Archives

Blackwell Security, a provider of specialized cybersecurity solutions personalized for the healthcare sector, announced a $13 million funding round co-led by General Catalyst and Rally Ventures to help support security operations in healthcare.

Definely, a UK-based LegalTech company created to make legal documents easier to read, edit and understand, announced it has successfully raised Series A funding. The $7 million Series A investment round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Cornerstone VC and Zrosk Investment Ltd. The round also included participation from well-known angels Claire Hughes Johnson, Comron Sattari, Ajay Patel, and Babatunde Soyoye to join the cap table. Edward Keelan, partner at Octopus Ventures joins CRE Venture Capital and Zrosk Investments on the board.

Honeycomb, a leading fast-growing digital insurer, has raised $36 million in a Series B funding round. The funding round was led by Zeev Ventures, with the participation of new investors Arkin Holdings and Launchbay Capital. Existing investors Ibex Investors, Phoenix Insurance and IT-Farm also took part in the round.

Niobium has announced the completion of a $5.5 million seed fundraising round, marking a significant step towards its future growth and development. And this achievement is accompanied by the expansion of its Board of Directors, further strengthening the company's leadership and strategic capabilities.

Commit Biologics, a pioneer in activating the complement system to treat cancer and autoimmune disease, has exited from stealth mode with €16 million in seed funding from Bioqube Ventures and Novo Holdings.

Hysata has announced that it closed the largest Series B in Australian clean tech history at $111 million with strong backing from existing major strategic and financial global investors. And this is a significant milestone demonstrating global recognition of Hysata’s game-changing high-efficiency electrolyzer (41.5 kWh/kg incl BoP) with intrinsically low capex and a capital-efficient path to mass manufacturing. bp Ventures and Templewater each invested $10 million to co-lead the $111.3 million Series B round. There was also strong backing from existing major strategic and financial investors IP Group Australia, Kiko Ventures (IP Group plc’s cleantech platform), Virescent Ventures on behalf of Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Hostplus, Vestas Ventures, and BlueScopeX.

Zenas BioPharma, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on becoming a leader in the development and commercialization of inflammation and immunology-directed therapies, announced the closing of an upsized $200 million Series C preferred stock financing. This financing round was led by SR One along with NEA, Norwest Venture Partners, and Delos Capital with significant participation from Enavate Sciences and Longitude Capital. Additional new investors the Federated Hermes Kaufmann Funds, and Arrowmark Partners along with existing investors, Fairmount, Wellington Management, Rock Springs Capital, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Vivo Capital, Quan Venture Fund, and Superstring Capital also joined the funding round.

Technology investment firm Silver Lake announced a final closing on Silver Lake Partners VII at $20.5 billion in capital commitments, which topped the prior flagship fund. Over the past five years, Silver Lake has raised $47 billion in aggregate to create value by partnering with exceptional founders and management teams to build and grow great companies driven by technology at scale.

Alternative investment firm Investcorp announced the final closing of its Investcorp Technology Partners V (ITP V) fund, which has $570 million in total commitments. The fund exceeded the $500 million target with commitments from new and existing LPs in Europe, North America, Asia, and the GCC.

Neurable, a neurotechnology company democratizing BCI technology, announced that it has raised an additional $13 million in funding from Ultratech Capital Partners, TRAC, Pace Ventures, and Metaplanet.

Auto-injector platform company Pirouette announced they had surpassed $5 million raised in their community investment round via Wefunder, leading them to extend the round due to overwhelming demand. This extension gives the millions that this solution is designed to help more time to invest and accelerate the pathway to making it available. This is a rare opportunity to join along renowned investors like Safar Partners, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Gaingels.

River SaaS Capital, a firm that provides alternative venture financing to growing software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses, announced its newly launched equity fund, TruWest Fund I. This new $50 million fund will invest in US-based B2B software-as-a-service businesses.

Haven, a modern accounting team focused on setting a new standard in customer-centric accounting, announced the closing of its pre-seed. This funding round includes prominent investors, such as Anthony Pompliano (aka Pomp), Charlie Feng, Hari Raghavan, Eric Bahn, and over 40 others. And Haven achieved profitability within its first year of business, surpassing $1 million in top-line revenue.

Alkira, a leader in on-demand network infrastructure-as-a-service, announced the closing of a $100 million Series C funding round, bringing the company's total funding to $176 million. Tiger Global Management led the funding round with additional investment from Dallas Venture Capital, Geodesic Capital, and NextEquity Partners, and participation from existing investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and Sequoia Capital.

WekaIO (WEKA), an AI-native data platform company, announced it had raised $140 million in an oversubscribed Series E funding round comprised of a combined primary and secondary transaction led by Valor Equity Partners (a previous investor in the company). WEKA's Series E funding round is unique in that it was raised entirely with existing investors like Valor seeking to increase their positions in the company. And Generation Investment Management, NVIDIA, Atreides Management, 10D, Hitachi Ventures, Ibex Investors, Key1 Capital, Lumir Ventures, MoreTech Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures joined Valor in contributing to the round. Under the deal terms, Valor's founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer, Antonio Gracias, will join WEKA's board.

