The strategic investment from two global institutional-grade players, alongside follow-on support from Token Bay Capital, joins a Galaxy-led round that also includes Coinbase Ventures, Franklin Templeton and Brevan Howard Digital.

ABU DHABI, UAE, Nov. 5, 2026 — Soter Insure, a specialist insurer for the digital asset economy, today announced that SC Ventures, the innovation and ventures arm of Standard Chartered, and Japanese financial group SBI Group have joined its Series B as strategic investors, adding to the round led by Galaxy.

This second close also includes follow-on investment from Token Bay Capital, a Soter backer since its Series A. The new investors join Coinbase Ventures, Franklin Templeton and Brevan Howard Digital, which participated in the first close announced in July 2026.

Insurance capacity remains one of the main missing pieces for banks and asset managers entering digital assets. Without it, institutions cannot apply the same risk standards they use for every other asset class. The backing of two global financial groups that are active in digital assets reflects a growing recognition that specialized coverage is a prerequisite for institutional participation.

Soter Insure will use the proceeds to increase its insurance capacity, deepen its underwriting and technology capabilities, and expand into mature and emerging digital asset markets, including Asia-Pacific through its Hong Kong presence, Europe and the US.

“Banks can’t scale in digital assets without the risk protection they rely on everywhere else, and today that protection is still scarce,” said Henson Orser, Founder and CEO of Soter Insure. “With SC Ventures and SBI Group joining Galaxy, Coinbase Ventures and Franklin Templeton, we now have traditional finance and digital asset natives behind the same goal: insurance capacity at institutional scale. Our strategic investors now span most of the jurisdictions and networks at the forefront of digital asset adoption. We’re grateful to Token Bay Capital for backing us again, and to Galaxy for leading the round.”

Herve Francois, Principal, Digital Assets Fund, SC Ventures, said: “Insurance is a critical but often overlooked part of the digital assets ecosystem. Our investment reflects our belief that Soter is uniquely positioned to build a regulated insurance platform that can scale to meet institutional needs and support the industry’s continued development globally.”

Yangte Kim, Representative in the UAE of SBI Group, added: “As digital assets continue to gain broader adoption, we believe the development of robust insurance solutions will be an increasingly important part of the ecosystem. Soter brings together deep expertise across regulation, digital assets and traditional insurance to address this important market need. Through our investment, SBI Group looks forward to supporting Soter’s growth and contributing to the continued development of a more resilient global digital asset ecosystem.”

For more information about Soter Insure, visit soter.insure.

About Soter Insure

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi and operating out of Bermuda, with offices in London, New York and Dubai, Soter Insure was incubated by Further Ventures and WebN Group. The company offers specialized digital asset insurance products for financial institutions, including Directors & Officers (D&O), Professional Indemnity (PI), Crime, Specie, Slashing and Smart Contract Failure coverage, uniquely denominated in both fiat and native digital assets.

About SC Ventures

SC Ventures is Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and venture-building platform. Since 2018, it has built, operated and scaled ventures, and made minority investments, deploying more than $1 billion across 30+ portfolio companies globally. It builds, invests in and partners with ventures shaping the future of financial services across digital banking, digital assets, SME growth, financial inclusion, trade and cross-border infrastructure. In the Middle East, SC Ventures has grown from 2 ventures to 10 in two years across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with Egypt next on the roadmap, supporting regional growth through disciplined venture building, strategic partnerships and regulated innovation aligned with national economic visions.

About SBI Group

Founded in 1999, the SBI Group is a comprehensive internet financial group and a pioneer of internet-based financial services in Japan. The Group operates a Financial Services Business centered on securities, banking, and insurance, providing highly convenient products and services at competitive prices through the internet. In addition, the SBI Group operates Asset Management Business, PE Investment Business, Crypto-asset Business, and Next Gen Business on a global scale.

About Token Bay Capital

Token Bay Capital is a venture capital firm investing in digital asset and blockchain infrastructure. Founded in Hong Kong in 2021 and now headquartered in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), Token Bay Capital Limited is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) as a Venture Capital Fund Manager. It backs early-stage companies building the infrastructure institutions need to use digital assets: custody, trading, payments, on-chain finance and tokenization.

Media enquiries
Konstantin Sinev
[email protected]

SOURCE Soter Services North America LLC

Company’s first-of-a-kind intelligent imaging system aims to expand patient access, streamline
high-quality cardiac care, and establish the foundation for future robotic interventions

LOS GATOS, Calif., Nov. 4, 2026 — Laza Medical, Inc., a Shifamed portfolio company pioneering AI-powered robotic imaging solutions for cardiac interventions, today announced it has raised up to $160 million in Series B structured financing. GE HealthCare led the round, with participation from returning investors Unorthodox Ventures, PA MedTech, and AMED. The financing will support the company’s mission to transform the cardiac catheterization laboratory through intelligent imaging technology designed to simplify procedures, increase autonomy, alleviate resource constraints, and unlock the possibilities for future robotic-enabled interventions.

