgents Raises $60M for AI Chip Design
FUNDING$60M Series A ext.
Nvidia Partner ChipAgents Raises $60M for AI Chip Design
ChipAgents raised a $60 million Series A extension led by B Capital to scale its AI-agent platform for semiconductor design, expanding its strategic collaboration with Nvidia and bringing total funding to $131 million.
FUNDING
Fish Audio Lands $52M Seed for AI Voice Models
FUNDING$52M Seed
Fish Audio Lands $52M Seed for AI Voice Models
Fish Audio raised a $52 million seed round led by Coreline Ventures and Capital Today to build AI voice models for creators and enterprises, on the back of $21 million in annual recurring revenue and more than 8 million users in its first year.
FUNDING
Jump Capital Closes Largest-Ever Fund at $350M
FUNDING$350M fund
Jump Capital Closes Largest-Ever Fund at $350M
Chicago-based Jump Capital closed its largest fund to date at $350 million, expanding a Series A-focused strategy into AI, fintech and blockchain infrastructure investing.
FUNDING
Array Labs Adds $21M, Signs Mitsubishi Electric Deal
FUNDING$21M
Array Labs Adds $21M, Signs Mitsubishi Electric Deal
Satellite-tracking startup Array Labs raised an additional $21 million with Mitsubishi Electric anchoring the oversubscribed round, alongside a new partnership to bring satellite-based maritime and aircraft tracking to defense customers across Asia-Pacific.
FUNDING
Bot-Detection Startup Spur Raises $200M
FUNDING$200M
Bot-Detection Startup Spur Raises $200M
Spur Intelligence, a bootstrapped bot-detection startup founded by two former Defense Department engineers, raised $200 million from Insight Partners after nine years of profitable operation without outside capital.
FUNDING
Act Security Raises $60M to Police Cloud & AI Agents
FUNDING$60M Seed + Series A
Act Security Raises $60M to Police Cloud & AI Agents
Tel Aviv-based Act Security disclosed $60 million across seed and Series A rounds from Team8, Bessemer, and others to build cloud access control and AI-agent governance tools for enterprises.
FUNDING
Why Anduril's $100B Ask Is Really About Buying Time
FUNDING
Why Anduril's $100B Ask Is Really About Buying Time
Anduril is exploring a new round that could value it near $100 billion, more than triple the $61 billion mark from its $5 billion raise months ago -- a jump that reads more like an IPO stall tactic than pure growth.
FUNDING
The Memory Supercycle Is Repricing Every Hardware Term Sheet
FUNDING
The Memory Supercycle Is Repricing Every Hardware Term Sheet
RAM costs sextupling, Samsung's $200B HBM4E deal with Broadcom, and CXMT's blistering $540B Shanghai debut are three faces of one supply shock now reshaping how VCs underwrite anything with a bill of materials.
FUNDING
Sovereign Wealth Is Becoming Silicon Valley's Biggest LP
FUNDING
Sovereign Wealth Is Becoming Silicon Valley's Biggest LP
G42 backing Nvidia's security alliance, Nvidia taking a $1B stake in Naver, and Angola's own state IPO all point the same direction: state and sovereign capital is now a structural, not occasional, funder of the AI buildout.
FUNDING
Hush Security Raises $30M to Govern AI Agents
FUNDING$30M Series A
Hush Security Raises $30M to Govern AI Agents
Hush Security raised a $30 million Series A, with Akamai joining as a strategic investor, to close the governance gap between enterprises and the AI agents now acting inside their systems -- a problem this week's OpenAI-Hugging Face breach made painfully concrete.
FUNDING
Claros Nabs $55M Series B to Scale PFAS Destruction
FUNDING$55M Series B
Claros Nabs $55M Series B to Scale PFAS Destruction
Climate tech company Claros Technologies closed a $55 million Series B, with investors including Treehouse Family Capital, Daikin America, and Veralto, to push PFAS destruction technology into broader commercial deployment.
FUNDING
Act Security Emerges From Stealth With $60M
FUNDING$60M total
Act Security Emerges From Stealth With $60M
Cloud-access security startup Act Security emerged from stealth disclosing $60 million in combined funding -- a $20M seed led by Team8 and Bessemer, plus a $40M Series A led by Notable Capital -- to secure human, workload and AI-agent access.
FUNDING
Hush Security Banks $30M to Govern AI Agent Identities
FUNDING$30M Series A
Hush Security Banks $30M to Govern AI Agent Identities
Hush Security raised a $30 million Series A from Akamai Technologies, Battery Ventures, and YL Ventures, bringing its total raised to $41 million, to secure non-human identities as enterprises hand more system access to AI agents.
FUNDING
ZuriQ Raises $25.5M to Scale 2D Quantum Chip Design
FUNDING$25.5M Seed
ZuriQ Raises $25.5M to Scale 2D Quantum Chip Design
ZuriQ, a Swiss quantum computing startup spun out of ETH Zurich, raised $25.5 million in seed funding led by Quantonation to scale a new two-dimensional trapped-ion processor architecture.
FUNDING
Augustus Raises $180M to Bank the Unbanked Institutions
FUNDING$180M Series B
Augustus Raises $180M to Bank the Unbanked Institutions
Augustus raised $180 million in a Tiger Global-led Series B at a $1 billion valuation, giving financial institutions worldwide direct access to dollar accounts without relying on a chain of correspondent banks.
FUNDING
Recursive Superintelligence Signs $410M AWS Compute Deal
FUNDING$410M compute deal
Recursive Superintelligence Signs $410M AWS Compute Deal
Self-improving AI startup Recursive Superintelligence signed a multi-year $410 million compute deal with Amazon Web Services, months after raising $650 million at a $4.65 billion valuation.
FUNDING
Cathedral Raises $160M to Expand US Military Cyber
FUNDING$160M
Cathedral Raises $160M to Expand US Military Cyber
Cathedral, a startup building US military cyber capabilities and founded by a team with DOGE ties, raised $160 million with backing from Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
FUNDING
Claros Closes $55M to Scale PFAS Destruction Tech
FUNDING$55M Series B
Claros Closes $55M to Scale PFAS Destruction Tech
Claros closed a $55 million Series B to push its PFAS destruction technology, including a UV-based system and a mobile-lab testing business, into broader commercial deployment.
FUNDING
Fish Audio Raises $52M Seed To Build AI Voice Models
FUNDING$52M Seed
Fish Audio Raises $52M Seed To Build AI Voice Models
Fish Audio, which began as a bedroom side project by a former Nvidia researcher, raised a $52 million seed round led by Coreline Ventures and Capital Today to build voice as the default AI interface.
FUNDING
AI Seed Investors Flock To Cybersecurity Startups
FUNDING
AI Seed Investors Flock To Cybersecurity Startups
Seed-stage venture capital is concentrating in AI-native cybersecurity startups this year, as investors bet that AI-driven attacks require AI-native defenses rather than incremental upgrades to legacy security tooling.
FUNDING
Dwelly Raises $170M To Roll Up UK Lettings Agencies
FUNDING$170M Series B
Dwelly Raises $170M To Roll Up UK Lettings Agencies
AI proptech startup Dwelly raised $170 million -- $95 million in equity led by EQT Growth and General Catalyst, plus a $75 million debt facility from Trinity Capital -- to keep acquiring and automating UK residential lettings agencies.
FUNDING
Why Nvidia Keeps Showing Up On Its Customers' Cap Tables
FUNDING$600B+ Financing Web
Why Nvidia Keeps Showing Up On Its Customers' Cap Tables
A Value Add Pulse analysis finds Nvidia has taken direct equity stakes in at least two AI companies this week alone, on top of its chip-financing talks with OpenAI, raising the question of how much of the industry's demand Nvidia is now underwriting itself.
FUNDING
OpenAI, Anthropic Swallow 43% of All VC Dollars
FUNDING$217B, 43% of VC
OpenAI, Anthropic Swallow 43% of All VC Dollars
OpenAI and Anthropic alone accounted for 43% of all global venture funding in the first half of 2026, according to Crunchbase data on a record $510 billion half-year total.
FUNDING
Defense-Tech Funding Keeps Defying Gravity
FUNDING$14.6B in 5 Months
Defense-Tech Funding Keeps Defying Gravity
Defense-tech venture funding has already topped $14.6 billion in the first five months of 2026, surpassing the sector's entire 2025 funding record.
FUNDING
Thea Energy Lands $20M Federal Grant For Fusion Magnets
FUNDING$20M Grant
Thea Energy Lands $20M Federal Grant For Fusion Magnets
Princeton spinout Thea Energy won a $20 million ARPA-E SCALEUP award to build the first domestic production line of modular high-temperature superconducting magnets for stellarator fusion reactors.
FUNDING
Nvidia Invests $5B In Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence
FUNDING~$5B Investment
Nvidia Invests $5B In Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence
Nvidia is investing several billion dollars in Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence and giving the AI safety-focused lab access to its next-generation Vera Rubin chip platform, valuing SSI at $32 billion.
FUNDING
Antares Raises $470M For Military Nuclear Microreactors
FUNDING$470M Series C
Antares Raises $470M For Military Nuclear Microreactors
Antares raised a $470 million Series C -- $370 million equity plus $100 million debt -- co-led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital, after achieving initial criticality on its Mark-0 compact nuclear reactor under a DOE pilot program.
FUNDING
Antares Raises $470M for Military Microreactors
FUNDING$470M Series C
Antares Raises $470M for Military Microreactors
Nuclear startup Antares raised a $470 million Series C to build small modular reactors for US military bases, part of a Pentagon program racing to bring domestic reactors online by 2028 under a Trump executive order.
FUNDING
Genius AI Raises $44M Series D at $1.15B Valuation
FUNDING$44M Series D
Genius AI Raises $44M Series D at $1.15B Valuation
GlossGenius rebranded as Genius AI and raised $44 million in Series D funding led by Lux Capital at a $1.15 billion valuation, expanding from beauty-industry scheduling software into agentic tools for the broader in-person service economy.
FUNDING
Enigma Emerges From Stealth With $71M Robot Seed
FUNDING$71M Seed
Enigma Emerges From Stealth With $71M Robot Seed
Enigma emerged from stealth with a $71 million seed round to build AI foundation models and simple control interfaces that work across any robot hardware.
FUNDING
Antares Nuclear Raises $470M For Military Microreactors
FUNDING$470M Series C
Antares Nuclear Raises $470M For Military Microreactors
Antares Nuclear raised a $470 million Series C led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital to deploy small nuclear microreactors that can power US military bases independent of the civilian grid by 2028.
FUNDING
Schneider Electric's VC Arm Bets On AI's Industrial Cycle
FUNDING
Schneider Electric's VC Arm Bets On AI's Industrial Cycle
Schneider Electric's corporate venture arm argues the AI buildout is creating a new industrial investment cycle spanning robotics, grid infrastructure and energy management -- not just chips and data centers.
FUNDING
Psalion Closes $50M Fund To Bet On Blockchain's Real Economy
FUNDING$50M Fund III
Psalion Closes $50M Fund To Bet On Blockchain's Real Economy
Singapore's Psalion launched a $50 million third fund targeting pre-seed and seed blockchain startups working on trade finance, real-world assets, stablecoins and DeFi rather than speculative token plays.
FUNDING
Ominimo Hits $1.6B Valuation, Serbia's First Unicorn
FUNDING$22.5M at $1.6B Value
Ominimo Hits $1.6B Valuation, Serbia's First Unicorn
Ominimo, a Serbian-Hungarian insurtech, raised $22.5 million at a $1.6 billion valuation, becoming Serbia's first unicorn just two years after launch.
FUNDING
Multiverse Computing Raises $570M to Compress AI
FUNDING$570M Series C
Multiverse Computing Raises $570M to Compress AI
Multiverse Computing raised $570 million in a Series C round at a $1.7 billion valuation for its quantum-inspired AI model compression technology.
FUNDING
Flourish Health Raises $46M for Youth Crisis Care
FUNDING$46M Series A
Flourish Health Raises $46M for Youth Crisis Care
Flourish Health raised $46 million in Series A funding to build intensive, coordinated mental health care for young people experiencing acute crises.
FUNDING
Nvidia Buys $1B Stake In Naver For AI Data Centers
FUNDING$1B Strategic Stake
Nvidia Buys $1B Stake In Naver For AI Data Centers
Nvidia agreed to buy $1 billion of newly issued Naver shares for a 4.5% stake, funding an expansion of the South Korean company's AI data center capacity.
FUNDING
Boring Company Talks $4B Raise at $20B Valuation
FUNDING$4B at $20B Valuation
Boring Company Talks $4B Raise at $20B Valuation
Elon Musk's Boring Company is reportedly in talks to raise $4 billion in new funding at a valuation of roughly $20 billion, more than triple its 2022 mark.
FUNDING
Boring Company In Talks For $4B At $20B Value
FUNDING$4B at $20B Valuation
Boring Company In Talks For $4B At $20B Value
Elon Musk's tunneling startup The Boring Company is reportedly in talks to raise about $4 billion at a $20 billion valuation, more than tripling its last known price tag.
FUNDING
Hoffman, Pincus AI Lab Prentis Seeks $100M
FUNDING$100M at $1B Valuation
Hoffman, Pincus AI Lab Prentis Seeks $100M
Prentis, an AI lab co-founded by LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman and Zynga's Mark Pincus to build computer-use agents, is reportedly in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation.
FUNDING
General Catalyst Overtakes Y Combinator in Fintech Deal Count
FUNDING
General Catalyst Overtakes Y Combinator in Fintech Deal Count
General Catalyst has pulled ahead of Y Combinator as the most active lead investor in fintech rounds of $5 million or more, ending YC's long run atop the category.
FUNDING
VA Signs $1.6B Deal for Salesforce AI Agents
FUNDING$1.6B Contract
VA Signs $1.6B Deal for Salesforce AI Agents
The Department of Veterans Affairs signed a three-year, $1.6 billion Agentic Enterprise License Agreement with Salesforce to deploy AI agents across veteran care and administrative workflows.
FUNDING
Sam Altman's World Raises $52.5M in Crypto Token Sale
FUNDING$52.5M Raise
Sam Altman's World Raises $52.5M in Crypto Token Sale
The World Foundation, steward of Sam Altman's biometric identity project, raised $52.5 million in a token sale led by Pantera Capital to expand its 'proof of human' verification network.
FUNDING
Midjourney Acquires Astrology App Co-Star, Plans New Apps
FUNDING
Midjourney Acquires Astrology App Co-Star, Plans New Apps
AI image and video lab Midjourney acquired astrology app Co-Star, whose roughly two dozen employees have joined the company to help build Midjourney's first standalone consumer app.
FUNDING
AegisAI Lands $36M to Fight AI-Powered Phishing
FUNDING$36M Series A
AegisAI Lands $36M to Fight AI-Powered Phishing
AegisAI, founded by former Google security executives, raised a $36 million Series A to expand autonomous agents that detect AI-generated spear-phishing and other inbox threats.
FUNDING
Ropedia Raises $30M to Build Physical AI Data Infrastructure
FUNDING$22M Pre-A ($30M Total)
Ropedia Raises $30M to Build Physical AI Data Infrastructure
Ropedia raised $22 million in a fresh pre-A round -- $30 million total across two rounds -- to scale wearable data-collection hardware that trains robotics and embodied AI models.
FUNDING
Paper Raises $34M for AI-Native Design Platform
FUNDING$34M Series A
Paper Raises $34M for AI-Native Design Platform
Paper, an AI-native design platform for teams shipping software with coding agents, raised a $34 million Series A led by Accel and ICONIQ, with angel backing from Anthropic and OpenAI engineers.
FUNDING
IVP Quietly Raising $1.8 Billion Fund, Touts 31.1% Net IRR
FUNDING$1.8B Target
IVP Quietly Raising $1.8 Billion Fund, Touts 31.1% Net IRR
Growth-stage firm IVP is raising a new $1.8 billion fund and pitching LPs on a 31.1% net IRR since the firm's inception, according to fundraising documents reviewed by Newcomer.
FUNDING
Etched Doubles Valuation to $10.3B in 7 Months
FUNDING$300M Series C
Etched Doubles Valuation to $10.3B in 7 Months
AI inference chipmaker Etched closed a $300 million Series C at a $10.3 billion valuation, roughly doubling its worth in seven months as orders for its Sohu chip surpassed $1 billion.
FUNDING
AI Chip Startup Etched Hits $10.3B Valuation
FUNDING$300M Series C at $10.3B
AI Chip Startup Etched Hits $10.3B Valuation
Etched closed a $300 million Series C at a $10.3 billion valuation for its transformer-specific AI chips, doubling down as investors look for alternatives to Nvidia's grip on inference hardware.
FUNDING
AegisAI Raises $36M to Fight AI-Driven Spear Phishing
FUNDING$36M Series A
AegisAI Raises $36M to Fight AI-Driven Spear Phishing
AegisAI, founded by former Google security executives, raised a $36 million Series A led by Battery Ventures to defend against AI-generated phishing attacks that personalize themselves at scale.
FUNDING
Insurtech Corgi Hits $4B Valuation, Third Raise in 8 Weeks
FUNDING$4B Valuation
Insurtech Corgi Hits $4B Valuation, Third Raise in 8 Weeks
AI-driven insurtech Corgi has raised fresh capital at a $4 billion valuation, its third fundraise in under eight weeks and a more than 50% markup from the $2.6 billion mark it hit just three weeks earlier.
FUNDING
Paper Raises $34M to Build AI-Native Design Platform
FUNDING$34M Series A
Paper Raises $34M to Build AI-Native Design Platform
Paper closed a $34 million Series A to build a design platform where designers and AI coding agents share the same canvas, with customers including Ramp, Vercel, and Lovable.
FUNDING
Abstract Raises $25M for Composable Security Ops
FUNDING$25M Funding Round
Abstract Raises $25M for Composable Security Ops
Abstract raised $25 million to expand its composable security operations platform, letting enterprises swap in modular detection and AI tooling instead of a single monolithic SIEM.
FUNDING
DeepSeek Seeks $71B Valuation, Preps China IPO Filing
FUNDING~$71B Valuation Target
DeepSeek Seeks $71B Valuation, Preps China IPO Filing
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek is in talks for a new private funding round at a pre-money valuation of roughly $71 billion, up sharply from about $50 billion just months ago, while simultaneously preparing to file for a mainland China IPO as soon as this year.
FUNDING
Security and Physical AI Are Venture's Hottest Corners
FUNDING
Security and Physical AI Are Venture's Hottest Corners
Glow's $1.2 billion stealth debut and Dimension Capital's $800 million fund, alongside recent mega-rounds for Atoms and Humanoid, show AI-agent security and physical AI are venture's hottest frontiers.
FUNDING
Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7B for Physical AI
FUNDING$1.7B Funding Round
Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7B for Physical AI
Travis Kalanick's industrial robotics venture Atoms raised $1.7 billion led by Andreessen Horowitz to build AI and robotics systems for mines, factories, and logistics networks.
