April’s 10 biggest rounds: Xaira and Pine Gate lead a huge month of mega deals

This is a monthly feature covering the top 10 US funding rounds of the month. USA Check out last month’s top rounds here.

Another big month of big rounds. A startup needed to raise $200 million or more to make this list for the April edition. April also saw half a dozen rounds of a quarter-billion dollars or more, including a $1 billion round for an AI-enhanced biotech. Let’s take a look.

1. Xaira Therapeutics, $1B, biotech: April’s biggest round was really big. Xaira Therapeutics has come out of stealth and announced that it has secured more than $1 billion in committed capital from lead investors Arch Venture Partners and Foresite Capital—both of which jointly incubated the company—as well as other major investors including Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed. Venture Partners. The San Francisco-based biotech company is led by founding CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who previously served as president of Stanford University but resigned last year after questions arose about his scientific research. Xaira is the latest startup, though probably the best-funded, to try to use AI models to find new drugs.

2. Pine Gate Renewables, $650 million, energy: Pine Gate Renewables made a $650 million investment from Generate Capital, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and HESTA. The Asheville, North Carolina-based developer of solar and energy storage products plans to use the new money to help finance the creation of three gigawatts of clean energy infrastructure in communities across the United States by next year. Founded in 2014, the company has raised $1.7 billion per Crunchbase.

3. PsiQuantum, $620M, Quantum Computing: PsiQuantum has secured the largest seed round of any quantum startup so far this year, surpassing Quantinuum’s $300 million fundraising at a pre-money valuation of $5 billion in January. The Palo Alto, California-based company has secured a $620 million funding package from the Commonwealth of Australia and Queensland governments to build a quantum computer at a strategically located location near Brisbane Airport in Brisbane, Australia. Founded in 2016, the company has raised more than $1.3 billion per Crunchbase.

4. White, $300 million, cybersecurity: While it’s true that cybersecurity funding has decreased significantly, it certainly hasn’t dried up. Data security company Cyera has raised a $300 million Series C led by Coatue at a $1.4 billion valuation. The round nearly triples the New York-based startup’s valuation from its $100 million Series B last June that valued it at $500 million. Founded in 2021, Cyera has raised $460 million to date, according to the company. Cyera provides a platform that helps enterprise security teams understand what data they have and how it is used, as well as how to protect it, all of which has become more important as enterprises rely on data to drive AI initiatives. The startup also uses AI in its platform to assess the risks posed by a company’s data in relation to security, privacy and regulatory compliance.

5. Metsera, $290 million, biotech: New York-based clinical-stage biopharma startup Metsera emerged from stealth last month with $290 million in funding led by Arch Venture Partners. The company is exploring drugs for obesity and metabolic diseases with a collection of incretin, non-incretin, and oral and injectable combination therapies.

6. Rivos, $250 million, semiconductors: Semiconductor startups are seeing big bucks, thanks in part to the explosion of generative AI. Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip company Rivos raised more than $250 million in April in Series A-3 financing led by Matrix Capital Management. The company develops chips optimized to power the data analytics and generative AI markets. Of course, chip startups have seen growing interest recently. Late last month, Santa Clara-based optical interconnect startup Celestial AI raised a massive $175 million Series C round led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund. Also last month, Astera Labs, a Santa Clara-based developer of data center connectivity technology with use cases in generative AI, soared after its initial public offering on the Nasdaq.

7. Increase, $227 million, artificial intelligence: Artificial intelligence coding startups are making a big splash. AI coding assistance startup Augment emerged from stealth last month and locked down a $227 million Series B round at a post-money valuation of $977 million. The round included cash from firms including Sutter Hill Ventures, Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The Palo Alto, California-based company helps developers and software teams by giving them assistance in coding AI. Founded in 2022, Augment’s total funding now stands at $252 million, per company, following its $25 million Series A led by Sutter Hill Ventures in January.

8. Monad Labs, $225M, Blockchain: New York-based Monad Labs has closed the largest Web3 funding round of the year so far, picking up a $225 million funding round led by Paradigm. Monad is a layer 1 blockchain that is compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine but can process transactions using the same set of rules faster. The round is reminiscent of the 2021-22 era when layer 1 protocols such as Aptos Labs surged. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $244 million per Crunchbase.

9. (tied) Blackrock Neurotech, $200M, Neuroscience: Stablecoin issuer Tether has invested $200 million in Blackrock Neurotech to take a majority stake in the brain-computer interface startup. The Salt Lake City-based company creates brain-computer interfaces and implants that allow people to control computers and neural prostheses. The company only raised $10 million before Tether’s new round, according to Crunchbase. The round values ​​Blackrock Neurotech at about $350 million, according to Reuters. The deal is also the latest headline on brain-computer interface technology, powered by Elon Musk’s Neuralink. That company recently live-streamed a quadriplegic man playing video games using his implant and raised nearly $700 million, per Crunchbase.

9. (tied) Rippling, $200 million, HR: HR startup Rippling has raised a whopping $200 million round that values ​​the San Francisco-based startup at $13.5 billion. The deal also included a secondary offering of $590 million for employees to sell their private shares to investors. The new capital round was led by Coatue. The company offers a workforce management platform that combines human resources, information technology and finance to help clients streamline operations. The new round represents a roughly 20% increase in Rippling’s valuation, which was last valued at $11.3 billion in March 2023.

Great global deals

Xiara was the biggest riser of the month, but the runner-up came from China.

• Electric vehicle startup Hozon has locked down a $690 million venture funding round.

Methodology

We track the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by US-based companies for the month of April 2024. While most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a slight lag as some rounds are reported at the end of the month. .

Illustration: Dom Guzmán