Innovation

Owlstone Medical: $27 Million First Close Of Series E Closed

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Owlstone Medical, a leader in Breath Biopsy for early disease detection and precision medicine applications, announced the first closing of $27 million (circa £22 million) in its Series E financing round. The fundraiser was led by Ventura Capital, joined by Aviva Ventures, Horizons Ventures, and other existing investors. The close also saw the completion of the investment from the Gates Foundation.

Maki: Conversational AI Agent Company Raises $28.6 Million (Series A)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Maki – a conversational AI agent transforming talent acquisition – announced the closing of its $28.6 million Series A funding round. The funding round was led by Blossom Capital, with participation from DST Global and existing investors Frst, GFC, and Picus Capital.

Hinge Bio: $30 Million (Series A) To Develop Therapies For Autoimmune Disease

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Hinge Bio, a privately-held biotechnology company, announced the closing of a Series A’ financing led by Point72. Joining Point72 are Ridgeback Capital, InVivium Capital, and Lightswitch Capital, and others.

Stoke Space: Rocket Company Raises $260 Million (Series C)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Stoke Space, a rocket company building the world’s first 100% reusable medium-lift rocket, announced that it has raised $260 million in new Series C investment to drive continued growth and innovation. This round brought the company's total funding to $480 million.

Be Bio: Clinical Stage Company Closes $92 Million (Series C)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Be Biopharma, Inc. (Be Bio), a leader in B Cell Medicines (BCMs), announced the closing of its $92 million Series C financing. The funding round includes participation from new investor Nextech with existing investors, including ARCH Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, RA Capital Management, Alta Partners, Longwood Fund, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Takeda Ventures. In connection with the funding, Melissa McCracken, Ph.D. of Nextech will join Be Bio’s Board of Directors.

qbiq: Automated Architectural Solutions Company Raises $16 Million (Series A)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

qbiq, one of the largest and first AI companies focused on automating architectural planning, announced the closing of a $16 million Series A round led by global software investor Insight Partners. The funding round included participation from JLL Spark, 10D, Ocean Azul, Random Forest and M-Fund.

Hildred Capital: Equity Partners III Fund Closed At Over $800 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Hildred Capital Management - a lower middle-market healthcare private equity firm - announced the final closing of its third fund, Hildred Equity Partners III. This fund was significantly oversubscribed, exceeding its $600 million target and hitting its hard cap in seven months. With total capital commitments over $800 million, the fund represents more than double the size of its predecessor fund, Hildred Equity Partners II, which closed in 2021 with $363 million of capital commitments.

Solera Health: $40 Million (Series E) Raised To Streamline Digital Healthcare Delivery

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Solera Health, a technology platform for connecting people seamlessly and easily to health solutions that work, announced $40 million in new funding. The insider funding round was co-led by Health Care Service Corporation and includes Adams Street, Cobalt Ventures, and Horizon Mutual Holdings.

Allara Health: Virtual Care Platform Company Raises $26 Million (Series B)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Allara Health – a virtual care platform bridging the care divide for women battling chronic hormonal conditions - announced a $26 million Series B funding round, bringing the company's total funding to $38.5 million. Index Ventures led the funding round, and partner Martin Mignot will join Allara's board. And existing investor GV (Google Ventures) also participated in the round. This Series B funding will enable Allara to bring specialized care to women nationwide struggling with hormonal conditions.

Komainu: Digital Assets Service Provider Raises $75 Million (Series B)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Komainu, a regulated digital asset services provider and custodian backed by Laser Digital (a Nomura company), announced it has raised $75 million in strategic funding from Blockstream Capital Partners, subject to relevant regulatory approvals. This funding round enables Komainu to accelerate its international strategic growth plans whilst adopting and integrating class-leading technologies developed by Blockstream Corporation to maximize efficiencies and enhance client services in collateral management and tokenization.

