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, ������Ƶ 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 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 — ������Ƶ 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.

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 ������Ƶ’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, ������Ƶ data shows. Around $15 billion went into rounds for companies in ������Ƶ’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 ������Ƶ 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.

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

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Venture investors, luckily, seem to be more upbeat than they have been in years about the future of fitness and wellness. Startup investment in those categories totaled more than $3.6 billion in the first half of this year, putting 2026 on pace to come in about a third higher than 2025, though notably last year marked the lowest sum for wellness-related startup funding in at least six years.

The recent uptick also puts investment into fitness- and wellness-related startups on pace to top each year since 2022, though deals are concentrating into fewer, larger bets.

Largest fundraisers of H1 2026

This year’s funding totals have been driven by a handful of outsized deals, like wearable health tracker ’s $575 million Series G in March.

Other companies that have raised large rounds this year include senior healthcare provider , which raised a $366 million Series F at the beginning of the year, and , which raised a $130 million Series C from investors including in February. Its platform connects patients with professional healthcare advocates who support them through complex medical journeys like cancer, rare-disease management and substance abuse treatment.

Those fundings are markedly different from the hardware plays that received investor attention during the pandemic. For example, connected fitness devices startups and each raised hundreds of millions of dollars during the peak funding years, but haven’t received new investment in three-plus years.

AI gives devices a second act

That doesn’t mean investors have entirely given up on hardware. Rather, the more compelling pitch in 2026 appears to be a device that continuously collects health data and uses AI to turn it into personalized guidance to improve overall wellness and fitness.

Along with Whoop’s Series G, New York-based sleep technology company raised a $50 million Series D in March, while India-based metabolic health wearable maker secured the equivalent of about $44 million in Series C funding in February.

A few entrants are also drawing substantial checks. New Delhi-based raised a sizable $54 million seed round in February for a wearable focused on brain-centered health and performance metrics. The company says its technology tracks cerebral blood flow and uses a proprietary measure called Entropy to quantify users’ real-time energy expenditure.

The future of fitness funding and exits

We expect to see continued investor interest in companies that bring AI to bear on wellness-related offerings, including in more specialized areas such as longevity, mental health, sleep and athletic performance.

We may also see more funding for devices that serve as data-collection layers for AI-driven health platforms. At the same time, we don’t expect investors to broadly return to large, pricey home-gym gadgets or hardware that doesn’t have a strong recurring software, data or healthcare component.

We could also see more exits in the sector as companies combine their capabilities through M&A deals or private equity roll-ups. And, we would not be surprised to see more established players make strategic buys of smaller companies, as we saw last year with fitness tracking platform ’s acquisition of running workout planner , or more recently with ’s purchase of endurance-training platform .

Still, we don’t foresee a flurry of IPOs from the sector, perhaps with the exception of a few star players. ������Ƶ’s predictive intelligence tools suggest likely IPO candidates in the fitness and wellness categories include Whoop, rival wearable wellness tracker , mental health platform , and , which operates a network of clinics offering what it bills as AI-driven longevity and preventative health services.

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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.

AI once again dominated venture funding this week, claiming five of the 10 largest announced rounds, including a pair of billion-dollar financings for AI infrastructure and cybersecurity that led the pack. Investors also continued to back quantum computing, geothermal energy, crypto infrastructure and aerospace startups with large checks. Let’s take a look.

1. (tied) , $1B, cybersecurity: Keyfactor raised a $1 billion private equity round led by. Other investors in the private equity round for the Independence, Ohio-based company included and . Keyfactor provides digital identity and machine identity management software that helps enterprises secure certificates, encryption keys and connected devices. It has now raised $1.21 billion to date, .

1. (tied) , $1B, AI infrastructure: Palo Alto, California-based SambaNova officially announced a long-awaited $1 billion Series F deal at an $11 billion post-money valuation led by. A of other investors joined the round, including ,,,,, and. SambaNova develops AI chips and enterprise AI infrastructure for training and inference workloads. The company has raised nearly $2.5 billion to date, .

