Premiering September 10, the Series Follows Founders Using Business to Strengthen Communities and Improve Lives

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 19, 2026 — World Within Studios and Religion of Sports today announced the September 10 premiere of How To Change The World, a 10-episode documentary series following social entrepreneurs who are tackling today’s most pressing challenges through innovation, determination and community-driven solutions. The series is co-created by World Within founder and CEO Rostam Zafari and co-founder Dylan Mulick, and produced by World Within Studios and Religion of Sports.

Trailer: How To Change The World | Trailer

Across ten episodes of How To Change The World, viewers will meet entrepreneurs confronting complex issues with creativity, resilience and collaboration. It begins with people willing to challenge conventional thinking, build coalitions, and stay committed even when the path forward is difficult.

“I don’t back a project unless the people behind it are doing the work, not just talking about it,” says Mark Cuban. “Rostam and Dylan built something different: a series that skips the crash-and-burn stories and instead follows entrepreneurs who are actually solving problems and building something that lasts in their communities. World Within isn’t just filming that work. They’re funding it. That’s the kind of entrepreneurship I want more people to see.”

World Within operates at the intersection of impact investing and storytelling. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, it deploys donated capital into cooperatives, mutual banks, community energy projects and other community-owned businesses. Its production arm, World Within Studios, tells their stories in premium, cinematic formats.

“The traditional entrepreneur story rewards scale and personal payout, often without asking what the true cost is on people and communities,” said Rostam Zafari, Founder and CEO of World Within. “How To Change The World follows founders who measure success differently: by what their businesses give back to the communities they are built in, not by what they can walk away with. This is the version of business worth telling stories about.”

“We are following individuals who are sacrificing personal gain to solve huge problems, some of which may never be solved, against extraordinary headwinds,” said Co-creator and Showrunner Dylan Mulick. “By blending investigative journalism with a premium, stylized cinematic aesthetic, we are presenting these narratives not as passive interest pieces, but as dynamic blueprints for systemic change.”

How To Change The World will stream for free on World Within Studios’ YouTube channel, a self-distribution approach that mirrors the entrepreneurial spirit of the founders it profiles. Rather than routing the series through a traditional distributor, World Within is sharing it directly with viewers, positioning the organization as an early leader in a broader shift toward independent, mission-driven filmmaking and away from the traditional studio system ruled by a few media corporations.

“We typically tell stories of athletes who have overcome incredible odds to become great,” said Victor Buhler, Executive Producer and EVP of Unscripted, Religion of Sports. “On this series, we’re proud to work with the World Within team to profile social entrepreneurs who have overcome incredible odds also. These entrepreneurs all have a clear mission: to create sustainable companies that provide real solutions to today’s most pressing issues.”

How To Change The World will feature leaders across business, investing, culture and public service. Business and investing voices include:

• Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban
• Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz
• NYU Stern professor and podcast host Scott Galloway
• Acumen founder Jacqueline Novogratz
• Our Place co-founder Shiza Shahid

How To Change The World premieres September 10, with new episodes releasing weekly on Thursdays.

About World Within:

World Within is a nonprofit at the intersection of impact investing and storytelling. It is founded on the belief that a more equitable future requires a fundamental shift in capital and culture: how money flows and what stories are told. World Within invests donated capital into community-owned businesses across the nation through its Community Ownership Fund, a donor-advised fund housed at ImpactAssets. World Within Studios produces premium entertainment across film, television and podcasts to support the communities, businesses, and ideas they invest in. https://www.worldwithin.org/

Media Contact:

Aaron Marion

6233082638

[email protected]

SOURCE World Within

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Aug. 19, 2026 — Renata Medical, a privately held medical technology company dedicated to transforming care for children with congenital heart disease (CHD), today announced the close of a $25 million Series D financing round. The round was led by ARCHIMED, a global investment firm focused exclusively on healthcare, with participation from existing investors.

