85% of Proficient First Graders Maintain Success Through Second Grade Without Further Support

Ignite Reading Launches “First Grade Promise” to Ensure Every Child Achieves Reading Proficiency in First Grade

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 26, 2026 — Ignite Reading, a Science of Reading-based early literacy intervention program that has provided more than 62 million minutes of personalized instruction to over 50,000 students nationwide, today announced the completion of a second study by researchers at the Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Education, showing 85% of first graders who reached proficiency maintained grade-level reading a year later without further intervention.

The findings of the two-year study, conducted across thirteen school districts in Massachusetts, confirmed the program’s ability to accelerate foundational reading skills during the crucial first grade window when students are best able to learn to read. According to the study, first graders reading at or above DIBELS benchmark increased from 6% at the beginning of the year to 48% at the end of the year with foundational reading skills tutoring. These compelling results confirm that Ignite Reading’s virtual, high-impact early literacy intervention model not only delivers exceptional outcomes but also achieves durable, lasting impact on foundational reading skills at scale, underscoring the success of and the importance of intervening decisively in the first grade.

Dr. Amanda Neitzel, lead researcher at Johns Hopkins’ University’s Center for Research and Reform in Education, commented, “These findings show that intervening to ensure students are reading on grade level by the end of first grade is highly effective and has promising implications for district planning and policy initiatives focused on improving third-grade reading outcomes. 85% of students who reached proficiency maintained it through second grade without further intervention. Taken together, these results demonstrate that accelerating early reading development in first grade through high-dosage, individualized tutoring can lead to both rapid and lasting improvements.”

Key Findings Underscore the Critical First Grade Window
The JHU CRRE analysis of 1,596 first-grade students in Year 2 produced virtually identical results to the initial study, effectively moving the program from a ‘promising pilot’ to a proven, evidence-based solution with sustained efficacy and sustained high-impact results that are repeatable year over year.

• Retained Literacy Gains: 85% of students who were on grade level at the end of first grade after participating in the Ignite Reading program maintained grade-level proficiency through second grade without further intervention, demonstrating the impact is lasting rather than temporary. In contrast, only 12% of students who were not on grade level at the end of first grade were able to catch up to grade level by the end of second grade without further intervention.
• Accelerated Growth: Students achieved more than five months of additional learning—equivalent to 128 additional points of DIBELS growth (vs. 80 expected).
• Increasing Efficacy: Students outperformed peers by a +0.23 SD effect size, a significant increase over Year 1 (+0.19 SD) and equivalent to in-person tutoring conducted at scale.
• Substantial Progress: Over the course of the study, the share of students meeting reading benchmarks increased dramatically from 6% to 48%, while intensive intervention needs fell from 70% to 31%.The evaluation found that literacy gains were consistent across student populations.

The evaluation found that literacy gains were consistent across student populations:

• Both English learners and non-English learners showed similar gains;
• Students with disabilities demonstrated substantial gains;
• No significant differential effects were found by race or ethnicity; and
• High-attendance students showed the strongest effects (effect size of +0.28).

Jessica Reid Sliwerski, CEO and co-founder of Ignite Reading, highlighted the significance of the persistence analysis and the urgency of ensuring kids learn to read before the end of first grade, “We now have concrete evidence that first grade is the threshold for lifelong success. Seeing 85% of our proficient first graders maintain their gains into second grade without further support confirms that our model creates lasting, independent readers. The data also serves as a powerful wake-up call: with only 12% of students catching up if they miss that first-grade window, we must treat early intervention as the urgent, non-negotiable priority it is.”

First Grade Promise – Replication and Scalability
The study reinforced the value of achieving reading proficiency in the first grade, a pivotal window where the right support ensures students become lifelong readers. Researchers noted that among students who did not reach proficiency by the end of the year, only 12 in 100 students caught up, underscoring the urgency of timely support. In years past, third grade has served as the primary accountability point for reading proficiency in state and federal policy, shaping assessment, promotion, and intervention practices nationwide. However, by the time reading failure appears in third grade outcomes, underlying skill gaps have typically been present for years, limiting the effectiveness and efficiency of intervention.

