Funding will accelerate global expansion, product development and the deployment of ZeroRisk across major payment providers.

ZeroRisk aims to dominate the emerging risk orchestration segment in the payment processing market.

DUBLIN, Sept. 9, 2026 — ZeroRisk the Irish cybersecurity company helping payment providers manage and reduce cyber risk across their merchant portfolios, has raised $10 million in Series A funding.

Founded in 2023, ZeroRisk gives banks and payment providers a single view of cyber risk across their merchant portfolios. It brings together risk monitoring, compliance, education, guided remediation and protection services in one platform. Merchants receive clear guidance on the risks that matter to their business and the steps they can take to address them.

The round was led by MiddleGame Ventures, with participation from existing investor Elkstone. The investment will support ZeroRisk’s expansion globally, further product development and the operational capacity needed to deploy the platform across large merchant portfolios.

ZeroRisk is already working with payment businesses including Bank of America, Global Payments, Checkout.com and Trust Payments. The company expects to grow revenue threefold in 2026 as contracted programmes move into deployment and its international customer base grows.

Merchant cyber programs have traditionally focused on annual compliance exercises. The risks facing smaller businesses now extend well beyond compliance and include scams, stolen credentials, website vulnerabilities, attacks on connected devices and the ability to recover when something goes wrong. ZeroRisk also helps payment processors turn their compliance responsibilities into revenue opportunities through the distribution of value-adding services to merchants.  

Speaking today, Gary Nolan, co-founder and CEO of ZeroRisk, said: “Payment companies have spent years trying to manage merchant risk through annual compliance exercises. That is no longer enough. Their customers are dealing with scams, credential theft, website vulnerabilities and attacks on devices every day. Our job is to give payment providers visibility across the portfolio and give merchants a clear route to action.”

“ZeroRisk has moved from proving the product to deploying it at scale. This investment will allow us to expand the team, deepen the platform and support the payment providers that have chosen to build their next-generation of merchant cyber programmes with us.”

The company currently operates in Ireland and the United States, with offices in Dublin (Ireland), Atlanta (USA)  and Longford (Ireland).

Patrick Pinschmidt, Co-Managing Partner at MiddleGame Ventures, added: “The ZeroRisk team brings a unique combination of commercial and technical expertise, reinforced by working hand-in-hand with leading payment providers. As former operators in the space, they understand the fundamental pain points firsthand and have built technology that transforms a critical financial services workflow, making it more intuitive and seamless for payment providers and merchants alike. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Gary and the team as they build the new standard for this critical function.”

Niall McEvoy, Head of Venture at Elkstone, said: “Elkstone first backed ZeroRisk at seed stage when Gary and the team presented their compelling vision on where the merchant cybersecurity and compliance space was heading. The commercial progress in a short period of time has been impressive, and this Series A funding round further validates investor confidence that ZeroRisk can deliver transformational change in the sector globally. We are pleased to deepen our support alongside new investor MiddleGame Ventures.”

Notes to Editor

About ZeroRisk

ZeroRisk provides merchant cybersecurity and compliance technology to the payments and financial services industry. Its platform is used by acquirers, processors, PayFacs and financial institutions to monitor risk across their merchant portfolios and help merchants take practical steps to protect their businesses. ZeroRisk was founded in Ireland in 2023 and serves customers in Europe and North America.

Issued on behalf of ZeroRisk by Gordon MRM

Investment to accelerate Tanda’s product innovation and global growth

BRISBANE, Australia and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 8, 2026 — Thoma Bravo, the world’s largest software-focused investment firm, today announced a strategic growth investment in Tanda, a leading workforce management, payroll and HR platform for shift-based workers. Thoma Bravo’s investment will support Tanda’s continued product innovation, including the company’s AI roadmap and its expansion into new markets. Tanda’s co-founders will remain significant shareholders and will continue to lead the company, with Jake Phillpot remaining Chief Executive Officer. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Tanda is the market leader in workforce management for shift-based employers, serving approximately 8,000 businesses globally across hospitality, retail, quick-service restaurants, healthcare and other frontline industries. Tanda’s integrated workforce management platform combines employee recruiting, onboarding, rostering, time and attendance, gross wage calculations and payroll on a single codebase. This natively built product suite enables employers in complex, highly regulated markets to manage compliance and ensure employees are paid accurately. Trusted by thousands of organizations, Tanda’s platform powers the daily operations of some of the most demanding frontline businesses in the world.

