Backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Speedrun fund, N49P, and Garage Capital, the funding will expand the consumer launch of Bit, an intelligent assistant designed to manage the logistics of running a home.

TORONTO, Sept. 16, 2026 — Orbits, a Toronto and San Francisco-based developer of Bit, an AI household assistant, today announced it has closed nearly $2 million USD (about $2.6 million CAD) in pre-seed funding from the Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Speedrun fund, the early-stage arm of the world class venture capital firm, alongside N49P, Garage Capital, and angel investors, including a team member at Anthropic.

Founded by CEO Nomaan Ahmed and CTO Erik Tillberg, Orbits was created to solve a pervasive consumer problem: despite a boom in workplace productivity software, the home remains fundamentally unorganized. The founding duo brings a proven track record of scaling consumer ventures, having previously grown a platform from inception to over one million monthly subscribers and nine figures in ARR. Ahmed has successfully steered teams across the corporate spectrum, from early-stage startups to billion-dollar enterprises, while Tillberg contributed to the field as an AI researcher at the University of Toronto.

“I grew up one of four kids with two busy parents who somehow made it all work. Looking back, I can see what they gave up to keep everything running, and that was a second full-time job that nobody signed up for,” said Nomaan Ahmed, co-founder and CEO. “There’s a booming market of tools to simplify your 9-to-5 and almost nothing for your 5-to-9. A household manager used to be something only wealthy families could afford; Bit is one every family can have.”

At the core of Orbits is Bit, an AI household assistant capable of interacting in-app, via text messages, and beyond. Bit acts as a unified layer for family operations, consolidating calendars, lists, and communications while executing real-world tasks automatically.

Capabilities of Bit include:

• Real-World Execution: Bit can now browse the web, log into accounts, make authorized purchases, dinner reservations, reschedule appointments or collect quotes for things like a new roof or to fix an HVAC system.
• Industry Leading Security: All third-party account credentials are encrypted end-to-end and are never stored, offering the gold standard in privacy and security.
• Proactive Household Management: Texting family members with reminders for chores or coordinating external service providers like babysitters.
• Autonomous Action: Unlike standard AI agents that merely analyze communications to generate schedules and to-do lists, Bit bridges the gap between planning and real-world execution.

This initial funding round allows Orbits to expand beyond its early community of families, scale its infrastructure, and hire key talent. Orbits is available today on the App Store and Google Play.

“This capital and the support of world-class investors gives us the momentum to turn a clear, widespread consumer need into a category-defining product,” says Erik Tillberg, co-founder and CTO. “We are building an intelligent, shared layer for the home that evolves daily based on how our users live.” 

“Orbits is rethinking one of the most overlooked parts of everyday life: the work it takes to keep a household running,” said Fareed Mosavat, Partner, a16z Speedrun. “AI is becoming incredibly capable, but much of the attention so far has focused on work and productivity. Nomaan and Erik, and Bit, are bringing that capability into the home to take on one of the hardest jobs out there: managing a household.”

About Orbits
Orbits is an AI household assistant for iOS and Android. Using the AI assistant, Bit, families can save hours every week managing their homes. To learn more or to install the app, visit https://tryorbits.com.

Media Contact
Bill Tawson
[email protected]
(302) 600-2502

SOURCE Orbits

New platform unites healthcare signals, AI-powered engagement led by Grace, and a proprietary network of curated, bundled-payment care partners to help employers, TPAs and healthcare innovators lower costs and close care gaps before they become claims.

DALLAS, Sept. 16, 2026 — Lyric Health today announced the launch of its Healthcare Operating System, a platform built to help self-funded employers, third-party administrators (TPAs) and healthcare innovators turn fragmented healthcare data into coordinated member action.

Built on more than a decade of virtual care delivery and healthcare technology development, the operating system unites data integration, intelligent automation, AI-powered engagement, clinical services, an in-house and curated provider network, and care navigation within a single, connected platform — with one goal: identify meaningful healthcare opportunities earlier, engage members at the right moment, and guide them to the most appropriate, highest-value care.

