and each launched multibillion-dollar deployment ventures staffed with forward-deployed engineers, while a long list of startups building AI infrastructure, autonomous software and robotics also reached unicorn status. Together, the new entrants point to where investors increasingly see value creation: turning AI advances into real-world applications and pairing software intelligence with physical automation.

Beyond AI, new unicorns were minted across many sectors including healthcare, quantum, aerospace, financial services, manufacturing, e-commerce and energy.��

China dominated in the robotics sector, while Canada did so in quantum. The single new legaltech unicorn last month was from Brazil. also joined the board this past month, as the adult creator content company raised its first external financing.��

Of the new unicorns, 17 are U.S-based, while four each are based in China and the UK. Two new unicorns joined the board from Canada, as one each from India and Brazil.��

Unicorn IPOs

The board’s total value is undergoing rapid fluctuations amid lofty new valuations for some of the largest new unicorns, as well as high-profile exits to the public markets.

The ������Ƶ reached $9.9 trillion in value in May, as Anthropic moved ahead of OpenAI to become the second most valued private company after . On the heels of the funding, Anthropic privately filed for an IPO, followed shortly thereafter by OpenAI’s .��

SpaceX is expected to list this Friday, in what would be the largest-ever IPO. Its listing will erase more than one-tenth of value from the board as the the -led company exits the private markets.��

Chip company went public in May in a blockbuster IPO that valued the company at $56.4 billion,��well above its last private valuation of $23 billion just three months earlier in February.��

New unicorns in May

Here are May’s new unicorn companies, including 10 companies that are less than 3-years old:��

AI deployment

• San Francisco-based raised a $4 billion private equity round led by with co-leads , and . The new company is majority owned by with partnerships with 19 investment firms and consultancies. OpenAI acquired , with its 150 forward-deployed engineers to support enterprises in this effort. The less than 1-year-old-based company was valued at $14 billion in the new funding, which it said will be used to scale operations and acquire companies.��
• raised a $1.5 billion private equity funding to build an AI services company to work with companies to bring Claude into their operations. Each of the co-leads — , private equity investor and legal firm —��invested $300 million into the round. and also invested in the joint venture. The less than 1-year-old-based, San Francisco-based company’s valuation was not disclosed.
• , a company building search for AI agents, raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $2.2 billion and is used by coding agents, go-to-market agents and chat agents.��
• Boston-based autonomous AI software developer raised a $200 million Series A led by . Blitzy’s platform reverse engineers existing code bases to build a knowledge graph and thereby enable autonomous development of software projects over days or weeks that can re-engineer and test complicated systems and deal with technical debt. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion and is said to be used by dozens of global 2,000 companies.��
• , a routing technology for applications to select from 400-plus models, raised a $113 million Series B led by Alphabet’s . Investors in the round included a host of corporate venture firms including , , , and . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

��Dz��dzپ�������

• raised a $700 million Series A led by . The company plans to build personalized robotics developing its own models, training and hardware. The 1-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $6 billion. It was founded by CEO , founder of humanoid robotics unicorn .
• Guangdong, China-based , a dual arm robotics developer, raised a $147 million Series B led by and . It said its new funding will be used for R&D, production and a global sales network. The 10-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.��

• Shanghai-based has raised four funding rounds since it was spun out of in January, and reached a valuation of $1 billion. Agilink is focused on dexterous hand technology. The funding will be used for model development, data and hardware with the spinout able to license to the broader robotics market.��
• , a robot leasing and rental platform, raised a Series A funding. The less than 1-year-old Pudong, China-based company was valued at $1 billion. It is looking to expand from event rentals to warehousing, logistics and park operations.��

��𲹱��ٳ󳦲�������

• , a treatment provider for cardiovascular and orthopedic disease, raised a $1.5 billion corporate round led by . Boston Scientific has an option to acquire its heart valve technology. The 10-year-old Georgia, U.S.-based company was valued at $4.4 billion.��
• , a longevity biotech company, seeking to extend human life by a decade, with therapeutics targeting age related disease raised the initial close of funding round led by . The 5-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at a pre-money valuation of $1.8 billion.��
• , launched a suite of AI agents for healthcare built from its clinical data, raised $146 million in equity and secondary funding led by . The 15-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.

