Former healthcare investment banker to lead sponsor and industry partnerships; available for meetings at CAP26 in Las Vegas, Oct. 3–6

SHREVEPORT, La., Sept. 29, 2026 — Pathology Ventures, LLC (PVL), a physician-founded network representing more than 500 pathologists, has named Dominic Stockey executive vice president. Stockey will lead PVL’s partnerships with pharmaceutical, diagnostic and research sponsors as the company expands its biomarker standards and industry programs across pathology practices.

Stockey oversees business operations, strategic partnerships and enterprise development, including sponsor and partner relationships, commercialization and contracting, and program execution. He joins PVL after seven years in investment banking, where he was a Vice President and worked on more than 15 closed transactions across diagnostics, life sciences and healthcare, including mergers and acquisitions, capital formation and industry partnerships.

“Pathologists are central to getting patients the right biomarker testing, and gaps in that testing have real consequences for treatment,” said Sam Caughron, MD, President. “Our physicians have done the clinical work of defining what good testing looks like. Dominic brings the business leadership to turn that work into programs industry partners can invest in, while making sure our member practices stay independent.”

PVL gives pathology practices a way to collaborate on biomarker programs and industry projects without giving up ownership of their groups. The company was founded in 2025 by Samuel K. Caughron, MD, Eric F. Glassy, MD, and Vivek K. Khare, MD.

“Pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies want to work with pathology practices, but they need a partner that can bring those practices together around consistent standards and deliver programs at scale,” said Stockey. “PVL’s physicians have built that foundation. My job is to build partnerships around it that work for sponsors, for our member practices and, ultimately, for patients.”

Stockey and PVL leadership will attend CAP26, the College of American Pathologists annual meeting, at the Wynn Las Vegas, Oct. 3–6. To schedule a meeting, contact Dominic at [email protected].

About Pathology Ventures, LLC

Pathology Ventures, LLC is a physician-founded company based in Shreveport, Louisiana. It connects pathology practices with pharmaceutical, diagnostic, technology and research organizations on biomarker standardization, implementation, quality improvement, digital pathology and data programs. Learn more at www.pathologyventures.com.

Media Contact:
Dominic Stockey
Executive Vice President
Pathology Ventures, LLC
[email protected] 

SOURCE Pathology Ventures, LLC

Jeeves’ revenue has grown 4x in 14 months and volume has tripled year-over-year, crossing $5 billion in annualized volume. Stablecoin volume has gone from zero to $1.5 billion annualized in eight months as Jeeves expands its stablecoin card and payment offering to 10 new countries.

MIAMI, Sept. 29, 2026 — Jeeves, the stablecoin-native banking platform for global enterprises, today announced $110 million in equity funding and the launch of its proprietary stablecoin wallet with payouts to 190 countries.

The round was led by CoinFund, with participation from AllianceBernstein, Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, CRV, GIC, Global PayTech Ventures, ParaFi, Vista, Wintermute, Y Combinator and others.

Saving global enterprises time and money, Jeeves is the financial operating system for thousands of businesses in sectors such as technology, mobility, financial services, retail, and e-commerce, including industry leaders like BMW, H&M, Lululemon, Burger King, Kavak and XP. Over 80% of customers utilize multiple products, including corporate cards, accounts payable and treasury payments, spend management, and agentic workflows, positioning the company as the default stablecoin-native platform for financial operations among global businesses.

The raise comes as Jeeves surpasses $5 billion in annualized total platform volume across its card and payments products. Stablecoin is the fastest-growing part of that volume. Eight months ago, stablecoin-settled activity on Jeeves was effectively zero. It is now running at $1.5 billion annualized platform volume, driven by enterprises that use Jeeves to move money between markets where correspondent banking is slow or expensive.

Jeeves is expanding its stablecoin card offering from 25 to 35 countries, including Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay. That expansion means Jeeves covers nearly every market in Central and South America. Combined with its existing coverage across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe, Jeeves’ stablecoin card and spend management platform now reaches 35 countries in total. As part of the announcement, Jeeves is opening an office in Madrid to expand its core stablecoin-native cards and payments offering globally.

