With this year’s record-setting achievement, Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma has raised nearly $40 million since its founding in 2011 by Jeff Rowbottom of General Atlantic and Brendan Dillon of Veritas Capital. What began as a grassroots effort among industry colleagues has grown into one of the most impactful philanthropic initiatives in cancer research, demonstrating the extraordinary power of the financial community to accelerate scientific discovery and improve patient outcomes. Today, that vision continues to fuel research that is transforming outcomes for melanoma patients and creating ripple effects across cancer research.

“Fifteen years ago, we set out to build something that would make a meaningful difference in the fight against melanoma. We could not have imagined the scale of what this community would accomplish together,” said Jeff Rowbottom, LFFM Co-Founder. “Almost $40 million later, the impact extends far beyond dollars raised. It can be seen in the scientists pursuing bold ideas, the treatments reaching patients, and the lives being extended because research was given a chance. What makes LFFM so special is that this industry has embraced the belief that investing in medical research is one of the most meaningful investments we can make.”

Funds raised through LFFM support MRA’s global research portfolio, including next-generation immunotherapies, cell therapies, AI-powered diagnostics and early detection tools, and research focused on rare and underfunded melanoma subtypes—including acral, mucosal, uveal, and pediatric melanoma—as well as brain metastases, a leading cause of death among patients with advanced melanoma.

“The leaders who support LFFM understand the power of investing in innovation,” said Stephanie Kauffman, incoming Chief Executive Officer of the Melanoma Research Alliance. “For more than a decade, they have applied that same mindset to philanthropy—backing bold scientific ideas, exceptional researchers, and promising new approaches to cancer treatment. Their support has helped transform melanoma from one of the deadliest cancers into one of the greatest success stories in oncology. The impact of this community extends far beyond the dollars raised; it is measured in discoveries accelerated, treatments advanced, and lives changed.”

Since its founding in 2007, MRA has invested more than $200 million in research at 165 institutions around the world, supporting more than 565 research projects. MRA-funded investigators have helped drive every major advance in melanoma treatment over the last two decades, contributing to the development of 19 FDA-approved therapeutic approaches and dramatically improving survival for patients with advanced melanoma.

The event was co-chaired by Clare Bailhe (MidCap Financial), Brendan Dillon (Veritas Capital), Kerry Dolan (Brinley Partners), Lee Grinberg (Elliott Management), Jason Kanner (Kirkland & Ellis), Eliza McDougall (White & Case), Erwin Mock (Thoma Bravo), George Mueller (KKR), Geoff Oltmans (Silver Lake), Kevin Pluff (Apollo), Jeff Rowbottom (General Atlantic), Mark Rubenstein (HPS), Ian Schuman (Latham & Watkins), Brian Steinhardt (Simpson Thacher), Cade Thompson (KKR), Jason Van Dussen (Golub Capital), Trevor Watt (Hellman & Friedman), Eric Wedel (Paul, Weiss). 

The evening was sponsored by industry leading giants with Global Presenting Sponsors including HPS, Veritas Capital, Apollo|MidCap, General Atlantic, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Paul, Weiss, Simpson Thacher, White & Case  with Fitch Ratings and Golub Capital as Global Sponsors. 

A full list of LFFM 2026 sponsors may be found at CureMelanoma.org/LFFM. 

BY THE NUMBERS AND WHY IT MATTERS

• More than 112,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with invasive melanoma in 2026.
• Nearly 8,500 Americans are projected to die from melanoma this year—approximately one person every hour.
• Melanoma is one of the most common cancers among young adults.
• Veterans, active-duty military personnel, pilots, and outdoor workers face elevated risk due to increased ultraviolet exposure.
• Melanoma can spread rapidly to vital organs, including the brain, lungs, and liver, making early detection and effective treatments critical.
• MRA-funded research has helped drive 19 FDA-approved therapeutic approaches and transformed advanced melanoma from one of the deadliest cancers into one where long-term survival is increasingly possible.