“Taking on an investor was a very big decision for Tanda,” said Jake Phillpot, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Tanda. “We’ve been a bootstrapped company with no outside capital since we were founded 14 years ago. What started as an idea when we were still housemates at university has become a global business that we have built without taking shortcuts. Through a lot of hard work, we have market-leading products, growing market share and so much more room to grow. We thought the time was right to take on our first investor.”

“Thoma Bravo was the obvious choice as our financial partner,” Phillpot continued. “They understand software at an extraordinary level, have spent decades helping companies like ours scale and share our ambition for what Tanda can become. By partnering with the world’s number one software investor, we intend to become the global category leader in our space. Most importantly, the things that make Tanda precious won’t change. The founders will still come to work every day, and we’ll still obsess over how we can make our products better for our customers.”

“Managing and compensating employees accurately is a fundamental obligation of all employers, yet it remains a universal challenge, particularly for businesses with shift-based employees,” said Carl Press, a Partner at Thoma Bravo. “Employers are frustrated by a patchwork of legacy systems that cannot address their complex needs and expose them to operational and legal risks. Jake and his co-founders identified this problem and built Tanda from the ground up with customers and their employees at the center of every product decision. In doing so, they’ve laid the groundwork to become the definitive AI-native workforce management solution in the shift-based economy. We couldn’t be more thrilled to help them drive the next chapter of accelerated growth and innovation.”

“Tanda has everything we look for in an investment: market leadership, a fiercely loyal customer base and a product-first founding team with deep domain expertise,” said Adam Kinalski, a Principal at Thoma Bravo. “Jake and his co-founders have built a rare business that matches strong product-market fit with exceptional operational execution. We’re excited to partner with them on their mission to make Tanda the global standard in workforce management and payroll software for shift-based employers.”

Barrenjoey Advisory Pty Ltd is serving as financial advisor to Tanda, and SBA Law is serving as legal counsel. Piper Sandler & Co. is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Thoma Bravo, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Allens are serving as legal counsel.

About Thoma Bravo
Thoma Bravo is the world’s largest software-focused investment firm, with approximately $170 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2026. Partnering with some of the world’s most sophisticated investors, Thoma Bravo’s private equity and private credit platforms reflect a focused investment strategy, supported by disciplined execution, deep sector expertise and leadership continuity. Over the past 20-plus years, Thoma Bravo has acquired or invested in approximately 600 software and technology companies, representing more than $325 billion of aggregate enterprise value (including control and non-control investments, as well as add-on acquisitions). Learn more at thomabravo.com and on LinkedIn.

About Tanda
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, Tanda (operating internationally as Workforce.com) is an all-in-one payroll, HR and workforce management system for businesses with shift-based and hourly workforces. Tanda’s platform brings rostering, time and attendance, award interpretation, compliance, payroll and HR onboarding together in a single system, helping employers in hospitality, retail, healthcare and other frontline industries schedule efficiently and pay employees accurately. The company serves thousands of customers across Australia, North America, the United Kingdom and Southeast Asia. For more information, visit tanda.co.

For Thoma Bravo

Abby Farr
Vice President, Communications & Marketing
+1 646-957-2067
[email protected]    

For Tanda

Georgie Pollok
Head of Marketing
[email protected] 

SOURCE Thoma Bravo

Across 41 California funds, WNC has invested more than $4 billion in acquired portfolio assets across 350 properties in 180 communities

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 8, 2026 — WNC & Associates, Inc. (WNC), an Irvine-based family-owned business known as both a pioneer and leader in the affordable housing industry, announced the closing of WNC Institutional Tax Credit Fund X California Series 23, L.P. (CA23). The $66.3 million fund is the company’s 23^rd consecutive California-focused multi-investor affordable housing fund for institutional investors. Over its 55 years, WNC has sponsored 41 California-focused funds and invested in 350 properties across 180 communities in the state, in addition to its national footprint.

