AI Application-Layer Startup Radar

AI Application-Layer Startup Radar — Week of May 19–25, 2026

Five application-layer AI startups raised capital this week — Viktor ($75M Series A, ex-Meta founders building AI coworkers in Slack/Teams), Dust ($40M Series B with Sequoia and Snowflake), Rely ($4.5M seed for real estate diligence AI), Calibre ($3.3M pre-seed for TIC industry), and Hardline ($2M pre-seed for construction voice AI). Plus Exa's $250M Series C for AI-native search infrastructure.