Startups Raise Over $516M, Investors Raise $2.3B for New Funds, and $34.4B in M&A

Private Equity

Brookfield is considering acquiring a significant stake in Singapore Telecommunications’ Australian unit Optus, potentially valuing it at up to $11.9B.

Rothesay has agreed to purchase the approximately $7.6B in-force bulk annuity portfolio of Scottish Widows from Lloyds Banking Group.

Direct Line, a British home and motor insurer, has rejected a $4.1B takeover offer from Belgian rival Ageas.

Nordic Capital is contemplating the sale of Regnology, a German regulatory software firm, which could be valued at up to $3.3B.

Altria intends to sell part of its 10% stake in Anheuser-Busch for up to $2.2B to fund share buybacks.

Kimmeridge Energy Management has made a new proposal to acquire SilverBow Resources, valuing the oil and gas company at approximately $2.1B, including debt.

BP and ADNOC have paused discussions on a $2B deal to acquire a 50% stake in NewMed Energy, citing uncertainty.

Billionaire Hans Georg N?der will buy a 20% share of Ottobock, the German prosthetics maker, from EQT for around $1.2B.

Reliance Industries is set to buy Paramount Global’s entire 13% interest in Viacom 18 Media for approximately $517M.

Cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz announces a $350M all-cash acquisition of Gem Security.

Stonepeak acquires stakes in four US onshore wind farms from Orsted for $300M.

The UK is proposing a ban on foreign states controlling or influencing UK news media, challenging a UAE-linked bid for the Telegraph newspaper by RedBird IMI.

Cerberus Capital Management leads the race to purchase VeloBank, Poland’s 10th largest lender by assets.

The US House of Representatives passed legislation requiring TikTok owner ByteDance to divest the app within six months or face a prohibition.

Venture Capital

CarbonCapture (Los Angeles, 5 years old) develops modular machines that absorb and release CO2. Raised $80M in Series A. Investors: Prime Movers Lab, Aramco Ventures, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Siemens Financial Services, Idealab X, Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures.

Nozomi Networks (San Francisco, 11 years old) offers cybersecurity for industrial networks. Raised $100M in Series E. Investors: Mitsubishi Electric, Schneider Electric.

Perfios (Bangalore, 15 years old) provides real-time financial data tools. Raised $80M, valued at $1B+. Lead: Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

Together AI (2 years old) facilitates access to Nvidia server chips for AI developers. Raised $106M, valued at $1.25B. Lead: Salesforce Ventures; investors: Coatue Management, Lux Capital, Emergence Capital.

Zephyr AI (Tysons, VA, 4 years old) uses AI for precision medicine in oncology and cardiometabolic disease. Raised $111M in Series A. Investors: Revolution Growth, Eli Lilly & Company, Jeff Skoll, EPIQ Capital Group.

Amara (San Francisco) organic baby food brand. Raised $20M in Series B. Lead: HumanCo Investments; backers: Melitas Venture Capital, Touch Capital.

Axion Ray (Brooklyn, 3 years old) develops software for manufacturing issue detection. Raised $17.5M in Series A. Lead: Bessemer Venture Partners; investors: RTX Ventures, Amplo Venture Capital, Inspired Capital Partners.

BotGuard (Tallinn, Estonia, 5 years old) offers website protection from malicious bots. Raised $13.1M in Series A. Lead: MMC Ventures; investors: Tera Ventures, Expeditions Fund.

Fermat (San Francisco, 3 years old) aids online retailers in personalizing shopping experiences. Raised $17M in Series A. Lead: Bain Capital Ventures; investors: Greylock, QED Investors, Courtside Ventures.

Ocient (Chicago, 8 years old) specializes in large-scale data analysis software. Raised $49.4M. Lead: Greycroft, OCA Ventures; investors: Buoyant Ventures, Levy Family Partners, Riverwalk Capital, Wolf Capital Management.

Packfleet (London, 3 years old) offers sustainable all-electric parcel delivery. Raised $10.2M in Series A. Co-leads: General Catalyst, Voyager Ventures; investors: Creandum, Entree Capital, Founder Collective.

