NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2026 — Paine Schwartz Partners (“Paine Schwartz”), the largest private equity firm dedicated to sustainable food chain investing, today announced that Paine Schwartz Food Chain Fund VI has successfully completed a strategic investment in First Day Life, Inc. (“First Day” or the “Company”), a family-focused wellness brand, in partnership with founder Alice Li. This investment aligns with Paine Schwartz’s health and wellness core investment theme and builds on the firm’s track record in the consumer and better-for-you space, including its current investments in Promix, Suja Life, and BetterCo Holdings. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Austin, TX, First Day offers science-informed, clean-label vitamins, minerals, and supplement products designed for the whole family. The Company’s products include high-bioavailability multivitamin, magnesium, tribiotic, and brain-support formulations sold through direct-to-consumer, Amazon, and retail channels. Since 2019, First Day has sold over half a billion gummies, helping millions of families live healthier days.

Founder and CEO Alice Li, who has led First Day since inception, will continue to lead the Company with support from the Paine Schwartz team. “Our mission is to help families live healthier lives,” said Alice Li. “We’re making clinical science approachable through products that deliver meaningful results. Paine Schwartz sees not just what we’ve built, but the full potential of what we can achieve. Their experience scaling better-for-you brands, combined with their conviction in our mission, makes them an exceptional partner as we build a defining omnichannel family health brand that supports every member of the family, at every stage of life, wherever they shop. I’m incredibly excited about what we’ll build together. We’re just getting started.”

Kevin Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer of Paine Schwartz, said, “First Day is directly aligned with our core thesis of investing in health and wellness companies that provide access to healthier, more nutritious products. In a category where consumers are increasingly focused on ingredient quality and efficacy, Alice has built a brand that stands apart, scaling First Day with remarkable capital efficiency while earning the trust of over one million families. We look forward to partnering with her and the team and supporting the Company’s next phase of growth.”

Perella Weinberg Partners served as financial advisor and Greenberg Glusker LLP served as legal counsel to First Day. Morrison & Foerster LLP served as legal advisor to Paine Schwartz Partners on this transaction.

About Paine Schwartz Partners
Paine Schwartz Partners is the largest private equity firm dedicated to sustainable food chain investing, with ~$6.5 billion of AUM and over 20 years of experience. The firm invests across specific segments of the food and agribusiness value chain, with a focus on two core investment themes: productivity and sustainability and health and wellness. Through its proactive, thesis-driven approach, the firm targets value-added and differentiated companies and makes primarily control buyout investments, with a smaller allocation to growth companies. For further information, please see www.paineschwartz.com.

About First Day
Founded in 2019, First Day is one of the fastest-growing health and wellness brands, creating science-backed vitamins and supplements designed for the whole family. Known for its No Junk commitment, First Day formulates products without artificial sugars, dyes, fillers, or unnecessary ingredients, using clinically studied nutrients that are designed for optimal absorption. Trusted by over 1 million families, First Day continues to set a new standard for clean, effective, and delicious nutrition. For further information, please see www.firstday.com.

Contacts:
Paine Schwartz Media Contact
Andy Brimmer / Aaron Palash
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
+1 212-355-4449

SOURCE Paine Schwartz Partners

BOSTON, Oct. 22, 2026 — Fort Point Capital (“Fort Point”), a Boston-based private equity firm that invests in service-oriented businesses in the lower middle market, announced today that it has successfully completed the sale of its investment in AMS Fulfillment (“AMS” or the “Company”) to Stord, a commerce-enablement leader providing high-volume fulfillment services and e-commerce technology for leading brands headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Founded in 2002 by Jay Catlin and his partners in Valencia, California, AMS has grown from 15 employees serving a single client into a leading omnichannel fulfillment partner for premium consumer brands, with a particular focus on beauty and wellness. The Company provides a fulsome suite of direct-to-consumer and B2B retail fulfillment and freight management services, delivered through a high-touch, partnership approach to client service. AMS serves as the exclusive North American fulfillment provider for more than 95% of its brand partners.

