NODA AI’s Series A funding will accelerate progress of key DoW customer milestones for the orchestration of cross-vendor, mixed fleet autonomous systems

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 26, 2026 — NODA AI Inc., developer of the novel algorithmic weapons and tactics orchestration platform for all-domain, cross-vendor systems, today announced that it has raised $25 million in Series A funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Booz Allen Ventures, Draper Associates, Bloomberg Beta, and Alumni Ventures.

The investment will allow NODA AI to accelerate delivery on key milestones to Department of War and United Kingdom Ministry of Defense customers, deepen its integration across more than 30 existing platforms, and extend its technical capabilities into new defense and intelligence markets.

“Mass autonomy in defense demands a new generation of algorithmic warfare – a new market category and technical approach that we are pioneering at NODA AI,” said Philong Duong, Chief Executive Officer. “The essence of defeating adversaries is making better, faster decisions, and the next frontier will be the ability to harmonize decision making across an ecosystem of independent autonomous systems with diverse capabilities. While much of the defense industrial base is focused on building the best vehicles and their respective platform autonomies, functionally the chess pieces, we are ruthlessly focused on creating the brains, the best chess player — a system capable of adaptive reasoning, real-time tactics and strategy handling, and the ability to transform a set of independent capabilities into desired effects.”

NODA AI was founded in 2024 by Global War on Terrorism veterans to address the problem that the current control systems for unmanned technologies are fragmented, vendor-siloed, and overly deterministic — creating operational siloes and excessive cognitive load for the warfighter. To address this problem, the company is building a novel open and vendor-agnostic reasoning platform architected to design, develop, and deploy algorithmic warfare across manned and unmanned systems.

As an independent cognitive layer, NODA AI works with OEMs to understand and integrate different vehicles and autonomous capabilities into their growing 30+ OEM ecosystem. NODA AI also works with government partners to develop cross-platform tactics and strategies, leveraging its novel AI-reasoning engine to orchestrate those tactics across large, mixed fleets and transform today’s siloed platforms into combined and decisive combat power.

The platform is already in demand by defense and intelligence officials: its selection over several large incumbents in key programs and its demonstrated ability to integrate rapidly with other vendors have drawn strong endorsements from government leaders.

“NODA AI has been selected to lead the development of the orchestration layer for our multi-domain collaborative autonomy program. Their work is vital to advancing the Department’s autonomous force structure and directly supports the Secretary of War’s priorities,” a senior DoW official stated. “Their advanced AI orchestration technologies enable seamless coordination across unmanned and manned systems spanning air, space, surface, subsurface, and ground domains, making them pivotal to achieving operational superiority.”

In just nine months from pre-seed funding, NODA AI has created the largest technically integrated partner system in defense autonomy and has received multiple awards with major defense programs. It has partnered with several large defense primes, like Booz Allen Hamilton and Huntington Ingalls Industries, to accelerate development.

“NODA AI is building the AI-native connective tissue for defense autonomy, enabling collaboration and interoperability between systems, and we’re proud to partner with their team as they define the future of algorithmic warfare.” said Janelle Teng Wade, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “We’re impressed by their technical depth, speed of execution, and mission-driven focus to deliver real operational advantage,” Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, added.

“NODA AI has been the fastest growing company in our portfolio and is onto something big,” said Paige Craig, Managing Partner of Outlander, who led early investments in notable defense companies like Scale AI and Havoc AI.

About NODA AI

NODA AI is an AI-native defense company focused on developing, maintaining, and orchestrating mixed-fleet tactics and strategies for autonomous systems.

The introduction of novel autonomy brings a new generation of algorithmic warfare, and NODA is building the world’s deepest vendor-agnostic, cross-platform algorithm repository so that operators can manage desired effects and not individual systems. https://www.NodaIntelligence.ai.

About Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs lay strong foundations to build and forge long-standing companies. With more than 150 IPOs and 420 portfolio companies in the enterprise, consumer and healthcare spaces, Bessemer supports founders and CEOs from their earliest days through every stage of growth. Bessemer’s global portfolio has included Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Yelp, LinkedIn, PagerDuty, RocketLab, Wix, Fiverr, Toast and ServiceTitan, and the firm has $19 billion of assets under management. Bessemer has investment teams located in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, London, Bangalore, and Tel Aviv. Born from innovations in steel more than a century ago, Bessemer’s storied history has afforded its partners the opportunity to celebrate and scrutinize its best investment decisions (see Memos) and also learn from its mistakes (see Anti-Portfolio).

Media Contact:
Taylor Dillenberger
[email protected]

SOURCE NODA AI Inc.

