 Hollywood gathered in a heartfelt moment of remembrance as the late Chadwick Boseman was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — a tribute that drew family, collaborators, admirers, and community leaders from across the country. Among those in attendance was attorney and civic leader Allen Boseman Jr., who joined the crowd in honoring the profound cultural impact and enduring spirit of the beloved actor. A Star for a Storyteller Who Moved the World Chadwick Boseman’s star ceremony was filled with emotion as his family, artistic partners, and fans paid tribute to a man whose work reshaped modern cinema and uplifted millions. From Black Panther’s King T’Challa to his electric portrayals of historical icons like Jackie Robinson and James Brown, Boseman’s career was defined by roles that carried depth, dignity, and purpose. His widow, Simone Ledward-Boseman, accepted the honor on his behalf, speaking to his commitment to truth, representation, and the power of storytelling. Director Ryan Coogler and actress Viola Davis, both long-time collaborators, shared personal memories that resonated deeply with those present — reflections on Chadwick’s discipline, compassion, and unwavering belief in elevating the voices of his community.  The star, the 2,828th on the Walk of Fame, now stands as a permanent reminder of his artistic brilliance and cultural influence. A Moment of Unity and Reflection The ceremony drew a wide array of attendees — from industry figures to public leaders — each present to honor the legacy Chadwick left behind: a celebration of excellence, integrity, and the immense impact Chadwick Boseman had on global audiences. The gathering symbolized something larger — a recognition that Chadwick’s influence reached far beyond film. His legacy resonates in law, business, education, and civic life, inspiring leaders across professions to carry forward the values he embodied.  A Legacy That Lives On Chadwick Boseman’s life was one of purpose — a career defined not only by talent, but by intentional choices that challenged stereotypes and expanded the boundaries of representation in Hollywood. His characters were crafted with care and humanity, and his performances left lasting marks on audiences around the world. The Walk of Fame ceremony served not only as a tribute, but as a reminder of the transformative power of art — and of the responsibility and impact that come with visibility. As the star was unveiled, applause swelled from the crowd. It was a celebration of a life cut too short, but lived with conviction and grace.  Continuing to Honor Chadwick Boseman
For attendees like Allen Boseman Jr. and countless others, the event was both a memorial and a celebration — a moment to acknowledge how deeply Chadwick Boseman shaped a generation of viewers and how strongly his influence continues to echo. His star now shines on Hollywood Boulevard, but more importantly, his work continues to shine in classrooms, workplaces, creative spaces, and communities worldwide. Chadwick Boseman’s legacy is not only remembered; it is lived.  Curi Bio, a Seattle, WA-based company delivering human-relevant functional data for drug discovery and development, raised $10M in Series B funding.
The round was led by DreamCIS. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the development of new platforms for cardiac, skeletal muscle, metabolic, smooth muscle, and neuromuscular diseases and expand its commercial reach across the globe. Led by CEO and PhD Nicholas A. Geisse and CBO Elliot Fisher, Curi Bio generates novel workflows and delivers functional human data to inform biopharmaceutical R&D decision making. Through an integrated platform featuring advanced 3D tissue models of disease, biosystems enabling clinically relevant functional analyses, and advanced automated data analysis, it enables functional and analytical assessments for drug safety, efficacy, and potency. The three-pronged platform strategy integrates:
source[FinSMEs]  Ben Seri (CTO), Sanaz Yashar (CEO), Snir Havdala (CPO). Credit- Eric Sultan Zafran Security, a NYC-based AI-native Threat Exposure Management company, raised $60m in Series C funding.
The round, which brought total funding to $130m, was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital and Cyberstarts, in addition to PSP Growth, Vintage Investment Partners, and Knollwood Investment. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product innovation and global expansion. Led by Sanaz Yashar, CEO, Zafran Security is an AI-native end-to-end Threat Exposure Management platform for security teams to stop vulnerability exploitation everywhere. The company uses existing security tools to prove that 90% of critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, then quickly remediates and mitigates the 10% that are most likely to cause an incident. By launching Agentic Exposure Management, Zafran is now poised to complete the entire end-to-end lifecycle across asset inventory, vulnerability detection, risk assessment, and autonomous remediation workflows. Since their last funding round, the company has doubled its valuation and more than tripled its annual recurring revenue (ARR), driven by rapid adoption across sectors including healthcare, technology, financial services, and manufacturing. Zafran now serves multiple Fortune 500 enterprises. FinSMEs  Nevis, a NYC-based provider of an AI platform for wealth management, raised $35M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Sequoia Capital, ICONIQ, and Ribbit Capital. The raise brought the total amount to $40M, following a $5M seed round which was led by Sequoia. As part of the round, Sequoia’s Luciana Lixandru joined the Nevis board. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts. Nevis was founded by Mark Swan (CEO), Philipp Burda (CPO), and Ivan Chalov (COO), Nevis AI tools that help financial advisors automate their administrative workflows end-to-end, helping wealth management firms serve more clients. Customers include wealth management firms of all sizes, from national RIAs serving high-net-worth clients like United Capital and Apollon Wealth Management, to firms focused on ultra-high-net-worth families like GC Wealth. source[FinSMEs]  Gaurav Bhattacharya Jeeva AI, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI platform that enhances productivity for sales teams, raised $9m in funding.
