Coming on the heels of national and international partnerships and licensing deals, funds will be used to grow the team, launch new designs, and continue collaboration with universities, athletes, government institutions, and global organizations

WARREN, N.J., April 21, 2026 — AXIA Time, creator of heirloom-quality, Swiss Made timepieces that honor life’s defining achievements, announced today that the company has raised a seed round led by Culper Capital Partners and Amity Supply. The investment will be used to continue to fuel AXIA’s recent growth, which includes its role as the Official Timepiece of the College Football Playoff, its partnership with the Heisman Trophy, including the launch of special edition timepieces in collaboration with last year’s winner Fernando Mendoza, new university licenses, and custom projects with agencies such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the United States Secret Service.

The funds will also be used to expand AXIA’s team, support new product launches, scale strategic partnerships, and provide additional working capital to meet increasing demand across institutional and global collaborations.

“AXIA was built on a simple belief: the moments that define us deserve to be remembered in a way that lasts,” said John Kanaras, founder of AXIA Time. “To see that vision resonate with partners and investors who understand the meaning behind what we are building is incredibly meaningful. This investment allows us to continue honoring those moments at a larger scale, while staying true to the craftsmanship, intention, and care that define every piece we create.”

Culper Capital Partners, led by Managing Partner Adam S. Cook, brings an operator-driven investment approach rooted in long-term value creation and close partnership with management teams. Cook will also join AXIA’s Board of Directors.

Amity Supply also participated. Fund co-founder Matt Higgins is one of the preeminent venture investors in next-generation technology companies and beloved consumer brands. His expansive multi-billion-dollar investment portfolio spans over 100 leading brands and unicorns across sports and entertainment, media and marketing, consumer, and technology industries, including several of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies.

Together, the firms provide AXIA with both operational expertise and strategic insight as the company continues to expand its presence across high-profile partnerships and global markets.

“AXIA represents a rare combination of product quality, niche market positioning, and brand authenticity,” said Cook. “John and his team have built a business with strong fundamentals and a clear vision, and we are excited to partner with them as they scale and continue to execute that vision.”

“AXIA has created something that goes beyond traditional luxury by tapping into emotion, identity, and the moments that matter most,” said Higgins. “We see significant opportunity to grow the brand through meaningful partnerships and global storytelling, and we are proud to support the team in this next phase of growth.”

For more information, visit axiatime.com.

About AXIA Time
AXIA Time creates heirloom-quality, custom timepieces that honor life’s defining achievements. Guided by axia (value), philotimo (integrity and doing right by others), and the spirit of Ithaka (finding meaning in the journey), AXIA designs watches meant to be worn, cherished, and passed down. Every piece is crafted with Swiss Made movements, premium materials, and meticulous attention to detail, reflecting a commitment to quality, care, and personal service. From universities and championship teams to individuals marking once-in-a-lifetime moments, AXIA Time builds watches that capture a story and keep it close.

AXIA Time. Made for the moment. Built for forever.

SOURCE AXIA Time

BOSTON, April 21, 2026 — SpartanX, the AI-native offensive security company behind the industry’s first fully autonomous full-stack red teaming platform, today announced the close of its seed round led by Venture Guides, with participation from additional angel and corporate investors. Alongside the funding, the company has established its new Global Headquarters in Boston and appointed a new President and Chief Operating Officer to lead the scaling of its sales, marketing, and customer success teams.

A Partnership Built to Lead

The round was led by Venture Guides, a Boston-based venture capital firm focused exclusively on early-stage security, AI, cloud infrastructure, and data companies. Venture Guides has guided portfolio companies to more than 80% positive outcomes, with over 40% achieving multi-billion-dollar valuations, including Dynatrace, SolarWinds, LinkedIn and DocuSign.

Venture Guides operates on a fundamentally different model from traditional venture capital. The firm maintains a concentrated portfolio of 15 investments and commits 10% or more of personal capital to its funds. Every partner is actively involved in guiding portfolio companies across business strategy, finance, go-to-market execution, and product positioning on a weekly basis.

