Good day. Two weeks ago, we asked what direct impact the infrastructure law, and the $1 trillion in government spending associated with it, will have on startups.

• H/L Ventures managing partner Oliver Libby said that venture and infrastructure are connected in that VCs and startups can innovate to make infrastructure more resilient, affordable, sustainable and effective. “This bipartisan infrastructure bill presents a huge opportunity for VCs and entrepreneurs, both to strengthen our ecosystem and as an investment opportunity on which to build valuable solutions.”
   
• SineWave Ventures founding partner Yanev Suissa said that startups in sectors such as internet of things and cybersecurity will feel a boost. "The Infrastructure bill is going to generate a new level of investments and a new startup ecosystem at the intersection of physical and digital,” Mr. Suissa said.
   
• Aike Ho, a principal at venture firm ACME, didn’t comment on the infrastructure law but said that the latest version of the Build Back Better bill has earmarked $390 billion for childcare and universal preschool. This “will hopefully kick off a race for companies to increase high quality supply of childcare to meet this ever-growing demand,” Ms. Ho said.

This week’s question: Is the annual holiday slowdown over? In the age of remote venture dealmaking, do investors now see the traditional December slowdown as a period of opportunity?  

Please email responses to marc.vartabedian@wsj.com.

And now on to the news...

Food Tech. The private-equity unit of family-owned investment firm Edmond de Rothschild Group is launching its latest partnership with a specialized investment team, this time focusing on food and agriculture startups, WSJ Pro reports.

• Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity is forming a partnership with food-technology focused venture firm PeakBridge VC to back early-stage companies, particularly those promoting better nutrition or sustainable food production.
   
• The partnership plans to initially amass as much as €250 million, the equivalent of $282.3 million, partly from Switzerland-based Edmond de Rothschild Group’s networks of financial advisers and institutional investors. Plans call for initial investments of $3 million to $5 million in companies across Europe, North America and Israel, with additional money reserved to support follow-on financings, according to Erich Sieber, PeakBridge’s founding general partner.

As technology-focused private-equity firms come back to the fundraising market in droves, H.I.G. Capital is joining the race with its debut technology fund, according to people familiar with the matter, WSJ Pro reports. Tech investment vehicles have highlighted a record year of fundraising, with mainstays in the sector such as Vista Equity Partners, Thoma Bravo, Silver Lake and Francisco Partners quickly returning to seek more billions. Miami-based H.I.G. is wading into that mix after generating healthy returns on tech investments through its flagship—or core—funds, the people said. Those investments have generated returns of about 4.9 times invested capital and gross internal rates of return of more than 50% so far, they said.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC said it has raised more than $1.8 billion in the largest private investment for nuclear fusion yet as startups race to be the first to generate carbon-free energy like the sun, WSJ reports. Big-name investors backing the latest funding round for the Massachusetts-based company include Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and George Soros via his Soros Fund Management LLC. Some of Commonwealth Fusion’s competitors, including Helion Energy Inc., have also recently secured huge funding as investors pile into clean-energy technologies amid growing concerns about climate change.

Like a growing number of technology investors, Toronto-based Georgian wants to double down on its best investments, and the firm is pitching a $1.5 billion fund that would give it money to do just that, Preeti Singh reports for WSJ Pro. The fund is one of two that growth investor Georgian is marketing with a combined goal of $2.8 billion. It is seeking $1.3 billion for Georgian Growth Fund VI LP to back minority stakes in North American-based lower midmarket software companies and $1.5 billion for Georgian Alignment Fund II LP, which the firm will use to support follow-on investments in promising businesses from its growth funds, according to Sarah Zatoonian, a private-equity investment analyst with public pension manager Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, or Mass PRIM.

Funds

Business-to-business investor Costanoa Ventures raised $225 million for its fourth core early-stage fund and $115 million for its second opportunity fund, which will focus on later-stage investments. The firm, with offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif., focuses on applied AI, software-as-a-service, fintech, security, DevOps and data infrastructure.

Indonesia-based AC Ventures closed its third fund with over $205 million in commitments. Investors in the new fund, which was oversubscribed, included the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. and Disrupt AD, Abu Dhabi Developmental Holdings’ venture platform. Fund III has been investing actively since its first close in March 2020 and has completed 30 investments out of a targeted 35.

Milwaukee-based Capital Midwest Fund held an initial closing of more than $41 million for its fourth fund, which is targeting $100 million, to continue investing in technology companies in the Central U.S.

People

Digital operations management platform OpsRamp appointed Philippe Vincent as chief operating officer and Bill Talbot as chief marketing officer. Mr. Vincent was previously chief executive of Virtana. Mr. Talbot was most recently vice president of marketing at Splunk. San Jose, Calif.-based OpsRamp is backed by investors including Sapphire Ventures and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital.

