AI Startups Dominate October's Biggest Funding Rounds, Led by OpenAI's $6.3B Raise

The Week's Biggest Funding Rounds: Slow Week Produces Small Venture Rounds

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. 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. Regular readers know this is usually a top 10 list of the biggest rounds of the week. However, this week is a little different -- mainly because of the election. Very few companies announced funding rounds this week, and the ones that did were on the smaller side -- obviously aside from Physical Intelligence's massive one. Many startups clearly didn't want their funding news overshadowed by a presidential election. So instead of running a list of 10, we're going with a top five. 1. Physical Intelligence, $400M, robotics: Physical Intelligence, a startup developing brains for a wide array of robots, raised a $400 million round at a $2 billion valuation led by Jeff Bezos, Lux Capital and Thrive Capital, per The New York Times. The San Francisco-based company had raised a $70 million seed round at a valuation of about $400 million back in March. Physical Intelligence is just the latest startup looking to use AI to improve how robots operate and create foundational software that could be used on a variety of robot models instead of having to create separate operating software for each individual model. Investors already have placed big bets in the intersection of robotics and its AI-enhanced foundational software -- especially Bezos. In February, Sunnyvale, California-based Figure, which is developing AI-enhanced robots that it hopes will be able to perform dangerous jobs and alleviate labor shortages, raised a huge $675 million round at a pre-money valuation of roughly $2 billion. That round included investments from Nvidia, Bezos' Explore Investments and others. In July, Pittsburgh-based Skild AI -- also developing brain models that can be used in a variety of robots and for different tasks -- raised a $300 million Series A led by Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SoftBank Group and Bezos, through his Bezos Expeditions. The funding valued the company at $1.5 billion. Overall, this has been a good year for robotics startups receiving funding. 2. Precision Neuroscience, $93M, neuroscience: New York-based Precision Neuroscience, a developer specializing in brain-computer interfaces, raised a $93 million Series C, per reports from medical news outlets citing financial filings. Investors were not named. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $146 million, per Crunchbase. 3. AmplifyBio, $50M, biotech: Ohio-based drug development company AmplifyBio received a $50 million investment -- with ability to scale to $65 million -- from Vitrian for its new manufacturing enablement center in New Albany, Ohio. Founded in 2021, the company has raised nearly $330 million, per Crunchbase. 4. Inquis Medical, $40M, medical: Menlo Park, California-based Inquis Medical, a medical technology company specializing in thrombectomy systems, locked up a $40 million Series B led by Marshall Wace. Founded in 2020, this is the first round with a disclosed amount, per Crunchbase. 5. PrognomiQ, $34M, healthcare: San Mateo, California-based PrognomiQ, a healthcare company developing detection tests for cancer and other complex diseases, announced a $34 million Series D led by Seer. Founded in 2020, PrognomiQ says it has raised more than $135 million. There were two big $100 million rounds outside the U.S. this week. We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Nov. 2 to Nov. 8. 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.

The Week's 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Crusoe Energy, Insider And Biotech Raise Big