Since its investment in 2019, Fort Point has worked closely with management to implement a sustainable growth strategy and provided the resources and tools necessary to scale the business. In partnership with Fort Point, AMS built a national fulfillment network, invested in its proprietary technology platform, including warehouse management with automation solutions, client support and shipping optimization tools, to become a premier high-touch fulfillment partner for digitally native and established consumer brands. In January 2020, AMS acquired Echo Data, an East Coast omnichannel fulfillment provider founded in 1991 with facilities in Pennsylvania and Delaware, establishing AMS’s bi-coastal fulfillment capabilities. In 2026, AMS completed its acquisition of Vox Fulfillment, adding more than 200,000 square feet of warehouse operations in Provo, Utah and creating a fulfillment network spanning the West Coast, Mountain West and East Coast. Today, AMS operates a national, multi-site fulfillment network, serving a roster of leading beauty, apparel and consumer brands with the scale, technology and high-touch service that position the Company for its next chapter of growth as part of Stord.

“As a B-Corp, AMS was built on an employee centric culture focused on providing the best service to our customers in an environmentally sustainable manner. In Fort Point, we found a partner who helped us further our impact and improve our services to customers while supporting the growth of the Company,” said Jay Catlin, co-founder of AMS Fulfillment.

“I am grateful for the support Fort Point provided during their hold and excited about the future for AMS. The Fort Point team provided strong M&A support and steady strategic guidance enabling us to invest in our technology, people and customers. We look forward to continuing to serve our customers under the Stord banner offering best-in-class fulfillment services,” said Greg Morello, Chief Executive Officer of AMS Fulfillment.

“We are proud of all that the AMS team has accomplished during our hold and are excited to see the continued growth of the Company. They showed a clear commitment to exceptional service and long-term relationships while executing against the growth plan and building a highly valuable company,” said Fort Point Partner, Christina Pai.

Lincoln International served as exclusive financial advisor to AMS, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal counsel to the Company.

About AMS Fulfillment

Headquartered in Valencia, California, AMS Fulfillment is a full-service outsourced logistics provider offering order management, warehouse and inventory management, reverse logistics and other value-added, complex fulfillment services to fast-growing consumer products companies primarily in the beauty/cosmetics, apparel, footwear and accessories sectors. With facilities on the West Coast, East Coast and in the Mountain West, AMS supports both direct-to-consumer and retail distribution. Learn more at amsfulfillment.com.

About Fort Point Capital

Fort Point Capital brings a management-led, growth-oriented approach to private equity investing, targeting fragmented sectors of the business services industry. Founded in Boston in 2011, Fort Point partners with founders and management teams to accelerate growth by providing resources to expand teams and infrastructure, improve service offerings, access new markets, and support follow-on acquisitions. Fort Point fulfills its commitment to management, employees and shareholders by employing a repeatable process to drive durable value, showcased in over 60 acquisitions since its inception. Fort Point is currently investing from FPC Small Cap Fund III. To learn more, please visit fortpointcapital.com.

The above quotes were provided by Greg Morello, Chief Executive Officer of AMS, and Jay Catlin, Chief Revenue Officer. Mr. Morello and Mr. Catlin are not investors in any Fort Point fund and were not paid for the quote included above. However, due to their positions at AMS, they may be inclined to have a favorable view of Fort Point Capital.

SOURCE Fort Point Capital

A single source of truth for modern finance and procurement teams with intake, procurement and payment context in one record.

Customers can accelerate payment cycles, resolve invoicing discrepancies, optimize budgets and unlock improved terms from their suppliers.

LONDON, Oct. 22, 2026 — Vertice, the AI procurement platform built for the modern enterprise, today launched its Procure-to-Pay (P2P) capability. This significantly extends Vertice’s capabilities beyond Intake-to-Procure (I2P), creating a single, consistent record from request to payment, and ensuring procurement and finance work seamlessly from a single source of truth.

Vertice P2P covers the entire procure-to-pay process, from invoice capture and processing, to PO matching, spend controls and payments.

Purchase orders, invoices and payment sit on the same record as the original request, approvals, negotiation history and contract. Finance and AP teams are now able to spend less time reconciling invoices, and are given the context and capabilities to deliver greater savings and more accurate predictive budgets. 

