To understand how institutional capital is navigating this gap, 蹤獲弝け News recently interviewed , a partner at . Ranum has spent nearly 15 years at the firm, where he focuses on B2B enterprise software, security and industrial infrastructure. Prior to joining Sapphire, he spent 12 years as a product management and strategy executive at .

His recent investments include core infrastructure plays such as and , as well as the industrial AI platform .

In this e-mail interview, Ranum breaks down how the definition of net revenue retention is shifting, why he believes 2026 will see a historic run of major tech IPOs, and where real enterprise demand is materializing on the factory floor.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

蹤獲弝け News: You���ve been at Sapphire for 15 years. Right now, public market software multiples are at decade lows as Wall Street worries about AI disruption, while private AI valuations are hitting record highs. As a growth investor caught in the middle, how are you valuing companies today? Are traditional growth metrics like net revenue retention still the gold standard, or has the math completely changed?��

Ranum: The gap between public and private market signals right now is unlike anything I’ve seen. I think it creates a real opportunity for investors who can make sense of it. Public software multiples have come down hard, while private AI valuations are hitting record highs. Those two things can’t both be right indefinitely, but the fundamentals underneath are holding up. Gross margins, free cash flow, and NDR have actually improved. The market is broadly pricing in disruption risk, but the companies that are genuinely building enterprise value are still being built.

What that means for how I evaluate companies is that I’m spending more time on whether something is genuinely embedded in how enterprises work, not just whether the numbers look good today. NRR still matters. It tells you whether customers are finding real value. But it’s a lagging indicator. What tells me more is whether switching away from a product would meaningfully disrupt operations. If the answer is yes, that’s a more durable signal than any retention metric.

The current regulatory environment has essentially frozen large-scale tech M&A, and the IPO market is sluggish. If the traditional exit pathways are bottlenecked, how does that change the way you underwrite a Series B or C bet? Do companies just have to stay private and build to massive scale longer than they used to?��

Ranum: I���d push back a bit on the framing that M&A is frozen. Software M&A activity actually picked up meaningfully in 2025, with deal value rising 40% year over year to $334 billion across 678 transactions. We saw that in our own portfolio with over half a dozen acquisitions in the past six months. What���s changed is the pricing. The valuations are being reset, but the deals are getting done.

On IPOs, I believe 2026 is shaping up to be a historic year, with having gone public, having filed, and reportedly set to file soon. If they follow through, we’re looking at some of the largest IPOs ever over the next several months. That’s a remarkable moment. Below that tier, though, the picture is more nuanced. Companies that meet today’s higher bar will wait for more favorable conditions, likely into 2027 or beyond. That means you have to build accordingly, focusing on margin alongside revenue, so you have real optionality when the time comes. The secondary market also helps, giving companies and their investors more flexibility as they wait.

You used to love investing in what you called ���boring software,��� or tools that quietly automated mundane enterprise tasks. Today, every software company claims to be an AI company. In 2026, does traditional SaaS even exist as a viable investment category anymore, or is a software startup inherently unbackable if it isn���t AI-native from day one?

Ranum: I don���t think the narrative is AI vs. SaaS. Instead, it’s AI plus SaaS. The companies that are struggling aren’t struggling because they’re SaaS businesses. They’re struggling because investors are in a ���show me��� era, and they don’t have clear answers yet.

Show me the free cash flow. Show me the path to profitability. Show me how AI is actually helping you win. You can’t get a stock bump anymore just by claiming you’re integrating AI. The market wants evidence of monetization.

The way I think about it is whether a company is building something that fundamentally changes how work gets done, or just layering AI on top of a workflow that a human is still doing. We used to back systems of record and workflow companies where the human was doing all the work. Now we’re in a position where the system itself can come in and actually do some of those tasks. That’s a different category of value entirely, and it changes what we look for. The bar has moved, but the opportunity is very real for the companies that can clear it.

Your core thesis is that the LLM stack is fracturing into distinct, standalone billion-dollar layers, such as orchestration (LangChain) and identity (WorkOS). But we���re seeing a massive border war. Big model providers like OpenAI are building their own tools, and data giants like are buying up security tools. How do standalone startups protect their turf when giants encroach from both sides?

