Five startups have completed recent funding rounds to develop artificial intelligence applications that go beyond traditional software, spanning recycling facilities and mines to medical devices and the construction sector. The deals reveal the expanding scope of what Crunchbase News calls “physical AI,” in which intelligent models and systems operate within complex industrial or physical environments.
Analyzing Waste and Converting It Into Fuel
Greyparrot, based in London, raised £20.3 million, or $27 million, in a Series B round led by technology investor Omar Mir. The company installs AI-powered camera systems above conveyor belts at recycling facilities, then uses computer vision to identify materials, products, and brands in real time.
Greyparrot says this data helps operators recover higher-value materials, improve sorting efficiency, and comply with recycling regulations. Its systems operate in more than 20 countries and have analyzed more than 1 trillion waste objects, while its customer list includes Waste Management and Veolia. Brands such as Unilever, L’Oréal, and Kenvue also use the Deepnest platform to understand what happens to their packaging after disposal.
Forge Industries, in Nashville, Tennessee, announced that it raised $3.85 million in a round co-led by 8090 Industries and Next Phase Capital. The company is developing technology to convert hard-to-recycle plastic and other waste into industrial fuel that, according to the company, can replace coal in the cement and steel industries without modifying existing equipment. The investment will fund construction of the company’s first commercial biofuel facility outside Las Vegas.
Robots Operating Beyond GPS Coverage
Australian company Emesent raised $17 million in new funding, including a $10 million equity round involving Main Sequence Technologies, QIC Ventures, Orion Resource Partners, Hostplus, and NGS Super, as well as a $7 million venture debt facility from Australia’s National Reconstruction Fund Corp.
Emesent is known for its Hovermap LiDAR-mapping platform, which can be mounted on drones, vehicles, or backpacks to create three-dimensional maps of mines, industrial sites, and hazardous environments. The company is also developing Cortex AI, an autonomous-navigation platform for locations without GPS, and Aura, a cloud platform for processing and analyzing spatial data. It says its technologies are used at more than 200 mining sites worldwide, as it expands into defense, critical infrastructure, and construction.
Health Devices and New Construction Opportunities
Medical technology company SoundHealth, based in San Francisco, received $12.25 million in a Series A round led by Shangbay Capital. The company develops noninvasive devices cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and says they use artificial intelligence and sound-resonance therapy to relieve congestion and improve sleep without medication.
The Sonu band device tailors sound waves to the user’s facial anatomy to help open the nasal passages, while the Spatial Sleep device aims to help users fall asleep faster and remain asleep longer.
In the construction sector, New York-based Cascade raised $3.5 million in a seed round from a16z speedrun, part of Andreessen Horowitz, Ada Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, and other investors. The company is building a platform for architecture, engineering, and construction that analyzes signals such as bond filings, real estate transactions, capital budgets, and meeting minutes to identify projects before they appear in public bid databases.
Why Does This Funding Matter?
The five deals illustrate the shift of some AI investment toward businesses that require sensing, equipment, and movement in the real world. According to Crunchbase data cited in the article, physical AI companies raised approximately $47.3 billion in the first half of 2026, an increase of nearly 80% year over year. Robotics companies also raised $15 billion globally in 2025, a figure that the category partially surpassed during 2026. These figures do not mean that every application will succeed, but they show where investors are directing capital: automating dangerous or difficult tasks, improving resource efficiency, and adding analytical capabilities to regulated and specialized industries.