The highest-valued new entrants had been China-based humanoid robotics enterprise XPeng Robotics, valued at greater than $6.3 billion; San Jose, California-based photonics firm Lumilens, valued at $5.5 billion; and Palo Alto, California-based AI mannequin platform River AI, and San Francisco’s semiconductor manufacturing startup Source Foundry, each valued at $5 billion.
AI software program featured prominently throughout mannequin coaching, assistants, agentic and enterprise workflow automation, coding and voice transcription.
Semiconductors was the second-largest sector, with 5 new unicorns. Robotics and monetary providers every added three, whereas knowledge facilities, safety and vitality every added two.
The U.S. accounted for 16 of August’s new unicorns. China adopted with 4. South Korea, India, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Germany and Turkey every added one. Nigeria and Indonesia additionally every added one new unicorn — for each, their first new unicorn of the yr.
New unicorns in August
Here are August’s new unicorn firms:
AI and software program
- River AI, a Palo Alto, California-based platform for coaching, fine-tuning and deploying customized AI fashions based mostly on proprietary knowledge, introduced $1.1 billion in funding led by General Catalyst and AMP PBC. The less-than-1-year-old firm, based by former xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, was valued around $5 billion.
- San Francisco-based Instinct, an AI assistant that executes private duties, raised a $250 million Series B led by Benchmark and Index Ventures. The 1-year-old firm was valued at $2.5 billion.
- Shanghai-based Pragmatik Labs, a builder of brokers for digital and bodily environments, raised a $220 million seed spherical led by Gaorong Capital and HongShan. The less-than-1-year-old firm was valued at $2 billion. Its founder, Junyang Lin, a Qwen researcher, left Alibaba Group earlier this yr.
- San Francisco-based Wispr Flow, which builds AI-powered voice-writing and meeting-transcription instruments, raised a $280 million Series B led by Menlo Ventures, who additionally led its Series A in 2025. The 5-year-old firm was valued at $2 billion.
- San Francisco-based CodeRabbit, which supplies AI-powered code assessment and change-management instruments, raised a $143 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation. Atomico and Smash Capital co-led the spherical. The 3-year-old firm stated it could commit greater than $10 million to maintain its instruments free for open-source initiatives over the subsequent yr.
- San Francisco-based HappyRobot, which deploys AI brokers throughout calls, e mail, paperwork and enterprise techniques, raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation. Prysm Capital and Eurazeo led the spherical. The firm is 4 years outdated, began in logistics and has expanded to insurance coverage, vitality, telecommunications and airways amongst others and counts 150 enterprise clients.
- Turkey-based HubX, a developer of client cell functions, raised a $50 million Series A led by Point72. The 4-year-old firm was valued at $1.25 billion. Its apps embrace AI chatbot Nova, diagnosing vegetation with PlantApp, and artwork generator DaVinci.
Semiconductors
- Lumilens, a San Jose, California-based developer of photonic interconnects for AI computing infrastructure, raised a $700 million Series C at a $5.5 billion valuation. Atreides Management, Bain Capital Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Seligman Ventures and Spark Capital led the spherical. The 2-year-old firm is already deployed inside knowledge facilities.
- Source Foundry raised $400 million in funding led by hedge fund Situational Awareness. The 1-year-old firm was valued at $5 billion. The San Francisco-based firm creates tooling for semiconductor manufacturing and was based by Stanford researchers.
- South Korea-based DEEPX, which develops edge AI processors for on-device inference, raised about $29 million within the first tranche of its Series D funding from current buyers. The 8-year-old firm concentrating on robotics and electronics was valued at about $2.2 billion.
- Shanghai-based (*29*), an AI chip startup for inference, raised a Series A led by native state capital buyers Xuhui Venture Capital and Zhuhai Science and Technology Industry Group. The 4-year-old firm was valued at about $1.5 billion with plans to ship its product in This autumn 2026.
- Santa Clara, California-based Velaura AI, which develops low-power silicon and software program for AI knowledge facilities and bodily AI, raised a $110 million Series A led by Seligman Ventures. The 4-year outdated firm was valued at greater than $1 billion.
Robotics
- China-based XPeng Robotics, which is constructing the general-purpose IRON humanoid robotic, raised greater than $900 million in its first exterior financing at a post-money valuation exceeding $6.3 billion. IDG Capital led the spherical, with participation from Gaorong Capital and help from Tencent and Alibaba Group. The firm, a subsidiary of public good electrical car firm XPeng Motors, is 10 years outdated.
- Singapore-based Sharpa, which develops robots to function in real-world environments, raised about $669 million in funding. The 2-year-old firm was valued at about $3.3 billion and is ready to deploy robots in a Dairy Queen in Shanghai to deal with the complete 55-step technique of taking orders, getting ready the meals and handing it to a buyer.
