Veteran entrepreneurs codify winning methods from dozens of successful companies, providing AI tools and capital for the next generation of entrepreneurs

NEW YORK, June 27, 2025 — Audos, which finds and develops everyday entrepreneurs to build million-dollar AI businesses, today announced $11.5 million in combined Pre-Seed and Seed funding led by True Ventures with participation from Offline Ventures, Bungalow Capital, and prominent individuals including Bjarke Ingels, Leila Zegna, Niklas Zennstrom, and Mario Schlosser. In the past year Audos has already helped entrepreneurs launch hundreds of AI applications now being used by customers. A majority of the funds are earmarked for new entrepreneurs.

Founded in 2024 by Henrik Werdelin and Nicholas Thorne, the founders of venture studio Prehype—behind successful brands like BarkBox, Ro, and Managed By Q —Audos helps solo entrepreneurs quickly turn their expertise into business opportunities through a unique combination of AI tools, human support, and capital.

“In the past year, we’ve helped entrepreneurs launch hundreds of AI applications like wine tasting from Michelin-starred sommeliers, meal-planning, dating, Bible study, and customized post-partum fitness,” said Nicholas Thorne, Co-founder of Audos. “Our system simplifies the creation of AI agents that can interact with customers almost anywhere. These agents represent the future of entrepreneurship—they run 24/7, scale expertise quickly, and deliver personalized experiences without the traditional overhead. As entrepreneurs grow, our AI continuously identifies new opportunities and automates expansion, enabling systematic growth. 

Audos’ Program focuses on four key pillars:

1. The Million-Dollar Business Model: A codified methodology from successful entrepreneurs to identify promising everyday entrepreneurs and match their unique expertise with viable AI business opportunities using a proprietary framework that aligns personal strengths with business opportunity. The result is a focus on founder-market fit, profitability, sustainability, and solving real problems from day one
2. Rapid Market Validation Through Doing: Helping entrepreneurs offer real services immediately instead of just testing concepts, handling technical implementation and customer acquisition so entrepreneurs can focus on relationships.
3. The Audos Program: An all-in-one system combining human expertise with AI tools. Based on success patterns from the founders’ dozens of successful start-ups, the program helps entrepreneurs discover their business concept, identify and target customers, and create AI applications that operate 24/7 across multiple channels. The program’s agentic capabilities unlock a business’s potential through features including automated customer service, actionable insights, autopilot functions, and strategic iterative updates based on growth opportunities and customer data. 
4. Aligned Capital & Support: A model where Audos succeeds only when entrepreneurs succeed, providing flexible financing capital, support, and shared upside within a community of founders. The approach provides day-one resources with no personal risk through a revenue-sharing system, allowing entrepreneurs to grow at their own pace.

“We’re witnessing a remarkable shift in how technology enables entrepreneurship,” said Henrik Werdelin, co-founder of Audos. “While 60% of Americans want to be entrepreneurs, traditional barriers—time, funding models, expertise, and complex technology—keep most sidelined, even those with valuable skills and strong work ethic. We’re supporting a new generation where entrepreneurs anywhere can leverage AI to build profitable businesses aligned with their expertise and interest.”

“What makes Audos truly special is their bold reimagining of what it means to be an entrepreneur today,” said Tony Conrad, Partner at True Ventures. “Henrik and Nicholas have unlocked a powerful opportunity in the space between small business financing and traditional venture capital—one that opens the door for creators, builders, and founders with different skill sets. By leveraging AI, their platform empowers a new generation to build high-revenue, sustainable businesses without sacrificing independence or vision. We’re inspired by their mission to reimagine entrepreneurship and shape a future where anyone with ambition, an idea, focus and passion can thrive.”

Anyone can start building their new AI business today here.

About Audos

Audos finds and develops everyday entrepreneurs to build million-dollar AI businesses. We help them turn their expertise into business opportunities and provide them proven tools and capital to launch their concepts quickly to real customers. Our program simplifies the creation of AI agents that operate across multiple channels—removing technical barriers so founders can focus on strategy and relationships. Founded in 2024 by serial entrepreneurs Henrik Werdelin and Nicholas Thorne, Audos is headquartered in New York with a distributed global team, and is backed by some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and VCs, shaping the next era of AI-driven entrepreneurship.

SOURCE Audos

NEW YORK, June 27, 2025 — Gensmo, the groundbreaking AI-powered fashion agent, is changing the way how people find their personal style by making fashion discovery easier, smarter, and more fun. With its innovative Try-On feature, users can see outfits on their own digital avatars in real-time—making it simple to go from idea to outfit.