“SpartanX has built something truly unique in offensive security. A fully autonomous platform where 500+ AI agents coordinate across every attack surface, validate findings with real exploits, and deliver remediation in one continuous workflow,” said Anton Simunovic, Partner at Venture Guides. “The founding team’s deep domain experience, from building and exiting past security companies to securing platforms at the scale of Uber, provides that rare combination of both understanding and solving the customers’ pain through product vision. We are proud to partner with them.”

Scaling for Growth: New HQ and Executive Leadership

SpartanX has established its new Global Headquarters in Boston, positioning the company at the center of one of the world’s leading cybersecurity and enterprise technology ecosystems. The company is actively hiring and excited to bring new jobs to the Boston area, tapping into the region’s deep talent pool to accelerate its mission to make autonomous full-stack red teaming accessible to organizations of all sizes.

As part of this expansion, SpartanX has appointed Erik Hardy as President and Chief Operating Officer. Hardy brings over 25 years of progressive experience leading enterprise software and SaaS companies, with deep expertise in scaling go-to-market teams across global, strategic, and mid-market segments. In his new role, Hardy will lead SpartanX’s field operations, encompassing sales, marketing, customer success, and support, as the company moves from early access into broader market availability.

The Platform

SpartanX deploys more than 500 AI-powered offensive agents that operate simultaneously across six critical attack surfaces: web applications, APIs and source code, networks, cloud infrastructure, IAM and identity, and AI systems, agents and LLMs. Every finding is exploit-validated with proof, and every attack chain is mapped end-to-end, without human intervention. Beyond discovery, 100+ specialized agents handle triage, automated code-level fix generation, and compliance mapping to SOC2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and more.

“After years of leading red team engagements and penetration tests firsthand, building and exiting cybersecurity companies, I knew the industry needed something fundamentally different. Having Venture Guides as a true partner, has helped catalyze decades of our team’s offensive security experience into the cutting-edge technology we launched today,” said Diego Spahn, Co-Founder and CEO of SpartanX. “Together, we are in the strongest possible position to lead the market and define a new category in AI-powered autonomous red teaming.”

SpartanX is currently accepting early access requests at www.spartanx.ai.

About SpartanX

SpartanX is an AI-native offensive security company building the next generation of autonomous full-stack red teaming. The platform combines 500+ AI agents with coverage across six attack surfaces, exploit validation, and automated remediation to deliver continuous security testing without human bottlenecks. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

For more information, visit www.spartanx.ai.

About Venture Guides

Venture Guides is a Boston-based venture capital firm providing active guidance for early-stage security, AI, cloud infrastructure, and data companies. With decades of experience building successful enterprise software companies, Venture Guides accelerates its portfolio with proven, team-based expertise and deep domain knowledge.

For more information, visit www.ventureguides.com.

Media Contact: SpartanX Communications [email protected]

SOURCE SpartanX Technologies, Inc.

Round co-led by Just Climate — the climate-led investment strategy of Generation Investment Management — and High Sage Ventures, as Afresh’s AI platform scales to 12,500+ departments with 70% year-over-year revenue growth in 2025

SAN FRANCISCO, April 21, 2026 — Afresh, the AI platform for grocery, today announced $34 million in new funding to accelerate its expansion. The round was co-led by Just Climate, the specialist climate-led investment business set up by Generation Investment Management, and High Sage Ventures, with participation from all major investors.

Every day, billions of decisions determine how food moves through the grocery supply chain: what to order, how much to stock, and what to produce. In a $10 trillion global industry built on perishable inventory and razor-thin margins, those decisions are made under constant pressure, often across fragmented systems.

Technology helped with shelf-stable goods. It couldn’t help with broccoli or salmon fillets.

Fresh food operates differently. Shelf life is measured in days. Demand shifts with weather and seasons. Inventory data is incomplete and constantly changing. Traditional retail systems were not built for this. This creates an industry-wide challenge to balance availability and waste.

