Monthly Archives: October 2026

Firstup Names Ian Winkler Chief Financial Officer

Former Google One Head of FP&A joins Firstup to support the company’s next phase of AI-
driven growth

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 14, 2026 — Firstup, the pioneer of intelligent communication and engagement platforms for the workforce, today announced that Ian Winkler has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer. Winkler brings deep Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and strategic finance expertise from high-velocity SaaS and AI companies, including building Google One’s finance function from pre-launch to a multibillion-dollar business.

As CFO, Winkler will lead Firstup’s finance, legal, and IT teams and serve as a member of the company’s executive leadership team. In the CFO role, he will help shape the company’s corporate strategy, capital allocation, and priorities. He will also drive the use of AI across finance and back-office operations, helping the company make faster, data-driven decisions to fuel profitable growth.

“Ian joins Firstup at an important point in our journey. We are excited about the strategic perspective, financial rigor, and strong business partnership he will bring as we pursue our next stage of growth and continue building a company of consequence,” said Bill Schuh, CEO of Firstup.

Most recently, Winkler was Senior Vice President of Finance at Medable, an AI-driven life sciences technology company, where he focused on enterprise value creation, strategic FP&A, and disciplined capital allocation. Previously, Winkler spent more than eight years at Google, including five years as Head of FP&A for Google One. As the business’s first finance hire, he built and led the finance team that helped grow Google One into the highest-grossing app on the Google Play Store. Before that, he led financial planning for Google’s legal and trust and safety teams.

“Firstup has a strong leadership team, a product customers clearly value, and a big opportunity at the intersection of employee experience, enterprise communications, and AI,” said Ian Winkler, Chief Financial Officer at Firstup. “I’m excited to join Firstup at this transformative moment and look forward to contributing to the significant opportunity ahead.”

Winkler’s appointment follows a strong first half of 2026, in which Firstup delivered 60% more capability to customers than a year earlier. Firstup’s platform reaches millions of employees in more than 180 countries.

About Firstup

Firstup is the leading platform for intelligent communication and engagement that powers meaningful business outcomes. As a true “mission control” for workforce communications, Firstup is built for organizations with critically important frontline employees, delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. The platform enables hyper- personalized, data-driven journeys across channels (email, mobile, intranet, digital signage, and more), bringing alignment, clarity, and engagement to every level of the organization.

With integrations to core HR, IT, and business systems, Firstup reduces digital noise, surfaces actionable insights, strengthens employee experience, and helps clients maximize productivity and retention. Trusted by large enterprises worldwide, Firstup transforms internal communication into measurable impact. Learn more at www.firstup.io.

Media Contact
[email protected]

SOURCE Firstup

Mighty Therapeutics Reports Business Highlights, Barth Syndrome Commercial Launch Update, and Pipeline Progress

FORZINITY™ (elamipretide) launch momentum continues one year after FDA approval

Pipeline advances across Barth syndrome, dry AMD, POLG, Parkinson’s and FAOD  

NEEDHAM, Mass., Oct. 14, 2026 — Mighty Therapeutics Inc. (the “Company” or “Mighty”), a commercial-stage biotechnology company pioneering a new class of medicines that directly target mitochondrial dysfunction in rare and age-related diseases, today provided an update on key business, commercial, and pipeline milestones.

“We recently celebrated the first anniversary of the approval of FORZINITY, representing the first and only FDA-approved mitochondrial-targeted therapy, after a decade of close work with patients and advocacy groups to advance therapeutic options for diseases of mitochondrial dysfunction,” said Reenie McCarthy, Chief Executive Officer of Mighty. “One year later, we are gratified by ongoing commercial, clinical and regulatory progress in Barth syndrome, and we continue to break boundaries toward treatments for other rare and age-related diseases of mitochondrial dysfunction.”

Commercial Update
FORZINITY, which was approved by the FDA under accelerated approval on September 19, 2025, is currently commercially available for eligible U.S. patients who are living with Barth syndrome, a rare, serious, and life-threatening mitochondrial disease. FORZINITY is indicated to improve muscle strength in adult and pediatric patients with Barth syndrome weighing at least 30 kg.

From commercial soft launch in December 2025 through September 2026 Mighty reports:

  • Gross Revenue of $17.5 million from December 2025, including $8.1 million for the third quarter of 2026;
  • 60 patient enrollment forms received;
  • 48 unique prescribers;
  • Across the U.S. payer landscape, FORZINITY has received broad reimbursement access, with greater than 90% of lives covered across major national health plans;
  • The Mito Assist™ patient support program continues to see broad adoption. This program provides education and access support and serves as a single point of coordination throughout the treatment journey.

Research and Development Update
Mighty continues to advance its development of elamipretide, bevemipretide and other mitochondria-targeted pipeline compounds for rare and age-related diseases.

