Explosive Growth and Rapid Industry Adoption Drive New Funding Round Just Months After Series A

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 25, 2026 — Outmarket AI, the leading AI platform purpose-built for insurance, today announced it has raised $34.5 million in Series B funding. The round was led by SignalFire, with participation from Fika Ventures, Permanent Capital Ventures, TTV Capital and Dash Fund. Coming just a few months after the company announced a $17 million Series A, the latest investment brings Outmarket’s total funding to $56.5 million.

The decision to raise a Series B so soon after the previous round was driven by Outmarket’s explosive growth and rapid market adoption this year. The platform has scaled at a record pace, recently surpassing 10,000 active users. Today, over 300 agency customers, including over 25% of the Top 100 insurance agencies, rely on Outmarket daily to transform fragmented agency data into intelligent workflows. To support this scale, Outmarket has significantly expanded its growing team with top-tier talent spanning engineering, insurance operations, and customer success.

“We didn’t set out to raise again this soon, but the industry told us what it wants,” said Vishal Sankhla, CEO and Co-founder of Outmarket AI. “Agencies don’t want another point solution. They want an intelligence layer that understands their data and does the work. Every workflow we automate frees up hours that go back to clients, and that’s the future we’re building toward: an industry where the people who protect businesses and families spend their time on judgment and relationships, not on rekeying data.  With this investment, we’re accelerating our roadmap to bring even more value to the agencies that depend on us every day.”

Outmarket’s comprehensive platform connects directly to agency management systems (AMS) automating complex, high-stakes processes across commercial, benefits, personal lines, and specialty insurance. Customers using Outmarket consistently report drastic reductions in manual work, minimized E&O exposure through AI-assisted policy gap detection, and increased revenue. For employee benefits professionals specifically, Outmarket’s tailored capabilities have become indispensable for streamlining renewals, benchmarking, and proposal generation. The company will also begin extending its capabilities to carriers later this year, laying the groundwork for a more connected market where information moves between agencies and carriers without manual handoffs.

“The scale we’ve reached this year has allowed us to build increasingly powerful capabilities into the platform,” said Anshu Jain, CTO and Co-founder of Outmarket AI. “Our architecture unifies structured and unstructured data so insurance professionals can execute workflows grounded in their actual policies, contracts and client records. When you build an AI platform that natively speaks the language of insurance, the value is immediate and it compounds with every workflow we add.”

New Certificates of Insurance Workflow

In conjunction with the Series B announcement, Outmarket released a new Certificates workflow. Certificates of insurance are one of the highest volume and most thankless tasks in every agency. Account managers issue thousands of certificates a year, often within hours of a client request, and every one carries E&O exposure if a holder, endorsement or coverage requirement is missed. Outmarket’s Certificates workflow automates the entire process. It reads the client’s contract or lease, extracts the insurance requirements, checks them against the policies already in the AMS, flags any gaps, and generates the completed ACORD certificate with the correct holders, additional insureds and endorsements attached. Early customers report issuing certificates in a few minutes and significantly reducing certificate-related errors.

The release builds on Outmarket’s rapid product momentum, including a recently-launched AI-powered loss run extraction and analysis tool, comprehensive employee benefits capabilities designed to eliminate manual workflows, and a unified data intelligence platform that provides agencies with a single source of truth.

“We’ve tracked Outmarket’s trajectory closely, and their execution over the past year has been nothing short of exceptional,” said Tony Pezzullo, Partner at SignalFire. “To capture this much market share in such a short window is a rare achievement, and even rarer in a complex vertical like insurance. Outmarket isn’t just riding the AI wave; they are the undisputed market leaders setting the standard for how agencies will operate in the intelligence era. We are thrilled to lead this Series B and double down on their vision.”

To learn more about Outmarket AI, visit: https://outmarket.ai/

About Outmarket AI
Outmarket is the leading AI platform for insurance. Purpose-built for agencies, Outmarket delivers intelligent workflows across commercial, benefits, personal lines, and specialty insurance that turn hours of manual work into minutes. Over 300 of the world’s top agencies trust Outmarket to reduce E&O exposure, accelerate client delivery, and unlock new revenue.

