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Lirvana Labs, the creator of the Yeti Confetti Kids app, which provides an AI-powered personalized learning companion for preschool to elementary grade children, announced it had raised $5.3 million in early-stage financing led by Kapor Capital III, Transcend Capital Partners II, and Chingona Ventures.

Tradeweb Markets, a leading operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities, and money markets, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Institutional Cash Distributors (ICD), an institutional investment technology provider for corporate treasury organizations trading short-term investments, for $785 million, subject to customary adjustments. The purchase price is expected to be funded with cash on hand.

Grafine Partners, a private investment firm that accesses differentiated sources of alpha by investing in new firms led by experienced private equity investors, announced that it closed its inaugural strategy, Grafine Capital I, and parallel vehicles, with about $600 million in total capital commitments. This strategy exceeded a target of $500 million with commitments from a small and select group of institutional investors seeking new approaches to generating returns.

ViaLase, a clinical-stage medical technology company focused on addressing unmet needs in the conventional glaucoma treatment paradigm, announced that it has closed a Series C financing, raising about $40 million in gross proceeds. The funding was led by a new investor and supported by current investors, including Venture Investors Health Fund, Arboretum Ventures, and Falcon Vision, an ophthalmology investment platform supported by KKR.

Selux Diagnostics, a Boston-based biotechnology company whose mission is to combat superbug infections and fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR), announced they have received an additional $48 million to launch their next phase of commercialization of the Selux Next Generation Phenotyping (NGP) System within the US. RA Capital Management led this new funding round with participation from Northpond Ventures, Sands Capital, and Schooner Capital.

Private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners announced the addition of Jim Wiegmann to its team of Operating Partners. Wiegmann is involved with evaluating consumer, food and beverage investment opportunities and driving post-acquisition value creation in One Rock's portfolio companies. He joins One Rock Operating Partners Frank Orfanello, Dr. Kevin Lang, and Tony Palmer - who also focus on improving One Rock's investment activities and executing value-creation strategies in the consumer, food, and beverage industries.

SunFire (SunFireMatrix), a software and tech-enabled services platform serving the insurance distribution and health plan markets, announced that it has been acquired by funds managed by KKR. The funds managed by Stone Point Capital (the company’s previous majority owner) will remain a significant minority shareholder. The financial details of the transaction were undisclosed.

The Missouri Local Government Employees Retirement System (LAGERS) announced they have selected Scott Day as the pension fund’s next chief investment officer. Day will be assuming the role effective May 1, 2024.

Alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital announced it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Kuvare Insurance Services LP (KAM) for $750 million. KAM is a boutique investment management firm that provides asset management services to the insurance industry, including Kuvare UK Holdings.

Model N (a leader in revenue optimization and compliance for pharmaceutical, medtech, and innovators) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Vista Equity Partners. Under the terms of the deal, Vista will acquire all the outstanding shares of Model N common stock for $30 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at about $1.25 billion.

Coalesce.io is a data transformation tool built for scale. And as the first platform to combine the speed of an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI), code flexibility, and automation efficiency for data transformations, Coalesce customers benefit from increased data engineer productivity and insights. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Coalesce CEO and co-founder Armon Petrossian to learn more about the company.

Homebase, the all-in-one HR and team management app that helps over 100,000 small businesses manage their hourly teams, announces a $60 million Series D funding round. This round—led by L Catterton Growth and supported by Emerson Collective—also includes existing Homebase investors Notable Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, and PLUS Capital.

InsightRX enables life science and provider healthcare organizations to individualize treatment from clinical development to the point of care. Pulse 2.0 interviewed InsightRX co-founder and CEO Sirj Goswami to learn more about the company. 

Obsidian Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering engineered cell and gene therapies, announced it has closed a significantly oversubscribed $160.5 million Series C financing with a top-tier syndicate of life science investors led by a new investor, Wellington Management. And new investors participating in the funding include Foresite Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Novo Holdings A/S, Paradigm BioCapital, RTW Investments, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, and Woodline Partners LP. Existing investors Atlas Venture, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, Bristol Myers Squibb, Deep Track Capital, Logos Capital, RA Capital Management, TCGX, Samsara BioCapital and Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company) also joined the round.

NobleAI, a pioneer in Science-Based AI solutions for Chemical and Material Informatics, announced over $10 million in Series A extension financing. New investor Sway Ventures led the round and was joined by Dorilton Ventures. The round also included additional investments from NobleAI’s original Series A investors.

Arctos, a private investment firm that provides growth and liquidity solutions, differentiated thought partnership and value creation services to sports franchises (Arctos Sports) and alternative asset managers (Arctos Keystone), announced the final close of Arctos Sports Partners Fund II.

Sidley announced that John C. Godfrey has joined Sidley’s M&A and Private Equity practice as a partner in New York. Godfrey joins Sidley from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP where he served as a member of that firm’s M&A and PE practices. And this follows the addition of a team of 11 lawyers from Paul, Weiss in the last ten months.

Hailo, a pioneering chipmaker of edge AI processors, announced it had extended its series C fundraising round with an additional $120 million investment. The company also introduced its innovative Hailo-10 high-performance generative AI (GenAI) accelerators, which ushered in a time when users could own and run GenAI applications locally without registering with cloud-based GenAI services.

Accel-KKR announced a majority equity investment in Aico Group, an end-to-end financial close software platform for large enterprises. With this funding, Accel-KKR will join current investor Juuri Partners as Aico's backers.

Datavolo, a leader in multimodal data pipelines for AI, announced that it has raised over $21 million in financing, led by General Catalyst, with participation from notable investors, including Citi Ventures, Human Capital, Rob Bearden, and MVP Ventures. This funding includes the company’s seed and Series A funding round.

TechGrid, a business platform for technology service providers (TSPs), announced it has secured a $9.2 million Series A investment from Bellini Capital. Formerly called SecurEdge Networks, TechGrid works with TSPs, including Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Value-Added Resellers (VARs), by streamlining workflows for selling, fulfilling, and managing IT solutions delivered to businesses. The new funding round will help evolve and scale the platform.

Miach Orthopaedics - a company transforming the treatment of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears from reconstruction to restoration with the Bridge-Enhanced ACL Restoration (BEAR) Implant - announced the closing of a $20 million Series B extension financing round. The funding will support the commercial expansion and clinical activities for the BEAR Implant, which has been used to treat nearly 3,000 patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.

Proxima - a data intelligence software company that enables consumer technology businesses to scale customer acquisition profitably, expand customer lifetime value, and optimize full lifecycle marketing - announced the closing of a $12 million Series A round led by Mucker Capital. And the other investors in the round include Aglae Ventures (the family office of LVMH founder), Great Oaks Venture Partners, Data Point Capital, Broadway Venture Partners, FirstLook Partners, and Connexa Capital.

Alterome Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of small-molecule targeted therapies for cancer treatment, announced the closing of a $132 million Series B financing. The proceeds from the funding round will support the advancement of multiple wholly-owned pipeline programs in the clinic, such as a specific AKT1 E17K inhibitor and a KRAS-selective inhibitor.

Torus announced some milestones, including completing an equity fundraising round and expanding its Board of Directors. This $67 million financing round (in the form of conversion of outstanding notes and a loan facility) was led by Origin Ventures. The financing also features contributions from notable institutional investors, including Epic Ventures, Cumming Capital, the Larry H. Miller Company, Zions Bank, Pelion, and ICONIQ.

Higgsfield AI, a company focused on democratizing social media video creation, recently announced $8 million in seed funding led by Menlo Ventures. This new funding round marks a major milestone in Higgsfield AI's goal to bring video AI generation and editing into the mainstream with its proprietary video model.

The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research was awarded a $6.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for gaining a better understanding of red cell disorders. Red cell disorders like Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) and sickle cell disease (SCD) affect over 1 billion people worldwide and are a significant cause of chronic illness and mortality.

OROS Labs, a thermal solutions company known for creating Solarcore, announced the closing of its Series B funding round, raising $22 million to support its expansion in consumer, commercial, and government industries. This funding round was led by Airbus Ventures and participated in by REI Co-op Path Ahead Ventures, Platinum Mile Ventures, Culper Ventures, Crumpton Ventures, Iron Gate Capital Advisors, Enlightenment Capital, CTK and the Goldwin Play Earth Fund, and others.

EarliTec Diagnostics, a medical device company focused on diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for children with autism and related early childhood vulnerabilities, announced a $21.5 million Series B financing round led by Nexus NeuroTech Ventures and Venture Investors Health Fund. This funding will expand commercialization efforts and advance clinical research for the first-in-kind EarliPoint Evaluation, which aids clinicians in diagnosing and assessing autism in children aged 16 to 30 months.