Layoffs at Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Microsoft, and Wayfair, among others

Who is going to lay off employees next?

Thousands of workers were laid off during January. While the likelihood of an economic recession seems to be less than previously forecast. Big tech firms have been jettisoning many employees, hedging their costs in the near future. More than 77,000 tech workers have been laid off so far this year!

Diversity

Plesion Capital of Vienna, Va., https://www.plesioncapital.com/ announced its formation. Plesion aims to make pre-seed and seed investments in promising startups whose products and services are positively influencing the lives of people by helping to reduce poverty and creating new opportunities for economic growth. Plesion Capital is currently focused on African-based investment opportunities that have the potential to address major societal challenges across the continent. The firm’s focus areas include food insecurity, clean water access and improving infrastructure, both financial and physical. The inaugural investment was in Uganda-based XENO Corporation’s $2 million seed round, which was led by Beyond Capital Ventures. The firm made a $500,000 investment.

Boston-based Mendoza Ventures https://mendoza-ventures.com/ raised $100 million. The female and Latinx-founded venture capital firm held the first close of its $100 million Third Early Growth Fintech fund. The initial close was led by Bank of America, including Grasshopper Bank and other investors. Bank of America supported the fund as part of their commitment to advancing racial equality and economic opportunity, of which more than $400 million is allocated to investments in mission-focused venture funds.

Initial Public Offerings

TXO Energy Partners raised $100 million in its IPO.

QuantaSing raised $41 million in its IPO.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Energy Capital Partners completed its £2.1 billion ($2.6 billion) acquisition of British waste management and recycling firm Biffa.

Apollo Future Mobility agreed to acquire Chinese electric vehicle maker WM Motor for $2.02 billion.

AstraZeneca agreed to acquire CinCor Pharma, a Boston-based biopharma focused on hypertension and chronic kidney disease, for upwards of $1.8 billion.

Matador Resources agreed to acquire Advance Energy Partners, a Houston-based oil and gas E&P, for from EnCap Investments for $1.6 billion.

Qiagen is seeking to sell a minority stake in its bioinformatics unit, which could be valued north of $1 billion, per Bloomberg.

GI Partners agreed to acquire Atlas Technical Consultants, an Austin, Texas-based provider of infrastructure and environmental solutions, for around $1.05 billion, at $12.25 per share.

Mega-Rounds

Startup funding was fairly level this month, with about 47 mega-rounds, slightly higher than December’s mega-rounds. Microsoft is reportedly planning to invest about $10 billion in OpenAI, which developed the ChapGPT chatbot, released last year. The software giant previously invested $1 billion in OpenAI.

Agtech/Foodtech

Enko of Mystic, Conn., raised $80 million in Series C funding led by Eight Roads Ventures, Nufarm, Endeavor8, and Akroyd LLC.

No Meat Factory, a Canadian alternative protein maker, raised US$42 million in Series B funding. Tenglemann Growth Partners led and was joined by insider Emil Capital Partners.

EarthOptics of Arlington, Va., raised $27.6 million in Series B funding led by Conti Ventures with participation from Rabo Food & Ag Innovation Fund, CNH Industrial, Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures, and CHS and Growmark’s Cooperative Ventures, and current investors Leaps by Bayer, FHB Ventures, S2G Ventures, iSelect Fund, Route 66 Ventures, and Middleland Capital’s VTC Ventures.

Meati Foods of Boulder, Colo., raised $22 million in Series C extension funding led by Revolution Growth and joined by Rockefeller Capital.

Rumin8, an Australian developer of livestock feed to cut methane emissions, raised $12 million in new seed funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Addie, a Norwood, Mass.-based drive-up grocer, raised $10.1 million in seed funding led by Rose Park Advisors.

San Francisco-based Elo raised $10 million in Series A funding led by

Octopus Ventures, Will Ventures, and Re:food.vc.

San Francisco-based Wag! acquired Dog Food Advisor, a dog food marketplace, for $9 million in cash.

