 source[FinSMEs]: Navigara, a San Francisco, CA-based developer of an engineering performance measurement layer, raised $2.5M in seed funding.
The round was led by Inovo VC, with participation from Rockaway Ventures and QQ Capital. The company intends to use the funds to scale its AI-driven performance analysis platform, expand its global presence, and strengthen its mission to provide CTOs with objective data on engineering ROI and AI tool impact. Led by Founder and CEO Jirka Bachel, Navigara is advancing a platform that connects to development tools like GitHub, GitLab, Jira, and Linear to translate raw activity into strategic signals. The system uses agentic analysis to evaluate code commits for intent and impact, helping leaders distinguish between genuine productivity gains and “AI noise” or structural waste. The company prioritizes data sovereignty by deploying within customers’ private cloud environments with read-only access and zero code retention, making it suitable for high-compliance enterprise settings. The company also has engineering operations in Prague. source[FinSMEs]  Escargot, a NYC-based developer of an AI-powered greeting card mobile app, raised $2.75m in funding.
The round was co-led by Wischoff Ventures and Hannah Grey Ventures, with participation from South Park Commons and Magic Fund. The company intends to use the funds to advance its AI-driven card creation features and scale its physical card delivery infrastructure. Led by Andrew Gold and Aaron Albert, Escargot provides an app that enables users to design and mail physical greeting cards for any occasion — birthdays, holidays, congratulations. The platform leverages AI to remix artistic styles and analyzes user calendars and contacts to proactively suggest specific occasions for sending personalized correspondence. The startup has already established a presence in the mobile gifting market. sorce[FinSMEs]  [CONSTRUCTION OWNERS]: MeltPlan, an AI-native pre-construction AI platform founded in 2025, today announced its $10 Mn Seed funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from noa. This brings the total funds raised by the company to $14 Mn.
The new capital will be used to advance MeltPlan’s “planning engine” for the $14 Tn construction industry, an AI system purpose-built to optimize critical decisions before construction begins. The funding will accelerate MeltPlan’s product development across code, cost, schedule, and value decision systems. While design software optimizes use and aesthetics, and construction software optimizes execution and control, MeltPlan is building the missing layer: software that optimizes decisions and trade-offs upstream, before scope is locked, procurement begins, and change orders become inevitable. “Construction doesn’t fail because teams are not skilled or execute poorly,” said Kanav Hasija, Co-founder and CEO of MeltPlan. “It fails because preconstruction teams are fragmented and commit too early with incomplete information. We’re building an AI system that allows teams to evaluate constraints, run scenarios, and align before plans are frozen.”Hasija previously co-founded Innovaccer, a $3 billion healthcare technology company, Innovaccer, to make healthcare in the US more affordable and accessible. At Innovaccer, he architected the proprietary Data Activation Platform, widely regarded as the first full-stack data platform purpose-built for value-based healthcare. By bringing structure, intelligence, and interoperability to one of the world’s most complex and regulated industries, Hasija helped health systems move from fragmented data to coordinated, value-based care. Drawing from that experience, he is now applying the same systems thinking to construction, an industry facing similar challenges of silos, irreversible decisions, regulatory complexity, and massive financial risk. He is joined by Tanmaya Kala, Co-founder and COO, a Stanford-educated civil engineer who was project executive at DPR Construction, handling large commercial, healthcare, and life science projects. MeltPlan’s long-term goal is to help teams make construction “boring” by making planning more intense: surfacing constraints and tradeoffs early, aligning stakeholders before plans are frozen, and reducing the need for late-stage redlines, rework, and change orders. “Construction should be boring,” said Hasija. “Planning should be intense. If your construction phase is stressful, something went wrong earlier.” “Built environment workflows are full of irreversible decisions made under uncertainty,” said Pankaj Mitra, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “MeltPlan is approaching preconstruction as a system, not a phase, building a visionary ‘planning engine’ layer that helps teams quantify tradeoffs early and reduce downstream volatility.” MeltPlan is working with top enterprise contractors like DPR Construction in California and Innovo Group in UAE to help in their planning or preconstruction phase of construction. An AI system designed for construction, not adapted to ItUnlike general-purpose AI tools adapted for construction, MeltPlan is building a construction-native AI system that is designed to understand building codes, materials, sequencing, procurement, and construction methods. The system has already scored 95% or higher on building inspector exams, and the company is working to expand its expertise across all trades and disciplines in construction planning. The Planning Engine will have four integrated systems:
Rather than digitizing existing workflows, MeltPlan aims to help teams simulate outcomes before committing to them. “Preconstruction is treated like a phase,” Kala said. “But it’s actually the operating system of the project. When decisions evolve upstream, execution downstream becomes boring - and that’s a good thing.” “As responsible contractors, we always believe in investing more time in preconstruction,” said Atul Khanzode, DPR Construction Leadership Team Member. “We are excited to partner with MeltPlan to help us reduce planning errors while speeding up the preconstruction process”. source[CONSTRUCTION OWNERS]  GLOBENEWSWIRE
Rent is one of the largest recurring payments in the UK economy, yet it still largely runs on traditional bank transfers. While consumers can pay for travel, groceries and even taxes by card, rent — often their biggest monthly expense — has remained structurally locked to legacy payment rails. London-based fintech Payr has raised $2.1 million in seed funding to change that. The company has built what it describes as the first one-sided payments infrastructure that enables tenants to pay rent with their existing credit cards, while landlords receive the full rent amount via standard bank transfer. Crucially, landlords and agents do not need to onboard, integrate new systems or alter their workflows. “The rent payment experience has barely evolved in decades,” said Arthur Greenwood, CEO and Co-Founder of Payr. “Consumers can pay almost everything by card except the one expense that matters most. We’ve rebuilt the payment architecture so tenants gain flexibility and rewards, while landlords simply receive their rent as normal. No new systems, no operational friction.” The problem Payr is addressing is both behavioural and structural. Tenants increasingly expect flexibility, rewards and international usability across their financial lives. At the same time, property professionals have little incentive to adopt new payment tools, particularly when card fees and compliance constraints complicate the model. Payr’s solution removes that friction by allowing tenants to pay by card while preserving the existing settlement experience for landlords. “Teaming up with these four passionate young entrepreneurs has been an absolute blast; they’re incredibly tenacious and truly embody the spirit of entrepreneurship,” said Michael Boocher, Managing Partner at Ingenii Capital. “It’s going to be one wild adventure ahead as they seize this overlooked $165 billion market.” The $2.1M round was led by Ingenii Capital, with participation from Haatch, Velocity Capital, the British Business Bank and a group of strategic angel investors. The funding will be used to expand integrations, deepen product infrastructure and accelerate distribution partnerships across the residential sector. “Rent is a $165 billion annual market in the UK alone,” Greenwood added. “We’re not building a feature, we’re building infrastructure for a payment category that has been overlooked for too long.” A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/59227a9e-0bf5-4198-81cd-e4f183b1c652  NationGraph, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-native intelligence platform for businesses selling to the government, raised $18m in Series A funding.
The round was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Perplexity’s Fund, XYZ Venture Capital, Reach Capital, and angel investors. The company, which has raised total funding to $22.5m, intends to use the funds to improve the platform by adding more data types, strengthening the Signals engine, and enhancing the user experience for customers. Founded in 2024 and led by Kimia Hamidi, CEO, and Eden Ding, CTO, NationGraph is making public sector data accessible and actionable for businesses selling to cities, counties, state agencies, schools, and special districts. Its data and intelligence engine provides buying signals derived from millions of public sector sources. NationGraph indexes data from approximately 110,000 government entities across roughly four million websites and applies AI reasoning to enable key capabilities:
source[FinsMes]  Quill, a San Francisco, CA-based privacy-focused desktop application that transcribes, summarizes, and generates actionable notes from meetings directly on devices, raised $6.5M in Seed funding.
The round was led by Basis Set Ventures, with participation from 500 Global, Naval Ravikant, Morado Ventures, and AME Cloud Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts. Led by Michael Daugherty, Yacob Berhane, and Nick Adams, Quill gives users complete control over where their data lives, how AI inference runs, and how their workflows evolve over time. It provides Quilliam, a sovereign Chief of AI Staff agent for modern professionals. The solutions can connect to other tools via Model Context Protocol (MCP), including Notion, Linear, Affinity, Obsidian, Airtable, Manus, and Gamma. Quilliam uses context from meetings and user history to proactively suggest and execute workflows:
source[FinSMES]  Photo from TechCrunch
Smart Bricks, a San Francisco, CA-based AI startup building agentic AI infrastructure for real-estate investing, raised $5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Bakers included Techstars, 500 Global, Cornerstone VC, South Loop Ventures, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels, Cento Ventures, alongside angel investors from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, Airbnb, and Blackstone. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts. Led by CEO and Founder Mohamed Mohamed, Smart Bricks designs and deploys autonomous reasoning systems that allow capital to identify, evaluate, and execute real-estate investments end-to-end, compressing a process that traditionally takes three to six months into minutes. sources[FinsMes]  Oxide Computer Company, the on-prem cloud computing company, today announced it has raised its $200 million Series C led by Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), with participation from existing investors including Eclipse, Riot Ventures, Jane Street, and more.
