Monthly Archives: January 2025

Retail Platform Leap Raises $20 Million, Demonstrates Profitability & Adds Karen Katz to Board

NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2025 — Leap, the leading platform for physical retail, announced a $20 million financing as it demonstrates profitability. Tribeca Venture Partners and DNX Ventures, along with existing investors, participated in the fundraise. The funding will be used to expand Leap’s network of stores, enhance its retail operations and enable further investment into its platform technology and data analytics capabilities. Leap currently operates more than 100 stores in 12 Tier One U.S. markets for leading brands like Grown Brilliance, Ring Concierge, Godiva and Malbon Golf.

Leap is also pleased to announce the appointment of Karen Katz, former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Neiman Marcus Group, to its board of directors. Karen spent 33 years at the Neiman Marcus Group, including eight years as CEO. During her tenure, she grew the company’s digital presence and helped launch its omnichannel strategy, while also leading the acquisition of German e-tailer MyTheresa. Karen currently serves as Chairperson of the Board of The RealReal and has been a Board Member of Under Armour for more than 10 years, among other board positions.

“Brands continue to see the value in brick-and-mortar, as they strive to meet their customers with immersive shopping experiences in the markets where they already have a strong following and can build loyalty with newly acquired customers,” said Amish Tolia, co-founder and CEO at Leap. “Leap’s first-party data, economies of scale and shopper marketing file are significant benefits to modern brands that need the support to accelerate their omnichannel pursuits. Leap continues to enable brands to focus on what they do best – creating and marketing great products and serving their customer base while leveraging a data-driven platform to power their retail channel.”

Tolia continued, “This capital infusion will enable us to accelerate our growth and enhance our operations and technology as we continue to onboard premium brands and strengthen our fleet across markets. And we’re thrilled to welcome Karen to our board of directors, whose deep luxury and retail experience will undoubtedly help propel us further towards our vision and support the growth of our platform and our brands.”

About Leap
Leap is building the world’s largest network of branded retail stores – powered by data, technology, and scale. Leap’s platform enables brands to deploy stores that work in concert with ecommerce more rapidly at reduced cost and risk. Brand stores powered by Leap bring modern brands to life with compelling, immersive customer experience and operations driven and informed by millions of data points.

Learn more about Leap’s platform, and brand stores powered by Leap, at http://leapinc.com.

Contact:
Scott Cianciulli
[email protected]

SOURCE Leap

Quantifind Raises $22 Million to Deliver Proven AI Compliance Solutions Globally and Launches its Payments Risk Intelligence Solution to Meet Escalating Demands

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 16, 2025 — Adversarial actors are rapidly leveraging AI to launder funds, obscure payments, and commit financial crimes with growing sophistication. Financial institutions must catch up, adopting AI solutions with proven track records, robust controls, and rapid deployment. The right approach unifies accuracy, speed, and scale to combat these evolving threats.

Today, Quantifind, the leader in AI-powered financial crime intelligence, announced raising $22 million in funding from Deloitte Ventures and Stephens Group as well as existing investors, Citi Ventures, S&P Global, DNS Capital, and USVP, after growing by 200% in 2024. This investment accelerates the global expansion of Quantifind’s AI solutions delivered through its flagship platform, Graphyte, and powers the launch of Quantifind’s Payments Risk Intelligence solution. Quantifind’s advanced transaction screening for payments enables financial institutions to proactively detect and mitigate financial crime and sanctions risks while allowing the uninterrupted flow of legitimate payments.

Outdated systems rely on rigid rules and static scenarios that often fail to detect sophisticated financial crimes, and legacy sanction screening relies on simple fuzzy matching, generating excessive false positives. These inefficiencies drain resources, create operational bottlenecks, and allow critical threats to go unnoticed. Most systems lack contextual analysis of counterparty relationships, assessing transactions in isolation and missing key risk patterns. These inefficient screening and detection solutions impact revenue as good customers and valid transactions are either turned away or delayed.

Scalability limitations further compound the challenges. Traditional solutions struggle to handle increasing payment volumes, leading to performance bottlenecks, rising costs, and operational inflexibility—leaving institutions ill-prepared for today’s fast-paced payment environments.