“Closing CA23 is an important milestone for WNC as we celebrate our 55^th year of operations. We are proud of our California roots and the role our home state has played in WNC’s growth into a national affordable housing organization,” said Will Cooper Jr., president and CEO of WNC. “In states where housing is in short supply, our work to create and preserve tens of thousands of affordable homes has a real and needed impact.”

WNC’s 23 consecutive California-focused funds have raised nearly $1.5 billion and supported 161 affordable housing properties representing 15,573 homes and $4.2 billion in total development costs. The investments span 34 counties across the state, supporting both the creation of new affordable homes and the preservation of existing housing in urban, suburban, and rural communities.

CA23 includes six new-construction affordable housing properties totaling 650 homes across Los Angeles, San Benito, and San Diego counties; financing from the fund will help four developers bring their projects to completion. All six properties will serve families and utilize 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs), with 25 units receiving rental assistance through Section 8 vouchers.

“While the affordable housing industry has changed considerably over the past five decades, WNC’s commitment to affordable housing remains consistent,” said Christine Cormier, executive vice president of investor relations at WNC. “Our ability to evolve with the market, develop strong institutional relationships, and continue supporting our developer partners has solidified our role as a trusted partner in advancing affordable housing.”

Since its founding in Orange County in 1971, WNC has grown from its California roots into a national affordable housing organization, investing in communities across the country while maintaining a significant presence in the state.

About WNC & Associates, Inc.
Founded in 1971, WNC & Associates, Inc. is a family-owned business known as both a pioneer and leader in the affordable housing industry. WNC and its affiliated companies—Community Preservation Partners, The Cooper Housing Institute, and Preservation Equity Fund Advisors—specialize in tax credit syndication, affordable housing development, and preservation equity fund investments. Combined, the WNC companies have acquired approximately $22.1 billion in assets across 49 states, including more than 1,800 affordable rental properties that house more than 1 million residents. With offices in 18 states, WNC has partnered with more than 400 developers and 175 institutional investors. To learn more, visit: https://www.wncinc.com/.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Jacqie Boggess
[email protected]

SOURCE WNC & Associates, Inc.

The Orlando-based defense venture capital firm underwrites every investment for a 3-5x return on its own, arguing that a portfolio built to depend on one breakout winner is a slower and riskier way to generate returns than the industry assumes.

ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 8, 2026 — Most venture funds are underwritten to need one enormous outcome: the single company that returns the whole fund and then some. Backswing Ventures, an early-stage defense venture capital firm, argues that a fund built around disciplined, independently justified bets can outperform one waiting on a unicorn, and do it faster.

The Unicorn Model Is Slower Than the Pitch Decks Suggest

Venture capital’s standard model asks a large majority of portfolio companies to underperform so a single winner can pay for the fund. Backswing says that math is getting harder to rely on. Outsized outcomes still happen. They’re simply taking longer to turn into cash that reaches investors.

Carta’s Q1 2026 fund-performance data shows the gap. Among 2017 and 2018 vintage funds, the ones with enough time to have realized outcomes, fewer than 20% have returned even 1x DPI to their limited partners. Paper valuations don’t pay LPs back. Distributions do.

SpaceX makes the same point on a bigger stage. The company was founded in 2002 and didn’t hand shareholders a liquid outcome until its initial public offering closed in June 2026, 24 years later. It may be the clearest unicorn outcome venture capital has ever produced, and it still asked its earliest backers to wait a generation for a payout.

“The venture math everyone learned assumes one company in the portfolio has to do all the work,” said Kyle Asman, Founder and Managing Partner of Backswing Ventures. “We’d rather build a fund where no single company has to.”

Entry Price Carries as Much Weight as the Exit Headline

If a fund isn’t counting on a unicorn, what it pays going in starts to matter as much as what a company might be worth someday. PitchBook’s data makes the case for why:

• Median U.S. venture-backed acquisition, 2023: $60.6 million
• Share of U.S. venture exits that were acquisitions, 2023: approximately 69%

Most venture-backed companies don’t need to dominate an industry. They need a buyer, and a reasonable one is usually available well below unicorn status.