Gensmo harmoniously helps users mix and match clothes, build looks, and find the right pieces that fit their budget and vibe. Whether it’s a $25 thrifted find or a designer jacket, Gensmo brings it all together in one smooth experience — no more juggling tabs or guessing sizes.

“Our goal is not to make people more productive,” says Ning Hu, Founder and CEO of Gensmo. “It’s about helping them feel good in what they wear and more sure about their own taste.”

Gensmo launched in December 2024, with a clear vision: to bring AI into fashion e-commerce in a real, useful way. The platform utilizes powerful AI models to transform your taste and inspiration into intelligent, shoppable recommendations. Whether you’re building a travel capsule wardrobe, prepping for a big day, or just browsing for fun, Gensmo helps make your choices easier and more you.

Built for style, backed by tech

Gensmo has raised over $60 million in seed funding, a sign that investors deeply believe in the company’s mission to bring real AI innovation to the fashion e-commerce world.

Gensmo is built by a team with deep experience in both AI and fashion. The founding team comprises serial entrepreneurs and former executives from internet giants, with backgrounds at prominent companies such as Google, Alibaba, and top AI research labs. Ning Hu herself was a tech lead for Mobile Search at Google and later VP at Alibaba. She has a PhD in AI from Carnegie Mellon University. The other co-founders bring experience from the fashion industry, making sure Gensmo never loses its style sense.

With offices in New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Seattle, the team works across fashion and tech hubs to stay close to trends and talent. Gensmo remains committed to pushing the boundaries of intelligent fashion discovery and enhancing human style.

Existing at the intersection of technology and human intuition, Gensmo’s AI Features Include:

• Unified Interactive Flow: Gensmo seamlessly integrates fashion matching, search, virtual try-ons, and personalized vibe adjustments into one smooth session. Users can effortlessly compare, refine, and save favorite looks, blending AI-driven recommendations with their personal touch.
• Hyper-Personalized Recommendations: Powered by deep learning, computer vision, and style preference algorithms, Gensmo creates personalized mood boards designed to ignite individual inspiration.
• Virtual Try-on: Gensmo’s proprietary try-on model, trained on hundreds of thousands of looks, offers dynamic and realistic fashion visualizations. Extra outfit ideas after Try-On, because one look is never enough.
• Vibe Imagine Feature: Harnessing advanced image-generation technology, this new feature lets users curate custom fashion aesthetics, and create fashion scenes that match their mood or trip vibe.
• Integrated Shopping Experience: Seamlessly connecting users with a broad network of e-commerce platforms and independent boutiques. Buy what you love without extra steps.

AI as a Companion, Not Replacement

Gensmo is an AI-native company, built from the ground up to make fast, creative updates based on user needs.

Gensmo’s mission is rooted in a profound understanding of fashion as a profoundly human art form. While AI excels at structured tasks, fashion and beauty—shaped by culture, emotion, and personal experiences—are inherently subjective. At Gensmo, the guiding question for innovation is, “Can AI learn taste and understand beauty?” Therefore, dedicated AI models continuously evolve, learning from human choices and experiences.

“The future of fashion isn’t about AI replacing personal style. It’s about using technology to enhance individuality and empower users to express themselves confidently,” Ning emphasizes. “This balance is at the heart of Gensmo.”

While the company is still early, its community momentum is undeniable. In beta, it helped generate over 10 million style matches and indexed 100 million fashion products. On TikTok and Instagram, Gensmo’s community is taking off—with videos hitting over a million views, and thousands of outfit shares every day. More than buzz, users are sticking around. They’re using Gensmo to get outfit ideas, prepare for events, give thoughtful fashion gifts, and build confidence through clothing that reflects who they are.

Meet Gensmo: Your Fashion AI Agent for Every Wear, by visiting gensmo.com or downloading the app from the App Store or Google Play.

About Gensmo

Gensmo is an AI-native company with a radical belief: The future of fashion isn’t about what AI can do instead of you—it’s about what becomes possible when technology honors what only you can bring. Your eye for beauty. Your creative spark. Your human touch. These are not inefficiencies to be optimized away. They are the soul of fashion itself.

As the first AI fashion agent, Gensmo provides hyper-personalized recommendations, virtual try-ons, and immersive visual inspiration. Connecting to major e-commerce platforms and boutique retailers, Gensmo delivers a seamless fashion journey from inspiration to purchase. Under the leadership of CEO Ning Hu, Gensmo redefines style discovery with advanced AI, market foresight, and a commitment to celebrating personal beauty.

SOURCE Gensmo

LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y., June 26, 2025 — Incoco Capital, along with developers Tavros and Charney Companies announce that Madison Realty Capital, Kushner Companies, and OneIM have provided significant construction loan financing for its development of 24-19 Jackson Avenue and 45-03 23^rd Street in Court Square, a 55-story skyscraper which will soon begin rising in Long Island City.

