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

While no billion-dollar rounds led this week鈥檚 list, we nonetheless saw a variety of startups in industries ranging from semiconductors to aerospace to biotech raise sizable rounds. The week鈥檚 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鈥檚 last funding round before an IPO, though didn鈥檛 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听next-generation cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, which are designed to act like 鈥済uided missiles鈥� 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鈥檚 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 鈥嬧��, 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鈥慹nabled audit platform that acquires CPA firms and equips them with AI鈥慸riven audit tools to deliver higher鈥憅uality 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 H膿lo for the treatment of venous thromboembolism, or VTE. The company secured clearance for H膿lo 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 附近上门 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.

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In a quarter when nearly two-thirds of global venture capital went to just four companies, it鈥檚 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鈥檚 take a closer look.

$55M for a mineral rights-backed credit card

Natural resources can be incredibly valuable financial assets, but you can鈥檛 exactly buy your weekly groceries with oil or water rights.

That鈥檚 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.

鈥淔or 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],鈥� Frontlands CEO said in a statement. 鈥淗istorically, owners have had few options to access the value trapped inside their mineral rights without selling.鈥�

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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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 鈥� Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wyoming and Oklahoma 鈥� 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.

鈥淥ur goal isn鈥檛 to pile on more debt,鈥� Cotter said in a statement. 鈥淏ut the opportunity to help our customers move away from high-interest credit card debt 鈥� and provide a path toward greater financial stability 鈥� is compelling.鈥�

Investment in fintech startups hit a multiyear high in 2025, 附近上门 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 鈥榝lying鈥� electric commuter ferries

As of this writing, oil prices are hovering around $100 a barrel 鈥� 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 鈥檚 recent funding of 鈧�30 million (about $32 million) seems timely. The Stockholm-based company makes electric 鈥渇lying鈥� 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% 鈥� enabling faster, smoother, zero-emission travel compared to conventional diesel ferries that push through the water.

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

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

The new funding was led by 鈥檚 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 鈥� 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 鈥斕齮he Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The startup鈥檚 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, 附近上门 data shows.

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$30M to electrify trains with batteries and microgrids

Let鈥檚 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鈥檚 most efficient but still fossil-fuel-dependent transport systems. It鈥檚 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鈥檚 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 鈥� using mobile batteries and distributed charging via microgrids 鈥� 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. 鈥淪ecuring capital in the hardware space and traditional industries is challenging,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淚t is not the 鈥榠n鈥� 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.鈥�

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$7M for foundation AI for biology

Funding to foundational model AI startups surged last quarter, reaching $178 billion, per 附近上门 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 鈥溾�� fields, rather than human text.

The company鈥檚 first family of transformer models is called Botanic and is trained on data from 43 plant species. Living Models noted that it鈥檚 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.

鈥淧lant 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,鈥� the company said in a statement.

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

鈥淏iology 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,鈥� , Living Models鈥� CTO and co-founder, said in a statement. 鈥淲e 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.鈥�

The company鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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.

鈥淚f 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鈥檚 not about progress. It鈥檚 about process [鈥 But for somebody with depression who is spending a lot of time in therapy, progress is important. So how do you know whether they鈥檙e making progress or not? And even these basic questions were not being answered,鈥� co-founder .

Mave鈥檚 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鈥檚 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.鈥� war in Iran spiraling into a larger regional conflict even as the Russia-Ukraine war continues into its fifth year.

Public-market investors鈥� 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 鈥斕齱hich we define as the industries of military, national security and law enforcement 鈥� topped $8.4 billion last year, an all-time record and more than double 2024鈥檚 total, per 附近上门 .

Among 2025鈥檚 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鈥檚 impressive public-market entrance could pave the way for other defense tech startups to pursue IPOs. Using 颁谤耻苍肠丑产补蝉别鈥檚 , we鈥檝e put together a list of 12 other defense startups that are deemed likely IPO candidates.

