Clean tech and energy Archives - ϳԹ News /sections/clean-tech-and-energy/ Data-driven reporting on private markets, startups, founders, and investors Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:29:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.9 /wp-content/uploads/cb_news_favicon-150x150.png Clean tech and energy Archives - ϳԹ News /sections/clean-tech-and-energy/ 32 32 The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Large Rounds For AI Infrastructure, Space Tech And Investment Management Lead /venture/biggest-funding-rounds-ai-space-fintech-temporal/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:29:32 +0000 /?p=94097 Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2026 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The ϳԹ Megadeals Board.

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding deal roundup here.

After a week of multiple billion-dollar-plus rounds, startup investors have reduced the number of zeroes on their funding checks. This past week, the largest U.S. startup funding rounds were in the hundreds of millions, topped by a $550 million financing for AI infrastructure company and a $308 million investment in space vehicle developer .

The remaining list of big rounds featured mostly AI-focused companies in sectors including investment management, networking, coding and marketing as well as some energy and biotech. Data center developer , also made official its previously reported $3 billion-plus raise, co-led by , and .

1. , $550M, AI infrastructure: Temporal Technologies, developer of an open source platform for building and operating long-running AI agents and other enterprise systems, secured $550 million in Series E funding at a $12.55 billion valuation. , , , and led the financing for the Bellevue, Washington-based company.

2. , $308M, space tech: Redondo Beach, California-based Impulse Space, a developer of space vehicles for moving payloads across and between orbits, secured $308 million in Series D extension funding. The financing brings the combined round total to $808 million.

3. , $250M, investment management: Ridgeline, an AI-enabled investment management platform, picked up $250 million in a Series E funding round. The financing, led by founder and chairman , set a $1.45 billion valuation for the Incline Village, Nevada-based company.

4. , $205M, networking: Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Cornelis Networks, a developer of networking technology for AI and high-performance computing workloads, closed on $205 million in new funding backed by .

5. , $200M, AI software development: San Francisco-based Factory, a provider of AI tools for enterprise software development, announced a $200 million funding round at a $5 billion valuation, backed by a long list of venture firms and individual investors.

6. , $180M, AI marketing: Profound, a startup offering marketing software to help users appear more prominently in AI results, raised $180 million in Series D funding at a $1.8 billion valuation. and led the financing for the New York-based company.

7. (tied) , $150M, foundational AI: Arcee AI, a developer of open-weight AI models, closed on $150 million in Series B funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion. , and led the round for the San Francisco-based company.

7. (tied) , $150M, gaming: Nex, a developer of family-oriented digital games that rely on body motion rather than controllers, secured $150 million in new equity and debt financing, including a Series E led by and . The San Francisco company did not break out how much of the round consisted of equity.

9. , $135M, geothermal energy: Mazama Energy, a Seattle-based geothermal energy developer specializing in superhot rock geothermal power, picked up $135 million in a Series B round led by and .

10. , $123M, biotech: Sling Therapeutics, developer of a small-molecule therapy for thyroid eye disease, closed on $123 million in Series C funding. led the financing for the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ϳԹ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Sept. 12-18, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: Floating Nuclear Power, Robot Report Cards And Voice AI For Farmers /venture/interesting-startup-deals-nuclear-power-robotics-ai-agtech-proptech/ Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:00:13 +0000 /?p=94091 This is a monthly column that runs down five interesting startup funding deals that may have flown under the radar. Check out our previous entry here.

From putting nuclear reactors on barges to grading how well AI models can control robots, this month’s crop of interesting startup deals takes AI and other emerging technologies well beyond the conventional software stack.

Other companies that caught our eye are applying automation to the decidedly old-school worlds of building-material procurement, commercial property maintenance and farm recordkeeping. Let’s take a closer look.

$50M to put nuclear power at sea

Nuclear power plants are famously difficult and time-consuming to build. thinks putting them on barges could offer another way.

The Long Beach, California-based startup raised what it says was an oversubscribed $50 million seed round led by , just two months after emerging from stealth with $10 million in pre-seed funding. The of investors in the deal included , , , and others.

Bluecore is developing compact, water-cooled small modular reactors designed to operate aboard floating barges. Rather than spending years constructing a new power plant and the accompanying infrastructure on land, the idea is to manufacture the systems and move them to where electricity is needed.

“Our focus is simple. Create and deliver zero-emission energy as safely and quickly as possible,” CEO and founder wrote in a social media . “Over 3 billion people live within an hour of water. We want to power them all.”

Its first target is the Port of Long Beach, with other ports and power-hungry AI data centers among the potential customers. The company says it’s working with the and as it pursues certification.

Bluecore’s raise comes amid a broader nuclear funding boom. Nuclear fission startups alone pulled in roughly $2 billion in venture funding in 2025, per ϳԹ data, and investors have continued writing enormous checks this year. More broadly, cleantech-, EV- and sustainability-focused startups raised about $15 billion in the first half of 2026, with second-quarter funding reaching its highest quarterly level since 2024.

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$31M to bring AI to the building-materials business

Ordering cement and steel might not sound like an obvious AI use case, but Saudi Arabia-based sees a lot of room for improvement.

The Riyadh startup last week said it had secured $31 million in new capital, consisting of a $13 million Series B equity round co-led by , ’s venture arm, and , plus an $18 million growth-debt commitment from under a previously announced facility. The company has now raised more than $83 million, .

BRKZ operates a marketplace that connects construction companies with suppliers of building materials, while also handling sourcing, logistics and financing. More interestingly, it says it has amassed some 38 million structured data points that power an AI pricing engine trained on roughly 40,000 requests for quotes.

The company says 84% to 89% of its predicted prices come within 5% of the eventual transaction price. Another AI agent reads photos of cement delivery notes sent through , matches them to orders and verifies deliveries — with roughly three-quarters processed without human intervention.

BRKZ is riding a in Saudi Arabia even as startup investors remain selective about construction and property technology more broadly. Global proptech startups raised about $6.5 billion via roughly 640 deals in the first half 2026, ϳԹ data shows. That’s on pace to top last year’s dollar figures, even as deal count has dipped this year. Similar to other startup sectors, investors in proptech are increasingly directing capital toward companies using AI and automation to cut costs and streamline operations.

