Venture firms that set up shop in the Texas capital city included , , and 1, among others. famously moved 鈥檚 headquarters to Austin in 2021, while also purchasing a house and establishing a residence there.

But as more employees returned to in-office work, Austin slowly seemed to fall out of favor with the tech community, some of whom said it had been overhyped as a startup hub.

There were reports of tech workers who had moved to the city during the pandemic and , saying they were going back to places like the Bay Area. Musk back to California in 2023.

Funding tops pandemic peak

Undeterred by the 鈥渢ourists,鈥� the startup and venture community in Austin kept plugging away. And those efforts are reflected in a surge in funding to startups headquartered there last year, with 2025 posting an all-time high for Austin venture investment, SA国际传媒 data shows.

Investment into Austin-based startups spiked 64.8% to $7.19 billion in 2025 as more investors poured money into companies based in the region, according to SA国际传媒 . That鈥檚 compared with the $4.37 billion raised by Austin-area startups in 2024 and tops even the $6.1 billion raised in 2021, at the height of the venture funding frenzy.

Notably, deal counts actually decreased from 312 in 2024 to 272 year over year, signaling an increase in later-stage deals. Indeed, the data corroborates that with $4 billion of the total raised in 2025 classified as late-stage rounds.

Last year鈥檚 totals were also more than double 鈥� 130% higher 鈥� than the $3.1 billion raised in 2023. That money was raised across 403 deals, signaling much smaller round sizes at the time and a more mature market.

A tech scene decades in the making

, managing partner of , doesn鈥檛 believe that the Austin funding performance in 2025 was anomalous.

Rather, he calls it 鈥渢he payoff from decades of compounding.鈥�

鈥淭alent density in venture categories such as software, fintech, health tech, defense and听 robotics has reached a critical mass, driven by waves of Bay Area relocations, both full HQ moves and satellite offices, that brought technical, product and operational talent into the market,鈥� Flager said.

That talent eventually left to build new companies, he said, and the cycle repeated.

鈥淥n the capital side, the stack has matured across all stages, from pre-seed through growth, with local firms that have now cycled through multiple funds and understand the market deeply,鈥� Flager said. 鈥淟ayer in a business-friendly regulatory environment, a relatively lower cost of living, as well as a lower effective tax rate, and Austin becomes an attractive place to start and scale a company.鈥�

Former Austin Mayor saw so much potential in the city鈥檚 startup scene that he began a career in venture investing after his tenure ended in early 2023. (He now works for New York-based ).

Part of the city’s success as a startup hub stems from its reputation as a haven for mavericks and risk-takers, Adler has said.

鈥淢ost cities in the world, you try something, you fail; it’s hard to have access to the capital the second time,” he told co-founder in a in 2022. “In Austin, the civic folk heroes are the people that tried something and it didn’t quite work out and they worked on it until it did.鈥�

, founder of , a solo GP venture firm based in nearby San Antonio, said that it feels like Texas and the Austin metro area specifically are becoming more attractive to manufacturing- and engineering-heavy businesses.

鈥淪ome of that may be thanks to Tesla, and some of it may simply reflect the physical advantages of the state,鈥� he told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淓ither way, this [surge in financing] feels less like hype returning and more like capital concentrating around a narrower set of serious, technically differentiated companies.鈥�

Deal sizes grow

That diversity among funded startups is reflected in last year鈥檚 investment totals for Austin, which were boosted by several large, late-stage deals across a broad range of industries.

The largest was a $1 billion Series C round for energy provider in October. New York-based led that financing, which valued the 2-year-old company at $4 billion.

Looking back, February in particular was a busy month for venture funding. That month alone saw the second-, third- and fourth-largest rounds in Austin for the year. They included:

• A February Series C round in which autonomous surface vessels maker raised $600 million at a $4 billion valuation. led the round for the defense tech startup.
• Also in February, , which provides endpoint management, security and monitoring, raised $500 million in Series C extensions at a $5 billion valuation 鈥� more than doubling its value from just 12 months prior. The funding came in separate tranches led by and 鈥檚 , with participation from other investors.
• Robotics company in February raised $415 million in Series A financing led by听 and accelerator (A $520 million extension to that Series A was raised in February 2026, taking the total round to over $935 million.)

The findings correspond with Flager鈥檚 observations.

鈥淎 good chunk of the capital raised in Austin was driven by several large deals. Similar to what we saw across the U.S. in 2025, venture funding in Austin was more concentrated than it has been in the past,鈥� he told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淩oughly 38% of the capital deployed went to the top five venture financings in Austin. I believe the top 10 deals nationally accounted for more than 40% of the capital raised last year. We’ll see if this trend continues into 2026 and beyond. The start of the year suggests it will.鈥�

, founding partner of , agrees, noting that from a dollars perspective, the surge in financings was driven by a handful of outsized capital-intensive deals in newer categories such as defense and deep tech.

