482 venture AI rounds closed in July, worth $40.9B. In July 2025 it was 414 rounds worth $14.5B. Eleven rounds of $1B or more took 54.8% of the month’s dollars. The change a founder raising today will feel sits lower down: more AI Native companies raised, and the typical first round got smaller.
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AI Native companies closed 300 rounds and raised less at entry
AI Native companies, the ones that exist because of AI, closed 300 of July’s rounds, 62.2% of the month. A year earlier they closed 183, or 44.2%. Their median entry round, pre-seed through Series A, fell from $7.4M to $6.2M.
Seed showed the same thing. The median seed round was $3.7M across 185 seed rounds, against $4.2M across 160 in July 2025.
AI Augmented companies, which added AI to a business that already worked, closed 112 rounds against 171 a year ago, and their median entry round slipped from $6.0M to $5.6M. AI Adjacent companies sell what the buildout consumes, from power to security, without building AI themselves. They closed 51 rounds against 53, and their median entry round rose from $8.0M to $13.5M.
For a founder pitching an AI Native company, that means more companies chasing the same partner meetings and a lower median to anchor a raise against. The founders selling the buildout raised more than twice the AI Native entry median.
AI Platforms took a third of the money from 19 rounds
AI Platforms, the companies selling the models, chips and compute others build on, closed 19 rounds, 3.9% of the month, and took 33.9% of the dollars. Safe Superintelligence’s $5B round, which NVIDIA backed, and Moonshot AI’s $3.5B make up most of that.
At the growth stage, the median AI Platforms round was $800M. AI Adjacent came next at $145M, then AI Native at $90M and AI Augmented at $65M.
Who showed up
Y Combinator backed 21 of July’s rounds, nearly twice any other firm. Sixteen went to AI Native companies and 15 were pre-seed through Series A.
Index Ventures and Insight Partners backed 11 each. Index’s book ran large, with a median round of $100M that included Chai Discovery’s $400M and Oratomic’s $300M. Insight put four of its 11 into cybersecurity, Keyfactor’s $1B round among them, and three into Israeli companies.
Andreessen Horowitz backed 10, six of them at the growth stage, including Atoms’ $1.7B round. General Catalyst participated in nine rounds worth $4.09B at a median of $300M; Helsing’s $1.8B, Together AI’s $800M and Neko Health’s $700M all sit in that book.
Below the top tier, some firms showed up on far larger rounds. NVIDIA showed up on six rounds worth $7.72B in full, Safe Superintelligence among them. Lightspeed Venture Partners backed seven worth $4.63B, including Helsing and Fireworks AI. Battery Ventures backed seven worth $1.86B, including SambaNova and Chai Discovery.
At the early end, First Round Capital backed five rounds, all pre-seed through Series A. Antler backed six, five at that stage.
What each book says about the firm
Across all 482 rounds, 62.2% went to AI Native companies. Khosla Ventures ran well above that: eight of its nine July rounds were AI Native. Index Ventures put nine of its 11 there.
Andreessen Horowitz had the most mixed book. Half of its 10 rounds went to AI Native companies, two to AI Augmented, two to AI Adjacent and one to an AI Platforms company, Etched, in a $300M round. Accel’s nine split six AI Native and three AI Augmented. Insight’s 11 included two AI Adjacent rounds.
Where the dollars went
Developer tools and AI infrastructure took $16.6B across 83 rounds, Safe Superintelligence’s $5B among them. Manufacturing and industrial companies raised $5.8B across 78. Defense and government raised $4B across 30 rounds, up from $0.7B, with Khosla Ventures, the NATO Innovation Fund and Founders Fund among its most frequent backers.
Health and biotech closed 74 rounds, close to developer tools’ 83, but raised $2.3B at a $10M median, half the developer tools median of $20M. FinTech closed fewer rounds than a year earlier, 54 against 63, while its dollars rose 21.1%.
Companies building AI agents closed 178 rounds worth $9.1B at a $14.8M median, against 117 rounds and a $10M median a year earlier. Y Combinator backed 15 of them, Insight Partners eight.
Europe’s share of early rounds
87 of July’s 294 early rounds were European, 29.6% against 21.8% a year earlier. Those 87 raised $1.34B, up from $765M. The UK carried 42 of Europe’s 136 rounds, Germany 20. Lightspeed, Y Combinator, General Catalyst and Northzone each backed four European rounds.
Poll: You are raising an AI Native seed round in a month with 300 others. Do you take the firm that backed 21 rounds last month, or hold out for one that backed nine?
Data: Bot Memo repository, 482 venture AI rounds, July 2026, debt excluded, all amounts USD. Full round value is credited to every participating investor, so participated totals are never summed to a market figure.
About the author
Editorial Staff
The Editorial Staff at Bot Memo is a team of writers, analysts, and AI agents dedicated to mapping the global AI startup ecosystem. Led by Chintan Zalani, the team tracks thousands of funding rounds, classifies companies across verticals, and distills it all into actionable intelligence for investors and founders.