FUNDING
Why 2026's Funding Boom Is Actually a Two-Speed Market
FUNDING
Why 2026's Funding Boom Is Actually a Two-Speed Market
Real headline funding is bigger than ever, but a two-speed market has emerged: AI-adjacent mega-rounds keep getting bigger while everything else gets harder to raise, based on Crunchbase's H1 2026 data and this week's own deal flow.
FUNDING
Corgi Hits $4B Valuation in Third Round in Eight Weeks
FUNDINGB2 Round at $4B
Corgi Hits $4B Valuation in Third Round in Eight Weeks
AI insurance startup Corgi raised at a $4 billion valuation -- its third round in eight weeks and a 54% jump from the $2.6 billion mark it held in late May -- as annualized revenue races toward $450 million.
FUNDING
Genesis AI in Talks to Raise $500M at $3B Valuation
FUNDING~$500M Funding Talks
Genesis AI in Talks to Raise $500M at $3B Valuation
Robotics foundation-model startup Genesis AI is in talks to raise roughly $500 million at a $3 billion pre-money valuation, less than 13 months after emerging from stealth with a $105 million seed round.
FUNDING
Humanoid Raises $152M, Becomes Europe's Robot Unicorn
FUNDING$152M Series A
Humanoid Raises $152M, Becomes Europe's Robot Unicorn
London-based Humanoid raised $152 million at a $1.35 billion valuation, becoming Europe's first pure-play humanoid robotics unicorn on the strength of billions in factory pre-orders.
FUNDING
Billion-Dollar-Plus Venture Rounds Keep Rising in 2026
FUNDING
Billion-Dollar-Plus Venture Rounds Keep Rising in 2026
Crunchbase data shows the count of billion-dollar-plus venture rounds climbing through H1 2026, concentrated overwhelmingly in AI, fintech and healthcare -- a structural shift in how the largest checks in venture get written.
FUNDING
Coinbase Takes Stake in Tokenized Abu Dhabi Fund
FUNDING~$75M on-chain
Coinbase Takes Stake in Tokenized Abu Dhabi Fund
Coinbase invested directly in a blockchain-native tokenized version of Mubadala Capital's private markets fund, adding roughly $75 million in on-chain assets across Base, Solana and Sui.
FUNDING
Fomo Raises $75M Series B for Consumer Crypto Trading
FUNDING$75M Series B
Fomo Raises $75M Series B for Consumer Crypto Trading
Consumer crypto trading app Fomo raised a $75 million Series B led by Index Ventures at a $550 million valuation, adding equities and prediction markets after its first year saw $4 billion in trading volume.
FUNDING
Cathedral, Ex-DOGE Founders' Startup, Raises $160M
FUNDING$160M at $1.4B Valuation
Cathedral, Ex-DOGE Founders' Startup, Raises $160M
Four former Department of Government Efficiency staffers raised $160 million at a $1.4 billion valuation for Cathedral, an AI-driven military cyber startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.
FUNDING
Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7B, With Uber Investing Back
FUNDING$1.7B Round
Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7B, With Uber Investing Back
Travis Kalanick's industrial robotics company Atoms closed a $1.7 billion round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Uber -- the company that ousted him as CEO in 2017 -- investing alongside Bain Capital and Fifth Wall.
FUNDING
Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7B, With an Assist From Uber
FUNDING$1.7B
Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7B, With an Assist From Uber
Travis Kalanick's industrial robotics holding company Atoms raised $1.7 billion led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Uber -- the company that ousted Kalanick in 2017 -- joining the round alongside Bain Capital and Fifth Wall.
FUNDING
Ex-DOGE Founders' Cathedral Raises $160M for AI Cyber
FUNDING$160M Funding Round
Ex-DOGE Founders' Cathedral Raises $160M for AI Cyber
Cathedral, a defense-tech startup founded by former Department of Government Efficiency staffers, closed a $160 million round at a $1.4 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia to expand US military cyber capabilities.
FUNDING
Glow Exits Stealth With $180M at $1.2B Valuation
FUNDING$180M at $1.2B valuation
Glow Exits Stealth With $180M at $1.2B Valuation
Glow, founded by former Meta, Snowflake and Claroty executives, emerged from stealth with $180 million at a $1.2 billion valuation to rebuild endpoint security for a world where AI agents, not just employees, operate on corporate devices.
FUNDING
Glow Emerges From Stealth as $1.2B Security Unicorn
FUNDING$180M at $1.2B
Glow Emerges From Stealth as $1.2B Security Unicorn
AI-native endpoint security startup Glow emerged from stealth with $180 million in funding at a $1.2 billion valuation, led by Sequoia, Cyberstarts, Greenoaks and Redpoint Ventures.
FUNDING
Glow Emerges From Stealth at $1.2B to Rethink Endpoint Security
FUNDING$1.2B valuation
Glow Emerges From Stealth at $1.2B to Rethink Endpoint Security
Glow launched publicly with a $1.2 billion valuation, betting that AI agents running on employee devices need an entirely new category of endpoint protection that legacy tools like CrowdStrike and SentinelOne weren't built for.
FUNDING
Crystalys Raises $130M to Push Gout Drug Through Phase 3
FUNDING$130M Series B
Crystalys Raises $130M to Push Gout Drug Through Phase 3
Crystalys Therapeutics raised a $130 million Series B led by Frazier Life Sciences to fund global Phase 3 trials of dotinurad, an oral gout drug already approved in five Asian markets, less than a year after a $205 million Series A.
FUNDING
Glow Emerges From Stealth at $1.2B Valuation for AI-Era Endpoint Security
FUNDING$180M Series A
Glow Emerges From Stealth at $1.2B Valuation for AI-Era Endpoint Security
Ex-Meta and Snowflake executives launched Glow with $180 million at a $1.2 billion valuation to rebuild endpoint security for a world where AI agents run on employee devices and attackers use generative AI to automate phishing and malware.
FUNDING
Candid Health Raises $120M to Fix Medical Billing
FUNDING$120M
Candid Health Raises $120M to Fix Medical Billing
Candid Health raised $120 million to automate the revenue-cycle-management process behind America's $280 billion medical billing industry, betting AI can strip out the manual claims work insurers and providers still rely on.
FUNDING
ServiceNow Invests $40M in Indian Banking Software Firm
FUNDING$40M Series C stake
ServiceNow Invests $40M in Indian Banking Software Firm
ServiceNow invested $40 million for roughly a 5% stake in BusinessNext, a 24-year-old Indian banking software firm serving 70+ banks, deepening ServiceNow's push into AI-powered financial services software globally.
FUNDING
Augustus Raises $180M to Build a 'Global Dollar Bank'
FUNDING$180M Series B at $1B
Augustus Raises $180M to Build a 'Global Dollar Bank'
Augustus raised a $180 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation led by Tiger Global to build a federally chartered clearing bank giving international fintechs direct access to U.S. dollar accounts, rails and stablecoin connectivity.
FUNDING
Dimension Capital Raises $800M Fund for Science-Meets-Compute Bets
FUNDING$800M Fund III
Dimension Capital Raises $800M Fund for Science-Meets-Compute Bets
Dimension Capital closed an $800 million third fund aimed at the intersection of scientific research and compute infrastructure, underscoring how much venture capital is now chasing the compute-heavy science boom.
FUNDING
Dimension Capital Closes $800M Fund for Science and AI
FUNDING$800M Fund III
Dimension Capital Closes $800M Fund for Science and AI
Dimension Capital raised an $800 million third fund, 60% larger than its prior vehicle, betting that founders increasingly want to build companies crossing the boundary between biotech, physical science and AI compute.
FUNDING
Augustus Raises $180M at $1B Valuation for Dollar Banking
FUNDING$180M Series B
Augustus Raises $180M at $1B Valuation for Dollar Banking
Fintech Augustus raised $180 million at a $1 billion valuation led by Tiger Global, as its 25-year-old founder pursues a national bank charter that would make him one of the youngest CEOs of a federally chartered US bank in over 140 years.
FUNDING
Sila Raises $300M to Expand US Silicon Anode Manufacturing
FUNDING$300M
Sila Raises $300M to Expand US Silicon Anode Manufacturing
Battery materials startup Sila raised $300 million to expand its Washington state factory, bucking the EV slowdown with a silicon-carbon anode material already supplying Mercedes and Panasonic.
FUNDING
Sila Raises $300M to Expand Battery Materials Factory
FUNDING$300M
Sila Raises $300M to Expand Battery Materials Factory
Battery materials startup Sila raised $300 million to expand its US factory, bucking the broader EV slowdown that has hit demand forecasts across the electric vehicle supply chain.
FUNDING
Empirical Security Raises $25M to Predict AI-Era Exploits
FUNDING$25M Series A
Empirical Security Raises $25M to Predict AI-Era Exploits
Cybersecurity startup Empirical Security raised a $25 million Series A led by Brightmind Partners to build predictive models that flag which of the 18,000+ actively exploited vulnerabilities actually threaten a given organization.
FUNDING
Meshy Raises Nearly $400M for AI 3D Generation
FUNDING~$400M Series B
Meshy Raises Nearly $400M for AI 3D Generation
Meshy raised nearly $400 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, the largest round on record for AI 3D generation, as its revenue grows roughly 12x year-over-year to more than 12 million registered users.
FUNDING
Dimension Capital Raises $800M Third Fund for Science-Compute Bets
FUNDING$800M Fund III
Dimension Capital Raises $800M Third Fund for Science-Compute Bets
Dimension Capital closed an $800 million third fund, 60% larger than its prior vehicle, betting on the intersection of biotech and AI compute after early wins including Chai Discovery's jump to a $3.8 billion valuation.
FUNDING
Bluecore Energy Raises $10M for Portable Nuclear on Barges
FUNDING$10M pre-seed
Bluecore Energy Raises $10M for Portable Nuclear on Barges
Bluecore Energy, founded by a former Uber executive, raised a $10 million pre-seed to build portable nuclear reactors mounted on barges, aiming to bring power directly to data centers and remote industrial sites.
FUNDING
Bluecore Energy Raises $10M to Put Nuclear Reactors on Barges
FUNDING$10M pre-seed
Bluecore Energy Raises $10M to Put Nuclear Reactors on Barges
Seven-month-old Bluecore Energy raised a $10 million pre-seed to build small modular nuclear reactors on floating barges that can be towed to power ports and data centers within days rather than the decade-plus timeline of a fixed plant.
FUNDING
UK's Humanoid Raises $152M, Becomes a $1.35B Robotics Unicorn
FUNDING$152M Series A
UK's Humanoid Raises $152M, Becomes a $1.35B Robotics Unicorn
UK robotics startup Humanoid raised a $152 million Series A at a $1.35 billion valuation led by Prime Movers Lab, becoming Europe's first pure-play humanoid robotics unicorn as industrial buyers chase labor-shortage automation.
FUNDING
Augustus Raises $180M Series B To Dollarize World
FUNDING$180M Series B
Augustus Raises $180M Series B To Dollarize World
Augustus raised a $180 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation to build what it calls the Global Dollar Bank, giving international fintechs and banks direct access to US dollar accounts and rails.
FUNDING
Ant International Completes $1.2B Series A
FUNDING$1.2B Series A
Ant International Completes $1.2B Series A
Ant International completed a roughly $1.2 billion Series A round backed by Ant Group and Alibaba to expand cross-border payments and agentic commerce tools for global merchants.
FUNDING
Colossal Biosciences in Talks to Raise at Up to $30B Valuation
FUNDING$20B-$30B talks
Colossal Biosciences in Talks to Raise at Up to $30B Valuation
Colossal Biosciences is reportedly in talks to raise new capital at a $20-30 billion valuation, up to triple its January 2025 mark, building revenue-generating spinouts beyond its mammoth and dire wolf projects.
FUNDING
Colossal Biosciences in Talks to Raise at $20B-$30B Valuation
FUNDING$20B-$30B valuation
Colossal Biosciences in Talks to Raise at $20B-$30B Valuation
De-extinction genetics company Colossal Biosciences is reportedly in talks to raise new capital at a $20 billion to $30 billion valuation, a dramatic step up that would make it one of the most valuable biotech startups in the world.
FUNDING
Natural Raises $30M to Build Payments Rails for AI Agents
FUNDING$30M Series A
Natural Raises $30M to Build Payments Rails for AI Agents
A 193-day-old startup raised $30 million from Forerunner to build payments infrastructure for AI agents, positioning directly against Stripe.
FUNDING
Natural Raises $30M to Build Payment Rails for AI Agents
FUNDING$30M Series A
Natural Raises $30M to Build Payment Rails for AI Agents
Natural raised a $30 million Series A from Forerunner to build an orchestration layer letting AI agents move money and settle transactions without a human authorizing each step, positioning directly against Stripe.
FUNDING
The Neocloud Gold Rush: Who's Really Winning the AI Compute Land Grab
FUNDING$8.3B-$11B neocloud marks
The Neocloud Gold Rush: Who's Really Winning the AI Compute Land Grab
Together AI's $8.3 billion valuation, SambaNova's $11 billion mark, and a wave of smaller sovereign-cloud raises show investors are pricing AI compute resellers as aggressively as the model labs they serve.
FUNDING
Space Tech's Quiet Record: $7.5B in Q2 as SpaceX Wobbles
FUNDING$7.5B Q2 space funding
Space Tech's Quiet Record: $7.5B in Q2 as SpaceX Wobbles
Space startups raised roughly $7.5 billion across 141 deals in Q2 2026, near-record territory even as SpaceX -- the sector's biggest public proof point -- trades nearly 39% below its post-IPO high.
FUNDING
Physical AI's Funding Supercycle: Robots, Drones, Materials
FUNDING$23B robotics, $17.4B defense
Physical AI's Funding Supercycle: Robots, Drones, Materials
Robotics startups have raised roughly $23 billion in 2026, nearly matching all of 2025, while defense tech hit a record $17.4 billion -- physical AI, not another chatbot, is where the venture capital rotation is actually happening this year.
FUNDING
AI Labs Ate 43% of H1's Record $510B VC Haul
FUNDING$217B to 2 companies
AI Labs Ate 43% of H1's Record $510B VC Haul
Global startup funding hit a record $510 billion in the first half of 2026, but OpenAI and Anthropic alone absorbed $217 billion of it -- 43% of everything raised -- a concentration level that should worry anyone not funding a frontier lab.
FUNDING
Inference Startup Infinity Raises $15M From OpenAI, Anthropic Researchers
FUNDING$15M
Inference Startup Infinity Raises $15M From OpenAI, Anthropic Researchers
Inference startup Infinity raised $15 million from Touring Capital along with individual researchers from OpenAI and Anthropic, a small round with an unusually credible investor base for the crowded AI-inference infrastructure space.
FUNDING
Empirical Security Raises $25M for AI Exposure Management
FUNDING$25M Series A
Empirical Security Raises $25M for AI Exposure Management
Chicago-based Empirical Security raised a $25 million Series A to build predictive models that forecast which vulnerabilities will actually be exploited.
FUNDING
Neo Launches With $100M to Secure Agentic AI Software
FUNDING$100M launch round
Neo Launches With $100M to Secure Agentic AI Software
Three SentinelOne veterans launched Neo out of stealth with $100 million from a16z and Bessemer to secure the AI agents enterprises are now running against production systems.
FUNDING
Bezos Backs CuspAI's $450M Round to Hunt Chip Materials
FUNDING$450M Series B
Bezos Backs CuspAI's $450M Round to Hunt Chip Materials
CuspAI raised a $450 million Series B at a $2.6 billion valuation, roughly five times its mark nine months ago, with Bezos Expeditions joining Kleiner Perkins and NEA as the Cambridge startup launches an AI Materials Foundry with Nvidia and Meta.
FUNDING
AZCOM Maruwa Pays Amazon Japan's Truckers in Stablecoin
FUNDING~$6.2M JPYC investment
AZCOM Maruwa Pays Amazon Japan's Truckers in Stablecoin
AZ-COM Maruwa, one of Amazon Japan's primary logistics distributors, will pay roughly 2,300 partner trucking companies in JPYC, a yen-pegged stablecoin, marking the first large-scale corporate contractor payroll rollout of a stablecoin in Japan.
FUNDING
Why Corporates Wrote the Biggest Checks in AI This Week
FUNDING
Why Corporates Wrote the Biggest Checks in AI This Week
Nvidia, a bank venture arm and a crypto exchange parent all wrote checks into this week largest late-stage rounds, a sign strategics want direct equity exposure to AI infrastructure.
FUNDING
Why the Biggest Checks Skipped the Chatbots This Week
FUNDING
Why the Biggest Checks Skipped the Chatbots This Week
None of this week's largest rounds went to a consumer-facing AI app -- Fireworks, Alpaca, NetApp's DataPelago deal and Forward Financing all sit in infrastructure layers investors are betting will outlast whichever model currently tops the leaderboard.
FUNDING
Alpaca Raises $135M ($435M With Debt) for Agent-First Brokerage
FUNDING$135M equity / $435M total
Alpaca Raises $135M ($435M With Debt) for Agent-First Brokerage
Alpaca raised $135 million in equity led by Peak XV, plus debt financing from Kraken parent Payward and BMO for $435 million in total capital, to scale brokerage infrastructure for tokenized markets and AI trading agents.
FUNDING
Cyclops Raises $20M Series A to Bring Stablecoin Rails to Payments
FUNDING$20M Series A
Cyclops Raises $20M Series A to Bring Stablecoin Rails to Payments
Cyclops closed a $20 million Series A led by Nava Ventures to sell payments companies an all-in-one stablecoin settlement platform, four months after an $8 million seed, bringing total funding to $28 million.
FUNDING
Databricks Hits $188B on Coatue-Led Round
FUNDING$188B valuation
Databricks Hits $188B on Coatue-Led Round
Databricks raised a strategic round led by Coatue that values the data-and-AI company at $188 billion, up from $134 billion in February, extending an 18-month run that has nearly tripled its valuation.
FUNDING
Nuclear Startup Valar Atomics Talks $6B Valuation
FUNDING~$1B at $6B
Nuclear Startup Valar Atomics Talks $6B Valuation
Valar Atomics, a three-year-old maker of small modular nuclear reactors backed by Palmer Luckey and Palantir's Shyam Sankar, is in talks to raise roughly $1 billion at a $6 billion valuation, three times its mark from just four months ago.
FUNDING
Wonder Raises $650M Series D at $9B Valuation
FUNDING$650M at $9B
Wonder Raises $650M Series D at $9B Valuation
Meal and delivery startup Wonder raised a $650 million Series D at a $9 billion pre-money valuation, scaling its 140-location New York-born food hall and delivery model toward national expansion.
FUNDING
Chai Discovery Raises $400M at $3.8B for AI Drug Design
FUNDING$400M at $3.8B
Chai Discovery Raises $400M at $3.8B for AI Drug Design
Life-sciences AI startup Chai Discovery raised a $400 million Series C at a $3.8 billion valuation led by Index Ventures, Sequoia, Dimension and Kleiner Perkins, one of the largest rounds yet for AI-driven drug and molecule design.
