Seed Stage AI Startups: 40 Just-Funded Companies (2026)

These are the 40 largest seed and pre-seed funding announcements by AI startups from 14 September to 16 October 2026. Together they add up to about $640M. The biggest is Sabi’s $50M seed, led by Khosla Ventures, for a cap that reads brain signals. The smallest is $8M. The median announcement is $12M, about three times the $3.8M median for AI seed and pre-seed rounds with a disclosed size from January to September 2026.

Seed money in AI is splitting in two. The median AI seed or pre-seed round from January to September 2026 was $3.8M, against $4.0M in the same months of 2024 and 2025. Rounds of $20M or more went the other way: 121 this year, up from 60 a year earlier and 47 in 2024. Every round on this list is larger than three in four of those rounds.

On this page

• The 40 largest AI seed rounds, 14 September to 16 October 2026
• What the 40 are building
• Who led these rounds
• The AI seed rounds that crossed $100M in 2026
• Frequently asked questions

The 40 largest AI seed rounds, 14 September to 16 October 2026

Ranked by round size. Rounds of equal size are listed by announcement date, earliest first. Seven rounds came in at $8M or just above, counting Soteris’s round of more than $8M; the latest of them, Otter Health’s $8M seed on 15 October, falls just outside the 40. Rounds still being raised, such as Axionic Labs’ reported pre-seed of up to $80M, are not included. Euro rounds show a dollar equivalent. Three companies announced a pre-seed and a seed together as one figure; they are ranked on that figure and marked “Pre-seed and seed”. “Not disclosed” means no lead investor was named.

