Menée par VP Capital et Oost NL, cette levée de fonds accélère le déploiement du produit phare Repeltec et de la technologie brevetée de solubilité à base d’eau, dans un contexte de durcissement de la réglementation européenne sur les pesticides.

NIMÈGUE, Pays-Bas, 23 avril 2026 — Affix Labs Group B.V., une startup néerlandaise spécialisée dans la chimie verte (Green Chemtech), a bouclé une levée de fonds d’un million d’euros menée par VP Capital et Oost NL. L’entreprise développe un répulsif pour insectes à base d’eau qui remplace les substances actives neurotoxiques responsables de la résistance croissante des insectes. Le nouveau capital financera le déploiement européen.

La percée : solubilité brevetée et libération contrôlée

L’innovation centrale est une méthode de formulation qui permet de dissoudre dans l’eau des substances actives huileuses et insolubles. Une couche à libération contrôlée maintient l’efficacité du produit jusqu’à douze semaines. Le produit phare, Repeltec, est testé dermatologiquement et ne contient aucun composé neurotoxique.

Un cadre réglementaire européen qui se durcit

Les restrictions européennes sur les pesticides chimiques se durcissent. En Allemagne, l’interdiction du libre-service adoptée en 2025 a fait disparaître des rayons ouverts toute une catégorie d’insecticides neurotoxiques, et des mesures similaires sont en cours d’adoption dans d’autres États membres. Repeltec détient déjà des autorisations de substances actives en Allemagne, en France, en Autriche et en Norvège.

Expansion commerciale et partenariats B2B

Grâce au nouveau capital, Affix Labs étend sa distribution en Allemagne, en Autriche, en France et en Norvège. Le Royaume-Uni et la Pologne suivront. Parallèlement à ses gammes grand public, l’entreprise lance un modèle B2B en marque blanche sous le nom “Powered by Affix Labs”. Il permet aux entreprises FMCG, aux opérateurs hôteliers et aux fabricants de produits antiparasitaires d’intégrer la technologie dans leurs propres gammes.

À propos d’Affix Labs

Affix Labs est une startup néerlandaise Green Chemtech qui réduit la dépendance mondiale aux pesticides. Sa technologie de solubilité brevetée et ses systèmes à libération contrôlée créent des barrières anti-insectes durables et sans neurotoxiques.

Contact presse

Tom Sam
[email protected]
www.affixlabs.com

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The funding round, led by VP Capital and Oost NL, accelerates the rollout of flagship product Repeltec and the company’s patented water-based solubility technology at a time when EU pesticide rules are tightening.

NIJMEGEN, Netherlands, April 23, 2026 — Affix Labs Group B.V., a Dutch Green Chemtech startup, has closed a €1 million funding round led by VP Capital and Oost NL. The company’s surface insect repellent replaces the neurotoxic active ingredients responsible for growing insect resistance with a water-based, controlled-release alternative. The new capital will fund the European rollout.

The Breakthrough: Patented Solubility and Controlled Release

The core innovation is a formulation method that dissolves oily, water-insoluble active ingredients into water-based systems. A controlled-release layer extends efficacy to 12 weeks. The flagship product, Repeltec, is dermatologically tested and contains no neurotoxic compounds.

A Tightening European Regulatory Environment

EU rules on chemical pesticides are tightening. Germany’s 2025 self-service ban pulled a broad category of neurotoxic insecticides from open retail shelves, and similar measures are now being adopted in other member states. Repeltec already holds active substance authorisations in Germany, France, Austria, and Norway.

Commercial Expansion and B2B Partnerships

With the new capital, Affix Labs is expanding distribution in Germany, Austria, France, and Norway, with the UK and Poland to follow. Alongside its consumer product lines, the company is launching a white-label B2B model under the name “Powered by Affix Labs”. FMCG companies, hospitality operators, and pest control manufacturers can use it to integrate the technology into their own product ranges.

About Affix Labs

Affix Labs is a Dutch Green Chemtech startup working to reduce global pesticide dependency. Its patented solubility technology and controlled-release systems create long-lasting, neurotoxic-free insect barriers.

Media Contact

Tom Sam
[email protected]
www.affixlabs.com

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SHENZHEN, China, April 23, 2026 — Pudu Robotics, a global leader in commercial service robotics, today announced that it has raised nearly USD 150 million in a new funding round. Following this round, the company’s valuation has exceeded USD 1.5 billion, reflecting the capital market’s strong confidence in Pudu’s technical barriers, commercial scalability, and global leadership. With this latest round, Pudu’s cumulative funding now exceeds USD 300 million.

