Insights

March 11, 2025: Oklo Inc. (NYSE: OKLO), an advanced nuclear technology company, announced on March 5, 2025 that it has closed the $25 million acquisition of Crowell client Atomic Alchemy Inc. (“Atomic Alchemy”), a leading innovator in radioisotope production. Oklo intends to use this strategic acquisition to establish a more reliable domestic supply chain for high-value radioisotopes critical to healthcare, research, and defense sectors and provides synergies to Oklo’s fuel recycling and nuclear energy businesses. Demand for radioisotopes is expected to increase significantly over the next decade, while global supply struggles to keep pace due to aging reactor infrastructure and a fragmented global supply chain, which at present is dominated by countries outside the United States. Atomic Alchemy intends to be a low-cost U.S. radioisotope producer that can provide a secure and domestic supply of radioisotopes to U.S. companies commercializing innovative radioisotope applications. With its proprietary VIPR® technology, Atomic Alchemy is building the first scalable production facility to provide a reliable, sustainable source of high-value radioisotopes. Using a vertically integrated model and fuel recycling, in partnership with Oklo, Atomic Alchemy is transforming isotope production to address global shortages, support critical applications, and strengthen national security. The core deal team included Samuel Holland Edwards, Jon O’Connell, Justin Lurie, and Ryan Flynn.

San Fransisco – Jan. 27, 2024: A Crowell team successfully advised Iron Health in its acquisition by digital health startup Metronomic. Iron Health was founded over two years ago with an important mission: partner with OB/GYNs to address gaps in women’s health care through innovation. Since its founding, Iron Health built a novel model of care that provides accessible, equitable, quality women’s health care through a virtual care technology platform and multidisciplinary care team— all knitted into the trusted relationship women have with their OB/GYN. Through a strong track record of commercial partnerships across six states, Iron Health was able to provide access to more than 1 million women in the form of 4,000 patient visits, including behavioral health, weight management, nutrition, gestational diabetes, primary care, and menopause services.

San Francisco - November 22, 2024: Crowell & Moring advised Anitian, a leading provider of compliance automation solutions, on a $7 million Series D funding, led by Sageview Capital and with participation by Forgepoint Capital. This funding enables Anitian to accelerate the development of new innovations, including AI-driven automation features and an accredited Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Together, these features reduce the time and cost of achieving FedRAMP and CMMC compliance for Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and the Defense Industrial Base (DIB). The most recent financing brings Anitian’s total funding to more than $50 million.

Antares, a nuclear energy start-up headquartered in Redondo Beach, CA, has successfully raised $30 million in Series A financing, bringing their total capital raised to over $38 million. The funding round was co-led by Alt Cap and Caffeinated Capital, with participation from several other investors, including Rogue, Uncommon Capital, Shrug, Banter Capital, Box Group and Shine Capital. This investment will enable Antares to expand its R&D and manufacturing capabilities to support the demonstration of its first microreactor.

San Francisco – October 20, 2022: A cross-practice Crowell & Moring team represented Astra, a leading provider of advanced bank-to-bank transfer technology for financial institutions, fintech startups, and enterprises, in closing a $10 million Series A financing and securing a $30 million line of credit. The financing will support the growth of Astra’s team — with a particular focus on engineering and compliance resources — to further enable faster payments from all sources to any destination.

San Francisco–June 16, 2022: Crowell & Moring’s Emerging Companies & Venture Capital team advised Marshall Wace, a global alternative asset manager, in its investment in Elektrofi’s Series B venture capital financing transaction. The deal, which closed on May 27, marks the latest in a growing number of successful venture investment representations on behalf of Marshall Wace. With this investment, Marshall Wace continues its healthcare crossover fund strategy, which has focused on innovative developers of new biotechnology, medical device applications, and more.

Los Angeles, CA –March 28, 2022: The closing of Crowell & Moring client Firefly Aerospace’s $75 million Series B preferred equity issuance and the secondary sale of Noosphere Venture Partners’ equity in Firefly to AE Industrial Partners LLP (AEI) was announced. The transaction values Firefly above its May 2021 Series A valuation of more than $1 billion. These two transactions constitute a change of control of the company, as well as providing Firefly with the resources to deliver new innovations in space launch vehicles.

San Francisco – December 6, 2021: Crowell & Moring represented BayWa Venture GmbH, the investment and collaboration arm of BayWa AG (BYW:Xetra) in its investment in the Israeli start-up YoFix Probiotics’ $3.5 million second financing round.  YoFix Probiotics produces alternatives to milk and dairy products such as yogurt and porridge, using oats, lentils, sunflower seeds, sesame and coconut in place of milk.  YoFix Probiotics is BayWa Venture’s third investment in the field of alternative proteins so far this year.  The transaction was led by senior counsel Mark Kass (Washington) with support from partner Jon O’Connell (San Francisco) and counsel Matt Pelnar (San Francisco).