“An 8% stake in a $250 million outcome and a 1% stake in a $2 billion outcome pay the same,” Asman said. “One of those is a lot easier to get right, and it starts with what you pay to get in.”

In Defense, a Single Component Can Be the Whole Business

Backswing applies the same underwriting logic to its core sector. A defense startup doesn’t need to build a complete weapons system to produce a venture-scale outcome. A sensor that fits a dozen different platforms, a power system, a navigation or communications layer: each can be a durable, sellable business without the company ever building the program around it.

Rocket Lab’s 2025 acquisition of Geost put a price on that idea. Rocket Lab paid $275 million for Geost’s electro-optical and infrared sensor technology, a component built to plug into many different national-security platforms rather than a single finished system.

“Selling into an ecosystem is a smaller, more repeatable bet than trying to own an entire platform,” Asman said. “Those are the kinds of businesses we look for.”

A Fund That Isn’t Waiting on One Company

Backswing describes its process as a series of individually justified bets rather than a search for a single breakout winner. Each investment is expected to clear a 3-5x return on its own: price, ownership stake, market size, and a credible buyer all have to line up before the firm considers what happens if a company outperforms.

“A 3x return isn’t a disappointment,” Asman said. “A $200 million exit isn’t a failure just because someone else’s company sold for $2 billion. Our job isn’t to find the company that returns the whole fund. It’s to build a fund that was never counting on one.”

About Backswing Ventures

Backswing Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on dual-use and defense technology companies. The firm invests in businesses building next-generation capabilities across aerospace, autonomy, defense systems, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and national security technologies. Backswing Ventures‘ Fund II surpassed 1.0x DPI in under three years, making it among the top-performing 2023-vintage venture funds in the country.

Media Contact

Backswing Ventures
[email protected]

SOURCE Backswing Ventures

Oversubscribed fund builds on TrueBridge’s venture platform to pursue a growing opportunity set across fund and company secondaries

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Sept. 8, 2026 — TrueBridge Capital Partners, a venture capital investment firm, today announced the final close of TrueBridge Secondaries II, L.P. (“Secondaries II”), with $508 million in commitments. The fund received support from new and existing investors, including foundations and endowments, pension funds, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.

Secondaries II invests in venture funds as well as direct secondary investments in venture-backed companies, with an emphasis on opportunities where the firm’s relationships, information, and underwriting capabilities provide an advantage.

The Fund launches at a time of significant growth in the secondary market. As venture-backed companies remain private longer and traditional paths to liquidity have become less predictable, investors, employees and other shareholders are increasingly turning to secondary transactions for liquidity. At the same time, a larger and more mature universe of private technology companies has expanded the opportunity set for secondary investors.

“The evolution of the venture market has created an important role for secondaries, both as a source of liquidity and as another route for investors to access high-quality venture assets,” said Andrew Winslow, Partner at TrueBridge. “Our relationships across the venture ecosystem give us access to secondary opportunities that are often not broadly available, including sought-after venture funds and companies that can be difficult for investors to access through traditional channels. That access allows us to be highly selective and build concentrated portfolios around the assets where we have the greatest conviction, while our deep familiarity with the underlying managers and companies gives us an additional advantage in evaluating those opportunities.”

TrueBridge’s secondaries strategy draws on nearly 20 years of investing across the venture ecosystem. Longstanding relationships with leading venture managers provide the firm with visibility into thousands of venture-backed companies and potential fund-level opportunities. The firm’s direct investment platform provides an additional perspective on individual companies, their markets, and their financing histories. Together, these capabilities allow TrueBridge to identify, evaluate, and access secondary transactions with a depth of context that can be difficult to replicate.

The close of Secondaries II follows TrueBridge Secondaries I, the firm’s first dedicated venture secondaries fund, which closed with $230 million in commitments in 2024. The strategy is part of TrueBridge’s broader venture investment platform spanning fund investments, direct investments, secondaries, and customized solutions.

About TrueBridge Capital Partners
TrueBridge Capital Partners is a venture capital investment firm managing more than $15.0 billion in assets.* Founded in 2007, TrueBridge invests across the venture ecosystem through access-constrained venture funds, direct investments in venture-backed companies, secondary investments and customized investment solutions.

