Backers of the Ohio-based developer include AgEagle Aerial Systems (NYSE: UAVS), North Coast Ventures, Vici Capital, Ohio Innovation Fund, and angel investors, including retired Gen. John “Mike” Murray, first commanding general of the U.S. Army Futures Command, who serves as strategic advisor; and Yon Raz-Fridman, Agilis Air’s co-founder and executive chairman. The company’s Remora drone is now available for direct purchase by military units, and Agilis is competing in upcoming phases of the Department of War’s $1.1 billion Drone Dominance Program.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, Sept. 14, 2026 — Agilis Air Inc., a developer and manufacturer of low-cost, American-made drones and autonomy technologies, today announced $1.4 million in early funding and its acceptance to the U.S. Army’s new UAS Marketplace, where its Remora drone is live and available for direct purchase by Army units and U.S. government entities and allies. The round includes AgEagle Aerial Systems (NYSE: UAVS), North Coast Ventures, Vici Capital (family office of Kevin Stein, retired CEO of the Ohio Innovation Fund) and angel investors.

Agilis builds the Remora ARQ, a Group 1 first-person-view aircraft for reconnaissance and tactical missions that costs $1,250 per unit, a fraction of the average industry range, ships three weeks from order, and is produced in Ohio with a 100% U.S., NDAA-compliant supply chain.

The company is announcing itself at a moment when the Pentagon has made small drones a national priority. The Department of War’s Drone Dominance Program is directing $1.1 billion toward fielding hundreds of thousands of American-made small drones, and the Army’s UAS Marketplace, launched in March and described by Army leaders as an “Amazon for the soldier,” lets units buy approved systems directly for the first time. Agilis entered the Marketplace’s Cleared tier, its highest onboarding phase, on the strength of its established NDAA compliance, and is positioning to compete in upcoming phases of the Drone Dominance Program, where its unit cost sits well below the program’s $2,300 affordability target.

“America invented flight in Ohio, and Ohio is where America’s drone industrial base should be rebuilt,” said Yon Raz-Fridman, co-founder and executive chairman of Agilis Air. “The next generation of deterrence belongs to whoever can field capable autonomous aircraft at the price of ammunition—thousands of them, built here, not imported. We’re building that company from Northeast Ohio, on top of the 4,000 aerospace suppliers and 120,000 aerospace workers this state already has.”

Agilis was co-founded by CEO Shawn Theiss, an unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) pioneering designer and UAV engineer with over 40 years in aviation who has spent three decades building custom drone systems for U.S. defense customers—more than 40 federal contracts delivered and over 600+ specialized drones fielded—and Raz-Fridman, a serial founder who has built and scaled venture-backed software and hardware companies for 15 years, with one company acquired in 2025.

“I’ve spent nearly 30 years building drones for defense customers and learning what works in the field,” said Theiss. “Remora is the result—a rugged, affordable $1,250 platform that’s intuitive to fly, rapidly repairable, and engineered to deliver dependable performance when it matters most.”

“Supporting companies pushing the boundaries of American drone technology is core to our mission, and Agilis is exactly that,” said Bill Irby, CEO of EagleNXT. “Their low-cost, American-made quadcopters are the natural complement to our Group 1 fixed-wing systems—together they give defense customers a full multi-domain unmanned capability, from long-endurance ISR to affordable, attritable tactical aircraft. Shawn and Yon are building the manufacturing engine this moment demands, and we’re proud to back them as they go live on the Army’s UAS Marketplace.”

Beyond the airframe, Agilis is developing onboard autonomy for GPS-denied environments and an intelligence software stack designed to plug into the Army’s networked unmanned-systems ecosystem— positioning the company as a drone developer and autonomy company rather than a hardware vendor alone.

“The Pentagon has been clear about what it needs: affordable, attritable drones made in America, at scale,” said Todd Federman, Managing Director of North Coast Ventures. “Agilis is one of the few teams with the cost structure and manufacturing depth to pull that off, and they’re doing it in Northeast Ohio, where the aerospace workforce and supply chain already exist. We think that combination is hard to beat.”

The funding will support production ramp of the Remora platform at the company’s Youngstown facility, completion of certifications, and delivery against the company’s Army pipeline. Agilis’ early development was supported by the Youngstown Business Incubator’s ENGINE tech incubator and the Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace & Defense.

