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TowneBank and Old Point Financial—the parent company of The Old Point National Bank of Phoebus (OPNB)—announced an agreement and plan of merger. Under the agreement, TowneBank will acquire Old Point and OPNB. The proposed deal will enhance TowneBank’s position in the Hampton Roads MSA by adding a high-quality core deposit franchise.

Nulogy is the market leader in synchronizing the extended supply chain network, having pioneered the new digital era for brands and the contract packaging and manufacturing partners that enable their external supply chain networks. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Nulogy CEO Jason Tham to learn more about the company. 

Stramsen Biotech (an emerging leader in plant-based biopharmaceutical industry) announced that it has signed a binding agreement with GEM Global Yield (GGY), part of GEM, a Luxembourg-based private alternative investment group as its Lead Investor, for a $25 million share subscription facility to be funded annually over a 36-month term following a public listing of the Stramsen's common stock.

Kashiv BioSciences, a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has entered a senior secured credit agreement with GoldenTree Asset Management as the sole lender.

Cloudflare announced the acquisition of Outerbase (a developer database company) to dramatically enhance the developer database experience across Cloudflare Workers. With this deal, building database-backed applications will be more approachable, enabling more teams to build and deploy full-stack, AI-enabled applications on Cloudflare’s global network.

Waverly Advisors - a federally registered investment adviser (RIA) that specializes in investment management, financial planning, and wealth management solutions for a diverse group of high-net-worth individuals, corporate retirement plans, and institutional clients - announced it has acquired Fiduciary Wealth Advisors (FWA), a wealth management firm located in Sarasota, FL. This partnership expands Waverly’s presence in Southwest Florida.

Contxtful Technologies, an innovator in attention-based ad technology, announced the closing of a $1.9 million funding round led by NJP Ventures. This funding round enables Contxtful to enhance its technology, scale its operations, and expand its market reach.

IBM announced it has acquired Hakkoda Inc., a leading global data and AI consultancy. Hakkoda will expand IBM Consulting's data transformation services portfolio, adding specialized data platform expertise to help clients prepare their data to advance AI-based business operations.

SignalFire, a leading early-stage venture capital firm focused on applied AI, announced it has raised over $1 billion to fund the next generation of technology startups, bringing its total assets under management (AUM) to about $3 billion.

Rescale, a digital engineering platform built for the future of innovation and scientific discovery, announced a $115 million Series D with participation from Applied Ventures, Atika Capital, Foxconn, Hanwha Asset Management Deeptech Venture Fund, Hitachi Ventures, NEC Orchestrating Future Fund, NVIDIA, Prosperity7, SineWave Ventures, Translink Capital, University of Michigan, and Y Combinator. This brings the total funding raised to $260+ million. Rescale's early investors include Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Paul Graham, and Peter Thiel.

SchoolAI, an AI platform for teaching and learning, announced it has closed $25 million in Series A funding to address education’s fundamental challenge: helping teachers provide personalized attention to every student.

Further AI, a company that has developed AI Assistants that handle complex insurance tasks, announced it has raised $5 million in new funding. Nexus Venture Partners led this new funding round through their $700 million AI-dedicated fund and will help Further AI to advance its mission of reducing expense ratios by 50%. This funding round also includes support from early-stage funds like Pioneer AI Fund, South Park Commons, Y Combinator, ConvergeVC, and strategic investors like Xceedance.

Northwestern University scientists have developed a new carbon-negative building material using seawater, electricity, and carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide). As Earth’s climate continues to warm, researchers around the globe are exploring ways to capture carbon dioxide from the air and store it deep underground. While this approach has multiple climate benefits, it does not maximize the value of the enormous amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

UniteLabs, a company specializing in lab automation for biotechnology, announced it has raised €2.77 million in a pre-seed funding round led by NAP (formerly Cavalry Ventures). Investors PUSH, Acurio Ventures, OMA Business Angels, and LANA Ventures also participated in the round.

NewEdge Advisors, a leading New Orleans-based RIA supporting independent financial advisors nationwide, announced Krueger, Fosdyck, Brown, McCall & Associates (a team based in Destin, Florida) has joined the firm from Merrill Lynch, where they managed $1.4 billion in client assets.

WTW (a leading global advisory, broking, and solutions company) announced the acquisition of Global Commercial Credit (GCC) into Willis. This strategic deal will advance performance by expanding into specialized businesses that align with the company’s technical, industry-structured, and expertise-driven growth plan.

