Weekly startup funding roundup — week ending Aug. 1, 2026: 28 notable deals, $2.2B
The weekly report on startup funding for the week ended August 1, 2026, lists 28 notable transactions totaling $2.2 billion. Names to watch this period include COR, Simile and Epitel, alongside a broad mix of companies active in energy, AI, cybersecurity, healthcare and space.
Funding themes: energy, industrial AI, AI model security and space
Deals this week reinforce several visible sector trends: energy transition and storage, industrial AI applications, security for AI models, and space technologies are all drawing meaningful capital. Representative companies include Antora Energy (thermal storage), Antares Industries (microreactors), Eliyan (interconnects for AI systems) and Onyx Security (risk monitoring for AI/ML systems).
Top companies by cumulative funding
– Antora Energy (San Jose) — Thermal energy storage specialist targeting industrial use cases. Founded in 2018, the company has now raised a total of $750M in equity and counts Breakthrough Energy Ventures, John Doerr and Lowercarbon Capital among its backers.
– Antares Industries (Los Angeles) — Developer of transportable microreactors for terrestrial and space applications. Founded in 2023, the company has amassed $471M in capital, backed by Paradigm, Point72 Ventures, Shine Capital and others.
– CAIS (New York) — Fintech platform providing access to alternative investments through independent channels. Founded in 2009, CAIS has raised $916M to date and lists investors such as The Carlyle Group and Vista Equity Partners.
– Eliyan (Santa Clara) — Builds interconnection solutions that improve bandwidth and energy efficiency for AI systems; total funding: $295M.
– ThreatLocker (Orlando) — Endpoint security and application-whitelisting specialist with $489.4M in total equity raised.
– Onyx Security (Wilmington) — Monitoring and risk management for AI/ML systems, total funding: $153M.
Note: the figures above are each company’s historical cumulative funding totals as reported this week.
Other notable raises this week
This selection illustrates the geographic and sector diversity among the 28 transactions:
– Simile (Palo Alto) — AI-powered collaborative automation platform; total funding now $300M. Investors include Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and Greenoaks.
– ChipAgents (Goleta) — Uses AI agents to accelerate chip and circuit design; total funding $134.1M, backed by Bessemer and MediaTek.
– P-1 AI (Henderson) — Company focused on developing general engineering intelligence; total funding: [source text cut off]
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