In the rapidly evolving world of tech startups, **AI companies** are increasingly adopting strategies to present themselves as **SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses** to attract investment. This trend involves some creative accounting, where non-recurring consulting fees are lumped into **annual recurring revenue (ARR)** figures, and pitches to investors focus on **'contracted ARR'** or **'sales pipelines'** rather than genuine, sustainable revenue streams.

### Why the Masquerade?

The allure of the SaaS model lies in its predictability and scalability, qualities that investors find highly attractive. By positioning themselves within this category, AI startups can tap into the **higher valuations** typically reserved for SaaS companies. However, this raises questions about the **long-term sustainability** of such strategies and the potential for **misleading investors**.

### The OpenAI Example

Adding to the intrigue, **OpenAI** has recently laid off employees from its **'Insider Risk'** team. While the reasons behind these layoffs remain unclear, they hint at the internal challenges and adjustments even leading AI companies face as they navigate the complex landscape of tech innovation and investment expectations.

Today, we’re talking about my favorite topic: sneaky things AI startups do to gussy up their revenue.We previously covered how some AI startups are including non-recurring consulting fees in their annual recurring revenue figures; pitching investors on their “contracted ARR” or “sales pipelines” ...

The Sneaky Tactics of AI Startups: How They're Dressing Up as SaaS to Woo Investors

## The Rise of AI Startups in 2025

Last year marked a significant milestone for the AI industry, with **49 startups** raising funding rounds worth **$100 million or more** in 2024. The momentum has continued into 2025, with several AI startups already securing massive funding rounds. Here's a look at the **24 US AI startups** that have raised **$100 million or more** this year.

### June Highlights
- **Glean**: Raised a **$150 million Series F round**, valuing the company at **$7.25 billion**.
- **Anysphere**: Secured a **$900 million Series C round**, reaching a **$10 billion valuation**.

### May Highlights
- **Snorkel AI**: Announced a **$100 million Series D round**, valuing the company at **$1.3 billion**.
- **LMArena**: Raised a **$100 million seed round**, with a **$600 million valuation**.
- **TensorWave**: Closed a **$100 million Series A round**.

### April Highlights
- **SandboxAQ**: Secured a **$450 million Series E round**, valuing the company at **$5.7 billion**.
- **Runway**: Raised a **$308 million Series D round**, reaching a **$3 billion valuation**.

### March Highlights
- **OpenAI**: Raised a record-breaking **$40 billion funding round**, valuing the startup at **$300 billion**.
- **Nexthop AI**: Announced a **$110 million Series A round**.
- **Insilico Medicine**: Raised **$110 million** for its AI-powered drug discovery platform.
- **Celestial AI**: Secured a **$250 million Series C round**, valuing the company at **$2.5 billion**.
- **Lila Sciences**: Raised a **$200 million seed round**.
- **Reflection.Ai**: Closed a **$130 million Series A round**, valuing the company at **$580 million**.
- **Turing**: Raised a **$111 million Series E round**, reaching a **$2.2 billion valuation**.
- **Shield AI**: Secured a **$240 million Series F round**, valuing the company at **$5.3 billion**.
- **Anthropic**: Raised **$3.5 billion in a Series E round**, reaching a **$61.5 billion valuation**.

### February Highlights
- **Together AI**: Raised a **$305 million Series B round**, valuing the company at **$3.3 billion**.
- **Lambda**: Secured a **$480 million Series D round**, reaching a **$2.5 billion valuation**.
- **Abridge**: Raised a **$250 million Series D round**, valuing the company at **$2.75 billion**.
- **Eudia**: Closed a **$105 million Series A round**.
- **EnCharge AI**: Raised a **$100 million Series B round**.
- **Harvey**: Secured a **$300 million Series D round**, reaching a **$3 billion valuation**.

### January Highlights
- **ElevenLabs**: Raised a **$180 million Series C round**, valuing the company at **over $3 billion**.
- **Hippocratic AI**: Announced a **$141 million Series B round**, reaching a **$1.6 billion valuation**.

This list showcases the **continued growth and investment** in the AI sector, with startups across various domains securing significant funding to drive innovation forward.

U.S.-based AI startups continue to rake in venture funding with multiple companies already raising impressive rounds in 2025.

24 US AI Startups That Secured $100M+ in 2025: The Future of Innovation

There’s a lot of talk in the startup world about how AI makes individuals so productive that it could give rise to a generation of **“solo unicorns”** — one-person companies worth over $1 billion.

While an actual solo unicorn remains a mythical creature, Israeli developer Maor Shlomo provided compelling evidence Wednesday that the concept might not be impossible. 