“The enterprises that choose Jeeves are global by default, requiring corporate cards, accounts payable, treasury payments, and financial automation that span continents, and every one of them is tired of legacy infrastructure that wasn’t built for that. We built Jeeves as a banking platform on stablecoin rails because that’s the only way to give companies the same speed and cost structure moving money between São Paulo and Berlin that they get transacting within one country. That is what a stablecoin-native banking platform for global business actually looks like,” said Dileep Thazhmon, Founder and CEO of Jeeves.

Alongside the raise, Jeeves is launching a proprietary stablecoin wallet with instant payouts to 190 countries, a global AI spend tracking solution, and an accounts receivable (AR) module. Together, they give companies a single system to move money, track spend, and get paid, without stitching together banks, spreadsheets and point solutions across every market they operate in.

“Stablecoins are fundamentally changing finance for enterprises, but thus far, very few companies have created robust stablecoin-based infrastructure ideally suited to enterprises. Jeeves has built a full enterprise stack that allows enterprises to run their day-to-day operations, corporate cards and invoice payments atop stablecoins, bringing speed, modern money capabilities and much lower costs to their customers. Jeeves has real distribution among companies already operating across Latin America, the United States and Europe, and that combination of technology and adoption is why we led this round.” said David Pakman, Managing Partner and Head of Venture Investments at CoinFund.  

With this round, Jeeves moves from a payments tool used by finance teams to the banking infrastructure enterprises use to move money everywhere they do business.

About Jeeves

Jeeves is the global financial operating system for enterprises that do business in multiple countries. Jeeves gives businesses physical and virtual corporate cards, accounts payable and treasury payments, and a spend management platform on a single piece of infrastructure, running on stablecoin rails that settle in minutes instead of days. AI agents handle reconciliation and financial automation, and accounts receivable and other financial workflows run on the same foundation. Thousands of enterprises worldwide, including BMW, Lululemon, Burger King, XP, and Kavak, use Jeeves to move billions of dollars a year.

SOURCE Jeeves

Strong application demand highlights Maryland’s academic strength and growing company interest in regenerative medicine

COLUMBIA, Md., Sept. 29, 2026 — The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission announced over $4.8 million in awards through the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) during the first funding cycle of fiscal year 2027, supporting innovative stem cell and regenerative medicine research across Maryland.

This funding supports 15 investigators from Maryland-based research institutions and companies working on diverse medical conditions and diseases ranging from blindness, Huntington disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, acute myeloid leukemia, cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmias, muscular dystrophy, osteoarthritis, viral infections and other neurological, psychiatric and developmental disorders.

The awards come amid strong and growing demand for MSCRF funding, with high-quality applications and requested funding continuing to significantly exceed the resources available for the current cycle. The level of interest reflects not only the strength of Maryland’s research community, but also the growing number of technologies progressing beyond early discovery into validation, commercialization, clinical development and manufacturing—stages that typically require substantially greater capital.

“This funding cycle demonstrates just how much Maryland’s regenerative medicine ecosystem has grown,” said Rachel Brewster, Ph.D., chair, Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission. “We continue to see highly competitive proposals from researchers and companies working at different stages of development, from emerging ideas to technologies moving closer to patients. The strength of the applicant pool speaks to the scientific talent and innovation that Maryland has built over many years.”

For MSCRF, the increase in demand also reflects the maturation of research supported through earlier MSCRF investments. As discoveries advance, the need for funding does not diminish; in many cases, it grows as projects require more extensive validation, regulatory preparation, clinical studies, manufacturing capabilities and commercialization activities.

“What we are seeing is not simply more applications—it is a maturing pipeline,” said Ruchika Nijhara, Ph.D., executive director, MSCRF. “Research that began in laboratories is progressing toward new technologies, companies, clinical applications and manufacturing. That is exactly the progression we want to see, but these later stages are also increasingly capital-intensive. The level of funding requested this cycle shows both the opportunity in front of us and the importance of continuing to provide a pathway for the strongest projects to move forward.”

MSCRF has increasingly focused on supporting that continuum, providing funding mechanisms that allow promising discoveries to advance without losing momentum between traditional stages of research and commercialization. The Fund currently offers seven programs spanning discovery, postdoctoral fellows training, validation, commercialization, clinical translation and manufacturing.

