AI Startups to Watch (Sep 17): Factory, D-Robotics & Anew Labs
AI startups raised $931M in 24 hours: Factory hit a $5B valuation, China's D-Robotics took $400M for robot chips, and ByteDance's Anew Labs landed $290M.
Funding desks had a busy 24 hours. An AI coding company tripled its valuation in five months, a Shanghai chipmaker closed the biggest Chinese robotics round in four years, and two research spinouts pulled in serious money for protein design and industrial world models.
Together these four rounds add up to roughly $931 million. Here is who raised, what it buys them, and who should be nervous. For earlier rounds, the AI startups archive tracks the running list.
Factory Triples Its Valuation in Five Months
Factory is an enterprise software engineering company whose Droids agents write, test, review, and deploy code, with the stated goal of running engineering teams end to end. Founded in 2023 by Matan Grinberg and Eno Reyes, the company sits in the same market as Cognition (maker of the Devin coding agent) and Cursor, and competes for the same enterprise seats as GitHub Copilot.
It raised $200 million at a $5 billion valuation, up from $1.5 billion in April. That is a tripling in five months, and it came in three steps: a $150 million Series C in April at $1.5 billion, a $120 million extension in July at $4 billion, and now $200 million at $5 billion. Total funding has passed $400 million. Khosla Ventures, Blackstone, and Sequoia Capital backed the round, joined by three angel investors. Source: Tech Funding News Source: WSJ via AI Weekly
Why it is disruptive: Factory pitches agents that dispatch work across models of varying strength rather than locking customers to one vendor, which undercuts the single-model lock-in strategy its rivals lean on. Enterprise coding agents are the fastest monetizing category in AI right now, and a $5 billion price tag on a 2023-founded company resets the comparable set for every competitor raising next quarter.
D-Robotics Closes China's Biggest Robotics Round in Four Years
D-Robotics is a Shanghai developer of chips and software for robots and embodied AI, spun out of Horizon Robotics. It sells the Sunrise family of robotics processors and reports more than 8 million units shipped across robot vacuums, drones, and service robots.
It raised $400 million in a Series C announced September 17, led by Future Asset according to Dealroom, with Meituan and Hefei Guotou participating. The valuation was not disclosed. Dealroom calls it the largest Chinese robotics funding round in four years. Source: Dealroom
Why it is disruptive: D-Robotics is selling picks to a gold rush. Every humanoid and service robot maker in China needs a low-power inference chip, and most cannot afford to design one. Its top-end part positions it against Nvidia's Jetson line on price and local supply, which matters a great deal when export controls keep shifting. Note that this round has regional trade press coverage rather than tier-one wire reporting, so treat the round composition as reported but second-hand.
Anew Labs Leaves ByteDance's Nest With $290M
Anew Labs is a Beijing company building AI models for drug discovery, spun out of ByteDance's Seed research group in 2025. Its published models include Protenix for protein structure prediction, PXDesign, and Seedfold, and it competes with Isomorphic Labs, XtalPi, and Chai Discovery in the computational biology race.
It raised $290 million in its first external round at a $1.5 billion valuation, led by HSG with IDG Capital and Hillhouse Capital participating, and 5Y Capital co-leading. ByteDance retains a stake of about 56 percent. Source: Reuters
Why it is disruptive: ByteDance is keeping majority ownership while taking outside capital, which lets a Chinese lab scale a foundational biology model without the listing pressure that constrains most domestic AI companies. Protein structure prediction is a market where a single strong open publication can reset an entire pipeline, and Anew's papers are cited accordingly.
Noetive Wants a World Model for Atoms, Not Pixels
Noetive is an Israeli startup building world models for the physical economy: warehouses, logistics networks, factories, and the messy operational environments that generative video models never touch. It was incubated at Eclipse Ventures, the fund where co-founder Amir Frenkel served as chief AI officer before leaving to start the company; Dan Barak, previously VP of product at Netlify, co-founded it.
It raised a $41 million seed round led by Eclipse, announced September 16. The company positions itself against Physical Intelligence and Skild AI, both of which raised heavily to build robot foundation models, though Noetive's bet is on modeling operations rather than robot bodies. Source: Eclipse Ventures
Why it is disruptive: Incubating a portfolio company and then leading its seed round lets Eclipse install its own AI leadership into a founder role, a model more venture funds are copying. If operational world models work, the value accrues to whoever owns the simulation of supply chains rather than the robots inside them.
Startup Snapshot
| Startup | What They Do | Latest Round | Valuation | Key Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factory | Enterprise coding agents (Droids) | $200M, Series C | $5B | Dispatches work across multiple models instead of one |
| D-Robotics | Robotics and embodied AI chips | $400M, Series C | Undisclosed | 8M+ Sunrise units shipped, local supply in China |
| Anew Labs | AI models for drug discovery | $290M, first external round | $1.5B | ByteDance retains about 56 percent, Protenix models |
| Noetive | World models for the physical economy | $41M, Seed | Undisclosed | Venture-incubated, focuses on operations not robots |
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the top AI startups to watch today?
Factory, D-Robotics, Anew Labs, and Noetive led the last 24 hours of AI funding. Factory reached a $5 billion valuation for enterprise coding agents, D-Robotics raised $400 million for robot chips, Anew Labs took $290 million for AI drug discovery, and Noetive raised $41 million for industrial world models.
Why did Factory's valuation triple in five months?
Because enterprise demand for autonomous coding agents is monetizing faster than any other AI category. Factory went from $1.5 billion in April to $4 billion after a July extension, then to $5 billion with this $200 million round. Khosla Ventures, Blackstone, and Sequoia Capital backed it, taking total funding past $400 million.
What does Anew Labs do?
Anew Labs builds AI models for drug discovery, spun out of ByteDance's Seed research group in 2025. Its Protenix model predicts protein structures and competes with Isomorphic Labs and XtalPi. The company raised $290 million at a $1.5 billion valuation while ByteDance retained roughly 56 percent ownership.
Related reading
If this story matters to you, these earlier editions cover the same ground in more detail:
- AI Startups to Watch (Sep 19): EVAS, Factory & PrismML
- AI Startups to Watch (Sep 10): Cylake, Listen Labs & Video AI
- AI Startups to Watch (Sep 18): Crusoe, Emulate & Arcee
- AI Startups to Watch (Sep 13): Mecka AI, Motive & Arlequin
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