Innovation

Tether Investments Makes $150 Million Strategic Investment In Gold.com

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Tether Investments has made a $150 million strategic investment in Gold.com, acquiring a minority stake and forming a long-term collaboration to expand access to gold across both digital and traditional distribution channels.

CargoTuff: Load Securement Products Maker Acquired By H.I.G. Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

H.I.G. Capital announced that one of its affiliates has completed the acquisition of CargoTuff, a manufacturer and distributor of load securement products used to prevent load shifting and reduce freight damage across rail, ocean, truck, and intermodal shipping.

PayByPhone: Mobile Parking Payments Provider To Be Acquired By Lightyear Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Lightyear Capital has signed an agreement to acquire PayByPhone, a Vancouver-based provider of mobile parking payments and parking management software, from Corpay.

ElevenLabs: $500 Million Series D At $11 Billion Valuation Raised For Voice AI Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

ElevenLabs announced that it has raised $500 million in a Series D financing round that values the voice and conversational AI company at $11 billion, more than tripling its valuation from a year earlier. The company said the round brings its total funding to $781 million across five rounds since its founding in 2022.

Vault Digital Infrastructure: CVC DIF And Northleaf Sell Seven-Asset U.S. Data Center Portfolio To Igneo

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

CVC DIF and Northleaf Capital Partners said Vault Digital Infrastructure, a joint venture they co-own with Landmark Dividend, has sold its U.S. data center portfolio to Igneo Infrastructure Partners, the direct infrastructure business of First Sentier Investors.

Alphathena: Direct Indexing Platform Partners With Evergreen Wealth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Alphathena, an AI-enhanced direct indexing platform for wealth management firms and advisors, has struck a strategic partnership with Evergreen Wealth, an AI-powered registered investment advisor founded by fintech entrepreneur Bill Harris.

Graici: $7.5 Million Series A Raised For Medicaid Renewal And Redetermination Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Graici, an AI data company focused on Medicaid renewal and redetermination, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round led by Santé Ventures. As part of the financing, Santé Founding Managing Director Dr. Joe Cunningham joined Graici’s board.

Pasito: $21 Million Series A Raised For Building AI Workspace For Benefits Industry

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Pasito, an AI-native workspace for group health, life, and retirement benefits, has raised $21 million in Series A funding to scale an “agentic AI” platform designed to eliminate manual work across insurance and benefits operations. The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from Y Combinator and insurance-focused MTech Capital.

Derapi: $7 Million Raised For Distributed Energy Software Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Derapi, a software company building connective infrastructure for the distributed energy ecosystem, has raised $7 million in seed funding to expand its team and accelerate adoption of its universal API platform. The seed round was led by Earthshot Ventures with participation from Tuesday Capital, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, WYVC, Breakthrough Venture Capital, WovenEarth Ventures, Radicle Impact, Raisewell Ventures, and angel investors including E8 Angels, GreenSky Capital, and Aurora Venture Investments. The investors join existing backers UNION, Ubiquity Ventures, and M1C.

Cartwheel: K-12 School Telehealth Mental Health Provider Closes Series B After 300% Growth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Cartwheel announced it has become America’s largest K-12 mental health provider after nearly 300% year-over-year growth in new school-district partnerships, bringing its reach to 350 school districts across 15 states. The company, which provides telehealth-based mental health services for students, families, and school staff, also said it has formed partnerships with state departments of health and education in Arizona, Georgia, and Virginia.

Ecovia Bio: Biopolymer Ingredient Maker Closes Series B To Expand Livonia Manufacturing Capacity

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Ecovia Bio, a Michigan-based biotechnology company focused on sustainable biopolymer ingredients, said it has closed a Series B funding round led by Pointe Angels, an angel investor group based in the Grosse Pointe communities east of Detroit.

UBEES: €8 Million Series A Raised To Scale Regenerative Pollination Worldwide

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

UBEES, a company that applies professional beekeeping and connected-hive technology to regenerative agriculture, has raised a €8 million Series A round to fund its next phase of growth. The financing was co-led by Starquest and Capagro, with participation from Newtree Impact.

Polaron: $8 Million Closed For Material Sciences Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Polaron, a London-based AI startup focused on advanced materials characterisation, design, and manufacturing, has raised $8 million to build what it calls an “intelligence layer for materials science,” targeting a longstanding bottleneck in industrial materials development: understanding how a material's manufacturing process relates to its performance.

Hublo: €40 Million Reinvestment Vehicle Secured For Healthcare Workforce Management Software Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Revaia announced it has closed a €40 million reinvestment vehicle dedicated to Hublo, a French provider of workforce management software for the healthcare sector, extending its support for the company after Hublo’s 2025 sale and beyond Revaia’s initial holding period.

TurnClear Spins Out Of Upwell Water With Institutional Growth Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Upwell Water has spun out its decentralized water and wastewater treatment-as-a-service business into TurnClear, creating a standalone company focused on serving commercial and industrial customers. The transaction coincides with an institutional capital infusion from Nuveen intended to accelerate TurnClear’s growth.

