San Francisco-based Magic, which develops AI models to write software, is reportedly in talks with investors to raise a fresh $200 million.

The raise would come at a $1.5 billion valuation — triple its previous valuation from just five months ago — per a Reuters report. Magic has no revenue and no product for sale, the report says.

The startup last raised a $117 million round in February led by NFDG Ventures, which also included participation from CapitalG and Elad Gil.

Investors in the new round would include Jane Street Capital, according to the report.

Hot sector

While everything in AI is hot, software development seems to be something investors have specifically keyed in on when exploring the best near-term uses for the tech.

Not only does AI hold the promise to speed up application and software development, but also could cut down the cost of software developers — as well as the problem of just finding them to hire in the first place. It could also possibly make them more productive.

Other startups that have raised cash in the space include London-based Builder.ai, which raised a $250 million-plus Series D led by Qatar Investment Authority last year.

Earlier this year, Palo Alto, California-based Augment locked up a $227 million Series B round at a $977 million post-money valuation. Augment helps developers and software teams by giving them AI coding assistance.

That same week, San Francisco-based Cognition reportedly locked up a $175 million investment led by Founders Fund at a $2 billion valuation. The 6-month-old startup has developed an artificial intelligence-powered coding assistant called Devin.

Founded in 2022, Magic has raised $145 million, per Crunchbase.

Related reading:

• Eye On AI: OpenAI Goes On A Buying Spree As AI Looks To Open Up M&A, IPO Markets

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Lots of big rounds last month, including two huge ones well over a half-billion dollars. While June started slow, it ended in a flurry of massive-money deals — making this list tough to crack.

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. Sila Nanotechnologies, $375M battery: A next-generation battery materials company pulled in a huge round in June. Alameda, California-based Sila, a next-generation battery materials company, announced it raised a $375 million Series G led by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates. The new cash will help the  company finish construction of its Moses Lake, Washington, plant — scheduled for the first quarter of next year — for the production of its Titan Silicon anode material. Founded in 2011, the company has raised $1.4 billion, per Crunchbase.

4. Formation Bio, $372M, biotech: Formation Bio, an AI-enhanced pharma company, raised a $372 million Series D led by a16z. The New York-based startup, launched in 2016 as TrialSpark, has built AI-enabled platforms and processes to accelerate drug development and clinical trials — integrating large language models, AI models and applications throughout its platform. More and more biotech startups are using AI to help with their drug processes and investors are clearly taking note. Founded in 2013, the company has raised $528 million, per Crunchbase.

5. CData Software, $350M, data integration: In a round that likely slipped under most folks’ radar was data connectivity company CData Software’s massive $350 million growth round from two big-named firms. The round was led by Warburg Pincus, with participation from Accel. The Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based company develops data products and connectivity solutions that provide access to live data from hundreds of on-premises and cloud applications. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $510 million, per Crunchbase.

6. (tied) Creatio, $200M, customer relationship management: Low-code and no-code startups are not seeing the funding they did a couple of years ago, but it clearly has not dried up completely. Creatio achieved unicorn status after landing a $200 million round led by Sapphire Ventures. The new cash, a minority investment, values the startup at $1.2 billion and will be used to help the company expand globally as it continues to grow revenue 50% year to year. The Boston-based startup is a developer of a no-code platform to automate customer relationship management and enterprise workflows. Not surprisingly, the company has an AI angle — creating a new generative AI copilot to help automate different marketing and sales tasks. Founded in 2014, Creatio previously raised $68 million in 2021 in a round led by Volition Capital, per Crunchbase.

6. (tied) Foodsmart, $200M, healthcare: Foodsmart locked down a massive $200 million round led by TPG’s global impact investing platform, The Rise Fund. The San Francisco-based company has developed a telenutrition and food benefits management platform. Founded in 2010, Foodsmart helps those facing chronic disease and food insecurity by partnering with health plans and providers to give patients access to affordable healthy eating options, virtual nutrition counseling, meal plannning and ways to buy food affordably. Foodsmart has raised nearly $315 million, per Crunchbase.

8. 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.

9. Sidecar Health, $165M, healthcare: Healthcare is a mess — nearly everyone can agree on that. Sidecar Health, a health insurance company providing major medical coverage to businesses, closed a $165 million Series D led by Koch Disruptive Technologies to try to untangle it at least a little bit. The El Segundo, California-based startup offers plans that eliminates the need for prior authorizations, referrals and networks for doctors — allowing patients to go where they want. Sidecar Health believes a free-market approach will ensure healthcare is more accessible and affordable. Founded in 2018, the company has raised 328 million, per Crunchbase.