Vertice’s unique difference lies in the wider context it provides behind each contract and invoice. Its proprietary procurement intelligence dataset – the largest of its kind in the world – provides current market context from $75bn of spend across 32,000 vendors. This allows finance teams to ensure the best deal was negotiated, as well as budget more accurately based on vendor pricing changes, optimize working capital through improved payment terms, and identify early payment discount opportunities. 

“More than 10% of contract value leaks away after signature through missed early payment discounts and suboptimal payment terms. Finance teams can’t protect value if all they can see is a PO and an invoice. We are giving Finance the visibility, context and automation they need to easily plug these leaks. They can generate real strategic value for their businesses by accelerating innovation, removing discrepancies, optimizing spend and budgeting much more accurately.”

Eldar Tuvey, CEO and Founder of Vertice

“Vertice has established a clear reputation for innovation, user experience and commercial outcomes in Intake-to-Procure, even being named a Leader in the 2026 IDC MarketScape. This position was based in no small part on the context they are able to deliver with their proprietary procurement intelligence dataset. Bringing this to the Procure-to-Pay process is the next logical step, and has the potential to be differentiating.”

Patrick Reymann, Research Director – Procurement Applications and Agents at IDC

Customers have unlocked faster payment cycles, better terms or sharper cost forecasts for more than 80% of suppliers run through Vertice’s P2P.

Vertice’s proven AI capabilities have been expanded throughout the entire P2P platform, including invoice intelligence agents that classify documents; extract critical data; reconcile against POs, contract terms and budgets; and enrich with GL codes and audit trails.

Early P2P customers’ Finance and AP teams are already using Vertice P2P to:

• Resolve complex invoice discrepancies.
• See where vendors are showing greater flexibility in pricing and terms, and re-negotiate contracts early.
• Recover working capital through better use of payment terms.
• Capture early-payment discounts.
• Dynamically adjust budgets as vendor pricing shifts.

Procure-to-Pay is available now as part of the Vertice platform. Learn more at vertice.one/procure-to-pay.

Notes to Editors

“More than 10% of contract value leaks away after signature” – World Commerce & Contracting, Closing the Procurement Value Gap: How Smarter Contracting Can Prevent 11% Value Leakage, January 2026 https://info.worldcc.com/closing-the-procurement-value-gap 

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Spend Orchestration 2026 Vendor Assessment #US54663526, July 2026

About Vertice

Vertice is the intelligent procurement platform built for the modern enterprise. By uniting agentic workflows, AI-powered insights, and expert buying talent, we enable finance and procurement teams in 100+ countries to operate with greater precision, speed, and impact.

Customers including ARM, Brex, Duolingo, Twilio and Santander use Vertice’s platform to review, analyze and negotiate purchases with greater confidence. Vertice processes over $75 billion in spend, with a proven track record of delivering 20%+ savings and accelerating procurement cycles by 2x.

Headquartered in London and recognized by the Financial Times as the UK’s fastest growing scale-up, Vertice also operates in New York, Sydney, Brno, Linz and Johannesburg. Learn more at www.vertice.one.

SOURCE Vertice

The first exchange-traded fund under Swiss law to invest directly in bitcoin, approved for retail investors in Switzerland

ZURICH, Oct. 22, 2026 — BIT Asset Management AG (“BIT AM”), the wholly owned Swiss asset management subsidiary of BIT (www.bit.com), announced that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has approved the Bitcoin Fund ETF (Ticker: BBIT). As confirmed in FINMA’s announcement, it is the first exchange-traded fund in Switzerland to invest directly in bitcoin. It is currently Europe’s only spot bitcoin ETF.

The fund is expected to begin trading on SIX Swiss Exchange in November.

Bitcoin Fund ETF (BBIT)

A spot bitcoin ETF is designed to track the price of bitcoin and can be traded through an ordinary brokerage account. It holds bitcoin directly rather than futures or derivatives. This is the structure that brought bitcoin into mainstream portfolios in the United States, where BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and ten other spot bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024.

