The 10 Biggest Rounds Of March: Wonder, Biotech Headline Big Month

This is a monthly feature that runs down the month’s top 10 funding rounds in the U.S. Check out the biggest rounds of last month here.

Wonder’s big $700 million raise may have captured most people’s attention last month, but the story when it came for large deals was really biotech. That sector saw seven of the rounds on this list. Those rounds alone totaled nearly $1.5 billion. That makes it quite the month for startups looking to develop drugs and therapies for all that ails us.

1. Wonder, $700M, food delivery: Marc Lore’s Wonder raised a whopping $700 million in its latest round. Investors in the deal — which was reportedly raised as a simple agreement for future equity, which has no valuation set — included New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures, Accel and Bain Capital Ventures, among others. Lore himself reportedly invested $100 million. The company aims to open 100 more locations over the next two years. It currently has 11 locations in the New York City area that offer takeout and delivery from several restaurants cooked in a single kitchen. The New York-based firm has been pretty busy of late. In September, Wonder acquired meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million. Founded in 2018, Wonder has raised nearly $1.8 billion, per Crunchbase.

2. Mirador Therapeutics, $400M, biotech: It was a huge month for big biotech raises and this was the biggest. San Diego-based Mirador launched with a $400 million Series A funding led by Arch Venture Partners. The company was founded by CEO Mark McKenna and executives from Prometheus Biosciences, which was acquired by Merck in 2023. With breakthroughs in genetics and machine learning, the company is focused on precision medicine for chronic inflammation and fibrotic disease.

3. Alumis, $259M, biotech: South San Francisco-based Alumis raised a $259 million Series C led by Foresite Capital, Samsara BioCapital and VenBio Partners. The startup is developing oral therapies for patients with immune-mediated diseases. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $529 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Applied Intuition, $250M, autonomous vehicles: Autonomous vehicle software developer Applied Intuition locked up a $250 million Series E valuing the company at $6 billion — a 67% uptick in value from its previous round. The new round was led by Lux Capital, Elad Gil and strategic investor Porsche Investments Management. The Mountain View, California-based startup develops software for automotive, trucking, construction, mining and other industries. The company leverages generative AI in developing software to help customers create driver-assistance systems and automated driving solutions. The up round comes despite venture funding in the autonomous vehicle sector continuing to be in decline. Last year, autonomous driving startups raised less than $5 billion — the sector’s lowest funding total since 2017, per Crunchbase data. The drop has come amid numerous setbacks for the industry. Just last month, Apple unceremoniously shuttered its autonomous electric car initiative after a decade of work. Founded in 2017, Applied Intuition has raised more than $600 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Axonius, $200M, asset management: The month also saw a big extension round. New York-based Axonius, a cybersecurity and SaaS asset management startup, secured a $200 million Series E extension led by Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company had originally raised another $200 million in the Series E in 2022 at an announced $2.6 billion valuation. Asset management is big for companies that want visibility into what they have so they can find security gaps, risks, misconfigurations and cost inefficiencies. That need is obvious as Axonius just surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $865 million, per Crunchbase.

6. Sionna Therapeutics, $182M, biotech: Yet another big biotech raise as Boston-based Sionna Therapeutics locked up a $182 million Series C. The startup, which is developing treatments for cystic fibrosis, raised the new cash for the clinical development of small molecules designed to fully restore the function of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein. The round was led by Enavate Sciences. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $292 million, per Crunchbase.

7. (tied) Capstan Therapeutics, $175M, biotech: Capstan Therapeutics raised a $175 million Series B led by RA Capital Management. The San Diego-based biotechnology company focuses on vivo reprogramming of cells through RNA delivery to combat autoimmune disorders. Founded in 2021, the company says it has raised $340 million.

7. (tied) Celestial AI, $175M, semiconductors: Optical interconnectivity startup Celestial AI raised a massive $175 million Series C led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund. With the explosion of generative AI, both compute power availability and memory capacity are becoming more and more crunched — and marriage between compute and memory causes both to increase simultaneously. However, Celestial’s photonic fabric platform helps separate compute and memory, making processing extensive AI faster and more energy-efficient computing. It was just last June when Santa Clara, California-based Celestial raised its $100 million Series B funding led by IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies and Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund. Founded in 2020, the company has raised nearly $339 million, per Crunchbase. It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the semiconductor industry as investors have flocked to the sector knowing its importance in the rocketing AI industry. Earlier in March, shares of Astera Labs — a developer of data center connectivity technology with use cases in generative AI — soared after its initial public offering on the Nasdaq. Shares have since then remained well above their IPO price.

9. Engrail Therapeutics, $157M, biotech: Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are serious diseases in which therapies can be somewhat limited. Engrail Therapeutics locked up a fresh $157 million Series B co-led by new investors F-Prime Capital, Forbion Capital Partners and Norwest Venture Partners to help expand offerings to combat those problems. The San Diego-based biotech startup focuses on neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental diseases and will use the fresh cash to advance its pipeline through clinical development. Since being founded in 2019, Engrail has raised over $220 million, per the company.

10. (tied) Avenzo Therapeutics, $150M, biotech: Oncology startup Avenzo Therapeutics is the next biotech raise, closing a $150 million Series A-1 financing led by Deep Track Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Sands Capital Ventures and Sofinnova Investments. The San Diego-based firm has now raised $347 million since the company’s founding in August 2022, per the company. The startup plans to use the new proceeds to advance its emerging oncology pipeline, which includes a treatment for metastatic breast cancer and other advanced solid tumors.

10. (tied) Clasp Therapeutics, $150M, biotech: Clasp Therapeutics locked up the last big biotech raise on this list. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup is developing T cell engagers tailored to each patient’s immune system to target tumors. The company launched this week with a $150 million financing led by Catalio Capital Management, Third Rock Ventures and Novo Holdings.

Big global deals

Despite all the big rounds in the U.S., the biggest raise of the month came from China.

• Zhiji Automobile, a developer and manufacturer of electric vehicles, raised a $1.1 billion Series B.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the month of March. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the month.

Illustration: Dom Guzman