Exclusive: InKind lands $414 million led by Citi to dominate how independent restaurants raise money. The novel financing platform plans to back 10,000 restaurants over the next year - and has raised more than $1 billion in the past six months to fuel the push. BY Kristen Hawley Kristen Hawley is the founder of Expedite, a newsletter focused on restaurant technology and the future of hospitality. Finance platform InKind has raised more than $1 billion in the past six months to invest in an industry many traditional lenders have long considered too risky: independent restaurants. Today, InKind announced $414 million in financing in a round led by Citi and Cross River. The latest funding comes just one month after InKind secured $320 million from Liberty Mutual Investments and six months after announcing a $450 million round of debt and equity funding led by Magnetar, an Illinois-based investment firm. To InKind founder and CEO Johann Moonesinghe, also a restaurateur, the institutional funding is validation of the company's nontraditional financing bet. "Restaurants need a model that recognizes their core economic capability: creating exceptional experiences for guests," he says. "We invented a better way to finance business. Now we have backing from one of the biggest global banks." InKind's novel financing model offers restaurants capital without taking an equity stake in them or charging interest. Instead, InKind buys restaurant dining credit, usually at a 2-to-1 ratio. For example, a restaurant receiving a $500,000 lump-sum investment gives InKind $1 million in credit. InKind sells the credit to diners at a discount (for say, $750,000) and diners can redeem it through the InKind app. Instead of a traditional arrangement where a restaurant repays a portion of profits, it "repays" InKind's investment by honoring the credits over time. InKind plans to use its new capital to increase its footprint - and influence. Already, it's doled out more than $600 million to more than 8,500 restaurants. Over the next year, it wants to back an additional 10,000 businesses with more than $1 billion.

CoreWeave secured a $650 million credit facility in March 2024 to expand its data centre footprint and purchase advanced Nvidia hardware. JPMorgan Chase led the financing, with participation from Blackstone and Magnetar Capital. The GPU-accelerated cloud infrastructure provider plans to use the non-dilutive capital to deploy high-density computing clusters across the United States. The funding allows CoreWeave to acquire expensive Nvidia GPUs without diluting existing shareholders' equity. This facility follows a $2.3 billion debt financing round CoreWeave closed in mid-2023, which used its Nvidia hardware fleet as collateral. The company plans to open multiple new data centres by the end of 2024 to meet growing enterprise demand for generative AI and machine learning compute power.

TerraFirma, a construction robotics company founded by former SpaceX engineers, has raised $115 million in funding. The round includes a $100 million Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures and others. The company develops semi-autonomous construction equipment, including excavators and dozers, that can be operated remotely. Skilled operators control multiple machines simultaneously from screens, potentially making each operator up to 300% more effective. Founded in 2024 by Noah Schochet and Noah McGuinness, TerraFirma is currently working on commercial projects including site preparation for a Starbucks in North Austin and infrastructure projects for the US government. The company aims to address labour shortages in construction whilst building technology applicable for future lunar and Martian construction projects.