Most bitcoin products listed in Europe today are exchange-traded products (ETPs), which are debt instruments that carry issuer risk. The Bitcoin Fund ETF is instead a Swiss collective investment scheme. Its assets are held separately from those of the fund management company and are ring-fenced for investors. The fund is open to retail investors in Switzerland, not only qualified investors.

“Switzerland has established itself as a leading hub for digital assets, combining a strong financial sector, regulatory clarity and an innovative ecosystem,” said John Ge, CEO of BIT Group. “For BIT Group, this makes Switzerland a natural choice for our continued international expansion. Launching the first Swiss Bitcoin ETF is an important milestone for us, reflecting our long-term commitment to the Swiss market and our ambition to bridge traditional finance with emerging technologies.”

“With BBIT, we set out to create a truly Swiss Bitcoin ETF, from fund management and custody to its listing on SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors gain direct exposure to Bitcoin through a FINMA-approved Swiss investment fund, benefiting from the regulatory oversight and investor protections of Switzerland’s established collective investment scheme framework.” said Dominik Oggenfuss, CEO of BIT Asset Management. “Investors can now access bitcoin through an ordinary Swiss bank account, with Swiss fund governance, independent custody and daily transparency on holdings.”

Disclaimer: Investing in the Bitcoin Fund ETF involves a high degree of risk, and you may lose all of your capital. The fund is classified under the Swiss regulatory category “Other alternative investment funds” with particular risk and invests exclusively in Bitcoin, which is extremely volatile. The investment fund risks are not comparable to those of securities funds, and temporary borrowing may increase its total risk exposure to a maximum of 125% of its net asset value. Investors should read the fund documentation and risk warnings before investing. The fund is approved for public offering in Switzerland only. This announcement is for information only and is not an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction. It is not directed at persons in the US or at U.S. persons.

About BIT Asset Management

BIT Asset Management AG is a Zurich-based manager of collective assets regulated by FINMA, and a wholly owned subsidiary of BIT. Formerly Crypto Finance (Asset Management) AG, it was acquired in full by the Group in 2024 and renamed Matrixport Asset Management AG before taking its current name. It offers regulated funds, exchange-traded products, actively managed certificates and discretionary asset management services, bridging traditional finance and digital assets. The company is led by CEO Dominik Oggenfuss.

About BIT

Founded in 2019 as Matrixport, BIT is an all-in-one digital asset platform headquartered in Singapore. It offers trading, investment, payment, custody and real-world asset tokenization. Through its subsidiaries, BIT holds Trust or Company Service Provider and Money Lender licences in Hong Kong, Major Payment Institution license in Singapore, and a FINMA licence as a manager of collective assets in Switzerland. Through its subsidiaries, BIT operates as an Appointed Representative in the UK, is registered as a Money Services Business in the US and is a member of the Swiss self-regulatory organisation VQF.

SOURCE BIT Asset Management AG

SEDI-CASE, Global Asset Management Group (GAMG), Alexander Hamilton Opportunity Zone Fund, and TriFactor Capital Markets Network Deploy Cross-Border Public Capital Marketplace

ST. CROIX, U.S. Virgin Islands, Oct. 21, 2026 — Following the definitive executive announcement by United States Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan Jr. on September 30, 2026 regarding the launch of the 3rd Wall Street Financial District Hub Initiative, an institutional strategic collaboration has been finalized to implement a powerful public capital marketplace for real estate acquisitions, community infrastructure economic revitalization, restoration, and regional development across the Territory.

According to statement benchmarks explicitly confirmed by Anthony Weeks, Special Economic Envoy and SEDI-CASE Managing Director, this paradigm-shifting initiative directly bridges localized Caribbean property development goals with premier international financial pipelines. “By establishing this infrastructure, we are successfully connecting the immense liquidity nodes of New York Wall Street and Wall Street South Florida with the tremendous opportunity landscape of St. Croix, creating a highly structured cross-border ecosystem for commerce, trade, and financial onshoring,” stated Envoy Weeks.

The integrated network aligns the public capitalization architecture of Global Asset Management Group Inc. (OTCBQB: GAMG) and the targeted tax-sheltered investment tracks of the Alexander Hamilton Opportunity Zone Fund. Together with the clearing technology of the TriFactor Capital Markets Network, this coalition will establish the USVI very first public capital markets vehicle capable of driving long-term capital into community infrastructure restoration and Class-A commercial assets, centered on the physical execution of the St. Croix 3rd Wall Street Hub. This new public capital marketplace will also enable private local companies to go public if they elected to do so.

