A New Tipping Point in AI? Investors Pour More Money into the Field

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This is our weekly feature showcasing the top 10 funding rounds announced that week in the US. Check out last week’s biggest funding round here.

Again, this week can be summed up in two words we’ve heard all year long: artificial intelligence. Investors are in a frenzy again, pouring billions into all AI, led mostly by big companies and their venture capital arms. That included a huge round of over $1 billion.

With so much money being poured into the field, the only real question left is when will AI start writing this weekly column?

1. Refraction AI, $1.3 billion, artificial intelligence: The big news this week was definitely this Palo Alto, California-based startup. Inflection AI is building what is to be the “largest AI cluster in the world,” creating large-scale language models that allow people to interact with an AI-powered assistant called Pi (Personal AI). With Pi, people can instantly receive relevant information and advice about their interests. According to Forbes, which first reported the news, to build the platform, the startup has invested in Microsoft, Reed Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, and Inflection AI, a new investment valued at $4 billion. House says it has secured a huge $1.3 billion round led by Nvidia. The new funding brings Inflection’s total raised to more than $1.5 billion, according to the company. Founded last year, the generative AI platform is a competitor to other AI companies such as OpenAI and Google. It was co-founded by Mustafa Suleyman, who previously co-founded Google-owned AI lab DeepMind and is CEO of Inflection.

2. Runway, $141 Million, Artificial Intelligence: It wasn’t long ago that New York-based Runway appeared on this list after Business Insider reported on this unannounced round. Now that it’s finally announced, Runway is giving away $141 million to Google, Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures 1, existing investors, and more as an extension to his $50 million Series C scheduled for December. procured from At the time of the first report, he valued the company at $1.5 billion in fresh cash. Runway helped develop the AI ​​image generation tool Stable Diffusion, an inter-video generation AI app he released in April. The app allows users to transform videos into different styles such as claymation and watercolor painting. The company was founded in 2018 and so far he has raised nearly $240 million, according to Crunchbase.

3. Author Health, $115 Million, Healthcare: Health care has been all the rage in recent weeks, and this week saw a big round in a newly launched mental health startup. Author Health has secured his $115 million round from General Atlantic and Flare Capital Partners. This Boston-based medical platform has assembled teams of doctors, nurses, therapists and community health workers for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with severe mental disorders. According to Commonwealth Foundation data, one in four of her Medicare beneficiaries has a mental illness, but only 50% of them are receiving treatment. Author Health is the latest startup looking at government health programs as a revenue stream. Startups like EasyHealth, Cityblock Health, CareBridge and Spark Advisors are doing similar work.

4. (Tie) Celestial AI, $100M, Semiconductor: Photonic chips, which use light to transmit signals, as opposed to the electricity used by traditional processors, seem to be making waves among investors. In late May, Boston-based Lightmatter raised $154 million in this space, with Celestial AI joining the fundraising this week. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and Koch Disruptive Technologies. Temasek’s Xora Innovation Fund. Such technologies are needed more than ever, as AI requires faster and more energy efficient computing. The company was founded in 2020 and so far he has raised nearly $164 million, according to Crunchbase.

4. (Tie) Cyera, $100M, Cybersecurity: Data may be king, but tracking and protecting it can be a hassle. Data security startup Cyera enters. The company has secured his $100 million Series B led by Accel. Cyera provides a platform that helps enterprise security teams understand what data they have, how they use it, and how to protect it. Such a platform helps security teams deal with growing data volumes while also often facing staffing issues. Since closing its Series A in March last year, the company claims to have delivered 800% revenue growth. Cyera, which he founded in 2020, has now raised $164.5 million in three rounds, according to Crunchbase. The round comes amid a slump in cyber funding, according to Crunchbase data. Funding has dropped significantly since Q4 2021. The sector has declined for four consecutive quarters, reaching $2.7 billion in the first quarter of this year. This was slightly up from $2.4 billion in the final quarter of 2022. However, this first quarter number was down 58% from $6.5 billion. The same quarter of 2022 saw such a startup.

4. (Tie) Redpanda data, $100 million, data: Streaming data startup Redpanda Data has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Google Ventures and Haystack. This San Francisco-based startup offers a real-time streaming data service powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, as you might expect. Companies can analyze data as soon as it is collected. The platform acts as both a data storage system and a data streaming system, enabling businesses to integrate their data into machine learning systems for enhanced response. The company said it had quintupled revenue growth and doubled its workforce over the last fiscal year. The company was founded in 2019 and has raised nearly $166 million to date, according to Crunchbase data.

4. (Tie) Typeface, $100 Million, Artificial Intelligence: Yet another AI startup joins the list. San Francisco-based generative AI startup Typeface launched in February with a $65 million funding round, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, GV, Menlo Ventures, M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund) and Salesforce. Raised $100 million in Series B led by Ventures. The company’s AI platform helps create corporate content such as product shots, blog posts, social media ads, and job postings that meet brand specifications.

8. AugMedics, $83M, Healthcare: Augmedics, a Chicago-based augmented reality surgical navigation developer, has raised $82.5 million in Series D funding led by CPMG. The company was founded by him in 2014 and so far he has raised nearly $144 million, according to Crunchbase.

9. Presidio Medical, $72 million, medical devices: South San Francisco, Calif.-based Presidio Medical, which develops innovative neuromodulation platforms, has closed a $72 million Series C led by Deerfield Management. The company was founded in 2017 and so far he has raised $102 million, according to Crunchbase.

10. (Tie) Fly.io, $70M, Apps: Chicago-based remote app delivery network developer Fly.io has raised $70 million in Series C funding led by EQT Ventures. The company was founded in 2017 and has now raised over $110 million, according to Crunchbase.

10. (Tie) K36 Therapeutics, $70M, Biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech startup K36 Therapeutics has completed a $70 million Series B led by Nextech Invest. It will be launched in 2021, according to Crunchbase, and this will be the first round the company has announced.

Large global deals

A large round of inflation led all deals raised this week, followed by two deals from China.

methodology

We tracked the largest rounds announced in the Crunchbase database raised by US-based companies over a seven-day period from June 24th to June 30th. Most of the announced rounds are shown in our database, but some rounds may have a slight lag. Rounds will be reported later in the week.

Illustrated by Dom Guzman