A market with no shortage of data — and a coordination problem

Employers, TPAs and health plans are contending with a familiar set of pressures: healthcare premiums and out-of-pocket costs that continue to strain budgets, long wait times and provider shortages that delay care and frustrate employees, rising rates of stress, burnout and behavioral health need, a growing chronic disease burden, and persistent gaps in health equity and access. At the same time, the market has responded with a proliferation of disconnected point solutions — telehealth apps, navigation vendors, wellness programs and chronic-condition tools — each addressing a slice of the problem without ever being asked to work together.

“The healthcare industry does not have a shortage of point solutions. It has a coordination problem,” said Rey Colón, Founder and CEO of Lyric Health. “Our vision is to create the operating system that connects healthcare intelligence with action. When we identify a signal, the value is not simply knowing that the signal exists. The value is engaging the member, guiding them to the right care and helping ensure the next step actually happens.”

From fragmented data to coordinated action

Lyric’s operating system is designed to close that gap by connecting signals from sources such as eligibility, claims, pharmacy, labs, clinical interactions, connected devices and other available health data with intelligent workflows that can initiate engagement and navigation. The model runs on a continuous sequence — Data → Signals → Intelligence → Engagement → Navigation → Care → Outcomes — so that instead of requiring members to navigate a fragmented healthcare system on their own, Lyric proactively identifies opportunities and coordinates the next best action across virtual care, primary care, behavioral health, specialty programs, centers of excellence and trusted external partners.

Grace: an intelligent interface within the orchestration layer

Powering that coordination is Lyric’s orchestration layer — the intelligence and workflow engine that turns a signal into an action. Within it sits Grace, Lyric’s AI-powered healthcare companion, who gives members a conversational front door into their journey. Today, Grace can manage the whole member experience; help members understand their benefits, triage the members needs and steer them toward appropriate care at the right time, coordinate scheduling and next steps, and stay engaged with their care plan — all grounded in the data and workflows behind the broader platform, not as a standalone chatbot.

A proprietary, curated network built for value

For the highest-cost, highest-variability episodes of care — procedures such as joint replacement and other orthopedic and musculoskeletal (MSK) surgery, imaging, infusion therapy and specialty medications — Lyric has built a proprietary, curated network of trusted care partners under direct, bundled-payment contracts. Rather than routing members into the standard fee-for-service system, Lyric’s operating system identifies members who may need these services early and steers them to credentialed centers of excellence within its network, with pricing negotiated and guaranteed in advance.

In one example from Lyric’s bundled-payment network, a total joint replacement episode was priced at roughly 170% of the Medicare baseline through Lyric’s direct-contracted network, compared with roughly 210% of the Medicare baseline under standard major medical benefits — meaningful savings realized alongside a more coordinated surgical and recovery experience for the member.

Lyric’s operating system is also built to flex around a partner’s existing infrastructure. Lyric currently powers 130 white-label brands, with partners leveraging the platform’s tools to build custom virtual care initiatives tailored to their population. That flexibility extends to network design as well: partners can bring their own network and use Lyric’s as added capacity or wraparound coverage, and can structure engagement as utilization-based programs, subscription models or fee-for-service arrangements.

A measurable return on investment

Results from Lyric’s proactive care model point to a measurable return on investment for the organizations that adopt it. Across its member population, Lyric has been associated with the following outcomes:

• 4:1 ROI — Clients are realizing a 4-to-1 return on investment through Lyric’s virtual care platform steering members to the best care destination
• 73% reduction in unnecessary ED visits — When leveraging Lyric’s virtual consultations members avoided emergency department visits 73% of the time.
• 93% member satisfaction — Plan members rated their end-to-end virtual consult experience in the highest satisfaction tier

For plan sponsors, that combination of lower claims spend, reduced administrative burden and stronger member engagement translates into a defensible, measurable return on investment — not just the promise of one.

Lyric’s Healthcare Operating System is available now to self-funded employers, TPAs and health plans. Lyric will share more on Grace’s expanded capabilities, the orchestration layer and outcomes data in the weeks ahead.

About Lyric Health

Lyric Health is an award-winning healthcare technology company helping employers, TPAs and health plans lower healthcare costs and improve member outcomes through intelligent coordination. Lyric connects data, virtual care, clinical expertise, member engagement and a trusted healthcare ecosystem to identify healthcare signals and guide members toward the right care at the right time.  To learn more please visit www.getlyric.com

Media Contact

Isaiah Colon
[email protected]
469.647.9314
www.getlyric.com

SOURCE Lyric Health

Led by Neon, the oversubscribed-round accelerates expansion into AI precision digestive healthcare and autoimmune health, driven by rapid scaling across national health plans, jumbo employers and major benefit platforms.

