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Excel Engineering Announces Strategic Investment And Partnership With Fusion Capital Partners

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Excel Engineering, a Diagonal, Iowa-based testing and certification firm serving North American original equipment manufacturers, has secured a strategic investment from Fusion Capital Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm focused on engineered products and services in the industrial sector. The partnership is intended to help Excel scale its business and broaden its technical capabilities as OEMs and industrial customers navigate increasingly complex regulatory requirements and the continued evolution of powertrain and battery technologies.

Solutions By Text Acquires Triple Play Pay To Expand FinText Payments And Embedded Commerce Capabilities

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Solutions by Text announced it has acquired Triple Play Pay, a payments platform, in a move aimed at combining its compliance-first messaging capabilities with payment orchestration technology to provide a unified, compliant payments experience for consumer finance businesses and their customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Automated Logic Acquires CCG Automation To Expand Ohio Building Automation Footprint

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Automated Logic Contracting Services, part of Carrier Global Corporation, announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of CCG Automation, Inc., a building automation solutions provider headquartered in Richfield, Ohio, as it looks to expand its presence in the state.

Cerity Partners Merges With $1.4 Billion Firm Austin Private Wealth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Cerity Partners, an independent U.S.-based wealth management firm with approximately $140 billion in assets under management, has merged with Austin Private Wealth, a fiduciary Registered Investment Adviser headquartered in Austin with approximately $1.4 billion in assets under management.

Algebris Appoints Ex-Bank Of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe As UK Chair

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Algebris (UK) Limited said it has appointed Jon Cunliffe as a non-executive director and chair, following approval by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, with the appointment effective Jan. 1, 2026.

Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Names Anne-Laurence Roucher Group Head Of Private Markets

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management said it has appointed Anne-Laurence Roucher as Group Head of Private Markets in a newly created role intended to lead and expand the firm’s private markets business.

Main Capital Partners Acquires Majority Stake In IQ Messenger

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Main Capital Partners announced it has acquired a majority stake in IQ Messenger (IQM), a provider of vendor-neutral critical communication software used by healthcare institutions, as the firm looks to back product innovation and accelerate the company’s international growth.

AB InBev To Reacquire Minority Stake in U.S. Metal Container Plants For About $3 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Anheuser-Busch InBev said it has exercised its right to reacquire the 49.9% minority stake in its U.S.-based metal container plants from a consortium of institutional investors led and/or advised by affiliates of Apollo Global Management for an estimated purchase price of approximately $3 billion.

Lupus Research Alliance Launches Lupus Ventures Philanthropic Fund To Back New SLE Therapies And Diagnostics

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

The Lupus Research Alliance, the largest private funder of lupus research, said it has formed a philanthropic venture fund called Lupus Ventures to help advance treatments and diagnostics for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), its manifestations, and related autoimmune conditions.

Mobileye To Buy Mentee Robotics For $900 Million To Expand Physical AI Push Into Humanoid Robots

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Mobileye announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mentee Robotics Ltd., an AI-first humanoid robotics company, in a deal the companies say will broaden Mobileye’s ambitions beyond automotive autonomy into humanoid robots and “physical AI” systems designed to operate safely and effectively in real-world environments.

xAI Raises $20 Billion Series E

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

xAI announced it has closed an upsized Series E funding round totaling $20 billion, surpassing its previously targeted $15 billion raise, as the company accelerates development of its AI models and the infrastructure behind them. The company said the financing included participation from Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group, among other investors. And xAI added that NVIDIA and Cisco Investments joined as strategic investors, backing efforts to scale compute capacity and expand what it described as some of the world’s largest GPU clusters.

LMArena: $150 Million At $1.7 Billion Valuation Raised To Expand Real-World AI Evaluation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

LMArena announced it has raised $150 million in new financing to expand its community-driven platform for evaluating frontier AI models, valuing the company at $1.7 billion post-money. The round was led by Felicis and UC Investments, the University of California’s investment office, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, The House Fund, LDVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Laude Ventures.

Waiākea Adds Tetairoa McMillan, Devin Williams, Jerami Grant As Athlete Investors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Waiākea Hawaiian Volcanic Beverages announced it has added three new athlete investors and “impact partners” as it continues to expand its roster of sports figures backing the Hawai‘i-based brand.

GSME: $35M Series B Raised To Expand Semiconductor Services Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

GS Microelectronics U.S. (GSME) announced it has raised $35 million in a Series B round led by Maverick Silicon, funding the company plans to use to expand its semiconductor services platform across advanced packaging, design enablement, and supply chain visibility.

H.I.G. Growth Partners Sells ProsperOps To Flexera In FinOps Automation Exit

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

H.I.G. Growth Partners has completed the sale of ProsperOps, an Austin-based provider of autonomous cloud cost optimization software, to Flexera, a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo.