Proceeds from the financing will support expanded U.S. commercialization efforts for the Minima™ Stent System, entrance into international markets, advancement of the company’s pipeline of pediatric-specific CHD technology, and support for continued clinical evidence generation as Minima adoption grows across leading congenital heart programs worldwide.

“Adoption of the Minima™ Stent System has exceeded our expectations since commercial launch in 2024,” said Dustin Armer, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Renata Medical. “The support and participation of ARCHIMED is further validation of what we are building and of the growing opportunity to transform care for children with congenital heart disease”

The Minima™ Stent System is the first balloon expandable growth stent designed specifically for use in neonates, infants, and young children with pulmonary artery stenosis or coarctation of the aorta and received FDA premarket approval in August 2024. In August 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) granted the device a New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) designation, providing hospitals with additional reimbursement support for the technology.

“Children born with congenital heart defects have too often been treated with devices built for adults and many face repeat procedures simply because their implants cannot grow with them” said André-Michel Ballester, Managing Partner at ARCHIMED and former CEO of LivaNova. “Having spent much of my career in cardiovascular devices, I have rarely seen a technology address so clearly an unmet need. We are proud to back the Renata team as they scale the business and advance a pipeline of purpose-built pediatric therapies.”

About Renata Medical

Renata Medical, a Delaware corporation, was founded in 2019 with the focus on creating cardiovascular devices for unmet pediatric needs. Renata is committed to innovating, manufacturing, and selling technology that is purposefully created for pediatric patients worldwide. For more information, visit www.renatamedical.com.

About ARCHIMED

With offices in Europe, North America and Asia, ARCHIMED is a leading investment firm focused exclusively on healthcare industries. Its mix of operational, medical, scientific and financial expertise allows ARCHIMED to serve as both a strategic and financial partner to healthcare businesses. Prioritized areas of focus include Animal & Environmental Health, Biopharma Products, Consumer Health, Diagnostics, Healthcare IT, Life Science Tools & Services, and MedTech. ARCHIMED helps partners internationalize, acquire, innovate and expand their products and services. ARCHIMED manages €9 billion across its various funds. Since inception, ARCHIMED has been a committed Impact investor, both directly and through its EURÊKA Foundation.

SOURCE Renata Medical

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug. 19, 2026 — C2FO, the world’s largest platform for working capital, today announced it has been named to CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies 2026 list, produced in partnership with global research firm Statista. This marks the second consecutive year the company has earned the recognition.

For enterprises across Western Europe, the timing is notable. Persistently high financing costs, energy-driven cost pressure, and ongoing supply chain realignment have pushed corporate treasury teams to look for liquidity inside their own operations rather than through additional borrowing. C2FO’s marketplace model which connects buyers, suppliers, and financial institutions to unlock cash already tied up in approved invoices, has positioned the company as part of that shift for enterprises operating across the region.

Since its founding in 2008, C2FO has delivered more than $525 billion in on-demand working capital to businesses in more than 100 countries including markets throughout Western Europe, with zero credit losses. The platform’s patented Name Your Rate® technology lets enterprise buyers use surplus cash to fund early supplier payment at a self-directed rate, while suppliers gain fast, collateral-free access to liquidity without taking on new debt.

“For enterprises across Europe, working capital tied up in approved invoices shouldn’t sit idle while businesses look elsewhere for financing. This recognition reflects the growing role technology-enabled liquidity is playing for finance teams navigating a difficult rate environment,” said Mark Thomas, Chief Operations Officer EMEA, C2FO.

The CNBC honor follows C2FO’s recent inclusion among Finance Chief’s Top 10 Cash Management Platforms, which recognized the company’s approach to giving enterprise treasury teams direct, real-time control over invoice-based liquidity. C2FO continues to expand its presence across Europe, helping enterprises strengthen supplier relationships, improve liquidity, and navigate an increasingly complex economic environment.

Learn more at www.c2fo.com.

About C2FO 

C2FO is the global leader in on-demand working capital solutions, helping businesses improve liquidity through a marketplace that connects enterprise buyers with their suppliers. Through its patented Name Your Rate® technology, C2FO enables suppliers to receive payment earlier while allowing buyers to optimize returns on available cash.

