This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

Startup investors kept up the busy dealmaking pace this week with a number of big rounds. Top among them was a $1.75 billion Series D for , developer of autonomous vessels. Other big funding recipients hailed from sectors including fitness wearables, energy tech, cybersecurity and AI infrastructure, among others.

1. , $1.75B, autonomous ships: Austin-based Saronic, a defense tech startup focused on autonomous sea vessels, raised $1.75 billion in Series D funding, bringing total funding to around $2.6 billion. led the round, which set a $9.25 billion valuation for the聽 company, more than double its Series C level in 2025.

2. , $575M, fitness wearables: Whoop, a provider of wearable fitness technology and a subscription platform that tracks physiological data, secured $575 million in Series G funding. led the financing,which set a $10.1 billion valuation for the Boston-based company.

3. , $450M, nuclear energy: El Segundo, California-based nuclear energy startup Valar Atomics, raised fresh capital at a valuation of $2 billion, according to a citing unnamed sources. The financing reportedly included $340 million in equity funding and $110 million in debt.

4. , $300M, battery technology: EnerVenue, a developer of grid-scale energy storage technology, says it closed on a $300 million extension of its Series B preferred round led by . The Fremont, California-based company also appointed a new chief executive officer, Henning Rath.

5. , $250M, cybersecurity: Sarasota, Florida-based AI-enabled cybersecurity startup Tenex picked up $250 million in Series B funding led by . The company said it plans to use the funds to hire more than 250 people and supplying them with AI technology that makes them 鈥渢en times more efficient.鈥�

6. , $200M, micromobility: Also, an electric mobility company spun out of , raised $200 million in a Series C round 鈥媌acked by , , and . The Palo Alto, California-based startup鈥檚 product lineup includes bikes, small autonomous EVs for deliveries, and associated gear.

7. , $170M, space tech: Starcloud, a space infrastructure startup focused on building orbital data centers, secured $170 million in Series A funding led by and . The financing sets a $1.1 billion valuation for the Redmond, Washington-based company, making it the fastest alum to achieve unicorn status after demo day, which was 17 months ago.

8. , $130M, cloud infrastructure: New York-based cloud and AI infrastructure startup ScaleOps landed $130 million in Series C funding. led the financing, which set聽 a valuation of over $800 million for the 4-year-old company.

9. , $100M, biotech: Boulder, Colorado-based Ambrosia Biosciences, a developer of next-generation oral therapeutics for obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases, picked up $100 million in Series B funding led by , and .

10. , $94M, money transfer: OpenFX, provider of a platform to move money across borders, secured $94 million in Series A funding from backers including , , , and .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the SA国际传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of March 28-April 3. 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.

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Within seconds, my voice left my home in Haifa, traveled through submarine fiber networks to Europe, was processed in a data center, possibly routed through additional vendor clouds across continents, and then made its way back, only to activate a switch sitting 10 inches from my face. The techie nerd in me gets excited every time this happens. But 鈥� I could have just raised my hand and pressed it.

We live in both incredible and absurd times. Our growing tendency to deploy global systems,聽across multiple vendors, and continuous compute to solve problems that were already solved locally is something I feel we need to discuss.

To be clear, I am very much in favor of automation and agentic AI. I am educating myself with agentic AI courses to keep up with the times and use the latest capabilities. In many cases, they are transformative to businesses and consumers. Especially at scale, in repetitive processes, in data-heavy environments, or in cases where accessibility matters, AI agents do unlock real value.

But not every problem belongs in that category. And I feel an increasing number of AI-based applications and workflow automations tend to fall in the 鈥渟hower vent鈥� category.

You may think this isn鈥檛 an issue: What does it matter if we bring the tech revolution to solve ridiculous tasks, just because we can?

But there are drawbacks and risks to the automate-everything ethos.

Three risks of automating without discipline

Operational risk: more points of failure, less control: That simple command depends on multiple systems working in sync, your device, your network, Google鈥檚 infrastructure and potentially a third-party vendor cloud.

