Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
Venture Capital
💊 Dualitas Therapeutics, a Bay Area developer of antibodies for immune and inflammatory diseases, raised $65m in a Series A. Versant Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners led, and Eli Lilly, Chugai Venture Fund and Alexandria Venture Investments joined as strategic investors. Go deeper
💊 Synthesize Bio, a Seattle-based AI genomics startup, launched with a $10m seed round. Madrona led and Sahsen Ventures, AI2 Incubator, Inner Loop Capital and Point Field Partners participated. Go deeper
⚡XL Batteries, a Marlborough, Mass.-based flow battery maker, raised $7.5m from Merrin Investors. Go deeper
💊 Bio Protocol, a Swiss autonomous "bioagent" developer, raised $6.9m in a seed led by Maelstrom Fund. Mechanism Capital, Animoca Brands and Presto Labs participated. Go deeper
💊 Trially, a Kansas City clinical trial recruitment platform, raised a $4.7m seed. Flyover Capital led, and Alpaca, Atria, Blu Ventures, Looking Glass Capital, Redbud, The Council, and Gaingels participated. Go deeper
🌎 Terra Oleo, a Singapore-based biomaterials startup, raised $3.1m from ADB Ventures, The Radical Fund, Elev8.vc, and Better Bite Ventures. Go deeper
🌎 Finally Foods, an Israeli molecular farming startup making dairy proteins in potatoes, raised $1.2m led by CBC Group. Go deeper
Private Equity
• Best Warehousing & Transportation, a portfolio company of Bluejay Capital Partners and Argosy Private Equity, acquired RAZR Logistics, a warehouse servicing company and a subsidiary of Johnson Storage & Moving. Go deeper
⚡I Squared Capital, a Miami-based infrastructure investment firm, invested $800m in battery part maker Entek Technology to receive a majority stake in the company. Go deeper
• L Catterton agreed to invest in Seki Furniture, a Japanese furniture company. Go deeper
• Levine Leichtman Capital Partners acquired a majority interest in Entro Service, a Hamburg-based testing, inspection, repair and installation service to entrance, fire safety and access control systems. Go deeper
• FitzMark, a portfolio company of Calera Capital, acquired Hometown Logistics, a non-asset freight brokerage firm. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
• Elliott Management has taken a $2b stake in Workday (Nasdaq: WDAY), a Pleasanton, Calif.-based workplace software maker. Go deeper
💊 CSL, an Australian biopharma giant, is paying $117m upfront and up to $2.1b in a collaboration and option agreement with Dutch biotech VarmX to develop a coagulation treatment. Go deeper
💊 Kalexo Bio, a Aditum Bio subsidiary, will pay $12m and up to $1b to Mabwell Bioscience for rights to an experimental cardio drug. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Axum Capital Partners is targeting $300m for its next fund focused on health and wellness-centric food and beverage brands. Go deeper
🌎VoLo Earth Ventures, a Colorado-based VC firm investing in the energy economy, closed its Fund II at $135m, anchored by Voloridge Investment Management. Go deeper
• American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and a group of airlines have partnered with Breakthrough Energy Ventures to launch a $150m Oneworld BEV Fund to invest in sustainable aviation fuel startups. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Axum Capital Partners hired Lance Johnson and Derrick Brown as general partners. Johnson was previously at Wells Fargo while Brown previously co-founded Free Fenix. Go deeper
🌎 Ryan MacPherson joined Accelr8 Ventures as a partner. He was director of climate innovation and investment at Autodesk. Go deeper
💊 Mary Beth Harler joined Flagship Pioneering's in-house drug discovery and development unit, Pioneering Medicines, as president. She was the CEO of IGM Biosciences. Go deeper
💊 Yasir Al-Wakeel joined Flagship Pioneering as CEO-Partner and Vesalius Therapeutics as CEO. He was an entrepreneur in residence at SR One Capital Management. Go deeper