Strategic Investment by Springcoast Partners Will Drive Product Innovation and Global Expansion

HOBART, Australia and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 26, 2026 — UpGuard, a leader in cybersecurity and risk management, today announced it has raised a Series C funding round of $75M from Springcoast Partners. The minority funding round will accelerate UpGuard’s next growth phase, including the expansion of its AI-powered Cyber Risk Posture Management (CRPM) platform capabilities, scaling global go-to-market functions, and pursuing strategic M&A. Springcoast led the round and joins existing investors, August Capital, Square Peg Capital, and Pelion Venture Partners.

“UpGuard has an opportunity to bridge the gap between risk and security, and this Series C round adds even more fuel to accelerate the delivery of our enterprise-grade solutions for the mid-market. This ensures that CISOs and lean security teams can stay resilient with best-in-class tools to address today’s increasingly complex threat landscape,” said UpGuard’s co-founder and CEO Mike Baukes.

Today, UpGuard is trusted by 50k organizations in 90+ countries, including over 2000 customers who are supported by UpGuard’s distributed workforce across 14 countries with localized support and diverse expertise. Backed by customer validation, UpGuard has been named a winner in the G2 2026 Best Software Awards, ranking in the top 15 companies for Security, and in the top 100 of all Global Software Companies. This recognition reinforces UpGuard’s position as the category leader on G2 for Third-Party and Supplier Risk Management for 15 consecutive quarters, with a platform that processes more than 100 billion risk signals every day.

UpGuard’s AI-powered CRPM platform unifies the fragmented cybersecurity landscape by correlating risk across typically overlooked posture areas, including: Vendor Risk for the supply chain, Breach Risk for the external attack surface, User Risk for workforce security, Trust Exchange for data sharing, and Risk Automations for GRC engineering.

UpGuard is redefining security operations by shifting the burden from manual review to AI-driven automated precision. In the last 100 days alone, the platform processed over 23 billion tokens to power risk assessments, threat signals, and security questionnaire completions. This massive computational scale has translated into tangible speed for customers: to date, more than 70k AI risk assessments and 700k AI autofill questionnaires have been completed, and UpGuard’s AI Threat Analyst has been used to successfully triage 90 percent of over 483k breach signals to ensure security teams can focus on high-intent threats.

“UpGuard has proven its ability to execute and achieve significant scale and capital efficiency in a critical market, and they have the vision and technology to achieve even more. We are excited to partner with the UpGuard team as they expand their AI-CRPM platform capabilities and solidify their position as a leader in cyber risk posture management,” said Holger Staude, Managing Partner at Springcoast.

BofA Securities acted as the exclusive placement agent to UpGuard on the transaction, and Fenwick provided legal counsel.

About UpGuard
Founded in 2012, UpGuard is a leader in cybersecurity and risk management. The company’s AI-powered platform for Cyber Risk Posture Management (CRPM) provides a centralized, actionable view of cyber risk across an organization’s vendors, attack surface, and workforce. Trusted by thousands of companies, UpGuard’s platform is designed to help security teams manage cyber risk with confidence and efficiency. UpGuard is headquartered in Hobart, Tasmania with US headquarters in Mountain View, California. To learn more, visit www.upguard.com.

About Springcoast Partners
Established in 2023, Springcoast is a New York-based growth equity firm focused on partnering with market leading software and technology companies. To learn more about Springcoast, visit www.springcoast.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Julie Huang
[email protected] 

SOURCE UpGuard

New funding led by DeepWork Capital, with significant investment from Data Point Capital, and with participation from existing investors, will accelerate product development and market expansion

MIAMI, Feb. 26, 2026 — FirmPilot, the AI-powered legal marketing platform, today announced the close of its oversubscribed Series A-1 funding round. The round was led by DeepWork Capital, with a significant investment from Data Point Capital, and participation from existing investors including Blumberg Capital, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Valor Ventures, SaaS Ventures, and EarlyLight Ventures. The new capital brings FirmPilot’s total funding to $27.25M. As part of the investment, DeepWork Capital Partner Ken Hall will join FirmPilot’s Board of Directors.

Every hour, more than 1,000 people in the U.S. search online for legal help, yet 75% never scroll past the first page of results. For the 425,000+ law firms in the U.S., legacy approaches to marketing, retaining traditional agencies, manually managing ad spend, and relying on guesswork are costly, low-ROI, and not built for busy legal professionals. FirmPilot’s patent-pending AI Legal Marketing Engine replaces this guesswork with intelligence, using proprietary data and AI to help law firms attract higher-value clients, faster.

Since its founding in 2023, FirmPilot has experienced rapid growth. The company’s platform has generated tens of thousands of qualified leads for law firms across the U.S., with clients seeing 180%+ increases in case volume. FirmPilot’s AI knowledge model has analyzed more than 5 million pieces of legal marketing content and draws from a proprietary database of 3,000+ relevant legal cases to produce authoritative content that ranks in both traditional search and AI-driven search engines, including results surfaced by ChatGPT.

“Law firm owners aren’t just practicing law anymore, they’re building companies. And the firms that will win over the next decade are the ones making the shift from gut-feeling marketing to data-driven, AI-powered growth. This round gives us the fuel to help more firms make that transition and to continue building the platform that replaces the traditional agency model entirely.”

