So far this year, SaaS and enterprise software companies have raised $4.7 billion in seed- through growth-stage financing, per Crunchbase data. That puts 2024 on track to come in far below last year’s $17.4 billion annual tally — which was itself the lowest total in years.

For perspective, we charted out funding and deal counts from 2019 through 2024.

A tough week for enterprise software stocks

Startup funding declines come amid what is shaping up as a challenging period for publicly traded SaaS and enterprise software companies.

On Thursday, Salesforce 1 shares were down more than 20% after the company lowered guidance for the current quarter, citing cooling demand from customers who were taking more time to complete orders.

At the same time, shares of process automation software provider UiPath dropped by around 30% following a disappointing earnings report and downwardly revised quarterly forecast.

More broadly, it’s been a tough month for enterprise software. The Bessemer Cloud Index, which includes many of the most prominent public SaaS businesses, has sharply underperformed the Nasdaq and S&P 500 and is now in negative territory for 2024. The Bessemer index saw a particularly steep decline beginning in late May.

Some big startup rounds are still closing

Even amid a tougher fundraising environment, we are still seeing some large financings for SaaS and enterprise software this year.

The biggest by far is cloud security provider Wiz’s $1 billion Series E earlier this month, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Thrive Capital. The round set a $12 billion valuation for the 4-year-old company, which was founded in Israel and is headquartered in New York.

Another large financing went to Silicon Valley-based Glean, which markets AI-powered work assistants to enterprise customers. The company raised $200 million in a February Series D.

In the food service market, meanwhile, Irvine, California-based Restaurant365 landed $175 million in an early May financing led by Iconiq Growth. The company sells software to restaurant operators for managing and optimizing finances and staffing.

Not like it used to be

While funding hasn’t evaporated, we’re seeing far fewer megadeals in SaaS and enterprise software than a few years ago.

Over the past 12 months, 21 deals of $100 million or more have closed, per Crunchbase data. By comparison, during the peak year for deal-making — 2021 — there were 147 such financings.

For 2024, year-over-year investment totals are also quite a bit lower due to a single large 2023 round: the $6.5 billion Series I for fintech unicorn Stripe. That’s the largest financing in the space ever, per Crunchbase data, and thus obviously a tough comp to match.

Going forward, we’ll be looking to public markets to see if earnings outlooks improve for SaaS heavyweights and if investors regain their enthusiasm for the space. In private markets, meanwhile, investment remains subdued, albeit with a steady flow of deals still getting done.

Related Crunchbase Pro query:

• US SaaS And Enterprise Software Startup Funding

Related reading:

• The State Of Saas: After A Positive Start To 2024, Founders Can Find Success In A Reset Market
• 3 Strategic Steps Toward SaaS Profitability 

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

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 again not a bad week for raising big. Two rounds to U.S.-based startups this week hit a quarter-billion dollars or more, and there were eight rounds of $100 million or more. Once again, biotech made up nearly a third of the list while some other sectors that don’t usually make the list — developer platform and analytics — were represented. 

1. Uniquity Bio, $300M, biotech: It has become pretty much the norm to start off these lists with a big biotech raise. This week it was a brand-new company launched by Blackstone Life Sciences — a unit of the private equity giant — along with a sizable $300 million investment. The new startup is a clinical-stage drug development company focused on immunology and inflammation. The company already has FDA acceptance of its Phase 2 investigational new drug application for one of its medicines.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Restaurant365, $175M, accounting: It was only about a year ago that Restaurant365 made this list, and now the startup is back with an even bigger raise. The Irvine, California-based startup raised a $175 million round led by Iconiq Growth this week, after locking up a $135 million round co-led by KKR and L Catterton at a $1 billion valuation last May. Restaurant365 offers enterprise management software for restaurants, helping them take care of accounting, payroll, supply chain and more. Founded in 2011, the company has raised more than $438 million, per Crunchbase.

