The company brings together two founders who previously built businesses that help patients get treatment outside a traditional doctorā€™s office. co-founded, which supports practices offering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, and co-founded , which provides birth control and other healthcare services online.

led the financing for New York-based Siggy. Notably, several investors in the round previously backed one or both founders. They include of, co-founder, and co-founder, through. Other participants include, and.

The founders said they began building Siggy in late 2025. The round, which they plan to use to hire more clinicians and engineers, develop the software and work on regulatory requirements,

is the first outside funding for the company. The startup recently began accepting paying patients ahead of its public launch, and the founders said they next plan to test the service with paying patients before expanding further.

Between appointments

Sabbagh, Siggyā€™s CEO, told °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News in an interview that the company is addressing a problem he encountered in mental healthcare. Therapists and the clinicians prescribing their patientsā€™ medication often work separately. Patients may see a therapist weekly but have only a brief appointment every few months with their prescriber. This leaves little time or opportunity to discuss changes in symptoms or medication side effects.

To address that problem, Siggy uses AI conversations and daily check-ins to gather information clinicians can review between visits.

ā€œAI helps maintain the conversation and organize what patients share, so clinicians have a richer picture of the person that theyā€™re treating,ā€ said EngesƦth, the startupā€™s COO, in an interview.

Patients begin by answering questions about their history through a free AI conversation. They then meet a licensed clinician by video, who reviews that information. The clinician then makes a diagnosis and prescribes medication if appropriate.

Patients can talk with Siggyā€™s AI between appointments and can also check in each day to report their sleep, mood, medication and how they feel physically. The company combines those answers with data from connected wearable devices to produce a daily ā€œSiggy Scoreā€ out of 100. The score is visible to both the patient and clinician.

Patients can opt to connect wearables such as , or Watch, adding sleep, activity, heart rate and heart rate variability data to the daily check-ins that underpin the Siggy Score. The company aims to use those patterns to flag difficult stretches earlier, including when patients report feeling fine despite worsening sleep or other physical changes.

If the score changes, the software flags it for a clinician to review. Patients also receive weekly check-ins during their first eight weeks of treatment, according to the company.

Clinicians decide whether to continue treatment or adjust medication, and also handle all medical questions. When appropriate, they can help patients taper off gradually. Siggy does not prescribe controlled substances and is not a crisis service, the founders said.

One important note: Patients can continue seeing their existing therapists while using Siggy, Sabbagh said. A planned feature would let patients share information with other providers and involve loved ones in their care.

A prior working relationship

As with many startup founders, Sabbaghā€™s interest in mental health treatment grew out of his own experience. After two decades in finance, he experienced burnout and was eventually diagnosed with PTSD related to childhood trauma. He said ketamine-assisted therapy helped him recover, leading him to return to school to study psychology at 38.

He subsequently co-founded Journey Clinical. Sabbagh said he has since become its executive chairman, remaining involved while taking on the CEO role at Siggy.

EngesƦth, a physician by training, was an early investor in Journey and advised Sabbagh as he built the company.

Before that, EngesƦth co-founded Nurx, which initially helped patients obtain birth control prescriptions and receive medication at home. He said the company grew to more than 2 million patients and an annual revenue run rate exceeding $100 million before merging with in 2022.

The two had considered starting a company together for years. With Siggy, they say they want to make the regular contact and coordination Sabbagh had with his own providers available to more patients.

Accepting insurance

Siggy accepts commercial insurance in all 50 states and is expanding into government insurance programs. Patients can also pay directly; insured patientsā€™ costs vary by plan.

Insurance was a priority because many prospective patients cannot afford treatment out of pocket, EngesƦth said. The founders also say Siggyā€™s service will be permanently free to veterans.

Investor POV

, a general partner at Village Global, told °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News via email that the foundersā€™ experience building healthcare companies was a major reason he invested.

The fact that Siggy accepts insurance was important too. ā€œPairing that vision with an insurance-based model makes the ambition about access as much as technology,ā€ he said.

Mercury co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund, who invested personally, is a repeat backer of both founders.Ģż He pointed to their longer-term ambition of using AI to understand each patientā€™s brain health well enough to detect changes early.

ā€œThatā€™s why Iā€™m backing them again with Siggy,ā€ he added, ā€œand why Iā€™m excited to be in early on what they build next.ā€

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ query:

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the weekā€™s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last weekā€™s biggest funding deal roundup here.

This week featured a robust lineup of large rounds, led by manufacturing startup , which closed on $2.1 billion, and predictions marketplace , which picked up another $1 billion. Other sectors in which startups drew significant rounds included construction automation, biotech, batteries and enterprise AI.

1. , $2.1B, manufacturing: Re:Build, a manufacturing startup that partners with industrial companies and innovators from the product design phase to large-scale production, secured $2.1 billion in new funding. and led the financing for the 6-year-old, Framingham, Massachusetts-based company.

2. , $1B, predictions marketplace: Predictions marketplace Kalshi announced a $1 billion Series G financing led by and . The round set a $40 billion post-money valuation for New York-based Kalshi, which says its business’ annualized trading volume now exceeds $1 trillion.

3. , $600M, construction tech: San Francisco-based Bedrock Robotics,Ģż a developer of autonomous systems for heavy equipment used in construction, raised $600 million in Series C funding led by and . The round brings Bedrockā€™s total funding to nearly $1 billion and sets a post-money valuation of $4.1 billion.

4. , $350M, biotech: Dren Bio, a developer of antibody therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases, closed on $350 million in a new round led by and . The funding will support advanced trials for the San Carlos, California-based companyā€™s blood cancer therapies.