— Jake Soffer, Founder & CEO, FirmPilot

FirmPilot’s platform provides an all-in-one solution for law firm marketing, including AI-driven SEO and GEO (AI search optimization), PPC and Google Ads management, local SEO, digital PR and link building, social media, and website optimization. The platform’s competitive blueprinting technology takes an “x-ray” of a firm’s competitive landscape, analyzing trends and patterns in SEO, ads, and other digital marketing activity of competitors to identify growth opportunities. FirmPilot’s AI agent automation then handles time-intensive tasks, from 24/7 competitor monitoring to content calibration, while real-time dashboards give firm owners full transparency into ROI.

The new funding will fuel two major product initiatives. First, FirmPilot is building its next-generation AI model, 10x the size of its current model in terms of training data, expected to roll out to all clients by Q3 2026. The upgraded model will enable significantly deeper content creation, smarter marketing tactics, and faster time to ROI for law firms. Second, FirmPilot is developing direct integrations with leading case management solutions, allowing the platform to ingest case value data and use it to more intelligently direct marketing efforts through its AI marketing agents. These integrations will also unlock precise ROI attribution and revenue tracking, effectively creating a powerful revenue operations command center for law firms, connecting marketing spend directly to case outcomes for the first time.

“FirmPilot is solving a massive problem for a market that has been drastically underserved by technology. Jake and his team have built a product that delivers measurable, data-driven results for law firms, replacing an entire industry of manual marketing agencies with an intelligent platform. The combination of proprietary legal domain data, AI automation, and clear client ROI is exactly what we look for at DeepWork. We’re thrilled to lead this round and join the board as FirmPilot enters its next phase of growth.”

— Ken Hall, Partner, DeepWork Capital

“We’ve been tracking the legal marketing space closely, and FirmPilot stood out immediately. Jake and his team have built a genuinely differentiated platform, one that combines proprietary legal domain data with AI automation to deliver measurable client acquisition results. The opportunity to displace a fragmented, agency-driven market with an intelligent, scalable platform is exactly what we invest in at Data Point Capital. We’re excited to partner with this team.”

— Scott Savitz, Founder & Managing Partner, Data Point Capital

About FirmPilot

FirmPilot is the leader in AI legal marketing. FirmPilot’s patent-pending AI Legal Marketing Engine provides law firms and services-based SMBs with a modern way to grow with strategies built entirely on data and intelligence. The platform uses proprietary AI to analyze competitive landscapes, create authoritative content, optimize across SEO, GEO, PPC, social media, and local search, and deliver real-time ROI insights, replacing the guesswork of traditional marketing agencies. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Miami, FirmPilot is backed by leading investors including DeepWork Capital, Data Point Capital, Blumberg Capital, Thomson Reuters Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, Valor Ventures, SaaS Ventures, EarlyLight Ventures, FJ Labs, and Connexa Capital. Learn more at firmpilot.com.

About DeepWork Capital

DeepWork Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2015 in Orlando, Florida. The firm invests in tech-forward founders addressing the world’s biggest problems in the technology and life sciences sectors, with a focus on underserved venture capital markets. Learn more at deepworkcapital.com.

About Data Point Capital

Data Point Capital focuses on highly scalable, capital-efficient technology companies across consumer internet, cloud-based enterprise software, and AI. The firm is made up of business executives and internet leaders who have created over $50 billion in market value through companies they founded or ran. Notable portfolio companies include DraftKings (DKNG), Rent the Runway (RENT), and numerous successful exits. Learn more at datapointcapital.com.

SOURCE FirmPilot AI, Inc

Investment reinforces CerraCap Impact’s commitment to frontier defense technologies and next-generation quantum systems built for real-world deployment.

COSTA MESA, Calif. and SANTA FE, N.M., Feb. 26, 2026 — CerraCap Impact Venture Capital (CIVC) today announced its investment in Bandelier Technologies, a New Mexico-based deep-tech company developing memory-free quantum radar, sensing, and advanced metasurface antenna systems for national security, space-domain awareness, and resilient communications. The investment strengthens CIVC’s strategic focus on national security and advanced computing while expanding its portfolio of mission-critical dual-use technologies.

Bandelier is translating national-lab breakthroughs into fieldable systems designed for contested environments, where legacy platforms are often too heavy, too fragmented, or too detectable. The company’s quantum radar platform is built on photonic techniques developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and is engineered for long-range, low-signature sensing and imaging without requiring quantum memory – an architectural advantage that supports scalability and deployment readiness. Bandelier also develops electronically steerable metasurface antennas for defense, aerospace, and next-generation communications applications.

