Some are longstanding blue chip tech and pharmaceutical companies. Others are fast-growing venture-backed unicorns. And still others are more recent public market entrants looking to stay competitive in the age of AI.

To get a sense of who’s buying in bulk, we used Crunchbase data to put together a that acquired three or more seed- or venture-backed startups in the past three years. From there, we picked the most acquisitive names.

The most prolific startup acquirers of the past 3 years

Per Crunchbase data, the most prolific acquirers of seed- and venture-backed startups in recent years are 1, and . Overall, our query showed six companies with six or more known purchases, charted below.

For top-ranked Salesforce, high-volume M&A is nothing new. The San Francisco software giant has purchased at least 91 companies in the past 20 years, per Crunchbase data. Its most recent startup purchases include , a revenue orchestration platform, and , which focuses on agentic AI for e-commerce.

OpenAI, by contrast, has a shorter track record of M&A shopping sprees. The pioneering generative AI company has bought 16 companies in the past three years. Among the most recent was an deal involving open-source AI agent and its creator, . This month, it also snapped up , a creator of open source tools for software developers, and , an open-source tool for testing AI applications.

Snowflake, meanwhile, has 19 acquisitions to date. Most recently, it acquired , a developer of AI observability tools that previously raised more than $460 million in venture funding.

Notably, recent the active acquirers list for recent years looks quite a bit different that the ranking of all-time top M&A dealmakers in the Crunchbase dataset, shown below:

Highest-spending acquirers

The most prolific startup buyers also aren’t always the biggest check-writers. By the latter metric, the far-and-away leader is , and its $32 billion acquisition of .

For a broader picture view, we used Crunchbase data to put together a list of six companies that made the biggest-ticket funded startup acquisitions of the past three years.

2026 off to a promising start

So far this year, it looks like the pace of startup M&A dealmaking remains fairly robust.

This includes two deals in the multiple billions: ’s $5.15 billion purchase of and s $2.4 billion acquisition of . The AI sector’s appetite for acqui-hires and smaller purchases of earlier-stage startups also continues to boost momentum.

We’ll see if it keeps up.

Related Crunchbase list:

Related reading:

• Small And Mid-Sized Startup Purchases Are Still Well Below The 2021 Peak
• Crunchbase Predicts: Why The Race For Talent And Tech Could Accelerate Startup M&A In 2026
• M&A The Highest On Record For Unicorn Exits In 2025

Illustration:

A total of 27 companies joined the ������Ƶ last month, including six robotics companies and four semiconductor-related startups. Healthcare minted three new unicorns, while foundation AI, cloud services, aerospace and financial services each accounted for two companies that joined.

The U.S. once again dominated, with 19 companies joining the board. China tallied four new unicorns, the U.K. contributed two, and India and Germany each added one new unicorn.

Soaring valuations

Overall unicorn values soared in February as raised $110 billion at a value of $840 billion, making it the most highly valued private company of all time. Its closest rival, , raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion, making it the fourth-largest valued company on the list. , the autonomous driving technology company, was valued at $126 billion, positioning it among the top 10 most highly valued private companies.

February’s new unicorns

Here are February’s newly minted unicorns.

Robotics

• , a solution for automating building equipment for autonomous construction, raised a $270 million Series B led by and . The 1-year-old company, based in San Francisco, was valued at $1.8 billion.
• Beijing-based , a physical intelligence foundation model and humanoid robotics company, raised a $290 million Series A led by and . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a builder of intelligent robots for industrial and service industries, raised a $145 million Series B round. The 2-year-old Beijing-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• Humanoid robotics company raised a $145 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old China-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a testing and control software layer for aerospace, defense, robotics and industry, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old Los Angeles-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a company that transforms 5G and Wi-Fi into spatial awareness for connective devices, an underlying layer necessary for physical AI, raised a $100 million Series B from well-known investors , , , and . The 9-year-old Belmont, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

• China-based , developer of a chip for advanced autonomous driving, raised a $330 million Series A led by and . The company, which is less than a year old and spun out of automaker , was valued at $1.5 billion.
• London-based , a photonic chip company for more efficient AI inference, raised a $220 million Series A led by . The 2-year-old company, valued at $1 billion, has plans to ship its first product in 2027.
• Reno, Nevada-based , builder of memory chips for AI, raised a $230 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a chip developer for AI training, raised a $500 million Series B led by and . The 3-year-old company, based in Mountain View, California, was valued at $1 billion. It plans to ship its first product in 2027.

