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Venture Fund Dedicated to Japan-U.S. Alliance Raises $250 Million
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By Marc Vartabedian, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Venture firm Geodesic Capital has raised $250 million for a fund dedicated to strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance at a time when both countries face rising defense and geopolitical challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.
The fund, named the Geodesic Alliance Fund, will invest mostly in U.S. early-stage startups whose technology could benefit Japan in national security-related sectors such as artificial intelligence, space, cybersecurity and robotics. While Geodesic is targeting U.S. or global startups that are aiming to expand in Japan, the firm wouldn’t necessarily rule out startups with other geographic focuses.
The San Francisco-based firm was founded by John Roos, a former U.S. ambassador to Japan who has had a wide-ranging career in Silicon Valley. Roos said he was motivated to launch the fund by both rising financial opportunities in defense tech and by the strategic mission to help strengthen Japan’s defense and economic sovereignty.
“We think that technology is only going to help the deterrent force that the U.S.-Japan alliance plays in the Indo-Pacific region,” Roos said. “We see an opportunity here as well.”
Read the full article.
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And now on to the news ...
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PHOTO: BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS
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Green energy's blues. One of America’s largest rooftop-solar installation businesses filed for chapter 11 Monday, a stark illustration of the strains haunting the U.S. clean-energy sector as shifting federal policies shake investor confidence, WSJ Pro reports.
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Sunnova Energy International, once a poster child for America’s residential renewable energy boom with a market value above $5 billion and more than 400,000 customers at its peak, plans to sell or wind down its assets in bankruptcy.
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Privately held Solar Mosaic, which makes loans to homeowners for solar installations, filed for bankruptcy on Friday.
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Both companies blamed political uncertainty around the future of solar-related tax credits, according to their filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston.
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2.01 Million
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The National Retail Federation’s Global Port Tracker forecasts that importers will bring in the equivalent of 2.01 million ocean shipping containers in June. That is up 5.2% from May.
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Sundance Growth Raises a Quick $125 Million for Debut Fund
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Sundance Growth, a software-focused investment firm founded by former Accel-KKR dealmaker Christian Stewart, has hit a $125 million upper limit for its debut fund in one of the more difficult private-equity fundraising markets in recent memory, WSJ Pro reports. Sundance Growth Fund I reached a final closing in well under six months and benefited earlier this year from support by Accolade Partners, a fund-of-funds manager that also was an early investor in Accel-KKR’s funds. Sundance targets investments in growing business-to-business software companies with $3 million to $10 million in annual recurring revenue.
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IBM Has a Roadmap to a ‘Fault-Tolerant’ Quantum Computer by 2029
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International Business Machines said it has a plan for building what it calls the world’s first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer at its New York data center before the end of the decade. The computer, called IBM Quantum Starling, will be housed in its Poughkeepsie, N.Y., center and have 20,000 times the computational power of today’s quantum computers, the tech giant said.
“I feel more comfortable than ever that a fault-tolerant quantum computer will exist before the end of this decade,” said Jay Gambetta, IBM’s vice president of quantum. “We are putting error-correction in detail on our roadmap because we believe now we’ve solved all the scientific challenges.”
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Vivrelle, a New York-based luxury accessories membership club, completed a $62 million Series C investment from Protagonist.
Runwise, a New York-based smart operating system for buildings, scored $55 million in Series B funding. Menlo Ventures led the round, with Partner Steve Sloane joining the company’s board.
Definely, a London-based legaltech startup, secured $30 million in Series B financing led by Revaia.
Turnkey, a crypto infrastructure startup, collected $30 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Crypto.
Maze, a London-based startup using AI agents to investigate and resolve cloud security vulnerabilities, raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Theory Ventures.
Nooks, an Arlington, Va.-based classified infrastructure technology provider, closed a $25 million Series A round from investors including Zigg Capital.
Hirundo, a Tel Aviv-based startup whose technology helps AI models remove problematic data and behavior, was seeded with an $8 million investment led by Maverick Ventures Israel.
Piston, a Cupertino, Calif.-headquartered cardless payments platform connecting commercial fleets and gas stations, landed $6.1 million in seed funding led by Spark Capital.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, Calif., on Monday. PHOTO: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
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