WALTHAM, Massachusetts, 24 juillet 2026 — Nova Biomedical a annoncé aujourd’hui une opération portant sur certains actifs de NanoCellect, un fournisseur de technologies de tri cellulaire microfluidique.

Cette opération, qui élargit les capacités de Nova Biomedical en matière de développement de lignées cellulaires, permet de renforcer les compétences de la société dans le domaine de l’accompagnement des processus biopharmaceutiques, du développement précoce à la fabrication.

La plateforme de tri cellulaire WOLF G2^® de NanoCellect^® propose une sélection et un isolement cellulaires en douceur basés sur la microfluidique, qui viennent compléter la gamme Solentim existante de Nova Biomedical pour la génération de clones, leur vérification et l’analyse de leur croissance. En associant sélection cellulaire, isolement des cellules individuelles et vérification des clones à haute fiabilité, ces technologies favorisent une approche plus intégrée du développement de lignées cellulaires.

Cet élargissement du portefeuille de Nova réduira les délais de développement de lignées cellulaires et améliorera les résultats de la sélection clonale, tout en consolidant les bases nécessaires à la mise au point des procédés, à l’intensification de leur mise en œuvre et à la fabrication.

Le portefeuille de Nova Biomedical comprend également des solutions analytiques performantes pour la surveillance de culture cellulaire, notamment l’analyse des métabolites avec BioProfile^® FLEX2, la mesure de l’osmolalité avec OsmoTECH^®, ou encore le comptage cellulaire et l’évaluation de la viabilité des cellules avec BioProfile^® FAST CDV. Ces solutions, qui assurent des contrôles primordiaux tout au long du cycle des procédés biotechnologiques, sont utilisées depuis la phase de développement jusqu’à la production.

L’entrée des produits de NanoCellect dans la gamme de Nova Biomedical renforce encore la stratégie de cette dernière, qui vise à proposer un éventail de technologies plus intégré pour soutenir la continuité, la compréhension et la prise de décision tout au long du cycle de vie des bioprocédés.

« NanoCellect apporte une capacité en amont cruciale à notre portefeuille pour nous aider à mieux relier les étapes clés du développement de lignées cellulaires », déclare John Luck, président de la division de biopharmaceutique chez Nova Biomedical. « En associant le tri cellulaire à l’isolement des clones et à une vérification à haute fiabilité, ainsi qu’à des points de contrôle analytiques tels que la surveillance de culture cellulaire et l’osmolalité, nous permettons à nos clients d’identifier plus rapidement un clone performant et d’obtenir des informations qui contribuent à optimiser la sélection clonale et à améliorer les performances lors de la mise au point des procédés, de leur développement et de la fabrication. Il s’agit d’une étape importante dans la mise en place d’une plateforme plus interconnectée et plus différenciée pour le développement de lignées cellulaires et les bioprocédés. »

À propos de Nova Biomedical
Nova Biomedical est un fournisseur mondial d’instruments et de solutions d’analyse de pointe destinés aux marchés biopharmaceutique et clinique. La gamme de produits de l’entreprise prend en charge les flux de travail essentiels dans les domaines du développement de lignées cellulaires, de la mise au point de procédés et de la fabrication, qui donnent aux clients les moyens d’améliorer leur productivité, la qualité de leurs produits et leur efficacité opérationnelle.

À propos de NanoCellect
NanoCellect met au point des technologies de tri cellulaire microfluidiques destinées à obtenir un isolement cellulaire en douceur dans des conditions stériles. Ses plateformes sont entre autres utilisées pour le développement de lignées cellulaires, l’analyse de cellules individuelles et la recherche en thérapie cellulaire.

Lisa Fahey

Vice-présidente chargée de la communication et des programmes d’entreprise

Adresse électronique : [email protected]

SAN FRANCISCO, July 24, 2026 — Snorkel AI today highlighted the first group of projects supported through Open Benchmarks Grants, a $3 million commitment to support open-source datasets, benchmarks, and evaluation research.