10. 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.

Big global deals

While Cruise’s raise was the largest globally for the month, the secondest largest came from Asia

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

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the month of June 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

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.

It was a huge week for startups raising big. A company had to raise nine figures to make the list this week and five raised $200 million or more. It’s unlikely the short week next week will see these kinds of rounds, so don’t expect the same type of dollar figures in the next seven days.

1. Sila Nanotechnologies, $375M battery: A next-generation battery materials company led the way this week with a huge round. Alameda, California-based Sila, a next-generation battery materials company, announced it raised a $375 million Series G led by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates. The new cash will help the  company finish construction of its Moses Lake, Washington, plant — scheduled for the first quarter of next year — for the production of its Titan Silicon anode material. Founded in 2011, the company has raised $1.4 billion, per Crunchbase.

2. Formation Bio, $372M, biotech: Every week there is a big biotech raise and this week’s is really big. Formation Bio, an AI-enhanced pharma company, raised a $372 million Series D led by a16z. The New York-based startup, launched in 2016 as TrialSpark, has built AI-enabled platforms and processes to accelerate drug development and clinical trials — integrating large language models, AI models and applications throughout its platform. More and more biotech startups are using AI to help with their drug processes and investors are clearly taking note. Founded in 2013, the company has raised $528 million, per Crunchbase.

3. CData Software, $350M, data integration: A round that likely skipped under most folks’ radar was data connectivity company CData Software’s massive $350 million growth round from two big-named firms. The round was led by Warburg Pincus, with participation from Accel. The Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based company develops data products and connectivity solutions that provide access to live data from hundreds of on-premises and cloud applications. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $510 million, per Crunchbase.

4. (tied) Creatio, $200M, customer relationship management: Low-code and no-code startups are not seeing the funding they did a couple of years ago, but it clearly has not dried up completely. Creatio achieved unicorn status after landing a $200 million round led by Sapphire Ventures. The new cash, a minority investment, values the startup at $1.2 billion and will be used to help the company expand globally as it continues to grow revenue 50% year to year. The Boston-based startup is a developer of a no-code platform to automate customer relationship management and enterprise workflows. Not surprisingly, the company has an AI angle — creating a new generative AI copilot to help automate different marketing and sales tasks. Founded in 2014, Creatio previously raised $68 million in 2021 in a round led by Volition Capital, per Crunchbase.

4. (tied) Foodsmart, $200M, healthcare: Foodsmart locked down a massive $200 million round led by TPG’s global impact investing platform, The Rise Fund. The San Francisco-based company has developed a telenutrition and food benefits management platform. Founded in 2010, Foodsmart helps those facing chronic disease and food insecurity by partnering with health plans and providers to give patients access to affordable healthy eating options, virtual nutrition counseling and meal plans. Foodsmart has raised nearly $315 million, per Crunchbase.

6. Sidecar Health, $165M, healthcare: Healthcare is a mess — nearly everyone can agree on that. Sidecar Health, a health insurance company providing major medical coverage to businesses, closed a $165 million Series D led by Koch Disruptive Technologies to try to untangle it at least a little bit. The El Segundo, California-based startup offers plans that eliminate the need for prior authorizations, referrals and networks for doctors — allowing patients to go where they want. Sidecar Health believes a free-market approach will ensure healthcare is more accessible and affordable. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $328 million, per Crunchbase.

7. EvolutionaryScale, $142M, biotech: It was a big week for biotech. New York-based EvolutionaryScale, which has developed a large language model for creating novel proteins, raised a $142 million seed funding, led by Daniel Gross, Lux Capital and Nat Friedman. Amazon Web Services and NVentures, the venture capital arm of Nvidia, also took part in the round. While the company’s AI can be used for accelerating drug discovery, it also believes it can be used for other other applications such as breaking down plastics.

8. Etched.ai, $120M, semiconductor: Etched.ai became the latest startup to ride the wave of investor enthusiasm for AI chips. The San Francisco-based startup locked up a $120 million round led by Positive Sum and Primary Venture Partners. The startup is the creator of the transformer-specialized AI chip Sohu, used to train and deploy large language models that are the underpinning of generative AI. Etched has announced a partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to produce the chip, which will be a direct competitor to chip giant Nvidia — which dominates the market in AI. However, the large energy consumption of AI remains a concern, and Etched believes it can provide a more cost-effective and energy-efficient chip that is faster.

