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Pollen Street Capital announced that it will acquire Universal Banking, Finastra’s global core banking software business.

Ploy announced that it has launched out of stealth with a $27 million seed round. The round was led by First Round Capital and Y Combinator.

Renaiss announced that it has raised $1.5 million in its first funding round. The round was led by YZi Labs, with participation from Gate Ventures, Hash Global, XIN Family, Redline Labs, and angel investors from Mask Network, Far East Group, Logoman, Hoopi, and Legit App.

Tugboat announced that it has raised an oversubscribed $3 million seed round to scale its consumer insurance support platform. The round was led by ResilienceVC, with participation from South Dakota First, gener8tor, Sure Ventures, Acumen America, and other strategic investors.

NASA announced a new public-private partnership with Relativity Space to advance Mars science.

KPMG announced a minority equity investment in Incentify, a provider of AI-powered credits and incentives technology. The investment expands a collaboration between KPMG and Incentify focused on helping organizations identify and manage credits, grants, and incentives across more than 120 countries.

Volato Group announced that it has closed a $2.2 million private investment in public equity financing. The PIPE financing was priced at $0.34 per share.

AT&T Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches announced that he plans to retire effective December 31, 2026.

Noam Shazeer announced that he will be joining OpenAI. Shazeer shared the news in a post, saying he is excited to join OpenAI and looks forward to working with the company’s team.

O'Melveny announced that James R. Burns and Brant K. Brown have joined the firm as partners in Washington, D.C.

Paul Hastings announced that Brian C. Miner has joined the firm as a partner in New York. Miner joins from Dechert and advises private equity firms on domestic and international transactions. His work spans sectors including asset management, insurance, life sciences and healthcare, energy, and manufacturing.

Renesas Electronics announced that a subsidiary has completed the acquisition of Pictorus, a software developer based in Oakland, California.

Google announced that it is serving as a technology and creative collaborator for Dataland, which it describes as the world’s first museum of AI arts.

Optro announced its expansion into Singapore, establishing the company’s newest regional center to support customers across the Asia Pacific.

Rock Tech Lithium announced that it has entered into an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the Victory Project, a lithium exploration property in Northwestern Ontario.

Seedcamp announced that it has raised $320 million to invest in the next generation of global companies. The new capital includes $220 million for Seedcamp VII, the firm’s flagship first-check fund, and $100 million for its Select fund, which is focused primarily on backing portfolio companies as they scale toward Series B and beyond.

Bionyra Pharma announced its launch and an oversubscribed $165 million Series A financing round. The round was co-led by Jeito Capital and Sofinnova Partners. Arkin Bio, Sanofi Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, Vives Partners, and Apollo Health Ventures also participated.

H3 Zoom announced the final close of its oversubscribed USD$3.6 million Series A funding round. The round was led by JRE VENTURES, the corporate venture capital arm of East Japan Railway Company. SGInnovate and M7 Holdings also participated.

ChemT Biotechnology announced that it has raised US$5 million in total funding over the past 18 months. The total includes US$1 million in angel investment and a US$4 million seed round. The seed round was led by Wavemaker Ventures, the early-stage fund of Wavemaker Partners. SEEDS, an arm of SG Growth Capital, also participated.

DropGenie announced the closing of its Seed+ financing round to support the launch of its first product. The round was led by Skeleton Key. New investors Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and CQDM also joined the financing, with continued participation from existing investors Real Ventures and Anges Québec.

HistoSonics announced the closing of a new financing round with participation from Reed Jobs and Yosemite, along with several new strategic investors. The financing values the company at $3.75 billion. Additional financing terms were not disclosed.

Upscale AI announced that it has raised $190 million in Series A-1 financing. The extension brings the company’s total funding to $500 million and its current valuation to $2 billion. The Series A-1 round was led by Premji Invest. New investors in the round included NVIDIA, Salesforce Ventures, Seligman Ventures, and Temasek. Existing investors Maverick Silicon, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, StepStone Group, and Tiger Global also participated.

Becausal is a causal AI-powered audience intelligence and measurement company redefining how brands understand consumer behavior and measure marketing impact. Built on privacy-first principles, transparent data practices, and auditable measurement, Becausal helps brands, retailers, agencies, and CPG companies move beyond black-box predictive models to better understand the drivers of consumer purchase behavior and real-world sales lift. Using deterministic purchase-signal data, causal inference modeling, and transparent data provenance, Becausal delivers actionable, accountable insights designed to help organizations measure and understand what influences consumer decisions, setting a new standard for ethical, explainable, and high-performance audience intelligence. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Becausal CEO Avi Chai Outmezguine to learn more.

Syntax Bio announced an expanded Series A round and several leadership appointments across its executive team, board of directors, and scientific advisory board. The expanded round brings Syntax Bio’s Series A to $14.4 million and total funding to more than $25 million.

JTB Corp. announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire All Wise Holdings, the operator of Bangkok-based EXO Travel Group. The acquisition will be made through a JTB group company in the Asia-Pacific region. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Navan announced that it has signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Smartrips, a Brazilian travel management company.

Oakline Properties announced that it has acquired ResidentialOne Management and its affiliated maintenance and inspection services arm, Professional Renovations Inc.

Global Work AI is a job-search platform that helps job seekers find and apply for remote roles using artificial intelligence. It operates a jobs aggregator that scans multiple sources to match candidates with verified openings and provides AI tools to automate applications, tailor resumes, and prepare for interviews. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Global Work AI co-founder and CEO Alex Chepovoi to learn more.

Rumble announced that it has closed its acquisition of Northern Data, a provider of AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.