SINGAPORE, Sept. 10, 2026 — DeepCtrls recently completed a new Series B+ financing round, led by CATL, with strategic investment from Aramco Ventures, alongside participation from Taiping Innovation Investment, GF Xinde Investment Management and Fosun Capital. Existing investors, including Source Code Capital and Forebright Capital, also increased their investments.

Over the past two months, DeepCtrls has completed three consecutive financing rounds. The strong investor momentum reflects a broader industry shift: AI is moving from the digital world into the physical world, while energy and computing infrastructure are becoming critical foundations for the continued growth of AI. Physical AI is emerging as a key technology pathway for transforming this infrastructure.

DeepCtrls is a pioneer and leader in the industrial application of Physical AI for energy systems. Since its founding, the company has focused on the deep integration of AI and physical principles, building a proprietary technology platform powered by its PhyAI™ Physical AI Engine. The technology enables AI to perceive, predict, make decisions and optimize in real time within real-world physical environments, extending AI capabilities from the digital world into complex physical systems.

After years of technology development and industrial deployment, DeepCtrls has successfully advanced from technology validation to large-scale commercial adoption, serving more than 390 leading enterprise customers worldwide and becoming one of the earliest companies globally to achieve industrial closed-loop control powered by Physical AI.

As demand for AI computing continues to accelerate, DeepCtrls is expanding the application of Physical AI from industrial energy systems into computing infrastructure. The company has launched solutions including intelligent liquid cooling control and computing-energy coordination, providing more intelligent and adaptive energy infrastructure to support the continued growth of AI computing.

CATL, a global leader in the new energy industry and a long-standing strategic customer of DeepCtrls, is further strengthening collaboration with the company through this investment. The partnership will deepen exploration across AI and new-energy applications, create more industrial scenarios for Physical AI deployment, and accelerate the integration of technological innovation with real-world industrial needs.

The investment from Aramco Ventures reflects its conviction in DeepCtrl’s Physical AI technology and supports the company’s continued development and international growth.

Li Hui, Founder and CEO of DeepCtrls, said:

“The next phase of AI will be defined by the ability to control complex systems in the real world. Energy and computing are the two foundational infrastructures of AI development. By connecting computing and energy through Physical AI, DeepCtrls is transforming energy systems from a constraint on AI growth into intelligent infrastructure that enables the continued evolution of AI — ultimately building the AI brain for the infrastructure of the AI era.”

About DeepCtrls

DeepCtrls is pioneering the next evolution of AI — from Generative AI that creates and reasons in the digital world to Physical AI that understands, optimizes and controls the physical world. Founded by a team with deep research roots at Tsinghua University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, DeepCtrls has developed the proprietary PhyAI™ Physical AI Engine, enabling autonomous optimization and closed-loop control for complex energy and computing infrastructure.

Recognized within the global AI ecosystem, DeepCtrls has been accepted into the NVIDIA Inception Program, supporting its continued innovation in applying AI to real-world industrial systems. Backed by leading investors including Tencent, Sequoia China, Source Code Capital and Forebright Capital, DeepCtrls serves more than 390 enterprise customers worldwide, including Tencent, ByteDance, NVIDIA, TSMC, LG and PTT, with deployments across Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.

For more information, visit http://www.deepctrls.com/en. 

SOURCE DeepCtrls

-Adani Airports captará aproximadamente 1.000 millones de dólares en capital primario de destacados inversores globales

La inversión de fondos gestionados por Alpha Wave Global, Premji Invest, Temasek y BlackRock valora a AAHL en aproximadamente 18.000 millones de dólares antes de la inversión.

Resumen del editor

• Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL) ha firmado acuerdos vinculantes para captar ₹9.825 crores (aproximadamente 1.000 millones de dólares) de capital social primario de un consorcio de inversores líderes nacionales e internacionales.
• La transacción valora a AAHL en aproximadamente 18.000 millones de dólares antes de la inversión, estableciendo un importante referente de valoración institucional externa para la plataforma aeroportuaria.
• El consorcio inversor está compuesto por Alpha Wave Global, Premji Invest, Temasek y fondos gestionados por BlackRock. Tras la finalización de los tres tramos, los inversores poseerán en conjunto aproximadamente el 5,54% de AAHL.
• Los fondos se destinarán a la modernización del aeropuerto y a la ampliación de su capacidad para atender a unos 200 millones de pasajeros anuales, al desarrollo integrado de Adani Airport City, que contempla aproximadamente 22 millones de pies cuadrados de desarrollo de uso mixto en su primera fase, y a la continua expansión de los servicios de asistencia en tierra y las actividades no aeronáuticas de AAHL.