Quantum computing

• Vancouver-based , a quantum computing company that combines silicon-based qubits with native photonic interconnects, raised a $70 million extension funding led by Luxembourg-based . Photonic raised $130 million in January. The 9-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
• Quebec-based , which says it addresses quantum error correction in each qubit, raised a $30 million funding. The company has raised a mix of government grants and venture capital. The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.

������Dz��貹������

• , a builder of rockets to deploy data centers in space, raised a $305 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old San Carlos, California-based company, formerly called Aetherflux, was valued at $2 billion. The company plans to launch its first satellite later this year. Its technology entails using the upper stage of the rocket as a low-earth orbit satellite that uses solar energy to create 1-megawatt data centers in space.��
• Hyderabad, India-based , a rocket company that delivers satellites into space, raised a $60 million funding led by Singapore-based and Menlo Park, California-based . Skyroot is planning the maiden voyage of Vikram-1 in June. The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Financial services��

• , an AI insurance provider for startups, raised a $160 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion and plans to go after the trucking industry next.��
• Intelligent wealth management platform raised a $150 million Series D led by . With in recruited assets, it is built to create an all in one system for advisors. The 7-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

�Ѳ��Գܴڲ����ٳܰ����Բ���

• , a manufacturer of aerospace and defense components, raised a $300 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old El Segundo, California-based company, which aims to strengthen America’s industrial base, operates six factories across the U.S. and was valued at $1 billion.
• , likewise says it is building out American manufacturing with a rapid custom manufacturing software to production platform. It raised its first institutional funding of $110 million led by , and founders and . The 7-year-old Reno, Nevada-based company supports small-scale inventors to large-scale enterprises and has shipped 30 million parts to 300,000 customers. The company was valued at $1 billion.

E-commerce

• , a real-time inventory management platform, raised a $170 million Series B led by and . Its sensor technology tracks items and its precise location and movement in the store. Retail customers include and . The 13-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

• London-based , a booking service for hair salons, beauty experts and wellness salons raised a $80 million Series C led by . The 11-year-old London-based company was valued at $1 billion.

���Ա��������

• , a nuclear fusion startup spun out of Tsinghua University, raised a $74 million Series A funding. The 4-year-old China-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a provider of fast charging batteries, raised a $60 million Series C led by strategic investor . The batteries are used in data centers, robotics, electric vehicles and grid infrastructure. The 7-year-old Cambridge, UK-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Social media��

• Creator platform raised its first external funding, a $535 million private equity round led by , which now owns around 16% of the company. The 10-year-old London-based adult content platform was valued at $3.2 billion. Its CEO noted the company has paid out since 2016.

Data center��

• Modular data center builder raised a $230 million Series B led by , and. In partnership with the company plans to build capacity for secure data centers useful for military and remote manufacturing environments. The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $2.2 billion. Customer booking for fiscal year 2026 was up 540% from 2025.��

���𲵲����ٱ𳦳���

• São Paulo-based , a Brazilian AI legal platform to manage company litigation, raised a $100 million Series B led by that valued the 2-year-old company at $1.2 billion. Enter counts , and among its customers, who use its technology along with law firms to handle litigation paperwork and settlements. Around have been managed through the platform. led the Series A.

������ٴdz��ܰ�����Գ�����

• , a digital asset trader, raised a $150 million funding led by , UK bank Standard Charter’s fintech arm. The deal brings digital assets into banking and represents GSRs first strategic external investor. The 12-year-old London-based company was valued at $1 billion.��

���𳦳ܰ����ٲ���

• , a security platform built for an open-source automated coding environment, raised a $60 million Series C led by . The platform is adopted by companies including Anthropic, , , , and and supports 27,000 organizations. Its socket firewall product is free to block malicious packages. The 6-year-old Stanford, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:��

• (1,785)
• (619)
• (160)
• (189)
• (118)
• (102)
• (921)
• (525)
• (241)
• (39)
• (486)

Related reading:

• Anthropic Files Confidentially For IPO��
• Active Startup Investors Didn’t Hold Back In May
• Anthropic Funding Pushed Startup Investment To Near-Record Levels In May As Exit Market Reopened����

Methodology

The Crunchbase ������Ƶ 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.��

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.��

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. 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.

