Layoffs by the Thousands in Technology

Are the Jobs Gone Forever?

So many employees have been laid off in recent weeks.

Meta Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, et al.) has laid off approximately 11,000 employees, while Twitter laid off about 10,000 employees, and Cisco Systems is also reducing its headcount, axing about 4,000 positions. HP Inc. is cutting 6,000 jobs over three years due to lower demand for PCs.

Initial Public Offerings

Empower raised $724 million in its Dubai IPO.

PT Global Digital Niaga, the owner of Indonesian e-commerce group Blibli, raised $510 million in the second-largest Jakarta IPO of 2022.

Riyadh Cables Group raised $380 million in its Dubai IPO.

Global Health raised $270 million in its Bombay Stock Exchange IPO.

Taaleem raised $202 million in its Dubai IPO.

Acrivon Therapeutics raised $94 million in its IPO.

Atour Lifestyle Holdings raised $52 million in its IPO.

Plutonian Acquisition raised $50 million in its IPO.

Snail raised $15 million in its IPO.

ASP Isotopes raised $5 million in its IPO.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Boston-based PTC agreed to acquire ServiceMax of Pleasanton, Calif., for about $1.46 billion in cash.

Agtech/Foodtech

Toronto-based TouchBistro raised C$150 million (US$110 million) in funding. Francisco Partners made the investment.

India’s Bira raised $70 million led by Kirin Holdings.

Ostara raised $70 million in Series C funding from Carica Sustainable Investments, Forage Capital Partners, Cibus Funds, and Grosvenor Capital Management.

Athletic Brewing of Stratford, Conn., raised $50 million from Keurig Dr Pepper. Other backers include TRB Advisors and Alliance Consumer Growth.

Australia’s Vow raised $49.2 million in Series A funding co-led by Blackbird and Prosperity7 Ventures, joined by Toyota Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Grok Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, Peakbridge, Tenacious Ventures, HostPlus Super, NGS Super, and Pavilion Capital.

Brazil’s Agrolend raised US$27 million in Series B funding. Lightrock led the Series B with support from Valor Capital, Continental Grain Company, SP Ventures, Provence Capital, Barn Invest, Yara Growth Ventures, and Mago Capital.

Boston-based Freight Farms raised $17.5 million in Series B3 funding led by Aliaxis SA and Ospraie Ag Science, with participation from Spark Capital, Stage 1 Ventures, and Alkaline Partners.

Roslin Technologies of Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K., raised £11M (more than $12.66 million) in Series A funding led by Novo Holdings, with participation from Kairos Capital Group, Nutreco, Future Planet Capital, Esco Lifesciences, and Alchimia Investments. This adds to funding received in 2021–2022 from Scottish Enterprise and existing shareholders, including the University of Edinburgh’s venture capital fund, Old College Capital, and Future Planet Capital’s BIF Opportunities LP.

New York-based Meez raised $11.5 million in Series A funding led by Craft Ventures with participation from Struck Capital, FJ Labs, AME Cloud Ventures, Moving Capital, Max Mullen, Lenny Rachitsky, Mike Montero, Bobby Lo, Austin Rief, Louis Beryl, James Beshara, Allison Pickens, and Todd & Rahul’s Angel Fund.

Hwy Haul of Santa Clara, Calif., raised $10 million in funding led by Eileses Capital with participation from True Blue Partners, BluePointe Ventures, and FDC Partners.

RoboBurger of Jersey City, N.J., raised $10 million from Promethean Investments.

San Francisco-based Butter raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Gradient Ventures and joined by Uncommon Capital, Notation Capital, and Jack Altman.

NuCicer of Davis, Calif., raised $7 million in funding led by Bayer.

Proper Good of Austin, Texas, raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Yeti Capital and The Artisan Group.

On2Cook of New Delhi, India, raised more than $2 million in seed funding led by Dr. Mayur Desai, with participation from Nirbhay Gandhi.

Mexico City-based Pet’s Table raised $2 million in seed funding led by Left Lane Capital with participation of Goodwater Capital.