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$24M for robots to take care of commercial properties

Robots are already assembling cars and moving packages around warehouses. wants them to also mow lawns and sweep parking lots —and do security patrols of those properties while they’re at it.

The Santa Clara, California-based autonomous robotics startup last week said it has raised a $24 million Series A led by to scale its fleet of robots designed to handle outdoor property maintenance for commercial real estate owners and operators.

Its machines combine autonomous navigation with attachments that allow them to perform jobs like sweeping, debris removal and landscaping tasks — all while conducting “soft security” — across large campuses and commercial properties.

Rather than trying to build a general-purpose humanoid robot, Viabot is applying autonomy to repetitive jobs that property owners already pay people and contractors to perform. The startup, which operates on a “robot as a service model,” sees an opportunity to fill a labor shortage for what’s often considered “dirty, dull and dangerous” outdoor work, , founding partner at , told ϳԹ News in 2021, when the company raised earlier funding.

Startup investors are pouring money into those sorts of real-world AI applications. Global venture funding to physical AI companies — including robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, drones, industrial automation and sensors — reached $47.4 billion across 521 deals in the first half of 2026, ϳԹ data shows. That’s nearly 4x the $12 billion invested in the second half of 2025 and almost 80% above the year-ago period.

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$10M to give AI robots an independent report card

As frontier AI models move from controlling software to controlling robots and machines in the real world, wants the public to have an independent way to understand what they can actually do.

The 3-month-old San Francisco startup announced last week that it raised a $10 million seed round led by , with participation from , , and others.

Robocurve says it wants to act as an independent third-party auditor for physical AI, testing how well frontier models can control real robots and publicly reporting the results. The company says its own research has already found that general-purpose large language models can outperform specialized robotics vision-language-action models on some simple tasks.

Importantly, Robocurve isn’t positioning itself as a conventional robotics benchmarking startup. It is incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation with a legal duty to independently evaluate the robotics capabilities of frontier AI systems and report those findings to the public.

The company says AI labs don’t dictate its research agenda, evaluation methodology or published results, and it plans to work with governments, policymakers and civil society as robot capabilities advance.

Academia is a big part of that model, too. Rather than developing every benchmark itself, Robocurve funds academic teams and supplies them with robot hardware to create open-source benchmarks. More than 200 institutions — including researchers from 19 of the world’s top 20 universities, according to the company — have signed up for its benchmarking program. Robocurve is offering a combined $500,000 in funding plus free robotic arms to participating academic groups.

Its funding is timely given the massive influx of capital pouring into robotics and physical AI. Within the broader physical AI sector, robotics startups alone raised more than $21 billion globally in the first half of 2026, ϳԹ data shows, already eclipsing the nearly $16 billion raised in all of 2025 and even the $15.3 billion invested during the venture market’s 2021 peak.

As ever more powerful models move from screens into machines capable of manipulating the physical world, figuring out what those models can — and can’t — safely do becomes a more consequential problem.

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$5M to let farmers talk instead of type

A lot of agricultural software has one basic problem: Farmers don’t spend their days sitting at desks.

With that in mind, this month raised a $5 million pre-seed round led by for a voice-first AI platform designed specifically for farmers, agronomists and other agricultural workers.

Instead of asking someone working in a vineyard or almond orchard to stop and fill out a form or type notes into a computer, Tellia enables them to leave a voice note, send a message, or even submit a photo to log records, generate reports and set reminders. It says its AI then turns that unstructured information into records associated with the correct field, crop and crew.

For example, for a livestock farmer that might mean a voice prompt like: “Tellia, the vet just checked Herd 3. All clear, next health check due in 6 weeks, log that.”

Or a vineyard manager might ask: “Tellia, based on this year’s Brix and pH logs, what’s the projected alcohol level for the Cabernet lot?” and receive an instant answer based on previously collected data.

San Francisco- and Paris-based Tellia was founded last year and says its technology is already deployed across 1 million acres, including at and wineries in the U.S., as well as agricultural organizations in Europe.

and also participated in its latest funding.

Its raise comes amid a much tougher environment for agtech startups overall. Venture investment in agriculture and farming remains in a correction from its 2021 peak, when startups in the space raised $10.5 billion across more than 1,400 deals, ϳԹ data shows. That makes companies applying increasingly cheap and accessible AI to specific, everyday farming problems an interesting corner to watch. Voice AI, in particular, has emerged as one of the hot spots in artificial intelligence funding in recent years.

Related ϳԹ query:

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A Hard Year For Software IPOs /public/energy-ai-defense-saas-ipos-2026/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 11:00:47 +0000 /?p=94087 If you’re looking to measure tech IPO market strength by the amount of money companies have raised, 2026 is certainly up there.

U.S. venture-backed technology1 companies have secured nearly $90 billion in domestic public offerings this year, per ϳԹ data. That’s already the second-highest annual tally on record, and we’ve still got a few months to go.

However, virtually all the money went to two companies. alone accounted for 83% of the $90 billion raised this year, while AI infrastructure company scooped up another 6%. A potential offering from , meanwhile, could be even bigger.

The remaining field is comparatively modest. Just 21 other venture-backed technology companies went public this year in sizable or offerings 2, per ϳԹ data. Collectively, their offerings, which include traditional IPOs and SPAC deals, pulled in less than $10 billion.

This small cohort is intriguing for what it excludes as well as what it includes. Enterprise software, long a staple industry among venture-backed IPOs, was essentially a no-show this year. Energy, defense and space tech, by contrast, were well-represented. We also saw smaller offerings from other sectors, including medical devices and consumer-facing startups.

Here are some of the key findings in more detail:

Energy powers the most IPOs: About a quarter of this year’s tech startup offerings hail from the energy sector. The largest of these was from geothermal energy provider . Several nuclear power-focused startups also made their debuts, including and , developers of small modular nuclear reactors, as well as , focused on advanced nuclear fuel.

A dash of quantum, defense, aerospace, devices and consumer: Beyond energy, quantum computing company delivered one of the year’s larger debuts, as did equipment rental platform . Defense tech and aerospace were also strong performers, with offerings from satellite intelligence provider and spacecraft developer . And on the consumer front, e-bike and scooter platform finally made its market entrance, albeit at a valuation below its one-time .

