Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Venture Capital
🌎 Stegra, a Swedish green steel manufacturing infrastructure company, raised €1.4b led by Wallenberg Investments. IMAS, Temasek, Bolero, and SEB-Stiftelsen joined, along with existing investors Altor, Hy24, Just Climate, AIP Management, and Scania. Go deeper
• Mirendil, an SF-based AI startup founded by Anthropic vets, raised $200m at a $1b valuation from a16z, Kleiner Perkins, and Nvidia. Go deeper
• Taktile, an NYC-based automation company for financial institutions, raised $110m in Series C funding. Goldman Sachs Alternatives' Growth Equity led, joined by Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, Tiger Global, YC, and Dig Ventures. Go deeper
💊 RQ Bio, a London-based antibody company focused on influenza in high-risk populations, raised £85.5m in Series A funding. Frazier Life Sciences led, joined by EQT Life Sciences, Forbion, Monograph, Wellington Management and LifeArc Ventures. Go deeper
• Redo, a Draper, Utah-based customer service automation company, raised $81m in Series B funding at $1.25b valuation. Smash Capital led, joined by Pelion Venture Partners and Cervin Ventures. Go deeper
• Hang Ten Systems, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based AI services adoption company, raised $32m in seed funding. Mayfield led, joined by Aramco Ventures. Go deeper
• Runlayer, an NYC-based AI agent orchestration platform, raised a $30m Series A. Felicis led, joined by Khosla Ventures. Go deeper
• Seltz, an SF-based web retrieval infrastructure startup, raised a $12.5m seed. Speedinvest and B Capital led, joined by futurepresent, Italian Founders Fund, arc Investors, United Ventures, Vento Ventures, Mango Capital, 2100 Ventures, and Future Back Ventures. Go deeper
• Tombot, a Santa Clarita, Calif.-based robotic animal company, raised $7m in Series A3 funding. Caduceus Capital Partners, Wavemaker 360, the Lutheran Foundation for Long Term Living, and Florida Community Health Network invested. tombot.com
• Valence AI, an SF-based voice AI company, raised $5m in seed funding. Differential Ventures led, joined by Difference Partners, Willowtree Ventures, Change Paradox Ventures and SRI International. Go deeper
⚡️ Moment Energy, a Canadian startup that turns EV batteries into grid storage, raised $3M from NorthX Climate Tech. Go deeper
• Anchorbase, a Canadian payments automation platform, raised $2m in pre-seed funding from TTV Capital and Cambrian VC. Go deeper
Private Equity
• The Exigent Group, a portfolio company of Huron Capital, acquired Superior Building Services, a Columbus-based boiler and HVAC services provider. Go deeper
• LightBay Capital invested in Texas-based Centre Technologies, an IT managed services provider. Go deeper
• New Mountain Capital made a majority investment in RRC Companies, an Austin, Texas-based utility-scale renewable power generation and battery company, and gained a board seat. Go deeper
• PGW, backed by One Equity Partners, acquired Windshield Surgeons, a Canadian automotive glass business. Go deeper
• Schneider Geospatial, an Align Capital portfolio company, acquired New England GeoSystems, a Connecticut-based geospatial software and services company. Go deeper
• Thoma Bravo invested in padoa, a Paris-based occupational health, safety and prevention software company. Existing shareholders Five Arrows and Kamet Ventures joined. Go deeper
M&A
🌎 MSCI, a New York-based financial services company, acquired climate risk data startup First Street for $120m, plus earnouts. Go deeper
• Paramount is preparing to divest of its Universal Pictures JV to address EU antitrust concerns over its Warner Bros Discovery deal, per Reuters. Go deeper
Liquidity
• MoEngage, an Indian agentic customer engagement platform, acquired Aampe, an SF-based agentic infrastructure company. Aampe previously raised an $18m Series A led by Theory Ventures at a $93m post-money valuation, per PitchBook. Go deeper
• Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) agreed to buy AI infrastructure startup Modular for $4B. Modular is backed by DFJ Growth, Factory, General Catalyst, Google Ventures, Greylock Partners and US Innovative Technology Fund. Go deeper
It's Personnel
⚡️ Emma McDonagh was promoted to partner at Overture Ventures, an LA-based VC firm focused on energy, AI and industry. She was previously principal. Go deeper
Debt
• Terawatt Infrastructure, an SF-based EV charging startup, now has $300M in secured debt financing from banks led by RBC Capital Markets. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
⚡️ True Green Capital Management bought 20.3 MW of operating solar assets from Gresham House Renewable Energy. Go deeper