“The future of cardiac intervention must be one where access, consistency, and quality of care are no longer barriers to better outcomes,” stated Jyoti Gera, CEO of Cardiovascular and Interventional Solutions, Advanced Imaging Solutions at GE HealthCare. “Integrating imaging modalities so they work seamlessly together has the potential to redefine the cath lab, enabling more efficient workflows today and paving the way for smarter, robotic procedures tomorrow. We’re excited to expand our collaboration with Laza and work together toward this shared vision.”

As cardiovascular procedures become increasingly complex, care teams need more intuitive and consistent image guidance amid growing demands for specialized imaging expertise. By combining AI and robotics, Laza has the potential to simplify procedural imaging, extend the reach of specialized imaging expertise, and help care teams navigate and guide complex cardiac interventions with greater confidence.

“High-quality imaging is foundational to all successful cases,” said Dr. Firas Zahr, Head of Interventional Cardiology at Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital, who had experience with the software during the first-in-human clinical study last year. “Consistent anatomic and spatial context simplifies procedures and helps clinicians navigate the anatomy with confidence and precision.”

“The cath lab is poised for a fundamental evolution, and intelligent imaging powered by AI will play a defining role in what comes next,” said Amr Salahieh, Founder and Board Chairman at Laza Medical. “As we reimagine the role of imaging in interventional care, we are grateful for the strong support from our investors, which validates our approach and reinforces our conviction that this solution will streamline processes, reduce variability, and ultimately improve the quality and reach of cardiac procedures.”

The Laza Medical System is under development and is not approved for commercial sale in any geography.

About Laza Medical, Inc.

Laza Medical is a privately held portfolio company of Shifamed, LLC. The company focuses on developing a high-quality, AI-powered robotic imaging solution for cardiovascular interventions. For more information, visit www.lazamedical.com.

About Shifamed, LLC

Founded by serial entrepreneur Amr Salahieh, Shifamed is a highly specialized medical innovation hub focused on developing solutions that accelerate time to market, reduce risk, increase impact, and forge a path toward a world where patients are able to lead longer, healthier lives.

Shifamed’s goal is to lead the way in next generation of cardiac cath lab innovation, bringing together breakthroughs in advanced imaging, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics to transform how interventional cardiovascular procedures are performed.

Media Contact

Charlene Herndon
SPRIG Consulting
charlene@sprigconsulting.com

SOURCE Laza Medical, Inc.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4, 2026 — Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (“LLCP”), a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, announced today that it has completed a growth investment in Concentric Energy Advisors (“Concentric” or the “Company”), in partnership with management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts, Concentric is a leading consulting and advisory firm serving the North American utility and energy industry. The Company provides expert advice, technical analysis, and testimony to electric, gas, and water utilities and infrastructure investors, with particular expertise in navigating utility rate cases and regulatory proceedings. Concentric’s comprehensive offering spans cost of capital, return on equity, revenue requirement, cost of service and rate design, depreciation, transaction and financing support, and regulatory strategy services.

“We are excited to partner with Concentric, a highly respected firm with deep expertise, longstanding client relationships, and an exceptional team of industry experts and trusted advisors,” said Matthew Rich, Partner at LLCP. “We see significant opportunities to build on the Company’s strong foundation by expanding into adjacent utility service areas, recruiting additional senior talent, and pursuing strategic acquisitions. We look forward to partnering with Danielle, Dan, John, and the entire Concentric team as they execute on these growth initiatives.”

Ted Jeon, Managing Director at LLCP, commented, “Concentric aligns well with LLCP’s extensive experience investing in the infrastructure services sector and expert consulting businesses. Utilities are investing at record levels to modernize and expand the electric grid to meet the rising demand for power, and they rely on trusted independent advisors to navigate complex regulatory processes. We believe Concentric is well-positioned to benefit from these long-term trends, and we are excited to support the Company’s next chapter of strategic growth.”

Concentric will continue to be led by its existing executive team, including Chief Executive Officer Danielle Powers, President Dan Dane, and Founder and Chairman John J. Reed. Concentric’s employees will retain a substantial ownership stake in the business.

“Concentric has built its reputation on the quality of our people and the trust our clients place in us to provide independent, expert advice on their most important and complex business, regulatory, and strategic matters,” said Danielle Powers, CEO of Concentric. “We are thrilled to partner with LLCP, which brings deep industry knowledge along with the capital and experience to help us scale our business and continue delivering the exceptional service our clients expect.”

“As we considered Concentric’s next chapter, it was essential to choose a partner who understands the importance of our people, our culture, and the trust we have built with clients over more than two decades,” said John J. Reed, Founder and Chairman of Concentric. “We believe LLCP is that partner. Our clients will continue to work with the same teams and receive the same independent, high-quality advice they have come to expect from Concentric, and this partnership will provide greater resources to serve their evolving needs.”

Concentric is the 11^th platform investment in LLCP Lower Middle Market Fund III, L.P. Across its funds, LLCP has invested extensively in the infrastructure services and expert consulting sectors, including USA Water, Resolution Economics, All4, Encore Fire Protection, and Trinity Consultants.

