Today, it wouldn’t even be enough to buy one, if it was the newly combined and , now valuing itself at $1.25 trillion. It would also fall short for purchasing both of the next two — and — at post-money valuations they’re reportedly seeking.

So how much would it take to buy the top 100 at current valuations? About $3.5 trillion, according to an estimate from private share marketplace . 2

Call it the age of valuation escalation. Leading startups, traditionally known for their skill in growing businesses, are now demonstrating a similar mastery of scaling how much they’re worth.

It’s not exactly a new phenomenon, as top venture-backed companies have a long history of securing significant up rounds. What’s remarkable about the current era, of course, is the sheer size of the valuations.

The past couple months have offered a particularly fast-moving blur of  reported valuation gains we thought might warrant a summary.

To illustrate, we’re highlighting gains in two categories: companies valued at $100 billion-plus (the biggest unicorns)  and those valued at between $20 billion and $100 billion (the next-biggest unicorns). Both are seeing some big swings up and to the right.

The biggest unicorns

We’ll start with the biggest recent upward moves at the most highly valued U.S. companies, in order of valuation:

: SpaceX acquired ’s xAI last week in a that will reportedly value the combined company at $1.25 trillion. The deal comes in advance of an anticipated IPO later this year.

: The generative AI giant is reportedly in to raise $100 billion in fresh funding at a valuation of $750 billion or more. In October, the company at a $500 billion valuation.

: The Claude chatbot developer and OpenAI rival has reportedly at least $10 billion for a new financing at a $350 billion valuation this year, and is said to be likely to a total of more than $20 billion.

: The AI and data unicorn Monday that it has raised at a $134 billion valuation. The latest financing includes $5 billion in equity investment and $2 billion in debt funding. The company also said it crossed a $5.4 billion annual revenue run-rate.

: The autonomous driving company raised $16 billion in last week at a $126 billion post-money valuation.

: The payments platform a tender offer a year ago at a $91.5 billion valuation. It’s unclear what its most recent valuation would be, although market trends indicate it would likely be higher.

The next-biggest unicorns

: The blockchain and cryptocurrency company had a $40 billion valuation a in November.

: The developer of general-purpose humanoid robots a $39 billion post-money valuation for its last financing, a .

: The AI financing automation platform was at $32 billion in November, up from $22.5 billion just a few months earlier.

: The AI startup was at $32 billion as part of a in April.

: The defense tech unicorn secured at a $30.5 billion valuation in June.

: The AI processor developer picked up a round last week that  set a post-money valuation for the company of approximately $23 billion.

: The crypto exchange was reportedly around $20 billion after a funding round in November.

: The company known for its Cursor AI coding platform announced in November that it raised $2.3 billion in Series D funding at a $29.3 billion post-money valuation.

Gains are quite recent

Looking at the companies in both the biggest unicorns and next-biggest unicorns categories, what’s striking, in addition to the huge valuations, is how recently so many of these companies set or secured these high numbers.

Just over a year ago, SpaceX’s valuation hit $350 billion following a closely watched secondary share sale. That was considered quite high at the time.

And just 14 months ago, OpenAI’s valuation was . It was also considered quite high. Go figure.

What’s also noteworthy is that many of the next-biggest-unicorns secured their highest valuations to date in the last couple months of last year. That was prime-time for valuation escalation, perhaps in anticipation of an opening IPO window and growing investor consensus regarding early leaders in hot, emerging sectors.

Will these numbers hold up? Who knows. But one thing is clear: Anyone predicting a retraction for the “high” valuations attributed to leading unicorns a year or two ago has so far been mostly very wrong.

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Total global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $51.8 billion for the year, per Crunchbase . That’s a fairly significant – 27% – increase from 2024’s total of $40.8 billion raised.

Unsurprisingly, the numbers are still much lower than the peak of $141.6 billion raised in 2021 and the $90.2 billion raised in 2022. But they are trending upward at least, unlike in 2024, when they fell below 2023 levels.

And, for the first time in recent years 2025 funding totals came in above pre-pandemic sums, which were $50.8 billion in 2020 and $49.3 billion in 2019.

Deal flow, however, was down — signaling fewer, but larger rounds. The year saw 3,457 deals consummated, a 23% decline from the more than 4,486 completed in 2024.

Table of contents

• Large deals
• ‘Chasing the AI-hype cycle’
• ‘Flight to quality’
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Large deals

The fact that the sector experienced an increase in funding despite a lower deal count indicates that the first half of 2025 saw a number of large rounds. Interestingly, several of the largest deals involved blockchain or crypto companies and prediction marketplaces.

