The Weekly Notable Startup Funding Report takes us on a trip across various ecosystems in the US, highlighting some of the notable funding activity in the various markets that we track. The notable startup funding rounds for the week ending 2/21/25 featuring funding details for Duckbill, Ownwell, Breaker, and twenty-seven other deals representing $3B in new funding that you need to know about.
Ascent Funding – $45.0M
San Diego-based Ascent offers students opportunities to pay for higher education with or without a cosigner. Founded by Ken Ruggiero in 2015, Ascent Funding has now raised a total of $86.2M in total equity funding and is backed by Endeavor and Framework Ventures.
Avantos – $25.0M
New York-based Avantos is an AI-native operating system that systematizes and institutionalizes client data for financial services firms. Founded by Bassam Chaptini and Rabih Ramadi in 2024, Avantos has now raised a total of $35.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Guardian Life, SEI, and Vanguard.
Braintrust – $80.0M
San Francisco-based Braintrust is an AI-native observability startup that helps teams measure, evaluate, and improve AI models and products. Founded by Ankur Goyal in 2023, Braintrust has now raised a total of $121.1M in total equity funding and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, basecase capital, Elad Gil, Greylock, and ICONIQ Capital.
Breaker – $9.0M
Austin-based Breaker develops cutting-edge software that transforms the interaction between humans and machines. Founded by Matthew Buffa and Vanja Videnovic in 2023, Breaker has now raised a total of $11.2M in total equity funding and is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Main Sequence Ventures.
Code Metal – $125.0M
Boston-based Code Metal is an AI-enabled platform providing verifiable code translation and optimization for edge development and code modernization. Founded by Alex Showalter-Bucher and Peter Morales in 2023, Code Metal has now raised a total of $184.5M in total equity funding and is backed by Accel, B Capital, J2 Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, RTX Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Shield Capital, and Smith Point Capital.
Cogent Security – $42.0M
San Francisco-based Cogent Security utilizes AI agents to manage vulnerabilities by connecting scanners and prioritizing fixes. Founded by Geng Sng, Thanos Baskous, and Vineet Edupuganti in 2024, Cogent Security has now raised a total of $53.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Definition, and Greylock.
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DG Matrix – $60.0M
Raleigh-based DG Matrix develops solid-state power conversion systems for electric vehicle charging and distributed energy applications. Founded by Haroon Inam and Subhashish Bhattacharya in 2022, DG Matrix has now raised a total of $80.0M in total equity funding and is backed by ABB, Cerberus Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Clean Energy Ventures, Engine Ventures, Fine Structure Venture, Helios Climate Ventures, MCJ, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Piedmont Capital, and Sabanci Climate Ventures.
Duckbill – $7.8M
San Francisco-based Duckbill offers financial planning and analysis for enterprise infrastructure to help understand, negotiate, and optimize cloud spend. Founded by Corey Quinn and Mike Julian in 2019, Duckbill has now raised a total of $7.8M in total equity funding and is backed by Encoded Ventures, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital.
Efficient Computer – $60.0M
Pittsburgh-based Efficient Computer develops processor technology focused on improving energy efficiency for compute-intensive workloads. Founded by Alex Hawkinson, Brandon Lucia, Graham Gobieski, and Nathan Beckmann in 2022, Efficient Computer has now raised a total of $76.0M in total equity funding and is backed by BoxGroup, Eclipse Ventures, Overlap Holdings, Overmatch Ventures, RTX, Toyota Ventures, Triatomic Capital, and Union Square Ventures.
Heron Power – $140.0M
Scotts Valley-based Heron Power develops advanced power electronics and hardware solutions tailored for the modern electrical grid. Founded by Drew Baglino in 2024, Heron Power has now raised a total of $178.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Capricorn Investment Group, Energy Impact Partners, Gigascale Capital, and Valor Equity Partners.
Hook – $15.8M
New York-based Hook is a social music platform that enables creators to generate authorized remixes and mashups of songs using AI-assisted remixing tools. Founded by Gaurav Sharma in 2022, Hook has now raised a total of $23.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Avex, Imaginary Ventures, Khosla Ventures, KSHMR ‚ Palm Tree Crew, Point72 Ventures, The Raine Group, Three Six Zero, and Waverley Capital.
