So far this year, investors have put about $7.8 billion into Boston-area startups, per Crunchbase That puts the region on track for a moderate annual gain and the strongest tally in about four years, as charted below.

Invidious comparison

Under normal circumstances, such numbers might be celebrated as pretty strong. But many Bostonians don’t see it that way.

“For the first time, startups in Texas raised more VC money than those in Massachusetts,� one headline this spring. Earlier this year, another correspondent concerns from local startup backers and builders that the tech startup scene is thinning out.

At root, the issue may not be that Bostonians are delivering so little investable startup talent, but rather that other places are swimming in unprecedented capital. This kind of invidious comparison is particularly stark in the AI realm.

Overall, North America venture funding hit a record high in the first quarter of this year, surging to $252 billion. Of that, more than 87% went to companies in Crunchbase AI-related categories.

Few of those AI mega-fundraisers were in Massachusetts. The biggest, most heavily funded names in generative AI, like , and others, are predominantly headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. That means Boston didn’t get a slice of history’s largest startup funding rounds.

By contrast, biotech, a traditional area of strength for the Boston area, hasn’t been on a funding tear. True, there’s no dramatic slump. But in a time when a single venture-backed AI company can snag $122 billion in a , biotech round sizes can’t compete for scale.

Standout rounds

Still, by pre-AI standards of venture funding, Boston has been scaling some heavy hitters.

Per Crunchbase , at least 12 companies in the greater metro areaÌı1 raised rounds of $200 million or more this year, listed below.

The largest round went to , a provider of wearable fitness technology and a subscription platform that raised $575 million in Series G funding at a $10.1 billion valuation in March. The company says it is powered by more than 24 billion hours of physiological data and purpose-built AI models to provide predictive, personalized health insights.

, a provider of consumer privacy and security tools, came in second. It secured $375 million in Series B funding in March led by and .

Next on the list is , which provides healthcare plans to seniors on Medicare. The 9-year-old company disclosed in January that it had closed on $366 million across two Series F funding tranches.

Biotech startups, meanwhile, didn’t make the top 3 but were heavily represented on the list. Overall, more than half of funded startups in the list are focused on biotech or healthcare.

Why compare?

Boston isn’t the San Francisco Bay Area, and it certainly isn’t Texas. So it’s worth asking: What is the point of comparing startup ecosystems? Is a metro area flailing if it doesn’t keep up with a particular major innovation cycle, even if it maintains core areas of strength?

At risk of over-generalizing, we’d conclude that competitive rank still matters. A metro area can retain its crown as a startup innovation hub only if it continues to produce transformative companies.

For Boston, there’s no indication the region is losing its edge in biotech and other sectors where it’s long been an established powerhouse. However, in the generative AI era, it’s also evident that the region has not produced one of the most high-valuation players in the space, and that’s put some ding in the city’s reputation as a leading innovation hub.

Related Crunchbase queries:

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• North America Q1 Funding Surges Across Stages To Record Level
• Whoop’s Wearable Fitness Tech Lands $575M From Athletes, Celebrities, Institutional Investors To Reach $10.1B Valuation

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

Venture funding has always been a world of haves and have nots. And these days, the haves are having more than ever. Case in point this week was . The 5-year-old generative AI giant secured $65 billion in Series H funding this week, pushing its post-money valuation to a mind-blowing $965 billion.

After that, the next-biggest financing was a $1 billion round for AI software development tool maker , lifting its valuation to $26 billion. Companies in a range of other sectors also managed to secure sizable though smaller rounds, in areas including commerce logistics, developer AI, insurtech, fusion and more.

1. , $65B, foundational AI: Generative AI company Anthropic raised $65 billion in a Series H funding round, more than doubling its post-money valuation to a staggering $965 billion. San Francisco-based Anthropic said , , and led the financing, and that , , , , and co-led the investment.

2. , $1B, AI software development: Cognition, developer of AI software engineer Devin, has closed on over $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation. , , and 1Ìıled the financing for the San Francisco-based company.

3. , $250M, logistics: Atlanta-based Stord, developer of a fulfillment network, software and AI tools for independent brands, secured $250 million in Series F funding. The round set a $3 billion valuation for the 11-year-old company.

4. , $113M, AI for developers: OpenRouter, a marketplace for AI models, secured $113 million in Series B funding. led the financing for the New York-based startup.

