Startups

Azura: $6.9 Million (Seed) Raised To Make DeFi Mainstream

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 5, 2024

Azura recently emerged from stealth to launch the interfacing layer for decentralized finance (DeFi). And the company is backed by $6.9 million in seed funding led by Garry Tan's Initialized Capital. Additional investors in that round included Volt Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Alliance, Raj Gokal (co-founder of Solana), Meltem Demirors (former co-chair, World Economic Forum's Cryptocurrency Council), Stephane Gosselin (co-founder of Flashbots), and other renowned figures in the crypto industry.

Ned: $4.2 Million (Seed) Raised To Transform Cash Flow Lending Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Ned, a company that provides customers with a cash flow lending platform, announced the closing of its $4.2 million equity seed financing led by Impression Ventures, with participation from Capital Eleven.

Hue: User-Generated Video Platform Raises $4.5 Million (Seed)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Hue, an AI-based SaaS platform that powers the end-to-end infrastructure for authentic user-generated video content that converts on eCommerce, announced that it has closed $4.5 million in seed funding. Fika Ventures and Underscore VC co-led the round, with follow-on participation from pre-seed investors, including Sequoia Scouts, The MBA Fund, Glasswing Ventures, Courtyard Ventures, Phoenix Fund, and Tristan Walker’s Heirloom Fund.

Fingercheck: Payroll And HR Company Raises $115 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Growth equity investment firm Edison Partners announced it led a $115 million growth investment in Fingercheck, which offers an all-in-one workforce management platform for small and medium businesses (SMBs) with ‘deskless’ workforces. StepStone Group and Columbus Capital also joined the round in the investment.

Qpoint: $4 Million (Pre-Seed) Raised To Help Companies Take Control Of External APIs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Qpoint announced it closed $4 million in pre-seed funding led by Mango Capital with participation from Preface Ventures, Scribble Ventures and Bloomberg Beta.

Picnic: Food Production Automation Company Raises $5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Picnic, a leader in food production automation, announced it raised $5 million in a funding round led by Cercano Management. New investor Unlock Venture Partners participated, as did existing investors Thursday Ventures, Flying Fish Ventures, and Creative Ventures.

HealthEx: Patient Preference And Consent Management Company Raises $14 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

HealthEx - a team of healthcare and technology veterans building a global consumer preference and consent platform for healthcare to unlock data access - recently launched and announced $14 million in Seed and Series A funding. The company’s funding round was led by General Catalyst, with participation by Electric Capital.

CrewAI: Multi-Agent Platform Raises $18 Million (Series A)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Leading multi-agent platform CrewAI announced $18 million in total funding that included an inception round led by boldstart ventures and a Series A led by global software investor Insight Partners. Additional investors include Blitzscaling Ventures, Craft Ventures, Earl Grey Capital, and several top angels in AI, including Andrew Ng (a recognized voice in AI) and Dharmesh Shah (co-founder and CTO of HubSpot).

CREW Carbon: $5.3 Million (Seed) Closed To Capture Carbon At Wastewater Facilities

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

CREW Carbon is a company aiming to utilize its enhanced weathering approach within earth's water cycle, focused initially on removing biogenic CO2 produced in wastewater treatment facilities. The company has raised $5.3 million in seed funding in an oversubscribed round led by Counteract and included participation by ReGen Ventures, ANIMO, Connecticut Innovations, Ponderosa Ventures, Newlab, Echo River Capital, and the Carbon Drawdown Initiative.

Blacklane: Chauffeur Services Provider Raises €60 Million (Series G)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Blacklane, a global chauffeur services provider, announced the closing of its largest financing round to date. The Series G round secures an investment of €60 million ($65 million) and marks a valuation increase of approximately 25% compared to the previous round in September 2023. Most existing investors supported this capital increase, which will strengthen Blacklane's investment strategy and support the company's healthy global growth strategy.

