AutoGrid Veterans Unveil Orchestrated Reinforcement Learning (RL) Control Agents to Maximize AI Tokens and Accelerate AI Deployment Without Waiting For The Grid

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 18, 2025 — Today, Hammerhead AI is emerging from stealth with $10 million in seed funding to accelerate AI factory deployment by enabling operators to maximize their power utilization for AI workloads. The oversubscribed seed round was led by Buoyant Ventures, with participation from SE Ventures (the venture fund backed by data center equipment leader Schneider Electric), AINA Climate AI Ventures, MCJ Collective, WovenEarth Ventures, Bombellii Ventures, Clearvision Ventures, Stepchange, Acclimate Ventures, and individual contributions from prominent industry leaders such as Jack Cogen, a member of the Board of Directors at CoreWeave.

As AI factories scale to train and serve models, the sector is colliding with a hard limit: power. GPUs are sitting idle on racks because operators can’t secure enough power. These factories — from colocation providers to hyperscalers — often operate well below their potential, typically running at only 30 to 50% utilization. This gap between peak and average usage leaves vast amounts of power capacity underused, stranding megawatts that could be used for token generation.

Hammerhead’s Orchestrated RL Control Agents (ORCA) platform optimizes token processing capacity and power utilization, boosting output by up to 30%. By dynamically orchestrating workloads within existing power budgets, ORCA enables AI factory operators and colocation providers to deploy workloads faster, improve gross margins and capture revenue from power that currently sits idle. In constrained markets, each additional megawatt of stranded power unlocked using ORCA can be worth more than $20 to $50 million.

While many focus solely on power utilization efficiency, ORCA targets system-wide token productivity. Its software-first solution optimizes on-site generation and storage, non-IT equipment such as chillers and cooling distribution units, IT equipment including racks, servers and GPUs, and if required, AI workloads themselves. ORCA’s autonomous, power-aware RL controllers adapt in real-time to complex, data-rich environments, maximizing token throughput while enforcing operator-defined power guardrails.

“Power is the critical bottleneck in today’s AI landscape, but it doesn’t have to limit what’s possible,” said Rahul Kar, CEO and Founder of Hammerhead AI. “With ORCA, we’re enabling AI factory operators to achieve greater output from existing resources. Our investors recognize the potential for AI factories to transform their business models and move beyond grid infrastructure limits.”

Hammerhead AI, part of SE Ventures’ inaugural Accelerator Program and Nvidia’s Inception Program, is led by a founding team with deep roots in power orchestration and implementing large, 24/7 mission-critical enterprise systems. CEO Rahul Kar and CTO Rajeev Singh previously built and scaled AutoGrid, where they helped pioneer power orchestration technologies and guided the company through its acquisition by Schneider Electric. They are joined by Sadia Raveendran, who managed AutoGrid’s strategic partnership with Schneider Electric from early investment through acquisition. Together, the team brings hard-won experience in orchestrating 8,000 megawatts of energy assets across more than 20 countries. The leadership team also includes data center infrastructure and cloud operation veterans from Dell, HPE, Microsoft, Meta and Lambda Labs.

“Hammerhead enables AI infrastructure providers to unlock the full potential of their data centers,” said Aaron Binkley, VP of Sustainability at Digital Realty. “Along with unlocking new revenue, Hammerhead helps solve one of the most pressing problems in the industry: powering AI workload sustainably. Their unique go-to-market strategy, OEM integrations and AI-driven orchestration sets them apart.”

“The Hammerhead team represents the rare combination of deep technical expertise and proven scaling experience needed to redefine the economics of AI infrastructure,” said Laura Katzman, Partner at Buoyant Ventures.

Amit Chaturvedy, Global Head and Managing Partner at SE Ventures, added, “We selected Hammerhead AI from over 400 applicants to join SE Ventures’ first Accelerator Program because the team and solution immediately stood out. During our program, Hammerhead established strong alignment with Schneider Electric’s data center businesses, and there is an opportunity to launch reference designs for future AI factories. Hammerhead is the only company positioned to boost data center operators’ revenue through its unique power-aware token maximization approach. SE Ventures is proud to double down on our investment.”

Hammerhead AI will use the funding to accelerate product development, scale global deployments, and deepen ties with leading infrastructure OEMs and AI factory operators. The company welcomes engagement from operators, OEMs, enterprises and AI cloud providers seeking to reshape AI factory economics. Learn more at hammerheadco.ai.

