Monthly Archives: December 2025

HIRO Capital begrüßt Sir Nick Clegg als General Partner und lanciert europäischen Scale-up-Risikokapitalfonds HIRO III mit neuem Beirat aus globalen Führungspersönlichkeiten, darunter Yann LeCun

LONDON, 11. Dezember 2025Sir Nick Clegg, Yann LeCun und weitere Experten schließen sich HIRO III an, einem auf Großbritannien und Europa ausgerichteten Multi-Stage-Risikokapitalfonds mit Fokus auf Spatial AI, Robotik, Langlebigkeit, Games, Raumfahrt und Verteidigung.

HIRO Capital, eine gründergeführte VC-Firma, gab heute bekannt, dass Sir Nick Clegg, ehemaliger President Global Affairs bei META und ehemaliger stellvertretender britischer Premierminister, dem Fonds als General Partner für den Start von HIRO III beigetreten ist. HIRO III ist ein großer Multi-Stage-Fonds, der jeweils zwischen 5 Mio. und 50 Mio. Euro in vielversprechende Innovatoren investieren kann und die Scale-up-Finanzierungslücke in Großbritannien und Europa adressiert.

Das Gründerteam von HIRO, bestehend aus Luke Alvarez, Cherry Freeman und der britischen Spiele-Legende Sir Ian Livingstone CBE, verfügt über eine starke Erfolgsbilanz als Gründer-Unternehmer, die zusammen mehrere Exits und Börsengänge mit einem Gesamtvolumen von mehr als 10 Mrd. Euro durchgeführt haben. Diese Erfolgsbilanz basiert auf technischem Fachwissen und Scale-up-Know-how aus jahrzehntelanger Erfahrung im Aufbau von und Investitionen in Start-ups. 

Als Investor im Bereich der räumlichen Datenverarbeitung ist HIRO bestens für das neue Technologiezeitalter gerüstet, in dem wir in ganz Europa eine außerordentliche Wertschöpfung in Bereichen wie räumliche KI und Robotik bis hin zu Verteidigung und Langlebigkeit erleben werden.

Sir Nick Clegg kommentierte: „Ich bin zu HIRO gekommen, weil ich wie die Gründer an den Aufstieg von Immersive Computing und Spatial AI glaube. Wir werden uns nicht mehr nur das Internet anschauen – wir werden im Internet leben. Mit der Konvergenz von Raumfahrttechnologien und Weltmodell-KI der nächsten Generation befinden wir uns gerade in der Anfangsphase dieses Plattformwechsels. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Fonds konzentriert sich HIRO ganz auf diese Themen, und zwar ausschließlich in Europa.

Dies ist eine große Chance für das britisch-europäische Technologie-Ökosystem. Wir haben einige der herausragendsten Forschenden und Universitäten der Welt, aber auch großartige Ingenieurinnen und Ingenieure und Unternehmerinnen und Unternehmer. Unser Problem ist nicht ein Mangel an Innovation, sondern ein Mangel an Kapital in großem Umfang. Europa mag seine Kritiker haben, aber wir haben eine lebendige Start-up-Szene, die jetzt bereit ist, durchzustarten – ich glaube, das HIRO-Team hat die einzigartige geografische und technologische Reichweite, um dazu beizutragen.”

Neben der Ernennung von Clegg zum General Partner wird das Team von HIRO auch durch den neuen Beirat verstärkt. Der Beirat verfügt über außergewöhnliche Fachkenntnisse in jedem der vier Kernbereiche von HIRO: Räumliche KI und Cloud, Autonomie und Robotik, Raumfahrt und Verteidigung sowie Augmentation und Langlebigkeit.

Professor Yann LeCun sagte: „Ich freue mich sehr, dem HIRO-Beirat beizutreten. Wir treten in eine neue Phase der KI ein – eine Ära von Systemen, die die physische Welt verstehen, ein dauerhaftes Gedächtnis haben und komplexe Handlungen planen können. HIROs Erfolgsbilanz bei Investitionen in räumliche Technologien, 3D-Technologien, Wearables und Spiele bedeutet, dass das Unternehmen hervorragend aufgestellt ist, um von dieser neuen Welle von Möglichkeiten in Europa zu profitieren.”

Dem neuen Beirat gehören an: Professor Yann LeCun, ehemaliger Chief Scientist von Meta und Turing-Preisträger für Deep Learning AI; Malcolm Turnbull, ehemaliger Premierminister Australiens und führender Tech-Investor; Major Tim Peake, Wissenschaftler, Testpilot und erster britischer ESA-Astronaut; Laurent Solly, Vice President Europe bei META; Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsexperte Professor Deeph Chana vom Imperial Institute in London, Gründungsdirektor von NATO DIANA und des Nato Innovation Fund; Hannah Gladman, Strategy & Special Projects bei Google DeepMind; Dr. Jack Scannell, Biotech-Investor, Begründer der Langlebigkeit und Schöpfer von Eroom’s Law; Edward van Cutsem, Chairman of Private Markets bei Westerly Winds und ehemaliger MD bei BlackRock; Professor Paul Newman, Professor für Information Engineering in Oxford und Gründer des Oxford Robotics Institute; Caroline Daniel, ehemalige Journalistin und Strategin der Financial Times; Loredana Crisan, Chief Design Officer bei Figma.

