Covalent Equity Partners Invests in AML Analytics, the Global Benchmark in Financial Crime Defense Testing

Growth investment will accelerate AI-powered testing, scale global operations, and extend AMLA’s proprietary data to tier-one banks and regulators worldwide

LONDON and MIAMI, Oct. 28, 2026 — AML Analytics (“AMLA” or the “Company”), the global authority in independent testing, validation, and risk analytics for financial crime defenses, today announced a significant growth investment from Covalent Equity Partners (“Covalent”), a private equity firm purpose-built to accelerate market-leading technology platforms in the AI era.

Founded in 2010, AML Analytics is trusted by more than 50 supervisory authorities and over 1,450 financial institutions across nearly 60 countries. Having independently evaluated thousands of financial crime systems and architectures, AMLA’s platform provides regulators and global institutions with empirical ground truth to measure, tune, and verify AML systems. Autonomous agentic finance and generative technologies are rapidly widening the attack surface for illicit finance, and AMLA’s authoritative reference datasets and independent benchmarks are essential to the integrity of the global market.

Covalent’s capital and operational partnership will accelerate AMLA’s engineering roadmap, introduce next-generation testing engines, and expand the Company’s global footprint. Justin Holder will continue to lead the business as Founder and Group CEO alongside the existing leadership team.

“From day one, our mission has been to give the defenders of the financial system the empirical tools to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated threats. Covalent shares our conviction and brings deep sector and operational expertise, which will help us scale that mission to more institutions and regulators worldwide,” said Justin Holder, Founder and Group CEO of AML Analytics.

“Justin and his entrepreneurial team have built an essential institution trusted by central banks and global tier-one institutions alike. We look forward to supporting AMLA in scaling their platform and safeguarding the financial system in the age of agentic finance,” said John Woyton, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Covalent Equity Partners. “AMLA represents exactly what Covalent was created to back: a mission-critical platform with a strong data moat, made even stronger by AI.”

“AI is supercharging the growth of financial crime‘s surface area, outpacing the defenses built to contain it,” said Quinlan Fang, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Covalent Equity Partners. “AMLA’s 15+ years of independent fieldwork have produced a proprietary dataset and earned the trust of regulators and financial institutions worldwide. That combination is rare, and it is the foundation for the solutions AMLA is building to define the next era of defending the global financial system.”

FT Partners acted as financial advisor and Mills & Reeve served as legal counsel to AMLA. McGuireWoods served as legal counsel and Code & Co served as technology and AI advisor to Covalent.

About AML Analytics

AML Analytics is a global RegTech company and market leader in independent testing, validation, and risk analytics for sanctions and AML/CFT controls. Regulators, central banks and many of the world’s largest financial institutions rely on its platform to measure and improve the efficacy of their financial crime defenses. Learn more at aml-analytics.com.

About Covalent Equity Partners

Covalent Equity Partners is a next generation private equity firm purpose-built for the AI era. Covalent invests in data-rich and mission-critical technology companies that turn AI into compounding competitive advantages, and partners with entrepreneurial leaders to accelerate innovation, inflect growth, and build category leaders. Covalent’s team brings more than 45 years of combined investing and operating experience and more than $8 billion in cumulative transaction value. Covalent is headquartered in Miami and has a hub in San Francisco. Learn more at covalent-equity.com or on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Financial Technology Partners

Archera Surpasses $5.6 Billion in Cloud and AI Spend Under Management, Closes Series C Led by Pivot Investment Partners, and Expands Insurance-Backed Cloud Commitments

The round will help Archera expand its guaranteed cloud commitments, bringing insurance-backed financial protection to companies navigating unpredictable AI and cloud spending. The company has delivered more than $700 million in customer savings and now manages approximately $5.6 billion in annual cloud and AI spend.

BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 27, 2026 — As artificial intelligence makes cloud spending harder to predict, companies face an increasingly expensive choice: commit to long-term cloud and AI contracts to unlock significant discounts or preserve flexibility and leave savings on the table. Archera has raised a $15 million Series C to expand its Guaranteed Commitments and change that equation.

The cloud economics company today announced it closed its Series C funding round, led by Pivot Investment Partners, with participation from existing investors including HighSage Ventures. The financing brings Archera’s total funding to $38.3 million. It will support the expansion of Archera’s Guaranteed Commitments and its suite of free cloud cost tools, including its FinOps Agent and MCP.

Insurance-backed financial protection is central to Archera’s next phase of growth. Archera purchased a policy on a surplus lines basis from Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance Company to back its guarantee. This model helps businesses pursue cloud commitment savings while managing the financial risk of usage changes.