Afresh’s AI platform brings real-time intelligence to these decisions, from store-level ordering to distribution center buying. Built first for fresh, Afresh developed AI designed for short shelf life, unpredictable demand, and imperfect data. That foundation now extends across the full grocery enterprise, including center store, frozen, and general merchandise.

“We’ve spent nearly a decade building AI to solve the complexity of grocery, and we’re now seeing that approach scale across the industry,” said Matt Schwartz, CEO and Co-Founder, Afresh. “The decisions AI makes in grocery aren’t about optimizing pixels on a screen — they’re about physical products with shelf lives measured in days, moving through a supply chain that feeds billions of people. Our platform orchestrates those decisions at scale, so buyers, store teams, and merchandisers can spend less time on routine execution and more time on the strategy and judgment that drive outcomes.”

Afresh is live in more than 12,500 departments across 40 states, partnering with leading grocery retailers including Albertsons Companies, Meijer, and Wakefern. Its platform supports merchandising, store operations, and supply chain teams in improving in-stock rates, reducing waste, and strengthening margins, enabling retailers to achieve measurable results, including up to a 25% reduction in shrink, a 3% sales lift, and a 7% improvement in inventory turns.

This new capital will accelerate that expansion, supporting broader deployment across retail partners and continued investment in next-generation AI.

An Industry at Inflection

The funding comes at a moment of accelerating adoption, as grocery retailers move from isolated pilots to scaled AI deployment across stores, categories, and supply chains. Afresh is leading that shift.

More than 60% of the company’s entire lifetime order volume has occurred in the last 12 months, as retailers expand adoption across stores, categories, and workflows. Over the same period, Afresh has sustained 70% year-over-year revenue growth while expanding from fresh replenishment into a platform spanning six enterprise-grade solutions — covering full-store ordering, production planning, DC buying, and supply chain optimization.

“HighSage has been invested in Afresh for many years, and our conviction has only grown,” said Owen Wurzbacher, Chief Investment Officer at High Sage Ventures. “Afresh has an exceptional team, a happy and rapidly growing list of customers, and a differentiated platform. Their best days lie ahead. This was an easy moment to grow our investment.”

Better Decisions, Less Waste, Lower Emissions

In grocery, food waste is a business problem before anything else. An estimated 30–40% of food is wasted across the broader food system, driving lost sales, margin erosion, and excess inventory. The decisions retailers make about what to order and stock ripple upstream — determining what gets grown, processed, and transported across the entire food system. Getting those decisions right is one of the highest-leverage interventions available to reduce waste and emissions at scale.

“Food waste is one of the most critical and overlooked drivers of emissions in the food system,” said Libby Spalding, Director at Generation Investment Management. “Afresh’s AI platform strengthens the demand signal at the retail and distribution center levels, which have outsized upstream consequences. The results mean stronger margins for retailers and lower emissions for the system.”

To date, Afresh has helped prevent more than 200 million pounds of food waste. Afresh continues to advance a clear premise: better decisions drive better outcomes — for retailers, for consumers, and for the global food system.

About Afresh

Afresh is the AI platform for Grocery — built for how grocery actually operates, from the fresh perimeter to center store and retail to distribution centers. The Afresh platform helps grocers make smarter decisions about what to buy, order, produce, and sell across the entire operation, delivering higher profits, less waste, and fresher food on the shelf. Founded in 2017 with the mission to eliminate food waste and make fresh food accessible to all, Afresh today supports more than 12,500 departments across 40 states, partnering with Albertsons Companies, Stater Bros., Meijer, Wakefern, and more. Learn more at www.afresh.com.

About Just Climate

Established by Generation Investment Management, Just Climate is a specialist investment business focused on scaling solutions for the highest-emitting, most off-track sectors of the economy. Just Climate’s mission is to establish climate-led investing as a capital allocation imperative for institutional investors globally. For more information, visit justclimate.com.