San Francisco—November 30, 2021: Crowell & Moring represented Ohayo Valley Inc. in a $1.5 million Pre-Seed financing led by Agronomics Limited (LSE:ANIC). Ohayo Valley was founded in 2020 by Dr. Jess Krieger, and the team brings 20 years of experience in the cultivated meat sector.  Ohayo Valley is initially focused on blending plant-based meat and cultivated meat to develop cultivated Wagyu ribeye steaks, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions associated with traditional beef production.  Agronomics is a leading venture capital company focused on opportunities within cellular agriculture.  The transaction was led by partner Jon O'Connell (San Francisco) with support from partner Anne Li (New York), counsel Matt Pelnar (San Francisco), and paralegal Nate Gagnon (San Francisco).

San Francisco – October 1, 2021: Field Complete, a startup SaaS platform designed to support service agencies and property owners, raised $1.9 million. Crowell & Moring represented Field Complete in the transaction. Field Complete is based in the U.S. with an office in Kyiv, Ukraine.

San Francisco—September 15, 2021: On September 8, 2021, InBrace, a dental company focused on teeth straightening, announced the closing of an oversubscribed $102 million Series D financing. Crowell & Moring represented co-lead investor Marshall Wace, a global alternative investment manager, in the transaction.  InBrace intends to use proceeds of the Series D financing to accelerate growth by expanding its sales force, launching new marketing initiatives, and driving further support and integration with new and existing orthodontic providers across the country.

San Francisco – September 15, 2021: Crowell & Moring client Payload, a new digital media company focused on the business and policy of space, raised a $650,000 seed round, to provide business and policy news and analysis to aerospace and defense industry professionals. Winklevoss Capital, the venture firm owned by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, as well as Andy Weissman and Sam McIngvale, is the primary source of financing source for this seed round.

San Francisco—September 14, 2021: Crowell & Moring represented Honeywell in its multimillion-dollar investment in Alder Fuels, a cleantech company that is pioneering first-of-its-kind technologies for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at scale by converting abundant biomass, such as forest and crop waste, into sustainable low-carbon, drop-in replacement crude oil that can be used to produce aviation fuel. 

San Francisco - September 13, 2021: Crowell & Moring advised X-Margin, a pioneer in applying privacy-preserving technology to credit and financial market risk, in its $8 million Series A funding round. X-Margin enables lenders of all sizes to operate a scalable, data-driven lending business. X-Margin's risk engine currently monitors $2 billion of trading portfolio assets. X-Margin Credit connects institutional lenders and borrowers, and addresses a key issue holding back the growth of credit in the crypto space. Currently, lenders have little visibility over a borrower’s trading risk and often no control over the assets purchased with the credit extended. Borrowers can establish their creditworthiness without revealing sensitive portfolio information through X-Margin’s privacy preserving technology and cryptographic proofs.

San Francisco – August 11, 2021: Crowell & Moring represented BayWa Venture GmbH, the venture capital arm of BayWa AG (BYW:Xetra), in its investment in Amfora, Inc.’s $7 million Series B financing.  Headquartered in Munich, BayWa AG is a globally active group with the core segments of energy, agriculture, and building materials, as well as its development segment of innovation and digitalization. With its significant international expansion in recent years, BayWa AG has become the largest agricultural trader in Germany and one of the leading agricultural commodities trading companies in the world. As a global player, it develops leading projects and solutions for the basic human needs of food, energy, and building.   

San Francisco – February 10, 2021: Crowell & Moring advised Kountable Inc., the leading global trade and technology platform, in connection with its Series A-1 financing lead by Lateral Capital. Kountable secured this round of funding as part of its efforts to expand its U.S. presence and widen its COVID response to further support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Kountable platform operates as the necessary missing element that gets critical goods delivered in difficult market conditions. For the past five years, Kountable has activated the capability of SMEs through is curated execution network to efficiently complete large scale projects for governments, foundations, NGOs, and corporations that have had a positive impact on millions of lives. Kountable has solved the challenges of collaboration between critical but overlooked SMEs who play a key role in the success of vast swaths of global trade activity, global multinational suppliers, funders, and logistics and trade services providers.

San Francisco–June 10, 2020: Crowell & Moring advised Hacker Noon, the technology publishing platform, on a $1 million strategic investment from Coil, the San Francisco-based startup designed to help creators monetize content and provide a premium experience to consumers.