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Anduril is in talks to raise money at a valuation of roughly $100 billion — barely two months after a round that already doubled its price tag to $61 billion. The defense-tech company’s revenue hit $2.2 billion last year, and investors are betting its autonomous drones and software can keep growing like a SaaS business.
If a weapons maker can command software-style multiples, does that reset what founders in adjacent categories — robotics, autonomy, dual-use tech — can expect from their own next round? Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, meanwhile, are betting big on a very different kind of automation.
In today’s Startup News AI:
Anduril nears a $100B valuation in new talks
Hoffman, Pincus launch AI agent lab Prentis
AegisAI raises $36M to fight AI phishing
Anduril is in talks to raise new funding at a valuation of roughly $100 billion, with a second-stage kicker that could push the number to $110 billion within a year if the defense-tech company hits certain financial targets.
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What’s the Deal?
The jump follows a $5 billion round just two months ago that already doubled Anduril’s valuation to $61 billion, led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
Anduril’s 2026 revenue hit $2.2 billion, and the company has doubled its workforce to keep up with demand for its autonomous drones, software, and the “Thunder” VTOL system.
The follow-on stage could push the number to $110 billion within a year if Anduril clears certain financial benchmarks — no decisions have been made yet. Source
Why care?
A defense-tech company nearing a $100 billion price tag, on the heels of a round that already doubled its valuation, shows investors treating autonomous systems and AI-driven defense hardware like software-margin businesses. Founders in adjacent categories — robotics, autonomy, dual-use tech — should expect comparably aggressive term sheets if they can show similar revenue growth.
Prentis, an AI lab co-founded by LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman and Zynga’s Mark Pincus alongside CEO Ritankar Das, is in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation to build AI agents that automate routine office work like insurance claims and customs refunds.
What’s the Deal?
Prentis has already signed customer contracts worth up to $50 million and projects a $75 million annualized run rate by Q3 2026 — just months after launching in April 2026.
The 25-person team includes researchers pulled from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, Tencent, and Alibaba, and has built its own model, Hive-32B, to power the agents.
Prentis trains its agents by studying how office workers navigate real systems and documents, then automates the resulting workflows end-to-end. Source
Why care?
A $1 billion valuation before a funding round even closes shows investors are still willing to pay up for star-founder AI labs with early revenue to show for it. For founders competing in back-office automation, Prentis’s contract wins signal enterprises are ready to pay for agents that finish tasks, not just draft suggestions.
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AegisAI, founded by former Google security executives, raised a $36 million Series A led by Battery Ventures to scale its AI agents that catch AI-crafted phishing emails traditional filters miss.
What’s the Deal?
The round brings AegisAI’s total funding to $49 million, with existing backers Accel and Foundation Capital also participating.
Founders Cy Khormaee and Ryan Luo previously built Google’s Safe Browsing and reCAPTCHA systems before starting the company.
Customers already include Mesh, LangChain, and Lokker, who use the product to catch malicious PDF attachments and embedded CAPTCHAs that slip past rule-based filters.
Why care?
Khormaee says AI-powered attacks now bypass existing controls more than half the time, nearly double their old success rate — a gap traditional email security vendors aren’t built to close. For investors, the round is a bet that AI-native detection, not bigger rule lists, is the only way to keep pace with AI-generated attacks.
The Shortlist
Genius AI rebranded from GlossGenius and closed a Series D at a $1.15 billion valuation led by Lux Capital, expanding beyond beauty and wellness into the broader in-person service economy.
World Foundation raised $52.5 million in a token sale led by Pantera Capital to expand World ID, its “proof of human” verification system now used by Zoom, Docusign, and Tinder.
Ropedia secured $30 million to build wearable data-capture tech for training robotics and embodied AI systems, cutting data collection costs up to 50x.
Paper raised a $34 million Series A led by Accel and ICONIQ for its AI-native design platform, which grew revenue 25x since launching Paper Desktop earlier this year.