BRIA’s Generative AI Open Platform empowers companies to produce visual content at scale, tailored to their brand identity or visual style.

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 21, 2024 — BRIA, the leading responsible visual generative AI open platform, today announced it has raised $24 million in Series A funding in a round jointly led by GFT Ventures, Intel Capital, and Entrée Capital with additional investors including, Publicis Groupe, Getty Images, Samsung Next, IN venture (Sumitomo Corporation, Japan), Atinum Investment (South Korea), Z Venture Capital (LY Corporation, Japan), Mirae Asset Venture Investment, J-Ventures, and others. The Series A investment will build on BRIA’s success and strengthen its rich variety of generative capabilities such as text-to-video facilities, continue to enhance its open platform for developers and build its operations globally.

BRIA enables companies to easily tailor their visual requirements and allows developers to seamlessly integrate generative AI capabilities into any existing product, solution, or system as a source code and pre-trained model, API, and SDK. BRIA collaborates with many of the world’s leading stock image providers and manages over one billion licensed images. These images are used to train BRIA’s text-to-image foundation models while ensuring the original creators, artists, and media companies receive royalties to fairly compensate for their images’ contribution to the final generated output. By harnessing proprietary and patented algorithms, BRIA has developed a unique attribution engine to reward the data owner. 

While there are countless opportunities for generative AI to improve business performance, the ideas governing how the technology can be ethically applied and developed are increasingly scrutinized. According to Salesforce, 43% of consumers do not trust companies to use AI ethically, a reality compounded by copyright infringement lawsuits surging. BRIA provides the only comprehensive solution that tackles this head-on and fully complies with copyright infringement. BRIA’s platform is trained solely on licensed imagery and contains no public figures, trademarks, or privacy concerns, which safeguards a company from legal challenges, offers full liability, and grants businesses complete access to text-to-image and text-to-video models.

“With the rapid adoption of generative AI in commercial operations, and as 70% of CEOs agree with the need to act urgently on generative AI to avoid giving their competitors a strategic advantage, it is vital that final outputs are developed from ethical, unbiased, and licensed sources without holding the foundation models in a walled garden,” said Dr Yair Adato, CEO & Founder, BRIA. “It is essential that companies are equipped with generative AI capabilities as part of their core technology stack so they can seamlessly scale their operations and ensure they own intellectual property and data. This is precisely what BRIA is providing to any company using our licensed-sourced platform and we are thrilled with this opportunity to empower more businesses with the ability to generate AI responsibly.”

“We are completely behind BRIA’s mission to redefine visual generative AI, focusing on a transparent, responsible, and secure process for developing content while providing enterprises with a stronger value proposition in this field. BRIA’s technology helps businesses avoid the biases and legal landmines that have wounded high-profile organizations attempting to generate AI-based material without knowledge of its origins or without compensating the creators. BRIA’s solution, which only uses licensed datasets, and pays artists for every image used, is the gold-standard generative AI platform for commercial use,” says Jay Eum, Founding Managing Partner at GFT Ventures.

“Not only does our investment in BRIA align with our commitment to ethical and responsible AI, but it also aims to push the boundaries of visual generative AI, equipping users with the most sophisticated AI-powered tools to remain competitive,” said Aravind “Avi” Bharadwaj, Investment Director at Intel Capital. “This is an opportunity to be a part of the huge impact of the burgeoning visual generative AI discipline and potentially spearhead transformative visual storytelling in a way that benefits everyone from the artist and business deploying the art, to the audience receiving it.” BRIA was part of Intel’s Ignite Deep Tech accelerator program.

BRIA’s approach is focused on building predictable, accurate, safe, and responsible visual generative AI, while simultaneously ensuring the ability to generate tailored unrivaled, high-quality visuals. BRIA’s technology is unique in its breadth of visual modification and tailored generation. The platform is flexible and allows no code / low code capabilities, API, SDK, or access to the pre-trained model. BRIA’s capabilities offer companies a significant competitive edge by helping them find their market value proposition by creating visual content at scale, with the ability to control the data and technology.

