Innovation

Automation Anywhere: Tim McDonough Named As Chief Marketing Officer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Automation Anywhere, an AI-powered automation solutions leader, announced that AI marketing veteran Tim McDonough has joined the company as chief marketing officer (CMO). McDonough, who has over two decades of experience driving growth across startups and Fortune 100 companies, will shape and lead Automation Anywhere's global brand and growth strategies and go-to-market functions.

ThreatLocker: Zero Trust Endpoint Security Solution Company Raises $115 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

ThreatLocker, a global cybersecurity leader offering a Zero Trust endpoint security solution, announced it has raised $115 million in Series D funding led by existing investor General Atlantic with participation from other significant investors StepStone Group and the D. E. Shaw group.

Vixtra: Importer Credit Company Raises $36 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Vixtra, a fintech company that specializes in providing credit for importers and the only company in the market that enables merchandise in transit to be used as credit collateral, has secured $30 million through a debit facility with asset managers like Capitânia, Verde, Credit Saison, and Contea. Along with the funding round, the company also received a new investment of $6 million in a seed extension, bringing the total raised to $36 million.

Tines: Workflow Platform Company Raises $50 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Tines, a leader in secure workflows, announced $50 million in a new round of funding as an extension to its Series B funding round, which was led by Accel and Felicis and participated in by Addition, CrowdStrike Falcon Fund, and SVCI, all pre-existing investors in the company. This funding round brought the total capital raised by Tines to date to $146.2 million.

Aropha: $1 Million Raised To Transform Biodegradable Material Testing Using AI And Lab Automation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Aropha, a leading lab focused on enhancing biodegradable material discovery and testing through lab automation and AI predictive modeling, announced that it has raised $1 million in a Series Seed funding round. Comeback Capital led the round, which also included Lightbank and Right Side Capital Management (RSCM).

BforeAI: Predictive Security Company Closes $15 Million In Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

BforeAI, a predictive security pioneer, announced $15 million in Series A funding led by SYN Ventures, with renewed participation from early investors Karma Ventures, Karista, Addendum Capital, and a new investment from the Partnership Fund for New York City.

MARKT-PILOT: $43 Million Secured To Optimize The Machine Manufacturing Spare Parts Business

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

MARKT-PILOT announced the completion of one of Europe's largest Series A funding rounds, led by global software investor Insight Partners with participation from existing investor Capnamic. The company will use the funding further to expand its business in Europe and the US, solidifying its position as a global player in the manufacturing market.

Akima: $750 Million Contract Signed To Support U.S. Air Force IT Modernization Initiatives

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Akima, a provider of products and services to the federal government, announced that its subsidiary Akima Global Technology (AGT) was picked as one of two awardees on the Communications and Enterprise IT Support Services (COMET) IDIQ contract for supporting the U.S. Air Force. This award has ten years of performance and a total contract value of $750 million.

Summer Health: Pediatric Digital Health Company Raises $11.65 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Summer Health, a digital health company providing 24/7 pediatric support to parents, announced $11.65 million in Series A Funding, co-led by new investor 7wire Ventures and returning investor Lux Capital. Returning investors include Sequoia Capital, Metrodora Ventures, Box Group, and Shrug Capital, who participated, with new participation from Pivotal Ventures (a Melinda French Gates company) and Leaps by Bayer. And Alfred Lin of Sequoia Capital, Deena Shakir of Lux Capital, Alyssa Jaffee of 7wire Ventures, and Chelsea Clinton of Metrodora Ventures are also joining the Summer board.

Parloa: AI-Powered Customer Service Automation Platform Raises $66 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Parloa, a leader in AI-powered automation for customer service, announced that it had raised $66 million in Series B funding led by Altimeter Capital, with participation from new and existing investors EQT Ventures, Newion, Senovo, Mosaic Ventures, and La Famiglia Growth.

Endeavor BioMedicines: $132.5 Million Secured To Develop Clinical Benefits To Patients With Life-Threatening Diseases

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Endeavor BioMedicines, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing medicines with the potential for delivering transformational clinical benefits to patients with life-threatening diseases, announced the closing of a $132.5 million Series C funding round, including the conversion of a $5 million convertible instrument.

Keep Company: $1.4 Million Raised And Zvi Band Named CTO

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Keep Company, an employer-offered benefit that helps prevent burnout and attrition of working parents and caregivers, announced a successful funding round of $1.4 million with participation from Techstars, Idea Fund Partners, VEST Her Ventures, 100KM, Pixel Perfect Ventures, and TEDCO. And Keep Company has raised over $2 million to date.

401GO: Retirement Plan Provider Company Secures $12 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

401GO, a next-generation retirement plan provider for employers, advisors, and individuals, announced the completion of its $12 million Series A funding round led by Next Frontier Capital. Additional investors include Rally Ventures, which joined existing investors Impression Ventures and Stout Street Capital.

University Of Houston And Rice University Reveal 2024 Business Accelerator Cohort

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

The University of Houston and Rice University continue their 11-year collaboration to support Houston entrepreneurship by announcing the latest cohort of their startup and small business accelerators RED Labs and OwlSpark. This summer, the accelerators will host their ventures at the Ion, the heart of the Houston innovation corridor in Midtown.

RWX Launches Mint Platform And Reveals $7 Million Seed Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

RWX, a company building the best developer experience in Continuous Integration, announced it launched a new platform called Mint. And the company also disclosed that it raised a $7 million in seed funding round led by Quiet Capital in 2022.