• In October, trading prediction market raised $2 billion in a deal led by parent .
• In March, cryptocurrency exchange received a massive $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based investment firm .
• And in early December,  New York-based announced it raised $1 billion in Series E funding at an $11 billion valuation. Crypto-focused investment firm led the financing.
• Crypto exchange in November raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation.

Other sizeable deals that occurred during the year include U.K. payments platform ’s $500 million haul in mid-March; HR and payroll startup $450 million Series G in May; and expense management platform ’s $500 million Series E-2 at a $22.5 billion valuation in late July and $300 million raise at a $32 billion valuation in November.

‘Chasing the AI-hype cycle’

All the VCs we spoke with said they believe 2021 and 2022 were outlier periods for venture funding. The record funding during those years were driven by “the Covid-19 rebound and ultra-low interest rates,” said , managing director at , who is based in New York and focuses on investments in the firm’s financial services sector, including financial technology.

“After a reset, a more constructive overall market in 2025 has driven renewed investor appetite, albeit with investor selectivity around scale and quality in a world with continued uncertainty,” he wrote in an email interview.

VCs appear to be just fine with funding not returning to those elevated levels.

put it this way: 2021 and early 2022 were not healthy markets for the tech or startup industry as a whole. Fintech got a disproportionate amount of capital because of the COVID “everything is going digital” craze.

“Too much money was chasing too few great founders,” he said. “There would be four to five companies building the same thing, with business models that shouldn’t have been funded in the first place, and in many cases none of them were successful because none of them got to scale.”

‘Flight to quality’

Returning to the pace and exuberance of 2021, isn’t necessarily desirable or sustainable, according to ���ձ� , who believes fintech is seeing a continued flight to quality with capital increasingly concentrating on companies with differentiated ideas, clear execution and “bona fide traction.”

Meanwhile, it has become meaningfully harder for others to raise.

“That dynamic helps explain why total funding dollars are up even as deal volume is down,” he told Crunchbase News. “I think the level of activity we saw in 2025 is healthy. At the earliest stages … the pipeline remains very strong, particularly across AI and stablecoins. Those areas have real structural tailwinds.”

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Jan. 4, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

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.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. Crunchbase includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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Total valuations at the IPO price for these billion-dollar listings have reached $125 billion so far — more than doubling year over year.

“Coming into 2025, folks were optimistic about the IPO market,” said , a corporate partner at legal advisory firm who worked on the and IPOs on the issuer side and on as counsel for the underwriters.

There were a number of high-profile IPOs in 2025 before the government shutdown chilled the market, said Singh, who expects Q1 to be busier due to the hold up.

If interest rates continue to come down, he predicts a pretty good IPO market in 2026. “It is a fairly conducive macroeconomic environment,” Singh said.

In this market, “a profitable company — particularly one that either is an AI play or has a good story of how AI will be a tailwind for their business — are good candidates for a 2026 IPO,” he said.

2025 listings

Among the larger and most high-profile companies to list this year were New Jersey-based AI data center CoreWeave, San Francisco-based design platform Figma, San Francisco-based digital bank , and Sweden-based buy now, pay later fintech giant .

Among these four leading companies, CoreWeave was the best performing stock as of Dec. 16, 2025, having gained over 60% from its listing price.

Crypto valuations up

Leading sectors for the 23 U.S.-based billion-dollar listings were biotech and healthcare with six companies, blockchain and crypto with four companies, fintech with three companies, and  insurance and aerospace each with two companies.

The sectors overall that performed well were cryptocurrency and blockchain companies with New York-based stablecoin provider , San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange , and San Francisco-based blockchain lending firm all up from their listing prices, while New York-based crypto exchange platform lagged behind.

These 23 companies’ listing prices totaled $125 billion. That was well above the past three years, but below values seen in 2019 and 2020 before the IPO market took off in 2021.

Singh predicts in the back half of 2026 we will see some bigger listings. While there is this trend of staying private for longer, “you can’t match public market liquidity.”

“There’s still some uncertainty on valuations. As we see more of the tech IPOs go out, I think the valuations will stabilize, people will get a better sense of investor demand, and so hopefully we’ll see a more certain valuation environment,” he said.

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On Oct. 21, the publicly traded crypto exchange announced that it is early-stage investing platform for $375 million in cash and equity.

Notably, the acquisition marked the eighth buy for the San Francisco-based company in 2025 so far, according to . Of those eight deals, three involved undisclosed businesses.

