San Francisco's AI Boom Intensifies with Multi-Billion Dollar Week
AI Titans Lead $3B+ Week in SF Startup Funding
San Francisco's startup ecosystem kicked off 2025 with a powerful surge of funding activity, showcasing the city's continued dominance in artificial intelligence and deep tech. The headline-grabbing news came from Anthropic, which reportedly raised $2 billion at a staggering $58 billion pre-money valuation, marking a dramatic tripling of its worth in just a year. This was followed by another AI success story: Perplexity, whose AI-powered search engine secured $500 million at a $9 billion valuation, also tripling its previous valuation from just six months ago.
The week's funding activity revealed a clear pattern: investors are betting big on companies pushing the boundaries of AI applications. From Anysphere's $100 million raise for its coding assistant Cursor to Decart's $32 million Series A for faster AI model training to Backflip's $30 million for AI-powered 3D design - artificial intelligence continues to be the driving force behind the largest deals.
But it wasn't all about AI. The health tech and biotech sectors showed strong momentum, with companies like General Proximity raising $16 million to develop novel treatments for cancer and neurodegeneration. At the same time, Grove AI secured funding to revolutionize clinical trial management. In the consumer space, ÅŒURA's impressive $200 million Series D round at a $5.2 billion valuation demonstrated a continued appetite for innovative hardware plays.
The venture capital landscape itself saw significant movement. Founders Fund reportedly raised $3 billion for its third growth fund, while specialized players like Trucks Venture Capital secured $70 million for transportation-focused investments.
What's particularly notable this week is the strength of valuations across stages. Companies consistently secured higher valuations from seed to growth rounds—often three to five times their previous rounds. This suggests that despite broader market uncertainties, investors remain highly confident in San Francisco's ability to produce category-defining companies, particularly in frontier technologies.
The diversity of check sizes—from Double's $3.9 million seed round to Anthropic's billions—indicates a healthy funding environment across all stages of company growth. However, the largest rounds predominantly flow to AI-focused enterprises.
Funding
Anthropic, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company and competitor to OpenAI is reportedly in talks to raise $2 billion in funding at a pre-money valuation of $58 billion, approximately triple its valuation from the previous year. Lightspeed is reportedly leading the funding round.
Perplexity, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that has built an AI-powered search engine and answer engine using natural language processing, closed a $500 million round at a $9 billion post-money valuation, an amount that is 3X its last valuation in June. IVP was the deal lead.
ŌURA, the San Francisco, CA-based company behind Oura Ring, a smart ring, raised $200M in Series D funding. Fidelity Management And Research Company and Dexcom were backers. The investment raised the company’s valuation to $5.2 billion.
Anysphere, the AI-powered coding assistant Cursor developer, raised $100 million Series B at a post-money valuation of $2.6 billion. Returning investor Thrive Capital is leading the round.
Decart, a two-year-old San Francisco startup whose technology is designed to enable faster and more reliable training of large generative models, raised a $32 million Series A round at a $500+ million valuation, a 5X increase over its seed round valuation. The deal was led by Benchmark , with additional participation from previous investors Sequoia Capital and Zeev Ventures.
Backflip, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that allows designers to generate 3D designs using generative AI, raised a $30 million round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and New Enterprise Associates (NEA).
Stand, a San Francisco startup that claims to use advanced physics and AI modeling to assess and mitigate risks and offer tailored coverage to homeowners who may struggle to find insurance elsewhere, raised a $30 million round. Investors included Inspired Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Equal Ventures, and Convective Capital.
Bureau, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform for businesses to verify customer identities and prevent fraud during online transactions, raised $30m in Series B funding. The round was led by Sorenson Capital, with participation from PayPal Ventures and previous investors Commerce Ventures, GMO VenturePartners, Inc., and Village Global.
Boon, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI-driven tools to automate fleet management operations, raised a $20.5 million Series A round from prior backers Marathon and Redpoint.