About Agilis Air Inc.

Agilis Air is an Ohio-based defense technology company building low-cost, modular, NDAA-compliant unmanned systems developed and manufactured entirely in the United States on a 100% domestic supply chain. Agilis designs affordable, attritable systems for the modern battlefield, led by its Remora platform, a low-cost quadcopter built for ISR and tactical missions. The company was co-founded by CEO Shawn Theiss, who delivered more than 40 U.S. Department of Defense programs over three decades through his prior company, Theiss UAV Solutions, and Executive Chairman Yon Raz-Fridman, a serial tech entrepreneur. Agilis is building American manufacturing capacity in Northeast Ohio for the next generation of unmanned systems. https://agilisair.com/ 

About Team Yon LLC

Team Yon LLC is a privately held holding firm founded and owned by Yon Raz-Fridman. The firm incubates new ventures and makes strategic investments. Through Team Yon LLC, Raz-Fridman co-founded Agilis Air Inc. where he serves as Executive Chairman. https://teamyon.org/ 

Editor’s note: Founders Yon Raz-Fridman and Shawn Theiss are available for interviews, and the company can host facility visits and flight demonstrations in Youngstown. High-resolution images of the Remora platform, founder headshots, and b-roll are available on request.

Media contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Agilis Air

Global construction is a $16 trillion industry that sits on the critical path of the decades’ biggest shifts: the AI data center buildout, manufacturing’s re-industrialization, the defense boom and the race to scale energy. Buildots’ AI platform is the control tower for these large-scale construction programs, giving the world’s largest builders a verified picture of what’s happening on site so they can run projects on objective data rather than instinct.

100+ of the world’s largest firms already use Buildots, including hyperscalers and other owners like Intel and Digital Realty, as well as construction industry titans such as STO Building Group, JE Dunn, Mortenson, Bouygues and HOCHTIEF. Buildots gives them a single source of truth, delivering unique visibility and predictability. It lets them know sooner, act faster, and outperform, with real revenue and margin riding on every decision.

The stakes are growing as the world re-industrializes. On AI data centers, advanced manufacturing facilities, energy infrastructure and other mission-critical projects, construction has become more complex, timelines are shorter, and more is at stake, accelerating the need to change construction’s service model. In this environment, seven-figure, portfolio-wide, multi-year agreements are now the norm for Buildots, not the exception.

“It will soon be inconceivable that anyone managed a construction portfolio without Buildots,” said Roy Danon, CEO and Co-founder of Buildots. “That shift was already underway before the AI buildout, but the buildout has poured rocket fuel on it. Buildots is now used across residential, commercial and – of course – mission-critical projects worldwide, on jobs of every size, from single sites to entire portfolios. The blind spot we solve for a data center is the same one that’s been costing a school or a hospital for decades, just at much greater scale, which is why the world is finally paying attention. The AI era will be built on schedule.”

A feedback loop between the physical and digital worlds

Buildots creates a feedback loop between the physical and digital worlds through its proprietary AI, built on eight years of data from real construction sites, not scraped from the internet or borrowed from general-purpose models. That data advantage can’t be shortcut. Its computer vision models turn video footage into a digital twin of each project, interpreting construction schedules, 3D models and site imagery together to classify hundreds of types of work. This replaces fragmented reports, manual inspections and subjective assessments with a single, continuously updated view of where a project stands and accurate forecasting of where it is heading.

For customers, the ROI is material. On a billion-dollar project, for example, even small execution improvements can translate into substantial economic value. Earlier visibility creates more time to recover delays, and better progress data improves the deployment of people and capital. Portfolio-level intelligence allows executives to identify risks across multiple projects before they become costly.

Construction’s missing infrastructure

Buildots is set to become indispensable infrastructure for its customers, as fundamental to running their business as financial or procurement systems. Getting there means scaling in three directions:

1. Wider: into more of the world’s largest portfolios across North America and EMEA
2. Deeper: across the full construction lifecycle, from bidding to handover
3. Higher: into the business-level intelligence that lets leadership run their whole portfolio the way a factory floor is run: measured, consistent, improving on itself

Ziv Kop, Managing Partner at O.G. Venture Partners, said: “In 20+ years of backing category-defining companies, the pattern is always the same: the winners build the foundational technology layer that everyone else ends up depending on. Buildots is that layer for construction, trained on a volume and quality of site data that nobody else has.” 