High Sage

HighSage Ventures is a Boston-based investment firm backed by permanent capital. The firm partners with world-class operators building competitively advantaged businesses, both private and public, with the goal of compounding per-share value over the long term. See more at highsage.com.

SOURCE Afresh Technologies

The Minnesota-based startup, now serving more than 200,000 users across North America, rolls out a sweeping update designed to modernize how private land gets discovered, leased, and managed.

BRAINERD, Minn., April 21, 2026 — HLRBO (Hunting Land Rentals By Owner), the nation’s premier online marketplace for hunting leases, today announced its most significant product update since the company’s founding in 2015. The release spans more than a dozen major features and represents a leap forward in how the platform connects private landowners with vetted hunters across the U.S. and Canada.

The update comes at a pivotal moment for the recreational land leasing industry. As public lands grow increasingly crowded and America’s approximately 800 million acres of private land remain largely untapped, a growing number of landowners and hunters are turning to digital platforms to bridge the gap. HLRBO has emerged as the market leader in that space, listing properties across all 50 states.

“We’re building something that didn’t exist before,” said Heath Schubert, CEO and Co-Founder of HLRBO. “Millions of acres of private land sit idle every hunting season.

This update is about removing barriers between those two groups.”

A Market at a Crossroads

The timing of the release reflects broader shifts in American hunting culture and rural land economics. Agricultural margins have tightened in recent years, and many landowners — farmers, timber companies, and heirs to generational property — are looking for ways to make money when their land is idle. At the same time, hunters who don’t have family connections to private property are increasingly priced out of guided hunts and crowded off public land.

HLRBO has spent a decade building the infrastructure to solve that problem: legally sound lease agreements, secure payment processing, background-checked hunters, and options for insurance. The new release doubles down on that foundation by adding consumer-grade experiences that make leasing land feel as simple as booking a hotel room, while preserving the aspects of trust and relationship that define the hunting community.

What’s New

The overhaul spans the entire platform, touching every major user workflow for hunters, landowners, and the field representatives who serve them.

For Hunters, the platform debuts a completely redesigned dashboard and navigation experience, including a new Lease Finder tool that makes discovering available properties faster and more intuitive. Short-term bookings (daily, weekly, seasonal) now move through a streamlined request model that gives landowners full control over who accesses their property.

For Landowners, the update introduces a dedicated calendar for managing short-term bookings and annual leases; automated lease renewals to eliminate the administrative burden of year-over-year renegotiation; and lease deposit functionality to protect property owners before a season begins. Landowners can now respond to hunter inquiries from a phone, tablet, or desktop.

For Field Representatives, HLRBO has launched a dedicated landing page and dashboard — the first purpose-built tools for the team members in the field who help landowners list and manage their properties.

Redesigned landing pages for both hunters and landowners round out the updates, giving new users a clearer, faster path to understanding how the HLRBO platform works and what it offers.

A Decade of Groundwork

Founded in Brainerd, Minnesota by Heath Schubert and brother Greg — a duck hunter who lost access to private land and couldn’t find a better way to find more — HLRBO has grown from a side project into the country’s most-used hunting lease marketplace. The platform now counts more than 200,000 registered users, with access to more than 1.5 million acres of land.

The company has operated with a deliberate focus on trust: every lease transacted through HLRBO includes a legally reviewed agreement, integrated insurance, and secure payment processing through its proprietary LandKey™ system. That infrastructure, Schubert says, is what makes the new consumer-facing features possible.

“None of this works without the foundation,” Schubert said. “We’ve spent years making sure that when a hunter shakes a landowner’s hand on our platform, it actually means something. Now we’re making it a lot easier to get to that handshake.”

Looking Ahead

HLRBO says this release is the beginning of a broader 2026 product push. The company has signaled additional feature announcements in the weeks ahead, with deeper dives into each new capability rolling out across its channels. The platform is available at hlrbo.com and in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

About HLRBO

HLRBO (Hunting Land Rentals By Owner) is the premier online marketplace for hunting leases, connecting private landowners with vetted hunters across the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 2015, HLRBO serves a community of more than 200,000 users with tools for listing, discovery, secure payments, legal agreements, and integrated insurance — making it easier than ever to find the right land, or the right hunter, for any season. More at HLRBO’s blog: https://www.hlrbo.com/news.