About Hammerhead AI
Hammerhead AI enables AI factory operators to maximize revenue using Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents for power-aware orchestration. Its flagship Orchestrated RL Control Agents (ORCA) platform maximizes token processing capacity by converting power constraints into revenue and shareholder value — without waiting for grid expansions. Founded by veterans in AI, power and cyber-secure orchestration of mission-critical assets, Hammerhead is backed by Buoyant Ventures, SE Ventures, AINA Climate AI Ventures, MCJ Collective, WovenEarth Ventures, Bombellii Ventures, Clearvision Ventures, Stepchange, Acclimate Ventures and prominent investors like Jack Cogen from CoreWeave’s board. Learn more at hammerheadco.ai.

SOURCE Hammerhead AI

Funding round led by Forerunner, and will accelerate the shift of $800B of digital ad spend to creators

NEW YORK, Nov. 18, 2025 — Agentio—the AI-native platform for creator-led advertising—raised a $40M Series B led by Forerunner to scale the infrastructure enabling brands to shift hundreds of billions of digital advertising spend to creators. The round includes additional investments from Benchmark, Craft Ventures, AlleyCorp, Antler, and Starting Line, bringing total capital raised to $56 million and valuing the company at $340 million.

The creator economy is expected to reach $500B by 2027 as creators become the most trusted voices for consumers. But while brands recognize the opportunity, creator advertising has remained stuck in a manual, inefficient model — individual negotiations, inconsistent measurement, and workflows that don’t scale beyond a handful of partnerships. The result: less than 2% of digital advertising spend flows to creators despite their outsized influence on purchasing decisions.

“Advertising follows attention, and attention has moved to creators. The shift is already happening — brands are moving billions into creator-led marketing,” said Arthur Leopold, co-founder and CEO of Agentio. “What’s been missing is infrastructure that lets brands scale creator programs the way they can easily scale their search and paid social campaigns — thereby making creators part of their media plan. We’ve built that infrastructure. Brands can now build creator programs on Agentio that run at the scale of their paid media budgets. This new funding will allow us to expand that infrastructure globally and across platforms, establishing Agentio as the most important growth engine for brands, and unlocking the movement of hundreds of billions of dollars into the creator economy.”

Agentio’s AI infrastructure powers this shift by automating end-to-end creator campaign lifecycles at scale, from creator-brand matching to content briefing, brand safety, bids, contracting, approvals, payments, and real-time performance tracking. The platform enables brands to build and scale creator programs with the same efficiency, speed, measurement, and control as any digital media buy, while giving creators automated access to enterprise advertising budgets. In 2025 alone, over 100 leading enterprise brands, including Uber, Tecovas, DoorDash, CashApp, and Olipop, have shifted tens of millions of dollars in paid media budgets to creator campaigns built on Agentio’s platform.

“Every previous attempt to scale creator advertising required armies of people negotiating individual deals. It couldn’t work at the scale brands needed,” said Jonathan Meyers, co-founder and CTO of Agentio. “What’s changed is that AI can now automate the manual administrative tasks that once took weeks or months. Marketers can train custom agents in natural language to translate their ideas into fully contracted creator campaigns in minutes. Our platform analyzes a brand’s needs, evaluates tens of thousands of creators for audience and content fit, determines optimal matches, and automates the entire workflow, from brief to payment. This end-to-end automation is powered by the underlying technology, network, and data on Agentio that turn creator marketing into a scalable system.”

Agentio’s AI platform operates as a two-sided network connecting brands and creators: brands get agentic tooling to build, automate, and scale their creator programs, and creators get personalized opportunities from top brands without endless back and forth or negotiation. The company has achieved 5x+ year-over-year growth, with brands using the platform to run creator campaigns that outperform their best digital channels. Bombas recently achieved 5.3x better ROAS from Agentio campaigns compared to digital video campaigns.

“Creators have become one of the most powerful forces shaping consumer behavior, but the infrastructure to support them hasn’t kept pace,” said Eurie Kim, Managing Partner of Forerunner. “Just as Google and Meta built platforms to unlock search and social, Agentio is building the infrastructure needed for creator-led ad development and monetization at scale. Arthur and Jonathan recognized early on the opportunity for AI to bridge the execution gap between creators and marketers, and we believe the Agentio platform will power the next generation of efficient, scalable marketing alpha in the ever-evolving competition for customer acquisition and awareness.”

