DALLAS, July 22, 2026 — Cosmetic Physician Partners (CPP), the majority practitioner-owned medical aesthetics network spanning 75+ clinics across the United States, today announced it has paid out nearly $35 million directly to its partners, the doctors, nurses and employees who own the business, in the company’s second such payout to date.

The distribution brings the total CPP has returned to its partners to more than $60 million across two rounds, and the company intends to continue returning capital.

CPP is majority-owned by the practitioners and staff who run its clinics, and the company credits its ability to pay out capital to the strength of its people. Industry-leading staff retention, consistently high patient satisfaction, and a culture built to support clinicians have produced the quality of care and operating performance that make recurring payouts possible. CPP is believed to be the first and only aesthetics network to have returned capital directly to its practitioner-shareholders, having now completed two distributions.

“This is what happens when you build a company around your people,” said Dan Schacter, CEO and co-founder of CPP. “Our partners stay because they own the business and they love the work. The quality of care our clinicians deliver, and the trust they build with patients are exactly what allow us to return capital to our people with more to come.”

The result is one of the most stable operating platforms in medical aesthetics: clinicians who stay, patients who return, and a culture that gives practitioners genuine autonomy and ownership.

CPP is also the only national aesthetics network of its scale with NO private equity (PE) investment in the business. The company carries low debt and has no preferred shares, every owner earns the same return, which puts the doctors, nurses and employees who run the clinics on equal economic footing with every other shareholder.

About Cosmetic Physician Partners

Cosmetic Physician Partners (CPP) is a practitioner-owned medical aesthetics network of 75+ clinics across the United States. CPP is majority-owned by the doctors, nurses and employees who operate its clinics and is built on strong staff retention, high-quality patient care, and a culture that supports its people. That foundation has enabled CPP to pay out capital to its partner-owners, a distinction shared by few in the industry.

For information:

Sean Walsh
VP of Partnerships
[email protected]

SOURCE Cosmetic Physician Partners

ATLANTA, July 22, 2026 — Radnor Property Group, in partnership with Madrone Community Development Foundation, has reached financial close on a transformative $147 million student housing development in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta. Financing closed on July 1, 2026, with the completed sale of $146,763,475 in tax-exempt and taxable bonds issued by the Development Authority of Fulton County (DAFC). This milestone advances a major investment in high‑quality, affordable housing that will bring long‑term benefits and provide modern, community-oriented living to hundreds of Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC) students.

Located at 850 West End Ave – a key campus corridor on the edge of the campuses for Morehouse and Spelman Colleges – the community will deliver 793 beds across 305 apartment-style units. Amenities include a 24/7 staffed lobby, outdoor recreation space, a fitness room, community lounges, bike storage, dog run, and study rooms. 

The program will be comprised of four-, two-, one-bedroom, and studio units featuring lounges on every floor and a central green space to foster social events and connection. With an emphasis on balancing a variety of student needs and lifestyles, the development will create a modern housing experience that supports wellbeing and strengthens the fabric of the surrounding neighborhood. In a historic first, this community will bring together two of the nation’s premier single-gender institutions into a thoughtfully designed, shared residential environment. By expanding opportunities for high-quality, affordable, and safe student housing in Atlanta, the project achieves key strategic objectives for both Colleges as they manage unprecedented growth in recent years.  

Since 2020, Morehouse and Spelman have experienced significant enrollment growth. Increasing housing capacity is a strategic priority to reach a 75%–85% residency goal for on-campus and affiliated housing. As students increasingly face high-cost, distant off-campus properties that lack the proximity required for a cohesive campus experience, this 793-bed community will offer a convenient and affordable advantage with rents averaging 3% below the off-campus market, facilitating improved student safety, retention, and wellbeing.

“This project is an investment to enhance our students’ residential experience, which directly contributes to their academic success and persistence to graduation,” said Undria Stalling, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Business & Finance at Morehouse College. “Our steadily growing student enrollment fuels our collective need for affordable, near-campus housing. Radnor and Madrone brought their development expertise, and with Spelman, we partnered to create a solution that will give future generations of students a modern, accessible place to live, learn, and grow into the leaders our institutions are known to produce.”

