The company’s AI-native platform automates how life & health policies are sold, placed, and retained

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2025 — Pathwork, an autonomous distribution platform modernizing the $160 billion life and health insurance market, has raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Costanoa, with participation from Logos Fund, American Family Ventures, Meridian Ventures, and prominent industry angels. The funding will help accelerate adoption among brokers and carriers nationwide.

Life and health insurance touches millions of Americans, but the way policies are sold hasn’t meaningfully changed in decades. Distribution remains fragmented, manual, and error-prone, leaving brokers bogged down by outdated software systems and left to chase paperwork and decipher underwriting rules. In the U.S. alone, life and health premiums exceed $1.1 trillion annually, an enormous market where speed, accuracy and service make the difference.

Pathwork turns these complex, manual workflows into intelligent systems that help brokers and carriers move faster, quote more accurately, reduce costly back-and-forth, and deliver a better customer experience.

“The last 20 years of digitization made insurance distribution more complex, not less,” said Ian Levinsky, CEO and co-founder of Pathwork. “AI will reimagine everything from how the work gets done to the tools professionals rely on. Pathwork is shaping this future so the people behind every policy can focus back on creating impact and building trust.”

Pathwork combines predictive and generative AI to create a seamless experience for brokers placing policies to carriers making the call. Its product suite includes:

Case Underwriter: Automates the underwriting process by analyzing unstructured data, synthesizing applicant details, and surfacing the best-fit carrier options. It guides brokers from intake to placement in minutes.

Knowledge Assistant: Acts as an on-demand expert, instantly answering questions about underwriting rules, product guidelines, and carrier nuances, all trained on insurance-specific data.

Pre-App Manager: Helps insurance carriers evaluate incoming cases more efficiently by analyzing data to determine eligibility, requirements, and risk class.

“Pathwork is exactly the kind of company we love to back,” said Mark Selcow, Partner at Costanoa. “Its founders bring a rare combination of industry expertise and technical execution—having scaled a 300-agent digital insurance agency at EverQuote and led AI innovation in regulated markets at Litlingo. They’ve built a solution that applies AI in a way that will change how the industry operates from now on.”

Since launching in 2024, Pathwork has analyzed over 10,000 cases and helped retain millions in commission payments. The company supports more than 65 brokerages and carriers, including Highland Capital Brokerage, AIMCOR, Hilb, LifeQuotes (a division of Keystone Agency Group), NFP, and Merit Insurance (a division of Integrity Marketing).

“Highland chose Pathwork for their deep understanding of our challenges and the usability of their products,” said Adnan Raja, SVP of Digital Transformation at Highland Capital Brokerage. “They’re running the most modern tech stack we’ve seen in this space while meeting the security and compliance demands of our regulated industry”.

To learn more or request a demo, visit www.pathwork.com

About Pathwork
Pathwork is an AI-native platform purpose-built to modernize life and health insurance distribution. By combining structured insurance data with predictive and generative AI, Pathwork transforms complex, manual workflows into intelligent systems—empowering brokers and carriers to underwrite, place, and retain policies faster and more accurately. Since launching in 2024, Pathwork has supported over 65 brokerages and analyzed more than 10,000 client cases.

About Costanoa 
Costanoa exists to elevate founders building companies of consequence. We lead investments from formation through Series A in Applied AI, AI Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, National Security, and Fintech. With $2.3B AUM, we’re boutique by design—making fewer investments to deliver deeper expertise and operational support when it matters most: the early, defining stages of growth. For more information, please visit www.costanoa.vc.

SOURCE Pathwork

QuEra accelerates journey to fault-tolerant neutral-atom computers with injection of capital building on earlier funding from Google and others

BOSTON, Sept. 9, 2025 — QuEra Computing, developer of advanced neutral-atom quantum computers, today announced an investment from NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm) that expands its $230 million Series B round first announced in February.

Andy Ory, CEO, QuEra Computing
“We already work with NVIDIA, pairing our scalable neutral‑atom architecture with its accelerated‑computing stack to speed the arrival of useful, fault‑tolerant quantum machines. But the decision to invest in us deepens our collaboration and underscores our shared belief that hybrid quantum-classical systems will unlock meaningful value for customers sooner than many expect.”