Financed with $425 million in backing from Madison Realty Capital, a vertically integrated real estate private equity firm, along with $100 million from Kushner, a multi-generational real estate development and management firm, and OneIM, a global alternative investment manager and Kushner’s capital partner, the condominium will bring 636 new units to the already vibrant Long Island City neighborhood.

“We have successfully carried out numerous projects in New York in partnership with proven developers and global institutional investors, including Korea” stated Fa Park, Chairman and Founder of Incoco Capital. “We are also exploring EB-5 investment opportunities, given the project’s potential for job creation and broad economic impact.”

The project site was completed in 2022 when Incoco Capital acquired additional land from Japanese hotel chain Toyoko Inn for approximately $68.5 million, doubling the size of the original site, which had been assembled by Tavros and Charney since 2016.

The architectural design is being led by FX Collaborative, and the residential offerings will include a diverse mix of units, ranging from studios to one- to four-bedroom residences. In addition to offering a premier amenities package, Chelsea Piers Fitness will occupy the building’s podium for 30 years, and Whole Foods will do so for 15 years. Construction will begin in June 2025 and conclude in the spring of 2028.

“We’re very excited to commence construction on our Court Square building, which is set in a spectacular location with wide ranging views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the East River and its bridges,” said Nicholas Silvers, Founding Partner of Tavros. “This is an extremely exciting time for us, and we’re grateful to both Madison Realty Capital and to Kushner for sharing in this exhilarating project.”

“The opportunity to create new condos in one of the most electric neighborhoods in Queens has been a journey of perseverance, challenging work and vision, all supported by a world-class team of professionals, colleagues and of course, our financial partners,” said Sam Charney, Principal, Charney Companies. “Our dream is now becoming a reality, with construction beginning immediately.”

“We are pleased to provide financing to Tavros and Charney, repeat borrowers with significant experience delivering luxury projects across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, for a development that will bring affordable housing units in addition to a premier grocer and fitness experience to the already vibrant and diverse Long Island City community,” said Josh Zegen, Managing Principal and Co-Founder of Madison Realty Capital. “This transaction reflects Madison Realty Capital’s commitment to supporting best-in-class developments and providing innovative financing solutions to advance transformative projects throughout New York City.”

“The building is located at the nexus of Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, and the neighborhood is primed for a stunning new property,” said Matt Burrows, Managing Director, Kushner. “Tavros and Charney have a stellar record with projects such as The Dime in Williamsburg, The Jackson in LIC, and the five Gowanus Wharf residences currently in development. With the backgrounds and the reputations that the two developers share, we are confident that Court Square will be another well received and successful addition to the continuously evolving neighborhood.”

A hub for public transportation, Court Square is conveniently located near the 7, G, E, M, N, and R trains. Buses abound, with routes through Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. The Long Island Railroad is steps away, as are great restaurants for all wallet sizes, MoMA PS1 and other museums, parks and shopping.

About Incoco Capital:
INCOCO, the inventor and manufacturer of the world’s first dry nail polish strips, has been employing innovative and proprietary technologies to transform the cosmetics market since the company’s launch in 2005. INCOCO’s Color Street brand launched in 2017, has grown into one of the most prolific direct selling companies in the Unites States, and was ranked 24^th amongst direct selling companies globally in 2020. Now with a worldwide distribution channel and full cosmetic lineup, INCOCO aims to become a premiere and global cosmetic group.

Incoco Capital, a privately-owned real estate investment management and development firm. Currently, the firm is leading five large-scale development projects across New York City. www.incococapital.com

About Tavros:
Tavros is a privately-owned real estate investment management and development firm. They invest on a discretionary basis, with a strong focus on New York City, and a global investor base of family offices, trusts, high net worth individuals, and institutions. Core to the Tavros discipline is the quality of its partnerships with tenants, investors, and lenders. As an owner and property manager, Tavros aims to ensure a positive experience for its tenants through attention to detail and a focus on quality of life.

About Charney Companies:
Founded in 2013, Charney Companies is a fully integrated real estate development, construction, brokerage, and management firm with a focus on developing, owning, and operating first-class residential and commercial real estate in the New York City Metro area. From ground-up construction to adaptive reuse and value-add repositioning, Charney plays an integral role in all aspects of the development process and leverages the expertise and experience of their principals to deliver superior products to the marketplace and best-in-class returns for their investors. Charney owns, operates, and is under construction on two million square feet throughout Brooklyn and Queens, and has won awards and accommodations from municipal organizations and media outlets for their work over the last 5 years. For more information, visit: https://charneycompanies.com/.

