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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding rounds here.

This week has been a busy one for good-sized rounds, led by $500 million financings for crypto unicorn Ripple and AI-enabled parking provider Metropolis. We also saw multiple large financings for biotech startups, plus some big rounds for cybersecurity and enterprise software.

1. (tied) Ripple, $500M, cryptocurrency: San Francisco-based crypto payments company Ripple raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation. Funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities led the investment, along with Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard and Marshall Wace.

1. (tied) Metropolis, $500M, parking: Metropolis, an AI-powered checkout-free parking platform, announced that it has secured $1.6 billion in debt and equity financing, including a $500 million Series D at a $5 billion valuation. LionTree led the equity financing for Los Angeles-based Metropolis, while JP Morgan Chase Bank provided a $1.1 billion term loan.

3. Armis, $435M, cybersecurity: Armis, a provider of tools for monitoring cyber risk exposure, closed on $435 million in what it described as pre-IPO funding round. Goldman Sachs Growth Equity led the financing, which set a $6.1 billion valuation for the 10-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

4. Synchron, $200M, neurotech: Synchron, a developer of nonsurgical brain-computer interface technology, picked up $200 million in Series D funding led by Double Point Ventures. The New York-based company wants to use its technology to restore communication and mobility for people with paralysis.

5. Hippocratic AI, $126M, healthcare AI: Hippocratic AI, a developer of generative AI healthcare agents, landed $126 million in Series C financing. Avenir led the round, which set a $3.4 billion valuation for the Palo Alto, California-based company.

6. MoEngage, $100M, marketing automation: MoEngage, an AI-enabled customer engagement platform, raised $100 million in new financing, with reportedly 60% going to the company and 40% going to secondary share sales. Goldman Sachs Alternatives and A91 Partners led the financing.

7. Infravision, $91M, aerial robotics: Infravision, a company that aims to transform how power lines are built and maintained with aerial robotics, raised $91 million in Series B funding. Singapore’s GIC led the financing for the 7-year-old, Austin-based startup.

8. Reevo, $80M, AI go-to-market tools: Santa Clara, California-based Reevo, developer of an AI platform for managing go-to-market strategy and processes, launched publicly and announced it has raised $80 million in funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins.

9. Neok Bio, $75M, biotech: Palo Alto, California-based Neok Bio, a startup focused on developing antibody drug conjugates for improving cancer outcomes, emerged from stealth with $75 million, backed by Korean biotech ABL Bio.

10. Azalea Therapeutics, $65M, genomic medicines: Berkeley, California-based Azalea Therapeutics, a developer of precision genomic medicines, launched from stealth and announced it has raised $65 million in a Series A led by Third Rock Ventures.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Nov. 1-7. 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

Stuff it with protein. Add a kick of nutrients and caffeine. And please, stay away from sugar.

Those, in obnoxiously overgeneralized terms, are the basic tenets of launching and scaling a beverage startup targeting the modern consumer. Per an analysis of Crunchbase data, recently funded companies in the drinks space typically check one if not all of those boxes.

These are not especially shocking findings. Consumers willing to pay handsomely for a container of liquid are commonly looking for health and wellness benefits, as well as an energy boost, if not a buzz.

That’s reflected in our sample list of 26 noteworthy beverage startups funded this year. Standouts include such potable offerings as protein soda, botanical tonics and sugar-free energy drinks.

We take a closer look at where the money is going by focusing on a few top investment themes.

Protein everywhere

First off, it seems safe to say protein is officially the macronutrient of the year. This is evident in the beverage space, where startups and established brands alike are competing to stuff more protein into everything from sodas to lattes to flavored waters.

Below, we assembled a list of four startups along these lines funded this year.

Dutch startup Vivici, which produces dairy proteins through precision fermentation, picked up the biggest recent round, landing $37 million in a February Series A. The company makes a whey protein that’s been used for clear drinks, powder mixes and snack bars.

Slate Milk, which makes high-protein milk shakes and iced coffees, is also poised to scale, having secured a $23 million Series B in September. More than three-fourths of the calories in its drinks come from protein.

For those seeking something fizzier, Don’t Quit is another option. The Los Angeles-based company sells canned sodas that feature 15 grams of whey protein.

Energy

Of course, what use is all that protein if one isn’t awake or alert enough to appreciate it? Enter our next favored funding category: energy-boosting drinks.

Using Crunchbase data, we assembled a sample list of five such startups funded this year.