About the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA): 

The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) is the largest private, non-profit funder of melanoma research worldwide. Founded in 2007 by Debra and Leon Black, MRA’s mission is to end suffering and death due to melanoma by advancing the most promising science and research. MRA-funded investigators have been at the forefront of every major melanoma breakthrough, helping to drive the approval of more than 19 new therapeutic approaches. Through strategic investments across prevention, diagnosis, treatment, metastasis, and survivorship, MRA is transforming outcomes for patients worldwide. Thanks to the generosity of MRA’s founders, 100% of all public donations support innovative melanoma research — without any overhead or administrative costs. MRA is recognized as one of the most fiscally efficient nonprofits in the country. Learn more at www.CureMelanoma.org. 

LinkedIn: melanoma-research-alliance 
X: @MelanomaReAlli 
Instagram: @melanoma 
Facebook: MelanomaResearchAlliance 

MEDIA CONTACTS: 
MRA: Dana Deighton, Director of Communications and Engagement 
[email protected] 
[email protected] 

SOURCE Melanoma Research Alliance

CityRock leads with participation from Tribute Technology as well as strategic partnerships with iHeartMedia, Sinclair and Hearst as broadcasters back a new model for delivering real-world, time-sensitive community stories to local audiences

NEW YORK, June 11, 2026 — Chptr, the company building the new distribution layer for community stories, today announced it has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by CityRock, with participation from Tribute Technology as well as strategic partnerships with iHeartMedia, Sinclair and Hearst. By bringing together the largest operators across television, radio, and local media at a moment when the industry is actively searching for new models to deliver relevant, community-based information at scale. In a time where algorithm-based news delivery is the default, Chptr aims to restore the reach of people’s most important announcements to America’s most trusted local media platforms, starting with end-of-life memorial content.

Chptr’s proprietary technology enables local, time-sensitive stories to move from origin to distribution in less than 24 hours, reaching audiences across broadcast, digital, and now radio through direct integrations with major media networks. With its Series A funding, Chptr is introducing a subscription-based model that enables SMBs to effectively engage their local communities across local TV, radio and digital channels. Chptr is now live in 132 U.S. television markets, covering the majority of American households, and has already delivered thousands of localized broadcasts across all major metropolitan areas. With iHeartMedia’s partnership, that distribution now extends into radio, creating a multi-platform system that reaches audiences throughout the day, not just during scheduled news cycles.

At the core of Chptr’s platform is a rethinking of how local content is created and distributed. Historically, many forms of community-based information – from memorials to local events to service announcements – have been fragmented, delayed, or inaccessible due to production constraints and limited distribution channels. Chptr transforms those inputs into ready-to-air segments that can be deployed across television, radio, and digital platforms almost immediately, unlocking a category of content that has been largely absent from modern media. Chptr’s approach to AI is intentionally constrained and human-centered: the platform does not generate source content or scrape data, and leverages AI for formatting, production, and distribution, with all content reviewed by humans prior to broadcast.

“Chtpr is solving not just one, but many very important challenges, and our team is honored to invest in this vision,” said Oliver B. Libby, Managing Partner and co-founder of H/L Ventures and CityRock Venture Partners. “Anyone who has lost a loved one knows how frustrating, expensive, distracting, and analogue the process of memorializing our departed family in obituaries, death notices, and digital formats—at a very vulnerable and tragic time for a family. At the same time, the local news—broadcast and print—are all looking for revenue streams and for ways to connect authentically with viewers and readers. Chptr bridges these gaps, updating the memorialization process, and doing so with business sense and with heart.”

The company’s traction to date has come from rebuilding memorial announcements as a content category, working directly with funeral homes as a trusted source of structured, time-sensitive information. That use case has proven both the demand and the scalability of Chptr’s model, serving as a foundation for broader expansion into other forms of local content. As the end-of-life industry’s trusted leader in tech-enabled memorial announcements, Chptr provides an invaluable service to the families and communities of loved ones, while also directly empowering local funeral businesses who offer clients access to Chptr’s technology.

As algorithmic feeds prioritize engagement over relevance, local audiences are increasingly disconnected from the timely, real-world information that directly affects their daily lives – from community events and services to critical life announcements. Generative AI has introduced new risks in sensitive life events, including fabricated obituary details, data scraping, and automated content lacking oversight. Chptr addresses both challenges by rebuilding memorial announcements as a broadcast content category while deploying ethical, human-reviewed AI tools designed specifically for funeral service to create professional-grade memorial videos from family-provided photos and stories. Family data is never sold or repurposed, and local funeral homes remain the authoritative source of service information.

