Business Roundup

Kemira will sell most of its business in dyes and pigments for paper goods to the colorant specialist ChromaScape. The business has annual sales of about $50 million and operates a plant in Bushy Park, South Carolina.

Ambient Photonics has raised $17.5 million for a manufacturing plant producing solar panels that can charge small electronic devices, even if they are indoors. The technology uses new types of light-sensitive dyes to collect solar energy.

Aqua-Yield has raised $23 million to advance a nanoparticle-based liquid that it touts as making fertilizers more efficient. The company says its additive can reduce fertilizer use by 25% by increasing how much plants absorb.

Encina says it has made high-purity aromatics from plastic waste for the first time. The company plans to build a $1.1 billion plant that uses the catalytic technology in Pennsylvania by the end of 2024.

Stepan is buying the surfactant business of Ohio-based PerformanX Specialty Chemicals. The deal includes customers, intellectual property, and inventory and will add about $20 million in annual sales, Stepan says.

Nimbus Therapeutics has secured $125 million in financing from existing and new investors, including Bill Gates and Pfizer Ventures. The computational drug discovery firm will put the funding toward clinical trials on its small-molecule treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

RayzeBio, a radiopharmaceutical start-up, has raised $160 million in series D ­financing. A Phase 1b clinical trial is enrolling people for treatment with Rayze’s lead candidate, RYZ101, which ­delivers the radioisotope ­actinium-225 to certain tumors.

Novo Nordisk will partner with Microsoft and use the tech giant’s artificial intelligence and cloud to accelerate drug discovery. Programs are already underway to automate the review of scientific literature and predict a person’s risk of developing atherosclerosis.