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Exclusive: Hike Medical targets up to $75M 

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Financial data on the block

Illustration of an upward market trend line with a price tag.

Transportation management M&A rolls on 

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Driving the day

🚨 Deals Deals Deals!

Final numbers

Hike Medical, a SaaS provider for durable medical equipment makers, has raised a $22.5 million Series A round, CEO Aadi Bhanti tells Axios Pro exclusively.

What's next: The San Francisco-based startup plans to raise $50 million to $75 million in Series B funding by year-end, Bhanti says.

Hike also could pursue acquisitions within software and physical device manufacturing.

Follow the money: Saga Ventures led the Series A, joined by Indicator Ventures, Fifth Down Capital, RiverPark Ventures and commercial partner Orthofeet.

How it works: Hike sells to durable medical equipment, prosthetic and orthotics makers.

It automates referrals intake, plus documentation, insurance and compliance work.

It also helps clients create custom orthotics using AI and 3D printing. 

Zoom out: Investors are pouring money into software that helps specialty health providers run their practices.

Flagler Health, focused on musculoskeletal clinics, raised $50 million earlier this month.

Moxie, an operating system for aesthetic medicine, raised a $25 million Series C round in March. 

Tennr, which automates documentation otherwise done via fax, raised $101 million at a $605 million valuation last year.

1. Exclusive: Hike Medical targets up to $75M

Sponsors are seeking to cash in on alternative asset data.

The big picture: As AI makes generic software easier to build, proprietary data and embedded workflows have become more valuable.

Driving the news: Vista Equity is exploring a sale of Allvue for up to $3 billion including debt, while Carlyle is weighing a $2.5 billion-plus sale for YipitData, per Reuters.

What they're saying: "Buyers aren't paying for 'data' by itself," Windsor Drake managing director Jeff Barrington tells Axios Pro.

"They pay up where the data is hard to recreate, the rights are clean and the product sits in a workflow customers can't easily rip out."

"The more proprietary that data, the higher the quality of output, and the greater the differentiation versus the crowd," adds Craig Muir, Solomon Partners' head of software, data and analytics. 

Zoom in: Allvue sells software for private credit and PE fund operations, including accounting, portfolio management and investor reporting. 

Allvue's desired $2 billion to $3 billion price tag values it around 10x to 15x its reported $200 million-plus ARR.

YipitData sells data, dashboards and research to hedge funds, asset managers and corporate customers.

YipitData's reported valuation range works out to roughly 9x to 11x ARR, Barrington estimates.

State of play: Those multiples track with recent deals: BlackRock paid 13x expected 2024 revenue for Preqin, while S&P Global paid nearly 14x expected 2025 revenue for With Intelligence.

Other notable transactions include Bloomberg's pending acquisition of Canoe, which structures private fund data, and MSCI's purchase of secondary-market data provider PM Insights.

2. Financial data on the block

Logistics software giant Descartes has acquired transportation management system provider Tai for $100 million in cash, the companies announced today.

Why it matters: TMS providers have become popular M&A targets because of their underlying data.

Zoom in: Huntington Beach, Calif.-based Tai handles quoting, billing and other freight broker processes for truckload, less-than-truckload, drayage and cross-border shipments. It's been backed by Accel-KKR since 2020.

Nasdaq-listed Descartes has made 34 acquisitions in the past decade, most recently buying Chilean last-mile logistics provider Drivin for $30 million. 

What's next: Canada-based Descartes could make more deals before year-end, CFO Ed Gardner tells Axios Pro. 

What they're saying: Transaction, carrier and shipment execution data was "probably a key acquisition criterion," writes Kai Peschl, an M&A adviser who previously led strategy for Roland Berger and Hapag-Lloyd.

"Knowing that AI-fueled orchestration layers are probably one of the most valuable things to have in logistics, this seems like a clear strategic move," he added.

Zoom out: There's an active M&A market for TMS assets.

Trimble is trying to sell its transportation and logistics portfolio, which includes its Transporeon TMS service.

Warburg Pincus-backed BlueGrace Logistics acquired Idaho-based Truk TMS earlier this month.

Tenet acquired Pallet's TMS business in February.

3. Transportation management M&A rolls on

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

🤖 Scoop: Generalist raises another $200M for AI robotics (Dan Primack)

The startup raised $400 million in June at a $2 billion-plus valuation.

🏭 Exclusive: Mantel raises $18M (Alan Neuhauser)

The carbon capture startup could target up to $200 million next year. 

❌ Paramount settlement meeting canceled (Dan Primack)

California's AG reportedly says Paramount leaked prior meeting details.

🇨🇦 Canada's VC industry looks for upside (Dan Primack)

The U.S. trade dispute could prompt Ottawa to unlock money for startups.

☕ Coffee chain Blank Street raises $105M (Dan Primack)

It includes $75 million of primary capital and $30 million of secondaries. 

4. Driving the day

Animated illustration of a steering wheel that turns back and forth before turning into a clock that moves from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then changing back.

👉 GO HERE TO CATCH UP on deals since this morning's Pro Rata, including:

General Intuition, an NYC-based AI lab using gaming content for training, is in talks to raise at a $6b pre-money valuation from Valor Equity Partners, Point72 Ventures, and Seven Seven Six, per TechCrunch. Go deeper

Starcloud, a Redmond, Wash.-based developer of orbital data centers, raised $250m in Series A extension funding at a $2.3b post-money valuation. Manhattan West led, joined by Nvidia, Cisco Investments, Cedar Capital, Goanna Capital, Standard Capital, and insiders Benchmark, EQT, Soma, NFX, and 776. Axios Pro flashback

Secovia Capital acquired Ferrovia, an Auburn, Ala.-based railroad vegetation management services provider, from Genesis Rail Services, a portfolio company of Auxo Investment Partners. Go deeper

5. 🚨 Deals Deals Deals!

Data: Shein's HKEX IPO filing; Note: Shein's April 28, 2016, Series B was raised in RMB. It has been converted to USD here based on the exchange rate then. $25.1 billion is its expected IPO valuation, and excludes the shares to be issued in the offering; Chart: Lucinda Shen/Axios

Shein investors who bought in after its pandemic boom are poised for paper losses in the upcoming IPO.

Yes, but: Some later-stage investors have downside protections in place. 

The fast-fashion giant struck a deal with 2022-era funders, or backers that invested at the $60.5 billion, $98.2 billion, and $64 billion pre-money marks. 

Follow the money: Series pre-D, D, and D+ investors are set to get an estimated $2.2 billion in cash, as part of a March conversion adjustment, and roughly $124 million worth of additional shares.

They are also set to get a total of $1.3 billion, with payouts tied to the price they paid for their shares.

That would nearly match the $3.8 billion principal investors paid for both primary and secondary shares across the Series pre-D, D, and D+.

August 24, 2026

1. Exclusive: Hike Medical targets up to $75M