Los Angeles-based Boosted Commerce acquired Happy Healthy Hippie, an Ocean Beach, Calif.-based provider of vegan and plant-based supplements. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning

Los Angeles-based Zest AI raised more than $50 million in growth funding led by Insight Partners and CMFG Ventures, with participation from CU Direct, Curql, Suncoast Credit Union, Golden1 Credit Union, Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union, and NorthGate Capital.

San Francisco-based Deepgram raised $47 million in funding led by Madrona, with participation from Alkeon and prior investors.

The Applied AI Co. of London, England, U.K., raised $42 million from Goldman Sachs and a group of UAE royals, per Bloomberg.

Spot AI of Burlingame, Calif., raised $40 million in funding led by Scale Venture Partners and joined by StepStone Group, Modern Venture Partners, and existing investors Redpoint Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.

London-based V7 raised $33 million in Series A funding led by Radical Ventures and Temasek, with participation from existing investors Air Street Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, Partech, Francois Chollet, Oriol Vinyals, Jose Valim, and Ashish Vaswani.

Care.ai of Orlando, Fla., raised $27 million in funding led by Crescent Code Advisors.

San Francisco-based ORO raised $25 million in Series A funding co-led by Norwest Venture Capital and B Capital, joined by XYZ VC and Array Ventures.

Boston-based Owl Labs raised $25 million in Series C funding led by HP Tech Ventures with participation from Sourcenext, Matrix Partners, Spark Capital, and Playground Global.

Mem Labs raised $23.5 million in funding led by the OpenAI Startup Fund.

San Francisco-based Orum raised $22 million in Series B funding led by Tribe Capital, with participation from Craft Ventures and Unusual Ventures.

London-based Turbine raised €20 million ($20.5 million) in Series A funding. Mercia and MSD Global Health Innovation Fund co-led, joined by Day One Capital and existing investors Accel, Delin Ventures, and XTX Ventures.

Galileo raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Battery Ventures and joined by The Factory, Walden Catalyst, and FPV Ventures.

AiDash of San Jose, Calif., raised $10 million from SE Ventures.

Capitol raised $10 million in seed funding led by 468 Capital. Other investors include Brian Chesky (Airbnb), Chase Coleman (Tiger Global), Designer Fund, Fuel Capital, Nomad Capital, AirAngels, Sanno Capital, and John McCormick (ex-Blackstone).

Tel Aviv-based Ibex Medical Analytics raised $10 million in debt funding. The round was led by Kreos Capital.

Copenhagen-based modl.ai raised €8.5 million ($8.77 million) in funding led by Griffin Gaming Partners and M12, with participation from Rendered.vc, PreSeed Ventures, and Transistormedia.

Toronto-based Private AI raised US$8 million in Series A funding. BDC Capital led the round, with participation from new investors GIT1K and Panda Angel Partners, with existing investors Microsoft’s Venture Fund (M12), Differential Ventures, Forum Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Parliament Angels made up of a group of early Twilio employees.

TheGist raised $7 million in pre-seed funding co-led by StageOne Ventures and Aleph.

San Francisco-based Omneky raised $7 million in seed extension funding. Backers include John Donovan, Orbit Ventures, and Ethos. Last year, Omneky raised the initial $2.5 million-plus from Village Global, SoftBank’s DeepCore, Hyphen Capital, and more strategic investors.

London-based TOffeeAM raised £5 million ($5.94 million) in Series A funding led by Presidio Ventures Europe and East Innovations, with participation from IQ Capital, Exor Seed Type One Ventures, and Excellis Health Solutions.

Bruviti of Campbell, Calif., raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Marcone Group.

Greenscreens.ai of West Palm Beach, Fla., raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global Management.

New York-based Topline Pro (formerly known as ProPhone) raised $5 million in seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures (Jim Andelman), TMV (Soraya Darabi), BBG Ventures (Susan Lyne), and notable angel investors, including Squire Co-Founder Songe LaRon, following participation in the Y Combinator Winter 2021 batch.

Secure AI Labs raised $4.7 million in seed funding led by Asset Management Ventures and joined by Mozilla Ventures, Future Labs Capital, and York IE.