Healthcare

• New York-based , a platform that helps employers and employees source the best doctors with improved costs, raised a $118 million Series D led by . The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• Palo Alto, California-based , a women’s telehealth provider, raised a $100 million Series D led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a Redwood City, California-based digital platform that helps medicare customers connect with advocates to navigate healthcare, raised a $130 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Cloud services

• , a cloud platform for application development teams, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 8-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Mumbai-based , a cloud service GPU provider, raised a $600 million round led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.

Foundational AI

• , builder of an AI model to analyze large databases, raised a $225 million Series A led by . The company also says it has signed a partnership agreement with ‘s to offer the model to its customers. The 2-year-old, San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a model developer to debug and understand AI, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Aerospace

• , a space-based communications infrastructure player to support commercial satellite and government missions, raised a $100 million Series B led by and. The 4-year-old Livermore, California-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• , an aviation hardware and software company for automated flights, raised a $300 million Series C led by and . The 10-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Financial services

• London-based , a U.K.-based digital bank for small and medium-sized businesses, raised a $155 million Series D led by , and . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• , an agentic platform for accountants, raised a $100 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company, based in New York, was valued at $1.2 billion.

E-commerce

• Brooklyn-based , a marketplace for creators to sell digital products, raised a $200 million round led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $1.6 billion.

Coding

• , a Boston-based code translation service for legacy code, raised a $125 million Series B led by 1. The round valued the 2-year-old company at $1.3 billion.

Defense

• Berlin-based , a developer of strike drones and autonomous defense systems, raised an undisclosed sum in a round led by that valued the 1-year-old company at $1.2 billion.

Forecasting

• Boston-based , an AI-native weather satellite constellation, raised a $175 million Series F led by and . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Sales & marketing

• New York-based , a brand marketing platform geared for AI search, raised a $96 million Series C led by that valued the 1-year-old company at $1 billion.

Web3

• , a blockchain intelligence platform to detect crime networks, raised a $70 million Series C led by . The raise valued the 8-year-old company, based in San Francisco, at $1 billion.

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:

• (1,703)
• (604)
• (65)
• (187)
• (115)
• (102)
• (878)
• (500)
• (228)
• (38)
• (471)

Related reading:

• Massive AI Deals Drive $189B Startup Funding Record In February While Public Software Stocks Reel
• Crunchbase Data: The AI Boom Has Drastically Changed Who’s Funding The Hottest Companies In 2025 Vs. 2021
• January Delivers Highest New Unicorn Count In More Than 3 Years

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:

Clay’s back-to-back tender offers underscore a growing shift among high-growth startups: rewarding employees with liquidity long before an IPO is in sight. As companies stay private longer — and hit major revenue milestones at breakneck speed — secondary sales are becoming a tool not just for retention, but for signaling strength. In Clay’s case, the two tenders followed rapid valuation jumps and a sprint to $100 million in ARR, positioning liquidity as a performance-based reward rather than a prelude to exit.

“Building a generational business is a marathon, and tenders help equity feel real when top talent has options,” said , a partner at who noted that as companies stay private longer and talent competition intensifies, tender offers can be a powerful tool for recruiting, morale and retention.

Still, he noted, there tend to be limits. “In the tender offers we’ve participated in, most employees were limited to selling just 10-25% of their vested holdings, and nearly half of founders didn’t sell a single share, signaling long-term conviction,” he wrote via email. “Even modest liquidity can make a big difference, translating to life milestones like a down payment on a first home, a child’s education, or helping a loved one transition into care.”