5. The Bot Company, $150M, robotics: No one likes cleaning the house, and perhaps soon you won’t have to anymore. Kyle Vogt, founder and former CEO of autonomous car startup Cruise, unveiled his newest startup this week. The Bot Company aims to develop robots that do “chores” for people. Nothing else much was disclosed about the company or what exactly those chores will be. The $150 million seed funding came from the likes of Quiet Capital, Stripe’s Patrick Collison and John Collison, and others. Vogt left Cruise last year after a Cruise car hit and dragged a woman in San Francisco, causing regulators to suspend Cruise’s license to operate in California.

6. Weka, $140M, data: Weka locked up a $140 million Series E — raised in both a primary and secondary transaction — that values the data platform at $1.6 billion. The valuation is more than double what the company was last valued at after a $135 million Series D led by Generation Investment Management in late 2022. At the time, it was reported that the Campbell, California-based startup had a $750 million valuation after the raise. The new round was led by Valor Equity Partners. Weka helps companies move data between sources faster and more efficiently — something mandatory for companies building AI projects. Founded in 2013, Weka has now raised $375 million, according to Crunchbase. Its new round is just the latest big raise for an AI infrastructure company. In February, Lambda which offers cloud computing services and hardware for training artificial intelligence software, hit unicorn status after a $320 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation. And earlier this month, 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. 

7. Lycia Therapeutics, $107M, biotech: South San Francisco-based Lycia Therapeutics, a biotech company developing therapeutics that degrade extracellular and membrane-bound proteins that drive autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, completed a $106.6 million Series C led by Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $227 million, per Crunchbase.

8. Alkira, $100M, cloud infrastructure: San Jose, California-based Alkira, which allows companies to manage hybrid cloud assets, closed a $100 million Series C led by Tiger Global Management. Founded in 2018, Alkira has raised $176 million, per the company.

9. (tied). Ajax Therapeutics, $95M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Ajax Therapeutics, which is developing a drug for the bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis, raised a $95 million Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $135 million, per Crunchbase.

9. (tied). ByHeart, $95M, nutrition: New York-based ByHeart, an infant formula brand, locked up a $95 million  financing from undisclosed investors. The company also announced two new production facilities in Oregon and Iowa — allowing ByHeart to triple its supply capacity. Founded in 2016, ByHeart has raised a total of $395 million from investors including D1 Capital Partners, Polaris Partners and others.

Big global deals

U.S.-based startups led the way when it came to big rounds this week by far, as there were no nine-figure rounds raised globally. The biggest round outside the U.S. came from down under.

• Australian-based Cover Genius, an insurance distribution platform for customers of e-commerce companies, raised an $80 million Series E.

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 May 11 to May 17. 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

You have an amazing idea for a company. Now it’s time to build the platform. Will you take a monolithic approach to building, like most enterprise-focused companies adopt? Or will you embrace change?

Lightbulb moment

Most enterprise applications are built like elephants: Giant databases, high CPU machines, an inside data center, blocking architecture, heavy contracts and more.

In short, they are big, slow and clunky for the sake of functionality.

But this is the opposite of where the enterprise needs to go today. Rather, they need speed, agility and adaptability; built for their environment without sacrificing power. These elephants should begin to look and think more like a streak of cheetahs.

First, determine what you want to achieve with your platform. What are the key components? What functionality would you like to offer as you build-out your roadmap? How will you scale? Think about it now so you don’t wind up with a stack of cards that could tumble if you’re not prepared.

In my case, I knew that if we wanted to build the transformative platform we envisioned, I had to change the way I looked at system architecture, leaning into my background in consumer applications and distributed computing.

How to take your own leap forward

If you consider what has happened in enterprise architecture over time, you see a lot of tools stepping on each other’s territory to try to make things simple.

Many data stores have become search engines and vice versa, but in reality they do a poor job of handling anything outside of their core competency. Trying to be everything in one comes at a cost; systems will not be super efficient or intuitive. If you really want to build a next-generation application, you have to rely on individual tools.

We built the platform I co-founded, Albert Invent, using highly scalable, low latency single table design NoSQL (dynamoDB), and streamed data to warehouse and search — and we adopted 10s of microservices to deliver and process. This was a move that would not have been possible even a few years ago.

But with consumer technologies becoming a commodity and managed services available through AWS, building and deploying enterprise architecture no longer has to look and act like an elephant.