About BRIA
BRIA is a visual generative AI company operating at the forefront of responsible AI development. With a mission to empower developers and AI teams while upholding copyright and privacy compliance in visual generative AI, BRIA offers cutting-edge visual generative AI-trained models, source code, APIs, and development productivity tools that are revolutionizing the way businesses and developers approach visual generative AI. BRIA is also dedicated to fostering a sustainable economy that benefits data owners, artists, and visual generative AI users alike. BRIA believes in creating a harmonious ecosystem where the power of visual generative AI technology can be harnessed responsibly and ethically for the collective betterment of all involved. BRIA was one of the first companies to be recognized by Fairly Trained, a non-profit that certifies generative AI companies for training data practices that respect creators’ rights. For more information visit: https://bria.ai/

Media Contact
Joseph Moses
[email protected] 

SOURCE BRIA

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Feb. 21, 2024 — Ziplines Education, an industry-leading education company that partners with universities to deliver industry-focused certificate courses that prepare professionals for today’s digital-first workforce, today announced it has closed a $6.4 million Series A round of funding. Led by San Francisco-based investment-management firm Jackson Square Ventures, with participation from existing investors, including Wildcat Venture Partners and WGU Labs, Ziplines Education will leverage the new financing to expand its team, develop proprietary technology products, and strengthen partnerships with universities to serve more continuing-education students.

“Jackson Square Ventures invests in innovative young companies like Ziplines Education that have what it takes to be market leaders,” said Greg Gretsch, Managing Director of Jackson Square Ventures, who joins Ziplines Education’s board as part of the investment. “We’re excited to partner with Ziplines Education as they pioneer a platform that gives individuals the digital skills and real-world experience they need to thrive in today’s most in-demand careers.”

Ziplines Education helps higher education bridge the digital skills gap by offering turnkey, professional certificate courses for in-demand, tech-adjacent careers. Developing the latest curriculum with the leading software-application technical training, their programs revolve around three critical elements: real-world application, data-driven strategies, and technology know-how. Led by many nationally renowned industry leaders, its 10-week courses are delivered fully online and combine self-directed (asynchronous) learning with live, interactive (synchronous) sessions.

“Being successful in today’s ever-evolving workforce means you need to approach problems from a data-driven perspective, while leveraging technology to harness automation,” said Sara Leoni, CEO and founder of Ziplines Education. “Our mission is to help students gain the digital skills and real-world experience they need to thrive in a career they love, empowering us to positively impact the lives of career-driven professionals around the world.”

Over the coming months, Ziplines Education will be announcing new university partnerships and expanding its team in technology, marketing, analytics, learning experience design, and student success.

About Ziplines Education:
Ziplines Education, an industry-leading education company, partners with universities to deliver industry-focused certificate courses that prepare professionals for today’s digital-first workforce, so individuals can confidently pursue the career they’ve always wanted. The award-winning industry innovator launched in 2017 as GreenFig and relaunched as Ziplines Education in early 2024. Today, dozens of leading U.S. colleges and universities trust Ziplines Education as their continuing-education partner, including the University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Texas Tech University, and UNC Charlotte. To learn more about the company, visit ziplines.com and follow them on @ZiplinesEducation on Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and on @ZiplinesEdu on Twitter.

About Jackson Square Ventures:
Jackson Square Ventures invests in early-stage software businesses that will be leaders in markets that matter in 10 years. Founded in 2011, its portfolio includes Artera, Cornershop, Crowdbotics, DocuSign, Jackbox Games, Seismic, Strava, Trust & Will, and Upwork, among others. For more information, follow the firm on Twitter or visit www.jsv.com.

CONTACT:
Lisa Hagendorf
Centerpiece PR for Ziplines Education
[email protected]

SOURCE Ziplines Education

Blackbird Health leverages a neuroscience-driven, “Understanding-first” care model to take the trial and error out of pediatric, adolescent and young-adult mental health diagnosis and treatment.

