Core offerings include:

• TitlCheck: A pre-listing title check that gives sellers and agents a clear, high-level read on potential issues that could delay a closing so problems are identified early, not at the finish line.
• TitlReport: Delivers comprehensive title reports in about four minutes, using AI to analyze liens, encumbrances, and ownership history with verified source records.
• TitlProduction: Automates title production by extracting key data from closing packages to generate title reports and commitments in moments, while flagging risks and reducing manual rework.
• TitlMonitoring: Always-on title surveillance with instant fraud alerts to help protect owners and lenders from unauthorized liens, forged documents, and ownership takeover attempts.

​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: truc@mulberryandastor.com 

SOURCE RISA Labs
​
source[PRNewswire]

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]

(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
lucas@rain.xyz

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]

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]

• Total Series B funding reaches $85M
• Funds will accelerate clinical development of Vyriad’s in vivo CAR T-cell therapy candidate VV169

​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
vyriad@hdmz.com

---

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:

1. Define – Complete the onboarding form sent via email to help the team understand your goals.
2. Connect – Colaeb analyzes your ideal customers to ensure precise targeting.
3. Grow – The platform facilitates introductions and amplifies your brand to maximize results.

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.

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]

Join idealistic university and high schools in respectful discussion​

How to Dialogue and Prosper Together as Friends Today

The North American Educational Initiatives Foundation, Inc., will be sponsoring its first virtual North American Youth Congress focused on “The Pursuit of a North American Civil Discourse and Friendships.” The meeting will be organized by university and high school students while the foundation will assist with the creation of the agenda, the marketing, and this virtual meeting, simultaneous translation and follow-up activities.

The Congress will take place on Saturday, January 10th, from 11 am – 2 pm CST. Attendance will be limited to 300 participants. The Congress Steering Committee of students bears no legal responsibility for the event.

Cultural and Historical Underpinnings of the Congress in Indigenous Culture

“Three main concepts are identified as central to understanding the comic views of indigenous peoples. These are beliefs in the immortality of the soul, fatalistic views and the role of ancestors. One of the central tenets of indigenous cultures is the belief in the immortality of soul. For most indigenous cultures, because the soul does not die but rather transmigrates from human to animal or plant or higher spirit forms, and because the soul is capable of living in natural entities such as rivers, mountains, the earth, etc., both the animate and the inanimate are revered. Therefore, in indigenous cultures a forest of trees, for example, should not be cut down because a project, which seemingly has no relevance to the community, is being undertaken in the area. It is however accepted that soul forms such as plants and animals could be terminated to enhance the survival of the current earthbound higher soul – human. This cosmic view is an important reason why a project must always be made relevant to indigenous communities.

Further to the belief in the immortality of soul are the fatalistic views to which indigenous communities ascribe Individual and community life, it is believed, must be accepted as it comes: what will be, will be! Family and community ties must be held sacred. Time is considered uninfluenceable, and should not be hurried: things will happen, in the way, and at the time they are intended by higher spirits, whether humans hurry or not.

A third component in intangible cultural heritage is the role of ancestors in the life of indigenous peoples. Ancestors are dead members of the community who have lived honorable lives by preserving and/or enhancing the status of the community. It is believed that these ancestors become spiritual beings with the power to affect the fortune of the living for good or bad. Bad fortunes range from simple bad harvests (crop or animal) to mass extermination of communities. Good fortunes could be the opposite. Ancestors can be appeased, thanked or appealed to by designated elders, who through incantations, pouring of libation and/or propitiatory sacrifices communicate current wishes. Ancestors and their spiritual abodes are considered sacred.” (“Indigenous Cosmology of Cultural Heritage for Impact Assessment, Richard Akoto, Knight Piésold & Co., The Art and Science of Impact Assessment 28th Annual Conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment, 4-10 May 2008, Perth Convention Exhibition Centre, Perth, Australia (www.iaia.org).