9. Bright Machines, $106M, manufacturing: San Francisco-based Bright Machines, a developer of software-defined manufacturing, raised $126 million in a Series C funding — with $106 million in equity led by investment from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. Founded in 2018, Bright Machines has raised more than $400 million, per the company.

10. (tied) Hebbia, $100M, artificial intelligence: New York-based Hebbia, a startup using generative AI to search large documents and find answers, raised nearly $100 million in a Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz. Founded in 2020, the company has raised more than $130 million, per Crunchbase.

10. (tied) LanzaJet, $100M, fuel: Chicago-based LanzaJet, a sustainable fuels technology company, announced a $100 million growth equity round. Investors included Mitsubishi UFG Financial.

Big global deals

There were a few big rounds outside the U.S. this week. The largest was:

• Turkey-based Getir, which provides on-demand delivery services, raised a $250 million venture round.

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 22 to June 28. 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

Summer is here and the time is right to maybe read a little less tech news and have some fun.

If that’s the case, you may have missed some intriguing capital raises this month. No worries, we have you covered with what caught our eye — starting with an eye-related startup.

Check your eyes

Usually when we talk about healthcare and AI, it relates to a biotech using the technology to refine therapeutics or help with the clinical trial process.

However, Eyebot locked up $6 million this month led by AlleyCorp and Ubiquity Ventures for a different business model. The Boston-based startup is looking to build out a network of AI-powered kiosks that provide 90-second vision exams

Yes, self-serve, rapid eye tests with no optometrist. Hey, we scan our own groceries, why not be your own eye doctor? The prescription the kiosk spits out actually is finalized by a teledoctor, but it still eliminates the need for a traditional eye appointment — which might be good considering the optometry labor shortage.

The startup is looking to roll out its kiosks — which look like old-school arcade machines — in places such as shopping centers and pharmacies in October in the Northeast before scaling next year.

Keep an eye out!

Voice clues

Now moving from seeing to speaking, Canary Speech is next on the list after it raised a $13 million Series A funding round led by Cortes Capital.

The Provo, Utah-based AI-powered voice biomarker healthtech startup uses patented vocal analysis to screen for mental health and neurological disorders.

Canary’s vocal biomarker tech can actually capture and analyze speech data within seconds to identify irregularities in behavioral and cognitive changes — besting current clinical screening standards and before experiencing noticeable symptoms for illnesses like anxiety, depression and dementia.

Canary’s ambient listening tools can not only assess a patient’s health, but also simultaneously evaluate physicians’ health — something more important than ever with the American Medical Association reporting that at the end of 2021 nearly 63% of physicians experienced symptoms of burnout.

AI for social media

Ever been lonely on social media and needed a friend?

Well, now you can just create one — or at least an AI one.

Butterflies.AI locked up a $4.8 million seed round led by Coatue In June. The Bellevue, Washington-based startup is creating a social media platform where humans and AI can “co-exist,” by letting users create AI friends.

The platform relies on AI models to help users create a new “friend” in just minutes. The AI persona’s are fully fleshed out with a profile, backstory and even emotions. They then can create and interact with other people and AI personas on the platform.

To be honest, we don’t completely get the idea. Isn’t the point of social media to argue with people who don’t think like you? Not to make/create friends.

Moving outside the echo chamber

How people digest news and where they get their information from is something that has evolved significantly in just the last decades.

Many news outlets are gone and newspapers are all but dead. People seem very happy to get their news delivered only in the way they want with the opinions they share.

That’s why news-reader startup Particle.News caught our eye this month. The Northern California-based startup is looking for partnerships with publishers where its AI wouldn’t merely summarize the news, but actually help the reader look deeper into stories and understand different angles by using artificial intelligence to summarize stories from a variety of publishers.

The business model received some notice from investors this month, locking up a $10.9 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

It also signed a deal with Reuters to be a source of news content for its service.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes. Many are under the impression people just want to read the news in their own echo chamber. Perhaps there’s more to it.

It’s (not) a tire fire

We’ve all driven past a tire yard, with all that used rubber just creating an eyesore.

