Innovation

365 Retail Markets Completes Acquisition Of Cantaloupe

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

365 Retail Markets, a leading innovator in unattended retail technologies and portfolio company of Providence Equity Partners, has completed its acquisition of Cantaloupe, a global technology leader offering end-to-end solutions for self-service commerce. The combined business will operate under the 365 Retail Markets name, bringing together Cantaloupe's payments, telemetry, and global device network with 365's self-checkout, smart store, and software systems. The combination expands the range of environments 365 can serve, from traditional vending and food service operations to hospitality, entertainment venues, and transit hubs.

Meatly Raises £10.4 Million Series A To Build Europe’s Largest Cultivated Meat Facility

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

Meatly, Europe's first company to sell cultivated meat, has raised £10.4 million in Series A funding to build Europe's largest cultivated meat production facility. The round was led by three European VC funds — Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Clean Growth Fund and JamJar Investments — joining existing investors Agronomics and Pets at Home. The latest raise brings Meatly's total funding to date to £17.4 million, building on £7 million in seed funding from founding investor Agronomics.

Lyrie Completes $2 Million Pre-Seed Round To Build Security Layer For The AI Agent Era

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

Lyrie.ai, the autonomous cybersecurity platform developed by OTT Cybersecurity LLC, has completed a $2 million pre-seed funding round and officially exited stealth. The raise will support continued platform development, security research team expansion, and the operationalization of the Agent Trust Protocol across Lyrie's platform and partner ecosystem. The company is headquartered in Dubai, UAE, and is already preparing a Series A round to scale deployment across enterprise and government markets.

Espa Launches AI-Powered Executive Assistant For Founders, Executives, And Families Without The Cost Barrier

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

Deon Nicholas, founder of Forethought, has announced the public launch of Espa, an AI-native executive assistant built to manage the logistics of work and personal life in one place. Espa is backed by angel investors spanning tech, entertainment, and business, including Henry Shi of Anthropic, Adam D'Angelo of Quora, Tekedra Mawakana of Waymo, Scott Wu of Cognition, Anu Bharadwaj of Atlassian, and LL COOL J, as well as institutional investors Axiom Partners, Village Global, Neo, SV Angel, Zapier, and Harlem Capital. The platform is available today at espa.ai with subscription plans starting at approximately $20 per month.

Antier Solutions Secures $3 Million To Scale Enterprise Blockchain Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

Antier Solutions, an enterprise blockchain engineering firm headquartered in Mohali, India, has secured $3 million in its first institutional funding round, led by GVFL, India's pioneer venture capital firm.

MY DR NOW: Interview With Founder & CEO Payam Zamani, MD, About the Omnichannel Primary Care Model

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

MY DR NOW is an Arizona-based independent primary care group that operates an "omnichannel" model, providing comprehensive care through walk-in clinics, in-home visits, and telemedicine services to make healthcare easily accessible. Pulse 2.0 interviewed MY DR NOW founder and CEO Payam Zamani, MD, to learn more.

Cowboy Space Corporation Raises $275 Million Series B At $2 Billion Valuation To Build Orbital Data Centers and Rockets

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

Cowboy Space Corporation, the orbital infrastructure company founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, has raised $275 million in Series B financing at a $2 billion valuation. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from new investors IVP, Blossom Capital and SAIC, alongside existing backers Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Construct Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Interlagos and Bhatt himself. The company, which operated under the name Aetherflux since its founding in 2024, also unveiled a new name and brand alongside the funding announcement.

Sparkling Bins: Interview With CEO John Conway About The Cleaning Systems Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

Sparkling Bins is the global leader in manufacturing high-quality, eco-friendly trash bin cleaning systems while also providing a turnkey business model that empowers entrepreneurs to start and scale their own profitable sanitation services. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sparkling Bins CEO John Conway to learn more.

OFA Group: Interview With COO Thomas Gaffney About The Architectural And Technology Firm

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

OFA Group is a Cayman Islands-based architectural and technology firm that provides traditional design and fit-out services while developing proprietary AI-driven platforms, such as "QikBIM," for generating coordinated BIM models for early construction project development, and PlanAid for building code compliance automation. Pulse 2.0 interviewed OFA Group COO Thomas Gaffney to learn more.