Launched in February 2026, Open Benchmarks Grants has received hundreds of applications from researchers, labs, and engineers working to address a growing challenge: AI systems are advancing faster than the field’s ability to rigorously measure their performance on realistic, consequential work.

“From complex environments and huge autonomy horizons to rich, sophisticated outputs, these projects tackle some of the field’s hardest evaluation challenges,” said Fred Sala, a member of the Open Benchmarks Grants steering committee and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “I’m excited to see the broader research community use, validate, and build on them.”

Open Benchmarks Grants provides selected teams with funding, expert data development support, research and engineering collaboration, and platform resources. Supported projects include:

• Frontier-Bench (formerly Terminal-Bench 3.0), developed with Laude Institute and the Harbor community, is a harder, more domain-diverse successor to Terminal-Bench 2.1 — built in the open, task by task, under continuous adversarial review.
• Agents’ Last Exam, developed with UC Berkeley RDI and the RDI Foundation, evaluates agents on long-horizon, economically valuable professional workflows. It spans 55 sub-industries and includes more than 1,500 tasks toward a 5,000-task target, sourced and validated by more than 300 industry experts.
• OSWorld 2.0, developed with XLANG Lab, evaluates computer-use agents on 108 long-horizon workflows across 31 self-hosted web environments and professional desktop applications.
• Continual Learning Bench, developed with UC Berkeley SkyLab and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, measures whether agents genuinely improve across sequential, stateful tasks.
• SlopCode Bench, developed with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, measures how code quality degrades as coding agents repeatedly modify and extend their own solutions.
• Terminal-Bench 2.1, developed with Stanford University, Laude Institute and the Harbor community, evaluates agents on challenging work in terminal environments. The release corrected 28 tasks and introduced continuous validation.

With support from Open Benchmarks Grants, Terminal-Bench Science is also now in development, extending the Terminal-Bench framework to computational research workflows across the life, physical, earth, and mathematical sciences.

Beyond the grants program, Snorkel led the development of Senior SWE-Bench with the research teams at Princeton University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The benchmark evaluates coding agents on senior-level engineering work, including implementing features from realistic instructions, investigating bugs that require runtime analysis, and producing code that follows existing codebase conventions.

Open Benchmarks Grants was established with support from Hugging Face, Prime Intellect, Together AI, Factory, Harbor, and PyTorch. Applications remain open and are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Learn more and apply for a grant at benchmarks.snorkel.ai.

About Snorkel AI
Snorkel AI is the frontier AI data lab, helping teams build the data and environments behind high-performing frontier and agentic AI. We combine technology with research-driven AI data development to create datasets, benchmarks, evals, and custom solutions for real-world AI systems. Founded out of the Stanford AI Lab in 2019, Snorkel works with leading AI labs and enterprises to move from better data to better outcomes. 

[email protected]

SOURCE Snorkel AI

WALTHAM, Mass., July 24, 2026 — Nova Biomedical today announced a transaction involving certain assets of NanoCellect, a provider of microfluidic cell sorting technology.

This expands Nova Biomedical’s capabilities in cell line development and strengthens its ability to support biopharmaceutical workflows from early development through manufacturing.

NanoCellect^® WOLF G2^® cell sorting platform introduces gentle, microfluidic-based cell selection and isolation, complementing Nova Biomedical’s existing Solentim portfolio for clone generation, verification, and growth analysis. Together, these technologies enable a more integrated approach to cell line development—linking cell selection, single-cell isolation, and high-confidence clone verification.

This expansion of Nova’s portfolio will accelerate cell line development timelines and improve clone selection outcomes, while establishing a stronger foundation for process development, scale-up, and manufacturing.

Nova Biomedical’s portfolio also includes robust analytical solutions for cell culture monitoring, including metabolite analysis with BioProfile^® FLEX2, osmolality measurement with OsmoTECH^®, and cell counting and viability with BioProfile^® FAST CDV. These capabilities serve as critical control points across the bioprocessing workflow and are used from development through production.

