The release of AveriSource Platform™ 2.0 enables an end-to-end application modernization journey for mainframe and midrange systems.

DALLAS, Jan. 31, 2024 — AveriSource, the leading global software provider of AI-powered, data-driven application modernization, announced today that it has completed a major release of its application analysis and modernization solution. The unveiling of AveriSource Platform™ 2.0 marks a pivotal step in the company’s strategic growth plan and its innovative, AI-powered product roadmap. This launch follows a significant investment in its go-to-market and sales capabilities with the recruitment of industry veterans Ed Airey as VP of Marketing and Emmett Hynous as VP of Global Sales.

The AveriSource Platform 2.0 release delivers a new user experience for enterprises planning or accelerating their modernization strategy—on the mainframe or in the cloud. Visually engaging and highly interactive dashboards, alongside in-depth reporting and analytics, deliver an intelligent and guided user experience throughout all phases of the application modernization journey.

“I’m pleased to announce the general availability of AveriSource Platform 2.0,” says David Gutzman, CEO and Managing Partner at AveriSource. “This is a game-changing solution that enables our customers and partners to accelerate their modernization strategies while leveraging the very latest in application analysis and intelligence alongside AI-powered code transformation. Our ongoing investment and product roadmap, fueled by customer success, will continue to streamline the modernization journey, harness the power of AI and deliver faster time to value for our customers.”

The 2.0 release of the AveriSource Platform includes the following application modernization packages: AveriSource Scan, AveriSource Inventory, AveriSource Discover, AveriSource Analyze and AveriSource Transform™.

Release highlights include:

• New User Experience: Designed for business and technical users, AveriSource Platform 2.0 delivers a modern look and feel with visual dashboards, workflows and built-in guidance for end-to-end modernization planning and delivery.
• AI-Powered Code Transformation with AveriSource Transform:
  • Accelerate the application rewrite by leveraging Al to transform legacy code, reduce technical debt and fast–track the modernization journey—on the mainframe or in the cloud. Auto-generate up to 95 percent of legacy code using AI-powered AveriSource Transform technology. Leverage a low-code approach to deploy modern, structured and highly maintainable Java or C# code as a full-stack application or microservices with entry points. Improve the user experience and transform legacy green screens to modern Angular projects.
  • Achieve true portability and utilize generated code independently, free from library dependencies or vendor restrictions. Utilize AI modeling to transform COBOL and RPG code for deployment to any platform, including Docker containers, Red Hat® OpenShift®, Cloud Foundry or Kubernetes environments like Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). 
  • Streamline development and testing using your IDE of choice. Generate test APIs and test data that is directly integrated into testing frameworks to improve code quality and test coverage. Leverage popular AI code assistant platforms like Amazon CodeWhisperer, GitHub Copilot or Google Duet AI to complete application transformation projects.

• Guided Help and On-Demand Resources: New built-in help resources and reports accelerate the onboarding process for users and deliver contextual assistance to aid analysts, architects and developers in taking meaningful next steps in their modernization projects.
• Ability to Run AveriSource Analyze in Subsets: Efficiently evaluate the legacy codebase using AveriSource Analyze. Examine select entry points and accelerate business rule reporting without project or processing delays.
• New AveriSource Scan Integration: AveriSource Scan, the freemium codebase assessment solution, is now integrated into the full AveriSource Platform with download availability on the AveriSource website or within the AWS Marketplace. This latest release supports COBOL, RPG, JCL and Assembler for risk assessment and numerous technologies for source statistics.
• Enhanced Reporting: Accelerate modernization decision-making with new advanced reporting, including application overview, data lineage and code analysis. Generate a comprehensive view of architecture across programs utilizing intuitive, self-guided tools designed for modernization planning.
• AveriSource Builder as a Windows Service: AveriSource Builder is now available as a Windows service. This new capability enables users to run AveriSource Builder unattended to achieve more efficient code analysis and assessment.
• Expanded Data Dictionary Support: Now part of AveriSource Discover, the data dictionary accelerates earlier insight and visibility to chosen entry points, programs, variable translation and data structures of interest through the complete application.
• Two-Factor Authentication Support (2FA): Application codebase security has been fortified with 2FA support to enable IT teams in monitoring and safeguarding valuable application assets and stored platform insights.