3. , $300M, quantum computing: , and co-led a sizable $300 million Series A for South Pasadena, California-based quantum startup Oratomic. A of 16  investors participated in the round, including , , , co-founder , and computer scientist . Oratomic is developing neutral-atom quantum hardware and fault-tolerant architectures designed to accelerate the commercialization of quantum computing, an area that has seen robust venture investment in recent years.

4. , $134M, clean energy: Houston-based Quaise Energy raised a $134 million Series B led by . Additional investors included , and. Quaise is developing millimeter-wave drilling technology to unlock deep geothermal energy, an emerging source of carbon-free power. To date, the company has raised $225 million.

5. , $130M, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Prime Intellect raised a $130 million Series A led by . A of investors — many of them prominent Silicon Valley figures — joined, including CEO , �䷡���� , co-founder , CEO and co-CEO . Corporate investors , and also backed the round. Prime is building an open platform for training and deploying AI models across distributed compute networks. It has now raised $200.4 million total, .

6. , $125M, crypto infrastructure: New York-based Gauntlet raised a $125 million Series B, with Japan’s as the sole investor. The company develops simulation, risk management and optimization software for decentralized finance protocols.

7. , $120M, artificial intelligence: New York-based Norm AI secured a $120 million Series C led by at a reported $1.2 billion valuation to expand its AI-powered regulatory compliance platform. The company develops AI systems that translate complex laws and regulations into software to help enterprises automate their compliance workflows. The latest funding included a long list of other venture, corporate and individual backers including , , , and , the chairman of and former president of , which also participated in Norm AI’s deal. The startup has now raised just over $256 million, .

8. , $91M, aerospace and defense: Aerospace continues to draw substantial investor attention, as was the case this week with Houston-based Venus Aerospace’s $91 million Series B. backed the round, which will be used to advance development of Venus’ hypersonic propulsion technology. The company is building engines and aircraft designed to dramatically reduce long-distance flight times while supporting future defense applications. It has now raised $197 million total. An of investors joined in its Series B, including , , , and .

9. , $76M, fintech: Digital asset exchange EDX Markets raised $76 million as institutional interest in crypto trading infrastructure continues to grow. The deal was backed by sole investor , marking the second large crypto funding deal for the Japanese firm this week, along with Gauntlet’s aforementioned round. EDX operates a marketplace designed specifically for institutional investors. It’s not clear how much it raised in previous rounds.

10. , $67.4M, biotechnology: Philadelphia-based Fore Biotherapeutics (previously known as NovellusDx) raised $67.4 million in Series D funding to advance its precision oncology therapies targeting rare cancer mutations. The company is developing targeted treatments for patients whose tumors are driven by specific genetic alterations. led the latest round, which brings its total to date to just over $274 million. , , , and other investors also joined.

Large non-US deals:

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

• , €411M, fusion energy: Munich-based Proxima Fusion raised a €411 million (about $468 million) Series B funding round to develop what’s poised to become Europe’s first commercial fusion energy power plant. Lead investors in the round include , , and .
• , €200M, workplace tech: led the €200 million ($229 million) private-equity round for Paris-based Skello, which makes HR software for employers to handle tasks such as payroll, scheduling, compliance and employee communications.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ������Ƶ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of July 4-10. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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Our inboxes overflowed with interesting deals in the past month, but we managed to sift through them all to find the five most intriguing ones.

They include a startup that’s simultaneously developing AI models for biology and trying to prevent the threats that stem from those types of advances, a company that says it wants to prevent modern day private markets from the kind of paperwork crisis that shut down Wall Street in the ’60s, and AI agents that can dispatch plumbers and electricians to your door.

$50M for ‘general biological intelligence’

AI has conquered text, images and code. Now one startup wants to do the same for DNA.

San Francisco-based last month emerged from stealth with a hefty $50 million seed round led by , with participation from , , and . The startup said it also received pre-seed backing from co-founder .