Luke Alvarez, Managing Partner von HIRO, sagte: „Ich freue mich, Sir Nick Clegg in unserem Team willkommen zu heißen, zusammen mit Yann LeCun und allen weiteren hochkarätigen Beiratsmitgliedern. Wir befinden uns heute in der Anfangsphase einer Ära massiver technologischen Innovation mit einer beispiellosen Dynamik, die durch die zunehmende Konvergenz der Datenverarbeitung mit der physischen Welt, mit dem menschlichen Körper und mit autonomen Agenten angetrieben wird. Wir alle glauben an das Potenzial Europas, an der Spitze der Technologiebranche zu stehen, und wollen mit derselben Leidenschaft zum Erfolg Großbritanniens und Europas beitragen. Unser neuer Beirat wurde aufgrund seines Weitblicks, seines technologischen Fachwissens und seiner weltweiten und europaweiten Netzwerke ausgewählt. Wir freuen uns darauf, die ersten HIRO-III-Investitionen im Jahr 2026 anzukündigen.”

Informationen zu HIRO Capital 

HIRO Capital ist eine gründergeführte Risikokapitalgesellschaft mit Sitz in London und Luxemburg, die in die superabundante Zukunft der Menschheit investiert. HIRO investiert von Serie A bis Serie C / Scale-Up in seinen spezialisierten Themenbereichen KI, Spatial Computing, Autonomie, Robotik, Langlebigkeit, Augmentation, Spiele, Simulation sowie Raumfahrt- und Verteidigungstechnologien. Wir konzentrieren uns auf Unternehmer und Innovatoren in der weit gefassten Region Europe+, die die EU, Großbritannien, Norwegen, die Schweiz und die Ukraine umfasst. Wir sind Gründer und Führungskräfte, die Founder Leaders unterstützen. Wir sind Optimisten und Futuristen. Wir glauben, dass Europe+ in der nächsten Phase der menschlichen Entwicklung, die durch die Technologie ermöglicht wird, weltweit führend sein kann und sollte. Wir wissen, dass die Kreativität, der Ehrgeiz und der Unternehmergeist der Menschen bessere Gesellschaften schaffen werden. https://hiro.capital/ 

HIRO ist nach dem Helden benannt, zu dem man wird, wenn man ein Spiel spielt oder Sport betreibt, nach dem Helden, der man ist, wenn man ein Unternehmen aufbaut – und es ist eine Hommage an Hiro Protagonist, den Hacker-Helden aus Neal Stephensons „Snow Crash”, der die digitale 3D-Welt codiert und die Menschheit gegen alle Widerstände rettet.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2842654/HIRO_Capital_Logo.jpg

LI.FI Secures $29M in Series A Extension Led by Multicoin and CoinFund to Scale the Universal Liquidity Market for Digital Assets

With over $50 million raised to date and a team of 100+ employees, LI.FI Protocol has surpassed $60 billion in lifetime transaction volume.

BERLIN, Dec. 11, 2025 — LI.FI Protocol, a powerful toolkit that enables developers to build on-chain swaps and cross-chain bridging within their applications, today announced the close of a $29 million Series A extension funding round. The latest round, led by Multicoin and CoinFund, brings total capital raised to $51.7 million.

The funding will fuel the further expansion of company operations and new product development. LI.FI has grown to 100+ employees worldwide and is scaling its team to best serve customers across the digital asset and integrated finance landscape. The LI.FI Protocol is nearing the 1,000 B2B partner milestone and has continued to be a leading infrastructure layer for key customers, including Robinhood, Binance, Kraken, MetaMask, Phantom, Ledger, Hyperliquid, Circle, Alipay, and more, growing monthly volume by 595%, from $1.15 billion in October 2024 to $8 billion in October 2025.

LI.FI will continue to tackle the growing fragmentation across blockchain infrastructure, token standards, and interoperability solutions by providing an enterprise-grade platform that continues to fuel its growth and success. The funding will support the next stage of innovation, including developing infrastructure for AI agents and stablecoins, as well as the planned launch of an open intent and solver marketplace in Q1 of 2026 to broaden access to third-party liquidity.

Philipp Zentner, Co-Founder & CEO of LI.FI commented on today’s news: “Over the past year, we’ve significantly expanded our product suite to strengthen our position in the market and provide a more seamless experience for both B2B partners and their users. This growth allows LI.FI to continue laying the foundation for the next generation of crypto applications, enabling developers and companies to access liquidity across all blockchain ecosystems in ways that were previously overly complex or inaccessible. The increased funding showcases investor confidence in LI.FI’s growth and vision as our goal remains to make composability invisible and reliable, enabling the entire industry to build on it confidently.”

LI.FI Protocol recently surpassed $60 billion in lifetime transaction volume and continues to abstract away complexity to meet the accelerating need for unified, secure, and developer-friendly liquidity infrastructure, allowing businesses to offer onchain capabilities without needing to build it themselves. In doing so, LI.FI is enabling the next wave of products that will bring millions of users into a truly interconnected Web3 ecosystem.

Visit LI.FI‘s website for more information.

