Venture Capital

Openwater: Medical Technology Company Raises $100 Million In Total Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 26, 2024

Openwater announced the acceleration of its plans to commercialize its hospital-grade technology platform that integrates semiconductor physics, light, and sound to diagnose and treat diseases at the cellular level. Founded by brain tumor survivor and former Google X, Meta, and One Laptop Per Child executive Mary Lou Jepsen, Openwater has secured $100 million in total funding from new and existing investors. The new and existing investors include Plum Alley Ventures, Khosla Ventures, BOLD Capital Partners, Esther Dyson, and Peter Gabriel.

Raiz: Strategic Investment From State Street Global Advisors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 26, 2024

State Street Global Advisors - which is the asset management business of State Street Corporation, announced a strategic investment in Raiz Invest Limited. Raiz is a leading Australian fintech platform that helps customers grow their wealth by helping them to save and invest.

Arch Lending: Crypto-Backed Loan Provider Company Raises $75 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 26, 2024

Crypto-backed loan provider company Arch Lending announced it raised $75 million in funding, including an oversubscribed $5 million equity seed round and a $70 million loan financing facility. This equity round was co-led by Morgan Creek Digital and Castle Island Ventures with participation from Galaxy Ventures, BitGo Ventures, etc. Arch serves individuals and institutions and it is known for its concierge customer service, premier product experience, and security and trust.

Talus Bioscience: Drug Discovery Company Raises $11.2 Million (Seed+)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 26, 2024

Talus Bioscience, a drug discovery company launched by a team of scientific leaders in proteomics, biochemistry, and machine learning, announced $11.2 million in new venture funding. The seed+ round was led by Two Bear Capital, with participation from WRF Capital, NFX, YC Continuity Fund, Funders Club VC, and BoxOne Ventures.

Magnetar: Alternative Asset Manager Raises $235 Million For AI Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 26, 2024

Leading alternative asset manager Magnetar announced the closing of Magnetar AI Ventures Fund LP - which is a $235 million venture fund that invests in early-to-growth stage companies advancing the generative AI revolution. This fund builds on Magnetar’s history of investing opportunistically across the private-public continuum and serving as a long-term partner to portfolio companies.

CenterOak Partners: $1.1 Billion Fund III Closed

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 26, 2024

Dallas-based private equity firm CenterOak Partners announced today the closing of CenterOak Equity Fund III, L.P.. This fund was oversubscribed and achieved its hard cap with total capital commitments of over $1.1 billion.

Diakonos Oncology: $11.4 Million (Seed) Raised To Advance Differentiated Dendritic Cell Vaccine

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 26, 2024

Houston-based Diakonos Oncology - a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company - announced the final closing of an oversubscribed seed financing of $11.4 million. This funding round was led by biotechnology investment firm Restem Group, with participation from existing investors.

Trace Machina: Simulation Infrastructure Company Raises $4.7 Million (Seed)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 26, 2024

Trace Machina, a company building simulation infrastructure for safety-critical technologies in physical-world AI, launched out of stealth mode with $4.7 million in funding. Wellington Management led the seed funding round with participation from Samsung Next, Sequoia Capital Scout Fund, Green Bay Ventures, and Verissimo Ventures. And angel investors include Clem Delangue (CEO of Hugging Face); Mitch Wainer (Co-Founder of DigitalOcean); Gert Lackriet (Director of Applied Machine Learning at Amazon); and other industry leaders from OpenAI and MongoDB.

General Catalyst Partners Invests $120 Million In Re:Build

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 25, 2024

Re:Build Manufacturing is a company with a vision of re-energizing American manufacturing with high-tech design and engineering capabilities across critical industrial sectors like aerospace, healthcare, defense, and cleantech. Core to its mission is creating enduring jobs while strengthening vulnerable supply chains. General Catalyst announced it is investing $120 million to help support Re:Build’s vision.

VividQ: Computational Holography Company Closes $7.5 Million (Series A) In Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 25, 2024

VividQ, an innovator in the computational holography space, announced the completion of an additional $7.5 million in Series A funding. This funding round was led by Foresight Group and included new investors such as GameTech Ventures, and Florida-based Ruttenberg Gordon Investments (RGI), as well as existing investors. And this round brings the company’s total funding to over $30 million.

Otto: Travel-Based AI Agent Company Raises $6 Million (Seed)

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 25, 2024

Otto, a company that is building an intelligent and autonomous AI travel agent for business travelers, announced that it has raised a $6 million seed round led by Madrona Ventures, with participation from Direct Travel and angel investors from across the business travel industry like Erik Blachford (former CEO of Expedia), IAC Travel and Couchsurfing; Barney Harford (former CEO of Orbitz and COO of Uber); and Hugh Crean (CEO of Operix and former CEO of Farecast-acquired by Microsoft).