Pulse 2.0

Clear Channel Outdoor Agrees To $6.2 Billion Take-Private Deal

Eli Lilly To Acquire Orna Therapeutics In Up To $2.4 Billion Deal

Leah Partners With PwC UK To Power Agentic Operating Models

Clearwater Analytics Integrates With TreasurySpring For Fixed-Term Cash Management

Newo: $25 Million Series A Raised To Scale AI Voice Infrastructure for SMB Call Handling

Norton Rose Fulbright: Helen Christakos Named As Partner In San Francisco Office

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 2:30 PM

Norton Rose Fulbright announced it has expanded its US privacy, AI, and cybersecurity bench with the addition of Helen Christakos as a partner in its San Francisco office, a move the firm framed as a response to rising client demand for privacy compliance, AI governance, and cybersecurity risk counseling. Christakos joins the firm’s global privacy and cybersecurity group from A&O Shearman, where she led the US Data Privacy Group, and will help deepen Norton Rose Fulbright’s California footprint in an area the firm described as strategically important.

Osaic Onboards $153 Million Firm Midtown Advisors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 2:07 PM

Osaic announced Midtown Advisors, an independent wealth management firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has affiliated with its platform, adding approximately $153 million in client assets. The move follows Midtown’s more than decade-long relationship with LPL Financial and positions the firm to leverage Osaic’s technology, product capabilities, and operational support while maintaining its existing investment approach.

Smart Bricks: $5 Million Pre-Seed Funding Raised For Real Estate Investing PLatform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 2:02 PM

Smart Bricks, a frontier AI lab building agentic AI infrastructure for real-estate investing, announced it has raised a $5 million pre-seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z speedrun, with participation from funds and angels across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.

GitGuardian: $50 Million Series C Raised For Secrets And Non-Human Identity Security Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:55 PM

GitGuardian announced it has raised a $50 million in Series C financing to expand its secrets security and Non Human Identity (NHI) governance capabilities, positioning the round as a response to the rapid growth of service accounts, applications, and autonomous AI agents that require credentials, permissions, and oversight. The company says enterprises are facing an “exponential growth in non human identities,” with the emergence of autonomous agents widening what it describes as an AI agent security gap.

Hubbl Technologies: $6 Million Series A Raised For Salesforce Ecosystem Intelligence Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:51 PM

Hubbl Technologies, a company positioning itself as an intelligence layer for the agentic era, said it has raised $6 million in a Series A round led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Industry Ventures. The company said the financing will accelerate development of its Intelligence Platform and expand its ability to deliver contextual intelligence to enterprises as they adopt AI-driven business operations.

Catalyst Power: Interview With CEO Gabriel Phillips About The Energy Solutions Provider

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:44 PM

Catalyst Power is an independent energy solutions provider that integrates tailored retail electricity supply with on-site, sustainable, and distributed energy resources—such as solar, battery storage, and EV charging—to help commercial and industrial businesses reduce costs and emissions. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Catalyst Power CEO Gabriel Phillips to learn more.

ManageMy: $45 Million Closed For Expanding Agentic AI Workflows And Underwriting Automation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:39 PM

ManageMy, an intelligent orchestration platform for insurers, said it has raised $45 million, including $20 million secured in a recent Series B round co-led by Ventura Capital and OCVC, with backing from BNF and a consortium of strategic leaders in traditional insurance and insurtech.

Brandlight: $30 Million Series A Raised For Enterprise AI Visibility Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:37 PM

Brandlight announced it has raised $30 million in Series A funding to accelerate development and scaling of its enterprise platform focused on helping brands manage AI search visibility and navigate what it described as a convergence of AI search, advertising and commerce. The round was led by Pelion Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Cardumen Capital and G20 Ventures.