Investor Quotes:

Spencer Applebaum, Investment Partner at Multicoin Capital, said: “As crypto trading becomes a core feature inside mainstream fintech apps, the hardest problem is no longer user demand – it’s making fragmented blockchains, liquidity, and execution work seamlessly together,” said Spencer Applebaum, Investment Partner at Multicoin Capital. “LI.FI Protocol gives fintechs and web3 wallets a single API to offer both trading and cross-chain asset movement, handling on-chain routing and execution behind the scenes. By hiding that complexity from both developers and end users, they make it far easier for financial apps to launch truly multi-chain crypto products at scale. This investment reflects our continued conviction in Philipp and his team as long-term category builders in the DeFi space.”

David Pakman, Managing Partner & Head of Venture Investments at CoinFund, added: “Crypto adoption is rapidly increasing just as the blockchain infrastructure underneath fragments and proliferates into multiple L1s, L2s, and protocols. LI.FI is a universal layer that solves this fragmentation problem, allowing for true global cross-chain liquidity and asset interoperability,” said David Pakman, Managing Partner and Head of Venture Investments at CoinFund. “Founders like Philipp see fragmentation as an opportunity to build solutions that give developers access to infrastructure without having to choose between networks. This investment reflects our continued conviction in LI.Fi, Philipp, and his extraordinary team, and we believe they are well equipped to dominate the market for cross-chain products.”

About LI.FI

LI.FI is a non-custodial, open-source protocol that connects decentralized liquidity across multiple blockchain ecosystems. By aggregating access to third-party bridges and decentralized exchanges, LI.FI enables developers to integrate seamless multi-chain functionality into their applications through a single point of connection. This infrastructure reduces the complexity of navigating fragmented blockchain networks while ensuring users always maintain self-custodial control of their assets. It has built a connective layer that powers intuitive, multi-chain experiences on the front end, while preserving the decentralized principles that define Web3. After being founded in 2021, LI.FI has seen extensive growth globally with over 800+ partners in the market currently.

About Multicoin Capital

Multicoin Capital is a thesis-driven investment firm that makes long-term, high-conviction investments in category-defining companies and protocols on behalf of sophisticated families, foundations, endowments, and institutional investors. Founded in 2017, the firm leverages a deep understanding and accumulated knowledge of blockchain technology and crypto markets to deliver strong, risk-adjusted returns. Multicoin Capital manages several billion across its funds, and has established a track record of deploying capital across market cycles in both public and private markets.

About CoinFund

CoinFund is one of the world’s first crypto-native investment firms and a registered investment adviser founded in 2015. The firm champions the leaders of the new internet, powered by foresight as active investors to achieve extraordinary outcomes. CoinFund invests in seed, venture, and liquid opportunities within the blockchain sector with a focus on digital assets, decentralization technologies, and key enabling infrastructure.

For more information, visit coinfund.io

PRESS CONTACT

M Group Strategic Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE LI.FI

Keeper Announces $4M Pre-Seed to Bring Fully Automated AI Matchmaking to Market

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2025 — Keeper, the world’s most effective AI matchmaker, today announced it closed a $4 million pre-seed funding round in October 2024. The round was led by Lightbank and Lakehouse Ventures, with participation from Champion Hill Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and others. The funding has powered a year of R&D to automate Keeper’s revolutionary matching methodology and accelerate the company’s destiny to find lasting love for every person on Earth.

Founded in 2022, Keeper is the only matchmaking product that is singularly focused on outcomes, with a matching approach that emphasizes quality over quantity in the extreme and a business model that aligns the company’s incentives with user success. In beta, Keeper’s comprehensive intake and psychometric approach attracted more than 1.5 million signups and produced the best success rate of any product in history with 1-in-10 first dates leading to marriage.

Since closing the round in October 2024, Keeper has focused on turning its human-in-the-loop, AI-assisted process into a fully automated AI matchmaker. With the recent launch of Keeper V2, Keeper’s AI performs the heavy lifting–searching, ranking, and proposing matches–before an expert human matchmaker performs a brief final review. This preserves accuracy while compressing time-to-match as Keeper completes the transition to full automation.

“In beta, we proved that our method works. This past year has been about scale, speed, and accessibility,” said Jake Kozloski, Founder & CEO of Keeper. “Our AI is becoming the matchmaker that understands you better than you understand yourself–so your first match can be your last first date. This funding helped us build the foundation for a fully automated AI matchmaker that can address loneliness at a global scale.”

Keeper uses open-ended data collection and rigorous relationship science to assess compatibility across preferences, personality, values, intelligence, and other predictors of long-term success. The company’s algorithms–developed with guidance from Stanford evolutionary scientists and psychometricians–learn from real-world outcomes to continuously improve matching performance.

John Neamonitis at Lakehouse Ventures recognizes Keeper’s promise: “Dating apps have one of the lowest NPS among all consumer apps–users are tired and frustrated and ready for something new. With advances in large language models, an AI matchmaker isn’t just possible, but as Keeper is proving, infinitely better than incumbent solutions.”

The new capital is being used to scale Keeper’s unrivaled matching engine, expand distribution, and introduce self-improvement features like coaching and feedback so Keeper can defeat industry incumbents whose products don’t work and make human loneliness a thing of the past.