San Francisco-based Circle Labs raised $4.2 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Seattle-based CalmWave raised $4 million in seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures and joined by Tau Ventures, A12 Incubator, Seachange Ventures, and Hike Ventures.

London-based Solvo.ai raised $4 million in seed funding led by Speedinvest and Frontline Ventures.

San Francisco-based Sematic raised $3 million in seed funding led by Race Capital with participation from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Leonis Capital, Pioneer Fund, Brandon Leonardo, and Jeremy Stanley.

Automotive/Autonomy/Mobility

Lucid Group raised more than $1.5 billion; Bank of America, Barclay’s Capital, and Citi invested in the electric car manufacturer. The company also said it reached an agreement to sell up to $915 million in stock to the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

ABB E-Mobility of Zurich, Switzerland, raised more than $200 million in pre-IPO funding. The private placement included participation from Interogo Holding, moyreal holding ag, Helvetic Trust, and Michael Halbherr.

Germany’s Volocopter raised $182 million in extended Series B funding led by Neom and joined by GLy Capital Management. The round total is now $352 million.

Foxconn invested $170 million in Lordstown Motors, an electric truck manufacturer in Lordstown, Ohio.

Munich-based Lilium raised $119 million in a capital raise. Backers include Honeywell, Aciturri, LGT, Lightrock, Tencent, and B. Riley Securities.

San Francisco-based Kyte raised $60 million in Series B growth equity funding led by InterAlpen Partners, Valor Equity Partners, Anthemis, Citi Ventures, and Hearst Ventures, and existing investors DN Capital, plus 1984 Ventures, FJ Labs, and Urban Innovation Fund, participated in the round.

The Mobility House of Switzerland raised $50 million in Series C funding co-led by Mercuria, Ventura Capital, and Green Gateway Fund co-led, joined by Mercedes-Benz, Alliance Venture Capital, Mitsui, and SP Group.

New York-based Revel raised $50 million in debt funding led by BlackRock Alternatives through its Climate Infrastructure fund.

Miami-based AutoLeadStar raised $40 million in growth funding led by Riverwood Capital, which joined existing investors PICO Venture Partners, Target Global, and Aleph.

ISEE of Cambridge, Mass., raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Founders Fund, with participation from Maersk Growth, Eniac Ventures, and New Legacy.

Xeal of Los Angeles and New York raised $40 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Keyframe Capital with participation from ArcTern Ventures, Moderne Ventures, Ramez Naam, Nexus Labs, Wind Ventures, and Alpaca VC. Along with the Series B, Xeal also secured a $10 million credit line from Bridge Bank.

San Francisco-based WeaveGrid raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Salesforce Ventures and joined by Activate Capital, Emerson Collective, Collaborative Fund, MCJ Collective, and existing investors Coatue, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Grok Ventures, and The Westly Group.

Los Angeles-based AMP raised $17.25 million in Series A funding. Backers include Ecosystem Integrity Fund and Helios Climate Ventures.

Better Trucks of Downers Grove, Ill., raised $15 million in funding led by Lobby Capital with participation by Corazon Capital and Venture 53.

Range Energy of Mountain View, Calif., raised $8 million in seed funding. The round was led by UP Partners, R7, and Yamaha Motor Ventures.

Kenya’s BasiGo raised $6.6 million from Novastar, Trucks.vc, and Toyota Tsusho.

Carteav of Rishon LeZion, Israel, raised $6.5 million in funding. The investors include Zohar Zisapel and Mobilion Ventures.

Pure Electric of Bristol, England, U.K., raised more than £2.3 million ($2.74 million) on Crowdcube.

Chicago-based Sabanto received an investment from Cooperative Ventures. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Africar Group of Sydney, Australia, received funding from Stellantis. The financing has been used to launch Auto24, a direct-to-consumer used-car company, in Ivory Coast, and enabled Africar Group to expand its market capabilities.

Ouster and Velodyne, developers of lidar sensors, agreed to combine in an all-stock merger of equals.

Biotech

South San Francisco-based Human Immunology Biosciences (HI-Bio) raised $120 million from Arch Ventures, Monograph Capital, and Jeito Capital, among other investors.