The round adds two new investors to Buildots’ cap table: Human Capital, the San Francisco firm behind companies applying AI to the physical world (SpaceX, Neuralink and Anduril among them), and Mohari Ventures. The company’s investor base also includes TLV Partners, Future Energy Ventures, Maor Investments and Tidhar, all long-standing backers of Buildots.

About Buildots

Buildots is the global construction intelligence platform, serving as the operational backbone for construction projects of all scales – from local schools and multi-family projects to the world’s most complex data centers and mega-projects. By transforming site data into actionable insights, Buildots enables construction leaders to know sooner, act faster, and outperform. Buildots is currently used by Fortune 500 contractors and household-name owners, including Turner Construction, JE Dunn, Intel, HOCHTIEF, and Bouygues, to drive operational excellence worldwide.

Media Contact
Zack Rothbart, Concrete Media 
[email protected]

SOURCE Buildots

New publication examines how personal injury platforms are being built, where value is being created and how founders can prepare for an institutional market

CHICAGO, Sept. 14, 2026 — The Private Equity Legal Alliance (PELA) today announced the release of its third white paper, PI Platform Architecture Update: Building the Market, Engineering the Platform Exit, a state-of-the-market briefing examining how personal injury platforms are being assembled as institutional capital continues to reshape the legal industry.

The publication represents the next stage in PELA’s ongoing examination of private capital and legal services. Its inaugural white paper explored why private equity is entering personal injury, while the second focused on how modern law firm MSOs are structured and built from Letter of Intent through post-transaction integration. The new paper turns its attention to a market that is no longer theoretical.

“The conversation has moved very quickly from whether institutional capital will enter personal injury to how these platforms are actually being built,” said Seth Deutsch, Founder and CEO of Samson Partners Group. “We are now seeing recognizable patterns emerge – different entry points, different acquisition sequences and different approaches to creating value. This paper gives founders and investors a practical map of the market we see developing in real time.”

The release also comes as PELA expands both its membership and the expertise represented within the alliance. CBIZ, Inc. and Dykema have joined the group, bringing additional depth in financial diligence and transaction readiness, as well as transaction counsel and legal strategy.

“As the market has evolved, PELA has evolved with it,” Deutsch said. “CBIZ and Dykema bring important new capabilities to the alliance and make an already multidisciplinary team even stronger.”

The 53-page report reflects that growing breadth of expertise. In addition to Deutsch, contributors include Jordan McMillian, Partner at Samson Partners Group; Luke Snyder, Managing Director at CBIZ; and Evan Atkinson, Member with Dykema. Chad Dudley, Managing Partner of Dudley DeBosier Injury Lawyers and Co-founder and CEO of Orion Legal MSO, also contributes a guest founder’s perspective based on his firsthand experience building and operating a personal injury MSO.

At the center of the paper is a simple observation: there is no single way to build a personal injury platform. PELA identifies three principal entry points – brand-first, litigation-first and lead-generation-first – that ultimately converge toward the same destination: a vertically integrated platform combining brand, controlled lead supply and intake, and in-house litigation capability.

“The firms and investors entering this market may be starting in very different places, but increasingly they are building toward the same operating model,” said McMillian. “The real differentiator will not simply be who acquires the most firms. It will be who can integrate those businesses into an operating platform that improves performance, absorbs growth and continues to function without depending on any one founder.”

The paper also examines several factors that will increasingly influence platforms’ ability to succeed, including rising client-acquisition costs, the use of technology and artificial intelligence to create operating leverage, litigation capability to increase realized case value and portfolio diversification beyond motor vehicle accidents. Successfully navigating these dynamics, the paper argues, can reduce concentration risk, broaden demand sources and create a more scalable and valuable enterprise.

For founders, the report includes an extensive pre-transaction diligence primer addressing normalized EBITDA and Quality of Earnings, revenue concentration, case inventory, marketing performance, legal and structural readiness, leadership depth and organizational preparedness.

