The Cohort: 155 Startups, $2.12B: Robotics Tops Capital as Cohort Surges

◆ Startups this week

155

◆ Fresh capital

$2.1B

◆ Undisclosed terms

14 startups

◆ Previous week

135 startups · $1.1B

◆ Published

23 September 2026

◆ The Week

In the 14 days to 23 September 2026, 155 startups raised a combined $2,120M across disclosed and undisclosed rounds, with 14 rounds carrying no public figure. That is up from 135 the previous edition — a gain of 20 deals — signalling a materially busier fortnight for early-stage capital deployment. Series A dominated by capital raised, pulling in $1,381M across 44 deals, while seed led by deal count at 63.

◆ Stages

Seed led by deal count (63 deals) but also contributed a striking $593M in capital, buoyed by several oversized seed rounds well above conventional norms. Series A (44 deals, $1,381M) concentrated the bulk of disclosed capital, consistent with the cohort's skew toward founders who have cleared initial product validation and are now deploying into go-to-market. Pre-seed accounted for 43 deals but only $104M, as expected at that stage.

◆ Sectors

Robotics produced the cohort's highest capital total at $299M from just 5 deals — an average ticket that reflects conviction bets on physical AI infrastructure. Climate Tech raised $266M across 11 deals, with modular off-grid power for AI data centres accounting for the largest single cheques. Enterprise Software ($216M, 10 deals) and AI & ML ($194M, 10 deals) ran nearly level, reflecting the continued collapse of the boundary between application software and model-native tooling. Fintech led by deal count at 21 raises and $205M, indicating persistent founder activity in payments, compliance automation, and treasury infrastructure — segments where regulation creates durable wedges and investors see clearer revenue lines.

◆ Geography

The United States retained commanding leadership with 37 deals and $1,249M — nearly 59% of all capital in the window. The United Kingdom placed third by deal count at 16 raises and $113M, while China punched well above its deal weight: 7 raises but $183M, the second-largest capital pool among all geographies, driven by large seed rounds from Shanghai-based deep tech and robotics founders. Germany (6 deals, $63M) and France (5 deals, $77M) kept Continental Europe present but subscale relative to their deal counts.

◆ The Database

The full deal database — including all 155 raises, geography breakdowns, and stage-level metrics for this window — is available in the Fusion42 Scout portal for subscribers benchmarking their own raise or tracking deployment patterns across the cohort.

◆ Startups in this edition

• TAR
• TAR (Transformative American Resources)
• NovaFusionX
• PHYMI
• Maven Robotics
• Delos Data
• Hang Ten Systems
• Go.AI
• Watney Robotics
• Nuance Labs
• Velocity
• Biolevate