The company has delivered more than $700 million in savings to over 2,200 organizations, including PubNub, Art.com, and Astronomer. The thesis behind Archera is simple: companies shouldn’t have to predict AI’s future to commit and save money on today’s infrastructure.

Why Cloud and AI Commitments Need to Change

Cloud providers reward customers who commit to spending over one- to three-year periods with substantial discounts and access to capacity. Historically, those commitments have helped businesses reduce infrastructure costs. But AI is changing the risk and economics of that decision.

A new model launch can multiply GPU spending in months. A more efficient model, a shift in architecture, or a move to a different service can reduce it just as quickly. Long-term commitments that once looked financially sound can become expensive liabilities.

Companies are left choosing between overcommitting and risking unused spend, or undercommitting and missing out on available discounts. Many choose the latter, sacrificing potential savings to preserve flexibility.

Archera believes that the trade-off is unnecessary. Its Guaranteed Commitments provide resource-level cloud and AI discounts with terms as short as 30 days. If usage declines and a covered commitment goes unused, Archera covers the cost under the terms of its guarantee.

The result is a different way to approach cloud purchasing. Businesses can pursue deeper discounts and unlock capacity otherwise gated behind a commitment, without bearing the entire financial consequence when actual usage diverges from forecasts.

Turning Cloud Optimization Into a Financial Product

Traditional cloud cost management tools provide visibility, recommendations, automation, and forecasting, but they can’t eliminate the financial risk of unused commitments. Archera combines its free FinOps platform and Agent with a financial guarantee that addresses inaccurate forecasts.

“Every tool in this market is trying to forecast your cloud usage a little better. We think that’s the wrong bet,” said Aran Khanna, co-founder and CEO of Archera. “Nobody can forecast AI demand, not the customer, not the cloud provider. So instead of predicting it, we guarantee it, and we have purchased an insurance policy to back that guarantee. If covered usage drops, we address the unused commitment cost under the terms of our guarantee. That’s a new way to purchase cloud, not another dashboard, and it’s why we’ve been able to return $700 million to our customers.”

The approach positions cloud commitments as a financial risk decision, helping finance and engineering leaders manage budgets while adapting to changing technology.

Built for CFOs, CTOs, and the Teams Managing AI Costs

The approach addresses a growing challenge across finance and engineering: how to control infrastructure costs without constraining the business.

  • For CFOs: Capture commitment-level discounts while reducing exposure to eligible unused spend under the guarantee.
  • For CTOs and engineering leaders: Preserve flexibility to adopt new AI models, change architectures, and scale workloads without letting past commitments dictate future decisions.
  • For FinOps teams: Increase commitment coverage with a financial backstop when usage changes, without more back-and-forth with engineering teams to get perfect forecasts.
  • For cloud partners and resellers: Give customers a differentiated way to pursue cloud savings that can be reinvested in new cloud services while managing commitment risk.

Archera’s platform connects to AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud billing data in read-only mode and analyzes actual usage. It then recommends and automates the purchasing of both native commitments and Archera Guaranteed Commitments.

Customers can evaluate their potential savings before making any purchasing decision. Commitments remain in the customer’s own cloud account, preserving end-to-end control over cloud purchasing strategy.

Archera earns when customers save through its guaranteed commitments, aligning its commercial model with the outcomes customers seek.

Customers Are Rethinking the Commitment Model

For organizations accustomed to treating cloud commitments as a single, high-stakes decision, Archera offers a more flexible approach.

“Working with Archera meant rethinking commitments as a spectrum rather than a single, high-stakes decision,” said James Hamilton, VP of Operations and Controller at PubNub. “This was a big mind shift for us. We needed to think about how our commitments could be broken up into a spectrum of purchases versus a single one-time buy.”

That flexibility is particularly valuable as companies adopt AI workloads, where technology choices and resource requirements can shift faster than traditional budgeting cycles.

Instead of making one large bet on future usage, businesses can take a more measured approach while still securing meaningful discounts.

A Series C to Expand Insurance-Backed Cloud Purchasing

Archera has been operating profitably at scale. It raised a Series C to support larger guarantees, expand its reach, serve more customers, and upgrade the insurance policies backing its guarantee to serve larger global clients.

The company plans to use the capital in three ways:

  • Accelerate go-to-market efforts.
  • Expand its global partner network across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and Latin America.
  • Serve more teams focused on AI-driven workloads.

“Archera has built a capital-efficient and differentiated business at the intersection of cloud infrastructure and risk management,” said Dinkar Jetley, co-founder and managing partner at Pivot Investment Partners. “The team pairs a deep understanding of the cloud ecosystem with a rigorous approach to underwriting, and the result is a compelling value proposition that a fast-growing roster of customers relies on as their cloud spend scales. We are privileged to have led this Series C round and look forward to working closely with Aran and the management team in the years ahead.”

