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.

Physical tech is back, at least judging by this week’s largest U.S. funding deals. The biggest of all was a $1.5 billion corporate round for a medical device company that develops implants and treatment systems for musculoskeletal disorders. It was followed by an enormous Series A round, backed by a bevy of big-name investors, for , a 1-year-old artificial intelligence startup that says it’s developing personalized AI devices. Along with the usual heavy dose of AI, this week’s list also includes large deals for aerospace and defense, fintech, and retail technology. Let’s dive in.

1. $1.5B, healthcare: MiRus raised a massive $1.5 billion corporate round led by as strategic investors continue betting on next-generation orthopedic and spinal technologies. The Marietta, Georgia-based company has now raised $1.6 billion to date, . The deal comes with a 34% equity stake for Boston Scientific.

2. , $700M, artificial intelligence: AI startup Hark landed a huge $700 million Series A led by, with participation from a of investors including chip giants , , and , as well as ,, , 1Ěý˛š˛Ôťĺ . The San Jose, California-based company it’s building “advanced personalized intelligence and next-generation hardware” and plans to release some kind of product later this summer.

3. , $355M, AI infrastructure and developer tools: New York-based Modal Labs raised $355 million in a Series C round led by and , with participation from and . The company provides serverless cloud computing tools and GPU access for running AI models and testing AI-generated code. Its latest round is at a $4.65 billion valuation. CEO ​told Reuters that Modal’s ARR has soared to $300 million, up from about $60 million in September, as enterprise AI coding becomes widespread.

4. (tied) , $300M, artificial intelligence: Frontier lab Decart raised $300 million in a round led by that reportedly values it at nearly $4 billion. The deal also received backing from including venture firms and, AI researcher and corporate investors Nvidia, and . The startup, based in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, develops generative AI models and infrastructure, and has now raised roughly $456 million to date as investors continue pouring capital into foundational AI technologies.

4. (tied) , $300M, aerospace and defense: El Segundo, California-based Amca raised $300 million in a Series B led by, alongside investors including and. The company focuses on aerospace manufacturing and supply-chain technologies, an area drawing increased venture interest amid renewed defense-tech spending. Amca has raised $376.5 million overall, . Its latest round reportedly comes at a $1 billion-plus valuation.

6. , $250M, search and generative AI: AI search startup Exa secured $250 million at a $2.2 billion valuation in a Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Based in San Francisco, the company develops AI-native search infrastructure designed for agents and large language model applications. The latest raise brings Exa’s total funding to $357 million and comes as competition intensifies around AI retrieval and search tools.

7. , $230M, edge computing and AI infrastructure: Armada raised $230 million in fresh funding at a $2.2 billion valuation. The Series B deal was led by , and, with participation from other investors including and . The San Francisco-based company develops edge computing and AI infrastructure systems designed for remote and industrial environments. The round brings its total funding to $469 million, .

8. , $200M, fintech: Mercury raised $200 million at a $5.2 billion valuation in a Series D round led by . Returning backers Andreessen Horowitz, , , , and also participated. The San Francisco-based company provides banking and financial workflow software for companies and has now raised about $657 million to date. Its latest round comes amid a broader uptick in fintech funding, including strong investor interest in digital banking platforms serving startups and businesses.

9. , $170M, retail technology: New York-based Radar secured $170 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The Series B round was led by and, with participating. The company develops AI technology for brick-and-mortar stores that uses overhead RFID sensors, software and analytics to give retailers real-time inventory visibility with item-level tracking accuracy. The company said its platform is deployed in more than 1,400 stores for customers including and . It has raised nearly $310 million to date, .

10. , $150M, wealth management: Farther raised a $150 million Series D led by as investors continue backing platforms modernizing financial advisory services. The San Francisco-based company provides technology-enabled wealth management tools and has raised approximately $268 million to date. Farther didn’t reveal its valuation with the latest raise, only that it is “now a unicorn.”

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of May 18-22. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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AI and software continue to draw the biggest share of startup investment, but most of the interesting companies that caught our eye in the past month were working on problems in the physical world, often far from the glow of a laptop screen.Ěý

They include a defense-tech startup that aims to bring manufacturing closer to the frontlines, a company working to recycle valuable raw materials from defunct solar panels at industrial scale, and a startup that wants to produce cell-based milk for the dairy supply chain. Let’s take a look.

$82M to build near the battlefield

A decade ago, defense tech was considered a niche and sometimes controversial corner of venture capital, with few startup investors daring to place bets on companies working with the military.Ěý

How times have changed. Already this year, $13.6 billion in venture investment has gone into companies in °ä°ůłÜ˛ÔłŚłó˛ú˛š˛őąđ’s military, national security and law enforcement categories — more than 1.5x last year’s annual total.Ěý

is one of the latest defense startups to get some of that funding, with an approach that aims to bring manufacturing closer to the battlefield. The San Diego-based startup last month announced an $82 million Series B led by .Ěý

Firestorm builds expeditionary manufacturing systems and modular drones for military use. Its containerized “xCell” manufacturing platforms are designed to produce drones, replacement parts and other systems closer to the battlefield, a concept gaining traction as militaries rethink supply chains and logistics in contested regions such as the Indo-Pacific.