  • Dry AMD. The fully enrolled Phase 3 ReNEW clinical trial of elamipretide in dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) remains on track for top-level data read-out in the second half of 2027. Mighty reached preliminary agreement with the FDA on endpoint selection and protocol design and plans to initiate its Phase 2 ReBUILD study of bevemipretide eye drops by year-end.
  • Barth syndrome.
    • Following the first participant dosed, momentum continues in 4TAZPower, a global Phase 4 study to confirm the efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics of once daily elamipretide in individuals at least 5 years of age living with Barth syndrome. Study sites have been initiated in Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
    • The Company remains on track to initiate a one-month pharmacokinetic study this year to inform dosing of elamipretide for children weighing less than 30 kilograms. The study is intended to support a potential 2027 sNDA submission for children weighing at least 7 kg. The FDA will respond to the Company’s questions regarding the proposed sNDA submission contents via a Type C Written Response in the fourth quarter of 2026.
    • The Company continues to treat children weighing less than 7 kg through its expanded access program (EAP), typically entailing individual investigational new drug applications. The FDA has granted a meeting in the fourth quarter of 2026 to discuss an intermediate expanded access protocol intended to broaden access for these younger children. The Company has aligned with the FDA that data from this protocol may help inform future label expansion.
    • Mighty’s registry to collect long-term, real-world evidence from patients living with Barth syndrome, including patients taking FORZINITY or participating in EAP, will be initiated by year-end. The FDA encouraged Mighty’s registry efforts and has commented on the protocol, which may provide confirmatory evidence to support full approval in conjunction with the 4TAZPOWER data.
  • POLG-related disorders. Mighty is requesting a meeting to align with FDA on a new pivotal trial evaluating elamipretide in primary mitochondrial disease due to nuclear polymerase gamma (POLG) mutations. The Company anticipates initiating a pivotal study in this indication in 2027.
  • Preclinical pipeline.
    • Mighty continues to advance its broader pipeline of investigational mitochondria-targeted therapies, including systemic bevemipretide in Parkinson’s disease. The Company recently announced a collaboration with The POLG Foundation to develop a novel mouse-model of Parkinson’s to inform development efforts. Mighty is also progressing pipeline compound MYTX-589 in Leigh syndrome (through a collaboration supported by the UK Medical Research Council) and in Friedreich’s ataxia.
    • Mighty initiated IND-enabling studies for its third mitochondrial-targeted candidate, MYTX-255. Data presented at the 2026 INFORM meeting support the planned clinical development of MYTX-255 in fatty acid oxidation disorders (FAODs).
  • Aging. A research team from Mighty and the University of Washington was named a Milestone 2 Awardee in the XPRIZE Healthspan competition. Work is underway to support a rigorous, placebo-controlled clinical trial of elamipretide in older adults, which will run through 2029.

Business Update
To support its ongoing pioneering work to develop a new class of mitochondrial-targeted therapeutics, Mighty Therapeutics secured up to $150 million in non-dilutive growth and equity capital through an agreement with K2 HealthVentures and additional equity financing from its founding investor. These agreements are expected to secure runway to projected cash flow positivity in early 2029.  

Recognition
Mighty was named a 2026 Industry Innovator in the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD®) Rare Impact Awards, which honor companies whose treatments have significantly improved outcomes for people living with rare diseases.

Chief Executive Officer Reenie McCarthy was also named one of 20 women changing the biopharma industry in Endpoints News’ 2026 Women in Biopharma special report, recognizing her leadership in advancing mitochondrial medicine for people living with rare diseases.

About FORZINITY™ (elamipretide) injection

INDICATION

FORZINITY™ is a mitochondrial cardiolipin binder indicated to improve muscle strength in adult and pediatric patients with Barth syndrome weighing at least 30 kg.

This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on an improvement in knee extensor muscle strength, an intermediate clinical endpoint. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial(s).

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Contraindications
FORZINITY is contraindicated in patients with serious hypersensitivity to elamipretide or any of the excipients in FORZINITY.

Warnings and Precautions
Benzyl Alcohol Toxicity – Do Not Use in Neonates
Serious and fatal reactions (including metabolic acidosis progressing to neurotoxicity and gasping syndrome) have occurred in preterm and low–birth weight neonates receiving benzyl alcohol (BA)-containing drugs.
FORZINITY contains 20 mg BA/mL and is not approved for use in neonates or for IV administration.

Hypersensitivity
Reported reactions include rash, papular lesions, eczema/dermatitis, cough, and serious allergic reactions requiring emergency medical intervention.
Reactions may occur minutes to months after starting treatment. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms during treatment.
Discontinue FORZINITY permanently if a serious hypersensitivity reaction occurs.

Adverse Reactions
Adverse reactions occurring more commonly on FORZINITY than on placebo included injection site reactions such as injection site erythema, pain, induration, pruritus, bruising, and urticaria.

Eosinophilia
Modest elevations in eosinophil counts (peak ~90 days) occurred but were not associated with clinical symptoms.

To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch.

Please see Full Prescribing Information for FORZINITY.

About Mighty Therapeutics

Mighty is advancing novel therapies for people living with diseases involving mitochondrial dysfunction. Grounded in rigorous science and inspired by meaningful patient partnerships, the company is building a proprietary pipeline to directly address bioenergetic deficits at the source.

For more information, visit www.mightytx.com.

Media Contact
Ascent Strategic Communications
[email protected]

Investor Contact
Precision AQ
Austin Murtagh
[email protected]

Patient Advocacy
[email protected]

SOURCE Mighty Therapeutics

Duvo Raises $32 Million Series A to Become the One Platform Enterprises Run Their Operations On

Led by Balderton Capital, the round funds Duvo’s U.S. expansion. Its Enterprise Execution OS lets people and AI agents run processes together across the systems a company already has, starting with retail and consumer goods.

NEW YORK and LONDON, Oct. 14, 2026 — Duvo today announced a $32 million Series A led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures, Northzone and Credo Ventures. The round brings Duvo’s total funding to $48 million and will fund its expansion, starting with retailers and CPG companies. Two executives lead the expansion. Michael Green joins from Databricks as Chief Commercial Officer.  He previously served as a Senior Vice President at Salesforce. Spencer Insolia recently joined as Managing Director, U.S. He was previously President of Kmart and a Managing Director at Accenture.

Duvo is the Enterprise Execution OS: one platform where a company’s operations run, with governed processes and clear user approvals. Duvo is built so that AI in operations doesn’t stop at the pilot. Every process a company adds runs on the same connections, the same approval rules and the same record of results, instead of becoming another standalone project.

The platform works the same way for every process. Duvo Clarity captures how the work really runs, through AI-led discovery interviews with the people who do it, screen recordings and existing documents. Duvo’s agents then run the approved steps across ERPs, supplier portals, spreadsheets and inboxes, through APIs where they exist and through the same screens people use where they don’t. That’s why Duvo can be live in weeks with the first process without a small army of engineers or a major systems integration project.

