Peregrine Raises $250M Series D at $6.8 Billion Valuation
Peregrine Technologies, the San Francisco company that turns a government's scattered records into a single searchable system, said it raised $250 million in a Series D round that values the startup at $6.8 billion. The financing nearly triples a valuation that stood at $2.5 billion just 15 months ago, and it lands as Peregrine prepares to help run security operations for most of the U.S. host cities at this summer's FIFA World Cup.
The round was led by existing backers, including Fifth Down Capital, Sequoia Capital, OG Venture Partners, Goldcrest Capital, XYZ Ventures and Godfrey Capital. Peregrine confirmed the raise to Fortune, which reported the deal first, and the figures were carried on the Reuters wire. The company declined to disclose revenue but said it has more than doubled its customer base over the past year.
What Peregrine actually does
Peregrine sits in a category that has become one of the hottest and most contested corners of enterprise software: govtech built on artificial intelligence. The platform connects the data a public agency already owns, such as police records, 911 logs, permit databases, sensor feeds and emergency management systems, and makes all of it searchable in real time. Crucially, the company says it does not collect, own or create new data. It indexes what a city already has and adds role-based access controls and a full audit trail so supervisors can see who searched for what and why.
That design is a direct response to the trust problem that has dogged the industry. Cofounder and chief executive Nick Noone, a former Stanford gymnast who ran Palantir's special operations business before starting Peregrine, frames the product as giving public safety leaders the information they need in critical moments without building a new surveillance apparatus. His cofounder and chief technology officer, Ben Rudolph, previously built data infrastructure for refugees at the United Nations. The two started the company by cold-calling police chiefs from a Honda Accord, and have since signed up more than 400 agencies serving roughly 125 million people across North America.
The most visible proof point right now is the World Cup. Peregrine said it will run the security fusion center for eight of the 11 U.S. host cities during the tournament, coordinating data across agencies for one of the largest event-security operations the country has staged in years. Noone said he expects the company to be working with close to 1,000 cities by the end of the year.
Why investors keep paying up
The raise fits a pattern that has defined venture capital in 2026: enormous sums flowing to a small number of companies that investors believe can become infrastructure. Peregrine's near-tripling of its valuation in a single cycle echoes deals like Cyera and Upscale AI in recent weeks, where established backers wrote larger checks rather than let new entrants in. Noone told Fortune that demand from investors had outstripped supply, and that part of the new capital is earmarked to give employees a liquidity opportunity rather than to plug a hole in the balance sheet.
Government as a customer base has its own logic. Public agencies are slow to sign but slow to leave, which makes revenue durable once a contract is in place. The broader market for AI in government and public services was valued at roughly $25 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach more than $100 billion within a decade. For investors hunting recurring revenue that does not evaporate when the next model release arrives, a company embedded in a city's daily operations looks like a safer bet than a consumer app.
What it means for founders and operators
For founders, Peregrine is a useful case study in selling to a skeptical, highly regulated buyer. The company's go-to-market posture is built around a single idea: show, don't tell. Rather than promising what its software can do, it leans on existing customers to vouch for it during contested procurements. That approach is slower than a typical software sales motion, but in a market where trust is the actual product, it has let the company keep expanding even as opposition surfaces.
That opposition is real and worth studying. Peregrine carries what some critics call Palantir DNA, and community members have shown up at city council meetings to fight its contracts. A 2026 survey found that a majority of Americans view AI-powered mass surveillance as too dangerous. Peregrine's answer is to draw hard lines: it says it does not use facial recognition, does not create new data, and builds active alerts that flag misuse rather than passive logging. Competitors that blurred those lines have watched public backlash catch up to their growth.
The operating lesson is that guardrails are not a compliance afterthought in this market. They are the feature that closes the deal. For any operator selling AI into regulated environments, from health care to finance to public safety, the Peregrine playbook suggests that auditability, narrow data scope and customer references do more to unlock budgets than a longer feature list.
Noone said Peregrine has not decided whether to go public, but is building the internal discipline to be ready if it chooses to. For now, the message to the market is that a company can grow fast in a politically charged space if it is willing to constrain itself in ways rivals will not.
How much did Peregrine Technologies raise and at what valuation?
Peregrine raised $250 million in Series D funding at a $6.8 billion valuation. That is roughly a threefold increase from the $2.5 billion valuation it reported about 15 months earlier in its Series C round.
Who led the Series D round?
The round was led by existing investors, including Fifth Down Capital, Sequoia Capital, OG Venture Partners, Goldcrest Capital, XYZ Ventures and Godfrey Capital. The company said investor demand exceeded the amount of stock it was offering.
What does Peregrine's software do?
It connects data an agency already holds, such as police records, 911 logs and permit databases, and makes it searchable in real time with role-based access and audit trails. The company says it does not collect, own or create new data, and does not use facial recognition.
What is Peregrine's role in the 2026 World Cup?
The company said it will operate the security fusion center for eight of the 11 U.S. host cities, coordinating data across agencies to support public safety during the tournament.
Is Peregrine planning to go public?
Noone said no decision has been made, but the company is building the internal infrastructure to be ready for a potential IPO. Part of the new funding is set aside to give employees a chance to sell shares.