LLCP was advised by Honigman LLP. Concentric was advised by Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

About Levine Leichtman Capital Partners
Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, LLC is a global middle-market private equity firm with a 42-year track record of investing across various targeted sectors, including Business Services, Franchising & Multi-unit, Education & Training, and Engineered Products. LLCP utilizes a differentiated Structured Private Equity investment strategy, combining debt and equity capital investments in portfolio companies. LLCP believes that by investing in a combination of debt and equity securities, it offers management teams growth capital in a highly tailored, flexible investment structure that can be a more attractive alternative than traditional private equity.

LLCP’s global team of dedicated investment professionals is led by 9 partners who have worked at LLCP for an average of 21 years. Since inception, LLCP and its affiliates have managed approximately $20.6 billion of capital across nearly 20 investment funds and invested in approximately 120 portfolio companies. LLCP currently manages $15.0 billion of assets and has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, London, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.

Media Contact: Isabel Moon, imoon@llcp.com

SOURCE Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, LLC

Investment strengthens Aformic’s capital position and accelerates North American expansion and deployment of autonomous mobile robots.

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 4, 2026 — Veteran Ventures Capital (VVC) today announced it led a $6.95 million investment in Aformic, a robotics company that designs and deploys autonomous mobile robots and fleet-management software.  Aformic tackles one of the greatest barriers to rebuilding America’s industrial base: a growing shortage of skilled workers.  By automating material flow inside factories and warehouses, Aformic frees more workers to create value rather than move parts on the factory floor.

This Seed raise is Aformic’s first institutional investment round.  VVC led the round through its Fund II, which included participation from ff Venture Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Mana Ventures, and other investors. Together, these transactions strengthen Aformic’s capitalization and position the company to accelerate its expansion across North American manufacturing and defense industrial markets.

Headquartered in Duncan, South Carolina, Aformic operates in the heart of the Southeast’s automotive and manufacturing corridor. The company builds customized autonomous mobile robots, including underride platforms and autonomous forklifts, to move materials and supply production lines in factories and distribution centers. The robots use lidar-based mapping to navigate with one centimeter accuracy, while Aformic’s proprietary Qursor fleet-management platform coordinates their movements to keep materials flowing seamlessly through factories and warehouses.  Aformic originated as a spinout from AIUT, a global industrial automation and robotics group with more than 30 years of engineering experience.

This investment follows VVC’s extensive study of the global reindustrialization wave.  Countries around the world are rebuilding their industrial base inside brownfield factories designed for an earlier era, counting on a labor force that simply doesn’t exist. Manufacturing productivity in the US has stalled for more than a decade, up to 1.9M manufacturing jobs may go unfilled through 2033, and the US Army alone is spending $18B to modernize and automate World War II-era depots.  Autonomous mobile robots are the fastest, cheapest way to make an existing plant more productive without rebuilding it.

With multiple robots in various Fortune 500 companies and Tier 1 defense OEMs, Aformic stands out in terms of market traction, capability and addressable market.  Additionally, with the Pentagon initiating a 15-year modernization plan across much of its industrial footprint, Aformic stands to make substantial gains.

“We believe Physical AI will transform American manufacturing, and Aformic has what it takes to lead that shift: proven robots, proprietary software, and deep industrial expertise. With VVC helping open doors across the defense industrial base, Aformic will be a category leader,” said Derren Burrell, Founder and Managing Partner at Veteran Ventures Capital, who now serves on Aformic’s Board of Directors.

Various studies show that between 15%-50% of factory labor hours goes to moving parts between steps rather than adding value to them.  Aformic’s Qursor software, coupled with its robots that can carry up to 2,000 lbs, makes a meaningful dent in skilled labor moving parts via forklift, carts or simply carrying them.  When production changes, Aformic makes the changes in software and robot integration with plant systems, rather than rebuilding a plant floor.

“America’s manufacturers need skilled workers building products, not moving materials. Our robots free them to do that,” said Michal Fiuk, CEO of Aformic, a West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran. “This investment will accelerate our North American expansion, and Veteran Ventures brings the defense expertise and relationships to help us reach the manufacturers and depots that need us most.”

About Veteran Ventures Capital

Veteran Ventures Capital invests in dual-use national security technologies, focusing on companies led by veteran entrepreneurs and operators. Committed to advancing U.S. technological superiority, Veteran Ventures Capital provides capital, mentorship, and strategic guidance to high-growth companies serving critical government and commercial markets. VVC’s portfolio includes leading companies in defense, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and other sectors essential to national security, including notable investments in Vatn Systems, Hidden Level, Cambium, Agile Space Industries, Turion Space, Hybron Technologies, Radian Forge, and Asylon Robotics, amongst others. For more information, visit www.veteranventures.us and follow the firm on LinkedIn.

About Aformic

Aformic automates the internal logistics of the industries building America’s future. The company designs and deploys customized F-series autonomous mobile robots and the Qursor fleet-management platform for material transport and line feeding in manufacturing and warehouse operations, with headquarters in Duncan, South Carolina, and an engineering and production center in Gliwice, Poland. Led by Michal Fiuk, a West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran, Aformic draws on more than 30 years of industrial automation engineering through its heritage in the AIUT Group. For more information, visit aformic.com.

