Why would they raise money if they do not need? Raising money dilutes existing shareholders - who are probably not too happy about it.

I worked at a place once where the CEO basically said that it's a lot easier to raise money when you don't need it than to raise it when you do. The US economy is looking pretty weird with a bunch of conflicting predictors. Maybe they're buffering for a recession.

depends on who is making a decision and how exactly is the funding round structured - for some investors, diluting other shareholders is actually a good thing. For existing employees, if they get an option to partially cash out now is probably better than waiting indefinitely for an IPO etc