“Memorials are the starting point, not the end state,” said Rehan Choudhry, founder and CEO of Chptr. “What we’ve built is a system for distributing real, human stories that matter in a specific place, at a specific moment in time. Media companies are investing because they see this as the future of local – timely, trusted, and deeply connected to the communities they serve.”

The company’s integration with Tribute Technology, which serves more than 9,000 funeral homes across North America, demonstrates how Chptr can plug into existing local workflows and turn them into immediate distribution pipelines without adding operational burden. The Series A will fund expansion into remaining U.S. markets, deeper integrations across broadcast and audio networks, and the development of additional content categories beyond memorials, including other forms of time-sensitive local information that have historically lacked scalable distribution.

“Radio connects people during defining moments,” said David Ellis, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development, Venture Capital, and Emerging Initiatives of iHeart Media. “By supporting Chptr, we’re ensuring remembrance and celebration reaches communities where they already listen.”

About Chptr
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in New York, Chptr is the community storytelling company that helps funeral homes bring modern memorialization to the families they serve. Through its Broadcast, Social, and Video offerings, Chptr transforms photos and memories into video tributes that reach thousands, helping communities gather, show support, and honor every life properly. Chptr partners with funeral homes and media companies across the United States, coordinating directly with families to keep workflows simple for funeral directors. Learn more at www.chptr.com.

Media Contact:
Jenny Knizner
434-260-1162
[email protected] 

SOURCE Chptr

Operator-led ecosystem fund is anchored by leading healthcare organizations at the intersection of Medtech and AI

NEW YORK, June 11, 2026 — Star51 Capital, a venture capital investment platform designed to bridge the gap between innovation and acquisition, today announced the first close of its inaugural fund. The fund’s first closing was led by Abbott and Mayo Clinic, with strong participation from senior Medtech executives, physicians, and life science professionals alongside significant commitment from the fund’s general and operating partners.

Star51 invests in early and growth-stage companies spanning interventional therapies, diagnostics, monitoring, and the digitalization of healthcare. Star51 Capital sources opportunities from the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

Star51 Capital is led by Founding Managing Partners Adam Rosenwach and Tal Wenderow. Rosenwach held senior operating and finance roles across Medtech incubators and high-growth startups, including Coridea and Deerfield Catalyst. Wenderow founded Corindus Vascular Robotics, steered its $1.1 billion acquisition by Siemens Healthineers, and subsequently served as a Venture Partner for a global Medtech strategic.

The fund’s leadership team also includes Operating Partners Raymond W. Cohen, who engineered over $5 billion in exit value as CEO and Chairman of multiple Medtech companies; Scott Pantel, Founder and CEO of LSI; and Joe Mullings, Chairman and CEO of The Mullings Group Companies. Together, the team brings decades of experience founding, operating, and exiting Medtech companies, providing hands-on guidance to portfolio companies at every stage of growth. Scott Pantel provides unparalleled access to the global Medtech ecosystem, including deal flow, strategic acquirer relationships, and proprietary market intelligence built through decades of convening industry leaders and investors worldwide. Joe Mullings and The Mullings Group contribute the industry’s leading executive search capabilities alongside Dragonfly, a Medtech marketing platform that helps portfolio companies build brand visibility and commercial momentum. Collectively, these resources give Star51 a differentiated ability to identify high-potential opportunities and support portfolio companies in reaching key inflection milestones.

“Medtech is at an inflection point. Technology advancements and AI are reshaping how devices are designed, delivered, and personalized. That transformation is happening now,” said Tal Wenderow, Founding Managing Partner of Star51 Capital. “The companies that will help define the next era of Medtech are being built today. We believe that the time to support them with capital and the right operational expertise is now.”

Star51 is structured as an ‘ecosystem fund,’ combining strategic capital with deep operator networks to accelerate portfolio companies through critical inflection milestones, from clinical validation to regulatory clearance, and supporting their progression toward scale and broader clinical adoption. To achieve this, the fund has assembled a strong group of domain experts, venture partners, and medtech executives who have invested their own capital as limited partners, aligning their financial interests directly with portfolio outcomes. Spanning clinical, commercial, regulatory, and intellectual property disciplines, these experienced operators bring hands-on guidance to portfolio companies, helping bring products to market that enhance patient care and deliver value across the healthcare system.