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 21, 2024 — Blackbird Health, a neuroscience-led and technology-backed youth mental health provider, announced today it raised $17 million in series A funding. The round was led by Define Ventures and also included participation from Frist Cressey Ventures and GreyMatter. Blackbird has raised nearly $23 million to date.

Blackbird Health is a mental health company for kids and young adults struggling with social/emotional, developmental and school-related challenges. Leveraging an integrated, virtual and in-person model that includes a groundbreaking approach to diagnosing and treating, it’s the only in-network mental health practice that’s dedicated to achieving better outcomes more quickly by taking trial and error out of delivering high-quality mental healthcare.

The original clinic behind Blackbird was founded in 2014 by Amy Edgar, APRN, CRNP, FNP-C, now serving as its Chief Clinical Officer, and then relaunched in 2021 when co-Founder Dr. Matt Keener, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist, joined the company. Together, Edgar and Dr. Keener pioneered an “Understand-first” care model that leverages neuroscience-driven patient assessments led by a trained specialist and computational models applied to its 10-year foundational dataset to uncover and treat root causes of mental health issues. Given the shortage of in-network specialists across the country, a major key to Blackbird’s model is affordability, so Blackbird partners closely with insurance carriers and employers to ensure timely, in-network access and coverage.

“As a mental health practitioner who’s seen thousands of patients, I’ve witnessed the transformative power of compassionate care and tailored support in young people’s mental wellness journeys. Our care model stands out because we prioritize individualized approaches to mental healthcare that deeply understand the psychology, biology and physiology that make up each individual’s situation,” said Edgar. “Our multidisciplinary and data-driven approach not only empowers our patients and their families with important information that helps them understand their condition, but it also allows us to build trust and gets at the root causes – a characteristic that distinguishes us at a time when the need is great but the available resources are stretched thin. At Blackbird Health, it’s not just about addressing symptoms; it’s about nurturing resilience, honoring dignity, and guiding each person toward holistic mental well-being.”

Another unique aspect of Blackbird Health is that its patient population includes a full age spectrum of kids to young adults – with 45 percent under the age of 10, 45 percent between 10 and 20 years old, and 10 percent who are 21 and older. Blackbird’s care model considers both how children’s brains develop over time and the impact that growth has on mental health, which enables targeted and lasting outcomes regardless of age. For example, Blackbird has a very high patient retention rate, and approximately 85 percent of Blackbird patients with depression and/or anxiety experience clinically significant improvement in their symptoms. Additionally, across its patient population, Blackbird’s “Understand-first” and integrated care approach results in a substantially lower use of medications and ED utilization while leveraging a broad range of treatments.

“Blackbird Health epitomizes the future of mental healthcare – a future defined by innovation and a dedication to significant cost reductions and superior outcomes – and I see tremendous opportunity for its personalized, technology-driven solutions and steadfast focus on understanding the underlying drivers of mental health,” said Chirag Shah, Partner at Define Ventures. “Our investment in Blackbird stems from a longstanding belief that the most successful models in pediatric mental health must be fundamentally focused on high-quality care. Blackbird exemplifies this better than any other organization we have seen, and we are proud to be partnering with them as they catalyze meaningful change and foster accessible, compassionate mental health solutions for young people.”

Blackbird’s proprietary computational models and machine-learning algorithms are based on more than 50 million data points across 10 years of patient encounters and are used to identify patterns. These patterns help clinicians determine “Blackbird Biotypes”, which are clusters of individuals with similar symptoms-linked brain features. As a result, Blackbird clinicians can more precisely and accurately identify the underlying root cause of symptoms and propose integrated and personalized treatment plans.