The addition of the NanoCellect products further advances Nova Biomedical’s strategy to provide a more connected portfolio of technologies supporting continuity, insight, and decision-making across the full bioprocessing lifecycle.

“NanoCellect adds a critical upstream capability to our portfolio and strengthens our ability to connect key steps in cell line development,” said John Luck, President of Nova Biomedical’s Biopharma Business. “By integrating cell sorting with clone isolation and high-confidence verification, alongside analytical control points such as cell culture monitoring and osmolality, we are enabling customers to reach a successful clone more quickly and generate insights that help optimize clone selection and drive better performance during process development, scale-up, and manufacturing. This is an important step in building a more connected and differentiated platform for cell line development and bioprocessing.”

About Nova Biomedical
Nova Biomedical is a global provider of advanced analytical instruments and solutions for the biopharmaceutical and clinical markets. The company’s portfolio supports critical workflows across cell line development, process development, and manufacturing, enabling customers to improve productivity, quality, and operational efficiency.

About NanoCellect
NanoCellect develops microfluidic cell sorting technologies designed for gentle, sterile cell isolation. Its platforms are used in applications including cell line development, single-cell analysis, and cell therapy research.

Lisa Fahey

VP, Corporate Programs and Communications

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Nova Biomedical

FARNBOROUGH, England, July 23, 2026 — Pelico, the manufacturing orchestration platform powering factory operations for the world’s leading industrial companies, today announced a strategic investment from AE Ventures, the venture capital platform of AE Industrial Partners — a private investment firm focused on national security, aerospace and industrial services. The investment was announced at the Farnborough International Airshow; financial terms were not disclosed.

The investment goes well beyond capital. As the venture arm of the leading aerospace and defense investment platform, AE Ventures plugs Pelico directly into the sector’s core ecosystem — its OEMs, suppliers and operators — including AE Industrial’s portfolio companies and network of strategic limited partners, and accelerates Pelico’s expansion across North America. As manufacturers confront historic backlogs and multi-tier supply chain complexity, Pelico’s AI-powered platform gives factory teams a single operational picture to anticipate disruptions, prioritize what matters and act in hours instead of weeks. Manufacturers including Boeing, Safran and Daikin have deployed Pelico in as little as 12 weeks, reporting on average a 40% reduction in parts shortages, a 15% improvement in on-time delivery and a 40% reduction in cycle times.

Pelico’s momentum also extends into aerospace sustainment, where shop-floor execution directly affects fleet readiness: Boeing Global Services is already using Pelico to connect planning, supply and execution teams around a shared operational picture in complex maintenance and repair operations.

“Aerospace ramp-up is won or lost on the factory floor,” said Tarik Benabdallah, CEO and co-founder, Pelico. “Partnering with AE Ventures plugs Pelico into the heart of the aerospace and defense ecosystem and gives us the reach to scale across North America. From production to sustainment — including work already underway with Boeing Global Services — this is a partnership to help the industry deliver.”

“The bottleneck in aerospace today is execution — turning order books into deliveries,” said Tyler Rowe, Partner, AE Ventures. “Pelico has proven with the industry’s most demanding manufacturers that orchestration moves the needle where it counts. We’re backing the team and partnering to bring the platform across our network.”

About Pelico

Pelico is the manufacturing orchestration platform that empowers factory teams to anticipate disruptions, align priorities and execute at speed. Founded in Paris in 2019 by Tarik Benabdallah, Mamoun Alaoui and Jonathan Hickson, Pelico is deployed by global manufacturers including Boeing, Safran and Daikin. Learn more at www.pelico.ai.