Media Contact: Ena Do, Brand Communications, C2FO [email protected]

CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2026 — Ziegler, a national boutique investment bank, is pleased to announce the successful closing of the Series 2026 Bonds for the benefit of St. James Place of Baton Rouge (St. James Place).

St. James Place is a Louisiana not-for-profit corporation that was established in March 1980. St. James Place operates a lifecare, entrance-fee based continuing care retirement community (CCRC) containing independent living, assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing units located on a 49-acre campus (the “Community”) approximately one mile from Louisiana State University. When the Community opened in 1983, it became the first CCRC in the state of Louisiana and remains the only CCRC in Baton Rouge, the state capital.

The Community currently consists of 210 independent living residences, 48 assisted living residences, 15 assisted living memory care units, 62 skilled nursing beds and 26 memory support nursing beds. Common area amenities include a fishing lake, fitness center, enclosed heated swimming pool, salon, café, two dining venues, two auditoriums, a meditation chapel, library, and additional resident gathering spaces.

St. James Place will use the proceeds of the Series 2026 Bonds, together with other funds, to refund the outstanding Series 2015A Bonds to achieve annual debt service savings; provide for the reimbursement of certain previously incurred capital expenditures; fund a debt service reserve fund; and to pay the costs of issuance. Ziegler assisted St. James Place in securing a rating of BB+ (stable) from Firch Ratings on the Series 2026 Bonds. The Series 2026 Bonds are fixed rate, tax-exempt bonds structured to provide level annual debt service with a final maturity in 2045, matching the final maturity of the refunded bonds.

“Rich Scanlon helped us put together a great team and shepherded us expertly through the entire process. Ziegler earned their keep when representing us in the market, getting us the best rate possible,” said Dick Wager, President and Chief Executive Officer for St James Place.

Rich Scanlon, Senior Managing Director, Senior Living Finance at Ziegler stated, “Ziegler and St. James Place have maintained a strong relationship since our underwriting of the Series 2015 Bonds. We were fortunate to find an attractive capital markets environment, aided by the Fitch BB+ rating, which allowed St. James Place to refund their 2015A Bonds and generate $337,000 in annual debt service savings through 2045. Ziegler looks forward to remaining a strategic partner of St. James Place in the coming years as they consider additional opportunities to provide a high level of service to seniors in the Baton Rouge market area.”

Ziegler is the nation’s leading underwriter of financing for not-for-profit senior living providers. Ziegler offers creative, tailored solutions to its senior living clientele, including investment banking, financial risk management, merger and acquisition services, seed capital, FHA/HUD, capital and strategic planning as well as senior living research, education, and communication.

For more information about Ziegler, please visit us at www.ziegler.com.

¹ Based on full credit given to senior managers of lead-managed underwriting principal volume for senior living transactions completed nationally. Rankings and amounts through LSEG data as of 12/31/25. Note: For-profit bond financings are excluded.

About Ziegler:
Ziegler is a privately held, national boutique investment bank, capital markets, and proprietary investments firm. It has a unique focus on healthcare, senior living, and education sectors, as well as general municipal and structured finance. Headquartered in Chicago with regional and branch offices throughout the U.S., Ziegler provides its clients with capital raising, strategic advisory services, fixed income sales, underwriting and trading as well as Ziegler Credit, Surveillance, and Analytics. To learn more, visit www.ziegler.com.

Certain comments in this news release represent forward-looking statements made pursuant to the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This client’s experience may not be representative of the experience of other clients, nor is it indicative of future performance or success. The forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, in particular, the overall financial health of the securities industry, the strength of the healthcare sector of the U.S. economy and the municipal securities marketplace, the ability of the Company to underwrite and distribute securities, the market value of mutual fund portfolios and separate account portfolios advised by the Company, the volume of sales by its retail brokers, the outcome of pending litigation, and the ability to attract and retain qualified employees.