Clay’s previous tender, led by , happened in May 2025 at . In between the two tender offers, the startup closed at a $3.1 billion valuation. In total, New York-based Clay has raised $206 million in equity since its 2017 inception. It has 300 employees, up from 80 to 90 a year ago, and 14,000 customers.

Tender offers have become more common as an increasing number of startups choose to stay private longer. Other high-profile examples include payments giant , which has already undergone a few tender offers and is reportedly considering that could value it at more than $140 billion. Generative AI company is also believed to be working on its own at a valuation of at least $350 billion.

In Clay’s case, the motivation was twofold, according to CEO and co-founder . The tender offers have served as a way to allow new investors to come in, and for employees to feel like their equity is “real.”

Crunchbase News recently spoke with Amin to dig deeper into the company’s decision to launch not just one but two tender offers in the past nine months. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Crunchbase News: Before we dig into the tender offers, tell us more about what Clay does.

Amin: We help businesses find and grow their best customers. You can think of Clay as an AI go-to-market tool which implements any creative idea you have for sales and marketing.

Go-to-market is just a new name for sales, marketing and customer success — the whole apparatus that helps you find customers and grow them, and implement any idea. Our vision is that in sales and marketing, you need to constantly be doing something different that’s unique for you, different from everybody else. Otherwise, it just becomes noise.

And we let you implement these strategies. It might be something like personalized landing pages to, “Hey, let’s analyze all the video calls with sales calls that you’ve had, figure out why you lost the customer, and put that into .” 1 I like to think of it as “like is for designers, Clay is for go-to-market teams.”

So what drove you to do not just one, but two, tender offers over the past year?

It’s interesting actually to think of it as the inverse: Why not do a tender offer?

Two reasons you don’t do a tender offer is either you don’t have the demand, or you think you’ll demotivate the team. Because we’re growing super quickly, we have the demand, and people want to invest in the company because we’re extremely efficient. Our burn is very, very low.

We don’t actually need more primary capital. We haven’t touched the primary capital. So this is a way to allow new investors to come in. This is also a way to bring in new partners without diluting the whole cap table.

It’s also a way for employees to feel like their equity is real. And some employees are having some real-life events. People are getting married, people are having kids, and this allows them to be a little bit more comfortable and do things like buy a house or buy a car. There are a bunch of people who’ve told me they’ve worked in startups for 10 years and never gotten any liquidity, and this is their first opportunity.

People might only stay at a company because they want liquidity if they don’t like the culture —  and they’re just withstanding it for the money. But we prefer people to stay because they want to do the work and they see that the value that they’re generating is real. I actually think it motivates the team.

Plus, it makes the ecosystem grow.

When you did the earlier tender offer, did you think you would be doing another one in less than a year’s time?  

No, I don’t think that we were. The way I’m thinking about it is [it makes sense to do a tender offer] every time we hit certain milestones. So we hit $100 million ARR really fast (in December). Tender offers are a way to reward the team each time it performs to a level where we get to the next milestone for the company. I think it makes sense to allow some people to get some of the value that they’ve created.

Do you have an exit plan?

Sometimes even investors ask this question. And we don’t. It is nonproductive to think about that. You’re only building this type of company if you want to see how big it can be. I always say it’ll be as big as it wants to be, and as long as there are problems for us to solve for customers. That’s what we should be focused on, and the valuations and the exits, those are things that are a result of that.

The other way to think about it is we’re basically close to being profitable all the time. Like we can choose to become profitable. (The company touts that it was cash-flow positive for parts of 2025, earning more in interest than it burned.)  We want to be in a place where we have options.

Going public is a way to fund things so you can do more for customers. So I think whenever I start going down that line, I refocus back on, “Is there work to do for customers? Can we make the product better?” And the answer right now is, yes, we’re nowhere near achieving our mission, which is how we help you finally grow your best customers. And as long as there’s work to do around that, we should keep doing it.

Do you think you’re going to be doing any more tender offers in the near future?

I think as long as we hit the next set of growth milestones, we’ll consider it. We’re still early in this. There are no exits on the horizon.