One continuing trend is the incorporation of caffeine into drinks that traditionally don’t contain the stuff. Gorgie, for instance, markets a sparkling pink lemonade with more caffeine than many cups of coffee. Lucky Energy, meanwhile, sells a lineup of even more caffeinated fruity-flavored drinks.

We’re also seeing startups straddling multiple hot beverage niches. Concentrated coffee purveyor Jot, for instance, sells a protein latte. And Atomo Coffee makes products with added ingredients offering nutritional and health benefits.

Wellness

Drinks for health and fitness buffs are also attracting investors. To illustrate, we assembled a list of five startups funded this year that meet this criteria.

Hiyo, a maker of fizzy tonics crafted with potentially mood-boosting plant ingredients, scored one of the more high-profile rounds, selling a minority stake to the venture arm of spirits maker Constellation Brands early this year. The Southern California startup promotes itself as a festive alternative to alcoholic beverages.

Venice, California-based Magic Mind also picked up a venture round, per a securities filing, as it scales up its offerings of drinkable shots crafted to augment mental performance.

Anything but tap water

It’s a good thing for startups that consumers are accustomed to paying up to quench our thirst with basically anything other than tap water. But given the plethora of options already out there, newcomers are playing in a crowded field.

“The big question starting to emerge is: How big can the shelf get and how many options can consumers truly absorb?” research and accounting firm Ernst & Young posited in a recent report on beverage industry trends. The firm sees certain categories as better poised to cut through the clutter, with wellness drinks having a particular edge.

Sugar-free or low-sugar drinks also appear to be on the rise, at least looking at funded startups, with a sizable chunk of this year’s investment recipient boasting this attribute. It’s not just zero-calorie drinks either. In fact, both startups and established brands are increasingly pushing the envelope on the notion that a drink can be both sweet and protein-rich enough to sub for a steak.

Now that brands have made such strides in the nutritional profile of drinks, the next step will be to see which ones consumers believe actually taste good.

Related Crunchbase list:

• Beverage Startups Funded In 2025, Sample List

Illustration: Dom Guzman

The ranks of most-active U.S. startup investors featured familiar names in October, as leading players continued to back an AI-dominated assortment of large rounds.

Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Accel, Nvidia and Y Combinator were standouts for the month across metrics including deal count, lead rounds and size of lead rounds. Overall, activity remained close to September’s busy levels, even as some big names scaled back a bit.

Below, we look at October’s active investor rankings in closer detail across four metrics: active venture investors, lead backers, high spenders and seed dealmakers.

Most-active venture investors

Among venture investors, Andreessen Horowitz ranked as the most-active dealmaker, backing at least 14 rounds valued at $5 million or more during the course of the month.

Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst tied for second place, with 13 deals each, followed by Accel, with nine.

Lead investors

As for lead investors, Andreessen once again led the pack on this count. The Silicon Valley firm led seven known U.S. post-seed rounds in October, well ahead of any other investor.

Meanwhile, three other firms led four deals apiece: Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, and Accel.

Highest-spending lead investors

In addition to tracking who backed the most deals, we also try to gauge who put the most capital to work. This isn’t an exact measure, as rounds with multiple investors rarely break out individual contributions.

However, we can get a sense by looking at who led or co-led rounds with the highest aggregate dollar value.

By this measure, Nvidia was far and away the spendiest lead investor in October, mostly due to leading a $2 billion Series B for Reflection.AI.

Next on the list is Mubadala Capital, which co-led a $1.38 billion financing for Crusoe Energy Systems, a developer of AI data centers and infrastructure.

Seed investors

Among active seed investors, meanwhile, Y Combinator held on to its customary spot in first place. The storied accelerator had more than 3x the reported seed investments of anyone else on the list. Even so, its investment pace slowed considerably month over month.

Below are the other most-active seed investors

An active month overall

Overall, active investors kept busy in the course of the month, although several did tamp down the dealmaking pace. As we come closer to year-end, it’s likely we’ll see some pickup in coming weeks, followed by the usual winter holiday season slowdown.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Why acquire a startup when you can get a piece of it instead?

Increasingly, that’s the mindset of the world’s most valuable technology companies.

Over the past couple years, the top tech giants have made comparatively few big-ticket purchases of venture-backed companies. However, the Big Five — Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon —  have been actively and extravagantly investing in startups, particularly of the AI variety.

Those stakes are adding up. Last week, OpenAI and Microsoft drove home the reality of just how valuable a startup investment can become.