As the application modernization ecosystem continues to evolve, the AveriSource Platform creates new opportunities for those attempting to navigate this complex and ever-changing environment.

“Mainframe modernization is now a priority for many IT leaders,” says Steven Dickens, VP and Practice Leader at The Futurum Group, a leading global technology advisory, media and research firm. “As AI, automation and the future of IT talent continue to shape strategy, organizations will look to technology innovators such as AveriSource to help modernize mission critical applications on the mainframe and in the cloud. For enterprises reliant on mainframe or midrange systems, building the right modernization strategy requires an experienced partner and technology roadmap to achieve success. AveriSource is well-positioned to help enterprises achieve their application modernization goals.”

Learn more about AveriSource Platform 2.0 on our website and contact us for a demo. Start your modernization journey today with AveriSource Scan to receive a complimentary code analysis and risk assessment.

About AveriSource

Founded and forged during Y2K planning, AveriSource accelerates legacy modernization through application analysis, business rules extraction and AI-powered code transformation. Our mission is to eliminate the time, risk and cost of application modernization—all within a single platform. Trusted by global Fortune 500 companies, the AveriSource Platform™ has analyzed over two billion of lines of code and has enabled more than 250 successful modernization projects. AveriSource is recognized as an AWS Migration and Modernization ISV Partner and is listed on the AWS Marketplace. The AveriSource Platform is comprised of five powerful packages, including Scan, Inventory, Discover, Analyze and Transform. Visit www.averisource.com to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2162821/AveriSource_Logo.jpg  

Squid enables a seamless user experience when taking cross-chain actions like swapping or purchasing assets and onboarding into Web3 applications

ZUG, Switzerland , Jan. 31, 2024 —  Squid, the cross-chain do-anything router, today announces $4m in strategic funding led by Polychain Capital with participation from Nomad Capital, North Island Ventures, Maelstrom, Chorus One, The Department of XYZ, Breed, Binary Builders, and Typhon Ventures, along with follow-on investments from Distributed Global, Fabric Ventures, Node Capital, and Chapter One. Squid has established itself as the fastest, most frictionless, and most secure way to swap tokens across blockchains, empowering users of thousands of assets on over 60 chains. This raise enables the team to continue its expansion in supporting chains in the EVM and Cosmos ecosystems and beyond. Additionally, the team will build deeper integrations with more decentralized applications (dApps), allowing users to easily interact with those applications in a wide variety of ways, including depositing into DeFi positions, purchasing NFT collectibles and in-game items, and more.

“Our vision for Squid is to create the UX layer for interoperability among blockchains and the apps built on them,” said Christina Rud, Co-Founder of the protocol. “Like servers on the internet, blockchains are proliferating, and Squid is unifying that landscape, allowing apps to operate across chains with ease and users to have delightful, frictionless Web3 experiences.”

“We’re proud to support the team building Squid as they enable compelling cross-chain experiences by making interoperability among blockchains intelligent and powerful,” said Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder of Polychain Capital. “In making complex cross-chain activities frictionless, Squid is unlocking the design space for application developers, allowing them to escape the confines of siloed blockchains.”

Squid has rapidly grown in its first year, facilitating over 500,000 cross-chain token swaps, LP deposits, and NFT purchases, representing over $950M in volume for over 200,000 users. The one-click flow for taking these cross-chain actions offers a dramatic improvement over clunky, frustrating experiences when interacting with blockchain bridges and multiple application interfaces. In pursuit of even further optimized UX, the team launched Squid Boost, a novel system that brings cross-chain swap times under 20 seconds without reducing security for users.

“Squid is designed as a general-purpose cross-chain router, and we’re excited to build support for a wide variety of activities,” said Co-Founder Fig. “Already with Squid you can swap tokens, you can purchase NFTs, and you can even combine actions, like swapping assets and depositing into DeFi protocols, in a single click. Step by step, this is how we enable better application experiences and abstract away the complexity of the underlying blockchain infrastructure.”

