The Complete July 2026 Startup Funding Roundup: Every Major Deal From AI to Deep Tech

July 2026 was one of the busiest months of the year for venture capital, with startups across artificial intelligence, robotics, defense technology, energy, and fintech closing rounds at a pace that showed little sign of slowing even during a holiday‑shortened first week. Below is a comprehensive, week by week breakdown of the month's most significant funding announcements, covering everything from multi‑billion dollar infrastructure bets to smaller seed rounds from repeat founders, with added context on each company's investors, use of capital, and where it sits within its broader market.

Week One: June 29 to July 2

Joulent Raises $1.75 Billion for AI‑Era Energy Infrastructure

Houston based energy startup Joulent secured 1.75 billion dollars in strategic financing backed by National Grid through its National Grid Ventures arm, the single largest round of the week and a sign of how much capital is now flowing into the power layer underneath artificial intelligence. Joulent builds energy infrastructure specifically engineered for compute intensive industries, a category that has become increasingly urgent as data center operators struggle to secure enough reliable electricity to keep pace with AI training and inference demand. National Grid's strategic backing gives Joulent a direct relationship with one of the largest utility operators in the US and UK, a connection that could prove valuable as the company looks to scale its infrastructure footprint alongside the hyperscalers and AI labs it ultimately serves.

Together AI Closes $800 Million Series C

Together AI, a developer of infrastructure that lets enterprises train and run AI on open source models, raised 800 million dollars in Series C funding led by Aramco Ventures, setting an 8.3 billion dollar post money valuation for the San Francisco based company. The round underscores continued investor appetite for the so called plumbing layer of AI, the compute orchestration and infrastructure tooling that sits beneath the foundation models themselves rather than the models directly. Aramco Ventures' participation is also notable, reflecting how sovereign wealth linked and energy sector investors are increasingly positioning themselves inside the AI infrastructure stack rather than staying on the sidelines of the technology shift.

LeapXpert Raises $180 Million for Enterprise Compliance

LeapXpert, a New York based provider of tools for tracking enterprise communications to meet regulatory compliance requirements, closed 180 million dollars in growth financing led by Riverwood Capital. The company's platform is built to help regulated industries such as financial services capture and archive employee communications across channels like WhatsApp, WeChat, and other messaging apps that fall outside traditional email archiving systems, a compliance gap that has drawn growing regulatory scrutiny and fines in recent years.

8090 Solutions Raises $135 Million for AI Software Development

Redwood City based 8090 Solutions, developer of a platform for building enterprise software with coordinated AI agents operating under human led oversight, picked up 135 million dollars in a round led by Salesforce. The company was founded in 2024 by prominent startup investor Chamath Palihapitiya, who serves as co‑founder and chief executive, marking one of his more direct operating bets after years primarily known for investing through Social Capital. Salesforce's participation as a strategic investor also signals the CRM giant's continued interest in agentic software development tools that could complement or compete with its own internal AI initiatives.

Beeline Medicines Extends Series A to $126 Million

Boston based Beeline Medicines, a startup focused on precision therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, secured 126 million dollars in Series A extension funding backed by Bain Capital, CPP Investments, and Bristol‑Myers Squibb, following a previously disclosed 300 million dollar Series A. The extension brings the company's disclosed funding well past 400 million dollars for a single early stage round, reflecting how large biotech financings have become for platforms targeting validated but underserved disease pathways, with Bristol‑Myers Squibb's involvement also hinting at potential future partnership or acquisition interest from big pharma.

Premier Lacrosse League Raises $100 Million

The Premier Lacrosse League, a men's professional lacrosse league in North America, closed a 100 million dollar Series E financing round led by Ares Management and Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai, with the league describing it as the largest capital raise in the history of professional lacrosse. The round reflects a broader trend of private equity and institutional capital moving into niche professional sports leagues as media rights and live sports viewership retain value even as traditional broadcast audiences fragment across streaming platforms.

Twelve Labs Raises $100 Million for Video AI

San Francisco based Twelve Labs, a startup developing AI systems trained specifically on video archives rather than text, raised 100 million dollars in a Series B round co‑led by New Enterprise Associates and Naver Ventures. The company's technology allows enterprises to search, summarize, and extract insights from large video libraries using natural language queries, a capability with applications spanning media archives, security footage review, and content moderation, and one that positions it against a small but growing set of video native foundation model companies.

Higharc Raises $95 Million for AI Homebuilding Tools

Durham, North Carolina based Higharc, developer of AI enabled tools for designing homes and managing homebuilding workflows, picked up 95 million dollars in Series C funding led by Insight Partners. The platform is aimed at production homebuilders looking to compress design and permitting timelines using generative design tools, a use case that has drawn investor interest as housing affordability and construction labor shortages push the industry toward automation.