Infragistics: Interview With Founder & CEO Dean Guida About The Software Tools Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:20 PM

Infragistics develops software tools—enterprise UI component libraries, design/prototyping products, its Reveal embedded analytics platform that helps teams build modern web and desktop applications, and Slingshot, where AI-powered insights meet seamless work management. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Infragistics founder and CEO Dean Guida to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Nasdaq Launches New Private Capital Index Benchmarks

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:13 PM

Nasdaq has launched the Nasdaq Private Capital Indexes, a new suite of rules-based benchmarks designed to provide more consistent, objective measurement in private markets, where performance data and benchmarking have often been fragmented and less standardized. The company positioned the launch as the next step in expanding Nasdaq Private Capital Solutions, a broader platform that combines benchmarking, institutional-grade datasets, and analytics into workflow-ready tools for institutional investors and consultants.

Take2: $14 Million Series A Closed For Healthcare Recruiting AI Agent Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:12 PM

Take2, an AI agents platform built for healthcare recruiting, announced it has raised a $14 million Series A round led by Human Capital, with participation from Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, Reach Capital, SemperVirens VC and Honeystone Ventures. Take2 is positioning its platform as a response to what it describes as a healthcare hiring breaking point, citing high turnover, significant vacancy costs, and recruiting workflows that remain heavily manual. The company said its autonomous AI agents are designed to automate core recruiting work rather than simply assist recruiters.

Perseus Materials Raises Strategic Investment From Lockheed Martin For Composite Manufacturing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:05 PM

Perseus Materials, a venture-backed startup developing a large-scale additive manufacturing system for composite parts, announced it has closed a strategic investment from Lockheed Martin. The company, founded in 2022 by Stanford researchers, said the backing will support hiring, fulfillment of initial customer orders, and an expansion of its physical footprint.

Nucleus Security: $20 Million Series C Closed For Exposure Management Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 1:03 PM

Nucleus Security, a unified vulnerability and exposure management platform, announced it has raised a $20 million Series C funding round led by Delta-v Capital to meet what it described as surging enterprise demand for exposure management.

Tenna Systems: $13.5 Million Seed Funding Closed For Spectrum Intelligence Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 12:53 PM

Tenna Systems, a defense technology company focused on software-driven spectrum intelligence, said it has raised an oversubscribed $13.5 million seed funding round to accelerate expansion in the U.S. defense market, where it said it has already partnered with government agencies and prime contractors to deliver hardware-free spectrum intelligence for wireless-dependent systems at global scale.

Integrate: $17 Million Series A Raised For Defense Tech Project Management Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 11:53 AM

Integrate, a developer of an ultra-secure project management platform designed for dynamic, multi-entity execution, said it has raised a $17 million Series A financing to accelerate new product capabilities for government customers and scale go-to-market across the defense technology sector. The round was led by FPV Ventures with participation from Fuse VC and Rsquared VC. Returning investors include New Vista, Hyperplane and Riot Ventures. As part of the financing, FPV Ventures co-founder and managing partner Wesley Chan joined Integrate’s board.

Osaic Onboards $186 Million Firm IDT Capital Group

By Amit Chowdhry ● Today at 9:51 AM

Osaic announced IDT Capital Group, an independent wealth management firm based in Melville, New York, has joined the firm through New York Financial Partners, an Osaic office of supervisory jurisdiction. Led by financial advisor David Calderon, the firm is transitioning from LPL Financial and oversees approximately $186 million in client assets.

ProRata.ai Appoints Michele Tobin As Chief Revenue Officer And Peter Sloterdyk As Chief Marketing Officer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:50 PM

ProRata.ai, a technology company developing AI solutions focused on respecting content creators, has appointed Michele Tobin as chief revenue officer and Peter Sloterdyk as chief marketing officer. Both executives report to founder and CEO Bill Gross and will also hold the same roles at Gist, a ProRata company that provides brand-visibility products to help brands and businesses stand out as generative AI reshapes discovery and marketing.

Varaha: About $45 Million Raised For Carbon Removal Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:42 PM

Varaha, an India-founded carbon removal project developer, announced a Series B financing round of approximately $45 million and said it has closed the first $20 million tranche led by WestBridge Capital.

