The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Smile Doctors Likely Happy With $550M Raise

Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2023 with our new 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.

Startups in a smattering of pretty diverse sectors raised good chunks of money this week. A dental startup, a reality TV personality-founded shapewear company, and an enterprise software firm led the way. Hard to find any connections there. After those really big nine-figure raises, there was a significant drop off on the list as venture continued a slow summer.

1. Smile Doctors, $550M, dental: Dental startups seem to be catching inventors’ eyes recently. Last month, Birmingham, Alabama-based HighFive Healthcare, which enables a network of dental offices to centralize their operations, closed a $100 million growth investment led by Norwest. This week, Dallas-based Smile Doctors, which has more than 400 dental locations in 28 states, announced it has raised more than $550 million. The dental group did not disclose investors, just saying the round was “funded by doctors along with several large domestic and international healthcare investors.” Founded in 2015, this is the firm’s first announced outside round, per Crunchbase.

2. Skims, $270M, clothing: Kim Kardashian’s apparel brand hit a $4 billion valuation this week after Skims raised $270 million in a funding round led by Wellington Management. It was just early last year that the underwear and shapewear brand raised $240 million in a round led by Lone Pine Capital that valued the company at $3.2 billion. The startup, which offers everything from underwear to loungewear, expects sales to grow from $500 million last year to $750 million this year. It’s also expanding into brick-and-mortar sites. Founded four years ago, the company has now raised $669 million, per Crunchbase.

3. o9 Solutions, $116M, enterprise software: Another company that locked up a nice chunk of cash in January 2022 got another shot of growth capital this week. Dallas-based o9 Solutions, which offers cloud-based solutions that help companies with planning and operations, raised a $116 million round led by General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero fund. The new investment values o9 at $3.7 billion, up from $2.7 billion since that previous $295 million round a year-and-a-half ago. Founded in 2009, the company has raised $533 million, per Crunchbase.

4. K Health, $59M, artificial intelligence: AI often tops this list, but this week it comes in just a little bit off. New York-based K Health, whose mobile app uses AI to deliver personalized primary care, raised $59 million from the likes of Valor Equity Partners, Primary Ventures and others. The company hit unicorn status back in 2021 when it raised a $132 million Series E at a $1.4 billion valuation — however it was reported its value may have plummeted since. Founded in 2016, the company has raised more than $330 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Hammerspace, $57M, data: Data orchestration platform Hammerspace locked up a $56.7 million round this week led by Prosperity7 Ventures — its first round of institutional investment. The San Mateo, California-based startup, which launched in 2018, helps company’s make use of their unstructured data — which makes up 90% of enterprise data — which could become more important as users look for additional data to train artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies.

6. Renibus Therapeutics, $47M, biotech: Southlake, Texas-based Renibus Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the prevention and treatment of cardio-renal diseases, raised $47 million from the initial closing of a Series B. Investors were not disclosed. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $190 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Preply, $42M, edtech: Brookline, Massachusetts-based language learning platform Preply closed its $120 million Series C with an additional $70 million in debt and equity led by Horizon Capital. It was reported $42 million of that capital was equity. Founded in 2012, the company has raised nearly $193 million, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Karat Financial, $40M, finance: Los Angeles-based Karat Financial, a financial services platform for creators, closed a $70 million round of debt and equity. The company said $40 million of the round was equity led by SignalFire. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $116 million, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Risc Zero, $40M, blockchain: Seattle-based Risc Zero, a zero-knowledge tech developer to make blockchains more accessible, raised a $40 million Series A led by Blockchain Capital. Founded last year, the company has raised $54 million, per Crunchbase.

10. Hightouch, $38M, data: San Francisco-based customer data startup Hightouch locked up a $38 million round led by Bain Capital Ventures. Founded in 2018, the company has raised more than $92 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

The big U.S. deals topped even the global deals list, however there was a noteworthy raise abroad.

• South Korea-based Musinsa, a fashion e-commerce business, raised a $190 million Series C.

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 July 15 to July 21. 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