Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Venture Capital
• Plaid, an SF-based fintech connectivity company, raised employee liquidity funding at an $8b valuation, up from its prior round but down from its heyday. Go deeper
• Viture, an SF-based XR glasses maker, raised $100m. Legend Capital led, joined by Bertelsmann Group. Go deeper
• Encord, an SF-based physical AI data infrastructure company, raised $60m in Series C funding. Wellington Management led, joined by YC, CRV, N47, Crane Venture Partners, and Harpoon Ventures. Go deeper
• Sensera Systems, a Denver-based job-site intelligence platform, raised $27m in Series B funding. 10 Atlantic Group led, joined by Egis Capital Partners and MUUS. Go deeper.
• Xflow, an Indian B2B cross-border payments startup, raised $16.6m in Series A funding. General Catalyst led, joined Square Peg, Stripe, Lightspeed, Moore Capital, and PayPal Ventures. xflowpay.com
💊 Tamarind Bio, an SF-based AI drug discovery company, raised $12m in Series A funding. Dimension Capital led, joined by YC. Go deeper
🚑 BrainCheck, an Austin, Texas-based digital cognitive care platform, added $13m to its Series A, led by Next Coast Ventures and joined by S3 Venture and UPMC Enterprises. Go deeper
• Trace, a London-based enterprise AI adoption startup, raised $3m in seed funding from YC, Zeno Ventures, Transpose Platform Management, Goodwater Capital, Formosa Capital, and WeFunder. Go deeper
• Huper, an Atlanta-based AI productivity and workflow tool for private markets, raised $1.5m in pre-seed funding from Nadia Partners, Link Ventures, and Long Ridge Equity Partners. Go deeper
Private Equity
• SolomonEdwards, backed by Renovus, acquired CFO's Domain, a Los Angeles-based consulting and recruiting firm. Go deeper
• Tonka Bay Equity Partners invested in Camp Digital, an Edina, Minn.-based marketing platform for home services. campdigital.com
⚡ Trive Capital invested in Rolfson Oil, an Addison, Texas-based fuel, oils, and lubricants distributor. Go deeper
• Woven Solutions, a Falfurrias portfolio company, acquired government consultancy Valence. Go deeper
🚑 Zavation, a Gemspring Capital portfolio company, acquired ChoiceSpine, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based maker of spinal implant systems. Go deeper
M&A
• Miso Robotics, an LA-based robotics provider for restaurants, acquired Zignyl, which was backed by InvesTN, Launch Tennessee and Alchemist Accelerator. misorobotics.com
IPO
• Elliott Management is inviting banks to pitch on an IPO of Barnes & Noble and Waterstones Booksellers, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
Liquidity
• EQT sold its remaining stake in Azelis Group (EBR:AZE), a Belgian specialty chemicals and food ingredients company, for €190m. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Noah Bishop joined Sterling Investment Partners as a senior VP. He previously was with Warburg Pincus. Go deeper
• Mario Gabriele is joining Hummingbird Ventures as an investor. He authors the Generalist. Go deeper
• MPearlRock, a MidOcean Partners and Kroger partnership, announced Mark Ramadan, co-founder of Sir Kensington's, Bill Toler, former CEO of Hostess Brands, and Bob Ostryniec, former global chief supply chain officer at Heinz, as operating partners. Go deeper
• Darcy MacClaren, former chief revenue officer of SAP Supply Chain, joined Cambridge Capital as an operating advisor. Go deeper
• Ocean Network Express founding CEO Jeremy Nixon, who consolidated Japanese container lines, will step down. Emirates Shipping Line CEO Till Ole Barrelet will succeed him. Go deeper
• Ram Machness was promoted from chief business officer to CEO at Arbe Robotics (Nasdaq: ARBE). Kobi Marenko will transition from CEO to president. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
• Beretta Holding, a family-owned group and the shareholder of firearm manufacturer Sturm Ruger & Co., has nominated four independent directors to the company's board, citing "inadequate board self-refreshment." Go deeper
💊 Boehringer Ingelheim struck a $500m deal with U.K.-based Sitryx Therapeutics to exclusively license a preclinical, small molecule program for multiple autoimmune and inflammatory disease indications. Go deeper
- Ryan Barwick, Natalie Breymeyer, Erin Brodwin, Colin Campbell, Katherine Davis, Katie Fehrenbacher, Ryan Lawler, Chris Metinko, Chelsea Naso, Alan Neuhauser, Dan Primack, and Brock E.W. Turner contributed to this report.