Proceeds from the financing will be strategically deployed to accelerate the development of embodied AI technologies, expand the company’s product portfolio, deepen global market expansion, scale manufacturing capacity, and further strengthen supply chain capabilities. These initiatives are designed to reinforce the company’s leadership in the rapidly evolving commercial service robotics sector and laying a solid foundation for future capital market milestones.

Pudu Robotics has emerged as one of the fastest-growing companies in the commercial service robotics sector, with a diversified portfolio spanning service delivery, commercial cleaning, industrial delivery and general embodied AI robotics. This multi-sector approach resulted in a remarkable 100% year-over-year revenue surge in 2025. Notably, the company’s commercial cleaning segment has grown to represent over 70% of total revenue, while its industrial delivery robots have seen rapid adoption with over 4,000 units shipped within just one year of their market launch.

This commercial success is further validated by Pudu’s extensive global footprint, with its solutions widely adopted by leading global brands including Carrefour, Walmart, and EDEKA. According to Frost & Sullivan’s “Market Research on Global Commercial Service Robotics (2023)”, Pudu Robotics commands a 23% global market share, ranking first worldwide and maintaining the industry’s leading position in international deployments.

Headquartered in Shenzhen with dedicated R&D centers in Chengdu and Hong Kong, the company continues to push technical boundaries through the full-stack development of core components, including navigation algorithms, multi-robot scheduling, motion controllers, and integrated joint modules.

Felix Zhang, Founder and CEO of Pudu Robotics, said: “This funding milestone is a powerful validation of Pudu’s industry leadership, product and technological strength, global brand, and commercial infrastructure. Backed by our strategic investors and industrial partners, Pudu will continue to push the boundaries of embodied AI and commercial service robotics. We remain committed to innovating with the spirit of an inventor and leveraging a global vision to accelerate robot adoption, elevating the industry to new heights in the global value chain.”

About Pudu Robotics

Pudu Robotics, a global leader in the commercial service robotics sector, is dedicated to empowering easier work and better lives through AI and robotics, with a vision of building a global intelligent robotics infrastructure that serves 10 billion people worldwide.

Built on three core technologies—mobility, manipulation, and interaction—Pudu Robotics has pioneered an “One Brain, Multiple Embodiments” architecture, establishing a comprehensive product portfolio that includes specialized, semi-humanoid, and humanoid robots.

Currently, Pudu offers four major product lines: service delivery, commercial cleaning, industrial delivery and general embodied AI. Its solutions are widely deployed across industries such as retail, hospitality, manufacturing and industrial facilities, food and beverage, real estate and property services, healthcare, entertainment and sport, education, and public services.

To date, Pudu Robotics has shipped over 120,000 units globally, with a presence in more than 80 countries and regions.

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DALLAS, April 22, 2026 — IGCS International, a CVE-certified SDVOSB and leading provider of mission support and MRO supplies to the U.S. Department of Defense and federal agencies, today announced that Lacks Enterprises has acquired an equity stake in the company.

The strategic investment combines IGCS’s expertise in government supply chain, logistics, and MRO solutions with Lacks Enterprises’ advanced manufacturing capabilities, including electroplating, injection molding, composites, and testing for aerospace and defense.

“IGCS has built a strong track record supporting the Department of Defense… Partnering with Lacks Enterprises allows us to integrate cutting-edge manufacturing innovation into our offerings,” said Russ Spears, President of IGCS International.

Media Contact: Russ Spears, 214-733-7278, [email protected]

SOURCE IGCS International

Partnership with LA4LA will accelerate construction of affordable and mixed-use housing across LA County

SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 22, 2026 — Health Net, one of California’s most experienced Medi-Cal managed care health plans and a Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) company, announced a $10 million investment in LA4LA’s “Guarantee Fund,” which will support the expedited construction of affordable and mixed-income housing across Los Angeles County.

The “Guarantee Fund” offers subsidies to help housing developers secure financing quickly for affordable rental projects, reducing start-up times and making new housing available faster for communities in need.

“Safe, stable housing is one of the most powerful prescriptions for better health — we’ve seen it change lives,” said Dorothy Seleski, Medi-Cal President at Health Net. “This investment won’t just finance projects — it will unlock homes, restore hope and give thousands of Angelenos healthier tomorrows. That means a sense of stability — stronger connections to care, fewer trips to the emergency room and a little more breathing room each day for people to work, learn and heal.”

In Los Angeles County, there are:

Health Net’s investment is designed to help address these gaps by supporting housing developments that include a mix of low-income, voucher-supported, and middle-income units, with up to 30% reserved for voucher holders.