Market Momentum
The funding from NVentures follows Google’s participation in QuEra’s successful financing announced in February 2025 and also complements QuEra’s longstanding collaborations with Amazon Web Services. Together, these collaborations give QuEra access to the world’s most advanced AI and cloud infrastructure as it advances toward large‑scale, error‑corrected quantum computing.    

QuEra will continue to collaborate with NVIDIA on go-to-market initiatives aimed at high-performance-computing centers worldwide, integrating QuEra’s neutral-atom systems with NVIDIA accelerated computing infrastructure and software stack.

Building on Existing Programs
The investment builds on ongoing collaboration thrusts, including:

• Hybrid quantum-classical supercomputing at AIST. A Gemini-class QuEra computer is installed next to the 2,000+ NVIDIA H100 GPUs in Japan’s ABCI‑Q system. The systems are integrated by the NVIDIA CUDA‑Q software platform, creating a national test‑bed for fault‑tolerant algorithms and quantum workflows leveraging AI.
• Founding collaboration at the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Center (NVAQC). QuEra will collaborate with NVIDIA on projects at the NVAQC in Boston, coupling QuEra hardware to NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 GPU clusters for large‑scale simulation and decoder research.
• AI‑powered quantum error decoding. Using transformer models trained on NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform, a QuEra/NVIDIA team built decoders that outperform traditional maximum‑likelihood approaches and improve scalability—an essential step toward practical fault‑tolerant quantum computing.

Market Initiatives    

• Hybrid moves from theory to roadmap: Today’s news validates QuEra’s neutral-atom hardware as a promising partner for GPU-coupled quantum supercomputers.
• Ecosystem signal: With investment from Google and a longstanding partnership with AWS, QuEra sits at the strategic intersection of cloud, AI, and quantum     .
• Path to early utility: Joint R&D and deeper software integration tightens the feedback loop between algorithm design, AI-assisted error decoding, and hardware iterations, accelerating the timeline for fault-tolerant benchmarks.
• GTM synergy: QuEra’s coordinated push into HPC centers to lower procurement friction for hybrid quantum deployments, widens QuEra’s addressable market beyond early-adopter labs.

About QuEra Computing
QuEra Computing is the leader in developing and productizing quantum computers using neutral atoms, widely recognized as a highly promising quantum computing modality. Based in Boston and built on pioneering research from Harvard University and MIT, QuEra operates the world’s largest publicly accessible quantum computer, available over a major public cloud and for on-premises delivery. QuEra is developing useful, scalable and fault-tolerant quantum computers to tackle classically intractable problems, becoming the partner of choice in the quantum field. For more information, please visit quera.com and follow QuEra on X or LinkedIn. 

Media Contacts
[email protected]

SOURCE QuEra Computing

CHENGDU, China, Sept. 9, 2025 — iRegene Therapeutics (Chengdu) Co., Ltd. (“iRegene” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company pioneering chemically induced allogeneic cell therapy, announced on September 4th the successful completion of its Series B+ financing round, co-led by Northern Light Venture Capital, Chuangjing Capital, and OneHealth Haihe Capital, along with participation from other investors. In August 2025, NouvNeu001 received Fast Track Designation (FTD) from the U.S. FDA, making it the world’s first allogeneic iPSC-derived cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease to achieve this milestone.

This round builds on a series of sizable financings completed in recent months, bringing iRegene’s total funding to over RMB 300 million (~USD 40M). It makes the largest single financing in China’s iPSC sector in recent years, highlighting the strong confidence of investor in iRegene’s leadership position and long-term strategic vision.

The proceeds will be used to accelerate iRegene’s global clinical development of NouvNeu001 for Parkinson’s disease (PD), and NouvSight001 for retinal degenerative diseases, while also strengthening early-stage R&D, expanding clinical and operational teams, and advancing iRegene’s manufacturing capabilities.