Decisions and exceptions go to the person who owns them, and operating cockpits show what is waiting for a decision and what the process delivered. Most companies run on systems that don’t talk to each other, and the manual work in those gaps is where value leaks. Duvo runs that work on one platform and recovers the value.

Gartner projects spending on business orchestration and automation technologies will exceed $21 billion by 2029, as enterprises consolidate fragmented automation tools onto a single platform. But turning that into operational results is proving hard. Gartner predicts that more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027 because of escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls. In a separate survey of 350 executives at companies with $1 billion or more in revenue, Gartner found that those reporting higher returns from AI agents and automation had cut staff about as often as those with modest or negative results.

“For a while I measured AI in heads, counting how many people an agent could replace. It’s the wrong unit,” said Tomáš Čupr, co-founder and CEO of Duvo and founder and Group CEO of Rohlik Group. “At Rohlik, the gains I’d point to came from work nobody had the hours for. Our planners used to check about eight at-risk products a day per market for shortages. Now every signal gets checked, around the clock. We think of it as raising the GDP of every employee: more value from the people a company has, not the same value from fewer of them.”

Duvo has unlocked over $100m+ for its clients, across finance, supply chain, commercial, customer care, marketing and HR. At Notino, Europe’s largest online beauty retailer, those results span finance, customer care and marketing. Its quarterly reconciliation of about $45 million a year in supplier bonuses went from 70 days to 15, and from around 120 specialist hours per cycle to under 10.

“Our business processes have evolved over decades, and Duvo gives us a way to understand them in detail, and quickly,” said Gordon MacPherson, Group Productivity Director at U.K. supermarket chain Morrisons. “It means decisions about which repetitive everyday tasks to simplify, redesign and automate can be based on evidence rather than assumptions. That gives us a much clearer path from identifying AI opportunities to putting them into operation, freeing up our people to concentrate on high-value work for the benefit of colleagues and customers.”

“Getting AI agents to work reliably across the enterprise remains incredibly difficult,” said Rob Moffat, Partner at Balderton Capital. “Duvo’s unique ability is in how it uses AI to capture how work actually happens in the enterprise and what the causes of loss are. Duvo then automates these processes in the same integrated system. This is only possible with the deep operational experience of the founder Tomáš who previously founded three companies including Rohlik, the leading online grocer. Feedback from customers and consultancy partners is off the charts positive. We are looking forward to supporting Tomáš and team as they build the global leader in this segment.”

Duvo is model-agnostic, so the AI underneath can change without rebuilding the processes on top of it. Companies with stricter security or sovereignty requirements can run open-weight models on dedicated GPUs, connect a model in their own cloud or on-premises, or use an AI endpoint they already approve. Every approval and every change written back to a company’s systems is recorded. Duvo is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 certified, and U.S. companies can buy it through Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace.

“Our clients don’t need more AI pilots. They need operations that actually change,” said Jan Hejtmánek, Partner and AI Institute Leader at Deloitte Central Europe. “Through our alliance with Duvo, we combine Deloitte’s transformation expertise with an Enterprise Execution OS that maps how processes really work and then runs them, with people in control.”

“I’ve spent half my career as a retail operator and half as a consultant, and the same gap showed up from both sides: the insight was there, the execution rarely followed. Duvo closes that gap, and that’s why I’m here,” said Spencer Insolia, Managing Director, U.S. at Duvo.

“We’re starting in the U.S. with retailers and consumer goods companies, because that’s the work we know best,” said Čupr. “But the processes we start with, like freight and invoice audit, aren’t unique to retail.”

Christoph Schwaiger, former CEO at ALDI SÜD Holding, has also joined as Senior Advisor.

U.S. companies can start with one process, such as freight audit or payables audit, or with a free process map.

About Duvo
Duvo is the Enterprise Execution OS: one platform where a company’s people and AI agents run its operations, process by process. Duvo captures how work actually happens, runs it across the ERPs, supplier portals and legacy applications a company already uses, and shows every team what it delivered, with people approving the decisions that need judgment. Its mission is raising the GDP of every employee. Founded in 2025 by the team behind Rohlik Group, Duvo has almost 60 employees and works with companies including Morrisons, Holland & Barrett, Boden, Notino and Allegro, and is backed by Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, Northzone and Credo Ventures. Learn more at duvo.ai.

About Balderton Capital
Balderton Capital is a multistage venture firm with more than 25 years of experience supporting Europe’s best founders from Seed to IPO. We have both early and growth funds and invest across the technology sector, with a proven track record backing AI, fintech, B2B SaaS, digital health, mobility, gaming and marketplace companies. Previous investments include Darktrace, Depop, Dream Games, Flywire, Kobalt, MySQL, Nutmeg, Peakon, Recorded Future, Talend and THG. Balderton’s current portfolio includes: Aircall, Contentful, Cleo, Fuse, GoCardless (Mollie), Lendable, Matillion, Photoroom, Primer, Proxima Fusion, Quantum Systems, Revolut, The Exploration Company, Tibber, Wayve, Writer and ZOE. https://www.balderton.com/.

SOURCE Duvo

Zaria Raises $5.2M Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners to Scale Its Fiduciary Infrastructure for Structured Finance

Investment supports Zaria’s pending application to charter Zaria National Trust Bank with the OCC and supports the build-out of its infrastructure for structured finance and digital asset-backed lending markets

JACKSON, Wyo., Oct. 14, 2026 — Zaria Systems, Inc. (Zaria), which builds real-time infrastructure for mark-to-market credit and structured finance, today announced $5.2M in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The announcement follows Zaria’s recent application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to charter Zaria National Trust Bank (“ZNTB”), a special-purpose national bank that will limit its activities to the operations of a trust company and related activities.