Overall, since its 2012 inception, Coinbase has acquired dozens of companies, per Crunchbase . Besides Echo, it announced purchases of the following startups in 2025:

• In January, it acquired , the Cyprus-based unit of , as part of a European expansion. Stryk offers CFD trading services to European residents through an app. Financial terms were not disclosed
• Also in January, Coinbase picked up , a 3-year-old San Francisco-based startup that developed a blockchain-based attribution system to help businesses accelerate user growth.
• In May, it acquired , a 10-year-old cryptocurrency derivatives exchange offering options, futures and spot trading for digital assets based in the Netherlands.
• Then in July, Coinbase acquired , a 4-year-old San Francisco-based startup that helps crypto companies automate their token vesting and lockups, and manage their token cap table. Liquifi was a self-described “Carta for crypto.”
• Now it has announced plans to buy , an onchain digital platform that helps communities invest together and aims to give founders more options for their cap table.

Coinbase’s buying sprees seem to come in spurts, according to the data.

Crypto’s crash and recovery

For example, in 2018, it acquired eight known companies. And then in 2021, it picked up seven known companies. But most years, it acquired only one or two companies.

Interestingly, 2018 was defined by what has been described as the “Great Crypto Crash,” or a massive market sell-off after the boom that took place in 2017. Things had rebounded by 2021, which saw a bull market for crypto and the rise of NFTs and DeFi. That November, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $68,000.

After a bumpy few years, which saw the arrests of founder and CEO and founder , Bitcoin has rebounded, surging to an all-time high in 2025. Prices reached $113,156.57 on Oct. 15.

In announcing its plan to acquire Echo, Coinbase the two companies shared a similar mission of “democratizing early-stage investing, so that more people can support the next generation of breakthrough companies.”

The buy complemented its earlier acquisition of Liquifi, Coinbase said, noting that: “While Liquifi strengthened our ability to support builders at the start of their journey, Echo extends that support into fundraising.”

The largest of its acquisitions in 2025 so far, though, was its $2.9 billion buy of Deribit.

Meanwhile, Coinbase’s market cap as of Oct. 23 hovered just under $83 billion, while its stock is up over 25% year to date.

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The San Francisco-based company, which has built a blockchain-based platform for lending, trading and investing in consumer credit and digital assets, had set a price range for its IPO of $18 to $20 per share. Late Wednesday, it increased the price of its shares to $25.

Shares of Figure, which trades on the under the ticker symbol FIGR, closed at $31.11 on Thursday after trading as high as $37.08 during the day.

Figure raised about $787.5 million from the initial public offering.

At the time of its $200 million in 2021, the company was valued at $3.2 billion. Its market cap at the end of the day Thursday was about $5.4 billion.

More fintech IPOs predicted

Since its 2018 inception, the company has raised $1.5 billion venture and debt funding, per Crunchbase . Figure was “GAAP profitable” in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to CEO , and “EBITDA in the most recent quarter was in the 40s margin.”

“So I think we definitely have that rare combination of growth and margin,” he told Crunchbase News in an interview.

The executive is clearly bullish on his 550-person company’s future.

“We’ve actually been building in the blockchain space since the beginning,” Tannenbaum told Crunchbase News. “We weren’t the first to put consumer loans on blockchain. We were the second. But we were the first to securitize them and to get them rated, and then to get that AAA rating.”

He also acknowledges that there has been a significant increase in interest in tokenization, and claims that Figure is “the market leader in tokenization of private credit.”

“On the debt side, we do the most tokenization of anyone, with about 75% market share,” Tannenbaum added.

, managing director of  and early Figure investor, told Crunchbase News via e-mail that he believes the company’s IPO speaks to the opening of the exit window, specifically for fintech offerings.

“I know in speaking with other fintech VCs that there is a sense that the industry itself has taken notice and I expect more IPOs to come over the coming quarters,” he said.

Butler believes Figure is unique in that it provides a “real-world” offering — the need for “efficient and low-cost origination of HELOCs (home equity lines of credit) — as well as “a platform underpinning that business that has already been built for and begun expanding into other use cases.”

The open IPO market

Figure’s IPO follows a string of well-received venture-backed debuts, including the blockbuster market entry by design software provider , which saw shares triple in first-day trading (although they have come back down to earth since).

Fellow fintech made its public debut on Wednesday. The Swedish company’s stock climbed by about 16% in first-day trading.

Both IPOs also come amid renewed interest in investment in fintech startups, with multiple rounds above $100 million closing this year.

