Deal Activity: September 2025

Deals: AI mega-rounds and quantum breakthroughs ignited markets as mega-merger mania and IPO revivals signaled capital's bold pivot

What’s Happening Right Now?

The markets signaled a decisive AI-fueled breakout, with Anthropic's monster $13B round at a $183B valuation headlining unprecedented venture activity. The quantum computing revolution gained serious momentum as PsiQuantum raised $1B, while mega-deals like Anglo American-Teck's $53B mining merger and Blackstone-KKR's $17B energy infrastructure plays showed institutional capital hunting scale. The IPO window cracked wide open with Klarna's successful $15B debut leading a string of strong public offerings, even as Stripe's $106.7B private buyback signaled premium companies still prefer staying private. Generative AI funding in H1 2025 already surpassed 2024's full-year total, with software and AI companies capturing 45% of all VC funding (Bain & Company, Crunchbase News), while the secondary market exploded 42% compared to H1 2024 (Ropes & Gray LLP, Mondaq). Cross-border dealmaking accelerated with European AI acquisitions and Asian infrastructure plays, pointing to a global capital rotation toward transformative technology and hard assets.

🚀 Venture & Growth

Artificial Intelligence

  • Anthropic (San Francisco) - $13B Series F at $183B valuation led by ICONIQ and Fidelity (TechCrunch).

  • Groq (Mountain View) - $750M at $6.9B valuation led by Disruptive (Groq).

  • Sierra (San Francisco) - $350M at $10B valuation led by Greenoaks (TechCrunch).

  • Distyl AI (San Francisco) - $175M Series B at $1.8B valuation led by Lightspeed and Khosla Ventures (Crunchbase News).

  • Signal AI (London) - $165M round led by Battery Ventures (Signal AI).

  • AppZen (San Jose) - $180M Series D led by Riverwood Capital (PR Newswire).

  • Irregular (San Francisco) - $80M round led by Sequoia Capital and Redpoint Ventures (Techcrunch).

  • Cohere (Toronto) - $100M extension at $7B valuation (Tech In Asia)

  • Modular (San Francisco) - $250M at $1.6B valuation led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (SiliconANGLE).

Fintech

  • Revolut (London) - Secondary sale at $75B valuation (Bloomberg).

  • Tide (London) - $120M at $1.5B valuation led by TPG (Perplexity).

  • Cardless (San Francisco) - $60M Series C led by Spark Capital (Businesswire).

  • Fnality (London) - $136M Series C led by Bank of America, Citi, and others (CoinDesk).

  • Zerohash (Chicago) - $104M Series D at $1B valuation led by Interactive Brokers (GlobeNewswire).

  • Stripe - Buyback at $106.7B valuation (Axios).

HealthTech & Bio

  • Lila Sciences (Boston) - $235M Series A at $1.23B valuation led by Braidwell and Collective Global (AInvest).

  • Ollin Biosciences (Austin) - $100M Series A led by ARCH Venture Partners and Mubadala Capital (The Business Journals).

  • Until Labs (San Francisco) - $58M Series A led by Founders Fund (BioSpace).

  • Judi Health/Capital RX (New York) - $252M Series F at $3.25B valuation led by Wellington Management (Yahoo Finance).

  • Auterion (Arlington) - $130M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners (Auterion).

  • Harbor Health (Austin) - $130M led by General Catalyst, 8VC, and Alta Partners (Harber Health).

Enterprise Software

  • Omnea (London) - $50M Series B led by Insight Partners and Khosla Ventures (OMNEA).

  • Filevine (Salt Lake City) - $400M across two rounds led by Insight Partners and Accel (Filevine).

  • WeTravel (San Francisco/Amsterdam) - $92M Series C led by Sapphire Ventures (Phocuswire).

  • Greptile (San Francisco) - $25M Series A led by Benchmark Capital (The AI World).

  • Mimica (London) - $26.2M Series B led by Paladin Capital Group (MimicaAI).

Climate & Energy

  • Genomines (Paris) - $45M Series A led by Engine Ventures and Forbion BioEconomy (Businesswire).

  • Chestnut Carbon (New York) - $90M Series B extension from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (LinkedIn).

  • PassiveLogic (Salt Lake City) - $74M Series C led by noa (Utah Business).

  • Fourth Power (Boston) - $20M Series A+ led by Munich Re Ventures (VC News Daily).

Quantum Computing

  • PsiQuantum (Palo Alto) - $1B Series E at $7B valuation led by BlackRock, Temasek, and Baillie Gifford (PsiQuantum).

  • Quantinuum (Honeywell spinoff) - $600M at $10B valuation (Yahoo Finance).

💼 Private Equity & Growth Buyouts

Tech & Software

  • Atlassian acquired The Browser Company (Arc browser) for $610M in cash (Atlassian).