Methodology

颁谤耻苍肠丑产补蝉别鈥檚 utilize 附近上门 data 鈥� including funding and valuation, and milestones such as financial growth, key leadership hires, market share expansion and headcount growth 鈥� to forecast the likelihood of a private company launching an IPO, providing a probability score and its supporting evidence. Read more about 颁谤耻苍肠丑产补蝉别鈥檚 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 鈥� , and 鈥� 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鈥檚 dive in.

$70M for robotic blood draws

If you鈥檙e 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鈥檚 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.

鈥淰itestro 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,鈥� 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鈥檚 Series A investment, which included participation from听, , , , and individual investors , and .

鈥淚sembard is redefining the process of owning and running a factory,鈥� , managing partner at Union Square, said in a statement. 鈥淏y 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.鈥�

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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鈥檚 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.听 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 附近上门 data shows.

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$6M for an email provider for AI agents

They grow up so fast, don鈥檛 they? Less than four years into the AI boom, AI agents are already asking for their own email addresses.

That鈥檚 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.

鈥淎I agents are already starting to function as virtual employees across industries,鈥� , partner at , said in a statement. 鈥淭hese 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.鈥�

To that end, AgentMail said it鈥檚 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.鈥�

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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鈥檚 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鈥檚 technology helps plant operators maintain compliance and troubleshoot issues. 鈥淥perators are the final line of defense for public health and the environment,鈥� Szepietowski said in a statement. 鈥淎s experience retires out of the industry, we need tools that support operators in the moment when decisions matter most.鈥�

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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鈥檚 largest fundings for an AI startup overall, per 附近上门 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.

鈥淢y prediction is that 鈥榳orld models鈥� will be the next buzzword,鈥� AMI Labs CEO after the funding. 鈥淚n six months, every company will call itself a world model to raise funding.鈥�

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鈥檚 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鈥檚 leaders argue.

鈥淕enerative 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,鈥� AMI CEO LeBrun on . 鈥淗owever, factories, hospitals, and robots operating in open environments demand AI that grasps reality. And reality is not tokenized: it鈥檚 continuous, noisy and high-dimensional. Despite their immense power, I do not believe that generative architectures are the path to achieving this true understanding.鈥�

AMI鈥檚 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, 鈥檚 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鈥檚 AI sector

Global venture funding hit an all-time monthly record in February as announced a $110 billion funding round 鈥� 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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A host of interesting, under-the-radar recently funded startups caught our attention in the past month, including one that鈥檚 developing nuclear-waste generated electricity on the moon, another that aims to use AI to extract business intelligence from enterprise contracts, and a shoebox-picking warehouse robot. Let鈥檚 take a closer look.

$55M to turn contracts into business intelligence

AI-driven contract intelligence platform said last month that it raised $55 million in a Series B round led by existing investor , with participation from , , and .

The funding for the San Francisco-based company comes amid record-breaking funding for legal tech startups, particularly those that apply AI-driven automation to the notoriously paperwork-heavy profession. All told, venture funding to legal tech startups in 2025 nearly doubled year over year to more than $4 billion, per 附近上门 data.

Ivo itself has now raised $77.2 million from investors, . Its latest funding comes as in-house legal teams face mounting pressure from rising contract volumes and growing compliance demands.

Even as contracts increasingly serve as the backbone of revenue, vendor relationships and risk management, much of the data inside those agreements remains locked in PDFs and legacy systems, which are difficult to search or analyze without manual review.

Ivo鈥檚 platform automates contract review and transforms agreements into structured, searchable data. Its review product uses lawyer-built playbooks to standardize positions and flag deviations, with customers reporting time savings of up to 75% compared to manual review, per the company. Its intelligence layer also reportedly allows teams to surface obligations, renewal terms and risk exposure across entire contract libraries in seconds.

Since its previous funding round, Ivo says it has grown annual recurring revenue by 500%, increased its total customer count by 134%, and expanded adoption within the Fortune 500 by 250%. Its customers include , , , and .