Overall, the IPO dam in fintech finally seems to have broken in 2025.

Since the beginning of the year, several companies in the fintech space have either gone public or filed to do so.

• In early June, shares of closed up 168% at $83.29 in their first day of trading on the minting the stablecoin issuer with a market cap of around $16.7 billion and renewing hopes for an IPO market rebound. More recently, shares have traded in the $118 range.
• Digital bank went public on June 12, and came out swinging. Chime’s shares shot up 37% in first-day trading on , closing at $37. Shares have traded around $23 in recent days.

Meanwhile, digital wealth management startup filed confidentially for a U.S. initial public offering on June 23. In early June, crypto exchange confidentially filed its own plans for a U.S. IPO. Its stock was also set to start trading this week. And also in June, expense management firm (formerly TripActions) also filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO.

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Illustration:

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

Energy for AI and automated defense tech led this week’s largest U.S. venture funding deals. Vertical software solutions driven by AI in sports, healthcare and financial services were also a strong theme.

1. , $650M, energy: Terrapower, co-founded by in 2006, is back on the top of the list with a $650 million funding to build nuclear energy solutions. The Bellevue, Washington-based company’s first nuclear project is being built in Wyoming, in partnership with the and is slated to be ready in 2030. invested in the startup for the first time through its investment arm, along with Gates and shipbuilder .

2. , $600M, autonomous vehicles: Applied Intuition is back on the list with its largest funding to date, a $600 million Series F funding led by and . Founded in 2017, the company was valued at $15 billion, up 150% from its $6 billion valuation a year ago. The Mountain View, California-based company’s vehicle intelligence platform is used in the trucking and automotive industry as well as defense, construction, mining and agriculture. The company says its technology is used by 18 of the top 20 automakers as well as the .

3. , $235M, sportstech: Teamworks, a software platform that powers elite sports teams — more than 6,500 of them — raised a $235 million Series F led by which valued the company at $1.2 billion. The Durham, North Carolina-based company’s software to manage teams, coaching, performance and recruitment is used by the majority of , , , , teams, teams, DI athletic departments, and federations. The 15-year-old company has raised more than $400 million data.

4. (tied) , $200M, fintech: Ramp raised a $200 million Series E valuing the 6-year-old corporate credit card and expense management company at $16 billion. The funding was led by , which has now led multiple rounds in the fintech startup. Ramp’s current valuation more than doubled from its prior valuation just over a year ago at $7.65 billion. New York-based Ramp serves more than 40,000 companies and has raised over $1.4 billion over time.

4. (tied) , $200M, healthcare: Commure closed on $200 million in funding from ’s Customer Value Fund. Founded in 2017, Mountain View, California-based Commure counts 130 health systems across the country as customers for its services, which assist hospitals with AI note-taking, billing and customer management.

6. , $130M, fintech: San Francisco-based Juniper Square raised $130 million for fund management software that valued the 2014-founded company at $1.1 billion. The funding was led by fintech investor . Over 2,000 funds use the software with adoption growth by private equity and venture capital firms.

7. , $101M, healthcare: Tenner raised a $101 million Series C funding to address the logjam for healthcare providers when customers referred for specialized services are often lost in the manual process. The funding round was led by with participation from prior investors and , among others. The New York-based company, founded in 2021, was valued at $605 million.

8. , $100M, defense tech: Mach Industries manufactures unmanned weapon systems for the defense industry. The 3-year-old company, based in Huntington Beach, California, was valued at $470 million in a round led by and . The company has raised a total of $185 million, .

9. , $70M, blockchain: has purchased $70 million in EIGEN tokens from Seattle-based . The tokens will support the developer ecosystem building apps on top of Ethereum.

10. , $66M, biotech: Actio Biosciences raised a $66 million Series B for advancing trials for precision drugs for epilepsy and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. The funding to the San Diego-based company founded in 2021 was led by healthcare investors and .

Big global deals

The biggest deal of the week came from Europe:

• Berlin-based AI defense company raised the largest funding this week, a $694 million Series D at a $13.9 billion value led by European investor . The company has raised $1.5 billion to date, with its prior valuation at $5.4 billion in July 2024.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of June 14-20. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

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

Another week and another big artificial intelligence round. All in all it was an active week with a half-dozen rounds of $100 million or more, with everything from AI to blockchain to biotech getting serious cash.