AHMEDABAD, India, 9 de septiembre de 2026 — Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), una filial de Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) y uno de los mayores operadores aeroportuarios privados de la India, ha firmado acuerdos vinculantes para captar ₹9.825 crore (aproximadamente 1.000 millones de dólares) de capital social de un consorcio de inversores integrado por Alpha Wave Global, Premji Invest, Temasek y fondos gestionados por BlackRock. Esta transacción valora a AAHL en aproximadamente 18.000 millones de dólares antes de la inversión y representa una de las mayores inversiones de capital social de instituciones financieras en el sector de infraestructura aeroportuaria de la India.

La participación de un consorcio de inversores nacionales e internacionales a largo plazo representa un importante respaldo institucional a la escala, las capacidades operativas y el potencial de crecimiento a largo plazo de AAHL. La inversión aporta capital institucional a largo plazo al negocio en un momento en que el sector de la aviación de la India está entrando en una fase sostenida de crecimiento de pasajeros, expansión de capacidad e inversión en infraestructura.

AAHL y los inversores han suscrito un Acuerdo de Suscripción de Acciones y un Acuerdo de Accionistas en virtud del cual los inversores suscribirán nuevas acciones de AAHL en tres tramos, y se espera que el último tramo se complete en julio de 2027. Una vez completados los tres tramos, los inversores poseerán colectivamente aproximadamente el 5,54 % de AAHL.

Los fondos se destinarán a tres prioridades estratégicas: la expansión y modernización de la infraestructura aeroportuaria en toda la cartera de AAHL; la aceleración del desarrollo de ecosistemas integrados de Adani Airport City alrededor de sus aeropuertos con el desarrollo de aproximadamente 22 millones de pies cuadrados de desarrollo de uso mixto planificado en la primera fase; y la expansión de los negocios orientados al pasajero y otros negocios no aeronáuticos, incluido nuestro negocio de asistencia en tierra. Se espera que estas inversiones aumenten la capacidad para atender a unos 200 millones de pasajeros al año, profundicen la monetización comercial, mejoren la experiencia del pasajero y fortalezcan aún más el ecosistema aeroportuario integrado de AAHL.

Esta transacción se produce tras la exitosa colocación privada de acciones (QIP) de AEL por valor de ₹15.000 crore en julio de 2026, la mayor QIP realizada por una empresa no financiera en la India. En conjunto, estas transacciones reflejan el acceso continuo de la cartera de Adani a importantes fuentes de capital institucional a largo plazo, tanto nacional como global.

“Esta alianza marca un hito importante en el desarrollo de la plataforma de Adani Airports, y nos sentimos privilegiados de contar con inversores tan destacados y con visión de futuro en este camino”, declaró Jeet Adani, director no ejecutivo de Adani Airport Holdings Limited. “El sector de la aviación en la India es uno de los principales motores del crecimiento del PIB del país. Cada expansión de la conectividad aérea impulsa el comercio, el turismo, el empleo y el desarrollo regional mucho más allá de las puertas del aeropuerto. Con el respaldo de estos socios, seguiremos invirtiendo para anticiparnos a ese crecimiento, ampliando nuestra infraestructura, los desarrollos urbanos y los negocios no aeronáuticos para construir una de las plataformas aeroportuarias integradas líderes en el mundo”.

“Seguiremos desarrollando las capacidades de AAHL para convertirla en la plataforma aeroportuaria más grande del mundo”, declaró Arun Bansal, consejero delegadode Adani Airport Holdings Limited. “Esta ambición se ve impulsada por las oportunidades de crecimiento exponencial en toda la India, el creciente poder adquisitivo del consumidor indio y el dinamismo de nuestros proyectos urbanísticos como potentes catalizadores económicos en los principales centros urbanos del país. Agradecemos profundamente a nuestros socios su confianza y esperamos continuar trabajando juntos en este camino para construir una plataforma aeroportuaria de primer nivel para la India”.