鈥淥ur goal has always been to make interacting with contracts fast, accurate, and enjoyable,鈥� CEO and co-founder said in a statement. 鈥淓very key relationship in a business is defined by an agreement, yet most organizations struggle to extract the insights inside them. Our focus is to give in-house teams a trustworthy solution that helps them work faster and gives them visibility into their contracts that was previously impossible.鈥�

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$10M for warehouse robots, including one that picks shoeboxes

Amid record robotics investment, we perhaps shouldn鈥檛 be too surprised to see some very specialized bots get funding.

One is from , a Polish warehouse robotics company that last month raised a $10 million Series B extension led by . Along with its new funding, the Warsaw-based company unveiled its Shoebox Picker robot, designed to 鈥渞eliably pick two-piece, unsealed shoeboxes.鈥� That might sound like a niche task, but the company said shoeboxes account for up to 20% of SKUs in U.S. fashion e-commerce, yet have long resisted automation.

The Shoebox Picker can pick up to 450 units per hour when it鈥檚 only handling shoeboxes, and up to 600 units per hour for mixed bins, per the company. It can handle more than 98% of the shoeboxes on the market, according to Nomagic.

Nomagic鈥檚 vision is 鈥渢o bring physical AI into the heart of warehouse and logistics operations, where intelligent, autonomous systems can finally bridge the gap between digital optimization and real鈥憌orld execution,鈥� CEO and co-founder said in the funding announcement.

The company was founded in 2017 and has raised $84.6 million to date, .

Venture funding to robotics-related startups overall totaled nearly $14 billion last year, per 附近上门 data. That鈥檚 a 70% increase over 2024 and eclipses even the peak funding year of 2021.

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$5M to replace synthetic dyes with plant-based alternatives

, a startup developing plant-based color technology, raised $5 million in a pre-Series A round led by 鈥� Blue Ocean 2 fund, with participation from and .

The Cambridge, U.K.-based startup is tackling one of the fashion and chemical industries鈥� dirtiest secrets: synthetic dyes. An stems from textile dyeing and fabric finishing treatments.

Sparxell鈥檚 funding seems timely, as regulators globally are tightening scrutiny of chemical substances. The has with restrictions on intentionally added microplastics, and policymakers are weighing broader bans on PFAS 鈥渇orever chemicals.鈥� In the U.S., the has also been in food and consumer products.

Spun out of the , Sparxell aims to replace petroleum-based pigments and heavy metals with wood pulp-derived coloring. The company says that arranging cellulose crystals to reflect specific wavelengths of light produces 100% plant-based pigments, glitters and inks designed as direct replacements for conventional dyes.

The startup says its process can cut water use by up to 90% compared to traditional dyeing methods and eliminate microplastics and toxic runoff. Unlike synthetic dyes, Sparxell鈥檚 cellulose-based pigments are also biodegradable, per the company.

鈥淥ur technology isn’t just an alternative 鈥� it is here to stay because it delivers superior performance due to its nature-inspired features. This funding takes us from proof of concept to production and commercial launches,鈥� CEO and founder said in a statement. 鈥淲e’re at an inflexion point. Brands are under pressure to eliminate synthetic toxins from their supply chains.鈥�

Founded in 2022, Sparxell has now raised $10.2 million, . The new funding will help it scale from pilot projects to tonne-scale manufacturing by 2026, per the company.

Apparel-related venture funding totaled about $1.5 billion globally last year and in 2024, per 附近上门 data, down significantly from the peak year of 2021 when it totaled $9.2 billion.

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$2.6M for AI-driven M&A deal-sourcing

Singapore-based , an M&A sourcing platform for corporations and high-growth startups, recently raised $2.6 million in a funding round led by , with participation from angel investors.

The startup is targeting one of the most relationship-driven corners of corporate strategy: deal origination. While acquisitions have become a key growth lever for companies of all sizes, sourcing targets, especially in the mid-market and sub-$70 million range, remains slow, opaque and heavily dependent on banker networks and in-market listings.

GrowthPal says its AI-driven platform acts as an 鈥淢&A copilot鈥� that translates a buyer鈥檚 strategic objective 鈥� say, entering a new geography or acquiring a specific capability 鈥� into a structured acquisition thesis. AI agents then scan a database of more than 4 million technology companies, analyzing signals including hiring trends, funding history, web activity and public filings to surface high-fit, often off-market targets.