Radical Numerics was founded by the team behind , one of the first AI models capable of reading and generating DNA sequences at scale. The startup’s mission is even more ambitious: building what it calls “general biological intelligence,” or multimodal AI models that can reason across DNA, RNA, proteins and other biological data to accelerate drug discovery, cancer diagnostics and biosecurity.

Alongside the funding, the company previewed Omnii, its next-generation genome language model.

The company’s dual focus on human health and biodefense reflects a growing theme in frontier AI investing. ������Ƶ data shows that as models become increasingly capable of designing biological systems, investors have poured tens of millions of dollars into startups that promise not only to accelerate scientific discovery, but also help detect and defend against AI-generated biological threats.

“Evo showed that AI can generate DNA and whole genomes, the next generation of models will go further with the ability to control function, and eventually, create entirely new forms of life,” Radical Numerics CEO said in a statement. “Our multimodal models are already far more capable, and we understand the responsibility that comes with that. The same models that can help cure disease may also lower the barrier to designing harmful biology. These forces are inseparable. Biology will be the most consequential application of AI.”

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$40M for AI that dispatches the plumber

The AI gold rush has reached an unlikely destination: your local plumber and HVAC company. New York-based said last month that it has raised $40 million in new funding: a $34 million Series A led by and a $6 million seed round led by , with Sequoia also participating in the Series A.

The startup is building what it calls an AI operating system for home service businesses, from plumbers and electricians to HVAC contractors. Rather than adding yet another AI chatbot or voice agent, Probook says it aims to replace the patchwork of software many contractors use with a single platform centered on dispatch, arguably the most critical function in the business.

Its software ties together customer intake, scheduling, messaging and outbound communications so technicians spend less time waiting for jobs and office staff spend less time coordinating them.

“I started Probook to solve a problem in my own business,” Probook CEO and co-founder said in a statement. “I grew up pressure washing in upstate New York with my dad. Six summers in the truck. I spent two to three hours of my day driving between jobs. I’d be up on a ladder washing a house and miss calls because I couldn’t hear my phone ringing.”

The company is tapping into a growing trend of vertical AI startups targeting industries that have historically lagged in software adoption, and they’re seeing keen enthusiasm from investors betting that trades such as plumbing, electrical and HVAC represent a massive opportunity to automate workflows and potentially boost profit margins for businesses that still run much of their operations by phone, clipboard and spreadsheet.

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$25M for subterranean warfare

Defense investors have poured billions into startups developing drones and missiles for the sky, tanks and other vehicles for land warfare, and autonomous military vessels for the water.

But a newly funded startup, , is betting the next battlefield is below the ground. The Austin-based startup emerged from stealth last month with a $25 million seed round led by , with participation from a long list of other investors including , , , and , and strategic angels including and founders from and .

Traysar calls itself the world’s first “subterra” defense tech company. Rather than building systems for the skies or seas, it’s developing autonomous platforms that can tunnel underground, map subterranean networks, breach hardened infrastructure and deliver payloads beneath the Earth’s surface. It’s there that it says modern warfare is increasingly being conducted in places like Iran, with its underground nuclear bunkers; Gaza, which has a vast Hamas-built subterranean tunnel network; and Ukraine, which has moved more of its military infrastructure beneath the surface to protect it from aerial drone threats.

The startup, whose founding team includes former engineers from and , is developing two autonomous underground systems. The first is an excavator-type robot designed to navigate, map and breach tunnels from within, giving military operators a way to explore or disable underground networks without sending in troops.

The second is a high-speed burrowing platform that drills new underground access points and can carry payloads — from explosives to sensing equipment — beneath the surface, bringing tunnel-boring technology to the battlefield.

Through the first half of 2026, defense-tech startups globally raised nearly $15.8 billion, by far the largest funding half-year for the sector on record, per ������Ƶ data. Of course, the vast majority of that has gone toward above-ground or marine technologies.

“The global defense industry has a vertical bias: hundreds of billions flow skyward into missiles, missile defense, drones, and counter-drone systems, while adversaries dig in building deeply buried facilities the U.S. cannot reliably strike, and cannot affordably keep disabled,” Traysar in its funding announcement.