5. , $169M, battery tech: Woodinville, Washington-based Group 14 Technologies, a manufacturer and supplier of advanced silicon battery materials, picked up $169 million in Series D extension funding. The company also announced plans to expand into Europe with a production facility in Sagunto, Spain.

6. (tied) , $150M, defense tech: Firehawk Aerospace, a developer of propulsion technology, said it secured over $150 million in Series D funding at a valuation of more than $1.4 billion. and led the financing for the 7-year-old, Dallas-based company.

6. (tied) , $150M, enterprise AI: Serval, a startup focused on coding agents for enterprise automation, raised $150 million in Series C funding at a $3 billion valuation. led the round for the 2-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

8. (tied) , $100M, AI infrastructure: AI cloud provider General Compute picked up $100 million in Series A funding led by and . The company is building out its infrastructure using inference chips from rivals , and .

8. (tied) , $100M, autonomous factories: Emeryville, California-based Foundry Robotics, a startup focused on building and operating autonomous factories, closed on $100 million in a Series A funding round led by .

8(tied) , $100M, data analytics: Hex Technologies, a startup focused on building an AI-native platform for data analytics, secured $100 million in new financing. and led the round, which set a $1.2 billion valuation for the San Francisco-based company.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Oct. 24-30, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

This is a weekly feature that runs down the weekā€™s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last weekā€™s biggest funding deal roundup here.

It was another interesting week for AI-related startup funding, with a number of large rounds and quirky companies. The largest financings went to , a developer of AI processors and systems, and AI lab . The quirkiest round, meanwhile, was undoubtedly a $200 million financing for , which wants to breed elite military dogs.

A number of big rounds in areas including biotech, space tech and physical AI rounded out the list.

1. , $1.5B, AI infrastructure: Santa Clara, California-based Tenstorrent, a developer of AI processors and systems, secured $1.5 billion in Series E funding. and led the round, which set a $6.2 billion valuation for the 10-year-old company.

2. , $1B, foundational AI: Flapping Airplanes, an AI lab with a focus on developing models that cost less to train and run, closed on $1 billion in Series A funding led by and . The round comes less than 10 months after the year-old San Francisco startup raised a $180 million seed financing.

3. , $325M, AI for critical infrastructure: ASI, a developer of AI technology for securing and operating critical infrastructure in areas such as aviation, transportation and defense, picked up $325 million in Series C financing. led the round, which set a $3 billion valuation for the Boston-based company.

4. , $250M, space tech: Xona, a startup developing a next-generation version of GPS, raised $250 million in Series D funding led by . The round sets a $2.4 billion valuation for the Burlingame, California-based company.

5. , $237M, biotech: Pathos AI, a startup applying AI to drug development, completed a $237 million Series E financing at a post-money valuation around $3 billion. led the financing for the New York-headquartered company.

6. , $215M, AI, robotics and life sciences: Warp Sciences, a startup applying AI and robotics to help develop new medicines faster, raised a $215M Series A round led by .

7. (tied) , $200M, online business marketplace: Whop, a platform that helps entrepreneurs build and run online businesses, secured $200 million in Series D funding led by and . The round set a $5.1 billion valuation for the New York-based company.

7. (tied) , $200M, biotech: South San Francisco, California-based drug developerĢż Star Therapeutics says it raised $200 million in new financing led by and . The investment follows ā€™s July acquisition of , a subsidiary of Star, in a deal valued at up to $2 billion.

7. (tied) , $200M, military dogs: Warhound, a startup that wants to breed working dogs for U.S. military forces and emergency responders, launched from stealth with $200 million in seed funding from a long list of backers including and 1.Ģż The startup, co-founded by founder , plans to equip the dogs with Anduril technology.

10. , $160M, AI manufacturing software: Arda Industries, a developer of AI-powered software for manufacturing engineering, closed on $160 million in Series A funding at a $1.5 billion valuation, co-led by , and . The San Francisco-based startup also announced a previously undisclosed $72 million seed financing.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Oct. 17-23, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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But thatā€™s often not the case, an analysis of °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data shows. This year, a number of larger acquisitions of private companies involved startups that havenā€™t disclosed a new investment for more than four years.

Several of these acquisitions are quite recent ā€” and in some cases, quite large. The standout is ā€™s purchase earlier this month of , a platform for catering and workplace meals, for $2.3 billion in cash. The deal comes nearly five years after Boston-based ezCater raised its last reported venture funding round.

Thatā€™s not the only one. A number of companies whose names might feature on a playlist of 2021 boom-era unicorns have sold to acquirers in recent months, including one-time highfliers like , and . In many cases, companies are selling at valuations which, while not puny, are still far below their former peaks.

Whoā€™s getting acquired

To illustrate the extent to which these aging startups are finding acquirers, we used °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data to put together a list of 15 deals involving well-funded companies that havenā€™t raised equity funding for four or more years.

Post-peak runway

One big issue for older and middle-aged startups is that valuations hit a cyclical peak in 2021 and early 2022. Many companies that raised during that time had difficulty attracting fresh capital or were reluctant to close new rounds at reduced valuations. Even with the more recent AI boom, little went to this cohort.

Moreover, since the 2021 boom-era rounds were quite large, funded startups commonly had the option to cut operating costs and extend their runways with existing capital. As a result, quite a few companies that havenā€™t raised rounds in years are still chugging along, managing to survive and even grow without more venture funding.

EzCater is a case in point. In the year prior to its acquisition, the business generated more than $2.5 billion in gross bookings. It had an annual growth rate in the high teens, with average order sizes over $400.