5. , $106M, insurtech: San Francisco-based Corgi Insurance, developer of an AI-native insurance platform for startups, picked up $106 million in Series B1 funding led by . The financing, which set a $2.6 billion valuation, comes just three weeks after Corgi $160 million in Series B funding at a $1.3 billion valuation.

6. (tied) , $100M, fusion energy: Kearny, New Jersey-based Thea Energy, a developer of technology for fusion energy systems, raised $100 million in Series B funding led by . Thea says the funding will go toward manufacturing infrastructure.

6. (tied) , $100M, healthcare data: Garner Health, a platform for finding healthcare providers, closed on $100 million in Series E funding led by . The financing set a $2.74 billion for the New York-based company.

8. , $90M, space tech: Observable Space, a space tech startup that develops and builds advanced optical systems, says it raised $90 million in Series A funding led by to scale manufacturing and develop its technology. The Santa Monica, California-based company also announced that it secured a $94 million contract with the.

9. , $59M, AI video: Reactor, a San Francisco-based developer platform for real-time generative video, emerged from stealth with $59 million in funding led by .

10. , $52M, cancer detection: San Diego-based ClearNote Health, a developer of early detection and monitoring tests for multiple forms of cancer, picked up $52 million in Series D financing. Founding investor led the round.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of May 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.

Illustration:

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

Physical tech is back, at least judging by this week’s largest U.S. funding deals. The biggest of all was a $1.5 billion corporate round for a medical device company that develops implants and treatment systems for musculoskeletal disorders. It was followed by an enormous Series A round, backed by a bevy of big-name investors, for , a 1-year-old artificial intelligence startup that says it’s developing personalized AI devices. Along with the usual heavy dose of AI, this week’s list also includes large deals for aerospace and defense, fintech, and retail technology. Let’s dive in.

1. $1.5B, healthcare: MiRus raised a massive $1.5 billion corporate round led by as strategic investors continue betting on next-generation orthopedic and spinal technologies. The Marietta, Georgia-based company has now raised $1.6 billion to date, . The deal comes with a 34% equity stake for Boston Scientific.

2. , $700M, artificial intelligence: AI startup Hark landed a huge $700 million Series A led by, with participation from a of investors including chip giants , , and , as well as ,, , 1Ìı²¹²Ô»å . The San Jose, California-based company it’s building “advanced personalized intelligence and next-generation hardwareâ€� and plans to release some kind of product later this summer.

3. , $355M, AI infrastructure and developer tools: New York-based Modal Labs raised $355 million in a Series C round led by and , with participation from and . The company provides serverless cloud computing tools and GPU access for running AI models and testing AI-generated code. Its latest round is at a $4.65 billion valuation. CEO ​told Reuters that Modal’s ARR has soared to $300 million, up from about $60 million in September, as enterprise AI coding becomes widespread.

4. (tied) , $300M, artificial intelligence: Frontier lab Decart raised $300 million in a round led by that reportedly values it at nearly $4 billion. The deal also received backing from including venture firms and, AI researcher and corporate investors Nvidia, and . The startup, based in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, develops generative AI models and infrastructure, and has now raised roughly $456 million to date as investors continue pouring capital into foundational AI technologies.

4. (tied) , $300M, aerospace and defense: El Segundo, California-based Amca raised $300 million in a Series B led by, alongside investors including and. The company focuses on aerospace manufacturing and supply-chain technologies, an area drawing increased venture interest amid renewed defense-tech spending. Amca has raised $376.5 million overall, . Its latest round reportedly comes at a $1 billion-plus valuation.

6. , $250M, search and generative AI: AI search startup Exa secured $250 million at a $2.2 billion valuation in a Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Based in San Francisco, the company develops AI-native search infrastructure designed for agents and large language model applications. The latest raise brings Exa’s total funding to $357 million and comes as competition intensifies around AI retrieval and search tools.

7. , $230M, edge computing and AI infrastructure: Armada raised $230 million in fresh funding at a $2.2 billion valuation. The Series B deal was led by , and, with participation from other investors including and . The San Francisco-based company develops edge computing and AI infrastructure systems designed for remote and industrial environments. The round brings its total funding to $469 million, .

8. , $200M, fintech: Mercury raised $200 million at a $5.2 billion valuation in a Series D round led by . Returning backers Andreessen Horowitz, , , , and also participated. The San Francisco-based company provides banking and financial workflow software for companies and has now raised about $657 million to date. Its latest round comes amid a broader uptick in fintech funding, including strong investor interest in digital banking platforms serving startups and businesses.