About AE Industrial Partners

AE Ventures is the venture capital platform of AE Industrial Partners, a private investment firm with $9.0 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2026, focused on highly specialized markets including national security, aerospace and industrials. AE Ventures has completed over 50 investments in early-stage companies that benefit from the deep industry knowledge, operating experience, and network of relationships across the sectors where the firm invests.

Media Contact: Ina Foalea – Chief of Staff, Pelico — [email protected] — +1 (786) 820-2649

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/3007318/Pelico__Logo.jpg

With AI-generated email attacks up 5x in a single year and FBI-reported cybercrime losses hitting a record $20.8 billion, former Google reCAPTCHA and Safe Browsing leaders are scaling the first defense built for a world where no employee and no amount of training can spot the lure

SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2026 — AegisAI, the email security company building its own large language models (LLMs) to defend the inbox, today announced a $36 million Series A led by Battery Ventures, with participation from existing investors Accel and Foundation Capital, to fight the next generation of increasingly sophisticated, AI-powered email attacks, which are having devastating consequences for individuals and organizations.

The round brings the company’s total funding to $49 million, less than a year after the company emerged from stealth. AegisAI will use the funding to scale its fleet of autonomous defense agents, accelerate general availability of Vanguard, its agent that hunts threats beyond the inbox, and expand enterprise go-to-market.

AI has enabled a new form of attack dubbed AI spear phishing. These attacks use LLMs to scan the internet for information about a victim and create highly targeted personalized lures designed to trick people into sharing sensitive data, downloading malware or sending money. This risk is turbocharged by the rising use of AI by individuals and workers. More widespread use of AI agents, which do work on someone’s behalf without human involvement, creates a huge new attack surface for criminals, who may be able to operate undetected for long periods of time.

AegisAI’s technology works by leveraging intelligent language models and an orchestrated network of AI agents to analyze and act on email threats in real time, essentially fighting AI attacks with AI. The company’s adaptive platform uses sophisticated reasoning to evaluate the specific intent of suspicious emails, instead of simply looking for patterns from past scams. This enables users to more quickly detect fraud, which is critical as the volume of email phishing has increased dramatically since the launch of ChatGPT.

“The most immediate, catastrophic risk to your organization isn’t an AI agent hacking your firewall. It’s an AI model manipulating someone in your organization into handing over the keys, often through the most trusted, most vulnerable contact of the person it’s targeting,” said Cy Khormaee, co-founder and CEO of AegisAI. “You cannot patch human trust. If your security program still relies on template-based phishing tests and awareness training, you are training your people to spot last year’s threat, not a capable agent crafting a novel lure just for them. When the attack is AI, the defense has to be AI.”

The future of phishing is perfection
For decades, the real defense against targeted spear phishing was the effort it required. Researching a target, mapping their relationships, impersonating a trusted vendor and timing the lure all took a skilled human operator – a capability reserved for nation-states. Today, that capability costs about the price of a cup of coffee. Off-the-shelf AI can autonomously pull public information on a human target, map their professional relationships, identify their most trusting contact, then craft a flawless, context-aware lure, at unlimited scale.

The evidence of spear phishing’s rise is now unambiguous. AegisAI’s State of the AI Threat in Email study, presented at the 2026 M3AAWG conference and based on analysis of more than 20,000 phishing, scam and malware emails, found:

• 5x growth in one year. AI-generated spear phishing grew from 2.8% to 13.9% of all observed phishing in 2025.
• 75% more effective. AI-generated emails evade traditional filters at nearly double the rate of human-written attacks, reaching the inbox more than half the time.
• Authentication is no defense. 72.6% of successful AI attacks passed email authentication, sent from compromised legitimate accounts with established sending histories.

The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report tells the same story from the victim’s side. Reported cybercrime losses reached a record $20.8 billion last year. Phishing complaint volume stayed essentially flat – but the losses those complaints represent surged more than 200% in a single year, from roughly $70 million to more than $215 million. Precision has replaced volume. Business email compromise, payload-less attacks that exploit identity rather than software, accounted for $11.64 billion in losses, versus less than $52 million for ransomware and malware combined: a 365-to-1 ratio.