For more about Keeper, visit Keeper.ai or contact Jake Kozloski at [email protected].

About Keeper

Keeper is the AI matchmaker committed to finding everyone their soulmate. By combining advanced AI with relationship science and a business model aligned to user success, Keeper aims to end loneliness and give everyone the opportunity to build a happy, healthy family.

Media Contact

Jake Kozloski
Chief Executive Officer
[email protected]
(347) 392-8093

SOURCE Keeper

Stic Raises $10M Bridge Round, Bringing Its Valuation to $200M and Advancing the Future of Out-of-Home Advertising

New funding accelerates the company’s North American expansion, strengthens passive income opportunities for drivers and enhances partnerships with nationwide brands and agencies

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11, 2025Stic, the technology-enabled platform that connects brands with everyday drivers to power measurable out-of-home (OOH) advertising, today announced it has raised a $10 million Bridge funding round led by Accretion Capital and notable entrepreneurs like Phil Hellmuth, Adam Waheed and Chris Detert. Advisory support came from experts such as Lucy Guo, Maurice Maschmeyer, Tanya Cohen, Collins Key, Devan Key, Kamo Jurn and the Global Wealth Solutions Group of Raymond James.

The latest investment brings Stic’s total valuation to $200 million and supports the company’s mission to create simple, passive earning opportunities for everyday drivers while giving brands a more measurable, and cost-efficient approach to OOH. Over the next year, Stic will use the new capital to expand operations across more than thirty US states and Canada, deepen relationships with brands and agencies running national campaigns and strengthen its operational capabilities in new markets.

“By combining a fast-growing driver network with powerful analytics, we’re giving brands a scalable way to run OOH campaigns while putting money back into people’s pockets,” said Adam Cohen, founder and CEO of Stic. “Stic makes it easier for people to earn passive income without changing their daily routines and this funding helps us bring that opportunity to more communities while giving brands a more measurable way to reach high value audiences in the real world.”

Founded in 2023, Stic’s platform brings greater measurement, transparency and scale to a part of OOH that has long been fragmented and difficult to track. Brands can use the platform to activate campaigns across Stic’s driver network, and drivers earn money per mile for participating. Stic uses a mix of proprietary systems and industry-standard mapping, mobility and analytics tools to model routes, traffic patterns and campaign performance, delivering modern transparency from streets to the screen.

The company currently works with a broad range of national and emerging brands across the insurance, retail, technology, CPG, QSR and entertainment categories. Since its inception, Stic’s driver network has grown by 600%, helping transform the gig economy with a model that eliminates the time, labor and constant engagement required by most platforms while giving brands a uniquely human and highly efficient advertising channel. The platform supports real people, brings enhanced transparency to the industry and elevates expectations for what OOH advertising can deliver.

“As a partner, working with Stic supports the best of both human empowerment and smart technology,” said Lucy Guo, CEO/founder of Passes and co founder of Scale AI. “In today’s economy, people are looking for meaningful ways to earn income and seek advertising that isn’t disruptive to their daily lives. Stic’s platform empowers gig workers while delivering smarter advertising in the real world, unlocking growth opportunities for all sides of the marketplace— from drivers to brands and agencies.”

For more information, visit www.drivestic.com.

About Stic
Stic is a VC-backed adtech startup transforming the way brands and consumers think about outdoor advertising by turning everyday vehicles and gig economy vehicles into measurable, mobile media. Founded in 2023, Stic enables drivers to earn money simply by going about their daily routines, using removable, technology-enabled stickers that track mileage, optimize ad placement, and calculate real-time impressions.

(www.drivestic.com)

Media Contact:

[email protected] 

SOURCE Stic

Cyphlens Raises Seed Funding to Bring Visual Encryption to Enterprise

Salesforce Ventures, Motivate Ventures, DCG, ex/ante, and Cambrian Ventures invest as Cyphlens expands its advisory board with leading security and intelligence experts.

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2025Cyphlens is defining the next generation of enterprise security with visual encryption, a groundbreaking layer of protection that lives everywhere the eye meets the screen. Today, the company announced the close of its oversubscribed $3.8 million seed round and the expansion of its world-class advisory board. The round includes participation from Salesforce Ventures, Motivate Ventures, DCG, ex/ante, and Cambrian Ventures — underscoring strong investor conviction in this new category of data protection.

Cyphlens’ patented visual encryption technology introduces a new layer of defense to enterprise security by protecting information at the moment it’s viewed — the last mile where traditional encryption stops. The company’s flagship product, Cyph-lens, transforms sensitive data into encrypted visual ciphers readable only through a secure decoding lens, preventing exposure even when displayed on screen. This technology addresses the rapid rise of AI-driven phishing, credential theft, screen-scraping malware, and insider risks across complex digital supply chains.

In a cybersecurity market crowded with incremental advances, Cyphlens stands apart by securing what others overlook – the moment data is viewed. Its visual encryption technology fills a critical gap left open by traditional encryption and access management solutions, delivering true end-to-end protection for the AI era.

“In a cybersecurity market full of incremental improvements, Cyphlens is solving a blind spot: data exposure at the point of view,” said Rob Keith, Partner at Salesforce Ventures. “Their visual encryption architecture extends true zero-trust security to the last mile — where data is most vulnerable — and arrives at exactly the right moment as enterprises grapple with AI-accelerated threats.”

