#36: (12/16/24) Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap!
Check Out This Week's Venture Capital Investment Summary ($264 million raised across 10 featured companies) Spanning Early & Growth-Stage US Based Environmental Technology & Enterprise Software Startups!
Every Monday, the team here at Bearhug Recruiting aggregates, researches, and publishes a recap of the prior week's fundraising activity within the early and growth-stage Environmental Technology & Enterprise Software startup ecosystem.
This research not only allows us to keep our finger on the pulse of the markets we serve, but also benefits others who, like us, enjoy analyzing the latest trends that signal investor confidence AND startup growth within what we believe are the most exciting and impactful segments!
We also hope the people and companies we feature enjoy both a virtual fist bump from the team at Bearhug, plus benefit from some additional free market exposure to amplify their mission. Make sure you reach out to any that are interesting/relevant that you might be able to help!
Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
Terradot, led by James Kanoff, has raised $58.2 million funding, including $4.2 million in Seed funding and a $54 million Series A funding round. Terradot is a climate company that transforms rock weathering into a scalable global carbon removal solution. Founded in 2022 at Stanford, the company develops tools and a digital platform to enable enhanced rock weathering (ERW) to integrate into agricultural and industrial systems. With pilot operations in Brazil, Terradot has spread over 48,000 tons of rock across 1,800 hectares, leveraging tropical soils and clean energy for optimal weathering. The company collaborates with EMBRAPA to scale ERW and advance carbon removal technologies. The company plans to expand pilot projects, develop MRV tools, and scale operations to establish ERW as a key global carbon removal solution. The round was led by John Doerr, Sheryl Sandberg & Tom Bernthal, and George Roberts, with participation from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Google, Cisco, Floodgate, Kleiner Perkins, Acre Venture Partners (Lucas Mann), Gigascale Capital (Mike Schroepfer), Valor Capital (Dan Schulman), Ponderosa Ventures, and others. [Link] #Carbon Capture #ClimateTech #Sustainability Tech #Environmental Technology #Advanced Materials #Methane Emissions Monitoring #Circular Economy
WeaveGrid, led by Apoorv Bhargava, has raised $28 million in Venture funding. WeaveGrid provides a software platform that enables rapid electric vehicle (EV) adoption while ensuring grid stability. Its EV Management System (EVMS) integrates EV charging with grid operations, offering solutions like vehicle-to-grid capabilities, AI-driven optimization, and distribution management. The platform empowers automakers and utilities to manage grid-interactive vehicles effectively, enhance charging experiences, and adapt to growing load demands driven by electrification and AI data centers. The company plans to consolidate its position as a platform for EV managed charging, expanding its capabilities and building on direct integration collaborations with automakers like Toyota. The round was led by Woven Capital, with participation from existing investors Activate Capital, Collab Fund, Emerson Collective, Salesforce Ventures, and debt provided by HSBC Innovation Banking. Kudos to The Westly Group (Danny Cotter), Coatue (Jaimin Rangwalla), Breakthrough Energy Ventures (Carmichael Roberts) for participating in prior funding rounds as well. [Link] #Energy Tech #Electric Vehicle #Smart Grid Tech #Artificial Intelligence #Energy Management Platform #Renewable Energy #Sustainability Tech
Electrified Thermal, led by Daniel Stack, has raised $19 million in Venture funding. Electrified Thermal provides the Joule Hive™ Thermal Battery (JHTB), a breakthrough in electric heating technology. The JHTB generates, stores, and delivers heat at near-flame temperatures of up to 1,800°C (3,275°F), offering a cost-effective and clean alternative to fossil fuels. This advanced solution combines high-temperature performance and durability, making it an ideal choice for industries seeking sustainable heating options. The company plans to expand operations and accelerate its development efforts. The round included investments from Holcim MAQER Ventures, Vale Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures, EDP Ventures, Tupras Ventures, GVP Climate (Brett Olsher), Clean Energy Ventures, Starlight Ventures, MassVentures, and Clean Energy Venture Group. Kudos to MassVentures (Charles Hipwood), for participating in prior funding rounds as well. [Link] #Renewable Energy #Energy Storage Tech #CleanTech #Energy Generation Tech #Sustainability Tech #Environmental Technology #Industrial Automation
Albert Invent, led by Nick Talken, has raised $22.5 million in a Series A funding round. Albert Invent provides a cloud-based R&D platform designed to accelerate chemical innovation in materials science using AI. The platform unifies experimental data, streamlines complex R&D and regulatory processes, and delivers AI-driven insights to empower scientists worldwide. Key features include molecular property predictions, structure searches, inverse design, active learning, SKU rationalization, and model explainability. Serving customers like Chemours, Henkel, and Nouryon, Albert Invent helps organizations enhance efficiency and innovation in chemical and materials science research. The company plans to expand its engineering team, enhance platform capabilities, and scale operations. The round was led by Coatue (David Schneider), with participation from TCV, Index Ventures, F-Prime, and Homebrew. [Link] #Advanced Materials #Artificial Intelligence #Material Science Tech #R&D Platforms #Data Analytics Platform #Sustainability Tech #Environmental Technology
Raptor Maps, led by Nikhil Vadhavkar, has raised $35 million in a Series C funding round. Raptor Maps provides an integrated operating system for the solar industry, empowering asset owners to build, manage, and operate solar sites efficiently. Its platform, Raptor Solar, offers a system of record and workflows to improve asset resilience, enhance energy yield, and reduce risk and costs, ultimately increasing the rate of return on solar assets. By enabling the solar industry to scale effectively, Raptor Maps supports the transition to a sustainable energy economy. The company plans to accelerate product development, enhance solar automation, work management, and machine-learning insights, and expand its software engineering and data science teams. The round was led by Maverix Private Equity, with participation from existing investors MKB, Blue Bear Capital (Ernst Theodor Sack), Congruent Ventures, Buoyant Ventures, and Y Combinator. Kudos to Powerhouse Ventures (Emily Kirsch), Data Point Capital (Mike Majors), Buoyant Ventures (Amy Francetic), for participating in prior funding rounds as well. [Link] #Renewable Energy #Solar Tech #Energy Management Platform #Artificial Intelligence #Sustainability Tech #Environmental Technology #Infrastructure Inspection
