The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Clearway Energy Group Powers Up With $1.6B, SpaceX Receives Galactic-Sized Raise

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

Companies in the energy sector seem like the big winners this week. But startups in and around the enterprise software space also made a big splash with investors. Despite that, the chatter this week mostly focused on the large SpaceX raise because, well, it involves both space and Elon Musk.

1. Clearway Energy Group, $1.6B, renewable energy: The biggest round this week was a large corporate one involving San Francisco-based renewable energy developer Clearway Energy Group. France-based TotalEnergies SE bought half of Global Infrastructure Partners’ stake in the firm for a cool $1.6 billion investment. Clearway is one of the largest developers and operators of clean energy in the U.S. The company has more than 5 gigawatts of wind, solar and energy storage in operation currently. The move is another illustration of energy companies looking to diversify into newer green energy assets as carbon emissions become a top concern globally. The agreement represents TotalEnergies’ largest investment in U.S. renewables to date. In 2011, TotalEnergies bought a controlling stake in San Jose, California-based solar power company SunPower.

2. SpaceX, $1.5B, space travel: Remember when Elon Musk wasn’t in the news every day? Neither do we. This week, along with the neverending Twitter purchase, his SpaceX company made headlines after it was reported the company was raising at least $1.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Hawthorne, California-based company did not confirm the new round nor the new valuation of around $125 billion. SpaceX raised $1.9 billion in funding in April and has raised a total of $7.8 billion in funding, according to Crunchbase data. Previous investors in the company include NASA, Stack Capital, Bracket Capital and the United States Space Force, among others.

3. Semperis, $200M, cybersecurity: Private equity loves cybersecurity—just look at Thoma Bravo’s deal last summer for email security firm Proofpoint. This week, Hoboken, New Jersey-based Semperis saw some of that love, scooping up a $200 million Series C led by PE giant KKR. Semperis allows companies to secure their active directory both on-premise and in the cloud, as well as offering response tools for identity-focused incidents. Despite the downturn in both the private and public markets, cybersecurity has held strong with growing fears of ransomware and other attacks. Founded in 2014, Semperis has now raised $240 million, according to Crunchbase.

4. Clear Street, $165M, fintech: Now may not be the best of times for the market, but that doesn’t mean people don’t want better access to it. New York-based Clear Street is attempting to offer that after raising a $165 million Series B led by Prysm Capital at a valuation of $1.7 billion. Launched in 2018, Clear Street started with a prime brokerage platform for institutional investors and now will use the new funding to expand to serve fintechs, market makers and other professional traders. In a release, the company said its architecture processes more than $3 billion in daily trading volume. Clear Street has now raised nearly $460 million, according to Crunchbase.

That brings us to an odd four-way tie for the fifth-largest round of the week—with all raising $150 million.

5. (tied) Cribl, $150M, big data: Data observability was big this week with investors. San Francisco-based Cribl raised $150 million in Series D funding led by Tiger Global Management. Cribl’s platform allows users to understand the health of their data and control it. The new round comes less than a year after the company’s nearly $210 million Series C last summer and brings its total funding to $400 million, according to the company.

5. (tied) Firework, $150M, e-commerce: San Mateo, California-based livestreaming commerce and digital platform Firework closed a $150 million Series B led by the SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Founded in 2017, the company has now raised nearly $270 million, according to Crunchbase.

5. (tied) Mainspring Energy, $150M, energy: Menlo Park, California-based onsite power generation provider Mainspring Energy closed $150 million in the first stage of its Series E fundraise led by global growth equity investor Lightrock. Founded in 2010, according to Crunchbase data, the company has now raised nearly $330 million.

5. (tied) Motive, $150M, logistics: San Francisco-based Motive raised a $150 million Series E co-led by Insight Partners and Kleiner Perkins that values the automated operations platform developer at $2.85 million. Motive, formerly KeepTruckin, offers an AI-powered platform that helps improve driver safety and track fleet spending. The platform also offers other logistics and management tools. Founded in 2013, the company has now raised a total of nearly $570 million, according to Crunchbase data.

9. Monte Carlo, $135M, enterprise software: Another company in the data observability space to make the list this week is San Francisco-based Monte Carlo. The company, which tracks data reliability, closed a $135 million Series D led by IVP, valuing the company at $1.6 billion. Founded in 2019, the company has now raised more than $235 million, according to Crunchbase.

10. Booster, $125M, energy: San Mateo, California-based mobile energy delivery firm Booster raised more than $125 million in a Series D led by Rose Park Advisors. Founded in 2015, the company has now raised nearly $214 million, according to Crunchbase.

Big global deals

With the monster rounds raised by Clearway and SpaceX, only one round outside the U.S. broke into the top five rounds globally.

• London-based Bloom Financial, which helps finance internet brands, closed a Series A worth nearly $380 million.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of May 21-27. 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: Dom Guzman

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