Built by People Who Understand Cloud Infrastructure

Aran and Nikhil Khanna founded Archera in 2019. Aran previously planned capacity for Azure’s core compute and database services at Microsoft and was a founding member of AWS’s deep learning team leading launches, including SageMaker, DeepLens, and the Neuron SDK, behind Amazon’s Trainium and Inferentia AI chips.

His research on deep learning model efficiency has been cited more than 1,900 times, and he serves on the FinOps Foundation governing board.

As AI transforms infrastructure economics, Archera aims to make cloud savings more accessible without forcing businesses to assume unnecessary financial risk.

To explore potential savings, request a free assessment at Archera.ai.

Free savings assessment: https://app.archera.ai/savings-estimate?utm_source=forbes&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=series-c-2026

Name: Sarah
Email Address: [email protected]
Phone Number: +13018255007

SOURCE Archera

Runway Growth Capital Named to Inc.’s 2026 Founder-Friendly Investors List for Fourth Consecutive Year

The recognition reflects Runway’s longstanding commitment to providing flexible, minimally dilutive capital and supporting founders as long-term partners.

MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 27, 2026 — Runway Growth Capital LLC (“Runway” or “Runway Growth Capital”), a leading provider of growth loans to both venture and non-venture-backed companies seeking an alternative to raising equity, today announced its inclusion in Inc. Magazine’s 2026 Founder-Friendly Investors list. This marks the fourth consecutive year Runway has earned a place on the annual list, underscoring the firm’s commitment to helping entrepreneurs access the capital they need to grow while preserving more ownership and strategic flexibility.

“With the current funding environment and rapid changes facing growing companies, founders are looking for more than just capital from their investors. They want true partners who believe in their business, but who are also able to provide the critical advisement and strategic support they need to reach their potential,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2026 Founder-Friendly Investor awards celebrate those firms –– the ones committed to partnership, excellence, and helping founder-led companies grow.”

The prestigious Founder-Friendly Investors list celebrates the investors and firms that work closely with entrepreneurs and remain engaged with the businesses they back. Honorees are recognized for their approach to partnering with founders and supporting their companies through growth and beyond.

“Being founder-friendly ultimately comes down to how a capital partner behaves, not just when a transaction closes, but throughout the relationship,” said David Spreng, Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Runway Growth Capital. “The right financing should create options for entrepreneurs, not take them away. We’re proud to be recognized again for an approach that has been central to Runway from the beginning.”

“Having been a founder myself, I know how much it matters to work with capital partners who understand your challenges, are there to add value, and are rooting for your success,” said Michael Rovner, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Runway Growth Capital. “That is the experience Runway has built its reputation on, and a fourth consecutive year on this list tells me founders agree. As we grow the platform, our priority is to make sure the next generation of entrepreneurs has that same experience with Runway.”

Since its founding in 2015, Runway Growth Capital has funded 115 companies, with $4.0 billion in total originations. The firm provides flexible, minimally dilutive debt financing to late- and growth-stage businesses, working alongside passionate entrepreneurs and experienced management teams to support their next phase of growth, from expanding teams and entering new markets to bridging to a larger equity round. With more than a decade of experience, Runway combines tailored financing solutions with a collaborative approach grounded in trust, transparency, and long-term alignment.

To compile the Founder-Friendly Investors list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders completed questionnaires about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms and shared data on how their companies have performed during these partnerships. The resulting list highlights investors that founders identified as strong partners throughout the investment process.

For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors.

Legal Disclosure
The award for Runway’s advisory services has been given by a non-advisory client. A cash compensation entry fee was given in association with the award. Any compensation may create a conflict of interest. For more information on Inc.’s award selection process, click here.

About Runway Growth Capital LLC
Runway Growth Capital LLC is the investment adviser to investment funds, including Runway Growth Finance Corp. (Nasdaq: RWAY), a business development company, and other private funds, which are lenders of growth capital to companies seeking an alternative to raising equity. Led by industry veterans David Spreng and Michael Rovner, these funds provide senior term loans of a target of $10 million to $150 million to fast-growing companies largely based in the United States and Canada.

For more information on Runway Growth Capital LLC and its platform, please visit runwaygrowth.com.

About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Statements included herein may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance, condition, or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made by Runway and Runway’s affiliated funds. Neither Runway nor Runway’s affiliated funds undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statement made herein. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

SOURCE Runway Growth Capital LLC

Martis Capital Named to Inc.’s 2026 Founder-Friendly Investors List for Sixth Consecutive Year

WASHINGTON and SAN FRANCISCO and MIAMI, Oct. 27, 2026 — Martis Capital, a private equity firm exclusively focused on the middle market healthcare sector, has been named to Inc.’s 2026 Founder-Friendly Investors list, which recognizes the private equity firms, venture capital firms, and lenders with a demonstrated record of backing founder-led companies. Of the 294 firms recognized this year, Martis earned the honor for the sixth consecutive year and was one of 14 healthcare-exclusive private equity firms.

