Founded by a team with experience from Anduril, Uber, and the U.S. military, Chariot Defense brings a next-generation power platform designed to support modern warfighting at the edge

SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2025 — Chariot Defense, a venture-backed defense technology company, emerged from stealth mode today, announcing their company’s bold mission: to transform how energy is controlled and distributed as power across the modern battlefield. 

Founded in late 2024 and already fielded by the Department of Defense in multiple large-scale military exercises, Chariot Defense has established itself as the leader in battlefield power. Chariot’s systems enable resilient, low-signature power at the tactical edge and define a new paradigm for increasingly distributed, electronic, and autonomous warfare.

“Chariot Defense provides a solution to a crucial problem: battlefield power infrastructure is not keeping pace with the speed of threats and development of new systems,” says Adam Warmoth, Chariot Defense Founder and CEO. “We are bringing the high-voltage commercial power revolution to defense, enabling operators to sustain everything from radios and drones to electronic warfare, directed energy, and edge AI compute infrastructure; quietly, reliably, anywhere, anytime.”

The company has raised $8 million in seed funding from top defense technology investors, led by General Catalyst and XYZ, with participation from Cubit Capital, Ravelin, Forward Deployed VC, Pax, New Vista, D3, and Brave Capital.

“Chariot Defense embodies the values-driven, mission-aligned companies that we seek to support, building a critical infrastructure layer that directly strengthens national security,” says Paul Kwan, Managing Director at General Catalyst. “Their ability to go from concept to fielded systems in under six months, work alongside operators, and solve real-world challenges at the edge has been remarkable. We are excited to support Chariot as they build what we believe to be a foundational platform to power next-gen defense innovation.”

Today’s military still powers its ever-expanding suites of sensors, drones, autonomous systems and AI-driven command posts using noisy generators based on decades-old technologies that can’t handle the demand. Chariot’s technology bridges that gap.

“While everyone focuses on building smarter weapons, Chariot is building the intelligent power systems that makes them all work,” says Ross Fubini, Managing Partner at XYZ Venture Capital. “Chariot sees this more clearly than anyone and is building the distributed power infrastructure that will define how future conflicts are fought. This isn’t just better batteries or quieter generators—it’s positioning to become the power prime contractor for modern warfare.”

A New Infrastructure Layer for Modern War

Today’s warfighters are increasingly reliant on high-tech systems, from autonomous drones and mobile command posts to advanced sensors and Counter-UAS platforms. But these systems are only as effective as the power sources behind them. Modern military operations require scalable, modular power, ensuring continuous, adaptable operation for forces in contact.

Built specifically for the needs of the modern warfighter, Chariot Defense’s Amphora power systems extend operational independence for resilience during supply disruption, adapt to unit needs during distributed, expeditionary missions, and sustain rugged, quiet, all-weather operations. Amphora is silent, lightweight, and modular, providing reliable power with minimal signature, addressing major gaps in legacy generator-dominated systems.

Driven by Defense Experts, Informed by the End User

Chariot Defense’s leadership team brings deep experience from Anduril, Tesla, Apple, Uber, Archer, and frontline military veterans. Warmoth brings a background in engineering at Stanford, problem and customer expertise from Anduril, and technical knowledge from cutting-edge aerospace companies to deliver much-needed disruption to the military power market. Their approach blends commercial agility with a defense-first mindset, rapidly fielding, iterating, and refining solutions based on real-world feedback.

“We’re building for real-world needs, side-by-side with the people who will use and benefit from our platform,” says Warmoth. “Our goal isn’t just to provide better power systems—it’s to become the power backbone that enables a new class of warfighting capabilities and makes next-generation military operations possible.”

About Chariot Defense
Chariot Defense is a defense technology company pioneering next-generation power distribution systems built for the demands of modern warfare. Its Amphora platform provides modular, high-voltage, and low-signature power at the tactical edge—powering everything from radios and drones to sensors and directed energy systems. Founded in 2024, Chariot is backed by leading national security investors and led by a team with deep experience across defense, technology, and government. Learn more at https://www.chariotdefense.com/.

Media Contact:
Stephen Reiff
[email protected]

SOURCE Chariot Defense

Backed by Galaxy Digital, Antalpha, and Mantle, FBTC Reaches $1.5B in TVL—Establishing the Gateway for Institutional Bitcoin Productivity.

NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 — Function (formerly Ignition) today announced that Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ/TSX: GLXY) has joined as a core contributor and investor in its $10M seed round alongside Antalpha and Mantle. With strategic support from Galaxy, Mantle, and Antalpha (NASDAQ: ANTA), Function is transforming Bitcoin from a passive store of value into a productive, composable financial asset that can flow seamlessly across decentralized and traditional markets. 

FBTC—a fully reserved Bitcoin asset with over $1.5B in Total Value Locked—serves as the flagship asset, establishing Function as the definitive gateway for corporate treasuries and institutions seeking to deploy Bitcoin productively while maintaining security and sovereignty.

Activating Bitcoin as a Yield Generating Asset

Bitcoin‘s financial utility has reached a critical inflection point. With growing attention on strategic crypto reserves with the United States and Pakistan, and regulatory clarity enabling publicly traded companies like Microstrategy and MetaPlanet to adopt the Bitcoin Standard for corporate treasury, the question is no longer whether Bitcoin should evolve beyond a passive store of value, but how to unlock its productive potential at institutional scale. The Bitcoin Growth story needs to have utility in its next phase.

“At Function, we’re not just wrapping Bitcoin—we’re building the infrastructure and routing it into productive capital flows,” said Thomas Chen, CEO of Function. “We’re establishing the gateway for institutional Bitcoin yield, starting with FBTC as our standardized omnichain asset. This represents a structural shift in how Bitcoin participates in the global financial system, enabling corporate treasuries to optimize their Bitcoin holdings while preserving the asset’s core properties.”

