Weekly Funding:
July 13-19, 2026
CPI +0.2 core dovish miss, Sept cut prob at 84%. Q3 bank earnings crush. Perplexity $500M Series F at $22B IVP-led. Applied Intuition $500M Series G at $10B. Tenstorrent $500M Series E at $4.2B Bezos-led. Harvey $300M Series H at $8B. Snyk $250M Series H at $10.5B (first round in 3.5 years). Waabi $300M Series C. Sanctuary AI + HeyGen + Krutrim. T. Rowe in 4 rounds signaling 2027-2028 IPO wave. ANTH grey market at $260 (+18%). 85 days to ANTH first trade.
Rounds
San Francisco-based Perplexity AI raised a $500M Series F at $22B post-money (up from $9B at Series E Sept 2025, 2.4x step-up over 10 months) led by IVP (new lead). AI answer engine: powers Perplexity Pro consumer app (paid tier crossed 4.5M subscribers Q2 2026), Perplexity Enterprise (5,300+ enterprise customers), and Comet browser (Q3 general availability). Q2 2026 ARR crossed $700M (up from $300M year-end 2025). Founded 2022 by CEO Aravind Srinivas (ex-OpenAI research), CTO Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho. Total raised: $2.22B. The $22B mark puts Perplexity ahead of Anthropic's Feb 2025 Series E post-money ($15B at that time), consolidating the 'search-plus-agent frontier' as the second-most-valuable AI application layer after OpenAI ChatGPT. IVP taking lead ahead of NEA and Bessemer is the tell: IVP is now leading its third $20B+ AI mark this year (Ramp F Jun 4, Anysphere D Nov 2025, Perplexity F Jul 13), consolidating the 'IVP is the post-series-D anchor for AI application-layer companies' thesis. Bezos participating as personal check for the fifth time is unusual and confirms the sustained conviction.
Mountain View-based Applied Intuition raised a $500M Series G at $10B post-money (up from $6B at Series F June 2025, 1.7x step-up over 13 months) led by General Catalyst (extending). Simulation, validation, and deployment platform for autonomous vehicles and robotics. Customers include GM, Toyota, Nissan, Porsche, Volvo, DoD (autonomous ground vehicles), plus 24 of the top 30 global OEMs. Q2 2026 ARR $520M (+87% y/y). Founded 2017 by CEO Qasar Younis (former COO Y Combinator) and CTO Peter Ludwig (former Waymo, Google X). Total raised: $1.70B. Toyota Ventures joining as first-time investor is the story: Toyota is the largest AV simulation-tools customer globally and the strategic locks in the Toyota + Porsche two-major-OEM strategic partnership. The $10B mark makes Applied Intuition the largest private-market autonomous-vehicle-adjacent name after Waymo ($55B est), Cruise ($11.6B est post pausing), and Aurora (public at $2.8B). Framed as the 'pick and shovel' play on autonomous adoption without the direct L4/L5 timeline exposure.
Toronto-based Tenstorrent raised a $500M Series E at $4.2B post-money (up from $2.6B at Series D Dec 2024, 1.6x step-up over 19 months) led by Bezos Expeditions (first-time lead investor). AI chip company: builds Wormhole and Blackhole RISC-V-based AI processors and open-source Metalium software stack. Sells developer workstations and datacenter systems. Q2 2026 revenue $180M (est), up from $90M FY25. Founded 2016 by Ljubisa Bajic; CEO Jim Keller (legendary chip architect: AMD K7/K8/Zen, Apple A4/A5, Tesla FSD, Intel oneAPI) took over 2023. Total raised: $1.36B. AMD Ventures joining despite competitive positioning is unusual and reads as a strategic hedge on RISC-V ecosystem maturation. a16z anchor is the third-tier signal: Andreessen has been publicly bullish on RISC-V-based inference chips for 18 months. The $4.2B mark puts Tenstorrent 3rd in the alt-silicon cohort behind Cerebras ($8.1B, series H Feb 2026), Groq ($22B, series F Jun 29, PIF-driven), and ahead of SambaNova ($6.2B post series F Jul 8 same week).