Under an updated company structure OpenAI unveiled last week, Microsoft holds 27% of OpenAI Group, its for-profit arm. That stake is worth around $135 billion, based on the generative AI unicorn’s recently reported $500 billion valuation.

Other big solo stakes

Microsoft’s OpenAI stake looks to be the most valuable private startup holding by one of the five largest technology companies. It’s also the most expensive investment, with Microsoft shelling out $10 billion in a 2023 financing, as well as backing follow-on rounds.

However, other tech giants have also poured billions into startup deals in the past couple years. These include both solo financings and investments made as part of broader syndicates.

Not surprisingly, the largest solo investments have mostly gone to generative AI leaders, topped by Anthropic and OpenAI. These are both strategic and financial investments, as the tech giants jockey to maintain their market edge in the AI age.

Lead syndicate investments

More commonly, the Big Five invest as part of syndicates. They don’t always insist on leading rounds, but they often do.

Many of those deals turn out to be quite large. To illustrate, we used Crunchbase data to put together a list of the largest financings of the last couple years with one of the tech giants as lead or co-lead investor.

In addition, the Big Five have also participated as non-lead investors in a number of giant rounds for companies including xAI, Safe Superintelligence, Thinking Machines Lab, Mistral AI, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

You can make big returns doing this

Besides the strategic benefits the tech giants derive from these investments, they’re also generating enormous paper wealth.

Take Microsoft’s OpenAI stake. At $135 billion, it’s more than 6x larger than the purchase price of the largest completed private startup acquisition to date. (Meta’s 2014 purchase of WhatsApp).

We don’t know the precise value of Amazon’s stake in Anthropic, but it’s also certain to be sizable. The e-commerce and cloud giant committed to invest $8 billion in the Gen AI company in 2023 and 2024.

With Anthropic’s valuation nearly tripling over a six-month period this year to hit $183 billion, Amazon’s stake has obviously appreciated. Ditto for Google, which also invested in the company at lower valuations.

Not just giant rounds

The Big Five aren’t just making huge AI investments. They’re also actively partaking in startup rounds at various sizes and stages.

Per Crunchbase data, so far this year, the group 1 has made at least 208 disclosed startup investments, with those rounds collectively valued at just over $70 billion. 2 Annual deal count for the prior four years also held up at similar levels, as charted below.

Why invest in startups rather than acquire them? It’s probably not a money issue. Given that the five top tech companies have a combined market capitalization of over $18 trillion, they can afford to buy pretty much any startup they want.

More likely, tech giants see strategic advantages in owning stakes of the most promising upstarts in relevant sectors. And seeing how many of these companies have shot up in valuation, there are financial gains to be had too.

Related Crunchbase lists:

• Startup Investments By The Big Five
• Largest Solo Startup Investments By Big Five

Related reading:

• The Big 5 Still Aren’t Buying Many Startups

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Shares of electric aircraft company Beta Technologies rose slightly in first-day trading on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, amid a down day for the overall tech sector.

The stock closed at $36 per share up 6% for the day. Beta priced shares for its offering at $34 each late Monday, slightly above the top of the projected range. The IPO brought in just over $1 billion for the South Burlington, Vermont-based company, which trades under the ticker symbol BETA.

Founded in 2017, Beta designs and manufactures electric aircraft, electric propulsion systems, charging systems and components. It operates a Vermont facility designed to support production of more than 300 aircraft annually, with permits to potentially double in size.

Beta cites four industry use cases for its aircraft: cargo and logistics, medical transport, defense, and passenger transportation. On the passenger side, the company says it is poised to benefit from growth in demand for flights of 300 miles or less, currently about a fifth of air travel trips.

While not quite a pre-revenue company, it isn’t expected to report significant revenue for several years. For the first half of 2025, Beta had $15.6 million in revenue, roughly double year-earlier levels. Since its aircraft are not yet commercially operating, revenue comes from other sources, including sales of motors, and engineering and consulting services.

Beta’s net loss for the first six months of the year was $159 million, up from $124 million in the same period last year.

Prior to the IPO, Beta was a large fundraiser over the years, pulling in more than $1.6 billion in known equity funding. Its last financing was a $300 million General Electric-backed investment in September.

Per Beta’s IPO prospectus, investors also hold considerable stakes in the company. Among its  largest venture and corporate stakeholders are Fidelity (14.5% of Class A shares, pre-IPO), General Electric (10.2%), TPG Rise Climate Fund (8.8%), and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund (6.3%).

Related Crunchbase query:

• US IPOs Of Venture-Backed Companies In 2025

Illustration: Dom Guzman