Ranum: Both fracturing and consolidation are happening simultaneously, and I think that’s actually the right way to think about it. The moat isn’t about being first in a category. It’s about becoming genuinely embedded in how enterprises work. The companies I’m most excited about are the ones capturing orchestrated workflows in which the enterprise’s actual processes run through the product. That makes them very hard to displace, regardless of what the giants are building around them.

Because of your background at SAP, you know how enterprise buyers think. Right now, CFOs are looking at massive AI pilot bills and demanding to see actual ROI. When a startup is pitching an enterprise on a software governance or security tool, how do they defend that line item to a cynical CFO before the enterprise has even fully figured out its core AI strategy?��

Ranum: What we consistently hear from buyers is that trust has become what actually separates the market. Security, governance, compliance, and auditability aren’t nice-to-haves anymore. They’re what make an AI deployment defensible when the CFO or the board asks hard questions.

And cost predictability is right alongside that. We’re in an era of greater focus on ROI, and enterprises want to know what this will cost them at scale before they commit. The vendors that can answer that question clearly are winning deals over the ones that can’t.

It feels like Silicon Valley is obsessed with the glamour of humanoid robots right now. Meanwhile, Sapphire���s big bets in this space, like Tractian, focus on practical, unglamorous industrial AI and predictive maintenance. Are humanoid robots an expensive venture capital distraction right now? Where is the actual, contract-signing enterprise demand on the factory floor today?��

Ranum: The near-term ROI story is in constrained, high-value industrial settings such as packing, picking, inspection, and maintenance. These environments have clear labor economics, manageable deployment risk, and real buying cycles. That’s where the contracts are getting signed today.

Our portfolio company Tractian is a good example of what that looks like in practice. Unplanned downtime costs the world’s 500 largest companies roughly 11% of their revenue annually, which is a massive, measurable problem.

Tractian addresses it directly by combining sensor hardware with AI that detects early warning signs of equipment failure. The value proposition is concrete before you sign the contract, and the platform gets smarter the longer you use it. That’s the kind of embedded, compounding value we look for.

The humanoid era will come, but the gradient approach beats the all-or-nothing bet for near-term value creation. Start with specific, well-defined tasks where the payoff is obvious and work from there. The market is ready for that today.

Heavy industry and manufacturing are notoriously slow to change. A startup can’t just plug a modern AI API into a 30-year-old machine on a factory floor. For founders trying to build in the industrial tech space, is the winning strategy to build entirely new autonomous hardware, or is the bigger venture opportunity in retrofitting the world’s existing infrastructure with smart software?��

Ranum: I believe the winning strategy is smart software layered on top of existing infrastructure rather than replacing it. Factories aren’t going to rip out 30-year-old machines because a startup has a better alternative. That’s just not how it works. The opportunity is in making those machines intelligent.

That said, the hardware-plus-software combination really does matter. You can’t get the data without the sensors. But the durable value is in the software layer that keeps learning over time. That’s where I���m focused.

In pure software, a buggy AI agent might mean a broken spreadsheet or a weird email draft ��� annoying, but fixable. In robotics and industrial tech, a mistake means a factory line shutting down or a broken multimillion-dollar asset. From a venture perspective, how much harder is it to scale a robotics startup when the cost of product failure is so high in the physical world?��

Ranum: I’d actually reframe the question. The cost of failure in physical environments is what makes the value proposition defensible. When the downside of getting it wrong is measurable, the upside of getting it right is equally concrete. You can walk into a sales conversation and show a customer exactly what prevention is worth before they sign anything. That’s a different conversation than selling software, where ROI takes quarters to show up.

From a scaling perspective, the key is discipline about where you deploy first.

Related 蹤獲弝け queries:

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.

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 , 唬楚倏泭 , 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 蹤獲弝け 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.

Illustration:

Per 蹤獲弝け data, and stood out among the most active U.S. venture and lead venture investors in the second quarter. The highest-spending investors, meanwhile, appear to be those who co-led ���s massive financing.

To get a more expanded sense of how busy startup backers spent their quarter, we put together several rankings for active investors. These include active venture backers, lead investors, highest spenders and prolific seed dealmakers.

Active venture investors

We���ll start with the most active post-seed investors. By this metric 1, the standouts for Q2 were General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, with 39, 34 and 28 deals, respectively. Of those, more than two-thirds were for AI-focused startups, per 蹤獲弝け data.

All are names that repeatedly show up high in active investor rankings. Y Combinator in particular regularly comes up near the top as it habitually makes nonlead follow-on investments in startups that participated in its accelerator program.