AI vs. AI
The security industry spends enormous energy debating advanced autonomous agents that chain minor technical vulnerabilities into major exploits. AegisAI argues the same capability has already arrived at the human layer and it is the more immediate threat.

AegisAI was founded in 2025 by Khormaee and Ryan Luo, veterans of Google’s core security group who helped build reCAPTCHA, Safe Browsing and Web Risk, systems that protect billions of users daily. Instead of scanning for known-bad signatures, AegisAI deploys autonomous AI agents inside the inbox that interrogate the intent and identity behind every message, catching linguistically perfect attacks that pass every technical check, while cutting false positives by up to 90% compared to traditional solutions.

With Vanguard, announced in March, those agents now extend beyond the inbox. When a message is flagged, Vanguard follows suspicious links and attachments across the open web just as a user would – defeating adversarial CAPTCHAs, cloaked pages and weaponized documents – and returns a complete threat report in minutes.

“Email is where enterprise trust lives and generative AI just broke every assumption legacy email security was built on,” said Dharmesh Thakker, general partner at Battery Ventures. “When attacks are machine-generated, personalized and indistinguishable from legitimate mail, the only viable defense is an equally capable AI operating at machine speed. Cy and Ryan spent a decade building exactly these systems at Google scale. They’re the team we’d back to win this market.”

Since its public launch in September 2025, AegisAI has deployed with dozens of customers across fintech and technology, including:

• Mesh, a crypto payments company, where AegisAI’s agents catch everything from fuzzing attempts to AI-generated spear phishing and business email compromise without the security team spending time managing rules.
• LangChain, one of the most visible companies in AI and a prime target for sophisticated, AI-generated attacks given its public-facing engineers and executives.
• Lokker, where AegisAI caught an attack that came through compromised Salesforce infrastructure. This threat had nothing to do with a bad link or attachment, just a trusted vendor’s own systems being used against them.

About AegisAI

AegisAI, the email security company building its own LLMs to defend the inbox, is headquartered in San Francisco. Founded by the team behind Google’s reCAPTCHA, Safe Browsing and Web Risk, AegisAI deploys autonomous AI agents that defend organizations against AI-crafted phishing, business email compromise (BEC) and evasive payloads that slip past traditional filters. With $49 million in capital raised to date, AegisAI is backed by Battery Ventures, Accel and Foundation Capital. Learn more at aegisai.ai.

SOURCE AegisAI

New iOS and Android app puts working capital, payoff tracking, and paperless renewals in small business owners’ pockets.

NEW YORK, July 23, 2026 — Byzfunder, a nationwide alternative small business lender that has deployed more than $1.75 billion to over 30,000 businesses since 2019, today launched its native iOS and Android app — putting the full Byzfunder experience in the palm of every active customer’s hand. The app is built to close the oldest gap in small business capital: the distance between the moment an owner needs money and the moment they can act on it. What used to take a laptop, a portal login, or a call to a rep now happens right from the phone. From behind a restaurant counter, inside a truck cab, or on a job site, owners now can focus more on growing their business, rather than getting buried in paperwork, logins, and phone tag.

The Byzfunder app gives customers full control of their existing funding and renewals across both products — MCA (merchant cash advance) and ByzFlex. Active customers can track current balances, payoff schedules, and payment history on their existing advance; accept renewal offers without resubmitting bank statements; and view next-payment information in real time. ByzFlex Flexline holders can request funds anytime directly in the app, with same-day wire transfers for requests made before 4 p.m. ET. The app is free to download and available to all active Byzfunder customers.

“Small business owners don’t run their businesses from a desk. After funding more than 30,000 of them, the next move was obvious: meet them where they already are. This isn’t a feature ship — it’s a recognition that how operators run their businesses has changed, and how they reach capital has to change with it. And the app is just the beginning.”