Flare Therapeutics Raises $85 Million

Cambridge, Massachusetts based Flare Therapeutics, a biotech startup targeting transcription factors to develop treatments for cancer and other diseases, raised 85 million dollars in Series C funding led by Third Rock Ventures and Nextech Invest. Transcription factors have historically been considered difficult drug targets due to their structure, and Flare's continued ability to raise capital across multiple rounds suggests investors see meaningful progress in a modality that could unlock treatments for cancers previously considered undruggable through conventional small molecule approaches.

Venice Raises $65 Million for Private AI Access

Venice, developer of a platform enabling private, surveillance free access to a wide range of AI models, secured 65 million dollars in Series A funding led by Dragonfly, setting a 1 billion dollar valuation for the two year old, Sheridan, Wyoming based startup. The company's pitch centers on giving users access to leading AI models without the data retention and profiling practices common among mainstream AI providers, a positioning that has resonated with privacy focused users and crypto native investors alike, reflected in Dragonfly's involvement as a firm known primarily for blockchain and crypto infrastructure bets.

Week Two: July 4 to July 10

Keyfactor Raises $1 Billion in Private Equity Round

Keyfactor, an Independence, Ohio based provider of digital identity and machine identity management software, raised a 1 billion dollar private equity round led by Summit Partners, with additional participation from Insight Partners and Sixth Street Growth, bringing its total funding to 1.21 billion dollars to date. The company helps enterprises secure the certificates, encryption keys, and connected devices that underpin modern digital infrastructure, a category that has grown in urgency as the number of machine identities inside large organizations has begun to vastly outnumber human ones, driven in part by the proliferation of AI agents and IoT devices needing their own secure credentials.

SambaNova Closes $1 Billion Series F

Palo Alto based SambaNova officially closed a long awaited 1 billion dollar Series F at an 11 billion dollar post money valuation led by General Atlantic, with a long list of participants including Battery Ventures, BlackRock, Capital Group, Intel Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, T. Rowe Price, and Vista Equity Partners. The company develops custom AI chips and enterprise infrastructure for both training and inference workloads, positioning itself as an alternative to Nvidia for enterprises and governments seeking more diversified AI hardware supply chains. SambaNova has now raised nearly 2.5 billion dollars to date, and the scale and diversity of its investor base, spanning sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, and private equity, points to how strategically important AI chip alternatives have become across both public and private capital pools.

Oratomic Raises $300 Million for Quantum Computing

South Pasadena based quantum startup Oratomic raised a 300 million dollar Series A co‑led by Arch Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Spark Capital, with a total of 16 investors participating, including Bezos Expeditions, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Robinhood co‑founder Baiju Bhatt, and computer scientist Scott Aaronson. The company is developing neutral atom quantum hardware and fault tolerant architectures aimed at accelerating the commercialization of quantum computing, an area that has drawn robust venture investment in recent years as investors bet on which hardware approach, among neutral atom, superconducting, trapped ion, and photonic systems, will ultimately scale to commercially useful error rates first.

Proxima Fusion Raises €411 Million for Fusion Energy

Munich based Proxima Fusion raised a 411 million euro Series B, roughly 468 million dollars, to develop what it describes as Europe's first commercial fusion energy power plant, with lead investors including East X Ventures, Google, RWE, and XTX Ventures. The round represents one of the largest fusion energy financings raised outside the United States, and Google's participation is particularly notable given the search giant's growing appetite for direct investment in next generation power sources to meet its own data center electricity demand, following similar moves by the company into nuclear and geothermal partnerships.

Quaise Energy Raises $134 Million for Geothermal Drilling

Houston based Quaise Energy raised a 134 million dollar Series B led by Prelude Ventures, with additional investors including Jera Ventures, Idemitsu Americas Holdings, and Safar Partners, bringing its total funding to 225 million dollars. Quaise is developing millimeter wave drilling technology designed to reach deep geothermal energy sources far below the depths accessible to conventional drilling, a technical approach that, if proven at scale, could unlock carbon free baseload power in locations that lack the specific geological conditions required by traditional geothermal projects.

Prime Intellect Raises $130 Million for Distributed AI Training

San Francisco based Prime Intellect raised a 130 million dollar Series A led by Radical Ventures, with an unusually prominent roster of individual backers including Box CEO Aaron Levie, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, OpenAI co‑founder John Schulman, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, and Ramp co‑CEO Karim Atiyeh, alongside corporate investors Dell Technologies Capital, Intel Capital, and Nvidia's NVentures. The company is building an open platform for training and deploying AI models across distributed compute networks rather than centralized data centers, an approach that could reduce dependence on scarce, concentrated GPU capacity, and has now raised 200.4 million dollars in total.

Skello Raises €200 Million for Workplace Software

Paris based Skello, which builds HR software handling payroll, scheduling, compliance, and employee communications, raised a 200 million euro private equity round, roughly 229 million dollars, led by Bridgepoint Group. The deal reflects continued private equity interest in mature European SaaS companies serving frontline and shift based workforces, a segment that has historically been underserved by HR software built primarily for desk based knowledge workers.

