The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Neuralink Connects With $280M, Biotech Goes Big Again

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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.

Although much of the talk this week was about a big raise for a big brain-implant startup, biotech actually ruled. Three of the top five rounds went to biotech firms, with the rare big cyber insurance raise also in the mix. However, after only a handful of really big rounds, dollar size for raises dropped off quickly.

1. Neuralink, $280M, neuroscience: The week started off with a bang, as Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink announced (on Musk-owned X, of course) it had raised $280 million in new funding from investors to develop its technology. The round was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. No valuation was released, but in June, Reuters reported that the company was valued at about $5 billion after secondary stock trades. Neuralink, which is attempting to have people communicate with computers through brain function, received approval for its first in-human clinical trial earlier this year. The company has not been without controversy. Last year, it was reported the company was rushing surgeries on animals to try and get government approvals. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $643 million, per Crunchbase.

2. ADARx Pharmaceuticals, $200M, biotech: Biotech had a slow week — by biotech standards — last week as far as huge rounds go. However, it made a nice comeback this week. First up is San Diego-based ADARx Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage startup developing next-generation RNA therapeutics, which locked up a $200 million Series C led jointly by Bain Capital Life Sciences and TCG Crossover. The 4-year-old firm has developed RNA platforms and tech for editing target mRNA and is developing therapeutics for treating genetic, cardiovascular, central nervous system and other types of disease. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $332 million, per Crunchbase.

3. Alltrna, $109M, biotech: That was not all from biotech this week. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Alltrna, a startup looking to develop genetic medicines based on transfer RNA molecules, locked up a $109 million Series B. The company did not announce a lead investor, but said investors included Flagship Pioneering — which founded the startup — and “a number of top-tier investors.” Alltrna is one of the few biotech companies trying to use tRNA biology to correct diseases using its own platform. Founded in 2018, the company has now raised $159 million, according to Crunchbase.

4. Resilience, $100M, cybersecurity: Not that long ago, cyber insurance didn’t really exist as firms struggled with exactly how to measure cyber risk at a company. That time is long gone. Cyber insurance is definitely a thing, and San Francisco-based Resilience raised $100 million to help prove that. The startup helps companies analyze their systems to see what risks and attacks could affect them, and partners with underwriters to write policies. The round was led by Intact Ventures, the venture arm of Intact Insurance. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $217 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Georgiamune, $75M, biotech: We go back to biotech. Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Georgiamune, another clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised a $75 million Series A co-led by General Catalyst and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. However, perhaps the bigger news for the company is that it achieved U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for its investigational new drug application for its dual-functioning monoclonal antibody to overcome immunotherapy resistance. Founded in 2014, this is the firm’s first outside round, per Crunchbase.

6. Verdagy, $73M, renewable energy: Moss Landing, California-based Verdagy, which is scaling electrolyzer technologies for the production of green hydrogen, closed a $73 million Series B co-led by Temasek and Shell Ventures. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $117 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Simon Data, $54M, data: New York-based Simon Data, a customer data platform developer, locked up a $54 million Series D led by Macquarie Capital. Founded in 2015, the company has raised nearly $116 million, per Crunchbase.

8 (tied). Weights & Biases, $50M, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Weights & Biases, which helps build artificial intelligence models, raised $50 million led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross at a $1.25 billion valuation. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $250 million, per Crunchbase.

8 (tied). Persefoni, $50M, climate management: Persefoni, a climate management and accounting SaaS product for companies to track their emissions and carbon capture, raised a $50 million Series C funding led by TPG Rise Climate Fund. Founded in 2020, the Tempe, Arizona-based company has raised a total of $164 million, per Crunchbase. 

10. Tractian, $45M, IoT: Atlanta-based Tractian, a developer of industrial monitoring systems, closed a $45 million growth capital round led by General Catalyst. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $64 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

While Neuralink’s round was big, it was not the biggest of the week globally. It finished second to an engineering firm across the Pacific:

• Singapore-based Quest Global, a developer of engineering solutions, raised a $500 million private equity round.

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 Aug. 5 to Aug. 11. 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