General Proximity, a San Francisco, CA-based biotech platform company, raised $16M in funding. The round was led by Aydin Senkut at Felicis. Other investors included Y Combinator, age1, Modi Ventures, Wilson Sonsini, as well as several angel investors including Jeff Dean (Head of Google AI), Uri Lopatin (Khosla, YC, Pardes), Ben Mann (Co-Author GPT-3, Co-Founder Anthropic), Alec Nielsen (CEO Asimov), Trevor Martin (CEO Mammoth), Juan Benet (Founder Filecoin), Nish Bhat (Co-Founder Color Health), Jim Dahl(Rock Creek Capital), and De Thompson V (Legends Capital). The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the development of treatments targeting proteins associated with cancer, cardiometabolic disease, neurodegeneration, and longevity.
Kurrent (formerly Event Store), a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an event-native data platform that captures complete historical context for data analytics, application development, and AI, raised $12M in funding. Crane Venture Partners led the round, with Creandum participating.
BlueQuibit, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that enables businesses and researchers to develop and execute quantum algorithms on various quantum hardware and simulators, raised a $10 million seed round led by Nyca Partners, with Restive, Chaac Ventures, NKM Capital, Presto Tech Horizons, BigStory VC, Untapped Ventures, FormulaVC | venture fund, and Granatus Ventures.
Bluenote, a San Francisco, CA-based generative AI platform for life sciences companies, raised $10M in financing. The round was led by Lux Capital, with participation from Elad Gil, Anthropic & Menlo Ventures Anthology Fund, McKesson Ventures, Avichal Garg/Electric Capital, Moxxie Ventures, Carbon Silicon Ventures, and leaders in AI and life sciences – Othman Laraki (CEO Color Health), Fidji Simo (CEO Instacart, Co-founder Metrodora Institute, OpenAI Board), Mike Nohaile (CEO Prellis Biologics, previously Amgen & Novartis Executive), Kristen Fortney (CEO BioAge), Eric Morgen (COO BioAge), Qasar Younis (CEO Applied Intuition), Linus Upson (Verily), and Jeffrey Low (Life sciences investor).
Fraction AI, a two-year-old San Francisco that allows businesses and individuals to collaborate on creating and sharing high-quality datasets used to train AI models, raised a $6 million pre-seed round co-led by Spartan and Symbolic, with Borderless, Anagram, Foresight, and Karatage.
Tenor, a one-year-old San Francisco company that offers an AI-driven platform that helps managers improve their communication skills through realistic voice simulations and personalized coaching, raised a $5.4 million seed round led by Base10 Partners, with Reach Capital.
Grove AI, a San Francisco, CA-based clinical trial management and intelligence company, raised $4.9M in Seed funding. The round was led by A*, with participation from Afore Capital, LifeX Ventures, Pear VC, Upfront Ventures, and angels, including Ajit Baid, Chloe Yoo, Phuc Truong, and Till Pieper. The company intends to use the funds to continue scaling its team and product to redefine clinical trials from siloed operations into participant-centered ecosystems driven by real-time data.
StruxHub, a construction tech startup based in San Francisco, Calif., closed its $4M seed funding round. The round was led by Brick & Mortar Ventures with participation from FJ Labs, Holcim, and angel investors.
Fazeshift (YC S24), a San Francisco, CA-based AI agent company for accounts receivable, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Gradient and included investment from Y Combinator, Wayfinder, Pioneer Fund, Ritual Capital, Phoenix Fund, and angels, including Terrence Rohan, Kulveer Taggar, and Rich Aberman.
Double, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an investment platform, raised $3.9M in Seed funding from various angels.
Funds
Founders Fund Raising Approx. $3 Billion for Third Growth Fund
Trucks Venture Capital, a 10-year-old San Francisco VC firm that looks for seed and pre-seed deals centered around the future of transportation, has raised a $70 million third fund.
South Park Commons, a nine-year-old San Francisco-based community designed to assist technologists, builders, and domain experts in navigating the transition from their previous endeavors to new ventures, is raising a fund of up to $40 million to back Indian startups.