It also emphasizes the importance of preparing before an LOI is signed, when sellers generally have greater negotiating leverage and key economic and structural terms are still being established.

“More often than not, we see sellers execute an LOI before retaining counsel, without realizing that they will never have more leverage in a transaction than they do before signing it,” said Atkinson. “Experienced counsel should be involved at the LOI stage to help ensure that key legal and economic protections are baked into the deal from the start.”

Financial preparation is particularly important. “Buyers are going to challenge EBITDA. That is part of the process,” Snyder said. “The key is making sure the seller does not lose credit for revenue the firm has already earned simply because the cash comes in later. Well-supported accruals help demonstrate the economic earnings already embedded in the business and distinguish genuine earnings concerns from revenue that has been earned but remains uncollected.”

The paper’s guest contribution from Dudley highlights the founder’s perspective. His firm partnered with Uplift Investors to create Orion Legal MSO, giving him firsthand experience with many of the choices facing PI firm owners today. Dudley frames those choices around three paths: become the platform, join an existing platform, or continue building an exceptional independent firm while preserving future options. “Regardless of which path you ultimately choose, there is one recommendation that applies universally: keep building a better firm,” Dudley writes. “A stronger business creates more options.”

Ultimately, PI Platform Architecture Update argues that the next phase of private capital in personal injury will be defined less by individual transactions than by the quality of the platforms those transactions create.

“The destination is convergence and the prize is the platform, not the firm,” Deutsch said. “The platforms that win the next decade will be the ones that manufacture leverage against rising acquisition costs, integrate their supply, build genuine litigation capability and deliberately construct the portfolio that creates the next level of enterprise value.”

The white paper – along with the previous two white papers – is available for free download through PELA member organizations and at samsonpartnersgroup.com/pe-legal-alliance.

About the Private Equity Legal Alliance

The Private Equity Legal Alliance is a growing consortium of leading advisors, legal experts, business specialists and financial professionals dedicated to helping law firms and investors navigate today’s evolving landscape of ownership opportunities. Its members bring together expertise in private equity, investment banking, transaction law, legal ethics, financial diligence, platform operations and law firm management to provide the multidisciplinary perspective required to structure, build and operate ethical and sustainable partnerships in the modern legal economy. Learn more at SamsonParntersGroup.com/pe-legal-alliance.

SOURCE The Private Equity Legal Alliance

SAN FRANCISCO and DENVER, Sept. 14, 2026 — Genstar Capital and Aksia today announced a strategic growth investment in Richey May, a Top 50 accounting and advisory firm.

The investment will accelerate Richey May’s organic growth and M&A strategy, supporting the Company’s continued expansion as a national platform. Genstar and Aksia join existing investor F3 Partners and Richey May management, who are retaining significant ownership stakes.

Guggenheim Securities, LLC served as financial advisor to Richey May and F3 Partners and BMO Capital Markets served as financial advisor to Genstar.

About Richey May

Richey May is a full-service firm providing accounting, tax, and advisory services to clients across diverse industries and geographic markets. For over 40 years, the firm has combined deep technical expertise with a responsive, client-focused approach, serving clients nationwide from its Denver, Colorado headquarters and offices across eight states.

“Richey May” is the brand name under which Richey, May & Co., LLP and RM Advisory LLC provide professional services. Richey, May & Co., LLP, a licensed independent CPA firm, provides attest services to its clients, and RM Advisory LLC and its subsidiary entities provide tax and business consulting services to their clients. To learn more, visit www.richeymay.com.

About Genstar Capital

Genstar Capital (www.gencap.com) is a leading private equity firm that has been actively investing in high-quality companies for over 30 years. Based in San Francisco, Genstar works in partnership with its management teams and its network of strategic advisors to transform its portfolio companies into industry-leading businesses. Genstar currently has approximately $51 billion of assets under management and targets investments focused on targeted segments of the financial services, software, healthcare, and industrials industries.

About Aksia

Aksia (www.aksia.com) is a global pan-alternatives solutions provider for institutional investors, headquartered in New York. Aksia’s private equity, private credit and real assets co-investment teams invest alongside leading sponsors. Aksia has nine offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

About F3 Partners

F3 Partners (www.f3partnersllc.com) is an investment firm focused on helping families and founders grow their businesses into leading middle market companies. Based in New York City, F3 invests $10-100 million into consumer, business services, healthcare, and software businesses across North America.