Alaffia Health: Health Plan Claim Operations Company Secures $10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Alaffia Health, a leader in generative AI for health plan claim operations, announced $10 million in Series A funding, bringing its total amount of capital raised to $17.6 million. FirstMark Capital led the round, including GingerBread Capital and existing investors Anthemis, Aperture Venture Capital, 1984 Ventures, Remarkable Ventures, and Tau Ventures.

Sublime Security: AI-Powered Programmable Email Security Company Raises $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Sublime Security, an AI-powered programmable email security platform, announced that it has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures led the round, which included previous investors Decibel Partners and Slow Ventures.

Nooks: AI Dialing And Prospecting Platform Raises $22 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 28, 2024

Nooks, a rapidly growing AI dialing and prospecting platform, announced that it had raised $22 million in Series A funding. This round, led by Lachy Groom and including participation from Tola Capital and Stifel Venture Banking, brought Nooks' total funding to $27 million.

Dripos: Coffee Shop Platform Raises $11 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 27, 2024

Dripos, a platform built specifically for coffee shops, announced a $11 million Series A funding round led by Base10. This funding will fuel Dripos' continued goal to transform coffee shops' operations. The company's co-founders have over eight years of experience in building food tech startups, with multiple ventures backed by startup accelerator Y Combinator.

Anon: AI Access And Control Developer Platform Company Secures $6.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 27, 2024

Anon, a developer platform empowering secure AI access and control to user accounts online, announced $6.5 million in funding and a powerful toolkit that unlocks the full potential of AI applications. Driven by investment from Union Square Ventures and Abstract Ventures (seed lead investors) and early support from Impatient Ventures and ex/ante (pre-seed lead investors), Anon is prepared to transform how developers build and deploy AI. Strategic angel investors in the round include Ryan Hoover (founder of Product Hunt), Gokul Rajaram (early Google, Square, and Doordash), Scott Belsky (founder of Behance and CPO at Adobe), and Amjad Masad (co-founder/CEO at Replit).

Variantyx: Molecular Diagnostics Company Closes $36 Million In Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 27, 2024

Variantyx, a molecular diagnostics leader, announced that it had secured an additional $36 million in funding from its portfolio of investors, which includes Peregrine Ventures, Pitango HealthTech, New Era Capital Partners, and Bosch Ventures.

Handl: $2.5 Million Raised To Help Benefits Consultants Deliver Affordable Health Benefits

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 27, 2024

Handl Health, an AI platform built to help benefits consultants design and deliver affordable health benefits, announced an oversubscribed $2.5 million seed funding round initiated by Mucker Capital and Everywhere VC, with participation from Tau Ventures, Riverfront Ventures, Digital Health Venture Partners (DHVP), Boutique Venture Partners, Plug and Play Ventures and Techstars. This funding round will enable Handl Health to realize its goal of transforming employer-sponsored healthcare through data-driven health plan design and management.

Auburn University In Partnership With Oak Ridge National Laboratory Awarded $10 Million Department Of Energy Grant

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 27, 2024

Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security received a $10 million Department of Energy grant in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to create a pilot regional cybersecurity research and operations center to protect the electric power grid against cyber attacks. The total value of this project is $12.5 million as the additional $2.5 million comes from Auburn University and other strategic partners.

GTCR To Buy Wealth Management Tech Platform AssetMark For $2.7 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 27, 2024

AssetMark Financial Holdings (a leading wealth management technology platform for financial advisors) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by GTCR (a leading private equity firm with expertise in financial technology, wealth, and asset management). AssetMark stockholders will receive $35.25 per share in cash, representing a total equity valuation of about $2.7 billion. Under the terms of the deal, GTCR will buy a 100% interest in the company.

Thoma Bravo Acquiring Darktrace For $5.315 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 27, 2024

Thoma Bravo announced it had reached an agreement with the Board of Directors at Darktrace, a global leader in cybersecurity artificial intelligence (AI), to acquire the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Darktrace in cash.

Fairfield University Dolan School Of Business Reveals StartUp Showcase Winning Teams

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 26, 2024

Five student teams were selected for this year’s annual Fairfield StartUp Showcase earlier this week at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the Showcase starts at 7 p.m.

NVIDIA Buying Run:ai To Make AI Computing Resources More Efficient

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 26, 2024

NVIDIA announced it is buying Run:ai to help customers use AI computing resources more efficiently. Run:ai is a Kubernetes-based workload management and orchestration software provider.

IBM To Buy Hashicorp In $6.4 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 26, 2024

IBM and HashiCorp (a leading multi-cloud infrastructure automation company) announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which IBM will buy HashiCorp for $35 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of $6.4 billion.

Midi Health: Virtual Care Clinic For Women Raises $60 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 26, 2024

Midi Health, a rapidly growing virtual care clinic for women navigating perimenopause and menopause, announced the closing of a $60 million Series B funding round led by Emerson Collective, bringing the company’s total funding raised to date to $100 million.

Infinite Reality Acquiring The Drone Racing League For $250 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 26, 2024

Infinite Reality (iR), a leading global provider of virtual and AI-powered immersive experiences, announced it signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Drone Racing League (DRL). This $250 million acquisition supports Infinite Reality's capabilities and IP and boosts its valuation to $3.5 billion.