SOURCE Ziegler

TDP acquired the building, formerly known as Town Centre Plaza, for $7.8 million in December 2024. Under TDP’s ownership, the property was rebranded as Eagan Medical Center and repositioned as a leading destination for specialty healthcare services in the southeastern Twin Cities. TDP also completed common-area improvements and advanced leasing activity at the property.

“Eagan Medical Center is an excellent example of our approach to value creation through thoughtful investment, strategic improvements and strong partnerships,” said Basir Tareen, founder and CEO of Tareen Development Partners. “We are proud of what our team accomplished in a relatively short period and grateful to our tenants, healthcare partners and advisors for their role in the property’s success. Hammes Partners is an experienced healthcare real estate owner, and we believe the property is well positioned for its next chapter.”

Eagan Medical Center is one of Minnesota’s premier medical office destinations, bringing together three of the state’s leading independent specialty practices: Tareen Dermatology, Minnesota’s largest independent dermatology group; Minnesota Urology, Minnesota’s largest independent urology group; and MNGI Digestive Health, Minnesota’s largest gastroenterology practice.

The property is also home to Brecke Counseling, the Spartz Vein Clinic, and the Minnesota Center for Obesity, Metabolism and Endocrinology, creating a diverse and complementary network of specialty healthcare providers under one roof.

Located near Interstate 35E and Interstate 494, the property offers convenient access, free surface parking, tempered underground parking, and medical office space designed to serve patients and providers throughout Eagan and the surrounding communities.

The sale demonstrates TDP’s ability to identify opportunities, reposition properties and create lasting value for investors, tenants and communities.

About Tareen Development Partners

Tareen Development Partners is a Minnesota-based real estate development and investment firm specializing in multifamily housing, healthcare facilities and commercial properties. Through thoughtful design, strategic partnerships and community-focused investment, TDP develops and enhances properties that create lasting value. For more information, visit tdpmn.com.

Media Contact

Alex Miller Thandupurakal
Tareen Development Partners
[email protected]
651-364-7252

SOURCE Tareen Development Partners

Seeded by DSUN assets, powered by its trucurrent subsidiary—over $1 billion in capital investment. AI-native at formation: intelligence deploying energy, and energy deployed to those building intelligence.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2026 — American electricity is not scarce. It is late. trutility, a next-generation grid infrastructure developer, owner, and operator of MW- to GWh-scale battery storage, community solar, distributed generation, and microgrids, launched today.

Distributed Sun (DSUN), the anchor investor, contributes a GW-scale front-of-meter development portfolio and productized IP, jointly with trucurrent, its behind-the-meter subsidiary, to power the new platform. trutility owns all assets contributed, the customer relationships, and operating system.

“The kilowatt-hour is the base currency of the U.S. economy. We make electrons liquid where and when they are needed so large-load customers can grow, the grid can perform, and the country can compete,” said Chase Weir, CEO of Distributed Sun. “Institutional and strategic capital has underwritten our projects, portfolios, and platforms on both sides of the meter for 16 years. trutility is where these assets appreciate and value compounds.”

trutility intelligence was born in data, not bolted on. A decade of applied decision sciences—wins, failures, earned heuristics—produced truSolar, the 2014 risk-and-readiness standard established with S&P Global and DuPont, and beEdison, the 2015 Bloomberg FiRe award-winning platform doing what large language models are praised for today. The premise hasn’t changed; the engines have. Every process is engineered for autonomy: site, policy, and underwriting merge with cost, calendar, and returns at go; agents run 24/7, collapsing 30-day tasks into hours. The product: reliable, fast, liquid kWh for customers, at a price that tells the truth. Trust, underwritten.

“DSUN earned an average 9.2x MOIC on development assets since 2019 and a 14.3% average levered operating asset return to investors since formation. Delivering alpha is both the promise and the track record,” said Jeff Weiss, Executive Chair of DSUN.