Toronto-based Waabi raised a $300M Series C at $2.4B post-money (up from $900M at Series B June 2024, 2.7x step-up over 25 months) led by Uber Technologies (extending its Series B lead). Autonomous trucking: builds the Waabi Driver, a generative-AI-based Level 4 autonomous stack for long-haul trucks. Launched commercial driverless operations Texas-to-Chicago corridor Q2 2026 (roughly 400 loads/month at ramp). Backed by Uber, Nvidia, and Volvo Group. Founded 2021 by CEO Raquel Urtasun (former Chief Scientist at Uber ATG 2017-2021, professor at University of Toronto and Vector Institute). Total raised: $583.5M. T. Rowe Price joining as first crossover investor is the tell: this is the pre-IPO signal from the mutual-fund crossover community, and the frame is a 2028 IPO target. The $2.4B mark puts Waabi as the last-standing pure-play autonomous-trucking startup after Aurora (public), Kodiak (SPAC-rumored), Embark (shut down), and TuSimple (delisted). The Uber lead extending confirms Uber is the strategic buyer for L4 trucking capacity at any 2027-2028 timeline.
San Francisco-based Harvey raised a $300M Series H at $8B post-money (up from $5B at Series G March 2026, 1.6x step-up over 4 months, second up-round of 2026) led by Kleiner Perkins (extending its Series F lead). Legal AI platform: powers agentic drafting, review, and workflow automation for AmLaw 200 firms (200+ enterprise deployments including Cravath, Skadden, Ashurst) plus in-house corporate legal teams. Q2 2026 ARR crossed $220M (up from $110M year-end 2025). Founded 2022 by CEO Winston Weinberg (former O'Melveny & Myers antitrust litigator) and CTO Gabe Pereyra (former DeepMind, Meta AI). Total raised: $1.52B. T. Rowe Price joining as first-time crossover investor is the same pattern as Waabi and Perplexity: pre-IPO signal from the mutual-fund community, 2028 target. Harvey's second up-round in four months is the sharpest post-decacorn re-rate in legal-tech ever. The $8B mark makes Harvey ~4x the second-largest legal-AI name (Robin AI, Ironclad, EvenUp, all sub-$2B).
Boston-based Snyk raised a $250M Series H at $10.5B post-money (up from $8.5B at Series G Dec 2022, +23% over 43 months, first funding round in three-and-a-half years) led by Wellington Management (first-time crossover lead). Developer security platform: static and dynamic application security testing (SAST + DAST), open-source dependency scanning, container security, IaC scanning. 2,700+ enterprise customers including Google, Salesforce, Atlassian, Anthropic, Databricks. Q2 2026 ARR $410M (+42% y/y). Founded 2015 by Guy Podjarny (Israeli security researcher), Assaf Hefetz, and Danny Grander. The three-and-a-half-year fundraising gap is the story: Snyk was a 2022-vintage decacorn candidate at $8.5B; the intervening period was the security-market re-rating (Wiz's Google $32B acquisition + Palo Alto Networks + CrowdStrike consolidation). The Wellington lead is the pre-IPO signal (2027 target). Total raised: $1.73B.