“We are proud to work alongside Morehouse College and to collaborate with this award-winning student housing team to bring to life a vision of a modernized, future-ready community,” said Dawn Alston, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs at Spelman College. “This partnership demonstrates our commitment to investing in campus facilities, student support, and residential life to accommodate growing enrollment, and it represents what is possible when mission-driven partners come together with a shared commitment to student success.”

DAFC will loan the proceeds of the bonds to Madrone-MS Student Housing LLC, a subsidiary of Madrone Community Development Foundation. West End Avenue P3, LLC, a joint venture entity between Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, has entered into a 50-year lease agreement with Madrone as part of the transaction. Construction will commence in July 2026 and be ready for occupancy by Fall 2028.

The development team includes Radnor Property Group as lead development partner, Clark Construction and CD Moody Construction in a joint venture as construction manager, Moody Nolan as architect, and Pape-Dawson as civil engineer.

“It is a privilege for Radnor to support Morehouse and Spelman Colleges in this historic, first-of-its-kind joint housing partnership,” said David Yeager, CEO and Managing Partner at Radnor Property Group. “This partnership sets a new benchmark for how premier institutions can combine resources to deliver exceptional, affordable residential environments. Achieving this milestone is a testament to their shared vision, allowing both colleges to advance their unique missions while remaining dynamic and resilient in an ever-changing higher education landscape.”

Nick Waugh, President of Madrone, said, “We’re honored to partner with Morehouse and Spelman on an investment that advances the long-term success of two extraordinary HBCUs. Through this housing partnership, we’re proud to help deliver a community that enables more students to live next to campus, focus on their education, and fully engage in campus life. This is exactly the kind of mission-driven investment that creates lasting value for students and institutions alike.”

Raymond James along with Loop Capital Markets served as underwriter for the bond financing. Brailsford & Dunlavey served as the Colleges’ project advisor, with Kutak Rock as bond counsel and Hilltop Securities as the colleges’ financial advisor.

About Radnor Property Group
Radnor Property Group is a leading national real estate company with a focus in projects structured as public-private partnerships. The company specializes in the development of real estate and infrastructure assets, including student housing, workforce housing, mixed-use commercial, and campus utilities. Since its founding in 1999, Radnor has undertaken development projects cumulatively valued at over $4 billion. Radnor is headquartered in Philadelphia, with regional offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and Portland, Maine. For more information, visit radnorproperty.com.

About Morehouse College
Morehouse College is a private, historically Black liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, and the nation’s only historically Black college dedicated exclusively to the education of men. Founded in 1867, the College has a long-standing reputation for developing leaders committed to scholarship, service, and social justice. Located within the Atlanta University Center Consortium, Morehouse shares a collaborative academic environment with Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and the Morehouse School of Medicine. The College’s mission is to develop men with disciplined minds who will lead lives of leadership and service. For more information, visit morehouse.edu.

About Spelman College
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,700 students. Spelman is the country’s leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by the U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 37 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 33 for undergraduate teaching, No. 2 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 19th year among historically Black colleges and universities.  Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors and minors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, data science, refugee studies and gaming. Collaborations have been also established with MIT’s Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning, among others.

Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, former Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, Harvard University professor and former Dean Evelynn Hammonds, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones.

To learn more, please visit spelman.edu and @spelmancollege on social media.

About Madrone Community Development Foundation

Madrone Community Development Foundation supports communities and institutions by providing essential facilities through public-private financing structures. Madrone is a public benefit corporation formed to lessen the burdens of government through providing educational, community, energy, hospitality, infrastructure and housing facilities. Headquartered in California, Madrone delivers facilities to sponsoring institutions across the USA. For more information, visit madronecdf.org.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Radnor Property Group

Investment in The Luzon and The Van Buren reflects NJCC’s growing platform for flexible, mission-aligned capital in supply-constrained markets

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., July 22, 2026 — New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC), a national community development financial institution (CDFI), announced the closing of a $3.5 million preferred equity investment in The Luzon and The Van Buren, a 118-unit naturally occurring workforce housing portfolio in the Brightwood neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C.

Located at 6600 Luzon Avenue NW and 6505 14th Street NW, the portfolio comprises two midrise properties totaling 115,250 square feet of net rentable area. Originally constructed in 1942 and 1955, the buildings offer a mix of studio- through three-bedroom units. The Brightwood/16th Street Heights area sits along the edge of Rock Creek Park’s 1,700 acres, with a housing stock that preserves a rare architectural mix of mid-century and pre-war homes.

