Archives

HoundDog.ai, a company implementing data security and privacy controls at the code level, announced the completion of a $3.1 million seed funding round led by E14, Mozilla Ventures, ex/ante, and additional angel investors.

Vaxess Technologies, a life sciences company developing a shelf-stable MIMIX skin patch for vaccines and therapeutics, announced that it has received $12 million in additional funding. Investors included RA Capital Management, Engine Ventures, GHIC, and Mission Bio Capital. This brings Vaxess’s total equity and non-dilutive funding to more than $90 million.

Maxa - the #1 Snowflake Native App for business system and ERP insights automation for the Gen AI era - announced that it closed its Series A funding as part of an oversubscribed $21 million transaction. The funding round was led by FRAMEWORK, with BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund as co-lead. Maxa also welcomed new investors Snowflake Ventures, Amiral Ventures and NAventures, the venture arm of National Bank of Canada, in addition to third-time backers AQC Capital and Graphite Ventures.

Babylon, a project that aims to build a Bitcoin-secured decentralized world, today announced the completion of its $70 million funding round. This funding round - led by Paradigm with significant contributions from Bullish Capital, Polychain Capital, and other investors - signals momentum in the Bitcoin economy.

Praktika, a language learning app that utilizes highly personalized AI-powered avatars, announced it secured $32.5 million in Series A funding led by Blossom Capital to disrupt the traditional language learning market after a previously unannounced $2.5 million seed round led by Creator Ventures and Blue Wire Capital. These rounds included participation from prominent figures, including Carles Reina (ElevenLabs) and Patrice Evra (five-time Premier League champion).

Palantir Technologies announced that the Department of Defense Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) awarded its subsidiary (Palantir USG) a production contract to make licenses of their AI-enabled operating system available across the Department of Defense (DoD). Starting with an initial order of $153 million for supporting certain Combatant Commands and the Joint Staff, more awards could be made up to $480 million over a 5-year period.

Switchboard, a customizable oracle network that lets users plug into the on-chain economy, announced it has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round led by Tribe Capital and RockawayX, with participation from Solana Foundation, Aptos Labs, Mysten Labs (Sui), Subzero Ventures, Starkware, Arche Capital, Breed VC, Ascensive Assets, BlockBuilders, and others. 

Chameleon, a product adoption platform for modern software companies, announced that it has acquired interactive demo company Driveway. This acquisition enables Chameleon to expand into the interactive demo category and drive user onboarding via (existing) in-product and (new) ungated walkthroughs. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Evergrowth, an AI-powered B2B account-based sales platform, announced a merger with Apolo Mktng, which utilizes AI to deliver personalized marketing solutions. This merger brings together two innovative forces in AI technology to drive forward a more customer-centric approach to sales strategies.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), along with lending partner Trinity Capital, announced that it has provided Denim, a technology-forward factoring partner for freight brokers, with a $63 million warehouse facility.

ARPA Network, a pioneer in decentralized secure computation, announced a $6 million strategic investment to support product expansion in fully on-chain gaming, Autonomous Worlds (AW), and cryptographic AI. The lead investors in the round include Nomura's Laser Digital and DeFiance Capital, with additional funding from Animoca Ventures, Metrics Ventures, ArkStream Capital, and Trinito. ARPA Network is previously backed by Binance Labs, Arrington Capital, and DWF Labs.

Reibus, a leading independent metals marketplace, announced the appointment of Jared Rowe as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board. The company also revealed $30 million in new round of funding.

Jodi Anderson Jr. is a Director of Technological Innovation at the Cornell University School of Industrial Labor Relations' Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI) where he is responsible for overseeing the development and deployment of technology solutions that will enable justice-involved individuals to access employment and career development opportunities. And he is also a researcher at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, where he manages cohorts of early-stage entrepreneurs to build digital solutions for disadvantaged learning communities. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Anderson to learn more about his involvement with Restorative Record, a digital hiring tool created by the CJEI for justice-impacted job candidates to secure employment against exclusionary practices.