#	Company	What it builds	Country	Announced	Amount	Stage	Led by
1	Sabi	A cap that reads brain signals and turns them into AI prompts	United States	Oct 2026	$50M	Seed	Khosla Ventures
2	Noetive	AI and sensor pods for factories, farms and other physical work	United States	Sep 2026	$41M	Seed	Eclipse
3	TypeSafe AI	AI models that other software calls to make decisions	United States	Sep 2026	$40M	Seed	DCVC
4	Scuba	A shared memory of company data for teams and AI agents	United States	Oct 2026	$34M	Pre-seed and seed	Accel, IVP
5	Mantic	AI that forecasts world events	United Kingdom	Sep 2026	$25M	Seed	Radical Ventures
6	Corridor	Employee benefits brokerage for small businesses, run with AI agents	United States	Sep 2026	$25M	Seed	Bain Capital Ventures
7	Rivercell	A virtual cell model that predicts how drugs act on human cells	France	Oct 2026	$25M	Seed	HV Capital
8	Polyphron	Lab-grown human tissue to test AI drug predictions	United States	Sep 2026	$20M	Seed	Quiet Capital
9	Ando	Team messaging for people and AI agents	United States	Sep 2026	$20M	Pre-seed and seed	Index Ventures (seed)
10	Causa Prima	AI agents that settle B2B billing disputes	Spain and Germany	Oct 2026	$20M	Seed	Base10 Partners
11	Outerlimit	Security for autonomous AI agents	United Kingdom	Sep 2026	$16M	Pre-seed	Not disclosed
12	Liquid Compute	An exchange for trading AI compute, pending regulatory approval	United States	Sep 2026	$15M	Seed	FirstMark, Chemistry
13	Hello Haven	A personal AI that handles everyday tasks for its user	United States	Sep 2026	$15M	Pre-seed	Mayfield
14	Prime Minute	Wildfire detection and aerial suppression	United States	Sep 2026	$15M	Pre-seed	Eclipse
15	Proximal	Coding data and training environments for AI labs	United States	Sep 2026	$15M	Seed	General Catalyst
16	Scaffold	Operations software for homebuilding trade contractors	United States	Sep 2026	$14.85M	Seed	Navitas Capital
17	Nara Health	Health plan administration for employers	United States	Sep 2026	$14M	Pre-seed and seed	Khosla Ventures
18	G5 Labs	A platform that turns plain-language specs into software	United States	Sep 2026	$14M	Seed	Pillar VC, Battery Ventures
19	Ubitium	A reconfigurable processor chip for robots and devices	Germany	Oct 2026	$14M	Seed	Ibex Investors
20	Keewano	A database built for AI agents to reason over	Israel	Sep 2026	$12M	Seed	Hetz Ventures
21	Rig Security	Identity security for people, machines and AI agents	Israel	Sep 2026	$12M	Seed	Ten Eleven Ventures, Brightmind Partners
22	Goodweek	An AI manager for small businesses	France	Oct 2026	€10.69M (about $12M)	Seed	Adara Ventures
23	Kanu AI	Turns employee workflows into custom company software	United States	Sep 2026	$11.7M	Seed	Trilogy Equity Partners
24	Complir	Product compliance checks for retailers	Denmark	Sep 2026	$11M	Seed	General Catalyst
25	Ghost	A screenless personal computer that runs AI models locally	United States	Oct 2026	$11M	Seed	Andreessen Horowitz
26	Resolutiion	Early warning on commercial disputes	United Kingdom	Sep 2026	$10.4M	Seed	Not disclosed
27	Zero	A sales platform that replaces the traditional CRM	Finland	Sep 2026	$10.3M	Seed	Primary Venture Partners
28	Robocurve	Independent tests of AI models that control robots	United States	Sep 2026	$10M	Seed	Initialized Capital
29	Zenithon	AI world models for engineering under extreme physics	United Kingdom	Sep 2026	$10M	Seed	Backed VC
30	Minerva Humanoids	Humanoid robots for hazardous industrial work	United States	Oct 2026	$10M	Pre-seed	General Catalyst, Long Journey Ventures, Credo Ventures
31	Harbor	Risk measurement and insurance for AI agents	United States	Oct 2026	$10M	Seed	Base10 Partners, Abstract, 8VC
32	Ferry Health	An AI agent that books patient appointments	United States	Sep 2026	$9M	Seed	Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures
33	Evos	AI operators that run back-office work for industrial firms	United States	Oct 2026	$9M	Pre-seed	Uncork Capital, Field Ventures
34	Deepslate	Speech-to-speech voice AI models	Germany	Oct 2026	€7.7M (about $8.7M)	Seed	42CAP
35	Soteris	Machine learning that flags unprofitable insurance policies	United States	Sep 2026	More than $8M	Seed	Spider Capital
36	Destro AI	Software that coordinates warehouse robots and workers	United States	Sep 2026	$8M	Seed	Base10 Partners, Bonfire Ventures
37	InsForge	A cloud backend built for AI coding agents	United States	Sep 2026	$8M	Seed	Not disclosed
38	Satlyt	Software that runs AI on board satellites	United States	Oct 2026	$8M	Seed	Non Sibi Ventures
39	Klarent	Software testing run by AI agents	Switzerland	Oct 2026	$8M	Seed	Mosaic Ventures
40	Othello	Live AI coaching during sales calls	United States	Oct 2026	$8M	Seed	Not disclosed

Twenty-six of the 40 are based in the United States, most of them in the San Francisco Bay Area or New York. The United Kingdom has four; France, Germany and Israel have two each; Denmark, Finland and Switzerland have one each. Causa Prima works from both Madrid and Munich.

One company has already moved on. TypeSafe AI raised an $870M Series A at a $7.5B valuation on 9 October, led by Andreessen Horowitz, three weeks after its $40M seed.

What the 40 are building

The largest group, eleven of the 40, sells AI applications to businesses. Corridor ($25M, Bain Capital Ventures) runs a benefits brokerage for small businesses. Causa Prima ($20M, Base10 Partners) uses AI agents to settle billing disputes between companies. Scaffold sells operations software to homebuilding trade contractors, Complir checks retail products for compliance, Resolutiion predicts commercial disputes, and Soteris flags insurance policies that lose money. Zero and Othello sell to sales teams, Goodweek and Kanu AI build software for running a business, and Evos runs back-office work for industrial firms.

Nine build physical AI or hardware. Sabi’s brain-reading cap and Ghost’s screenless computer are consumer devices. Minerva Humanoids is building humanoid robots for hazardous industrial jobs, Destro AI coordinates warehouse robots, Satlyt runs AI on satellites, Ubitium designs a processor chip for robots and devices, and Prime Minute detects and fights wildfires from the air. Noetive ($41M, Eclipse) puts AI and sensor pods into physical workplaces. Zenithon builds world models for engineering problems where the physics is extreme.

