Almost 90 new unicorns have been minted so far this year — here they are

Recapping this week in startups

View this email online in your browser  July 10, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Almost 90 new unicorns have been minted so far this year — here they are: With AI igniting an investor frenzy, more startups are achieving unicorn status every month.  Read More Oratomic raises $300M to build a viable quantum computer that needs only 20K qubits: The massive round was co-led by ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Khosla Ventures. Read More AI chip maker SambaNova raises $1B at $11B valuation, 5 months after last mega round: AI chip maker SambaNova has raised at an $11 billion valuation months after Intel was rumored to be trying to buy it for about $1.6 billion. Read More Must-Reads An AI agent startup just let its agent run its $100M fundraise: Lyzr, a startup that builds AI agents for enterprises, used its own AI agent to raise a $100 million round — proof, evidently, that the product actually works. Read More AI law startup Norm raises $120M, hits unicorn valuation: AI law startup Norm has raised a $120 million Series C round led by Khosla Ventures, valuing the startup at $1.2 billion.  Read More Mercor is in talks for a $20B valuation: A new $20 billion valuation would be a giant step up from the $10 billion valuation it reached in October. Read More Popular open source AI developer tool Ollama raises $65M, grows to nearly 9M users: Benchmark-backed Ollama has amassed 176,000 stars, and nearly 17,000 forks on GitHub by helping developers easily run AI on their PCs. Read More This startup pits dealerships against each other to bid on your used car: Bidbus, which lets dealerships bid on used cars, has raised $15 million in a Series A round that was led by early-stage mobility fund Ibex Investors. Read More Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum. Register Now! Last but Not Least Charles Hudson shares the common mistakes he’s seen after investing in 500+ startups: In this week’s episode of Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen talks with Precursor Ventures' Charles Hudson about the headwinds facing early-stage founders today and the most common mistakes founders should avoid in order to get funded.  Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107