Abhi Mukherjee, Partner at CerraCap Impact Venture Capital, said:
“People often say they invest in the horse or the jockey. With Stephen, we saw the combination of both a founder with rare mission discipline and a platform built to matter. Before pursuing his MBA from Harvard Business School, Stephen spent ten years as a Green Beret in U.S. Army Special Forces and worked as a CPA earlier in his career. This pedigree gives Bandelier a uniquely strong bridge between technical rigor, operational credibility, and commercialization execution. That combination is exactly what is required to work effectively with the New Mexico national lab ecosystem and transition breakthrough quantum sensing into deployable defense and commercial systems. CerraCap Impact moved with conviction because this is the kind of company that can define a category.”

Stephen Buchanan, Founder and CEO of Bandelier Technologies, said:
“When I first met Abhi, he told me CerraCap would be the first check in, and he delivered exactly as promised. That kind of conviction and follow-through matters, especially when you are building deep, physics-driven technology for national security. Our round was oversubscribed, and we intentionally chose CerraCap to help anchor it because they bring more than capital: they bring strategic reach, real commercialization muscle, and a long-term mindset for turning frontier science into mission-ready capability. CerraCap is the kind of partner we need for the road ahead.”

Bandelier has already built strong external validation. The company was selected for New Mexico LEEP Cohort 5, where fellows collaborate with Los Alamos scientists to advance national security innovations; LANL specifically identified Bandelier’s work as redefining long-range quantum sensing for defense, space, and secure communications. Bandelier has also been assessed “Awardable” in the DARPA ERIS Marketplace, a rapid acquisition pathway for government buyers, and was selected as a Prime awardee on the Missile Defense Agency’s SHIELD contract vehicle supporting the Golden Dome missile defense mission after previously advancing into SHIELD’s competitive range.

This investment reflects what makes CerraCap Impact distinctive: a venture platform purpose-built to accelerate enterprise and government adoption, combining CerraCap Venture’s Sales & Scale™ commercialization engine with Impact Venture Capital’s Corporate Intelligence Platform™ across customers, strategic investors, and acquirers. CIVC was formed in December 2025 to serve founders building in complex sectors, including national security and advanced computing, where execution advantage and ecosystem access are decisive.

About CerraCap Impact Venture Capital
CerraCap Impact Venture Capital (CIVC) is a globally connected venture platform focused on mission-critical technologies, with a differentiated model designed to accelerate commercial validation, enterprise adoption, and strategic outcomes for founders and investors.

About Bandelier Technologies
Bandelier Technologies is a New Mexico quantum technology company developing next-generation quantum radar, sensing, and meta-surface antenna systems for defense and commercial applications. The company’s mission is to bring national-lab science into field-ready systems that deliver resilient sensing, secure communications, and operational advantage in contested environments.

Media Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE CerraCap Impact Venture Capital

Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, Pelican Energy Partners, Deerfield Management and Oaktree Capital Management participated in the Financing Round

JANESVILLE, Wis., Feb. 26, 2026 — SHINE Technologies, a nuclear fusion company, today announced it has raised $240 million in equity funding, and appointed Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., Executive Chairman of ImmunityBio and founder of NantWorks, to its Board of Directors. The round was led by NantWorks with additional participation from Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, Pelican Energy Partners, Deerfield Management, Oaktree Capital Management, and other existing investors.

The investment advances SHINE’s commercial fusion technology across its current portfolio of products and services – providing neutron testing that qualifies mission-critical components for defense and aerospace and supplying radioisotopes that power targeted cancer therapies and diagnostic imaging. The funding also marks the beginning of the company’s next stage of growth – developing technology to recycle used nuclear fuel and building toward commercial fusion energy production.

“Fusion energy is one of the most important technologies humanity will ever develop — it will forever change how we power our species, and is already having major impact across advanced manufacturing, healthcare and recycling,” said Greg Piefer, founder and CEO of SHINE. “Dr. Soon-Shiong is a visionary who has spent his career turning breakthrough science into products that have made the world better. We are honored to have him as a partner.”

Dr. Soon-Shiong is a physician scientist, serial entrepreneur, and multi-sector investor who has built and sold two major pharmaceutical companies, founded the NantWorks ecosystem spanning healthcare, technology, and media. He has developed a multitude of FDA-approved therapies that have reached patients globally. Across all of it, his research has returned to the same challenge: how to transform cancer care and harness the immune system, and reduce the toxicities of standard high dose chemo-radiation therapy. That conviction aligns directly with where oncology is heading. Lu-177-based therapies deliver targeted radiation precisely to cancer cells, and researchers are actively studying how combining that approach with immune activation could produce more durable patient outcomes.

“This partnership is about harnessing powerful science to serve humanity. SHINE’s leadership in fusion technology and Lu-177 production aligns with my lifelong mission to make cancer treatment more precise, targeted, and ultimately curative by activating the patient’s immune system. Lu-177 is currently approved as a radio ligand targeting prostate cancer cells and the opportunity to further expand this difficult to manufacture technology is exciting. I’m honored to join SHINE’s Board as we translate breakthrough science into real-world impact for patients and society,” said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Founder and Executive Chairman of NantWorks and ImmunityBio.