Los principales asesores de la transacción fueron Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners, JSA Advocates and Solicitors, TT&A Advocates and Solicitors, Jefferies India Private Limited, SBI Capital Markets Limited y Ernst & Young LLP.

La transacción está sujeta a las condiciones precedentes habituales, incluida la obtención de las aprobaciones correspondientes.

The investment will help advance shovel-ready housing projects, bringing safe, stable housing within reach for more local families.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 9, 2026 — Health Net, one of California’s most experienced Medi-Cal managed care health plans and company of Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC), today announced a $2 million investment in Stanislaus Equity Partners, Inc. (STEP) to help more residents access safe, stable, affordable housing. The multi-year grant will provide flexible gap financing for 50 affordable housing projects already in the local pipeline, helping move shovel-ready developments closer to completion.

STEP will use the grant to support affordable housing projects across Stanislaus County, prioritizing developments that are ready to move forward but face funding shortfalls. By filling these gaps, the investment aims to unlock additional public and private resources, helping bring more affordable units online faster and strengthen housing stability in the region.

“Stable housing is inseparable from good health,” said Dorothy Seleski, Medi-Cal Plan President at Health Net.  “When families have a safe and affordable place to call home, they have a stronger foundation for their health, their future and their ability to thrive. By partnering with Stanislaus Equity Partners, we’re helping to fill the funding gap, create pathways to safe, affordable housing—so individuals and families can thrive, not just survive.”

Recognizing that access to safe, affordable housing is foundational to long-term health and well-being. Stanislaus Equity Partners will deploy the funding through grants, forgivable loans and low-interest loans. These flexible financing tools will accelerate affordable housing development and help reduce displacement risks for Stanislaus County residents.

“Stanislaus County has experienced the real and lasting impacts of California’s housing crisis,” said Jessica Filbrun, CEO of Stanislaus Equity Partners. “This investment from Health Net is a powerful example of how the health care sector can be a partner in building healthier communities. By supporting affordable housing, we’re investing in the well-being of working families, seniors, and vulnerable neighbors throughout our county.”

According to the California Housing Partnership, more than 12,700 low-income households in Stanislaus County do not have access to an affordable home, and 81% of extremely low-income households spend more than half of their income on housing costs, placing them at severe risk of housing instability and homelessness.

“Stanislaus County has experienced the real and lasting impacts of California’s housing crisis,” said Assemblymember Juan Alanis. “This investment from Health Net is a powerful example of how the health care sector can be a partner in building healthier communities. By supporting affordable housing, we’re investing in the well-being of working families, seniors, and vulnerable neighbors throughout our county.”

This investment builds on Health Net’s broader commitment to supporting the conditions people need to live healthier lives, including access to stable housing and essential community resources. Through strategic investments and trusted local partnerships, Health Net continues working to help California communities become stronger, healthier and more resilient.

About Health Net
Founded in California more than 45 years ago, Health Net, LLC (“Health Net”), a company of Centene Corporation, believes that every person deserves a safety net for their health, regardless of age, income, employment status or current state of health. Today, we provide health plans for individuals, families, businesses of every size and people who qualify for Medi-Cal or Medicare. With more than 117,000 of our network providers, Health Net serves more than three million members across the state. We also offer access to substance abuse programs, behavioral health services and managed healthcare products related to prescription drugs. We make these health plans and services available through Health Net and its subsidiaries: Health Net of California, Inc., Health Net Life Insurance Company and Health Net Community Solutions, Inc. These entities are wholly owned subsidiaries of Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC), a leading healthcare enterprise committed to transforming the health of the communities we serve, one person at a time. Health Net and Centene Corporation employ more than 5,700 people in California who work at one of five regional Talent Hub offices. For more information, visit www.HealthNet.com.

SOURCE Health Net, LLC

Investment led by Companion Fund, launched by Mars and Digitalis Ventures, comes as Sparkle surpasses 600 franchise licenses awarded and enters its next phase of national expansion.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 9, 2026 — Sparkle Grooming Co. (Sparkle), the wellness-focused dog grooming franchise pioneering the Quick-Service Pet Care (QSPC) category, today announced it has secured $6 million in strategic growth financing led by Companion Fund, the venture capital fund managed by Digitalis Ventures in partnership with Mars Petcare.