“AI has become the weapon of choice for fraudulent and criminal actors within the financial services ecosystem,” said Ryan Morrow, Managing Director at Stephens Group, “Our investment in Quantifind reflects our belief that Quantifind’s AI Graphyte technology tips the balance back in favor of bank compliance and law enforcement.”

“Quantifind’s AI technology continues to redefine how financial institutions address the ever-evolving challenges of financial crime,” said Vibhor Rastogi, Head of AI Investments at Citi Ventures. “By delivering unprecedented speed, accuracy, and scale, Quantifind empowers organizations to operate with confidence and precision in an industry that demands constant vigilance.”

Quantifind Graphyte Platform:  Comprehensive AI Innovation

Quantifind’s Payments Risk Intelligence solution combines speed, scale, and accuracy and includes cutting-edge technological advancements to address the dynamic and high-stakes nature of transaction and name screening:

  • Name Science for AI Accuracy: Leveraging the latest GPU-based AI transformer models, Graphyte extracts, matches, and alerts on the correct entity by maximizing signals from metadata and hidden features. Other solutions create arbitrary distinctions between name matching and entity resolution and suffer high false positive rates.
  • Precise Language Models: Hidden relationships and dynamic risk typologies require the accuracy of large language models with the speed of real-time machine learning. Open-source solutions cannot offer the simultaneous speed and accuracy of Graphyte – and anything less cannot meet the bandwidth demands of payment screening.
  • AI Model Implementations for Enterprise Scale: Graphyte separates feature discovery from runtime decisions. At Tier-1 banks, Graphyte has proven the ability to screen tens of millions of entities in hours, with sub-100-ms API response times.
  • Real-Time Data Engine for Fast AI: Quantifind’s proprietary Real-Time Cluster (RTC) is a purpose-built, distributed query and storage engine optimized for speed and scale. Leveraging patented in-memory data management techniques and advanced name science, RTC enables rapid extraction of critical signals from terabytes of unstructured data, searching billions of documents in real-time with unparalleled efficiency—delivering insights at the speed modern compliance demands.
  • Built-in AI Controls and Oversight: From monitoring against AI bias to detecting model drift, Graphyte’s machine learning operations (ML-Ops) are category-defining and provide transparency across the model process. Real-time monitoring and audit reporting keep managers informed and compliant.

“Graphyte for payments transaction monitoring and screening represents the culmination of our commitment to delivering unmatched speed, accuracy, and scalability,” said Ari Tuchman, CEO and co-founder of Quantifind. “By enhancing our Payments Risk Intelligence solution with real-time transaction screening, we empower institutions to meet modern compliance demands while staying ahead of sophisticated adversaries.”

“Quantifind’s recent $22 million funding round reinforces the market need for true AI-native solutions in financial crime intelligence.” Jay Crone, Managing Director of Deloitte Ventures remarked: “Throughout our due diligence, Quantifind’s products stood out for their ability to leverage AI to deliver material efficiency improvements to their clients’ highly resource-intensive screening processes.”

About Quantifind

Quantifind is the leader in financial crime intelligence automation, providing purpose-built AI solutions that transform how organizations detect and mitigate risk. The Graphyte™ platform serves as an essential AI co-pilot, delivering real-time, accurate risk assessments by integrating internal data with complex, unstructured public information to uncover hidden threats and reduce false positives with unprecedented accuracy, speed, and scale. This empowers customers to collaborate with trusted entities, focus on critical risks, and strengthen compliance with greater confidence and precision.

For more information about Quantifind’s innovative solutions, visit www.quantifind.ai

Media Contact
Annalisa Camarillo
EVP of Marketing
Quantifind
Email: [email protected] 

SOURCE Quantifind

Good Springs Capital Raises $570 Million for Inaugural Investment Fund And Exceeds $600 Million in AUM

NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 2025 — Good Springs Capital LP (“Good Springs”), a private investment firm focused on partnering with founders, families, and entrepreneurial management teams in the industrial and services sectors, today announced the successful final close of its inaugural fund, Good Springs Capital Fund I (“Fund I”). Fund I closed with total committed capital of $570 million, bringing Good Springs’ assets under management to approximately $611 million. Fund I is anchored by the Chickasaw Nation and includes a diverse group of investors.

