23 Startups Raise Over $772M, Investors Raise $1.1B for New Funds, and $75B in M&A
October 11, 2023's biggest news in the private markets.
AstronauTx, a four-year-old London startup that is developing oral treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and several other conditions, raised a $61 million round led by Novartis Venture Fund, with additional particpation from Bristol Myers Squibb, Brandon Capital, EQT Life, MPM Capital, and the Dementia Discovery Fund.
Gutsy, a one-year-old startup based in Baton Rouge, La., that is applying the data science technique of process mining to cybersecurity, raised a $51 million seed round co-led by YL Ventures and Mayfield.
InsuranceDekho, an Indian startup whose name means "look for insurance" in Hindi, has raised $60 million in Series B funding at a post-money valuation of $650 million. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and insurer BNP Paribas Cardif participated in the round, along with earlier investors TVS Capital and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Lambda Labs, an 11-year-old outfit that competes with Amazon Web Services in renting out servers with Nvidia chips to developers of AI, is nearing a $300 million equity financing. An investment fund led by billionaire Thomas Tull is expected to fund a substantial part of the round.
Commons Clinic, a two-year-old Los Angeles startup that provides in-person and virtual orthopedic care to patients, raised a $19.5 million Series A round led by RA Capital Management, with Time BioVentures and previous investors Floating Point and Courtside Ventures also taking part.
Harbour, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that is building a contract management system, raised a $15 million Series A round. Investors included Getty Images co-founder Jonathan Klein, Scribble Ventures, and The Palmer Co. The company has raised a total of $20 million.
Harri, an 11-year-old New York company that helps companies like Subway and McDonald’s manage frontline employees and managers, raised a $43 million Series B round led by Atalaya Capital Management, with Golub Growth also chipping in.
LimmaTech, an eight-year-old Zurich startup that is developing vaccines to combat antimicrobial resistance in bacterial infections like gonorrhea and shigellosis, raised a $37 million Series A round. Investors included Adjuvant Capital, AXA IM Alts, and the Novo Holdings REPAIR Impact Fund.
Modal Labs, a two-year-old New York startup that provides cloud-based infrastructure to data teams and app developers, particularly those creating generative AI applications, raised a $16 million round led by Redpoint Ventures and including Amplify Partners, Lux Capital, and Definition Capital. The company has raised a total of $23 million.
Onsurity, a three-year-old Bengaluru startup that offers monthly subscription-based insurance plans to SMBs, raised a $24 million Series B round led by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, with previous investors Nexus Venture Partners and Quona Capital also partaking. The company has raised a total of $40 million.
Orus, a one-year-old Paris startup that offers business insurance products to restaurant owners and other small companies, raised an $11.6 million Series A round co-led by Notion Capital and VR Ventures/Redstone, with previous investors Frst, Partech, and Portage also stepping up.
SuperOps.ai, a three-year-old startup based in Santa Monica, Ca., that creates cloud-native tools for managed service proividers, raised a $12.4 million Series B round co-led by Addition and March Capital, with Matrix Partners also contributing. The company has raised a total of $29.4 million.
Thread, a startup based in Grand Forks, N.D., that is developing a robotics platform to collect inspection data for utilities, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Badlands Capital, with Minnkota Power Cooperative, Generational Partners, Rosecliff Ventures, Excell Partners, Homegrown Capital, and Wonder Fund North Dakota also investing.
TileDB, a six-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is building a database that can store many different kinds of data, including vectors, raised a $34 million Series B finding led by AlleyCorp, with Two Bear Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Big Pi Ventures, Intel Capital, Uncorrelated, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Amgen Ventures, NTT Docomo Ventures, Verizon Ventures, S Ventures, LDV Partners, and Scale Asia Ventures also piling on.
Acceldata, a five-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., whose platform helps companies monitor and manage their data pipelines and identify and fix data quality issues, raised a $10 million Series C extension round. Prosperty7 Ventures was the deal lead. The company has raised over $100 million.
Goodhood, a three-year-old startup based in Ann Arbor, Mi., that charges a subscription fee for car maintenace and repairs, raised a $2.6 million seed round. Investors included Bullish, Mucker Capital, Okapi Capital, New Age Ventures, Kubera Venture Capital, and Impact Ventures.
