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Sunflower Capital, Led by Sequoia Alum, Collects $150 Million
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By Yuliya Chernova, WSJ Pro
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Good day. It took seed venture firm Sunflower Capital a few weeks to raise $150 million for its second fund—a timeline that is almost unheard of in today’s slow venture market.
Sunflower was founded by Liu Jiang, a former partner at Sequoia Capital who, at 30 years of age, already has a decade of venture investing experience.
Sunflower Capital Investment Fund II LP held a single close at its hard cap, or the maximum it set out to raise. The firm received all the investor commitments a month after Jiang began talking to new limited partner investors, she said. For comparison, about two-thirds of venture funds raised globally in 2024 took more than a year and a half to reach a final close, according to research firm Preqin. Jiang said she had to turn away LPs.
“Sequoia spinouts are fairly rare and garner attention,” said Laura Thompson, partner at Sapphire Partners, one of Sunflower’s LPs, about the reasons why the fund generated so much interest. Overall, “Liu’s work at Sequoia, angel track record and Fund I companies speak to her sourcing, picking and ability to win,” Thompson said.
Sunflower backs seed and pre-seed startups that sell to business customers.
Over the past decade Jiang invested in 20 “unicorns,” or venture-backed startups that are valued at $1 billion or more, she said. Sunflower was an early investor in data-management startup Tabular, for example, which was acquired by Databricks last year for a reported $2 billion.
Read the full article at the link.
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And now on to the news...
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Tony Pritzker speaks in 2019 during an event in California. PHOTO: MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES
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Prizker Diversifies. Tony Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, is throwing his weight behind a new investment firm dedicated to investing in small and midsize private-equity funds, WSJ Pro's Rod James reports.
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Led by longtime Pritzker family associate Paul Carbone, Pritzker Alternative Strategies will commit $10 million to $25 million to funds managed by U.S.- and Europe-based private-equity firms focused on the services, technology and healthcare sectors, according to Chicago-based PAS, as the firm is also known.
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$3,500
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Gold hit another record Tuesday, then faded a bit in afternoon trading. The most actively traded futures contracts surged above $3,500 a troy ounce for the first time, before slipping.
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Summit Partners Backs Grant-Management Company Instrumentl
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Growth equity firm Summit Partners invested $55 million in Instrumentl, a startup that helps nonprofits and universities find and manage grants at a time when the U.S. government is overhauling how and how much federal money is distributed to align with President Trump’s priorities, WSJ Pro's Maria Armental reports.
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Universities, for example, often receive significant sums from federal sources for student loans, Pell Grants and research funding.
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Many noneducational organizations are similarly dependent on federal sources, with roughly 30% of U.S. nonprofits receiving U.S. government grants, according to nonprofit data provider Candid.
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Senators Demand Federal Reserve Turn Over Records on Failed Fintech Synapse
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A group of Democratic senators is demanding that the Federal Reserve release records it has related to the failure of Synapse, a fintech firm that collapsed last year and left thousands of people without access to their savings, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Synapse was a Silicon Valley startup that wanted to revolutionize consumer finance, helping connect startups that marketed savings apps with banks that stored their customers’ funds. The middleman oversaw billions of dollars at its peak and primarily kept funds at Evolve Bank, a Tennessee bank regulated by the Fed.
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In a letter to Federal Reserve governor Michelle Bowman, four senators including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) say the Fed failed to properly oversee Evolve and should have caught the missing funds scandal.
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People
Defense technology company X-Bow Systems appointed Hector Fernandez as chief financial officer. He most recently served as chief investment officer at Paralign Capital Partners.
Scale Venture Partners appointed Siddharth Ramakrishnan as principal and Grace Patel as associate. The Foster City, Calif.-based firm also promoted Jonas Ciplickas to vice president.
Buffalo Bills Quarterback Josh Allen joined the Cashmere Fund as partner and investor.
Exits
Software supply chain security provider Socket acquired Coana, a cybersecurity startup that specialises in reachability analysis. Terms weren’t disclosed.
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Altruist, a Culver City, Calif.-based automated platform for registered investment advisors, scored $152 million in Series F funding from investors including Salesforce Ventures and Iconiq Growth. This latest round values the company at about $1.9 billion.
Exowatt, a Miami-headquartered renewable energy startup, completed a $70 million Series A equity and debt round led by Felicis.
Sentra, a cloud data security startup headquartered in New York and Tel Aviv, closed a $50 million Series B round led by Key1 Capital.
Cynomi, a Tel Aviv-headquartered startup offering an agentic AI cybersecurity platform, completed a $37 million Series B round co-led by Insight Partners and Entrée Capital.
Reco, a Miami-based SaaS security provider, added $25 million in funding from investors including Insight Partners and Zeev Ventures.
Salsa, a New York-based embedded payroll infrastructure provider, landed $20 million in Series A funding led by Altos Ventures.
Uniqus Consultech, a San Jose, Calif.-based consulting startup focusing on accounting and reporting, finance operations, governance, risk, ESG and technology, secured $20 million in Series C financing led by Nexus Venture Partners.
Deep Infra, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based cloud infrastructure startup, grabbed $18 million in Series A funding from investors including Felicis.
Miggo Security, an application detection and response platform based in New York and Tel Aviv, collected $17 million in Series A funding led by SYN Ventures.
Lace AI, a Mountain View, Calif.-headquartered call center automation technology provider, was seeded with a $14 million investment led by Bek Ventures.
Hopper, a startup helping organizations manage open-source software risk, launched from stealth with $7.6 million in seed funding co-led by Meron Capital and New Era Capital Partners.
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Tesla’s first-quarter global vehicle deliveries declined 13%. PHOTO: CFOTO/ZUMA PRESS
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