Existing and new investors including, , , , and others also joined its latest funding round, which brings Firestorm’s total funding to nearly $150 million, .

“The ability to produce, adapt, and sustain systems at speed and scale will define outcomes in future conflict,” , founder and chief investment officer at Washington Harbour Partners, said in a statement. “We’re excited to lead Firestorm’s Series B and back a company building a new model for manufacturing that replaces centralized supply chains with deployable, containerized units that can operate at the edge.”

The raise lands amid a broader surge in investor appetite for military tech, not just from defense-industry investors but also some of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture names. Sector heavyweight recently raised another $5 billion at a staggering $61 billion valuation in an – and -led round, underscoring just how mainstream venture-backed defense startups have become.

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$60M for a legal tech operating system

Legal tech has been one of the fastest-growing startup sectors in recent years, at least when measured by funding to the area, with venture investors pouring a record $4 billion-plus into the industry last year. That growth, of course, has been driven by AI’s rapid automation of many aspects of the notoriously paperwork-heavy industry.

Adding to this year’s tally is , a startup that says it’s building the operating system and brand for AI-native law firms. The startup said last month that it raised $60 million in Series A funding at a $750 million valuation from big-name investors. led the round and , and participated.

Manifest OS says it takes a different tack than most legal tech startups. Rather than sell software to traditional law firms that operate under a billable hour model, the company only caters to AI-native firms that charge clients based on outcomes.

“Companies want fee transparency, predictability, and speed,” , a Manifest investor and former general counsel for Ěý1, and , said in a statement. “Lawyers want to focus on delivering results, not justifying billable hours. Manifest OS’s model and use of advanced technology align those interests in a way the traditional system simply doesn’t.”

Along with AI software that helps attorneys with tasks like client communications, legal research, document drafting and billing, Manifest OS also offers a centralized back office to handle client intake, business development, paralegal work and other administrative tasks. That, according to the firm, frees attorneys up to focus on more complex legal work.

One important caveat: All firms that use its platform operate under the Manifest Law name. According to the startup, that results in a consistent brand presence, pricing, response time and service quality to clients. Its is a business immigration law firm.

The startup says it has already served 150-plus corporate clients, including large tech companies, since launching 18 months earlier. It has hired more than 100 attorneys to date, it said, less than 1% of those that applied.

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$23M for industrial solar panel recycling

French cleantech startup said last month that it has secured €20 million (about $23 million) in Series B and grant funding to tackle a growing problem: industrial-scale solar panel recycling.Ěý

By 2050, tens of millions of tons of solar panels are expected to become defunct, according to ROSI. The company’s technology recovers high-purity raw materials including silver, silicon, copper, aluminum and glass from those panels so that they can be recycled into new products.Ěý

ROSI said the new funding will be used to build its first large-scale recycling plant in Spain. The site will be able to process 10,000 tonnes per year.Ěý

The funding was led by , , and Spanish family office . Zurich-based corporate advisory firm , which specializes in deep tech, acted as strategic financial adviser and investor. Other investors included unnamed Swiss and Polish family offices.

“Our ambition is to build a European-scale industrial platform for circular management and the production of strategic raw materials, transforming end-of-life solar panels into a reliable source of high-purity materials for the European industries of tomorrow,” ROSI President and co-founder said in a statement.

The investment comes as cleantech funding has seen tepid investor enthusiasm in recent years. Overall funding to startups in °ä°ůłÜ˛ÔłŚłó˛ú˛š˛őąđ’s cleantech-, electric vehicle- and sustainability-related categories fell to a five-year low in 2025. Still, some areas — including solar and recycling — have continued to see larger rounds.

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$2.3M for a cell-based milk supplierĚý

Venture investment in food and beverage startups has fallen precipitously in recent years, from more than $22 billion in the peak year of 2021 to . Companies working on cell-based alternatives to traditional sources of protein such as meat and dairy products, in particular, have largely fallen out of favor with startup investors, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows.

That makes Montreal-based ’s recent $3.2 million CAD (roughly $2.3 million) seed round all the more interesting. The company, previously named BetterMilk, says it produces “complete milk” — with proteins, fats and sugars — from mammary cells in a bioreactor, without employing any cows.

Its recent round was led by , with participation from , , and existing investors including , and .

Rather than make a direct-to-consumer play, as many food and beverage startups have done, Opalia is positioning itself as a supplier in the food industry. The company recently inked a two-year deal with dairy supplier and a paid pilot with an unnamed “Canadian division of a leading global dairy group.”

“We see Opalia as a foundational player in the next era of dairy,” , managing partner at Nadarra Venture, said in a statement. “What sets them apart is a combination of highly credible, differentiated science and a clear, executable path to scale within existing dairy infrastructure, addressing the economics required to compete globally. Today, global demand for dairy is outpacing supply, and the traditional system is under increasing pressure from climate and resource constraints, making innovation no longer optional.”

