5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: AI That Dispatches The Plumber, Underground Warfare And Cutting Down Private-Market Paperwork

This is a monthly column that runs down five interesting startup funding deals that may have flown under the radar. Check out our previous entry here . Our inboxes overflowed with interesting deals in the past month, but we managed to sift through them all to find the five most intriguing ones. They include a startup that’s simultaneously developing AI models for biology and trying to prevent the threats that stem from those types of advances, a company that says it wants to prevent modern day private markets from the kind of paperwork crisis that shut down Wall Street in the ’60s, and AI agents that can dispatch plumbers and electricians to your door. $50M for ‘general biological intelligence’ AI has conquered text, images and code. Now one startup wants to do the same for DNA. San Francisco-based Radical Numerics last month emerged from stealth with a hefty $50 million seed round led by Emergence Capital , with participation from Obvious Ventures , Triatomic Capital , Factory and First Spark Ventures . The startup said it also received pre-seed backing from Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison . Radical Numerics was founded by the team behind Evo , one of the first AI models capable of reading and generating DNA sequences at scale. The startup’s mission is even more ambitious: building what it calls “general biological intelligence,” or multimodal AI models that can reason across DNA, RNA, proteins and other biological data to accelerate drug discovery, cancer diagnostics and biosecurity. Alongside the funding, the company previewed Omnii, its next-generation genome language model. The company’s dual focus on human health and biodefense reflects a growing theme in frontier AI investing. Crunchbase data shows that as models become increasingly capable of designing biological systems, investors have poured tens of millions of dollars into startups that promise not only to accelerate scientific discovery, but also help detect and defend against AI-generated biological threats . “Evo showed that AI can generate DNA and whole genomes, the next generation of models will go further with the ability to control function, and eventually, create entirely new forms of life,” Radical Numerics CEO Eric Nguyen said in a statement. “Our multimodal models are already far more capable, and we understand the responsibility that comes with that. The same models that can help cure disease may also lower the barrier to designing harmful biology. These forces are inseparable. Biology will be the most consequential application of AI.” Related Crunchbase query: Global Venture Funding To AI-Related Genetics And Biotech Startups In 2026 $40M for AI that dispatches the plumber The AI gold rush has reached an unlikely destination: your local plumber and HVAC company. New York-based Probook said last month that it has raised $40 million in new funding: a $34 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $6 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital , with Sequoia also participating in the Series A. The startup is building what it calls an AI operating system for home service businesses, from plumbers and electricians to HVAC contractors. Rather than adding yet another AI chatbot or voice agent, Probook says it aims to replace the patchwork of software many contractors use with a single platform centered on dispatch, arguably the most critical function in the business. Its software ties together customer intake, scheduling, messaging and outbound communications so technicians spend less time waiting for jobs and office staff spend less time coordinating them. “I started Probook to solve a problem in my own business,” Probook CEO and co-founder George Eliadis said in a statement. “I grew up pressure washing in upstate New York with my dad. Six summers in the truck. I spent two to three hours of my day driving between jobs. I’d be up on a ladder washing a house and miss calls because I couldn’t hear my phone ringing.” The company is tapping into a growing trend of vertical AI startups targeting industries that have historically lagged in software adoption, and they’re seeing keen enthusiasm from investors betting that trades such as plumbing, electrical and HVAC represent a massive opportunity to automate workflows and potentially boost profit margins for businesses that still run much of their operations by phone, clipboard and spreadsheet. Related Crunchbase query: Global Venture Funding To AI Startups In 2026 $25M for subterranean warfare Defense investors have poured billions into startups developing drones and missiles for the sky, tanks and other vehicles for land warfare, and autonomous military vessels for the water. But a newly funded startup, Traysar , is betting the next battlefield is below the ground. The Austin-based startup emerged from stealth last month with a $25 million seed round led by Silent Ventures , with participation from a long list of other investors including Lux Capital , Ora Global , Never Lift Ventures , Mana Ventures and Impatient Ventures , and strategic angels including Steve Blank and founders from Anduril Industries and Erebor . Traysar calls itself the world’s first “subterra” defense tech company. Rather than building systems for the skies or seas, it’s developing autonomous platforms that can tunnel underground, map subterranean networks, breach hardened infrastructure and deliver payloads beneath the Earth’s surface. It’s there that it says modern warfare is increasingly being conducted in places like Iran, with its underground nuclear bunkers; Gaza, which has a vast Hamas-built subterranean tunnel network; and Ukraine, which has moved more of its military infrastructure beneath the surface to protect it from aerial drone threats. The startup, whose founding team includes former engineers from SpaceX and The Boring Co. , is developing two autonomous underground systems. The first is an excavator-type robot designed to navigate, map and breach tunnels from within, giving military operators a way to explore or disable underground networks without sending in troops. The second is a high-speed burrowing platform that drills new underground access points and can carry payloads — from explosives to sensing equipment — beneath the surface, bringing tunnel-boring technology to the battlefield. Through the first half of 2026, defense-tech startups globally raised nearly $15.8 billion, by far the largest funding half-year for the sector on record, per Crunchbase data. Of course, the vast majority of that has gone toward above-ground or marine technologies. “The global defense industry has a vertical bias: hundreds of billions flow skyward into missiles, missile defense, drones, and counter-drone systems, while adversaries dig in building deeply buried facilities the U.S. cannot reliably strike, and cannot affordably keep disabled,” Traysar said in its funding announcement. Related Crunchbase query: Global Defense Tech Venture Funding In 2026 $23.7M for AI growth tools for small businesses Most AI startups chase large enterprise customers. Pie is betting the neighborhood coffee shop and corner restaurant are the bigger opportunity. The New York-based startup last month emerged from stealth with $23.7 million in funding, including a $19.5 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners . Capital One Ventures , Max Levchin ‘s SciFi VC , F-Prime , Commerce Ventures , Restive , Cambrian Ventures and Wex Venture Capital also participated. Pie says it’s creating an AI-powered growth platform that helps local merchants get discovered across AI search platforms like ChatGPT and Claude where customers increasingly begin their searches, as well as more traditional marketing channels like Google Maps, Facebook and Yelp . The company also unveiled Front Desk, an AI agent that it says can answer calls around the clock, book appointments and handle customer inquir