Since its establishment under the Maryland Stem Cell Research Act of 2006, MSCRF has supported 770 research and commercialization projects with more than $250 million in funding, helping build a statewide regenerative medicine ecosystem that includes academic research, emerging biotechnology companies, clinical programs and manufacturing capabilities.

The Commission expects to release Requests for Applications for the next MSCRF funding cycle in late October or early November 2026. Additional information on MSCRF programs and funding opportunities is available through the MSCRF’s website (https://www.mscrf.org/funding-opportunities).

The first round of MSCRF awards for the 2027 fiscal year includes the following:

• Launch: These awards are to encourage new and new-to-the-field faculty to bring innovative research and technology to the regenerative medicine field. Totaling $3,084,250, the Launch Award recipients are Drs. Leonardo Parra-Rivas, Saima Riazuddin, Christopher Ward, and Mary Kay Lobo from the University of Maryland – Baltimore, Dr. Taeyoung Hwang from the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, as well as Drs. Anthony Leung, Hyeoncheol Park, Yang Ding, and Hungoo Lee from Johns Hopkins University.
• Commercialization: These awards are for companies to develop new human stem cell-based products in Maryland. Totaling $399,575, the Commercialization Award recipient is SereNeuro Therapeutics, Inc. (Dr. Tea Soon Park).
• Validation: This award supports faculty at Maryland-based academic institutions with intellectual property for human stem cell-based technologies that require additional validation. Totaling $1,349,999, the validation award recipients are Drs. Michal Zalzman and Alexandros Poulopoulos from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, as well as Drs. Ludovic Zimmerlin, Elias Zambidis, and Hee Cheol Cho from Johns Hopkins University.

More information about all current MSCRF awardees is available at: https://www.mscrf.org/awardees.

About the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission and Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund 

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission, through Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund supports innovative stem cell and regenerative medicine research, development, commercialization, clinical translation and manufacturing in Maryland. The Fund supports academic researchers, companies and other organizations working to advance stem cell-based technologies and treatments from scientific discovery toward patient and commercial impact.

About TEDCO

TEDCO, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, enhances economic empowerment growth through the fostering of an inclusive entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem. TEDCO identifies, invests in, and helps grow technology and life science-based companies in Maryland. Learn more at www.tedcomd.com.

MSCRF Contact
Ruchika Nijhara, PhD, MBA, Executive Director, MSCRF, [email protected]

Media Contact
Tammi Thomas, President, TEDCO, [email protected]
Rachael Kalinyak, Associate Director, Marketing & Communications, TEDCO, [email protected] 

SOURCE Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission

140 startups from 20 countries join 13 programs, with AI moving deeper into industry-specific applications

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 29, 2026 — Plug and Play, the ultimate innovation platform that accelerates over 2,500 startups annually, has selected 140 startups across 13 programs for its Silicon Valley Fall batches of 2026. The founders will pitch to investors, corporations, and industry leaders at the Silicon Valley Summit, Nov. 3–5, 2026.

The participating programs include:

• Agtech
• Animal Health
• Brand & Retail
• Enterprise & AI
• Fintech
• Food & Beverage
• Global Overseas Acceleration & Learning (GOAL)
• Health & Longevity
• Insurtech
• New Materials & Packaging
• Travel & Hospitality

The batch also includes startups participating in the Mobility & Advanced Hardware: Korea to U.S. program and the XDC AI Agents & Blockchain Accelerator. View the full list of participating startups here.

Startups were selected based on program fit, traction, and direct interest from Plug and Play’s partners, many of whom participated in the final screening process. Across programs, that demand increasingly centers on technologies that can move beyond experimentation and into real industry workflows.

“A year ago, founders came to us with AI products that companies wanted to test. Now they arrive with customers already in production,” said Saeed Amidi, founder and CEO of Plug and Play. “That changes what our partners need from us. The work is less about proving the technology and more about moving fast enough to deploy it.”

AI is the strongest industry theme in this batch, but its applications vary significantly by sector. Startups are developing autonomous systems for enterprise workflows, financial services, insurance, commerce and travel, while others are applying AI to physical systems in agriculture, mobility and advanced hardware.