Media Contact:
Erin Mathe
952-261-8148
[email protected]

SOURCE HLRBO

HOUSTON, April 21, 2026 — Hilltop Residential (“Hilltop” or the “Firm”), a vertically integrated multifamily investment manager, today announced the final close of Hilltop Growth Fund VI (“Fund VI”), with $288 million in total commitments, marking the largest fundraise in the Firm’s history.

“Our strategy remains consistent: Acquire high-quality assets in growth markets where we can create value through operational improvements, capital enhancements, and disciplined asset management,” said Greg Finch, Managing Partner of Hilltop Residential. “Today’s capital markets dislocation is creating an attractive entry point for well-capitalized operators, enabling us to acquire high-quality communities at compelling bases.” By targeting markets characterized by robust population growth, diversifying employment bases, and favorable business climates, Hilltop aims to capitalize on the structural tailwinds driving multifamily demand across the region. Hilltop expects Fund VI to acquire approximately $1.5-$2.0 billion in gross asset value (GAV).

“We are incredibly proud to announce the final close of Fund VI. Closing our largest fund to date in one of the most challenging capital formation environments we’ve seen reflects the trust our partners have in our platform and our ability to capitalize on today’s multifamily opportunity set,” added David Wylie, Managing Partner of Hilltop Residential.

Fund VI received strong support from a diverse group of institutional and private capital partners. The investor base includes endowments and foundations, financial institutions, insurance companies, national RIA platforms, and family offices, reflecting continued confidence in Hilltop’s investment philosophy and operating platform.

With capital commitments fully secured, Hilltop will continue to build out Fund VI’s portfolio with nine assets acquired to date and additional pipeline opportunities already identified. Hilltop expects to reach full deployment within the next two years.

About Hilltop Residential
Hilltop Residential is an owner of multifamily real estate, operating across 15 markets in the southeastern United States. Through a vertically integrated platform, the Firm combines relationship-driven deal sourcing with hands-on operating expertise to drive superior risk-adjusted returns for its investors. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Hilltop Residential currently manages a $3 billion portfolio (13,000 units).

SOURCE Hilltop Residential

Company advances its three-pillar soft tissue surgery platform on the strength of five years of clinical validation and growing market demand

DURHAM, N.C., April 21, 2026 — Deep Blue Medical Advances, a surgical device company redefining outcomes in soft tissue surgery, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed $5.6 million Series A financing round and the promotion of Lou Fuqua to Chief Operating Officer.

The proceeds will fuel the commercial launch of Deep Blue’s biosynthetic absorbable T-Line® Mesh, support expansion into aesthetic and breast applications, and deepen already extensive relationships with key opinion leaders and hospital systems.

Deep Blue’s platform is purpose-built to address suture pull-through — a leading cause of soft tissue surgical failure across multiple anatomies — through its proprietary T-Line Mesh, Suture, and Aesthetic Scaffold product lines.

“This oversubscribed round reflects strong investor confidence in our platform and the clinical evidence behind it,” said CEO Bill Perry. “With 18 peer-reviewed publications, 21 issued patents, and more than 20,000 patented lockstitches and extensions implanted over five years — including multi-center long-term follow-up demonstrating high efficacy and excellent safety — Deep Blue is exceptionally well-positioned to scale. The pipeline is full, the evidence is strong, and the timing is right.”  

Lou Fuqua Promoted to Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Fuqua, previously Senior Vice President, brings extensive experience scaling medical device startups into established commercial organizations. His expertise spans quality, regulatory affairs, product development, and manufacturing. In his expanded role, he will lead execution across these functions as the company moves into a key growth phase.

“Suture pull-through and surgical failure represent a significant, underappreciated problem — and we have a compelling solution,” said Mr. Fuqua. “I’m proud of what this team has built and excited about what comes next.”  