Digital experience analytics company Contentsquare named Kat Borlongan to the newly created position of chief impact officer. She was previously a French government official who served under the Macron administration for over three years as director of La French Tech. Earlier this year, Contentsquare raised a $500 million funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

Onfido, an identity verification and authentication provider, appointed Nate Skinner as chief marketing officer. He was previously senior vice president of global marketing for Oracle’s advertising and customer-experience business. Onfido has raised over $200 million in funding from investors including TPG Growth, Crane Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures and M12.

Exits

Cloud communications platform provider 8x8 Inc. agreed to purchase peer company Fuze Inc. for approximately $250 million in stock and cash. Boston-based Fuze is backed by investors including Summit Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greenspring Associates and G20 Ventures.

Republic, operator of a retail investment platform, a private capital division and a blockchain incubator and fund, agreed to acquire equity crowdfunding company Seedrs in a deal valued at about $100 million. New York-based Republic recently raised a $150 million Series B round from investors including Valor Equity Partners, Galaxy Interactive, Motley Fool Ventures, HOF Capital and Tribe Capital. Seedrs has offices in London and Lisbon, and is backed by AdTay Ventures.

Digital creation platform Picsart will acquire research and development company DeepCraft for an undisclosed sum. San Francisco-based Picsart said in August it raised a $130 million Series C round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing the company at over $1 billion.

Jobandtalent Inc., a workforce marketplace that matches workers with temporary roles, scored a $500 million Series E round, along with $75 million in debt financing, giving the company a valuation of $2.35 billion. Kinnevik and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 provided the Series E funding, with the debt portion coming from Blackrock.

Kueski, a Mexico-based buy now, pay later startup serving Latin American countries, picked up a $202 million Series C equity and debt round. StepStone Group led the equity portion, while Victory Park Capital led the debt financing. Additional investors included OnePrime Capital, Glisco Partners, Altos Ventures, Cometa, Richmond Global Ventures, Cathay Innovation, Rise Capital and Angel Ventures Mexico.

Smartling Inc., a New York-based cloud translation technology platform for brands, landed $160 million in growth funding from Battery Ventures.

Panther Labs Inc., a San Francisco-based cloud-scale security analytics platform for brands, secured $120 million in Series B financing, at a valuation of $1.4 billion. Coatue Management led the round, which included participation from Iconiq Growth, Snowflake Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, S28 Capital and Innovation Endeavors.

Acepodia Inc., an Alameda, Calif.-based developer of solid tumor and hematologic cancer cell therapies, closed a $109 million Series C round. Digital Mobile Venture led the investment, with Director Samuel Chen joining the company’s board. Ridgeback Capital Investments, 8VC, Defta Partners and CDIB Capital Healthcare are also backers of Acepodia.

CyCognito, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based cybersecurity startup, raised $100 million in Series C funding led by The Westly Group. New investors Thomvest Ventures and Heritage Group also participated in the funding, along with existing backers Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sorenson Ventures and UpWest.

Shiftsmart, a New York-based labor-management platform, fetched $95 million in Series B funding. Led by D1 Capital Partners, the round included contributions from Imaginary Ventures, Spieker Partners and S12F.

CertiK, a New York-based blockchain-security provider, completed an $80 million Series B2 round, bringing the company’s valuation to nearly $1 billion. Sequoia Capital led the round, which included additional support from Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management and GL Ventures.

Hotel Engine, a Denver-based hotel booking and management platform for business travelers, grabbed $65 million in Series B funding, valuing the company at $1.3 billion. Telescope Partners led the investment, which included participation from funds managed by Blackstone.

Klue, a Vancouver-based actionable business insights provider, snagged a $62 million Series B round. Lead investor Tiger Global Management was joined by Salesforce Ventures in the funding.

100 Thieves, a Los Angeles-based gaming organization and lifestyle brand, added $60 million in Series C funding, bringing the company’s valuation up to $460 million. Green Bay Ventures led the round, which included support from Breyer Capital, Aglae Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Willoughby Capital and Artist Capital Management.

Life House, a New York-based hotel software and operations platform, collected $60 million in Series C financing. Travel booking site Kayak and Inovia Capital led the investment, which saw participation from Tiger Global Management, Trinity Ventures, Sound Ventures and others.

• WeWork to restate results due to classification error with its SPAC acquirer
   
• Big tech privacy moves spur companies to amass customer data
   
• Square changes name to Block, days after CEO Jack Dorsey leaves Twitter
   
• China’s digital currency challenge: winning hearts and minds
   
• Metaverse emerges as promising yet uncertain new world for investors
   
• Smart bandages, vehicle-damage trackers and more data-collecting devices of the future

• How Stripe scaled - notes from office hours with Claire Hughes Johnson (Tomasz Tunguz)

This newsletter was compiled by Marc Vartabedian 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.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc, @ychernova, @BrianPGormley, @marcvarta.