Media Contacts

For Richey May
Felicia Mullison, Chief Marketing Officer
[email protected]

For Genstar Capital
FGS Global
[email protected]

For Aksia
[email protected]

For F3 Partners
[email protected]

SOURCE Genstar Capital

NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 2026 — NexPhase Capital, LP (“NexPhase” or “NPC”), a thematically driven and operationally focused private equity firm, today announced that it has made an investment in EVERYWHERE Communications (“EVERYWHERE” or the “Company”), a mission-critical software platform that helps government and enterprise organizations connect, protect, and coordinate distributed teams through resilient communications, automated workforce safety, real-time situational awareness, and actionable operational intelligence. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, EVERYWHERE helps government and enterprise organizations protect, coordinate, and gain real-time visibility into personnel and operations across some of the world’s most demanding environments. The purpose-built EVERYWHERE Platform combines resilient connectivity across satellite, cellular, Wi-Fi, and other communications networks with messaging, location monitoring, automated check-ins and safety workflows, geofencing, emergency response, dynamic data visualization, and actionable geolocated intelligence.

By connecting personnel, devices, and operational data, EVERYWHERE enables leaders to identify emerging risk, coordinate response, and make better-informed decisions without relying solely on manual interaction from personnel in the field. Today, EVERYWHERE serves customers across government, utilities, mining, oil and gas, humanitarian aid, and other mission-critical sectors in more than 175 countries.

“EVERYWHERE has built a differentiated platform at the intersection of resilient communications, workforce safety, and operational intelligence,” said Bob Gartland, Partner at NexPhase. “Organizations increasingly need reliable communications, real-time visibility, and intelligent tools to protect and coordinate distributed teams. We look forward to partnering with Patrick, Jake, and the EVERYWHERE team to invest in the Company’s go-to-market capabilities, customer success, and product organizations as it expands its reach across its core government and enterprise verticals.”

“This investment allows us to build on the momentum we’ve created while staying true to our mission of helping organizations connect, protect, and coordinate their people wherever they operate,” said Patrick Shay, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EVERYWHERE. “The NexPhase team’s experience scaling software and technology businesses makes them what we view to be the ideal partner as we invest further in our team, expand our reach, and drive innovation across the EVERYWHERE Platform. We will remain focused on delivering strong organic growth while also actively evaluating strategic acquisitions that can broaden our capabilities, strengthen our market position, and accelerate our growth trajectory.”

“Reliable connectivity will always be foundational to what we do, but the opportunity ahead is much larger,” said Jake Bailey, President of EVERYWHERE. “Our customers increasingly want to understand what is happening across their operations, where risk is emerging, and when action is required—without relying on someone in the field to initiate that communication. This partnership provides us with additional resources to strengthen our open, connected platform, expand automated safety workflows, and accelerate the operational intelligence capabilities that give leaders who use our product greater visibility and enable faster, better-informed decisions.”

Following the close of the transaction, EVERYWHERE will continue to be run by its current management team.

Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP served as legal advisor to NexPhase. Baird served as exclusive financial advisor to EVERYWHERE, and DLA Piper LLP served as the Company’s legal advisor.

About EVERYWHERE Communications
EVERYWHERE Communications delivers a purpose-built, mission-critical software platform that helps government and enterprise organizations connect, protect, and coordinate distributed personnel and operations. The EVERYWHERE Platform combines secure, resilient connectivity across satellite and wireless networks with messaging, location intelligence, automated safety workflows, dynamic data visualization, emergency response, and actionable operational intelligence. Serving customers in more than 175 countries, EVERYWHERE supports organizations across government, utilities, mining, oil and gas, humanitarian aid, and other mission-critical sectors. Founded in 2016, EVERYWHERE is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland. For more information, visit www.everywherecomms.com.

