Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Venture Capital
• Astronomer (dba Astro), a unified data ops platform, raised $93m in Series D funding. Bain Capital Ventures led, joined by Salesforce Ventures and insiders Insight Venture Partners, Meritech, and Venrock. Go deeper
💊 Stately Bio, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based cell therapies developer that leverages a live-cell imaging platform, raised $12m in seed funding. AIX Ventures led, joined by Dimension Capital, Foothill Ventures, Village Global, Caffeinated Capital, Mitsui Global Investment, BoxOne Ventures, and Axial VC. Go deeper
• Eden, a Seattle-based digital sales enablement platform for home services, raised $3.7m. Climactic led, joined by Better Ventures and C2 Ventures. Go deeper
🚑 Pallie AI, an SF-based health and wellbeing companion, raised $2m in seed funding led by True Ventures. pallie.ai
M&A
• Valsoft, a Montreal-based software acquisition platform backed by Coatue Management and Viking Global Investors, acquired MonkeySoft, a maker of catering management software, from VC-backed ezCater. monkeysoftsolutions.com
• AeroVironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) completed its acquisition of space and defense engineering firm BlueHalo for around $4.1b in cash and stock from Arlington Capital Partners. Go deeper
💊 Kronos Bio, a San Mateo, Calif-based cancer startup, is selling itself to Concentra Biosciences for 57 cents per share. Go deeper
🌏 Li-Cycle, a battery recycling company based in Toronto, is looking for a buyer of its business or assets. Go deeper
SPACs
• Republic Digital Acquisition, a fintech and crypto SPAC led by Republic Digital CEO Joseph Naggar, raised $264m in an upsized IPO. Go deeper
• Wen Acquisition, a fintech SPAC led by Julian Sevillano (ex-McKinsey & Co.) filed for a $261m IPO. Go deeper
• Copley Acquisition, a tech and lifecycle SPAC, raised $150m in its IPO. Go deeper
Fundraising
🌏 Ara Partners, a Houston-based investment firm, raised $800m for an initial fund focused on decarbonizing infrastructure. Go deeper
• dao5, a multi-strategy crypto investment firm led by Tekin Salimi, raised $222m for its second fund. Go deeper
• Smith Point Capital, a VC firm led by ex-Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block, raised more than $360m for its debut fund. smithpointcapital.com
- Colin Campbell, Katherine Davis, Katie Fehrenbacher, Ryan Lawler, Alan Neuhauser, Dan Primack, and Aaron Weitzman contributed to this report.