Following his family’s personal experience with Blackbird, former Evolent Health Co-founder and COO Tom Peterson joined the company as CEO in 2023 to lead Blackbird through its next phase. The company will use the investment to build more technology, expand its service offerings and to scale the clinical model nationwide. Blackbird currently operates three brick-and-mortar clinics across the Mid-Atlantic region and has more than 40 providers that include board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrists, prescribing CRNPs, psychologists, therapists, speech pathologists and more.

“We are rapidly growing our services and technology capabilities throughout this year and plan to expand, using a community-centered approach that partners with pediatricians and other stakeholders in each region,” said Peterson. “We also are building our team and will be the talent destination for clinicians who want to work in a truly integrated, multidisciplinary model of care that can transform how kids are understood and treated through in-person and virtual services.”

Mental health challenges were the leading cause of disability and poor life outcomes in young people, with up to one in five U.S. children between the ages 3 to 17 with a reported mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral disorder. Incidents caused by severe mental health issues consistently have been a major cause of premature death to persons aged 10–24 nationwide. However, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, for every 100,000 children in America, there are only 14 child and adolescent psychiatrists available to treat them and far fewer offer in-network coverage.

About Blackbird Health
Blackbird Health is a leading provider of innovative, virtual and in-person mental healthcare solutions that’s dedicated to transforming the way young people access and experience mental wellness. Through a combination of cutting-edge technology, personalized care plans, and a commitment to equity and inclusivity, Blackbird’s experienced, multidisciplinary care team supports compassionate and integrated mental health services, delivering superior outcomes faster by eliminating trial and error. The company is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA and is backed by Define Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures, GreyMatter and others. For more information, visit www.blackbirdhealth.com.

About Define Ventures
Define Ventures is the largest early-stage venture firm investing in digital health companies that are redefining healthcare. With $800 million in assets under management, Define Ventures invests in companies at incubation, seed, Series A, and Series B stages. Define Ventures combines proven Silicon Valley principles with deep healthcare operating experience to create category-defining companies including Hims & Hers, Unite Us, and Cohere Health, and has experience building best-in-class industry leaders like Livongo. For more information, visit www.definevc.com.

SOURCE Blackbird Health Inc.

2023 marked significant growth following the successful launch of JANUS-1 and the closing of $3.5 million in additional seed funding.

LOS ALTOS, Calif., Feb. 21, 2024 — Antaris, the leading software platform for space missions, had a pivotal 2023, launching its first demonstration satellite, raising additional capital, expanding its customer base, and solidifying its position as an innovative player in the space industry.

JANUS-1 Mission: A Proven Success

In February 2023, Antaris marked a historic moment with the successful launch and operation of JANUS-1, the world’s first satellite to be designed and tested entirely in the cloud. The satellite featured five payloads from a range of global providers.

$3.5 Million in Seed Capital Raised

In September 2023, Antaris closed its seed funding round with an additional $3.5 million, led by California-based Streamlined Ventures. The amount raised exceeded the company’s investment target and takes the total fundraising to date to nearly $10 million.  

More Customers Using Expanded Mission Capabilities

2023 also marked significant growth in Antaris’ customer base, including commercial operators and U.S. and allied governments. The Antaris Cloud Platform now supports a range of customer use cases including complete end-to-end missions, digital twinning simulations, and software licensing for satellite integrators who need to reduce delivery time and lower development costs.

Contributions to the Open Source Space Ecosystem

Throughout the year, Antaris also demonstrated its commitment to open-source development for the benefit of the entire space industry. The company’s Satellite Design Library, Payload SDK, and Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) repositories are available on Antaris’ GitHub page for the public’s use. To learn more, visit https://github.com/antaris-inc.

JANUS-2 Preparing for Launch

Building on the success of JANUS-1, Antaris is gearing up for another milestone with the upcoming launch of its JANUS-2 demonstration satellite in early 2024. JANUS-2 will carry a variety of payloads including a multi-spectral imager, an optical transceiver from Transcelestial, an IoT communication payload from Netra, and a Quantum Key Distribution application from SpeQtral.