Phenom Acquires Be Applied To Scale Skills First Hiring With Cognitive Assessments

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:36 PM

Phenom, an applied AI company focused on helping employers hire, develop, and retain talent, has acquired Be Applied, an AI-driven cognitive assessment platform that validates candidate and employee capabilities at enterprise scale. The deal is designed to help large organizations move toward skills-first hiring, with faster, more consistent validation across both high-volume and specialized roles.

AE Industrial Reveals 2026 Senior Leadership And Vice President Promotions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:18 PM

AE Industrial Partners, a private investment firm focused on technologies and services tied to aerospace and national and economic security, announced its 2026 promotions, elevating four professionals into senior leadership roles and appointing four others to vice president.

JumpCloud Launches Venture Arm And Backs Identity-Fraud Startup Tofu

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:06 PM

JumpCloud has launched JumpCloud Ventures, a new venture arm that supports early-stage companies building identity, security, AI, and IT productivity solutions. The company framed the program as a long-term effort to help advance foundational technologies that enable modern enterprises to scale securely.

Kirkland & Ellis Names Jonathan Macke As Tax Partner

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:06 PM

Kirkland & Ellis announced that Jonathan Macke has joined the firm as a partner in its Tax Practice Group, adding an experienced transactional tax lawyer to a team that supports complex deals and private investment funds work.

Circit: $22 Million Raised For Audit Verification Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:05 PM

Circit, an audit confirmation and financial data verification platform, has raised $22 million in growth equity funding to scale its global verification network and support continued growth, including expansion in the U.S.

Sidley Adds M&A And Private Equity Partner Timothy FitzSimons In Chicago

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:04 PM

Sidley has hired Timothy FitzSimons as a partner in its M&A and Private Equity group in Chicago, adding a veteran deal lawyer with more than two decades of experience advising on public and private M&A transactions totaling more than $200 billion.

GenFlux: $4.2 Million Seed Funding Raised For AI Answer Visibility Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:03 PM

GenFlux, a platform that helps brands track and optimize their presence in AI-generated answers, has raised a $4.2 million seed round led by Symbolic Capital, with participation from Borderless Capital, Frachtis, Glasswing Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Delphi Ventures, and Radical Ventures.

Pinsent Masons Launches Warsaw Office To Expand Into Poland

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 11:01 PM

Pinsent Masons is expanding into Poland with plans to open a Warsaw office in mid-2026, strengthening the firm’s pan-European offering and establishing a presence in Central and Eastern Europe.

Lobster Data Expands Into North America Via Bosch Reseller Partnership

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 10:58 PM

Lobster Data is expanding into North America to help logistics, manufacturing, and retail companies address fragmented supply chain systems, slow onboarding, and limited network visibility, following its work with more than 2,000 customers across Europe.

Withers Adds Senior Corporate Partner Raymond Oh To Asia Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 10:57 PM

International law firm Withers has hired senior corporate lawyer Raymond Oh as a partner in its corporate practice, with a role spanning the firm’s Singapore and Hong Kong offices. The move bolsters Withers’ corporate capabilities in Asia as it continues to invest in growing its regional platform.

Alston & Bird Adds Technology & Privacy Partner Cynthia Cole In Silicon Valley

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 10:45 PM

Alston & Bird announced Cynthia Cole has joined the firm’s Technology & Privacy Group as a partner in its Silicon Valley office, a move the firm positioned as part of its expansion in technology transactions, data privacy, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity across California and its broader platform.

Ropes & Gray: Restructuring Practice Gains New Global Chair With Four-Partner New York Team Hire

By Amit Chowdhry ● Yesterday at 10:44 PM

Ropes & Gray has expanded its restructuring bench with the addition of Rachel Strickland as Global Chair of Restructuring, alongside three partners, Daniel Forman, Andrew Mordkoff, and Andrew Minear. The four-partner group will be based in New York and is expected to broaden the firm’s capabilities across restructuring, debt finance, bankruptcy litigation, distressed M&A, and liability management transactions.