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• Q&A: Why Deep Tech Investors Are Turning To The Secondary Market For Liquidity
• Secondary Financings Offer Lifeline In A Slow Exit Market

Illustration:

The company provides sales reps with a real-time AI assistant that “guides” them during a prospect call while integrating with enterprise CRM and business intelligence systems. It also aims to eliminate administrative tasks before and after the call.

The Tel Aviv-based startup was co-founded by CEO and CTO .

The biggest difference between Winn and other startups in the space is timing, according to Postan-Koren.

“Most players in the market are passive and retrospective — they record calls to analyze after the fact why a deal was lost — a ‘post-mortem’ approach,” he told Crunchbase News. “Winn is proactive and real-time. We don’t just analyze history — we help the rep navigate the conversation while it’s happening to ensure the right questions are asked.”

The focus, compared to other conversation intelligence tools, is execution vs. analytics, according to Winn’s co-founders.

“Coaching is hard to apply when the feedback comes a week later,” Postan-Koren said. “Instead of telling a rep what they should have done, we guide them on what to do right now.”

, and co-led the Series A raise, which included participation from , , , and . In total, the startup has raised $35 million since its 2022 inception.

Companies at the intersection of AI and sales and marketing raised close to $4 billion in venture capital last year, That represents a sizable increase over the $3.4 billion raised by such startups in 2024, though remains lower than the $6.9 billion raised in the peak venture funding year of 2021 or the $5 billion raised in 2022.

Growth and expansion

Postan-Koren declined to provide hard financial figures for Winn, saying only that it tripled its annual recurring revenue in 2025 and that it has achieved 30x growth over the past two years.

Winn has dozens of customers, including HR and payroll company , IT management platform , and data security startup . The company’s revenue model is a standard SaaS per-seat subscription.

The company is not yet profitable. It plans to use its new capital to expand its U.S. go-to-market team, while continuing to invest “heavily” in R&D. Presently, Winn has over 40 employees.

Its primary market is the U.S., although Postan-Koren said it is seeing “strong organic traction” in the United Kingdom and Europe. It is also expanding its target user, he said.

“We started with a laser focus on account executives,” Postan-Koren explained. “However, the demand quickly pulled us into other departments.”

The company now also works with sales development representatives, account managers, solutions engineers and customer success. Interestingly, he said that Winn is also starting to see demand from nonsales teams, such as support and HR.

, operating partner at Insight Partners, believes that Winn “transforms the process” of scaling a sales team.

“It helps leaders to standardize excellence across every rep, delivering higher playbook adoption,” he said in a statement. “For a sales leader, this  shift can bring teams closer to delivering consistency.”

, managing partner and general partner at Mangusta Capital, described Winn’s offering as an AI co-pilot that can “empower revenue teams in real time to sell more effectively and consistently in the future.”

Related Crunchbase queries:

Illustration:

In December alone, 23 companies joined The Crunchbase ������Ƶ, more than doubling the count from a year ago.

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

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

New unicorns in December

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

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

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

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

Here are December’s 23 newly minted unicorns.

Fintech

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

Aerospace

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

AI

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

Energy

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

E-commerce

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

Marketing

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

DevOps

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

Social media

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

Security

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

Defense

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

IoT

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

Healthcare

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

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:

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

Related reading:

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

Methodology

The 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:

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

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

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

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

Exits

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

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

New unicorns

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

AI

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

Transportation

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

Healthcare and biotech

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

Financial services

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

Web3

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

Energy

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

Aerospace

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

Professional services

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

E-commerce

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

Sales and marketing

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

Defense tech

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

Beauty

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

Semiconductor

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

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:

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

Related reading:

• In The Space Of Months, AI Funding Boom Adds More Than $500B In Value To ������Ƶ And Reshuffles Top 20
• Highest Count Of New Unicorns Join Crunchbase Board In Over 3 Years As Exits Also Gain Steam
• The MVPs Of The Startup World Are Still Getting More Valuable
• Crunchbase’s Global Unicorn List Tops $6T In Value In August For The First Time Despite Slowdown
• Here Are Some Of The Newer Investors Entering The AI And Megaround Race
• These Are The Speediest Companies To Go From Series A To Series C

Methodology

The 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:

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

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.