Outmarket is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Learn more at https://outmarket.ai/.

Kevin LaHaise
Outmarket AI 
[email protected]

SOURCE Outmarket AI Inc

Leaders from Parabilis Medicines, HawkEye 360 and Cerebras joined investors and leading clinicians at the firm’s 2026 Celebration in Toronto

TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2026 — Sixty Degree Capital (“SDC”), a global, multi-stage venture capital firm investing across technology and healthcare, continued its strong portfolio momentum in 2026. Building on the firm’s history of successful exits, five SDC portfolio companies have completed initial public offerings in 2026, including two record-setting offerings.

SpaceX, Parabilis Medicines, Cerebras, HawkEye 360 and Lime each began trading on U.S. exchanges between May and July. SpaceX’s offering of approximately US$75 billion is the largest IPO in history, and Parabilis Medicines’ US$770 million offering is the largest biotech IPO in history. GrubMarket has also filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“A public listing happens in a single day, but it rests on years of work that most people never see,” said Robert Guo, President of Sixty Degree Capital. “This year’s listings add to a record our founders have been building since the firm’s earliest days. Each of these companies took on hard problems at the frontier of science and technology and executed with real discipline. We are proud to continue as their partner, and we remain focused on backing the companies that will define the decade ahead.”

SDC marked this year’s milestones at its 2026 Celebration, held on August 11 at the Donalda Club in Toronto. The evening convened founders, investors, scientists, clinicians and partners from across the firm’s network, with a program that followed the path from scientific discovery to global scale.

Dr. Mathai Mammen, Chief Executive Officer of Parabilis Medicines, joined SDC Managing Director Dr. Cheryl Kuai in conversation on building biotechnology companies and translating breakthrough science into new medicines. John Serafini, Chief Executive Officer of HawkEye 360, and Nish Sinnadurai, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Canada Country Manager at Cerebras, spoke to the rise of space-based intelligence and the compute infrastructure behind the next generation of artificial intelligence, respectively.

The program closed with a panel on longevity and healthspan, moderated by Dr. Kenneth Grisé, Principal at SDC. Dr. Douglas Vaughan, Founding Director of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute and Chief Academic Officer of Northwestern Medicine, drew on decades of research into the biology of aging. Dr. Hubert Walinski, Chief Scientific Officer, Life Sciences at Portland Holdings, offered a pharmaceutical industry view, and James Mayer, Chief Operating Officer of CABHI and Partner at CABHI Ventures, spoke to innovation in aging and brain health.

This year’s listings are the latest outcome of an approach that has guided SDC since its founding in 2018. Its investment approach rests on people, timing and sector expertise, applied by specialized teams of former founders, operators, PhDs, research scientists and investment professionals. That depth allows SDC to recognize potential early, evaluate complex opportunities with conviction and remain a steady partner as companies grow. As innovation across technology and healthcare accelerates, SDC continues to focus on partnering with the founders building what comes next.

About Sixty Degree Capital

Sixty Degree Capital is a global multi-stage venture capital firm based in Toronto. The firm invests in category-defining companies across technology and healthcare, primarily in the United States, with select investments globally. In technology, SDC invests across artificial intelligence, space, defence, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure. In healthcare, SDC invests in pioneering biotechnology and healthcare technology companies that address significant unmet medical needs and have the potential to transform patient care. These investments are underpinned by deep scientific, technical and investment expertise across oncology, immunology, cardiovascular disease, central nervous system disorders and healthcare technology. Its multidisciplinary team partners with exceptional founders from early growth through the public markets.

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities or interests in any fund managed by Sixty Degree Capital.

SOURCE Sixty Degree Capital

The Firm’s 70th acquisition carries a 6.4% going-in cap rate, the highest across all Elevest Capital funds to date.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 28, 2026 — Elevest Capital, a Scottsdale-based private equity firm focused on passive multifamily real estate investing, today announced the launch of Fund 70, a 229 unit, 35 story high-rise apartment community in an A+ location in Downtown Dallas, Texas.

Built in 2007, the property has maintained 90%+ physical occupancy for the past 10 years and is currently 93% occupied, with no rental concessions offered over the past 12 months.

