5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: Blood-Drawing Robots, Inboxes For AI Agents, Franchised Defense Manufacturing, And More

This is a monthly column that runs down five interesting startup funding deals every month that may have flown under the radar. Check out our latest entry

here

February was the

biggest month on record

for venture funding. And while the vast majority of that capital went to just three companies —

OpenAI

Anthropic

and

Waymo

— a whole host of under-the-radar startups also drew investor checks.

Among those that most piqued our interest: A phlebotomy robot, a company that aims to revive precision manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe with a small-business franchise model, and a health beverage made from seaweed. Let’s dive in.

$70M for robotic blood draws

If you’re squeamish about needles or blood, you might want to stop reading now.

This week, Dutch startup

Vitestro

raised $70 million in Series B funding for its phlebotomy robots, which are designed to autonomously perform diagnostic blood draws.

Vitestro was founded in 2017 and has raised more than $104 million to date,

per Crunchbase

. Its Series B investors include

Sutter Health,

Sonder Capital,

Puma Venture Capital

Mayo Clinic

and

LabCorp Venture Fund

, among others.

The new funding will be used to advance its Autonomous Robotic Phlebotomy Device, to seek regulatory approvals in the U.S. and to scale commercialization.

Blood draws are one of the most routine and important processes in healthcare, investors noted, but have undergone little to no technical innovation, despite chronic industry staffing shortages.

Vitestro’s device is designed to be installed in phlebotomy departments and combines imaging technology, AI and advanced robotics to identify suitable veins for a blood draw, guide needle insertion and collect blood samples, according to the company.

“Vitestro is redefining one of the largest and most under innovated clinical workflows with a first-of-its-kind autonomous robotic platform for diagnostic blood collection addressing an enormous unmet global market need,” Dr.

Fred Moll

, co-founder and partner at Sonder Capital and former co-founder and CEO of

Intuitive Surgical

and

Auris Health

, said in a statement. “I believe this technology has the potential to establish a new standard of care, much as robotic surgery did in its early days.”

Related Crunchbase query:

Global Funding To AI Health Tech Companies In 2026

$50M for a franchise model for precision manufacturing

Two of the hottest startup industries right now are defense and space tech. At the same time, domestic manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe, particularly for military and defense applications, has come under renewed focus amid global trade tensions and intensifying wars.

Against that backdrop, manufacturing startup

Isembard

said earlier this week that it raised a $50 million Series A, less than a year after its seed round. The London-based company says it plans to open 25 factories by the end of 2026 and launch into Germany, France and Ukraine.

Isembard makes technology to manufacture precision components that are used in the defense, aerospace, energy and robotics sectors. Interestingly, it operates as a franchise model that lets existing machine shops and new businesses use its proprietary software and AI system.

It noted that component manufacturing is a $1.8 trillion a year industry. Yet, 95% of production is done by small businesses. The typical owner of one of those small machine shops is more than 65 years old and 40% plan to retire within five years, according to the company.

Union Square Ventures

led Isembard’s Series A investment, which included participation from

Tamarack Global

Notion Capital

IQ Capital

CIV

, and individual investors

Matt Briers

Andrei Danescu

and

Alex Bouaziz

“Isembard is redefining the process of owning and running a factory,”

Rebecca Kaden

, managing partner at Union Square, said in a statement. “By embedding deep operational expertise into an agentic OS, MasonOS lowers the barrier to operating high-performance manufacturing businesses and enables a networked, capital-efficient path to scale. At a moment when demand for advanced manufacturing is accelerating and interest in SMB ownership is rising, Isembard brings both forces together.”

Related Crunchbase queries:

Space Tech Startup Funding

and

Global Defense Tech Funding

$13M for seaweed beverages

While overall funding to food and beverage startups has plummeted since their pandemic-era heights, products that offer unique health benefits do still attract investor attention.

One recently funded company in that space is

Aqua Theon

, a Torrance, California-based startup that makes wellness-oriented drinks from seaweed. The company secured $13 million in seed funding led by

Sparx Asset Management

with participation from

Beyond Next Ventures

and

WiL (World Innovation Lab)

Founded in 2019 by

Alissa Miky

, Aqua Theon’s first product is OoMee, a seaweed-based beverage marketed as supporting gut health and satiety. Its star ingredient, agar-agar, has reportedly seen a surge in social media interest.

Beverages marketed as healthful or beneficial are

forecasted

to be a more than $192 billion market by the end of this year. Among funded startups, that has included a heavy emphasis on products that orient themselves around offering protein, fiber or an energy boost,

a review of Crunchbase data shows

Related Crunchbase query:

Beverage Startups Funded In 2025, Sample List

$6M for an email provider for AI agents

They grow up so fast, don’t they? Less than four years into the AI boom, AI agents are already asking for their own email addresses.

That’s the premise behind

AgentMail

, a San Francisco-based startup that this week said it has raised $6 million in seed funding from a long list of investors to build the tech stack for software agents, starting with their inboxes.

“AI agents are already starting to function as virtual employees across industries,”

Yuri Sagalov

, partner at

General Catalyst

, said in a statement. “These agents need their own identity and email is the heart of identity on the internet. Traditional identity services were not built with agentic use cases in mind, and AgentMail is building that part of the stack, starting with email.”

To that end, AgentMail said it’s launching its onboarding API to let AI agents get email addresses without human assistance.

“The next billion users of the internet will be AI agents,” AgentMail co-founder

Haakam Aujla

said in a statement. “We’re building infrastructure that treats agents as first-class citizens, starting with email. The demand is so intense that the agents themselves are finding us and signing up.”

Related Crunchbase query:

Global Venture Funding To AI Startups In 2026

$1.3M for AI for wastewater treatment

Nyad

, an AI software company that helps the wastewater industry manage complex systems and make critical decisions, raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding. The deal exemplifies a common theme among funded AI startups: Many operate in very niche industries and promise to automate process-heavy workflows.

Nyad said its tool is designed to help plant operators in the wastewater industry, which faces a looming labor shortage as nearly half of the sector’s U.S. workforce is expected

to retire

in the next decade.

The round for the Birmingham, Alabama-based startup was led by

Boost VC

and included participation from

Draper Associates

Halogen Ventures

Ollin Ventures

Apprenti

First Avenue Ventures

and angel investor

Troy Wallwork

Nyad was founded in 2024 by British entrepreneurs

Virginia Szepietowski

(CEO) and

Christopher Braithwaite

after the two reportedly experienced poor water quality during triathlon training in the U.K. They later moved the company to the U.S. after seeing early customer demand through pilot programs in the Birmingham area.

Nyad’s technology helps plant operators maintain compliance and troubleshoot issues. “Operators are the final line of defense for public health and the environment,” Szepietowski said in a statement. “As experience retires out of the industry, we need tools that support operators in the moment when decisions matter most.”