Good day. The investor Voyager Ventures has raised a $275 million new fund, now highlighting the national security and energy independence aspects of its strategy rather than the climate-tech approach it once emphasized.

Voyager Partners Fund II, which closed in December, brings Voyager’s assets under management to $475 million. The firm was started in 2021 by co-founders and general partners Sierra Peterson and Sarah Sclarsic.

The firm backs energy, materials and industrial technology companies. The Voyager team still believes carbon emissions signify waste and inefficiency and that the world is moving away from fossil fuels, Sclarsic said.

Like numerous other venture firms, however, Voyager no longer calls itself a climate-tech investor.

“We’re clarifying our strategy,” said Peterson. “The broad ‘climate tech’ basket sometimes included business models reliant on government subsidies, green premiums and regulation. That has never been our investment strategy.”

Avoiding such businesses has also helped Voyager escape repercussions from the Trump administration’s shift away from supporting some climate technologies and environmental regulations.

Voyager’s portfolio companies, instead, are tapping into the administration’s objectives to increase domestic manufacturing and improve energy and materials security. Five of its companies have signed or announced contracts with the federal government during the second Trump administration, Peterson said.

Read the full article.

And now on to the news...

AI comes to construction. The construction industry is looking to AI and AI agents to make project managers’ lives easier, and eventually address an exodus of retiring talent.

• Construction-software firms are selling AI-powered tools that can assist site managers and foremen with work like analyzing sites for potential safety violations—tasks AI models can accomplish by searching through and synthesizing large amounts of data. And they are laying groundwork for AI that can one day reproduce the knowledge of an experienced leader or skilled worker.

SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $30 billion more in OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter, adding to the Japanese conglomerate’s already large stake in the startup. The ChatGPT maker is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital from investors, a round that could value it at as much as $830 billion, if it succeeds in raising the full amount, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. SoftBank is already one of OpenAI’s largest shareholders with a stake that grew to 11% in December, when it invested $22.5 billion.

Growth investor Equality Asset Management collected $575 million in investor commitments for its sophomore fund to back small software and technology-enabled services companies mainly in the healthcare, insurance and financial sectors.

• Tom Roberts and Jeff Del Papa—one-time colleagues at Summit Partners, now managing partners at EAM—view the vehicle’s closing as a milestone in the firm’s development since its formal launch in 2019.
   
• “We’re not a startup anymore,” Del Papa said.

People

Cybersecurity-focused investor Ten Eleven Ventures added Grace Cassy as partner.

Los Angeles-based Fika Ventures promoted Gabriella Brignardello to partner.

Secondary

AI workspace startup Notion said returning investors Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures purchased shares in the company alongside new investor GIC directly from current and former employees for a total tender of around $270 million at an $11 billion valuation.

Northwood, an end-to-end ground infrastructure provider for space missions, scored $100 million in Series B funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Alpine Space Ventures.

Mesh, a San Francisco-based crypto payments network, closed a $75 million Series C round, valuing the company at $1 billion. Dragonfly Capital led the funding, which saw participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and others.

Flora, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based environment for generative workflows used by creative teams, raised $42 million in Series A funding led by Alex Bard and Jordan Segall at Redpoint Ventures.

Phia, a New York-based AI shopping agent provider, snagged $35 million in Series A funding. Notable Capital led the round, which included additional support from Kleiner Perkins.

Fulcrum, a San Francisco-headquartered AI platform for insurance brokerages, secured $25 million in combined seed and Series A funding. CRV led the investment, which included contributions from South Park Commons and Foundation Capital.

BoldVoice, a New York-based voice coaching platform for non-native English speakers, landed $21 million in Series A funding. Matrix led the round, which included participation from Flybridge, Xfund, Corazon Capital and others.

Mesh Security, a Palo Alto, Calif.-headquartered startup building a cybersecurity mesh architecture platform, nabbed $12 million in Series A funding. Lobby Capital led the round, which included participation from S Ventures and BrightPixel Capital.

Chamelio, a Tel Aviv-based platform for in-house legal teams, secured $10 million in seed financing from investors including Work-Bench.

Limy, a New York-based infrastructure platform for optimizing brand performance in the agentic Web, emerged from stealth with $10 million in seed funding. Led by Flybridge, the round included participation from a16z speedrun.

Risotto, a San Francisco-based autonomous help desk startup, was seeded with a $10 million investment. Bonfire Ventures led the funding, which included participation from 645 Ventures, Y Combinator and others.

Brickanta, a Stockholm-based agentic AI platform for the construction industry, was seeded with an $8 million investment led by Northzone.

• Amazon to Shut Down All Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh Stores
   
• TikTok Settles Teen Mental-Health Lawsuit Before Trial
   
• These Billion-Dollar AI Startups Have No Products, No Revenue and Eager Investors
   
• Being a White House VIP Thrusts Tim Cook into the Political Fray
   
• Meta Enters Up to $6 Billion Data-Center Fiber-Optic Cable Deal With Corning
   
• U.S. Warns Korea Against Targeting American Tech Firms Amid Trade Escalation

• Inside OpenAI’s big play for science (MIT Technology Review)
   
• Tether returns to U.S. market with launch of USAT stablecoin (Bloomberg)

This newsletter was compiled by Yuliya Chernova and Zachary Cole.

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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