The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota sits in one of America's poorest counties, with a poverty rate estimated to hover around 50%. It's also where Devyn Valandra has started a business, now with support from one of venture capital's most successful investors.

Why it matters: Devyn isn't competing with Dario or Elon. But what he and others like him are doing is just as challenging — trying to grow in the literal and figurative badlands.

Backstory: Valandra's startup journey began his senior year at Stevens High School in Rapid City, when he took an intro to business course. He wasn't a coffee drinker, but classmates were, and he was interested in combining it with sage — a plant with spiritual meaning to Oglala and Sicangu Lakota like Valandra.

• "My idea got selected so I spent the semester thinking about how to build it up, but the drink itself really didn't work at first," he explains. "It was super bitter. I had to keep trying to find the right mix."
• The ultimate result was a brand called Wakhályapí, which Valandra kept working on while studying at Fort Collins College — where he sold in dorms and entered pitch competitions.

Fast forward: A key meeting for Valandra was with Clay Haddock, a young Silicon Valley executive who has his own ties to Pine Ridge.

• "When I was in college I applied and got a social internship grant that led to me living on the Reservation for three months. It was very different for me — I'd never rode a horse before — and I was on the younger side so made a lot of friends at the Red Cloud school and quickly learned that a lot of them were super entrepreneurial."
• Haddock would go on to form the Woihanble Fund (woihanble means "dream" in Lakota), a mentorship and grant program for young adults in Pine Ridge. Valandra's coffee startup was an early participant.

VC connection: Earlier this year, renowned venture capitalist Bill Gurley wrote a book called "Runnin' Down a Dream" and created a related foundation that provides microgrants.

• Haddock sent a cold email, which led to the foundation sending books to all Woihanble Fund companies and then to Wakhályapí getting picked as part of the foundation's first cohort.
• Valandra says he plans to use some of the proceeds to work through complicated state licensing rules, so that he can roast his own beans (currently he outsources to East Coast roasters).
• "Entrepreneurship brings different opportunities for yourself and also for members of your community," he says. "I want this to work not only for me, but because then I can share that experience with younger people."

The bottom line: Bill Gurley tells me that the Runnin' Down a Dream foundation is looking for more partnerships. Please find more information here.

• Also please be sure to check out Woihanble Fund. And, of course, get some sage-infused coffee from Wakhályapí.

Tenstorrent, a Santa Clara, California-based inference chipmaker, raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion post-money valuation led by Trace Capital and Innovation X.

Why it's the BFD: The startup was courted earlier this year by Intel and Qualcomm, but is opting to remain independent. At least for now.

Other investors include Agostinelli Group, Cadence Ventures, Morgan Stanley, Sandisk, Tether Investments and insiders ARK Invest, Brett Barna, Eclipse, Fidelity, Maverick Silicon, Protagonist, T. Rowe Price, Troluce Capital, Virtu Financial, and XTX Markets.

The bottom line: Tenstorrent began as a chipmaker that's been working to siphon off a smidge of Nvidia's market share — including by licensing its designs to companies that want their own AI chips. It's since expanded into servers, and the new money will be used to scale manufacturing.

🚑 Nouscom, a Swiss developer of immunotherapies, raised €120m in Series D funding from M Ventures, Revelation Partners, Angelini Industries, European Investment Bank, Neva, 5AM Ventures, Andera Partners, Angelini Ventures, Bpifrance, CDP Venture Capital, EQT Life Sciences, Indaco Venture Partners, Panakes Partners, Versant Ventures, and XGEN Ventures. axios.link/4julgxm

• Town, an SF-based AI assistant for teams, raised $108m in Series B funding at a $1b post-money valuation. Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures led, joined by a16z, First Round Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Precedent.vc, Scribble Ventures, Serena Ventures, and Sparked Ventures. axios.link/3VHBmdf

• Bolt Graphics, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip design startup, is seeking $100m at a $700m valuation, per Reuters. axios.link/4k41kBy

🚑 Even Healthcare, an Indian hospital care startup, raised $50m in Series B funding at a $300m valuation. Khosla Ventures led, joined by Alpha Wave. axios.link/4B6m4Pc

• RapidCanvas, an Austin-based managed AI execution platform, raised $29m in Series B funding. Vertex Ventures SEA & India led, joined by Hitachi Ventures, Accel, Peak XV Partners, Valley Capital Partners and Titanium Ventures. axios.link/4hTq6TA

• Prism Data, which helps lenders assess credit risk using bank transaction data, raised $20m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Story Ventures led, joined by FINTOP, Core VC, Obvious Ventures, 1st & Main Growth Partners, and Mana Ventures. axios.link/4i6iMmr

⚡ Adden Energy, a Waltham, Mass.-based solid-state battery startup, secured nearly $17m of what could be a $26.6m round, per an SEC filing. Existing backers include At One Ventures, Primavera Capital Group, Rhapsody Venture Partners, and MassVentures. axios.link/4selb38

🚑 Confido Health, a developer of health-care scheduling agents, raised $12.5m in Series A extension funding. Z47 led, joined by Justin Saks, Together Fund, and Blume Ventures. axios.link/4ibf1w7

⚡ Linkener, a Spanish energy management platform, raised €7.5m. Klima Energy Transition Fund led, joined by GoHub Ventures. axios.link/4eeKsEw