Good Springs Capital is led by Managing Partners David Van Geyzel and Udi Toledano, the former President & CEO and Chairman, respectively, of Alleghany Capital Corporation, the private investment arm of Alleghany Corporation, which was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2022. The founding team at Good Springs Capital also includes Partners Rob Hulick and Rich Albano, and Vice President Oren Bentley – key leaders in building Alleghany Capital Corporation into a $5 billion business.

David Van Geyzel stated, “We established Good Springs Capital to expand upon our team’s successful history partnering with talented middle-market entrepreneurs in the industrial and services sectors. Our senior team has worked together for more than a decade and we are pleased to have surpassed $600 million in assets under management within 18 months since launch. We are grateful to our anchor investor, the Chickasaw Nation, and to our other investors for their trust and support in providing us the opportunity to continue to implement our investment strategy and value creation model.”

Udi Toledano added, “2024 was a milestone year for Good Springs. In addition to closing our inaugural fund, we completed our first two platform investments. In June we closed our investment in family-held Kimbel Mechanical Systems and in October we invested in founder-owned Tectonic Engineering Consultants, Geologists & Land Surveyors.”

Kimbel is a leading mechanical contractor offering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical installation services to the nation’s leading homebuilders and Tectonic is a leading multi-disciplined engineering firm focused on the transportation, telecommunications, energy, and water infrastructure end markets.

“We are excited about the growth potential of our first two portfolio companies and the partnerships we have built with their management teams,” said Rob Hulick. “We believe that Good Springs is well-positioned to deploy additional capital in new platforms and add-ons in our target sectors in the years ahead.”

About Good Springs Capital

Good Springs, based in New York, NY, is a private investment firm focused on making control investments in middle-market companies run by founders, families, and entrepreneurial management teams in the industrial and services sectors. Good Springs is honored to have the Chickasaw Nation as a strategic partner. Good Springs approaches opportunities with a long-term mindset and strives to build strong partnerships with talented management teams. It supports successful companies in pursuing their next chapter of growth through the implementation of the Good Springs Growth System. For additional information about Good Springs, please visit www.goodspringscap.com.

Media Contact:
Kristina Mayne
[email protected] 

SOURCE Good Springs Capital LP

NU Advisory Partners Supports Chief’s Appointment of Alison Moore as CEO

NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 2025NU Advisory Partners is proud to have partnered with Chief on the search for their new CEO, Alison Moore. This pivotal appointment marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Chief, the largest community of senior women executives. The search was led by Meredith Rosenberg, Partner & Co-Founder, Libby Naumes, Partner & Co-Founder, and Lauren Perazza, Director of Research & Associates.

As a women-founded and women-led firm, NU Advisory Partners is especially honored to have collaborated with Chief, an organization dedicated to empowering women executives.

“Working with NU Advisory Partners was instrumental in finding the right leader to guide Chief into its next phase. They’re experts in CEO/Founder transitions and took the time to understand our ethos,” said Carolyn Childers, Co-Founder of Chief.

“Congratulations to Chief, its visionary founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan, and incoming CEO Alison Moore,” said Meredith Rosenberg. “We’re inspired by Chief’s commitment to advancing women in leadership and are proud to have played a role in this exciting chapter of their journey.”

Libby Naumes added, “Alison Moore’s extensive experience and proven leadership make her the ideal choice to lead Chief into its next chapter. Her ability to drive meaningful change and foster collaboration will undoubtedly strengthen Chief’s impact.”

Alison Moore brings over 20 years of leadership experience across technology, social impact, media, and entertainment. As CEO of Comic Relief US, she raised over $436 million and expanded the organization’s influence globally. Her expertise in digital innovation and her passion for equity align perfectly with Chief’s mission to empower women executives.

Chief’s success has been bolstered by the support of its investors, including General Catalyst, Inspired Capital, CapitalG, Primary Venture Partners, GGV Capital, Flybridge Capital, and BoxGroup. In 2019, Chief raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Ken Chenault, Chairman and Managing Director of General Catalyst, and Alexa von Tobel, Founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital. By October 2022, Chief achieved unicorn status with a $1.1 billion valuation, following a Series B funding round led by CapitalG, including a $100 million investment by the Alphabet subsidiary.

