Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Venture Capital
• Cohere, a Toronto-based LLM model developer, raised US $500m at a $6.8b valuation. Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital led, joined by AMD Ventures, Nvidia, PSP Investments, Salesforce Ventures, and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan. Go deeper
• Lambda, a San Jose, Calif.-based cloud infrastructure company backed by Nvidia, is in talks to raise at a $4b-$5b valuation, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
• XOPS, a SF-based autonomous IT company, raised $40m led by Activant Capital and FPV Ventures. Go deeper
• Sola, a New York-based AI co-pilot for robotic process automation, raised $17.5m in Series A funding, led by A16z, and $3.5m in seed funding led by Conviction, per Fortune. Go deeper
🌎 Aeronero, an Indian atmospheric water developer, raised $1.5m led by Callapina Capital. Go deeper
Private Equity
• Gridiron Capital acquired ABC Legal Services, a Seattle-based service of process and court filing solutions provider, from Aquiline. abclegal.com
• Hidden Harbor Capital Partners invested in McHale, an Upper Marlboro, Md.-based residential landscaper. mchalelandscape.com
• Searchlight Capital Partners invested in Chord, a music IP management and acquisition platform. Go deeper
Liquidity Events
• MSQ Partners, owned by LDC and One Equity Partners, ruled out a merger with U.K. ad agency S4 Capital (LSE: SFOR). Go deeper
M&A
• Fitch Learning agreed to buy two businesses from Moody's (NYSE: MCO): MALS, a provider of credit training, and the Canadian Securities Institute, a financial professional certifications provider. Go deeper
• InfraRed Capital Partners, part of SunLife Financial (NYSE: SLF), agreed to buy nine data centers from Rogers Communications (TSX: RCI). Go deeper
• Landbase, an agentic AI startup that automates go-to-market workflows, acquired Adauris, a Toronto-based inbound marketing startup. Landbase recently raised $30m from Sound Ventures and Picus Capital, while Adauris was seeded by a Morgan Stanley fund and Founders Inc. Go deeper
• Quanta Services (NYSE: PWR) agreed to buy Dynamic Systems, an Austin, Texas-based provider of mechanical solutions, from FGI Group for $1.35b upfront and a $216m earnout. Go deeper
• Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY) and Bank of Montreal (TSX: BMO) are weighing a sale of payment processor Moneris, which could fetch up to $2b, per Reuters. Go deeper
It's Personnel
• Mayank Jain joined the founding team of a new long-hold strategy by Joshua Kushner's VC firm, Thrive Capital. He previously founded Guardian AI. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
• The Trump administration is in talks to take a stake in Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), per Bloomberg. Go deeper
💊 Eli Lilly agreed to pay $1.3b to Boston-based Superluminal Medicines to develop cardiometabolic and obesity drugs. Go deeper
🌎 Eve Air Mobility, a Melbourne, Fla.-based eVTOL developer, sold around 47.4m shares of common stock at $4.85 each, raising $230m in via a direct public offering. Go deeper
⚡️ Tesla has applied to enter the U.K. electricity market as an energy supplier. Go deeper
- Ryan Barwick, Natalie Breymeyer, Erin Brodwin, Colin Campbell, Katherine Davis, Katie Fehrenbacher, Ryan Lawler, Chris Metinko, Alan Neuhauser, Dan Primack, and Brock E.W. Turner contributed to this report.
