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 rounds here.

The top five raises this week came from sectors that have seen good heat recently. Biotech/healthcare and cybersecurity dominated the run of big rounds this week, with a few AI startups also seeing good-sized checks. After a few slow weeks, megadeals seem to be back, as four companies locked up nine-figure rounds.

1. Marea Therapeutics, $190M, biotech: This big biotech round is actually the combination of two rounds. Marea Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing medicines for cardiometabolic diseases, launched with $190 million in a combined Series A and B financing. The Series A round was led by Third Rock Ventures — where the startup was incubated — and the Series B round was co-led by Forbion Capital Partners, Perceptive Advisors, Sofinnova Investments and VenBio Partners. The company didn’t split out the rounds, so we record it as one and it tops the list this week.

2. Huntress, $150M, cybersecurity: Maryland-based Huntress became the newest cybersecurity unicorn after it raised a $150 million Series D at a $1.5 billion-plus valuation. The new round was led by Kleiner Perkins, Meritech Capital Partners and existing investor Sapphire Ventures. The startup focuses on security services for small business to small enterprise customers — an often overlooked sector in cyber as many companies chase Fortune 500 companies. Huntress currently is realizing more than 70% year-to-year revenue growth for the past two years as it continues to “approach $100 million in annual recurring revenue.” Founded in 2015, Huntress has raised nearly $310 million, per Crunchbase.

3. Talkiatry, $130M, healthcare: Mental health is a growing concern. Just 31% of adults believe their mental health is “excellent,” a 20 percentage point drop from 2004. New York-based psychiatric care startup Talkiatry locked up a $130 million raise — a mix of equity and debt financing — led by Andreessen Horowitz to try to improve those numbers. The startup offers a national mental health practice that provides in-network psychiatry and therapy, trying to help the 60% of adults in the U.S. with a diagnosable mental illness who go untreated every year. Founded in 2019, Talkiatry has raised $245 million, per the company.

4. Semperis, $125M, cybersecurity: Huntress’ big round wasn’t the only one in security this week. Hoboken, New Jersey-based Semperis secured $125 million in growth financing — a mix of equity and debt — from J. P. Morgan and Hercules Capital. The new round reportedly values the company at $1 billion. Semperis provides a variety of security services, including protection for the Microsoft directory service. Founded in 2014, the company has raised nearly $500 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Elion Therapeutics, $81M, biotech: More than 150 million people suffer from serious fungal infections around the world, resulting in approximately 1.7 million deaths annually. A New York-based biotech raised big this week to try to lower those stats even as such infections have become more virulent. Elion Therapeutics, which focuses on the treatment of life-threatening invasive fungal infections, raised an $81 million Series B led by Deerfield Management and the AMR Action Fund. This is the company’s first announced round, per Crunchbase.

6. CesiumAstro, $65M, space: Austin, Texas-based CesiumAstro, a developer of space communications technology, closed a $65 million Series B+ round led by Trousdale Ventures. Founded in 2017, the company has raised more than $185 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Genspark AI, $60M, artificial intelligence: Palo Alto, California-based Genspark AI, an artificial intelligence search startup, raised $60 million led by Lanchi Ventures at a reported $260 million post-money valuation.

8. (tied) Daydream, $50M, ecommerce: New York-based Daydream, an AI-powered search platform for the retail industry, launched with a $50 million seed round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Index Ventures.

8. (tied) Iambic Therapeutics, $50M, biotech: San Diego-based Iambic Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology startup developing therapeutics using an AI-driven discovery platform, closed a $50 million Series B extension led by new investors Mubadala Capital and Exor Ventures. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $233 million, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) You.com, $50M, artificial intelligence: Palo Alto, California-based You.com, an AI-enhanced search engine developer, reportedly is finishing up raising a $50 million Series B. Investors were not named. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $95 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

The biggest round of the week came from a big-named Indian startup.

• Indian grocery delivery startup Zepto raised a $665 million round, doubling its valuation to $3.6 billion.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of June 15 to June 21. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

The new round was led by Kleiner Perkins, Meritech Capital and existing investor Sapphire Ventures.

The startup focuses on security services for small business to small enterprise customers — an often overlooked sector in cyber as many companies chase Fortune 500 companies.

“Everyone deserves the ability to protect themselves and their employees’ livelihoods. This is the ‘why’ that supercharges my team to work around the clock and democratize access to the tools and talent typically built for the enterprise,” said co-founder and CEO Kyle Hanslovan in a release.