“This investment will help continue the progress we’ve made accelerating the production of affordable housing and decreasing homelessness across Los Angeles,” said Mayor Karen Bass. “I want to thank the LA4LA and Health Net teams for their continued partnership and for supporting innovative solutions to bridge gaps and build more affordable, stable housing citywide.”

When lenders are confident that subsidy payments like Section 8 or VASH vouchers will be made reliably, they can provide larger loans and finance more projects. LA4LA helps lenders provide larger loans and move more housing projects forward, particularly in neighborhoods near jobs, parks and schools and where residents will also have access to community resources. This closes financing gaps that can stall approved developments and encourages broader participation from property owners.

“We’re grateful to Health Net for their commitment to innovative housing solutions,” said Sarah Dusseault, Lead Strategist for LA4LA. “Their investment in the Guarantee Tool will transform how projects approach financing and increase the viability of affordable housing. As developments are completed and no longer require guarantees, Health Net’s capital can be redeployed — creating a sustainable cycle that supports additional projects over time.”

Health Net’s investment can be deployed across multiple sites countywide and, when combined with public subsidies and private lending, helps unlock significantly more housing development in the region.

This investment builds on Health Net’s broader commitment to addressing housing and homelessness across California. Since 2020, Health Net has dedicated a total of $93 million in investments related to housing and supportive services for unhoused individuals.

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

About LA4LA
LA4LA is a public-private partnership housed with the California Community Foundation and supported with initial funding from the Conrad N Hilton Foundation. Our donors and supporters include philanthropy, financial institutions, and individuals and companies who care about the future of Los Angeles. At LA4LA, they bring together experts on housing, development and financing to tackle some of the most common barriers stalling affordable housing construction today: the scarcity of financing and the high cost and volatility of interest. To learn more or get involved, visit www.la4la.org or contact [email protected].

SOURCE Health Net, LLC

NEW YORK, April 22, 2026 — Courier Health, the leading technology company for managing patient experiences, today announced it has raised a $50 million Series B funding round led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from existing investors including Norwest and Work-Bench. This latest investment will fuel continued product innovation and solidify Courier Health’s position as the leading solution to orchestrate and personalize patient journeys across the life sciences industry.

Despite immense clinical innovation across life sciences, efforts to engage and support prescribed patients still fall short due to siloed data, disparate systems, and poor coordination. According to the 2026 State of Patient-Centricity report, nearly 60 percent of biopharma companies consider their data fragmented or inactionable, and less than 10 percent have sufficient data maturity to leverage AI in a meaningful way. Courier Health solves these pain points by connecting data and systems related to the patient experience, applying intelligence to surface insights and proactively identify at-risk patients, and orchestrating seamless experiences across the patient journey.

“Our vision is to re-write the patient experience in healthcare, starting with simplifying and coordinating complex patient journeys for those who depend on innovative medicines,” said Danny Sigurdson, Founder and CEO of Courier Health. “Our partnership with Oak HC/FT provides the strategic support and capital to accelerate our mission, scale our platform and agentic AI capabilities, and continue investing in our world-class team to ensure our customers are successful. When our customers are successful, patients achieve better health outcomes, and that is our north star.”

Courier Health’s system includes deep data integrations, intelligent workflows driven by context-rich AI, intuitive user interfaces designed specifically for market access and patient services teams, and AI agents that can execute key tasks for reliable automation and scale. Courier Health manages the end-to-end patient journey from education to patient enrollment, benefits and prior authorization, through therapy initiation and adherence. This equips biopharma teams with the visibility, control, and intelligence they need to ensure high-quality interactions with providers, pharmacies, and, most importantly, patients and their families.

“Healthcare, especially life sciences, has long lacked a dedicated, purpose-built platform to manage patients,” said Billy Deitch, Partner, Oak HC/FT. “True patient-centricity is often promised but rarely delivered, and Courier Health changes that narrative. They provide essential infrastructure and an incredibly thoughtful AI strategy that biopharma is excited to adopt at a rapid pace. Oak is proud to partner with Danny and his team as they redefine the standard for the patient experience.”

In 2025, Courier Health increased the number of customers and therapies supported on its platform by over 400% and more than doubled its headcount to meet market demand. The funding will accelerate investment in its team and product to bring its innovative technology to more customers.