Web3 applications are becoming increasingly capable and diverse, but the barrier to accessing them remains high, with only a dedicated subset of users willing to surmount a number of technical hurdles to use them. Squid is playing a key role in alleviating that complexity in one of the most user-challenging parts of the space–moving between blockchains. The team is dedicated to making cross-chain actions feel just as simple and be just as secure as doing things on a single blockchain. This frees developers to harness the power of specialization among different chains to deliver users the best possible experiences.

With this raise, Squid will accelerate development to enable more complex bundling of transaction sequences and more efficient routing of assets. Additionally, the team is building integrations with more interoperability networks and has its sights set on bringing Squid to more blockchain ecosystems beyond Ethereum and Cosmos.

About Squid

Squid is a secure cross-chain router on Axelar Network that enables interoperability between blockchains and applications. Squid is easily integrated via their API, SDK, and front-end tools that facilitate fast and reliable single-click transactions and token transfers. Developers can use Squid to onboard users from any ecosystem and create scalable, seamless user experiences for anyone with a crypto wallet.

Try a swap | Docs | Twitter | Discord | GitHub | Blog

Press Contact
Frank Spence
[email protected]
(415) 294-1157

SOURCE Squid

Series A2 Funding Round Includes Boston Seed, Velvet Sea Ventures, K5, and others, Empowering Splash Inc. to Drive Peer-to-Peer, Community-Driven Sports Gaming Experiences

DENVER, Jan. 31, 2024 — Splash, Inc., the largest independent provider of peer-to-peer sports strategy games in the US with over 2M active users, today announced the closing of a Series A-2 Funding Round of $14.1M, with investment from venture firms Boston Seed, Velvet Sea Ventures, K5, Elysian Park, Acies Investments, Accomplice, Counterview and others.

These investors join an all-star lineup of angel investors, including former Major League Baseball executive Theo Epstein, New England Patriots President Jonathan Kraft, Fenway Sports Group’s Mike Gordon and Sam Kennedy, Trybe Ventures (US Women’s National Team soccer star and three-time Olympian Alex Morgan), Arctos Sports Managing Partner Doc O’Connor, Erik Seidel (10x WSOP Bracelet Winner) and gaming industry veterans Adam Levitan and Peter Jennings.

In conjunction with the close of the A-2 financing, Splash has launched its Partner Solutions division, which focuses on increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and driving revenue for brands looking to tap into over 2M active sports-centric players generating over 750M annual page views across the Splash, Inc. portfolio. Brands can partner with Splash Inc.’s free public contests or run their own contest to build awareness, increase purchase intent, and capture first party data – accessing not just the Splash audience, but more deeply engaging with their own.

“Splash has always provided a phenomenal way for friends to compete, and now with the launch of Splash Partner Solutions, it’s also a way for brands to build their communities during the biggest sporting events of the year,” said Peter Blacklow, General Partner at Boston Seed Capital. “Sports are more fun when you have skin in the game, and Splash’s new platform gives brands a way to share the excitement of the game with their customers in an authentic way.”

“When we first launched Splash Inc., we recognized that the future of sports gaming revolved around peer-to-peer interactions, ultimately creating a lasting community. The early success of partnerships with the NBA, Jack Link’s, and TaylorMade show there is tremendous value for brands to connect with their communities via a platform that delivers more organic, community-driven gaming experiences,” said Splash, Inc. Co-Founder Joel Milton.

Splash Inc. was established in 2021 through the acquisitions of RunYourPool and OfficeFootballPool. In 2023, Splash Sports was launched as a peer-to-peer, real-money gaming platform built for friends and groups who share a passion for sports to compete against each other. Contest organizers, or Commissioners, as they are known on the platform, can use Splash Sports’ suite of management tools to easily organize sports strategy games, such as Tiers, PickX, and Survivor, for their community while earning revenue for themselves.

“From day one, we’ve been driven by the belief in the power of sports to connect people,” Splash, Inc. Co-Founder TJ Ross said. “The past few years have been an amazing journey, but we feel we are just getting started. We’re excited to continue innovating, pushing boundaries, and making the Splash name synonymous with community-centric sports gaming experiences.”

In addition to launching Splash Inc.’s Partner Solutions, Splash, Inc. will continue to focus on developing new real-money game types, creating community, and accelerating the growth of the Commissioner Economy, which allows content creators, influencers, brands, and sports media personalities to engage with and monetize their audiences in new ways.