The prestigious Founder-Friendly Investors list celebrates the investors and firms that work closely with entrepreneurs and remain engaged with the businesses they back. Honorees are recognized for their approach to partnering with founders and supporting their companies through growth and beyond.

“Founders don’t get to choose their investors twice, so it means a great deal when the people who’ve actually worked with us say we were the right choice,” said Mario Moreno, Managing Partner of Martis Capital. “Healthcare is a demanding place to build a company. The regulatory, clinical, and operational complexity is real, and founders need a partner who understands it and shows up when it matters. That’s the role we’ve tried to play since 2011, and earning this recognition for six years running reflects the relationships we’ve built with our founders.”

“When we partnered with Martis, we were looking for more than capital. We wanted a team that respected the foundation of what we’d built and were eager to help accelerate our growth,” said Frank Burrell, CEO of Deerfield Group, a marketing and communications firm for the healthcare and life sciences sectors and a portfolio company of funds advised by Martis. “Martis earned Inc.’s Founder-Friendly recognition through its consistent commitment to the businesses it backs. For Deerfield, this means supporting our vision, providing meaningful strategic guidance, making key connections, and trusting our leadership. As specialists in healthcare investing, Martis deeply understands our industry, and together we are building what’s next for healthcare marketing, media, and communications.”

To compile the Founder-Friendly Investors list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders completed questionnaires about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms and shared data on how their companies have performed during these partnerships. The resulting list highlights investors that founders identified as strong partners throughout the investment process.

For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors.

About Martis Capital
Based in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Miami, Martis Capital is a founder-friendly capital partner for growth-oriented healthcare companies. Since 2011, Martis Capital has raised more than $2.2 billion from a global base of institutional clients to invest in the middle-market North American healthcare sector. More information is available at www.martiscapital.com.

About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for entrepreneurs and business leaders. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

Disclosures
Inc. granted Martis Capital the 2026 Founder-Friendly Investors recognition on August 13, 2026, based on an evaluation covering the preceding 12-month period. Martis Capital did not exercise any influence or control over the criteria used or the results generated by Inc. This recognition should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation of Martis Capital by Inc., the ranking entity, or any regulatory authority. Martis Capital paid a fee to be considered for this award and in connection with the use and distribution of this recognition.

Frank Burrell is CEO of Deerfield Group, a portfolio company of funds advised by Martis Capital. He is not a client of Martis Capital or an investor in any fund advised by Martis Capital and received no compensation for his statement. His comments reflect his experience working with Martis Capital and may not be representative of the experiences of other portfolio companies, clients, or investors.

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Media Contact
Margaret Kirch Cohen
Newton Park PR
+1 847-507-2229
[email protected]

SOURCE Martis Capital

BROADWING CAPITAL NAMED TO INC.’S 2026 FOUNDER-FRIENDLY INVESTORS LIST

Co-Founder and Managing Partner Eliot Kerlin, Jr. also named one of 36 investors every founder needs to know in 2026

DALLAS, Oct. 27, 2026 — Broadwing Capital, the Dallas-based private equity firm specializing in the lower middle-market manufacturing, distribution, and services sectors, today announced that it has been named to Inc.’s 2026 Founder-Friendly Investors list for the first time.

In addition, Eliot Kerlin, Jr., Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Broadwing, was also named to Inc.’s 2026 Founder Champions list, which Inc. deems as “36 investors every founder needs to know in 2026.” The list honors investment professionals with a track record of supporting founder-led companies and fostering meaningful, lasting partnerships.

Inc.’s Founder-Friendly Investors program recognizes private equity firms, venture capital firms, and lenders that back founder-led businesses and help them thrive. As part of the selection process, Inc. speaks directly with founders of each applicant’s portfolio companies about their experience partnering with the firm.

“This recognition is especially meaningful to us because it reflects the experience of the founders we partner with,” said Eliot Kerlin, Jr., Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Broadwing. “When a founder chooses Broadwing, they are putting their trust in our team to help carry forward something they have worked years, sometimes generations, to build. We take that responsibility seriously. For us, being founder-friendly is not a tagline. It is how we believe partnerships should work.”

Broadwing’s founder-friendly approach is central to how the firm builds every partnership. Broadwing often serves as the first institutional capital partner to the businesses it backs. Its team takes the time before an investment is made to understand what owners have built and what they hope to achieve through an outside investment. After closing, Broadwing works side by side with management teams, providing the resources and support needed to accelerate growth while preserving the people and values at the core of each business.

