Innovation

Celery: New Round Of Funding Raised For Financial Operations Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Celery, a financial operations platform that utilizes AI to automate internal controls, today announced that it has raised $6.25 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Team8, with participation from Verissimo Ventures, Centre Street Partners, 97212 Ventures, and additional strategic angel investors. This brings the company's total funding to $9 million.

Hyperbots: Finance-Focused Agentic AI Platform Raises $6.5 Million Series A

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Hyperbots, an agentic AI platform for finance and accounting, announced that it has raised a $6.5 million Series A round co-led by Arkam Ventures and Athera Venture Partners. This funding round also saw participation from new investor JSW Ventures and existing investors, Kalaari Capital, Sunicon Ventures, and Darashaw & Company Sunicon Ventures, and Darashaw & Company.

Adopt AI: $6 Million Closed For Turning Apps Into Agents

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Agentic AI company Adopt AI announced the launch of its platform that enables applications with intelligent agent capabilities, signaling the death of excessive clicking and the rise of conversational interaction. This vision is backed by a $6 million seed funding round, led by Elevation Capital and supported by Foster Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Darkmode Ventures, and notable angel investors. This funding emphasizes the significant potential of Adopt AI's agent experience solution to disrupt the market.

King Risk Partners Buying Spencer Financial

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

King Risk Partners announced the acquisition of Spencer Financial, a well-regarded independent insurance agency in Tampa, Florida. This deal strengthens King Risk Partners' presence in Northwest Florida and reinforces its commitment to providing exceptional service and personalized insurance solutions.

Andie Buying Richer Poorer To Expand Into Everyday Apparel

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Andie, a direct-to-consumer swimwear brand known for premium one-piece suits designed for all body types, announced the acquisition of California-based essentials label Richer Poorer. This deal marks Andie's first acquisition and a major step toward its vision of becoming a multi-brand and multi-category lifestyle business.

PartnerOne Buying Cybersecurity Leader XYPRO

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

PartnerOne, one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies, announced the acquisition of XYPRO, a leading cybersecurity provider of risk management and compliance solutions for the world's most critical enterprise environments.

Monda Buying Data Delivery Company Amplify Data

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Monda, an all-in-one data monetization platform, announced the acquisition of data delivery company Amplify Data Amplify enables data owners to easily customize and share data products with data consumers across cloud platforms and data marketplaces.

Chocolate Works Acquiring Thompson Chocolate

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Chocolate Works, a manufacturer of branded and private-label chocolate products, announced the acquisition of Thompson Chocolate, a Meriden, Connecticut-based manufacturer of specialty and foil-wrapped chocolate novelties.

Farmley: $42 Million Series C Raised For Healthy Snacking Brand

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Farmley, a rapidly growing healthy snacking brand in India, announced that it has completed a $42 million Series C fundraise led by L Catterton. And existing shareholders such as DSG Consumer Partners also participated in the fundraise.

Classiq: $110 Million Series C Raised For Quantum Software Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Classiq announced it raised $110 million in Series C funding, the largest ever for a quantum software company. The funding round was led by Entrée Capital, with participation from Norwest, NightDragon, funds managed by Hamilton Lane (Nasdaq: HLNE), Clal, Neva SGR, Phoenix, Team8, IN Venture, Wing, HSBC, Samsung Next, and QBeat, as well as other new and existing investors.

TensorStax: $5 Million Closed For Autonomous AI Agentic Platform For Data Engineering

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

TensorStax, an autonomous AI agentic platform for data engineering, announced it has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Glasswing Ventures, with participation from Bee Partners and S3 Ventures.

Turtle Club: $6.2 Million Secured For Advancing Onchain Liquidity Distribution Protocol

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Turtle Club announced the closing of a $6.2 million seed funding round to advance its on-chain liquidity distribution protocol. The funding round was led by THEIA, with participation from Susquehanna (SIG), Laser Digital, Consensys, Selini, RE7 Capital, L2IV, Archimed Capital, Trident Digital, Bodhi Ventures, Shorewoods, Triton Liquid, AUROS Global, Chorus One, Frachtis, Moonhill Capital, Tulipa Capital, and others. And notable angel investors include Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, Wintermute co-founder Yoann Turpin, and Ryan Fang of Ankr.

Samaya AI: $43.5 Million Raised To Advance AI Platform For Financial Services

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Samaya AI, an expert AI platform for financial services, announced $43.5 million in financing, led by NEA (New Enterprise Associates), with participation from leaders in technology and financial services, including Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google), Yann LeCun (AI Turing Award winner), David Siegel (Co-founder Two Sigma), and Marty Chavez (Vice Chair Sixth Street), and others.

Granola: $43 Million Series B Raised For AI-Based Notepad

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Granola, an AI-based notepad that combines your typed notes with AI transcriptions, launched Granola 2.0. The launch also coincided with the announcement that Granola has raised $43 million in Series B funding led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross from NFDG, with continued participation from existing investors Mike Mignano from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nabeel Hyatt from Spark Capital. The company has also attracted investment from a notable roster of angel investors, including Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Amjad Masad (Replit), Tobi Lutke (Shopify), Karri Saarinen (Linear), Lenny Rachitsky (Lenny's Newsletter), Des Traynor (Intercom), Karim Atiyeh (Ramp), Zach Lloyd (Warp), Charlie Songhurst, Noah Weiss, Romain Huet, Nilan Peiris and Laura Modiano.

