Pro Rata Premium: First Look

Venture Capital

• xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, is looking to secure $12b in financing, per the WSJ. Backer Valor Equity Partners is in talks with lenders to raise the capital, which would be used to buy chips to be leased to xAI. Go deeper

🚑 Nudge, a SF-based developer of non-invasive brain-computer interfaces, raised a $100m Series A led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks. nudge.com

• Reka AI, a Calif.-based startup making LLMs more efficient, raised $110m in funding from investors that include Snowflake and Nvidia. Go deeper

• Yieldstreet, a New York–based alternative investments platform, raised $77m led by Tarsadia Investments, with participation from Mayfair Equity Partners, Edison Partners, Cordoba Advisory Partners, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, and RedBird Capital Partners. Go deeper

• Makersite, a German manufacturing design decisioning startup, raised €60m in Series B funding led by Lightrock and Partech and including SE Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, KOMPAS VC, Translink Capital, and Planet A. Go deeper

🚑 Slingshot AI, a NYC-based startup offering a therapy chatbot, raised $50m in Series A extension funding. Radical Ventures led, joined by Forerunner Ventures and insiders Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures. Go deeper

• Radical AI, a New York City-based startup using AI to develop and produce new materials, raised $55m led by RTX Ventures, with participation from Nvidia's NVentures, Noa, Infinite Capital, Eni, and AlleyCorp. Go deeper

• Ashby, an SF-based recruitment platform, raised $50m in Series D funding led by Alkeon Capital and Lachy Groom, with participation from F-Prime, Elad Gil, Gaingels and others. Go deeper

• xLight, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup developing chip manufacturing lasers, raised $40m in funding led by Playground Global, with participation from Boardman Bay Capital Management, Morpheus Ventures, Marvel Capital, and IAG Capital Partners. Go deeper

💊 Phlow, a Richmond, Va.-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company, closed $37 million in Series C financing led by Align Private Capital. Go deeper

• Inforcer, a British software platform for managed services providers, raised $35m in Series B funding led by Dawn Capital. Go deeper

• Delve, an SF-based agentic AI startup for compliance, raised $32m in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. Go deeper

• Composio, a SF-based agentic AI learning infrastructure company, raised a $25m Series A. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which included participation from SV Angel, Blitzscaling Ventures, Operator Partners, Agent Fund, Elevation Capital, Together Fund and individual investors. Go deeper

• Asylon, a Philadelphia-based robotics company, raised $26m in Series B funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from Veteran Ventures Capital, Allegion Ventures, and the Go PA Fund. Go deeper

⚡Soluna, an Albany, NY-based clean energy data center company, raised $20m from Spring Lane Capital. solunacomputing.com

🌎 Hertha Metals, a Conroe, Texas-based green steel maker, raised $17m in seed funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Pear VC and Clean Energy Ventures. herthametals.com

• Poseidon, a decentralized data layer incubated by the Story Protocol team, raised $15m in seed funding led by a16z Crypto. Go deeper

• Lumotive, a Seattle-based startup developing programmable optics technology, raised $14m in a Series B extension from Amazon and ITHCA Group. Go deeper

• Octup, an Israeli logistics platform, raised $12m in seed funding led by JAL Ventures and Shine Capital, with participation from Tal Ventures, Stone Capital, and HCS Capital. Go deeper

• Everlab, an Australian preventive care startup, raised $10m led by Left Lane Capital. everlab.com.au

• Lyzer, a logistics-as-a-service platform, raised over €10m in funding from Indico Capital Partners, Lince Capital, LC Ventures, and C2 Capital Partners. Go deeper

• Nevoya, a San Francisco-based electric truckload carrier, closed $9.3 million in seed financing led by Lowercarbon Capital, Axios Pro reports. Go deeper

• Magentic, a French supply chain platform, raised $5.5m in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from The Westly Group and First Momentum Ventures. Go deeper

Private Equity

• TSG Consumer agreed to acquire Phlur, a fragrance brand with scents including Missing Person, from Prelude Growth Partners. Creative director Chriselle Lim and The Center will maintain a stake. Flashback to Axios breaking the news on the process

• Blackstone took a majority position in NetBrain Technologies, a Burlington, Mass.-based network automation platform, valuing it at $750m. Go deeper

💊 CapVest Partners is in talks to acquire a majority stake in Stada Arzneimittel, the German drugmaker that postponed its IPO earlier this year, in a deal that could value it around €10b, per Bloomberg. Go deeper

• EC Waste, backed by 3i Group, acquired ARB, a Puerto Rico-based waste collection and environmental-management services company. Go deeper

• Generous Brands, backed by Butterfly Equity, agreed to acquire Health-Ade, a Torrance, Calif.-based kombucha brand, for about $500m, a source with knowledge of the matters confirmed to Axios. First Bev and Manna Tree Partners will remain minority shareholders. Go deeper

Public Offerings

• VenHub Global, a retail store operator, plans to go public via direct listing on a U.S. exchange, per Bloomberg. Go deeper

Liquidity events

• Stripe acquired Orum, a NY-based real-time payments orchestration startup that had raised $80m from investors that include Inspired Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Accel. Go deeper

• Amazon acquired Bee, an SF-based wearable AI assistant that raised $7m from Exor, Greycroft, New Wave VC, and Banana Capital. Go deeper

M&A

💊 Lantheus (Nasdaq: LNTH), a Massachusetts-based radiopharmaceutical company, closed its acquisition of Life Molecular Imaging, a diagnostics unit of Life Healthcare Group. The deal includes $350m up front and up to $400m in earnouts. lantheus.com

• Palo Alto Networks (Nasdaq: PANW) closed its acquisition of Protect AI, a Seattle-based AI and machine learning company. Evolution Equity Partners, 01 Advisors, StepStone Group, Samsung, Acrew Capital, Boldstart Ventures, and Knollwood Capital backed Protect AI. paloaltonetworks.com

💊 Sanofi will buy Vicebio, a London-based biotech developing a combination vaccine for respiratory viruses RSV and hMPV, for $1.2b, with milestone payments totaling $450m. Go deeper

Debt

⚡Exus Renewables North America, a Pittsburgh-based clean energy developer, raised $308.2m for clean energy projects. Go deeper

Fundraising

• 17Capital, an NAV finance provider, closed 17Capital Strategic Lending Fund 6, with some $5.5b. Go deeper

🌎 RA Capital Management closed a $120m Planetary Health Fund to back startups across energy, resources and industrial. racap.com

It's Personnel

🚑 Mona Ashiya was promoted to general partner at OrbiMed after 15 years at the firm. She led deals in Sierra Oncology, Disc Medicine, and ProfoundBio. orbimed.com

• Alex Chi, most recently co-head of Americas private credit at Goldman's asset management arm, will lead Carlyle's direct lending arm in 2026. Go deeper

🚑 Laizer Kornwasser, previously president of enterprise growth and emerging markets at Teladoc Health, has been named CEO at DrFirst. Former CEO G. Cameron Deemer will become vice chair of the board of directors. drfirst.com

🚑 Lalith Vadlamannati, previously CTO at Hinge Health, was named CTO at Aledade. aledade.com

- Ryan Barwick, Natalie Breymeyer, Erin Brodwin, Colin Campbell, Katherine Davis, Katie Fehrenbacher, Ryan Lawler, and Chris Metinko contributed to this report.