The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Cruise Crushes With $1.35B Round, Cyara Closes $350M To Provide Better Customer Service

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 funding rounds in the U.S. Check out 2022’s biggest funding rounds here.

Just like most weeks, there were lots of large rounds collected by U.S.-based startups, but none came even remotely close to what Cruise did. The autonomous car manufacturer with a knack for raising large amounts of cash did it again, closing a $1.35 billion round—the largest round a VC-backed, U.S.-based company has raised this year.

1. Cruise, $1.35B, autonomous cars: San Francisco-based Cruise had the largest round of any venture-backed U.S. startup last year when it upsized a round early in 2021 to $2.75 billion. That brought the General Motors-backed self-driving car startup’s valuation to more than $30 billion. Well, early in this calendar year, Cruise snagged another large round when it announced the SoftBank Vision Fund invested an additional $1.35 billion now that Cruise is operating fully driverless cars. SoftBank made the commitment to invest when the company hit the milestone back in 2018 with its initial funding of $900 million. According to Crunchbase data, the company has now raised $14.4 billion.

2. Cyara, $350M-plus, enterprise software: Every company wants to offer better customer experience. But how can an organization make sure they are doing that? Well, Redwood City, California-based Cyara believes it can do it through better automated contact center testing and monitoring—and apparently investors agree. The company said it received a more than $350 million investment from K1 Investment Management this week. Founded in 2006, it’s Cyara’s first raise since 2016 and brings its total funding amount to $375 million, according to Crunchbase.

3. Chargebee, $250M, enterprise software: Eight months isn’t a lot of time, but it was enough time for San Francisco-based Chargebee to more than double its value. The company, which helps subscription businesses manage recurring revenue, raised $250 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia at a $3.5 billion valuation. Last April, the company closed a $125 million round at a $1.4 billion valuation. In total, the 11-year-old company has now raised $468.2 million, according to Crunchbase.

4. Cart.com, $240M, e-commerce: Austin, Texas-based e-commerce provider Cart.com closed a equity and debt round worth $240 million led by Legacy Knight Capital Partners, the growth equity arm of Legacy Knight Multifamily Office. The company offers an end-to-end e-commerce platform and has processed more than $3 billion in gross merchandise value over the last 12 months. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $380 million to date.

5. Loadsmart, $200M, supply chain: Two years ago, nearly no one was talking about supply chain. Now, people can’t stop talking about it and investors can’t stop investing in it. Last year, there were nine rounds in supply chain management tech that were a quarter-billion dollars or more. Chicago-based Loadsmart, a logistics platform that helps carriers optimize loads, came close to such a round, raising a $200 million Series D led by SoftBank Latin America Fund at a $1.3 billion valuation.

6. ​​Dewpoint Therapeutics, $150M, biotech: Boston-based ​​Dewpoint Therapeutics closed a $150 million Series C led by the SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The company developed a drug platform that targets biomolecular condensates—membraneless organelles that organize material inside biological cells (sorry if that doesn’t help). Founded in 2018, the company has now raised $287 million, according to Crunchbase data.

7. C2FO, $140M, financial services: Kansas City, Missouri-based C2FO closed a $140 million funding round led by Third Point Ventures. C2FO helps companies receive payments faster by connecting those in need of working capital with those who have excess working capital. The company, founded in 2008, has raised a total of nearly $538 million to date, according to Crunchbase data.

8. (tied) Productboard, $125M, product management: San Francisco-based Productboard, a product management platform, closed $125 million in a Series D at a valuation of $1.725 billion. The round was led by Dragoneer Investment Group with Tiger Global as the secondary lead investor. The funding brings the company’s total amount raised to $262 million.

8. (tied) Superpedestrian, $125M, transportation: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Superpedestrian raised $125 million in debt and equity capital from Jefferies, Antara Capital, the Sony Innovation Fund and FM Capital, along with other existing inventors. The transportation robotics company is the developer of the LINK shared e-scooter service.

10. MNTN, $119M, marketing: Los Angeles-based MNTN raised a $119 million Series D co-led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Fidelity Management and Research Co.—which collectively invested approximately $110 million. The company has a marketing software platform for connected television advertising.

Big global deals

Only one company from outside of the U.S. broke into the top five largest rounds this week — but there were several big raises.

• Vienna Austria-based TTTech, a developer of networked safety controls, closed a round worth approximately $286 million.
• London-based GWI closed a $180 million Series B led by Permira’s growth fund and valuing the company at more than $850 million. Founded in 2009, the company’s software provides global market research and audience insights to brands, agencies and media organizations.
• Dublin-based Wayflyer, a provider of revenue-based financing to e-commerce brands, raised $150 million in a Series B led by DST Global and QED Investors, valuing the company at $1.6 billion.
• Trust Machines, a remote-first developer Bitcoin applications, also raised $150 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 Jan. 29 to Feb. 4. 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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