About Madison Realty Capital:
Madison Realty Capital is a vertically integrated private equity firm focused on US-based commercial real estate private credit strategies. As of March 31, 2025, the firm, including its controlled affiliates (collectively, “Madison”), manages $23 billion in assets on behalf of a global institutional investor base. Since 2004, Madison has completed $66 billion of securities and non-securities real estate transactions largely through direct lending to a wide range of borrowers, acquiring non-performing loans and making preferred equity investments. Madison Realty Capital seeks to deliver value across every phase of the property lifecycle by providing customized financing solutions and strong underwriting capabilities that meet borrowers’ unique needs with speed and certainty of execution. To learn more, follow Madison Realty Capital on LinkedIn and visit www.madisonrealtycapital.com.

About Kushner:
Kushner is a multi-generational real estate development and management firm headquartered in New York City. The company’s diverse portfolio encompasses residential, commercial, retail, hospitality, and industrial properties, with over 10,000 units currently under development and over 25,000 apartments under ownership across fourteen states. Kushner’s integrated team touches upon every step of the development and management process for its properties, creating an unparalleled and seamless experience for their tenants, team members, and partners. 

About OneIM:
OneIM is a global alternative investment manager that invests across the capital structure, in a range of asset classes, industries and geographies. The firm applies a flexible investment approach and focuses on creating long-term value working with exceptional partners and management teams. OneIM is sector agnostic and focuses on situations where it can leverage its cross-asset class expertise and capital base to achieve differentiated risk-adjusted returns. The firm was founded in 2022 and currently manages approximately $7 billion in assets. The team operates from offices in Abu Dhabi, London, Tokyo and New York. https://www.oneimgroup.com/

SOURCE INCOCO CAPITAL, LLC

MIAMI, June 26, 2025 — The $1M pre-seed round, backed by Boost VC and Winklevoss Capital, will enable Castle to onboard forward-thinking SMBs to an automated bitcoin treasury solution.

Castle, a bitcoin treasury platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced today it raised $1 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round to accelerate its mission of making it seamless for businesses to protect and grow their wealth using bitcoin.

The round was led by Boost VC, with participation from Winklevoss Capital, Park Rangers Capital, Epoch VC, and select angel investors. The funding will fuel platform development and scale onboarding efforts to reach SMBs nationwide, serving companies seeking an inflation-resistant, turnkey treasury solution.

“Most savings products used by small and medium businesses, despite being framed as high-yield, actually lose money after accounting for inflation. Business owners are waking up to this and deserve better,” said Stephen Cole, CEO of Castle. “Bitcoin, with its strictly limited supply, has been the best performing asset of the past decade and we’re excited to bring it to companies across America.””We see bitcoin as the world’s most powerful savings technology, and Castle is making it easy and accessible for small and medium businesses,” said Brayton Williams, Managing Partner of Boost VC. “The founders are veteran bitcoiners and tech leaders, combining a rare sense of mission and execution ability, and Boost VC is excited to support them.””Bitcoin is the ultimate store of value,” said Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. “Unlike fiat, it protects the value of your life’s work. Castle lives up to its name by helping businesses safeguard their balance sheet by automatically converting a portion of every sale into bitcoin.”João Almeida, CTO, said “By integrating with tools like QuickBooks, PayPal, Square, and Stripe, our platform gives businesses intelligent bitcoin exposure aligned with their operational requirements. Castle is built to be invisible so owners can focus on what they do best and know their bitcoin treasury will look the way they want.”

By dynamically suggesting strategies ranging from conservative to aggressive, Castle enables businesses to right-size their allocation according to their risk tolerance. Current customers span industries including restaurants, fitness, accounting, e-commerce, SaaS, fine art, real estate, and more.

Castle’s automation and integrations maintain the desired level of bitcoin exposure even in the face of challenges such as fluctuations in revenues, expenses, or overall holdings, through features such as:

• Automated recurring allocations to bitcoin either as a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of revenue (e.g., 5%)
• Setting thresholds on cash accounts to trigger automatic bitcoin purchases or sales, ensuring liquidity for operational expenses.
• Defining maximum and minimum percentages that bitcoin should represent of overall holdings

“Bitcoin isn’t just for Silicon Valley and Wall Street, it’s also for Main Street,” Cole said “We believe all businesses will begin upgrading to bitcoin over the next 10 years, and those earliest to do so stand to benefit the most.”

With free sign-ups and no monthly fees, Castle makes an inflation-proof treasury solution available to SMBs. To sign up today, users can visit savewithcastle.com.

For media inquiries, users can contact 21M Communications at [email protected].