Shlomo sold his 6-month-old, bootstrapped vibe-coding startup **Base44** to Wix for **$80 million**, Wix announced Wednesday. And the deal was cash, Wix confirmed to TechCrunch. 

Admittedly, this wasn’t a billion dollars or close to it. And Shlomo wasn’t truly solo — he had eight employees, Wix confirmed. They will collectively receive $25 million of the $80 million as a **“retention” bonus**. Wix declined to give details on that part of the deal, like how long they have to stay in their jobs to get full payouts.

Still, Base44’s rapid rise and impressive sale price have been the talk of the **vibe-coding community**. 

In its six months as a stand-alone company, Base44 reportedly grew to **250,000 users**, hitting 10,000 users within its first three weeks. According to Shlomo’s posts on X and LinkedIn, the company was profitable, generating **$189,000 in profit** in May even after covering high LLM token costs, which he also documented publicly.

Base44 spread mostly through word of mouth as Shlomo, a 31-year-old programmer, shared his building journey on LinkedIn and Twitter. The project began as a side venture, he told Israeli tech news site CTech. 

“Base44 is a moonshot experiment — helping everyone, technical or not, build software without coding at all,” he explained on LinkedIn when he launched it to the public.

It’s one of the newer crop of **vibe-coding products** designed for non-programmers. Users enter text prompts, and the platform builds complete applications, with database, storage, authentication, analytics, and integration. It also supports email, texting, and maps, with a roadmap for more enterprise-grade security support.

Base44 isn’t unique in this area. Other vibe coders like Adaptive Computer handle similar infrastructure work. But Base44’s fast rise was astounding all the same.

Shlomo was already known in the Israeli startup community through his previous startup, the Insight Partners-backed data analytics company Explorium. His brother is also a co-founder of an AI security startup, Token Security, which just raised $20 million led by Notable Capital (formerly GGV Capital) and a bunch of Israeli tech angels.

He quickly gained partnership agreements for Base44 with big Israeli tech companies like eToro and Similarweb.

After posting about his decision to use Anthropic’s Claude LLM through AWS instead of models by OpenAI — mostly for cost-per-performance reasons — Amazon invited Base44 to demo at a Tel Aviv AWS event last month, which Shlomo documented.

“Crazy f***ing journey so far,” Shlomo posted on LinkedIn when announcing the news of the acquisition. Despite the growth and the profits — or really because of it — he sold his still-bootstrapped company because “the scale and volume we need is not something we can organically grow into … If we were able to get so far organically, bootstrapped, I’m excited to see our new pace now that we have all the resources in place,” he wrote.

For its part, Wix picked up a proven, fast-growing, local vibe-coding platform for a relative song because of its youth. OpenAI paid $3 billion for Windsurf, which was founded in 2021. 

Wix, of course, offers no-code website building that look professionally designed. Adding a profitable LLM vibe-coding product to its offerings is a logical move.

In Base44's six months as a stand-alone company, it reportedly grew to 250,000 users and was making nearly $200,000 in monthly profits.

From Solo to $80M: The Unbelievable Journey of Base44 and Its Sale to Wix

**TerraPower LLC**, a nuclear startup founded by billionaire Bill Gates, has successfully raised **$650 million** to advance its groundbreaking reactor project in Wyoming. This significant funding round saw participation from new investors like **NVentures**, the venture capital arm of **Nvidia Corp.**, alongside existing supporters such as Gates and **HD Hyundai**, a prominent South Korean shipbuilder.

### The Intersection of Tech and Nuclear Energy
Nvidia's investment underscores the burgeoning synergy between the tech industry's demand for **carbon-free electricity** to fuel data centers and AI, and nuclear energy's potential to provide **clean, reliable power**. Mohamed Siddeek of NVentures highlighted, "As AI continues to transform industries, nuclear energy is going to become a more vital energy source to help power these capabilities."

### TerraPower's Visionary Project
TerraPower is pioneering a **345-megawatt power plant** at a retiring Wyoming coal facility. Construction on non-nuclear components commenced a year ago, with federal approval for the reactor anticipated by **2026**. Despite previous delays due to shortages of **high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)**, a recent partnership with **ASP Isotopes** aims to address this critical need.

### A Surge in Nuclear Interest
The nuclear sector is experiencing a renaissance, driven by the **AI boom's energy demands** and the quest for sustainable alternatives to wind and solar. This trend is further evidenced by **Terrestrial Energy Inc.'s** planned public debut via a **SPAC merger**, valuing the company at approximately **$1 billion**.