Contributed assets: GWh-scale battery storage, multi-state community solar, operating microgrids, 24 FTM BESS sites today, set to double this year—and distributed portfolios spanning 14 utility rate territories, underwritten with contracted cash flows offering merchant upside.

trutility manufactures operating cash flows at development cost and holds them through operation. Its portfolios have delivered above plan and appreciate after COD, where assets historically did not. Bond-like yield stapled to enterprise optionality. Built to be held.

Sixteen years developing, owning, and operating: 17 states, $1 billion-plus in customer savings, large enterprises and publicly traded customers, nationwide development funnels, declining acquisition costs. The latest: an EV fleet-charging microgrid, among PG&E’s first Flex Connect partnerships, energized four months from groundbreaking—two years faster than the conventional interconnection path.

A dedicated operating company manages the portfolio for its full economic life; strategic channel partners announced next quarter.

About trutility

An energy infrastructure platform integrated from origination through operations, instrumented for autonomy, trutility owns and operates MW- to GWh-scale battery storage, community solar, distributed generation, and microgrids on both sides of the meter.

About trucurrent

The grid-edge operating engine, trucurrent designs and delivers behind-the-meter, on-site energy assets for the loads that think, move, and make—compute and automation, fleets, facilities, and manufacturing—serving Fortune 500 and large enterprise customers nationwide.

About Distributed Sun

A grid-scale asset platform and experienced underwriter, DSUN has deployed assets serving over 30,000 customers across 20+ utilities since 2010. An industry pioneer, its innovations have become industry best practice. The company has won the Department of Defense’s Military Energy Resilience Challenge, Intersolar’s Most Iconic Project of the Year, and a Telly Award for community engagement. Its first portfolio, sunONE (S1), returned 103% of at-risk equity in 15 months and delivered a 34% IRR; S14 is under development.

Media Contact — Maureen Bitter • [email protected] • www.trutility.ai

This release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties; actual results may differ materially. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

SOURCE Distributed Sun LLC

More Than 98% of NVIDIA Reference Performance Across Six Training Configurations, Validated Under Full Load

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 18, 2026 — PaleBlueDot AI (“the Company”), a Silicon Valley-based AI intelligence platform founded in 2024, today announced that its NVIDIA HGX B300 cluster has achieved NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud status for large-model training workloads. Working closely with NVIDIA’s engineering team, the Company met NVIDIA’s performance requirements across every benchmarking recipe, exceeding the 95% performance threshold across all tests. This recognition validates the cluster’s performance, resiliency and scalability, giving AI laboratories and enterprise customers greater confidence when running demanding training workloads at scale.

What Is NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud?
NVIDIA established Exemplar Cloud in 2025 to address a real problem: running production-scale AI workloads is a data-center-scale challenge, requiring optimization across the entire infrastructure stack. When that optimization breaks down, performance suffers. Users see slow responses, rising compute costs, unpredictable reliability and higher TCO, while innovation slows. Exemplar Cloud gives providers a standard benchmark to validate their infrastructure against, so buyers can compare against a standard rather than a claim.

This Exemplar Cloud status delivers tangible advantages to AI laboratories and enterprise customers via a credible performance reference during procurement reviews and project budget approvals.

“Achieving NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud status on NVIDIA HGX B300 is an important validation of the engineering discipline behind our AI infrastructure,” said Stephen Watts, CEO of PaleBlueDot AI. “Customers need more than access to leading GPUs. They need predictable performance and sustained reliability at scale. We focus on optimizing the full stack, from compute, networking and storage to scheduling and operations, so customers can run their most demanding training workloads with confidence.“

Performance Validated On Real-World Training Workloads
PaleBlueDot AI’s benchmark campaign encompassed six mainstream large-model training workloads: DeepSeek-V3, GPT-OSS, Nemotron-H, Qwen3, and two distinct Llama 3.1 configurations. This selection covers the model families that define frontier training today.

Every test run exceeded 98% of NVIDIA reference performance. Results held across divergent model architectures, parameter scales ranging from moderate to frontier-class, and multiple numerical precision formats, demonstrating near-reference training performance as a standing property of the cluster rather than the outcome of any single favorable configuration.