Jump – $80.0M
Salt Lake City-based Jump provides an artificial intelligence platform designed for financial advisors and other financial services professionals. Founded by Adam Kirk, Parker Ence, and Tim Chaves in 2023, Jump has now raised a total of $109.2M in total equity funding and is backed by Aaron Skonnard, Allianz Life Ventures, Battery Ventures, Citi Ventures, F-Prime, Hans Tung, Insight Partners, Pelion Venture Partners, Peterson Partners, Ryan Anderson, Sorenson Capital, and TIAA Ventures.
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Monark Markets – $8.1M
New York-based Monark Markets is the back-end infrastructure connecting brokerages, advisors and custodians to private markets. Founded by Ben Haber and Paul Davis in 2021, Monark Markets has now raised a total of $13.2M in total equity funding and is backed by Bbae Holdings, Commerce Ventures, F-Prime, Grit Capital Partners, and Treasury.
Novig – $75.0M
New York-based Novig is a sweepstakes-based sports prediction market in which users participate in peer-to-peer wagering on sporting events. Founded by Jacob Fortinsky and Kelechi Ukah in 2021, Novig has now raised a total of $99.9M in total equity funding and is backed by Edge Equity, Forerunner, Makers Fund, Multicoin Capital, NFX, Pantera Capital, and Perceptive Ventures.
Onshore – $31.0M
Wilmington-based Onshore provides AI-powered software that automates corporate R&D tax credit and incentive analysis and reporting for businesses. Founded by Dominic Vitucci and Mark Andrus in 2020, Onshore has now raised a total of $43.5M in total equity funding and is backed by ADP Ventures, FPV Ventures, Restive, Vertex Ventures, and Y Combinator.
Ownwell – $30.0M
Austin-based Ownwell is a property tax monitoring company that helps owners reduce real estate tax overpayments. Founded by Colton Pace, Frank DiZenzo, and Joseph Noor in 2020, Ownwell has now raised a total of $35.8M in total equity funding and is backed by Alpha Edison, First Round Capital, Intuit, Left Lane Capital, Long Journey Ventures, Mercato Partners, PROOF, and Wonder Ventures.
Pepper – $50.0M
New York-based Pepper is an e-Commerce platform for food distributors, convenience stores, and other marketplaces. Founded by Bowie Cheung, Chetan Narain, and Ivana Tesanovic in 2019, Pepper has now raised a total of $100.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Greylock, Harmony Partners, ICONIQ Growth, Index Ventures, Interplay, and Lead Edge Capital.
Phoenix Tailings – $30.2M
Woburn-based Phoenix Tailings is a rare earth metals production company that transforms mining waste (tailings) into usable rare earth metals and alloys. Founded by Anthony Balladon, Michelle Chao, Nicholas Myers, and Tomás Villalón in 2019, Phoenix Tailings has now raised a total of $132.5M in total equity funding and is backed by Aether VC, Eni Next, Envisioning Partners, Geodesic Capital, MPower Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and Traxys S.A..
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ProSomnus Sleep Technologies – $38.0M
Pleasanton-based ProSomnus designs and manufactures intraoral devices designed to help dentists get patients into therapy with comfort. Founded by Laing Rikkers and Len Liptak in 2016, ProSomnus Sleep Technologies has now raised a total of $67.2M in total equity funding and is backed by Catalio Capital Management.
QuadSci – $8.0M
New York-based QuadSci is predictive and prescriptive AI for customer intelligence and GTM teams. Founded by Dan Harmeson and Sean Murray in 2023, QuadSci has now raised a total of $8.0M in total equity funding and is backed by Alumni Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Peter Gibson, Robert A. Eberle, Shail Jain, and Thomas Roloff. AlleyWatch broke the news in an exclusive covering the round and much more – QuadSci Raises $8M to Predict SaaS Churn Before It Happens
Qumis – $4.3M
Chicago-based Qumis is an AI-powered platform that analyzes insurance policies and claims documentation with structured, reasoning-based insights. Founded by Dan Schuleman and Shivam Sinha in 2022, Qumis has now raised a total of $6.8M in total equity funding and is backed by Alumni Ventures, American Family Ventures, Armory Square Ventures, Grand Ventures, and MTech Capital.
