Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Venture Capital
• Lighter, an Ethereum-based DEX and Layer 2 network, raised $68m at a $1.5b valuation; Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital led, with Haun Ventures and Robinhood participating. Go deeper
• Maybern, a NY-based provider of software that automates calculations for private fund managers, raised a $50m Series B led by Battery Ventures and joined by Primary Venture Partners, Human Capital, MetaProp, Grafton Street Partners, Camber Creek, and Friends & Family Capital. Go deeper
⚡ Exowatt, a Miami-based solar storage startup, raised $50m in a Series A extension round, led by MVP Ventures and 8090 Industries and including The Florida Opportunity Fund, DeepWork Capital, Dragon Global, Massive VC, New Atlas Capital, BAM, Overmatch, Protagonist, StepStone, Atomic, and Bay Bridge Ventures. Go deeper
🚑 Clairity, a Boston AI precision health company predicting breast cancer risk, raised a $43m Series B. ACE Global Equity and Santé Ventures led, and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation participated. Go deeper
• CloudX, an SF-based advertising platform, raised a $30m Series A led by Addition, with participation from DST Global, Terrain, and seed investors ENIAC, Javelin, and Breakpoint Capital. Go deeper
• Netic, an SF-based productivity software company, raised a $23m Series B led by Founders Fund. Go deeper
🌎 Endolith, a Denver-based microbe mining startup, raised $13.5m in the first tranche of a Series A, led by Squadra Ventures and including Draper Associates, Denver Ventures, Mana Ventures, Gaingels, Essential Capital, Alumni Ventures and EverBlue Ventures. Go deeper
• Self, an SF-based human verification company, raised a $9m seed. Greenfield Capital, Startup Capital Ventures x SBI Fund, Spearhead VC, Verda Ventures, Fireweed Ventures, and Casey Neistat participated. Go deeper
• Obello, an SF-based graphic design platform, raised $8.5m in seed funding led by Obvious Ventures, and joined by Baukunst, AVV and Preview Ventures. Go deeper
• Bindwell, an SF-based pesticide discovery startup, raised a $6m seed round co-led by General Catalyst and A Capital. Go deeper
• Scorbit, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based gaming platform, raised a $5 million-plus seed round. Detroit Venture Partners led, joined by Grand Ventures, Weiser Family Office, Michigan Rise/Red Cedar and Invest Detroit Ventures. Go deeper
• Songscription, a NY-based music transcription platform, raised a $5m round. Reach Capital led, joined by Emerge Capital, 10x Founders, Dent Capital and angels. Go deeper
• Vida, an Austin, Texas-based AI phone agent operating system, raised a $4m Series A round. Trammell Venture Partners led, joined by Timechain and others. Go deeper
• Falkin, a London-based fraud prevention startup, raised $2m in pre-seed funding led by TriplePoint Ventures, and joined by Notion Capital, BackFuture Ventures, Aviva/Founders Factory, Haatch, Found Capital and Founders Capital. Go deeper
Private Equity
• Blackstone said it will invest $1.2b to build a gas power plant in West Virginia. Go deeper
• TSG Consumer invested in Pura Vida Miami, a Miami Beach-based health and wellness food brand. Go deeper
• Gryphon agreed to sell portfolio company 3Cloud, a Chicago, Ill-based Microsoft Azure consulting service, to Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSH). Go deeper
M&A
• Anysphere, the maker of coding assistant Cursor that raised $2.3b at a $29.3b post-money valuation, acquired Growth by Design, a U.K.-based tech recruiting strategy company. Go deeper
• Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) has reportedly ended talks to acquire UK-based stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK in a deal that could have been worth around $2b, per Fortune. Go deeper
💊 Day One Biopharmaceuticals, a Brisbane, Calif.-based drug developer, will pay up to $285m to acquire Cambridge, Mass., antibody-drug conjugate company Mersana Therapeutics. Go deeper
💊 Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) completed its $10b acquisition of Metsera (NASDAQ: MTSR), a New York anti-obesity drug maker. Go deeper
• Public, a NYC-based long-term investing platform, acquired the CryptoIRA business from Alto, a Nashville-based self-directed IRA platform. Go deeper
Public Offerings
• Copeland, a St. Louis-based HVAC parts manufacturer backed by Blackstone, filed confidentially for an IPO, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
💊 Third Arc Bio, a Philadelphia antibody developer, will pay $5m upfront and as much as $840m in total to Chinese biotech Adagene in a licensing deal to create two masked T-cell engagers for cancer. Go deeper
• The owners of the San Diego Padres are considering selling the team, seeking as much as $2.75b. Go deeper
• Oil States International (NYSE: OIS) announced a dual listing on NYSE Texas. Go deeper
• ICL Specialty Products said it would end its $500m battery project in St. Louis following the Trump administration's cancellation of its $197m grant. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Diameter Capital Partners closed its third dislocation fund at $4.5b. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Aaron Karczmer, former CEO at PayPal, and Danny Rosenthal, former CEO of Apex Crypto, joined the board at zerohash. Go deeper
💊 Dan Collins, founder and former CEO of GenesisCare, joined TOBY as an advisor to the board of directors. Go deeper
• Kevin Nassery, former VP of security at RISC Zero, joined Citadel to lead its security risk and compliance for the Americas. Go deeper
• Mike Clayville, former chief customer officer at Stripe, joined the board of C3 AI (NYSE: AI). Go deeper
• Niall Horan, singer and songwriter, joined VENU as a shareholder and strategic partner. Go deeper
• Steve Mildner was promoted from COO to CEO at K16 Solutions. Go deeper
• Thomas Coesfeld was promoted from CEO of BMG to chairman and CEO of its parent company Bertelsmann, succeeding Thomas Rabe. Go deeper
• David O'Keefe and Jim Howe joined Terrestrial Energy as vice president of business development & project management and vice president of government relations, respectively. Go deeper
• Frank Tybor has joined Infravision as its chief technology officer. Tybor was previously chief technology officer at Think Orbital. Go deeper