鈥淢&A sourcing is where most time and effort is wasted, especially for smaller and mid-market deals,鈥� , co-founder and CEO of GrowthPal, said in a statement. 鈥淭eams spend weeks researching, filtering, and chasing opportunities that never go anywhere. We built GrowthPal to help buyers focus only on high-intent, high-fit targets and move from mandate to meaningful conversations far faster.鈥�

GrowthPal, which has raised $4 million total, , says it has already supported 42 completed transactions and facilitated more than 210 letter-of-intent-stage conversations across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Its clients reportedly span large enterprises, PE-backed firms and growth-stage startups across SaaS, fintech, IT services and other sectors.

In one case, the company says, a single client closed seven acquisitions in 18 months using the platform.

Its funding seems prescient: There were more than 2,300 M&A deals globally involving venture-backed startups last year, per 附近上门 data, up only slightly from the year prior, but insiders who spoke with 附近上门 News said they expect strategic acquisitions for talent and technology to surge this year.

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$411K to generate energy on the moon

Talk about a moonshot.

, a Latvia-based startup, this month said it has raised 鈧�350,000, or about $411,000, in pre-seed funding to generate electricity on the moon.

The company said the funding was led by and angel investor . Along with the equity round, Deep Space says it secured another 鈧�580,000 (about $682,000) in public contracts and grants by the , and the Latvian government.

The company aims to develop a novel generator based on radioisotopes 鈥斕齧aterials derived from nuclear waste that generate energy through natural decay 鈥斕齮o power moon surface exploration and for military satellite reconnaissance.

鈥淥ur technology, which has already been validated in the laboratory, has several applications across the defence and space sectors,鈥� Deep Space CEO and founder said in a statement. 鈥淔irst, we鈥檙e developing an auxiliary energy source to enhance the resilience of strategic satellites. It provides the redundancy of satellite power systems by supplying backup power that does not depend on solar energy, making it crucial for high-value military reconnaissance assets.鈥�

艩膷epanskis noted in the statement that while Deep Space鈥檚 technology wouldn鈥檛 be used for weaponry, the Russia-Ukraine war was a motivating factor for its development. That became even clearer last year, when Ukraine lost its beachhead in Russia鈥檚 Kursk Oblast as the U.S. .

鈥淎s Europe is trying to become more independent, it is imperative to produce satellites with advanced capabilities on our own,鈥� 艩膷epanskis said. 鈥淥ur technology provides an auxiliary energy source for satellites, which makes them more resilient to non-kinetic attacks and malfunctions.鈥�

Venture funding to space- and defense-related technologies, which often overlap, soared last year. Global funding to space tech totaled $14.2 billion in 2025 鈥� more than double the annual totals in 2023 and 2024 鈥� per 附近上门 data. Funding recipients included a mix of defense tech, satellite and rocket developers, and startups finding innovative use cases for geospatial data.

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With that, here are five areas where we鈥檝e seen venture funding increase significantly in recent quarters.

Legal tech

The legal industry may have a reputation for stodginess, but when it comes to automating and streamlining, the sector has been quick on the uptake with new technologies. Venture funding to legal tech startups last year totaled more than $4 billion, per 附近上门 data. That鈥檚 a record, and nearly double the $2.2 billion the sector raised a year earlier.

Some of the larger funding recipients in the space last year include:

• , which makes cloud-based practice management for law firms, raised $500 million in a -led equity round in November, plus $350 million in debt.
• , a startup that makes AI tools for lawyers, raised $819 million over the course of four funding rounds in 2025.
• , a startup that offers a legal operating platform to integrate AI for case, document and lead management, raised $260 million in a September Series E.

Robotics

Robotics 鈥� both of the humanoid and non-humanoid variety 鈥� has likewise been on a tear, as investors move beyond AI software to the physical layer of artificial intelligence.

Last year, venture funding to robotics totaled nearly $14 billion, per 附近上门 data. That鈥檚 a 70% increase over 2024 and eclipses even the peak funding year of 2021.

