Beyond Databricks: San Francisco's Startup Ecosystem Shows Its Depth
17 Deals Span AI, Climate Tech, and Financial Innovation
In a remarkable week for San Francisco's startup ecosystem, the city's tech landscape was dominated by Databricks' monumental $9.5 billion funding round, which pushed the data analytics company's valuation to an impressive $60 billion. While this mega-round captured headlines, it wasn't the only significant movement in the Bay Area's funding scene.
Several mature companies secured substantial Series C rounds, signaling their growing market traction. Parafin, focused on embedded finance infrastructure, and SiteOne Therapeutics, developing treatments for pain and cough, each raised $100 million. These substantial raises demonstrate investors' continued confidence in later-stage startups tackling complex market challenges.
The city's reputation as an AI and climate tech hub was further cemented this week. Companies like Twelve Labs and Cartesia secured backing for their AI innovations, while climate-focused startups Terradot and Stand attracted capital from high-profile investors, including Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund and Lowercarbon Capital. This dual focus on AI and sustainability reflects broader industry trends and societal priorities.
Financial technology remained a bright spot, with companies like Atlas Card and Jiko securing significant funding for their innovative approaches to personal finance. Atlas Card's premium charge card service attracted $27 million, including investment from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, while Jiko raised $29 million to expand its Treasury bill investment platform.
Early-stage companies weren't left behind. Several seed and Series A rounds went to startups pushing boundaries in various sectors. Notably, Vapi secured $20 million for its Voice AI platform, while Anatomy Financial raised $19 million to modernize healthcare billing workflows. These early-stage investments suggest a healthy pipeline of innovation in the city.
The week also saw a significant development in the venture capital landscape itself with the launch of Category Ventures. The new firm, led by former Two Sigma Ventures investor Villi Iltchev, raised $160 million for its inaugural fund, planning to focus on AI, infrastructure, and developer tools. This move suggests continued confidence in San Francisco's ability to produce category-defining technology companies.
What's particularly striking about this week's funding activity is the diversity of investors, ranging from tech giants like Google and Microsoft to established venture firms and high-profile individual investors like John Doerr and Sheryl Sandberg. This broad base of support, spanning different investment philosophies and focus areas, hints at San Francisco's enduring appeal as a hub for technological innovation and entrepreneurial ambition.
Funding
Databricks, a data analytics powerhouse, is set to disrupt the industry with a massive $9.5 billion funding round led by Thrive Capital. The company, valued at $60 billion, will use the funds to accelerate its growth and innovation.
Parafin, a San Francisco, CA-based embedded finance infrastructure company, raised $100M in Series C funding at a valuation of $750M. The round was led by Notable Capital, with participation from Redpoint. Existing investors Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, and GIC also participated.
SiteOne Therapeutics, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based biopharmaceutical company developing selective ion channel modulators for treating pain, cough, and other conditions, raised $100M in Series C funding. The round was led by Novo Holdings, with participation from OrbiMed, Wellington Management, Mission BioCapital, BSQUARED Capital Inc., and existing investors. The company intends to use the funds to advance its portfolio of selective, small molecule ion channel modulators for treating sensory hyperexcitability disorders through human clinical proof of concept.
Gigs, a San Francisco-based startup founded five years ago, has secured $73 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from Gradient Ventures, Y Combinator, and SpeedInvest. Gigs provides businesses with an API that simplifies the process of offering branded mobile phone and data plans to their customers.
Terradot, a San Francisco, CA-based climate company, raised $58.2m in funding. Backers included Lead, John Doerr; Sheryl Sandberg & Tom Bernthal, George Roberts; Strategics, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Google, Cisco; and Floodgate, Kleiner Perkins, Acre Venture Partners, Gigascale Capital, Valor Capital, Ponderosa Ventures and others.
Stand, a San Francisco, CA-based company improving insurance for climate-impacted properties, raised $30M in funding. Backers included Inspired Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Equal Ventures, and Convective Capital.
Twelve Labs, a video understanding company based in San Francisco, CA, raised $30M in funding. Backers included Databricks, SK Telecom, Snowflake Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and In-Q-Tel.
San Francisco-based Jiko, a platform that allows users to invest in U.S. Treasury bills while maintaining liquidity, has secured $29 million in Series C funding. Upfront Ventures led the round, including Airbus Ventures, Red River West, and Radicle Impact participation.
San Francisco-based startup Atlas Card, which offers an exclusive charge card for high-net-worth individuals, has secured $27 million in Series B funding. Marathon led the round, which included additional investment from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Cartesia, a San Francisco, CA-based developer of real-time multimodal intelligence for every device, has raised $22 million in funding. The round, which brought total capital raised to $27m, was led by Index Ventures, with participation from A* Capital, Conviction, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, and SV Angel, along with 90 angel investors, including the Founders of Abridge, Airtable, Captions, Cognition, Cohere, Databricks, Datadog, Hugging Face, Hubspot, Infinitus, Llamaindex, Mercury, Mistral, Okta, Perplexity, Pika, Pinterest, Postman, Ramp, RunwayML, Snorkel, Sonos, Together AI, Tripedot Studios, Typeface, Vercel, Weaviate, Weights and Biases, and Zapier.
Vapi, a San Francisco, CA-based developer platform for deploying Voice AI agents, raised $20m in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, including Abstract Ventures, AI Grant, Y Combinator, Saga Ventures, and Michael Ovitz.
Anatomy Financial, a San Francisco, CA-based developer of the AI-powered lockbox to convert paper mail from healthcare practices of all sizes to an email-like experience for simplified billing workflows, raised $19M in Series A funding. Canapi Ventures led the round.
Nuon, a San Francisco, CA-based company specializing in SaaS-like experiences directly in customers’ cloud accounts, raised $16.5M in funding. The round was led by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund (James Wu), Uncork Capital (Andy McLoughlin), Redpoint (Pat Chase), Alumni Ventures (Meera Oak), Essence VC (Timothy Chen), Mantis VC (Alex Pall), Red Swan Ventures (Sandy Cass) and angel investors Quinn Slack (CEO of SourceGraph), Richie Artoul (co-founder of WarpStream, acquired by Confluent) and Michael Grinich (CEO of WorkOS).
Arya, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that offers a subscription-based service designed to enhance intimacy and wellness for couples, raised an $8.5 million Series A round led by Ibex Investors, with previous investors Play Ventures, Patron, and BigBets.vc. The company has raised a total of $16 million.
T-robotics, a San Francisco, CA- and Trondheim, Norway-based programming developer for any robot using natural language and skill models with no code required, raised $5.4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Emergent Ventures and Engine Ventures, with participation from Berkeley SkyDeck and Raisewell Ventures.
San Francisco and Valencia-based startup Maisa AI, which has developed an AI-powered system for automating complex tasks like supply chain analysis and compliance management, has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by NFX, with participation from Village Global.
Hamming.ai, a San Francisco, CA-based AI voice agent reliability platform provider, raised $3.8M in Seed funding. Mischief led the round, which included participation from Finance YCombinator, AI Grant, Pioneer Fund, Coalition Operators, Coughdrop, and angels, including Hiten Shah, Ran Makavy, Max Kolysh, Richard Aberman, and Kulveer Taggar.
Landbase, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered go-to-market automation platform provider, received undisclosed growth capital from CIBC Innovation Banking.
Funds
Category Ventures, a newly established venture capital firm based in San Francisco, has secured $160 million for its inaugural fund. Villi Iltchev, a seasoned investor formerly with Two Sigma Ventures, aims to invest between $1.5 million and $5 million in early-stage companies innovating in AI, infrastructure, developer tools, and applications.