“Fund 70 is exactly the kind of asset we look for: a well-located, well-occupied property with a track record of stability,” said Adam Williams, Founder and CEO of Elevest Capital. “Buying at a 6.4% cap rate in an A+ downtown location is rare, and it’s the highest going-in cap rate we’ve ever purchased across all of our funds. For our investors, that means a strong starting point for both cash flow and long-term appreciation.”

Offering Highlights

The property is being acquired for $42 million, with approximately $19.1 million in total equity. Targeted terms include an 8.0% preferred return, 85/15 LP/GP split, 15.6% projected IRR, 2.01x projected equity multiple, and 4.0% targeted average cash flow.

The anticipated hold period is two to five years, with a projected 5.25% exit cap rate and a $200,000 minimum investment. Monthly cash flow distributions are anticipated to begin 60 to 90 days after closing.

About Elevest Capital

Elevest Capital is a private equity firm helping busy professionals and accredited investors build wealth through passive ownership of institutional-quality multifamily real estate. Guided by its tagline, “Real Estate Investing… Simplified,” the firm focuses on disciplined capital allocation and long-term investor relationships. Elevest Capital completed nine multifamily acquisitions in 2025, and Fund 70 represents its sixth offering of 2026.

Learn more at elevestcapital.com.

Media Contact

Elevest Capital
(480) 534-7066
[email protected] 
15125 N. Scottsdale Rd., Ste. 201, Scottsdale, AZ 85254

For informational purposes only. Not an offer to sell or solicitation to buy securities. Offers are made only through official offering documents detailing investment risks, fees, and objectives. All returns are targeted, projected, or anticipated and are not guaranteed. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Past performance does not predict future results. Investors should consult their financial, tax, and legal advisors before investing.

SOURCE Elevest Capital

Brick & Lace artist, songwriter and entrepreneur transforms a personal fashion challenge into a shapewear line designed for today’s boldest styles

MIAMI, Sept. 28, 2026 — For women who love cut-out dresses, asymmetrical silhouettes, one-shoulder styles, sheer panels and other fashion-forward looks, finding the right shapewear can sometimes create a problem of its own. For Nailah Thorbourne, the multi-platinum recording artist, songwriter and entrepreneur known professionally as Nyla and as one-half of the internationally recognized music duo Brick & Lace, that challenge became the inspiration for a new fashion venture.

That solution is Vlair Shapewear, an online fashion brand created to provide women with shapewear designed to complement, rather than interfere with, today’s bold clothing styles.

“I created Vlair because I saw a problem that needed to be solved, not just for myself, but for women who want to wear the clothes they love without having their shapewear work against the design,” said Nailah Thorbourne, Founder/CEO of Vlair Shapewear. “I wanted to create something that allows a woman to put on that dress, step out and feel confident in what she’s wearing.”

MADE FOR THE CUT-OUTS

Traditional shapewear is often designed with conventional clothing silhouettes in mind. But today’s fashion continues to embrace cut-outs, asymmetrical designs, one-shoulder styles, sheer panels and other looks that require a different approach to what is worn underneath.

Vlair was created with that reality in mind.

The brand’s current collection includes shaper panties, shaper skirts, shaping bodysuits, shaper shorts and loungewear, with designs intended to work with a range of contemporary looks. The brand’s signature positioning—”Made For the Cut Outs”—speaks directly to the fashion problem Vlair was created to address.

Among the collection is the Vlair Eclipse Bodysuit, which the company describes as being designed to disappear beneath one-shoulder dresses and sheer panels while helping provide shaping and support.

FROM THE STAGE TO THE FASHION INDUSTRY

Thorbourne brings a remarkable entertainment career to her role as a fashion entrepreneur. As a member of Brick & Lace, alongside her sister Nyanda Thorbourne, she helped establish an international recording career before continuing her work as a solo artist under the name Nyla.

Her career includes a significant collaboration with global electronic music group Major Lazer on the international hit “Light It Up.” The song and its remix achieved platinum certifications in multiple international markets, with the remix featuring Nyla and Fuse ODG ultimately earning 2× Platinum certification in the United States.