About NouvNeu001

iRegene’s flagship product, NouvNeu001, is the world’s first clinical-stage, iPSC-derived, allogeneic dopaminergic progenitor cell therapy for PD. NouvNeu001 received the China NMPA’s IND clearance to initiate Phase I/II in China in Aug 2023, and received the FDA IND clearance to initiate Phase I in USA in June 2024. In April 2025, iRegene launched a multicenter Phase II clinical trial in China (NCT06167681).

Phase I results demonstrated:

• Excellent safety and tolerability observed up to 15 months post-transplantation, notably without the use of immunosuppressants after the 6th months.
• PET imaging confirmed long-term engraftment and survival of transplanted cells.
• Significant clinical efficacy, including marked improvement in MDS-UPDRS Part III motor scores and extended “on-time” duration, underscoring the strong competitiveness.

On August 15, 2025, NouvNeu001 was granted Fast Track Designation (FTD) from the U.S. FDA, becoming the first allogeneic iPSC-derived PD cell therapy worldwide to earn this recognition. This milestone follows the FDA’s Special Exemption (SE) granted in March 2024, further validating iRegene’s clinical data integrity, product quality system, and innovative therapeutic approach.

Key Development Timeline for NouvNeu001

CEO Statement

“We are deeply grateful for the trust and continued support of our investors, as well as the dedication of the iRegene team,” said Dr. Jun Wei, Founder and CEO of iRegene Therapeutics. “Our mission is to pioneer transformative therapies that truly reverse disease progression for patients worldwide. This financing will accelerate our global clinical programs, expand iRegene manufacturing capabilities, and advance our international footprint expansion, bringing us closer to delivering these life-changing therapies to the patients.”

About iRegene Therapeutics

Founded in 2017 by a team of international professionals, iRegene Therapeutics is the earliest biotech in the world to apply “Chemical induction” to precisely reprogram cell fate and optimize cellular functions. Leveraging this breakthrough platform, iRegene Therapeutics has built a robust pipeline targeting currently “incurable” diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and blindness. As a leader in chemical induction, iRegene’s proprietary system enables the efficient easy generation of human specific cell types with high purity, and enhanced functionality, pioneering the next generation of chemically derived cell therapies.

SOURCE iRegene therapeutics

With Seed funding round led by Lightspeed, Sphinx unveils AI copilot for data scientists that thinks in statistics and patterns to find value in raw information

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2025 — Sphinx, the company building AI for data, launched today with a $9.5 million Seed round and an AI copilot for data professionals to transform raw information into actionable insights. The round was led by Lightspeed, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Box Group, K5, Impatient VC and others. Sphinx is also backed by Steve Cohen, Naveen Rao, and leaders from Databricks, Windsurf, and Together AI. The funding will be used to continue building agentic AI that natively interacts with data and data science workflows.

While AI has quickly become a key component of software development, data science has been underserved by the benefits of the technology. The way data scientists work is fundamentally more iterative and exploratory than the workflow of software developers. Unlike other copilots, Sphinx Copilot is purpose-built for data, with a focus on building accurate representations, rigorously verifying models, and grounding responses with quantitative evidence rather than rushing to generate code or conclusions.

“Sphinx brings frontier AI capabilities to data analysis, redefining how AI reasons with data,” said Bucky Moore, partner at Lightspeed. “Starting with the core workflows of data teams, Sphinx’s agents will continue to handle more of the tedious work that goes into deriving insights from data. It’s more critical than ever for enterprises to glean key information from their data to fuel business decisions and Sphinx enables this at record speed. Rohan and Jamie are on a mission to define how enterprises leverage AI to become truly data-driven.”

Sphinx copilot, available today, works collaboratively to transform raw information into actionable insight via autocomplete and agentic reasoning. It refines forecasts, optimizes operations, and can power applications from supply chains to sabermetrics. Built for data professionals, Sphinx integrates a benchmark-leading agent into environments including Jupyter notebooks and VSCode to meet data teams where they already work.

“AI is driving a paradigm shift for natural language and code, but traditional data has been left behind,” said Rohan Kodialam, co-founder and CEO of Sphinx. “Our researchers and engineers are aggressively innovating on the interface between AI and data to drive tangible value for our partners across industries including CPG, retail, and financial services.”