These results demonstrate our ability to deliver consistent, optimized training performance across different model architectures, parameter scales and numerical precision formats.

Engineered For Performance And Reliability At Scale
PaleBlueDot AI’s Blackwell Ultra cluster is built on NVIDIA HGX B300 systems. Each compute node contains eight NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs connected through NVIDIA NVLink and NVIDIA NVLink Switch, creating a fully interconnected AI infrastructure compute domain within each node.

The HGX B300 training cluster adopts an 800Gb/s non-blocking NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand networking architecture, eliminating cross-node communication bottlenecks that commonly restrict distributed training efficiency at production scale. Each GPU is equipped with a dedicated 800Gb/s high-speed network connection, providing aggregate compute-network bandwidth of up to 6.4 Tb/s per node.

PaleBlueDot AI has optimized the infrastructure as an integrated system spanning:

• Accelerated computing and system tuning: Customized hardware configurations aligned with NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs and the data center’s high-density power and air-cooling design help maximize per-GPU computing output.
• High-performance network architecture: The 800Gb/s non-blocking NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand fabric is designed to provide lossless, low-latency communications for large-scale distributed training.
• High-throughput storage: A parallel storage system and 63.36TB of local NVMe cache per compute node accelerate training-data loading and frequent checkpoint operations.
• Workload scheduling and resource orchestration: Optimized scheduling logic improves resource utilization, reduces computing waste and helps lower idle training costs.
• Full-lifecycle cluster monitoring and operations: Automated 24/7 alerting and operational mechanisms reduce unexpected interruptions to long-running training workloads.

The cluster also incorporates topology-aware scheduling, NVIDIA GPUDirect RDMA, collective communication optimization and automatic isolation of unhealthy nodes. Together, these capabilities improve large-scale training efficiency and reduce the impact of infrastructure faults on active workloads.

Validated For Sustained Full-Load Operation
Beyond NVIDIA’s benchmark assessment, PaleBlueDot AI completed a continuous full-load stability test on its HGX B300 cluster.

This week-long, non-stop simulation replicated production scenarios in which enterprise training jobs run continuously for days or weeks. The test covered the cluster’s compute, networking, storage and scheduling systems, verifying stable operation under sustained heavy load.

It has also deployed high-density power delivery and purpose-built air-cooling infrastructure to support continuous full-load operation. These systems help maintain stable operating conditions and optimal GPU performance.

In addition, the Company has established a multi-stage quality assurance framework covering:

• Hardware burn-in testing
• Single-node acceptance testing
• Cluster-level long-duration stability testing

This process helps identify hardware or configuration inconsistencies before production deployment and maintain consistent performance and configuration across the cluster.

For AI laboratories and enterprises, these capabilities translate into more predictable workload performance, faster data loading and checkpoint operations, lower risk of disruption and greater confidence when scaling complex training workloads.

Advancing Production-Ready AI Infrastructure
This achievement represents another milestone in PaleBlueDot AI’s continued investment in high-performance AI infrastructure. The Company will continue optimizing capabilities across computing, networking, storage, scheduling, monitoring and operations to provide reliable, production-ready infrastructure for increasingly demanding AI workloads.

“Performance at scale is determined by how well every layer of the infrastructure works together,” added Stephen Watts. “Our core focus is translating cutting-edge NVIDIA GPU hardware into standardized, production-ready and reliable computing capacity that enterprises can adopt efficiently at scale.”

The Exemplar Cloud achievement builds on PaleBlueDot AI’s longstanding collaboration with NVIDIA. The Company will continue working closely to bring next-generation NVIDIA architectures to training and inference workloads for enterprise customers around the world.

