Innovation

Duna: €30 Million Series A Raised For AI Native Business Identity Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Duna, an identity fintech founded by two Stripe alumni, has raised a €30 million Series A to expand its AI native business identity platform for regulated enterprises. The round was led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures and Puzzle Ventures, as well as Snowflake Chairman Frank Slootman.

GoodLife Group Secures Strategic Minority Investment From Apollo Funds

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

The GoodLife Group, Canada’s largest fitness operator, has secured a strategic minority investment led by Apollo-managed funds and affiliates associated with Apollo’s hybrid strategies, as the company looks to accelerate its long-term growth plans.

Otro Capital: Sports-Focused PE Firm Closes $1.2 Billion Debut Buyout Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Otro Capital announced it has closed its inaugural sports fund with $1.2 billion of committed capital across Fund I and affiliated investment vehicles, exceeding the fund’s initial target. The New York-based firm described Fund I as the largest first-time dedicated sports buyout fund ever raised globally, positioning the raise as a marker of growing institutional appetite for scaled strategies focused on sports properties and the broader sports economy.

Shore Capital Closes $400+ Million Industrials Fund II

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Shore Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm focused on the lower middle market, has closed its second dedicated industrials vehicle, Shore Capital Industrial Partners Fund II, with more than $400 million in capital commitments, reflecting what the firm described as strong demand from both existing and new limited partners for its sector-focused strategy.

Evan Weiss Named As CEO Of New Jersey Economic Development Authority

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

New Jersey’s economic development agency has a new leader. The board of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority approved Evan Weiss as the Authority’s next chief executive officer, following a recommendation earlier in January from Governor Mikie Sherrill.

Batbox: Interview With VP Of Marketing Brandon Gabay About The Sports Technology Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Batbox is a sports technology company reinventing how the world plays, experiences, and connects through baseball. Its proprietary simulation platform and gameplay engine power a growing network of flagship venues, licensed installations, and self-serve units worldwide. With immersive technology, real-time analytics, and a unified player ecosystem, Batbox makes baseball accessible, social, and unforgettable. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Batbox VP of Marketing Brandon Gabay to learn more.

Eterna Growth Partners Spins Out From Charlesbank As Independent Middle-Market Tech Private Equity Firm

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Eterna Growth Partners, the newly independent private equity firm previously housed inside Charlesbank Capital Partners’ Technology Opportunities Fund strategy, has completed its spinout and will now operate as a standalone middle-market technology investment platform.

Aditya Birla Housing Finance Raises $304.3 Million Growth Round At $2.13 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Aditya Birla Capital Limited and Aditya Birla Housing Finance Limited said their boards have approved a proposal for a primary capital infusion of Rs. 2,750 crore ($304.3 million) into Aditya Birla Housing Finance Limited (ABHFL), the housing finance subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital. The investment is set to be made by Indriya Limited, an entity of Advent International, and would bring a new minority shareholder into ABHFL while keeping Aditya Birla Capital as the controlling owner.

Eurazeo And Pantheon Set Up Nearly €500 Million Private Debt Continuation Vehicle

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Eurazeo has closed a €480 million bespoke private debt continuation vehicle backed by Pantheon, adding fresh capital to a portfolio of performing European senior credit assets and extending lending capacity for European middle market borrowers.

Meiji Yasuda Acquires U.S. Life And PRT Insurer Banner Life In $2.3 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Banner Life Insurance Company and William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York, together known as the Banner Life family of companies, announced they have been acquired by Japan’s Meiji Yasuda Group.

Terex Completes REV Group Merger To Create Specialty Equipment Manufacturer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Terex announced it has completed its merger with REV Group, forming a combined specialty equipment manufacturer that the company says will have a broader, more resilient portfolio and improved capacity to drive profitable growth. The transaction brings together complementary product lines across specialty vehicles and equipment that serve end markets including emergency services, waste and recycling, utilities, and construction.

Simplicity Group Buys Disability-Insurance Specialist Source Brokerage To Expand Institutional DI Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Simplicity Group, a holistic financial planning firm that blends wealth accumulation and financial protection solutions, has acquired Indianapolis-based Source Brokerage, a disability insurance specialist brokerage general agency (BGA). The transaction expands Simplicity’s national disability insurance (DI) platform and adds specialized institutional-market expertise, including Graduate Medical Education (GME) and Guaranteed Standard Issue (GSI) programs.

OpenText To Sell Vertica Analytics Unit To Rocket Software For $150 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

OpenText has agreed to divest Vertica, part of its non-core Analytics portfolio, to Rocket Software for $150 million in cash, before taxes, fees, and other adjustments. The transaction is structured as a definitive agreement and is expected to close during OpenText’s fiscal year 2026, subject to customary approvals and closing conditions.

Kings League Raises $63 Million To Advance Global Expansion in Creator-Led Sports

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Kings League, the creator-led sports competition founded by Gerard Piqué, has secured a $63 million investment round led by Alignment Growth, a U.S.-based media and entertainment investor, with participation from existing shareholders. The new capital is intended to accelerate Kings League’s next phase of international growth, combining organic expansion with selective M&A as the organization looks to broaden its global footprint and deepen its platform across both its men’s and women’s properties.

Synthpop: $15 Million Series A Closed For Healthcare-Focused Multi-Agent Workflow Automation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Synthpop, a healthcare AI company focused on agentic automation for payer, provider, and patient operations, raised a $15 million in Series A funding to scale automation across administrative workflows throughout the patient journey. The financing brings Synthpop’s total funding to $23 million.