About Castle

Castle provides businesses with intelligent bitcoin treasury solutions, combining automation and seamless financial integrations to safeguard assets and foster long-term value creation. Learn more at savewithcastle.com

Contact
Founder
Phil
21M Communications.com 
[email protected] 

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2720169/Castle_Raises_1M.jpg

SOURCE Castle

NEW YORK, June 26, 2025 — Niural, the first AI-native global PEO (Professional Employment Organization) for fast-growing companies, has raised $31 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Marathon Management Partners, with participation from existing investors M13, Inspired Capital, Newform Capital and several new strategic investors. Marathon’s Gokul Rajaram, an industry leader on the boards of Coinbase, The Trade Desk, and Pinterest, joins Niural’s board.

The funding will accelerate Niural’s AI capabilities and global expansion, furthering its mission to build an AI-native system of intelligence for  CFOs of modern companies.

Solving the Fragmented Back-Office

Historically, the payroll industry has seen minimal innovation, operating on decades-old infrastructure and tax engines built in the 1980s. Traditional PEOs struggle to support today’s distributed teams, which forces growing companies to patch together multiple vendors. This fragmentation creates disjointed systems of record that prevent effective AI implementation, which requires access to a single source of truth.

Niural addresses this challenge for companies by introducing a fundamentally reimagined solution: the industry’s first end-to-end global PEO platform. Developed over several years, Niural’s platform features proprietary tax engines, integrated payments infrastructure, and EMMA—the industry’s first executional AI coworker. With Niural, customers:

• save over 60 hours per month
• reduce HR and foreign exchange costs by up to 50%, and
• reduce payroll errors by 90%.

While Niural enters the market as a PEO, its capabilities extend across all CFO functions. “At its core, payroll is one of the most complex fintech challenges a company faces,” said Gokul Rajaram. “Niural has fundamentally rethought payroll by designing an AI-native fintech infrastructure from scratch which enables it to innovate and launch interrelated products faster than any platform I’ve seen at this stage.  This creates immediate value for CFOs managing all money flows, positioning Niural as the primary vendor for scaling organizations.”

Niural was co-founded by seasoned entrepreneurs Nami Baral and Nabin Banskota. Nami Baral, CEO, previously founded Harvest, which introduced AI agents in the consumer financial technology space. Nabin Banskota, President, brings extensive financial leadership experience as a former CFO with deep expertise in global financial operations, risk management, and compliance.

“Niural sits at the intersection of powerful industry shifts – in AI-driven automation, global workforce distribution, and integrated financial operations,” said Nami Baral. “With agentic AI, Niural is converting a legacy system of records into a system of intelligence that companies can rely on for generations.”

Drawing from his extensive experience as a CFO, Nabin Banskota emphasized the practical value Niural offers: “As a former CFO, this is a dream come true for most finance folks that are hyper-focused on growth globally.” “Most companies that come to us start with our PEO product and end up replacing 3-6 different tools, which is very strong validation from our customer base.”

Niural has seen incredible traction with 700 percent ARR growth last year and a growing list of clients who are leaders in their field, such as Tensor, Polygon Labs, Mob Entertainment, Slingshot AI, and Karate.com.

“Niural has become a true extension of our team,” said David Kuhn, General Counsel at Karate.com. “We began with one product, but now rely on Niural’s entire suite of products globally. Their platform effortlessly manages multiple subsidiaries, complex payments, and extensive compliance requirements.”

About Niural:
Niural is the first AI-native PEO platform built specifically to manage payroll, global compliance, and payment operations, featuring EMMA, an executional AI coworker that revolutionizes operational efficiency. Founded by repeat entrepreneurs Nami Baral and Nabin Banskota, Niural serves rapidly growing companies in SMB and mid-market segments. Niural empowers organizations to scale their HR & Finance operations effortlessly, domestically and internationally. For more information, visit https://www.niural.com.

About Marathon Management Partners:
Marathon is a multi-stage investment firm that partners with founders who are obsessed with defining their categories across software and fintech. Founded by Gokul Rajaram, Michael Gilroy, Chase Packard, and Alex Gorgoni, Marathon combines deep operational and investment expertise with long-term capital to support companies from inception through scale. The firm has offices in New York, Menlo Park, and Los Angeles.

SOURCE Niural

Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Tacta is developing robotics with human-like tactile abilities for industrial and consumer applications

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 26, 2025 — Tacta Systems, a robotics company developing dextrous intelligence to give robots human-level tactile skills and spatial awareness, today announced $75 million in funding to accelerate the development of robotic solutions capable of performing complex, human-like tasks.

The funding includes a previously undisclosed $11 million seed round, led by Matter Venture Partners, along with a $64 million Series A round led by America’s Frontier Fund and SBVA, with participation from Matter Venture Partners, B Capital, EDBI, Sojitz Corporation, CDIB -TEN Capital, Yazaki Innovations Inc., B5 Capital, Tyche Partners and Woven Capital.

