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PE > VC
With venture slowing down in the final two weeks of summer, M&A took the bill & stepped up. For starters, Intel secured a landmark $8.9B investment for a 9.9% stake from the U.S. Government totaling $11.1B in investment, adding to America’s $100 billion expansion of resilient semiconductor supply chain.
Sycamore Partners closed its massive $23.7B buyout of Walgreens Boots Alliance, while Thoma Bravo took Verint private for $2B and Advent International scooped up PatientPoint.
On the strategic side, PepsiCo boosted its stake in Celsius with a $585M investment paired with a Rockstar Energy swap, Gusto acquired Guideline, bringing a $1.15B VC-backed 401(k) player under its roof, and CrowdStrike bought Spain’s Onum for $290M.
Even celebrities & consumer brands are making moves. The Weeknd is exploring a $1B raise tied to his music rights, Mammoth Brands is in talks to buy premium diaper brand Coterie, and Bain Capital is weighing an exit from Canada Goose.
More below.
Musings
AI
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U.S. 10% Stake in Intel, Stratechery
Science
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WHO is running Elizabeth Holmes X Account? Is this entertainment? Is this a deeper strategy? The conspiracy theories are rushing in..
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Last Week (8/25-8/29):
Relevant deals include the 70+ deals across stages below. I've categorized the deals below into seven categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise / Consumer, HardTech, Sustainability, Acquisition/PE, and Fund Announcements, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds.
VC Deals
Fintech:
- Rain, a New York City-based stablecoin infrastructure platform for enterprises, raised $58 million in Series B funding. Sapphire Ventures led the round and was joined by Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Samsung Next, Lightspeed, and Norwest.
- M0, a Swiss platform for creating application-specific stablecoins, raised $40m in Series B funding from Polychain Capital, Ribbit Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Road Capital, Pantera, and Bain Capital Crypto.
- aPriori, a San Francisco-based execution layer for on-chain markets, raised $30 million in funding from HashKey Capital, Pantera Capital, Primitive Ventures, IMC Trading, GEM, Gate Labs, Ambush Capital, Big Brain Collective, and others.
- Wisdom, a New York City-based dental revenue cycle management platform, raised $21 million in Series A funding. Permanent Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Aquiline and Juxtapose.
- Central, a maker of AI agents for payroll and HR, raised $8.6m in seed funding. First Round Capital led, joined by Ritual Capital, Multimodal Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Surgepoint Capital.
- Sola, an Atlanta-based property insurance company, raised $8m in Series A funding. Fintop Capital and JAM Fintop led, joined by 10vc and Georgia Tech.
- Kira, a Miami-based payments infrastructure platform, raised $6.7m in seed funding from Blockchange Ventures, Vamos Ventures, Stellar Blockchain, Grit Ventures, Credibly Neutral Ventures, Michael Seibel, and Oso Trava.
- Welcome Tech, a Los Angeles-based platform designed to connect immigrants with financial tools, job services, and other tools, raised $7.5 million in funding from TTV Capital, Mubadala Capital, Westbound Equity Partners, CityRock Ventures Partners, Next Legacy Partners, and BTN Ventures.
Care:
- Nest Health, a New Orleans-based care provider for families on Medicaid, raised $12.5m in Series A funding. 8VC and Blue Venture Fund led, joined by Amboy Street Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Health 2047
- Barti, a San Francisco-based AI-powered EHR and practice management platform for eye care, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Five Elms Capital led the round.
- Molecular You, a Vancouver, B.C.-based molecular medicine and preventative health company, raised $5 million in Series A funding. Voloridge Health led the round and was joined by Dynamic Leap and others.
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Databricks, which is raising new funding at a $100b valuation, acquired Tecton, an SF-based machine learning ops startup that had raised $160m from Databricks, Kleiner Perkins, Snowflake, a16z, Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Tiger Global
- Framer, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based website design platform, raised $100 million in Series D funding. Meritech and Atomico led the round.
- Attio, a London-based AI-native CRM platform, raised $52 million in Series B funding. GV (Google Ventures) led the round and was joined by existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Balderton Capital, Point Nine and 01A.
- Aurasell, a San Francisco-based AI-powered CRM platform, raised $30 million in seed funding from N47, Menlo Ventures, and Unusual Ventures.
- InstaLILY AI, a New York City-based platform for hiring AI teammates, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by Perceptive Ventures and Marvin Ventures.
- Maisa, a Valencia, Spain and San Francisco-based developer of AI agents designed to be hallucination-resistant, raised $25 million in seed funding. Creandum and Forgepoint Capital led the round and were joined by NFX and Village Global.
- FriendliAI, a Redwood City, Calif.-based AI inference platform, raised $20 million in a seed extension. Capstone Partners led the round and was joined by Sierra Ventures, Alumni Ventures, KDB, and KB Securities.
- Aurelian, a Seattle, Wash.-based AI voice assistant designed for public safety, raised $14 million in Series A funding. NEA led the round and was joined by existing investors Y Combinator, FUSE, Liquid 2, and Palm Drive Capital.
- Boost my School, a New York City-based fundraising platform for K-12 schools, raised $10 million in funding. High Alpha led the round.
- Bench IQ, a Toronto, Canada-based AI-powered judicial intelligence platform, raised $5.3 million in seed funding. Battery Ventures and Inovia Capital led the round and was joined by CIBC Innovation Banking, MVP Ventures, Maple VC, and Haystack VC.
- Darwin AI, a São Paolo, Brazil-based company designed to train AI workers across sales, customer, support, and post-sales processes, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Base10 Partners led the round.
