Innovation

Ballistic Ventures: $360 Million Oversubscribed Fund II Closed To Invest In Cybersecurity Companies

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Ballistic Ventures announced the closing of its oversubscribed $360 million second fund. Fund II for Ballistic Ventures reinforces the firm’s commitment to fund and incubate entrepreneurs and innovations exclusively focused on the future of cybersecurity.

DraftWise: AI-Based Contract And Negotiation Platform For Lawyers Raises $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

DraftWise - an AI-based contract and negotiation platform for lawyers - announced a $20 million Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, with additional support from existing investors Y Combinator and Earlybird Digital East Ventures.

Clique: Blockchain Data Computing Company Secures $8 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Clique - an infrastructure company that is powering secure and data computing for blockchains - announced a successful Series A funding round of $8 million led by Polychain Capital to build a compute coordination network that transforms the way on-chain and off-chain applications access compute and data.

Lily AI: Retail AI Platform Closes $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 17, 2024

Lily AI - a retail technology platform specializing in AI solutions for retailers and brands - announced the closing of a $20 million Series B-Prime funding round led by Conductive Ventures with participation from new investors Counterpart Ventures, Cendana Capital, and Transform Capital, and existing investors Canaan, Sorenson Capital, and NEA.

Bain Buys AI/ML Solutions Company PiperLab

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Bain & Company has acquired PiperLab (a European provider of AI/ML solutions) to scale thee consulting firm's technology offerings for clients throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). This deal establishes an Advanced Analytics and AI hub under Bain's global Advanced Analytics Group (AAG).

Pure Lithium: Lithium Metal Battery Company Raises $15 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Pure Lithium, a Boston-based lithium metal battery technology company, announced it raised a $15 million funding round from Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV), an Occidental (Oxy) subsidiary focused on advancing low-carbon technologies and business solutions. OLCV was the lead investor in Pure Lithium's Series A equity funding, which may raise an additional $15 million for a proposed total funding amount of $30 million.

X-Therma: $22.4 Million Raised To Develop Platform For Regenerative Medicine And Organ Transplantation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

X-Therma - a company developing a breakthrough platform for regenerative medicine and organ preservation - announced it has completed an oversubscribed $22.4 million Series B funding round. This funding round was co-led by new investor Starling Locke Capital and fully supported by Series A lead investor LOREA AG, with participation from new/existing investors.

Liquid Metal Printing Company Fluent Metal Launches With $5.5 Million In Total Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Fluent Metal—a company developing production-grade liquid metal printing that removes the barriers to entry for metal additive manufacturing—has launched out of stealth with an additional $3.2 million in funding.

Hertz Names Gil West As CEO

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Leading global rental car company Hertz Global Holdings announced that Gil West, former Chief Operating Officer of Delta Airlines and GM's Cruise unit, will become CEO effective April 1, 2024, when he will join the Board. West will succeed Stephen Scherr, who decided to step down as CEO and member of the Board of Directors on March 31, 2024. West and Scherr will work together to make the transition smooth.

WarpStream Labs: Cloud Native Data Streaming Infrastructure Company Raises $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Cloud-native data streaming infrastructure company WarpStream Labs announced it raised $20 million in funding led by Greylock and Amplify Partners. The angel investors who joined the funding round include Ben Sigelman (Lightstep CEO), Spencer Kimball (CockroachDB CEO), and Barry McCardel (Hex Technologies CEO). WarpStream will be using the funding round to hire more talent, scale up its market team, and invest in product lines.

Quintessent: $11.5 Million Raised To Advance Optical Interconnect Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Quintessent - a silicon photonics and quantum dot laser company - announced it has closed on just over $11.5 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round. Osage University Partners (OUP) led the fund round with new investors such as M Ventures and joined existing investors Sierra Ventures, Foothill Ventures, and Entrada Ventures.

Omni: Business Intelligence Company Raises $20 Million From Theory Ventures

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 16, 2024

Business intelligence company Omni announced it has raised $20 million from Theory Ventures. Omni will use the funding to further build out its platform.