About Courier Health

Courier Health is a New York City-based technology company on a mission to improve the patient experience for hundreds of millions of people living with a chronic condition or rare disease. The company develops and delivers the fastest-growing patient experience solution for the life sciences industry. Companies that choose Courier Health are achieving double-digit improvements to patient starts, time-to-start and ongoing adherence to life-altering therapies. As host of the invite-only Patient Innovators Summit and publisher of The State of Patient-Centricity in Biopharma report, Courier Health is backed by leading investors, including Oak HC/FT, Norwest and Work-Bench. Follow Courier Health on LinkedIn and learn more at www.courierhealth.com.

About Oak HC/FT

Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity firm specializing in investments in fintech and healthcare. Using partnership as a foundation, Oak HC/FT guides companies and founders at every stage, from seed to growth, to create businesses that make a measurable and lasting impact. Founded in 2014, Oak HC/FT has invested in 120 portfolio companies and has more than $7 billion in assets under management. Oak HC/FT is headquartered in Stamford, CT, with an office in San Francisco, CA. Follow Oak HC/FT on LinkedIn and X and learn more at www.oakhcft.com.

SOURCE Courier Health

Runtime monetization platform brings total funding to over $12M as AI-driven pricing breaks legacy billing architectures

BOULDER, Colo., April 22, 2026 — Schematic, the runtime monetization platform for SaaS and AI companies, today announced $6.5M in new funding, bringing total funding to over $12M. The company will launch its Stripe App on stage at Stripe Sessions next week.

The round was backed by S3 Ventures, MHS Capital, Active Capital, NextView Ventures, and Ritual Capital, with angel participation from the founders of LaunchDarkly, CrowdStrike, and Salesloft.

Schematic sits between a company’s application and its billing system, decoupling pricing and packaging logic from code and enforcing entitlements in product at runtime. Engineering instruments one entitlement check per feature. The plans, limits, and exceptions live in Schematic, controlled by product and commercial teams and synced automatically to Stripe for billing.

“Software used to be deterministic. AI changed that. Value and cost now accrue at runtime, non-deterministically,” said Fynn Glover, co-founder and CEO of Schematic. “Pricing has to be enforced at runtime too. A shadow enforcement system catching webhooks from a billing provider can’t keep up.”

For most of the last decade, B2B software pricing was seat-based and static. The shift to usage-based, hybrid, and AI-driven models has made that architecture untenable. Billing platforms generate invoices and manage subscriptions, but they do not enforce limits and access inside the product. That enforcement is left to engineering teams who build it in-house, often hard-coded, and then maintain it permanently.

“Entitlements is one of the hardest problems in Billing,” said Wisam Hirzalla, a senior product leader at Stripe Billing, welcoming Schematic as an official Stripe App.

Customer Traction

Schematic’s customer base includes Plotly, Automox, Florence, Blackcloak, Sema4.ai, Uniqode, OneCrew, Zep, and Pagos, with zero churn over the past year.

Plotly implemented Schematic in three weeks and launched two new AI products with credit-based pricing in half the time originally budgeted. Five thousand users signed up on the new AI plan.

“Without Schematic, feature entitlements, limits, and access logic is just technical debt waiting to happen,” said Ben Postlethwaite, VP of Engineering at Plotly. “Maintaining this infra in-house slows down product and sales.”

The new funding supports three priorities: deepening the Stripe partnership, building out the monetization control plane for go-to-market teams, and expanding developer tooling and SDKs.

About Schematic

Schematic was founded in 2023 by Fynn Glover, Gio Hobbins, and Ben Papillon. The company builds runtime monetization infrastructure for SaaS and AI companies, decoupling entitlements and pricing enforcement from application code. Schematic is built natively on Stripe Billing and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. For more information, visit schematichq.com.

Media Contact: Fynn Glover, [email protected]

SOURCE Schematic

Portfolio activity generates $9.4 million in proceeds during the quarter

NEW HAVEN, Conn., April 22, 2026 — Connecticut Innovations (CI), Connecticut’s strategic venture capital arm, today announced that it invested approximately $6.0 million in 15 companies and venture funds during the third quarter of its fiscal year. In the quarter ending March 31, 2026, CI’s investments leveraged an additional $295.3 million in outside capital.

CI invested approximately $3.0 million in healthcare companies over the quarter and another $2.5 million in the technology sector. The remaining investments were in consumer companies and venture funds.

“This quarter marked a major milestone for our portfolio with Veradermics’ standout initial public offering,” said Kevin Crowley, senior managing director of investments. “The company raised $256 million in its IPO, with shares surging more than 122 percent in its trading debut. This outcome reflects Connecticut’s ability to support and grow successful companies from early innovation through public markets.”