Galaxy Strengthens Institutional Foundation

Galaxy joins Mantle and Antalpha as core contributors to FBTC, enhancing the institutional infrastructure through:

• Enhanced Liquidity: Supporting the development of institutional-quality liquidity rails for seamless capital deployment
• Security Council Leadership: Contributing to governance, risk framework development, and security standards
• Strategic Investment: Accelerating the development of FBTC’s standard infrastructure for Bitcoin‘s integration into global financial markets

“Galaxy’s partnership validates our vision of Function as the gateway for Bitcoin productivity,” said Chen. “Their institutional expertise strengthens our mission to build the standard infrastructure that enables Bitcoin to flow freely across global financial markets.”Jason Urban, Global Head of Trading at Galaxy, added: “I believe Function represents the next evolution in Bitcoin‘s journey toward becoming a productive financial asset. We’re excited to contribute to the infrastructure that Function is building to establish Bitcoin as a capital-efficient reserve asset for global markets.”

Building on a Foundation of Trust and Security

FBTC is a fully reserved, 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset already integrated with over 8 major protocols and over 25 leading dApps, including Ethereum, Mantle, Aave, and Babylon. Purpose-built to meet the needs of institutions, DeFi protocols, and sophisticated participants, the platform is anchored by three foundational pillars:

• Institutional Trust & Security: Multi-layer security architecture, comprehensive risk management, and rigorous audit standards designed for institutional adoption
• Sustainable Yield & Liquidity: Smart contract architecture that maintains Bitcoin‘s 1:1 backing alongside transparent yield strategies and liquidity provisioning
• Omnichain & Composable Infrastructure: Seamless integration with major blockchain ecosystems—including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Mantle—and emerging institutional DeFi networks

To learn more about Function and FBTC, users can visit https://www.fxn.xyz.

About Function

Function is pioneering a new standard for Bitcoin yield, transforming BTC into a secure, composable, and institutionally trusted asset across decentralized finance. FBTC represents the first omnichain Bitcoin yield asset, enabling BTC holders to participate in structured, risk-managed yield strategies. Function is supported by Galaxy Digital, Mantle, Antalpha Prime, and leading institutions.

For more information, users can visit: Website | X/Twitter | LinkedIn 

About Galaxy 

Galaxy Digital Inc. (NASDAQ/TSX: GLXY) is a global leader in digital assets and data center infrastructure, delivering solutions that accelerate progress in finance and artificial intelligence. Our digital assets platform offers institutional access to trading, advisory, asset management, staking, self-custody, and tokenization technology. In addition, we invest in and operate cutting-edge data center infrastructure to power AI and high-performance computing, meeting the growing demand for scalable energy and compute solutions in the U.S. The Company is headquartered in New York City, with offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

About Antalpha

Antalpha (NASDAQ: ANTA) is a leading fintech company specializing in providing financing, technology, and risk management solutions to institutions in the digital asset industry. As the primary lending partner of Bitmain, Antalpha offers Bitcoin supply chain and margin loans through the Antalpha Prime technology platform, which allows customers to originate and manage their digital asset loans, as well as monitor collateral positions with near real-time data.

About Mantle 

Mantle is building the largest sustainable hub for on-chain finance. Through its core products — Mantle Network, mETH Protocol, and FBTC — Mantle is unlocking the future of finance by blending institutional expertise with the transformative power of blockchain. Anchored by the Mantle Treasury, the largest community-owned treasury in the ecosystem, Mantle ensures robust liquidity and financial stability. With over $4.3 billion in assets, it actively funds core product development and fosters the growth of asset partners, such as Agora AUSD, Ethena USDe, Ondo USDY, and EigenLayer restaking, enhancing sustainable yield, deep liquidity, and financial utility on the Mantle Network. 

For more information, users can visit: Website | X/Twitter 

Contact:
Erina Penkovsky
[email protected] 

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2732264/Function_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Function

OpenEvidence also announces the wide release of OpenEvidence DeepConsult™—the first AI agent purpose-built for physicians

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 15, 2025 — OpenEvidence, the most widely used medical search and AI application among verified U.S. clinicians, today announced a $210 million Series B round at a $3.5 Billion valuation. Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins co-led the Series B round. Sequoia Capital, which led OpenEvidence’s Series A round earlier in 2025, followed on in this round. The round also included investments from Coatue, Conviction, and Thrive. OpenEvidence has raised more than $300 million since its founding.

OpenEvidence helps clinicians make high-stakes clinical decisions at the point of care. 
OpenEvidence is redefining evidence-based medicine in real-time and transforming how frontline healthcare providers access, evaluate, and apply the world’s medical knowledge. OpenEvidence is actively used across more than 10,000 hospitals and medical centers nationwide and by more than 40% of physicians in the United States who log in daily to make high-stakes clinical decisions at the point of care. OpenEvidence continues to grow by over 65,000 new verified U.S. clinician registrations each month. In July of 2024, OpenEvidence supported approximately 358,000 logged-in, verified U.S. physician consultations in one month. One year later, OpenEvidence now handles that many each workday—and supports over 8,500,000 clinical consultations by logged-in, verified U.S. physicians per month—a 2,000%+ year-over-year growth rate. More than 100 million Americans this year will be treated by a doctor who used OpenEvidence.

Clinicians are overwhelmed by information overload, with the volume of medical research published annually doubling every five years. Traditional medical evidence databases are slow, fragmented across multiple platforms, and require extensive manual searching that pulls physicians away from patient care. Through an array of strategic content partnerships (including the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and all eleven JAMA specialty journals—such as JAMA Oncology and JAMA Neurology) OpenEvidence gives clinicians the power to search once, skip the scavenger hunt, and surface the science in seconds. Clinicians using OpenEvidence (which is HIPAA compliant) can input clinical questions or patient case details and receive point-of-care answers grounded in the latest research, complete with references and even follow-up suggestions. OpenEvidence rapidly surfaces relevant medical knowledge, synthesizes medical research, and gives clinicians the power to make faster, more evidence-based decisions—accelerating both medical literature review and clinical decision support. By reducing the lag between new evidence and bedside application, OpenEvidence enables improved patient outcomes.

