Ande brings corporate entertainment into a single platform and gives venues a direct channel to enterprise bookings.

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2026 — Ande, the AI-native network for corporate entertainment, emerges from stealth with more than $52 million in seed and Series A funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Duration Ventures, and Sierra Ventures, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures.

Enterprises spend an estimated $325 billion a year on entertainment from client dinners and team outings to catering, sporting events, and gifting. Yet the booking and expense management behind it is fragmented across credit cards, AP systems, and consumer apps creating an extremely manual reconciliation process for finance teams.

Ande brings structure to one of the last unmanaged categories of enterprise spend by giving teams a single platform to book entertainment effortlessly, while finance and legal teams keep full visibility and control over every dollar spent.

Ande’s agentic workflows surface venue availability, book experiences, route approvals, execute contracts, and reconcile expenses automatically. Executive assistants, office managers, field marketers, GTM teams, and their managers all work together in a single, multiplayer workspace in order to book team offsites and deal-closing dinners, while the agents move each request through approval, signing, and payment.

More than 60 enterprises already run their entertainment on Ande, reporting savings of 12 to 15 percent. Customers like Cloudflare, Salesforce, McGraw Hill, Netskope, Navan, Sigma Computing, Monday.com, Workato, Semgrep, Checkout, Rillet, and many more contribute to over $400 million in entertainment spend flowing through the platform annually.

“Entertainment is one of the most important things a company does. It builds culture, closes deals and deepens the relationships that matter most. Yet the infrastructure to manage it is broken on both sides of every transaction,” said Lohit Sarma, CEO and co-founder of Ande.

“Ande is the first enterprise channel between corporate buyers and the world’s best entertainment vendors. Part of the reason this is such a hard problem to solve is that venues and entertainment providers don’t have a centralized distribution system to plug into. We had to build it. We’ve spent two and half years working with venues to digitize their data, and train models and agents for these workflows that are unique to enterprises,” continued Sarma.

For venues on the other side of the transaction, Ande is the corporate sales and marketing channel that never existed. Venues have historically had no pipeline into the corporate market. Ande gives them a platform to market to, engage with, and transact with corporate buyers at scale. Among the current partners are 1,600 hospitality venues including some of the largest and most decorated hospitality groups like Altamarea Group, Che Fico, Gracious Hospitality, JKS, The Mina Group, MML, Nobu, Riviera Dining Group, Tao Group Hospitality, Unapologetic Foods, Bacchus Management Group, Wish You Were Here, and Wolfgang Puck. Over 93,000 entertainment venues are on Ande’s network today.

“Our programs are high stakes and high visibility, with our executive leadership team and key customers at the core of each event we host,” said Vicky Chung, Director of Corporate Events at Netskope. “My team and I trust Ande’s platform, and especially the team behind it. I have real-time visibility into what’s happening across every event, and when I need something done right, I know it will be. My team is now focused on reaching the executives that matter and scaling the program vs. worrying about the logistics.”

“Entertainment is every enterprise’s biggest expense line that is not yet well managed. For that reason, there are financial inefficiencies and a poor experience,” notes Arif Janmohamed, Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and Co-Founder of Duration Ventures. “Ande is the connective tissue, the perfect handshake between corporations and venues. Lohit is an exceptional founder, and the size of the market opportunity is largely unbounded.”

Redpoint Ventures Managing Director Alex Bard notes, “Particularly when we invest in an early-stage company, our confidence has everything to do with the founder and their ambition. Lohit has both startup DNA and the enterprise experience to solve this problem. His vision for Ande is bold and ambitious.”

About Ande

Ande is the AI-native network for corporate entertainment. Over 60 enterprises, including Cloudflare, Salesforce, and McGraw Hill already book, manage, and measure every experience through Ande, moving more than $400 million a year through a network of 93,000 entertainment providers across 90+ cities. For the vendors on the other side of the transaction, Ande is the dedicated corporate channel that’s never existed. Learn more at ande.ai.

SOURCE Ande

Investment will accelerate commercialization, strategic partnerships, product development and expansion of CellsBin’s clinical and technical capabilities

BRANFORD, Conn., Sept. 22, 2026 — CellsBin, a biotechnology company pioneering Rare-Cell Biology™, today announced the closing of its Series A financing, led by 108 BioCapital.

CellsBin is building a new observational layer for precision medicine through its Rare-Cell Intelligence™ Platform. By integrating advanced microfluidics, patented multimodal imaging, single-cell analysis and artificial intelligence, the platform makes rare cells visible, measurable and actionable—revealing biological signals that are often missed by conventional methods.

