25 Startups Raise Over $800M, Investors Raise $319M for New Funds, and $100B in M&A
October 12, 2023's biggest news in the private markets.
Agomab Therapeutics, a six-year-old startup based in Ghent, Belgium, that is developing a treatment for fibrostenosing Crohn’s disease, raised a $100 million Series C round led by Fidelity, with additional participation from EQT, Canaan Partners, and Dawn Biopharma (a platform controlled by KKR).
Main Street Health, a three-year-old, Nashville-based startup that's focused solely on bringing value-based care models to rural communities, has closed a $315 million fundraising round, bringing its total funding to about $342 million. UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Elevance, Centene and CVS were among the health systems and health plans that participated in the round.
Pair Eyewear, a six-year-old New York startup that has established a direct-to-consumer customizable eyewear brand, raised a $75 million Series C round led by Prysm Capital, with NEA, Javelin Venture Partners, and NFL running back Christian McCaffrey also investing. The company has raised a total of $145 million.
Shine, a startup based in Janesville, Wi., that uses fusion technology to inspect industrial components in aerospace, defense, energy and other sectors, raised a $70 million co-led by previous investors Baillie Gifford and Fidelity.
Cleanlab, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that claims it can stop LLMs from hallucinating, raised a $25 million Series A round co-led by Menlo Ventures and TQ Ventures, with Bain Capital Ventures and Databricks Ventures also joining in.
Conveyor, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that aims to use LLMs to automate security reviews, raised a $12.5 million Series A round. Cervin Ventures led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $19 million.
Formant, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that helps robotics manufacturers organize and analyze sensor data in order to improve their robots, raised a $21 million round led by BMW i Ventures, with Intel Capital and GS Futures as well as previous investors SignalFire, Hillsven, Pelion Ventures, Holman, Ericsson, Goodyear Ventures, PICUS Capital, and Thursday Ventures also piling on.
JetCool, a four-year-old startup based in Littleton, Ma., that is developing a direct-to-chip liquid cooling technology, raised a $17 million Series A round led by Bosch Ventures, with additional capital provided by In-Q-Tel, Raptor Ventures, and Schooner Capital. The company has raised a total of $26.8 million.
Kennek, a two-year-old London startup that is developing SaaS tools aimed at simplifying lending operations for non-bank entities, raised a $12.5 million seed round led by HV Capital, with Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One also taking part.
Mana.bio, a Tel Aviv startup that is using AI to design lipid nanoparticles for to deliver mRNA to specific parts of the body, raised a $19.5 million seed round. Backers included Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health, Base4 Capital, NFX, LionBird, and Technion.
Prophecy, a startup founded this year whose low-code development platform enables companies to transform their data into a format that they can use to analyze it and make decisions, raised a $35 million Series B round led by Insight Partners and SignalFire, with participation from J.P. Morgan, Singtel Innov8, Databricks Ventures, and Dallas Venture Capital. The company has raised a total of $67 million.
Orbem, a four-year-old Munich startup that has developed an industrial MRI scanner to scan chicken eggs, raised a $31.8 million Series A round led by 83North, with La Famiglia and previous investors The Venture Collective and Possible Ventures also weighing in. The company has raised a total of $41.8 million.
Anysphere, a startup founded this year that uses AI to help developers write code as well as ask questions about it, raised an $8 million round led by OpenAI’s Startup Fund, with participation from former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi. The company has raised a total of $11 million.
Audoo, a five-year-old London startup that has developed an audio meter that helps to calculate royalty payments for musicians, raised a $5 million round. Investors included MPL Ventures and Sir Elton John. The company has raised a total of $22 million.
Bedrock Energy, a six-year-old Austin startup that designs, constructs, and delivers geothermal heating and cooling systems, raised an $8.5 million seed round led by Wireframe Ventures, with Overture Climate VC, Long Journey Ventures, Cantos, Toba Capital, First Star Ventures, Divergent Capital, and Climate Capital also chipping in.
Breathe Battery Technologies, a London startup that claims its software can increase the charging speeds and longevity of lithium-ion batteries, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Lowercarbon Capital, with SpeedInvest also contributing.