About NexPhase Capital
|NexPhase Capital is a thematically driven and operationally focused lower middle-market private equity firm that makes control investments in growth-oriented and capital-efficient companies within three distinct industry verticals: healthcare, software, and consumer. NexPhase partners with companies that have reached a growth inflection point and are seeking a value-added partner to help navigate the Company’s “next phase.” The NexPhase team has extensive industry and operational experience, and NPC’s Partners have invested together for over 15 years. NexPhase has completed over 100 investments, including add-ons, and targets equity investments between $40 million and $225 million. Since inception, NexPhase has raised and managed approximately $2.6 billion of capital. For more information, visit www.NexPhase.com.

Media Contacts
NexPhase:
Kate Thompson / Kate Kelley / Heather Milke
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
212-355-4449

SOURCE NexPhase Capital

New product connects business worth with incentives that help retain the people driving growth

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 14, 2026 — Reins, which gives contractors the tools to grow what their business is worth and their key people a real stake, announced today the launch of Valuation, a new standalone AI-powered product that gives owner-operators in the trades a clear view of what their company is worth and what they can do to increase that value.

Reins has raised $5.5 million to date from Album, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Torch Capital and Animo Ventures to level the playing field for independent business owners by giving them access to tools traditionally available to larger companies and private equity-backed businesses.

Valuation joins Reins’ existing Incentives product, which helps owners create long-term incentives, including phantom stock and stock appreciation rights (SARs), as well as short-term profit-sharing plans that give key employees a real stake in the value they help create.

Reins initially developed this technology to support Incentives but saw a broader need among contractors for greater visibility into their companies’ value. Valuation uses carefully developed AI agents to analyze financial and operating data, deliver a current valuation, identify the factors driving it and pinpoint opportunities for improvement.

Valuation gives owners:

• A clear number for what the business is worth today, built from the owner’s own financial and operating data, including QuickBooks and ServiceTitan data.
• Visibility into what is holding that number back and how the business compares with peers.
• Guidance on what to do next, including the incentive plans, KPIs and targets that can help move the business forward.

“Independent business owners spend years building companies that support their families, their employees and their communities, but they haven’t always had access to the same sophisticated tools larger companies use to understand and grow their value,” said Chris Buttenham, co-founder and CEO of Reins. “We want to change that. Valuation gives owners a clear picture of what they have built, shows them where they can create more value and connects that insight to Incentives so they can give key people a real stake in helping the business grow.”

Valuation begins with the owner’s own books and operating data to establish what the company is worth today. Its agentic analysis then identifies the factors driving that value, benchmarks the business against peers and highlights the levers with the greatest potential impact. Owners can then use Incentives to align key employees with the KPIs and targets that matter most through long- or short-term plans tied to the value they help create.

“Big companies have a CFO, an appraiser and a compensation consultant a phone call away,” Buttenham said. “The owner of a 30-person HVAC shop has none of that: no real number on the business, no plan for what comes next. Valuation is how we level that. It gives independent owners the leverage private equity and big corporations have had for decades.”

Valuation and Incentives run on the same data and are designed to work in the background of the business an owner already operates, without adding administrative burden or requiring a consultant. Together, they help contractors understand what their business is worth, act on the factors that can increase that value and build a stronger company with more options when the time comes to sell, hand off or step back on their terms.

For more information about Reins, visit myreins.com.

About Reins

Reins is the ownership operating system for independent businesses, giving owners the tools to understand and grow their business value while giving key employees a real stake in the value they help create. Through Valuation and Incentives, Reins helps owners understand what their business is worth, identify opportunities to increase its value and create long- and short-term incentive plans without giving up ownership or control. Reins works with hundreds of owner-operators in the trades, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, restoration and landscaping, who have granted more than $50 million in incentives to key employees through Reins. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Reins is backed by Album, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Torch Capital and Animo Ventures.. Learn more at myreins.com.

SOURCE Reins

Former health system executive brings enterprise technology and operating leadership to help health systems build a new System of Work

SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 14, 2026 — Notable, the leading healthcare AI Platform for transforming workforce productivity, today announced the appointment of Dr. Nicholas Desai as Chief Medical Officer. Desai joins from Houston Methodist, where his leadership spanned system-wide clinical technology and hospital operations, including roles as system Chief Medical Information Officer and hospital Chief Operating Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Quality Officer. Most recently, he helped lead the development, opening, and growth of Houston Methodist Cypress Hospital, bringing culture, clinical operations, and technology together from the outset.