9. , $170M, retail technology: New York-based Radar secured $170 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The Series B round was led by and, with participating. The company develops AI technology for brick-and-mortar stores that uses overhead RFID sensors, software and analytics to give retailers real-time inventory visibility with item-level tracking accuracy. The company said its platform is deployed in more than 1,400 stores for customers including and . It has raised nearly $310 million to date, .

10. , $150M, wealth management: Farther raised a $150 million Series D led by as investors continue backing platforms modernizing financial advisory services. The San Francisco-based company provides technology-enabled wealth management tools and has raised approximately $268 million to date. Farther didn’t reveal its valuation with the latest raise, only that it is “now a unicorn.�

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of May 18-22. 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:

When and his wife were navigating the complex world of fertility treatment, the process was marked by stress and financial strain. But after finally achieving a successful outcome, AlSalim recognized how different his experience was from many others in his position.

Despite the ordeal, he noted, having a child afterward “is much better than a load of people who don’t have anything to show for it.”

The experience sparked a business idea to help others in the same situation his wife and he were in. “My son was 1 week old,” he said, recalling the exact moment the concept took hold.

AlSalim officially registered the company name, , in 2019, but the business’ true inception came later, as the founder refined the idea and sought investors.

Gaia is working on building what AlSalim believes is a fundamentally new category in the . The company uses artificial intelligence and machine learning — trained on millions of anonymized historical data points and fertility outcomes — to better understand risk and probability for fertility treatment.

The platform analyzes variables such as age, hormone levels, ovarian response, treatment protocols, embryo development and clinical outcomes to direct patients to “optimal� clinics based on their data profiles, and to generate personalized forecasts around fertility success. It also uses AI and machine learning to underwrite personalized outcome-based “flexible� financing plans for IVF, egg freezing and embryo transfer procedures.

“We tell you where to go, we protect your path, we finance your treatment, we support you,â€� AlSalim said in an interview with Crunchbase News. “No one else today bundles care, capital and financial protection into a single product.”

And today, the New York-based startup — led by AlSalim as its sole founder — tells Crunchbase News exclusively that it has secured a $100 million debt facility from to scale its operations across the United States.

The credit facility follows a $14 million Series A round raised in January 2025, led by , that brought Gaia’s total equity funding to $37 million across three rounds. Other backers include and .

Fertility remains a relatively niche area for healthcare startup investment. Last year, venture investors put $194.8 million toward startups in Crunchbase’s fertility categories. Since the peak year of 2021, when $229.6 million went to fertility-related startups globally, annual investment in the sector has ranged between about $100 million and roughly $200 million, .

Treatment with ‘outcome protections built in’

Today, the fertility industry operates almost entirely on a “fee-for-service” model. Patients pay thousands of dollars per individual procedure, regardless of whether that procedure actually results in a baby. If a cycle fails, the patient is left with heartbreak and a depleted bank account.

Gaia flips this dynamic on its head by pricing the probability of success rather than the number of procedures, its founder said.

“We are not just a financing company,� AlSalim told Crunchbase News. “We use data in order to create unique plans that are individualized with outcome protections built in.�

For an IVF cycle, which has a nationwide median cost of $22,000, Gaia says it offers complete predictability. If a member’s first IVF cycle fails, Gaia covers the next cycle at no extra cost. For embryo transfers, the plan includes unlimited transfers until a live birth is achieved.

The model works across other endpoints, too. For example, if a 30-year-old woman wants to freeze her eggs, Gaia uses its predictive engine to guarantee a target number of retrieved eggs based on her specific biomarkers. If she does not hit that number in the first round, Gaia funds a second cycle at no extra cost. Patients can choose to pay the fixed cost upfront or use Gaia’s financing to spread the cost over five years with monthly payments.

Closed-loop model

By owning the data and the risk from initial consultation to live birth, Gaia aims to build a closed-loop data asset that it believes will serve as a massive competitive moat.

Its model is resonating. Over the past 15 to 16 months, Gaia has experienced a significant growth inflection, according to AlSalim. The company has surpassed 1,100 memberships, with over 1,000 active members in the U.S., and has partnered with 200 clinic locations across 40 states.

The founder declined to provide hard revenue figures when asked about growth, saying that the company is “now developing a baby every 18 hours� while maintaining a of 85, which is considered “exceptional� in the healthcare industry by , creator of the customer loyalty benchmark.