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$23.7M for AI growth tools for small businesses

Most AI startups chase large enterprise customers. is betting the neighborhood coffee shop and corner restaurant are the bigger opportunity.

The New York-based startup last month emerged from stealth with $23.7 million in funding, including a $19.5 million Series A led by . , ‘s , , , , and also participated.

Pie says it’s creating an AI-powered growth platform that helps local merchants get discovered  across AI search platforms like ChatGPT and Claude where customers increasingly begin their searches, as well as more traditional marketing channels like Maps, and .

The company also unveiled Front Desk, an AI agent that it says can answer calls around the clock, book appointments and handle customer inquiries when business owners can’t get to the phone.

Founded by former and executives, Pie says it has already reached thousands of businesses through partnerships with industry software providers while operating in stealth.

“Pie is bringing AI to Main Street by starting with one of the biggest pain points for small business owners: finding new customers,” , partner at Lightspeed, said in a statement. “Customer acquisition is a powerful entry point, but the broader vision is to build an AI platform that can support small businesses across more of their daily operations over time.”

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$2M to tackle the private market paperwork crisis

Wall Street once got so buried in paperwork that the shut down every Wednesday . Six decades later, Berlin-based thinks private markets are headed toward a similar reckoning and just raised $2 million to stop it.

The company’s pre-seed round was led by , with participation from and individuals from firms including and .

Founded by two early employees of fund administration startup , Nomerra is building AI agents for the operational work that keeps private capital markets running behind the scenes.

While public markets rely on standardized infrastructure, private markets still depend heavily on emails, PDFs, spreadsheets and disconnected software, the company said. Its software plugs into existing ERP systems, banking platforms and document repositories, then uses AI agents to read documents, reconcile information across systems and complete workflows such as fund accounting, treasury operations and transfer agency work.

At the same time, private markets are expected to swell from roughly $13 trillion today to more than $30 trillion over the coming years, according to Nomerra, even as the industry faces a shortage of qualified accounting and operations professionals.

Rather than replacing existing software, the company says it aims to automate the manual tasks that have traditionally required growing back-office teams.

“Think of how telephone operators used to connect one caller to another by plugging cables into a switchboard,” , Nomerra co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Today, the idea that humans once routed every phone call manually seems absurd. Private market operations are at the same turning point. In a few years, people will look back and wonder how any of this was ever done by hand.”

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The Menlo Park, California-based firm highlighted its early investment in , which last month overtook rival as the top-valued frontier lab in the world with a staggering $965 billion valuation. While Menlo Ventures’ investment in Anthropic’s was not its first bet on artificial intelligence, the firm described it as its “flag-planting moment.”

“We made our first investment in Anthropic in 2023, when the company was pre-product, pre-revenue. By then, ChatGPT was a household name, and many believed the LLM race was already decided. We saw it differently,” the firm wrote in published Tuesday. “In and his founding team — arguably the most accomplished researchers in the field — we saw the rare mix of technical depth and clarity of purpose that defines a category leader. We were convinced there was room for another independent foundation model company, that Anthropic was the team to build it, and that an investment in Anthropic could anchor our broader AI strategy.”

The firm went on to lead Anthropic’s the following year.

“That early relationship gave us a rare vantage point on the model layer and on the infrastructure, workflows, and application opportunities forming around it,” the firm said this week.

Two new funds

The firm’s new capital is across two funds: , earmarked for seed and Series A startups, and , a growth fund for Series B and later startups that are “already pulling away from the pack and on their way to becoming the breakout names of the AI era.”

Along with Anthropic, other notable Menlo Ventures investments over the years include , , , and . Anthropic, which has filed plans for a 2026 IPO, would be the largest exit to date for one of its portfolio companies by far, with an expected IPO target of $1 trillion or more.

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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.

This week was not an exceptionally busy one for large funding deals, though we saw sizable rounds in a lively mix of sectors ranging from AI to fintech to quantum computing and cybersecurity. The biggest raise was for AI world-model developer, which secured a $310 million Series B. Venture investors also put money into AI infrastructure and AI models for biotech.