BOSTON, Sept. 16, 2026 — Ayble Health, the nation’s leading AI-enabled virtual multidisciplinary GI clinic, today announced the close of a $16 million oversubscribed Series A round led by Neon, with participation from Unum Ventures, Upfront Ventures, M13, Cleveland Clinic Ventures, DigiTx, Accomplice and several individual strategic investors. The round brings Ayble’s total capital raised to over $27 million.

Undertreated, Underserved, and Enormously Costly
Digestive and autoimmune conditions are among the most common, costly, and under-addressed chronic diseases in the country. GI conditions alone affect more than 70 million Americans and drive $136 billion in annual U.S. healthcare spending, more than the total cost of diabetes or heart disease, while nearly 70% of U.S. counties lack a single practicing gastroenterologist. The two categories are also clinically intertwined: a 2025 study spanning more than 141 million patients found inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) associated with 24 distinct autoimmune comorbidities, underscoring the need for a care model built to treat patients across both conditions.

Meeting this dual burden requires a care model that can adapt to each patient’s overlapping conditions rather than treating them in isolation. This new capital will be used to advance Ayble’s proprietary AI+clinician precision care model, deepening data-driven personalization for patient engagement, enrollment, and care delivery. Additionally, the company will leverage its proven multidisciplinary model and data infrastructure to expand beyond its core gastrointestinal (GI) footprint into adjacent complex therapeutic areas, starting with autoimmune conditions.

Unprecedented Scale and Enterprise Access

That expansion is underpinned by several years of rapid commercial growth, positioning Ayble to bring its model to an even broader population. Ayble is now in-network with most commercial health plans and covers 80+ million Americans through payer, employer, and health system partnerships. Recently, Ayble was nominated for the Galien Prize, widely regarded as the highest honor in biomedical innovation, often described as the Nobel Prize equivalent for life sciences, biotechnology and digital health.

“I built Ayble because I’m an Inflammatory Bowel Disease patient,” said Sam Jactel, Founder and CEO of Ayble Health. “I’ve lived through the diagnostic delays, the care gaps, and the overall frustration of a system that isn’t designed for patients who need ongoing, coordinated care. Many patients are also managing autoimmune conditions, and too often, no one is treating the whole picture. This funding lets us close that gap: deepening our AI precision care capabilities and extending our multidisciplinary model into autoimmune, so patients get one team built for how these conditions actually show up in their lives. The growth we’ve seen and the partnerships we’ve built with leading employers, payers and providers demonstrates the need for our work is massive.”

A System Under Strain 

Beyond the direct cost of care, digestive disease is driving broader strain on the healthcare system. GI conditions are the leading cause of treat-and-release emergency room visits, and patients face average wait times of 40 days for an in-person specialty visit. For employers and payers, the burden is escalating: GI conditions consistently rank as a top-five driver of medical claims and represent one of the fastest-growing cost centers across commercially insured populations; closely following digestive costs are those linked to autoimmune conditions.

“I’ve been tracking the GI space closely for years, and what Ayble has built is different,” said Kimmy Scotti, Founding and Managing Partner at Neon, who previously co-founded 8VC, “Having invested early in top digital health companies, I’ve seen what it takes to build a category-defining company in healthcare. Ayble has spent years building the clinical evidence before they scaled the business. That earns trust from the full ecosystem: health systems, payers, and most importantly, patients, and it’s what makes a durable market leader.”

Setting the Gold Standard in Multidisciplinary Digestive Healthcare 

Ayble directly addresses this crisis by combining specialized clinical expertise with advanced technology. Its integrated, multidisciplinary care model pairs GI-trained providers, registered dietitians, behavioral health specialists, clinical pharmacists, health coaches, and care coordinators with proprietary technology powered by one of the largest GI datasets in the world. An independent analysis from the Peterson Health Technology Institute recognized Ayble’s clinical team as the broadest in the GI category.