Adam Rosenwach, Founding Managing Partner of Star51 Capital, said, “Star51 is not a traditional venture fund. It’s an ecosystem built by operators, for operators. What sets Star51 apart is the caliber of our ecosystem: leading strategic investors, operating partners who have built and scaled category-defining companies, and a network that gives founders the clinical insight, commercial access, and strategic relationships they need to grow and scale.”

About Star51 Capital
Star51 Capital is a venture investment platform bridging the gap between innovation and acquisition. The fund invests at the convergence of Medtech and AI and leverages its proprietary internal AI platform, StarVision™, alongside its network of domain experts and venture partners across clinical, commercial, regulatory, and intellectual property disciplines. Founded by operators and managed by a team that has built, scaled, and exited medtech companies, Star51 is designed to support portfolio companies in reaching key milestones that enable growth, scale, and generate competitive returns with meaningful clinical impact.

For more information, visit star51capital.com
Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Star51 Capital

Backed by $2.15 million in pre-seed financing and an ICC data agreement, the Denver startup puts building code compliance inside Autodesk Revit at the design stage

SAN DIEGO, June 11, 2026 — At the American Institute of Architects Conference on Architecture and Design 2026, Kestrel Labs launched the first compliance platform built natively inside the Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflow, putting jurisdiction-specific code requirements inside Autodesk^® Revit^®, before drawings reach plan review. Revit is a BIM software that allows architects, engineers, and construction professionals to design in 3D. Kestrel raised $2.15 million in pre-seed financing from New Stack Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Denver Ventures, and Avesta Fund.

The Kestrel Platform includes three features:

• Kestrel Compliance Analysis – One click inside Revit runs a full compliance check in about 30 seconds, with every result tied to the specific model element and cited to the exact code section.
• Kestrel Compliance Chat – An AI building code assistant and thought partner that answers project-specific compliance questions in plain language, cited to the exact code section. Available inside Revit and in the browser.
• Kestrel Portal – A web-based compliance dashboard for project managers and firm leadership with no BIM file required.

Senior architects carrying decades of code knowledge are approaching retirement. Junior architects are billable from day one with limited time for knowledge transfer. Austin Pulford, AIA, NCARB, Co-Founder, brought 20 years of licensed practice to this problem. Marian Pulford, Co-Founder and CEO, built the company around solving it.

Kestrel’s compliance checks draw from a data agreement with the International Code Council (ICC), the global authority on model building codes adopted across the United States and in more than 100 countries.

Marian Pulford, Co-Founder and CEO, Kestrel Labs: “No permit delay, no redesign, no late-stage surprise is random. They most often start in the design phase, when the right information wasn’t there at the right moment. Austin and I studied this for years, then moved to tackle the problem ourselves, from the ground up, for how architects actually work. Kestrel puts the code right inside the BIM workflow, at the moment it can still make a difference. Every architect we talked to had lived this story. Kestrel is for them.”

Micah Gray, AIA, Director of Technology and Innovation, KAI Enterprises: “New hires are billable from week one now. There is little runway to sit with a senior architect and transfer twenty years of code knowledge. Kestrel changes that equation. The code is in the model, visible to everyone, and it does not depend on who is in the room. That is not a small thing for a firm trying to grow.”

Pricing

Annual firm-wide license, no per-seat fees:

• No limits on users, projects, or compliance checks
• Pricing reflects firm size, project complexity, and jurisdictional scope
• Charter customers receive preferred pricing and input on jurisdiction roadmap

Find Kestrel

• Autodesk Design & Make Marketplace
• Trimble Connect Marketplace
• SketchUp integration (coming soon)

Investors

Nick Moran, General Partner, New Stack Ventures: “Construction is one of those industries where everyone knows the problem and nobody has built the infrastructure to fix it. Kestrel came to us with deep domain knowledge, a product already running inside the tools architects use every day, and a data foundation that would take most companies years to assemble. That combination – inside the workflow, grounded in authoritative data, solving a problem the profession has accepted as unsolvable – is exactly what we look for.”

Aaron Stachel, Founding Partner, FirstMile Ventures: “We invested in Kestrel because they understand what most AEC companies miss: compliance is not a feature. It is the foundation. Every permit delay, every round of rework, traces to building code issues in the design process. Kestrel fixes that from inside the BIM model. This is not a workflow improvement but a structural shift for the industry, and this team is built to lead that shift.”

