Startup Trends: 2022 top funding rounds

Anduril & Boring Company Among Those With Substantial Funding Rounds in 2022

As executives at defense-technology firm Anduril see it, innovations such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous systems are forcing a shift in everything from cybersecurity to the way military conflicts can be resolved. “These changes will provide asymmetric advantages to nations that invest in modern technology,” writes the company on its website.

It's increasingly clear that a group of investors are betting that Irvine, Calif.-based Anduril has a major role to play in achieving that vision. In December, the company announced that it had received $1.48 billion in Series E funding. This enormous funding infusion brings the company’s valuation to nearly $8.5 billion, nearly doubling the company’s valuation in June 2021.

The latest funding round puts Anduril high on the list of private companies that achieved substantial funding rounds in 2022. Among the other companies that have led the fundraising pack are Altos Labs, a biopharma company; The Boring Company, a tunnel-construction firm founded by Elon Musk; Resilience, a biopharma manufacturing company, and Eikon Therapuetics, a biotech firm. All the companies have received funding infusions this year ranging from $525 million to more than triple that amount.

The private companies that were among the top fundraisers differed greatly from the top fundraising companies in 2021. In 2021 investment website Robinhood, electric vehicle maker Rivian, data intelligence firm Databricks, cybersecurity firm Lacework, and health insurer Devoted Health were among the top five. (Robinhood went public in July 2001.)

Like in 2021, 2022’s notable funding rounds include a variety of industries, though the industries themselves vary between the years. And almost all of these companies in both years are embracing technologies with the potential to transform the way that their industries will operate in the future.

That’s certainly the case for Anduril. The company’s autonomous systems are expected to enable the U.S. military and other security and defense firms to operate faster and at greater scale across both tactical and strategic operations. The new funding will enable Anduril, which was founded in 2017, to accelerate research and development to bring autonomous defense capabilities to the market and continue to mature and scale its current business lines. Anduril’s latest funding round was led by Valor Equity Partners, a longtime Anduril investor, with participation from firms including Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, 8VC, Lux Capital, Thrive Capital, and DFJ Growth.

Boring Company & Resilience Achieve Notable Funding Rounds in 2022

Boring Company, which raised $675 million in Series C funding in April, is anything but boring. The company was founded in 2016 with the stated goal of revolutionizing transportation. The Pflugerville, Texas-based company essentially creates fast-to-dig transportation, utility, and freight tunnels that seek to solve traffic problems and speed up the movement of ground freight. It has completed two tunnels in Las Vegas for loop travel. Boring, given that it’s in the business of boring holes in the earth, is living up to its clever name.

Boring’s latest funding round was led Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, 8VC, Craft Ventures, and DFJ Growth. The financing now values The Boring Company at $5.675 billion.

Resilience, a San Diego-based provider of biopharma manufacturing services, made it onto the list of top fundraisers of the year by raising $625 million in a Series D financing last June.

The company, which now has a valuation of roughly $8.8 billion, said it will use the funding to continue to invest in building its infrastructure network through strategic collaborations, acquisitions, organic growth and international expansion, and by developing innovative biomanufacturing technologies to ensure that medicines can be made quickly, safely and at scale.