In 2026, Thorbourne returned to the global stage when Nyla performed “Light It Up” with Major Lazer during the closing ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Verona, Italy. The official ceremony program lists the performance as part of the closing celebration.

That combination of music, international performance and fashion experience has given Thorbourne a firsthand understanding of style, image and the importance of confidence when stepping in front of an audience.

With Vlair, Thorbourne is taking that experience in a new direction—creating a fashion brand built around a problem she believes modern women shouldn’t have to accept.

“For me, Vlair is about more than shapewear. It’s about giving women the freedom to wear the look they want to wear and feel good doing it,” Thorbourne said. “The woman I designed Vlair for is bold, modern, and not afraid to step outside the box. She puts on the dress, walks through the door and owns the room.”

DESIGNED FOR THE VLAIR WOMAN

Vlair describes its customer as “The Vlair Woman”—a woman who wears what she wants, how she wants, and approaches her style with intention.

The company’s mission is to redefine shapewear for the modern woman through designs intended to promote confidence, individuality and the ability to wear today’s boldest fashions.

Rather than asking women to change their fashion choices to accommodate traditional shapewear, Vlair takes the opposite approach: design shapewear to accommodate the fashion.

DISCOVER VLAIR SHAPEWEAR

Vlair Shapewear is available exclusively online, allowing customers to explore the collection and find pieces designed for their individual style.

To discover the collection and learn more about Vlair Shapewear, visit:

www.vlair.store 

ABOUT VLAIR SHAPEWEAR

Vlair Shapewear is a fashion-forward shapewear brand founded by multi-platinum recording artist, songwriter and entrepreneur Nailah Thorbourne, known professionally as Nyla and as one-half of Brick & Lace. Created from a personal need to solve the challenges of wearing shapewear beneath today’s bold fashion silhouettes, Vlair is designed for the modern woman who wants to express her individuality without compromising confidence or style. With its “Made For the Cut Outs” philosophy, Vlair creates shapewear intended to work with contemporary fashion, including cut-outs, asymmetrical designs, one-shoulder styles and sheer looks.

Media Contact:

Leon Cosby

[email protected] 

404-448-9152

SOURCE Vlair Shapewear

New financing will fund the first customer deployments of standardized plasma diagnostic systems, giving fusion developers faster access to higher-quality, third-party-validated data.

TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2026 — Daedal Systems, which develops standardized plasma measurement systems for the nuclear fusion industry, today announced it has raised US$4.035 million to industrialize its measurement platform and deploy its first diagnostic systems with pilot customers. OMERS Ventures led the round, with participation from Garage Capital, Panache Ventures, Ripple Ventures, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF), and a group of angel investors.

Fusion developers need detailed plasma measurements to understand how their reactor designs perform. Companies typically build diagnostic systems in-house, even though measurement is not core reactor intellectual property. This duplicates work across the industry and diverts time, capital, and talent from the technologies that differentiate their reactors.

“After building and deploying plasma measurement systems at General Fusion, I saw the same challenge across the sector: every company needs high-quality diagnostics, but too much time and capital go into recreating similar systems in-house,” said Henry Gould, founder and CEO of Daedal Systems. “Daedal was created to solve that problem by giving fusion companies access to standardized, high-quality plasma measurement systems that can improve the quality of their data and help them move faster toward commercialization.”

Daedal will use the financing to build its first three diagnostic systems and deploy prototypes under contract with pilot customers. The company has a research partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Delivered as a service, Daedal’s platform can adapt to different fusion machines and reactor approaches. By producing higher-quality data faster and independently validating technical milestones for investors and partners, Daedal allows fusion companies to focus on reactor development while reducing their reliance on lengthy peer-review timelines.

“Advanced plasma diagnostics were among the key enabling technologies that led to ignition and target gain at the NIF” said Dr. Johan Frenje, a Technical Advisor to Daedal Systems, referring to National Ignition Facility’s historic fusion-ignition demonstration in 2022. “As fusion technology advances in the private sector, measurement solutions designed specifically for private-sector needs will be essential.”