Cnaught, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that is focused on building software to make it easy for companies to purchase carbon credits, raised a $2.3 million pre-seed round led by Greycroft, with Carthona Capital and Long Run Capital also taking part.
Fantix, a New York startup that helps businesses build AI models without having to share their data, raised a $1.6 million round. Investors included Gaingels, Notion Capital, Founders Factory, Fastweb, Connect Ventures, IAG, and B Heroes.
Flaus, a four-year-old New York startup that has developed an electric flossing device, raised a $2 million seed round led by Yeti Capital and including Greenlight Ventures, and USC Venture Fund. The company has raised a total of $4 million.
Flourish Labs, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that offers mental health support to teenagers and young adults from trained peers, raised a $6.6 million seed round co-led by Gradient Ventures and Collaborative Fund, with WGU, Learn Capital, and One Mind also anteing up.
LANGaware, a Greek startup that is using AI to predict and monitor cognitive and mental health conditions such as mild cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression, raised a $2 million seed round led by Eleven Ventures, with Metavallon VC also participating.
minds.ai, a nine-year-old startup based in Santa Cruz, Ca., that aims to improve the efficiency and productivity of semiconductor fab manufacturing processes using supervised learning, reinforcement learning, and generative AI, raised a $5.3 million seed round led by Monta Vista Capital, with Momenta also stepping up.
Raicoon, a five-year-old startup based in Vienna, Austria, that has developed fault detection software for solar plant operators, raised a $4.2 million seed round. Investors included Push VC and Voltares.
Snappy, a Toronto startup that offers restaurants SaaS-based software covering areas such as point of sale, third party delivery apps integration, reservations, loyalty, and targeted marketing, raised a $5.1 million Series A round led by Golden Section Ventures.
TransactionLink, a three-year-old Berlin startup that helps companies onboard customers through such measures as automating KYC requirements, raised a $5.3 million seed round led by White Star Capital, with previous investor Target Global also contributing.
Spanish VC Leadwind closed a $250 million fund, almost $50 million more than it was targeting (it says). The firm primarily targets investments in southern Europe and Latin America and counts Telefónica as its anchor investor.
Luminar Ventures, a Stockholm-based venture capital firm has closed a $69 million second fund and will continue to focus on early-stage Nordic startups in areas like AI, sustainability, and fintech.
EU Commission announced that Microsoft’s $69B rehashed acquisition of Activision Blizzard will not have to go through a second EU approvals process.
UK’s competition watchdog is examining whether a $19B tie-up between telecom Vodafone’s UK operations and CK Hutchison's Three UK would substantially lessen competition.
Illumina will expeditiously divest cancer test maker Grail, which it acquired for $7.1B, if the life sciences company loses either of the final appeals in US or European court.
Billionaire Mat Ishbia is considering bringing new investors into NBA team Phoenix Suns and WNBA team Mercury at above a $4B valuation.
Canadian toys and games-maker Spin Master will acquire US toymaker Melissa & Doug for $950M cash.
Codelco, the world’s biggest copper producer, is nearing a deal to acquire Lithium Power International that could value the lithium miner at ~$202M.
Fashion retailer Next is planning to buy rival UK fashion chain Fat Face for ~$123M.
Rocket-launch company Astra Space is considering a 51% stake sale in its in-space propulsion business that would value the unit at over $100M.
A consortium led by Sixth Street Partners will acquire Goldman Sachs Group’s installment lending platform GreenSky unit for an undisclosed amount; the deal will result in a 19-cent-per-share hit to Goldman’s Q3 earnings.
PE firm Triton will acquire Siemens Energy’s high-voltage component business, Trench.
Saudi Aramco is in talks to acquire a 10% stake in Chinese refiner Shandong Yulong Petrochemical.
Indian conglomerate Bharti Group will acquire French insurer AXA's 49% stake in JV Bharti AXA Life Insurance.
EV maker VinFast Auto will acquire a 99.8% stake in battery maker VinES from its founder Pham Nhat Vuong.
Printer maker Xerox Holding sold its Russian operations to local management for an undisclosed sum.