  • Workday acquired Sana (Swedish AI agents) for $1.1B (Workday).

  • CrowdStrike acquired Pangea (AI security) for $260M (CrowdStrike).

  • Nvidia hired Enfabrica CEO and team for $900M+ plus licensing deal (CNBC).

Healthcare & Pharma

  • Novartis acquired Tourmaline Bio for $1.4B all-cash at 60%+ premium (Novartis).

  • Roche agreed to acquire 89bio in $3.5B deal (BioSpace).

  • Pfizer agreed to acquire Metsera (obesity) for $4.9B cash-and-stock (Pfizer).

Financial Services

  • F5 acquired CalypsoAI (AI security) for $180M (F5).

  • Bending Spoons acquired Vimeo for $1.38B all-cash at 91% premium (Vimeo).

Industrial & Energy

  • KKR and CPPIB acquired 45% of Sempra Infrastructure for $10B (CPPIB).

  • Blackstone acquired 49.9% of Sempra Port Arthur terminal for $7B (Sempra).

  • Anglo American and Teck Resources agreed to merge creating $53B entity (Anglo American).

🏢 Corporates

Banking & Financial Services

  • BBVA launched $17.4B hostile takeover bid for Banco Sabadell (AInvest).

  • BMPS secured 62% control of Mediobanca in $18B+ bid (Yahoo Finance).

  • PNC agreed to acquire FirstBank for $4.1B (PNC).

Technology & Media

  • OpenAI acquired Statsig (product testing) for $1.1B all-stock (CNBC).

  • SpaceX acquired wireless spectrum from EchoStar for $17B cash-and-stock (Reuters).

Energy & Resources

  • Phillips 66 acquired 50% of Cenovus Energy refining unit for $1.4B (Phillips 66).

  • Shell exploring sale of North West Shelf LNG stake for $3B (Bloomberg).

Real Estate & Infrastructure

  • Brookfield in talks to acquire Yes! Communities from GIC for $10B+ (Reuters).

  • Rithm Capital acquired Paramount Group for $1.6B at 38% premium (Rithm Capital).

📈 IPOs, Direct Listings, & SPAC’s

Major IPO

  • Klarna (Swedish BNPL) - $1.4B at $15B valuation, popped 14.6% on NYSE debut (CNBC).

  • StubHub (ticket marketplace) - $800M at $8.6B valuation, down 6% on debut (CNBC).

  • Netskope (cybersecurity) - $908M at $8.8B valuation, up 18% on debut (Yahoo Finance).

  • Via Transportation - $493M at $3.7B valuation (CTech).

  • Figure (blockchain lending) - $787.5M at $5.3B valuation (Reuters).

  • Urban Company (India home services) - popped 58% on Mumbai debut (TechCrunch).

IPO Filing & Plans

  • Navan (business travel) - Filed for Nasdaq IPO after $613M revenue (CNBC).

  • BitGo (crypto custody) - Filed for US IPO (Reuters).

  • MapLight Therapeutics (neurological drugs) - Filed for IPO (BioSpace).

  • Fermi (AI data centers) - Filed at $13.2B valuation despite minimal revenue (Barron’s)

SPAC Activity

  • Infleqtion (quantum computing) merged with Churchill Capital in $1.8B deal (Infleqtion).

  • CoinShares merged with Vine Hill Capital in $1.2B deal (CoinShares).

💰 Debt & Structured Finance

Large Corporate Debt Deals

  • Oracle - $18B investment-grade debt (second-largest bond sale of 2025) (Bloomberg).

  • Lowe's - $5B bonds to fund Foundation Building Materials acquisition (Heartspace).

  • AT&T - $5B investment-grade bonds for network expansion (AT&T)

  • Saudi Arabia - $5.5B international bonds (GuruFocus).

  • Stellantis - $2B investment-grade bonds (ClubAlfa).

Private Credit & Alternative Financing

  • Apollo seeking $10B from insurers in collateralized fund obligation (LinkedIn).

  • HPS Investment Partners and Blue Owl - $1.2B private credit for GTCR's SimpliSafe acquisition (AInvest).

  • Grays Peak Capital launched $500M private credit fund for government/defense (GovCon Wire).

  • Blackstone - $870M performing lease financing loans purchase (Tech In Asia).

Infrastructure & Energy Financing

  • JPMorgan and MUFJ - $38B debt package for Oracle data centers (Bloomberg).

  • Goldman Sachs - $5.5B leveraged loan for Thoma Bravo's Dayforce LBO (Bloomberg).

  • Newcastle United - seeking $1.3B financing for stadium redevelopment (Bloomberg).

Sovereign & Municipal Debt

  • US-Argentina - $20B swap line extension (Bloomberg).

  • Kazakhstan - $2B yuan-denominated debt plans (Bloomberg).

  • Transport for London - $470M bond sale (first in decade) (Bloomberg).

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