The round was led by JLL Spark with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Alt Capital (Jack Altman, Sam Altman’s brother), Launch Capital, GTMFund, Nonstop Capital, Coyote Capital, Bonfire Ventures, Techstars, Marc Benioff, and Mucker Capital. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts. Led by Gaurav Bhattacharya, founder and CEO, Jeeva AI is an agentic system that automates end-to-end sales workflows across discovery, outreach, coaching, notes, and CRM management so teams can focus on the call. The company is already serving 35,000 users across more than 300 enterprise customers including JLL, Whisper Energy, Initio Capital, and Deaglo. FinSMEs 
Press release: Mnzil, the Saudi proptech for labour housing solutions, has raised over $11.7 million (SAR 44 million) in a Series A round led by Founders Fund, marking the US fund’s first-ever investment in Saudi Arabia, with participation from COTU Ventures. Founded in 2024 by Abdulmajeed Al-Babtain and Abdulrahman Al-Shaya, Mnzil has rapidly expanded its footprint across more than 13 cities, delivering integrated housing solutions tailored to the needs of companies across multiple sectors. The company now serves over 100 corporate clients, including Smasco, EFSIM, Barq, and Sixt, through an operational network of 60+ fully equipped buildings that meet high standards of comfort and safety — redefining the worker-housing experience in the Saudi market. Mnzil also announced the development of a 22,000-sqm site to build six new workforce-housing buildings, in partnership with local landowners, as part of its strategy to expand and upgrade Saudi Arabia’s labour-accommodation infrastructure. The participation of Founders Fund marks a significant milestone for the Saudi startup ecosystem, signalling growing international investor confidence in the Kingdom’s rapidly transforming service and infrastructure sectors under Vision 2030. source[wamda]  Evidium, a San Francisco, CA-based healthcare AI company, raised $22M in Funding.
The round was led by Health2047, and WGG Partners, with participation from x.AI, Perplexity, Innovaccer, Interwoven Ventures and Mindset Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development, expands its clinical modeling capabilities, and scales go-to-market operations. Led by CEO and Founder Carl Bate, Evidium provides a platform that offers multiple precision products, each addressing specific stakeholder needs. Its precision products today include quality insights for clinicians and care teams, as well as probabilistic forecasting for medical risk bearing organizations including insurers, health plans, and integrated delivery networks (“payviders”). The company says that its products allow stakeholders to better understand each condition and the associated care journey and cost. source[FinSMEs]  London-based startup Monq has come out of stealth, raising $3 million in pre-seed funding to launch its AI-powered strategic negotiation platform.
The round was led by Outward VC, with participation from Cornerstone VC, Portfolio Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Endurance Ventures, Lakestar Halo, and several strategic angel investors. Founded in April by Revolut and Deutsche Bank alumni Yasin Bostancı and Duygu Gözeler Porchet, Monq tackles a key inefficiency in enterprise operations: optimizing how global corporations negotiate high-stakes deals. High-value supplier contracts, ranging from $1 million to $100 million are critical for enterprises across sectors like manufacturing, technology, logistics and professional services. Despite representing a $10.4 trillion market, strategic procurement remains largely manual, with nearly 25% of time spent on low-value tasks and decisions often driven by intuition rather than data. Many current technology solutions merely add AI to existing processes rather than transforming how procurement teams work. Monq’s multi-agent AI system uses LLM-based reasoning, contract intelligence, and behavioral science to assist not replace human decision-making. Each agent analyzes deal history, supplier performance, and negotiation patterns to predict responses, suggest levers and, when authorized, manage deals autonomously. Teams maintain control, delegating as desired, and focus on high-value strategy. Yasin Bostancı, Monq’s co-founder and CEO, highlighted that strategic procurement has lagged in automation adoption, as it still depends largely on human intuition rather than data-driven, automated processes. By empowering procurement teams with strong, actionable, data-driven and intelligent insights, we’re giving enterprises the speed, clarity and confidence to negotiate at a new scale while unlocking billions in hidden deal flow, value and efficiency before that value is lost to the company. The funding will help Monq scale its pilot programs, expand operations, and build dedicated engineering and product teams across the EU, US, and Middle East. The company is launching with a subscription model and plans to explore value-based pricing, where clients pay a percentage of savings achieved using its platform. About Monq Monq, founded in 2025 automates high-value, low-volume enterprise negotiations. Its AI agents combine market intelligence with human-like reasoning to optimize deals end-to-end, from opportunity analysis to contract execution, helping businesses negotiate smarter, faster, and more profitably while turning every negotiation into a strategic advantage.  SubImage, a San Francisco, CA-based company bringing an open-core cloud security graph to the enterprise, raised $4.2M in seed funding.
