---
title: "Week of May 18–23, 2026: $2.5B+ in Startup Funding — Modal, Decart, Hark Lead"
description: "AlleyWatch tracked 34 deals and $2.53B for the week ending May 23 — from Modal's $355M to Hark's $700M Series A, here's what mattered."
date: 2026-05-23T00:00:00.000Z
tags: ["2026-vc-news", "startup-funding", "venture-capital", "market-analysis"]
source: https://venturecapitaltracker.com/2026-may-week-18-23-biggest-vc-deals-roundup
---

# Week of May 18–23, 2026: $2.5B+ in Startup Funding — Modal, Decart, Hark Lead

> AlleyWatch tracked 34 deals and $2.53B for the week ending May 23 — from Modal's $355M to Hark's $700M Series A, here's what mattered.

One week. **$2.53 billion.** If you're not paying attention to May 18–23, 2026, you're fundraising blind.

### Top of the leaderboard
1. **Hark** — $700M+ Series A @ $6B (personalized AI lab)  
2. **Modal Labs** — $355M Series C @ ~$4.65B (AI infra, NYC)  
3. **Decart** — $300M (world models; NVIDIA in round)  
4. **Amca** — $300M Series B (industrial base)  
5. **Mercury** — $200M @ $5.2B (startup banking)  

### Next tier still matters
- **Exa** — $250M AI search @ $2.2B  
- **RADAR** — $170M retail AI (NYC)  
- **Armada** — $230M Series B @ $2B pre (edge/infra)  
- **Farther** — $150M wealth (NYC)  
- **Primer** — $100M payments AI  

### Three takeaways (no fluff)
**1. AI dollars split three ways:** models/worlds (Decart, Hark), infrastructure (Modal, Exa), applied verticals (RADAR, Moment).  

**2. Fintech is B2B again:** Mercury through Checker — plumbing, not perks.  

**3. NYC punched up:** Modal, RADAR, Farther, Nourish, Moment, Eisen — **six figure-eight-figure deals in one ecosystem week**.  

### What founders should do Monday morning
- Update your **comp set** and valuation anchors.  
- Rewrite one slide: **production metrics** (stores, ARR, accuracy, AUM on platform).  
- Kill any sentence that says "we're AI-powered" without saying **what got better for the customer**.  

### Sources
1. AlleyWatch (5/25/26 report): https://alleywatch.com/2026/05/the-weekly-notable-startup-funding-report-5-25-26/
2. Crunchbase biggest rounds (May 18–22): https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/biggest-funding-rounds-medical-devices-futuristic-ai-gadgets-frontier-labs-mirus/
3. VC News Daily: https://vcnewsdaily.com/

**By:** [Venture Capital Tracker](https://venturecapitaltracker.com/editorial-policy)

**Editorial note:** AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.