Jeff Bezos’s Project Prometheus Joins The Unicorn Board Alongside 18 Other Startups In November 

November brought another strong showing for The Crunchbase Unicorn Board with 19 companies joining the ranks of billion-dollar startups.

The largest round went to Jeff Bezos’ Project Prometheus, which has reportedly raised billions of dollars out of the gate with the intent to develop AI for manufacturing in aerospace, automobiles and computers.

Among the sectors for new unicorn creation last month, AI led once again. The largest number of companies hailed from the data and model side as well as workflow applications. At least 13 of the 19 new unicorns have AI at the center of what they do.

Other sectors with two or more new unicorns were healthcare and defense.

Fourteen of November’s new unicorns are U.S.-based. The remaining five companies were each from China, India, Hong Kong, Canada and Denmark.

In the U.S., Palo Alto rivaled San Francisco and Austin with three companies from the Silicon Valley city, compared to two each from the other cities.

New unicorns

Here are November’s 19 newly minted unicorns.

AI data and models

• Bezos led the initial funding of $6.2 billion for his Project Prometheus, an AI builder for physical systems. The less than 1-year-old company’s headquarters and valuation was not disclosed.
• AI video and image generator Luma AI raised a $900 million Series C led by Saudi Arabia-based AI compute provider Humain. Luma is also partnering with Humain to build a 2GW data center in Saudi Arabia. The 4-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $4 billion.
• d-Matrix, a chip developer for AI inference, raised a $275 million Series C led by Bullhound Capital, Temasek Holdings and Triatomic Capital. The 6-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Harmonic, an AI lab for mathematical intelligence, raised a $120 million Series C led by earlier investor Ribbit Capital. The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.

AI workflow applications

• Gamma, an AI platform for presentations and visual storytelling, raised a $48 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz. The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company says it’s been profitable for the past two years, has 50 team members, boasts 70 million users, and has more than $100 million ARR. Gamma was valued at $2.1 billion.
• Scribe, a workflow AI platform that documents how work is done in order to automate, raised a $75 million Series C led by StepStone Group. The 7-year-old San Francisco-based company reports 5 million users, supports 600,000 organizations, has 120 employees and has not yet spent its Series B funding from 2024. Scribe was valued at $1.3 billion.
• MainFunc, maker of Genspark, an AI workspace that streamlines white-collar tasks, raised a $275 million Series B led by Emergence Capital1. The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company has reached over $50 million in ARR. MainFunc was valued at $1.3 billion.
• Toronto-based Beacon Software, an acquirer of software businesses that are profitable but would improve with an AI software stack integration, raised a $250 million Series B led by D1 Capital Partners, General Catalyst and Lightspeed Venture Partners to increase its acquisitions. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Healthcare

• Function Health, a subscription lab-testing health platform for longitudinal health data, raised a $298 million Series B led by Redpoint. The 4-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
• India-based La Renon, an 18-year-old pharmaceutical company addressing chronic disease, received a $1.2 billion valuation via a secondary financing. Creador purchased 7% of the company for $113 million from Peak XV Partners.
• Hong Kong-based Cornerstone Robotics, a surgical robotics company, raised a $200 million funding led by Hong Kong Investment Corp. The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

• Dulles, Virginia-based Heven AeroTech, a developer of unmanned aerial drones propelled by hydrogen fuel cells for longer endurance, raised a $100 million Series B led by quantum computing IonQ, a strategic partner. The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• Forterra, a builder of autonomous systems for defense, raised a $188 million Series C led by Moore Strategic Ventures. The 23-year-old Maryland-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Media and entertainment

• Suno, an AI platform for music creation, raised a $250 million Series C led by Menlo Ventures. The 3-year-old Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company has released its Suno v5 music model for creators. The company was valued at $2.45 billion.

Financial services

• Denmark-based Flatpay, a point-of-service payment solution for brick- and-mortar stores, raised a $168 million Series D led by Paris-based AVP. The 3-year-old company has 1,400 employees globally and expects 2025 revenue to be in the region of $145 million. Flatpay was valued at $1.7 billion.

Web3

• Miami-based Lighter, a futures crypto trading platform built on Ethereum Layer 2, raised a $68 million funding led by Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Transportation

• Zhuoyu Technology, a smart-driving solutions company, raised a $507 million Series B led by Chinese state-owned automotive manufacturer FAW Group. The 3-year-old Shenzhen, China-based company formerly known as DJI Automotive was valued at $1.4 billion.

Insurance

• Curative, provider of employer-based health insurance plans, raised a $153 million Series B led by Upside Vision Fund. The 5-year-old Austin-based company offers $0 out-of-pocket plans and operates in Texas, Florida and Georgia. Curative was valued at $1.28 billion.

Govtech

And here’s one we missed from the end of October. Commercial space station developer Vast raised a $150 million Series A led by IQT, a fund affiliated with U.S. national security. The 4-year-old Long Beach, California-based company was valued at $1.9 billion.

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:

Related reading:

Methodology

The Crunchbase Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on Crunchbase data. New companies are added to the Unicorn Board as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to The Exited Unicorn Board.

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration: Dom Guzman