This Week in Unicorn Companies | Key Deals and Moves

K2 Space raised $250 million in its Series C round, valuing the company at $3 billion. The round was led by Redpoint, with participation from T. Rowe Price Associates, Lightspeed, and others. Founded in 2022 by Karan Kunjur and Neel Kunjur, K2 Space builds large, high-power “Mega Class” satellite platforms designed for the heavy-lift launch era, supporting scalable space-based communications and computing missions.

Octane raised $100 million in a Series F round, pushing its valuation to $1.3 billion. The funding was led by Valar Ventures, with participation from Upper90, Huntington National Bank, and others. Led by CEO Jason Guss, Octane runs a Captive-as-a-Service lending platform that integrates technology, underwriting, and servicing—enabling branded financing that speeds purchases and boosts dealer sales.

Esusu raised $50 million in its Series C round, lifting the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion. The funding was led by Westbound Equity Partners, with participation from Blue Meridian Partners and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Founded by Wemimo Abbey, Samir Goel, and others, Esusu helps renters build credit by reporting on-time rent payments—unlocking financial access and driving economic mobility for underserved communities.

Waymo is reportedly talking to raise more than $15 billion at a valuation of nearly $100 billion, backed by Alphabet Inc. and external investors. Founded in 2009 by Anthony Levandowski and Sebastian Thrun, Waymo develops the Waymo Driver, a self-driving system that integrates advanced sensors, computer vision, and machine learning. The technology powers fully electric robotaxis and supports one of the world’s only commercial autonomous ride-hailing networks.

OpenAI is reportedly preparing a new funding round that could value the company at $750 billion, marking one of the largest valuations in tech history. Founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Wojciech Zaremba, Vicki Cheung, Ilya Sutskever, and others, OpenAI develops frontier artificial intelligence systems including ChatGPT and DALL·E. The company focuses on advancing large-scale models that power conversational AI, creative tools, and enterprise platforms.

Lovable raised $330 million in its Series B round, bringing the company’s valuation to $6.6 billion. The funding was led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures, with participation from Databricks Ventures, and others. Founded in 2024 by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin, Lovable is an AI-powered “vibe-coding” platform that lets users build full applications from text prompts, accelerating software creation for startups and enterprises.

Radiant Nuclear raised $300 million in new funding, valuing the company at over $1.8 billion. The round was led by Draper Associates and Boost VC, with participation from Chevron Technology Ventures, and others. Founded by Doug Bernauer and Bob Urberger, Radiant is building 1 MW portable nuclear microreactors designed to replace diesel generators and deliver resilient, zero-emission power for defense, remote industry, disaster response, and critical infrastructure.

Databricks raised $4 billion in its Series L round, valuing the company at $134 billion. The round was led by Insight Partners and Fidelity Management, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, and others. Founded by Ali Ghodsi, Matei Zaharia, Ion Stoica, Reynold Xin, Patrick Wendell, Andy Konwinski, and Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji, Databricks builds a unified data and AI platform that empowers enterprises to transform data into actionable insights and scalable AI applications.