San Francisco's Startup Scene Continues to Sizzle

San Francisco Startups Draw Huge Investments Across AI, Fintech, and More...

The San Francisco startup ecosystem continues to attract significant investment, with a series of major funding rounds announced this week across various industries. From artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to fintech, biotech, and retail technology, the city's innovative companies are securing substantial capital to fuel their growth and development. This funding influx underscores the enduring vitality and appeal of the San Francisco startup landscape as investors recognize the region's ability to cultivate groundbreaking technologies and disruptive business models.

San Francisco's Startup Scene Continues to Sizzle

Let's dive into the key details of this week's most notable funding announcements.

Perplexity, a San Francisco-based AI startup founded just two years ago, is poised to raise a massive $500 million round at a staggering $9 billion valuation. Institutional Venture Partners is leading the deal. This latest funding round comes after three successful rounds earlier this year, which valued the company at $520 million at the beginning of 2023.

Physical Intelligence, a year-old AI startup, raised a $400M Series A at a $2B valuation. The San Francisco-based company aims to create a universal AI 'brain' for robots, led by Jeff Bezos, Thrive Capital, and Lux Capital.

Armis, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity company, has raised $200 million in Series D funding, valuing the company at $4.2 billion. General Catalyst and Alkeon Capital led the round. Armis plans to use the funds to accelerate product development and global expansion.

Sierra, a one-year-old San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company co-founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, has secured $175 million in Series A funding at a valuation of $4.5 billion. The funding round was led by Greenoaks Capital, with participation from ICONIQ and Thrive Capital. To date, Sierra has raised $285 million and plans to use the new funds to accelerate the development of its AI-powered agents designed to assist organizations with complex workflows and decision-making processes.

Kivu Biosciences, a San Francisco-based biotech company developing antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), has raised $92 million in Series A funding. Novo Holdings led the round, which included several other investors. Kivu plans to use the funds to advance the clinical development of multiple ADC programs.

Finix, a San Francisco, CA-based payment processor enabling businesses to accept and send payments online and in-store, raised $75m in Series C funding. The round was led by Acrew Capital and co-led by Leap Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners. New investors Citi Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, and others participated, as did existing investors Homebrew, Insight Partners, Inspired Capital, Cap Table Coalition, and others.

Simbe, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of Store Intelligence solutions, closed a $50m Series C equity financing round. Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives led the round, which included Eclipse, Valo Ventures, and other existing investors. The capital, which brings Simbe's total amount raised to over $100m, will be used to accelerate global deployments, broaden retail offerings, and pursue strategic growth opportunities. 

Bugcrowd, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of crowdsourced cybersecurity solutions, received a $50M growth capital facility from Silicon Valley Bank. The company intends to use the funds to scale its AI-powered platform further globally, accelerate continued innovation, and leverage opportunities for strategic M&A, providing added value to clients, partners, and the hacker community.

Nooks, a San Francisco, CA-based AI Sales Assistant Platform provider, raised $43m in Series B funding. The round, which brings Nooks’ total funding to $70m, was led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from existing investors Lachy Groom and Tola Capital. Nooks is an AI platform that helps sales teams generate pipelines more efficiently by automating time-consuming tasks. Users typically include sales development representatives (SDRs) and account executives (AEs) who self-source deals, sales leaders, sales enablement, and revenue operations.

Spot AI, a San Francisco, CA-based company specializing in AI camera systems, has raised $31M in equity funding. Backers included Qualcomm Ventures and existing investors Scale Venture Partners, StepStone Group, Redpoint Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, GSBackers, MVP Ventures, and Cheyenne Ventures. 

Decart, a San Francisco, CA-based AI research lab, raised $21M in funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, which was participated in by Zeev Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts.

Browserbase, a San Francisco-based startup founded a year ago, has secured $21 million in Series A funding to revolutionize headless browser management. The round was co-led by prominent venture capital firms CRV and Kleiner Perkins, with Okta Ventures and Reed McGinley-Stempel participating. Browserbase's innovative platform empowers businesses to efficiently run and manage headless browsers at scale, enabling a wide range of applications, including web automation, data scraping, and AI-powered tasks that require internet access.

Speakeasy, a San Francisco-based startup founded two years ago, has secured $15 million in Series A funding to revolutionize API development. The round was led by FPV Ventures, with participation from previous investors GV and Quiet Capital. Speakeasy's innovative platform empowers businesses to create powerful SDKs and testing tools, simplifying integrating APIs and accelerating time-to-market for new products and services.