Opalia plans to make its commercial debut in 2028 and said it’s currently working through the regulatory process in North America.

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$16M to automate the factory playbook

Mountain View, California-based last month announced a $16 million seed funding roundĚýto speed up what it calls one of manufacturing’s most stubborn bottlenecks: turning digital product designs into actual production plans.

The startup’s platform, dubbed AutoAssembler, plugs into existing CAD and PLM systems and uses AI to automate process planning, the painstaking engineering work required to determine how parts fit together, in what order they should be assembled, and how products can realistically be built at scale. C-Infinity says workflows that once took weeks can now be completed in minutes.

Its seed round was led by with participation from and

C-Infinity’s pitch taps into a broader trend gaining traction across industrial tech: software that doesn’t just analyze operations, but actively participates in physical production decisions. That kind of investment in physical AI — real-world applications of artificial intelligence, including in factories and on construction sites — has taken off this year.ĚýAll told, startups working on physical AI have already hauled in more than $37 billion in venture funding globally in 2026, , shattering the full-year records of $21 billion set in both 2025 and 2021.

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The Series H round, led by and , brings the Costa Mesa, California-based company’s total raised to date to $11.4 billion, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ. The funding comes amid record venture investment into startups developing defense, wartime and national security technologies and a administration push to modernize the U.S. military.

Just through mid-May, defense-related startups — defined by ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ as the industries of military, national security and law enforcement — have raised nearly $13.6 billion this year, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ . That puts them on track to more than double the already record-breaking total of $8.8 billion raised in 2025, when Anduril was by far the sector’s largest venture capital recipient.

“When we founded Anduril in 2017, defense was not a category that attracted significant venture investment,” company CEO and co-founder said in a . “That has changed meaningfully over the last several years. Investors have increasingly recognized the scale of the technological and industrial challenges facing the United States and its allies. They are also observing an environment in which the most agile, adaptive, and ambitious companies are the ones most capable of solving these challenges.

In March, Anduril signed a $20 billion, 10-year contract with the to supply software and weapons. It also announced that it was part of a group of companies building the $185 billion missile defense system for the U.S. government.

After Anduril, several other defense-tech startups, all based in the U.S., have received sizable investments this year:

• : In March, San Diego-based Shield AI secured $2 billion in fresh funding led by and. The startup develops AI pilots and autonomous aircraft systems for military applications and has raised more than $3.5 billion overall, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data.
• : Austin, Texas-based Saronic said in March that it has raised $1.75 billion in a Series D led by. The startup builds unmanned surface vessels for naval and defense use and has now brought in nearly $2.6 billion in total funding.Ěý
• : Centennial, Colorado-based True Anomaly said last month that it has raised $600 million led by and as investors continue pouring capital into space-security infrastructure. The company develops spacecraft and orbital defense systems and has raised more than $1 billion to date, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ.
• : Commercial space company Sierra Space said in March that it had raised $550 million in funding led by . The startup develops commercial space stations, satellite systems and the reusable Dream Chaser spaceplane for cargo and defense-related missions. The company, based in Louisville, Colorado, has now raised roughly $2.2 billion overall, according to ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ.

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Related reading:

• Sector Snapshot: Defense Tech Funding Hits Record High
• After Swarmer’s Soaring Debut, Here Are 12 Other Potential Defense Tech IPOs

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.

Large U.S. venture deals this week were led by a massive defense tech raise for space security startup . That theme continued with another two aerospace- and defense-related companies also getting major investor backing. We also saw sizable deals for startups applying AI to fintech, marketing, customer service, healthcare and developer tools. Let’s take a closer look.

1. , $600M, aerospace and defense: Centennial, Colorado-based True Anomaly raised a massive $600 million Series D led by and , with participation from a long list of other backers including , , , , and . True Anomaly develops space security and in-orbit defense systems, an area drawing increasing venture investor attention amid rising geopolitical tensions. The new round brings its total funding up to $1.1 billion, .

2. , $160M, AI and fintech: New York-based Rogo secured $160 million in Series D funding led by and joined by other investors including , , , , and . Rogo builds AI-powered tools to automate financial research and workflows. The latest financing brings its total funding raised to date to $314 million, . The deal is also the latest example of investor enthusiasm for startups targeting high-value knowledge work such as law and accounting.

3. , $150M, AI and marketing: San Francisco-based Hightouch raised $150 million in a Series D co-led by and . , , , and other investors joined. The company focuses on agentic AI-driven marketing and customer data activation. The round brings Hightouch’s total funding to date to and comes amid rising demand for AI tools embedded directly into enterprise marketing stacks.

4. , $125M, AI and customer service: New York-based Avoca brought in $125 million in a Series B led by and, with participation from other investors including , , and . Avoca develops AI agents for customer communication workflows. The new raise brings its total funding to $125.5 million, .