The shift reflects changing priorities among Plug and Play’s partners. Insurers are exploring AI agents for claims, customer service, and policy administration, as well as new approaches to insuring autonomous vehicles, robotics, and drones. Financial institutions are looking at agentic finance, payments, and commerce, while retailers are exploring agentic commerce, in-store intelligence, and automated creative operations. In travel, the focus is increasingly on putting agentic AI into production, improving operational efficiency, and identifying new revenue streams.

Other programs reflect industry-specific priorities beyond AI. Food and beverage startups are working across crop nutrition, athlete recovery, and emerging ingredient platforms, while new materials and packaging companies are developing technologies to improve the performance and sustainability of materials used across industries.

The batches also reflect Plug and Play’s global network. The 140 startups come from 20 countries, with 55% based outside the United States. South Korea represents the largest group outside the U.S., accounting for approximately 30% of the companies in the batches. Other startups join from markets across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America.

For founders, the programs provide direct access to corporations seeking technologies that address their priorities. Jerold Zwas, CEO of PakItGreen, joins Plug and Play’s New Materials & Packaging Batch 21. The Michigan-based company develops eco-friendly coating technologies for packaging.

“The Plug and Play team went above and beyond to facilitate highly targeted introductions, connecting our cohort with invaluable partners and industry leads,” Zwas said.

Over three months, participating startups receive mentor-led workshops, private dealflow sessions and curated introductions to corporate partners. Plug and Play’s accelerator programs are equity-free, offering startups opportunities to pursue pilots, proofs of concept, and potential investment from its in-house venture arm.

The programs will culminate at the Silicon Valley November Summit, where founders will pitch to investors and corporate partners across industry sessions. The three-day event will also feature keynotes, expos, and dealflows facilitated through Plug and Play’s global network.

Plug and Play will also use the Summit to announce new developments across its global platform, including corporate partnerships and locations.

To meet the startups and attend the Silicon Valley November Summit, visit the website or contact Plug and Play at [email protected].

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we’re present in 60+ locations across 25+ industries. We offer corporate innovation programs, helping our partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also run startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC where we’ve invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit Plug and Play.

Plug and Play Press Contact
Jacky Tsang
Senior Communications & PR Associate
[email protected]

SOURCE Plug and Play

Covilhã-based AI video analytics company to be integrated into Motorola Solutions’ Avigilon platform

MAMARONECK, N.Y., Sept. 29, 2026 — Young America Capital, LLC (“YAC”) today announced that it advised DeepNeuronic, a Portuguese developer of AI video analytics, on its sale to Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI). Motorola Solutions acquired 100% of DeepNeuronic’s share capital, including its Brazilian subsidiary. Terms were not disclosed.

DeepNeuronic was founded in 2021 by Vasco Lopes and Bruno Degardin, who met at Portugal’s University of Beira Interior and earned their PhDs there in artificial intelligence and computer vision. Their software reads live camera feeds and flags incidents as they happen. Highway operators, airports, manufacturers and retailers in Portugal and Brazil already run it on the cameras they have. Motorola Solutions will build the technology into Avigilon, its video security platform, which serves customers in more than 100 countries. DeepNeuronic’s 17-person team is joining Motorola Solutions and will stay in Covilhã.

“This was one of the sharper deals we worked on this year,” said Peter Formanek, Founder and CEO of YAC. “Vasco and Bruno had a product customers were already paying for and a clear view of where video analytics was going. Motorola Solutions saw it too. Our job was to get both sides to a deal that worked, across two continents and a lot of time zones, and Ran did exactly that.”

Ran Zfoni, Vice President and Head of Israel & Europe Tech at YAC, advised DeepNeuronic’s founders through the transaction. Cuatrecasas served as legal counsel to DeepNeuronic, with a team led by partner Vasco Bivar de Azevedo.

“The founders knew what they wanted: a buyer that could scale the technology and would keep the team together in Covilhã,” said Zfoni. “Motorola Solutions was that buyer. Congratulations to Vasco, Bruno and everyone at DeepNeuronic.”