About Deep Blue Medical Advances

Deep Blue Medical Advances is transforming soft tissue surgery through next-generation surgical devices engineered for optimal tissue tension, reinforcement, and defect closure. The company’s portfolio includes the T-Line Mesh, Suture, and Aesthetic Scaffold product lines, backed by robust clinical data and a growing intellectual property portfolio.

SOURCE Deep Blue Medical Advances, Inc.

• Company is developing prefabricated nuclear power plants designed for faster, more predictable deployment
• Financing was led by VXI Capital with significant backing from Engine Ventures and participation from other existing investors, including At One Ventures and Tamarack Global
• Proceeds will support long-lead equipment procurement, project development and corporate growth
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently approved Blue Energy’s innovative approach to nuclear plant construction

CHEVY CHASE, Md., April 21, 2026 — Blue Energy, a developer of financeable, prefabricated nuclear power plants, today announced that it has raised $380 million in financing to advance its turnkey approach to nuclear plant development. The fundraise was led by VXI Capital with significant backing from Engine Ventures and participation from other existing investors, including At One Ventures and Tamarack Global. Proceeds will support procurement of long-lead equipment, project development activities, and general corporate purposes.

Blue Energy is developing prefabricated nuclear power plants designed to be compatible with leading reactor technologies and delivered on an accelerated timeline in as little as 48 months. The complexity of bespoke nuclear plant construction has historically contributed to delays, cost overruns, and financing uncertainty. This uncertainty and risk have sidelined private capital and created an overreliance on taxpayer dollars and consumer rate hikes. Blue Energy believes it can address those challenges through an innovative development model centered on reducing construction risk through centralized advanced manufacturing, skilled labor and more predictable schedules.

“This funding marks an important step in Blue Energy’s mission to make new nuclear more deployable, predictable, and financeable,” said Blue Energy CEO and Co-Founder Jake Jurewicz. “Blue Energy is poised to deliver a significantly de-risked product and finally attract the private capital that nuclear deployment has historically struggled to secure. And for the first time, a nuclear project is designed so that it doesn’t need to rely primarily on taxpayer dollars and ratepayers to backstop risk. By combining offsite prefabrication, standardized plant delivery and a disciplined development model, we believe Blue Energy can reduce cost and compress timelines with the goal of making nuclear power competitive with fossil fuel and renewables – all without sacrificing safety. Blue Energy is developing a nuclear power product designed to scale at a time when the world needs it most.”

By unlocking project financing, Blue Energy plans to deliver on the promise of nuclear power by prefabricating modular plants offsite at existing fab yards from proven components with fixed-price contracting and reliable timelines – aiming to make nuclear power more predictable, faster and more affordable. Blue Energy expects to begin construction on its first project in Texas in Q3 2026. The project is designed to deliver up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of affordable, reliable power to large-scale electricity customers, including artificial intelligence (AI) datacenters.

“VXI is proud to partner with Blue Energy as the company unlocks the largest underutilized resource civilization has: nuclear power,” said Orin Hoffman, Managing Director of VXI Capital and Board Director at Blue Energy. “By delivering abundant, affordable nuclear power Blue Energy is perfectly positioned to meet rapidly increasing near-term energy demand from data centers and advanced manufacturing. Our investment reflects our confidence that, by building the world’s first project-financed nuclear power plant, Blue Energy will rewrite the playbook for nuclear power’s next era.” 

“The Blue Energy team has made remarkable progress de-risking the single hardest problem in nuclear — the cost structure that makes it project-financeable,” said Michael Kearney, General Partner at Engine Ventures and Board Director at Blue Energy. “Their manufacturing and development approach is what finally positions nuclear to run down the cost curve necessary for rapid deployment to meet this moment of demand growth, and we couldn’t be more excited to back them on that path.”