“At a time when U.S. healthcare faces the dual challenges of clinician burnout and a projected physician shortfall of nearly 100,000 by 2030, the question of AI’s role in bridging the gap is paramount,” says Daniel Nadler, founder of OpenEvidence. “When physicians’ lives are hard, patients’ lives are harder. OpenEvidence’s commitment to building an AI copilot for clinicians is rooted in the belief that AI will be a force for good in the world, ultimately benefiting both healthcare professionals and the patients they serve. Physicians are superheroes, and OpenEvidence is giving these superheroes new superpowers.”

“Daniel Nadler is a magnet for talent, attracting top AI researchers and a world-class medical advisory board,” said Sangeen Zeb, General Partner at Google Ventures. “As a firm with a life sciences team largely composed of physicians and scientists, we deeply understand the challenges clinicians face with traditional tools. Physicians are drowning in information but starving for timely insights. OpenEvidence changes that equation, bringing clinicians into the modern era. As early investors in Daniel’s first company, Kensho, GV has been privileged to know him for over a decade. He is a once-in-a-generation founder building one of the fastest-growing technology applications ever seen.”

Legendary investor and Kleiner Perkins Chairman John Doerr—who co-led Google’s original Series A and has served on its board since 1999—said, “It’s hard to imagine a better use for AI than OpenEvidence. Daniel Nadler and his world-class team are building what I believe will become an AI-era treasure, a life-saving resource for doctors, patients, and their families. I can’t imagine the future without it.”

“It’s exceptionally rare to see a product reach this level of adoption—let alone among physicians, who are notoriously hard to win over and exacting in what they trust—and the fact that 40% of all physicians in the United States log in daily to OpenEvidence’s software is a staggering signal of both trust and utility,” said Mamoon Hamid, Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins. “OpenEvidence is not just building a company, they’re setting a new global standard for how evidence-based medical decisions are made. We’re proud to support a mission with this kind of generational ambition.”

OpenEvidence has announced key strategic content partnerships with the American Medical Association (JAMA) and The New England Journal of Medicine so that full-text content and multimedia from the global gold standards of medical knowledge are used to inform answers in OpenEvidence—giving physicians, medical researchers, and healthcare professionals faster access to clinically relevant evidence to improve patient outcomes and save lives.

Robert M. Wachter, MD, Chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF and author of the upcoming book, A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future, said, “Thus far, the digital transformation of healthcare has mostly fallen short in its efforts to deliver trusted, evidence-based clinical decision support to clinicians when they need it most. The partnership between the American Medical Association, a cornerstone of medical research and analysis for more than a century, and OpenEvidence, my preferred platform for AI-powered clinical insights, represents a significant step toward fulfilling that promise. I’m confident that both clinicians and patients will benefit.”

OpenEvidence, founded by Harvard– and MIT-trained PhDs, also today announced the wide release of OpenEvidence DeepConsult™, the first AI agent purpose-built for physicians. DeepConsult empowers every physician with a personal, private team of PhD-level, medically-specialized AI agents built by OpenEvidence—capable of conducting advanced medical research while the physician steps away, whether to see the next patient, take a lunch break, or get some rest. OpenEvidence DeepConsult agents use advanced reasoning models to autonomously analyze and cross-reference hundreds of peer-reviewed medical studies in parallel—surfacing not just direct answers, but novel, cross-cutting connections across the literature that might otherwise go unnoticed. The result is an evidence-based synthesis: An integrative, interdisciplinary understanding distilled from hundreds of peer-reviewed medical studies—what would otherwise take a human researcher months of painstaking effort to produce for a single clinical topic.

While OpenEvidence’s core search product is designed for speed—returning precise, evidence-based answers in the 5–10 seconds physicians often have between patients—DeepConsult addresses a different kind of clinical use case: when physicians have more time to ramp up on a new body of knowledge. A physician can pose a complex question before heading to lunch—and return to a comprehensive PhD-level research report in their inbox by the time they get back. This marks a new era of medical productivity: tireless, agentic assistants—PhD-level research intelligence, never tired, never off-duty—reasoning at unprecedented scale, uncovering insights, unlocking new knowledge, and reshaping the future of care.

Each DeepConsult run requires over 100 times the compute and cost of a standard OpenEvidence search. Some leading foundation model companies have publicly speculated about charging tens of thousands of dollars per month for their envisioned PhD‑level agents that are still under development. Yet as part of its mission to support physicians at the point of care, OpenEvidence is offering DeepConsult entirely free to all verified U.S. clinicians—regardless of their institution or workplace.

OpenEvidence will use the funding to expand strategic content partnerships that enhance its library of advanced medical knowledge. OpenEvidence was founded by serial entrepreneur Daniel Nadler, founder of Kensho. Kensho became the most valuable artificial intelligence company of the 2010s when S&P Global acquired it for $700 million in 2018. Google Ventures was the first major investor in Kensho, funding the company while Daniel Nadler was completing his PhD at Harvard University. In 2025, OpenEvidence founder Daniel Nadler was named to the TIME100 Health list of the 100 Most Influential People in global health.

About OpenEvidence

OpenEvidence is the fastest-growing clinical decision support platform in the United States, and the most widely used medical search engine among U.S. clinicians. Trusted by hundreds of thousands of verified physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, OpenEvidence is actively used across more than 10,000 hospitals and medical centers nationwide and by over 40% of physicians in the United States who log in daily to make high-stakes clinical decisions at the point of care.