Ayble’s care model is grounded in unmatched clinical rigor, with +16 peer-reviewed clinical studies across every major GI population – more than any other virtual digestive health company. Conducted in collaboration with leading academic researchers at the Rome Foundation, University of Washington, Cleveland Clinic, Northwestern Medicine and Sutter Health, this research validates Ayble’s ability to drive transformative clinical outcomes at scale. Across its book of business, Ayble achieves an average 47% improvement in GI symptoms for patients, typically within four weeks and sustained for at least a year. For enterprise partners, this clinically-validated care translates directly to reduced high-cost utilization, delivering a minimum 3:1 return on investment.

With this funding, Ayble will extend its clinically validated model, built on years of rigorous evidence, to millions more patients managing GI and autoimmune disease, at a moment when access to specialty care has never been harder to find. To learn more, please visit www.ayblehealth.com.

About Neon:

Neon is an early-growth stage venture capital firm investing best-in-class entrepreneurs innovating at the intersection of healthcare and consumer to envision a better future and change outcomes for American patients.

About Ayble Health

Ayble Health is the country’s most clinically-validated virtual clinic for chronic digestive and autoimmune conditions. Nominated for the 2026 Galien Prize and named to TIME’s 2024 Best Solutions for GI list, Ayble’s award-winning care model offers unlimited access to a specialized, multidisciplinary care team, a suite of AI-powered precision tools, and curated wellness support, all designed to drive sustainable symptom improvement for patients across the entire acuity spectrum. Ayble is backed by 16 peer-reviewed publications and independently evaluated by the Peterson Health Technology Institute and the Validation Institute. Ayble works with leading employers, health insurance plans, health systems, and community GI practices to scale access to multidisciplinary care, reduce healthcare costs, and improve the lives of millions of Americans with chronic digestive diseases. Visit www.ayblehealth.com to learn more.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Ayble Health, Inc.

Alistair Pernigo receives an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship to research how machines can identify the chemicals in the air around them

GREENWICH, Conn., Sept. 16, 2026 — O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC (OSV), an investment firm that empowers creators, has awarded an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship to Alistair Pernigo, a researcher and entrepreneur based in San Francisco, California.

Pernigo will use the fellowship to research how machines can detect and interpret the chemical signals in their surroundings. Over the next 12 months, he plans to further develop his working sensing prototype and validate its performance through controlled experiments with academic collaborators. His broader ambition is to make chemical perception a practical capability for machines, with potential applications in robotics, industrial safety and biosecurity.

Pernigo is a research affiliate in the Multisensory Intelligence group at the MIT Media Lab, where he works on machine olfaction and molecular sensing. He co-authored the SmellNet paper, which introduces a public dataset for smell recognition covering 50 substances and 43 mixtures across roughly 828,000 data points.  The paper was published at the International Conference on Learning Representations in 2026. He is also a co-founder of Timeless Way, a science and technology lab studying how living and engineered systems perceive and respond to their environments.

OSV’s founder and CEO, Jim O’Shaughnessy, commented, “Alistair’s approach to the stubborn problem of training machines to smell may just be the thing that finally unlocks it for researchers. We’re delighted to get the chance to support his work.”

“Being part of the OSV community means a lot to me,” said Pernigo. “It gives me the support and momentum to take our work further: making chemistry a native sense for machines. I’m excited to build alongside people who recognize strange ideas as early signals of what comes next.”

About the O’Shaughnessy Fellowships Program

Launched in 2023, the O’Shaughnessy Fellowships program discovers and empowers the world’s boldest creatives, builders and researchers. Fellows receive a grant of up to $100,000 and gain access to OSV’s network of founders, investors and experts.

Pernigo is the twenty-second fellow announced in 2026. More information about previous fellows is available at OSV’s website.

Applications for the O’Shaughnessy Fellowships are now closed and will reopen on Jan. 1, 2027. Individuals interested in applying can do so via OSV’s website.

About O’Shaughnessy Ventures

OSV is a creative investment firm that empowers creators to bring their ideas to life. Founded by Jim O’Shaughnessy, a pioneer in quantitative investing, founder of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, and author of five books, OSV aims to provide financial support and to partner in growing the next life-changing creative ideas.

OSV combines Jim’s deeply rooted interest in all things art, science, investing and technology with his long-held desire to establish scenarios designed to help promising creators and their inspiring ideas succeed, regardless of age, location, job history or level of education. For more information, visit OSV’s website.