Media Contact

For media inquiries, please contact: investorrelations@veteranventures.us

SOURCE Veteran Ventures Capital

• General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund commits $500 million in growth capital to accelerate demand for Nooks’ revenue agents
• The Nooks Revenue Agent Platform lets sales teams work with AI agents across the revenue lifecycle, from finding new customers to closing deals and growing accounts
• Node, the first AI personal assistant for sales, learns your sales process and proactively works every deal in the background, helping every rep sell like your best rep

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4, 2026 — Nooks, the Revenue Agent Platform, today announced $500 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF). CVF provides non-dilutive capital to fund growth for companies with proven, predictable unit economics. Nooks qualified on the strength of 3x year-over-year growth and 135% net revenue retention – achieved by using its own revenue agent platform. Nooks also launched Node, the first AI personal assistant for sales, which works every deal around the clock, uncovers the risks and opportunities reps can’t see, and does the work to act on them.

The funding news follows a breakout year for Nooks. Nooks now serves more than 2,000 companies, including Glean, Notion, Deel, Replit and Factory. More than half of customers use more than one Nooks product.

Companies spend hundreds of billions annually on their sales forces, yet the average rep spends just 40% of their time selling, according to Salesforce. Nooks agents handle the prospecting, outreach and deal follow-through, so reps can spend more of their day with buyers.

“There are 12 million people who sell for a living in the US alone and all their jobs are about to change. We’re solving some of the hardest technical problems that enable sales teams to work with AI agents across the revenue lifecycle,” said Dan Lee, co-founder and CEO of Nooks. “In order to completely transform an industry, you need a lot of capital. General Catalyst CVF will enable us to bring Nooks and Node to every seller – helping them serve more customers and accelerate growth for the world’s best companies.”

“AI changed how software gets built. Nooks is changing how it gets sold,” said Pranav Singhvi, partner and co-head of the Customer Value Fund at General Catalyst. “Nooks has shown a highly predictable revenue engine and strong unit economics, which is what we look for in companies with CVF. It’s especially impressive that they’ve achieved this by powering their GTM with their own platform.”

From pipeline to the full revenue stack

Nooks started with AI for outbound, then launched Sequencing earlier this year, which quickly took share from incumbents like Outreach and Salesloft. Together they gave Nooks something few AI companies have: the execution layer where revenue work actually happens and more than one billion real sales interactions flowing through it.

Today, Nooks is unifying that foundation into the Revenue Agent Platform, agents that do the work of revenue, from first touch to renewal. To teach agents to sell, Nooks Research, the company’s applied AI research team, builds the models and systems that help AI understand the way people think, act and buy:

• Live context that persists for months. Every Nooks agent carries the full, continuously updated history of an account: calls, emails, objections, champion changes and signals. It reconciles conflicting information instead of treating each task as a fresh prompt.
• A learning loop that compounds. Nooks agents learn from outcomes, not just prompts. They are trained on real sales interactions, rehearse plays against simulated prospects before reaching real buyers, backtest strategies against similar historical deals and learn each rep’s style.
• Infrastructure that sees outcomes. Nooks agents work toward goals like pipeline created and deals advanced, not one-off tasks. Because Nooks makes the call and sends the email on its own infrastructure, they see what happens next: the reply, the meeting, the closed deal. Tools that sit on top of the CRM can’t learn from outcomes they never observe.

The results show up in the work: Customers typically source 3x more pipeline with Nooks than with their previous tools; 96% of emails from Nooks agents go out without edits.

The platform includes Deal, Outbound, Expansion and Coaching Agents, with Inbound Agents arriving in Q1 2027. Each agent runs on Nooks’ built-in dialing and sending infrastructure, the complex execution layer that customers rely on to connect with their buyers.

Introducing Node, the first EA for the AE

Node is the first AI personal assistant for sales. Most AI tools wait for a rep to ask for help and then complete one task. Node is goal-oriented, always on, and self-learning. A rep might be focused on hitting the quarter, breaking into a strategic account, expanding a key customer or rebuilding pipeline for next quarter.

Node works toward whatever goals matter to that seller. It decides which deals and steps will move those goals forward and either does the work or brings it to the rep, ready to approve. Node is also built for the way sales really works, as a team sport. Everyone on a deal, from the rep to the account manager to the solutions engineer, has their own Node. Those Nodes work together and learn from each other, so winning playbooks spread across the whole team automatically.

Early users are seeing up to 80% higher sales productivity, with Node saving them two hours a day that they put back into serving customers. Node will be GA in early 2027, and teams can sign up for early access today at nooks.ai/node.

Scaling to meet demand from revenue teams

Nearly 9 in 10 sellers plan to use AI agents by 2027 (Salesforce). Nooks will use the capital to launch new products that solve the biggest challenges in sales, reach more companies across the enterprise and internationally, and expand into new roles across revenue teams. Nooks is also hiring across engineering, research, product, design and GTM, with over 100 open roles.