Vancouver-based Sanctuary AI raised a $150M Series B at $1.8B post-money (up from $300M at Series A-2 April 2024, 6x step-up over 27 months) led by Accenture Ventures (extending its Series A-2 lead). Humanoid robotics: builds Phoenix, a general-purpose bipedal humanoid robot with dexterous hands (20+ degrees of freedom per hand). Pilot customers in warehousing and manufacturing (Magna, Canadian Tire, GXO). Founded 2018 by CEO Geordie Rose (previously founded D-Wave and Kindred) and Chief Scientist Suzanne Gildert. Total raised: $238.5M. The Nvidia + Amazon Alexa Fund + GV cap-table triple is the tell: Sanctuary is now firmly in the 'Nvidia + OpenAI dual-anchor' humanoid cohort with 1X (Jul 7), Figure AI, Apptronik, and Neura Robotics. The 6x step-up is aggressive but tracks the humanoid cohort's average +180% since March 2026. Sanctuary at $1.8B puts it ninth in the humanoid cohort by valuation, ahead of Chef Robotics ($1.2B) and behind 1X ($4.2B).
Los Angeles-based HeyGen raised a $120M Series C at $1.5B post-money (up from $500M at Series B June 2024, 3x step-up over 25 months) led by Benchmark (extending its Series B lead). Generative AI video platform: turns text prompts into avatar-led videos with voice cloning, lip-sync, and multi-language translation. Customers include Deloitte, Amazon, Klarna for corporate training and multilingual localization. Q2 2026 ARR $95M (from $28M year-end 2025). Founded 2020 as Movio, rebranded 2023, by CEO Joshua Xu and CTO Wayne Liang (both former Snap ML avatar engineers). Total raised: $186M. Slots into the video-AI cohort alongside Runway ($3B, series E Feb 2026), Synthesia ($2.1B, series E Jan 2026), Pika ($700M est), Luma ($1B est), and Suno ($3B, series D Jun 3). HeyGen's differentiated wedge is the enterprise avatar-and-translation pipe versus Runway's consumer creator focus. Nvidia joining is the sixth of the week (1X, Together, SambaNova, Fireworks, Bland AI on prior weeks) and confirms the systematic AI cap-table anchoring.
Bengaluru-based Krutrim raised a $250M Series B at $2.8B post-money (up from $1.2B at Series A-2 Aug 2024, 2.3x step-up over 23 months) led by Peak XV Partners (Sequoia India spinout). Indian AI foundation model lab founded by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal. Trains Krutrim-2 multilingual (10 Indian languages) foundation models. Runs Krutrim Cloud AI infrastructure. In-house AI chip (Bodhi 1) tape-out complete Q2 2026, target sampling Q4. Consumer chatbot 5M+ users. Founded April 2023 by Bhavish Aggarwal (also founded Ola and Ola Electric). Total raised: $380M. Reliance Industries joining as first-time investor is the story: this is the first time India's two most-influential tech founders (Mukesh Ambani via Reliance, Bhavish Aggarwal via Krutrim) share a foundation-model cap-table, framed as a 'sovereign India AI stack' consolidation. Nvidia participating extends its India presence beyond Yotta Data Services (public), Tata Communications, and Jio Platforms. The $2.8B mark makes Krutrim India's largest AI-native private company and third-largest globally after 01.AI ($2.8B, series C Jul 12 same week) and Zhipu ($10B).
News & Signals
CPI +0.2 core (in-line), +2.7% y/y (dovish miss), September cut probability solidifies at 84%
Tuesday June CPI print: headline +0.2 m/m (consensus +0.2, prior +0.2), +2.8% y/y (consensus +2.9, prior +2.9). Core +0.2 m/m (consensus +0.2, prior +0.2), +2.7% y/y (consensus +2.8, prior +2.8, dovish miss). Shelter +0.3 (decelerating from +0.4 May, key), core services ex-shelter +0.24 (unchanged), core goods -0.1 (deflation). Iran-framework gasoline pass-through visible: energy -0.9 m/m. Wednesday PPI +0.1 m/m, core +0.1 (both in-line). September cut probability jumped from 81% (pre-print) to 84% (post-CPI) to 86% (post-PPI Wed). December cut probability now 32% (up from 24% start of week). 2Y -6bp to 4.47%, 10Y -4bp to 4.68% (curve steepened marginally), USD DXY -0.3%. SPX +0.9% Tuesday close on the print. Powell speaking at the LSE Wednesday evening was carefully non-committal: 'we welcome continued disinflation but will need to see the data through August.'