Product Updates and Enhancements 

The company also released an upgrade to its Antaris Cloud Platform. Its TrueTwin™ digital twinning simulations now provide higher levels of fidelity and precision as well as a more interactive mission simulation experience. The ADCS and EPS simulation capabilities have also been extended to include additional hardware components and modes of operation.

“2023 was the year we turned software-driven satellite design from an idea into reality,” says Tom Barton, CEO and co-founder of Antaris. “Our software-first approach to the design, simulation, and operation of satellites reduces time-to-orbit by 2X, and our partners around the world got to see this firsthand.”

“After our successful collaboration on JANUS-1, we made the decision to collaborate once again with Antaris, this time to evaluate our next-generation IoT payload on JANUS-2,” says Muhamad Andung Muntaha, Chief Technology Officer of Netra. Currently, Netra is utilizing every part of the Antaris Cloud Platform: the Antaris Design Studio, the TrueTwin™ simulation environment, and the SatOS™ payload SDK.

About Antaris™

The Antaris Cloud Platform dramatically simplifies the design, simulation, and operation of space missions and satellites–bringing the best of terrestrial cloud computing to the space domain. Customers choose Antaris because they gain mission flexibility and have greater control over their supply web, resulting in faster time-to-orbit and lower overall lifetime operating costs. With investors including Lockheed Martin Ventures, Streamlined, Acequia, HCVC, E2MC, and Possible Ventures, Antaris is revolutionizing Software for Space™. Learn more at www.antaris.space.

SOURCE Antaris

DustPhotonics Ramping-up Silicon Photonics Products Targeting Data Center and AI Applications

MODI’IN, Israel, Feb. 21, 2024 — DustPhotonics, a leading developer of silicon photonics technology for data center and AI applications, today announced the completion of its Series B follow-on funding round, an oversubscribed round of $24M. The round was funded by a combination of prominent investors, including new and existing investors such as Sienna Venture Capital, Greenfield Partners, Atreides Management, and Exor Ventures.

The funds will be used to allow DustPhotonics to scale production of its industry leading Carmel-4 and Carmel-8 products, used for 400Gb/s and 800Gb/s applications and to accelerate development of its next generation products which will enable 1.6Tb/s applications.

“We looked at innovative technologies supporting the fast-growing AI compute market, and DustPhotonics stood out as a leader in this market due to their technology and customer traction,” said Isabelle Amiel-Azoulai, Founding Partner at Sienna Venture Capital. “We are excited by the customer agreements and backlog that the DustPhotonics team has generated with its Carmel-4 and Carmel-8 products, and look forward to working with the DustPhotonics team to help the company in this next growth phase.”

“Greenfield Partners is excited to continue to support DustPhotonics in this upcoming phase of growth, on the back of strong execution by the DustPhotonics team across both product innovation and commercial wins,” said Yuda Doron, Managing Partner at Greenfield Partners. “We continue to be firm believers in the prospect of silicon photonics becoming a key enabler for data centers to meet the increasingly demanding requirements brought upon by AI, as demonstrated by the company’s recent momentum.”

“We are seeing a lot of design-win momentum with our products, and are excited by the new opportunities ahead in both AI and cloud service data centers,” said Ronnen Lovinger, CEO of DustPhotonics. “We are grateful to have a strong group of investors who have been supporting us from the early days, and are delighted to have new partners join our journey ahead.”

“Since undergoing the transition to a silicon photonics chip company from a transceiver company, I have seen the team at DustPhotonics do a tremendous job achieving their milestones on technology, products and business”, said Avigdor Willenz, Chairman of DustPhotonics. “I believe their upcoming innovations will allow them to further grow their position as a leader for next generation merchant silicon photonics products.”

About DustPhotonics

DustPhotonics is a leading developer of silicon photonics technology for hyperscale data center and AI applications. The DustPhotonics technology platform is uniquely built to meet the requirements of the optical networking market, offering significant improvements in bandwidth and speeds while lowering costs and power consumption. Please visit www.dustphotonics.com for more information.