Capital deployed through Qualified Opportunity Zone structures may be eligible for certain tax advantages under applicable federal law. The availability and extent of any such benefits depend upon individual investor circumstances, applicable regulations, investment structure, and continued compliance with legal requirements. Prospective investors should consult their own legal, tax, and financial advisors regarding any potential tax consequences. Onboarding procedures are functioning under SEC Rule 255 ‘Testing the Waters’ rules, allowing participants to register priority allocations via non-binding indications of interest.

About SEDI-CASE & Invest: USVI SEDI-CASE

is an economic integration and project development organization focused on enhancing regional trade, commerce, technology, and global capital deployment frameworks for the U.S. Virgin Islands. For authoritative project updates, download links, and compliance tracking, visit the official interface at www.sedivision.org.

This release contains forward-looking statements regarding anticipated collaborations, capital formation initiatives, economic development activities, real estate acquisitions, infrastructure projects, investment opportunities, and related business objectives. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks, uncertainties, regulatory approvals, financing considerations, market conditions, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. No assurance can be given that any contemplated transaction, project, or initiative will be completed as described or at all.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

References to governmental initiatives, public officials, economic development programs, and regional development objectives are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of any company, investment opportunity, security, or commercial undertaking. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any securities-related activities, if undertaken, will be conducted in compliance with applicable federal and state securities laws and pursuant to applicable offering materials.

SOURCE Global Asset Management Group

Investment to Accelerate DashFuel’s Mission to Modernize Operations for Petroleum Wholesalers and Fuel Carriers

DashFuel has received a growth investment from Five Elms Capital to accelerate its mission to build the definitive operating platform for the petroleum distribution industry.

The investment will fund continued expansion of DashFuel’s platform and AI capabilities and go-to-market reach, enabling the company to serve a growing customer base while keeping best-in-class customer experience as a core piece of strategy.

Five Elms Capital brings deep experience scaling vertical SaaS businesses and will support DashFuel as it continues to grow and innovate.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 21, 2026 — DashFuel, a platform for petroleum wholesalers, carriers, and retailers, announced a growth investment from Five Elms Capital. The partnership will accelerate DashFuel’s product roadmap and go-to-market efforts, while growing the team to better serve a rapidly expanding customer base.

Petroleum distribution is one of the most operationally demanding industries in the economy, requiring operators to manage pricing volatility, multi-step logistics coordination, and complex regulatory compliance, often across disconnected systems and manual workflows. DashFuel, founded in 2022, is purpose-built for the operational complexity of petroleum distribution.

The platform unifies quoting, tank monitoring, dispatch, delivery, billing reconciliation, and back-office integration into a single cloud-native system, giving petroleum operators the visibility, automation, and control to run more efficiently and profitably. That depth earns DashFuel a mission-critical role in daily operations and translates into measurable outcomes for customers. Paired with a relentless focus on customer support, it has allowed DashFuel to build deep trust with a rapidly growing customer base and sustain exceptional retention.

“Petroleum distribution runs on thin margins and moves fast, prices shift multiple times a day, and a single operational miss can cost thousands of dollars and a customer relationship,” said Miles Moen, Founder & CEO of DashFuel. “We built DashFuel to give operators the infrastructure to compete: real-time visibility, intelligent automation, and end-to-end workflow control that the industry has long needed. This investment lets us build faster and reach more of the market that needs it.”

With Five Elms’ backing, DashFuel will deepen and expand its core platform capabilities, including continued investment in AI-powered automation and workflow intelligence. The company will build out its go-to-market function while continuing to invest in customer success to ensure they maintain the same level of high-quality support as they scale. 

Thomas Kershisnik, Partner at Five Elms Capital, commented on the investment: “DashFuel has built something genuinely rare: a modern, end-to-end platform with a team that has earned deep customer trust by delivering real, measurable results. The petroleum distribution market is large, underserved by legacy technology, and ready for a purpose-built solution like DashFuel. We’re excited to partner with Miles and the team as they scale.”

