Largest Startup Funding Rounds
| Company | Round & Date | Amount Raised | Valuation | Lead Investors & Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Mar 2025 | $40 B | $300 B | Led by SoftBank with Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, Magnetar (S&P Global, Financial Times, Axios) |
| Thinking Machines Lab | Jul 2025 | $2 B | $12 B | Led by Andreessen Horowitz, major ex‑OpenAI team (Wikipedia, Financial Times) |
| Anduril Industries | Jun 2025 | $2.5 B | — | Series G led by Founders Fund; defense‑tech focus (S&P Global) |
| Helsing (Germany) | Jun 2025 | €600 M (~$650 M) | €12 B | Defence‑AI, led by Prima Materia (Sifted) |
| Isomorphic Labs | Mar 2025 | $600 M | — | AI drug discovery, backed by Thrive, Alphabet, GV (Sifted) |
| EcoDataCenter | Mar 2025 | €450 M (~$500 M) | — | AI infrastructure in energy‑efficient data centers (Sifted) |
| Lambda | Feb 2025 | $480 M | $2.5 B post‑$$ | AI training hardware, NVIDIA involvement (thebusinesshill.com, venturesmoon.com) |
| NinjaOne | Feb 2025 | $500 M | $5 B | Endpoint cybersecurity, backed by Iconiq Growth, CapitalG (thebusinesshill.com) |
| Saronic Technologies | Feb 2025 | $600 M | $4 B | Autonomous defense vessels in Texas (thebusinesshill.com, Wikipedia) |
| Harvey | Feb 2025 | $300 M | $3 B | AI‑powered legal tech, led by Sequoia (thebusinesshill.com, venturesmoon.com) |
| Abridge | Feb 2025 | $250 M | $2.75 B | Healthcare AI automation, led by Elad Gil, IVP (thebusinesshill.com) |
| Together AI | Feb 2025 | $305 M | $3.3 B | AI platform, led by General Catalyst, Prosperity7 (thebusinesshill.com, venturesmoon.com) |
| ElevenLabs | Jan 2025 | $180 M | $3 B+ | Synthetic voice LLM startup (venturesmoon.com) |
We also have major deals in Europe and fintech:
- TravelPerk (Spain): $200 M Series E in Jan 2025, valuation ~$2.7 B (Sifted)
- Vast Data (US): Venture talks in Aug 2025 for a round valuing it at ~$30 B (Reuters)
- PB Healthcare (India): One of India’s largest seed rounds at $218 M, led by General Catalyst (The Times of India)
Observations & Industry Themes
1. AI Dominates the Landscape
The OpenAI deal ($40 B) stands as the largest ever VC round. Other powerhouse AI players include Anthropic (~$3.5–3.75 B), Infinite Reality ($3 B), and Safe Superintelligence ($2 B) (Forbes, venturesmoon.com).
Thinking Machines Lab by Mira Murati continues the trend of high valuations for ex‑OpenAI spin‑outs, raising $2 B with strong investor confidence in its future role in defining next‑gen AI systems (Financial Times, Wikipedia).
2. Infrastructure & Specialized Hardware Funding
Large capital is also flowing into the backbone of AI:
- Lambda ($480 M) supports GPU computing for AI training.
- EcoDataCenter (€450 M) builds energy‑efficient AI data centers.
- Vast Data is raising a multibillion-dollar round (> $30 B valuation) addressing AI storage infrastructure (thebusinesshill.com, Sifted, venturesmoon.com, Reuters).
3. National Security & Defense-tech
Capital is strongly supporting defense AI firms:
- Anduril ($2.5 B), Helsing GmbH (€600 M), Saronic Technologies ($600 M) reflect investor appetite for advanced defense and autonomous technologies (S&P Global, Sifted, Wikipedia).
4. Sector Diversification: Legal, Healthcare, Cybersecurity
- Harvey (legal AI, $300 M), NinjaOne (cybersecurity, $500 M), and Abridge (healthcare AI, $250 M) illustrate investor confidence across enterprise tools using AI to disrupt traditional sectors (thebusinesshill.com, venturesmoon.com).
Key Takeaways
- OpenAI’s $40 B is by far the largest round in history, reshaping expectations around AI scale.
- Beyond headline AI companies, infrastructure plays and defense AI are now attracting multibillion-dollar bets.
- Institutional investors are increasingly betting on industry-specific AI applications in healthcare, legal, and cybersecurity.
- Europe’s ecosystem remains strong as well—with rounds like Helsing, EcoDataCenter, TravelPerk, and Verdiva Bio showing high activity in AI, biotech, and fintech (Sifted, thebusinesshill.com).
Check out more funding rounds here.