For more information, please contact:
DustPhotonics, Ltd.
Yossi Lev
+972-73-3982552
[email protected]

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2344355/Ronnen_Lovinger_and_Yoel_Chetrit.jpg
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2234594/dustphotonics_Logo.jpg

SOURCE DustPhotonics

The funds will be used to deepen the company’s conversational AI technology and expand its global team and operations, allowing more people to easily learn English to advance their personal and professional lives

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 21, 2024 — Loora, the generative AI English language learning company, announced today that it raised $12M in a Series A financing round from lead investor QP Ventures, with participation from new investor Hearst Ventures and existing investors Emerge and Two Lanterns Venture Partners, among others. The new funding, which comes just eight months after Loora’s launch from stealth with a $9.25M seed funding round, will enable the company to expand its team, advance the proprietary AI capabilities fueling its mobile app platform, and extend its market reach to new audiences in the coming months.

The global English language learning market is expected to grow to over $70B by 2030, driven in part by a continued interest in gaining English fluency to unlock professional and socioeconomic opportunities as well as the rise of AI-backed language learning solutions to accommodate this growing audience. However, most available solutions are inherently limited in their ability to engender English fluency: Tutors are expensive and have limited availability, and most existing language apps – including those utilizing AI – are geared towards beginners or casual learners. This leaves serious learners striving to become fluent in English at a loss for effective and accessible solutions.

Loora provides English language learners with an app-based platform that harnesses AI specifically built, trained, and optimized for gaining practical fluency through personalized learning. The platform offers virtual language coaching 24/7 with real-time pronunciation and grammar feedback on conversations about any topic, at an affordable cost. Loora’s conversational AI allows learners to practice and hone their English skills using the subjects and situations that matter to them, whether that be role-playing real-life scenarios like job interviews, having technical conversations about a topic they’re passionate about, or practicing engaging social interactions in English. This empowers Loora’s learners to access more pathways for advancement in both career and social environments.

“Gaining English fluency can drastically improve people’s prospects, whether they’re looking to advance in their professional or personal lives. We’re excited to have quickly built a reality in which Loora is utilizing AI for good, enabling our rapidly growing community of learners across the globe to improve their lives with this new technology,” said Roy Mor, CEO and Co-Founder of Loora. “Building AI that can guide and support learners throughout their journey to achieving English fluency in an effective, engaging, and personalized way is a significant technological endeavor. We are grateful to have such incredible investors supporting us as we work to constantly improve our technology and expand its reach to even more individuals, professionals, and organizations.”

In 2023, Loora achieved over 8X increase in ARR and 2X improvement in user retention. Fueling the company’s rapid growth is its unique AI training methodology and proprietary data, which continuously improve its core models.

“We invest in exceptional teams with audacious ideas that have far-reaching impact, and Loora fits the bill perfectly with its distinctive application of AI to English language learning that enables true conversational fluency at scale,” noted Daniel Robins at QP Ventures. “Loora’s team has been innovating in AI long before it became popular and have therefore been able to create a prominent and deeply differentiated solution that captures all the advantages and nuances of being tutored by a native English speaker, while making language proficiency accessible, affordable, and achievable with technology. They are natural partners for us and we’re thrilled to join forces with them.”

Loora, which already has thousands of paying subscribers across the US, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, is available for download in the App Store. The company plans to use the recent funding to accelerate the growth of its team and operations, deepen the solution’s underlying AI technology, and expand its service to reach Android and enterprise users in the coming months.

“Hearst Ventures continues to support and invest in the Israeli tech ecosystem, and we are very excited about our recent investment in Loora. We invested globally in several startups that are leveraging AI and ML to disrupt specific verticals,” said Gil Canaani, Managing Director at Hearst Ventures. “We have been tracking Loora’s team since they started and were highly impressed with the depth of the technology and consumer experience they offer, leveraging LLMs to provide an engaging, fun and highly sophisticated AI-driven English language learning solution.”  