Sphinx builds on recent research breakthroughs in reasoning models, with a distinct focus on the interpretation of tabular and semi-structured information and balancing data exploration with value extraction. Sphinx is ready to accelerate over 93 million users of Jupyter worldwide, and to enable a $100 billion market for data insights.

“Sphinx has helped our data scientists uncover patterns in shopper behavior in minutes instead of hours or days,” said Brian Tate, CEO of Oats Overnight. “It’s become a powerful part of our analytics workflow, and we’re looking forward to deepening the partnership.”

Sphinx was founded by Rohan Kodialam, an AI research leader at Citadel, and Jamie Bloxham, an early technology lead at MosaicML. While leading AI research and data science teams, they confronted a persistent obstacle: frontier models remained isolated from the data-science tooling and structured datasets that inform commercial decisions. Sphinx’s mission is to close the gap through focused research in representation learning and reinforcement learning, combined with products that delight and dramatically accelerate the work of data practitioners.

For more information go to www.sphinx.ai.

About Sphinx:
Sphinx is an applied AI research firm building agents that effectively interface with data. Our agents excel at interpreting data, exploring hypotheses, and ultimately at finding commercially relevant insights from raw information. Sphinx’s copilot product is currently available on top of Jupyter, and allows data professionals to leverage our AI to accelerate their workflows. www.sphinx.ai

About Lightspeed:
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in AI, Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech. Over the past 25 years, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Abridge, Affirm, Anthropic, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Glean, Mistral, Moveworks, Navan, Netskope, Rubrik, Snap, Wiz, and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage over $30B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. www.lsvp.com

SOURCE Sphinx

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2025 — Runware, a performance & price-focused AI-as-a-Service provider, today announced a $13M fundraise led by global software investor Insight Partners, with participation from previous investors a16z Speedrun, Begin Capital, and Zero Prime. The funding will be used to expand Runware’s capabilities from image and video generation to all-media workflows, including audio, LLM, and 3D. To date, more than 4B visual assets have been generated on Runware’s inference engine and over 100K developers have been onboarded in less than a year since launch. The platform hosts +400K AI models and powers media inference for more than 250M end users through customers like Quora, NightCafe, OpenArt, FocalML.

Runware runs its AI media generation API on the proprietary Sonic Inference Engine^®, which integrates custom-designed hardware and bespoke software to achieve greater cost efficiency and generation speed. As compute intensive workloads like video generation gain popularity and GPU costs burn through budgets, consumer AI apps are increasingly looking to cut costs. Specialized solutions like Runware deliver all-media generation and provide up to 10x cost savings on implementation & inference. Alongside inference savings, Runware’s API unifies all model providers under a common data standard, reducing the time engineering teams spend on adding a new model to minutes through a simple parameter change.

All-Media Generation in one API: Images, Video, Audio, LLM

Following its recent round, Runware is investing heavily in extending its inference engine and API to all AI media workloads. The company already integrates all image and video models integrated from Black Forest Labs, OpenAI, Ideogram, ByteDance, Kling, Minimax Hailuo, Google Veo, PixVerse, Vidu, Alibaba Wan & Qwen, and is actively expanding into audio and LLM models. A full featured media generator or content creation tool can now be built with Runware’s API in minutes. Its model hub currently hosts +400K AI generation models.

By supporting all media generation on its inference engine, Runware takes the complexity out of AI integration. Its API can replace the need for tens or hundreds of individual model integrations, or massive in-house infrastructure, ML teams, and six-figure R&D budgets. Many product teams can now ship AI media features same-day, with no setup. Across media and model types, Runware aims to be the fastest, cheapest, most flexible API for any and all AI workloads.

