The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: NYDIG Sees A Billion-Dollar Round, Airtable Becomes a Decacorn

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

As the holidays approach, investors seem in a giving mood. This week saw two rounds of more than half a billion dollars go to U.S.-based startups. In particular, two crypto companies made the top five, helping solidify that 2021 will be known as the year digital currencies truly arrived.

1. NYDIG, $1B, crypto: Crypto and bitcoin have been hot this year, and now they’ve claimed another $1 billion funding round. New York-based NYDIG closed a growth-equity funding round of $1 billion led by WestCap that values the company at more than $7 billion. Bessemer Venture Partners was one of several other firms in the round. The company has a Bitcoin platform that enables delivery of the cryptocurrency across multiple industries and has capabilities such as asset tokenization and smart contracts.

2. Airtable, $735M, collaboration: Investors love tools that aid with collaboration and business flow. That love has helped San Francisco-based Airtable hit decacorn status. The platform, which helps companies improve workflow, raised a $735 million Series F led by XN at an $11 billion valuation—almost double its valuation from earlier in the year. Founded in 2013, the company has now raised $1.4 billion, according to Crunchbase data.

3. Course Hero, $380M, edtech: Redwood City, California-based education platform Course Hero hit a $3.6 billion valuation after it closed a $380 million Series C led by Wellington Management. The company has gone on an acquisition spree the past couple years, buying other educational and learning companies, including CliffsNotes, LitCharts, QuillBot and Symbolab. With a healthy valuation and fresh cash, that buying could continue. Founded in 2006, Course Hero has now raised more than $477 million, according to Crunchbase data.

4. Sysdig, $350M, cybersecurity: In the space of cloud and container security, it has almost become a game of “can you outdo this funding round?” Lacework, Orca Security and Sysdig all have raised multiple rounds at valuations of more than $1 billion. This week it was San Francisco-based Sysdig’s turn. The company raised a new $350 million Series G led by Permira’s growth fund, a deal that more than doubled its valuation to $2.5 billion in just eight months. In April the company announced a $188 million Series F. The space has attracted investors’ attention as more companies move to the cloud and adopt container strategies to build out applications. Sysdig has now raised $744 million since being founded in 2014.

5. Anchorage Digital, $350M, crypto: Yet another crypto company makes the list, as San Francisco-based Anchorage Digital closed a $350 million Series D funding round led by KKR valuing it at $3 billion. The company, which raised an $80 million Series C in February, offers a custody solution to large firms such as publicly traded companies or institutions, letting them store and manage crypto assets.

6. Rokt, $325M, marketing: New York-based Rokt raised a $325 million Series E led by Tiger Global. The round values the company, which develops marketing technology for online shopping, at $1.95 billion. Founded in 2012, Rokt has now raised $487 million, per Crunchbase data.

7. Sigma Computing, $300M, analytics: San Francisco-based Sigma Computing, a cloud analytics and business intelligence provider, raised a $300 million Series C led by D1 Capital Partners and XN. To date, the company, which enables businesses to analyze data securely, has raised $381.3 million.

8. Cockroach Labs, $278M, database: New York-based Cockroach Labs closed a $278 million Series F led by Greenoaks. The new funding gives the cloud-native distributed SQL database company a valuation of $5 billion.

9. Dialpad, $170M, communications: San Francisco-based contact center platform Dialpad raised a $170 million round led by ICONIQ Capital at a $2.2 billion valuation. The round comes just about a week after San Francisco-based call center software developer Genesys closed a $580 million round. To date, Dialpad has raised $418 million in capital.

10. SnapLogic, $165M, enterprise software: San Mateo, California-based SnapLogic raised a $165 million round led by Sixth Street Growth at a $1 billion valuation. SnapLogic’s platform helps large companies with enterprise automation and digital transformation initiatives. Founded in 2006, the company has raised $371 million, according to Crunchbase data.

Big global deals

While U.S.-based startups continued to see big rounds, three of the top five rounds globally came from China.

• China-based Dinghe Insurance, a national property insurance company, closed a round of more than $1 billion.
• China-based SVOLT, an electric vehicle battery materials manufacturer, closed a round of approximately $941 million.
• China-based Medlinker, a physician social service platform, closed a $514 million Series E.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Dec. 11 to 17. 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

Learn More