“Our mission is to make the strongest security invisible – so adoption becomes instinctive,” said Rocky Motwani, CEO of Cyphlens. “With Cyphlens, visual encryption can be added to existing systems in minutes, extending zero-trust protection to every endpoint and every user.”

Industry Leaders Join Cyphlens Advisory Board

Cyphlens has appointed several leading figures from cybersecurity, intelligence, and fintech to its advisory board:

  • Chris Moretti, VP of Global Technology & AI Infrastructure Enablement at Cigna – bringing an enterprise-scale perspective on secure data access and digital transformation.
  • Chris Novak, Founder of the Verizon Threat Research Advisory Center, a globally recognized authority on cyber risk and threat intelligence.
  • William MacMillan, a former Chief Information Security Officer at the CIA, offers decades of experience in national security and intelligence operations.
  • Richard Grogan-Crane, CEO of XTRM, contributes deep expertise in financial services and payments security.

Together, these advisors strengthen Cyphlens’ position as a leader in visual encryption and next-generation identity access management.

“Cyphlens is building for the future of enterprise security – one where AI, scale, and usability must coexist,” said Chris Novak. “Their architecture anticipates tomorrow’s threats while simplifying how enterprises protect what matters most.”

Cyphlens will use the new funding to accelerate product development across its visual-encryption platform, deepen enterprise integrations, and expand engineering and customer-success teams. The company is also scaling go-to-market efforts to meet rising demand from financial services, government, and healthcare organizations seeking stronger protection against AI-driven data exposure.

About Cyphlens

Cyphlens pioneers visual encryption to combat emerging threats in identity access management and data security. Its technology protects information even when viewed – safeguarding against AI-driven phishing, insider threats, and supply-chain vulnerabilities.

Cyphlens’ solutions are deployed across financial services, government, and healthcare sectors, helping organizations safeguard critical data, strengthen authentication, and maintain trust in an era of accelerated digital and AI risk.

The company continues to expand its platform capabilities with upcoming products, including CypherFile, which extends visual encryption to files and shared documents, and CypherMFA, a next-generation multi-factor authentication system that leverages visual encryption and delegation by design for seamless, zero-friction identity verification.

Learn more at www.cyphlens.com.

Media Contact:
Rina Niles
[email protected]
(917) 543-7108
https://cyphlens.com

SOURCE Cyphlens

Realm.Security Caps 2025 with $2M Strategic Investment from Presidio Ventures to Accelerate Asia-Pacific Expansion

Emerging leader in security data pipelines has raised $22M in 15 months, expanded headcount 250%, and helped CISOs slash six figures in SIEM ingestion costs

BOSTON, Dec. 11, 2025Realm.Security, the company pioneering the industry’s first AI-native Security Data Pipeline Platform (SDPP), today announced a $2M strategic investment from Presidio Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Japanese-headquartered Sumitomo Corporation. A global integrated trading company with a history spanning 400 years, Sumitomo operates numerous subsidiaries around the world, including SCSK, a leading global system integrator, providing managed IT and cybersecurity services to more than 8,000 enterprise customers. Realm will use the investment and access to Sumitomo’s network to accelerate its Asia-Pacific expansion through channel partners and further strengthen its executive team.

“We’re excited to bring on Presidio Ventures as a strategic investor as we meet rising global demand for our platform from security teams who are drowning in data noise and facing spiraling storage and compute costs,” said Pete Martin, co-founder and CEO of Realm.Security. “This investment caps an impressive first full calendar year for Realm, and we believe Sumitomo’s deep connections will help us enter the Asia-Pacific market and scale quickly in 2026. The region is now the third-largest cybersecurity market globally, and Japan is a particularly compelling entry point for our channel-led strategy, given that many enterprises there outsource their Security Operation Centers.”

“Realm is using AI to give every enterprise security team the ability to manage, filter, and normalize security data in ways that, until recently, were only possible for Fortune 1000 companies with dedicated cybersecurity data engineering teams,” said Ross Leav of Presidio Ventures. “We’re excited to join their mission to democratize this capability as the cybersecurity industry faces a data crisis. At the same time, the industry also faces a human resource crisis. Especially in Japan where talented cyber professionals are becoming an increasingly scarce resource, enterprises need to find ways to do more with less. This is a perfect opportunity to employ AI, both to meet the challenge of data overload but also to enable cyber professionals to focus their attention on the most critical threats. We believe Realm can be an essential tool for modernizing our own security operations services while at the same time improving outcomes for the many customers who rely on us.”

The strategic investment follows a $15M Series A round for Realm in October, led by Jump Capital and including participation from Glasswing Ventures and Accomplice. Other recent milestones include Realm being recognized as an “Emerging Leader” in the SDPP category in analyst firm SACR’s “The Rise of Security Data Pipeline Platforms as a Control Plane for the SOC report,” as well as receiving a BostInno 2025 Fire Award as one of the 50 companies having a major impact on the local startup ecosystem. More impressively, Vensure Employer Solutions, a 10,000-person benefits and payroll provider, recently reported using Realm’s platform to cut firewall log volumes by 83%, saving $250,000 annually.