1. , $310M, artificial intelligence: Menlo Park, California-based Odyssey raised $310 million at a $1.45 billion valuation in a Series B round led by . Other investors included ,,,, and . Odyssey develops AI world models that create multimodal simulations of real-world environments. The startup has now raised $337 million in funding to date, .

2. , $140M, fintech: New York-based Chronograph secured a $140 million private equity round led by . The company provides portfolio monitoring, reporting and diligence software for private capital investors, an increasingly important market as private assets continue to grow. The new raise, which it describes as growth capital, brings its total funding to date to $160 million, according to .

3. (tied) , $100M, AI infrastructure: Boulder, Colorado-based Hydra Host raised a massive $100 million Series A led by . A of other investors joined, including ,, , and . The company operates a bare-metal GPU platform that connects customers to distributed AI computing infrastructure. With the latest investment, it has raised just under $119 million to date.

3. (tied) , $100M, cybersecurity: Startups that promise to protect companies in the AI era are also raising massive sums right out of the gate. This week, Santa Clara, California-based Ent.AI emerged from stealth and said it has raised $100 million in seed funding led by. Other investors included,, 1,, and. The company, founded by former executives and members of the Security Copilot team, offers an AI-powered workspace security platform that it says can analyze user and AI-agent behavior in real time to proactively prevent cyber threats.

3. (tied) , $100M, cybersecurity, defense: Arlington, Virginia-based Twenty Technologies secured a $100 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation. The round was led by, with participation from, and. The company develops AI-enabled cyber warfare systems for the U.S. military and intelligence community, helping automate and accelerate offensive cyber operations at scale. Founded by former cyber operators and defense technologists, Twenty Technologies has now raised $138 million to date,. It’s part of a growing wave of venture-backed startups building software for military and national security purposes.

3. (tied) , $100M, quantum computing: Berkeley, California-based Atom Computing raised a $100 million Series C led by that brings its total private investment to date to just over $191 million, . and also backed its latest round. Along with the venture money, Atom also received a $100 million Letter of Intent from the under the CHIPS and Science Act that gives the startup additional public backing in exchange for a minority government stake. The company develops neutral-atom quantum computers, one of several competing architectures seeking to commercialize quantum computing. It is one of several quantum startups to receive sizable funding deals this year, following a record-breaking venture investment year for the sector in 2025.

7. , $65M, biotechnology: Watertown, Massachusetts-based Triveni Bio raised a $65 million Series C co-led by and. Additional participation came from. The company develops antibody-based therapeutics for immunological and inflammatory diseases. It has now raised $272 million total from investors, .

8. (tied) , $52M, semiconductor infrastructure: Menlo Park, California-based AttoTude secured a $52 million Series C led by. Other investors included ,,,, 2, and. The startup develops high-speed interconnect technology for AI and hyperscale data centers and has raised $142 million to date, according to . It comes amid robust funding for semiconductor startups this year.

8. (tied) , $52M, digital media: Beverly Hills, California-based Richard Roths Media raised a $52 million venture round led by . The company says it delivered AI-driven marketing and advertising services for “high trust” industries such as banking, law and healthcare. The investment appears to be its first outside capital, per ������Ƶ.

10. (tied) , $50M, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Bland AI raised a $50 million Series C led by . The of other investors includes , , founder , and others. The company develops AI-powered voice agents that automate inbound and outbound phone conversations for enterprises, a category that has seen growing adoption as businesses look to replace traditional call-center workflows. It has raised $106 million to date, according to .

10. (tied) , $50M, fintech: Brooklyn-based Interchecks secured a $50 million Series C led by,, and. The company operates a payments platform that allows businesses to manage deposits and payouts through a single API, reflecting continued investor interest in infrastructure that simplifies financial operations. It has now raised just under $79 million to date.

10. (tied) , $50M, artificial intelligence, biotechnology: Menlo Park, California-based Radical Numerics emerged from stealth and said it has raised a $50 million seed round led by, with participation from , and . The startup is developing AI models designed to simulate and predict biological systems, with the goal of accelerating drug discovery and advancing precision medicine.