- Zurich-based Gravis Robotics, which develops autonomous expertise for heavy building equipment, raised a $200 million Series A led by SoftBank. The 4-year-old firm was valued at $1 billion and works throughout a number of building manufacturers.
Financial providers
- Bengaluru-based Navi Technologies, a financial-services firm spanning fee, lending and insurance coverage, raised $100 million in funding led by Prosus Ventures. The 7-year-old firm was valued at $1.3 billion.
- Berlin-based Moss, a finance AI platform for European mid-sized companies to handle spend, card issuing and bills, raised a $40 million Series C led by Portage Ventures and Cherry Ventures. The 7-year-old firm was valued at round $1.15 billion. The firm says it has 5,000 companies that use the service to offer finance groups management.
- Palo Alto, California-based Rillet, an AI-native enterprise useful resource planning platform for accounting, raised a $100 million Series C led by Iconiq Capital. The 4-year-old firm was valued at $1 billion.
Aerospace and protection
- Los Angeles-based Neros Technologies, a producer of autonomous army drones and counter-drone techniques, raised a $250 million Series C at a $2.5 billion post-money valuation. Sequoia Capital and the American Strategic Technology Fund co-led the spherical. The firm is 3 years outdated. Neros has contracts with the U.S. army in addition to half a dozen allied nations.
- Mountain View, California-based Muon Space, which builds and operates satellite tv for pc constellations for nationwide safety, civil and business clients, raised a $250 million Series C led by Eclipse. The 5-year-old firm was valued at $1.5 billion.
Data facilities
- Palo Alto, California-based Volta, a vertically built-in AI infrastructure platform, raised a $300 million Series A led by Altimeter Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Azora and Nvidia. The less-than-1-year-old firm was valued at $2.4 billion. Alongside the fairness, Volta secured $5 billion in debt to fund knowledge heart buildouts.
- Zankore, a full-stack AI infrastructure and neocloud platform, acquired $800 million in corporate funding led by Doha-based broadband supplier Ooredoo, which holds a 49% stake. Jakarta-based Zankore is lower than 1-year-old and is valued at $1.6 billion. The platform is concentrating on 1 gigawatt of AI computing capability.
Security
- San Francisco-based Horizon3.ai, an AI-native safety firm that gives autonomous penetration testing, raised a $250 million Series E led by New Enterprise Associates and NightDragon. The 7-year-old firm was valued at $2 billion and is utilized by 7,000 organizations together with protection, Fortune 10, banks and healthcare firms amongst others.
- Palo Alto, California-based Obsidian Security, which supplies safety for AI brokers and third-party functions, raised an $85 million Series D led by Crescent Cove Advisors. The 9-year-old firm was valued at $1.1 billion.
Energy
- China-based Nova Fusion, a nuclear fusion firm growing small modular reactors, raised about $179 million in seed funding. The 1-year-old firm was valued at about $1.5 billion.
- Washington, D.C.-based Emerald AI, which develops software program that adjusts AI data-center workloads based mostly on power-grid calls for, raised a $150 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation. Energize Capital and DCVC co-led the spherical. The 2-year-old firm says the spherical brings whole funding to greater than $220 million.
Transportation
- Nigeria-based Moove, a car financing and autonomous fleet administration infrastructure, raised a $250 million Series C led by Ion Pacific, Mubadala and Woven Capital. The 7-year-old firm was valued at $2.1 billion. It operates a fleet of 42,000 automobiles — each human-driven and autonomous — throughout 29 cities, with annual recurring income of $420 million.
Critical minerals
- Houston-based Mariana Minerals, which builds mines and refineries utilizing its MarianaOS software program platform, raised a $310 million Series B led by Khosla Ventures. The 2-year-old firm was valued at $1.5 billion.
Web3
- Dubai-based Fasset, an AI-enabled stablecoin neobanking platform for cross-border funds and tokenized property, raised a $68 million Series C led by Tokyo-based SBI Group at a $1 billion valuation. The 7-year-old firm says it processes greater than $40 billion in annualized transaction quantity.
Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:
Related studying:
Methodology
The unicorn board doesn’t mirror inside firm valuations — comparable to these set by way of a 409a course of for worker inventory choices — as these differ from, and usually tend to be decrease than, a priced funding spherical. We additionally don’t regulate valuations based mostly on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as totally different buyers won’t worth the identical firm constantly inside the identical quarter.
Funding to unicorn firms contains all non-public financings to firms which might be tagged as unicorns, in addition to those who have since graduated to The Exited Unicorn Board.
Exits analyzed right here solely embrace the primary time an organization exits.