The company’s platform combines ultrasensitive rare-cell detection, high-dimensional cellular profiling, longitudinal biological monitoring, proprietary datasets and AI-driven analysis. Together, these capabilities are designed to help researchers and clinicians understand how therapeutic cells behave, how diseases evolve and why patients respond differently to cell therapy.

CellsBin’s initial applications focus on cell and gene therapy monitoring and hematologic cancers, with the broader goal of establishing Rare-Cell Biology™ as a foundational discipline across research, drug development and clinical medicine.

“CellsBin is building a differentiated platform at the intersection of single-cell biology, artificial intelligence and translational medicine,” said Sasha Bakhru, Managing Partner of 108 BioCapital. “Its ability to detect and characterize extremely rare cells could unlock important insights into therapeutic response, disease progression and patient outcomes. We have been impressed by Ali and the CellsBin team’s scientific rigor, platform vision and commitment to translating complex biology into actionable intelligence.”

CellsBin will use the proceeds to accelerate commercial adoption, expand strategic and channel partnerships, advance its research and product-development roadmap, strengthen its clinical evidence base and grow its commercial, scientific and technical teams.

“We are excited to partner with CellsBin and support the company as it expands its network of strategic, clinical and commercial relationships,” said Shahryar Oveissi, General Partner of 108 BioCapital. “We are already seeing strong interest from leading healthcare institutions in CellsBin’s technology and its potential to create meaningful clinical impact. We believe the 108 BioCapital ecosystem can help accelerate the company’s next phase of growth.”

“This financing represents an important milestone in our mission to make rare cells visible, measurable and clinically actionable,” said Ali Kabiri, PhD, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of CellsBin. “108 BioCapital shares our conviction that rare cells contain critical biological information that can enable earlier, more precise and more confident decisions. This partnership will help us advance the Rare-Cell Intelligence™ Platform, deepen our market and channel reach, and build the capabilities required to establish Rare-Cell Biology™ as a new foundation for understanding disease and therapeutic response.”

About CellsBin

CellsBin is pioneering Rare-Cell Biology™ to reveal the rare cells that shape human health. It’s Rare-Cell Intelligence™ Platform integrates advanced microfluidics, multimodal imaging, single-cell analysis and artificial intelligence to detect, characterize and monitor rare cells at scale. Through applications in precision diagnostics, therapeutic-cell monitoring and translational research, CellsBin is working to enable smarter decisions, earlier care and better lives.

For more information, visit 108.bio.

About 108 BioCapital

The 108 Bio Capital Fund seeks to generate superior returns through a differentiated investment strategy that leverages the founding team’s exceptional technical expertise and deep networks within the US healthcare ecosystem. The Fund’s approach is built upon decades of combined experience in biomedical technology, pharmaceutical development, medical device innovation, and regulatory navigation, enabling the identification and nurturing of breakthrough technologies that address significant unmet medical needs. This technical foundation, combined with proven track records in scaling MedTech ventures and executing successful exits, positions the Fund to capture value creation opportunities that may be overlooked by generalist investors lacking domain-specific expertise.

Media Contact

Steve Ward
Chief Financial Officer
[email protected]

SOURCE 108 Bio Captial

Andrew Schwartz and Bhavik Patel reunite after xtraCHEF to build an AI platform designed specifically for restaurant operators

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 22, 2026 — xtraCHEF co-founders Andrew Schwartz and Bhavik Patel are teaming up again to launch Tandem, an AI company focused on transforming how restaurants operate. Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Michael Schulson has joined the company as a Founding Partner, bringing decades of restaurant operating experience directly into Tandem’s product strategy and development.

Schwartz and Patel previously built restaurant technology company xtraCHEF, which was acquired by Toast. After spending years working alongside thousands of restaurant operators, the pair are returning to restaurant technology with a new thesis: AI creates an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how technology supports restaurant operators and their teams.

Tandem has also closed an initial seed financing to accelerate product development, expand its team and support its early restaurant deployments. The company is already working with operators across 100 restaurant locations through its pilot program, with a growing waitlist of additional restaurant groups interested in deploying the platform.

Restaurants today operate across an increasingly fragmented technology ecosystem spanning point-of-sale, labor, accounting, inventory, purchasing, reservations, delivery, marketing and more. While these systems have digitized much of the restaurant, operators and their teams still spend significant time manually moving information between platforms, analyzing data, identifying issues and completing repetitive administrative tasks.

Tandem is being built to change that.

