Innovation

Agrovision: Superfruit Platform Company Raises Growth Capital Led By Aliment Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Agrovision, a leading technology-enabled superfruit platform (known for its premium berries sold under The Fruitist and Big Skye brands), announced a growth capital investment led by Aliment Capital. With a focus on key strategic initiatives, Aliment will provide additional capital and expertise for helping take Agrovision to its next level of growth.

Cure51: €15 Million Secured To Advance Biological Mechanisms For Survivors Among Cancer Patients

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Cure51 - a biotech company looking to unlock the biological mechanisms responsible for exceptional survivors among cancer patients - announced it has successfully raised €15 million in a seed funding round led by Sofinnova Partners. Other investors in this round include Hitachi Ventures GmbH, Life Extension Ventures, Xavier Niel, and Olivier Pomel (CEO and co-founder of Datadog).

Mermaid Chart: $7.5 Million Raised For Reinventing Visual Collaboration For Enterprises

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Mermaid Chart, a company offering text-based diagramming and workflow management tools, announced it has raised $7.5 million in seed funding. This funding milestone comes after the company unveiled its first line of enterprise products, designed to help professionals across industries better communicate, collaborate, and solve business problems through visuals and diagrams.

Dryad Networks: Early Wildfire Detection Company Raises €5.6 Million In Convertible Financing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Dryad Networks - a company that pioneered ultra-early wildfire detection technology - announced the successful initial closing of €5.6 million in a convertible financing round, with a total round size of up to €10 million.

Anima: Care Enable Platform Raises $12 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Anima - a next-generation care enablement platform - announced it raised $12 million in Series A funding. This funding round was led by Molten Ventures, with participation from existing investors Hummingbird Ventures, Amino Collective, Y Combinator, and new angel investors, including Sidar Sahin (founder of Peak Games).

Capstan Therapeutics: $175 Million Raised To Advance Reprogramming Of Cells Through RNA Delivery

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Capstan Therapeutics - a biotechnology company focused on advancing in vivo reprogramming of cells through RNA delivery using targeted lipid nanoparticles (tLNP) - announced the successful closing of a $175 million oversubscribed Series B financing.

Pocket FM: Audio Entertainment Platform Company Raises $103 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Pocket FM, a leading audio entertainment platform company, announced that it has raised $103 million in Series D funding. Lightspeed led this round, which StepStone Group participated in. Including this round, Pocket FM has raised $196.5 million in total funding.

PocketHealth: Patient-Centric Medical Image Exchange Company Raises $33 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

PocketHealth - a leader in patient-centric medical image exchange - announced it has raised $33 million in a Series B funding round. Round13 Capital led the all-equity round with participation from Deloitte Ventures, Samsung Next, and existing investors Questa Capital and Radical Ventures.

CyberSaint: Cyber Risk Management Company Closes $21 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Cyber risk management company CyberSaint announced that it has raised $21 million in Series A funding, led by Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC). Additional investors include Sage Hill Investors, Audeo Capital, and BlueIO.

Firestorm Labs: Unmanned Aerial System Manufacturer Raises $12.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Firestorm Labs - a California-based Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) manufacturer leader that is manufacturing expeditionary additive manufacturing - announced it raised $12.5 million in seed investment by Lockheed Martin Ventures and prominent defense investors.

Precise Systems Acquires Jardon & Howard Technologies (JHT)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Precise Systems (a portfolio company of Bluestone Investment Partners) announced the acquisition of Orlando, Florida-based Jardon & Howard Technologies (JHT) in a deal that closed on February 16, 2024. JHT is a leading provider of advanced training and simulation solutions for clients across the Department of Defense, including the Army, Navy, and other agencies throughout the federal government.

JumpCloud Buys SaaS Security Company Resmo

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

JumpCloud announced it acquired Resmo, an asset management and SaaS security solution for modern and cloud-native IT and SecOps teams. This deal broadens JumpCloud’s open directory platform to discover, manage, and control IT assets for secure and streamlined user provisioning, access request management, and utilization monitoring.

Figure Technologies Raises Over $60 Million And Launches Figure Markets

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Figure Technologies has announced the launch of Figure Markets, the first step in an ambitious vision for creating an everything marketplace. And Figure Markets has secured over $60 million in a Series A funding round. The oversubscribed round was led by Jump Crypto, Pantera Capital, and Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Distributed Global, Ribbit Capital, CMT Digital, and others. Dan Morehead, Founder and Managing Partner of Pantera Capital will join the Figure Markets board of directors in connection with the funding round.

Ascent: Financial Portability Solutions Company Raises $5.3 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Ascent Platform - a leader in financial portability solutions for banks and credit unions - announced that it has raised $5.3 million in venture funding. Foundation Capital, TruStage Ventures Discovery Fund, Alloy Labs, Reseda Group, and other investors led the round.

Euno: Frictionless Data Governance Company Raises $6.25 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Euno announced it raised $6.25 million in seed funding and emerged from stealth. This seed funding round was led by 10D with participation from INT3 – two leading early-stage Israeli funds investing in enterprise software. The funding round also included notable angel investors, including Barr Moses (co-founder and CEO at Monte Carlo), Lior Gavish (co-founder and CTO at Monte Carlo), and Yoni Broyde (former co-founder and CEO at Alooma). The advisory board includes Mark Nelson (Venture Partner at Madrona and former CEO and President at Tableau) and Tatsiana Maskalevich (Director of Data Science and Engineering at Netflix).

