The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Massive Rounds By Cruise And AlphaSense Lead Way

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

After a few slow weeks, things picked up slightly concerning big funding deals. Most surprisingly is the fact the week was led by an autonomous driving startup — an industry left for dead by some. AI, biotech, space tech and cybersecurity also saw good-sized raises. Perhaps things are heating up as we head into summer.

1. Cruise, $850M, autonomous cars: In for a penny, in for a pound. That clearly seems to be how General Motors feels about Cruise. The auto giant agreed to pump another $850 million into the San Francisco-based startup. Cruise’s saga has been well documented. In 2021, Cruise snagged the largest round of any venture-backed U.S. startup when it upsized a round to $2.75 billion, valuing the company at  more than $30 billion. However, the tide started to turn in early 2022, when SoftBank did not release a promised $1.35 billion to Cruise as part of an agreed-upon deal when the autonomous carmaker completed a commercial deployment of vehicles. Instead, General Motors acquired SoftBank’s equity ownership stake in Cruise for $2.1 billion. Then, late last year, Cruise suspended its self-driving taxi program across the country after losing its permit to operate in San Francisco due to an incident with a pedestrian. That announcement came almost exactly a year after another autonomous vehicle startup — Ford Motor-backed Argo AI — shuttered after raising $3.6 billion in funding from investors such as Ford Motor, Volkswagen Group and Lyft. Cruise is now restarting its driving programs in Phoenix, Dallas and Houston. Clearly GM is betting — big — the autonomous driving and robotaxi market comes back.

2. AlphaSense, $650M, artificial intelligence: AI-driven market intelligence platform AlphaSense raised $650 million in funding co-led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners at a $4 billion valuation — a 75% increase from just nine months ago. As part of the deal, AlphaSense acquired expert research startup Tegus for $930 million. Last September, the company locked up a $150 million Series E led by Bond Capital at a $2.5 billion valuation — an increase of nearly 30% from its $100 million round at a $1.8 billion valuation in April last year. The New York-based startup’s market intelligence and search platform — powered by AI and natural language processing — helps clients form corporate and investment strategies. In total, the company has now raised $1.4 billion since its founding, per Crunchbase.

3. Santa Ana Bio, $125M, biotech: Biotech bounces back this week with a couple nine-figure rounds. First up is Alameda, California-based Santa Ana Bio, an immunology company developing therapies for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, which emerged from stealth with a $125 million Series B round led by GV. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $168 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Alzheon, $100M, biotech: Alzheon was the next biotech to raise big this week. The startup raised a $100 million Series E led by Alerce Medical Technology Partners. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based firm is developing medicines for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Founded in 2013, the company has raised $237 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Apex, $95M, space: Spacecraft manufacturing company Apex locked up a $95 million Series B led by XYZ Venture Capital and CRV to ramp up its production of satellite buses. The Los Angeles-based space tech startup is helping streamline the approach to satellites with the ability to mass produce spacecraft buses — the main body and structural component of satellites — to help growing demand from customers like the U.S. Department of Defense. The new cash will allow the company to increase production to meet customer demand — following the launch of Apex’s first bus in March. Funding to VC-backed space tech startups seems to be on the uptick this year, per Crunchbase data. Last year, space tech startups raised $5.8 billion. However, through less than half of this year, such startups have already seen $3.3 billion roll into their coffers. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $122 million, per Crunchbase.

6. Cyberhaven, $88M, cybersecurity: Cybersecurity funding has shown some life recently and this week showed more proof of that trend. San Jose, California-based Cyberhaven, a data detection and response platform, raised an $88 million Series C led by Adams Street Partners and Khosla Ventures. The round comes after a year in which the company saw a 200% growth in new bookings. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $137 million, per Crunchbase.

7. InduPro, $85M, biotech: Seattle-based InduPro, developing therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, closed an $85 million Series A co-led by The Column Group and Vida Ventures. Founded in 2022, this is the company’s first announced round, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Enveda Biosciences, $50M, biotech: Boulder, Colorado-based Enveda Biosciences, a biotechnology company using AI to engineer medicines from plants, announced a new $55 million round. No lead investor was announced, but Microsoft is a new investor in the company. Founded in 2019, Enveda says it has raised $230 million.

8. (tied) Canary Technologies, $50M, hospitality: San Francisco-based Canary Technologies, a management platform for hotels, closed a $50 million Series C led by Insight Partners. Founded in 2017, Canary has now raised nearly $100 million, per the company.

10. Posh AI, $45M, artificial intelligence: Boston-based Posh AI, a conversational AI platform for the banking industry, raised a $45 million round led by Curql. Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $73 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

Another large AI round occurred in Europe.

• Paris-based Mistral AI finally secured its much talked about round that values the OpenAI and Anthropic competitor at $6 billion, per a report in the Financial Times. According to the report, Mistral AI raised $500 million in equity and $140 million in debt.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of June 8 to June 14. 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