Archives

Trax Retail: Enabling Brands To Offer Seamless Shopping Experiences In Over A $100 Billion Market

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2024

Trax Retail is a company that has a goal of enabling brands and retailers to harness the power of digital technologies to produce the best shopping experiences imaginable. The company’s retail platform allows customers to understand what is happening on-shelf, in every store, all the time so they can focus on what they do best: delighting shoppers. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Trax Retail chief revenue officer David Gottlieb to learn more.

Goldman Sachs Completes Sale Of GreenSky

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

GreenSky has completed a previously announced acquisition of the company by a consortium of institutional investors led by Sixth Street from Goldman Sachs. The consortium also included KKR, Bayview Asset Management, and CardWorks. As part of the deal, GreenSky is also deepening its strategic partnership with Synovus Bank - an essential part of the GreenSky Program since 2015.

Shake Smart Raises Funding From NewSpring Franchise

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

NewSpring announced that NewSpring Franchise (the firm's strategy dedicated to investing in innovative franchise and multi-unit concepts in large and growing markets) has invested in Shake Smart Holdings, a leading healthy, fast-casual concept. Shake Smart will use the funding to continue its rapid unit expansion. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

New Mountain Capital Acquires Majority Stake In Grant Thornton

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Grant Thornton (one of the leading providers of audit and assurance, tax, and advisory services) and New Mountain Capital (a growth-oriented investment firm with about $50 billion in assets under management) announced a significant growth investment to accelerate Grant Thornton’s business strategy.

Strategic Value Partners Names Mike Ungari As Head of Real Estate

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Strategic Value Partners - a global alternative investment firm focused on opportunistic credit opportunities with over $18 billion of assets under management - announced the appointment of Mike Ungari as Head of Real Estate to lead the firm's global real estate business and portfolio. Ungari will also serve on SVP's Management Council and Investment Committee.

Brady Corporation To Buy Gravotech In $133 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Brady Corporation announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations to buy Gravotech Holding for about €123 million (about $133 million). Brady expects to fund the deal with cash on hand and with borrowings on its existing credit agreement and expects to close the transaction by the end of its fiscal year ending July 31, 2024, subject to closing conditions.

Westbound Equity Partners: Oversubscribed $100 Million Fund II Closed

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Westbound Equity Partners (previously called Concrete Rose) announced that it closed $100 million in Fund II, which was oversubscribed. Since the firm’s founding, they set out on an ambitious journey to create a virtuous cycle of wealth and opportunity by investing financial and social capital into exceptional founders and ventures led by or built with underrepresented people of color.

Sealed Reveals Sealed Pro And $30 Million Funding Round

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Sealed - a New York-based residential energy efficiency company - announced the launching of Sealed Pro and a $30 million funding round. The $30 million funding round was led by Keyframe Capital and Cyrus Capital, CityRock, Fifth Wall, and others joined them.

Ballistic Ventures: $360 Million Oversubscribed Fund II Closed To Invest In Cybersecurity Companies

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Ballistic Ventures announced the closing of its oversubscribed $360 million second fund. Fund II for Ballistic Ventures reinforces the firm’s commitment to fund and incubate entrepreneurs and innovations exclusively focused on the future of cybersecurity.

DraftWise: AI-Based Contract And Negotiation Platform For Lawyers Raises $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

DraftWise - an AI-based contract and negotiation platform for lawyers - announced a $20 million Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, with additional support from existing investors Y Combinator and Earlybird Digital East Ventures.

Clique: Blockchain Data Computing Company Secures $8 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Clique - an infrastructure company that is powering secure and data computing for blockchains - announced a successful Series A funding round of $8 million led by Polychain Capital to build a compute coordination network that transforms the way on-chain and off-chain applications access compute and data.

Lily AI: Retail AI Platform Closes $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Lily AI - a retail technology platform specializing in AI solutions for retailers and brands - announced the closing of a $20 million Series B-Prime funding round led by Conductive Ventures with participation from new investors Counterpart Ventures, Cendana Capital, and Transform Capital, and existing investors Canaan, Sorenson Capital, and NEA.

Bain Buys AI/ML Solutions Company PiperLab

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Bain & Company has acquired PiperLab (a European provider of AI/ML solutions) to scale thee consulting firm's technology offerings for clients throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). This deal establishes an Advanced Analytics and AI hub under Bain's global Advanced Analytics Group (AAG).

Pure Lithium: Lithium Metal Battery Company Raises $15 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Pure Lithium, a Boston-based lithium metal battery technology company, announced it raised a $15 million funding round from Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV), an Occidental (Oxy) subsidiary focused on advancing low-carbon technologies and business solutions. OLCV was the lead investor in Pure Lithium's Series A equity funding, which may raise an additional $15 million for a proposed total funding amount of $30 million.

X-Therma: $22.4 Million Raised To Develop Platform For Regenerative Medicine And Organ Transplantation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

X-Therma - a company developing a breakthrough platform for regenerative medicine and organ preservation - announced it has completed an oversubscribed $22.4 million Series B funding round. This funding round was co-led by new investor Starling Locke Capital and fully supported by Series A lead investor LOREA AG, with participation from new/existing investors.

Liquid Metal Printing Company Fluent Metal Launches With $5.5 Million In Total Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Fluent Metal—a company developing production-grade liquid metal printing that removes the barriers to entry for metal additive manufacturing—has launched out of stealth with an additional $3.2 million in funding.