An IPO SaaS-pocalipse: But what about SaaS? Mostly MIA. The paucity of enterprise software offerings this year isn’t entirely surprising given the impact of AI on the sector. VCs are pouring capital into a newer generation of AI-first platforms in legal tech, accounting and other enterprise software sectors. Existing SaaS unicorns are also moving fast to incorporate more AI in their offerings.

One end result is there are an awful lot of SaaS unicorns and former unicorns that have concluded this year is not the time to pursue an IPO.

Winner-takes-almost-all

Another end result is that investment returns are looking more concentrated than ever.

Of course, winning big or not at all is far from a new thing in the startup world. Tech venture returns have always been propped up largely by a few enormous wins, with the remainder of portfolio companies producing either losses or smaller profitable exits. But lately, the winner-take-almost-all-the-IPO-proceeds tilt is more pronounced than ever.

The pipeline of tech companies that have filed for future IPOs doesn’t offer much consolation that this pattern will change. Giant potential market debuts from Anthropic and still dominate IPO chatter. Enterprise SaaS offerings do not.

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  1. Does not include biotech companies or companies acquired by private equity firms.

  2. Offerings that raised $40 million or more.

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Y Combinator Still Busiest Startup Investor In August As Nvidia Ramps Up Its Dealmaking Pace /venture/y-combinator-busiest-startup-investor-nvda-ramps-up-august-2026/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:00:45 +0000 /?p=94074 August was another big month for startup funding, and the most active investor rankings were once again dominated by familiar names.

Always-busy was the most active backer of U.S.-based startups by deal count, while led or co-led the most rounds of $5 million or more, ϳԹ data shows.

Chip giant , meanwhile, sharply accelerated its dealmaking, ranking among the most active and highest-spending investors for the month. The chip giant participated in nine disclosed rounds of at least $5 million — marking its busiest month for investing since at least the beginning of 2025 — and led or co-led financings collectively valued at $1.3 billion.

The flurry of activity came as global venture funding reached $42 billion in August, up 122% year over year, with seven companies raising billion-dollar-plus rounds last month.

Below, we rank August’s most active startup investors across several categories, including lead backers, prolific venture dealmakers, highest spenders and seed investors.

Active lead investors

San Francisco-based General Catalyst ranked as the most active lead investor in rounds of $5 million or more, leading or co-leading five such deals. Its largest was the $1.1 billion Series A for, which provides custom AI fine-tuning for businesses. General Catalyst also led or co-led a $116 million Series E for, along with three seed rounds ranging from $10 million to $25 million, ϳԹ data shows.

, and tied for second, with four lead or co-lead deals each.

The scale of those rounds varied considerably. The four deals that Andreessen led or co-led totaled more than $1.15 billion, driven by an $800 million Series C for defense tech company and a $300 million Series A for AI infrastructure startup .

Sequoia’s four led or co-led deals totaled $1.3 billion, including a $1 billion Series B for nuclear energy startup .

Busiest venture investors

When we widen the ranking to include both lead and non-lead participation in rounds of $5 million or more, Y Combinator once again takes the top spot.

The accelerator participated in at least 18 such deals in August, per ϳԹ data. As we’ve noted in previous rankings, Y Combinator commonly invests as a non-lead backer in follow-on rounds for companies that previously went through its program.

Andreessen Horowitz ranked second with 13 deals, followed by General Catalyst with 10. and Nvidia tied for fourth with nine each.

Nvidia’s rise in the investor rankings is particularly notable. The Santa Clara, California-based chip giant participated in only four U.S. rounds of $5 million or more in July and one in August 2025. Seven of its nine qualifying investments last month went to companies categorized as AI-focused in ϳԹ, including River AI, , , and .

The August burst extends a notable increase in Nvidia’s venture dealmaking pace this year. ϳԹ data shows that by mid-August, it had participated in a record 59 known startup funding rounds in 2026, already surpassing its 53 investments in all of 2025. It had also led or co-led at least 11 private-company financings this year, underscoring its growing role as both a technology supplier to and financial backer of the AI startup ecosystem.

and Sequoia were next in our August rankings, each with seven U.S. startup investments of $5 million or more. RA Capital’s portfolio reflected its life sciences focus, with August deals including , , , and .

Highest-spending investors

The rankings change again when we look at lead investors associated with the highest aggregate deal values.

For August, was the apparent spendiest lead investor, thanks to its role leading ’ $5 billion deal. The round, the month’s largest, valued the data and AI company at $190 billion.

and followed, each leading or co-leading rounds with an aggregate value of $2.37 billion, as both were listed as lead investors in defense manufacturing startup’s $1.37 billion Series D and home battery provider’s $1 billion Series D.

Nvidia and Sequoia came next, each with $1.3 billion in led or co-led rounds. Nvidia’s total came from Poolside’s $1 billion financing and Volta’s $300 million Series A, while Sequoia led or co-led four rounds, topped by the Valar Atomics financing.

General Catalyst and Andreessen also crossed the $1 billion mark, with approximately $1.26 billion and $1.15 billion, respectively, in aggregate led round value.

As always, this is an approximation of spending rather than a tally of capital actually contributed. Investors rarely disclose how much each participant put into a round, although lead investors generally contribute a substantial share.

Seed dealmakers

At seed, Y Combinator was again the most prolific investor, backing at least 12 U.S.-headquartered companies in August.

ranked second with eight seed investments, all announced as part of the same August cohort. and followed with six seed deals each, while 1recorded five. (It’s important to note that seed rankings are especially subject to change, since smaller financings often take longer to be reported and added to the ϳԹ dataset.)

Big checks, familiar names

August’s rankings tell a now-familiar story: A relatively small group of large venture firms continues to dominate by deal count, while a handful of megadeals determines who tops the spending ranks. But Nvidia’s acceleration this year also illustrates how corporate investors — particularly those with a direct stake in the AI ecosystem — are becoming increasingly prominent alongside traditional venture firms.

Related reading:

Methodology

This analysis covers reported investments in U.S.-headquartered companies and is based on ϳԹ data pulled Sept. 10, 2026. Rankings for active venture and lead investors include rounds of $5 million or more. Seed rankings include angel, pre-seed, seed and equity crowdfunding rounds.

Funding data is subject to reporting lags, which are typically most pronounced at the seed stage.

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  1. SV Angel is an investor in ϳԹ. They have no say in our editorial process. For more, head here.