Below, we ranked the 19 most active investors for Q2:

Most active lead investors

When we narrow the ranks to only lead investors in venture rounds, the lineup changes some, but not dramatically.

By this metric, Andreessen Horowitz comes in first with 17 deals. and General Catalyst are tied for second, with 13 led or co-led rounds each.

Overall, at least 12 investors led or co-led six or more venture rounds in Q2. We rank them below.

Highest-spending post-seed investors

Of course, the investors with the largest number of lead deals aren���t necessarily the ones who put the most capital to work.

To get a sense of the highest-spending startup investors for Q2, we look at who led or co-led rounds with the largest aggregate value. It���s not an exact tally, as investors rarely disclose their share of a particular round syndicate. However, it does give a sense of who has been writing seriously large checks.

For Q2, the top slots in this spendy investor ranking were dominated by backers. This included 10 co-lead investors in ���s $50 billion May , as well as , which led a $10 billion separate tranche, and , which led a $5 billion tranche.

Overall, there were 23 investors who led or co-led U.S. venture rounds valued at $2 billion or more in Q2. We rank them below.

Active seed investors

Among seed investors, the usual front-runner, Y Combinator, retained the top slot in Q2. The famed accelerator backed at least 225 seed, pre-seed or convertible note rounds for newly formed startups during the quarter.

was a distant second in the ranks, followed by . Below, we rank the 20 most active seed-stage investors in Q2:

No slowdown

Overall, the active investor ranks paint an image of a startup funding scene still in high gear. All the elements are there: big deals, high round counts and vibrant activity across stages.

We���ll see if it keeps up in Q3.

Illustration:

If that introductory sentence sounds familiar, that���s because it���s the same storyline we reported for the first quarter, when drove investment to stratospheric heights with the largest venture round of all time.

Total investment for the second quarter of 2026 was comparatively lower, but still ranked as the second spendiest on record. Investors continued to pour huge sums into AI high-flyers, with a giant financing for accounting for about half of the quarterly tally.

Overall, investment in U.S. and Canadian startups totaled a staggering $392 billion for the first half of 2026, per 蹤獲弝け data, dwarfing anything we���ve seen before.

For Q2, meanwhile, investment totaled $137.2 billion. That���s also massively higher than any prior comp, with the lone exception of Q1.

Capital concentration was the name of the game. For both Q1 and Q2, historically high investment levels were the result of giant rounds, not increases in overall deal count. Deal count remained well below prior high marks for recent years, as charted below.

As usual, capital also concentrated at late stage. However, early-stage investment still rose in Q2, boosted once again by AI.

Of course, the past few months were a blowout period for giant exits as well. led in Q2 with the largest IPO of all time. It followed up with the acquisition of , which was a record-setting startup M&A deal. In addition, we saw a handful of comparatively smaller but still sizable public offerings and acquisitions.

For a more granular look at funding and exit dynamics for the second quarter, below we break down investments by stage and look at the role of AI in boosting totals. We also look at standout IPOs and M&A deals.

Table of contents

• Late stage
• Early stage
• Seed
• AI
• Exits
• IPOs
• M&A
• Uncharted territory
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Late stage

We���ll start with later stage and technology growth deals, since that���s where most of the money went.

For Q2, funding for this category totaled around $101 billion. It was the second-highest tally in five quarters, as charted below, and also the second-highest of all time.

was by far the quarter���s heftiest fundraiser, pulling in $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation. The financing included $50 billion in a May round led by , , and , as well as corporate-led rounds by ($5 billion) and ($10 billion). Anthropic followed up in June by filing confidentially for an IPO.

Defense tech unicorn also picked up a big round, securing $5 billion in a May Series H financing led by and .

Early stage

Early-stage investment hit the highest level in more than three years in Q2, offering fresh proof that megarounds aren���t only a thing for more established startups.

Overall, North American early-stage funding totaled just over $31 billion, nearly double year-ago levels and up about 15% from Q1. Deal count, however, hit the lowest point in five quarters, as charted below.

A single deal contributed more than 40% of the quarterly early-stage funding total. That was the $12 billion financing for , a startup focused on physical AI that counts as a co-founder.

The three next-largest deals were far smaller by comparison, but still quite big by early-stage standards. , an AI startup working on ���personalized intelligence,��� raised $700 million. Behind that came , a startup building an AI system based on the human brain that picked up $500 million, which was followed by , an AI robotics upstart that closed on $400 million.

