27 Companies Raise Over $1.65B, Investors Raise Nearly $942M for New Funds, and $121.5B in M&A
October 6, 2023's biggest news in the private markets.
Glydways, a seven-year-old startup makes small, battery-powered autonomous vehicles that seat four passengers and operate on 5.5-foot-wide paved lanes with no crossings -- the idea is to limit the risk of slowdowns and collisions -- raised a $56 million Series B round, including about half of it from convertible debt that the notes holders are converting to equity. New Science Ventures led the round, joined by ACS Group, Gates Frontier, and Khosla Ventures. Glydways has now raised a total of $70 million.
HyperSpace, a three-year-old Dubai startup that is developing digital theme parks in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, raised a $55 million Series A round made up of debt and equity.The lead was Galaxy Interactive, with additional funds provided by Riyadh Season, SEGA Ventures, and Apis Venture Partners.
Iambic Therapeutics, a four-year-old San Diego startup that uses AI to predict protein-ligand structures, generate molecular designs, and thereby discover new drugs, raised a $100 million Series B round co-led by Ascenta Capital and Abingworth, with additional participation from NVIDIA and Illumina Ventures. The company has raised a total of $153 million.
Metropolis, a six-year-old Los Angeles startup that uses AI and machine vision to automate the tracking and payment of vehicles in parking lots, raised a Series C round consisting of $1.05 billion in equity and $650 million in loans. As part of the transaction, Metropolis purchased SP Plus, a provider of parking facility management services, for $1.5 billion. The round co-leads were Eldridge Capital and 3L Capital, with BDT & MSD Partners, Vista Credit Partners, Temasek, Slow Ventures, and Assembly Ventures also anteing up.
Observe, a six-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based startup that develops software-as-a-service observability tools for storing, managing and analyzing machine-generated data and logs, has raised $50 million in convertible debt (i.e. debt that converts to equity) led by Sutter Hill Ventures.
Stoke Space, a four-year-old Seattle startup that is developing reusable rockets, raised a $100 million round led by Industrious Ventures and including the University of Michigan, Sparta Group, and Long Journey as well as previous investors Breakthrough Energy, Y Combinator, Point72 Ventures, NFX, MaC Ventures, Toyota Ventures, and In-Q-Tel. The company has raised a total of $175 million.
SuperOrdinary, a six-year-old, Shanghai-based consumer brand "accelerator" that works with outfits to help fuel their sales growth on marketplaces like Amazon, says it has raised $58 million in Series B funding at a $800 million valuation. Investors in the round include Manzanita, Alliance Consumer Growth, Demira GateUpper90 and SuperOrdinary founder and CEO Julian Reis.
Castelion, a year-old startup that wants to completely rethink defense hardware development for complex systems, has $14.2 million in initial funding round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lavrock Ventures, with participation from First In, BlueYard Capital and Champion Hill Ventures.
Connections Health Solutions, a Phoenix startup that operates crisis response clinics for patients with mental health issues, raised a $28 million Series B round. Town Hall Ventures was the deal lead, while previous investor Heritage Group also contributed.
Electric Era Technologies, a Seattle startup that is developing hardware and software to quickly charge EVs, raised a $13 million Series A round. HSBC Asset Management was the deal lead, with SQM Lithium Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Proeza Ventures, and Chevron Technology Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $20.5 million.
Machina Labs, a four-year-old, L.A.-based robotic metalworking startup, has raised $32 million Series B funding co-led by Nvidia’s NVentures and earlier backer Innovation Endeavors. The outfit has now raised $45 million altogether.
️Vibrant Planet, a three-year-old startup based in Truckee, Ca., that helps communities and builders plan for natural disasters such as fires, raised a $15 million Series A round. The Ecosystem Integrity Fund led the deal, while Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Citi Ventures, Day One Ventures, SIG Climate, Globivest, and Coefficient LP also chipped in.
Atalan Tech, a one-year-old Boston startup whose AI platform aims to predict and prevent clinician burnout and turnover in healthcare systems, raised a $2.5 million seed round. Excelerate Health Ventures and OCA Ventures were the co-leads.
ClearFeed, a two-year-old startup based in Beaverton, Or., that says it uses AI to streamline customer and employee requests on chat platforms, track inquiries, and escalate requests, raised a $2.7 million seed round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) and including 8VC.
CoPilot, a four-year-old Pittsburgh startup that matches users with remote fitness coaches, raised a $6.5 million Series A-1 round led by Jackson Square Ventures. The company has raised a total of $16.5 million.
Genie, a Barcelona startup that has developed low/no-code tools to help data scientists, researchers, and engineers work with Julia, a programming language for high-performance computing also created by the company, raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round led by Speedinvest, with Expa Ventures, Antler, APX/Heartfelt, and Shine Capital also weighing in.
Gradient, a startup that allows developers to build and customize AI apps in the cloud using large language models (LLMs), today emerged from stealth with $10 million in funding led by Wing VC. Other backers in the round included Mango Capital, Tokyo Black, The New Normal Fund, Secure Octane and Global Founders Capital.