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The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: The Boring Co., Cognition And Motive Lead A Massive Week /venture/biggest-funding-rounds-boring-co-cognition-massive-week/ Fri, 11 Sep 2026 18:00:31 +0000 /?p=94077 ​​Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2026 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The ϳԹ Megadeals Board.

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding deal roundup here.

It was a monster week for U.S. startup funding, with four companies each raising $1 billion or more. ’s tunnel-drilling company led with a $3 billion Series D, followed by AI coding startup at $2 billion. Joining them near the top was , which landed $1.3 billion for its AI platform for physical operations, while reusable rocket developer raised another $1 billion.

Big checks also flowed to U.S. solar manufacturing, defense tech, legal AI and companies building the chips and networking infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence.

1. , $3B, transportation and infrastructure: Musk’s Bastrop, Texas-based tunneling company raised a $3 billion Series D led by the, with participation from investors including, and. The company is developing underground tunnel networks designed to move passengers and vehicles while reducing surface traffic, and already operates its Vegas Loop system beneath Las Vegas. The latest deal values it at $23 billion and brings its total funding to nearly $3.9 billion, .

2. , $2B, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Cognition raised a $2 billion Series E led by,,, and. The company is best known for Devin, its autonomous software-engineering agent, and is part of a highly funded crop of startups betting AI agents will take over increasingly complex coding and development work. Cognition has raised nearly $3.9 billion to date and was valued at $48 billion in the latest round, our shows.

3. , $1.3B, AI for physical operations: San Francisco-based Motive raised $1.3 billion in private equity funding led by. The company, formerly known as KeepTruckin, has an AI-driven platform used by trucking, construction and other physical-economy businesses to manage fleets, monitor driver safety, and automate operations and spending. The latest deal brings Motive’s total funding to just over $2 billion, according to .

4. , $1B, aerospace: Kent, Washington-based Stoke Space raised a $1 billion Series E co-led by and, with among the additional investors. The company is developing fully reusable rockets, including its Nova launch vehicle, as it looks to lower the cost of transporting satellites and other payloads to orbit. The latest round values Stoke at $10 billion and brings total funding to . Its raise adds to the already record-setting sums for space tech startup investment this year.

5. , $835M, solar energy: Norcross, Georgia-based Suniva raised $835 million from investors including, and. The longtime U.S. solar manufacturer produces high-efficiency solar cells and plans to use new capital to expand domestic production, including a new South Carolina facility that would more than quadruple its manufacturing capacity. Suniva has raised nearly .

6. , $600M, defense tech: Huntington Beach, California-based Mach Industries raised a $600 million Series C from investors including and. Founded in 2022, the defense manufacturer develops unmanned aircraft, long-range weapons, propulsion technology and the infrastructure needed to produce defense systems at scale. Mach is part of a broader surge in venture investment into defense companies looking to bring Silicon Valley-style development and manufacturing speeds to military hardware. The latest round values the company at $3.7 billion and brings its total funding to .

7. , $550M, legal AI: San Francisco-based Harvey raised a $550 million Series H co-led by and, with investors including and also participating. Harvey builds generative AI tools for lawyers and other professional-services workers, with products for legal research, document analysis and contract work. The company was valued at $15.5 billion in the latest deal, which brings its total funding to date to nearly . That makes it one of the most well-funded players in the legal tech space, which has seen robust investment this year, though slightly lower than last year’s all-time high.

8. (tied) , $500M, semiconductors: Fab2 raised a $500 million Series A led by, with among the other investors. Formerly known as Atomic Semi, Fab2 is trying to rethink semiconductor manufacturing by designing its own fabrication tools, components and software with the goal of building smaller chip factories faster and more cheaply. The funding is the first disclosed round for the company, which maintains headquarters in California and Kentucky, and values it at $3.7 billion.

8. (tied) , $500M, AI infrastructure: Reno, Nevada-based Positron raised a $500 million Series C led by and, with among its other investors. The startup develops purpose-built hardware for AI inference, where models actually process queries after they have been trained, and is one of a growing crop of chip companies challenging GPUs in particular AI workloads. The latest financing values Positron at $5 billion and brings its total funding to nearly $1.2 billion, .

10. (tied) , $275M, AI networking infrastructure: Laguna Beach, California-based Celero Communications raised a $275 million Series C led by, and. Celero develops coherent digital signal processor technology that helps move enormous quantities of data between chips and data centers while using less power, an increasingly critical bottleneck as AI clusters grow. The round values the company at $3 billion and brings total funding to roughly , according to ϳԹ.

10. (tied) , $275M, biotechnology: South San Francisco, California-based Encoded Therapeutics raised a $275 million Series F led by, with investors including, and also participating. The clinical-stage biotech develops precision genetic medicines for severe neurological disorders, with its lead therapy targeting Dravet syndrome, a rare genetic epilepsy. Encoded has raised $514.1 million to date, .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ϳԹ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Sept. 5-11, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Related reading:

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29 Companies Joined The ϳԹ In August, Led By AI Software And Semiconductors /venture/august-2026-new-unicorns-ai-robotics-semiconductors-xpeng-lumilens-river-source/ Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:00:19 +0000 /?p=94061 A total of 29 companies joined The ϳԹ ϳԹ in August, adding around $63 billion in value to the board. More than a third of the companies to join last month were under 3 years old, underscoring how quickly some of today’s best-funded startups are reaching multibillion-dollar valuations.

The highest-valued new entrants were China-based humanoid robotics business , valued at more than $6.3 billion; San Jose, California-based photonics company , valued at $5.5 billion; and Palo Alto, California-based AI model platform , and San Francisco’s semiconductor manufacturing startup , both valued at $5 billion.

AI software featured prominently across model training, assistants, agentic and enterprise workflow automation, coding and voice transcription.

Semiconductors was the second-largest sector, with five new unicorns. Robotics and financial services each added three, while data centers, security and energy each added two.

The U.S. accounted for 16 of August’s new unicorns. China followed with four. South Korea, India, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Germany and Turkey each added one. Nigeria and Indonesia also each added one new unicorn — for both, their first new unicorn of the year.

Nine companies exited the ϳԹ in August, per ϳԹ data: Three that went public — the most notable being — and six via acquisition, including , and .