— Ilya Fridman, CEO & Founder, Byzfunder

Future updates will extend the app well beyond capital management. Coming features include in-app access to Money Master Class — Byzfunder’s small business education series hosted by CEO & Founder, Ilya Fridman — industry-specific tips for operators across restaurants, contractors, healthcare practices, and retail, in-app customer support, and AI-generated business insights tailored to each customer’s real-time cash flow patterns. The roadmap reflects Byzfunder’s broader strategy: to be more than a capital provider for the small businesses it serves.

The Byzfunder app is available now in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Existing Byzfunder customers can log in using their current portal credentials. Learn more at byzfunder.com/app.

About Byzfunder

Byzfunder is a tech-driven small business lender delivering fast, flexible capital to small businesses underserved by traditional finance. Founded in 2019 and incorporated in New York, Byzfunder provides working capital to small businesses nationwide through its core merchant cash advance product and ByzFlex, a revenue-based revolving capital solution. The company combines proprietary technology, data analytics, and a service-first philosophy to help business owners access the capital they need to grow. Since inception, Byzfunder has funded more than $1.75 billion to more than 30,000 businesses nationwide.

For more information, visit byzfunder.com.

Media Contact

Xin Hamilton, CMO

[email protected]

byzfunder.com

ByzFlex MCA About Byzfunder

SOURCE Byzfunder

—Consortium led by the Broad Institute’s Center for Therapeutic Genetics to use Apertura’s novel CNS-targeted AAV capsid, TfR1 CapX™, for base and prime gene editing programs—

NEW YORK, July 23, 2026 — Apertura Gene Therapy, a biotechnology company developing next-generation AAV capsids for delivering genetic medicines, today announced participation in a consortium selected to receive funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) THRIVE program to develop gene therapies for rare childhood diseases. THRIVE is led by ARPA-H Program Manager Daria Fedyukina, Ph.D. The consortium, led by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard’s Center for Therapeutic Genetics, will use Apertura’s novel central nervous system-targeted AAV capsid, TfR1 CapX™, for base and prime gene editing programs.

Composed of academic researchers, clinicians, patient advocates, and biotechnology companies, the consortium will work to create a Pediatric Epilepsies and Rare CNS (PERC) Gene Editing Platform that shares manufacturing, regulatory precedent, and clinical infrastructure across diseases. The goal of the consortium is to address a gap in development efforts and develop therapies faster than is currently possible for patients with a wide range of rare central nervous system diseases.

“More than three million children worldwide are affected by developmental and epileptic encephalopathies that are caused by mutations across more than 400 different genes, making it difficult to develop therapies for these diseases with traditional approaches,” said Andrew Steinsapir, Acting Chief Technology Officer at Apertura and Gene Therapy Program Lead at Deerfield Management. “By working directly with patient advocacy organizations and sharing drug development infrastructure across programs, the consortium is taking an innovative approach to advancing treatments for a wide range of neurogenetic disorders.”

TfR1 CapX was initially engineered by Ben Deverman, Ph.D., Senior Director, Vector Engineering and an Institute Scientist at the Broad Institute, and colleagues. The capsid is administered intravenously and designed to target human transferrin receptor 1 (hTfR1), cross the blood-brain barrier, and enable broad distribution to the brain and spinal cord.

TfR1 CapX will be paired with base and prime gene editing technologies developed in the lab of David Liu, Ph.D., Richard Merkin Professor and Director of the Merkin Institute for Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, Core Institute Member, and Director of the Chemical Biology and Therapeutic Sciences Program at the Broad Institute.

Manufacturing support for the consortium will be provided by Viralgen, a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) gene therapies. “Viralgen has extensive experience working with partners to manufacture AAV gene therapies, and we look forward to supporting the consortium as it advances therapies for rare CNS diseases,” said Andy Holt, Chief Commercial Officer at Viralgen.