OpenEvidence continues to grow by over 65,000 new verified U.S. clinician registrations each month. Aside from Google itself, there has never been a piece of technology adopted by clinicians as quickly as OpenEvidence. OpenEvidence is transforming how frontline healthcare providers access, evaluate, and apply the world’s medical knowledge. More than 100 million Americans this year will be treated by a doctor who used OpenEvidence.

OpenEvidence was founded by Daniel Nadler and Zachary Ziegler. Founded with the mission to organize and expand global medical knowledge, OpenEvidence is redefining evidence-based medicine in real-time. In recognition of this impact, in 2025, OpenEvidence founder Daniel Nadler, PhD, was named to the TIME100 Health list of the 100 Most Influential People in global health.

SOURCE OpenEvidence

Founded in 2003, vCompute was among the first U.S. companies to offer dedicated and on-demand cloud-based HPC services. Today, the company serves mission-critical workloads across industries such as energy, manufacturing, geophysics, life sciences, and climate research. The planned expansion will increase hosting capacity and support demand for advanced AI and HPC infrastructure solutions.

“We’re seeing exponential demand growth,” said Edward Hawes, CEO of vCompute. “This capital raise marks a strategic inflection point. With proven infrastructure designs, extreme automation, and strong financial discipline, we’re positioned to scale quickly and profitably — both through organic buildouts and potential acquisitions.”

vCompute operates two debt-free data centers in Houston, engineered for cost-efficiency and operational resilience. Automation and intelligent monitoring systems minimize labor requirements, resulting in a lean expense profile and strong margins.

“We’ve remained conservative and profitable since the beginning,” Hawes continued. “Now, with operational risk minimized and market validation firmly established, we are accelerating our growth. This expansion represents a rare opportunity for investors to participate in a high-margin infrastructure play with substantial upside.”

Key Investment Highlights

• Established Operator: 20+ years of HPC infrastructure expertise with a global client base.
• Debt-Free Platform: Houston facilities fully owned and optimized for efficiency.
• High Growth Market: AI, big data, and HPC workloads are growing rapidly across industries.
• Capital-Efficient Expansion: Proprietary automation reduces capex and opex burden.
• Scalable Architecture: Proven designs support rapid cluster deployment and client onboarding.

Shawn Stephens, Chief HPC Architect, added:

“Our team has decades of experience in building and managing large-scale HPC clusters. We help clients choose the best technologies, optimize application performance, and reduce total cost of ownership — whether on-premises or in hybrid environments.”

Investor Inquiries

vCompute welcomes accredited investors and institutional partners interested in participating in this raise. 

SOURCE vCompute

Drake Real Estate Partners has closed its fifth flagship fund, building on long-term partnerships and fostering new relationships across the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Asia.

NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 — Drake Real Estate Partners (“Drake”), a real estate investment manager pursuing a value-add strategy focused on under the radar opportunities, announced the closing of its fifth flagship fund, Drake Real Estate Partners Fund V (“DREP Fund V” or the “Fund”) with more than $515 million in commitments, exceeding its $500 million target in one of the most challenging fundraising environments in recent history.

Drake’s investor base has evolved and diversified from its original roots in large LatAm based family offices to a predominantly U.S. institutional capital base in DREP Fund V. “We surpassed our $500 million target raise with $515 million, plus co-investment allocations” said Nicolas Ibanez, co-founder and President of Drake. “This outcome is a testament to the long-term relationships we’ve built and our deliberate expansion into the U.S. and European institutional landscape, which complements our longstanding ties in Latin America. Achieving this scale of fundraising in the current environment is not only a major milestone, it’s a strategic advantage as we deploy capital in a heavily dislocated environment.”

The year and a half fundraising period required persistence and focus, Ibanez noted. “It was a constant dance requiring us to amplify our message among existing and prospective investors who were seeking differentiated access to U.S. real estate,” he said. “Drake focuses on niche real estate sectors, and smaller, under-the-radar opportunities that are often overlooked. In a market undergoing a structural reset, managers with flexible capital are able to pivot amid this shift and play with a big advantage. I think that really resonated with smart investors who saw the opportunity, and put us in this favorable position to take advantage of the environment.”

Founded in 2012, Drake implements a value-add approach by acquiring income-producing real estate assets, generally at a significant discount to replacement cost, and driving value through repositioning, leasing and improving operations. The Firm focuses predominantly on smaller transactions – generally between $5-25 million of equity – benefiting from the less efficient market dynamics in that target range. Drake frequently acquires its assets from long-time, non-institutional owners, overseeing capital improvements that these assets were previously lacking, and assembling them into attractive, scalable portfolios for future buyers.

“This fund vintage presents one of the most compelling risk/return profiles we’ve seen since the Firm’s inception,” said David Cotterman, Drake co-founder and Chief Investment Officer. “We’re creating value-add to opportunistic type returns while taking core plus to light value-add risk, in longstanding themes we’ve researched and invested in for more than 13 years.”

Over the past five years, Drake has increasingly pursued fragmented sub-sectors within industrial and residential themes, such as industrial outdoor storage (“IOS”), small bay industrial, and manufactured housing (“MH”), while opportunistically accessing more traditional property types, such as multifamily and data centers. The firm sources most acquisitions directly from owners, bypassing intermediaries and broadly marketed processes. “Drake’s growing focus on smaller assets allows us to create programmatic platforms with our partners and efficiently deploy capital in less liquid markets,” Cotterman said. “We aggregate portfolios of assets that are individually too small for most institutional investors. This marriage of institutional expertise and smaller assets in niche property types creates a unique edge for Drake.”

To date, IOS represents one of Drake’s highest conviction playbooks in DREP Fund V. The sector benefits from sustained demand across the broader industrial and logistics ecosystem, coupled with extremely limited new supply. These dynamics have driven rental growth that consistently outpaces traditional industrial assets, drawing increased institutional interest, particularly for larger portfolios such as the one Drake is actively assembling.