To fuel its momentum and global expansion, Realm.Security is continuing to scale its team, increasing headcount by 250% in 2025. Recent leadership appointments include Holly Cappello as Chief Revenue Officer and Colin Jermain as Vice President of Data Science. Cappello brings more than a decade of cybersecurity sales experience, most recently serving as SVP of Global Sales at Cado Security, which was acquired by Darktrace. She previously held senior sales roles at Menlo Security and Carbon Black. Jermain joins from SecurityScorecard, where he was Senior Director of Data Science, and previously served in multiple senior data science roles at Vectra AI. These appointments underscore Realm’s continued investment in revenue, data, and AI leadership as it enters its next phase of growth.

About Realm.Security

Realm.Security helps security teams cut costs and improve outcomes by transforming how they manage and route security data. Headquartered in Boston, the company was founded by industry veterans with decades of experience defending against evolving threats. Realm’s AI-native Security Data Pipeline Platform is radically simple to deploy and operate, embedding artificial intelligence across the platform to deliver faster, smarter outcomes without the manual overhead. Learn more at www.realm.security.

About Presidio Ventures
Presidio Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Sumitomo Corporation, one of the world’s leading integrated trading companies. With offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, London and Los Angeles, it has invested in more than 200 companies, providing both financial backing and business development expertise to help startups scale globally. www.presidio-ventures.com.

Media Contact 
Kyle Austin
BMV for Realm.Security
[email protected]

SOURCE Realm.Security

Avocet Partners Launches with $500 Million Equity Commitment from Oaktree and Lane42

Avocet to Acquire EMC National Life, Establishing a Nationally Licensed Annuity and Life Insurance Platform

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2025Avocet Partners (“Avocet” or the “Company”) today announced its launch as a new insurance-focused investment and operating platform backed by $500 million of committed equity capital from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. (“Oaktree”) and Lane42 Investment Partners, LLC (“Lane42”).

Led by an experienced founding team of operators with a proven track record of building, scaling, and managing insurance platforms across multiple market cycles, Avocet was formed to acquire, operate and grow life insurance platforms and establish an ecosystem of related investment and service entities. The Avocet founding team brings decades of experience as insurance operators with prior senior leadership roles across leading insurers and insurance-focused investment firms.

Concurrent with its launch, Avocet has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire EMC National Life Insurance Company (“EMC Life”) from EMC Insurance. The acquisition provides Avocet with a nationally licensed platform operating in 48 states and a skilled team of approximately 80 professionals based in Des Moines, Iowa. Additional information on the transaction can be found in EMC Insurance’s announcement here.

EMC Life will serve as the foundational carrier for Avocet’s strategy to build a scaled, multi-line life and annuity insurance organization. Avocet plans to invest substantial capital to enhance EMC Life’s operations and support new growth initiatives, including the launch of annuity products distributed through independent marketing organizations and other strategic channels, alongside continued expansion of EMC Life’s life insurance business.

Jagan Pisharath, Founder & CEO of Avocet Partners stated: “We are thrilled to launch Avocet in partnership with Oaktree and Lane42, two institutions that share our vision for building a platform focused on growing leading insurance companies with aligned asset management expertise to help policyholders secure retirement solutions in a time of growing need. The acquisition of EMC Life is the cornerstone of our permanent capital platform. We are not simply acquiring a company and a strong team — we are investing in a long-term strategy to build a premier, highly-rated annuity and life insurance carrier.”

“With Avocet, Jagan and his team are applying deep sector expertise and a disciplined growth strategy to a segment of the insurance market with compelling long-term fundamentals,” said Thomas Casarella and Zach Serebrenik of Oaktree’s Special Situations strategy. “EMC Life provides a strong operating base, and we believe Avocet is well positioned to invest strategically in the business, expand its product offerings, and build a scaled platform over time.”

“Lane42 is pleased to support Jagan and the Avocet team as they work to create a leading, differentiated life and annuity platform that meets the growing needs of the market,” commented Lane42 Partner Trevor Winstead. “Under the leadership of seasoned, accomplished insurance executives and with the acquisition of EMC Life providing the foundation, Avocet is positioned for meaningful, sustained growth.” 

“On behalf of the entire EMC Life senior management team, including Mark DeVries and Paul Rivard, I want to express how proud we are of the innovative and tech-enabled platform our team members have built,” said Chris Frazier, President & COO of EMC Life. “We are excited to become part of Avocet Partners and believe their industry expertise, operational capabilities, and long-term capital will position EMC Life for its next phase of growth as part of a scaled insurance platform.”

Avocet’s acquisition of EMC Life is expected to close in 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and the demutualization of the EMC National Life Mutual Holding Company. EMC Life will be renamed at or shortly after the closing.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel, and Oliver Wyman acted as actuarial advisor to Avocet. Piper Sandler & Co. acted as financial advisor to EMC Life in connection with the transaction. Nyemaster Goode acted as legal counsel to EMC. Faegre Drinker acted as legal counsel to EMC National Life Mutual Holding Company.  

About Avocet Partners
Avocet Partners is focused on acquiring and growing insurance companies. The firm is led by seasoned executives with a proven record of quickly scaling businesses and is backed by leading institutional investors. Avocet leverages deep industry insight and long-term investment discipline to create value across the insurance ecosystem.