This week has been a busy one for good-sized rounds, led by $500 million financings for crypto unicorn and AI-enabled parking provider . We also saw multiple large financings for biotech startups, plus some big rounds for cybersecurity and enterprise software.

1. (tied) , $500M, cryptocurrency: San Francisco-based crypto payments company Ripple raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation. Funds managed by affiliates of and led the investment, along with , , and .

1. (tied) , $500M, parking: Metropolis, an AI-powered checkout-free parking platform, announced that it has secured $1.6 billion in debt and equity financing, including a $500 million Series D at a $5 billion valuation. led the equity financing for Los Angeles-based Metropolis, while provided a $1.1 billion term loan.

3. , $435M, cybersecurity: Armis, a provider of tools for monitoring cyber risk exposure, closed on $435 million in what it described as pre-IPO funding round. led the financing, which a $6.1 billion valuation for the 10-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

4. , $200M, neurotech: Synchron, a developer of nonsurgical brain-computer interface technology, picked up $200 million in Series D funding led by . The New York-based company wants to use its technology to restore communication and mobility for people with paralysis.

5. , $126M, healthcare AI: Hippocratic AI, a developer of generative AI healthcare agents, landed $126 million in Series C financing. led the round, which set a $3.4 billion valuation for the Palo Alto, California-based company.

6. , $100M, marketing automation: MoEngage, an AI-enabled customer engagement platform, raised $100 million in new financing, with going to the company and 40% going to secondary share sales. and led the financing.

7. , $91M, aerial robotics: Infravision, a company that aims to transform how power lines are built and maintained with aerial robotics, raised $91 million in Series B funding. Singapore’s led the financing for the 7-year-old, Austin-based startup.

8. , $80M, AI go-to-market tools: Santa Clara, California-based Reevo, developer of an AI platform for managing go-to-market strategy and processes, launched publicly and it has raised $80 million in funding co-led by and .

9. , $75M, biotech: Palo Alto, California-based Neok Bio, a startup focused on developing antibody drug conjugates for improving cancer outcomes, emerged from stealth with $75 million, backed by Korean biotech .

10. , $65M, genomic medicines: Berkeley, California-based Azalea Therapeutics, a developer of precision genomic medicines, launched from stealth and announced it has raised $65 million in a Series A led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Nov. 1-7. 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 rounds here.

This was another active week for large startup financings. AI data center developer led with $1.38 billion in fresh financing, and several other megarounds were AI-focused startups. Other standouts hailed from a diverse array of sectors, including battery recycling, biotech and even fire suppression.

1. , $1.38B, AI data centers: Crusoe Energy Systems, a developer of AI data centers and infrastructure, raised $1.38 billion in a financing led by and . The deal sets a $10 billion+ valuation for the Denver-based company.

2. , $375M, autonomous vehicles: Avride, a developer of technology to power autonomous vehicles and delivery robots, that it secured commitments of up to $375 million backed by and . The 8-year-old, Austin, Texas-based company said it plans to launch its first robotaxi service on Uber’s platform in Dallas this year.

3. , $350M, battery recycling: Battery recycling company Redwood Materials closed a $350 million Series E round led by with participation from new investors including ’s . Founded in 2017, the Carson City, Nevada-based company has raised over $2 billion in known equity funding to date.

4. , $260M, agentic AI: Uniphore, developer of an AI platform for businesses to deploy agentic AI, $260 million in a Series F round that included backing from , , and . The round sets a $2.5 billion valuation for the Palo Alto, California-based company.

5. , $250M, voice AI and smart glasses: San Francisco-based Sesame, a developer of conversational AI technology and smart glasses, picked up $250 million in a Series B round led by . The startup is headed by former CEO and co-founder .

6. , $200M, AI for medicine: OpenEvidence, developer of an AI tool for medical professionals that has been nicknamed the “ChatGPT for doctors” reportedly raised $200 million in a -led round at a $6 billion valuation. Three months earlier, OpenEvidence $210 million at a $3.5 billion valuation.