Within the residential space, Drake’s primary playbook in DREP Fund V has been manufactured housing (“MH”), where Drake executes what is mostly a land-lease model in which the firm owns and leases the land beneath residents’ homes. This approach is capital expenditure-light compared to traditional multifamily strategies, and targets a niche market defined by a persistent supply/demand imbalance. New development remains rare due to widespread NIMBY opposition, even as rental demand and growth fundamentals remain strong – driven by a sustained systemic housing shortage and rising construction costs.

Another notable opportunistic investment in the Fund includes a GP interest in a 1,000+ megawatt hyperscale data center development platform anchored by top tier tenants.

About Drake Real Estate Partners
Founded in 2012, Drake Real Estate Partners is a New York-based real estate investment manager with a track record of identifying and executing on under-the-radar opportunities across the U.S. The firm focuses on value-add strategies in income-producing assets, generally acquired at a significant discount to replacement cost. Drake has completed over $3.0 billion in transactions, leveraging its flexible capital and long-term mindset to invest across sectors and geographies.

Drake is a proud member of 1% For The Planet, committing 1% of the firm’s revenues to environmental nonprofits in the communities where it operates, and it represents its anchor initiative withing DREP BUILDS, Drake’s holistic approach to sustainability and real estate resilience.

For further information, visit www.drakerep.com.

Contact
Drake Real Estate Partners
[email protected]

SOURCE Drake Real Estate Partners

Callidus will use the funds to accelerate product development and expand the team to continue its impressive growth trajectory through the second half of 2025

SAN FRANCISCO, July 15, 2025 — Callidus Legal AI, the AI platform that automates and accelerates core litigation workflows, today announced $10M in funding, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $13M. The highly oversubscribed round was led by Cervin Ventures, with participation from AI Fund, Myriad Venture Partners, Tandem Ventures, Active Capital, Capital Factory, Foley & Lardner, and a consortium of partners from a top 25 law firm. With this new capital, Callidus will continue its strong growth trajectory, double the speed of its product development to support its 1,000+ customers, and extend its market reach.

Goldman Sachs estimates 44% of the $1T legal industry will soon be automated by AI and Callidus’ current momentum and ambitious roadmap suggest the industry could grow multiples beyond the $64B estimate of industry analysts. In the first half of 2025, Callidus has tripled its recurring revenue, offering a new generation of legal solutions in its end-to-end AI operating system for litigators.

“AI has advanced to the point where substantially automating legal work is no longer a question of possibility; it’s a series of tough but solvable engineering challenges. We’re building the most advanced and interactive AI platform for litigators,” said Justin McCallon, CEO of Callidus Legal AI. “Success requires the right combination of a world-class user experience, a robustly engineered middle-layer, and high-quality legal data. Callidus brings all of that together cohesively. With the support of our partners, and on the shoulders of the research labs, we’re reinventing litigation legal tech.”

Unlike competitors that rely on chatbots and generate brief, high-level answers, Callidus produces real legal work. These outputs include exhaustive precedent research, element-by-element legal outlines, and fully drafted, citation-rich litigation documents. The highly visual Callidus research system keeps the lawyer in the loop, with the AI synthesizing robust data and the lawyer making strategic decisions, ultimately condensing a typical week-long task into about 10 minutes for 85% completion. From there, the lawyer can polish the full litigation outlines and extensive litigation draft document outputs with other Callidus tools, including tools integrated with Microsoft Word, to prepare final versions for court.

“Callidus isn’t trying to replace lawyers, it’s giving them superpowers,” said Taylor Oliver, Partner at Cervin Ventures. “Callidus turns a week’s worth of research into ten minutes of structured insight, all while keeping the attorney in the loop. That kind of precision, paired with deep respect for how law is actually practiced, is rare in legal tech.  We’re backing the Callidus team because they’re not only building fast, but building right – with discipline, focus, and a deep understanding of the profession they’re supporting.”

In May, Callidus launched its most advanced legal research and drafting system to date, powered by proprietary engineering, agentic AI, and a fully integrated U.S. case law database. After gathering over 10 million U.S. legal cases, Callidus built specialized agents to enrich the database with detailed metadata, case summaries, and issue-based tagging for high-precision retrieval and research. The company plans to roll out transformative new platform features throughout the second half of 2025, with a goal of addressing the core needs of litigators across the entire litigation lifecycle by year’s end.

“What excites us about Callidus is their technical depth: custom legal reasoning models, intelligent document understanding, and end-to-end automation that mirrors how great lawyers work,” said Andrew Ng, Managing General Partner, AI Fund. “Justin McCallon and his team are building AI agentic support for litigators — a platform that represents a generational shift in legal service delivery that’s faster, smarter, and more strategically insightful. The legal industry will benefit tremendously from this approach.”

“The legal tech industry is a prime example of an industry that can be transformed by AI, and Callidus is at the forefront of this shift,” said Chris Fisher, Founder & Managing General Partner at Myriad Venture Partners, who has an extensive legal background, including prior to founding Myriad Venture Partners, advising private equity firms and multinational clients on M&A, complex transactions, early stage investments, and corporate governance. “Callidus’ AI-powered platform is already streamlining workflows for litigators, delivering solutions that meet their real-world needs. This momentum is a testament to the difficult problems and workflows Callidus is addressing and to the outstanding Callidus team. We’re excited to see what the next phase of growth looks like as Callidus continues building critical software for the legal industry.”

Callidus expects to triple its team size over the coming months, with new hires across product, engineering, customer success, and legal AI research in both Texas and California.

For more information, please visit: https://callidusai.com/.

About Callidus Legal AI

Callidus Legal AI is a next-generation legal technology company leveraging advanced artificial intelligence to automate legal research, drafting, and litigation preparation. With a proprietary case law database and deeply agentic AI infrastructure, Callidus delivers unprecedented productivity and accuracy across the most demanding areas of legal practice. To learn more information, please visit: https://callidusai.com/. 

