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Hoop, a to-do list that updates itself, announced $5 million in seed funding, led by Index Ventures, with participation from Origin Ventures, Divergent Capital, and Chingona Ventures. The company’s team (who met as early employees at Trello) will use the funding to deepen Hoop’s AI capabilities, expand its platform integrations, and develop collaborative features. Hoop is currently available to individuals, but will soon launch a version for teams.

Dresser Utility Solutions (a leading provider of global infrastructure technology for the energy transition including measurement, instrumentation, coupling and repair, pressure and flow control solutions to water and gas utility and industrial customers, and a portfolio company of First Reserve) announced it has secured a $335 million credit facility from funds managed by Blue Owl Capital's Credit platform.

Mint Blockchain, the Ethereum L2 network for NFT industry, completed a US$5 million seed funding round joined by Jsquare, SNZ Capital, Antalpha Ventures, Mask Network, BlockAI Ventures, Predator Capital, GoPlus, Whitelist Ventures, PANONY Group, and individual investors Victor, founder of Smart Token Labs, and Mike, founder of GoPlus. And this funding round will be used for Mint Blockchain's global market brand building and NFT infrastructure development.

Ardian, a leading private investment house, announced that it had raised €530 million for its third-generation Growth platform, Ardian Growth Fund III. The fund closed above the €500 million target size and more than doubled in size compared to the previous generation, which closed at €230 million in 2018.

AI governance and privacy solutions company Zendata emerged from stealth and raised $2 million in funding to transform how security teams manage data and security. The seed funding round was led by PayPal Ventures, First-hand Alliance (operated by Salesforce Alumni), Geek Ventures, and Altari Ventures.

Leading global investment firm KKR announced that a fund managed by KKR has entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Agiloft, a trusted global leader in data-first contract lifecycle management (CLM). As part of the deal, FTV Capital (a sector-focused growth equity firm and an existing investor in Agiloft) will make an additional investment in the company and JMI Equity (a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading software companies) will join as a new investor in the company.

Leading connectivity cloud company Cloudflare has announced the acquisition of BastionZero, a Zero Trust infrastructure access platform. This deal further strengthen remote access to core IT systems for customers of Cloudflare One, which is the company’s secure access service edge (SASE) platform.

LambdaVision, a company that is developing a protein-based artificial retina to help patients regain sight lost to retinal degenerative diseases, announced it secured the first closing of its seed round being led by Aurelia Foundry Fund (a fund spun out of MIT).

Novel has announced a $15 million oversubscribed Pre-Series A round, co-led by IGNIA Partners and Ulu Ventures, to propel the fintech’s expansion of their groundbreaking Capital Intelligence platform. The funding round also includes participation from MatterScale, Gaingels, as well as previous investors.

Sagetap, the first AI-driven marketplace matching SaaS buyers and sellers, announced $6.8 million in funding from NFX, Uncorrelated Ventures, Emergent Ventures, and 15 active customers. And the company is cash-flow positive and has grown revenue 3 times year-over-year.

Ducky, an AI-based support platform unlocking customer support agents' problem-solving superpowers, announced it raised $2.7 million in pre-seed funding led by Penny Jar Capital, with participation from Bread & Butter Ventures, NOMO Ventures, Wilson Sonsini, angel investors, and others.

Aperture Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that is pioneering AI-powered intents, announced it has raised a Series A funding round, bringing the total across all rounds to $12 million and propelling the valuation at $250 million. This funding round was led by Skyland Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, and Krypital Group, with participation from notable investors like Alchemy, SNZ, Stratified Capital, Tide, Cipholio, ViaBTC, CatcherVC, and Double Peak. Previous rounds included participation from ParaFi Capital, Arrington Capital, Divergence, Blockchain Founders Fund, Laser Digital (Nomura Group), Skyland Ventures, Costanoa, Rarestone, Krypital Group, Big Brain Holdings, LD Capital, ViaBTC, Cipholio, Double Peak, Athena Ventures, Coinseeker, Artemis Capital, and AWS.

Cornell Tech has awarded four student startup companies with investments worth $100,000 each in its eleventh annual Startup Awards competition. This award includes $80,000 in pre-seed funding, co-working space in the Tata Innovation Center, and mentorship by the Cornell Tech team, valued at $20,000 together.