Sapien, a San Francisco-based startup founded just a year ago, has secured $10.5 million in funding to incentivize individuals to contribute diverse data for AI development. The round was led by prominent venture capital firm Variant, with additional participation from Primitive Ventures, Animoca, Yield Game Guild, and HF0. Sapien's innovative platform aims to democratize data access and accelerate AI advancements by rewarding data providers for their valuable contributions.

Tola, a San Francisco-based startup founded three years ago, has secured $10.2 million in seed funding to revolutionize financial management for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with additional participation from Cherry Ventures, Creandum, RTP Global, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Zinal Growth, and Pathlight VC. Tola's innovative platform streamlines critical financial operations, including bill payments, invoicing, and cash flow tracking, empowering SMBs to optimize their financial health and focus on growth.

Delos Insurance Solutions, a San Francisco, CA-based insurtech company, raised a further $9M in funding. The round was led by HSBC Asset Management and included IA Capital Group, Blue Bear Capital, Generation Space, and angel investors. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations, its business reach to other states, and its development efforts.

MealMe, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an API for food ordering, raised $8M in Series A funding. Mercury Fund led the round, which included existing investors Palm Drive Capital and Gaingels. The company intends to use the funds to increase store selection while providing customer developer support and uptime.

Bifrost AI, a San Francisco, CA-based generative 3D Data platform provider, raised $8m in Series A funding. The round was led by Carbide Ventures, with participation from Airbus Ventures, Peak XV’s Surge (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), Wavemaker Partners, MD One, and Techstars. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the commercialization of its product for heavy industries such as aerospace, maritime, manufacturing, and national security.

Endeavor, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an enterprise AI platform for manufacturing companies, raised $7m in seed funding. Craft Ventures led the round, including Heartland Ventures, Contrary Capital, and BoxGroup.

Pharos, a year-old San Francisco startup, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Felicis, with participation from General Catalyst, Moxxie, and Y Combinator. Pharos' AI-powered platform extracts real-time data from patient records, generating actionable insights to improve patient care and prevent harm.

Cornerstone AI, a San Francisco, CA-based maker of an AI software solution that cleans real-world healthcare data, raised an additional $5M in Funding. The round was led by Acrew Capital, with participation from existing investors Initiate Ventures and Healthy Ventures. Travis May, founder and former CEO of Datavant, and Web Sun and Arif Nathoo, the co-founders of Komodo Health.

Hue, a four-year-old San Francisco-based startup that empowers brands to leverage authentic, user-generated videos to drive online sales, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Fika Ventures and Underscore VC, with participation from previous investors Sequoia Scouts, The MBA Fund, Glasswing Ventures, Courtyard Ventures, Phoenix Fund Management, and Heirloom Fund.

Moondream AI, a San Francisco, CA-based maker of an open-source vision-language model for incorporating AI into applications, raised $4.5M in pre-seed funding. Felicis led the round, also led by the M12 GitHub Fund and Ascend. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product growth, expand the team, and keep up with demand from the companies participating in Moondream’s upcoming Moondream Cloud Service.

First, a three-year-old San Francisco-based startup focused on streamlining the process of creating custom prenuptial agreements has raised $4 million in seed funding. The round was led by Expa, with additional participation from Springbank, Sarah Kunst, and Karman Ventures.

HomeBoost, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a home energy platform, raised $4M in Seed funding. True Ventures, Gigascale Capital, and Incite.org led the round.

Advex AI , a San Francisco-based AI startup, raised $3.5 million in seed funding to develop AI vision solutions for manufacturing. The funding will expand operations and development efforts.

Aether, a San Francisco-based solar energy platform, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by noa. The company plans to use the funds to expand its operations and develop a new solar design tool specifically for the European market.

Persana AI, a San Francisco, CA-based company providing an agent-driven approach to prospecting, raised $2.3M in funding. Backers included Y Combinator, Race Capital, Stage 2 Capital, and Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot's CTO. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the growth of its platform.

Skyfire, a San Francisco, CA-based payment network provider built for the AI Agent economy, raised an undisclosed amount of funding. Backers included Coinbase Ventures and a16z CSX. This brought Skyfire’s total funding to $9.5m.

Puloli, a San Francisco-based IoT solutions provider, raised undisclosed funding to expand its affordable methane monitoring solutions.

Opus Guard, a San Francisco, CA-based SaaS provider specializing in information governance and retention management solutions, raised an undisclosed amount in funding. Atlassian Ventures invested. The company intends to use the funds to enhance product features, achieve key enterprise certifications, and accelerate market outreach.

Funds

Chemistry, a San Francisco, CA-based early-stage venture capital firm, launched with the close of a first fund of $350M.

San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm Javelin Venture Partners announced global wealth management and banking advisory leader UBS as a new investor in its $125M primary and associated funds.