Innovation

Rogo: $75 Million Series C Secured With Plans To Expand In Europe

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Rogo announced it has raised a $75 million in Series C financing led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Henry Kravis and Wells Fargo, and continued support from existing backers Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, Tiger Global, and J.P. Morgan. The round brings Rogo’s total funding to more than $165 million and marks a new phase of growth as the company expands into deeper enterprise deployments across global financial institutions.

Exxat: Minority Growth Investment Raised From Accel-KKR

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Exxat, a provider of software for clinical and experiential education in healthcare, said it has received a minority growth investment from Accel-KKR to accelerate product development and broaden adoption across healthcare education and workforce development.

Bleap: $6 Million Seed Funding Secured For Scaling Self-Custodial Financial Accounts

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Bleap has raised a $6 million seed round led by Blossom Capital to scale its product and expand internationally. The company said the financing follows a $2.3 million pre-seed round raised in late 2024 and will support growth across Europe and Latin America while accelerating product development

Evaro: $25 Million Series A Raised to Expand Embedded Digital Healthcare For Consumer Brands

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Evaro, an NHS licensed digital healthcare platform that says it serves more than 2 million patients, has raised a $25 million Series A round led by AlbionVC, with participation from Simplyhealth Ventures, Exceptional Ventures, Cornerstone VC, and BBI. The company positions itself as a healthcare-as-a-service provider that enables consumer brands, healthcare organisations, and employers to offer regulated digital care without building their own clinical or pharmacy infrastructure.

Sense Announces Strategic Investment From Analog Devices To Scale Grid-Edge Intelligence

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Sense, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based provider of grid-edge intelligence software, announced it has received a strategic investment from Analog Devices (ADI) to accelerate the development of scalable technologies that help utilities and grid operators improve reliability and visibility across the distribution network.

Puratos Acquires Vör Foods To Expand Clean Label Nut Butters And Fillings In The U.S.

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Puratos announced it has acquired Vör Foods, adding a fast-growing producer of ultra-clean label nut butters and nut-based fillings to its portfolio and expanding its U.S. manufacturing footprint. The deal, announced on January 21, 2026, brings Vör’s Trevose, Pennsylvania-based operation into the Puratos network as the company seeks to accelerate sweet goods innovation and respond more quickly to shifting consumer tastes.

Sentra.app: $5 Million Seed Funding Closed To Build Enterprise ‘Organizational Memory’ Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Sentra.app has raised a $5 million seed round to develop what it calls an “enterprise general intelligence” layer built around organizational memory: a persistent system designed to capture, connect, and continuously surface the context behind a company’s conversations, decisions, and work. The round was co-led by a16z speedrun and Together Fund, with participation from Parable, Precursor Ventures, Inovia, Backwards Capital, Antigravity Capital, and a group of angel investors including Gokul Rajaram, Siqi Chen, and former executives from Microsoft, Dropbox, Salesforce, and Slack.

Redwood Materials Finalizes $425 Million Series E To Scale Energy Storage Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Redwood Materials announced it has completed the final closing of its Series E financing, bringing the round's total proceeds to $425 million as the company accelerates efforts to scale its energy storage platform and broaden its role in the domestic battery value chain.

Waabi: $1 Billion Raised To Expand Physical AI Platform And Launch Robotaxis With Uber

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Waabi announced it has closed an oversubscribed $750 million Series C round and lined up additional milestone-based capital from Uber tied to a new robotaxi partnership, bringing total “new funding” support to $1 billion. The Canadian autonomous-vehicle company, founded in 2021 by Raquel Urtasun, said the financing will accelerate development of its “Physical AI Platform,” deepen commercial progress in autonomous trucking, and fund an expansion into robotaxis deployed exclusively on Uber’s platform.

Hexaware Appoints Amit Vij As Chief Private Markets Officer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Hexaware Technologies announced that it has appointed Amit Vij as Chief Private Markets Officer, a new senior role designed to deepen the company’s engagement with private markets investors and their portfolio companies.

ADP Launches New AI Agents to Tackle Workforce And Payroll Challenges

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

ADP introduced a new set of “ADP Assist” AI agents designed to help organizations reduce friction across HR and payroll processes, improve decision-making, and cut down on manual work across the employee lifecycle. The company said the agents are designed to think, plan, and act with human oversight, combining automation with ADP’s longstanding workforce expertise.

VML Taps Jason Xenopoulos And Mel Routhier For New North America Leadership Roles

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

VML announced a set of leadership appointments aimed at strengthening creative leadership and office management across North America, with changes centered on its New York hub and its regional creative organization.

WTW Completes Acquisition of Newfront

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

WTW announced it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Newfront, a San Francisco-based insurance brokerage that the company described as a top 40 U.S. broker with a technology-enabled model and specialty expertise in high-growth industries. The transaction brings Newfront into WTW’s platform as the company deepens its presence in the U.S. middle market and advances its technology and specialty strategies, with Newfront now operating as part of WTW.

Arlo Solutions Appoints Venice Goodwine As CIO And AI Product Owner

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Arlo Solutions has named Venice M. Goodwine as its Chief Information Officer and AI Product Owner, effective January 2, 2026, as the Washington, DC-based government contractor looks to expand its enterprise technology leadership alongside data and artificial intelligence initiatives supporting mission-focused federal customers.

Ultra Clean Names Robert Wunar As Chief Operating Officer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Ultra Clean Holdings announced it has appointed semiconductor operations veteran Robert Wunar as chief operating officer, with the leadership change taking effect March 23, 2026. The company also said Harjinder Bajwa departed Ultra Clean effective January 25, 2026.

