It was one other month of huge deals. To make the top 10 list, you had to boost greater than $150 million this month — as investors poured into every part from defense tech to semiconductors to biotech.
1. Anduril Industry$1.5 billion, defense: Anduril Industries tied its own record for the largest defense technology round in history. The Costa Mesa, California-based startup raised $1.5 billion in a Series F round that values the company at $14 billion — a 69% increase from the $8.5 billion valuation it received in its massive $1.5 billion Series E round in late 2022. The round was co-led by Founders Fund AND Capital Sands. The company will use some of the latest proceeds to develop Arsenal-1, greater than 5 million square feet of producing space designed to provide tens of hundreds of autonomous military systems per 12 months. After a slow begin to the 12 months, funding for defense tech startups has surged in the past few months. Just last month, Helsingwhich develops artificial intelligence software for defense purposes, has raised roughly $489 million in funding, led by General Catalyst which values the company at $5.4 billion. After Anduril’s massive round, defense tech startups raised $2.5 billion in 2024, in accordance with Crunchbase dataLast 12 months, such startups raised a total of just $2 billion.
2. Grok$640 million, semiconductors: AI and software semiconductor startup Groq has raised $640 million in a Series D round at a valuation of $2.8 billion. The round was led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRockThe Mountain View, California-based company is helping to develop ways to optimize AI and reduce the massive computing power that is currently required to do so. The latest round nearly triples the company’s valuation from its 2021 Series C round. Founded in 2016, the company raised $1 billion, in accordance with Crunchbase.
3. Kite work$456 million, cybersecurity: Investors appear to be taking an interest in cybersecurity again, with secure content company Kiteworks raising $456 million Insight Partners AND Sixth Street. The San Mateo, California-based company described the latest round as “growth capital” but also said it was a “partial liquidity event,” meaning some investors may have cashed out. While the company didn’t provide a valuation, it said it was a minority investment, which puts its valuation at greater than $1 billion. The Kiteworks platform lets customers share sensitive data with other trusted parties through communication channels like email and file sharing. In 2020, the company raised $120 million in a funding round led by Bregal SagemountFounded in 1999, Kiteworks has gathered $592 millionThe company was formerly referred to as Accellion and suffered a major data breach in 2021.
4. GondolaBio$300 million, biotechnology: BridgeBio Pharma This month, it spun off GondolaBio, a biotech focused on early-stage treatments for genetic diseases. The company was also formed with a hefty money injection — $300 million from a handful of big-name corporations, including Viking Global Investors AND Sequoia CapitalThe latest company will focus on research, development, manufacturing and commercialization for early-stage clinical or preclinical programs in several different areas.
5. Grafana Laboratory$270 million, evaluation: It looks like corporations are getting extensions from longer and longer rounds. This month, New York-based Grafana Labs raised $270 million in a mixture of growth capital and a secondary offering — so some of the money went to the company and some went to shareholders. The company described it as an extension of its $240 million Series D in 2022. The latest round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and values the company at $6 billion. Grafana, an open-source software platform, helps monitor and visualize data. Founded in 2014, the company has raised greater than $805 million, in accordance with Crunchbase data.
6. Abnormal security$250M Cybersecurity: Abnormal security closed a $250 million Series D round that values the San Francisco-based cybersecurity startup at $5.1 billion. The latest round was led by Wellington ManagementThe latest valuation is a greater than 28% increase over Abnormal’s $4 billion valuation, which the company achieved after raising $210 million in Series C funding led by Insight Partners in May 2022. Founded in 2018, Abnormal seeks to stop attacks and find compromised accounts in emails and connected apps by using machine learning and artificial intelligence to know human behavior. According to the company, the startup has raised nearly $546 million in total funding. Abnormal also says it recently surpassed $200 million in annual recurring revenue. After a weak 2023, cybersecurity startups are seeing money again. Cybersecurity startups saw a solid $4.4 billion in investment in the second quarter of 2024, in accordance with Crunchbase data. The dollar amount represents a 63% increase from Q1, when $2.7 billion went to startups across 173 deals. It was the sector’s best quarter for funding since Q1 2022 and a 144% increase from Q2 2023.
7. Flying$225 million, travel: Travel startup Flyr has raised $225 million in equity and $70 million in debt in a latest round of funding, led by West AND apparently values the startup at $900 million. The Santa Monica, California-based startup develops software for the travel industry, corresponding to airlines. Founded in 2013, the company has raised $482 million, in accordance with Crunchbase.
8. nursery$200 million, data: San Francisco-based Cribl raises $319 million in Series E round led by latest investor GV and valuing the data infrastructure company at $3.5 billion. The latest round is actually a combination of $200 million in equity and $119 million in secondary offering, in accordance with BloombergThe raise represents a significant boost for the company, which recently raised $150 million in Series D funding led by Tiger Global Management with a valuation of nearly $2.6 billion in 2022. The Cribl platform enables users to see their data, allowing them to know the state of their data and organize it for IT and security teams. Just last 12 months, Cribl announced that it had transitioned Annual recurring revenue exceeds $100 million. The company employs greater than 700 people worldwide. While the explosion of knowledge has given corporations the potential to deeply understand their businesses, the strategy of actually collecting, verifying, and organizing that data has proven difficult and time-consuming. That’s exactly the problem that platforms like Cribl are attempting to fix. Founded in 2018, Cribl says it has raised greater than $600 million.
9. (draw) Bilt Awards$150 million in loyalty rewards: Wasn’t it just seven months ago that Bilt was here? Yes, it was. Bilt Rewards raised $200 million in a round led by General Catalyst at a $3.1 billion valuation in January — greater than doubling its value after a 2022 fundraising round. Well, the loyalty startup is back, this time with an additional $150 million round led by Development of the Teaching Enterprise. The New York startup lets consumers earn rewards for paying rent. Bilt plans to make use of a portion of the proceeds to expand its network to incorporate local restaurants, grocery stores, ridesharing and other retail purchases. The company, founded in 2021, has raised a total of $711 million, in accordance with Crunchbase.
9. (draw) Code$150 million, AI: AI-powered coding assistant Codeium has closed a $150 million Series C funding round led by General Catalyst values the Mountain View, California-based startup at $1.25 billion. The Codeium platform uses generative AI models trained on public code to offer developers suggestions on how one can build apps and can support dozens of programming languages. The company, founded in 2021, raised $243 million, in accordance with Crunchbase.
Large global transactions
All of the largest fundraisings got here from the United States, but a large funding round went to a grocery delivery startup in Asia.
- India-based e-grocery company Zepto raised $340 million in Series G funding.
Methodology
We have been tracking the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database, which were collected by US-based corporations in August 2024. While most of the announced rounds are included in the database, there could also be a slight delay as some rounds are reported towards the end of the month.