Innovation

PX3 Partners: Fund I Closed At Hard Cap Of €500 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

PX3 Partners, a London-headquartered private equity firm, announced that it has held a final close of its inaugural PX3 Partners Fund I at its hard cap of €500 million. The successful conclusion of the fundraising brings PX3 Partners' total assets under management to €1.1 billion.

Space Forge: £22.6 Million Raised For Transforming Industrial Materials Using Space

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Space Forge, which is a pioneer in space-based advanced materials manufacturing and return technology, announced the completion of a £22.6 million Series A funding round, which is the largest Series A in UK space tech history. The NATO Innovation Fund led the funding round, with significant support from a strategic global consortium including World Fund, the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and the British Business Bank through its Regional Angels Programme. This funding round also includes investment from Innovation Investment Capital Limited Partnership, backed by Cardiff Capital Region, Gaingels, SpaceVC, Unruly, with additional contributions from Helium Three, Stellar, and TypeOne, and London Technology Club.

Pluto Bio: $3.6 Million Closed For Expanding AI-Based Multi-Omics Analysis Platform For Pharma

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Pluto Bio, a leading AI-based platform for computational biology, announced it has raised $3.6 million in new funding to accelerate growth and scale adoption of its enterprise-grade platform among global pharma companies. The funding round includes participation from new investor Kickstart and existing investor Silverton Partners and angel investors.

JMG Group: Investment Raised From GTCR

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Private equity firm GTCR announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to buy leading UK insurance broker JMG Group in partnership with existing investor Synova LLP, a leading European mid-market investor. GTCR and Synova will collaborate to support JMG's strong management team, led by CEO Nick Houghton, which will continue to operate the business and retain substantial equity ownership.

Scription: $7.8 Million Seed Round Raised For Advancing Commercial Foodservice Industry

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Scription Maintenance, a technology startup in the commercial foodservice industry, has been transforming equipment maintenance from hourly rates into a subscription model. Their Scription360 program eliminates financial risk for restaurant equipment operators while aligning the incentives of equipment service companies to benefit from equipment uptime rather than equipment breakdowns financially.

Fincom: Series B Funding Raised In Round Led By Nasdaq

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Fincom, a leader in anti-money laundering (AML) Sanction Screening and Entity Resolution technology, announced the completion of its Series B funding round, securing a strategic investment led by Nasdaq Ventures, with participation from Macquarie Group, G1 Ventures, and existing investors including AnD Ventures and ff Venture Capital. This funding marks a significant milestone in Fincom's growth journey and underscores confidence in its vision and market potential.

Somite AI: $47 Million Series A Raised To Accelerate Human Cell Therapy Development

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Somite AI, a tech-bio company utilizing foundation models and proprietary AI to advance human cell therapy development, announced it closed a Series A funding round raising more than $47 million. The funding round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from SciFi VC, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Fusion Fund, Ajinomoto Group Ventures, Pitango HealthTech, TechAviv, Harpoon Ventures, along with angel investors such as Dr. R. Martin Chavez (former Chairman of Recursion), and Fidji Simo (outgoing CEO of Instacart and incoming CEO of Applications at OpenAI).

Celery: New Round Of Funding Raised For Financial Operations Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Celery, a financial operations platform that utilizes AI to automate internal controls, today announced that it has raised $6.25 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Team8, with participation from Verissimo Ventures, Centre Street Partners, 97212 Ventures, and additional strategic angel investors. This brings the company's total funding to $9 million.

Hyperbots: Finance-Focused Agentic AI Platform Raises $6.5 Million Series A

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Hyperbots, an agentic AI platform for finance and accounting, announced that it has raised a $6.5 million Series A round co-led by Arkam Ventures and Athera Venture Partners. This funding round also saw participation from new investor JSW Ventures and existing investors, Kalaari Capital, Sunicon Ventures, and Darashaw & Company Sunicon Ventures, and Darashaw & Company.

Adopt AI: $6 Million Closed For Turning Apps Into Agents

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Agentic AI company Adopt AI announced the launch of its platform that enables applications with intelligent agent capabilities, signaling the death of excessive clicking and the rise of conversational interaction. This vision is backed by a $6 million seed funding round, led by Elevation Capital and supported by Foster Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Darkmode Ventures, and notable angel investors. This funding emphasizes the significant potential of Adopt AI's agent experience solution to disrupt the market.

King Risk Partners Buying Spencer Financial

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

King Risk Partners announced the acquisition of Spencer Financial, a well-regarded independent insurance agency in Tampa, Florida. This deal strengthens King Risk Partners' presence in Northwest Florida and reinforces its commitment to providing exceptional service and personalized insurance solutions.

Andie Buying Richer Poorer To Expand Into Everyday Apparel

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Andie, a direct-to-consumer swimwear brand known for premium one-piece suits designed for all body types, announced the acquisition of California-based essentials label Richer Poorer. This deal marks Andie's first acquisition and a major step toward its vision of becoming a multi-brand and multi-category lifestyle business.

PartnerOne Buying Cybersecurity Leader XYPRO

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

PartnerOne, one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies, announced the acquisition of XYPRO, a leading cybersecurity provider of risk management and compliance solutions for the world's most critical enterprise environments.

Monda Buying Data Delivery Company Amplify Data

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Monda, an all-in-one data monetization platform, announced the acquisition of data delivery company Amplify Data Amplify enables data owners to easily customize and share data products with data consumers across cloud platforms and data marketplaces.

Chocolate Works Acquiring Thompson Chocolate

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Chocolate Works, a manufacturer of branded and private-label chocolate products, announced the acquisition of Thompson Chocolate, a Meriden, Connecticut-based manufacturer of specialty and foil-wrapped chocolate novelties.

