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 ,, , 1�����Ի� . 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 �������� 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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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.

Defense tech unicorn led the fundraising lineup in a week heavy with rounds for companies focused on applications in the physical world. Anduril’s $5 billion financing was by far the biggest. Other large rounds went to companies focused on supplying data power, robotics, space tech, biotech, and even strawberries.

1.��, $5B, defense tech: Defense tech unicorn Anduril Industries raised another $5 billion in funding at a $61 billion valuation — double the valuation of $30.5 billion it received less than a year ago. The Series H round, led by and , brings the Costa Mesa, California-based company’s total raised to date to $11.4 billion, .����

2.��, $775M, energy: Houston-based VoltaGrid, a provider of mobile natural gas generators for data centers, microgrids and industrial applications, secured $1 billion in strategic investment from and . The investment includes $775 million in capital funding and a $225 million secondary purchase from existing investors.

3.��, $400M, robotics: Palo Alto, California-based Mind Robotics, developer of an AI-enabled industrial robotics platform, picked up $400 million in new financing led by . The round brings total funding to date to more than $1 billion for the startup, which launched in 2025 as a spinout of .

4.��, $275M, space tech: Cowboy Space, a developer of rockets and satellite infrastructure to power and run AI compute in space, closed on $275 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation. led the financing for the San Carlos, California-based startup, which was founded by co-founder .��

5.��, $150M, indoor farming: Oishii, operator of highly automated indoor farms for growing strawberries, raised $150 million in Series C funding led by . Founded in 2016, the Jersey City, New Jersey-headquartered startup has raised $370 million in total funding to date.

6.��, $125M, cybersecurity: San Jose-based Exaforce, developer of an AI-native security operations platform, secured $125 million in Series B funding from backers including , , , �����Ի��� .

7.��, $122M, biotech: Create Medicines, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup focused on in vivo immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer, closed on $122 million in Series B funding. , , and led the financing.

8.��, $100M, autonomy: Providence, Rhode Island-based HavocAI, a provider of tools for developing military and commercial-grade autonomous systems across sea, air and land, secured $100 million in Series A funding. The round brings total funding to date for the 2-year-old company to $200 million.

9.��, $65M, space tech: Star Catcher, a startup that says it is building the first power grid in space by beaming concentrated solar energy on demand to satellites, picked up $65 million in Series A funding. , and led the financing for the Jacksonville, Florida-based company, which was founded less than two years ago.

10.��, $64M, data center power: GridCare, developer of technology to more efficiently provide power to AI data centers, raised $64 million in Series A funding. led the financing for the Redwood City, California-based startup.��

Related reading:

• Anduril Raises Another $5B As Defense Tech Startups Shatter Funding Records��

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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.��

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.��

How times have changed. Already this year, $13.6 billion in venture investment has gone into companies in ��������’s military, national security and law enforcement categories — more than 1.5x last year’s annual total.��

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 .��

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 ��1, 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.��

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.��

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.��

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 ��������’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 supplier��

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, �������� 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 round��to 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.��All 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.

Related �������� query: ��

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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 ��������. 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 �������� as the industries of military, national security and law enforcement — have raised nearly $13.6 billion this year, per �������� . 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 �������� 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.��
• : 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 ��������.
• : 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 ��������.

Related �������� query:

Related reading:

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

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Two newly founded AI labs, both based in London and both with researchers from , raised large rounds out of the gate and made their Unicorn Board debuts. The two companies, and , both raised large initial fundings out of the gate, though take very different approaches to training AI.�� They were joined by another new unicorn in the foundation AI sector: , an open-source model company from China with on-device smaller models.��

Six companies working on humanoid robotics —��five from China and one from Japan — also received billion-dollar-plus valuations last month. Quite a few of these companies are building models for robotic intelligence using simulated data.��

The financial services, defense, developer tools, energy and healthcare sectors each added two or three new unicorns in April.��

Of the 28 companies, 12 are U.S.-based and eight are from China. The UK counted two new unicorns last month, while Germany, Spain, Switzerland, India and Japan each added one.��

April’s new unicorns

Here are April’s new unicorn companies. Of the 28 companies, 26 are AI-related.��

Foundational AI��

• , a London-based AI lab using reinforcement learning rather than human-generated data, raised a $1.1 billion seed round led by and . The less than 1-year-old company was founded by of AlphaGo and . It was valued at $5.1 billion in its first funding.��
• London-based , a new AI intelligence lab with the goal of continuous learning improvement, raised a $500 million Series A led by and . Founded by DeepMind researchers and ’s 1 previous AI lead, the less than 1-year-old company was valued at $4.5 billion.��
• Beijing-based , an on-device foundation model developer, raised funding led by and . Its open source MiniCPM is deployed in automotives, smartphones, PCs and home devices. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.��

Robotics��

• Shanghai-based is a robotics AI company building a foundational model as well as hardware. It uses simulated training to create a model for grasping and spatial awareness. The 1-year-old company raised a Series A round and was valued at $2 billion.
• Shanghai-based humanoid robotics company raised a $513 million seed round led by and HSG. The 1-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion.��
• Beijing-based , a hardware and software developer of models for robotics using simulated data, raised a $220 million Series B. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.��
• Shenzhen-based , a builder of humanoid and quadruped robots, raised a $200 million Series B led by and . The 2-year-old company robots will be deployed for traffic, security and retail. It was valued at $1.5 billion.��
• Shenzhen-based , a commercial robotics company for delivery and commercial cleaning, raised a $146 million funding led by and . The 10-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.��
• Tokyo-based , a humanoid robotics company to address public safety and urban maintenance, raised a Series A led round. The 1-year-old company co-founded by was valued at $1 billion.

Financial services��

• , which automates research for investment banks, raised a $160 million Series D led by . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Bangalore-based , a consumer and small business lending service, raised a $220 million Series E led by , , and . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.��
• , a banking and expense management service targeting small businesses and solopreneurs, raised a $100 million Series C led by , and . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company, founded by college dropouts at the time, was valued at $1.4 billion.��

Defense��

• Space defense company raised a $600 million Series D led by and . The company has built software for space operations and an autonomous orbital vehicle called Jackal. The 4-year-old, Colorado-based company was valued at $2.2 billion.��
• Defense aviation company raised a $200 million Series C led by Khosla Ventures. The 7-year-old El Segundo, California-based builder of autonomous aircraft was valued at $1 billion.��

Developer tools��

• , a web search provider for AI agents used by and , raised a $100 million Series B led by Sequoia Capital. The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.��
• , an agentic software coding tool for enterprises, raised a $150 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.��

Energy��

• , developer of small nuclear reactors to provide direct power for AI data centers, raised a $340 million Series B funding. The 2-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.��
• , a long duration energy storage battery provider, raised a $58 million Series C led by . The 12-year-old Bayern, Germany-based company that supports energy needs for grids, data centers and industry, was valued at $1.2 billion.��

Health care��

• Shanghai-based , a developer of a model for healthcare that includes computer vision and large language models, raised a $73 million Series A round. The 12-year-old company has built an assistant for doctors for screening, diagnosis and patient care, and was valued at $1 billion.��
• Switzerland-based , a developer of a peptide product to address enamel repair without needing surgery, raised a private equity funding led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.��

Data platform

• has built a semantic layer between data and agents necessary to interpret data and provide guardrails for AI. The 4-year-old San Francisco-based company raised a $120 million Series C led by and was valued at $1.5 billion.��

Manufacturing

• Shanghai-based , a collaboration tool to make factories more efficient, raised a $146 million Series D funding. The 10-year-old Shanghai-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Agentic AI

• , which builds agents trained on company data, raised a $80 million funding led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.��

Aerospace��

• Madrid-based , which is building data from satellites tracking changes in the earth for various commercial needs, raised a $130 million Series B led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.��

Marketing & sales��

• , a provider of booking and customer service for the services industry using AI, has raised a Series B funding led by and . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion. The company has raised $125 million in funding from seed through its Series B.��

Biotechnology��

• , an AI biotechnology infrastructure platform speeding up drug discovery, raised a $40 million Series E. The 8-year-old Waltham, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1 billion.��

Waste management��

• converts unused food products into energy. It raised a Series C funding led by strategic partner . The 19-year-old Concord, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1 billion.��

Related �������� unicorn lists:��

• (1,756)
• (611)
• (128)
• (187)
• (118)
• (102)
• (896)
• (516)
• (239)
• (38)
• (477)