Huntress currently is realizing more than 70% year-to-year revenue growth for the past two years as it continues to “approach $100 million in annual recurring revenue.”

Founded in 2015, Huntress has raised nearly $310 million, per Crunchbase.

Cyber funding

Huntress’ fresh round is just the latest big cybersecurity round in a Q2 where funding has taken off.

With a couple of weeks still remaining in the quarter, cyber startups have raised $4.1 billion in 141 deals, per Crunchbase data. That far outpaces Q1’s numbers, when such startups raised $2.7 billion in 140 deals and smashes last year’s Q2 totals of $1.8 billion in 192 deals.

Of course, this year’s Q2 numbers are helped out immensely by cloud security startup Wiz’s big announcement in May that it had raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation. That round is still the biggest in cybersecurity this year.

Overall funding for the year is currently well ahead of this same point last year.

Related Crunchbase Pro query:

• Cybersecurity Funding

Related reading:

• Huntress Tracks Down $40M Series B To Secure SMBs
• Cloud Security Firm Wiz Raises $1B At $12B Valuation

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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 rounds here.

After a few slow weeks, things picked up slightly concerning big funding deals. Most surprisingly is the fact the week was led by an autonomous driving startup — an industry left for dead by some. AI, biotech, space tech and cybersecurity also saw good-sized raises. Perhaps things are heating up as we head into summer.

1. Cruise, $850M, autonomous cars: In for a penny, in for a pound. That clearly seems to be how General Motors feels about Cruise. The auto giant agreed to pump another $850 million into the San Francisco-based startup. Cruise’s saga has been well documented. In 2021, Cruise snagged the largest round of any venture-backed U.S. startup when it upsized a round to $2.75 billion, valuing the company at  more than $30 billion. However, the tide started to turn in early 2022, when SoftBank did not release a promised $1.35 billion to Cruise as part of an agreed-upon deal when the autonomous carmaker completed a commercial deployment of vehicles. Instead, General Motors acquired SoftBank’s equity ownership stake in Cruise for $2.1 billion. Then, late last year, Cruise suspended its self-driving taxi program across the country after losing its permit to operate in San Francisco due to an incident with a pedestrian. That announcement came almost exactly a year after another autonomous vehicle startup — Ford Motor-backed Argo AI — shuttered after raising $3.6 billion in funding from investors such as Ford Motor, Volkswagen Group and Lyft. Cruise is now restarting its driving programs in Phoenix, Dallas and Houston. Clearly GM is betting — big — the autonomous driving and robotaxi market comes back.

2. AlphaSense, $650M, artificial intelligence: AI-driven market intelligence platform AlphaSense raised $650 million in funding co-led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners at a $4 billion valuation — a 75% increase from just nine months ago. As part of the deal, AlphaSense acquired expert research startup Tegus for $930 million. Last September, the company locked up a $150 million Series E led by Bond Capital at a $2.5 billion valuation — an increase of nearly 30% from its $100 million round at a $1.8 billion valuation in April last year. The New York-based startup’s market intelligence and search platform — powered by AI and natural language processing — helps clients form corporate and investment strategies. In total, the company has now raised $1.4 billion since its founding, per Crunchbase.

3. Santa Ana Bio, $125M, biotech: Biotech bounces back this week with a couple nine-figure rounds. First up is Alameda, California-based Santa Ana Bio, an immunology company developing therapies for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, which emerged from stealth with a $125 million Series B round led by GV. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $168 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Alzheon, $100M, biotech: Alzheon was the next biotech to raise big this week. The startup raised a $100 million Series E led by Alerce Medical Technology Partners. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based firm is developing medicines for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Founded in 2013, the company has raised $237 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Apex, $95M, space: Spacecraft manufacturing company Apex locked up a $95 million Series B led by XYZ Venture Capital and CRV to ramp up its production of satellite buses. The Los Angeles-based space tech startup is helping streamline the approach to satellites with the ability to mass produce spacecraft buses — the main body and structural component of satellites — to help growing demand from customers like the U.S. Department of Defense. The new cash will allow the company to increase production to meet customer demand — following the launch of Apex’s first bus in March. Funding to VC-backed space tech startups seems to be on the uptick this year, per Crunchbase data. Last year, space tech startups raised $5.8 billion. However, through less than half of this year, such startups have already seen $3.3 billion roll into their coffers. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $122 million, per Crunchbase.