NU Advisory Partners deeply valued working alongside Chief’s investors, including Laela Sturdy (CapitalG), Benjamin Sun (Dandy), Jill (Greenberg) Chase (CapitalG), Ken Chenault (General Catalyst), Alexa von Tobel (Inspired Capital), and Lisa Lewin (Primary Venture Partners). “Collaborating with such visionary partners was both inspiring and rewarding. Their shared commitment to advancing women leaders aligns seamlessly with Chief’s mission,” said Libby Naumes.

About NU Advisory Partners
NU Advisory Partners is a women-founded and -led retained executive search and advisory firm specializing in senior executive, operating, and board positions. We recruit exceptional leaders to drive growth and provide assessments of critical human capital issues to ensure our clients’ success.

For more information about NU Advisory Partners, visit the firm’s website or LinkedIn.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Zev Newman
Director of Marketing
NU Advisory Partners
2484521532
[email protected] 

SOURCE NU Advisory Partners

Revelstoke Capital Makes Strategic Investment in Omega Systems to Accelerate Expansion of Managed IT Services

DENVER, Jan. 16, 2025 — Revelstoke Capital Partners (“Revelstoke”), a growth-oriented healthcare-focused private equity firm, announced its strategic investment in Omega Systems (“Omega” or the “Company”). Omega, a provider of managed information technology and cybersecurity managed services, is the eighth investment from Revelstoke Capital Partners Fund III. 

Omega, named a top 25 fastest growing IT service provider in North America in 2024 by CRN, provides critical support, end-to-end managed IT (“MSP”), cybersecurity (“MSSP”), compliance, and cloud services to customers in highly regulated industries such as financial services and healthcare.    

“We have been targeting the IT MSP / MSSP sector for investment and were attracted to Omega’s differentiated capabilities, customer retention and strong recurring revenue growth,” said Andrew Welch, Partner at Revelstoke. “We are excited to partner with Omega during a time when organizations in healthcare, financial services, and other industries continue to face significant IT and cybersecurity challenges.”

“Revelstoke believes this sector is poised for significant growth,” said Matt Dubbioso, Partner at Revelstoke. “Our plan is to build upon Omega’s existing infrastructure and capabilities and make additional investments to accelerate organic and inorganic growth.”

“This partnership with Revelstoke positions Omega for an exciting new phase of growth,” said Mike Fuhrman, CEO of Omega Systems. “Our customers operate in highly regulated industries with increasing demands for advanced cybersecurity, multi-faceted connectivity and trusted IT advisory. With Revelstoke’s partnership, we look forward to further enhancing these IT solutions to ensure our customers continue to benefit from the innovative and service-driven capabilities they’ve come to expect from our award-winning team.”

Q Advisors acted as financial advisor and McGuireWoods LLP served as legal counsel to Revelstoke. Harris Williams served as the financial advisor and Paul Hastings served as legal counsel to Omega Systems.

About Omega Systems

As a multi-award-winning MSP and MSSP, Omega Systems is passionate about delivering the security and compliance expertise today’s businesses need alongside the responsive and reliable managed IT support they deserve. Omega’s service-driven IT solutions portfolio includes 24×7 managed IT support, cybersecurity risk management, managed detection & response (MDR), backup and disaster recovery, multi-cloud connectivity, and much more. Omega Systems serves a diverse customer base across the U.S. and in key industries such as financial services, healthcare, professional services, manufacturing, government, and nonprofit. Learn more at www.omegasystemscorp.com.

About Revelstoke Capital

Revelstoke is a private equity firm formed by experienced investors who focus on building industry-leading companies in the healthcare services and healthcare technology sectors. Revelstoke partners with entrepreneurs and management teams to execute disciplined organic and inorganic growth strategies to build exceptional companies. Revelstoke is based in Denver, Colorado and has approximately $5.2 billion of assets under management. Since the firm’s inception in 2013, Revelstoke has completed 193 acquisitions, which includes 29 platform companies and 164 add-on acquisitions. For more information, visit www.revelstokecapital.com.