1. , $2B, artificial intelligence: AI research lab Safe Superintelligence snatched its second big raise in fewer than seven months. SSI, co-founded by ‘s former chief scientist , raised a $2 billion round at a $32 billion valuation led by . The startup, which is looking to develop safe artificial intelligence systems, raised a $1 billion round from a litany of big-name investors including and last September.

2. , $258M, energy: Mainspring Energy secured a $258 million Series F led by . The Menlo Park, California-based firm builds generators — a business that has become appealing to investors as artificial intelligence continues to suck down energy. The company already is shipping generators — which can provide 10s of megawatts of power — to U.S. data center customers this year. Founded in 2010, the company has raised $813 million,

3. , $153M, blockchain: Web3 funding has been on the rise, and this week saw a good-sized round. Santa Clara, California-based Auradine, a developer of sustainable Bitcoin mining and AI data center networking solutions, raised a $153 million Series C led by . Founded in 2022, Auradine has raised more than $300 million, per the company.

4. , $115M, biotech: San Carlos, California-based Glycomine, a biotech startup  developing new therapies for orphan diseases, announced a $115 million Series C led by funds managed by , and . The company plans to use the new cash to advance its lead candidate into a phase 2b clinical trial. Founded in 2013, the company has raised $195 million, .

5. , $104M, biotech: A competitor raised big this week with a $104 million round led by . The Alameda, California-based biotech — which was founded by a Neurolink co-founder, is working on both a brain implant system and a retina implant to treat eye diseases. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $177 million, .

6. , $100M, data: San Mateo, California-based Hammerspace, a data platform for AI, raised a $100 million round led by . Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $157 million, .

7. , $90M, biotech: San Carlos, California-based Attovia Therapeutics, which is developing biotherapeutics focused on immune-mediated diseases, closed a $90 million Series C led by . Founded in 2023, Attovia has raised $255 million, .

8. (tied) , $75M, healthcare: New York-based Chapter, a Medicare navigation platform which helps seniors find coverage, raised a $75 million Series D led by . Founded in 2020, the company has raised $184 million, .

8. (tied) , $75M, cybersecurity: Exaforce locked up a $75 million Series A funding led by , 1�����Ի� . The San Jose, California-based startup is helping bring artificial intelligence agents to security operations centers. The idea is, with the help of data, to significantly reduce human-led SOC work while improving security outcomes.

10. , $63M, fintech: Cincinnati-based Luma Financial Technologies, a fintech for banks and brokers, closed a $63 million Series C led by . Founded in 2018, the company has raised $93 million, .

Big global deals

The biggest raise this week outside the U.S. came from China.

• Beijing-based , an AI-driven startup in the autonomous driving sector, raised a $200 million Series B.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of April 12 to April 18. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

The deal is the second billion-dollar-plus deal in about a month, as the re-election of President has re-energized the crypto market, with many expecting regulations to ease.

Just last month, the dropped a Ripple that accused it of conducting an illegal securities offering.

“We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption — the U.S. market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance,” said Ripple CEO in a .

Hidden Road clears $3 trillion annually across markets with more than 300 top institutional customers, including hedge funds.

Crypto’s upswing

The deal continues a surge of momentum in the crypto industry — although even that has been somewhat dampened by the current tariff issues dogging the economy.

Just last month, cryptocurrency exchange said it would buy retail futures trading platform for $1.5 billion.

In addition, stablecoin issuer and — which operates a trading platform for stocks, cryptocurrencies and other assets — both recently filed for an IPO — however, the current market instability will likely alter those plans.

Overall, venture funding to startups in the crypto and blockchain space rocketed to $3.8 billion in 220 deals in Q1, per Crunchbase . The dollar figure represents a 138% jump from the previous quarter, which saw only $1.6 billion go to Web3 startups in 242 deals.

However, those numbers were propped up by cryptocurrency exchange ’s massive $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based investment firm . The deal is the single largest investment into a crypto company.

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Prices of the two most popular cryptocurrencies soared, with Bitcoin jumping about 7% and flirting with $75,000 by midday and Ether climbing 9% to about $2,650.

Large public companies specializing in crypto also saw a nice bump, with shares of popping 24% in midday trading.

The reaction was expected, as Trump positioned himself as the pro-crypto candidate early in the race. During the summer, Trump spoke at the biggest bitcoin conference of the year and promised the federal government would stop selling the Bitcoin amassed from seizing assets of financial criminals.

In addition, he also said he would create a presidential advisory council around crypto.

Perhaps most importantly to crypto fans, he has promised to oust Chairman , who has taken a strict regulation-by-enforcement approach to crypto.

