Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
Venture Capital
• Thinking Machines Lab, an AI lab founded by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is in talks to raise at least $1b at a $40b-plus pre-money valuation led by Accel, per The Information. Go deeper
• Town, an SF-based personal AI assistant, is in talks to raise $90m at a $1b valuation led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures, with a16z and First Round Capital participating, per Upstarts. Index Ventures was set to lead, but withdrew after backing rival Instinct. Go deeper
💊 Superluminal Medicines, a Boston-based obesity drug developer, raised $60m in Series B funding from BVF Partners, Deep Track Capital, Perceptive Advisors, RA Capital Management, NVentures, Catalio Capital Management, and Eli Lilly. Go deeper
• Guardio, a consumer cybersecurity company, raised $40m at a $1.1b valuation from Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport, ION Crossover Partners, Union Tech Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Cerca Partners, and Emerge Ventures. Go deeper
• OpenReserve, a blockchain-based bank founded by MoneyLion founder Dee Choubey, raised $25m in seed funding. A16z led, joined by Jump Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Acrew, Clocktower, Quona, and AAF. Go deeper
• Diameter Pay, a Jersey City, NJ-based payments infrastructure startup, raised $10m in Series A funding. CMT Digital and Lightspeed Faction led, joined by SixThirty Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, Tech Council Ventures, Onigiri Capital, and BitRock Capital. Go deeper
• Ollie, a San Diego-based AI assistant, raised $7.5m in seed funding. Khosla Ventures led, joined by AI House. Go deeper
🌎 MOA Foodtech, a Spanish fermentation startup turning ag waste into ingredients, raised €3.3m from the European Innovation Council Fund, Swanlaab Innvierte Agri Food Tech, and CDTI-Innvierte. Go deeper
• Souk, a London-based partnership automation platform, raised $1.6m in pre-seed funding. Sure Valley Ventures led, joined by Antler and Fuel Ventures. Go deeper
• Laters, a Singaporean online travel agency, raised $1.5m in seed funding led by XBO Ventures. Go deeper
🌎 Remedium, a Saudi carbon management startup, raised $1.5m in pre-seed funding led by Kaltaire Investments. Go deeper
⚡️ Rightcharge, a U.K.-based data and payments software developer for EV fleet charging, raised £500k. Soulmates Ventures led, joined by BlackWood Ventures and Purple Ventures. Go deeper
• Nscale is investing in humanoid robot maker Figure, alongside a $3.5b compute deal. Go deeper
Private Equity
⚡️ Airswift, a Gemspring Capital portfolio company, acquired select upstream oil and gas workforce solutions of New Tech Global. Go deeper
• Ally Waste, backed by RF Investment Partners, acquired Swift Integrated Services, a Utah-based provider of dumpster management and waste brokerage services. Go deeper
• Arxis (Nasdaq: ARXS), an industrial compounder backed by Arcline Investors, acquired both Schatz Bearing and StratEdge. Go deeper
• HarbourView Equity Partners acquired the producer royalties and related rights for music producer David Kershenbaum, including for Tracy Chapman hits "Fast Car," "Baby Can I Hold You," and "Talkin' Bout a Revolution." Go deeper
• Truelink Capital acquired JT Thorpe Group, a Salt Lake City-based provider of industrial maintenance and thermal management services. Go deeper
• TSG Consumer invested in Los Tacos No. 1, an NYC-based taco restaurant chain. Go deeper
• RTB Holdings, backed by M&T Capital Partners, acquired Boost Transport, a Gainesville, Ga.-based provider of managed transportation services. Go deeper
• Saothair Capital Partners completed its acquisition of an alcoholic beverage portfolio from Heineken, including Magic Hat, Seagram's Escapes, Lipton Hard Iced Tea, and Labatt Blue. Go deeper
• Veryon, backed by Accel-KKR, acquired Polaris Aero, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based aviation software company. Go deeper
• Voltaris Power, a portfolio company of Mill Point Capital, acquired Electronic Power Design, a Houston-based provider of power distribution equipment for data centers and industrial markets. Go deeper
Liquidity
• NWPX Infrastructure (Nasdaq: NWPX) acquired Serpentix Conveyor, a maker of conveyor systems in municipal wastewater treatment plants whose backers included Dry Fly Capital. Go deeper
• ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) is reportedly acquiring Sweep, an Israeli agentic workspace startup that had raised $57m from firms like Insight Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. Go deeper
• Spencer Spirit, parent company of Spencer's Gifts and Spirit Halloween, completed its $350m acquisition of retailer Hot Topic from Sycamore Partners. Go deeper
Public Listings
• Shenzhen Longsys Electronics, a Chinese chipmaker, priced its Hong Kong listing below the top end of the marketed range, and is set to raise $783.2m, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
M&A
⚡️ South Korea plans to merge several state-run energy companies and separately merge its four regional port authorities. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Swish Ventures of Israel raised $250m for its third fund. Go deeper
It's Personnel
🚑 Michael Mazhari joined BlackArch Partners as a director in its life sciences and health care group. He previously was with Houlihan Lokey. Go deeper
