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M&G: Emmanuel Deblanc Named As CIO Of £74 Billion Private Markets Operation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 1, 2024

M&G Investments announced the appointment of Emmanuel Deblanc as Chief Investment Officer to lead its Private Markets business. The firm’s £74 billion international Private Markets business has over two decades of experience in investing in private credit, structured credit, impact and private equity, real estate, and infrastructure.

Oasis Security: Non-Human Identity Management (NIM) Solutions Company Raises $40 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 1, 2024

Oasis Security - a leading provider of non-human Identity Management (NIM) solutions - announced that it raised a total of $40 million funding led by Sequoia Capital, along with Accel, Cyberstarts and Maple Capital. And Guy Podjarny, founder of Snyk, and Michael Fey, Co-Founder and CEO of Island, also participated in the financing.

Accompany Health: $56 Million Raised To Help Care For Low-Income Patients

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 1, 2024

Accompany Health - a primary, behavioral, and social care provider for low-income patients with complex needs - recently announced it launch with $56 million in Series A funding from investors including Venrock, ARCH Venture Partners, IVP, Granite Capital Management, and Evidenced. And the company recently began serving 8,000 patients in Detroit in partnership with a major national health plan.

MIC Global: Embedded Microinsurance Company Secures $6 Million

By Noah Long ● Feb 1, 2024

MIC Global (MIC) - a full stack embedded microinsurance provider - announced it raised a $6 million seed funding round. The funding round was led by Launchpad Capital and joined by Greenlight Re Innovations, Ironsides Partners, and existing investors. The funding will drive MIC Global’s growth plans, including infrastructure, talent, and market expansion investments.

Walmart Plans To Add 150 More Stores Across The U.S.

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 1, 2024

John Furner, President and CEO of Walmart U.S., announced that Walmart currently employs about 1.6 million people in the country. The company plans to support even more jobs by expanding and modernizing the facilities. Over the next five years, Walmart plans to build or convert more than 150 stores while continuing our program to remodel existing stores.

Advantage Solutions Selling Collection Of Foodservice Businesses To Prospect Hill Growth Partners

By Dan Anderson ● Feb 1, 2024

Advantage Solutions - a leading provider of sales and marketing services to consumer goods manufacturers and retailers - announced it has sold its collection of foodservice businesses, most notably Waypoint, to Prospect Hill Growth Partners, L.P.

Why Accenture Is Investing In Tenchi Security

By Annie Baker ● Feb 1, 2024

Accenture announced it had made a strategic investment through Accenture Ventures in Tenchi Security, a third-party cyber risk management company. And Accenture will leverage Tenchi’s SaaS platform as a new component of its managed security services offering to help organizations reduce cyber risks across their supply chain.

NeoPhore: Small Molecule Neoantigen Immuno-Oncology Company Raises £9.6 Million

By Dan Anderson ● Feb 1, 2024

NeoPhore Limited - a small molecule neoantigen immuno-oncology company - announced a further extension of £9.6 million (approx. USD $12.2m) to its Series B financing round.

Zum: $140 Million Funding, $350 Million Total Raised, And $1.3 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 1, 2024

Zūm - a leading provider of modern student transportation - announced a $140 million Series E funding round. GIC, a leading global investment firm, led this new funding round. And Climate Investment and existing investors, including Sequoia and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, also joined the round, elevating the company's valuation to $1.3 billion — a major increase from its previous series D raise in Oct 2021. This round brings Zum's total fundraising to $350 million.

Pivot Bio: How This Company Empowers Farmers In Improving Productivity Across A $190 Billion Industry

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 1, 2024

Pivot Bio is a company that provides farmers and the world with better nitrogen for improved productivity and sustainability. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Pivot Bio CEO Chris Abbott to learn more about the company.

Kontur: Utilizing Geospatial Data For Real-Time Risk Management And Disaster Responses

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 1, 2024

Kontur is a geospatial data and real-time risk management tool for businesses, governments, and humanitarian organizations. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Kontur founder and CEO Arben Kane to learn more about the company.

Direct Digital Holdings: This Rapidly Growing Programmatic Ad Player Generates Over 300 Billion Monthly Impressions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 1, 2024

Direct Digital Holdings owns operating companies Colossus SSP, Huddled Masses, and Orange 142, which bring state-of-the-art sales and buy-side advertising platforms together under one umbrella company. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Direct Digital Holdings Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman Mark D. Walker to learn more about the company.

Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group Offers $30 Billion For Paramount: Details

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Businessman, film and TV producer, and comedian Byron Allen has made a $30 billion offer (including debt) for Paramount Global through his company Allen Media Group. Paramount Global is the parent company of CBS and several cable channels such as Nickelodeon.

Why Fabric Is Buying GYANT

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Fabric (founded in 2021 as Florence) announced its strategic acquisition of GYANT, a conversational AI care assistant and patient engagement suite, enabling health organizations to automate patient navigation and scheduling. And by automating busywork and humanizing care, Fabric could improve multi-channel access and maximize existing clinical capacity across virtual and in-person care.

Indemn: AI-Powered Conversational Insurance Platform Company Raises $1.9 Million

By Annie Baker ● Jan 31, 2024

Indemn (a pioneering insurtech platform) announced it has raised a $1.9 million pre-seed funding round, marking its continued growth in delivering insurance products through natural conversation powered by AI. The funding round was led by Markd, with participation from Afterwork Ventures, Everywhere Ventures, and a group of prominent entrepreneurs and insurance leaders from Australia and the U.S.

Cabot Properties: $1.57 Billion Of Equity Commitments Closed

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Cabot Properties - a leading investor, developer and operator of logistics properties throughout the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific - announced the final closing of Value Fund VII on $1.57 billion of equity commitments. This was above its initial target of $1.5 billion. Fund VII represents Cabot’s largest fund to date, demonstrating the growth of Cabot’s industrial platform and the demand among institutions for access to the sector - which was supported by historically strong fundamentals.

