Good day. The most important healthcare investor meeting, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, wrapped up this week. With the conference over, what is your projection for venture capital funding in healthcare for 2026? What are the biggest opportunities and hurdles for investment this year? Please email responses to vcnews@wsj.com.

Last week, we asked how many venture-backed IPOs will take place in the U.S. this year and how much value they would generate. Here are responses, edited and condensed:

• Ben Narasin, general partner at Tenacity Venture Capital: “Enough to be one of the top three years for venture IPOs of all time. With a real shot at being the No. 1 year, though it’s tough to beat the Bubble.”
   
• Don Butler, managing director at Thomvest Ventures: “I expect that 2026 will be a significant year for the IPO market, and that we will see something closer to the historic post-2000 average of around 100 IPOs this year (which would be about a 65% increase from 2025 if we look at IPOs in the U.S.). I think the size and quality of the companies that are in the pipeline are such that the value these companies represent will be markedly higher as a percentage of proceeds.”
   
• Sandhya Venkatachalam, founder of Axiom Partners: “There were almost 400 U.S. IPOs in 2021, representing over $600 billion in public market value. I would expect at least one third that number, or about 150 IPOs, in the U.S. in 2026, but with much higher total public market value. Look for these AI IPOs to outperform the class of 2021, powered by substantial revenue, growth and customer retention—at far higher price points than the era of horizontal SaaS and crypto.”

And now on to the news...

JPMorgan bets on private markets boom. JPMorgan Chase is building out a new team inside its investment bank to help companies raise private capital as an alternative to going public, a sign that America’s biggest bank thinks the private markets will remain dominant even with some mega IPOs expected later this year. 

• The new team inside JPMorgan, called Private Capital Advisory and Solutions, will be a hybrid group offering mergers-and-acquisitions advice while working alongside the capital-markets division.
   
• Executives said the team plans to connect investors with companies that are looking to raise private capital. And bankers will advise clients on raising early stage equity, preferred stock and convertible bonds. They will also work on secondary funds and other avenues for private-equity firms to raise money.

Private-equity managers have scant hopes that their industry will soon emerge from the worst fundraising environment in nearly a decade, according to people who work with firms and institutional investors. In some parts of the private-equity landscape, there are stirrings of optimism that the slump that started in 2022 may at last be running its course. Firms are starting to make more new investments, and asset sales are at their fastest pace in four years. But there is less optimism about the industry’s fundraising prospects. 

The Food and Drug Administration quietly removed webpages saying cellphones aren’t dangerous as the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launches a study on cellphone radiation. Kennedy and some of his allies have long pointed to cellphones as a potential source of illnesses including cancer. Many mainstream scientific institutions, including the FDA, previously concluded that there isn’t adequate proof to link health problems to cellphones or other wireless devices.

Funds

Arkin Capital, a multi-asset investment manager, closed Arkin Bio Ventures III, a $100 million fund making early-stage investments in biotech companies developing transformative therapies in areas of high unmet medical need.

People

Premji Invest announced three new hires. Marc Martin Casas joined the firm's healthcare investing efforts, Jake Epstein joined the early-stage team, while Aidan Pak was added to the growth equity practice.

Bling Capital promoted Eric Theis to partner. Before Bling, he was a senior software engineer at Flexport.

Exits

Cloudflare acquired Human Native, an AI data marketplace that connects creators and AI developers who need training and inference data.

Amplitude acquired InfiniGrow, an AI marketing analytics company.

Skild AI, a startup building a unified robotics foundation model, raised nearly $1.4 billion in a funding round that values the company at more than $14 billion. SoftBank Group led the investment, which included additional support from NVentures, 1789 Capital, Disruptive, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Parloa, a Berlin-headquartered provider of AI agents for enterprise customer experience, landed $350 million in Series D funding, bringing the company’s valuation up to $3 billion. General Catalyst led the investment, which saw participation from EQT Ventures, Altimeter Capital Management, Durable Capital Partners and Mosaic Ventures.

Orca Bio, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based developer of high-precision cell therapies for the treatment of blood cancer and autoimmune diseases, closed on $250 million in aggregate funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The new funds consist of Series E and Series F equity and debt.

Alpaca, a San Mateo, Calif.-based brokerage infrastructure API provider, scored $150 million in Series D funding, valuing the company at $1.15 billion. Drive Capital led the round, with partner Chris Olsen joining the company’s board. Additional investors included Opera Tech Ventures, Altered Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Portage, DRW Venture Capital and others.

Mytra, a Brisbane, Calif.-headquartered startup building an operating system for supply chains, completed a $120 million Series C round. Avenir Growth led the funding, which saw contributions from Eclipse and several others.

Mangrove Lithium, a Canadian startup developing a refining platform for battery-grade lithium, secured up to $85 million in financing. Canada Growth Fund led the investment, which included contributions from BMW i Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Higgsfield, an AI-native generative video platform, added $80 million in Series A extension financing from investors including Accel, Alpha Intelligence Capital and Menlo Ventures. The latest tranche brings the Series A total to more than $130 million and values the company at over $1.3 billion.

Wasabi Technologies, a Boston-based cloud storage provider, nabbed a $70 million investment led by L2 Point Management, valuing the company at $1.8 billion.

Listen Labs, a San Francisco-based customer research platform, collected $69 million in Series B funding. Ribbit Capital led the round, which included additional support from Sequoia Capital, Pear and others.

Aikido Security, a Belgium-based startup building autonomous self-securing software, fetched $60 million in Series B funding at a $1 billion valuation. DST Global led the round.

Hydrosat, a provider of irrigation and crop management technology, closed a $60 million investment from OTB Ventures, Truffle Capital and several others.

GovDash, a New York-based startup helping companies manage government contracts, grabbed $30 million in Series B funding led by Mucker Capital and British Columbia Investment Management.

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This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier 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, and Brian Gormley.

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