OTSAW Robotics: Interview With Founder & CEO Ting Ming Ling About The Autonomous Mobile Robot Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

OTSAW Robotics is a Singapore-based company that develops and manufactures AI-enabled autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for security, healthcare, logistics, and disinfection applications. Pulse 2.0 interviewed OTSAW Robotics founder and CEO Ting Ming Ling to learn more.

DexMat: Over $5 Million In Seed Funding Raised To Scale Carbon-Based Copper Alternative Galvorn

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

DexMat announced it closed a seed funding round totaling over $5 million to scale Galvorn, its lightweight, flexible, carbon-based conductive material positioned as a high-performance alternative to copper. The Houston-based company said the round brings its total equity funding to $10 million and was led by non sibi ventures, with participation from Governance Partners, Tailwind Futures, BetterWay, Capital Factory, and other prior and new investors.

KKR And HMC Capital Form A$600 Million Energy Transition Strategic Partnership

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

HMC Capital and KKR announced they have established a strategic partnership under which KKR-managed funds will invest up to $603 million into HMC’s Energy Transition Platform. The investment would add KKR as a strategic partner alongside HMC to the platform’s existing 652MW of operational assets, its 5.7 GW battery energy storage system, and its wind development pipeline.

Bosta: $5 Million Raised For Building Automated Sorting Machine

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Bosta announced it has launched what it describes as the largest automated sorting machine in the Middle East, marking a major infrastructure milestone to improve delivery efficiency and support the rapid growth of Egypt’s e-commerce sector.

Rematch: AI-Powered Youth Sports Highlights Platform Tops One Billion Views

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Rematch, an AI-powered sports highlights platform focused on youth and emerging sports, said it has surpassed one billion views globally across its platforms, pointing to accelerating adoption in France and the U.S. The company framed the milestone as evidence of a growing community of clubs, parents, volunteers, athletes, coaches, and fans using Rematch to capture and share game moments at scale.

Anima: AI Design-To-Code Platform Lands IBM Strategic Investment

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Anima announced it has received a strategic investment from IBM to accelerate enterprise adoption of “vibe coding,” which the company describes as a workflow in which product teams design and build apps by telling AI what they want. The Tel Aviv-based company positions the deal as a way to broaden enterprise uptake of its AI design-to-code platform, deepen integrations with enterprise design systems, and extend support for legacy front-end code.

Arbor: $6.3 Million Raised To Turn Frontline Voices Into Operational Intelligence

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

Arbor, an AI research platform focused on enterprise operations, has raised $6.3 million in combined seed and pre-seed funding as it looks to scale product development and expand its team in New York. The seed round was led by 645 Ventures, with participation from Next Play Ventures, Chaac Ventures, Comma Capital, and notable angel investors, and was followed by a previously unannounced pre-seed round.

pHathom Technologies: Seed Round Pushes Total Committed Capital Past $12 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

pHathom Technologies, a climate technology company developing carbon capture solutions for existing coastal bioenergy and industrial facilities, has closed its seed financing round, bringing total committed capital to over $12 million. The seed round was led by Propeller Ventures, with participation from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, Invest Nova Scotia, and strategic investor Carmeuse Ventures.

East Texas A&M University Receives $8 Million Gift From Rene’ Griffin

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

East Texas A&M University announced it received an $8 million gift from alumnus Rene’ Griffin, calling it the largest single philanthropic contribution in the university’s history and the biggest ever to Lion Athletics.

RTX To Invest $139 Million In Singapore Through New EDB MOUs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

RTX announced it will invest over $139 million in Singapore after signing multiple memoranda of understanding with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) at the Singapore Air Show, reinforcing the country’s role as an Asia Pacific aerospace hub for advanced manufacturing, maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), and high-value engineering work.

OnCorps AI: Former BlackRock Executive Ron Allen Named As CEO

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2026

OnCorps AI, an agentic AI platform focused on fund operations, has appointed former BlackRock executive Ron Allen as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Founder Bob Suh will transition to Chairman and will remain involved in shaping product direction and supporting the company’s strategic growth.

VulcanForms: $220 Million Series D Raised For Digital Metal Manufacturing Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

ESAB: $1.45 Billion Deal For Eddyfi Adds Inspection And Monitoring To Its Workflow Stack

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

ESAB announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Eddyfi Technologies for $1.45 billion, positioning the industrial company to offer an expanded end-to-end workflow spanning fabrication, inspection, and monitoring. ESAB described Eddyfi as a global leader in advanced inspection and monitoring technologies and said the combination would create a more comprehensive offering for customers where quality, productivity, and uptime are critical.

Fieldguide: $75 Million Series C At $700 Million Valuation Raised For Agentic AI Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Fieldguide, an agentic AI-native platform for audit and advisory firms, has raised a $75 million Series C round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with participation from new investor Geodesic and existing backers Bessemer Venture Partners, 8VC, and Thomson Reuters. The financing brings Fieldguide’s total funding to $125 Million and values the company at $700 Million.

Arcesium: Fintech Provider Buys Limina To Build Unified Front-to-Back Investment Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Arcesium, a global financial technology provider serving institutional investors, has acquired Stockholm-based Limina, a provider of portfolio and order management systems.