About DashFuel
DashFuel is a platform for petroleum wholesalers, carriers, and retailers. The platform consolidates quoting, tank monitoring, dispatch, delivery, billing, reconciliation, and back-office integration into a single system — enabling wholesalers and carriers of every size to automate manual workflows, capture more margin, and scale operations without adding headcount. Trusted by a rapidly growing customer base across the United States, DashFuel has achieved impressive gross and net revenue retention. Founded in 2022, DashFuel is purpose-built for the operational complexity of petroleum distribution. For more information, please visit dashfuel.com.

About Five Elms Capital
Five Elms Capital is a growth investor in B2B software companies delivering innovative, AI-powered solutions to vertical end markets. We provide capital and resources to help companies accelerate growth and further cement their role as industry leaders.

With over $3 billion in assets under management and a team of over 80 professionals, Five Elms has invested in more than 70 software platforms worldwide. Beyond providing capital, Five Elms delivers strategic and operational expertise, focused on executing initiatives that move the needle on AI, growth, retention, and product to set companies up for long-term success. For more information, visit fiveelms.com.

SOURCE Five Elms Capital

NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2026 — Whop, the technology company on a mission to deliver everyone a sustainable income, today announced a $200 million Series D at a $5.1 billion valuation, led by Sequoia and Shopify Ventures. The new capital will accelerate Whop’s global expansion and R&D efforts to make payment and advertising markets radically more efficient. This round marks Whop’s second fundraise this year following an announcement of a $200 million strategic investment from Tether at a $1.6B valuation in February 2026.

Work is fundamentally changing and AI is calling traditional career paths into question. Entry level job opportunities are at an all time low (Forbes). For a generation starting in a hole, Whop is a way for individuals to own their economic futures.

Whop’s core customers are business operators, ranging from heads of product at high growth startups, to 16 year old first time entrepreneurs. Whop provides business operators with a gamified UI and extensive API, powering distribution, business creation, and money.

Roughly 25,000 business operators generate $550M on Whop each month. Whop also delivers an income to more than 50,000 other people who provide value to the businesses every month.

“We take inspiration from the traditional economy in designing Whop, and because businesses are the primary conduit by which people earn money and create value, we focus on them as our primary customer,” said Steven Schwartz, Co-founder and CEO of Whop.

Most businesses on Whop service hyper specific customer needs, rather than broad mass-market products. The internet has made it possible to reach customers in markets that were once too small or fragmented to build a business around. Businesses built natively on Whop include invoicing software for trucking companies, emergency tree removal services, private jet booking platforms, neobanks for dropshippers, and marketplaces supplying data to humanoid robotics companies.

“They’re doing about a half billion revenue, business is doing great, and we’re helping humanity create businesses for people who can’t find a job”, said Doug Leone, Partner at Sequoia Capital.

In the past three months, Whop has launched:

• Business Blueprints, which lets new operators launch a ready-to-sell business in a few clicks. Over 21,000 businesses have been created via Blueprints since the product launched 6 weeks ago.
• Whop CLI, which debuted in July, making Whop’s API compatible with any AI agent and allowing operators to run their businesses via prompts. The Whop CLI and MCP connectors collectively receive over 350,000 calls per day with over 14,700 monthly active users.
• Economic Intelligence, a decision engine trained on millions of transactions that recommends the highest-ROI next move for each business. To access Economic Intelligence, businesses give an extra percentage of the revenue earned from using the system.

Whop is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with offices in New York and is hiring across engineering, product, sales, and operations.

About Whop

Whop is a technology company on a mission to deliver everyone a sustainable income. Our vision is to create the world’s largest internet market, where everybody can pursue a more lucrative and fulfilling livelihood. Whop provides business operators with a gamified GUI and extensive API powering distribution, business creation, and money. Today, Whop facilitates over $7 billion in on-platform transactions to people in 185 countries. For more information, visit whop.com.