6. Cyberhaven, $88M, cybersecurity: Cybersecurity funding has shown some life recently and this week showed more proof of that trend. San Jose, California-based Cyberhaven, a data detection and response platform, raised an $88 million Series C led by Adams Street Partners and Khosla Ventures. The round comes after a year in which the company saw a 200% growth in new bookings. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $137 million, per Crunchbase.

7. InduPro, $85M, biotech: Seattle-based InduPro, developing therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, closed an $85 million Series A co-led by The Column Group and Vida Ventures. Founded in 2022, this is the company’s first announced round, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Enveda Biosciences, $50M, biotech: Boulder, Colorado-based Enveda Biosciences, a biotechnology company using AI to engineer medicines from plants, announced a new $55 million round. No lead investor was announced, but Microsoft is a new investor in the company. Founded in 2019, Enveda says it has raised $230 million.

8. (tied) Canary Technologies, $50M, hospitality: San Francisco-based Canary Technologies, a management platform for hotels, closed a $50 million Series C led by Insight Partners. Founded in 2017, Canary has now raised nearly $100 million, per the company.

10. Posh AI, $45M, artificial intelligence: Boston-based Posh AI, a conversational AI platform for the banking industry, raised a $45 million round led by Curql. Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $73 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

Another large AI round occurred in Europe.

• Paris-based Mistral AI finally secured its much talked about round that values the OpenAI and Anthropic competitor at $6 billion, per a report in the Financial Times. According to the report, Mistral AI raised $500 million in equity and $140 million in debt.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of June 8 to June 14. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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 rounds here.

Another slow week for funding — the third straight after a significant pick-up in large rounds earlier this year. Xcimer Energy led the way, as it was the only startup to lock up a nine-figure round. The dog days of summer seem to already be here in the venture world.

1. Xcimer Energy, $100M, energy: Well, fusion funding was down — until this happened. Denver-based Xcimer Energy announced it raised a $100 million Series A led by Hedosophia. The company is working on laser-driven inertial fusion and will use the funding to build a prototype laser system including what it calls the “world’s largest nonlinear optical pulse compression system.” Founded in 2022, Xcimer has raised nearly $118 million, per Crunchbase — including a $9 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program.

2. Pika, $80M, artificial intelligence: It never takes us long to get to an AI startup on this list. Pika, an artificial intelligence startup that generates video, raised an $80 million round led by Spark Capital that values the Palo Alto, California-based company at $470 million, per Bloomberg. Notably, actor and singer Jared Leto also is an investor. Pika is part of a growing group of startups building text-to-video AI software. Founded in 2023, the company has raised $135 million, per Crunchbase.

3. (tied) Prolific Machines, $55M, biotech: Unlike in previous weeks, there was no huge biotech round. The biggest this week went to Emeryville, California-based Prolific Machines, which raised a $55 million Series B led by the Ki Tua Fund, the corporate venture arm of Fonterra Co-operative Group. The startup’s platform allows commercial customers to more efficiently produce biological products through the use of light for things like cellular agriculture and nutritional protein production. Founded in 2020, Prolific has raised $86.5 million, per the company.

3. (tied) Restor3d, $55M, 3D technology: Restor3d, a North Carolina-based maker of 3D printed personalized orthopedic implants, locked up a $70 million financing — even as investors continue to cool on 3D tech startups. The round includes a $55 million Series A round led by Summers Value Partners and existing investors plus an additional $15 million in debt financing led by Trinity Capital. The startup plays at a unique intersection of healthcare/biotech, AI and 3D technology. The firm uses biomaterials, 3D printing technologies and AI to help repair the human body. It is planning to  introduce new implant systems for total ankle and shoulder replacements, offering 3D printed solutions that fit the unique anatomy of the individual patients. Founded in 2017, the company has raised nearly $150 million, per Crunchbase. While the 3D tech sector saw big money in 2021 and 2022, the past two years have seen the sector come back down to the new reality. Although VC-backed startups in the sector saw more than $2.4 billion invested in 2022, that number dropped to only about $1 billion last year, per Crunchbase data. It is on a similar trajectory this year, with only about $424 million raised thus far.

5. (tied) Osteal Therapeutics, $50M, biotech: Dallas-based Osteal Therapeutics raised a $50 million Series D led by Zimmer Biomet. The biotech startup is developing new drug/device therapies for orthopedic infections. The company’s development strategy is to use approved drugs as candidates for new routes of local, concentrated delivery. Founded in 2013, the company has raised nearly $113 million, per Crunchbase.