“As more and more models launch, devs can have tens or even hundreds of endpoints to integrate with and maintain. We see model providers now moving to our platform and offering their APIs from our inference pod, because we can deliver up to 90% lower inference cost than any cloud provider.” Flaviu Radulescu, Founder at Runware

How Runware cuts generation costs by up to 90%

Runware’s ability to make fundamental hardware optimizations is based on Flaviu Radulescu’s previous 20 years of experience building bare metal data clusters for clients like Vodafone, Booking.com, and Transport for London. Runware designs and builds its own custom GPU and networking hardware, packaged in a proprietary inference pod optimized for rapid deployment and use of cost-effective renewable energy. Its vertically integrated design can reduce inference costs by up to 90%—savings passed on to clients.

“Runware is a hidden gem every serious AI application should consider. It offers incredibly competitive pricing across top models, consistently strong performance, and responsive, helpful customer support. If you’re building with AI, Runware should be on your radar.” Coco Mao, CEO at OpenArt

“The core of Runware’s advantage is its purpose-built Sonic Inference Engine®. While others often rely on commodity cloud infrastructure, Runware built its own workload-specific infrastructure — giving it control over latency, throughput, and cost at a fundamental level. That technical edge can be transformational and is what makes Runware a performance leader in AI media generation.” George Mathew, Managing Director at Insight Partners. Mathew joins Runware’s board as part of the fundraise.

Unlocking developer flexibility

Runware delivers its cost and performance edge without compromising quality or flexibility, thanks to its custom Sonic Inference Engine^® and developer API. Built for composable workflows, it lets developers mix and match models from day one, integrating new ones into existing pipelines. Features previously limited to image generation, such as batch processing, parallel inference, ComfyUI support, and ControlNet or LoRA editing, now extend to video.

“We chose Runware as our primary inference partner for their price and the flexibility of the API. NightCafe users are avid explorers of AI – they want to try all the models, hyperparameters, LoRAs and other options. On other providers there are often different endpoints for all these things, but not a single endpoint that combines them all. On Runware it’s a single endpoint that we send all the user’s options to. It also happens to be less than half – sometimes less than 1/5 – of the cost of other providers.” Angus Russell, Founder at NightCafe

“We moved to Runware on a day where we had a big traffic surge. Their API was easy to integrate and handled the sudden load very smoothly. Their combination of quality, speed, and price was by far the best in the market, and they’ve been excellent partners as we’ve scaled up.” Robert Cunningham, Co-Founder at Focal

About Runware

Runware delivers AI-as-a-Service at 90% lower cost and with higher speed than competitors. Built for scale, the service has already powered 4 billion+ creations for +100K developers and +250M end-users worldwide. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in San Francisco, Runware is backed by Insight Partners and a16z Speedrun. Learn more about Runware at runware.ai.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2024, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 800 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

SOURCE Runware

Simpson will oversee the firm’s venture capital investment diligence, manager relationships, and portfolio construction

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 9, 2025 — GEM, a $12B leading provider of institutional investment solutions for endowments, foundations, sovereigns, families, and other long-term investors, announced today that Kate Simpson has joined the firm as a Managing Director on the firm’s Investment team.

In her new role, Simpson will oversee GEM’s venture capital platform, including sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities, developing manager relationships, and guiding portfolio construction. Since its inception in 2007, GEM has been a leading institutional investor in venture capital across primary fund commitments, secondary fund purchases, and co-investments. Simpson’s appointment underscores the firm’s commitment to backing talented investors who have the potential to deliver outsized returns in an ever-evolving VC landscape.¹

“Kate is a seasoned investor with demonstrated expertise across the venture spectrum,” said Jay Ripley, GEM’s Head of Investments. “We are excited to welcome Kate to the team and look forward to her invaluable leadership as we continue to pursue what we believe are the highest-quality venture opportunities on behalf of our clients.”

Simpson brings more than 20 years of investment experience to GEM. Most recently, she served as Partner at TrueBridge Capital Partners, where she worked closely with leading venture firms—with a particular focus on seed & micro-venture capital investments—and led TrueBridge’s customized solutions business. Her previous experience includes roles as an Advisor at Atlas Diligence, LLC, a Director at Parish Capital Advisors, and an Investment Associate at UNC Management Company.