Structured finance has long relied on periodic, batch-based checks to monitor and verify collateral – a model that’s outgrowing itself as securities-backed, digital asset-backed, and tokenized lending demands real-time monitoring and automated margin calls. Zaria provides that infrastructure, offering loan servicing, backup servicing, collateral management, and agency services to structured finance market participants and digital asset-backed lenders. If ZNTB’s charter is approved, those services would consolidate under a single, federally regulated trustee, giving transaction stakeholders one regulated counterparty across a deal lifecycle for the first time, rather than several providers stitched together.

“This financing lets us accelerate growth and scale our existing services,” said Emily Barron, Co-Founder and CEO of Zaria. “We’re currently running servicing, backup servicing, collateral management, and agency infrastructure for structured finance and digital asset-backed loans. This investment lets us grow that team, extend the technology, and build on to a strong foundation.”

“Zaria has already built real traction with structured finance and digital asset-backed lenders,” said Aaron Frank, Partner, Fintech at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “Emily and her team have combined deep structured finance expertise with the technical rigor to build that infrastructure from the ground up, and we’re proud to have been able to back them from the earliest days.”

ZNTB’s organizers and management team bring together corporate trust, fintech, banking, ratings, and regulatory experience from organizations including BNY Mellon, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Moody’s, SoFi, Affirm, NYDIG, Block, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, among others, and its platform is live with partners such as Ledn, Maple, Galaxy, Kraken, and Figure, providing backup servicing, agency, collateral management, and node services infrastructure across warehouse facilities, forward flow loan sale programs, and securitizations.

About Zaria
Zaria builds infrastructure for modern structured finance. Through Zaria National Trust Bank (proposed), the company plans to offer corporate trustee and agency services, loan servicing, collateral management, and backup servicing to banks, lenders, and asset managers operating across traditional and digital asset markets. Learn more at zaria.xyz.

About Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed is a global, multi-stage venture capital firm managing over $65B in assets. Since its founding in 2000, Lightspeed has been the first investor and an early backer of some of the most innovative companies in the world, including Anthropic, Databricks, Rubrik, Snap, and Wiz, among others. Learn more at lsvp.com.

SOURCE Zaria

Booking Holdings Launches Vayo with Planned $100M Investment

The waitlist opens today at vayo.com for the personal travel agent built for trips, not tasks, that organizes everything you’ve booked, learns how you travel and never stops working for you

SEATTLE, Oct. 14, 2026 — Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) today announced a planned $100M* investment in its new company Vayo, which is launching in private beta with a waitlist now open at vayo.com. Vayo is where your trips live: a personal travel agent that knows how you travel and makes every trip better before you have to ask. Unlike a chatbot that answers questions in walls of text or an AI assistant that completes individual tasks, Vayo holds every trip together and keeps working on it long after the planning is done.

Planning a trip often means piecing together flights, hotels, activities and reservations across multiple channels, while keeping track of confirmation numbers, plans still in progress and details yet to be booked. Vayo calls the time, effort and mental load of managing it all a “planning tax.” Vayo takes on that work, bringing your existing reservations together from your inbox, filling in what’s missing and watching prices. Because every booking is connected, Vayo sees how one change affects everything else: when a flight changes, Vayo flags the late check-in and the dinner reservation now at risk. It’s like a thousand travel agents working for you, with the care of one who truly knows you.

“A trip isn’t a task, and travelers deserve more than a chatbot,” said Mike Fridgen, CEO and co-founder of Vayo. “With the backing of Booking Holdings, we’re building a personal travel agent that understands the entire trip, knows how you travel and never stops working for you. That’s Vayo.”

As a Booking Holdings company whose portfolio includes Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK, and OpenTable, Vayo combines the scale and supply of the global leader in online travel with a consumer experience built from the ground up. Built on openness, Vayo works across Booking Holdings brands and beyond, including reservations made through other travel platforms or directly with airlines and hotels. Travelers rarely book an entire trip through a single source, and a personal travel agent has to work the way travelers actually do.

“Travel is one of the most complex consumer experiences, and too much of the work still falls on the traveler to manage,” said Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings. “Vayo is exploring how AI can anticipate needs to make planning and managing a trip more seamless. I have confidence in the Vayo team and their ability to move with purpose, capitalize on early learnings and adapt at pace as they explore what the next generation of personalization in travel can look like.”

Vayo’s private beta offers free, invite-only access initially focused on frequent travelers who feel the planning tax most: those who take multiple trips a year but don’t always have the time to plan them. The beta is designed as a learning period, giving early users a direct role in shaping the product and informing what gets built next. Vayo accesses only the travel confirmations needed to build and manage trips, keeping the rest of a user’s inbox private.

In the months ahead, Vayo plans to add direct booking, launch a native app and make it possible to plan trips with travel companions. It will also go deeper once a trip begins, helping travelers navigate the changes and decisions that come up along the way. The destination is a trusted travel agent in your pocket, for every trip in your life.

The waitlist is open now at vayo.com.

*Intention to invest subject to continued advancement of the product and market conditions.

About Vayo

Vayo, a Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) company, is where your trips live. Unlike general assistants built to complete individual tasks, Vayo is a personal travel agent designed around the whole trip. It knows how you travel with unprecedented depth, brings every detail together, and keeps working after booking to make each trip better. It’s like a thousand travel agents working for you, with the care of one who truly knows you. Vayo works across the travel industry, and its only agenda is your agenda. Vayo’s private beta waitlist is open at vayo.com.

About Booking Holdings

Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) is the world leader in online travel and services that support the entire travel journey. Our platforms-including Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable – utilize advanced AI, machine learning and other innovative technologies to simplify and personalize the travel experience for consumers and partners in over 220 countries and territories. Our mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. For more information, visit BookingHoldings.com and follow us on X @BookingHoldings.

