TheChek News Flow

Big raises slowed for the second week in a row. Only a handful of rounds hit nine digits this week, although a large half-billion-dollar round led the way.

1. Nerdio, $500M, information technology: IT professionals are stretched pretty thin these days, so it makes sense that a company that helps automate some of their work could raise big. That’s exactly what Nerdio did. The Chicago-based company raised a $500 million equity round from General Atlantic that values it at $1.2 billion, according to Bloomberg. While the company may be under the radar for some, it says it has more than 15,000 customers in 50 countries, is profitable and growing annual recurring revenue more than 85% year to year. Founded in 1998, Nerdio has raised $625 million, per Crunchbase.

2. Latigo Biotherapeutics, $150M, biotech: Many patients shy away from taking opioids while many doctors are reluctant to prescribe the painkillers. Thousand Oaks, California-based Latigo Biotherapeutics is developing a completely different option for pain relief and raised a $150 million Series B led by funds managed by Blue Owl for it. The clinical-stage biotechnology company is developing new nonopioid pain treatments that target pain at its source. The fresh cash will support the advancement of the company’s Nav1.8 inhibitors currently in clinical development. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $300 million, per Crunchbase.

3. BuildOps, $127M, commercial contracting: Santa Monica, California-based BuildOps, a software platform to manage contracting projects from construction through to maintenance, addresses a $300 billion industry with hundreds of thousands of skilled workers from electricians to plumbers to HVAC professionals. The platform manages projects from scheduling to dispatching and invoicing. The funding was led by Meritech Capital Partners with participation from Bond and SE Ventures, among others. Founded in 2018, the company has raised over $225 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Curevo, $110M, biotech: Seattle-based Curevo, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing vaccinations for infectious disease, closed a $110 million Series B led by new investor Medicxi. The money will be used to advance the development of amezosvatein, a vaccine to prevent shingles — a serious medical condition involving a painful, blistering skin rash where 10% to 18% of people also develop serious, long‑lasting nerve pain, per the company. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $196 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Dataminr, $85M, analytics: Dataminr has been seemingly quiet on the fundraising front for a while now. Back in 2021, the data and analytics company raised a $475 million round at a $4.1 billion valuation. Since then, however, the company laid off 20% of its staff in November 2023. The company — which calls itself “one of the world’s leading AI companies” — secured $85 million in new funding from HSBC and NightDragon through a combination of convertible financing and credit. No new valuation was announced. In addition, NightDragon also intends to create a special-purpose vehicle for up to an additional $100 million in convertible financing available to third-party investors. The New York-based company has a real-time platform for detecting events, risks and critical information from public data signals and is approaching $200 million in annual recurring revenue. Founded in 2009, the company has raised $1.1 billion, per Crunchbase.

6. Arbor Biotechnologies, $74M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Arbor Biotechnologies, a biotech developing genetic medicines, closed a $73.9 million Series C led by Arch Venture Partners and TCG Crossover. Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $305 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Ampersand Biomedicines, $65M, biotech: Boston-based Ampersand Biomedicines, a biotech creating medicines designed to act specifically at the site of disease, secured a $65 million Series B. No lead investor was named, but those participating include Flagship Pioneering and Eli Lilly. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $115 million, per Crunchbase.

8. Carbon Arc, $56M, information technology: New York-based Carbon Arc, a provider of structured, model-ready data, launched and announced it has raised a $56 million round led by Liberty City Ventures.

9. Cardiac Dimensions, $53M, medical device: Kirkland, Washington-based Cardiac Dimension has developed a minimally invasive device for heart failure patients at risk of functional mitral regurgitation (FMR). The funding will be used to support international expansion and complete trial studies in the U.S. The series E funding was led by Ally Bridge Group with participation from existing investors. Cardiac Dimensions has raised nearly $263 million, per Crunchbase.

10. Graphite, $52M, developer tools: New York-based Graphite, a code review dashboard, raised a $52 million Series B led by Accel. Founded in 2020, the company has raised $72 million, per Crunchbase.

The biggest raise outside the U.S. this week went to a biotech startup.