That said, even that revenue and growth rate didnā€™t secure ezCater much of an acquisition premium from its last funding round. At $2.3 billion, Uberā€™s purchase price is 53% above the $1.5 billion pre-money valuation the catering startup secured in its last funding round in late 2021.

Acquisitions below peak venture valuation

In many cases, even good-sized acquisitions of well-funded startups are occurring at valuations far below former peaks.

Take Miro, a provider of online collaboration tools that agreed to sell to last month in a deal valued around $1.36 billion. Thatā€™s a huge step down from early 2022, when San Francisco-based Miro closed its last round at a $17.5 billion post-money valuation.

Or consider Bending Spoonsā€™ prior purchase of data and workflow platform , for $1.28 billion in August. Thatā€™s barely over one-tenth the $11 billion valuation Airtable secured in its December 2021 Series F.

Fashion startup is another that lost its shimmer after securing a 2020 valuation in the hundreds of millions. It sold to fast-fashion leader this spring for $100 million.

In the health and wellness sector, meanwhile, Headspace also saw its valuation plunge. The meditation and mental health app sold to in a deal reportedly valued around $300 million. Thatā€™s well below its peak post-money valuation of around $2.6 billion.

A good thing?

While startup investors arenā€™t celebrating acquisitions made far under peak private valuations, theyā€™re not the worst outcome. And for startups themselves, theyā€™re also far from a catastrophic scenario.

Of course, every unicorn investor hopes for high-multiple returns. But for startups that go years without funding, the market seems to be telling us thatā€™s not likely in the cards.

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The partner began his career as a high school math teacher with after studying astrophysics at . He later worked in college access and Yale admissions, and earned graduate degrees in business and education from before joining Reach. As a teacher, he was an early user of , an experience he describes as ā€œgame-changing.ā€

His investment firm, Reach Capital, has also evolved. Founded in 2015 after spinning out of , the San Francisco-based firm initially focused on technology for K-12 schools and districts. Its mandate has since expanded to learning, health and work, with investments in companies including ClassDojo, , and .

In August, Reach announced its fifth fund, a $265 million vehicle that brought its assets under management to nearly $1 billion. The firm, which has backed more than 180 companies, plans to invest in approximately 50 additional teams through the new fund, targeting pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds.

°µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News spoke with Kim about how Reachā€™s education roots inform its broader strategy, what it saw in AI detection company , and why some of its best investments initially divided its own team. We also discussed how ownership stakes and secondary transactions have shaped the firmā€™s approach to returning capital.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

°µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News: You started your career as a high school math teacher. How did that shape your view of education technology?

Kim: I taught ninth through 12th grade, mostly Algebra I and geometry. I was very early to ClassDojo. Back then, it was a very simple classroom management tool, and it was game-changing for me. It has since evolved into a sprawling suite, but I already knew technology could move the needle.

Reach began as an education investor. How did the firmā€™s focus evolve into learning, health and work?

Kim: Reach started in 2015, and our original focus was exclusively on learning and education technology ā€” more specifically, technology sold into schools and districts.

Our founding partners were seeing the growth of devices in schools, one-to-one device ratios and broadband penetration. The belief was that you would start to see a proliferation of technology serving students, teachers and administrators and moving the needle on learning outcomes. That is what ended up playing out. Some of our early bets are now household names in edtech, such as , and ClassDojo.

Reach spun out of NewSchools Venture Fund, where three of our four founding partners had started doing for-profit seed investing before 2015. Over time, we branched out from K-12 into higher education, and then into consumer learning.

We also started getting pulled toward healthcare and work. Health and wellbeing affect a learnerā€™s readiness for the classroom, so we were being pulled toward mental health, behavioral health and developmental health. On the work side, formal learning typically ends in college, but you still need the bridge to a job. Once youā€™re on the job, you need to continue learning, especially in the current environment.

A few years ago, we officially put a stake in the ground and said we invest across learning, health and work. The common thread is that these are the most important systems underlying human development and flourishing.

So far, the breakdown has been roughly 50% learning, 25% health and 25% work.

These sectors have different buyers, regulations and business models. What did investing in education teach you that translates to healthcare and work?

Kim: Education is highly regulated, and institutional buying is complex. Many stakeholders must provide input, and decisions often require board-level approval. We were familiar with and comfortable with regulated products and complex go-to-market motions.

Selling to a university or a K-12 district, in terms of the complexity and the need to intersect with regulation and policy, is quite comparable to selling to a health system, hospital or insurance carrier.

Cartwheel is a good example of where our experience gave us an advantage. It provides mental health teletherapy, but the customer is the school district and the care setting is in schools.

While we were relatively new to behavioral health when we made that investment, we were very familiar with selling to school districts and implementing an intervention within a school setting. That gave us an advantage both in winning the investment opportunity and supporting the company afterward.

Reach talks about ā€œelevating human potential.ā€ What makes an investment fit that mandate?

Kim: We look for products and services that increase access to quality education, quality care or quality earnings, or some combination of those. We really have to see the mechanism for that happening.

Itā€™s not good enough to be pitched a SaaS or AI product and have the founders say, ā€œThis will make people more productive at work, and therefore maybe they will earn more or enjoy their jobs more.ā€ Thatā€™s plausible, but it isnā€™t a good enough theory of how the product actually increases access to quality earnings.

Several teammates, including myself, are former educators. We care about meaningful, needle-moving impact.