### The Bigger Picture
With entities like **Oklo Inc.** and **NuScale Power** also making strides, the nuclear energy landscape is rapidly evolving. Terrestrial CEO Simon Irish aptly summarized the momentum: "The world is waking up to what it needs to do. We need a massive expansion in the nuclear energy supply."

The funding round included new investors such as NVentures, the venture capital arm of Nvidia Corp., and existing backers Gates and HD Hyundai, a South Korean shipbuilder

Bill Gates' TerraPower Secures $650M from Nvidia & Others to Revolutionize Nuclear Energy

**OpenAI** is phasing out its collaboration with **data-labeling startup Scale AI**, a move that comes just days after **Meta Platforms Inc.** invested billions into Scale and recruited its founder. This decision marks a significant shift in the AI development ecosystem, especially considering Scale's role in providing essential data for AI models.

### The Backstory

- **Scale AI**, founded in 2016, quickly became a key player in the AI space, offering data-labeling services to tech giants like **Google, Meta, and OpenAI**.
- **Meta's recent investment** of **$14.3 billion** in Scale and the hiring of its CEO, **Alexandr Wang**, for a new "superintelligence" unit, has raised eyebrows across the industry.

### Why OpenAI is Moving On

An **OpenAI spokesperson** revealed that Scale accounted for only a small fraction of their data needs. The company had already been reducing its reliance on Scale before Meta's involvement, seeking more specialized data providers to support its **advanced AI models**.

### Industry Implications

- **Google** is also reportedly planning to sever ties with Scale, according to **Reuters**.
- The deal has sparked concerns about **Meta potentially gaining insights** into competitors' AI development strategies.

### The Future of AI Data Labeling

OpenAI's shift underscores the growing need for **more sophisticated data expertise** as AI models become increasingly complex. The company is now focusing on developing models that mimic **human reasoning** and can perform tasks with minimal user input.

### Emerging Players

New entrants like **Mercor** are stepping up to fill the gap, offering specialized services to help AI companies develop **cutting-edge models**. Mercor, initially known for AI-driven recruiting, has pivoted to focus on **AI model development support**.

OpenAI is phasing out the work it does with data-labeling startup Scale AI, cutting ties with the company days after Meta Platforms Inc. invested billions of dollars in it and hired its founder.

OpenAI Cuts Ties with Scale AI Post-Meta's Billion-Dollar Bet: What's Next for AI Data Labeling?

## **SandboxAQ's Breakthrough in AI-Driven Drug Discovery**

SandboxAQ, an **AI startup** with roots in **Alphabet's Google** and backing from **Nvidia**, has unveiled a groundbreaking dataset aimed at **accelerating drug discovery**. This initiative focuses on understanding how drugs interact with proteins, a critical step in developing new treatments.

### **The Power of Synthetic Data**

The startup has generated **5.2 million synthetic 3D molecules**, calculated using **Nvidia's chips** and based on real-world experimental data. This **synthetic dataset** is designed to train AI models to predict drug-protein interactions with unprecedented speed and accuracy.

### **How It Works**

- **Predictive Modeling**: Scientists can use these models to forecast whether a drug will bind to its target protein, a vital question in drug development.
- **Virtual Experiments**: SandboxAQ's approach could reduce the need for physical lab experiments, offering a **virtual alternative** that's both faster and cost-effective.

### **The Bigger Picture**

This innovation represents a fusion of **traditional scientific computing** and **modern AI advancements**, tackling one of biology's most persistent challenges. By making the dataset publicly available, SandboxAQ is fostering collaboration while also developing proprietary AI models for commercial use.

> "This is a long-standing problem in biology that we've all, as an industry, been trying to solve for," said **Nadia Harhen**, GM of AI simulation at SandboxAQ.

SandboxAQ, an artificial intelligence startup spun out of Alphabet's Google and backed by Nvidia , on Wednesday released a trove of data it hopes will speed up the discovery of new medical treatments by helping scientists understand how drugs stick to proteins.

Revolutionizing Drug Discovery: How Nvidia-Backed SandboxAQ's AI is Changing the Game

**Tennr**, a New York-based health tech startup, has recently secured a **$101 million Series C funding round**, valuing the company at **$605 million**. This round was led by **IVP**, with participation from existing investors including **Andreessen Horowitz**, **Lightspeed**, and **Iconiq**. The startup, founded in 2021 by **Diego Baugh**, **Trey Holterman**, and **Tyler Johnson**, aims to tackle the **patient referral process**, a notorious bottleneck in the U.S. healthcare system.