Related reading:

• March Mints 11 New Unicorns, As $200B Is Added Through Up Rounds And Board Posts Strong Exits��
• Billion-Dollar AI Rounds Push April To Third-Highest Startup Funding Month In A Year
• This Is A Momentous Year For Early-Stage Unicorns��
• The Rising Investors Behind The New Unicorn Class��
• While OpenAI Shattered Records, Robotics and Semiconductor Startups Quietly Added The Most New Unicorns In February��

Methodology

The �������� Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on �������� data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.��

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.��

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .��

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.��

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. �������� converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to �������� long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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When I was a child growing up in Japan, Dragon Ball was “contraband.” My parents were unhappy about me reading manga for hours every day. Teachers confiscated manga magazines at school. But I was fascinated by a universe created from the pure imagination of a single person that went on to shape the aesthetic consciousness of more humans than almost any artist of the twentieth century.

Japan didn’t build Dragon Ball. Akira Toriyama did.

From One Piece, Slam Dunk and Hello Kitty characters to , and , each traces back to a singular, obsessive individual who looked, by Japanese social standards, like a weird outcast.

The country globally perceived as the ultimate collectivist society made its greatest contributions to the world through lone visionaries building what no committee would have approved.

What makes this pattern remarkable is what accumulates underneath it. Each obsessive builder, over decades, pulled behind them layers of precision craft, knowledge and discipline that no bureaucracy could have planned.

Japan’s extraordinary concentration of underleveraged assets, from precision manufacturing expertise, materials science technology, longevity and gastronomical research to a generational cultural content library, is the sediment left by people society once called misfits.

The vault is opening

The global anime market was only 30 years ago and to hit around $88.5 billion by 2033, growing annually at more than 9%. Overseas anime revenue and accounting for 56% of total sales — confirming that international markets now outweigh Japan’s domestic earnings.

Sources: AJA Industry Reports, Grand View Research, Fortune Business Insights.

has disclosed that more than 50% of its 300 million global members watch anime. Viewership on the platform has tripled over five years, with anime content watched more than 1 billion times in 2024 alone. Naruto, a manga serialization that began in 1999, logged 330 million hours watched on Netflix in the second half of 2024 alone. Out of the top 10 global franchises, five are Japan-originated.

That is critical social infrastructure.

Note: Some other rankings instead have Mario, Harry Potter and/or Shōnen Jump, but generally Japan-originated IP accounts for half.

The convergence nobody is pricing

At the same time, there is a louder conversation happening in Japan.

The nation is rearming. Its defense budget has nearly doubled in three years, exceeding for the first time the symbolic 2% of GDP threshold. Under a five-year Defense Buildup Program through 2027, Japan has committed ¥43 trillion (~$275 billion) to defense-related spending.

Globally, VC investment in defense-related startups totaled $7.7 billion in 2025, �������� data shows, a record high.

Most observers treat this as a separate story. To me, it is not.

Japan’s manufacturing edge in silicon wafers, photoresists, specialty ceramics, industrial robots, optics and sensors is the same precision culture that made watches accurate to the second and frames hand-painted with obsessive fidelity. The outcast engineers who spent careers perfecting micron-level tolerances for consumer electronics built capabilities that now happen to matter enormously in a world consuming autonomous, high-precision munitions at industrial scale.

The creative and the industrial share the same genealogy: a Japanese individual, largely ignored, building something to an extreme that no one asked for.

This convergence of Japan’s technological prowess and cultural impact is what makes the country’s opportunity genuinely unusual. IP that a teenager in Jakarta, Riyadh, Paris or Lagos carries emotionally,�� and precision hardware that only a handful of countries on earth can actually produce, originate from the same national psychology.

One crosses geopolitical lines. The other determines them. Japan’s soft infrastructure and hard capability are rooted in the same stubborn, misfit tradition.

Manufacturing advantage is learnable. The history of industrial development is a history of production methods moving across geographies, in the past over decades, increasingly over months. Competitors can close the gap.

What is harder to replicate is the cultural depth. A franchise relationship formed in childhood does not transfer by policy or investment. , built by a man who spent years mapping insects on foot and wanted to share that obsession with other children, now lives inside the emotional architecture of an entire global generation.

