Earmarks up to USD 80 Million for M&A
Plans To Accelerate Growth Through Acquisitions In Complementary Assets And Deep Tech Startups, Absorbs AI Deep Tech Incivus Into Its Fold

BELLEVUE, Wash., June 6, 2023 — Analytics & AI solutions company, Course5 Intelligence, announced today that they have successfully completed their round of funding of USD 53 million with second close led by Nuvama Crossover Series of funds, managed by Nuvama Asset Management Limited. The second close also saw participation by Carnelian Asset Advisors Pvt Ltd. and affiliates. This funding follows the first close done with 360 ONE Asset Management Limited (formerly known as IIFL Asset Management Limited) in May 2023. This funding will be augmented by the company’s own cash reserves and cash accruals to provide for an M&A war chest in the range of USD 80 million.

Ashwin Mittal, Chairman and CEO of Course5 Intelligence, said, “The data and AI revolution is finally here and the scope and scale of AI deployments across global enterprises are going to rapidly increase in the coming years. Recent advances in Generative AI, natural language and computer perception have completely removed the boundaries of what is possible. We want to ensure we maintain our leadership position amongst AI & Analytics solution providers by adding strategically to our portfolio to maximize our value proposition to global corporates.” Mr. Ashwin further added, “We are pleased to have on board Nuvama as an investor, someone who has a track record of partnering with sector leaders and is aligned to our vision.”

The penetration of advanced analytics & AI in enterprises is at a very nascent stage globally and recent advances in technological innovations may be the tipping point for wide-spread, democratic adoption across industries and one that will likely see consistent growth over the next decade. Partnering with Course5 to capitalize on this opportunity is a natural fit for Nuvama Private Equity’s Crossover fund strategy, that has over time successfully identified and invested in leaders across sectors with structural growth, and in companies with established business models and seasoned management teams. 

Pranav Parikh, Managing Partner, Nuvama Private Equity, said, “Increase in complexity, type and usage of data across the world and significant advancement in technologies including AI is driving adoption of data driven intelligence through enterprises like never before across the globe. We see this as a structural long-term trend, and strongly believe that Course5 is very well-placed to benefit from this wave of acceleration, given its marquee client base, industry domain expertise and its effective delivery model. We are excited to partner with Ashwin and the Course5 team to accelerate the growth trajectory for the company and build a sustainable strong global enterprise in our domain.”

Commenting on the investment, Vikas Khemani, Founder, Carnelian Asset Advisors Pvt Ltd, said, “Data Analytics and AI is a big revolution ahead of us and growing at a rapid pace transforming and disrupting businesses. Course5 is well placed to capture this huge opportunity over the next decade. We are very excited to be part of this growth journey and believe Course5 will create superior value for all its stakeholders in years to come.”

Course5 Intelligence has a structured M&A agenda, looking at synergistic assets in the US, the UK and India, each in the range of USD 10 million to USD 20 million in revenue as well as smaller deep tech AI startups. This growth funding round will fortify Course5’s inorganic growth plans and allow the company to leverage the synergies by adding new intellectual property (IP), capabilities, talent, and/or key client relationships.

Course5 has also absorbed Incivus, an AI-based Ad creation and optimization technology startup. Incivus provides a precise, objective and granular evaluation of all creative variables of an Ad and predicts the likelihood of success with technologies like Computer Vision, Computer Audition, Generative AI, and Natural Language Processing (NLP).

Generative AI, in particular, extends Incivus’ capabilities to generate new ad creatives and modify existing ones. The Incivus platform helps marketing teams optimize the effectiveness of their digital ads before launch, helping them improve their ROI, speed to market, and create advertisements that resonate most effectively with target audiences.

ICICI Securities and JM Financial acted as the exclusive financial advisors to the Company.

Course5 is currently in talks with five companies and plans to complete two acquisitions, over a period of 12 months. In addition to mergers & acquisitions, Course5 plans to use the investor funds for further innovation in specific areas of applied AI such as deep learning, computer perception, natural language, and Generative AI via Course5’s AI Labs.

