The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Huge Round Flows Into Cross River; Biotech And Health Care Companies See Big Deals

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

As in previous weeks, a company in the financial space saw the biggest round this week—but after that the rounds got smaller quickly. Cross River’s round was the only one above a quarter-billion dollars in the U.S., and several raises that made the list were less than $100 million. Seemingly very different from last year—although biotech and health care services stayed strong with investors.

1. Cross River, $620M, financial services: This is the type of round one would expect the next hot fintech company to raise. Instead, Fort Lee, New Jersey-based CRB Group—the parent company of financial technology infrastructure provider Cross River—is likely a financial services player many have never heard of. But Cross River provides the infrastructure backbone to power more than 80 payment and lending companies, including Affirm, Coinbase and Stripe. That customer list surely made it possible for it to take home the biggest round this week with a $620 million financing round led by Eldridge and Andreessen Horowitz. The round was raised at a valuation “north of $3 billion,” TechCrunch reported.

2. ConcertAI, $150M, health care: Artificial intelligence has been a buzzword for years among investors, but perhaps never more than now. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ConcertAI is the latest startup in the AI space to close a large round, raising a $150 million Series C from Sixth Street at a $1.9 billion valuation. The company has developed a platform specifically for life sciences and health care that helps drive clinical research for different diseases such as cancer, and match patients with specific clinical trials, treatments and medications. Founded in 2018, the company has raised about $300 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

3. BillionToOne, $125M, biotech: Biotech and health was big this week. Menlo Park, California-based BillionToOne closed a $125 million Series C co-led by incoming investor Adams Street Partners and existing investor Hummingbird Ventures. The diagnostics company creates genetic testing for disease detection, including a noninvasive prenatal test that can assess fetal risk for common recessive conditions. Founded in 2016, the company has raised more than $210 million, according to Crunchbase.

4. (tied) Brightline, $105M, health care: The pandemic accelerated many things—including people looking at mental health much more seriously. Investors also are looking at startups that help with the problem seriously. Palo Alto, California-based Brightline closed a $105 million Series C led by KKR last week. The company has built a one-stop platform specifically for children up to 18 and their caregivers, with on-demand support, coaching programs and other clinical services. Founded in 2019, the company has raised more than $200 million.

4. (tied) Docker, $105M, open source: Palo Alto, California-based Docker—which offers an open platform for developing and running distributed applications—closed a $105 million Series C led by new investor Bain Capital Ventures at a $2.1 billion valuation. What is eye-catching about the news is Docker’s past. It was just more than two years ago that the company went through a restructuring and recapitalization, selling off its enterprise business to Mirantis. Through the last two-plus years, the company went back to focusing on developers. The strategy seems to have worked as the company just announced in February that its annual recurring revenue is now over $50 million, representing more than 4x year-over-year growth.

6. (tied) Chief, $100M, social network: New York-based Chief raised a $100 million Series B led by CapitalG at a valuation of $1.1 billion. The private membership network is focused on connecting women in executive leadership positions. Founded in 2019, the company has now raised $140 million, according to Crunchbase data.

6. (tied) Neuron23, $100M, biotech: South San Francisco, California-based Neuron23 closed a $100 million Series C led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The biotech startup, which is developing treatments for Parkinson’s disease and systemic inflammatory diseases, has raised $213.5 million to date.

8. Hadrian, $90M, manufacturing: Hawthorne, California-based aerospace manufacturer Hadrian Automation raised a $90 million round led by Lux Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Founded in 2020, the company has raised nearly $100 million, according to Crunchbase.

9. MycoTechnology, $85M, organic food: Aurora, Colorado-based MycoTechnology, a fungi-based food-processing platform, closed an $85 million Series E led by a group affiliated with the Oman Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund. Founded in 2013, the company has raised more than $200 million, according to Crunchbase.

10. Stylitics, $80M, retail: New York-based visual merchandising and outfitting startup Stylitics raised an $80 million Series C funded by PSG. The company has now raised about $100 million in total funding.

Big global deals

Although deal size was on the low side for U.S.-based companies, four of the top five deals globally were raised by companies outside the country.

• China-based JD Property, an infrastructure asset manager and subsidiary of JD.com, closed an $800 million Series B.
• Canada-based clean-energy company Entropy raised a round worth approximately $240 million.
• China-based Soterea, an intelligent driving system developer, closed a Series B worth approximately $204 million.
• Paris-based Deepki, which helps real estate owners reduce their carbon footprints, raised a Series C worth about $166 million.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of March 26 to April 1. 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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