️Kinetic Automation, a startup based in Santa Ana, Ca., that is building EV service centers, raised a $10 million Series A round. The deal was co-led by Lux Capital and Construct Capital, with Haystack Ventures, Automotive Ventures, Shakti Ventures, Qasar Younis, Rick Wagoner, and Gokul Rajaram also contributing.
Peak Energy, a Denver startup founded this year that is focused on scaling the production of sodium-ion batteries, raised a $10 million round led by Eclipse, with TDK Ventures also jumping in.
Phaver, a 1.5-year-old startup that says it's building a service that provides a web3 onboarding experience that’s similar to existing social platforms, has raised $7 million in seed funding. Polygon Ventures, Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, dao5, Foresight Ventures, Alphanonce, f.actor and Superhero Capital invested in the round.
Pow.Bio, a four-year-old startup based in Berkeley, Ca., that aims to build more efficient bioreactor capacity through its AI-infused continuous fermentation technology, raised a $9.5 million Series A round co-led by ReFood and Thia Ventures, with Possible Ventures, XFactor Ventures, iSelect, Climate Capital, Vectors Capital, Better Ventures, Prithvi Ventures, and Cantos also piling on. The company has raised a total of approximately $13 million.
Prophetic, a New York startup founded this year that is building what it calls the “world’s first wearable device for stabilizing lucid dreams,” raised a $1.1 million pre-seed round led by BoxGroup and joined by O’Shaughnessy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz's Scout Fund, Spacecadet, and Tekin Salimi.
Purpose Green, a Berlin startup whose platform provides owners, property managers, and asset managers with tools to simplify the decarbonization process, raised a $3.5 million round. Speedinvest and Atlantic Labs co-led the deal.
Responsibly, a two-year-old Copenhagen startup that helps companies monitor the sustainability claims of their supply chain partners, raised a $2.4 million seed round. Hambro Perks and Pi Labs were the deal leads.
scnd, a Paris startup that is providing a white-labeled booking platform for service providers, raised a $4.2 million seed round. 42Cap and Partech were the co-leads.
Sensigo, a startup based in San Carlos, Ca., that is using AI to enable vehicle service technicians to diagnose, resolve, and eventually predict repair issues, raised a $5 million seed round from UP.Ventures and Porsche.
Vera, a two-year-old New York- and San Francisco-based startup whose software will help companies establish and enforce acceptable use policies for generative AI, raised a $2.7 million pre-seed round. Differential Venture Partners was the deal lead; Betaworks, Greycroft, and Everywhere VC also invested.
7wireVentures, a Chicago venture capital firm focused on early stage digital health care deals, closed a $217 million third fund, increasing its total assets under management to more than $500 million.
Max Altman, a startup investor and brother of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Lattice CEO Jack Altman, has told investors he is raising a new fund with former Flexport executive Ben Braverman and entrepreneur and former Block leader Thomson Nguyen, according to The Information. Altman, who has been investing for years alongside his brothers, is reportedly raising a roughly $200 million fund focused on seed stage early-stage startups across all sectors.
Section 32, a six-year-old venture firm founded by ex-Google Ventures CEO Bill Maris, has closed on $525 million in capital commitments across its fifth fund. The Palo Alto, Ca., firm, which now has $2.3 billion in assets under management, says its notable exits include CrowdStrike, which went public in 2019; Coinbase, which made its public debut in 2021; and Relay Therapeutics, which took to the public markets in 2020. The outfit has now backed about 100 startups across numerous software-driven industries, including infrastructure, cybersecurity, gaming and brand experiences, enterprise, quantum and precision medicine, and computational biology.
ExxonMobil is nearing a ~$60B deal to acquire shale-focused Pioneer Natural Resources.
Shareholders of global grains merchant and oil seeds processor Bunge approved its acquisition of Glencore-backed Viterra, which will create a $34B company, including debt.
Newmont Corporation received all government regulatory approvals required for its $16.7B acquisition of Australian gold miner Newcrest Mining.
PE firm General Atlantic is exploring a sale of payment software vendor EngageSmart, which has a market value of $3.3B.
European buyout firm Triton is exploring a potential sale of All4Labels Global Packaging that may value the German label manufacturer at over $2.1B.
Spanish multinational telecom Telefonica is weighing a $2.1B stake sale in its technology unit.
Parking technology provider Metropolis Technologies will acquire parking facilities management services provider SP Plus for $1.5B, including debt.
Indian conglomerate Tata Group is in advanced talks with Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings to buy back a stake in its entertainment content distribution platform at a valuation over $1B.
Japanese specialty pharmaceutical company Kyowa Kirin will acquire gene therapy developer Orchard Therapeutics for $387M.
Pernod Ricard is exploring a sale of Czech liqueur brand Becherovka, which could be valued at over $300M in a sale.
AbbVie exercised its exclusive right to acquire Mitokinin and purchased the Parkinson’s Disease drug developer for $110M.
Drugmaker Sanofi is exploring a potential acquisition of cancer drugmaker Mirati Therapeutics.
A consortium of BlackRock and Grain Management is in advanced talks to acquire a 20% stake in Phoenix Tower International from funds managed by Blackstone.
TotalEnergies is weighing the sale of a 25% stake in Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm Seagreen Wind Energy.