The investment, made in partnership with sponsor Capitol Rock Partners, a vertically integrated Washington, D.C., real estate platform, closed alongside senior financing from Hingham Institution for Savings. It keeps the portfolio’s existing units under the District’s rent control protections, preserving rents at levels affordable to the local workforce. With support from Aya Enterprises, the transaction preserves long-term affordability in one of the District’s most supply-constrained submarkets without displacing current residents. NJCC structures preferred equity investments like this one to complement senior debt rather than compete with it, giving sponsors the capital flexibility to acquire and stabilize naturally occurring affordable and workforce housing in markets where new construction cannot keep pace with demand.

“Preserving naturally occurring workforce housing takes capital that understands both the financial structure and the residents who depend on it,” said Bernel Hall, President and CEO of NJCC. “This investment protects 118 units of stable, affordable housing in a part of the District where that stability is getting harder to find every year — rather than waiting to replace it after it’s gone.”

Cameron Webb and Felipe Ernst, Co-Founders of Capitol Rock Partners, added, “Having been raised in Washington, D.C., it is especially meaningful to preserve quality, affordable housing in the city that shaped us. We are excited to partner with NJCC to invest in these properties responsibly and support long-term stability for the residents and communities they serve.”

About New Jersey Community Capital

New Jersey Community Capital is a nonprofit community development financial institution dedicated to advancing opportunity through strategic investments and knowledge-based programs. It finances and supports individuals, businesses, educational organizations, and communities; preserves and develops affordable housing, community facilities, and educational facilities; and creates sustainable economic development generating quality jobs, improving education, and strengthening neighborhoods, ensuring that communities can thrive. Founded in 1987, NJCC is a critical architect of community development initiatives, driving economic stability and wealth generation in overlooked areas.

SOURCE New Jersey Community Capital

Valency joins Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s HERALD project, giving AI agents a first pass through a vast archive of nuclear power research so human experts can focus on the judgment calls that matter.

BERKELEY, Calif., July 22, 2026 — Valency, provider of foundational infrastructure for human-centered, AI-accelerated science, today announced its selection for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission. Valency joins Genesis as a funded partner in HERALD, a collaboration led by senior scientists Daniela Ushizima and Peter Nugent at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to use special-purpose AI agents as a tool to empower human security experts to review the vast archive of nuclear power research. 

“Most document systems were built to store files and help people find them – not for AI agents that need to read, reason across, and act on huge collections of documents alongside human experts,” said Joshua Bloom, CEO of Valency. “That’s the infrastructure we’ve been building, and HERALD is a critical proving ground. We couldn’t have asked for a more meaningful scientific mission and partnership.”

“To advance nuclear power, we must unlock invaluable research trapped behind security reviews. HERALD will build AI to safely vet this trove of legacy data while maintaining the strict, auditable proof required for compliance,” said Dr. Daniela Ushizima, Berkeley Lab Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator of the Genesis Mission’s HERALD project in collaboration with Valency.

“The Valency Hub gives us something no research prototype offers: a production platform where every document, every AI verdict, and every reviewer decision is tracked in an auditable chain of custody. That’s what turns a promising classifier into infrastructure the DOE complex can actually trust and deploy,” said Peter Nugent, Division Deputy for Science for Berkeley Lab’s Applied Math and Computational Research Division and Systems Integration Lead for HERALD.

As part of the award, Valency powers the AI agent infrastructure behind HERALD: a system built to support hundreds of millions of scientific documents, many AI agents working at once, and a large group of human reviewers, all with the data provenance and controls that this work demands. Valency’s infrastructure speaks the Model Context Protocol (MCP) natively, giving HERALD’s agents a direct, structured way to work across the archive. Experts remain in charge of every decision that matters; the difference is they can spend their time on the documents that genuinely need their judgment.

About Valency

Valency is the infrastructure that keeps AI working from the real record, not a plausible-sounding approximation of it. Built to support hundreds of millions of scientific documents and the AI agents that read, reason across, and act on them, Valency provides researchers and their AI systems a grounded, current view of the record they depend on. Learn more at valency.io.