Zeno Power: $50 Million Series B Closed For Nuclear Battery Development

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Zeno Power, a leading developer of nuclear batteries – radioisotope power systems – for frontier environments, announced a $50 million Series B funding round, led by Hanaco Ventures with participation from Seraphim, Balerion Space Ventures, JAWS, Vanderbilt University, RiverPark Ventures, Stage 1 Ventures, 7i Capital, Beyond Earth Ventures, and others. This funding brings Zeno’s total capital raised to over $70 million, following its Series A led by Tribe Capital in 2022.

Fortress Investment Group Sets Up Abu Dhabi Office

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Leading global investment manager Fortress Investment Group announced the opening of a new office in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), and permission to undertake regulated activities through receipt of its Financial Services Permission from the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority, marking a significant milestone in the firm’s global expansion.

Phillips 66 Divesting Majority Interest In German And Austrian Marketing Businesses For $1.6 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Phillips 66 announced that its subsidiary Phillips 66 Continental Holding GmbH has entered into a definitive agreement to divest a 65% interest in its Germany and Austria retail marketing business, such as JET-branded sites, to a consortium owned by subsidiaries of investment firms Energy Equation Partners and Stonepeak. And Phillips 66 will retain a non-operated 35 percent interest in the business through a newly formed joint venture.

Arm And SoftBank Contributing $15.5 Million To Advance AI With Carnegie Mellon And Keio

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Arm, and SoftBank Group (SBG) announced that Arm and SBG will contribute $15.5 million to CMU to support its partnership with Keio University, a collaboration to accelerate the global advancement of AI.

DICK’S Sporting Goods Buying Foot Locker In $2.4 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

DICK'S Sporting Goods (a leading U.S.-based full-line omnichannel sporting goods retailer) and Foot Locker (a leading footwear and apparel retailer) announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which DICK'S will acquire Foot Locker. This deal implies an equity value of about $2.4 billion and an enterprise value of about $2.5 billion.

1848 Ventures Buying Home Management Company Luminest

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

1848 Ventures, an AI-first venture studio building SaaS solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced the acquisition of Luminest, an AI-based home management startup focused on predictive maintenance and structured property data.

BioMarin Buying Inozyme Pharma In $270 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Inozyme Pharma announced that BioMarin has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Inozyme for $4 per share in an all-cash transaction for a total consideration of about $270 million.

Coupa Buying AI-Based Category Management Company Cirtuo

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Coupa announced it has acquired Croatia-based Cirtuo, a leader in AI-powered category management. This strategic investment advances Coupa's autonomous spend management vision and underscores Coupa's commitment to developing AI-based solutions that improve productivity, agility, and resilience while offering margin impact.

Corinthian Capital And Valesco Buying Majority Interest In Trimlight

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Corinthian Capital Group (a middle-market private equity firm) announced that an affiliate of Corinthian, in partnership with Valesco Industries, has acquired a majority interest in Trimlight, a leading provider of permanent exterior LED lighting solutions.

Charter And Cox Combining In $34.5 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 17, 2025

Charter Communications (along with its subsidiaries) and Cox Communications announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their businesses in a transformative deal that will create an industry leader in mobile and broadband communications services, seamless video entertainment, and customer service delivering benefits for employees, customers, communities, and shareholders.

Metafoodx: $9.4 Million Raised For Fighting Food Waste

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 17, 2025

Metafoodx, an AI food operations company, announced it has raised $9.4 million in funding led by Trustbridge Partners, with participation from BlueRun Ventures and ScalableVision Capital.

Therini Bio: $39 Million Series A Secured For Advancing Clinical Development Of Neurodegenerative Disease Immunotherapies

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 17, 2025

Therini Bio - a clinical-stage biotech company developing fibrin-targeting immunotherapies for neurodegenerative diseases driven by vascular dysfunction - announced that it raised $39 million in a Series A extension financing. This extension financing included new investors, Angelini Ventures and Apollo Health Ventures, along with existing investors SV Health Investors’ Biotech Fund and Dementia Discovery Fund, MRL Ventures Fund, Sanofi Ventures, Eli Lilly and Company, Dolby Family Ventures, and Foundation for a Better World. This financing funding Therini Bio’s Series A, bringing the total to $75 million.

Redica Systems: Financing Raised For Advancing Quality In Life Sciences

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 17, 2025

Redica Systems, a leader in Quality and Regulatory Intelligence for the Life Sciences industry, announced a financing. Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (MGHIF), along with existing investors Savant Growth and Rock Creek Capital, participated in the financing.

Ascendx: $110 Million Raised To Transform CRM With AI-Based Insights

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 17, 2025

Ascendx, a provider of enterprise-grade CRM SaaS solutions, announced it has raised $110 million. Osprey Investors and Columbia Lake Partners led the funding. This funding features $60 million in equity and $50 million in debt financing and marks one of the largest growth-stage investments in the CRM space to date.

ContactMonkey: Growth Capital Raised From CIBC Innovation Banking

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 17, 2025

CIBC Innovation Banking announced that it has provided growth capital financing to ContactMonkey, a portfolio company of Updata Partners. ContactMonkey is an internal email platform used by 10,000+ communicators worldwide. And the platform integrates with commonly used applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and major human resource information software (HRIS) platforms, helping users engage employees across their organization.

Left Main REI: Strategic Investment Raised From Cofounders Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 17, 2025

Left Main REI, a leading CRM and data intelligence platform for real estate investors, announced the closing of a series seed round and major strategic investment from Cofounders Capital, a North Carolina-based venture capital firm.