November, like the 10 months of 2021 that preceded it, was another blistering month for venture funding. In total, companies raised $65 billion last month, per Crunchbase—the highest single-month total ever.
- For context: Global venture funding is already at $580 billion on the year—compare that to the total of $335 billion across all of 2020.
Let’s spotlight three of the emerging tech companies that raised money last month.
Sierra Space: This company is laser-focused on low-earth orbit (LEO), and raised a $1.4 billion round last month, bringing its total valuation to $4.5 billion. You may remember Sierra Space as the company working on an interstellar bouncy house for Orbital Reef, Blue Origin’s planned private space station.
Ionity: The BMW-Daimler-Ford-Volkswagen-Hyundai fast-charging-joint-venture *deep breath* raised €700 million (~$790 million) last month. With the cash, it plans to grow its network of EV fast-chargers to 7,000 across Europe by 2025. Right now, it has 1,500 chargers in 24 countries.
Helion: Helion is a nuclear-fusion startup that raised half a billion dollars last month, with performance incentives that could net it another $1.7 billion. (Provided it delivers on the hitherto impossible scientific feat of generating net power from a fusion reactor, that is.)
- At the time, this was the largest-ever nuclear-fusion deal, but things move quickly these days—another fusion startup, CFS, raised $1.8 billion on Dec. 1.
While we’re here: Crunchbase just released an end-of-year report on diversity in VC funding.
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