Reversing blindness, printing knees, pet policies: NC’s biggest startup deals of 2025
After attracting record sums in 2021, startup founders faced extinction-level threats two years later as interest rates rose and the dollars dried up.
Where did 2025 end up on this fundraising rollercoaster?
“It was not the rebound that a lot of venture participants were hoping for coming into the year,” said Emily Zheng, a venture capital researcher at the financial data firm PitchBook. “There was honestly a lot of macro volatility. Both from tariffs to the government shutdown. There were a lot of fits and starts.”
The two biggest trends in startup fundraising, Zheng said, were artificial-intelligence bullishness and the concentration of capital into bigger deals.
North Carolina’s top startup fundraises this year came from Triangle health care companies. A pair of gene-therapy companies led the way, followed by providers of 3D-printed knees, hospital logistics software, a trial emergency allergy treatment, and an employee health analytic platform. Filling out the list were two sports software firms, a pet policy tech platform (from a former N.C. state representative), and a Morrisville company that’s growing due to the rise in ultra wealthy families.
Here are the 10 largest deals for North Carolina tech startups this year, according to figures PitchBook provided to The News & Observer.
Teamworks, Durham, $235 million
Started in 2004 by a Duke University offensive lineman, Teamworks today says its software is used by more than 6,500 sports teams worldwide, including every NFL team and the vast majority of those in the NBA, MLB, and English Premier League.
Teamworks technology focuses on four areas: talent recruitment, developing players, preparing for games, and overall operations. The Durham startup is now a “unicorn” after raising $235 million in Series F (late stage) funding, in June at a $1 billion-plus valuation.
“This significant investment validates our vision of creating the most comprehensive technology ecosystem in sports,” Teamworks founder and CEO Zach Maurides wrote in a statement in June.
Tune Therapeutics, Durham, $175 million
In early 2025, Tune Therapeutics raised $175 million in Series B funding to support its first clinical trial for a new epigenome editor which the company says can turn off or “silence” disease-causing genes.
“We don’t change the DNA,” Tune’s chief scientific officer Derek Jantz told The N&O in January. “But we do change those parts that are being read and interpreted. It’s a kind of control that no one has ever tried before in patients.”
Jantz said his team picked chronic hepatitis B for its first trial because the human body naturally tries to control the virus in a way Tune’s technology mimics.
Tune formed in 2021 from research by Duke professor Charles Gersbach, who is a cofounder. Duke Capital Partners, the university’s early-stage venture firm, backed Tune in its latest funding round. The company also has an office in Seattle.
Atsena Therapeutics, Durham, $150 million
Research Triangle Park ocular gene therapy company Atsena Therapeutics raised $150 million in an oversubscribed Series C round as the 35-person startup advances two clinical-stage programs in its effort to prevent or reverse blindness.
“We’re in space that is exciting,” Atsena CEO Patrick Ritschel said in an interview Tuesday. “We’re on a cutting edge of technology, and we’re having clinical success.”
Atsena uses gene replacement, also known as gene augmentation, to deliver a healthy copy of a defective gene to allow the cell to produce missing proteins and work properly. Ritschel said eyes are strong, safe candidates for gene therapies because they are confined within the human body, unlike more systemic organs like livers.
restor3d, Durham, $142 million
restor3d makes customized ankle, knee, hip and shoulder joints forged by 3D printer lasers inside Research Triangle Park. Spun out of a Duke University lab eight years ago, the company today has several hundred employees between its Boston office and Morrisville headquarters
Its joints have touched more than 150 bones and been used by more than 650 surgeons, restor3d cofounder Ken Gall said during a site tour in September. And Duke Health surgeon Dr. Samuel Adams says the fitted body parts have helped him save people’s legs. “Everyone’s anatomy is different,” Gall said. “It’s no different than like a face. Everyone has a different bone structure.”
The company announced two fundraises in 2025: $38 million in April and then $104 million over the summer.