Building a village

To sustain this velocity, Gaia has expanded its distribution channels beyond direct-to-consumer marketing to include local partnerships with acupuncturists and pharmaceutical companies, as well as direct clinic integrations.

Last year, the company launched an enterprise benefit product, marketing and selling directly to employers who want to offer comprehensive, risk-insulated fertility coverage to their workforce.

The corporate product has scaled rapidly, said AlSalim. Gaia’s enterprise client roster spans diverse sectors — from tech professionals in Silicon Valley to blue-collar manufacturing workers in Denver.

, managing director and head of U.S. Investments at Viola Credit, said his firm was drawn to Gaia because it believes the startup is addressing “a deeply important and underserved problem� with a model that is “both commercially compelling and mission-driven.�

Chen believes that Gaia stands out also because it is not “simply a financing product.�

Its approach, he said, “aligns incentives across patients, clinics, and financing in a way that feels genuinely differentiated,� he wrote via e-mail, “and we believe it can meaningfully improve access to fertility care.�

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• VC Investment Soars For Fertility Services Even As Birthrate Dips

Illustration:

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

Defense tech unicorn led the fundraising lineup in a week heavy with rounds for companies focused on applications in the physical world. Anduril’s $5 billion financing was by far the biggest. Other large rounds went to companies focused on supplying data power, robotics, space tech, biotech, and even strawberries.

1.Ìı, $5B, defense tech: Defense tech unicorn Anduril Industries raised another $5 billion in funding at a $61 billion valuation — double the valuation of $30.5 billion it received less than a year ago. The Series H round, led by and , brings the Costa Mesa, California-based company’s total raised to date to $11.4 billion, .ÌıÌı

2.Ìı, $775M, energy: Houston-based VoltaGrid, a provider of mobile natural gas generators for data centers, microgrids and industrial applications, secured $1 billion in strategic investment from and . The investment includes $775 million in capital funding and a $225 million secondary purchase from existing investors.

3.Ìı, $400M, robotics: Palo Alto, California-based Mind Robotics, developer of an AI-enabled industrial robotics platform, picked up $400 million in new financing led by . The round brings total funding to date to more than $1 billion for the startup, which launched in 2025 as a spinout of .

4.Ìı, $275M, space tech: Cowboy Space, a developer of rockets and satellite infrastructure to power and run AI compute in space, closed on $275 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation. led the financing for the San Carlos, California-based startup, which was founded by co-founder .Ìı

5.Ìı, $150M, indoor farming: Oishii, operator of highly automated indoor farms for growing strawberries, raised $150 million in Series C funding led by . Founded in 2016, the Jersey City, New Jersey-headquartered startup has raised $370 million in total funding to date.

6.Ìı, $125M, cybersecurity: San Jose-based Exaforce, developer of an AI-native security operations platform, secured $125 million in Series B funding from backers including , , , Ìı²¹²Ô»åÌı .

7.Ìı, $122M, biotech: Create Medicines, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup focused on in vivo immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer, closed on $122 million in Series B funding. , , and led the financing.

8.Ìı, $100M, autonomy: Providence, Rhode Island-based HavocAI, a provider of tools for developing military and commercial-grade autonomous systems across sea, air and land, secured $100 million in Series A funding. The round brings total funding to date for the 2-year-old company to $200 million.

9.Ìı, $65M, space tech: Star Catcher, a startup that says it is building the first power grid in space by beaming concentrated solar energy on demand to satellites, picked up $65 million in Series A funding. , and led the financing for the Jacksonville, Florida-based company, which was founded less than two years ago.

10.Ìı, $64M, data center power: GridCare, developer of technology to more efficiently provide power to AI data centers, raised $64 million in Series A funding. led the financing for the Redwood City, California-based startup.Ìı

Related reading:

• Anduril Raises Another $5B As Defense Tech Startups Shatter Funding RecordsÌı

Illustration:

As Ayoub describes it, while the medical profession was sold to him as a lucrative and stable career, the reality of modern healthcare hit home during a gap between his fellowship and his full-time role at . Living in New York City and unable to afford rent, he attempted to pick up extra shifts at a local urgent care. Despite a clear workforce shortage and his own need for income, he was told he couldn’t start for 90 to 120 days.

The culprit? A fragmented, manual credentialing process that acts as the industry’s primary bottleneck.

