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The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Anthropic Generates Another Huge Round, Biotech Has Big 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.

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The week can be summed up pretty succinctly by just saying AI and biotech. Another AI startup — one we’ve seen before — had another huge raise, and biotech had three huge rounds and a lot of good-sized ones. In general, it does seem like venture investing has been creeping up the past few weeks — at least when analyzing big rounds — but we’ll see what the summer holds.

1. , $450M, artificial intelligence: If Anthropic looks familiar to you on this list, there’s a reason. In February there were reports that had invested between $300 million and $400 million into the San Francisco-based startup. That was followed in March by that Anthropic was raising another $300 million round at a pre-investment valuation of $4.1 billion. Then this week, Anthropic — a rival with its AI assistant Claude — announced it had raised $450 million in Series C funding led by with participation from Google, 1, , and others. Anthropic itself previously announced a $124 million in 2021 and a $580 million Series B in 2022 — led by none other than disgraced founder . Of course, nothing has been hotter than AI this year. The raise was only topped by the $10 billion investment into reportedly by in January.

2. , $401M, biotech: We say this every week, but we really mean it this time — it was a huge week for biotech as three rounds brought in more than $850 million. First up is Massachusetts-based gene therapy startup ElevateBio, which raised a $401 million Series D led by the AyurMaya Capital Management Fund, a VC fund managed by . The startup has multiple platforms for things such as drug development and manufacturing which interconnect with one another — making it an end-to-end biopharma company. The company has multiple drug development pipelines as demand grows for gene therapies that help the immune system fight its way through disease. Founded in 2017, the company has now raised $1.2 billion, .

3. , $300M, biotech: This brings us to our second big biotech raise. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ReNAgade Therapeutics locked up a $300 million Series A led by and . That money would be big for any round, but a $300 million Series A in this venture market borders on the amazing (yes, it can be difficult to figure out how long a round took to raise, but still). ReNAgade is developing RNA therapeutics (hence the name) to fight disease. The company already has established a joint venture with . Founded in 2021, this is the company’s first outside funding, .

4. , $150M, biotech: Not to be forgotten, Berkeley, California-based biotech firm Carmot Therapeutics closed a $150 million Series E led by . The startup is developing therapies for metabolic diseases including obesity and diabetes. The company  has several therapeutics in its pipeline and the new cash infusion to add to its portfolio. Founded in 2008, the company has raised nearly $385 million, .

5. , $115M, crypto: ±õ³Ù’s ’s world, we’re just living in it. Worldcoin developer Tools For Humanity — co-founded by Altman — raised a $115 million Series C led by . The San Francisco-based startup is building tools in support of Worldcoin, an Ethereum-based token currently in beta. Its World ID platform is attempting to create unique digital identities — based on blockchain technology — for people by scanning their eyes with a small orb. The startup has raised many questions surrounding AI, data and privacy. While such an identity platform could be useful as AI makes it more difficult to know who or what one is dealing with over the internet, the scanning of people’s eyes to create a digital identity and how that information could be used has raised privacy and data concerns.The company did not reveal a valuation, but an earlier said it is looking to raise money at a $3 billion valuation.

6. , $70M, fintech: Jacksonville, Florida-based fintech startup Nymbus raised a $70 million Series D led by . Founded in 2015, the company has raised nearly .

7. , $54M, biotech: Boulder, Colorado-based precision oncology startup OnKure closed a $54 million Series C led by . Founded in 2011, the company has raised $121.5 million, .

8. , $51M, biotech: San Francisco-based biotech Quanta Therapeutics locked up a $50.7 million Series D led by . Founded in 2018, Quanta has raised more than $142 million, .

9. , $48M, fintech: Austin, Texas-based payment processing startup Episode Six raised a $48 million Series C financing led by . Founded in 2015, the company has raised $90 million, .

10. , $36M, biotech: Watertown, Massachusetts-based biotech firm Larkspur Biosciences launched with $35.5 million in a combined seed and Series A round co-led by , and .

Big global deals

Not surprisingly, the biggest non-U.S. round of the week also involved AI.

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 May 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.

Further reading

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