Eight build for AI agents themselves. Outerlimit ($16M) and Rig Security secure them, Harbor measures their risk and insures them, Keewano gives them a database to reason over, InsForge gives AI coding agents a cloud backend, and Scuba and Ando give teams of people and agents a shared memory and a shared chat. Hello Haven builds a personal agent for consumers. For the wider agent market, see the AI agent startups funding guide.

Another eight sell models, data or tools to people building AI. TypeSafe AI ($40M, DCVC) trains models that other software calls to make decisions. Proximal sells coding data and training environments to AI labs. Robocurve tests AI models that control robots. Liquid Compute is building an exchange for AI compute, Deepslate trains voice models, G5 Labs and Klarent automate software building and testing, and Mantic ($25M, Radical Ventures) forecasts world events.

Four are in health and biology. Rivercell ($25M, HV Capital) and Polyphron ($20M, Quiet Capital) both work on drug discovery. Rivercell models human cells; Polyphron grows human tissue to check what AI models predict. Nara Health administers employer health plans, and Ferry Health books patient appointments.

Who led these rounds

Base10 Partners and General Catalyst each led or co-led three of the 40. Base10 backed Causa Prima, Harbor and Destro AI; General Catalyst backed Proximal, Complir and Minerva Humanoids. Khosla Ventures (Sabi, Nara Health), Eclipse (Noetive, Prime Minute), Andreessen Horowitz (Ghost, Ferry Health) and Index Ventures (Ando, Ferry Health) led or co-led two each. Four rounds named no lead. For the firms writing the most AI checks across all stages, see the most active AI investors.

The AI seed rounds that crossed $100M in 2026

These eleven AI startups announced seed rounds of $100M or more in 2026, far above anything in the table:

• Ineffable Intelligence, UK: $1.1B in April at a $5.1B post-money valuation, co-led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners
• AMI Labs, France: $1.03B in March
• Humans&, US: $480M in January
• Walden Robotics, US: $300M in July, co-led by Toyota and Deviation Capital
• Mirendil, US: $200M in June, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins
• Flapping Airplanes, US: $180M in January
• Inferact, US: $150M in January, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed
• Trase, US: $107M in June, led by ARCH Venture Partners
• RadixArk, US: $100M in May, led by Accel with Spark Capital
• Ent, US: $100M in June, led by Decibel Partners
• Callosum, UK: $100M in August, led by Atomico

Five are AI research labs: Ineffable, AMI Labs, Humans&, Mirendil and Flapping Airplanes. Three sell software for running AI models. Inferact and RadixArk are the companies behind vLLM and SGLang, two widely used open-source inference engines, and Callosum matches AI workloads to the models and chips that suit them. Walden Robotics builds industrial robots, Trase sells AI agent software to healthcare and defense, and Ent makes endpoint security for people and AI agents. Ineffable alone raised more than the 40 rounds in the table above combined. For the largest AI rounds of the year at any stage, see AI mega-rounds in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is a seed stage AI startup?

A seed stage AI startup is raising, or has just raised, its first sizeable round from professional investors to build its product and find customers. Seed money can come as priced equity, SAFEs or convertible notes. Pre-seed usually comes before it, often from angels and small funds while the product is still a prototype. Series A comes after, once there are customers or usage to point to. The AI startups by funding stage page breaks the stages down.

How much do AI startups raise at seed?

Among AI rounds with a disclosed size from January to September 2026, the median seed round was $5.0M and the median pre-seed round was $2.0M. Taken together, the median was $3.8M, and one in four rounds was $7.3M or more. The 40 rounds in this list start at $8M.

What is the largest AI seed round of 2026?

Ineffable Intelligence, a London lab founded by former DeepMind researcher David Silver, raised a $1.1B seed round on 27 April 2026 at a $5.1B post-money valuation. Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners co-led it. AMI Labs, Yann LeCun’s company in Paris, raised $1.03B in March.

How many AI seed rounds were raised in 2026?

AI startups announced 1,774 seed and pre-seed rounds from January to September 2026, up from 1,453 in the same months of 2025. The third quarter alone had 549.

What comes after the seed round?

The Series A. See the state of Series A funding for AI startups and, one step later, the largest AI Series B rounds of 2026.