FUNDING
Toyota Backs Walden Robotics' $300M Round at $1.1B
FUNDING$300M at $1.1B
Toyota Backs Walden Robotics' $300M Round at $1.1B
General-purpose robotics startup Walden Robotics raised $300 million at a $1.1 billion valuation with Toyota and Deviation Capital leading, another sign automakers are underwriting the humanoid and general-purpose robotics race directly.
FUNDING
Brinc Raises $125M for Public-Safety Drones
FUNDING$125M
Brinc Raises $125M for Public-Safety Drones
Public-safety drone maker Brinc raised $125 million led by Motorola Solutions and Index Ventures, with Figma co-founder Dylan Field participating, as police and emergency-response departments accelerate drone-first response programs.
FUNDING
Defense Startup Singularity Raises $80M at $400M
FUNDING$80M at $400M
Defense Startup Singularity Raises $80M at $400M
Defense-tech startup Singularity raised an $80M Series A at a $400M valuation led by Khosla Ventures and Felicis, adding to a wave of LA-based defense startups drawing venture capital once reserved for software.
FUNDING
Alpaca Raises $135M to Build Agent-First Brokerage Rails
FUNDING$135M Series E
Alpaca Raises $135M to Build Agent-First Brokerage Rails
Alpaca raised $135 million led by Peak XV, lifting its total financing to $435 million, to build brokerage infrastructure designed for AI agents and tokenized markets rather than human traders.
FUNDING
AI Travel Agency Fora Hits Unicorn on $60M Round
FUNDING$60M at $1B
AI Travel Agency Fora Hits Unicorn on $60M Round
Fora, a platform that helps people become AI-assisted travel agents, raised a $60 million Series D at a $1 billion valuation led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures.
FUNDING
Fireworks Raises $1.505B Series D at $17.5B Valuation
FUNDING$1.505B Series D
Fireworks Raises $1.505B Series D at $17.5B Valuation
Fireworks closed a $1.505 billion Series D led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures and TCV as its annualized revenue crossed $1 billion, more than doubling its prior valuation to $17.5 billion in five months.
FUNDING
Nvidia-Backed Fireworks AI Hits $17.5B Valuation
FUNDING$1.5B at $17.5B
Nvidia-Backed Fireworks AI Hits $17.5B Valuation
AI inference startup Fireworks AI raised a $1.5 billion Series D at a $17.5 billion valuation, backed by Nvidia, as enterprises pursue cheaper, faster ways to serve AI models at scale.
FUNDING
Forward Financing Secures $525M for Small-Business Lending
FUNDING$525M financing
Forward Financing Secures $525M for Small-Business Lending
Boston-based Forward Financing locked in $525 million through a new variable funding note and its second asset-backed securitization, pushing total committed lending capacity to nearly $700 million for small businesses across the U.S.
FUNDING
Menlo Ventures Posts 40%+ IRR After Anthropic Bet
FUNDING
Menlo Ventures Posts 40%+ IRR After Anthropic Bet
Menlo Ventures is seeing IRR above 40% on recent funds after its roughly $1 billion cumulative bet on Anthropic grew into a $14 billion stake, the firm's largest position ever by a wide margin.
FUNDING
Bunkerhill Health Raises $55M for Hospital AI Agents
FUNDING$55M
Bunkerhill Health Raises $55M for Hospital AI Agents
Bunkerhill Health raised $55 million to deploy AI agents that handle administrative and clinical-support work inside hospitals, extending the healthcare AI-agent funding wave into operational back-office tasks.
FUNDING
Sheryl Sandberg Leads $10M Bet on AI Vehicle Inspection
FUNDING$10M
Sheryl Sandberg Leads $10M Bet on AI Vehicle Inspection
Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg led a $10 million investment in an AI-powered vehicle inspection startup, extending her post-Meta angel and investor activity into a narrow, operationally focused automotive niche.
FUNDING
Founders Fund Hires Ex-OpenAI Exec Ryan Beiermeister
FUNDING
Founders Fund Hires Ex-OpenAI Exec Ryan Beiermeister
Founders Fund hired former OpenAI executive Ryan Beiermeister, adding frontier-lab operating experience to its investing team as top venture firms compete aggressively to poach talent directly out of leading AI labs.
FUNDING
Ultrahuman's Ex-Hardware VP Raises $5.5M for AI Agent Devices
FUNDING$5.5M
Ultrahuman's Ex-Hardware VP Raises $5.5M for AI Agent Devices
A former Ultrahuman hardware VP raised $5.5 million for a startup building physical devices that let people control AI agents directly, rather than just wearables that record and track user data.
FUNDING
The Billion-Dollar Seed Round Isn't What It Seems
FUNDING
The Billion-Dollar Seed Round Isn't What It Seems
Crunchbase News analysis finds the recent wave of billion-dollar-plus seed rounds in AI and biotech function more like growth rounds, with founder-pedigree pricing replacing product validation.
FUNDING
China, AI Push Asia Startup Funding to Q2 Peak
FUNDING
China, AI Push Asia Startup Funding to Q2 Peak
Asia's startup funding hit a multiyear high in the second quarter of 2026, led by China and AI-focused deals, according to Crunchbase data.
FUNDING
Greylock Caps New Fund at $1.5B by Choice
FUNDING$1.5B fund cap
Greylock Caps New Fund at $1.5B by Choice
Greylock capped its newest fund at $1.5 billion despite being able to raise more, a deliberate bet that fund-size discipline protects returns better than scale in the current market.
FUNDING
Lululemon Backs Nylon-Recycling Startup Syntetica's $30M Round
FUNDING$30M Series A
Lululemon Backs Nylon-Recycling Startup Syntetica's $30M Round
Lululemon participated in a $30 million Series A for Syntetica, a startup that recycles nylon waste, giving the apparel brand a direct stake in its own supply-chain sustainability technology.
FUNDING
Corporate Venture Capital Is Splitting in Two
FUNDING2 distinct CVC models
Corporate Venture Capital Is Splitting in Two
Corporate venture arms are splitting into financially-driven funds chasing returns like traditional VCs and strategically-driven programs tightly bound to the parent company's roadmap.
FUNDING
Fintech Funding Rose 23% in H1 as AI Bets Concentrate
FUNDING+23% H1 funding
Fintech Funding Rose 23% in H1 as AI Bets Concentrate
Fintech venture funding rose 23% in H1 2026 even as deal count fell, per Crunchbase News, as investors concentrate bets around AI and financial infrastructure over consumer apps.
FUNDING
A SpaceX Vet Raised $65M to Fix Wire Harnesses
FUNDING$65M
A SpaceX Vet Raised $65M to Fix Wire Harnesses
A former SpaceX engineer raised $65 million to modernize wire-harness manufacturing, the labor-intensive cabling systems that route power and data through rockets, aircraft and vehicles.
FUNDING
Oak Raises $60M to Fix AI Agent Identity
FUNDING$60M
Oak Raises $60M to Fix AI Agent Identity
Oak came out of stealth backed by $60 million to build identity and access infrastructure purpose-built for autonomous AI agents rather than human logins.
FUNDING
Daniel Ek's Neko Health Raises Another $700M
FUNDING$700M
Daniel Ek's Neko Health Raises Another $700M
Neko Health, Daniel Ek's full-body scanning startup, raised another $700 million, extending one of the largest consumer health-tech rounds of the year as it scales its scanning-clinic network.
FUNDING
Indian AI Coding Startup Emergent Hits Unicorn Status
FUNDING$130M Series C
Indian AI Coding Startup Emergent Hits Unicorn Status
Emergent, an Indian AI coding startup, became a unicorn with a $130 million Series C roughly a year after launching, one of the fastest unicorn timelines in the current AI-coding wave.
FUNDING
Kevin Ryan's AlleyCorp Raises New $335M Fund
FUNDING$335M fund
Kevin Ryan's AlleyCorp Raises New $335M Fund
AlleyCorp, Kevin Ryan's NYC venture studio, closed a new $335 million fund to keep writing early-stage checks even as capital keeps concentrating in a handful of mega-managers.
FUNDING
Beckham's IM8 Takes $1B From General Catalyst's CVF
FUNDING$1B CVF deal
Beckham's IM8 Takes $1B From General Catalyst's CVF
IM8, David Beckham's health-drink startup, took $1 billion from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund, an unusual structure that finances growth marketing spend instead of pure equity dilution.
FUNDING
Miles Wang, Ex-OpenAI Researcher, in Talks for $2B Drug-Discovery Bet
FUNDING~$2B pre-launch
Miles Wang, Ex-OpenAI Researcher, in Talks for $2B Drug-Discovery Bet
Ex-OpenAI researcher Miles Wang is in talks to launch an AI drug-discovery startup at a roughly $2 billion valuation before the company has meaningfully operated.
FUNDING
Meta's $10B-to-$50B Blowup Is an LP Underwriting Risk
FUNDING5x cost growth in <2 years
Meta's $10B-to-$50B Blowup Is an LP Underwriting Risk
Meta's Louisiana data center going from a roughly $10 billion plan to a $50 billion-plus facility in under two years is a live case study in cost-estimate risk AI-infrastructure LPs need to underwrite, not assume away.
FUNDING
What Post-H1 Funding Data Already Shows for Q3
FUNDING86% AI, top 5 = 73.1%
What Post-H1 Funding Data Already Shows for Q3
Helsing, Gauntlet and Drug Farm's rounds this week are early evidence that H1 2026's concentration pattern -- record capital, AI capturing 86%, the top five managers taking 73.1% -- is continuing into Q3, not reversing.
FUNDING
Robotics Funding's Next Leg Is Chinese Humanoids
FUNDING$18.8B global robotics YTD
Robotics Funding's Next Leg Is Chinese Humanoids
AI2 Robotics raised roughly $735 million at nearly a $3 billion valuation and LimX Dynamics raised $200 million at a $2.21 billion valuation, as global robotics funding hits $18.8 billion in 2026, already ahead of all of 2025's $15 billion.
FUNDING
Europe's Defense-Tech Rounds Are Catching Up to the US
FUNDING$18B vs $61B
Europe's Defense-Tech Rounds Are Catching Up to the US
Helsing's $1.8 billion round at an $18 billion valuation puts a concrete number on how fast European defense-tech financing is closing the gap with a US market that produced four separate billion-dollar-plus rounds this year alone.
FUNDING
Drug Farm Raises $55M Series D for Rare Disease Drug
FUNDING$55M Series D
Drug Farm Raises $55M Series D for Rare Disease Drug
Biotech Drug Farm raised a $55 million Series D to advance DF-003, a Phase 3 ALPK1 inhibitor for rare autoinflammatory disorder ROSAH syndrome, alongside DF-006, a Phase 2 immunomodulator for hepatitis B and liver cancer.
FUNDING
Hermes Agent Maker Nous Research in Talks at $1.5B
FUNDING$1.5B valuation
Hermes Agent Maker Nous Research in Talks at $1.5B
Nous Research, maker of the open-weight Hermes agent models, is in talks for new funding at a $1.5 billion valuation, a meaningful mark for the open side of the AI stack.
FUNDING
Gauntlet Raises $125M Series C From SBI Holdings
FUNDING$125M Series C
Gauntlet Raises $125M Series C From SBI Holdings
DeFi risk-management firm Gauntlet raised $125 million in a Series C with Japan's SBI Holdings as the sole investor, its largest raise ever, to expand into stablecoins, tokenization and traditional capital-markets infrastructure.
FUNDING
Why VCs Keep Funding Plumbers, Homebuilders and Warehouses
FUNDING$50M+$95M+$15M
Why VCs Keep Funding Plumbers, Homebuilders and Warehouses
The past two weeks' funding data shows a consistent pattern: unglamorous, operationally-heavy industries -- supply chain, homebuilding, used cars -- are pulling real institutional capital into narrow, AI-native platforms.
FUNDING
Inside the $412.7B Venture Half: AI Ate 86 Cents of Every Dollar
FUNDING$412.7B H1 2026
Inside the $412.7B Venture Half: AI Ate 86 Cents of Every Dollar
US venture funding hit a record $412.7 billion in H1 2026 per PitchBook, with AI companies capturing 86% of it -- a concentration level that raises real questions about what happens to the rest of the venture market.
FUNDING
Defense Tech's $14.6B Pace Shows No Sign of Slowing
FUNDING$14.6B H1 2026
Defense Tech's $14.6B Pace Shows No Sign of Slowing
Defense tech startups raised $14.6 billion in the first five months of 2026 alone, already blowing past the previous full-year record of $9.6 billion set in 2025, led by Anduril, Shield AI and Saronic.
FUNDING
Capital Concentration Is the Real Story of This Cycle
FUNDINGTop 5 = 73.1%
Capital Concentration Is the Real Story of This Cycle
The top five venture managers captured 73.1% of all capital raised in H1 2026, and the top 15 captured 88.5% -- a concentration level that's reshaping who gets funded, not just how much total capital is flowing.
FUNDING
Open-Source AI Infrastructure's Funding Renaissance
FUNDING~$965M combined
Open-Source AI Infrastructure's Funding Renaissance
Ollama's $65 million Series B is the latest sign that open-source AI tooling -- once seen as a commodity layer -- is commanding real institutional capital alongside the neoclouds and frontier labs.
FUNDING
Quantum Computing's Venture Moment Keeps Compounding
FUNDING$300M Series A
Quantum Computing's Venture Moment Keeps Compounding
Oratomic's $300 million Series A -- Khosla's largest-ever first check -- is the clearest sign yet that VCs now treat quantum computing as its own well-capitalized category, distinct from the AI infrastructure boom.
FUNDING
Helsing Raises $1.8B, Europe's Biggest Defense Round
FUNDING$1.8B at $18B
Helsing Raises $1.8B, Europe's Biggest Defense Round
Munich-based Helsing closed a $1.8 billion Series E at an $18 billion valuation, Europe's biggest-ever defense-tech round, with Goldman Sachs Alternatives, CPPIB and JPMorgan joining as new investors amid oversubscribed demand.
FUNDING
Phoebe Gates's $185M Startup Phia Faces Fraud Accusations
FUNDING$185M valuation
Phoebe Gates's $185M Startup Phia Faces Fraud Accusations
Phia, the $185 million shopping app co-founded by Phoebe Gates, was accused by Bloomberg of "cookie stuffing" -- overriding other affiliates' referral codes to claim commissions it didn't earn -- and was suspended from Impact.com.
FUNDING
Fizz Accuses VC of Leaking Its Data to Rival Sidechat
FUNDING
Fizz Accuses VC of Leaking Its Data to Rival Sidechat
College social app Fizz alleges Maveron investor Jerry Lu met founders under the guise of exploring an investment, then passed its confidential investor deck and financials to rival Sidechat.
FUNDING
Oratomic Raises $300M to Build a 20K-Qubit Quantum Computer
FUNDING$300M
Oratomic Raises $300M to Build a 20K-Qubit Quantum Computer
Oratomic, a Caltech-spinout quantum computing startup, raised a $300 million Series A to build a utility-scale quantum computer using roughly 20,000 qubits instead of the million-plus rivals are targeting.
FUNDING
Keyfactor's $1B Raise Leads a Week of Billion-Dollar AI Deals
FUNDING$1B+ (Keyfactor)
Keyfactor's $1B Raise Leads a Week of Billion-Dollar AI Deals
Machine-identity security firm Keyfactor closed a $1 billion-plus growth investment led by Summit Partners, one of two billion-dollar deals Crunchbase says led the week's 10 biggest funding rounds.
FUNDING
Traysar Raises $25M Seed to Build "Subterra" Defense Tech
FUNDING$25M seed
Traysar Raises $25M Seed to Build "Subterra" Defense Tech
Traysar emerged from stealth with a $25 million seed round led by Silent Ventures, betting the next contested battlefield is underground and building autonomous platforms that tunnel, map and breach subterranean infrastructure.
FUNDING
Oratomic Raises $300M for a 20,000-Qubit Quantum Computer
FUNDING$300M Series A
Oratomic Raises $300M for a 20,000-Qubit Quantum Computer
Caltech-founded Oratomic raised a $300 million Series A co-led by ARCH, Spark Capital and Khosla, betting its neutral-atom architecture needs only 10,000-20,000 qubits for a useful, fault-tolerant quantum computer.
FUNDING
Probook Raises $40M to Be the AI OS for Plumbers
FUNDING$40M total ($34M Series A + $6M seed)
Probook Raises $40M to Be the AI OS for Plumbers
Probook raised $40 million across a Series A and seed round, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia, to build an AI operating system that runs scheduling, dispatch and customer calls for plumbing, electrical and HVAC businesses.
FUNDING
AI Voice Startup Gradium Raises $100M Seed, Backed by Nvidia
FUNDING$100M
AI Voice Startup Gradium Raises $100M Seed, Backed by Nvidia
Paris-based Gradium, a voice-AI startup spun out of French lab Kyutai, reopened its seed round to raise $100 million in total with new backer Nvidia joining, and is opening a Bay Area office to compete for AI talent.
FUNDING
Mercor in Talks for a $20B Valuation, Doubling in Months
FUNDING~$500M round (talks), $20B valuation
Mercor in Talks for a $20B Valuation, Doubling in Months
AI data-labeling startup Mercor is in talks to raise roughly $500 million at a $20 billion valuation -- doubling its worth in under a year -- with CEO Brendan Foody saying annualized revenue has crossed $2 billion.
FUNDING
Ollama Raises $65M Series B as Open-Weight Models Scale
FUNDING$65M Series B
Ollama Raises $65M Series B as Open-Weight Models Scale
Ollama, the open-source platform for running AI models locally, closed a $65 million Series B led by Theory Ventures, bringing total funding to $88 million as its developer base grew to nearly 9 million.
FUNDING
Lyzr Let Its Own AI Agent Run Its $100M Fundraise
FUNDING$100M Series B, ~$500M valuation
Lyzr Let Its Own AI Agent Run Its $100M Fundraise
Lyzr, a three-year-old enterprise AI agent startup, used its own AI agent SivaClaw to run point on a $100 million Series B at a roughly $500 million valuation, fielding questions from more than 130 investors.
FUNDING
Nvidia Backs Paris Voice AI Startup Gradium's $100M Seed
FUNDING~$30M extension, $100M+ total seed
Nvidia Backs Paris Voice AI Startup Gradium's $100M Seed
Gradium, the Paris-based voice AI startup spun out of Kyutai, extended its seed round past $100 million with Nvidia joining seven months after launching out of stealth.
FUNDING
Gradium Extends Voice-AI Seed to $100M With Nvidia Backing
FUNDING$100M+ seed (extended)
Gradium Extends Voice-AI Seed to $100M With Nvidia Backing
Paris-based voice AI startup Gradium, spun out of French lab Kyutai, extended its seed round past $100 million after Nvidia joined as an investor alongside FirstMark, Eurazeo and Xavier Niel.