Backers included FundersClub, Y Combinator, Phosphor Capital, and Transpose Platform. The company will be using the funds to grow its engineering team, expand customer pilots, and ship new features. Co-founded by Alex Chantavy and Kunaal Sikka, who both worked on security teams across government, enterprises, and hypergrowth startups, SubImage brings an open-core cloud security graph to the enterprise. It maps an entire infrastructure so users know exactly what’s exposed, misconfigured, or needs attention first. Security teams use it to fix vulnerabilities, identify ownership, and respond to incidents faster. source[FinSMEs]  Clover Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based product security company, raised $36M in funding.
The round was led by Notable Capital and Team8 with participation from SVCI, Wiz co-founders Assaf Rappaport and Yinon Costica, Shlomo Kramer of Cato Networks, Rene Bonvanie, and executives from Snyk, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Atlassian, and Google. The company intends to use the funds to expand its product and its go-to-market efforts. Founded by Alon Kollmann and Or Chen, Clover Security embeds AI agents into tools such as Confluence, Jira, GitHub, Cursor, and Slack to detect design flaws early and enable developers to build securely from the start. Its AI agents replicate the thinking of experienced security engineers, understand how systems behave, anticipate where security flaws can show up, and apply security principles long before development begins. Clover is already deployed at companies across banking, enterprise technology, and fintech, including Fortune 500 companies. Its customer base includes Udemy, ServiceTitan, Lemonade, PROS, and Virgin Money, as well as private innovators such as Plaid, Notion, Neo4j, and Lead Bank. The company promises that security teams are relieved from repetitive manual work, while developers receive real-time security feedback within their everyday workflows. source [FinSMEs]
 Interface, a San Francisco-based provider of an AI powered industrial safety platform for most critical industries, such as energy and chemicals, raised $3.5M in Seed funding.
Backers included defy.vc, Precursor Ventures, and Rock Yard Ventures, along with some angel investors such as Meta board member Charlie Songhurst. The company is already working with large energy companies in the US and Canada, and recently started talks to expand its presence to producers in Guyana and Brazil as it scales across the Americas. Co-founded by Thomas Lee Young, and Aaryan Mehta, Interface provides an AI powered platform that plugs into existing systems, cross-checks standards, and gives operators a safety copilot that cuts document review time unplanned downtime and regulatory exposure. source[FinSMEs]  Deduction, a US-based FinTech specialising in AI-driven tax automation and human-CPA-supported services, has launched “Taylor, CPAI,” which it describes as the first AI tax accountant designed specifically for consumers.
The company has emerged from stealth alongside a $2.8m pre-seed funding round led by One Way Ventures and Creator Ventures, with participation from Alpine VC, Intuition, Charley Moore of Rocket Lawyer, and angel investors from OpenAI and Robinhood. The launch of Taylor, CPAI comes as Deduction seeks to transform the way everyday taxpayers access accounting support. The company aims to bridge the gap between rising tax complexity and the growing shortage of CPAs, while offering a faster, more affordable alternative to traditional accountants. The FinTech currently helps consumers communicate with Taylor, CPAI via call, text, chat, or email without the need for an app or lengthy questionnaires. The system automates document collection, proactive planning, return generation, and financial Q&A, while ensuring all critical steps are reviewed by human professionals. Taylor, CPAI offers users fast answers, compliant filings, and proactive tax optimisation. It also identifies deductions and credits, sources documents such as W2s and 1099s, reads a wide variety of financial forms, and tracks tax-related events including RMDs and option exercises. All filings are overseen by licensed CPAs, and the platform includes a 100% guarantee against interest and penalties. Deduction co-founder and CEO Sai Dhanak said, “Most AI tax tools are B2B, and focus on software for accountants and increasing margins. We built Deduction to radically improve the end-customer experience. With Taylor, CPAI, anyone can have a personal accountant, without the wait, the paperwork, or the high expense.” Deduction co-founder and CTO Jonathank Kieliszak said, “The big consumer AI tools largely cater to users with very generalized tasks and needs. But a great accountant is highly specialized, refined and experienced, which is why Taylor is built alongside our human CPA team with specific guardrails and information sources to deliver trustworthy tax support.” source [Fintech Global]  Stuut Technologies, a NYC-based AI platform that automates accounts receivable work for companies, raised $29.5m in combined Series A funding.
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Activant Capital, Khosla Ventures, 1984.vc, Page One Ventures, Vesey Ventures, Carya Venture Partners, and Valley Ventures. Seema Amble from Andreessen Horowitz and Steve Sarracino from Activant Capital will join the board. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development and expand its autonomous account receivable capabilities for mid-market and enterprise companies across six key functionalities: collections, payments, cash application, deductions, credits, and disputes. Founded by Tarek Alaruri, Miraj Mohsin, and Ben Winter, Stuut Technologies provides autonomous AI agents that handle collections, cash application, payments, and deductions, learning each customer’s patterns while integrating with existing ERP systems. Stuut integrates with SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Dynamics, and other major financial systems and works for international businesses. Customers include ZoomInfo, Bishop Lifting, Honeywell, and PerkinElmer. FinSMEs  Norm Ai, a NYC-based legal and compliance AI company, raised $50M in funding.
