🧑‍🚀 Top Deals You Can’t Miss

1️⃣ Paramount. A $108.4B hostile offer for WBD, potentially reshaping the global media landscape.

2️⃣ MarcyPen Capital Partners. A $500M fund launch focused on global Korean pop culture and lifestyle sectors.

3️⃣ IBM. An $11B acquisition of Confluent, marking a major consolidation move in enterprise data infrastructure.

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

🌳 Series B+ and Growth

• Warner Bros. Discovery, a Burbank CA-based film and streaming group, raised $108.4 billion in strategic acquisition funding. Paramount Global led the bid and no additional investors were disclosed.

• Confluent, a Mountain View CA-based data streaming platform, raised $11 billion in strategic acquisition funding. IBM led the deal and no other buyers were disclosed.

• Castelion, a Torrance CA-based defense technology company, raised $350 million in Series B funding. Altimeter and Lightspeed led the round and were joined by a16z, General Catalyst, Space VC, and others.

• Airwallex, a San Francisco and Singapore-based financial platform, raised $330 million in Series G funding. Addition led the round along with T. Rowe Price, Activant, Lingotto, and others.

• Iceye, a Helsinki Finland-based SAR satellite company, raised €150 million in Series E funding. General Catalyst led the round.

• Quilt, a Redwood City CA-based heat pump maker, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Energy Impact Partners and Galvanize Climate led the round.

🚀 Series A

• OTR Therapeutics, a Shanghai, China-based biotech company, raised $100 million in Series A funding. Pfizer Ventures led the round.

• Fin, a San Francisco-based payments platform, raised $17 million in Series A funding. Pantera Capital led the round, and Sequoia and Samsung Next joined.

• Pan Cancer T, a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based biotech company, raised €10 million in funding from European investors.

• Melt and Marble, a Gothenburg, Sweden-based fermentation fats company, raised €7 million in Series A funding.

• Arclaim, a Wellington, New Zealand-based fintech platform, raised $5 million in Series A funding.

🌱 Seed and Early Rounds

• Unconventional AI, a Palo Alto-based AI compute company, raised $475 million in Seed funding at a $4.5B valuation.

• Tuhk, a Toronto, Canada-based fintech data company, raised $6 million in Seed funding.

• AllScale, a New York-based self-custody financial platform, raised $5 million in Seed funding.

• PvX, a Singapore-based financing intelligence platform, raised $4.7 million in Seed extension funding.

• Conscious Chemist, a Mumbai, India-based skincare brand, raised ₹15 crore (about $1.8 million) in bridge funding.

• The General Intelligence Company of New York, an AI agent orchestration startup, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding.

• Honeyjar, a San Francisco AI PR tool, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding.

• Tracktile, a Canada-based AI manufacturing software company, raised $1.25 million in Seed funding.

🤝 Strategic, M&A and Undisclosed

• CoinMENA, a Bahrain-based crypto exchange, raised up to $240 million in strategic acquisition funding from Paribu.

• Ytel, a cloud communications platform, received an undisclosed investment from Sharpen Technologies through acquisition.

• Digital Asset, a blockchain infrastructure company, received a strategic investment from BNY, iCapital, Nasdaq, and S&P Global.

💸 VC Funds Raised and Raising

• MarcyPen Capital Partners, a consumer and culture-focused investment firm, is launching a $500 million private equity fund targeting South Korean lifestyle and entertainment companies.

• Tiger Global raised $12.7 billion for its newest global venture and growth vehicle.

• 6 Degrees Capital closed €154 million for its third fund.

• Castle Fund is raising $20 million for its debut vehicle.

• Page One Ventures is raising its second fund, target not disclosed.

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📚 Read of the Day

🏔️ Paramount’s $108.4B Hostile Bid for WBD

Paramount shocked the industry with a $30-per-share hostile offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, valuing the studio at $108.4 billion. The move comes at a time when traditional media companies are struggling with slowing streaming growth, rising content costs, and pressure from tech-backed platforms. Paramount believes that combining two large content libraries is the fastest path to scale and stability.

The Strategy

Paramount is seeking to create a stronger studio with a deeper catalog, broader licensing potential, and more leverage against global platforms. The company is pushing the offer directly to shareholders, signaling urgency and conviction that the market may support the deal even if WBD leadership hesitates.

The Backstory

A significant debt load and a shifting streaming strategy have weighed down WBD. Paramount has faced challenges of its own, but sees an opportunity to merge assets and build a more competitive entertainment business.

Why It Matters

Streaming is entering a consolidation phase. The companies that move early will shape the next decade of media. This bid could trigger more M&A across Hollywood and accelerate the shift toward fewer, larger content platforms.

👉 Read The Whole Story Here

📰 News You Don’t Want To Miss

🚀 SpaceX explores share sale valuing the company near $800 billion. A move that increases speculation around a possible IPO.

☁️ IBM is acquiring Confluent for $11 billion. The deal expands IBM’s data and AI platform capabilities.

🎬 Paramount launches a $500 million fund targeting Korean pop culture and lifestyle. A bet on global demand for entertainment and consumer brands from South Korea.

🎬 Paramount moves forward with its hostile bid for WBD. The deal could reshape Hollywood.

🧑‍💻 Claude Code is coming to Slack. AI-assisted coding becomes native to enterprise collaboration tools.

🤖 OpenAI reports that AI tools save employees 60 minutes per day. Early enterprise data shows consistent productivity gains.