Tacta’s breakthrough lies in its proprietary combination of software, hardware and AI advances, along with its development of Dextrous Intelligence. As a smart nervous system, Dextrous Intelligence allows robots to sense, adapt, and manipulate the physical world with human-like precision and speed.

“Enabling machines to solve complex, physical world problems is the next frontier in robotics technology,” said Andreas Bibl, Co-founder and CEO of Tacta Systems. “AI models have become incredibly sophisticated in working with text and video, but much of the physical world remains incomprehensible to them. We’re incredibly excited about the disruptive technology that we’re developing, which will ultimately help humanity automate much of the drudgery of factory work and grueling physical labor.”

“Tacta is led by one of the most seasoned and accomplished Hard Tech entrepreneurs that I’ve ever seen,” said Wen Hsieh, Founding Managing Partner at Matter Venture Partners. “The technology that they’ve developed in the last year-and-a-half is game-changing, and will prove incredibly valuable to both robotics and the world in the coming years. My firm and I are proud to have backed them from the very beginning.”

About Tacta Systems
Tacta Systems is an advanced robotics company developing Dextrous Intelligence, the nervous system for robots. Its technology enables robots to perform delicate, variable, human-like tasks with flexibility, efficiency and autonomy. Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Tacta is backed by Matter Venture Partners, America’s Frontier Fund, SBVA, B Capital, Sojitz Corporation, CDIB -TEN Capital, Yazaki Innovations Inc., B5 Capital, Tyche Partners, and Woven Capital. 

Contact 
Sabrina Seneviratne
[email protected]

SOURCE Tacta Systems

ATLANTA, June 26, 2025 — Eagle Merchant Partners (“Eagle” or the “Firm”) has made the first investment from its recently closed Fund II, backing Aligned Fitness, a leading Southeast-based Franchisee of Club Pilates. The private equity firm is partnering with Aligned’s leadership to accelerate growth through new studio development and strategic acquisitions across the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States.

Founded in 2016, Aligned Fitness is led by CEO Jon Smith, along with founders Joe and Kerry Ruggieri, who will remain in their roles and continue to drive the platform. Eagle also completed two add-on acquisitions: Crescent Concepts, LLC, which operates Club Pilates studios in South Carolina and North Carolina, and Next Twenty, LLC, which operates Club Pilates studios in Georgia. The combined Aligned platform will operate 34 studios today across North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina.

“The Club Pilates system represents a highly attractive opportunity given its market leading brand within the pilates sector, passionate and inclusive member base and strong unit economics,” said Jake Rubenstein of Eagle Merchant Partners. “Jon, Joe, Kerry and their team have built a differentiated platform focused on providing a consistent, high-quality experience to their members, and we are investing in their vision for growth.”

Aligned Fitness marks Eagle’s third transaction in the health and wellness sector, following its acquisition of AYA Medical Spa and previous investment in United Planet Fitness. The firm has deep experience in multi-unit and franchise businesses, with a focus on owner-operated companies across the Southeast.

“We were drawn to Eagle’s track record in wellness and franchising,” said Jon Smith, CEO of Aligned Fitness. “They understand the dynamics of growing a multi-unit consumer business and bring the right mix of operational and strategic support as we expand.”

The boutique fitness industry, estimated at $24 billion and growing at more than 12 percent annually, continues to benefit from post-COVID consumer focus on personalized offerings.

Piper Sandler advised Aligned Fitness and Williams Mullen acted as legal counsel. King & Spalding acted as legal counsel for Eagle Merchant Partners and Miller & Martin acted as legal counsel to Eagle & Aligned for the two add-on acquisitions.

Eagle closed its second fund, Eagle Merchant Partners Fund II, with $415 million in capital commitments in May 2025.

Thornton Kennedy
[email protected]
C | 404.210.0363

SOURCE Eagle Merchant Partners

Funding was led by Cobalt Ventures to help Handspring grow its evidence-based behavioral health model for families

NEW YORK, June 26, 2025 — Handspring, a mental health provider focused on youth, young adults, and their families through high-quality virtual therapy, has announced a $12 million Series A round. The round was led by Cobalt Ventures, with participation from NextView Ventures, nvp capital, 25madison, Arkitekt Ventures, VamosVentures, Hyde Park Angels (HPA), Cornucopian Capital, and others. Two health plans also joined the round, underscoring strong payer alignment with Handspring’s clinically rigorous and cost-effective model of care.