You can get infrastructure as code with the click of a button and create a distributed architecture that makes sense for your business. This gives you access to the most modern tools to build the most modern applications your industry has seen.

To get it right, hire engineers who know how to build consumer applications, who have the skills in their DNA. They will be integral to building a new breed of enterprise applications, especially with goals like scalability and performance.

With the right people in place and a modular programming approach, you can start creating innovative, best-of-breed software components through APIs that are highly specific to a given problem or function.

For example, we have an inventory component, a worksheet component, an experiments component and a regulatory component that serve the various tasks that occur in a lab. Each was designed and coded using the tools that made the most sense for the needs of particular users.

They didn’t have to compromise, which enabled us to create something people would enjoy using.

Going API-first enables everything to connect and all of the components to talk to each other. Infrastructure and application building changes forever.

Not only do you not have to build from scratch, you have the ability to customize, and pick and choose what you want to accept. APIs are quick to integrate, they’re stable, and you can use any language or framework. Simply, APIs provide the ultimate in flexibility. You may feel like you’re giving up some control, but in the best possible way — you’re trading off months of development time and costs with very minimal, if any, downside.

Making it to the other side

If you are in a data-rich, highly dynamic industry and you want to make a profound impact on the lives of your customers, shed some pounds and add some spots. Don’t be the elephant.

Become a streak of cheetahs to serve the needs of your business and your customers.

Neelesh Vaikhary is the co-founder and CTO of Albert Invent, an end-to-end R&D data platform being used by thousands of scientists worldwide. He has more than 20 years of experience building early-stage startups and products, as well as scaling high-performing teams and building distributed SaaS and PaaS systems across a range of industries. Previously, he architected several breakthrough software solutions including Citrix GoTo Meeting and end-to-end secure chat software for Symphony. He also spent nearly a decade as an architect with Autodesk, and built a consumer startup, like.com (acquired by Google), that used computer vision and machine learning to simplify photo sharing and shopping.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its executives — including co-founder and CEO Sam Altman — for allegedly breaching the founding agreement of the company to develop artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity. 

The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Thursday, claims the company and its leaders have set that agreement “aflame” by letting the company be “transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft” and now working in secrecy and focusing on profit.

While OpenAI is a nonprofit, it does also have a capped-profit arm. OpenAI does indeed have a close relationship with Microsoft, which was an early investor in the company and in January 2023 agreed to a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment” into OpenAI, with several reports tabbing that as a $10 billion deal.

November’s drama

Musk’s suit particularly points the finger at the events at OpenAI last November when the company’s board dismissed Altman after losing “confidence” in him to lead the company and “not consistently (being) candid with the board.”

Over the course of several dramatic days, Altman was eventually brought back, along with a new board.

The lawsuit claims the “new board members were hand-picked by Mr. Altman and blessed by Microsoft. The new Board members lack substantial AI expertise and, on information and belief, are ill equipped by design to make an independent determination of whether and when OpenAI has attained” artificial general intelligence and when the company has developed an algorithm that is outside the scope of Microsoft’s license, the suit alleges.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 before stepping down as co-chair in 2018. 

OpenAI’s charter on its site states its mission is to ensure AI benefits all of humanity.

Related reading:

• OpenAI Still Trying To Lure Altman Back; Investors Could Sue
• Altman Joins New Microsoft Venture; ​​Hundreds Of OpenAI Employees Threaten To Quit
• Sam Altman Out As OpenAI’s CEO
• Beyond OpenAI: Sam Altman The Investor Takes Center Stage

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 week was rolling along pretty quietly until the House of Mouse decided to get involved. While the deal for Epic Games certainly grabbed headlines — it is tied for the largest round this year in the U.S. — there were a good number of other large deals as well. That included more than $200 million for a security company and lots of big biotech raises.