The First Grade Promise is grounded in learning science and evidence-based practice and is designed to shift literacy intervention earlier to the years when reading difficulty is still preventable. By ensuring that students master foundational reading skills and reach oral reading fluency by the end of first grade, states and districts can dramatically increase the share of students who become proficient readers. Research indicates that most children can learn to read on time when instruction is explicit, systematic, and sufficiently intensive, with additional targeted support provided to those who need it. Ignite Reading’s First Grade Promise is a collective commitment by district leaders, educators, and community members to intervene on time with precision, fidelity, and urgency.

Dr. Almudena (Almi) G. Abeyta, Superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools, said, “Ignite Reading is a transformative partner and a seamless extension of our team, providing the high-dosage resources we simply couldn’t scale on our own. In public education, personalized instruction is the key to equity, and seeing our students achieve such explosive growth is exhilarating. As educators, there is no greater relief than seeing the data prove these skills are taking hold; it means we are successfully seizing that critical first-grade window and providing the support our kids need to secure their future as lifelong readers.”

JHU CRRE conducts research to improve educational outcomes and inform evidence-based policy and practice. Its evaluation used a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching to compare tutored students with similar non-participants. The study examined literacy outcomes using DIBELS standardized assessments and tracked benchmark status changes from the beginning to the end of first grade and through second grade for former participants. Furthermore, the study confirmed the program’s scalability across diverse environments, noting consistent implementation with an 85% average student attendance rate, 33 hours of instruction on average, and strong fidelity in real-world conditions. All student groups, including English Learners and students with disabilities, showed substantial and comparable growth.

The multi-year research initiative was made possible through a philanthropic grant and strategic coordination led by the Massachusetts-based One8 Foundation. Recognizing the urgent need for proven, scalable early literacy interventions, the One8 Foundation partnered with Ignite Reading to fund and project manage the initial pilot. This close collaboration and oversight were instrumental in ensuring high-quality implementation of the program throughout the schools.

About Ignite Reading
Ignite Reading is the leading early literacy intervention company focused on accelerating foundational reading skills during the most critical window for reading success. Aligned with the Science of Reading, Ignite Reading delivers predictable early literacy gains, strengthens instructional readiness, and helps districts achieve measurable, defensible early reading outcomes that matter for students, educators, and leaders. For more information, please visit: https://ignite-reading.com/

About One8 Foundation
The One8 Foundation education team identifies, supports, and scales high-impact applied learning programs that engage students actively in their learning and prepare them for success in a rapidly changing, data-rich world. One8 is committed to building a future where high-quality applied learning opportunities, oriented around STEM and 21st century skills, that make learning relevant, stimulating, and rewarding, are a regular part of the student experience, driving impact for all students. Between 2023-2025, One8 designed, funded and provided implementation support for 13 districts to work with Ignite Reading to tutor around 4,000 first-grade students not yet reading at grade level. To assess effectiveness of this initiative, One8 also funded a third-party evaluation with Johns Hopkins University, which concluded that students receiving high dosage tutoring experienced over 5 months of additional learning than students who did not receive the tutoring. In 2025, given this evidence of impact, the state of Massachusetts took over the operation of this program supported with public funding. Learn more at http://www.one8.org

About Johns Hopkins University Center for Research & Reform in Education
The Center for Research and Reform in Education is a research center within the Johns Hopkins School of Education. Established in 2004, CRRE’s goal is to improve the quality of education for disadvantaged children in grades pre-K through 12 through dissemination of knowledge about effective approaches to school improvement and through high-quality research and program evaluation studies.

Media Contact
Truc Nguyen
[email protected]

SOURCE Ignite Reading

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 25, 2026 — SparkLabs Saudi Arabia announced today the launch of SparkLabs KSU Fund I, a USD 20 million venture capital fund focused on backing high-potential local and global founders building and scaling from Saudi Arabia. The Fund received an anchor investment from Riyadh Valley Company (RVC), an investment arm of King Saud University.

The fund will invest across pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, with a strategic focus on Saudi-founded startups and ventures emerging from the King Saud University ecosystem, while allocating up to 20% of capital to international founders committed to localizing and expanding their businesses in the Kingdom.

The fund is closely aligned with the King Saud University Entrepreneurship Center, which plays a central role in nurturing student and faculty-led startups through education, mentorship, and venture-building support.

The capital raised will be used to provide early-stage funding, strategic support, and access to SparkLabs’ global platform, enabling founders to accelerate product development, market entry, and international expansion.

“This investment from Riyadh Valley Company reflects strong alignment around the importance of building a globally connected innovation ecosystem rooted in Saudi Arabia,” said Ivan Grlic, Managing Partner at SparkLabs Saudi Arabia. “Through SparkLabs KSU Fund I, we aim to support exceptional founders with capital, hands-on expertise, and access to international markets.”

We are now accepting applications from ambitious founders building from Saudi Arabia. Apply through the link below:

https://tally.so/r/3EVRAq

About SparkLabs Group

Founded in 2013, SparkLabs Group is a global network of startup accelerators and venture capital funds with operations across Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and the United States. To date, SparkLabs has invested in over 600 companies across six continents, with a combined post-money valuation exceeding USD 56 billion.

SparkLabs has backed and co-invested alongside leading global technology firms and investors, and its portfolio includes category-defining companies in AI, deep tech, enterprise software, and digital platforms. The organization is particularly active in Saudi Arabia, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and the U.S., enabling portfolio companies to scale globally while maintaining strong local foundations.

Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Startup Ecosystem

SparkLabs KSU Fund I will operate alongside the SparkLabs – KSU accelerator program, which supports early-stage founders through mentorship, operational guidance, and access to local and international networks. The accelerator is also supported by the National Technology Development Program (NTDP) and builds on SparkLabs’ global accelerator model, which has demonstrated a startup survival rate of over 86.7%.

The partnership with Riyadh Valley Company reinforces the shared objective of attracting global innovation, nurturing Saudi talent, and contributing to the Kingdom’s long-term economic transformation.

SOURCE SparkLabs Group

HOUSTON, Feb. 25, 2026 — Crescent Midstream Intermediate Holdings, LLC (“Crescent Midstream” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that on February 18, 2026, the Company successfully raised $600 million of senior secured credit facilities, comprising a $500 million 7-year Term Loan B and $100 million 5-year Revolving Credit Facility. In connection with the transaction, the credit facilities were assigned an issue rating of B+ by Standard & Poor’s and B1 by Moody’s. Proceeds were used to refinance Crescent Midstream’s existing debt. 

Crescent Midstream’s CEO, Jerry Ashcroft, stated, “The outcome of our debt capital raise exemplifies the business we have built over the past decade. The new facilities extend Crescent’s debt maturities, strengthen our credit profile, and provide access to fund growth capital in the institutional and bank markets as we execute on our backlog of accretive growth projects. We look forward to the next chapter of Crescent Midstream generating significant free cash flow while growing strategically and providing dividends to our equity holders.”

Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Bookrunners for the financing were Royal Bank of Canada, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank, Ltd., and The Bank of Nova Scotia, with Royal Bank of Canada also acting as Administrative Agent. Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP acted as legal counsel to Crescent Midstream.

About Crescent Midstream Intermediate Holdings, LLC
Crescent Midstream is a leading independent energy company that sits at the intersection between producers and consumers, delivering safe and reliable crude oil services throughout the Gulf of America and Louisiana. Our network of pipelines serves more than 80 deepwater platforms and transports over 500 thousand barrels of crude per day, linking shippers to essential trading and receipt points.
For more information about Crescent Midstream, visit www.crescentmidstream.com/.

Media Contact
[email protected] 

SOURCE Crescent Midstream

New executive program addresses a critical capability gap: strengthening executive judgment in an era of sustained disruption

WINTER PARK, Fla., Feb. 25, 2026 — Rollins College today announced the launch of The Rick Goings Institute for Management and Executive Leadership, a bold new initiative that builds on Rollins’ long history of pragmatic liberal arts to establish a new standard for advanced leadership and management training.

At a time when senior executives face continuous disruption, from geopolitical realignment and regulatory volatility to technological acceleration and shifting stakeholder expectations, the Institute addresses a capability gap traditional executive education has not fully met: the capacity to exercise sound judgment when established frameworks no longer apply. The Institute will focus on leadership judgment and its impact on business performance, helping senior leaders anticipate market shifts, redesign operating models, and translate strategy into execution in periods of disruption and growth.

“I’ve spent 30 years in strategy consulting and industrial operations,” said Eric Spiegel, former CEO of Siemens USA and partner at Booz Allen Hamilton. “Traditional executive education gives you frameworks. What it doesn’t give you is judgment—the ability to think clearly when the frameworks don’t apply anymore. I’ve believed instinctively for a long time that what’s missing is what a serious liberal arts education develops, but I haven’t been able to articulate it correctly. Now someone finally has.”

The launch of the Institute, made possible by seed capital from the Rick & Susan Goings Foundation, represents the completion of Rollins’ transformative Innovation Triangle, comprising the Institute, the Rollins Museum of Art, and The Alfond Inn, after more than a decade of planning and a total investment of more than $200 million.

The Rick Goings Institute will deliver advanced leadership education for executives who have already established their fundamental leadership capabilities. Its programming will focus on developing the capacity for clear thinking about complex operational problems, recognizing and addressing the market transitions leaders face today, managing technological change, and pivoting organizations for execution and growth.

“We are living through permacrisis — not a temporary disruption but a permanent condition of compounding instability: fracturing political orders, collapsing alliances, and technology eliminating entire categories of certainty,” said Anil Menon, chief executive officer of The Rick Goings Institute and dean of Crummer Graduate School of Business. “Efficiency and scale are no longer sufficient measures of leadership. What’s broken down is judgment — the capacity to read genuinely novel situations, decide when to act, and explain those decisions to stakeholders with fundamentally different worldviews. That is precisely what RGI is built to develop.”

The Institute will launch inaugural programs in 2026, delivering custom corporate offerings and establishing strategic partnerships with organizations in Florida and beyond, including the Young Presidents’ Organization, founded in 1950 by Ray Hickok, a Rollins alumnus. Additional strategic partners and details about specific initiatives will be announced in the weeks ahead.

“Rollins has long held that a liberal arts education cultivates critical thinking grounded in multiple perspectives and thoughtful judgment, preparing graduates to challenge conventions, integrate new ideas and innovations, and lead by forging new paths,” said Brooke Barnett, president of Rollins College. “In recent years, Rollins has advanced a series of initiatives that reinforce our standing as a leading higher education institution not only in Florida, but nationwide. As a cornerstone of our Innovation Triangle, The Rick Goings Institute will further strengthen our ability to educate and develop leaders who are ready to meet this moment by building resilient organizations, strengthening communities, and creating lasting impact.”

The Institute will convene leaders from around the world and across sectors, from business to not-for-profits and government, under the unifying vision that transformative leadership can enable organizations to navigate complexity with ethical clarity and long-term societal impact. It will be built around three key elements: focusing on serious business content from people who have studied and run complex operations; providing extended time with other leaders facing the same challenges; and bringing together leaders from these different sectors, who are looking to collaborate on finding innovative solutions.

“Throughout my career, and especially as CEO of Tupperware Brands, where we empowered a salesforce of millions of entrepreneurs, my focus has been building leadership and an entrepreneurial mindset at every level,” said Rick Goings, chair of the Rollins Board of Trustees. “Leadership is a human endeavor, and the best leaders bring out the strengths of the people around them to drive results. As technological change, geopolitical shifts, and market volatility reshape how organizations operate, it’s more important than ever to recognize the distinct value of human judgment, perspective, and purpose. The Rick Goings Institute will expand access to human-centered leadership approaches that enable organizations to thrive today and in the future.”

For close to a century, Rollins has focused on developing leaders who can think broadly about complex problems. The Rick Goings Institute draws on its approach to pragmatic liberal arts, an educational tradition that blends liberal arts with business, STEM and professional studies to foster critical thinking. Moreover, it has been at the forefront of advancing improved pedagogical approaches, including convening a transformative curriculum conference on the liberal arts in 1931, chaired by John Dewey, to help define the modern purpose of liberal arts education. By applying key elements of this approach, the Institute aims to foster precisely the skills and mindset modern organizational leaders need most: meaningful perspective, advanced systems thinking, and a human-centered approach to leadership.

“Rollins understands that leadership develops over time, through experience, reflection, and the exchange of ideas with others who are doing the work,” said Grant Cornwell, chairman of the advisory board of The Rick Goings Institute and president emeritus of Rollins College. “The Innovation Triangle brings those conditions together in a powerful way. With this launch, Rollins is building a forum where accomplished leaders can sharpen the judgment and human understanding required to guide institutions wisely and responsibly.”

