Startups Raised $5.8B in One Week, Led by Shield AI's $2B Round

Startups raised $5.8 billion across twenty-four deals in the week ending November 7, 2026, and one company took a third of it. Shield AI, the San Diego defense-tech firm, pulled in $2.0 billion. That single round anchors a week in which defense, space and autonomy absorbed the largest checks.

Shield AI was founded in 2015 by Andrew Reiter, Brandon Tseng and Ryan Tseng. It builds AI-powered systems to protect service members and civilians. The new round lifts its total equity funding to $5 billion. Advent International, Blackstone, JPMorganChase, Apandion, Center15 Capital, Disruptive, InnovationX and Snowpoint Ventures back the company.

Where did the rest of the $5.8 billion go?

Zipline International, the South San Francisco drone delivery operator, raised $1.5 billion. Founded in 2011 by James Knight, Keenan Wyrobek, Keller Cliffton and William Hetzner, Zipline serves healthcare, retail and food customers and has now raised $3.5 billion in total equity. Fidelity, Uber, Tiger Global Management, Salesforce Ventures and Valor Equity Partners are among its backers.

CesiumAstro, based in Austin, took $630 million for its satellite communication and spacecraft systems. Founder Shey Sabripour started the company in 2017. CesiumAstro has raised $1.1 billion to date, with Airbus Ventures, Insight Partners, Magnetar Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, NewSpace Capital, Sands Capital Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation of America, Woven Capital and Incharge Capital Partners on the cap table.

Ottonomy, a Sunnyvale maker of autonomous delivery robots and fleet software, raised $406 million — despite showing only $9.6 million in prior total equity funding, per the AlleyWatch report. Enrission India Capital backs the company, founded in 2020 by Ashish Gupta, Hardik Sharma, Pradyot KVN and Ritukar Vijay.

Northwood Space added $375 million. The Los Angeles company, founded in 2023 by Bridgit Mendler, Griffin Cleverly and Shaurya Luthra, builds ground infrastructure for spacecraft communication. Its total funding now stands at $536.2 million, with Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth, IQT, StepStone Group, Alpine Space Ventures and Washington Harbour Partners investing.

How big are the mid-market rounds?

Applied Compute, a San Francisco AI startup founded in 2025 by Linden Li, Rhythm Garg and Yash Patil, raised $350 million for custom enterprise AI models and what it calls Specific Intelligence. Its total funding reached $510 million. The investor list runs from Blackstone, NVIDIA and Kleiner Perkins to Shopify Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, Lux Capital, Elad Gil and QuantumLight.

Harbinger, based in Garden Grove, raised $240 million for electric and hybrid medium-duty commercial vehicles. Founded in 2021 by John Harris, Phillip Weicker and William Eberts, the company has raised $597.7 million in total, backed by FedEx, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Capricorn Investment Group and Greycroft, among others.

Sentra, a New York data security platform founded in 2021 by Asaf Kochan, Ron Reiter, Yair Cohen and Yoav Regev, took $150 million and reached $253 million in total funding. Bessemer Venture Partners, Capital One Ventures, Munich Re Ventures and Zeev Ventures back it.

Traversal raised $120 million. The New York company, founded in 2023 by Ahmed Lone, Anish Agarwal, Raaz Dwivedi and Raj Agrawal, monitors and resolves software infrastructure incidents. Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Battery Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint and Amex Ventures have put in $173 million to date.

Chicago's Ocient secured $100 million for hyper-scale analytics on petabyte-to-exabyte data sets. Chris Gladwin, George Kondiles and Joe Jablonski founded it in 2016. Total funding: $256.5 million, from investors including Greycroft, IQT and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.

Two $75 million rounds closed the mid-tier. Kalepa, a New York AI underwriting platform for commercial insurance founded in 2018, reached $89 million total with backing from Updata Partners, Inspired Capital Partners and IA Ventures. Tutor Intelligence of Watertown, which builds industrial robots, hit $153.6 million total; Andreessen Horowitz, Neo and Union Square Ventures back it.

What do the smaller deals signal?

The remaining rounds spread from $3.5 million to $43 million across AI, fintech, climate and consumer sectors:

• Lazarus AI – $43.0M; Boston applied-AI firm founded in 2017, $49M total, backed by QBE Ventures, State Farm Ventures, Techstars and AngelList.
• Corridian – $38.0M; Boston maker of ultra-large autonomous underwater vehicles for military logistics, founded 2025, backed by DCVC and Point72 Ventures.
• Larridin – $30.0M; San Francisco AI analytics platform tracking adoption, spending and productivity, $47M total, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Gradient and W23.
• Numica – $21.0M; New York accounting and tax services firm founded in 2025 by Slava Orekhov and Victor Lysenko, backed by Flashpoint.
• RadianX – $9.0M; San Francisco supplier of perovskite solar modules, founded 2024, backed by SOSV and Alumni Ventures.
• Finpilot – $10.0M; Seattle AI research assistant for corporate filings, $14.5M total, backed by Madrona and lobby capital.
• Syncere – $11.0M; Palo Alto home robotics startup, $14.5M total, backed by a16z speedrun and Draper Associates.
• Journify – $12.0M; San Francisco composable customer data platform, $17M total, backed by Shorooq Partners and Du Ventures.
• Betski – $15.0M; Panama online casino ownership platform, $15.3M total, backed by Nimbus Capital.
• Firmly.ai – $15.0M; Seattle agentic commerce platform, $17M total, with Mastercard, JP Morgan, ARK and Samsung NEXT as backers.
• Cowboy – $5.0M; New York autonomous AI agents for business workflows, founded 2025, backed by Shine Capital and Anagram.
• RadianX and Avanlee Care bracket the low end: Avanlee Care, a Billings caregiving platform founded in 2020, raised $3.5 million for an $8.5 million total, backed by Black Economic Alliance Venture Fund, Chrysalis Ventures, Esther Dyson and Fairbridge.

The pattern for the week is clear: capital concentrated hard in defense and autonomy — Shield AI, Zipline, CesiumAstro, Ottonomy and Northwood Space account for roughly $4.9 billion of the $5.8 billion total — while seed-stage checks kept flowing to applied AI tools aimed at accounting, insurance and enterprise workflows.