TrueBridge is the data partner behind Forbes’ Midas List, Midas Seed List, Midas List Europe and Next Billion-Dollar Startups and is a regular venture-focused contributor on Forbes’ platform. TrueBridge is headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For more information, please visit truebridgecapital.com.

*AUM reflects Regulatory Assets Under Management.

Suzanne Kirschbaum | [email protected] | 919.442.5201

SOURCE TrueBridge Capital Partners

ZaiNar brings shared, real-time location awareness to robots and autonomous machines

BELMONT, Calif., Sept. 8, 2026 — Today, ZaiNar announced it is joining the newly announced Arm® Total Design for Physical AI ecosystem as a founding location partner.

Arm Total Design for Physical AI is a collaborative ecosystem that brings together companies across the physical AI technology stack to reduce complexity, enable earlier development, and accelerate the path from design to deployment for autonomous systems. As part of the ecosystem, ZaiNar brings expertise in shared, real-time location awareness for robots and autonomous machines, while working to optimize its algorithms and signal processing to run on Arm-based compute platforms.

“Robotics has spent a decade teaching every machine to figure out where it is, one machine at a time. That was the only option when location had to come from the robot. It does not anymore. The networks are already deployed, and they can tell every machine on site where everything is, continuously, without adding a single piece of hardware. That is what we are bringing to the Arm Total Design for Physical AI ecosystem.”

— Daniel Jacker, CEO and Co-Founder, ZaiNar

“As physical AI moves toward deployment, autonomous systems need a shared understanding of the environments around them. Arm Total Design for Physical AI is designed to bring together the technologies needed to make that possible at scale, and ZaiNar’s location intelligence adds a critical layer of real-world awareness for robotics and autonomous machines.”

— Dermot O’Driscoll, Vice President of Go-to-Market, Physical AI, Arm

Every robot in the field today answers the same question in isolation: “Where am I, and where is everything else?” Each machine carries its own sensors, builds its own map, and starts from zero in every new environment. ZaiNar answers that question once, for the entire site, from the infrastructure side. It complements the perception running on each machine rather than replacing it, giving every robot on site the same shared ground truth.

ZaiNar turns the wireless networks already in place into a sensor, delivering sub-10cm location indoors, underground, and in the GPS-denied environments where satellite positioning fails. The system requires zero device changes and zero hardware changes, adds no battery drain, and runs network-side only.

ZaiNar provides location updates 100 to 500 times per second, compared with the once-per-second maximum of standard 5G positioning reference signals, so it keeps pace with fast-moving objects such as drones, vehicles, and robots. It is carrier-agnostic and works across WiFi, 5G, and other radio protocols. ZaiNar is self-calibrating: performance improves over time, with ZaiNar learning from every new environment it is deployed in.

ZaiNar delivers situational awareness for robotics across three capabilities. The first is training: grounding robot models in how people, equipment, and vehicles actually move through real sites. The second is swarm enablement, where every machine knows the position of every other machine and can coordinate optimized movements. The third is environmental memory, a persistent record of a site that new machines inherit instead of mapping the space from scratch.

About ZaiNar

ZaiNar is the foundation layer for Physical AI. Founded in 2017 and based in Belmont, California, ZaiNar turns the wireless networks that already exist into a sensor, delivering sub-nanosecond time synchronization and sub-10cm 3D location outdoors, indoors, underground, and in GPS-denied environments. ZaiNar runs as network-side software with zero device or hardware changes and no battery drain, works across WiFi, 5G, and other radio protocols, and is carrier-agnostic. ZaiNar has raised more than $100 million, is valued at more than $1 billion, holds more than 100 patents, shares board members with SpaceX & xAI, and is backed by Samsung, SoftBank, AME Cloud Ventures, Future Ventures, and GFC. Learn more at ZaiNarTech.com.