New unicorns in August

Here are August’s new unicorn companies:

AI and software

  • , a Palo Alto, California-based platform for training, fine-tuning and deploying custom AI models based on proprietary data, announced $1.1 billion in funding led by and . The less-than-1-year-old company, founded by former co-founder , was valued.
  • San Francisco-based , an AI assistant that executes personal tasks, raised a $250 million Series B led by and . The 1-year-old company was valued at $2.5 billion.
  • Shanghai-based , a builder of agents for digital and physical environments, raised a $220 million seed round led by and . The less-than-1-year-old company was valued at $2 billion. Its founder, , a researcher, left earlier this year.
  • San Francisco-based , which builds AI-powered voice-writing and meeting-transcription tools, raised a $280 million Series B led by , who also led its Series A in 2025. The 5-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
  • San Francisco-based , which provides AI-powered code review and change-management tools, raised a $143 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation. and co-led the round. The 3-year-old company said it would commit more than $10 million to keep its tools free for open-source projects over the next year.
  • San Francisco-based , which deploys AI agents across calls, email, documents and enterprise systems, raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation. and led the round. The company is 4 years old, started in logistics and has expanded to insurance, energy, telecommunications and airlines among others and counts 150 enterprise customers.
  • Turkey-based , a developer of consumer mobile applications, raised a $50 million Series A led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1.25 billion. Its apps include AI chatbot Nova, diagnosing plants with PlantApp, and art generator DaVinci.

Semiconductors

  • , a San Jose, California-based developer of photonic interconnects for AI computing infrastructure, raised a $700 million Series C at a $5.5 billion valuation. , , , and led the round. The 2-year-old company is already deployed within data centers.
  • raised $400 million in funding led by hedge fund . The 1-year-old company was valued at $5 billion. The San Francisco-based company creates tooling for semiconductor manufacturing and was founded by researchers.
  • South Korea-based , which develops edge AI processors for on-device inference, raised about $29 million in the first tranche of its Series D funding from existing investors. The 8-year-old company targeting robotics and electronics was valued at about $2.2 billion.
  • Shanghai-based , an AI chip startup for inference, raised a Series A led by local state capital investors and . The 4-year-old company was valued at about $1.5 billion with plans to ship its product in Q4 2026.
  • Santa Clara, California-based , which develops low-power silicon and software for AI data centers and physical AI, raised a $110 million Series A led by . The 4-year old company was valued at more than $1 billion.

Robotics

  • China-based , which is building the general-purpose IRON humanoid robot, raised more than $900 million in its first outside financing at a post-money valuation exceeding $6.3 billion. led the round, with participation from and support from and Alibaba Group. The company, a subsidiary of public smart electric vehicle company , is 10 years old.
  • Singapore-based , which develops robots to operate in real-world environments, raised about $669 million in funding. The 2-year-old company was valued at about $3.3 billion and is set to deploy robots in a Dairy Queen in Shanghai to handle the entire 55-step process of taking orders, preparing the food and handing it to a customer.
  • Zurich-based , which develops autonomous technology for heavy construction machinery, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion and works across multiple construction brands.

Financial services

  • Bengaluru-based , a financial-services company spanning payment, lending and insurance, raised $100 million in funding led by . The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.3 billion.
  • Berlin-based , a finance AI platform for European mid-sized businesses to manage spend, card issuing and expenses, raised a $40 million Series C led by and . The 7-year-old company was valued at around $1.15 billion. The company says it has 5,000 businesses that use the service to give finance teams control.
  • Palo Alto, California-based , an AI-native enterprise resource planning platform for accounting, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Aerospace and defense

  • Los Angeles-based , a manufacturer of autonomous military drones and counter-drone systems, raised a $250 million Series C at a $2.5 billion post-money valuation. and the co-led the round. The company is 3 years old. Neros has contracts with the U.S. military as well as half a dozen allied countries.
  • Mountain View, California-based , which builds and operates satellite constellations for national security, civil and commercial customers, raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Data centers

  • Palo Alto, California-based , a vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform, raised a $300 million Series A led by , , and . The less-than-1-year-old company was valued at $2.4 billion. Alongside the equity, Volta secured $5 billion in debt to fund data center buildouts.
  • , a full-stack AI infrastructure and neocloud platform, received led by Doha-based broadband provider , which holds a 49% stake. Jakarta-based Zankore is less than 1-year-old and is valued at $1.6 billion. The platform is targeting 1 gigawatt of AI computing capacity.

Security

  • San Francisco-based , an AI-native security company that provides autonomous penetration testing, raised a $250 million Series E led by and . The 7-year-old company was valued at $2 billion and is used by 7,000 organizations including defense, Fortune 10, banks and healthcare companies among others.
  • Palo Alto, California-based , which provides security for AI agents and third-party applications, raised an $85 million Series D led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Energy

  • China-based , a nuclear fusion company developing small modular reactors, raised about $179 million in seed funding. The 1-year-old company was valued at about $1.5 billion.
  • Washington, D.C.-based , which develops software that adjusts AI data-center workloads based on power-grid demands, raised a $150 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation. and co-led the round. The 2-year-old company says the round brings total funding to more than $220 million.

Transportation

  • Nigeria-based , a vehicle financing and autonomous fleet management infrastructure, raised a $250 million Series C led by , and . The 7-year-old company was valued at $2.1 billion. It operates a fleet of 42,000 vehicles — both human-driven and autonomous — across 29 cities, with annual recurring revenue of $420 million.

Critical minerals

  • Houston-based , which builds mines and refineries using its MarianaOS software platform, raised a $310 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Web3

  • Dubai-based , an AI-enabled stablecoin neobanking platform for cross-border payments and tokenized assets, raised a $68 million Series C led by Tokyo-based at a $1 billion valuation. The 7-year-old company says it processes more than $40 billion in annualized transaction volume.

Related ϳԹ unicorn lists:

  • (1,862)
  • (658)
  • (276)
  • (195)
  • (119)
  • (102)
  • (961)
  • (547)
  • (254)
  • (39)
  • (489)

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Methodology

The ϳԹ ϳԹ is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on ϳԹ data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. ϳԹ converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to ϳԹ long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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Global Venture Funding Jumps 122% In August As Streak Of Billion-Dollar Deals Continues /venture/global-funding-billion-dollar-deals-august-2026/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 11:00:52 +0000 /?p=94035 Venture investors poured $42 billion into just over 1,500 startups worldwide in August, ϳԹ data shows, down 25% from July’s $56 billion but still up a significant 122% compared to last August, which is typically a slower month for startup investment.