5. (tied) Twelve Labs, $50M, video: Yet another AI-related video startup. San Francisco-based Twelve Labs, a developer of video foundation models to make video searchable, raised a $50 million Series A co-led by new investor New Enterprise Associates and NVentures, Nvidia’s venture capital arm. The startup’s generative AI foundation models allow users to input natural language prompts that can find precise moments in large libraries of videos — potentially saving hours of time. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $77 million, per Crunchbase.

7. AcuityMD, $45M, medtech: Boston-based AcuityMD, a commercial platform to identify target markets in the medical industry, locked up a $45 million round led by Iconiq Growth. Founded in 2019, AcuityMD has raised more than $83 million, per the company.

8. Eko Health, $41M, health care: San Francisco-based Eko Health, which uses artificial intelligence for early detection of heart and lung diseases, raised a $41 million Series D. No lead investor was announced. Founded in 2013, the company has raised approximately $169 million, per Crunchbase.

9. Advanced Medicine Partners, $32M, biotech: North Carolina-based Advanced Medicine Partners, a developer of advanced medicines, received $32 million in financing led by Deerfield Management. Founded in 2023, this is the company’s first announced round, per Crunchbase.

10. Ashby, Hypr and Sword Health all raised $30 million rounds.

Big global deals

The largest round of the week came from a Chinese semiconductor company.

• Shanghai-based Unisoc, a semiconductor company focused on chipsets in mobile communications and IoT, raised a round worth approximately $552 million.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of June 1 to June 7. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Similar to April, big-named investors dominated investing in U.S.-based startups last month.

Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund and Alumni Ventures led the way in the number of deals, although only a16z hit double digits, with 10 investments.

Just a couple of years ago it was not uncommon for firms to need a dozen or more deals to head up this list. But as the venture market continues to plug along, a smaller amount of deal-making seems to be the preferred route for even the biggest VC firms.

Andreessen Horowitz, 10 deals

May’s total was the most deals for a16z since January — when it took part in 15 financings.

Of course, the biggest deal it took part in was the $6 billion round for xAI, Elon Musk’s generative AI startup. The round, which also included participation from Sequoia, Valor Equity Partners and Fidelity Management & Research Co., values the startup at $24 billion post-money — making it the second-most-valuable VC-backed generative AI company in the world behind only competitor OpenAI.

However, that was not the only big deal a16z completed last month. The firm also co-led cloud security startup Wiz’s massive $1 billion raise at a $12 billion valuation. The round, which also counted Lightspeed Venture Partners and Thrive Capital as co-lead investors, is the biggest cybersecurity round of the year thus far.

In addition, the firm led smaller rounds for AI cancer treatment startup Valar Labs, weapon targeting company ZeroMark, and Rollup, a collaborative platform for hardware.

General Catalyst, 8 deals

General Catalyst led the way in April, but dropped down a few deals in May.

Nevertheless, it did take part in a couple of pretty big rounds. The New York investment firm participated in Karius’ $100 million Series C. The startup helps give genomic insights into infectious diseases.

General Catalyst also co-led — along with 7wire Ventures — San Francisco-based personalized healthcare platform Transcarent’s $126 million Series D that valued the company at $2.2 billion.

Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund and Alumni Ventures, 7 deals each

A quartet of well-known firms each deadlocked at seven deals. Sequoia, Khosla and Founders Fund all made fewer investments in May than they did the previous month, whereas Alumni’s number of deals jumped from April but was still its second-lowest deals amount since at least the beginning of 2023.

Similar to a16z, Sequoia Capital also took part in both xAI’s and Wiz’s huge rounds. It also led a $26.5 million Series B for quantum computing startup Quantum Circuits.

Khosla actually co-led Karius’ previously mentioned $100 million round, as well as Rad AI’s $50 million Series B. The San Francisco-based startup develops software that uses AI to automate radiology report writing.

The largest round Founders Fund participated in was Scale AI’s huge $1 billion round led by Accel that values the data labeling and evaluation startup at a stunning $13.8 billion. However, it also led a $45 million Series B for New York-based Polymarket, a prediction market platform where traders predict future outcomes based on news in real time.

Alumni usually invests in smaller earlier-stage rounds, and that was the model it followed in May with everything being pre-seed to Series A. The only exception was participating in Frore Systems’ big $80 million Series C led by Fidelity Management & Research Co. The San Jose, California-based startup has developed a solid-state active cooling chip — AirJet — that allows users to leverage AI even on the edge of networks or on edge devices without them getting too hot and losing performance.