Rather than adding another dashboard or standalone application for restaurant teams to manage, Tandem is building AI agents designed to work across the systems restaurants already use. These agents can help operators analyze information, identify what requires attention, automate repetitive workflows and take action across the business. Tandem will also act as a multiplayer workspace for the human employees to communicate with their agentic co workers.

“Bhavik and I spent years building technology alongside restaurant operators at xtraCHEF, and we came away with a very clear understanding of both the power and limitations of traditional restaurant software,” said Andrew Schwartz, Co-Founder and CEO of Tandem. “Restaurants don’t need another system to log into or another dashboard to manage. We believe AI gives us the opportunity to build technology that actually works alongside the operator — understanding what’s happening across the business, handling repetitive work and helping teams take action.”

As Co-Founder and CPO/CTO, Bhavik Patel leads Tandem’s technology, AI and engineering strategy. Patel previously served as CTO and Co-Founder of xtraCHEF, where he helped build the technology platform that ultimately became part of Toast following the company’s acquisition.

“The technology available to us today allows us to approach restaurant operations in a fundamentally different way,” said Patel. “We’re moving beyond software that simply stores data or presents information. AI gives us the ability to build systems that can understand context, reason across multiple sources of information and help execute work. Our focus at Tandem is turning those capabilities into reliable, practical products that solve real problems for restaurant operators.”

Joining Schwartz and Patel as a Founding Partner is Michael Schulson, one of the country’s most accomplished chefs and restaurateurs and founder of Schulson Collective. Schulson brings decades of hands-on experience building and operating successful restaurant concepts and will work closely with Tandem on product strategy, operator needs and the real-world application of AI inside restaurants.

Schulson’s involvement reflects a core part of Tandem’s approach: build with restaurant operators, not simply for them.

“There is an enormous opportunity for AI in restaurants, but it has to solve the problems operators actually deal with every day,” said Schulson. “What excited me about Tandem is the opportunity to build this from the operator’s perspective. We’re identifying the work that takes time away from our teams and asking a simple question: why can’t technology do more of this work for us?”

Together, Schwartz, Patel and Schulson bring a combination of restaurant technology, product development, AI expertise and hands-on restaurant operating experience to Tandem.

The company sees applications for AI across nearly every part of restaurant operations — from finance and accounting to labor, purchasing, inventory, marketing, guest engagement and day-to-day operational management. Tandem’s strategy is to introduce agents around specific, high-value workflows and increasingly connect those capabilities across the restaurant organization.

Tandem is also developing integrations across the restaurant technology ecosystem, allowing its agents to work with the systems operators already rely on rather than requiring restaurants to replace their existing technology stack.

The company will use its seed capital to expand its engineering and product teams, deepen these integrations and accelerate deployments with restaurant groups.

“We think the restaurant technology industry is entering a major new chapter,” Schwartz added. “The last generation of restaurant technology was about digitizing workflows and putting software into every part of the restaurant. We believe the next generation will be about intelligence and action — technology that understands the business and actively helps operators run it. That’s the company we’re building with Tandem.”

About Tandem

Tandem is an AI platform built specifically for the restaurant industry. The company develops intelligent agents that work across restaurant systems to automate operational and administrative tasks, analyze information and help restaurant teams take action.

Tandem was co-founded by Andrew Schwartz and Bhavik Patel, the co-founders of restaurant technology company xtraCHEF, which was acquired by Toast. Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Michael Schulson serves as a Founding Partner, bringing deep restaurant operating expertise to Tandem’s product development and strategy.

Tandem is operated by AI Labz Inc.

Media Contact
Andy Schwartz
[email protected]
www.usetandem.xyz

SOURCE Ai Labz Inc

The funding enables the next generation of AI and high-performance computing chips beyond the limit of silicon, while accelerating the industry’s first 12-inch single-crystal 2D semiconductor platform

SINGAPORE, Sept. 22, 2026 — Nexstrom, the semiconductor company building the first wafer-scale platform for 2D semiconductor materials, today announced it has raised a $12 million seed round led by Xora Innovation, with participation from Foothill Ventures and SEEDS. The round brings Nexstrom’s total capital raised to $15 million, including $3 million in non-dilutive funds. The funding will accelerate commercialization of Nexstrom’s wafer-scale 2D semiconductor platform, driving toward the industry’s first 12-inch 2D wafer growth on production-ready manufacturing tools. The Singapore-based company is also working closely with prominent industry partners to validate its technology within existing chip manufacturing workflows, positioning Nexstrom to bring next-generation semiconductor materials into large-scale commercial production.

