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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.
Last week’s slowdown continued, as big rounds were hard to come by this week. One big AI round likely helped boost dollar figures — and interest — but aside from that large funding, rounds dried up. It was a holiday week, so that could be a reason — or maybe VCs’ checkbooks are cooling off after a strong start to the year when it came to nine-figure rounds.
1. xAI, $6B, artificial intelligence: Elon Musk’s generative AI startup, xAI, officially announced its long-awaited fundraise — making it the second-most-valuable generative AI company in the world behind only competitor OpenAI. The $6 billion round included investment from the likes of Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Fidelity Management & Research Co., among others. The new funding values the company at $24 billion post money, well behind OpenAI’s $86 billion valuation but well ahead of the $18 billion generative AI startup Anthropic is now valued at after its last raise. The xAI round had been rumored for months. The company was announced just last July and released its ChatGPT competitor, Grok, last November, and introduced its latest AI model, called Grok-1.5, just earlier this year. Grok is trained off data from another Musk-owned company, X, formerly Twitter.
2. Solutions by Text, $110M, fintech: Paying bills has gotten dramatically easier in the past few decades thanks to online and mobile payments. However, a Dallas-based startup has taken it a step further. Solutions by Text is exactly what it sounds like, and the startup locked up a fresh $100 million of funding this week. The raise is a mix of equity and debt, although the exact ratio was not disclosed. Edison Partners and StepStone Group co-led the equity portion. The startup allows its customers the ability to conduct an array of financial services over text, including loan origination, collections and bill payment. Founded in 2008, the company has raised $145 million, per Crunchbase.
3. Frore Systems, $80M, mechanical engineering: One aspect of AI that is likely to see more funding is some of the technologies on the periphery that make it possible. Frore Systems secured an $80 million Series C led by Fidelity Management & Research Co. The San Jose, California-based startup has developed a solid-state active cooling chip — AirJet — that allows users to leverage AI even on the edge of networks or on edge devices. Since AI applications generate more heat than many devices can handle, the chip allows them to remain cool and not lose performance. Founded in 2018, Frore has raised $196 million, per the company.
4. Mavenir, $75M, network software: Mavenir may look familiar on this list to some. After raising $250 million in 2022, the network software provider locked up another large tranche of money, closing a $100 million round led by Siris Capital Group about a year ago. The Richardson, Texas-based company was at it again this week, raising a $75 million investment from “an existing investor,” according to the company. Mavenir builds cloud-native software that allows enterprises and service providers to manage complex networks without relying on older telecom hardware such as routers and switches. This allows customers to scale operations more quickly on the cloud and without the expense of equipment. Founded in 2005, the company has now raised $1 billion, per Crunchbase.
5. CinRx Pharma, $73M, biotech: This week’s top biotech round isn’t as big as it is on most weeks, but that follows the general trend. CinRx Pharma closed a $73 million round from undisclosed investors. The Cincinnati-based firm has a diverse portfolio of companies developing a variety of medicines and therapies. In early 2023, one of its former portfolio companies — CinCor Pharma — was acquired post-IPO by AstraZeneca in a deal worth $1.3 billion upfront. Founded in 2015, CinRx has raised $176 million, per the company.
6. BabylonChain, $70M, blockchain: Palo Alto, California-based BabylonChain, a developer of security protocols for decentralized systems, completed a $70 million round led by Paradigm. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $103 million, per Crunchbase.
7. (tied) Squared Circles, $40M, consumer: Los Angeles-based Squared Circles, a consumer-focused studio incubating consumer brands, closed a $40 million Series A funding round led by L Catterton. Founded in 2020, this is the firm’s first disclosed fundraise amount, per Crunchbase.
7. (tied) Transcend, $40M, privacy: San Francisco-based Transcend, a data privacy platform, raised a $40 million Series B funding led by new investor StepStone Group. Founded in 2017, Transcend has raised nearly $90 million, per the company.
9. Gameto, $33M, biotech: New York-based Gameto, a biotech firm dedicated to women’s health, raised a $33 million Series B led by Two Sigma Ventures and RA Capital Management. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $73 million, per Crunchbase.
10. Reibus, $30M, industrial: Atlanta-based Reibus, an independent metals marketplace, raised a $30 million round in a combination of equity and debt from existing investors including Canaan Partners and Nosara Capital. Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $132 million, per Crunchbase.
Big global deals
No company came close to raising what xAI did. The biggest round outside the U.S. came from a Nordic country.
- Sweden-based Cloover, which provides embedded energy solutions to facilitate a successful energy transition, raised a seed round worth approximately $114 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 May 25 to May 31. 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
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