Future Energy Ventures: €110 Million Fund Closed For Sustainable Investments

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

E.ON - the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Future Energy Ventures (FEV) jointly foster smart innovations for the energy transition through a newly established fund. This fund (managed by FEV) already has a volume of €110 million and a target size of €250 million. E.ON and the EIF hold a mid-double-digit million euro stake as anchor investors. These funds invest primarily in start-ups and scale-ups that develop and implement digital solutions to drive the energy transition.

Why HCSC Is Buying Medicare Businesses And CareAllies from Cigna

By Annie Baker ● Jan 31, 2024

HCSC signed a definitive agreement with The Cigna Group to acquire its Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplemental Benefits, Medicare Part D and CareAllies businesses. This acquisition will benefit HCSC's current and future members by enhancing the company's capabilities and reach, particularly in the growing Medicare segment.

Hivello: Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks Company Raises $2.5 Million

By Annie Baker ● Jan 31, 2024

Hivello - a company that is at the cutting edge of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) - announced an upsized funding round, raising an additional $1.5 million and bringing the total raised in the prior four weeks to $2.5 million.

Modern Benefits Company Benepass Raises $20 Million

By Noah Long ● Jan 31, 2024

Benepass - a flexible benefits platform for people-first companies - announced that the company has raised $20 million in additional funding led by Portage and Clocktower Technology Ventures. Workday Ventures and existing investors Threshold Ventures and Gradient Ventures also joined the funding round. And in connection with the funding, Stephanie Choo, Partner at Portage has joined the Benepass Board of Directors.

Kriya: £50 Million Financing Facility Raised With Viola Credit

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Kriya - a B2B payments fintech company - announced that it has secured a new £50 million debt facility from a long-standing debt partner Viola Credit. This will enable the fintech to power over £1 billion of B2B Payments over the next two years.

Fora: Executive Relationship Management Company Secures $3.8 Million

By Annie Baker ● Jan 31, 2024

Fora - an innovative executive relationship management (ERM) platform that is poised to transform C-suite decision-making through cutting-edge AI technology - announced it has emerged from stealth to pioneer an AI-driven approach to leadership and is backed by $3.8 million in pre-seed funding led by Converge.

LoanStar Technologies: Embedded Lending Company Raises $28 Million

By Annie Baker ● Jan 31, 2024

LoanStar Technologies - a leading financial technology company focused on embedded lending - announced it agreed to raise approximately $28 million of growth equity from a group of strategic investors, including approximately $20 million from Sageview Capital and the remainder from a mix of existing and new partners including, Launch Credit Union (via their wholly owned CUSO Holding Company), TruMark Financial Credit Union, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Monarch Strategic Advisors.

DUPR: Pickleball Rating Company Raises $8 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating), which is pickleball's most accurate international rating system, has announced a new board, ownership, and investors, and an influx of $8 million in funding to further advance its mission to unify the fast-growing sport with innovative technology and a dynamic global rating.

AVLA: $25 Million Raised To Accelerate International Growth Strategy

By Noah Long ● Jan 31, 2024

AVLA (a global insurance group) and Creation Investments Capital Management (a leading global impact investor in emerging markets) announced Creation's participation in a $25 million equity round to support further AVLA's international growth strategy and its plans to enter the U.S. market.

Cisco: An Interview With Chief Marketing And Customer Officer Aruna Ravichandran

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Aruna Ravichandran is an SVP and Chief Marketing and Customer Officer at Cisco, where she leverages modern B2B marketing tools and strategies to deliver quantifiable outcomes and drive global consistency while fostering innovation and collaboration. At Cisco, Ravichandran led the biggest rebrand in Webex's 25-year history centered around inclusivity and repositioned it from a legacy meetings product to a leader in collaboration. Ravichandran built and ran the Webex annual conference called WebexOne, which resulted in over 76K global registrants and over 5.2 million keynote views in 2022. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Ravichandran to learn more about her role at the company.

Travel + Leisure Buying Accor Vacation Club In $48.4 Million Deal

By Noah Long ● Jan 31, 2024

Travel + Leisure Co. - the world’s leading membership and leisure travel company - announced an agreement to acquire the vacation ownership business of global hospitality giant Accor for $48.4 million. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024 and to be immediately accretive to Travel + Leisure Co. earnings upon completion.

Databricks Hires The Team At Einblick

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Databricks announced that it has welcome the Einblick team to the company. Einblick was founded by researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University, whose research explored the boundary of machine learning, human-computer interaction, and NLP. The Einblick team spent the last four years building an AI-native collaboration platform that helps users solve data problems with just one sentence.

Aim Security: $10 Million Raised To Offer Enterprises A GenAI Security Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Aim Security - an Israel-based cybersecurity startup offering enterprises a holistic one-stop shop GenAI security platform - announced $10 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by YL Ventures, with participation from CCL (Cyber Club London), the founders of WIZ, and angel investors from Google, Proofpoint, and Palo Alto Networks. Aim Security was founded by cybersecurity veterans Matan Getz, CEO, and Adir Gruss, CTO - who pioneered using and adopting AI and big data tools in the IDF’s elite intelligence Unit 8200.

Why Cardinal Health Is Buying Specialty Networks For $1.2 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Cardinal Health announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Specialty Networks, a technology-enabled multi-specialty group purchasing and practice enhancement organization, for $1.2 billion in cash. And Specialty Networks creates clinical and economic value for independent specialty providers and partners across multiple specialty GPOs: UroGPO, Gastrologix and GastroGPO, and United Rheumatology.