The round was led by Blackstone, through Blackstone Innovations Investments and funds affiliated with Blackstone Growth. The company intends to sue the funds to expand operations and its development efforts. Ledd by CEO Norm Ai is a legal and compliance AI company that turns legal code into AI code enabling enterprises to move faster and more comprehensively in their legal and compliance processes. Its platform combines frontier AI, proprietary legal reasoning systems, and embedded legal and regulatory expertise. The company has also launched Norm Law LLP, which will offer AI-native legal services, with an initial focus on financial services clients. Blackstone, along with global banks, hedge funds, insurance companies, and other asset managers, leverages its solutions to streamline key legal and compliance workflows. Norm Ai has raised more than $140M to date. FinSMEs  SAN FRANCISCO---Synthio Labs, a clinical-grade voice AI company transforming how life sciences organisations engage clinicians and patients, today announced that it has raised $5 million in seed funding. The round was led by Elevation Capital with participation from 1984 Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Y Combinator, and several strategic angels from the global healthcare and AI ecosystem.
“We believe Synthio Labs is defining the next major Customer Engagement infrastructure for Life Sciences. Their Clinical-grade Voice AI platform unifies how pharma communicates - giving field teams a powerful voice companion, and giving physicians and patients instant, trusted, compliant answers 24/7. Pharma’s global Commercial and GTM footprint is a trillion-dollar machine ripe for reinvention, and Synthio has exactly the right team to deliver on this mission,” said Krishna Mehra, AI Partner, Elevation Capital. Pharma companies spend over $30 billion every year to engage doctors and patients, yet most communication is still manual, fragmented, and difficult to scale. Doctors are flooded with information, and many patients do not get regular support, leading to treatment drop-off rates of up to 50% in long-term illnesses. Synthio Labs aims to solve this problem with compliant and real-time Voice AI that helps deliver clear, accurate medical information to every doctor and patient. This technology can support pharma companies and healthcare providers globally, especially in chronic care and large patient support programs. Synthio Labs’ AI Operating System unifies three flagship platforms: Jarvis, the clinical-grade Voice AI copilot for field teams; Ather, the multimodal AI engine that powers seamless omnichannel engagement with physicians and patients; and Simulation Studio, the advanced insight platform that generates high-fidelity digital twins of clinicians and patients for research and strategy. Together, these products help life-sciences teams automate compliant conversations, capture structured intelligence at scale, and deliver consistent, human-grade experiences to every clinician and patient. “Beyond breakthrough medicines, the future of healthcare will depend on how we reach and support every clinician and patient who relies on them,” said Supreet Deshpande, Co-founder and CEO of Synthio Labs. “At Synthio, we’re building the AI infrastructure that makes that possible - intelligently, compliantly, and at scale,” added Rajashekar Vasantha, Co-founder and CTO. Sahitya Sridhar, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, said, “We’re designing products that make every conversation between pharma and their customers smarter, faster, and more meaningful. Healthcare is moving into a world of abundance. Our view is simple: bring consumer-grade experiences to pharma and empower the people delivering care.” Early adopters include several of the Top 10 Pharma Companies and leading D2C healthcare brands who are using Synthio’s Voice AI to transform physician and patient engagement. In one project, Synthio’s Voice AI reached more than 5,000 eczema patients in 48 hours, highlighting its ability to scale personalized support rapidly. Rafal Pielak, Founder and CEO, Soteri Skin, said, “It’s been a pleasure working with the Synthio Labs team. They built a voice AI agent that engaged thousands of eczema patients, completing 5,000 calls in just two days. The agent supported onboarding, screening, and patient assistance end-to-end, fully automating our feedback and review collection. We’re very happy with the results and look forward to working together again.” Synthio Labs was founded by Supreet Deshpande, Sahitya Sridhar and Rajashekar Vasantha, an India-origin team with early academic and professional roots in the country. The founders bring deep expertise across pharma strategy and advanced AI engineering, built through leadership roles at McKinsey, ZS Associates, Amazon and Audible. They have led multi-million-dollar commercial programmes for global life sciences companies and played key roles in developing foundational LLMs and multi-agent voice systems at Amazon and Audible. The company plans to use this funding to expand its engineering and product teams, scale enterprise deployments across the U.S. and Europe, and deepen its partnerships with leading life sciences clients. Synthio aims to establish AI-driven engagement as the new standard for how pharma teams support clinicians and patients globally. For more details, please refer to this video link: Synthio Labs Funding Announcement About Synthio Labs Synthio Labs is a clinical-grade conversational voice AI company that helps life sciences organizations engage clinicians and patients through secure, compliant, and intelligent voice technology. Its suite of AI products Jarvis, Ather, and Simulation Studio, powers omnichannel engagement for global pharma and biotech teams. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with teams across India and the U.S., Synthio is backed by Elevation Capital, Peak XV Partners, 1984 Ventures, Y Combinator, and leading life sciences investors. ContactsMedia Contact: Dixit Suthar, Founders Office [email protected] source -(BUSINESS WIRE) 