Xuron Raises Funding From 3LS Ventures

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

3LS Ventures, an early-stage investor specializing in behavioral health solutions, announced a strategic investment in Xuron. This innovative healthcare technology company offers virtual and intelligent provider training to simulate the patient experience. And this partnership demonstrates 3LS Ventures' unwavering commitment to accelerating advancements in healthcare through technology and innovation.

Ardian: $30 Billion Raised For Ninth-Generation Secondaries Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Ardian, a leading private investment house, announced that it has raised $30 billion for its ninth-generation secondaries platform, making it the largest secondaries fundraise globally to date and solidifying Ardian’s leadership of the secondaries market. And this represents a significant increase over the $19 billion raised for Ardian’s eighth-generation platform in 2020 and brings Ardian’s Secondaries & Primaries Assets Under Management to $97 billion.

1Money: Over $20 Million Raised To Develop Stablecoin Payments Network

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

1Money, a company developing the world's first purpose-built Layer 1 exclusively designed for stablecoins payments, emerged from stealth and announced over $20 million in funding. This seed funding round includes participation from financial institutions, venture capital firms and strategic investors including F-Prime Capital, Galaxy Ventures, Hack VC, Tribe Capital, Portage, Ethereal Ventures, CMT Digital, Kraken Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, BitGo Ventures, Bing Ventures, MoonPay Ventures, CoinFlip, Bankless Ventures, Perry Creek Capital, A100x Ventures, VARIV, Anagram, Generative Ventures, Lvna Capital, Ambush Capital, Borderless Capital, Pharsalus Capital, Protagonist, gumi Cryptos Capital, Hexa Capital, Karman Ventures, and R3D3 Ventures.

Hyperline: Monetization Platform Company Raises $10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2025

Next-generation monetization platform HYPERLINE announced it has raised $10 million in a seed extension round led by Index Ventures to help small and medium-sized businesses transform revenue management.‍

Indigo: AI-Based Home Negotiation Company Raises $8 Million (Seed)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2025

Indigo, an AI-based platform for home negotiations, announced it secured $8 million to offer insight, collaboration, and transparency to real estate teams, buyers, and sellers nationally. The seed funding round was led by Pete Flint at NFX, Clelia Warburg Peters at Era Ventures, and Paul Irving at GTM Fund. They were joined by 1Sharpe Ventures and Jake Seid. In the three months following the launch, Indigo experienced tremendous growth, exceeding 20% market share of home offers in its initial markets.

NEURA Robotics: German-Based Humanoid Company Raises €120 Million (Series B)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2025

NEURA Robotics, a cognitive robotics pioneer and the only humanoid robotics company in Germany, announced it has raised €120 million in a Series B funding round. The funding round was led by Lingotto Investment Management, with participation from BlueCrest Capital Management, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, InterAlpen Partners, Vsquared Ventures, HV Capital, Delta Electronics, C4 Ventures, L-Bank, founder David Reger, and others.

Amogy: $56 Million Raised For Supporting Commercialization Of Ammonia-To-Power Solutions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2025

Amogy, a provider of scalable and efficient ammonia-to-power solutions, announced that it raised $56 million in venture financing, bringing the total raised since inception to over $270 million. The funding round was co-led by existing investor Aramco Ventures and new investor SV Investment. And additional new investors participating in the round include Samsung Heavy Industries, BHP Ventures, Hanwha Investment & Securities, AFW Partners, Quantum Ventures Korea, Kibo Invest, and Seoul IP, along with existing investors Temasek, MOL Switch, Yanmar Ventures, AP Ventures, and Marunouchi Innovation Partners.

First Round’s On Me: Interview With Founder & CEO Joe Feminella About The Social Dating App Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2025

First Round's On Me (FROM) is a social dating app designed to foster genuine, in-person connections. Pulse 2.0 interviewed First Round's On Me’s founder and CEO Joe Feminella to learn more about the company.