For more information, visit https://rgi.rollins.edu/ 

About Rollins College:

Founded in 1885, Rollins College is Florida’s oldest college. Located in Winter Park, near Orlando, Rollins is consistently ranked as one of the top regional universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report. Rollins offers full-time undergraduate programs in the College of Liberal Arts and undergraduate and graduate degree programs for working professionals and adult learners through its evening program at the Hamilton Holt School of Professional Advancement and Graduate Studies. In addition, its Crummer Graduate School of Business features top-ranked MBA programs. Rollins serves approximately 3,200 degree-seeking students annually.

Media Contact
Davis MacMillan
[email protected]
212-994-7509

SOURCE The Rick Goings Institute for Management and Executive Leadership

After 19 million votes from 225,000+ verified participants, TBD opens to the public.

NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2026 — TBD, a prediction market protocol designed to measure verified human sentiment, today announced its $3 million seed round and public launch from private beta. The round was led by CMT Digital and ParaFi, with participation from Jump Crypto.

While prediction markets have surged in popularity around elections and sports, TBD is creating an entirely new category: markets built around global human opinion. As AI-generated content and bots flood the internet, it is becoming harder to know what real people actually think. Sentiment data influences everything from business decisions to public policy, yet measuring it accurately online has become increasingly difficult. TBD ensures that every respondent is a uniquely verified human, enabling large-scale, bot-resistant inputs.

“The internet is flooded with synthetic content, and measuring what real people think is an increasingly difficult task,” said Corey Miller, Co-Founder and CEO of TBD. “We are building TBD to discover human sentiment in a digitally native, AI-resistant, and economically sustainable manner.”

The protocol enables individuals and organizations to launch polls answered exclusively by World ID–verified participants. Solana-based prediction markets are simultaneously created, where users can trade on the outcomes. The system aligns economic incentives around real human opinions, making it measurable and market-driven.

“The TBD team has the rare combination of deep mechanism-design thinking and relentless product velocity,” said Sam Hallene, Partner at CMT Digital. “TBD turns verified human sentiment into a market, which we believe will become instrumental as AI erodes trust in traditional data sources.”

TBD’s private beta concluded with over 4,000 markets created, and more than 19 million votes collected from more than 225,000 unique participants globally.

“ParaFi has backed prediction markets since 2018 and believe they are a natural extension of capital markets, bringing transparent, incentive-aligned pricing to future outcomes,” said Anjan Vinod, Managing Director at ParaFi. “We believe TBD thoughtfully extends that model by integrating polling and markets into a single onchain workflow, creating a tighter feedback loop between sentiment and capital. We’re excited to back this team, whose track record of bringing thoughtful, well-executed DeFi products to market gives us conviction in their ability to scale TBD.”

By organizing global opinion into transparent, tradable markets, TBD aims to surface deeper truths about the world and create a new framework for understanding collective belief in the age of AI. Measure what the world really thinks at tbd.vote.

About TBD

TBD is a prediction market protocol for human sentiment. By combining verified global polling with permissionless market creation, TBD enables anyone to measure and trade on real human opinion at scale. The company was founded by Corey Miller and Taehoon Lee, who previously worked together at dYdX.

SOURCE tbd.vote

The fast-growing AI digital adoption platform tackles dual challenges: teaching employees to use AI tools and training AI agents to reliably automate workflows

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 25, 2026 — Guidde, an AI digital adoption platform, today announced an oversubscribed $50 million Series B funding round led by PSG Equity, with participation from monday.com and past investors: Norwest, Entrée Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, and Inkberry Ventures. To date, the company has grown to more than 4,500 customers including Anheuser-Busch, Bayer, Nasdaq, Yahoo and SentinelOne, with 3x annual revenue growth for three consecutive years and over 90% customer retention. The investment will help accelerate broad deployment of their platform, designed to train both human employees and AI agents on enterprise software.

Guidde’s platform helps enable organizations to create video-based documentation for any software application in minutes. Employees record workflows, and Guidde’s AI automatically generates step-by-step video guides that can be delivered directly within the apps employees are learning. The approach has made Guidde a go-to solution for enterprises training thousands of employees on new tools like Workday, Salesforce, ServiceNow and SAP.

