Follow the Money Edition 24

Arena? Who's Arena?

Hi Everyone,

Follow the Money is our weekly newswire on financing rounds for companies both old and new.

But we missed last “weekly”, because I was celebrating Memorial Day with an old buddy at his wedding in Sun Valley, Idaho.

This buddy just retired in his duties as a Navy Seal Officer so the following was notable, although maybe this is just me?

He cried, after he danced with his mom. I was shook. Suppose even Navy Seal Officers cry after their mother gives them away.

Not sure if every Seal Officer does that, but this one does, because that’s the fucking man right there.

Deep Insight

Radiant’s $165M Series C—led by DCVC and joined by ARK Invest, Hanwha, and others—is a defining signal in the evolving energy investment landscape. The El Segundo-based company is developing 1MW portable nuclear microreactors designed for off-grid, high-stakes environments: forward military bases, disaster zones, and remote industrial operations. These are markets where diesel dominates, costs run high, and clean alternatives struggle with reliability or logistics.

Radiant’s reactors promise multi-year operation without refueling, offering energy independence in places where supply chains are fragile or adversarial. That makes the technology not just a clean power source but a strategic asset—especially amid rising geopolitical instability and increased defense-sector demand for distributed energy resilience.

Notably, this isn’t a speculative science project. The investment syndicate is a who’s-who of mission-aligned capital: ARK sees long-term energy disruption; Hanwha brings industrial scale and defense sector insight; Gigascale and DCVC specialize in deep tech commercialization.

Radiant is pursuing a pathway that avoids regulatory gridlock by focusing on lower-barrier deployments with immediate use cases. In doing so, it’s carving out a viable commercialization track for nuclear tech in the 2020s—one measured in kilowatts, not gigawatts, but no less consequential. The edge, for now, is where nuclear begins.

Venture

• Pallet, a Fremont, Calif.-based transportation and warehouse software startup, raised $27m in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. General Catalyst led, joined by Bain Capital Ventures, Activant Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

• Alrik, a Swedish construction logistics startup, raised €7M ($7.9M USD) led by PeopleVentures, with insider Pi Labs participating.

• Endra, a Swedish building design SaaS, raised €3M ($3.4M USD) in pre-seed funding led by Norrsken VC.

  • Quick Insight: I don’t know what to make of this and the prior announcement other than it’s notable that Sweden is coming alive out of nowhere, all of a sudden, in the prop tech game.

• Radiant, an El Segundo, Calif.-based developer of nuclear microreactors, raised $165M in Series C funding. DCVC led, joined by Giant Ventures, StepStone VC, Hanwha Asset Management Venture Fund, SGA Capital, Crossbeam Venture Partners, Align Ventures, ARK Invest, Gigascale, HartBeat VC, and Pax Ventures.

  • Quick Insight: When was the last time you saw nuclear infra with VC backing??

• Wander, an Austin-based vacation rental platform, raised $50M in Series B funding. QED Investors and Fifth Wall co-led, joined by Redpoint Ventures, Uncork, Starwood, and Breyer Capital.

• Buildots, an Israeli construction management platform, raised $45M. Qumra Capital led, joined by OG Venture Partners, TLV Partners, Poalim Equity, Future Energy Ventures, and Viola Growth.

  • Quick Insight: No W or Z in the name means no Google acquisition. SOL. IYKYK, if not, SUBSCRIBE ALREADY. Shame.

• Tigertail Capital Partners invested in Blue Ridge Global, an Atlanta-based supply chain planning company.

• Ares acquired a majority stake in Landscape Workshop, a Birmingham, Ala.-based provider of grounds maintenance for commercial properties.

  • Quick Insight: You probably haven’t heard of Ares in a minute, for good reason. But they still have their name up on the building in Century City doing their thing.

• Converge, a concrete sensor startup, raised $22 million in new Series A funding, per Axios Pro. ABN Amro led, joined by Climate Investment, Move Energy, Pi Impact, J-Impact, TO Ventures, and Force Over Mass Capital.

• VERO, a property renter screening and leasing platform raised growth equity funding co-led by Fifth Wall and Sunriver Capital Partners, with Rebuild Capital participating.

  • Quick Insight: Notice the geniuses over at the “Fifth Wall” which is admittedly a minority clever Hollywood-adjacent name for a company, do not want to advertise the size on this one. Take a wild guess why.