As AI workloads drive demand for faster, more energy-efficient computing, the semiconductor industry is approaching the physical limits of silicon. There is a hard ceiling to how much silicon channels can continue to shrink before electrons begin leaking, causing significant power loss. Nexstrom aims to bypass this bottleneck by developing the industry’s first platform for growing 12-inch single-crystal 2D semiconductor materials. These atomically thin materials support precise electron control, reduce energy loss at the transistor level, and improve efficiency, while remaining compatible with advanced foundry manufacturing. Nexstrom is developing the commercial-scale platform advanced foundries need for next-generation computing.

“Silicon has fueled decades of computing innovation, but the industry now needs a new materials platform to continue scaling performance,” said Dr. Lance Li, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist. “For years, the challenge has not been demonstrating the promise of 2D materials, but manufacturing them at the scale and quality advanced foundries require.” Nexstrom was incubated through Xora’s venture-building model to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial semiconductor manufacturing. Through this model, Nexstrom developed a practical path to manufacturing wafer-scale single-crystal 2D semiconductors, allowing chipmakers to move beyond the limitations of conventional materials and build the next generation of AI infrastructure.

Unlike existing methods that yield only small laboratory samples or require changes to existing foundry manufacturing processes, Nexstrom’s full-stack platform integrates proprietary chemical vapor deposition (CVD) hardware, process technology, and wafer-scale 2D material growth right into a foundry’s existing workflow. By combining advanced equipment, specialized chemistry, and manufacturing expertise, Nexstrom’s technology promises continuous, single-crystal 2D material growth across industry-standard 12-inch wafers, providing a clear path to commercial adoption.

Nexstrom’s technical foundation is anchored by Dr. Lance Li, a globally recognized leader in 2D materials and a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher since 2018, a distinction recognizing roughly the top 0.1% of researchers worldwide by research influence. A pioneer in single-crystal MoS₂ (molybdenum disulfide) growth since 2012, he later led corporate research at TSMC on post-silicon electronics, bringing decades of expertise across 2D materials, atomic-layer chemistry, and semiconductor manufacturing to Nexstrom.

Nexstrom is also supported by a board and advisory group that includes semiconductor industry leaders Dr. Sundar Ramamurthy, Dr. Philip Wong, Dr. Aaron Thean and Dr. John Langan. “The question is no longer whether 2D semiconductors matter. They are already on the technology roadmap of major semiconductor companies. The challenge is making them manufacturable,” said Dr. Philip Wong, Board Advisor at Nexstrom and Inez Kerr Bell Professor at Stanford University. “The industry needs high-quality, uniform 2D materials on 300 mm substrates, and solving that materials bottleneck is exactly where Nexstrom is focused.”

By enabling wafer-scale 2D semiconductors compatible with advanced manufacturing, Nexstrom is laying the foundation for the post-silicon era of computing. The new funding will support ongoing platform development, strategic collaborations with semiconductor foundries, and the expansion of Nexstrom’s engineering and leadership teams as the company advances high-performance, low-power chips for AI, data centers, and future computing applications.

To learn more, visit: https://nexstrom.com/.

About Nexstrom
Founded in 2024, Nexstrom is a semiconductor technology company advancing wafer-scale 2D materials for next-generation AI and high-performance computing. The company has developed the industry’s first platform for producing 12-inch single-crystal 2D semiconductors, allowing chipmakers to overcome silicon’s limitations and create faster, more energy-efficient devices. Backed by Xora Innovation, Foothill Ventures, and SEEDS, an arm of SG Growth Capital, Nexstrom is helping bring 2D semiconductor technology from the lab to commercial manufacturing.

SOURCE Nexstrom

6 of the 10 largest independent mortgage banks use Sela while crossing $10 million annualized run-rate revenue in 18 months

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22, 2026 — Sela, the market-leading voice AI system for mortgage sales, today announced a total of $21 million in funding across Seed and Series A, led by Costanoa, with participation from Emergence Capital. Today, Sela’s AI agents help loan officers originate more than $1 billion in new mortgages per month, and the company has crossed $10 million annualized run-rate revenue in 18 months. Sela will use the funding to grow its team and continue to develop agents that guide borrowers through the entire consumer finance journey.

Sela’s AI agents answer complex questions, build rapport, educate borrowers, and bring in a loan officer when necessary. Its agents are built to maximize conversion, benefiting from hundreds of optimizations and AB tests to create a system that consistently outperforms human teams and other AI solutions. Sela designs, runs, and continuously improves its agents for each lender, measuring success in borrowers reached, productive conversations held, and loans closed, not minutes used.

