Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Venture Capital
• Physical Intelligence, an SF-based robotics software provider, raised $600m at a $5.6b valuation. CapitalG led, joined by Lux Capital, Thrive Capital, Jeff Bezos, Emergence, Index Ventures, and T. Rowe Price. Go deeper
• Genspark, a developer of agentic AI for knowledge workers, raised $275m in Series B funding at a $1.25b post-money valuation. Emergence Capital Partners led, joined by SBI Investment, LG Technology Ventures, Pavilion Capital, and Uphonest Capital. Go deeper
💊 Aspen Neuroscience, a San Diego-based personalized cell therapy company, raised $115m in Series C funding from OrbiMed, ARCH Venture Partners, Frazier Life Sciences, Revelation Partners, Medical Excellence Capital, S32, Axon Ventures, Lyfe Capital, and LifeForce Capital. Go deeper
• Flexion, a provider of software for humanoid robots, raised $50m in Series A funding from DST Global Partners, NVentures, Redalpine, Prosus Ventures, and Moonfire Ventures. Go deeper
💊 AI Proteins, a Boston-based miniprotein drug developer, raised a $41.5m Series A. Mission BioCapital and Santé Ventures led, joined by Lightchain Capital and Cobro Ventures. Go deeper
• Wispr, a dictation app, raised $25m. Notable Capital led, joined by Flight Fund. Go deeper
🚑 Voio, a Berkeley, Calif.-based developer of unified reading tools for radiologists, raised $8.6m in seed funding from Laude Ventures and The House Fund. Go deeper
🚑 Mirantus Health, a German eye-screening startup, raised €5.5m from Revent, Redstone, Entrepreneur First, Noaber, and Arve Capital. Go deeper
⚡ Eqore, a Boston-based distributed storage startup, raised a $1.7m seed from backers like the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. Go deeper
Private Equity
• EQT is in talks to buy a majority stake in Belgian environmental services firm Desotec from Blackstone at a roughly €2b enterprise value, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
🚑 Prelude Growth Partners invested $27m in Perelel, a women's supplement company backed by Unilever Ventures, Willow Growth Partners and Selva Ventures. Go deeper
🚑 TPG invested in Healthcademia, a U.K. health-care education company. Go deeper
M&A
• Ankura Consulting Group is acquiring Omniscient Platforms, a health-care data science company for providers with multiple facilities. Go deeper
• Unilever (NYSE: UL) is weighing a sale of several British brands, including Marmite and Colman's, per Reuters. Go deeper
Funds
💊 CapVest Partners secured around $3.8b for a single-asset CV focused on nuclear medicines company Curium, per Bloomberg. Backers include TPG, ICG, and CVC. Go deeper
• Meron Capital, an Israeli pre-seed and seed investor, raised $70m for its third fund. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Mayur Sathe and Matt Arcy joined Spiritus as senior director of process engineering and project development advisor, respectively. Sathe was previously with LanzaTech, and Arcy was previously at Chevron. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
💊 Merck KGaA will pay up to $3b to Valo Health in a collaboration deal to discover new Parkinson's disease therapies. Go deeper
- Ryan Barwick, Natalie Breymeyer, Erin Brodwin, Colin Campbell, Katherine Davis, Katie Fehrenbacher, Ryan Lawler, Chris Metinko, Alan Neuhauser, Dan Primack, and Brock E.W. Turner contributed to this report.