About Kestrel Labs
Kestrel Labs, located in Denver, Colorado, is the first AI-powered building code compliance platform built natively inside BIM and the first structured compliance data layer for the built environment.

kestrellabs.com | kestrellabs.com/aia for AIA 2026 updates

Media Contact: Brian Farber
Monument Square Strategies | [email protected] | 917-568-5066

SOURCE Kestrel Labs

Milestone financing and R&D collaboration advances gene therapy programs targeting chronic and age-related diseases in companion animals.

NORWALK, Conn., June 11, 2026 — Lifespan Vision Ventures (LVV), an investment firm focused on therapeutics that improve human healthspan, congratulates its portfolio company Rejuvenate Bio on the successful close of a $6 million financing round and the announcement of a strategic research and development collaboration with Merck Animal Health.

The financing round was led by VCapital, with participation from Merck Animal Health, Connecticut Innovations, and Digitalis. Proceeds will support continued advancement of Rejuvenate Bio’s gene therapy platform and pipeline, including treatments designed to address chronic and age-associated diseases in companion animals.

Alongside the financing, Rejuvenate Bio and Merck Animal Health have entered into a strategic R&D collaboration focused on advancing a novel gene therapy program in animal health, leveraging Rejuvenate Bio’s proprietary platform technologies and translational expertise.

Andrew Worden, Founding Partner at Lifespan Vision Ventures stated, “We are proud to see Rejuvenate Bio reach this important milestone. The confidence shown by Merck Animal Health – both as an investor and a collaborator – speaks to the strength of the team and the promise of their science. Lifespan Vision Ventures is delighted to continue supporting their mission to address some of the most significant unmet needs in companion animal and human health.”

Rejuvenate Bio is developing gene therapies aimed at extending healthy lifespan and treating chronic diseases across both veterinary and human health applications. The company’s approach focuses on modifying biological pathways associated with aging through targeted genetic interventions.

About Lifespan Vision Ventures

Lifespan Vision Ventures is a global venture capital firm investing in early-stage biotechnology companies developing breakthrough technologies to prevent and treat age-related diseases. The firm partners with visionary founders advancing science-driven solutions that promote healthy aging and extend human healthspan.

Contact: [email protected]

About Rejuvenate Bio

Rejuvenate Bio is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel gene therapies for chronic age-related diseases. Rejuvenate Bio has built a gene therapy pipeline with huge potential in chronic disease by utilizing clinically validated gene targets and a delivery approach that ensures well tolerated, durable expression. Founded on scientific research developed at the Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical School, Rejuvenate Bio has developed groundbreaking therapies to treat chronic age-related disease in both humans and animals. The company is headquartered in San Diego, CA.

For more information, visit www.rejuvenatebio.com.

SOURCE LifeSpan Vision Ventures

Leading Japanese food company joins global startup co-creation program; former Nippon-Ham Fighters pitcher brings sports and entrepreneurship expertise to business collaboration.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 11, 2026 — Scrum Ventures, a San Francisco and Tokyo-based venture capital firm, and its subsidiary Scrum Studio, today announced two milestones for its Hokkaido F Village X (HFX) global co-creation program as it enters Year 2: NH Foods., Ltd. has joined as a new corporate partner, and celebrated former professional baseball player and entrepreneur Yuki Saito has been appointed as Venture Partner.

Now in its second year, HFX is a global co-creation program that connects world-class startups with corporations, municipalities, investors, and other stakeholders centered around Hokkaido F Village in Japan. The program focuses on five core categories: Sports & Entertainment & Stadium, Food & Agriculture, Mobility, Sustainability, and Well-Being.

Nippon Ham Joins HFX as Corporate Partner
Nippon Ham Co., Ltd., one of Japan’s most iconic food companies, has joined HFX as a new corporate partner for Year 2. It is famous for products and brands such as their Hokkaido White Chicken and Sakurahime poultry brands, Ishigama Kobo chilled pizzas, and the popular SCHAU ESSEN sausage brand.

