AI and Biotech Startups Secure Major Funding as Geopolitical Tensions Rise

The Week's 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Skild AI Grabs $300M To Build Robot Brains

Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2024 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The Crunchbase Megadeals Board. After a quiet holiday week, investors were back in action dishing out big rounds to startups in robotics, biotech, healthcare and more. Half a dozen rounds hit nine figures -- perhaps a good sign for startups for the rest of summer. 1. Skild AI, $300M, robotics: The good year for robotics startups continued this week. Skild AI became the latest such startup to raise big, locking in a $300 million Series A led by Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SoftBank Group and Jeff Bezos, through his Bezos Expeditions. The funding brings the company to a valuation of $1.5 billion. The Pittsburgh-based startup isn't building robots, however, it's building robot brains. The theory is that those brain models can then be used in a variety of robots and for different tasks -- instead of just having one application. It seems a lot of big-name investors agree with that strategy. 2. Element Biosciences, $277M, biotech: It's hard to get through a week without a big biotech raise, and this one's no different. Element Biosciences raised more than $277 million in a Series D led by Wellington Management. The San Diego-based biotech startup is focused on developing DNA sequencing and multi-omics technology for research markets. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $678 million, per Crunchbase. 3. Regal, $250M, film: Regal, the second-largest movie theater chain in the U.S., makes the list this week after it secured $250 million to upgrade its locations. The company is looking to add to its 425 theaters across the country -- with enhancements that include luxury recliners and other amenities. Regal is owned by Cineworld, which emerged from bankruptcy with a financial restructuring process last year. Investors were not disclosed. 4. (tied) HarmonyCares, $200M, healthcare: HarmonyCares, a provider of in-home primary care, raised one of the biggest rounds of the week to expand its operations. The Troy, Michigan-based healthcare company closed a $200 million round led by General Catalyst, McKesson Ventures and a large unnamed national payor. The firm operates home-based primary care practices in 15 states -offering services such as home health, hospice, radiology and laboratory - and will look to grow its geographical reach across the U.S. 4, (tied) Earned Wealth, $200M, financial services: Wealth tech startup Earned Wealth raised a $200 million investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners and Summit Partners. The company offers medical professionals financial planning, tax planning and investment advice on one platform. The new cash is expected to go toward acquisitions. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $212 million, per Crunchbase. 6. Hebbia, $130M, artificial intelligence: Hebbia, an AI startup that helps businesses analyze all types of data to answer more complex, multi-step questions, raised a $130 million Series B from a handful of big-name investors. The new round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and values the company at approximately $700 million, per Bloomberg. The New York-based startup allows companies to sift through structured and unstructured data -- including regulatory filings and PDFs -- to answer more detailed and complicated business questions. In the last 18 months, the startup has grown revenue 15x and quintupled headcount. Founded in 2020, the company has raised a total of $161 million, per Crunchbase. 7. Hayden AI, $90M, govtech: Next time you think about double parking, remember a San Francisco-based startup just raised a big Series C to help make sure you don't. Hayden AI, a vision AI platform, locked in a $90 million growth equity round led by The Rise Fund -- TPG's impact investing platform. While the company's platform uses cameras mounted on buses that can spot illegal parking or moving violations, it also can do more. The platform uses geospatial data collection sensor systems to give cities insights to improve traffic safety and accessibility. It can detect and predict traffic congestion, improve transportation networks and more. Founded in 2019, the company has now raised more than $193 million, per Crunchbase. The funding is the largest received by a startup in the govtech sector this year, but it is by no means the only one. In fact, govtech startups have already raised $271.4 million this year, per Crunchbase data. That already surpasses last year's total of $249.7 million invested into the sector. 8. X-Bow Systems, $70M, aerospace: Albuquerque, New Mexico-based X-Bow Systems, a developer of solid rocket motors and hypersonics technologies, raised more than $70 million led by Razor's Edge. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $160 million, per Crunchbase. 9. Captions, $60M, artificial intelligence: New York-based Captions, a generative video creation and editing platform, raised a $60 million Series C led by Index Ventures at a valuation of $500 million. Founded in 2021, Captions has raised $100 million, per Crunchbase. 10. ZwitterCo, $58.4M, sustainability: Woburn, Massachusetts-based ZwitterCo, a water treatment startup using membrane technologies, closed a $58.4 million Series B funding round led by Evok Innovations. Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $99 million, per Crunchbase. The biggest round of the week went to a defense tech firm. 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 6 to July 12. 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.