Also notable:

• Accel came in next on the list with six deals.
• Khosla Ventures and Accel led the way in most led or co-led deals in May with four.
• Accel also led the list for number of rounds led or co-led with the highest dollar amounts, leading or co-leading four rounds that in total were worth almost $1.3 billion.
• Y Combinator once again was the top investing incubator and accelerator with 10 deals in May.

Methodology

This is a list of investors which took part in the most rounds involving U.S.-based startups. It does not include incubators or accelerators due to the fluctuations their investment numbers can have.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

May was a big month to raise, well, really big. Four rounds hit $1 billion or more and companies needed to raise at least $200 million to make this list. Not surprisingly AI led the way — as it always seems to do — with a trio of a billion-or-more rounds.

1. xAI, $6B, artificial intelligence: Elon Musk’s generative AI startup, xAI, officially announced its long-awaited fundraise — making it the second-most-valuable generative AI company in the world behind only competitor OpenAI. The $6 billion round included investment from the likes of Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Fidelity Management & Research, among others. The new funding values the company at $24 billion post-money, well behind OpenAI’s $86 billion valuation but well ahead of the $18 billion that fellow generative AI rival Anthropic is now valued at after its last raise. The xAI round had been rumored for months. Musk’s company was announced just last July and released its ChatGPT competitor, Grok, last November. It introduced its latest AI model, called Grok-1.5,  earlier this year. Grok is trained off data from another one of Musk’s companies, X, formerly Twitter.

2. CoreWeave, $1.1B, artificial intelligence: Another big AI-related funding round. AI cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave locked up a $1.1 billion round led by Coatue that values the company at $19 billion, per The Wall Street Journal. The valuation represents an almost threefold increase from the company’s valuation just five months ago, when it was valued at $7 billion following a secondary sale, and a huge jump from its $2 billion valuation in a Series B extension last May. With the latest funding, the company has now raised some $4.6 billion, per Crunchbase data.

3. (tied) Scale AI, $1B, artificial intelligence: Are you sensing a trend this month with big AI rounds? Scale AI raised $1 billion in a round led by Accel that values the data labeling and evaluation startup at a stunning $13.8 billion. The valuation is nearly double the $7.3 billion the San Francisco-based startup hit after a $325 million raise in April 2021. The new financing included some of the biggest names in tech, with Nvidia, Meta and Amazon all investing. Scale AI plays a key role in creating large language models and accurately labeling text, images, video and voice data. The startup also creates and fine-tunes data sets.

3. (tied) Wiz, $1B, cybersecurity: Finally, something that is not AI. Cloud security startup Wiz locked up the biggest cybersecurity round of the year thus far as it raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation. The round — announced just as the industry’s RSA Conference was getting underway in San Francisco early last month — could be another sign of investors coming back to the cybersecurity space. Cyber startups are coming off their best funding quarter in three quarters, and in late April Microsoft-backed data security firm Rubrik had a successful IPO. Wiz’s latest round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Thrive Capital. Founded in 2020, Wiz says it has raised $1.9 billion so far. Originally founded in Israel, Wiz has been busy of late. In April, it acquired New York-based cloud detection and response startup Gem Security. The company says the new cash infusion could be used for more deal-making. Also based in New York, the startup says it achieved $350 million in annual recurring revenue last year. It has talked openly about hitting $1 billion in ARR as it heads to an IPO.

5. Motional, $475M, autonomous vehicles: Hyundai showed it is willing to spend big on Boston-based self-driving startup Motional. In May, the carmaker agreed to invest $475 million directly into the startup while also buying 11% of joint venture partner Aptiv’s equity stake in the company for another $448 million. Motional, formerly nuTonomy, was in the news just a couple of months ago for reportedly securing a bridge loan to extend its runway until another funding round. It seems like this situation bears watching.

6. Uniquity Bio, $300M, biotech: While AI dominated, biotech also saw some big rounds in May. The biggest in May was from a brand-new company launched by Blackstone Life Sciences — a unit of private equity giant Blackstone Group — along with a sizable $300 million investment. The new startup is a clinical-stage drug development company focused on immunology and inflammation. Uniquity already has FDA acceptance of its Phase 2 investigational new drug application for one of its medicines.

7. Vercel, $250M, developer platform: Vercel, a platform that allows companies to develop web applications in the cloud, locked up a $250 million Series E at a valuation of $3.25 billion. The round was led by Accel, with participation from other existing investors including CRV, GV, Notable Capital (previously GGV Capital), Bedrock, Geodesic Capital, Tiger Global, 8VC and SV Angel 1. The new round is an upround from Vercel’s 2021 raise, when it secured $150 million in a Series D funding at a $2.5 billion valuation led by GGV Capital. The San Francisco-based company allows developers to use an open-source framework to create web applications, and tries to simplify the process to migrate websites to cloud infrastructure to help with accessibility. Vercel has a number of big-name customers such as Under Armour, Unity and Nintendo. The company says it recently surpassed $100 million in annualized revenue and more than 1 million monthly active developers. Founded in 2015, the company has raised $568 million, per Crunchbase.