About Course5 Intelligence Limited

Course5 Intelligence Limited (“Course5”) focuses on helping organizations drive digital transformation using artificial intelligence (“AI”), advanced analytics, and insights. Course5’s AI-driven products and solutions and IP-led solutions are supported by industry-specific domain experience and the latest technologies and aim at enabling organizations to solve complex issues relating to their customers, markets, and supply chain at speed and scale. Course5 combines a multi-disciplinary approach to data integration across structured and unstructured data sources to help businesses grow through informed decision-making.

Course5 caters to some of the world’s largest enterprises, including many Fortune 500 companies. The company’s clients span Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT), Pharma & Lifesciences, CPG, Retail, and other sectors. Course5 Intelligence has been recognized by leading industry analysts like Gartner and Forrester for its Analytics and AI capabilities and proprietary AI-based platforms.

About Nuvama Private Equity

Nuvama Private Equity is part of the Asset Management business of the Nuvama group – one of India’s leading wealth management firms with client assets of over ~ INR 2,25,200 Cr (~USD 27 bn), servicing ~10,87,564 affluent individuals & HNIs and ~2,945 of India’s wealthiest families as of Q4 FY23. Nuvama’s investment expertise and high-touch services span major asset classes and a suite of wealth management solutions, including investment advisory, estate planning, investment management, securities and broking for individuals and institutions, CXOs, professional investors and family offices. PAG, one of the leading alternative investment firms focused on Asia Pacific, holds a majority stake in a partnership with Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd, one of India’s leading diversified financial services companies, to form our company Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd.

About Carnelian Asset Advisors Pvt. Ltd

Carnelian is fast growing boutique asset management firm focused on investing in high quality companies operating in emerging / high growth sectors in the Indian markets. Carnelian’s unique investment approach of finding promising companies at an early stage has generated superior risk adjusted investment returns for its clients over the years. Carnelian manages USD 300 mn across various strategies for leading Indian Family Offices, HNIs and Partners’ Capital.

Media Contact:

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2094053/Course5_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Course5 Intelligence

RESTON, Va., June 6, 2023 — LeaseAccelerator, the leader in the Enterprise Lease Accounting and Lease Lifecycle Management software market, announced today that PureLease Marketplace, a global bidding platform that makes competing equipment leases simple, fast and easy, has sourced over $1.5 billion USD in lease financing. PureLease Marketplace saves clients an average of 7% on equipment costs by competing their equipment leases.

The PureLease bidding platform includes buy-side services for equipment users (lessees) and sell-side services for equipment leasing companies (lessors):

• PureLease Marketplace  –  the first dedicated, competitive lease financing marketplace, where lessees get the lowest rates and best value for equipment leases.
• Global Lessor Network  – a network of over 500 equipment lessors in 80 countries. Approved leasing companies gain access to prequalified leasing deals with committed equipment lessees with strong credit quality, resulting in more opportunities, shorter sales cycles, and lower cost of sales.

PureLease clients gain access to a suite of tools to automate, streamline, and control their equipment leasing process:

• Lease vs. Buy analysis
• Intelligent lessor matching
• Request for Proposal (RFP) preparation and distribution
• PureDocs: standardized lease documents
• Proposal analysis and ranking
• PureData: abstracted, reconciled deal data ready for booking directly into your lease accounting software.

“With this major volume milestone, PureLease Marketplace proves its long-term value for lessees, reducing the time spent building lessor relationships by 25% and managing RFPs by 40%,” said Michael Keeler, CEO at LeaseAccelerator. “With PureLease, anyone can improve their lease financing for significant economic and operational savings,”

To start a sourcing event, contact PureLease at https://purelease.net/.

About PureLease:
PureLease from LeaseAccelerator provides competitive lease sourcing services for equipment lessees that reduce the cost of financing and improve free cash flow, connecting lessors with prequalified lessees in a simple, fast, and easy process. Using standardized contracts and automated RFP creation, each bid is matched to best-value bidders in our network of 500+ lessors. PureLease has run sourcing events in over 26 countries valued at over $1.5B that saved an average of 7%.

About LeaseAccelerator
LeaseAccelerator provides enterprise lease lifecycle automation software that ensures long-term compliance, improves operational efficiency, and frees up cash. Thousands of users rely on our secure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform to manage and automate 900,000 real estate and equipment leases valued at $150 billion across 2 million assets in 142 countries, generating 8 billion journal entries.

SOURCE LeaseAccelerator, Inc.