Foundational Premise for Westerners of the Congress

While the contemporary perils of ideological silos to civil political dialogue are widely recognized, few observers have identified realistic ways to create channels of communication to the benefit of the commonweal. Many experts have pointed out the irony of the fact that as modern communications have attained such a remarkable level of intimacy in our lives, productive communications have never before been so difficult to achieve thanks to entrenched and unquestioned ideological barriers and human pride.

We would humbly suggest that the Western key to discovering a civil discourse for North America lies in the recognition of the common ground and communication that these various silos are built upon. Furthermore, we would argue that the most attractive goal in this endeavor would be the development of new friendships, “authentic friendships” towards Aristotle’s ideal of “two souls living in one body.”

“Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in virtue; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good themselves, Aristotle wrote, “Now those who wish well to their friends for their sake are most truly friends; for they do this by reason of own nature and not incidentally; therefore, their friendship lasts as long as they are good-and goodness is an enduring thing. And each is good without qualification and to his friend, for the good are both good without qualification and useful to each other. So too they are pleasant; for the good are pleasant both without qualification and to each other, since to each his own activities and others like them are pleasurable, and the actions of the good are the same or like. And such a friendship is as might be expected permanent, since there meet in it all the qualities that friends should have. For all friendship is for the sake of good or of pleasure-good or pleasure either in the abstract or such as will be enjoyed by him who has the friendly feeling-and is based on a certain resemblance; and to a friendship of good men all the qualities we have named belong in virtue of the nature of the friends themselves; for in the case of this kind of friendship the other qualities also are alike in both friends, and that which is good without qualification is also without qualification pleasant, and these are the most lovable qualities. Love and friendship therefore are found most and in their best form between such men. But it is natural that such friendships should be infrequent; for such men are rare. Further, such friendship requires time and familiarity; as the proverb says, men cannot know each other till they have 'eaten salt together'; nor can they admit each other to friendship or be friends till each has been found lovable and been trusted by each. Those who quickly show the marks of friendship to each other wish to be friends but are not friends unless they both are lovable and know the fact; for a wish for friendship may arise quickly, but friendship does not.”

Cultural and Historical Underpinnings of the Congress in Indigenous Culture

“Three main concepts are identified as central to understanding the cosmic views of indigenous peoples. These are beliefs in the immortality of the soul, fatalistic views and the role of ancestors. One of the central tenets of indigenous cultures is the belief in the immortality of soul. For most indigenous cultures, because the soul does not die but rather transmigrates from human to animal or plant or higher spirit forms, and because the soul is capable of living in natural entities such as rivers, mountains, the earth, etc., both the animate and the inanimate are revered. Therefore, in indigenous cultures a forest of trees, for example, should not be cut down because a project, which seemingly has no relevance to the community, is being undertaken in the area. It is however accepted that soul forms such as plants and animals could be terminated to enhance the survival of the current earthbound higher soul – human. This cosmic view is an important reason why a project must always be made relevant to indigenous communities. Further to the belief in the immortality of soul are the fatalistic views to which indigenous communities ascribe Individual and community life, it is believed, must be accepted as it comes: what will be, will be! Family and community ties must be held sacred. Time is considered uninfluenceable, and should not be hurried: things will happen, in the way, and at the time they are intended by higher spirits, whether humans hurry or not. A third component in intangible cultural heritage is the role of ancestors in the life of indigenous peoples. Ancestors are dead members of the community who have lived honorable lives by preserving and/or enhancing the status of the community. It is believed that these ancestors become spiritual beings with the power to affect the fortune of the living for good or bad. Bad fortunes range from simple bad harvests (crop or animal) to mass extermination of communities. Good fortunes could be the opposite. Ancestors can be appeased, thanked or appealed to by designated elders, who through incantations, pouring of libation and/or propitiatory sacrifices communicate current wishes. Ancestors and their spiritual abodes are considered sacred.” (“Indigenous Cosmology of Cultural Heritage for Impact Assessment, Richard Akoto, Knight Piésold & Co., Denver, CO, USA, 'IAIA08 Conference Proceedings', The Art and Science of Impact Assessment 28th Annual Conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment, 4-10 May 2008, Perth Convention Exhibition Centre, Perth, Australia (www.iaia.org).