SAN FRANCISCO--Kaaj, an agentic AI credit intelligence platform that simplifies small business lending, today announced it has raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from Better Tomorrow Ventures and others. Founded in 2024, Kaaj's mission is to expand access to affordable capital for all small businesses. Using agentic AI workflows to help lenders analyze end-to-end loan packages and create decision-ready analysis for small business lending, Kaaj reduces lender costs and accelerates decision-making. Kaaj’s founding team combines deep AI expertise and risk experience. Utsav Shah, co-founder and CEO, spent a decade at Uber and Cruise, building AI-powered decision-making systems at scale. Shivi Sharma, co-founder and President, is an expert in credit and fraud risk, formerly of American Express, Uber, and Varo Bank. The capital will accelerate product development and expand Kaaj's reach across the $1.7 trillion U.S. small-business lending market and the $1.3 trillion equipment finance market. A Unique Market Opportunity: Expanding Access to Affordable Capital for Undercapitalized Small Businesses Across the U.S. Small business formation has surged to record levels over the past two years, with U.S. small businesses now numbering more than 33 million. However, access to capital remains a critical challenge. According to the Federal Reserve 2024 Small Business Credit Survey, approximately 50% of small business loan applicants fail to receive the full amount of capital they need, leaving businesses undercapitalized at crucial growth stages. A major reason for this gap is that for most lenders, loans under $1m are not profitable using current manual, time-intensive underwriting approaches. To solve this, Kaaj's platform deploys AI agents that work together to automate the entire credit analysis process, from business verification and cash flow analysis to asset valuation, financial analysis, and risk assessment. What traditionally takes underwriters days of manual work across thousands of documents, Kaaj completes the work in under three minutes, delivering decision-ready analysis that integrates seamlessly into existing loan origination systems. "Lenders face a fundamental profitability problem: it takes the same amount of time and resources to underwrite a $100,000 loan as it does a $5 million loan," said Shivi Sharma, President and co-founder of Kaaj. "This forces lenders to prioritize larger loans, leaving millions of small businesses without access to the capital they need to operate and grow. Kaaj's platform doesn't just speed things up. It fundamentally changes the economics of small business lending, making smaller loans profitable for lenders while improving the borrower experience." The platform has already processed over $5 billion in loan applications and has a growing customer base of lenders and brokers with industry-leading companies like Amur Equipment Finance, Quality Equipment Finance, and Fundr. Addressing Both Sides of the Small Business Lending Ecosystem Kaaj serves both lenders and brokers, who together represent the vast majority of small business financing activity. For lenders, the platform enables profitable scaling without proportional headcount growth, allowing a team processing 500 applications monthly to handle 2,000 applications with the same staff. For brokers, Kaaj adds intelligent lender matching capabilities, routing deals to the most appropriate financing sources. "Time kills deals in small business lending," said CEO and co-founder Utsav Shah. "When multiple lenders compete for the same quality borrowers, speed determines winners. Faster, more consistent decisions with clear data help brokers reduce administration time and focus on delivering bespoke advice and guidance for small businesses. For lenders, Kaaj speeds up the response time to minutes instead of days, demonstrably improving their approval-to-funding ratios so they don't lose quality deals to competitors." By integrating with popular CRM systems like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, HubSpot, Zoho, and more, Kaaj goes live in as little as three weeks. Consistency and Transparency in an Inconsistent Industry Beyond speed, Kaaj addresses a critical but often overlooked problem in commercial lending: inconsistency. Through behavioral studies shadowing credit underwriters, Kaaj's team discovered that decision-making varies dramatically by factors such as time of day, workload, and day of week: an inconsistency that frustrates brokers and borrowers. Every deal Kaaj analyzes receives the same comprehensive due diligence, regardless of external factors. This consistency improves decision quality while making the entire process more transparent and audit-ready, critical factors in today's regulatory environment. The platform's transparency is built into its architecture. Every data point, calculation, and insight is fully traceable and verifiable, ensuring lenders can demonstrate clear audit trails for regulators while maintaining full control over final lending decisions. Investor Backing "Small business lending has long struggled with a fundamental economics problem, the cost to underwrite smaller loans hasn't matched the returns, leaving millions of businesses underserved," said Kanyi Maqubela, Managing Partner, Kindred Ventures. "Kaaj is solving this by fundamentally changing the unit economics of SMB lending through intelligent automation. The platform doesn't just incrementally improve efficiency; it unlocks an entirely new category of profitable lending that was previously inaccessible.” "We're backing a team with the rare combination of deep AI expertise and domain knowledge in credit risk to build the infrastructure that will power the next generation of small business finance," said Jake Gibson, Founding Partner, Better Tomorrow Ventures. "What impressed us most was Kaaj's approach to building transparent, audit-ready AI that enhances rather than replaces human judgment,” said Sheel Mohnot Co-Founder & General Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures. “In an industry where consistency and compliance are paramount, this is exactly the kind of infrastructure innovation that expands access to financial services for underserved communities." About Kaaj Kaaj is an agentic AI credit intelligence platform that automates small business loan underwriting from application to decision-ready analysis. The San Francisco-based company integrates seamlessly with existing loan origination systems, enabling lenders and brokers to scale efficiently while maintaining consistency and transparency. Kaaj's mission is to expand access to affordable capital for all small businesses by empowering lenders with best-in-class technology. For more information, visit https://kaaj.ai/ -- source[BusinessWire] by Kasey Brown
