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Quonset's REGENT completes first crewed Seaglider flight over Narragansett Bay. The milestone flight makes the new technology the largest all-electric, wing-in-ground effect vehicle to fly with people on board. September 3, 2026 A Rhode Island company has made history by launching the largest craft of its kind to fly with people on board. REGENT, the company looking to manufacture Seagliders out of Quonset, announced this week it has completed its first crewed test flight of Viceroy, the company's full-scale Seaglider prototype, on Narragansett Bay. The milestone flight makes it the largest-ever all-electric, wing-in-ground effect vehicle to fly with people on board. "This is the moment we have been envisioning and tirelessly pursuing for the past five-and-a-half years: REGENT has successfully proven safe, efficient ground-effect flight," says Billy Thalheimer, co-founder and chief executive officer of REGENT. REGENT, the subject of an October 2025 feature story in Rhode Island Monthly, was founded in 2020 by Thalheimer along with co-founder and chief technology officer Mike Klinker. The company is developing an all-electric craft that uses wing-in-ground technology to take off from the water and fly a short distance above the water's surface. The founders envision the Seaglider as a new, cheaper solution for short-haul transportation routes currently served by ferries or regional flights. According to an announcement, the first crewed Viceroy flight took place at the company's headquarters in Quonset with a crew of two captains aboard. The Seaglider flew a distance of 1,956 feet at a height of thirty-three feet over the water for thirty seconds. The company relocated to Quonset from the Boston area in 2022 and since then, has been testing its models on Narragansett Bay. A smaller, quarter-scale model, named Squire, completed a test flight on the bay in 2022. The founders say the Viceroy model that flew this week will be able to hold twelve passengers at capacity. "Completing this flight test validates years of rigorous engineering and operational work and gives us the confidence to move into full-rate production," says Klinker. "We showed today that flying a Seaglider is every bit as smooth and safe as we designed it to be. I can't wait to get onboard and to share the experience with others as we make our vision for the future of maritime mobility a reality." In addition to its corporate offices and testing facility, REGENT completed construction in June on a 255,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Quonset. The company plans to manufacture the vessels for passenger use as well as military applications under its REGENT Defense branch. REGENT had originally targeted the first test flight of the Viceroy model for last fall, but the timeline faced setbacks. Last October, a Seaglider prototype was damaged during an on-water hydrofoiling test. According to the company, the Viceroy test flight marks the start of the final stage of sea trials, which will continue through 2026. To read more about REGENT and Seaglider technology, see Rhode Island Monthly's feature story here.

Energy and climate deals of the week. 6 hours ago Venture capital - Dogotix, a robotics subsidiary of listed Chinese EV maker Xpeng, raised $900m at a $3b valuation from investors like Alibaba and IDG Capital. Go deeper - Starcloud, a Redmond, Wash.-based developer of orbital data centers, raised $250m in Series A extension funding at $2.3b post-money. Manhattan West led, joined by Nvidia, Cisco Investments, Cedar Capital, Goanna Capital, Standard Capital, and insiders Benchmark, EQT, Soma, NFX, and 776. Go deeper * Flashback to Axios Pro's reporting in March. - Gatik, a developer of self-driving box trucks, raised $200m. QIA and Koch Disruptive Technologies led, joined by Millennium Management, ARK Invest, and Intact Private Capital. Go deeper - Regent Craft, a North Kingstown, R.I.-based maker of electric maritime vessels, raised around $120m in Series B equity funding led by Mare Liberum and AE Ventures. It also secured around $120m in debt from Palmer Luckey's Erebor Bank. Go deeper - Cyclic Materials, a Canadian rare-earths recycler, raised $75m. T. Rowe Price led, joined by ERI. Go deeper - Quaise Energy, a Houston-based geothermal drilling tech developer, raised $35m in Series B extension funding from Nabors Industries, bringing the round total to $180m. Go deeper * Flashback to Axios Pro's reporting in February. - Voya Energy, a startup that helps convert scrap aluminum into backup power for data centers., raised $35m. Energy Impact Partners led, joined by John Doerr, Mantis VC, StepStone, Founders Fund, Overmatch Ventures, and Seven Stars. Go deeper - Emerald AI raised $150m. Energize Capital and DCVC led, joined by Nvidia, Samsung Ventures, and GE Vernova. Go deeper * Flashback to Axios Pro's reporting in July. - Airbound, an Indian maker of autonomous drones, raised $37m in Series A funding. Greenoaks led, joined by DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures. Go deeper - Corvus Robotics, a developer of logistics and warehouse robots, raised $20m. Catalyst Investors led, joined by insiders S2G Investments, Spero Ventures, and F7 Ventures. Go deeper - Vitalfluid, a Dutch developer of plasma fungicide for crops, raised €17.2m led by Invest-NL and Alder Tree Investments, joined by insiders Horticoop, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Future Food Fund, Graduate Ventures, Innovation Industries, VDL Groep and Goeie Grutten Impact Fonds. Go deeper - TerraBlaster, a Redwood City, Calif.