“Hokkaido is one of the agricultural centers of Japan and a true food paradise in Japan. As such, we are honored to have Nippon Ham join as a corporate partner. Nippon Ham is a vertically integrated food and agriculture giant in Japan. It is the #1 largest meat company in Japan, with 20% market share of fresh meats in Japan and supplying 6% of all protein consumed in the country. This combination of vertical integration and scale provides many possibilities for collaboration and massive potential for impact from these collaborations. This is an exciting opportunity for global startups to work with an innovative Japanese food conglomerate in Hokkaido!”

— Michael Yan, Managing Director of HFX and Partner & Head of Technical Investments at Scrum Ventures

Baseball Legend Yuki Saito Named Venture Partner
Scrum Ventures has appointed Yuki Saito as Venture Partner. Known nationwide as “Handkerchief Prince” following his legendary 2006 high school championship run at Koshien, Saito went on to become a star pitcher for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. Since retiring from professional baseball, Saito has built a portfolio of ventures focused on community building and regional revitalization in Hokkaido. In his role as Venture Partner, Saito will apply his experience as a top athlete and entrepreneur to support startup co-creation and new business development within the HFX program.

“I am thrilled to join Scrum Ventures as a Venture Partner. Beyond my baseball career, I have been deeply engaged in business development and community building, and I look forward to channeling those experiences into creating new value. Hokkaido is a special place to me, and I am excited to contribute to sports-centered community building. Through Hokkaido F Village X, I hope to work alongside startups and the local community to turn new possibilities into reality.”
— Yuki Saito, Venture Partner, Scrum Ventures

HFX Year 2: Applications Now Open
HFX Year 2 is currently accepting startup applications, with selected startups to be announced at “HFX Kickoff Week” in Hokkaido, Japan in August 2026. The program runs through February 2027, culminating in HFX Demo Day 2027. In Year 1, HFX selected 11 startups from over 300 applications across 29 countries, achieving an NPS score of 90, with participants citing the program’s speed from proof-of-concept to real-world implementation as a standout strength.

Startups interested in applying can learn more and submit applications at https://hfx.jp/en/acceleration-program.

About Scrum Ventures
Scrum Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm with offices in San Francisco and Tokyo. The firm has invested in more than 140 startups across AI & robotics, climate tech, mobility, healthcare, commerce, and sports & entertainment. Beyond capital, Scrum Ventures provides portfolio companies with hands-on business development support, co-investor introductions, and global expansion resources. scrum.vc

About Scrum Studio
Scrum Studio is a Scrum Ventures subsidiary that drives business co-creation between global Japanese corporations, global startups, and municipalities. Through programs such as Hokkaido F Village X and Full Bloom, Scrum Studio facilitates open-innovation partnerships that move from concept to commercial reality. The company also supports international startups navigating Japan market entry. scrum.vc/ja/studio

Press inquiries: [email protected]

SOURCE Scrum Ventures

SAN FRANCISCO, June 11, 2026 — Base10 Partners announces today that it closed $850 million in new capital throughout 2025, with funds now actively deploying. Debuting its first fund in 2018, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm is known for its focus on Automation for the Real Economy and now manages $2.6 billion in assets. Base10 portfolio companies include category leaders Nubank, Brex, Instacart, Notion, Motive, WeTravel, Blank Street, Lexroom, and HappyRobot. The firm remains dedicated to founders in their earliest days (Seed through Series B) and supports these founders in building durable businesses.

“When we raised Fund I we called ourselves the first fund focused on Applied AI for the Real Economy, and LPs told us applied AI was too ‘niche’ and ‘not a thing’, so we had to change it to Automation,” said Adeyemi Ajao, co-founder and Managing Partner of Base10. “Today, we have several portfolio companies applying AI to the Real Economy that are growing from 0 to tens of millions in revenue in under 12 months—that is unprecedented.

“The Automation of the Real Economy is here. Those companies are where the new capital is going to go and we are so thankful for the trust of our founders and LPs at this key moment of economic transformation. This is what Base10 was founded for.”

“Choosing the right partner at the Series B was more than just a financial decision. It’s a critical time to find people who actually believe in what we are building, and that’s exactly what we found,” said Pablo Palafox, co-founder and CEO of HappyRobot. “Base10 has been with us every step of the way since we brought them on, and that kind of support makes a real difference when you’re moving fast.”