If any layer fails, the system fails. The same pattern is emerging in agentic AI workflows: multistep pipelines across LLMs, orchestration tools and external APIs. These add dependencies and complexities.

To give another example from my personal life: When my parents got their existing home, they built it as a 鈥渟mart home.鈥� It worked great, until a 鈥渟mart lightswitch鈥� malfunctioned and the smart home company asked for $1,500 to send a special 鈥渟mart home engineer鈥� to fix what would have been a $5 DIY. This is equivalent to hiring AI engineers and automation experts to support a workflow that could have been handled by a junior, nontechnical person in 10 minutes.

And that brings me to the next point.

Economic risk: hidden and compounding costs: Voice commands and AI workflows feel inexpensive at small scale, but they rely on paid infrastructure: compute, API calls, tokens, orchestration layers and vendor integrations.

In many cases, especially at scale, when implemented for those “ridiculous” tasks, the cost of automation can approach, or exceed, the value of the task being automated. We must ensure we invest in AI and automation where it makes economic sense.

Environmental and strategic risk: scaling inefficiency: Data centers create hundreds of millions of tons of CO鈧� emissions annually, estimated to grow to . AI is becoming a growing percentage of that. So these are megatons of CO鈧� emissions, and growing.

While each small agentic AI workflow can account for a few grams of CO鈧� emissions, at scale, these inefficiencies compound into real environmental impact. More importantly, this reflects a strategic issue: optimizing for the sake of it. This mindset can mean we often lose focus on solving meaningful problems.

is a strategic adviser to tech companies and investors, specializing in strategy, growth and M&A, a guest contributor to SA国际传媒 News, and a seasoned lecturer. Learn more about his advisory services, lectures and courses at . for further insights and discussions.

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

This week鈥檚 largest U.S. funding rounds once again featured an AI-heavy cohort, along with sizable financings around fintech and energy tech. By far the largest deal was a $1 billion financing for , developer of AI models that interact with the 3D world, followed by a $385 million round for savings platform .

1. , $1B, spatial AI: San Francisco-based World Labs, a startup founded by AI pioneer that develops foundational models to generate and interact with the 3D world, raised $1 billion in fresh funding. Investors in the round include , , , , and .

2. , $385M, fintech: Vestwell, an online provider of multiple types of savings accounts and tools, raised $385 million in Series E funding at a reported $2 billion valuation. and led the financing for the 10-year-old, New York-based company.

3. , $300M, workflow management and fault tolerance: Bellevue, Washington-based Temporal Technologies, a provider of tools that allow developers to make workflows more reliable and fault-tolerant, closed on $300 million in Series D funding. led the financing, which set a $5 billion valuation for the 7-year-old company.

4. , $140M, energy tech: Heron Power, a developer of hardware designed to move electricity from renewable sources into the grid and data centers, picked up $140 million in a funding round backed by and . The Scotts Valley, California-based company is founded by former SVP .

5. , $125M, AI coding: Code Metal, a provider of verifiable code translation tools, raised $125 million in Series B financing led by 1. The round comes just three months after the Boston-based startup secured its Series A.

6. (tied) , $100M, cloud for developers: Render, a cloud provider for application development teams, secured $100 million in Series C extension funding. led the financing for the San Francisco-based company, which said it now has over 4.5 million developers on its platform.

6. (tied) , $100M, clean energy: Houston-based Utility Global, developer of a technology to produce hydrogen and capturable carbon from industrial gases, raised $100 million in Series D funding. and led the financing for the 8-year-old company.

6. (tied) , $100M, location tracking: ZaiNar, developer of a technology for wireless networks to sense the location of things without satellites, cameras or heavy compute power, emerged from stealth and disclosed that it has drawn over $100 million in investment to date and a valuation of over $1 billion. Backers in the Belmont, California-based company include , , and .

9. , $80M, fintech: Salt Lake City-based Jump, developer of an AI agent for financial advisers and financial services providers, raised $80 million in a Series B round led by .