-based developer of soil-nutrition sensors, raised $12.5m in seed funding. Ulu Ventures led, joined by Khosla Ventures, Trailhead Capital, Builders Vision, Bidra, Ag Startup Engine, Reservoir, Sunna, Plug and Play, GrainInnovate, and the Hort Innovation Venture Fund. Go deeper - Certain Energy, a U.K. long-duration energy storage startup, raised £10m in Series A funding. British Business Bank led, joined by Centrica, Ceres Power Holdings, and Temasek Trust. Go deeper - Teragen Energy, a Southborough, Mass.-based fuel cell developer, raised $6m in pre-seed funding. BEVC and Energy Capital Ventures led, joined by AP Ventures, AIC Ventures, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and UntroD Capital Asia. Go deeper - Maash, a Belgian alt proteins developer, raised €5.9m from Ambra Capital, InvestPro, Bpifrance, Amorçage Industriel, Nordzucker and Tereos. Go deeper - Boldr, a U.K. residential energy management startup, raised $5m led by Unconventional Ventures, with participation from Ada Ventures, Tetard Ventures, Davidovs Venture Collective, Roxbury Asset Management, Inclimo Climate Tech Fund, Prosegur, Techstars, and S20 Fund. Go deeper - Neocrete, a New Zealand-based developer of sustainable cement alternatives, raised US$3.5m led by Wavemaker Ventures, joined by Icehouse Ventures and Temasek Trust's Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health. Go deeper - Maglut Heavy Industries, a Long Beach, Calif.-based rare earths processor, raised $3.1m from Wave Function, Nova Threshold, and Julian Capital. Go deeper - Facet Amtech, an Australian startup producing ammonia from air and water, raised A$3m in seed funding from Main Sequence and Uniseed. Go deeper Private Equity - ArcLight committed $1b in equity to launch a new transmission company called Anchor Point. Go deeper - Exponent agreed to invest in KTL, an Irish provider of infrastructure services to the telecom and power sectors. Go deeper - Kelso & Co. invested in Bearing Distributors, a Cleveland-based distributor of bearings, power transmission and fluid power products. Go deeper - Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) invested in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a Houston developer of clean energy-based data centers whose backers include Sandbrook Capital and NGP Energy Capital. Go deeper Public offerings - CoVolt Power (fka Signal Energy and Applied High Voltage), a Houston-based provider of construction services for utility-scale solar and battery storage projects, filed for an IPO that Renaissance Capital estimates could raise $200m. It reports $60.5m of net income on $739m of revenue for 2025 and plans to list on the NYSE (KVLT). Shareholders include Davidson Kempner and Man Group. Go deeper M&A - DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG), which is being acquired by SoftBank, agreed to buy Australian smart meter provider PLUS ES from Ausgrid. Go deeper - NVent Electric (NYSE: NVT) agreed to buy McKinney, Texas-based power distribution company Maverick Power for $1.75b. Go deeper - Otovo, a Norwegian energy services provider, agreed to acquire Green Panel Solar Energy Systems, an Israeli installation and maintenance provider for distributed energy resources, for $11m. Go deeper - Siemens Energy is preparing to sell a majority stake in its steam turbine business and is working with Goldman Sachs on the process, per Bloomberg. Go deeper - Solstice Advanced Materials (Nasdaq: SOLS), a recent Honeywell spinout, and fellow chemicals firm Element Solutions (NYSE: ESI) canceled their proposed merger after negative shareholder feedback. Go deeper - Viably, a Denver-based recycling equipment supplier, acquired Harp Renewables, an Irish developer of organic waste processing tech. Go deeper Fundraising - MassMutual Ventures launched its second climate fund with $150m. Go deeper - Navisalma, a new European deep-tech VC firm launched by two Einride co-founders, will seek to raise €450m. Go deeper Liquidity - Navitas Semiconductor (Nasdaq: NVTS) agreed to acquire Claros, a data center energy startup, for around $233m in cash and stock. Claros had raised over $40m from firms like Red Cell Partners, General Catalyst, Virginia Innovation Partnership, and Composite Capital Partners. Go deeper Fundraising - Redstone, a