AI startup funding
AI Startup Funding This Week: 24 Rounds, September 21–26, 2026
Published September 26, 2026 · Press Pool
Press Pool confirmed 24 funding rounds announced by AI companies in the week of September 21–26, 2026; the 23 announced in dollars add up to $6.05 billion. The largest were Nscale ($3.36 billion), Island ($400 million) and Cyera ($400 million). 7 of the 24 companies had already been cited in AI answers recorded by the Machine Relations Index; the other 17 had not.
| Company | Amount | Round | Announced | Led by | Cited by AI engines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nscale | $3.36 billion | Pre-IPO convertible notes | Sep 25 | Third Point | Yes (4 answers) |
| Island | $400 million | Series F | Sep 24 | Evolution Equity Partners | Not yet |
| Cyera | $400 million | Series G extension | Sep 22 | Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives (no lead named) | Yes (9 answers) |
| Snorkel AI | $350 million | Series E | Sep 22 | Insight Partners, S32 | Yes (13 answers) |
| Heidi | $340 million | Series C plus growth investment | Sep 22 | Blackbird, General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund | Yes (11 answers) |
| Enveda | $311 million | Series E | Sep 23 | Catalio Capital Management | Not yet |
| Verda | $189 million (€163 million) | Series B plus additional investment | Sep 22 | Emergence Capital | Yes (2 answers) |
| Basecamp Research | $140 million | Series C | Sep 23 | S32 | Not yet |
| Go.AI | $85 million | Series A | Sep 22 | Updata Partners | Not yet |
| Ema | $77 million | Series B | Sep 23 | Creaegis | Yes (1 answer) |
| BigHat Biosciences | $75 million | Series C | Sep 24 | DFJ Growth, Premji Invest | Not yet |
| Firecrawl | $75 million | Series B | Sep 22 | Smash Capital | Yes (46 answers) |
| Confido | $55 million | Series B | Sep 22 | Insight Partners | Not yet |
| Ande | more than $52 million | Seed and Series A | Sep 22 | Lightspeed, Redpoint, Duration and Sierra, with Bain Capital Ventures (no lead named) | Not yet |
| Baselayer | $35 million | Series A | Sep 22 | M13 | Not yet |
| Chamelio | $26 million | Series A | Sep 22 | Entrée Capital | Not yet |
| UltraSight | $24 million | Series B2 | Sep 23 | Alive HealthTech Growth Fund | Not yet |
| Spott | $21 million | Series A | Sep 22 | Balderton Capital | Not yet |
| Soteris | more than $8 million | Seed | Sep 22 | Spider Capital | Not yet |
| Dextr AI | $6.7 million | Seed | Sep 24 | Elevation Capital | Not yet |
| 50skills | $6 million | Not stated | Sep 24 | Frumtak Ventures, Swiss Post Ventures, Avant, DRD Investments | Not yet |
| Fearn | $5.5 million | Not stated | Sep 23 | Kindred Ventures, a16z Speedrun, Designer Fund and Essence VC (no lead named) | Not yet |
| Kontext | $4 million | Not stated | Sep 24 | 42CAP | Not yet |
| Reply Next | €400,000 | Pre-seed | Sep 24 | 4Founders Capital | Not yet |
Every round, largest first
Nscale raised $3.36 billion (Pre-IPO convertible notes)
Nscale is a full-stack AI cloud platform spanning software, compute and power, from AI training and inference to data centers.
Cited by AI engines Cited in 4 AI answers recorded by the Machine Relations Index between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Island raised $400 million (Series F)
Island, which began with its Enterprise Browser, gives organizations one control plane to govern people and AI agents across devices, applications and data.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Cyera raised $400 million (Series G extension)
Cyera's platform lets enterprises control what data people and AI agents can reach, securing data at rest, in motion and in use.
Cited by AI engines Cited in 9 AI answers recorded by the Machine Relations Index between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Snorkel AI raised $350 million (Series E)
Snorkel AI builds expert-curated datasets and environments that AI labs, enterprises and government agencies use to train and evaluate models.
Cited by AI engines Cited in 13 AI answers recorded by the Machine Relations Index between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Heidi raised $340 million (Series C plus growth investment)
Heidi builds an AI care partner for clinicians, including an AI scribe, a point-of-care research tool, dictation and an audio-capture device.
Cited by AI engines Cited in 11 AI answers recorded by the Machine Relations Index between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Enveda raised $311 million (Series E)
Enveda is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that uses AI to identify molecules made by living organisms and develop them into oral medicines.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Verda raised $189 million (€163 million) (Series B plus additional investment)
Verda, formerly DataCrunch, is a full-stack AI cloud company that runs its own data centers, hardware and platform to provide on-demand compute for AI.