Oxide designs and manufactures the Oxide Cloud Computer, a rack-scale integrated system, with purpose-built hardware and open-source software, that delivers a modern cloud experience on-premises. For enterprises historically forced to cobble together their own on-premises systems, the Oxide Cloud Computer provides the self-service, API-driven experience previously available only from hyperscale cloud providers, with better performance, sovereignty, and economics. "We built Oxide to fundamentally rethink how on-prem infrastructure is delivered, bringing organizations the simplicity and automation of cloud computing with the highest levels of security," said Steve Tuck, CEO and co-founder of Oxide. "This investment ensures our ability to serve customers for the long term, so they can confidently plan and execute projects measured in decades." On-premises infrastructure customers count on the longevity of their providers, and Oxide's latest funding round provides clear validation of the company's long-term vision. By doubling total funding for the second time, Oxide has secured the capital and the strategic support to invest in its product roadmap, expand manufacturing, and provide best-in-class customer support for enterprises worldwide for years to come. "Infrastructure demands long-term partners," said Bryan Cantrill, CTO and co-founder of Oxide. "Oxide took a first-principles approach to the neglected world of on-premises compute. That path was arduous, but the benefits are now clear: a secure, reliable platform designed to endure and scale — offering the modernity of cloud computing in the on-prem data center." "Thomas Tull's strategic vision for sovereign compute infrastructure aligns with Oxide's accelerating momentum," said Gaetano Crupi, Managing Director at USIT. "Given the pace of customer adoption and Oxide's execution since our Series B investment, we recognized a compelling opportunity to increase our commitment to support their growth. We're backing a platform that redefines how compute is built and operated, ensuring the U.S. is equipped with best-in-class, secure digital infrastructure as the cloud becomes increasingly central to economic and national competitiveness." "Oxide delivers the simplicity of the cloud on-premises, with superior performance, reliability, and cost efficiency. Through a single, vertically integrated, rack-scale system, Oxide brings hyperscaler-grade cloud capabilities directly into the data center," said Seth Winterroth, partner at Eclipse. "As the global market searches for every possible advantage in compute and power efficiency, Oxide stands apart with a solution that has no real competition. This kind of platform shift defines categories, and Oxide is leading the way." To learn more about Oxide and its products, visit https://oxide.computer. To apply to join Oxide, visit https://oxide.computer/careers About Oxide Oxide Computer Company designs and delivers unified hardware and open-source software to deliver hyperscaler-class efficiency, performance, and ease of use on-premises, enhancing security, latency, and control. Founded in 2019 and based in Emeryville, California, Oxide is backed by leading investors and trusted by enterprise customers across industries. source[PRNewswire] Free Business Growth Strategies, Pitch Deck, Data Rooms, Term Sheets Templates shared by Colaeb2/6/2026
 by Colaeb and numerous contributing sources When fundraising, it's important to remember to be confident and have a captivating story, and then: 1) Pitch Deck: Here is the template ~ Only 10 Slides that You Need: Note: After you put together your deck, use your favorite AI for feedback. Prompt: "Evaluate my pitch deck from the perspective of an early-stage VC." 2) Data Room (Copy/Duplicate when needed): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10Ooipj_l2iCOu_VSajQP-350rR_Ur9LvpqZtPRZ8B4c/edit?gid=1989100068#gid=1989100068 3) Financial / Capital Access Plan template. See example: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-OowmPwHEzbUdTLYBPTRTD7ueZwxN0ro/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114262631655136489106&rtpof=true&sd=true Colaeb: Framework to run your Business
The 4D Model — Define, Distill, Deliver, Drive — is a framework for creating clarity, alignment, execution, and sustained motivation in business projects, helping teams focus, collaborate, and deliver results. It emphasizes that having the right people and clear strategies is essential for business success and that this structured approach can prevent confusion and chaos while improving performance. Ready to raise capital? 1) View 20 free investor lists/databases for startup founders: https://www.yourinfodaily.com/blog/here-are-20-free-investor-listsdatabases-for-startup-founders-by-colaeb 2) View this sample term sheet from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qx7lXTWbsZeVcdywhgDziAl3AYY129Oh3iYzDz-Xp8k/edit?usp=sharing 3) Founder Advisor Template (Copy/Duplicate when needed) - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_jB0v4TPeVqWpTT77Kxq81qwzdGU4BPL/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115967584093872480102&rtpof=true&sd=true About Colaeb
Colaeb is a business-to-business global network that connects brands with new customers, capital, talent, and advertising solutions. Since our launch in 2020, we have helped thousands of entrepreneurs, venture-scale founders, and Fortune 1000 companies accelerate high-impact innovation. Our Accelerator Our accelerator is a highly selective, equity-free accelerator that amplifies 12-20 visionary entrepreneurs. Through virtual mentorship, global visibility, and investor access — we empower founders worldwide to scale their business. Participants retain full equity while gaining access to the network and tools necessary to secure capital and drive change.
Tap in and turn it up. Preme Dibiasi is raising the bar, and this latest release proves the momentum is real.
Founded by Ankur Goyal and Pritam Roy, Fibr AI is a provider of an agentic website optimization platform that turns high-traffic consumer-facing websites into adaptive, revenue-driving experiences for both human visitors and AI-Agents, by convert every URL into an intelligent agent.
The company is already used by Fortune 50 banks and global enterprises across banking, financial services, and healthcare. source[FinsMes]  San Francisco–based startup GIGR (dba. Playad) today announced it has raised $5.4 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate the development of AI marketing agents that help teams create, test, and improve advertising creative with less manual work and less guesswork.