FUNDING
Nandan Nilekani Steps Back as Fundamentum Launches $200M Fund
FUNDING$200M Fund III (target)
Nandan Nilekani Steps Back as Fundamentum Launches $200M Fund
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani is stepping back from his general partner role at Fundamentum as the India-focused VC firm he co-founded launches a roughly $200 million third fund.
FUNDING
QuantumDiamonds Raises EUR91M for Quantum Chip Inspection
FUNDINGEUR91M (equity + EU Chips Act grant)
QuantumDiamonds Raises EUR91M for Quantum Chip Inspection
Munich-based QuantumDiamonds raised EUR91 million -- EUR15 million in equity led by World Fund plus EUR76 million in EU Chips Act support -- becoming the first startup approved for manufacturing funding under the European program.
FUNDING
Blue Origin Raises Outside Capital for the First Time, at $130B
FUNDING~$10B raise, $130B valuation
Blue Origin Raises Outside Capital for the First Time, at $130B
Blue Origin is raising roughly $10 billion in its first-ever outside funding round, valuing Jeff Bezos's rocket company at $130 billion with Coatue Management as the anchor investor.
FUNDING
VC Funding Just Had Its Biggest H1 Ever. Here's Where It Went
FUNDING$510B global H1 2026
VC Funding Just Had Its Biggest H1 Ever. Here's Where It Went
Global startup funding hit a record $510 billion in the first half of 2026, and the data shows the money increasingly concentrated in AI, mega-rounds and a small number of recognizable firms.
FUNDING
Crypto VC Paradigm Raises $1.2B for AI, Robotics
FUNDING$1.2B Fund III
Crypto VC Paradigm Raises $1.2B for AI, Robotics
Crypto-focused VC firm Paradigm raised a $1.2 billion fund to expand beyond its blockchain roots into AI and robotics, its third venture fund and fourth overall.
FUNDING
SambaNova Raises $1B at $11B Valuation for AI Chips
FUNDING$1B Series F (1st close), $11B valuation
SambaNova Raises $1B at $11B Valuation for AI Chips
SambaNova closed the first tranche of a $1 billion Series F at an $11 billion valuation, just five months after its last mega round, with General Atlantic leading and JPMorganChase signing on as an inference partner.
FUNDING
Lovable in Talks to Double Valuation to $13.2B
FUNDING~$300M round (talks), $13.2B valuation
Lovable in Talks to Double Valuation to $13.2B
AI coding startup Lovable is reportedly in talks to raise at a $13.2 billion valuation, double its December mark, with Menlo Ventures fresh off a $3 billion fund said to be leading.
FUNDING
Prime Intellect Raises $130M to Build Enterprise AI Agents
FUNDING$130M Series A, $1B valuation
Prime Intellect Raises $130M to Build Enterprise AI Agents
Prime Intellect raised a $130 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation led by Radical Ventures, giving enterprises compute and tooling to build their own AI agents without depending on a frontier lab's API.
FUNDING
Venus Aerospace Raises $91M to Scale Its Detonation Engine
FUNDING$91M Series B
Venus Aerospace Raises $91M to Scale Its Detonation Engine
Venus Aerospace closed a $91 million Series B led by Mercury Fund, with Lockheed Martin Ventures participating, to mature its flight-proven rotating detonation rocket engine into full propulsion systems.
FUNDING
Crypto VC Paradigm Raises $1.2B for AI and Robotics
FUNDING$1.2B fund
Crypto VC Paradigm Raises $1.2B for AI and Robotics
Paradigm, the crypto-focused VC firm founded by Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam, raised $1.2 billion for a new fund that explicitly broadens its mandate into AI and robotics alongside crypto and fintech.
FUNDING
Chamath's 8090 Raises $135M Led by Salesforce
FUNDING$135M Series A
Chamath's 8090 Raises $135M Led by Salesforce
8090, the enterprise AI-agent software company founded by Chamath Palihapitiya, closed a $135 million Series A led by Salesforce, with Palihapitiya stepping down from the board to become full-time CEO.
FUNDING
Solo GP Ashley Smith Closes $25M Second Fund
FUNDING$25M Fund II
Solo GP Ashley Smith Closes $25M Second Fund
Solo GP Ashley Smith closed a $25 million second fund for Vermilion Cliffs Ventures, nearly doubling her debut fund to back technical founders in AI infrastructure, security and dev tools.
FUNDING
EdVisorly Raises $13.3M to Fix College Transfers With AI
FUNDING$13.3M Series A
EdVisorly Raises $13.3M to Fix College Transfers With AI
EdVisorly raised a $13.3 million Series A led by Breachway Capital to scale EddyAI, a platform that automates the transcript-reading and enrollment work behind college transfer admissions.
FUNDING
General Catalyst, YC, a16z Top Active US Investor Ranks
FUNDING39 deals (General Catalyst, Q2)
General Catalyst, YC, a16z Top Active US Investor Ranks
General Catalyst, Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz were Q2 2026's most active US investors, with over two-thirds of their deals going into AI startups, according to Crunchbase data.
FUNDING
Ant Group Backs Companion Robot Maker Zeroth
FUNDING$73.6M pre-Series A
Ant Group Backs Companion Robot Maker Zeroth
China's Ant Group led a $73.6 million pre-Series A round in companion-robot maker Zeroth, its 12th humanoid-robotics investment since 2025, as the startup reports 30,000 unit orders and 600% revenue growth.
FUNDING
Monogram Raises $40M Seed for Visual AI Interface
FUNDING$40M seed
Monogram Raises $40M Seed for Visual AI Interface
Coursera co-founder Eren Bali's new startup Monogram raised a $40 million seed led by DST Global and Lux Capital to build an AI app that generates full visual interfaces instead of just text.
FUNDING
Arkenstone Defense Emerges With $35M Seed Round
FUNDING$35M seed
Arkenstone Defense Emerges With $35M Seed Round
Arkenstone Defense launched with $35 million led by J2 Ventures to strip out the compliance and back-office burden that keeps commercial tech companies from selling to the Pentagon.
FUNDING
Norm AI Hits $1.2B Valuation With $120M Series C
FUNDING$120M Series C, $1.2B valuation
Norm AI Hits $1.2B Valuation With $120M Series C
Norm AI raised $120 million led by Khosla Ventures at a $1.2 billion valuation, as its AI-native "Norm Law" agents take on document drafting and compliance work under attorney supervision.
FUNDING
EDX Markets Raises $76M, Files for Its Own OCC Trust Bank
FUNDING$76M Series C
EDX Markets Raises $76M, Files for Its Own OCC Trust Bank
Institutional crypto venue EDX Markets closed a $76 million Series C led by SBI Holdings and filed to establish EDX Trust, a national trust bank -- its first disclosed funding-round size since 2023.
FUNDING
Chemistry Ventures Raising $500M for Second Fund
FUNDING$500M target (Fund II)
Chemistry Ventures Raising $500M for Second Fund
Chemistry Ventures, the AI-focused firm founded by Bessemer, Index and a16z alumni, is raising $500 million for its second fund -- already oversubscribed just two years after its $350 million debut.
FUNDING
FORE Biotherapeutics Raises $67.4M to Push BRAF Cancer Drug
FUNDING$67.4M (Series D-2 extension)
FORE Biotherapeutics Raises $67.4M to Push BRAF Cancer Drug
FORE Biotherapeutics closed an upsized $67.4 million Series D-2 extension, bringing its total Series D-2 to $110 million, to fund late-stage development of plixorafenib toward a targeted 2027 FDA submission for BRAF-mutated tumors.
FUNDING
Super.com Raises $65M Series D at $1.2B Valuation
FUNDING$65M Series D, $1.2B valuation
Super.com Raises $65M Series D at $1.2B Valuation
Super.com raised $65 million led by TPG at a $1.2 billion valuation, positioning its savings "super app" as an Amazon Prime-style membership for everyday Americans' spending.
FUNDING
Quaise Energy Lands $134M to Drill for Geothermal
FUNDING$134M Series B (1st close)
Quaise Energy Lands $134M to Drill for Geothermal
Quaise Energy closed the first tranche of a $134 million Series B led by Prelude Ventures to scale drilling technology that could tap superhot geothermal energy anywhere on Earth.
FUNDING
Proxima Fusion Raises $468M, Hits $2.7B Valuation
FUNDING€411M (~$468M), €2.4B valuation
Proxima Fusion Raises $468M, Hits $2.7B Valuation
Munich-based Proxima Fusion raised €411 million from Google and RWE at a €2.4 billion valuation, becoming Europe's best-funded fusion company as it targets a net-energy demonstrator in the early 2030s.
FUNDING
Cyllene Therapeutics Raises €33M for Gene Therapy
FUNDING€33M (~$36M) Series C
Cyllene Therapeutics Raises €33M for Gene Therapy
Cyllene Therapeutics, formerly EG 427, raised €33 million co-led by Merck Ventures to advance its HSV-1 gene-therapy platform toward treating neurogenic bladder conditions.
FUNDING
NA Startup Funding Shatters Records in H1 2026
FUNDING$392B H1 2026, ~80% to AI
NA Startup Funding Shatters Records in H1 2026
North American startups raised $392 billion in the first half of 2026, an all-time record, with roughly 80% of Q2 investment dollars flowing to AI-focused companies as capital concentrates in an ever-smaller set of megadeals.
FUNDING
Defense Tech's Funding Smashes Records Again in 2026
FUNDING$14.6B+ into defense tech in 2026
Defense Tech's Funding Smashes Records Again in 2026
Defense tech startups have already pulled in more than $14.6 billion in venture funding in 2026, surpassing all of 2025's record $9.6 billion, led by Anduril, Shield AI and Saronic megarounds.
FUNDING
Robotics Funding Blows Past Its Own 2026 Record
FUNDING$18.8B into robotics in 2026 vs. $15B in 2025
Robotics Funding Blows Past Its Own 2026 Record
Robotics startups have already raised $18.8 billion globally in 2026, eclipsing the $15 billion raised in all of 2025, as humanoid and industrial-automation rounds keep getting larger.
FUNDING
Founders Fund's One-Year Sprint From $4.6B to $6B
FUNDING$4.6B to $6B in about a year
Founders Fund's One-Year Sprint From $4.6B to $6B
Founders Fund closed a record $6 billion fourth growth fund in May 2026, barely a year after its $4.6 billion third growth fund, as mega-managers keep out-raising and out-deploying everyone else.
FUNDING
AI Infrastructure Capex Keeps Concentrating in Fewer Hands
FUNDING$870B+ combined 2026 AI capex commitments
AI Infrastructure Capex Keeps Concentrating in Fewer Hands
Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft and Google are together committing more than $870 billion to AI infrastructure this year, a concentration of capital the Bank for International Settlements has warned carries systemic financial risk.
FUNDING
Tokenization's Capital Infrastructure Moment Arrives
FUNDING$3B+ BUIDL TVL, new SEC and MiCA clarity
Tokenization's Capital Infrastructure Moment Arrives
Tokenized real-world assets are moving from pilot projects to real capital infrastructure, with BlackRock's tokenized fund on Securitize's rails topping $3 billion and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic providing new legal clarity.
FUNDING
US FinTech Just Had Its Best Quarter in Years
FUNDING$16B across 445 deals, Q2 2026
US FinTech Just Had Its Best Quarter in Years
US fintech startups raised $16 billion across 445 deals in Q2 2026, the strongest quarter in five quarters, as investor interest concentrates around payments, compliance and agent-based financial tooling.
FUNDING
Why $150M Rounds Are the New $50M Series A
FUNDING$150M-$620M rounds on modest revenue bases
Why $150M Rounds Are the New $50M Series A
Even Realities' $150M round and Agility Robotics' $620M SPAC raise show late-stage checks climbing sharply even for companies with modest revenue, continuing 2026's round-size inflation trend.
FUNDING
Growth Capital's New Pecking Order: Power, Chips, Everything Else
FUNDING$3B+ infra rounds vs. flat Series A medians
Growth Capital's New Pecking Order: Power, Chips, Everything Else
This year's largest checks -- Crusoe, National Grid-Joulent, a16z crypto -- keep going to physical infrastructure and scarce capacity, leaving application-layer software further down the pecking order.
FUNDING
Smart Glasses Maker Even Realities Hits $1B Valuation
FUNDING$150M at $1B valuation
Smart Glasses Maker Even Realities Hits $1B Valuation
Shenzhen-based Even Realities raised $150 million led by Meituan and Tencent at a $1 billion valuation, becoming the first camera-free smart-glasses maker to sell more than 10,000 pairs.
FUNDING
US Investors Get Direct Access to Memory Maker SK Hynix
FUNDINGNew US access to top HBM supplier
US Investors Get Direct Access to Memory Maker SK Hynix
US investors will soon gain direct access to South Korea's SK Hynix, the world's largest HBM memory supplier for AI accelerators, as it pursues a US listing vehicle to ride the same AI memory boom lifting Samsung and Micron.
FUNDING
Ornn Wants Investors to Trade GPU Compute Like a Commodity
FUNDINGNew GPU-compute trading model
Ornn Wants Investors to Trade GPU Compute Like a Commodity
A new startup called Ornn is pitching investors on trading GPU compute capacity the way commodities like oil or wheat are traded, betting that AI compute scarcity has become predictable enough to price as a financial instrument.
FUNDING
Recast Capital: Megafund 'Safety' Is an Illusion for LPs
FUNDING80% of US VC into 29 companies
Recast Capital: Megafund 'Safety' Is an Illusion for LPs
Recast Capital's Sara Zulkosky argues LPs chasing megafund safety are missing that 80% of US venture capital now goes to rounds of $500 million or more spread across just 29 companies, while emerging managers keep finding resilient founders.
FUNDING
Bespoke Labs Raises $40M to Train AI Agents
FUNDING$40M Series A
Bespoke Labs Raises $40M to Train AI Agents
Bespoke Labs raised $40 million led by Wing VC to build realistic, company-like environments -- codebases, tickets, Slack, logs -- that let frontier labs and enterprises train and evaluate long-horizon AI agents.
FUNDING
Cleantech Startup Funding Is Quietly Stabilizing
FUNDINGCleantech funding stabilizing, Q2 2026
Cleantech Startup Funding Is Quietly Stabilizing
Crunchbase data shows cleantech venture funding stabilizing in Q2 2026 as growing AI-driven energy demand creates real commercial pull for grid, storage and generation startups after several volatile years.
FUNDING
A Quiet Wave of Small-Cap S-1 Filings Builds Behind the Headlines
FUNDING7+ S-1/S-1A filings this week
A Quiet Wave of Small-Cap S-1 Filings Builds Behind the Headlines
A cluster of SEC S-1 and S-1/A filings this week -- spanning cybersecurity, healthtech and biotech -- shows a steady small-cap IPO pipeline building beneath the headline megadeals like Agility Robotics and SK Hynix.
FUNDING
Crunchbase: It's Time for LPs to Leave the Megafund Crowd
FUNDINGLP capital concentration analysis
Crunchbase: It's Time for LPs to Leave the Megafund Crowd
A new Crunchbase analysis argues that a year of LP capital rushing toward megafunds out of misplaced fear has left emerging managers underfunded, even as smaller funds have historically outperformed on a vintage-adjusted basis.
FUNDING
Nearly 90 New Unicorns Minted So Far in 2026
FUNDING~90 new unicorns in 2026
Nearly 90 New Unicorns Minted So Far in 2026
Almost 90 startups have crossed the $1 billion valuation mark in 2026 through early July, with most AI-related, led by Jeff Bezos-backed Prometheus at a $41 billion valuation.
FUNDING
Almost 90 New Unicorns Have Been Minted So Far in 2026
FUNDING~90 new unicorns, 2026 YTD
Almost 90 New Unicorns Have Been Minted So Far in 2026
TechCrunch's running tally shows nearly 90 new billion-dollar startups created in 2026 already, a pace that shows fresh mega-valuation creation continuing even as bubble warnings about AI infrastructure capex intensify.
FUNDING
Why the Same Five Neoclouds Keep Landing Megarounds
FUNDING$5.3B+ combined across 3 repeat raises
Why the Same Five Neoclouds Keep Landing Megarounds
Baseten, Together AI and Crusoe have each raised nine- or ten-figure rounds within the past year, showing AI infrastructure capital increasingly recycling into a small, familiar set of 'neocloud' names rather than funding new entrants.
FUNDING
Vertical AI Series A Rounds Are Quietly Getting Bigger
FUNDING$650M+ combined across 4 vertical rounds
Vertical AI Series A Rounds Are Quietly Getting Bigger
A cluster of recent Series A and C rounds -- General Intuition's $320M, RunPod's $100M and Assort Health's $120M among them -- shows vertical AI applications commanding round sizes once reserved for infrastructure megadeals.
FUNDING
Biotech VCs Are Betting Big on Single Clinical Trials
FUNDING$391M+ combined across 3 single-trial bets
Biotech VCs Are Betting Big on Single Clinical Trials
Celea Therapeutics' $180M round, Beeline Medicine's $126.3M raise and Flare Therapeutics' $85M financing show late-stage biotech investors concentrating capital into single, high-conviction trial bets rather than diversified platform plays.
FUNDING
The Real Picks-and-Shovels Trade: Chips, Coolant and Power
FUNDING$66M combined (Oxmiq + Omen AI)
The Real Picks-and-Shovels Trade: Chips, Coolant and Power
Smaller raises for Oxmiq's unified chip architecture and Omen AI's datacenter-coolant sensors show venture capital funding the unglamorous physical layer beneath AI compute, not just the headline gigawatt-scale megadeals.
FUNDING
Defense Tech Rounds Are Catching Up to AI's Round Sizes
FUNDING~$3.5B combined across 2 deals
Defense Tech Rounds Are Catching Up to AI's Round Sizes
Quantum Systems' $1.2B Series D for drone autonomy and Safran's $2.19B acquisition of Exail Technologies show European defense and autonomy deals now matching the scale of headline AI infrastructure rounds.
FUNDING
Why AI Infrastructure Megarounds Are Swallowing the Series B Market
FUNDING$6.75B+ in infra rounds in one week
Why AI Infrastructure Megarounds Are Swallowing the Series B Market
A string of multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure raises this year -- Crusoe, Together AI, Quantum Systems, National Grid's Joulent bet -- shows venture capital concentrating in physical AI infrastructure at the expense of traditional Series B-sized rounds.
FUNDING
The Return of the $100M+ Vertical AI Round
FUNDING$100M-$180M vertical AI rounds
The Return of the $100M+ Vertical AI Round
TwelveLabs' $100M video-AI raise and Celea Therapeutics' $180M biotech round show growth-stage investors writing nine-figure checks into narrow, vertical AI applications again, not just horizontal infrastructure plays.
FUNDING
Crypto VCs Are Quietly Out-Raising AI VCs on Fund Size
FUNDING$3.2B combined new fund capital
Crypto VCs Are Quietly Out-Raising AI VCs on Fund Size
a16z crypto's $2.2B fifth fund and Haun Ventures' $1B second fund show crypto-focused venture firms raising fund sizes that rival or exceed many AI-focused funds, even as broader blockchain market sentiment stays subdued.