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently approved Blue Energy’s innovative approach to resequencing major phases of nuclear plant construction by initially energizing turbines with natural gas before conversion to nuclear power. This approval marks an important regulatory milestone and establishes a new precedent for phased nuclear plant construction in the United States.

About Blue Energy
Founded in 2023, Blue Energy develops financeable, turnkey nuclear power plants compatible with leading reactor technology. Our proprietary lower cost of capital solution and offsite pre-fabrication accelerates new nuclear deployment – making it predictable, faster and more affordable. We will deliver baseload power competitive with fossil fuels and renewables to meet unprecedented global demand. Blue Energy’s world-class team has extensive experience in nuclear construction, licensing, engineering, and development. We stem from MIT’s Nuclear Science & Engineering Department and are backed by VXI Capital, Engine Ventures, At One Ventures and Tamarack Global. Visit www.blueenergy.co or follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Blue Energy

DUBAI, UAE, April 21, 2026 — Infoquest, the custom sourcing expert network, announces the official opening of its Americas headquarters. The office marks the firm’s first physical presence in the Western Hemisphere and establishes a dedicated hub for all Americas-based client operations across the United States, Canada, and Latin America.

Founded in 2023, Infoquest has built a rapidly growing expert network serving leading consulting firms, private equity investors, and corporate strategy teams across EMEA. The Americas’ expansion was driven by a sustained increase in demand from North American clients requiring expert network coverage, combined with the need to align the company’s operations with its Americas client base.

This expansion addresses the limits of traditional expert databases, which struggle to provide the precision needed for specific research demands. Infoquest overcomes this by custom-sourcing every expert from scratch, ensuring exact profile matches for each brief. This approach delivers higher relevance and faster turnaround, regardless of sector. The new Americas office extends this bespoke sourcing capability to the Western Hemisphere with a dedicated regional team.

“Infoquest grew from zero to 50+ FTEs in under three years for a reason. We built a next-gen network on custom sourcing because the right expert usually isn’t pre-registered anywhere, and even when they are, legacy networks miss the context behind client requests. The Americas is where that demand is growing fastest. If your team is tired of settling for close enough, we’re here now.” 

Omar Yamak, CEO, Infoquest

The Americas office launches with all core Infoquest service lines. The firm serves clients across management consulting, private equity, venture capital, and corporate strategy, with coverage spanning energy, infrastructure, financial services, technology, consumer markets, and more throughout the hemisphere.

To mark the opening, Infoquest is offering new Americas clients two complimentary expert calls on their first project. Full details are available at Infoquest Americas.

ABOUT INFOQUEST

Infoquest is a custom sourcing expert network founded in 2023, operating across GCC, EMEA, and the Americas. The firm connects consulting firms, investors, and corporate clients with verified subject matter experts for primary research, due diligence, market intelligence, and strategic advisory, delivered in under two hours, at approximately 30% below market rate. For more information, visit iqnetwork.co.

Media Contact: Nabil Kanaan, Senior Marketing Associate, Infoquest | [email protected]

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2958109/Infoquest_in_the_americas.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2958108/Infoquest_Logo.jpg

SOURCE INFOQUEST

Strategic joint venture aims to enhance liquidity, transparency, and investor confidence in Stake’s real estate offerings in the UAE

DUBAI, UAE, April 21, 2026 — Stake, the MENA region’s leading digital real estate investment platform, and ACE & Company, a Swiss-headquartered global investment group focused on private markets, with more than $2.0 billion in assets under management, today announced a strategic partnership to support the development of liquidity solutions for investors in Stake products. The agreement will focus initially on the platform’s real estate portfolio in the UAE, held through Prescribed Companies, the equivalent of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) in DIFC.

The initiative is intended to create a more liquid, transparent, and efficient marketplace for investors seeking exposure to fractional real estate opportunities through Stake’s platform. By combining Stake’s innovative access model with ACE & Company’s longstanding experience in private market investing and secondary transactions, the partnership aims to strengthen the investment ecosystem around fractional ownership structures in the UAE.