The round was led by BRV Capital Management and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, with participation from angel investors including Bora Chung (board member at Krafton and former executive at Bill.com), Jihun Yu (founder of Hyprsense, acquired by Epic Games), and Krew Capital. Even with modern tooling, producing effective ad creative is still slow, fragmented, and expensive. Teams move from briefs to handoffs to revisions, then stitch together performance insights after the fact - often without a clear path to what to build next. GIGR's view is that the next leap in marketing won't come from yet another tool. It will come from an AI-native workflow that turns performance signals into faster iteration - so creatives improve with every cycle. That is what GIGR is building: a multi-agent marketing workflow designed to support the full creative lifecycle - briefing, production, experimentation, measurement, and iteration - so teams can run more tests and learn faster. GIGR's product, Playad (launched 3Q 2025) starts where the signal is strongest: interactive ads. Especially in gaming, these formats are widely used because they often drive higher conversion at lower CPI by letting users experience the product. They also capture granular actions - taps, swipes, and choices - making iteration clearer by showing not just whether a creative worked, but how users engaged. Industry analysis shows playable ad performance reached record highs in 2025, reinforcing the growing effectiveness of interactive formats. Historically, however, interactive ads have been powerful yet impractical - slow to build, prohibitively expensive, and dependent on specialized developers. Playad makes them fast enough to iterate and simple enough for marketers to own, which changes creative from a bottleneck into a repeatable workflow at a fraction of cost. In addition, Playad is designed for rapid experimentation, and teams can A/B test interactive ads by instantly creating a wide range of variations. While interactive formats are the initial wedge, Playad is built as a broader AI-native creative platform, enabling teams to create and iterate across image, video, and interactive formats within a single system. "Marketing performance increasingly depends on how quickly teams can learn from creative - and act on it," said Steve Chung, co-founder of GIGR. "We're building AI agents that make iteration the default, so teams can quickly apply what's already working across the market to their next creative without sacrificing quality." Customers adopt Playad for speed, but what keeps them coming back is the workflow: teams can ship iterations faster, run more experiments, and tighten the loop between creation and performance. In practice, customers have reported meaningful outcomes, including major reductions in production cost - as much as 90% in some cases - alongside measurable improvements in acquisition efficiency. "We're not trying to simply produce 'more assets,'" said Jay Cho, CEO and co-founder of GIGR. "We're building a system where every launch creates learning - and that learning directly improves the next creative decision. Creative is the most important lever for improving ROAS in modern marketing, and we are going beyond just efficiency gains to help businesses eliminate uncertainty across their decisions when it comes to digital advertising. GIGR's founding team brings experience across high-growth startups and global technology companies, united by a single obsession: removing the bottleneck between creative iteration and ad performance. What sets the team apart is its seven-founder structure. GIGR was built by long-time collaborators who chose to start together - each owning a distinct problem space, and all committed to rebuilding broken marketing workflows.
About GIGR (Playad.ai) GIGR is building a multi-agent AI platform for marketing, starting with an AI-native creative workflow that makes interactive ads practical - while enabling iteration across image, video, and interactive formats in one system. Learn more at https://playad.ai. source[PR Newswire]  by Manny Larcher, Columbus, OH -- A historic landmark on the Columbus Near East Side has entered a new chapter. The 100+-year-old building at 1313 E Broad Street has officially reopened as 1313, a thoughtfully reimagined mixed-use commercial space offering offices, coworking, and an integrated wellness studio.
The reopening will occur in phases, with the final phase, the wellness studio, in spring 2026. The coworking and private office spaces will be able to rent in February 2026. Originally constructed more than a century ago, the building has long been part of the architectural and cultural fabric of East Broad Street. The reopening preserves the structure’s historic character while introducing modern amenities designed for today’s professionals, creatives, and wellness-minded individuals. The renewed space features private offices and flexible coworking areas, alongside a dedicated wellness studio equipped with a sauna, a cold plunge, and yoga offerings. The combination creates a rare environment where productivity and restoration coexist under one roof. “1313 honors the history of the building while rethinking how space can support modern life,” said a representative of 1313. “This is about creating a place where people can do meaningful work, connect with others, and take care of their well-being—all in a setting rooted in the legacy of the Near East Side.” Located just minutes from downtown Columbus, 1313 is positioned to serve entrepreneurs, small teams, remote workers, and wellness practitioners seeking an intentional alternative to traditional office environments. The project reflects a growing demand for spaces that blend flexibility, community, and health. With its reopening, 1313 stands as both a preservation of the past and an investment in the future—breathing new life into a historic building while offering a forward-thinking model for how people work and recharge today. For more information about 1313, including office availability and wellness offerings, contact 614.506.0399  Curtis Mason (left), pictured with fellow co-founders of GovDash, Sean Doherty (middle) and Timothy Goltser (right).
GovDash, a NYC-based provider of an AI-driven enterprise resource planning platform for government contracting, raised $30M in Series B funding. The round was led by Mucker Capital and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), with participation from Northzone and Y Combinator. The company intends to use the funds to expand its engineering teams across all product areas, invest in customer success, and grow its office presence in New York and Arlington, Virginia. Led by CEO and founder Sean Doherty, GovDash advances an AI-native platform that automates the lifecycle of government work, from identifying bid opportunities and managing pipelines to generating compliant proposals and overseeing post-award contract modifications. In 2025, the company achieved a 16x revenue increase, reached FedRAMP Moderate Equivalency, and helped its customers — including Scale AI, SPATHE Systems, Rose Consulting, Aviation Training Consulting, Threat Tec, PowerTrain, Schatz Group, Brite Group, iWorks, JSL, BrennSys, and Sumaria Systems —win more than $5B in government contracts. GovDash plans to further integrate its workflows to enable customers to operate their government businesses with minimal administrative overhead. source[FinsMes]
Core offerings include:
source[finsmes]  OurPetPolicy, a Boise, Idaho-based provider of a platform for managing pets and emotional support animal (ESA) fraud, raised $8M in Series A funding.