Q3 bank earnings kickoff: JPM crushes ($4.98 vs $4.85), Citi in-line, Wells beats, IB fees +31% y/y (best quarter since Q4 2021)
Wednesday Jul 15 pre-market: JPMorgan Q2 EPS $4.98 vs $4.85 consensus (+2.7% surprise), revenue $47.2B vs $45.8B, NII $23.9B vs $23.1B (net interest income surprisingly strong). Investment banking fees $3.4B vs $2.9B (+17% surprise, +31% y/y). Provision for credit losses $2.1B (below $2.4B consensus, benign credit environment). JPM stock +3.2% post-print. Citi EPS $1.72 in-line, revenue $22.1B beat. Wells Fargo EPS $1.51 vs $1.42 (+6.3% surprise), IB fees +38% y/y. Thursday Netflix Q2: +7.8M net subs (consensus +6.5M, +20% beat), Q3 guide 'flat sequentially, ads business now 30% of new sub adds.' Ads gross margins disclosed at 68% (first-time), stock +9% AH. Friday TSMC Taiwan pre-open: June revenue NT$276B (+41% y/y, hot). July revenue guide +38% y/y (Q4 AI chip backlog visibility strong). Nvidia +3.2% Friday on TSMC read-through. Overall bank + AI-adjacent earnings kickoff was unambiguously positive; the 'summer melt-up' consensus hardened further.
Anthropic pricing anchor allocations sequenced past $30B, grey-market mid at $260 (+18% premium), pricing IC Oct 6-7 locked
Anthropic pricing IC continued this week. Late Thursday anchor-allocation confirmations: PIF $6B (confirmed Jun 26), ADIA $3.5B, Mubadala $2.5B, GIC $3.5B, Temasek $2.5B, SoftBank Vision Fund $7B (upsized from $6B soft-circle), NBIM (Norway) $1.5B new, KIA (Kuwait) $1B new, Fidelity $2B, T. Rowe $1.5B, Wellington $1.2B (upsized from $1B). Total anchor book: $31.7B of $89B ($36% absorption, up from 32% last week). Grey-market mid closed Thursday at $260 (up from $255 last week, +18% premium over $220 anchor). Forge Global weekly volume $2.4B notional. Bear-camp weekend note: 'the $260 grey-mid is now +18%, the SPCX first-day peak premium was +25%; the retail piece may only sustain +5% post-listing if the pricing anchors at $220 hard'. Bull-camp response: 'the +18% grey-mid + 36% anchor absorption is the setup for a $265 open and $275-280 close on Oct 7'. 85 days to first trade. Pricing IC final Oct 6 evening, first trade Oct 7 morning.
T. Rowe Price crossover investor pattern: Waabi + Perplexity + Harvey + Snyk all name T. Rowe as pre-IPO anchor this week, 2027-2028 IPO signals
T. Rowe Price participated in four rounds this week (Waabi Series C, Perplexity Series F, Harvey Series H, Snyk Series H). This is the highest single-week T. Rowe crossover participation on record and reads as the mutual-fund crossover community's synchronized 'pre-IPO anchor' positioning for a wave of 2027-2028 IPOs. The pattern: (1) Waabi at $2.4B, likely 2028 IPO after L4 trucking commercial ramp maturity, (2) Perplexity at $22B, likely 2027 IPO after Comet browser + Enterprise unit crosses $1B ARR, (3) Harvey at $8B, likely 2028 IPO after Q4 2026 ARR crosses $500M, (4) Snyk at $10.5B, likely 2027 IPO (the fastest of the four, given ARR at $410M and 42% y/y growth). Wellington Management leads Snyk (first Snyk lead ever). Fidelity anchors Perplexity + Harvey + Snyk. The 'crossover-anchor pipeline is now $43B of aggregate private-market value' framing was the dominant Ben Evans + Stratechery weekly-note thread.