Media Contact

[email protected] 

SOURCE Whop

Watchtower uses AI, simulation, and optimization to help military planners anticipate what happens next and evaluate options while there is still time to act

SEATTLE, Oct. 21, 2026 — Watchtower Labs today emerged from stealth with $35 million in seed financing led by Shield Capital and Conviction, with participation from Founders Fund. The company is building AI-native applications that help military leaders and planners anticipate what happens next in an operation, evaluate their options, and make decisions while there is still time to act.

Watchtower is starting with logistics planning, where transport, spare parts, fuel, munitions, routes, and time can determine whether a mission is executable. “We started this company on the vision of leaders who understood what AI could bring to our most consequential decisions,” said Akhil Iyer, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Watchtower Labs. “These conditions can change faster than traditional planning processes can keep pace, forcing staff to continually reassess plans under increasing time pressure.”

Watchtower models hundreds of possible futures against real-world operational constraints, generates executable options, and shows the assumptions and tradeoffs behind each one. Planners can ask questions in plain language, while decision makers remain in control of what happens next.

In 2025, Watchtower Labs partnered with the Naval Postgraduate School to inform the system’s development through operations research, operationally relevant data, and collaboration with defense practitioners. In January 2026, the Defense Innovation Unit selected Watchtower under the Joint Sustainment Decision Tool program, designed to support operational and joint commands with advanced decision-support capabilities.

“An entire generation of companies is being built from scratch on what AI can now do, against the most challenging geopolitical environment in decades,” said Raj Shah, Founder and Managing Partner at Shield Capital and Chairman of Watchtower Labs. “Shield Capital sits at that intersection, bringing frontier technology together with teams that understand the mission.”

Watchtower Labs was incubated within Shield Capital and co-founded by Iyer, a former Marine special operations officer and Shield Capital investor, alongside Souren Aghajanyan and John Morman, seasoned Microsoft engineering leaders who spent years building large-scale distributed systems. The combination brings together engineers who have built systems at scale with operators who have lived the planning problems Watchtower is designed to solve.

“AI is accelerating the pace, quality and communication of decision-making across the commercial realm,” said Sarah Guo, Founder of Conviction. “Its impact is still nascent in the realm of national security, but it will be decisive. Logistics is the backbone of our military’s power, and yet we’re stuck in the Stone Age. Our ability to simulate our capabilities, our adversaries, and our options remains painfully inadequate. The Watchtower team uniquely understands this problem, and is prepared to solve it for decisive advantage.”

The financing will support team growth, an expanding set of applications built on Watchtower’s core platform, and continued testing and deployment as the technology extends beyond sustainment into broader operational planning.

About Watchtower Labs
Watchtower Labs builds software that helps decision makers and planners understand what happens next and determine what to do about it. Its AI-native decision environment combines simulation, optimization and AI to model real-world constraints, generate and stress-test executable courses of action across hundreds of possible futures, and help teams adapt as conditions change. Developed initially for military sustainment alongside operational users, Watchtower is expanding across high-stakes operations where conditions change quickly, resources are constrained and plans must adapt. For more information, visit www.watchtowerlabs.ai.

About Shield Capital
Shield Capital is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies building technology in artificial intelligence, autonomy, cybersecurity and space. SHIELD’s experienced team of company founders, investors and national security leaders is mission-focused to support the entrepreneurs addressing challenges and opportunities at the nexus of commercial industry and national security. At SHIELD, the Mission Matters. Learn more at www.shieldcap.com.

About Conviction Partners
Conviction Partners was founded in 2022 to help extraordinary founders build the most important companies of tomorrow. They are early partners to the world’s leading AI companies — including Baseten, Cognition, Harvey, Instinct, OpenEvidence, Sierra and Thinking Machines.

Media Contact
Inkhouse for Watchtower
[email protected] 

SOURCE Watchtower

Fulcrum and Slalom work together to empower electrical, gas, and water utilities businesses to prioritize and realize the full potential of their AI investments

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 21, 2026 — Fulcrum, the Field Operations Management (FOM) platform for utilities and the service providers who serve them, today announced that it is working with Slalom, the fiercely human business and technology company. Together, the companies will help develop and deliver AI transformation solutions for field operations and business initiatives that require high-quality field data for analysis, process automation, and digital transformation.