SOURCE Vayo

Confido Health Expands Agentic Operating Platform to Move Healthcare from Systems of Record to Systems of Action

$22.5 million in total Series A funding fuels Confido’s next phase of growth across multi-site healthcare operations

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2026 — Confido Health, the company building integrated AI agents for healthcare operations, today announced $22.5 million in total Series A funding to expand CareOS, its agentic AI operations platform. The round includes a new $12.5 million extension led by Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India), with healthcare private equity veteran Justin Saks joining as an investor and board advisor, and existing investors Together Fund and Blume Ventures also participating.

This latest investment will fuel Confido Health’s shift from a company building AI-powered voice agents for healthcare to a company building the agentic operating layer powering the transition of healthcare operations from systems of record to systems of action. Where systems of record store information, Confido’s seamlessly integrated AI agents act on it, creating an operational system of action that runs a practice from end to end. 

“Every healthcare platform we work with shares the same story and challenges. They’ve got endless amounts of data, but inconsistent systems to manage it holistically, which leaves them short-staffed and drowning in follow-up,” said Chetan Reddy, co-founder and CEO, Confido Health. “Systems of record were never going to fix that because information sitting in a database doesn’t call a patient back or collect a payment. That’s why we built CareOS. It does the work itself, not just the paperwork behind it. That’s what it means to move from systems of record to systems of action, and it’s what this round is helping us do at a much larger scale.”

Confido has seen 15x growth since its last round, driven by its unique distribution model centered around selling to private equity investors first, then expanding through warm introductions to their portfolio companies once results are proven. Confido’s platform achieved over 95% AI handle rates across critical end-to-end office use cases, which in turn added 3-5 full time employees on average in terms of load capacity within three months of going live. While providers project $10-15M in savings annually, their patients are also benefiting, with satisfaction scores of 4.55 out of 5 on average across a million different tasks.

Nowhere is that shift more urgent than in the private equity-backed provider groups that now operate roughly a third of the country’s specialty care practices in some markets. These multi-site organizations are exactly the kind of fragmented, high-volume operations a systems of action model is built for.

“After 14 years investing in multi-site healthcare, I’ve never seen anything quite like the growth potential embedded in Confido’s PE flywheel or the pace of its momentum and scale,” said Justin Saks, Investor and Board Advisor at Confido Health. “With a proven agentic operating layer clearing the obstacles hindering provider growth and access to an endless pipeline of customers, Confido has built a bulletproof distribution model that also solves one of the industry’s biggest pain points.”

From an economics standpoint, the large majority of medical groups reported operating costs were up double digits on average in 2025, while support-staff salaries and benefits alone consumed roughly 25-30% of practice revenue. Meanwhile, reimbursement rates are flat, but the deeper problem is labor. Practices across the country say their number one constraint is hiring and retention, and for the investors backing multi-site provider groups, the path to healthier margins starts with solving that shortage.

Confido’s CareOS is built to automate the work behind the conversation. The platform takes patient details, referral information, and payer requirements captured during intake to perform outreach and scheduling later on. By carrying context from one task to the next, a single interaction can trigger a referral, an appointment, a prescription refill, and a payment, instead of routing each one to a different tool or a different person.

That breadth is especially well suited for the complexity of independent healthcare groups including PE-backed provider platforms, with shared infrastructure across locations, different rules by provider and site, and support for the change management that multi-location expansion requires. Coupled with focused specialty depth – including ophthalmology/optometry, physical therapy, dental, and primary/community care – as well as the reusable knowledge of scheduling patterns, payer requirements and operational exceptions, means customers are interacting with agents that are well-versed in their speciality rather than starting from scratch.

“We have doubled collections in our payments department since deploying Confido,” said Michael Pascetta, Chief Financial Officer at Vision Innovation Partners. “We’re following up on patient balances even more, because the tool now makes outbound calls too. For me, that’s been a huge, huge win.”  

CareOS is also integrated with more than 50 existing systems of record, including EHRs, practice management systems, phone systems, billing systems, fax, and more, so provider groups can adopt it without replacing the technology stack they already run on.

“Healthcare administration is a trillion-dollar cost center, and for decades the only way to manage it was to hire more people,” said Vikram Vaidyanathan, Partner & Senior Managing Director, Z47. “Confido is building AI staffing for healthcare. Every provider runs on a different patchwork of systems, and Confido’s platform CareOS along with forward-deployed engineers make deployment seamless, so its virtual employees become an integral part of the workforce. Confido understands a clinic’s operations as well as the people running it. We’re excited to lead their Series A and back their vision of a hybrid healthcare workforce in the US.”

As private equity consolidation in healthcare accelerates, Confido is extending its systems-of-action model further into the operational back office of the practices it serves.

About Confido Health
Based in New York City, Confido Health builds and deploys AI agents for healthcare operations. By integrating with more than 50 systems of record without requiring any change to a practice’s existing tech stack, Confido increases an administrative staff’s capacity to serve patients, by automating routine tasks like appointment scheduling, insurance verification, billing, and patient outreach. Private equity-backed healthcare platforms use Confido to standardize patient access and operations across their portfolios, recovering lost revenue and expanding capacity without adding headcount. Learn more at www.confido.health.

SOURCE Confido Health

VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator Opens Applications for Inaugural Cohort

U.S. Army-backed initiative seeks U.S. biotechnology innovators developing technologies with potential defense and national-security applications

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 14, 2026 — The Defense Innovation Networking Group (D!NG) today announced that the submission window is officially open for the inaugural cohort of the Validation of Emerging Defense & Detection Equipment for Readiness (VEDDER) Biotechnology  Accelerator, a national initiative connecting biotechnology innovation with defense and national-security missions.

Selected by the U.S. Army to establish and operate VEDDER, D!NG received an $8 million first-year award, with four option years valued at a total of $95 million and a contract production ceiling of up to $500 million.