This project deepens Apertura’s commitment to providing TfR1 CapX broadly across the industry. Apertura has signed multiple licensing agreements for TfR1 CapX programs, several of which are expected to enter clinical trials within the next 12 months.

About TfR1 CapX™

TfR1 CapX™ is a leading IV-administered, BBB-crossing capsid. Multiple for-profit and non-profit organizations have validated and licensed TfR1 CapX, and other groups are in discussions to license the technology. Clinical readiness has been supported by several preclinical development programs, including regulatory engagement and manufacturing by contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs). TfR1 CapX is a proprietary, second-generation capsid that demonstrates superior CNS delivery compared to Apertura’s first-generation capsid, BI-hTFR1. Research on the first-generation BI-hTFR1 capsid was published in Science.

About Apertura Gene Therapy

Apertura Gene Therapy develops genetic medicines and next-generation AAV capsids that engage human-relevant receptors, aiming to enable more effective and selective gene delivery. The company’s lead capsid, TfR1 CapX™, leverages human transferrin receptor 1 to enable intravenous delivery to the brain and spinal cord. This established transport mechanism has a strong clinical track record in pediatric and geriatric populations, expanding its potential to treat serious neurological and genetic diseases. Apertura has licensed its next-generation capsids to multiple partners, with several programs expected to enter clinical trials over the next 12 months. Founded in 2021 on technology from the Broad Institute and supported by Deerfield Management, Apertura Gene Therapy is headquartered in New York City. Learn more at aperturagtx.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Contacts

For Apertura Gene Therapy
[email protected]

SOURCE Apertura Gene Therapy

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, July 23, 2026 — SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness today announced a minority investment in MERIT, the US-based cosmetics brand known for its modern, minimalist approach to beauty. The investment is led by Vasiliki Petrou, Managing Partner at SEMCAP Beauty and Wellness. With more than 30 years of experience in the beauty industry, Petrou founded the Unilever Prestige division in 2014 and led the acquisition and growth of a portfolio of iconic brands including Dermalogica, Paula’s Choice, Hourglass, Tatcha and K18.

Petrou will join MERIT’s board and partner with the executive team on the ongoing growth and globalization of the brand, which remains highly profitable.

“MERIT is one of the most thoughtfully built brands in beauty, a true icon in the market. I love the timeless brand aesthetic, the simplified and edited approach to beauty, and the focus on the millennial and gen X consumer, which is a significant white space in our industry. I am thrilled to support the continued global scaling of the brand,” said Petrou.

“We are honored to have Vasiliki Petrou join the MERIT Board of Directors. MERIT has seen significant growth over the past few years, and Vasiliki’s industry-defining experience will be an invaluable asset as we continue to invest in the long-term future of the business. Her perspective on brand equity, financial performance, and operations perfectly aligns with our dedication to intentionality and excellence,” said Philippe Pinatel, CEO of MERIT

The investment in MERIT underscores SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness’ focus on partnering with innovative, category-leading brands that are poised for durable, global growth.

About MERIT

Founded in 2021, MERIT is a modern beauty brand that simplifies what it takes to get ready. Born out of an industry crowded with fleeting trends and products that demanded expert-level skills, MERIT was created as the antidote – a considered collection designed to bring ease to your everyday. With a timeless perspective on beauty and a commitment to uncompromising quality, we create beauty and lifestyle essentials that become signatures of your routine – products you’ll reach for daily and live with for years to come.

About SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness

SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness makes influential investments in high-growth, breakthrough products, services and technologies that support the modern consumer’s goals of living longer, better lives. The platform partners with exceptional beauty and wellness brands, services and technologies, backed by strategic expertise, industry relationships and operational support. SEMCAP provides access to resources and leverages industry networks, and expertise to help these businesses scale nationally and internationally. SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness is one of SEMCAP’s four platforms: AI, Health, Food & Nutrition, and Beauty & Wellness. SEMCAP is a growth equity firm committed to investing behind seminal trends in sectors that have the greatest impact on society

This release is provided for informational purposes only, and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. This material may contain estimates and forward-looking statements, which may include forecasts and do not represent a guarantee of future performance. This information is not intended to be complete or exhaustive and no representations or warranties, either express or implied, are made regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein. The views expressed are as of July 23, 2026 and are subject to change without notice. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. Investing involves significant risks.

