Top Ten Tech M&A Transactions This Week by Ascento

Deal of the Week

1/12/26 OpenAI buys tiny health records startup Torch for, reportedly, $100M

OpenAI announced it has acquired a tiny startup called Torch for an undisclosed sum. An unnamed source told The Information that OpenAI paid $100 million worth of equity for the startup. Torch’s four-person team is joining OpenAI, both companies said.

Torch was working on an app that combined all of a person’s medical information for AI use from a range of sources such as doctor visits, lab tests, wearables, and other portals, including consumer wellness tests and the like. The Torch team called their tech “a medical memory for AI, unifying scattered records into a context engine.”

TechCrunch

1/14/26 Phenom acquires Included to expand agentic people analytics capabilities

Artificial intelligence-based human resources company Phenom People Inc. announced today that it has acquired Included Inc., an AI-native agentic people analytics platform company that claims to surface actionable insights for faster, smarter workforce decision-making, for an undisclosed price.

Founded in 2021, Included aims to help organizations harness the power of their employee data. Its platform integrates disparate HR and people data sources, such as HR information systems, applicant tracking systems and performance and engagement tools, into a unified dataset.

SiliconAngle

1/14/26 Seraphic Acquisition Arms CrowdStrike for AI Browser Threats

The Austin, Texas-based platform security vendor said the browser has become the new front door for productivity and risk, said Chief Business Officer Daniel Bernard. He said Silicon Valley-based Seraphic stands out for its flexibility in securing any browser without forcing users into a specific product ecosystem and its strength in areas like session shutdown and visibility into AI-enabled web activity.

"The browser has really become a very key focal point to AI adoption, and securing the browser we've seen over the last couple of years be an area where there's an increasing level of enterprise interest," he said. "What we saw with Seraphic was one of the most flexible and robust approaches on the market in terms of having the ability to be relevant and gain the visibility and have enforcement mechanisms."

iSMG

1/14/26 CPG Data Seller SPINS Moves Into Media With MikMak Acquisition

The commerce media puzzle is coming together. On Wednesday, retail and CPG data company SPINS added a new piece with its acquisition of MikMak, a click-to-buy ad tech and analytics startup that helps optimize their commerce media.

The two companies first began talking about a potential partnership last year, SPINS CEO Jay Margolis told AdExchanger. SPINS wanted to expand into MikMak’s space – which is to say, serving online ads and driving online conversions – as an extension of its in-store purchase and shelf-monitoring data offering.

AdExchanger

1/14/26 EA Technology makes first acquisition in grid technology consolidation push

EA Technology has made its first acquisition as part of its strategy to consolidate grid-edge technologies .

The Chester-based electrical network solutions group has bought Fundamentals, the UK’s premier voltage control technology provider, in a deal backed by long-term growth partner Summa Equity. The transaction value was not disclosed.

TheBusinessDesk

1/13/26 Onebrief, now valued at $2 billion, acquires Battle Road

Defense software company Onebrief raised $200 million and snapped up Battle Road Digital, giving its military-planning suite a simulation and wargaming boost.

Onebrief has skyrocketed in just a few short years, riding artificial intelligence and contested logistics waves inside the Pentagon. The company, projected to employ more than 500 people this year, is working with most U.S. combatant commands. Its valuation nearly doubled from $1.1 billion to $2.1 billion in about half of a year.

Axios

1/13/26 Polygon Labs buys two crypto startups for $250 million as it looks to compete with Stripe

The blockchain developer Polygon Labs has closed deals to buy the crypto startups Coinme and Sequence. The total purchase price for the two startups was for more than $250 million, but Polygon Labs declined to disclose how much it paid for each, or whether the deals were for cash, equity, or a mix of both. 

Fortune

1/13/26 Euna Solutions Beefs Up AI Grant Tech via Acquisition

Matching grant money to worthy recipients can often make otherwise moderately emotional professionals pull out their hair.

But a new government technology acquisition by Euna Solutions aims to bring AI-powered efficiency to that labor-intensive process.

GovernmentTechnology

1/12/26 Magnet Defense to Acquire Advanced Technology Group

Magnet Defense, a developer of fully autonomous national security maritime platforms for fleet operations and missile defense missions, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Advanced Technology Group, or ATG.

Magnet Defense said Friday that the acquisition will enhance its DefendAI battlespace management platform by incorporating ATG’s open-architecture artificial intelligence capabilities, including the end-to-end development and integration of advanced command-and-control and AI technologies. Magnet Defense plans to align ATG’s Autonomy Exchange for Interoperable Modularity, or AXIOM, AI-enabled autonomy stack with its own autonomy capabilities.

GovConWire

1/12/26 Hippocratic AI acquires Grove AI, taps life sciences leaders to focus on biopharma, medtech

Hippocratic AI is building out its life sciences division to accelerate generative and agentic artificial intelligence in the biopharma and medtech sectors.

The company, which developed patient-facing generative AI healthcare agents, acquired Grove AI, a startup that offers agentic AI for pharma R&D and clinical trial operations. The company's AI solutions aim to streamline clinical trial participant engagement, notably with an AI agent named "Grace," with the goal of speeding up recruitment and reducing operational burdens in life sciences.

FierceHealthcare