This is a weekly feature that features the top 10 funding rounds of the week in the United States. Check out the biggest funding rounds from the past week here.

Rounds raised by US-based startups were significant this week, with three exceeding $200 million. No category stood out as investors wrote checks for everything from live buying to biotechnology to ways to develop clean water. After a sluggish start to the month, big fundraising came back into play for some startups.

1. What’s new, $260 million, e-commerce: Investors clearly seem to think that live shopping is the next step in the evolution of commerce. DST Global and Alphabet’s growth fund CapitalG co-led a $260 million Series D for Los Angeles-based Whatnot. Cycle now values ​​the live shopping platform at $3.7 billion, a 2.5x increase from September, when its valuation was $1.5 billion. This is an impressive jump given that the venture capital market was very different in September. However, the company appears to be coming off of an impressive year. Whatnot said it has increased sales more than 20 times from a year ago and more than tripled monthly sales so far in 2022. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $485 million, according to data from Crunchbase.

2. TAE Technologies, $250 million, energy: The promise of true nuclear fusion power continues to entice investors. TAE Technologies is the latest to ride this wave of interest, as the Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based company raised a $250 million funding round that generated cash from Google and Chevron. The past year has been a big one for fusion startups as companies such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Helion Energy, General Fusion and others have raised substantial seed rounds. Fusion energy – created when two atoms are fused together – is the holy grail of clean energy. As many pundits believe it is getting closer to commercialization, investors are lining up their bets. TAE has collected many of those bets, as the company – founded in 1998 – says it has now raised $1.2 billion.

3. Delfi Diagnostics, $225 million, biotechnology: Unfortunately, cancer remains a public health concern and early means of detecting and monitoring the dreaded disease will always be highly sought after. Baltimore-based Delfi Diagnostics has developed a way to look for DNA fragments in a patient’s blood that are linked to specific forms of cancer. The new technology was exciting enough to help the company close a $225 million Series B led by DFJ Growth. The company, founded in 2019, will use the new revenue to further develop and commercialize its blood tests. Delfi has now raised over $330 million, according to Crunchbase.

4. Meati Foods, $150 million, food technology: You can buy a lot of filet mignon with $150 million, probably even more if it’s “fake” filet mignon. Meati Foods, based in Boulder, Colorado, has become the latest plant-based meat-making food tech startup to win a major funding round, securing a $150 million Series C funding round led by Revolution Growth. . Meati specializes in creating cutlets and whole cuts of steak that use mycelium – a fungus root – to replace the meat. Cuts of meat have proven to be a problem for the fake meat industry because the texture is difficult to replicate. However, Meati’s cuts are already being sold in grocery stores and restaurants in Arizona and Colorado. The company has raised $278.6 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

5. Source, $130M, environmental engineering: Apart from oxygen, nothing is more important than water, but viable sources of drinking water are becoming scarce. Source, a Scotttsdale, Arizona-based developer of sustainable drinking water technology, has closed a $130 million Series D led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and The Drawdown Fund. The company’s technology uses the sun to extract water vapor from the air and turn it into mineralized drinking water, even in places with low humidity. According to the company, at least 2.4 billion people worldwide do not have clean water to drink, and by 2050 that number will rise to 6 billion due to climate change. Founded in 2014, Source claims to have raised a total of $270 million to date.

6. ClassDojo, $125 million, edtech: San Francisco-based edtech startup ClassDojo announced the closing of a $125 million Series D round led by Tencent that valued the company at $1.25 billion. The round was lifted in September, but was not announced at the time. Founded in 2011, the company has now raised more than $190 million, per Crunchbase.

7. (tied) Camp4 Therapeutics, $100 million, biotech: Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech firm Camp4 Therapeutics has raised a $100 million Series B round led by Enavate Sciences. Founded in 2016, the company, which develops RNA-based treatments, has raised $190 million, according to Crunchbase.

7. (tied) FlexGen, $100M, Energy Storage: Durham, NC-based FlexGen has closed a $100 million Series C led by Vitol. Founded in 2009, the energy storage solutions provider has now raised more than $275 million, according to data from Crunchbase.

9. Halborn, $90 million, cybersecurity: Miami-based Halborn, a cybersecurity firm for traditional finance and blockchain clients, closed a $90 million round led by Summit Partners. Founded in 2019, this was the company’s first external round.

ten. BigHat Biosciences, $75 million, biotechnology: BigHat Biosciences, based in San Mateo, Calif., raised a $75 million Series B funding round led by Section 32. Founded in 2019, BigHat, which develops antibody therapies for patients using learning automation and synthetic biology, has raised $105 million to date, according to the company.

big world business

Even though US-based startups saw big increases this week, the two biggest rounds came from European companies.

• Paris-based customer behavior analytics firm Contentsquare closed a $400 million Series F round.
• Oxford Science Enterprises has announced that it has raised nearly $300 million, bringing its total raised to $1 billion.

Methodology

We tracked the biggest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by US-based companies during the seven-day period July 16-22. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there might be a slight lag as some rounds are posted on weekends.

Illustration: Dom Guzman