o DC-based Zeal Capital Partners Closes $82 Million Investment Fund
o Baltimore-based Pixee Raises $15 Million in Seed Funding
o Reston-based Leidos Acquires Kudu to Bolster Cyber Capabilities
o Baltimore-based Cerebro Capital Closes First Round of Funding
o Baltimore-based Sapio Sciences Promotes Gordon McCall to COO
o Briefly Noted: Indivior, Claritev
DC-Based Zeal Capital Partners Closes $82 Million Investment Fund
Washington, DC – Zeal Capital Partners, a DC-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology businesses, said on Wednesday it has closed a new $82 million fund. The fund, known as Zeal Fund II, increases the 5-year-old firm’s total assets under management to $186 million across three funds targeting early-stage companies in financial technology, healthcare and digital education. The fund plans to invest in approximately 25 early-stage companies over a four-year period, leading or co-leading seed-stage financings. Zeal's limited partners now include Citi Impact Fund, M&T Bank, MassMutual, Wells Fargo, Zaffre Investments and Spelman College.
“The systems-level challenges that have long felt insurmountable — including access to education, economic mobility, financial health, and healthcare — are now among the largest and most urgent market opportunities,” said Nasir Qadree, founder and managing partner.
Baltimore-based Pixee Raises $15 Million in Seed Funding
Baltimore – Pixee, a Baltimore-based application security firm focused on developers using AI tools, announced that it has raised $15 million in seed funding. The round was led by Decibel and Wing VC, with participation from TEDCO, PrimeSet, along several strategic investors.
“Developers are more prolific today than ever before, especially those leveraging the latest genAI tools like Cursor, Claude Code & GitHub Co-pilot,” said Surag Patel, co-founder and CEO of Pixee. “By focusing on capabilities like automated, production-ready code fixes directly into developer workflows and automating expert automated triage for security, enterprises can now ship secure code at unprecedented velocity.”
Reston-Based Leidos Acquires Kudu Dynamics to Bolster Cyber Capabilities
Reston, Va. – Looking to bolster the offensive cyber capabilities it offers to defense, intelligence and homeland security clients, Reston-based Leidos, the large developer of national security and health technology, said on Wednesday it has acquired Chantilly-based Kudu Dynamics for $300 million in cash. Founded in 2013, Kudu works with the Department of Defense in areas such as automated targeting and hardware reverse engineering. Leidos said the move – its first acquisition in 2 and a half years – will accelerate the expansion of its AI-enabled cyber capabilities.
"Kudu's ability to generate new cyber capabilities with AI perfectly complements our strategy to rapidly grow differentiated offensive cyber technology capabilities," said CEO Tom Bell. "This acquisition underlines Leidos's commitment to continue to build smarter full-spectrum cyber capabilities, so that the U.S. and its allies dominate the cyber warfighting domain."
Baltimore-Based Cerebro Capital Closes First Round of Funding
Baltimore – Cerebro Capital, the Baltimore-based operator of an online loan marketplace for mid-sized corporate borrowers and lenders, said it has raised an unspecified amount in its first round of funding. JAM FINTOP, a joint venture between JAM Special Opportunity Ventures and FINTOP Capital, led the round, which the company will use to bolster its lead generation capacity, expand its deal-related AI tools and continue growing its capital markets team. Cerebro said it has connected thousands of borrowers to lenders from over 2,200 lending institutions to provide loans ranging from $2 million up to $100 million.
"JAM FINTOP's deep fintech and banking experience makes them an ideal partner as we continue to scale,” said CEO Matt Bjonerud. “We've had significant traction with their Limited Partners, closing nearly $100 million of loans with them and already signing a number of their Limited Partner banks to our new enterprise access tier."
Baltimore-Based Sapio Sciences Promotes Gordon McCall to COO
Baltimore – Sapio Sciences, the Baltimore-based developer of a lab informatics platform, said it has promoted Gordon McCall to the role of COO. McCall, who had served as the company’s CFO since 2022, now will oversee its day-to-day operations, including leading global customer delivery teams, managing customer relationships and overseeing key operational functions. The move comes three months after Sapio announced Mike Hampton, the former chief revenue officer of Causaly, as its chief commercial officer.
Briefly Noted
(Richmond, Va.) Richmond-based Indivior, a developer of drugs to treat opioid use disorder, has named Patrick Barry as its chief commercial officer. Barry most recently served as the executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Endo Pharmaceuticals, and earlier spent over two decades at Sanofi.
(McLean, Va.) McLean-based Claritev, a provider of technology, data and insights focused on the healthcare industry, has named Mohamed Ramzy as its senior vice president and general manager of international, overseeing the company’s business in the Middle East and North Africa. Ramzy most recently served as the country general manager at Oracle Health.