The joint venture reflects both firms’ confidence in the long-term fundamentals of the UAE. At a time of heightened regional uncertainty, the UAE continues to distinguish itself through economic resilience, political stability, high-quality infrastructure, and sustained global investor interest. These attributes have helped position the country as one of the region’s most compelling destinations for long-term real estate capital.

Through the planned secondary infrastructure framework, investors in Stake products are expected to benefit from greater flexibility in managing their holdings, improved visibility around market pricing, and clearer pathways to liquidity. In turn, the broader market stands to benefit from enhanced stability, stronger price discovery, and increased participation and confidence in fractional real estate as an investable asset class. The framework operates within Stake’s existing DFSA-approved regulatory permissions, providing investors with established oversight and regulatory clarity. Stake is regulated by the DFSA, the independent regulator for business conducted from or within DIFC.

For Stake, the partnership marks an important step in the continued evolution of its platform, extending beyond access to ownership and toward the development of more mature market infrastructure. For ACE & Company, the collaboration draws on its extensive experience in private equity and secondaries to help unlock liquidity solutions in a fast-growing segment of the alternative investment landscape. The DIFC’s established private markets framework, and its Prescribed Company regulations in particular, have been central to enabling this model, providing the institutional and legal infrastructure on which this secondary transfer facility innovation is built.

Manar Mahmassani, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Stake said:
“The UAE has always rewarded those who invest in it with conviction, and that’s exactly what this partnership represents. Stake was born in crisis. We launched during COVID, when global real estate markets were struggling and Dubai‘s property industry was at its low point. What we saw was a market that is far from broken, but fundamentally sound, going through a temporary challenge. That conviction has never left us. Today, the world is watching the region, and we want to be unambiguous about where we stand: we are long Dubai, and we are long the UAE. This is not the moment to retreat: it’s the moment to build the institutional infrastructure this market deserves. That’s exactly what this partnership is all about – a mature, resilient market attracting institutional confidence and capital committed for the long run.”

Sherif El Halwagy, Partner and Co-Founder at ACE & Company said:

“Drawing on almost two decades of experience in offering liquidity to investors across private markets ecosystems via secondaries, we see a tremendous opportunity in real estate secondaries in the UAE. This partnership reflects our conviction in the country’s long-term fundamentals and our disciplined approach to capital deployment in high-quality assets. We look forward to further strengthening our relationships with investors and partners across the region.”

The partnership is designed to benefit all stakeholders across the ecosystem. Existing investors gain added optionality and transparency, prospective investors gain greater confidence in the structure, and the market benefits from stronger liquidity mechanisms, a scalable source of permanent/long-term capital and a more institutionalized framework for participation.

As fractional ownership continues to gain traction globally, Stake and ACE & Company believe that robust secondary infrastructure will play a critical role in supporting the sector’s long-term growth. The joint venture represents a shared commitment not only to product innovation, but also to building the underlying market architecture needed to support sustainable expansion in the UAE and beyond.

About Stake

Founded in the UAE in 2021, Stake is a DIFC-based fintech company and the leading real estate investment platform in the MENA region and beyond. Regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) for fractional properties, and by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in Saudi Arabia for fund distribution, Stake has built a community spanning over 2 million users from 211+ nationalities and has enabled over 450,000 investments across 600+ properties and 4 private real estate funds, paying out over AED 70 million in rental income and surpassing AED 1.5 billion in real estate transactions to date.

About ACE & Company

ACE & Company is a global investment group focused on private markets, with more than $2.0 billion in assets under management and over 20 years of investment experience. The firm invests across three core strategies—Venture, Independent Sponsors, and Secondaries—providing diversified exposure and differentiated return opportunities across the private markets lifecycle. Headquartered in Geneva, ACE & Company has offices in Zurich, London, New York, and Cairo.

Media Contacts
Stake
Ozge Onur
VP Marketing
[email protected]
+971.52.846.9054

ACE & Company
Elia Innamorati
Investor Relations
[email protected]
+41.22.311.3333

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SOURCE ACE & Company