About PaleBlueDot AI
PaleBlueDot AI is a Silicon Valley-based AI Intelligence platform with a growing global footprint. The company delivers high-performance agentic AI infra through a unified platform designed for enterprise-scale deployment. Guided by its mission to make intelligence universally accessible, PaleBlueDot AI enables organizations to build, deploy, and scale AI faster, better, and cheaper. Named after the image of Planet Earth taken on the 1990 Voyager space mission coined by Carl Sagan as “a pale blue dot,” the company shares a belief in the transformative potential of AI technology to benefit all of humanity.

Media Contact
[email protected]

SOURCE PaleBlueDot AI

Public Company CFO with Capital Markets and Governance Experience to Lead the Company’s Proposed  Uplisting

LAS VEGAS, Nev., Aug. 18, 2026 — Vertical Data Inc. (OTCQB: VDTA) (“Vertical Data” or the “Company”), operator of VerticalData.io, GPUfinancing.com and Vertical Edge, today announced the appointment of Chris Downs as Interim Chief Financial Officer, effective August 17, 2026. He will also serve as the Company’s principal financial officer and principal accounting officer.

As Interim Chief Financial Officer, Downs will lead the Company’s finance and accounting functions, with a primary near-term focus on the Company’s planned uplisting of its common stock from the OTCQB® Venture Market to a national securities exchange. Prior to this appointment, he advised the Company as a consultant on its finance, reporting and uplisting activities.

“Chris is joining Vertical Data at an important inflection point in our growth,” said Deven Soni, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vertical Data. “Chris has spent most of the past decade as the Chief Financial Officer of a Nasdaq-listed  company, and has built a career around exactly the work in front of us: listing compliance, capital markets execution and the reporting and governance foundation a company needs to operate as a public company and exchange listed issuer. That experience maps directly to our primary near-term objective of uplisting to a national securities exchange.”

Downs most recently served for approximately six years (November 2019-March 2026) as Chief Financial Officer of CNS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he led the company’s financings, including follow-on, PIPE, at-the-market and equity line transactions, and directed its SEC regulatory and Nasdaq compliance and governance modernization. He previously served as Interim Chief Financial Officer of InfuSystem Holdings, Inc., where he led the company through an SEC restatement and a series of refinancings that significantly reduced its cost of debt over three years, and as a director and Audit Committee Chair of EBET, Inc. Earlier in his career, he advised on more than $4 billion of announced M&A transaction value as a healthcare investment banker at Citigroup, Alterity Partners and Maren Group. Across his career he has raised and arranged more than $285 million of capital across public equity, private placements and asset-based lending.

“Vertical Data sits at the center of the rapid buildout of AI computing infrastructure, across GPUs, financing and facilities,” said Downs. “My focus from day one is executing the uplisting and strengthening the financial foundation of reporting, controls and capital structure to support the Company’s growth as a listed company.”

Downs is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Treasury Professional and a Certified Corporate FP&A Professional. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, an M.S. in Accounting from the University of Houston–Clear Lake and a B.S. in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Christopher Creatura, who previously served as Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed Chief Credit Officer of the Company, where he will lead credit and underwriting for the GPUfinancing.com platform. 

“I want to thank Christopher Creatura for his contributions as Chief Financial Officer since the Company’s founding,” said Soni. “His move to Chief Credit Officer puts him where his experience creates the most value as we scale GPU financing.”

About Vertical Data Inc.

Vertical Data Inc. (OTCQB:VDTA) is an AI infrastructure company operating three platforms. VerticalData.io provides enterprise GPU provisioning and managed infrastructure. GPUfinancing.com arranges structured financing for GPU deployments. Vertical Edge holds equity in the data centers the Company sources, develops, leases and manages. Together, the three platforms deliver hardware, financing and facilities under one company. For more information, https://verticaldata.io/investor-relations/

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Many of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “expect,” “should,” “plan,” “intend,” “may,” “predict,” “continue,” “estimate” and “potential,” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions.

Forward-looking statements appear in a number of places in this press release and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company’s management transition, its pursuit of an uplisting to a national securities exchange, its GPU financing initiatives, and its business strategy and objectives. These statements are based on current assumptions and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Such risks include, but are not limited to, market conditions, availability of capital, execution risks, the Company’s ability to satisfy the quantitative and qualitative requirements for listing on a national securities exchange, and other factors beyond the Company’s control. There can be no assurance that the Company’s listing application will be approved.

