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Our third in a series of articles about non-tech founders getting venture funding features Tabs founder Ali Hussain, who started the AI fintech after realizing pursuing a Ph.D. in humanities was a terrible idea and spent some time in the tech workforce where he learned a few things about building venture-backed companies.
The best boards continuously evaluate selling alongside scaling, pivoting, or staying independent, especially when the company is thriving, founder priorities are shifting, or strategic buyers begin showing interest, argues tech strategic adviser Itay Sagie. In this guest commentary, he share three signals that tell directors that it’s time to sell the company.
So far this year, 250 companies have joined the unicorn ranks through Aug. 15, up from 2025's 193 companies. Leading sectors included robotics, AI labs, healthcare and biotech, financial services, AI infrastructure, and AI deployment, among others. But which investors are winning the 2026 funding surge? We take a look.
In the first half of 2026, global venture funding in the physical AI space totaled $47.4 billion across 521 deals, per Crunchbase data. That’s up dramatically — almost 4x — compared to the second half of 2025 when startups in the sector raised $12 billion across 470 deals.
Massive AI spending has helped push earnings and valuations for semiconductor industry leaders to record levels, prompting the sector's giants to invest record sums in artificial intelligence and robotics startups.
Databricks is back raising another $5 billion, after it raised that amount just eight months ago. The largest fundings this week also went to an AI neolab, data center and electricity storage, defense, coding and biotech. Let’s take a look.
The sectors leading the herd to the Unicorn Board in July, by count, were financial services, robotics, AI orchestration, multimodal AI, energy and semiconductors, with the U.S. adding nearly half of the month's newly minted unicorns.
Over 127,000 workers at U.S.-based tech companies were laid off in mass job cuts in 2025, per a Crunchbase News tally, and the layoffs have continued into 2026. See the latest companies to cut roles.
Our second in a series of articles about non-tech founders getting venture funding features Sarah Buchner, a "blue-collar worker by background" who set out to find a way to help construction companies manage their projects more efficiently using AI agents.
Austin-based ClearJet, an AI-enabled logistics technology startup connects shippers with unused cargo capacity on commercial flights, has raised a $25 million Edison Partners-led Series B, it tells Crunchbase News exclusively.