5. , $110M, AI and customer service: San Mateo, California-based Netomi raised $110 million in a Series C led by , with participation from and others, including individual investors , , and . The company offers AI-powered customer experience automation across channels. The new funding brings its total raised to date to $217 million, .

6. (tied) , $100M, developer tools: Palo Alto, California-based Parallel secured $100 million in a Series B led by , with additional backing from other big-name investors , and . The startup is building a suite of AI agents and developer tools to automate workflows. It has raised $260 million to date, .

6. (tied) , $100M, aerospace and defense: Sunnyvale, California-based Scout AI raised a sizable $100 million Series A led by and . A long list of other investors joined, including , and . The startup develops AI systems for aerospace and defense applications. Its large early-stage round underscores continued investor appetite for dual-use and defense-focused startups, which globally raised a record $7.7 billion in 2025, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data.

8. , $82M, aerospace and defense: San Diego-based Firestorm closed an $82 million Series B led by . also participated in this round, as did , , , and others. Firestone builds modular, mission-adaptable drone systems. It has raised nearly $150 million total, .

9. , $77M, health diagnostics: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Iterative Health raised $77 million in a Series C led by and, with additional backing from , and . The company develops AI-powered diagnostic and clinical workflow tools, particularly in gastroenterology. It has raised more than $268 million since inception, according to .

10. , $75M, foundational AI: Investors continue to back next-generation foundation model startups. One of the latest is San Francisco-based AI research startup Standard Intelligence, which raised a $75 million Series A led by and . The raise comes at a $425 million pre-money valuation. Other investors in the deal include , and AI researcher . Standard AI is developing “computer-use” models designed to interact directly with software. Its approach — training on large-scale video data rather than manually annotated screenshots — aims to significantly reduce costs and improve performance.

Large non-US deals

We also saw several sizable deals for startups based outside the U.S.:

, $1.1B, foundational AI: London-based frontier lab Ineffable Intelligence raised a $1.1 billion seed round, the largest for a European startup on record. (The previous record was set just a couple of months ago, when Paris-based frontier lab raised a $1.03 billion seed round.) and led Ineffable’s seed funding.

, $300M, aerospace: China-based Volant Aerotech raised a $300 million Series C led by . The company is developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, designed to be used as taxis.

, $200M, robotics: China-based humanoid robot developer Robot Era raised a $200 million round led by , with participation from a long list of investors including and . The company is developing robots designed for industrial and service work, and follows a string of other large fundings for China-based robotics startups.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of April 25-May 1. 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:

In fact, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows the extent to which venture funding this year has been a case of more capital concentrated into a select few companies and a single industry. Last quarter, a handful of large, well-funded AI companies, almost all based in the U.S., captured the vast majority of venture dollars, even as global startup deal count fell.

AI takes 80% of global venture funding

AI startups for the first time captured half of global venture funding in Q4 2024. Since then, that percentage has hovered around 50% — until Q1 of this year, when ’s record-setting round, along with a small handful of other enormous deals, pushed AI’s share to 80% of the quarterly funding total.

Top 4 vs. everyone else

It wasn’t just that AI as an industry captured the lion’s share of venture funding last quarter. Just four companies took nearly two-thirds of the entire pie, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows.

Four of the five largest venture rounds ever recorded were closed in Q1 2026, with frontier labs OpenAI ($122 billion), ($30 billion), ($20 billion) and self-driving company ($16 billion) collectively raising $188 billion, or nearly 65% of global venture investment in the quarter.

Deal count falls even as dollars surge

And while last quarter set an all-time record for venture dollars invested, more money went to fewer companies, continuing an overall downward trend for deal count we’ve seen since the beginning of 2021.

That was the case not just in North America, where dollars invested surged 190% year over year, even as deal count dropped 26%. It also held true in Europe and Latin America. Only Asia saw a modest 5% bump in deal count along with more dollars invested.

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Related reading:

• Q1 2026 Shatters Venture Funding Records As AI Boom Pushes Startup Investment To $300B
• North America Q1 Funding Surges Across Stages To Record Level
• Global Investors Help Boost Latin America’s Late-Stage Funding Boom In Q1
• China Leads Asia’s Startup Funding To Its Highest Level In More Than 3 Years
• AI Drives Europe’s Second Straight Quarter Of Funding Gain As Deal Volume Falls Sharply

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.

While no billion-dollar rounds led this week’s list, we nonetheless saw a variety of startups in industries ranging from semiconductors to aerospace to biotech raise sizable rounds. The week’s biggest deal was $400 million for SiFive, a semiconductor startup challenging incumbent with chip designs built on an open rather than proprietary standard.

1. , $400M, semiconductors: San Mateo, California-based semiconductor startup SiFive raised a $400 million Series G round led by . SiFive makes the blueprints used by companies such as to develop their own internal chip designs, on an open standard called RISC-V. CEO Reuters he expects the raise to be SiFive’s last funding round before an IPO, though didn’t say when an offering would take place.