Media Contact:
Ena Gong
O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC
(917) 355-7420
[email protected]

SOURCE O’Shaughnessy Ventures

This Milestone Marks a Decade of Investing in the Future of Financial Technologies & Services

TORONTO, Sept. 16, 2026 — Portage, a global fintech investment platform with US$7.0B¹ in assets under management, today announced the final close of Portage Ventures IV at approximately US$600M, cementing the firm’s position as one of the world’s leading fintech-focused venture investors.

This year marks Portage’s tenth year investing in financial technology and financial services. Over the last decade, Portage has expanded from its flagship Venture strategy into a global platform spanning Venture, Growth Equity, and Secondaries, with more than 140 portfolio companies across North America, Europe, and beyond. The Portage Ventures IV fundraise also saw new strategic Limited Partners join the platform, including Broadridge and Fifth Third Bank, reflecting the growing conviction among leading financial institutions in Portage’s approach. As Sagard’s fintech investment platform, Portage’s mission is to back founders building category-defining businesses across the financial services ecosystem, including wealth and asset management, banking, insurance, and payments.

“We founded Portage on the belief that financial services would undergo a profound technological transformation. Ten years later, that opportunity continues to expand as financial institutions modernize, new business models emerge and exceptional entrepreneurs build the technologies shaping the industry’s future,” said Adam Felesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Portage. “Wealth management is entering the same kind of structural disruption that transformed banking a decade ago. AI is being embedded into the core workflows of financial institutions at a pace we haven’t seen before. The institutions that once moved cautiously are now investing rapidly in modernization, and the founders we back are building the infrastructure that makes that possible. Launching Portage Ventures IV reflects our continued confidence in this space and our commitment to the entrepreneurs leading its next chapter.”

“Portage was built on a simple conviction: fintech has its own rulebook, and generic support won’t give founders the edge they need to win. Over the past decade, we’ve combined deep domain expertise and a disciplined investment approach with the commercial networks and partnerships that take fintech founders further, faster,” said Stephanie Choo, General Partner and Co-Head of Portage Ventures. “Portage Ventures IV reflects the strength of our team and the platform we’ve built over ten years alongside some of the most ambitious founders in financial services. As financial institutions modernize and technology reshapes the industry, founders need an investor who has mapped this terrain. That is the partner we have built Portage to be, and we look forward to continuing that work with the next generation of fintech founders.”

Legal counsel was provided by Debevoise & Plimpton.

About Portage
Portage is a global investment platform focused on fintech and financial services with US$7.0B under management, 140+ portfolio companies, and 25+ investment professionals.¹ Our firm has offices in Canada, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Our team partners with ambitious companies across all stages, through Portage Ventures,  and Portage Capital Solutions, and our Secondaries strategy. We provide flexible capital and deliver a global network of investors, commercial partners, advisors, and value creation experts. Our dedicated value creation team provides portfolio companies with hands-on support in go-to-market, tech and cyber, business acceleration and M&A, and partnerships to accelerate their paths to success. With deep industry knowledge and entrepreneurial experience, Portage is committed to supporting the leaders who are reshaping financial services. Portage is a platform within Sagard, a global multi-strategy alternative asset management firm with US$47B under management².

For more information, visit www.portageinvest.com.

Disclaimer

¹ As of June 30, 2026. US$7.0B AUM includes Portage Ventures IV.

²Sagard’s assets under management (“AUM”) as of June 30, 2026

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, which reflect current expectations but involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary significantly. Sagard disclaims any obligation to update these statements unless required by law.

Media contacts:

Portage Canada – [email protected]

Portage United States – [email protected]

SOURCE Portage

Technology, AI and media executive to lead growth across NewsBreak and its new AI
businesses, Nearby and NDot in newly created role

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 15, 2026 — NewsBreak today announced the appointment of Nicolas Zylberstein as Chief Business Officer, responsible for the strategic growth of NewsBreak and its new AI ventures Nearby AI and NDot AI.

The appointment comes as the company scales NewsBreak, its flagship local life and news platform, and builds two new AI-native businesses: Nearby AI is an agentic local intent marketplace that connects high-intent consumers with relevant local businesses and services–helping users discover what they need and complete real-world tasks while creating new ways for businesses to reach customers at the right moment. NDot AI is a B2B Media Tech Platform dedicated to publisher growth. It offers integrated technologies and services spanning audience and traffic growth, recommendation and personalization, engagement and retention, advertising technology and monetization.

