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.

Related reading:

• VCs Pour Billions Into Physical AI As The Next Wave Of AI Investing Takes Shape
• Sector Snapshot: Cleantech Startup Funding Stabilizes As Energy Demand Grows

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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.

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 ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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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Leading sectors by count were financial services, robotics, AI orchestration, multimodal AI, energy and the semiconductor industry.

In the past two months, the board added more than $100 billion each month in value from newly minted unicorns. Three companies joined the board at decacorn values. , and together added $49 billion in the past month.

The U.S. counts 19 new unicorn companies, just under half of the newly minted unicorns in July. China, the second-largest country, numbered eight. From the U.K., there were three companies, and from Singapore, two. Lithuania, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Australia, India, Israel and Hong Kong each count one.

Among the newly minted unicorns, 15 were less than 3 years old. And seven companies were more than 10 years old.

So far this year, the count of new unicorns has accelerated. A total of 195 companies joined in H1 this year, already exceeding the total for all of 2025.

New unicorns in July

Here are July’s new unicorn companies:

Financial services

• Singapore-based , an affiliate of the private payments company , raised a $1.2 billion Series A funding round with participation from Ant Group and . Ant International was spun out in 2024 and was valued at $11.2 billion in this recent funding.
• , a digital banking platform for banks and credit unions, raised $115 million in private equity funding led by . The 9-year-old San Ramon, California-based company that supports customer retention and services was valued at $1.6 billion.
• Budapest-based , an auto insurance provider using AI, raised a $23 million Series B funding round led by . The almost 2-year-old company, founded by a Serbian team, was valued at $1.6 billion.�� Ominimo reports $350 million in gross written premiums and is approaching 1 million customers. It operates in Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands and Sweden, and plans to expand across Europe and to the U.S. in 2027.
• , an AI-native private bank for high net worth business owners, raised a $70 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• , a membership and savings app for U.S. consumers, raised $65 million in Series D funding led by . The 10-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.2 billion. Surpassing $200 million in net revenue in 2025 from membership and transactional revenue, the company says it is growing 50% year over year and is approaching 1 million members.
• London-based , a savings app which has become a digital wealth management platform, raised a $60 million secondary market transaction led by . The 11-year-old company was valued at $1.1 billion. The secondary sale is to provide liquidity for long-term employees. The company is profitable and has helped 200,000 people buy their first home.

Robotics

• Guangdong-based humanoid robotics company raised $200 million in pre-IPO funding. The 4-year-old company is focused on entertainment, hospitality, and service for humanoid robotics, not manufacturing, with half of its orders coming from outside of China. The company was valued at $2.2 billion.
• Shenzhen-based , a builder of precision tactile sensing technology for robotics, raised $148 million in Series E funding. The 10-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• London-based , a humanoid robotics company for manufacturing, retail and logistics, raised a $152 million Series A funding led by . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion and plans to roll out its wheeled beta version robots to customers in Q4. It has also developed a software brain, KinetIQ, to reason and execute complex tasks alongside humans.
• Full-stack physical AI company emerged from stealth with a $300 million seed funding led by and . The less-than-1-year-old Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company focused on manufacturing and logistics was valued at $1.1 billion.
• , an embodied intelligence company, raised a $147 million seed funding round led by and . The less than 1-year-old Nanjing, China-based company is focused on closed-loop learning, building robotics for manufacturing with the ultimate goal of building a general-purpose robot for the home. The company was valued at $1 billion.
• Dexterous hand robotics company raised a $74 million Series A funding led by . The 1-year-old Hangzhou, China-based company was valued at $1 billion.