Render – $100.0M
San Francisco-based Render provides a unified cloud for developers and teams to host all their applications, databases, and websites. Founded by Anurag Goel in 2018, Render has now raised a total of $256.8M in total equity funding and is backed by 01 Advisors, Addition, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Georgian.
Seasats – $20.0M
San Diego-based Seasats designs and manufactures small uncrewed surface vehicles (sUSVs) designed for monitoring, data collection, and defense applications. Founded by Dan Flanigan, Dylan Rodriguez, Max Kramers, and Mike Flanigan in 2020, Seasats has now raised a total of $39.1M in total equity funding and is backed by Crumpton Ventures, DNS Capital, Dorado Property, Konvoy, Shield Capital, Tanis Venture Management, and Techstars.
Temporal Technologies – $300.0M
Bellevue-based Temporal Technologies is an open-source platform that simplifies building and managing complex, long-running workflows and microservices. Founded by Maxim Fateev and Samar Abbas in 2019, Temporal Technologies has now raised a total of $649.5M in total equity funding and is backed by Amplify Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, GIC, Index Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Tiger Global Management.
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Utility Global – $100.0M
Houston-based Utility Global is an off-gas-to-value company that reduces emissions and improves energy efficiency through clean energy generation systems. Founded by David Hall, Jin Dawson, and Matt Dawson in 2018, Utility Global has now raised a total of $186.0M in total equity funding and is backed by APG Asset Management and Ara Partners.
Vestwell – $385.0M
New York-based Vestwell is a digital savings platform that offers and manages a range of savings and retirement plans. Founded by Aaron Schumm in 2016, Vestwell has now raised a total of $623.8M in total equity funding and is backed by Blue Owl Capital Corporation, Franklin Templeton, HarbourVest Partners, Morgan Stanley, Neuberger Berman, Silver Lake Waterman, Sixth Street Growth, and TIAA Ventures.
VulnCheck – $25.0M
Lexington-based VulnCheck provides vulnerability intelligence and exploit monitoring services for security teams. Founded by Anthony Bettini in 2021, VulnCheck has now raised a total of $45.0M in total equity funding and is backed by IQT, National Grid Partners (NGP), Sorenson Capital, and Ten Eleven Ventures.
World Labs – $1.0B
San Francisco-based World Labs develops AI models with spatial intelligence for 3D world perception and interaction. Founded by Ben Mildenhall, Christoph Lassner, Fei-Fei Li, and Justin Johnson in 2024, World Labs has now raised a total of $1.2B in total equity funding and is backed by AMD, Autodesk, Emerson Collective, Fidelity, NVIDIA, and Sea.
ZaiNar – $100.0M
Belmont-based ZaiNar develops real-time 3D location and positioning solutions using patented signal processing and network timing techniques. Founded by Alexander Hooshmand, Daniel Jacker, Eric Roselli, Jake Levy, and Philip Kratz in 2017, ZaiNar has now raised a total of $116.7M in total equity funding and is backed by Jaan Tallinn, Jerry Yang, Nick Pritzker, Steve Jurvetson, and Tom Gruber.
Zero Homes – $16.8M
Denver-based Zero Homes is a technology company that develops an end-to-end digital platform that supports homeowners and contractors. Founded by Grant Gunnison in 2021, Zero Homes has now raised a total of $16.8M in total equity funding and is backed by Exelon Foundation, FJ Labs, Overture Ventures, Prelude Ventures, SJF Ventures, VoLo Earth Ventures, and Watsco Ventures.
Connect with NYC’s Most Influential Tech Leaders & Decision-Makers
The AlleyWatch network reaches the exact audience you need to connect with – NYC’s most innovative startups, tech companies, and business leaders who are reshaping industries globally. Our engaged audience includes:
C-suite executives and key decision-makers
Founders and entrepreneurs
Venture capitalists and investors
Technology and innovation leaders
Maximize your impact through our proven solutions:• Premium brand placement• Targeted lead generation• Thought leadership opportunities• Custom content partnerships
Ready to amplify your reach in NYC Tech?Explore advertising opportunities now →