Gauntlet Raises $125 Million for DeFi Infrastructure

New York based Gauntlet reportedly raised a 125 million dollar Series B, with Japan's SBI Group as the sole disclosed investor, to develop simulation, risk management, and optimization software for decentralized finance protocols. Gauntlet's tools are used by major DeFi protocols to model risk parameters and stress test their systems before deploying changes, a service that has become increasingly important as the total value locked across decentralized finance has grown alongside institutional participation.

Norm AI Raises $120 Million for Regulatory Compliance

New York based Norm AI secured a 120 million dollar Series C led by Khosla Ventures at a reported 1.2 billion dollar valuation, with additional backing from Bain Capital Ventures, Craft Ventures, Coatue, New York Life Insurance, Vanguard, and former Blackstone president Hamilton James, among others. The company develops AI systems that translate complex laws and regulations directly into software, allowing enterprises to automate compliance workflows that have traditionally required large legal and compliance teams, and has now raised just over 256 million dollars in total.

Venus Aerospace Raises $91 Million for Hypersonic Propulsion

Houston based Venus Aerospace raised a 91 million dollar Series B backed by Mercury, with additional participation from Trousdale Ventures, Prime Movers Lab, Lockheed Martin Ventures, and Airbus Ventures, bringing its total funding to 197 million dollars. The company is building engines and aircraft designed to dramatically cut long distance flight times while supporting future defense applications, placing it within a small but well capitalized group of startups racing to commercialize hypersonic propulsion for both civilian and military use.

Week Three: July 11 to July 17

Fireworks AI Raises $1.5 Billion at $17.5 Billion Valuation

San Mateo based Fireworks AI, which helps enterprises turn general purpose foundation models into specialized systems trained on their own proprietary data, raised 1.505 billion dollars in Series D funding led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures, and TCV, setting a 17.5 billion dollar valuation that marks a significant jump for the company. Fireworks positions itself as critical middleware for enterprises that want the performance benefits of fine tuned, specialized models without building foundation model training capability in house, a category that has grown rapidly as more companies move from experimenting with off the shelf AI to deploying it in production.

Wonder Raises $650 Million for Kitchen and Delivery Expansion

New York based Wonder, an operator of kitchens and meal delivery services currently running 140 locations, closed 650 million dollars in Series D funding at a 9 billion dollar pre money valuation. The capital will help fund further expansion of Wonder's multi‑restaurant kitchen model, which allows customers to order from multiple different food brands in a single delivery, a format the company has bet can outcompete traditional single brand delivery economics by better utilizing kitchen capacity and delivery logistics across a shared footprint.

Chai Discovery Raises $400 Million for AI Drug Discovery

AI drug discovery startup Chai Discovery secured 400 million dollars in Series C funding at a 3.8 billion dollar valuation, led by Index Ventures with participation from Sequoia Capital, Dimension, and Kleiner Perkins. The company builds AI models for predicting protein structure and molecular behavior to accelerate drug discovery timelines, competing in an increasingly crowded field of AI‑native biotech platforms that have drawn some of the largest venture checks in the life sciences sector as investors bet that computational approaches can meaningfully compress the traditionally slow and expensive drug development pipeline.

Walden Robotics Emerges From Stealth With $300 Million

Cambridge, Massachusetts based Walden Robotics, building general purpose robots for work in manufacturing and logistics, launched out of stealth with 300 million dollars in funding led by Toyota and Deviation Capital, valuing the company at 1.1 billion dollars immediately upon its public debut. Toyota's lead role as an investor reflects the automaker's deepening strategic interest in general purpose robotics for its own manufacturing operations, following similar moves by other major industrial players seeking to secure early access to next generation robotics platforms before they scale broadly across the market.

Brinc Raises $125 Million for Public Safety Drones

Seattle based Brinc, a developer of drones used in public safety and emergency response operations, raised 125 million dollars in fresh funding led by Motorola Solutions, with additional participation from Index Ventures and Figma founder and CEO Dylan Field. Motorola Solutions' involvement continues the communications equipment giant's broader push into public safety technology adjacencies beyond its traditional radio and dispatch business, positioning Brinc's drones as a complementary offering for police and fire departments already using Motorola's existing public safety infrastructure.

Spectro Cloud Raises Over $100 Million for AI Infrastructure Management

San Jose based Spectro Cloud raised more than 100 million dollars in a Series D round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, bringing its total capital raised to 260 million dollars. The company provides software for managing Kubernetes and AI infrastructure across edge, cloud, and on premises environments, a category that has grown in importance as enterprises increasingly need to run AI workloads across hybrid infrastructure rather than relying solely on a single public cloud provider.

TerraFirma Raises $100 Million for Construction Automation

Austin based TerraFirma, a developer of AI enabled software and autonomous robotics technology for the construction industry, landed 100 million dollars in new funding, bringing its total investment to date to 115 million dollars. The company's technology targets earthwork and site preparation tasks that remain heavily manual across much of the construction industry, an area where labor shortages have made automation an increasingly urgent priority for large contractors and developers.