8. AltruBio, $225M, biotech: AltruBio secured a $225 million Series B led by BVF Partners. The San Francisco-based startup is developing therapeutics for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and other immunological diseases. The new cash will be used to support ongoing and planned Phase 2 clinical trials in ulcerative colitis. Founded in 2000, AltruBio has raised nearly $328 million, per Crunchbase.

9. (tied) BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, $200M, biotech: Biotech saw a big spinoff in May, as BridgeBio Pharma launched subsidiary BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics as its own company with $200 million of new funding. The Palo Alto, California-based spinoff aims to grow its oncology portfolio. The financing was co-led by Cormorant Asset Management and Omega Funds.

9. (tied) Sigma, $200M, analytics: Cloud analytics startup Sigma raised a $200 million Series D co-led by Spark Capital and Avenir Growth Capital. Similar to Vercel, it was an upround from the company’s last financing. The San Francisco-based company says the valuation was a 60% increase from its $300 million Series C led by D1 Capital Partners and XN in 2021 and it was reported the new valuation was $1.5 billion. Founded in 2014, the company has raised $581 million, per Crunchbase.

9. (tied) Zenas BioPharma, $200M, biotech: Waltham, Massachusetts-based Zenas BioPharma raised a $200 million Series C preferred stock round led by Delos Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Norwest Venture Partners and SR One. The biotech firm specializes in inflammation- and immunology-directed therapies and will use the fresh cash to support the ongoing lead product candidate, obexelimab. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $318 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

xAI and CoreWeave were the biggest raises of the month, but No. 3 came from the U.K.

• London-based self-driving car startup Wayve raised $1.05 billion in a SoftBank-led round.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the month of May 2024. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the month.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Through the middle of May, funding is less than half of what it was at the same point last year, per Crunchbase data, despite the war in Ukraine continuing into its third year and tensions in the Middle East running high. 

In Q1, funding to startups in the industries of military, national security and law enforcement dropped to $118 million, a 74% drop from the $459 million invested in such startups in Q1 of last year.

(chart)

For the year through the middle of Q2, only $228 million has been raised by defense startups, a 62% decline from the nearly $600 million raised though the same point last year  — although obviously that could change drastically if the reported Anduril round of $1.5 billion at a $12.5 billion valuation becomes official.

Where’s the cash?

Speaking of Anduril, it was that software and hardware defense tech startup that seemed to prompt many to re-notice the industry once again in late 2022, when it closed a massive $1.5 billion Series E.

Defense tech has often been a hard sell to venture investors, who sometimes do not want to invest in it for their own moral reasons or due to pressure from LPs, despite technologies developed by startups being used by the military for decades.

However, the big round to Anduril — the fourth-largest round raised by a U.S.-based startup in 2022 — seemed to spur on a gold rush for defense startups last year.

That eventually led to a flourish of funding at the end of the year, when defense tech startups raised a whopping $802 million. The big deals that quarter included:

• Shield AI, a defense and aerospace startup creating AI pilots, raised a $200 million Series F at a $2.7 billion valuation in a round co-led by Riot Ventures and Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund in October. The round comes less than a year after the San Diego-based company was valued at $2.2 billion after raising $60 million in December 2022.
• In December, Gecko Robotics, which creates robots to assess the safety and condition of critical infrastructure, raised an additional $100 million in a Series C extension led by some big names — the US Innovative Technology Fund and Founders Fund. The Pittsburgh-based robotics startup announced a $73 million Series C in March 2022. 
• Later in December, Centennial, Colorado-based True Anomaly, which develops hardware and software systems to help space security and readiness, raised $100 million in a round led by Riot Ventures. The company’s valuation was not disclosed, but Bloomberg reported it was not yet $1 billion. The startup helps the government and commercial customers keep an eye on threats to assets they have in space, such as satellites.

Defense tech investment slows

However, the first four-and-a-half months of this year have told a different story. 