Press Contact:

Jenny Bourne
208-761-8447
https://www.wildflower-pr.com/

SOURCE Callidus Legal AI

XTEND’s AI-powered systems are actively used by the U.S. Department of Defense, Singapore, Europe, the UK, and the Israel Defense Force to improve strategic capabilities and mission success in challenging environments. With this Series B funding, XTEND plans to scale up U.S. and global production, integrate real-time AI capabilities across its platforms, and expand deployments with U.S. and allied defense forces, as well as for humanitarian and emergency response efforts.

As part of this investment, Aliya Capital Partners’ Founding Partner and CEO, Ross Kestin, has joined XTEND’s Board of Directors. Kestin explains: “XTEND’s mission—to deliver cutting-edge drone and robotics systems for high-risk, mission-critical environments—aligns directly with our vision of supporting technologies that protect and enhance life. We’re honored to back Aviv and his world-class team and help accelerate the impact of their technology across defense, security, and emergency response sectors.”

The announcement follows the grand opening of XTEND’s new U.S. headquarters and advanced drone manufacturing facility in Tampa, Florida, on July 1. The event brought together government, military, and industry leaders for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, remarks from key stakeholders, and a behind-the-scenes tour of the company’s state-of-the-art manufacturing operations.

“The grand opening of XTEND’s Tampa facility represents more than a physical expansion—it marks a new phase of operational scale, U.S. engagement, and global relevance,” said Lee Moser, Co-Founder and General Partner of Protego Ventures. “We’re proud to support this next chapter alongside the Aliya team.”

Lital Leshem, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Protego Ventures, adds: “We invested in XTEND because it’s clear they are building a category-defining platform for human-guided autonomy that can scale fast and make an immediate impact. At a time when defense innovation demands urgency and trust, XTEND stood out as ready to lead.”

XTEND CEO Aviv Shapira concludes: “The successful completion of our Series B financing highlights the surging demand for mission-critical autonomous systems from allied defense and public safety agencies. The investment will fuel accelerated R&D, scale manufacturing, and global deployment expansion. That said, the backing from Aliya and Protego isn’t just about fresh capital—it’s a powerful vote of confidence. Ross’s experience and strategic perspective are invaluable in navigating this pivotal growth phase. Furthermore, opening our Tampa headquarters is a major step forward as we continue to build cutting-edge systems that protect lives worldwide.”

Additional investor quotes:

Avi Fischer, Chairman of Clal Industries and Claltech, says: “When investing in companies, you typically meet the founders, the management team, the technology—and of course, dive into the virtual data room. But with XTEND, we did something far more important. On our very first visit, we walked into a room with over 50 end users, all being trained on the system. What convinced us to invest wasn’t just the tech—it was their feedback. They spoke about how the system has saved lives, how AI-driven training cut learning time by 99%, and how this technology is already changing the battlefield. That’s when we knew—we had to be part of this.”

Dr. Peter Kash, Chairman of the Board, XTEND, says: “This milestone represents the realization of XTEND’s vision to bring our groundbreaking technologies closer to the U.S. defense ecosystem. With this facility, we’re laying the foundation for sustained growth, high-tech job creation and meaningful contributions to America’s security and industrial capabilities. I’m incredibly proud of the team that made this moment possible, amplifying the connectivity of Florida and the future of AI and Robotics. I am incredibly proud of the team that made this moment possible, by helping attract blue chip investors that are aligned with our goal to amplify the connectivity of Florida and the future of AI and Robotics.”

Tal Recanati, Managing Director Union Tech Ventures: “Since our investment three years ago, we’ve seen the XTEND management team demonstrate exceptional execution and innovation. With the successful completion of this latest financing round, XTEND is now poised to strengthen its position as a global leader in defense technology.”

About XTEND

Founded in Israel, XTEND develops next-generation robotics and autonomous systems powered by proprietary AI and real-time human-guided operating software. Its platforms are engineered for precision and safety in the world’s most complex and hazardous environments. XTEND’s systems enable the deployment of self-reliant AI-driven tactical robotic teams in complex and dynamic mission scenarios. The company’s patented XOS operating system fuses the best human intelligence and machine autonomy to enhance the operator’s abilities, simultaneously reducing the need for direct physical confrontation, thereby minimizing casualties and injuries. Thousands of XTEND’s systems are already operationally deployed worldwide, and the company is continuously developing its XOS operating system and platforms to deliver the future of human-machine teaming to defense, HLS, and security professionals worldwide. Find out more here.

About Aliya Capital Partners

Aliya Capital Partners is a Miami-based investment firm with deep expertise across defense-tech, AI, autonomy, and national security. The firm backs companies delivering meaningful and unexpected impact, particularly at the intersection of advanced technology and global safety.

About Protego Ventures

Protego Ventures is an Israel-based defense venture capital fund investing in breakthrough technologies that address today’s most urgent defense and security challenges, including drones, AI and machine learning, sensors, aerial defense, and UAVs.

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IntuigenceAI achieves unprecedented 81% first-time pass rate on the standardized NCEES Professional Engineering test

BERKELEY, Calif., July 15, 2025 — To address a major workforce shortage of engineers while reducing major industrial disasters caused by human error, AI startup IntuigenceAI announced the world’s first superintelligent AI-based engineer platform, IntuiAI™, designed as a multiplier for time-strapped human engineers. Additionally, the company is also announcing that it has raised a large $10M seed round led by Innovation Endeavors with additional funding from Recursive Ventures and Think+.