Simpson added: “I am thrilled to join GEM and help further shape the firm’s venture capital strategy. GEM has built a strong reputation as a thoughtful, long-term partner to institutional investors—from long-standing OCIO clients to a growing roster of private fund investors—through its deep commitment to investment diligence, disciplined portfolio construction, and enduring manager relationships. I look forward to contributing to that work while expanding our venture platform for the future.”

Beyond her professional responsibilities, Simpson serves as Trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee at St. Andrew’s School and previously served on the Board of the John Rex Endowment. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About GEM
GEM is a leading provider of institutional investment solutions for endowments, foundations, sovereigns, families, and other long-term investors. Since 2007, GEM has specialized in delivering the highest quality service and support to our clients, enabling them to achieve their long-term investment goals. With a global reach, broad investment capabilities, and an experienced team, GEM strategically tailors solutions to meet the unique needs of each investor we serve. For more information, visit www.geminvestments.com.

Contact
Prosek Partners on behalf of GEM: [email protected]

¹ Returns are not guaranteed.

SOURCE GEM

DENVER, Sept. 9, 2025 — Altira Group LLC (“Altira”), a leading venture capital firm investing in breakthrough industrial technology and software solutions, today congratulates its portfolio company Seeq Corporation (“Seeq”) on the appointment of Anton Chilton to its Board of Directors.

Chilton brings more than three decades of global technology leadership, including his tenure as CEO of QAD Inc., where he guided the company’s transition to SaaS, led strategic acquisitions, and oversaw its landmark take-private transaction with Thoma Bravo in 2021. His expertise in SaaS, manufacturing, and enterprise operations strengthens Seeq’s board at a pivotal stage of growth.

“Anton has a proven track record of helping companies scale through periods of growth and transformation, and his insights will be invaluable as Seeq continues to expand globally and lead the adoption of AI-driven industrial analytics,” said J.P. Bauman, Partner at Altira and Seeq Board Member. “His experience aligning technology innovation with customer needs is exactly what Seeq requires as it enters its next phase of growth.”

Chilton replaces Ashley Kramer, who resigned in July 2025 to join OpenAI as its Chief Revenue Leader. Altira extends its gratitude to Kramer for her dedicated service and contributions to Seeq’s growth.

Seeq is a global leader in advanced analytics and AI for industrial process and manufacturing companies that delivers a self-service, enterprise SaaS platform to accelerate critical insights resulting in optimized operations across efficiency, reliability, quality, and cost dimensions. Its customers span oil and gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, power and utilities, and other process industries. Investors include Altira Group, Insight Partners, Sixth Street Growth, Second Avenue Partners, Chevron Technology Ventures, and Aramco Ventures.

About Altira
Altira Group is a Denver-based venture capital firm that has invested in advanced technology solutions across the energy and industrial value chain for over 28 years. In partnership with its oil & gas company strategic limited partners, Altira enables the next generation of industrial technologies—driving innovation across digital, automation, and core operations. Beyond capital, Altira actively partners with entrepreneurs to scale their businesses, while also providing direct customer access, real-world validation, and collaborative go-to-market support through its strategic industry relationships. This differentiated model compresses adoption cycles, enhances company resilience, and delivers stronger investment outcomes.

For more information, visit www.altiragroup.com.

Media Contact:
Purcell Parker
(303) 592-5500
[email protected] 

SOURCE Altira Group LLC

New investment accelerates Palm Tree Crew’s global expansion while leveraging WME Group’s sports, entertainment, and licensing network for future growth

MIAMI, Sept. 9, 2025 — Palm Tree Crew, the global entertainment, hospitality, and investment holding company founded by Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (“Kygo”) and his manager Myles Shear, today announced a strategic partnership with WME Group, a global leader in sports and entertainment representing the world’s most influential storytellers, brands, live events, and cultural experiences. WME Group led Palm Tree Crew’s $20 million Series B funding round, valuing the company at $215 million and fueling its next stage of growth across entertainment, hospitality, and lifestyle. 

“As music, hospitality, lifestyle, and live experiences converge, Palm Tree Crew has quickly established itself as a cultural force at the center of it all,” said Mark Shapiro, President & Chief Operating Officer of WME Group. “Our investment reflects both our confidence in Palm Tree Crew’s vision and the natural alignment between our companies in creating world-class experiences that captivate audiences around the globe.”