• Sourcemap’s cross-industry supply chain mapping software supports emerging due diligence regulations that apply to all manufacturing sectors and raw materials
• New AI-powered functionality sends Sourcemap customers real-time alerts for supplier watchlist screenings, reputational hazards and supply disruptions
• Insider investors Energize Ventures and E14 Fund have doubled down on Sourcemap in response to explosive growth in the 12 months since the Series A close

NEW YORK, June 6, 2023 — Sourcemap, the leading global provider of supply chain mapping and monitoring software, today announced the close of a $20 million Series B investment led by Energize Ventures with participation from the E14 Fund. Sourcemap will leverage this latest funding to further expand its global footprint and add business-critical solutions to its supply chain mapping and monitoring software suite.

New regulations in North America and Europe require companies to map and monitor their end-to-end supply chains to ensure uninterrupted production, avoid shortages of critical components and root out social and environmental problems. Since June 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection alone has seized more than 4,000 imported U.S.-bound shipments on suspicion of forced labor, leading to major disruptions across the electronics, automotive, apparel and food industries. Hundreds of farmed, mined and manufactured goods are subject to these supply chain mapping requirements including the packaging, chemicals, polymers and metals that are part of every company’s supply chain.

Sourcemap provides the only enterprise solution able to meet the full suite of global supply chain due diligence requirements, including end-to-end supply chain mapping, transaction traceability and verification, real-time risk monitoring, business continuity planning and consumer-facing transparency.

“Traceability in our supply chains is one of the critical challenges we face in the drive to a more sustainable energy and transportation future,” said Juan Muldoon, Partner at Energize Ventures and a director on Sourcemap’s board. “Many of the incentives laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act are contingent on a company’s ability to accurately and responsibly trace its supply chain all the way down to the raw materials. Sourcemap’s end-to-end supply chain visibility software provides unprecedented transparency and traceability, enabling enterprises to establish supply chains that are resilient and responsible – while also tapping into the billions of dollars at play in regulatory funding.”

Sourcemap’s latest funding comes on the heels of historic growth, with the addition of more than 100 brands across food, apparel, luxury, automotive, electronics, energy and life sciences to its customer base over the past year. Sourcemap now has over two million businesses registered on its platform, and over 250 brands use Sourcemap to map and monitor their supply chains.

“We are thrilled by the confidence our investors have shown by doubling down on Sourcemap and on supply chain transparency as a solution to the biggest challenges facing industry,” said Leonardo Bonanni, founder and CEO of Sourcemap. “Once a nice-to-have, businesses today cannot afford to go to market without full end-to-end supply chain visibility. It’s a must-have for ensuring strategic supplies of raw materials, for preventing disruptions, for ensuring compliance and for de-risking brands. Our goal is to enable businesses across industries to map their end-to-end supply chains as fast as possible to strengthen the global economy in this era of responsible sourcing.”

About Sourcemap

Sourcemap is the leading global provider of supply chain mapping and monitoring technology. Major traders, manufacturers and brands have adopted Sourcemap’s full-suite solution for assurance on the raw materials-to-finished goods supply chain, including ongoing monitoring for production, quality, sustainability and risks such as deforestation and forced labor. Sourcemap is one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and the Sourcemap Forced Labor Due Diligence solution was named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022 and Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas of 2023. To learn more, visit www.sourcemap.com.

About Energize Ventures

Energize is a leading climate software investor focused on scaling sustainable innovation. Founded in 2016 and based in Chicago, Energize has funded 25 companies to-date and is backed by strategic, institutional, and impact LPs including CDPQ, Invenergy, Schneider Electric, General Electric, Caterpillar, and more. Leveraging the team’s industry and operational expertise, Energize works in partnership with climate technology companies at various stages of maturity by helping them scale and realize their full potential, from early commercialization to the public markets. For more information, visit www.energize.vc.

About E14 Fund

E14 Fund is the MIT-affiliated, early stage venture capital firm. E14 Fund invests in MIT deep tech startups that are transforming traditional industries across a broad array of market-ready, scalable innovations in AI/ML, robotics, climate, biomanufacturing, life sciences, material science, sensing and more, supporting its portfolio and community with resources from across the MIT ecosystem. For more information, visit www.e14fund.com

Media Contact
Mission Control Communications for Sourcemap
[email protected]

SOURCE Sourcemap

WASHINGTON, June 6, 2023 — Zoomph, the premier sports and entertainment technology partnerships insights platform, is pleased to announce the completion of its Series A funding round, marking a substantial investment in the company’s growth and development. This round was spearheaded by Jurassic Capital, a growth equity firm known for its commitment to innovative SaaS vertical companies. Notable investors in this round also include high-profile entities such as Lalotte Ventures among others.