San Diego-based Escient Pharmaceuticals, raised $120 million in Series C funding. NEA, Abingworth, and Forge Life Science Partners co-led, joined by Avego, PFM Health Sciences, The Eleven Fund, and existing investors Column Group, 5AM Ventures, Redmile Group, Cowen Healthcare Investments, Sanofi Ventures, Osage University Partners, and Altitude Life Science Ventures.

MBX Biosciences of Carmel, Ind., raised $115 million in Series B funding led by Wellington Management and joined by RA Capital Management, Norwest Ventures Partners, and existing investors New Enterprise Associates, OrbiMed Advisors, and Frazier Life Sciences.

Boston-based Jnana Therapeutics raised $107 million in Series D funding led by Bain Capital Life Sciences and joined by RA Capital Management, Polaris Partners, Versant Ventures, Avalon Ventures, and Pfizer Ventures. Jnana also signed a collaboration deal with Roche.

Seattle-based Cajal Neuroscience raised $96 million in Series A funding led by The Column Group and Lux Capital, with participation from Two Sigma Ventures, Evotec, Bristol Myers Squibb, Alexandria Venture Investments, and Dolby Family Ventures.

Seattle-based Bonum Therapeutics raised $93 million in Series A funding led by 3x5 Partners.

San Francisco-based Rezo Therapeutics raised $78 million in Series A funding. The round was led by SR One, a16z Bio + Health, and Norwest Venture Partners, and also included SV Angel, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Hawktail.

Boston-based Lusaris Therapeutics raised $60 million in Series A funding led by RA Capital Management, with participation from Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Deep Track Capital, and Boxer Capital.

Casma Therapeutics of Cambridge, Mass., raised $46 million in Series C funding led by Amgen Ventures, Astellas Venture Management, Eisai Co., Euclidean Capital, Mirae Asset, and Ono Venture Investment, with participation from Eventide Asset Management, Schroders Capital, The Column Group, and Third Rock Ventures.

Juvena Therapeutics of Redwood City, Calif., raised $41 million in Series A funding led by Mubadala Capital and Horizons Ventures, with participation from Bison Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, IRONGREY, Alumni Ventures, Plum Alley, Jeff Dean, Transform VC, Karl Pfleger, BoxOne Ventures, Intersect VC, Compound, and Felicis Ventures.

Concerto Biosciences of Cambridge, Mass., raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Safar Partners with participation from Horizons Ventures and M Ventures.

Boston-based AI Proteins raised $18.2 million in seed funding. The round was led by Cobro Ventures and Lightchain Capital.

CV6 Therapeutics raised $9.2 million in funding. Backers include QUBIS, Invest Northern Ireland, Co-Fund NI, and Techstart Ventures.

Contraline of Charlottesville, Va., raised $7.2 million in funding led by GV with support from Rhia Ventures, ShangBay Capital, Amboy Street Ventures, MBX Capital, Graphene Ventures, and Metaplanet Holdings.

Climate Change

KKR is investing $400 million in India’s Serentica Renewables.

The Carlyle Group invested $350 million in Dallas-based Aspen Power.

Houston-based Solugen raised more than $200 million. Backers include leaders Kennivik, Lowercarbon Capital, and Refactor Capital, with participation from Temasek and Baillie Gifford.

New York-based Dandelion Energy raised $70 million in Series B1 funding led by LENX and NGP ETP, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, NEA, GV, Collaborative Fund, and Building Ventures.

London-based BeZero Carbon raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Quantum Energy Partners and joined by EDF Group, Hitachi Ventures, Intercontinental Exchange, and existing investors Molten Ventures, Norrsken VC, Illuminate Financial, Qima, and Contrarian Ventures.

Infinitum Electric of Austin, Texas, raised $30 million in additional growth capital from Riverstone Holdings Latin America, Alliance Resource Partners, Caterpillar Venture Capital, and Cottonwood Technology Fund. The company has rebranded as Infinitum.