In addition to WME Group, the Series B round includes participation from a combination of existing and new investors that invested in the round.

“From day one, our goal has been to build more than a company – we set out to create a lifestyle brand that celebrates connection, culture, and the carefree spirit of the tropics,” said Myles Shear, Co-Founder of Palm Tree Crew. “With WME Group and our world-class investors behind us, Palm Tree Crew will continue to scale bigger, go bolder, and push into new territory across music, hospitality, and beyond.”

Since January 2024, Palm Tree Crew’s global scale has grown dramatically, underscoring its rise as a cultural powerhouse. In 2025, the company accelerated its hospitality expansion, opening four properties in under a year, including Palm Tree Beach Club in Las Vegas, Palm Tree Club & Hotel in Miami, Palm Tree Club Kansas City, and Palm Tree Club Orlando. Palm Tree Crew has also expanded its festival footprint with immersive new U.S. destinations in Montecito and Napa, alongside its European debut in Saint-Tropez and Sardinia. These events unite entertainment, fashion, music, and lifestyle under one unified brand.

“This past year proved the power of Palm Tree Crew as both a global festival platform and a growing hospitality company, from expanding to new markets to forging cultural partnerships with world-class brands,” said Michael Diaz, CEO of Palm Tree Crew. “Our new funding and partnership with WME Group will accelerate growth across live events and hospitality while enabling diversification into synergistic verticals. This new round of funding positions us to scale that momentum and deliver unforgettable experiences for fans around the world.”

Fresh off a sold-out European debut in Saint-Tropez, headlined by A$AP Rocky and Swedish House Mafia and attended by Rita Ora, Kyle Kuzma, and Winnie Harlow, Palm Tree Crew has proven it is more than a music collective. With partners like Amazon, DraftKings, Tequila Don Julio, and Revolve, and a celebrity-favorite merch line worn by Travis Kelce and Morgan Wallen, Palm Tree Crew has cemented itself as a year-round cultural platform.

Palm Tree Crew’s influence extends beyond entertainment. At its first Aspen festival, hotel rates surged 37%, restaurants saw record-breaking revenue, and secondary ticket prices soared to 250% above face value – generating $88.3 million for the local economy. Today, Palm Tree Crew hosts nearly 10 flagship festivals annually across the globe, featuring artists such as Calvin Harris, A$AP Rocky, Swedish House Mafia, John Mayer, The Chainsmokers, and Kygo.

Beyond events, Palm Tree Holdings invests in early-stage consumer and technology companies, offering founders access to its global marketing platform, talent network, and business development resources. Recent investments include Ryl Tea, Cove Sodas, and SipMARGS, where Palm Tree Crew brought on Alix Earle as both a lead investor and brand ambassador.

About Palm Tree Crew
Palm Tree Crew, founded by Kygo (Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll) and Myles Shear, is a diversified holding company spanning a consumer brand, global live events and hospitality, and a multi-product investment platform. Known for its global, world-class Palm Tree Music Festivals, as well as lifestyle and fashion collaborations, Palm Tree Crew continues to innovate across industries. Its expanding hospitality portfolio currently includes Palm Tree Club Miami, Palm Tree Club Orlando, Palm Tree Beach Club in Las Vegas, and Palm Tree Club Kansas City. These ventures reflect Palm Tree Crew’s mission to blend live music, lifestyle, and hospitality into unforgettable experiences. For more, visit ptc-holdings.com.

Media Contact:
SHADOW
[email protected]

SOURCE Palm Tree Crew

Three-in-one parental leave platform utilizes insurance model to bring enterprise-level program to companies with as few as 10 employees

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2025 — Parento, the only provider of comprehensive paid parental leave (PPL) insurance with employee support services, today announced an oversubscribed Seed II funding round led by ResilienceVC. The round included participation from Kapor Capital, Bread & Butter Ventures, Operator Stack, Coyote Ventures, ffVC, Human Ventures, Springbank, Precursor, Cross Impact, K Street, Evidenced, and Avesta, and brings Parento’s total amount raised to $10.3M.