Several Forerunner portfolio companies, including Warby Parker, Away, Chime, and The Farmer’s Dog, run successful creator programs on Agentio’s platform.

“Agentio completely transformed our YouTube creator strategy,” said Steven Vigilante, Director of Media and Partnerships at Olipop. “What used to require months of coordination for a handful of partnerships now happens in days, allowing us to activate dozens of top-tier creators while improving performance tracking. For the first time, we can scale this channel and measure the ROI on every dollar spent, just as we would with any paid media channel.”

Agentio will use the Series B funding to advance its AI infrastructure, expand creator content buys beyond YouTube to Meta Partnership Ads and additional platforms, and grow its team from 35 to over 100 employees in 2026. The company recently added Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal (best known as Rhett & Link), acclaimed Creators and hosts of Good Mythical Morning, the most-watched daily morning show on the internet, as advisors after growing their branded revenue through Agentio.

About Agentio
Agentio is the AI-native platform for creator-led advertising. It automates campaigns end to end, enabling advertisers to scale creator programs across Meta, YouTube, and beyond in hours, not months, while connecting creators with the world’s top brands. For more information, visit www.agentio.com.

SOURCE Agentio

NEW YORK, Nov. 18, 2025 — Apono, the cloud identity-security company pioneering Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP) access management, today announced a $34 million Series B led by U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), with participation from Swisscom Ventures, Vertex Ventures, 33N Ventures, and existing investors. The round brings Apono’s total funding to more than $54 million. Over the past year, Apono established product-market fit with a fourfold increase in client count.

Apono’s platform helps enterprises manage the explosion of cloud permissions by eliminating standing privileges, a long-standing vulnerability in identity and access management. Built on Just-in-Time (JIT) and Just-Enough-Access (JEA) models, Apono grants and revokes access dynamically based on real-time context and business logic, ensuring teams can move fast without compromising security.

The company’s vision anticipates a future where human and AI identities coexist and collaborate. As agentic systems proliferate, managing their access requires a level of automation, context-awareness, and scale that static IAM models can’t deliver. Apono’s dynamic permissioning engine meets that challenge by validating every access request in real time, enforcing security without slowing down developers or operations.

“The large-scale adoption of AI agents exponentially scales the problem of getting access right,” said Rom Carmel, Co-founder and CEO of Apono. “Achieving ZSP with a dynamic access management approach is the only sustainable way to secure Agentic operations at scale.”

Customers, including Intel, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Monday.com, rely on Apono to secure access across hybrid and multi-cloud environments while meeting compliance standards and accelerating incident response.

Jacques Benkoski, General Partner at USVP, will join Apono’s board. A longtime enterprise software investor, Jacques has helped scale leading cybersecurity companies, including Trusteer, Medigate, and Kenna Security. He will work closely with Rom Carmel, Ofir Stein, and the Apono team to help drive the company’s growth and leadership in the emerging field of agentic identity security.

“Apono is leading the next evolution of identity security – one that brings zero trust to identity access, following the zero trust of network access we’ve seen in recent years,” said Jacques Benkoski, General Partner at USVP. “The company’s dynamic, context-aware approach is exactly what enterprises need to secure both human and machine identities in the AI-driven era.”

The new funding will be used to accelerate development of AI-powered access intelligence and policy automation, expand go-to-market operations in the U.S. and new international markets, and scale Apono’s engineering and sales teams to meet growing enterprise demand.

Apono will be featured at AWS re:Invent, December 1–5, 2025, in Las Vegas, NV., where attendees can see live demos of its dynamic access platform built for this new era.

About Apono

Apono is redefining identity security with its Cloud Privileged Access Platform, purpose-built for the agentic AI era. Founded by cybersecurity and DevOps veterans, Apono empowers enterprises operating in modern cloud environments to eliminate standing privileges and adopt just-in-time, just-enough access across all identities – human, machine, and AI agents. Trusted by global Fortune 500 companies, Apono bridges the gap between security and engineering teams, enabling organizations to move fast without compromising security.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2826199/Apono_Logo.jpg

Contact Information
Stephen Lowing
VP Marketing
[email protected]
apono.io  

SOURCE Apono

The Company Also Announces More Than $115 Million in Booking Contracts

BERTHOUD, Colo., Nov. 18, 2025 — Ursa Major today announced that it closed $100 million in its Series E funding round and received an additional $50 million in debt funding commitments. Investors include both new and long-term supporters of Ursa Major’s mission, including Eclipse, who led the round and were joined by Woodline Partners, Principia Growth, XN, and Alsop Louie Partners, among other institutional shareholders.