Large non-US deals:

• The largest startup deal outside of the U.S. this week was very large indeed, and also very unusual. , the Chinese AI chatbot startup that briefly roiled public AI-related stocks in early 2025, reportedly took its first outside financing, worth roughly $7.4 billion. The Series A deal, however, comes with a lot of atypical caveats, notably that investors in the deal didn’t actually receive a stake in DeepSeek, but rather in an LLC controlled by founder , per . Those investors also reportedly face a five-year lockup and receive no voting rights.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ������Ƶ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of June 13-18. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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The acquisition represents an enormous return on investment for Cursor’s backers. Since its founding just four years ago, parent company raised $3.4 billion from investors including , repeat backer , and and was most recently valued at roughly $30 billion in November, per ������Ƶ.

The acquisition gives SpaceX, which raised $75 billion in its IPO last week, a foothold into the enterprise software development market, where AI-assisted coding has taken off and led large companies to significantly pare back their reliance on human engineers. Cursor said in November last year that it had crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has in recent years expanded beyond space exploration to become something of an umbrella company for CEO ’s numerous other interests and ambitions, as the company acquired the social media platform (formerly Twitter) and the AI company . SpaceX shares jumped around 16% on Tuesday following the Cursor announcement.

This year has proven robust for M&A activity involving venture-backed startups, ������Ƶ data shows. Through June 16, at least 1,177 such deals altogether valued at $182.7 billion have been announced. That compares with 1,132 deals valued at $106.7 billion in the same period last year.

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The IPO caps a remarkable journey for a company that raised nearly $12 billion in private investment since its founding in 2002 to become the world’s most valuable venture-backed startup with a most recent private-market valuation of $1.25 trillion. Along the way, SpaceX helped redefine both the space industry and the late-stage venture market.

Its long-awaited offering raised some $75 billion and served as an enormous liquidity event for Musk, who became the as a result, as well as his close friend and confidant of , who now owns a stake valued at more than $68 billion in SpaceX. It’s also a massive and successful exit for early venture and corporate investors including , , , and .

SpaceX’s offering was unconventional along several fronts. Along with the IPO’s record-breaking nature — more than 10x larger than ’s $104 billion offering in 2012 — the company also by setting a fixed price of $135 per share, rather than the traditional approach whereby investors and bookbuilders determine a range based on demand.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX is also wildly unprofitable. The company posted a net loss of $4.28 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up more than 700% from a year ago. Revenue totaled $4.69 billion in Q1, up 15% from a year ago. Its megacap valuation means it’s slated to trade at an aggressive premium of 94x revenue.

The SpaceX offering is the first in a lineup of at least three historic IPOs this year, with generative AI giants and openly racing to make it to the public markets in coming months. Altogether, the three IPOs transfer some $3 trillion in value from the private to public markets.

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A grab bag of funded startups caught our attention this past month, from a previously bootstrapped custom metal manufacturer that got its first outside funding from big-name Silicon Valley backers, to a startup that aims to provide geothermal energy from underwater volcanoes to small island nations. Let’s take a look.

$110M for on-demand custom manufacturing

First, let’s start with a refreshingly non-AI round, and a sizable one at that.

Reno, Nevada-based said last month that it has raised $110 million in funding led by brothers and founders and , along with and , at a $1 billion valuation.

The company operates an on-demand manufacturing platform specializing in custom-cut metal and fabrication. The round is its first venture investment, and apparently came only after Sequoia’s flew to Reno to woo SendCutSend CEO into accepting Silicon Valley backing. Previously, Belosic had bootstrapped the company, founded in 2018, with personal savings, bank loans and credit cards, he told .

He held little interest in taking cash from startup investors until SendCutSend started to be flooded earlier this year with orders from AI-driven industries including robotics and data centers, and Belosic said he realized the business needed outside investment to grow.

