Nick Pridachin Blog

Category: Venture Capital

  • Heartflow Raises $316.7 Million in IPO at a $2.27 Billion Valuation

    HeartFlow, a Mountain View–based medtech company, is transforming cardiovascular diagnostics with its AI-powered, non-invasive heart imaging platform. By generating personalized 3D models of coronary arteries from CT scans, the technology allows clinicians to evaluate blood flow and detect blockages without resorting to invasive procedures—an innovation that’s rapidly gaining traction among hospitals and health systems.

    The company made headlines with its Nasdaq debut, raising $316.7 million at a $2.27 billion valuation. Priced at $19 per share, the stock opened at $28 and climbed as high as $31.50 before the day closed, marking a 47% surge. The IPO was backed by Bain Capital, highlighting strong investor confidence in HeartFlow’s growth potential.

    Founded in 2007 by Charles A. Taylor, Christopher K. Zarins, and John Stevens, HeartFlow joined the unicorn ranks in 2017. Today, it stands at the forefront of AI-driven cardiovascular care—positioning itself as a disruptive force in the medtech sector and a company to watch on Wall Street.

    Takeaways:

    CategoryDetails
    CompanyHeartFlow
    IndustryMedtech / AI-driven cardiovascular diagnostics
    HeadquartersMountain View, California, United States
    Founded2007
    FoundersCharles A. Taylor, Christopher K. Zarins, John Stevens
    TechnologyAI-powered, non-invasive 3D heart imaging from CT scans
    IPO DateNasdaq debut (2025)
    IPO BackerBain Capital
    IPO Proceeds$316.7 million
    IPO Price$19 per share
    Opening Price$28 per share
    Peak Price$31.50 per share
    First-Day Surge+47%
    Valuation$2.27 billion
    MilestoneReached unicorn status in 2017
    Market PositionPreferred solution for hospitals seeking advanced cardiovascular care

  • Fractal Analytics Raises $170 Million at a $2.44 Billion Valuation

    Fractal is a leading AI solutions provider that helps Fortune 500 companies enhance decision-making in industries like healthcare, retail, and insurance. Its AI platforms—including Asper.ai (revenue growth), Flyfish (generative AI product discovery), and Analytics Vidhya (data science community)—drive strategy, customer experience, and operational efficiency. With 5,000+ employees across 18 countries, Fractal blends deep industry expertise with advanced AI.

    Funding & Growth

    • Raised $170M in a secondary share sale, reaching a $2.44B valuation (investors include Apax Partners, White Oak Capital, and Gaja Capital).
    • Preparing for an IPO targeting $400M–$500M, aiming for a $3B valuation.
    • Became a unicorn in 2022.

    Founders & Vision

    Founded in 2000 by Ashwath Bhat, Pranay Agrawal, and Srikanth Velamakanni, Fractal is headquartered in New York. With this new funding, the company plans to expand globally and scale its AI solutions, helping enterprises harness the power of data-driven transformation.

  • Via Transportation Files for US IPO

    Via Transportation is a pioneering TransitTech company that’s redefining public transportation by turning traditional fixed-route systems into dynamic, on-demand networks. Leveraging real-time data and cutting-edge algorithms, Via helps cities and transit agencies optimize their mobility services – making them more efficient, accessible, and sustainable.

    Today, Via’s platform powers operations in over 650 cities across 30 countries, from major metropolitan hubs like New York, London, and Seattle to entire regions such as Luxembourg, Estonia, and Flanders.

    Via’s Next Big Move: A Potential IPO

    In an exciting development, Via has confidentially filed a draft prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO). While the exact details—including the number of shares and pricing—are still under wraps, this move marks a significant milestone for the company.

    Since its founding, Via has raised nearly $1 billion in funding and achieved unicorn status in 2020, cementing its position as a leader in smart mobility solutions.

    From Startup to Global Transit Innovator

    Founded in 2012 by Daniel Ramot and Oren Shoval, Via has grown from a New York-based startup into a global force in transit innovation. By reimagining how cities move, Via is shaping the future of transportation – one on-demand ride at a time.