“The bottleneck is not the number of doctors, but the fragmented infrastructure connecting them to where they are needed,â€� said Ayoub, who also serves as an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine. “Most people assume the issue in healthcare staffing is a lack of doctors, but what we’ve seen is something different.Ìı

There’s a large, underutilized workforce that simply can’t move between systems efficiently,

So in early 2025, Ayoub and began pondering a solution. Their initial ideas eventually turned into , a startup with an AI-powered platform designed to serve as an “automated Dropbox” for physicians.Ìı

Today, the New York City-based startup is announcing it has raised $2.2 million in a pre-seed round led by , Crunchbase News reports exclusively. also participated in the round.

AI-driven healthcare takes off

AI-related healthcare has seen a significant rise in venture funding globally, Crunchbase shows. Investors put an estimated $14.9 billion into seed- through growth-stage funding to companies in AI-powered health tech categories in 2025, per Crunchbase data. That’s up significantly compared to the $8.6 billion raised in all of 2024.

Many of the recently funded healthcare startups are AI-centric, and, like Saile, are focused on streamlining dated processes.Ìı

In the current system, every time a doctor wants to work at a new facility — whether it be a hospital, a surgery center, or a telemedicine platform – he or she must manually resubmit a CV, licenses, and board certifications via email. In applying to an urgent care facility, Ayoub realized that while staffing agencies act as gatekeepers, the underlying infrastructure was broken.Ìı

There was no centralized way for a doctor to maintain a compliant status and share it instantly across different job verticals.

Saile aims to solve that problem by storing and tracking all a doctor’s credentials in one place and providing alerts before documents expire so that a physician can always be compliant. It goes one step further by providing access to a shift marketplace. In a nutshell, the startup serves as a portable credential passport for physicians to be identified and assigned patients at various hospitals.Ìı

The company’s five modular AI agents automate what currently takes months of manual coordination across recruiting, onboarding, credentialing, staffing and compliance.Ìı

By combining credentialing and staffing into a single infrastructure layer, Ayoub says Saile has shortened the onboarding timeline by roughly 45 days, from about 90 to 120 days, and reduced administrative tasks for healthcare facilities by an estimated 40%.

“Other solutions either focus on one piece of the problem or offer staffing tied to a single job type,� Ayoub said in an interview. “Saile owns the entire journey…And facilities get direct access to a pre-vetted pool of local and regional physicians without juggling multiple vendors or paying for the friction in between.�

Investing in the ‘infrastructure layer’

What began as a bootstrapped project fueled by word-of-mouth in a tight-knit clinician community has quickly gained momentum. The app has grown to nearly 5,000 active user physicians nationwide. Operating with a lean core team of four, the company plans to use its new capital to expand its AI agent infrastructure, grow its marketplace capabilities, and deepen integrations with facility credentialing systems.

Saile has four core revenue streams, with a primary focus on a per-seat SaaS model for facilities. The approach is to offer facilities access to the pool of physicians, and then charge on a per-seat usage basis for the workflow and credentialing infrastructure that supports it.

, founder and partner at Matchstick Ventures, said his firm was drawn to the founder market fit it saw in Saile.

“Marc had felt the pain of this problem and actually had built this more or less for himself out the gate,� Brosher said in an interview with Crunchbase News. “We love those combos where founders aren’t just randomly seeking out a solution to make a buck. This was very much a personal thing for him in the problem that he was solving.�

The firm also saw a “big� market opportunity in offering an “all-in-one� solution for doctors looking to pick up side jobs.

“People have tried to go after this a few different ways. They’ve either gone after credentialing, or they are a staffing agency,â€� Brosher added. “And when we look at this market, we feel like there needs to be disruption here…Ultimately, Saile is building the infrastructure layer beneath staffing. We feel like having that all-in-one infrastructure layer is actually where the real value is to be had.â€�

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Illustration:

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Two newly founded AI labs, both based in London and both with researchers from , raised large rounds out of the gate and made their Unicorn Board debuts. The two companies, and , both raised large initial fundings out of the gate, though take very different approaches to training AI.Ìı They were joined by another new unicorn in the foundation AI sector: , an open-source model company from China with on-device smaller models.Ìı

Six companies working on humanoid robotics —Ìıfive from China and one from Japan — also received billion-dollar-plus valuations last month. Quite a few of these companies are building models for robotic intelligence using simulated data.Ìı

The financial services, defense, developer tools, energy and healthcare sectors each added two or three new unicorns in April.Ìı

