Archives

Siena: AI Customer Service Company Raises $4.7 Million

By Annie Baker ● Nov 29, 2023

Siena - an AI-focused customer service company - recently announced it raised $4.7 million in funding. This funding round was provided by Sierra Ventures, Parri Passu Ventures, SpaceStation Investments, Village Global, The Council, OpenSky Ventures, and SuperAngel.Fund.

D-Wave: How This Company’s Quantum Computers Solve Complex Business Problems In A $5 Billion Market

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 29, 2023

D-Wave is the leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software and services and is the world's first commercial supplier of quantum computers and the only company developing both annealing quantum computers and gate-model quantum computers. Pulse 2.0 interviewed D-Wave president and CEO Alan Baratz to learn more.

SignalFire Expands Team With 9 New Investors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 29, 2023

SignalFire partner and CEO Chris Farmer announced this week that after a decade of disciplined venture investing and applied AI research, the firm is growing its team.

IO Connect Services: Growth Equity Investment Received From East Los Capital

By Noah Long ● Nov 28, 2023

IO Connect Services - an AWS Advanced Tier Partner - recently announced a majority growth equity investment from East Los Capital to expand its service offerings and engineering staff in anticipation of the next wave of growth from the continued adoption of cloud computing and the increasingly complex needs of its clients.

Why Cyara Is Buying AI Testing Company QBox

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Cyara - the leading AI-powered Customer Experience (CX) Assurance Platform provider - announced today its acquisition of industry-leading conversational AI testing company QBox. This strategic deal significantly expands Cyara’s conversational AI testing capabilities, solidifying its position as a global market leader in chatbot optimization.

Why KKR Is Buying Potter Global Technologies

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Leading global investment firm KKR recently announced that investment funds managed by KKR have acquired Potter Global Technologies, a leading fire and life safety equipment manufacturer, from Gryphon Investors. The financial terms were not disclosed.

SiLC Technologies: Silicon Photonics Company Secures $25 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

SiLC Technologies (SiLC) - a leader in silicon photonics - recently announced $25 million in additional funding to bring the total funding proceeds from its seed and Series A to $56 million. The new strategic participants in the round include Hokuyo Automatic, Hankook & Company, and ROHM Semiconductor - all industry leaders focusing strategically on industrial, robotics, and mobility vision. They are joining SiLC’s roster of existing high-caliber investors, including Epson, Yamato, UMC, Sony, Dell Technologies Capital, and Alter Venture Partners.

Lifescience Dynamics: How This Rapidly Growing Support Consultancy Helps Clients Make Better Decisions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Lifescience Dynamics is a decision support consultancy helping clients manage complex strategic issues. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Lifescience Dynamics president and founder Rafaat Rahmani to learn more.

INFLUENCE: $20.8 Million In Funding Closed To Transform Venture Investing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

INFLUENCE - a platform re-envisioning venture investing - recently announced the closing of a US$20.8 million seed round led by Alpha Praetorian Capital (APC), a multi-stage institutional venture capital fund. INFLUENCE offers a new form of venture capital by using AI-based tech to transform traditional and social media into an investable medium called INFLUENCE. The notable investors in INFLUENCE include The London Fund, ACME Innovation, Reeve Collins (co-founder of Tether), Al Kahn (Pokémon), and other prominent tech founders and investors.

Suger: Sales Platform Company Raises $3.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Suger - a sales platform that manages the full lifecycle of cloud marketplaces, spanning product listings, offers, contracts, metering, billing, and CRM integration - recently announced $3.5 million in funding, including a $2.5 million Seed round co-led by Craft Ventures and Intel Capital, and $1 million Pre-Seed funding from investors including Y Combinator.

Imprint: $75 Million Closed To Co-Brand Credit Cards For Brands

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Imprint - a leading provider of modern co-branded credit cards for great brands - recently announced that it has secured $75 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital, with significant participation from Thrive Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Moore Specialty Credit.