These risks should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read together with the other cautionary statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2025, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended December 31, 2025, March 31, 2026 and June 30, 2026, as well as subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was initially made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, unless required by law.

SOURCE Vertical Data Inc

• Lead investors include 8VC and Townhall Ventures, as well as new investors including AIF, John Doerr, Richard Merkin and the Leon Levine Foundation

CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2026 — Hopscotch Primary Care (“Hopscotch”), a technology-enabled primary care model that serves patients in rural communities, has raised $53 million in its series D financing. Founded in 2021, the company serves more than 15,000 patients across the Southeastern United States, with its largest concentration in rural Western North Carolina. Hopscotch will use the new funding to deepen access across the region, expand into new rural markets, and continue to scale its technology-powered operations. Lead investors in the round include 8VC and Townhall Ventures, with participation from existing investors including aMoon Fund, Citi Impact Fund, Alumni Ventures and K2 HealthVentures. New investors in the round include the Autism Impact Fund (AIF), John Doerr, Chairman of Kleiner Perkins, and Dr. Richard Merkin, Founder of Heritage Provider Network, and the Leon Levine Foundation.

All across the country, rural health care is in crisis: physicians are retiring, hospitals are closing, and gaps in care are worsening. But we see a rare window for change: historic federal investment, deep engagement among the States, and rapid advances in AI and digital health are now bringing new momentum to the sector. Hopscotch was built to meet that moment, marrying direct provision of access with outcomes-multiplying technology that brings simple, joyful, connected care to small towns and rural communities across America. That includes same-day visits, 24/7 access to a patient’s care team, and proactive outreach – all backed by technology that reduces administrative burden so providers can focus on delivering great care. The company’s results demonstrate the efficacy of its model, with a Net Promoter Score of 89, patient retention consistently above 90%, and management of medical expenses powering MLR improvement of more than 25 percentage points for patients over their first two years. Paired with operating excellence, that performance is already translating to profitable operations in Western North Carolina.

“At Hopscotch, we believe that access to world-class primary care is the building block of healthier patients and communities. We recruit dedicated clinicians to rural communities and empower them with advanced technology to deliver access where other companies do not operate,” said Tim Gronniger, Chief Executive Officer. “This new funding comes at an inflection point for Hopscotch, and for rural health care as a whole. We are accelerating our growth into more small towns while improving outcomes, delighting patients, and building a sustainable future for the communities we serve,” added Mr. Gronniger.

“The best use of AI is to amplify human potential. Hopscotch is giving clinicians the tools to care for more patients with greater insight, while preserving the trusted relationships at the heart of primary care. That’s exactly the kind of technology that can transform healthcare in rural America and fundamentally improve lives,” said John Doerr, Chairman of Kleiner Perkins.

“Healthcare shouldn’t just show up when something’s wrong. At Hopscotch, we build lasting relationships with our patients: knowing them, staying connected, and helping them stay healthy over time, not just responding when they’re sick. It’s a model that works because it’s built around the patient, not around the visit, and that’s what lets us grow without losing the relationship at the center of it,” said Dr. Aditi Mallick, Chief Medical Officer.

About Hopscotch Primary Care

Hopscotch Primary Care is a technology-enabled primary care company that delivers simple, joyful, connected care to patients in rural communities. Founded in 2021, Hopscotch serves more than 15,000 patients through 12 clinical locations in rural communities across the southeastern United States. Dedicated care teams provide same-day access and support that extends beyond clinic walls, powered by an innovative suite of technology that strengthens human connections rather than replacing them. The company’s mission is to transform lives in rural communities through accessible and proactive value-based care.

For more information please visit www.hellohopscotch.com

Media contact:

Dan Tarman

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213.705.8454

SOURCE Hopscotch Primary Care