The round was led by RET Ventures, with participation from StageDotO and Capital Eleven. The company intends to use the funds to expand integrations with property management systems, scale its go-to-market team, and accelerate its product roadmap with enhanced fraud detection and expanded workflow automation. Led by Co-Founders Logan Miller and Cody Miller, OurPetPolicy develops an enterprise-grade animal management platform that centralizes animal profiles, automates vaccination tracking, and provides a verification system for ESA requests. The system leverages direct healthcare provider authentication and strict Fair Housing compliance protocols to identify fraudulent documentation. The company currently serves multifamily, single-family rental, and manufactured housing properties across the U.S., helping operators recover lost revenue from fraudulent claims while managing compliance for approximately 45 million rental units. source[FinSMEs]  RISA Labs co-founders Kshitij Jaggi (CEO) and Kumar Shivang (CTO) | Photo Credit: RISA Labs
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- RISA Labs, a company pioneering an AI operating system for oncology, today announced the closing of an $11.1 million Series A funding round. The financing was co-led by Cencora Ventures and Optum Ventures, with participation from Oncology Ventures, Z21 Ventures, and John Simon (co-founder of General Catalyst) via his Ventureforgood investment entity. The funding will accelerate the deployment of RISA's system to cancer clinics, health systems, specialty pharmacies, and infusion networks across the United States, changing how complex oncology workflows are managed end-to-end. In oncology, delays are costly for all stakeholders: patients, practices, payers, and pharma. Addressing this, RISA orchestrates patient access, benefits verification, and prior authorization, turning manual bottlenecks into predictable, high-throughput workflows across the cancer service line. In just nine months, partner institutions have already expanded from initial deployment to second and third workflows, reflecting rapid adoption and operational trust. "In our vision for oncology, there are two sides to every patient's journey: getting them on the right therapy faster and deepening our understanding of the disease for the next patient through data," said Kshitij Jaggi, CEO of RISA Labs. RISA connects directly to a cancer center's electronic medical record (EMR), payer and benefits systems, and other systems of record. A team of AI agents reads, reasons, and acts across these systems, gathering the right data, preparing and submitting authorizations, tracking status, and progressing cases across dozens of payer environments, EMRs and other tools. As forms, rules, or interfaces change, the agents adapt in real time, so workflows stay reliable without constant reprogramming. The AI OS is purpose-built for the realities of cancer care, handling complex payer rules, multi-drug regimens, and disease-specific requirements. Teams manage and configure all of this through BOSS Console, RISA's command control panel for mission-critical institutions. With BOSS Console, each institution can tailor workflows, routing, document conventions, and practice-specific rules so the system behaves like an extension of its own operations. Every AI action is traceable and audit-ready, giving leaders clear visibility into what the system did and why, and how it stays aligned with compliance and clinical standards. RISA is already live at some of the largest oncology practices in the U.S. At one partner site, approximately 80% of administrative staff time has been freed up, denials have been reduced by up to 40%, and first-pass approval rates have reached 97.8%. Patient authorizations are now filed within 24 hours of request and are on track to drop below 2 hours, down from an average 8-day backlog. More than 20 full-time equivalents have been repurposed to higher-value work, increasing both capacity and efficiency across the practice. "BOSS Console is a low-entropy thinking information machine," said Kumar Shivang, CTO of RISA Labs. "Modern oncology has created thousands of potential care paths for every patient. It has become essential to have an intelligent operating system that can absorb this complexity, remove administrative burden, and act as a companion to the most informed clinical decisions." By leveraging AI to confront the looming challenge of a growing patient population, increasingly complex treatment strategies, and a limited supply of oncologists, RISA aims to address the core mathematical problem in modern cancer care. "As the treatments available for oncology patients increase in number and complexity, solutions to help streamline operational processes and enable efficient access to therapy become vital. We look forward to supporting RISA on their next phase of growth," said Jason Dinger, Senior Vice President, Strategic Execution at Cencora. In the coming year, RISA will go deeper in oncology, partnering with ecosystem leaders to expand AI-driven workflows across the full continuum of cancer care. Extending these capabilities to specialty pharmacy operations is the next step, built on the same foundation and configured through BOSS Console. About RISA Labs Founded by Kshitij Jaggi and Kumar Shivang, RISA Labs is the creator of BOSS Console that helps build AI OS for mission-critical institutions. Its first area of focus is oncology, where the system unifies access, benefits, and prior authorization across cancer centers, specialty pharmacies, and infusion networks so every eligible patient can start the right therapy faster. Already deployed at leading oncology networks and community practices, RISA helps them operate with greater efficiency, capacity, and precision while strengthening financial performance: making institutions win in the age of AI. For more information, please visit Risa Labs at https://www.risalabs.ai About Cencora Ventures Cencora Ventures is the dedicated corporate venture capital fund of Cencora. Cencora is a leading global pharmaceutical solutions organization centered on improving the lives of people and animals around the world. We partner with pharmaceutical innovators across the value chain to facilitate and optimize market access to therapies. Care providers depend on us for the secure, reliable delivery of pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, and solutions. Our 51,000+ worldwide team members contribute to positive health outcomes through the power of our purpose: We are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. Cencora is ranked #10 on the Fortune 500 and #18 on the Global Fortune 500 with more than $300 billion in annual revenue. CONTACT: Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE RISA Labs source[PRNewswire]  (Rain co-founders Farooq Malik (left) and Charles Yoo-Naut. [courtesy photo] Led by ICONIQ, the round brings Rain’s total funding to over $338M and values the company at $1.95B — up more than 17x in just 10 months The new funding enables Rain to scale its global, compliant footprint, deepen platform capabilities, and invest in new products that redefine how payments work worldwide NEW YORK — January 9, 2026 — Rain, the enterprise-grade infrastructure for stablecoin-powered payments, today announced a $250 million Series C funding round led by ICONIQ, with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Dragonfly, Bessemer Venture Partners, Galaxy Ventures, FirstMark, Lightspeed, Norwest, and Endeavor Catalyst. The round values Rain at $1.95 billion, brings the company’s total funding to over $338 million, and comes just four months after its Series B and 10 months after its Series A.  Stablecoins have rapidly evolved from a speculative corner of crypto markets into one of the largest value-transfer rails in the world. The next phase of adoption is about making tokenized money the default way that businesses move funds and consumers get paid, save, and spend. Crossing that chasm requires infrastructure that lets enterprises shift to onchain payment rails while preserving the familiar experiences their users already trust. Rain’s technology is built to do exactly that.