This robust investment will propel Zoomph’s aspirations to expedite product development and widen its customer base. The company’s state-of-the-art technology offers organizations comprehensive solutions to explore engagement across various platforms, including social, streaming, linear, and OTT. These tools provide precise broadcast media valuations and consumer insights, thereby enhancing partnership strategies.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Jurassic Capital as our lead investor, alongside other esteemed investors like Lalotte Ventures. Their collective support represents not only a substantial financial commitment but also a wealth of experience and guidance as Zoomph scales,” stated Ali Manouchehri, CEO and Chairperson of Zoomph. “This robust investment will fuel the continued evolution of our innovative product and enable us to enhance our services for our global clientele.”

Zoomph’s platform allows brands to track the effectiveness of their partnership campaigns and gain insights into their target audience across sports and entertainment properties. With the new funding, the company will be able to enhance its platform and expand its offerings, enabling businesses to better understand their customers and drive more effective marketing campaigns.

“We’re excited to back Zoomph as they continue to elevate their industry-leading media analytics platform,” shared Joe Colopy, General Partner at Jurassic Capital. “We’re confident that Zoomph’s technology provides invaluable insights to brands and sports and entertainment properties. We eagerly anticipate the company’s continued growth and success.”

Since its inception in 2016, Zoomph has been on an impressive growth trajectory and has emerged as a leading light in providing partnership insights. With this new, substantial investment from industry leaders such as Jurassic Capital and Lalotte Ventures, the company is perfectly positioned to maintain its momentum and broaden its market reach.

About Zoomph

Zoomph is a leading partnership insights platform that enables brands, leagues, teams, and media to measure partnership portfolios and gain insights into their target audience. Founded in 2016, the company has rapidly grown to become a leading provider of partnership insights supporting customers like the Golden State Warriors, WWE, Wasserman, NASCAR & Activation Blizzard.

Follow Zoomph online at zoomph.com. You can also stay up to date with the latest Zoomph insights and developments by following us on social media Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

About Jurassic Capital

Jurassic Capital is a Durham, NC-based growth equity firm focused on B2B SaaS and software businesses. Founded in 2019, Jurassic invests in companies and accelerates their growth with their extensive operating experience. The firm makes minority and majority equity investments in bootstrapped and lightly capitalized companies. For more information, visit jurassiccapital.com.

Contacts
Zoomph, Inc.
Nick Cronin
Chief Design Officer
[email protected]

SOURCE Zoomph

Cybersecurity platform provides continuous protection against people-targeted attacks such as phishing and social engineering by securing the application where work lives, the web browser.

AUSTIN, Texas, June 6, 2023 — Keep Aware, the company pioneering a human-centric approach to browser security, today announced a $2.4 million round led by LiveOak Venture Partners, with participation from Runtime Ventures and prominent angel investors in the cybersecurity industry. Keep Aware will use this funding to accelerate product development and establish go-to-market programs, enabling it to support its growing customer base and keep up with surging demand.

“The web browser has become the new Operating System for most of our work, yet security teams have near zero visibility into what happens within it and employees continue to face a barrage of threats,” explained Creighton Hicks, Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners. “Keep Aware is uniquely positioned to prevent attacks that leverage the browser. Their solution fills this visibility gap and provides an innovative approach to prevent sophisticated phishing and social engineering threats.”

Keep Aware combines the analysis of how information is presented to people, and how they interact with it, to create a human-centric solution that prevents threats at the point-of-click. While traditional, technology-based security solutions are designed to prevent attacks from machine processes, events, and connections, Keep Aware focuses on threats that directly target people where they work, the web browser. Keep Aware embeds security directly into the user interface and operates in the considerable gray area where, without context, the risk level of any specific activity may be unclear. When a threat is detected, Keep Aware immediately involves both the employee and security team in its resolution by assessing intent and alerting them to suspicious and dangerous actions.  This inclusive process protects an organization in real time while also empowering employees to make more informed decisions in the future about security risks encountered in their daily work. Keep Aware deploys directly to industry-standard browsers, and integrates seamlessly into an employee’s existing workflow.