AI

• Lithuania-based , a public data web scraping service useful for AI applications and agentic AI, raised its first external financing, a $130 million Series A led by . The company reports $350 million in ARR serving 350,000 tech teams. The 11-year-old company was valued at $3.6 billion.
• Spain-based , a compression technology for AI that improves efficiency and cost, whether on device or in the cloud. It raised a $570 million Series C led by , and . The 7-year-old company was valued at $2.3 billion.
• , creator of synthetic users for consumer research, raised a $200 million Series B led by and . The company raised a $100 million Series A five months earlier. The 1-year-old Palo Alto-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• runs a full-stack platform for companies to train models and agents. It raised a $130 million Series A funding led by . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , an enterprise infrastructure management platform for AI, raised a $100 million Series D led by . The 7-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Multimodal AI

• Beijing-based , a text prompt-to-AI short video startup, raised a $2.8 billion funding round led by , , , , and . The 2-year-old company, a subsidiary of with plans to spin out, was valued at $18 billion.
• , a company that creates 3D visualization from text or image prompts, raised a $400 million Series B funding led by , and . The 5-year-old Sunnyvale, California-based company, used in gaming, 3D printing and design, was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , which provides access to leading models for text, video, image and audio while retaining user privacy, raised a $65 million Series A led by . The service stores communication on a user’s device. The 2-year-old Wyoming-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• Beijing-based , a multimodal model developer, raised a $222 million Series C led by ,, and . The 3-year-old company, used for film, marketing, and social media content creation, was valued at $1 billion.

Energy

• Munich-based nuclear fusion company raised a $470 million Series B led by , , and . The company has offices in Munich, Zurich and Oxford. The 3-year-old company was valued at $2.7 billion.
• a provider of thermal energy storage for data centers, raised a $550 million Series C funding led by and. The 8-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
• , a hydrogen-boron fusion company, raised an undisclosed seed round led by , and . The less-than-8-year-old China-based subsidiary of the was valued at $1.6 billion.

Semiconductor

• Israel-based , a fabless semiconductor company building data processing units and chips for data centers and computing systems, raised a $300 million Series E led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $2.8 billion. The next generation of will be routing via the company’s X2 chip, according to VP of Starlink engineering, .
• Shanghai-based developer of a satellite communication baseband chip for 6G communications, raised an undisclosed amount following a $216 million Series C round earlier this year. The 6-year-old company was valued at around $1.5 billion.
• , a chip company that connects smaller chips to make them more efficient, raised a $145 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Cryptocurrency

• Singapore-based , a regulated app for buying, trading, and spending cryptocurrencies, raised a $400 million corporate round. Led by , this marks the company’s first institutional funding. The 10-year-old company was valued at $20 billion.
• , a U.S. stablecoin digital clearing bank for international financial institutions, raised a $180 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

• Former Doge employees founded to provide AI-driven cyber capabilities to the U.S. military. Cathedral raised a $160 million Series A led by and . The less-than-1-year-old Washington, D.C.-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• London-based , a maritime defense company, raised a $175 million Series B led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Marketplace

• , a technology platform for service businesses, raised a $44 million Series D led by . The 10-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.2 billion. Genius AI operates in the wellness, beauty and health sectors and is approaching a $200 million revenue run rate.

• , a platform for travel advisers, raised a $60 million Series D led by and . The service has 15,000 travel advisers and has booked more than $3 billion in travel over time. The 5-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Data center

• Mumbai-based , a data center service hosting GPUs, one of the largest GPU compute providers in India, raised $150 million in funding. The 7-year-old subsidiary of the was valued at $3.9 billion.

Insurance

• , an insurance platform for some of the largest e-commerce customers, raised $100 million in funding. The 12-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.9 billion. Its customers include , , , , and , to name a few.

Quantum

• Quantum computing company raised a $300 million Series A led by , and . The less than 1-year-old South Pasadena, California-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.

AI coding

• Autonomous app building startup raised a $130 million Series C led by , and . The 2-year-old Pleasanton, California-based company was valued at $1.5 billion. The company launched a year ago and has enabled non-coders to build applications, with 12 million built on the platform.