• Vessla, a Stockholm-based workflow automation platform for residential and commercial property owners, raised $3.3m in pre-seed funding. Seedcamp led, joined by Inception Fund and Tiny VC. axios.link/4i6UKaX

🚑 Altas Partners and BC Partners are two of the four bidders in the second round of bidding for HMP Global, a Malvern, Pa.-based medical conference organizer being sold by Susquehanna Growth Equity, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4BcpYWP

• Ares agreed to buy Infinity Transportation, a railcar and intermodal equipment lessor, from KKR for around $2.9b. axios.link/3VVzyNJ

⚽ Avenue Capital is lead bidder for a minority stake a company that will hold Serie A media rights, per Reuters. axios.link/4zB0Ozt

• Bluegem Capital Partners acquired Rispo Frozen Foods, an Italian frozen foods maker. axios.link/4k1GPFA

• Charlesbank Capital Partners agreed to buy into LA-based defense law firm Wood Smith Henning & Berman at around a $700m valuation, via an MSO structure, per the FT. axios.link/4Bce5jA

• CSL Group, backed by ECI Partners, acquired SIMPL Wireless, a Duluth, Ga.-based IoT connectivity company. axios.link/3VQkkcY

🌎 EQT agreed to buy Australia's Cleanaway Waste Management (ASX: CWY) for around A$9.3b. axios.link/47rAVpW

🌎 Greybull Stewardship acquired Mid-West Textile, an El Paso, Texas-based used textile collection and recycling company. axios.link/4BsXXdU

• Investcorp Technology Partners acquired a majority stake in Connectif, a Spanish provider of omnichannel marketing automation software. axios.link/4zBsVhX

🚑 Lux Infusion, a Frazier Healthcare Partners portfolio company, acquired Suite Health, a Loveland, Colo.-based provider of specialty infusion therapy. axios.link/4zFVhI1

• Panzani, a French pasta maker owned by CVC Capital Partners, is in talks to merge with Cerealis, a Portuguese portfolio company of Sofina. The combined company would be worth around €1.8b. axios.link/4yxXlkz

🌎 SAS Group, a Spanish portfolio company of Stirling Square Capital Partners, acquired a majority stake in Afrikelp, a South African maker of seaweed-based biostimulants. axios.link/4isSfRx

• Vista Equity Partners agreed to buy the Public Key Infrastructure unit of HID, a subsidiary of Assa Abloy. axios.link/3TZ9O2s

No companies are expected to go public in the U.S. this week. Instead we just wait on Anthropic, which yesterday said it will commit 5% of its shares to a "public benefit fund."

🚑 City Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of RNAi medicines, raised $200m in its IPO. It priced at the midpoint of its $17-$19 range, for a $1b fully diluted value, and ended its first trading day up 24.4% to $22.40. The company had raised $240m from Arch Venture Partners (35% pre-IPO stake), Fidelity (10%), Invus (8.4%), Viking Global Investors (5.2%), Sofinnova Investments, Casdin Capital, NYBC Ventures, Slate Path Capital, Rock Springs Capital, Regeneron Ventures, and AN Ventures. axios.link/47glXD3

• Klook, a China-based travel platform focused on younger users, formally withdrew its U.S. IPO. The company filed last year and then delayed indefinitely. Backers include HSG, MPCi, SoftBank, and Vitruvian Partners. axios.link/4yxXGDR

🚑 TCGX Acquisition II, an Asia health-care SPAC, raised $100m in its IPO. axios.link/4AxjXUt

• AD Ports completed its $835m acquisition of a control stake in CLI, a Brazilian export terminal operator, from Macquarie Group and IG4 Capital. axios.link/4dR0kvO

• SoftBank is in talks to buy security services company Allied Universal from Warburg Pincus and La Caisse for around $18b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3UAMOa6

🌎 Trilantic Europe and CDP Equity agreed to sell their stakes in Italian agritech firm Diagram to a unit of BF (Milan: BFG). axios.link/4i6XcOH

• Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is seeking to sell its China operations for around $1.5b, per the FT. axios.link/4yWydEP

• Carlyle agreed to acquire a $7.7b portfolio of unsecured personal loans from Truist (NYSE: TFC). axios.link/4jyfR8B

• ​Carrefour (Paris: CARR) agreed to buy French food retailer Codifrance from ​Colruyt Group (BR: COLR) for €152m. axios.link/4BceB10

• Daiichi Life Group (Tokyo: 8750) offered to buy the 79.5% stake it doesn't hold in Australian annuities firm Challenger (ASX: CGF) at around an A$7.9b valuation. axios.link/4ibXPXr

• Lufthansa is weighing a sale of some software assets, including Lido and NetLine, for nearly €1b, per the FT. axios.link/4BbRmnS

🚑 Merck KGaA agreed to buy U.K. cancer biotech Silence Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SLN) for around $1.1b in cash, or $20 per share (130% premium to Friday's close). axios.link/4zBgT8o

• Red Cat (Nasdaq: RCAT), a Salt Lake City-based dronemaker, agreed to buy Austrian engine and engine parts manufacturer Steyr Motors for around €205m. axios.link/4eDIDkA

• Enzo Ventures of Barcelona raised €20m for its second fund. axios.link/4yRECkI

• Hamilton Lane named Hartley Rogers as co-CEO alongside Juan Delgado-Moreira. He succeeds Erik Hirsch, who becomes executive co-chair. axios.link/4BaYtwQ