Of the 28 companies, 12 are U.S.-based and eight are from China. The UK counted two new unicorns last month, while Germany, Spain, Switzerland, India and Japan each added one.Ìı

April’s new unicorns

Here are April’s new unicorn companies. Of the 28 companies, 26 are AI-related.Ìı

Foundational AIÌı

• , a London-based AI lab using reinforcement learning rather than human-generated data, raised a $1.1 billion seed round led by and . The less than 1-year-old company was founded by of AlphaGo and . It was valued at $5.1 billion in its first funding.Ìı
• London-based , a new AI intelligence lab with the goal of continuous learning improvement, raised a $500 million Series A led by and . Founded by DeepMind researchers and ’s 1 previous AI lead, the less than 1-year-old company was valued at $4.5 billion.Ìı
• Beijing-based , an on-device foundation model developer, raised funding led by and . Its open source MiniCPM is deployed in automotives, smartphones, PCs and home devices. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.Ìı

RoboticsÌı

• Shanghai-based is a robotics AI company building a foundational model as well as hardware. It uses simulated training to create a model for grasping and spatial awareness. The 1-year-old company raised a Series A round and was valued at $2 billion.
• Shanghai-based humanoid robotics company raised a $513 million seed round led by and HSG. The 1-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion.Ìı
• Beijing-based , a hardware and software developer of models for robotics using simulated data, raised a $220 million Series B. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.Ìı
• Shenzhen-based , a builder of humanoid and quadruped robots, raised a $200 million Series B led by and . The 2-year-old company robots will be deployed for traffic, security and retail. It was valued at $1.5 billion.Ìı
• Shenzhen-based , a commercial robotics company for delivery and commercial cleaning, raised a $146 million funding led by and . The 10-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.Ìı
• Tokyo-based , a humanoid robotics company to address public safety and urban maintenance, raised a Series A led round. The 1-year-old company co-founded by was valued at $1 billion.

Financial servicesÌı

• , which automates research for investment banks, raised a $160 million Series D led by . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Bangalore-based , a consumer and small business lending service, raised a $220 million Series E led by , , and . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.Ìı
• , a banking and expense management service targeting small businesses and solopreneurs, raised a $100 million Series C led by , and . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company, founded by college dropouts at the time, was valued at $1.4 billion.Ìı

DefenseÌı

• Space defense company raised a $600 million Series D led by and . The company has built software for space operations and an autonomous orbital vehicle called Jackal. The 4-year-old, Colorado-based company was valued at $2.2 billion.Ìı
• Defense aviation company raised a $200 million Series C led by Khosla Ventures. The 7-year-old El Segundo, California-based builder of autonomous aircraft was valued at $1 billion.Ìı

Developer toolsÌı

• , a web search provider for AI agents used by and , raised a $100 million Series B led by Sequoia Capital. The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.Ìı
• , an agentic software coding tool for enterprises, raised a $150 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.Ìı

EnergyÌı

• , developer of small nuclear reactors to provide direct power for AI data centers, raised a $340 million Series B funding. The 2-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.Ìı
• , a long duration energy storage battery provider, raised a $58 million Series C led by . The 12-year-old Bayern, Germany-based company that supports energy needs for grids, data centers and industry, was valued at $1.2 billion.Ìı

Health careÌı

• Shanghai-based , a developer of a model for healthcare that includes computer vision and large language models, raised a $73 million Series A round. The 12-year-old company has built an assistant for doctors for screening, diagnosis and patient care, and was valued at $1 billion.Ìı
• Switzerland-based , a developer of a peptide product to address enamel repair without needing surgery, raised a private equity funding led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.Ìı

Data platform

• has built a semantic layer between data and agents necessary to interpret data and provide guardrails for AI. The 4-year-old San Francisco-based company raised a $120 million Series C led by and was valued at $1.5 billion.Ìı

Manufacturing

• Shanghai-based , a collaboration tool to make factories more efficient, raised a $146 million Series D funding. The 10-year-old Shanghai-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Agentic AI

• , which builds agents trained on company data, raised a $80 million funding led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.Ìı

AerospaceÌı

• Madrid-based , which is building data from satellites tracking changes in the earth for various commercial needs, raised a $130 million Series B led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.Ìı

Marketing & salesÌı

• , a provider of booking and customer service for the services industry using AI, has raised a Series B funding led by and . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion. The company has raised $125 million in funding from seed through its Series B.Ìı