The window is real, and it will not stay open for long

Wars are hard and exhausting. People do not stop wanting to be moved, amused and alive. If anything, that appetite sharpens during geopolitical turmoil. The world increasingly demands the safety that precision manufacturing enables and the meaning that great storytelling provides.

Japan offers both, not by strategic design, but because its most consequential builders were, for a long time, left alone to be strange.

The assets exist. The global demand is accelerating. What Japan is missing is the cross-border fluency — legal, cultural and financial — needed to connect them at the speed the moment requires in the age of AI.

The world is finally ready to pay for what remarkable, overlooked individuals in Japan have quietly been building for decades. The question is whether Japan will be ready to let them and if so, how it can capitalize on its valuable assets quickly enough.

is a seasoned investor, serial entrepreneur and attorney with 25 years of experience bridging law and global business. He currently serves as the inaugural managing director of Japan, where he leads one of the world’s most active startup accelerator programs. He also serves as a senior adviser at , a U.S. and Canada-based hardtech venture capital firm, and as a venture partner at , an innovation advisory firm. An active angel investor, he has backed more than 50 startups, including several unicorns, and founded , an international angel network connecting investors across Japan, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. His track record also includes co-founding three venture-backed startups. Previously, Shirato spent a decade at global law firms across New York, Toronto, Abu Dhabi/Dubai, Singapore and Tokyo, and before that, held strategic roles as a management consultant at and as a trade negotiator at . He holds a law degree from the , an MBA from the and , and a bachelor’s degree in international law and economics from the .

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AI infrastructure also added four new unicorn companies focused on data center technology and provisioning. Fintech, including startups in wealth management, payment and digital assets, added four companies, while developer tools and defense each added three.

Twenty of March’s new unicorns are U.S.-based, including 11 from the San Francisco Bay Area. China added six companies in sectors ranging from robotics to AI and quantum computing.

From Europe, four new March unicorns are U.K.-based, while France, the Netherlands and Belgium each minted one. The UAE, Seychelles, India and Australia also each added one new unicorn to the board.

The most valuable unicorn newcomer last month was Seychelles-based crypto exchange , valued at $25 billion. The largest funding was a $1 billion round raised by AI pioneer ’s new frontier lab startup, Paris-based .

The board also saw a sizable cohort of very young companies earning their unicorn horns: 18 of the companies that joined the board last month were less than 3 years old. Five were not even a year old.

March’s new unicorns

AI-centric sectors by far led unicorn creation in March, with 14 of the 36 newcomers hailing from the robotics, foundational AI or AI infrastructure industries:

Robotics

• , a robotics for manufacturing company spun out by , raised a $500 million Series A led by and . The 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Shenzhen-based , an intelligent sensor technology for robotics, raised a $145 million Series B led by , and . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Beijing-based , a humanoid robotics company, raised $145 million in funding. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a humanoid robotics company for household tasks, raised a $165 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old Mountain View, California-based company was valued at $1.2 billion. The company plans to deploy robots to homes this year.
• Pudong, China-based , an intelligent layer for robotics in manufacturing, raised an $87 million Series D round. The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• , a provider of simulated data for robotic intelligence, raised a $146 million Series A. The 3-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Foundational AI

• Paris-based raised a $1 billion seed round led by , ,, and . The less than 1-year-old company was founded by LeCun, ’s former AI lead, and is working to develop models for physical AI. It was valued at $4.5 billion in the round, which is Europe’s largest seed round on record.
• , a robot foundation model developer trained on internet scale video, raised a $450 million Series A led by . The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
• , a math foundation model developer for verified AI useful for coding and other applications, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• Beijing-based , a text-to-video startup with its own AI model, raised a $300 million Series C led by . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

AI infrastructure

• , a provider of networking hardware and software for data centers, raised a $500 million Series B led by and . The 2-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $4.2 billion.
• , a chip cooling technology, raised a $143 million Series D led by . The 8-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• , which offers GPU rentals for startups, raised a Series A funding led by . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Redmond, Washington-based , a company building data centers in space, raised a $170 million Series A led by and . The 2-year-old company�� was valued at $1.1 billion.�� It launched its first satellite with a H100 in November 2025.