Both new platforms draw on a decade of NewsBreak’s own experience operating media products and delivering personalization at scale for more than 40 million monthly active users. Both also reflect NewsBreak’s conviction that deep, domain-specific AI infrastructure can deliver considerable value, today and in the future. The decision to bring in NewsBreak’s first Chief Business Officer at this time signals how central this belief is to the company’s next chapter.

“As search, social, and other distribution channels become less predictable, publishers need a real growth partner to build, grow, and monetize their direct audiences — that’s the opportunity behind NDot AI. At the same time, local businesses are looking for new ways to reach customers at the right moment, which is what Nearby AI is built to do. Together, they represent a significant B2B opportunity for NewsBreak to build the technology and infrastructure that both media and local business ecosystems need in the AI era. Nicolas’ experience scaling partnerships and commercial strategy at some of the world’s largest technology companies makes him the leader to help us build both businesses at scale,” said Dr. Jeff Zheng, Founder and CEO of NewsBreak, Nearby AI and NDot AI.

Nicolas Zylberstein joins NewsBreak after six years at ByteDance, where he drove AI partnerships, strategy and corporate development, and worked on the early launch of TikTok Shop.

Earlier in his career, Nicolas Zylberstein held senior operating, strategy and corporate development roles at Pinterest, YouTube, and The Walt Disney Company. He played a key role in Pinterest’s IPO, contributed to the launch and growth of YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, and supported Disney’s transition to streaming, laying the foundations for Disney+.

“NewsBreak has already proven what deep, local personalization can do at scale for tens of millions of daily users across the U.S.,” Nicolas Zylberstein said. “The core business connects people directly to local content right down to their zip code, and Nearby AI and NDot AI extend those capabilities into how people discover and engage with nearby businesses and how creators and publishers grow their audiences. I look forward to helping turn those capabilities into scaled businesses and build what’s next for modern media and local life as part of the NewsBreak team.”

Nicolas Zylberstein began his career in investment banking at JPMorgan in London and in strategy consulting at McKinsey & Company in New York. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School, a Master of Finance from Sciences Po Paris, and a Master of Laws from Sorbonne University. He also serves on the Board of Art Explora, a European nonprofit dedicated to democratizing access to the arts and culture, and lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two children.

The company is hiring founding members across disciplines who are passionate about category-defining opportunities at the intersection of technology, local ecosystems, and the content industry. For more information on open positions or to get in touch, visit https://careers.newsbreak.com or email [email protected].

About NewsBreak

NewsBreak is a local life and news platform that helps people navigate their everyday world — from neighborhood safety alerts and gas prices to nearby jobs and community events, all matched to their needs and interests. Founded in 2015, the company uses AI and machine learning to deliver that personalization at scale, connecting more than 40 million monthly active users across the U.S. with trusted publishers, community organizations, local businesses, and their neighbors. Building on this foundation, NewsBreak is now expanding into two new AI-native businesses: Nearby AI, an agentic local intent marketplace helping consumers move from discovery to real-world action through local businesses and services, and NDot AI, a B2B Media Tech Platform helping publishers and creators grow, engage, and monetize their audiences.

For more information: [email protected]

SOURCE NewsBreak

Flare Capital Partners Leads the Round as ACOs and Health Systems
Face a 2027 Reset in Medicare Risk Models

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2026 — Kairon Health, the AI-native execution layer for value-based care, today announced $5 million in venture funding. The round was led by Flare Capital Partners, with participation from Tau Ventures and existing investors Lightbank, General Advance and Pave Health Ventures. Kairon helps ACOs, health systems, IPAs, MSOs, group practices and clinically integrated networks run the day-to-day work of value-based care. The new capital will fund AI development across Kairon’s five workflow clouds, deepen its care operations and patient outreach products, and expand the go-to-market team as Medicare’s accountable care programs enter their largest structural change in a decade.

Accountable care organizations and health networks have spent a decade buying analytic solutions that flag care gaps but closing them still falls to an army of staff working across disjointed data systems and spreadsheets. Kairon replaces those numerous solutions with a single system.