BiotechnologyÌı

• , an AI biotechnology infrastructure platform speeding up drug discovery, raised a $40 million Series E. The 8-year-old Waltham, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1 billion.Ìı

Waste managementÌı

• converts unused food products into energy. It raised a Series C funding led by strategic partner . The 19-year-old Concord, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1 billion.Ìı

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:Ìı

• (1,756)
• (611)
• (128)
• (187)
• (118)
• (102)
• (896)
• (516)
• (239)
• (38)
• (477)

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• March Mints 11 New Unicorns, As $200B Is Added Through Up Rounds And Board Posts Strong ExitsÌı
• Billion-Dollar AI Rounds Push April To Third-Highest Startup Funding Month In A Year
• This Is A Momentous Year For Early-Stage UnicornsÌı
• The Rising Investors Behind The New Unicorn ClassÌı
• While OpenAI Shattered Records, Robotics and Semiconductor Startups Quietly Added The Most New Unicorns In FebruaryÌı

Methodology

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

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — 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.Ìı

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

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

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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We’re not talking about confidential filings either. Sure, they signal serious intent and contain valuable information for regulators. But for the rest of us, it’s the public S-1 filing that signifies an IPO is actually imminent.

By this latter measure, the past few weeks have been pretty busy for venture-backed startups. , the designer of speedy AI inference chips, filed publicly last week for an offering expected to raise around $2 billion. The Silicon Valley company, which withdrew plans for an IPO last fall, is reportedly seeking a valuation upwards of $35 billion this time around.

That alone would be enough to set IPO market watchers abuzz. Per Crunchbase data, it stands to be the largest initial share offering of a U.S. semiconductor company to date.

However, Cerebras wasn’t the only venture-backed company seeking a multibillion-dollar IPO valuation.

Power players

Another, albeit smaller, contender is nuclear power startup , which is making its debut today. The Rockville, Maryland-based company priced shares at $23 each late Thursday, above the projected range, raising around $1 billion. Shares closed up 27% in first-day trading Friday.

Meanwhile, on the geothermal power front, is also looking to take its clean energy ambitions to the public market. The Houston-based company filed last week for a offering that could bring in around $250 million.

Biotech IPOs heating up

Biotech is also heating up. Last week delivered a big debut from , a Waltham, Massachusetts-based developer of oral and injectable treatments for obesity and metabolic disease that $718 million in its Nasdaq offering. , a Fremont, California-based startup applying proteomics to early disease detection, made its market entry as well, securing a current market cap around $1.6 billion.

More biotech debuts are on deck too. Austin-based , a venture-backed developer of a nerve stimulation device for stroke survivors, filed last week for an offering. The prior week brought S-1 filings from Boston’s , a developer of medicines for depression, anxiety and other neuropsychiatric disorders, and , a Denmark-based biotech which focuses on treatment of blood coagulation disorders.

Space and defense on the rise

Of course, everyone knows the Texas-based company on deck to publicly file for a space tech offering of unprecedented magnitude. for an IPO a few weeks ago, with media reports pegging its target valuation around $1.75 trillion. If the company forges ahead with reported plans for a June market debut, a public filing should follow in the next few weeks.

In the interim, another, much, much smaller offering in the defense tech space is on track to hit the market much sooner. , a Herndon, Virginia-based developer of radio frequency intelligence for military customers, filed earlier this month for a offering. It comes amid a period of heightened investor appetite for defense tech, with an expectation of more debuts in the space likely in coming months.

Now we just need some software

Of course, it’s not an IPO market that is welcoming to all venture-backed startup sectors. One area noticeably absent from the impending offering list is enterprise software. While SaaS has long been a mainstay of the IPO pipeline, the sector has taken a hit of late amid investors’ concerns of AI disruption.

That said, it’s still encouraging to see a swathe of other sectors dipping a toe in IPO waters.

Related Crunchbase queries:

Related reading:

• After Swarmer’s Soaring Debut, Here Are 12 Other Potential Defense Tech IPOs
• IPOs Are Holding Up In 2026, But SaaS Debuts Aren’t Happening

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Per Crunchbase data, the high end of the purchase price represents the largest acquisition of a venture-backed biotech company in years. It’s a testament to the perceived potential of Kelonia’s pipeline of genetic medicines, including a treatment targeting multiple myeloma that has produced promising clinical trial results.

