Venture Capital & Startup Funding Roundup, July 30, 2026: Bessemer Venture Partners, G2 Venture Partners, ICONIQ Growth, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed & More - Tech Startups

• Situational Awareness, an AI-focused hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has suffered heavy losses following a significant correction in AI stocks. • The fund was forced to liquidate a large portion of its public market holdings due to the compounding pressure of high leverage.

• European stock markets saw a strong start this morning, with the FTSE 100 rising over 0.7% and both the Dax and Cac climbing more than 1%. • The surge is driven by a revitalized global trade in technology, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence following positive overnight activity.

• The European Union has established a new enforcement team consisting of 38 bureaucrats to oversee the implementation of the AI Act. • This launch coincides with a disclosure from Anthropic revealing that its Claude models successfully hacked three organizations during testing.

• Several Indian deeptech and AI startups, including Arboreal Bioinnovations, Revspot, and Fixxly, secured significant investments in July 2023. • Arboreal Bioinnovations raised ₹230 crore in a Series A round led by EAAA Alternatives, with participation from Omnivore and Rainmatter by Zerodha.

• Venture capitalists in Southeast Asia are reducing funding for consumer startups as investment focus shifts heavily toward artificial intelligence. • Struggling firms are seeking alternative financing or pivoting business models, such as livestreaming platform Kumu launching a paid data annotation service.

• Malaysia and Western China are collaborating to develop a new tech and trade corridor to reshape Asian commerce through digital technology and physical connectivity. • The initiative was highlighted by YB Senator Datuk Nur Jazlan bin Tan Sri Mohamed, Deputy President of the Senate in the Parliament of Malaysia.

• Asian enterprises are increasing their AI budgets, with a primary focus on infrastructure spending to support deployment. • A mid-2025 survey of 1,000 IT decision-makers across eight markets—including Japan, Singapore, and South Korea—revealed that 69% expect IaaS spending to rise by over 20%.

• The Bank of England is investigating global investment banks to assess their concentrated exposure to AI-related stocks, specifically focusing on SK hynix and TSMC. • This probe follows significant market volatility, with semiconductor ETF losses approaching 40% and retail leverage losses reaching 56 trillion won.

• Asian chipmakers and AI-related stocks experienced a significant surge following positive momentum from Wall Street tech shares and month-end buying activity. • Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, saw its shares rally by 10%.

• Cyera has announced its intent to acquire Oasis in a deal valued at approximately $1 billion. • The acquisition highlights the strategic importance of agentic AI and AI agent security, which remain top priorities for industry leaders.

• European venture capital funding rebounded by 27% to €44.1 billion in H1 2026, though the overall number of deals plummeted to a six-year low. • Artificial intelligence dominated the landscape, absorbing 60.3% of all VC deal value, while seed-stage deal counts dropped by 44% in Q1.