Large lenders typically A/B test Sela’s agents against existing systems before rolling out widely. In one A/B test involving more than 10,000 prospective borrowers, Sela produced a 9% increase in lead-to-lock rates, yielding more than 40% higher profit for the lender than their existing process. In an A/B test with a top-five mortgage servicer, Sela outperformed another voice AI solution by 41% on a lead-to-lock basis, across 7,000+ leads.

“At my last company, I watched the strongest salespeople outperform the average by three or four times, and how hard it was to coach an entire team to that level,” said Nate Becker, Co-Founder and CEO of Sela. “Sela’s agents take the best performing sales behaviors, learned across tens of millions of calls, and employ them consistently across every customer interaction. Automating the mortgage process with AI doesn’t actually help anyone unless it improves the experience for consumers and makes the process more effective for lenders. We have built a system that does both of these things, and we’ve proven it works at scale. In the next 12 months, our AI agents will run more of the mortgage sales process, as we aim to make financial decisions less anxiety-inducing, more pleasant, cheaper, and easier for consumers.”

“Every lender’s P&L comes down to the same two numbers: conversion and cost per funded loan, and both are under more pressure right now than at any point in a decade,” said David Cheng, Partner at Costanoa. “What convinced us to lead was that Nate and Vahe fundamentally sell the ability to do more funded loans. That’s why six of the ten largest independent mortgage banks put Sela in production in under two years.”

Sela was founded by Nate Becker, a former co-founder of VoiceOps and a data scientist at LinkedIn, and Vahe Tshitoyan, a former senior machine learning engineer and tech lead at Google. The company now has 17 full-time employees and plans to grow to 50 over the next year, hiring across product, engineering, and go-to-market roles.

About Sela

Sela builds AI agents for consumer lending. Its agents hold millions of real conversations with consumers, help them navigate complex decisions, and connect engaged borrowers to loan officers to complete the loan. Founded by Nate Becker and Vahe Tshitoyan and backed by Costanoa and Emergence Capital, Sela is headquartered in San Francisco. Learn more at sela.io.

About Costanoa

Costanoa exists to elevate founders building companies of consequence. We lead investments from formation through Series A in Applied AI, AI Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, National Security, and Fintech. With $2.5B AUM, we’re boutique by design—making fewer investments to deliver deeper expertise and operational support when it matters most: the early, defining stages of growth. We have been recognized as one of America’s Top Venture Capital Firms by TIME and named to a top 4 Seed-Stage firm on Inc.’s Founder-Friendly Investors list. For more information, please visit www.costanoa.vc.

About Emergence Capital

Emergence Capital backs visionary founders transforming the way the world works. We partner from the earliest stages and stay committed as companies scale. Notable investments include Bill, Box, Doximity, Genspark, Gusto, Mercor, Physical Intelligence, Salesforce, Together AI, Veeva, and Zoom. More than 1 in 5 of our early-stage investments have exceeded a billion-dollar valuation. Learn more at emcap.com.

Media Contact

Press Team, Sela

[email protected]

SOURCE Sela AI, Inc. / BAM Agency

Transformational investment will elevate the Psaros Center’s national and global impact, advancing its position as the preeminent nonpartisan institution at the center of financial markets and policy

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2026 — The Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business has received a total investment of $25 million from Michael G. Psaros (B’89), his wife Robin and their family to expand the Center’s position as the preeminent nonpartisan institution at the intersection of financial markets and public policy and deepen its ability to inform policy and practice in the United States and around the world.

“The financial markets touch every aspect of American life. Financial policy, from legislation to regulation, has an outsized influence on our financial markets and our economy,” said Michael G. Psaros, co-founder and managing partner of KPS Capital Partners, LP. “The Psaros Center serves the national interest by helping ensure that financial policy is informed by rigorous research, practical experience and bipartisan dialogue. My family’s gift to the Psaros Center is an act of patriotism, not an act of philanthropy. It is our way of giving back to our country.”

The Psaros Center conducts original research and provides objective, rigorous analysis on major issues facing financial markets. It brings together policymakers, regulators, financial market leaders and academics to examine issues at the intersection of finance and policy, and shares its work broadly with industry professionals, policymakers, students and other stakeholders.

The Center was founded by Reena Aggarwal, the Robert E. McDonough professor of finance and director of the Psaros Center, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Aggarwal sought to create a global hub at Georgetown to bridge the divide between policymakers and financial-sector leaders through objective, data-driven research and convenings. Psaros provided the seed funding at that time to help bring that vision to life.