“Keep Aware began with the realization that no matter how advanced our security technology became, or how strong a perimeter we could establish, threats still find a way to the user,” said Ryan Boerner, CEO and Founder at Keep Aware.  “I began to understand that while a technology-based, perimeter-focused solution is still critically important, it was no longer sufficient. To effectively protect an organization in a continually evolving threat landscape, we have to better understand how people interface with technology, and the browser is the first key step.”

Keep Aware’s browser security platform has quickly become a top priority for organizations of all types and sizes, primarily due to the following reasons:

1. The browser is a blind spot to traditional security solutions, leaving the employee vulnerable to attack.  Typical threat detection technologies wrap around the browser, but don’t effectively analyze what happens within.
2. As organizations adopt more SaaS and cloud services, the browser is increasingly becoming where employees do the majority of their work.  Information workers can spend 90% of their work day in a web browser accessing sensitive data and systems.
3. Bad actors know all this and have made the browser a primary attack vector.  Attacks are increasing in both velocity and sophistication.  Up to a third of all data breaches involve a web browser.  The proliferation of AI tools such as ChatGPT will lead to an even greater number of novel attacks.
4. Keep Aware offers a private and efficient method for comprehensive browser security.  By deploying directly to the browser and involving the user in the entire process, Keep Aware prevents both known and unknown threats from suspicious links, emails, social media, and browser extensions.

“Even with the latest network and email security solutions in place, we were still finding that user-facing threats were going undetected,” said Le Lu, CIO of One Workplace.  “When we deployed Keep Aware, to over 700 people within minutes, the results were immediate.  As Keep Aware delivers real-time threat detection and prevention directly in the browser, it quickly enhanced the prevention of sophisticated phishing and social engineering attacks against our workforce, by detecting hundreds of threats and significantly reducing our team’s time to investigate.”

Keep Aware recognizes the crucial roles of both people and technology in security management, fostering a culture of shared responsibility and collective ownership throughout any organization. Key features and benefits include:

• Native Protection Against Credential Theft, Social Engineering, and Malicious Extensions
• Behavior-based Risk Identification
• Security at the Point of Click
• Automated Investigations
• Logging for Auditing and Compliance
• Direct Deployment to All Standard Web Browsers

About Keep Aware

Keep Aware is a pioneer in human-centric browser security.  Its platform eliminates the browser blind spot, ensuring complete visibility of browser activity and providing robust protection against known and unknown people-targeted attacks, including credential phishing, spoofing, social engineering, and malicious extensions.  Keep Aware combines the analysis of how information is presented to people, and how they interact with it, to create a human-centric solution that prevents threats at the point-of-click.  It leverages advanced user behavior analytics to assess risk, identify threats, and respond in real time to any attack. The powerful, lightweight solution seamlessly integrates into industry-standard browsers, protecting employees without disrupting workflow. To learn more, please visit: https://keepaware.com

About LiveOak Venture Partners
LiveOak Venture Partners is a venture capital fund based in Austin, Texas. With over 23 years of successful venture investing in Texas, the founders of LiveOak have helped create nearly $5 billion of enterprise value. While almost all of LiveOak’s investments begin in the early stages, LiveOak is a complete life cycle investor focused on technology and technology-enabled service companies. With nearly $500M under management, LiveOak Venture Partners has led investments in 60 high-growth Texas-based companies, including DISCO (NYSE: LAW), Eventus, OJO Labs, AmplifAI, Homeward, Take Command Health, and Osano. Recognized as the Venture Capital Firm of the Year at the inaugural A-List awards by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, LiveOak is dedicated to supporting local founders, fostering the next generation of leaders, and building category-dominating companies.

Media Contact
Ray George
[email protected]
650-922-3825

SOURCE Keep Aware

The personalized nutrition company is co-founded by serial tech entrepreneur Julie Wainwright and board-certified physician nutrition specialist Dr. Melina Jampolis

LOS ANGELES, June 6, 2023 — AHARA, the only food-first personalized nutrition solution that translates clinically validated science into practical nutrition recommendations for optimal health, announces its beta launch with $10.25M in funding led by Greycroft with participation from Headline, SHAKTI, Dr. Samuel Jampolis, Co-founder Wainwright, and Sandy Sholl.