Illustration:

A grab bag of funded startups caught our attention this past month, from a previously bootstrapped custom metal manufacturer that got its first outside funding from big-name Silicon Valley backers, to a startup that aims to provide geothermal energy from underwater volcanoes to small island nations. Let’s take a look.

$110M for on-demand custom manufacturing

First, let’s start with a refreshingly non-AI round, and a sizable one at that.

Reno, Nevada-based said last month that it has raised $110 million in funding led by brothers and founders and , along with and , at a $1 billion valuation.

The company operates an on-demand manufacturing platform specializing in custom-cut metal and fabrication. The round is its first venture investment, and apparently came only after Sequoia’s flew to Reno to woo SendCutSend CEO into accepting Silicon Valley backing. Previously, Belosic had bootstrapped the company, founded in 2018, with personal savings, bank loans and credit cards, he told .

He held little interest in taking cash from startup investors until SendCutSend started to be flooded earlier this year with orders from AI-driven industries including robotics and data centers, and Belosic said he realized the business needed outside investment to grow.

Investor of Paradigm told WSJ that underlying SendCutSend’s booming business is intense demand for rapid, on-demand sheet metal and custom parts. “If you think about the entire frontier of robots, defense companies, rocket companies, electric-car companies, they all need very fast turn prototyping,” he said.

The investment is Paradigm’s first into the manufacturing sector, he noted.

Related Crunchbase query:

$100M for insurance-covered metabolic health counseling

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs may be booming, but a well-funded startup is betting that medication alone isn’t enough to solve the chronic disease crisis.

, a New York-based metabolic health startup that combines dietitians, AI tools and GLP-1 medication management, last month said that it raised a $100 million Series C round led by . , , and a long list of other investors also backed the round, which brings the company’s total funding to date to just over $213 million, .

Founded in 2021, Nourish operates what it describes as the country’s largest dietitian-led metabolic health clinic, pairing more than 10,000 registered dietitians with AI coaching, lab testing and virtual care. The company has increasingly expanded into GLP-1 prescribing and medication management as demand for drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy continues to surge.

Nourish said it has partnered with hundreds of health insurers in the U.S. and that its service is covered by most plans.

Its pitch is that the next phase of the GLP-1 boom will require more than prescriptions. While the drugs have transformed obesity treatment, many patients struggle to stay on them long term or maintain results after stopping, according to the company. Nourish is positioning itself as a broader metabolic health platform focused on nutrition, behavior change and ongoing clinical support alongside medication.

“Chronic disease is the central failure of U.S. healthcare — nearly 200 million Americans affected, trillions spent, and outcomes that still don’t move,” Menlo Ventures partner said in a statement. “What Nourish has built in four years is remarkable: a care model that actually bends the cost curve, with 10,000 dietitians, deep payer relationships, and clinical outcomes patients stick with.”

Related Crunchbase query:

$58M for Gen Z group travel adventures

Group travel startups are having a moment as younger travelers increasingly look for ways to meet people while exploring new destinations.

, a Milan-based startup that organizes group travel experiences for millennials and Gen Z travelers, raised a €50 million (roughly $58 million) Series C funding round as it looks to expand further across Europe and enter the U.S. market. The round was led by .

Founded in 2017, WeRoad operates a platform that connects solo travelers and small groups through curated multiday trips led by coordinators. The company says it has served more than 300,000 travelers across over 1,000 itineraries, with offerings ranging from adventure travel and cultural experiences to outdoor excursions. Participants are typically grouped with strangers in similar age ranges, turning the trips into a hybrid of travel booking and social networking.

“We live in a time when artificial intelligence and social media are reshaping the way we connect with each other. And amid all this digital connection, real human connection has become increasingly rare. Around 30% of young adults say they feel lonely every day. In the United States, this phenomenon is especially significant,” the company said in a statement. “We believe we have an answer. Not the only one, not a perfect one, but a real one: putting people in a room together (or on a quad bike in Morocco, in a canoe in Vietnam, or in front of a sunset in Patagonia) and letting whatever is meant to happen, happen.”

