NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 16, 2026 — Eileen Inc., a next-generation retail technology platform, today announced a strategic investment from DisPact Ventures, a venture capital firm that backs disruptive brands and technologies across the consumer landscape, extending the company’s previously announced pre-seed round. The investment comes just months after Eileen’s $1 million pre-seed led by Top Shelf Ventures and will accelerate the expansion of its retail insights and execution platform, which bridges the gap between real-time store insights and operational execution for Bev Alc and CPG brands of all sizes.

Eileen’s core innovation is its Performance Hub, a centralized platform that integrates store-level data captured by its own network of “Shoppers,” paired with AI-driven analytics to act on that data on-the-ground at scale.

Since launching in January, Eileen has scaled quickly. The platform now serves over 70 brands across 49 states, supported by a network of 25,000+ Shoppers who have captured insights from over 90 retail banners and 5,600 unique stores. The rapid adoption underscores growing demand from consumer brands for faster, more affordable visibility into retail execution and in-store performance.

“Brands lose at the shelf because they can’t see the shelf,” said Jordan Karcher, Founder and CEO of Eileen Inc. “Our pre-seed proved there’s real demand for changing that. DisPact has built consumer brands that live or die at retail, and their partnership lets us expand the quality and availability of real-time, photo-verified shelf data to the brands that need it most, at a price they can actually afford.”

The company plans to use the new capital to:

• Scale the AI infrastructure
• Expand technical talent
• Accelerate go-to-market strategy

“Retail execution remains one of the largest blind spots in consumer products. Brands invest millions driving demand, only to lose sales because products aren’t on the shelf, displays aren’t built, or inventory issues go unnoticed. Eileen is solving that problem with a scalable, technology-driven approach that delivers real-time visibility and actionable intelligence at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions. As operators and investors in consumer brands, we’ve experienced these challenges firsthand, and we’re excited to partner with Jordan and his team as they build what we believe can become the category-defining platform for retail execution and in-store intelligence.” said Andrew Merinoff, Founder and Managing Partner of DisPact Ventures.

About Eileen Inc.

Eileen Inc. provides a high-performance retail execution engine designed for the modern brand. By combining AI-driven analytics with a seamless Performance Hub, Eileen helps brands instantly bridge the gap between store-floor insights and operational execution.

About DisPact Ventures

DisPact Ventures is a venture capital firm founded by entrepreneur and investor Andrew Merinoff that partners with next-generation founders across consumer products, hospitality, technology, and retail. DisPact combines strategic capital with hands-on operating expertise, helping founders accelerate growth through access to industry relationships, distribution networks, retail partnerships, and experienced operators. Portfolio companies include SevenRooms, The Finnish Long Drink, Chinola Fresh Fruit Liqueurs, Coconut Cartel, SipMargs, Empirical Spirits, and other emerging consumer and technology businesses operating around the world.

Media Contact:

Jordan Karcher
[email protected]

SOURCE Eileen Inc.

MIAMI, June 16, 2026 — LEBEC, a global innovative finance platform, today announced a strategic investment from CCM Holding Company, LLC, the parent company to Community Capital Management, LLC (CCM). CCM is a $7 billion institutional asset manager with over 25 years of experience seeking to deliver competitive risk-adjusted market-rate returns alongside impact solutions. The investment marks a significant milestone as LEBEC scales its three integrated pillars: strategic advisory, investment management (LEBEC Capital Partners), and narrative change. LEBEC’s unique approach directs more capital toward leading innovations addressing systemic risks in sectors such as water, regenerative agriculture, energy, health, and infrastructure.

Founded in 1998, CCM develops market-rate strategies for institutional clients seeking strong financial performance and tangible societal outcomes. Its investment in LEBEC extends that legacy into private markets innovation. By combining CCM’s institutional scale and track record with LEBEC’s deep expertise in asset management, innovative finance, and social entrepreneurship, the partnership bridges the critical gap between traditional investing and the frontline solutions building a resilient global economy. It sets a powerful precedent for how the financial industry can unite to close the global $5 trillion annual financing gap for solutions addressing systemic risks.

“We are truly honored to welcome CCM as a partner,” said Alix Lebec, Founder and CEO of LEBEC. “The world’s most pressing challenges cannot be solved in silos. This investment validates our approach to mainstreaming innovative finance—by building diversified private market portfolios across interconnected sectors and driving narrative change across media and entertainment. Advancing human dignity and global resilience is essential for our planet and economy. To succeed, the financial innovations driving this work must be made understandable and culturally visible to all audiences through media and entertainment. Alyssa Greenspan and the entire CCM team share our vision for moving capital differently, and their trust in our team will accelerate our impact.”

“CCM is making a strategic investment in LEBEC based on our belief in Alix and her team’s vision and execution,” said Alyssa Greenspan, CFA, CEO and President of CCM. “The team brings clear purpose, deep experience, and a fresh approach to directing capital to businesses and projects with meaningful impact. We are excited to support LEBEC’s growth and encourage other investors and partners to engage with the work they are leading.”

This announcement follows the recent launch of LEBEC Capital Partners, which will construct and invest in diversified, multi-asset class portfolios of specialized private market funds. These portfolios accelerate decarbonization, adaptation, and economic mobility solutions while targeting attractive risk-adjusted returns. LEBEC Capital Partners is uniquely positioned to address emerging investment blind spots—most notably the physical infrastructure, water, and energy dependencies associated with scaling technologies like AI.

“Scaling innovations across critical resources like water, food, and clean energy must accelerate exponentially this decade,” said Julia Wilkinson, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at LEBEC. “Despite this urgency, traditional markets consistently overlook the private market funds driving these solutions. LEBEC Capital Partners fills this gap. The portfolios of private market funds we invest in are scaling frontline solutions, and the data is clear: investing in decarbonization and adaptation could unlock an estimated $1.4 trillion in broader economic benefits—proving that systemic solutions are a fundamental driver of long-term value creation.”

About LEBEC
LEBEC is a global innovative finance platform addressing a $5T annual financing gap for systemic solutions building a resilient economy and planet. With 20+ years of experience across asset management, philanthropy, and social entrepreneurship, LEBEC is mainstreaming innovative finance through three integrated pillars: (a) strategic advisory, (b) investment management, and (c) narrative change.

LEBEC advises asset owners and social entrepreneurs on innovative finance strategies, narratives, and financial structuring. Through its investment manager, LEBEC Capital Partners, it constructs diversified private market fund portfolios designed to pursue competitive, risk-adjusted returns and accelerate decarbonization, adaptation, and economic mobility solutions. The LEBEC team brings deep cross-sector experience and emphasizes disciplined portfolio construction, thoughtful risk management, and long-term value creation.

For more information, visit lebec.co.

About Community Capital Management (CCM), LLC
Founded in 1998, Community Capital Management, LLC (CCM) is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm’s mission seeks to deliver competitive risk-adjusted returns through investment strategies that contribute to positive societal outcomes. For more information, please visit: www.ccminvests.com.

Media Contacts
LEBEC
Surabhi Virnave
[email protected]
312-291-1099

Community Capital Management
Jamie Horwitz
[email protected]
954-298-6214

SOURCE LEBEC

Oversubscribed round led by LiveOak Ventures will support new Depositary Receipt offerings, expanded market distribution, and scale the team ahead of new product launches

HOUSTON, June 16, 2026 — Receipts Depositary Corporation (RDC), the first depositary with the ability to issue depositary receipts (DR) on digital and alternative assets, today announced the close of a $7 million oversubscribed funding round. The round was led by LiveOak Ventures, with participation from strategic investors including Hivemind Capital, Onigiri Capital, OTC Markets Group, GTS, and Redbeard Ventures.

The funding will support RDC’s next phase of growth, including the launch of new DR products, expansion of distribution capabilities, continued investment in capital markets infrastructure, and strategic hiring across the organization.

RDC provides the issuer services, operational infrastructure, and market connectivity required to bring DR products to U.S. investors across a range of asset classes, connecting asset issuers, intermediaries, and U.S. capital markets through regulated, securities market-eligible instruments. The company was founded by a team with more than a decade of experience in the DR business.

“This funding round is a strong validation of what we’re building at RDC and the growing demand for modernized Depositary Receipt infrastructure,” said Ankit Mehta, Chief Executive Officer of RDC. “With the support of LiveOak Ventures and our investor partners, we are accelerating development across our DR platform expanding our market reach, and building the team needed to support the next generation of DR products.”

“Depositary Receipts are trusted, regulated capital markets products which RDC is bringing to an entirely new universe of assets, from commodities to digital assets, that have historically been out of reach of traditional securities markets. said Krishna Srinivasan, Founding Partner at LiveOak Ventures. “The team’s depth of experience in the DR business on a global scale, combined with the broad institutional validation from co-investors, anchor customers, and strategic partners across asset classes, makes RDC uniquely positioned to define this category. We’re proud to lead this round and support the company as it scales.”

The proceeds from the round will support three strategic priorities. First, RDC will accelerate the development of its next-generation DR product offerings across a wider range of asset categories. Second, the company will expand its go-to-market efforts and deepen relationships across the DR ecosystem, including banks, broker-dealers, market makers, custodians, and exchange partners. Third, RDC will continue scaling its team across product, operations, technology, and commercial functions.

RDC is actively hiring as it expands its platform and prepares for upcoming product launches. The company is seeking professionals with capital markets expertise and a passion for building infrastructure that expands access to digital and alternative asset markets.

About Receipts Depositary Corporation

RDC is the first depositary with the ability to issue depositary receipts (DRs) on digital and alternative assets. RDC’s products currently enable investors to own a wide range of assets through compliant, institution-grade DR instruments designed to enhance liquidity, access, and cross-border efficiency. This ability reflects the founders’ decade of experience in the DR business. Combining deep capital markets expertise with innovation, RDC is building a modern, transparent, technology-driven depositary platform designed for today’s markets, and plans to expand its suite of products to make certain offerings available to retail investors. RDC is not a bank and is not registered as a broker, dealer or investment adviser in any jurisdiction. Learn more at www.receiptsdepo.com.

About LiveOak Ventures

LiveOak Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Austin, Texas. With over 23 years of successful venture investing in Texas, the founders of LiveOak have helped create nearly $5 billion of enterprise value. While almost all of LiveOak’s investments begin in the early stages, LiveOak is a complete life cycle investor focused on technology and technology-enabled service companies. With nearly $500M under management, LiveOak has led investments in 60 high-growth Texas-based companies, including DISCO (NYSE: LAW), Eventus, Schoolinks, AmplifAI, Homeward, Take Command Health, and Osano. Recognized as the Venture Capital Firm of the Year at the inaugural A-List awards by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, LiveOak is dedicated to supporting local founders, fostering the next generation of leaders, and building category-dominating companies.

About Hivemind Capital

Hivemind Capital is a global investment group operating at the intersection of traditional finance and the onchain economy. Founded in 2021, Hivemind allocates institutional capital across a diverse set of investment strategies, and implements technology infrastructure to help assets and institutions transition onto blockchain rails with discipline, durability, and scale. Learn more at hivemind.capital.

About GTS

GTS is a collection of financial services companies spanning a wide array of asset classes and investment approaches, all powered by the combination of market expertise with innovative, proprietary technology. With roots as a quantitative trading firm continually building for the future, the GTS family of companies are able to leverage the latest in artificial intelligence systems and sophisticated pricing models to bring consistency, efficiency, and transparency to today’s financial markets. GTS’s electronic market maker GTS Securities accounts for 3-5% of daily cash equities volume in the U.S. and is a leading Designated Market Maker (DMM) at the New York Stock Exchange, responsible for nearly $13 trillion of market capitalization.

About Onigiri Capital

Onigiri Capital is a venture capital fund launched by Saison Capital, the corporate venture arm of Japan’s Credit Saison. Onigiri is on a mission to support innovation to chart the next chapter of finance through facilitating trust, scale, and adoption for blockchain technology. The fund leverages its Asian institutional heritage to fund, advise, and empower blockchain founders who are unlocking real-world, global financial products and utility across stablecoins, payments, tokenized assets, DeFi, and financial markets infrastructure. For more information, visit onigiri.vc.

About OTC Markets Group

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates regulated markets for trading 12,000 U.S. and international securities. Our data-driven disclosure standards form the foundation of our public markets: OTCQX® Best Market, OTCQB® Venture Market, OTCID™ Basic Market and Pink Limited™ Market. Our OTC Link® Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs) provide critical market infrastructure that broker-dealers rely on to facilitate trading. Our innovative model offers companies more efficient access to the U.S. financial markets.

OTC Link ATS, OTC Link ECN, OTC Link NQB, OTC Overnight® and MOON ATS® are each an SEC regulated ATS, operated by OTC Link LLC, a FINRA and SEC registered broker-dealer, member SIPC.

To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com.

About Red Beard Ventures

Red Beard Ventures (RBV) runs a leading stage/sector-agnostic syndicate & a web3 / AI fund. The syndicate is one of the most active syndicates on AngelList + Echo and invests in Frontier Technology with a focus on Space, Sports, Industrial Robotics, Defense and Biotech. RBV invests anywhere between $100k – $1.5M per deal and has invested in Vast Aerospace, Layerzero, Major League Pickleball – Texas Ranchers, Unstoppable Domains, Liquid Death, Canva, Anduril, SpaceX, and 200+ other companies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. RDC undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release. Nothing in this press release should be construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities.

Media Contact:
Forefront Communications
[email protected]
www.receiptsdepo.com

SOURCE Receipts Depositary Corporation

DANBURY, Conn., June 16, 2026 — Global Jet Capital, a global leader in financial solutions for business aircraft, announced today the closing of its BJETS 2026-1 securitization, raising approximately $659.0 million. BJETS 2026-1 is Global Jet Capital’s nineth asset-backed security (ABS) offering, bringing total assets securitized to approximately $6.7 billion and bonds issued to approximately $5.4 billion.

The BJETS 2026-1 offering contained three tranches of notes: a $561.39 million Class A tranche, a $56.95 million Class B tranche, and a $40.68 million Class C tranche. S&P Global Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency LLC assigned BJETS 2026-1 ratings of A/A, BBB+/BBB and BB/BB on the Class A, B and C tranches, respectively. The transaction attracted 41 unique investors, 12 of which were new to the BJETS program.

As with previous BJETS issuances, BJETS 2026-1 securitizes the cash flows from business aircraft loans and leases representing a diverse group of obligors and assets. BJETS 2026-1 includes 28 leases and loans to corporations and global business leaders representing 20 unique industries. 16 different aircraft models – primarily mid- to large-cabin business aircraft – are represented in the transaction.

Morgan Stanley & Co. was the lead structuring agent and lead bookrunner and Deutsche Bank Securities, BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, KKR Capital Markets and TCG Capital Markets were joint structuring agents and joint bookrunners for the BJETS 2026-1 transaction. In addition, Citizens JMP Securities & PNC Capital Markets were co-managers. Global Jet Capital will continue to service the securitized assets.

Vivek Kaushal, CEO of Global Jet Capital, stated, “The success of our latest issuance reflects our continued portfolio performance and execution, which is made possible by the dedication and hard work of the entire Global Jet Capital team. As always, we are grateful for the ongoing support of our lenders and investors and their commitment and confidence in our business.”

Notes to editors

About Global Jet Capital

With more than $5.6 billion in originations, Global Jet Capital provides comprehensive financing solutions for the business aircraft market. The Global Jet Capital management team has served the business aircraft industry for a combined 325-plus years. The Company has the expertise, financial strength, industry relationships and infrastructure necessary to offer a variety of flexible financing solutions at the speed the market requires. Visit www.globaljetcapital.com to learn more.

SOURCE Global Jet Capital

New 36,000 sqft Massachusetts facility, modular production cell with Re:Build Manufacturing, and Kanematsu Corporation as commercial distribution partner anchor the next phase of MetalsFIRST deployment

BOSTON, June 16, 2026 — Foundation Alloy, the 21^st-century metals company building a new way to engineer alloys, today announced $22 million in Series A financing to scale production on its MetalsFIRST™ platform—a fully integrated, solid-state metallurgy technology—to industrial volumes. The round was led by Voyager Ventures, with participation from Trust Ventures, Yamaha Motor Ventures, America’s Frontier Fund, Overlap Holdings, Material Impact, Engine Ventures, and El Cap. An additional investment was made by Kanematsu Corporation, a global Japanese trading house, which signed a definitive distribution partnership and is bringing Foundation Alloy’s materials to major industrial customers across Japan and Southeast Asia. Foundation Alloy products, all manufactured in the United States, are being piloted by customers today across North America, Europe and Japan.

Engineering alloys are the hidden enabler in every advanced industrial system on the planet, from jet engines, rockets, and energy infrastructure to precision components found in luxury goods like chef’s knives and watches. But the way they’re made hasn’t fundamentally changed since before the space race. Legacy melt-based methods are energy-intensive, slow, and bumping against a performance ceiling that the traditional process can no longer break through. In the military-industrial complex, specific metal components are running 900-day lead times, keeping aircraft on the ground and constraining the rebuilding of defense stockpiles. The bottlenecks for new technologies and systems are both performance and supply issues.

The funding transitions Foundation Alloy into an industrial supplier. This summer, the company is opening a new 36,000 sqft facility in Massachusetts, standing up an additional modular production cell with Re:Build Manufacturing in southern New Hampshire, and doubling headcount across production, engineering, and commercial operations. 

“Metals made through our platform are being used by customers today in commercial pilots with Japanese industrials, in production trials across North America and Europe, and in forging demonstrations with LIFT in Detroit,” said Jake Guglin, CEO of Foundation Alloy. “This Series A funds the factory, not the lab. Our new Massachusetts facility and modular production cell are set to grow capacity from pilot-scale today to tons per week by 2027—a 100x increase, built on a modular equipment platform that deploys and scales 10x faster than traditional metals manufacturing. We’re hiring across production, engineering, and commercial teams to help meet surging demand in defense, advanced manufacturing, and energy where legacy materials and supply chains are failing. Our team is uniquely positioned to solve these challenges right now.”

Foundation Alloy’s MetalsFIRST approach is a fully integrated, solid-state platform encompassing composition design, mechanical alloying, shape forming, and sintering, that produces engineered alloys without ever entering the molten state. This process enables faster, simpler manufacturing cycles, capital-efficient industrial scale up, and access to alloy compositions and properties impossible to achieve with legacy melt processes. Foundation Alloy’s specialty and stainless steels are engineered for the most demanding applications while requiring 80%–90% fewer production steps, while its Molyclast® product line includes MC1200, a molybdenum alloy that delivers more than 3x the strength of commercial alternatives. This combination of superior performance and manufacturability unlocks new capabilities for demanding applications across the industrial space. 

“Foundation Alloy’s platform addresses the most persistent challenges our customers face—productivity, equipment utilization, and supply-chain reliability—through a fundamentally different production approach,” said Kenyu Okawara, General Manager, Kanematsu Corporation. “Client companies across our network are already evaluating Foundation Alloy’s materials for high-demand applications, and we look forward to delivering these next-generation alloys to manufacturers across Japan and Asia as part of our solution-oriented approach to the metals business. We see the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars of demand for these materials across Japan and Southeast Asia in the coming years.”

“Aerospace, defense, energy, and precision manufacturing need alloys that are stronger, cheaper, and faster to produce than anything available today. Foundation Alloy delivers this leap forward with metals engineered at the atomic level through its MetalsFIRST platform. Voyager is proud to back this team as they redefine metals and manufacturing, all made in America,” said Sarah Sclarsic, Founder and Managing Partner at Voyager Ventures.

Foundation Alloy’s products are in industrial pilots today through its Molyclast family of molybdenum-based alloys which are used across hot forging, die casting, and high-temperature applications. Foundation Alloy is already expanding into iron-based alloys, including stainless, tool and high-performance specialty steels with multiple customer pilot programs. The company’s near-term product expansion targets cutting tools and blades, with longer-term applications in aerospace components, defense systems, and next-generation energy technologies. Customers can take MetalsFIRST output as fully finished parts, near finished parts, or in stock form. 

LIFT, the Department of War-supported national advanced materials and manufacturing innovation institute, is an accelerator connecting advanced materials, manufacturing processes, systems engineering and talent development enhancing America’s manufacturing competitiveness, national economy and security.

“The Department of War Manufacturing Innovation Institutes’ core mission is to accelerate transformational technology into the U.S. industrial base and to support the successful scale up of those innovations,” said Nigel Francis, CEO and Executive Director, LIFT. “We are tremendously proud to see that vision realized with Foundation Alloy and this important Series A funding. Our testbed and pilot plant facility in Detroit played a pivotal role in testing and demonstrating Foundation Alloy’s novel technology, helping to lay the foundation for this next phase of growth—right here in the United States.”

About Foundation Alloy
Foundation Alloy is the 21st-century metals company. MetalsFIRST™ is a fully integrated, solid-state platform that ends the melt-based era of metals manufacturing. New alloys go from design to production in months instead of years, and finished parts ship in days with advanced performance legacy methods cannot match. The company has 17 granted patents on its underlying processes and is backed by Voyager Ventures, Material Impact, El Cap, Yamaha Motors, Trust Ventures, Engine Ventures, America’s Frontier Fund, Overlap Holdings, Kanematsu Corporation, Alumni Ventures, and Safar Partners. To learn more about how Foundation Alloy is building the metals layer of modern American manufacturing, visit foundationalloy.com.

CONTACT: For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].

SOURCE Foundation Alloy

NEW YORK, June 16, 2026 –HeyMilo AI, the agentic recruiting platform for high-volume hiring, today announced it has raised a total of $6 million led by Category Ventures, with participation from Canaan Partners, Alumni Ventures, and ERA.

The company has onboarded leading staffing agencies, RPOs, and enterprise employers including Randstad, WilsonHCG, and Neo Financial, and has screened more than one million candidates in production across staffing, BPO, and high-volume corporate hiring.

Hiring teams face a growing mismatch: candidates use AI to apply and prepare at scale while most recruiting processes still run on a PDF and a phone call. HeyMilo builds structured, interactive screening directly into the application itself. When someone applies, screening starts immediately across voice, video, phone, SMS, and resume agents. Recruiters receive rubric-scored results and evidence-backed transcripts inside the ATS they already use.

“High-volume hiring only works if you can vet everyone fairly and send recruiters to the people who deserve their time,” said Sabashan Ragavan, co-founder and CEO. “We are changing how companies hire by changing what happens from the second a candidate applies. With some of the largest staffing agencies and enterprises screening candidates across conversational SMS, resume screening, video and voice interviews, and candidate fraud detection, the production signal is clear: recruiting teams are ready for a recruiting intelligence layer that delivers ROI at scale.”

Alongside the funding, HeyMilo is launching three new agent types. AI Scenario Assessment puts candidates through a live scenario with a built-in AI assistant and rubric-scores how they plan, prompt, and judge AI output, closing a proof gap that resumes and generic interviews cannot. Candidate Recommendations resurfaces previously screened applicants from the ATS and returns ranked shortlists without manual re-engagement. Notetaker captures structured notes across live recruiter-led interviews so every candidate interaction produces consistent, reviewable signals.

“AI is fundamentally changing the way companies need to vet applicants for roles and HeyMilo has quickly emerged as a leader in that transformation,” said Villi Iltchev, Founder & Managing Partner at Category Ventures.

About HeyMilo HeyMilo is an agentic recruiting platform for high-volume hiring teams. Founded in 2023 by Sabashan Ragavan and Ramie Raufdeen, HeyMilo has raised $6 million to date. Learn more at heymilo.ai.

SOURCE HeyMilo AI

After building a search firm that has generated more than $80 million in revenue, Jeremy Jenson is out to disrupt how companies hire at scale, productizing the playbook he used to turn his own company into a talent magnet.

HOUSTON, June 16, 2026 — For more than a decade, Jeremy Jenson has built his career on a blunt premise: the best people aren’t looking, so someone has to go get them. As Founder and CEO of Encore Search Partners, Houston’s largest privately held executive search firm, he turned that premise into more than $80 million in revenue, without a dollar of outside capital. Today, Jenson is launching TalentDemand, built for a problem his recruiting firm was never meant to solve: what a company does when it raises a major round and suddenly has to hire, not just one great person, but several.

Those hires have to build new divisions, open new geomarkets, bring in new business, and launch new product lines. No recruiter, however good, can run that many searches at once, and a direct-hire fee on every seat runs half a million dollars or more. The people who can do the work already have great jobs. They aren’t looking, and they ignore the cold calls and job posts everyone else is firing at them. The plan is rarely the problem. The talent to execute it is.

“When we wanted to grow Encore, we did what everyone does. We posted jobs, sent LinkedIn messages, got average results,” said Encore Search Partners Founder and CEO Jeremy Jenson, who is launching TalentDemand. “Then we got consistent about telling our story, our culture, our wins, the big commission checks our people were earning. People stopped needing to be convinced and started knocking on our door. Great people don’t want to be sold. They want to discover. And when it becomes their idea, everything changes.”

TalentDemand is a new kind of public relations, aimed at talent rather than customers, and it lives in the gap between three things every growing company already has: recruiters who touch a candidate once or twice, internal talent teams who post roles and wait, and marketing built for customers, not new hires. It fills that gap with a sustained campaign aimed at the exact people a company wants to hire through video storytelling outreach, across Linkedin, emails, and text messages, through at least 20 unique digital assets, dripped over several months. The point isn’t to pitch anyone in a message or two. It’s to tell a company’s story, its growth, its leadership, its wins, until joining becomes the candidate’s own idea. That’s the thinking behind the name. You don’t find great talent with the shotgun approach, you create demand for it.

TalentDemand is built to complement great recruiters, not replace them, and Jenson is adamant about that. It’s the foundation beneath them, so that by the time a recruiter calls, the best professionals already know the company and want to talk. He built it above all for one buyer: the venture capital or private equity operating partner who’s just funded a company and needs the market to know it. The six months after a raise, he argues, are the window when top talent starts gravitating toward a company on its own. People aren’t an HR line item, they’re an enterprise-value lever. Recruiting the right revenue producers can lift a company’s value faster than a traditional acquisition.

“Recruiting will always have a place. I built a company on it,” Jenson said. “But the companies that win the next decade won’t just out-recruit their competitors. They’ll out-attract them.”

About the launch

• TalentDemand officially launched in June 2026.
• A managed service that builds awareness and a talent pipeline at scale for companies hiring after a funding round, designed to complement, not replace, executive recruiting.
• Founded by Jeremy Jenson, founder and CEO of Encore Search Partners.
• Built for VC & PE backed companies scaling after a capital raise
• More information: talentdemand.com

About TalentDemand TalentDemand is a service that helps fast-growing companies attract talent at scale by creating demand for it. Using direct outreach, video, and storytelling dripped over time, it makes a company’s growth story known to the exact people it wants to hire, so the best candidates come to it on their own. It lives in the gap between recruiting, internal talent acquisition, and marketing, and it’s built to complement executive search rather than replace it. Founded by recruiting-industry veteran Jeremy Jenson, TalentDemand is based in Houston, Texas. Learn more at talentdemand.com.

About Encore Search Partners Founded by Jeremy Jenson in 2013, Encore Search Partners is Houston’s largest privately held executive search firm, specializing in outbound, direct-hire recruiting of high-performing professionals nationwide across wealth management, legal, energy, industrial, manufacturing, and technology. Built without outside capital, the firm has been named one of the Houston Business Journal’s Best Places to Work six years running and ranked the #1 largest executive search firm in Houston. Learn more at encoresearch.com.

Media Contact Jeremy Jenson, Founder & CEO at TalentDemand

SOURCE Encore Search Partners

Partnership combines GoTraveler’s category leadership and an iconic travel programming library with Ionic’s operating apparatus, audience platform, and direct buyer access, sharpening one of CTV’s most engaged genres into a destination environment for travel advertisers.

NEW YORK, June 15, 2026 — Ionic Studios LLC (“Ionic”) and Questar Entertainment Group, Inc. (“Questar”) today announced the formation of Ionic Questar Holdings, LLC, a joint venture to operate, monetize, and grow GoTraveler, North America’s largest travel channel on free ad-supported streaming television. Under the partnership, Ionic serves as Publisher of Record and brings its full operating apparatus to the channel, while Questar contributes the GoTraveler brand and a content library built over more than four decades. Both companies are equally invested in establishing GoTraveler as the definitive travel destination on connected television.

GoTraveler is one of the most established channels in the FAST ecosystem, distributed across DIRECTV, LG Channels, VIZIO WatchFree+, Xumo, Sling TV, Dish Network, Plex, and additional connected television platforms across the United States. The channel runs 24/7 programming spanning destinations on six continents, with a content slate that balances destination guides, culinary travel, cultural immersion, and adventure programming. It is, by design, a lean-back, aspirational, brand-safe environment built to keep travel-engaged viewers on the screen.

What sets GoTraveler apart is the library behind it. Questar has been building travel and lifestyle programming since 1985, and the channel draws from a catalog that includes some of the most recognizable franchises in the category, among them Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour, Rick Steves’ Europe, Exploring Mexico’s Kitchen with Rick Bayless, Smart Travels with Rudy Maxa, Curious Traveler, Dream of Italy, and America’s National Parks. The result is a channel with a clear editorial identity and a viewer who comes back to it intentionally, in a market where most travel inventory in FAST is recycled, thinly packaged, or sold against broad demographics.

Ionic brings the operating apparatus of a modern connected television publisher: ad operations and demand integration, agentic ad serving, SSP and DSP relationships, direct sales execution, and platform-level distribution expansion. Audience identification across GoTraveler runs on Ionic’s behavioral and contextual platform, surfacing high-intent travel viewers, both active travelers and those in the planning window, without relying on demographic assumptions alone. Buys can be structured through Ionic’s iX Access framework, giving travel brands, hospitality companies, online travel agencies, destinations, and financial services advertisers direct and transparent access to GoTraveler inventory rather than navigating opaque exchange supply.

The partnership comes as FAST audiences in the United States are projected to reach 131.4 million in 2026, accounting for 54% of all connected television users (eMarketer), while U.S. travel industry digital ad spend is on pace to approach $9.4 billion this year, nearly double its 2021 level. Travel as a category has the audience curve and the advertiser curve, but FAST has largely treated it as filler rather than a genre worth building. Ionic and Questar are taking the opposite view, and putting the operating investment behind it.

“GoTraveler has built something genuinely rare in FAST: a channel with a clear editorial identity and a viewer who comes back for it intentionally,” said Shafi Mustafa, Managing Director of Ionic Studios. “That is the kind of supply that deserves better than open-auction CPMs and broad-stroke demographics. With this partnership, we are putting GoTraveler in front of advertisers who understand the difference between reaching someone and reaching someone in the right moment, and we are building the channel into the destination the travel category has been missing in connected television.”

“GoTraveler is the connected television expression of a travel content business we have been building since 1985,” said Jonathan Plowman, Chief Executive Officer of Questar Entertainment. “Partnering with Ionic gives us the monetization, distribution, and commercial execution to scale that work the way it deserves, in front of the travel advertisers who should be in this environment. We are aligned with the Ionic team on what GoTraveler can become in CTV, and on the path to get there.”

The joint venture begins immediate work across three fronts: platform distribution expansion into additional FAST endpoints, content investment to deepen and refresh the GoTraveler programming slate, and direct advertiser activation across the 2026 and 2027 commercial cycles. Both parties are invested in the long-term growth of the channel as a category-defining destination on connected television.

About Ionic Studios

Ionic Studios is the studio for the open streaming ecosystem. The company assembles a scaled portfolio of exclusively represented, brand-safe FAST channels into a single, unified buying system, bringing the consistency, reach, and activation standards advertisers expect from premium walled gardens to the open CTV market. Ionic builds the portfolio through three paths: channels it owns and operates, joint ventures with content partners, and exclusive strategic partnerships with leading independent studios. The portfolio today reaches more than 100 million U.S. households across 94 exclusively represented channels, with over 250 million hours streamed monthly and 5.2 billion monthly ad impressions. For more information, visit ionic.tv.

About Questar Entertainment

Questar Entertainment, founded in 1985 in Chicago, is a media company specializing in travel and lifestyle content. Its flagship asset, GoTraveler, is the largest travel channel on free ad-supported streaming television in North America, distributed across the major FAST platforms in the United States. GoTraveler’s programming spans destinations on six continents and draws from a library of iconic travel franchises developed across four-plus decades of category-defining production. For more information, visit questarentertainment.com.

Media Contact
Ionic Studios
Warda Baig
[email protected]

SOURCE Ionic Studios

The founder-led venture firm triples in size from inception, expands its operating bench, and doubles down on New York based accelerator

NEW YORK, June 15, 2026 — Gutter Capital today announced the opening of applications for the second cohort of Elbow Grease, the firm’s small-batch accelerator in New York City, sponsored by Mercury and Orrick, alongside the close of Fund III at $75M.

Fueled by performance, the firm has closed a total of three funds in under three years. Both Funds I and II are in the top quartile of their respective vintages, according to Cambridge Associates benchmarks. Companies backed by Gutter Capital are twice as likely to graduate from Seed to Series A, and from Series A to Series B, based on Carta data.

The firm attributes that performance to a hands-on approach to early stage investing that has been core to Gutter since its founding, and is central to Elbow Grease. Gutter Capital was founded in 2021 by Dan Teran, former co-founder and CEO of Managed by Q, and James Gettinger, a computer scientist and professional gambler turned investor. The pair made over 110 angel investments together prior to Fund I, and in 2020 began working closely with a small handful of companies out of a shared office in downtown New York, helping founders to recruit early teams and navigate early strategic decisions.

“We saw that founders without typical Silicon Valley pedigree can do incredible things with the right team around them,” said Teran, who founded his company at age 24 and led as CEO through a $200M exit. “In a market that is obsessed with second time founders, we saw a big opportunity to do old school venture capital – partner closely with overlooked founders to build companies of consequence.”

To scale their impact, Teran and Gettinger have built a senior bench of Operating Partners. Richard Hughes joined as founding Head of Talent at inception. Since joining, Hughes has recruited over 100 engineers, designers, sellers, and marketers to Gutter companies. This year, Vince Li joined Gutter as Head of Product, to accelerate critical product, engineering, and design work within Gutter portfolio companies.

“It is hard to overstate how critical the Gutter team has been to Rebuild’s success” said Alex Toporek, Co-Founder and CEO of Rebuild, a Fund II investment. “Richard helped recruit almost every member of our incredible NYC-based team, and Vince has raised the bar on our product while helping to deliver critical features in record time.”

In January 2026, the firm launched the inaugural cohort of Elbow Grease, a small batch, founder-led accelerator in New York City, to return to their hands-on, early stage roots. The second cohort, starting this fall, will consist of up to 15 teams. Each company will receive a $300k initial investment, and spend 10 weeks on-site at Gutter’s headquarters, where they will work directly with the Gutter Capital partnership.

“Elbow Grease brings out the best in Gutter, and offers something different,” said Gettinger. “We partner with founders to help them achieve their goals, and when they do, we keep investing, so they can spend their time building the company, not prepping for demo day.”

In addition to working one-on-one with Teran and Gettinger, each company will be matched with a mentor; founders who have raised past Series B or exited, including Carly Strife, Co-Founder of Bark Box; Ryan Denehy, CEO of Electric AI; and Zach Garippa, CEO of Order. Mentors have close ties to the firm, many have taken investment from Gutter themselves, and are investors in Gutter funds.

“We joined Elbow Grease because of the opportunity to learn from some of the best operators in the business,” said Rohan Kumar, CEO of QuickSecure, who at age 19 took a leave of absence from Georgia Tech to participate in the inaugural cohort. “We didn’t need the money.”

Elbow Grease is at the center of the thriving New York tech ecosystem. Participating teams work alongside more than 70 founders and operators in Gutter’s headquarters in Chinatown. Founders participating this fall will join a series of off-the-record conversations with industry leaders in New York, including Scott Belsky, Partner at A24; Neil Blumenthal, Co-CEO of Warby Parker; and Kate Ryder, CEO of Maven.

During the first cohort, Rohan Kumar and his co-founder made the decision to relocate to New York to continue building QuickSecure at Gutter headquarters. “After seeing the value Gutter could bring to our company in just a few weeks, we knew this was where we needed to be.” Since the program’s conclusion, they have made their first two hires, and raised follow-on investment from Gutter Capital.

Applications for Elbow Grease are open now at elbowgrease.gutter.cc and close July 31, 2026. The accelerator will run from September 15 through November 19, 2026.

About Gutter Capital

Gutter Capital is an early-stage venture firm that builds companies of consequence in partnership with mission-driven founders. Gutter was founded in 2021 by Dan Teran and James Gettinger. The firm is small by design, making few investments each year and providing direct operational support to achieve exceptional results. Gutter Capital has been recognized by Business Insider as a Top 100 Seed Investor in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

SOURCE Gutter Capital