In connection with Soon-Shiong’s $150 million investment, NantWorks and SHINE have entered a strategic partnership that includes priority access arrangements for Lu-177 supply from SHINE, positioning both organizations to advance the next generation of targeted cancer treatment.

SHINE has now raised more than $1 billion in total funding, reflecting sustained investor confidence in its commercially-driven path to fusion energy.

About SHINE
Headquartered in Janesville, Wisconsin, SHINE is an industry leader in next-generation fusion, developing innovative fusion-based technology that combines safety, cost-efficiency and environmental responsibility.

SHINE has successfully commercialized fusion across multiple applications, including neutron testing markets such as neutron radiography, radiation-effects testing and fusion material research. It has commercialized and is scaling its proprietary medical isotope production and processes, supplying high-quality radioisotopes essential for procedures including diagnosing heart disease and cancer as well as cancer therapy.

SHINE currently operates one of the largest Lu-177 production facilities in North America, with capacity for up to 100,000 doses annually with the ability to scale to 200,000 doses per year. Ilumira has shipped to customers in 19 countries across four continents, achieving greater than 95% on-time, in-full delivery since its commercial launch in 2024.

Beyond these applications, SHINE is pioneering nuclear waste recycling to make nuclear energy more sustainable. Its long-term purpose is to change the way humans make energy by commercializing fusion energy. Unlike other fusion companies, SHINE takes a commercially driven path mirroring successful deep-tech industries. Through this visionary approach, SHINE is advancing technology, healthcare, and sustainable energy, making a lasting impact across multiple sectors.

SOURCE SHINE Technologies, LLC

85% of Proficient First Graders Maintain Success Through Second Grade Without Further Support

Ignite Reading Launches “First Grade Promise” to Ensure Every Child Achieves Reading Proficiency in First Grade

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 26, 2026 — Ignite Reading, a Science of Reading-based early literacy intervention program that has provided more than 62 million minutes of personalized instruction to over 50,000 students nationwide, today announced the completion of a second study by researchers at the Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Education, showing 85% of first graders who reached proficiency maintained grade-level reading a year later without further intervention.

The findings of the two-year study, conducted across thirteen school districts in Massachusetts, confirmed the program’s ability to accelerate foundational reading skills during the crucial first grade window when students are best able to learn to read. According to the study, first graders reading at or above DIBELS benchmark increased from 6% at the beginning of the year to 48% at the end of the year with foundational reading skills tutoring. These compelling results confirm that Ignite Reading’s virtual, high-impact early literacy intervention model not only delivers exceptional outcomes but also achieves durable, lasting impact on foundational reading skills at scale, underscoring the success of and the importance of intervening decisively in the first grade.

Dr. Amanda Neitzel, lead researcher at Johns Hopkins’ University’s Center for Research and Reform in Education, commented, “These findings show that intervening to ensure students are reading on grade level by the end of first grade is highly effective and has promising implications for district planning and policy initiatives focused on improving third-grade reading outcomes. 85% of students who reached proficiency maintained it through second grade without further intervention. Taken together, these results demonstrate that accelerating early reading development in first grade through high-dosage, individualized tutoring can lead to both rapid and lasting improvements.”

Key Findings Underscore the Critical First Grade Window
The JHU CRRE analysis of 1,596 first-grade students in Year 2 produced virtually identical results to the initial study, effectively moving the program from a ‘promising pilot’ to a proven, evidence-based solution with sustained efficacy and sustained high-impact results that are repeatable year over year.

• Retained Literacy Gains: 85% of students who were on grade level at the end of first grade after participating in the Ignite Reading program maintained grade-level proficiency through second grade without further intervention, demonstrating the impact is lasting rather than temporary. In contrast, only 12% of students who were not on grade level at the end of first grade were able to catch up to grade level by the end of second grade without further intervention.
• Accelerated Growth: Students achieved more than five months of additional learning—equivalent to 128 additional points of DIBELS growth (vs. 80 expected).
• Increasing Efficacy: Students outperformed peers by a +0.23 SD effect size, a significant increase over Year 1 (+0.19 SD) and equivalent to in-person tutoring conducted at scale.
• Substantial Progress: Over the course of the study, the share of students meeting reading benchmarks increased dramatically from 6% to 48%, while intensive intervention needs fell from 70% to 31%.The evaluation found that literacy gains were consistent across student populations.

The evaluation found that literacy gains were consistent across student populations:

• Both English learners and non-English learners showed similar gains;
• Students with disabilities demonstrated substantial gains;
• No significant differential effects were found by race or ethnicity; and
• High-attendance students showed the strongest effects (effect size of +0.28).