    As the company prepares for its next chapter, one thing is clear: Via is driving the evolution of public transit worldwide.

  • DailyPay Secures $200 Million in Debt Financing

    DailyPay is a financial technology company that enables real-time access to earned wages, helping workers access pay when they need it most. The company’s platform supports employee financial wellness while improving workforce engagement, retention, and satisfaction.

    DailyPay has secured a $200 million asset-backed securitization facility. Barclays acted as lead bookrunner and structuring agent, with Citi and Morgan Stanley serving as joint bookrunners. This brings DailyPay’s total debt financing to nearly $1 billion and strengthens its ability to meet increasing demand for flexible pay options among large enterprise clients.

    DailyPay, headquartered in New York, was founded in 2015 by Jason Lee and Robert Law. With more than 80% of Fortune 200 companies leveraging its platform, the company has emerged as a category leader in on-demand pay. As employers seek modern solutions to support employee financial health, DailyPay’s technology is driving a fundamental shift in how and when workers get paid—bringing greater control, stability, and dignity to the workplace.

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  • Ramp Raises $200 Million at a $16 Billion Valuation

    Ramp is a fintech company that delivers a modern financial operations platform for businesses, combining corporate cards, automated expense tracking, bill payments, and seamless accounting integrations. Built to streamline and optimize spending, Ramp uses AI-driven automation to reduce manual work and identify savings in real time. By going beyond traditional finance tools, it offers greater visibility and control over company expenses. Trusted by thousands of organizations, Ramp helps teams make faster, smarter financial decisions.

    Ramp has raised $200 million in a Series E round, bringing its valuation to $16 billion. The round was led by Founders Fund and included participation from Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners, General Catalyst, GIC, ICONIQ Growth, Khosla Ventures, Sands Capital, 8VC, Lux Capital, Stripes, 137 Ventures, Avenir Growth, and Definition Capital.

    Ramp, headquartered in New York, New York, United States, was founded in 2019 by Eric Glyman, Gene Lee, and Karim Atiyeh. In 2021, the company joined the unicorn club. Currently, Ramp serves over 40,000 businesses, including leading companies like CBRE, Shopify, Anduril, Notion, Cursor, Vercel, Barry’s, and MAGNA-TILES.

  • Statsig Raises $100 Million and Hits Unicorn Status at a $1.1 Billion Valuation

    Statsig is a cutting-edge data-driven product development platform that enables teams to produce better solutions more quickly. Statsig gives teams a comprehensive picture of product performance by automatically tracking the impact of each feature release, in contrast to conventional A/B testing tools. Teams may swiftly switch from underperforming features, double down on what works, and identify metric decreases in a matter of hours thanks to the robust product observability tools.

    At a $1.1 billion valuation, Statsig has secured $100 million in Series C funding. ICONIQ Growth led the round, and Sequoia and Madrona, two previous investors, also participated. Statsig intends to use this investment to increase the capabilities of its platform, hire additional staff, and enable more businesses of all kinds to realize the full benefits of data-driven product development.

    Vijaye Raji launched Statsig in 2021, with its headquarters located in Bellevue, Washington, in the United States. The business works in a variety of industries, including as artificial intelligence, gaming, business-to-business software, e-commerce, finance, and government. “In the past, product development was an art form, with innovative engineers and managers using their gut feelings to direct modifications. Today, that just isn’t enough,” stated Vijaye Raji, Statsig’s founder and CEO. By offering a comprehensive platform for data-driven decision-making, we are intensifying our efforts to support every product team in embracing the art and science of creating outstanding products.

  • Cast AI Raises $108 Million at Around $850 Million Valuation

    A business called Cast AI is creating automation solutions to streamline and optimize cloud workloads for demanding jobs like artificial intelligence. Cast AI uses cutting-edge machine learning to automatically analyze and improve Kubernetes clusters in real-time, in contrast to traditional solutions that merely monitor clusters and offer recommendations. As a result, cloud expenses are greatly reduced, performance and security are improved, and DevOps and engineering teams are more productive.