Singularity Emerges From Stealth With $80 Million for Air Defense

Los Angeles based Singularity, a startup focused on developing air defense technology, emerged from stealth with 80 million dollars in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures and Felicis, setting a 400 million dollar valuation for the newly public company. The launch adds to a growing wave of venture backed defense technology startups targeting counter drone and air defense capabilities, a category that has drawn significant investor interest as conflicts around the world have highlighted gaps in existing air defense systems against low cost drone threats.

Flex Raises $70 Million for Private Banking

San Francisco based fintech Flex, a private banking platform built for high net worth business owners, raised 70 million dollars in a Series B1 financing led by Halo Fund, following the company's 60 million dollar Series B closed just months earlier in December. The rapid follow on round suggests strong early traction for Flex's positioning between traditional private banks and modern fintech banking platforms, targeting a customer segment that has historically been underserved by both categories.

State Affairs Raises $70 Million for Policy AI

State Affairs, an AI platform built for tracking and analyzing policy and regulation, secured 70 million dollars in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund. The platform is designed to help government affairs teams, lobbyists, and enterprises monitor legislative and regulatory developments across multiple jurisdictions using AI rather than manual tracking, a use case that has grown more valuable as the pace and complexity of regulation affecting technology companies has increased.

Week Four: July 18 to July 24

Atoms Raises $1.7 Billion for Physical AI

Los Angeles based Atoms, the physical AI startup founded by Uber founder Travis Kalanick, raised 1.7 billion dollars in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, the single largest deal of the week by a wide margin. Kalanick has described the company's vision as centered on the coming industrial revolution in which large industrial economic sectors get completely digitized, positioning Atoms at the intersection of robotics, sensing, and industrial software rather than any single narrow product category, a broad ambition that mirrors the scale of Kalanick's earlier bet on Uber.

Meshy AI Raises $400 Million for 3D Generation

Silicon Valley based Meshy AI, a startup developing foundation models for AI powered 3D content generation, closed 400 million dollars in Series B funding at a 1.5 billion dollar valuation, with lead backers including Monolith Capital, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners China. The company's technology allows users to generate 3D assets from text or image prompts, a capability with applications spanning gaming, film, industrial design, and the broader push toward AI generated content for virtual and augmented reality environments.

Sila Raises $300 Million for Battery Technology

Alameda, California based battery technology company Sila secured 300 million dollars in a new round led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures, funding that will go toward expanding the company's silicon anode plant in Moses Lake, Washington. Sila's silicon anode technology promises higher energy density than conventional graphite based lithium ion batteries, an improvement that could meaningfully extend range for electric vehicles and consumer electronics, and the company's continued ability to raise large rounds for physical manufacturing infrastructure reflects investor confidence in its path to commercial scale production.

Etched Raises $300 Million at $10 Billion Valuation

San Jose based Etched, a co‑designer of chips, racks, software, and manufacturing methods specifically for frontier AI models, picked up 300 million dollars in Series C funding led by Sequoia Capital, setting a 10 billion dollar pre money valuation. Etched's approach involves designing chips that are purpose built around the transformer architecture underlying most modern large language models rather than general purpose AI accelerators, a specialized bet that has drawn a premium valuation from investors wagering that architecture specific silicon can outperform more flexible but less optimized chip designs.

Augustus Raises $180 Million for Cross‑Border Banking

San Francisco based Augustus, a startup aimed at giving financial institutions around the world direct access to dollar accounts, secured 180 million dollars in Series B funding led by Tiger Global, setting a 1 billion dollar valuation for the company. Augustus's platform targets banks and financial institutions in emerging markets that often face friction accessing dollar denominated accounts and payment rails, a persistent pain point in global correspondent banking that has created an opening for fintech infrastructure providers to build more direct and efficient alternatives.

Cathedral Raises $160 Million for Military Cyber Capabilities

Washington, D.C. based Cathedral, a startup aimed at expanding United States military cyber capabilities and reportedly founded by a team of former DOGE employees, raised 160 million dollars with backing from Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, according to reporting from Reuters. The company's founding team background and rapid fundraise reflect a broader trend of former government technology staffers moving directly into venture backed defense and government technology startups, a pipeline that has accelerated as the US government has pushed to modernize its cyber and software procurement processes.

Crystalys Therapeutics Raises $130 Million for Gout Treatment

San Diego based Crystalys Therapeutics closed an oversubscribed 130 million dollar Series B round led by Frazier Life Sciences to develop therapies for people living with gout. Despite affecting millions of patients worldwide, gout has historically received relatively little dedicated drug development investment compared to other chronic conditions, and Crystalys's ability to close an oversubscribed round suggests investors see room for meaningfully better treatments in a category that has seen limited innovation in recent decades.