About Nooks

Nooks is the Revenue Agent Platform where human sellers and AI agents work together to drive pipeline and win more deals. Sellers and agents operate within a single platform, sharing account context and infrastructure across the entire revenue lifecycle, from first touch to renewal. Trained on over a billion real sales interactions, Nooks agents learn and improve outcomes with every deal. More than 2,000 companies run their revenue teams on Nooks. Founded in 2020 by AI researchers from Stanford, Cerebras, Scale AI and Tesla Autopilot, Nooks is backed by General Catalyst CVF, Kleiner Perkins, Lachy Groom and other investors. Learn more at nooks.ai.

SOURCE Nooks

Phaze turns expensive, underused workstations into computing power on demand for people and AI agents.

NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2026 — Phaze today announced it raised $8.75 million in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from Indie, NextView, Makers, and Lerer Hippeau.

Phaze gives people and AI agents remote access to powerful computers. For employees doing demanding work in 3D, design and software development, Phaze provides a high-performance remote desktop that makes a remote workstation feel local. For AI agents, it provides full control of a remote computer, including its graphical interface and applications, without requiring computer-use software to be installed on that machine.

As AI agents become capable of handling more complex work, companies want employees to use them to get more done, but they also want that work performed on machines they control. Phaze lets agents operate company-managed computers under existing identity and access management policies, whether they’re testing software, troubleshooting IT problems or working in the background without taking over an employee’s machine.

Phaze also lets companies manage expensive workstations as shared infrastructure rather than assigning each machine to one employee. With high-end workstations costing upwards of $10,000 and often sitting idle, companies can make better use of their existing hardware as both employees and AI agents need computing power.

One Remote Desktop for People and AI Agents

Phaze was built for demanding workloads where latency, responsiveness and visual quality matter. Its founders previously built Parsec, the high-performance remote access company acquired in 2021. They started Phaze after recognizing that people and AI agents would increasingly need access to powerful machines, creating demand for enterprise tools that make it easier to share and manage computing resources.

With Phaze, an artist or designer can remotely access a high-end workstation to work with complex 3D graphics. A developer can connect to a powerful machine to build software. IT teams can manage those workstations centrally, control who can access them, and assign and reassign machines as demand changes.

Phaze is now extending that same remote access to AI agents.

The company recently released an MCP server that lets computer-use agents remotely connect to and operate computers. Rather than simply connecting an agent to an API, Phaze gives the agent access to the computer itself, allowing it to interact with software and perform tasks on the machine.

That creates several new ways for agents to work. An agent can operate a separate computer in the background while its user continues working on their own machine. Developers can give coding agents access to computers where they can test applications and features. IT teams can allow support agents to remotely access employees’ computers and attempt to resolve problems.

Phaze also lets people and AI agents collaborate within the same remote session, passing control back and forth as needed. A person can take over when an agent needs help, then hand control back so the agent can continue working.

In one early implementation, Phaze built an IT support agent that can remotely connect to an employee’s computer, diagnose and attempt to fix an issue, then hand control to an authorized IT employee when it needs help. The employee can take over the remote session and then hand control back to the agent to finish the task.

Turning Workstations Into Shared Infrastructure

Making computers remotely accessible to people and agents changes how companies can manage the hardware they already own.

Instead of permanently assigning a workstation to one employee, IT teams can manage machines as a shared resource, control who or what can access them, and assign and reassign computers as demand changes. The hardware can sit on a desk, in a server room or in a data center while users and agents access it remotely.

“The computer sitting on your desk shouldn’t determine what compute you can access,” said Benjy Boxer, CEO and co-founder of Phaze. “People need powerful workstations to do their jobs, and now AI agents need computers they can actually operate. We’re building the access layer that lets either one connect to the machine they need, wherever it happens to be.”

Key capabilities include:

• High-performance remote desktop: Remotely operate powerful computers with the responsiveness and visual quality required for demanding professional workloads.
• Shared workstations: Assign and reassign machines across users rather than permanently tying expensive hardware to individual employees.
• AI agent access: Give computer-use agents access to remote computers through Phaze’s MCP server.
• Background agent work: Let an AI agent perform work on a separate computer without taking over the machine its user is actively using.
• Human-agent collaboration: Allow authorized employees to take control from an AI agent when needed and hand the machine back when their work is complete.
• Centralized access controls: Enterprise authentication, directory sync, and audit logging let companies manage who can connect to which machines, enforce existing security policies, and ensure AI agents inherit the access permissions of their users.

New Funding Supports Product Development and Growth

Phaze will use the funding to expand its engineering team, accelerate product development and support customer growth.

“High-end compute is too expensive to sit idle on individual desks,” said Martin Casado, General Partner at a16z. “Phaze is turning those machines into shared infrastructure for people and AI agents. Benjy, Chris, and their team have been building in this space for more than a decade, and they bring that experience to a new era of remote access and machine management. We’re excited to support them again.”

About Phaze

Phaze provides high-performance remote access to computers for people and AI agents. Phaze is headquartered in Utah. For more information, visit phaze.app.

SOURCE Phaze

Company emerges from stealth with an agentic operating system that unifies development and construction and puts AI agents to work across every stage of project delivery

NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2026 — Shackleton AI, a provider of agentic technology for the construction industry, today emerged from stealth, unveiling its platform that unifies development and construction management workflows and deploys AI agents to automate administrative project work. Launched in June 2026, the Shackleton platform currently manages over $1 billion in project value across more than 15 states for midsize general contractors in multifamily, industrial, and commercial construction, as well as multi-location brands including Red Lobster, Dog Haus and Pepper Lunch.