About Splash Sports

Splash Sports is owned and operated by Splash Inc., which acquired RunYourPool and Office Football Pool in 2021 and has grown to become one of the largest entertainment-only gaming providers in the US, with over 2M active users. The company is backed by some of the top investors and owners in sports, entertainment and tech. For more information, visit splashsports.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Will Norris
Branded
630-608-9159
[email protected]

SOURCE Splash Inc.

Leader in location identity focuses on global expansion with Series B financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 31, 2024 — Today, Incognia, the innovator in location identity solutions, is announcing it has closed $31MM in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from FJ Labs and existing investors, including Point72, Prosus, and Valor Capital. The financing will support Incognia’s continued development of cutting-edge digital identity signals, along with the company’s presence in North America, Europe, and EMEA, as well as its expansion into new verticals, including consumer internet, financial services, and eCommerce.

“This funding from Bessemer is further recognition of our innovative approach, and their support of Incognia is particularly significant given Bessemer’s expertise in the fraud prevention industry,” said André Ferraz, co-founder and CEO of Incognia. “Bessemer has a strong track record of supporting game-changing SaaS solutions from companies like Twilio, Shopify, Toast, and Auth0, and we’re thrilled to be listed among these trailblazers in tech. This financing will allow us to deepen our product capabilities to stay at the forefront of fraud prevention and meet the growing market demand for a transparent solution capable of solving complex identity challenges.”

Incognia’s cutting-edge technology combines device fingerprinting and exact location intelligence data into one flexible risk signal that can be customized for every stage of the user journey. Since Incognia’s last funding in June 2022, the company has achieved remarkable success, including tripling revenue, realizing 200% net revenue retention, and converting 100% of trials. Incognia has delivered six times the return on investment to its clients while saving them millions of dollars per contract on average.

“Incognia is quickly emerging as a market leader addressing fraud across a variety of customer segments, which is critical in today’s environment as fraudsters become increasingly sophisticated thanks to recent GenAI breakthroughs and the global proliferation of real-time payments,” said Charles Birnbaum, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “After years of development, André and the Incognia team have unlocked the power of highly precise location awareness coupled with best-in-class device fingerprinting to generate fraud prevention signals, unlike any other vendor in the market. We’ve been following the company for some time and are truly impressed by the team’s progress and customer impact, and we look forward to seeing them roll out their fraud prevention solutions globally.”

Incognia’s technology includes device tamper detection with advanced location spoofing prevention, tamper-proof location verification for user identification, and phishing-resistant and frictionless account security. Used individually or in combination, these features drive results, including an 80% reduction in account takeovers, a 51% reduction in fake account creation, and an 84% reduction in new user abandonment.

“While distinguishing between good and bad actors online will always be a challenge, we are focused on helping companies better address it with an identity signal that accurately recognizes users across devices with zero friction,” added Ferraz.

Incognia has a dedicated team across four offices worldwide, including San Jose, CA; New York, NY; São Paulo, Brazil; and Recife, Brazil. The company empowers safe digital experiences for global consumer internet companies in the gig economy, marketplace, and financial services industries by combining unparalleled security, privacy, and convenience. For more information, visit https://www.incognia.com.

About Incognia
Incognia is the innovator in location identity solutions that deliver cutting-edge user verification and account security across the digital journey. Leveraging over a decade of expertise in location technology, Incognia’s novel approach enables frictionless experiences using device intelligence and the most precise location data available. Incognia enables customizable risk analysis and actionable insights from day one that empower consumer businesses to prevent fraud, protect users and build customer trust. For more information, visit https://www.incognia.com/.

SOURCE Incognia

With 100,000+ employees from top companies supported on its benefits platform, Benepass secures additional funding to rapidly scale distribution and accelerate product development

NEW YORK , Jan. 31, 2024 — Benepass, a flexible benefits platform for people-first companies, announced today that the company has raised $20 million in additional funding led by Portage and Clocktower Technology Ventures. Stephanie Choo, Partner at Portage has joined the Benepass Board of Directors. Workday Ventures and existing investors Threshold Ventures and Gradient Ventures also participated in the funding round.