We address access from both the demand side and the supply side. On the demand side, we build products that create delightful, impactful experiences for consumers: , Stepfulā€™s allied healthcare training, and Replit for what its founder calls ā€œcitizen developers.ā€

On the supply side, itā€™s helping schools, health systems and companies function more efficiently and effectively. , for example, helps logistics and hospitality companies hire hourly workers better and treat them better. We think about the problem from both sides of the market.

Reach backed GPTZero, which agreed to join . Was that an investment in solving a problem created by AI?

Kim: That wasnā€™t actually our investment thesis. In my opinion, they have the best AI detector on the market. But their thesis was that AI use in education should not be banned. It shouldnā€™t be punitive or become a cat-and-mouse game between the educator and the learner.

Since all of us as professionals use AI in our jobs, students should learn how to use it responsibly and thoughtfully. It was the first AI detector company I had seen with that positioning, as opposed to helping schools, districts and universities clamp down on AI usage.

Thatā€™s why I liked it. I donā€™t see it as a problem for students to use AI for certain purposes, such as brainstorming, organizing thoughts and editing. GPTZero helps educators work with students and teach them how to use AI responsibly.

Do you see other opportunities to build companies around the problems AI creates?

Kim: Yes, most notably in AI governance and evaluations.

Going back to regulated categories, you need to make sure AI is not irresponsibly using personally identifiable information in education or healthcare. Those categories have very strict regulations, and infrastructure companies are emerging to help ensure AI products interact with that data responsibly.

I do think there are opportunities for large, successful, profitable companies to be created in response to the problems AI creates.

What does GPTZeroā€™s sale tell you about which AI products can become durable standalone companies and which belong within larger platforms?

Kim: I donā€™t know whether GPTZero is an example of either. They had been fielding acquisition offers from pretty early on. This particular opportunity arose earlier this year, and there was a compelling synergy story with Superhuman, formerly .

The founders and the board agreed that it made sense to combine the companies. But they could just as easily have remained standalone. There is another AI detection company called thatā€™s quite good and is still a standalone, venture-backed company.

Itā€™s not clear to me that this category canā€™t exist on its own. We have to be very case-by-case. We donā€™t know until we see the trajectory, financial sustainability and evolution of the market, whether it makes sense to explore a strategic acquisition or grow independently and perhaps one day become a publicly traded company.

Reach has backed more than 180 companies. What patterns have you noticed among those that exceeded expectations?

Kim: The reality of venture is that a very small share of investments yields the overwhelming majority of returns. Given the outlier nature of those successes, itā€™s hard to identify unifying principles that always predict a successful exit. If we could, we would only make those investments.

But there are a few things we think are somewhat common across our wins. One is a very smart, gritty, genuinely mission-driven founder or founding team, often with a strong personal connection to the problem.

Second is some sort of nonconsensus insight about the market. That often comes from experiencing the problem themselves, sometimes as practitioners in the industry ā€” a former educator, for example.

Third is a defensible and scalable business model.

The nonconsensus insight is funny because itā€™s what makes these companies look weird and maybe uninvestable in the beginning. Even within our team, theyā€™re often the most polarizing opportunities. You look at the votes, and a bunch of people vote no, but it gets just enough yeses to pass. Then, 10 years later, itā€™s one of our best investments.

People lose sight of this in the current environment, but the best opportunities are often the most nonconsensus. Those can be the most creative and interesting founders, and you can get in at reasonable valuations early and help them become consensus bets.

Reach says its first two funds have returned investorsā€™ capital. What produced those returns?

Kim: Weā€™re no exception to the power-law distribution in venture. Our first fund has been returned 2.2x by literally two investments. Our second fund has been returned 1.2x by one investment. These are cash distributions, by the way.

Especially in the second fund, thereā€™s still remaining value, so weā€™ll see how high that number gets. One fund-returning exit would be great; two or three would be amazing. Thatā€™s what weā€™re striving for.

How has that experience changed your approach to ownership and follow-on investing?

Kim: Weā€™ve had some great exits where, given how prominent the company is, you might be surprised that our share of the returns wasnā€™t that large. Thatā€™s purely an ownership calculation.

From our first fund to today, weā€™ve meaningfully increased our initial ownership target. We now try to get as close to 15% ownership upfront as possible.

That means writing slightly bigger checks and reserving relatively less for follow-on investments and more for the initial check. Itā€™s important for the exit math and distribution math.

What role do secondary transactions play in getting liquidity?

Weā€™ve become very proactive and conscientious about liquidity opportunities. Much of our distributions to investors come from secondary sales ā€” selling our shares in a subsequent round, before an actual exit.

Whenever thereā€™s an opportunity, we evaluate it. We consider how long weā€™ve been in the company, how much we can get out, and how much upside we think remains.

As companies stay private longer, early-stage investors are achieving liquidity much more often through secondary transactions. I like to think we were early to that trend, but itā€™s certainly mainstream now.

Sometimes, when we see enough upside, weā€™ll buy secondary shares. GPTZero was an example: After our Series A investment, we bought secondary shares, and Iā€™m really glad we did because it worked out well. For us, we sell more often, but occasionally we buy.

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ query:

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the weekā€™s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last weekā€™s biggest funding deal roundup here.

Startup investors arenā€™t exactly hitting pause, but they did scale back on giant rounds this past week, with just two startup financings in the multiple hundreds of millions. The biggest round went to AI infrastructure provider , which picked up $750 million, followed by construction automation unicorn , which secured $200 million. Other sectors that attracted larger rounds this past week included biotech, insurance and AI.