Contact
Lambert by LLYC
Caroline Luz
[email protected]
203-570-6462

SOURCE Revelstoke Capital Partners

Teammates.ai Launches Next-Generation AI Workforce, Closes New Round of Funding

DUBAI, UAE and SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 16, 2025 — With a successful round of funding, Teammates.ai launches a category-defining platform that drastically transforms the way businesses operate. Previously known as Uktob.ai, the rebranded platform builds on its experience in artificial intelligence (AI) agents, enabling businesses to use AI to take on entire job functions through Autonomous AI Teammates.

This announcement marks a significant milestone for the company. The rebranding to Teammates.ai coincides with a strategic shift to provide enterprise-grade AI solutions and an expanding collection of Teammates. The first Teammate, Raya, was launched in 2024, focusing on customer service. Its capabilities include voice calling, inbox management, and seamless software integration allowing it to effectively support every function of the role.

Alongside Raya, the company is launching its second Teammate, specialized in Inside Sales. With superior language competencies and an Arabic user interface, every Teammate has leading AI capabilities that allow them to speak and understand over 50 languages, including every dialect of the Arabic language; a first for the MENA region.

Expressing his excitement over the launch, Kareem Ayyad, Founder and CEO of Teammates.ai, said, “Rebranding to Teammates.ai marks a defining moment in our journey to transform how businesses leverage AI. Raya and our newly launched Sales Teammate are just the beginning of a broader AI Workforce—designed to work alongside human teams. We’ve already seen how this approach cuts costs, amplifies productivity, and empowers employees to focus on higher-impact challenges. This is only the beginning—each new AI Teammate pushes the boundaries of what’s possible for modern enterprises.”

Elizabeth Yin, General Partner at Hustle Fund, added, “2025 is the year of AI Agents, and Teammates is making work easier for people to become more efficient in their jobs. We’re super excited for their launch!”

Prior to its rebranding, Teammates.ai has built a successful track record by partnering with five leading governmental entities in the GCC. Notably, the company delivered the world’s largest Prompt Engineering Championship in collaboration with the Dubai Future Foundation, the Artificial Intelligence Office, and the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs—further demonstrating its leading role in the AI space. It was selected as one of the Future100 companies in the UAE by the Ministry of Economy. In addition, its previous AI assistant, Faheem, organically scaled within a few months, with over 400,000 users. These achievements helped the company attract funding from top tier global venture capital investors including Silicon Valley’s Hustle Fund, Access Bridge Ventures, Oraseya Capital, Beyond Capital, as well as notable angel investors from across the globe.

About Teammates.ai

At the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Teammates.ai is defining a new category known as the AI Workforce, specializing in Autonomous AI Teammates. The company is headquartered in Dubai, UAE with presence in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Since launching in 2023 as Uktob.ai, the former platform organically acquired over 400,000 users within a few months, with 100,000 active monthly users. Its tech has been successfully deployed with five major government entities in addition to delivering contracts with Dubai Future Foundation, the Artificial Intelligence Office, and the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs. The company has been recognized as a Future100 Company in UAE by the Ministry of Economy.

About Autonomous AI Teammates

Teammates are a full-stack vertical AI solution that handles entire job functions, composed of a network of AI agents. Together, they are capable of omni-channel communication, integration with enterprise tools, autonomous decision-making, and end-to-end task execution. The first Teammate, Raya, was launched in 2024 as a Customer Service Representative, with plans for other Teammates specialized in other job functions.

Media Contact:
Kareem Ayyad
+971528123860
[email protected]

SOURCE Teammates.ai

Workwize Raises $13 Million in Series A Funding to Disrupt IT Asset Management for Globally Distributed Teams

The new funding will allow Workwize to enhance its AI-driven automation and strengthen its
operations with the launch of a U.S. office in early 2025.

AMSTERDAM, Jan. 16, 2025 — Workwize, a leading platform for global IT hardware asset management, today announced that it closed $13 million in Series A funding led by Klass Capital, with continued support from early-stage investors Peak and Graduate Entrepreneur Fund. This investment will fast-track Workwize’s integration of AI-driven automation, making it the first platform to fully automate the IT equipment lifecycle—from procurement and deployment to retrieval and disposal.

“IT teams worldwide are overwhelmed by the inefficiencies of managing equipment for distributed teams. They waste valuable hours on manual, repetitive tasks and getting caught up in complex vendor management,” said Michiel Meyer, CEO and co-founder of Workwize. “This investment further solidifies our vision of a barrier-free future where managing a global workforce becomes effortless and enables IT workflows to shrink from hours to minutes through smarter automation.” 