Ursa Major also announced more than $115 million in bookings through the first three quarters of 2025, which includes both government and commercial partnerships with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Stratolaunch, and BAE Systems. The fundraise will support Ursa Major’s business goals of scaling manufacturing and production across product lines.

“This year, our Ursa Major team has proven we are building the next great aerospace and defense company. Our investors recognize our milestones this year – flying hypersonic several times, advancing our solid rocket motor programs, completing tests for space propulsion systems, and securing a record booking portfolio – are just the start of this next chapter for our company,” said Dan Jablonsky, CEO of Ursa Major. “This investment gives us the tools to solve critical strategic industrial base and national security challenges for the United States and our allies.”

Ursa Major is using this investment to address urgent needs in the U.S. industrial base for modernized solutions that can deliver capabilities faster and more affordably than what legacy providers can supply. The Company will rapidly field its throttleable, storable, liquid-fueled hypersonic and space-based defense solution, as well as scale its solid rocket motor and sustained space mobility manufacturing capacity.

“Ursa Major is doing what few others in defense have achieved — scaling manufacturing and supply chains to deliver hypersonic systems and advanced propulsion at industrial scale,” said Lior Susan, Founding Partner at Eclipse. “The Eclipse team is proud to support their mission to strengthen the U.S. and allied industrial base with real capability, built here and built now.”

Recently, Ursa Major announced the addition of Ronald Sugar and Gilman Louie to their corporate board and since the last round of funding, Ursa Major has successfully flown its hypersonic engines and tactical missiles several times, demonstrating the rapid, yet sustainable growth.

About Ursa Major
Ursa Major is an aerospace and defense company delivering flight-proven capabilities for hypersonics, solid rocket motors, space mobility and launch. Headquartered in Berthoud, Colorado, with additive manufacturing operations in Youngstown, Ohio, Ursa Major leverages advanced production techniques and flexible architectures to build systems for all domains: land, air, sea, and space. The company is revitalizing the defense industrial base for the U.S. and its allies, flying faster to accelerate delivery of critical capabilities where speed and adaptability matter most. For more information, visit www.ursamajor.com.

SOURCE Ursa Major

Maveron and Serena Ventures lead $7M Investment in safe, creativity-first AI for Kids

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Nov. 18, 2025 — Hapiko, a Brooklyn-based company building creative technology for children, announced today the launch of Stickerbox, the first AI-powered voice-to-sticker printer designed to bring kids’ imaginations to life.  The device requires no smartphone, no laptops, and offers hours of independent play – no adult help needed. Following a $7 million funding round led by Maveron (investors behind Lovevery) and Serena Ventures (founded by tennis champion Serena Williams), Stickerbox introduces a new category of creativity-first AI designed for safe, hands-on play.

“Stickerbox is one of the first products to make AI feel magical for kids and grounded for parents. It’s an exciting glimpse of what creative play will look like for the next generation,” said Jerry Lu, Partner at Maveron.

Unlike passive screen-based tools, Stickerbox encourages real-world, open-ended play. Kids can simply speak their ideas, from “a dinosaur on a skateboard” to “a Viking ship sailing through outer space” and watch as their imagination instantly becomes a high-quality black & white sticker. The kid-safe thermal printer produces unlimited creations that children can color, customize, and use to decorate their world.

“There’s nothing like a child’s imagination, how it sees the world and turns the everyday into magic,” said Arun Gupta, CEO of Hapiko. “We built Stickerbox as a springboard for that creativity: real stickers, no rules, just endless imagination manifested.”

Kid-Safe AI Meets Creative Freedom

Stickerbox was built from the ground up for children’s safety and privacy. It operates with minimal data collection, no cameras, it only listens when given permission, and has built-in moderation filters that ensure every image is age-appropriate.

“As both an investor and a mother, I’m passionate about tools that empower children to create and express themselves safely,” said Serena Williams, Founder of Serena Ventures. “Stickerbox shows how technology can enhance childhood creativity – not replace it.”

“We designed our AI system with intention,” added Robert Whitney, CTO of Hapiko. “Every decision, from privacy to prompt safety, was made to give families peace of mind while inspiring kids to think bigger.”