Humanoid cohort update: Sanctuary AI $1.8B adds 9th name, combined cohort now $97B; Nvidia on 6 of 9 cap-tables
Sanctuary AI's Series B ($150M at $1.8B) adds the 9th name to the humanoid cohort. Updated combined private-market value: $97B. By valuation: Figure AI $68B (series D Jun 23), Physical Intelligence $7.5B (series C Jul 1), Apptronik $5.5B (series B Jun 30), 1X Technologies $4.2B (series C Jul 7), Neura Robotics $3.5B (series C Jun 22), Sanctuary AI $1.8B (series B Jul 17), Chef Robotics $1.2B, plus 8 sub-$1B pre-consumer names. Nvidia's cap-table presence: 6 of 9 (Figure, Physical Intelligence, Apptronik, 1X, Neura, Sanctuary, plus Chef pending). OpenAI Startup Fund presence: 4 of 9 (Figure via spin-off history, Physical Intelligence, 1X, Sanctuary). The 'Nvidia + OpenAI dual-anchor humanoid stack' framing is now unambiguous. Q3 2026 consumer-unit-shipping projection: 1X + Figure combined ~8,000 units at $18K ASP = $145M unit revenue Q4 (raised from prior week's estimate on 1X NEO Home Q4 launch confirmation Monday).
OpenAI S-1 valuation range formalized $1.55-1.65T, roadshow week 3 sequenced Sept 21-25, first-trade Oct 23 confirmed
OpenAI filed an S-1 amendment Wednesday (confirming last week's Form 10 pre-announce): valuation range formalized at $1.55-1.65T (down from $1.7T initial). Ticker 'OPAI' registered on NYSE. Roadshow week 3 (Sept 21-25) sequenced: London Sept 21 (Fidelity International + Baillie Gifford + Legal & General + Aviva + M&G), Frankfurt Sept 22 (Allianz + DWS + Deutsche AM + Union Investment), Zurich Sept 23 (Pictet + UBP + Julius Baer + Vontobel + Partners Group), Dubai Sept 24 (DIC + Mashreq + First Abu Dhabi + Emirates NBD), Riyadh + PIF all-day Sept 25 (moved from Sept 27 given PIF's request for full-day access ahead of Aug PIF-board meeting). Anchor tour finale week 4 (Sept 28-Oct 2) unchanged: SoftBank Tokyo, Temasek/GIC Singapore, T. Rowe/Fidelity/Wellington Boston. Pricing IC final Oct 20-22, first-trade Oct 23. 96 days to OpenAI first trade. Anthropic pricing IC Oct 6-7 is 12 days ahead of OpenAI pricing IC start (Oct 20). The 'sequential AI-mega-IPO Q4 tape' is now the working operator calendar.
Weekly recap: 9 priced rounds, $2.87B raised, T. Rowe in 4 rounds, Nvidia in 5, sequential-IPO Q4 setup locking in
Weekly totals (Jul 13-19): 9 priced rounds across FundBat coverage totaling $2.87B raised. By sector: search-and-answer AI (Perplexity $500M, 17%), autonomous systems (Applied Intuition $500M + Waabi $300M = $800M, 28%), chip/silicon (Tenstorrent $500M, 17%), legal AI (Harvey $300M, 10%), cybersecurity (Snyk $250M, 9%), video AI (HeyGen $120M, 4%), humanoid robotics (Sanctuary AI $150M, 5%), India/emerging markets AI (Krutrim $250M, 9%). By stage: 1 Series B (Sanctuary), 1 Series B (Krutrim), 1 Series C (Waabi), 1 Series C (HeyGen), 1 Series D (Tenstorrent as E), 1 Series F (Perplexity), 1 Series G (Applied Intuition), 2 Series H (Harvey + Snyk). Two new decacorn-adjacent-plus: Perplexity at $22B post (+2.4x), Applied Intuition at $10B (first time). Nvidia participated in 5 of 9 rounds (Perplexity, Applied Intuition, Tenstorrent, HeyGen, Krutrim; also Sanctuary and Waabi = 7 total). T. Rowe Price participated in 4 of 9 (Waabi, Perplexity, Harvey, Snyk). Q3 earnings continue into Alphabet Jul 23; Anthropic pricing IC final Oct 6, OpenAI first trade Oct 23. Total FundBat coverage since Jun 20 (31 days): 41 priced rounds, $13.62B raised.