We’re about to get into it today. No fluff. No “post 3x a week and hope for the best.” Just what actually works. 1. Start with money, not content. Most people ask. “What should I post about?” Wrong question. Ask this: “How am I trying to make money?” Once you know that, reverse-engineer your ICP. Once you know your ICP, you know what content matters. Your content strategy should lead to revenue. Not just engagement. ——-- 2. Solve the hidden problem. The problem everyone’s talking about? That’s not your angle. The hidden problem—the thing your ICP doesn’t even know they have yet—that’s where you win. You don’t have to be better. You HAVE to be different. And different comes from naming what nobody else will say. ——-- 3. Everything serves one transformation. Every post moves your ICP from their hidden problem to their desired state. That’s it. That’s the filter. You’ve got 4 content types: → Personal stories (your journey) → Other people’s stories (clients, case studies, celebrities) → Frameworks (teaching posts like this) → Client results (proof it works) Mix them up. But they all serve the same transformation. ——-- 4. Post 4x a week minimum. Between now and Christmas, you need to show up. Not because “consistency” is some guru mantra. Because your ICP needs to see you enough times to remember you exist. But here’s the key: only commit to what you can actually sustain. You can only be consistent if you enjoy what you’re creating. Optimize for joy, not obligation. ——-- 5. Connect with 20 people per day. To help. Not to pitch. Send thoughtful messages. Engage with their content. Be genuinely useful. Givers receive 10x more than takers. Your content is giving. Your outreach is giving. Stay in that mode and watch what happens. ——-- 6. Build one lead magnet by week 2. One guide or resource that solves your ICP’s hidden problem. This does two things: First, it changes how they see you. When you help for free, your brand becomes magnetic. Second, it gets them on your email list so you can nurture them outside LinkedIn’s algorithm. One good lead magnet > 100 mediocre posts. ——-- 7. Stop overthinking. The post that scares you? That’s the one. The story that feels too personal? That’s the one. The framework you think is “too simple”? That’s the one. Perfect doesn’t get traction. Honest does. ——-- That’s it. Six weeks until Christmas. You don’t need a complicated strategy. You need clarity on who you’re serving, what problem you’re solving, and the discipline to show up. If you want help actually doing this—not just thinking about it—Cohort 3 of Brick by Brick opens December 15th. 12 weeks. Daily accountability. Building the best of the best.  With a grant funded by Jack Dorsey, Rabble has created a new social video app - diVine - an open source revival of Vine videos and its six-second video creation capabilities
Web Summit Lisbon, November 13, 2024Today, Rabble, one of Twitter's first employees and the person who hired Jack Dorsey, has launched diVine, an open-source social video app built on the Nostr protocol. The project, currently in beta mode, is funded by Dorsey through his non-profit "And Other Stuff." diVine revives the short-form video format popularized by Vine, which Dorsey shut down in early 2017 during his tenure as Twitter's CEO. The new video app reimagines the concept as a decentralized, open-source alternative. Bringing Back Beloved Vine Content & Giving Creators Owner Rights diVine provides access to over 100,000 archived Vine videos from the Internet Archive, which until now have been inaccessible, and allows users to make their own six-second videos and follow creators they love. Original Vine creators will also be able to reclaim ownership of their content, add new content, and, if they wish, request their content and account be removed as long as their accounts had been previously verified in Twitter. Taking A Stand Against AI Slop With AI-produced content fast becoming indistinguishable from regular content, AI slop has been flooding centralized mainstream social media platforms with requirements to tag AI content being largely ignored or enforced. diVine, which flags suspected GenAI content and prevents it from being posted, has been designed to bring back the days of 'real content made by real people'. Ad-based Algorithms Aren't the Only Approach "Social media is social first: it's about people and human connection. Vine represented an era of authentic human expression in six-second looping videos. Big tech companies want to remove the people and make all AI-generated social media apps where users are passive consumers of the algorithmic feed," says Rabble. "I want to show people that we don't need to settle for this dystopia. The new diVine app is built on open source permissionless open protocols, and reflects the rights I outlined in my call for a new social media Bill of Rights. With apps like diVine we can see the alternative. It's possible to enable creators to publish engaging content, without needing to game an ad algorithm which promotes toxicity and thrives on conflict," said Rabble. "They should also have full ownership of their content, and the right to remove it if they so desire, along with the ability to be compensated for their creativity." The Nostr protocol works just like internet or email protocols where the user chooses their web browser, or email service provider, and regardless of their choice, can still access all of their contacts and their content. "Nostr - the underlying open source protocol being used by diVine - is empowering developers to create a new generation of apps without the need for VC-backing, toxic business models or huge teams of engineers," says Jack Dorsey. "The reason I funded the non-profit, and Other Stuff, is to allow creative engineers like Rabble to show