The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Sequoia Financial Group Grabs $200M To Grow; Jasper Rides AI Momentum

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.

This time last year, a startup would have needed to raise $100 million to make this list—those days are long gone. The VC pullback in the market is very real, and now a raise of less than $40 million can still get you on the list. Nevertheless, the market is strong for those in AI, biotech and finance, while others in formerly smoking hot sectors like crypto, blockchain and security remain noticeably silent.

1. Sequoia Financial Group, $200M, wealth management: The top round of the week is probably one that went under most people’s radar. Akron, Ohio investment adviser firm Sequoia Financial Group sold a minority stake to private equity firm Valeas Capital Partners for $200 million. Sequoia provides wealth management, asset management and financial planning services to clients ranging from individuals to family offices. Sequoia—with approximately $10 billion in client assets—plans to use the capital to continue to expand organically and inorganically. Two years ago, New York-based Kudu Investment Management also made a minority investment in Sequoia.

2. Jasper, $125M, AI: It seems like AI is having another moment. Just a day after London-based Stability AI became Europe’s newest unicorn with a $101 million raise, Austin, Texas-based Jasper closed a $125 million Series A funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Insight Partners. Jasper uses AI to help people and companies with their content strategies. Its AI platform helps create original content while optimizing it for ROI, and even repackages it in different ways and in different languages. Jasper plans to use the new money for product development and enhancing customer experience. Since launching in January 2021, Jasper says it has more than 70,000 paying subscribers ranging from individual creatives to teams at large enterprises.

3. (tied) Swift Navigation, $100M, GPS: Logistics and navigation tech pretty much dominate our lives—from using a ride-sharing application to having your phone know exactly where you are. San Francisco-based Swift Navigation locked up a $100 million Series D this week, led by SK Innovation and Potentum Partners as it looks to grow its several markets with its location tech. The startup may be best known for its Global Navigation Satellite System and positioning technology for autonomous and driver-assisted systems. However, Swift also has built specific platforms for a host of other applications—from industrial machine control to improvements to mobile phone positioning. We now live in a culture where everyone—and everything—wants to know where we are every second. For that, navigation technology is a must. Founded in 2012, Swift has raised over $200 million in funding, per the company.

3. (tied) Tempus, $100M, biotech: Every week seems to be a big week for biotech, and this week is no different. Chicago-based Tempus announced a $275 million raise—a mix of equity from previous investors and debt financing from Ares Management. The startup’s platform combines drug discovery, clinical trials and diagnostics. It uses AI to help doctors understand disease progression and what is driving the disease. It can also find the proper patients for a clinical trial. Through genomic sequencing, the platform allows physicians to understand why a patient has a disease. That clearly is appealing to investors, as the company has raised over $1.3 billion, per Crunchbase.

5. Enable, $94M, finance: When someone hears the word “rebate,” they typically think of the money they get back when buying a car or an appliance. However, there are also B2B rebates, which can be harder to keep track of because they deal with certain benchmarks or milestones reached through a period of time. San Francisco-based Enable, a B2B rebate management platform, raised a $94 million Series C led by Insight Partners to help companies manage that problem. The company’s platform allows clients to more easily track potential rebates depending on order numbers and spend. Founded in 2016, Enable says it has raised $156 million.

6. Viome Life Sciences, $67M, biotech: Bellevue, Washington-based Viome, an at-home diagnostics startup, closed a Bold Capital Group-led $67 million extension round toward its Series C. The round brings total financing for the company to more than $150 million, according to the company.

7. Orionis Biosciences, $55M, biotech: Boston-based cancer therapeutics company Orionis Biosciences completed a $55 million financing round. New and old investors including Cormorant Asset Management and Novartis participated in the round. Founded in 2015, the company has raised nearly $80 million, according to Crunchbase data.

8. Landis, $40M, real estate: New York-based Landis closed a $40 million Series B led by GV. The company has developed a platform to help renters become homeowners. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $222 million, per Crunchbase.

9. OSSIO, $38.5M, medical device: Woburn, Massachusetts-based OSSIO, an orthopedic medical device company, closed a $38.5 million round led by MVM Life Science Partners. Founded in 2014, the company has raised nearly $61 million, according to Crunchbase.

10. RisingWave Labs, $36M, database: San Francisco-based streaming database company RisingWave Labs raised a $36 million Series A round, led by multiple partners including the investment arm of a leading global gaming firm, Yunqi Partners. Founded in 2021, RisingWave has raised more than $40 million, according to the company.

Big global deals

Much like in the U.S., there were not a ton of large rounds globally. The biggest round of the week went to a battery materials company.

• China-based Hithium, which specializes in the R&D, production and sales of lithium-ion battery core materials, raised a Series B worth approximately $276 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 Oct. 15 to 21. 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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