There have been no nine-figure raises in the space. In fact, the largest this calendar year have been:

• This month, Kihei, Hawaii-based satellite-tracking software developer Privateer raised a $56.5 million round led by space-focused venture capital firm Aero X Ventures and acquired the analytics firm Orbital Insight.
• In March, Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Defense Unicorns, a software startup that provides open-source software and AI capabilities for national security systems, raised a $35 million Series A.
• Also this month, Tucson, Arizona-based World View, a stratospheric exploration startup, locked up a $25 million Series D.

Of course, those numbers may not tell the complete story of defense tech funding.

The industry is hard to define. One of this month’s biggest rounds — Scale AI raising $1 billion in a round led by Accel that values the data labeling and evaluation startup at a stunning $13.8 billion — isn’t a defense tech company per se, but its data labeling and evaluation technology is used in defense applications.

So while funding to startups staunchly in the sector is down, many other overlapping sectors such as cybersecurity and robotics have seen an increase in funding from Q4 2023 to Q1 of this year.

In cybersecurity, cybersecurity startups raised nearly $2.7 billion in Q1 2024, a 69% increase from the previous quarter, when cyber startups raised just $1.6 billion, per Crunchbase data.

The same is true for robotics. Venture funding in the sector jumped from $1.4 billion in Q4 2023 to $2.1 billion last quarter, per Crunchbase data.

It’s also important to remember that due to the small numbers associated with defense tech funding, one big round can make a significant difference. Anduril raising a billion dollars or two certainly would change the complexion of any quarter.

Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that funding has significantly slowed in the sector — even if temporarily.

Methodology

Defense tech is defined by the industries of military, national security and law enforcement, according to Crunchbase data. Most announced rounds are represented in the database; however, there could be a small time lag for rounds reported late in the quarter.

Related Crunchbase Pro query:

• Defense Tech Funding

Related reading:

• Venture To Defense Tech Startups Still Lags, But Experts Say Interest Is Growing
• Defense Tech Startup Shield AI Raises $200M At $2.7B Valuation

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Although venture funding seems to be stagnating, more and more startups seem to be having an easier time securing really big funding rounds — that seemed to dry up last year — from investors.

Rounds of $100 million or more — or megadeals — have exploded this year, as U.S.-based startups have collected 115 such rounds through mid-May, per The Crunchbase Megadeals Board. That is a 58% spike compared to the 73 megadeals raised last year at this time.

Of course, that is well off the number of nine-figure rounds raised in 2021 and 2022, when nearly 280 such rounds were raised by this time each of those years.

Still, considering the overall VC market in 2024, the large number of megadeals seem out of place.

Where is the money going?

One of the things that stands out about the startups that have raised rounds of $100 million or more this year is the variety of sectors they have emerged from. From gaming (Epic Games) to food delivery (Wonder) to quantum computing (PsiQuantum), investors have continued to spread large checks around.

While most would think such a list is AI-dominated, it is not. In fact, only 11 U.S.-based startups with a main AI classification have raised such rounds this year — with AI cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave leading the way, after locking up a $1.1 billion round led by Coatue earlier this month.

Instead it’s actually biotech and healthcare lapping the field when it comes to megadeals, with such startups rising a whopping 38 so far this year.

That includes April’s biggest round: Xaira Therapeutics coming out of stealth and announcing it had secured more than $1 billion of committed capital from lead investors Arch Venture Partners and Foresite Capital — both of which jointly incubated the company. Xaira is the latest — although likely best-funded — startup to try to use AI models to find new drugs.

Cybersecurity also has had its share of big $100 million-or-more rounds this year, as 10 such raises went to startups in the sector. The largest was cloud security startup Wiz, which recently raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation — the biggest cybersecurity round of the year globally thus far.

The money flows in

As one can see from the rounds above — all happening in the past 45 days — the pace of such big deals have seemingly gathered speed as the year has continued. While January was slow, February saw the start of the $100 million-plus round pickup.

The numbers do seem out of place in the current venture market, but likely can be explained.

Since overall venture numbers have remained steady, even declining slightly, investors clearly are taking money from possible other late-stage growth deals, and perhaps even some early-stage deals. It wouldn’t be possible to take enough money out of seed-stage deals to make a dent when it comes to nine-figure rounds.

Nevertheless, the influx of megadeals this year seems to show investors are again willing to bet big on companies in which they see significant potential.

By the end of last year, investors had participated in 210 rounds of $100 million or more. It seems VCs and strategics are well-ready to shoot past that number this year.

Methodology

The numbers in this story pull data from The Crunchbase Megadeals Board, including the single industry it assigns each round. The board tracks only U.S.-based startups.

