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June 13, 2024

What a week for dealmaking and it’s only Thursday morning. Since last post we’ve seen 6 acquisitions, 16 fundraising rounds, 12 people moves & promotions, 2 new firm launches, 1 survey, and 4 roles. If you’re at Substantive Research Unbundling Uncovered today - shoot me a note by replying to this email, or come say hi.

Wondering what to do with your and proceeds? How about buying a subscription to It’s Pronounced Data? Currently unemployed? Reach out direct at [email protected] and I’ll send you a link for a free 6 months. Paid subscribers get first access to market maps (an update coming soon) and the Activity Tracker - spreadsheets of all M&A, fundraising, and jobs with links and active/closed status.

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Read on for discount information.

M&A

*Deals are announced but may not be closed.

Fundraising

  • Aidentified (AI-powered prospecting) raised $12.5M in a Series B from FactSet.

  • AlphaSense (investment and market research) raised $650M at a $4B valuation in a round led by Viking Global and BDT & MSD Partners.

  • Bem (data exchange and transformation) raised $3.7M in a Seed round led by Uncork Capital.

  • BranchLab (healthcare marketing data) raised a Seed round led by Newark Venture Partners.

  • Brightwave (financial research AI) raised $6M in a Seed round led by Decibel Partners.

  • Cube (semantic layer for data apps) raised $25M in a round led by Databricks Ventures.

  • Cyberhaven (data detection and response) raised $88M in a Series C led by Adams Street Partners and Khosla Ventures.

  • Danelfin (AI-powered stock picking) raised €2M in a round led by Nauta Capital.

  • Doowii (education data analytics) raised $4.1M in a round led by GSV Ventures and Better Ventures.

  • Genomes.io (genomic data monetization) raised a round led by Pantera Capital and Modular Capital.

  • Gorilla (energy data analytics) raised €23M in a Series B led by Headline.

  • Indico Data (intelligent document processing) raised $19M in a round led by .406 Ventures.

  • Jump (wealth advisor technology) raised $4.6M in a round led by Sorenson Capital.

  • Mistral AI (foundational models) raised €600M at a €5.8B valuation in a Series B led by General Catalyst.

  • Rivia (clinical trial data analytics) raised €3M in a Seed round led by Speedinvest.

  • YipitData (data-driven research) received a debt facility from CIBC Innovation Banking.

Deal Highlights

Starting to do a deeper highlight of interesting deals…

Brightwave is building the future of financial research, providing an AI research assistant for professionals to generate insightful, trustworthy financial analysis on demand. The company announced a $6M Seed round led by Decibel Partners with participation from Point72 Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, and angels from leading tech and AI companies.

The company was founded by Mike Conover, who previously co-created Databricks Dolly, and led machine learning initiatives at Workday, and Brandon Kotara, who also worked in machine learning at Workday before becoming CTO of LedgerX.

I was fortunate to sit next to Mike at a dinner in Miami about 6 months ago and was incredibly impressed by his deep subject matter expertise on AI/ML and the problem Brightwave is solving for. For more info, check out the press release here.

In what’s probably the biggest news in financial information services in the past year, AlphaSense has announced an agreement to acquire Tegus for $930M. The company also announced it raised $650M in funding led by Viking Global and BDT & MSD Partners, the firm founded through the combination of Byron Trott’s MSD Partners and Michael Dell’s MSD Partners. The raise brings AlphaSense’s valuation to $4B.

This deal will probably (or certainly should) put every legacy info services provider (both financial data and expert networks) on high alert. The combined company now has the largest library of exclusive broker research, industry leading search capabilities, proprietary content via expert transcripts, and two of the best financial data modeling tools (Canalyst + BamSEC). Both companies were building the future of modern research platforms, and now combined, they accelerate that mission.

I’ve known the Elnick brothers my entire career and was fortunate to witness the growth of Tegus from the beginning. I can confidently say that team was always 6-12 months ahead of competition in terms of strategic roadmap, and not just following the direction of the market intelligence space, but actually pushing the market into a new territory of content production and commercial model. This is further supported by their rapid growth to 1000s of clients in just a few years, and some of the best (and most logical) acquisitions in the industry. For more info, check out the press release here. Sharing a few other write-ups as well:

People Moves, Promotions, and Appointments

Powered in partnership with Live Data Technologies

  • Lorna Bian joined Forge as Senior Director, Data Sales.

  • Cheston Chiu joined CI Global Asset Management as VP, Data & Analytics.

  • Pat Donegan joined Blue Ridge Partners as Senior Managing Director.

  • Liran Eisenberg joined Consumer Edge as VP, Data Analytics.

  • Gregg Galletta joined Truthset as Executive Vice President.

  • Charles Harvey joined Enco Insights as Commercial Director.

  • Jason Pallante joined AlphaSense as Senior Director, Corporate Sales.

  • Bill Perkins joined Vanda Research as Partner & Global Head of Sales.

  • Sarah Riley was promoted to CFO at dbt Labs.

  • Rachel Stern joined Baron Capital as SVP, Chief Operating Officer.

  • Roeland Vertriest joined Catalant Technologies as President & Chief Commercial Officer.

  • Kevin Weil joined OpenAI as Chief Product Officer.

New Firm Alerts

Niobrara Capital Partners is a new middle market private equity firm focused on strategic investments in technology and tech-enable services. The firm is headquartered in New York and is led by Chip Schorr, former Senior MD at One Equity Partners, Todd Bradley, former President of TIBCO Software and Operating Partner at One Equity Partners, and Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State and Director of the CIA. Niobrara recently announced its first deal, a $175M control equity investment in Polar Semiconductor.

Taula Capital began trading after launching with $5B in AUM. The firm is led by Diego Megia, former Senior PM at Millennium and Citadel. The firm is focused on global discretionary macro investing and has offices in London, Jersey, New York, Dubai, Milan, and Switzerland.

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Data Ideas

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Who’s Hiring

*salaries only listed where provided by the company. See links for specific salary details.

Industry Survey

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