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Read AI - a leader in gen AI meeting summaries - announced a $21 million Series A funding round led by Goodwater Capital with existing investor Madrona Venture Group. Goodwater partner Coddy Johnson will join the Board of Directors alongside Madrona’s Matt McIlwain and David Shim (Read AI’s Co-Founder and CEO). The additional funding will accelerate Read AI’s goal of building the future of work, where every interaction is improved with AI.

Stratos Wealth Advisors (a part of Stratos Wealth Holdings) announced it has successfully recruited a senior team of wealth managers from RBC Wealth Management who will establish the firm's first Northern Nevada office. The team will use Fidelity as their primary custodian.

tru Independence, a national independent advisory platform servicing about $12.5 billion in assets, announced the launch of Mindset Wealth Management. And the launching of the new Indianapolis-based registered investment advisor (RIA) continues tru’s strong momentum, after the firm successfully onboarded six new advisory teams last year, collectively representing over $4 billion in assets.

Homrich Berg, a leading Atlanta-based RIA serving families and investors across the country, announced the appointment of Michael A. Woocher as Principal and Chief Advisory Officer. Under this newly created executive role, Woocher will lead the $16 billion firm’s accomplished group of financial advisors, position the firm for continued growth by developing its next generation of advisors, and attract and integrate new advisors for future strategic hires and acquisitions.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM), through investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP) announced it has provided an unsecured term loan to The Pasha Group, a family-owned and third-generation maritime transportation company, to support continued infrastructure investment in the Hawaii trade.

Alsym Energy, a developer of next-generation non-flammable rechargeable batteries for stationary storage, marine, and mobility applications, announced a $78 million funding round jointly led by Tata Limited (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons) and General Catalyst. Thrive Capital and Thomvest joined the round along with existing investor Drads Capital. Alsym will use the funding to expand its team and prototyping and pilot lines, which will help address the increasing demand for customer samples.

Leading registered financial advisor (RIA) Clearstead Advisors has acquired the assets of Wilbanks Smith and Thomas Asset Management (WST), a Norfolk, Virginia-based wealth and investment management firm with over $5 billion of assets under management. This combination continues Clearstead's growth trajectory and further consolidates Clearstead's position among the leading RIAs in the US.

Global alternative asset management firm TPG has agreed to acquire Classic Collision, a leading national collision repair multi-site operator. TPG Capital (the U.S. and European private equity platform of TPG) will buy the business from New Mountain Capital. Classic Collision’s management team will remain invested in the company. The terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

 eBPF is a technology that offers a programmable framework for in-kernel operations without modifying the kernel source code. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Shahar Azulay, CEO and Co-Founder of groundcover, to learn more about the technology.

Hello Alice - a fintech platform connecting 1.5 million small businesses to capital, connections, and opportunities - announced the closing of a Series C funding round with QED Investors, Mastercard, and others. This funding round brought the company’s valuation to $130 million. Additional investors in this round of funding included Backstage Capital, Guy Fieri, Golden Seeds, Harbert Growth Partners Fund, How Women Invest I, LP, Lovell Limited Partnership, Tyler "Ninja" and Jessica Blevins, and Tamera Mowry and Adam Housley.

Pigment, a business planning platform, announced a $145 million Series D funding round led by ICONIQ Growth. Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners and several other existing investors, including IVP, Meritech, Greenoaks, and Felix Capital, also participated in the round.

Dentons announced that Neil Hare had joined the Firm’s Public Policy practice as a partner resident in the Washington, DC, office. Hare offers clients broad experience in business, law, and government.

Skadden announced that James Fredricks has joined the firm’s global Antitrust/Competition Group as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office. Fredricks was most recently chief of the Washington Criminal II Section of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Eirene, Canada's first and only online funeral services provider, announced it had launched operations in the U.S. after raising $4.1 million in seed funding. Relay Ventures led the funding round, with participation from Export Development Canada and Saint Elizabeth Healthcare. This funding round will drive Eirene's expansion into the US, build its brand, and grow the team.

DLA Piper announced that Dr. Marcell M. Németh, LL.M, was appointed as Head of the Finance Practice for DLA Piper Austria, effective immediately.

Diagonal Therapeutics - a company pioneering a new approach to discover and develop agonist antibodies - has launched with $128 million in financing. BVF Partners and Atlas Venture co-led the Series A funding round, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, RA Capital Management, Frazier Life Sciences, Viking Global Investors, Velosity Capital, and Checkpoint Capital. The company was co-founded by CEO Alex Lugovskoy, Ph.D., and Atlas and was previously seeded by Atlas, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Velosity Capital.