Legal

• , an AI legaltech firm that pairs lawyers with agentic AI, raised a $120 million Series C led by . The service is client-oriented, with payments based on outcomes rather than billable hours. The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Security

• , an endpoint security firm for the AI era, emerged from stealth, announcing a $100 million Series B led by , , and . In 2025, ahead of launching out of stealth, Glow raised large seed and Series A rounds. The 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based firm with offices in Tel Aviv was valued at $1.2 billion.

Wearables

• Hong Kong-based smart glass company raised a $150 million Series B led by and . Founded by ex- engineers, the startup is not camera-based but rather a display that beams information visible to the wearer.�� The 2-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Related ������Ƶ unicorn lists:

• (1,850)
• (644)
• (245)
• (193)
• (117)
• (102)
• (953)
• (546)
• (251)
• (39)
• (491)

Related reading:

• Global New Unicorn Counts In The First Half Of 2026 Have Already Surpassed 2025’s Totals

Methodology

The ������Ƶ ������Ƶ is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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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.

Startups raised funding rounds with a lot of zeroes at the end this week. Three companies — , and — secured financings of $1 billion or more. Additionally, a robust lineup of companies in sectors including AI, e-commerce, cybersecurity, biotech and even mining also announced sizable new rounds.

1. , $1.37B, manufacturing: Hadrian, a developer of highly automated factories, raised $1.37 billion in Series D funding led by , , , , and . The financing sets a $7.87 billion valuation for the 6-year-old, Torrance, California-based company.

2. (tied) , $1B, energy storage: Austin-based Base Power, a developer of residential battery energy storage systems, secured $1 billion in Series D financing at a $13 billion post-money valuation. , , and led the financing, which coincided with the launch of the company’s Base Core home battery.

2. (tied) , $1B, nuclear power: Valar Atomics, a developer of technology and infrastructure to deliver nuclear energy, closed on $1 billion in Series B funding led by . The El Segundo, California-based company also secured a $200 million credit facility led by and .

4. , $700M, AI connectivity: Lumilens, developer of a connectivity platform for AI infrastructure, emerged from stealth and announced more than $700 million in new funding. , , , and led the financing for the San Jose, California-based startup.

5. , $545M, live shopping: Live shopping marketplace Whatnot bagged $545 million in Series G funding. The round reportedly a $20 billion valuation for the Los Angeles-based company, with , and as lead investors.

6. , $310M, critical minerals: Mariana Minerals, a software-focused developer of projects for supplying critical minerals, picked up $310 million in Series B financing led by . The 4-year-old company engineers, builds and operates mines and refineries using its software platform.

7. , $300M, AI infrastructure: Volta, a developer of AI cloud infrastructure, from stealth and said it raised a Series A at a $2.4 billion valuation, led by , , and .

8. , $250M, cybersecurity: San Francisco-based cybersecurity provider Horizon3, announced a $250 million Series E. and led the round, which set a valuation of more than $2 billion, triple the value set for its Series D last year.

9. , $188M, biotech: Watertown, Massachusetts-based drug discovery startup LifeMine Therapeutics secured $188 million in Series E funding led by . The funding will go toward clinical development of its lead program and advance its pipeline of transplantation and immunology therapies.

10. , $150M, agentic AI: HappyRobot, developer of an agentic AI platform geared for enterprises in sectors including logistics, financial services, utilities and manufacturing, raised $150 million in Series C funding led by and .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ������Ƶ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Aug. 1-7. 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.

Illustration:

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.

Another week, another bevy of big rounds. For this past week, the largest round was a reported $5 billion -backed financing for foundational AI unicorn , followed by a $1 billion investment in . Other sizable rounds went to companies in sectors including energy storage, health testing, nuclear power, fintech, and, yes, AI.

1.��, $5B, foundational AI: AI lab Safe Superintelligence announced a long-term with Nvidia to rapidly accelerate its growth. The deal included a $5 billion investment from the chip giant with an eye toward boosting compute resources for Safe Superintelligence, a Silicon Valley startup founded by co-founder .��

2.��, $1 billion, fusion energy: Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a startup working on fusion energy technology and developing a grid-scale fusion power plant, raised $1 billion in fresh funding from unspecified investors. The round brings the total invested to date for the Massachusetts-based company to $4 billion.