Latii: Property Technology Company Secures $5 Million (Seed)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Latii - a New York City-based property technology company - announced that it has secured $5 million in seed-round funding. Combined with the $3.3 million raised during a pre-seed round, this funding round brings Latii's total funding to $8.3 million.

Table22: $11 Million (Series A) Raised To Expand E-Commerce Tools For Merchants

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Table22, a provider of revenue-expanding e-commerce tools for merchants in America's $1+ trillion food and beverage industry, announced an $11 million Series A funding round to expand its platform and customer network. This funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from institutional investors Footwork, Forerunner Ventures, and Alt Capital, and individual participants including founders of and leaders from category-leading companies like Square, BentoBox, and SevenRooms.

Vensica Medical: Urology Therapeutics Company Raises $11 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Vensica Medical - a pioneering urology therapeutics company, announced the closing of an $11 million funding round. This funding was led by Israel Biotech Fund (IBF), along with key strategic partners Merz (a global player in neurotoxins) and Laborie (a prominent urology medical device company). This funding round will enable Vensica to continue its mission of providing a minimally invasive, simple, and effective solution for people with overactive bladder (OAB).

Urbint: $35 Million Strategic Growth Equity Raised To Mitigate Threats To Workers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Urbint, a leading AI platform for identifying and mitigating threats to workers, critical infrastructure, and communities, announced a $35 million strategic investment round led by S2G Ventures with participation from Energize Capital, Blue Bear Capital, National Grid Partners, Zoma Capital and Climate Investment, positioning Urbint to advance its resiliency and storm response solutions for utilities, as an already devastating hurricane season is not yet over.

Trivest: Growth Investment Fund III Closes With $730 Million Of Capital Commitments

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Trivest Partners announced the closing of Trivest Growth Investment Fund III at $730 million of total capital commitments. TGIF III was oversubscribed primarily due to the strong support of Trivest’s current investor base and was largely completed in a single close, less than 60 days from the initial launch.

CredibleMind: Mental Wellbeing Company Raises $7.5 Million (Series A)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Mental wellbeing company CredibleMind announced it raised $7.5 million in Series A funding, led by Horizon Mutual Holdings - a key partner in advancing access to integrated and personalized mental health support for diverse populations. And with this funding, CredibleMind will continue its mission to dismantle barriers to effective mental health support and empower individuals to flourish through accessible, personalized mental wellbeing solutions.

Andium: Remote-Field Monitoring And Communications Company Raises $21.7 Million (Series B)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Andium - an expert in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) remote-field monitoring and communications technologies - announced a $21.7 million Series B funding close led by Aramco Ventures (the corporate venture arm of one of the world's largest integrated energy and chemicals companies). This round includes existing investors such as Climate Investment, Intrepid Financial Partners, and prominent individual investors, including former Citadel CIO Thomas Miglis. Following the company's $15 million Series A in 2021, this funding brings the company's total funding to over $40 million.

Alethea: Over 3X Revenue Tripled This Year

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Alethea, a technology company focused on disinformation detection and mitigation, announced tremendous business growth in 2024. It tripled its revenue since closing its Series B, led by GV, with participation from Ballistic Ventures less than a year ago.

Neara: AI-Based Predictive Modeling Company Raises $31 Million (Series C)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Neara, an AI-based predictive modeling software platform for critical infrastructure, announced a $31 million Series C funding round. The funding round was anchored by a consortium led by EQT, with participation from Partners Group (one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry1) and Square Peg Capital (one of the company's earliest investors), with additional support from existing investors Skip Capital and Prosus Ventures.

AvenCell: Clinical-Stage Cell Therapy Company Raises $112 Million (Series B)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

AvenCell Therapeutics - a leading clinical-stage cell therapy company focused on advancing both autologous and allogeneic switchable CAR-T cell therapies - announced that it has raised $112 million in Series B funding. Global life sciences investor Novo Holdings led the funding.

mPATH Health: $3 Million Raised To Improve Cancer Screening

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

mPATH Health, a digital health company dedicated to improving cancer screening, announced the closing of $3 million in funding. This funding will accelerate the company's mission to enhance cancer prevention and improve health equity. This funding round includes a $2 million Small Business Technology Grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and a $1 million equity investment led by Oncology Ventures, an oncology-focused venture capital firm.