Seven companies raised billion-dollar fundings in August, tied with a few months for the year’s second-highest count after July, when 13 companies did the same.

The largest startup funding deal in August went to 13-year-old which raised $5 billion at a $190 billion valuation.

Other companies across a broad range of industries raised billion-dollar-plus rounds, a testament to the strength of the technology sector impacting a range of more traditional industries, including physical manufacturing, defense, aerospace and energy. They included defense tech startup ; , which performs custom AI fine-tuning for businesses; low-orbit satellite network ; nuclear energy company ; automated coding provider ; and home battery service .

Notable exits

On the IPO front, Hangzhou, China-based humanoid robotics company went public on Aug. 19 and soared 460% on its first day of trading on the .

The largest M&A news in August was ’s announcement that it aims to acquire open-source AI platform for $12.9 billion. Other notable acquisition news was Milan-based tech aggregator ’ plan to acquire 13-year-old database company for around $1.3 billion.

Big rounds are coming faster

Venture capital continues to concentrate rapidly among a small group of fast-growing companies. Two of August’s billion-dollar recipients illustrate the trend: Databricks added $56 billion to its valuation in just six months, while River AI raised both its seed and Series A rounds this year, amassing a staggering $1.1 billion in early-stage funding.

That accelerated cadence extended across August’s megadeals: Five of the seven billion-dollar funding recipients had last raised capital less than 12 months earlier, including three that closed their previous rounds earlier this year. The numbers underscore how quickly investors are doubling down on companies they believe can become the next generation of technology giants.

Related ϳԹ queries:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ϳԹ, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Sept. 2, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. ϳԹ converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to ϳԹ long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. ϳԹ also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. ϳԹ includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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The IPO Window Is Closing. Here Are 8 Startups To Watch. /public/startups-to-watch-ipo-ai-chips-fintech-2026/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:00:10 +0000 /?p=94028 The 2026 IPO class already has a record-setting headliner in . Now, with the public-market window narrowing and the post-Labor Day filing sprint upon us, attention is turning to which venture-backed companies might still make a move in coming months.

ܲԳ’s predictive intelligence tools flags a handful of well-funded private companies with at least a 40% probability of going public within the next six months. , arguably the most closely watched IPO prospect, sits just outside that near-term screen: ϳԹ considers an eventual listing very likely, but the model favors a six- to 12-month timeline.

Together, Anthropic and the other seven companies noted below make up a varied watchlist spanning artificial intelligence, fintech, crypto, consumer health and climate technology, ranging from smart-ring maker to enterprise productivity platform .

A record IPO sets the stage

In the first half of this year, 58 venture-backed companies listed at $1 billion or above, per ϳԹ data. That compares with 27 that did so in the first half of 2025 and 69 in all of last year.

On a dollar basis, this year has also far surpassed recent IPO years, thanks to SpaceX’s historic IPO in June that launched it onto the and raised $86 billion in the process. Through the first half of 2026, venture-backed startups globally raised $110.8 billion collectively via IPO listings, ϳԹ data shows, well above the $12.6 billion raised in the first half of 2025.

With the year’s end now in sight, a small window remains for other startups to launch 2026 IPOs. With that, here’s a look at notable venture-backed startups that ܲԳ’s predictive intelligence suggests are potential IPO candidates within the next six months.

Venture-backed IPOs to watch

: Anthropic, the most valuable venture-backed startup in the world, has indicated it plans to beat rival to the public markets. The company could debut as soon as September or October and raise up to $100 billion via the offering, according to a in last week. ܲԳ’s predictive intelligence tools, meanwhile, pin a slightly longer timeline on an Anthropic IPO, saying it’s more likely to happen in six to 12 months. Anthropic has already raised $125 billion from private-market investors since its founding in 2021, and whenever it happens its IPO would mark a major liquidity bonanza for those backers. (For its part, OpenAI is also deemed a very likely IPO candidate by ϳԹ, but not within the next six months, a prediction corroborated by the WSJ report, which noted that the company is considering pushing its listing to 2027.)

: Smart-ring maker Oura is a likely IPO candidate in the next six months, per ϳԹ. The Finland-based company, which has raised $1.5 billion from investors, is mulling an offering as soon as September or October that could fetch a valuation above the $11 billion it achieved in its most recent funding, the Journal last week. A successful offering would also provide a notable test of public-market appetite for consumer health hardware, a category that has produced relatively few large venture-backed listings in recent years.

: San Francisco-based Notion is a strong candidate for a near-term IPO, according to both ܲԳ’s predictive tools and independent reporting. The productivity-software maker has raised more than $343 million from investors over time and has posted strong revenue growth from its enterprise AI offerings. Startup reporter Alex Konrad recently that the company has appointed a new board of directors with significant public-company experience in “a big step towards an IPO.”

: Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is another probable public-market entrant, per ϳԹ, and if it does make the IPO leap, it’s highly likely to do so within the next six months. The Cheyenne, Wyoming-based company filed a confidential IPO registration statement with the almost a year ago, but subsequently paused its going-public plans amid market volatility. In May, CEO said the company was “~80% ready” for a 2026 listing, although it has reportedly weighed delaying again until 2027.

: Following ’ $6.4 billion Nasdaq IPO in May, attention has turned to SambaNova, a fellow developer of specialized AI chips and infrastructure. ϳԹ predicts that the San Jose, California-based company is a probable IPO candidate, with a slightly less than even chance of going public within the next six months. That prediction jibes with comments from co-founder and CEO, who in July that the company was strongly considering a U.S. IPO next year. His comments followed SambaNova’s $1 billion Series F raise this summer at an $11 billion post-money valuation.

: Sweden-based green-steel maker Stegra has raised approximately $12.6 billion across equity and debt financing, according to ϳԹ, including a €1.4 billion financing round that closed in June. in June 2025 that the company was considering an IPO to fund further expansion. Founded in 2020, Stegra has attracted orders from automakers and industrial customers including , , , and parent for steel produced using renewable electricity and green hydrogen. It broke ground in August 2022 on an integrated steel plant in Boden, northern Sweden, whose first phase is designed to produce 2.5 million tonnes of green steel annually. Some customer agreements call for deliveries to begin in 2027, although Stegra has said the project’s overall timeline remains under review. ϳԹ considers Stegra a probable IPO candidate and gives it a roughly even chance of listing within the next six months.