Candid Health Raises $120 Million for Healthcare Revenue Software

San Francisco based Candid Health, developer of a revenue cycle management platform for the healthcare industry, landed 120 million dollars in Series D funding led by Sixth Street Growth. The company's software automates medical billing and claims processes for healthcare providers, a notoriously complex and error prone area of healthcare administration that has become an increasingly attractive target for AI automation given the scale of billing inefficiency across the US healthcare system.

Glow Emerges From Stealth With $100 Million for Endpoint Security

Palo Alto based Glow, an AI powered endpoint security startup, launched from stealth having raised 180 million dollars to date, including 100 million dollars from its newest financing backed by Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, Greenoaks, and Redpoint. The scale of capital committed before the company had even publicly launched reflects strong investor conviction in its founding team and technical approach to endpoint protection, a security category increasingly being reshaped by AI powered detection and response capabilities that promise faster identification of novel threats than signature based legacy tools.

Neo Security Raises $75 Million for Agentic Software Control

Boston based Neo Security, working on an agentic software control platform for enterprises, picked up a new round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. The company's platform is designed to give enterprises visibility and control over autonomous AI agents operating within their systems, an emerging security category born directly out of the rapid enterprise adoption of agentic AI tools that can take actions on behalf of users without constant human supervision.

Global Mega Rounds Across July

DeepSeek Raises Roughly ¥50 Billion in Series A

Hangzhou based DeepSeek, developer of AI architectures focused on natural language processing, mathematical reasoning, and automated software engineering, raised approximately 50 billion yuan in Series A funding, backed by IDG Capital, Contemporary Amperex Technology, Tencent, JD.com, NetEase, and China's National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, making it the single largest funding event of the month globally by a wide margin. Founded by Liang Wenfeng in 2023, DeepSeek has become one of the most closely watched Chinese AI labs internationally following the surprise global attention its open source models received, and this round formalizes what had previously been a largely self funded operation into one backed by a broad coalition of Chinese state linked and corporate investors.

DayOne Raises $2.5 Billion for AI Data Centers

Singapore based DayOne, which develops and operates hyperscale digital infrastructure supporting cloud, AI, and edge computing workloads for enterprise platforms, raised 2.5 billion dollars in Series C funding backed by Coatue, Hillhouse Investment, and the Indonesia Investment Authority. Founded by William Huang in 2022, DayOne has now raised 6.3 billion dollars in total equity funding, reflecting the enormous capital intensity of building AI focused data center capacity across Asia, a region where demand for compute has outpaced available power and facility capacity in many markets.

Baseten Raises $1.5 Billion for AI Deployment Infrastructure

San Francisco based Baseten, which provides infrastructure, tooling, and expertise to help enterprises integrate AI into business operations, raised 1.5 billion dollars in Series F funding backed by Nvidia, Wellington Management, Battery Ventures, Greylock, and Spark Capital, among others. Founded in 2019 by Amir Haghighat, Pankaj Gupta, Philip Howes, and Tuhin Srivastava, Baseten has now raised 2.1 billion dollars in total equity funding, positioning it as one of the better capitalized players in the increasingly crowded AI model deployment and inference infrastructure market.

NEURA Robotics Raises $1.4 Billion for Collaborative Robots

Metzingen, Germany based NEURA Robotics, developer of collaborative robots that combine advanced sensing to enhance functionality and safety across different environments, raised 1.4 billion dollars in Series C funding backed by Nvidia, Amazon, Bosch, Qualcomm, and the European Investment Bank. Founded by David Reger in 2019, the company has now raised 1.7 billion dollars in total, and its investor roster spanning chipmakers, cloud providers, and a European public investment institution reflects how central collaborative robotics has become to both private industrial strategy and European public policy around industrial competitiveness.

AppsFlyer Raises $1 Billion for Marketing Analytics

San Francisco based AppsFlyer, which helps businesses track, analyze, and optimize digital marketing activities across apps and websites, raised 1 billion dollars in Series E funding backed by Google, Meta, Moloco, and Unity. Founded by Oren Kaniel and Reshef Mann in 2011, AppsFlyer has now raised 1.3 billion dollars in total, and the participation of Google, Meta, and Unity as direct investors is notable given that these platforms are simultaneously AppsFlyer's data partners and, in some cases, potential competitors in the broader mobile measurement and attribution space.

Ramp Raises $750 Million for Corporate Spend Management

New York based Ramp, developer of software for corporate spend management, finance operations, and business payments, closed 750 million dollars in Series F funding backed by an unusually large syndicate including General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital, and T. Rowe Price. Founded by Eric Glyman, Gene Lee, and Karim Atiyeh in 2019, Ramp has now raised 2.9 billion dollars in total equity funding, cementing its position as one of the best capitalized challengers in corporate card and spend management software against incumbents like American Express and newer competitors like Brex.