Flosonics Medical: Wearable Medical Ultrasound Company Raises $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Flosonics Medical - a leader in wearable medical ultrasound - announced a Series C funding round at $20 million. The funding round was led by New Leaf Venture Partners, with participation from previous investors Arboretum Ventures, Genesys Capital, and iGan Partners.

Tempo Therapeutics: Tissue Engineering And Regenerative Medicine Raises $12 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Tempo Therapeutics - an innovator in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine - announced the successful completion of its $12 million Series A equity funding round, led by Galaxy-Sirius Partners and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC).

Yoshi Mobility Buying Mobile Auto Concepts To Accelerate Service Expansion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Yoshi Mobility, a leading tech-enabled mobile car care company, announced that it had acquired Mobile Auto Concepts Inc. (MACi), a full-suite mobile automotive services company specializing in tire care and replacement, preventative maintenance, multipoint inspections, eco-friendly washes, and other services.

Ampersand Capital Partners Acquiring Biological Solutions Company Biologos

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Private equity firm Ampersand Capital Partners announced the acquisition of Biologos LLC, a full-service manufacturer of custom and standard cell culture media, reagents, buffers, enzymes, and sera. This partnership with Ampersand will include investments for expanding Biologos' capabilities, product offerings, and geographic reach to support its global cell and gene therapy, biopharmaceutical, tissue processing, and animal health customers.

Kester Capital: Oversubscribed Third Fund Closed At £200 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Kester Capital, a leading UK lower mid-market private equity firm, announced the successful final closing of its latest fund, Kester Capital III. The fund, which was oversubscribed, exceeded its target of £150 million and closed at its hard cap of £200 million, more than double the size of its predecessor fund.

Marco: Trade Finance Platform Company Raises $12 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Marco - the trade finance platform focused on the needs of SME exporters in Latin America - announced it successfully closed a $12 million Series A funding round. The funding round was led by IDC Ventures, with additional participation from IDB Lab (the innovation/venture laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank Group), Barn Invest, SquareOne Capital, Arcadia Funds, Florida Funders, Miami Angels, Kayyak Ventures, and Neer Ventures, and others.

B Capital: Opportunities Fund II Closed At $750 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 21, 2024

Global multi-stage investment firm B Capital announced the closing of B Capital Opportunities Fund II, L.P., with aggregate capital commitments of $750 million. This is nearly double the size of its predecessor, B Capital Opportunities Fund I.

MacKenzie Scott Donating $640 Million To 361 Nonprofits

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 20, 2024

Philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott will donate $640 million to 361 nonprofits through Yield Giving. On March 19, 2024, Yield Giving and Lever for Change announced the 361 awardees after conducting an Open Call for community-led and community-focused organizations that elevates the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means.

McGraw Hill Names Bob Sallmann As CFO And David Cortese As Chief Digital Information Officer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 20, 2024

McGraw Hill has announced the appointment of two new executives to its senior leadership team. Bob Sallmann will join McGraw Hill as Chief Financial Officer on April 15th, overseeing the company's global financial strategy. David Cortese will join McGraw Hill on April 8th for a newly created Chief Digital Information Officer role, overseeing the company's digital platform development, information technology, and data analytics.

AstraZeneca Acquiring Fusion Pharmaceuticals In $2 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 20, 2024

Fusion Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage oncology company developing next-gen radioconjugates (RCs) as precision medicines, announced it entered into a deal to be acquired by AstraZeneca. This deal marks a significant step forward for AstraZeneca in delivering on its ambition to transform cancer treatment and patient outcomes by replacing traditional regimens like chemotherapy and radiotherapy with more targeted treatments.

IFF Selling Pharma Solutions Operations To Roquette In $2.85 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 20, 2024

IFF announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Pharma Solutions business unit to plant-based ingredient company Roquette for an enterprise value of up to $2.85 billion. This deal represents an enterprise value to EBITDA multiple of about 13 times.

Microsoft AI: A New Organization Being Headed By Inflection AI’s Co-Founders

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 20, 2024

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the company has hired some of the team members behind Inflection AI—including co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan—to form a new organization called Microsoft AI. Suleyman is also known as a co-founder of DeepMind, a company that Google acquired in 2014 to ramp up the search giant’s AI team.

Carlisle Companies Buying MTL Holdings For $410 Million In Cash

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 20, 2024

Carlisle Companies announced that it had entered a deal to acquire MTL Holdings from private equity firm GreyLion Partners. MTL is a provider of pre-fabricated edge metal for commercial roofing systems. Under the terms of the acquisition, Carlisle will purchase MTL for $410 million in cash.

Silver Creek Capital Names Michael Callahan As Managing Director Of Business Development

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 20, 2024

Silver Creek Capital Management - an alternative investment boutique focused on developing unique investment solutions for institutional and sophisticated investors globally - announced that Michael Callahan has joined the firm as Managing Director, Business Development. Callahan will be responsible for developing and executing a range of growth initiatives on a global basis and expanding the firm’s institutional investor relationships. Plus, he most recently served as a managing director at Investcorp, focusing on institutional capital raising for the global credit business.

O2 Investment Partners Names Thomas Girdler As Senior Associate

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 20, 2024

O2 Investment Partners announced that it had appointed Thomas Girdler as the firm’s newest Senior Associate. Girdler will oversee new transactions, due diligence, underwriting, and working with O2’s portfolio companies.