The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Palmetto Powers Up With $375M, Somatus Raises $325M For Kidney Care

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.

Energy has been a big topic the last few days with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so maybe it should come as no surprise the biggest round of the week went to a clean-tech company. That was not the only large round this week, as five companies raised rounds of $200 million or more. Maybe most interesting is that four of the top five rounds went to companies outside of Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area—showing VCs are willing to spread their cash around.

1. Palmetto, $375M, clean tech: A big investment led by ​​former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital takes the top spot this week. Charleston, South Carolina-based Palmetto closed the $375 million round, as the company seeks to grow its clean-energy marketplace. The platform attempts to make it easier and affordable for homeowners to source their energy from renewable energies like solar power.

2. Somatus, $325M-plus, health care: Last week we saw some big rounds for companies that explore the human brain. This week, one of the biggest rounds goes to a company that works on another vital organ. Mclean, Virginia-based Somatus raised a $325 million-plus Series E led by Wellington Management that values the company at $2.5 billion. The company, which has raised nearly $500 million, partners with primary care groups and health systems to provide integrated care for patients with—or at risk of developing—kidney disease.

3. BlueVoyant, $250M, cybersecurity: This has been a big month for cybersecurity, and this week continued that growth with three new unicorns being minted. The last of the week was New York-based BlueVoyant, hitting a $1 billion-plus valuation after a $250 million Series D. The round was led by Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity firm founded and led by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. BlueVoyant becomes the third large cybersecurity funding round Liberty has led since it was reported early last year by The Washington Post that Mnuchin was starting his own fund with money from sovereign wealth funds in the Persian Gulf region and other investors. Last July, Liberty led Boston-based security company Cybereason’s $275 million raise. Then in November, it led a $150 million round for Los Altos, California-based Contrast Security.

4. dbt Labs, $222M, data analytics: A $4.2 billion valuation isn’t bad, most would agree, but it is not what dbt Labs was looking for before tech stocks started to tank this year. Forbes reported that the company had been seeking a valuation of more than $6 billion, but settled for $4.2 billion in order to protect its employees stock options, according to its co-founder and CEO. Nevertheless, the Philadelphia-based analytics engineering company was able to raise a significant round of cash, closing a $222 million Series D led by Altimeter. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $415 million, according to Crunchbase data.

5. Helium, $200M, blockchain: Investing in web3 is big right now, and San Francisco-based Helium seems to have a unique model. The company is building a blockchain-powered decentralized wireless network that provides bandwidth while collecting data from devices, with hotspots being able to receive Helium tokens. According to Axios, Helium was able to raise a $200 million Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation. Tiger Global and FTX Ventures were among the new investors in the round.

6. Omada Health, $192M, health care: San Francisco-based Omada Health, a chronic care health care provider, closed a $192 million Series E funding round led by Fidelity Management and Research Company.

7. Bloomreach, $175M, e-commerce: Mountain View, California-based ecommerce cloud developer Bloomreach announced a $175 million investment led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The new round doubles the company’s valuation from about a year ago to $2.2 billion.

8. fabric, $150M, e-commerce: Seattle-based fabric closed a $150 million Series C, led by SoftBank, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. The company offers digital commerce tooling that allows brands to more successfully navigate the e-commerce world. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $300 million.

9. Revel, $126M, electric vehicles: New York-based Revel raised a $126 million Series B in a funding round led by BlackRock. Founded in 2018, the company, which builds charging stations, now has raised a total of approximately $160 million, according to Crunchbase data.

10. Scipher Medicine, $110M, biotech: Waltham, Massachusetts-based Scipher Medicine, a precision immunology company, closed a $110 million financing led by Cowen Healthcare Investments. Scipher has now raised a total of $227 million.

11. Timescale, $110M, database: New York-based Timescale, a relational database developer, raised a $110 million Series C led by Tiger Global at a valuation of more than $1 billion.

Big global deals

The top two deals of the week globally were Palmetto and Somatus, but two deals outside the U.S. did crack the top five.

• China-based Hozon, an electric vehicle startup, raised a Series D worth approximately $315 million.
• London-based Gousto, an online meal-kit manufacturer and retailer, closed a $230 million venture round.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Feb. 19 to 25. 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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