AI adoption has become an urgent priority for every enterprise. By the end of 2026, the majority of companies will have a Chief AI Officer, and LLM budgets now exceed spending on cybersecurity, data warehouses, and cloud infrastructure. But most companies are hitting the same wall: every employee in Ops, IT, Legal, Finance, and beyond must learn how to work side by side with AI agents – and while AI has become conversational, enterprise training has not. Without real prompts and workflows to learn from, employees get generic, one-size-fits-all answers, and AI agents meant to automate work break down, hallucinate, or make costly mistakes at scale.

Guidde helps solve these challenges by observing how employees actually work and using that data to train both humans and AI agents. Enterprises now use Guidde across more than 50,000 applications and millions of workflows, giving the company a unique dataset of how work gets done inside large organizations. The resulting documentation is delivered directly within the apps employees are learning, and simultaneously made available to AI agents through Guidde’s API.

“Think of what navigation apps are doing for the future of driving. They mapped roads by observing how people actually drive, and those maps now guide autonomous vehicles,” said Yoav Einav, CEO and Co-Founder of Guidde. “We’re doing the same for enterprise workflows. Today, we’re observing how employees work to build the maps AI agents will need. It starts with humans in the loop, and over time moves toward full autonomy.”

“I believe Guidde is solving one of the biggest blockers to successful AI adoption: the knowledge infrastructure. This solution, coupled with the team’s execution and product-market fit, made this investment decision straightforward,” said Ronen Nir, Managing Director at PSG. “Organizations need dynamic, multimedia systems that serve both humans and AI agents. Guidde uniquely addresses both, effortlessly helping create rich knowledge while structuring it for AI consumption.”

About Guidde

Guidde is an AI digital adoption platform that serves as the creation and consumption hub for modern organizations. The company’s platform uses generative AI to transform workflows into rich, multi-format documentation in minutes, helping enable companies to scale knowledge across their teams, customers, and AI systems. Founded in 2020, Guidde today serves over 4,500 organizations globally, from fast-growing startups to Fortune 500 enterprises.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2920204/Guidde_Photo.jpg

Media Contact

Lazer Cohen

[email protected]

SOURCE Guidde

Sequoia leads Seed and Series A funding to help firms operationalize proprietary data for AI

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 25, 2026 — Rowspace, the AI platform that accelerates financial services firms’ decision making based on their proprietary data, launched today with $50 million in funding across a Series A co-led by Sequoia and Emergence Capital and a seed round led by Sequoia. Stripe, Conviction, Basis Set, Twine, and angels from across finance participated in both rounds.

The best investors have spent decades building something invaluable: institutional judgment. The partner who’s seen five hundred deals knows which patterns matter. The credit analyst who’s survived three cycles knows what to watch for. But that knowledge is trapped across messy repositories of memos and models, email exchanges, and myriad legacy systems.

Rowspace puts this data to work. It connects structured and unstructured data across a firm’s entire history—document repositories, investment and accounting systems, data infrastructure, and more—then applies a finance-native lens that reflects how that firm reconciles information, interprets discrepancies, and makes decisions. Rowspace scales and accelerates the application of the firm’s judgment to its most data-intensive work—and delivers it wherever teams already operate, whether through Rowspace’s own interface, within tools like Excel and Teams, or directly into a firm’s existing data infrastructure.

“Finance is full of high-stakes decisions. There used to be a tradeoff between moving quickly and making fully informed, nuanced decisions using all the possible data at a firm’s disposal. Our AI platform eliminates that tradeoff,” says Michael Manapat, Co-founder and CEO of Rowspace. “We’re building specialized intelligence that turns a firm’s data into scalable judgment with the rigor finance demands.”

Firms managing hundreds of billions to almost a trillion dollars in assets are already using Rowspace for portfolio monitoring, complex analysis across decades of deal data, and credit portfolio optimization. These institutions chose Rowspace because generic AI tools couldn’t deliver the specificity and uncompromising accuracy their decisions require.

“I’ve lived this problem,” says Yibo Ling, Co-founder and COO of Rowspace. “As a former CFO who’s managed a major investment portfolio, I’ve made decisions by synthesizing data across fragmented systems. Most tech tools aren’t comprehensive or nuanced enough for finance. And most finance tools need to raise their technical ceiling. We intend to do both.”

The company plans to scale quickly this year across its San Francisco and New York offices, with a focus on engineering and research talent drawn to hard problems with major economic implications.