“While fusion remains nascent, realizing its significant long-term potential will require a broader ecosystem of specialized companies and world-class expertise,” said Brian Kobus, managing partner at OMERS Ventures. “By building the measurement infrastructure the industry needs, Daedal can strengthen that ecosystem and attract the expertise required to advance this important technology.”

Initially, Daedal will serve the fusion industry, with a longer-term ambition to become a major instrumentation provider for commercial fusion power and other industries that require advanced measurement systems.

For more information, visit https://daedalsystems.com/.

About Daedal Systems
Daedal Systems builds standardized plasma measurement systems for the global fusion industry, enabling high-quality, fast-turnaround measurements and an accelerated path to fusion commercialization. Founded by Henry Gould, Daedal is based in Toronto.

About OMERS
OMERS is a jointly sponsored, defined benefit pension plan, with more than 1,000 participating employers ranging from large cities to local agencies, and 665,000 active, deferred and retired members. Our members include union and non-union employees of municipalities, school boards, local boards, transit systems, electrical utilities, emergency services and children’s aid societies across Ontario. OMERS teams work in Toronto, London, New York, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Singapore, Sydney and other major cities across North America and Europe – serving members and employers, and originating and managing a diversified portfolio of high-quality investments in government bonds, public and private credit, public and private equities, infrastructure and real estate.

Media contact:
Remy Pinson
(510) 556-8517
[email protected]

SOURCE Daedal Systems

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., Sept. 28, 2026 — HeartX, powered by HTA and MedAxiom — along with leading cardiovascular programs across the country — has selected five startup healthcare companies to participate in the 2026 accelerator program.

HeartX is a cardiovascular-focused healthcare accelerator that connects accomplished, early-stage companies with cardiovascular providers to facilitate pilot projects and clinical studies designed to validate innovative technologies in real-world care settings. Each company selected for the 2026 cohort will receive $150,000 in investment capital and is guaranteed at least one pilot project or clinical study with a participating cardiovascular program.

The five companies selected for the 2026 HeartX program are:

Flow Medical — Chicago, Illinois, USA
Flow Medical is developing technology to advance the treatment of pulmonary embolism through a personalized approach to catheter-directed thrombolysis. Its all-in-one angiography, infusion and monitoring catheter provides physicians with real-time feedback on clot resolution.

Mode Sensors — Trondheim, Norway
Mode Sensors develops wearable technology for continuous, non-invasive fluid monitoring. Its ReBalans® system uses advanced biosensors to provide real-time information about a patient’s fluid status.

Noah Labs — Berlin, Germany
Noah Labs develops AI-powered technology for remote monitoring and earlier detection of worsening heart failure. Its platform combines telemonitoring with Noah Labs Vox™, an AI-based voice analysis technology designed to detect signs of cardiac decompensation before hospitalization.

Galenband — Galway, Ireland
Galenband is developing a wearable cardiac telemetry system designed to continuously monitor cardiac function for up to 90 days. The system combines medical-grade sensors with automated data transmission and AI-supported analysis to help clinicians identify cardiac abnormalities while providing patients with a non-invasive alternative to implantable monitoring devices.

Omini — Suresnes, France
Omini is developing a point-of-care blood biomarker monitoring platform for patients with chronic diseases. Its portable system uses multiplex electrochemical biosensor technology to measure multiple blood biomarkers from a single capillary blood sample, providing clinicians with information that can support therapy adjustments and ongoing disease management.

“The companies selected for this year’s HeartX cohort are tackling some of the most persistent challenges in cardiovascular care — from identifying deterioration sooner to giving clinicians better information to personalize treatment,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HTA. “What makes HeartX unique is the opportunity to move those technologies into direct collaboration with our providers. We’re excited to see what these five companies can accomplish with access to HeartX clinicians, patients and real-world care settings.”

“Meaningful innovation happens when emerging technologies are developed alongside the clinicians and organizations that will ultimately use them,” said Joe Sasson, PhD, MedAxiom’s chief commercial officer and executive vice president of Ventures. “The 2026 HeartX cohort brings together solutions addressing a diverse range of cardiovascular challenges. We look forward to helping these companies gain the clinical insights, relationships and validation they need to advance their technologies and their impact on patient care.”