Investor of Paradigm told WSJ that underlying SendCutSend’s booming business is intense demand for rapid, on-demand sheet metal and custom parts. “If you think about the entire frontier of robots, defense companies, rocket companies, electric-car companies, they all need very fast turn prototyping,” he said.

The investment is Paradigm’s first into the manufacturing sector, he noted.

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$100M for insurance-covered metabolic health counseling

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs may be booming, but a well-funded startup is betting that medication alone isn’t enough to solve the chronic disease crisis.

, a New York-based metabolic health startup that combines dietitians, AI tools and GLP-1 medication management, last month said that it raised a $100 million Series C round led by . , , and a long list of other investors also backed the round, which brings the company’s total funding to date to just over $213 million, .

Founded in 2021, Nourish operates what it describes as the country’s largest dietitian-led metabolic health clinic, pairing more than 10,000 registered dietitians with AI coaching, lab testing and virtual care. The company has increasingly expanded into GLP-1 prescribing and medication management as demand for drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy continues to surge.

Nourish said it has partnered with hundreds of health insurers in the U.S. and that its service is covered by most plans.

Its pitch is that the next phase of the GLP-1 boom will require more than prescriptions. While the drugs have transformed obesity treatment, many patients struggle to stay on them long term or maintain results after stopping, according to the company. Nourish is positioning itself as a broader metabolic health platform focused on nutrition, behavior change and ongoing clinical support alongside medication.

“Chronic disease is the central failure of U.S. healthcare — nearly 200 million Americans affected, trillions spent, and outcomes that still don’t move,” Menlo Ventures partner said in a statement. “What Nourish has built in four years is remarkable: a care model that actually bends the cost curve, with 10,000 dietitians, deep payer relationships, and clinical outcomes patients stick with.”

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$58M for Gen Z group travel adventures

Group travel startups are having a moment as younger travelers increasingly look for ways to meet people while exploring new destinations.

, a Milan-based startup that organizes group travel experiences for millennials and Gen Z travelers, raised a €50 million (roughly $58 million) Series C funding round as it looks to expand further across Europe and enter the U.S. market. The round was led by .

Founded in 2017, WeRoad operates a platform that connects solo travelers and small groups through curated multiday trips led by coordinators. The company says it has served more than 300,000 travelers across over 1,000 itineraries, with offerings ranging from adventure travel and cultural experiences to outdoor excursions. Participants are typically grouped with strangers in similar age ranges, turning the trips into a hybrid of travel booking and social networking.

“We live in a time when artificial intelligence and social media are reshaping the way we connect with each other. And amid all this digital connection, real human connection has become increasingly rare. Around 30% of young adults say they feel lonely every day. In the United States, this phenomenon is especially significant,” the company said in a statement. “We believe we have an answer. Not the only one, not a perfect one, but a real one: putting people in a room together (or on a quad bike in Morocco, in a canoe in Vietnam, or in front of a sunset in Patagonia) and letting whatever is meant to happen, happen.”

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$26M to keep AI data centers cooler

AI may be driving the data center boom, but keeping those facilities cool is becoming a business opportunity in its own right.

, a U.K.-based startup developing precision liquid cooling systems for AI infrastructure, said last month that it raised a $26 million Series B as demand surges for technologies that can manage the growing heat and power requirements of next-generation AI data centers. The round was led by and and brings Iceotope’s total funding to date to just under $100 million, .

Founded in 2005, Iceotope has developed a chassis-based liquid cooling approach designed to replace traditional air cooling and cool entire systems rather than individual chips. The company says it now holds 219 granted and pending patents. It said it will use the new funding to expand product and engineering development, grow its patent portfolio and accelerate partnerships that bring its cooling technology to market.

The raise comes as AI workloads create mounting challenges for conventional cooling systems. Iceotope argues its technology can reduce energy consumption and water use while supporting high-density AI and high-performance computing deployments in both data centers and edge environments.

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$25M for geothermal energy from subsea volcanoes

As AI companies scramble for more electricity, investors are increasingly willing to fund some unconventional ideas for generating it. One of those is , a Seattle-based startup developing subsea geothermal power systems designed to tap into heat generated by subsea volcanic activity.

