This is a monthly feature that runs down the month’s top 10 funding rounds in the U.S. Check out November’s biggest rounds here.
The year started strong for huge rounds, as the first month saw a trio of billion-dollar raises and a slew of others of more than $250 million. Venture money wasn’t concentrated in just one sector, as VCs invested in everything from artificial intelligence to biotech to energy.
1. Infinite Reality, $3B, augmented reality: Augmented reality startup Infinite Reality raised the biggest round of the year so far, locking up a $3 billion financing at a $12.25 billion valuation. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based firm did not disclose investor names, instead saying it came “from a private investor whose portfolio focuses on global technology and real estate investments.” Founded in 2019, the company previously tried to go public through the special-purpose acquisition company Newbury Street Acquisition, but the deal was canceled in December. Infinite Reality offers immersive technologies to brands and creators for better audience engagement. The company has raised $3.4 billion, per Crunchbase.
2. (tied) Anthropic, $1B, artificial intelligence: Anthropic, a ChatGPT rival with its AI assistant Claude, is reportedly taking in a fresh $1 billion investment from previous investor Google. In October 2023, Google invested $2 billion in the OpenAI rival. The new funding also comes just a couple of weeks after it was reported Anthropic was in advanced talks to raise $2 billion in a deal led by Lightspeed Venture Partners that would value it at $60 billion. Anthropic was last valued at $18.5 billion in February 2024. This deal also comes two months after Amazon agreed to invest another $4 billion in an AI startup. That deal followed Amazon’s 2023 announcement to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic — a deal that gave the Seattle-based e-commerce and cloud titan a minority stake in the startup.
2. (tied) Retro Biosciences, $1B, biotech: AI can do a lot — startup Retro Biosciences thinks it can even help us live longer. The San Francisco-based biotech firm raised a $1 billion round led by Italian financier Sandro Salsano to back clinical trials for drugs that battle age-related diseases. That includes a potential Alzheimer’s disease treatment. If Retro sounds familiar, it may be because OpenAI CEO Sam Altman provided the initial $180 million seed round to the firm in 2022.
4. Helion Energy, $425M, energy: Fusion startup Helion Energy locked up a $425 million Series F — valuing the company at $5.4 billion — as the company looks to commercialize its fusion technology. The round included participation from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Sam Altman. The Everett, Washington-based startup has now raised more than $1 billion. In November 2021, Helion closed a $500 million Series E. The new round further illustrates investors’ appetite for new energy sources as power needs increase due to AI and other advances. In 2023, Helion announced a power purchase agreement with Microsoft to deliver electricity from its fusion plant starting in 2028, and a customer agreement with Nucor to develop a power plant in the 2030s. Helion has just started operating its seventh generation prototype, Polaris, which is expected to demonstrate the first electricity produced from fusion. The company’s new round is the second-largest in the fusion sector since the start of last year, per Crunchbase data. Last October, Pacific Fusion, a startup attempting to create a nuclear fusion-based energy source, raised more than $900 million in a Series A led by General Catalyst. The funding does, however, depend on the company hitting certain milestones.
5. Truveta, $320M, biotech: Medical data research company Truveta landed a massive $320 million investment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Illumina and 17 U.S. health systems as it continues to build the world’s largest genetic database. The deal values privately held Truveta at more than $1 billion. Truveta aggregates medical records data from its partner institutions to link treatments with outcomes and other health aspects. Its platform is updated daily. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $515 million, per Crunchbase.
6. (tied) DDN, $300M, data storage: Data is the big-money game right now. Private equity giant Blackstone Group is making a $300 million strategic investment into DDN, valuing the Chatsworth, California-based data storage company at $5 billion. Founded in 1998, DDN — formerly called DataDirect Networks — helps companies store, analyze and manage data — a value commodity as more businesses look to create and train AI models. The company plans to use the new cash to expand in industries ranging from healthcare to autonomous vehicles and accelerate product innovation, including for its AI data intelligence platform. Of course this is far from the only play the Blackstone Group has made in the data sector. Last year it was reported the world’s largest asset manager plans to invest $8.2 billion to develop data centers in Spain. In 2023, it partnered with Digital Realty to develop $7 billion in data centers targeting providers of online content, cloud services and artificial intelligence. Blackstone also is a backer of CoreWeave, an AI infrastructure startup that gives access to highly sought-after AI chips from Nvidia.
6. (tied) Kardigan, $300M, healthcare: South San Francisco-based Kardigan, a startup developing cardiovascular drug treatments, launched last month with a $300 million Series A financing led by Arch Venture Partners, Perceptive Advisors and Sequoia Heritage. The company’s platform leverages a proprietary set of cardiac-specific tools that help analyse therapeutic candidates as well as patients’ individualized responses to treatment.
8. Innovaccer, $275M, healthcare: San Francisco-based Innovaccer could be listed as artificial intelligence or health care, as the company is looking to be the “one stop shop” for healthcare AI solutions. Innovaccer — which helps healthcare organizations by providing software solutions that aim to improve patient experience and reduce the administrative burden on providers — raised a $275 million round that was a combination of primary and secondary. No lead investor was announced, but investors included B Capital and Kaiser Permanente. Founded in 2014, the company has raised $654 million, per Crunchbase.
9. Whatnot, $265M, e-commerce: While most of us are looking to cut back on our spending after the holidays, investors clearly think people want to spend more money on livestream shopping platform Whatnot. The Los Angeles-based startup raised a $265 million Series E at a valuation of nearly $5 billion. The round was co-led by Avra, DST Global and Greycroft. Whatnot’s annual gross merchandise value for livestream sales surpassed $3 billion last year. Founded in 2019, Whatnot has raised approximately $746 million, per the company.
10. Stoke Space, $260M, space: Reusable rocket startup Stoke Space locked up a $260 million Series C as the space tech sector looks to build off a successful 2024 in terms of fundraising. The Kent, Washington-based company is developing fully reusable rockets that make low-cost access to and from space possible. It intends to use the new funding to complete construction of its Nova launch vehicle at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The new round involves new and existing investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Seven Seven Six and the University of Michigan, among others. Founded in 2019, Stoke has raised more than $480 million, per the company. After a slow-ish 2023, last year saw a bit of a bounce-back for the space tech industry in venture funding. In 2024, VC-backed space tech startups raised $8.3 billion, per Crunchbase data. That number is a 17% jump from the $7.1 billion raised in 2023, but short of the $9.2 billion invested in 2022.
Big global deals
The biggest funding round outside the U.S. went to a China-based firm.
- Smart Fabric, which provides internet-enabled solutions for the textile industry, raised a $460 million Series C.
Methodology
We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the month of January 2025. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the month.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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