Handspring is redefining youth mental health by building a workforce of fully employed, expertly trained therapists, addressing a national shortage of qualified pediatric providers. Unlike platforms that rely on gig-based networks with minimal oversight, Handspring invests in developing its clinicians through structured onboarding, weekly individual and group consultations, and ongoing training in evidence-based care. The Company’s model includes skills-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), exposure therapy, parent coaching, and a first-of-its-kind Complex Care program designed to support high-risk youth who are often underserved, turned away from traditional outpatient services, and often unnecessarily referred to higher levels of care such as emergency departments (ED) or intensive outpatient programs (IOP).

Handspring’s approach is working:

• 96% of families report improvement in daily life of their family upon discharge.
• The company maintains a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 82, reflecting exceptional satisfaction and trust.
• 84% of patients in treatment for anxiety and 79% of patients in treatment for depression saw clinical improvement, as measured by validated clinical scales at the completion of their care.

Underpinning Handspring’s care delivery is a fully integrated technology platform, including custom-built patient and provider portals, a homegrown AI-powered clinical scribe, and a therapist matching engine that ensures strong clinical fit from day one. These tools streamline operations, minimize operational overhead, and create a more seamless experience for both families and providers.

“While we’ve made strides in expanding access to care, we’ve simultaneously allowed quality standards to erode. Patients deserve more than just an available therapist – they deserve evidence-based treatment, genuine therapeutic relationships, and measurable progress toward recovery,” said Sahil Choudhry, CEO and co-founder of Handspring. “This funding is so important because it helps us continue to build a system that truly cares about the long-term well-being of every child and family we serve.”

Kwasi Kyei, President and co-founder, said, “Handspring is meeting the needs of children, teens, and young adults with complex challenges that many providers can’t or won’t treat. And it doesn’t stop there — we take a whole family approach by working with parents so they can support their children outside of therapy sessions.”

The company also announced that Dipa Mehta of Valeo Ventures and Rob Go of NextView Ventures have joined its Board of Directors, bringing deep expertise in digital health and early-stage growth.

The investment will be used to deepen clinical programs for complex patient populations, expand value-based care partnerships, and enhance the company’s proprietary technology platform, including further development of AI tools focused on automating operations and improving outcomes of care.

About Handspring
Handspring Health is reimagining mental health care for the next generation – serving children, adolescents, young adults, and their families through structured, measurable, and evidence-based virtual therapy. With a team of licensed clinicians trained in treating anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD, trauma, and more, Handspring empowers young people and their families to thrive. Care is personalized, timely, and grounded in outcomes – because better mental health starts with better care. For more information, visit handspringhealth.com.

SOURCE Handspring Health

With funding led by Forgepoint Capital, the fast-growing startup is pioneering agentic AI to slash data costs, automate data engineering and prepare enterprises for AI at scale.

DALLAS, June 26, 2025 — DataBahn.ai, creator of a security-native data pipeline platform built for modern enterprise workloads, today announced it has raised $17 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Forgepoint Capital, with participation from S3 Ventures and returning investor GTM Capital, bringing the company’s total capital raised to $19 million.

The funding will accelerate the development of the DataBahn platform roadmap for agentic AI —autonomous agents that learn from enterprise data flows to automate data engineering tasks—and support global expansion as the company establishes itself as the trusted foundation for enterprises seeking clarity, control and composability in their data pipelines.      

DataBahn.ai is setting a new benchmark for how modern enterprises manage and operationalize telemetry across security, observability, IOT/OT and AI ecosystems. The DataBahn platform delivers a dynamic, AI-native data fabric that allows organizations to seamlessly integrate, govern and optimize data pipelines from any source to any destination—with one-click simplicity and enterprise-grade control.

Unlike legacy streaming solutions that simply move logs, DataBahn goes further. Its new Phantom agents collect telemetry without deploying traditional agents, avoiding footprint bloat and preserving compute resources. Built on a revolutionary AI-driven architecture, DataBahn parses, enriches and suppresses noise at scale, all while also being mindful of egress costs. The platform’s new federated search capabilities deliver persona-based insights; it’s beyond just using SQL queries. For security teams, this means faster threat detection and streamlined compliance. For observability teams, better predictive analytics for IT outage prevention. For business teams, deeper application transaction visibility. For the enterprise as a whole, DataBahn unlocks the full value of data—without compromise.

Today’s enterprises don’t just need data pipelines; they need intelligent fabrics that adapt, govern and optimize data at scale,” said Nanda Santhana, co-founder and CEO of DataBahn.ai. “We’re building the foundation for a new era of observability, one where data is not just moved, but understood, enriched and made AI-ready in real time.”

In a blog post, Forrester Research observed that “data pipeline management tools can route, reduce, redact, enrich or transform data. The benefits of a purpose-built data pipeline tool are to reduce the data preparation necessary to interpret the streams of data and events specific to security insights. With increasingly distributed and disparate systems, a purpose-built data pipeline tool is designed to address complexity of classification, integration and modeling data for analysis.”