Quaise Energy (Cambridge, MA, 6 years old) aims to unlock deep geothermal energy. Raised $21M in Series A extension. Co-leads: Prelude Ventures, Safar Partners; investors: Mitsubishi, Standard Investments.

Tierra Biosciences (San Leandro, CA) focuses on AI-guided custom protein synthesis. Raised $11.4M in Series A. Investors: Prosus Ventures, In-Q-Tel.

Voi (Stockholm, 6 years old) rents e-scooters and e-bikes. Raised $25M. Investors: VNV Global, Raine Group, Nineyards Equity, Balderton, Creandum, Project A, Stena, Black Ice Capital.

Vouch (San Francisco, 6 years old) provides insurance for startups. Raised $25M in Series C-1. Lead: Ribbit Capital.

Big Sur AI (Mountain View, CA, 1 year old) developed an AI sales agent for e-commerce. Raised $6.9M in seed. Lead: Lightspeed Venture Partners; investor: Capital F.

Blockus (Santa Monica, CA, 2 years old) offers blockchain tools for game developers. Raised $4M in pre-seed. Lead: Maple VC; investor: Altos Ventures.

Cache (San Francisco, 3 years old) designed a brokerage for large stock positions. Raised $8.5M in seed. Co-leads: First Round Capital, Quiet Capital.

Elixir (New York, 2 years old) enhances exchange liquidity. Raised $8M in Series B at $800M valuation. Co-leads: Mysten Labs, Maelstrom; investors: Manifold, Arthur Hayes, Amber Group, GSR, Flowdesk.

Foundation Health (San Francisco, 1 year old) offers digital tools for pharmacies and telehealth. Raised $6M in seed. Investors: Garry Tan, Transpose Platform, Tuesday VC, Alt Capital, Box Group, Liquid Ventures, Exceptional Capital, Calm/Storm Ventures, PageOne Ventures.

NFTfi (Cape Town, 4 years old) allows loans using NFTs as collateral. Raised $6M in Series A1. Lead: Placeholder VC; investors: Maven 11, Launch Labs Inc, Kahuna Ventures, Brevan Howard, The LAO, Reciprocal, a_capital Ventures, Hash, Bloccelerate, Cypher Capital, Longhash Ventures, Punks DAO, Flamingo DAO.

The New Club (San Francisco, 1 year old) network for senior women engineers. Raised $3.1M. Co-leads: Sierra Ventures, Afore Capital; investors: Operator Collective, Precursor Ventures, Dragonfly Capital.

OpenMeter offers simplified usage-based billing. Raised $3M. Investors: Y Combinator, Haystack, Sunflower Capital.

Paylode (Miami, 4 years old) helps businesses manage loyalty programs. Raised $5.5M in seed. Investors: Susa Ventures, Vinyl Capital, Struck Capital, Day One Ventures.

Quantistry (Berlin, 5 years old) develops chemical modeling software. Raised $3.3M. Lead: Ananda Impact Ventures; investor: Chemovator.

Synch (New York) uses AI for sales team operations. Raised $3M in seed. Co-leads: AltCap, Haystack.

Telo (San Carlos, CA, 2 years old) is creating an electric pickup. Raised $5.4M. Lead: Neo; investor: Spero Ventures.

IPO

Skincare company Galderma Group set the price range for its $2.6B IPO that may value the company at over $14.3B, Europe’s largest IPO since Porsche’s in 2022.

Indian billionaire Sunil Mittal’s Airtel Africa, Africa’s second-largest telecom operator, is considering an IPO for its mobile money unit that could value it at over $4B.

DreamSmart Group, a smartphone maker that pivoted toward developing AI for mobile devices, selected CICC and Huatai Securities for a Hong Kong IPO that may value the company at over $2.1B.

PE firm Vista Equity Partners plans to IPO software firm Solera by 2024-end.

Stripe in ‘no rush’ to IPO as $65B fintech turns cash flow positive.

Fundraising

Chicago PE firm Wind Point Partners?closed its largest ever fund at $2.3B.