Financial services

• London-based , an AI-native platform for debt providers including banks, asset managers and advisory firms, raised a $170 million Series C led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• Mumbai-based , a wealth asset advisory firm for high-net-worth individuals and family offices, raised a $53 million private equity funding led by . The 4-year old, venture-backed asset manager was valued at $1.1 billion.
• Brussels-based , an investment group for digital assets, raised a Series C led by . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.1 billion.
• Abu Dhabi-based , a payments infrastructure provider for regulated gaming markets, raised a $250 million funding led by . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Developer tools

• , which promises to make your app enterprise ready with authentication and other features, raised a $100 million Series C led by and. The 8-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• , an observability platform for agentic AI, raised a $110 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a software developer for hardware testing and development, raised an $80 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

• , a drone technology company built for defense, raised a $110 million Series B led by . The 7-year-old Huntsville, Alabama-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Sydney-based , provider of advanced navigation beyond GPS for military and industrial capabilities, raised a $112 million Series C led by . The 13-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• London-based , a builder of unmanned systems used in the Ukrainian war, raised a $50 million seed�� funding led by and . The 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Biotechnology

• Austin-based , a biological AI research company spun out of�� , raised a $10 million seed extension. The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
• , a neurotech company focused on brain computer interfaces, raised a $230 million Series C led by and�� Lightspeed Venture Partners. The 5-year-old Alameda, California-based company, whose primary product, an implant to restore vision for those who suffer retinal disease, was valued at $1.5 billion.

Sales and marketing

• Amsterdam-based , a builder of agents for companies to deploy in customer service and business operations, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
• , an agentic layer that monitors customers and researches prospects, raised a Series B led by . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Security

• , native AI security with its own human triage for customers, raised a $250 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old Sarasota, Florida-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , which uses AI for offensive security, raised a $120 million Series C led by and . The 2-year-old Seattle-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Cryptocurrency

• Seychelles-based , a global cryptocurrency exchange platform, raised a $200 million corporate round led by , the parent company of the . The 12-year-old company was valued at $25 billion.

Telehealth

• Miami-based , ‘s telehealth provider for GLP-1 medications through employers, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.

Professional services

• London-based , an AI notetaking startup, raised a $125 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Consumer goods

• , a company with a mattress, thermal blanket and pillow designed to monitor and improve sleep, raised a $50 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Accelerator

• London-based , an accelerator that sources founders from top schools, raised a $200 million Series D. The 11-year-old company, which hosts its latest cohorts in Silicon Valley, was valued at $1.3 billion.

Quantum computing

• Sichuan, China-based , a quantum computer and chip-production company, raised a $145 million Series B. The 5-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Autonomous driving

• Hangzhou-based , an intelligent driving platform, raised a Series A led by , and . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Related �������� unicorn lists:

• (1,739)
• (609)
• (101)
• (188)
• (117)
• (102)
• (896)
• (510)
• (236)
• (38)
• (472)

Related reading:

• This Is A Momentous Year For Early-Stage Unicorns
• The Rising Investors Behind The New Unicorn Class
• While OpenAI Shattered Records, Robotics and Semiconductor Startups Quietly Added The Most New Unicorns In February

Methodology

The �������� Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on �������� data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. �������� converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to �������� long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding deal roundup here.

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 developing��next-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 �������� 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:

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.

Startup investors kept up the busy dealmaking pace this week with a number of big rounds. Top among them was a $1.75 billion Series D for , developer of autonomous vessels. Other big funding recipients hailed from sectors including fitness wearables, energy tech, cybersecurity and AI infrastructure, among others.

1. , $1.75B, autonomous ships: Austin-based Saronic, a defense tech startup focused on autonomous sea vessels, raised $1.75 billion in Series D funding, bringing total funding to around $2.6 billion. led the round, which set a $9.25 billion valuation for the�� company, more than double its Series C level in 2025.

2. , $575M, fitness wearables: Whoop, a provider of wearable fitness technology and a subscription platform that tracks physiological data, secured $575 million in Series G funding. led the financing,which set a $10.1 billion valuation for the Boston-based company.

3. , $450M, nuclear energy: El Segundo, California-based nuclear energy startup Valar Atomics, raised fresh capital at a valuation of $2 billion, according to a citing unnamed sources. The financing reportedly included $340 million in equity funding and $110 million in debt.