HabitTrade: Nearly $10 Million Series A Raised To Accelerate Global Expansion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

HabitTrade has closed a Series A funding round of nearly $10 million to expand its global brokerage footprint and deepen its compliance and risk-control capabilities, the company said. The round was led by Newborn Town Inc., with participation from Bright Venture Capital, StableStock, and other investors.

Banner Ridge Partners: $4.2 Billion Raised For Secondary Fund VI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Banner Ridge Partners announced it closed fundraising for Banner Ridge Secondary Fund VI (BRP VI) at its hard cap, securing $4.2 billion in total commitments, including a $200 million commitment from Banner Ridge. The New York-based firm said the fund was oversubscribed and drew support from a broad mix of institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, and family offices.

Tesoro XP: $5.4 Million Seed Funding Raised To Build Retail-Funded Rewards Platform For Free-To-Play Games

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Tesoro XP, a new rewards platform designed to let retailers fund in-game currency for gamers, has raised $5.4 million in seed financing ahead of a planned 2026 rollout. The round was co-led by Treasury, a New York-based fintech fund, and TK MediaTech Ventures, a venture firm focused on next-generation media technologies.

Cyril Valentin Joins White & Case As A Partner In Paris

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

White & Case has added tax lawyer Cyril Valentin as a partner in Paris, expanding the firm’s Global Tax Practice as well as its Global Financial Institutions Industry Group and Global Private Capital Industry Group. Valentin will lead the tax practice in Paris.

Core & Main Agrees To Buy Pioneer Supply

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Core & Main announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pioneer Supply, expanding the distributor’s footprint in the water, wastewater and storm drainage markets across Texas and Oklahoma.

Bentley Buys Talon Aerolytics And Pointivo Technology To Expand AI-Driven Asset Analytics

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Bentley Systems said it has acquired Talon Aerolytics and the technology and technical expertise of Pointivo in a pair of deals that closed in December, strengthening the company’s push into asset analytics for infrastructure owner-operators.

Ingersoll Rand Acquires Scinomix To Expand Life Sciences Automation Capabilities

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Ingersoll Rand has acquired Scinomix, Inc., a U.S.-based provider of laboratory automation technologies, as the industrial and life sciences solutions company continues to build out its life sciences portfolio through bolt-on M&A.

Evolution Metals & Technologies Completes SPAC Merger Ahead Of Planned Nasdaq Debut

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Evolution Metals & Technologies announced it has completed its business combination with Welsbach Technology Metals Acquisition Corp., creating a newly formed public company focused on building a vertically integrated supply chain for critical minerals and materials, including rare earth magnets and battery materials.

Rubina Ali Joins White & Case As Partner In New York

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

White & Case has added Rubina (Rubi) Ali as a partner in New York, expanding the firm’s Global Capital Markets Practice, Derivatives Practice and Global Financial Institutions Industry Group.

Sony Honda Mobility Unveils AFEELA Prototype 2026

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Sony Honda Mobility announced at CES 2026 a roadmap that blends automated driving, conversational AI, in-car entertainment, and creator-led software development as core pillars of its “Mobility as a Creative Entertainment Space” vision. During a press conference at CES, the Sony-Honda joint venture showcased AFEELA 1 as a pre-production vehicle and reiterated that it expects first customer deliveries in California to begin within 2026. The company said it plans to expand sales to Arizona in 2027, while also targeting Japan deliveries in the first half of 2027, framing the rollout as a phased approach that pairs product launch with a broader services and experiences strategy.

Lucid, Nuro, And Uber Unveil Global Robotaxi, Begin Autonomous Road Testing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Lucid Group, Nuro and Uber announced at CES 2026 the production-intent vehicles they plan to deploy in a global robotaxi service, alongside an Uber-designed in-cabin rider experience that the companies said is being shown publicly for the first time.

Intel Launches Core Ultra Series 3, The First AI PC Platform Built On Intel 18A

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Intel unveiled its Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors at CES 2026, positioning the lineup as the company’s first compute platform built on Intel 18A process technology and its most broadly adopted AI PC platform to date. Intel said the chips will power more than 200 laptop designs from global partners, with initial consumer systems available later this month.

Latham Adds Sara Margolis To New York As Partner In Complex Commercial Litigation Practice

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Latham & Watkins has hired trial lawyer Sara Margolis as a partner in its New York office, strengthening the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation Practice with additional high-stakes commercial and intellectual property litigation capabilities, particularly in pharmaceutical and life sciences disputes.

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon X2 Plus For Windows 11 Copilot Plus PCs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Qualcomm Technologies introduced the Snapdragon X2 Plus platform at CES 2026, expanding its Snapdragon X Series lineup and broadening access to Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs aimed at modern professionals, aspiring creators and everyday users seeking portable designs, fast performance, built-in AI features and multi-day battery life.

David MacNaughton Joins CIBC As Strategic Advisor

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

CIBC has appointed former Canadian Ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton as a Strategic Advisor, adding a senior public-policy and cross-border trade voice to the bank’s recently established Office of the CEO.