鈥淭hese companies require a combination of technology, land for manufacturing facilities, and talent for manufacturing tasks. Austin has unique skillsets for that,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t has a density of three things: talent in deep tech with , and many others moving to Texas in light of favorable business conditions with expertise in these industries; expansive land around Central Texas that is inexpensive, especially compared to California; and lower cost manufacturing-related labor especially given the surge in manufacturing jobs such as at Tesla in recent times.鈥�

Burgeoning industries

Once upon a time, Austin was better known as home to software and CPG companies. And while those types of companies certainly still exist, a number of other industries are growing increasingly robust, as the local investors have pointed out.

As with many top tech markets, Flager said Austin has long been strong for application and infrastructure software, which is currently being challenged by AI. In his view, that talent has migrated to building 鈥渜uality鈥� vertical agentic software and AI-native businesses.

鈥淲e are seeing these companies grow quickly and build scale, while using less capital 鈥� which is exciting,鈥� he added. 鈥淭he domain experts who built and scaled application software companies here over the last two decades are spinning out to build the next generation of native AI businesses.鈥�

The market overall is also broadening in interesting ways. Defense and autonomy have emerged as breakout categories, with Austin becoming one of the stronger markets in the country for dual-use and autonomous systems companies, noted Flager.

鈥淭he combination of software and hardware skills now in Texas, along with a business-friendly regulatory environment, has allowed Austin to take a leadership position in these important and developing markets,鈥� he said. 鈥淓nergy tech is also a natural fit given Texas’ grid scale and the surging power demands of AI infrastructure.鈥�

Finally, robotics and advanced manufacturing are also gaining momentum, driven by deep engineering talent and the ability to scale manufacturing near Austin cost-effectively, allowing engineers, executives and other factory employees to coexist and collaborate in close proximity.

Srinivasan noted that his firm is seeing strong activity in vertical AI companies, or companies that serve vertical markets with AI that is tuned on specialized proprietary vertical data, often targeting the services and labor expenditures by their customers.

鈥淭hese companies deliver 鈥楽ervices as Software鈥� with close to software gross margins and pricing models that are based more on usage and outcomes as opposed to the traditional seat-based models,鈥� he said.

Srinivasan also expects the city to continue to see large funding deals in defense and deep tech, given the combination of local strengths and robust global demand for such products.

Continued momentum

Investors and companies continue to be drawn to Austin. In late December, San Francisco-based venture firm in the city. One of the firm鈥檚 founders, , also announced that he had personally moved to Austin. The firm鈥檚 other founder, , had lived and worked in the city since 2022.

In late March of this year, Musk to build two semiconductor factories totaling 100 million square feet in Austin to supply advanced chips for and Tesla. The venture, known as Terafab, aims to manufacture 1 trillion watts of computing power per year, he said. Media outlets valued the initiative at nearly

Also this week, Barcelona-based AI health tech startup announced it will open an office and hire in Austin.

CEO told SA国际传媒 News that with the company鈥檚 New York office already established, the next step was not just expansion, 鈥渂ut choosing the right place to build.鈥�

鈥淎nd we chose Austin for one reason above all: talent,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s an AI health tech company, our success depends on attracting exceptional people across engineering, data and life sciences. Austin has rapidly become one of the most competitive talent markets. The city is one of the fastest-growing in the United States. This brings together deep tech expertise, entrepreneurial energy and a growing concentration of healthcare innovation. Ideal for our goal of building an R&D hub. 鈥�

Coelho also points out that Biorce has witnessed a 鈥渢rend鈥� of people moving from the Bay Area to Austin, noting that 鈥渢he quality of life has gained notoriety.鈥�

鈥淏ut for us, this isn鈥檛 about following a trend,鈥� he added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about building where the best people are 鈥� and where they want to be.鈥�

Related SA国际传媒 query:

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These in-between exits don鈥檛 generate a lot of buzz, but collectively they add up to a tidy sum. Last year, for instance, U.S. startup purchases under $300 million听1 brought in about $8.7 billion altogether, SA国际传媒 data shows.

These small and mid-sized deals are not a long-term growth area for M&A, by many measures. The total deal value of purchases between $100 million and $300 million last year was still below levels routinely reached nearly a decade ago, as charted below.

Moreover, the total value can add up to just a fraction of a single, larger exit. 鈥檚 $32 billion purchase of , for instance, is worth more than 4x all these sub-$300 million deals put together.