“Michael built the machine learning systems at Stripe that process billions of transactions and helped drive Notion’s expansion into AI. Yibo has been a finance leader and investor who’s wrestled with the exact challenges Rowspace is solving,” says Alfred Lin, who led the investment for Sequoia. “They’ve seen the problem from both sides, pairing technical depth with firsthand understanding of what customers actually need. That combination is rare.”

Many of Rowspace’s backers have been connected to the founders for years before they decided to start the company.

“We back founders who bring lived experience to big, enterprise goals—basically the definition of the Rowspace team,” says Jake Saper, General Partner at Emergence Capital. “They’re doing the previously impossible work of connecting proprietary data, and reconciling and reasoning over it with real rigor. Without this foundation, it doesn’t matter what other AI tools you’re using.”

With Rowspace, a PE firm evaluating a new deal can draw on decades of institutional knowledge to inform its assessment of the risks and opportunities for that deal. A growth investor making portfolio allocation decisions can act on what’s true today, not numbers that will take weeks to reconcile. A credit investor can find new opportunities that match its macro view while making sure compliance tests at both the loan and portfolio level are satisfied. Every decision is informed by the full depth of what these firms know.

“Imagine a firm that never forgets,” says Manapat. “Where an experienced investor’s workflows—touching many different tools in specific ways—can be codified and multiplied. When that’s possible, a first-year analyst can tap into decades of institutional knowledge, and judgment scales with a firm instead of being diluted. That’s what we’re building.”

Rowspace deploys directly into customer environments, so data never leaves their control. Stringent security around a firm’s most important asset—its data—has been a design principle from the start. This is the foundation that allows the most exacting firms in the world to fully lean into the AI era and compound their advantage over time.

About Rowspace
Rowspace helps financial firms make faster, sharper decisions by turning their proprietary data into compounding edge. The platform connects structured and unstructured data across a firm’s entire history, models how that firm operates and thinks, and delivers that intelligence wherever teams work. Rowspace deploys directly into customer environments for complete data security. The company is based in San Francisco and led by former Notion CTO Michael Manapat and two-time CFO Yibo Ling. Learn more at rowspace.ai.

SOURCE Rowspace

TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2026 — SeedTwo Capital has led an oversubscribed $2 million seed round in RobosizeME, a startup designing intelligent workflow automation purpose-built to remove the repetitive, manual work from hotel operations.

While the global hotel industry generates over $580 billion annually, much of its back-office operations — reservations, finance, revenue management, and guest services — remain manual and labor-intensive. RobosizeME targets this high-volume, repetitive workflow segment, helping operators reduce errors, cut operational costs, and free staff to focus on revenue-generating and guest-facing activities.

“Hospitality is one of the most operationally complex industries in the world, yet many core processes are still highly manual,” said Roger Sholanki, Founder of SeedTwo Capital. “RobosizeME has built a compelling solution that delivers immediate ROI for hotel operators by embedding automation directly into existing workflows. We’re excited to partner with the team as they scale their impact across the global hospitality ecosystem.”

Founded by hospitality veteran and co-founder of Sciant, Stephen Burke, RobosizeME integrates directly with PMS, CRS, POS, and financial systems, deploying AI as a managed service. Workflow automation runs 24/7, handling tasks like OTA commission reconciliation, payment routing, rate loading, and guest profile management & merging at chain-level scale, helping hotel teams be more effective and efficient across portfolios without adding headcount. One US-based hotel chain saved more than $1M USD in labor costs with less than one year payback period thanks to our automations taking over key tasks in finance, revenue and distribution management and reservations.

“We founded RobosizeME to give hospitality teams their time back,” said Stephen Burke, CEO of RobosizeME. “This investment from SeedTwo Capital is a strong validation of our vision and traction. With their support, we’ll accelerate our mission to transform hotel operations by deploying AI-enabled automation that operates around the clock and seamlessly alongside human teams, driving strong ROI to our customers.”

SeedTwo Capital specializes in backing Vertical SaaS and AI companies that have moved beyond the early grind, partnering with founder–led businesses that have real revenue, loyal customers and clear growth opportunities between seed and Series A. The funding positions RobosizeME to capture a growing opportunity within the global hospitality operations ecosystem, a segment that is increasingly adopting SaaS and AI solutions to relieve teams, boost profitability and standardize operations across multi-property portfolios.