Well, LDCarbon locked up $28 million in a Series C to help deal with just that. The new round was led by Toyota’s growth fund, Woven Capital.

The Seoul, South Korea-based company has developed technologies to recycle end-of-life tires and other automotive parts into recovered carbon black and pyrolysis oil.

Those products, in turn, can be used to create new automotive parts and tires — and the cycle continues. The company is trying to solve  a major pollution issue that comes from incinerating old cars and tires — while also helping automakers hit sustainability goals and regulatory requirements.

The company is in the process of building Asia’s largest tire pyrolysis plant, and says its pyrolysis and material recovery process provides nearly 100% recovery of waste tires.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

It may be the big funding rounds that grab the headlines when it comes to the startup world, but for investors it’s the exit that actually matters.

For the past few years the M&A market for startups has been slow — and the IPO pipeline nonexistent.

However, just as AI is taking over venture, perhaps it is doing that for the M&A and IPO markets.

OpenAI — which reportedly has doubled annualized revenue to $3.4 billion — opened up its wallet the past few days to make two deals happen. The creator of ChatGPT first bought search and analytics startup Rockset last week. The San Mateo, California-based company had raised nearly $118 million in capital, per Crunchbase. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Then just this week, the AI giant bought video collaboration startup Multi, previously Remotion, in what was reportedly an acqui-hire. The San Francisco-based company had raised $13 million to date, per Crunchbase.

Overall, M&A has picked up slightly involving startups, per Crunchbase data. The current quarter already has witnessed more activity than Q1, with more than 430 deals. However, those numbers are still relatively low compared to quarters in previous years.

While those two deals will not set fire to the M&A market, it doubled the amount of deals OpenAI had previously done according to Crunchbase. It may show a new willingness for inorganic growth, a desire nearly all Big Tech companies must gain as they get larger. With OpenAI’s ever-expanding revenue numbers and the value of the company ever increasing, it certainly has the wherewithal to easily become a Goliath among suitors.

However, M&A is not the only way to exit, and AI may be looking to help there too. Last week, artificial intelligence chips startup Cerebras Systems reportedly filed confidentially for an initial public offering.

It’s a good time to be an AI chip developer. Nvidia has become one of the most — if not the most — valuable companies in the world and funding is currently gaining traction in the sector. Astera Labs — which provides data and memory connectivity solutions for some of the biggest chipmakers in the world — had a successful IPO even though its shares have tailed off its highs.

Other companies that went public this year had strong AI ties — like biotech Tempus AI — or played up their AI connections strongly — like Reddit.

Public investors are clearly intrigued by the AI tech play and where it may lead.

Investors have waited a couple years for the IPO and M&A markets to open back up, and it would not be surprising for AI to lead that charge — just as it seems to be leading everything else.

If big AI companies like OpenAI and perhaps Nvidia — which is showing interest in taking on the cloud services providers — start to get acquisitive and more startups think the time is right to test the public market, investors may start to see those long-awaited returns rolling in.

Things that caught our eye and other stuff:

• The soap opera at Stability AI took another turn this week, as investors that included ex-Facebook President Sean Parker committed $80 million to take over the artificial intelligence-driven visual art startup. Per a story in The Wall Street Journal, the new investors made a deal with suppliers to forgive some $100 million owed by Stability and also negotiated for the startup to be released from $300 million in future obligations. It’s the latest twist for Stability, which locked up a $101 million raise led by Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners and O’Shaughnessy Ventures in 2022. The company did not release a valuation at the time, but Bloomberg reported the new cash infusion valued the company at around $1 billion. However, in spring of last year Forbes reported Stability AI’s founder Emad Mostaque made exaggerated statements about both his own background and his generative AI startup. At the time, some AI researchers disputed the startup’s claims that it created the image generator Stable Diffusion, an open-source project developed by researchers. It also was reported the London-based startup was looking to raise an additional $1 billion of capital at a multibillion-dollar valuation, but talks had stalled. In March, reports surfaced that Mostaque left the company after an investor revolt. The company said in an internal memo it was trying to “right-size” the business after a period of unsustainable growth, per the report. Finally, in April the startup laid off 10% — estimated to be about 20 people — of its workforce, per a report by CNBC. That’s quite the whirlwind — even for an AI startup.
• Another round that caught our attention this week was raised by a Palo Alto, California-based startup. MEandMine, a developer of AI-flagging to identify psychological risks in young children, raised $4.5 million in funding led by K5 Global. The startup offers AI-powered screening to identify students’ psychological risks in real time by playing games with data points that are used for AI-flagging, allowing teachers, counselors and others to screen early and make informed decisions. Initial results from its California school pilots show a 91% accuracy, the company says. MEandMine’s algorithm launches games based on individual students’ makeup, and can help them center themselves.

