Harvard Summer Financing Update: ~$520M Raised, up 70% YoY
During June and July, 11 Harvard-founded tech startups (Series A+) raised ~$520M!
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Welcome back! This summer, 11 Series A+ Harvard-founded startups raised $520M, up ~70% from last summer. We saw significant participation from brand name VCs, including rounds led by Andreessen Horowitz (3), First Round Capital, Spark Capital, Accel, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Sector breakdown includes 5 Health, 3 AI, 2 FinTech, and 1 SaaS deal. Overall, this was an exciting summer. Let’s dive in.
Note: this blog includes only announced rounds from 6/1/2024 - 8/1/2024.
Series A: 7 rounds, $349.6M raised*
Series B: 3 rounds, $153M raised
Series C: 1 round, $25M raised
*$200M of the $349.6M raised is attributed to Earned Wealth’s round.
Key Trends
Continued leadership from Harvard founders in health tech. 5 health tech startups raised $159M in Series A+ funding. Read more about Harvard’s success in health technology in a previous post here
Participation from brand name VCs. Rounds led by Andreessen Horowitz (3), First Round Capital, Spark Capital, Accel, and Lightspeed Venture Partners
Participation from leading angel investors. Angel investors included Elad Gil, Lattice CEO Jack Altman, Quora founder Adam D’Angelo, ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Giphy co-founder Alex Chung, Box CEO Aaron Levie, Airtable CEO Howie Liu, and Rippling COO Matt MacInnis
Round sizes grew considerably. Likely a function of both deal quality and AI, the median and average round size at Series A and B nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024
Harvard founders are solving problems that matter to society. From personal savings assistants to wealth planning for doctors and several startups aiming to improve health outcomes, Harvard founders are contributing profoundly to society
Know a Harvard founder raising or looking to start a company? Enjoying Phoenix Fund Research? Interested in chatting? Feel free to share a note: devon@phoenixclub.vc
Deals
Function Health raised $53M in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Founded by Pranitha Patil (Masters, 2020), Function Health offers a new routine of 120+ advanced lab tests explained by the world's top doctors.
Earned Wealth raised $200M in Series A funding led by Summit Partners and Silversmith Capital Partners. Founded by John Clendening (HBS, 1989), Earned Wealth is a wealth management platform that provides personalized financial planning and investment strategies for doctors.
Pika raised $80M in Series B funding led by Spark Capital. Founded by Demi Guo (College, 2021), Pika is a startup that develops an AI-powered platform for editing and generating films from captions and still images.
Pomelo Care raised $46M in Series B funding led by First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Founded by Marta Bralic (College), Pomelo Care develops an online pregnancy care platform to provide virtual maternity and neonatal care services.
Decagon raised $30M in Series A funding led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. Founded by Jesse Zhang (College), Decagon creates generative AI for building customer service agents that work much more like humans.
Exa raised $17M in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Founded by Jeffrey Wang (College, 2019) and Will Bryk (College, 2019), Exa is an AI research center that is reinventing the quest for AI.
Heartbeat Health raised $25M in Series C funding led by Cressey & Company. Founded by Jeffrey Wessler (Harvard Medical School, 2012), Heartbeat Health is a digital health company that utilizes technology to improve cardiovascular disease prevention and management.
OnRamp raised $14.2M in Series A funding led by Javelin Ventures and Contour Venture Partners. Founded by Ross Lerner (HBS, 2020), OnRamp provides customer onboarding and implementation software that automates busywork and enables white-glove customer success at scale.
Humata Health raised $25M in Series A funding led by The Blue Venture Fund and LRVHealth. Founded by Jeremy Friese (HBS, 2008), Humata Health is an AI-enabled deep clinical integration that creates prior authorizations for payers and providers using AI and automation.
Plum Fintech raised $17M in Series B funding. Founded by Victor Trokoudes (College, 2008), Plum Fintech is a developer of personal savings assistant solutions for customers.
Grayce raised $10.4M in Series A funding led by Maveron. Founded by Kassidee Kipp (HBS), Grayce is a social care management platform that provides elderly care services to support and guide family caregivers.
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Know a Harvard founder raising or looking to start a company? Enjoying Phoenix Fund Research? Interested in chatting? Feel free to share a note: devon@phoenixclub.vc