The fundraise comes at a time when many large companies are looking to consolidate their benefits to control costs. Companies have accumulated diverse and costly point solution benefit vendors over the years, often underutilized by employees. This is no longer tenable in today’s macroeconomic climate, so companies are analyzing and streamlining these offerings, aiming to cut down on vendors while maintaining employee satisfaction and engagement. This has fueled interest and excitement about flexible benefit platforms like Benepass.

“Portage invests in entrepreneurs who are reshaping financial services. We expect to see more consolidation of point solutions in the benefits space and believe that Benepass is at the forefront of this growing trend,” said Stephanie Choo, Partner at Portage. “Our investment into Benepass will help to scale their mission to help companies distribute meaningful benefits that support the personal and professional well-being of their team.”

The additional capital will be used to fuel growth by expanding distribution and technical partnerships with brokers, payroll, and HRIS providers. It will also fuel the building of new features for administrators and employees, including cash back on benefits and enhancing the user experience of the platform to help employees better understand and use their benefits. Benepass will also use the funds to leverage generative AI to produce insights into employee benefits behavior that will help enterprise customers better support their employees, understand benefits usage, and optimize benefit costs.

“Benepass is helping shift the approach around how companies take care of their employees, and we’re excited to partner with them on their next stage of growth,” said Barbry McGann, SVP and Managing Director, Workday Ventures. “We invest in companies that are shaping the next generation of enterprise technology and believe that is reflected in Benepass’s mission to unlock personalization and global equity in benefits through its proprietary fintech stack and commitment to the user experience.”

About the Benepass Platform:

With an easy-to-use and highly customizable platform, Benepass provides People teams at leading organizations with an easy way to implement, administer, and track the modern benefits that their unique workforce is looking for. An employer using Benepass can consolidate their pre-tax benefits (e.g., FSA, Commuter, HSA) and personalized benefits (e.g., Lifestyle Spending Accounts) into one benefits system. Employees can then use one card to spend their benefit dollars at vendors and merchants within their company’s policy that fit their unique wants and needs. By offering flexible and personalized pre-tax and post-tax benefits at scale, companies see employee engagement rates of over 85% and improve employee retention and satisfaction. 

“The Benepass team is a group of ambitious, technically minded folks,” said Charles Kramer, Talent Operations Lead of North and South America at On. “Through a people-first lens, they are able to balance building impactful and delightful benefits with the technical and programmatic complications of benefits design and systems integration. This has allowed for an effective and fun partnership that ultimately resulted in the smooth launch of multiple new benefits in 2024 that have already received extremely positive feedback from many of On’s U.S. based team members. Benepass consistently demonstrates a level of support, commitment to client, and technical expertise that has exceeded our expectations.” 

“The industry is seeing a rapid consolidation of the tools that companies use to administer benefits,” said Jaclyn Chen, CEO of Benepass. “With a wall-to-wall activation rate that is four to five times the rate of traditional benefits solutions, Benepass has built the right platform to capitalize on this consolidation trend. We will use this latest funding to expand our customer base by scaling distribution as well as introduce innovative new features that meet the needs of both administrators and employees.”

About Benepass:

Benepass’s mission is to reimagine how companies take care of their people. Through deep investments into our financial technology infrastructure, we have made it easy for employers to offer global benefits that are personalized to each and every employee. We have also simplified the pre-tax experience by giving employees one card to use on pre-tax and post-tax benefits. Our flexible benefits platform gives employees more choice, leading to engagement rates of over 85% and a stronger employer brand. Benepass was founded in 2019 by Jaclyn Chen, Kabir Soorya, and Mark Fischer. Additional information about the company can be found at www.getbenepass.com.

Press Contact:
Rob Marwanga
[email protected]

SOURCE Benepass

TORONTO, Jan. 31, 2024 — Hivello, at the cutting edge of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN), has announced an upsized funding round, raising an additional USD $1.5 million and bringing the total raised in the prior 4 weeks to USD $2.5 million.

This influx of capital is a testament to the confidence the market places in Hivello’s mission to democratize access to decentralized infrastructure. The extended round attracted a roster of eminent new investors, including Blockchange (USA), Cypher Capital, MH Ventures, Primal Capital, Contango Digital Assets, and Candaq, joining industry leaders NGC, Blockchain Founders Fund, IDG, and others from the prior pre-seed investment round.