In recent quarters, investors have backed a range of companies developing everything from robotic appendages that can be deployed on factory floors to general-purpose humanoid robots.

Among the largest robotics funding recipients in 2025 were:

• General-purpose robotics company , which raised $1 billion in a September Series C led by .
• Humanoid robotics company , raising a total of $935 million in Series A funding.
• -led brain-implant company , which raised $649 million in a March Series E.

Defense tech

Defense tech, too, saw record funding last year, as companies such as and raised massive rounds. Overall funding to the sector jumped to $8.5 billion in 2025, per 附近上门 data 鈥� an all-time high and more than double the prior year鈥檚 total.

The top defense venture funding recipients last year included:

• Southern California-based Anduril, which raised a $2.5 billion Series G in June led by .
• Germany-based Helsing raised about $693 million in a June round led by , , and other investors.
• Austin-based , a maker of unmanned maritime security vessels, raised $600 million in an -led round in February.

Venture investment in defense tech only seems poised to grow. Active investors such as have earmarked billions of dollars for defense and law enforcement-related companies, and the has said it wants to purchase and deploy more next-generation technologies such as AI-driven battlefield decision-making, autonomous drone systems and satellite reconnaissance.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity funding also increased last year, though remains off its 2021 peak. Investment in the sector globally totaled more than $18 billion in 2025, up 26% year over year, with a particularly strong showing for early-stage startups.

It was also the third-highest annual funding total to the sector in the past decade.

Among the top cybersecurity funding recipients last year:

• AI-driven data security platform , which raised a total of $940 million in the course of two rounds, its Series E and Series F.
• , another AI-based identity security platform, raised $700 million in a -led Series B.
• , a quantum computing startup with a main focus on cybersecurity, raised $600 million in an -led Series B.
• , an IT platform for endpoint management, raised $500 million in a Series C led by and .

Fintech

Funding to fintech and financial services startups rose 27% year over year to $51.8 billion, topping pre-pandemic numbers for the first time since 2022. (However, it鈥檚 worth noting that 2025鈥檚 sum is still a fraction of the 2021 peak.)

Among the largest fintech funding recipients globally last year were:

• Predictions marketplace , which raised $150 million in a -led round, followed soon after by $2 billion in a deal led by .
• Cryptocurrency exchange raised $2 billion in March in an -led deal.
• , another predictions marketplace, raised $1 billion in a November round led by , and.

Investors we spoke with said they expect to see fintech-related funding and exit activity remain strong this year.

Another trend to keep an eye on: Strong funding for pre-IPO companies such as , , or . 鈥淭he story of fintech funding this year will probably be dominated by those $100M+ rounds as these companies get ready to go public,鈥� , general partner of , told us last month.

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Correction: Apptronik’s funding amount was updated.

All that sets the stage for what the industry insiders we spoke with expect will be another robust year for startup investment, acquisitions and new public-market listings. At the same time, there鈥檚 growing concern about capital concentration as venture dollars accumulate in a relatively small cohort of companies, many of them based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

With that, here鈥檚 a closer look at six trends we expect to see unfold in 2026.

1. A strong showing from the IPO market

Although the IPO window didn鈥檛 stay open the whole year, 2025 turned into an unexpectedly strong one for new offerings. At least 23 U.S.-based companies listed above $1 billion in value in 2025 compared to nine in 2024. Total valuations at IPO price for those billion-dollar listings reached at least $125 billion 鈥� more than doubling year over year.

This year, experts we spoke with expect that momentum to continue. In this market, 鈥渁 profitable company 鈥� particularly one that either is an AI play or has a good story of how AI will be a tailwind for their business 鈥� are good candidates for a 2026 IPO,鈥� , a corporate partner at who was involved with the , and IPOs, told my colleague Gen茅 Teare in late December.

Among the companies most closely watched for potential offerings this year are fintech unicorns such as and , and buzzy AI companies including , and .

Still, in the first month of this year, some of that enthusiasm has tempered. As contributing reporter Joanna Glasner notes, even when open, the IPO window is always just a quick market turn from slamming shut once again.