Axiom Cloud raised $7.4 million in Series A funding led by Blue Bear Capital, with participation from Leadout Capital, Momenta Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Vela Partners, Frontier VC, and Artifact Capital.

The ISH Company raised more than $5 million in seed funding led by ACCELR8, with participation from Stray Dog Capital and multiple angel investors.

EnrichAg, a soil testing subsidiary of Terramara, a Canadian agtech company, raised $6 million in a first close of its Series A round led by At One Ventures.

London-based Entocycle raised €5 million (about $5.4 million) in Series A funding. Climentum Capital led the round and was joined by Lowercarbon Capital, Teampact Ventures, and Ace & Company.

Paris-based Hyperplan raised €4.1 million ($4.45 million) in funding led by Demeter’s Agrinnovation fund, BNP Paribas Developpement, Polytechnique Ventures, PeakBridge, Techmind, and Unilis Agtech.

Zitti raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Oceans Ventures and Serena Ventures co-led, joined by Crossbeam.

Berlin-based Project Eaden raised €2.1 million ($2.28 million) in seed funding from Creandum, Magnetic Ventures, and Atlantic Food Labs.

BibeCoffee raised €2.1 million ($2.28 million) in funding led by Eleven Ventures and joined by Venture Friends and Uni.Fund.

Israel’s Pigmentum raised $6 million in seed funding. Kibbutz Yotvata and IsraeliArkin co-led, joined by Tnuva, Tempo, and OurCrowd.

India’s Bajo Foods raised $2 million in funding led by Accel and Celesta Capital.

Tokyo-based Secai Marche raised $1.6 million in Series A funding from The Agribusiness Investment and Consultation Co., Spiral Ventures Asia Fund I, and Beyond Next Ventures.

The Bug Factory of London, England, U.K., a startup that designs and builds eco-growing pods for the cultivation of mealworm, received an investment from Maughan Capital. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Sun Capital Partners acquired Fresh Origins, a San Marcos, Calif.-based grower of microgreens and edible flowers for foodservice and retail customers.

Astara Capital Partners invested in Jeffersonville, Ind.-based snack food and cereal maker Wyandot Snacks.

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning

Tredence of San Jose, Calif., raised $175 million in Series B funding led by Advent International, which will acquire a minority stake. Existing investor Chicago Pacific Founders will continue to be a meaningful shareholder in Tredence.

DeepL, a German language translation AI, raised more than $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. IVP led and was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and WiL.

Vannevar Labs of Palo Alto, Calif., raised $75 million in Series B funding. Felicis Ventures led and was joined by DFJ Growth, Aloft VC, and insiders General Catalyst, Point72, Costanoa Ventures, and Shield Capital.

Dallas-based Inbenta raised $40 million in funding led by Tritium Partners.

Israel’s aiOla raised $25 million in funding led by New Era with the participation of Hamilton Lane and other investors.

Hawk AI raised $17 million in Series B funding led by Sands Capital and joined by Picus Capital, DN Capital, Coalition, and BlackFin Capital Partners.

New York-based Hume AI raised $12.7 million in Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures with participation from Northwell Holdings, Comcast Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, Wisdom Ventures, and Evan Sharp (Pinterest co-founder).

Nanoprecise Sci Corp. of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, raised US$10 million in Series B funding led by Export Development Canada, with participation from Honeywell Ventures, NSK Ltd., and EC Mergers & Acquisitions.

Coho AI, an Israeli revenue optimization startup for B2B SaaS companies, raised $8.5 million in seed funding from Eight Roads Ventures and TechAviv.

ReelData AI, a Canadian aquaculture data software startup, raised US$8 million in Series A funding. Buoyant Ventures led and was joined by S2G Ventures and The Nest Family Office.

Human AI Labs https://www.personal.ai/ of La Jolla, Calif. raised $7.8 million in seed funding led by Supernode Global, Differential Ventures, BBG Ventures, Beni VC, Village Global, Keshif Ventures, and Good Friends, Rob Granieri of Jane Street Capital, Kelvin Beachum of the Arizona Cardinals, Anirudh Koul of Pinterest and Microsoft, and Bradley Taylor of Google Moonshot.