Key Features & Benefits

Designed with both fun and functionality in mind, Stickerbox features:

• Voice-to-Image Generation: Kids simply describe what they imagine and Stickerbox instantly creates a printable sticker.
• Hands-On Creativity: Built to minimize passive screen time, Stickerbox encourages real-world, tactile play.
• Thermal Printing: Ink-free technology delivers crisp outlines, no mess or maintenance required. The paper is BPA and BPS-free so parents can feel confident this product is safe for use.
• Kids-centric AI: Purpose-built for young creators, Stickerbox uses Kid-safe AI within a durable, family-friendly design that prioritizes privacy, safety, and ease of use.

“We’re starting with stickers because they’re the perfect bridge between imagination and the real world,” said Robert Whitney. “But this is just the beginning,  Kids have so much creative potential, and we’re really excited to see where things go when they’re given safe tools made just for them.”

Stickerbox is now available in the US market at stickerbox.com for $99.99.

About Hapiko

Hapiko is a Brooklyn-based company building creative technology for the next generation. By combining child-centric design with the possibilities of kid-safe AI, Hapiko is redefining how kids play and express their imagination. The company is proudly backed by Maveron and Serena Ventures.

Media Contact:
5W Public Relations
[email protected]

SOURCE Hapiko

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18, 2025 — Big Rentals, the Los Angeles-based equipment rental platform modernizing the $80+ billion U.S. equipment rental industry, today announced it has raised $2.8 million in seed funding. The round was led by SNAK Venture Partners with participation from Ironspring Ventures, Forum Ventures, Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH Fund, and NuFund Venture Group.

The funding will accelerate Big Rentals‘ expansion into the construction and heavy equipment segment, building on strong early traction in the category through its nationwide partner network. It will also support continued development of HQRent.com, the company’s AI-powered software that helps independent rental businesses run online by managing bookings, payments, and fleet operations in one place.

“For too long, local rental companies and small business owners have had to stitch together outdated tools, paper, and spreadsheets,” said Pablo Fernandez, Co-Founder and CEO of Big Rentals. “We put the same technology used by national chains into the hands of independent operators, making it easy and affordable for anyone to start and scale a professional rental business.”

Founded in 2023, Big Rentals is a dual-sided platform that combines a national rental marketplace with modern operating software for independent equipment owners. Rental businesses use Big Rentals to automate scheduling, payments, and inventory, replacing legacy workflows with streamlined, digital operations. The marketplace brings new demand directly to local operators, driving higher utilization and unlocking new revenue opportunities across the U.S.

The investment marks growing recognition of Big Rentals‘ pioneering mission to modernize a historically offline industry. “Big Rentals is transforming an overlooked yet essential backbone of our economy. Pablo and the team are building a category-defining marketplace, and we’re thrilled to back a founder who combines deep industry insight with a software-first mindset,” said Sonia Nagar, Co-Founder of SNAK Venture Partners, who will join the Big Rentals board. Nagar brings extensive experience scaling leading marketplaces including BacklotCars and Sittercity, with investments in Machinery Partner, Cameo, and Coinbase at Pritzker Group Venture Capital.

Surging demand for equipment rentals is driven by record U.S. manufacturing investment, massive infrastructure projects, and a nationwide data center boom. U.S. manufacturing construction is at $223 billion – well above historic highs – and data center construction hit a $40 billion annual run rate this year, up 30%. As contractors shift from owning to renting, the $80+ billion equipment rental market is being reshaped in real time. In this new wave of American reindustrialization, Big Rentals‘ is positioned to unify the fragmented long tail of suppliers and capture the next decade of growth with a technology-first platform built for small businesses.

About Big Rentals

Big Rentals builds technology for the U.S. equipment rental industry, helping independent rental businesses manage bookings, payments, and inventory online. The platform uses AI automation to simplify scheduling and operations for small business owners. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and Nashville, TN, Big Rentals is backed by SNAK Venture Partners, Ironspring Ventures, LAUNCH Fund, Forum Ventures, and NuFund Venture Group.

SNAK Venture Partners, Ironspring Ventures, LAUNCH Fund, Forum Ventures, and NuFund Venture Group

Learn more at bigrentals.com.