Jessica Reid Sliwerski, CEO and co-founder of Ignite Reading, highlighted the significance of the persistence analysis and the urgency of ensuring kids learn to read before the end of first grade, “We now have concrete evidence that first grade is the threshold for lifelong success. Seeing 85% of our proficient first graders maintain their gains into second grade without further support confirms that our model creates lasting, independent readers. The data also serves as a powerful wake-up call: with only 12% of students catching up if they miss that first-grade window, we must treat early intervention as the urgent, non-negotiable priority it is.”

First Grade Promise – Replication and Scalability
The study reinforced the value of achieving reading proficiency in the first grade, a pivotal window where the right support ensures students become lifelong readers. Researchers noted that among students who did not reach proficiency by the end of the year, only 12 in 100 students caught up, underscoring the urgency of timely support. In years past, third grade has served as the primary accountability point for reading proficiency in state and federal policy, shaping assessment, promotion, and intervention practices nationwide. However, by the time reading failure appears in third grade outcomes, underlying skill gaps have typically been present for years, limiting the effectiveness and efficiency of intervention.

The First Grade Promise is grounded in learning science and evidence-based practice and is designed to shift literacy intervention earlier to the years when reading difficulty is still preventable. By ensuring that students master foundational reading skills and reach oral reading fluency by the end of first grade, states and districts can dramatically increase the share of students who become proficient readers. Research indicates that most children can learn to read on time when instruction is explicit, systematic, and sufficiently intensive, with additional targeted support provided to those who need it. Ignite Reading’s First Grade Promise is a collective commitment by district leaders, educators, and community members to intervene on time with precision, fidelity, and urgency.

Dr. Almudena (Almi) G. Abeyta, Superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools, said, “Ignite Reading is a transformative partner and a seamless extension of our team, providing the high-dosage resources we simply couldn’t scale on our own. In public education, personalized instruction is the key to equity, and seeing our students achieve such explosive growth is exhilarating. As educators, there is no greater relief than seeing the data prove these skills are taking hold; it means we are successfully seizing that critical first-grade window and providing the support our kids need to secure their future as lifelong readers.”

JHU CRRE conducts research to improve educational outcomes and inform evidence-based policy and practice. Its evaluation used a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching to compare tutored students with similar non-participants. The study examined literacy outcomes using DIBELS standardized assessments and tracked benchmark status changes from the beginning to the end of first grade and through second grade for former participants. Furthermore, the study confirmed the program’s scalability across diverse environments, noting consistent implementation with an 85% average student attendance rate, 33 hours of instruction on average, and strong fidelity in real-world conditions. All student groups, including English Learners and students with disabilities, showed substantial and comparable growth.

The multi-year research initiative was made possible through a philanthropic grant and strategic coordination led by the Massachusetts-based One8 Foundation. Recognizing the urgent need for proven, scalable early literacy interventions, the One8 Foundation partnered with Ignite Reading to fund and project manage the initial pilot. This close collaboration and oversight were instrumental in ensuring high-quality implementation of the program throughout the schools.

About Ignite Reading
Ignite Reading is the leading early literacy intervention company focused on accelerating foundational reading skills during the most critical window for reading success. Aligned with the Science of Reading, Ignite Reading delivers predictable early literacy gains, strengthens instructional readiness, and helps districts achieve measurable, defensible early reading outcomes that matter for students, educators, and leaders. For more information, please visit: https://ignite-reading.com/

About One8 Foundation
The One8 Foundation education team identifies, supports, and scales high-impact applied learning programs that engage students actively in their learning and prepare them for success in a rapidly changing, data-rich world. One8 is committed to building a future where high-quality applied learning opportunities, oriented around STEM and 21st century skills, that make learning relevant, stimulating, and rewarding, are a regular part of the student experience, driving impact for all students. Between 2023-2025, One8 designed, funded and provided implementation support for 13 districts to work with Ignite Reading to tutor around 4,000 first-grade students not yet reading at grade level. To assess effectiveness of this initiative, One8 also funded a third-party evaluation with Johns Hopkins University, which concluded that students receiving high dosage tutoring experienced over 5 months of additional learning than students who did not receive the tutoring. In 2025, given this evidence of impact, the state of Massachusetts took over the operation of this program supported with public funding. Learn more at http://www.one8.org

About Johns Hopkins University Center for Research & Reform in Education
The Center for Research and Reform in Education is a research center within the Johns Hopkins School of Education. Established in 2004, CRRE’s goal is to improve the quality of education for disadvantaged children in grades pre-K through 12 through dissemination of knowledge about effective approaches to school improvement and through high-quality research and program evaluation studies.

Media Contact
Truc Nguyen
[email protected]

SOURCE Ignite Reading

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 25, 2026 — SparkLabs Saudi Arabia announced today the launch of SparkLabs KSU Fund I, a USD 20 million venture capital fund focused on backing high-potential local and global founders building and scaling from Saudi Arabia. The Fund received an anchor investment from Riyadh Valley Company (RVC), an investment arm of King Saud University.