Kino Studios, a Los Angeles startup that provides filmmakers with tools to create, engage, and monetize their target audience before distribution, raised a $2+ million round from Sequoia Capital's scout program, Slow Ventures, Metaweb Ventures, Genius Ventures, The Near Protocol, and Blockchain Founders Fund.
Komment, a Munich startup founded this year that offers tools to automate software documentation, raised a $1 million pre-seed round led by Craft Ventures.
Ounce, a one-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that partners with payers and housing organizations to embed trained community health workers within affordable housing properties, raised a $5.2 million seed round co-led by Meridian Street Capital and Flare Capital Partners, with additional capital provided by Wilshire Lane Capital and Metrodora Ventures (Chelsea Clinton's fund).
Plenful, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing workflow automation tools for healthcare providers, raised a $9 million. Bessemer Venture Partners led the transaction.
Republik, a Singapore startup that is building tools for web3 creators, raised a $6 million seed round round from 6th Man Ventures, Arcane Ventures, CMS Holdings, Comma3 Ventures, Define Ventures, Enjin, FBG Capital, HTX, Mirana Ventures, Oracles Investment Group, OKX Ventures, Signum Capital, Sora Ventures, and UOB Blockchain Fund.
Sotai, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup that aims to streamline the modeling of AI and machine learning applications, resulting in models that are easy to train, constrain, and comprehend, raised a $2 million seed round led by Four Rivers.
Vellum Insurance, a New York startup founded this year based in that is building an AI-based platform to help insurers and reinsurers measure risk in their portfolios, raised a $7 million seed round led by Acrew Capital, with Flourish Ventures, Fin Capital, Vera Equity, Endurance, and 1 Sharpe Ventures also pitching in.
Accolade Partners, an investment firm led by PE industry stalwart Joelle Kayden, has garnered $325 million in capital commitments to invest in venture and growth-equity funds run by minority and female managers. The fund-of-funds comes as new funding grows especially difficult for younger venture firms, including those run by people who are underrepresented in the industry.
Beyond Next Ventures, a Japanese VC fund, announced a first close of $67.7 million for its third fund, targeted for $168 million in total. The firm focuses on deep tech startups in fields like robotics and biotech and typically writes first checks between $670,000 and $2 million.
Mubadala Capital held a final close on its second flagship investment fund in Brazil, Brazil Special Opportunities Fund II (“BSOF II”), with total commitments in excess of $710 million. BSOF II says it "successfully raised capital from a diverse set of global investors, including a leading public pension fund, family offices, corporates, private equity funds and asset managers across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia."
ExxonMobil is close to a $58B deal to buy shale producer Pioneer Natural Resources.
PE firm Stone Point is in talks to acquire Truist Financial’s insurance brokerage business for ~$10B.
KKR is considering a ~$4.2B sale of European car park operator Q-Park.
PGT Innovations, a US maker of vinyl and aluminum doors and windows, rejected a $1.9B takeover offer from rival Miter Brands, which is backed by Koch Industries.
Japan's Denso and Mitsubishi Electric will each invest $500M into auto chipmaker Coherent’s silicon carbide business for a 12.5% non-controlling stake in the unit.
Consumer packaged goods company Post Holdings will acquire pet product producer and packager Perfection Pet Foods for $235M.
Singapore PE investment firm Capital Square Partners will acquire Startek, a global customer solutions provider, at a $217M EV.
Ares Management will invest $100M and form a strategic partnership with Vinci Partners Investments to help the alternative investments platform expand in Latin America.
Spanish utility Iberdrola is in talks to sell a 49% stake in a 300-megawatt portfolio of Portuguese renewable assets to Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.
Hong Kong-based investor Southwind Media is exploring a possible 80% stake sale in Spanish sports rights and broadcasting group Mediapro.
Wintershall Dea, billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s energy venture with chemicals producer BASF, is in advanced talks to sell a 10% stake in the Ghasha offshore gas concession in the UAE to a unit of Thai state-owned energy company PTT.
Electronic market maker GTS acquired algorithmic trading firm HC Tech’s foreign-exchange trading assets.
AMD will acquire AI startup Nod.ai to bolster its software capabilities in its effort to catch Nvidia.