: Stripe is a perennial presence on our IPO predictions lists, and for good reason. Before the AI giants displaced it at the top of The ϳԹ ϳԹ, the payments company held the crown as the most valuable U.S.-based startup, and one with a solid business to boot. Stripe has raised a total of $10.4 billion, including venture rounds and secondaries, since its 2010 founding, but has delayed entering the public markets with repeated tender offers that provide liquidity to employees. Will it finally make a run at the public markets in 2027? While ϳԹ predicts the South San Francisco, California-based company is a very likely IPO candidate in the long-term, in the short run it’s a bit iffier. The model says six to 12 months is a more believable time frame, and CEO has said the company is in .

: OpenEvidence, an AI platform for doctors, is a probable IPO candidate, per ϳԹ. If it does pursue a listing, it’s likely to go public within the next six months, per our predictive intelligence. CEO has been somewhat more circumspect: In an with CNBC in January, he said the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company would consider an IPO after OpenAI and Anthropic had listed: “There’s an order to nature,” he said. “Foundation model companies go public first. Then the application layer follows. That’s how the internet played out, and that’s how this cycle will play out, too.”

Methodology

For this analysis, we used ܲԳ’s predictive intelligence tools and our own reporting and analysis to refine a list of potential near-term IPO candidates.

ܲԳ’s use company data — including funding and valuation history, financial growth, key leadership hires, market-share expansion and headcount trends — to assess the likelihood that a private company will go public.

The model produces an overall IPO probability score and corresponding rating, such as “very likely,” “probable” or “uncertain.” For companies that meet a minimum confidence threshold, ϳԹ separately estimates when an IPO might occur across four windows: within six months, six to 12 months, 12 to 24 months, or more than 24 months.

For this analysis, we define a “near-term” candidate as a private company rated at least “probable” overall, with a 40% or greater probability of going public within six months of the prediction date. The overall and timing scores should be read separately: A company may be considered highly likely to IPO eventually without being a strong near-term candidate. Predictions are directional rather than guarantees and may change as new company and market data becomes available.

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5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: AI For Everything From Recycling To Breathing To Winning Construction Bids /ai/interesting-startup-deals-ai-recycling-robotics-healthcare-data/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:00:42 +0000 /?p=93944 This is a monthly column that runs down five interesting startup funding deals that may have flown under the radar. Check out our previous entry here.

This month’s installment of this column is all AI, though applications for the technology range widely, from two startups that apply AI to trash or recycling, to another that promises to help people breathe and sleep better, to a company that says its AI can help architects and builders spot commercial projects before they’re even announced. Let’s jump in.

$27M to help recycling plants see what’s in trash

For decades, the recycling industry has relied on sampling and educated guesses to understand what moves through its facilities. But wants every discarded bottle, carton and wrapper to become data.

The London-based startup said last month that it has raised a £20.3 million ($27 million) Series B led by technology investor . The company installs AI-powered camera systems above conveyor belts in recycling plants, then uses computer vision to identify materials, products and brands in real time. Greyparrot says that data helps operators recover more valuable materials, improve sorting efficiency and comply with increasingly strict recycling regulations.

Its systems are now deployed in more than 20 countries and have analyzed more than 1 trillion waste objects, per the company. It counts large waste-processing companies such as and among its customers.

The data gathered at plants also feeds Greyparrot’s Deepnest platform, which it says consumer brands including , and use to understand what happens to their packaging after consumers throw it away, helping to inform redesigns and comply with Extended Producer Responsibility rules in places such as Canada and the EU.

The fresh funding will help expand the company’s footprint across North America and Europe and support its goal of preventing more than 1 million tons of waste by 2030.

The raise reflects growing investor interest in applying AI in the physical world rather than behind computer screens. Companies in the physical AI sector raised nearly $47.3 billion in the first half of 2026, ϳԹ data shows, up nearly 80% year over year, as startups increasingly apply artificial intelligence to settings such as factories, recycling plants and other 3D environments.

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$17M to help robots navigate where GPS can’t

For a recently funded robotics company, the next frontier for physical AI is underground: in mines, tunnels and other places where GPS doesn’t work.

Australian startup said last month that it secured $17 million in new funding. That includes a $10 million equity round backed by , , , and as well as a $7 million venture debt facility from the country’s National Reconstruction Fund Corp. The company plans to scale manufacturing and expand its AI autonomy and cloud mapping platforms.

Emesent Products - Interesting deals
Emesent’s Coretex products. (Courtesy photos)

Emesent is best known for Hovermap, a LiDAR scanning payload that mounts to drones, vehicles or backpacks to create detailed 3D maps of mines, industrial sites and other hazardous environments. But increasingly, the company’s focus is software. Its Cortex AI platform enables robots to navigate autonomously in environments without GPS, while its Aura cloud platform processes and analyzes the resulting spatial data.

The company says its technology is already deployed at more than 200 mine sites worldwide and that it is expanding into the defense, critical infrastructure and construction sectors.

Its raise is another example of increased interest and investment in physical AI. As industries grapple with labor shortages and increasingly dangerous operating environments, startups that combine robotics, computer vision and autonomy are attracting fresh capital to automate work that’s difficult, dirty or unsafe for humans.

Robotics investment funding overall has been on a tear in recent quarters. Startups in the category raised $15 billion globally in 2025 — an annual record that has already been eclipsed partway through 2026 —ϳԹ data shows.

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$12.25M for AI that treats congestion with sound

We’ve covered AI that can do dirty work like help sort through trash or navigate underground mines. What about AI to help people breathe?

San Francisco-based medtech startup recently raised an oversubscribed $12.25 million Series A led by . The company develops FDA-cleared, noninvasive devices that it says use AI and acoustic resonance therapy to treat congestion and improve sleep without drugs.