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. 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 may not have been a $1 billion raise this week, but large money deals did abound. Two U.S. startups raised half a billion dollars apiece, and another eight raised $100 million or more, with industries from cybersecurity to biotech to AI represented. 1. (tied) Crusoe Energy Systems, $500M, energy: This is not the first time Crusoe has made this list. Back in 2022, the Denver-based company was helping power Bitcoin mining by harnessing natural gas that is typically burned during oil extraction and putting it toward powering the data centers needed for mining -- raising a $350 million Series C equity round led by G2 Venture Partners, at a $1.75 billion valuation in the process. Well, Crusoe has now turned its energy to AI -- literally. The company is a so-called "neocloud" -- a data center firm providing outsourced cloud computing for those looking to build AI. That business plan was enough for Crusoe to reportedly lock up a $500 million round led by Founders Fund at a $3 billion valuation. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $1.2 billion, per Crunchbase. 1. (tied) Insider, $500M, digital marketing: Marketing tech platform Insider raised a $500 million Series E led by General Atlantic to fund its expansion in the U.S. and AI product development. The latest funding comes about 18 months after a round last year that valued it at $1.9 billion. The New York-based company declined to disclose its valuation with the latest round. Insider, which was co-founded in Istanbul in 2012, has now raised $772.1 million from investors, per Crunchbase. The company says it operates in 28 countries around the world and counts big names such as Nike, Samsung, L'Oreal, Unilever, Allianz and Disney among its customers. 3. Beta Technologies, $318M, aerospace: If you're one of those people frustrated that the technology revolution has not yet delivered us the flying cars we were promised, take heart: Startups working on vertical-takeoff aircraft continue to get investor interest. The latest startup in the space to get a big chunk of cash is Beta Technologies, maker of electric vertical take-off and landing planes. The South Burlington, Vermont-based startup this week announced a Series C led by Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. Fidelity, TPG Rise Climate Fund and United Therapeutics also joined as investors. The company -- which has now raised $1.4 billion from investors, per Crunchbase -- said the fresh cash will be used to move its aircraft closer to certification and commercialization. 4. Armis Security, $200M, cybersecurity: Cybersecurity startup Armis Security closed a $200 million Series D led by Alkeon Capital and General Catalyst. The round boosts the company's valuation nearly 25% to $4.2 billion. The San Francisco-based startup last raised a $300 million private equity round in 2021 led by One Equity Partners at a $3.4 billion valuation. The new cash comes just after Armis said it had surpassed $200 million in annual recurring revenue -- growing ARR by an additional $100 million in less than 18 months. The company is targeting an IPO in 2026, per Bloomberg. In 2020, Insight Partners bought a large stake in the startup. Armis is one of a handful of companies that plays in the industrial security -- also called operational technology security -- and IoT security spaces. The sector typically sees an ebb-and-flow of investment interest, but 2024 has been good for startups in the sector. Earlier this year, New York-based Claroty secured $100 million in strategic debt/credit financing led by Delta-v Capital, and San Francisco-based Nozomi Networks locked up a $100 million Series E from investors including Mitsubishi Electric and Schneider Electric. 5. Sierra, $175M, artificial intelligence: If you want to have your company's valuation skyrocket in the blink of an eye, start an AI startup. Ex-Salesforce 1 co-CEO Bret Taylor's conversational AI startup Sierra raised $175 million this week in a funding round led by Greenoaks Capital that gave it a $4.5 billion valuation. It was just in February when the San Francisco-based company raised $110 million led by Sequoia Capital and Benchmark at a reported valuation of nearly $1 billion. A 4.5x increase in value in eight months time is not too shabby. And yes, Taylor also is chairman of the board at OpenAI -- whose large language models Sierra uses -- although he has said there are no conflicts of interest. 6. Melio, $150M, fintech: Payments platform Melio raised a $150 million Series E led by Fiserv at a $2 billion valuation. The New York-based company last raised cash in 2021 at a $4 billion valuation, but a reported sale of the company fell through last year at half that value. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $654 million, per Crunchbase. 7. (tied) Axonis Therapeutics, $115M, biotech: Boston-based Axonis Therapeutics, a biotech startup developing neuromedicines, locked up a $115 million Series A co-led by Cormorant Asset Management and venBio Partners. Founded in 2020, the company has raised nearly $130 million, per Crunchbase. 7. (tied) Evommune, $115M, biotech: Palo Alto, California-based Evommune, a biotech startup developing new ways to treat immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, completed a $115 million Series C co-led by new investors RA Capital Management and Sectoral Asset Management. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $268 million, per Crunchbase. 7. (tied) Fingercheck, $115M, human resources: Small business payroll and human resource software company Fingercheck raised a $115 million growth investment led by Edison Partners. Fingercheck's platform allows payroll and HR management to be set up in hours and supports posting jobs, onboarding, payroll, scheduling and shift management, and more. The round is impressive considering the precipitous fall in funding to HR startups in recent years. During the height of the venture market in 2021, few sectors seemed to benefit as much as human resources -- likely due to the fact businesses were undergoing major changes in the way they handled employees due to the pandemic. In 2021, HR startups raised more than $10.5 billion in over 900 rounds, per Crunchbase data. In 2023, those numbers fell to $7.8 billion in more than 800 rounds, and then dropped to only $2.9 billion in 500 rounds last year. So far this year, HR startups have seen only $1.7 billion in fewer than 300 rounds, per Crunchbase data. In fact, Fingercheck's round is only the fourth raise in 2024 of $100 million or more in the sector. We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Oct. 26 to Nov. 1. 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.