Sustainable end-to-end battery recycling firm cylib announced the completion of its €55 million Series A funding round in equity financing. The funding round, which is the largest round ever raised by a European battery recycling company, was completed less than two years after the company started operations. cylib will utilize the funding to power the industrialization of its proprietary technology, which is already used by leading OEMs and battery manufacturers, by scaling up its operations at an already-secured brownfield industrial facility in Germany.

Firmus, a market leader in pre-construction AI design review and risk analysis, announced it closed on several million dollars in additional funding. The funding will facilitate Firmus' commitment to revolutionizing the industry's approach to pre-construction. Navitas Capital led the funding round, which included Heartland Ventures, PiLabs, and Unorthodox Ventures.

Baker McKenzie announced that leading international arbitration practitioner Sunyoung Kim will be joining Baker McKenzie & KL Partners Joint Venture Law Firm (Baker McKenzie KLP JV) as a partner effective May 20, 2024. This hiring further supports the Baker McKenzie KLP JV's bench strength and boosts Baker McKenzie's dispute resolution and international arbitration capabilities, a strategic area of focus for the firm globally.

Opmed.ai, the AI optimization platform for healthcare, announced the successful funding of $15 million in Series A funding. The funding round was co-led by NFX and Grove Ventures, with Secret Chord Ventures, the Impact investor Sir Ronald Cohen, and Unbox Ventures also participating.

LPL Financial announced that financial advisor Matt Sheffield has launched a new independent practice called Burlwood Wealth through affiliation with LPL Financial’s supported independence model, LPL Strategic Wealth Services. He reported having served about $275 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and joined LPL from UBS. After starting his career in Silicon Valley, followed by a brief stint in medical sales, Sheffield recognized his calling as a financial advisor in 2005. He said it was the perfect job to combine his critical thinking skills with his passion for relationship-building and making connections. Client Services Specialist Kayla Randall joins Sheffield.

Integrated Partners - a national financial planning and registered investment advisory (RIA) firm that serves $18+ billion in assets under advisement (AUA) - announced the promotion of Andree Mohr to president. Mohr has frequently earned recognition among her peers via accolades and industry awards, playing a major role in the firm's development since joining in 2015.

EnCap has closed EnCap Energy Transition Fund II (EETF II) with approximately $1.5 billion in commitments. EnCap’s second energy transition fund was created to invest in solutions to decarbonize the power industry while also opportunistically investing in low-carbon fuels and carbon management.

TuMeke is a company that built an AI-powered ergonomic assessment platform that empowers safety professionals to identify and mitigate ergonomic risks efficiently. TuMeke was born out of a collaboration between co-founders Riley Noland, Diwakar Ganesan, and Zach Noland. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Noland to learn more about the company. 

Cover Genius - a leading insurtech for embedded protection - announced an $80 million Series E funding round. The funding round was led by Spark Capital with support from existing investors, including Dawn Capital, King River Capital and G Squared.

OverT Bio (a data-driven company working to unlock the curative potential of cell therapies in solid tumors) has raised $16 million in seed funding. This funding round was co-led by ARTIS Ventures and Wing VC, with participation from Fusion Fund, OMX Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Gaingels, Civilization Ventures, Hawktail, and Cancer Research Institute. This funding round will expand discovery platforms focused on addressing the primary barriers for cell therapy, leading to durable and curative treatments for advanced solid tumors.

Squire Patton Boggs has announced the appointment of Chris Hastings as a partner in its Financial Services Practice Group in London. Hastings - who joins from Eversheds Sutherland - is a finance lawyer focused on leveraged and acquisition financing. He acts for PE firms and their portfolio companies, corporate borrowers, and private credit funds related to transactions at all levels of capital structures. His experience includes complex domestic and international transactions in support of M&A activity, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, and distressed or opportunistic investments.

Benefit Street Partners (BSP) has announced the final closing of BSP Special Situations Fund II and its affiliated vehicles. The funds were oversubscribed with approximately $850 million in capital commitments. Fund II will seek to continue the investment approach of its predecessor fund.

Leading global alternative asset management firm TPG has closed its eighth Asia-focused private equity fund, TPG Asia VIII, as well as its first TPG Angelo Gordon Asian real estate funds, TPG AG Asia Realty Fund V and the TPG AG Japan Realty Value Fund, since the firm completed the acquisition of TPG Angelo Gordon last year.

LPL Financial announced that financial advisor Chris Kitaeff, CPFA, MBA, has joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms. With this move to LPL, Kitaeff joins Maher Wealth Management as a managing director. He reported serving about $385 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and joined LPL from Merrill Lynch.

Runway Growth Capital is an experienced and reliable source of debt financing for dynamic and late-stage growth companies. To learn more about the firm, Pulse 2.0 interviewed Runway Growth Capital Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Head of Credit Greg Greifeld.