    Cast AI is now valued at over $850 million after raising $108 million in a Series C financing sponsored by G2 Venture Partners and SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

    Augustinas Stirbis, Austeja Zymantaite, Einaras von Gravrock, Laurent Gil, Leon Kuperman, Vilius Zukauskas, and Yuri Frayman launched Cast AI in 2019, with its headquarters located in North Miami Beach, Florida, in the United States.

    The business uses well-known cloud platforms including AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure to serve clients in a variety of industries throughout the world. According to Yuri Frayman, the CEO and co-founder of Cast, “it’s all about GPU, compute, and electricity.” Our goal is to increase efficiency so that we can support greater workloads on different GPUs. That is the focus of our work.

  • Veza Raises $108 Million at an $808 Million Valuation

    Veza is a platform for data security created to assist users in sharing and accessing their data in a secure manner. It makes it easier to comprehend, manage, and regulate who is authorized to perform particular actions on different data assets. Veza offers a single view of access rights by arranging authorization metadata across cloud platforms, apps, data systems, and identity providers. Its platform tackles the intricate data security issues that contemporary businesses encounter.

    Veza is valued at $808 million after raising $108 million in a Series D fundraising round. New Enterprise Associates (NEA) led the new round, which included existing investors Accel, GV (Google Ventures), True Ventures, Norwest, Ballistic Ventures, J.P. Morgan, and Blackstone Innovations Investments, as well as new investors Atlassian Ventures, Workday Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures.

    Maohua Lu, Rob Whitcher, and Tarun Thakur formed Veza in 2020, with its headquarters located in Palo Alto, California, in the United States. According to Tarun Thakur, co-founder and CEO of Veza, “identity used to be an IT function, but it has now become the leading battleground of cybersecurity, with almost every breach linked to credential abuse.”

    Beyond typical directory services, which solely concentrate on users and groups, identity must change. Assembling all access permissions, authorization data, and activity into a single data model is the foundation of Veza’s industry-first strategy, which empowers users to make quick, wise decisions that lower risk and uphold least privilege. Veza has become the leader in identity security in a field full of startups and well-known competitors. Our most recent investment serves as a warning to the sector: Veza is at the forefront of identity-based security.

  • Neuralink Targets $500 Million Raise at an $8.5 Billion Valuation

    High-bandwidth brain-machine interfaces that allow direct communication between the brain and external devices are being developed by the neurotechnology business Neuralink.

    Its goal is to use cutting-edge engineering and neurology to help people who are paralyzed regain their mobility, independence, and sense of connection. Using solely brain impulses, users may operate computers, smartphones, and other digital platforms with Neuralink’s products.

    The company wants to change how people use technology and increase human capabilities.


    At a pre-money valuation of $8.5 billion, Neuralink intends to raise roughly $500 million. To support its next stage of expansion and development, the business has begun first talks with possible investors.

    Dongjin Seo, Elon Musk, Lisa Li, and Max Hodak launched Neuralink in 2016, with its headquarters located in Fremont, California, USA. With an emphasis on creating brain-machine interfaces to assist those who are paralyzed and enhancing human-computer interaction capabilities, the company primarily works in the medical, research, and emerging neurotechnology sectors.

  • Mainspring Raises $258 Million in Funding

    For on-site power generation, Mainspring Energy designs and produces linear generators that effectively transform fuel into energy. Its cutting-edge technology is intended to provide flexible, dependable, and sustainable energy for a range of commercial and industrial uses. Mainspring promotes the global shift to lower-carbon power solutions with a particular emphasis on sustainability. By developing scalable solutions that lower emissions and boost efficiency, the business hopes to revolutionize distributed energy generation.

    In a Series F funding round, Mainspring Energy has raised $258 million. Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, DCVC, Temasek, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, M&G Investments, Pictet Group, and previous investors Lightrock and LGT Bank, Khosla Ventures, and Gates Frontier were among those that participated in the latest round, which was led by General Catalyst.


    Adam Simpson, Matt Svrcek, and Shannon Miller launched Mainspring Energy in 2010, with its headquarters located in Menlo Park, California, in the United States. The company provides clean, on-site power generation solutions to the commercial, industrial, and utility sectors, mostly in the United States.