Billion-dollar AI and cyber rounds lead week’s startup funding

Private capital kept chasing the infrastructure behind AI, cybersecurity and other hard-tech markets last week, with two $1 billion rounds topping the U.S. startup funding table. For retail investors, these deals are a useful signal of where venture and private-equity firms are placing large bets before companies reach public markets.

Crunchbase said the 10 largest announced U.S. rounds for July 4-10 included five AI-related financings. A funding round is a private sale of company equity or related securities to investors, often labeled by stage, such as Series A for an earlier institutional round or Series F for a later one.

The two $1 billion leaders

Keyfactor, based in Independence, Ohio, raised $1 billion in a private-equity round led by Summit Partners, according to Crunchbase. Insight Partners and Sixth Street Growth also joined. Keyfactor sells software for digital identity and machine identity management, helping companies secure certificates, encryption keys and connected devices. Crunchbase lists the company’s total funding at $1.21 billion.

SambaNova, based in Palo Alto, California, also announced a $1 billion Series F, Crunchbase reported. General Atlantic led the round, which valued the company at $11 billion after the new money, known as a post-money valuation. Investors included Battery Ventures, BlackRock, Capital Group, Intel Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, T. Rowe Price and Vista Equity Partners. SambaNova builds AI chips and enterprise systems used for training and inference, the process of running AI models after they are built. Crunchbase says the company has raised nearly $2.5 billion in total.

AI, quantum and energy draw large checks

Oratomic raised the third-largest U.S. round, a $300 million Series A co-led by Arch Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Spark Capital, according to Crunchbase. The South Pasadena, California, startup is working on neutral-atom quantum hardware and fault-tolerant architectures intended to move quantum computing toward commercial use.

Quaise Energy, based in Houston, raised a $134 million Series B led by Prelude Ventures. Crunchbase said Jera Ventures, Idemitsu Americas Holdings Corp. and Safar Partners also participated. Quaise is developing millimeter-wave drilling technology for deep geothermal energy and has raised $225 million to date.

Prime Intellect, a San Francisco AI company, raised a $130 million Series A led by Radical Ventures, Crunchbase reported. The company is building an open platform for training and deploying AI models across distributed computing networks. Backers included Dell Technologies Capital, Intel Capital and NVentures, along with several technology executives. Crunchbase puts its total funding at $200.4 million.

Crypto, compliance, aerospace and biotech round out the list

The Block reported that New York-based Gauntlet raised a $125 million Series B from SBI Group as sole investor. Gauntlet develops simulation, risk and optimization software for decentralized finance protocols.

Norm AI raised a $120 million Series C led by Khosla Ventures at a reported $1.2 billion valuation, according to Crunchbase. The New York company uses AI to turn laws and regulations into software that helps companies automate compliance work. Crunchbase says Norm AI has raised just over $256 million.

Venus Aerospace, based in Houston, raised a $91 million Series B backed by Mercury, with investors including Trousdale Ventures, Prime Movers Lab, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Airbus Ventures and Draper Associates, according to Crunchbase. The company is developing hypersonic propulsion technology for aircraft and defense uses.

EDX Markets raised $76 million from SBI Group, Crunchbase said. The digital-asset exchange operates a marketplace for institutional investors, making it SBI’s second large crypto infrastructure deal on the list.

Fore Biotherapeutics, based in Philadelphia and previously known as NovellusDx, raised $67.4 million in Series D funding led by SR One. Crunchbase said the round will support precision oncology therapies for rare cancer mutations and brings the company’s total funding to just over $274 million.

Large rounds outside the U.S.

• Munich-based Proxima Fusion raised €411 million, about $468 million, in Series B funding for a planned commercial fusion energy power plant in Europe, with lead investors including East X Ventures, Google, RWE and XTX Ventures, according to Crunchbase.
• Paris-based Skello raised €200 million, about $229 million, in a private-equity round led by Bridgepoint Group for HR software covering payroll, scheduling, compliance and employee communications, Crunchbase reported.

Crunchbase said its ranking covered the largest announced rounds in its database for U.S.-based companies during July 4-10, with possible timing delays for deals reported late in the week.

This story draws on original reporting from Crunchbase News.