The company also announced it raised $5 million in seed funding led by Battery Ventures, which it will use to expand the workflows its AI agents can manage and accelerate go-to-market efforts. Brick & Mortar Ventures, Trust Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Motivate Partners, Thayer Investment Partners, Act One Ventures, Brainstorm Ventures, Silence VC and others also participated in the round.

“Construction is one of the largest and least digitized sectors in the economy, and the teams running these projects are buried in manual work that software should have automated a decade ago,” said Michael Brown, general partner at Battery Ventures. “The Shackleton team built this platform to run their own business before bringing it to market. We believe their agentic approach is how construction projects will be managed going forward, and we are proud to lead this round.”

Solving the Operational Drag Slowing Modern Construction

For many construction teams, critical project information is spread across separate systems for bidding, documents, scheduling and finances. It is not uncommon for a company to juggle seven to 10 systems and have its teams spend 10 to 15 hours a week on data entry and administrative work. Tariffs, higher interest rates and owners pushing for faster rollouts leave little room for that overhead, while legacy construction platforms were designed primarily as systems of record, leaving the follow-up to project teams.

Shackleton was built by founders who lived the problem. Michael Ragheb, Hassan Yasin and Olexandr Kaltsev grew Ernest, a tech-enabled commercial general contractor, to $35 million in revenue across the Southeastern United States, while facing numerous challenges with fragmented solutions.

“I was spending more time moving data between systems than running my jobs at Ernest,” said Michael Ragheb, co-founder and CEO of Shackleton AI. “Once we saw how much this was costing us, and how many other builders were dealing with the same problem, we knew we had to start from scratch and bring everything into one place. Every hour a project manager spends chasing status across disconnected tools is margin lost. When everything lives in one place, projects move faster, teams spend less time on administrative work and projects cost less. With Shackleton, multi-location customers have completed buildouts up to 35% ahead of schedule and as much as 18% under budget.”

One Platform for the Entire Construction Lifecycle

For construction firms and developers, the Shackleton platform brings workflows – from site selection and bidding through project turnover – into a single system. AI agents handle many of the administrative tasks that consume project managers’ time, including drafting RFIs, following up on overdue submittals, flagging budget variances before payment requests are submitted for approval and converting field notes into daily reports.

Unlike point solutions that automate work within a single application, Shackleton’s AI agents operate across the entire platform, enabling teams to coordinate activities across projects and portfolios, while maintaining human oversight through review and approval workflows.

“As we roll out our rebrand across all of our locations, speed and quality are of the utmost importance to our brand. Consolidating our communication and project tracking on Shackleton has kept us on track and on schedule,” said Andi Cramer, senior director of construction and rebuild at Red Lobster.

Shackleton is building toward a future in which construction projects can largely manage themselves, bringing the proactive, always-on assistance people are increasingly accustomed to from consumer AI tools into every stage of project delivery.

To request a demo, visit shackleton.ai/demo.

About Shackleton AI

Founded in 2026 and headquartered in New York, Shackleton AI is the agentic operating system for development and construction. The platform unifies development, preconstruction, project and field management, finance and communications in a single system spanning site selection through project turnover. AI agents operate across shared data to handle administrative tasks, coordinate projects and identify risk. Shackleton was founded by Michael Ragheb, Hassan Yasin and Olexandr Kaltsev, who previously scaled a tech-enabled general contractor to $35 million in annual revenue. Today, Shackleton supports owners and builders in more than 15 states, with more than $1 billion in project value managed on the platform. Learn more at shackleton.ai.

SOURCE Shackleton AI

19 años de investigación predictiva, respaldados por un historial de inversiones de nueve años en condiciones reales que arroja una rentabilidad del 235,19%

SAN FRANCISCO, 4 de noviembre de 2026 — Q-Ball Intelligence anuncia hoy su lanzamiento como una nueva iniciativa de inteligencia predictiva nativa de IA, que se fundamenta en casi dos décadas de investigación y aplicaciones prácticas que se remontan al año 2007.

La empresa está desarrollando una nueva generación de inteligencia artificial capaz de identificar señales emergentes, reconocer patrones y anticipar acontecimientos futuros, yendo más allá del análisis de lo que ha ocurrido para comprender lo que es probable que suceda a continuación.

La investigación que sustenta Q-Ball ya se ha aplicado en la práctica. Entre el 17 de febrero de 2016 y el 17 de febrero de 2025, una cartera de inversión basada en Q-Ball generó una rentabilidad acumulada del 235,19%.

A modo de comparación, el análisis de la cartera muestra una rentabilidad del 129,86% para el índice OMX Stockholm All-Share Gross (OMXSGI) —que representa el mercado bursátil sueco en su conjunto— y del 106,55% para el índice OMX Stockholm 30 (OMXS30) durante el mismo periodo. Esto supone un rendimiento superior de 105,33 y 128,64 puntos porcentuales, respectivamente.

