Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Venture Capital
• Mews, an NYC-based operating system for hospitality, raised $300m in Series D funding at a $2.5b valuation. EQT Growth led, joined by Atomico, HarbourVest Partners, Kinnevik, Battery Ventures, and Tiger Global. Go deeper
• Inferact, an AI inference startup, raised a $150m seed round at a $800m valuation. Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners led, joined by Sequoia Capital, Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures and ZhenFund. Go deeper
• Claroty, an Israeli cyber-physical systems protection company, raised $150m in Series F funding at a $3b valuation led by Golub Growth. Go deeper
• Neurophos, an Austin, Texas-based photonic AI chip tech company, raised $110m in Series A funding. Gates Frontier led, joined by M12, Carbon Direct Capital, Aramco Ventures, Bosch Ventures, Tectonic Ventures, and Space Capital. Go deeper
• LiveKit, an SF-based developer platform for AI agents, raised $100m in Series C funding at a $1b valuation. Index Ventures led, joined by Salesforce Ventures and insiders Altimeter, Redpoint Ventures, and Hanabi Capital. Go deeper
• Superstate, a tokenization and onchain issuance firm, raised $82.5m in Series B funding. Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global led, joined by Haun Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, Galaxy Digital, Sentinel Global, Bullish, Hypersphere Capital, Flowdesk, 1kx, Intersection, ParaFi and Road Capital participating. Go deeper
• Cubby, a property management platform for self-storage operators, raised $63m in Series A funding led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives. Go deeper
💊 PAQ Therapeutics, a Burlington, Mass.-based oncology biotech, raised $38m in Series B extension funding. Bayland Capital and MRL Ventures Fund led, joined by J&J Innovation, LAV Fund, BioTrack Capital, and Sherpa Health Partners. Go deeper
• Cambio, an SF-based commercial real estate operations SaaS, raised $18m in Series A funding. Maverick Ventures led, joined by YC, Adverb Ventures, and Peterson Ventures. Go deeper
🌎 Klir, a Reno, Nev.-based provider of operations software for water utilities, raised $10m in Series B funding led by insider Insight Partners. Go deeper
🚑 Salvo Health, an NYC-based virtual gastrointestinal care company, raised $8.5m in Series A funding. ManchesterStory, City Light Capital, and Threshold Ventures led, joined by The Artemis Fund and Contour Venture Partners. Go deeper
• River, a DeFi protocol developer, raised $8m from Justin Sun. Go deeper
• Innocent Meat, a German cultivated meat developer, raised €6m from Genius Venture Capital. Go deeper
Private Equity
• Audax Strategic Capital made a structured equity investment in Strickland Brothers, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-based operator and franchisor of oil change centers that's owned by Princeton Equity Group. Go deeper
• Castlelake is in talks to buy bankrupt discount airline Spirit Airlines, per CNBC. Go deeper
• Lone Star Funds agreed to acquire Alliance Ground International, a Miami-based airport services provider, from Greenbriar Equity Group and Audax Private Equity. Go deeper
• Ridgeline, a roofing firm owned by Bertram Capital, acquired Maple Grove, Minn.-based Bold North Roofing and Contracting. Go deeper
• Vector, backed by BVP Forge, acquired YardView, a shipyard management and dock visibility company. Go deeper
Liquidity
• Andela, a global tech staffing platform, acquired Woven, an Indianapolis-based technical assessment company. Andela raised over $370m from firms like SoftBank, while Woven raised around $11m from firms like High Alpha and Elevate Venture. Go deeper
M&A
• Adar Poonawalla, the billionaire CEO of Serum Institute of India, said he plans to bid on Indian cricket club Royal Challengers Bengaluru, which is being sold by Diageo for up to $2b. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Goldman Sachs Alternatives raised $2.8b for its fourth private equity co-investment fund. gs.com
• Black Bay Partners raised $425m for its third fund. Go deeper
🚑 Healthier Capital, a VC firm led by former One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin, raised $220m for its inaugural fund. Go deeper
Going Public
• Mammoth Brands, which owns razor brand Harry's, is weighing an IPO in the second half of 2026, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
It's Personnel
🚑 Sara Vaezy joined Chartis as chief product and technology officer. She was previously EVP and chief transformation officer at Providence. Go deeper
• British Columbia Investment Management Corp. promoted Jon Salon to EVP and global head of private equity, succeeding the departing Jim Pittman. Go deeper
🚑 Felix Kim joined Next Ventures as a principal. He was previously with Longitude Capital. nextventures.com
• Trivest Partners made a series of promotions, including Stephen Koren to managing director. Go deeper
Odds & Ends
💊 Bristol Myers Squibb agreed to pay $50m upfront and up to $850m to Janux Therapeutics in a licensing agreement to develop a solid tumor treatment. Go deeper
Colin Campbell, Katherine Davis, Katie Fehrenbacher, Ryan Lawler, Alan Neuhauser, Chris Metinko, Dan Primack, Erin Brodwin, Natalie Breymeyer and Brock E.W. Turner contributed to this report.