So while a new offering from a buzzy company like or OpenAI would help prop the window open, more humdrum IPOs from run-of-the-mill enterprise SaaS startups probably won鈥檛 be enough to fuel a new IPO boom.

2. A flurry of M&A activity

Startup acquisitions are also expected to become more common this year, especially if the IPO market does gain steam.

鈥淎 healthy IPO market tends to increase M&A activity rather than reduce it,鈥� , technology, media and telecoms deal advisory and strategy leader for , told contributing reporter Mary Ann Azevedo. 鈥淢any companies pursue dual-track strategies, simultaneously preparing for an IPO while exploring M&A, which gives them greater flexibility and leverage in negotiations. The threat of a public offering can be used as a bargaining chip to drive up a startup鈥檚 sale price.鈥�

Last year, there were around 2,300 M&A deals for venture-backed startups, per 附近上门 data. Industry insiders we spoke with said they expect dealmaking to continue at a steady pace in 2026, in part as larger companies make strategic buys for startup talent, and as startups last funded in the boom five years ago look for exit opportunities.

鈥淥n the one hand, big corporates are snapping up seed/Series A startups for talent and tech 鈥� we can call that the AI acqui-hire trend. Many teams with fewer than 100 employees have landed $100 million-plus exits,鈥� , technology sector leader, told us. 鈥淥n the other hand, a cohort of 3- to 6-year-old unicorns that stalled on IPO plans is finally selling.鈥�

3. Strong funding, especially for these sectors

Four investors who spoke with Mary Ann all concurred that they expect another uptick in venture funding this year, with predictions ranging from a 10% to 25% year-over-year increase.

Those investors expect funding in 2026 will continue to concentrate into AI-related companies and adjacent sectors such as robotics and defense tech, at the expense of areas like climate tech, crypto and vertical AI that doesn鈥檛 have a strong differentiation or moat.

鈥淟ast year demonstrated that it鈥檚 difficult to survive as an AI wrapper company,鈥� , managing director at told Mary Ann last month. 鈥淓ven the vertical AI providers have to be deeply embedded into industry workflows to differentiate themselves from a foundation model doing more of the repetitive work in the market.鈥�

Many of the investors also said they expect capital to concentrate on two ends of the startup spectrum: big growth rounds for established players to maintain a market lead, and larger seed and early-stage deals to promising startups that look poised to disrupt.

鈥淚 expect net new dollars to concentrate more in seed and growth deals, primarily because the seed rounds are getting quite large thanks to fundraises by the likes of neolabs, neoclouds, and others. Furthermore, the capital needs of existing high-growth companies will continue to grow due to dependencies on frontier lab and hardware spend,鈥� partner told us.

Already, we鈥檙e seeing those predictions about the rise in early-stage megarounds pan out.

4. Capital concentration and heightened AI bubble fears

Last year鈥檚 venture funding disproportionately went to a select group of companies. OpenAI, , , and each raised more than $5 billion in 2025. Altogether, those five companies raised $84 billion, or 20% of all venture funding last year 鈥� an unprecedented amount for the largest fundings in any given year, an analysis of our data shows.

Last year was also defined by new startup records: the largest private funding round of all time ($40 billion to OpenAI), the largest private valuation ever recorded (SpaceX鈥檚 $800 billion valuation), and the largest venture-backed acquisition on record (鈥檚 $32 billion purchase by ).

All that鈥檚 to say: Investors placed bigger, bolder and riskier bets on a smaller cohort of companies. That capital concentration 鈥� along with between companies such as OpenAI, and 鈥� have heightened concerns about an AI bubble that could have far-reaching fallout for both private and public tech companies, and the global economy overall.

5. More tech layoffs due to AI

AI has also prompted mass layoffs. Last year, we saw job cuts at companies including , and blamed at least in part on artificial intelligence.

鈥淚鈥檝e reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000, because I need less heads,” Salesforce CEO said last fall, the San Francisco-based company鈥檚 decision to slash its customer-service headcount.