Media Contact:
Name: Ludington Media on behalf of Big Rentals
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 551-795-5950

SOURCE Big Rentals

Nudge Security is the only solution that secures AI and SaaS at the Workforce Edge—the critical point where employees make technology decisions that shape the organization’s security posture. Rather than relying solely on reactive monitoring or restrictive controls that slow business innovation, Nudge Security delivers automated, policy-driven guardrails that reach employees in real-time, transforming security from a barrier to productivity into a natural part of how work gets done.

“Nudge Security is at an exciting time in their journey and we’re thrilled to partner with Russ, Jaime, and the team,” said Morgan Mahlock, Director at Cerberus Ventures. “Nudge has cultivated incredible customer loyalty due to its intuitive product that both security teams and employees appreciate for its ease of use. It can deliver immediate value by providing an automated inventory of the SaaS and AI tools being used across an organization. With the vision to expand governance of interactions with SaaS and AI at the Workforce Edge, Nudge will become even more essential for highly distributed, AI-first organizations.”

Since its initial launch in October of 2022, Nudge Security has experienced exponential growth, achieving 3x growth in ARR for two consecutive years, onboarding nearly 200 customers, and delivering rapid product innovation to address customers’ needs for scalable security and governance of workforce use of AI and SaaS.

The explosion of AI , particularly AI embedded throughout the SaaS ecosystem, has introduced unprecedented security challenges as organizations now grapple with hundreds of AI-enabled applications, complex networks of integrations, and non-human identities with access to sensitive data across their environment.

“The difference between AI apps and SaaS has all but disappeared—almost every app has embedded AI capabilities, agents, and integrations. In order to secure workforce AI use at scale, you need to consider the entire SaaS ecosystem, including all SaaS and AI tools, their integrations, and the non-human identities that connect them,” said Russell Spitler, Co-Founder & CEO of Nudge Security. “This funding will enable us to continue to expand our capabilities and help organizations confidently embrace innovation while maintaining security and control.”

Customer growth

Customers  include forward-thinking IT and security teams at cloud-native organizations spanning software, financial services, healthcare, biotechnology, entertainment, and more.

“Nudge Security has been a big win for our security program at Reddit,” says Fredrick Lee, CISO of Reddit. “Within hours of deployment, we gained complete visibility into our SaaS footprint across the organization. It’s rare to find a solution that’s both incredibly powerful and remarkably easy to use.”

Product Innovation

In the last 12 months, Nudge Security has shipped over 60 feature releases, adding significant new capabilities to improve AI governance, harden security posture, combat identity security risks, and mitigate third-party risks.

“Our team’s ability to innovate at this pace is a direct reflection of our deep understanding of the challenges our customers face,” said Jaime Blasco, Co-Founder & CTO of Nudge Security. “We’re not just building features—we’re solving real problems that security and IT teams encounter every day as they navigate the complexities of AI adoption and SaaS sprawl. This funding allows us to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and deliver unparalleled value to organizations looking to embrace innovation without compromising on security.”

Notable Nudge Security capabilities:

• Day One discovery of the entire SaaS and AI footprint including apps, integrations, human and non-human identities, user activities, and more
• Scalable AI security and governance with visibility into AI apps, users, and integrations as well as AI embedded in other SaaS apps via AI agents and MCP servers
• Proprietary risk intelligence to accelerate vendor security assessments, alert on SaaS supply chain breaches, and surface other high-priority risks
• Automated guardrails that nudge the workforce toward safe SaaS and AI adoption, delivered just in time in the browser as well as via Slack and Teams
• Security posture monitoring to continually assess app configurations, integrations, and identity security against best practices, complete with step-by-step remediation guidance and orchestration workflows
• Identity security and governance workflows to identify and fix poor identity hygiene, streamline user access reviews, and automate employee offboarding

Comprehensive SaaS and AI Security Governance from Day One

Nudge Security offers a fully-functional free 14-day trial which delivers a complete inventory of all SaaS and AI apps, users, and integrations after a quick 5-minute set-up. The trial is completely self-driven with no credit card or sales conversation required to get started.

About Nudge Security

Nudge Security  delivers SaaS and AI security governance at the Workforce Edge—where employees make thousands of technology decisions daily. Our automated, policy-driven guardrails reach employees when and where they work, enabling rapid technology adoption while minimizing risk and sprawl. Through unrivaled discovery capabilities, AI-driven risk insights, and behavioral science-based engagement, we make security a natural part of how modern work gets done rather than an obstacle to innovation. Nudge Security was founded in 2021 by Russell Spitler and Jaime Blasco and is backed by Cerberus Ventures, Ballistic Ventures, Forgepoint Capital, and Squadra Ventures.