About Young America Capital
Young America Capital, LLC is an investment bank based in Mamaroneck, New York. YAC advises founders and owners of lower-middle-market companies in the U.S. and abroad on M&A, capital raising and strategic transactions. Member FINRA/SIPC. www.yacapital.com

Media Contact
Kelly Pack | Young America Capital, LLC | [914-777-0100] | [[email protected]]

SOURCE Young America Capital

With the Electron E1 now in volume production, the funding will help Efficient bring its breakthrough energy efficiency up the compute stack 

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 29, 2026 — Efficient Computer, the company building the world’s most energy-efficient processors, today announced it entered into agreements for more than $97 million in Series B financing at a $650 million valuation, bringing its total funding raised to $173 million. The new round is led by TQ Ventures, with participation from Eclipse, Union Square Ventures, Giant Ventures, Triatomic Capital, TO Capital, TF Capital, Mana Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Overmatch, and Borderless. Efficient will use the capital to ship the Electron E1 processor in volume to lead customers, and to scale the architecture to datacenter-class performance at more than 10x improvement in energy consumption than systems built today.

Efficient Computer was founded to solve the generational energy problem faced by computing and AI. There is an insatiable demand for computing everywhere from physical AI to the datacenter. Computing costs energy and the demand for new AI-enabled capabilities is outpacing the ability to generate, store, and deliver energy for these capabilities. Without a fundamental change, energy is the main impediment to realizing the full potential of AI. The need for a robot to think, plan, and safely act limits its operational time to minutes, instead of hours. The limitless demand for AI means that each future datacenter needs a dedicated power plan; an infeasible strain on the already overburdened power infrastructure. The promise of AI remains undelivered while energy remains the limitation.

Efficient Computer has created the most energy-efficient general-purpose processor that has ever existed, unleashing the full potential of computing and AI. Efficient’s Fabric architecture is a clean-slate redesign of computing, ushering in a new era of energy efficiency with a 10-100x improvement in energy consumption for general-purpose computation, including AI.

“Every customer we meet has a version of their product they cannot build, because the compute power budget makes the new capabilities they want infeasible,” said Brandon Lucia, CEO and co-founder of Efficient Computer. “Efficient makes it possible. And this round of financing makes it possible for many more new use cases and domains, as we scale the Fabric architecture from the devices shipping today to datacenter scale. We won’t stop until energy is no longer a limitation on the potential of AI and computing.”

Scalable performance and hardware efficiency without sacrificing on software innovation

The Efficient Fabric architecture defines the state of the art in efficiency, and remains fully general-purpose. The software heterogeneity of emerging AI-enabled systems, particularly in physical AI, makes generality not just desirable, but rather a hard requirement. Efficient’s general-purpose approach stands in stark contrast to the limitations of solutions in the market that over-specialize for a single sub-computation of AI. These specialized “AI-only chip” alternatives do not support most software, failing to meet the needs of heterogeneous systems and risking instant obsolescence as AI rapidly evolves. Efficient supports the most popular software frameworks in a single, flexible architecture and with a frontend that supports C, C++, and many other common abstractions. By supporting general-purpose software, Efficient’s architecture is an outstanding target for AI-first development stacks that heavily leverage AI code generation.

Efficient’s architecture is capable of scaling its computing performance from the smallest physical AI systems all the way to the datacenter. The Fabric enables smaller, more power-constrained systems to do more for less, for example, replacing power-hungry embedded GPUs in a robot autonomy stack, and enabling it to operate for 10 times less energy. At the high end of the performance range, the Fabric accelerates varied and irregular datacenter workloads that are a poor fit to AI accelerator chips and GPUs. Efficient is unique in its ability to deliver high efficiency across a wide range of heterogeneous software use cases with the scalable performance that AI systems demand.

Electron E1: A revolution in efficiency shipping now

The Electron E1 brings the Fabric’s energy efficiency to physical AI systems today, unlocking new AI and computing capabilities that are out of reach because of today’s energy constraints. Customers are adopting the Electron E1 for physical AI and  autonomy, critical infrastructure observability, space and defense, and wearable devices. Efficient Computer has scaled production of the Electron E1 to meet overwhelming customer interest, and will continue scaling volume into 2027 to serve its global customer base.

“As AI agents do more work in software and in the physical world, the demand for energy-efficient computing extends far beyond running the models themselves. Efficient has developed a fundamentally different architecture that brings a step function in efficiency to general-purpose computing,” said Andrew Marks, Co-Founding Partner at TQ Ventures. “What convinced us was Brandon, Graham, and Nathan’s ability to build both the hardware and the software—and turn that breakthrough into a business. Not only have they taped out four times, but they’re already shipping chips to customers at volume.”