The Center is now the preeminent forum for dialogue among leaders shaping financial markets and policy. Its annual Financial Markets Quality Conference and other convenings bring together senior figures from across the financial and policy communities to discuss the most pressing issues facing global markets, most recently including the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board and the CEOs of JPMorganChase and Goldman Sachs.

The Psaros Center’s distinguished fellows – including Rostin Behnam (C’00), former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Dr. Lael Brainard, former director of the White House National Economic Council and vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board; and Patrick McHenry, former member of Congress from North Carolina and chair of the House Financial Services Committee – extend the Center’s reach across government, financial regulation and industry, bringing firsthand expertise to its research and programming. The Psaros Center also connects Georgetown students directly with leaders shaping financial markets and policy through opportunities such as the FinPolicy Trek and other experiential programs.

“Mike Psaros and his family have made an extraordinary investment in the future of the Psaros Center and in Georgetown’s ability to contribute to the most important conversations shaping financial markets and public policy,” said Paul Almeida, dean and William R. Berkley Chair of Georgetown McDonough. “Their commitment gives the Center the resources and reach to bring together leading voices from Wall Street, government and academia, advance rigorous nonpartisan research and extend its influence well beyond Washington, DC. We are deeply grateful for their vision and confidence in what the Psaros Center can accomplish on a national and global stage.”

The investment comes as the financial system undergoes rapid transformation. Artificial intelligence, crypto and digital assets, prediction markets, data and changing market structures are creating new opportunities while raising consequential questions for policymakers, regulators and market participants.

To lead the center through this next phase, Georgetown recently appointed Michael Piwowar (MBA’94) as executive director. Piwowar previously served as executive vice president of Milken Institute Finance leading financial market policy and held senior positions in federal financial regulatory agencies, including serving as acting chairman and commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2013 to 2018.

“What excites me most about joining the Psaros Center is building on its momentum through engaging students; engaging business leaders; and bringing students, policymakers and market participants together through thought leadership and nonpartisan debate on today’s most pressing issues,” said Piwowar.

The Psaros Center’s expanded capacity will allow it to build on its preeminent position and broaden its reach at a time when financial markets and public policy are increasingly interconnected.

“Georgetown University is honored by the significant investment the Psaros family has made in establishing the Psaros Center as a leading source for vital thought leadership, scholarship and discussion shaping the future of finance and policy,” said Georgetown University President Eduardo M. Peñalver. “This transformative commitment reflects Michael, Robin and the Psaros family’s steadfast dedication to Georgetown University, to the McDonough School of Business and to our students who are the next generation of leaders.”

“We are where Wall Street meets Washington, and I am proud that the Psaros Center is recognized as one of the few truly nonpartisan institutions in Washington respected by both sides of the aisle,” Psaros said. “The Psaros Center is moving the needle in policy and practice in the real world, and elevating Georgetown University’s role in shaping the conversation around finance and public policy.”

About Georgetown University
Established in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll, Georgetown is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the United States. Located in Washington DC, Doha, Qatar, and around the world, Georgetown University is a leading academic and research institution, offering a unique educational experience that prepares the next generation of global citizens to lead and make a difference in the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit Georgetown.edu or connect with Georgetown on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

About the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy
The Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy is the preeminent destination for unbiased expertise at the intersection of finance and policy. The Psaros Center provides thought leadership and actively contributes to shaping global finance. Located in Washington, D.C., we connect policymakers, industry leaders, and scholars through solutions-driven platforms.

Housed at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy serves as an impartial, academic-based research center. The Psaros Center integrates practice with policy: facilitating a forum for solutions-oriented discussion, conducting relevant and original research on key global market issues, and engaging students interested in the nexus of finance and policy. Collectively, our efforts impact policy and practice by informing current industry professionals, the next generation of finance and policy leaders, and the world, to create meaningful change.

SOURCE Georgetown University

Vital.io guides 7M patients through ER, urgent care, inpatient & surgical visits, accurately predicting wait times, reassuring frustrated patients, and providing clear guidance on what to do next.

CLAYMONT, Del., Sept. 22, 2026 — Vital, which uses AI to predict ER wait times, explain doctors notes in human terms to hospitalized patients, and gives real-time updates during surgical procedures to family members, has been recognized by TIME and Statistica as a top company in the Health Information Management category. The award list was announced on September 17^th, 2026, and can be viewed on Time.com. Vital.io guides millions of patients during their visits, leading to lower leave-rate, fewer readmissions, better patient scores, and – unsurprisingly when you treat people right – better financial outcomes for 3 of the top 6 health systems, plus dozens of others.