Cultural and Underpinnings of the Congress in Western Culture

Following the civilizational upheaval of the Second World War, leading cultural and intellectual figures began to define the core values that triumphed over the Nazi government during the Nuremberg Trials and the foundational meetings of the United Nations. While the Soviet Union actively participated in these debates, the gap between its aspirations and its actions widened further and further during the ‘50s through the 70s with its consolidation of Eastern Europe and nascent imperialism to the “Third World.” Meanwhile, the wartime intellectual unity of the Western countries began to splinter into competing philosophical factions as they basked in peace and prosperity and emerging rock and roll. As the majority of the younger generations increasingly defied longstanding social norms, Western societies faced yawning inabilities to communicate, to uproot gender and racial inequities, to undertake military ventures such as the Vietnam War, and to rehabilitate from political crises like the Watergate scandal and the MidEast wars.

These significant fault lines of the post-war era ran as a tectonic line through the ensuing decades and were manifested in “culture wars” and “blue versus red” political alliances to the bizarre extent that tens of millions of allegedly highly educated Americans would find themselves unable to contemplate the good will or sanity of their political opponents, even if they had been close family members or lifetime friends. On the occasion of social gatherings, the commonplace solution to these frustrations would become to engage in utter silence on controversial topics rather than to engage in robust debate in imitation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, Christopher Hitchens and William F. Buckley, John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon or as far back as Abraham Lincoln and Thaddeus Stevens. Regrettably, the contemporary catastrophe lies in the lack of a stage to stand on, a launch platform of common beliefs and references. And therefore, like unto Shakespeare’s seven lives from As You Like It, we find ourselves “in second childhood and mere oblivion: sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything” … and, astonishingly, sans friends who think differently than we do.

Contemporary Indigenous Intellectual Forebearers of the Congress (Example of the Mazahua peoples of Mexico)

“After 480 years of contact with Western culture, the Mazahuas are still here, because in us there is a continuation of ancestral thought that contains values rooted among the population, values based on a worldview that has endured throughout history, such as the cult of our ancestors, mutual aid in agricultural activities, solidarity related to the birth of people; the bride's proposal and the wedding, an event to which the population comes to help—in kind or with work—the new family, in order to establish and strengthen alliance networks for the reproduction of human life; these human acts are what give meaning to our social life and deserve to be known, valued and shared with society, whose vision of life is Western,” Maestro Antolin Celote Preciado, El Mundo Mazahua y la construcción de la interculturalidad, Gobierno del Estado de México, 2023.

Contemporary Western Intellectual Forebearers of the Congress

Fortunately, there are several Western thinkers who we can study from and build upon so as to address our trans-ideological conversational needs. Three of the most influential intellectuals who were active during the aforementioned post-war debates were Harvard sociologist Robert N. Bellah, Oxford cultural anthropologist Christopher Dawson, and the widely publicized advocate of academic freedom and social pluralism Reverend John Courtney Murray, SJ. Each of these men contributed to the nascent concept of an “American civil religion.” While all acknowledged the important contribution of the Judeo-Christian tradition to popular beliefs in the West, their proposal was not intended to be confessional but ecumenical in nature.

Referring to the Latin root word of ligare, the notion of “binding” or “binding over” describes the bringing together of beliefs and rituals without necessarily referring to organized denominations. As a consequence, Buddhism is as much of a religion as Russian Orthodox Christianity as Islam is a religion as Hinduism. Taking this general definition one step further so as to apply it to today’s trans-denominational world, particularly in the West, we would suggest that “Deism,” “Marxism,” “Scientism,” and “secular humanism” bear many of the same traits as historical religious systems, even though some of their adherents might resist this nomenclature.

Robert Bellah: “Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age”

“Nothing is ever lost. Just as the face-to-face rituals of tribal society continue in disguised form among us, so the unity of political and religious power, the archaic ‘mortgage’, as Voegelin called it, reappears continually in societies that have experienced the axial ‘breakthrough’. Kings who ruled ‘by divine right’, are obvious examples, but so are presidents who claim to act in accordance with a ‘higher power’. At every point as our story unfolds, we will have to consider the relation between political and religious power. But one thing is certain: the issue never goes away.”