Media Contact

Matthew Work — Head of GTM

[email protected] • 415-412-4286

SOURCE Valency Systems Inc

 PawPay becomes VANE’s newest portfolio company, bringing point-of-care pet insurance payments to veterinary medicine.

LOS ANGELES, July 22, 2026 — The Veterinary Angel Network for Entrepreneurs (VANE) is pleased to announce that PawPay has become VANE’s newest portfolio company following investments by VANE members.

PawPay turns any policy into pet insurance that pays vet directly, allowing insured pet owners to pay only their deductible and coinsurance at the time of their veterinary visit. Instead of paying the entire invoice upfront and waiting days or weeks for reimbursement, PawPay verifies coverage, collects the pet owner’s portion of the bill, pays the veterinary clinic immediately, and manages reimbursement directly with the insurance carrier.

“One of the biggest frustrations for insured pet owners is having to pay the full cost of care upfront despite faithfully paying insurance premiums,” said Peter Glassman, DVM, Co-Founder of VANE. “PawPay has created an elegant solution that benefits everyone involved—pet owners gain immediate access to their insurance benefits, veterinary practices receive prompt payment, and insurers benefit from a more efficient claims process.”

Unlike financing products that place pet owners into debt, PawPay simply unlocks insurance benefits that already exist. The platform also simplifies workflow for veterinary teams by requiring only an invoice and medical record upload or email out of the PIMS, while PawPay manages coverage likelihood, claims submission, payment processing, and insurer reimbursement.  The clinic is paid in full, and PawPay works with the pet owner on any declined coverage. 

“PawPay is about removing financial friction at the moment when pet owners need care most,” said David Franklin, Co-Founder and CEO of PawPay. “We’re honored to have the support of VANE members, whose experience in animal health and veterinary medicine will be invaluable as we continue to expand partnerships with veterinary practices and insurance carriers.”

PawPay is currently onboarding veterinary practices and building deeper integrations with insurance partners for broader commercial expansion. The company has developed a fully functional patent-pending platform and continues to build relationships across the pet ecosystem.

VANE congratulates the PawPay team and looks forward to supporting the company’s continued growth as it modernizes one of the fastest-growing segments of companion animal healthcare.

About VANE:

The Veterinary Angel Network (VANE) is the only angel investment community dedicated exclusively to early-stage innovation in animal health. VANE connects promising startups with a network of experienced veterinarians and industry leaders who invest individually and help guide companies through mentorship, expertise, and industry relationships.

About PawPay:

PawPay is a comprehensive veterinary payment and insurance activation platform that allows clinics to receive direct, instant insurance payments at checkout. By serving as an authorized collection agent, the platform enables pet parents to pay only their direct out-of-pocket share while paying the clinic in full within minutes. Built with clinic profitability and workflow ease in mind, PawPay is entirely free for veterinary practices to join, offers transaction fees lower than traditional credit cards, and features an intuitive digital portal backed by rapid staff training and dedicated customer support. Learn more about their services at www.pawpay.com.

SOURCE PawPay LLC; Veterinary Angel Network for Entrepreneurs (VANE)

Uzum, écosystème numérique national de l’Ouzbékistan, figure pour la première fois dans le classement World’s Top Fintech Companies 2026, établi par CNBC en partenariat avec Statista, société internationale spécialisée dans les études de marché et l’analyse de données. Uzum a été récompensée dans la catégorie « Neobanking ».

TASHKENT, Ouzbékistan, 22 juillet 2026 — Le classement des meilleures sociétés mondiales de la fintech établi par CNBC et Statista est l’une des références mondiales les plus respectées du secteur. Ce prix distingue les entreprises qui façonnent l’avenir des services financiers grâce à la technologie, à l’innovation et à des solutions numériques évolutives. La catégorie « Neobanking » regroupe les prestataires de services financiers numériques de nouvelle génération qui proposent des services bancaires et assimilés principalement via des canaux numériques, sans passer par les réseaux d’agences traditionnels.

Le fait qu’Uzum figure parmi les principales entreprises mondiales du secteur de la fintech témoigne de la confiance croissante que des millions d’utilisateurs accordent à ses solutions financières numériques. En Ouzbékistan, de plus en plus de personnes ont recours aux services numériques pour effectuer leurs paiements quotidiens, leurs achats, assurer la gestion de leurs finances personnelles et accéder aux services bancaires.

