🧑‍🚀 Top 4 Deals You Can’t Miss

1️⃣ Anthropic – $13B raise at $183B valuation, fueling the frontier AI arms race.

2️⃣ Klarna – $1.2B+ New York IPO filing, targeting a ~$14B valuation.

3️⃣ Kraft Heinz – plans a tax-free spinoff into two companies by 2026, reshaping its empire.

4️⃣ OpenAI → Statsig – $1.1B acquisition of product testing startup, marking its biggest M&A to date.

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

🌳 Series B+ & Growth

• Anthropic (SF, USA) – $13B Series F; ICONIQ, Fidelity, Lightspeed, QIA, Blackstone; enterprise AI growth.

• Stark Future (Barcelona, ES) – €100M+ equity; maker of electric motocross bikes.

• Kapital Bank (Mexico City, MX) – up to $100M Series C; AI-driven SMB financial platform.

• Charm Therapeutics (London, UK) – $80M Series B; precision oncology.

• CityMall (Gurugram, IN) – $47M Series D; led by Accel; value e-commerce for Bharat.

• Cyted Health (Cambridge, UK) – $44M Series B; GI molecular diagnostics.

• Phasecraft (London, UK) – $34M Series B; quantum algorithms; Plural, Playground, Novo.

🚀 Series A

• Sensorium Therapeutics (Boston, MA) – $25M Series A; neuroscience therapeutics.

• Kite (NYC, USA) – $18M Series A; PayPal Ventures & General Catalyst; AI agent payments infra.

• Intella (Riyadh, SA) – $12.5M Series A; dialectal Arabic speech intelligence.

🌱 Seed & Early Rounds

• aPriori (San Francisco, CA) – $20M Seed; order-flow coordination for high-perf blockchains.

• Terraton (San Francisco, CA) – $11.5M Seed; biochar platform; Lowercarbon, Gigascale.

• Credit Coop (NYC, USA) – $4.5M Seed; protocol turning cash flows into collateral.

• Professional.me (Dover, DE / Abu Dhabi, UAE) – $3.1M Seed; AI recruiting; led by Raha Beach Ventures.

• Hubert (Stockholm, SE) – €2.5M Seed; AI hiring for high-volume recruitment.

• Axelyf (Brookline, MA) – $2.6M Seed (up to $4.1M); LNP delivery for RNA therapeutics.

• Seraya (Dubai, UAE) – $1.8M Seed (equity + debt); premium short-term rentals.

• Bloom (London, UK) – $1.6M Pre-Seed; social “front-end” for on-chain finance.

🤝 Strategic, M&A & Undisclosed

• Kraft Heinz (US) – plans tax-free spinoff into two public companies by H2’26.

• OpenAI is acquiring Statsig, a product testing startup, for $1.1B — one of OpenAI’s largest M&A moves to date.

• Star Localmart (SGG) (IN) – acquired DusMinute, gated-community retail chain.

• Zopa (London, UK) – acquired Rvvup, payments platform.

• BravoTran (Chicago, IL) – acquired Keystroke.io (Phoenix, AZ), AR automation.

• Aryza (Dublin, IE) – acquired Bravure (Sydney, AU), debt sale & recovery tech.

• Underdog x Crypto.com (US) – partnership launching sports event contracts/prediction markets in-app.

📈 IPOs / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• University of Phoenix (US) – filed IPO; $1.5B–$1.7B valuation target.

• Ørsted (DK) – $9.4B rights issue; Equinor to subscribe $940M.

• Klarna (SE) – targets $1.27B US IPO at $35–$37; ~$14B valuation.

• Lynas Rare Earths (AU) – $490M stock sale for expansion.

• BFA (AO) – $239M IPO, Angola’s largest to date.

• Chip Wilson → Amer Sports (FI) – $160M secondary sale.

• NCDEX (IN) – $88M share sale; investors include Citadel Securities, Tower Research.

• Reliance Jio (IN) – IPO planned H1 next year.

• Verisure (SE) – H&F-backed; Sweden IPO possible this quarter.

• Rolls-Royce SMR (UK) – exploring funding options including an IPO.

💸 VC Funds Raised & Raising

• India Deep Tech Investment Alliance (IDTA) (US–India) – $1B+ investor commitments for deep-tech (semis, AI, space).

• Venturi Partners (Singapore) – $150M first close of second consumer growth fund.

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📚 Read of the Day

xAI Sues Ex-Engineer in $7M Trade Secrets Fight with OpenAI

Elon Musk goes on the offensive as AI’s fiercest rivalry spills into the courtroom.

What Happened:
xAI has filed a lawsuit against a former employee, alleging that after being paid $7M in compensation, he stole trade secrets and joined rivals connected to OpenAI and Stanford. The case highlights the intensifying battle for scarce AI talent at the highest levels of the industry.

The Backstory:
Elon Musk founded xAI in 2023 to compete with OpenAI, targeting frontier models and integrations with Tesla and X. OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, has deep roots at Stanford, where many top engineers and researchers emerge. The engineer in question allegedly leveraged confidential xAI know-how in his move to the rival camp.

The Strategy:
By pursuing legal action, Musk is signaling that xAI will aggressively protect its IP and talent pipeline. With billions at stake in AI dominance, firms are treating engineers with elite training and compute experience as strategic assets.

Why It Matters:
The lawsuit underscores the talent bottleneck in frontier AI: a handful of engineers can tilt competitive balance between firms valued at tens or hundreds of billions. For founders and investors, it’s a reminder that hiring, retaining, and securing AI talent is now as critical as fundraising.

👉 Read The Whole Story Here

📰 News You Don’t Want To Miss

🤖 xAI sues former engineer, alleging he stole trade secrets after being paid $7M.

🏗️ Cracks are forming in Meta’s partnership with Scale AI.

📱 Samsung’s tri-fold phone, XR headset, and AI smart glasses to be revealed at Sep. 29 Unpacked event.

💼 Salesforce’s Marc Benioff says AI agents are reshaping jobs across customer service and sales.

💰 Klarna to raise $1.2B+ in New York, after filing for its long-awaited IPO.

🚀 Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183B post-money valuation.