Learn more at www.nudgesecurity.com and follow Nudge Security on LinkedIn, Reddit, X, BlueSky, and Instagram.

SOURCE Nudge Security

Firm Surpasses $1.75 Billion in Regulatory AUM Strengthening Its Position as a Leading Private Equity Firm Focused on Consumer Brands and the Supply Chain and Services Businesses that Empower Them

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18, 2025 — Monogram Capital Partners (“Monogram”), the Los Angeles-based private equity firm focused on building the next generation of enduring consumer businesses, has closed its third fund, Monogram Capital Partners Fund III, at its $350 million hard cap. The fund was substantially oversubscribed, reflecting strong demand from both returning and new investors and bringing Monogram’s total regulatory assets under management (RAUM) to approximately $1.75 billion.

Fund III drew continued commitments from long-standing Limited Partners who have partnered with Monogram since inception, as well as new institutional investors. The investor base consists of prominent endowments, foundations, family offices, funds of funds, and other institutions. This successful close underscores investors’ confidence in Monogram’s differentiated approach and marks another major milestone in Monogram’s evolution as a leading partner to category-defining consumer businesses.

A Differentiated Approach to Consumer Private Equity

Founded in 2014, Monogram typically partners with founders and family-owned consumer businesses as their first institutional investor, helping professionalize, scale, and sustain growth while preserving their entrepreneurial cultures. Unlike many of its peers that invest exclusively in consumer brands, Monogram’s model bridges both sides of the ecosystem, partnering with category-defining consumer companies and the supply chain and services businesses that power them. This complimentary dual mandate creates a distinctive flywheel of insight and operational synergy, aimed to fuel outsized growth and defensible value creation. 

“Our mission has always been to build enduring consumer businesses by pairing deep operational expertise with a long-term partnership mindset,” said Jared Stein, Co-Founder and Partner at Monogram Capital. “We view ourselves as the bridge between family-held businesses and large-cap institutional capital–helping scale companies that deliver exceptional value to consumers, employees, and communities alike.”

“Closing Fund III represents a significant milestone for our team and our investors,” said Stein. “We are deeply grateful for the trust placed in us and excited to continue building the next generation of enduring consumer businesses.”

Delivering Repeatable Outperformance

Monogram’s strong performance has been driven by a disciplined, data-informed investment process and a hands-on operational partnership model. The firm’s portfolio has achieved ~3x revenue growth and >600bps EBITDA margin expansion in aggregate across all investments made at least 5 years ago. The firm’s portfolio reflects deep industry expertise – spanning category disruptors and essential service providers alike.

Representative investments in the firm’s sectors of focus include:

• OLIPOP – a leading functional-soda pioneer recently valued at $1.85 billion
• Archer – a better-for-you meat-snack platform scaled 50x to ~$350 million of gross revenue
• Grand Fitness — a leading national Planet Fitness franchisee
• Kidfresh—a category leader in better-for-you frozen food distributed nationwide
• Precision Tri-State – one of the largest garage-door repair franchisee platforms in the nation
• D.S. & Durga — a premium fragrance business
• Vasco – a rapidly expanding sports-surfacing services provider to K-12 schools
• Chewy.com – a leading specialty pet retailer sold to PetSmart for $3.3 billion

Monogram’s recent exit of Western Smokehouse – a 40-year family held business that Monogram scaled from one to seven facilities, culminating in >1,200 jobs all while scaling EBITDA >10x- reinforced the firm’s track record of extending the legacy of family-held businesses and building durable value.

Positioning for the Next Chapter

With Fund III, Monogram will continue to execute its differentiated investment strategy across four core verticals: Food & Beverage, Beauty & Personal Care, Pet, and Consumer/Business Services. The firm also plans to expand its investment team and operating partner program to further institutionalize its platform and accelerate the impact of its portfolio.

“With the closing of this fund, we will add greater depth to our team and resources across the firm,” said Oliver Nordlinger, Co-Founder and Partner.  “These efforts to further institutionalize Monogram are in service of building an enduring firm for many funds to come.”

Monogram has repeatedly demonstrated a distinctive playbook for acquiring and scaling highly differentiated consumer businesses by deploying targeted operational resources and deep category insight to accelerate growth and compound market leadership. With this fund, Monogram will continue to identify and support the next generation of consumer champions.