What it may mean for venture

As the crypto market pops in price the day after the election, the question remains what it could mean for crypto funding.

Funding to crypto startups hit highs in 2021-22, with those two years seeing more than $37 billion invested in over 3,000 deals.

However, crypto soon slowed as the venture market stalled out and scandals such as the spectacular implosion of ’s exchange hit.

So far this year, crypto startups have collected only $3 billion from investors in just 528 deals, per Crunchbase . Last year, startups in the sector raised only $3.6 billion in 889 rounds. Montreal-based , a blockchain developer of digital asset infrastructure, raised the largest round of the year thus far — a $210 million in convertible note funding.

With the U.S. perhaps being a bigger player in the crypto market and possibly having different enforcement in the sector, those annual funding numbers may start heading high — just like Bitcoin prices.

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

Another slow week with only three companies raising rounds of more than $100 million. In fact, you didn’t even need to raise $50 million to make the list this week. Investors certainly put their money everywhere, from biotech to productivity tools, but they didn’t shell out a lot.

1. , $270M, analytics: It does seem like companies are raising extensions of rounds from longer and longer ago. This week, New York-based Grafana Labs raised $270 million in a mix of growth equity and a secondary offering — so some money went to the company and some to shareholders. The company described it as an extension of its $240 million Series D in 2022. The new round was led by and values the company at $6 billion. Grafana’s open-source software platform helps monitor and visualize data. Founded in 2014, the company has now raised more than $805 million, according to .

2. , $250M, ticketing: Ticketing startups are rare on this list, but this week TickPick landed a $250 million investment from . While the ticketing space is competitive, the New York-based startup has increased its sales 8x through the past three years and now sells nearly $1 billion of tickets. TickPick is a ticket marketplace to buy, bid on and sell. It tries to differentiate itself by offering a no-fee pricing model so customers know what they are paying. Excessive fee add ons when buying tickets have frustrated many consumers for years, even leading to lawsuits against other marketplaces. Founded in 2011, the company has raised $290 million, .

3. , $105M, biotech: Raleigh, North Carolina-based Pathalys Pharma isn’t new to this list — it topped it early last year. This time the biopharma startup raised $105 million led by . The company specializes in late stages of developing treatments for kidney disease. Founded in 2021, Pathalys has raised $266 million to date, .

4. , $85M, climate: San Jose, California-based Fortera locked up an $85 million Series C from several investors, including the likes of and . The startup has developed a method to manufacture low-carbon cement within the existing production infrastructure. It plans to use the money to put its technology into existing cement manufacturing plants, with the goal of producing a “green cement” with 70% less carbon dioxide than ordinary varieties. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $115 million, .

5. , $80M, blockchain: With AI creating new issues regarding theft of intellectual property, San Francisco-based startup Story Protocol raised an $80 million Series B to try to solve the increasing problem. The new round was led by , with participation from and others. Founded in 2022, Story has raised $140 million to date, per the company. The new round values the company at $2.25 billion. IP theft is nothing new, but the rise of AI has heightened the stakes as generative AI models are ingesting copyrighted material — without permission — to train and learn. Story’s blockchain network allows IP owners to store their IP on the platform, embedding terms to use it — such as  licensing fees — into smart contracts. Basically, the blockchain aims to ensure owners are compensated when their IP is used.

6. , $54M, healthcare: Newark, California-based Openwater, a developer of a medical technology system that treats diseases at the cellular level, raised $54 million. The new round brings Openwater’s funding to $100 million, per the company. Its investors include and , among others.

7. $47M, productivity tools: Dublin, California-based Opkey, an AI platform to help organizations test for enterprise resource planning software, closed a $47 million Series B led by . Founded in 2015, the company has raised $57 million, .

8. , $45M, biotech: Union City, California-based XII Medical, a clinical-stage medical company developing therapies for sleep apnea, closed a $45 million Series B led by . Founded in 2017, the company has raised $75 million, .

9. , $44M, defense: McLean, Virginia-based Defcon AI, which developed an AI-powered decision tool for military logistics planning, raised a $44 million seed round led by . Founded in 2022, this is the company’s first disclosed funding, .

10. , $40M, space: Huntington Beach, California-based asteroid mining startup AstroForge locked up a $40 million Series A led by . Founded in 2021, the company says it has raised $55 million.

Big global deals

The biggest deal outside the U.S. came from our neighbors to the north.

• Vancouver-based , a company in the field of next-generation RNA medicines, launched with a $150 million round.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of August 17 to 23. 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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