About Oaktree
Oaktree is a leader among global investment managers specializing in alternative investments, with $218 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2025. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented, and risk-controlled approach to investments in credit, equity, and real estate. The firm has more than 1,400 employees and offices in 26 cities worldwide. For additional information, please visit Oaktree’s website at www.oaktreecapital.com.

About Lane42 Investment Partners
Lane42 Investment Partners is an alternative asset management firm specializing in capturing the most compelling opportunities for value creation from inefficiencies in public and private markets and the convergence of debt and equity financing across asset classes. Lane42’s mission is to deliver value to investors and exceptional partnership to portfolio companies, driven by a culture of integrity, collaboration, and alignment. Founded by Scott L. Graves, an accomplished investment professional with more than 30 years of public and private credit and equity investing, Lane42 was seeded with a $2 billion capital commitment and a minority equity investment from affiliates of Millennium Management LLC. Lane42 is headquartered in Santa Monica and New York. www.Lane42.com.

About EMC Life
EMC National Life (EMC Life) is the life affiliate of EMC Insurance, an insurance enterprise that has been in business for more than 100 years. EMC Life is dedicated to providing superior service and simple products that make life easy.

SOURCE Avocet Partners

NanOlogy Unveils Drug Development Program for Rare Pediatric Brainstem Tumor

Next Generation Intratumoral Technology Targets Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma

Investigational New Drug Enabling Studies are Underway with Planned Clinical Trial to Begin Late 2026

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 11, 2025NanOlogy, LLC, a private clinical-stage oncology company, is pleased to announce its drug development program aimed at transforming the treatment of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), an aggressive highly lethal pediatric brainstem tumor. The company is developing Large Surface Area Microparticle (LSAM) Cisplatin for stereotactic intratumoral (IT) administration in this initial indication.

Plans for Pediatric Clinical Trials

NanOlogy is completing Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling studies required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Upon completion of these studies, the company plans to submit an IND application for LSAM-Cisplatin to treat malignant neoplasms of the brain including DIPG. Subject to FDA allowance to proceed, NanOlogy aims to initiate a clinical trial in late 2026 to evaluate the safety and response of stereotactic IT administration of LSAM-Cisplatin in children diagnosed with DIPG. According to DIPG.org, DIPG afflicts 150 – 300 children annually in the United States, with median survival of less than one year. Current treatments, like radiation therapy, may delay progression but almost always fail to deliver long term survival. NanOlogy is also assessing future opportunities to extend the use of LSAM-Cisplatin to treat other brain and solid tumors.

The Promise of LSAM-Cisplatin in DIPG

In laboratory research studies, cisplatin has been shown to kill DIPG tumors by binding to DNA and disrupting cell replication, leading to cell death. Unfortunately, current systemically administered cisplatin formulations are associated with numerous severe side effects throughout the body. In addition, cisplatin does not cross the blood brain barrier well, limiting its efficacy in brain tumors, making systemically administered cisplatin a suboptimal treatment for DIPG.

“We believe NanOlogy’s innovative LSAM-Cisplatin investigational drug designed for intratumoral administration can overcome the limitations of current treatment options with highly targeted delivery of drug into the tumor, continuous drug release, and minimal systemic toxicity,” said H. Paul Dorman, founder and chairman of NanOlogy. “Advancements in minimally invasive surgical procedures and imaging now allow local delivery of LSAMs to solid tumors virtually anywhere in the body, including the brain. We are excited to advance IT LSAM-Cisplatin for DIPG and explore the promise it may hold for children and families facing this devastating disease.”

About NanOlogy

NanOlogy, LLC (www.nanology.us) is a private clinical-stage oncology company developing treatments for solid tumors using drugs optimized for intratumoral delivery designed to improve response with minimal to no systemic toxicity. Enabled by the CritiTech Particle Engineering Solutions’ Purcision™ technology platform, NanOlogy produces Large Surface Area Microparticles (LSAMs) of pure drug for direct local delivery overcoming issues of systemic toxicity and tumor bioavailability. NanOlogy clinical programs have advanced LSAM investigational drugs in multiple solid tumors including pancreas, lung, bladder, peritoneal, ovarian, prostate, and dermal cancers. Feasibility of the Purcision™ platform has been established in taxanes, platins, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors, and other agents. The investigational drugs are covered by composition of matter patents issued in the United States and other major jurisdictions worldwide, including Canada, Europe, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, and India, which form the foundation of an extensive intellectual property portfolio of over 100 issued patents protecting NanOlogy investigational drugs, formulations, methods, and technology.

Media Contact

Marc Iacobucci
[email protected] 
1-817-916-2287

SOURCE NanOlogy, LLC

K2 Space Raises $250M at $3B Valuation to Roll Out a New Class of High-Capability Satellites

TORRANCE, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025 — K2 Space, the California-based developer of large, high-power satellite platforms, today announced a $250 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation, accelerating delivery of a new generation of spacecraft built for the heavy-lift era. The financing follows $500 million in signed contracts across commercial and U.S. government customers and is led by Redpoint, with participation from accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and from Hedosophia, Altimeter, Lightspeed, and Alpine Space Ventures.