### The Problem: A Broken Referral System

Diego Baugh's personal experience with the referral system highlighted its inefficiencies. After being hospitalized with stomach issues, he waited **six weeks** for a specialist appointment, only to be hospitalized again due to the delay. This issue is widespread, with **more than half of referred patients never making it to the next step** in their care.

### Tennr's Solution: AI-Powered Efficiency

Tennr has developed a **proprietary AI model** trained on **tens of millions of medical documents** to streamline the referral process. The system automates tasks like **eligibility checks**, **benefits verification**, and **payer rules interpretation**, ensuring patients receive timely care.

### Why Tennr Stands Out

Unlike general AI models, Tennr's technology is **hyper-specific** to healthcare referrals, making it more effective for this use case. CEO **Trey Holterman** emphasizes that the focus is on **solving problems**, not just leveraging AI. The company complies with **HIPAA regulations** through de-identification of patient data.

### Future Growth

IVP partner **Zeya Yang** sees potential for Tennr to expand into **new subverticals within medical specialties** and develop tools for **insurance verification**. The company is already working on a **network feature** to provide visibility into the referral and payment process for both physicians and patients.

### Financial Success

While specific figures aren't disclosed, Tennr reports **eight-figure revenue**, tripling since its **Series B round in October**. Holterman believes Tennr's specialized approach will outperform generic AI solutions, ensuring patients **actually receive the care they need**.

Venture firm IVP led the round along with existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and Iconiq.

Tennr's $101M Series C Funding: Revolutionizing Patient Referrals with AI

**Sam Altman and his tech CEO friends** have sparked a betting pool on when we'll see the first one-person billion-dollar company. This concept, once unthinkable without AI, is now becoming a reality with the rise of AI-first businesses. **Birk Jernström**, CEO of **Polar**, is at the forefront of this movement, offering a monetization platform designed to empower these one-person unicorns.

### **Polar: A Developer-Focused Monetization Platform**
Polar distinguishes itself by catering specifically to developers. Acting as the **'Merchant of Record'**, it handles billing and taxes, enabling businesses to sell online products and SaaS subscriptions globally from day one. With just a few lines of code, developers can integrate Polar, a feature that caught the eye of **VC firm Accel**, leading Polar's $10 million seed round.

### **From Tictail to Polar: Jernström's Journey**
Jernström's previous venture, **Tictail**, was acquired by Shopify in 2018 for $17 million. Tictail's mission was to simplify online store creation, a vision that resonated with over 100,000 merchants. Post-acquisition, Jernström contributed to Shopify's **Shop app and Shop Pay ecosystem**, scaling them from zero to one.

### **The Birth of Polar**
In 2021, Jernström's entrepreneurial spirit led him to found Polar, backed by Shopify's CEO and president as angels. Polar's **open-source approach** and deep understanding of its customer base have attracted 18,000 customers, primarily developers monetizing software.

### **Integrations and Backing**
Polar integrates with popular developer tools like **Framer, Raycast, Dub, Nuxt, Resend, Supabase, Vercel, and WorkOS**. These integrations reflect Polar's commitment to making software monetization as seamless as building the software itself.

### **The Future of One-Person Unicorns**
Jernström envisions Polar as a catalyst for developer entrepreneurship, akin to Shopify's impact on e-commerce. With AI fueling the rise of indie hackers, Polar is poised to play a pivotal role in the next wave of tech innovation.

With Polar as their ‘Merchant of Record’ responsible for handling billing and taxes, developers can sell online products and SaaS subscriptions globally from day one.

The Sneaky Tactics of AI Startups: How They're Dressing Up as SaaS to Woo Investors

Summary:

Why the Masquerade?

The OpenAI Example

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Other Latest News

24 US AI Startups That Secured $100M+ in 2025: The Future of Innovation

From Solo to $80M: The Unbelievable Journey of Base44 and Its Sale to Wix

Bill Gates' TerraPower Secures $650M from Nvidia & Others to Revolutionize Nuclear Energy

OpenAI Cuts Ties with Scale AI Post-Meta's Billion-Dollar Bet: What's Next for AI Data Labeling?

Revolutionizing Drug Discovery: How Nvidia-Backed SandboxAQ's AI is Changing the Game

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Other Latest News

24 US AI Startups That Secured $100M+ in 2025: The Future of Innovation

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OpenAI Cuts Ties with Scale AI Post-Meta's Billion-Dollar Bet: What's Next for AI Data Labeling?

Revolutionizing Drug Discovery: How Nvidia-Backed SandboxAQ's AI is Changing the Game

Tennr's $101M Series C Funding: Revolutionizing Patient Referrals with AI

Building One-Person Unicorns: How Polar is Empowering Developers to Monetize Globally