A recent survey conducted by Workwize of over 150 global enterprises revealed that 48% of IT leaders prioritize ‘operational efficiency and automation.’ Workwize’s platform dramatically cuts IT management time from 27 hours to just 10 minutes per employee for tasks like procuring, deploying, managing, retrieving, and decommissioning IT equipment. What’s more, Workwize customers appreciate the platform’s ease of use, ensuring new hires receive the necessary IT equipment on their first day.

Fully automated hardware asset management: A breakthrough for IT leaders

Traditional IT hardware asset management platforms provide a centralized record of the locations and status of IT equipment, but moving equipment still relies heavily on manual interventions by IT teams. For example, if an overseas employee needs a laptop repair, an IT manager must coordinate with multiple international vendors: sending a shipping label and packaging to the employee, booking the repair, arranging and configuring a replacement laptop, seeking cost approvals, and more.     

Once fully automated, Workwize’s AI-driven platform automates the entire lifecycle of IT equipment, eliminating the need for labor-intensive interventions. Workwize improves the efficiency and scalability of repetitive tasks so that IT teams can focus on strategic initiatives. AI and automation are also used to analyze IT assets needed and manage the lifecycle of an organization’s IT hardware inventory globally. The company provides its customers with flexible delivery options, including pre-configured laptops with Mobile Device Management (MDM) from local warehouses, ensures compliance with standards like ISO, repurposes phased-out equipment, prioritizes sustainability, and certifies services to wipe, recycle, or resell IT assets. This leads to significant time savings and delivers an experience that is ten times more efficient, allowing IT teams to be completely hands-off.

“Our investment in Workwize reflects our strong belief in its ability to revolutionize IT management for an increasingly global workforce that demands streamlined solutions,” said Will Anderson, Managing Partner at Klass Capital. “Workwize provides the efficiency and scalability modern enterprises need to thrive in today’s dynamic, borderless business environment.”

Strengthened global operations

In 2024, Workwize has grown more than 3x and its platform is already transforming IT operations for customers, including Adyen, Elastic, EQT, and HelloFresh. The new funding will enable Workwize to expand its global footprint and enhance operations with the launch of a U.S. office in early 2025. Workwize also plans to double its headcount in 2025.

For more information, visit www.goworkwize.com/.

About Workwize
Workwize simplifies IT hardware management for globally distributed teams, automating procurement, deployment, retrieval, and disposal. This frees IT teams to focus on critical tasks and strategic growth.

The platform reduces IT hardware administrative time per employee from hours to minutes, offering zero-touch, end-to-end lifecycle management supported by a global vendor network. Organizations gain flexibility to source the best equipment at competitive prices.

Founded in 2021, Workwize operates in 100+ countries, managing over 100,000 devices for 25,000+ users. Companies like Elastic, EQT, and HelloFresh rely on Workwize to more efficiently support their global workforce. Visit Workwize at www.goworkwize.com.

About Klass Capital
Klass Capital is a Toronto-based growth equity firm established to provide expansion-stage capital to high-growth enterprise software businesses. Klass takes a long-term approach to investing and targets 10M100M equity investments. Klass moves quickly, has a collaborative approach, and strongly believes in adding value to its partners. Klass has built a portfolio of over 25 high-growth SaaS businesses across North America and Europe.

For more information, please visit https://www.klass.com/.  

About Peak
Peak is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Stockholm, investing across Europe with a focus on SaaS, marketplace, and platform companies. Being founded and backed fully by entrepreneurs Peak is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs in scaling up throughout their growth journey. Among its investments are leading companies such as Channable, Catawiki, Studocu, Creative Fabrica, Hygraph, Trengo, and Circula.

More information at: https://peak.capital.

About Graduate Entrepreneur Fund
Graduate Entrepreneur is a Venture Capital fund, established in 2021 by alumni of TU Delft, Erasmus MC, and Erasmus University Rotterdam. The initiative includes both a pre-seed and seed fund, with a combined capital of €58 million. Graduate Entrepreneur supports founders in scaling their startups, not only by providing funding but also by offering access to an extensive network of over 180 experienced entrepreneurs and alumni.