Christopher Dawson: “Religion and Culture”

“The world of culture is a moral universe which extends downwards to the most primitive forms of social life and upwards to the higher ethical systems. And all cultures from the lowest to the highest are similar in their essential structures. That is to say they all depend on religious or spiritual sanctions; they are all rooted in particular material circumstances—economic, geographical and biological, and they themselves represent the patterns of social and moral behavior by which two factors are coordinated.”

Rev. John Courtney Murray, SJ: “We Hold These Truths”

"Pluralism, therefore, implies disagreement and dissension within the community. But it also implies a community within which there must be agreement and consensus."

While the North American Student Congress is an ecumenical activity in nature, we suggest that participants consider this prescient excerpt from Pope Francis’ recent diagnosis of our widespread cultural differences (Fratelli tuti (2000):

“In today’s world, the sense of belonging to a single human family is fading, and the dream of working together for justice and peace seems an outdated utopia. What reigns instead is a cool, comfortable and globalized indifference, born of deep disillusionment concealed behind a deceptive illusion: thinking that we are all-powerful, while failing to realize that we are all in the same boat. This illusion, unmindful of the great fraternal values, leads to a sort of cynicism. For that is the temptation we face if we go down the road of disenchantment and disappointment… Isolation and withdrawal into one’s own interests are never the way to restore hope and bring about renewal. Rather, it is closeness; it is the culture of encounter. Isolation, no; closeness, yes (n. 30).

Preliminary Student-Created Agenda of the North American Youth Congress
(The Steering Committee may choose from these 20-minute presentations.
Speakers may suggest modifications to their presentations with prior approval.)

1. What is the Contemporary Case for “Natural Law”?

2. Is Human Dignity a “Fig Leaf” or an “Eagle’s Wing” in Today’s World?

3. What is the Nature and Probability of Aristotle’s “Authentic Friendship” in Today’s World?

4. Based on the writings of Oxford University professor Christopher Dawson, what is the relevance and possibility of “Civil Discourse” for Contemporary Youth?

Frederick J. Woodward, Hillsdale College ‘28

5. Based on the writings of Rev. John Courtney Murray, SJ, what is the relevance and possibility of “Civil Discourse” for Contemporary Youth?

6. Based on the writings of Harvard University professor Robert N. Bellah, what is the relevance and possibility of “Civil Discourse” for Contemporary Youth?

7. What are the Contemporary Obstacles and Incentives to “Authentic Friendship” in the Face of Widespread Anxiety and Depression?

Ishani Gandi, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ‘29

8. What are the Contemporary Obstacles and Incentives to “Authentic Friendship” in a World Entrapped by Exclusive Ideologies?

9. What are the Contemporary Obstacles and Incentives to “Authentic Friendship” in the context of The Nuclear Family?

Alex Odland, University of Notre Dame ‘26

10. What are the Contemporary Obstacles and Incentives to “Authentic Friendship” in a Society with an Absence of Mercy?

Karen Nguyen, Dartmouth College ‘29

11. What are the Contemporary Obstacles and Incentives to “Authentic Friendship”?

Medha Jana, Texas A & M University ‘29

12. What are the Contemporary Obstacles and Incentives to “Authentic Friendship” in an Economy of Excessive Prosperity?

13. What are the Contemporary Obstacles and Incentives to “Authentic Friendship” between the domestic and foreign peoples in North America?

Alexander H. Garcia, Rice University ‘28

14. What is the Value of Learning Indigenous Languages as a Unique Means to Enhance the Brains, Hearts, and Friendships of North American Students

Lexie Gauthier, Dartmouth College ’26

Contact:
Theodore Wills
+12815206689
​president@naeif.org

Alongside the vinyl release, Bilt is also featuring A$AP Rocky in a special edition of its monthly game show, "Rent Free”, where Rocky is a contestant, offering Bilt Members nationwide the chance to win free rent payments of up to $2,500. In addition to getting their rent paid, the top 10 winners will also receive signed editions of the exclusive vinyl, with hundreds of additional members earning bonus Bilt Points.