Domenic Carosa, Chairman and Co-Founder of Hivello, commented on the expanded round: “The incredible surge in demand we’ve seen from investors confirms the pressing need for accessible decentralized infrastructure. The decision to upsize our round allows us to accelerate our mission and bolster our platform ahead of schedule. We are honored by the commitment shown by both new and returning investors who share our vision for the future of DePIN.”

The additional funds will enable Hivello to expand its technological capabilities, expedite product development, and strengthen its market position as a leader in DePIN services.

We live in a world where our most expensive assets are not always fully utilized, said Ken Seiff, Managing Partner of Blockchange Ventures.  The internet helped us optimize our cars and our homes – but much more can be done.  The blockchain is ideally suited to utilize the massive number of computers across the globe. Working together, these machines can rival the largest cloud providers, allowing owners to monetize without any of the capital expenditure. We are excited to back the great founders of Hivello, which is helping owners generate and optimize revenue by redirecting computation and other digital resources to its highest and best use case.

This funding round, both original and extended, showcases the high conviction investors have in Hivello’s team and the DePIN industry’s potential. As Hivello prepares for an eventful year following its successful technology launch, the company is well-positioned to make a significant impact on the global stage of decentralized services.

“Hivello more than doubling their round in only 4 weeks is a testament to the strength of their team and mission – it’s great to see other big-name investors backing this innovative company,” said Tobias Bauer, Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund.

For more information about Hivello’s offerings and future developments, please visit www.hivello.com.

About Hivello:

Hivello, led by distinguished blockchain payment solution pioneers, is dedicated to transforming the accessibility of decentralized services globally. As a leader in the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) sector, Hivello stands at the vanguard of democratizing access to decentralized infrastructure.

Contact:
Domenic Carosa
Co-Founder & Chairman
Hivello Holdings Ltd
[email protected]
+61 411 19 69 79

SOURCE Hivello

NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2024 — Indemn, a pioneering insurtech platform, announced it has closed a $1.9 million pre-seed funding round, marking its continued growth in delivering insurance products through natural conversation powered by AI. The round was led by Markd, with participation from Afterwork Ventures, Everywhere Ventures, and a group of prominent entrepreneurs and insurance leaders from Australia and the U.S.

Established in 2021, Indemn’s AI-driven platform revolutionizes engagement with digital insurance products by making information, product configuration, and underwriting accessible through natural conversation.

Indemn’s collaboration with innovative insurance carriers has resulted in a transformative customer experience. Their platform, built around Large Language Models, includes AI agents supporting all aspects of digital insurance, from quoting to purchase, thereby driving growth and reducing operational costs across distribution channels. The customer experience delivers AI agents directly to the user, and when desired, seamlessly connects the customer to human agents supported by an AI powered Copilot.

Kyle Geoghan, Co-founder & CEO of Indemn, shared his excitement: “We’re thrilled with the initial funding and support from investors who believe in our vision to transform the insurance acquisition experience with Large Language Models. Creating a better way for people to interact with insurance has been a long time coming and we couldn’t be more excited to continue building the solution.”

Parker Beauchamp, Managing Partner at Markd highlighted Indemn’s potential: “The Indemn team, with its innovative product and early adoption of generative AI, is poised to improve the way insurance is purchased online. Far before the hype, the team’s expansive work with this tech was driven by a need to find a solution for the primary challenges within insurance distribution. This work is bolstered by Kyle’s deep understanding of insurance, accumulated from his background in a family agency and as an early employee at Coverwallet. All this aligns perfectly with our belief in supporting long-standing, existing insurance channels.”

About Indemn

Indemn, Inc., is an insurtech SaaS provider delivering innovative, AI-driven solutions to insurance carriers. The Indemn platform enables multi-channel digital distribution with Large Language Models at its core. Together with forward-looking insurers they’re pioneering a new model for insurance engagement.

About Markd

Markd is a venture capital company focused on funding and partnering with transformative insurtechs. It pays homage to the insurance industry’s legacy while helping design its future. Markd’s mission is to power substantial work and continually inspire more ideas to prevent hurt and loss.

