The Daily Raise/August 17, 2026
Monday, August 17, 2026
12 startup funding rounds surfaced since our last edition, $1.3B raised in total. Higgsfield tops the day with $400M in Series B funding, led by DST Global. The ranking runs all the way down to $1M, with startups from United States, Switzerland, Nigeria, Canada.
The rounds leading today's news · 5 rounds
No. 1
$400M
Amount raised
Series B·Artificial intelligence·United States
Higgsfield is Creates AI-generated video and images for creators, brands, agencies, and studios.
Higgsfield raised $400 million in Series B financing to scale its AI visual media platform amid rapid user and revenue growth. The round was led by DST Global, with participation from Tribe Capital, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Smash Capital.
No. 2
$350M
Amount raised
Series A·Artificial intelligence·United States
Groq is AI inference cloud and language-processing-unit technology company.
Groq raised a $350 million Series A led by Disruptive with Nvidia participating to expand its AI inference cloud business. The round was led by Disruptive, with participation from Nvidia.
No. 3
$280M
Amount raised
Series B·AI productivity software·Aug 17
Wispr is Develops AI dictation, speech understanding, and meeting note-taking tools.
Wispr raised $280 million to expand beyond dictation into meeting tools and improve speech understanding. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures.
No. 4
$200M
Amount raised
Series A·Robotics·Switzerland
Gravis Robotics is Develops AI autonomy systems for excavators and other construction machinery.
Gravis Robotics announced a $200 million Series A from SoftBank Investment Advisers to scale its autonomous construction robotics technology. The round was led by SoftBank Investment Advisers.
No. 5
$20M
Amount raised
Series A·Business automation·Aug 17
Palona AI is Automates operations and customer interactions for physical businesses using AI.
Palona AI raised $20 million to deploy its real-time automation platform across restaurants and other physical businesses. The round was led by Ardenwood Ventures, with participation from CrimsonOx, UpHonest, Turbo.
Growth, Series A and everything in between · 7 rounds
No. 6
$18M
Amount raised
Seed·Defence technology·Nigeria
Terra Industries is Develops autonomous security systems and unmanned technologies for critical infrastructure.
Terra Industries raised an additional USD 18 million to expand manufacturing, including a planned Ghana facility, and pursue international growth. The round was led by 8VC, with participation from Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital.
No. 7
$9.3M
Amount raised
Series A·Warehouse technology·United States
Takt is Unifies warehouse labor, automation, robotics data, and operational performance management.
Takt raised $9.25 million in its first institutional round to invest in its platform, AI, automation, and enterprise integrations. The round was led by Ballast Point Partners.
No. 8
$8.7M
Amount raised
Seed·Sports technology·Canada
Peripheral Labs is Converts camera images into navigable three-dimensional sports video.
Peripheral Labs raised $8.7 million in seed funding co-led by Deloitte Ventures and Inovia Capital to expand engineering and deploy its spatial intelligence technology with sports leagues and stadiums. The round was led by Deloitte Ventures, with participation from Inovia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Entrepreneurs First.
No. 9
$8.1M
Amount raised
Series A·Enterprise AI·Germany
amber is Connects and automates company knowledge across enterprise data sources.
amber raised a €7 million Series A co-led by Ventech and NRW.Venture to expand across Europe and develop autonomous business AI technology. The round was led by Ventech, with participation from NRW.Venture.
No. 10
$7.5M
Amount raised
Seed·Enterprise artificial intelligence·United States
Xpander is Provides infrastructure and AI agents for enterprise AI adoption and management.
Xpander raised a $7.5 million Seed round to accelerate market expansion for its vendor-neutral enterprise AI platform. The round was led by Pico Venture Partners, with participation from Emerge Ventures, Samsung Next, SeedIL.
No. 11
$1.2M
Amount raised
Pre-Seed·Marketing technology·Aug 17
Astute is Helps B2B companies manage creator partnerships across newsletters, podcasts, and social media.
Astute raised an oversubscribed $1.2 million pre-seed round to launch its platform for managing B2B creator partnerships and measuring their impact. The round was led by Flyer One Ventures, with participation from Silicon Gardens, Marathon Fund, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator.
No. 12
$1M
Amount raised
Financial technology·United States·Aug 17
VastAdvisor is Uses AI to automate client acquisition and marketing for wealth management firms.
VastAdvisor closed a $1 million SAFE round to accelerate its product roadmap and go-to-market efforts. The round was led by Dani Fava, with participation from Jason Pereira, Sally George.
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