AHARA, a Sanskrit word referring to nourishment, was conceived by well-known physician nutritionist Dr. Melina Jampolis and serial tech entrepreneur Julie Wainwright. The co-founders bring deep experience in medicine and consumer technology and are now at the forefront of the rapidly evolving field of precision nutrition and health tech.

AHARA leverages the power of multiple data inputs from a scientifically developed health questionnaire, as well as genetic, epigenetic and biomarker testing. It then combines that data using a patent-pending, AI-enabled algorithm.  The output identifies an individual’s key nutrients and provides ultra-personalized nutrition recommendations and a practical and actionable way to get them.

AHARA is clinically validated by 300+ scientific studies and backed by an advisory board made up of industry-leading doctors, clinicians and nutrition professionals including: 
Kathie M. Swift, MS RDN LDN FAND EBQ, Co-Founder, Integrative & Functional Nutrition Academy 
Martin Kohlmeier, MD PhD, Professor and Director, Nutrigenetics Laboratory, University of North Carolina
Ahmed El-Sohemy PhD, Founder & Chief Science Officer at Nutrigenomix;
Taylor C. Wallace, PhD CFS FACN, CEO, Think Healthy Group, Adjunct Professor, George Mason University
Michael Dasinger, MD, Founder, Diabetes Reversal Program at Tufts Medical Center and Assistant Professor at Tufts School of Medicine. CDC & WebMD Nutrition Expert.
Shumone Ray, MD, UK Licensed MD & Public Health Nutritionist Chair, chief scientist & ED of NNEdPro Global Institute for Food, Nutrition & Health

AHARA’s key features include:

• An individual’s health data collected from a proprietary, scientifically based questionnaire and at-home tests for genetic, epigenetic, and biomarkers.
• Custom health focus options including heart, gut, brain, metabolic, aging, or immune; a performance option will follow in 2024.
• Personalized nutrition plans featuring nutrient-specific meals, recipes, shopping lists, and dining-out menu-scan to ensure an individual gets the right nutrients whenever and wherever they eat.
• Results and measurable improvement tracking through quarterly and annual retesting, and reduction of symptoms.
• AI features maximize learnings from app engagement and data tracking to better understand users’ unique eating patterns.
• 1:1 support from nutrition experts for Premium level members.

Julie Wainwright, Co-founder and CEO, is a serial entrepreneur who founded The RealReal and developed a new fashion category from concept to approximately $1.5B in GMV. Most recently, she was awarded Forbes 50 over 50, Fast Company‘s Most Creative People In Business, among many other notable recognitions. 

Wainwright states, “As a patient of Dr. Melina, I experienced first-hand the positive impact of her approach to optimal health when she combined my genetics, health survey and biomarker tests resulting in a personalized food and supplement recommendation for my specific key nutrients. It quickly became clear to me that technology could make personalized nutrition available to all.  I approached Dr. Melina with the idea for a health tech business that would reach millions, and she quickly understood that together we could help everyone achieve optimal health.”

Dr. Melina Jampolis, Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer is an internist and board-certified physician nutrition specialist (one of only several hundred in the U.S.), a bestselling author, and frequent media contributor. She is the former president of the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists and remains on their Board of Directors.

Dr. Melina shares, “I co-founded AHARA with Julie to make evidence-based, personalized nutrition accessible to everyone. The opportunity to contribute to nutrition science with our science-based, AI-supported approach was too important to pass up.”

About AHARA 
AHARA provides personalized nutrition for optimal health and longevity. Leveraging the latest scientific, evidence-based research, combined with users’ personal data, its proprietary algorithm provides personalized recommendations for food and supplements. The venture-backed, female-founded consumer health tech company is the brainchild of physician nutrition specialist Dr. Melina Jampolis and serial tech entrepreneur Julie Wainwright. www.ahara.com

Media and public relations contacts:
Andrea McKinnon 
AMcK PR, Inc. 
[email protected] 
8184159442

AHARA 
Nancy Alonzo
VP, Brand & Communications 
[email protected]

SOURCE Ahara

SAN FRANCISCO, June 6, 2023 — Haiqu, a startup building software to enhance the performance of quantum processors, today announced it has closed a $4M financing round led by MaC Venture Capital, with participation from Toyota Ventures, SOMA capital, u.ventures, SID Venture Partners, and Roosh Ventures. The round also included private contributions from Paul Holland, Alexi Kirilenko, and Gordy Holterman.

