Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Venture Capital
• Neura Robotics, a German humanoid robot maker, is raising around €1b from backers like Tether, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
• Starface, a New York-based pimple patch maker, raised $105m minority funding round, led by Astō Consumer Partners and Align Ventures. Go deeper
• Unleash, a Norway-based software operational risk management startup, raised a $35m Series B led by One Peak. Spark Capital, Frontline Ventures, and Firstminute Capital joined. Go deeper
• HawkEye 360, a Herndon, Va.-based radio signals intelligence startup, added $23m to its Series E from Ghisallo Capital Management, Principia Growth, Sixty Degree Capital and Strategic Development Fund. Go deeper
🌎 PlasmaLeap Technologies, an Australian developer of zero-emissions ammonia and nitric acid production, raised US$20m in Series A funding led by the Gates Foundation, Investible and Yara Growth Ventures. Twynam, GrainCorp Ventures, Uniseed/UniSuper, Artesian, SVG Ventures and Agnition Ventures joined. Go deeper
⚡️Otovo (Euronext Oslo Børs: OTOVO), a Houston home power services provider, raised USD $16.6m from existing investors, including Encompass Capital Advisors. Go deeper
🌎 MightyFly, an SF-based autonomous air logistics startup, raised $10m from Draper Associates, At One Ventures, and 500 Global. Go deeper
• Cyclops, a stablecoin payments startup, raised $8m from Castle Island Ventures, F-Prime and Shift4. Go deeper
🌎 Amatera, a French developer of resilient perennial crops, raised €6m in seed funding led by Demea Sustainable Investment and Oyster Bay, joined by insiders Pinc, Mudcake, and Exceptional Ventures. Go deeper
⚡️ Artemis (fka Monalee), a Houston-based software developer for solar and storage projects, raised $6m led by Long Journey and Copec Wind Ventures. Ludlow Ventures, Shrug Capital, Coalition Operators, Plug and Play Ventures, FJ Labs, Tribeca Ventures, Palm Tree Crew, and Scott Banister joined. Go deeper
🌎 Bindbridge, a U.K.-based crop-protection developer, raised $3.8m from Nucleus Capital and Speedinvest. Go deeper
🌎 Mycoverse, a Danish agtech developing crop fungal protection, raised €2.4m in pre-seed funding led by Future Food Fund and High-Tech Gründerfonds, joined by PINC. Go deeper
Private Equity
⚡️ Blackstone completed its $4b buyout of MacLean Power Systems, a Fort Mill, S.C.-based utility parts maker from Centerbridge Partners (which retained a stake), and merged it with existing portfolio company Power Grid Components. Go deeper
• Centurium Capital, controlling owner of Luckin Coffee, agreed to buy Blue Bottle Coffee from Nestle for around $400m, per Caixin. Go deeper
• Royal Cup, a Birmingham, Ala.-based portfolio company of Braemont Capital, agreed to acquire Northlake, Texas-based Farmer Brothers Coffee Co. (Nasdaq: FARM) for around $28m in cash. Go deeper
• SeaFort Capital and Roynat Equity Partners acquired Allmar, a Canadian supplier of door and hardware solutions. Go deeper
• Southern Home Services, a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, acquired Anniston, Ala.-based Dunn's HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical. Go deeper
• Trive Capital acquired Adrianna Papell, an NYC-based women's fashion brand. Go deeper
• West Star Aviation, a business aviation MRO owned by Greenbriar Equity Group, acquired DCJet Services, a provider of field maintenance and aircraft-on-ground services. Go deeper
M&A
• Rallybio (Nasdaq: RLYB) agreed to a reverse merger with Candid Therapeutics, a San Diego-based autoimmune biotech that has raised $370m in VC funding. Go deeper
IPOs
• Whoop, a Boston-based fitness tracking platform, is gearing up for an IPO "over a horizon of two years," Bloomberg reports. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Mark Wetjen, former CFTC commissioner and global head of policy and regulatory affairs at OKX, joined Backpack as president of Backpack US. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
💊 Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY), a French pharma giant, agreed to pay $135m upfront and up to $1.53b to Hong Kong-based Sino Biopharmaceutical (HKG: 1177) for global rights to an anti-inflammation and anti-fibrosis therapy. Go deeper
⚡️ TerraPower, the Bill Gates-backed small nuclear reactor developer, became the first such company in the U.S. to receive Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to begin construction of its 345 MW project in Wyoming. Go deeper
💊 UCB, a Belgian drugmaker, will pay $60m upfront and as much as $1.1b to Chinese biotech Antengene to develop a T cell engager for autoimmune diseases. Go deeper
⚡️A Westinghouse nuclear power project is the subject of U.S.-Japan negotiations around the Japanese government's $550b U.S. investment package. Go deeper
- Ryan Barwick, Natalie Breymeyer, Erin Brodwin, Colin Campbell, Katherine Davis, Katie Fehrenbacher, Ryan Lawler, Chris Metinko, Alan Neuhauser, Dan Primack, Lucinda Shen, and Brock E.W. Turner contributed to this report.