10. , $80M, AI observability: San Francisco-based Braintrust, a developer of AI observability software for development teams, raised $80 million in a Series B round led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the SA国际传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Feb. 14-20. 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:

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

This week featured a lot of funding deals with a lot of zeroes on the end. Generative AI powerhouse , of course, boasted the most zeroes with its $30 billion Series G, the second-largest venture funding round of all time. Other big fundraisers included robotics startup , fusion innovator , and space tech unicorn .

1. , $30B, Generative AI: Anthropic in a massive Series G funding round that values the San Francisco-based generative AI company at $380 billion post-money. The financing marks the largest venture funding deal of 2026 so far and the second-largest of all time, per SA国际传媒 data. and led the raise, which was also 鈥渃o-led鈥� by , , , and , according to the company.

2. , $520M, humanoid robots: AI-powered robotics company Apptronik added $520 million in new financing in an extension of its $415 million Series A raise in February 2025, The investment brings the total round to over $935 million for the Austin-based company.

3. , $450M, fusion energy: Livermore, California-based fusion power startup Inertia Enterprises announced that it secured $450 million in Series A funding. led the round for the 2-year-old company, joined by , and other backers.

4. , $350M, space tech: Axiom Space, a startup that is building a successor to the International Space Station and developing spacesuits for a moon mission, closed on $350 million in new financing. and led the round for the Houston-based company.

5. , $315M, AI: Runway, an AI research and technology startup, picked up $315 million in a Series E round. led the financing, which set a $5.3 billion valuation for the New York-based company, up from $3.3 billion last April.

6. , $210M, mental health: Talkiatry, a provider of in-network psychiatry services to health systems and employers, picked up $210 million in Series D funding, led by . The round brings total funding to date for the New York-based company to more than $400 million.

7. , $130M, healthcare: Redwood City, California-based Solace Health, a digital platform that connects patients with expert healthcare advocates, raised $130 million in Series C funding. led the financing, which set a valuation of over $1 billion for the 4-year-old company.

8. , $118M, healthcare: Garner Health, a digital platform that helps patients find healthcare providers, raised $118 million in Series D financing. led the round for the New York-based company.

9. (tied) , $100M, AI simulation: Palo Alto, California-based Simile, a startup focused on applying AI to create simulated environments and simulation tools with AI agents, raised $100 million in Series A funding led by .

9. (tied) , $100M, dog longevity: Loyal, a startup focused on drugs to extend healthy lifespans in senior dogs, raised $100 million in Series C funding that it says will provide the capital required to move from late-stage development to market readiness. Venture fund led the financing for the 7-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the SA国际传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Feb. 7-13. 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:

They鈥檙e not afraid to write big checks either. The latest evidence of this was a $450 million Series A that Livermore, California-based fusion power startup Wednesday.

led the round for the 2-year-old company, joined by , and other backers. Inertia plans to use the funds toward a fusion pilot at , which will involve building the world鈥檚 most powerful laser and a production line to mass manufacture .

The financing is the latest in a string of recent, very large deals around both fusion and nuclear fission. Per SA国际传媒 data, both funding and deal volume for the space hit a high last year, and 2026 is off to a promising start as well.

Headline deals, leading fundraisers

It鈥檚 mostly funding announcements, but not exclusively. On the fusion front, the highest profile recently proposed deal was 鈥檚 surprising announcement in December that it plans to combine with fusion company in what TMTG called a stock transaction valued at more than $6 billion.

The deal is a long time coming for TAE, which was founded in 1998 and is the oldest operating venture-backed fusion energy company in the SA国际传媒 dataset. The company has seen at least $1.5 billion in prior known funding to date.

Other fusion companies have also been prodigious fundraisers. The leader is , with $2.86 billion in equity funding, while other standouts include ($1 billion), ($900 million) and ($357 million).

Nuclear fission is another hot area for investment, with over $2.5 billion in funding last year, per SA国际传媒. The largest deal was a $700 million Series D in late November for , a developer of advanced nuclear reactor and fuel technology.

Activity looks to be accelerating further this year, with more than $270 million in funding, including a $140 million round two weeks ago for Tennessee-based , which manufactures advanced nuclear fuel for new reactors.