“We are proud to be honored with Inc.’s Founder Friendly Investor Award because our approach to working with founders and families is core to our strategy,” said Andrew Boisseau, Co-Founder and Partner of Broadwing. “Our role is to bring the capital, people and operational resources that can help a business reach its full potential, while protecting the culture, relationships and entrepreneurial spirit that made it successful in the first place.”

The recognition caps a milestone year for Broadwing. In August, the firm closed its oversubscribed inaugural fund, Broadwing Capital Fund I LP, with $465 million in total capital commitments, exceeding its $350 million target.

“With the current funding environment and rapid changes facing growing companies, founders are looking for more than just capital from their investors. They want true partners who believe in their business, but who are also able to provide the critical advisement and strategic support they need to reach their potential,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2026 Founder-Friendly Investor awards celebrate those firms –– the ones committed to partnership, excellence, and helping founder-led companies grow.”

About Broadwing Capital
Broadwing Capital Management and its affiliates (“Broadwing”) is a Dallas-based private equity firm specializing in the lower middle-market manufacturing and services sectors. The firm thoughtfully scales niche platforms into market leaders through hands-on operational support that enhances companies, cultures, and communities. Broadwing is known for its founder-friendly approach, deeply embedded resource partners, and a values-driven commitment to long-term value creation. Broadwing has had decades of combined private equity value-creation experience, has invested in 26 lower middle-market companies and manages over $700 million of regulatory AUM.

To learn more, visit our website and follow on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE Broadwing Capital

Infisical Raises $40 Million at $600 Million Valuation to Secure the AI Agent Economy

Led by Elad Gil, the funding will accelerate Infisical’s expansion as enterprises adopt AI agents that need secure access to critical systems

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27, 2026 — Infisical today announced it has raised $40 million in Series B funding at a $600 million valuation. The round was led by Elad Gil, who previously invested in the company’s Series A, with Gradient and Y Combinator among its other investors.

Infisical provides cybersecurity infrastructure organizations use to secure sensitive credentials, manage access to critical systems, and keep digital certificates renewed and trusted. Cyberattacks, vulnerabilities, and breaches are proliferating, which makes cybersecurity increasingly important. Novel threats from AI agents make the situation even more difficult.

AI agents need access to source code, databases, cloud infrastructure, and other critical systems to function. This requires credentials like API keys, passwords, and authentication tokens, which AI agents cannot be trusted with.

Infisical’s Agent Vault lets companies give AI agents access without handing over credentials. Companies can define the access each agent needs and be assured it cannot leak credentials in a cyberattack or inadvertently send them to LLM providers or other tools it communicates with.

“You wouldn’t give an employee unrestricted access to every system in your company, and AI agents shouldn’t be any different,” said Vlad Matsiiako, co-founder and CEO of Infisical. “Agents need access to company systems to do their jobs, but giving them actual passwords and API keys is a major security risk. We let agents get their job done safely without ever having those credentials in their hands.”

Enterprise Adoption and Investment

Infisical serves more than 1,300 customers and 300,000 developers and secures 10 billion secrets every day. Its open-source project has earned more than 30,000 GitHub stars. Customers include Airbus, Volkswagen, Hugging Face, OpenRouter, Lucid, First American Financial Corporation, Wise, and Clay.

Infisical will use the new funding to accelerate product development, expand its engineering and go-to-market teams, and build out its security infrastructure for AI agents as enterprise adoption increases.

“AI agents are becoming a new class of users inside every enterprise, and securing their access will be one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges of the next decade,” said Elad Gil. “Vlad and co-founders Maidul and Tony recognized early that AI agents would create an entirely new set of security challenges, and they’ve built Infisical into a platform that I believe can become essential infrastructure for the AI era.”

About Infisical

Infisical is a security infrastructure platform for developers, machines, and AI agents. The company helps organizations securely manage secrets, certificates, encryption keys and privileged access across their infrastructure. Its Agent Vault enables AI agents to access sensitive systems without exposing underlying credentials. Infisical serves more than 1,300 customers and 300,000 developers worldwide. Learn more at infisical.com.

SOURCE Infisical

University of Detroit Mercy receives $7.75 million from U.S. Department of War

DETROIT, Oct. 27, 2026 — The U.S. Department of War awarded University of Detroit Mercy $7.75 million to expand an education-to-workforce pipeline as the U.S. faces growing workforce shortages in critical technology fields.