Related Crunchbase Pro list:

• Global Venture-Backed M&A

Related reading:

• Deal-Making Involving VC-Backed Startups Picks Up Slightly, But Still Slow
• Accounting Startup Klarity Books $70M Series B — Report
• AI Chip Startup Etched Captures $120M In Hot Market
• Stability AI Newest Addition To Unicorn Stable
• Stability AI’s Founder Made Misleading Claims — Report
• Stability AI Lays Off 10% Of Staff — Report

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Creatio achieved unicorn status after landing a $200 million round led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from StepStone Group and current investors Volition Capital and Horizon Capital.

The new cash, a minority investment, values the startup at $1.2 billion and will be used to help the company expand globally as it continues to grow revenue 50% year to year.

“With this investment, we will continue to disrupt the traditional enterprise software approach, helping our clients to accelerate time-to-value and use technology as a competitive differentiation in their business,” said CEO Katherine Kostereva in a release.

The Boston-based startup is a developer of a no-code platform to automate customer relationship management and enterprise workflows.

More AI

Not surprisingly, the company has an AI angle — creating a new generative AI copilot to help automate different marketing and sales tasks.

Creatio will need to continue to innovate as it competes with huge tech titans such as Salesforce 1, Oracle and SAP which dominate the market.

The no-code and low-code space saw solid growth in 2021-22 as startups like Builder.ai and Genesis Global raised huge nine-figure rounds. While the sector appears to have slowed down, the current generative AI explosion seems to be breathing new life into the industry.

Founded in 2014, Creatio previously raised $68 million in 2021 in a round led by Volition Capital, per Crunchbase.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

The San Francisco-based startup locked up a $120 million round led by Positive Sum and Primary Venture Partners.

The startup is the creator of the transformer-specialized AI chip Sohu, used to train and deploy large language models that are the underpinning of generative AI.

Etched has announced a partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to produce the chip, which will be a direct competitor to chip giant Nvidia — which dominates the market in AI.

However, the large energy consumption of AI remains a concern, and Etched believes it can provide a more cost-effective and energy-efficient chip that is faster.

Semi explosion

Etched is just the latest chip startup to raise big. Venture funding to semiconductor chips appears well on its way to bouncing back this year after a forgettable 2023. Thus far in 2024, VC-backed chip startups have raised nearly $5.3 billion in just 175 deals, per Crunchbase data.

Last year, startups saw less than $8.8 billion in 490 deals. In 2022, chip startups locked up almost $10.9 billion in 447 deals.

Some big deals in 2024 include:

• This month Black Semiconductor raised nearly $275 million — mainly from the German government.
• In March, optical interconnectivity startup Celestial AI raised a massive $175 million Series C led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund. Celestial’s photonic fabric platform helps separate compute and memory, making processing extensive AI faster and more energy-efficient.
• In February, San Jose, California-based Recogni, which is developing its AI inference chip for both the generative AI and automotive industries, raised a $102 million Series C co-led by Celesta Capital and GreatPoint Ventures.

More big rounds could be on the way, as it was recently reported smartphone-maker Samsung is leading a round of at least $300 million for Toronto-based AI chip startup Tenstorrent.

Related Crunchbase Pro list:

• Semiconductor Funding To VC-Backed Startups

Related reading:

• Generative AI Chip Designer Recogni Locks Up $102M
• Chip Startup Celestial AI Lands Massive $175M Series C
• Semiconductor Startup Funding Looks To Bounce Back After Lackluster 2023

Illustration: Dom Guzman

However, since then venture funding has kicked into another gear.

Through April, less than $800 million was raised by startups in the autonomous driving industry, per Crunchbase data. However, since May 1 nearly $2.7 billion has come pouring into the sector — mainly through a handful of big deals that seem to show investor interest is not stuck in reverse.