« Cette distinction témoigne avant tout du fait qu’une approche écosystémique est en train de transformer le quotidien financier de millions de personnes. Nous mettons en place un écosystème évolutif qui offre une expérience utilisateur fluide, dans lequel les services financiers et les services de tous les jours sont intégrés au sein d’un environnement unique. Cela permet aux utilisateurs d’accéder plus facilement aux solutions dont ils ont besoin, tout en nous permettant d’élargir en permanence notre gamme de produits et de proposer des services numériques modernes dans tout le pays. Cette approche a déjà incité plus de 6 millions d’utilisateurs à opter pour les cartes Uzum Bank, celles-ci étant désormais intégrées de manière naturelle dans les interactions quotidiennes au sein de l’écosystème, bien au-delà de leur simple fonction d’instrument de paiement. Nous créons une expérience numérique simplifiée dans laquelle les services financiers s’intègrent naturellement dans la vie quotidienne, permettant ainsi aux utilisateurs de faire leurs achats, d’effectuer des paiements, d’accéder à des financements à crédit, d’effectuer des virements et d’utiliser d’autres services au sein d’un même écosystème, en quelques clics seulement.

En alliant technologie, facilité d’utilisation et modèle fondé sur un écosystème, nous sommes en mesure de développer rapidement nos services, d’élargir l’accès aux solutions financières numériques, de créer de nouvelles opportunités pour les entrepreneurs grâce à la finance intégrée et de contribuer au développement de l’économie numérique de l’Ouzbékistan », a déclaré  Djasur Djumaev, PDG et fondateur d’Uzum.

Ce classement repose sur la méthodologie d’évaluation exhaustive de Statista, qui associe des indicateurs généraux de performance d’entreprise à des indicateurs clés de performance (KPI) spécifiques à chaque segment du secteur de la fintech. Cette approche permet d’évaluer les entreprises non seulement en fonction de leur taille, mais aussi en fonction de leurs performances opérationnelles, de leur trajectoire de croissance et de leur niveau de maturité numérique.

• $15M Series A led by Insight Partners (Anthropic, Shopify, Twitter, Wiz)
• 13x revenue growth in a year, profitable, with a team of 15
• Powers creator-led growth across 20+ B2B verticals – financial services, coding, marketing, design – for the most forward-leaning companies, including ElevenLabs, Figma, Replit, Framer and Gamma
• Co-founder and CEO Jen Phan relocating to New York to open NY office
• Expanding talent base across US and Europe

NEW YORK and BERLIN, July 22, 2026 — Passionfroot, the platform for B2B creator-led growth, today announced a $15M Series A led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors Creandum, Supernode Global, and s16vc. Passionfroot is the first AI-native platform for B2B creator-led growth, built for a moment when traditional channels are losing effectiveness and buyers increasingly discover software through independent voices they already trust. The company handles everything from creator discovery to contract, campaign execution to global payment, with AI unifying the process from end-to-end.

Zest, Passionfroot’s AI agent, executes creator campaigns from brief to payment. It’s powered by the Creator Graph, a proprietary dataset of B2B creator pricing and performance built from thousands of campaigns. Global payouts flow through the Passionfroot Wallet, giving brands visibility into creator spend that the category has historically lacked.

Built for B2B, not B2C

Passionfroot isn’t built for lifestyle creators or consumer ad buys; it’s for the hardest customers in software. The fastest-scaling, most demanding companies facing the defining question of the AI era: when anyone can build the product, how do you cut through and win mindshare? In that world, distribution matters more than ever, and those are exactly the companies Passionfroot is built for.

That extends to how Passionfroot is built. It’s AI-native in its operations, not just its product, which is how 15 people deliver at this scale.

Profitable hypergrowth

Over the past year Passionfroot grew revenue 13x while staying profitable with a team of 15. The customer list is the tell: ElevenLabs, Figma, Replit, Framer and Gamma, a roster heavy with AI-native companies that treat creators as core go-to-market from day one. Passionfroot’s creator platform spans thousands of independent voices across software, AI, developer tools and enterprise productivity, sectors that account for the majority of the company’s customer base.