1. , $750M, AI infrastructure: Modal Labs, a provider of cloud infrastructure for AI inference and other applications, secured $750 million in a Series D funding round led by at a $15.75 billion valuation. The New York-headquartered company said it recently exceeded an annual revenue run rate of $1 billion.

2. , $200M, construction tech: Austin-based Icon, a developer of robotic construction systems known for its 3D-printed homes, closed on $200 million in Series D funding led byĢż and . The company says it is on pace for 4x revenue growth in 2026.

3. , $135M, RNA therapies: Boston-based SoufflƩ Therapeutics, a developer of RNA therapies, raised $135 million in Series B funding led by as part of a large syndicate of investors.

4. , $103M, gene therapies: Menlo Park, California-based Estuary Biotherapeutics, a developer of genetic medicines for patients with serious kidney diseases, launched with $103 million in financing. The funding includes $93 million in a Series A round led by as well as $10 million in previously undisclosed seed capital.

5. , $100M, AI tools: Labelbox, a developer of technology to train and evaluate AI models and to help deploy agents that improve with experience, picked up $100 million in Series E funding. led the financing for the 8-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

6. , $90M, health AI: Redwood City, California-based Suki, a provider of AI tools that turn clinical conversations into intelligence for documentation, coding and other healthcare workflows, announced a $90 million Series E financing from backers including and .

7. , $82M, caregiver platform: Abby Care, a platform for family members to become certified, paid caregivers and deliver care at home, closed on $82 million in Series C funding, per a . led the financing for the 5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup.

8. , $70M, insurance: Stand, a provider of insurance for homes in areas at higher risk of natural disasters, secured $70 million in Series C funding at a $1 billion valuation. led the financing for the 3-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

9. , $65M, semiconductor systems: Mueon Corp., a semiconductor systems company building a modular platform for AI and hyperscale computing, completed a $65 million Series A funding round. led the financing for the Portland, Oregon-based company.

10. , $60M, AI spend management: New York-based North.cloud, provider of an infrastructure spend intelligence and automation platform, raised $60 million in a Series B round led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Oct. 10-16, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

Twenty-one of last monthā€™s new unicorns are U.S. headquartered. Six new unicorns joined the board from China and three from the U.K., while Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, Italy, Finland, Germany and Bulgaria each added one new unicorn.

Through September, 311 companies have joined the board so far this year, putting 2026 on track to be the second-highest year for new unicorn creation, following only the venture peak year of 2021, when counts topped 600.

Several companies already on the board stand out for significant valuation increases via new raises last month. They include San Francisco-based , developer of AI for software engineering, which saw its value climb to $48 billion, up from $26 billion only four months earlier. Data center provider was valued at $31 billion last month, up from $10 billion a year ago. And Paris-based frontier lab was valued at $24.4 billion in its more recent funding, up from $13.7 billion a year ago.

New unicorns in September

Here are Septemberā€™s 38 new unicorn companies:

Semiconductors

• , an Austin-based semiconductor manufacturing startup, closed a $500 million Series A at a $3.7 billion valuation, led by . The 3-year-old company builds compact chip factories and develops their manufacturing equipment internally, aiming to make semiconductor production more accessible.
• , an Irvine, California-based semiconductor company, raised a $275 million Series C, valuing it above $3 billion and bringing total funding to $415 million. , and led the round. The 2-year-old company develops digital signal processing chips for high-speed optical connectivity in AI infrastructure.
• , a Hangzhou-based AI chip developer, announced a $149 million Series C. Its IoT inference chips combine memory and computing to reduce power consumption and data movement. The 5-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a Beijing-based AI chip company, raised $298 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion. The 4-year-old company develops AI computing chips using the open RISC-V architecture.

• , a San Jose, California-based developer of specialized AI chips and software, raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.45 billion valuation, co-led by and , bringing total funding to $500 million. The proceeds for the 8-year-old company will support its software platform and next-generation hardware for robots, vehicles and drones.

Financial services

• , a Texas-based prediction-market platform, announced a strategic partnership with , which will take an equity stake following OGā€™s separation from . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $5 billion. The investment amount was not disclosed; the partnership will route Robinhood event-contract trading through OGā€™s regulated exchange and clearing infrastructure.
• Saudi Arabia-based , a digital payments company, raised a $329.5 million Series A at a $1.85 billion valuation. Investors included , and . The 3-year-old company has processed more than $117 billion in 2 years.
• , a Nevada-based financial software company, raised a $250 million Series E at a $1.43 billion valuation led by founder and chairman . The 8-year-old company provides an AI-based investment management platform for asset and wealth managers.
• , a Miami-based remittance platform for Latino immigrants operating through , secured $200 million in financing: an $87 million Series C equity round led by valued at $1.4 billion and $113 million in debt from ā€™s Customer Value Fund. The 5-year-old company plans to expand to lending and add to its Latin American reach.

Space technology

• Munich-based space company raised a $450 million Series C, co-led by , and at a valuation of $2 billion. The financing for the 5-year-old company will advance its reusable Nyx spacecraft for an International Space Station mission and support development of its Storm rocket engine.
• , a Seattle-based satellite connectivity company, raised a $200 million Series C at a $1.6 billion valuation, led by , bringing total funding to approximately $300 million. The 5-year-old company enables standard Bluetooth devices to connect directly to satellites for tracking and sensor-data applications.
• Oxfordshire, U.K-based , a satellite company, secured $346 million, co-led by and, valued at $1 billion. The 11-year-old company manufactures satellites and provides infrastructure, connectivity, Earth observation and intelligence services.
• Bulgaria-based , a satellite company, raised $205 million in a round co-led by and , reaching a $1 billion valuation. The 11-year-old company has raised financing that will expand standardized spacecraft production, including new manufacturing capacity in the U.S. and Europe.