Apeiron Labs: $9.5 Million Series A Raised For Scaling Global AUV Network

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Apeiron Labs announced it has closed a $9.5 million Series A financing to scale its real-time ocean intelligence platform and expand deployments of its autonomous underwater vehicle networks. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said the round was co-led by S2G Investments, RA Capital Management’s Planetary Health Fund, and DYNE Ventures, with participation from Assembly Ventures, TFX Capital, and Bay Bridge Ventures.

Una Software: $13 Million Total Funding Raised Following Seed Round For AI-Native FP&A Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Una Software announced it has closed its seed financing, bringing total funding raised to $13 million, as the Toronto-based company looks to scale its AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform for midmarket and enterprise finance teams. The company also announced that Michael Morrison, previously CEO of Fluence Technologies and Jirav, has been appointed chief executive officer.

Cerebras: AI Chipmaker Raises $1 Billion Series H At About $23 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Cerebras Systems, an AI chipmaker focused on wafer-scale processors for training and inference, said it has closed a $1 billion Series H financing at a post-money valuation of approximately $23 billion. The company said the round was led by Tiger Global and included participation from Benchmark, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Atreides Management, Alpha Wave Global, Altimeter, AMD, Coatue, and 1789 Capital, among others.

Machina Labs: $124 Million Series C Closed For Large-Scale Intelligent Factory

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Machina Labs, a Los Angeles-based advanced manufacturing and robotics company, announced it has closed a $124 million Series C financing round as it transitions from technology development to deploying its software-defined manufacturing infrastructure for defense, aerospace, and advanced mobility applications.

Osmo: $70 Million Series B Closed For AI-Based Olfaction Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Osmo, a digital scent design company, announced it has completed a $70 million Series B funding round, bringing total capital raised to $130 million. The round was led by Two Sigma Ventures, with participation from new investors including Valor, Atreides, Amplo, Alumni Ventures, Collab Fund, Lumina Partners, and Patrick Collison, alongside existing investors.

AppFactor: $4 Million Secured For Agentic Software Maintenance Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

AppFactor, an agentic orchestration platform focused on autonomous maintenance for enterprise software, has raised a $4 million seed round to accelerate go-to-market execution and expand product capabilities, including autonomous refactoring to turn legacy systems into secure, cloud-ready applications that can maintain themselves. The round was led by Tensor Ventures, with participation from Begin Capital, Adara Ventures, and Narwhal Investments.

Airrived: $6.1 Million Seed Funding Raised For Enterprise Security and IT Agentic OS Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Airrived launched from stealth on Thursday with $6.1 million in seed funding to bring agentic AI into the core of enterprise cybersecurity, IT, and business operations. The round was led by Cannage Capital, with participation from Plug and Play Ventures, Rebellion Ventures, and Inner Loop Capital, along with strategic investments from cybersecurity veterans Manoj Apte, Mahendra Ramsinghani, and Saqib E. Awan.

Cashmere: $5 Million Closed For Premium Content Data Licensing Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

NAVER D2SF, NAVER’s in-house corporate venture capital arm, has invested in Cashmere, a data infrastructure platform designed to connect premium content publishers with AI companies in a way that supports licensing, rights protection, and monetization.

Feltsense: $5.1 Million Seed Funding Raised To Build Autonomous ‘Agentic Founders’ To Create New Companies

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

Feltsense Holdings announced it raised $5.1 million in seed funding to build AI agents that operate as fully autonomous founders, ideating products, building them, and taking them to market without human intervention.

APEXX Global: Payment Orchestration Platform Secures Up to $10 Million Strategic Investment

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

APEXX Global, a merchant-centric payment orchestration platform, announced a strategic investment of up to $10 million led by European growth investor Finch Capital as it looks to accelerate product development and expand internationally.

ShengShu Technology: Multimodal Video Model Developer Raises RMB 600M+ Series A+

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 5, 2026

ShengShu Technology said it has completed a Series A+ funding round of more than RMB 600 million as it scales development and commercialization of its multimodal foundation models, including its Vidu video generation platform. The round was co-led by Zhongguancun Science City and LINK-X CAPITAL, and included strategic investments from Wondershare, Visual China Group Co., Ltd., and TRS. ShengShu added that existing backers, including Qiming Venture Partners, the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, G&O, C&D Emerging Industry Equity Investment, and Guowen Hechuang, also increased their investments.

Polaris Completes Indian Motorcycle Separation And Majority Stake Sale To Carolwood

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 4, 2026

Polaris announced it has completed the separation of Indian Motorcycle into a standalone business and finalized the sale of a majority stake in the brand to Carolwood LP, an independent private equity firm founded in 2014 and headquartered in Los Angeles.

SI Solutions Acquires Radiological Solutions To Expand Nuclear Chemistry And Radiation Support

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 4, 2026

SI Solutions announced it has acquired Radiological Solutions, Inc. through its advanced engineering division, Structural Integrity Associates, Inc., expanding its nuclear energy capabilities across plant chemistry, radiological controls, radiation protection, and operational performance support.

Notre Dame Federal Credit Union Plans Strategic Merger With Catholic United Financial Credit Union

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 4, 2026

Notre Dame Federal Credit Union and Catholic United Financial Credit Union announced they plan to merge through a strategic partnership that would combine the two not-for-profit credit unions under the Notre Dame FCU name, pending a member vote and regulatory steps already in motion.

VTG Acquires Whitlock Infrastructure Solutions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 4, 2026

Virtual Technologies Group (VTG), an IT, security, and cloud services firm backed by Jacmel Partners, has acquired Whitlock Infrastructure Solutions (Whitlock), a software solutions and IT services firm focused on IT operations management for enterprise organizations. The transaction was supported with financing arranged by Brightwood Capital Advisors.