Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios
Venture Capital
• Fireworks AI, a Redwood City, Calif.-based generative AI inference startup, raised $250m in Series C funding at a $4b valuation from Lightspeed, Index Ventures, Evantic, and Sequoia Capital. Go deeper
• ConductorOne, a Portland, Ore.-based identity security and access governance startup, raised a $79m Series B at a $350m valuation, per FT. Greycroft led, joined by CrowdStrike Falcon Fund, Accel, and Felicis Ventures. Go deeper
• Syllo, a NYC-based legal tech startup, raised $30m from Venrock and Two Seas Capital. Go deeper
• CoreStory, an SF-based code modernization platform, raised a $32m Series A from Tribeca Venture Partners, NEA, SineWave Ventures, Harrison Metal, Singtel Innov8, Samsung Next, Nimble Partners, and Alumni Ventures. Go deeper
• Mem0, an SF-based AI memory infrastructure platform, raised $24m in seed and Series A funding from Kindred Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, Peak XV Partners, GitHub Fund, and YC. Go deeper
• Uptiq.AI, a Plano, Texas-based enterprise AI platform for financial services, raised $12m. Silverton Partners led, joined by Live Oak Venture Partners, Tau Ventures, First Capital, and Green Visor Capital. Go deeper
• CyberRidge, an Israeli photonic encryption startup, raised $10m in seed funding from Awz and a $16m extension from Arkin Capital, Redseed VC, Elron Ventures and the EU Horizon-EIC program. Go deeper
• Sweatpals, an Austin, Texas-based fitness platform, raised a $12m seed from Patron, a16z speedrun and HartBeat Ventures. Go deeper
• Spacial, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based residential engineering and permitting platform, raised $10m in seed funding. TLV Partners led, joined by Mango Capital, Re Angels, and HTV. Go deeper
• Stickerbox, a NYC-based kids creativity tool, raised $7m in seed funding from Maveron, AI2, Matthew Brezina, and Serena Ventures. stickerbox.com
• Ornn Ai, an NYC-based global financial infrastructure startup, raised $5.7m in seed funding. Crucible Ventures and Vine Ventures led, joined by Link Ventures and Box Group. Go deeper
• Socratix AI, an SF-based provider of AI coworkers for fraud and risk teams, raised $4.1m in seed funding. Pear VC led, joined by YC, Twenty Two Ventures, and Transpose Platform Management. Go deeper
Private Equity
• FleetPride, an Irving, Texas-based portfolio company of American Securities, will merge with TruckPro, a Memphis-based portfolio company of Platinum Equity, to create a heavy-duty truck and trailer parts distributor. Go deeper
• Level, a Pittsburgh-based portfolio company of Dubin Clark, acquired BAM Strategy, a Montreal-based media strategy agency, from Keystone Capital Management. Go deeper
M&A
• First Federal Lakewood, an Ohio-based mutual bank, agreed to buy First Federal of Centerburg, a Knox County, Ohio, community bank. Go deeper
• Mews, a Dutch hospitality company, acquired DataChat, a Madison, Wis.-based conversational analytics platform. Go deeper
• PartnerOne, a Riverside, Calif.-based enterprise software group, agreed to acquire Mortgage Cadence, a Denver-based digital lending platform from Accenture. Go deeper
• Pye-Barker Fire & Safety, a Georgia-based fire protection and security company, bought Zion Fire & Security, a St. George, Utah-based security and fire suppression company. Nelson Mullins represented Pye-Barker. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Speyside Equity Advisers, a Detroit-based middle-market manufacturing private equity firm, closed its Fund II at $300m. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
💊 GSK (LSE: GSK) agreed to pay $85m upfront and as much as $660m to San Diego-based Empirico to license a Phase 1 RNA drug to treat COPD. Go deeper
💊 GSK (LSE: GSK) will pay up to £268 million and royalties to French biotech Syndivia for exclusive rights to a preclinical antibody-drug conjugate treating metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Go deeper
• OceanPal (NASDAQ: OP), an Athens-based shipping company, has partnered with the NEAR foundation to announce a $120m PIPE investment to launch an AI infrastructure bet called SovereignAI. Go deeper
It's Personnel
💊 Almuth Steinkühler, former CFO of SCHOTT Pharma, joined The Merz Group as CFO, effective Nov. 1. Go deeper
• Floris de Kort, former CEO of global ecommerce at Worldpay, was named CEO of Ingenico. Go deeper
• Fran Horowitz, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), and Cheryl S. Miller, former CEO and president of AutoNation, were appointed to the board of Jersey Mike's Subs. Go deeper
• Peter Vancorenland and Alessandro Piovaccari joined SigmaSense as CEO and SVP of engineering, respectively. Tyson Tuttle and Dan Artusi were also appointed to the board of managers. Go deeper
⚡️Matt Neal is now head of North America for Siemens Energy. Neal was previously the head of Siemens Energy's North American energy grid solutions business. Go deeper
