VCs Crowd Into San Francisco; Endeavor Bets on Founders "Elsewhere"

Hi, and welcome to a new edition of The Daily Dealflow — the 5-minute briefing that gives you clear context on capital flows and market-moving trends across the Americas, from Silicon Valley to Buenos Aires. Let's dive in.

🏆 Deal of the Day

Endeavor Catalyst, the venture arm of the New York-based nonprofit Endeavor, closed its fifth fund with $320M in commitments, bringing assets under management above $850M. The fund is led by managing partner Allen Taylor and managing director Jackie Carmel, and about 90% of its investments go outside the U.S.

Why This?: While most VC money keeps crowding into San Francisco, this fund puts its checks where the capital is thinnest, and Latin America remains its largest region. For founders in the Americas, it is a fresh source of capital that arrives alongside a lead investor.

Positive Context:

• Across five funds, Catalyst says it has backed 437 companies in 44 markets, 83 of them now valued at $1B or more, with 39 exits and 11 IPOs. Holdings include ElevenLabs, Replit, Checkout.com and Bending Spoons.
• The plan is 40 to 50 new investments a year and up to 150 companies from this fund, and Europe is the fastest-growing region, with 12 new deals in the first half of 2026 against 14 in all of 2025.

Yes, but: Endeavor is both the general partner and the nonprofit that receives half the profits, a structure that can raise mission and conflict-of-interest questions, and access is limited to Endeavor's selective network – TechCrunch.

Zoom in: Catalyst invests on the same terms as the lead investor in rounds of at least $5M, with checks of $1M to $3M that cannot exceed 10% of a round.

"Half of the fund's profits go back to Endeavor," said Linda Rottenberg, Endeavor co-founder, in TechCrunch.

💰 Venture Capital

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General Medicine (US) – $120M, Series B, nationwide "healthcare store" platform that puts medications, lab tests, telehealth, specialist e-consults and select in-person visits in one searchable catalog with upfront cash and insurance prices. Andreessen Horowitz led, with Matrix, VXI Capital, Eli Lilly, Mercy Health through Granger Management and BoxGroup also in. TJ Parker is CEO and Elliot Cohen is President, and total funding now stands at $152M – FinSMEs.

Siigo (Colombia) – $100M expansion pledge following its acquisition of Chile’s Bsale; purchase price undisclosed. Backed by Accel-KKR and led by David Ortiz, the SME accounting software company adds sales, inventory, and checkout tools—bringing the cash register and the books under one roof – The Investor Society.

Parallel Systems (US) – $100M, Series C, battery-electric autonomous freight rail vehicles meant to compete with short-haul trucking. AVP led, with Hillspire, Agility Global, Cobalt Capital, Anthos Capital, Congruent Ventures, Riot Capital and Collaborative Fund participating, and Matt Soule is CEO. Its Panther rail vehicle runs under FRA-approved pilots, including one in Georgia with short-line operator Genesee & Wyoming – FinSMEs.

Reuse (Chile) – $21M, Series A, retailer phone trade-in and refurbishment platform founded by José Tomás Ulloa and Max Sateler. At One Ventures led, alongside Coppel Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst; early angels cashed out at roughly 4x their investment – The Investor Society.

🏛️ Private Equity

Schneider Electric / PTC (France / US) – $22.6B, strategic acquisition in cash, industrial software maker for CAD, PLM, ALM and SLM. Schneider pays $205 per share for the Boston company and expects to close by the third quarter of 2027. The combined business would have about 15,000 software employees and more than 50,000 software customers, with software and services reaching about 24% of Schneider's revenue – Engineering.com.

C.H. Robinson / RXO (US) – $5.8B, acquisition in cash and stock, truck brokerage and logistics services. RXO holders get $17.25 in cash plus 0.0856 C.H. Robinson shares per RXO share, an implied $30.25, which is a 29% premium to the October 2 close. Dave Bozeman, C.H. Robinson's CEO, is the buyer and Drew Wilkerson, RXO's Chairman and CEO, leads the target, with closing expected in the first half of 2027 – SEC.

Illinois State Bancorp / Byline Bancorp (US) – $87.9M, merger in cash and stock, parent of First Nations Bank and The Bank of Bourbonnais. Shareholders get about 1.4M Byline shares and $28.9M in cash, or $261.23 per share. The target brings about $617.3M in assets and four branches, lifting Byline to about $10.5B in assets and 48 branches, with closing expected in the first quarter of 2027 – Business Wire.

Vaquero Midstream / Energy Transfer (US) – $2.63B, acquisition, Texas midstream business. Bloomberg reported the deal on October 6, and the headline is all that was verifiable at publication time – Bloomberg.

📈 Public & Capital Markets

PTC (US, Nasdaq: PTC) and RXO (US, NYSE: RXO) – M&A reaction, industrial software and logistics. PTC shares surged 33.5% after Schneider Electric agreed to its $22.6B all-cash takeover, and RXO jumped 22.5% after C.H. Robinson agreed to acquire it for $5.8B in cash and stock – Yahoo Finance.

Nvidia (US, Nasdaq: NVDA) – buyback expansion, AI semiconductors. The stock is up nearly 30% this year, approaching a $6T valuation, and the company expanded its buyback authorization by $150B, making it the biggest contributor to the S&P 500's gain this year – Bloomberg Línea.

Skydance (US, NYSE: SKYD) – post-merger trading, media. Shares fell 7.71% on their second day of trading after the company completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery – TheStreet.

Cerebras Systems (US, Nasdaq: CBRS) – stock move, AI chips. Shares rose 9.1% after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the two companies are "working closely together to improve AI processing speed" – Yahoo Finance.

MongoDB (US, Nasdaq: MDB) – stock move, database software. Shares fell about 26% after the CEO departed – TheStreet.

📅 ICYMI

A Los Angeles radio station's morning show now features Coyotec, an AI host cloned from a real host's voice, which reportedly generates 10x ROI on ad revenue despite costing more to run than a human DJ.

The first rule of fight club is: you do not talk about fight club. The second rule is you should not hold unsanctioned human vs. robot cage fights in California, apparently. Robotics startup REK learned that the hard way when it received a cease-and-desist letter from the state’s Athletic Commission after hosting a company-sponsored fight between YouTuber Frankie LaPenna and three robots in San Francisco in September. This is what happens when you take “publicity stunt” literally.

Most ETFs these days are managed by computers. But this old-school option offers a human touch—and top performance.

See you tomorrow,

Jose Kont
The human behind The Investor Society