Method: $41.5 Million (Series B) Secured For Expanding Financial Account Connectivity

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Method Financial, a provider of consumer permissioned financial connectivity, announced it raised $41.5 million in its latest Series B funding round led by Emergence Capital with participation from avra and Samsung Next, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Y-Combinator and Ardent Venture Partners. This most recent funding round brings the total to $60 million.

Clutch: $65 Million (Series B) Closed For Transforming Credit Unions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Clutch announced the completion of a Series B funding round at $65 million to transform how credit unions deliver products and services to their members and communities. Alkeon Capital Management led the Series B funding round with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, TruStage Ventures, and Peterson Partners.

Mobly: $4.3 Million (Seed) Raised For Transforming Event Marketing Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Mobly – a leader in event marketing technology - announced the closing of its $4.3 million seed round. This oversubscribed round was co-led by Jump Capital and Eniac Ventures with participation from Peterson Ventures, which also led Mobly's pre-seed round. And additional support came from existing investors Tenzing.VC, Peak Ventures, and notable angel investors, including Jeron Paul and Francis Santora.

EarnOS: $5 Million Raised For Transforming Brand User Interactions Online

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

EarnOS - a company that delivers global engagements where everyone wins – announced it raised $5 million in funding.

Adaptive Reader: Education Technology Company Raises Pre-Seed Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Adaptive Reader - an education technology platform transforming reading accessibility – announced the closing of its oversubscribed pre-seed funding round. Adaptive Reader’s funding round was led by Updraft Education Group, with additional investments from Transcend Fund and WJG Investments.

AvePoint Acquiring Cybersecurity Management Company Ydentic

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

AvePoint – a global leader in data security, governance, and resilience – announced it agreed to acquire Ydentic, a SaaS company specializing in centralized multi-tenant management for Microsoft Managed Services Providers (MSPs). This strategic acquisition will drive the evolution of Elements, AvePoint’s MSP Platform, for greater MSP profitability, increased operational efficiency, scalability, and new security-centric recurring revenue streams.

Doorvest: Real Estate Investing Company Acquiring Rubik

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Doorvest, a full-service real estate investing platform designed to simplify the process of owning passive income rental homes, announced the acquisition of Rubik.

Guidesly: $9.5 Million (Series A) Raised For Outdoor Recreation Guide Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Guidesly, a leading software platform for outdoor recreation guides, announced the closing of its $9.5 million Series A funding round. This funding round was led by Aspen Capital Group, with participation from YETI Capital, HalfCourt Ventures, and Derive Ventures, and with existing investors, including Elysian Park Ventures and Marquee Ventures, marking a pivotal step in Guidesly's journey.

Botika: $8 Million (Seed) Secured For AI-Generated Fashion Model Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Botika, an innovator in AI-generated fashion models designed to empower online clothing companies of all sizes, announced the launch of its new mobile iOS app. Botika has also closed an $8 million seed funding round, co-led by Stardom and Secret Chord Ventures, with participation from Seedcamp.

Alium: Over $7 Million (Seed) Raised For Fixing Enterprise Software Buying

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Alium announced it officially emerged from stealth mode to fix enterprise software buying, starting with marketing and e-commerce. The company has raised over $7 million from Greycroft and Primary and has a significant revenue pipeline from its vendor clients.

RapDev: Interview With Founder Tameem Hourani About The Site Reliability And DevOps Solutions Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

As a go-to partner for many Fortune 1000 companies, RapDev provides custom site reliability and DevOps solutions to help expertly guide organizations through their Engineering and DevOps transformations from beginning to end. Pulse 2.0 caught up with RapDev founder Tameem Hourani to learn more about how the company helps organizations adopt Datadog and ServiceNow using cloud-native best practices.

Forethought: Interview With Co-Founder & President Deon Nicholas About The AI-Based Customer Support Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2025

Forethought is the most advanced generative AI agent for customer support, trained on your unique data set. The company’s AI-driven solutions integrate seamlessly to resolve issues instantly, predict and prioritize tickets, and assist agents with relevant knowledge. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Forethought co-founder and president Deon Nicholas to learn more about the company.