“Stablecoins are quickly becoming the way money moves in the 21st century, but adoption by users worldwide requires cards and apps that just work,” said Farooq Malik, CEO & Co-founder of Rain. “In the last year, our active card base has increased 30x and our annualized payment volume has increased 38x, but we’re still in the early innings. This funding lets us bring that infrastructure to new markets and help additional enterprises go live and scale quickly everywhere.” Rain’s end-to-end payments platform allows companies to work with a single partner to launch compliant stablecoin cards that work everywhere Visa is accepted, offer rewards, convert fiat into stablecoins, power secure wallets, and facilitate payouts. Today, Rain’s technology facilitates more than $3B in annualized transactions for over 200 partners, including Western Union, Nuvei, and KAST. Programs built on Rain can reach over 2.5 billion people and power everything from everyday consumer purchases like a morning coffee or airline tickets, to critical business expenses such as cloud services and digital advertising. “We believe we’re witnessing a shift from legacy payment networks to programmable digital-asset infrastructure, and there is a brief window to help define the default platform enterprises will rely on,” said Kamran Zaki, Partner at ICONIQ. “In our view, Rain has a rare combination of full-stack technology, regulatory readiness, and real-world scale. Their focus on making tokenized money mainstream, rather than a niche financial experiment, may resonate and align with what large enterprises are looking for as they move from exploration to production.” Rain will use the Series C capital to expand its presence in key licensed markets across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, so partners can seamlessly launch compliant solutions around the world. The funding will also enable Rain to deepen its full-stack stablecoin payments platform, including through strategic acquisitions, and to invest ahead of the curve in new products that make stablecoin-powered payments feel invisible to businesses and consumers. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor to Rain on its Series C financing. About Rain: Rain is the global stablecoin payments platform for enterprises, neobanks, platforms, and developers. Its technology allows partners to move, store, and use stablecoins instantly and compliantly through global payment cards, rewards, on/offramps, wallets, and cross-border rails. As a Visa Principal Member, Rain issues cards that work anywhere Visa is accepted, powering millions of purchases in over 150 countries. Built natively for stablecoins and trusted by more than 200 organizations worldwide, Rain delivers secure, scalable infrastructure that makes money move freely and instantly around the world. Learn more at https://www.rain.xyz/. About ICONIQ: ICONIQ is a global investment firm catalyzing opportunity through extraordinary community. Our venture and growth investment platform partners with visionaries defining the future of their industries to achieve uncommon outcomes. Drawing on the insights and connectivity of our extraordinary community, we support our portfolio companies’ success at every inflection point, from inception to IPO and beyond. Our robust portfolio includes Adyen, Airbnb, Alibaba, Alteryx, Airtable, Anthropic, Automattic, BambooHR, Braze, Canva, Chime, Coupa, Databricks, Datadog, DeepL, ElevenLabs, Figma, Gitlab, Glean, Groww, Netskope, Procore, ServiceTitan, Sierra, Snowflake, Writer, Zoom and 1Password, among others. For more information visit https://www.iconiqcapital.com/growth. Read original press release here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rain-raises-250m-series-c-to-scale-stablecoin-powered-payments-infrastructure-for-global-enterprises-302657084.html?tc=eml_cleartime Media Contact: Lucas Piazza Marketing Lead, Rain [email protected] source[rain]  Canopy, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a connected safety platform for U.S. health systems, raised $22m in Series B funding.