Seed

While early-stage funding was up, seed investment in Q2 actually declined a bit from prior quarter and year-ago levels.

Per 蹤獲弝け data, around $4.9 billion went to seed and angel rounds in the second quarter, down 15% from the prior quarter and down 27% from a year ago. Round counts also dropped, though we expect that number to rise a bit over time as smaller seed deals commonly get added to the dataset weeks or months after they close.

Still, seed totals also got a boost from a handful of unusually large rounds. The biggest was a $200 million financing for , a foundational AI startup focused on R&D. Overall, at least five companies raised seed or angel rounds of $100 million or more in Q2, per 蹤獲弝け data.

AI

Once again, venture funding for the quarter was overwhelmingly dominated by AI.

About 80% of investment across stages went to AI-focused startups in Q2, per 蹤獲弝け data. Overall funding to AI categories was nearly triple year-ago levels, though still down from Q1, which had the record-setting $122 billion OpenAI financing.

A majority of AI-focused funding for Q2 was from three previously mentioned rounds for Anthropic, Prometheus and Anduril.

Exits

In addition to backing giant rounds, investors also scored some big returns on prior investment in the form of IPO and acquisitions.

IPOs

On the IPO front, Q2 brought us the historic public market debut of SpaceX. The rocket, satellite and AI giant raised $75 billion in the largest IPO of all time in June. With a recent market cap around $2.1 trillion, it���s currently the sixth-most valuable American public company.

While no one else will come close to topping that, the quarter did also bring us a handful of other sizable debuts by venture-backed companies. Of this, the most closely watched was AI infrastructure and chip designer , which raised $5.6 billion in its May IPO.

Quantum computing company delivered another big debut with its June IPO, followed by , a developer of modular nuclear reactors. For a broader view, below we list the largest IPOs of the quarter by venture-backed North American companies.

M&A

The second quarter also delivered the largest startup acquisition of all time: SpaceX���s $60 billion of AI coding tool Cursor and its parent company . SpaceX first announced an option to purchase the company in April and consummated the deal after its IPO.

In biotech, the largest purchase was from , which announced in April that it was acquiring , a developer of gene therapies, in a deal valued at up to $7 billion in cash.

Other standout deals include ���s acquisition of AI chip startup for $4 billion and ���s 1��acquisition of , a provider of AI-enabled customer experience tools.

Below, we rank the largest transactions:

Uncharted territory

For those wondering where we go from here, it seems pertinent to note that startup history doesn���t give much material for case studies to compare with the first half and second quarter of 2026. Never before have we seen such massive funding rounds, such a highly valued venture-backed company debut, or a startup acquisition to rival the Cursor purchase.

Looking forward, it appears that high-flying startups and their backers expect the current unprecedented conditions to persist, with Anthropic and OpenAI both signaling their intentions to go public at valuations close to or exceeding $1 trillion. Meanwhile, massive startup funding rounds are still happening at a steady clip, with deals in excess of $1 billion no longer an anomaly.

Will these trends persist? Who knows. At this point, however, it���s assumed in startup circles that there will be some enormous winners in the age of AI. The question still is: Who will prevail?

Related 蹤獲弝け queries:

Related reading:

• 蹤獲弝け Data: Global Startup Investment Hit Record $510B In H1 2026 As AI Boom Accelerates Funding And Exits
• North America Q1 Funding Surges Across Stages To Record Level
• SpaceX Shares Close Up 19% After Largest IPO Of All Time
• Anthropic Nears $1T Valuation And Leapfrogs OpenAI On 蹤獲弝け With Massive Funding Round
• Lilly Acquiring Kelonia In Largest Funded Biotech Startup Purchase In Years��

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 蹤獲弝け, and is based on reported data. Data is as of July 2, 2026.

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

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 蹤獲弝け 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 蹤獲弝け 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. 蹤獲弝け 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. 蹤獲弝け 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.)

Illustration:

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 蹤獲弝け 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.

Related 蹤獲弝け query:

Related reading:

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

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.

U.S. startups announced sizable funding rounds at a steady clip during a truncated holiday week, with energy and AI leading the way.

Houston-based energy startup secured the biggest round, a $1.75 billion strategic financing, followed by , a developer of infrastructure for companies running open source AI models, and , a provider of compliance tools for enterprises.