Top Down Ventures: First Closing Of $25 Million Founders Fund I

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Top Down Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by industry visionary Chris Day, announced the first closing of its $25 million Founders Fund, designed for fueling early-stage SaaS companies within the Managed Service Provider (MSP) sector.

Conflux Technology: Heat Transfer & Additive Manufacturing Company Raises $11 Million (Series B)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Conflux Technology, a leading heat transfer and additive manufacturing (AM) company, announced a $11 million Series B funding round to further technology development and increase customer support worldwide. Breakthrough Victoria led the round, which was also participated in by AM Ventures and Acorn Capital.

Mubadala Capital: Private Equity Fund IV Closed With $3.1 Billion In Commitments

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

Mubadala Capital - a wholly owned alternative asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company - announced the closing of its fourth private equity fund MIC Capital Partners IV, securing total commitments of $3.1 billion. This surpasses its initial target size of $2 billion.

KdT Ventures: Fund IV Closed At Over $100 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 4, 2024

KdT Ventures announced the closing of its oversubscribed fourth fund (Fund IV), raising over $100 million to support early-stage, science-driven companies. And Fund IV is the firm’s largest fund to date, and follows KdT’s previous $80 million Fund III which was announced in 2022. The firm’s total assets under management now exceed $250 million.

Vinted: Second-Hand Fashion-Focused Marketplace Company Raises Funding At €5 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 3, 2024

Vinted, a Europe-based leading second-hand C2C marketplace focused on fashion, announced it has closed a secondary share sale of €340 million at a valuation of €5 billion. Other major investment funds including Hedosophia, Baillie Gifford, Invus Opportunities, FJ Labs, Manhattan Venture Partners, and Moore Strategic Ventures also participated. And all of Vinted's existing institutional investors remain invested in the company.

Oxla: Distributed Analytical Database Company Closes $11 Million (Seed)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 3, 2024

Oxla - a high-performance distributed analytical database designed from the ground up for large-scale data processing - announced it raised $11 million in seed funding. And Oxla reinforced its status as a global company by completing its transition from a Polish domicile to US legal incorporation in Delaware, a strategic move aimed at strengthening its international presence and facilitating further growth.

Aignostics: $34 Million (Series B) Raised To Turn Complex Pathology Data Into Transformative Insights

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 3, 2024

Aignostics - a global AI company that turns complex multi-modal pathology data into transformative insights - announced that it has raised $34 million in Series B financing. This additional funding will be used for building new product offerings for biopharmaceutical clients, driving growth within the US and developing leading foundation models for pathology in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic. This oversubscribed funding round was led by ATHOS, with investments from Mayo Clinic and growth financing from HTGF, along with support from existing investors Wellington Partners, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, CARMA Fund, and VC Fonds Technologie managed by IBB Ventures.

Sierra: Conversational AI Company Raises $175 Million At $4.5 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 3, 2024

Sierra, a conversational AI company founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, announced it raised $175 million in funding led by Greenoaks Capital. ICONIQ and Thrive Capital contributed to this new funding round. This funding round valued Sierra at $4.5 billion, more than quadrupling its $1 billion valuation in January.

JPalmer Collective: Asset-Based Lending Company Raises $72 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 2, 2024

JPalmer Collective (JPC), an asset-based lending company committed to funding high-growth women-led and natural products companies, announced a series of deals raising $72 million in gross proceeds. And the capital consists of a strategic combination of financing, including a senior revolving credit facility provided by Texas Capital Bank, a mezzanine credit facility from a New York-based institutional alternative asset manager, and a common equity infusion.