Archives

Why Tapestry Is Buying Capri For $8.5 Billion

By Annie Baker ● Aug 20, 2023

Tapestry (a house of iconic accessories and lifestyle brands consisting of Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman) and Capri Holdings Limited (a global fashion luxury group consisting of Versace, Jimmy Choo, and Michael Kors) recently announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Tapestry will acquire Capri Holdings. Under the terms of the transaction Capri Holdings shareholders will receive $57.00 per share in cash for a total enterprise value of approximately $8.5 billion.

Northleaf Invests $200 Million In Tillman FiberCo

By Noah Long ● Aug 20, 2023

Tillman FiberCo, LLC (a leading developer and owner of symmetrical gigabit broadband) and Northleaf Capital Partners (a leading global private markets investment firm) recently announced a strategic partnership. The funds managed by Northleaf have made an initial investment of $200 million, with the potential to invest up to $300 million more as Tillman FiberCo scales its operations.

Why Emerson Is Buying Afag

By Annie Baker ● Aug 19, 2023

Emerson recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Afag Holding AG, an innovative leader in electric linear motion, feeding, and handling automation solutions. Based in Zell, Switzerland, Afag will bring state-of-the-art technology and innovation to Emerson.

Clari Buying Sales Engagement Leader Groove: Details

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 19, 2023

Clari recently announced it is acquiring Groove, a market leader in sales engagement. And integrating Groove's sales engagement capabilities with Clari's AI-powered Revenue Platform will give companies unprecedented visibility, predictability, and control across the end-to-end revenue process. Customers will immediately reduce tech spend and complexity while increasing pipeline, conversions, and win rates.

Why Energy Transfer Is Buying Crestwood For $7.1 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 19, 2023

Energy Transfer LP and Crestwood Equity Partners LP recently announced that the parties have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Energy Transfer will acquire Crestwood in an all-equity transaction valued at approximately $7.1 billion, including the assumption of $3.3 billion of debt, based on the closing price on August 15, 2023.

Mixlab: Pet Prescription And Wellness Solutions Company Raises $10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

Mixlab - a veterinarian-partnered pharmacy and leader in pet prescription and wellness solutions company - recently announced a $10 million funding round led by Vanterra Ventures, with participation from Lakehouse Ventures and others. And The investment will fuel Mixlab’s ambitious growth plans, enabling the company to expand its operations and product offering further, enhance its technology platform, and reach profitability.

Metal: Helping Developers Build Production-Grade LLM Apps Intended For Real-World Use

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

Metal is a fully managed service that enables developers to build LLM applications. Metal removes the complexity of building with the LLM stack, providing data transformation, infrastructure, querying, memory, APIs, etc. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Metal co-founder Taylor Lowe to learn more.

Georgiamune: Clinical-Stage Biotechnology Company Closes $75 Million In Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

Georgiamune - a privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company - recently announced the clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for GIM-122, a dual-functioning monoclonal antibody. And the company completed a $75 million Series A financing, positioning Georgiamune as a promising new biotechnology company in the fields of oncology and autoimmune diseases.

VBA: $156 Million Secured To Advance Benefits Software Platform For Healthcare Payers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

VBA - a leader in cloud-based benefits software for healthcare payers - recently announced that the company has closed a $156 million majority growth equity transaction led by Spectrum Equity, the leading growth equity firm behind healthcare information technology companies Definitive Healthcare and GoodRx. Existing investor Arthur Ventures also participated in the round. The company improves the healthcare experience by eliminating data fragmentation and enabling interoperability through its tightly integrated suite of solutions.

BitGo: Regulated Custodian Company Raises $100 Million At $1.75 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

BitGo recently announced $100 million in Series C financing from new, outside strategic investors with a valuation of $1.75 billion. This funding round will be used to make strategic acquisitions and expand its secure and regulated custody, wallet, and infrastructure solutions globally.

Abcuro: $155 Million Raised For Advancing Autoimmune Pipeline

By Annie Baker ● Aug 18, 2023

Abcuro - a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer through precise modulation of cytotoxic T and NK cells - recently announced the successful close of an oversubscribed $155 million Series B financing co-led by Redmile Group and Bain Capital Life Sciences.

Honeywell And Recipharm Partner To Accelerate Development Of Inhalers With Near-Zero Global Warming Potential Propellant

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

Honeywell and global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Recipharm recently announced a commercial partnership that will speed the development of pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) that use Honeywell's near-zero global warming potential (GWP) propellant.

Anthropic: AI Safety And Research Company Raises $100 Million From SKT

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

SKT recently announced investing an additional USD 100 million in Anthropic, an AI safety and research company based in San Francisco. This funding follows a previous investment from SK Telecom Venture Capital (SKTVC) - SKT's Silicon Valley-based venture capital arm. And SKT has partnered with Anthropic to build a large language model (LLM) customized for telcos.

IBM Consulting Partners With Microsoft To Help Companies Accelerate Generative AI Adoption

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

IBM recently announced it is expanding its collaboration with Microsoft to help joint clients accelerate the deployment of generative AI and deliver a new offering that will provide clients with the expertise and technology they need to innovate their business processes and scale generative AI effectively.

BrokerTech Ventures Names Emily Schultz as Managing Director

By Annie Baker ● Aug 18, 2023

BrokerTech Ventures (BTV) - which is the industry's first broker-led convening platform and accelerator program - announced the hiring of Emily Schultz as its new Managing Director. Within this role, Schultz will be responsible for setting and executing on the strategic direction of BTV to help advance innovation within the broker technology industry.