AI2 Robotics Raises ¥5 Billion for Industrial Robotics

Beijing based AI2 Robotics, a robotics company that develops, manufactures, and deploys intelligent robots for industrial and commercial applications, raised roughly 5 billion yuan in Series C funding backed by an extensive syndicate including Baidu Ventures, Fortune Venture Capital, China Merchants Venture Capital, and more than a dozen other Chinese investors. Founded by Yandong Guo in 2023, the company has now raised 6.2 billion dollars in total equity funding, one of the largest sums raised by any Chinese robotics startup, reflecting the scale of state and private capital being directed toward industrial automation as China pushes to maintain its manufacturing competitiveness amid rising labor costs.

Groq Raises $650 Million for AI Inference Hardware

San Jose based Groq, provider of a platform and hardware infrastructure designed specifically for AI inference workloads, raised 650 million dollars in new funding backed by Disruptive and Infinitum. Founded by Doug Wightman and Jonathan Ross in 2016, Groq has now raised 2.4 billion dollars in total, and its continued ability to raise large rounds reflects sustained investor interest in inference specific chip architectures that can outperform general purpose GPUs on speed and cost for running, rather than training, AI models at scale.

Cowarobot Raises $600 Million for Autonomous Travel

Shanghai based Cowarobot, which aims to bring people a future travel experience through robotics, self‑driving technology, and other intelligent mobility solutions, raised 600 million dollars backed by Asia Investment Capital and SBCVC. Founded by Tommie Tao in 2013, the company has now raised 871.2 million dollars in total equity funding, making it one of the more mature players in China's autonomous mobility sector to secure a large round during the month.

Cyera Raises $600 Million for AI‑Native Data Security

New York based Cyera, an AI native data security platform that helps enterprises discover, classify, govern, and protect sensitive data, raised 600 million dollars in Series G funding backed by Accel, AT&T, Blackstone Group, Coatue, Sequoia Capital, Temasek, and Cyera itself as a repeat participant in its own round. Founded by Haffiz Bachok, Tamar Bar‑Ilan, Yonatan Itai, and Yotam Segev in 2021, the company has now raised 2.3 billion dollars in total, underscoring how quickly data security and governance for AI systems has become one of the most heavily funded subcategories within enterprise cybersecurity.

STARK Raises €500 Million for European Defense Systems

Berlin based STARK, which describes itself as a new type of military firm providing the systems that Europe and NATO require today, raised a 500 million euro round backed by Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Advent International, 8VC, Air Street Capital, and the NATO Innovation Fund. Founded by Florian Seibel, Johannes Schaback, and Sven Kruck in 2024, STARK has now raised 647.7 million dollars in total equity funding in a remarkably short period, reflecting how quickly European defense technology has become a priority category for both venture investors and NATO's own innovation financing arm amid heightened continental security concerns.

Alan Raises €480 Million for Digital Health Insurance

Paris based Alan, which provides online digital insurance services modernizing how individuals access and manage healthcare, raised a 480 million euro Series G backed by Index Ventures, Prosus, Teachers' Venture Growth, and Dara Holdings. Founded by Charles Gorintin and Jean Charles Samuelian in 2016, Alan has now raised 1.2 billion dollars in total equity funding, making it one of the best capitalized digital health insurers in Europe as it continues expanding beyond its original French market into other European countries.

Flourish Raises $500 Million for AI Mental Health Support

New York based Flourish, which combines humans, AI, and technology to provide employee coaching and AI powered peer mental health support, raised 500 million dollars in Series A funding backed by Lux Capital, Catalio Capital Management, Google Ventures, and Jeff Bezos. Founded by Vish Sivakumar in 2025, the size of Flourish's Series A, matching its entire disclosed funding to date, marks one of the largest first institutional rounds of the year for a mental health focused startup, reflecting strong investor conviction in the combination of human coaching and AI support as a scalable model for workplace mental health benefits.

Supabase Raises $500 Million for Open Source Backend Tools

San Francisco based Supabase, which offers an open source backend platform for app development built around a managed PostgreSQL database and associated tools, raised 500 million dollars in Series F funding backed by Accel, Coatue, Craft Ventures, Felicis, Georgian, GIC, Stripe, and Y Combinator. Founded by Anthony Wilson and Paul Copplestone in 2020, Supabase has now raised 1 billion dollars in total, cementing its place as one of the leading open source alternatives to Google's Firebase for developers building modern applications.

Impulse Space Raises $500 Million for Orbital Transportation

Redondo Beach based Impulse Space, which develops spacecraft and propulsion systems providing transportation and mobility services for payloads operating in space, raised 500 million dollars in Series D funding backed by Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and 137 Ventures. Founded by former SpaceX propulsion lead Tom Mueller in 2021, the company has now raised 1 billion dollars in total, positioning it as a key player in the growing in space logistics market as satellite operators increasingly need help maneuvering payloads to their final orbits after launch.

CRED Raises $469 Million for Fintech Rewards

Bangalore based CRED, a fintech startup that offers rewards for customers who use its platform to pay their credit card bills, raised 469 million dollars in Series H funding backed by Meta. Founded by Cameron Hejazi and Kunal Shah in 2018, CRED has now raised 1.3 billion dollars in total equity funding, and Meta's direct investment reflects the social media giant's continued interest in India's fast growing fintech and rewards ecosystem, where CRED has built a large base of affluent, highly engaged users.