Public markets too

Public investors also appear receptive. , which develops nuclear reactors, went public in 2024 through a merger with a SPAC launched by . It鈥檚 down quite a bit from the height scaled late last year, but still had a recent market cap around $10 billion.

Other SPAC deals have also popped up, including , which wants to develop energy parks with small modular reactors to meet data center demand, and , a developer of light-water micro-modular reactors. Meanwhile , a developer of small modular nuclear plants, completed a SPAC merger in October.

Related SA国际传媒 query:

Related reading:

• A Little Background On Fusion Funding And TAE Technologies, The Company Merging With Trump Media
• Fusion Startup Helion Powers Up With $425M Series F
• Nuclear Fission Shows Continuing Popularity (With VCs, At Least)
• Cleantech鈥檚 Rough Year Ends On An Up Note
• Bill Gates-Founded Nuclear Energy Startup Raises $650M From Nvidia鈥檚 VC Arm, Others
• Fusion Funding Has Fizzled

Illustration:

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

With the winter holiday season nearly upon us, this was likely the last busy week of 2025 for big funding announcements. And as weeks go, it was certainly an active one.

Perennial megaround raiser was the top funding recipient by far, securing a fresh $4 billion in Series L funding (yes, that is a thing) at a $134 billion valuation. Next on the list were data security platform and nuclear microreactor company , followed by startups in healthcare, biotech, fintech and AI.

1. , $4B, data and AI: Databricks that it is raising over $4 billion in a Series L financing at a $134 billion valuation, led by , and . The 12-year-old, San Francisco-headquartered company also said it crossed the $4.8 billion revenue run-rate in its third quarter,聽 growing聽 over 55% year over year.

2. , $400M, cybersecurity: New York-based Cyera, provider of an AI-enabled data security platform, reportedly $400 million in a funding round led by at a $9 billion valuation. The financing brings total funding to date for the 4-year-old company to $1.7 billion.

3. , $300M, nuclear power: Radiant, a maker of portable nuclear microreactors, it closed on over $300 million in Series D funding led by and . The El Segundo, California-based company said it plans to break ground early next year on a factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

4. , $250M, healthcare software: Tebra, a provider of patient record software for healthcare private practices, says it raised $250 million in equity and debt financing to invest in AI and automation. led the equity financing, which constituted most of the round, while provided the debt funding for the Corona del Mar, California-based company.

5. (tied) , $150M, fintech: New York-based Imprint, a provider of credit cards affiliated with consumer brands, raised $150 million in Series D funding at a $1.2 billion valuation. led the round, with participation from , , , and .

5. (tied) , $150M, satellite intelligence: HawkEye 360, a provider of technology to detect, geolocate and characterize radio-frequency emissions, says it landed $150 million in Series E equity and debt financing. and co-led the equity funding, while provided the debt. The Herndon, Virginia company says it also completed its acquisition of .

7. , $130M, biotech and AI: Chai Discovery, a startup that uses AI to predict and reprogram interactions between biochemical molecules, landed $130 million in a Series B round. and led the financing, which set a $1.3 billion valuation for the San Francisco-based company.

8. (tied) , $125M, biotech: Irvine, California-based Ambros Therapeutics launched publicly with a $125 million Series A financing co-led by and ‘s strategic health care investment arm . The company licensed the rights to neridronate, which is used to treat Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

8. (tied) , $125M, microprocessors: Mythic, an Austin-based startup developing semiconductor architecture to make AI computing more energy efficient, raised $125 million in a funding round led by and joined by a long list of venture investors.

10. , $120M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Atavistik Bio, a developer of聽 allosteric small molecule therapeutics, raised $120 million in Series B funding led by and . Founded in 2021, Atavistik has raised $220 million in known funding to date, per .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the SA国际传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Dec. 13-19. 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.

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Bellevue, Washington-based TerraPower has now raised $1.4 billion from investors, per , making it one of the most well-funded startups working on nuclear-related technologies.

