Innovation

Betterworks: How This Company Drives Higher Employee Engagement And Greater Manager Effectiveness

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Betterworks is an intelligent performance management solution that empowers your people to reach their highest potential. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Betterworks CEO Doug Dennerline to learn more about the company.

Kong: Enabling Companies To Become API-First, Driving Developer Productivity And Automating Security

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Kong enables any company to become API-first. Kong’s unified cloud-native API platform is easy to use and works in any environment — unleashing developer productivity, automating security, and boosting the performance of APIs and microservices at scale. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Kong co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Marco Palladino to learn more about the company.

Viakoo: The Story Behind This Rapidly Growing Cyber Hygiene And Service Assurance Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Braavo Capital: $5 Million Closed For Accelerating Web2App Subscriber Acquisition

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Braavo Capital, a leading financing partner for consumer subscription apps, announced today the successful closing of a $5 million Series B funding round. Led by existing insiders with participation from Series A lead investor Headline and accompanied by a new $30 million debt fund with Upper90. This funding round marks a significant milestone for Braavo's continued expansion.

AssetWatch: Predictive Maintenance Solutions Company Raises $38 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

AssetWatch, a leading condition monitoring and predictive maintenance organization, announced closing its Series B financing round of $38 million led by Wellington Management. And the company’s Series A investors, including G2 Venture Partners, Triangle Peak Partners, Standard Investments, Osage University Partners, and JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund, are investing in the Series B funding round.

Daffodil Health: Healthcare Pricing And Administration Company Closes $4.6 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Daffodil Health, a provider of healthcare pricing and administration AI-powered solutions, announced it raised $4.6 million in a seed funding round led by Maverick Ventures, with participation from Epic Ventures.

Kudos: AI-Powered Smart Wallet Company Raises $10.2 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Kudos, an AI-powered smart wallet that automatically maximizes consumer rewards and benefits on every purchase, announced it has completed a $10.2 million Series A fundraising round. This oversubscribed round was led by QED Investors. Additional participants included returning investor Patron, and The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly, Samsung Next, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, The Mini Fund, Newtype Ventures, and the Four Cities Fund. Kudos plans to use some of the funding to roll out various new services that will augment its quickly evolving smart wallet product.

Truveris: Pharmacy Cost Containment Company Closes $15 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Truveris, a leader in pharmacy cost containment and program performance, announced it has raised $15 million in Series E investment led by two lead investors: Canaan Partners and New Leaf Venture Partners.

Capchase: SaaS-Based Revenue Acceleration Platform Secures €105 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Capchase, a revenue acceleration platform for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies, announced it has secured a €105 million credit facility warehouse led by Deutsche Bank. This new funding contributes to the $1+ billion in combined debt and equity financing Capchase has received since its founding in 2020.

NuFund: An Interview With President Serhat Pala

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 27, 2024

NuFund Venture Group is a new wave of angel investors with a new fund model that invests in new technology leaders. Pulse 2.0 interviewed NuFund Venture Group President Serhat Pala to learn more about the firm.

SugarCRM Buys Sales Automation Platform Company sales-i

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 27, 2024

SugarCRM, a provider of the intelligence-driven sales automation platform, announced it has acquired sales-i, a leading provider of a revenue intelligence solution that helps businesses maximize their revenue and profitability. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Plume Network: Modular EVM Layer-2 Company Secures $10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 27, 2024

Plume, a modular EVM Layer-2 built to bring any real-world asset (RWA) on-chain, has raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Haun Ventures with participation from Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, Portal Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, and others. And prominent angels include founders and executives of leading projects such as Anthony Ramirez of Wormhole Labs, Calvin Liu of Eigenlayer, Zon of Initia, Andrew Kang of Mechanism, Jeff Feng & Jayendra Jog of Sei Network, Adam Lawrence of rwa.xyz, Austin King & Tyler Tarsi of Omni, and more.

xAI Raises $6 Billion At $24 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 27, 2024

xAI, a company founded by Elon Musk that builds artificial intelligence to accelerate human scientific discovery, announced it has raised $6 billion at a valuation of $24 billion. The Series B funding included participation from Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and, Kingdom Holding, and others.

Brixton Biosciences: $33 Million Closed To Develop Novel Therapies For Chronic And Acute Pain

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 27, 2024

Brixton Biosciences, a spin-out from Massachusetts General Brigham and a clinical-stage life sciences company developing novel therapies for chronic and acute pain, announced that it closed a $33 million Series B funding round. Schooner Capital led the round, which also included SV Health Investors, Sparta Group, Excelestar Ventures, PV Capital Management, and Catalyst Health Ventures.

SmarterDx: AI-Based Hospital Revenue Integrity And Quality Company Raises $50 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 27, 2024

SmarterDx, a leader in clinical AI for revenue integrity and care quality, announced it has secured $50 million in Series B funding led by Transformation Capital. This funding round also includes continued investments from Bessemer Venture Partners, Flare Capital Partners, and Floodgate Fund, bringing the total funding to date to $71 million. This investment will drive product innovation that will create additional value for health systems and support scale as the company expands.