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mRNA therapeutics company Innovac Therapeutics recently announced the completion of an $18 million Series Pre-A financing. The funding round includes Elikon Venture, Vision Plus Capital, Yunion Healthcare Ventures, TG Sino-Dragon Fund, and other industry and private individuals. And the proceeds will be used to develop further its technology platform and manufacturing capability to advance its lead programs to the clinical stage.

Quantinuum (the world’s largest quantum computing company) and Chubu University in Japan recently announced a new and timely partnership, co-led by two global experts in quantum models of artificial intelligence, Professors Bob Coecke and Masanao Ozawa. As recognized leaders in their field, they will establish an interdisciplinary team to explore quantum computational linguistics and cognition aimed at building future applications in quantum artificial intelligence.

Celularity - a biotechnology company developing allogeneic cell therapies and biomaterial products - recently announced a multi-year Research Collaboration Services Agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to support the research of Regeneron’s allogeneic cell therapy candidates.

Arcion - the only real-time in-memory change data capture (CDC) solution replicating enterprise databases using log-based change data capture in real-time into cloud lakehouses and data warehouses to power the next generation of AI applications - recently announced a few highlights. The new highlights include new connectors to extract data in real-time from cloud warehouses; rapidly growing enterprise adoption of Arcion to serve real-time AI applications; new partnerships with Confluent and Redis to democratize data mobility further; and new funding from Hewlett Packard Enterprise to fuel further development.

Cerby - a comprehensive access management platform for nonstandard applications - recently announced that the company has raised $17 million in Series A funding. Two Sigma Ventures led the funding round with significant participation from Outpost Ventures, an investment platform of Neuberger Berman. And participating investors include Ridge Ventures, Founders Fund, Bowery Capital, AV8, Salesforce Ventures, Tau Ventures, Okta Ventures, Incubate Fund, and Ben Johnson, co-founder of Obsidian Security and Carbon Black.

Translucent - an accounting platform solving the financial management problems of multi-entity and multi-national businesses - recently announced it has raised a £5 million seed round co-led by Chalfen Ventures and LocalGlobe. This follows a £2.7 million pre-seed round less than six months ago, bringing its total investment to £7.7 million.

Rapport Therapeutics - a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging the science of receptor-associated proteins (RAPs) to advance precision neuromedicines - recently announced that it has raised $150 million in Series B funding. Led by Cormorant Asset Management, the round includes investments from Fidelity Management & Research Company, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Logos Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Sofinnova Investments, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and all existing investors, which include Third Rock Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC).

DICE - the world’s largest independent music ticketing platform - recently announced it has raised a $65m funding round led by MUSIC, the first-ever diversified investment company focused exclusively on music and music-adjacent businesses. MUSIC’s CEO Matt Pincus will join the DICE Board of Directors. Other investors include Structural Capital and Ahdritz Holding LLC, the investment vehicle for Willard Ahdritz, founder and chairman of Kobalt Music, with follow-on investments from Exor Ventures and Mirabaud Lifestyle Fund.

Elemental Cognition (EC.ai) - a provider of breakthrough AI technology - recently announced that it has closed $60 million in connection with its Series B fundraising, including participation from Bridgewater Associates, Breyer Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Staged Ventures, and other individuals.

Rent Butter - an advanced tenant screening solution designed specifically for the workforce and affordable housing - recently announced the completion of its seed financing round. The $3 million round was led by RET Ventures, an industry-backed venture fund focused on single and multi-family real estate technology. RET’s investment comes from the RET Ventures ESG Fund - which invests in technologies that benefit real estate operators while advancing social or environmental goals.

Realization Capital Partners Management recently announced the closing of its second investment fund, Realization Capital Partners II, L.P. at $323 million. The Fund received strong support from various investors, including multi-family offices, RIAs, single-family offices, endowments, foundations, and industry executives.

FlipGive - a leading cashback rewards and end-to-end fundraising solution for youth sports teams - recently announced a successful CAD 5 million financing round. The funding raised in the round will be applied further to grow the FlipGive direct-to-consumer app across North America and to scale FlipGive's new white-label embedded cashback rewards shopping platform.

Saab recently announced that it acquired BlueBear Systems Group Ltd, based in the United Kingdom. The acquisition of all shares in BlueBear is part of Saab’s international growth journey strategy across key markets, which include the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and Germany.

Spencer Health Solutions - a health technology provider focused on improving patient engagement and medication adherence for clinical trials and commercial pharmaceutical programs while also easing the burden of medication management for patients and caregivers - recently announced the successful close of its Series D funding round, having raised an initial $43 million with additional funding expected before the end of the year. This funding round reflected the progress made at Spencer Health Solutions and the significant market response to its platform.

Superframe - an AI-powered tool for optimizing companies’ Go To Market tool stack configuration - recently announced that it has raised a $5 million Seed round led by Dan Scholnick (Four Rivers) and Designer Fund and joined by a consortium of angel investors, including Essence VC, Nick Mehta, Lauren Antonoff, Pete Kazanjy, Bob Moore, Leslie Fine, and others.