About Loora

Founded by Roy Mor and Yonti Levin in 2020, Loora harnesses the power of generative AI purpose-built to make English fluency attainable and accessible. Engaging with the virtual language coach’s conversational AI is tantamount to practicing with a native English speaker, but on the learner’s own terms. Loora is available 24/7, provides feedback on grammar, pronunciation, and accent without judgment, and is significantly more affordable than a private tutor, enabling users to practice at their leisure, to speak with confidence, and to unlock professional and personal growth opportunities. For more information visit, https://loora.ai. To download Loora, click here.

Media Contact
Allison Grey
[email protected]
US: +1 323 283 8176
UK: +44 203 807 4482
IL: +972 53 820 2606

SOURCE Loora

SINGAPORE, Feb. 20, 2024 — OKX Ventures, the investment arm of leading Web3 technology company OKX, has issued updates for February 21, 2024.

OKX Ventures Backs AltLayer in a US$ 14.4 Million Round to Champion Innovation in Blockchain Technology

OKX Ventures is proud to announce its participation in a funding round for AltLayer, a leading platform for rollups. The funding round, which raised $14.4 million, was co-led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC. This investment underscores OKX Ventures’ continued commitment to supporting innovative projects in the blockchain space.

AltLayer is a decentralized protocol that empowers developers to create rollups from various software stacks, offering a rollup-as-a-service model. This round of capital will be utilized to expand AltLayer’s team and further enhance its rollup infrastructure.

OKX Ventures Founder Dora Yue said: “We’re excited to support AltLayer in their quest for scalability and innovation in the blockchain technology sector. AltLayer’s dedication to developing rollup infrastructure signifies a considerable advancement for the industry. This aligns perfectly with OKX Ventures’ mission to support projects that drive innovation and push the boundaries of the blockchain space.”

OKX Ventures looks forward to seeing the growth and development of AltLayer, as well as supporting their vision to revolutionize the blockchain industry.

For further information, please contact:
[email protected]

About OKX Ventures

OKX Ventures is the investment arm of global leading crypto exchange and Web3 technology company OKX, with an initial capital commitment of USD100 million. It focuses on exploring the best blockchain projects on a global scale, supporting cutting-edge blockchain technology innovation, promoting the healthy development of the global blockchain industry, and investing in long-term structural value.

Through its commitment to supporting entrepreneurs who contribute to the development of the blockchain industry, OKX Ventures helps build innovative companies and brings global resources and historical experience to blockchain projects.

Find out more about OKX Ventures here.

Disclaimer

SOURCE OKX Ventures

CHICAGO, Feb. 20, 2024 — CIVC Partners, L.P. (“CIVC”), a Chicago-based middle market private equity firm focused on investments in the business services sector, is pleased to announce its investment in Highstreet IT Solutions (“Highstreet” or the “Company”) in partnership with CEO Nick Magliato, CFO Ben Davies, and the Highstreet management team. 

Highstreet, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, is a rapidly growing, cloud-focused Oracle implementation and managed services provider offering services across a client’s entire cloud lifecycle. The Company provides a full suite of services, from up-front strategy and design assessments, to implementing and migrating to cloud environments, to long-term managed services. The entire Highstreet management team will remain in place following the transaction. For additional information about Highstreet, visit www.highstreetit.com.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with a team at CIVC that shares our vision for Highstreet,” said CEO Nick Magliato. “CIVC has been an active investor in the IT services sector and has the resources and capabilities to help us execute on our growth strategy while continuing to provide unmatched services to our clients.”

