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Convergent Energy and Power, a leading provider of energy storage solutions in North America, announced that the company has received a conditional commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office (LPO) for a loan guarantee of up to $559.4 million for its subsidiaries to build a solar photovoltaic (PV) system with an integrated battery storage system and three stand-alone battery storage systems across Puerto Rico.

Dentons announced it has welcomed experienced corporate tax specialist Neil McKnight as a partner to its Tax team in London. And he joined the firm from Morgan Lewis, where he was a partner in the tax practice.

The Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) announced that the state’s life sciences ecosystem raised $2.15 billion in 2024, a 46% increase compared to 2023. Colorado - recognized as the Hub for Health Impact - has brought in nearly $12 billion for life sciences research and development during the last eight years from public and private sources and federal, state, and foundation grants.

rPlus Energies announced the closing of $304 million in new financing facilities like a $179 million construction debt facility for its Pleasant Valley Solar 2 project and a $125 million Corporate Letter of Credit Facility secured with Deutsche Bank to support the company’s ongoing growth.

Fashion marketplace LAAM announced it has raised a $5.5 million funding round to make South Asian fashion global. Disrupt.com and Zayn VC led this seed funding round, with participation from Graph Ventures, Mentors Fund, and tech leaders from Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce.

Symmio - a decentralized derivatives protocol with over $8 billion in trading volume - announced it raised $3.1 million in funding, including $2.1 million in new investments from top-tier investors, including Spartan Group, Orbs, MCLB, and Blockchain Founders Fund, as well as previous investments by @AgentChud (Messi), MS2 Capital, Gametheorizing (Selini Capital), GMoney & Prime Ventures.

Alessa Therapeutics - a clinical-stage drug development company pioneering an innovative and proprietary localized drug delivery technology for the early interception of cancer and other diseases - announced the closing of a $15 million seed funding round led by Mission BioCapital joined by Johnson & Johnson (through its corporate venture capital organization, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC)., and a representative of JJDC  will join the Board of Directors at Alessa Therapeutics.

Cartesia, a company whose state-space models (SSMs) are transforming the next wave of innovation in generative AI, announced $22 million in new funding led by Index Ventures, bringing the total capital raised to $27 million. Also joining in this round are venture funds like A* Capital, Conviction, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, and SV Angel, along with 90 prominent angel investors, including the founders of Abridge, Airtable, Captions, Cognition, Cohere, Databricks, Datadog, Hugging Face, Hubspot, Infinitus, Llamaindex, Mercury, Mistral, Okta, Perplexity, Pika, Pinterest, Postman, Ramp, RunwayML, Snorkel, Sonos, Together AI, Tripedot Studios, Typeface, Vercel, Weaviate, Weights and Biases, and Zapier.

Mynt - a leading provider of corporate credit cards and spend management solutions - announced a €22 million funding round at a significantly increased valuation of about €175 million, led by Vor Capital, with participation from existing investors CNI, Incore, and others. The Series B round brings Mynt’s total funding to over €50 million.

Alira Health - a global healthcare consulting and technology firm - announced the securing of up to $100 million in growth debt from premier healthcare and life sciences investor Symbiotic Capital.

Marcy Venture Partners, a venture capital firm founded by rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, merged with Black-owned Pendulum Opportunities (the investment arm of Pendulum Holdings). The combined company will be called MarcyPen Capital Partners, with a reported $900 million AUM.

Buildforce - a leading platform connecting skilled electricians with qualified electrical contractors - announced it has acquired Ladder, a Y Combinator-backed construction labor marketplace led by Atlanta-based Founder and CEO Alex Stewart, who will continue in a leadership role responsible for growing the presence of the company in the U.S. Southeast region.

Elisity is a leap forward in network segmentation architecture and is leading the enterprise effort to achieve Zero Trust maturity, proactively prevent security risks, and reduce network complexity. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Elisity CTO Piotr Kupisiewicz to learn more about the company.

Rackhouse Ventures is a global venture capital firm purpose-built to support early-stage founders and firms that sit at the intersection of AI/ML and the real world. . Pulse 2.0 interviewed Rackhouse Ventures managing partner and founder Kevin Novak to learn more about the firm.

Gemspring Capital Management, a middle-market private equity firm, announced that an affiliate has invested strategically in Telna. As a leader in eSIM connectivity solutions, Telna makes it easier for mobile devices to seamlessly transition between carrier networks, eliminating the need for physical SIM cards and enhancing global connectivity.