IntuigenceAI, based out of Berkeley, California, achieved a first-time pass rate of 81% on the standardized NCEES Professional Engineering (PE) exam for both chemical and mechanical engineering, respectively—beating out ChatGPT-4o and DeepSeek by more than eight times. IntuigenceAI, which calls its AI agents “Intuigents,” is available at launch as a highly trained chemical or mechanical AI engineer, with several other Intuigents to follow including civil, electrical, industrial and materials engineers. Each Intuigent can work safely alongside human talent to accelerate common industrial workflows.

Several Fortune 100 companies are completing successful pilots with the objective of saving millions of dollars by automating tedious workflows across the $3.4 trillion engineering industry. These workflows consume weeks or even months of engineering resources, which IntuigenceAI says can be reduced to days, hours, or even minutes, freeing engineers for more complex tasks requiring human ingenuity and intuition.

Several well respected engineering leaders have shown strong early support for Intuigences’ value.

“Before Intuigence’s synthetic AI engineers, it was unimaginable that operational workflows can be automated so quickly. The industry is used to months, not hours,” said Ibrahim A-Syed, head of Digital Transformation at Celanese.

“As someone who has spent decades in process automation, advanced control and optimization, I see IntuigenceAI as the next generation of industrial technology,” said Doug Raven, a former senior engineer from Saudi Aramco’s Corporate Engineering department and recipient of the top Saudi Aramco Excellence Award. “There’s clearly a workforce shortage coming as experienced engineers retire, and this technology represents a powerful solution for knowledge capture and leveraging engineering expertise. IntuigenceAI can help companies capture their unique methodologies and institutional knowledge while enabling engineers to focus on higher value-added work like process innovation, optimization, and complex problem-solving. The vision of multiplying human engineering capabilities is exactly what the industry needs to address both the skills gap and the complexity of today’s multi-million dollar, multi-year projects.”

According to an analysis by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, there is a new chemical accident every two days in the US. Equipment failure and human error can have catastrophic consequences in industrial environments. Infrastructure projects average 28% cost overruns with 85% exceeding budget, while workers spend 14+ hours weekly just looking for project data.

“AI has the potential to save millions of dollars and many lives by addressing a serious engineering talent shortage, and skills deficit,” said Moe Tanabian, CEO and founder of IntuigenceAI. “While AI has quickly revolutionized software development, using engineering-purpose AI for industrial workflows and data analysis has not been feasible until now.” Tanabian was formerly Global Vice President and executive product leader at Microsoft, Amazon and Samsung. “IntuigenceAI frees up engineers to do what they’re best at while allowing AI to quickly make sense out of messy or even incomplete datasets. It’s designed both for entry-level engineers as well as experienced engineers to help automate time-consuming industrial workflows. We believe AI will be able to expand the global engineering capacity from 30 million to one billion engineers worldwide. It’s going to be a very different and much better world for future generations.”

“We’re proud to lead the investment in IntuigenceAI as they build the AI copilot for complex industrial engineering,” said Scott Brady, Managing Partner at Innovation Endeavors. “This is a purpose-built system already outperforming top chemical engineers on professional benchmarks. In a $4 trillion sector facing massive workforce challenges, with up to 50% of skilled talent set to retire by decade’s end, solutions like this are essential to keeping the industry running.”

How It Works
IntuigenceAI’s synthetic engineers integrate directly into industrial workflows through the company’s Intelligent Board platform. It combines both LLM, reasoning and agentic workflows. The platform, known as IntuiAI, can be used as a data assistant but also an interactive AI whiteboard. Engineers upload technical drawings and equipment manuals, while the system automatically pulls in live data from industrial monitoring systems. IntuiAI breaks down complex problems into manageable tasks, assigns analysis to trained IntuigenceAI Chemical or Mechanical AI Engineers, and provides recommendations with clear approval checkpoints for human verification. The “Intuigents” are further trained based on proprietary data from the customer and other domain expertise.

For example, IntuigenceAI can automate maintenance planning by gathering equipment specifications, determining material requirements like gaskets and bolts, and filling out detailed isolation planning forms that specify exact technical needs. This efficiency gain allows engineers to focus on higher value activities such as process optimization, yield improvement projects, and strategic troubleshooting that drive real business impact.

Microsoft Integration Enables Enterprise-Scale Deployment
IntuigenceAI’s platform integrates with Microsoft Fabric and Microsoft OneLake to deliver industrial AI workload at enterprise scale, enabling Fortune 500 companies to deploy synthetic engineers while leveraging their existing Microsoft investment. The integration connects the IntuiAI platform to industrial data sources through Microsoft OneLake’s secure infrastructure while utilizing multiple AI models, including Azure OpenAI and IntuigenceAI’s own fine-tuned Industrial LLMs running on Azure—alongside an industrial knowledge graph on Fabric, and Azure that captures engineering expertise.

“Intelligently accessing and processing industrial data is vital for the success of any production-oriented business. By integrating IntuigenceAI’s synthetic AI engineer with the Microsoft Fabric open data platform, we are addressing the critical workforce shortage in industrial sectors. This collaboration empowers thousands of Microsoft Fabric customers to easily transform their industrial operations data into actionable insights, driving innovation and efficiency across the industry,” said Uli Homann, Corporate VP & Distinguished Architect, Microsoft.

The integrated solution also enables IntuigenceAI’s synthetic engineers to join Microsoft Teams calls with field engineers, analyze equipment performance in real-time, and handle complex workflows while leveraging Microsoft Fabric as the secure data backbone.

Founded in 2024, IntuigenceAI has 12 employees with team members from Microsoft, Amazon, Meta/Facebook, and the Berkeley AI Research Lab. IntuigenceAI creates synthetic engineers specifically for industrial operations, working with Fortune 500 customers including major energy and oil and gas companies in pilot phases.