Some of those deals that helped lead the turnaround include:

• Self-driving car startup Wayve led the reversal in early May, when the London-based startup raised $1.05 billion in a SoftBank-led round — marking one of the largest funding deals on record for a British startup.
• Two weeks ago, auto giant General Motors agreed to pump another $850 million into San Francisco-based Cruise — which is just restarting its driving programs in Phoenix, Dallas and Houston.
• Finally, just last week Toronto-based autonomous trucking developer Waabi raised a $200 million round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Uber. The company is looking to deploy its driverless trucks as soon as next year.

Those rounds now put venture funding in the sector on track to have its best year since 2021 when investment hit an incredible $12.7 billion — something that seemed unfathomable just about seven weeks ago.

Startups in the sector have already raised nearly $3.5 billion so far this year, putting it on pace to best the $5.7 billion last year and the $5.9 billion in 2022.

Ups and downs

Of course, big money and big valuations were once the norm for the industry.

In 2021, Cruise scooped up the largest round of any venture-backed U.S. startup — upsizing a round to $2.75 billion and valuing the company at more than $30 billion. Other startups in the sector such as Nuro, Horizon Robotics and Momenta also all scooped up rounds of $500 million or more.

However, the tide of venture started turning in early 2022 and autonomous driving startups felt the full effects. Incidentally, Cruise was one of the most affected, when SoftBank did not release a promised $1.35 billion 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.

Eventually more bad news came to the space as Ford Motor-backed Argo AI shuttered after raising $3.6 billion in funding from investors such as Volkswagen Group and Lyft. In early 2023, autonomous trucking startup Embark Trucks, once valued at $5 billion, announced it was laying off most employees and winding down operations.

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.

Not dead yet

Through all those travails, however, the industry is making a comeback.

It is hard to pinpoint one reason why, although there seems to be excitement over driverless trucks — perhaps as the industry has seen a driver shortage. Aside from the recent Waabi round, in Q3 last year Pittsburgh-based Stack AV — founded by the same folks behind Argo AI — raised a cool $1 billion from the SoftBank Group.

The other driving force could be (you guessed it!) AI.

Many startups like Wayve and Korea-based 42dot have pushed the AI angles of their companies hard, calling themselves mobility AI companies or something similar. In Wayve’s case, its technology works through embodied AI, where the vehicle is powered by artificial intelligence software and interacts with and continuously learns about the world. That differs from earlier attempts which relied more on lidar, radar and 3D.

It also may be a case where many of these large automakers who have invested billions of dollars in the space are just not willing to cut their losses yet. The space was heavily infused by corporate capital, and perhaps those investors are not ready to answer to disappointed shareholders quite yet.

Whatever the reasons, investors have picked up the pace when it comes to putting money into autonomous driving startups. We’ll see if it’s smooth or bumpy roads ahead.

Related Crunchbase Pro query:

• Autonomous Vehicles Startup Funding

Related reading:

• Autonomous Vehicle Funding Stuck In Neutral
• British Self-Driving Car Maker Wayve Revs Up With Whopping $1B SoftBank-led Round

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

Klarity became the latest accounting-related startup to raise big in the sector. The San Francisco-based company raised a $70 million Series B led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross and included participation from Scale Venture Partners, Tola Capital, Picus Capital, Invus Capital and Y Combinator — per a report in The Information.

No valuation was released.

Not surprisingly, there is an AI angle to Klarity. The company uses AI to help process data in contracts and internal records, eliminating the need to do it manually. The new cash will be used to add to its 130-person staff. The company is on pace  to triple that number this year, per the report.

Big rounds

Just in the past several months the accounting tech sector — perhaps not the sexiest or most talked about in the startup world — has seen some pretty big fundraises.

Copenhagen-based accounting platform provider Ageras raised an $88 million round led by Investcorp in April.

Before that, accounting workflow automation tools developer FloQast, locked up a $100 million Series E financing led by Iconiq Growth, and audit automation provider DataSnipper raised $100 million led by Index Ventures.

Just as in the case of Klarity, AI plays a role in most of those big rounds as startups are looking to apply the technology to help automate or expedite some of the tedious tasks in accounting.

The funding action is not dissimilar to what is going on in other often overlooked industries, such as the legal sector, where startups using AI continue to rake in big bucks.

Related Crunchbase Pro list:

• Accounting-Related Recently Funded Startups

Related reading:

• Accounting Startups Continue To Tally Up Funding
• AI Will Be Doing More Accounting If Startup Investors Have Their Way
• Eye On AI: Legal Tech Funding Getting AI Upgrade

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.

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