2. , $200M, aviation: Hermeus, an El Segundo, California-based startup developing autonomous military aircraft, raised $200 million in equity in a -led round. The company, which is developing what it says will be the fastest unmanned defense aircraft, also raised $150 million in debt as part of the round, which pushes its valuation to $1 billion. Other investors in the deal include , and

3. $137M, biotechnology: San Diego-based Sidewinder, a biotech startup developing cancer drugs to target difficult-to-treat tumors, raised a $137 million Series B led by and . The company is developingĚýnext-generation cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, which are designed to act like “guided missiles” by using engineered antibodies to deliver toxic payloads directly into tumor cells. The company said its new funding will be used to push its lead drug candidates into clinical trials.

4. , $125M, AI infrastructure: Palo Alto, California-based Aria Networks raised $125 million in a -led Series A funding round. The company develops an AI-driven networking platform that monitors, analyzes and optimizes data center performance.

5. , $111.7M, aerospace: Starfish Space, a Seattle-based startup developing and manufacturing autonomous space vehicles that perform in-orbit, satellite servicing missions, raised $111.7 million. The Series B round was led by , and . Starfish’s spacecraft dock to satellites already in orbit to service and reposition them. They can also remove defunct satellites and debris from space.

6. (tied) , $100M, biotechnology: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Stipple Bio raised a $100 million Series A round to advance its precision cancer therapies. The round was led by , and . Stipple aims to develop highly targeted cancer treatments that selectively attack cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.

6. (tied) , $100M, health insurance: led the $100 million Series E for Chapter, a New York-based startup offering a Medicare navigation platform that provides advisory services for seniors seeking health coverage. Other investors include ​​, and 1.

8. , $85M, fintech: Modus, a Philadelphia-based startup, raised $85 million in a -led seed and Series A round. The startup describes itself as a tech‑enabled audit platform that acquires CPA firms and equips them with AI‑driven audit tools to deliver higher‑quality audits. and also participated in the deal.

9. , $80M, medical devices: and led the $80 million Series C for Menlo Park, California-based Endovascular Engineering, also called E2, which has developed a device called Hēlo for the treatment of venous thromboembolism, or VTE. The company secured clearance for Hēlo in December.

10. , $80M, biotechnology: Boston-based Life Sciences, which aims to develop drugs to promote longevity and find treatments for age-related diseases, says it raised $80 million in Series D funding. The company says it will use the funding to advance human trials of its cellular rejuvenation therapy, called ER-100, which aims to make older, damaged cells act younger again. Investors in the round were not disclosed. The company has previously been backed by , , , and.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of April 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:

In a quarter when nearly two-thirds of global venture capital went to just four companies, it’s easy to lose track of the many other companies getting funding to tackle interesting problems. Nonetheless, we spotted five companies in just the past month working on issues from cleaner ferries and trains to foundational AI for plants. Let’s take a closer look.

$55M for a mineral rights-backed credit card

Natural resources can be incredibly valuable financial assets, but you can’t exactly buy your weekly groceries with oil or water rights.

That’s an issue that a Dallas-based fintech startup aims to solve. recently raised $50 million in a debt round from to provide a credit card to U.S. households holding mineral rights to natural resources such as oil, natural gas, solar, wind or water.

“For the millions of mineral rights owners in the United States, these rights are one of the most valuable assets the family owns. But these families are just like the rest of Americans and often are carrying revolving credit card balances at more than 25% [interest],” Frontlands CEO said in a statement. “Historically, owners have had few options to access the value trapped inside their mineral rights without selling.”

Its AI system combines machine learning, production data, royalty payment histories, lease terms, commodity price forecasts, geologic data and traditional to automate the underwriting process, the company says. While it’s historically been difficult for traditional lenders to assess natural resources as collateral, Frontlands says its process typically delivers a same-day credit decision.

The company’s recent credit facility is in addition to a announced in December from venture investors including , , and .

Frontlands said its average credit line in early markets — Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wyoming and Oklahoma — is more than $30,000. It plans to launch its credit card product this summer in partnership with Texas-based sponsor bank .

Frontlands said it also expects to raise a Series A round later this year.

“Our goal isn’t to pile on more debt,” Cotter said in a statement. “But the opportunity to help our customers move away from high-interest credit card debt — and provide a path toward greater financial stability — is compelling.”

Investment in fintech startups hit a multiyear high in 2025, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows, though remains well below the peak. Many of the best-funded companies in recent quarters have brought AI to bear on traditionally more manual or cumbersome processes in the financial services industry.

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$32M for ‘flying’ electric commuter ferries

As of this writing, oil prices are hovering around $100 a barrel — down from an even greater peak a few weeks earlier, but still among the highest levels seen in years, as the U.S.-Iran war disrupts global energy markets.

So Swedish electric vessel maker ’s recent funding of €30 million (about $32 million) seems timely. The Stockholm-based company makes electric “flying” boats that are used as commuter ferries. They differ from traditional vessels by using computer-controlled hydrofoils to lift the hull above the water, an approach the company says dramatically reduces drag and cuts energy use by up to 80% — enabling faster, smoother, zero-emission travel compared to conventional diesel ferries that push through the water.

