Archives

The Minnesota Twins Accelerator by Techstars recently announced its third cohort. Driving a unique pathway in the sports landscape, this accelerator is the first of its kind in Minnesota sports and just the second to be operated and funded by a Major League Baseball club.

Free Market Health - a healthcare technology company transforming the specialty pharmacy ecosystem with a care-driven marketplace platform - recently announced a $20 million Series B funding round led by Questa Capital with participation from existing investors Alta Partners, Highmark Ventures, and 653 Investment Partners.

Ryan Niddel is a business growth specialist who has created over $970 million in enterprise value for companies. MIT45 is one of the latest companies that Niddel helped scale, and it is now valued at more than $250 million. As a CEO, board member, investor, and entrepreneur, Niddel is driven to transform the companies he works with. Niddel helped generate revenues in the high eight figures (9 by the end of this year), while his cumulative revenue is over $273 million. Within the past 2.5 years alone, Niddel has tripled the income of more than five of the companies he’s worked with. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Niddel to learn more.

Hygraph is a federated content platform that allows true composability of your stack. You can integrate all your services with the company’s unique content federation approach and distribute content from anywhere to anywhere using a single, powerful GraphQL API. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Hygraph CEO and co-founder Michael Lukaszczyk to learn more.

Greyparrot is a leading AI waste analytics platform for the circular economy. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Greyparrot co-founder and chief product officer (CPO) Ambarish Mitra to learn more.

Boulo is a go-to recruiting expert for working mothers and employers who embrace flexibility for mutual benefit. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Boulo Solutions founder and CEO Delphine Carter to learn more.

The Cyber Innovation Center (CIC) - a catalyst for the development and expansion of a knowledge-based workforce - recently announced a total of $129 million in federal funding to continue industry-leading innovation through CYBER.ORG and STRIKEWERX, its leading subsidiary organizations driving innovation in the region.

Espresa - a personal benefits platform designed for global enterprises - recently announced the completion of its Series A funding round, led by Clear Ventures and totaling $23 million. And all existing investors participated, including Crosslink Capital, New Era Capital Partners, Moneta Venture Capital, Ridge Ventures, and Westwave Capital.

Engine Biosciences - a company leveraging machine learning and high-throughput biology to discover and develop precision oncology medicines - recently announced the completion of a $27 million Series A extension. The funding round was led by Polaris Partners, with participation from both new and existing investors, bringing the total funds raised since inception to $86 million. Additional participating investors include existing investors ClavystBio (a life sciences venture investor set up by Temasek), Invus, and  EDBI (Singapore-based global investor), and new investors Coronet Ventures (a Singapore-based investment entity of Cedars Sinai Intellectual Property Company) and SEEDS Capital (investment arm of Enterprise Singapore). In connection with the funding, Wen Qi Ho, Ph.D., Therapeutics Lead at ClavystBio, joined Engine’s Board of Directors.

American Express recently announced that American Express Business Checking is now available to any eligible U.S. small business. This offers a digital banking experience with no monthly fees, 24/7 service, and the ability to earn and redeem Membership Rewards points for select travel and for deposits directly into their Business Checking account.

ESG Flo - an AI-powered data infrastructure platform - recently announced that it has secured $5.25 million in seed capital. This funding round was co-led by Rho Ignition and Tola Capital with participation from Bain & Company and Contour Venture Partners.

Mobvista is a leading mobile technology company that provides a complete suite of advertising and analytics tools for app developers and marketers seeking global growth. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Mobvista’s VP of Global Partnerships Greg Castro to learn more about the company.

Upfort - a cutting-edge cyber security and insurance platform - recently announced it has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round led by SYN Ventures, with additional participation from Eniac Ventures, Fika Ventures, Altai Ventures, Chaos Ventures, Aquila Capital Partners, Gaingels and Cyber Mentor Fund.

Intuition Robotics is a company that is on a mission to care for our older adult population with an empathetic AI companion, enabling them to live healthier, happier and more independent lives. The company’s groundbreaking technology synthesizes empathy to create an AI companion that establishes a trusted relationship, maintains high engagement and drives behavior change in older adults. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Intuition Robotics co-founder and CEO Dor Skuler to learn more about the company.