3.��, $550M, thermal energy storage: Antora Energy, a company that provides energy through thermal batteries to data centers, announced that it has closed on $550 million in a Series C funding round. and co-led the financing for the nine-year-old, San Jose-based company.

4.��, $450M, health testing: Austin-based Function, a provider of lab testing, imaging, and personal health information that markets to consumers, secured $450 million in growth financing from .��

5.��, $370M, nuclear energy: Antares, a nuclear fission energy company that develops compact microreactors for defense and space applications, raised $370 million in Series C equity funding. and led the financing for the three-year-old company, which raised $100 million in debt funding alongside the equity investment.��

6.��, $200M, AI simulation: Simile, a developer of AI tools for running simulations, said it picked up over $200 million in fresh funding at a $2 billion post-money valuation. led the round, which comes just five months after the Palo Alto-based company launched its product.

7.��, $190M, cybersecurity: Cybersecurity provider ThreatLocker closed on $190 million in Series F funding to hone its platform and expand internationally. led the round for the Orlando-based company.

8.��, $170M, fintech: New York-based CAIS, an alternative investment platform for independent financial advisors, secured $170 million in Series D financing. led the round, which set a valuation for the company of more than $2 billion.

9.��, $160M, fintech: PEX, an AI-enabled provider of prepaid and charge cards for businesses, along with tools to track finances, raised $160 in equity and debt funding, with as lead investor.

10.��, $145M, AI infrastructure: Eliyan, a developer of connectivity technology for AI infrastructure, completed its Series C with a total of $145 million at a $1 billion valuation. led the financing for the five-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company.

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and co-led the financing, which included participation from (/), , ’ , (chairman of ), and others. With the latest round, San Jose, California-based Antora has raised $770 million since its 2017 inception, per ������Ƶ. It raised $150 million in a Series B round in February of 2024.

The company did not reveal its valuation.

With so much data center demand amid the artificial intelligence explosion, Antora says it will use its new capital to speed up deployment of “large-scale” projects across the country “to meet surging energy demand.”

It recently deployed what it describes as one of the world’s largest battery storage projects, a in South Dakota. The company says its tech is differentiated in that thermal batteries store low-cost electricity as heat in insulated blocks of solid carbon and “deliver it around the clock as heat or power.”

Antora says that the same factory-built modules can serve a chemical plant, a food producer, a steelmaker, a data center, or the grid, without supply- constrained critical minerals or multi-year construction timelines. As a result, it can provide “cheap, clean energy that’s fast to deploy.”

The company also claims that its San Jose, California factory ranks among the country’s largest battery gigafactories.��

“From factories to data centers, energy is the bottleneck to industrial growth,” said , co-founder and CEO of Antora, in a release. “Antora has shown we can help break that bottleneck—delivering energy fast, at massive scale, with American innovation.��

Despite surging energy demand from AI data centers, cleantech venture investment has been relatively modest in recent years, and Antora’s raise marks one of the sector’s largest this year.��

������Ƶ shows investors put more than $15 billion into seed- through growth-stage rounds for companies in ������Ƶ’s cleantech, EV and sustainability-focused categories in the first half of 2026. That puts this year’s funding on pace to slightly exceed the 2025 tally, though that was the lowest total in several years and well below the highs reached in 2021 and 2022.

Related ������Ƶ query:

Related reading:

• Sector Snapshot: Cleantech Startup Funding Stabilizes As Energy Demand Grows��

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has spent nearly two centuries adapting to successive industrial revolutions — evolving from a 19th century steel and heavy machinery company into a global leader in energy management and automation. Now, through its 1 billion Euro venture fund, , the company is betting that the next transformation will be driven by AI’s collision with the physical world, from data centers and power grids to robotics and industrial automation.