Related reading:

• The Crunchbase Megadeals Board
• The Crunchbase Unicorn Board
• Global VC Funding Isn’t Slowing, But It’s Not Growing Either, April Numbers Show

Illustration: Dom Guzman

The deal involves approximately $1 billion in cash and $540 million in CyberArk shares.

The price marks a 34% increase from Venafi’s valuation back in late 2020, when private equity giant Thoma Bravo made a growth investment valuing it at $1.15 billion.

Other investors in the Salt Lake City-based company include TCV and Foundation Capital.

The deal is the largest this year for a private cybersecurity company, per Crunchbase data.

The deal helps CyberArk — one of the most valuable cyber companies in the world — delve deeper into the growing area of machine identity security. Machine identity has become a hot topic in cyber as mobile and distributed workforces have led to a proliferation of machines on networks and a widening amount of endpoints.

CyberArk estimates the deal expands its total addressable market by nearly $10 billion.

More deal-making

It’s been a busy few weeks in the cyber sector for Thoma Bravo, which just bought Darktrace for a cool $5.32 billion in cash last month.

In general, investors are remaining bullish on deal-making for cyber startups. At the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco two weeks ago, many VCs and private equity investors said there has been significantly more “chatter” about potential deals.

One reason is that several large companies have socked away vast amounts of cash as M&A has slowed in recent quarters. Tech giants like Nvidia have watched their cash reserves balloon during that time.

Related Crunchbase Pro query:

• Global Venture-Backed Cybersecurity Acquisitions

Related reading:

• Cybersecurity Dealmaking Shows Signs Of Life
• Deal-Making Involving VC-Backed Startups Picks Up Slightly, But Still Slow
• ‘There’s A Lot Of Noise’ — VCs Trying To Find Clarity In Cluttered Cyber AI Landscape

However, it seemed like what most of the folks who invest big-money in those same cybersecurity startups really wanted was some quiet from all the noise that surrounds AI.

“There’s a lot of noise out there,” said one investor. “It’s getting harder and harder to cut through much of it.”

The general consensus among VCs at the conference was that while they are listening to a lot of pitches from startups that use AI or help secure its development — such as data protection, identity and third-party risk — many are taking their time to invest.

“It’s not that we aren’t listening,” said another VC. “We just haven’t pulled the trigger yet. We haven’t seen one that really moved us.”

Some investors seem hesitant to enter a market they don’t fully understand the size of yet and are skeptical of startups that claim they have an AI story when in reality they actually may or may not.

That said, funding numbers for AI-related cybersecurity startups actually seems to have made a comeback this year after a slight pullback in Q4. In the first quarter of the year, investors poured $263 million into such startups, compared to only $103 million in Q4 of last year, per Crunchbase data.

The biggest deal of Q1 was a $60 million Series E raise by New York-based BigID.

Already in the second quarter, investors have agreed to $410 million in deals with startups.

So, while many are preaching patience, it seems others are writing checks.

Other news and notes from RSA:

• The conference opened with news of cloud security startup Wiz locking up the biggest cybersecurity round of the year thus far  — a $1 billion round at a $12 billion valuation. The round caught some by surprise, but the general feeling was the overall funding levels in cyber were healthy and sustainable. While some downrounds and flatrounds still persist, there has been a noticeable uptick in both investors’ interest and actual money spent this year (which we have covered).
• One part of cybersecurity receiving interest are startups doing things around disinformation. Brands care about their reputation more than ever and a record 60-plus democratic countries are having national elections this year. “It’s on the top of everyone’s mind,” said an investor. Startups that can analyze texts, images and other data on multiple platforms such as the dark web and social media are something investors are looking at. Although, with some elections already behind us, one has to wonder if maybe this interest should have happened earlier.
• The other thing on the top of investors minds is the slow but strengthening M&A market. Deal-making for cyber startups and startups in general has slowly picked up and many expect that to continue as there has been significantly more “chatter” about potential deals. “I think you’ll see Q4 be really busy,” said one investor. “It’s not hard to look back and see when some of these companies last raised, so they may be looking for an exit. Expect PE to be involved.” Private equity already has been active this year. Late last month, Thoma Bravo — which had a nice shindig on top of the San Francisco MOMA during RSA — bought Darktrace for a cool $5.32 billion in cash.

Related Crunchbase Pro query

• Funding To VC-Backed AI Cybersecurity Startups

Related reading:

• Cloud Security Firm Wiz Raises $1B At $12B Valuation
• Cybersecurity Funding Shows Resilience In Q1

Illustration: Dom Guzman