Archives

Latus Bio: Patient-Centric And Product-Oriented Gene Therapy Company Raises $54 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2024

Latus Bio, a biotechnology company developing novel gene therapy candidates for disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), announced its launch and an initial closing of $54 million in Series A funding. 8VC and DCVC Bio are leading the funding round. So far, Samsung Life Science Fund (created by Samsung C&T, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Bioepis, and Samsung Venture Investment Corporation), The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation, Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners, Modi Ventures, and Gaingels have joined as syndicate partners.

Aikido: Security Platform Company Raises $17 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2024

Aikido, a no BS security platform for developers and SMEs, announced it has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Singular.vc, with participation from Notion Capital and Connect Ventures. This funding round comes six months after Aikido raised $5.3 million in seed funding, making it the fastest-capitalized startup in Belgian history.

Dentons: Jason Brooks Added To Papua New Guinea Office

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2024

Dentons announced it has welcomed Partner Jason Brooks to its Litigation team in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Brooks is an experienced commercial litigation lawyer who specializes in all aspects of litigation, including judicial review, tax litigation, customs litigation, employment law, and regulatory and advisory work.

LottieFiles: Strategic Investment Raised From Webflow And Figma Ventures

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2024

Animation design platform LottieFiles announced a strategic investment from Figma Ventures and Webflow Ventures. And the current list of LottieFiles investors includes Adobe Fund for Design, Microsoft Ventures, Automattic, Square Peg Capital, and other renowned names. So far, the company has raised over $47 million and has over 9 million users and 280,000+ teams using its motion design platform.

Rippl Buys AI Healthcare Company Kinto

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2024

Rippl, a leading dementia-focused specialty care provider, announced it had acquired Kinto - a Boston-based AI-enabled dementia caregiver support platform. This combination will enable the companies to reach an exponentially larger group of people living with dementia and their caregivers with human-centered care far beyond traditional brick-and-mortar models.

Altruist: $169 Million Raised To Create New Standards For Wealth Management

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Altruist, a modern custodian built for RIAs, announced a $169 million Series E funding round led by ICONIQ Growth with participation from new investor Granite Capital Management and continued support from existing investors Adams Street Partners and Sound Ventures. The new funding round brings the company’s total funding to over $450M and values the company north of $1.5B. In connection with the funding round, Yoonkee Sull, General Partner at ICONIQ Growth, will join the board of directors.

Greystar: $1.9 Billion Final Closing For Equity Partners XI Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Greystar Real Estate Partners, a global leader in the investment, development, and management of residential real estate, announced on behalf of its affiliates the final closing of Greystar Equity Partners XI (GEP XI), which had aggregate equity commitments of $1.9 billion.

Volta: Digital Asset Operations Management Company Raises $4.1 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Volta is a company that is transforming the digital asset industry with the introduction of Volta Circuit, a multi-signature, non-custodial platform that has secured $4.1 million in seed funding from Fika Ventures, and Haven Ventures, along with support from Soma Capital, Dispersion Capital, and Uphonest Capital. The platform has set a benchmark as the new standard for smart wallet infrastructure, offering the fastest, easiest, and most secure solution for self-custody.

Maia Farms: $2.3 Million Raised To Transform Global Protein Supply With Mycelium

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Maia Farms, a company focused on transforming the global protein supply with mycelium, announced the successful closure of its pre-seed funding round. Maia Farms raised over $2 million between private capital and matching grant funding. This marks a significant milestone in the company's mission to provide globally accessible and superior protein sources.

Legion: Workforce Management Company Secures $50 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Workforce management (WFM) company Legion Technologies announced it has raised $50 million in a growth funding round led by Riverwood Capital. There was also strategic participation from existing investors, including Norwest, Stripes, Webb Investment Network, and XYZ.

Dentons: Raphael Tachie Named As Partner In Trusts, Estates And Wealth Preservation Group

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

LPL Financial: Acquisition Of Crown Capital Securities Closed

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

LPL Financial announced it has closed its acquisition of Crown Capital Securities, L.P., a full-service broker-dealer and registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Orange County, California.

Stormfield Capital: $1.25 Billion In Loan Originations Achieved

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Stormfield Capital, an institutional private credit manager with expertise in lower middle-market commercial real estate bridge lending, announced that it funded more than $1.25 billion in proprietary loan originations.

Eleos: Digital Life Insurance Provider Company Raises $4 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Eleos announced it had raised a venture capital investment of $4 million in a seed round led by Fuel Ventures and Indico Capital, which comes just six months after the competition of a pre-seed round.

HighVista Strategies: Private Equity Fund X Closed At $675 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

HighVista Strategies, an alternative asset manager pursuing specialized investments in public and private markets, announced the final closing of HighVista Private Equity X, LP. This fund closed on $675 million of commitments, including a sizeable GP commitment and other affiliated capital. In addition to welcoming several new investors into the program, HighVista Private Equity X had received strong support from a broad group of longstanding investors, including pension funds, endowments, foundations, and family offices.