SOURCE ZaiNar, Inc

The financing includes $93.4 million in C-PACE capital, the largest C-PACE financing closed in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Sept. 8, 2026 — Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL), a leading independent investment bank and financial advisory firm, is pleased to announce the closing of approximately $217.6 million in financing for the residential and hotel components of the Erieview Tower and Galleria redevelopment in downtown Cleveland. BGL’s Real Estate team served as the exclusive financial advisor to ErieView Development on the project.

The redevelopment will turn the 40-story 1964 landmark at East Ninth Street and St. Clair Avenue into a 210-key W Cleveland hotel, the first W Hotel in Ohio, and 215 W Apartments offered exclusively for rent rather than for sale, a first for the brand worldwide. The hotel and apartments are scheduled to open in 2027.

The amenity program is the most extensive assembled in a single Ohio building. A resident will be able to park in the enclosed garage on a February evening, and reach the 38th-floor restaurant, without ever stepping outside. Residents, office tenants and hotel guests will draw on the same food and beverage program throughout the property, including dining delivered to residences and to office floors. The spa, fitness center, 15,000-square-foot ballroom and lobby lounge are planned to be reachable within the Tower.

“BGL brought both creativity and discipline to a highly complex capital structure, helping us bring together the right financing partners to move this landmark redevelopment forward. Their understanding of historic redevelopment, structured finance, and the Cleveland market was instrumental in helping us reach this important milestone. This project has always been about more than one building. It is about honoring Erieview Tower’s legacy while creating new energy for East Ninth Street and downtown Cleveland for generations to come,” said Elias Kassouf, ErieView Development.

Financing the Residential and Hotel Phases

Nuveen Green Capital provided $93.4 million in C-PACE financing for the redevelopment, the largest C-PACE transaction closed in Ohio. The proceeds fund energy, water, and building-envelope improvements, including VRF mechanical systems, curtain wall, and elevator modernization. ERIEBANK, a division of CNB Bank, is providing senior financing of $20 million.

Foss & Company invested in the Ohio Historic and Transformational Mixed-Use Development tax credits and provided bridge financing for those tax credits. Consortium Structured Investments invested in the federal historic tax credits, with Midland States Bank providing federal historic tax credit bridge financing. Cuyahoga County provided a loan supporting the hotel. The financings also include Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program funds, City of Cleveland tax abatements and tax increment financing, and Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority incentives.

BGL worked closely with Kohrman Jackson & Krantz (KJK), representing ErieView Development in the transaction. The other parties involved in the closing include Berardi + Partners LLC, TurnDev, Turner & Townsend, Novogradac & Company LLP, Beyer Blinder Belle (hotel architect), and Rockwell Group (interior design).

“This was a highly meaningful financing for BGL, not only because of the scale and complexity of the transaction, but because of what it represents for Cleveland,” said Anthony Delfre, BGL Managing Director, who advised Erieview Development on the financing. “BGL’s founder, the late Mike Gibbons, was a strong advocate for high-quality multifamily housing across the Midwest, and Northeast Ohio is exactly the kind of market where that vision continues to resonate. Cleveland’s momentum, combined with the strength of the Erieview redevelopment, helped make it an ideal setting for Marriott to introduce Ohio’s first W hotel and the first W Apartments offered for rent anywhere in the world.”

About BGL’s Real Estate Team

BGL’s Real Estate team offers comprehensive real estate investment banking services tailored to the middle market. It provides client-focused solutions with an emphasis on real estate advisory, debt, preferred and private equity placement, financial restructuring, recapitalizations, sale-leasebacks, structured finance, and asset acquisitions and dispositions across all asset classes. The team assists real estate owners and developers looking to form alliances and joint ventures with single-source capital providers to gain local and institutional access for all capital needs.

About Brown Gibbons Lang & Company
Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) is a leading independent investment bank and financial advisory firm focused on the global middle market. The firm advises private and public corporations and private equity groups on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructurings, valuations and opinions, and other strategic matters. BGL has offices in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and New York. The firm is also a founding member of Global M&A Partners, enabling BGL to service clients in more than 30 countries around the world. Securities transactions are conducted through Brown, Gibbons, Lang & Company Securities, Inc., an affiliate of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company LLC and a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information, please visit https://www.bglco.com/.