Lazard acted as placement agent for Fund III and Latham Watkins LLP served as legal adviser.

About Monogram Partners

Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, Monogram Capital Partners currently manages approximately $1.75B in RAUM, focusing exclusively on investing in leading consumer businesses, supply chain partners, and service providers. With a collaborative and operationally driven investment approach, Monogram typically serves as the first institutional partner to entrepreneurs and family owners—helping them build sustainable, category-leading businesses. For more information on Monogram Capital Partners, please visit:

http://www.monogramcapital.com

SOURCE Monogram Capital Partners

• Awarded grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation will support the advancement of Vincere’s USP30 inhibitors and accompanying biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease through IND-enabling studies that will pave the way towards Phase 1 clinical trials
• Vincere’s USP30 inhibitors have the potential to be first-in-class and provide disease-modifying benefit to millions of patients with Parkinson’s disease
• This award builds on prior MJFF support of Vincere’s preclinical research in 2019 and 2022

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 18, 2025 — Vincere Biosciences today announced the receipt of a $5 million grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) through its Therapeutics Pipeline Program, which supports the advancement of promising therapies through preclinical and clinical stages. The initiative focuses on candidates with strong potential to slow or halt disease progression or alleviate burdensome symptoms for those living with Parkinson’s disease.  The funding accelerates Vincere’s lead USP30 inhibitor, a potentially first-in-class therapeutic designed to modify the course of Parkinson’s disease, through IND-enabling studies toward a 2026 clinical trial initiation. In parallel, the grant will also fund Vincere’s biomarker development efforts to evaluate target engagement and guide clinical translation, strengthening the foundation for future human studies.

“The Michael J. Fox Foundation remains steadfast in our mission to accelerate the development of transformative treatments and, ultimately, a cure for Parkinson’s disease,” said Jessica Tome Garcia, PhD, MJFF’s lead scientific program manager. “Our collaboration with Vincere Biosciences over the years has supported the advancement of research targeting mitochondrial dysfunction, a key driver of Parkinson’s pathology. This next phase of work builds on that foundation and represents important progress toward disease-modifying therapies that could meaningfully improve patients’ lives.”

Targeting the Root Cause of Neuronal Vulnerability

Mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired mitophagy are central features of PD pathophysiology. Mitophagy, the selective recycling of damaged mitochondria, is essential for maintaining neuronal health. In PD, this process is often compromised, leading to toxic buildup of defective mitochondria that accelerates neurodegeneration.

Vincere aims to restore mitochondrial quality control and prevent the progression of neuronal injury by selectively inhibiting USP30, a mitochondrial deubiquitinating enzyme that acts as a negative regulator of mitophagy. By targeting the cellular processes at the root of Parkinson’s, Vincere’s approach has the potential to not only slow disease progression but also improve quality of life for millions living with PD.

“Mitochondria sit at the crossroads of Parkinson’s and aging (the biggest risk factor for Parkinson’s),” says Dr. Spring Behrouz, co-founder and CEO of Vincere, “fix the mitochondria and you strike at the root of the disease. MJFF’s support helps us move that science from the lab to the clinic.”

Transitioning from Discovery to Clinic

MJFF’s award will fund critical IND-enabling studies, including pharmacology, toxicology, and regulatory workstreams. These studies will establish the foundation required for a successful Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), marking the transition of Vincere’s program from preclinical development to the clinic. This award builds on prior MJFF support, which continues to move Vincere’s USP30 inhibitor program forward.

“It’s been exciting to see growing enthusiasm for USP30 since our AI platform prioritized this target in 2018. The new support from MJFF positions the company well for ongoing partnering discussions with larger organizations who may accelerate clinical development of this promising approach,” says Andy Lee, co-founder and CBO of Vincere.

About Vincere Biosciences Inc.
Vincere Biosciences is a Boston-based biotechnology company developing small-molecule therapeutics that improve mitochondrial repair and recycling to address neurodegeneration and age-related conditions. The company’s lead program targets USP30, an enzyme that impairs mitophagy, with an oral, brain-penetrant development candidate now moving through IND-enabling studies for Parkinson’s disease. Vincere integrates AI-guided discovery with mechanistic validation to advance medicines aimed at underlying cellular causes of disease. Learn more at www.vincerebio.com

Contact: Anahit Campbell,
Strategic Initiatives Manager,
Vincere Biosciences
Phone: 857-245-9492
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Vincere Biosciences