Biotechnology and medical devices

• , a Framingham, Massachusetts-based developer of treatments for Alzheimerā€™s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, raised around $79 million. The Ģż 13-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion. Investors were not disclosed.
• Shanghai-based , an AI drug discovery company, raised $290 million at a $1.5 billion valuation following its spinoff from . , , and co-led the round. Anew develops tools for biomolecular prediction and drug discovery; ByteDance retained a 56% stake.
• , a New York-based brain-computer interface developer, closed a $250 million Series D, bringing total funding to $430 million and reaching a valuation of approximately $1 billion. and led the round. The 5-year-old company is building a brainā€“computer interface that is minimally invasive and removable.
• Toronto-based , a biotechnology company, raised $153 million at a $1 billion valuation led by the , with participation from and other investors. The 3-year-old company uses AI to identify abandoned drug candidates that could succeed under different treatment approaches. The financing will expand clinical development and support additional drug acquisitions.

AI and internet infrastructure

• , a San Francisco-based AI cloud infrastructure company, raised a $300 million Series B at a $3 billion valuation, led by . The 3-year-old company distributes AI inference workloads across different types of chips to improve performance and efficiency. It announced in March that its customers include one of the leading frontier labs.
• Helsinki-based , an AI cloud company, raised a $189 million Series B led by . The financing valued the 6-year-old company above $1 billion with total funding over $450 million. The company manages physical data centers along with its cloud platform.
• London-based , an internet infrastructure company supporting content delivery for large streaming, gaming and software companies, raised $570 million in its first external financing led by . The 15-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion.

AI training

• , a San Francisco-based AI training-data company, raised more than $100 million led by at a $4 billion valuation, an eightfold increase from its valuation in September 2025. The 4-year-old company recruits and vets specialists who create training and evaluation data for AI developers. that participants included two frontier AI laboratories and two co-founders.
• , a San Francisco-based provider of expert-created AI training data, reached a $3.2 billion valuation in September, earlier, according to . The funding amount and lead investor were not publicly disclosed. The 1-year-old companyā€™s datasets capture professional reasoning in fields such as software engineering, law and finance. AfterQuery was part of the Winter 2025 batch.

Robotics and autonomous driving

• , the Shanghai-based operator of Helloā€™s robotaxi business, raised about $100 million at a valuation close to $3 billion. fund led the round. The financing to the 1-year-old company will support a 10,000-GPU computing cluster, AI model development and commercialization of Level 4 autonomous driving.
• , a Sunnyvale, California-based robotics perception company, raised a $165 million Series C at a $1.6 billion valuation, led by . Founded by former and engineers, the 5-year-old company combines custom chips, sensors and spatial software to help robots perceive their surroundings. The financing will accelerate deployments across logistics, manufacturing and inspection applications.

Health insurance

• , a San Francisco-based health benefits company, announced a $200 million Series C at a $2.7 billion valuation. led the financing. It also includes $400 million in secondary financing for existing investors. The 7-year-old company provides a benefits platform using AI to make healthcare more affordable for small and midsize employers. The company services 5,000 businesses.
• , a San Francisco-based health benefits platform, raised a $108 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation. Investors included , , and . The 5-year-old company helps employers provide individualized health budgets for employees to select their own medical plans.

Energy and EV infrastructure

• China-based , a battery-swapping and charging company, agreed to a strategic transaction that gives a 30% stake. Geely will contribute its Yiyi battery-swapping operation and a $95 million investment. The 9-year-old company was valued around $2.4 billion.
• , an Austin-based developer of off-grid power systems for AI data centers, raised a $120 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation, led by . The less than 1-year-old company builds modular systems for renewable energy and battery systems as data-center operators seek access to electricity.

AI applications

• raised $150 million led by , at a valuation just over $2 billion. The 3-year-old company, headquartered in London with offices in Los Angeles and Mumbai, built an enterprise audiovisual content platform for media, advertising, sports and healthcare customers. The financing will support research, commercial expansion and a larger Silicon Valley presence.
• , a New York-based AI ranking and personalization company, raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.44 billion valuation, led by . The 2-year-old companyā€™s software helps enterprises respond to customer behavior in real time, improving the relevance of recommendations.

Cybersecurity

• Rome-based , a cybersecurity company protecting connected devices and autonomous machines, raised $270 million at a $1.7 billion valuation, led by . The financing to the 8-year-old company will support U.S. and Asia-Pacific expansion and development of AI security models.
• Tel Aviv-based , a consumer cybersecurity company, raised $40 million at a $1.1 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $167 million. co-founder joined existing investors including and , among others. The 8-year-old company protects consumers against phishing, scams, malicious websites and AI-generated fraud.

AI models

• Beijing-based , a language-model startup, raised $120 million reaching a valuation of $1.4 billion. Investors include , , and . The less than 1-year-old company raised $400 million across three rounds so far this year, before releasing its first public model.
• , a San Francisco-based developer of open-weight foundation models, announced a $150 million Series B led by , and , valuing the company above $1 billion. The financing will support the 3-year-old companyā€™s Trinity models and products for customizing and operating them.

Manufacturing and construction software

• , an AI company for manufacturing with dual headquarters in Tokyo and Chicago, raised a $114 million Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $234 million. Investors included and . The 9-year-old companyā€™s platform organizes design and procurement and production; the financing will deepen its technology and accelerate North American expansion.
• , a Georgia-based construction software company, secured a growth investment of $250 million led by , valuing it above $1 billion. The 17-year-old company manages construction projects, with the investment supporting its AI capability build out and commercial growth.