Helion Energy Raises $465 Million for Fusion Power

Everett, Washington based Helion Energy, a fusion energy company developing technology designed to generate electricity through nuclear fusion, raised 465 million dollars in Series G funding backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Lux Capital, Peak XV Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund, and Thrive Capital. Founded by Chris Pihl, David Kirtley, George Votroubek, and John Slough in 2013, Helion has now raised 1.5 billion dollars in total equity funding, making it one of the most well capitalized fusion energy companies globally as it works toward its long stated goal of demonstrating net electricity generation from fusion.

CuspAI Raises $450 Million for Materials Discovery

Cambridge based CuspAI, a platform that acts as a structured search engine for physical materials discovery, raised 450 million dollars in Series B funding backed by an extensive syndicate including Temasek, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Samsung Electronics, Lux Capital, New Enterprise Associates, and Kleiner Perkins, among nearly 20 total investors. Founded by Alyn Chad Edwards, Chad Edwards, and Max Welling in 2024, CuspAI has now raised 580 million dollars in total, using AI to accelerate the discovery of new physical materials for applications spanning batteries, semiconductors, and industrial chemicals.

Origin Quantum Raises ¥3 Billion for Quantum Cloud Services

Hefei based Origin Quantum, a full stack quantum computing company that delivers a quantum computing cloud service platform, raised roughly 3 billion yuan backed by Shenzhen Capital Group, CAS Star, Hefei High‑tech VC, and CITIC Securities. Founded by Guang‑can Guo and Guo‑ping Guo in 2017, the company has now raised 4 billion dollars in total equity funding, reflecting substantial Chinese state and institutional investment in quantum computing as a strategic technology priority.

DriveNets Raises $410 Million for AI Networking

Ra'anana, Israel based DriveNets, which offers a networking solution tailored for AI infrastructures providing hardware, software, and cluster orchestration, raised 410 million dollars in Series D funding backed by AMD, Bessemer Venture Partners, Atreides Management, and Red Dot Capital Partners. Founded by Hillel Kobrinsky and Ido Susan in 2015, DriveNets has now raised 997 million dollars in total equity funding, positioning it just below the billion dollar funding mark as a key networking infrastructure provider for the AI data center buildout.

NinjaOne Raises $400 Million for IT Endpoint Management

Austin based NinjaOne, which serves as an IT platform for endpoint management that enhances productivity, minimizes risks, and lowers overall IT expenses, raised 400 million dollars in Series C funding backed by Wellington Management, Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, and BDT & MSD Partners. Founded by Christopher Matarese, Eric Herrera, and Sal Sferlazza in 2013, NinjaOne has now raised 1.2 billion dollars in total equity funding, reflecting how large the endpoint and IT management category has grown as enterprises manage increasingly complex device and software environments.

Ionic Digital Raises $400 Million for AI Data Center Infrastructure

Coral Gables based Ionic Digital, which develops digital infrastructure for AI and high performance computing through power enabled data center facilities, raised 400 million dollars backed by Attestor, Citadel, Oaktree Capital Management, Weiss Asset Management, and Sachem Head. The round adds to the broader theme running through July of investors funneling capital into the physical data center and power infrastructure layer that underlies AI compute, a category that has attracted increasingly diverse investors including hedge funds and asset managers alongside traditional venture firms.

Suno Raises $400 Million for AI Music Generation

Cambridge based Suno, an AI platform for creating original songs from text prompts and other creative inputs, raised 400 million dollars in Series D funding backed by Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, Forerunner, and Bond. Founded by Georg Kucsko, Keenan Freyberg, Martin Camacho, and Mikey Shulman in 2022, Suno has now raised 775 million dollars in total, cementing its position as one of the leading AI music generation platforms even as it continues to navigate ongoing legal disputes with major record labels over training data.

Generalist AI Raises $400 Million for Robotics

San Mateo based Generalist AI, which develops AI and robotics technologies focused on enabling robots to perform physical tasks in real world environments, raised 400 million dollars in Series B funding backed by Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Radical Ventures, and a group of prominent individual investors including Naval Ravikant and Fei‑Fei Li. Founded by Andrew Barry, Andy Zeng, and Pete Florence in 2024, the company has now raised 553 million dollars in total, adding to a crowded but well funded field of startups working on general purpose physical AI and robotics foundation models.