Desai brings more than two decades of experience connecting enterprise technology with clinical practice and organizational change, with accountability for technology, people, growth, quality, and financial performance. His appointment strengthens Notable’s focus on helping health systems translate AI capabilities into operating results: greater capacity, faster access to care, less administrative work, and better use of existing resources.

“More AI does not automatically mean more capacity or better margins,” said Pranay Kapadia, CEO and co-founder of Notable. “Those gains require changing how work gets done. Nick has led clinical technology across a health system and taken direct responsibility for hospital operations. He understands what has to change, what cannot be compromised, and what it takes to bring an organization through that kind of transformation.”

That experience directly supports Notable’s vision for a System of Work: AI Agents and people working together across existing systems to carry work from request to completion. The goal is to help health systems expand what their teams can accomplish without increasing the administrative burden on staff or patients.

At Notable, Desai will partner with health system executives to identify high-value opportunities, align clinical and operational teams, and translate those priorities into workflows that can be deployed, adopted, and measured. His focus will span patient access, care operations, and workforce productivity, with an emphasis on making change practical within customers’ existing infrastructure, staffing, and budgets. He will also help ensure those operating priorities shape Notable’s platform development and delivery.

“The measure of AI will not be intelligence. It will be impact,” said Desai. “For a health system, that means whether patients get care sooner, whether teams have more capacity, and whether work gets completed reliably. Having led both enterprise technology and hospital operations, I know deployment is only the beginning. Joining Notable gives me the opportunity to help more organizations turn what technology makes possible into how they operate every day.”

For more information about Notable and its AI Platform, visit www.notablehealth.com.

About Notable

Deployed at over 12,000 sites of care, Notable is the leading healthcare AI Platform for transforming workforce productivity. Through Notable, millions of once-manual tasks are automated daily in a safe, secure, end-to-end AI Platform that optimizes workforce efficiency and productivity, cuts operational costs, eliminates fragmentation, and enhances the patient experience. From patient access and revenue cycle management to care operations and more, Notable’s AI Agents reduce administrative burden so staff, providers, and patients can focus on what matters most. Notable is backed by leading investors, including ICONIQ Growth, Greylock Partners, F-Prime, Oak HC/FT, Maverick Ventures, and 8VC. Learn more at www.notablehealth.com.

SOURCE Notable

TOKYO, Sept. 14, 2026 — The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (hereinafter: “METI”) will host the Global Startup EXPO 2026 (hereinafter: “GSE2026”) from Monday, October 5 to Wednesday, October 7 in Osaka, Japan. As Japan’s startup ecosystem expands, GSE2026 is designed as an entry point for overseas venture capital firms seeking access to emerging opportunities in Japan. Under the concept “Deeptech – from breakthrough to industry,” GSE2026 connects overseas venture capital firms with Japanese startups, corporate venture capital (CVC) funds, institutional investors, and government-backed investment entities — turning valuable connections into actionable opportunities for investment, partnership, and industrial growth.

The event goes beyond a traditional exhibition, connecting overseas investors with Japanese startups, corporate venture capital (CVC) funds, institutional investors, government-backed investment entities, and other key ecosystem participants.

Expo image 1: https://cdn.kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M109206/202609085515/_prw_PI1fl_5k8Re581.jpg

From Investment to Industrialization

A central focus of GSE2026 is the social implementation and industrialization of innovation, particularly in deep tech. Capital is critical, but lasting impact requires technologies and products to reach markets, generate economic value, and grow into sustainable industries. This ambition is embodied in the concept: “Deeptech – from breakthrough to industry.”

Why This Matters for Global Investors

Expo image 2: https://cdn.kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M109206/202609085515/_prw_PI2fl_GL9wtWGu.jpg

GSE2026 offers overseas venture capital firms opportunities to engage with Japan’s investment network and promising startups, including companies from METI’s flagship J-Startup program and National Startup Award (NSA) awardees. For investors evaluating Japan as a sourcing market, syndication market, or long-term strategic geography, the event provides opportunities to identify potential investments, co-investment partners, and industrial collaborations.