Audette of Victoria, B.C., Canada, raised US$9.5 million in funding led by Buoyant Ventures, with participation from Energy Impact Partners, Active Impact Investments, Johnson Controls, Osgoode Properties, Powerhouse Ventures, Turnham-Green Capital, and Undivided Ventures.

Airly of Kraków, Poland, raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by firstminute capital and Pi Labs with participation from Sir Richard Branson’s family office, AENU, The Untitled Ventures, Cal Henderson, Marcin Zukowski, Semapa Next, and TO Ventures.

Anode Labs of Austin, Texas, raised $4.2 million in funding co-led by Lerer Hippeau and Lattice with participation from VaynerFund, CoinShares, and Digital Currency Group.

Sympower of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, raised €3 million (more than $3 million) in Series B funding led by Activate Capital, Rubio Impact Ventures, and PDENH.

Terraformation of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, has launched a biodiversity-focused, carbon-funded forest accelerator program. The Seed to Carbon Forest Accelerator will provide early-stage financing, training in resilient native ecosystem restoration, and tools to increase project transparency.

Cybersecurity

Tel Aviv-based Apiiro raised $100 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst and joined by Greylock and Kleiner Perkins.

New York-based Laika raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Fin Capital and joined by Centana Growth Partners and existing investors JPMorgan Growth Equity Partners, Canapi Equity Partners, and ThirdPrime.

Phoenix-based Bishop Fox raised $46 million in funding led by Westcap and was joined by NextEquity Partners and Rockpool Capital.

Cleveland-based Binary Defense Systems raised $36 million in first funding. The round was led by Invictus Growth Partners.

San Diego-based MedCrypt raised $25 million in Series B funding. Intuitive Ventures and J&J Innovation co-led, joined by Section 32, Eniac Ventures, Anzu Partners, and Dolby Family Ventures.

Tel Aviv-based Veriti raised $18.5 million in two funding rounds. Backers include Insight Venture Partners, NFX, and AMITI.

Tel Aviv-based Wib raised $16 million in funding led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Kmehin Ventures, Venture Israel, and Techstars.

San Francisco-based Keyo raised $7 million in funding. Backers include Marc Randolph, the co-founder of Netflix.

Akto of Palo Alto, Calif., raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Accel India with participation from angel investors Akshay Kothari (co-founder and COO of Notion), Renaud Deraison (co-founder Tenable), and Milin Desai (CEO of Sentry), among other investors.

Palo Alto Networks of Santa Clara, Calif., acquired Tel Aviv-based Cider Security for about $195 million in cash.

Digital Health

New York-based Valera Health raised $44.5 million in funding led by Heritage Group and joined by Cigna Ventures and Horizon Healthcare Services.

Boomerang Health of Mountain View, Calif., raised $15 million in Series A funding led by existing investor Arboretum Ventures and new investor Hatteras Venture Partners.

Validic of Durham, N.C., raised $12 million in funding led by Kaiser Permanente Ventures with participation from Arkin Digital Health, Green Park & Golf Ventures, Ziegler, Gore Range Capital, Greycroft Partners, and SJF Ventures.

Denver-based Exer Labs raised $6.5 million from Backstage Capital and Life Extension Ventures.

Luminopia of Cambridge, Mass., raised $5.7 million in seed extension funding led by ShangBay Capital, with participation from Sony Innovation Fund, The Vertical Group, and SSI Strategy.

Tel Aviv-based Agamon Health raised $5 million in funding led by eHealth Ventures.

San Francisco-based Revero raised $5 million in seed funding. Backers include A16Z Scout, Goodwater Capital, Think+ Ventures, and CapitalX.

Los Angeles-based Options MD raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by Bread & Butter Ventures, with participation from M13, Bright Ventures, Collab Capital, MedMountain Ventures, and Techstars. In addition, Options MD received $100,000 from the Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund.

London-based Surgery Hero (formerly known as Sapien Health Limited) raised £2.5 million (nearly $3 million) in seed funding. The investors include LifeArc Ventures, Crista Galli Ventures, Clarendon Fund Managers, and SFC Capital. Damien Lane (founding partner of Episode 1 Ventures) and Imran Hamid (former surgeon and senior investment principal at LifeArc Ventures) both join the startup’s board of directors.