VC Mood on X
The dominant FinTwit thread this week was the T. Rowe Price crossover pattern: T. Rowe participated in 4 of 9 priced rounds (Waabi, Perplexity, Harvey, Snyk), the highest single-week crossover participation on record. Combined with Fidelity anchoring 3 (Perplexity, Harvey, Snyk) and Wellington leading 1 (Snyk), the mutual-fund crossover community is systematically loading up on pre-IPO positions across the 2027-2028 IPO glidepath. Three FinTwit narratives dominated: (1) 'the crossover community's synchronized 2027-2028 IPO pipeline is now $43B of aggregate private-market exposure' (Ben Evans + Stratechery weekly), (2) 'T. Rowe is doing what Fidelity did in 2018-2019: front-loading positions before the IPO wave crest' (Alex Rampell + Alexis Ohanian), (3) 'Wellington leading Snyk is the sleeper tell: Wellington's public-market coverage IC is done with Snyk' (Sarah Guo weekly note).
The Anthropic pricing anchor absorption crossing $31.7B (36% of $89B book) plus grey-market mid at $260 (+18% premium) is the second theme. NBIM (Norway sovereign wealth) joining as new anchor is the most notable addition: NBIM's Anthropic position is its second-ever private-company allocation after the Aramco IPO participation. KIA (Kuwait Investment Authority) also joined new. The sovereign-anchor triple (PIF + ADIA + Mubadala + GIC + Temasek + NBIM + KIA + SoftBank Vision Fund) is now consolidated: 8 sovereign wealth funds pre-committed for Anthropic pricing, unprecedented. Bear-camp weekend note: 'the +18% grey-mid is close to the SPCX first-day-peak premium; the +25% ceiling is now the working bear-case target for the ANTH first-day close'. Bull-camp: 'the +18% grey-mid + 36% anchor absorption + 8 sovereigns pre-committed = the setup for a $270 open and $285-290 close'. 85 days to first trade Oct 7.
The Q3 bank earnings crush (JPM +2.7% surprise, Wells +6.3% surprise, IB fees +31% y/y) plus Netflix +20% sub surprise plus TSMC +41% y/y June revenue is the third theme: the macro-plus-earnings tape is now unambiguously supportive of the summer melt-up. CPI +0.2 core dovish miss cements September cut probability at 84% (up from 81% pre-print). SPX +2.1% for the week, NDX +2.7%, Nvidia +4.5%. VIX at 11.7 (new cycle low, below April 2025). Perplexity's $22B mark (larger than Anthropic's Feb 2025 valuation) plus Harvey's second-up-round-in-four-months plus Snyk's first-round-in-3.5-years all tell the same story: the crossover community is repricing the AI application layer up-tier in preparation for the Q4 2026 IPO wave. Applied Intuition's $10B first-time-decacorn mark plus Tenstorrent's $4.2B (Bezos-led first) plus the Nvidia-cap-table pattern (5 of 9 rounds this week, 12 of 17 last two weeks) confirm the systematic infra-and-application-layer sweep is now the operator base case. Alphabet earnings Jul 23 is the next catalyst.
Rounds and signals sourced from SEC filings, press releases, and verified news reports. All amounts in USD unless noted. Reporting reflects information available at time of publication.