Issue #20August 31, 20268 links

Instinct raises $250.0M at a $2.5B valuation

Instinct, an AI assistant that connects a user's apps and devices and takes instructions by text message and phone call, raised a $250.0M Series B led by Index Ventures and Benchmark at a $2.5B valuation, taking total funding to $350M. 3D-printing construction company ICON raised $115.0M.

Cool Company Raises

$250.0M

Instinct raises a $250.0M Series B round

Instinct is an AI assistant built to organize your life: users connect their apps and devices and talk to it by text message and phone call. Founded by Noah Shinn and operated by Spear Street Technology, it went viral while still in private beta — and drew scrutiny over the breadth of app permissions it asks for. The $250M round, led by Index Ventures and Benchmark, values the company at $2.5B and takes total funding to $350M.

Biotechnology Health-Care Benchmark Index Ventures $100M+

YC F26

Talos launches at YC (Fall 2026)

Talos builds predictive maintenance for power infrastructure. It continuously monitors critical power equipment, detects meaningful changes in behaviour, and tells teams where to look before a failure becomes an outage. Founded in 2026 by Kevin Hwang, Amitav Kohli and Himani Musku, the Baltimore-based company is in Y Combinator's Fall 2026 batch.

Deep-Learning IOT Energy YC Industrials

$10.0M

VeryAI raises a $10.0M Seed round

VeryAI is a Proof of Reality platform providing biometric-based identity verification. Founded by experts in biometrics, crypto, and AI, the company focuses on securely verifying user identity on standard smartphones without storing sensitive images. Its primary product utilizes a hardware-free palm scan verification process. VeryAI aims to distinguish human identities from AI-generated content and deepfakes.

Artificial-Intelligence Machine-Learning Biometrics Anagram Berggruen Institute Polychain Capital+1 more

$35.0M

Voya Energy raises a $35.0M Series A round

Voya Energy is focused on innovative energy solutions, unveiling a proprietary aluminum-based metal fuel system paired with an electrochemical generator. This technology aims to produce electricity without combustion or air emissions, advancing sustainable energy methods. The company is committed to commercial deployment of its groundbreaking systems.

Manufacturing Energy Renewable-Energy Seven Stars Overmatch Founders Fund+5 more

$20.0M

SiFly Aviation raises a $20.0M Series A round

SiFly delivers helicopter-like performance at drone economics through long-endurance autonomous aerial systems. Its cloud-connected, U.S.-made platforms enable persistent coverage for public safety, critical infrastructure inspection, and enterprise operations. The company focuses on providing greater endurance to improve operating performance and economics across various industries. SiFly is positioned to redefine drone usage in mission-critical applications.

Information-Technology Software Alumni Ventures Bbk Capital Qudit Shield Capital+1 more

$43.0M

Deep Cogito raises a $43.0M Series A round

Deep Cogito is a San Francisco AI research company building general superintelligence. Its research centres on advanced reasoning and iterative self-improvement — models that get better by refining their own reasoning — rather than on scale alone. The $43M Series A backs its post-training engine for frontier intelligence.

Software Artificial-Intelligence SAAS Zscaler South Park Commons Atreides Management+6 more

$20.0M

Corvus Robotics raises a $20.0M round

Corvus Robotics builds physical AI agents for large scale supply chain environments, enabling companies to understand and coordinate inventory operations in real time. Built in America, Corvus deploys infrastructure free autonomous drones that operate continuously inside active warehouses and manufacturing facilities at scale. Its spatial AI agents learn from real world deployments to improve models of space, inventory and supply chains. Through a Robots as a Service model, Corvus creates a data flywheel where deployments compound customer value and system intelligence over time, solving the hardest problems in physical AI including autonomy, reliability and real world deployment at national scale while supporting a more efficient and responsive physical economy.

Other Transportation Logistics Cibus Capital F7 Ventures Spero Ventures+3 more

$115.0M

ICON raises a $115.0M round

ICON is a construction technology company developing robotic and AI systems to lower the cost and increase the speed and quality of construction to tackle the global housing crisis and prepare to build on other worlds. As a pioneer of large-scale 3D printing, ICON continually sets new standards for delivering resilient, dignified housing and recently unveiled a radical new robotic printer that enables multi-story construction, a new low-carbon building material, a digital catalog for residential architecture, and an AI architect for home design and construction. Using proprietary 3D printing robotics, software and advanced materials, ICON is shifting the paradigm of homebuilding on Earth and beyond.

Information-Technology $100M+

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