Google acquired Seattle-based Sound Life Sciences.

Communications

Dish Network raised about $2 billion to expand its 5G network.

Robotics

Locus Robotics of Wilmington, Mass., raised $119 million in Series F funding. Goldman Sachs, G2 Venture Partners, and Slack co-led, joined by existing investor Scale Venture Partners.

Attabotics of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, raised US$71.7 million in Series C-1 funding led by Export Development Canada with participation from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Teachers’ Venture Growth.

Advanced Navigation raised US$68 million in Series B funding led by KKR and joined by AI Capital and existing investors Main Sequence Ventures, Malcolm Turnbull, In-Q-Tel, and Our Innovation Fund.

Los Angeles-based Bionaut Labs raised $43 million in Series B funding led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Deep Insight, OurCrowd, PSPRS, Sixty Degree Capital, Dolby Family Ventures, GISEV Family Ventures, What if Ventures, Tintah Grace, Gaingels, Upfront Ventures, BOLD Capital Partners, Revolution VC, and Compound.

Pickle of Cambridge, Mass., raised $26 million in Series A funding from Ranpak, JS Capital, Schusterman Family Investments, Soros Capital, and Catapult Ventures.

Soft Robotics of Bedford, Mass., raised $26 million in Series C funding led by Tyson Ventures.

Baltimore-based Galen Robotics raised $15 million in Series A funding. Backers include Ambix Healthcare Partners.

Tel Aviv-based MOV.AI raised $8.2 million in funding led by Bowe Group. Other backers included State of Mind Ventures, NFX, and Viola Ventures.

Britbots and Sapphire Capital Partners are teaming up to launch the British Robotics Start-Up Fund.

Software

Yahaha of Helsinki, Finland, and Shanghai, China, raised $40 million in Series A+ funding co-led by Temasek and Alibaba, joined by 37 Interactive Entertainment, 5Y Capital, HillHouse, Coatue Management, ZhenFund, Bertelsmann Asia Investments, BiliBili, and Xiaomi.

Indianapolis-based Zylo raised $31.5 million in Series C funding led by Baird Capital’s Venture Team with participation from Spring Lake Equity Partners and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, and High Alpha, as well as strategic partner and investor Coupa Ventures.

Gitpod of Kiel, Germany, raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Tom Preston-Werner, founder and former CEO at GitHub, with participation from existing investors General Catalyst, Crane Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures US, and Speedinvest, as well as Pebblebed; GTMfund; MongoDB Ventures; Tobi Lütke, founder and CEO, Shopify; and Olivier Pomel, founder and CEO, Datadog; and Kent Beck, signatory of the Agile Manifesto.

Australia’s Buildkite raised US$21 million in Series B funding co-led by OneVentures and Airtree Ventures, joined by General Catalyst.

Seattle-based Momento raised $15 million in seed funding led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from The General Partnership, Marianna Tessel, Neha Narkhede, Tom Killalea, Don MacAskill, and John Lilly.

Mode of San Mateo, Calif., raised a total of $14.9 million. The Internet of Things solutions provider received an investment from Panasonic Kurashi Visionary Fund.

ArmorCode of Palo Alto, Calif., raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Ballistic Ventures, with participation from Sierra Ventures, Cervin, John Donovan, Oliver Friedrichs, and John Jack.

Montreal-based BoostSecurity raised US$12 million in seed funding led by Sorenson Capital, with additional support from Hoxton Ventures, Golden Ventures, Firebolt Ventures, and Transform VC.

3nets.io of Santa Clara, Calif., raised $11 million in seed funding. The round was led by Taiwania Capital.

Boston-based Software Defined Automation raised $10 million in seed funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from Baukunst VC, Fly Ventures, and First Momentum.

Narwhal raised $8.6 million in seed funding co-led by Nexus Venture Partners and Andreesen Horowitz.

Diffblue of Oxford, England, U.K., raised $8 million in funding led by AlbionVC and joined by IP Group, Parkwalk Advisors, Hostplus, and Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund.