Marc McManus, Partner at CIVC, commented, “Highstreet is a rapidly growing implementation and managed services provider with an exceptional track record of exceeding client expectations driven by deep technical expertise and end user focus. We are excited to partner with Nick and Ben to support the Company in accelerating organic growth and pursuing strategic acquisitions.” Andrew Roche, Principal at CIVC, added, “Highstreet is an exciting investment opportunity for CIVC and a strong fit with our experience investing in high-growth service-oriented businesses.”

The partnership with Highstreet builds on CIVC’s investment experience in IT services. Other representative investments include Datavail (data managed services), Industrial Networking Solutions (industrial IoT solutions), Allata (digital engineering services), iVision (managed IT services), and KeyData (cybersecurity services).

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to CIVC on the transaction. Guggenheim Securities acted as Highstreet’s financial advisor, and Winston & Strawn LLP served as legal counsel to Highstreet.

About CIVC Partners, L.P.

CIVC Partners is a Chicago-based private equity firm established in 1970 to provide growth capital to entrepreneurs and founders.  Since 1989, CIVC has invested over $2.4 billion in 82 platforms, primarily as growth and buyout capital, along with founders and executives in middle-market companies mainly in the business services sector. CIVC Partners now currently invests from CIVC Partners Fund VII. More information on CIVC Partners and its portfolio companies can be found at www.civc.com.

CIVC Press Contact

Kate Gallego
CIVC Partners 
(312) 873-7331
[email protected]

SOURCE CIVC Partners, L.P.

NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2024 — AHP announced today its investment in Prolerity Clinical Research (“Prolerity”), a clinical research site management network. As a cornerstone to the formation of Prolerity, AHP has made a majority investment in Tandem Clinical Research, LLC (“Tandem”), which operates 11 research sites across Louisiana, Florida, New Jersey, and New York. The investment in Tandem was completed in partnership with its founders Orlan Romm, Dr. Adil Fatakia and John Neill, all of whom will remain in their existing roles. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

Prolerity is focused on expanding into a leading site management network with a therapeutic breadth across complex and challenging phase I-III studies, including NASH/NAFLD, cardiology, CNS, gastroenterology, metabolic diseases, and other therapeutic areas. “Partnering with sites such as Tandem helps establish meaningful expertise in complex therapeutic areas while also ensuring subject diversity. Both are important principles for Prolerity as it scales,” said Bede Broome M.D. Ph.D., Managing Director at AHP. “Prolerity will build upon not only Tandem’s existing sites and outstanding investigators, but also embedded sites within several established physician platforms.”

Tandem, headquartered in New Orleans, has become widely known for operating best-in-class research sites for NASH/NAFLD and neurodegenerative studies. Tandem is considered a flagship network, demonstrating excellence in study feasibility, contracting, patient recruitment, retention, and quality. Tandem recently expanded into its newly developed, purpose-built 12,000 sq ft headquarters in Marrero, LA and a new 13,000 sq ft space in Maitland, FL through its ClinCloud division. Tandem can accommodate overnight stays and complex early phase trial needs. “AHP is the ideal partner for us – bringing not just capital, but industry experience and expertise to accelerate the growth our organization,” said Orlan Romm, CEO of Tandem. “This partnership could not have happened at a better time as our industry is evolving rapidly – becoming increasingly sophisticated and competitive. In partnership with Prolerity and AHP, we plan to lead the way to better treatment options, providing patients, study sponsors, and contract research organizations with the best possible high-quality services and dependability.”

About Tandem:

Tandem Clinical Research strives to advance the science of medicine while improving the quality of life of patients through clinical research. Tandem’s professional medical team believes in providing exemplary care to patients across its growing network of sites in Louisiana, Florida, New York, and New Jersey. For more information, please visit TandemClinicalResearch.com.

About AHP:

AHP is a New York based investment management firm focused exclusively on healthcare. AHP’s senior investment team have invested or managed over $3 billion in capital across the healthcare landscape. AHP’s mission is to create shared value by partnering with, and accelerating the growth of, healthcare companies. For more information, please visit AHPartners.com.

SOURCE Assured Healthcare Partners LLC