FUNDING
H1 2026's $510B Funding Record Hides a Concentration Problem
FUNDING$217B of $510B to 2 companies
H1 2026's $510B Funding Record Hides a Concentration Problem
Global venture funding hit a record $510B in H1 2026, but OpenAI and Anthropic alone accounted for 43% of it -- a concentration level that raises questions about how broad-based the AI funding boom really is.
FUNDING
Bitcoin's Next Big Rally May Need $1 Trillion
FUNDING>$1 trillion needed for next rally
Bitcoin's Next Big Rally May Need $1 Trillion
CryptoQuant data shows Bitcoin's capital efficiency has fallen so far that another parabolic rally may require over $1 trillion in fresh institutional capital, just as spot ETFs post their worst outflow month on record.
FUNDING
Kuaishou Spins Off Kling AI in Record $2.8B Round, Setting Up Hong Kong IPO
FUNDING~$2.8B spinoff round
Kuaishou Spins Off Kling AI in Record $2.8B Round, Setting Up Hong Kong IPO
Kuaishou Technology's video-generation subsidiary Kling AI closed roughly $2.8 billion in spinoff financing at an $18 billion post-money valuation, with rivals Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu all buying into the round ahead of a planned Hong Kong listing.
FUNDING
Crusoe in Talks to Raise $3B, Tripling Valuation to ~$30B
FUNDING$3B raise / ~$30B valuation
Crusoe in Talks to Raise $3B, Tripling Valuation to ~$30B
AI data-center builder Crusoe is reportedly in talks to raise about $3 billion in a round that would roughly triple its valuation to around $30 billion, as demand for specialized AI compute keeps outpacing supply.
FUNDING
Quantum Systems Raises $1.2B Series D as Europe Bets Big on Sovereign Drone
FUNDING$1.2B Series D
Quantum Systems Raises $1.2B Series D as Europe Bets Big on Sovereign Drone
Quantum Systems, a German maker of autonomous drones and multi-domain uncrewed systems, closed a $1.2 billion Series D co-led by Blackstone, Airbus Defence and Space and Advent International, more than doubling its valuation to roughly $8 billion.
FUNDING
Aligned Closes $60M Series B to Become the 'System of Action' for B2B Sales
FUNDING$60M Series B
Aligned Closes $60M Series B to Become the 'System of Action' for B2B Sales
Aligned, an Israeli-founded startup building an AI-powered deal workspace for B2B sales teams, raised $60 million in Series B funding led by PeakSpan Capital after tripling ARR and reaching 70,000 sellers and a million buyers a month.
FUNDING
Nobel Laureate's Qolab Raises $54.2M Series B to Scale Superconducting
FUNDING$54.2M Series B
Nobel Laureate's Qolab Raises $54.2M Series B to Scale Superconducting
Qolab, a Santa Barbara superconducting-quantum-processor startup co-founded by 2025 Nobel physics laureate John Martinis, closed a $54.2 million Series B led by UC Investments on July 2, with WARF, Octave Ventures and Phoenix Venture Partners also.
FUNDING
Celea Therapeutics Raises $180M Series B for Pulmonary Fibrosis Drug
FUNDING$180M Series B
Celea Therapeutics Raises $180M Series B for Pulmonary Fibrosis Drug
Celea Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech spun out of PureTech developing deupirfenidone for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, announced a $180 million Series B on July 2, led by RA Capital and Leaps by Bayer, with PureTech and additional unnamed.
FUNDING
Thiel Capital's Jack Selby Nabs Stakes in Etched Through Arizona Ties
FUNDINGEtched now valued at ~$5B
Thiel Capital's Jack Selby Nabs Stakes in Etched Through Arizona Ties
Jack Selby, a longtime Thiel Capital managing director who founded Phoenix-based Copper Sky in 2021, used a promise to help reshore chip fabrication to Arizona to secure an allocation in AI chip startup Etched's Series A -- now valued at $5B with its first.
FUNDING
Thiel Capital's Jack Selby Nabs Stakes in Hot Startups Like Etched Through Arizona Connections
FUNDING$300M Fund II (raising)
Thiel Capital's Jack Selby Nabs Stakes in Hot Startups Like Etched Through Arizona Connections
Jack Selby, a former PayPal executive and longtime managing director at Peter Thiel's family office, has been using his Phoenix-based venture firm Copper Sky Capital — and his seat on the Arizona Commerce Authority board — to secure allocations into hot AI startups like Etched, TechCrunch reported July 2. Copper Sky invested in Etched's $120 million Series A roughly two years ago partly by pledging to help the Nvidia competitor eventually move chip fabrication to Arizona's TSMC GIGAFAB, and is now raising a $300 million second fund built around the same regional-manufacturing thesis.
FUNDING
Melinda Gates' Pivotal Ventures Backs Magnify Ventures' $46.6M Fund II
FUNDING$46.6M Fund II
Melinda Gates' Pivotal Ventures Backs Magnify Ventures' $46.6M Fund II
Magnify Ventures, the care-economy-focused firm founded by Joanna Drake and Julie Wroblewski, closed a $46.6 million Fund II with Melinda French Gates' Pivotal Ventures as an anchor LP, following Pivotal's similar anchor role in the firm's $52 million Fund I.
FUNDING
Global Startup Funding Hit a Record $510B in H1 2026 as AI Concentration
FUNDING$510B H1 2026 (record)
Global Startup Funding Hit a Record $510B in H1 2026 as AI Concentration
Global venture funding hit $510 billion in the first half of 2026, Crunchbase News reported July 2 -- surpassing all of 2025's $440 billion total in just six months -- with OpenAI and Anthropic alone accounting for $217 billion (43%) of the total, and.
FUNDING
Melinda Gates' Pivotal Ventures Backs Magnify Ventures' $46.6M Fund II for the Care Economy
FUNDING$46.6M Fund II
Melinda Gates' Pivotal Ventures Backs Magnify Ventures' $46.6M Fund II for the Care Economy
Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates' investment firm, anchored Magnify Ventures' second fund, which closed at $46.6 million on July 2 to back AI tools for households, health and home systems, and fintech infrastructure for families. Magnify, founded by Joanna Drake and Julie Wroblewski in 2021, previously raised a $52 million Fund I in 2022 also anchored by Pivotal Ventures, and counts childcare platform Kinside and children's expense app Till Financial among its portfolio.
FUNDING
Crunchbase: Global Startup Funding Hit a Record $510B in H1 2026 as AI Swallows the Market
FUNDING$510B H1 2026
Crunchbase: Global Startup Funding Hit a Record $510B in H1 2026 as AI Swallows the Market
Crunchbase News reported July 2 that global startup investment hit a record $510 billion in H1 2026, already exceeding the $440 billion invested in all of 2025 combined, as AI-focused companies captured more than 70% of Q2 global funding. OpenAI and Anthropic alone raised a combined $217 billion in H1 — 43% of every venture dollar deployed worldwide — while exit activity kept pace, led by SpaceX's record $75 billion IPO and its $60 billion all-stock acquisition of Cursor.
FUNDING
Celea Therapeutics Raises $180M to Push Lung Drug Into Phase 3
FUNDING$180 million
Celea Therapeutics Raises $180M to Push Lung Drug Into Phase 3
PureTech-founded Celea Therapeutics raised $180 million to fund a head-to-head Phase 3 trial testing its drug deupirfenidone against the current standard of care for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
FUNDING
Crunchbase: The Week's 10 Biggest Funding Rounds, Led by Joulent's $1.75B Energy Raise
FUNDING$1.75B lead deal (Joulent)
Crunchbase: The Week's 10 Biggest Funding Rounds, Led by Joulent's $1.75B Energy Raise
Crunchbase News' roundup of the week's 10 biggest funding rounds (June 27-July 2) was led by Houston-based energy infrastructure provider Joulent's $1.75 billion raise from National Grid Ventures, aimed squarely at AI and compute-intensive industries' power needs. Together AI's $800M Series C and Venice AI's $65M unicorn round both placed inside the top 10, alongside biotech, legal-tech, sports and video-AI rounds spanning a genuinely broad set of categories beyond pure frontier-model AI.
FUNDING
Ex-Intel Chip Architect Raja Koduri Raises $35M for Licensable GPU/AI Chiplet
FUNDING$35M Series A
Ex-Intel Chip Architect Raja Koduri Raises $35M for Licensable GPU/AI Chiplet
OXMIQ Labs, led by former Intel and AMD chip architect Raja Koduri, raised a $35 million Series A co-led by Fundomo and Samsung Catalyst Fund, with MediaTek returning as an investor alongside AM Intelligence Labs, Pegatron Venture Capital, CDIB-TEN, Darwin.
FUNDING
Indian Tech Tycoon Bets $30M of His Own Money to Build an AI Alternative to Microsoft Office
FUNDING$30M self-funded
Indian Tech Tycoon Bets $30M of His Own Money to Build an AI Alternative to Microsoft Office
Serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia is personally funding $30 million into Neo, an AI-native enterprise work platform combining project management, documents, file storage and AI, built from the ground up rather than retrofitted onto legacy software, TechCrunch reported July 1. Neo launched internally in April 2026, was built in three months using AI extensively during development, and now employs 45 people with plans to reach 100 by year-end.
FUNDING
TwelveLabs Raises $100M Series B to Build 'Video Superintelligence,' Deepens AWS Partnership
FUNDING$100M
TwelveLabs Raises $100M Series B to Build 'Video Superintelligence,' Deepens AWS Partnership
TwelveLabs closed a $100 million Series B on July 1, co-led by NEA and Naver Ventures with Amazon participating directly, pushing total funding above $200 million. The company builds foundation models that understand video the way humans do, and is expanding from video-understanding models into a full-stack agentic system combining perception, knowledge and reasoning, while committing AWS Trainium as its preferred inference chip.
FUNDING
Venice AI Becomes a Unicorn With $65M Series A as Its Privacy-First Platform Takes Off
FUNDING$65M
Venice AI Becomes a Unicorn With $65M Series A as Its Privacy-First Platform Takes Off
Venice AI closed a $65 million Series A on July 1 at a $1 billion valuation, led by crypto-focused VC firm Dragonfly with Coinbase Ventures and North Island Ventures participating. The platform aggregates access to 200+ AI models with client-side encryption and no server-side data storage, and says it's already profitable at more than $70 million in annualized revenue with 3 million active users.
FUNDING
Bain, CPP and Bristol Myers Add $126M to Beeline's Lupus Pipeline
FUNDING$126.3M Series A extension
Bain, CPP and Bristol Myers Add $126M to Beeline's Lupus Pipeline
Beeline Medicines closed a $126.3 million Series A extension from Bain Capital, CPP Investments and Bristol Myers Squibb, upsizing its total Series A to $426.3 million to fund pivotal development of afimetoran in lupus ahead of a Phase 2 readout expected in.
FUNDING
Ashton Kutcher Leaves Sound Ventures to Launch New Early-Stage Firm With Morgan Beller
FUNDINGNew fund launch
Ashton Kutcher Leaves Sound Ventures to Launch New Early-Stage Firm With Morgan Beller
Ashton Kutcher is departing Sound Ventures, the firm he co-founded roughly eleven years ago, to launch a new early-stage vehicle with Morgan Beller — who co-led Meta's Libra/Diem cryptocurrency project and was most recently a general partner at NFX after a stint at Andreessen Horowitz. The new firm will focus on very early-stage AI infrastructure, energy and deep-tech companies built around hard science rather than software alone, a deliberate departure from Sound Ventures' later-stage, concentrated bets.
FUNDING
Together AI Raises $800M at $8.3B Valuation as Open-Source Inference Demand Triples
FUNDING$800M
Together AI Raises $800M at $8.3B Valuation as Open-Source Inference Demand Triples
Together AI closed an $800 million Series C on July 1 at an $8.3 billion post-money valuation, more than doubling its prior mark. The round was led by Aramco Ventures with Vista Equity Partners, General Catalyst, Emergence Capital, Nvidia, March Capital and others participating, as annual bookings crossed $1.15 billion on the back of open-source model usage tripling industry-wide in twelve months.
FUNDING
National Grid Invests $1.75B in Joulent to Power US AI Data Centers
FUNDING$1.75B strategic investment
National Grid Invests $1.75B in Joulent to Power US AI Data Centers
National Grid Ventures is investing $1.75 billion for a 35% stake in Joulent, a US platform building contracted power generation and high-voltage infrastructure for data centers, valuing the company at roughly $5 billion and funding a 2.67GW Texas facility.
FUNDING
Tapestry VC Closes $80M Third Fund to Back Europe's Repeat Founders
FUNDING$80M
Tapestry VC Closes $80M Third Fund to Back Europe's Repeat Founders
Tapestry VC, the London-based firm founded by Patrick Murphy and Audrey Miller, closed an $80 million third fund on July 1 dedicated to backing second- and third-time European founders, moving from roughly $1 million to $1-3 million check sizes as it targets around 30 pre-seed and seed portfolio companies. LPs include the British Business Bank, Railpen, Molten Ventures and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar as an individual investor.
FUNDING
Ashton Kutcher Leaves Sound Ventures to Launch New Deep-Tech VC Firm With Morgan Beller
FUNDINGNew fund launch
Ashton Kutcher Leaves Sound Ventures to Launch New Deep-Tech VC Firm With Morgan Beller
Ashton Kutcher announced on July 1 that he is stepping away from Sound Ventures, the firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary 11 years ago, to launch a new early-stage fund with Morgan Beller, formerly a general partner at NFX and co-lead of Meta's Libra cryptocurrency project. The new firm will focus on early-stage bets in AI infrastructure, energy and deep tech — hard-science startups rather than pure software.
FUNDING
London's Tapestry VC Closes $80M Third Fund to Back Repeat European Founders
FUNDING$80M Fund III
London's Tapestry VC Closes $80M Third Fund to Back Repeat European Founders
Tapestry VC closed an $80 million third fund on July 1, targeting repeat European founders with $1-3 million checks -- up from roughly $1 million in its prior fund -- out of a new London flagship office led by managing partner Patrick Murphy, who relocated from San Francisco, Crunchbase News reported. Limited partners include the British Business Bank, pension fund Railpen, Molten Ventures and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar personally.
FUNDING
LeapXpert Raises $180M to Bring AI Into Governed Enterprise Messaging
FUNDING$180M
LeapXpert Raises $180M to Bring AI Into Governed Enterprise Messaging
LeapXpert closed a $180 million growth round on June 30, its largest to date, led by Riverwood Capital with existing investor Portage Ventures also participating. The company captures and governs enterprise conversations across WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal and WeChat, layering AI analytics on top so regulated industries can let employees use the messaging apps customers already prefer without losing compliance and audit trails.
FUNDING
Omnea Will Give Employees $250K to Openly Plan Their Next Startup
FUNDING$250K per employee
Omnea Will Give Employees $250K to Openly Plan Their Next Startup
Omnea, the London and New York-based procurement software company, launched a program on June 30 giving employees who reach five years of tenure a $250,000 check — guided at a $10 million valuation or an uncapped SAFE — to build their next startup, plus office space, ops support and access to a network of 150+ angel investors through partner firm Firedrop. CEO Ben Freeman built the program after watching alumni from his previous company, Tessian, go on to found startups without any formal support.
FUNDING
Higharc Raises $95M Series C to Bring AI Into Homebuilding
FUNDING$95M Series C
Higharc Raises $95M Series C to Bring AI Into Homebuilding
Higharc, which generates homes as 3D spatial databases so builders and suppliers can design, estimate, sell and build more efficiently, raised a $95 million Series C led by Insight Partners and announced a new partnership with US LBM, the country's largest.
FUNDING
Nvidia Competitor Etched Hits $5B Valuation on $1B in AI Chip Sales
FUNDING$5B valuation
Nvidia Competitor Etched Hits $5B Valuation on $1B in AI Chip Sales
Etched, the Harvard-dropout-founded chip startup building Sohu, a transformer-only inference chip, disclosed on June 30 that it has booked over $1 billion in orders and closed an unannounced $500 million round in December at a $5 billion post-money valuation. The company bundles Sohu chips with custom racks and software into 'frontier inference clusters' aimed at cheaper, faster, more power-efficient inference than Nvidia GPUs.
FUNDING
Wayve Launches $85M Employee Tender Offer at $8.5B Valuation
FUNDING$85M tender
Wayve Launches $85M Employee Tender Offer at $8.5B Valuation
Self-driving startup Wayve launched an $85 million tender offer letting employees sell vested shares at an $8.5 billion valuation, set against February's $1.2 billion Series D led by Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The buyback comes as Wayve has more than doubled headcount to 1,200 employees and targets robotaxi pilots with Uber later this year, using liquidity as a retention tool without pushing toward a public listing.
FUNDING
AI Homebuilding Platform Higharc Raises $95M Series C Led by Insight Partners
FUNDING$95M
AI Homebuilding Platform Higharc Raises $95M Series C Led by Insight Partners
Higharc closed a $95 million Series C on June 30 led by Insight Partners, bringing total funding to $170M+. The Durham, NC-based company sells an AI-powered design-to-construction platform used by production homebuilders to automate plans, permits and buyer configuration — a category worth ~$450B in annual US residential construction.
FUNDING
Higharc Raises $95M Series C to Bring AI-Native Design Software to Homebuilders
FUNDING$95M
Higharc Raises $95M Series C to Bring AI-Native Design Software to Homebuilders
Higharc, the Durham, North Carolina-based homebuilding design software company, closed a $95 million Series C on June 30, pushing total funding above $170 million. The platform lets production homebuilders generate architecturally sound, code-compliant house designs and instant construction documents in minutes instead of weeks, aiming to cut the design-to-permit timeline that has become one of the biggest bottlenecks in US housing supply.
FUNDING
LeapXpert Raises $180M to Govern AI-Era Enterprise Messaging
FUNDING$180M growth round
LeapXpert Raises $180M to Govern AI-Era Enterprise Messaging
LeapXpert, which lets regulated organizations capture, retain and govern communications across WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage and SMS, raised a $180 million growth round led by Riverwood Capital, with existing investor Portage Ventures also participating.
FUNDING
Flare Therapeutics Raises $85M, Names New CEO
FUNDING$85M Series C
Flare Therapeutics Raises $85M, Names New CEO
Flare Therapeutics closed an $85 million insider-led Series C and named Anna Protopapas CEO, funding its first-in-class ARON-targeting degrader for prostate cancer toward a Phase 1A trial expected in Q3 2026.
FUNDING
Ex-DeepMind Poker AI Trio's Trading Startup EquiLibre Hits $500M Valuation
FUNDING$500M valuation
Ex-DeepMind Poker AI Trio's Trading Startup EquiLibre Hits $500M Valuation
EquiLibre Technologies, founded by three former DeepMind researchers who built DeepStack -- the first AI to beat professional players at no-limit poker -- raised a Series A led by Creandum that Creandum called the largest single check the firm has ever written, valuing the Prague-based company at $500 million. EquiLibre applies the same reinforcement-learning techniques that mastered poker to trading stocks and crypto for quantitative hedge funds including Tower Research Capital.