CONTACT
Dwain Schenck, 
[email protected]
+1 203-223-5230; 

Workwize Contact:
Andre Stoorvogel
[email protected]

SOURCE Workwize

Moment Energy Secures US$15 Million Series A Funding to Build World’s First Second-Life Gigafactory in the U.S.

Funding co-led by Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Voyager Ventures to accelerate production of high-performing Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) from repurposed EV batteries

Series A brings Moment Energy’s financing in the last three months alone to over US$40 Million with US$52 million raised to date

VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 16, 2025 – Moment Energy, one of North America’s leading EV battery repurposing companies,  today announced the close of its US$15 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Voyager Ventures.

Moment Energy’s battery energy storage systems (BESS) can be deployed in projects ranging from 400 kilowatt hours (kWh) to 10 megawatt hours (MWh), targeting an intermediate market segment that is currently underserved but crucial to the clean energy transition. Designed to serve commercial and industrial sectors, EV charging infrastructure, and renewable energy integration, the company is strategically positioned to capitalize on the convergence of rising EVs and renewable energy sources. This market presents a projected total addressable market (TAM) for battery energy storage exceeding $150 billion by 2030 fueled by an anticipated global demand of 1.2 terawatt hour (TWh). With 953 gigawatt hour (GWh) of second-life batteries projected to be available for repurposing by 2030, Moment Energy has a significant opportunity to leverage this growing resource and meet the increasing demand for sustainable energy storage solutions.

This new investment will support Moment Energy’s plan to construct the world’s first gigafactory dedicated to repurposing electric vehicle (EV) batteries in the United States. The landmark project – which was awarded US$20.3 Million from the US Department of Energy in October 2024 – is expected to create over 250 skilled jobs in clean technology and renewable energy and bolster North America’s lithium security to support the increasing demand for commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage and EV charging infrastructure.

“This funding marks a pivotal milestone for Moment Energy, enabling us to further advance our operations and lead the charge in transforming retired EV batteries into valuable battery energy storage systems,” said Edward Chiang, CEO of Moment Energy. “By providing a new path for second-life batteries, we’re able to enhance grid stability, increase lithium security in North America, and support renewable energy integration. We serve as a catalyst for an exciting new circular economy that increases energy security as energy demand rises.”

Moment Energy plans to leverage the new funding to expand to gigawatt hour scale manufacturing of second-life battery supply. The company will seek to double the size of its Vancouver headquarters facilities and team, further strengthening its ability to serve automaker partners across the world. As a trusted second-life partner for numerous leading automakers, Moment Energy provides a high-performing, sustainable and cost effective alternative to battery recycling, aligning with the automotive industry’s sustainability goals while reducing overall dependency on new raw materials. This second-life approach allows Moment Energy to offer energy storage solutions at prices up to 30% lower than traditional, first-life battery systems.

“Moment’s second-life battery solution addresses a growing recycling challenge to offer an elegant solution to scalable energy storage,” said Nick Ellis, Principal at the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund. “We’re excited to work with Moment to deploy more sustainable energy solutions and reshape the energy landscape.”

“Moment Energy’s approach tackles two pressing challenges – reducing the cost of energy storage deployment while creating a sustainable solution for end-of-life EV batteries,” said Leonardo Banchik, Investment Director at Voyager Ventures. “The company’s advanced battery management technology and strategic partnerships enable commercial, industrial, and utility-scale customers to access reliable, long-lasting energy storage at compelling price points. We’re excited to support Moment Energy as they scale their solution and help transform the energy storage landscape, starting with North America.”

In addition to Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Voyager Ventures, this funding round received participation from In-Q-Tel (IQT), Version One Ventures, Overture Ventures, WovenEarth Ventures, Fika Ventures, MCJ, One Small Planet, and Climate Capital.

For access to a selection of hi-res images, please click here.

About Moment Energy

Moment Energy is North America’s leading EV battery repurposing company creating clean, affordable, and reliable battery energy storage systems (BESS) by repurposing retired electric vehicle batteries. Moment Energy works with major automotive companies, including Mercedes Benz Energy, to support circular economy goals and ensure their batteries are safely used in second-life applications before they are recycled. The team supports utilities, microgrids and commercial customers to improve grid reliability, power EV charging stations and reduce demand charges, all with a sustainable and performant BESS solution made from repurposed EV batteries.

