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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.

Middle-market private equity firm HKW has hired Laurence Lederer and Devraj Roy as Partners. Based in HKW’s New York City office, Lederer and Roy will seek to advance HKW’s strategy of prioritizing investments in basic industrial manufacturing, distribution, and business services companies, including IoT/telematic and tech-enabled businesses.

LPL Financial recently announced that financial advisors Erick Simonds, CRC, Eugene Sninski, II, and Lisa Sninski have joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms. The team reported serving about $250 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and joined LPL from Wells Fargo Advisors.

Avista Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm focused exclusively on healthcare, announced that Don Casey has joined the firm as a Strategic Executive. Casey most recently served as the CEO of Dentsply Sirona, one of the largest manufacturers of professional dental products and technologies.

UBS Wealth Management USA recently announced that a three-person team called The Bucher Group has joined the firm in Birmingham, Michigan. This father-son team, led by Financial Advisor Matthew J. Bucher and including Financial Advisor Matthew M. Bucher and Client Service Associate Christina Lynn Propst, focuses on providing tailored investment strategies and comprehensive wealth management advice for high-net-worth individuals and families.

Raymond James Financial Institutions Division (FID) senior vice president and national director Stephen Kruchten announced that the firm has recently welcomed financial advisor Joseph Martinez to Pinnacle Asset Management (located at Pinnacle Financial Partners, a current FID-affiliated branch).

BCN Visuals is an award-winning innovation technology company and digital studio. Known for pioneering 3D anamorphic billboards and revolutionizing digital out-of-home, we collaborate with brands and agencies who want to leave an indelible mark. Pulse 2.0 interviewed BCN Visuals Chief Creative Officer and partner Davide Bianca to learn more about the company.

Chase announced it has launched a digital media business called Chase Media Solutions. This service will allow brands to connect with the financial institution’s 80 million customers.

Collaborative underwriting carrier Emerald Bay Risk Solutions announced its formal launch with a significant strategic investment from Bain Capital Insurance, the insurance investing unit of Bain Capital.

Blue Yonder - a leader in digital supply chain transformations - announced the signing of an agreement to acquire One Network Enterprises for about $839 million, subject to adjustments. One Network is known for its autonomous and resilience services and is a leading global provider of intelligent control towers. Upon the deal's completion, Blue Yonder will be well-positioned to serve customers’ needs across planning, execution, and commerce.

InStride Health, an outpatient provider of specialty pediatric anxiety and OCD treatment, announced it closed an oversubscribed $30 million Series B funding round. General Catalyst led the funding round and was joined by previous investors .406 Ventures, Valtruis, Mass General Brigham Ventures, and Hopelab Foundation.

Orchard Robotics, a company enabling precision crop management with robots and AI, has raised $3.8 million in a seed round led by General Catalyst and a pre-seed led by Contrary. Humba Ventures, Soma Capital, Correlation Ventures, VU Venture Partners, Ben Taft’s Genius Ventures, angel investors Howard Lerman, Joshua Browder, Rory, Kieran O’Reilly, and many others also joined the round.

Cyvl.ai, a leader in enterprise AI solutions for transportation infrastructure, announced $6 million of new investments after two years of rapid growth. Companyon Ventures led the funding round, including Argon Ventures, AeroX Ventures, and Alumni Ventures. Cyvl.ai also received support from its existing investors, MassVentures, Launch Capital, RiverPark Ventures,Launchpad Venture Group, and Hub Angels.

Hunter Point Capital (HPC), an independent investment firm providing capital solutions and strategic support to alternative asset managers, announced the closing of its inaugural GP Stakes fund (HPC Fund I) with $3.3 billion in permanent capital commitments, exceeding its initial $2.5 billion target. And HPC Fund I is the largest-ever debut GP Stakes fund dedicated to private market strategies.

Descartes Systems Group, a global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, announced that it acquired Rockville, Maryland-based OCR Services, a leading provider of global trade compliance solutions and content. The deal for OCR was about $90 million, and it was satisfied with cash on hand.