K2 was founded in 2022 on a single thesis: the rise of launch vehicles like Falcon 9, Starship and New Glenn will make it possible to build an entirely new category of satellite. Satellites that are larger, higher power and more reliable; that can be deployed in any orbit – LEO, MEO, and GEO – rather than confined to one. These capabilities will become increasingly important as critical applications like communications and compute get pushed from terrestrial networks to space.

“Space is becoming one of the most strategically important technology sectors, and it’s attracting investment because the underlying demand is real and accelerating,” said Elliot Geidt, Partner at Redpoint. “What stands out about K2 is how much core hardware they’ve built themselves. They’re not assembling a satellite; they’re redefining the architecture needed for the next decade of missions.”

“K2 is tackling one of the biggest limitations in the space economy: meaningful increases in power and scale,” said T. Rowe Price investment analyst Jason Leblang. “Their approach isn’t incremental. They’re rethinking satellite design from the ground up, and the result is a platform that can support entirely new classes of missions. That’s why we’re confident in the team and the trajectory.”

Building the technical base for the next class of missions

K2’s first two years were spent solving what the commercial supply chain hadn’t: the foundational subsystems required for large, high-power, highly resilient spacecraft. The team designed the highest power hall-effect thruster ever flown – 4x more powerful than anything that’s flown to-date; large solar arrays, designed to reliably generate maximum power; a radiation-tolerant avionics suite built to survive high radiation environments; massive reaction wheels; high voltage power systems; and much more.

Those designs weren’t just theoretical. Earlier this year, K2 flew its hardware as part of a hosted-payload mission that validated the flight computer, reaction wheel, and avionics stack in space, de-risking the core of the platform ahead of full-system integration.

“Each subsystem had to be built to a new performance class,” said Neel Kunjur, Co-Founder and CTO. “That engineering forms the basis of our high-power ‘Mega’ line, and it’s why we can take customers beyond the limits of the small-satellite era.”

Four months to launch: The Mega Class satellite

In March 2026, K2 will launch GRAVITAS, the company’s first production of its “Mega Class” satellite. While small relative to what K2 is designing next, the Mega Class satellite is on par with the largest satellites that have ever been produced. Mega is designed to fly on today’s workhorse rockets, including Falcon 9, Vulcan, and Ariane 6, while delivering approximately 10× the power of other satellites in its class. Built from the outset for multi-orbit operations, Mega is hardened for some of the harshest environments in the solar system and engineered with redundancy and reliability techniques historically reserved for human-rated vehicles like Dragon and the Space Shuttle.

The mission represents K2’s first spaceflight of the fully integrated, in-house system and will open a comprehensive test campaign:

  • The first in-space firing of a 20 kW Hall-effect thruster – roughly more powerful than anything flown to date.
  • The first deployment of the large twin 10 kW solar arrays on the platform (20kW total).
  • The first on-orbit exercise of K2’s high-voltage power system paired with radiation-tolerant avionics.

“GRAVITAS brings our full stack together for the first time,” said Karan Kunjur, Co-Founder and CEO. “We are validating the architecture in space, from high-voltage power and large solar arrays to our guidance and control algorithms, and a 20 kW Hall thruster, and we will scale based on measured performance.”

“We pushed our propulsion hard on the ground and were thrilled to hot-fire at the full 20 kW,” added Rafael Martinez, who leads K2’s high-power electric propulsion program. “Now we’re eager to characterize the thruster’s performance in space.”

From first flight to full-rate production

Following Mega’s launch, K2 will ramp manufacturing at its 180,000 –sq.-ft. Torrance factory, sized to produce 100 high-power satellites per year. That capacity will be needed as K2 starts delivering against $500 million in signed commercial and government contracts. Customers include large operators like SES, who recently announced plans to partner with K2 on its future MEO network. Multiple launches across 2026-2027 are planned, with operational commercial and national security constellations beginning deployment starting in 2028.

“K2 is bringing something brand new to the space industrial base: low cost, high power satellites produced at speed and scale,” said Dr. John Plumb, Head of Strategy at K2. “Our innovative approach will enable entire satellite constellations of exquisite payloads – something unimaginable due to its prohibitive cost before K2 showed up.”

Next up: Giga, built for super-heavy lift

With Mega establishing the production baseline, K2 will next unveil plans for designing Giga: its large-class spacecraft designed specifically for Starship and New Glenn. Giga will deliver 100kW of power per satellite, enabling missions that previously only existed in science fiction:

  • AI scale compute on orbit
  • High-throughput networks spanning orbits – and planets
  • Mass-produced giant telescopes to vastly expand scientific return from across the solar system and beyond

“Our north star is simple,” said Karan Kunjur. “If we build these platforms well, we get to ask new questions about what’s possible in orbit.”

Media Contact:
[email protected]

About K2 Space
At K2 Space, we’re Building Bigger.

K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit.

By scaling capability and production, K2 delivers systems ready for the most demanding missions – from national security and global communications to deep-space research – with reliable performance wherever they operate.

Founded by former SpaceX engineers, K2 Space has raised more than $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint, accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Alpine Space Ventures.

SOURCE K2 Space