VC Funding Top Ten — July 29, 2026: AI Agents, Cybersecurity, Chiplets

Overview

Wednesday, July 29th. The biggest check of the day goes to ThreatLocker, which just locked in a massive $190 million Series F round. The deal, led by Elephant, pushes the cybersecurity firm's valuation significantly higher. AI and security deals are dominating the wire. We’ll break down the top ten, from AI chiplets to

In this show

• Wednesday, July 29th. The biggest check of the day goes to ThreatLocker, which just locked in a massive $190 million Series F round. The deal, led by Elephant, pushes the cybersecurity firm's valuation significantly higher. AI and security deals are dominating the wire. We’ll break down the top ten, from AI chiplets to quantum computing. Here with me are our markets analyst and our VC-deal analyst to unpack the numbers.
• Let's get to the numbers. Today’s term sheets total $697.55 million across ten disclosed rounds. As we said, ThreatLocker's $190 million raise was the largest. AI was the hottest category, accounting for six of the top ten deals. On the public market front, biotech firm Vogenx set terms to raise $75 million in its Nasdaq IPO. But the main story today is the continued flood of late-stage capital into cybersecurity and AI, with ThreatLocker and Onyx Security alone raising a combined $303 million.
• Kicking off our countdown at number two is Eliyan, securing a $145 million Series C at a fresh $1 billion valuation. Seligman Ventures led the round. Eliyan develops high-speed, low-power chiplet interconnects, crucial for AI and high-performance computing. New strategic investments from Cisco and Lumentum are notable. The capital is earmarked to expand from electrical to electro-optical links, a critical step for next-gen AI hardware.
• At number three, the velocity is stunning. Onyx Security raised a $113 million Series B at a $640 million valuation, led by Bessemer. This comes just four months after launching from stealth with a $35 million Series A. Onyx provides a platform for enterprises to securely manage AI agents by controlling their permissions and monitoring activity. This rapid, significant funding jump shows the intense demand from enterprises looking to govern the risks of increasingly autonomous AI systems.
• Coming in at number four is groundcover, with a $100 million Series C led by One Peak. They offer a Kubernetes application monitoring solution using eBPF technology. The key differentiator is that customers keep observability data within their own cloud environments, a potential cost and security advantage. This funding fuels a direct challenge to legacy incumbents like Datadog and New Relic, betting that its in-cloud approach is better suited for the AI era.
• At number five, Freehand has raised a $75 million growth round co-led by Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners. The company deploys AI agents to automate complex procurement tasks for large enterprises, handling everything from negotiating with suppliers to managing payments. With major clients like Unilever and Pfizer already on board, Freehand is capitalizing on the major shift from AI that merely advises to AI that actually acts and executes.
• The agent theme continues at number six. P-1 AI landed a $50 million Series A led by New Enterprise Associates. They build an AI agent named Archie that functions as a mechanical and electrical engineer for industrial design. This follows a $23 million seed round just last year. A major signal of validation: former GE CEO Jeff Immelt is joining the board, underscoring the company's traction in applying agentic AI to complex physical engineering workflows in aerospace and data centers.
• Our seventh deal today is Hush Security, closing a $30 million Series A. The round saw participation from strategic players like Akamai alongside Battery Ventures and YL Ventures. Hush is building a machine access platform specifically to secure and govern the identities of AI agents with just-in-time permissions. As enterprises deploy more non-human workers, securing these machine identities is becoming critical. This funding targets that emerging need for a centralized control plane for agentic systems.
• Number eight takes us into climate tech. Greyparrot raised a $27 million Series B, though the lead investor was not disclosed. The company uses an AI-powered computer vision system to analyze waste streams inside recycling facilities. The goal is to improve sorting efficiency and maximize resource recovery. This new capital will be used to scale its 'waste intelligence' platform across North America and Europe, meeting the growing pressure on the recycling industry for better data and higher recovery rates.
• At number nine, we see a big bet on deep tech. ZuriQ has secured a notable $25.5 million seed round. They are developing 2D trapped-ion quantum computing processors. What’s key is their design for mass-production using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes. This large seed round, combined with a fabrication partnership with Infineon, is a serious attempt to bridge the gap between academic quantum experiments and commercially viable, fault-tolerant quantum chips.
• Rounding out our top ten is fintech firm LemonEdge, with a $21 million Series A. The round was led by Blackstone Innovations Investments, a significant strategic backer. LemonEdge provides a modern, low-code platform for fund accounting and administration, targeting the private capital markets. With backing from Blackstone and BNY, this funding is aimed squarely at modernizing the legacy back-office systems in a sector where assets under management are forecast to hit nearly $27 trillion by 2030.
• The big theme today is clear: the rise of the agentic enterprise. The rounds for Onyx, Freehand, P-1 AI, and Hush Security show VCs are betting heavily that companies are ready to deploy autonomous AI agents that can execute complex tasks. This is a shift beyond simple analysis to AI that acts. Expect to see a wave of startups focused on the infrastructure, security, and governance needed to manage these new non-human workforces. That’s our show. We’ll be back tomorrow afternoon at three PM Pacific with the next deal flow.