Cleveland-based Biohm raised $7.5 million in funding led by VTC Ventures, with participation from Felton Group, Jobs Ohio Growth Capital Fund, Aztec Capital Management, Cleveland Life Science Advisors, Valley Growth Ventures, and JumpStart, Inc.

Singapore-based Qtrive raised $7.5 million in funding. MassMutual Ventures led the round and was joined by SEEDS Capital and Exfinity Venture Partners.

San Francisco-based Ferrum Health, an enterprise AI startup for health care systems, raised $6 million co-led by Urban Innovation Fund, Singtel Innov8, and Cercano Management.

Scenario raised $6 million in seed funding. Play Ventures led and was joined by backers like Anorak Ventures, Founders Inc., and The VR Fund.

Microsoft invested an undisclosed amount in Paige, a New York-based clinical AI digital pathology startup.

San Francisco-based Ahura AI closed its seed+ investment round. This brought total funding raised to date to $5.6 million in seed funding.

Good Ones raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by TLV Partners and joined by Liquid2 Ventures, Rich Miner, and Peter Welinder.

Viking Analytics of Gothenburg, Sweden, raised more than €3 million (about $3.3 million) in Series A funding co-led by Finindus (backed by ArcelorMittal) and Industrifonden with ABB and existing investors also participating.

Gigged.ai of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. raised nearly $2 million in seed funding led by Par Equity alongside existing investor Techstart Ventures, and Nile HQ.

Upcycled Plant Power (upp) of Newport, Shropshire, U.K., a broccoli protein specialist company, raised £500,000 (more than $619,000) in funding. The round was led by Elbow Beach Capital.

Crisis24, a Montreal, Canada-based global risk management company, acquired Topo.ai, an Atlanta-based provider of an innovative critical event management platform. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Automotive/Autonomy/Mobility

Oxbiotica, a British developer of autonomous driving software, raised $140 million in Series C funding from Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, Eneos, and insiders BGF, Halma, Hostplus, Kiko Ventures, Ocado Group, Tencent, Venture Science, and ZF.

Impel of Syracuse, N.Y., raised $104 million in funding from Silversmith Capital Partners.

Outrider of Golden, Colo., raised $73 million in Series C funding. FM Capital led and was joined by ADIA, Nvidia, B37 Ventures, Lineage Ventures, Presidio Ventures, Sumitomo Corp., ROBO Global Ventures, and insiders Koch Disruptive Technologies and NEA.

Log9 Materials, an Indian developer of EV-focused battery systems, raised $40 million in Series B equity and debt funding. Amara Raja Batteries and Petronas Ventures co-led, and were joined by Incred Financial Services, Unity Small Finance Bank, Oxyzo Financial Services, and Western Capital Advisors.

Rabobank invested €16 million ($17.8 million) in Park ‘n Charge of Veenendaal, Netherlands.

Ampeco of Sofia, Bulgaria, raised $16 million in funding. The round was led by BMW i Ventures. The Series A round also included Launchub Ventures and Cavalry Ventures, as well as a handful of angel investors.

Tel Aviv-based Ottopia raised $14.5 million in Series A funding led by and joined by ComfortDelGro, AI Alliance Fund, MizMaa Ventures, IN Venture, and Next Gear Ventures.

ProovStation of Lion, France, raised €10.4 million ($11.3 million) in funding led by Supernova Invest, with participation from Otium Capital and Crédit Agricole Création.

HopDrive of Richmond, Va., raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Cox Enterprises, parent company of Cox Automotive, with participation from previous lead investor Overline, ACERTUS, and Ally Ventures.

Caura of London, England, U.K., raised £4 million (nearly $5 million) in funding led by Lloyds Banking.

Nairobi-based eWAKA received a loan of $500,000 Swiss francs ($543,000). Kenya’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) Start-up Fund provided the loan.

Toronto-based Waabi raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Volvo’s VC arm.

