Institutional Infrastructure
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Syndication & Co-Investment

New York - AI-powered accounting platform Basis has closed a $100 million Series B funding round at a $1.15 billion valuation, officially granting the company unicorn status as it accelerates development of its agentic AI platform built for accounting firms. The fresh capital will help broaden engineering and machine learning teams while advancing tools that automate complex workflows across accounting, tax and audit practices.Founded in 2023 by Matthew Harpe and Mitchell Troyanovsky, Basis has developed a suite of “long-horizon” AI agents capable of autonomously executing multi-step tasks such as preparing tax returns, managing client accounts, handling audit deliverables and streamlining routine accounting operations. The company reports that its technology is being deployed by a significant share of top accounting firms as practices seek to enhance efficiency amid talent shortages and rising client demand.Funding Round and Investors - The Series B was led by Accel, with continued backing from GV (formerly Google Ventures), Khosla Ventures and Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs. New investors joining the round include NFDG (Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross), Better Tomorrow Ventures, BoxGroup, and Avid Ventures, alongside a cohort of angel participants including executives and founders from Quora, OpenAI, Adobe, HuggingFace, Stripe, Opendoor, Replit, and Amazon. This financing brings Basis’s total capital raised to around $138 million across its seed, Series A and Series B rounds.With this funding, Basis plans to further develop its platform’s agent capabilities and scale its engineering recruitment to build increasingly sophisticated autonomous workflows that handle high-value accounting tasks with minimal manual intervention.

Small Foundation has announced a strategic investment in Ci Gaba, a Ghana-based local-currency fund of funds created to catalyse institutional capital from domestic pension funds and other investors into SME-focused venture capital, private equity and debt funds. The move reflects a growing emphasis on mobilising local savings to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Ghana and potentially the broader sub-Saharan Africa region.SMEs are widely recognised as key drivers of economic growth, job creation and innovation, yet they remain underserved by formal capital markets, especially in domestic currency. Ci Gaba aims to bridge this financing gap by providing a vehicle that aligns the long-term profiles of pension capital with the growth needs of local enterprises shifting investment flows toward productive sectors that historically attract limited local institutional allocation.Funding Round and Investors - This investment is part of Ci Gaba’s early funding strategy, with Small Foundation providing catalytic capital designed to absorb risk where commercial investors may hesitate and to encourage broader participation from Ghanaian pension funds and similar institutional investors. Ci Gaba’s fund structure targets venture capital, private equity and private debt fund commitments that can drive SME financing more sustainably.Hamdiya Ismaila, founder of Savannah Impact Advisory and the fund’s manager, emphasised the importance of unlocking local capital and building confidence among institutional investors, while Small Foundation’s Chief Investment Officer and Chair, Conor Brosnan, highlighted that the objective is “shifting capital flows, not just supporting a single fund,” by deploying patient, risk-absorbing capital to bolster domestic fund-of-funds activity.Ci Gaba’s model seeks to overcome structural barriers such as limited familiarity with alternative asset classes among local institutions, shortage of experienced local fund managers and reliance on foreign currency capital that introduces volatility. By facilitating domestic pension fund allocations into home-grown private market vehicles, the fund of funds aims to foster deeper investment ecosystems that empower SMEs to scale and contribute meaningfully to resilient economic growth.

Axelera AI, the Dutch edge-AI semiconductor company, has secured more than $250 million in a new funding round to propel its global commercial expansion and accelerate production of its advanced inference chip technologies. The round marks one of the largest investments ever received by a European AI chipmaker and underscores strong market momentum for energy-efficient AI infrastructure solutions.Founded in 2021, Axelera AI designs and develops energy-efficient AI inference chips and acceleration platforms aimed at running AI workloads closer to where data is generated in applications such as industrial automation, robotics, agritech, defense, security systems and other edge environments. The company’s architecture enables high performance within strict power and thermal constraints, helping reduce reliance on traditional GPU-based cloud infrastructures. Axelera AI has shipped its products to 500+ global customers across multiple sectors, reflecting broad commercial adoption of its hardware and software ecosystem.Funding Round and Investors - The funding was led by Innovation Industries, with new investors BlackRock and SiteGround Capital joining the round. Continued support came from existing backers including Bitfury, CDP Venture Capital, European Innovation Council Fund, Invest-NL, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Federal Holding and Investment Company of Belgium (SFPIM), and Verve Investments. The investment will be used to scale manufacturing, grow the customer success and partner network, and further develop software tools and SDK platforms that complement its chip products. The total funding raised since inception now exceeds $450 million across equity, venture debt and grants.In addition to scaling production, Axelera AI is preparing the launch of its next-generation “Europa” inference chip - designed to deliver enhanced performance per watt and broader application flexibility. The fresh capital also supports expansion of its Partner Accelerator Network, which brings together system integrators, software vendors and solution providers to shorten deployment cycles and boost adoption.

FutureFirst, a new venture capital fund focused on Vertical AI startups and quicker exit outcomes, has officially been launched with a $50 million target fundraising goal set by its founders Hila Rom and Tammy Mahn.The firm has already secured commitments for approximately half of its target and begun initial Seed-stage investments into early-stage AI innovators.The fund is being structured around a thesis that prioritises niche, high-impact AI startups solving deep industry-specific problems using proprietary data particularly in sectors such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing and enterprise workflows rather than broad general-purpose models. This approach focuses on technologies that embed uniquely valuable vertical intelligence into critical organisational processes, reflecting a growing segment of the AI market expected to grow significantly in the coming decade.Funding Round and Investors - FutureFirst has secured commitments for about 40 percent of its $50 million fund, with Brooks Keret acting as the anchor investor and strategic partner. The fund’s initial capital commitments also include contributions from senior figures in the American finance and healthcare industries actively backing early Seed-stage AI companies. Initial investments are being made at roughly $1.5 million per company to support seed-stage growth and accelerate portfolio companies toward Series A milestones.The fund’s founders bring deep tech and venture experience: Hila Rom, a seasoned entrepreneur, investor and former founder and board executive at unicorn Tipalti with over 20 years of experience; and Tammy Mahn, a veteran investor with leadership roles at Verizon Ventures, Pitango, Moonscape Ventures and Evergreen. They are joined by Tomer Golan as Principal, who will lead deal execution and relationships, with previous roles in RUNI Ventures and other tech industry initiatives.

Centauri Therapeutics, a Cheshire-based immunotherapy company specialising in advanced treatments for infectious diseases, has extended its Series A funding round to £30 million with a fresh £6 million investment from the AMR Action Fund. The new capital will help accelerate the progression of its lead clinical asset through key stages of clinical development.The company’s lead candidate, CTX-187, is part of Centauri’s ABX-01 programme and is currently under development ahead of first-in-human studies targeting multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections a major unmet need in global health. The added Series A funding will support completion of Phase I clinical trials and expand research activities to prepare the asset for Phase II progression, generating essential safety data to inform future development.Funding Round and Investors – The Series A was extended by a £6 million investment from the AMR Action Fund, the world’s largest venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to antimicrobial therapeutics and diagnostics. As part of this investment, Dr Henni-Karoliina Ropponen, Venture Associate at AMR Action Fund, has been appointed to Centauri’s Board of Directors. The AMR Action Fund brings focused expertise and strategic support to accelerate Centauri’s programme.Centauri’s original Series A round, closed in January 2022, raised £24 million and included backing from Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Evotec SE, and Novo Holdings REPAIR Impact Fund. The company has also been supported by CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) since 2019, helping push the ABX-01 programme from lead optimisation into preclinical development.

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