German early-stage VC firm, raised €25m in a first close of its Redstone Blue fund targeting ocean-tech startups. Backers include Aboa Advest, Adamo Capital, Argong Investment, Ab Kelonia, LähiTapiola, Meriaura Invest, Rausanne, and the City of Turku in Finland. Go deeper It's Personnel - David Fishman is leaving BofA to join JPMorgan as a vice chair and head of North American tech M&A. He succeeds Vineet Seth, who becomes vice chair of investment banking. Go deeper - Faran Nouri was named VP and global head of Applied Ventures, the deep-tech VC arm of semiconductor materials engineering firm Applied Materials. Nouri was senior partner at Natcast. Go deeper - Julia White joined law firm Cooley as an SF-based capital markets partner. She was previously at Goodwin Procter. Go deeper Odds & Ends - Coreshell Technologies, a San Leandro, Calif.-based battery producer, is receiving a $50m award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Manufacturing Deployment Office to expand battery production. Go deeper

The week's 10 biggest funding rounds: AI tools and assistants lead sparser lineup of Megadeals. August 28, 2026 Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2026 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The Crunchbase Megadeals Board. This is a weekly feature that runs down the week's top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week's biggest funding deal roundup here. Most of this week's largest funding recipients were AI-focused startups, with Instinct, a developer of AI assistants, pulling in the biggest round. Other sizable financings went to companies in areas including business software, physical AI, autonomous transport and even sea gliders. Overall, rounds skewed smaller than in recent past weeks. 1. Instinct, $250M, AI assistants: Instinct, a startup developing and beta testing an AI assistant, is raising $250 million in a Series B valuing the San Francisco company at $2.5 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal citing founder Noah Shinn. Lead backers include Index Ventures and Benchmark. 2. Owner, $240M, small business AI tools: Owner, a provider of AI tools for local businesses to automate things like building websites, online and phone ordering, mobile apps, and customer support, picked up $240 million in new funding. Goldman Sachs Growth Equity led the financing, valuing the 8-year-old San Francisco company at $2.3 billion. 3. (tied) Generalist AI, $200M, physical AI: San Francisco-based Generalist AI, a startup developing an AI foundation model that can work with a variety of robots, secured $200 million in fresh financing. The investment, an extension of its $400 million Series B in June, is reportedly led by 8VC 3. (tied) Gatik, $200M, autonomous trucking: Gatik, an operator of driverless trucks, closed on $200 million in Series D funding. Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies led the round for the 9-year-old, Santa Clara, California-based company. 5. Socure, $156M, predictive analytics: Socure, a provider of identity, risk and compliance tools, picked up $156 million in growth funding and acquired Fravity, an agentic platform for fraud and compliance operations. Summit Partners led the round, valuing the Incline Village, Nevada-based company at $5.2 billion. 6. Emerald AI, $150M, data center energy management: Emerald AI, a software platform that balances AI computational workloads and available energy resources, raised $150 million in Series A funding. The financing, led by Energize Capital and DCVC, set the Washington, D.C.-based company's valuation at $1.05 billion. 7. (tied) Regent Craft, $120M, sea gliders: Rhode Island-based Regent Craft, a developer of high-speed winged sea vessels, closed on $120 million in Series B equity funding led by Mare Liberum and AE Industrial Partners. It also secured $120 million in debt funding from Erebor Bank. 7. (tied) AusperBio, $120M, biopharma: AusperBio, a San Francisco startup developing therapeutics for chronic hepatitis B and other diseases, picked up $120 million in Series C funding backed by new and existing investors. The funding will support clinical trials for its lead therapeutic. 9. Stability AI, $76M, AI for creatives: Los Angeles-based Stability AI, a developer of AI products for professional creatives across music, gaming and entertainment, announced a Series B fundraise of $76 million backed by a long list of venture and strategic investors. 10. Blank Street, $75M, coffee: Brooklyn-based coffee and matcha drink chain Blank Street has raised $75 million in fresh funding from investors including General Atlantic as it plans a West Coast expansion. The company also raised $30 million in secondary market transactions. Methodology. We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Aug. 22-28. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week. * 8VC is an investor in Crunchbase. They have no say in our editorial process. For more, head here.