The investment comes as Sparkle enters its next stage of national growth after surpassing 600 licenses awarded in just 24 months to multi-unit franchise partners nationwide. The financing will help strengthen the platform behind that momentum, giving Sparkle greater capacity to support franchise partners, accelerate expansion and scale the system with discipline.

“The significance of this investment goes well beyond the capital,” said Ben Crawford, co-founder and CEO of Sparkle Grooming Co. “Digitalis brings deep experience across pet care and animal health, along with a perspective that is highly relevant to where we believe this industry is going. Their investment is meaningful validation of the model we are building and gives us additional resources to strengthen the business for what comes next.”

Sparkle was founded to modernize a highly fragmented category by making routine hygiene and grooming a more consistent part of a dog’s overall wellness. Its QSPC model combines recurring memberships, standardized operating systems, proprietary technology and a hospitality-driven customer experience designed to move the category from a transactional service to a routine, trusted care experience while creating a more repeatable business model for franchise owners.

“What stood out to us about Sparkle was the combination of a differentiated consumer proposition and a team that understands how to build and scale a franchise system,” said Ben Jacobs, partner at Digitalis Ventures. “They have demonstrated strong early adoption while remaining focused on the capabilities required to build a durable business over the long term.”

With 10 salons currently open and a growing pipeline preparing to launch across the country, Sparkle is entering its next phase of unit expansion. The company expects to finish 2026 with at least 20 salons open and more than 30 additional openings planned for 2027. Sparkle also continues to pursue select multi-unit franchise partners in priority markets.

For franchise opportunities and more information about Sparkle, visit sparkledogcare.com.

About Sparkle Grooming Co.

Founded in 2022, Sparkle Grooming Co. is a wellness-focused dog grooming franchise redefining routine pet care through a modern, membership-driven model. As the creator of Quick-Service Pet Care (QSPC), Sparkle combines high-quality hygiene and grooming, proprietary technology and hospitality-led service to create a more consistent, trusted care experience for pets, pet parents and franchise partners. Learn more at sparkledogcare.com.

About Digitalis Ventures

Digitalis Ventures invests in companies addressing complex problems in human and animal health. Through its Companion Funds, the firm invests in companies leveraging science, technology and design to improve animal health and supports founders across stages of company development. Companion Fund was launched by Mars and Digitalis to back companies using science, technology and design to improve the lives of pets, pet owners and veterinarians. Learn more at digitalisventures.com.

SOURCE Sparkle Grooming Corp.

Aqua gives wealth managers and fund sponsors an integrated system for building, managing, and scaling alternatives programs

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2026 — Aqua, a next-generation alternatives infrastructure solution, today announced the launch of the industry’s first turnkey alternative investments platform(TAIP), along with $18.8 million in total funding.

The company raised a $3.8 million seed round backed by Google’s AI Fund, Y Combinator, and others, followed by a $15 million Series A led by Arthur Ventures with participation from Alumni Ventures. Aqua plans to use the funding to accelerate business and platform development, expand its engineering and partnership teams, and deepen integrations across custodians and fund sponsors.

Designed to help wealth managers, RIAs, banks, trust companies, and fund sponsors build, manage, and scale institutional-quality alternatives programs, Aqua replaces the disconnected marketplaces, manual workflows, and spreadsheets most firms rely on today.

Aqua brings fund creation, operational workflows, investment lifecycle management, marketplace access, document intelligence, and investor servicing into one unified environment, enabling firms to build their own alternatives strategy and scale it on their terms.

“Demand for alternatives has grown fast, but most firms are still trying to meet client needs with spreadsheets, fragmented processes and manual solutions,” said Rohan Marwaha, Co-Founder and CEO at Aqua. “Firms have already transformed the way they manage traditional investments through technology. As access to alternatives becomes increasingly democratized, they need similar infrastructure to build repeatable, scalable alternatives strategies. We built Aqua around the way today’s advisors operate, so they can develop customized alternatives programs without having to manage the systems behind them.”

The platform reflects a shift underway across the industry. The first phase of growth in alternatives centered on expanding access. The next phase focuses on delivering the scalable infrastructure firms need to manage alternatives successfully. Aqua is the bridge between the two.