For more information and to experience the future of insurance, visit www.indemn.ai

SOURCE Indemn

PHOENIX, Jan. 31, 2024 — Trinity Capital Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIN) (“Trinity”), a leading provider of diversified financial solutions to growth-stage companies, today announced the commitment of $15 million in growth capital to Kafene, a point-of-sale platform that helps retailers offer underserved consumers more flexible purchase options through transparent lease-to-own (LTO) agreements.

Kafene’s lease-to-own platform has generated more than $150 million in incremental sales for its retailer partners since its launch in 2020. With a proprietary machine learning model that leverages more than 20,000 data inputs, Kafene’s tiered financing approach offers each customer an optimized financing option based on their risk profile – an innovative solution in the lease-to-own industry.

“Kafene’s advanced underwriting process makes it more efficient and affordable for consumers across the credit spectrum thereby allowing merchant partners to expand their customer base,” said Andrew Ghannam, Managing Director, Tech Lending at Trinity. “We’re excited to partner with their team and look forward to supporting the company’s growth.”

In 2023, Kafene finalized its Series B venture funding round at $31 million in equity financing led by Third Prime alongside existing investors.

This incremental growth capital will enable the team at Kafene to continue to scale its commercial operations and reach a broader consumer base.

“It is very exciting to work with a capital partner like Trinity that is so aligned with Kafene’s vision for the future,” said Neal Desai, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Kafene. “This partnership will fuel our ability to serve Kafene’s growing network of merchants and customers while delivering high-quality credit performance for years to come.”

About Trinity Capital Inc.

Trinity Capital Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIN), an internally managed business development company, is a leading provider of diversified financial solutions to growth-stage companies with institutional equity investors. Trinity Capital’s investment objective is to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation through investments, including term loans and equipment financings and equity-related investments. Trinity Capital believes it is one of only a select group of specialty lenders that has the depth of knowledge, experience and track record in lending to growth stage companies. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.trinitycap.com.

About Kafene

Kafene is a leading point-of-sale leasing partner dedicated to empowering flexible ownership solutions for underserved customers nationwide. By enabling our retail partners to offer flexible LTO purchase options for prime and nonprime consumers, Kafene helps merchants grow their customer base, and meet growing demand for furniture, appliances, electronics, tires and other durable goods. Utilizing cutting-edge AI and machine learning technologies, our platform creates a best-in-class experience for both merchants and customers. Kafene has generated more than $150 million in incremental sales for its retailer partners since its launch in 2020. To learn more about Kafene please visit www.kafene.com, and to learn more about Kafene’s commitment to customer experience and consumer protection, please visit here: https://kafene.com/consumer-friendly-commitments.

SOURCE Trinity Capital Inc.

Investment Boosts Deployment of AI Technology And Electrification for a Greener Future

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 31, 2024 — Zūm, the leading provider of modern student transportation, today announced a $140 million Series E funding round. This new funding round was led by GIC, a leading global investment firm. Climate Investment, a decarbonization investor, and existing investors including Sequoia and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 also participated in the round, elevating the company’s valuation to $1.3 billion—a significant increase from its previous series D raise in Oct 2021. This round brings Zum’s total fundraise to $350 million.

Zum has transformed the outdated student transportation industry, previously riddled with inefficiencies and a lack of transparency, through its innovative approach to digitization and electrification. Zum has unified parents, students, school administrators and drivers on a single personalized end-to-end technology platform enabling never-before achieved levels of visibility and data-backed accountability which has ushered in a new era of increased safety, reliability, and sustainability for the school districts it serves across the nation in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Chicago, Nashville, and Maryland among others. It is also leading the industry forward with the shift to EV school buses in major metropolitan school districts.

“Zum is on a mission to revolutionize student transportation, moving beyond the status quo towards a future where innovative technologies are used to advance sustainability efforts,” remarked Zum Founder and CEO Ritu Narayan. “Securing this latest round of funding, especially in a challenging economic climate, is a resounding vote of confidence in our vision and ability to execute. This investment marks a pivotal moment in our journey, empowering us to turn school buses into powerful tools for environmental change.”