It is the above set of benefits outlined by Forrester that the DataBahn platform presently provides to a diverse set of enterprise customers. The company was founded by seasoned leaders in cybersecurity, data, infrastructure and risk—including alumni of top security vendors, Big Four consultancies and global financial institutions. The DataBahn platform has rapidly become a foundational layer in the modern enterprise data stack. In under two years, the platform has enabled Fortune 50 and Global 2000 organizations to reduce telemetry processing costs by over 50%, automate the majority of their data engineering workloads and eliminate blind spots across SIEM, observability and AI pipelines. Read more about customers using DataBahn at https://www.databahn.ai/.

“Enterprises aren’t just overwhelmed by data volume; they’re being outpaced by its complexity,” said Santhana. “Our mission is to transform telemetry from a liability into a strategic asset by making data pipelines smarter, leaner and AI-ready from the start.”

The need for more intelligent data storage and analytics pipelines is an existential question for large enterprises. The total amount of data created, captured, copied and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 149 zettabytes in 2024. Global data creation is projected to grow to more than 394 zettabytes by 2028.

As part of the Series A round, Ernie Bio, managing director at Forgepoint Capital, has joined the DataBahn.ai board of directors. “DataBahn is tackling one of the most urgent infrastructure challenges: how to manage and extract value from fragmented, fast-growing data streams,” said Bio. “What’s truly rare is the customer enthusiasm. We heard consistent praise for the platform’s rapid ROI, forward-looking innovation and the team’s responsiveness—qualities that separate great companies from the rest.”

Originally designed to address the unique challenges of cybersecurity, IoT and OT telemetry, the DataBahn platform has rapidly evolved into a unified control plane for enterprise data. Its expansion into application, infrastructure and observability workloads reflects a growing demand for intelligent, end-to-end visibility across the modern data lifecycle.

“We didn’t set out to build just another pipeline. We built DataBahn to make data work for security and IT teams—not the other way around” said Nithya Nareshkumar, co-founder and president of DataBahn.ai. “By combining deep domain knowledge with plug-and-play AI, we’re helping teams break through complexity and unlock insight from day one—no rewiring, no retraining.”

CSL Behring is Using DataBahn at Enterprise Scale
“This product has changed what data means to us. Our journey with DataBahn has transformed data from a cost center into a strategic asset. I’d recommend this to every CISO and IT leader looking to take control of their data,” said Greg Stewart, senior director of cybersecurity and threat intelligence at CSL Behring.

Additional Quotes
“Enterprises face significant challenges converting security data into actionable insights due to significant longstanding limitations of legacy systems,” said Chris Inglis, former U.S. national cyber director, cybersecurity advisor to the president of the United States in the Biden administration, and an advisor to DataBahn.ai. “DataBahn’s innovative approach to scalable security data management represents a critical advancement in automating and optimizing data for next-generation security architectures. I’ve enjoyed working with the DataBahn team and look forward to continuing being a part of their journey to address the urgent need for intelligence and optimization in security data management.”

“Trusted by the world’s largest enterprises, DataBahn’s AI-powered data fabric is at the core of next-generation observability architectures,” said Aaron Perman, partner at S3 Ventures. “As data volumes exponentially outpace the limits of legacy SIEM and observability architectures, DataBahn puts enterprises back in control. We are excited to partner with DataBahn on this next phase of growth as they continue to enhance the product and build out the team.”

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About DataBahn
DataBahn is an AI-powered data pipeline and fabric platform that enables enterprises to securely collect, enrich, orchestrate and optimize telemetry across security, application, observability and IoT/OT systems. Initially purpose-built for cybersecurity, the platform is rapidly expanding into IT and application transaction data—powered by its AI agent, Cruz, which automates complex data engineering tasks in real time. By eliminating fragmented toolchains and reducing operational overhead, DataBahn delivers real-time insights, intelligent automation and immediate ROI—without added complexity. Learn more at DataBahn.ai or contact [email protected].

About Forgepoint Capital
Forgepoint Capital is a leading venture capital firm that partners with transformative cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and infrastructure software companies protecting the digital future. With the largest sector focused investment team, over $1 billion in AUM and an active portfolio of more than 40 companies, the firm brings over 100 years of collective company-building expertise and its global Advisory Council of more than 100 industry leaders to support exceptional entrepreneurs advancing innovation globally. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area and London with a presence in Madrid and Paris, Forgepoint is proud to help category-defining companies reach their market potential. For more information, follow Forgepoint on LinkedIn.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Jenny Fowler
Cathey.co for DataBahn
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SOURCE DataBahn