Even so, we鈥檙e up from prior lows. Startup purchases in this range hit a low point a couple years ago and have rebounded since, with this year off to a brisk start as well.

Smaller deals shrink more

Smaller disclosed-price acquisitions of under $100 million are also well below peak. The volume and value of these deals hit a low in 2024 and has made somewhat of a comeback since, as charted below.

These sub-$100 million purchases are a mixed bag for returns. Investors might recoup solid profits from companies that raised a few million in seed funding and sold for prices in the tens of millions.

In other cases, startups sold for considerably less than the sums they raised in venture investment. Using SA国际传媒 data, we aggregated a few examples of such deals from the past year. It includes companies with known struggles, such as , which filed for bankruptcy before selling to an acquirer this month.

No power buyers

Notably, there is no 鈥減ower acquirer鈥� for small and mid-sized startup purchases. Out of 181 sub-$300 million startup acquisitions since 2024 there was no buyer with more than two such deals, per SA国际传媒 data.

That said, there are companies with a larger number of funded startup purchases, just without reported prices for all or most. Examples include , , , , , and , among others.

When price isn鈥檛 disclosed, it鈥檚 hard to gauge how founders and investors fared on the deal. That said, most of the more active buyers can certainly afford to pay well. Whether they choose to do so is another matter.

*This is only disclosed-price purchases. Most startup acquisitions do not have a disclosed price.

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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:

And underlining the pace at which some startups are now sprinting to billion-dollar-plus valuations, four of the new unicorns are less than a year old.

In exit news, 9-year-old fintech unicorn was acquired by for $5.2 billion. That鈥檚 well below its January 2022 valuation of $12.3 billion but still marks a win for earlier investors seeking liquidity.

Of the 31 companies that joined the board, 23 are U.S.-based and two hail from Canada. Germany, France, Belgium, Israel, Japan and India each added one new unicorn to the board last month.

Among sectors, AI and AI infrastructure contributed the most new unicorns, totaling nine from those two areas. The next-leading sectors, with three new unicorns each, were manufacturing and security propelled by AI. AI was also a major contributor to new unicorns in the semiconductor, defense and autonomous driving sectors.

The largest funding last month for a unicorn company was $20 billion to 鈥檚 at an . Within a month of that funding, xAI in early February announced a merger with another Musk-led company, rocketmaker .

11 exits

Brex鈥檚 acquisition by Capital One was the largest of the four M&A deals for unicorn-valued companies in January.

On the IPO side, seven companies went public, the most high-profile of which were and , both foundation AI model companies based in China.

Here are January鈥檚 newly minted unicorns.

AI

• , an AI research lab focused on human collaboration, raised a $480 million seed funding led by and 1. The less than 1-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
• , an AI scientific research lab, raised a $180 million seed round led by , and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• AI evaluation platform raised a $150 million Series A led by 2听补苍诲 . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
• Voice AI startup raised a $143 million Series C led by France-based . The 10-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion. As part of its announcement, Deepgram disclosed the acquisition of , a voice AI startup for restaurants and drive-thru ordering.
• , an infrastructure company for voice AI, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

AI infrastructure

• , an AI networking company, raised a $200 million Series A led by , and . The 1-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• GPU marketplace raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , for secure AI run locally on devices, raised a Series A extension funding of an undisclosed sum. The 6-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
• , which manages a GPU marketplace, raised a Series C led by . The 6-year-old company was founded in Lithuania and is now headquartered in Miami. It was valued at $1 billion.

Manufacturing

• , a builder of factories for defense and the aerospace industry, raised a $131 million private equity funding led by . The 5-year-old Hawthorne, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• , a developer of no-code applications for manufacturing, raised a $120 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old Somerville, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• 惭辞苍迟谤茅补濒-产补蝉别诲 , a manufacturing automation company utilizing modular robotics, raised a $90 million Series D led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Security

• , provider of security for cloud services in real time to protect from hackers, raised a $250 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Tel Aviv-based , an AI security platform that integrates with existing security platforms to provide context on incidents, raised a $140 million Series D led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Belgium-based , a developer-oriented security platform, raised a $60 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

• , an AI chip developer to run transformer models, raised a reported $500 million funding led by . The 3-year-old Cupertino, California-based company was valued at $5 billion.
• , an AI chip design company, raised a $300 million Series A led by . The less than 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $4 billion.