Representatives from participating cardiovascular programs across the country, HTA and MedAxiom, evaluated applicants and selected companies with technologies that have the potential to advance cardiovascular innovation and care.

The 2026 HeartX program will kick off at MedAxiom’s CV Transforum conference in Denver, Colorado, Oct. 22-24.

More information about HeartX can be found at HeartXAccelerator.com.

ABOUT HEALTHTECH ARKANSAS
HTA helps to drive innovation for healthcare provider organizations and clinical engagement for startup companies. Its flagship accelerator, HeartX, recruits worldwide for the most accomplished cardiovascular-focused startups in the areas of digital health, medical devices, and diagnostics. Those companies accepted into the program are guaranteed facilitated hospital pilot projects and clinical trials with leading cardiology practices around the country, along with financial investment, mentoring and exposure to the HeartX network. More information can be found at HealthTechArkansas.com.

ABOUT MEDAXIOM
MedAxiom, an American College of Cardiology Company, is the cardiovascular community’s premier source for organizational performance solutions. MedAxiom is transforming cardiovascular care by combining the knowledge and power of hundreds of cardiovascular organization members, thousands of administrators, clinicians and revenue cycle experts, and dozens of industry partners. Through the delivery of proprietary tools, smart data and proven strategies, MedAxiom helps cardiovascular organizations achieve the Quadruple Aim of better outcomes, lower costs, improved patient experience and improved clinician experience. Learn more at MedAxiom.com.

For more information, contact:
Jeff Stinson
501.766.0633
[email protected] 

SOURCE HTA

‘Protostar’ Power Node Prototype Ready to Launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Sept. 28, 2026 — Star Catcher Industries, Inc. (“Star Catcher”), the pioneering energy company building the first power grid in space, has its prototype power node, Protostar, prepared for launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Launching aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission scheduled for October 2026, the Protostar mission aims to conduct a landmark power beaming demonstration between two untethered spacecraft, a feat that has never been achieved. This mission is a key milestone in actualizing the orbital energy infrastructure that will power the next era of space operations and exploration.

Since the company’s founding in 2024, Star Catcher has successfully demonstrated its power beaming technology terrestrially, including setting a world record for optical power beaming at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. In late 2025, the company also completed Sextant Alpha, an on-orbit demonstration mission of their proprietary spacecraft acquisition and tracking software. Star Catcher leveraged the data from these demonstrations to build and ship Protostar on an accelerated timeline.

“It takes an extraordinary engineering team to build, validate, and ship a space-qualified orbital power beaming spacecraft within two years of inception,” says Michael Snyder, co-founder and CTO of Star Catcher. “This mission will yield critical operational data in real-world orbital conditions that will directly support the build out of our commercial power grid in space.”

Protostar is the first end-to-end prototype of the company’s core technology stack on orbit: energy harvesting, satellite acquisition and tracking, and energy transmission. Following launch and commissioning, Protostar will deploy and track a CubeSat, to which it will beam measurable power to off-the-shelf solar panels, validating commercial power beaming operations.

Upon completion, this will be the world’s first optical power beamed between two free-flying spacecraft — a technological advancement that will enable on-demand wireless power transmission and act as the foundation of Star Catcher’s orbital power grid.

“Every major application driving the space economy — from real-time national security intelligence to AI-powered orbital computing and Earth observation — is limited by power,” said Andrew Rush, co-founder and CEO of Star Catcher. “We are closer to activating an orbital power grid than most can imagine; flying this prototype in only two years is meaningful evidence of the capability of our team and what’s to come.”

Star Catcher has publicly announced ten major commercial Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with leading space companies such as Starcloud, Loft Orbital, Astro Digital, and Aethero. These agreements, along with over 40 Letters of Intent (LOIs), a $60M Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) Award from the United States Space Force, and $88M in venture capital, have enabled Star Catcher’s rapid technology advancement. The company has already begun development on its follow-on satellite to beam operational levels of orbital power, is actively recruiting to more than double its team size, and is building out a new 100,000 square foot headquarters in Jacksonville, FL.