For , who joined SE Ventures in 2022 after leading corporate investments at , AI’s biggest opportunities extend well beyond software. As demand for compute strains energy infrastructure and accelerates reindustrialization, the firm is backing startups building the technologies that underpin the AI economy — investing in everything from data center infrastructure and grid resilience to robotics and industrial AI.

������Ƶ News spoke with Chaturvedy about where those opportunities are emerging, why energy has become AI’s defining constraint, and how industrial technology is being reshaped by the AI era. “We were set up with the intent to figure out where the market is headed,” he said.

The significance of the energy and industrial sectors has grown with AI, and that has led even traditionally tech-focused venture investors to rush into the space. “Today, the scarce resource in this entire space is the capacity to build — building, real estate, energy, power and electrification gear,” Chaturvedy said.

SE Ventures , and has notched 12 exits including its most recent, , a 3D metal printing technology acquired by Tokyo-based electronic manufacturer

The firm will often take board seats or board positions and work to bring value to its portfolio companies.

Around 80% of the startups in its portfolio have some level of commercial relationship with a business unit of Schneider Electric. Most often that’s as a partner servicing Schneider’s customers, which is the holy grail, according to Chaturvedy. Sometimes it’s as a vendor, although that remains a smaller set of use cases.

In our conversation, we spoke about power scarcity, the electrical grid, workforce training, reindustrialization and notable portfolio companies.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Gené Teare: Which sectors or investments are you focused on? Where there is a lot of drive or interest because of what is happening in AI?

Chaturvedy: Three things come to mind, especially in terms of the areas we invest in versus the broader construct of the market.

First, AI is getting embedded, and you need to train models, whether open source or proprietary. Model training has upleveled to inference so you need AI infrastructure. is a great example of that.

Five years out, when this CapEx cycle starts to come down and new data centers are perhaps not getting created, data center efficiency will become a hot topic. We are also investors today in a company called , which focuses on that problem. That will come three, five or seven years out. It is going to come. It is not a problem today because we are on the upswing of the CapEx cycle.

Together AI and Hammerhead AI are very interested in partnering with Schneider Electric, because Schneider Electric is a leading electrification player in the data center space. It makes a lot of gear and equipment that go into these data centers. Today, the scarce resource in this entire space is capacity to build: buildings, real estate, energy, power and electrification gear.

The other market impacted by the emergence and growth of AI is the interplay with the grid. There are more demands on the grid beyond the electrification of vehicles, and it is 100x or 1,000x bigger than what we saw with vehicles needing to get charged from inside houses. The grid could not keep up with that capacity in the past, and it certainly cannot keep up with these demands today.

More project developers are coming in and setting up renewables or other types of capacity, but again, the interplay is still with the grid. Anything that helps with grid resilience is clearly an area for us to invest in.

The third thing is the transformative impact of AI on the world of industrials. That is where we are quite excited. Robotics is one clear area where a general-purpose model can allow the same robotics hardware to do multiple different tasks that were not possible in the past, because cognition and inference were not possible at the edge before the advent of large language models.

Companies like in our portfolio —��which is one of the most exciting companies at the intersection of robotics and AI — are market-leading indicators of where this world is headed.

There is also an element of using AI to deliver better use cases in the field. Companies like in our portfolio essentially capture warranty data, analyze it and feed results back to design engineers in big corporations. There are a lot of OEMs and hardware companies looking for select use cases where AI can actually be very transformative.

That is what customers are looking for: How can AI be transformative for my business? Whichever startup is working with me in that transformation journey is the startup that will move from POC to adoption overnight. That is essentially the world of successful startups.

Overlaying on top of this is a confluence that we see and watch from our vantage point. When you think about the energy efficiency that needs to happen in these industrial worlds, energy technologies and industrial technologies have to collaborate and deliver those use cases while being energy efficient. That was not the case in the past. Energy was cheaper and more readily available.

Now industrial is taking off. There is more AI adoption. The workforce is getting older, and there is no way to overnight train a workforce in America, so you have to rely on AI. You are going to consume more and more AI for industrial use cases, which was never a business imperative in the past.