The fund will invest across pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, with a strategic focus on Saudi-founded startups and ventures emerging from the King Saud University ecosystem, while allocating up to 20% of capital to international founders committed to localizing and expanding their businesses in the Kingdom.

The fund is closely aligned with the King Saud University Entrepreneurship Center, which plays a central role in nurturing student and faculty-led startups through education, mentorship, and venture-building support.

The capital raised will be used to provide early-stage funding, strategic support, and access to SparkLabs’ global platform, enabling founders to accelerate product development, market entry, and international expansion.

“This investment from Riyadh Valley Company reflects strong alignment around the importance of building a globally connected innovation ecosystem rooted in Saudi Arabia,” said Ivan Grlic, Managing Partner at SparkLabs Saudi Arabia. “Through SparkLabs KSU Fund I, we aim to support exceptional founders with capital, hands-on expertise, and access to international markets.”

We are now accepting applications from ambitious founders building from Saudi Arabia. Apply through the link below:

https://tally.so/r/3EVRAq

About SparkLabs Group

Founded in 2013, SparkLabs Group is a global network of startup accelerators and venture capital funds with operations across Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and the United States. To date, SparkLabs has invested in over 600 companies across six continents, with a combined post-money valuation exceeding USD 56 billion.

SparkLabs has backed and co-invested alongside leading global technology firms and investors, and its portfolio includes category-defining companies in AI, deep tech, enterprise software, and digital platforms. The organization is particularly active in Saudi Arabia, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and the U.S., enabling portfolio companies to scale globally while maintaining strong local foundations.

Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Startup Ecosystem

SparkLabs KSU Fund I will operate alongside the SparkLabs – KSU accelerator program, which supports early-stage founders through mentorship, operational guidance, and access to local and international networks. The accelerator is also supported by the National Technology Development Program (NTDP) and builds on SparkLabs’ global accelerator model, which has demonstrated a startup survival rate of over 86.7%.

The partnership with Riyadh Valley Company reinforces the shared objective of attracting global innovation, nurturing Saudi talent, and contributing to the Kingdom’s long-term economic transformation.

SOURCE SparkLabs Group

HOUSTON, Feb. 25, 2026 — Crescent Midstream Intermediate Holdings, LLC (“Crescent Midstream” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that on February 18, 2026, the Company successfully raised $600 million of senior secured credit facilities, comprising a $500 million 7-year Term Loan B and $100 million 5-year Revolving Credit Facility. In connection with the transaction, the credit facilities were assigned an issue rating of B+ by Standard & Poor’s and B1 by Moody’s. Proceeds were used to refinance Crescent Midstream’s existing debt. 

Crescent Midstream’s CEO, Jerry Ashcroft, stated, “The outcome of our debt capital raise exemplifies the business we have built over the past decade. The new facilities extend Crescent’s debt maturities, strengthen our credit profile, and provide access to fund growth capital in the institutional and bank markets as we execute on our backlog of accretive growth projects. We look forward to the next chapter of Crescent Midstream generating significant free cash flow while growing strategically and providing dividends to our equity holders.”

Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Bookrunners for the financing were Royal Bank of Canada, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank, Ltd., and The Bank of Nova Scotia, with Royal Bank of Canada also acting as Administrative Agent. Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP acted as legal counsel to Crescent Midstream.

About Crescent Midstream Intermediate Holdings, LLC
Crescent Midstream is a leading independent energy company that sits at the intersection between producers and consumers, delivering safe and reliable crude oil services throughout the Gulf of America and Louisiana. Our network of pipelines serves more than 80 deepwater platforms and transports over 500 thousand barrels of crude per day, linking shippers to essential trading and receipt points.
For more information about Crescent Midstream, visit www.crescentmidstream.com/.

Media Contact
[email protected] 

SOURCE Crescent Midstream

New executive program addresses a critical capability gap: strengthening executive judgment in an era of sustained disruption

WINTER PARK, Fla., Feb. 25, 2026 — Rollins College today announced the launch of The Rick Goings Institute for Management and Executive Leadership, a bold new initiative that builds on Rollins’ long history of pragmatic liberal arts to establish a new standard for advanced leadership and management training.

At a time when senior executives face continuous disruption, from geopolitical realignment and regulatory volatility to technological acceleration and shifting stakeholder expectations, the Institute addresses a capability gap traditional executive education has not fully met: the capacity to exercise sound judgment when established frameworks no longer apply. The Institute will focus on leadership judgment and its impact on business performance, helping senior leaders anticipate market shifts, redesign operating models, and translate strategy into execution in periods of disruption and growth.

“I’ve spent 30 years in strategy consulting and industrial operations,” said Eric Spiegel, former CEO of Siemens USA and partner at Booz Allen Hamilton. “Traditional executive education gives you frameworks. What it doesn’t give you is judgment—the ability to think clearly when the frameworks don’t apply anymore. I’ve believed instinctively for a long time that what’s missing is what a serious liberal arts education develops, but I haven’t been able to articulate it correctly. Now someone finally has.”