The award addresses critical shortages in the military and defense industrial base while preparing students for careers in technology fields. It will focus on advancing technological disciplines essential to modern military operations including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning and systems engineering.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters was instrumental in securing funding through the Senate Appropriations Committee in the Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriations Bill.  

“These investments are critical to strengthening our national security while creating educational and career opportunities for Michiganders,” Peters said.

According to the U.S. Office of the National Cyber Director, the U.S. faces a shortage of cybersecurity professionals at a time when cyber threats, AI-driven risks and rapidly evolving warfare technologies have skyrocketed.

“In new technology areas, where we see both opportunities and challenges, ethical leadership is vital,” Detroit Mercy President Donald B. Taylor said. “Detroit Mercy is perfectly positioned to provide both the technical skills and the ethical grounding that will make our graduates excel.”

Funding supports initiatives to strengthen workforce pathways from high school through doctoral candidates, active-duty military personnel, DoW civilian employees and defense industrial base professionals. It will also provide scholarships for students interested in these fields.

Advanced technologies will be integrated into pre-college programming, undergraduate and graduate degrees, micro credentials, and research opportunities, and create pathways to defense-focused internships and career advancement.

A board of advisors composed of industry leaders, the military and academia, will guide the strategic priorities to ensure they align with the evolving needs of the DoW.

Katherine Snyder, dean of the College of Engineering & Science and co-principal investigator, said the award represents another step in expanding experiential learning and career opportunities for students.

“By expanding opportunities for research, experiential learning and collaboration, we will help meet critical technical workforce needs in Detroit, across the region and throughout the nation, including areas important to our nation’s security,” she said.

Detroit Mercy is a cybersecurity education and defense workforce development leader. The University has been recognized by the National Security Agency as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense, one of the original 50 programs designated across the nation in 2004. Visit https://www.udmercy.edu/academics/cybersecurity.php. 

SOURCE University of Detroit Mercy

Vera Health Quietly Became One of the World’s Most Used Clinical Tools. Now It Has Raised $32 Million to Give Every Clinician in the World the Best Medical Knowledge in Seconds

With a team of just 12 employees, the clinical AI company has grown largely through physician referrals, bringing total funding to $32 million

  • More than 800,000 clinicians across 190 countries use Vera Health, including approximately 1 in 4 physicians in Spain and Italy, with most discovering the platform through recommendations from colleagues.
  • Threshold Ventures led Vera Health’s $28.5 million Series A, with participation from Mantis VC and SV Angel. Existing investors Y Combinator and Gradient tripled down, bringing total funding to $32 million.
  • The investment will accelerate Vera Health’s evidence-focused clinical AI platform, expanding its ability to make global medical knowledge locally relevant and deepening partnerships with medical societies, publishers and health systems.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27, 2026 — A year ago, a few thousand clinicians were using Vera Health. Today, more than 800,000 are, most having discovered the platform through a colleague. Every month since June, Vera has been the most downloaded clinical app in the world across the App Store and Google Play.¹ In September alone, it was downloaded more times than OpenEvidence and Doximity combined, while monthly downloads had more than tripled since February. With a team of just 12 employees, Vera has reached clinicians in 190 countries, including approximately 1 in 4 physicians in Spain and Italy, largely through word of mouth. Vera Health is a clinical AI search engine that reasons like a clinician, helping physicians find and evaluate medical evidence in seconds.

Today, Vera Health announced a $28.5 million Series A led by Threshold Ventures, with participation from Mantis VC and SV Angel. Existing investors Y Combinator and Gradient, tripled down in the round, bringing the company’s total funding to $32 million. The investment will accelerate Vera Health’s mission to close the gap between what medicine knows and what every patient receives.

Only a few months after raising its Series A, Vera already has more daily active users than it had monthly active users at the time of the raise. Clinicians went from asking Vera a few thousand questions a day to asking hundreds of thousands, every single day.

“Clinicians are the best data scientists I’ve ever met. They make the call in seconds, with more evidence than any human could ever read,” said Taieb Bennani, Co-Founder of Vera Health. “The secret to building for them is to live and breathe the problem like no one else. Everyone on our team is a clinician, or the child or sibling of one, like Maxime and me. That passion translates into every detail of the product, and when you build with that kind of obsession, the product speaks for itself, and clinicians share it with their colleagues. We don’t have the biggest team or the most money. We have the people who care the most about getting it right.”

How does Vera Health differ from general-purpose AI tools?
Clinical AI is increasingly being used to help physicians navigate complex medical questions, but the ability to generate an accurate-sounding answer does not necessarily establish whether the underlying research is reliable. Medicine now publishes a new scientific paper roughly every 20 seconds. Chatbots are built to sound confident. Vera is built to be accurate, and honest when the evidence is thin. Physicians are expected to keep up with an expanding body of research while interpreting guidelines, evaluating treatment options and making decisions for individual patients, sometimes within seconds.

