The first week of March saw Sierra Space lead a strong week for large startup funding rounds, securing $550 million in equity funding at an $8 billion valuation. The Louisville, Colorado-based space and defense tech company designs satellites and spacecraft, with LuminArx Capital Management leading the financing round.

Space tech and AI infrastructure dominated the top deals, with Ayar Labs and Vast each raising $500 million. Ayar Labs, a San Jose-based producer of co-packaged optics for AI infrastructure, reached a $3.75 billion valuation in its Series E funding led by Neuberger Berman. Long Beach-based Vast, developing next-generation space stations, raised $500 million including $300 million in Series A equity and $200 million in debt from Balerion Space Ventures.

Healthcare and enterprise software also attracted significant investment, with Findhelp securing $250 million from TPG's The Rise Fund for its care coordination platform. Other notable rounds included Science Corp.'s $230 million Series C for brain-computer interface technologies and Cart.com's $180 million growth equity investment for e-commerce solutions. The week's 10 largest deals totaled over $3.2 billion, signaling continued investor appetite for space technology and AI infrastructure despite market uncertainty.