Superstate: Asset Management Firm Secures $14 Million

By Noah Long ● Nov 28, 2023

Superstate - an asset management firm modernizing the infrastructure of investment funds - recently announced a $14 million first close of their Series A financing. The funding will be used to expand their team, launch private funds to institutional investors, and create a framework for compliant, tokenized, publicly registered investment funds.

CapitalOS: Spend Management Infrastructure Company Raises $39 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

CapitalOS - a fintech company providing a first-of-its-kind spend management infrastructure for B2B platforms, announced today its $39 million across equity funding and debt financing. This funding round was led by Group 11 with participation from Upper90, Vera Equity, Slow Ventures and established angel investors, which include Huey Lin (Affirm Founding-COO), Tomer London (Gusto CPO), Michael Sindicich (EVP, GM Navan Expense), Yin Wu (CEO, Pulley) and Oz Alon (HoneyBook CEO) along with accomplished product builders and operators from Stripe, Navan, Venmo, Houzz, etc.

SWITCH Maritime: $10 Million Raised To Develop Zero-Emission Ferries

By Noah Long ● Nov 28, 2023

SWITCH Maritime - a US-based company developing electrified, zero-emission ferries powered by battery and hydrogen fuel cells - recently announced that it has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Nexus Development Capital to grow its fleet. Launched in 2018 by a veteran team of maritime energy transition leaders, SWITCH’s mission is to enable private and public municipal ferry operators to more easily replace their carbon-intensive, diesel-powered fleets while reducing operating and fueling costs over the lifetime of their vessels.

Takes: A Place For Sports Fans To Unite And Watch Games Live

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Takes is the first online sports creator app where fans can unite online to watch games live and socialize through short user-created content. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Takes CEO Michael Iams to learn more about the company.

Harvest Partners: $5.34 Billion Of Commitments Closed

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Harvest Partners, LP - a New York-based private equity firm - recently announced that Harvest Partners IX, L.P. and its parallel funds (HP IX) completed its fundraising at $5.34 billion of commitments, surpassing its target of $5.25 billion. HP IX is 30% larger than the firm's previous private equity fund - which raised $4.1 billion of commitments in 2019 and has been fully deployed.

Confirm: How This Company Is Fixing What Is Broken With Performance Reviews

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Confirm is an all-in-one people platform fixing what’s broken with performance reviews. Grounded in the science of Organizational Network Analysis (ONA), Confirm gives leaders a true view of each employee’s influence, impact, and actual contribution. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Confirm co-founder and CEO Josh Merrill and co-founder and president David Murray to learn more about the company.

Zidisha: This Crowdfunding Platform Enables Donors To Fund Vetted Entrepreneurs In Developing Countries

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Zidisha is the world's first direct peer-to-peer lending service to bridge the international wealth divide, enabling individuals worldwide to lend to and communicate with borrowers in developing countries without local intermediaries. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Zidisha founder and director Julia Kurnia to learn more about the service.

MemVerge: How This Big Memory Computing Platform Company Is Addressing A $20 Billion Market

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

MemVerge is a company that is delivering the world’s first Memory-Converged Infrastructure system, built with proprietary software technology. Pulse 2.0 interviewed MemVerge co-founder and CEO Charles Fan to learn more about the company.

Gynesonics: Women’s Healthcare Company Secures $67 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 27, 2023

Gynesonics - a women’s healthcare company focused on developing minimally invasive solutions for symptomatic uterine fibroids - recently announced that it has secured an incremental $42.5 million in financing (total of $67.2 million inclusive of initial April 2023 financing). The funding round was led by existing Gynesonics investors Amzak Health, Endeavour Vision, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Runway Growth Capital, and Bain Capital, with new investments coming from MVM Partners and several other healthcare investors excited about Gynesonics’ commercial advances.