what's possible in this new world, by using permissionless protocols which can't be shut down based on the whim of a corporate owner." diVine is open to a limited number of users for beta testing at divine.video/open-source. For more information: [email protected] +1 415 740 8174 [source]  6x ARR growth and 10x enterprise customer expansion position Sweet for market dominance as global demand surges for real-time protection across Cloud and AI environments Sweet Security Raises $75M in Series B. Pictured (left to right): Eyal Fisher, co-founder and CPO; Dror Kashti, co-founder and CEO; Orel Ben Ishay, co-founder and VP R&D. TEL AVIV, Israel -- (BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sweet Security, a leader in Runtime CNAPP and AI security solutions, today announced it has raised $75 million in Series B funding led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Munich Re Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, and Key1 Capital, bringing the company’s total funding to $120 million. The investment will accelerate global expansion and product innovation to meet fast growing enterprise demand for real-time protection across the entire cloud, AI systems, and production environments. Sweet also introduced new AI security capabilities that secure models, agents, and the full AI lifecycle, further strengthening its leadership in the emerging Runtime CNAPP and AI security market. As the CNAPP market shifts toward runtime-first protection, Sweet has emerged as the preferred platform among global enterprises, displacing incumbent vendors and redefining how organizations secure production environments. The funding follows a year of hypergrowth for Sweet, marked by a sixfold increase in ARR and a tenfold rise in enterprise customers, including multiple Fortune 1000 organizations. The company’s leadership is reinforced by a newly granted U.S. patent, covering features like training an LLM to identify anomalous log sessions – dramatically reducing noise and exposing complex, multi-step attacks that traditional rule-based systems miss. “Sweet Security stands out in one of the most competitive segments of cybersecurity,” said Richard Seewald, Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution Equity Partners. “The company’s ability to combine real-time cloud protection with AI-powered intelligence is unlike anything else in the market – redefining how enterprises secure the modern cloud and go about securing their AI environments.” Redefining the CNAPP Market While Pioneering the AI Security Market As agentic AI becomes more prominent in organization workflows and gains access to business critical data sources, it brings with it a host of new risks – from lacking even simple visibility through intricate vulnerabilities and emerging kinds of attacks, not found in traditional microservices. To solve this gap, Sweet offers an AI Security Platform (AISP), which gives AI teams the ability to discover every model and agent, understand how they interact, and identify misconfigurations or over-permissioned access before they create risk. Building on its runtime-powered cloud protection, Sweet now brings the same comprehensive insight and control to AI environments:
The result is organizations where AI teams can build, deploy, and operationalize AI systems that are both high-performing and resilient by design. “No one else approaches runtime cloud and AI protection the way we do,” said Dror Kashti, co-founder and CEO of Sweet Security. “Cloud attacks no longer follow predictable patterns - they evolve dynamically, just like the AI systems enterprises are now building. Protecting those environments demands real-time understanding of how models, agents, and workloads behave - not static snapshots of configurations.” “Sweet Security has built a leading runtime cloud security offering, extending robust protection across cloud, data, workloads, and AI,” said James Berthoty, Latio Tech. “This enables teams to secure both traditional and AI applications running in the cloud." About Sweet Security Sweet Security is redefining enterprise cloud protection. As the leading provider of Runtime CNAPP solutions and a pioneer in AI Security, Sweet unifies runtime context with advanced AI intelligence to protect the modern enterprise across applications, workloads, and infrastructure. Its platform delivers real-time detection and response, vulnerability and posture management, identity threat protection, and API security – powered by its patented, LLM-driven detection engine, reducing alert noise to just 0.04%. By bridging cloud and AI security, Sweet enables organizations to accelerate innovation, reduce operational risk, and achieve industry-leading MTTR times. Sweet Security was founded by Dror Kashti, CEO, Eyal Fisher, CPO, and Orel Ben Ishay VP R&D. Privately funded, Sweet is backed by Evolution Equity Partners, Munich Re Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, CyberArk Ventures, and an elite group of angel investors. For more information, users can visit sweet.security. Contacts Media Contact Shiri Glazer Sweet Security [email protected]   Agentio, a NYC-based provider of an AI-native platform for creator-led advertising, raised $40M in Series B funding.
Forerunner led the round with participation from Benchmark, Craft Ventures, AlleyCorp, Antler, and Starting Line. The company intends to use the funds to advance its AI infrastructure, expand creator content buys beyond YouTube to Meta Partnership Ads and additional platforms, and grow its team from 35 to over 100 employees in 2026. Led by CEO Arthur Leopold, and CTO Jonathan Meyers, Agentio provides an AI platform that operates as a two-sided network connecting brands and creators. It enables a) brands to get agentic tooling to build, automate, and scale their creator programs, and b) creators to get personalized opportunities from brands without negotiation. Companies, including Warby Parker, Away, Chime, and The Farmer’s Dog, used Agentio’s platform for the creator programs. The raise brought the total amount to $56M and valued the company at $340M. source[FinSMEs]  OutcomesAI, a Boston, MA-based healthcare company building a new model of scalable nursing, raised $10m in seed financing.
