Away from the megarounds, early-July capital is flowing to physical AI and vertical agents, with Chinese strategic capital highly active and nine-figure Series A/B rounds now routine.
Away from the billion-dollar headlines, the early-July funding tape shows capital concentrating in two places: AI that touches the physical world, and specialized systems aimed at high-stakes professional workflows.
On the hardware side, Even Realities Technology raised $150 million in Pre-Series B funding led by Meituan and Tencent for its camera-free smart glasses built on proprietary waveguide optics. Tripo AI added roughly $147–150 million in a Series A extension for its 3D generation platform. In robotics, Zeroth raised approximately $73.6 million in a Series A led by Ant Group for humanoid systems, and Yingzhi XBOT closed $56 million in Series B funding.
On the software side, TwelveLabs raised a $100 million Series B co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with Amazon participating and an AWS Trainium training commitment attached, for its video-understanding foundation models, while LinqAlpha raised $22 million in Series A funding for agentic AI in market intelligence, part of a steady stream of rounds backing agents for regulated, decision-heavy domains.
Two patterns are worth flagging. First, Chinese strategic capital, Meituan, Tencent, Ant, is highly active in physical AI and consumer hardware, a segment where US venture attention has been comparatively thin. Second, Series A and B rounds in these categories now routinely reach nine figures, importing megaround dynamics into stages where they compress the normal diligence cycle.
Our Take
physical AI is where the next platform-scale outcomes are being seeded, but capital intensity is brutal and reference-customer traction remains scarce. The discipline for growth investors is separating funded science projects from businesses with a credible path to unit economics inside five years.