While some people experience AI fatigue, venture investors remain enthusiastic about the category. In the first half of 2024, global investments in AI startups exceeded $35.5 billion, according to recent data from Crunchbase. Among the six venture rounds that raised over $1 billion during this period, five were secured by AI companies.
Additionally, numerous other AI startups successfully secured mega-rounds of funding, surpassing $100 million. Notably, U.S.-based startups accounted for two of the billion-dollar rounds in the first half of the year and a significant 64% share of all mega-rounds.
Here’s a list of U.S.-based AI companies that have raised $100 million or more in 2024:
January
- Kore.ai, a startup specializing in conversational AI for enterprises, recently secured a $150 million Series D funding round. The announcement was made on January 30. FTV Capital spearheaded the investment in this Orlando-based company, with additional participation from Nvidia, Vistara Growth, NextEquity Partners, and other investors. Since its founding in 2013, Kore.ai has raised over $223 million in total funding
February
- Glean:
- Raised $203 million in a Series D round on February 27.
- Valuation: $2.4 billion.
- Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins.
- Participating investors: Sequoia, General Catalyst, Databricks Ventures, and others.
- Total venture funding: Over $350 million.
- Figure:
- Silicon Valley-based AI robotics startup.
- Secured a $675 million Series B round closing on February 24.
- Valuation: Nearly $2.7 billion.
- Investors: Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, and others.
- Founded in 2022.
- Total funding: More than $850 million.
- Abridge:
- Pittsburgh-based startup using AI for medical conversation transcription.
- Raised $150 million in a Series C round closing on February 23.
- Led by Redpoint and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
- Other participants: USV, IVP, Spark Capital, and more.
- Valuation now at $850 million.
- Recogni:
- Specializes in high-output, low-power AI interface solutions.
- Raised $102 million in a Series C round on February 20.
- Led by GreatPoint Ventures and Celesta Capital.
- Additional contributors: Pledge Ventures, Mayfield, DNS Capital.
- Lambda:
- San Francisco-based deep learning infrastructure company.
- Secured $320 million in a Series C round announced on February 15.
- Led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund.
- Investors include Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners, T. Rowe Price.
- Total venture capital raised: Over $900 million.
- Most recent valuation: $1.5 billion.
- Magic:
- AI coding startup based in San Francisco.
- Closed a $117 million Series B round on February 12.
- Lead investor: NFDG Ventures.
- Also participated: CapitalG and angel investor Elad Gil.
- Total capital raised: More than $145 million.
March
- Celestial AI:
- Founded in 2020.
- Raised $175 million in a Series C round on March 27.
- Led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund.
- Total funding: $338 million.
- FundGuard:
- New York-based startup offering AI-powered investment accounting.
- Raised $100 million in a Series C round on March 25.
- Led by Key1 Capital.
- Valuation: $400 million.
- Together AI:
- Platform for creating infrastructure and open-source generative AI.
- Raised $106 million in a Series A round led by Salesforce Ventures.
- Valuation: $1.2 billion.
- Announced on March 13.
- Zephyr AI:
- Based in Fairfax Station, Virginia.
- Raised $111 million in a Series A round on March 13.
- Investors: Revolution Growth, Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, EPIQ Capital Group, Jeff Skoll.
- Focus: Enhancing drug discovery and precision medicine.
- Total funding: $129.5 million.
April
- Blaize:
- Raised $106 million in a Series D round announced on April 29.
- Investors: Temasek, Franklin Templeton, Bess Ventures, and others.
- Founded in 2010.
- Total funding: $242 million.
- Augment:
- Palo Alto-based AI coding assistance startup.
- Secured $227 million in a Series B round announced on April 24.
- Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures.
- Valuation: Just shy of $1 billion.
- Cognition:
- Applied AI lab startup.
- Led by Founders Fund in a $175 million round closing on April 24.
- Previously raised a $21 million Series A round in March.
- Co-founders include Eric Glyman, Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Tony Xu.
- Founded in November 2023.
- Current valuation: Nearly $2 billion.
- Xaira Therapeutics:
- San Francisco-based AI drug discovery startup.
- Raised $1 billion in a Series A round announced on April 23.
- Lead investors: Foresite Capital, ARCH Venture Partners.
- Additional participants: Sequoia, NEA, Lux Capital, and more.
- Cyera:
- New York-based AI-powered data security platform.
- Closed a $300 million Series C round on April 9.
- Lead investor: Coatue.
- Also participated: Sequoia, Redpoint, Accel.
May
- xAI:
- Elon Musk’s xAI secured a remarkable $6 billion in a Series B round on May 31.
- Investors included Sequoia, Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, and others.
- The startup aims to build an AI platform for accelerating human scientific discovery.
- Current valuation: An impressive $24 billion.
- Scale AI:
- San Francisco-based Scale AI, which provides data-labeling services for training AI models, raised $1 billion in May.
- The Series F round was led by Accel, with participation from Tiger Global, Spark Capital, Amazon, and more.
- Total funding: Over $1.6 billion.
- Current valuation: Nearly $14 billion.
- Suno:
- Cambridge, Massachusetts-based AI-music creation platform Suno closed a $125 million Series B round on May 21.
- Participants included Founder Collective, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix, Nat Friedman (former GitHub CEO), and Daniel Gross (former head of AI at Y Combinator).
- Valuation: $500 million.
- Weka:
- Silicon Valley-based Weka developed an AI-native data platform.
- Raised $140 million in a Series E round that concluded on May 13.
- Valor Equity Partners led the funding, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, Nvidia, Hitachi Ventures, and others.
- Valuation: $1.6 billion.
- CoreWeave:
- New Jersey-based GPU infrastructure provider CoreWeave secured $1.1 billion in a Series C round that closed on May 1.
- Coatue led the round, joined by Fidelity, Altimeter Capital, Magnetar Capital, and more.
- Launched in 2017, CoreWeave is currently valued at $19 billion.
June
- Bright Machines:
- Raised $106 million in a Series C round led by BlackRock, closing on June 25.
- Participants: Nvidia, Microsoft, Eclipse Ventures, and others.
- Focus: Smart robotics and AI-driven software.
- Total funding: Over $437 million.
- Etched.ai:
- San Francisco-based startup.
- Secured a $120 million Series A round on June 25.
- Lead investors: Primary Venture Partners, Positive Sum.
- Goal: Develop chips for faster and more cost-effective AI model execution.
- EvolutionaryScale:
- New York-based company.
- Developing biological AI models for therapeutic design.
- Raised $142 million in a seed round closing on June 25.
- Led by Lux Capital, with participation from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.
- Founded in 2023.
- AKASA:
- Healthcare revenue cycle automation platform.
- Announced a $120 million round on June 18.
- Total funding collected: $205 million.
- Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Costanoa Ventures, and Bond.
- AlphaSense:
- New York-based market intelligence platform.
- Raised $650 million in a Series F round announced on June 11.
- Lead investors: Viking Global Investors, BDT & MSD Partners.
- Total venture funding: Over $1.4 billion.
- Recent valuation: $4 billion.
July
- Hebbia:
- Raised $130 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz, closing on July 8.
- Investors included Peter Thiel, Index Ventures, and Google Ventures.
- Valuation: Approximately $700 million.
- Skild AI:
- Pittsburgh-based robotics startup.
- Secured a $300 million Series A round announced on July 9.
- Lead investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions).
- Valuation: $1.5 billion.