The accelerator is seeking U.S. biotechnology startups and other nontraditional innovators developing technologies with potential applications in biological threat detection, protection, response and defense readiness. The specific topics are: Rapid Small-Molecule Design for CBRN Medical Countermeasures and Low-SWaP Distributed Sensing with On-Device Edge AI.

For Cohort 1, applicants developing solutions in either Small-Molecule Drug Discovery or Distributed Sensing are invited to submit information about their technology, stage of development, potential defense applications, and technical or commercialization needs. Submissions are open through October 30, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Final eligibility and submission requirements are available through the official application process.

Biotechnology at Mission Speed

VEDDER will help biotechnology startups better understand government requirements, mature and validate promising technologies, access specialized resources and navigate the transition from commercial innovation to potential defense applications.

“America does not have an innovation problem. We have a translation problem–getting extraordinary technologies from talented companies into the hands of the people who need them,” said Heath Murray, Chairman of the Board of D!NG. “VEDDER gives us an opportunity to build a faster, more connected pathway between biotechnology innovators and the national-security mission.”

Greg Sapp, D!NG Board Member and VEDDER architect, said the accelerator is designed to make the Department of War (DoW) more accessible to emerging biotechnology companies.

“DoW should be able to reach the best American biotechnology innovation wherever it is being developed, and innovators should have a clearer path to understand and address national-security problems,” Sapp said. “VEDDER gives us the opportunity to connect mission, technology, capital, and execution so promising capabilities can move faster.”

Connecting Commercial Innovation to National Security

VEDDER is designed to address barriers biotechnology companies face when entering government markets by connecting participants with a networked ecosystem of resources, including technical validation, contracting and acquisition support, shared business services, legal support, mentorship, capital networks and strategic partnerships.

Interested companies can learn more and submit for Cohort 1 at www.dingusa.org/go/press-release-cohort1

What They’re Saying

Policymakers

“I am proud to have supported this Hoosier group’s application, and I am pleased they were selected and will play a key role in biotech innovation for our national security. This is another example of Indiana’s leadership in the biotech industry.”

  • U.S. Sen. Todd Young, Indiana  

“I applaud the Defense Innovation Networking Group for its leadership in advancing the VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator and for helping position Ohio at the forefront of biotechnology, biodefense, and national security innovation. This initiative is an important opportunity to strengthen America’s defense industrial base while building on Ohio’s growing role in defense, advanced manufacturing, and emerging technology. I’m proud to support D!NG’s work and excited to see the impact VEDDER can have for Ohio and the nation.”

  • State Representative Ty Mathews | 83rd Ohio House District

Life Sciences Community

“Biotechnology companies are developing capabilities with implications that extend well beyond traditional commercial markets. VEDDER can give innovators a clearer path to understand national-security focus areas, connect with new partners and access resources that can help promising technologies advance. Indiana’s deep life-sciences ecosystem makes our state an important part of that national conversation.”

  • Kristin Jones, President and CEO, Indiana Life Sciences Association

Academia

“Some of the most important advances in biotechnology happen when promising science is given a clear pathway from the laboratory to real-world application. The VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator can help create that pathway by bringing together innovators, technical expertise and mission-driven resources to advance technologies with the potential to strengthen human health, resilience and national security.”

  • Dr. Aleksandra Stankovic, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital

“Turning scientific innovation into capabilities that can address national-security challenges requires more than great research. Innovators also need access to advanced computing, secure research environments, technical expertise and pathways that allow them to work effectively with government. VEDDER can help bring those pieces together, connecting biotechnology innovators across the country with the infrastructure and resources needed to advance promising dual-use technologies toward real-world applications.”

  • Dr. Erik Deumens, Senior Director of Research Computing, University of Florida Information Technology

“Breakthrough biotechnology innovations can improve lives, strengthen our economy and enhance national security. VEDDER has the potential to help innovators accelerate the path from discovery to deployment by connecting them with the expertise, resources and partnerships needed to turn promising ideas into real-world solutions. We are proud to support an initiative that advances both scientific innovation and national readiness.”

  • Lucy Flesch, Frederick L. Hovde Dean of the College of Science, Purdue University

“Some of the most promising biotechnology breakthroughs begin with researchers and entrepreneurs who see an entirely new way to solve a difficult problem. Turning those ideas into companies, and ultimately into capabilities that can serve important national-security needs, requires the right connections, resources, and pathways to market. VEDDER can help create those pathways, giving emerging companies greater access to the expertise, partners, and government opportunities they need to move promising innovations from idea to impact.” 

  • Julie Heath, Associate Vice President, IU Innovates, Indiana University

Startup Community

“Some of the most consequential advances in biotechnology begin with early-stage companies tackling complex scientific challenges. Access to specialized laboratory facilities, capital, technical expertise, and industry partnerships can make the difference between a promising technology that stalls and one that reaches the market. The VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator creates an opportunity to connect those innovators with the expertise, resources, and mission-driven partnerships needed to turn promising technologies into meaningful capabilities for our national security.”

  • John Flavin, Founder and CEO of Portal Innovations

“Startups are built to move fast, but breaking into defense can be difficult—especially for biotechnology companies like MN8 that operate at the intersection of human performance, health and national security. VEDDER can give innovators a clearer path to understand Army needs, validate their technologies and turn commercial innovation into capabilities that strengthen warfighter readiness and performance.”

  • Stephen Schweickart, Co-founder, MN8

About VEDDER: The VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator is a national biotechnology accelerator designed to connect innovative U.S. companies with resources, expertise, capital and government pathways supporting potential national-security applications. VEDDER stands for Validation of Emerging Defense & Detection Equipment for Readiness.