Agerpoint Names Michael Gomes Vice President And General Manager Of New Intelligent Equipment Division

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Agerpoint has appointed Michael Gomes as Vice President and General Manager, Intelligent Equipment, a newly created executive role designed to push the company’s spatial intelligence platform directly into agricultural machinery and in field systems. The move signals a sharper commercial focus on embedding Agerpoint’s sensing, analytics, and digital twin capabilities into equipment workflows, where real-time decisions can influence how work gets done on the ground.

Epicore Biosystems Adds UConn Experts Douglas Casa And Elaine Lee As Scientific Advisors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Epicore Biosystems has appointed Dr. Douglas Casa and Dr. Elaine Choung-Hee Lee as Scientific Advisors, bringing together expertise in exertional heat illness prevention, human performance, thermoregulation, and proteomics as the company pushes to translate sweat biomarkers into actionable hydration and heat risk decisions for athletes, industrial workers, and military personnel.

International Paper Plans Spin Off To Form Two Standalone Public Packaging Companies

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

International Paper announced plans to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies: a North America-focused International Paper and a new EMEA Packaging business focused on Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company said the move is intended to accelerate profitable growth by sharpening each business’s operational and capital-allocation priorities based on distinct regional market dynamics.

MITO AI: $4.5 Million Pre-Seed Funding Closed For Collaborative AI Video Creation Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

MITO AI, a Madrid- and San Francisco-based startup building a collaborative platform for AI-native video creation, has raised a $4.5 million pre-seed round led by Paul Murphy at Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company said the financing included participation from Kibo, Kfund, Sequoia, and A16Z scouts, LifeX, and angel investors, including unicorn founders and executives with ties to USV, Roblox, and GitHub.

Arkero: $6 Million Pre-Seed Closed And Early Deals Signed With MLS, NWSL, And EFL Clubs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Arkero, a new AI-driven operations platform for professional sports organizations, has raised a $6 million pre-seed round and announced early partnerships with teams across Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, and England’s Football League.

Automata: $45 Million Series C Closed To Build Operating System For AI Ready Labs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Automata, a London-based lab automation company focused on fully integrated platforms for life sciences, announced it has closed a $45 million Series C funding round led by Dimension. The company said the financing included participation from Danaher Ventures, Tru Arrow Partners, Octopus Ventures, Entrepreneurs First, and other investors, alongside a strategic investment partnership with Danaher Corporation. As part of the deal, Murali Venkatesan Ph.D., Global Head of Danaher Ventures and Vice President of Science Technology and Innovation, will join Automata’s board.

Terra Energy: $105 Million Raised To Expand Residential Solar Subscription Model

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Terra Energy, a residential solar subscription provider based in Miami, announced it has closed a $105 million funding round to support its expansion beyond Florida into Texas and, next, California. The company said the final component of the series was a $35 million green loan financing from Breakwall Capital.

Northslope: $22 Million Series A Raised To Scale Palantir-Native And Mission-Specific AI Applications

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Northslope, an applied AI company built specifically for the Palantir operating system, has raised $22 million in a Series A financing to scale its forward deployed engineering model and expand its Palantir-native AI application platform.

RobCo: $100 Million Series C Raised To Scale Physical AI Robotics In U.S. And Europe

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

RobCo, a Munich-founded physical AI-driven robotics company, has raised $100 million in Series C funding to advance its “Physical AI” roadmap, expand enterprise deployments, and deepen its presence in the U.S. market. The company, founded in 2020, builds AI-enabled robotic systems designed to operate inside real production environments, targeting industrial use cases where autonomy and adaptability are increasingly critical.

1Buy.AI: $3.9 Million Seed Funding Closed To Build AI ‘Operating System’ For Electronics Procurement

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

1Buy.AI, an AI-first electronics procurement platform, has raised a $3.9 million seed round to expand development of what it describes as an AI operating system for sourcing and managing electronic components across global supply chains.

Francisco Partners Closes $2.2 Billion Take-Private Of Jamf

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Jamf announced it has completed its acquisition by Francisco Partners, ending the Apple device management and security company’s run as a public firm and positioning it to pursue an expanded product roadmap under private ownership.

Apple Acquires Audio AI Company Q.ai

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Apple has confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup developing artificial intelligence technology for audio, as the company continues adding AI-driven features across its hardware lineup. And Apple did not disclose the terms of the acquisition.

Lunar: €46 Million Closed To Scale Nordic Business Banking, Build Lending, And Expand Into Norway and Finland

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Nordic challenger bank Lunar announced it has completed a €46 million capital increase to accelerate growth in its business banking franchise, develop a broader lending proposition, and support continued geographic expansion across the Nordics, including planned moves deeper into Norway and Finland. The company framed the financing as fuel to pursue growth and profitability in parallel, with management reiterating an expectation to reach profitability in 2026.

Pixellot: $35 Million Closed To Expand AI-Driven Youth Sports Streaming And Monetization

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Pixellot, an Israel-based provider of AI-automated sports capture and streaming for youth and community athletics, has secured $35 million in new funding to support global expansion and accelerate development of its AI-as-a-Service platform.

Primmune Therapeutics: $8.6 Million Raised For Cclinical Development Of PRTX007

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2026

Primmune Therapeutics announced it has completed an additional $8.6 million close of its Series B financing, bringing the total amount raised in the round to $23.3 million. The latest close included participation from Bioqube Ventures, Oberland Capital and Samsara Biocapital. The company said the new capital will support continued clinical development of PRTX007, an orally administered, systemically acting small-molecule toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) agonist being developed as an immunotherapy for solid tumors.