“Many firms still think a marketplace is the same thing as an alternatives strategy. It isn’t,” said David Coyle, Head of Growth at Aqua. “Advisors need more than access to alternatives; they need a repeatable way to educate clients, manage operations, and deliver alternatives with confidence as part of a broader wealth strategy. Aqua is the enablement engine ushering in the next generation of alternative investing.”

Aqua’s leadership team brings together decades of experience in wealth management and fintech. Before founding Aqua, Rohan Marwaha built solutions across technology and alternative investments for major alternative asset managers, while David Coyle has driven tech adoption at advisory firms for over 25 years. Head of Growth Partnerships Joe Ujobai spent more than 35 years in financial services and technology, with leadership roles in private banking and international expansion. The combined track record shapes how Aqua approaches the alternatives infrastructure problem: not as outsiders building for the industry, but as operators solving challenges from the inside.

Demand is already accelerating for access to Aqua’s integrated alternatives solution, with additional partnerships with major firms to be announced in the coming weeks.

To learn more about how Aqua is redefining alternatives infrastructure for wealth management, register to join the upcoming live webinar on September 23rd.

About Aqua
Aqua is an alternatives infrastructure platform built to simplify how alternative investments are built, managed, and scaled, enabling wealth managers, RIAs, banks, trust companies, family offices, and asset managers to run the full alternatives lifecycle through a unified operating platform. By bringing together fund creation, investment lifecycle management, marketplace capabilities, document intelligence, and operational workflows, Aqua helps firms move beyond fragmented point solutions and build alternatives programs they own outright.

CONTACT: Joe Steuter  [email protected] 

SOURCE Aqua

More than 5,000 companies have signed up for Lightfield since launch in November, deploying AI agents that build pipeline, work deals, and manage customers from a shared, living record of their business.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2026 — Lightfield today announced a $47 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, including participation from Maverick Capital, Coatue, Audacious, Alumni Ventures, Greylock, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

CRM was designed for people to type into, not for agents to work from. For forty years, customer relationships have been translated into fields, stages, and notes — a record of whatever someone had time to enter, stored in a structure agents can’t reason from.

Agents can now do the work those systems were built to track, but they cannot do that work reliably from data entered by hand. When layered onto legacy CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot, agents inherit incomplete fields, stale close dates, and notes written from memory after the call — and produce work companies cannot verify or trust. Solving this requires a new system of record designed for deep understanding, not AI features added to the old one.

Lightfield builds a comprehensive record from every customer interaction, captured as it happens, and structured so agents can understand what is true and predict what happens next. Every person and every agent at a company works from the same accurate, current picture of every customer: what they said, who said it, and how it changed the state of the business. Knowledge that once lived in one person’s head or one team’s tool becomes the context the whole company operates on.

“Agents don’t fail because the models aren’t capable. They fail because the data they work with is incomplete, inaccurate, and missing the structure needed for comprehension,” said Keith Peiris, cofounder and CEO of Lightfield. “Lightfield builds a world model of the business from every customer interaction, so every person and every agent works from the same understanding of what’s true and what happens next.”

Adopted by more than 5,000 companies in under a year

Since launching in November 2025, more than 5,000 companies have signed up for Lightfield, from high-growth early-stage startups to scaling companies with hundreds of users on the CRM.

“Building a system of record is one of the hardest things to do in software, because you have to earn a customer’s trust before they’ll hand you the data that runs their business,” said Joe Schmidt IV, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “This team earned it with thousands of companies in under a year.”

A CRM built for agents to understand your business

Four technical differentiators separate Lightfield from legacy CRM.

A record that updates itself. Lightfield ingests every customer interaction – email, calendar, calls, Slack, LinkedIn – and structures it into the record on its own.

A world model of the business. Lightfield connects every interaction to the people, deals, and accounts it touches, and preserves how each one changed over time. The result is a business world model that agents can reason and predict from, not a table of fields.

An agent harness for reliable work. Agents operate through a standardized SDK, run analysis in a code sandbox, and are monitored by evals that hold output quality consistent. The same request returns the same quality of work, not a different output each run.