Biotech

Pathalys Pharma of Raleigh, N.C., raised $150 million in equity and secured product financing led by Abingworth and joined by Carlyle, OrbiMed Advisors, Catalys Pacific, and DaVita Venture Group.

HighTide Therapeutics, a Chinese developer of drugs to treat metabolic and digestive diseases, raised $107 million in Series C and Series C+ funding. TCM Healthcare Fund led and was joined by Yuexiu Fund and Yuthai Fund.

San Francisco-based Perceive Therapeutics raised $78 million in Series B funding led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation, with participation from Deerfield Management, Braidwell, the Retinal Degeneration Fund, and Catalio Capital Management.

China’s Iaso Biotherapeutics raised almost $75 million in Series C1 funding. Backers include Shanghai Guoxin Investment & Development, Efung Capital, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone Group, Nanjing Jiangbei New Area State-owned Asset Management, Housen Care Brothers, and Hongcheng Investment.

Grey Wolf Therapeutics of Oxford, England, U.K., raised $49 million in Series B funding led by Pfizer Ventures and Earlybird Venture Capital, with participation from Oxford Science Enterprises, British Patient Capital and existing investors Canaan and Andera Partners.

San Diego-based ADARx Pharmaceuticals got $46 million in Series B-1 funding led by Ascenta Capital with participation from OrbiMed Advisors, SR One Capital Management, Lilly Asia Ventures, and Sirona Capital.

San Francisco-based Atomic AI raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Playground Global, with participation from 8VC, Factory HQ, Greylock, NotBoring, AME Cloud Ventures, Nat Friedman, Doug Mohr, Neal Khosla, and Patrick Hsu.

Atlanta-based Vero Biotech raised $30 million in funding led by Petrichor.

ExeVir Bio of Ghent, Belgium, raised €25 million ($27.2 million) in venture debt funding. The European Investment Bank provided the loan.

PBS Biotech raised $22 million in funding led by Avego Management, with participation from BroadOak Capital Partners.

Palvella Therapeutics of Wayne, Pa., raised $37.7 million in Series D funding led by Petrichor and Gore Range Capital with participation from Samsara BioCapital, BVF Partners, Agent Capital, Nolan Capital, and BioAdvance.

New York-based LinusBio raised $16 million in Series A funding led by GreatPoint Ventures and Bow Capital with participation from Divergent Investments, Nicole Shanahan, the David Bellet Family Office, Gillian Sandler, and Sanford Robertson.

Copenhagen-based Tetra Pharm Technologies raised €9 million) nearly $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by a group of Danish investors, including Leafy Tunnel, Enexis, Rump Invest, Nesroht Holding, and Ole GS Holding.

South San Francisco-based Spiral Therapeutics raised $8.25 million in funding. Existing investors Savoir Capital and Catalio Capital Management participated in this financing and were joined by Humboldt Fund and other family office investors.

Paris-based LinKinVax raised €7.3 million ($7.9 million) in funding. The round was led by André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé and In-Q-Tel.

GreenLab of Jonesboro, Ark., raised about $5.26 million in seed funding. The investors weren’t identified.

MPC Therapeutics of Geneva, Switzerland, 1.5 million Swiss francs (about $1.6 million) in seed funding led by Plutus Investment Group, with participation from business angels.

Diamante of Verona, Italy, raised €595,000 (about $646,000) in seed funding led by Arieli Capital with participation from Elena Paola Lanati and the Angels4Women and Angels4Impact associations.

Shanghai-based LePure Biotech raised an undisclosed amount in Series C funding led by Novo Holdings, General Atlantic, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with participation from existing investors including Highlight Capital, Bayland Capital, and HM Capital.

Climate Change

Silicon Ranch, a Nashville, Tenn.-based renewable power producer, raised $375 million in new equity funding and said another $225 million is expected to close shortly. Return backers include Manulife Investment Management, TD Asset Management, and Mountain Group Partners.

ArcLight Capital Partners made a $150 million commitment to Boston-based Elevate Renewable Energy.