Industry contact:

Anthony D. Delfre
Managing Director
Real Estate
[email protected]
216.920.6615

Sean P. Maynard
Managing Director
Real Estate
[email protected]
312.291.3171

Media contact:

Kaylyn R. Hlavaty
Communications Manager
[email protected]
216.920.6622

SOURCE Brown Gibbons Lang & Company

Investment Acknowledges BrightPlan’s AI-First, Enterprise-Grade Financial Wellness Platform, Recently Ranked No. 125 in Software on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list.

BOCA RATON, Fla., Sept. 8, 2026 — BrightPlan, an AI-powered financial wellness platform built for global enterprises, today announced the first closing of its Series C funding round, led by ABS Capital Partners, a growth equity firm with more than three decades of experience investing in B2B software and technology-enabled software companies. Additional investors are expected to join the round over the next 90 days ahead of a final close.

As BrightPlan marks its 10th anniversary, the Series C round provides capital to fund the company’s next phase of growth, building on more than 230% revenue growth over the past three years. BrightPlan now serves more than 10 million employees across 50+ countries, with 0% enterprise customer churn, underscoring its effectiveness in improving financial wellness for its customers’ employees globally.

“A few weeks ago, Inc. recognized us for our remarkable growth and innovation, and this latest funding round will fuel our scale and cement our market leading position for years to come,” said Marthin De Beer, Founder and CEO of BrightPlan. “The additional capital will enable us to accelerate our vision to make AI-first financial wellness possible for everyone by bringing trusted, always-on financial guidance to even more employees around the world.”

Built for the Global Enterprise

The Series C round will support continued innovation in BrightPlan’s AI-driven platform, expansion of its enterprise distribution and partner network, and deepening of its global advisory capabilities, reinforcing the company’s position as a category leader in financial wellness.

“What set BrightPlan apart in our diligence was quality and customer satisfaction, in addition to strong growth. This is a platform delivering meaningful AI-driven outcomes and data for both the employees using it and the employers paying for it, a level of impact we haven’t seen matched elsewhere in financial wellness,” said Jennifer Krusius, Partner at ABS Capital Partners. “With the category projected to reach over $7 billion by 2031, BrightPlan is poised to dominate the category, and that is exactly what this investment is built to fuel.” As part of the investment, Krusius is joining BrightPlan’s Board of Directors.

Growing BrightPlan’s partner network accelerates its mission to make financial wellness possible for everyone. At a higher level, the partner ecosystem is built around the relationships and technology employers already use to support their people in other ways, integrating financial wellness into the retirement, benefits, and HR platforms already embedded in the employee experience to make it more accessible through channels employees already trust.

BrightPlan takes a disciplined approach to expanding into new countries. While others in the category check the box with educational content alone, BrightPlan’s holistic approach accounts for the cultural, regulatory and data privacy nuances that shape real financial decisions in every market. This investment will support continued enhancement of BrightPlan’s patented AI-first employee experience and expansion into additional countries as its global enterprise customer and partner base grows.

To learn more about this milestone and BrightPlan’s continued growth, visit https://www.brightplan.com/press-release/.   

For investor or media inquiries, visit: www.brightplan.com/contact-us/.

About BrightPlan

BrightPlan brings AI-powered personalization and trusted in-country advisors together in one global financial wellness platform, helping deliver a consistent, engaging employee experience across more than 50 countries and supporting over 10 million employees worldwide. Recently named No. 125 in Software on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, BrightPlan transforms workforce data into workforce intelligence, helping employers align people strategy with business priorities to improve workforce performance at scale. For more information, visit www.brightplan.com. 

About ABS Capital Partners

ABS Capital Partners is a growth equity firm investing in B2B software and technology-enabled services companies. Founded in 1990 and based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Hunt Valley, Maryland and San Francisco, the firm has invested more than $2.5 billion in over 130 companies, pairing capital with hands-on operating expertise to help management teams scale. Its portfolio includes growth-stage software companies such as ValidiFi, Cariloop, and Greenspace Health. For more information, visit www.abscapital.com. 

