The US Startup Funding: July 2026
US Startup Funding Report: 492 Startups Raised $19.44B in July 2026 From $5M seed checks to $1.75B energy megadeals – complete breakdown of company names, founders, and stages By TheFounders+...
US Startup Funding Report: 492 Startups Raised $19.44B in July 2026
From $5M seed checks to $1.75B energy megadeals – complete breakdown of company names, founders, and stages
Table Of Content
By TheFounders+ Research | Published: July 31, 2026 | 8 min read
US startups raised $19.44B across 492 companies in July 2026, a month defined by a convergence of mega-rounds in AI infrastructure, energy, and robotics that pushed the late-stage total to $12.26B — 63% of all capital raised. The top four rounds alone accounted for more than $5.95B, led by Joulent, Atoms, Fireworks AI, and SambaNova.
AI companies captured 67% of total capital with 196 companies raising $13.08B. California maintained dominance with $10.49B across 161 deals (54%), followed by Texas at $2.37B and New York at $2.05B. Khosla Ventures ranked as the most active lead investor with 8 deals in July.
Funding by Stage – July 2026
| Stage | Companies | Total Raised | % of Total | Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Late-Stage | 41 | $12.26B | 63% | $100M |
| Series B | 50 | $2.73B | 14% | $26M |
| Series A | 120 | $2.89B | 15% | $12.1M |
| Early-Stage | 281 | $1.56B | 8% | $2.1M |
Top 15 Largest US Funding Rounds – July 2026
| # | Company | Amount | Stage | Location | Founders / Leadership |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joulent | $1.75B | Strategic | Houston, TX | Founder & CEO Chris James (Founder of Engine No. 1) |
| 2 | Atoms | $1.70B | Late-Stage | Los Angeles, CA | Physical AI robotics – industrial mining & food infrastructure |
| 3 | Fireworks AI | $1.51B | Series D | Redwood City, CA | Co-founder & CEO Lin Qiao (ex-Meta, PyTorch founding team) |
| 4 | SambaNova | $1.00B | Late-Stage | Palo Alto, CA | Rodrigo Liang, Kunle Olukotun, Christopher Ré (Stanford Professors) |
| 5 | Commonwealth Fusion Systems | $1.00B | Late-Stage | Cambridge, MA | Bob Mumgaard, Dan Brunner, Brandon Sorbom – MIT spinout |
| 6 | Together AI | $800M | Late-Stage | San Francisco, CA | Vipul Ved Prakash, Ce Zhang, Percy Liang, Chris Re |
| 7 | Wonder | $650M | Late-Stage | New York, NY | Marc Lore |
| 8 | Antora Energy | $550M | Late-Stage | San Jose, CA | Andrew Ponec, David Bierman, Jordan Kearns |
| 9 | Meshy AI | $400M | Series B | Sunnyvale, CA | Ethan Hu, Jie Chen |
| 10 | Chai Discovery | $400M | Late-Stage | San Francisco, CA | Joshua Meier – AI drug discovery |
| 11 | Antares | $370M | Late-Stage | Los Angeles, CA | Tom McGuire, Ryan McLinko – nuclear microreactors |
| 12 | Walden Robotics | $300M | Early-Stage | Cambridge, MA | Industrial robotics |
| 13 | Etched | $300M | Late-Stage | San Jose, CA | Gavin Uberti, Chris Zhu, Robert Wachen – AI chips |
| 14 | Oratomic | $300M | Series A | South Pasadena, CA | CEO Dolev Bluvstein, Prof. Manuel Endres, Advisor John Preskill – Caltech spinout |
| 15 | HUboo | $270M | Series A | Denver, CO | Cross-border logistics infrastructure |
Growth Rounds – $75M to $150M
| Company | Amount | Stage | Founders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quaise Energy | $134M | Series B | Carlos Araque, Matt Houde, Aaron Mandell |
| Prime Intellect | $130M | Series A – $1B Valuation | Vincent Weisser, Johannes Hagemann |
| Norm AI | $120M | Series C | John Nay – Legal AI platform |
| Freehand | $75M | Series B | San Francisco |
Early Stage & Seed – $5M to $40M
| Company | Amount | Stage | Founders / Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monogram | $40M | Seed | Eren Bali (Coursera co-founder) – Visual AI interface |
| Arkenstone Defense | $35M | Seed | GovTech – bridging startups to DoD procurement |
| Oxmiq Labs | $35M | Series A | AI chip cost collapse platform |
| Agave | $15M | Series A | Tom Reno, John Zucchi, Pooria Azimi – AI for construction financials |
| Centralize | $15M | Seed | Maps enterprise buying committees in real-time |
| Queue | $12.6M | Seed | Palo Alto – AI workflow |
| Piq Energy | $5M | Seed | Climate tech – San Francisco |
What July Tells Us
July confirms bifurcation: 65 deals over $50M accounted for 81.6% of all capital, while 211 deals under $5M accounted for just 1.9%. Investors are concentrating on AI infrastructure, energy infrastructure for AI data centers, and quantum. Early-stage still lives – 281 early-stage deals closed – but the bar for breakout rounds is now $100M+ with revenue and regulatory footing.
Sources: AlleyWatch July 2026 US Venture Report (Crunchbase data), TechStartups Daily Roundups July 1-29 2026, Crunchbase Active Investors July 2026, Company announcements via BusinessWire.