For more information, please visit www.star-catcher.com

For press inquiries, please contact Daniel Sherman at [email protected]

About Star Catcher

Star Catcher is an energy company building a power grid in space, providing the infrastructure to enable the next generation of spacecraft and advanced missions. Star Catcher removes power as a limiting factor for spacecraft, allowing continuous mission execution, increased operational endurance, and the ability to support higher power payloads without redesigning existing platforms. Founded in 2024 by Andrew Rush and Michael Snyder (Made In Space, Redwire), alongside Bryan Lyandvert (T-Bird Capital, Amazon), the company has raised $88M to date from B Capital, Shield Capital, Cerberus Ventures, Initialized Capital, among others. Based in Jacksonville, FL, the company currently holds the world record for optical power beaming.

SOURCE Star Catcher Industries, Inc.

NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2026 — Independent Sponsors and emerging investment firms compete for the same deals as established private equity, without the in-house origination and value creation teams, or data infrastructure, those larger or more established investment firms run. XS Global (“XS”) launches today to close the capability gap between leaner investment firms and those with deep operational infrastructure, founded by technology veterans Nick Hunter and Akash Patel.

A 2026 study from the Institute for Private Capital and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School¹ found average gross returns of 2.9x invested capital and a 29% IRR on exited Independent Sponsor-led deals of the deals in their study, ahead of comparable institutional buyouts, without a corresponding increase in loss frequency or severity. Citrin Cooperman’s 2026 Independent Sponsor Report² backs this up from the Sponsor side: among those who have had a liquidity event, 84% of the Sponsors in their study returned 3x or more to their respective investors this year, up from 57% in 2023.

XS was formed on the hypothesis that even without the value-creation resources larger firms have, Independent Sponsors and smaller firms have been able to deliver alpha, and that with these capabilities this part of the market would continue to evolve and consistently deliver strong performance. Therefore, XS has created the internal capacity required to compete on an institutional level, including origination from thesis-to-close to add-on activity, live data across every company owned, and deeper operating expertise.

The XS system is an integrated value creation platform that maps markets end-to-end and scores them against an investor’s deal prospects, EBITDA focus, investment thesis, and portfolio company M&A roadmap, at a scale otherwise reserved for large PE firms with large analyst headcounts.

Nick Hunter and Akash Patel co-founded XS after years of building enterprise technology together at pureIntegration. Hunter spent over 28 years working across media, adtech, and software engineering. A founding member of pureIntegration, he helped scale it to $20M in revenue and 150 professionals and led its pivot to a product model. Patel brings over two decades of enterprise systems integration and technology program leadership from Deloitte Consulting, AT&T, and Walgreens Boots Alliance, helping deliver $200M in new revenue through data modernization.

XS has launched with an existing solution suite that was originally ideated and incubated by a North American private equity firm, with early clients being onboarded onto the solutions today.

Speaking to their founding thesis, Nick Hunter, Co-founder of XS, said, “The largest funds don’t win on judgement alone; they win on the capability they build around it. XS gives that capability to the firms that could never afford to build it, allowing a lean investment firm to run its deals and companies the way an investment firm of two hundred does.”

Independent Sponsors, family offices, and boutique investment firms are some of the most active lower-middle market (“LMM”) agents, building essential services businesses into revenue-generating and acquisitive enterprises, and bringing those platforms to the institutional market. Capital is following them there: Citrin Cooperman’s 2026 Independent Sponsor Report² found that institutional LPs are increasingly treating Independent Sponsor-led deals as one of the few ways to access LMM returns at scale.

The same Citrin Cooperman report found that most Independent Sponsor firms run with two or three principals and minimal staff, limiting both the opportunities they can evaluate and the portfolio companies they can actively manage, even as larger PE firms push further into the lower-middle market for the same value creation potential. AI is already closing that gap: 79% of Independent Sponsors surveyed expect it to meaningfully reshape the model within three years, particularly in sourcing and diligence, the exact areas XS’s system is built around.

XS is live now, working with its first cohort of Independent Sponsors and investment firms ahead of a broader rollout in the coming months.

PRESS CONTACT 

Maeve Couch
[email protected] 
(347) 680-3601

About XS Global

XS gives Independent Sponsors and investment firms the value creation capability large funds build in-house: origination from thesis-to-close to add-on activity, live data across every company owned, and the operating professionals to move the numbers. One system, from the first deal through the hold to exit.

For more information, please visit https://xs.global/.

SOURCE XS Global

BOCA RATON, Fla. and NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2026 — Fifth Ocean Capital, a private equity firm focused on partnering with founder-owned businesses, is pleased to announce a strategic investment in Complete Production Resources (CPR), in partnership with Tartan Investment Partners. CPR is a full-service live event production solution and equipment rental provider.

With headquarters in Orlando, Florida, CPR delivers turnkey audio, lighting, video, staging, and backline solutions to the production support market across the United States. Founded in 2010, CPR has earned its well-deserved reputation as one of the Southeast’s most trusted live event production solution providers through an unwavering commitment to expert craft and execution. The company delivers meticulously implemented 360° turnkey production services to a wide-ranging client base spanning corporate events, live entertainment, sporting events, cruise lines, universities, theme parks, venue support, and community organizations.

Fifth Ocean and Tartan are partnering with the CPR team to help accelerate the business’s next phase of growth, including investing in talent and technology, expanding its geographic presence, broadening its equipment inventory, and pursuing strategic add-on acquisitions that extend its services and client relationships.

Kelly Greene, CEO and co-founder, will remain a significant shareholder and continue to lead CPR. “We are thrilled to partner with Fifth Ocean and Tartan,” said Greene. “They have a long track record of supporting operators, scaling businesses, and funding growth initiatives. Our clients can count on the exact same team, values, and relentless commitment to execution they’ve trusted for years. This partnership gives us the resources to expand our inventory, enhance service capabilities, and support our clients on an even broader scale.”

Denis McEvoy, Managing Partner at Fifth Ocean, noted: “We look to partner with owners, like Kelly, who have built something special. The shift toward experiential events remains one of the most durable trends in consumer and corporate markets. CPR has the client relationships, equipment depth, and operational expertise to capitalize on that demand in a meaningful way. We look forward to backing Kelly and his team as they expand CPR’s geographic footprint and service capabilities.”

Peter Campbell, Managing Partner of Tartan Investment Partners, stated: “Our firm believes deeply in the staying power of live events, and we bring extensive investing and operating experience in the sector. What attracted us to CPR is Kelly — an owner who has spent decades building genuine trust across the industry, evidenced by the tenure and recurrence of client relationships. Live events are mission-critical, and CPR consistently delivers best-in-class execution across all aspects of the ecosystem. We’re proud to partner with CPR and look forward to helping scale this exceptional business.”

About Complete Production Resources

Complete Production Resources is a full-service live event production solutions and equipment rental provider, specializing in turnkey audio, lighting, video, staging, and backline solutions. Founded in 2010, the company partners with touring artists, corporations, universities, municipalities, sports and live event venue operators, theme parks and other event hosts looking for a one stop shop. For more information about CPR, visit www.completeproductionresources.com.

About Fifth Ocean

Fifth Ocean Capital Management is a Boca Raton, FL-based private equity firm focused on partnering with entrepreneurs, families, and ownership-minded management teams to invest in exceptional companies at growth inflection points. The firm leverages additional resources, expertise, and capital to drive both organic and inorganic growth, cultivating long term value for all stakeholders. Growth-oriented, Fifth Ocean seeks to generate superior outcomes through entrepreneurial business-building initiatives across business services, healthcare services, consumer and manufacturing sectors. For additional information, please visit www.fifthoceancapital.com.

About Tartan

Tartan Investment Partners is a New York, NY based independent sponsor investing in founder-led companies that provide critical technology and services across sports, entertainment, and consumer lifestyle sectors, with a focus on North America. The firm is built on combining investment discipline with experienced operators, providing sector-specific value creation and comprehensive operating insights to help founders scale their businesses. Learn more at www.tartaninvestmentpartners.com.

Contact Denis McEvoy at [email protected] and Michael Filler at [email protected] regarding new opportunities.

Media Contact:
Fifth Ocean
(561) 759-8399
[email protected] 

SOURCE Fifth Ocean