FUNDING
LeapXpert Raises $180M Growth Round Led by Riverwood as Enterprise Chat Governance Scales
FUNDING$180M
LeapXpert Raises $180M Growth Round Led by Riverwood as Enterprise Chat Governance Scales
Enterprise communications and compliance startup LeapXpert closed a $180 million growth investment led by Riverwood Capital on June 30 with participation from existing backer Portage Ventures. The New York-based company enforces recordkeeping and policy controls across WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal and Teams for banks, hedge funds and regulated enterprises.
FUNDING
Realta Fusion Becomes First Commercial Fusion Company to Convert Plasma Directly Into Electricity
FUNDINGFirst direct conversion
Realta Fusion Becomes First Commercial Fusion Company to Convert Plasma Directly Into Electricity
Realta Fusion, a UW-Madison-born startup, announced the first demonstration by a commercial fusion company of direct energy conversion -- turning plasma kinetic energy straight into electricity, powering lightbulbs from its WHAM demonstration device on June 19. Direct conversion is roughly 90% efficient versus about 33% for the steam turbines fission reactors rely on, a technical milestone that could meaningfully cut fusion's projected cost per kilowatt-hour.
FUNDING
GV's Dave Munichiello on Qualcomm's Modular Deal, a Roughly 10x Return, and the AI Software Shift
FUNDING~10x return
GV's Dave Munichiello on Qualcomm's Modular Deal, a Roughly 10x Return, and the AI Software Shift
GV general partner Dave Munichiello discussed Qualcomm's June 24 acquisition of AI infrastructure software startup Modular in a Crunchbase Q&A published June 30, describing a return of roughly 10x on GV's total dollars invested after leading Modular's Series A at a $155 million valuation with a $23 million check. Munichiello framed the deal as validation of a shift toward 'disaggregated inference' — software that lets AI workloads run efficiently across a mix of chips rather than locking into a single hardware vendor.
FUNDING
Chamath's 8090 Labs Raises $135M Series A Led by Salesforce Ventures
FUNDING$135M Series A
Chamath's 8090 Labs Raises $135M Series A Led by Salesforce Ventures
8090, the AI-native 'software factory' co-founded by Chamath Palihapitiya, raised a $135 million Series A led by Salesforce Ventures, with Palihapitiya stepping down from the board to become full-time CEO the same week the round closed.
FUNDING
Arcturus Raises $8M Seed to Halve the Grid's Electrical Losses With Nano-Infused Copper
FUNDING$8M
Arcturus Raises $8M Seed to Halve the Grid's Electrical Losses With Nano-Infused Copper
Arcturus, a Malibu-based materials startup founded by Amir Mashal, closed an $8 million seed round led by Initialized Capital with Toyota Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Discovery and Wireframe Ventures participating, TechCrunch reported June 30. The company uses lasers to infuse carbon nanomaterials into copper and aluminum, boosting conductivity in a way it says could halve resistive electrical losses across the grid and unlock roughly 3% more average electricity supply nationally.
FUNDING
Chamath Palihapitiya Raises $135M Series A for 8090 Labs, Takes CEO Role
FUNDING$135M
Chamath Palihapitiya Raises $135M Series A for 8090 Labs, Takes CEO Role
8090 Labs, the enterprise AI-coding startup Chamath Palihapitiya founded in January 2024, raised a $135 million Series A led by Salesforce Ventures, with Palihapitiya stepping in as full-time CEO for the first time since leaving Facebook. The company's Software Factory product helps corporate engineering teams use AI to build production-grade software with the audit trails and controls large enterprises require, rather than the vibe-coded prototypes most AI coding tools produce.
FUNDING
Chamath Palihapitiya Raises $135M Series A for AI Coding Startup 8090 Labs, Takes CEO Role
FUNDING$135M
Chamath Palihapitiya Raises $135M Series A for AI Coding Startup 8090 Labs, Takes CEO Role
8090 Labs, the enterprise AI coding startup founded by Chamath Palihapitiya, closed a $135 million Series A led by Salesforce Ventures on June 29, with Chamath stepping into the CEO seat — his first full-time operating role since leaving Facebook. The company's Software Factory product helps corporate engineering teams ship production-quality software with AI agents rather than vibe-coded prototypes.
FUNDING
Chamath Palihapitiya Raises $135M for AI Coding Startup 8090 Labs, Returns as CEO
FUNDING$135M Series A
Chamath Palihapitiya Raises $135M for AI Coding Startup 8090 Labs, Returns as CEO
Chamath Palihapitiya's 8090 Labs raised a $135 million Series A led by Salesforce Ventures, with Palihapitiya taking the CEO role -- his first full-time operating job since leaving Facebook -- to scale Software Factory, an AI coding platform built for regulated industries including healthcare, insurance, aerospace and government, TechCrunch reported June 29.
FUNDING
Arena, the AI Leaderboard Everyone Uses, Becomes a $100M Business Eight Months After Launch
FUNDING$100M ARR
Arena, the AI Leaderboard Everyone Uses, Becomes a $100M Business Eight Months After Launch
Arena, the crowdsourced AI model leaderboard that began as a UC Berkeley research project, disclosed on June 29 that it has reached $100 million in annualized run-rate revenue — up from $30 million in January — just eight months after launching its paid AI Evaluations product. The company has raised $250 million total, including a $150 million Series A in January at a $1.7 billion valuation.
FUNDING
Chamath Palihapitiya Raises $135M Series A for 8090 Labs, Takes the CEO Role
FUNDING$135M
Chamath Palihapitiya Raises $135M Series A for 8090 Labs, Takes the CEO Role
8090 Labs, the enterprise AI coding startup Chamath Palihapitiya founded in early 2024, raised a $135 million Series A led by Salesforce Ventures -- and Palihapitiya announced he will run it as CEO rather than just chairing the board. Its flagship product, Software Factory, aims to move corporate engineering teams from AI prototypes to production-grade applications with enterprise controls like audit trails.
FUNDING
Arena, the AI Leaderboard Everyone Uses, Hits $100M Revenue Run-Rate
FUNDING$100M run-rate
Arena, the AI Leaderboard Everyone Uses, Hits $100M Revenue Run-Rate
Arena -- the crowdsourced AI-model leaderboard born as a UC Berkeley research project and now relied on across the industry -- has reached a $100 million annualized revenue run-rate, up from $30 million in January, on the back of its commercial AI-evaluations business. The company raised a $150 million Series A in January at a $1.7 billion valuation and has turned 10 million-plus human model comparisons into a paid product for labs and enterprises.
FUNDING
Reed Semiconductor Raises Upsized $100M to Build Power Delivery for AI Data Centers
FUNDING$100M
Reed Semiconductor Raises Upsized $100M to Build Power Delivery for AI Data Centers
Reed Semiconductor closed an oversubscribed, upsized $100 million growth round with participation from leading global semiconductor companies, to scale its turnkey power-delivery solutions for AI data centers and high-performance computing. As AI clusters strain the grid and the silicon that feeds them, power delivery has become one of the buildout's most acute bottlenecks -- and one investors are racing to fund.
FUNDING
Straiker Raises $64M Series A to Secure the Enterprise AI Agent Workforce
FUNDING$64M
Straiker Raises $64M Series A to Secure the Enterprise AI Agent Workforce
Straiker, which calls itself 'the agentic security company,' raised a $64 million Series A -- bringing total funding to $85 million -- to protect the enterprise AI agents that legacy security tools were never built to govern. The round was led by Marathon Management Partners with Citi Ventures, Illuminate Financial and Workday Ventures, plus existing backers Bain Capital Ventures and Lightspeed.
FUNDING
Straiker Raises $64M Series A to Secure the Emerging AI-Agent Workforce
FUNDING$64M
Straiker Raises $64M Series A to Secure the Emerging AI-Agent Workforce
Straiker, the self-described 'agentic security company,' closed a $64 million Series A on June 29 bringing total funding to $85M. The pitch: enterprise AI agents are becoming a new workforce, and every agent needs identity, authorization, monitoring and audit that today's IAM stack can't provide.
FUNDING
Novak Djokovic Joins $126B PE Firm General Atlantic as Global Strategic Advisor
FUNDINGAdvisory role
Novak Djokovic Joins $126B PE Firm General Atlantic as Global Strategic Advisor
Tennis champion Novak Djokovic has signed on as a Global Strategic Advisor to General Atlantic, the roughly $126 billion private-equity firm, working with its leadership, portfolio companies and investors on leadership, resilience and innovation. The firm aims to tap his global network and his growing footprint in health, wellness and sports -- the latest marquee-athlete crossover into institutional finance.
FUNDING
Peregrine Raises $250M at $6.8B to Power Public-Safety AI -- and World Cup Security
FUNDING$250M
Peregrine Raises $250M at $6.8B to Power Public-Safety AI -- and World Cup Security
Peregrine Technologies, the Palantir-alumni-founded platform that unifies government data for police and public-safety agencies, raised a $250 million Series D at a $6.8 billion valuation -- nearly tripling its $2.5 billion mark from 15 months earlier. The San Francisco company serves 400-plus agencies covering 125 million people and will run security operations for eight of 11 U.S. host cities at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
FUNDING
AppsFlyer Raises $1B Series E With Unity, Meta and Google Backing
FUNDING$1B
AppsFlyer Raises $1B Series E With Unity, Meta and Google Backing
Mobile marketing-measurement leader AppsFlyer raised a $1 billion Series E, one of the week's largest rounds, with strategic backing from Unity, Meta, Moloco and Google. The round underscores how valuable privacy-era attribution and measurement infrastructure has become as advertisers grope for signal after the collapse of easy device tracking.
FUNDING
Stealthy AI-R&D Lab Mirendil Raises a $200M Seed From a16z and Kleiner Perkins
FUNDING$200M
Stealthy AI-R&D Lab Mirendil Raises a $200M Seed From a16z and Kleiner Perkins
Mirendil, a new and largely stealth frontier AI lab focused on building systems for AI research and development itself, raised a $200 million seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, with Nvidia among its backers. A nine-figure seed for a pre-product lab is one of the year's clearest signals that capital is racing to fund the next generation of foundation-model challengers.
FUNDING
Groq Raises $650M to Scale Its AI Inference Cloud and LPU Chips
FUNDING$650M
Groq Raises $650M to Scale Its AI Inference Cloud and LPU Chips
AI inference chipmaker Groq raised $650 million from investors including Infinitum and Disruptive to scale its LPU-based inference cloud, betting that purpose-built silicon can undercut GPUs on the cost and speed of serving large models. The round is part of a week dominated by bets on the inference layer, from Baseten's $1.5B to AI-networking deals.
FUNDING
Upscale AI Hits a $2B Valuation With a $190M Series A Extension for AI Networking
FUNDING$190M
Upscale AI Hits a $2B Valuation With a $190M Series A Extension for AI Networking
Upscale AI raised a $190 million Series A extension led by Premji Invest, taking its total Series A to roughly $500 million and its valuation to $2 billion. The company builds AI networking infrastructure -- the high-speed fabric that connects GPUs inside data centers -- positioning it in one of the hottest and most capital-intensive corners of the AI buildout.
FUNDING
Quantifind Raises $200M to Scale AI Risk Intelligence for Banks and National Security
FUNDING$200M
Quantifind Raises $200M to Scale AI Risk Intelligence for Banks and National Security
Quantifind raised $200 million in a growth round led by Summit Partners to expand its AI-driven risk-intelligence platform, which helps financial institutions and government agencies detect financial crime, fraud and national-security threats. The round places another applied-AI company with clear, regulated demand among the week's largest financings.
FUNDING
General Intuition Raises $320M Series A at $2.3B to Build Spatial-Reasoning AI From Game Video
FUNDING$320M
General Intuition Raises $320M Series A at $2.3B to Build Spatial-Reasoning AI From Game Video
General Intuition, an AI lab training agents on vast troves of video-game footage to crack spatial and physical reasoning, raised a $320 million Series A led by Khosla Ventures at a $2.3 billion valuation. The round is one of the year's largest Series A financings and a major bet that gameplay data is the key to agents that can navigate the physical world.
FUNDING
Osanni Bio Lands $190M Series B to Advance Its Therapeutics Platform
FUNDING$190M
Osanni Bio Lands $190M Series B to Advance Its Therapeutics Platform
Osanni Bio raised a $190 million Series B led by Patient Square Capital to push its therapeutics platform deeper into clinical development. The large biotech round underscores that 2026's reopening capital markets are not an AI-only story -- life sciences is once again drawing big checks and, increasingly, big exits.
FUNDING
Defense Startup Stark Raises $569M Led by Founders Fund and Sequoia
FUNDING$569M
Defense Startup Stark Raises $569M Led by Founders Fund and Sequoia
Berlin-based defense-technology startup Stark raised roughly $569 million in a round led by Founders Fund and Sequoia Capital, one of the largest European defense-tech financings on record. The deal underscores how aggressively top US venture firms are now backing European defense as the continent rearms and attritable autonomous systems reshape the battlefield.
FUNDING
French Health-Insurance Startup Alan Raises $546M Led by Prosus
FUNDING$546M
French Health-Insurance Startup Alan Raises $546M Led by Prosus
Alan, the Paris-based digital health-insurance company, raised roughly $546 million in equity led by Prosus, one of Europe's largest fintech-adjacent rounds of the year. The financing funds Alan's push to fuse insurance, primary care and AI-driven member health into a single platform across European markets.
FUNDING
Baseten Raises $1.5B Series F at a $13B Valuation as AI Inference Demand Explodes
FUNDING$1.5B
Baseten Raises $1.5B Series F at a $13B Valuation as AI Inference Demand Explodes
AI inference provider Baseten closed a $1.5 billion Series F at a $13 billion valuation, the largest funding round of the week, led by Altimeter Capital and Conviction Partners with Spark, Sands and Wellington participating. The raise underscores how serving AI models -- not just training them -- has become one of the most valuable and capital-intensive layers of the stack.
FUNDING
Ollin Biosciences Raises $330M Series B to Advance Its Therapeutics Pipeline
FUNDING$330M
Ollin Biosciences Raises $330M Series B to Advance Its Therapeutics Pipeline
Ollin Biosciences raised a $330 million Series B co-led by TCG Crossover and Arch Venture Partners, one of the largest life-sciences rounds of the week. The financing pushes its therapeutics pipeline deeper into clinical development and adds to mounting evidence that biotech's capital markets have reopened in force alongside the AI boom.
FUNDING
Public-Safety Software Maker Peregrine Raises $250M Series D at $6.8B
FUNDING$250M
Public-Safety Software Maker Peregrine Raises $250M Series D at $6.8B
Peregrine Technologies, which builds a data and software platform for government public-safety agencies, raised a $250 million Series D at a $6.8 billion valuation, with Sequoia Capital, XYZ Ventures and others joining lead investor Fifth Down Capital. The round marks one of govtech's largest financings and reflects surging demand for AI-enabled tools that unify fragmented police and emergency data.
FUNDING
Patronus AI Lands $50M to Build Digital Worlds That Stress-Test AI Agents
FUNDING$50M
Patronus AI Lands $50M to Build Digital Worlds That Stress-Test AI Agents
Patronus AI raised a $50 million Series B led by Greenfield Partners, with Lightspeed, Notable Capital, Datadog and Samsung participating, bringing total funding to $70 million. The startup builds simulated digital environments -- replicas of websites and internal systems -- where AI agents are stress-tested before deployment, and counts nearly all frontier labs among its customers after 15x revenue growth.
FUNDING
Ollin Biosciences Raises $330M Series B for Next-Generation Eye Disease Therapies
FUNDING$330M
Ollin Biosciences Raises $330M Series B for Next-Generation Eye Disease Therapies
Ollin Biosciences raised a $330 million Series B led by TCG Crossover and ARCH Venture Partners to advance its pipeline of ophthalmic therapies, one of the largest biotech rounds of the period. The deal is a reminder that even amid AI's dominance of headlines and capital, large therapeutic biotech rounds remain a major and resilient corner of venture funding.
FUNDING
Assort Health Raises $120M Series C at a $1.2B Valuation for Healthcare AI Agents
FUNDING$120M
Assort Health Raises $120M Series C at a $1.2B Valuation for Healthcare AI Agents
Assort Health raised a $120 million Series C led by Menlo Ventures at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation, vaulting the patient-access automation startup into unicorn territory. Its AI agents handle scheduling, intake, referrals, document processing and front-desk support for healthcare providers -- one of the clearest examples of AI moving from chatbot demos to embedded, revenue-bearing clinical workflows.
FUNDING
Taktile Raises $110M Series C Led by Goldman Sachs for AI Decisioning in Finance
FUNDING$110M
Taktile Raises $110M Series C Led by Goldman Sachs for AI Decisioning in Finance
Taktile raised a $110 million Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives to scale its AI decisioning platform, which lets banks and insurers automate underwriting, claims, fraud detection and anti-money-laundering workflows with human oversight. The round is a vote of confidence that regulated financial institutions will pay for AI that makes high-stakes decisions auditable rather than just faster.
FUNDING
Radical Numerics Raises $50M Seed to Build AI for Scientific Discovery
FUNDING$50M seed
Radical Numerics Raises $50M Seed to Build AI for Scientific Discovery
Menlo Park-based Radical Numerics raised a $50 million seed round led by Emergence Capital, with First Spark, Obvious Ventures, Factory and Triatomic participating. The startup is building AI systems aimed at scientific and numerical problems -- a fast-emerging category betting that AI's next frontier is accelerating research itself, from drug discovery to materials and simulation.
FUNDING
RunPod Raises $100M Led by Summit Partners at $1B Valuation, Rejects $500M Buyout Offers
FUNDING$100M
RunPod Raises $100M Led by Summit Partners at $1B Valuation, Rejects $500M Buyout Offers
RunPod, the AI developer cloud used by more than 1 million developers to build, train and deploy AI workloads, closed a $100 million growth investment led by Summit Partners on June 24 at a $1 billion valuation. The company disclosed $240 million in annual recurring revenue and confirmed it turned down acquisition offers exceeding $500 million to remain independent.
FUNDING
xCures Raises $46M Series B to Turn Messy Medical Records Into Clean Clinical Data With AI
FUNDING$46M
xCures Raises $46M Series B to Turn Messy Medical Records Into Clean Clinical Data With AI
xCures landed a $46 million Series B led by Innovius Capital to scale its AI platform that converts fragmented patient records into structured, decision-ready clinical data. The round more than doubled its valuation to $127 million post-money, on the back of ARR that tripled to ~$10M in 2025 and a cash-flow-breakeven business.
FUNDING
Valor Equity Partners Looks to Raise a $2.5B Fund VII on Its SpaceX and Anduril Marks
FUNDING$2.5B target
Valor Equity Partners Looks to Raise a $2.5B Fund VII on Its SpaceX and Anduril Marks
Antonio Gracias's Valor Equity Partners is raising a $2.5 billion Fund VII, per Bloomberg -- a step up from the $2.35 billion Fund VI it closed in 2024. A long-time backer of Elon Musk's companies, Valor has reserved part of the new fund for additional SpaceX investment, where it owns roughly 4% of the now-public rocket maker.