Defending Russia's EU neighbors | TechCrunch

Welcome to Startups Weekly -- your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. This week we're looking at an AI startup that wants to help people get creative with video; Kudos, which raised $3 million to help get rid of diaper rash; and VCs backing other VCs. Investors keep pouring dollars and euros into startups that can help protect the world from aggressive nations. Helsing, a defense startup that uses AI to improve battlefield decisions, has raised €450 million ($487 million). Some of that money will go toward a new entity in Estonia to protect the Baltic states from its dangerous neighbor, Russia. According to Bloomberg's sources, Helsing's valuation jumped from $1.85 billion last year to $5.4 billion. Meanwhile, some U.S. venture funds with defense tech strategies are arming themselves with new types of investors: veterans and ex-Department of Defense officials. Speaking of soaring valuations, the latest numbers from PitchBook data show that startup prices have hit an all-time high in 2024. Is it time to rejoice about the end of the downturn? Not so fast. Turns out that prices are up only for the best companies. Everyone else is still struggling to raise capital or is finding a way to obfuscate poor valuations. Turning AI foe into friend: While Hollywood artists may be nervous about AI tech stealing their livelihoods, DreamFlare, a startup founded by a document filmmaker and an ex-Googler, wants creators to make more content and a nice income with AI. The studio will help animation artists work alongside an experienced creative team on story development and then will distribute the videos through its online platform. Draw your anxiety away: Fears of war and the possibility of AI replacing people's jobs are only adding to the existing mental health crisis. Scribble Journey created an app that helps users explore their emotions through art therapy. The U.S. is short on tech and other high-skilled professionals. Importing that talent from abroad is one of the answers. But getting a work visa approved by the U.S. Department of State may not be just a function of limited slots. Immigration lawyers sometimes give wrong advice to individuals looking to work in the country. The Kyrgyzstan-born, Harvard-educated Aizada Marat founded Alma, an AI-powered legal tech startup that speeds up and simplifies the visa obtainment process for technologists, founders and researchers. Sending money abroad: Nala, an African payments startup, raised a $40 million Series A round led by Acrew Capital. The huge round shows that international remittances could be a huge business. Data-powered diagnoses: Busy doctors don't always have time to review every data point in a patient's chart, occasionally leading to missed diagnoses. Regard, a startup that just raised $61 million at a $350 million valuation, does this for physicians with the help of AI. Bye-bye, diaper rash: Baby not sleeping well? He or she may hate the feeling of plastic on the bends of their diaper. Give Kudos, a startup that lines its diapers with 100% cotton and raised $3 million, a try. Index Ventures restocks: Brand name funds seem to have no problem raising huge funds these days. Index Ventures announced $2.3 billion in fresh capital. The firm's fundraise is slightly smaller than its previous vintage, but Index says it's an appropriate amount for the current market. Look to the stars: German-based Alpine Space Ventures has raised a $184 million (€170 million) fund to invest in companies serving the space industry in the U.S. and Europe. VCs backing VCs: Kearny Jackson raised a $65 million third fund from pre-seed and seed B2B SaaS and fintech infrastructure startups. The firm's LPs include Sequoia, Bain Capital Ventures, Menlo Ventures and Marc Andreessen. Arianna Huffington teamed up with Sam Altman on a new health coaching startup, Thrive AI Health. The company is backed by Huffington's wellness company Thrive and the OpenAI Startup Fund. The startup will offer an AI-powered assistant that nudges people to lead a healthier lifestyle. The question is, of course, will it be as successful as a human coach in getting individuals to exercise and eat their vegetables? Another question is how much funding Thrive AI Health received to develop its capabilities.