Private Advisor Group Brings In $90 Million Advisor

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Private Advisor Group, one of the largest/fastest-growing independent wealth management firms, has welcomed Ethan Campbell (Wealth Advisor of Stones River Wealth Management) to its community of advisors. Based in Woodbury, Tennesse, team members include Collin Reed (Wealth Advisor) and Alana Hale (Office Administrator). The firm takes a holistic approach to financial planning and currently oversees a reported $90 million in client assets under management.

LPL Financial Brings In $200 Million Journey Financial Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

LPL Financial announced that financial advisors Timothy Heisterkamp, CFP, and Max Neese, CFP have joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer, RIA and custodial platforms. And they reported serving approximately $200 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets, and join LPL from Cambridge.

SpuceID: Enabling Users To Control Their Data Across All Digital Interactions

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

SpruceID is a company building a future where users own their identity and data across all digital interactions. And the company's open-source credentialing infrastructure is standards-compliant, production-ready, and extensible to enterprise and government IT systems. Pulse 2.0 interviewed SpruceID co-founder and CEO Wayne Chang to learn more about the company.

Latticework Capital Management: LCM Healthcare Fund II Closed At Over $345 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Latticework Capital Management (LCM), a growth-oriented private equity firm focused exclusively on making control equity investments in the healthcare industry, announced the final closing of LCM Healthcare Fund II. With total commitments of $345 million, Fund II exceeded the $275 million target. And it added a diverse group of global investors, including leading endowments, family offices, and funds of funds.

BTG Pactual Raises Over $1 Billion For Strategic Capital Investment Strategy

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

BTG Pactual Asset Management, a global investment platform with US$177 billion in AUM/AUA as of Q4 of 2023, announced that it finalized fundraising for its BTG Pactual Strategic Capital (Strat Cap) investment strategy. This strategy closed on over US$1 billion in total capital commitments, including US$395 million to a Fund LP and over US$600 million in co-investments.

BlackRock Invests In Willow Network To Help Financial Advisors Serve New Investors

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

BlackRock announced it has made a minority investment in Willow Network, a startup providing services to help financial advisors better serve a growing population of new investors. Willow will use the funding to launch two new certificate programs to help advisors better respond to the unique financial and planning challenges this next generation of clients faces.

HOMAGE Raises Strategic Investment With Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort As Lead

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

HOMAGE, leading vintage-inspired sports, and licensed apparel company announced a strategic investment of growth capital from Maximum Effort Investments, an investment advisory firm co-founded by Ryan Reynolds. Maximum Effort Investments will serve as the lead investor for this round.

BIP Wealth Acquiring The Money Advisor Group, Bringing AUM To $3.3+ Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

The Money Advisor Group, LLC (TMAG), a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) specializing in investment management and retirement planning, announced it had signed a deal to be acquired by Atlanta-based RIA, BIP Wealth, through its new BIP Alliance initiative. BIP Wealth offers investment management and sophisticated planning solutions for high-net-worth individuals and families, institutional clients, and corporate retirement plans.

LPL Financial Brings In $240 Million Guardian Partners Wealth Management Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

LPL Financial announced that financial advisors Mitchell “Mitch” and Wesley “Wes” McCann have joined its broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms. They reported serving approximately $240 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and joined LPL from Ameriprise.

Cache DNA: Seed Funding Raised To Transform Biological Sample And Data Storage Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Cache DNA, a life sciences company transforming biological sample and data storage infrastructure, announced the closing of its seed round. The team raised an undisclosed amount from notable investors such as Climate Capital Bio, Exor Ventures, Hawktail, LifeX Ventures, Pillar VC, and Trousdale Ventures, including support from Illumina and founders such as Alec Nielsen.

Nudge Security Raises $16.5 Million To Help Manage SaaS Security And Governance At Scale

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Nudge Security, a leading provider of modern SaaS security and governance, announced new funding from Forgepoint Capital. This funding, which joins Ballistic Ventures, brings the startup's seed funding to $16.5 million. Forgepoint Co-Founder and Managing Director Alberto Yépez will join the Nudge Security board in connection with the funding round.

Akamai To Buy Noname Security In $450 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Akamai Technologies, a cloud company that powers and protects life online, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire application programming interface (API) security company Noname Security.

Ropes & Gray Adds Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Walters As Partner In Boston Office

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Law firm Ropes & Gray announced it expanded its award-winning litigation & enforcement practice again with the arrival of former federal prosecutor and experienced trial lawyer Sarah Walters as a partner in the firm’s Boston office.

DLA Piper Adds David Kreisler As Partner In Investment Funds Practice

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

DLA Piper announced it welcomes David Kreisler as a partner in the firm’s Investment Funds Practice. And he will be based in the firm’s Boston office.

Lincoln Financial Completes Sale Of Wealth Management Business To Osaic In $650 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2024

Lincoln Financial Group announced that it has completed the sale of its wealth management business, including all ownership interests in the Lincoln subsidiary entities comprising that business, to Osaic - one of the nation’s largest providers of wealth management solutions. And the sale also provides Lincoln with about $650 million of capital benefit - which the company will use primarily to increase its risk-based capital ratio. Lincoln also plans on using part of the capital benefit to reduce its leverage ratio.