The company was founded in 2006 by Gates and other climate-focused investors. It is in the midst of building a 345-watt nuclear power plant at the site of a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. It hopes to secure regulatory approval for the reactor next year, it said.

The deal comes amid heightened interest in new energy sources to power artificial intelligence data centers, but as venture funding to cleantech posted a lackluster year in 2024.

鈥淎s AI continues to transform industries, nuclear energy is going to become a more vital energy source to help power these capabilities,鈥� , corporate vice president at

NVentures, 鈥檚 venture arm, said in a statement. 鈥淭erraPower’s nuclear reactor technologies offer innovative, carbon-free solutions to meet global energy needs while minimizing environmental impact.鈥�

Other nuclear-power related startups that have raised significant funding include many working on fusion-related technology:

• , a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based spinoff working on fusion technology, has raised $2 billion from investors, per .
• , an Everett, Washington-based startup also developing fusion power, has raised $1 billion.
• , a Fremont, California-based fusion startup, has raised $900 million to date.
• has raised $774.2 million thus far. The Janesville, Wisconsin-based company is working on fusion technology for energy generation and other applications.
• , a Corvallis, Oregon-based company that says it has developed a small modular reactor to supply energy for electrical generation and other applications, has raised nearly $470 million from investors to date.
• , a British Columbia-based startup developing magnetized target fusion technology, has raised $370 million.
• , also based in Everett, has raised $337.8 million for its work on 鈥渃ompact fusion power鈥� that doesn鈥檛 require lasers or magnets.
• , a New York-based company that builds micro-small modular reactors and advanced nuclear reactors has raised $229.1 million to date, per .

Related SA国际传媒 queries:

Related reading:

• Fusion Startup Xcimer Lands $100M, Boosting Sector鈥檚 Lackluster Funding
• Venture Investors Put Billions Into Nuclear Fusion And Fission Projects
• Battery Tech And Fusion Dominate Big Energy Tech Funding Rounds
• Powering Up: Investors Warming To Nuclear Fusion

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While Silicon Valley obsesses over the latest AI hallucinations, the real revolution is powering the computer you’re reading this on. It鈥檚 the electron economy 鈥� where electricity becomes as programmable as software.

The $21 trillion gold rush

Twenty-one trillion dollars. That’s how much will be invested in the energy transition, according to . For context, that’s 20x investments in AI to date and more than the combined market cap of every FAANG 鈥� , , , and 鈥� stock.

And here’s the kicker: the biggest returns won’t come from solar panels. They’ll come from making our electrons intelligent, tradable and valuable through software.

The infrastructure era is outdated

Recently, many investors have highlighted that security concerns will reshape energy markets, prompting countries to diversify their energy mix. It鈥檚 the kind of incremental thinking you鈥檇 expect from traditional firms.

Here鈥檚 what the old-guard investors don’t get: We’re not just swapping one commodity for another 鈥� we’re witnessing the transformation of a utility into a technology platform. While they debate the optimal mix of natural gas vs solar, they completely miss the digital forest for the physical trees.

The difference is profound. The electron economy recognizes that adding intelligence to our grid creates entirely new business models and market opportunities, dwarfing the commodity value of electrons themselves.

It鈥檚 the same old pattern: Traditional hotel investors debated occupancy rates while built a $100 billion platform. Taxi-medallion owners argued about gas prices while created a trillion-dollar mobility ecosystem. And now energy conglomerates fixate on commodity prices while software companies build platforms controlling how electrons flow.

This isn’t just about climate

Let’s be brutally honest. The clean energy boom started with climate concerns, but it鈥檚 now supercharged by much more immediate forces: AI is an electricity monster. A single query uses 10x the electricity of a search. ‘s GPU farms consume as much power as small cities.

China gets it. American politicians argued about wind turbines while China built 80% of the world’s battery manufacturing capacity. China realized that controlling the electron supply chain means controlling the future.

Our grid is embarrassingly antiquated. Our electrical system was designed in the 1890s. Most power plants operate at 50% capacity. Blackouts cost Americans $150 billion annually. These are massive inefficiencies waiting to be arbitraged.