“Utility leaders are being asked to invest in AI and to prove it pays off, and in field operations the payoff happens in the field,” said Jim Grady, CEO of Fulcrum. “Slalom helps utilities decide where AI will make the biggest difference and measure what it delivers. Fulcrum replaces the many narrowly scoped field apps and all the pen and paper with a single platform for field operations, so AI gets the whole job to work on, not one slice of it.”

AI investments can’t improve utility business outcomes when operational field data remains fragmented across single-purpose mobile apps, spreadsheets, and paper forms. From routine inspections to storm restoration, unreliable frontline data undermines enterprise AI initiatives, while traditional office-based tools fail to solve the operational realities of field work.

Fulcrum replaces fragmented field tools with a single platform for running, recording, and closing out work. Slalom adds the strategy, tools, and services to help utilities scale AI transformation, process redesign, and adoption. Their AI Value Platform helps clients prioritize where to deploy AI, quantify value before investing, and measure realized outcomes. Together, Fulcrum and Slalom put AI to work in three areas.

AI for field operations. Fulcrum puts AI where fieldwork happens: Audio FastFill turns a crew member’s spoken observations into structured form entries, hands-free. Fulcrum Insights improves office-based decision-making by answering plain-language questions against the complete field record. Finally, teams also use AI to build on Fulcrum: they describe the workflow they need and get back a working tool that inherits Fulcrum’s security model, permissions, GIS and offline sync. Slalom helps organizations identify where these AI capabilities can make a practical difference and integrate them into field and office workflows. By enabling field teams to self-serve using a governed system, Fulcrum increases flexibility without encouraging shadow IT.

A data foundation for enterprise AI. Fulcrum validates every record at capture and ties it to a location, a time and a person, giving enterprise AI high-quality, defensible data it can put to work immediately. Teams can track where materials are installed for warranty work, how quickly inventory is used and where loss and breakage occur, then compare those patterns across projects. Slalom helps clients connect this trusted field data to enterprise priorities, so teams can build a path from better records to useful analytics and AI. As records accumulate and a reliable historical record develops, the same data supports periodic anomaly detection across projects. It also powers predictive models that guide asset maintenance and the vegetation work that reduces wildfire risk.

Quantifying the return on AI. Slalom’s 2026 Global AI Insights Survey found that 91% of organizations plan to increase AI investment in 2026, yet only 39% track ROI. Slalom’s AI Value Platform helps utilities assess and prioritize AI use cases based on business value and impact. As part of this collaboration, the platform can quantify benefits such as defensible records and decision-grade data, identify high-impact use cases, and track realized value against forecasts after go-live. It’s proving the business case rather than simply promising it.

“Utilities are increasingly investing in AI as they respond to rising energy demand and prepare for more frequent extreme weather events and emergencies,” said Tim Stafford, Global Lead for Energy & Natural Resources at Slalom. “Slalom brings the industry perspective and transformation experience to help utilities turn trusted field data into AI-powered operations, integrated with existing enterprise systems they rely on. Together with Fulcrum, we enable utilities to provide crews and leaders with defensible information to act with confidence and deliver critical work safely and reliably.”

Utilities should visit fulcrumapp.com to contact their Fulcrum team to assess how Fulcrum and Slalom’s joint capabilities can improve their business.

About Fulcrum

Fulcrum is the AI-native field operations management platform: the platform field organizations use to run, record, and close out their work. Almost 3,000 companies, across electric, gas, water and wastewater utilities and the service providers who serve them, use Fulcrum for asset management, vegetation management, linear construction, and disaster recovery and emergency response. Learn more at fulcrumapp.com.

About Slalom

Slalom is a fiercely human business and technology consulting company that leads with outcomes and champions leaders to dream big and build now. From strategy through delivery, our agile teams across 54 offices in 12 countries collaborate with clients to bring powerful customer experiences, innovative ways of working, and new products and services to life. We are trusted by leaders across the Global 1000, many successful enterprise and mid-market companies, and 500+ public sector organizations to improve operations, drive growth, and create value. At Slalom, we believe that together, we can move faster, dream bigger, and build better tomorrows for all.

SOURCE Fulcrum