It’s also a quick progression by biotech standards. Boston-based Kelonia from stealth mode just four years ago, with $50 million in Series A funding led by , and . Two years later, it entered a research and licensing partnership with , a subsidiary of Japan’s , that included funding to develop immuno-oncology therapeutics using its in vivo gene placement system.

Per Lilly, Kelonia’s platform promises to not just improve outcomes for patients, but to do so in a rapid, simpler “off-the-shelf format� compared to currently available CAR T-cell therapies. Its approach has been described as enabling the reprogramming of patients’ T-cells inside the body so those cells can attack cancer.

Kelonia’s vision is ambitious enough, and early results encouraging enough, to warrant what ranks as the largest acquisition of a venture-backed, private biotech company in the past 10 years, per Crunchbase data. To put that in context, below we ranked the next-largest deals valued at up to $2 billion or more.

The list does not include venture-backed biotechs that went public, which would broaden the ranks considerably. This includes companies that sold to acquirers shortly after IPO, such as , a developer of therapeutics for obesity and metabolic disease that went public in February 2025 and sold to later in the year in a deal valued at around $10 billion.

In vivo acquisitions on the rise

Acquirers of late have been paying particularly handsomely for startups developing in vivo therapeutics. Just two months ago, Lilly purchased another high-profile venture-backed company in the space, , dedicated to engineering immune cells in vivo, in a deal valued at up to $2.4 billion. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Orna had previously raised over $320 million in venture funding, per Crunchbase data.

Last June, meanwhile, pharma giant snapped up , a biotech advancing in vivo engineering of cells through RNA delivery, for $2.1 billion. San Diego-based Capstan had previously secured $340 million in venture funding.

Another big deal, announced in October, was ’s acquisition of , a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based developer of RNA medicines that reprogram the immune system in vivo, for $1.5 billion.

Of course, Kelonia’s purchase price dwarfs all its predecessors, and by a hefty sum. Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will acquire Kelonia for $3.25 billion up front, plus up to $3.75 billion in subsequent payments tied to meeting clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones.

Related Crunchbase list:

Related reading:

• Even Bigger Venture Bucks For Obesity Therapies As Metsera Sells For Up To $10B

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

Transportation and biotech were leading themes among this week’s largest U.S. funding recipients. This includes the week’s largest round, a $650 million financing for electric pickup truck maker . Other sizable investments went to spaces including drug development, autonomous public transit and software engineering.

1. , $650M, electric vehicles: Troy, Michigan-based Slate Auto, a developer of lower-cost electric pickup trucks that can be customized as SUVs, raised $650 million in Series C funding led by . The -backed company said it plans to deliver its first vehicles to customers later this year.

2. , $300M, biotech: Beeline Medicines, a Boston-based developer of precision therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, emerged from stealth with $300 million in Series A funding led by . The company’s initial portfolio includes five programs licensed from .

3. , $170M, autonomous transportation: Glydways, a developer of personal autonomous pods designed to operate on dedicated lanes, closed on $170 million in Series C funding. , ACS GroupÌı²¹²Ô»å led the financing for the San Francisco-based company, which is launching operational pilots in three cities this year.

4. , $150M, AI software development: Factory, a startup focused on bringing autonomy to software engineering, secured $150 million in a Series C round led by . The financing set a $1.5 billion valuation for the 3-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

5. , $108M, biotech: South San Francisco, California-based Terremoto Biosciences, a developer of small molecule medicines for cancer and rare diseases, raised $108 million in Series C funding from backers including , , and .

6. (tied) , $100M, student transportation: Zum, a provider of a platform for optimizing K-12 student transportation, secured $100 million in new funding from . Founded in 2015, Redwood City, California-based Zum has raised about $500 million in known funding to date, per .

6. (tied) , $100M, biotech: Neomorph, a developer of cancer therapeutics, closed on $100 million in Series B funding to support clinical trials. led the financing for the San Diego-based company.

6. (tied) , $100M, fintech: San Francisco-based Slash, a business banking platform, picked up $100 million in a Series C round led by , and . The financing set a $1.4 billion valuation for the company, which said it surpassed $250 million in annualized revenue in 2025.

9. , $80M, semiconductors: nEye, a developer of integrated optical interconnects for data center connectivity, raised $80 million in Series C financing led by . Founded in 2020, Silicon Valley-based nEye has raised $152 million in funding to date.

10. , $75M, space tech: Irvine, California-based Turion Space, a provider of an orbital intelligence and operations platform, over $75 million in a Series B round led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of April 11-17. 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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