El historial de inversiones de nueve años ofrece un ejemplo tangible de la aplicación práctica de la investigación predictiva desarrollada bajo el liderazgo del profesor adjunto Peter Majanen. Se trata de un registro de una cartera de inversiones real, y no de una simulación basada en datos históricos.

Desde el análisis de la información hasta la anticipación del cambio

La mayoría de los sistemas analíticos están diseñados para procesar información, identificar tendencias históricas y explicar acontecimientos que ya han tenido lugar.

Q-Ball persigue un objetivo distinto: reconocer las señales y las expectativas cambiantes que pueden revelar lo que vendrá a continuación.

Su metodología predictiva conecta información, expectativas, patrones emergentes y dinámicas con posibles catalizadores y resultados futuros. El objetivo es transformar información compleja en pronósticos estructurados y medibles.

La investigación subyacente tuvo su origen en 2007 y ha evolucionado a lo largo de casi dos décadas de desarrollo y aplicación práctica. Q-Ball Intelligence representa la siguiente etapa: transformar esta base en una plataforma tecnológica escalable, diseñada para los mercados internacionales.

Construcción de una nueva plataforma de Inteligencia Predictiva

Q-Ball está desarrollando una plataforma nativa de IA diseñada para identificar señales relevantes, evaluar acontecimientos emergentes, generar pronósticos estructurados y contrastar las predicciones con los resultados reales.

El enfoque de la empresa pone especial énfasis en comprender los cambios en las expectativas y el comportamiento, en lugar de basarse exclusivamente en datos históricos y en el análisis de tendencias convencional.

Al combinar una metodología predictiva con un análisis basado en inteligencia artificial, Q-Ball aspira a crear tecnología que ayude a organizaciones y particulares a anticiparse a los cambios, evaluar oportunidades y tomar decisiones mejor fundamentadas.

Un aspecto importante de la filosofía de desarrollo es la rendición de cuentas: las predicciones deben estar estructuradas, fechadas y evaluadas en función de lo que realmente sucede. Esto sienta las bases para la medición, el perfeccionamiento y el aprendizaje continuos.

Aplicaciones en diversos mercados

Q-Ball Intelligence está desarrollando su tecnología para clientes institucionales y comerciales, con aplicaciones adicionales en los mercados financieros, el deporte y el sector del juego.

Las áreas de enfoque iniciales incluyen:

Inteligencia predictiva empresarial: ayuda a las organizaciones a anticipar la evolución del mercado, las condiciones cambiantes, los riesgos emergentes y las oportunidades estratégicas.

Mercados financieros: desarrollo de inteligencia predictiva para acciones y mercados financieros, identificando patrones emergentes y evaluando la probabilidad de posibles acontecimientos en el mercado.

Deportes y juegos: aplicación de modelos predictivos a resultados deportivos, entornos competitivos y mercados relacionados con los juegos.

La empresa está desarrollando estas aplicaciones sobre una base predictiva compartida, extendiendo sus capacidades fundamentales de inteligencia a diversos mercados y segmentos de clientes.

Un nuevo capítulo para la inteligencia predictiva

«La predicción no consiste en conocer el futuro. Consiste en comprender el presente lo suficientemente bien como para reconocer en qué está empezando a convertirse el futuro», afirmó Peter Majanen, fundador y arquitecto jefe de inteligencia predictiva.

Q-Ball Intelligence tiene como objetivo establecer la Inteligencia Predictiva como una categoría diferenciada dentro del panorama de la IA en constante evolución, yendo más allá de los sistemas que se limitan a describir el mundo para avanzar hacia una tecnología diseñada a anticipar cómo este podría cambiar.

Con una base de investigación que se remonta a 2007, la empresa entra ahora en una nueva etapa centrada en el desarrollo tecnológico, la comercialización y la expansión internacional.

Q-Ball Intelligence: prediciendo lo que vendrá a continuación.

Acerca de Q-Ball Intelligence

Q-Ball Intelligence es una iniciativa de inteligencia predictiva nativa de IA que desarrolla tecnología diseñada para identificar señales emergentes, reconocer patrones y anticipar acontecimientos futuros.

Sus fundamentos combinan investigación predictiva, una metodología analítica propia y aplicaciones prácticas desarrolladas desde 2007. La empresa se centra en transformar esta base en una plataforma de inteligencia predictiva escalable, destinada a aplicaciones institucionales, comerciales y de consumo.

Sitio web: www.qballintel.com

Contacto de prensa:
Richard Sjoberg
Q-Ball Intelligence
press@qballintel.com
www.qballintel.com

Divulgación sobre el rendimiento histórico: La rentabilidad de la cartera, del 235,19%, corresponde al periodo comprendido entre el 17 de febrero de 2016 y el 17 de febrero de 2025. Las cifras de referencia se basan en datos de Avanza para los índices OMX Stockholm All-Share Gross Index (OMXSGI) y OMX Stockholm 30 Index (OMXS30) durante el mismo periodo. El rendimiento histórico no constituye un indicador de resultados futuros. El rendimiento histórico de la cartera no debe interpretarse como un resultado generado por la nueva plataforma Q-Ball Intelligence, ni como una garantía de los resultados de inversión futuros.