San Francisco-based FlowForge raised $7.2 million in seed funding led by Cota Capital, with participation from Westwave Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Open Core Ventures.

Brooklyn-based Directus raised $7 million in Series A funding. The round was led by True Ventures, with participation from Handshake Ventures.

San Francisco-based Sensible raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Engineering Capital and Clocktower Technology Ventures.

San Francisco-based OneSchema raised $6.3 million in funding led by General Catalyst and joined by Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil, Y Combinator, and Contrary Capital.

Los Angeles-based Xano raised $5 million in funding led by MHS Capital and Engineering Capital.

Boston-based CloudTruth raised $2.4 million in seed funding led by UBMB with participation from existing investors Glasswing Ventures, York IE, and Stage 1 Ventures.

Enode of Oslo, Norway, raised $2.2 million in seed funding. Backers include Lowercarbon Capital, BoxGroup, Liquid2, Skyfall Ventures, Jason Jacobs, Scott Belsky, Gustaf Ahlstromer, and Helge Lund.

Semiconductors

Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s multinational conglomerate holding company, invested $4.1 billion in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract producer of microchips, purchasing more than 60 million American depository shares in TSMC. In addition to Berkshire, company backers include BlackRock, GIC, and The Vanguard Group.

Astera Labs of Santa Clara, Calif., raised $150 million in Series D funding led by Fidelity and joined by Atreides Management, Intel Capital, and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Eliyan of Santa Clara, Calif., raised $40 million in Series A funding led by Tracker Capital and joined by Celestra, Intel, and Micron Technology.

Atomica (formerly known as Innovative Micro Technology) of Santa Barbara, Calif., raised $30 million in Series C funding. The round was funded by Cerium Technology Ventures, Novo Tellus Capital Partners, and St. Cloud Capital.

Cambridge GaN Devices of Cambridge, England, U.K., raised $19 million in Series B funding led by Parkwalk Advisors and BGF, with participation from IQ Capital, CIC, Foresight Williams Technology, and Martlet Capital.

BDT Capital Partners acquired a minority equity stake in Exyte, a German builder of semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities.

The Final Frontier

Seattle-based Gravitics raised $20 million in funding led by Type One Ventures and joined by Draper Associates, FJ Labs, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, Chicago-based Giant Step Capital, Gaingels, Spectre, Manhattan West, and Mana Ventures.

Freiburg, Germany-based constellr raised $10 million in seed funding co-led by Lakestar and VSquared, with participation from FTTF, IQT, Amathaon Capital, Natural Ventures, EIT Food, OHB Venture Capital, Next Humanity, and Seraphim.

Wyvern of Edmonton, Canada, raised US$7 million in funding led by Uncork Capital, with participation from MaC Venture Capital and Y Combinator.

AE Industrial Partners completed its purchase of a majority stake in York Space Systems, a Denver-based provider of small satellites, satellite parts and mission operation solutions. BlackRock Private Equity Partners also participated.

Quantum Computing

ColdQuanta of Boulder, Colo., raised $110 million in Series B funding led by LCP Quantum, with participation from In-Q-Tel, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, Breakthrough Victoria, BOKA Group Holdings I LP, Foundry Group, Global Frontier Investments, and Maverick Ventures. Christopher Galvin, former Motorola chairman and CEO, is also an investor in the startup, joining the board of directors.

Toronto-based Xanadu raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Georgian with participation from Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Forward Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Bessemer Venture Partners, Capricorn, BDC Capital, and Tim Draper.

The Metaverse

Yahaha Studios of Helsinki, Finland, and Shanghai, China, raised $40 million in Series A+ funding led by Temasek and Alibaba with participation from 37 Interactive Entertainment.

Fundraising

GTCR is raising $9.5 billion; Sixth Street raised $4.4 billion for two funds; Kinderhook Industries raised $1.85 billion; Brighton Park Capital raised $1.8 billion; Wafra raised $1.5 billion; Sumeru Equity Partners raised $1.3 billion; EQT raised €1.1 billion ($1.15 billion); and Adams Street Partners raised $1.1 billion.