San Francisco-based Xpansiv raised $125 million from backers like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. It also acquired Evolution Markets, a provider of transaction and advisory services for the carbon and energy transition markets.

Summit Nanotech of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, raised US$50 million in Series A2 funding led by Evok Innovations and Climate Tech Fund, with participation from Xora Innovation, Capricorn Investment Group, Volta Energy Technologies, NGP, Helios Climate Ventures, and The Grantham Foundation.

Noon Energy of Palo Alto, Calif., raised $28 million in Series A funding. Clean Energy Ventures and Aramco Ventures co-led, joined by Emerson Collective, At One Ventures, Mistletoe, and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures.

Norway’s Hystar raised $26 million in funding. AP Ventures and Mitsubishi Corp. co-led, joined by Finindus, Nippon Steel Trading, Hillhouse Investment, Trustbridge Partners, SINTEF Ventures, and Firda.

San Francisco-based Living Carbon raised $21 million in Series A funding led by Temasek and joined by Lowercarbon Capital, Toyota Ventures, and Felicis Ventures.

Norway’s Chooose raised $15 million in funding co-led by Sound Ventures. GenZero, a decarbonization-focused investment company owned by Singapore’s Temasek, also co-led the investment round. Existing investors Shell Ventures and Vinyl Capital also participated in the strategic capital round. Other current investors include travel technology giant Amadeus and Contrarian Ventures.

Sweden’s SunRoof raised €13.5 million ($14.67 million) in funding from World Fund, Nordic Alpha Partners, and L&G Capital.

Cybersecurity

Netskope, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based cloud access security company, raised $401 million via a convertible note financing. Morgan Stanley Tactical Value led and was joined by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and CPP Investments.

San Diego-based MedCrypt extended its Series B round, bringing its total funding to $36.4 million. The round was led by Dexcom Ventures, with investments from Intuitive Ventures and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

Egerie of Toulon, France, raised €30 million ($32.56) in funding led by Tikehau Capital, Open CNP, Banque des Territoires, and TIIN Capital.

Israel’s Sentra raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Standard Investments and joined by Munich Re Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Xerox Ventures, and insiders Bessemer Venture Partners and Zeev Ventures.

Strata Identity of Boulder, Colo., raised $26 million in Series B funding led by Telstra Ventures with participation from Menlo Ventures, Forgepoint Capital, and Innovating Capital.

SpiderOak of Washington, D.C., raised $16.4 million in Series C funding led by Empyrean Technology Solutions, with participation from Method Capital and OCA Ventures.

Hypori of Reston, Va., raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Hale Capital Partners and joined by GreatPoint Ventures and David Petraeus.

Hypernative raised $9 million in seed funding co-led by Boldstart Ventures and IBI, joined by Blockdaemon, Alchemy, Borderless, CMT Digital, Nexo, and angel investors.

SailPoint Technologies of Austin, Texas, acquired SecZetta, a Fall River, Mass.-based provider of identity risk solutions that has raised around $30 million from SYN Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Rally Ventures, and ClearSky. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Digital Health

New York-based Paradigm raised $203 million inBold Series A funding led by Arch Venture Partners and General Catalyst. It also acquired an oncology patient recruitment startup called Deep Lens.

Toronto-based Smile Digital Health raised US$30 million in Series B funding. The round was led by existing investors, including UPMC Enterprises.

Array Behavioral Care of Mount Laurel, N.J., raised $25 million in funding led by CVS Health, which joined Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Health Velocity Capital, Harbour Point Capital, HLM Venture Partners, OCA Ventures, and OSF Healthcare.

New York-based Elaborate raised $10 million in seed funding led by Tusk Venture Partners, with participation from Founder Collective, Company Ventures, Bling Ventures, Arkitekt Ventures, Elliot Cohen, Sara Wajnberg, Scott Belsky, and Sean and Peter Glass.

San Francisco-based Teal Health raised $8.8 million in seed funding. Investors include Emerson Collective, Serena Ventures, Metrodora Ventures, and Felicis Ventures.