“The biggest technology shifts happen when companies like Efficient Computer rethink fundamental constraints and transform what’s possible,” said Rebecca Kaden, General Partner at USV. “Efficient’s ability to bring dramatic energy-efficiency gains across the performance spectrum will fundamentally change how computing is built and deployed, from physical AI to the data center.”

“We backed Brandon and the team because they aren’t chasing a trend, they’ve spent years at Carnegie Mellon solving the hard architectural problems that make energy-efficient compute actually work,” said Zenetta Burger, USA Lead Partner, Giant Ventures. “As AI and edge workloads push power demand to a breaking point, that’s exactly the kind of deep, patient engineering the world needs right now.”

“Eclipse backed Efficient from the very beginning because we believed solving AI’s energy problem would require rethinking computing from the ground up,” said Greg Reichow, Partner at Eclipse. “Today, that vision is becoming reality: Electron E1 is shipping, customer demand is accelerating, and the same architecture is scaling from physical AI to the datacenter. We’re proud to have been alongside Brandon and the team from day one and even more excited about what comes next.”

About Efficient Computer

Efficient Computer builds the world’s most energy-efficient general-purpose processor, combining ultra-efficient hardware with intuitive, developer-friendly software. Our technology scales from beyond-the-edge devices to datacenter systems, enabling industries to solve computing’s energy challenge. For more information, visit https://efficient.computer.

SOURCE Efficient Computer

Starrett will help identify, develop, and scale new businesses aimed at addressing persistent challenges across the cancer experience

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 29, 2026 — Thyme Companies, the family of businesses purpose-built to solve problems across the cancer care landscape, today announced that Carolyn Starrett has joined as executive vice president of new ventures, reporting to Executive Chairman Robin Shah. Her more than two decades of experience across oncology, clinical research, biopharma, and real-world data will shape Thyme Companies’ strategy as it expands beyond the existing Thyme Care platform.

“Carolyn has a rare ability to understand where the biggest problems exist across the cancer care journey and then build businesses that can solve them at scale,” said Shah. “This is our second stint working together, and I saw firsthand at Flatiron Health how she could take an idea, build an organization around it, and turn it into something that had real and lasting impact. She combines that strategic perspective with an incredible ability to execute. At Thyme Companies, we have an opportunity to think big about where the cancer care ecosystem needs to go and act quickly to build what’s missing. Carolyn is exactly the kind of leader I want alongside us as we meaningfully change cancer care.”

Before joining Thyme Companies, Starrett spent nearly a decade at Flatiron Health, a cancer data company that partners with hundreds of oncology practices and most of the industry’s leading cancer drug developers, which she joined in 2016 alongside Thyme’s founders. She served as Flatiron’s Chief Executive Officer from 2021 to 2025, during which time she led the expansion of its real-world evidence platform from roughly 400,000 to more than 5.5 million patient records, grew its OncoEMR platform to serve more than 4,500 oncology providers nationwide, and oversaw the company’s expansion into research sites across the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. After stepping back from Flatiron, Starrett founded Starrett Advisory to work with companies at the intersection of healthcare, data and AI, and she currently serves as a board director for NeoGenomics.

“Cancer has always been personal to me. I spent the last decade focused on using data and technology to make cancer care better, but I’ve always wanted to get closer to the patient experience itself – what it takes to navigate our complex system and the ever changing universe of new treatment options,” said Starrett. “Joining Thyme Companies is a chance to build directly against that opportunity, informed by everything Thyme Care has already learned from the people living through it. And I get to do it with people I’ve wanted to work with again for years.”

Starrett’s appointment follows Thyme Companies’ recent launch and its Series E financing. Her arrival accelerates the work already underway as Thyme Companies pushes into new business lines.

About Thyme Companies

Thyme Companies is the parent of the Thyme family of businesses, focused on building companies against the disconnection in how cancer care is delivered, accessed and paid for. Anchored by Thyme Care, the nationally recognized oncology care company, Thyme Companies develops independent businesses connected by one mission: to transform the experience of cancer for the people living through it. To learn more, visit thymecompanies.com.

