Venture Capital

Blacksmith: $3.5 Million Raised For High-Performance CI Cloud Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 5, 2025

Blacksmith, a high-performance CI cloud designed to compete with industry giants in an AI world, announced $3.5 million in seed funding led by GV (Google Ventures) and Y Combinator, with participation from angel investors including Spencer Kimball, CEO of Cockroach Labs; Peter Mattis, CTO of Cockroach Labs; and Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of WePay by J.P. Morgan.

Smith Point Capital: Over $360 Million Raised For Inaugural Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 5, 2025

Smith Point Capital Management—an operator-led venture capital firm shaping the intelligent enterprise—announced the final closing of its inaugural fund, Smith Point Capital Fund I. With over $360 million in aggregate commitments, Smith Point Capital Fund I exceeded its target of $300 million.

Mission Wealth: Strategic Investment Raised From Great Hill Partners

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 5, 2025

Mission Wealth (coinciding with its 25th anniversary) announced a minority investment from Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm that invests in high-growth companies.

Maridea Wealth: Strategic Investment From 119th Street Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 5, 2025

119th Street Capital - a private investment firm specializing in financial services - announced a strategic investment in Maridea Wealth Management, a leading independent wealth management firm. This funding, made alongside Pelican Capital, will support Maridea’s continued growth, expansion, and commitment to delivering best-in-class advisory services to individuals and families across the US.

Sevii: Pre-Seed Funding Raised For Autonomous Agentic AI Defense Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Sevii, a cybersecurity innovator working on a next-generation autonomous agentic AI defense platform, announced the closing of its pre-seed funding round. Overline led the round, which also included 10VC and SaaS Ventures.

Wingspire Equipment Finance: $350 Million Credit Facility Secured

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Wingspire Equipment Finance announced that it has closed on a $350 million credit facility to expand its financing capabilities for middle-market and sponsor-backed companies. The new warehouse line was offered to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wingspire Equipment Finance, with Bank of America and Wells Fargo as lenders.

Scamnetic: $13 Million Closed For AI Scam Detection Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Scamnetic, a company focused on protecting individuals and businesses from digital threats using advanced AI technology, announced it received $13 million in series A funding. Roo Capital led the round, which 1st and Main Growth Partners, SaaS Ventures, and Riptide Ventures also joined. This series A funding round brings the total investment in Scamnetic to $16 million.

Uncork Capital: $300 Million Raised For Investing In Category-Defining Companies

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Uncork Capital announced the closing of $300 million in new capital across two funds: Uncork VIII, a $225 million seed fund, and Uncork Plus IV, a $75 million growth fund.

SquareX: $20 Million Raised For Transforming Browser Detection and Response

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

SquareX, a pioneer in Browser Detection and Response (BDR), announced it closed a $20 million in Series A funding led by SYN Ventures, a leading venture capital firm focused on cybersecurity investments, with participation from existing investor Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital SEA).

CND Life Sciences: $13.5 Million Series A Closed For Neurodiagnostics Innovations

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

CND Life Sciences announced that it has raised $13.5 million in its Series A equity financing round, with $8.6 million in its most recent Series A3 offering. CND's latest Series A3 round included funding from existing investor groups like Cambrian Capital Partners, Tanis Ventures, Lupo Labs, Top Corner Capital, HonorHealth, Triana, Gold Bench Capital, and BlueStone Ventures, and from new investors Labcorp, MBX Capital, and Vilas Ventures.

Runway Growth Capital: Avisha Khubani Named As Managing Director Of Portfolio Analytics

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Runway Growth Capital announced the promotion of Avisha Khubani to Managing Director of Portfolio Analytics. And in her expanded role, Khubani will continue to oversee the performance of Runway's portfolio companies while enhancing Runway's risk assessment and monitoring frameworks to ensure sustainable growth for its investments.

Raiven Capital: $100 Million Climatech Fund Launched

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Raiven Capital, a cross-border venture firm known for its AI and IoT investments, announced the launch of Raiven Climatech, a $100 million fund targeting startups building digital infrastructure to solve global sustainability and climate challenges.

SETWorks: Strategic Investment Raised From Polaris Growth Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

SETWorks, a software provider for disability service agencies and human services providers, announced it has secured a strategic growth investment from Polaris Growth Fund (PGF). Launched in the early 2000s, SETWorks offers industry-leading software and services built specifically for the disability services sector, empowering organizations to spend more time impacting the lives of the individuals they serve.

Axibo: $12 Million Raised For Developing Humanoid Robots

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Axibo - a Waterloo-based robotics innovator known for its 4D volumetric capture technologies and serving customers like Netflix and Apple - announced a $12 million funding round. This funding includes $11 million from prominent external investors and $1 million from Axibo's founders, Anoop Gadhrri, Sohaib Al-Emara, and Reiner Schmidt, whose passion for robotics started in 2019 with their university's first autonomous vehicle.

Persona: $200 Million Raised At $2 Billion Valuation For Agentic AI Verified Identity Layer

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Persona, a leading verified identity platform, announced a $200 million Series D funding round, bringing the company's valuation to $2 billion. The funding round was co-led by Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital, with participation from existing investors including BOND, Coatue, First Round Capital, Index Ventures, and Chemistry.

Ivanti: Refinancing Closed To Support Key Initiatives

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Ivanti, an enterprise software company providing a comprehensive IT and security cloud-based platform, announced that it has closed a refinancing transaction. This was achieved by supporting an overwhelming majority of its existing lenders.