“We are accelerating the timeline to practical quantum computing by developing novel software that can extract value out of clumsy near-term quantum hardware, enabling quantum applications that were previously impossible,” said Richard Givhan, co-founder and CEO at Haiqu. “We are proud to be backed by investors with remarkable deep-tech ecosystems and a track record of supporting the commercialization of breakthrough tech.”

The investment will drive the company’s research and development efforts and the establishment of strategic partnerships to bring their product to market.

“MaC is thrilled to be supporting Haiqu through their next stage of growth,” said Adrian Fenty, Managing General Partner at MaC Venture Capital. “We firmly believe that the future of quantum computing will fundamentally change the way we are able to solve meaningful problems. We hold deep convictions that Richard and Mykola are uniquely positioned to tackle these issues in order to accelerate the timeline that will enable quantum to get to widespread commercial adoption.”

“We’ve been watching the quantum computing space for years, but the hardware and hype has kept us just watching,” said Jim Adler, founder and general partner at Toyota Ventures. “Haiqu caught our attention with their optimization software that boosts quantum hardware to solve practical industry problems. We are so thrilled to support the Haiqu team as they tackle this challenging and exciting frontier.”

The startup was formed and incubated in the fall of 2022 within the Creative Destruction Lab Quantum stream in Toronto by Richard Givhan (CEO), a Stanford alum and former EIR at Mitsubishi Electric, and Mykola Maksymenko (CTO), formerly a researcher at the Max Planck Society and the Weizmann Institute of Science and head of R&D at global consultancy SoftServe Inc. 

Haiqu addresses the foundational bottlenecks precluding the adoption of quantum applications: a limited number of qubits and the high noise sensitivity of near-term quantum processors. The startup develops platform-agnostic technology that extends quantum hardware capability by orders of magnitude and enables a broader set of practical use-cases in finance, chemistry, life sciences, mobility and other domains.

“We leverage our expertise in quantum complexity, AI, and high-performance computing to create a product that we believe can streamline the entire industry,” said Mykola Maksymenko, co-founder and CTO at Haiqu. “With past experience in building and scaling deep tech R&D in large corporations, we appreciate the challenges of bringing a complex technology to market. We are eager to get our tech into the hands of users as soon as possible.”

Having started as a remote collaboration of co-founders, Haiqu is growing globally via a distributed team spanning the United States, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland. Given the scarcity of quantum talent, this provides the startup access to some of the world’s leading talent pools in quantum and software engineering.

About Haiqu Inc.

Haiqu Inc. is a quantum computing software startup focused on developing enabling technology enhancing the performance of modern quantum hardware. Their software addresses the adoption bottlenecks precluding scalable quantum applications and enables a broader set of practical use-cases in finance, life sciences, mobility and other domains.

For more information, please visit www.haiqu.ai.

About MaC Venture Capital

MaC Venture Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley that invests in technology startups leveraging shifts in cultural trends and behaviors. The general partners represent diverse backgrounds in technology, business, politics, entertainment, and finance, allowing them to accelerate entrepreneurs on the verge of their breakthrough moment. The firm provides hands-on support crucial for building and scaling category-leading companies, including operations strategy, brand building, recruiting, sales development, and mission-critical introductions. MaC Venture Capital is the result of a merger between Cross Culture Ventures, co-founded by Marlon Nichols, and M Ventures, co-founded by Adrian Fenty, Michael Palank, and Charles D. King. Find MaC Venture Capital online at https://macventurecapital.com/ and @MaCVentureCap.

About Toyota Ventures

Toyota Ventures is a San Francisco Bay Area-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups from around the world. Founded in July 2017, its mission is to discover what’s next for Toyota by helping startups bring disruptive technologies and business models to market quickly. With more than $500 million in assets under management, the firm’s funds include the Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund focused on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, autonomy, mobility, robotics, smart cities, digital health, financial technologies, materials; and the Toyota Ventures Climate Fund focused on innovative solutions for carbon neutrality. For more information about Toyota Ventures and its portfolio companies, please visit www.toyota.ventures.

