As the number of solo businesses surges past 30M, Collective’s ARR is growing 120% annually and has already helped solo business owners save an estimated $350 million in taxes

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 29, 2026 — Collective, the AI-native financial operating system for Businesses-of-One, today announced $100 million in new funding to accelerate its mission of building the agentic financial OS for solo entrepreneurs. The round includes a $40 million Series B led by General Catalyst, QED Investors, and Gradient Ventures, along with Intuit Ventures, FT Partners, and SemperVirens, alongside a $60 million growth facility from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund to fuel customer acquisition. The funding will also be used to accelerate Collective’s product development in banking and insurance.

Solo Businesses’ Problem: Backoffice Tasks Take Valuable Time & Costs
Artificial intelligence is sparking an unprecedented entrepreneurial renaissance, empowering a solo operator to produce the output of a larger business. The U.S. now has 30 million solo businesses, and their revenue is skyrocketing. According to a recent Stripe report, the number of solo operators generating $1M/year doubled between 2023 and 2025, while those earning $10M/year tripled. However, as these businesses scale, they hit a critical bottleneck: the back office. Solo operators are forced to stitch together a patchwork of disconnected software for bookkeeping, payroll, and taxes, all while paying high fees to traditional CPAs. Instead of focusing on growth, owners lose hundreds of hours to administrative tasks, while missing out on critical tax savings.

“Collective has been an absolute godsend,” said Eddy Adams, a Graphic Designer who uses Collective. “Working as a self-employed designer, I can offload most of my tax responsibilities and focus on my daily workload. Through the s-corp setup, I also save tens of thousands of dollars in taxes every year. Their service pays for itself!”

Collective’s Solution: A Self-Driving Financial OS for Businesses of One
Collective eliminates this friction by delivering an AI-native, full-stack financial operating system for solo businesses. Rather than giving business owners more software to operate, Collective’s platform does the work in the background by combining AI with financial infrastructure to autonomously anticipate, coordinate, and execute workflows.

Key features include:

• Business Setup: Automates entity formation (LLC, etc) to ensure optimal legal and tax structures.
• Accounting: Bookkeeping that categorizes expenses and reconciles accounts.
• Invoicing: Eliminates administrative busywork through streamlined invoicing tools.
• Payroll: Simplifies salary processing to ensure owners maximize tax savings compliantly.
• Taxes: Autonomous tax preparation, filing, and ongoing optimization to maximize savings.
• Business Insurance: Offers integrated coverage options to protect owners from liability and risk.
• Health Insurance: Connects solo founders with instant, affordable health coverage options.
• Support: World class human support team powered by AI to resolve 50% of support requests autonomously while maintaining 4.5 star satisfaction.

“AI is leveling the playing field, making it possible for a single individual to build a powerful, highly profitable enterprise,” said Hooman Radfar, co-founder and CEO of Collective. “Traditional accounting firms scale by adding people. Collective scales with intelligence. Every workflow we automate and every part of the financial stack we bring onto the platform increases what Collective can do for our members. We’re building toward a world where a Business-of-One can access the financial capabilities of a much larger company without having to build the team behind it.”

Rapid Growth to Become the Largest Financial Platform for Solo Businesses
As the number of solopreneurs explodes past 30M, Collective has quickly emerged as the largest platform to serve their needs, and ARR is growing 120% year-over-year. To date, the platform has saved solopreneurs an estimated $350 million in collective taxes, proving the massive economic impact of bringing enterprise-grade financial optimization to the individual founder. For Collective’s highest income earners, owners are saving up to $40,000 per year in taxes.

“With CVF, we look for companies with high-quality unit economics and a large market opportunity,” said Pranav Singhvi, Partner and co-head of CVF, General Catalyst. “We see solo businesses as one of the most dynamic segments of the economy, and we expect that trend to accelerate as AI advances. Collective has built a one-stop shop for their financial needs. Their vision and track record make Collective exactly the kind of company CVF was designed for.”

Solo business owners can learn more at https://www.collective.com/.

About Collective
Collective is the AI-native financial operating system for Businesses-of-One. Built from the ground up to do financial work, Collective brings together accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, tax, and financial services in one connected platform, giving self-employed entrepreneurs the capabilities of a corporate finance department without having to build one.Collective is backed by General Catalyst, QED Investors, Gradient Ventures, Intuit Ventures, FT Partners, SemperVirens, Expa, Sound Ventures, The General Partnership, and Better Tomorrow Ventures, alongside leading technology founders, CEOs, and investors including Nikesh Arora, Ashton Kutcher, Elad Gil, Dylan Field, Garrett Camp, David Steinberg, Gokul Rajaram, Aaron Levie, Steve Chen, Sam Yam, and Kevin Lin. Learn more at Collective.com.

Riley Munks
Press Contact
Collective
[email protected]

SOURCE Collective

CPG businesses can now put AI to work on their payables, connecting Settle’s purchasing, bill pay and working capital data with the rest of their tools

NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2026 — Settle, the leading cash flow management and working capital platform for inventory-based businesses, today announced the launch of its public API and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Businesses can now connect Settle directly to their own software, data warehouses and AI assistants such as Claude. It is the first step toward agentic procure-to-pay, where AI handles the busywork across the systems a business runs on, from purchase order to payment.

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands run on a patchwork of tools: Shopify, an ERP, accounting software, inventory and 3PL systems, and spreadsheets in between. Settle’s API and MCP server bring Settle into that whole stack. Finance and operations teams, and the AI agents working for them, can tap into Settle’s payables data and tools alongside their other systems to reconcile faster, forecast cash, and answer questions like “what do we owe our suppliers next month?” in seconds instead of hours.

Early customers are already building with it, from custom cash flow dashboards to AI agents that help run day-to-day operations. Settle plans to keep expanding what agents can see and do across procurement, payables, and working capital.

“Every business we talk to is rebuilding how they work with AI, and the companies moving fastest want their tools to talk to each other,” said Alek Koenig, CEO and founder of Settle. “We built Settle’s API and MCP server so a brand’s AI can work alongside our platform and their other systems, not around them. This is the foundation for agentic procure-to-pay: software that keeps purchasing, payables, and cash flow moving on its own, with our team behind it.”

Developers and Settle customers can get started at settle.com/api or by contacting their Settle account team.

ABOUT SETTLE
Settle is a cash flow management and working capital platform purpose-built for product businesses. The company’s integrated suite, including procurement, bill pay, AP automation, and flexible working capital financing, gives brands the tools to manage their payables and access the capital they need to grow. With more than $8 billion in payments processed and total originations exceeding $4 billion, Settle has helped thousands of businesses across the United States unlock the capital they need to scale. Settle is backed by leading investors including Ribbit Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Caffeinated Capital, Stripes, Founders Fund, SciFi Ventures, Citi Ventures, and Activant Capital. Learn more at settle.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Settle Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE Settle Inc.

Record-setting round marks largest private capital raise in Canadian history fuelling investment in compute infrastructure, frontier models, and full-stack AI products for enterprises and governments

TORONTO, Oct. 29, 2026 — Cohere, a leading provider of sovereign AI for regulated industries and governments, today announced the initial close of its Series E funding round targeting up to CAD $7 billion, which would represent a CAD $35.7 billion valuation. Commitments to date include the companies of Schwarz Group, one of Europe’s largest investors in AI and cloud infrastructure, as the lead investor. New institutional and strategic investors include Bell Ventures, Bullhound Capital and the Government of Canada, while Inovia Capital, NVIDIA and Prosperity7 Ventures are returning investors.

The round marks the largest private financing round ever undertaken by a Canadian technology company and underscores a broader global shift toward sovereign AI. As AI becomes increasingly mission-critical, organizations are seeking independent alternatives that provide greater control over their data, infrastructure, governance, and deployment environments.

“Today we are announcing the initial close of our Series E, a record-setting round that marks the largest private capital raise in Canadian history,” said Aidan Gomez, CEO and Co-Founder, Cohere. “This is a huge honour, not only for Cohere but for the country as the government’s investment highlights Canada’s leadership in the global AI revolution. Our company is one of the few building artificial intelligence that is changing the world. For our proud home of Canada, its global standing, and its international leadership, we are celebrating something historic.”

Cohere has seen rapid growth since launching North, its agentic AI platform, ending Q3 2026 with 165% year-over-year ARR growth, driven by new customer wins and expansions across commercial and public sector organizations. Over the past year, Cohere has increased its global customer base by 20x to 300 customers, reflecting growing adoption with industry leaders across highly regulated industries including Aston Martin Aramco, Bell Canada, Fujitsu, RBC, RWS, PwC, TD Bank, TKMS, and more.

“Cohere will use the funding to advance our modelling and product roadmap, develop fully verticalized AI solutions for regulated industries, and invest in long–term compute infrastructure needed to train frontier–level enterprise models,” said Francois Chadwick, Chief Financial Officer, Cohere. “We will continue to meaningfully scale across North America, EMEA, and APAC to meet growing customer demand.”

The companies of Schwarz Group are the lead investor and one of the largest investors in European AI and cloud infrastructure, whose IT and digital division Schwarz Digits recently committed billions to next-generation data centre capacity in Germany.

“The companies of Schwarz Group are proud to lead Cohere’s Series E investment at a pivotal moment for AI, where digital sovereignty has become a strategic imperative for global competitiveness,” said Christian Müller, CEO, Schwarz Digits. “Digital sovereignty is about strategic choice, interoperability and holding the keys to our own data. Following the strategic business combination of Cohere and Aleph Alpha, this investment marks the next logical milestone on a roadmap that we have methodically built: uniting European research excellence and explainability with global enterprise scale. Our partnership brings together Canadian AI leadership and trusted European infrastructure, giving customers greater choice and control over how they deploy secure AI. Our clear goal is to anchor these frontier capabilities in our sovereign STACKIT cloud infrastructure. We are excited to support its continued growth across Europe and around the world.”

The Government of Canada’s equity investment will help Cohere scale from Canada, supporting Canadian jobs and computing infrastructure while giving Canadians a stake in the company’s global success. Cohere is making a number of commitments as part of the investment to support Canada’s economic vision and grow the country’s sovereign AI ecosystem.

“Canada’s investment in Cohere is an investment in choice, in security, and in our ability to live our lives as we choose. Today, true sovereignty depends on our ability to build, adopt, and govern AI on our own terms. The bigger and faster Cohere can scale up their models and operations, the more businesses and governments can control where sensitive data is stored, how it is used, and who can access it. We need this technology. That’s why this company’s growth has been so extraordinary. It is in all our interests for Cohere to succeed, and now all Canadians will have a share in that success.”

— The Rt. Hon. Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada

The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation said, “It is not enough for great companies to start in Canada. We want them to grow here, build here and create good jobs here. That means giving Canadian entrepreneurs the conditions to turn ambitious ideas into globally successful businesses. Investing in Cohere sends a clear message: you should not have to leave Canada to build a company that succeeds around the world. We are backing Canadian talent and giving Canadians a stake in that success.”

Reflecting the growing importance of sovereign AI and the strength of German-Canadian collaboration, Karsten Wildberger, Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernization, said, “We congratulate Cohere on its successful Series E financing round. This milestone demonstrates strong market confidence in the strategic importance of sovereign AI and in the shared vision of Cohere and Aleph Alpha to strengthen technological competitiveness through trusted, secure, and independent AI capabilities. We appreciate the strong commitment of German companies like Schwarz Group which underscores the strength of German-Canadian cooperation and importance of initiatives such as the Sovereign Tech Alliance in fostering an innovative and globally competitive AI ecosystem.”

Building on Cohere’s Strategic Expansion in 2026

Cohere has been strategically expanding in 2026. Transactions including Aleph Alpha, Reliant AI, and AISLE have strengthened Cohere’s platform across sovereign AI, healthcare and life sciences, and cybersecurity. At the same time, Cohere has expanded its presence across North America, EMEA, and APAC through new offices, customer growth, and strategic partnerships while scaling deployments across financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, manufacturing, energy, critical infrastructure, and government. Together, these investments reinforce Cohere’s position as the leading secure, sovereign AI partner for enterprises and governments worldwide.

Doubling Down on Modelling and Full–Stack Product Development

The funding will advance product development across Cohere’s model portfolio and full–stack platform, which saw its biggest upgrade yet this year with the launch of North 2. This year, Cohere introduced new models and capabilities across generation, search, speech, code, and translation, including Command A+, Cohere Transcribe, Parse 5, Embed 5, Rerank 5, North Mini Code, and North Small Translate.

Cohere’s enterprise–first approach prioritizes security, customisation, cost–efficiency and measurable business outcomes. From the beginning, the company has focused on building AI systems designed to work inside real organizations and under real-world constraints.

As enterprise AI adoption matures, customer priorities increasingly align with Cohere’s approach: ownership and control of models, data, and infrastructure; flexible deployment across cloud, Model Vault, on-premises, and air-gapped environments; enterprise-grade security and compliance; cost-efficient models that fit operational and budget realities; and ROI-driven outcomes that improve productivity and streamline operations.

A Global Inflection Point for Sovereign AI

This investment reinforces Cohere’s belief that the next era of AI will give organizations greater choice and control over their technology, supported by secure deployment options and trusted partnerships.

Market pressures are accelerating this shift. Organizations are facing rising compute costs, tightening regulatory regimes, and escalating cybersecurity risks. Increasingly, customers need to deploy AI systems that can operate securely in private cloud, on–premise, or fully air-gapped environments. These forces are driving rapid expansion of the sovereign AI market, projected to reach $600 billion according to McKinsey, making it one of the fastest–growing segments of the global AI economy.

Cohere’s strong growth and customer adoption reinforce its position as the leading independent alternative in an increasingly concentrated AI market.

About Cohere

Cohere, founded in 2019, is a leading provider of sovereign AI for regulated industries and governments that enables organizations to own, operate and govern their AI systems with greater control over their data, infrastructure, and deployment.  Our all-in-one platform provides maximum security, privacy, and deployment flexibility across public and private clouds, on-premises environments, and fully air-gapped settings. Headquartered in Toronto, Cohere operates in San Francisco, London, New York, Berlin, Montreal, Ottawa, Singapore, Paris, Tokyo, United Arab Emirates, and Seoul, serving customers worldwide. For more information, visit cohere.com.

SOURCE Cohere Inc

New investment and strategic resources will fuel the development of enhanced ID Plans solution ecosystem capabilities

TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 29, 2026 — ID Plans, a leading provider of property intelligence and technology solutions for the commercial real estate industry, today announced a strategic investment from Polaris Growth Fund (PGF), a Boston-based private equity firm that partners with founder-led software and technology-enabled services companies. The partnership will provide ID Plans with additional capital, strategic resources, and operational expertise to support its expansion across the commercial real estate market and accelerate innovation and development of new capabilities. 

“This is an exciting next chapter for ID Plans,” said Jeff Landry, ID Plans founder and CEO. “We have built an incredible company because of our people, our customers, and our relentless focus on solving real challenges in commercial real estate. In PGF, we found a partner that believes in what we have built and shares our vision for what ID Plans can become. Their experience, resources, and growth mindset will help us move faster, invest in our capabilities, and create even greater value for our customers.”

ID Plans has developed a leading property intelligence and management solution ecosystem since its founding in 1999. The investment from PGF will empower ID Plans to scale while preserving its focus on providing customers with a solution that reflects their lived experiences and comprehensive support to overcome emerging industry challenges. ID Plans will continue to operate under its existing name and leadership team. 

“ID Plans has built a differentiated business with a talented team, strong customer relationships and significant opportunity ahead,” said Dan Lombard, PGF managing partner. “We are excited to partner with Jeff and the ID Plans executive leadership team to build on the company’s strong foundation. We see meaningful opportunities to invest in the platform, expand the company’s reach, and support ID Plans as it enters its next phase of growth.”

Software Equity Group served as the financial advisor to ID Plans.

About ID Plans

ID Plans is a property intelligence suite for commercial real estate designed to take a space from vacant to occupied to renewed. The company was founded in 1999 and uses a nationwide field staff, 3D cameras, and aerial drones to create full space profiles for retail, office, industrial, manufacturing, and government buildings. ID Cloud is a centralized commercial property management operating system that powers the ID Plans product ecosystem, which is a fully integrated set of solutions for end-to-end tenant management, exterior asset management, virtual property tours, proactive maintenance intelligence, and more. Learn more at www.idplans.com.

About Polaris Growth Fund

Polaris Growth Fund is a software-focused, specialized affiliate fund of Polaris Partners, a Boston-based private investment firm with two decades of technology and healthcare investing experience. Polaris has offices in Boston, San Francisco, and New York. For more information, visit www.polarisgrowthfund.com.

Media Contact
ID Plans
Sarah Darling
Head of Marketing
[email protected]

SOURCE ID Plans

Angel Investor Forum leads round as Urologic Design prepares for first-in-human study

BRANFORD, CT, Oct. 29, 2026 — Urologic Design, a start-up commercializing innovations in urology care, today announced the closing of a $1.2M pre-seed fundraise. The equity funding will help the company develop its first product, a patented medical device for managing urinary incontinence. The investment will also support continued R&D activities, regulatory work, and preparation for the company’s first-in-human clinical study.

The oversubscribed round was led by Angel Investor Forum, Connecticut’s primary angel group, and joined by HBS Alumni Angels of Boston, Haven Founders Fund, Connecticut Innovations, and Yale Angels, in addition to several individual investors.

“AIF invests in companies addressing meaningful unmet needs with differentiated solutions,” said Matthew Stannard, Life Sciences Lead at Angel Investor Forum. “Urologic Design impressed us with its approach to bridging the gap between absorbent products and surgery for managing urinary incontinence. We are excited to support the company as it advances toward first-in-human testing, an important step on the path to commercialization.”

The funds will enable Urologic Design to further refine and test its first product—a urethral occlusion device for men. The company has already developed a working prototype, secured IP protection, and conducted extensive bench testing. Preparations are beginning for an initial clinical study involving a small cohort of men with stress urinary incontinence.

“For the 25 million people living with urinary incontinence in the United States, the available options are uncomfortable, cumbersome, and difficult to incorporate into everyday life,” says Dr. David Hesse, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Urologic Design. “We founded Urologic Design to develop a simple, temporary solution that gives people greater dignity, control, and confidence in managing leakage—all while fitting naturally into their daily lives.”

About Urologic Design
Urologic Design is a start-up that commercializes innovations in urology care. The company was founded in 2022 by Dr. David Hesse, who is the Chief Scientific Officer and an Associate Professor of Urology at the Yale School of Medicine. Urologic Design is headquartered in Branford, CT. For more information, visit www.urologicdesign.com.

Urologic Design Media Contact
[email protected]

SOURCE Urologic Design

Co-led by Lightbank VC and Arteria Capital, the pre-seed round will accelerate the expansion of Wrapped Health’s AI-native infrastructure across independent practices, health systems, and digital health platforms

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2026 — Wrapped Health, the digital infrastructure startup connecting clinical care with consumer health, today announced $2.1 million in pre-seed funding co-led by Lightbank and Arteria Capital, the healthcare AI fund founded by Russell Glass. Wrapped Health will leverage this funding to expand product and engineering development, integrate with additional electronic health record (EHR) systems, and cultivate partnerships with provider organizations, health systems, and digital health platforms.

Healthcare has digitized prescriptions, labs, and imaging, but the everyday health products clinicians recommend remain largely disconnected from traditional care channels. Ninety percent of consumers say a physician has recommended an over-the-counter (OTC) treatment, yet these recommendations are communicated verbally, in a handwritten note, or buried in an after-visit summary, leaving patients to find the right products on their own.

This presents a significant opportunity. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Americans spend nearly $124 billion annually on over-the-counter medicines and other non-durable medical products. Consumer health spending continues to grow, yet traditional healthcare remains largely disconnected from the purchases it helps drive. Wrapped seeks to give healthcare organizations a direct connection to the consumer health market they already help drive, opening new opportunities for patient engagement and personalized care.

Wrapped Health is building AI-native infrastructure to bring agentic commerce to healthcare, bridging the gap between clinical care and retail commerce and services. Integrated into the EHR, Wrapped understands clinical context, anticipates patient needs, and personalizes health recommendations, whether during a doctor’s visit or at key moments throughout care, from pregnancy and postpartum to chronic condition management and post-surgical recovery. By connecting patients directly to trusted retailers and helping them use available FSA/HSA benefits, Wrapped makes it easier to turn clinical guidance into action and brings the convenience of modern commerce to healthcare.

“Patients can buy almost anything with one click, except the products their doctor tells them they need,” said Max Russell-Harris, co-founder and CEO of Wrapped Health. “Healthcare has built digital systems for prescriptions, labs, and imaging, but there’s still a huge gap when it comes to everyday health products. We’re building that missing connection. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re seeing your local doctor, visiting a major health system, or getting care online. If your provider recommends something, getting it should be the easy part.”

“Every prescription, lab and scan gets sent, tracked and filled. The doctor’s ‘go buy this’ walks out the door on a sticky note,” said Eric Ong, Partner at Lightbank. “Wrapped Health turns that recommendation into a one-tap order and delivers it the same day. We are excited to back Max and the team, and believe that Wrapped Health can be core infrastructure for clinician workflows.”

“One thing I’ve learned building consumer health companies is that convenience is what drives people to take action,” said Russell Glass, founder and general partner of Arteria Capital and former CEO of Headspace. “Yet there’s a huge disconnect between the guidance patients receive from healthcare providers and the products and services they need to manage their health. Wrapped is building the AI-native infrastructure to close that gap, creating an enormous opportunity to connect traditional healthcare with the growing consumer health economy.”

Wrapped is available through the athenahealth Marketplace to more than 180,000 clinicians on the athenaOne network.

About Wrapped Health

Wrapped Health is a healthcare technology company making it easier for patients to get the health products and services their providers recommend. Through integrations with electronic health records and digital health platforms, Wrapped connects clinical guidance with convenient purchasing, available health benefits, and fulfillment through major retailers. By bridging healthcare and retail, Wrapped helps providers extend their care beyond the exam room while giving patients the convenience they expect in other parts of their lives. Founded by Max Russell-Harris, Wrapped Health is based in Washington, DC. Learn more at getwrappedhealth.com

Media Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE Wrapped Health

The joint venture will launch with a seed portfolio targeting up to 1.2 GW of capacity in PJM; SVP’s commitment will also support the expansion of NewEdge’s platform.

GREENWICH, Conn. and NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2026 — Strategic Value Partners, L.P. (together with its affiliates, “SVP”), a global alternative investment firm, and NewEdge Power (“NewEdge”), a utility-scale and distributed power development platform, today announced a partnership under which funds managed by SVP (the “SVP Funds”) will make an initial capital commitment to establish a joint venture focused on utility-scale power and supporting the expansion of NewEdge’s platform. The partnership builds on NewEdge’s existing backing from SJF Ventures, which led its Series A financing in 2025, and from its initial investment partners, Segue Sustainable Infrastructure and North Sky Capital. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NewEdge’s pipeline includes utility-scale battery storage and solar projects, as well as distributed power projects, across several U.S. power markets. The joint venture will launch with a seed portfolio targeting up to 1.2 GW of capacity in PJM, the grid operator serving 13 states and Washington, D.C. SVP’s commitment will enable NewEdge to advance this portfolio and pursue additional opportunities in PJM and other U.S. markets.

The partnership comes as PJM and other U.S. power markets face growing demand for electricity. Manufacturing, electrification and data center growth are increasing the need for new capacity that can come online quickly. Battery storage is one resource that can help meet that need on a tight timeline and cost effectively.

“For decades, power availability was taken for granted as demand stayed flat. Today, with unprecedented demand growth driven by data centers and the reshoring of manufacturing, we’re seeing a need for new resources to serve the market. Battery storage has emerged as a critical part of the solution that can be delivered quickly to meet this need,” said Joe Nano, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of NewEdge. “SVP brings the scale, expertise and conviction to build on our platform’s successful track record and expand our capabilities to serve the U.S. power market during this window of opportunity.”

“Power markets are being reshaped by rising electricity demand and the need to bring new capacity online at pace. However, power demand is only part of the story. In markets like PJM, securing well-located sites and a viable path to the grid is a significant part of the growing opportunity we are seeing,” said Mike Ungari, Global Head of Real Estate at SVP. “This partnership combines NewEdge’s expertise to identify and advance those sites with SVP’s capabilities investing across power and infrastructure.”

NewEdge will lead development under the joint venture, with SVP funding select projects as they progress. SVP’s platform investment in NewEdge will also be funded over the investment period to support and expand the company’s development team and capabilities.

“We’ve built NewEdge around securing high-quality sites and interconnection positions in the markets where new capacity is needed most,” said Steve Barna, Chief Development Officer and Co-Founder of NewEdge. “With SVP’s capital, we believe we can move our seed portfolio and pipeline through development at the pace this market requires.”

As part of the transaction, Andrew Shore, Managing Director, North American Investment Team at SVP, will join NewEdge’s Board of Directors as an observer, alongside Joe Nano and Steve Barna of NewEdge, Dave Kirkpatrick and Alan Kelley of SJF Ventures, and independent director Brent Beerley. The board brings deep power-sector experience, including SJF Ventures’ clean energy investments in Terabase Energy, Nextpower (NASDAQ: NXT, formerly Nextracker), Community Energy (sold to AES) and groSolar (sold to EDF), and Mr. Beerley’s two renewable company exits, to Iberdrola Renewables and AES.

Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group LLC served as financial advisor to NewEdge on the transaction. Verdonck Partners LLC served as buy-side advisor to SVP. Amis, Patel & Brewer, LLP served as transaction counsel to NewEdge. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP served as transaction counsel to SVP.

About NewEdge Power
NewEdge Power is a utility-scale and distributed power development platform active across several key U.S. power markets. The company develops utility-scale battery storage, utility-scale solar and distributed power projects. NewEdge’s executive team has successfully created leading development platforms and independent power companies across both renewable and conventional power. Collectively, the team has worked on and delivered more than 48 GW of power projects across solar, battery storage, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and conventional power. Follow NewEdge on LinkedIn or visit newedgepower.com.

About SVP
SVP is a global alternative investment firm that invests across the full range of opportunistic strategies – from performing and event driven debt to hybrid solutions, hard assets (infrastructure, real estate, power, airplanes) and special situations private equity. It has extensive resources to improve or transform companies, as well as hard assets with a team of in-house operating partners, and operating platforms in power, retail real estate and aviation. Today, SVP has approximately $22 billion in assets under management and, since inception in 2001, has invested more than $60 billion of capital. The firm, established by Victor Khosla, has over 200 employees, including over 100 investment professionals, across its main offices in Greenwich (CT), New York and London, and presences in Tokyo and Dubai. Learn more at www.svpglobal.com.

Media Contacts

NewEdge Power:
[email protected] 

Strategic Value Partners:
[email protected]

SOURCE Strategic Value Partners

Former Equity Residential, GID Investment Advisers and Prelude Capital Alumni Team Up to Address Market Dislocation

NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2026 — Real estate investment veterans Vincent DiSalvo and Michael Gallagher today announced the formation of Contrada, a U.S. housing investment manager focused on special situations. The firm officially launches alongside a strategic anchor investment from a multigenerational New York development firm.

The launch comes as the U.S. housing market enters a period of dislocation where realizable price is increasingly disconnected from long-term value. This environment is driven by financing pressure as low-rate loans mature into a higher-rate environment, alongside mounting operational hurdles.

“Across the country, capital structures are broken,” said Vincent DiSalvo, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Contrada. “Operators are seeing that rent growth is proving to be a less effective hedge against inflation than in previous cycles, while operating expenses continue to rise disproportionately. However, at the right entry basis, exceptional value can be unlocked and a meaningful complexity premium earned.”

Despite these pressures, long-term demand remains intact, as the U.S. faces an estimated shortage of nearly three million homes, with cost and regulatory barriers continuing to constrain future supply. Targeting this disconnect through its flagship U.S. Housing Dislocation Fund, Contrada is actively acquiring dislocated properties and performing and non-performing loans, and recapitalizing select projects in durable locations. The strategy pairs institutional capital with a team that has built, financed and restructured housing assets across cycles.

“I grew up in New York City construction before moving into institutional investment,” added DiSalvo. “This background allows us to apply a builder’s discipline to accurately underwrite assets burdened by temporary friction.”

Contrada’s leadership team has collectively invested in more than 17,800 apartment homes and 900 loans nationwide, representing over $2.5 billion in asset value. DiSalvo previously served as Chief Investment Officer at Kingbird Investment Management, the real estate investment arm of a Puerto Rico-based family office, following institutional investment roles at Equity Residential and GID Investment Advisers. Michael Gallagher, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Contrada, most recently led the effort to build and scale the private equity real estate investment platform at Prelude Capital, a hedge fund adviser with over $5 billion of total allocations outstanding. He started his career as a real estate attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP, where he advised New York City sponsors and lenders on complex transactions and workouts.

“The current wave of maturing debt is creating a narrow opening to acquire fundamentally sound assets with broken balance sheets,” said Gallagher. “Contrada was built for the rare deployment window ahead.”

For more information, visit www.contrada-re.com or email [email protected].

SOURCE Contrada Real Estate

Silver Point Capital and Victory Park Capital join a four-year facility through USD.AI‘s GPU Loan Exchange (GLX) to finance GPU capacity in Finland.

NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2026 — USD.AI, the platform financing the Compute Middle Market, today announced that it has led and closed a $106 million senior secured term loan facility for NexGen Cloud, a leader in scalable, sustainable AI Cloud solutions across Europe. This transaction marks another milestone for USD.AI as it continues to serve the Compute Middle Market—GPU operators and AI infrastructure businesses below the hyperscaler tier—and is NexGen Cloud’s second financing with USD.AI. It follows the $34 million facility announced in June 2026 for NexGen Cloud’s NVIDIA B200 deployment in Sweden. Together the two facilities bring USD.AI’s financing for NexGen Cloud to $140 million across two countries.

Silver Point Capital and Victory Park Capital participated as lenders alongside USD.AI. The four-year facility finances 216 NVIDIA HGX B300 servers, 1,728 GPUs in total, at a Tier III data center in Finland. The escrow funding date is aligned with shipment of the servers, which is expected in Q4 2026. The capacity is fully contracted under a take-or-pay agreement with a leading AI inference platform, and the loan amortizes over the same term.

USD.AI arranged the facility and served as administrative agent through its newly launched GPU Loan Exchange (GLX) which connects standardized, serviced GPU-backed loans with institutional capital.

GLX launched on October 1, 2026 with a $98 million season-and-sell transaction for Duos Edge AI. USD.AI has originated more than $500 million of GPU financing this year, and with the NexGen Cloud facility, more than $200 million of that has now gone through GLX.

“NexGen Cloud came back to us for a facility three times the size of the first, and this time we led it alongside two established credit investors,” said Conor Moore, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of USD.AI. “That is what GLX is for: bringing institutional capital into the largely underserved Compute Middle Market, and putting it behind established, fast-growing neoclouds like NexGen Cloud.”

“The compute needs of our customers are growing significantly and at a rapid pace. Having access to reliable financing solutions to facilitate that demand is essential to our success,” said Chris Starkey, Chief Executive Officer of NexGen Cloud. “Sourcing capital through USD.AI’s GLX gives us the speed and certainty to convert customer demand into deployed AI capacity across Europe. The USD.AI team’s approach to many of the finance challenges we sometimes face is what separates them from others. We look forward to continuing our business growth together.”

About USD.AI

USD.AI operates the GPU Loan Exchange (GLX), the marketplace connecting institutional capital with AI infrastructure operators across the Compute Middle Market. It originates, structures and agents senior secured loans backed by GPUs and the contracted cashflows they generate, and places them with institutional credit investors through GLX. Borrowers get speed and certainty of execution. Lenders get secured exposure to income-producing compute, underwritten with institutional rigor. For more information, visit https://usd.ai.

About NexGen Cloud

NexGen Cloud is the foremost provider of sovereign-by-design, full-stack AI cloud environments for the global market. Purpose-built AI infrastructure for the demands of modern AI workloads, NexGen Cloud’s solutions include Hyperstack Secure Private Cloud for single-tenant enterprise deployments, and Hyperstack On-Demand, a full stack AI cloud platform offering GPUaaS. As an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, the company hosts its managed infrastructure in data centres across Europe and North America. For more information, visit www.nexgencloud.com.

About Silver Point Capital

Silver Point Capital is a leading global credit investing firm founded in 2002. With a dedicated team of over 400 employees, Silver Point Capital oversees over $48 billion in investable assets across a comprehensive credit platform that includes public and private investment strategies. Silver Point Capital’s Direct Lending business works in close partnership with both private equity-backed and sponsor-less borrowers, with a flexible mandate designed to allow clients to execute on M&A, refinancings and growth capital, among a range of transaction types. Silver Point Capital’s Direct Lending business manages over $18 billion in investable assets. For more information, please visit www.silverpointcapital.com.

About Victory Park Capital Advisors, LLC

Victory Park Capital Advisors, LLC (“VPC” or the “Firm”) is a global alternative asset manager that specializes in private credit and asset-backed finance. The Firm also offers structured financing and capital markets solutions through its affiliate platform, Triumph Capital Markets. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Chicago, VPC became a majority-owned affiliate of Janus Henderson Group in 2024, gaining access to the firm’s 2,000+ employees across offices in 27 cities worldwide. Victory Park Capital is a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Triumph Capital Markets (TCM) is a U.S. registered broker-dealer and operates solely within the United States. It is not registered to conduct securities business in any other jurisdiction. For more information, please visit www.victoryparkcapital.com.

SOURCE USD.AI