Related Crunchbase query:

$26M to keep AI data centers cooler

AI may be driving the data center boom, but keeping those facilities cool is becoming a business opportunity in its own right.

, a U.K.-based startup developing precision liquid cooling systems for AI infrastructure, said last month that it raised a $26 million Series B as demand surges for technologies that can manage the growing heat and power requirements of next-generation AI data centers. The round was led by and and brings Iceotope’s total funding to date to just under $100 million, .

Founded in 2005, Iceotope has developed a chassis-based liquid cooling approach designed to replace traditional air cooling and cool entire systems rather than individual chips. The company says it now holds 219 granted and pending patents. It said it will use the new funding to expand product and engineering development, grow its patent portfolio and accelerate partnerships that bring its cooling technology to market.

The raise comes as AI workloads create mounting challenges for conventional cooling systems. Iceotope argues its technology can reduce energy consumption and water use while supporting high-density AI and high-performance computing deployments in both data centers and edge environments.

Related Crunchbase query:

$25M for geothermal energy from subsea volcanoes

As AI companies scramble for more electricity, investors are increasingly willing to fund some unconventional ideas for generating it. One of those is , a Seattle-based startup developing subsea geothermal power systems designed to tap into heat generated by subsea volcanic activity.

The company recently raised between $25 million and $30 million in a seed round led by , sources familiar with the matter .

Founded just last year, Endurance Energy is targeting island nations — where it says electricity can cost almost 7x as much as in the U.S. — industrial sites and eventually hyperscale data centers that need large amounts of reliable power.

Unlike solar and wind, geothermal energy carries the promise of round-the-clock, renewable baseload electricity, a feature that has become increasingly attractive as AI infrastructure drives soaring power demand.

Endurance says its seafloor geothermal generators could deliver gigawatts of power from hydrothermal systems along tectonic plate boundaries and volcanic regions. It is , where about 80% of electricity generation still relies on imported diesel fuel.

Earlier this year, the company signed an agreement with the Tongan government and launched a pilot project aimed at harnessing geothermal heat generated by subsea volcanic activity around the island nation.

“Clean geothermal power will enable us to substitute most of our diesel base load power and further insulate ourselves from future external shocks caused by geopolitical conflicts and global economic impacts,” Tongan Prime Minister Lord Fakafānua said in a statement.

Related Crunchbase query:

Illustration:

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 area��1 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:

Related reading:

• 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 1��led 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 ,, , 1��and . The San Jose, California-based company it’s building “advanced personalized intelligence and next-generation hardware” 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,” 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.��, $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, .����

2.��, $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.��, $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.��, $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 .��

5.��, $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.��, $125M, cybersecurity: San Jose-based Exaforce, developer of an AI-native security operations platform, secured $125 million in Series B funding from backers including , , , ��and�� .

7.��, $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.��, $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.��, $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.��, $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.��

Related reading:

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

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,” 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.��

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.��

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.��

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.��

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.��

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

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,” 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.”

Related Crunchbase queries:

Related reading:

• Crunchbase Sector Snapshot: ������Ƶ AI-Related Healthcare Startups Is Robust This Year

Illustration:

]]>

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

Six companies working on humanoid robotics —��five 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.��

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

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.��

April’s new unicorns

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

Foundational AI��

• , 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.��
• 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.��
• 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.��

��Dz��dzپ�������

• 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.��
• 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.��
• 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.��
• 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.��
• 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 services��

• , 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.��
• , 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.��

Defense��

• 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.��
• 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.��

Developer tools��

• , 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.��
• , 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.��

���Ա��������

• , 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.��
• , 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.��

Health care��

• 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.��
• 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.��

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.��

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.��

������Dz��貹������

• 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.��

Marketing & sales��

• , 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.��

Biotechnology��

• , 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.��

Waste management��

• 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.��

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:��

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

Related reading:

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

Methodology

The Crunchbase ������Ƶ 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.��

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.��

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. 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.

Illustration:

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

Illustration: