Archives

Black Bay Partners Closes Third Fund At $425 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Black Bay Partners has completed the final closing of its third private equity vehicle, Black Bay III, L.P., reaching the fund’s hard cap of $425 million in capital commitments, the firm said Thursday.

Andela Acquires Woven To Bolster Technical Assessments for AI Engineers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Andela has acquired Woven, a technical assessment company known for real-world engineering scenarios, structured scoring rubrics, and AI-enabled evaluation, as the talent marketplace provider looks to strengthen how it measures AI fluency and predicts on-the-job performance for engineers.

GIGR (Playad): $5.4 Million Pre-Seed Secured To Build Multi-Agent AI Marketing Workflows

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

San Francisco-based startup GIGR (dba Playad) has raised $5.4 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate development of AI marketing agents designed to help teams create, test, and improve advertising creative with less manual work and less guesswork.

ZBD: $40 Million Series C Raised To Expand Lightning-Powered Payments And Rewards Inside Video Games

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

ZBD, a payments company focused on enabling real-money transactions inside games and consumer apps, said it has secured $40 million in Series C financing commitments led by Blockstream Capital Partners (BCP). The company positions itself as a fully licensed, vertically integrated payments provider built specifically for gaming, using the Bitcoin Lightning Network to support embedded payments and rewards at scale.

Paralex: Interview With Founder & CEO Stephen Candelmo About The AI-Based Legal Services Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Paralex is an AI-powered legal services platform that gives startups and small businesses fast, attorney-verified answers, contract reviews/drafting, and advisory sessions at fixed, upfront prices (no hourly billing). Pulse 2.0 interviewed Paralex founder and CEO Stephen Candelmo to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

ABZ Innovation: $8.2 Million Closed To Scale Heavy-Duty Agricultural And Industrial Drones

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

ABZ Innovation, a Europe-based maker of heavy-duty agricultural and industrial drones, has raised $8.2 million in a funding round led by Vsquared Ventures, with participation from Day One Capital and Assembly Ventures. The company said the new capital will be used to expand manufacturing capacity, accelerate product development, and support commercial growth in key international markets, including continued traction in the United States.

Octarine Bio: €5 Million Raised To Scale Precision-Fermented Natural Pigments

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Octarine Bio has secured €5 million in new funding, bringing its total Series A financing to €12.8 million, including earlier pre-Series A capital, as the Danish biotech pushes to scale a new platform for sustainable, bio-based pigments.

Mia Labs: $20 Million Series A Closed To Expand AI ‘Super Employee’ For Auto Dealership Communications

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Mia Labs, the company behind an AI-powered conversational platform designed specifically for automotive dealerships, has raised a $20 million Series A round to accelerate product development, expand its team, and scale deployments across the U.S. The financing brings the company’s total capital raised to $29 million.

Waldo: $225 Million Debut Fund Closed To Back Founder-Led Software And Tech-Enabled Services Companies

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Waldo, a New York-based investment firm, said it has closed its $225 million inaugural vehicle, Waldo I, to invest in proven, early-growth stage software and tech-enabled services companies. The firm said it is targeting entrepreneurs building enduring businesses with strong fundamentals and real-world traction, aiming to support companies on a path to scale without relying on public markets to define their outcomes.

Guardz: Interview With Co-Founder & CEO Dor Eisner About The Cybersecurity Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Guardz is a company that provides an AI-powered, unified cybersecurity platform designed specifically for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to secure and insure small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) against a wide range of cyber threats. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Guardz co-founder and CEO Dor Eisner to learn more.

Klir: $17.5 Million Series B And Credit Facility Closed To Scale Operational Data Hub for Water Utilities

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Klir has closed $17.5 million in growth financing, combining a $10 million Series B equity round with a $7.5 million credit facility from Innovation Banking at CIBC, as the company scales its operational platform for water utilities across North America and beyond.

Mews: $300 Million Series D At $2.5 Billion Valuation Raised To Push AI-Native Hotel Operations

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Mews, a hospitality operating system provider, has raised $300 million in a Series D funding round led by EQT Growth, with new participation from Atomico and HarbourVest Partners and continued backing from Kinnevik, Battery Ventures, and Tiger Global. The investment values Mews at $2.5 billion and will be used to accelerate product development focused on AI-driven automation, as well as expand payments and fintech capabilities and support international growth across North America, Europe, and additional markets.

Cyclic Materials: $75 Million Series C Raised To Scale Rare Earth Recycling

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Cyclic Materials has closed an oversubscribed $75 million Series C equity round as it scales rare-earth recycling operations across the U.S. and Europe and expands its Canada-based research and development footprint The financing was led by accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from the Canada Growth Fund and continued support from existing shareholders.

LPL Onboards $150 Million Firm Wilson Peak Wealth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Jeffrey J. Wilson and Michael Sadowski have moved Wilson Peak Wealth Management to LPL Financial’s broker-dealer and registered investment advisor platform, aligning with Private Advisor Group to support the firm’s next phase of growth. The advisors reported serving approximately $150 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and previously operated at Wells Fargo Advisors.

DealHub: $100 Million Raised To Build An Agentic Quote-To-Revenue Platform For Enterprise Monetization

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

DealHub has raised $100 million in a growth funding round led by Riverwood Capital as it pushes to reposition CPQ as the core “agentic” control plane for enterprise monetization, expanding beyond quoting into a unified quote-to-revenue platform that spans pricing and packaging through contracting, billing, and revenue recognition.

Pinegrove Opportunity Partners: $2.2 Billion Raised For Inaugural Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Pinegrove Opportunity Partners, a venture and growth secondaries specialist, announced it has closed its first fund with $2.2 billion in capital commitments, topping its $2 billion target and ending the raise oversubscribed.

BCI Names Jon Salon Global Head Of Private Equity, Succeeding Jim Pittman

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) has appointed Jon Salon as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Private Equity, effective February 2, 2026. Salon will lead BCI Private Equity’s C$36 billion-plus program and succeeds Jim Pittman, who has led the platform since 2016 and is departing BCI at the end of January.

Snapchat Updates Family Center To Give Parents More Insight Into Teen Accounts

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Snapchat is expanding the capabilities of its Family Center parental tools, adding new insights designed to help parents and caregivers better understand how teens spend time on the app and how they’re connecting with new friends.

Adobe Expands Firefly Foundry Partnerships To Bring Brand-Specific Generative AI To Film And TV Workflows

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Adobe is deepening its push into media and entertainment with new partnerships aimed at integrating Firefly Foundry—its enterprise-focused generative AI offering into filmmaking workflows from pre-production through post.

Cambio: $18 Million Closed To Bring Agentic AI To Commercial Real Estate Capital Planning And Compliance

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Cambio, an AI-native commercial real estate operations platform, has launched publicly after raising $18 million in Series A funding to help landlords and investors turn sprawling building data into faster, investment-grade decisions on retrofits, capital planning, and regulatory compliance. The round was led by Maverick Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Adverb Ventures, Peterson Ventures, and angel investors that include executives from Procore, OpenAI, Anthropic, Vanta, Vercel, ServiceNow, Notion, and Amplitude.

Superstate Raises $82.5 Million Series B To Expand Onchain Equity Issuance

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Superstate announced it has closed an $82.5 million Series B financing as the company expands from tokenized Treasury products into infrastructure that enables SEC-registered public companies to issue and manage tokenized shares directly on public blockchains.

Clorox To Buy Purell Maker GOJO For $2.25 Billion, Expanding Health And Hygiene Push

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

The Clorox Company announced it has agreed to acquire GOJO Industries, the Ohio-based maker of Purell hand sanitizer and other skin health and hygiene products, in a deal valued at $2.25 billion in cash. Clorox said the purchase price includes anticipated tax benefits of about $330 million, implying a net purchase price of $1.92 billion.

Spotify Expands Prompted Playlists Beta To Premium Users In The U.S. And Canada

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Spotify is expanding its Prompted Playlist feature in beta to more Premium listeners, rolling it out across the U.S. and Canada beginning January 22, 2026. The product, which Spotify began testing with Premium users in New Zealand in December 2025, is designed to let listeners generate playlists by describing what they want to hear in their own words, with results tailored by both their listening history and what’s trending in music in the moment.

Google Adds ‘Personal Intelligence’ To AI Mode in Search, Using Opt-In Gmail And Photos Context

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Google is expanding “Personal Intelligence” to AI Mode in Google Search, enabling paying Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. to opt in and connect Gmail and Google Photos so AI Mode can deliver more personalized answers.

Railway: $100 Million Series B Closed To Unburden Builders and Scale AI-Native Cloud Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Railway, a cloud platform designed to help developers deploy applications faster with less operational overhead, has raised $100 million in Series B funding as it looks to scale infrastructure built for an AI-accelerated era of software development. The round was led by TQ Ventures, with participation from FPV Ventures, Redpoint, and Unusual Ventures. Railway said the capital will support its efforts to “make infrastructure invisible,” expand global capacity, grow headcount, and build new developer- and AI-oriented tooling.

Inferact Launches With $150 Million Funding At $800M Valuation To Commercialize vLLM As Inference Demand Surges

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Inferact, a new AI infrastructure startup founded by creators and core maintainers of the open-source vLLM inference engine, has launched with $150 million in seed funding at an $800 million valuation, positioning the company to push performance gains in large language model serving while keeping vLLM’s development in the open. The seed round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures and ZhenFund. Inferact also listed additional backers including The House Fund, Striker Venture Partners, Laude Ventures, Databricks Ventures, GC&H, and the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fund.

LiveKit: $100 Million Series C At $1 Billion Valuation Raised To Advance Voice AI Infrastructure Push

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

LiveKit announced it has raised a $100 million Series C round led by Index Ventures, valuing the company at $1 billion, as it doubles down on building infrastructure for real-time, voice-native applications. Alongside Index Ventures, the round included participation from Salesforce Ventures, Hanabi Capital, and existing backers Altimeter and Redpoint Ventures.

One To One Health: $12 Million Minority Growth Investment Raised For Scaling AI-Enabled Primary Care

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

One to One Health has secured a $12 million minority growth investment from Frist Cressey Ventures (FCV) to expand its employer-sponsored primary care footprint and accelerate development of its AI-enabled clinical platform, Intelligent Care Manager. The Chattanooga, Tennessee-based company said the financing is designed to meet rising demand from employers seeking measurable savings and improved health outcomes through higher-engagement, relationship-based primary care.

Cancilico: €2.5 Million Seed Funding Closed To Scale AI-Powered Bone Marrow Diagnostics

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Cancilico, a Dresden-based AI diagnostics startup focused on blood cancers, has raised a €2.5 million Seed round to expand commercialization and pursue regulatory pathways for its bone marrow analysis software, MyeloAID. The financing was led by a syndicate that included High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), TGFS – Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, GEDAD GmbH (the Ehninger family’s investment vehicle), and ROI Verwaltungsgesellschaft (Roland Oetker).

Optalysys: £23 Million Series A Extension Raised To Commercialize Photonic Chips And Expand In The U.S.

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Optalysys announced it has raised £23 million in a Series A extension round to accelerate the commercialization of its photonic computing technology and support a planned expansion into the United States. The round was led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon, and the U.K. government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF). The financing is aimed at advancing Optalysys’ proprietary photonic chips and scaling go-to-market efforts as demand intensifies for faster, more energy-efficient computing infrastructure to support AI and cloud workloads.