Vera Health finds the evidence first, then writes the answer. Its technology searches more than 60 million peer-reviewed publications, clinical guidelines, consensus statements and drug labels, evaluating sources based on study design, level of evidence, cohort size, recency, journal quality and citation impact. Every claim is linked to its supporting research and color-coded to show the strength of the available evidence. Sometimes that color is red. A rare condition may have no large randomized trial or comprehensive guideline behind it, leaving only a small case series or a report involving a single patient. Vera Health surfaces that research while making its limitations visible, allowing physicians to assess how much weight the findings deserve.

“Medical knowledge moves too quickly for any one clinician to read, and general-purpose AI tools can make uncertain evidence sound settled,” said Maxime Allouch, co-founder, Vera Health. “Unlike other tools, we believe there’s value in making uncertainty visible. The grade shapes what Vera retrieves and writes, while the clinician brings the patient, the context and the judgment.”

Vera Health developed its approach alongside physicians who evaluate medical evidence and help write the guidelines other clinicians follow. Through its partnership with the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the platform integrates ACEP clinical policies with source attribution, bringing medical society guidance directly into clinical research workflows.

“In medicine, not all evidence is equal,” said Scott M. Silvers, MD, FACEP, Chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Clinical Policies Committee and former Chair of Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic. “A large, randomized trial and a case report should never carry the same weight, yet most AI tools blend them into the same confident answer. Level of evidence is the foundation of every guideline we write, and Vera Health is built on it.”

For Dr. Bernard P. Chang, Vera Health’s Chief Scientific Advisor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Columbia University, the importance of clinical evidence extends to how physicians evaluate patients.

“On a recent emergency-department shift, I saw a young woman with cough and shortness of breath. The symptoms could easily be attributed to a routine respiratory illness,” said Chang. “Vera Health surfaced evidence that raised my concern for pulmonary embolism, a potentially life-threatening blood clot in the lungs, and led me to broaden my evaluation. What interests me isn’t AI simply providing an answer. It’s whether it can reliably surface evidence that challenges our initial assumptions and improves clinical reasoning. That’s what we’re now evaluating rigorously, inside the academic medical centers where medicine is actually practiced.”

Vera Health’s clinical advisors also include Christopher Baugh, MD, MBA, FACEP, Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs in Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Its clinical council includes physician leaders affiliated with Mayo Clinic, Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Penn.

Why is Vera Health growing so quickly across international markets?
Bennani and Allouch grew up in families of physicians and initially developed Vera Health for their own fathers. What began with two users has since grown into a platform serving hundreds of thousands of clinicians, with physicians asking hundreds of thousands of questions each day. The company’s international growth reflects an approach built around a central reality of medicine. Medical knowledge is global, but clinical practice is local.

An emergency physician in France may follow different treatment guidelines than a physician in the United States. An oncologist reviewing a complex case may need an exhaustive evaluation of the available research, while an emergency physician needs a concise answer within seconds. Even physicians practicing the same specialty may follow different protocols depending on their institution.

Vera Health accounts for those differences by prioritizing locally relevant guidance while drawing on medical research from around the world. Through Vera Spaces, health systems can also integrate their own clinical protocols and pathways alongside national guidelines and international medical literature.

“Medicine is global, yet most tools in our space were built for a single geography,” said Allouch. “We went international from day one, because only a global view reveals what is truly local.”

The approach has helped Vera Health expand across Europe, where approximately 1 in 4 physicians in Spain and Italy and 1 in 7 in France use the platform, according to company data. Vera Health has achieved that international reach with a small team and a product that clinicians have largely discovered through their peers.

What will Vera Health’s Series A funding support next?
The financing will support further development of Vera Health’s clinical evidence infrastructure, expansion into additional healthcare markets and deeper partnerships with medical societies, publishers and health systems. The company will continue investing in locally relevant clinical guidance and tools that allow healthcare institutions to incorporate their own medical knowledge into the platform.

“In healthcare, trust is earned, not bought. Vera’s adoption among clinicians worldwide speaks to what Taieb and Maxime have built. By combining the most rigorous medical evidence with an understanding of each physician’s specialty, protocols and practice context, Vera makes the world’s medical knowledge relevant to how care is actually delivered. We believe that creates an enormous opportunity to improve global health,” said Andrew Brackin, Partner at Gradient.

“Vera is compelling because it starts with the evidence, not just an answer—helping clinicians find and assess the research behind a decision while making its strengths and limitations visible. By bringing that evidence to the point of care, Vera becomes a trusted clinical intelligence layer, not just another AI tool,” said Emily Melton, co-founder and managing partner of Threshold Ventures.