Brain–computer interface (BCI) company Precision Neuroscience announced the closing of a $102 million Series C funding round led by General Equity Holdings, with participation from firms including B Capital; Duquesne Family Office, the investment firm of Stanley F. Druckenmiller; and Steadview Capital. And with $155 million in total capital raised, Precision is now one of the best-funded companies in the BCI industry.

Perigon Wealth Management - a rapidly growing independent wealth management firm with offices across the country and about $8.2 billion in client assets as of June 30, 2024 - announced it expanded its Florida network with the addition of the Harrigan Group. And Robert Harrigan and his son Evan Harrigan have joined Perigon’s Boca Raton, Florida, office from UBS, where they oversaw $170 million in total client assets.

Sidley announced that Clive Gringras has joined the firm as a partner in the Commercial Litigation and Disputes practice in London. Before joining Sidley, he was head of the Technology, Media and Telecoms practice at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang.

Dentons has announced that Jakub Celiński and Paweł Grabowski have been elected as the new managing partners of Dentons’ Warsaw office. Their term will start on January 1, 2025.

DLA Piper strengthened its Corporate and M&A practice by adding Sebastian Goslar. And from January 1, 2025, he will join the firm’s Corporate group in Germany and be based in the firm's new office in Dusseldorf.

Data and AI company Databricks announced a Series J funding round today. The company is raising $10 billion of expected non-dilutive financing and has completed $8.6 billion. This funding values Databricks at $62 billion, and Thrive Capital is leading it. Along with Thrive, the funding round is co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, Insight Partners, and WCM Investment Management. Other significant participants include existing investors Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and new investors ICONIQ Growth, MGX, Sands Capital, and Wellington Management.

Synadia is a company renowned for enabling distributed applications in the era of edge computing, IoT, and AI. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Synadia’s VP of Marketing, Justyna Bak, to learn more.

Engineered Arts, a leader in the design and manufacture of humanoid robotics founded in the U.K., announced it has restructured as a U.S. entity to expand its footprint and meet growing U.S. demand. Along with this move, the company closed a $10 million Series A funding round to accelerate product refinement, manufacturing, production, and business systems. Helium-3 Ventures led the Series A funding, with additional participation from AppDirect Chairman and CEO Nicolas Desmarais, Belvoir Investments, and a consortium of investors, such as ThirtySeven Holdings and Figueira Capital. And Matt Bellamy (frontman of the English rock band Muse and a partner in Helium-3 Ventures) will join Engineered Arts’ board as an observer.

AbbVie and Nimble Therapeutics announced a definitive agreement under which AbbVie will acquire Nimble, including its lead asset, an investigational oral peptide IL23R inhibitor in preclinical development for the treatment of psoriasis and a pipeline of other novel oral peptide candidates with potential across several autoimmune diseases. Additionally, AbbVie will acquire Nimble's peptide synthesis, screening, and optimization platform, which uses proprietary technology to help drive rapid discovery and optimization of peptide candidates for various targets.

Axonify is a frontline learning and enablement solution that’s science-backed and proven to maximize the potential of workforces. It gives frontline workers the tools they need to learn, connect, and get things done day-to-day. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Axonify co-founder and CEO Carol Leaman to learn more about the company.

Actfore is a company that offers insurance carriers, legal counsel, and corporations advanced AI/ML-powered data mining solutions to detect and uncover sensitive information compromised in cyber breaches swiftly. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Actfore Founder & CEO Christian Geyer to learn more about the company.

Arctic Wolf and BlackBerry announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for Arctic Wolf to buy BlackBerry’s Cylance endpoint security assets. Cylance is a pioneer of AI-based endpoint protection trusted by thousands of organizations worldwide. Through this acquisition, Arctic Wolf ushers in a new era of simplicity, flexibility, and outcomes to the endpoint security market.

Sia Partners - a next-generation independent management and AI consulting firm - announced a minority investment of up to €250 million from funds managed by Blackstone’s private equity strategy for individual investors to support the company’s continued growth. And founder and CEO Matthieu Courtecuisse retains a significant majority stake in Sia and will continue to lead the Company. It marks the Company’s first partnership with a financial investor since its founding.

Brightly, a climate-tech company transforming food waste into high-integrity carbon credits to fund food rescue organizations, announced it has closed an oversubscribed $2.3 million seed round. The funding round was led by Schreiber Foods, a leading global food company, with additional support from G-Force, Collaborative Fund, Clear Current Capital, and Windsail Capital.