Other big rounds were for companies focused on therapeutics, homebuilding, and even lacrosse.

1. , $1.75B, energy: Houston-based Joulent, a provider of energy infrastructure focused on the demands of artificial intelligence and other compute-intensive industries, raised $1.75 billion in a strategic investment backed by through its arm.

2. , $800M, AI infrastructure: Together AI, developer of an infrastructure layer for companies running open source AI models, secured $800 million in Series C financing. led the round, which set an $8.3 billion post-money valuation for the San Francisco-based startup.

3. , $180M, compliance: LeapXpert, a provider of tools for tracking enterprise communications for compliance needs, closed on $180 million in growth financing. led the financing for the New York-based company.

4. , $135M, AI software development: Redwood City, California-based 8090 Solutions, developer of a platform for building enterprise software with coordinated AI agents under human-led oversight,�� picked up $135 million in a round led by 1. The company, founded in 2024, counts prominent startup investor as co-founder and CEO.

5. , $126M, biotech: Boston-based Beeline Medicines, a startup focused on precision therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, secured $126 million in Series A extension funding backed by , and . The financing follows a previously disclosed $300 million Series A.

6. (tied) , $100 million, professional sports: The Premier Lacrosse League, a men’s professional lacrosse league in North America, closed a $100 million Series E financing round led by and . New York-based PLL said the deal represents the largest capital raise in the history of professional lacrosse.

6. (tied) , $100M, video-based AI: Twelve Labs, a San Francisco-based startup developing AI systems trained on video archives, raised $100 million in a Series B round co-led by and .

8. , $95M, AI for homebuilding: Higharc, a developer of AI-enabled tools for designing homes and managing workflows around homebuilding, picked up $95 million in Series C funding. led the financing for the Durham, North Carolina-based company.

9. , $85M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Flare Therapeutics, a startup targeting transcription factors to develop treatments for cancer and other ailments, raised $85 million in Series C funding led by and .

10. , $65M, AI privacy: Venice, developer of a platform enabling private, surveillance-free access to a wide array of AI models, secured $65 million in Series A funding led by . The round set a $1 billion valuation for the 2-year-old Sheridan, Wyoming-based startup.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 蹤獲弝け database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of June 27-July 2. 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:

The data also illustrates how capital is concentrating into a handful of companies at unprecedented scale while IPOs and acquisitions have returned in force, with the second quarter notching one of the strongest periods for venture-backed exits in years.

and alone accounted for $217 billion �����43% of all startup funding in H1 �����underscoring how a small handful of frontier AI companies is reshaping venture markets. At the same time, other massive funding deals across industries including AI infrastructure, defense, robotics and healthcare ��� combined with record IPO and M&A activity ��� signal that the AI investment boom has grown well beyond a select few top foundation labs.

Q2 2026 was the second-largest quarter on record for global venture investment, following on the heels of the largest quarter in Q1. All told, investors poured $205 billion into more than 5,000 startups in Q2, following $305 billion invested in Q1.

Table of contents

• Exits peak in Q2
• Capital concentration
• Beyond Anthropic
• Late-stage funding
• Early-stage funding
• Seed
• Record exits market returns
• A new venture cycle takes shape
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Exits peak in Q2

Record funding defined the first half of the year as the period topped the previous half-year peak, reached in H2 2021, of $375 billion.

The second quarter also marked a turning point for liquidity. IPOs and startup acquisitions accelerated alongside venture investment, producing the strongest exit market since the 2021 boom, 蹤獲弝け data shows.

The largest IPO ever for a venture-backed company and the largest startup acquisition ever both took place in Q2. Both deals involved , as it went public at a value of $1.77 trillion, raising $75 billion, and less than a week later confirmed its intent to acquire , maker of the AI coding tool Cursor, for $60 billion.

Capital concentration

Despite the resurgence in exits, the defining characteristic of venture investment in the AI boom remains its extraordinary concentration in terms of companies, industries and geography.

Close to a third of Q2 global venture funding went to just one company: Anthropic. The now-leading foundation lab raised $65 billion last quarter and became the most valuable private company on The 蹤獲弝け 蹤獲弝け as SpaceX exited and Anthropic surpassed OpenAI on the leaderboard.

The U.S. also again dominated global funding. Two-thirds of startup capital in Q2 went to U.S.-based companies, down from 83% in Q1 and in line with proportions in Q2 2025.

