Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Venture Capital
• Glydways, a robocar developer backed by Sam Altman and Khosla Ventures, is in talks to raise $250m at an over $1b valuation, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
• nEye.ai, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based developer of optical circuit switches, raised $80m in Series C funding. Sutter Hill Ventures led, joined by CapitalG, M12, and Socratic Partners. Go deeper
•Atlas Card, an NYC-based concierge service and charge card, raised $40m at a $420m valuation. Elad Gil and Verified Capital led, joined by 01 Advisors and Marathon. Go deeper
💊 Spiral Therapeutics, a South SF-based inner-ear disorder biotech, raised $27m in Series B funding. Gund Investment led, joined by Advanced Bionics, Ferring Ventures, and Uni-Bio Science Group. Go deeper
• Ratio, an SF-based fintech for B2B scale-ups, raised $15.8m from Streamlined Ventures, Cervin Ventures, HoneyStone Ventures, Monte Carlo Capital, Jarvis Investments, and Sandhill Angels. Go deeper
• Paxos Labs, an onchain financial products developer for enterprises, raised $12m. Blockchain Capital led, joined by Robot Ventures, Maelstrom, and Uniswap. Go deeper
• Wamo, a Finnish finance operating platform for SMEs, raised €10m in Series A funding. 3TS Capital Partners led, joined by Oleka Capital. Go deeper
• Nava, an NYC-based agentic economy "guardrails" developer, raised $8.3m in seed funding. Polychain and Archetype led, joined by FalconX, Hack VC, and Seed Club Ventures. Go deeper
• TraqCheck, a London-based HR tech startup, raised $8m in Series A funding. IvyCap Ventures led, joined by IIFL. Go deeper
• BizScout, an Austin, Texas-based marketplace and data platform for small biz acquisitions, raised $5m in seed funding from Valor Equity, Balaji Srinivasan, Sean Rad, and Bill Perkins. Go deeper
• Pumpcade, a Solana-based prediction markets platform, raised $5m in seed funding led by Foundation Capital and Jump Crypto. cade.market
• Clean Food Group, a U.K. developer of yeast-derived oils and fats from food waste, raised £4.5m led by Clean Growth Fund and New Agrarian. Go deeper
• Modern Relay, a developer of a shared infrastructure layer for enterprise AI agents, raised $3m from Point Nine, Emerge, Amino Collective, and Common Magic. Go deeper
• Ralio, a U.K. payments platform for AI agents, raised $2.5m. Sure Valley Ventures led, joined by Seed X, Love Ventures, Plug and Play, rule30, Adeline Arts and Science, Endurance Ventures, Campus Fund, Alan Morgan, and Antler. Go deeper
Private Equity
🚑 CPIhealth, backed by Iron Path Capital, acquired Chicago-based Midwest Interventional Spine Specialists and Munster, Ind.-based Serenity Surgical Center. Go deeper
🐔 Kingswood Capital Management invested in Soulshine Farms, a Gainesville, Ga.-based provider of poultry further-processing solutions. Go deeper
• Equity Methods, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based financial services firm backed by HGGC, acquired Equity Plan Solutions, a Redwood City, Calif.-based boutique advisory. Go deeper
• Horsburgh & Scott, a portfolio company of GenNx360 Capital Partners, acquired Franklin Machine & Gear, a Humble, Texas-based provider of industrial gear and gearbox repair and replacement services. Go deeper
• Q4, a Sumeru Equity Partners portfolio company, acquired Virtua Research, a Boston-based financial modeling company. Go deeper
• Stegra, Swedish green steel maker, raised €1.4b led by Sweden's Wallenberg family. Go deeper
Public
• Elmet Group, a Portland, Maine-based materials and microwave products maker for aerospace and defense, set IPO terms to 7.7m shares at $12-$14. It would have a $364m market cap at the midpoint and reports $5m of net income on $202m in revenue for 2025. Elmet plans to list on the Nasdaq (ELMT). Go deeper
Liquidity
• Advent International reportedly hired Goldman Sachs and Jefferies to sell Parfums de Marly, a French fragrance company that could fetch $2b. Go deeper
• AppDirect, a B2B subscription commerce platform valued over $1.7b, acquired PartnerStack, a Canadian PRM software company that raised $40m from firms like RRE Ventures and 3L Capital. Go deeper
• Tory Burch plans to spend $346m to repurchase a minority equity stake held in the luxury retailer by General Atlantic, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
M&A
⚡️ Adnoc is in advanced talks to buy Shell's (NYSE: SHEL) South Africa gas stations business, after talks with the Gunvor Group fell through, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
• Bridge Defense acquired Syntelligent Analytic Solutions, a Luray, Va.-based provider of intelligence solutions for national security customers. Go deeper
• Caterpillar acquired self-driving electric tractor startup Monarch Tractor. Monarch raised a total of $251m from Astanor Ventures, At One Ventures and HH-CTBC Partnership. Go deeper
• ZenaTech (Nasdaq: ZENA), an autonomous drone and software developer, acquired NOW Solutions, a Richardson, Texas-based HR and payroll software company. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Lockheed Martin increased its venture fund to $1b from $400m. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Type One Ventures promoted Nina Mahmoudpour to general counsel. Go deeper
💊 Kent Lupino, formerly senior director of marketing and sales operations at Tergus Pharma, joined Flow Sciences as CMO. Go deeper
🚑 Stephen Deitsch, ex-CFO at OrganOx, joined Caristo Diagnostics as CEO. Go deeper
• Karen Carter was promoted to CEO of Dow effective July 1. She's currently COO, while current Dow CEO Jim Fitterling will become executive chair. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
💊 AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) will pay $30m upfront and up to $715m in milestones to China's Haisco Pharmaceutical Group in an exclusive licensing agreement to develop novel pain medicines. Go deeper
💊 Regeneron (Nasdaq: REGN) will pay $40m upfront and up to $2.1b to Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX: TLX) to develop four solid tumor programs. Go deeper
• Rivian (Nasdaq: RIVN) plans to buy a second-life battery storage project from Redwood Materials to power its factory in Illinois. Go deeper
⚡️ Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) expanded a deal to buy 2.8 gigawatts of Bloom Energy's (NYSE: BE) fuel cell systems. Go deeper