The three trends creating your next unicorn

There are three overarching trends to know in all this.

1. Hardware economics have flipped. Solar, batteries and EVs have seen 90% cost reductions in the past decade.
2. Everything is an energy endpoint. Your thermostat, car and fridge are now energy traders. The average American home has 25-plus energy-connected devices, up from just 3 in 2010.
3. Markets are finally opening. Deregulation has created entirely new markets for energy services, allowing startups into what was once a utility monopoly.

The electric unicorn breeding grounds

The overlooked goldmines where future energy tech giants are born include:

Digital twins for the grid: This is a $50 billion sweet spot. Our electrical grid is flying blind. Grid operators learn about outages when customers call to complain. The company that creates the 鈥淕oogle Maps of electricity鈥� will be the backbone of the entire energy transition.

Electron trading platforms: Wall Street 2.0. Electricity markets transact $1 trillion annually using technology older than . When blackouts hit Texas in 2021, prices spiked 400x 鈥� but most consumers had no way to respond because market signals never reached them. The first company to tokenize demand response (saved electricity) will print money faster than the Fed.

Virtual power plants: Creating billions from thin air. The dirty secret of renewable energy is intermittency. Companies that can aggregate batteries, EVs and smart devices into dispatchable power resources create value from nothing. A Virtual Power Plant in California recently generated $3,000 per customer in one day during a heat wave.

AI-to-grid optimization: The perfect symbiosis. AI requires enormous power to train and run models. But what if AI could optimize its own energy consumption? The startups building autonomous energy agents 鈥� software shifting AI workloads to match renewable energy availability or provide grid services 鈥� create the ultimate symbiotic relationship.

The most successful founders and investors of the next decade will understand that software is eating the world, but electrons are powering that software. The electron economy isn’t coming 鈥� it’s already here. The only question is whether you’ll be part of it or watching from the sidelines.

is the chief investment officer at , a venture capital firm investing in the digital infrastructure of the energy transition. He was previously head of venture investments at a $40 billion-plus energy investment and infrastructure firm. Prior to that, he was CEO and co-founder of . He is also a co-founder of , an early-stage community energy software network, and , where he was active in building an in-front-of-the-meter utility scale battery storage business. He serves on the board of and previously held a board position in a large retail energy provider, that was acquired by

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The year started strong for huge rounds, as the first month saw a trio of billion-dollar raises and a slew of others of more than $250 million. Venture money wasn鈥檛 concentrated in just one sector, as VCs invested in everything from artificial intelligence to biotech to energy.

1. , $3B, augmented reality: Augmented reality startup Infinite Reality raised the biggest round of the year so far, locking up a $3 billion financing at a $12.25 billion valuation. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based firm did not disclose investor names, instead saying it came 鈥渇rom a private investor whose portfolio focuses on global technology and real estate investments.鈥� Founded in 2019, the company previously tried to go public through the special-purpose acquisition company Newbury Street Acquisition, but the deal was canceled in December. Infinite Reality offers immersive technologies to brands and creators for better audience engagement. The company has raised $3.4 billion, .

2. (tied) , $1B, artificial intelligence: Anthropic, a rival with its AI assistant Claude, is taking in a fresh $1 billion investment from previous investor . In October 2023, Google invested $2 billion in the rival. The new funding also comes just a couple of weeks after it was Anthropic was in advanced talks to raise $2 billion in a deal led by that would value it at $60 billion. Anthropic was last valued at $18.5 billion in February 2024. This deal also comes two months after agreed to invest another $4 billion in an AI startup. That deal followed Amazon鈥檚 2023 announcement to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic 鈥� a deal that gave the Seattle-based e-commerce and cloud titan a minority stake in the startup.

2. (tied) , $1B, biotech: AI can do a lot 鈥� startup Retro Biosciences thinks it can even help us live longer. The San Francisco-based biotech firm is raising a $1 billion round led by Italian financier to back clinical trials for drugs that battle age-related diseases, . That includes a potential Alzheimer鈥檚 disease treatment. If Retro sounds familiar, it may be because OpenAI CEO provided the initial $180 million seed round to the firm in 2022.