Drizly Launches New Tool For Helping Hosts Throw Better Parties

By Dan Anderson ● Aug 18, 2023

Drizly, an Uber company, has launched its new Party Theme Generator 3000. To use the generator, hosts have to click a button to randomly "generate" a party theme and get drink recommendations for matching that theme along with several other tips.

TIFIN AMP: Sal Gagliano Appointed As CEO

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

TIFIN AMP - a leading artificial intelligence (AI) platform for the intelligent distribution of funds - announced it has appointed Sal Gagliano as the Chief Executive Officer. And the firm also announced the addition of Charlie Shaffer as the President and Chief Revenue Officer. Dr. Vinay Nair will continue as the Founder and Executive Chairman.

Data Axle: How This Business Intelligence Company Is Disrupting A $40 Billion Market

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

Data Axle is a rapidly growing business intelligence company that helps clients create a foundation of clean data, find new leads, develop winning strategies, design beautiful campaigns, and handle all day-to-day execution needs. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Data Axle CEO and chairman Mike Iaccarino to learn more.

Armory: Empowering Software Companies To Accelerate Innovation And Improve Customer Experience

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

Armory is a company that empowers software development organizations to accelerate their innovation and time-to-market while reducing risk to their customers’ experience. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Armory Director of Product Marketing Anna Daugherty to learn more.

Sima.AI: This Edge AI Platform Company Is Pushing The Boundaries Of Computer Vision

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

SiMa.ai is a machine learning (ML) company delivering the industry’s first software-centric purpose-built machine learning software-on-chip (MLSoC) platform for low-powered devices. With push-button performance, the company enables effortless ML deployment and scaling at the embedded edge by allowing customers to address any computer vision problem while achieving 10x better performance at the lowest power. This technology has the potential to transform the embedded edge market by addressing the limitations of legacy technology that have been impeding innovation for decades. Pulse 2.0 interviewed SiMa.ai founder and CEO Krishna Rangasayee to learn more.

Sofia Fund: How This Venture Firm Is Investing In And Growing Exceptional Women-Led Companies

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

Sofia Fund is a venture firm that invests in and grows exceptional women-led companies – those with strong leaders and highly compelling business models that are scalable and meet a market need – to maximize returns for investors. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sofia Fund partner Joy Lindsay to learn more.

Kidizen: This P2P Marketplace Helps Parents Save Money On Quality Kid Brands

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 18, 2023

Jia: This Company Helps Entrepreneurs All Over The World With Financing To Grow

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2023

Jia is a company that gives entrepreneurs anywhere in the world power to control their financial destiny. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Jia CEO and co-founder Zach Marks to learn more.

Kaiju: Democratizing Access to AI-Powered Investment Products

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2023

Kaiju, an innovative asset manager and issuer of the AI-powered BTD Capital Fund (NYSE: DIP), is helping investors deploy AI in their portfolios and revolutionizing active management. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Kaiju Worldwide CEO Ryan Pannell to learn more.

P6 Technologies: $3.25 Million Secured To Build Enterprise Software For Transportation Fuel And Petrochemical Sectors

By Noah Long ● Aug 17, 2023

P6 Technologies - an emerging leader in enterprise software for transportation fuel and petrochemical companies to perform Product Life Cycle Assessments that measure product-level carbon intensity and GHG emissions - recently announced it had secured $3.25 million in seed funding led by Goose Capital and supported by Tupper Lake Partners, Veritec Ventures, and Artemis Energy Partners. This is the first external funding P6 Technologies has accepted, positioning the company for accelerated growth.

How Pramata Makes Contract Management Radically Simple And Affordable

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2023

Pramata is a radically simple end-to-end contract management platform. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Pramata chief technology officer (CTO) Pedram Abrari to learn more.

Croissant: Fintech Platform Company Secures $24 Million To Empower Intentional Commerce

By Noah Long ● Aug 17, 2023

Croissant - a fintech platform with a mission to empower intentional commerce - recently launched with $24 million in seed funding from renowned investors, including Portage and KKR co-founders George Roberts and Henry Kravis. The initial funding was used to accelerate Croissant’s MVP launch via a best-in-class founding team led by Co-Founder and CEO John Howard (formerly of KKR), Co-Founder and CTO John Klose (Amazon, PayPal), and Head of Product Vrishti Mongia (Meta, Moda Operandi).

Amber Bio: $26 Million Raised To Build Gene Editing Platform To Reach Undruggable Diseases

By Dan Anderson ● Aug 17, 2023

Amber Bio - a biotechnology company pioneering multi-kilobase gene editing platforms to reach previously undruggable diseases - recently launched with an oversubscribed $26 million seed financing round co-led by Playground Global and Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health. And Eli Lilly, RDF (Retinal Degeneration Fund), Hummingbird Ventures, and Pillar VC also participated in the round.

Helm.ai: $55 Million Secured For Developing AI Software For Autonomous Driving And Robotics Automation

By Annie Baker ● Aug 17, 2023

Helm.ai - a provider of next-generation AI software for autonomous driving and automation of robotics - recently announced it raised $55 million in its Series C financing. Freeman Group led the round, including investments from venture capital firms ACVC Partners and Amplo, along with strategic investments from Honda Motor, Goodyear Ventures, and Sungwoo Hitech. This financing brings the total amount raised by Helm.ai to $102M. Helm.ai will use the funds for R&D, the productization of its self-driving technologies, and to further execute commercial engagements with customers and partners in the automotive and robotics sectors.

Wally: This App Helps People Track Their Finances In Over A $14 Billion Market

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2023

Wally is a personal finance mobile application in 70 countries that helps people track their net worth, spending, and budgets. By connecting bank accounts to the app, Wally is simplifying personal finance management through easy-to-understand visualizations and notifications. To learn more, Pulse 2.0 interviewed Wally co-founder Saeid Hejazi.