“I spent nine years at Aledade building the foundation of value-based care, and the problem was never visibility,” said Nick Bartz, Co-founder and CEO of Kairon Health. “Nobody’s core problem is that they can’t see the care gap. Clinical teams are already running flat out—care managers are carrying huge patient loads; liaisons are in the field all day, and the gap still doesn’t close because closing it takes another set of hands or more hours in the day. So, we built the execution layer that does the actual work and we measure whether it worked or not so a customer never has to take our word for it. Operators today are paying 5 to10X what we charge for software that simply hands the problem back to them in a prettier format. Flare gets this problem space and has real depth in value-based care, so they are the perfect partner to help us scale our solution.”  

Kairon ingests, normalizes and links claims, clinical records, ADT feeds, labs and pharmacy data alongside qualitative sources most systems discard, like meeting transcripts, filed notes and CRM logs. The company takes all this data and creates a single patient-to-practice model that is payer agnostic.

“We’ve known Nick and Evan for several years and admire their operating experience and commitment to pushing value-based care forward with the right technology,” said Tara Sullivan, Principal at Flare Capital Partners. “Kairon is already producing results for customers carrying real risk. With ACO REACH concluding and the LEAD model starting next year, the pressure on providers to execute will continue to rise. There’s never been a better moment for entrepreneurs who’ve lived through past value-based care transitions to build what’s next. We see the right team, the right technology, and policy timing aligned, and believe Kairon can define this category.”

Early Customer Traction & Policy Tailwinds

With CMS committing to placing all traditional Medicare beneficiaries in accountable care relationships by 2030 and the ACO REACH program being succeeded by the new LEAD performance model, provider-based organizations will be taking on more downside risk and committing to it for longer. Providers will need to get a better handle on how to bend the cost curve. Kairon helps practices turn data into prioritized workflows and close care gaps by measuring what actually moves the needle with patients and practice staff.

Kairon is live today across MSSP, ACO REACH, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial contracts covering more than 1 million attributed lives in 30+ states, including one national ACO enabler customer who is managing 350,000+ Medicare lives and a hospital system managing value-based care for approximately 350,000 lives.

About Kairon Health

Kairon Health is an AI-native execution layer for value-based care, serving ACOs, health systems, IPAs, MSOs, group practices and clinically integrated networks. Its platform connects five workflow clouds — Practice Intelligence, Care Operations, Patient Activation, Portfolio Management and Impact Analytics — to turn field data into worklists, outreach and billed, measurable outcomes. Kairon is HIPAA compliant, SOC 2 Type II certified and NCQA PHM Prevalidated, with HITRUST certification in progress. To learn more about Kairon Health or to get a demo, please visit kaironhealth.com.

About Flare Capital Partners

Flare Capital Partners is a leading healthcare technology venture capital firm advancing innovation-driven companies to improve positive health outcomes, broaden care access, and lower healthcare costs. We partner with exceptional founders solving healthcare’s hardest challenges, supporting each with our deep sector expertise, unparalleled industry resources, and proven access to commercial opportunities. Our team of established investors and senior operating executives has invested in 80+ companies and has nearly $1 billion in assets under management. Learn more at www.flarecapital.com.

Media Contact: Evan Gogel, Kairon Health, [email protected], 914-424-9444

SOURCE Kairon Health

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2026 — USD.AI has secured a $40 million stablecoin-based revolving debt facility from K3 Capital to support the launch of new financing products. The facility provides USD.AI with short-term credit collateralized by sUSDai, which can be drawn, repaid and reused as needed.

USD.AI’s loans run three years and amortize monthly, while capital can enter and exit sUSDai on a far shorter cycle. Borrowing against sUSDai lets USD.AI meet that gap with short-term credit rather than with idle capital, keeping a higher share of the pool deployed in loans.

“K3 Capital’s strategy is built on identifying such market-structure inefficiencies and supporting teams we trust,” said Kiril Nikolov, Co-Founder of K3 Capital. “Rather than see sUSDai sit underdeployed, we are happy to extend short-term credit collateralized with sUSDai and help the team close out its roadmap. This is not a standalone deal for us; it is a service we provide to the protocols we have vetted and actively work with.”

The facility builds on an existing liquidity relationship between K3 and USD.AI and reflects K3’s broader practice of providing such facilities to protocols it has vetted and works with on an ongoing basis.

“We’re preparing to launch a new product that requires a more flexible source of short-term capital,” said David Choi, CEO of Permian Labs (developer of USD.AI). “K3 was able to design an onchain credit facility around that need, giving USD.AI the liquidity to support new initiatives as we continue expanding the platform.”