LevelJump is a company that focuses on expanding critical care services to Canadians through new opportunities and robust operations. And LevelJump aims to deliver value to shareholders while finding solutions for the gaps in Canada's healthcare system. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Leveljump Healthcare CEO Mitch Geisler to learn more.

Sapphire Technologies is a company that is driving global decarbonization. And the company’s team of experts develops and manufactures energy recovery systems that harness the power of gas expansion to produce reliable and clean electricity. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sapphire Technologies CEO Freddie Sarhan to learn more.

CIQ is a company that builds secure, reliable, and open infrastructure solutions at scale, with dedicated support for a range of performance-intensive computing and enterprise technologies. Pulse 2.0 interviewed CIQ founder and CEO Gregory Kurtzer to learn more.

QuantHealth is an AI company conducting patient-centric drug simulations to accelerate and de-risk drug development. Pulse 2.0 interviewed QuantHealth co-founder and CEO Orr Inbar to learn more.

Salsify is a Product Experience Management (PXM) platform that empowers brands and retailers to win on the digital shelf. Earlier this year, Salsify added Jeff Barnett to the company board of directors. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Jeff Barnett to learn more about his role and the company.

Sisense is a company that embeds analytics seamlessly into any workflow. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sisense chief product officer Ayala Michelson to learn more about the company.

Weav.ai - a developer of plug-and-play Generative AI solutions for the enterprise - recently announced that it has emerged from stealth with the launch of its Enterprise AI Copilots, a suite of tools that empower businesses to unlock the value of their unstructured and structured data using Generative AI (GenAI). And the company accelerated product development after closing a $5 million seed funding round in November 2022 led by Sierra Ventures.

Layr - a leading insurance tech company - recently announced that it closed a $10 million round of financing led by Cota Capital. The K Fund, HSCM Ventures, Sandbox Industries, and Flyover Capital also participated in the round.

Ansys (a global leader in engineering simulation software) and Materialise (a global leader in 3D printing software and service solutions) are joining forces to deliver integrated digital solutions to help overcome workflow challenges in the AM industry. This partnership will seamlessly integrate Ansys Additive Suite into Materialise’s data and build preparation tool Magics.

Stockpress - a platform changing how distributed teams approach file management - recently announced it has raised $1.8 million in seed funding, bringing its total to $2.5 million. The funding round was led by Argon Ventures, with participation from York IE, Two Lanterns VC, The The Fund XX/Everywhere Ventures, and follow-on investment from Stage 2 Capital and deftly.vc

CAST AI - a leading Kubernetes cost optimization platform - recently announced that it has closed a $35 million Series B round from Vintage Investment Partners and existing investors Creandum and Uncorrelated Ventures. The new funding round follows a $20 million investment round led by Creandum in March, bringing the company’s total funding to $73 million and underscoring its strong growth and increasing demand for its platform. 

Aleph Alpha, a Heidelberg-based leader in the field of explainable and trustworthy AI - recently announced the successful signing of its Series B financing round. The company raised $500 million from a consortium of a total of seven new investors as well as existing investors from previous rounds.

NEXT Insurance - a leading technology-first small business insurer - recently announced its strategic partnership with Allstate that will combine the companies’ expertise in small business insurance to develop and offer innovative and unique new products to a large underserved market, and a commitment to deepening its reinsurance relationship with Allianz. These partnerships come with a $265 million strategic investment from Allstate and Allianz X.

Enable - a rebate management platform company - recently announced that it has raised $120 million in Series D funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from all previous lead investors Menlo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Insight Partners, and Sierra Ventures. This raise values the company at $1.12 billion, bringing the total amount raised since 2020 to $276 million.

Guidde - a video documentation platform utilizing generative AI - recently announced a $11.6 million Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, and they were joined by existing investors Entrée Capital, Honeystone Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, and new investor Tiferes Ventures.