In a move that brings the partnership full circle to Rocky's roots, Bilt is making a donation to a Harlem building where Rocky spent his teen years. The donation will cover January 2026 rent for all tenants in the building—supporting the community that shaped the artist and helping to ease the financial burden during an expensive time of year for many.
​
​​“For me, it’s always been about your community and neighborhood. Harlem made me who I am, from uptown to downtown, and that connection to place is everything,” said A$AP Rocky. “When Bilt said they wanted to cover rent for everyone in the same building where I grew up, that hit different. That’s not just business, that’s understanding what community really means. This vinyl is my love letter to New York, and being able to give back to the exact place that raised me while helping people across the country with their rent is the kind of partnership that actually matters."

The partnership reinforces Bilt's evolution from a rent rewards program to a comprehensive housing and neighborhood commerce ecosystem, connecting members to authentic cultural moments while making housing payments rewarding. The collaboration also marks a full-circle moment, as A$AP Rocky—who helped celebrate Bilt’s launch at the very beginning—returns for this next chapter.

“Rocky embodies what we believe at Bilt: your neighborhood isn’t just where you live, it’s what fuels your creativity, your ambition, your entire trajectory,” said Ankur Jain, Founder and CEO of Bilt. “From joining us at Bilt’s launch to now, his roots in Harlem have always been inseparable from his success, and this limited-edition vinyl is our way of honoring that connection. It’s a celebration of the community that shaped one of hip-hop’s most influential artists and a reminder of why giving back to your neighborhood matters.”

DON’T BE DUMB marks Rocky's first studio album in nearly eight years. The Bilt exclusive vinyl captures this milestone moment with design elements that pay homage to Rocky's artistic evolution and his unwavering connection to New York.

Bilt continues to expand its neighborhood commerce ecosystem, with recent partnerships spanning airlines, hotels, dining, and entertainment venues, allowing members to earn points on everyday spending beyond rent. The A$AP Rocky collaboration represents Bilt's commitment to connecting members with cultural experiences that resonate with their diverse communities while directly investing in the neighborhoods that shape them.

About Bilt
Bilt is the first loyalty program for renters that allows members to earn rewards on rent and HOA payments while building a path to homeownership. The Bilt Alliance – developed in partnership with some of the nation’s largest residential owners and operators – is a network of more than 5 million homes across the country that rewards residents on each residential payment and enables property managers to increase resident loyalty and cost savings. Launched in June 2021, Bilt boasts the highest value rewards programs on the market today – including the most one-to-one point transfers for travel across major airlines and hotel partners; fitness classes at the country's top boutique studios; and the ability to use Bilt Points for rent credits, rideshare, home delivery, parking, toward a future down payment on a home or eligible student loans, and more. For more information, visit www.bilt.com

About A$AP Rocky
Multi-hyphenated artist, entrepreneur, actor, and fashion icon A$AP Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, has taken the world by storm since his emergence in 2011. Rocky has continued to dominate the music industry by clocking over 25.7 billion total streams to date. In addition, his music videos have earned a staggering 8.8 billion combined views on YouTube.

In 2018, with two critically acclaimed, #1 debuts on the Billboard 200 for freshman & sophomore albums, LONG.LIVE.A$AP and AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP, Rocky released his highly anticipated third studio album, TESTING, which has garnered over 1 billion streams worldwide and landed at #1 on the iTunes charts in 16 countries upon release. In August of 2019, Rocky dropped his hit single “Babushka Boi.”

Rocky continued to release hit singles throughout 2022, most notably “Praise The Lord” featuring Skepta and Durdenhauer, which went double platinum later that year. In 2023, he released his song “Same Problems?” in honor of the many young artists who had tragically and suddenly passed in recent years, along with “RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n)” produced by Pharrell Williams. Late last year, Rocky dropped his latest singles, “HIGHJACK” and “RUBY ROSARY” featuring J. Cole.