And more than 70% of global startup capital in Q2 was invested in AI-focused companies, up from just under 50% a year earlier.

Beyond Anthropic

Anthropic accounted for a significant share of global funding, but the quarter also produced a sizable cohort of other megarounds. A total of 16 companies raised billion-dollar rounds in the quarter, totaling�� $108.6 billion, or 53% of second-quarter funding, 蹤獲弝け data shows.

Seven of those billion-dollar fundraisers are frontier labs. They include the China-based foundation companies , and , U.K.-based , and the U.S.-based labs and .

Eight of the companies in the cohort in Q2 are U.S.-based, while Asia and Europe each have four.

Alongside foundation model companies, large funding rounds were raised by startups working on defense, AI infrastructure, robotics and healthcare.

Late-stage funding

Late-stage venture funding totaled $134 billion in Q2, down from Q1 but up 141% from Q2 2025, 蹤獲弝け data shows.

Early-stage funding

Early-stage funding totaled $589 billion in Q2, up more than 100% from a year earlier. The number of companies raising Series A and B rounds at $100 million have picked up in the past two quarters, with 91 companies on a global basis raising large rounds in Q2.

Seed

Seed investment likewise remained elevated, although the market continued to show a widening gap between a handful of exceptionally large financings and the broader population of traditional seed rounds.

All told, global seed funding totaled $12 billion in Q2, 蹤獲弝け data shows. Of that, $2.8 billion went to seed rounds of $100 million and over, with $5 billion in seed rounds at $10 million and under.

Record exits market returns

Q2 exit amounts were the highest on record for venture-backed companies for both acquisitions and IPOs, 蹤獲弝け data shows.

A total of 32 companies went public at values above $1 billion in Q2. After SpaceX, the next two largest listings were inference chipmaker and quantum company .

Twenty-four companies were also acquired at prices at or above $1 billion in Q2, totaling $113 billion in value ��� the highest quarter on record ��� per 蹤獲弝け data.

A new venture cycle takes shape

H1 2026 established a new benchmark for global venture investment, but the record comes with an important caveat: an unprecedented share of capital flowed to just two companies. OpenAI and Anthropic together attracted more than 40% of all venture funding during the first half, highlighting the extent to which the current market is centered on the biggest players in the frontier AI race.

Even so, the broader venture ecosystem is showing signs of strength. Startup funding increased across every investment stage, the public markets have reopened, and billion-dollar financings expanded beyond foundation model developers into adjacent sectors such as AI infrastructure, defense, robotics and healthcare.

Perhaps the biggest shift is the return of liquidity, via both IPOs and M&A. If those trends continue, 2026 may be remembered not only as the year venture funding reached a new high, but as the beginning of a cycle in which record private investment and a functioning exit market reinforce one another.

Related 蹤獲弝け queries:

Related reading:

• 蹤獲弝け Data: Q2 Brought The Most Billion-Dollar Startup Exits Since 2021
• Cursor Deal Puts US On Track For Record Startup M&A Year

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 蹤獲弝け, and is based on reported data. Data is as of July 1, 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. 蹤獲弝け 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 蹤獲弝け 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. 蹤獲弝け 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. 蹤獲弝け 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.)

Illustration:

This tracker includes layoffs conducted by U.S.-based companies or those with a strong U.S. presence and is updated at least bi-weekly. We���ve included both startups and publicly traded, tech-heavy companies. We���ve also included companies based elsewhere that have a sizable team in the United States, such as , even when it���s unclear how much of the U.S. workforce has been affected by layoffs.

Layoff and workforce figures are best estimates based on reporting. We source the layoffs from media reports, our own reporting, social media posts and , a crowdsourced database of tech layoffs.

We recently updated our layoffs tracker to reflect the most recent round of layoffs each company has conducted. This allows us to quickly and more accurately track layoff trends, which is why you might notice some changes in our most recent numbers.

If an employee headcount cannot be confirmed to our standards, we note it as ���unclear.���

That���s the trend we���re seeing for the second quarter of 2026. This period has brought us both the largest venture-backed exit of all time, with , and a bevy of other comparatively tinier but still sizable startup exits through acquisition or IPO.

Overall, we���re still well behind the prior high in terms of the number of big exits, as you can see charted below. The IPO and SPAC boom of five years ago will be hard to match for exit count.