Cofactr, led by Matthew Haber, has raised $17 million in a Series A funding round. Cofactr provides a supply chain and logistics management platform designed to streamline production, processes, and policies for critical hardware manufacturers. The platform supports companies in high-compliance sectors such as aerospace, defense, robotics, and medical technology, as well as consumer-facing industries like autonomous vehicles and wearables. With over 50 companies utilizing its solution, Cofactr empowers hardware manufacturers and R&D groups to navigate supply chain complexities and manage risk effectively. The company plans to scale go-to-market efforts and expand its suite of supply chain risk management and process tools. The round was led by Bain Capital (Ajay Agarwal), with participation from existing seed investors Y Combinator (Diana Hu), Floating Point Ventures, Broom, and DNX. [Link] #Supply Chai#Sustainability Techn Automation #Supply Chain Management Software #Logistics Software #Artificial Intelligence #Data Integration Platform #Industrial Automation
Twelve Labs, led by Jae Lee, has raised $30 million in Venture funding. Twelve Labs develops advanced video understanding technology to enable organizations to accurately and efficiently discover moments within vast video datasets. Its proprietary multimodal foundation models, Marengo and Pegasus, bring human-like understanding to videos, supporting semantic search, summarization, analysis, Q&A, and more. The latest model, Marengo 2.7, introduces a multi-vector approach to video understanding, setting new performance benchmarks. With an APAC office in Seoul, the company is expanding globally to support diverse video-centric use cases. The company plans to accelerate development of key initiatives, hire additional talent, and enhance its video understanding technology. The round included investments from Databricks, SK Telecom, Snowflake Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and In-Q-Tel. Kudos to Radical Ventures (Rob Toews), for participating in prior funding rounds as well. [Link] #Generative AI #Artificial Intelligence #Foundation Models #Natural Language Processing #Data Analytics Platform #Machine Learning #Video Communication Software
Cartesia, led by Karan Goel, has raised $27 million in a Seed funding round. Cartesia develops real-time multimodal intelligence systems powered by state space models (SSMs). Its flagship product, Sonic, is a low-latency generative voice API that produces lifelike, expressive speech with advanced controllability for emotion, speed, and prompting. Sonic supports on-device use without an internet connection, making it ideal for applications in customer service, robotics, healthcare, gaming, and more. Cartesia’s platform enables developers to build AI systems across diverse industries, driving innovation in real-time multimodal applications. The company plans to expand operations and accelerate development efforts, building on the success of its Sonic API and SSM architecture. The round was led by Index Ventures (Shardul Shah), with participation from A* Capital, Conviction, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, SV Angel, and 90 angel investors, including founders of Abridge, Airtable, Captions, Cognition, Cohere, Databricks, Datadog, Hugging Face, Hubspot, Infinitus, Llamaindex, Mercury, Mistral, Okta, Perplexity, Pika, Pinterest, Postman, Ramp, RunwayML, Snorkel, Sonos, Together AI, Tripedot Studios, Typeface, Vercel, Weaviate, Weights and Biases, and Zapier. [Link] #Generative AI #Artificial Intelligence #Natural Language Processing #Conversational AI #Machine Learning #Video Communication Software #AI Discovery Platform
Vapi, led by Jordan Dearsley, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. Vapi provides a developer platform for deploying Voice AI agents, enabling businesses to scale voice-based solutions quickly and efficiently. With a developer-first approach, its flexible API supports custom conversation flows, CRM and EHR integrations, and seamless incorporation into existing telephony systems. Vapi caters to industries like finance, healthcare, and travel, delivering scalable solutions to handle millions of calls. Customers include Mindtickle, Luma Health, Ellipsis Health, and Gestionadora de Créditos. The company plans to expand its engineering team, enhance infrastructure, and acquire new enterprise customers. Theas l round wed by Bessemer Venture Partners (Byron Deeter, Mike Droesch), with participation from Abstract Ventures, AI Grant, Y Combinator (Gustaf Alstromer), Saga Ventures, and Michael Ovitz. [Link] #Voice AI #Artificial Intelligence #Conversational AI #AI Agent #Developer Tools #APIs #Natural Language Processing
Prezent, led by Rajat Mishra, has raised $7.3 million in Venture funding. Prezent.AI provides an AI-powered enterprise business storytelling platform designed to enhance workplace communication. Combining human-centered design with industry-specific AI models, the platform empowers professionals to create compelling presentations and narratives efficiently. Used by Fortune 500 companies and high-growth enterprises, Prezent.AI improves storytelling by tailoring communication to industry-specific needs and enhancing overall presentation impact. The company plans to accelerate its expansion into Europe and Asia while continuing to innovate in enterprise business storytelling. The round was led by True Global Ventures (TGV) Opportunity Fund. Kudos to WestWave Capital (Gaurav Manglik), Emergent Ventures (Anupam Rastogi), Greycroft (Mark Terbeek), for participating in prior funding rounds as well. [Link] #Generative AI #Productivity Software #AI Agent #Business Communication Software #Enterprise Software #Presentation Tools #Artificial Intelligence
*Note: The companies we feature in our weekly recap are a very small subset of a much larger batch, carefully chosen based on our team's assessment of how each company aligns with our GTM search practice. It’s worth noting that most startups raise funding rounds privately, often long before the news is announced publicly!