Cryptocurrency

• Stablecoin payments platform raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Crypto payments network raised a $75 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Healthcare

• Maternity healthcare provider, raised a $92 million Series C led by Stripes. The 4-year-old New York-based company with plans to expand healthcare services to women and children was valued at $1.7 billion.
• , a co-ordination platform for medications across doctors, pharmacies and patients, raised a Series B led by . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

• Paris-based , an autonomous drone maker, raised a $200 million Series B led by aircraft manufacturer . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a builder of secure software for the defense industry, raised a $136 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old Colorado-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Fintech

• Tokyo-based brokerage infrastructure provider raised a $150 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• India-based , a payment infrastructure provider, raised a $50 million Series D led by . The 13-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Fitness

• , an owner of physical fitness brands and the parent of , raised a $785 million private equity financing led by . As part of the transaction it announced a merger with . The San Luis Obispo, California-based company was valued at $7.5 billion.

Autonomous Driving

• Toronto-based , a self-driving technology company, raised a $750 million Series C led by and ,valuing it at $3.8 billion. The 5-year-old company announced a partnership with to support robotaxis.

Social media

• , an AI-powered video generation platform for social media, raised an $80 million Series A extension funding which brings its Series A funding total to $130 million. The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Education

• Online tutoring platform raised a $150 million Series D led by at a $1.2 billion valuation. The 14-year-old Brookline, Massachusetts-based company was founded by Ukrainians and maintains a team in Ukraine.

Compliance

• ESG compliance software platform raised a $100 million Series C led by , a joint venture between and . The 7-year-old Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany-based company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Energy

• , a developer of a residential energy storage device for electricity and electric vehicles, raised a $163 million funding. The 7-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Related SA国际传媒 unicorn lists:

• (1,684)
• (596)
• (37)
• (186)
• (115)
• (102)
• (868)
• (494)
• (226)
• (38)
• (470)

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• A Growing Share Of Seed And Series A Funding Is Going To Giant Rounds

Methodology

The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on SA国际传媒 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. SA国际传媒 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to SA国际传媒 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

In December alone, 23 companies joined The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board, more than doubling the count from a year ago.

The value of the unicorn board also picked up significantly in the final month of the year, with the highest-ever value accorded to a private company. That was , which vaulted to the top of the list when it was valued at $800 billion in a secondary market transaction, double its valuation from just three months earlier.

And , the seventh-most highly valued private company at $134 billion, was also valued up from its $100 billion valuation months earlier.

New unicorns in December

Of the new unicorns last month, 15 were U.S.-based, two hail from China, and six are based in Europe, including two from the U.K. and one each from Germany, France, Finland and Belgium.

Financial services, aerospace and AI led with the highest count of new companies to join.

It is worth noting that a third of these companies were more than 10 years old, with some seeing a reacceleration in their business driven by AI.

On the other end of the spectrum, the fastest to reach unicorn status in December was , which raised its seed round at a $4.5 billion value.

Here are December’s 23 newly minted unicorns.

Fintech

• Crypto-focused digital bank , co-founded by , raised a $350 million funding led by . The company was granted conditional approval by the 听 in late 2025. The 1-year-old Columbus, Ohio-based company plans to support technology businesses in AI, crypto and defense, and was valued at $4.35 billion.
• , developer of AI-driven insurance for the trucking industry, raised a $100 million Series D led by . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a loan provider for outdoor equipment, RVs and power sports raised a $100 million Series F led by . The funding was part equity and part secondary financing. The 11-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.3 billion and has generated over $7.5 billion in loans.
• , a provider of co-branded credit cards and payment plans for brands to build loyalty, raised a $150 million Series D led by . The 5-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Aerospace

• , a builder of powerful satellites, raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old Torrance, California-based company was valued at $3 billion.
• Finland-based , which operates satellites for military and commercial intelligence, raised a $175 million Series E led by . The 12-year-old company was valued at $2.8 billion.
• , a provider of satellites detecting radio frequency emissions for the U.S. government and its partners, raised a $150 million Series E led by and at a value of $1 billion. As part of the deal, the 10-year-old Herndon, Virginia-based company acquired .

AI

• , a new startup from founder that was acquired by Databricks, plans to build an energy-efficient computer for AI. The company raised a $475 million seed round led by and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
• , a generative AI company for video and images, raised a $300 million Series B led by and 1. The 1-year-old Germany-based company was valued at $3.3 billion.
• , builder of AI models for molecule programming, raised a $130 million Series B led by General Catalyst and . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Energy

• Energy software provider , raised a $1 billion funding led by , with plans to separate from its parent, . The 6-year-old London-based company was valued at $8.7 billion.
• , a builder of nuclear microreactors, raised a $300 million Series D led by and . The 6-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $1.8 billion.

