Crusoe Energy, Insider And Biotech Raise Big

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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.

There may not have been a $1 billion raise this week, but large money deals did abound. Two U.S. startups raised half a billion dollars apiece, and another eight raised $100 million or more, with industries from cybersecurity to biotech to AI represented.

1. (tied) Crusoe Energy Systems, $500M, energy: This is not the first time Crusoe has made this list. Back in 2022, the Denver-based company was helping power Bitcoin mining by harnessing natural gas that is typically burned during oil extraction and putting it toward powering the data centers needed for mining — raising a $350 million Series C equity round led by G2 Venture Partners, at a $1.75 billion valuation in the process. Well, Crusoe has now turned its energy to AI — literally. The company is a so-called “neocloud” — a data center firm providing outsourced cloud computing for those looking to build AI. That business plan was enough for Crusoe to reportedly lock up a $500 million round led by Founders Fund at a $3 billion valuation. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $1.2 billion, per Crunchbase.

1. (tied) Insider, $500M, digital marketing: Marketing tech platform Insider raised a $500 million Series E led by General Atlantic to fund its expansion in the U.S. and AI product development. The latest funding comes about 18 months after a round last year that valued it at $1.9 billion. The New York-based company declined to disclose its valuation with the latest round. Insider, which was co-founded in Istanbul in 2012, has now raised $772.1 million from investors, per Crunchbase. The company says it operates in 28 countries around the world and counts big names such as Nike, Samsung, L’Oreal, Unilever, Allianz and Disney among its customers.

3. Beta Technologies, $318M, aerospace: If you’re one of those people frustrated that the technology revolution has not yet delivered us the flying cars we were promised, take heart: Startups working on vertical-takeoff aircraft continue to get investor interest. The latest startup in the space to get a big chunk of cash is Beta Technologies, maker of electric vertical take-off and landing planes. The South Burlington, Vermont-based startup this week announced a Series C led by Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Fidelity, TPG Rise Climate Fund and United Therapeutics also joined as investors. The company — which has now raised $1.4 billion from investors, per Crunchbase — said the fresh cash will be used to move its aircraft closer to certification and commercialization.

4. Armis Security, $200M, cybersecurity: Cybersecurity startup Armis Security closed a $200 million Series D led by Alkeon Capital and General Catalyst. The round boosts the company’s valuation nearly 25% to $4.2 billion. The San Francisco-based startup last raised a $300 million private equity round in 2021 led by One Equity Partners at a $3.4 billion valuation. The new cash comes just after Armis said it had surpassed $200 million in annual recurring revenue — growing ARR by an additional $100 million in less than 18 months. The company is targeting an IPO in 2026, per Bloomberg. In 2020, Insight Partners bought a large stake in the startup. Armis is one of a handful of companies that plays in the industrial security — also called operational technology security — and IoT security spaces. The sector typically sees an ebb-and-flow of investment interest, but 2024 has been good for startups in the sector. Earlier this year, New York-based Claroty secured $100 million in strategic debt/credit financing led by Delta-v Capital, and San Francisco-based Nozomi Networks locked up a $100 million Series E from investors including Mitsubishi Electric and Schneider Electric.

5. Sierra, $175M, artificial intelligence: If you want to have your company’s valuation skyrocket in the blink of an eye, start an AI startup. Ex-Salesforce 1 co-CEO Bret Taylor’s conversational AI startup Sierra raised $175 million this week in a funding round led by Greenoaks Capital that gave it a $4.5 billion valuation. It was just in February when the San Francisco-based company raised $110 million led by Sequoia Capital and Benchmark at a reported valuation of nearly $1 billion. A 4.5x increase in value in eight months time is not too shabby. And yes, Taylor also is chairman of the board at OpenAI — whose large language models Sierra uses — although he has said there are no conflicts of interest.

6. Melio, $150M, fintech: Payments platform Melio raised a $150 million Series E led by Fiserv at a $2 billion valuation. The New York-based company last raised cash in 2021 at a $4 billion valuation, but a reported sale of the company fell through last year at half that value. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $654 million, per Crunchbase.

7. (tied) Axonis Therapeutics, $115M, biotech: Boston-based Axonis Therapeutics, a biotech startup developing neuromedicines, locked up a $115 million Series A co-led by Cormorant Asset Management and venBio Partners. Founded in 2020, the company has raised nearly $130 million, per Crunchbase.

7. (tied) Evommune, $115M, biotech: Palo Alto, California-based Evommune, a biotech startup developing new ways to treat immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, completed a $115 million Series C co-led by new investors RA Capital Management and Sectoral Asset Management. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $268 million, per Crunchbase.

7. (tied) Fingercheck, $115M, human resources: Small business payroll and human resource software company Fingercheck raised a $115 million growth investment led by Edison Partners. Fingercheck’s platform allows payroll and HR management to be set up in hours and supports posting jobs, onboarding, payroll, scheduling and shift management, and more. The round is impressive considering the precipitous fall in funding to HR startups in recent years. During the height of the venture market in 2021, few sectors seemed to benefit as much as human resources — likely due to the fact businesses were undergoing major changes in the way they handled employees due to the pandemic. In 2021, HR startups raised more than $10.5 billion in over 900 rounds, per Crunchbase data. In 2023, those numbers fell to $7.8 billion in more than 800 rounds, and then dropped to only $2.9 billion in 500 rounds last year. So far this year, HR startups have seen only $1.7 billion in fewer than 300 rounds, per Crunchbase data. In fact, Fingercheck’s round is only the fourth raise in 2024 of $100 million or more in the sector.

10. DoorLoop, $100M, property management: Miami-based DoorLoop, a property management software company, raised a $100 million Series B funding led by JMI Equity. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $130 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

The biggest deal of the week came from China.

• GDS International, a developer and operator of data centers, raised $1 billion from institutional private-equity investors.

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 Oct. 26 to Nov. 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