Innovation

Subzero Labs: $20 Million Raised For Building Decentralized Programmable Network

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Subzero Labs announces its emergence from stealth with a $20 million initial financing round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from other top-tier investors including Variant, Coinbase Ventures, Hashed, Susquehanna Crypto, Mysten Labs, Fabric Ventures, Flowdesk, Mirana Ventures, and more.

HOPCo Buying Caro Health For Advancing Healthcare Innovation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Healthcare Outcomes Performance Company (HOPCo), a global leader in musculoskeletal outcomes management, has acquired Caro Health, an AI-driven digital health firm based in Amsterdam. This move expands HOPCo’s presence in Europe and advances its mission to develop a comprehensive digital health platform. Caro Health's AI technology streamlines communication between patients and providers across multiple clinical specialties, serving nearly 40 healthcare customers in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Alkymi: Strategic Funding Secured To Advance AI-Based Transformation Of Financial Services

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Alkymi, a leading AI-powered data workflow platform for financial services, has completed a strategic financing round led by Cornerstone Investment Capital and Canaan Partners, with additional participation from industry leaders SimCorp and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures.

Perle: $9 Million Seed Funding Round Raised For Training Data Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Perle, an AI-based training data platform utilizing Web3 technology to incorporate human expertise into AI models, has announced the completion of a $9 million seed funding round led by Framework Ventures. This investment increases Perle's total funding to $17.5 million across both seed and pre-seed rounds, representing a significant milestone in advancing the company's mission to enhance AI training and evaluation methods.

Ostra Security: Series A Extension To Bring Round To $9.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Ostra Security, a prominent managed security provider, has announced an extension of its Series A funding round, bringing the total raised to $9.5 million. The round was co-led by General Catalyst and Rally Ventures, with continued support from long-term investment partner Jeff Cowan at CapitalFour.

Western Midstream Partners To Buy Aris Water Solutions In $1.5 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Western Midstream Partners (WES) will acquire Aris Water Solutions (Aris) in a $1.5 billion equity and cash transaction. Aris shareholders can choose to receive either 0.625 WES standard units per share or $25 in cash per share, with a total cash limit of $415 million. The deal offers a 10% premium over Aris's 30-day VWAP and 23% over its August 5, 2025, closing price, with an enterprise value of approximately $2 billion.

Capacity: $92 Million Raised For AI-Based Support Automation Platform For Contact Centers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Capacity, an AI-powered support automation platform for Contact Centers, has received over $92 million in investments to support its expansion. Investments include $50 million from Chicago Atlantic, a private markets investment firm, as well as $42.6 million from a Series D round. The company has also acquired Call Criteria and Verbio Technologies, extending its capabilities in voice AI, quality assurance (QA) automation, and speech analytics.

Hacker Rangers: Interview With CEO Vinicius Perallis About The Cybersecurity Education Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Hacker Rangers is a gamification platform for user education and engagement. The purpose is to encourage employees of an organization to adopt “cybersecure” habits through intrinsic motivation. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Hacker Rangers CEO Vinicius Perallis to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

IGEL Technology: Interview With Field CTO John Walsh About The Endpoint OS Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

IGEL Technology specializes in endpoint operating systems and management software designed for secure, efficient access to cloud workspaces, virtual desktops (VDI), and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) environments. Pulse 2.0 interviewed IGEL Technology Field CTO John Walsh to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

OneSkin: $20 Million Raised From Prelude Growth Partners

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

OneSkin, a skin longevity brand based on biotechnological research, has announced a $20 million Series A investment from growth equity firm Prelude Growth Partners. The investment was finalized last month and represents a transition for OneSkin to a new investor for continued development.

Botika: Interview With Co-Founder & CEO Eran Dagan About The AI-Based Fashion Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Botika is a company that harnesses the power of Generative AI to help clothing fashion brands create stunning product photos. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Botika co-founder and CEO Eran Dagan to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Kustomer: $30 Million Series B Raised For Customer Experience Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Kustomer, an AI-driven customer service platform, has secured $30 million in Series B funding led by Norwest, with participation from Battery Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, and Boldstart Ventures. The investment will fuel further development of AI products to meet the rising market demand.

August Health: $29 Million Series B Funding Raised To Advance HER Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

August Health has raised $29 million in Series B funding led by Base10 Partners, with participation from General Catalyst, Matrix Partners, Equitage Ventures, the Senior Living Transformation Company, and Stanford University.

Flox: $1 Million Seed Funding Raised For Scaling AI That Speaks To Animals

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Flox, the wildlife intelligence company on a mission to transform how humans and wildlife coexist by communicating with wild animals using AI, has closed an oversubscribed Seed round of nearly $1 million. The round was led by Unconventional Ventures, with participation from Norrsken Accelerate, and all investors from Flox’s pre-seed round: Almi Invest, E14 Invest, Argand Partners, and a group of bold angel investors.

Translucent AI: $7 Million Raised For Healthcare Finance Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Translucent AI, a financial platform powered by AI and designed for healthcare operators, has announced a $7 million seed round funded by NEA, Virtue, FPV, and Redesign Health. Due to increasing financial difficulties within the healthcare sector, more provider organizations have been operating at a loss.

