Skip to main content

Deal Dive: Gradiant is the new kind of unicorn worth getting excited about

Remember when it was actually interesting to see a startup becoming a unicorn?

A company reaching the billion-dollar valuation mark used to be a rare event — hence the term ‘unicorn.’ But by 2020 and 2021, it was anything but. Every week was like, “Oh, another crypto unicorn? Great. Wow, the fifth neobank this month. Amazing. Wait, wasn’t that company just founded last year?”

I’m not saying this to diminish the accomplishments of any of those companies, but the investing fever of 2020 and 2021 made that once-scarce milestone almost seem like late-stage table stakes.

But in today’s tougher funding market, unicorns are rare again. And there is a new entrant that shows us what unicorns might look like in 2023.

This week, Boston-based Gradiant said it raised a $225 million Series D round led by Centaurus Capital at a $1 billion valuation. The company builds tools to manage and treat wastewater for companies across industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and mining.

Gradiant’s co-founder and CEO, Anurag Bajpayee, told TechCrunch+ that the company has essentially doubled revenue every year, for the last few years. “If you think about the industrial revolution, and the global industry, we have been taking water from nature. We have an opportunity to turn the clock back on the state of water on this planet and give nature water back,” Bajpayee said.

Deal Dive: Gradiant is the new kind of unicorn worth getting excited about by Rebecca Szkutak originally published on TechCrunch



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/4zW8xlP
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Apple’s AI Push: Everything We Know About Apple Intelligence So Far

Apple’s WWDC 2025 confirmed what many suspected: Apple is finally making a serious leap into artificial intelligence. Dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” the suite of AI-powered tools, enhancements, and integrations marks the company’s biggest software evolution in a decade. But unlike competitors racing to plug AI into everything, Apple is taking a slower, more deliberate approach — one rooted in privacy, on-device processing, and ecosystem synergy. If you’re wondering what Apple Intelligence actually is, how it works, and what it means for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’re in the right place. This article breaks it all down.   What Is Apple Intelligence? Let’s get the terminology clear first. Apple Intelligence isn’t a product — it’s a platform. It’s not just a chatbot. It’s a system-wide integration of generative AI, machine learning, and personal context awareness, embedded across Apple’s OS platforms. Think of it as a foundational AI layer stitched into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and m...

The Silent Revolution of On-Device AI: Why the Cloud Is No Longer King

Introduction For years, artificial intelligence has meant one thing: the cloud. Whether you’re asking ChatGPT a question, editing a photo with AI tools, or getting recommendations on Netflix — those decisions happen on distant servers, not your device. But that’s changing. Thanks to major advances in silicon, model compression, and memory architecture, AI is quietly migrating from giant data centres to the palm of your hand. Your phone, your laptop, your smartwatch — all are becoming AI engines in their own right. It’s a shift that redefines not just how AI works, but who controls it, how private it is, and what it can do for you. This article explores the rise of on-device AI — how it works, why it matters, and why the cloud’s days as the centre of the AI universe might be numbered. What Is On-Device AI? On-device AI refers to machine learning models that run locally on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or edge device — without needing constant access to the cloud. In practi...

Max Q: Psyche(d)

In this issue: SpaceX launches NASA asteroid mission, news from Relativity Space and more. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/h6Kjrde via IFTTT