HardTech:
- Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Devens, Mass.-based nuclear fusion startup, raised $863m from Nvidia's NVentures, Stanley Druckenmiller, Counterpoint Global, Gigascale Capital, FFA Private Bank, Neva SGR, Woori Venture Partners US, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Emerson Collective, Eni, Future Ventures, Gates Frontier, Google, Khosla Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and Eric Schmidt.
- Group14 Technologies, a Woodinville, Wash.-based silicon battery materials company, raised $463 million in Series D funding. SK led the round and was joined by existing investors Porsche Investments, ATL, OMERS, Decarbonization Partners, Lightrock Climate Impact Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, and others.
- Paragraf, a British maker of graphene-based electronics, raised $55m in Series C funding led by Mubadala
- Blue Water Autonomy, a developer of unmanned ships for the U.S. Navy, raised $50m in Series A funding. GV led, joined by insiders Eclipse Ventures, Riot, and Impatient Ventures.
- OpenLight, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip design startup, raised $34m in Series A funding. Xora Innovation and Capricorn Investment Group led, joined by Mayfield, Juniper Networks, Lam Capital, New Legacy Ventures, and K2 Access.
- InstaLILY, a New York-based AI assistant for industrials, raised $25m. Insight Partners led, joined by Perceptive Ventures and Marvin Ventures
- Splight, a San Francisco-based grid technology company, raised $12.4 million in funding. Blue Bear Capital led the round and was joined by ZOMA Capital.
- Nauta, a New York-based AI logistics orchestration startup, raised $7 million in seed funding. Construct Capital and Predictive led the round, with participation from Rappi CEO Simón Borrero, RemoteHQ founder Waikit Lau, Windmar Energy CEO Juan Jose Gonzales, and Soriana.
- Heave, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based platform designed to connect construction companies with on-demand heavy equipment mechanics, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Outsiders Fund led the round and was joined by FJ Labs, Long Journey Ventures, and SLOW Ventures.
Sustainability:
- Terraton, a San Francisco-based carbon removal company for emerging markets, raised $11.5 million in seed funding. Lowercarbon Capital and Gigascale Capital led the round and were joined by angel investors.
Acquisitions & PE:
- The U.S. government will invest a total of $11.1 billion into Intel for a 9.9% stake, inclusive of $5.7 billion of CHIPS Act grants that had been awarded but not yet paid to the company.
- Bain Capital is seeking to sell luxury parka maker Canada Goose (NYSE: GOOS). Bain holds nearly a 32% stake in Canada Goose, which it took public in 2017, and a majority of voting shares.
- CrowdStrike’s $290 million Onum acquisition & cybersecurity M&A
- Crypto.com, which yesterday launched a $6.4b crypto treasury with Trump Media & Technology Group, has met with bankers about an IPO
- Sycamore Partners completed its $23.7 billion takeover of Walgreens Boots Alliance, whose shares no longer will trade on the Nasdaq.
- Thoma Bravo agreed to take Verint, a Melville, New York-based customer experience automation company, private for $2 billion in cash.
- Advent International agreed to acquire PatientPoint, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based digital point-of-care network, from an investor group led by L Catterton and Littlejohn. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- The Weeknd is in talks to raise around $1b backed by his music rights, with Lyric Capital Group among possible investors
- CrowdStrike (Nasdaq: CRWD) agreed to acquire Onum, a Spanish provider of telemetry pipeline management, for around $290m. Onum had raised around $40m from firms like Dawn Capital, Insight Partners, and Kibo Ventures.
- Gusto, a cloud HR services company valued by VCs at $9.3b, acquired Guideline, a provider of 401(k) plans for SMBs. Guideline had raised $340m in VC funding, most recently at a $1.15b valuation, from firms like General Atlantic, Generation Investment Management, Greyhound Capital, Felicis, and Propel Ventures
- PepsiCo. (Nasdaq: PEP) will invest $585 million to increase its stake in energy drink maker Celsius (Nasdaq: CELH) to around 11%. The deal also includes Celsius buying PepsiCo's Rockstar Energy brand in the U.S. and Canada, while PepsiCo will distribute the Alani Nu brand recently acquired by Celsius.
- Barclays (LSE: BARC) agreed to sell its stake in Nordics consumer credit business Entercard Group to joint venture partner Swedbank (STO: SWED) for around $273m
- Mammoth Brands, valued at $1.7b by investors like Bain Capital and Macquarie Capital, reportedly is in talks to acquire premium diaper brand Coterie that's raised $30m from backers like Airbnb, Align Ventures, Willow Growth, RiverPark Ventures, M3 Ventures, and Ashley Graham.
IPOs:
- Netskope, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based cloud security provider, filed for an IPO that Renaissance Capital estimates could raise $500m. It reports a $169.5 million net loss on $328.5 million in revenue for the first half of 2025, compared to a $207 million net loss on $251 million in revenue for the first half of 2024. Major shareholders include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Iconiq and Accel
- Pattern Group, a Lehi, Utah-based online reseller for consumer brands, filed for an IPO that Renaissance Capital estimates could raise $500m. It reports a $46.5m of net income on $1.14b of revenue for the first half of 2025, compared to $35.5m of net income on $841m in revenue for the first half of 2024. Pattern plans to list on the Nasdaq (PTRN) and raised over $270m from firms like KSV and Knox Lane
Final Numbers:
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The material presented on Molly O’Shea’s website are my opinions only and are provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. It is not a recommendation of, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Any analysis or discussion of investments, sectors or the market generally are based on current information, including from public sources, that I consider reliable, but I do not represent that any research or the information provided is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. My views and opinions expressed in any website content are current at the time of publication and are subject to change. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Deals are simple, churn is ...messy. One thing that works is within the 3 days, name a sponsor for each of the top 50 accounts. Then publish a “nothing breaks” plan, bring renewals forward.