“With Passionfroot, we’ve been able to build and scale our creator program in a way that wasn’t possible before. In the age of AI, you need to reach your buyers through voices they already trust – and Passionfroot makes that scalable. What used to take weeks now happens in days. It’s become a core part of how we reach our community and tell better stories faster across channels.” (Alex Lin, Growth Marketing at Replit)

Why Insight backed it

Insight Partners, roughly $90B under management, backing Anthropic, Shopify, Twitter, Linktree, Wiz.

“AI-native companies are bringing a consumer playbook to B2B go-to-market. More and more, they’re scaling through creators their audiences already trust, and as generative engines reshape search, authentic user-generated content is becoming increasingly valuable. Passionfroot built the infrastructure for this shift: a platform that runs the entire creator campaign workflow end-to-end, with a data layer that gets smarter with every campaign. We’re thrilled to partner with Passionfroot as they define the category,” said Rebecca Liu-Doyle, Managing Director at Insight Partners.

What’s next

The funding will go toward making their AI Agent Zest run more of every campaign, deepening the Creator Graph, and scaling GTM in the US. Co-founder and CEO Jen Phan is relocating to New York to lead that expansion, while product and engineering stay anchored in Berlin and the company will be opening a third office in São Paulo for customer success and engineering. Passionfroot is hiring across all three.

“We’re entering the era of the B2B creator economy, and it’s moving faster than anyone expected,” said Jen Phan, Co-founder and CEO of Passionfroot. “The more AI floods the world with content, the more the trusted human voices – the domain experts and tastemakers people actually listen to – matter. Our job is to make reaching them as measurable and scalable as paid search became fifteen years ago.

About Passionfroot

Passionfroot is the AI-native platform for B2B creator-led growth. Its agent, Zest, runs creator campaigns end to end, powered by the proprietary Creator Graph and the Passionfroot Wallet for global payouts and attribution. The company works with 150+ B2B brands – including ElevenLabs, Figma, Replit, Framer and Gamma – and thousands of the world’s most influential creators. Founded in 2022 by Jen Phan and Lorenzo De Nobili and backed by Insight Partners, Creandum, Supernode Global, and s16vc. www.passionfroot.me

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2025, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 900 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has a global presence with leadership in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

SOURCE Passionfroot

Uzum, das nationale digitale Ökosystem Usbekistans, wurde erstmals in die Liste der weltweit führenden Fintech-Unternehmen 2026 aufgenommen, die von CNBC in Zusammenarbeit mit dem globalen Marktforschungs- und Analyseunternehmen Statista erstellt wurde. Uzum wurde in der Kategorie „Neobanking” ausgezeichnet.

TASCHKENT, Usbekistan, 22. Juli 2026 — Die von CNBC und Statista erstellte Liste der weltweit führenden Fintech-Unternehmen zählt zu den renommiertesten globalen Benchmarks der Branche. Sie würdigt Unternehmen, die mit Technologie, Innovation und skalierbaren digitalen Lösungen die Zukunft der Finanzdienstleistungen gestalten. Die Kategorie „Neobanking” umfasst Anbieter digitaler Finanzdienstleistungen der nächsten Generation, die Bankdienstleistungen und bankähnliche Dienstleistungen vorwiegend über digitale Kanäle erbringen, ohne auf traditionelle Filialnetze zurückzugreifen.

Die Aufnahme von Uzum in den Kreis der weltweit führenden Fintech-Unternehmen spiegelt das wachsende Vertrauen wider, das Millionen von Nutzern in die digitalen Finanzlösungen des Unternehmens setzen. Immer mehr Menschen in ganz Usbekistan nutzen digitale Dienste für alltägliche Zahlungen, Einkäufe, die Verwaltung ihrer privaten Finanzen und den Zugang zu Bankdienstleistungen.