Additional Notable Raises Covered This Month

Highland Europe Closes $1.25 Billion Sixth Fund

Highland Europe, the London and Geneva based growth investor, closed its sixth flagship fund at 1.25 billion dollars, one of the largest European growth stage venture vehicles raised this year, arriving on the back of more than 1.1 billion dollars in exit proceeds the firm generated over the prior twelve months from Nexthink's 3 billion dollar sale to Vista Equity Partners, Danone's roughly 1.1 billion dollar acquisition of nutrition brand Huel, and Bending Spoons' Nasdaq listing at a valuation above 18 billion dollars. The firm has now raised 4.3 billion dollars since its 2012 founding across six funds, backing more than 80 companies and recording 30 exits, and alongside the close promoted long serving team members Helena Richardson and Jacob Bernstein to partner.

Eliyan Becomes a Unicorn With $145 Million Round

Santa Clara based chip interconnect startup Eliyan raised 145 million dollars in a Series C round led by Seligman Ventures, with new strategic backing from Cisco Investments and optical components supplier Lumentum, pushing its valuation to 1 billion dollars. The company builds interconnect technology addressing a growing bottleneck in AI data centers, where expensive accelerator chips often sit underutilized because data cannot move between them fast enough, and plans to expand from electrical chiplet interconnects into electro optical links, positioning it against rivals like Ayar Labs in the increasingly important AI interconnect market.

Sarvam AI Unveils Trillion‑Parameter Model Plans

Bengaluru based Sarvam AI announced plans to build a trillion‑plus parameter foundation model from scratch in India, targeting coding, cybersecurity, and scientific research, alongside a new domestically hosted inference platform called Sarvam Inference priced roughly 5.5 times cheaper than global competitors. The company also launched updated speech, vision, and multilingual tools, confirmed the hire of former Mistral AI and Thinking Machines Lab researcher Devendra Singh Chaplot as an advisor, and announced a new San Francisco office as part of its push to expand beyond India while maintaining a sovereign AI positioning at home.

Ellis Raises $10 Million Seed for AI‑Native Private Credit Software

Repeat founder Ryan Williams, who previously built and sold real estate investment platform Cadre, raised more than 10 million dollars in seed funding led by First Round Capital for Ellis, an AI native operating layer built for private credit managers. The platform uses purpose built AI agents to automate fund reconciliation, LP reporting, anomaly detection, and compliance workflows, and has already engaged design partners representing more than 50 billion dollars in cumulative assets under management, with backers including Ariel Alternatives CEO Mellody Hobson and Mercury CEO Immad Akhund.

Inforcer Raises $50 Million Series C for MSP Security

London based Inforcer closed a 50 million dollar Series C led by Insight Partners, with Meritech Capital and Dawn Capital also participating, bringing its total funding to 110 million dollars across three rounds completed within just 18 months. The company builds security and AI management software that lets managed service providers standardize and secure Microsoft 365 environments for small business clients from a single control plane, with recent additions including Shadow AI detection tools built to flag unauthorized AI application use inside client organizations.

Intropy Raises $11 Million for Spare Parts Automation

London based Intropy, founded in 2024 by former Tractable researchers YihKai Teh and Franziska Kirschner, raised 11 million dollars in seed funding led by Felix Capital, with Quiet Capital, General Catalyst, and firstminute capital also participating. The company builds an AI native operating system that integrates directly into customer ERP systems to autonomously execute inventory, pricing, and stocking decisions for spare parts distributors and manufacturers, and says its technology has already processed more than 10 billion dollars in spare parts demand since launch.

Silicon Mania Raises $325,000 Pre‑Seed for Entertainment Tech Media

San Francisco based Silicon Mania, founded by Adil Mania after an earlier stint building startup media in France, raised 325,000 dollars in a pre‑seed round led by Offline Ventures and Fdot Inc, with angel participation from Vercel co‑founder Guillermo Rauch and Every founder Dan Shipper. The company builds entertainment focused tech media formats including The Recap, The Magazine, Tech Original Games, The Night Show, and The Buzzer, and said it pursued the round despite already generating steady revenue in order to bring on experienced partners and accelerate hiring and sponsor backed content production.

Simile Raises $200 Million Series B to Simulate Human Behavior

Stanford spinout Simile closed a 200 million dollar Series B at a 2 billion dollar valuation led by Greenoaks, just five months after its 100 million dollar Series A, pushing its disclosed funding past 300 million dollars. Founded by Joon Sung Park alongside Stanford researchers Michael Bernstein and Percy Liang, the company builds foundation models that simulate human behavior for enterprise clients including CVS Health, Deloitte, Wealthfront, and Gallup, reporting fivefold revenue growth and tens of millions of simulations run since its public launch.

Taken as a whole, July 2026 confirmed a pattern that has held for much of the year: capital continues to concentrate in a relatively small number of specialized hubs and categories rather than spreading evenly across the startup landscape. Artificial intelligence, in its many forms from foundation models and inference chips to robotics and simulation, absorbed the largest share of dollars, while defense technology, energy infrastructure, and quantum computing all posted unusually large individual rounds for what have traditionally been slower moving, capital intensive sectors. With global startup investment continuing to run at record levels for the year, the pace and scale of July's rounds suggest investors remain willing to write large checks wherever they see a credible path to owning a foundational layer of the next computing era.