Good day. Climate-tech venture firm VoLo Earth Ventures has raised $135 million for its second fund, succeeding in a tough fundraising and political environment.

VoLo Earth, with headquarters in Snowmass Village, Colo., invests in early-stage startups that reduce carbon emissions and save costs in the energy, mobility, buildings and industrial sectors. VoLo Earth’s second fund held its first close in 2023 and was fully wrapped up in June.

Limited partners include its anchor investor, hedge fund Voloridge Investment Management, as well as Carbon Equity, Cathay Innovation, Morgan Stanley’s Graystone Consulting, and WovenEarth Ventures. The new fund surpassed VoLo Earth’s $88 million debut pool.

“We are building fund two with an eye towards critical metals and materials and supply chain, with an eye to AI and data center infrastructure dominance, and with an eye to onshoring and domestic manufacturing, all from a low capital intensity lens,” said Kareem Dabbagh, co-founder and managing partner at VoLo Earth.

Funds investing in the climate-tech sector are navigating a changed market, given that the Trump administration has removed many of the incentives for businesses in the segment.

Additionally, uncertainty around issues such as tariffs, government budgets and tax credits has made it more difficult to sell climate tech, said Dabbagh. “It’s hard for customers to adopt new innovations and technologies because they don’t know what to expect tomorrow or the next day,” Dabbagh said.

Despite political winds changing, there is still market demand for ways to increase efficiency and decrease costs, he said.

Read the rest of the article.

And now on to the news...

AI M&A. Workday is acquiring Sana, an AI company focused on workplace tools, for $1.1 billion as part of a broader push to offer companies and their employees AI services.

• Workday said the acquisition will help it offer AI agents that customers can use to automate repetitive tasks, search across a company’s data sources and create presentations and documents.

A group of the world’s leading airlines are investing in a new sustainable aviation fuel fund with the aim of bringing new technologies to the market and lowering the emissions of flying.

• The oneWorld BEV Fund will be managed by Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a venture-capital fund dedicated to investing in startups that aim to decarbonize hard-to-abate technologies.
   
• Alaska Airlines and American Airlines are set to be the cornerstone investors of the $150 million fund, with other companies such as Hawaiian Airlines, IAG, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines also investing.

TikTok’s U.S. business would be controlled by an investor consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz under a framework the U.S. and China are finalizing as talks shift into high gear, according to people familiar with the matter.

• The arrangement, discussed by U.S. and Chinese negotiators in Madrid this week, would create a new U.S. entity to operate the app, with U.S. investors holding a roughly 80% stake and Chinese shareholders owning the rest, the people said.

Funds

New York- and London-based BNVT Capital launched its debut fund with $150 million in commitments. To date, the new vehicle has backed 11 companies across Europe and the U.S.

People

Validation Cloud, an AI and data platform for Web3, appointed Alex Nwaka as chief executive officer, replacing Michael Horowitz, who is transitioning to president and chairman. Nwaka, Horowitz and Chief Technology Officer Andrew McFarlane co-founded Validation Cloud in 2022.

Sports gaming startup Underdog hired Rishi Garg as chief financial officer and Kimberly Pointer Corbett as chief marketing officer. Garg was previously at Twitter, Square and Mayfield Fund. Pointer Corbett formerly served as senior vice president, digital publishing at Warner Bros. Games.

Cybersecurity startup Immersive appointed Aniket Menon as chief product officer and Thanos Karpouzis as chief technology officer. Menon previously served as vice president of product at Rapid7. Before joining Immersive, Karpouzis was chief technology officer at CoachHub.

Figure, a San Jose, Calif.-headquartered startup developing autonomous general-purpose humanoid robots, has exceeded more than $1 billion in committed capital via its Series C financing round, at a post-money valuation of $39 billion. Parkway Venture Capital led the investment, which included participation from Intel Capital, Align Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, T-Mobile Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures.

Chestnut Carbon, a New York developer of nature-based carbon removal credits, added $90 million in Series B funding from CPP Investments, bringing the round total to $250 million.

PassiveLogic, a Salt Lake City-headquartered maker of generative AI software for the built environment, collected $74 million in Series C funding. Led by noa, the round included contributions from Addition and several others.

Vega, a New York-based security analytics and operations startup, gathered $65 million in seed and Series A funding. Accel led the investment, which saw participation from Cyberstarts, Redpoint Ventures and CRV.

CodeRabbit, a San Francisco-based platform for AI code reviews, landed $60 million in Series B funding. Scale Venture Partners led the round, which included additional contributions from CRV, Flex Capital, Pelion Venture Partners and others.

Tabs, a New York-based AI-native revenue platform for finance and accounting teams, secured $55 million in Series B financing. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the investment, which included additional support from General Catalyst and others.

MarqVision, a Los Angeles-based platform helping global brands protect intellectual property and recover lost revenue, scored $48 million in Series B funding led by Peak XV Partners.

WorkFusion, a New York-based provider of AI agents for financial crime compliance, picked up a $45 million investment led by Georgian.

Druid AI, a New York-based agentic AI platform, grabbed $31 million in Series C funding. Led by Cipio Partners, the round included contributions from TQ Ventures, Hoxton Ventures and others.

RegScale, a Tysons Corner, Va.-based continuous controls monitoring platform, raised over $30 million in Series B funding. Washington Harbour Partners led the round, which included participation from M12, Hitachi Ventures and others.

Fourth Power, a Cambridge, Mass.-based flexible-duration energy storage provider, secured $20 million in Series A plus funding led by Munich Re Ventures.

Stablecore, a Dallas-based startup enabling banks and credit unions to offer stablecoins, tokenized deposits and digital asset products, snagged a $20 million investment led by Norwest.

• Rivian Is Building a Georgia Factory in the Face of an EV Slump
   
• CrowdStrike to Buy AI Security Company Pangea
   
• Trump Wants to Open Up 401(k)s. Legal Threats Stand in the Way.
   
• China’s Message on Nvidia: We Have Leverage Too
   
• AI Is Going to Consume a Lot of Energy. It Can Also Help Us Consume Less.
   
• Apollo Explores Sale of Internet Pioneer AOL
   
• Google Puts Its Popular AI Video Generator Into YouTube Shorts

• Trump, AI — and what you missed at our summit (Politico)
   
• Bankrupt fintech cuts deal over hard-to-get private firm shares (Bloomberg)

This newsletter was compiled by Yuliya Chernova and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

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