An open platform. Every record is fully readable and writable through API, MCP, and CLI, so companies can build automations and agents on their customer data and connect Lightfield to the tools they already run. Anything a person can do in the product, an agent can do too.

“Every platform shift produces a new system of record. Salesforce defined it for the cloud era, and Lightfield is defining it for the agent era,” said Alex Rampell, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “Companies building with agents need more than a CRM with AI features. They need a system designed from the ground up for agents to work from. That’s what Lightfield has built.”

About Lightfield
Lightfield is reimagining CRM as a business world model, designed for agents to understand your company and perform work you can trust. It builds a comprehensive, trusted record of customer interactions from calls, emails and meetings – giving every person and every agent the same understanding of what’s true about their business. Companies use Lightfield to close deals faster, automate prospecting, diagnose performance gaps, and ramp new sellers with agents. More than 5,000 companies have signed up since Lightfield launched in November 2025. Learn more at lightfield.app.

About Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic: We invest in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across bio + healthcare, consumer and enterprise apps, crypto, fintech, infrastructure, and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has over $90B under management across multiple funds.

SOURCE Lightfield

The Fund is expected to provide capital efficiency for insurance investors, and brings total capital raised for the Blue Ocean strategy to $7.6 billion.

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2026 — Blue Ocean, a maritime finance investment platform managed by EnTrust Global, today announced the successful close of the fourth vintage of its rated notes insurance fund, Blue Ocean Income Fund IV. The Fund closed with $1.3 billion in commitments and is intended to offer insurance investors (primarily U.S. insurance investors) a more capital-efficient way to access the Blue Ocean strategy. The Fund’s notes were rated by a leading global rating agency.

The closing brings total capital raised across the strategy for Blue Ocean to $5.0 billion since 2023, and $7.6 billion since the strategy’s inception in 2017. The Fund has already begun deploying capital to a number of transactions.

Since its founding, Blue Ocean has built a consistent track record of capital formation and deployment in the maritime finance space, providing flexible, asset-backed financing solutions to shipowners and operators across major shipping segments. The strategy fills a structural funding gap created by the retreat of traditional bank lenders, which have pulled back from maritime lending since the Global Financial Crisis due to regulation and a strategic focus on the largest listed owners, leaving the small- and medium-sized shipowners that make up the vast majority of this industry underserved and dependent on alternative capital.

Gregg S. Hymowitz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EnTrust Global: “Since the launch of our first Blue Ocean rated notes fund in 2018, we have seen interest in the strategy among insurance investors grow with each subsequent fund, and also through a number of other bespoke structures. Fund IV is our largest rated notes fund to date, and it includes significant commitments from insurance investors who are new to the Blue Ocean strategy, as well as investors who participated in prior vintages and have increased their commitments for Fund IV. Insurance investors, both in the U.S. and around the world, are an important part of our client base, and we are excited to continue to work on innovative structures and strategies to help meet their specific needs.”

Svein Engh, Blue Ocean Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager: “Our continuing success, both in terms of fund raising and capital deployment, is a reflection of what we have built at EnTrust Global. The Blue Ocean team today consists of 29 professionals globally¹ and our ability to source and structure opportunities is what continues to set Blue Ocean apart. Furthermore, our strong track record over more than 9 years of investing, combined with the strong demand for capital in a capital-intensive industry, helps drive our strategy forward.”

As of June 30, 2026, the Blue Ocean strategy has deployed a total of $7.2 billion across 127 total investments since inception while returning approximately $3.5 billion of invested capital to investors during that period. This growth has been driven by a global team with deep maritime finance expertise and a disciplined approach to sourcing and structuring transactions across market cycles.

EnTrust Global manages capital for insurance investors in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with insurance company capital representing roughly 20% of EnTrust’s client base worldwide. In line with the firm’s entrepreneurial foundation, EnTrust remains dedicated to developing compelling and differentiated investment opportunities, including those specifically for insurance investors. EnTrust’s Insurance Solutions group, together with the firm’s investment and structuring teams, works closely with insurance investor clients to develop investment solutions that seek attractive risk-adjusted returns combined with a strong focus on capital efficiency, ratings considerations, and predictable cash flows.