Cited by AI engines Cited in 2 AI answers recorded by the Machine Relations Index between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Basecamp Research raised $140 million (Series C)
Basecamp Research trains AI models on a proprietary genomic dataset to design therapeutics, starting with in vivo cell therapy.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Go.AI raised $85 million (Series A)
Go.AI, formerly Go Abacus, provides on-premises AI infrastructure, software and hardware, for regulated industries such as banking, healthcare and defense.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Ema raised $77 million (Series B)
Ema provides AI employees for HR, IT and finance that plan and carry out work across the applications an enterprise already uses.
Cited by AI engines Cited in 1 AI answer recorded by the Machine Relations Index between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
BigHat Biosciences raised $75 million (Series C)
BigHat Biosciences designs protein therapeutics with a platform that pairs AI models with autonomous, high-throughput lab experiments.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Firecrawl raised $75 million (Series B)
Firecrawl is a web data API that searches, scrapes and interacts with websites, turning them into clean Markdown or structured data for AI agents.
Cited by AI engines Cited in 46 AI answers recorded by the Machine Relations Index between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Confido raised $55 million (Series B)
Confido is an AI operating system for consumer packaged goods brands that runs their commercial and financial workflows on one set of data.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Ande raised more than $52 million (Seed and Series A)
Ande is an AI-native network where companies book corporate entertainment, such as client dinners and team outings, and manage approvals, contracts and expenses.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Baselayer raised $35 million (Series A)
Baselayer provides identity and risk infrastructure that financial institutions use to verify businesses, and is extending it to AI agents acting for them.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Chamelio raised $26 million (Series A)
Chamelio is an AI-native platform for in-house legal teams that drafts, reviews and negotiates contracts and runs approvals and other legal workflows.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
UltraSight raised $24 million (Series B2)
UltraSight combines training, real-time AI guidance and analytics so clinicians can perform focused cardiac ultrasound exams under physician oversight.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Spott raised $21 million (Series A)
Spott is an AI-native applicant tracking system and CRM for recruitment agencies that turns calls, emails and CVs into data teams can act on.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Soteris raised more than $8 million (Seed)
Soteris is an AI platform that gives property and casualty insurers policy-level insight into profitability and expected loss ratio at quote and renewal.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Dextr AI raised $6.7 million (Seed)
Dextr AI provides AI agents that automate hotel and resort work across guest experience, reservations, staff operations, sales and marketing.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
50skills raised $6 million
50skills lets HR teams describe people processes such as onboarding in plain language, then builds and runs them with workflows, AI agents and human oversight.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Fearn raised $5.5 million
Fearn is an AI-native patent firm for startups whose former Big Law patent specialists draft and prosecute patents using models built for patent law.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Kontext raised $4 million
Kontext is a runtime security platform that sits between AI agents and the systems they use, checking each action against security policy.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
Reply Next raised €400,000 (Pre-seed)
Reply Next is an AI platform that helps brands with many locations manage their online visibility, reviews and customer interactions in one place.
Not yet cited Not cited in any AI answer the Machine Relations Index recorded between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026.
What “cited by AI engines” means here
The Machine Relations Index asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews a fixed panel of buyer questions on a recurring schedule and records which websites each answer cites. A company counts as cited when its own website appeared as a source in at least one recorded answer between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026 (release mri_score_v2.0+2026-09-25+04fcb7fb8f29). The panel asks buyer questions across 24 industry categories, not questions about these companies by name, so “not yet” means no recorded answer cited the company's site. A company whose market sits outside those categories can be absent for that reason alone.
Questions
- Which AI startups raised the most money the week of September 21, 2026?
- Nscale, $3.36 billion (Pre-IPO convertible notes), Island, $400 million (Series F) and Cyera, $400 million (Series G extension).
- How much did AI startups raise the week of September 21, 2026?
- The 24 AI rounds confirmed here include 23 announced in dollars, which total $6.05 billion. One round was announced in another currency and is listed as announced, not converted.
- Do AI answer engines already know these companies?
- 7 of the 24 companies had been cited in at least one AI answer recorded by the Machine Relations Index between May 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026: Nscale, Cyera, Snorkel AI, Heidi, Verda, Ema and Firecrawl. A funding announcement does not by itself put a company into AI answers.
How this list was built
Rounds come from public announcements: the company's own release where one exists, and the outlet that reported it. This week's candidates came from a funding-announcement feed over TechCrunch, Tech.eu and EU-Startups, from AlleyWatch's and Raise Track's daily funding reports, and from Crunchbase News, Bloomberg and Reuters; 24 of them met the AI rule and were confirmed. Each entry was checked against its source for the amount, the round and the lead investors. A company is included when its own announcement describes the company, not one feature, as AI or as built for AI. Full method.