SOURCE Haiqu Inc.

Fund will target opportunistic debt and equity investments in commercial and residential real estate

EDINA, Minn., June 6, 2023 — Onward Investors (“Onward”), an investment firm targeting opportunistic debt and equity investments in commercial and residential real estate, today announced that it has held a first close of Onward Investors Value Fund III (“OIVF III” or the “Fund”) with approximately $112 million in capital commitments. OIVF III is the third fund raised by Onward since its founding in 2011 and follows Onward Investors Value Fund II, a $47 million fund closed in 2020.

“We are thankful to the large number of existing investors that have demonstrated their confidence in our team by increasing the size of their capital commitment to OIVF III and welcome many new investors to the Onward family that have entrusted their capital to us,” said Scott Schmitt, Managing Partner of Onward Investors. “We believe we have the right team in place to generate superior risk-adjusted returns in the current uncertain economic environment. As a firm founded during the depths of the Great Financial Crisis, opportunistic investing is at the core of what we do. We are excited to be in a position to utilize this differentiated skill set in the coming years to take advantage of the significant dislocation we believe exists in real estate and debt markets.”

OIVF III will pursue opportunistic debt and equity investments in commercial and residential real estate. The Fund benefits from the significant experience the Onward team has in real estate debt and equity investing spanning multiple economic cycles in numerous markets throughout the United States. Since inception, the firm has raised over $550 million of equity capital, from fund investors as well as institutional joint venture partners, and has invested over $1.1 billion of total capital.

Onward has already begun deploying capital from OIVF III and expects to hold a final close on the Fund later this year.

For further information on OIVF III and Onward, please contact Stephanie Lunde at 952-426-7090 or [email protected].

SOURCE Onward Investors

EAST LANSING, Mich., June 6, 2023 — Reseda Group, a wholly owned credit union service organization (CUSO) of MSU Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU), today announced it is investing more than $2 million to support five emerging fintech companies – Strivve, Facteus, Pocketnest, Tandem and Ascent – as part of its commitment to discover and elevate innovative technology and solutions to revolutionize the credit union industry and member experience.

“We are pleased to support this group of dynamic fintech startups that are transforming the way credit unions engage with their members and members engage with their money,” said April Clobes, President and CEO of Reseda Group and MSUFCU. “As the credit union industry continues to embrace fintech partnerships to build out stronger digital experiences and new growth opportunities, Reseda Group is proud to help foster next-generation technologies and make them more accessible to credit unions.”

Reseda Group’s fintech investments include:

• Strivve, a startup based in Seattle to help credit unions increase card usage and transaction volume by providing cardholders a way to instantly add or update cards online through its platform. It utilizes first-of-its-kind automation to instantly place any new or reissued credit card on any online account – at one time, in one place.
• Facteus, a leading data-as-a-service (DaaS) company headquartered in Portland, Ore., specializing in providing comprehensive consumer spending data to businesses in the financial sector, retail, government, research, and beyond. Through its innovative, AI-driven platform, the company delivers actionable insights derived from alternative data sources, empowering clients to make data-driven decisions.
• Pocketnest, a Detroit-based, fintech mobile app that licenses and white-labels its financial wellness software to financial institutions and employee wellness programs to coach their communities to comprehensive financial wellness – while driving business growth and identifying revenue opportunities.
• Tandem, a platform that is creating the infrastructure to capture the entire household’s financial product purchases from day one. Tandem helps Gen Z and Millennial couples navigate their first money milestones and ultimately their financial futures by introducing them to life-stage relevant financial products.
• Ascent, a New York startup building the next-generation data platform that provides financial institutions with the tools and knowledge required to service their customers.

The investment in Pocketnest follows its pilot with five credit unions, including MSUFCU, where it is now fully available to all members. Tandem is also currently in pilot at MSUFCU, and both Ascent and Strivve will be launching pilots with the credit union this summer.

About Reseda Group
Headquartered in East Lansing, Michigan, Reseda Group is a wholly owned credit union service organization of MSU Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU). Formed in 2021, Reseda Group helps credit unions remain relevant and competitive by delivering the best products and services to their employees and member-owners through investing in strategic partners that bring innovative technology, digital resources, and credit union industry solutions to market. Learn more at resedagroup.com.

SOURCE Reseda Group