The K3 facility follows USD.AI’s recently announced $100 million stablecoin-based debt facility with Bullish, further expanding the range of capital available to support USD.AI’s growth.

About USD.AI

USD.AI provides AI infrastructure operators with strategic, non-dilutive financing facilities essential for their scale requirements. The protocol delivers non-recourse loans secured exclusively by the underlying GPU infrastructure, isolating risk from the corporate balance sheet. USD.AI’s financing is asset-backed, transparent, and settled on-chain, providing capital providers with direct exposure to income-producing compute assets. For more information, visit https://usd.ai/.

About K3 Capital

K3 Capital is a crypto-native asset manager focused on non-directional, DeFi-native strategies. Since 2021, the firm has managed funds across interest rate arbitrage, liquidity provision and TVL bootstrapping for emerging DeFi primitives. K3 Capital works with leading protocols and high-net-worth investors, with a focus on conservative, proactive risk management and delta-neutral yield strategies.

SOURCE USD.AI

Revenue has grown nearly 7x in the past year, with more than 5,000 employers now using Thatch to give employees greater control over their healthcare

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2026 — Thatch, the health benefits platform helping employers move from traditional group health plans to a consumer-directed model, today announced that it has raised $108 million in new funding at a $1 billion valuation from The General Partnership, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from ADP Ventures, Paychex, Eli Lilly and Company, Scale Venture Partners, QuantumLight, SemperVirens, Quiet Capital, and Avid Ventures.

Thatch’s growth is signaling a broader shift in how employers think about healthcare benefits. The company’s revenue has grown nearly seven-fold over the past year, with more than 5,000 employers now using the platform to move away from traditional group health plans toward a model that gives employees control over how their healthcare dollars are spent.

The traction comes as employers face a fundamental problem with the traditional system: healthcare costs continue to rise, while a single plan designed around the “average” employee rarely works well for everyone. Thatch’s growth is evidence that employers are increasingly willing to rethink that model — shifting from choosing one plan for their workforce to giving employees a budget and the ability to choose coverage based on their own needs.

The model is straightforward: employers set a defined health benefits budget and employees use those tax-free dollars to choose an individual health plan that fits their needs, including their doctors, prescriptions, family situation and preferred type of coverage. Employees can also use remaining funds for eligible healthcare expenses like GLP1s, therapy and more. The shift gives employers more predictability over their healthcare spend while putting the purchasing decision in the hands of the person actually using the healthcare.

“For too long, healthcare has been the one major purchase in someone’s life they never actually got to make,” said Chris Ellis, co-founder and chief executive of Thatch. “Give people control over their own healthcare dollars, and the first thing they do is ask what something actually costs. That’s the behavior change this round is built to scale.”

The company believes this shift could have implications well beyond health insurance. Healthcare represents one of the largest categories of household and employer spending in the U.S., yet the individual has historically had little control over how those dollars are allocated. Thatch is building the infrastructure to make healthcare function more like other major consumer markets, where people have a budget, can compare options and ultimately decide what works best for them.

“Every massive consumer market eventually gets rebuilt around the individual – Amazon did it for retail, Expedia for travel, Robinhood for investing. Thatch is doing it for healthcare,” said Jahanvi Sardana, Partner at Index Ventures. “With AI, the end state is bigger than shopping: an agent that knows you, holds your wallet and can find, book and pay for the right care. The magic is that you stop navigating healthcare and start being taken care of.”

Thatch has built the infrastructure to make that transition possible at scale, connecting employers and employees to individual coverage while integrating with major health insurance carriers, payroll providers and benefits platforms. Its distribution network includes partnerships with ADP, Paychex, Gusto and QuickBooks, enabling employers to move to a consumer-directed model without rebuilding their existing benefits infrastructure.

About Thatch

Thatch is the health benefits platform that replaces one-size-fits-all group plans with individual health budgets. Instead of picking a single plan for everyone, companies give employees a tax-free budget to buy their own medical plan and pay for the health services they actually use. More than 5,000 employers use Thatch today. Backed by The General Partnership, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, Thatch is on a mission to build a healthcare system people love by changing the way we fund it. Learn more at thatch.com.

Media Contact:
Amber Moore
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SOURCE Thatch