Strategic capital investment led by Capital One Ventures will expand Sentra’s platform for protecting data at rest, where it lives, and controlling what AI agents can reach.

NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 4, 2026 — Sentra, the agentic data security company, today announced that Capital One Ventures has led a strategic capital investment of $150 million in the company, joining existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Zeev Ventures, Standard Investments, Munich Re Ventures and Key1 Capital. As part of the investment, a Capital One representative will join Sentra’s board of directors. The investment follows a year of more than 300% year-over-year growth, as enterprises turn to Sentra to understand their data, control which identities, human and AI, can access it, and keep it governed and protected for AI and autonomous agents.

Your data has a new kind of consumer

Data security was built for people. Three forces have changed that at the same time:

• The business wants AI now. Copilots, assistants and cloud AI services are rolling out faster than governance can keep up, leaving security teams balancing business speed with data visibility and governance.
• The data explosion. Sensitive data is spread across cloud, SaaS and on-prem, outpacing legacy visibility tools and fragmenting visibility into where sensitive records live or who and what can reach it. Without continuous governance, sensitive information can quickly become over permissioned and overexposed.
• AI agents are scaling exponentially. Each agent is a new identity, accessing data continuously and at machine speed, with no central control plane. Large organizations that ran a handful of agents a year ago are on track to run exponentially more within a few years, yet only a small minority say they have the governance in place to control what those agents can access.

“AI agents are now the busiest consumers of enterprise data, and many of them inherit access to data that hasn’t been fully classified or governed,” said Yoav Regev, co-founder and CEO of Sentra. “Traditional perimeter controls weren’t built for agents moving at machine speed. What organizations can do is make sure the data those agents reach is already secured. Sentra protects data where it lives and controls which identities, human and AI, can reach it, so organizations can deploy AI more quickly while staying in control. This investment lets us bring agentic data security to every enterprise putting agents to work.”

Agentic data security starts with data at rest

Rather than trying to inspect every agent request as it happens, Sentra protects data at rest, where it lives, across cloud, SaaS, data warehouses, on-prem file shares and the knowledge stores AI draws from. By governing the data and access agents depend on ahead of time, Sentra maintains continuous protection beyond traditional perimeters.

• Before: Sentra minimizes the exposure footprint. It finds and classifies sensitive data across environments, and maps what people, service accounts and AI agents can reach, including inherited access. It enforces least privilege for non-human identities and removes redundant, obsolete and high-risk data agents should never find.
• During: Sentra helps contain an agent fast. Data-aware detection flags unusual access to sensitive data, and automated remediation revokes access and removes risky sharing, routing high-risk issues to data owners and existing workflows.
• After: Sentra shows what an agent could have reached, with business context for the datasets involved, giving security, legal and compliance teams the evidence to respond quickly and defensibly.

Where Sentra is investing next

The funding accelerates Sentra’s innovation in agentic data security: broad visibility into agents, copilots and models and the sensitive data they touch, continuous least privilege for human and non-human identities, protection of data at rest before agents reach it, and rapid containment when an agent behaves unexpectedly.

Sentra will also expand its go-to-market by scaling its field and channel programs, growing its brand and marketing, and entering new geographies.

Why enterprises choose Sentra

AI agents now act on enterprise data at machine speed, so security has to understand both the data and who, or what, can access it. Sentra uniquely unifies the two, especially in large, complex environments where other tools fall short. It finds sensitive data and classifies it in ways that fit each business. It also maps every identity, human and non-human, including AI agents, along with the sensitive data each one can access. This lets enterprises govern who has access to what, and fix risky access before agents or attackers exploit it.

Sentra does this without moving the data. It analyzes data where it lives, entirely inside the customer’s environment, so sensitive data never leaves it. Alternatives that copy customer data into their own environment create a separate data estate to secure, adding retention, residency and compliance risks for regulated industries. Leaving data in place also lets Sentra scale efficiently across clouds, SaaS, data warehouses and on-prem systems, with broader coverage at a cost advantage. Customers consistently rate Sentra among the highest in data security posture management on independent peer review platforms.

Chaim Sanders, CISO at Lyft, adopted Sentra as the data security solution to support the organization’s growth. According to Sanders: “Our teams at Lyft want to move fast with AI, but we need to know what data our agents can reach before we turn them on. Sentra gives us that answer across our whole environment, so security helps the rollout instead of slowing it down”.

About Sentra

Sentra is the agentic data security company. Its platform unifies data security posture management (DSPM), data detection and response (DDR), data access governance (DAG) and data loss prevention (DLP) to protect data at rest, where it lives, and gives enterprises continuous visibility and control over which identities, human and AI, can reach their data, so they can adopt AI quickly and stay governed and compliant. Founded in 2021 by Yoav Regev, Asaf Kochan, Ron Reiter and Yair Cohen, Sentra is headquartered in New York and Tel Aviv. Learn more at sentra.io.

Advisors

H-F & Co., Law Offices served as legal counsel to Sentra, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal counsel to Capital One Ventures.

SOURCE Sentra