Startup Funding: February 2023

By Jesse Allen - 08 Mar, 2023 - Comments: 0

The cost of borrowing is going up, but investors continued to pour money into the chip industry in February. Collectively, 132 companies raised more than $4.5 billion last month. One of the big beneficiaries was quantum computing, with nine companies drawing a total of more than $500 million. The bulk of that went to a quantum software and services company spun out of Alphabet, but plenty wa... » read more

Startup Funding: January 2023

By Jesse Allen - 01 Feb, 2023 - Comments: 0

Quantum computing had a good month in January, collectively raising over $240 million. A significant chunk of that went to a full-stack quantum company whose processers use neutral atoms manipulated by optical tweezers. Other companies funded this month are developing trapped ion processors, photonics-based processors, and quantum memories, which will be essential for quantum networking. Two co... » read more

Startup Funding: October 2022

By Jesse Allen - 02 Nov, 2022 - Comments: 1

Investors poured $3.5 billion into 113 startup companies in October 2022, especially new battery technology, AI hardware, and faster memory access. Battery technology dominated the fundraising in October thanks to the U.S. Department of Energy and four funding rounds that exceeded $200M. The DOE awarded sizeable grants to help 20 companies, including six startups, build out battery material ... » read more

Startup Funding: April 2022

By Jesse Allen - 04 May, 2022 - Comments: 0

Silicon photonics holds the potential to vastly increase bandwidth in chips and systems while reducing power use — and investors are taking note. In April, one of the largest funding rounds went to a startup developing chip-to-chip optical I/O. But that wasn't all. Photonics funding showed up in AI with a photonic Tensor core, in room-temperature quantum computing, and, of course, in lidar an... » read more

Startup Funding: February 2022

By Jesse Allen - 07 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

Mega-rounds dominated venture funding in February, with ten companies seeing investment of $100 million or more, five of which exceeded $200 million. Automotive was the big winner, with seven of the ten companies involved in either developing ADAS and autonomous driving, building electric vehicles, or making components to go in cars. The largest round of the month falls into that last category,... » read more

Startup Funding: January 2022

By Jesse Allen - 02 Feb, 2022 - Comments: 0

China's startups are the star of the month once again, with more companies based or co-headquartered in the country receiving funding in January 2022 than the rest of the world combined. Exact investment figures for Chinese startups are frequently not reported, but based on minimum amounts given, they raised more than the rest of the world as well. The largest round of the month went to a co... » read more

Startup Funding: December 2021

By Jesse Allen - 04 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

Chinese startups dominated last month's fundraising, with companies from the country comprising about two-thirds of those covered in this report. In addition to the number of companies, startups from China also drew significant amounts of funding, with a display driver company and an EV battery maker each garnering around $1B and six more companies seeing rounds over $100M. Two particularly ... » read more

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