4. , $425M, energy: Fusion startup Helion Energy locked up a $425 million Series F 鈥� valuing the company at $5.4 billion 鈥� as the company looks to commercialize its fusion technology. The round included participation from investors including , 2 and Sam Altman. The Everett, Washington-based startup has now raised more than $1 billion. In November 2021, Helion closed a $500 million Series E. The new round further illustrates investors鈥� appetite for new energy sources as power needs increase due to AI and other advances. In 2023, Helion announced a power purchase agreement with Microsoft to deliver electricity from its fusion plant starting in 2028, and a customer agreement with to develop a power plant in the 2030s. Helion has just started operating its seventh generation prototype, Polaris, which is expected to demonstrate the first electricity produced from fusion. The company鈥檚 new round is the second-largest in the fusion sector since the start of last year, per SA国际传媒 data. Last October, , a startup attempting to create a nuclear fusion-based energy source, raised more than $900 million in a Series A led by . The funding does, however, depend on the company hitting certain milestones.

5. , $320M, biotech: Medical data research company Truveta landed a massive $320 million investment from , and 17 U.S. health systems as it continues to build the world鈥檚 largest genetic database. The deal values privately held Truveta at more than $1 billion. Truveta aggregates medical records data from its partner institutions to link treatments with outcomes and other health aspects. Its platform is updated daily. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $515 million, .

6. (tied) , $300M, data storage: Data is the big-money game right now. Private equity giant is making a $300 million strategic investment into , valuing the Chatsworth, California-based data storage company at $5 billion. Founded in 1998, DDN 鈥� formerly called DataDirect Networks 鈥� helps companies store, analyze and manage data 鈥� a value commodity as more businesses look to create and train AI models. The company plans to use the new cash to expand in industries ranging from healthcare to autonomous vehicles and accelerate product innovation, including for its AI data intelligence platform. Of course this is far from the only play the Blackstone Group has made in the data sector. Last year it was the world鈥檚 largest asset manager plans to invest $8.2 billion to develop data centers in Spain. In 2023, it with to develop $7 billion in data centers targeting providers of online content, cloud services and artificial intelligence. Blackstone also is a backer of , an AI infrastructure startup that gives access to highly sought-after AI chips from .

6. (tied)聽, $300M, healthcare: South San Francisco-based Kardigan, a startup developing cardiovascular drug treatments, launched last month with a $300 million Series A financing led by , and . The company鈥檚 platform leverages a proprietary set of cardiac-specific tools that help analyse therapeutic candidates as well as patients鈥� individualized responses to treatment.

8. , $275M, healthcare: San Francisco-based Innovaccer could be listed as artificial intelligence or health care, as the company is looking to be the 鈥渙ne stop shop鈥� for healthcare AI solutions. Innovaccer 鈥� which helps healthcare organizations by providing software solutions that aim to improve patient experience and reduce the administrative burden on providers 鈥� raised a $275 million round that was a combination of primary and secondary. No lead investor was announced, but investors included and . Founded in 2014, the company has raised $654 million, .

9. , $265M, e-commerce: While most of us are looking to cut back on our spending after the holidays, investors clearly think people want to spend more money on livestream shopping platform Whatnot. The Los Angeles-based startup raised a $265 million Series E at a valuation of nearly $5 billion. The round was co-led by , and. Whatnot鈥檚 annual gross merchandise value for livestream sales surpassed $3 billion last year. Founded in 2019, Whatnot has raised approximately $746 million, per the company.

10. , $260M, space: Reusable rocket startup Stoke Space locked up a $260 million Series C as the space tech sector looks to build off a successful 2024 in terms of fundraising. The Kent, Washington-based company is developing fully reusable rockets that make low-cost access to and from space possible. It intends to use the new funding to complete construction of its聽 Nova launch vehicle at the Cape Canaveral Station in Florida. The new round involves new and existing investors including , , and the , among others. Founded in 2019, Stoke has raised more than $480 million, per the company. After a slow-ish 2023, last year saw a bit of a bounce-back for the space tech industry in venture funding. In 2024, VC-backed space tech startups raised $8.3 billion, per SA国际传媒 . That number is a 17% jump from the $7.1 billion raised in 2023, but short of the $9.2 billion invested in 2022.