SOURCE Thyme Care

The investment will accelerate Kahua’s next phase of growth following its achievement of $100 million in annualized revenue

ALPHARETTA, Ga., Sept. 29, 2026 — Kahua®, an AI enterprise construction platform for complex capital programs, today announced a minority growth investment from Bain Capital’s Tech Opportunities (“Bain Capital”) at a valuation above $1 billion. The partnership will support Kahua’s next phase of growth, including continued investment in AI and product innovation as well as go-to-market, customer success, and talent development initiatives.

“We’ve spent years building Kahua into the system organizations rely on to run their most complex programs, and this investment validates that work,” said Scott Unger, CEO and co-founder of Kahua. “Reaching $100 million in annualized revenue is a milestone of which we are incredibly proud. It reflects the trust of our customers and the strength of our team. We’re excited to partner with Bain Capital, which understands what it takes to help innovative software businesses scale. Together, we intend to accelerate our AI capabilities and product innovation, deepen the value we deliver to customers, and invest in the talent needed for Kahua’s continued growth.”

Capital programs in highly regulated and mission-critical environments, including federal government and defense, transportation, healthcare, and education, are becoming larger and more complex. At the same time, investment is accelerating across energy, digital infrastructure, data centers, and other major asset sectors. Yet many organizations still manage these multi-year programs across fragmented systems and disconnected processes. Kahua was built for this complexity, connecting the people, processes and data behind a capital program in one configurable, governed platform.

Kahua today serves more than 2,500 customers across a diverse range of industries, supporting more than $400 billion in capital programs on its platform. As a connected system of record, Kahua provides the governed data and context needed to make AI useful within the workflows where customers plan, manage, and make decisions across the asset lifecycle.

“Kahua has built the technology backbone for owners and delivery teams, connecting critical data across the full asset lifecycle—from funding and planning through construction and long-term operation,” said Philip Meicler, Partner at Bain Capital Tech Opportunities. “Kahua’s differentiated AI platform and leadership in this category positions it as indispensable partner to owners and managers of robust capital programs. We look forward to partnering with Scott and the Kahua team and bringing our experience scaling technology businesses as the company expands across markets.”

About Kahua

Kahua® is an AI enterprise construction platform built to connect the people, processes, and data behind complex capital programs. Globally, Kahua serves as a system of record for owners and delivery teams, bringing stakeholders into a single governed environment for portfolio-level visibility and collaboration across the full asset lifecycle. With intelligent, purpose-built solutions for key industries and a highly configurable platform, Kahua adapts to how teams work today and tomorrow. To learn more, visit www.kahua.com. Follow @Kahua on LinkedIn.

About Bain Capital

Founded in 1984, Bain Capital is one of the world’s leading private investment firms. We are committed to creating lasting impact for our investors, portfolio companies, and the communities in which we live. As a private partnership, we lead with conviction and a culture of collaboration, advantages that enable us to innovate investment approaches, unlock opportunities, and create exceptional outcomes. Our global platform invests across five focus areas: Private Equity, Growth & Venture, Capital Solutions, Credit, and Real Assets. In these focus areas, we bring deep sector expertise and wide-ranging capabilities. We have 24 offices on four continents, more than 2,00 employees, and approximately $225 billion in assets under management. To learn more, visit www.baincapital.com. Follow @BainCapital on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

Media Contact:
For Kahua

Sonya Lehner
Senior Director, Brand & Communications
[email protected]

For Bain Capital

Eddie de Sciora
Director, Communications
[email protected] 

SOURCE Kahua

85% of social impact professionals use AI; only about 10% of organizations see significant returns. Lantern is built to close that gap, developed through a strategic collaboration with Databricks.

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 29, 2026 — Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world’s leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact, today at bbcon 2026 unveiled Lantern™, the first domain-specific language model purpose-built to optimize fundraising intelligence.

The social impact sector is being underserved by large language models. While 85% of social impact professionals say they are using AI in their daily jobs, only about 10% of organizations are realizing significant dividends on their investment. Blackbaud has entered a strategic collaboration with Databricks to ensure the social impact sector gets the best outcomes from AI. Lantern is built on more than four decades of experience in fundraising workflows, decisions, and results, so that it understands giving behavior rather than buying behavior. This gives social impact organizations tailored intelligence to help them raise more so they can continue solving society’s most pressing challenges.