Vera Health will remain free for licensed clinicians and medical trainees worldwide as it expands access to medical evidence and locally relevant clinical guidance.

New medical knowledge takes an estimated 17 years to reach routine clinical practice, according to research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Vera Health aims to reduce the time physicians spend searching for and evaluating that knowledge, bringing relevant evidence closer to the moment clinical decisions are made.

“Our mission is to close the gap between what medicine knows and what every patient receives,” said Bennani. “Today, that gap is measured in years. We want it measured in seconds.”

About Vera Health
Vera Health is the search engine that reasons like a clinician, finding and grading evidence before showing the source, strength and limits behind every answer. More than 800,000 clinicians in 190 countries use Vera, which is free for licensed clinicians and trainees, never trains on clinicians’ questions, and is HIPAA and GDPR compliant and SOC 2 Type II certified. Founded in 2024 at Y Combinator by MIT graduates and sons of physicians Taieb Bennani and Maxime Allouch, Vera is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by Threshold Ventures, Gradient, Y Combinator, SV Angel and Mantis VC.

Learn more at verahealth.ai.

¹ Download data: Appark, worldwide App Store and Google Play downloads, June through [September] 2026.

Media Contact
Interdependence
(949) 259-6377 x 225
[email protected]

SOURCE Vera Health

OriginPoint Lands $200 Million-Plus Producing Team Led by Mortgage Industry Powerhouses, Daniel Arias & Ron Sequeira

The We Fund LA team will be instrumental in accelerating OriginPoint’s record-setting growth across Southern California.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 27, 2026 — OriginPoint Mortgage today announced that the We Fund LA team, co- managed by Daniel Arias and Ron Sequeira, has joined the company from New American Funding, bringing more than $200 million in annual mortgage production and a well- established presence across Southern California.

With 22 years of industry experience, Arias has built a reputation as one of the nation’s leading mortgage professionals, serving borrowers and real estate partners throughout Los Angeles, Southern California and Santa Barbara. His career accomplishments include perennial President’s Council honors, recognition among the nation’s top 1% of mortgage originators, and distinction as a Scotsman Guide Top Originator year after year.

Daniel and Ron exemplify the unmatched talent fueling OriginPoint’s extraordinary growth,” said James Elliott, President & CEO of OriginPoint. “They’re not only powerhouse originators but also exceptional leaders who understand lasting success is built on relationships and results. In today’s market, the best originators aren’t looking for just another lender. They’re looking for a competitive advantage. Our job is to give exceptional people the resources, support and freedom to dominate their markets. We’re thrilled to welcome the We Fund LA team to the OriginPoint family, and I couldn’t be more excited about what we’ll accomplish together.”

Through We Fund LA, Arias, Sequeira, and team have distinguished themselves by combining an extensive range of financing solutions with proprietary technology and a highly personalized approach to service. Their focus on solving complex financing challenges and delivering a seamless client experience has helped establish lasting relationships with borrowers and real estate professionals throughout the region.

For Arias, the decision to join OriginPoint reflects his commitment to continued growth and delivering exceptional value in an increasingly competitive lending environment. “During challenging times, there is a flight to quality, which is why our team continues to grow market share no matter what environment we find ourselves in,” said Arias. “That’s always been the foundation of our success at We Fund LA. Joining OriginPoint gives us the opportunity to build on that momentum with a platform that shares our commitment to exceptional service, competitive pricing and doing what’s right for the customer. We’re excited about this next chapter and confident that the best is still ahead of us.”

The addition of Arias, Sequeira, and the We Fund LA team underscores OriginPoint’s continued investment in top-tier talent and its commitment to providing mortgage professionals with access to the unmatched power of the Compass International Holdings relationship, competitive pricing, industry-leading technology, and the operational support needed to grow their businesses.

About OriginPoint

OriginPoint is a top national mortgage lender built for high-performing mortgage professionals, the borrowers they serve, and the real estate agents they partner with. Combining the strength, scale and resources of a broad platform with the agility, responsiveness and personalized service of a relationship-driven mortgage company, OriginPoint truly offers the best of both worlds.

For borrowers and referral partners alike, OriginPoint’s approach is grounded in local expertise, clear communication, and practical guidance. The company works to make home financing more understandable and efficient while helping its teams build the trusted relationships that drive long-term success. By bringing together exceptional mortgage professionals, innovative tools, and an unrelenting commitment to service, OriginPoint is redefining what mortgage lending can look like for today’s market.

For more information, visit www.OriginPoint.com.

Contact Information
Daniel Arias
We Fund LA | OriginPoint Mortgage
NMLS #4461805
Phone: (323) 697-3240
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE OriginPoint