“While this was a lighter deployment quarter, it is consistent with our disciplined approach to capital allocation,” said Peter Longo, senior managing director of investments. “We remain highly selective, prioritizing quality over pace and leaning in when we see truly differentiated opportunities.”

To date, CI has invested $33.5 million, leveraged $638.2 million in outside capital, and generated $57.7 million in proceeds in FY26.

About Connecticut Innovations
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticut’s strategic venture capital arm and the leading source of financing and ongoing support for innovative, growing companies. By offering equity and debt investments, strategic guidance and introductions to valuable partners, CI helps promising businesses thrive. For more information, visit http://www.ctinnovations.com.

Media Contact:
Lauren Carmody
Connecticut Innovations
860.258.7829
[email protected]

SOURCE Connecticut Innovations

Helping providers resolve denials five times faster and cut denial rates by 70%

NEW YORK, April 22, 2026 — Amperos Health, the first insurance revenue recovery partner capable of working denials end-to-end entirely with AI, announced today that it has closed a $16 million Series A funding round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Uncork Capital and Neo.

The raise comes as Amperos launches the industry’s first AI-native denial management and revenue recovery solution for healthcare providers. Amperos’ agentic capabilities provide end-to-end denial and collection automation, while a team of subject matter experts provides judgment and expertise for complex and difficult-to-recover claims. Amperos then delivers detailed insights into how providers can optimize their billing and collections processes to prevent future denials. To date, Amperos has served over 3,000 clinical locations across all 50 states, driving nearly $700 million of revenue recovered per year across over 500,000 claims. 

“Complexity in healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) should not be the norm, and that’s why our mission at Amperos is to streamline the denial and collections process so providers can focus on what matters most – operating their practices and serving their patients,” said Michal Miernowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Amperos Health. “I’m thrilled to announce our most recent funding round, which will be critical as Amperos accelerates its growth to serve more providers, expands its analytics capabilities and launches new agentic capabilities in other RCM workflows.”

Denials are rising in healthcare today, with 12% of claims denied in 2024, representing a $262 billion loss in revenue to providers. Providers then spend more than $26 billion annually in recovering these denied claims, of which 70% end up getting paid. And yet, 63% of RCM teams are understaffed, while healthcare administration teams face a 32% annual turnover rate.

These statistics exemplify why Amperos has built a new product that can fill gaps in the RCM workforce while recovering more value in denied revenue. The product manages the full denial management process, from following up through insurance portals and calls, to submitting corrected claims, medical records, and appeals.

“Denials are one of healthcare’s fastest-growing pain points: a growing portion of claims denied, hundreds of billions in lost revenue, and RCM teams that are chronically understaffed. It’s a broken process ripe for AI transformation,” said Sofia Guerra, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “What sets Amperos apart is that they’re the first truly agentic AI platform we’ve seen to automate this workflow end-to-end, from portal follow-ups and calls to corrected claims and appeals, with no handoffs and no gaps. We’re excited to see Amperos continue to grow its impact for customers. The results speak for themselves: 22% more recovered per claim at up to 50% lower cost, creating real financial relief for providers who are already operating on razor-thin margins.”

While other solutions on the market typically automate only part of the denial management process – like calling, writing appeal letters, or navigating payer portals – Amperos is the first and only product in the market to automate end-to-end workflows for denial teams. Amperos uses state-of-the-art LLMs across voice, computer use, and more to complete entire collections workflows and maximize reimbursement at the lowest cost to collect.

“Our partnership with Amperos has helped ease the workload that comes with recovering unpaid claims and insurance collections tremendously,” said Valerie DeCaro, Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management at DOCS Dermatology. “By helping my team work through time-consuming tasks faster and focus on more complex needs, we’ve been able to recover 24% more claims without increasing headcount. DOCS Dermatology is a provider-first organization, and Amperos Health ensures that our providers are properly compensated for the care they give.”

Amperos Health continues to serve as a partner to providers, building upon the company’s $4.2 million seed funding announcement in June 2025. By empowering teams to challenge the notion that healthcare RCM is inherently complex, Amperos is leading a new standard in healthcare where providers can navigate RCM with ease.

About Amperos Health:
Amperos Health is healthcare’s first AI-native denial management and revenue recovery solution designed specifically for healthcare providers to combat denials and streamline claims collections for revenue cycle management (RCM) teams. Fully HIPAA-compliant and equipped with bank-level security, Amperos empowers teams to resolve more denials, recover more revenue, and significantly improve RCM team productivity and recovery rates. To learn more, visit www.amperos.com.

Media Contact
Jared Rosen
213-218-0287
[email protected]

SOURCE Amperos Health