The round was co-led by 111° West Capital and ACME Capital, with participation from all existing investors. The company intends to use the funds to bring its workforce safety technology to every healthcare worker in the country and accelerate the roll out of Canopy Find and Canopy Track, to improve operational efficiency and patient experiences. Led by CEO and Co-Founder Shan Sinha, Canopy provides a proprietary Location ID network that offers real-time situational awareness and operational intelligence, extending from safety alerts to asset management and workflow optimization. The platform protects healthcare workers by identifying health red flags through a discreet duress system, enabling faster response times for security incidents and general operations. The company has already protected over 300,000 healthcare workers across 60 major U.S. health systems, including Boston Children’s Hospital, Thomas Jefferson University, and University of Michigan Health-Sparrow, and has deployed its network across more than 1,200 buildings. In conjunction with the funding, Bharat Sundaram will join the company’s board. Currently the CEO of Hallmark Healthcare Solutions, Sundaram previously served as President and COO of Vizient and President of MedAssets. With prior board roles at Vocera and Kaufman Hall, he brings deep operational expertise and a proven track record of scaling healthcare technology companies, reinforcing Canopy’s market position. source[FinSMEs] 
ROCHESTER, Minn.--Vyriad, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing targeted genetic therapies for cancer and other serious diseases, today announced the closing of the $25M final tranche to its Series B financing, bringing the total Series B round to $85M. This additional funding supports the imminent first-in-human testing of VV169, Vyriad’s in vivo CAR-T candidate, in patients with relapsed or treatment-refractory multiple myeloma. The Series B, including this latest tranche, was led by Mr. Harry Stine of Stine Seed Farms, Inc., the world’s largest private seed company and a technology leader in plant genetics. Several significant family offices also participated. “Our mission is to transform the future of medicine with targeted genetic therapies,” said Vyriad co-founder and CEO, Dr. Stephen Russell. “We are excited to launch the first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of VV169 and bring this therapy to patients. Our work builds on years of research and optimization around cell-specific targeting, G-protein engineering, and immune evasion — the core capabilities needed to enable effective CAR T therapies. We’re looking forward to validating our delivery technology platform and our in vivo CAR T therapeutic candidates in the clinic.” “The closing of this final tranche reflects the confidence investors have in the Vyriad team, which continues to be laser-focused on improving patient care based on its best-in-class technology,” said Ed Kania, managing partner at Farfield Partners and chairman of the Vyriad board of directors. “The capabilities of this team have already been demonstrated through our partnered programs with Regeneron and Novartis, and it is increasingly clear that the company’s delivery platform has differentiated capabilities in targeted reprogramming of immune cells directly in the body — an advancement that could significantly broaden access to CAR T therapies. We are optimistic about the potential of our wholly owned in vivo CAR T therapy, which will enter the clinic in 2026.” Vyriad’s lentiviral platform leverages engineered G proteins to enable precise, direct in vivo CAR delivery without compromising transduction efficiency. By combining high specificity and blood stability with reduced immunogenicity, this approach eliminates complex ex vivo manufacturing. The result is a scalable solution that significantly expands patient access to CAR T therapies. VV169 is one of the first in vivo CAR T candidates leveraging this platform, combining an engineered CAR transgene with the optimized lentiviral delivery vector LV-169. It is being developed as a single intravenous administration targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) proteins on malignant cells in multiple myeloma. At the ASH 2025 Annual Meeting, Vyriad presented preclinical data that showed VV169 completely eliminated disseminated multiple myeloma in all humanized mouse models, even at the lowest dose level. About Vyriad, Inc. Vyriad is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing targeted genetic medicines for cancer and other serious diseases. The company uses engineered viruses, viral vectors, and viral envelope glycoproteins to deliver therapeutic genes directly to selected cells. It has ongoing corporate partnerships with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Novartis. Vyriad’s developmental programs include oncolytic virotherapy, in vivo gene therapy, and gene-editing applications, with ongoing Phase 1–2 trials across multiple cancer indications. Vyriad is a privately held company based in Rochester, Minnesota and was co-founded by Mayo Clinician-Scientists, Dr. Stephen Russell and Dr. Kah-Whye Peng, to further develop and bring into clinical trials a set of research breakthroughs in their gene and virus therapy research labs. For more information, visit www.vyriad.com Contacts Media Contact: Jakub Cikowski HDMZ [email protected] --- source; (BUSINESS WIRE)  January 2, 2026 — Colaeb.com, the innovative platform designed to elevate brands and streamline growth, has been recognized as one of the Top Brand Advertising Services of 2025 by YourInfoDaily. This acknowledgment highlights Colaeb’s commitment to connecting businesses with the right partners, customers, and growth opportunities.
Elevate Your Brand Everywhere Colaeb empowers businesses and founders to grow without the guesswork. By leveraging proprietary data and insights, the platform delivers perfect-fit B2B customer connections and enables brands to scale efficiently. With both free and paid plans available, Colaeb ensures growth is accessible to businesses of all sizes and stages. How Colaeb Works Colaeb’s approach is simple yet powerful:
With Colaeb, businesses can reclaim hours while seeing tangible outcomes within just 30 days—or cancel at any time if it doesn’t fit their needs. Benefits of Joining Colaeb Customers – Unlock new growth opportunities through Colaeb’s expansive network. Education & Access – Gain support from investors and grant providers to fuel your business potential. Advertising – Reach the right audience through Colaeb’s proprietary network rather than relying on incomplete data. Talent – Attract and retain top talent by leveraging Colaeb’s brand-building ecosystem. Fueling Business Growth Colaeb’s mission is to help businesses find the right customers, strategic partners, and winning strategies to accelerate growth. By combining data, education, and connections, Colaeb empowers brands to scale faster than they ever imagined. Businesses seeking to elevate their brand can join Colaeb today and experience a new era of growth. Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures leads with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Bling Capital
The company aims to close the gap between what people want to do and what they can do with AI, developing tools that make technology simpler, smarter, and more approachable.
