The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Uniquity Bio And Vercel Lead Another Huge Week

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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.

It was again not a bad week for raising big. Two rounds to U.S.-based startups this week hit a quarter-billion dollars or more, and there were eight rounds of $100 million or more. Once again, biotech made up nearly a third of the list while some other sectors that don’t usually make the list — developer platform and analytics — were represented. 

1. Uniquity Bio, $300M, biotech: It has become pretty much the norm to start off these lists with a big biotech raise. This week it was a brand-new company launched by Blackstone Life Sciences — a unit of the private equity giant — along with a sizable $300 million investment. The new startup is a clinical-stage drug development company focused on immunology and inflammation. The company already has FDA acceptance of its Phase 2 investigational new drug application for one of its medicines.

2. Vercel, $250M, developer platform: Vercel, a platform that allows companies to develop web applications in the cloud, locked up a $250 million Series E at a valuation of $3.25 billion. The round was led by Accel, with participation from other existing investors including CRV, GV, Notable Capital (previously GGV Capital), Bedrock, Geodesic Capital, Tiger Global, 8VC and SV Angel 1. The new round is an upround from Vercel’s 2021 raise, when it secured $150 million in a Series D funding at a $2.5 billion valuation led by GGV Capital. The San Francisco-based company allows developers to use an open-source framework to create web applications, and tries to simplify the process to migrate websites to cloud infrastructure to help with accessibility. Vercel has a number of big-name customers such as Under Armour, Unity and Nintendo. The company says it recently surpassed $100 million in annualized revenue and more than 1 million monthly active developers. Founded in 2015, the company has raised $568 million, per Crunchbase.

3. Sigma, $200M, analytics: Cloud analytics startup Sigma raised a $200 million Series D co-led by Spark Capital and Avenir Growth Capital. Similar to Vercel, it was an upround from the company’s last financing. The San Francisco-based company says the valuation was a 60% increase from its $300 million Series C led by D1 Capital Partners and XN in 2021 and it was reported the new valuation was $1.5 billion. Founded in 2014, the company has raised $581 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Restaurant365, $175M, accounting: It was only about a year ago that Restaurant365 made this list, and now the startup is back with an even bigger raise. The Irvine, California-based startup raised a $175 million round led by Iconiq Growth this week, after locking up a $135 million round co-led by KKR and L Catterton at a $1 billion valuation last May. Restaurant365 offers enterprise management software for restaurants, helping them take care of accounting, payroll, supply chain and more. Founded in 2011, the company has raised more than $438 million, per Crunchbase.

5. The Bot Company, $150M, robotics: No one likes cleaning the house, and perhaps soon you won’t have to anymore. Kyle Vogt, founder and former CEO of autonomous car startup Cruise, unveiled his newest startup this week. The Bot Company aims to develop robots that do “chores” for people. Nothing else much was disclosed about the company or what exactly those chores will be. The $150 million seed funding came from the likes of Quiet Capital, Stripe’s Patrick Collison and John Collison, and others. Vogt left Cruise last year after a Cruise car hit and dragged a woman in San Francisco, causing regulators to suspend Cruise’s license to operate in California.

6. Weka, $140M, data: Weka locked up a $140 million Series E — raised in both a primary and secondary transaction — that values the data platform at $1.6 billion. The valuation is more than double what the company was last valued at after a $135 million Series D led by Generation Investment Management in late 2022. At the time, it was reported that the Campbell, California-based startup had a $750 million valuation after the raise. The new round was led by Valor Equity Partners. Weka helps companies move data between sources faster and more efficiently — something mandatory for companies building AI projects. Founded in 2013, Weka has now raised $375 million, according to Crunchbase. Its new round is just the latest big raise for an AI infrastructure company. In February, Lambda which offers cloud computing services and hardware for training artificial intelligence software, hit unicorn status after a $320 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation. And earlier this month, AI cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave locked up a $1.1 billion round led by Coatue that values the company at $19 billion, per The Wall Street Journal. 

7. Lycia Therapeutics, $107M, biotech: South San Francisco-based Lycia Therapeutics, a biotech company developing therapeutics that degrade extracellular and membrane-bound proteins that drive autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, completed a $106.6 million Series C led by Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $227 million, per Crunchbase.

8. Alkira, $100M, cloud infrastructure: San Jose, California-based Alkira, which allows companies to manage hybrid cloud assets, closed a $100 million Series C led by Tiger Global Management. Founded in 2018, Alkira has raised $176 million, per the company.

9. (tied). Ajax Therapeutics, $95M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Ajax Therapeutics, which is developing a drug for the bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis, raised a $95 million Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $135 million, per Crunchbase.

9. (tied). ByHeart, $95M, nutrition: New York-based ByHeart, an infant formula brand, locked up a $95 million  financing from undisclosed investors. The company also announced two new production facilities in Oregon and Iowa — allowing ByHeart to triple its supply capacity. Founded in 2016, ByHeart has raised a total of $395 million from investors including D1 Capital Partners, Polaris Partners and others.

Big global deals

U.S.-based startups led the way when it came to big rounds this week by far, as there were no nine-figure rounds raised globally. The biggest round outside the U.S. came from down under.

• Australian-based Cover Genius, an insurance distribution platform for customers of e-commerce companies, raised an $80 million Series E.

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 May 11 to May 17. 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