About EnTrust Global

EnTrust Global is an alternative investment firm with approximately $17.8 billion in total assets and approximately 600 institutional clients worldwide, ranging from U.S. Taft-Hartley plans to Sovereign Wealth funds. Co-founded in 1997 by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregg S. Hymowitz, the firm has dual headquarters in New York and London, with a network of 10 offices globally across key financial centers. EnTrust Global provides alternative investment opportunities across both private and public markets, with a focus on opportunistic credit and equity, as well as sector-specific strategies in maritime and sports, media, and entertainment, each of which is supported by a team of seasoned professionals. Separate from the Blue Ocean strategy, EnTrust Global’s maritime business also includes Purus, a maritime infrastructure company with a fleet of gas transport and offshore infrastructure vessels with a gross asset value of over $4.5 billion.

¹ Number of professionals includes operating advisers/consultants retained to assist in the sourcing and/or monitoring of certain investments. Total Assets is as of June 30, 2026. Total Assets may be based on estimates and includes mandates awarded but not yet funded, capital commitments that have not yet been called, amounts distributed to investors and contractually subject to recall, a non-binding target mandate and assets where EnTrust Global provides non-discretionary investment advisory services. There is no guarantee that all or any portion of such mandates awarded or target mandates will ever be funded, nor that amounts distributed will be recalled and, if they are not, the Total Assets amount would be reduced accordingly. Total Assets does not include capital that can be called after the expiration of the investment period to fund fees and expenses or to add to an existing investment. The firm’s “Regulatory Assets Under Management” calculation differs from “Total Assets” and is reflected in the firm’s Form ADV, Part 2A (Item 4). A rating is an opinion of the relevant rating agency at a specific point of time and is subject to various limitations. It is not a guarantee of performance and is subject to change.

To learn more about EnTrust Global’s Blue Ocean strategy, please visit https://entrustglobal.com/blue-ocean-fund/

CONTACT: Logan Flynn | [email protected]

SOURCE EnTrust Global

LONDON, Sept. 9, 2026 — MVB Financial Corp., a leading banking partner to fintechs and innovation-driven companies, and Velocity, an enterprise payments and treasury platform powered by stablecoins, today announced that MVB will participate in a Visa Direct pilot supporting stablecoin-enabled funding and settlement for eligible push-to-card payouts. Availability varies by eligibility and geography. Please contact your Visa representative for more information on availability.

Through the partnership, MVB will be able to use stablecoins to settle its Visa Direct payouts. The infrastructure brings stablecoin liquidity directly into MVB’s banking and payments operations, enabling more flexible pre-positioning and settlement options across MVB’s customers and the bank itself.  Enabled through Visa Direct, the arrangement allows eligible MVB participants to use stablecoins in connection with certain funding and settlement obligations. Digital-asset conversion, wallet connectivity and on-chain controls are performed by licensed partners. Delivered through a single API and regulated wallet infrastructure, the offering gives MVB customers access to stablecoin-enabled funding and settlement through the banking relationship and operational workflows they already use.

For MVB and Velocity, the partnership reflects a broader shift in how stablecoins are being adopted by financial institutions. Rather than operating as a separate digital asset product, stablecoin rails can sit underneath existing banking and payments infrastructure, giving institutions a new way to move and deploy liquidity while preserving the controls, relationships and systems already familiar to their customers.

“Banking is being rebuilt in real time, and stablecoins are at the center of that transformation,” said Larry F. Mazza, Chief Executive Officer of MVB Financial. “By allowing stablecoins to solve inefficiencies in capital movement for payouts, we’re giving our clients faster, more flexible ways to move money.”

The strategy aligns closely with emerging initiatives from major card networks, including solutions that allow sponsor banks to settle Original Credit Transactions (OCTs), issuer obligations, as well as traditional settlement in stablecoins.

For payments companies and fintechs, this can create greater flexibility over how capital enters and moves through the banking system. Velocity enables funds to be brought onchain, held as stablecoins and deployed into payment flows without requiring customers to manage separate infrastructure or fundamentally change how they interact with MVB.

“This is exactly where we believe stablecoins become most meaningful: when they disappear into the financial infrastructure businesses already rely on,” said Eric Queathem, Founder and CEO of Velocity. “MVB has built its business around serving some of the most forward-thinking companies in payments and fintech, and we’re excited to help bring these capabilities directly into that ecosystem. Visa Direct is a powerful starting point because it shows how stablecoin liquidity can connect directly into established global payment rails.”

