The Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds: AI And Defense Tech Lead With Massive Rounds

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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 the biggest funding rounds of last week here.

Artificial intelligence and defense were the key buzz words of the week in the venture world. Three startups in those sectors raised massive rounds, however, there were big rounds elsewhere too — including biotech, healthcare and robotics.

1. Anthropic, $3.5B, artificial intelligence: Anthropic, a ChatGPT rival with its AI assistant Claude, raised a $3.5 billion funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing it at $61.5 billion. Anthropic was last valued at $18.5 billion in February 2024. The round values Anthropic at more than Elon Musk’s xAI, which was valued at $50 million in November after its $6 billion Series C. However, the new round values Anthropic well behind OpenAI, which is closing in on its own new $40 billion funding from SoftBank that will value it at a mind-blowing $260 billion.

2. Epirus, $250M, defense: Startup Epirus raised a $250 million Series D led by 8VC 1 and Washington Harbour Partners in the latest example of a defense tech raising big. The Los Angeles-based company has developed a high-energy, high-power microwave technology to counter drones, drone swarms and other electronics. The new round included a strategic investment from General Dynamics Land Systems. Epirus — founded in 2018 — did not release a valuation after the new round but has raised more than $550 million, per the company. Epirus plans to use the new funds to expand into international and commercial markets, and grow its workforce.

3. Shield AI, $240M, defense: The direct hits just keep coming for the defense tech sector as defense and aerospace startup Shield AI locked up a $240 million F-1 strategic funding round at a $5.3 billion valuation. The new valuation is nearly double the company’s previous $2.7 billion valuation after it raised a $200 million Series F in October 2023 (it later added another $300 million in debt and equity to the round). San Diego-based Shield AI creates an array of intelligent, autonomous systems for the defense sector. Its software, for instance — Hivemind Mind — enables aircraft to operate autonomously in high-threat environments. The new funding received what the company called “major participation from strategic investors” Hanwha Aerospace and L3 Harris Technologies, as well as participation from existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, US Innovative Technology Fund and Washington Harbour Partners. Founded in 2015, Shield AI has raised $1.3 billion, per Crunchbase.

4. Peregrine Technologies, $190M, law enforcement: Law enforcement startup Peregrine Technologies locked up a $190 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital, minting the San Francisco-based firm as a new unicorn at a $2.5 billion valuation. The 7-year-old startup develops data analytics software that allows state and local law enforcement agencies to put together unstructured and disconnected data in order to help understand it better and make decisions. The company’s platform was used last month in New Orleans at Super Bowl LIX by safety officials. While defense tech funding has exploded among VCs, law enforcement tech specifically has inched along slightly slower — with investors likely drawn to the big federal contract potential of startups developing military tech moreso than selling to police departments. Peregrine’s raise is the largest by a law enforcement/public safety startup since Dataminr, an artificial intelligence platform designed for real-time event and risk detection, raised a $475 million Series F in 2021, per Crunchbase data. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $250 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Callio Therapeutics, $187M, biotech: Cancer therapy drug developer Callio Therapeutics raised a massive $187 million Series A led by Frazier Life Sciences. The biotech company — based in Seattle and Singapore — is creating multipayload ADC’s, or antibody-drug conjugates, that deliver multiple agents to tumor cells. The newly formed company intends to use the proceeds to achieve clinical proof of concept for its first ADC and a second undisclosed ADC program.

6. 4C Medical Technologies, $175M, healthcare: Minneapolis-based 4C Medical Technologies, a medical device company developing minimally invasive therapies for structural heart disease, closed a $175 million Series D led by Boston Scientific. Founded in 2015, the company has raised $258 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Turing, $111M, artificial intelligence: Palo Alto, California-based Turing, which contributes code to AI projects, secured an $111 million Series E financing at a valuation of $2.2 billion led by Khazanah Nasional. Founded in 2018, Turing says it has raised $225 million.

8. Odeko, $96M, business development: New York-based Odeko, a software platform for local coffee shops, cafes and other food and beverage businesses, raised a $126 million Series E  — comprised of $96 million in equity led by B Capital and a $30 million credit facility. Founded in 2019, Odeko has raised more than $280 million in equity, per the company.

9. Aescape, $83M, robotics: Aescape, an AI robotics startup for massages, raised $83 million in a round led by Valor Equity Partners. Founded in 2017, New York-based Aescape has raised $128 million, per the company.

1o. PetScreening, $80M, pets: Mooresville, North Carolina-based PetScreening, a pet policy management software developer, took in an $80 million Series B led by Guidepost Growth Equity and Volition Capital. Founded in 2017, the company has raised nearly $85 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

Sweden saw the largest deal of the week outside the U.S.

• Sweden-based aREIM, a property development and management company, raised a venture round worth approximately $488 million.

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 March 1 to March 7. 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