All told, around 55,000 U.S. layoffs in 2025 cited AI as a factor, staffing firm .

Unfortunately, we expect to see more tech employers make similar moves this year as companies focus on cutting costs and replacing some portion of their human workers with cheaper AI substitutes.

6. Fintech鈥檚 rebound

One of the startup sectors that experienced a particularly healthy bounce last year was fintech, with funding to the sector jumping 27% year over year to $51.8 billion. Investors in the space are bullish on 2026 as well.

Fintech VCs told Mary Ann they expect funding growth in 2026 to continue to concentrate into pre-IPO companies, for M&A to tick up, and to see robust investment into startups that add value to their fintech offerings with AI.

Vice President said he expects stablecoins, agentic payments and AI-native tools to be particularly strong areas for fintech investment this year.

The underlying growth and performance of companies in the age of AI is 鈥渁stounding and unlike anything we鈥檝e seen before,鈥� even relative to 2020 and 2021, partner and head of U.S. investments at , told us.

鈥淎bsent a broader recession, we expect some pullback and return to rationality in the funding market,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut we believe funding in fintech and at the AI application layer should remain quite strong.鈥�

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and led the Series D funding for Honolulu-based Onebrief. Investors including 1, and joined. An updated valuation was not reported, but the company raised its just seven months ago at a $1.1 billion pre-money valuation, per 附近上门.

Onebrief has now raised $311 million in total, per 附近上门 data. Along with the funding, the company acquired , a startup that makes simulation and wargaming software for the military and raised a $5 million seed round in 2023.

The company鈥檚 AI-driven collaborative and planning software is used by the to design, coordinate and brief complex military operations more efficiently, functions previously done on paper, through email and hand-written notes.

“Staffs are too slow. They’re just too slow for how fast our adversaries move now; they’re too slow for how complex the modern battlefield is. We need things to move hundreds of times faster than they do, and that takes automation,” Onebrief CEO , a former officer, told Axios.

With conflicts brewing around the world, venture investment in defense tech startups has soared in recent years, 附近上门 data shows. Funding to VC-backed startups in defense 鈥� defined by us as the industries of military, national security and law enforcement 鈥� hit $7.7 billion across close to 100 deals in 2025, per 附近上门 . That was a record high for investment in the space and more than double 2024’s tally.

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The new funds include $6.75 billion for its growth fund. It also raised $1.176 billion for its American Dynamism practice, which backs defense and security related startups, $1.7 billion for its Apps fund, $1.7 billion for its Infrastructure fund, $700 million for its Bio & Health fund, and $3 billion for what it calls 鈥渙ther venture strategies.鈥�

The fundraising kick comes on the back of the strongest year for North American startup investment in four years. Startups based in the region raised $280 billion in 2025, per 附近上门 data, up 46% year over year. The majority of venture dollars invested in North America last year went to the AI sector.

Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, was a major driver of that investment surge. Although the firm invests mostly in the U.S., it was the second most active post-seed venture investor globally last year, per 附近上门 data, behind only startup accelerator .听听

All told, a16z participated in at least 165 post-seed startup funding deals in 2025, including investments in Cursor maker , legal tech unicorn , predictions market , AI lab , publishing platform , surveillance startup , AI voice startup , and .听

The Menlo Park, California-based firm claims to have raised 18% of all venture capital dollars invested in the U.S. in 2025. Its new fundraising kick comes on the heels of the slowest year for new fundraising by venture capital firms since 2017, per preliminary data from the and .

In a , firm co-founder and general partner highlighted the firm鈥檚 focus on investing domestically, as well as themes around American national security and the imperative for the U.S. to maintain a technological lead over rivals like China.听

鈥淥ur mission is ensuring that America wins the next 100 years of technology,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淭hat starts with winning the key architectures of the future 鈥� AI and crypto. It continues with applying those technologies to the key areas that generate human flourishing: biology, health, defense, public safety, education, and entertainment. And it culminates with the American government adopting these technologies to defend and advance American interests.鈥�

The firm鈥檚 notable exits over the years include , , , , and .

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