Casap: $25 Million Series A Secured To Transform Payment Disputes

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Casap, a leader in intelligent automation for dispute and fraud operations, has secured $25 million in Series A funding led by Emergence Capital, bringing its total to $33.5 million—a record for the payment disputes sector. The funding reflects the growing demand from financial institutions for modernizing dispute resolution and minimizing fraud losses.

VOW: Seed Funding Raised To Transform Live Events

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

VOW is an AI-driven operating system designed for the live experience economy, recently closing its initial Seed round led by KB Partners and other notable investors. Founded by Jennifer Brisman, VOW unifies event planning tools, communications, seating, and guest coordination into a single intelligent platform, used by brands like NBC's Saturday Night Live, PFL-MMA, and GLAAD Media.

Swing Education: $20 Million Growth Loan Raised From Runway Growth Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Runway Growth Capital, a provider of growth loans to both venture-backed and non-venture-backed companies seeking alternatives to equity financing, has announced a $20 million commitment to Swing Education. This established online marketplace connects schools with qualified substitute teachers. This funding consists of a first lien term loan and a revolving credit facility.

MSCI: New Solutions Launched For General Partners

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

MSCI has introduced two new data and analytics solutions, Private Asset and Deal Metrics and Real Capital Analytics (RCA) Funds, to help General Partners (GPs) navigate the private markets. These tools are designed to address the challenges that GPs face with fundraising and deal sourcing, as identified in a recent MSCI survey.

Francisco Partners To Buy Provider Elite From TPG

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

Francisco Partners will acquire Elite, a leading provider of software and integrated payments solutions for the legal industry, from TPG Capital and Thomson Reuters. This acquisition aims to provide Elite with financial support to continue its growth and innovation. Terms were not disclosed.

FORT Robotics: $18.9 Million Series B Raised For Building Intelligent Machines

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

FORT Robotics, a company specializing in safety and security solutions for intelligent machines, announced the close of an additional $18.9 million in its Series B funding round. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from new and returning investors. Returning investors included Tiger Global, Prime Movers Lab, Mark Cuban, FundersClub, Creative Ventures, GRIDS Capital, and Ahoy Capital. New investors included Neman Ventures, Mana Ventures, Gaingels, and Ryuu Co. of Japan.

AutoIVF: NIH Grant Awarded For Advancing Commercialization Of OvaReady

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

AutoIVF, a fertility technology company dedicated to advancing access to assisted reproductive care, has announced the receipt of a Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development under Award Number R44HD105529.

RBL: Investment Raised From Modi Ventures

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 8, 2025

RBL, a biotech venture creation studio specializing in developing companies based on medical technologies, announced that it has received an investment from Modi Ventures to support its efforts in launching and scaling startups into clinical-stage companies.

Apollo Funds To Buy Majority Stake In Stream Data Centers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 7, 2025

Apollo announced that its managed funds have agreed to acquire a majority stake in Stream Data Centers (SDC) from Stream Realty Partners. The acquisition positions SDC to develop a multi-gigawatt pipeline of data centers, with Apollo-managed funds ready to deploy billions of dollars into next-generation digital infrastructure.

Cerebral Buys Behavioral Health Organization Resilience Lab

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 7, 2025

Cerebral, a virtual mental health provider, has acquired Resilience Lab, a behavioral health organization known for its outcomes-focused care. The acquisition looks to create a comprehensive mental health delivery system that addresses key industry challenges, including the lack of consistent clinical outcome data and a shortage of mental health professionals.

Wealth Enhancement Acquiring $164+ Million Firm Manwaring

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 7, 2025

Wealth Enhancement Group, a national independent wealth management firm, has announced the acquisition of Manwaring Wealth Management, an independent registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Gilbert, Arizona. This strategic move adds a new team of two advisors and two support staff to Wealth Enhancement's network. The Manwaring team, led by founder Joshua Manwaring, oversees more than $164 million in client assets.

Lorikeet: $35 Million Series A Raised For AI-Based Universal Customer Concierges

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 7, 2025

Lorikeet, an AI company that creates universal AI concierges for businesses, has raised a $35 million Series A funding round. The investment, led by QED Investors, will be used to advance product development and go-to-market efforts.

DISA Technologies: $30 Million Series A2 Raised For Advancing Mineral Processing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 7, 2025

DISA Technologies, a company focused on mineral recovery and uranium remediation, has closed an oversubscribed Series A2 funding round, raising a total of $30 million. The round was led by Evok Innovations, with a cornerstone investment from Constellation Technology Ventures (CTV) and participation from Valor Equity Partners, Veriten, and existing investor Halliburton Labs.

JG Wentworth: $175 Million Funding Facility Expanded

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 7, 2025

JG Wentworth, a leading provider of consumer financial services, announced an expanded forward flow agreement with funds managed by One William Street Capital Management, an alternative investment manager.

HYLENR: $3 Million Pre-Series A Funding Raised To Commercialize Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 7, 2025

HYLENR, a clean energy startup, has closed a $3 million Pre-Series A funding round to commercialize its clean energy systems. The company utilizes patented Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR) to produce scalable, carbon-free heat energy for both industrial and domestic use.