Briefing

The Briefing: ICON Lands $207M For Building Tech, Xiaodu Raises Round At $5.1B Valuation, And More

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Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the Crunchbase News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.

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ICON Raises $207M For 3D Printed Homes

Austin-based ICON, a developer of advanced construction technologies including components for 3D printed homes, raised $207 million in a Series B round led by Norwest Venture Partners.

The investment brings 4-year-old ICON’s total funding to date to $266 million. The company says it has delivered more than two dozen 3D-printed homes and structures across the U.S. and Mexico.

Baidu’s Xiaodu closes funding at $5.1B valuation

Xiaodu, a provider of smart displays backed by China’s Baidu, raised a new financing round of undisclosed size at a valuation of $5.1 billion, according to an announcement from Baidu.

Baidu said it remains a “super majority shareholder” after the transaction. Xiaodu’s Series A was completed in November 2020 at a post-money valuation of $2.9 billion.

– Joanna Glasner

Urbint raises $60M for AI to protect infrastructure

Urbint, a startup with an AI platform designed to help protect critical infrastructure like energy utilities and telecom companies, has raised $60 million in Series C funding. The new round was led by Energize Ventures. Other participating investors include new backers American Electric Power, OGCI Climate Investments and existing investors Energy Impact Partners, National Grid Partners, Blue Bear Capital and Salesforce Ventures1

New York-based Urbint noted that the funding comes as Congress is expected to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill for the U.S.

“Today’s critical infrastructure owners and operators are facing new challenges as aging assets and climate change threats create a more complex operating environment,” Energize Ventures principal Tyler Lancaster said in the funding announcement. “Electric utilities in the U.S. alone spend more than $15 billion annually on operations and maintenance. Urbint’s next-generation risk management software helps customers identify and prioritize safety and reliability threats, in turn lowering O&M costs, reducing emissions, and improving worker safety – all while ensuring critical infrastructure stays online.”

Urbint noted its customers include electricity and natural gas utilities National Grid and Southern Company, among others.

— Marlize van Romburgh

Hunters closes $30M Series B led by Bessemer

Israel-based cybersecurity company Hunters raised a $30 million Series B from Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors YL Ventures, Blumberg Capital, M12 and U.S. Venture Partners.

Hunters competes in the increasingly popular extended detection and response (XDR) security space with large public companies like Palo Alto Networks, SentinelOne and CrowdStrike and venture-backed firms like Cybereason, which closed a $270 million round last month.

XDR platforms are scalable and offer companies better visibility in network and application communication. The platform’s threat detection and response capabilities across the network has become even more important with so many people working from home and expanding the attack surface available to bad actors.

Founded in 2018, Hunters has now raised $50.4 million to date.

— Chris Metinko

Illustration: Dom Guzman


  1. Salesforce Ventures is an investor in Crunchbase. It has no say in our editorial process. For more, head here.

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