Other investors participating in the round include Sparking Capital and BrightCap Ventures, who led the previous round, and Botanique Hospitality, along with several angel investors. 

About SeedTwo Capital

SeedTwo Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage SaaS and AI companies with strong product-market fit and high growth potential. The firm provides more than capital – offering strategic guidance, operational support, and access to an extensive network of operators, advisors, and investors to help founders accelerate growth. For more information visit www.seedtwo.com

About RobosizeME

RobosizeME is a leading provider of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions tailored to hotel groups. By combining digital workers with deep expertise in hotel APIs and AI development, RobosizeME streamlines reservation, finance, distribution and front office critical workflows for hospitality groups—helping them operate with greater speed, accuracy and efficiency. Backed by advanced security certifications (ISO 27001, GDPR, PCI-DSS), RobosizeME’s industry-specific automation solutions ensure the highest levels of data protection, compliance and data sovereignty.

Trusted by renowned hotel companies such as Design Hotels, The Dorchester Collection, GHA, Kempinski, Loews Hotels, Louvre Hotels Group, Radisson Hotel Group, and more, RobosizeME continues to set the standard for secure, specialized automation at scale in the hospitality sector. For more information visit www.robosize.me

Media Contact:
Roger Sholanki
(877) 733-3896

SOURCE SeedTwo Capital Inc.

Arizona-based VC firm broadens its reach to provide capital to exceptional founders in underserved markets across North America

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 25, 2026 — AZ-VC, a venture capital firm fueling innovation in underserved markets, has announced its rebrand as Copper Sky Capital, reflecting the firm’s evolution into a broader platform backing early-stage technology companies across North America. The firm is sector agnostic with a focus on AI software products.

Founded in 2021, the firm is led by Managing Partners Jason Pressman, a long-time partner at Shasta Ventures, and Jack Selby, a former PayPal executive.

The firm maintains its core conviction that great companies are being founded and scaled across North America. Despite representing the majority of the U.S. population and economic activity, regions outside traditional tech hubs receive a disproportionately small share of venture capital investment. Copper Sky views this imbalance as a structural opportunity to support innovation and invest in regional technology ecosystems where it is growing organically.

The rebrand signals Copper Sky’s expanded mission to lead Seed and Series A rounds in companies primarily outside the traditional technology hubs of Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston.

“Venture capital has spent the last decade confusing proximity to Silicon Valley with quality and value,” said Selby. “Extraordinary founders are building companies with tremendous potential all across the country, supported by world-class AI and software engineering university programs across the U.S. Copper Sky exists to deploy capital directly into these markets—without forcing companies into inflated hubs and valuation frameworks that often distort long-term outcomes.”

In addition to providing capital, Copper Sky has built a platform of operating partners with deep domain expertise to support founders as they scale.

“Our mission is to help founders build durable companies, not flashes in the pan,” said Pressman. “We’ve assembled a network of experienced operating partners who work alongside teams to develop the capabilities and playbooks needed to scale with confidence and independence.”

Copper Sky builds on the foundation established by AZ-VC, including its inaugural Fund I (which raised over $115 million in committed capital) and a growing portfolio of high-growth software companies. The firm remains focused on Seed and Series A rounds, is sector agnostic and primarily backs companies with early product-market fit and revenue. Its approach emphasizes long-term partnership, operational rigor, and thoughtful capital structures designed to preserve founder flexibility.

Rather than pursuing inflated early valuations, Copper Sky focuses on disciplined entry points that help founders avoid the “valuation trap” that can narrow future options over time. The firm believes this approach supports a wider range of successful outcomes for founders, employees, and investors alike.

“We believe that being thoughtful about how a company is capitalized early on creates room to grow sustainably, maintain optionality over time, and maximize enterprise value,” Selby said. “That discipline helps founders focus on building lasting value rather than chasing short-term signals from the market.”

About Copper Sky Capital

Copper Sky Capital is a U.S.-based venture capital firm that leads Seed and Series A investments across North America, primarily outside Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston. The firm partners with founders building durable, high-growth companies. Copper Sky is led by Managing Partners Jason Pressman, a long-time partner at Shasta Ventures, and Jack Selby, a former PayPal executive. For more information, visit www.copperskycapital.com.

SOURCE AZ-VC