At a glance
- Its Oct. 23 column, a monthly run through five deals it says may have flown under the radar, details two early-stage rounds.
- Maxinsights announced a $30 million seed round and Foundational emerged from stealth with £8.2 million in pre-seed funding, according to the Oct. 23 column.
- A fund deploying a 2026 vintage at seed is bidding into a market that absorbed nearly four times the capital of the preceding half-year, which suggests more competition for early-stage allocations, though the $47.4 billion counts money into companies rather than returns to fund investors.
Physical AI startups raised $47.4 billion globally in the first half of 2026, nearly four times the amount invested in the second half of 2025, according to Crunchbase News. Its Oct. 23 column, a monthly run through five deals it says may have flown under the radar, details two early-stage rounds.
Maxinsights announced a $30 million seed round and Foundational emerged from stealth with £8.2 million in pre-seed funding, according to the Oct. 23 column. Maxinsights, a Santa Clara company that sells training data for robots, was led by Peak XV Partners, with Tola Capital, South Park Commons, Ince Capital and Alumni Ventures participating. Foundational, a London startup that uses satellite laser ranging, was led by Inflection; Type One Ventures, Final Frontier, Backed VC and Adjacent took part.
Both rounds are seed and pre-seed, and the column reports company financings, not fund terms, leaving wealth clients to ask which of the ten named investor firms they can reach, and on what terms. It gives no fee, minimum, vehicle structure or lockup. A fund deploying a 2026 vintage at seed is bidding into a market that absorbed nearly four times the capital of the preceding half-year, which suggests more competition for early-stage allocations, though the $47.4 billion counts money into companies rather than returns to fund investors.
Maxinsights sells the unglamorous half of robotics. It pays people to wear cameras while they wash dishes, cook or clean hotel rooms, then uses its own recording hardware and AI software to collect, label and organize the footage for robot models. The startup says it has captured more than 2 million hours of human activity, 1.5 million of them ready for AI training, and names Genesis AI and Dyna Robotics as customers. It is also developing MaxGlove, a sensor-equipped glove designed to capture grip strength and force.
Together the two detailed rounds come to less than 0.1% of the $47.4 billion Crunchbase counted for the half, implying the sector total is carried by rounds far larger than seed.
Reported by the Venture Capital desk from Crunchbase News — Venture. Published . Updated Oct 25, 2026 · 3:11 p.m. ET. Corrections