PetScreening, Moorseville, $80 million
Founded by former N.C. House Rep. John Bradford III, Petscreening offers property managers software to organize their tenant pet policies. Bradford was serving his second term in 2017 when he started the company. He’s run the Mooresville business full time since losing his Republican primary and leaving office in 2024.
“It’s common that property managers and landlords will have varying pet-related policies from one rental property to another and, from my own experience, their pet record keeping is often inconsistent,” he wrote in an email to The N&O.
Petscreening has roughly (or “ruffly,” as Bradford joked) 180 employees, and this year launched a platform he wrote.
Eton Solutions, Morrisville, $58 million
An increase in the number of very rich families worldwide has meant big business for the Triangle financial technology company Eton Solutions. Based outside of Research Triangle Park, Eton services private companies that manage the wealth of families.
“In recent years, the growth of ultra-high-net-worth families and individuals has resulted in a significant expansion of family offices globally,” Eton wrote in a July statement as it announced its $58 million Series C funding round.
The startup said its quadrupled its revenue in the last three years. Its latest funding round was led by the private equity firm Navis Capital Partners.
Fastbreak AI, Charlotte, $40 million
Charlotte’s Fastbreak AI raised $40 million in Series A funding this year, with investments from professional leagues (the NBA, NHL) and former professional players like retired Carolina Panthers star linebacker Luke Kuechly. But it is the growth opportunities in youth sports that most excites Fastbreak founder and CEO John Stewart .
“It’s a massive marketplace,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.
The company’s software helps optimize scheduling in top professional leagues. On the youth side, Fastbreak promises to deliver an all-in-one platform for scheduling, registration, payments, logistics, and sponsorships — from YMCA leagues to elite travel teams.
“We focus our technology in a way that we enable revenue generation from things other than the parents and the athletes themselves,” Stewart said. “Which hopefully drives down the cost of participation.”
Intelligent Locations, Raleigh, $35 million
Intelligent Locations CEO Bogdan Nedelcu would not “confirm or deny” whether his Raleigh health care software startup in fact raised $35 million in July, as Pitchbook reports.
“With our partners, we decided that we’re not going to disclose any financials,” Nedelcu said.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered along Six Forks Road, Intelligent Locations makes a platform called INTRAX that helps hospitals track supplies, patients and operations.
Belhaven Biopharma, Raleigh, $32.29 million*
Another Triangle biotech company notched a significant investment in 2025. Raleigh’s Belhaven Biopharma raised around $11 million, with convertible notes from previous rounds brining its yearly total, on paper, to north of $30 million.
“That’s really a summation of all the different rounds that we raised,” Belhaven CEO Scott Lyman said in a phone interview Tuesday.
The 4-year-old company has 10 employees and is planning to move into a new office closer to Research Triangle Park. It focuses on treating emergency allergic reactions through nasal sprays.
“This first product that we’re bringing to the market is essentially an EpiPen alternative to treat severe allergies that can bring on anaphylaxis,” Lyman said.
Well, Chapel Hill, $30 million
In May, the Chapel Hill health care software startup Well raised $30 million in an extended Series B to fund its operations. Well aims to give employers insights into their employees’ health to improve outcomes and control costs.
The company serves more than 400,000 people through its platform, chief financial officer Jared Sokolsky said in an interview earlier this month.
In 2019, North Carolina awarded Well a performance-based economic incentive to create 400 jobs in Orange County. The company missed its hiring benchmark earlier this year, but Sokolsky is confident the startup will keep growing.
“We’re going after large, jumbo enterprise employers, and it’s a lumpy sales cycle,” he said. “It’s a tough one to predict. But we’ve demonstrated that we can win. We’re working with a number of Fortune 50, Fortune 100, Fortune 500 companies. We know over time we’re going to get there.”
Well currently employs around 150 people in Chapel Hill, according to Sokolsky, up from about 120 at the start of the 2025.
This story was originally published December 31, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
