The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Xaira And Other AI Startups Have Huge Week

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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 slowdown in big rounds last week, investors were back at it again dishing out nine-figure rounds. This week’s theme was definitely AI, as many of the largest rounds went to startups using AI in coding or biotech.

1. Xaira Therapeutics, $1B, biotech: The biggest round this week was really big. Xaira Therapeutics came out of stealth and announced it had secured more than $1 billion of committed capital from lead investors Arch Venture Partners and Foresite Capital — both of which jointly incubated the company — as well as several other big-name investors including Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The San Francisco-based biotech firm is led by founding CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who previously served as president of Stanford University but resigned last year after questions arose concerning his scientific research. Xaira is the latest — although likely best-funded — startup to try to use AI models to find new drugs.

2. Augment, $227M, artificial intelligence: AI coding startups made a big splash this week. The biggest round went to another startup emerging from stealth — AI coding assistance startup Augment. The Palo Alto, California-based company locked up a $227 million Series B round at a $977 million post-money valuation. The round included cash from the likes of Sutter Hill Ventures, Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Augment helps developers and software teams by giving them AI coding assistance. Founded in 2022, Augment’s total funding now stands at $252 million, per the company, following its $25 million Series A led by Sutter Hill Ventures in January.

3. Rippling, $200M, human resources: HR startup Rippling wrapped up a huge $200 million round that valued the San Francisco-based startup at $13.5 billion. The deal also included a $590 million secondary offering for employees to sell their private shares to investors. The  new equity round was led by Coatue. The company offers a workforce management platform that combines HR, information technology and finance to help customers streamline operations. The new round represents about a 20% uptick in valuation for Rippling, which was last valued at $11.3 billion in March 2023.

4. Cognition, $175M, artificial intelligence: Another nine-figure round for an AI coding startup. This one went to San Francisco-based Cognition, which reportedly locked up a $175 million investment led by Founders Fund at a $2 billion valuation. The six-month-old startup has developed an artificial intelligence–powered coding assistant called Devin. Just last month the startup raised a $21 million Series A at a $350 million valuation.

5. Endeavor BioMedicines, $133M, biotech: Yet another big biotech raise this week. San Diego-based Endeavor BioMedicines locked up a $132.5 million Series C led by AyurMaya. The company, which focuses on medicines for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, last raised more than two years ago — a $101 million Series B co-led by Ally Bridge Group and Avidity Partners. Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $296 million, per Crunchbase.

6. ThreatLocker, $115M, cybersecurity: Cyber funding has shown some signs of life recently, and this week we have another example. ThreatLocker, a cybersecurity startup offering zero trust endpoint security solutions, raised a $115 million Series D led by existing investor General Atlantic. In the past year, ThreatLocker has doubled its revenue and added 50% to its workforce. Founded in 2017, the company has raised nearly $240 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Lumeris, $100M, healthcare: St. Louis-based Lumeris, a developer of a healthcare spending platform, raised a $100 million investment  led by Deerfield Management and Endeavor Health. Founded in 2000, the company has raised $325 million, per Crunchbase.

8. Perplexity AI, $63M, artificial intelligence: It was a busy week for Perplexity AI. The company announced a $62.7 million round on the same day it was reported the AI startup was looking to raise another $250 million-plus at a valuation between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. The newly announced round was first reported last month and was led by Daniel Gross. It also included investors such as  Nvidia, IVP, NEA, Jeff Bezos and Garry Tan among others. The new round reportedly values the company at more than $1 billion. However, per the report in TechCrunch, the AI search engine startup is far from done, engaging investors in talks of a megaround that would increase that valuation by at least 150%. IVP and NEA were said to be looking at participating in the new round. It was just in January the company raised a $73.6 million Series B led by IVP that valued it at $520 million.

9. Midi Health, $60M, healthcare: Los Altos, California-based Midi Health, a virtual care clinic for women, closed a $60 million Series B led by Emerson Collective. Founded in 2021, Midi Health has raised $100 million to date, per the company.

10. Givebutter, $50M, CRM: Austin, Texas-based Givebutter, a platform for nonprofit fundraising and CRM, announced it has closed a $50 million strategic growth investment led by BVP Forge. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $57 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

There were not really any large rounds outside the U.S. this week. The biggest came from the Emerald Isle.

• Dublin-based SynOx Therapeutics, a biotechnology research company focused on developing the treatment of giant cell tumors, raised a $75 million Series B.

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 April 20 to 26. 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