1. Epic Games, $1.5B, gaming: Epic Games is not a stranger to this list. The gaming giant raised big in 2022 when it nabbed $2 billion from Sony and KIRKBI — the family-owned holding and investment company behind The LEGO Group — at a $31.5 billion valuation. This week the North Carolina-based company raised another $1.5 billion through a new partnership with Disney to help give more exposure to the company’s characters and properties — including Marvel Comics characters. However, the round was a drastic drop in valuation, as it was reported Disney invested at a $22.5 billion valuation. Founded in 1991, the Fortnite creator has raised nearly $8 billion to date, according to Crunchbase data.

2. NinjaOne, $232M, security: NinjaOne showed this week that not all big funding rounds go to generative AI companies. The company, which provides endpoint management, security and monitoring, raised a $231.5 million Series C led by Iconiq Growth. The minority investment values the Austin, Texas-based firm at $1.9 billion. Monitoring and securing endpoints has been a main pillar of cybersecurity since the industry started. However, the need may be even bigger today, as many people work outside an office and with a variety of networks and devices. NinjaOne automates endpoint management for more than 17,000 customers in over 80 countries and witnessed 70%-plus ARR growth last year. Founded in 2013, the company has raised $261.5 million, per Crunchbase.

3. Neurona Therapeutics, $120M, biotech: San Francisco-based Neurona Therapeutics was the big biotch winner this week. The clinical-stage biotherapeutics firm, which focuses on regenerative cell therapy for the treatment of neurological disorders, locked up a $120 million financing co-led by Viking Global Investors and Cormorant Asset Management. Founded in 2008, the company has raised more than $320 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Starship Technologies, $90M, robotics: Delivery robot startup Starship Technologies raised a $90 million round co-led by Plural and Iconical. The San Francisco-based company has created delivery robots for food, groceries and just about anything else needing last-mile and on-demand delivery. Each robot can run for 18 hours when fully charged, and the company says the average delivery takes only the same amount of energy as boiling a kettle for a single cup of tea. Founded in 2014, Starship has raised $230 million, per the company.

5. Platform Accounting Group, $85M, accounting: Accounting isn’t the sexiest or buzziest industry, but there is cash in it. Salt Lake City-based Platform Accounting Group closed an $85 million minority funding round led by The Cynosure Group. The company acquires and supports the operation of professional services firms focused on providing tax compliance, outsourced accounting and a variety of other services to individuals and small businesses. Founded in 2015, this is the company’s first disclosed funding.

6. Zededa, $72M, cloud computing: Edge computing has been a necessity for enterprises for a long time to save time and bandwidth and bring data closer to the user. That is even more necessary in the age of AI — where vast amounts of data are necessary. San Jose, California-based Zededa raised $72 million to try to help with that, as the startup builds the underlying infrastructure necessary for edge computing. The new round, led by Smith Point Capital, values the company at approximately $400 million — an increase from its previous valuation of $193 million during the last funding round in 2022. Founded in 2016, Zededa has raised more than $127 million, per the company.

7. Ambience Healthcare, $70M, health care: San Francisco-based Ambience Healthcare, an AI operating system for healthcare organizations, announced a $70 million Series B co-led by Kleiner Perkins and OpenAI Startup Fund. The platform uses AI to generate comprehensive notes, help clinicians prep for patients, compose referrals and more. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $106 million, per Crunchbase.

8. Nasdaq Private Market, $62M, finance: San Francisco-based Nasdaq Private Market, a market for private company offerings, closed a $62.4 million Series B led by Nasdaq — which it was spun off from in 2021. 

9. Attralus, $56M, biotech: San Francisco-based Attralus, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing medicines for systemic amyloidosis, closed a $56 million financing led by new investor Alpha Wave Ventures. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $197 million, per Crunchbase.

10. Unlearn, $50M, clinical trials: San Francisco-based Unlearn, which uses AI to create digital twins of clinical trial participants, raised a $50 million Series C round led by Altimeter Capital. Founded in 2017, Unlearn has raised more than $130 million, per the company.

Big global deals

Epic Games and NinjaOne were the largest rounds globally. The next largest one came from China:

• Sidtek, which develops and manufactures OLED microdisplays, raised a Series A worth approximately $140 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 Feb. 3 to Feb. 9. 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

Last week AI private market investors likely rejoiced when it was reported data center startup Astera Labs was preparing for a potential March initial public offering.