FUNDING
Upscale AI Raises $190M at $2B Valuation for AI Networking Infrastructure
FUNDING$190M
Upscale AI Raises $190M at $2B Valuation for AI Networking Infrastructure
AI networking startup Upscale AI raised a $190 million Series A extension led by Premji Invest at a $2 billion valuation, bringing total financing to roughly $500 million. The company builds the high-speed networking fabric that links thousands of AI accelerators into coherent clusters -- an increasingly critical and capital-hungry layer as model training and inference scale.
FUNDING
Ex-Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka Launches Hang Ten Systems With $32M to Aim AI at IT Services
FUNDING$32M seed
Ex-Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka Launches Hang Ten Systems With $32M to Aim AI at IT Services
Vishal Sikka, the former Infosys CEO, has emerged with a new startup, Hang Ten Systems, backed by a $32 million seed round led by Mayfield with Aramco Ventures participating. The company uses agentic AI and reusable 'skills' to build, modify and operate enterprise software -- a direct bet that AI can replace, not just assist, the traditional IT-services workforce.
FUNDING
Menlo Ventures Raises $3B -- Its Largest Fund Ever -- After Its Anthropic Bet Turned Into ~$14B
FUNDING$3B
Menlo Ventures Raises $3B -- Its Largest Fund Ever -- After Its Anthropic Bet Turned Into ~$14B
Menlo Ventures closed $3 billion in new capital, the largest fundraise in the firm's 50-year history, on the strength of a 2024 bet on Anthropic that is now worth roughly $14 billion. The Silicon Valley firm 'white-knuckled it' to lead a $750 million round in the AI lab two years ago; that conviction call has become one of the defining venture wins of the cycle.
FUNDING
Superhuman Acquires AI-Detection Startup GPTZero, Maker of a $30M-ARR 'AI Slop' Filter
FUNDINGAcquisition
Superhuman Acquires AI-Detection Startup GPTZero, Maker of a $30M-ARR 'AI Slop' Filter
Superhuman -- the email client now owned by Grammarly -- has acquired GPTZero, the AI-detection startup founded by Princeton grad Edward Tian. GPTZero, which reached 19 million registered users and ~$30 million in ARR helping identify AI-generated text, gives Superhuman a second AI-authenticity engine as the internet drowns in machine-written content.
FUNDING
Groq Confirms $650M Raise and Rebuilds Leadership After Nvidia's $20B 'Not-Acqui-Hire'
FUNDING$650M
Groq Confirms $650M Raise and Rebuilds Leadership After Nvidia's $20B 'Not-Acqui-Hire'
AI chipmaker Groq confirmed a $650 million funding round and a near-total leadership rebuild, six months after Nvidia signed a roughly $20 billion non-exclusive licensing deal that also hired away Groq's founder-CEO Jonathan Ross, president Sunny Madra and other senior staff. The round -- led by Dallas firm Disruptive and hedge fund Infinitum -- bankrolls Groq's pivot from selling chips to running an AI inference 'neocloud.'
FUNDING
AppsFlyer Raises Over $1B from Google, Meta, Unity and Moloco at a $2.7B Valuation
FUNDING$1B+
AppsFlyer Raises Over $1B from Google, Meta, Unity and Moloco at a $2.7B Valuation
Ad-measurement company AppsFlyer raised more than $1 billion in Series E funding at a $2.7 billion post-money valuation, with Google, Meta, Unity and Moloco each taking minority stakes. The four advertising giants are betting that independent, neutral attribution becomes essential infrastructure as AI takes over how ads are bought and optimized.
FUNDING
Robotics Startups Have Already Raised $18.8B in 2026 -- Smashing Every Prior Annual Record
FUNDING$18.8B YTD
Robotics Startups Have Already Raised $18.8B in 2026 -- Smashing Every Prior Annual Record
Robotics startups have raised $18.8 billion globally so far in 2026, according to Crunchbase data -- already eclipsing the $15 billion raised in all of 2025 and the $14.1 billion of the 2021 peak, with half the year still to go. The surge is concentrated in embodied AI and humanoids, headlined by billion-dollar rounds for Saronic, Neura Robotics, Skild AI and others as investors stop treating robotics as a risky hardware bet.
FUNDING
Seedcamp Closes $320M Across Two Funds, Hits $1B AUM and Pushes Into the US
FUNDING$320M
Seedcamp Closes $320M Across Two Funds, Hits $1B AUM and Pushes Into the US
European seed pioneer Seedcamp raised $320 million across two new vehicles -- a $220 million seventh flagship fund and a $100 million 'Select' fund for follow-on bets -- crossing $1 billion in assets under management. After 18 years focused on Europe, the firm is using the capital to expand into the United States.
FUNDING
Autonomous-Maritime Startup Saronic Raises $1.75B Series D at a $9.25B Valuation
FUNDING$1.75B
Autonomous-Maritime Startup Saronic Raises $1.75B Series D at a $9.25B Valuation
Saronic, the Austin-based builder of autonomous surface vessels for defense, raised a $1.75 billion Series D at a $9.25 billion valuation -- the single largest robotics round of 2026 so far. The raise underscores how unmanned maritime systems have become a priority as navies race to field cheap, attritable autonomous fleets.
FUNDING
Germany's Neura Robotics Raises $1.4B to Scale Humanoid Production
FUNDING$1.4B
Germany's Neura Robotics Raises $1.4B to Scale Humanoid Production
Neura Robotics, the German developer of cognitive humanoid and collaborative robots, raised roughly $1.4 billion in a Series C -- one of the largest robotics rounds ever in Europe. The financing positions Neura as the continent's marquee humanoid bet against US and Chinese rivals.
FUNDING
Skild AI Raises $1.4B at $14B+ for an 'Omni-Bodied' Robot Foundation Model
FUNDING$1.4B
Skild AI Raises $1.4B at $14B+ for an 'Omni-Bodied' Robot Foundation Model
Skild AI raised roughly $1.4 billion at a valuation north of $14 billion to build a single 'omni-bodied' AI brain capable of operating any robot for any task. The round is among the year's largest and reflects investor belief that a general robot foundation model -- not bespoke hardware -- is where the durable value sits.
FUNDING
Defense-Tech Wunderkind Mach Industries Bets It Can Build the Whole Arsenal at Once
FUNDING$1.8B valuation
Defense-Tech Wunderkind Mach Industries Bets It Can Build the Whole Arsenal at Once
TechCrunch profiles 22-year-old Ethan Thornton, whose defense startup Mach Industries -- fresh off a $300M Series C at a $1.8B valuation -- is pursuing an unusually sprawling product line, from hydrogen-powered weapons to a flexible 'Forge' manufacturing network. The story crystallizes a defense-tech moment where young founders raise mega-rounds to challenge primes across many fronts simultaneously.
FUNDING
Palo Alto's Mind Robotics Lands $500M Series A With a $400M Follow-On
FUNDING$900M (A + extension)
Palo Alto's Mind Robotics Lands $500M Series A With a $400M Follow-On
Mind Robotics, a Palo Alto embodied-AI startup, raised a $500 million Series A followed by a $400 million extension, one of the largest seed-to-A trajectories of the robotics boom. The scale of the raise shows how aggressively capital is front-loading into unproven physical-AI teams.
FUNDING
Apptronik Adds $520M to Scale Production of Its Apollo Humanoid Robot
FUNDING$520M
Apptronik Adds $520M to Scale Production of Its Apollo Humanoid Robot
Austin-based Apptronik raised a $520 million Series A extension to ramp manufacturing of Apollo, its general-purpose humanoid robot, bringing the broader round past $935 million. The capital targets the hardest part of the humanoid race: building reliable robots at industrial volume.
FUNDING
Founders Fund Makes an Outlier Bet on Humanely Killed Fish
FUNDINGOutlier bet
Founders Fund Makes an Outlier Bet on Humanely Killed Fish
Founders Fund backed a startup working on humane fish-harvesting technology -- a deliberately contrarian, non-AI wager from one of tech's most aggressive funds. It's a reminder that even in an AI-saturated cycle, top firms still hunt for asymmetric bets in overlooked physical-world categories.
FUNDING
AI Music Startup Suno Raises $400M at a $5.4B Valuation
FUNDING$400M
AI Music Startup Suno Raises $400M at a $5.4B Valuation
Suno, the generative-AI music platform, raised $400 million led by Bond at a $5.4 billion valuation -- one of the largest rounds in consumer AI even as the company sits at the center of the industry's copyright fight. The raise shows investors are betting AI music is a real consumer category despite the legal cloud.
FUNDING
Helion Closes $465M as Fusion's Funding Boom Hits 17 Startups Over $100M
FUNDING$465M
Helion Closes $465M as Fusion's Funding Boom Hits 17 Startups Over $100M
Helion Energy, the Sam Altman-backed fusion startup, closed a $465 million round at a reported $15.5 billion valuation -- the standout in a sector where 17 companies have now each raised over $100 million and total private fusion investment has topped $13 billion. AI's insatiable power demand is turning fusion from science project into a fundable energy bet.
FUNDING
The Engineer Who Made VLC Run Smoothly Is Now Doing It for Robots
FUNDINGPhysical AI
The Engineer Who Made VLC Run Smoothly Is Now Doing It for Robots
A veteran engineer behind the buttery playback of the free VLC media player is applying the same low-level performance obsession to robotics, tackling the unglamorous software layer that makes machines move smoothly and reliably. It's a bet that the bottleneck in physical AI is execution, not just intelligence.
FUNDING
Mecka AI Raises $60M to Train Robots With Human Data From Body Sensors and iPhones
FUNDING$60M
Mecka AI Raises $60M to Train Robots With Human Data From Body Sensors and iPhones
Mecka AI raised a $60 million Series A to build a data engine that trains robots using human motion captured from wearable body sensors and iPhones. The bet is that the bottleneck in robotics is no longer hardware or models but high-quality real-world training data -- and that crowdsourced human demonstration is the cheapest way to get it.
FUNDING
VCs Name the 11 Standout Startups From YC's Latest Demo Day
FUNDING11 standouts
VCs Name the 11 Standout Startups From YC's Latest Demo Day
Investors crowning the breakout companies from Y Combinator's latest Demo Day overwhelmingly pointed to AI agents, applied-AI verticals and developer infrastructure -- a snapshot of where the smartest early money thinks the next wave is forming. The list doubles as a read on what the seed market will chase for the next year.
FUNDING
Generalist AI Raises $400M at a $2B Valuation to Build Robot Foundation Models
FUNDING$400M
Generalist AI Raises $400M at a $2B Valuation to Build Robot Foundation Models
Generalist AI, a robotics-focused lab, raised $400 million led by Radical Ventures at a $2 billion valuation to build foundation models that let robots generalize across tasks. It's another giant check flowing into physical AI, where investors increasingly believe the next platform shift will happen in the real world, not the chat window.
FUNDING
Baseten Reportedly Raising ~$1.5B at a $13B Valuation as AI Inference Becomes the Hot Trade
FUNDING~$1.5B
Baseten Reportedly Raising ~$1.5B at a $13B Valuation as AI Inference Becomes the Hot Trade
AI inference platform Baseten is reportedly raising roughly $1.5 billion at a valuation of up to $13 billion -- tripling its mark in about five months -- co-led by Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Altimeter and Wellington. The round captures investors racing into the layer that actually serves AI models in production, where Baseten's ARR has reportedly jumped from $200M to $600M.
FUNDING
Atom Computing Raises $100M Series C to Scale Neutral-Atom Quantum Machines
FUNDING$100M
Atom Computing Raises $100M Series C to Scale Neutral-Atom Quantum Machines
Atom Computing raised a $100 million Series C led by Third Point Ventures to advance its neutral-atom quantum computers. The round lands as quantum re-enters the venture spotlight on the back of error-correction progress and the prospect that quantum and AI compute could become complementary parts of the same buildout.
FUNDING
Genspark Raises $100M Series B Extension at $2.6B for Its AI Agent Platform
FUNDING$100M
Genspark Raises $100M Series B Extension at $2.6B for Its AI Agent Platform
Genspark closed a $100 million Series B extension at a $2.6 billion post-money valuation, extending a torrid fundraising pace for the AI agent and 'super agent' platform. The round underscores how investors keep paying premiums for consumer-facing agentic products that show real usage rather than demos.
FUNDING
Chronograph Raises $140M From Sixth Street to Scale Private-Capital Software
FUNDING$140M
Chronograph Raises $140M From Sixth Street to Scale Private-Capital Software
Chronograph raised $140M led by Sixth Street Growth to expand its portfolio-monitoring and data software for private-capital investors. As LPs demand sharper visibility into private holdings, the software layer underneath the VC and PE industry is itself becoming a fundable category.
FUNDING
AT&T Ventures' Vikram Taneja on the New Rules of Seed-Stage Defensibility
FUNDINGSeed strategy
AT&T Ventures' Vikram Taneja on the New Rules of Seed-Stage Defensibility
AT&T Ventures head Vikram Taneja argues that in an AI world where features are trivially cloned, seed-stage defensibility now comes from proprietary data, distribution and workflow lock-in rather than the product itself. It's a framework for how early investors are re-underwriting moats when the tech advantage evaporates overnight.
FUNDING
Instant-Payments Startup Interchecks Raises $50M Series C
FUNDING$50M
Instant-Payments Startup Interchecks Raises $50M Series C
Interchecks, a Brooklyn-based instant-payments platform, raised a $50 million Series C led by Bettor Capital with Commerce Ventures, Decades Holdings and Thayer Street Partners. The company, which says it has processed more than $50 billion in payouts to date, is riding demand for faster, programmable disbursements across insurance, gaming and the gig economy.
FUNDING
Gradial Raises $65M at $675M to Build an 'Operating System for Marketing'
FUNDING$65M
Gradial Raises $65M at $675M to Build an 'Operating System for Marketing'
Gradial, a Seattle startup building agents that automate marketing work across tools like Adobe, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Databricks, raised $65 million at a $675 million valuation led by Insight Partners. It's a bet that agentic automation with measurable ROI -- not generic AI features -- is what enterprises will pay up for.
FUNDING
Range Raises $8.3M for Treasury and Compliance Across Stablecoins and Fiat
FUNDING$8.3M
Range Raises $8.3M for Treasury and Compliance Across Stablecoins and Fiat
Range raised $8.3 million from TX Ventures and SixThirty to build treasury, risk, and compliance tooling that spans stablecoins and traditional fiat rails. As stablecoins move into mainstream corporate finance, companies need software to manage money across both worlds.
FUNDING
Architect Labs Raises $24M to Speed AI Custom-Chip Design With Kindred Ventures
FUNDING$24M
Architect Labs Raises $24M to Speed AI Custom-Chip Design With Kindred Ventures
Architect Labs raised $24 million led by Kindred Ventures to build AI tools that accelerate custom-chip design, compressing the time and cost of taping out specialized silicon. As every hyperscaler and AI startup races to design its own accelerators, the software that shortens the chip-design cycle is becoming strategically valuable.
FUNDING
Chronograph Raises $140M From Sixth Street to Run Private-Capital Reporting
FUNDING$140M
Chronograph Raises $140M From Sixth Street to Run Private-Capital Reporting
Chronograph, which builds portfolio-monitoring and reporting software for private-capital investors, raised $140 million led by Sixth Street Growth. It's the second-largest round of the week and a bet that the plumbing of private markets -- not just the deals -- is a venture-scale opportunity.
FUNDING
Swiss Startup Prem AI Raises $100M Series A for Private On-Prem AI
FUNDING$100M
Swiss Startup Prem AI Raises $100M Series A for Private On-Prem AI
Prem AI, a Swiss startup that helps hedge funds, law firms, and enterprises run AI models on their own private infrastructure, is raising a $100 million Series A. The round is a bet on the growing demand for self-hosted, data-sovereign AI among regulated and secrecy-sensitive industries.
FUNDING
Hydra Host Raises $100M From Kindred for a Distributed GPU Cloud
FUNDING$100M
Hydra Host Raises $100M From Kindred for a Distributed GPU Cloud
Hydra Host raised $100 million led by Kindred Ventures to expand its bare-metal GPU platform, which connects customers to distributed AI compute. It's another bet that the GPU-cloud layer -- not just the chips -- is where durable margins in the AI buildout will sit.
FUNDING
Atom Computing Raises $100M From Third Point for Neutral-Atom Quantum
FUNDING$100M
Atom Computing Raises $100M From Third Point for Neutral-Atom Quantum
Atom Computing raised $100 million led by Third Point Ventures to advance its neutral-atom quantum computers. The round is part of a 2026 resurgence in quantum funding as the field inches from research milestones toward commercially useful machines.
FUNDING
Dream Raises $260M at $3B to Sell 'Sovereign AI' Cyber Defense to Governments
FUNDING$260M
Dream Raises $260M at $3B to Sell 'Sovereign AI' Cyber Defense to Governments
Dream, the Israeli cybersecurity startup founded by former NSO Group CEO Shalev Hulio and former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, raised $260 million at a $3 billion valuation -- roughly tripling its mark in a year as it sells AI-driven national cyber defense directly to governments and critical-infrastructure operators. Just three years old, the company says it has booked nearly $300 million in total contract value since commercial launch in late 2024, and the new round was co-led by Bicycle Capital and Group 11.
FUNDING
Ent.AI Emerges From Stealth With $100M Seed -- Sequoia and Felicis Back AI Endpoint Security
FUNDING$100M
Ent.AI Emerges From Stealth With $100M Seed -- Sequoia and Felicis Back AI Endpoint Security
Ent.AI came out of stealth with a $100M seed round led by Decibel Partners, with Sequoia Capital and Felicis participating, to build AI-native endpoint security. A nine-figure seed signals how aggressively top funds are pre-empting the next category winners in AI security.
FUNDING
Twenty Raises $100M at $1B -- America's First VC-Backed Cyber Warfare Startup
FUNDING$100M
Twenty Raises $100M at $1B -- America's First VC-Backed Cyber Warfare Startup
Twenty Technologies, an Arlington-based startup building automated offensive cyber operations for the U.S. military and intelligence community, raised a $100 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation led by Accel, with Point72 Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, and Friends & Family Capital participating. The round, which brings total funding to $138 million, mints a defense-tech unicorn in a category most VCs avoided a few years ago.
FUNDING
Bland AI Raises $50M From Dell Technologies Capital for Voice Agents
FUNDING$50M
Bland AI Raises $50M From Dell Technologies Capital for Voice Agents
Bland AI raised $50 million led by Dell Technologies Capital to scale its AI voice agents that automate inbound and outbound phone conversations. The round rides the surge in enterprise demand for agents that can actually pick up the phone and complete tasks.
