Illustration: Lazaro Gamio/Axios
Venture Capital
🚑 Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-interface company, is reportedly looking to raise $500m at a $8.5b valuation. Go deeper
💊 Grove Biopharma, a Chicago-based biologics company, raised $30m in Series A funding led by DCVC Bio. Eli Lilly, nVivium Capital, Walder Ventures, Gradiant Corporation, and Mansueto Investments participated. Go deeper
• Symbiotic, a universal staking infrastructure startup, raised $29m in Series A funding led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures. Go deeper
💊 Synthetic Design Lab, a Bay Area antibody-drug conjugate biotech, raised $20m in seed funding from investors including Playground Global and Godfrey Capital. Go deeper
• Ravenna, a Seattle-based provider of enterprise service management software, raised $15m in pre-seed and seed funding co-led by Madrona and Khosla Ventures. ravenna.ai
• Scamnetic, an internet scam detection and prevention startup, raised $13m in Series A funding led by Roo Capital. scamnetic.com
• Hokodo, a British digital trade finance platform, raised €10m in funding led by Korelya Capital and Opera Tech Ventures, with participation from Mundi Ventures and Notion Capital. Go deeper
• Neurolabs, a British image recognition platform, raised $7.8m in Series A funding led by Nauta, with participation from LAUNCHub, Lunar Ventures, and Techstart. Go deeper
• Cakewalk, a British AI agent startup, raised $7.5m in seed funding led by Kindred Capital and Vertex Ventures. Go deeper
🌎 Mirsense, a French developer of quantum cascade laser and miniature gas sensor tech, raised €7m in Series A funding led by Safran Corporate Ventures, joined by Supernova Invest, Polytechnique Ventures, and Crédit Agricole Alpes Développement. Go deeper
• Adaptive, an SF-based vibe coding startup, raised $7m in seed funding. Pebblebed led, joined by Conviction Partners, Jake Paul's Anti Fund, Radical Ventures, and David Baszucki. Go deeper
• HelloSky, a San Diego-based executive search platform, raised $5.5m in seed funding from Caldwell Partners, Karmel Capital, True Capital Partners, and Hunt Scanlon Ventures. Go deeper
• Spur, a NYC-based AI testing platform, raised $4.5m in funding from First Round, Pear VC, Neo, Conviction, Liquid2Ventures, and Predictive Venture Partners. Go deeper
• Crowdpac, a Washington, D.C.-based political fundraising platform, raised $4m in funding led by Chris Tavlarides. Go deeper
🌎 Durin, an El Segundo, Calif.-based mining automation startup, raised $3.4m in pre-seed funding led by 8090 Industries, per TechCrunch. Go deeper
• Riptides, a Hungarian machine-to-machine security startup, raised $3.3m in pre-seed funding led by PortfoLion Capital Partners and Kaya VC. Go deeper
🚑 Coologics, a Cleveland-based medical device company, raised $3m in seed funding led by Prevail and Dream Ventures. Go deeper
🌎 Adaptavate, a U.K. sustainable construction materials developer, raised £2.7m from Undivided Ventures and Skreenhouse Ventures. Go deeper
🌎 Reusables.com, a Canadian recycling software developer for food-service providers, raised $2.6m led by StandUp Ventures and Amplify Capital, joined by Sandpiper Ventures and Emend Vision Fund. Go deeper
Private Equity
• Azuria, a St. Louis-based water infrastructure firm owned by New Mountain Capital, acquired three companies: TSW Utility Solutions, AM-Liner East, and C.K. Masonry. Go deeper
• Bpifrance acquired a minority stake in Septeo, a French legal tech company owned by Hg. Go deeper
• Lightyear Capital invested in King Risk Partners, a U.S. retail insurance brokerage. king-insurance.com
• MPE Partners invested in Intermatic, a Spring Grove, Ill.-based maker of electrical and mechanical controls. intermatic.com
• Security 101, a Gemspring Capital portfolio company, acquired Integrated Systems & Services, an Eatontown, N.J.-based security integrator. security101.com
Liquidity Events
• Datadog (Nasdaq: DDOG) acquired Metaplane, a Boston-based data observability platform, that had raised over $20m from firms like Felicis, Khosla Ventures, Flybridge, YC, Stage 2 Capital, and Snowflake. Metaplane.dev
• WorkStep, an SF-based employee engagement platform with over $50m from firms like FirstMark Capital and New Roads Capital Partners, acquired WorkHound, a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based employee feedback management platform for the supply chain industry that had raised over $13m from firms like Level Equity. Go deeper
Public Offerings
• Ather Energy, an Indian e-scooter maker, cut its proposed Mumbai IPO size by 18% to around $308m. It's raised around $125m from firms like Hero MotoCorp and GIC. Go deeper
💊 Veraxa Biotech, a Switzerland-based antibody company, plans to merge with Voyager Acquisition Corp., a SPAC, valuing it at $1.7b. Xlife backs Veraxa. Go deeper
M&A
• BT Group (LSE: BT) agreed to sell its remaining Italian business to local telco Retelit. Go deeper
• Daishi Hokuetsu Financial (Tokyo: 7327) is in advanced talks to merge with fellow Japanese regional lender Gunma Bank (T: 8334), per Bloomberg. Go deeper
• Fixated, backed by Eldridge Industries, acquired creator economy-focused talent agencies Camp Talent and Moondust Management. Go deeper
Odds and Ends
🚑 Tempus (Nasdaq: TEM), an AI-powered precision medicine company, inked a $200m data licensing and model development deal with AstraZeneca and Pathos AI. Go deeper
🌎 Atlantic Natural Foods, a Nashville, N.C.-based owner of plant-based food brands including Loma Linda, Tuno, Chick'n, and Neat, filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Hedosophia, a London-based VC firm, raised over $200m for a secondaries fund, per Sifted. Go deeper
• Fluent Ventures, an early-stage VC firm investing in emerging markets, launched a €40m fund. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Lawrence Elbaum and Patrick Gadson are leaving law firm Vinson & Elkins to join the activism defense practice at Sullivan & Cromwell, per the WSJ. Go deeper
• Humam Sakhnini was named CEO of Discord, ahead of a potential IPO. Go deeper
- Erin Brodwin, Colin Campbell, Katherine Davis, Katie Fehrenbacher, Ryan Lawler, Alan Neuhauser, Dan Primack, and Aaron Weitzman contributed to this report.