Defense technology

• , a Washington, D.C.-based defense company, emerged from stealth with $250 million raised across three rounds at a valuation above $1 billion. The 2-year-old company develops long-range cruise missiles with manufacturing in Texas, Germany and Israel. Backers who have led across three rounds include , , , 1, and .

Food

• , the New York-based parent of consumer food brands David Protein and HallPass, raised a $250 million Series B at a $2.25 billion valuation. and co-led the round. The financing to the 2-year-old company will expand retail distribution, develop new products and support additional brands.

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ unicorn lists:

• (1,901)
• (666)
• (321)
• (198)
• (119)
• (102)
• (998)
• (547)
• (258)
• (39)
• (489)

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• °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ Data: Q3 2026 Posted A Record Count Of Billion-Dollar Rounds As The Global AI Race Heats Up
• 29 Companies Joined The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ In August, Led By AI Software And Semiconductors

Methodology

The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ 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 ā€” such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options ā€” 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. °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ 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 °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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Meanwhile, on Monday, details from AI giant ā€™s IPO prospectus, giving potential investors a peek into its financials.

Oura had planned to offer 50 million shares at $40 to $44 apiece and was expected to begin trading Wednesday. At the top of that range, the offering would have raised $2.2 billion. The company says it is delaying the deal despite strong demand and has not set a new date. CEO said Oura has ā€œthe luxury of choosing our moment.ā€

Anthropic is still moving toward an IPO, although its timing remains unclear. A prospectus leaked by Reuters showed that revenue climbed twelvefold to nearly $4.6 billion in 2025 with an operating loss of $8.06 billion. Its staggering nearly $42 billion net loss included roughly $34 billion in accounting charges tied largely to earlier financing.

The document also outlined an eye-watering $518 billion in future cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations. Reuters has reported that a listing is likely to come after the November midterm elections.

Anthropic, the world’s most valuable venture-backed startup, has indicated it plans to beat rival to the public markets. The company could debut as soon as October and raise up to $100 billion via the offering, according to a recent in , while OpenAI, which Reuters says filed confidentially in June, is reportedly now looking toward early 2027.

(°µĶų³Ō¹Ļā€™s predictive intelligence tools, meanwhile, point to a slightly longer timeline for an Anthropic IPO, saying itā€™s more likely to happen in six to 12 months.)

Whoā€™s next

So far, the 2026 IPO class already has a record-setting headliner in .

There are some other candidates. -backed AI cloud provider filed publicly this month , reporting $140.6 million in first-half revenue and a $1.02 billion net loss. , a -backed specialty insurance underwriter, on Sept. 24.

Neither has announced a trading date.

Data center operator is another possible fourth-quarter entrant. Reuters that it had hired banks for an IPO that could raise as much as $10 billion, although the timing remains subject to change.

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ā€œI learned that you can course-correct if you focus on the early life of the baby. If they’re missing certain beneficial bacteria, it can really cause a lot of issues for the infant,ā€ Sew Hoy recalls. ā€œI was reading all this literature and asked my doctors about it, and none of my doctors knew what I was talking about.ā€

A week after her sonā€™s birth in 2020, she incorporated Austin-based . Today, the company announced it has raised $33 million in a Series B funding round led by , it told °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News exclusively.

The financing brings Tiny Healthā€™s total funding to $46 million, following a $4.5 million seed round in 2021 and an $8.5 million Series A in late 2023. Existing investors , and participated in the latest round, along with new investors including and . B Capitalā€™s will join the companyā€™s board.

Demand for Tiny Healthā€™s at-home microbiome tests is growing. The startupā€™s overall revenue has more than doubled each year, according to Sew Hoy. Its B2B arm, Powered by Tiny, which sells tests through healthcare providers and other companies, grew fourfold last year. Sew Hoy did not disclose revenue figures or the companyā€™s valuation, though she said the valuation was ā€œmuch higherā€ than in the Series A.

From baby gut tests to adult testing

Tiny Health spent two years developing its platform before launching an at-home baby gut test in 2022. Healthcare was new territory for Sew Hoy, whose previous startup, digital coupon company , was sold to in 2013. Before raising a seed round, she put $50,000 of her own money into an initial study and spent about a year collecting stool samples and building the platform.

The baby test gave Tiny Health a focused entry point. In Sew Hoyā€™s view, parents of children with conditions such as eczema wanted more information as to the cause, while clinicians had few practical tools to apply emerging microbiome research. The company also offered pregnancy, vaginal microbiome and adult tests, but initially focused on infant testing. Adults have since become its larger testing segment, according to Sew Hoy.

So, how does it work? Customers collect a small stool sample with a swab. After sending in the swab, they receive a report on the microbes detected, along with explanations and suggested next steps. Tiny Health also sells a subscription called Tiny Plus that includes a baseline test and a retest.

Sew Hoy believes one of Tiny Healthā€™s biggest differentiators is that its tests use shotgun metagenomic sequencing to analyze microbial DNA. The method provides a broader view of the organisms in a sample than tests that look for a limited set of microbes, she said. Chief science officer , who joined Tiny Health in 2021, leads its scientific work. The companyā€™s other leaders include co-founder , who joined Sew Hoy two years after she started Tiny Health and leads its technology work, and chief medical officer , an integrative pediatrician who previously advised the company.

The reports examine what the detected microbes may be doing and suggest steps such as dietary changes, with links to supporting research.