Tangibly: SaaS Trade Secret Discovery And Management Company Closes $7 Million

By Noah Long ● Nov 27, 2023

Tangibly - a SaaS trade secret discovery and management platform backed by Madrona and other top investors - recently announced that it had a final close of its seed round with an investment from Wipro Ventures, bringing the total funds raised to $7 million.

Fortem: How This Innovative Company Is Detecting And Defeating Dangerous Drones

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 27, 2023

Fortem Technologies is a leader in airspace awareness, security, and defense for detecting and defeating dangerous drones. Through an advanced and end-to-end system of distributed radar, AI at the Edge, deep sensor integration, and autonomous drone capture, Fortem monitors and defends the world’s venues, infrastructures, cities, and regions. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Fortem’s chief technology officer Adam Robertson, to learn more about the company.

Tenet: Climate Fintech Platform Company Closes Over $30 Million

By Annie Baker ● Nov 27, 2023

Tenet Energy - a climate fintech platform that helps consumers and businesses drive electric vehicles (EVs) for less - recently announced that it has closed a funding round of over $30 million, including over $10 million in Series A investment and a $20 million warehouse debt facility.

Granite Creek Capital Partners: $300 Million Third Fund And NYP Acquisition

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 27, 2023

Granite Creek Capital Partners - a private investment firm based in Chicago - recently announced the oversubscribed closing of its third investment fund, Granite Creek FlexCap III, L.P., a $300 million fund focused on providing flexible capital to growing lower middle market companies. The company also recently announced the acquisition of NYP Corp.

Expanso: $7.5 Million Raised To Help Enterprises Manage Data Needs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 27, 2023

Expanso - a startup built to help enterprises manage their ever-growing data needs with a distributed approach to big data processing powered by its open-source software Bacalhau - recently announced it has raised $7.5 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst and Hetz Ventures, along with Array Ventures.

BH Compliance: Measuring The Effectiveness Of Corporate Governance Practices

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 27, 2023

BH Compliance is an enterprise that measures the effectiveness of corporate governance practices, allowing companies to evaluate and verify the efficacy of their good practices, in addition to facilitating the early detection of possible gaps to correct them on time to prevent white-collar crimes and improve their bottom line more effectively. Pulse 2.0 interviewed BH Compliance CEO Susana Sierra to learn more about the company.

Qualiti: This AI-Managed Test Solution Runs And Maintains A Full Test Automation Suite

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 27, 2023

Qualiti is an AI-managed test automation solution that creates, maintains, executes, and triages tests for you. So bow you can move on from writing and maintaining these tests and actually focus on creative tasks in QA and the end-user experience. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Qualiti co-founder and COO Jeff Handy to learn more.

Firefly Aerospace: Series C Tranche Raised, Hitting About $300 Million To Date

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 26, 2023

Firefly Aerospace - an end-to-end space transportation company - recently announced the closing of another tranche of financing, valuing the company at $1.5 billion pre-money. The funding round is being led by existing investors, including AE Industrial Partners, LP, and new investors, including Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Firefly has raised approximately $300 million in funding since February 2023.

AI21: Enterprise AI Systems Company Raises $208 Million Oversubscribed Series C

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 26, 2023

AI21 - a leader in enterprise AI systems - recently announced the completion of its $208 million Series C funding at a valuation of $1.4 billion. The company saw participation from additional new investors, including Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel Corporation, and Comcast Ventures (the venture capital arm of Comcast Corporation), which joined previously announced investors. This new round of funding brings the company's total capital raised to $336 million, accelerating AI21's purpose-driven approach in the era of AI-first enterprises.

Forward Therapeutics: $50 Million Raised To Develop Small Molecule Therapies For Immunological And Inflammatory Disorders

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 26, 2023

Forward Therapeutics - a biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation small molecule therapies for chronic immunological and inflammatory disorders - recently announced a $50 million Series A financing. The funding was led by BVF Partners LP with participation from other leading life sciences investors RA Capital Management and OrbiMed.