“From a physics perspective, ships have been essentially the same for hundreds of years,” Candela founder and CEO said in a statement. “We’re redefining waterborne transport by effectively creating a new category of vessel. This allows cities and municipalities to finally take full advantage of waterways — while escaping the fossil-fuel cost trap that has long prevented them from being used efficiently.”

Its P-12 vessels have already been deployed as commuter ferries in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo and Trondheim.

The new funding was led by ’s arm and included previous investors , , and .

The capital will primarily be used to fund a second factory in Poland. Candela says it has more than 65 vessels on order and planned deployments across markets including India — where a fleet of 10 of its P-12s will reportedly cut travel times from Navi Mumbai Airport to the city center from around two hours to 35 minutes —Ěýthe Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The startup’s funding defies an overall downturn in clean-tech funding. Funding for clean-tech related startups totaled $26.9 billion in 2025, down 23% year over year and the lowest annual amount since 2020, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows.

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$30M to electrify trains with batteries and microgrids

Let’s now turn from waterways to train tracks, with another company that recently raised significant funding aimed at giving centuries-old transportation systems a green overhaul.

, a Philadelphia-based startup, said last month that it raised $30 million in seed funding led by Australian mining company and Israeli venture firm to develop a new way of powering freight rail that avoids the high costs of traditional electrification.

The startup positions its technology as a way to decarbonize one of the world’s most efficient but still fossil-fuel-dependent transport systems. It’s targeting a major pain point for the rail industry: its heavy reliance on diesel. In North America alone, the six largest freight rail operators spend roughly $11 billion annually on diesel fuel, while full electrification of rail networks could cost more than $1 trillion, according to Voltify.

Instead of relying on overhead wires, Voltify says it’s building a system that combines battery-equipped railcars with technology that allows trains to recharge while moving. The goal is to help rail operators cut emissions and fuel costs without requiring massive infrastructure overhauls.

Its approach — using mobile batteries and distributed charging via microgrids — aims to sidestep those costs by retrofitting existing trains and building localized energy systems rather than rebuilding entire rail networks.

CEO and co-founder that the company has signed a paid pilot agreement with a Class 1 railroad, though she declined to name the customer, citing a confidentiality agreement.

She noted in a that raising funding for a transportation company in the current market was difficult. “Securing capital in the hardware space and traditional industries is challenging,” she wrote. “It is not the ‘in’ space; there is no FOMO at play, so we need to focus on metrics and execute quickly. With some of the top 5 largest rail companies globally and a large order pipeline, we are determined to keep moving at lightning speed.”

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$7M for foundation AI for biology

Funding to foundational model AI startups surged last quarter, reaching $178 billion, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data. But the vast majority of that funding went to AI giants like and that are building general-purpose GenAI models.

Such models are fundamentally lacking for hard sciences, argues , a startup based in Paris and Berkeley, California, that last month raised $7 million in seed funding to develop foundation AI for biology trained on DNA, RNA and data from other “” fields, rather than human text.

The company’s first family of transformer models is called Botanic and is trained on data from 43 plant species. Living Models noted that it’s starting with the commercial crop industry, a massive global market that has abundant data, well-established research infrastructure, and fewer regulatory concerns and faster commercialization timelines than the pharmaceutical industry.

“Plant biology combines three properties that make it an ideal first domain for biological foundation models: genomic data is abundant and largely unrestricted, the commercial need is acute and quantifiable, and the feedback loop between computational prediction and real-world validation is well established through existing breeding infrastructure,” the company said in a statement.

The global seed industry is also dominated by a handful of incumbents, it noted: , , , and —Ěýcompanies that already spend billions of dollars a year on breeding research.

“Biology is an information problem at every scale, from a single cell to an entire ecosystem. The genomic data exists across many domains; what’s been missing is a model architecture capable of learning from it at scale,” , Living Models’ CTO and co-founder, said in a statement. “We start with plants because the data is rich and the breeding cycle is a clear bottleneck, but the same approach applies wherever sequence data meets slow, empirical discovery.”

The company’s recent funding was led by , , and . Other included and

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$2.1M for a brain-stimulating consumer wearable

Billions of dollars a year are spent on therapy and other mental-health treatments, yet measuring progress can be elusive.

That’s one of the issues that San Francisco-based aims to take on with a neuromodulation wearable headset that it says can reduce stress, improve attention span and mood, and more quantitatively measure mental health scores.

Mave’s device uses transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, a noninvasive technique that delivers a low electrical current to the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp, with the aim of modulating neural activity. The technology is when used by adults as directed in controlled settings.

The company last month raised $2.1 million in seed funding led by , with participation from individual investors including Autopilot AI lead .

Crucially, Mave says it does not plan to pursue medical-device approval for its product, which sells for $495. Instead, it is positioning the gadget as a wellness tool that consumers can use on a daily basis to improve their mental well-being and better measure the outcomes of talk therapy or other treatments.