“Throughout my career, I’ve loved making complex technology more intuitive,” said Marissa Mayer, Founder and CEO of Dazzle AI. “With Dazzle, our goal is to make AI feel simple, helping people get more done and delighting them along the way. Now that foundational models have reached a level of consistent excellence, they’ve become a reliable infrastructure. The new frontier is applications—leveraging that power to create real, tangible value. I’m thrilled to be building something new alongside an incredible group of investors and partners.” “The builders of tomorrow’s winning platforms are not thinking in terms of incremental improvements or previous playbooks – they are thinking in entirely new ecosystems, with the courage to imagine paradigms that do not yet exist. As a leader, Marissa embodies the ambition and bravery that’s essential to taking this kind of big swing,” said Kirsten Green, Founding Partner at Forerunner. “We have barely scratched the surface of having AI integrated into daily routines in a way that feels human, enriching, and transformatively useful.” This funding allows Dazzle AI to expand its team and prepare for its first product launch in the coming months. For updates, visit Dazzle.ai. About Dazzle AI Founded in 2025 by entrepreneur Marissa Mayer, Dazzle AI is on a mission to close the gap between what people want and what they can do with AI. Guided by its core principles, the company is developing products that make everyday technology more engaging and accessible. Dazzle AI is backed by leading investors, including Forerunner Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Bling Capital. source[Dazzle]  CHAMP Titles, Inc., a Cleveland, OH-based provider of digital solutions to motor vehicle agencies, raised $55m in funding.
The round was led by W. R. Berkley Corporation, Point72 Ventures, and ORIX Corporation USA, with participation from other existing investors as well. Total funding now exceeds $100m. The company intends to use the capital to accelerate expansion. Led by Shane Bigelow, Chief Executive Officer, CHAMP Titles is a provider of digital solutions to motor vehicle agencies (MVAs) in the United States. Its patented technologies and platforms streamline and secure motor vehicle administration. Designed for government, the company’s solutions serve a broad ecosystem of MVA stakeholders, including vehicle retailers, vehicle wholesalers, insurance carriers, fleet operators, lenders, all the service providers that serve each of these industry verticals, and, of course, consumers. CHAMPgov replaces aging title, registration, lien, driver’s license, and agency systems of record in partnership with state governments. Today, more than 35 million Americans have access to CHAMP’s technology through state contracts that implement the company’s systems of record, and tens of millions of transactions have been conducted on the platform. source[FinSMEs]  by Collaborate and Elevate Marshawn Lynch and Zeb Powell come from very different worlds, but they share the same spirit: creativity, fearlessness, and doing things their own way. Marshawn Lynch, the NFL legend known as “Beast Mode,” built his career by breaking tackles, expectations, and stereotypes. Whether powering through defenders or delivering unforgettable one-liners, Lynch has always moved with authenticity and confidence, turning individuality into a superpower both on and off the field. Zeb Powell brings that same energy to snowboarding. Raised in North Carolina far from traditional mountain culture, Powell redefined what snowboarding could look like with his explosive style, joy-first approach, and boundary-pushing tricks. As the first Black snowboarder to win X Games gold, Zeb didn’t just make history — he reshaped the culture of the sport. When Marshawn and Zeb link up, it’s not about football or medals. It’s about vibe, curiosity, and stepping outside your comfort zone. Marshawn approaching snowboarding with the same openness he brings to life, and Zeb guiding him with creativity and confidence, makes for a collision of cultures that feels organic, fun, and inspiring. Watch what happens when Beast Mode hits the slopes in Marshawn Lynch Snowboards with Zeb Powell | ‘N Yo’ City, with Prime Video below:  Vibranium Labs, a NYC-based provider of AI-powered incident management solutions that help on-call engineering and SRE teams proactively detect, triage, and resolve infrastructure issues in real time, raised $4.6m in seed funding.
The round was led by Calibrate Ventures and Mirae Asset with participation from Franklin Templeton, Plug and Play, Gaingels, Wildcard Capital, FalconX, and DCG. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product innovation, expand its engineering and go-to-market teams, and deepen partnerships in industries including finance, healthcare, media/entertainment, e-commerce/retail, and defense. Led by Sang Lee, Co-Founder and CEO, Vibranium Labs provides an AI Site Reliability Engineer (AI SRE), Vibe AI, an AI Site Reliability Engineer (AI SRE) that leverages multimodal agentic technology to proactively monitor, triage, and resolve IT incidents and outages. As a 24/7 AI incident engineer, Vibe AI helps businesses anticipate and prevent critical incidents, resolve issues, and reduce engineering toil. Already working with customers across key industries, including Fortune 1000 companies, Vibranium Labs supports end-users across fast-growth SaaS companies, financial institutions, and mission-critical enterprises. source[FinSMEs] |