Comments increase pressure on Nato ally Denmark as vice-president JD Vance tours military base on island

Donald Trump increased pressure on Denmark to cede control of the Arctic island of Greenland to the US, as vice-president JD Vance toured a US military base on the territory.

“For international security, we have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of, ‘Do you think we can do without it?’ We can’t,” Trump said in Washington during Vance’s visit.

The US president, who has put American territorial expansion at the heart of his second term foreign policy, said Chinese and Russian ships were “all over the place” in the waters surrounding Greenland and Denmark could not be relied on to handle it.

Trump said: “Greenland is very important for the peace of the world, not us, the peace of the entire world. And I think Denmark understands it. I think the European Union understands it. And if they don’t, we’re going to have to explain it.”

Vance travelled to the Pituffik Space Base along the north-west coast of the island on Friday, accompanied by his wife Usha, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Chris Wright, the energy secretary. The trip was scaled back from an original plan for the US delegation to visit Nuuk, the island’s capital, and attend a dogsled race.

Vance told soldiers and reporters at the base: “Our argument is very simple — it’s not with the people of Greenland. It’s really with the leadership of Denmark which has underinvested in Greenland and the security architecture. It really must change.”

He added Greenlanders would be better under the US security umbrella rather than that of Denmark. “We do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland. We can’t just ignore this place. We can’t ignore the Russian and Chinese encroachment of Greenland,” Vance said.

The US vice-president toned down the rhetoric from Trump, who had previously refused to rule out using military force to take the island. “We do not think that military force is ever going to be necessary. We think it makes sense,” Vance said.

He added he expected Greenlanders to choose independence from Denmark, and that there would then be “conversations” with the US.

As he arrived at the military base, Vance told soldiers there: “It’s cold as shit here. Nobody told me.”

Arctic experts say China and Russia have both become much more interested in the far north but there are few visible signs of them close to Greenland. A Chinese company tried to build several airports in Greenland but was replaced after Denmark said it would finance them instead.

Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, has conceded that her country has not spent enough on Arctic security but criticised Vance’s visit — which was reduced from three days to a few hours on the US base — as lacking respect.

Vance’s visit to Greenland came as the island of 57,000 unveiled its new coalition government.

“At a time when we as a people are under pressure, we must stand together,” said Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the new prime minister.

The new government has said it will seek talks with the US and Denmark about its future.

Opportunities growing as region moves to boost security and energy independence

Europe is becoming a more attractive place to invest in infrastructure as governments move to boost their security and energy independence, a top executive at private capital firm EQT has said.

“The European opportunities that we’re seeing now are probably more attractive and more interesting than they were just a few years ago,” Masoud Homayoun, EQT’s global head of infrastructure, told the Financial Times.

While European governments will focus on defence for a lot of “very capital-intensive investments that are needed”, he added, “there is also a significant . . . desire to increase the overall resilience of the infrastructure in Europe”.

Noting that German politicians voted this month to allow a huge increase in defence and infrastructure spending, Homayoun said that across Europe, the desire to support private investment in infrastructure was now stronger than at any other point in the past decade.

“What you’re seeing happening in the world, we’re in the front line of that when it comes to actually investing,” he said.

EQT, which has €269bn of assets under management and is a major global investor in renewable energy, announced on Friday that it had raised more than €21bn for its latest infrastructure fund. Homayoun said it would invest in renewable energy and digital infrastructure, among other sectors, in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

He said the fund already had agreements or was in talks to invest in 12 companies largely in decarbonising and decentralising energy generation and storage, including “one of the largest providers of flexible generation in the form of large scale batteries” in the UK.

Homayoun added that EQT had invested in the biggest plastic recycling company in South Korea, and in the US it had deployed cash in decentralised solar power generation and fibre internet.

He said that while European governments now seemed more supportive of renewable energy than the Trump administration, “we actually see a lot of opportunities . . . also in the US”.

“The parts of the renewable infrastructure market that we are investing in through the funds are competitive based on technological advancements,” he said, noting that they were commercially viable and not reliant on government policy support.

However, he added that there were “pockets” of the renewable sector that the firm would not invest in because US administration opposition meant the risk was “very high”.

“There’s been, by the current administration, quite a vocal opposition to specifically offshore wind,” he said.