SoundHealth product Photo - Interesting deals
SoundHealth’s Sonu band. (Courtesy photo)

The company said its flagship Sonu band personalizes sound waves based on a user’s facial anatomy to open nasal passages, while its newer Spatial Sleep device aims to help users fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

The raise comes as investors continue to back AI-powered medical devices that combine software with regulated hardware. Companies that intersect ܲԳ’s AI and medical devices industries raised more than $629 million in the first half of this year, our data shows, up about 33% year over year.

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$3.85M to turn unrecyclable trash into fuel

Trash and recycling emerged as an unexpected theme in this month’s column. While Greyparrot helps companies better understand what’s in landfills and recycling plants, another recently funded company, , says it’s working to turn unrecyclable garbage into industrial fuel.

The Las Vegas-based company last month announced a $3.85 million round co-led by and to commercialize technology that converts hard-to-recycle plastics and other waste into industrial fuel. The startup says its engineered fuel can replace coal in cement, steel and other heavy industries without requiring factories to modify existing equipment. The new funding will help it build its first commercial U.S. biofuel facility outside Las Vegas.

Global venture investment into cleantech-related startups has been steady but not record-breaking in recent years, ϳԹ data shows. Around $15 billion went into rounds for companies in ܲԳ’s cleantech-, EV- and sustainability-focused categories in the first half of 2026, putting this year’s funding on track to slightly exceed the 2025 tally, which was the lowest in several years.

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$3.5M to predict construction projects before they’re announced

The biggest construction opportunities often surface months before the first request for proposals. promises to use AI to spot them first.

The New York-based startup last month raised $3.5 million in seed funding from ’s accelerator, , and others to build an AI platform for architecture, engineering and construction firms. The startup promises to give such companies an edge over their competitors by helping them discover projects earlier and identify the best path to winning them. Instead of searching public bid databases, Cascade says its tech can analyze signals such as bond filings, property transactions, capital budgets and meeting minutes to identify projects while they’re still taking shape.

Overall funding to real estate-related startups has trended higher in recent quarters, and the sector emerged as a bright spot for seed funding in the first half of 2026, an analysis of ϳԹ data shows. Other seed-funded real estate startups this year have spanned areas ranging from streamlining planning and building processes to real estate investing to reducing power consumption in buildings.

Related ϳԹ query:

Correction: The article was updated to reflect Forge Industries’ correct headquarters location.

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The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Data, Neolab, AI Infrastructure, Defense And AI Coding Lead /ai/biggest-funding-rounds-databricks-river-ai-data-energy/ Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:32:36 +0000 /?p=93980 Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2026 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The ϳԹ Megadeals Board.

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding deal roundup here.

is back raising another $5 billion, after it raised that amount eight months ago. The largest fundings also went to an AI neolab, data center and electricity storage, defense, coding and biotech. Let’s take a look.

1. , $5B, data platform: Databricks has surpassed a $7 billion revenue run rate, with more than 80% year-over-year growth in Q2. The San Francisco-based company raised $ 5 billion in a funding round led by with participation from , , and new investor . Databricks was valued at $134 billion back in December 2025 when the company announced it had surpassed a $4.8 billion revenue run rate. From its Series A funding of $13 million in 2013, the 13-year-old company has raised around $25 billion in funding over all time, per ϳԹ data.

2. , $1.1B, AI reinforcement learning: Founded earlier this year, River AI raised $1.1 billion across its seed and Series A rounds led by and , with strategic investment from and . Its founder, , has been at the center of AI developments at , and over the past decade. The Palo Alto, California-based company seeks to build AI that is personalized and trained directly on what a company or person needs to accomplish, giving the end user control.

3. , $750M, electric grid: Form Energy raised a Series G funding round led by . The Massachusetts-based company builds longer-lasting 100-hour batteries for grid electricity storage. A host of investors participated, including private equity, venture and angels, and infrastructure and climate-focused investors , , , , , , and the .

4. , $250M, defense: Neros Technologies, a defense drone manufacturer and drone interceptor, raised a $250 million Series C led by and . The Los Angeles-based company, founded in 2023, has raised $370 million to date, per . The company announced that by 2028 it will be building 1 million drones per year. It has contracts with the U.S. military and half a dozen allied countries across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

5. , $143M, AI code review: CodeRabbit, which has developed an open-source AI code review technology used by 150,000 open-source projects and 17,000 customers, according to the company, is on a roll. London-based and Los Angeles’ led its Series C, and the Walnut Creek, California-based company plans to set up a London office based on customer interest across Europe. As coding becomes increasingly automated, code review is critical to determine which projects meet production standards.

6. , $136M, datacenter networking: Point2 Technology, which builds interconnect solutions for AI data centers, raised an extension of its Series B led by Korea-based , including a strategic investment from and participation from existing investor . The San Jose, California-based company raised $136 million in the Series B.

7. , $110M, organ preservation: Bridge to Life, a 21-year-old organ preservation company, raised a $100 million Series C funding led by and . The Illinois-based company is developing an organ viability assessment tool to expand the market and will use the proceeds to extend its VitaSmart technology to U.S. transplant centers.

8. (tied) , $100M, protein therapeutics: Aureka Biotechnologies, an AI-native drug discovery platform, raised $100 million in Series B funding led by . Based in Shanghai and California, the 3-year-old company has raised $200 million to date. Proceeds will go toward training its model with its lab-in-the-loop feedback mechanism.

8. (tied) , $100M, loyalty rewards: PointsKash, a loyalty reward mobile app, raised private equity funding led by . The Florida-based company provides in-store kiosks for cash, loans and rewards.

10. , $90M, biotechnology: Epicrispr Biotechnologies, a developer of genetic medicines, raised a $90 million Series C led by and . The San Francisco-based company develops treatments for neuromuscular disease through modulating genes.

Large non-US deals:

Several startups based outside the U.S. also raised notable rounds this week. They include:

, $400M, automated applications: Lovable raised a $400 million Series C funding led by and , valuing the company at $13.3 billion. The Stockholm-based company claims 900 million visits each month and 60 million projects created. Lovable’s Series B raise in December 2025, co-led by Menlo Ventures, valued the company at $6.6 billion.

, $300M, defense: Cambridge Aerospace, a U.K. defense tech company, raised a $300 million Series C led by . The 2-year-old company raised a $200 million Series B in April led by and . Since its Series B funding, the has committed to purchasing its Skyhammer air defense system to intercept drones and low-speed missiles.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ϳԹ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Aug. 8-14. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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