About D!NG: The Defense Innovation Networking Group (D!NG) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization focused on strengthening the defense innovation ecosystem through collaboration, education and connections among industry, academia and government. www.DINGUSA.org The Defense Innovation Networking Group (D!NG) is a U.S. Government contractor and is not a government agency.

Media Contact
D!NG Communications Lead
[email protected]

SOURCE Defense Innovation Networking Group (D!NG)

Tamr Secures $21 Million in Growth Equity Investment Led by Volition Capital to Accelerate AI-Native Master Data Management

Investment will fuel continued innovation in agentic data management as enterprises move AI initiatives from pilot to production

BOSTON, Oct. 14, 2026 — Tamr, the leading AI-native master data management (MDM) platform, today announced $21 million in growth equity financing led by Volition Capital, a Boston-based growth equity firm, with participation from existing investors. The new capital will help Tamr fuel product innovation and expand the platform’s agentic data mastering capabilities.

AI agents today depend on clean, accurate data to operate effectively—yet many organizations still struggle with overlapping, incomplete, and inaccurate records across CRM, ERP, procurement, and other operational systems, as well as within their data warehouses and data lakes. As companies move from AI experiments to AI in production, the importance of a trusted data foundation increases dramatically. Tamr addresses this by unifying, cleaning, and enriching fragmented enterprise data—enabling organizations to work from a single source of truth and providing the context needed to power enterprise AI initiatives, improve decision-making, and drive revenue growth.

Dhesen Ramsamy, Group Chief Technology and Data Officer at Old Mutual, stated, “We are on the accelerated path to becoming an AI-led financial services organization, and that starts with having data that AI can trust. At our scale, mastering millions of records from multiple product systems, we chose Tamr with its AI-native approach as our group’s real-time MDM platform. Tamr has partnered closely with Old Mutual Group over the years, delivering solutions to problems that the legacy systems could not facilitate, and we view Tamr capabilities as foundational to our group growth ambitions.”

Originating from research at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Tamr was co-founded in 2013 by a team of academic innovators including Dr. Michael Stonebraker, winner of the 2014 ACM A.M. Turing Award; Andy Palmer, who now serves as chairman; Alex Pagan, Tamr CTO; Ihab Ilyas of the University of Waterloo; Daniel Bruckner; and George Beskales. The company holds 19 patents in AI/ML mastering, clustering, and data curation, and its platform is used by global enterprises across insurance, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, technology, retail, and higher education.

Led by CEO Anthony Deighton, Tamr enters this next phase of growth with strong momentum, having more than doubled its SaaS revenue in its prior fiscal year. This progress has been accompanied by continuous product innovation, with the company adding new, powerful AI agents to the platform and enhancing its unique Curator Hub, an agentic data curation capability that pairs AI agents with human expertise. Additional recent product developments include a “Bring Your Own Agent” architecture for low-code integration of custom AI agents; multi-domain mastering across products, locations, and custom entities; and enterprise knowledge graph functionality for identifying and leveraging cross-entity relationships.

With the new capital, Tamr plans to further advance its agentic capabilities, particularly around data curation and context delivery, while continuing to scale the platform’s underlying AI and operational infrastructure.

“As enterprises put AI to work across more of their operations, data quality and reliability become non-negotiable,” said Anthony Deighton, CEO of Tamr. “I believe the only way to solve the messy, siloed data problem in the enterprise is by using AI to prepare data for AI applications. This new investment and partnership with Volition enable us to accelerate development of the agentic capabilities our customers need to solve this problem at scale.”

Tomy Han, Partner at Volition Capital, said: “Enterprise AI programs stall most often at the data layer, and budgets are increasingly shifting toward the data foundation as a result. But legacy rules-based engines won’t solve the problem, and neither will AI bolted on to the side. Tamr is one of the very few data platforms that was AI-native before the term existed, where machine learning is the architecture and not a feature. That’s what drew us in, and it’s why blue-chip enterprises across industries have built their data foundations on Tamr.”

About Tamr
Tamr provides the leading AI-native master data management (MDM) solution — delivering the trusted data businesses need to power their AI initiatives. By unifying, cleaning and enriching fragmented enterprise data, Tamr helps organizations work from a single, up-to-date foundation that improves decision-making, customer experiences and revenue growth.

Tamr’s patented, agentic approach combines machine learning and AI agents with human oversight to scale data quality faster than traditional rules-based or DIY approaches. With intuitive 360-degree views linking records across silos, businesses can improve data accessibility and tap into the most accurate information in real time. Learn more at tamr.com.

About Volition Capital
Volition Capital is a Boston-based growth equity firm that principally invests in high-growth, founder-owned companies across the software, internet, and consumer sectors. Founded in 2010, Volition has over $2.6 billion in assets under management and has invested in more than 60 companies. The firm selectively partners with founders to help them achieve their fullest aspirations for their businesses. For more information, visit www.volitioncapital.com.

Media Contacts
Sara Card
[email protected]

Peter Moran
[email protected]

SOURCE Tamr

Blackbird.AI Launches ‘RAV3N Radar,’ Bringing Agentic Narrative Intelligence to Slack to Protect Organizations and Executives from Narrative Attacks

RAV3N Radar delivers decision-ready narrative intelligence insights from day one, with zero
learning curve and zero overhead, delivered where you work, directly to Slack

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2026 — Blackbird.AI, the leader in protecting organizations and executives from disinformation-based narrative attacks that cause financial, operational, reputational, and physical harm, announced today that it has expanded its agentic narrative intelligence product portfolio with the launch of ‘RAV3N Radar.’

RAV3N Radar provides continuous, automated early warning of narrative threats and opportunities across the entire digital landscape—24/7 monitoring, landscape insights, threat actors, velocity signals, topics, and escalation detection—turning what it finds into easy-to-understand, decision-ready intelligence delivered directly into Slack. RAV3N Radar is powered by Blackbird.AI’s groundbreaking, context-aware narrative intelligence agent, RAV3N Agent.