Ajao joined the board of Motive last December, one of the defining Real Economy companies in Base10’s portfolio. “Ade’s deep experience as a founder, operator, and investor in AI companies will be invaluable as we expand our AI platform and scale internationally,” said Shoaib Makani, co-founder and CEO of Motive. “He brings a unique perspective on turning AI innovation into durable enterprise value and navigating new international markets.”

With this fresh capital, Base10 also reaffirmed its commitment to the Advancement Initiative, its program to donate up to 50% of carried interest to students from all backgrounds to advance their opportunities in tech. CodePath, a key partner of Base10’s Advancement initiative was recently announced as Anthropic’s flagship economic mobility partner to bring AI-native engineering to students who have historically been locked out of the industry. Base10 has already hosted events this year with CodePath, Anthropic, OpenAI, and other leading tech companies to connect educators, students, and HR leaders navigating the AI transition.

The fundraise includes commitments from Base10’s limited partner base, including endowments, pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutional investors.

“We’ve been with Base10 for several years preceding this fundraise, and that history gives us a real perspective on what they’ve built. Base10 has earned our continued confidence through their focus, their portfolio, and the way they show up for founders,” said Benjamin Sabatier, Principal at Sofina. “This fundraise is a reflection of what happens when a firm stays focused on what it knows.”

About Base10 Partners
Founded by Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian, Base10 is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund investing in founders who believe purpose is key to profits and in companies that are automating sectors of the Real Economy. Through its program the Advancement Initiative, Base10 donates 50% of profits to underfunded colleges and universities to support financial aid and other key initiatives. Portfolio companies include Notion, Figma, Nubank, Stripe, Popmenu, Aurora Solar, and HappyRobot. Connect via base10.vc.

Press Contact
Sarah Ramos
[email protected]

SOURCE Base10 Partners

Turnout has grown its client base fivefold since announcing its seed round in September 2025, logging more than ten million minutes of AI to support the human-led advocacy platform, which empowers consumers to navigate complicated, bureaucratic processes

SAN DIEGO, June 11, 2026 — Turnout, an AI-powered consumer advocacy service that reimagines how Americans navigate complex government and financial bureaucracies, today announced a $35 million Series A, bringing the total company valuation to $400 million. The round was led by HighPost Capital, with participation from Shine Capital, LGVP, Mangusta Capital, Honeystone Ventures, and investor Omri Casspi.

The funding will be used to expand Turnout’s AI agent platform, Jake, and scale its human advocate workforce nationwide. Building on its work in helping clients navigate Social Security disability and Veterans benefits, Turnout will also use the funds to support two new verticals in healthcare and education.

“We started Turnout because the gap between what Americans are entitled to and what they actually receive is inexcusable,” said Itai Hirsch, founder and CEO of Turnout. “We’re building the advocate they deserve. One that knows them, stays with them, and doesn’t disappear when the matter closes.”

Outdated systems and bureaucratic red tape are keeping millions of Americans from gaining access to the benefits they’re entitled to. Over 8.6 million Americans receive Social Security disability benefits, yet roughly 70% of new claims are denied at initial application. Veterans file more than 2.5 million VA disability and pension claims annually and often wait four months or more for a decision that shapes their income for life. Nearly 8 million children have an active IEP or 504 plan; when advocating for these accommodations, however, parents are often the only person in the room without a professional credential. And 67 million Americans enrolled in Medicare are expected to navigate the healthcare maze with no outside support.

Turnout brings together AI and licensed human advocates to simplify the complex, high-friction systems Americans must navigate to secure essential benefits. Jake, the AI agent, is the core of the platform and handles the work individuals dread most, such as waiting on hold, chasing records, filling applications, and flagging when a human advocate needs to step in. Licensed advocates handle the moments that require empathy and expertise. This hybrid model makes high-quality advocacy accessible to anyone who needs it, not just the wealthy or well-connected. 

Since closing its seed round in September 2025, Turnout has grown its client base fivefold and logged more than ten million minutes of AI and human-led advocacy.

“When people need help the most, they often have no one truly advocating for them,” said David Moross, Co-Founder and CEO of HighPost Capital. “Turnout is changing that by combining AI and human expertise in a way that makes real advocacy accessible to everyone.”