E-commerce

• B2B chemical and industrial materials supply chain company raised a $10 million Series B led by and . The 11-year-old Beijing-based company was valued at $2.3 billion.
• , a luxury automotive e-commerce platform, raised funding from collector from his family office . The 40-year-old Miami-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Marketing

• Customer relationship marketing service , which manages a CRM and communication across emails through to messaging and aided by AI, raised a $583 million private equity round led by and . The 18-year-old Paris-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Synthetic AI marketing research company 听 raised a Series A led by reported to be above $50 million . The funding was raised at different valuations, giving investors access at a lower value for part of the funding. The 1-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

DevOps

• , an IT ticketing management platform reimagined with AI, raised a $75 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• Site reliability platform raised a Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.听 The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion in a two-tiered round with investors getting access at a lower valuation for part of the funding.

Social media

• The social media giant TikTok spun out its , valued at $14 billion. The Bellevue, Washington-based company鈥檚 new owners Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX each own 15% of the new entity, while retains an ownership stake of 20%.

Security

• Identity security company , which manages security for individuals through to AI agents, raised a $700 million Series B led by . The 16-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $3 billion.

Defense

• Counter drone defense technology deployer raised a $210 million Series B. Investors were not disclosed.听 The 4-year-old London-based company was valued at $1.8 billion.

IoT

• , an IoT sensor technology for maintaining industrial machines, raised a $23 million funding from existing investors. The 22-year-old Belgium-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Healthcare

• , a medical device company targeting heart disease, raised a Series D led by and . The 6-year-old Shanghai-based company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Related SA国际传媒 unicorn lists:

• (1,669)
• (186)
• (115)
• (102)
• (856)
• (493)
• (225)
• (38)
• (471)

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• Exclusive: AI Insurance Startup Nirvana Nearly Doubles Valuation To $1.5B with $100M Series D
• Exclusive: Octane Lands $100M Series F At $1.3B Valuation To Help People Finance Large Lifestyle And Recreational Purchases

Methodology

The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on SA国际传媒 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. SA国际传媒 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to SA国际传媒 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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.

Startup investors this week demonstrated continued willingness to write big checks for promising companies in sought-after areas. Leading the pack was , an AI identity security platform that picked up a fresh $700 million.

The next three largest rounds 鈥� , and 鈥� all shared some focus on energy. The rest of the list included companies in AI, biotech and space tech.

1. , $700M, AI identity security: Saviynt, a provider of AI-optimized identity security tools, that it secured $700 million in Series B financing. led the round, which set a $3 billion valuation for the 15-year-old, El Segundo, California-based company.

2. , $475M, AI energy efficiency: Unconventional AI, a startup designing a computer to optimize energy efficiency for AI, raised $475 million in seed funding. and led the financing for the San Francisco Bay Area company.

3. , $462M, geothermal energy: Houston-based Fervo Energy, a developer and operator of geothermal energy projects with a focus on technologies to scale this power source, $462 million in Series E funding led by . The funding will go toward a geothermal project in Western Utah as well as other projects in its pipeline.

4. , $300M, fast airplanes, turbines: Boom Supersonic, a Denver company working to build what it says will be the world鈥檚 fastest airliner, $300 million led by . In addition to its planes, Boom is also attracting investor interest for its Superpower natural gas turbine that can also have applications in delivering energy to AI data centers.

5. , $250M, space tech: Torrance, California-based K2 Space, developer of a platform for building large, high-power satellites, landed $250 million in Series C funding. led the round, which set a $3 billion valuation for the company, which was founded in 2022.

6. , $240M, software development: Harness, a developer of tools to automate and simplify software delivery processes, raised $200 million in Series E funding and $40 million in a planned tender to provide liquidity to long-term employees. led the Series E, which set a $5.5 billion valuation for the 8-year-old company.

7. , $158M, medical devices: Marlton, New Jersey-based Impulse Dynamics, a medical device company focused on patients with heart failure, secured over $158 million in a funding round led by and . The financing follows an announcement from the extending coverage for its device.

8. , $140M, generative AI: Fal, developer of a real-time generative AI platform for video, images, 3D and audio, picked up $140 million in a Series D financing Led by . The round was the third this year for San Francisco-based Fal, which closed a Series C in July and a Series B in February.

9. , $110M, biotech: Sanegene Bio, a biotech startup focused on developing RNAi-based therapeutics, said it raised over $110 million in Series B funding from a long list of venture investors. Founded in 2021, the startup is headquartered in Boston with significant operations in China.

10. , $84M, biotech: San Diego-based BlossomHill Therapeutics, a developer of medicines to treat cancer, pulled in $84 million in Series B extension funding. , and led the financing for the 5-year-old 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 Dec. 6-12. 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.

Illustration:

The number of new monthly entrants has picked up in recent months. The top 20 companies on the board have also been reshuffled and we鈥檝e seen a marked increase in new decacorn-valued companies.