Patronus AI recently announced it raised $17 million in Series A funding, bringing the total amount raised to $20 million.

The Desire Company - a pioneer in expert product education - announced it has concluded its Series B funding round, bringing its valuation to $97 million. And this funding round was led by Cleveland Avenue and supported by Valor Siren Ventures.

Aerodome, a leader in Drone-As-First-Responder (DFR) technology, announced that the company has raised $21.5 million in Series A funding to continue building DFR solutions and build up its engineering and go-to-market teams. CRV led the funding round with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Karman Ventures, Immad Akhund (CEO, Mercury), and Ford Street Ventures. The company also raised its seed round in October, led by a16z and 2048 Ventures. And this round brought the total funding to $28 million.

Allez Health (formerly known as Zense-Life), an emerging biosensor venture founded by proven experts in the continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) space, announced a $60 million Series A+ financing. This funding round was led by Korean in-vitro diagnostics company Osang Healthcare Co., Ltd. as a strategic investor, with participation from existing investors. The new funding round is expected to be used to accelerate growth toward pivotal trials, support regulatory approval filings, and scale manufacturing operations.

Suno, an AI-based music company, announced it has raised $125 million in funding.  The funding was provided by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, Matrix and Founder Collective.

H, a Paris, France-based company has raised $220 million in seed funding. This funding round comes just a few months after the company was founded.

Verse - a company that developed software enabling organizations to understand, plan, and manage clean energy - announced it has raised a $20.5M Series A funding round. The funding was led by GV (Google Ventures) with participation from Coatue, CIV, and MCJ Collective and will support Verse as it scales commercial operations and develops new product capabilities to help organizations reduce emissions and lower electricity costs.

OCTO is a company that drives innovation and speed to market for technology-driven B2B companies in healthcare, medical technology, industrial technology, and manufacturing technology. Pulse 2.0 interviewed OCTO founder and CEO Justin Sirotin to learn more about the company.

Caprock, a top multi-family office Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) serving ultra-high-net-worth clients, announced Bennie Fowler III's appointment as Director of Strategic Development.

SOCRadar, a provider of enterprise-grade and end-to-end threat intelligence and brand protection, announced the successful completion of its Series B funding round at $25.2 million. This funding round was led by PeakSpan Capital, with participation from Oxx.

ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement. Pursuant to this agreement, ConocoPhillips will acquire Marathon Oil in an all-stock transaction with an enterprise value of $22.5 billion, including $5.4 billion of net debt.

Principal Asset Management recently announced the launch of its new private infrastructure debt capability and the hiring of Mansi Patel as senior managing director and head of infrastructure debt to lead its launch and implementation. This new capability adds to the firm’s expertise in public-listed infrastructure, real estate debt, and alternative credit.

Churchill Asset Management (an investment-specialist affiliate of Nuveen focused on middle-market private debt and private equity solutions) and Dawson Partners (a global alternative asset manager focused on providing innovative structured solutions to the private markets) announced the closing of a $425 million transaction.

LPL Financial announced that financial advisors Lance Dumas, AIF, ChFC, and Darryl Carter, CPA, have joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms. They reported serving approximately $225 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and joined LPL from Cetera.

Rooftop wind energy innovator Aeromine Technologies announced that it has closed an approximately $9 million funding round to drive the roll out of its breakthrough, motionless, and on-site wind energy solution. And Veriten, the energy research, investing, and strategy firm is the lead investor in the Series A funding round. Plus, investors in the round include global engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti and family offices.

Zendata, a leading provider of AI-based governance and data privacy solutions, emerged from stealth with $2 million in funding to redefine how security teams manage data and security. The seed funding round was led by PayPal Ventures, First-hand Alliance (operated by Salesforce Alumni), Geek Ventures, and Altari Ventures.