The Santa Clara, California-based startup provides data and memory connectivity solutions for some of the biggest chipmakers in the world, including Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. It raised a $150 million Series D led by Fidelity Management and Research that values the company at nearly $3.2 billion.

Investors will keep a keen eye on the possible offering, as it will be a sneak peek of how AI startups are seen by public investors.

However, it also draws attention to the fact that the insatiable appetite for everything AI hasn’t exactly extended to the semiconductor startup world.

When Astera raised its massive round in 2022, the market for funding for U.S.-based semiconductor startups seemed to be picking up with more than $2 billion invested in nearly 80 deals for such startups, per Crunchbase data.

But that number fell to only $1.2 billion in 64 deals last year — despite big, nine-figure rounds by AI-related chip startups like Boston-based Lightmatter and Santa Clara-based Celestial AI and D-Matrix.

So far this year, the space has seen scant activity, with just a couple of deals recorded.

There are, of course, a few important things to remember. The entire venture market was down last year when compared to 2022, as it was still coming off the crazy highs seen in 2021.

Another important thing to remember is the chip market is dominated by a few big players — obviously Nvidia is in the lead in the AI-related market — and investors know that. It is an expensive and difficult market for any startups to make headway in — although company that do can see nice M&A exits.

Also, not every chip designer startup is focused on the AI market.

However, by this time last year the AI investing craze was in full swing, and although semiconductor funding normally is slow, one would think investors would have started plowing money into the industry by now. That’s especially true with how the chip market has become more segregated due to restrictions with China.

Perhaps Astera’s possible IPO will light the fire needed for semiconductor investors to open their checkbooks. Or perhaps it will show why they are so leery.

Things that caught our eye and other stuff:

• One big round this week went to Ambience Healthcare — a San Francisco-based startup that has created an AI operating system for health care organizations. The platform uses AI to generate comprehensive notes, help clinicians prep for patients, compose referrals and more. While that definitely qualifies as an interesting — and useful — use of AI, it was actually who co-led that round that caught our eye. The $70 million Series B was co-led by OpenAI Startup Fund — along with Kleiner Perkins. OpenAI’s fund was announced late in 2022, and now has 14 investments, per Crunchbase. It has led or co-led in half those rounds, which have not been small. The Ambience round is significant, and late last year it took part in an $80 million round for San Francisco-based Harvey, an artificial intelligence technology service provider for legal workers. It’s an interesting fund to watch.
• We’ll end with another Altman-related topic. The Information reported Jack Altman — Sam’s younger brother — has raised a $150 million venture fund to invest in early-stage startups through his Alt Capital firm. The fund plans to lead or co-lead investments and focus on enterprise software startups, including, of course, those using artificial intelligence. It is the firm’s third fund — and likely another one to watch.

Related Crunchbase Pro query:

• Semiconductor Funding To US-Based, VC-Backed Startups

Related reading:

• Chipmaker Astera Labs Nabs $150M, Hits $3.1B Valuation

Illustration: Dom Guzman

The deal values the company at $43 billion, a boost from the $38 billion valuation San Francisco-based Databricks received after raising a $1.6 billion Series H led by Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global in 2021.

Databricks creates tools and products to help companies view both structured and unstructured data in a single location without moving between different systems.

New investors in the round include chip-making giant Nvidia — which has been busy of late investing in AI startups — Capital One Ventures and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Existing  investors participating in the new round included Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, ClearBridge Investments, funds and accounts managed by Counterpoint Global, Fidelity Management & Research Co., Franklin Templeton, GIC, Octahedron Capital and Tiger Global.

“The commitment from long-term focused strategic and financial partners reflects Databricks’ continued momentum, the rapid customer adoption of the Databricks Lakehouse, and the success customers are seeing from moving to a unified data and AI platform,” Databricks co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi said in a release. “Databricks and Nvidia are building transformative AI technology, and we’re excited about the business value and innovation we can bring to our customers.”

Milestones

The new round does not come as a surprise, but it does go against a couple of current trends: companies having to lower valuations in order to raise cash, or companies not being able to raise large growth rounds at all.