��Bigger numbers

But while the Q2 exit deal counts may be still below peak, the actual returns are not.

For that, of course, we can thank SpaceX, which earlier this month shattered records with a historical debut that culminated in a staggering $2.1 trillion first-day market cap. Its long-awaited offering raised some $75 billion and served as an enormous liquidity event for founder .

Compared to that, every other Q2 startup exit looks pretty paltry. But by any other comparative metric, these other big exits were also very impressive.

SpaceX���s $60 billion acquisition of AI coding platform a few days after its IPO, for instance, was the priciest purchase of a private, venture-backed startup ever.

As for IPOs, made a splashy entry in May with an offering that raised at least $5.55 billion. Shares are down from the first-day closing price, but the company still maintains a sizable market cap around $38 billion.

Earlier this month, quantum computing company also had a big debut on , raising $1.7 billion and securing an initial market cap of $15.6 billion. Shares are still up sharply from the initial price.

For a broader view of big deals, below we put together a list of all the Q2 venture-backed private company exits valued at $1 billion or more.

Trend: fewer deals but larger ones

Even though the number of big deals picked up in Q2, the more noteworthy trend is the size of exits rather than the quantity. Size will likely still be the standout feature in coming months, with both and filing confidentially for IPOs that could test the trillion-dollar mark.

At the same time, however, the pace of exits in the billion-dollar-plus club, which in any prior cycle were considered considerable, is showing no signs of slowing.

Related reading:

• The 蹤獲弝け Billion-Dollar Exits Board
• Cursor Deal Puts US On Track For Record Startup M&A Year

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.

This week, most of the largest U.S. startup funding rounds centered around the sector one would suspect: artificial intelligence. This was true for the week���s largest venture financing, a $1.5 billion Series F for AI inference technology provider , as well as a majority of rounds in the Top 10. Beyond that, the next-biggest area for startup funding was biotech.

1. , $1.5B, AI inference technology: Baseten, a provider of systems software to run AI applications workloads, raised $1.5 billion in Series F funding, its fourth fundraise in 18 months. , , , and co-led the round, which set a $13 billion valuation for the San Francisco-based company.

2. , $1B, digital marketing: AppsFlyer, a San Francisco-based provider of data analytics with digital marketing as a core use case, reportedly secured more than $1 billion in a Series E funding round at a post-money valuation of $2.7 billion. Backers reportedly include , , and .

3. , $650M, AI inference technology: San Francisco-based Groq closed on $650 million in new funding led by and that it says will be used to scale its AI inference cloud technology and infrastructure. The investment comes just over six months after an acquihire-type transaction in which hired away its founder and key team members and licensed its technology.

4. , $330M, ophthalmic therapies: Ollin Biosciences, a developer of therapies for vision-threatening diseases, picked up $330 million in Series B funding. and led the financing for the Austin-based company.

5. , $320M, foundational AI: General Intuition, developer of a foundational AI model based on gameplay, secured $320 million in Series A funding at a $2.3 billion valuation. led the financing for the New York-based company, while backers including and participated.

6. , $250M, government software: Peregrine Technologies, provider of a platform used by public safety agencies and other government entities, secured $250 million in Series D financing. , , , , and led the financing, which set a $6.8 billion valuation for the San Francisco-based company.

7. (tied) , $200M, risk intelligence: Palo Alto, California-based Quantifind, developer of a risk intelligence platform for financial crime detection and national security operations, closed on $200 million in growth financing led by .

7. (tied) , $200M, foundational AI: San Francisco-based Mirendil, a frontier lab building systems that excel at AI R&D, says it raised a seed round of $200 million led by and . The startup also counts as a backer.

9. (tied) , $190M, AI infrastructure: AI networking infrastructure startup Upscale AI raised $190 million in Series A extension funding, bringing total financing to $500 million. led the round, which set a $2 billion valuation for the Santa Clara, California-based company.

9. (tied) , $190M, biotech: San Francisco-based Osanni Bio, a therapeutics platform focused on ophthalmic therapies and other treatments, secured $190 million in Series B funding led by .

Large non-US deals:

The week also brought some large 蹤獲弝け rounds:

, $569M, defense tech: Berlin-based defense tech startup Stark reportedly raised $569 million in a financing led by and .

, $546M, insurance: Paris-based health insurance startup Alan secured $460 million in new investment in primary and secondary equity led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 蹤獲弝け database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of June 18-26. 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: