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.
Jul 20, 2026Coverage Timeline
newest first- Jul 20, 2026Natural Raises $30M to Build Payments Rails for AI Agents$30M Series A→
- Jul 20, 2026The Neocloud Gold Rush: Who's Really Winning the AI Compute Land Grab$8.3B-$11B neocloud marks→
- Jul 20, 2026Space Tech's Quiet Record: $7.5B in Q2 as SpaceX Wobbles$7.5B Q2 space funding→
- Jul 20, 2026Physical AI's Funding Supercycle: Robots, Drones, Materials$23B robotics, $17.4B defense→
- Jul 20, 2026AI Labs Ate 43% of H1's Record $510B VC Haul$217B to 2 companies→
- Jul 20, 2026Empirical Security Raises $25M for AI Exposure Management$25M Series A→
- Jul 20, 2026Neo Launches With $100M to Secure Agentic AI Software$100M launch round→
- Jul 20, 2026Bezos Backs CuspAI's $450M Round to Hunt Chip Materials$450M Series B→
- Jul 20, 2026AZCOM Maruwa Pays Amazon Japan's Truckers in Stablecoin~$6.2M JPYC investment→
- Jul 19, 2026Why Corporates Wrote the Biggest Checks in AI This Week→
- Jul 19, 2026Why the Biggest Checks Skipped the Chatbots This Week→
- Jul 18, 2026Alpaca Raises $135M ($435M With Debt) for Agent-First Brokerage$135M equity / $435M total→
- Jul 18, 2026Cyclops Raises $20M Series A to Bring Stablecoin Rails to Payments$20M Series A→
- Jul 17, 2026Databricks Hits $188B on Coatue-Led Round$188B valuation→
- Jul 17, 2026Nuclear Startup Valar Atomics Talks $6B Valuation~$1B at $6B→
- Jul 17, 2026Wonder Raises $650M Series D at $9B Valuation$650M at $9B→
- Jul 17, 2026Chai Discovery Raises $400M at $3.8B for AI Drug Design$400M at $3.8B→
- Jul 17, 2026Toyota Backs Walden Robotics' $300M Round at $1.1B$300M at $1.1B→
- Jul 17, 2026Brinc Raises $125M for Public-Safety Drones$125M→
- Jul 17, 2026Defense Startup Singularity Raises $80M at $400M$80M at $400M→
- Jul 16, 2026Alpaca Raises $135M to Build Agent-First Brokerage Rails$135M Series E→
- Jul 16, 2026AI Travel Agency Fora Hits Unicorn on $60M Round$60M at $1B→
- Jul 16, 2026Fireworks Raises $1.505B Series D at $17.5B Valuation$1.505B Series D→
- Jul 16, 2026Nvidia-Backed Fireworks AI Hits $17.5B Valuation$1.5B at $17.5B→
- Jul 16, 2026Forward Financing Secures $525M for Small-Business Lending$525M financing→
- Jul 16, 2026Menlo Ventures Posts 40%+ IRR After Anthropic Bet→
- Jul 16, 2026Bunkerhill Health Raises $55M for Hospital AI Agents$55M→
- Jul 16, 2026Sheryl Sandberg Leads $10M Bet on AI Vehicle Inspection$10M→
- Jul 16, 2026Founders Fund Hires Ex-OpenAI Exec Ryan Beiermeister→
- Jul 16, 2026Ultrahuman's Ex-Hardware VP Raises $5.5M for AI Agent Devices$5.5M→
- Jul 16, 2026The Billion-Dollar Seed Round Isn't What It Seems→
- Jul 16, 2026China, AI Push Asia Startup Funding to Q2 Peak→
- Jul 15, 2026Greylock Caps New Fund at $1.5B by Choice$1.5B fund cap→
- Jul 15, 2026Lululemon Backs Nylon-Recycling Startup Syntetica's $30M Round$30M Series A→
- Jul 15, 2026Corporate Venture Capital Is Splitting in Two2 distinct CVC models→
- Jul 15, 2026Fintech Funding Rose 23% in H1 as AI Bets Concentrate+23% H1 funding→
- Jul 15, 2026A SpaceX Vet Raised $65M to Fix Wire Harnesses$65M→
- Jul 15, 2026Oak Raises $60M to Fix AI Agent Identity$60M→
- Jul 15, 2026Daniel Ek's Neko Health Raises Another $700M$700M→
- Jul 15, 2026Indian AI Coding Startup Emergent Hits Unicorn Status$130M Series C→
All Coverage
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.
Jul 20, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 20, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 20, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 20, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 20, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 20, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 20, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 20, 2026FUNDING
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.
Jul 19, 2026FUNDING
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.
Jul 19, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 17, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING
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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING
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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING
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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING
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.
Jul 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING2 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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING+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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 15, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 14, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 14, 2026FUNDING5x 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.
Jul 14, 2026FUNDING86% 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.
Jul 14, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 14, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 14, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDINGTop 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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 10, 2026FUNDING
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.
Jul 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDINGEUR91M (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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 9, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING39 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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING€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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING€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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 7, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDINGNew 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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDINGNew 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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDING80% 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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDINGCleantech 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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDING7+ 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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDINGLP 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.
Jul 6, 2026FUNDING~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.
Jul 5, 2026FUNDING~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.
Jul 5, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 5, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 5, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 5, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 5, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 5, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 4, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 4, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 4, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 4, 2026FUNDING>$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.
Jul 4, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jul 3, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 3, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 3, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 3, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDINGEtched 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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDINGNew 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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDINGNew 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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jul 1, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDINGFirst 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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING~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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 30, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 29, 2026FUNDINGAdvisory 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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 26, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 25, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 25, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 24, 2026FUNDINGAcquisition
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.
Jun 23, 2026FUNDING$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.'
Jun 23, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 22, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 22, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 22, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 22, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 22, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 22, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 21, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 21, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 20, 2026FUNDINGOutlier 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.
Jun 20, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 19, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 19, 2026FUNDINGPhysical 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.
Jun 19, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 19, 2026FUNDING11 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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING~$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDINGSeed 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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 18, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 17, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 16, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 13, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 12, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 10, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 9, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 9, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 8, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 6, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 5, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 5, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 4, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 4, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jun 2, 2026FUNDING$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.
Jan 29, 2026