“If you ask a psychologist how do you know if a person is making progress, their response to it is very standard, which is that it’s not about progress. It’s about process […] But for somebody with depression who is spending a lot of time in therapy, progress is important. So how do you know whether they’re making progress or not? And even these basic questions were not being answered,” co-founder .

Mave’s funding comes amid an overall downturn in investment for wellness and fitness-related companies, although select wearables makers including and have raised significant funding in recent years.

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Swarmer’s debut is modest by tech IPO standards. The Austin, Texas-based startup sold 3 million shares at $5 apiece, raising about $15 million in the process and giving it an initial market cap of $60 million. But by the close on Tuesday, its market cap had soared to more than $382 million.

Its IPO, of course, comes at a prescient time, with the U.S.’ war in Iran spiraling into a larger regional conflict even as the Russia-Ukraine war continues into its fifth year.

Public-market investors’ reception for Swarmer mirrors the fervor with which venture investors have backed defense tech startups in recent years. Investment to venture-backed companies in the sector —Ěýwhich we define as the industries of military, national security and law enforcement — topped $8.4 billion last year, an all-time record and more than double 2024’s total, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ .

Among 2025’s top venture-funded defense companies were Southern California-based , which raised a $2.5 billion Series G led by ; Germany-based , which raised about $693 million in a round led by , , and other investors; and Austin-based , a maker of unmanned maritime security vessels that raised $600 million in an -led round.

Potential defense tech IPOs

Swarmer’s impressive public-market entrance could pave the way for other defense tech startups to pursue IPOs. Using °ä°ůłÜ˛ÔłŚłó˛ú˛š˛őąđ’s , we’ve put together a list of 12 other defense startups that are deemed likely IPO candidates.

Methodology

°ä°ůłÜ˛ÔłŚłó˛ú˛š˛őąđ’s utilize ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data — including funding and valuation, and milestones such as financial growth, key leadership hires, market share expansion and headcount growth — to forecast the likelihood of a private company launching an IPO, providing a probability score and its supporting evidence. Read more about °ä°ůłÜ˛ÔłŚłó˛ú˛š˛őąđ’s Predictions & Insights and its methodology for IPO predictions .

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February was the biggest month on record for venture funding. And while the vast majority of that capital went to just three companies — , and — a whole host of under-the-radar startups also drew investor checks.

Among those that most piqued our interest: A phlebotomy robot, a company that aims to revive precision manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe with a small-business franchise model, and a health beverage made from seaweed. Let’s dive in.

$70M for robotic blood draws

If you’re squeamish about needles or blood, you might want to stop reading now.

This week, Dutch startup raised $70 million in Series B funding for its phlebotomy robots, which are designed to autonomously perform diagnostic blood draws.

Vitestro was founded in 2017 and has raised more than $104 million to date, . Its Series B investors include , and , among others.

The new funding will be used to advance its Autonomous Robotic Phlebotomy Device, to seek regulatory approvals in the U.S. and to scale commercialization.

Blood draws are one of the most routine and important processes in healthcare, investors noted, but have undergone little to no technical innovation, despite chronic industry staffing shortages.

Vitestro’s device is designed to be installed in phlebotomy departments and combines imaging technology, AI and advanced robotics to identify suitable veins for a blood draw, guide needle insertion and collect blood samples, according to the company.

“Vitestro is redefining one of the largest and most under innovated clinical workflows with a first-of-its-kind autonomous robotic platform for diagnostic blood collection addressing an enormous unmet global market need,” Dr. , co-founder and partner at Sonder Capital and former co-founder and CEO of and , said in a statement. “I believe this technology has the potential to establish a new standard of care, much as robotic surgery did in its early days.”

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$50M for a franchise model for precision manufacturing

Two of the hottest startup industries right now are defense and space tech. At the same time, domestic manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe, particularly for military and defense applications, has come under renewed focus amid global trade tensions and intensifying wars.

Against that backdrop, manufacturing startup said earlier this week that it raised a $50 million Series A, less than a year after its seed round. The London-based company says it plans to open 25 factories by the end of 2026 and launch into Germany, France and Ukraine.

Isembard makes technology to manufacture precision components that are used in the defense, aerospace, energy and robotics sectors. Interestingly, it operates as a franchise model that lets existing machine shops and new businesses use its proprietary software and AI system.

It noted that component manufacturing is a $1.8 trillion a year industry. Yet, 95% of production is done by small businesses. The typical owner of one of those small machine shops is more than 65 years old and 40% plan to retire within five years, according to the company.

led Isembard’s Series A investment, which included participation fromĚý, , , , and individual investors , and .

“Isembard is redefining the process of owning and running a factory,” , managing partner at Union Square, said in a statement. “By embedding deep operational expertise into an agentic OS, MasonOS lowers the barrier to operating high-performance manufacturing businesses and enables a networked, capital-efficient path to scale. At a moment when demand for advanced manufacturing is accelerating and interest in SMB ownership is rising, Isembard brings both forces together.”