7. , $183M, biotech: Electra Therapeutics, a developer of therapies against novel targets for diseases in immunology and cancer, secured $183 million in a Series C round. and led the financing for the South San Francisco, California-based company.

8. , $125M, AI agents: LangChain, developer of a platform for engineering AI agents, picked up $125 million in fresh funding at a $1.25 billion valuation. led the financing for the 3-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

9. , $70M, brand marketing: New York-based ShopMy, a platform that connects brands and influencers, landed $70 million in a funding round led by . The financing sets a $1.5 billion valuation for the 5-year-old company.

10. , $60M, fire suppression: Seneca, a startup developing a fire suppression system that includes autonomous drones that help spot and put out fires, launched publicly with $60 million in initial funding. and led the financing for the San Francisco-based company.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Oct. 18-24. 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:

As startup and larger company CMOs AI’s value and utility in marketing, it’s marketing itself that is in need of disruption — or, at least, a rebrand — in the AI era.

Marketing is too often oversold. We talk about it as a mystical force that transforms brands, moves markets and rescues struggling businesses. But in our eagerness to champion its potential, we’ve created a credibility crisis. By overpromising and, sometimes, underdelivering, marketers aren’t just disappointing investors, clients, boards and CEOs — we’re eroding trust in our own discipline.

It’s time to reset expectations: Marketing in the AI era is powerful, but — like AI itself — only when we’re honest about what it can’t do.

The overpromise problem

Marketers love big ideas, including the belief that a viral campaign or clever tagline can single-handedly save a business.

The reality is far less glamorous. When these overhyped initiatives inevitably fail to deliver the promised results (because no marketing can compensate for a flawed product, poor market fit or operational failures[SI1]), marketing gets blamed for shortcomings that were never within its control. This creates a vicious cycle where executives grow increasingly skeptical, viewing marketing as more art than science, more cost than investment.

What makes this situation worse is how we respond. Instead of confronting these unrealistic expectations, we double down on proving our worth through increasingly complex attribution models and vanity metrics that only other marketers care about. We track click-through rates, engagement scores and brand lift studies while the rest of the business cares about one thing: Are we driving sales and pipeline? If we can’t answer that question clearly, we’re failing at our most fundamental job.

The real limits of marketing

This isn’t to diminish marketing’s importance. When aligned with strong products and operations, it’s incredibly powerful. But its power comes from working in concert with the rest of the business to drive something bigger, not from some mythical ability to transcend business realities.

Marketing can amplify strengths and expose weaknesses, but it cannot create substance where none exists. No amount of clever branding can fix a fundamentally broken product. No social media strategy can compensate for terrible customer service. No viral campaign can save a business with flawed unit economics. Marketing acts as a magnifying glass — it makes good things better and bad things worse.

Another limit for marketing is that, to the untrained eye, marketing isn’t the most technical business function. No matter where anyone sits in the organization, you can bet they have an opinion on marketing. Everyone is an expert in marketing, no matter how much they actually know about it.

In short, marketing gets mislabeled and misunderstood all the time. Too often, it’s presented as the solution to every business problem, which only reinforces the understanding that marketing is fluff rather than a core driver of disciplined, scalable growth.

The uncomfortable truth about the path forward

The path to marketing’s credibility begins with a simple but tough idea: We need to stop talking and start listening to the numbers, to our colleagues and to the market itself. When our marketing works, we won’t need to shout about it. I’m a firm believer in “no marketing our marketing;” it should speak for itself, with results reflecting a growing pipeline, increasing revenue and organic advocacy from customers.

And when something isn’t working, we should be the first to raise our hand and say so, not the last. The most respected marketers I know aren’t the ones who always claim success; they’re the ones who can clearly articulate why something failed and what they learned from it. Marketing should be a laboratory where we test hypotheses, not a stage where we perform predetermined successes. The key is ensuring that every experiment, whether it succeeds or fails, teaches us something valuable about our customers, our messaging or our channels.