Discover / Engage / Build

The program is structured around three stages: Discover global trends and emerging technologies; Engage with startups, investors, corporations, policymakers, and other ecosystem participants; and Build toward concrete action through business discussions, investor matchmaking, partnerships, and real-world implementation.

Featured Participants

Profiles of the Speakers:
https://cdn.kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M109206/202609085515/_prw_PI3fl_lPNSel20.png

Leading global investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (U.S.), New Enterprise Associates (U.S.), and Atomico (U.K.), have confirmed their participation, with additional prominent speakers and participants from Japan and around the world to be announced in the coming weeks.

For more information, the latest speaker and participant announcements, schedule updates, and registration details, please visit the official GSE2026 website: https://global-startup-expo.com/en/?utm_source=prwire&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=20260914&utm_content=en_url＿

SOURCE Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

New aerospace financing platform will seek to provide flexible and scalable capital to aerospace sector

NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 2026 — Neuberger Specialty Finance (“NBSF“) today announced an agreement with several leading aerospace finance professionals to jointly establish and launch New Bridge AeroFinance (“New Bridge Aero“), a new aerospace financing platform that will enable NBSF- managed funds to originate and acquire loans and other debt instruments across the aerospace sector. New Bridge Aero will aim to pursue aerospace financing opportunities consistent with NBSF’s focus on asset-based investments that seek to offer downside protection and durable cash flows. The platform will initially seek to build a portfolio in excess of US$2 billion.

New Bridge Aero will be led by Richard Moody, with Debbie Frew and William Glaister assuming the roles of Co-Founders and Principals. The management team brings significant aviation experience to the platform, with Moody most recently serving as Global Head of Aviation Finance at Hamburg Commercial Bank AG, having earlier led Transportation Finance at Deutsche Bank AG globally. Frew and Glaister bring complementary expertise, with Frew holding senior aviation finance positions at Hamburg Commercial Bank AG and Deutsche Bank AG, and Glaister previously serving as Global Head of Asset Finance at Clifford Chance LLP.

Neuberger Specialty Finance is the Asset Based Finance arm of Neuberger, a private, independent, and employee-owned investment manager, which manages US$613 billion of equities, fixed income, private equity, real estate and hedge fund portfolios for global institutions, advisors and individuals^[1]. NBSF manages over US$5 billion across 50+ portfolio companies and various investment vehicles since the strategy’s inception in 2018. The group is led by Peter Sterling and has cumulatively invested more than US16 billion through 80 global origination partners, from commercial banks to fintechs, across thousands of underlying loans.

Commenting on the announcement, Sean Hinze, Managing Director who leads hard asset investing at NBSF said,  “Launching New Bridge AeroFinance represents a compelling opportunity to build a differentiated aviation & transportation credit platform in a market where specialized capital, structuring expertise and speed of execution are increasingly valuable. Aviation finance is a complex, asset-intensive sector where deep underwriting experience matters.  We believe New Bridge is well positioned to provide flexible, scalable financing solutions across the capital structure.

Richard Moody and his team bring substantial experience across aviation and transportation finance, and we believe combining that specialist capability with Neuberger Specialty Finance’s capital base, sourcing network and global platform creates a significant opportunity to build a leading franchise.

Richard Moody added, “We are delighted to partner with Neuberger to develop a structured debt platform focused on creative solutions for the broader aerospace sector, targeting transactions across the capital stack involving not just aircraft but all parts of the aviation and aerospace ecosystem.  Neuberger Specialty Finance’s experienced team, creative approach, and flexible capital make them a natural partner in our mission to build a best-in-class financing business”.

About Neuberger Private Markets

Neuberger Private Markets is a division of Neuberger and has been an active and successful private markets investor since 1987. Neuberger Private Markets invests across strategies, asset classes, and geographies for a large number of sophisticated and renowned institutions and individuals globally. As of March 31, 2026, Neuberger Private Markets manages over $165 billion of investor commitments across primaries, co-investments, secondaries, private credit, and specialty strategies. Neuberger Private Markets has an experienced and diverse team of over 500 professionals with a global presence in 11 countries globally.

Neuberger Media Contact: [email protected]

New Bridge AeroFinance: [email protected]

^[1] AUM as of June 30, 2026

SOURCE Neuberger Berman