Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Venture Capital
🌎 Gropyus, an Austrian robotic building materials company, raised €100m from Vonovia and Semapa Next. Go deeper
💊 QL Biopharm, a Beijing obesity biotech, raised $72m in Series C funding. OrbiMed led, joined by Qiming Venture Partners, Five Sources Capital, Xingze Capital, Huagai Capital, Taifu Capital, BlueRun Ventures, and Taiyu Investment. Go deeper
• Temple, an Indian wearables startup founded by ex-Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, raised $54m at an over $190m valuation. Goyal led, joined by Steadview Capital, Peak XV Partners, InfoEdge Ventures, and Dharana Capital. Go deeper
🚑 Ease Health, an NYC-based maker of software for behavioral health providers, raised $41m in Series A funding led by a16z. easehealth.com
• Smack Technologies, an El Segundo, Calif.-based national security AI lab, raised $32m in Series A funding. Geodesic Capital and Costanoa Ventures led, joined by Point72 Ventures, Felicis, First In, Scribble Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Washington Harbour Partners, Palumni VC, Fulcrum Venture Group, Anomaly Fund, and Fortitude Ventures. Go deeper
• Firmable, an Australian AI sales platform, raised A$14m in Series A funding led by Airtree. Go deeper
• Pluvo, an Ottawa-based financial analysis platform for CFOs, raised US$5m in seed funding from a16z, Deel, The Perseverance Fund, StandUp Ventures, and AltaIR Capital. Go deeper
• Plurio, an SF-based digital advertising startup, raised a $3.5m seed round from Altair, DVC, and Yellow Rocks. Go deeper
• 14.ai, an automated customer support startup, raised $3m in seed funding. YC led, joined by General Catalyst, Base Case Capital, and SV Angel. Go deeper
• Payr, a U.K. credit card rent payments startup, raised $2.1m led by Ingenii Capital, with participation from Haatch, Velocity Capital, and the British Business Bank. Go deeper
Private Equity
• 360training, a portfolio company of GreyLion and Vestar Capital Partners, acquired some Canadian Food Safety Group assets, including its learning and certification units. Go deeper
🚑 Bain Capital Tech Opportunities is leading an investment in Interra Health, a digital prescription service formed via the merger of DoseSpot and Arrive Health. PSG, Providence and UPMC Enterprises will retain minority ownership. interrahealth.com
• Concord, backed by GTCR, acquired Finley Technologies, an SF-based provider of credit facility management software. Go deeper
• Gemspring Capital made a follow-up investment in Sitemetric, a Houston-based provider of construction site security, access, and workforce software. Go deeper
⚡ Sandbrook Capital completed its acquisition of United Utility, a New Orleans provider of electric utility infrastructure services, from Bernhard Capital Partners. Go deeper
• Scarlet Security & Risk Group, a Trilogy Capital portfolio company, acquired Elite Residential Concierge, a Canadian provider of residential concierge and security services. Go deeper
• Stonepeak invested in Aura Holdings, an Australian retirement village developer and operator. Go deeper
Public Offerings
• Mercator Acquisition, the fifth SPAC formed by Hondius Capital Management, filed for a $250m IPO. Go deeper
Liquidity
• Lone Star Funds completed its sale of SPX Flow, a Charlotte, N.C.-based provider of industrial processing solutions, to ITT (NYSE: ITT) for $4.78b in cash and stock. Go deeper
M&A
• Alba, a Bahrain-based industrial group, is in talks to buy France-based Aluminium Dunkerque, Europe's largest aluminum smelter. Go deeper
💊 Candid Therapeutics, a San Diego and Shanghai autoimmune and inflammatory-focused biotech, will go public in a reverse merger with Rallybio (Nasdaq: RLYB). Candid also concurrently raised $505m. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Emerald Lake promoted Stephen Burhenn and Joe DeJean to partners and Sourabh Bhat and Derrick Lee to principals. Go deeper
• Gary Bischoping, Jr. will join Thomson Reuters (Nasdaq: TRI) as CFO, succeeding current CFO Mike Eastwood. Go deeper
• Jayson Bronchetti, former EVP, CIO and head of hedging and sustainability at Lincoln Financial, joined Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE: RGA) as EVP of investments. Go deeper
• Shant Mardirossian joined Littlejohn & Co. as COO, head of strategic initiatives, and a managing director. He previously spent over 30 years with Kohlberg & Co. Go deeper
• David Miller, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, will join the CFTC to lead its enforcement division. Go deeper
⚡ Jill Tully was promoted to partner and chief investment officer at Shell Ventures, the oil giant's venture arm. Go deeper
💊 Gena Wang joined Argo Biopharmaceutical as CFO and chief strategy officer. She previously was with Barclays. Go deeper
Odds & ends
⚡ Cameco, a Canadian uranium fuel supplier, signed a C$2.6b supply deal with India's government. Go deeper
• xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, plans to pay back $3b of junk bonds early, per Bloomberg. It plans to redeem at 117 cents on the dollar. 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.
