Technology Private Placement and M&A Transactions Review Week Ending September 24, 2023

Mapbox: The company raised $280 million of Series E venture funding in a deal led by SoftBank Group on September 19, 2023, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $1.5 billion. The company is a developer of a location data platform designed to be used for mobile and web applications.

Shield AI: The company raised $114.4 million of Series F venture funding from Level Ventures and other undisclosed investors on September 23, 2023. The company is a developer of an artificial intelligence-based drone technology designed to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

Writer: The company raised $100 million through a combination of debt and Series B venture funding in a deal led by ICONIQ Growth on September 18, 2023, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $425 million. Accenture Ventures, Insight Partners, Acrew Capital, Aspect Ventures, WndrCo, Balderton Capital, Vibe Capital, Earl Grey Capital, The Perkins Fund, Cristina Cordova, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, The Vanguard Group, and other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. The company is a developer of a generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed for business writing.

Pryon: The company raised $99.5 million in Series B venture funding in a deal led by US Innovative Technology Fund on September 19, 2023, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $310.4 million. Omnimed Capital, and 11 other investors also participated in the round. The company is a developer of an enterprise knowledge management platform designed to streamline artificial intelligence adoption.

Pitchy: The company raised EUR 40 million of Series B venture funding from Isatis Capital, Entrepreneur Invest and Seventure Partners on September 21, 2023. The company is a developer of a cloud-enabled video creation software designed to help create professional interactive videos.

Vurbil: The company closed on $40 million of an undisclosed targeted amount of Series B venture funding on September 20, 2023. The company is a developer of a social media platform designed to allow users to respond to posts via video commenting and engage in live debates.

TileDB: The company raised $32.8 million of venture funding from undisclosed investors on September 20, 2023. The company is a developer of a cloud-based storage platform designed to store data in multi-dimensional arrays.

Tabular: The company raised $26 million of Series B venture funding in a deal led by Altimeter Capital Management on September 19, 2023, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $130 million. Andreessen Horowitz and Zetta Venture Partners also participated in the round. The company is a developer of a platform intended to automate the maintenance and optimization of data.

Mountaintop: The company raised $20.5 million of Series A1 venture funding from undisclosed investors on September 21, 2023. The company is an operator of a game development studio intended to offer multiplayer games to customers.

Rocket.Chat: The company raised $10 million of Series A venture funding in the form of convertible debt in a deal led by Alexia Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Bob Young, Endeavor Promessas, New Enterprise Associates, and Valor Capital Group on September 21, 2023. DGF Investimentos, Greycroft, Graphene Ventures, and Monashees also participated in the round. The company is a developer of an open-source communication platform designed for team collaboration and omnichannel customer service that includes exchanging messages, organizing video calls, and sharing files.

Telepathy Labs: The company raised $9.0 million of venture funding in the form of convertible debt from undisclosed investors on September 21, 2023. The company is a developer of voice and chat-bot technology designed to deliver human-computer understanding.

GEEIQ: The company raised GBP 6.6 million of venture funding in a deal led by YFM Equity Partners on September 19, 2023. Other undisclosed investors also partcipated in the round. The company’s platform provides detailed analysis of esports teams, streamers and events to educate and inform gaming sponsorship and advertising decisions as well as permit clients to identify key opportunities and provide expertise.

Chai Research: The company raised $8 million of venture funding from CoreWeave on September 24, 2023, putting the company’s post-money valuation at $450 million. The company is a developer of AI chatbots.

Appspace: The company received an undisclosed amount of development capital from Accel-KKR on September 21, 2023. The company offers a software suite that specializes in digital signage, enterprise video and content management and simplifies how organizations share content with their employees.

Splunk / Cisco Systems: The company reached a definitive agreement to be acquired by Cisco Systems for $28 billion on September 21, 2023. Splunk is a cloud-first software company that focuses on analyzing machine data in security and full-stack monitoring & analysis.

Airkit / Salesforce Ventures: The company reached a definitive agreement to be acquired by Salesforce Ventures, a subsidiary of Salesforce, for an undisclosed amount on September 22, 2023. The company’s platform helps sales, service, and operations teams to build customer relations, and also provides a schedule callback or an appointment at a future date, accepts payments via multiple platforms, and uses a device’s built-in GPS to deliver location-aware workflows for deliveries appointments.

AskBrian / Cinven: The company was acquired by think-cell Sales, via its financial sponsor Cinven, through an LBO on September 19, 2023 for an undisclosed amount. The company is a provider of artificial intelligence (AI) powered digital assistant services to connect humans with state-of-the-art technology and data.

BlueWillow AI / LimeWire: The company was acquired by LimeWire for an undisclosed amount on September 20, 2023. The company is a developer of a generative AI image-creation platform that offers a tool to implement given text commands into images and other forms of media using collective intelligence and augmented technology.

DashThis / SaaS.group: The company reached a definitive agreement to be acquired by SaaS.group for an undisclosed amount on September 19, 2023. The company is a developer of an automated marketing reporting tool that provides search engine optimization reporting, pay-per-click and search engine marketing, social media, and analytics reporting designed to help marketers make decisions quickly.

EMRAYS / Bynder: The company was acquired by Bynder, via its financial sponsor Thomas H. Lee Partners, through an LBO on September 19, 2023 for an undisclosed amount. The company is a developer of an AI search capability designed for digital asset management that offers various tools such as an advanced image duplicate finder, visual search, search without keywords, and custom AI models.

Kannelle / Pitchy: The company was acquired by Pitchy for an undisclosed amount on September 21, 2023. The company is a developer of a video creation platform designed to make it easy for anyone to create professional videos.

MQA / Lenbrook: The company was acquired by Lenbrook for an undisclosed amount on September 19, 2023. The company is a provider of sound technology for the entire audio signal chain, from studio to listening room, to assure consistent quality of reproduction.

Next Gen Photo Solutions / Fotograf.de: The company was acquired by Fotograf.de, via its financial sponsors EQT and Bizvalue, through an LBO on September 20, 2023 for an undisclosed amount. The company is an operator of a full-service digital graphics company for creating high-quality graphics for volume sports and school photographers.

Socrates.Ai / Simpplr: The company was acquired by Simpplr for an undisclosed amount on September 19, 2023. The company is a developer of an enterprise intelligent assistant designed to bring expertise in artificial intelligence, natural language processing and human resources applications to solve enterprise challenges in employee experience, security and software engagement.

Unifai / Akeneo: The company was acquired by Akeneo for an undisclosed amount on September 19, 2023. The company is a developer of a data collection and sharing platform designed to automatically normalize, enrich and categorize product data.