This is where the worlds of enterprise and industrial are colliding very quickly in the world of AI.

Increasingly, what I hear is that the bottleneck for AI at this point is energy. Are you seeing some short-term solutions that help with this? What about longer-term technologies?

Chaturvedy: It’s very clear that from a short-term basis — and this isn’t quite an energy-related solution — it’s more about tokens. If you think about the unit economics of an AI data center, it’s the tokens. To generate a token, it costs electricity. To train your model, or infer from a model, you need a lot of tokens. The bigger the model, the bigger the data set, and the more complex the use cases, the more tokens.

Ultimately, it’s a battle of producing tokens cheaply and also consuming fewer tokens through the models that exist today. That’s where optimization is happening, but that’s more in the enterprise space: How can I write clever versions of software that allow me to do essentially that?

The longer-term solution is going to be about — actually, maybe there is a middle layer also — beyond the tokens: When I’m running my data center, can I push inference to a different point in time so I’m not consuming peak electricity rates? Can I manage my HVAC better? You need cooling systems to cool your data center environment, and there are techniques that work really well there. Schneider has also bought some assets in the past.

Then the longer-horizon cycle is really about creating new generation capacity, largely through renewables, hopefully. That’s where I think the whole renewable story, at least in the U.S., becomes very interesting going forward. Related to renewables is storage, which we haven’t touched upon, but BESS — battery energy storage systems — is another space that we look at very closely.

There is a huge discussion in Europe and in America around reindustrialization. How do you see that playing out, given the sectors you’re focused on, industrialization and energy?

Chaturvedy: I don’t think America or Europe really have a choice other than to reindustrialize, given the geopolitical situation and a variety of other factors that I’m sure you fully track as well.

We know that technologically, the U.S. has a competitive advantage. We produce great software engineers, we move fast, and innovation is the lifeblood of U.S. society. There is a lot of innovation happening here, whether it’s robotics, newer models, setting up data centers, energy generation, and so on. That’s where the U.S. is going to lead as we think about reindustrialization: training the workforce, doing things more automatically, with the holy grail being AI startups that result in lights-out manufacturing facilities.

That becomes more of a possibility now. We are never going to be able, in my opinion, in the next three to five years, to replace an aging workforce and expect them to be trained to the same level that a technician with 30 or 50 years of experience was at. But it is now possible that every blue-collar worker with AI in their hands as an assistant becomes a knowledge worker.

Earlier, we used to think about knowledge workers as IT people or white-collar jobs. I think that’s changing. Everybody will be a knowledge worker. AI will be such an equalizer in that sense. There will be different use cases in different environments, but that doesn’t change the business reality. Everybody becomes a knowledge worker.

The second thing to note is that not every job will come back. There is a reality of inflation, cost of living, and the quality of living in America that people are used to, whether it’s base pay, hazardous environments, number of shifts or what have you. As a society, we’ve made certain choices. We’ll be smart about how we leverage more AI and more robotics to get what we want, and not try to emulate other manufacturing-heavy geographies.

But as an economy, as more AI comes, we will move to a different level in terms of what constitutes the GDP of America and the goods and services underneath.

How long do you think that takes to play out?

Chaturvedy: There are certain industries where it’s already happening, data centers being at the forefront. Mainly because the need is very urgent, and there are significant dollars at play today in the data center space, where people are willing to spend the money. In a capitalistic society, everybody is going to chase money. The data center happens to be that today.

But in the next three to 10�� years, depending on the CapEx refresh cycle of different industries, we will see more greenfield projects emerge that are natively robotics-oriented and natively industrial automation-oriented, because AI has already caught up.

Right off the bat, every new factory that gets online in the next seven to 10 years will have a basic level of productivity that is way higher than a new factory set up 30, 20 or 15 years ago. The ROI from that factory would be so strong that you would have to expand more capacity there. And by the way, capacity would also be more scalable.

On reimagining or thinking through the data center stack: is there anything you want to say about that as we close out?