Of the 20 companies that joined in October, 11 came from the U.S. China added three new unicorns and Sweden contributed two. The U.K., Germany and Ukraine each minted one new unicorn, as did India.

Among the new entrants, New York-based open model developer and Austin-based residential battery operator each raised billion-dollar rounds that valued them as unicorns for the first time.

The highest valued among the new unicorns were Reflection, which was valued at $8 billion, and San Francisco-based payments blockchain听 , valued at $5 billion.

Exits

A pair of companies from the unicorn board were acquired in October: Passwordless authentication company was acquired by , and , an IT employee experience platform was acquired by . In another October exit, data management tooling company merged with in an all-stock deal.

Three companies also went public: Silicon Valley-based travel and expense management company , Shanghai-based e-commerce software platform , and Beijing-based silicon wafer production company .

New unicorns

Here are October’s 20 newly minted unicorns across multiple sections. AI led with four companies, transportation with three, and healthcare and financial services followed, each with two companies.

AI

• Open source model developer , founded by engineers to compete against DeepSeek, raised a $2 billion Series B from among other investors. The 1-year-old New York-based company was valued at $8 billion.
• , which helps customers build AI applications, raised a $230 million Series C led by , and . The 3-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at $4 billion. It says it has 10,000 customers, up 10x from July 2024.
• AI agent automation platform raised a $180 million Series C led by . The 6-year-old Berlin-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
• , a platform for deploying AI agents, raised a $125 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.25 billion.

Transportation

• , a builder of autonomous robovans for B2B delivery, raised a $100 million Series B4 extension led by . The 4-year-old Beijing-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• raised its first external financing, a $281 million funding round. The 4-year-old company is a Shanghai-based subsidiary of car battery provider CATL and was valued at $1.4 billion in the deal. It鈥檚 a developer of an integrated chassis for battery and electric vehicle functions for driving.
• Self-driving trucking company raised a $100 million funding led by existing investor and quantum company . Einride builds electric big rigs, automated smaller delivery trucks for fixed routes, and a logistics platform. The 9-year-old Stockholm-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Healthcare and biotech

• , provider of a noninvasive therapy for tumors, raised a $250 million private equity round led by its new owners which include , and , as well as additional investors and . The 16-year-old Minnesota-based company was valued at $3 billion.
• In women’s health, weight loss treatment provider raised a $50 million Series A. Investors were not disclosed. The 1-year-old London-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Financial services

• , the owner of retail trading platform Dhan, raised a $120 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old India-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Digital banking software developer , owner of neobank , raised a private equity round led by . The 8-year-old Kyiv, Ukraine-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Web3

• Blockchain payments provider , incubated by and , raised a $500 million Series A led by and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $5 billion.

Energy

• Battery-powered home energy company raised a $1 billion Series C led by . The 2-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $4 billion.

Aerospace

• Reusable rocket manufacturer raised a $510 million Series D led by to scale manufacturing. The 6-year-old Kent, Washington-based company was valued at $2 billion.

Professional services

• 鈥檚 legal platform supports lawyers with research and legal drafting. The 2-year-old Stockholm-based legal tech company raised a $150 million Series C led by . It was valued at $1.8 billion.

E-commerce

• , which connects brands with creators for e-commerce, raised a $70 million funding led by . The 5-year-old Holden, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1.5 billion. ShopMy says it has enabled $1 billion in sales across its platform.

Sales and marketing

• , which provides a platform for community management for homeowners associations, raised a $300 million private equity round led by . Vantaca says it serves more than 500 management companies. The 9-year-old Wilmington, North Carolina-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Defense tech

• Defense acquirer raised a $150 million private equity round led by . The 14-year-old Arlington, Virginia-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Beauty

• Chinese skincare brand raised a $104 million funding led by and . The 24-year-old Shanghai-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

• , a company planning to build a compact lithography machine to support the manufacturing of chips in the U.S. market, raised a $100 million Series A from , and among others. The 4-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Related SA国际传媒 unicorn lists:

• (1,628)
• (147)
• (113)
• (102)
• (819)
• (494)
• (220)
• (38)
• (469)

Related reading:

• In The Space Of Months, AI Funding Boom Adds More Than $500B In Value To Unicorn Board And Reshuffles Top 20
• Highest Count Of New Unicorns Join SA国际传媒 Board In Over 3 Years As Exits Also Gain Steam
• The MVPs Of The Startup World Are Still Getting More Valuable
• SA国际传媒鈥檚 Global Unicorn List Tops $6T In Value In August For The First Time Despite Slowdown
• Here Are Some Of The Newer Investors Entering The AI And Megaround Race
• These Are The Speediest Companies To Go From Series A To Series C

Methodology

The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on SA国际传媒 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. SA国际传媒 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to SA国际传媒 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

Clarification: This story has changed since its original publication to correct an error in the Exits section.