“Every organization has access to powerful AI, but frontier models learn from the internet, while Lantern learns from philanthropy,” said Mike Gianoni, president, CEO and vice chairman of the board of directors, Blackbaud. “With more than $100 billion raised, granted or managed through our platforms every year, Blackbaud has deep expertise on social impact and generosity, including why, when and how people give. Lantern understands fundraising goals, donor dynamics and nonprofit priorities in ways general-purpose AI doesn’t and puts actionable intelligence into the hands of fundraisers so they can make the best-informed decisions.”

Frontier AI meets fundraising expertise  

Working with Databricks, Blackbaud is combining leading open-weight models on the Databricks Data + AI Platform with more than 40 years of social impact intelligence. Lantern is post-trained on synthetic scenarios modeled on Blackbaud’s comprehensive Social Impact Signal Graph™ to reflect real-world fundraising patterns and bring the unique complexity of fundraising to the model. This flexible approach enables Lantern to evolve as technology advances. 

“There is an enormous opportunity for the philanthropy world to benefit from AI, but seeing returns requires the right data, context and governance,” said Andy Kofoid, president, global field operations, Databricks. “Together, Blackbaud and Databricks are giving nonprofits the data foundation they need to scale their fundraising and maximize their real-world impact.”

Lantern is developed under Blackbaud’s Responsible AI principles with privacy, transparency and sector-appropriate governance at its core to serve the unique needs of social impact organizations.

A model that supports social impact

Lantern understands the rhythms of fundraising, including how relationships are built, nurtured and transformed into generosity. It can illuminate opportunities that might otherwise go unseen, helping social impact organizations navigate complexity, uncover new possibilities and focus their energy where they can create the greatest impact. It reflects the importance of things like retention, upgrade paths and lifetime relationships, all of which are central to fundraising but not native to general-purpose AI models.

“The future of AI isn’t about who has the largest model; it’s about who best reflects the world their customers operate in,” said Carrie Cobb, chief data and AI officer, Blackbaud. “Lantern was purpose-built to reflect fundraising, leveraging decades of sector expertise with the intelligence embedded in Blackbaud’s Social Impact Signal Graph. The result is trusted intelligence that is more relevant, more transparent and more actionable because it understands the relationships, behaviors and opportunities that drive impact for our customers. The sector doesn’t need more AI. It needs AI designed to support social impact.”

Lantern is being built with input from Blackbaud customers including Boston University, Hesed House and YMCA of the North to support the outcomes frontline fundraisers want to achieve.

“Every industry has its own language, expertise, decision-making processes, rules and guardrails,” said Tim Cerato, assistant vice president, constituent relationship management, Boston University. “One of the biggest unlocks for AI is its ability to understand those nuances and amplify the effectiveness of the people doing the work. We see tremendous potential in technologies that augment the knowledge and expertise of our teams, expanding what people can accomplish and allowing them to focus their energy on the work that drives the most meaningful outcomes.”

Availability

Lantern will be embedded within Blackbaud’s Platform for Good™, bringing fundraising intelligence directly into the solutions organizations use every day to engage supporters, grow generosity and advance their missions.

Lantern will begin powering select Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and Agents for Good™ capabilities in 2027, with broader availability planned across Blackbaud’s Platform for Good.

About Blackbaud

Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world’s leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact. Serving nonprofits, educational institutions, companies committed to corporate social responsibility, and individual change makers, Blackbaud propels impact at scale with the sector’s most intelligent solutions for fundraising and engagement, education solutions, financial management and CSR and grantmaking. With the deepest expertise powered by the world’s largest philanthropic data set, the most connected workflows, and the most powerful impact network, Blackbaud’s solutions are building a future where resources are unleashed at the speed of need. Blackbaud has been recognized by Fast Company, Newsweek, Quartz, Forbes and more for AI innovation, responsible leadership and workplace excellence. Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India and the United Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

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Forward-looking Statements

Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations and assumptions contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding expected benefits of products and product features. Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors that could cause results to differ materially include the following: general economic risks; uncertainty regarding increased business and renewals from existing customers; continued success in sales growth; management of integration of acquired companies and other risks associated with acquisitions; risks associated with successful implementation of multiple integrated software products; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; risks associated with management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles; technological changes that make our products and services less competitive; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud’s investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

SOURCE Blackbaud