US startups accelerate in March 2026 with nine- and ten-figure rounds
US venture financing picked up pace in March 2026, with a wave of nine- and ten-figure rounds across defense tech, AI, and enterprise software. Using Crunchbase data, the analysis identified companies that raised $100 million or more during the month, including three that crossed the $1 billion mark in a single round.
Consumer and developer platforms were among the standouts. Seattle-based Bluesky, the social media network founded by Jay Graber in 2021, closed a Series B and has now raised $136.0 million in total equity funding. Investors in the round included Alumni Ventures, Anthos Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, Bloomberg Beta, the Knight Foundation, and True Ventures.
In San Francisco, WorkOS—founded by Michael Grinich to provide modern APIs and SDKs for enterprise-ready features—secured a Series C that brought its total equity funding to $195.0 million, with backing from Abstract, Audacious Ventures, Craft Ventures, Greenoaks, Meritech Capital Partners, and Sapphire Ventures.
AI-driven operations software also drew large checks. Palo Alto-based ORO Labs, an AI-powered procurement orchestration platform founded in 2020 by Lalitha Rajagopalan, Sudhir Bhojwani, and Yuan Tung, completed a Series C that lifted its total equity funding to $159.0 million.
The round’s investors included B Capital, Brighton Park Capital, Felicis, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, Norwest, and XYZ Venture Capital. Health-tech and security saw conviction capital as well. Campbell-based Imperative Care, a medical device company focused on stroke founded by Nick Hopkins in 2015, raised a venture round that brought total equity funding to $519.0 million.
Investors included Ally Bridge Group, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Brown Advisory, Catalio Capital Management, Elevage Medical Technologies, Longaeva Partners, and Perceptive Advisors. In Arlington, Cape, founded in 2022 by veterans of Anduril and Palantir, advanced its privacy-enabling technology with a Series C; its total equity funding now stands at $176.4 million.
The round drew 01 Advisors, 137 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Definition, Fifth Down Capital, and IVP. Beyond software and health, the month’s compilation highlighted momentum in defense AI, autonomous drones, satellite navigation, home robots, and prediction markets—sectors that attracted large checks from prominent venture investors.
The list focused on companies raising $100 million or more in March and noted three single-round financings of at least $1 billion, underscoring the breadth of late-stage capital flowing into US startups.