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$13M for seaweed beverages

While overall funding to food and beverage startups has plummeted since their pandemic-era heights, products that offer unique health benefits do still attract investor attention.

One recently funded company in that space is , a Torrance, California-based startup that makes wellness-oriented drinks from seaweed. The company secured $13 million in seed funding led by with participation from and .

Founded in 2019 by , Aqua Theon’s first product is OoMee, a seaweed-based beverage marketed as supporting gut health and satiety. Its star ingredient, agar-agar, has reportedly seen a surge in social media interest.

Beverages marketed as healthful or beneficial are to be a more than $192 billion market by the end of this year.Ěý Among funded startups, that has included a heavy emphasis on products that orient themselves around offering protein, fiber or an energy boost, a review of ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows.

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$6M for an email provider for AI agents

They grow up so fast, don’t they? Less than four years into the AI boom, AI agents are already asking for their own email addresses.

That’s the premise behind , a San Francisco-based startup that this week said it has raised $6 million in seed funding from a long list of investors to build the tech stack for software agents, starting with their inboxes.

“AI agents are already starting to function as virtual employees across industries,” , partner at , said in a statement. “These agents need their own identity and email is the heart of identity on the internet. Traditional identity services were not built with agentic use cases in mind, and AgentMail is building that part of the stack, starting with email.”

To that end, AgentMail said it’s launching its onboarding API to let AI agents get email addresses without human assistance.

“The next billion users of the internet will be AI agents,” AgentMail co-founder said in a statement. “We’re building infrastructure that treats agents as first-class citizens, starting with email. The demand is so intense that the agents themselves are finding us and signing up.”

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$1.3M for AI for wastewater treatment

, an AI software company that helps the wastewater industry manage complex systems and make critical decisions, raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding. The deal exemplifies a common theme among funded AI startups: Many operate in very niche industries and promise to automate process-heavy workflows.

Nyad said its tool is designed to help plant operators in the wastewater industry, which faces a looming labor shortage as nearly half of the sector’s U.S. workforce is expected in the next decade.

The round for the Birmingham, Alabama-based startup was led by and included participation from , , , , and angel investor .

Nyad was founded in 2024 by British entrepreneurs (CEO) and after the two reportedly experienced poor water quality during triathlon training in the U.K. They later moved the company to the U.S. after seeing early customer demand through pilot programs in the Birmingham area.

Nyad’s technology helps plant operators maintain compliance and troubleshoot issues. “Operators are the final line of defense for public health and the environment,” Szepietowski said in a statement. “As experience retires out of the industry, we need tools that support operators in the moment when decisions matter most.”

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The funding for Paris-based AMI represents the largest seed round ever for a European startup and one of the region’s largest fundings for an AI startup overall, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data. ,,, and led the funding, which reportedly values AMI at $3.5 billion.

AMI differs from the popular generative AI startups in that it aims to develop world models, or artificial intelligence that interacts with and learns from three-dimensional reality.

“My prediction is that ‘world models’ will be the next buzzword,” AMI Labs CEO after the funding. “In six months, every company will call itself a world model to raise funding.”

His co-founder LeCun is considered one of the pioneers of the large language model approach to AI. In 2018, LeCun was one of the computer scientists who the industry’s prestigious A.M. Turing Award for his work on neural networks and learning algorithms.

Their new startup, however, is premised on the idea that the two-dimensional approach used by LLMs is, by definition, limiting. To be truly useful, AI must be able to understand and interact with 3D reality, AMI’s leaders argue.

“Generative architecture trained by self-supervised learning mimic intelligence; they don’t genuinely understand the world. Predicting tokens, though powerful, works best for discrete and low-dimensional tasks like information retrieval, summarization, coding, and mathematics,” AMI CEO LeBrun on . “However, factories, hospitals, and robots operating in open environments demand AI that grasps reality. And reality is not tokenized: it’s continuous, noisy and high-dimensional. Despite their immense power, I do not believe that generative architectures are the path to achieving this true understanding.”

AMI’s first partnership is with , a healthcare AI startup also headed by LeBrun.

Funding to world-model AI

While the bulk of AI startup funding thus far has gone to LLM-based generative AI giants, investors appear to be turning their attention to funding more companies like AMI that seek to bring artificial intelligence into the physical world. Late last month, ’s San Francisco-based , another startup founded by an AI pioneer to work on foundation models for real-world AI, raised $1 billion in fresh funding.

Fewer large deals for Europe’s AI sector

Global venture funding hit an all-time monthly record in February as announced a $110 billion funding round — by far the largest-ever investment in a private company.

As global startup funding has increased in recent quarters, so has concentration into the AI sector and the dominant players, most of which are based in the U.S.

Europe, by comparison, has seen only modest gains in its venture funding growth and just a handful of billion-dollar-plus deals for AI companies, including $2 billion for Paris-based last year and $2 billion for earlier this week.

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