LPL: 7 Financial Advisors Serving About $700 Million In Assets Join

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

LPL Financial announced that seven financial advisors from five firms joined its broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms. Collectively, they reported serving about $700 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets. They joined LPL from Osaic.

Merit Financial Advisors Brings In $542+ Million Viren And Associates Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Merit Financial Advisors, a Georgia-based financial advisory firm focusing on financial planning and wealth management solutions for high-net-worth individuals, families, and those navigating life transitions, announced it has acquired Viren and Associates.

Hertz Names Gil West As CEO

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Leading global rental car company Hertz Global Holdings announced that Gil West, former Chief Operating Officer of Delta Airlines and GM's Cruise unit, will become CEO effective April 1, 2024, when he will join the Board. West will succeed Stephen Scherr, who decided to step down as CEO and member of the Board of Directors on March 31, 2024. West and Scherr will work together to make the transition smooth.

WarpStream Labs: Cloud Native Data Streaming Infrastructure Company Raises $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Cloud-native data streaming infrastructure company WarpStream Labs announced it raised $20 million in funding led by Greylock and Amplify Partners. The angel investors who joined the funding round include Ben Sigelman (Lightstep CEO), Spencer Kimball (CockroachDB CEO), and Barry McCardel (Hex Technologies CEO). WarpStream will be using the funding round to hire more talent, scale up its market team, and invest in product lines.

Quintessent: $11.5 Million Raised To Advance Optical Interconnect Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Quintessent - a silicon photonics and quantum dot laser company - announced it has closed on just over $11.5 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round. Osage University Partners (OUP) led the fund round with new investors such as M Ventures and joined existing investors Sierra Ventures, Foothill Ventures, and Entrada Ventures.

Omni: Business Intelligence Company Raises $20 Million From Theory Ventures

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Business intelligence company Omni announced it has raised $20 million from Theory Ventures. Omni will use the funding to further build out its platform.

Hunter Point Announces New Global Head Of Capital Formation And CIO

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 15, 2024

Leading independent investment firm Hunter Point Capital (HPC) announced that Conway Bate and Melvin Hibberd have been promoted to Global Head of Capital Formation and Chief Investment Officer, respectively.

Why Zscaler Is Buying Avalor

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 15, 2024

Cloud security leader Zscaler announced an acquisition that extends the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange data from over 400 billion daily Zscaler transactions with Avalor’s Data Fabric for Security with over 150 pre-built integrations, enabling customers to identify and predict critical vulnerabilities and improve operational efficiencies. By acquiring Avalor, Zscaler can transform the AI capabilities for the cybersecurity industry to enable organizations to mitigate risks and optimize performance while enhancing zero-touch operations.

Cintas Acquiring Paris Uniform Services

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 15, 2024

Cintas Corporation announced it has acquired Paris Uniform Services, a Pennsylvania-based family-owned uniform and facility services supplier. Paris Uniform Services was originally founded in 1978 as a subsidiary of Paris Cleaners. Before the acquisition, David Stern served as CEO of the company. Paris serviced customers in a four-state region: Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and West Virginia.

Stonepeak Buying US Wind Farm Assets From Ørsted For $300 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 15, 2024

Ørsted announced it signed a deal with Stonepeak where Ørsted will divest to Stonepeak an equity ownership stake in a portfolio that includes four US onshore wind farms with a total capacity of 957 MW. As part of a continuation of Ørsted’s farm-down program, this deal represents the company’s first partnership with Stonepeak and the second major farm-down of multiple assets within the US. The value of the deal is about $300 million.

University Of Cambridge Reveals 11 Startups Selected For Start 1.0 Accelerator

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 15, 2024

The University of Cambridge has revealed the first cohort of 11 startups selected for the Start Accelerator program. These startups were all founded by Cambridge students, alumni, and academics, and they are working on complex challenges across hardware, life sciences, and sustainability.

Bharcap Partners Acquiring Insurvia From Gemspring Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 15, 2024

BharCap Partners, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment firm focused on the financial services sector, announced the closing of the acquisition of Insurvia, an insurance services holding company with subsidiaries focused on providing non-standard auto insurance and services to an underserved population through franchise and company-owned models. Essentially, Insurvia distributes insurance policies for over 50 insurance companies that result in customers receiving the most cost-effective options for appropriate coverage. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Pi Health: Oncology Clinical Trial Company Raises Over $30 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 15, 2024

Pi Health - an oncology-driven health technology and clinical research company focused on transforming global access to medicines and clinical trials - announced over $30 million in Series A funding. Incubated as a subsidiary of BeiGene three years ago, Pi Health raised this funding in a round led by AlleyCorp and Obvious Ventures, with additional investments from Invus Capital and leaders in oncology from across the globe.

Apex Fintech Solutions Buying Portfolio Management Company AdvisorArch

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 15, 2024

Apex Fintech Solutions - a digital wealth management company for fintechs - announced that it has acquired AdvisorArch, which is a portfolio management company and rebalancer for financial advisors. Through this acquisition, Apex will improve its RIA Custody & Execution Platform with a suite of digital advice tools that enable wealth management firms to enhance client experiences at scale. AdvisorArch also automates processes that are essential at providing better service for clients.