Key Takeaways
- • Flapping Airplanes, a San Francisco AI research lab with no product on sale, raised a $1 billion Series A on October 21 at a $6 billion valuation.
- • Index Ventures and Lux Capital co-led the round; Sequoia Capital, Alphabet's GV, and Kleiner Perkins also participated, according to the primary report.
- • The round lifts total funding to $1.18 billion, following a $180 million seed round nine months earlier that valued the company at $1.5 billion.
- • Other reported investors include Valor, A*, Nvidia, and Atreides, per TechCrunch.
- • Index partner Mark Xu joins the company's board.
Summary
Flapping Airplanes, a San Francisco-based lab, said on October 21 that it had raised a $1 billion Series A at a $6 billion valuation. The round was co-led by Index Ventures and Lux Capital, as first reported by Bloomberg. The company has not yet released a product for sale.
The valuation is a substantial step up from the company's prior round. Nine months earlier, Flapping Airplanes closed a $180 million seed round at a $1.5 billion valuation. The $6 billion figure includes the new capital, and total funding now stands at $1.18 billion.
Sequoia Capital, Alphabet's GV, and Kleiner Perkins also took part in the Series A. TechCrunch lists Valor, A*, Nvidia, and Atreides among the company's other investors. Index Ventures partner Mark Xu joins the board as part of the round.
For institutional allocators, the transaction illustrates the scale of late-stage capital being committed to pre-product frontier research companies, with a valuation quadrupling in roughly nine months despite no commercial offering yet.
The valuation is a substantial step up from the company's prior round. Nine months earlier, Flapping Airplanes closed a $180 million seed round at a $1.5 billion valuation. The $6 billion figure includes the new capital, and total funding now stands at $1.18 billion.
Sequoia Capital, Alphabet's GV, and Kleiner Perkins also took part in the Series A. TechCrunch lists Valor, A*, Nvidia, and Atreides among the company's other investors. Index Ventures partner Mark Xu joins the board as part of the round.
For institutional allocators, the transaction illustrates the scale of late-stage capital being committed to pre-product frontier research companies, with a valuation quadrupling in roughly nine months despite no commercial offering yet.
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