Rocky co-chaired the 2025 Met Gala, themed "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," showcasing a whole wardrobe of his own passion project and brand, AWGE. The same year saw Rocky demonstrate his incredible acting prowess in two films produced by A24 — Highest 2 Lowest, directed by Spike Lee, and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, directed by Mary Bronstein. Rocky also wrote and performed two songs for the Highest 2 Lowest soundtrack, "Trunks" and "Both Eyes Closed."

A$AP Rocky is currently the Creative Director of both Ray-Ban and PUMA and has been a part of many high-profile commercial campaigns, including Bottega Veneta, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Gucci, Courvoisier, Dior, Mercedes-Benz, Guess, and Fenty Skin. Rocky’s creative agency AWGE has launched partnerships with Marine Serre, Amina Muaddi, Selfridges, JW Anderson, MTV, and more. In addition, AWGE has launched the careers of notable artists such as Playboi Carti, slowthai, Smooky MarGielaa, and more. In June of 2025, AWGE put on their second annual Paris Fashion Week show to rave reviews.

source[BUSINESS WIRE]

Led by founder and CEO Justin Mares, Truemed develops payment technology that enables individuals to use tax-advantaged funds for evidence-based lifestyle interventions, such as exercise, diet, and sleep products.

The company has experienced 3x year-over-year revenue growth for the past two years and currently partners with thousands of brands, including Peloton, Eight Sleep, Nike Strength, and 24 Hour Fitness.

source[FinSMEs]

A major power outage struck San Francisco on Saturday, December 20, 2025, leaving roughly 130,000 Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) customers — about one‑third of the city — without electricity and triggering significant disruptions across the Bay Area.

The blackout began in the early afternoon and was linked to extensive damage from a fire at a PG&E substation near 8th and Mission streets, although investigators are still examining the exact causes. 

Widespread Impacts Across the City

• Traffic signals failed citywide, forcing drivers to treat dark intersections as four‑way stops and contributing to gridlock in many neighborhoods. AP News
• Public transit was affected, with BART and Muni services disrupted due to the outages. ABC7 San Francisco
• Shops and restaurants closed early or lost business on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year. ABC7 San Francisco

Autonomous Vehicles Halted
One of the most visible impacts was on Waymo’s autonomous robotaxi fleet. With traffic lights out and signals unavailable, many Waymo vehicles became stalled in intersections with hazard lights flashing, blocking roadways and exacerbating congestion. Slashdot

As a result, Waymo temporarily suspended its ride‑hailing service citywide Saturday evening to ensure rider and public safety while emergency crews worked to restore conditions. SFGATE

The outage highlighted operational challenges for autonomous vehicles dependent on functioning city infrastructure, drawing attention to broader questions about how such technologies respond to major system failures. The Guardian

Restoration Efforts and Current Status
PG&E and city officials continued restoration efforts through Sunday. By early Sunday morning, power had been restored to about 110,000 customers, although tens of thousands remained without electricity as crews worked on complex repairs at the damaged substation. 

City leaders urged residents to limit non‑essential travel, be cautious at inoperative intersections, and minimize power surge risks as electricity steadily returned.

No significant injuries have been reported in connection with the outage so far, and the utility emphasized safety as crews address the damage. Reuters

Beycome, a Miami, Florida-based developer of a direct-to-consumer real estate platform, raised $2.5 million in Seed funding.
​
​InsurTech Fund led the round with participation from Pivot Ventures, the Florida Opportunity Fund, RedShift Capital, Neer Venture Capital, Kima Ventures, Ignite Venture, Founders Future, and several strategic investors and angels.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development, strengthen technical leadership, expand its AI capabilities, scale title services, and grow its presence into more states nationwide.

Led by CEO and co-founder Nico Jodin, Beycome advances a flat-fee real estate ecosystem that enables users to sell, buy, and close transactions through its proprietary AI system, Artur, which automates pricing, offer management, and closing coordination.

Founded in 2020, the company says it has enables its users to complete nearly 20,000 home transactions, closing roughly one home every 40 minutes, saving more than $215 million in fees.

source[FinSMEs]

Enlightra, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based deeptech startup building chip-scale multiwavelength lasers for future data transmission, raised a total of $15m in funding.
​
​Backers included Y Combinator, Runa Capital, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Protocol Labs, Halo Labs, Asymmetry Ventures, and TRAC VC, among others.