Manifold, an AI-powered clinical research platform, announced a $15 million Series A. TQ Ventures led this funding round. It also included new investors Calibrate Ventures and SK Ventures, notable founders and CEOs, including healthcare leader Dr. Sachin H. Jain, and existing investors, including TTCER Partners. Additional investors and advisors include Dr. Gaurav Singal (former Chief Data Officer, Foundation Medicine), Eric Just (former SVP and General Manager, Health Catalyst), Amar Kendale (former Chief Product Officer), Livongo/Teladoc, Andrew Bialecki (CEO & Co-Founder, Klaviyo), Brad Porter (CEO & Founder, Collaborative Robotics and former VP Robotics, Amazon), Steve Fredette (President & Co-Founder, Toast), Jon Karlen (Chairman & Founder, Acadian Software), and Pravin Soni (former CTO & Co-Founder, Elevation Pharma).

Dentons announced it has named Yechiel Belfer as a Banking & Finance Partner working at the Melbourne-based office. Belfer is an experienced banking and finance lawyer who primarily focuses on regulating financial services and consumer credit in the payments and cross-border sectors.

Private credit firm Brightwood Capital Advisors announced that it had closed Brightwood Capital MM CLO 2024-2, a $707 million collateralized loan obligation (CLO). This CLO represents the second largest new issue middle-market CLO this year, bringing the firm’s year-to-date issuance to $862 million, and it makes Brightwood one of the top three largest middle-market issuers year-to-date (representing over 10% of the total middle-market issuance). This also marks Brightwood’s seventh CLO since 2019, bringing the firm’s total CLO issuance to over $3.5 billion.

Kirkland & Ellis announced that Sarah Mallett has joined the firm as a Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group partner.

OceanSound Partners—a PE firm that invests in technology-enabled services companies working with government and highly regulated enterprise end markets—announced the closing of a $1.15 billion single-asset continuation fund transaction in connection with the sale of its portfolio company, SMX Group, from OceanSound Partners Fund, LP.

Data transformation company Coalesce.io has closed $50 million in Series B funding to drive growth. Industry Ventures and Emergence Capital led the funding round with participation from 11.2 Capital, Bob Muglia, DNX Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, Hyperlink Ventures, Next Legacy Partners, Snowflake Ventures, and Telstra Ventures. Including this round, the company brought the company’s total funding to $81 million.

Netgain, a leading software provider for finance and accounting teams, announced a $35 million minority investment led by Summit Partners. The funding round will drive product development and team expansion while supporting Netgain’s commitment to helping accountants free up time by automating routine tasks.

Latham & Watkins announced that Simon Pritchard will join the London office as a partner in the Antitrust & Competition Practice. Pritchard has over 20 years of experience advising companies, financial institutions, and global investors on complex merger control matters, market investigations, conducting inquiries and counseling, and cases before the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

ProsperCircle is a user-friendly platform designed to make the product management job search less soul-crushing. Pulse 2.0 interviewed ProsperCircle founder Salil Sethi to learn more about the company. 

Nuvei announced that it has entered into a definitive arrangement agreement to be taken private by private equity firm Advent International, with the support of each of the company's holders of multiple voting shares, including Philip Fayer, certain investment funds managed by Novacap Management, and CDPQ. This all-cash transaction values Nuvei at an enterprise value of approximately US$6.3 billion. The company will remain based in Montreal.

Raymond James & Associates (RJA) West Coast regional director Rick Sanchez announced that the firm has welcomed the team of three financial advisors and seven branch professionals at Pahnke Wealth Management Group of Raymond James to Raymond James & Associates (RJA) – which is the firm's employee advisor channel.

Velox, a developer, manufacturer, and seller of industrial direct-to-shape digital decoration solutions for rigid packaging containers, announced it has secured a $38 million funding round. Fortissimo Capital led the funding round. And existing investors JAL Ventures, O.R.T. Technologies, Ilan Holdings, Evonik, Waypoint Investors, and Migdal Insurance & Finance joined the funding round.

Sanctuary Wealth has welcomed Vincita Investment Partners, a firm based in Greensboro, North Carolina, with $700 million in client assets. Vincita Investment Partners' founders and managing partners, JJ Marus, CEPA, CPWA, CRPC, and Lauren Norris, CFP, CPFA, are the latest successful advisors to break away from a wirehouse and launch a firm on Sanctuary's Partnered Independence platform.

Sequoia Financial Group (a leading SEC-registered wealth manager with over $18 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2024) announced it had acquired AltruVista, an SEC-registered investment advisor that provides independent and holistic financial planning and asset management services to high-net-worth clients. The deal closed on March 31, and the financial terms were not disclosed.