“Wow! Happy to be recognized by TIME (and Statistica). And what a coincidence. Every morning, next to ‘Live, Laugh, Love’, I look at one of those TIME Person of the Year frames that’s really just a mirror. This award was clearly made to live beside it. I mean what do you do to hype yourself up to change healthcare each morning?” asks Aaron Patzer, Vital’s Cofounder & CEO. He further muses, “Seriously, by ‘you’ I mean you the human, the person who’s reading this press release. I’ve been worried that it’s all just AI agents these days. If you’ve made it this far, you’re going to love – okay, probably just tolerate – the rest. I wrote the whole thing, and quoted myself here, crazy right? Who’s regulating press releases, or more importantly, AI for that matter?”

Vital does a few things exceptionally well: it’s used by 65% of patients during hospital & emergency stays. Your standard comes-with-the-EHR software, 10-15% during a visit. As a result of being super-easy for patients, it produces great outcomes: 30-50% reduction in left-without-being-seen (LWBS) which is when patients are so fed up with waiting they bail; a 30% increase in follow-up visits, so people actually get better long term and don’t just end up back at the hospital. That’s our enterprise system.

Vital also runs Vital Care Finder (https://vit.al) directly for consumers. We have millions of doctors, dentists, nurses and physician assistants listed everywhere, sorted by price, which other find-a-doc systems seem to neglect. It matches using your clinical fingerprint, so the “best doctor” for you depends very much on what chronic conditions you have, age, language,s etc. It’s also built for AI, with deep integrations into ChatGPT & Claude via widgets and MCP servers.

We also are a founding member of AICareStandard.com created with industry leaders and executives from MedStar, IU Health, HCA, Patients for Patient Safety, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and more.

In short, we’re the pro-patient company. And for all patients, rich and poor, insured or not. This feels rare in health care for some reason. We’re allowed to use like 1500 words, but press releases are a bit like corporate journal entries, self-focused and a bit look-at-me. Thanks for getting this far. Consider going outside. Or just standing up. Or drinking some water. Something for your health – we stopped short so you could.

About Vital.io

Vital.io today guides 7M patients annually through emergency, urgent care, and inpatient visits across dozens of health systems including 3 of the top 6 largest IDNs. Vital is known for its innovations in safe, patient-facing AI, including the doctor-to-patient translator launch in May 2023, and its status as a founding member of the PatientAI Collaborative™ at aicarestandard.com committed to safe, accurate, and clinically responsible AI-driven patient communication.

Vital was founded by Aaron Patzer, formerly Founder of Mint & VP of Product Innovation at Intuit, and Justin Schrager, MD, a practicing emergency physician at IU Health & Emory. Vital is backed by Transformation Capital, Threshold Ventures, First Round Capital, and luminaries in healthcare including the founders of Flat Iron Health, Patient Ping / Bamboo, and more.

Media Contact: Kathy English, [email protected]

SOURCE Vital Software Inc.

Founders will live and build together at a private camp in the Poconos, with mentors and speakers including Gary Vaynerchuk, Sophia Amoruso, Zach Yadegari and Brandon Bryant. The program will be filmed as a documentary series and closes with a Demo Day in front of investors.

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2026 — Stan, the company on a mission to help anyone live life on their own terms, today announced Launchpad, a 14-day program bringing 100 founders together to start and scale their companies by sharing their journey publicly. Participants will turn their ideas into companies, growing awareness around what they’re creating and learning how to build distribution from day one.

The program will run October 4–19th, 2026 at a private camp in the Poconos, about two hours from New York City, and will include masterclasses and mentorship from leading operators and investors, protected focus time, immunity and elimination rounds, and a closing Demo Day in front of actively investing firms.

Throughout the 14-day program, founders will live and learn alongside other early-stage entrepreneurs, receive ongoing mentorship from Stan co-founders Vitalii Dodonov and John Hu, and compete for a $100,000 prize. The full experience will be filmed and produced as a documentary competition series, giving audiences a front-row seat to the founder journey.

“Building is easy. Distribution is hard. You can build the best product in your category and still lose to someone who started building an audience a year earlier,” said Vitalii Dodonov, Co-Founder of Stan. “Building in public is how founders build distribution before they need it, and it’s what we will be teaching at Launchpad.”

Throughout the program, founders will use Stanley, a Personal Head of Content built by Stan, to document their journeys, develop content and share what they’re building with a broader audience, putting Stan’s belief that distribution is a core founder skill into practice.