©2026 Seminal Capital Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved. SEMCAP is a trademark of Seminal Capital Holdings, LLC.

Media contacts:

MERIT
[email protected]

SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness
Michelle Musburger
[email protected]

SOURCE SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness

Institute Selects 10 Projects in Latest Round of Funding

ROCHESTER, N.Y., July 23, 2026 — The REMADE Institute, a 150-member public-private partnership established in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with an initial investment of $140 million, today announced $4.86 million in new technology research, selecting 10 new research demonstration, verification and validation (DV&V) projects as part of the Institute’s latest round of funding.

REMADE’s new DV&V projects will demonstrate tools and technologies that are at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 and will reach TRL 7 by the end of their project. Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) describe the various phases of technology development, with TRLs 4-7 typically referred to as the “Valley of Death” — the critical gap between early-stage research and commercial viability where promising innovations often fail to transition from the laboratory to the marketplace.

These new DV&V projects will not only address the Valley of Death for these technologies but will also increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness; strengthen the resilience of the domestic supply chain; decrease manufacturing energy consumption; and advance the Circular Economy by increasing the reuse, remanufacturing, recovery, and recycling of critical minerals and rare earth elements, aluminum, textiles, electronics scrap, diesel engine blocks, steel, and paper.

“By focusing REMADE’s investment on these projects, we are getting closer and closer to fully commercializing these novel technology solutions, which once fully implemented are capable of achieving significant positive energy, manufacturing, environmental, and economic impacts for us as a nation,” said REMADE Chief Executive Officer Nabil Nasr.

This latest round of investment, the Institute’s seventh, is cost-shared between REMADE and the funding recipients. Of the 10 new projects, some involve new partners for REMADE. They will join the Institute’s existing partners, including industry innovators and academic researchers with Caterpillar, John Deere, Michelin, Nike, Adidas, MIT, RIT, Honda, Volvo, Yale University and many more.

REMADE Chief Technology Officer Magdi Azer said it’s important for research institutes like REMADE to provide ongoing investment in technologies to ensure they advance through the Valley of Death, noting that REMADE had previously funded six prior Requests for Proposals (RFPs).

“This is exactly why the Manufacturing USA institutes were established in the first place more than a decade ago,” Azer said. “These new DV&V projects will, for example, explore better ways to recover total rare earth oxides from electronic scrap; utilize computer vision and AI to reduce the cost of electronics recycling; recover and recycle aerospace and automotive aluminum; repair diesel engine blocks; use secondary steel to produce new tires; improve paper recycling; expand textile recycling; and increase the circularity of new product designs.”

Since the Institute’s founding in 2017, REMADE has launched or selected 103 technology R&D and workforce development projects, representing a total combined value of $104 million. For a list of the 10 new technology projects and their project team members, see below.

More detailed information on all REMADE R&D projects can be found at www.remadeinstitute.org.

About REMADE
Founded in 2017, REMADE is a 150-member public-private partnership established in collaboration with and funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy. REMADE is the only national institute focused entirely on developing innovative technologies to accelerate the U.S.’s transition to a Circular Economy. In partnership with industry, academia, trade organizations, and national laboratories, REMADE enables applied research and development that will increase the reuse, remanufacturing, recovery and recycling of critical and key materials in U.S. manufacturing. For more information about REMADE, visit www.remadeinstitute.org.

For additional information contact:
Megan Connor Murphy
Director, Marketing and Communications
REMADE Institute
585-339-8379 cell
[email protected]

SOURCE REMADE Institute