Disclosures

BrightPlan LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser that may offer digital and human investment advice to US residents. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training nor does it imply endorsement by the SEC. BrightPlan is neither registered with any international agency to provide, nor does it provide, any specific investment advice or recommend specific securities or financial products to non-U.S. residents. Local financial advisors may be made available through firms in BrightPlan’s advisor network. All investing involves risk, including the loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. BrightPlan is a registered trademark of BrightPlan, LLC. © 2026 BrightPlan LLC

BrightPlan paid Inc. a non-refundable application fee in connection with its submission for consideration. The ranking was based on Inc.’s applicable eligibility criteria and percentage revenue growth over the relevant three-year period.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE BrightPlan

Jordan’s Al-Risha 245-acre campus is designed around contracted energy, dedicated onsite generation, and closed-loop cooling, creating AI infrastructure to scale to 400 MW without competing with consumers for grid power, water, or land

HOUSTON and AMMAN, Jordan, Sept. 8, 2026 — As artificial intelligence drives an unprecedented global race for electricity and data center capacity, Mindstream Energy is developing a different model for how the next generation of AI infrastructure can be built.

The model addresses challenges confronting data center development in the United States and Europe: limited grid capacity, consumer electricity costs, water requirements, land constraints, lengthy development timelines, and community opposition.

Instead of bringing another massive computing load to a constrained power grid, bring the compute to where the energy already exists.

At Jordan’s Al-Risha natural gas field, Mindstream is developing a 245-acre Sovereign AI & Digital Infrastructure Campus designed to scale to 400 MW using dedicated onsite generation, modular AI infrastructure, and resilient international fiber connectivity. Phase 1, planned for 70 MW of initial commercial capacity, is targeted for March 2027.

Al-Risha begins from a fundamentally different position.

The dedicated natural gas resource is already there and under a long-term contract with Mindstream. Power will be generated onsite. The remote desert campus does not compete with residential communities for land, while closed-loop cooling minimizes water dependency. Dedicated onsite generation allows the campus to scale without drawing hundreds of megawatts from Jordan’s consumer electricity grid or impacting the availability or cost of electricity for Jordanian consumers.

“AI has created an extraordinary technology opportunity, but it has also created an enormous infrastructure challenge,” said Mark Thimmig, Chairman and CEO of Mindstream Energy. “We started with a simple question: Why keep trying to bring massive amounts of power to the compute when we can bring the compute to the energy?“

Mindstream has assembled the foundation required to answer that question at commercial scale: contracted energy, 245 acres of land, dedicated onsite generation, international telecommunications connectivity, valuable government-approved investment and tax incentives, and a modular infrastructure strategy capable of scaling to 400 MW.

That combination provides economic advantages while positioning Mindstream to serve hyperscalers, neoclouds, governments and enterprises competing globally for AI-ready power and infrastructure.

But Mindstream does not intend to build 400 MW speculatively.

“We are not building 400 MW and hoping customers arrive. We are securing the ability to deliver 400 MW and deploying capacity as customers require it,” Thimmig said. “That allows us to configure infrastructure around each customer’s compute, density, cooling and operating requirements while deploying capital in step with demand.”

Mindstream is working with Orange Jordan on resilient fiber connectivity designed to provide low-latency access throughout the region and international reach toward Europe and India, transforming a remote energy-producing location into a globally connected computing platform.

Al-Risha provides the way to transform a domestic energy resource into a higher-value digital export: AI compute.

“The new energy export can be intelligence,” Thimmig said. “Jordan has the opportunity to convert energy produced within the country into sovereign digital capacity that can serve customers far beyond its borders.”

Build Compute Where the Energy Exists™.

About Mindstream Energy

Mindstream Energy develops energy-backed digital infrastructure supporting Sovereign AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and advanced computing workloads. Its Al-Risha Sovereign AI & Digital Infrastructure Campus in Jordan combines energy availability, modular infrastructure, global connectivity, and advanced technology relationships to serve compute-intensive applications across Jordan, MENA, and international markets.

For information, capacity requirements, strategic partnerships, or investor inquiries, visit www.mindstreamenergy.com or contact [email protected].

Media Contact:
George Pappas
Conservaco. LLC
562-857-5680
[email protected] 
www.conservaco.com

SOURCE Mindstream Energy