Clean Energy Cleans Up As Lunar And Fervo Raise Large Rounds

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.

Clean energy startups took the top two spots this week, but really the week belonged to the biotech/health care space, as well as the new trend of companies raising “extensions” of older rounds, some nearly 2 years old. Three companies on the list this week raised extension rounds and the biggest deal globally also was an extension.

1. Lunar Energy, $300M, clean energy: This may be controversial since this is actually two rounds, but we’re going with it because it was just announced this week. Mountain View, California-based Lunar Energy said it has closed $300 million of investment over two rounds in the past two years as it quietly worked in stealth. The company is led by former Tesla executive Kunal Girotra, and in two years has built a team of  nearly 250 employees and is attempting to build the full ecosystem of hardware and software needed to make homes completely energy independent by creating, storing and using the power they themselves generate. Investors in the two rounds include San Francisco-based solar company Sunrun and South Korea’s SK Group.

2. Fervo Energy, $138M, clean energy: Let’s stay on clean energy. Houston-based geothermal power company Fervo Energy raised $138 million in new funding led by DCVC. The startup plans to use the new cash to build, own and operate its own carbon-free, geothermal power plants using techniques such as horizontal drilling and distributed fiber optic sensing to reach and use reservoirs of hot rock beneath the earth’s surface. Founded in 2017, the Berkely, California-based startup has raised $177 million, according to Crunchbase data.

3. Alma, $130M, health care: Health insurance is complicated for patients. Imagine how health care professionals who deal with a multitude of claims and several insurance companies must feel. New York-based Alma closed a $130 million Series D to help mental health therapists with exactly that. Alma is a membership-based platform that allows independent therapists who run their own practices deal with administrative tasks like setting up insurance and billing. The new round was led by Thoma Bravo. Founded in 2018, the company has now raised $220 million, according to Crunchbase data.

4. Landing, $125M, rental: It isn’t often we see an Alabama-based startup on this list, but Landing lands pretty high this week. The Birmingham-based startup announced a $125 million Series C—a mix of both debt and equity—led by Delta-v Capital. Landing offers a subscription model for the apartment rental experience. The company offers move-in ready apartments with monthly leases. Members can move throughout the company’s nationwide network of 20,000 available listings in more than 375 U.S. cities. Landing has now raised the two largest venture rounds in the state since being founded in 2019, according to Crunchbase.

5. Anyscale, $99M, artificial intelligence: Extension of older rounds were big this week and the first on this list is San Francisco-based Anyscale. The company closed a $99 million extension—co-led by Addition and Intel Capital—from its $100 million Series C funding round announced in December. Anyscale helps companies scale AI applications that can run on multicloud platforms. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $260 million, according to Crunchbase data.

6. Aktis Oncology, $84M, biotech: Boston-based Aktis Oncology raised an $84 million extension of its Series A. Investors included Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Novartis. The funding comes more than a year after the company initially raised a $72 million Series A round in March 2021. The biotech startup has raised $161 million to date, according to the company.

7. Digital Diagnostics, $75M, health care: Iowa-based Digital Diagnostics, an AI-enabled diagnostics company, closed a $75 million Series B led by KRR. Founded in 2010, the company says it has raised $130 million.

8. (tied) Carbon Direct, $60M, environmental consulting: New York-based carbon management firm Carbon Direct raised a $60 million funding round led by Decarbonization Partners. Founded in 2019, it is the company’s first outside funding, according to Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Happy Health, $60M, health care: Austin, Texas-based Happy Health, which has developed a  wearable ring designed to measure stress and mood, raised a $60 million Series A round led by Arch Venture Partners. The round is the company’s first outside funding, according to Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Zilliz, $60M, database: San Francisco-based Zilliz raised a $60 million extension to its 20-month-old Series B led by Prosperity7 Ventures. The company previously had announced a $43 million Series B in November 2020. Founded in 2017, the vector database company has raised $113 million, according to the company.

Big global deals

The biggest round this week went to a company that has headquarters in both Germany and New York.

• Celonis announced a $400 million equity raise—which the company says is an extension to its Series D from June 2021—as well as a credit facility for up to $600 million. The new funding gives the company, which helps businesses find and fix inefficiencies, a post-money valuation of nearly $13 billion. Qatar Investment Authority led the extension.

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. 20 to 26. 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