Launchpad is open to early-stage software and AI founders, with roughly 30 teams made up of 100 founders expected to be selected. Programming will include sessions from Gary Vaynerchuk, serial entrepreneur, chairman of VaynerX and CEO of VaynerMedia; Zach Yadegari, co-founder of Cal AI and founder of Flow; Sophia Amoruso, founder and managing partner of Trust Fund and founder of Nasty Gal; and Brandon Bryant, co-founder and partner at Harlem Capital.

“A handful of people bet on me before there was anything to bet on. That is the only reason Stan exists,” said John Hu, Co-Founder of Stan. “Launchpad is our turn to make that bet on a hundred other founders.”

Applications are open now at launchpad.stan.com and will remain open until September 25th 2026.

About Stan
Stan is the ecosystem helping anyone live life on their own terms. Stan brings together Stanley, a personal Head of Content, and Stan Store, an all-in-one hub for selling digital products, coaching, and community programs. Since 2021, Stan has helped more than 90,000 people to build their visibility, their business and their confidence, earning more than $600M through Stan Store. We believe anyone, anywhere can make it if they work hard.

SOURCE Stan

Returning investors fund equity raise at $8.50 per share — more than 20% above the September 21 close

WILMINGTON, Del., Sept. 22, 2026 — Brand Engagement Network, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNAI) (“BEN” or the “Company”), an enterprise AI software company, today announced that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement for a $1,051,025 private placement of common stock priced at $8.50 per share. The purchase price represents more than a 20% premium to the Company’s September 21, 2026 closing price of $7.07.

The placement was subscribed in equal parts by returning investor BEN Capital Fund I, LLC and Joseph Bevash. The Company will issue an aggregate 123,650 shares of common stock. An initial $150,025 (17,650 shares) was funded at closing, with the remaining $901,000 to be funded in five equal monthly installments of $180,200 through February 5, 2027.

The transaction includes 100% warrant coverage. For each share purchased, the investors receive a six-month warrant to purchase one additional share at the same $8.50 exercise price. If the placement is fully funded, the warrants will cover up to 123,650 shares.

This transaction continues the clear 2026 trend of BEN securing equity commitments from sophisticated investors at significant premiums to the prevailing market. Prior private placements this year were priced at $63.25, $39.25, and $17.82, each above the then-current closing price, including placements priced 20% above the close.

“This is another above-market commitment from investors who already know the company — after Cataneo, after Accelevate, and while we continue to deploy enterprise AI,” said Tyler Luck, Chief Executive Officer of Brand Engagement Network. The people writing the checks are not trading the noise. They are funding the plan.”

Transaction Highlights

• $1,051,025 aggregate commitment at $8.50 per share
• More than 20% premium to the September 21, 2026 close of $7.07
• 123,650 shares, split equally between BEN Capital Fund I, LLC and Joseph Bevash
• $150,025 funded at initial closing; $901,000 to be funded over five months
• 1-for-1 six-month warrants at the same $8.50 strike price
• Continues a consistent 2026 track record of premium-priced private placements

The securities described in this release were offered and sold in private transactions pursuant to exemptions from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities.

About Brand Engagement Network

Brand Engagement Network, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNAI) builds secure, enterprise-grade artificial intelligence for the engagement layer of AI-where human intent is transformed into intelligent interactions, automated workflows, and real-world outcomes.  Powered by BEN’s proprietary Engagement Language Model (ELM), the technology enables conversational AI interactions that connect human intent to organizational data, workflows, and real-world outcomes. BEN’s AI operates within secure closed-loop environments using approved organizational data and built-in governance and compliance controls.  Trusted by organizations in regulated and high-impact industries, BEN helps bring AI into real operational settings where engagement drives outcomes and accountability matters. 

In June 2026, BEN acquired Cataneo GmbH, which provides enterprise software for advertising sales, scheduling, traffic, content management, monetization, analytics, CRM integration, and real-time reporting across linear, digital, and on-demand media. 

For more information, visit www.brandengagementnetwork.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the funding of remaining installments under the securities purchase agreement, issuance and exercise of warrants, use of proceeds, commercial execution, integration of acquired businesses, and future capital formation. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the Purchasers’ performance of remaining funding obligations, Nasdaq listing and market conditions, dilution from the issuance of shares and warrant shares, the Company’s liquidity and going-concern considerations described in its SEC reports, integration of acquired businesses, and other risks described in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement except as required by law.

Contacts

Investor Relations
[email protected]

Media Relations
[email protected]

SOURCE Brand Engagement Network, Inc. (BEN)