The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Anthropic Rules With $500M Round; Aiolos Bio Nabs Large Raise

Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2023 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The Crunchbase Megadeals Tracker.

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 slow week last week — where the top raise was only $57 million — this week saw a nice pickup thanks again to AI. Four companies raised nine-figure rounds and there were several other big rounds just under that. Of course, Anthropic’s round late in the week was the top raise, but biotech took three of the top five spots.

1. Anthropic, $500M, artificial intelligence: Just last month, San Francisco-based company Anthropic — a ChatGPT rival with its AI assistant Claude — inked a deal with Amazon for the e-commerce and cloud titan to invest up to $4 billion in the AI startup. But why stop there when there are more billions of dollars to be had? The WSJ reported late Friday that previous investor Google agreed to invest up to $2 billion in the OpenAI competitor. The deal includes $500 million upfront and an additional $1.5 billion more over time, per the report. The new investment is just the latest in what has become a fundraising spree for Anthropic this year. In February, it was reported that Google had invested between $300 million and $400 million in the startup. In May, the company raised a $450 million Series C led by Spark Capital. In August, Anthropic raised a $100 million round from SK Telecom. The Amazon deal followed late last month.

2. Aiolos Bio, $245M, biotech: Investors have always backed startups looking to take on asthma and other respiratory ailments. That continues with this week’s $245 million Series A for San Francisco- and London-based Aiolos Bio. Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Forbion Capital Partners and Sofinnova Investments led the massive round. The newly launched company plans to use the fresh cash for phase 2 clinical trials of its lead drug candidate, AIO-001, designed for patients with moderate to severe asthma. More than 20 startups have been funded in the past several quarters and have raised close to $1.8 billion total, per Crunchbase data. The company that has received the most funding on the list is Waltham, Massachusetts-based Upstream Bio, which has raised more than $400 million to date. 

3. (tied) Island, $100M, cybersecurity: Venture funding to cybersecurity startups is down 30% year to year, but this week saw a handful of good-sized rounds going to U.S.-based security firms. None were bigger than Dallas, Texas-based cybersecurity startup Island’s $100 million Series C led by Prysm Capital and valuing it at $1.5 billion. Island offers an enterprise browser that the company says enhances both security and productivity of workers, giving security teams control of what is often referred to as the “last mile” — how end-users interact with work and web applications. The enterprise browser developer raised a $115 million Series B at a $1.3 billion valuation last year led by Insight Partners. Founded in 2020, the company has now raised $385 million, per Crunchbase.

3. (tied) Pony.ai, $100M, autonomous vehicles: It may not have been a great week for the autonomous driving sector in general, as Cruise’s driverless taxi service in San Francisco was suspended. However, it was a good week for Fremont, California-based Pony.ai, which announced a $100 million investment from the Neom Investment Fund. The new deal is a joint venture to develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in Neom and other parts of the Middle East/North Africa region. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $1.3 billion, per Crunchbase.

5. Triveni Bio, $92M, biotech: Yet another biotech makes it high on the list. Waltham, Massachusetts-based Triveni Bio closed a $92 million series A financing co-led by Atlas Venture and Cormorant Asset Management. The startup is developing treatments for atopic dermatitis, asthma and other inflammation and immunology disorders. This is the company’s first outside raise, per Crunchbase.

6. Rampart Bioscience, $85M, biotech: Next-generation biologics developer Rampart Biosciences locked up an $85 million Series A led by Forbion Capital Partners. The company has developed a proprietary DNA-based medicines platform — called HALO — which is designed to produce highly potent and redosable therapies. The company’s current lead program is for the treatment of hypophosphatasia, an often fatal genetic disease that prevents bone mineralization. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $125 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Adlumin, $70M, cybersecurity: Washington, D.C.-based Adlumin, a managed detection and response startup, raised a $70 million Series B led by SYN Ventures. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $129 million, per Crunchbase.

8. MangoBoost, $55M, IT infrastructure: Seattle-based data processing unit developer MangoBoost has raised a $55 million Series A co-led by IMM Investment and Shinhan Venture Investment. It was reported the new round gave the startup around a $300 million valuation. Founded in 2022, the company has raised nearly $66 million, per Crunchbase data.

8. (tied) AgentSync, $50M, insurance: Denver-based insurance infrastructure startup AgentSync raised an additional $50 million co-led by existing investors Craft Ventures and Valor Ventures. Founded in 2018, AgentSync has raised $161 million, per the company.

8. (tied) Censys, $50M, cybersecurity: Ann Arbor, Michigan-based threat hunting and exposure management startup Censys raised $75 million in a mix of equity and debt. The $50 million equity portion of the round was led by Decibel Partners, GV, Greylock and Intel Capital. The $25 million in debt funding was led by SVB Capital. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $128 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

No round was bigger than Anthropic’s raise, but another across the pond was close.

• London-based property and real estate firm Canary Wharf Group locked up a venture round worth approximately $486 million.

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 Oct. 21 to Oct. 27. 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