New York Climate Week 2025 is in the rearview mirror and COP30 is approaching swiftly. Now is a good time to take stock of the themes that are top of mind in the conversations that I have had with founders, operators and other investors in the space.

Unsurprisingly, the theme of 2025 is AI, but there鈥檚 just one catch.

AI is about to break the grid

For the first time in two decades, electricity demand is increasing, in large part due to the growth of data centers and computers. That鈥檚 not slowing down: Demand is over the next decade, yet the current energy grid is ill equipped to handle that transition.

The grid is already under strain, and Americans are feeling the pain in a variety of ways: from July 2024 to July 2025 and more than 20% in some states. Outages have increased as well, with the average American in 2023 vs. 2013. We鈥檙e paying more for less.

But the question isn鈥檛 whether we can afford it. It鈥檚 whether our top-down model of centralized utilities can build fast enough to meet demand. The path forward requires both optimizing what we already have and building what we need next.

Modernizing the grid we already have

While that may be true, the first order of business is ensuring that existing energy assets work effectively and reliably. Investment dollars are flowing to modernize the existing grid and mitigate vulnerabilities to ensure that grid physical assets are sufficiently resilient to withstand the strains of increased energy demand and extreme weather. Fortunately, a host of companies are innovating in this critical space to address these challenges.

Among the key players, offers AI-driven climate risk analytics and resilience planning for utilities, while provides visual data management and asset intelligence solutions. has developed a continuous grid-monitoring platform that helps utilities maintain real-time awareness of their infrastructure. Together, these companies represent some of the cutting edge of grid modernization efforts, combining advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, visual analytics and continuous monitoring to strengthen the backbone of our energy system.

Investing in this space is critical to reverse the trend of increased utility outages 鈥� which have already (mostly in part to weather).

Increasing energy capacity is the second to-do, yet we鈥檙e falling behind. The U.S. will add of utility scale capacity in 2025, whereas China added about of capacity in 2024 鈥� nearly 7x that of the U.S.

The solution is at the edge

Fortunately, innovation comes at the edge, and there is strong momentum around scaling energy in a decentralized manner 鈥� the solution is bottom-up capacity growth through distributed energy resources such as rooftop and battery storage systems 鈥� quite different from the legacy systems in place today.

The growth in distributed solar is proof that this is working: Of the 32 GW of solar capacity installed in 2024, 5.4 GW was distributed (defined as residential, commercial and industrial, and community solar). Rates of attaching battery storage systems, which resolve solar鈥檚 intermittency issues, continue to climb as well with over 79% and 61% in California and Texas, respectively, in H1 2025.

These stats are proof that distributed energy is feasible, and now the onus is on scaling. Cost has traditionally been a large barrier to consumer adoption, although that is changing with residential solar costs dropping from 2010 to 2020. However, soft costs (sales and marketing expenditures) and financing costs have masked many of those efficiencies. This has partially been offset through federal tax credits, but per provisions in the OBBB, these will soon be phased out and leave behind considerable adoption hurdles.

Decentralization as a coordination infrastructure

Startups are responding. Consumer energy businesses like 听1 are using crypto-based networks to align incentives between homeowners and the grid. Instead of waiting for utilities or governments to fund new infrastructure, the Daylight Network rewards consumers in exchange for participating in their virtual power plant. The goal is to circumvent the range of expenses 鈥� hardware purchases, soft costs and financing costs 鈥� that have hampered consumer adoption to date and turn energy consumers into active participants in the grid.

In a world where we can鈥檛 wait for governments to catch up and solve the set of issues that are straining the grid (and getting worse every year), startups have to step up with organic bottom-up tools to scale energy generation.

From device coordination to financing to better energy management systems, there are ample opportunities for improvement. As a result, there is also ample opportunity for venture dollars to help these companies, whether it be investing in the businesses that manage the electrical load directly or providing the picks and shovels.

The private sector can drive the transition faster than public systems. AI is not slowing down, and neither is climate volatility. We need to scale the energy infrastructure that serves as its backbone.

is a principal at , a Santa Monica, California-based early-stage venture firm.

Photo by听听on听

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 rounds here.

This past week was a busy period for mega-sized funding rounds, with all 10 of the largest U.S. financings exceeding the $100 million mark. Topping the list were billion-dollar financings for AI data platform and quantum computing startup . Overall, we saw robust investor interest across AI, healthcare, spacetech and fintech.