Chaturvedy: We specifically invest in AI for energy and industry, looking across the full stack from data infrastructure to training and inference, through to AI agents solving real-world use cases. We also consider the enabling layers around that stack, like multi-cloud, multi-LLM, cybersecurity, and data governance.

Ultimately, every industry is going to build its own version of this stack, and we believe the most compelling companies will be the ones who drive tangible outcomes in enterprise and industrial environments.

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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 , 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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Within the region, U.K. startups gained significant share in Q2, raising more than $10 billion. That marked the third-largest funding quarter for the U.K. on record, and came in at less than $500 million below its peak quarter in 2021.

������Ƶ startup M&A activity also picked up in Q1 and continued that momentum in Q2, even as public-market exits stayed subdued.

Table of contents

• Large rounds drive gains
• H1 2026 up 50%
• UK momentum builds
• By stage
• Looking ahead
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Large rounds drive gains

Four companies raised venture fundings of a billion dollars or more last quarter, accounting for 25% of all startup investment in the region in Q2, ������Ƶ data shows.

Those billion-dollar-plus rounds were raised by an AI-centric group: -owned AI drug developer , which was spun out of ; green steel production manufacturer ; , which is developing robots for home and industrial applications; and , an AI lab founded by former DeepMind researchers.

However, most of the growth in funding year over year and quarter over quarter was driven by rounds of $100 million and over. The majority of funding — 65% —��went to a group of 42 companies that raised rounds of $100 million-plus. Sectors that stood out for these companies include�� biotech, quantum, financial services, AI labs, aerospace, semiconductor, robotics and energy.

H1 2026 up 50%

Funding to Europe-based startups in H1 was up 50% year over year to total $42 billion, ������Ƶ data shows. Still, the region’s startup investment for the first half of the year remained well below the 2021 H1 peak, when VC funding in Europe totaled $60 billion.

It’s also drastically lower than the $392 billion raised in North America’s record-setting H1, with that region’s funding up 158% year over year.

Europe’s funding deal count subsided last quarter, but mostly at the seed stage. Late-stage rounds were up a bit, while early-stage deals dipped slightly year over year. (It’s worth noting, seed stage rounds are often added to the ������Ƶ data set after the close of the quarter, so those numbers will increase over time.)

UK momentum builds

The United Kingdom widened its venture-funding lead last quarter, as startups based in the country raised $10.4 billion — not far from the peak in 2021 at $10.8 billion.

The region’s No. 2 startup market, Germany, trailed with $3.2 billion raised by its startups in Q2, and France followed in third place with $2.4 billion. Sweden was Europe’s fourth-largest startup market last quarter, with its companies raising $2 billion.

������Ƶ data shows funding to Europe’s AI-focused companies reached more than $10 billion in Q2 — the largest quarterly amount so far — but slightly below the Q1 percentage, when those companies raised more than half of the region’s startup investment.

By stage

Europe’s late-stage funding totaled $12.1 billion in Q2, up 90% year over year. Large Series C and D rounds were raised by Germany-based robotics developer Neura Robotics; Netherlands-based , which makes inspection tools for semiconductor manufacturing; U.K.-based quantum computing startup ; and Germany-based satellite launcher .

Early-stage funding reached $8.6 billion across 250-plus Europe-based startups last quarter, ������Ƶ data shows. Large Series A and Series B rounds were raised by London-based Isomorphic Labs, London-based AI self-learning lab , Germany-based fusion energy company , London-based semiconductor developer , and London-based quantum processor provider .

������Ƶ seed funding totaled $3.2 billion last quarter, with a billion dollars of that raised by just one company: Ineffable Intelligence.

Other large seed rounds were raised by , a London-based AI lab for science; Italy-based autonomous driving technology producer ; and Stockholm-based defense tech company .

M&A increase

While IPO activity for ������Ƶ startups was muted, M&A showed strong momentum following increased activity in Q1. A total of 154 Europe-based, venture-backed companies were acquired for a cumulative $11.5 billion or more in Q2, ������Ƶ data shows. That includes three companies acquired for more than $1 billion each in biotech, industrial AI and micromobility.