For more information, please visit – https://www.momentenergy.com/ 

SOURCE Moment Energy

Prophecy Takes in $47M Led by Smith Point Capital

Revenue and expansion soar amid AI boom and migration from legacy tools

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 16, 2025 — Data copilot company Prophecy today announced a $47M Series B extension to accelerate the AI-powered transformation of the data integration market.

Smith Point Capital led the round, with HSBC joining as a new investor and participation from existing investors including Berkeley SkyDeck, DallasVC, Insight Partners, JPMorgan Chase and SignalFire. The new funding comes on the back of 3.5X revenue growth in FY’24 with 160% net revenue retention from existing customers.

“We are thrilled to partner with Prophecy in their mission to revolutionize data engineering and drive efficiency in data operations across industries, including financial services. Their platform is a key enabler in powering the next data stack, leveraging AI to automate complex data workflows for data engineers and business users,” said Ian Glasner, Group Head of Emerging Technology, Innovation and Ventures, HSBC.

Prophecy is thriving amid surging demand from enterprises building AI and analytics applications. These initiatives typically depend on data scattered across dozens, or even hundreds, of sources across the enterprise. The engineers needed to retrieve and integrate this data are expensive and scarce, and months-long delays are common. As a result, the overall Data Integration market grew to over $13B USD in 2023,1 with nearly 70% of spend among large enterprises looking for better ways to unlock enterprise data.

That’s why Fortune 500 companies including Amgen, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase are turning to Prophecy.

Prophecy gives users easy access to corporate data — structured or unstructured, on-premises, in the cloud or both. Its AI-powered visual designer generates standardized, open code that extracts, transforms and delivers the required data. It automatically builds the necessary data pipelines and tests, generates documentation and suggests fixes for errors.

“Prophecy is fundamentally changing the way enterprises think about data transformation with a platform that is optimized for modern cloud data platforms and accelerating deployment of AI capabilities,” said Burke Norton, co-Founder and Managing Director of Smith Point Capital. “By democratizing data proficiency and access, Prophecy is solving a multi-billion-dollar productivity challenge for enterprise data teams who typically spend 80% of their time preparing data for analytics and AI, rather than implementing it.” 

Many of today’s data integration and ETL tools were developed more than two decades ago. They were built for traditional data warehouses and on-premises deployment, making them a poor fit for today’s cloud data platforms. A 2024 IDC report explained: “Legacy data engineering tools do not work well in modern data environments, and modern data engineers need code-free and code-friendly technologies because data integration and transformation are now occurring at all organizational levels, including in IT and the line of business.”2

In addition to building new pipelines for analytics and AI, organizations use Prophecy to modernize, migrate and consolidate the ones they already have. To date, Prophecy has helped large companies migrate complex production pipelines from tools including Ab Initio, Alteryx, DataStage, Informatica and more.

“Despite decades of investment in desktop and platform tooling and aggressive hiring of hard-to-find data engineers, large organizations still come to us with 12-month backlogs delaying their AI and analytics projects,” said Prophecy CEO Raj Bains. “Prophecy’s holistic approach combines visual design, code and AI to serve data engineers and analysts on a common platform for maximum teamwork and productivity. This new investment will accelerate our roadmap and is already helping us scale to serve more customers in 2025.”

To learn more about Prophecy, please visit: prophecy.io.

About Prophecy
Prophecy is the data copilot company. Fortune 500 enterprises — including the largest institutions in banking, insurance, healthcare & life sciences, and technology — rely on Prophecy Data Transformation Copilot to accelerate AI and analytics by delivering data that is clean, trusted and timely. Prophecy enables all data users and makes them productive by helping develop, deploy and observe data pipelines on cloud data platforms. Organizations trust Prophecy for the most demanding workloads, including tens of thousands of data pipelines that deliver massive volumes of data for AI and analytics.


1 Precedence Research, “Data Integration Market Size, Share, and Trends 2024 to 2033”, 2024
2 International Data Corp. “AI-Powered Data Transformation”, 2024

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Firebrand Communications for Prophecy 
415-848-9175
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SOURCE Prophecy