Aventura Private Wealth announced the closing of its inaugural fund. The firm raised $9.5 million in just 9 days for a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that exclusively holds shares of SpaceX, validating strong investor demand for private market opportunities in pioneering technology companies.

Surgical robotics company CMR Surgical – the global surgical robotics company – announced the closing of a financing round of over $200 million through a combination of equity and debt capital to support the company’s ambitious growth plans. The funding, which was supported by all the company’s existing major investors, includes a new debt investment from Trinity Capital, reflecting strong investor confidence in CMR’s vision.

Wirex Private, a platform for High-Net-Worth clients, announced the launch of crypto-backed loans. As part of its expanding suite of exclusive services, Wirex Private is now offering loans of up to $10 million.

Canada-based holding company Tiny announced it has acquired a controlling stake in DJ software company Serato for C$94.5 million ($66 million USD). This deal is being made through a combination of cash and common shares. The cash amount is $42 million, and Serato is valued at $175 million. The deal is expected to close in Q2 of 2025.

Motorola Solutions announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire InVisit, a cloud-based visitor management solution provider based in Calabasas, California. The deal will expand Motorola Solutions’ cloud-native Avigilon Alta security suite for enterprise customers, helping to better tackle rising security threats to people, operations, and assets in organizations worldwide.

Crestview Partners (a leading private equity firm founded in 2004) announced closing a continuation fund that includes two Crestview Partners III investments, VA Capital Company, and ATC Drivetrain Investors / ATC Drivetrain Group, with nearly $600 million of commitments. And Apollo's Sponsor and Secondary Solutions business (Apollo S3) led the transaction with additional investments from funds managed by Hamilton Lane, the Crestview team, and others.

Raxio Group, a leading Sub-Saharan African data center platform, announced it has signed an agreement for $100 million in financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. This funding will advance Raxio’s expansion of facilities powering key technologies like AI, cloud computing, and digital financial services – critical enablers of Africa’s economic growth and digital inclusion.

The SAT exam remains a major test that can open doors to scholarships, colleges, and future opportunities. And for decades, preparing for it has been synonymous with stress, boredom, and high costs. This is where Linus comes in. Created by gaming industry veterans and backed by a $5 million seed round led by Owl Ventures (the world's largest edtech investor), Linus combines teaching methods with the power of engaging and game-like experiences to transform how students study for this crucial exam.

Leading alternative asset manager Trinity Capital announced the commitment of up to $68.75 million in growth capital to CMR Surgical, a global medical devices company dedicated to transforming surgery with the Versius Surgical Robotic System, an adaptable soft-tissue surgical robot. This investment forms part of the company's recently closed financing round of over $200 million.

Phoenix Service Partners announced the closing of a $150 million asset-based lending (ABL) facility that includes an additional $100 million accordion feature. This strategic funding was closed concurrently with Phoenix's $100 million equity partnership agreement, enhancing the company's financial foundation and growth trajectory.

SpinLaunch, a pioneer of disruptive space solutions, announced a $12 million strategic investment from Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, unveiling Meridian Space, an ultra-high-performance, low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband constellation. And the constellation can uniquely provide global coverage with only one traditional rocket launch, deploying 250 next-generation microsatellites that leverage a proprietary suite of groundbreaking technologies.

TOGETHXR — an women's sports media and commerce brand co-founded by world-renowned professional athletes Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel, and Sue Bird — announced that the company has achieved profitability and hit major growth and revenue milestones, including having increased its valuation twofold since its last raise. As a first mover in the women's sports media ecosystem and the purveyor of the Everyone Watches Women's Sports slogan, TOGETHXR has utilized its visibility and engagement in women's sports to triple its revenue year over year and cement itself as the fastest-growing brand in the women's sports space. TOGETHXR also announced that it has taken in growth capital from an impressive array of new and existing backers. 

Verecan Group of Companies, a comprehensive wealth management group, announced it has funded a research chair for Dr. Lisa Kramer, Professor of Finance at the University of Toronto (UofT). And as a part of the initiative, Dr. Kramer has been appointed the Verecan Chair in Behavioural Finance.

Dotmatics, a provider of scientific software that provides end-to-end solutions to connect science, data, and decision-making for life sciences R&D, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Siemens for $5.1 billion.