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The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Xaira And Other AI Startups Have Huge Week

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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.

After a slowdown in big rounds last week, investors were back at it again dishing out nine-figure rounds. This week’s theme was definitely AI, as many of the largest rounds went to startups using AI in coding or biotech.

1. , $1B, biotech: The biggest round this week was really big. Xaira Therapeutics came out of stealth and announced it had secured more than $1 billion of committed capital from lead investors and — both of which jointly incubated the company — as well as several other big-name investors including and . The San Francisco-based biotech firm is led by founding CEO , who previously served as president of but resigned last year after questions arose concerning his scientific research. Xaira is the latest — although likely best-funded — startup to try to use AI models to find new drugs.

2. , $227M, artificial intelligence: AI coding startups made a big splash this week. The biggest round went to another startup emerging from stealth — AI coding assistance startup Augment. The Palo Alto, California-based company locked up a $227 million Series B round at a $977 million post-money valuation. The round included cash from the likes of , and . Augment helps developers and software teams by giving them AI coding assistance. Founded in 2022, Augment’s total funding now stands at $252 million, per the company, following its $25 million Series A led by in January.

3. , $200M, human resources: HR startup Rippling wrapped up a huge $200 million round that valued the San Francisco-based startup at $13.5 billion. The deal also included a $590 million secondary offering for employees to sell their private shares to investors. The  new equity round was led by . The company offers a workforce management platform that combines HR, information technology and finance to help customers streamline operations. The new round represents about a 20% uptick in valuation for Rippling, which was last valued at $11.3 billion in March 2023.

4. , $175M, artificial intelligence: Another nine-figure round for an AI coding startup. This one went to San Francisco-based Cognition, which locked up a $175 million investment led by at a $2 billion valuation. The six-month-old startup has developed an artificial intelligence–powered coding assistant called Devin. Just last month the startup raised a $21 million Series A at a $350 million valuation.

5. , $133M, biotech: Yet another big biotech raise this week. San Diego-based Endeavor BioMedicines locked up a $132.5 million Series C led by . The company, which focuses on medicines for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, last raised more than two years ago — a $101 million Series B co-led by and . Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $296 million, .

6. , $115M, cybersecurity: Cyber funding has shown some signs of life recently, and this week we have another example. ThreatLocker, a cybersecurity startup offering zero trust endpoint security solutions, raised a $115 million Series D led by existing investor . In the past year, ThreatLocker has doubled its revenue and added 50% to its workforce. Founded in 2017, the company has raised nearly $240 million, .

7. , $100M, healthcare: St. Louis-based Lumeris, a developer of a healthcare spending platform, raised a $100 million investment  led by and . Founded in 2000, the company has raised $325 million, .

8. , $63M, artificial intelligence: It was a busy week for Perplexity AI. The company announced a $62.7 million round on the same day it was the AI startup was looking to raise another $250 million-plus at a valuation between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. The newly announced round was first reported last month and was led by . It also included investors such as  , , , and among others. The new round values the company at more than $1 billion. However, per the report in , the AI search engine startup is far from done, engaging investors in talks of a megaround that would increase that valuation by at least 150%. IVP and NEA were said to be looking at participating in the new round. It was just in January the company raised a $73.6 million Series B led by IVP that valued it at $520 million.

9. , $60M, healthcare: Los Altos, California-based Midi Health, a virtual care clinic for women, closed a $60 million Series B led by . Founded in 2021, Midi Health has raised $100 million to date, per the company.

10. , $50M, CRM: Austin, Texas-based Givebutter, a platform for nonprofit fundraising and CRM, announced it has closed a $50 million strategic growth investment led by . Founded in 2016, the company has raised $57 million, .

Big global deals

There were not really any large rounds outside the U.S. this week. The biggest came from the Emerald Isle.

  • Dublin-based , a biotechnology research company focused on developing the treatment of giant cell tumors, raised a $75 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 20 to 26. 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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