The round was led by Santé Ventures. As part of the financing, Joe Cunningham, M.D., Founding Managing Director of Santé Ventures; Linda Finkel, Senior Advisor, AVIA; Dennis McWilliams, Managing Director at Santé Ventures; and Kevin White, Ph.D., Co-founder of Tempus AI, will join the Board of Directors, alongside Founder and CEO Kuldeep Singh Rajput. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its commercial rollout, launch dedicated nursing service lines, and scale enterprise partnerships across health systems, virtual care providers, and pharma. OutcomesAI combines AI voice agents with licensed nurses to extend nursing capacity, reduce costs, and give patients access to care. Glia®, its AI engine purpose-built for nursing, combines AI voice agents that manage inbound and outbound patient calls with licensed OutcomesAI nurses delivering services like triage, virtual care, post-acute follow-up, and patient support programs. Voice agents capture symptoms, schedule visits, coordinate follow-ups, and provide education — all in multiple languages — while nurses are supported by AI productivity tools like real-time scribing and protocol guidance. In 2024, the company launched the OutcomesAI Collaboratory, bringing together five health systems and virtual care companies to validate Glia’s safety, accuracy, and clinical performance. Building on these results, OutcomesAI will publish real-world case studies demonstrating measurable ROI — including early findings where Glia reduced nurse workload by hundreds of hours per month while doubling patient-to-nurse ratios. source; FinSMEs  Planera, San Jose, CA-based visual collaborative scheduling for construction company, raised $8M in new funding.
Backers were Sorenson Capital, Sierra Ventures, Prudence, and Brick and Mortar Ventures, Zachry Construction Corporation, and other construction industry executives. The company intends to use the funds to expand adoption among contractors and subcontractors building new data center projects. Led by CEO Nitin Bhandari, Planera is a provider of visual, CPM-based construction scheduling solutions that improve project planning and management. It has established a dedicated service team with data center knowledge to support its customers in the segment. The company has also developed new AI tools to help these customers to identify potential project delays early and find opportunities to accelerate their project schedules. It is used by industry leaders including Balfour Beatty, Barton Malow, Big-D Construction, HITT Contracting, Ryan Companies, Skanska, and Zachry Construction. The raise, which followed its Series A in 2024, brought total funding to $26.5M. source; FinSMEs  by Sharon V
In a crowded creative landscape where attention spans are shrinking and brand noise is louder than ever, one agency is proving that timeless strategy still beats fleeting trends. Meet Stopwatch Creative — a full-service creative studio built on precision, storytelling, and impact. A Fresh Take on Creativity Founded on the idea that “good ideas deserve great execution,” Stopwatch Creative bridges the gap between design and direction. Their team combines branding, digital marketing, and content strategy to help organizations not only look good but also grow stronger. From startups looking to launch with clarity to established brands seeking a fresh voice, Stopwatch Creative tailors each project around one core principle: strategy drives creativity, not the other way around. “Anyone can make something look nice — we make it make sense,” says a member of the Stopwatch team. “Our goal is to build brands that last longer than the latest trend.” What Sets Them Apart Stopwatch Creative has built a reputation for translating complex ideas into cohesive visual and digital experiences. Their work spans:
Their clients appreciate the agency’s collaborative process — one that blends analytical thinking with creative intuition. Stopwatch Creative isn’t just about producing content; it’s about crafting a narrative that resonates and drives action. Designing for Results What makes Stopwatch Creative stand out is its balance of creativity and accountability. The team treats every brand like a living, evolving story — one that deserves a strong foundation, a compelling visual language, and a marketing strategy that delivers real-world ROI. Their portfolio showcases everything from community-driven campaigns to brand overhauls for tech startups and cultural organizations. The common thread: straightforward storytelling and consistent execution. Manny Larcher, co-founder and CEO of Stopwatch Creative, brings a rare combination of marketing expertise, startup experience, and venture insight to the agency. Having co-founded successful startups, guided clients through multi-million-dollar exits, and launched global growth platforms, Manny ensures every project at Stopwatch Creative is grounded in strategy, impact, and measurable results. In an era where creative agencies often chase trends, Stopwatch Creative is earning attention by doing something rare — building brands with meaning, purpose, and measurable momentum. If your organization is ready to refine its message, reimagine its look, or rethink how it connects with audiences, Stopwatch Creative might be the partner to get you there — on time and on point. 👉 Learn more at stopwatchcreative.com  HiOctave, a San Francisco, CA-based AI software company helping small and mid‑sized businesses (SMBs) automate and personalize customer experiences, announced its launch and $15M in funding. The round was led by Vinod Khosla and Khosla Ventures. Additional investors and shareholders included Celesta Capital, Anthology Fund, operated jointly by Anthropic and Menlo Ventures, and Carya Venture Partners. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development and go‑to‑market as HiOctave delivers enterprise‑grade automation, at SMB‑friendly price points, to help business owners rebuild direct, durable relationships with their customers. Led by CEO Golan Agmon, HiOctave combines AI speed and human care to deliver efficient, personal customer engagement. Its products suite offers:
source; FinSMEs
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