„Diese Anerkennung ist vor allem ein Beleg dafür, dass ein ökosystemorientierter Ansatz das tägliche Finanzleben von Millionen von Menschen verändert. Wir bauen ein Ökosystem auf, das dank einer nahtlosen Benutzererfahrung skalierbar ist und Finanz- und Alltagsdienstleistungen in einer einzigen Umgebung vereint. Dies erleichtert den Nutzern den Zugang zu den Lösungen, die sie benötigen, und ermöglicht es uns gleichzeitig, unser Produktangebot kontinuierlich zu erweitern und moderne digitale Dienste landesweit zur Verfügung zu stellen. Dieser Ansatz hat bereits dazu geführt, dass sich mehr als 6 Millionen Nutzer für Karten der Uzum Bank entschieden haben, da die Karte mittlerweile ein selbstverständlicher Bestandteil des täglichen Umgangs mit dem Ökosystem ist und nicht mehr nur ein Zahlungsmittel darstellt. Wir schaffen ein nahtloses digitales Erlebnis, bei dem Finanzdienstleistungen in den Alltag integriert sind, sodass Nutzer innerhalb eines einzigen Ökosystems mit nur wenigen Klicks einkaufen, bezahlen, Ratenfinanzierungen nutzen, Geld überweisen und weitere Dienste in Anspruch nehmen können.

Durch die Kombination von Technologie, Komfort und einem ökosystembasierten Modell können wir unsere Dienstleistungen rasch ausbauen, den Zugang zu digitalen Finanzlösungen erweitern, durch Embedded Finance neue Möglichkeiten für Unternehmer schaffen und zur Entwicklung der digitalen Wirtschaft Usbekistans beitragen”, so Djasur Djumaev, CEO und Gründer von Uzum.

Die Liste basiert auf der umfassenden Bewertungsmethodik von Statista, die allgemeine Kennzahlen zur Unternehmensleistung mit kategoriespezifischen Leistungskennzahlen kombiniert, die auf die einzelnen Fintech-Segmente zugeschnitten sind. Dieser Ansatz ermöglicht es, Unternehmen nicht nur anhand ihrer Größe, sondern auch anhand ihrer operativen Leistung, ihrer Wachstumsentwicklung und ihres Grades an digitaler Reife zu bewerten.

Landmark exits, including the largest private biotech M&A deal on record, drove returns that CI will reinvest in Connecticut’s innovation economy

NEW HAVEN, Conn., July 22, 2026 — Connecticut Innovations (CI), the state’s strategic venture capital arm, today announced a record-breaking fiscal year, generating $66.5 million in cash proceeds from a series of landmark portfolio exits and a combined $76.1 million from all investment activities. CI invested $59.3 million in 75 early-stage companies and venture funds during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026, with those deals leveraging an additional $1.2 billion in outside capital.

This fiscal year’s proceeds were driven by several significant portfolio exits, including but not limited to:

• Halda Therapeutics (Acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $3.05 billion)
• Quantum Circuits Inc. (Acquired by D-Wave Quantum for $550 million)
• Veradermics (NYSE IPO; raised $256.3 million)

“This was a landmark year for Connecticut Innovations and for the state’s innovation economy,” said Matt McCooe, CEO of Connecticut Innovations. “The success of Halda Therapeutics and Veradermics—respectively becoming the largest private biotech M&A transaction and the best-performing biotech IPO in the market at the time—demonstrates the trajectory New Haven and Connecticut are on as they continue to emerge as global leaders in life sciences innovation.”

Throughout the fiscal year, CI continued to build on its role as a catalyst for Connecticut’s venture ecosystem through initiatives including the third annual Tour de Connecticut, a statewide bike ride showcasing innovation across the state; the second annual Talent Fair, connecting the next generation of innovators with CI portfolio companies eager to hire; and the launch of its AI/Q Fund, targeting scalable commercial AI and quantum ventures.

“The acquisition of Quantum Circuits Inc. marks an exciting milestone for Connecticut’s quantum ecosystem and reinforces the opportunity we see every day through our AI/Q Fund,” said Gwen Cheni, director of the AI/Q Fund. “We’re already investing in exceptional founders building AI and quantum companies, and we believe this is just the beginning of a new wave of innovation that will create lasting economic impact for the state.”

About Connecticut Innovations
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticut’s strategic venture capital arm and the leading source of financing and ongoing support for innovative, growing companies. By offering equity and debt investments, strategic guidance and introductions to valuable partners, CI helps promising businesses thrive. For more information, visit http://www.ctinnovations.com.

Media Contact:
Lauren Carmody
Connecticut Innovations
860.258.7829
[email protected]

SOURCE Connecticut Innovations