ViAqua Therapeutics - a biotechnology company and developer of an orally administered RNA-particle platform to promote and improve animal health in aquaculture - recently announced it has completed a US$8.25 million round led by S2G Ventures with participation from Rabo Ventures, The Trendlines Group Ltd., Agriline Limited, Nutreco, I-Lab Angels and Circle Investments LLC.

Integral - an innovator in safeguarding privacy and maximizing data quality - recently announced it raised a $6.9 million seed round to protect sensitive health data and provide automated expert certification software enabling health and life sciences companies to access compliant de-identified data in hours rather than months. Haystack, The General Partnership, and Virtue Ventures led this seed round of funding, with additional support from Also Capital, Array Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, GreatPoint Ventures, LiveRamp Ventures, and Venrex.

Coalesce Capital - a private equity firm focused on investing in business services companies - recently announced that it has teamed with Freedom 3 Capital, an existing Examinetics shareholder, and management to recapitalize Examinetics, a leading provider of occupational health compliance testing services.

ThetaRay - a leader in next-generation AI-powered secure global payments - recently announced today a significant growth round led by Portage, with investments by existing investors JVP, OurCrowd, and others. This investment will enable ThetaRay to accelerate global growth plans and capitalize on significant market demand as Banks and FinTechs urgently look to replace legacy tools with next-generation financial crime detection technology. ThetaRay also recently appointed Peter Reynolds – who drove the company’s growth as Chief Revenue Officer as CEO.

Star Therapeutics - a biotechnology company interrogating novel biology to develop life-changing therapies - recently announced the closing of an oversubscribed $90 million Series C financing to continue the growth of its first-in-class antibody therapies and portfolio companies. The funding was led by Sofinnova Investments and included new investors Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Catalio Capital Management, Agent Capital, Soleus Capital, and NYBC Ventures, as well as participation by all existing investors, including Westlake Village BioPartners, OrbiMed, Redmile Group, RA Capital Management, New Leaf Venture Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, and Cowen Healthcare Investments. Including this Series C funding round, Star Therapeutics has raised over $190 million since its inception to create numerous portfolio companies.

Alabama Futures Fund (AFF) recently invested in Sequense Corporation. Based in Austin, Texas, Sequense is a workflow automation software platform created to supercharge travel agency business operations for independent and enterprise scale travel advisors. Sequense’s goal is to streamline travel business processes to save time, increase profitability and elevate the reputation of its travel advisor customers.

GenTwo - a Swiss-based B2B Fintech platform specializing in securitization of bankable and non-bankable assets - recently announced that it has raised a $15 million Series A led by US-based Point72 Ventures. In connection with the funding round, Pete Casella, Senior Partner and Co-Head of Fintech Investments at Point72 Ventures, joins GenTwo’s board of directors.

Micronotes - a financial technology company that leverages big data, artificial intelligence, and consumer engagement technologies to boost deposits, loans, and retention for financial institutions - recently announced that it has closed a $2 million extension to its Series C funding round led by Experian Ventures.

Sortera Technologies - an innovative material sorting company with a recycling platform powered by artificial intelligence, data analytics, and advanced sensors - recently announced the closing of a $30.5 million Series C funding round led by RA Capital Management-Planetary Health with participation from certain funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, the Mineral Resources Group - which is a part of Mitsubishi Corporation's Business Incubation Unit and Macquarie GIG Energy Transition Solutions (MGETS).

Mercanis - a Berlin-based procurement suite solution company - recently announced the completion of its latest seed funding of $10 million. The funding round was led by institutional funds such as Signals.vc, DI Technology, and Speedinvest. Plus, successful entrepreneurs and well-known angels such as Dr. Ulrich Piepel, Dr. Marcell Vollmer, Mirko Novakovic (Instana), Victor Jacobsson (Klarna) also joined the round.

Alias Technologies is a company that is officially out of stealth mode with the launch of BeFake. This AI-driven zero-pressure social media app gives users the power of AI to creatively transform everyday moments with their friends. In just a few weeks since its launch, BeFake is already exploding in popularity and ranking in the App Store’s Top Free charts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.

Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) recently announced it has entered into a definitive purchase and assumption agreement with Algonquin, IL-based Algonquin State Bank and its parent holding company, First Algonquin Company. Pursuant to the definitive deal, MSUFCU will purchase all assets and assume all liabilities of Algonquin State Bank. The deal is MSUFCU’s second announced Illinois bank purchase in 2023.

ProjectDiscovery - the open source powered security company that specializes in the detection of new exploitable vulnerabilities - announced that it raised $25 million in a Series A financing round led by CRV, with participation from Point72, SignalFire, Rain Capital, Mango Capital, Accel, Lightspeed, Guillermo Rauch, Caleb Sima and Talha Tariq, etc. And at the same time, the company announced the launch of its ProjectDiscovery Cloud Platform, a fully-managed SaaS platform built on top of ProjectDiscovery's most popular open source tools to enable enterprises to discover and remediate vulnerabilities at scale.

Medcrypt is a proactive cybersecurity solution provider for medical device manufacturers. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Medcrypt co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) Eric Pancoast to learn more.

Deal Box is a blockchain-enabled tokenized funding platform democratizing private equity, venture capital, and investing in early rounds of businesses in frontier industries. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Deal Box CEO Thomas Carter to learn more.