Nashville-based UptimeHealth raised $4.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by co-led by Caduceus Capital Partners and Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health.

San Diego-based Cari Health raised $2.3 million in seed funding led by the San Diego Angel Conference (SDAC), with participation from NuFund Venture Group, Cove Fund, Chemical Angel Fund, and Medical Devices of Tomorrow, and several individual angel investors.

Kansas City-based Free From Market raised $2.1 million in seed funding. The round was led by Bluestein Ventures, with participation from Acumen America, Beta Boom, KCRise Fund, 1st Course Capital and AssetBlue Ventures.

ReferWell of Stamford, Conn., raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding led by Viewside Capital Partners, with participation from Essen Ventures (the venture arm of Essen Health Care), Health Catalyst Capital, and Connecticut Innovations.

C-mo Medical Solutions, an Almada, Portugal-based digital health startup, announced an extension to its seed investment round. Novalis Biotech joined the seed investment round led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and participation from Portugal Ventures and High-Tech Gründerfonds.

Communications

Boston-based Blues Wireless raised $32 million in Series A1 funding led by Positive Sum, with participation from Four Rivers, Northgate, Qualcomm, Sequoia Capital, Cascade, Lachy Groom, and XYZ.

Robotics

Aerones of Latvia raised $30 million in growth capital funding. Lightrock and Haniel co-led the round and were joined by Metaplanet and Mantas Mikuckas.

Kewazo, a Munich-based construction robotics startup, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Fifth Wall led and was joined by Cybernetix Ventures, Unorthodox Ventures, and Nemetschek.

Atlanta-based Presso raised $8 million in seed funding from Uncork Capital, 1517 Fund, AME Cloud Ventures, HAX/SOSV, Pathbreaker Ventures, VSC Ventures, and YETI Capital.

Software

Berkeley-based Crowdbotics raised $40 million in Series B funding led by NEA and joined by Homebrew, JSV, Harrison Metal, and Cooley.

Seattle-based DevZero raised $26 million in seed and Series A funding. The seed round was led by Foundation Capital. The Series A round was led by Anthos Capital, with participation from Fika Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Madrona Venture Group.

New York-based Atomic Jar raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners with participation from boldstart ventures, Tribe Capital, Chalfen Ventures, Guy Podjarny, Peter McKay, and Irregular Expressions.

Method of Austin, Texas, raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Truist Ventures, Y Combinator, Abstract Ventures, SV Angel, and other investors.

Raven.ai of Ottawa, Canada, raised US$12 million in Series A funding led by Momenta Ventures and Chartline Capital Partners with participation from Celtic House Venture Partners, Export Development Canada, and angel investors.

Cumulo.io of Belgium raised €10 million ($10.9 million) in Series A funding. Hi Inov-Dentressangle led the round and was joined by Axeleo Capital, LRM, and SmartFin.

Blaze raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding. Flybridge Capital and MaC Venture Capital led the round, with participation from industry angels.

Madrid-based Argilla raised $1.6 million in seed funding led by Zetta Venture Partners and Caixa Capital Risc.

London-based Bridged raised more than £575,000 ($619,000+) in funding led by BY Venture Partners, with participation from QVentures and four angel investors.

Semiconductors

Frore Systems of San Jose, Calif., raised $100 million in Series C funding. The company was founded in 2018 and has now raised $116 million in total from such sources as Mayfield, Addition, Clear Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures.

Rapid Silicon of San Jose, Calif., raised $30 million in Series A funding. The microchip startup has closed $15 million in funding from Cambium Capital and other investors, including all existing investors from its seed round.

Vector Photonics of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K., raised £2.4 million (nearly $3 million) in growth funding co-led by Clean Growth Fund and Foresight WAE Technology Funds, with continued commitment from existing investors UKI2S and Equity Gap, and new investment from Scottish Enterprise.