4. , $300M, battery technology: EnerVenue, a developer of grid-scale energy storage technology, says it closed on a $300 million extension of its Series B preferred round led by . The Fremont, California-based company also appointed a new chief executive officer, Henning Rath.

5. , $250M, cybersecurity: Sarasota, Florida-based AI-enabled cybersecurity startup Tenex picked up $250 million in Series B funding led by . The company said it plans to use the funds to hire more than 250 people and supplying them with AI technology that makes them “ten times more efficient.”

6. , $200M, micromobility: Also, an electric mobility company spun out of , raised $200 million in a Series C round ​backed by , , and . The Palo Alto, California-based startup’s product lineup includes bikes, small autonomous EVs for deliveries, and associated gear.

7. , $170M, space tech: Starcloud, a space infrastructure startup focused on building orbital data centers, secured $170 million in Series A funding led by and . The financing sets a $1.1 billion valuation for the Redmond, Washington-based company, making it the fastest alum to achieve unicorn status after demo day, which was 17 months ago.

8. , $130M, cloud infrastructure: New York-based cloud and AI infrastructure startup ScaleOps landed $130 million in Series C funding. led the financing, which set�� a valuation of over $800 million for the 4-year-old company.

9. , $100M, biotech: Boulder, Colorado-based Ambrosia Biosciences, a developer of next-generation oral therapeutics for obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases, picked up $100 million in Series B funding led by , and .

10. , $94M, money transfer: OpenFX, provider of a platform to move money across borders, secured $94 million in Series A funding from backers including , , , and .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the �������� database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of March 28-April 3. 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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A total of 47 seed- and early-stage companies joined the unicorn ranks in the first quarter of this year, per �������� data. Barring a major slowdown, that puts 2026 on track to deliver the�� largest cohort of young unicorns to date.

This year’s newcomers follow a good-sized 2025 cohort of early-stage companies that secured valuations of $1 billion or more as well. Per �������� data, 59 hit this valuation milestone last year, up about 50% from 2024.

Over the past 10-plus years, meanwhile, the number of new early-stage unicorns has fluctuated widely, from a couple dozen to more than 100, as charted below.

Recent early unicorns are all about AI

Virtually all of the early-stage unicorns minted in the past couple quarters are AI-focused.

This includes several of the most heavily funded newcomers. Examples include , the physical AI startup launched by , , the foundational AI company co-founded by former CTO , and , a London-based AI infrastructure unicorn that has raised over $5 billion.

All this represents the opposite of a surprising development, given that 80% of global venture funding this past quarter went to AI. Additionally, later-stage AI companies are famously securing unheard-of private market valuations, with and recently valued at $852 billion and $380 billion, respectively.

While we’re not seeing those kinds of numbers for more recently minted early-stage unicorns, several are hitting post-money valuations previously unheard of for such young companies. Thinking Machines Lab, valued at $12 billion for its first funding, is reportedly looking to secure a $50 billion valuation for its next round. And 2-year-old , which secured an $8 billion valuation late last year, is reportedly fresh funding at a $25 billion value.

Fastest climbers

In addition to their high valuations, many newcomers to the early-stage unicorn club are also noteworthy for the speed of their ascents.

Quite a few unicorns minted in the last 15 months were founded in 2025. And one — — was apparently founded just this year. For a broader view, we used �������� data to aggregate some prominent examples of recently founded early-stage unicorns.

By now, some of our early-stage unicorns have also already moved on to later stage. Nscale, for instance, closed a Series C this month. And residential backup power provider closed on $1 billion in Series C funding in October, just eight months after its Series B. Others are already close to securing new funding at Series C and beyond.

Was this the peak?

Given the new funding records set last quarter, and the blistering pace of early-stage unicorn creation, it’s worth considering whether this could be the peak for the ultra-high AI newcomer funding rounds and valuations. After all, public markets haven’t done well in recent weeks, and private markets have a history of following suit.

For those of us who’ve followed startup funding ebbs and peaks for some time, it’s clear the current environment shares characteristics of a market top. By the same token, top performing tech startups have long demonstrated that doubters are often wrong.

Related reading:

• Investors Are Once Again Rapidly Minting Early-Stage Startups As Unicorns
• More Early-Stage Startups Are Getting Minted As Unicorns
• The �������� Unicorn Board

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