ā€œWe are a wellness test,ā€ Sew Hoy said. ā€œWeā€™re not a diagnostic ā€¦ Itā€™s very actionable, very evidence-backed.ā€

Insurance does not cover the tests, which can identify microbes in a sample, but cannot establish what caused a personā€™s symptoms.

Other startups are taking different approaches to digestive health. Austin-based makes a device that attaches to a toilet and tracks stool patterns and hydration. Tiny Health analyzes microbial DNA from a collected sample. Throne recently raised $10 million in a Series A round led by .

Beyond direct-to-consumer testing

Tiny Healthā€™s fastest-growing business is Powered by Tiny, which sells testing through healthcare providers and companies that incorporate it into their own services. Partners include , and ā€™s Executive Health and Longevity Programs, according to Tiny Health. It also works with supplement makers and academic partners that want to measure the microbiome in clinical studies.

Customers began taking their direct-to-consumer results to doctors, according to Sew Hoy. Some clinicians then approached Tiny Health for help interpreting the reports. Today, the startup serves more than 6,000 practitioners and offers training on using its tests in patient care.

Its enterprise business supplies testing to other health and wellness companies, including through technology integrations. As mentioned earlier, that B2B arm is growing fourfold. Expanding both, along with clinician training, is a priority for the new funding.

, senior principal at B Capital, told °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News that his firm sees an opportunity to make microbiome research more useful to consumers as interest in preventive health grows.

ā€œWe’re in the middle of a real shift in how people engage with their own health. Consumers are paying out of pocket for wearables, blood panels, and full-body scans because they want to understand what’s happening inside their bodies before something goes wrong,ā€ he wrote via email. ā€œThe gut microbiome is one of the most important and least understood pieces of that picture ā€¦ Tiny Health turns that science into something people can actually act on, and we believe the company that does this well will define the category.ā€

Whitehead also cited Tiny Healthā€™s standing with clinicians the firm consulted during its diligence.

ā€œTiny Health was consistently the test they rated highest,ā€ he said.

Another attractive feature, Whitehead added, is the companyā€™s data from families tested beginning in infancy.

Putting its data to work

Tiny Health has collected nearly 200,000 microbiome samples over time, according to Sew Hoy. To make use of those samples, the startup is developing a tool called TinyAI that will draw on its data and research reviewed by its scientific staff to help people understand their results. The company also uses health information customers provide, with identifying details removed, to inform that work.

Long-term, Tiny Health aims to identify patterns that could help spot health risks before a condition develops. has associated gut microbiome imbalances with more than 100 diseases.

ā€œWe want to be able to predict disease before it happens and intervene before it happens,ā€ Sew Hoy said in an interview with °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News.

Indeed, one pressing question is whether microbiome-guided interventions can improve health outcomes. Tiny Health says it has published four scientific papers, including a study involving infants, and plans to support further research involving adults.

Presently, the company has about 40 employees and plans to hire 30 more. It will use the new capital to expand its work with healthcare providers and other companies, and to fund research into whether changes in the microbiome can improve health outcomes. It plans to devote $5 million to a program that will give researchers and clinical partners access to its testing and data.

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the weekā€™s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last weekā€™s biggest funding deal roundup here.

This week delivered a bountiful supply of big startup funding rounds, led by two $400 million financings for cybersecurity unicorns and . Rounding out the week were large financings for startups across hot sectors, including foundational AI, drug discovery, neurotech, and even rainmaking.

1. , $400M, cybersecurity: Island, a developer of tools for secure enterprise digital operations, raised $400 million in Series F financing. led the round, which set a $6.4 billion valuation for the Dallas-based company, more than double its 2024 valuation.

2. , $400M, cybersecurity: Cyera, a provider of enterprise data security tools that govern both humans and AI agents, picked up $400 million in Series G extension funding led by and backed by . The round brings total funding for New York-based Cyera to $2.7 billion, .

3. , $350M, foundational AI: San Francisco-based Snorkel AI, provider of tools for frontier labs and AI teams to develop specialized training data and environments, secured $350 million in Series E funding. and led the round, valuing the 7-year-old company at $3.2 billion, and it now has more than $375 million in annual recurring revenue.

4. , $311M, biotech: Enveda, an AI-enabled drug discovery startup, closed on $311 million in Series E financing led by and joined by a long list of new and existing investors. The round brings the Boulder, Colorado-based company’s total capital raised since inception to more than $845 million.

5. , $250M, neurotech: New York-based Precision Neuroscience, a startup focused on brain-computer interface technology, secured $250 million in Series D funding with and the as lead investors.

6. , $200M, wireless communications: Hubble Network, operator of a satellite network that extends connectivity to Bluetooth devices, pulled in $200 million in Series C funding. led the financing, which set a $1.6 billion valuation for the Seattle-based company.

7. , $155M, pharmacy benefits: New York-based Rightway, a provider of pharmacy benefits and care navigation services, raised $155 million in Series E funding led by . The startup will use the financing in part to expand its AI capabilities.

8. (tied) , $100M, cloud seeding: El Segundo, California-based Rainmaker, a startup focused on atmospheric research and producing new freshwater through cloud seeding, picked up $100 million in Series B funding. The round includes investments from , , , and .

8. (tied) , $100M, tax compliance: San Francisco-based Numeral, an AI-powered sales tax compliance platform, closed on a $100 million Series C round led by .

8. (tied) , $100M, AI data: San Francisco-based Micro1, a provider of AI training data to major AI labs, has reportedly raised a fresh funding round of more than $100 million at a valuation of $4 billion, according to a citing people familiar with the deal.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Sept. 19-25, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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