However, Databricks was one of the world’s most valuable private companies even before this new round, and is often mentioned in IPO predictions. It seems that an IPO will have to wait now that the company’s coffers are flush with fresh capital.

The company also has recently passed some impressive financial milestones, including surpassing the $1.5 billion revenue run rate at more than 50% revenue year-to-year growth during the second quarter ended July 31. Databricks said it ended that quarter with more than 10,000 global customers.

The company has openly talked about surpassing a milestone of $1 billion in annual revenue.

Databricks also made a huge acquisition in June, buying OpenAI competitor MosaicML for $1.3 billion. 

Since being founded in 2013, Databricks has raised more than $4 billion, per Crunchbase.

Further reading:

• Databricks Buys Generative AI Startup MosaicML For $1.3B

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Learn More

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.

There were lots of big rounds this week as August roared in after a kind of sleepy July. The big rounds went to all different types of companies — from networking to biotech to sustainability. However, while there were five nine-figure rounds, none topped $200 million. Still, not a bad start to the final full month of summer.

1. Nile, $175M, networking: Enterprise networking can be a hard sector for a startup to break into, as it has long been dominated by tech giants. Nevertheless, San Jose, California-based networking startup Nile was able to catch investors’ eyes with a $175 million Series C less than a year after emerging from stealth. The company was co-founded by former Cisco Systems executives John Chambers and Pankaj Patel. Chambers served as CEO of the networking giant for two decades. The round was co-led by March Capital and Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund Sanabil Investments. Nile is attempting to disrupt the networking industry by offering network-as-a-service with more secure wired and wireless services enhanced with monitoring, analytics and automation. The idea is to help companies simplify their modern networking needs and offer optimum security while going head-to-head with goliaths such as Cisco and Juniper Networks. The startup did not offer a valuation. The round brings Nile’s total amount of capital raised to $300 million since being founded in 2018, per the company.

2. Newlight Technologies, $125M, sustainability: Converting greenhouse gasses into something usable is big business right now. Newlight Technologies locked up $125 million led by GenZero to do just that. The Huntington Beach, California-based startup uses natural microorganisms to convert greenhouse gas into a material the company calls “AirCarbon,” which can substitute for a variety of other materials to build products in sectors such as fashion, foodservice and others. Newlight plans to use the new cash to expand the production of AirCarbon at both its existing California facility as well as a new production facility being built in Ohio. Founded in 2003, the company has raised nearly $232 million, per Crunchbase.

3. Jerry, $110M, auto insurance: While we all like to drive, no one enjoys car insurance. The Jerry app tries to make the whole insurance thing a little easier by finding better rates, and it can even find loans for a new ride. This week it raised $110 million in equity and debt for new features — GarageGuard, like WebMD for cars, and DriveShield, a safe-driving feature. The financing was led by existing investor Park West Asset Management. Hopefully, the new GarageGuard feature doesn’t turn everyone into an at-home mechanic. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $242 million, per Crunchbase.

4. CG Oncology, $105M, biotech: With recent weeks being so biotech heavy, it almost seems like this is low on the list for our first biotech company of the week. CG Oncology locked up a $105 million round co-led by new investors Foresite Capital and TCGX. The Irvine, California-based firm will use the new cash to advance late-stage clinical programs for its bladder cancer treatment. Founded in 2010, the company has raised nearly $318 million.

5. Healthmap Solutions, $100M, health care: Tampa, Florida-based Healthmap Solutions, a health management company focused on kidney disease, raised a $100 million round led by funds managed by WindRose Health Investors. The company has seen significant growth, as it’s contracted to manage more than $3 billion in health care spend and currently serves more than 160,000 individuals living with kidney disease. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $226 million, per Crunchbase.

6. Tisento Therapeutics, $81M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Tisento Therapeutics, a biotech firm looking to treat mitochondrial diseases, raised an $81 million Series A that included investment from Invus, Peter Hecht, Polaris and others. The round is the company’s first outside funding, per Crunchbase.