The new capital will be used to accelerate the expansion of Zum’s industry leading AI-driven technology platform, a key tool in Zum’s effort to fully decarbonize the school bus industry and bolster the fight against climate change. When combined with the deployment of its fully EV school bus fleets, Zum will be able to turn the largest battery on wheels – batteries 4-6 times the size of EV car batteries – into virtual power plants through its advances in Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology. With Zum’s advanced technology platform it now has the ability to know when to discharge and recharge EV school buses. For the first time ever, school buses that would otherwise be sitting idle in bus depots can now be put to work during evenings and summers and send energy back to the grid.

“Our investment in Zum highlights GIC’s commitment to funding the transition to net-zero in the real economy,” said Choo Yong Cheen, GIC’s Chief Investment Officer of Private Equity. “Zum is leading the industry in leveraging technology to create a more modern, sustainable, and safer experience for communities across the US. We are proud to partner with Zum’s impressive leadership team to support their work to transform student transportation, the largest source of mass transit today, into an impactful renewable energy source.”

Transforming School Buses From Net Polluters To Net Zero Champions
School buses are the largest mass transit system in the United States, outpacing airlines, trains, and city buses combined. However, as 90% of them run on diesel, they’ve been significant contributors to environmental pollution. By leveraging advanced technology, Zum is rapidly transforming diesel fleets from long standing pollutants into vehicles fighting climate change through increased route efficiency, incorporating electricbuses into school bus fleets, and other strategies

Putting AI To Work for Good
The company is accelerating the deployment of its proprietary AI technologies, transforming school transportation into a significant tool for decarbonization. These innovations include a personalized end-to-end technology platform that help schools increase the efficiencies and reduce the costs of managing student transportation fleets, which are typically the second biggest budget items for schools. Administrators and drivers have unprecedented visibility so they can optimize routes and deliver real-time updates to parents. Route optimization is a critical part of the EV school bus experience as optimized routes mean less time on the road and more capacity to transfer energy back to the grid. Importantly, this technology extends beyond Zum’s fleet, as it is available for use by public school districts in their own internal fleets, thereby amplifying its positive environmental impact.

“Zum is rapidly reinventing the student transportation industry bringing great improvements in quality, efficiency, and sustainability through software and electrification,” stated Bryan Schreier, Partner, Sequoia Capital. “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Zum as they continue their national expansion.”

“Climate Investment is excited to partner with Zum to provide safe, sustainable transportation for schools. Zum has powerful technology to digitize vehicle fleets, electrify buses, and reduce costs, aligning with Climate Investment’s mandate to decarbonize transportation,” said Cindi Bough, Climate Investment Managing Director – Ventures.

From modernizing student transportation to modernizing the grid, Zum is ushering in a new green era through its advanced technology and electrification. To learn more about how Zum is working with thousands of schools across the nation to deliver safe, reliable, modern and sustainable student transportation, please visit www.ridezum.com.

About Zum:
Zum has reimagined student transportation, the nation’s largest mass transit system, and developed sustainable ways to charge the grid. Zum’s robust operations and integrated end-to-end cloud-based platform provides a modern student transportation service for school districts purpose-built around the needs of kids and the expectations of modern families. Zum provides one seamless, real-time interface for parents, drivers, schools, districts, administrators, and operators to transport children safely and with increased visibility and personalized care. Always investing in the wellbeing of communities, Zum is also the only carbon neutral student transportation provider in the nation with plans to go Net Zero with its transition to EV electric buses. Zum is available nationwide, serving more than 4,000 schools across the U.S. Learn more atwww.ridezum.com.

CONTACT:
Jenny Mayfield, Vice President of Communications – [email protected]

About GIC:
GIC is a leading global investment firm established in 1981 to secure Singapore’s financial future. As the manager of Singapore’s foreign reserves, GIC takes a long-term, disciplined approach to investing and is uniquely positioned across a wide range of asset classes and active strategies globally. These include equities, fixed income, real estate, private equity, venture capital, and infrastructure. Its long-term approach, multi-asset capabilities, and global connectivity enable it to be an investor of choice. GIC seeks to add meaningful value to its investments. Headquartered in Singapore, GIC has a global talent force of over 2,100 people in 11 key financial cities and has investments in over 40 countries. For more information, please visit www.gic.com.sg or follow on LinkedIn. 

CONTACT:
Katy Conrad, SVP, Communications & Corporate Affairs – [email protected]

SOURCE Zūm