Bill Gates’ TerraPower Fuels Week With Huge Round, Biotech Startups Surge

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding rounds here.

Things picked up a little on the funding front this week, mainly thanks to a monster round from a Bill Gates-founded startup and the immense interest in all things biotech and health care related. Aside from those rounds, marketing, travel and fintech startups also saw some large raises in what may be August’s best week so far. 

1. TerraPower, $750M, energy: A slow week was picked up quite a bit by TerraPower’s huge raise. The Bill Gates-founded nuclear innovation company secured an equity raise that yields a “minimum of $750 million,” the company said in a release. The fundraise was co-led by SK Inc. and SK Innovation—which invested $250 million—as well as Bill Gates. The SK Group is among South Korea’s largest energy providers and this is not the only time it will be mentioned here. The round also is one of  the largest advanced nuclear fundraises to date. Founded in 2006, TerraPower is an incubator and developer of ideas and technologies. The Bellevue, Washington-based company will use the new money to develop advanced nuclear technology, as well as developing new cancer treatments from nuclear isotopes.

2. Orna Therapeutics, $221M, biotech: As we said earlier, biotech and health care was big this week. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Orna Therapeutics was the biggest as far as money raised. The RNA therapies developer announced a $221 million Series B. Drug giant Merck joined as a new investor and MPM Capital and BioImpact Capital also participated in the round. Founded in 2019, Orna has now raised $321 million, per Crunchbase.

3. Senda Biosciences, $123M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Senda Biosciences was another biotech company that saw love from investors this week. The company is producing “programmable medicines,” where biomolecules can be sent directly to human cells for treatment. Senda locked up a $123 million Series C from investors that included Flagship Pioneering and the Samsung Life Science Fund. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $266 million to date, per the company.

3. VidMob, $110M, marketing: It’s one thing to create advertising and marketing content, it’s another to know if it’s actually doing what it’s supposed to do. That’s where VidMob comes in. The New York-based company’s software helps marketers analyze the quality of that creative content used in digital advertising and gathers insights to help improve its performance. The platform was attractive enough to Shamrock Capital that it led the startup’s $110 million Series D  this week. Founded in 2014, the company has raised nearly $232 million, according to Crunchbase data.

4. Atom Power, $100M, electronics: As mentioned earlier, SK Group popped up again on this list. The energy provider pledged late last month to invest $22 billion across a range of technology and clean tech industries in the U.S., and it’s clearly wasting little time. In addition to its TerraPower deal, SK Inc. and SK energy invested $100 million in Huntersville, North Carolina-based Atom Power, which is trying to digitize power distribution for EV charging. The company has developed a commercial solid-state digital circuit breaker that allows for smarter and more sustainable power distribution. Founded in 2014, the company has raised nearly $175 million, per Crunchbase.

6. Incredible Health, $80M, health care: San Francisco-based Incredible Health, a platform that connects health systems with nurses, closed an $80 million Series B funding led by Base10 Partners that values the company at $1.65 billion. Founded in 2017, Incredible Health says it has now raised a total of $97.5 million.

7. AtoB, $75M, fintech: San Francisco-based AtoB, a payments platform for the trucking industry, raised a $155 million Series B, which included $75 million in venture funding and $80 million in debt. The round was ​​led by Elad Gil and General Catalyst. Founded in 2019, AtoB has raised $230 million in debt and equity, according to the company.

8. Aero Technologies, $50M, travel: San Francisco-based premium air travel startup Aero Technologies raised a $50 million Series B funding and $15 million in convertible notes. The round was co-led by AlbaCore Capital Group and returning investors Expa and Keyframe Capital, with new investment from Capital One Ventures. Founded in 2014, the company has raised more than $104 million, according to Crunchbase.

9. Jet Token, $40M, aerospace: Las Vegas-based Jet Token, a private aviation booking and membership platform, announced a $40 million investment commitment from GEM Global Yield for post-IPO funding.

10. Moximed, $40M, medical devices: Fremont, California-based Moximed, which develops medical devices for people with osteoarthritis, announced $40 million in Series C equity and debt financing. The round was led by Advent Life Sciences. The company did not disclose the ratio of equity and debt. Founded in 2006, the company has raised more than $193 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals

Not surprisingly TerraPower took the top spot globally, but three non-U.S.-based startups made the top five global list.

• China-based Viiyong, a manufacturer of multilayer ceramic chip capacitors, raised a Series B worth approximately $331 million.
• DriveNets, an Israel-based cloud-native networking developer, secured a $262 million Series C.
• Israel-based property management platform Guesty closed a $170 million Series E.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Aug. 13 to Aug. 19. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman