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This is a weekly feature that highlights the top 10 funding rounds announced in the United States of the week. Check out the biggest funding rounds from the past week here.
As the holiday season begins, a slew of companies have revealed major fundraising rounds. Of course, it was led by two well-known AI startups, including xAIwhich achieved its second massive fundraising in just six months.
1. xAI5 billion dollars, artificial intelligence: Generative AI startup xAI raised $5 billion in a funding round valuing it at $50 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new cycle includes investments from Qatar Investment Authority, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz And Sequoia Capital. It was just in May Elon MuskThe startup has officially announced its long-awaited fundraising, making it the second most valuable generative AI company in the world behind its only competitor. OpenAI. The $6 billion funding round valued the company at $24 billion post-money.
2. Anthropic4 billion dollars, artificial intelligence: Amazon agreed to invest an additional $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic – a ChatGPT rival with his AI assistant Claude. Last fall, Amazon agreed to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic, giving the Seattle-based e-commerce and cloud giant a minority stake in Anthropic. The immediate investment was $1.25 billion, with the remaining $2.75 billion expected earlier this year. This agreement included the name Anthropic Amazon Web Services its main cloud provider, as well as using AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to build, train and deploy its models. This new investment means that Amazon will have invested $8 billion in Antropic, retaining its minority stake in the startup, according to Anthropic. blog.
3. Logic Monitor$800 million, IT management: LogicMonitor, which provides IT observability and monitoring, has raised $800 million in new equity and debt from a consortium of investors including PSG shares, Golub Capital and others. The agreement is part of Vista Equity Partners selling a minority stake in the company, which is now valued at approximately $2.4 billion. The IT infrastructure company will use the fresh cash for M&A activities and to enter new markets globally. Vista purchased LogicMonitor in May 2018 for approximately $415 million.
4. Cyera$300 million, cybersecurity: After raising a $300 million Series C round led by Coatue With a valuation of $1.4 billion in April, data security startup Cyera scored another $300 million windfall, more than double its previous valuation. The New York-based company announced a $300 million Series D round led by Accelerate And Sapphire Companies at a valuation of $3 billion. Despite being a cybersecurity company, Cyera is certainly riding the AI wave. The startup has an AI-powered data security platform that helps enterprise security teams understand what data they have and how it is used, as well as how to secure it in a complex digital landscape. Of course, reliance on data has only grown stronger as companies pursue AI initiatives. Founded in 2021, Cyera has raised $760 million to date, according to the company.
5. Kong$175 million, enterprise software: Kong, a developer of cloud API technologies, closed $175 million in a global Series E round led by World Tiger And Capital Balderton which valued the company at $2 billion. The round was a mix of primary and secondary transactions, with no exact amount stated for the primary investment. This funding comes as companies are increasingly inundated with APIs as commercial AI applications grow. Founded in 2009, Kong has raised $345 million according to the San Francisco-based company.
6. Envéda Biosciences$130 million, biotechnology: It was only in June that Enveda Biosciences first landed on this list, after raising a $55 million seed round including Microsoft as an investor. The Boulder, Colorado-based startup is back this week after raising a $130 million Series C funding round led by FPV Companies And Kinnevik. The company uses AI-based tools to identify a wide range of molecules produced by living organisms to create medicines. Founded in 2019, Enveda has raised $360 million, by Crunchbase.
7. Crete$125 million, customer service: AI for contact centers is currently widespread, and Cresta, based in Palo Alto, California, is the latest startup to raise massive funding. The company locked in a $125 million Series D led by new investors Qatar Investment Authority And Global Innovation Lab. The Cresta platform provides customers with real-time insights and behavioral best practices to support human agents, while automating mundane tasks using virtual agents. Founded in 2017, Cresta claims to have raised more than $270 million.
8. Fabrication$115 million, semiconductor: Starting an AI network chip Fabrication raised a $115 million Series C round led by Spark Capital as it moves closer to its latest chip release early next year. The round comes about 14 months after the Mountain View, Calif.-based company closed a $125 million Series B led by Management of Atreides which also included investments of Nvidia. New Series C investors include some of the biggest names in the chip world: Arm holds And Cisco Investments. Enfabrica also announced its “revolutionary” new ACF SuperNIC chip. The startup’s network infrastructure helps connect AI chips together, enabling the consistent flow of data needed for modern AI workloads.
9. Volleyball League 1$100 million, sports: Los Angeles-based League One Volleyball, which is expected to launch a professional volleyball league early next year, has raised $100 million in a deal led by Capital Atwater. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $160 million, by Crunchbase.
10. Spectro Cloud$75 million, enterprise software: San Jose, Calif.-based Spectro Cloud, which enables customers to deploy and manage Kubernetes in production, has completed $75 million in Series C funding led by the growth capital arm of Alternatives to Goldman Sachs. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $143 million, by Crunchbase.
Big global deals
The biggest round outside the United States came from across the Atlantic.
- Based in London Lighthousea commerce platform for the travel and hospitality industry, raised a $370 million Series C round.
Methodology
We tracked in the Crunchbase database the largest announced rounds that were raised by U.S.-based companies over the seven-day period from November 16-22. Although most announced cycles are represented in the database, there could be a slight time lag. because some rounds are reported at the end of the week.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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