Good day. Venture investment in biotechnology has tumbled this year and initial public offerings in the industry have stalled. But one observer sees a recovery underway.

Tim Opler, managing director in the global healthcare group of financial-services and investment-banking firm Stifel, points out that biotech stocks have rebounded from their slump following President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, which dropped below $70 in early April, closed Monday at $99.40. Meantime, weaker biotechs have been shutting down this year and those with strong data are drawing investors and acquirers.

Yesterday, for example, drugmaker Genmab agreed to buy Merus, a publicly traded biotech with a head and neck cancer drug in late-stage trials, for about $8 billion. And last week, pharmaceutical company Pfizer said it would purchase weight-loss drug developer Metsera, a venture-backed biotech that went public in January, for up to $7.3 billion. The resurgence of acquisitions benefits venture capitalists who funded biotechs with potential breakthroughs, Opler said. We spoke with him about the industry’s performance and outlook. Here are excerpts from the conversation, edited for length and clarity.

WSJ Pro: What are some of the reasons for biotech’s recovery?

Opler: Today’s public biotech industry is a much healthier industry. There are two things going on. The first is the number of companies that actually come up with a real drug that would benefit patients in the next three to five years is up very substantially. The second is the number of companies that are not particularly viable has gone down significantly.

WSJ Pro: What has been the impact for venture capital?

Opler: By and large, VCs have gotten the memo that the market wants you to create companies that create real drugs that benefit real people. That mindset is being rewarded.

WSJ Pro: Chinese companies are developing increasingly innovative drugs. What are the implications for the U.S.?

Opler: I don’t think it’s unhealthy. Historically the U.S. has been superdominant, but other countries are catching up and creating their own biotech ecosystems. China has done an incredible job. I’m glad that other countries want to make basic and applied research investments. That’s good for the world.

And now on to the news...

Sora to require copyright holders to opt out. OpenAI is planning to release a new version of its Sora video generator that creates videos featuring copyright material unless copyright holders opt out of having their work appear, according to people familiar with the matter. OpenAI began alerting talent agencies and studios about the forthcoming product and its opt-out process over the last week and plans to release the new version in the coming days, the people said.

• While copyright characters will require an opt-out, the new product won’t generate images of recognizable public figures without their permission, people familiar with OpenAI’s thinking said.

Charlie Javice was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for defrauding JPMorgan Chase when she sold her startup to the megabank for $175 million and provided bogus evidence that her company had millions of customers that didn’t actually exist. Prosecutors had recommended she spend 12 years in jail for the fraud, which captured Wall Street’s attention for tricking the nation’s biggest bank, famed for its dealmaking acumen.

Videogame maker Electronic Arts said it would go private in a $55 billion deal with a group of investors including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, private-equity firm Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners. The deal represents the largest leveraged buyout of all time, eclipsing a record set in 2007.

• More: Why EA Is Ready to Quit Wall Street’s Game

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Funds

BECO Capital, an investor focusing on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, raised $120 million for the firm’s fourth early-stage fund, and $250 million for a growth fund.

Boost VC raised $87 million for its fourth fund to continue investing in pre-seed deep tech startups.

Deals

DevOps platform Harness acquired Qwiet AI, an agentic AI-powered vulnerability detection and reachability analysis provider.

Transportation management platform Rose Rocket acquired Centro, a startup that turns unstructured email into structured data that feeds directly into supply chain software systems.

Karbon, a provider of practice management software for accounting, bookkeeping, tax and audit firms, purchased Aider, an AI-powered advisory and reporting technology startup.

Alvys, a Solana Beach, Calif.-based transportation management system serving the freight industry, closed a $40 million Series B round. RTP Global led the investment, which included participation from Titanium Ventures, Picus Capital and Bonfire Ventures.

RunBuggy, a Phoenix-based automotive transportation and logistics technology platform, completed a $37 million Series B round led by Centana Growth Partners.

Commcrete, an Israeli developer of tactical satellite communication systems, emerged from stealth with $29 million in seed and Series A funding. Greenfield Partners led the $21 million Series A round, which also saw participation from Redseed Ventures and others.

Oxccu, a U.K.-based sustainable aviation fuel startup, picked up $28 million in Series B funding from investors including International Airlines Group, Safran Corporate Ventures and Aramco Ventures.

Paid, a London-based startup building critical infrastructure for the AI agent economy, was seeded with a $21.6 million investment. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which included additional support from FUSE and EQT Ventures.

Polars, a data processing technology startup, grabbed an €18 million Series A investment led by Accel.

Lexroom, an Italy-based AI assistant for legal professionals, closed a $19 million Series A round. Base10 Partners led the investment, with General Partner Rexhi Dollaku joining the company’s board.

Mondoo, a Berkeley, Calif.-based agentic vulnerability management platform, added $17.5 million in new funding led by HV Capital.

Gelt, a Miami-based AI-native tax firm, scored $13 million in Series A funding from investors including TLV Partners.

GoodFit, a London-based AI-driven data platform for go-to-market strategies, fetched $13 million in Series A funding. Notion Capital led the round, which included participation from Inovia Capital, Robin Capital and others.

Qovery, a DevOps automation platform, secured $13 million in Series A financing. IRIS led the round, which included contributions from Speedinvest, Crane Venture Partners and others.

Supernova, a product development platform, closed a $9.2 million Series A round led by Taiwania Capital.

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• Debt Is Fueling the Next Wave of the AI Boom

• The AI services transformation may be harder than VCs think (TechCrunch)
   
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• Hawley and Blumenthal unveil AI evaluation bill (Axios)

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, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.