The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Biotech Goes Big, Orbital Leads The 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.

Large deals were plentiful this week, as U.S.-based startups raised five nine-figure rounds — with two of those going to biotech startups. In fact, it was a huge week for biotech, as startups in that sector made up half the list.

1. Orbital Therapeutics, $270M, biotech: Biotech has been big recently, and this week Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Orbital Therapeutics led the way. The startup closed a $270 million Series A led by Arch Venture Partners. Orbital is looking to expand RNA-based medicines including next-generation vaccines, immunomodulation and protein replacement across a variety of diseases. Founded last year, this is the company’s first outside raise, per Crunchbase. Orbital is far from the last biotech firm on this week’s list.

2. Ohmium International, $250M, energy: Green hydrogen is definitely a thing with investors. Green hydrogen firm Ohmium International raised a fresh $250 million in a Series C led by TPG Rise Climate. Ohmium designs and manufactures proton exchange membrane electrolyzer systems — which are needed in the production of hydrogen. The device is used to split water through electrolysis to create hydrogen. Ohmium’s electrolyzer is powered by renewable energy, therefore producing “green hydrogen” with no greenhouse emissions. Ohmium last raised a $45 million Series B in April 2022 led by the Fenice Investment Group.

3. Vedanta Biosciences, $107M, biotech: Another big round for a biotech. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Vedanta Biosciences raised $106.5 million co-led by new investors AXA IM Alts and AMR Action Fund. The biotech startup is looking to develop oral therapies for Clostridioides difficile infection — the bacteria that causes diarrhea and colitis. Per the company, CDI causes approximately half a million infections each year in the United States, and has been associated with up to 45,000 deaths annually. Founded in 2010, the company has raised more than $430 million, per Crunchbase.

4. (tied) Pinecone, $100M, database: Although generative AI applications have been grabbing most of the fundraising headlines recently, some aspects of the infrastructure underneath those applications are starting to get investors’ attention. New York-based vector database startup Pinecone is the latest, raising a $100 million Series B at a $750 million valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company’s vector database allows engineers to work with data generated by large language models and other AI-related models. Vector databases are easily searchable and offer the flexibility engineers need when creating commercial AI applications. While generative AI startups like Character.ai, Adept AI and Anthropic receive most of the attention, the underlying pipes needed to build those applications also seem to be seeing some investments. Last week, New Jersey-based CoreWeave locked up a $221 million investment led by Magnetar Capital. The specialized cloud provider offers flexible cloud infrastructure with better processing that will be needed to train LLMs for AI. Founded in 2019, Pinecone has now raised $138 million, per Crunchbase data.

4. (tied) Ursa Major, $100M, aerospace: Not much is known about this round, but TechCrunch reported Berthoud, Colorado-based Ursa Major has closed on a $100 million investment. BlackRock and Space Capital took part in the funding. The company is developing the next generation of rocket engines with substantially more power. According to the report, Ursa Major was looking to secure the funding at a $400 million pre-money valuation. Founded in 2015, the company has raised $234 million, per Crunchbase.

6. Replit, $97M, developer tools: San Francisco-based Replit — creator of the generative AI for software development platform Ghostwriter — closed a $97.4 million financing round at a $1.16 billion post-money valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. Founded in 2016, the company has raised more than $200 million, according to Crunchbase data.

7. Super.com, $85M, fintech: San Francisco-based Super.com, which offers consumers savings and access to credit, locked up an $85 million Series C led by Inovia Capital. Founded in 2016, the new cash brings the total amount Super.com has raised to more than $150 million, per the company.

8. Foresight Diagnostics, $59M, biotech: Aurora, Colorado-based Foresight Diagnostics, a developer of cancer detection tests, raised a $58.8 million Series B led by Foresite Capital. Founded in 2020, the company has raised more than $70 million, per Crunchbase.

9. Antiva Biosciences, $53M, biotech: South San Francisco-based Antiva Biosciences — a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for the treatment of pre-cancerous lesions caused by human papillomavirus infection — closed a $53 million Series E led by MPM-BioImpact Capital. Founded in 2012, the company has raised $140 million, according to Crunchbase.

10. Evommune, $50M, biotech: Palo Alto, California-based Evommune, a clinical-stage biotechnology company discovering new ways to treat inflammatory diseases, completed a $50 million Series B co-led by new investor Arix Bioscience and current investors EQT Life Sciences and Symbiosis. Founded in 2020, the company has raised nearly $146 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

While there may have been some large U.S. rounds, the biggest fundraise went to a South Korean company.

• Seoul-based autonomous mobility firm 42dot raised a corporate round worth approximately $787 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 April 22 to 28. 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

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