Looking ahead

������Ƶ startup investment has now steadily increased since the fourth quarter of 2024, with increased momentum in the just-ended quarter, driven by larger rounds of $100 million and over. The region’s startup ecosystem shows particular strength in deep tech and financial services as well as the formation of new AI labs, and M&A activity has fueled liquidity for the next batch of startups.

Now the question remains: Will it be enough to keep Europe competitive with the frontrunners, the U.S. and China?

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Related reading:

• ������Ƶ Data: Global Startup Investment Hit Record $510B In H1 2026 As AI Boom Accelerates Funding And Exits
• North American Startup Funding Shattered Records In First Half Of 2026, Driven By AI

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, and is based on reported data. Data is as of July 6, 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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.)

Nonetheless, amid a period of soaring , rising EV adoption rates, and accelerating progress in fusion and other fields, cleantech investment activity isn’t slowing down.

In the first half of this year, investors poured $15 billion into seed- through growth-stage rounds for companies in ������Ƶ cleantech, EV and sustainability-focused categories. That puts funding on track to slightly exceed the 2025 tally, which was the lowest in several years.

On a quarterly basis, funding is also on the rise. Around $8 billion went to companies in cleantech and related categories in the second quarter of this year, the highest quarterly total since 2024.

Even taking into account recent gains, however, cleantech funding remains far below its former peak in 2021 and 2022. Given that overall venture funding has risen with the AI boom, cleantech also accounts for a smaller share of total investment.

Where funding is concentrating

That’s not to say megarounds aren’t getting done in the sector. A look at the largest funding rounds of 2026 paints a varied picture of where capital is concentrating.

Stockholm-based green steel producer scored the largest financing of 2026, securing $1.6 billion in a round led by Swedish asset manager . Stegra plans to use the money to complete the construction of its large-scale steel plant.

The next-biggest round went to , a -backed startup that has been generating buzz and reservations for a flagship electric pickup starting at around $25,000 that can be converted to an SUV. Troy, Michigan-based Slate raised $650 million in Series C funding in April and plans to deliver its first trucks to customers later this year.

The third- and fourth-largest financings were fusion deals. The latest of those went to , which raised $465 million in a June Series G funding to go toward building a fusion power plant. The -led round set a $15.5 billion post-money valuation for the Everett, Washington-based company.

A few months earlier, fusion startup picked up $450 million in Series A funding led by . The San Francisco-based company, formed around a fusion breakthrough at , plans to build the world’s most powerful laser to further its goal of grid-scale energy production.

For a broader view of where large financings are concentrating, below we put together a list of 10 of the largest cleantech-related rounds this year.

Under the circumstances, the space looks underfunded

While sums going to cleantech-related startups aren’t tiny, looking at total investment tallies does leave one with the impression that the space looks underfunded.

After all, energy is a growth sector, and clean energy is leading the way. The forecasts the share of renewables and nuclear in the world’s power mix will rise to 50% by the end of this decade. At the same time, global power demand is set to grow by more than 3.5% per year on average over the rest of this decade.

Exits of venture-backed companies are also happening, another source of encouragement for startup investors. The most recent IPO in the space was geothermal provider , which went public in May, raising $1.9 billion. The Houston-based company had a recent market cap around $8.6 billion.

On the nuclear power front, , a developer of small modular reactors, carried out its own Nasdaq IPO in April, raising $1 billion. The Rockville, Maryland, company was recently valued at a little over $5 billion.

Looking ahead, it’s not far-fetched to see myriad factors that could power clean energy, sustainability and EV sectors higher. For clean power in particular, the voracious energy demands of AI are certainly a catalyst to consider. We’ll stay tuned to see if growing energy demand ultimately translates into greater startup investment.

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• ������Ƶ Data: Global Startup Investment Hit Record $510B In H1 2026 As AI Boom Accelerates Funding And Exits

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