Madison Dearborn Partners Buying Significant Stake In NextGen Healthcare

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP), a leading private equity investment firm based in Chicago, announced it has signed an agreement with Thoma Bravo to buy a significant ownership position in NextGen Healthcare, a leading provider of innovative healthcare technology and data solutions. Thoma Bravo will be retaining a substantial ownership position in NextGen Healthcare. MDP will partner with Thoma Bravo and NextGen Healthcare’s management team to support NextGen Healthcare’s growth.

CIV Launched With $210 Million Fund To Invest In Companies Reshaping Industries

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2025

CIV, an investment firm focused on backing and building transformative companies that transform critical industries, announced the closing of its inaugural CIV Fund One. This fund has been oversubscribed, with over $210 million in commitments.

Mivium: $5 Million Raised For Semiconductor Material Science Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Mivium, a leading innovator in semiconductor material science, announced the completion of a $5 million equity financing round through Equifund Crowd Funding Portal. This brings Mivium's total funding to $6.34+ million, advancing the company's mission to deliver high-purity, wide-bandgap materials such as GaN (gallium nitride) to the global market.

Zucara Therapeutics: $25 Million Series B Closed For Diabetes Life Sciences Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Zucara Therapeutics - a diabetes life sciences company developing ZT-01, which is the first once-daily therapeutic to prevent hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels) in people with diabetes - announced that it has completed the second and final closing of its $25 million Series B funding.

DartPoints: Funding Raised From NOVA Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

NOVA Infrastructure, a middle-market infrastructure investment firm, announced that it has completed a majority investment in DartPoints, a leading provider of secure and high-performance enterprise data center solutions. NOVA's investment includes a significant growth capital component designed to scale DartPoints' platform and expand its footprint through targeted investments in capacity expansion and strategic M&A to meet market demand.

Ares: Private Markets Fund Surpasses $3 Billion In AUM In 3 Years

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Ares Management (a leading global alternative investment manager) announced that its Ares Private Markets Fund (APMF), a diversified private equity investment solution anchored in secondary investments, exceeded $3 billion in assets under management in its first three years in the market. APMF is distributed through Ares’ Wealth Management Solutions platform (AWMS), an industry leader in providing private market investment solutions to advisors and their clients.

Dream Games: Strategic Investment Raised From CVC

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Dream Games, the developer and publisher of globally renowned mobile games Royal Match and Royal Kingdom, announced a strategic investment from CVC, a leading global alternative asset management firm, as its sole equity partner.

dub: $30 Million Series A Closed For Scaling Copy-Trading Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Copy trading app company dub announced a Series A funding round of $30 million, co-led by Notable Capital and Neo, with participation from Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, Peak6 Strategic Capital, and Correlation Ventures. This funding includes a $5.5 million venture debt facility provided by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank. This funding comes just one year after launching from stealth and surpassing 1 million downloads and dub has now raised a total of $47 million.

Astronomer: $93 Million Series D Raised For DataOps Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Astronomer (the company behind Astro, a leading unified DataOps platform powered by Apache Airflow) announced it has secured $93 million in Series D funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, along with Salesforce Ventures and existing investors including Insight, Meritech, and Venrock, with Bosch Ventures seeking to participate.

Epicore Biosystems: Series B Expanded To $32 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Epicore Biosystems - a digital health solutions leader developing advanced sweat-sensing wearables - announced an additional $6 million in Series B funding, bringing its total Series B raise to $32 million. The follow-on funding round includes new backing from a San Francisco-based investor and several marquee angel investors, along with continued support from Alumni Ventures and Joyance Partners.

Varys Capital: Veteran Tom Dunleavy Named As Head Of Venture

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Leading digital asset management firm Varys Capital announced the appointment of Tom Dunleavy, CFA, CAIA, as Head of Venture. Dunleavy brings a differentiated career spanning both traditional finance and digital assets.

Omnidian: Over $87 Million Raised For Tranforming Renewable Energy Services

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Omnidian, a provider of comprehensive protection and performance plans for residential and commercial solar and energy storage systems, announced it has secured over $87 million in funding commitment led by B Capital (a global multi-stage investment firm with a strategic partnership with the Boston Consulting Group). This funding also included participation from existing Omnidian investors Activate Capital, Liberty Mutual Investments, National Grid Partners, and WIND Ventures, and new investors like B Capital, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund, Citi Impact Fund, and Alumni Ventures.

Avidicure: $50 Million Seed Funding Closed For Developing New Multifunctional Antibody Modality

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Avidicure, a biotechnology company creating an entirely new multifunctional antibody modality with broad applicability in oncology, announced its launch with a $50 million seed financing round, led by EQT Life Sciences with participation from Kurma Partners, BioGeneration Ventures, BOM, Curie Capital, and V-Bio Ventures.

Electra: $186 Million Series B Raised For Clean Iron Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 2, 2025

Electra, a clean iron company, announced a $186 million Series B funding round, co-led by Capricorn Investment Group and Temasek Holdings. This brings Electra’s total funding to date to $214 million, cementing its position as one of the leading solutions for decarbonizing iron production. This funding round also included financial investors Capricorn Investment Group, Temasek Holdings, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Builders Vision, Collaborative Fund, Earth Venture Capital, Lowercarbon Capital and S2G Investments; strategic investor BHP Ventures; global iron ore suppliers Rio Tinto and Roy Hill; leading electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmakers Nucor and Yamato Kogyo and organizations including Interfer Edelstahl and Toyota Tsusho, who are committed to reducing the environmental impact of iron and steel in their supply chains.