The funding comes as demand for paid parental leave surges among employees and employers alike, yet small and mid-sized businesses face significant financial and administrative barriers to offering parental leave. Traditional approaches expose companies to volatile cash flows when multiple employees take leave simultaneously, while alternatives like short-term disability only cover limited demographics and income replacement, leaving nearly 3 in 4 private sector employees and more than half of all employees without access to PPL.

“Parenthood is not gendered, and paid parental leave is not just for Silicon Valley or STEM, but for every workplace interested in employee wellness, talent acquisition, and retention,” said Dirk Doebler, Founder and CEO of Parento. “As demand grows and the definition of family evolves to match reality, there’s a systemic need for a true solution. Parento makes paid parental leave affordable and attainable for every company, regardless of size or budget.”

Parento’s three-in-one approach combines customizable paid parental leave insurance with parental leave management services and personalized, human-based parent coaching. This comprehensive model delivers measurable results: 95% of Parento’s parents return to work after leave, compared to just 60-65% for self-funded programs. Parento achieves 10% average engagement rates amongst all full-time employees with its one-on-one coaching services, significantly higher than typical Employee Assistance Programs which see at best 1% utilization. Furthermore, while just 5% of working men take more than two weeks off after the birth of their youngest child despite demonstrated relational and workplace benefits, 46% of claims were filed for males taking leave, with up to 33% of men utilizing 1-on-1 parent coaching services.

Unlike competitors that primarily offer consulting services on parental leave policy creation, Parento provides an actual insurance product with up to 100% financial coverage. This distinction has enabled the company to serve diverse industries often overlooked as desiring family-friendly policies—25% of Parento’s clients operate in nonprofit or manufacturing/warehousing sectors that run on tight budgets with little to no HR personnel.

“Parento aligns exceptionally well with our thesis of investing in innovative companies that close gaps of access, opportunity, and outcomes for underserved communities by tackling a critical shortfall in the U.S. benefits system, especially for businesses that traditionally lack the resources to offer paid family leave,” said Brandon Boros, Venture Partner with Kapor Capital. “Their model turns an unpredictable business expense into manageable monthly costs while delivering comprehensive support that helps companies attract and retain talented parents.”

Parento will use the new capital to expand across product development, sales, and marketing teams while launching additional insurance offerings and new products. The funding announcement coincides with several key growth milestones, including a partnership with the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), one of the 20 largest unions in the nation, marking Parento’s expansion into serving blue-collar workforces in non-paid family leave states. Parento’s parents-first approach has also enabled it to expand internationally for the first time through its IUOE partnership, serving union members in Canada.

The company has also launched partnerships with Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), including one of the largest in the country serving more than half a million clients. These partnerships enable Parento to reach small businesses through established distribution channels, furthering its mission to democratize parental leave access.

The round brings ResilienceVC to Parento’s board, joining an all-female selection aside from Doebler. This composition reflects the company’s focus on addressing workplace challenges that disproportionately impact women, while maintaining its gender-neutral and inclusive approach to parental leave that covers birth, adoption, and foster placement equally.

“We’re thrilled to join Parento’s board and support a company that’s tackling one of the most critical workplace equity issues of our time,” said Tahira Dosani, co-founder and managing partner at ResilienceVC. “Parento’s inclusive approach to parental leave, combined with their proven ability to make these benefits accessible to businesses of all sizes, aligns perfectly with our mission to build financial resilience for all Americans. We’re excited to support Parento to democratize parental leave access across industries and enable employees to maintain income stability.”

Founded in 2019, Parento raised $10.3 million total and serves companies across professional services, healthcare, law firms, nonprofits, and municipal organizations.

About Parento: 
Parento helps every company support working parents through the only comprehensive paid parental leave insurance combined with expert leave management and personalized parent coaching. By converting unpredictable leave costs into predictable premiums, Parento makes parental leave benefits accessible to small and mid-sized businesses nationwide. For more information, visit https://www.parentoleave.com/.

SOURCE Parento