Looking ahead, Tanabian envisions that reaching one billion AI engineers globally will fundamentally transform how humanity tackles its greatest challenges. “A billion synthetic engineers will free up human ingenuity from mundane tasks, allowing us to focus on breakthrough innovations,” he explains. This expanded engineering capacity could accelerate breakthroughs in clean energy production, affordable housing and infrastructure, clean water systems, accessible healthcare technologies, sustainable agriculture systems, educational platforms, disaster preparedness, and even space exploration powered by fusion energy and quantum computing. “We’re not just scaling engineering—we’re scaling human potential to solve problems that matter,” Tanabian adds.

Real-World Applications
The IntuigenceAI synthetic AI engineers, which can connect to other systems, join Microsoft Teams calls with field engineers, analyze equipment performance in real-time and handle complex workflows while leveraging Microsoft Fabric as a data store. For instance, when a heat exchanger shows efficiency drops, the Chemical AI Engineer identifies fluid composition changes while the Mechanical AI Engineer reviews inspection and maintenance histories, delivering comprehensive analysis that previously required weeks of coordination between multiple specialists.

Visit https://www.intuigence.ai/ to learn more or reach out to [email protected].

To view the press kit, click HERE.

About IntuigenceAI
IntuigenceAI is a Berkeley-based AI company that creates synthetic AI engineers designed to work alongside human talent in refining, petrochemicals, pulp and paper, steel making, and automotive industries. Founded by former Microsoft, Amazon, and Samsung executive Moe Tanabian, the company aims to expand global engineering capacity from 30 million to one billion engineers worldwide, potentially accelerating breakthroughs in renewable energy, infrastructure development, and clean water systems. IntuigenceAI’s AI agents achieved an 82% pass rate on standardized Professional Engineering exams and are helping Fortune 100 companies automate complex, labor-intensive engineering workflows. For more information, visit https://www.intuigence.ai/.

Media Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE IntuigenceAI

NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 — Dakota, the crypto-integrated business banking platform, today announced it has raised $12.5 million in a Series A funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from 6th Man Ventures (6MV) and Triton Ventures. The new capital will accelerate Dakota’s mission to build the world’s first globally accessible business bank account, combining the speed and transparency of stablecoins with the safety of U.S. Treasuries to enable modern, borderless finance.

Founded by veterans from Coinbase, Square, and Airbnb, Dakota is reimagining how businesses move and store money across borders. Its platform enables companies to hold and transfer funds across USD or stablecoins while accessing familiar payment rails, such as ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT, and SEPA. Behind the scenes, Dakota leverages blockchain technology to enable near-instant, verifiable transfers, keeping customer funds fully reserved and under the client’s control.

Since launching in 2023, Dakota has already attracted over 500 business customers – from tech startups to international nonprofits – processing billions of dollars in annualized transaction volume. By using stablecoins as settlement rails and backing deposits 1:1 with U.S. Treasuries, Dakota eliminates the counterparty and liquidity risks that have plagued traditional banks, especially in the wake of recent crises like the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.

“Companies are increasingly default global and they‘re being hamstrung by slow wire transfers, limited banking access, and the reality that once money goes into a bank, customers lose control,” said Ryan Bozarth, CEO and co-founder of Dakota. “Our goal with Dakota is to bring banking into the internet age — giving businesses the ability to move money as instantly and freely as information travels, without sacrificing security or compliance.”

The timing couldn’t be better. In the U.S., Congress is making meaningful progress on stablecoin legislation, with bipartisan support coalescing around frameworks like the GENIUS Act, signaling long-awaited regulatory clarity for dollar-backed digital assets. Globally, jurisdictions from the EU to Hong Kong are following suit, accelerating the shift toward compliant, mainstream adoption. Major incumbents are taking notice. Payments giant Stripe recently acquired stablecoin startup Privy and Bridge, while PayPal has launched its own stablecoin to keep pace with evolving market demands. These moves underscore how stablecoins are becoming an integral part of modern payments, offering businesses 24/7, borderless money movement at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.

“We believe stablecoins can revolutionize business banking,” said Alex Felix, CIO of CoinFund. “Dakota is unlocking that potential by combining the familiarity of a bank account with the power of crypto rails. They‘re not asking mainstream businesses to change how they operate — they‘re upgrading the engine under the hood.” 

With the Series A money in hand, Dakota is expanding its product suite and geographic reach. The startup recently rolled out corporate cards, allowing clients to spend their funds via virtual cards while setting custom spend controls for their teams. It also added support for the international SWIFT and SEPA payment networks, on top of its existing U.S. ACH and wire capabilities, aiming to make sending money abroad as simple as a domestic transfer. Dakota is broadening its onboarding to customers across 100+ jurisdictions, including in the UK, EU (under MiCA regulations), Singapore, and Latin America.

“Business today is borderless, and dollars are a universal language,” notes Bozarth. “We want to give entrepreneurs from Bogotá to Bangalore the same access to U.S. dollar banking that a startup in San Francisco would have.”

From a user perspective, Dakota feels like a typical fintech app; the blockchain complexity stays under the hood. Clients can send or receive payments via regular bank accounts without handling crypto directly, as Dakota seamlessly converts funds to and from stablecoins behind the scenes.

Dakota is betting on a comprehensive approach, blending global payment rails, multi-currency treasury management, and globally available corporate cards, will set it apart. The founding team’s pedigree lends it credibility in both camps: Bozarth and his colleagues built security systems that safeguarded over $100 billion in digital assets, and also helped scale consumer platforms to millions of users. That mix of experience may prove valuable as they navigate the complex intersection of banking and blockchain.

Dakota’s leadership is focusing on execution: growing its customer base, securing more banking partnerships, and continuing to invest in compliance and regulatory efforts. The company is betting that in a few years, startups will routinely hold dollars on-chain and send payments worldwide in seconds, as easily as sending an email. If that vision pans out, Dakota could emerge as one of the pioneers of stablecoin-powered banking. And thanks to its new funding, it has a running start in that race.

Businesses can get started today at dakota.xyz and experience modern banking built for the internet age.

SOURCE CoinFund