1. (tied) , $1B, AI data platform: Databricks it raised $1 billion in Series K funding co-led by , , , and . The financing sets a valuation of over $100 billion for the San Francisco-based company, which says it has surpassed a $4 billion revenue run-rate and is growing over 50% year over year.

1. (tied) , $1B, quantum computing: Palo Alto, California-based PsiQuantum, which is hoping to build the 鈥渨orld鈥檚 first commercially useful, fault-tolerant quantum computers,鈥� that it secured $1 billion in Series E funding. , and led the round, which set a $7 billion valuation for the company.

3. , $400M, AI: AI coding startup Cognition over $400 million at a $10.2 billion post-money valuation. led the financing for the 2-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

4. , $300M, kidney care: Denver-based Strive Health, a care provider for patients with kidney disease, closed on $300 million in Series D equity funding led by . Strive also raised $250 million in debt financing led by .

5. , $213M, biopharma: Odyssey Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical startup focused on autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, $213 million in Series D funding from a long list of new and existing investors. Boston-based Odyssey filed to go public in January but withdrew the planned offering in June.

6. (tied) , $200M, GenAI: GenAI startup Perplexity reportedly $200 million in fresh capital at a $20 billion valuation. To date, San Francisco-based Perplexity has raised $1.5 billion in known funding, .

6. (tied) , $200M, modular power plants: Utah-based Torus, a provider of modular power plants for utilities, data centers and other customers, a $200 million investment by . The company is also now preparing to open GigaOne, a 540,000-square-foot manufacturing campus in Salt Lake City.

6. (tied) , $200M, spacetech: Los Angeles-based Apex, a manufacturer of satellite products, landed $200 million in Series D funding led by . The round reportedly brings Apex鈥檚 valuation to $1 billion.

9. , $130M, health care and insurance: Harbour Health, a provider of primary care services and coverage, picked up $130 million in new funding co-led by , 1听补苍诲 . To date, the 4-year-old, Austin, Texas-based company has raised over $255 million in known funding.

10. , $111M, fintech: Atlanta-based Speedchain, a provider of credit cards and expense management tools for businesses, $111 million in equity and debt funding. extended the debt financing, while , , , , and provided the equity.

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 Sept. 6-12. 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.

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 rounds here.

Hoping to be the first company to commercialize fusion power, led the pack by a long shot for funding this week, pulling in $863 million for its latest round. Beyond that deal, however, it was a rather slow week for large startup funding rounds, although we did see some good-sized financings for the fintech, biotech and vertical AI sectors.

1. , $863M, fusion energy:听 Devens, Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a developer of commercial fusion energy systems, that it raised $863 million in what it described as Series B2 financing from a long list of investors including 鈥檚 . Commonwealth said it is moving closer to being the first in the world to commercialize fusion power.

2. , $115M, oncology: St. Louis-based Wugen, a developer of CAR-T cell therapies to treat T-cell cancers, picked up $115 million in equity financing led by . Seven-year-old Wugen plans to use the financing in part to fund clinical trials.

3. , $58M, fintech: Rain, a developer of infrastructure for stablecoin payments, announced that it secured $58 million in a Series B funding round led by . The raise comes five months after New York-based Rain鈥檚 Series A and brings total funding to $88.5 million.

4. , $50M, autonomous ships: Boston-based Blue Water Autonomy, a startup designing and building unmanned ships for the , closed on $50 million in Series A funding led by 鈥檚 Blue Water said it plans to use the funding to build and deploy its first long-range, full-sized autonomous ship next year.

5. , $50M, health care AI: Assort Health, a San Francisco-based provider of AI patient communication tools for specialty healthcare providers, reportedly about $50 million in a Series B round at a valuation of $750 million.

6. , $34M, photonics: OpenLight, based in Goleta, California, is a developer of a silicon photonics platform for semiconductor design which landed $34 million in a Series A co-led by and .

7. (tied) , $30M, fintech: New York-based Atomic, provider of an embedded investing platform for fintechs and financial institutions, snagged $30 million in a growth round led by and .

7. (tied) , $30M, vertical AI: San Mateo, California-based Aurasell, developer of an AI-native CRM platform, locked up $20 million in seed funding backed by , and .

7. (tied)听, $30M, biotech: Leal Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based developer of therapeutics for patients living with neuropsychiatric or neurodegenerative disorders, a $30 million Series A financing led by ‘ .

10. , $28M, appliances: Copper, a developer of appliances with integrated battery storage, scored $28 million in a Series A financing consisting of equity and debt that was led by . The Berkeley, California-based startup鈥檚 first product offering is a stainless steel range and oven called 鈥淐harlie.鈥�

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 Aug. 23-29. 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.