The launch of the Institute, made possible by seed capital from the Rick & Susan Goings Foundation, represents the completion of Rollins’ transformative Innovation Triangle, comprising the Institute, the Rollins Museum of Art, and The Alfond Inn, after more than a decade of planning and a total investment of more than $200 million.

The Rick Goings Institute will deliver advanced leadership education for executives who have already established their fundamental leadership capabilities. Its programming will focus on developing the capacity for clear thinking about complex operational problems, recognizing and addressing the market transitions leaders face today, managing technological change, and pivoting organizations for execution and growth.

“We are living through permacrisis — not a temporary disruption but a permanent condition of compounding instability: fracturing political orders, collapsing alliances, and technology eliminating entire categories of certainty,” said Anil Menon, chief executive officer of The Rick Goings Institute and dean of Crummer Graduate School of Business. “Efficiency and scale are no longer sufficient measures of leadership. What’s broken down is judgment — the capacity to read genuinely novel situations, decide when to act, and explain those decisions to stakeholders with fundamentally different worldviews. That is precisely what RGI is built to develop.”

The Institute will launch inaugural programs in 2026, delivering custom corporate offerings and establishing strategic partnerships with organizations in Florida and beyond, including the Young Presidents’ Organization, founded in 1950 by Ray Hickok, a Rollins alumnus. Additional strategic partners and details about specific initiatives will be announced in the weeks ahead.

“Rollins has long held that a liberal arts education cultivates critical thinking grounded in multiple perspectives and thoughtful judgment, preparing graduates to challenge conventions, integrate new ideas and innovations, and lead by forging new paths,” said Brooke Barnett, president of Rollins College. “In recent years, Rollins has advanced a series of initiatives that reinforce our standing as a leading higher education institution not only in Florida, but nationwide. As a cornerstone of our Innovation Triangle, The Rick Goings Institute will further strengthen our ability to educate and develop leaders who are ready to meet this moment by building resilient organizations, strengthening communities, and creating lasting impact.”

The Institute will convene leaders from around the world and across sectors, from business to not-for-profits and government, under the unifying vision that transformative leadership can enable organizations to navigate complexity with ethical clarity and long-term societal impact. It will be built around three key elements: focusing on serious business content from people who have studied and run complex operations; providing extended time with other leaders facing the same challenges; and bringing together leaders from these different sectors, who are looking to collaborate on finding innovative solutions.

“Throughout my career, and especially as CEO of Tupperware Brands, where we empowered a salesforce of millions of entrepreneurs, my focus has been building leadership and an entrepreneurial mindset at every level,” said Rick Goings, chair of the Rollins Board of Trustees. “Leadership is a human endeavor, and the best leaders bring out the strengths of the people around them to drive results. As technological change, geopolitical shifts, and market volatility reshape how organizations operate, it’s more important than ever to recognize the distinct value of human judgment, perspective, and purpose. The Rick Goings Institute will expand access to human-centered leadership approaches that enable organizations to thrive today and in the future.”

For close to a century, Rollins has focused on developing leaders who can think broadly about complex problems. The Rick Goings Institute draws on its approach to pragmatic liberal arts, an educational tradition that blends liberal arts with business, STEM and professional studies to foster critical thinking. Moreover, it has been at the forefront of advancing improved pedagogical approaches, including convening a transformative curriculum conference on the liberal arts in 1931, chaired by John Dewey, to help define the modern purpose of liberal arts education. By applying key elements of this approach, the Institute aims to foster precisely the skills and mindset modern organizational leaders need most: meaningful perspective, advanced systems thinking, and a human-centered approach to leadership.

“Rollins understands that leadership develops over time, through experience, reflection, and the exchange of ideas with others who are doing the work,” said Grant Cornwell, chairman of the advisory board of The Rick Goings Institute and president emeritus of Rollins College. “The Innovation Triangle brings those conditions together in a powerful way. With this launch, Rollins is building a forum where accomplished leaders can sharpen the judgment and human understanding required to guide institutions wisely and responsibly.”

For more information, visit https://rgi.rollins.edu/ 

About Rollins College:

Founded in 1885, Rollins College is Florida’s oldest college. Located in Winter Park, near Orlando, Rollins is consistently ranked as one of the top regional universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report. Rollins offers full-time undergraduate programs in the College of Liberal Arts and undergraduate and graduate degree programs for working professionals and adult learners through its evening program at the Hamilton Holt School of Professional Advancement and Graduate Studies. In addition, its Crummer Graduate School of Business features top-ranked MBA programs. Rollins serves approximately 3,200 degree-seeking students annually.

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Davis MacMillan
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212-994-7509

SOURCE The Rick Goings Institute for Management and Executive Leadership