Supervizor, a leading plug and play Quality Assurance platform for finance teams, announced it had raised $22 million in a funding round led by Orange Ventures, with participation from Wille Finance, La Maison Partners, New Alpha Asset Management, Adelie Capital, and ISAI.

Transcend, a next-generation data privacy platform, announced it raised $40 million in Series B funding led by new investor StepStone Group, with participation from HighlandX and existing investors Accel, Index Ventures, 01 Advisors (01A), Script Capital, and South Park Commons. This brings the total raised to nearly $90 million.

Yukon Partners announced the final closing of Yukon Capital Partners V, L.P., and its associated parallel funds (Fund V) with total commitments of $765.2 million. Fund V was oversubscribed, exceeding its $700 million target and closing at its hard cap.

Superlegal, an AI platform for legal contract review for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and the only AI solution authorized to practice law in the U.S.A., announced the closing of its $5 million seed funding round, co-led by Aleph and Disruptive AI fund, with the participation of Alicorn Venture Capital, and Tom Glocer, the former CEO of Thomson Reuters. And the company also received a grant from the Google AI Startups Fund.

Userfront, a definitive auth and identity platform for growing SaaS companies, has announced a seed investment round of $5.3 million led by Heavybit and its general availability for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers.

Aisles, an innovative AI-driven retail technology company, announced the successful closing of its Series A funding round, raising an additional $30 million in capital. This funding round will support the company's mission to revolutionize the retail shopping experience through AI solutions.

Clarifai is an AI company that specializes in computer vision, natural language processing, and audio recognition. Based in Washington, DC, the company uses machine learning and deep neural networks to automatically identify and analyze images, videos, text, and audio. Clarifai also enables users to implement AI technology into their products via API, Mobile SDK, and/or on-premise solutions. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Clarifai SVP of Marketing Chris Kent to learn more.

Bellini Capital is a firm that invests in companies that make our world safer, smarter, and more sustainable. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Bellini Capital managing partner Arnie Bellini to learn more about the firm.

MindStudio is known as one of the fastest ways to build AI-powered apps for your team. For example, you can create custom AIs for consumers, SMBs, and enterprises with no coding required. Pulse 2.0 interviewed MindStudio.ai CEO Dmitry Shapiro to learn more about the company.

Deloitte announced it had acquired substantially all of the assets of End Point's industry-leading disease surveillance business, CasePointer. This acquisition brings additional experienced and skilled software engineers, cloud developers, DevOps engineers, epidemiologists, and former public health officials to Deloitte.

Beekeeper is a company that solves the disconnect between frontline workers and their managers in the retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and construction industries. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Beekeeper CEO and co-founder Cristian Grossmann to learn more about the company.

Tax automation platform company Kintsugi AI announced that it has secured a $6 million Series A at a $40 million valuation further to develop its innovative end-to-end sales tax management solution. This funding round was provided by Link Ventures, Venture Highway, KyberKnight, Plug and Play, DeVC, and notable angel investors.

Realta Wealth, an exclusive independent wealth management firm, announced the appointment of John Barragan as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Reporting to CEO Kevin Keefe, Barragan will provide strategic direction and oversight for all operating, service, and technology elements of the firm’s offerings for financial advisors and their clients.

Intel and Apollo announced a definitive agreement under which Apollo-managed funds and affiliates will lead an investment of $11 billion to acquire a 49% equity interest in a joint venture entity related to Intel’s Fab 34 from Intel.

SLK Private Wealth (SLK), a Sanctuary Wealth partner firm, announced that LA-based advisors Adam Weinstock, CFP, and Eleanor Weinstock are becoming part of SLK Private Wealth (SLK). This team from Wells Fargo Advisors has a client base totaling over $300 million in total assets focused on athletes, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives. Adam Weinstock will become a Managing Partner of SLK, and Eleanor Weinstock will become a Managing Director.

restor3d, a leader in 3D printed and personalized orthopedic implants, announced today the successful closing of a $55 million Series A funding round led by private investors, including Summers Value Partners and existing investors, and an additional $15 million in debt financing led by Trinity Capital. This significant investment will drive the company’s growth and innovation in several key areas:

EverFence, a digital platform connecting homeowners and contractors to simplify fencing transactions, announced it has secured $7 million for its Series A funding round from HIPstr (the early-stage investment arm of HighPost Capital, a leading private investment firm focused on the global consumer sector).