The partnership also lays the groundwork for MVB to extend stablecoin infrastructure across a broader range of treasury, settlement and payment use cases. As stablecoins become increasingly integrated into established financial networks, MVB and Velocity intend to continue building the infrastructure required for institutions to use them as part of their day-to-day financial operations.

Together, MVB and Velocity are building toward a model in which stablecoin capabilities are a native part of banking infrastructure, giving financial institutions and their customers faster, more flexible and always-on ways to fund and move money while remaining connected to the payment networks they already use.

Media Contact: [email protected] 

SOURCE Velocity

Series 2 financing accelerates global commercialization amid growing customer demand and mass production shipments

BOSTON, Sept. 9, 2026 — Nanoramic, Inc. (“Nanoramic”), an industry leader in advanced materials and energy storage technology company, announced today the first close of its Series 2 equity financing round at a pre-money valuation of $250 Million USD. The round is led by Catalus Capital with participation from GM Ventures, existing investors and co-leads in Nanoramic’s previous Series 1 equity financing.

The financing comes amid accelerating commercial adoption, with mass production shipments of Neocarbonix® Slurry Precursor (NXSP) products now supporting programs with leading global battery manufacturers, automotive OEMs, consumer electronics companies, power tool manufacturers, and defense contractors.

NXSP is a drop-in battery manufacturing material that allows manufacturers to build higher-performing battery electrodes across all key chemistries in cathodes and anodes, while using their existing factories. NXSP enables higher performance, lower cost, and enhanced sustainability, including PFAS-free batteries and manufacturing solvent flexibility, for all major cathode chemistries and it enables up to 100% silicon content in anodes to support advancing performance requirements in mobile devices, drones, power tools, and other high performance applications. The drop-in capability allows manufacturers to lower production costs, lower electrode drying energy, and enhance cell-level performance without capital expenditure on new factory infrastructure.

Battery manufacturers across the globe are actively seeking materials that deliver higher performance, lower production costs, and compliance with strict, evolving global environmental regulations, such as the European Union’s REACH restrictions and prospective PFAS restrictions.

By maximizing the active material within the battery cell and lowering internal resistance, NXSP delivers concrete performance improvements across major industries:

• AI Infrastructure & Edge Computing: Enables longer runtime and higher burst power delivery for demanding AI inference tasks.
• Stationary Storage (ESS): Lowers the cost per kilowatt-hour ($/kWh) and extends calendar and cycle life.
• Electric Vehicles (EVs): Increases driving range and enables faster charging capabilities.
• Drones & Aviation (eVTOL): Extends flight times and increases payload capacity.
• Consumer Electronics: Extends battery life and allows for thinner device profiles.
• Power Tools: Increases torque, reduces heat generation, and allows battery packs to be smaller and lighter.

“Neocarbonix has been demonstrated broadly across key applications, chemistries, and geographies, with mass production shipments growing over the past six months to meet customer demand,” said John Cooley, Founder and CEO of Nanoramic. “We have demonstrated the commercial maturity and industrial viability of our technology. The support from Catalus, GM Ventures, and other investors is key to our global commercialization efforts.”

“Nanoramic continues to demonstrate strong operational execution in translating advanced battery material innovations into scalable commercial products,” said Stephen Fratamico, Venture Analyst at Catalus Capital. “We are pleased to lead this round as Nanoramic meets growing customer commitments across global energy storage, automotive, and defense markets.”

“Nanoramic has advanced Neocarbonix from a technology concept into a production reality. Our continued participation reflects the team’s ongoing progress and our commitment to innovation in battery materials,” said Kevin McCabe, President of GM Ventures.

About Nanoramic, Inc.

Nanoramic, Inc. is an industry-leading energy storage and advanced materials company that has developed Neocarbonix®, an innovative battery platform. Nanoramic is commercializing Neocarbonix to transform energy storage for all battery applications by increasing energy density and longevity while reducing costs and improving sustainability. Nanoramic works with major automakers, consumer electronics companies, and battery manufacturers to develop and commercialize batteries made with Neocarbonix. To learn more, visit www.nanoramic.com.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Nanoramic