Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
Venture Capital
• Databento, a Salt Lake City-based data market platform for finance, raised $97m in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates. DRW Venture Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Tribe Capital joined. Go deeper
• Skapion, an Israeli air-defense and counter-swarm startup, raised a $36m seed round. UP Partners and Khosla Ventures led, joined by Fusion VC, Stratos Ventures, TBD VC and q Fund. Go deeper
🌎 Hippo Harvest, a Pescadero, Calif.-based organic greens grower, raised a $30m Series C round led by Cox Farms and joined by Congruent Ventures, Hawthorne Food Ventures, Collaborative Fund and the Fresh Investment Club. Go deeper
• Marker, a London-based collaborative authoring platform, raised a $13m seed round. Index Ventures led, joined by LocalGlobe and angel investors. Go deeper
• Kapture CX, an Indian agentic AI platform, raised $10m led by Bajaj Finserv Ventures. Existing investors Cactus Venture Partners and India Alternatives joined. Go deeper
Private Equity
• Advent International, EQT, and KKR are among those circling Qiagen (Paris: QIA), a European molecular testing company, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
🚑 Avid Health at Home, a Havencrest Capital Management portfolio company, acquired Tech Medical Home Care, a home-care services provider focused on Kentucky and Ohio. Go deeper
• Belle Brands, backed by Windsong Global, acquired Versed, a skincare and makeup brand founded by Katherine Power. Go deeper
• Bond Vet, a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus and Talisman Capital Partners, is merging with Small Door Vet, an NYC veterinary care company that raised about $116m from Valspring Capital, Alumni Ventures, Brand Foundry Ventures, and Lerer Hippeau, among others. Go deeper
🚑 CenterGate Capital invested in Canadian Dental Labs, a maker of dental prosthetics and orthodontic appliances. Go deeper
• Charlesbank Capital Partners invested in Toronto-based secondaries investment firm Overbay Capital Partners. Go deeper
🚑 Decathlon Capital Partners invested in Amprion, a provider of neurodegenerative disorder diagnostics. Go deeper
• Vytex, a Graycliff Partners portfolio company, acquired Vinyl Kraft, a Laurel, Md.-based maker of vinyl windows and doors. Go deeper
M&A
• Apollo Micro Systems, an Indian defense company, will buy a 41.33% stake in Premier Explosives, a defense equipment maker, for $162.5m. Go deeper
Public Listings
• Mercator Acquisition, the fifth SPAC formed by Hondius Capital Management, raised $250m in its IPO. Go deeper
Liquidity
• Mercor, a data-labeling firm valued by VCs at $10b, acquired Deeptune, an NYC-based developer of reinforcement learning environments that had raised $42m from a16z, Seven Seven Six, Pentas Ventures, Inspired Capital, and Abstract Ventures. Go deeper
• Paylocity (Nasdaq: PCTY), a workforce management platform, acquired SF-based Aidora, a leave management compliance software startup backed by Team Ignite Ventures and Fractal Software. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Serent Capital raised $1.3b for Serent Capital IV. The fund will invest in software and technology-enabled services. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, is stepping down as GP at Indian venture firm Fundamentum as it begins to raise $200m for its third fund, per TechCrunch. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
⚡️ Argo Infrastructure Partners bought an eight-site commercial and industrial solar portfolio from NuGen Capital. Six sites are in Massachusetts, and two are in New Jersey. Go deeper