The company recently raised between $25 million and $30 million in a seed round led by , sources familiar with the matter .

Founded just last year, Endurance Energy is targeting island nations — where it says electricity can cost almost 7x as much as in the U.S. — industrial sites and eventually hyperscale data centers that need large amounts of reliable power.

Unlike solar and wind, geothermal energy carries the promise of round-the-clock, renewable baseload electricity, a feature that has become increasingly attractive as AI infrastructure drives soaring power demand.

Endurance says its seafloor geothermal generators could deliver gigawatts of power from hydrothermal systems along tectonic plate boundaries and volcanic regions. It is , where about 80% of electricity generation still relies on imported diesel fuel.

Earlier this year, the company signed an agreement with the Tongan government and launched a pilot project aimed at harnessing geothermal heat generated by subsea volcanic activity around the island nation.

“Clean geothermal power will enable us to substitute most of our diesel base load power and further insulate ourselves from future external shocks caused by geopolitical conflicts and global economic impacts,” Tongan Prime Minister Lord Fakafānua said in a statement.

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How times have changed. Already this year, more than $14.6 billion in venture investment has gone into companies in ������Ƶ’s military, national security and law enforcement categories, blowing past the sector’s previous annual record of $9.6 billion raised in all of 2025.

Investors have poured billions into startups developing AI-powered military systems, autonomous vehicles, defense software and space technologies, and they’re writing increasingly large checks to do it, ������Ƶ data shows.

Funding growth accelerates

The defense tech sector’s rise has been years in the making

Global defense tech funding totaled $1.6 billion in 2020 before climbing to $3.9 billion in 2021, ������Ƶ data shows. Funding then remained relatively steady between roughly $2.8 billion and $3.8 billion from 2022 through 2024.

That changed dramatically last year, when funding jumped to a record $9.6 billion. Now, five months into 2026, startups in the sector have already eclipsed the full-year record set in 2025.

Deal flow has stayed steadier, mirroring a broader trend of venture capital concentration. So far this year, defense tech startups have announced 107 venture rounds, ������Ƶ data shows, putting 2026’s pace slightly ahead of the 206 deals done in 2025.

Megarounds lead the way

The biggest contributor to this year’s funding surge, by far, is .

The Costa Mesa, California-based company announced a $5 billion Series H last month, a deal that valued it at $30.5 billion and further cemented its status as the most valuable venture-backed defense startup in the world.

Still, it’s not the only defense- or military-related startup drawing large sums of funding. Many of this year’s biggest rounds involve companies building AI-enabled defense systems, autonomous aircraft and maritime vehicles, military software platforms and space infrastructure.

Case in point: a $300 million Series C round announced today for , an autonomous drones systems manufacturer. The round was led by and and values the Huntington Beach, California-based startup at $1.8 billion.

Autonomous aviation startup raised a $2 billion Series G round in March led by and, while , which makes unmanned surface vessels for naval and defense use, secured a $1.75 billion Series D led by later that month.

Space-related startups with defense applications have also been especially prominent among defense-tech bets this year. , and , rank among the largest defense-related funding recipients of 2026, highlighting continued investor interest in technologies with both commercial and national security applications.

Attention turns to exits

As funding totals climb, investors may begin looking toward exits. Already this year, one smaller defense-tech startup, AI drone company , went public, with shares soaring more than 500% in their first day of trading. They remain near the high end of their price range as of early June.

Anduril is now widely viewed as one of the most likely defense tech candidates to pursue an IPO in the coming years. A public offering by a company of its size would mark a significant milestone for the sector and provide a closely watched test of public-market appetite for next-generation defense contractors.

Other well-capitalized companies across defense, autonomy and space are also reaching a scale where public listings or major acquisitions become more plausible, with ������Ƶ’s predictive intelligence tools forecasting that nearly four-dozen . Along with Anduril, they include True Anomaly, Shield AI, Sierra Space and .

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• Sector Snapshot: Defense Tech Funding Hits Record High
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