Last Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Clear Street And Astranis Raise Huge Rounds In Bounce-Back 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 several slow weeks, startups saw a nice infusion of cash last week, as seven U.S.-based startups raised nine-figure rounds. VCs threw their money in all directions, with startups in sectors ranging from fintech to fitness and biotech to identity seeing big raises as the pace of investing in April picked up.

1. Clear Street, $270M, fintech: After a few slow weeks, we finally have a big round. Fintech startup Clear Street closed a $270 million investment from Prysm Capital which values it at $2 billion. The raise comes less than a year after the firm raised $165 million at a $1.7 billion valuation. The independent prime broker is building a “modern infrastructure for capital markets.” Its first product is an equity finance platform — processing more than $10 billion in trades every day. Its aim is to create a single-source platform to serve all investors, across all asset classes. Founded in 2018, Clear Street has raised more than $600 million, per Crunchbase.

2. Astranis, $200M, space: Even as venture continues to slow, VCs still keep looking to the stars. San Francisco-based satellite developer Astranis locked up a fresh $200 million this week at a $1.6 billion valuation, per a Bloomberg report. The new deal was led by Andreessen Horowitz and comes just before the company prepares its first launch of satellites aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Venture dollars have continued to pour into spacetech even though overall VC investment continues to trend down. Founded in 2015, the company has now raised more than $553 million, per Crunchbase data.

3. Torl BioTherapeutics, $158M, biotech: It seems like new cancer treatments are always able to secure new funding. Los Angeles-based biopharmaceutical company Torl BioTherapeutics closed a $158 million Series B as it looks to develop new biologics for cancer treatment. The round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The startup — which had not previously announced funding, per Crunchbase — will use the new cash in the development of novel, antibody-based therapeutics to fight cancer.

4. ID.me, $132M, identity: Verifying who you are is hard online, and investors seem to know that. ID.me, a digital identity network, was able to rake in a $132 million Series D led by Viking Global Investors. The McLean, Virginia-based startup’s network has more than 100 million members who can verify their identity across 30 states, 14 federal agencies and at 500 retailers which all use the network. ID.me provides secure login, identity proofing and community affiliation verification for organizations and companies across various sectors and meets the federal standards for consumer authentication. Founded in 2010, ID.me has now raised more than $240 million, per the company.

5. Tonal, $130M, fitness: It has been a tough haul for fitness companies recently — just look at Peloton this week. San Francisco-based weight-training platform Tonal also has had issues, slicing 35% of its workforce last year. Last week, the platform raised $130 million — led by L Catterton, Cobalt, Dragoneer, Kindred Ventures and THVC — as part of what the company called “a broader recapitalization strategy.” The company also announced Krystal Zell will take over as CEO succeeding the company’s founder, Aly Orady. That seems like a lot of moving parts. Founded in 2015, the company has raised more than $580 million to date — although with a recap it seems some of that money may have been used to buy out old stakeholders — per Crunchbase.

6. Altruist, $112M, fintech: Startup custodian for registered investment advisers, Altruist closed a $112 million Series D round of funding led by Insight Partners and Adams Street Partners. The investment platform merges a self-clearing brokerage with software for a variety of services for registered investment advisers. The Los Angeles-based startup revealed the new round is in addition to a previously undisclosed $110 million Series C raised in November of 2021 and brings its total funding to more than $290 million.

7. AlphaSense, $100M, analytics: New York-based AlphaSense became the latest AI-enhanced startup to lock up big money, as it raised another $100 million from investors that included CapitalG — Alphabet’s independent growth fund. Other investors include the growth equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Viking Global Investors. The new money values the company at $1.8 billion. The cash is in addition to the $225 million Series D that valued the company at $1.7 billion last June. The startup has created a market intelligence and search platform — powered by AI and natural language processing — to help clients form corporate and investment strategies.

8. Spring Health, $71M, health care: New York-based mental health startup Spring Health raised $71 million at a valuation of $2.5 billion. The company did not release the names of investors for the round, but firms such as Tiger Global and True Capital Ventures have previously invested. Founded in 2016, the company has raised more than $366 million, per Crunchbase data.

9. Teamworks, $65M, sports: Durham, North Carolina-based Teamworks, which builds tools for sports for coaches and administrators, closed a Series E funding led by Dragoneer Investment Group. Founded in 2004, Teamworks has now raised a total of $165 million, per the company.

10. VintaBio, $64M, biotech: Philadelphia-based viral vector developer VintaBio emerged from stealth and announced a $64 million funding round led by Decheng Capital.

Big global deals

Although the U.S. startup landscape was littered with big rounds, the largest came from Southeast Asia.

• Singapore-based online shopping site Lazada Group received $353 million from its parent firm Alibaba, according to reports.

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 8 to 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

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