The 10 Biggest Rounds Of October: OpenAI's Massive Deal Dwarfs All Others

This is a monthly feature that runs down the month's top 10 funding rounds in the U.S. Check out September's biggest rounds here. OpenAI led the way last month and it really wasn't even close. However, there were lots of other big raises -- as a startup had to raise more than $200 million to make October's list as investors were very willing to open their checkbooks for megadeals. 1. OpenAI, $6.6B, artificial intelligence: OpenAI announced its long-awaited raise of $6.6 billion at a post-money valuation of $157 billion led by Thrive Capital. The new round makes the ChatGPT creator one of the most valuable private companies in the world and also included investment from the likes of Altimeter Capital, Fidelity, Khosla Ventures, Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. It also was reported SoftBank's Vision Fund would invest $500 million in the round. The new round comes just as the company is facing myriad issues, including an exodus of higher-up employees and a restructuring change to switch it from a nonprofit to a for-profit benefit corporation and to give co-founder Sam Altman equity in the company. The funding structure seems to take those factors into account, as it came in the form of convertible notes and reportedly allows for investors to ask for their money back if the change is not completed within two years and removes the cap on returns for investors. The new round is bigger than the $6 billion round Elon Musk's generative AI startup, xAI, officially announced in May, which up to this point was the largest round raised this year. 2. Pacific Fusion, $900M, energy: Another huge AI-related round. Pacific Fusion, a startup attempting to create a nuclear fusion-based energy source, raised more than $900 million in a Series A led by General Catalyst. The funding does depend on the company hitting certain milestones -- which were not spelled out. The round further illustrates investors' appetite for energy sources that can meet AI's immense power needs. 3. (tied) Crusoe Energy Systems, $500M, energy: Back in 2022, the Denver-based company was helping power Bitcoin mining by harnessing natural gas that is typically burned during oil extraction and putting it toward powering the data centers needed for mining -- raising a $350 million Series C equity round led by G2 Venture Partners, at $1.75 billion valuation in the process. Well, Crusoe has now turned its energy to AI -- literally. The company is a so-called "neocloud" -- a data center firm providing outsourced cloud computing for those looking to build AI. That business plan was enough for Crusoe to reportedly lock up a $500 million round led by Founders Fund at a $3 billion valuation. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $1.2 billion, per Crunchbase. 3. (tied) Poolside, $500M, artificial intelligence: Poolside closed a $500 million Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures. The new round valued the startup at $3 billion, Bloomberg reported. The startup builds artificial intelligence software for programmers. Poolside is just one of a handful of big deals recently in the AI coding space. In August, San Francisco-based Magic, which also develops AI models to write software, raised a $320 million round, and AI-powered coding assistant Codeium closed a $150 million Series C. Poolside has raised $626 million since being founded in May 2023. 3. (tied) X-energy, $500M, energy: Rockville, Maryland-based X-energy raised a Series C-1 of approximately $500 million, anchored by Amazon. The company is developing advanced small modular nuclear reactors for clean energy generation. Amazon and X-energy are collaborating to bring more than 5 gigawatts of new power projects online across the United States by 2039. Founded in 2009, X-energy has raised more than $785 million, per Crunchbase. 6. Form Energy, $405M, renewable energy: Form Energy, a renewable energy company developing and commercializing multiday energy storage systems, raised a $405 million Series F led by T. Rowe Price. Long-duration energy storage has proven to be a tough nut to crack, but Form has been able to get some commercial traction as it looks to ramp up manufacturing operations and commercial deployments of its iron-air battery systems. The Somerville, Massachusetts-based company, founded in 2017, has raised a total of $1.5 billion in a mix of equity and grants, per Crunchbase. 7. (tied) Kailera Therapeutics, $400M, biotech: Yet another big biotech raise last month, as Kailera Therapeutics announced its launch with a $400 million Series A financing co-led by Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences and RTW Investments. The new Boston-based company is developing several clinical-stage injectable and oral therapies to help with chronic weight management. 7. (tied) Lightmatter, $400M, data centers: Lightmatter, a startup that uses light to link chips together and to do calculations for the deep learning necessary for AI, locked up a $400 million Series D led by new investor T. Rowe Price at a $4.4 billion valuation. The new round nearly quadruples its previous valuation of $1.2 billion in December after a $155 million raise led by GV -- which along with Fidelity Management and Research Co. also participated in the new round. As Big Tech pours hundreds of billions of dollars into new AI data centers, Lightmatter is trying to solve the problems around energy consumption and scalability of those new centers. The company's tech uses silicon photonics that can speed up processes while also using less power. Although the idea of using light in computing isn't new, creating the components has historically been challenging. Founded in 2017, Lightmatter has raised $850 million, per the company. Lightmatter's was not the only large raise by a photonic startup last month. Xscape Photonics -- a New York-based startup also using photonics technology to address the energy, performance and scalability challenges of AI data centers -- raised a $44 million Series A led by IAG Capital Partners with investment from the likes of Cisco Investments and Nvidia. 9. Splitero, $300M, fintech: Part of the beauty of being a homeowner is having equity in that home. Unfortunately, accessing that equity can sometimes be burdensome. San Diego-based Splitero offers homeowners another option to do just that and last month the startup locked up $300 million through a strategic investment from funds managed by Antarctica Capital to further that mission. Splitero offers homeowners a lump sum of cash in exchange for a share of their home's future value. Founded in 2021, the company has raised nearly $318 million, per Crunchbase. 10. Seaport Therapeutics, $225M, biotech: Seaport Therapeutics isn't new to this list. In April, the Boston-based startup launched with a $100 million Series A co-led by Arch Venture Partners and Sofinnova Investments. The company is back with a $225 million Series B led by General Atlantic. The biotech company focuses on medicines for depression, anxiety and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Seaport will use the new money to advance its clinical-stage pipeline of medicines. The biggest deal outside the U.S. came from across the Pacific. We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the month of October 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.