Micross Components of Melville, N.Y., acquired KCB Solutions of Shirley, Mass., a manufacturer of radio-frequency and microwave technologies, from Artemis Capital Management, a private equity firm. Micross agreed to acquire the DC-DC converter business of Infineon Technologies.

The Final Frontier

SpaceX is raising around $750 million in new funding at a $137 billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz would lead the round, expected to close by month’s end, and be joined by insiders like Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund.

San Francisco-based Capella Space, a provider of on-demand Earth observation data via space radar, raised $60 million in Series C expansion funding from Thomas Tull’s USIT.

Denver-based Atomos Space raised $16.2 million in Series A funding co-led by Cantos Ventures and the Yamauchi №10 Family Office, joined by Upheaval Investments, Dolby Family Ventures, Arden Road Investments, Elefund Investments, and Techstars.

Electronics

Fairphone of the Netherlands raised €49 million (more than $53 million) in funding from Invest-NL, ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund, and insider Quadia.

The Metaverse

Dallas-based Worlds Enterprises raised $21 million in Series A1 funding led by Moneta Ventures with participation from Align Capital, Green Park & Golf Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Piva Capital, PerotJain, and Capital Factory.

Hong Kong-based Neopets Metaverse raised $4 million in funding. Backers include Polygon Ventures, Blizzard Avalanche Ecosystem Fund, Hashkey Capital, IDG Capital, and NetDragon Websoft.

Quantum Computing

Paris-based Pasqal raised €100 million ($108 million) in Series B funding led by Temasek and joined by the EIC Fund, Wa’ed Ventures, Bpifrance, and insiders Quantonation, Defense Innovation Fund, Daphni, and Eni Next.

Oxford Ionics of Oxford, England, U.K., raised £30 million ($32.6 million) in Series A funding led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Braavos Investment Advisers, with participation from Lansdowne Partners, Prosus Ventures, Torch Partners, Hermann Hauser, and 2xN.

IonQ acquired the operating assets of Entangled Networks, a Toronto-based quantum computing software startup whose backers include OurCrowd.

Odds and Ends

Colossal Biosciences, the Austin, Texas-based “de-extinction” startup, raised $150 million in Series B funding. Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund led and was joined by Breyer Capital, Bob Nelsen, Animal Capital, Victor Vescovo, In-Q-Tel, Animoca Brands, Peak 6, BOLD Capital, and Jazz Ventures.

Journey Clinical, a New York-based psychedelic medicine infrastructure startup, raised $8.5 million in Series A funding. USV led and was joined by AlleyCorp, Fifty Years, Able Partners, Gaingels, Palo Santo, PsyMed Ventures, Coalition Partners, Mystic Ventures, Colibri, and Satori Capital.

Kream, a South Korean sneaker marketplace backed by Altos Ventures and SoftBank Ventures, is in talks to raise $158 million in Series C funding at a valuation north of $1 billion, per a local media report.

The Edit LDN, a London-based sneaker resale marketplace, raised $4.8 million in seed funding led by Regah Ventures.

Digital Factory, a mobile racing and motorsport game publisher with offices in France and Canada, raised US$3.25 million from Tiny Sandsoft Games.

Wristcheck, a Hong Kong-based luxury watch consignment retailer, raised $8 million in seed funding. Gobi Partners led and was joined by K3 Ventures.

Fundraising

The Blackstone Group raised $22.2 billion; Warburg Pincus raised $15.4 billion; Dyal Capital raised $12.9 billion; Goldman Sachs raised $117 billion; New Enterprise Associates (NEA) raised more than $6.2 billion for two funds; TSG Consumer Partners raised $6 billion; Ares Management raised about $5 billion; Waterland Private Equity Investments raised €4 billion ($4.34 billion); Khosla Ventures raised almost $3 billion for three funds; Dextra Partners launched with $2.5 billion; Hamilton Lane raised $2.1 billion; Gemspring raised $2.1 billion for two funds; BC Partners is raising $1.25 billion; Iceberg Capital and Venom Foundation launched a $1 billion venture fund; and WestView Capital Partners raised $1 billion.