“AI has radically accelerated narrative attacks against organizations. Our customers want real-time, actionable narrative intelligence with full context, where they work. RAV3N Radar helps teams identify who’s targeting their organization and executives to coordinate better triaging and response,” said Wasim Khaled, CEO and Co-founder of Blackbird.AI. “Drawing on our work with leading brands and national security organizations, we’re bringing narrative intelligence into the agentic enterprise starting with Slack for its best-in-class Agentforce ecosystem. More integrations and our rapidly advancing actioning capabilities will unite people, agents, and intelligence in the flow of work to counter growing threats.”

With RAV3N Radar, organizations control exactly how real-time, actionable narrative intelligence reaches them: what to monitor, who receives it, when it’s sent, and where it’s delivered. Each brief/real-time alert documents:

  • The narrative – what’s being claimed, how it’s framed
  • The network spread – which platforms it is on and how fast it is moving
  • The actors and communities – Who is spreading it and which audiences it is reaching
  • The tactics – evidence of coordinated or artificial amplification, where the data supports it
  • What changed – which narratives are new, growing, or fading since the last brief
  • Supporting context and evidence – links to the source posts, with direct quotes

“At Vantor, we’ve found RAV3N Radar valuable for bringing media activity, sentiment, and emerging narrative threats into our daily situational awareness,” said Norm Laudermilch, Chief Information Security Officer at Vantor. “Its concise summaries help us connect narrative intelligence with traditional cyber threat intelligence and look for signals that could provide earlier warning of cyber attacks. It’s become a useful part of how we monitor a fast-changing information environment.”

The size and scale of harmful narrative attack campaigns continue to grow exponentially. “By 2028, Gartner predicts enterprise spending on battling misinformation and disinformation will surpass $30 billion, cannibalizing 10% of marketing and cybersecurity budgets to combat a multifront threat.” 

What makes Blackbird.AI RAV3N Radar unique

  • Zero learning curve. No new platform to master, and easy setup to get value on day one.
  • Fast time to insight. Actionable, decision-ready narrative intelligence starts flowing immediately after onboarding, not after a lengthy implementation
  • Built for every team, at every maturity level. Whether you’re standing up narrative intelligence for the first time or supplementing an existing security operations team or comms function, RAV3N Radar fits in seamlessly
  • Quick Actions, right in the channel. Kick off context-aware responses directly from Slack, including deep dives, disinformation contextual checks, or a request to Blackbird.AI’s RAV3N Watch Intelligence team for a full analyst report from subject matter experts.
  • Direct access. RAV3N Agent access in Slack lets you use natural language queries to explore alerts, insights, and threats further, and receive recommendations for next steps.
  • Meets you where you work. Delivers easy-to-understand, decision-ready intelligence directly to Slack or email.
  • A natural next step. When something warrants deeper investigation, escalate directly to Blackbird.AI’s Constellation Narrative Intelligence Platform or request a Blackbird.AI RAV3N Watch Intelligence analyst report — without switching tools
  • Operates alongside your agents. Blackbird.AI’s MCP protocol enhances what your team already uses.

The World Economic Forum named narrative attacks a top global threat, and they now move at machine speed,” said Naushad UzZaman, CTO and Co-founder of Blackbird.AI. “Our answer is agents that do the research and deep analysis so people can make informed and actionable decisions to significantly reduce risk. RAV3N Radar runs continuously, investigates follow-up questions on demand, and works alongside the other agents a team already uses in Slack.”

Narrative attacks now target leadership teams, global brands, and national security organizations. A recent example includes foreign nation-states targeting the data center industry, as seen in this Blackbird.AI RAV3N team report, ‘How Hostile Foreign State-Aligned Networks Amplify America’s Data Center Backlash.’

To see how RAV3N Radar works firsthand, request a demonstration here.

Gartner® has positioned Blackbird.AI as a Market Shaper in ‘The Emerging Market Quadrant for Narrative Intelligence – Startup Vendors as of June 2026.’ The company placed highest for Potential to Execute and furthest to the right for Potential for Market Disruption. A RAV3N blog summarizing the Gartner report is available here.

Gartner recently published a report titled “AI Vendor Race: Blackbird.AI Is the Company to Beat for Disinformation Narrative Intelligence.” In the report, Gartner states that “Blackbird.AI’s strong brand, defining thought leadership, industry-first feature expansion, and key partnerships make it the frontrunner in the disinformation narrative intelligence AI race.”

Source: Gartner Report, “Emerging Market Quadrant for Narrative Intelligence,” 26 June 2026: By Alfredo Ramirez IV, Apeksha Kaushik, Akif Khan, Amber Boyes, and David Senf.

Source: Gartner®, Press Release, 21 October 2025, “Gartner Predicts Enterprise Spending on Battling Misinformation and Disinformation Will Surpass $30 Billion by 2028.”

Source: Gartner®, AI Vendor Race: Blackbird.AI Is the Company to Beat for Disinformation Narrative Intelligence, Alfredo Ramirez IV et al., 8 December 2025

GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product, or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Blackbird.AI
BLACKBIRD.AI protects executives and organizations from narrative-based disinformation attacks that cause financial, operational, reputational, and physical harm. Our AI-driven Narrative Intelligence Platform identifies key narratives that impact your executives, organization, and industry; the influence behind them; the networks they touch; the anomalous behavior that scales them; and the cohorts and communities that connect them. This information enables organizations to proactively assess narrative threats as they scale and become harmful, thereby improving strategic decision-making. A diverse team of AI experts, threat intelligence analysts, and national security professionals founded Blackbird.AI to defend information integrity and fight a new class of narrative threats. To learn more, visit Blackbird.AI.

Media Contact:
Daniel Patterson
[email protected]

SOURCE Blackbird.AI