About Turnout

Turnout reimagines complex bureaucratic processes with an intuitive platform that advocates for Americans across government, insurance, healthcare, and education systems. At the center of the experience is one-on-one, human-led advocacy, accelerated by their AI orchestrator, Jake, who handles tedious tasks. Turnout wants to be your Advocate for life. Visit turnout.co.

SOURCE Turnout Technologies, Inc.

The database built for AI agents.

MENLO PARK, Calif., June 11, 2026 — PhoenixAI, the Agentic AI Database, today announced an $80 million Series B funding round led by Sky9 Capital, with participation from Atypical Ventures and Olive Technology Ventures, and previous investors. The round will accelerate development of the company’s AI-native database, expand its go-to-market initiatives, and deepen governance for regulated industries.

“Today’s agentic landscape has moved quickly from planning and prototyping to full-on production for mission-critical work — serving customers, managing supply chains, and driving internal workflows. Agents now fire off thousands of unplanned, real-time queries, often swarming systems with questions that weren’t anticipated when the data stack was designed, demanding analysis across live data, historical records, and multiple systems at once, which strains existing data stacks. PhoenixAI closes that gap by giving enterprises a faster, more efficient way to serve those workloads at scale with the level of governance the C-suite expects,” said Rick Underwood, President of PhoenixAI.

Underwood leads go-to-market and operations at PhoenixAI. He was previously CEO of Clumio (acquired by Commvault) and held senior go-to-market leadership at Snowflake through its 2020 IPO.

Enterprise demand for infrastructure built specifically for AI agents is accelerating. Agents query differently than people: they operate in real time, issuing unpredictable questions no historical analytics stack was built to handle. As a result, answering agent questions requires joining live and historical data on the fly in ways that traditional databases were never designed to support. Traditional databases avoid that work by requiring teams to pre–model and reshape data for each “expected” question that human users may ask, but that approach breaks down the moment agents start asking new questions at scale. 

Market leading companies including AppLovin, Coinbase, Conductor, and Demandbase already run PhoenixAI in production and are seeing the strategic advantage it delivers.

“PhoenixAI changed the equation: streaming updates from Kafka become queryable within seconds, analysts get sub–second responses on live normalized data, and our AI agents operate on the same real–time dataset. This level of performance at scale fundamentally changes what data teams can do.”
— Xinyu Liu, Senior Staff Software Engineer, Coinbase

“PhoenixAI now serves that workload as the real–time analytical database on top of our data lakehouse. Production queries scanning hundreds of millions of rows return in under a second, and this is the architecture we need for the next generation of agentic workloads.”
— Wei Zheng, Chief Product Officer, Conductor

“PhoenixAI gives us a fast, isolated warehouse for agent workloads directly on our Apache Iceberg tables, with the optimizer handling novel joins automatically.”
— Ryan Nowacoski, Senior Engineering Manager, Data Platform, Demandbase

Sky9 Capital is a global venture firm focused on AI, fintech, and deep tech, and has backed frontier AI leaders including Moonshot AI, maker of Kimi, and autonomous-driving company WeRide. Sky9 now leads PhoenixAI’s Series B round.

“The move to agentic AI is one of the largest infrastructure shifts we’ve seen, and the database is at the center of it. Enterprises can’t put agents into production until something can serve them live data at the speed and scale agents now demand. That’s the problem PhoenixAI was built to solve, and we’ve been impressed by the company’s early traction with demanding enterprise customers — we’re proud to lead this round and back the company defining the category,” said Ron Cao, Founder and Managing Partner, Sky9 Capital.

About PhoenixAI:
PhoenixAI is the Agentic AI Database, purpose-built to give autonomous AI agents sub-second access to live enterprise data at massive scale. The platform unifies real-time and at-rest data in a single AI-native engine, combining the speed and concurrency that agentic workloads demand with the governance and deployment flexibility enterprises require to put AI into production. Formerly known as CelerData, PhoenixAI is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Learn more at https://www.phoenixdata.ai/

About Sky9 Capital:
Sky9 Capital is a global venture firm investing in AI, fintech, and deep tech, with offices in San Francisco, Boston, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Media Contacts
David Wamsley, Rosebud Communications, 415.259.9104, [email protected]
Joe Bresler, VP of Marketing, PhoenixAI, [email protected]

SOURCE PhoenixAI