Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Venture Capital
• Quartermaster, an Arlington, Va.-based maritime surveillance startup, raised $100m from Insight Partners, Overmatch Ventures, and First Round Capital. Stifel provided a $40m debt facility. Go deeper
• Outmarket AI, an SF-based AI platform for insurance, raised $34.5m in Series B funding. SignalFire led, joined by Fika Ventures, Permanent Capital Ventures, TTV Capital, and Dash Fund. Go deeper
🚑 Link Cell Therapies, a South SF-based oncology cell therapy startup, raised $30m in additional Series A funding. Johnson & Johnson led, joined by Samsara BioCapital, Sheatree Capital, BMS, Kyowa Kirin, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, Western Technology Investment and the MD Anderson Cancer Focus Fund. Go deeper
• Modulate, a Somerville, Mass.-based audio AI startup, raised $25m led by Future Ventures. Go deeper
• Rivet, a NYC-based dating site from former Tinder and Match Group executive Taru Kapoor, raised $10.5m in seed funding from Peak XV Partners, Shine Capital and Blume Ventures. Go deeper
• HiringCafe, an SF-based job discovery platform, raised $6.8m in pre-seed funding. Spark Capital led, joined by Nonfiction Capital and Silicon Gardens. Go deeper
• F2, an agentic OS for institutional credit, raised $5m from Golub Capital. Go deeper
⚡️Overlord Labs, a San Jose, Calif.-based semiconductor company building battery intelligence infrastructure, extended its seed by $4.4m. Band of Angels led, joined by Foothill Ventures, Unlock Pacific Ventures, NuFund Venture Group, Sand Hill Angels and Castle Fund. Go deeper
⚡️ Daedal Systems, a Canadian developer of standardized plasma measurement systems for the nuclear fusion industry, raised $4m. Omers Ventures led, joined by Garage Capital, Panache Ventures, Ripple Ventures, and Mars Investment Accelerator Fund. Go deeper
• Granite, a Portuguese "agentic cloud" startup, raised €4m led by Bifrost Studios. Go deeper
Private Equity
🚑 Carisk Partners, backed by Lee Equity, acquired FirstCare Onsite, a Maitland, Fla.-based provider of onsite occupational health care services. Go deeper
• Fifth Ocean Capital and Tartan Investment Partners invested in Complete Production Resources, an Orlando, Fla.-based live event production and equipment rental provider. Go deeper
• Finalsite, backed by Veritas Capital, acquired Revtrak, a school payments provider. Go deeper
• Gladstone Investment invested additional equity and debt in Detroit Defense for its merger with Athenix Solutions Group, a Fulton, Md.-based defense contractor. Go deeper
• Liberty Mutual Investments and Thayer Street Partners invested in SunHaven Management, a NYC-based community association management platform. Go deeper
• Vortex Companies, backed by Quad-C Management and Vellano, bought Municipal & Contractors Sealing, a Cincinnati-based trenchless services provider. Go deeper
💊 Webster Equity Partners will take injectable drug products maker Lifecore Biomedical private for $663.7m. Go deeper
Liquidity
• Astorg and Bridgepoint are seeking to sell Fenergo, an Irish fintech that could fetch more than £2b, per Reuters. Go deeper
• Mark43, a public safety startup valued by VCs at $1b, acquired ForceMetrics, a Denver-based decision-assist platform that raised $25m from backers like Costanoa, Stand Together Ventures, GovTech, George Lucas, and Mellody Hobson. Go deeper
M&A
• Evonik (ETR: EVK), a German specialty chemicals company, rejected a €10.3b takeover offer from BASF (ETR: BAS). Go deeper
• Slate Grocery REIT (TSX: SGR) agreed to be acquired for US$2.3b by a joint venture between Brixmor Property Group and Everview Partners. Go deeper
Going Public
• Blockchain.com, a London and Dallas-based crypto infrastructure company, is seeking to raise $500m in an IPO this year at a $4b to $6b valuation, per Bloomberg. It had previously been valued around $7b in private markets. Go deeper
Fundraising
⚡️Energy Revolution Ventures, London-based early-stage investor in electrification hardware, is raising a $50m Fund II, with backing so far from Centrica. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Amy Chen joined merchant bank Eden Global Partners as managing director of health care. She previously was with Moelis & Co. Go deeper
• Hila Cohen joined Lowenstein Sandler as a partner in its venture funds launch group. She previously was with Morrison Foerster. Go deeper
• Dan Connolly was named head of technology & services investment banking at Raymond James. He was previously at William Blair. Go deeper
• Chris McMillan joined Houlihan Lokey as a managing director in its FinTech Group. He previously headed blockchain and internet investment banking at Credit Suisse. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
💊 Merck, a Rahway, N.J., pharma giant, will pay $400m upfront and up to $2.1b to Shanghai-based SciBrunch Therapeutics to develop an oral KRAS G12D (ON) inhibitor to treat cancer tumors. Go deeper
⚡️Amprius Technologies (NYSE: AMPX), a Fremont, Calif.-based battery manufacturer, was selected to receive an up to $75m grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to retrofit an EV battery production line to produce battery cells for drones. Go deeper