The company intends to use the funds to develop and demonstrate its multi-color laser technology, which connects computing chips (GPUs, TPUs) in AI clusters faster and more efficiently than copper cables can.

Led by John Jost, and Maxim Karpov, Enlightra has developed laser technology to replace electrical data transmission with ultra-efficient optical communication, powered by its patented multicolor comb-laser platform. Each color functions as an independent data channel, creating dozens of high-bandwidth connections from one laser source.

Enlightra’s lasers can be produced at scale, and, according to the company, this opens the door to millions of units per year for global data center deployment.


With a 25-person team, Enlightra has designed and built 8- and 16-channel lasers meeting customer specifications for AI chip interconnects. The pilot production is slated for 2027.


The company has participated in Y Combinator (W22) and Intel Ignite (2023).

​
FinSMEs

Science is too slow.

At Edison, the company is integrating AI Scientists into the full stack of research, from basic discovery to clinical trials. The goal is cures for all diseases by mid-century.

Edison has raised a $70M seed round to get started. Triatomic Capital, Spark Capital, and a major U.S. institutional biotech investor lead the round. The company is also joined by existing investors Pillar VC and Susa Ventures—two exceptional early-stage funds that backed Edison at founding—along with Striker Venture Partners, Hawktail VC, Olive VC, and a host of exceptional angels that includes famous AI researchers, the CEOs of multiple frontier AI labs, and leadership from major biotech and pharma companies.

Join them…
Edison needs cracked software engineers who want to work on finding cures rather than selling ads and generating slop. If someone is reading this, they are probably a candidate.

The company needs brilliant AI researchers who want to figure out how AI will accelerate real-world science. Edison also needs scientists and researchers with deep expertise in biology, biotech, and pharma who want to integrate AI deeply into scientific workflows—from ideation to experimentation—and to define how success or failure should be measured.

Edison is also looking for extraordinarily talented generalist operators across business development, sales, product management, and partnerships who can focus on getting these tools into the hands of pharmaceutical companies.

If any of these roles sound like a fit, apply here:
edisonscientific.com/careers

Expanding access to the platform
Edison’s goal is to accelerate science writ large. To that end, the company will continue to give academics and students 650 credits per month indefinitely. There is no promise this will last forever, but the intention is to keep it going as long as possible. Kosmos will still cost 200 credits, and the other agents (Analysis, Literature, etc.) will cost 1 or 2 credits. All paid users will have free access to regular agents—such as the Analysis and Literature agents—via the UI. API access will remain paid, and users without a paid subscription will continue to receive 10 credits per month for those agents. The $200/month subscription for 650 credits per month is staying in place for now, but may be phased out at the next major product update.

In line with accelerating science, Edison is also releasing a significant update to PaperQA today, its flagship open-source literature agent, as part of its commitment to open science. In the short run, users should expect significant improvements to Kosmos, including automatic data access, the ability to steer its exploration, and the ability to converse directly with its world model. In the long run, Edison expects exponential growth in scientific discovery in biology and beyond.

Try Kosmos on the platform:
platform.edisonscientific.com/login

source[Edison Scientific]

The LatentForce founding team – From left to right, Aravind Jayendran, Founder & CEO, Vinay Kyatham, Founder and CTO, Dr Prathosh AP, Founder & Head of Research.

LatentForce, a Bengaluru, India-based developer of an AI-native platform for large-scale enterprise code migrations and software modernization, raised $1.7m in Seed funding.

​Ideaspring Capital and Yali Capital co-led the round.

The company intends to use the funds to strengthen its proprietary migration models and accelerate expansion across India and globally.

Led by CEO Aravind Jayendran, CTO Vinay Kyatham, and Head of Research Dr. Prathosh AP, LatentForce builds specialised AI systems for large-scale enterprise modernization.

By using task-specific Small Language Models (SLMs), the platform helps organisations upgrade software, reducing migration cost, risk, and time (they say by up to 80%.)

source[FinSMEs]