Big global deals

The biggest funding round outside the U.S. went to a China-based firm.

• , which provides internet-enabled solutions for the textile industry, raised a $460 million Series C.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the SA国际传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the month of January 2025. 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.

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Out of the more than 300 unicorns minted last year, a quarter 鈥� 77 鈥� of them were created after an early-stage funding round 鈥� defined as seed, Series A or Series B 鈥斅燼n analysis of SA国际传媒 data shows.

• See also: The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board

However, while last year鈥檚 percentage of young unicorns is higher than 2021鈥檚 鈥� which was 18% 鈥� the number of those created after just early rounds of funding could not come close to matching the venture capital heights of 2021.

A record 107 young unicorns were minted in 2021, but that number fell in 2022 by 28% as global venture funding saw a significant pullback. Last year saw $445 billion in venture funding globally 鈥� a 35% decline year over year from the $681 billion invested in 2021 鈥� according to SA国际传媒 data.

A decline, but 鈥�

Although 2022鈥檚 young unicorn numbers fell, it is important to note the number is still well above those in the years before venture hit its frenzy in 2021.

In fact, the 77 early-stage unicorns minted in 2022 are more than double the next-best year of 2018, when 38 such unicorns were created.聽

That shows astonishing resolve (although we could use another word) by investors to put money into young 鈥� often untested 鈥� companies at ridiculously high valuations, considering the battering tech stocks have taken in the public market.

However, the number of young unicorns created started to slow significantly in the second half of the year. Back in July, we reported 50 early-stage unicorns had already been created 鈥� meaning the second half of the year saw only about half that.

Some of those young unicorns 鈥� several Web3 and AI related, not surprisingly 鈥� minted in the second half of last year include:

• In September, Palo Alto, California-based hit a $4 billion valuation after 鈥� the venture capital arm and accelerator of 鈥� made a new, undisclosed strategic investment in the Web3 infrastructure firm, per a .
• That same month, blockchain developer closed a $300 million Series B led by (remember it?) at a more than $2 billion valuation.
• In October, Austin, Texas-based AI startup closed a $125 million Series A led by at a $1.5 billion valuation.
• San Francisco-based raised a huge Series A of more than $1 billion, also in October. Launched out of stealth in May 2021, TeraWatt Infrastructure has built out a network of charging stations for the operation of light- to heavy-duty EV fleets.
• Also that same month, 鈥� the company behind the Uniswap Protocol exchange 鈥� landed a $165 million Series B led by that values the company at $1.66 billion, .

Looking ahead

The slowing pace of newly minted young unicorns in the second half may well indicate what VCs have been talking about for months 鈥� the venture slowdown that significantly affected large growth rounds early in 2022 has slowly crept into early rounds.

According to SA国际传媒 numbers, early-stage funding 鈥� consisting of Series A and B 鈥� totaled only $31 billion in the fourth quarter last year, down by 54% year over year. The third quarter was down 39% year over year. Before that, the first quarter was actually up and the second quarter down by less than 10% compared to the previous year.

Obviously, if that trend continues, this year could see considerably fewer unicorns minted after the early rounds. So far in 2023, only four such unicorns 鈥� including and 鈥� have joined the unicorn herd after early fundings.

Venture capitalists started to cast a wary eye at high valuations in later rounds early last year, so it would only be logical they are now doing the same at early rounds.

Even if it means missing out on the next can鈥檛 miss new thing 鈥� like Web3.

Related Reading

• The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board
• The SA国际传媒 Megadeals Leaderboard Of $100M+ Funding Rounds
• We鈥檝e Seen This Before: Investors Take To The Next Shiny Toy 鈥� AI
• 7 Unicorns Arrived And 2 Exited In January 2023聽

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