Grand Games Raises $70 Million Series B To Scale Hybrid Casual Mobile Gaming Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 11, 2026

Grand Games, the Istanbul-based mobile gaming company, has raised a $70 million Series B funding round, bringing total funding raised to $103 million. The round was led by Balderton's Growth Fund, which doubled down on its Series A investment from January of last year. Existing investors Bek Ventures and Laton Ventures also followed on, alongside mobile gaming serial entrepreneur and exited founder Mert Gür as an angel investor. The company's valuation has increased approximately 6x since its previous round just over 12 months ago, with only single-digit dilution, putting it within reach of unicorn status.

VoLo Earth Ventures: Interview With Co-Founder & Managing Director Kareem Dabbagh About The Firm

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 10, 2026

VoLo Earth is a venture capital firm that backs early-stage companies in the backbone sectors of the economy: energy, grids, materials, industrial systems, and manufacturing. The firm writes first-in checks and takes active board seats, focused on solutions where winning economics and decarbonization outcomes move together. Pulse 2.0 interviewed VoLo Earth Ventures co-founder and managing director Kareem Dabbagh to learn more.

Dishio: $2.5 Million Seed Funding Raised At $20 Million Valuation To Help Restaurants Turn Guest Data Into Repeat Revenue

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 10, 2026

Dishio, an AI growth engine for restaurants, has announced a $2.5 million seed round at a $20 million valuation. The Miami-based company said the funding will support expansion of its platform, which helps restaurant operators capture, own, and activate guest data across the entire customer journey by unifying the fragmented restaurant tech stack into a single customer intelligence and growth layer.

Rocket Lab To Buy Motiv Space Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 10, 2026

Rocket Lab has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Motiv Space Systems, a California-based company specializing in space robotics, motion control systems, and precision mechanisms for spacecraft. The acquisition advances two strategic objectives for Rocket Lab: adding Mars-proven robotics heritage for advanced planetary and national security missions, and closing a key gap in the company's vertical integration strategy by bringing critical spacecraft components in-house. The deal is expected to close during the second quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

MoneyFlare Launches AI Crypto Trading App With One-Click Automated Quant Trading

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2026

MoneyFlare has launched an AI-powered cryptocurrency trading app designed to give everyday investors access to fully automated quantitative trading without coding skills or professional trading experience. The platform, operated by Ai Actuarial Limited — a company registered with UK Companies House — aims to lower the barrier to entry for crypto quant trading by condensing the process into three steps: register an account, choose an AI quantitative trading plan, and activate automated trading with a single click.

The Black Box Announces Project Pipeline Exceeding $10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2026

The Black Box, a UAE-based technology and manufacturing company, has announced an estimated project pipeline exceeding $10 million following its first participation at Make it in the Emirates 2026, one of the country's leading industrial and innovation exhibitions. The milestone marks a significant moment for the six-year-old company as it expands its presence across advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, enterprise technologies, and immersive training solutions.

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 And Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 Mobile Platforms

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2026

Qualcomm Technologies has announced two new mobile platforms — the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 — expanding its portfolio with next-generation capabilities designed for real-world smartphone experiences. Both platforms are set to power commercial devices from global OEMs, including Honor, OPPO, realme, and REDMI, in the second half of 2026.

TransAct Technologies Appoints Robert Campbell As Chief Financial Officer

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2026

TransAct Technologies, a leading provider of cloud-based software and integrated hardware solutions listed on Nasdaq under the ticker TACT, has appointed Robert Campbell as Chief Financial Officer, effective upon the June 30, 2026 retirement of long-time CFO Steven A. DeMartino, who has served the company for nearly 30 years since its IPO in 1996. Upon DeMartino's retirement, CEO John Dillon will also assume the title of President. DeMartino will remain in an advisory role through year-end to support a seamless transition.

Dandelion Health: $14 Million Series A Raised To Scale Multimodal Clinical AI Platform For Life Sciences

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2026

Dandelion Health, the clinical intelligence platform for life sciences, has raised a $14 million Series A funding round led by Healthier Capital, with participation from Colle Capital and existing investors Primary Venture Partners, Moxxie Ventures, and Convergent Ventures. The investment will accelerate Dandelion's growth across pharmaceutical drug development, deepening its data infrastructure, expanding pharma partnerships, and bringing its platform to more research and commercial teams across the industry.

Grant Thornton Launches gtap To Modernize AI-Enabled Audit Delivery

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2026

Grant Thornton announced the launch of gtap, a proprietary cloud-based audit infrastructure platform designed to modernize audit execution through AI, analytics, and automation technologies.