Farmley: $42 Million Series C Raised For Healthy Snacking Brand

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Farmley, a rapidly growing healthy snacking brand in India, announced that it has completed a $42 million Series C fundraise led by L Catterton. And existing shareholders such as DSG Consumer Partners also participated in the fundraise.

Classiq: $110 Million Series C Raised For Quantum Software Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Classiq announced it raised $110 million in Series C funding, the largest ever for a quantum software company. The funding round was led by Entrée Capital, with participation from Norwest, NightDragon, funds managed by Hamilton Lane (Nasdaq: HLNE), Clal, Neva SGR, Phoenix, Team8, IN Venture, Wing, HSBC, Samsung Next, and QBeat, as well as other new and existing investors.

TensorStax: $5 Million Closed For Autonomous AI Agentic Platform For Data Engineering

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

TensorStax, an autonomous AI agentic platform for data engineering, announced it has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Glasswing Ventures, with participation from Bee Partners and S3 Ventures.

Turtle Club: $6.2 Million Secured For Advancing Onchain Liquidity Distribution Protocol

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Turtle Club announced the closing of a $6.2 million seed funding round to advance its on-chain liquidity distribution protocol. The funding round was led by THEIA, with participation from Susquehanna (SIG), Laser Digital, Consensys, Selini, RE7 Capital, L2IV, Archimed Capital, Trident Digital, Bodhi Ventures, Shorewoods, Triton Liquid, AUROS Global, Chorus One, Frachtis, Moonhill Capital, Tulipa Capital, and others. And notable angel investors include Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, Wintermute co-founder Yoann Turpin, and Ryan Fang of Ankr.

Samaya AI: $43.5 Million Raised To Advance AI Platform For Financial Services

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Samaya AI, an expert AI platform for financial services, announced $43.5 million in financing, led by NEA (New Enterprise Associates), with participation from leaders in technology and financial services, including Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google), Yann LeCun (AI Turing Award winner), David Siegel (Co-founder Two Sigma), and Marty Chavez (Vice Chair Sixth Street), and others.

Granola: $43 Million Series B Raised For AI-Based Notepad

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Granola, an AI-based notepad that combines your typed notes with AI transcriptions, launched Granola 2.0. The launch also coincided with the announcement that Granola has raised $43 million in Series B funding led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross from NFDG, with continued participation from existing investors Mike Mignano from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nabeel Hyatt from Spark Capital. The company has also attracted investment from a notable roster of angel investors, including Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Amjad Masad (Replit), Tobi Lutke (Shopify), Karri Saarinen (Linear), Lenny Rachitsky (Lenny's Newsletter), Des Traynor (Intercom), Karim Atiyeh (Ramp), Zach Lloyd (Warp), Charlie Songhurst, Noah Weiss, Romain Huet, Nilan Peiris and Laura Modiano.

Zeno Power: $50 Million Series B Closed For Nuclear Battery Development

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Zeno Power, a leading developer of nuclear batteries – radioisotope power systems – for frontier environments, announced a $50 million Series B funding round, led by Hanaco Ventures with participation from Seraphim, Balerion Space Ventures, JAWS, Vanderbilt University, RiverPark Ventures, Stage 1 Ventures, 7i Capital, Beyond Earth Ventures, and others. This funding brings Zeno’s total capital raised to over $70 million, following its Series A led by Tribe Capital in 2022.

Fortress Investment Group Sets Up Abu Dhabi Office

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Leading global investment manager Fortress Investment Group announced the opening of a new office in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), and permission to undertake regulated activities through receipt of its Financial Services Permission from the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority, marking a significant milestone in the firm’s global expansion.

Phillips 66 Divesting Majority Interest In German And Austrian Marketing Businesses For $1.6 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Phillips 66 announced that its subsidiary Phillips 66 Continental Holding GmbH has entered into a definitive agreement to divest a 65% interest in its Germany and Austria retail marketing business, such as JET-branded sites, to a consortium owned by subsidiaries of investment firms Energy Equation Partners and Stonepeak. And Phillips 66 will retain a non-operated 35 percent interest in the business through a newly formed joint venture.

Arm And SoftBank Contributing $15.5 Million To Advance AI With Carnegie Mellon And Keio

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Arm, and SoftBank Group (SBG) announced that Arm and SBG will contribute $15.5 million to CMU to support its partnership with Keio University, a collaboration to accelerate the global advancement of AI.

DICK’S Sporting Goods Buying Foot Locker In $2.4 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

DICK'S Sporting Goods (a leading U.S.-based full-line omnichannel sporting goods retailer) and Foot Locker (a leading footwear and apparel retailer) announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which DICK'S will acquire Foot Locker. This deal implies an equity value of about $2.4 billion and an enterprise value of about $2.5 billion.

1848 Ventures Buying Home Management Company Luminest

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

1848 Ventures, an AI-first venture studio building SaaS solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced the acquisition of Luminest, an AI-based home management startup focused on predictive maintenance and structured property data.

BioMarin Buying Inozyme Pharma In $270 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Inozyme Pharma announced that BioMarin has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Inozyme for $4 per share in an all-cash transaction for a total consideration of about $270 million.

Coupa Buying AI-Based Category Management Company Cirtuo

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Coupa announced it has acquired Croatia-based Cirtuo, a leader in AI-powered category management. This strategic investment advances Coupa's autonomous spend management vision and underscores Coupa's commitment to developing AI-based solutions that improve productivity, agility, and resilience while offering margin impact.

Corinthian Capital And Valesco Buying Majority Interest In Trimlight

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Corinthian Capital Group (a middle-market private equity firm) announced that an affiliate of Corinthian, in partnership with Valesco Industries, has acquired a majority interest in Trimlight, a leading provider of permanent exterior LED lighting solutions.