This honesty transforms perceptions across the organization. When we swiftly sunset failing campaigns, prioritize business outcomes over vanity metrics, and deliver unfiltered customer feedback, we shift from being seen as a cost center to becoming true strategic partners and business drivers.

By focusing less on proving our worth and more on driving results, we actually become more valuable. And by treating marketing as a discipline of continuous learning rather than perfect execution, we make it far more likely that we’ll eventually find those breakthrough ideas that truly move the business forward.

When we can look our peers in the eye and say, “Here’s what worked, here’s what didn’t, and here’s what we’re doing next,” we’re no longer just marketers — we’re business leaders who happen to specialize in growth.

is the president at . A lifelong builder of marketing technology, he co-founded and served as CEO of (formerly NewsCred), a global leader in enterprise content marketing, from 2007 to 2021. Under his leadership, Welcome pioneered the content marketing platform category, now known as Optimizely CMP. Following Optimizely’s acquisition of Welcome in 2021, Islam served as general manager and CMO before being elevated to president in 2024.

Illustration:

led the round, which included participation from , , and .

With this latest financing, Dreamdata — which has dual headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, and New York — has raised $67 million since its 2018 inception. The company’s last raise was in December 2022 with an $8 million Series A led by . CEO declined to reveal at what valuation Dreamdata raised its latest round, saying only that it was “an incredibly significant increase” when compared to its previous venture funding.

Dreamdata’s goal is to provide “the most complete B2B buyer journey map anywhere by joining ads, website visits, emails, CRM  … into one clean timeline per account,” according to Turner. Examples of functions its platform can perform include syncing “high-intent” audiences to ad platforms such as or , triggering notifications to a sales team, or running marketing workflows.

“That gives marketers a trustworthy ‘single source of truth’ to see what’s working, prove ROI, and then act on it, with AI assistance,” Turner said. “We do both activation and attribution. We’re not just a reporting tool; we are building the operational infrastructure for the B2B marketer.”

, , , r and are among its “thousands” of customers.

AI has had a profound effect on many sectors such as biotech and cybersecurity, as many startups have added the technology to their platforms. Marketing is no exception, as Dreamdata is only the most recent marketing tech startup to get funding.

In February, marketing and personalization startup locked up an $80 million Series C led by , minting it as a new unicorn at a $1.2 billion valuation. Also in February, Toronto-based raised a $235 million growth round led by — the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of . The startup has a multichannel programmatic advertising platform that uses AI and automation to help with digital marketing efforts.

Overall, global venture funding to sales and marketing tech startups totaled $5.9 billion through Oct. 10, 2025, per Crunchbase . That’s down 11.9% compared to the $6.7 billion raised in the same time period in 2024.

Sustainable growth

Dreamdata operates its business under a SaaS model with a component of usage-based pricing. The company has more than doubled its annual recurring revenue while maintaining the same number of employees it had one year ago (50), according to Turner.

“We are operating with disciplined ambition via sustainable growth,” he said, noting that Dreamdata is focused on growing its business in Europe and North America.

One of Dreamdata’s biggest differentiators from traditional competitors, such as ’s Marketo Measure/Bizible, Turner claims, is that it’s designed for “forward-looking action” as opposed to focusing on what happened in the past.

, co-founder and managing partner of PeakSpan Capital, leads the GTM technology investing at the venture firm and said he’s been partnering with companies in the space for over 15 years.

“It is with that long-tenured perspective and context that I have developed a deep appreciation for the problem Dreamdata is solving. Accurate revenue attribution has been a persistent challenge for years and years, and the problem today is complex and multi-faceted,” he told Crunchbase News via email. “The modern customer journey is convoluted, spanning numerous channels and disparate touchpoints, so understanding with high confidence what contributes most to a conversion is incredibly complex.”

In Melymuka’s view, Dreamdata’s offering solves the challenge of revenue attribution while also leveraging signal data and AI to support activation and execution.

“Relative to other solutions in the market, Dreamdata delivers far and away the quickest time to value – despite the complexity underpinning the solution,” he said.

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• Advertising Startup StackAdapt Snags Massive $235M Round