FUNDING
Ent.AI Raises $100M Led by Decibel for AI-Native Endpoint Security
FUNDING$100M
Ent.AI Raises $100M Led by Decibel for AI-Native Endpoint Security
Ent.AI raised $100 million led by Decibel Partners to build AI-native endpoint and cybersecurity defense. The round adds to a banner year for security funding as enterprises race to deploy AI-driven defenses against increasingly automated, AI-powered attacks.
FUNDING
Triveni Bio Raises $65M for Antibody Therapeutics in Immunology
FUNDING$65M
Triveni Bio Raises $65M for Antibody Therapeutics in Immunology
Triveni Bio raised $65 million, co-led by Ascenta Capital and Janus Henderson Investors, to advance antibody-based therapeutics for immunological and inflammatory diseases. The round is a reminder that biotech capital is still flowing to differentiated science even in an AI-dominated market.
FUNDING
Neura Robotics Raises $1.4B -- Europe's Biggest Bet Yet on Humanoid Robots
FUNDING$1.4B
Neura Robotics Raises $1.4B -- Europe's Biggest Bet Yet on Humanoid Robots
German humanoid-robotics startup Neura Robotics raised roughly $1.4 billion, one of the largest funding rounds of the year and the biggest European wager yet on 'physical AI.' The capital lands as Figure, Apptronik, and others race to ship general-purpose humanoids into factories and warehouses at scale.
FUNDING
Odyssey Raises $310M Series B at $1.45B to Build AI World Models
FUNDING$310M
Odyssey Raises $310M Series B at $1.45B to Build AI World Models
Odyssey, founded by self-driving veterans Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, raised a $310 million Series B at a $1.45 billion valuation to build AI world models that simulate real-world physics and causality. Natural Capital led, with Amazon, AMD Ventures and GV joining -- and a strategic AWS Trainium compute deal pointed pointedly away from Nvidia.
FUNDING
SandboxAQ Wins $500M CHIPS Award -- and Hands the US Government an Equity Stake
FUNDING$500M
SandboxAQ Wins $500M CHIPS Award -- and Hands the US Government an Equity Stake
The Department of Commerce signed a definitive $500M CHIPS Act R&D award with Nvidia-backed SandboxAQ to use AI-driven materials discovery for PFAS-free process chemicals, advanced catalysts, rare-earth-free magnets, and battery systems. In a notable twist, Commerce takes a minority, non-controlling equity stake in the company in return.
FUNDING
World-Model Startup Odyssey Raises $310M at a $1.45B Valuation, Backed by Amazon
FUNDING$310M
World-Model Startup Odyssey Raises $310M at a $1.45B Valuation, Backed by Amazon
Odyssey, the AI lab building interactive 'world models' founded by self-driving veterans Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, raised a $310 million Series B at a $1.45 billion valuation led by Natural Capital, with Amazon, GV, AMD Ventures, EQT and In-Q-Tel participating. AWS becomes its preferred cloud provider, marking one of the largest bets yet on generative, explorable environments.
FUNDING
CuspAI Raises $400M at $2.6B -- Bezos and Kleiner Back AI Materials Discovery
FUNDING$400M
CuspAI Raises $400M at $2.6B -- Bezos and Kleiner Back AI Materials Discovery
UK AI materials-discovery startup CuspAI raised $400M at a $2.6B valuation, with Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions and Kleiner Perkins backing. The company uses generative AI to design new materials -- for carbon capture, batteries and beyond -- collapsing discovery cycles that used to take years.
FUNDING
Twenty Raises $100M Series B at $1B -- America's First VC-Backed Cyber-Warfare Startup
FUNDING$100M
Twenty Raises $100M Series B at $1B -- America's First VC-Backed Cyber-Warfare Startup
Arlington-based Twenty raised a $100M Series B at a $1B valuation to build AI-enabled offensive cyber systems for US military and intelligence customers. It's a rare unicorn-on-Series-B in defense tech and a clean signal that offensive cyber is now a venture category.
FUNDING
Odyssey Raises $310M at $1.45B -- Amazon and AMD Bet on World Models for Physical AI
FUNDING$310M
Odyssey Raises $310M at $1.45B -- Amazon and AMD Bet on World Models for Physical AI
Odyssey, the Los Angeles startup founded by self-driving veterans Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, raised a $310 million Series B at a $1.45 billion valuation to build 'world models' -- AI systems that simulate physical environments with real-world physics for robotics, autonomy, and interactive media. The round was led by Natural Capital, with Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV, Jeff Dean, Elad Gil, Garry Tan, Guillermo Rauch, and Kyle Vogt participating, and notably routes the company onto AWS Trainium after it had earlier taken Nvidia's money.
FUNDING
Cyber-Warfare Startup Twenty Raises $100M Series B at a $1B Valuation
FUNDING$100M
Cyber-Warfare Startup Twenty Raises $100M Series B at a $1B Valuation
Twenty, an Arlington-based startup building AI-enabled offensive cyber systems for the US military and intelligence community, raised a $100 million Series B led by Accel at a $1 billion valuation. Founded only in 2024, it's billing itself as America's first VC-backed cyber-warfare company and just hit unicorn status.
FUNDING
Bland AI Raises $50M Series C -- Dell Capital Backs Enterprise Voice Agents
FUNDING$50M
Bland AI Raises $50M Series C -- Dell Capital Backs Enterprise Voice Agents
Bland AI raised a $50M Series C led by Dell Technologies Capital to scale AI voice agents that automate enterprise phone operations. Voice is becoming one of the most concrete, deployable surfaces for AI agents -- and a strategic investor signals enterprise pull.
FUNDING
Radical Numerics Raises $50M to Build AI That Simulates Biology
FUNDING$50M
Radical Numerics Raises $50M to Build AI That Simulates Biology
Radical Numerics raised $50 million led by Emergence Capital to build AI models that simulate biological systems -- a bet that foundation-model techniques can model cells and living processes the way world models simulate physics. It's part of a clear 2026 wave of capital flowing toward AI-for-science applied to specific scientific domains.
FUNDING
Sierra Raises $350M at $10B -- Bret Taylor's Agent Company Triples in a Year
FUNDING$350M
Sierra Raises $350M at $10B -- Bret Taylor's Agent Company Triples in a Year
Sierra, the customer-service AI agent company from ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, raised $350M at a $10B valuation -- roughly 3x its mark from a year ago. Enterprises are paying for agents that actually resolve tickets, and Sierra is the clearest commercial proof that vertical agents, not chatbots, are where the money is.
FUNDING
Triveni Bio Raises $65M for Antibody-Based Immunology Therapeutics
FUNDING$65M
Triveni Bio Raises $65M for Antibody-Based Immunology Therapeutics
Triveni Bio raised $65 million co-led by Ascenta Capital and Janus Henderson to advance antibody-based therapeutics targeting immunological diseases. The round is part of a biotech rebound that's running alongside the AI-infrastructure boom rather than being crowded out by it.
FUNDING
Hydra Host Raises $100M Series A -- Founders Fund and Nvidia Back Bare-Metal GPU Infra
FUNDING$100M
Hydra Host Raises $100M Series A -- Founders Fund and Nvidia Back Bare-Metal GPU Infra
Hydra Host raised a $100M Series A led by Kindred Ventures, with ARK, Founders Fund, and Nvidia participating, to scale its bare-metal GPU platform. The round is a bet that the AI buildout still needs new ways to provision and access compute, not just more chips.
FUNDING
Odyssey Raises $310M Series B for AI Infrastructure -- Amazon and AMD In
FUNDING$310M
Odyssey Raises $310M Series B for AI Infrastructure -- Amazon and AMD In
AI infrastructure startup Odyssey raised a $310M Series B from a syndicate including Natural Capital, Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV, and EQT. Strategic backers across the compute stack signal a bet that the AI build-out still needs new infrastructure layers, not just more GPUs.
FUNDING
Behavox Raises $175M in Growth Equity to Scale AI Compliance
FUNDING$175M
Behavox Raises $175M in Growth Equity to Scale AI Compliance
Financial-compliance and regtech firm Behavox raised $175M in growth preferred equity. Its AI monitors employee communications for misconduct and regulatory breaches across banks and trading firms -- a category getting hotter as regulators expect AI-grade surveillance.
FUNDING
Voice-AI Startup Bland Raises $50M Series C After Being Rejected by 180 Investors
FUNDING$50M
Voice-AI Startup Bland Raises $50M Series C After Being Rejected by 180 Investors
Bland AI, which builds AI phone agents for enterprises, raised a $50 million Series C led by Dell Technologies Capital, crossing $100 million in total funding -- a striking turnaround for a company its founder says was rejected by 180 investors. The round reflects surging demand for voice agents that can handle high-volume business calls.
FUNDING
Atom Computing Raises $100M Series C -- Plus a $100M U.S. Commerce LOI -- for Fault-Tolerant Quantum
FUNDING$300M+
Atom Computing Raises $100M Series C -- Plus a $100M U.S. Commerce LOI -- for Fault-Tolerant Quantum
Atom Computing announced more than $300 million in total funding to accelerate commercial-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers -- a $100 million Series C led by Third Point Ventures plus a signed $100 million letter of intent from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The neutral-atom developer is racing to deliver on-premises quantum systems for enterprise and government customers.
FUNDING
Hydra Host Raises $100M Series A to Broker Idle GPU Capacity for AI Labs
FUNDING$100M
Hydra Host Raises $100M Series A to Broker Idle GPU Capacity for AI Labs
Hydra Host closed a $100 million Series A led by Kindred Ventures, with Nvidia, ARK Invest, Comcast Ventures and Founders Fund participating, to expand its asset-light 'neocloud' that connects AI builders to dedicated bare-metal GPUs. Its Brokkr operating system standardizes infrastructure across 50+ data centers, positioning Hydra as a broker in the scramble for compute.
FUNDING
AttoTude Raises $52M Series C for High-Speed AI Data-Center Interconnects
FUNDING$52M
AttoTude Raises $52M Series C for High-Speed AI Data-Center Interconnects
AttoTude raised a $52M Series C led by The Westly Group to build high-speed interconnect technology for AI data centers. As clusters scale, the bottleneck is increasingly moving the data between chips -- not the chips themselves.
FUNDING
Interchecks Raises $50M to Scale Its Payments API for Deposits and Payouts
FUNDING$50M
Interchecks Raises $50M to Scale Its Payments API for Deposits and Payouts
Interchecks raised $50 million from Bettor Capital, Commerce Ventures, and others to expand its payments API for handling deposits and disbursements. As embedded finance matures, the infrastructure that moves money in and out of platforms keeps attracting serious capital.
FUNDING
DeepSeek Raises $7.4B -- Becomes China's Most Valuable AI Startup at $50B+
FUNDING$7.4B
DeepSeek Raises $7.4B -- Becomes China's Most Valuable AI Startup at $50B+
DeepSeek closed a $7.4B round backed by Tencent, CATL, JD.com, NetEase and IDG Capital, vaulting past a $50B valuation to become China's most valuable AI startup. The raise is a direct answer to the US frontier labs and a statement that the model race is now a two-superpower contest.
FUNDING
DeepSeek's $7.4B Round Backed by Tencent, CATL and JD
FUNDING$7.4B
DeepSeek's $7.4B Round Backed by Tencent, CATL and JD
The largest AI financing out of China this year: $7.4B from a strategic syndicate that hands DeepSeek both capital and distribution. At a $50B+ valuation, it is now the anchor of China's frontier-model ambitions.
FUNDING
Ent Raises $100M Seed to Defend Against AI-Enabled Cyberattacks
FUNDING$100M
Ent Raises $100M Seed to Defend Against AI-Enabled Cyberattacks
Cybersecurity startup Ent raised a $100M seed -- enormous for the stage -- from Sequoia, Craft, Felicis, Crosspoint, Shield Capital and In-Q-Tel. The thesis: as attackers weaponize AI, defense has to be AI-native from day one, and that requires frontier-scale capital before product-market fit.
FUNDING
SiFive Raises $400M for Custom RISC-V Chip Designs
FUNDING$400M
SiFive Raises $400M for Custom RISC-V Chip Designs
SiFive led the week's funding table with $400M to scale custom RISC-V silicon -- the open instruction-set architecture that lets companies design AI chips without paying the Arm or x86 tax. As every hyperscaler chases custom silicon, SiFive sells the foundation.
FUNDING
Sarvam Raises $234M Series B -- India's Sovereign AI Unicorn
FUNDING$234M
Sarvam Raises $234M Series B -- India's Sovereign AI Unicorn
India's sovereign AI thesis is real: 1.4B people, government-subsidized domestic compute, and enterprises needing models trained on Indic languages and local regulatory frameworks. $234M at unicorn status makes Sarvam the clearest bet on AI nationalism outside of China.
FUNDING
SonoThera Raises $125M for Ultrasound Gene Therapy
FUNDING$125M Series B
SonoThera Raises $125M for Ultrasound Gene Therapy
SonoThera closed an oversubscribed $125 million Series B led by Vida Ventures to push its ultrasound-delivered, nonviral genetic medicine platform toward its first clinical trial in Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 2027.
FUNDING
Hark Raises $700M Series A at $6B Valuation
FUNDING$700M
Hark Raises $700M Series A at $6B Valuation
Hark raised a $700M Series A betting that frontier AI migrates from cloud to personal devices -- a thesis that strengthens every time OpenAI raises API prices. At $6B pre-revenue, investors are underwriting the hardware + AI convergence thesis at a scale unseen since Magic Leap.
FUNDING
Modal Labs Raises $355M Series C at $4.65B
FUNDING$355M
Modal Labs Raises $355M Series C at $4.65B
Modal is the picks-and-shovels winner of the AI boom -- serverless GPU compute that lets teams skip the infra pain entirely. Valuation nearly 5x'd since Series B as every company shipping AI features needs GPU access without a 6-month procurement cycle.
FUNDING
Decart Raises $300M at ~$4B Valuation
FUNDING$300M
Decart Raises $300M at ~$4B Valuation
Another $300M bet on the foundation model layer, but the window for new entrants is closing fast. At $4B, investors are paying frontier-lab multiples for a company that still needs to prove it can compete with labs spending $10B+ annually on training.
FUNDING
Medicare-Navigation Startup Chapter Raises $100M Series E for AI-Driven Senior Tools
FUNDING$100M
Medicare-Navigation Startup Chapter Raises $100M Series E for AI-Driven Senior Tools
Chapter, which helps seniors navigate Medicare without insurer-tied incentives, raised a $100 million Series E led by Generation Investment Management. The company says it tripled revenue in 2025 and surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, more than doubling its valuation as it builds AI-driven financial products for an underserved senior market.
FUNDING
PhysicsX Raises $300M for AI Engineering Simulation
FUNDING$300M
PhysicsX Raises $300M for AI Engineering Simulation
Temasek led $300M into a company that compresses days-long industrial simulations into seconds using AI. Aerospace, automotive, and energy companies will pay enterprise prices for 1000x faster iteration cycles.
FUNDING
Moonshot AI Seeks $2B at a $30B Valuation -- China's Kimi Maker 7x's in Six Months
FUNDING$2B
Moonshot AI Seeks $2B at a $30B Valuation -- China's Kimi Maker 7x's in Six Months
Beijing's Moonshot AI, the lab behind the Kimi chatbot, is in talks to raise up to $2B at a $30B valuation -- its third financing in six months and a roughly 7x markup from December 2024. With ARR past $200M, it's now in the front rank of Chinese labs chasing OpenAI and Anthropic.
FUNDING
Bezos-Backed Flourish Raises $500M at $2.5B to Build Brain-Inspired AI Chips
FUNDING$500M
Bezos-Backed Flourish Raises $500M at $2.5B to Build Brain-Inspired AI Chips
Flourish, a New York startup co-founded by Internet Explorer creator and CTRL-labs founder Thomas Reardon, raised $500 million at a $2.5 billion valuation to build brain-inspired AI -- with Jeff Bezos nearly doubling his check to roughly $100 million. Its 'Cortex AI' aims to map real neurons and run models at laptop-level power, attacking AI's energy crisis at the architecture level.
FUNDING
Supabase Raises $500M Series F at $10.5B as Vibe Coding Drives a Database Explosion
FUNDING$500M
Supabase Raises $500M Series F at $10.5B as Vibe Coding Drives a Database Explosion
Open-source backend platform Supabase raised a $500 million Series F at a $10.5 billion valuation led by GIC, doubling its value in eight months. The growth is being driven by AI coding tools -- databases deployed are up 600% year-over-year, with Claude Code now its single largest source of new instances and AI agents spinning up the majority of them.
FUNDING
Commure Raises $70M at a $7B Valuation to Put AI Agents Inside Hospital Workflows
FUNDING$70M
Commure Raises $70M at a $7B Valuation to Put AI Agents Inside Hospital Workflows
Healthcare AI platform Commure raised $70M led by General Catalyst, with Sequoia and Morgan Stanley in, at a $7B valuation. Its agents now run inside 500+ health systems across 3,000+ care sites, attacking the ~$1T a year US healthcare spends on administrative work.
FUNDING
Ramp Raises $750M Series F at a $44B Valuation as Fintechs With an AI Story Command Premiums
FUNDING$750M
Ramp Raises $750M Series F at a $44B Valuation as Fintechs With an AI Story Command Premiums
Spend-management company Ramp raised $750 million in a Series F at a $44 billion valuation, led by Iconiq, GIC and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan -- nearly tripling its valuation in a year. With annualized revenue past $1 billion and 70,000+ customers, Ramp has become the marquee example of investors paying up for fintechs that have credibly bolted on AI.
FUNDING
Bezos-Backed Flourish Raises $500M at $2.5B for Brain-Inspired AI That Runs on Laptop-Level Power
FUNDING$500M
Bezos-Backed Flourish Raises $500M at $2.5B for Brain-Inspired AI That Runs on Laptop-Level Power
Flourish, co-founded by Internet Explorer creator Thomas Reardon, closed a $500M round at a $2.5B valuation on June 4 to build 'Cortex AI' — an architecture emulating real neuron connectomics and targeting 20-50 watt operation (a laptop, not a server rack). Jeff Bezos personally committed close to $100M; Lux Capital, GV and Catalio Capital joined.
FUNDING
Cyera Raises $600M at $12B Valuation as AI Data-Security Demand Doubles Again
FUNDING$600M
Cyera Raises $600M at $12B Valuation as AI Data-Security Demand Doubles Again
Data security posture management leader Cyera raised $600 million at a $12 billion valuation on June 2, doubling its mark from January and quadrupling since late 2024. Evolution Equity Partners led with Temasek, Cyberstarts, Accel, AT&T Ventures, Blackstone and Coatue participating — cementing Cyera as the runaway DSPM category leader.
FUNDING
PaleBlueDot AI Raises $150M to Scale GPU Cloud
FUNDING$150M Series B
PaleBlueDot AI Raises $150M to Scale GPU Cloud
PaleBlueDot AI closed a $150 million Series B led by B Capital at a valuation above $1 billion, after revenue grew more than tenfold on demand for its cost-efficient GPU cloud and AI agent platform.