7. LightForce Orthodontics, $80M, dental: Burlington, Massachusetts-based LightForce Orthodontics, a maker of personalized 3D-printed braces, closed an $80 million Series D led by Ally Bridge Group. Founded in 2015, the company has raised $150 million, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Endor Labs, $70M, security: Palo Alto, California-based Endor Labs, an open-source security startup, raised a $70 million Series A that included investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Coatue. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $95 million, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Tradeshift, $70M, fintech: San Francisco-based Tradeshift, a cloud-based business network connecting buyers and suppliers, agreed to a $70 million investment from HSBC as part of a joint venture. Founded in 2009, the company has raised $1.1 billion, per Crunchbase.

10. Kyverna Therapeutics, $60M, biotech: Emeryville, California-based Kyverna Therapeutics, a clinical-stage cell therapy startup focusing on therapies for autoimmune diseases, closed a $60 million Series B extension. The new cash brings the Series B total to $145 million. Investors in the round include Bain Capital Life Sciences and GordonMD Global Investments. Founded in 2018, the company has now raised $170 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

Despite all the large raises in the U.S., the biggest occurred across the Pacific.

• Hong Kong-based Micro Connect, a financial market platform, raised a $458 million Series C.

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 July 29 to August 4. 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

That has not deterred San Jose, California-based networking startup Nile, which announced a large $175 million Series C less than a year after emerging from stealth. The company was co-founded by former Cisco Systems executives John Chambers and Pankaj Patel. Chambers served as CEO of the networking giant for two decades.

The round was co-led by March Capital and Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund Sanabil Investments. It also included strategic participation from Prosperity7 — the venture capital fund of Saudi Arabia-based Aramco Ventures — and Liberty Global Ventures. 8VC 1, Geodesic Capital, U First Capital and Valor Equity Partners also contributed.

Simplifying and securing the network

Nile is attempting to disrupt the networking industry by offering network-as-a-service with more secure wired and wireless services enhanced with monitoring, analytics and automation.

The idea is to help companies simplify their modern networking needs and offer optimum security while going head-to-head with goliaths such as Cisco and Juniper Networks.

“Nile is in a strong position to take advantage of several paradigm shifts occurring across the technology ecosystem,” said Patel, mentioning cloud-born edge infrastructure, AI and cloud migration strategies in particular.

“These trends present unique challenges in the way enterprise infrastructure is consumed, and Nile is committed to addressing them head-on, making our service as agile and innovative as the technology solutions it enables,” he added.

Nile already has expanded into Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and collaborates with more than 100 channel- and service-provider partners.

The startup did not offer a valuation. The round brings Nile’s total amount of capital raised to $300 million since being founded in 2018, per the company.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Atlanta-based OneTrust raised a $150 million round led by new investor Generation Investment Management — co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore — with participation from existing investor Sands Capital at a $4.5 billion valuation.

The valuation represents about a 12% drop from the $5.1 billion valuation the privacy and security startup garnered after it raised a Series C in late 2020 and an extension in 2021.

Founded in 2016, OneTrust says it has now raised more than $1 billion. 

New normal

OneTrust, which helps companies manage privacy, security and governance requirements in the ever-changing regulatory environment, is far from the only unicorn that has raised a down round.

Big names such as Klarna and Stripe have done similar rounds as the venture market has continued to slow since its highs of 2021.

The fact that startups have had to settle for a down round may say more about how companies were overvalued in 2021 than any declining performance by the companies themselves.

OneTrust CEO Kabir Barday told Bloomberg the company has doubled annual recurring revenue to $400 million from 2021.

The company plans to use the new funding to meet growing customer demand. OneTrust has more than 14,000 customers globally.

“We are focused on delivering strong customer experiences and will continue to evolve our platform as our customers’ needs grow,” Barday said. “This funding is a testament to our sustained growth, market leadership, and customer-centric innovation.”

OneTrust was part of a growing world of compliance regulation startups — which included TrustArc and BigID — when it was founded. At the time, hundreds of new laws and regulations — such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act — were being enacted and startups flocked to the sector.

Other investors in OneTrust include TCV, Insight Partners and Coatue.

Illustration: Dom Guzman