Funding to accelerate the launch, integration, and scaling of a next-generation adaptive trading platform.

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 11, 2026 — Option Circle, a financial technology company developing an autonomous, regime-based trading platform, today announced it has secured $3 million in new capital to support commercialization, platform integration, and phased market deployment.

The financing included Savoie Capital, an asset management firm led by CEO Paul Savoie; Wagon Wheel Capital, led by James Hyde, CEO and Founder of Wagon Wheel Capital LLC and former NYSE Head of Strategic Partnerships and Co-Vice Chairman of the American Stock Exchange; investors from the company’s StartEngine equity crowdfunding campaign; and a group of private investors.

The company is building trading infrastructure designed to detect changing market regimes, dynamically adapt strategy behavior, and execute within a governed automated framework. Proceeds from the round will support system integration, execution governance enhancements, operational resilience, and controlled commercial rollout initiatives.

“Markets are increasingly defined by rapid regime shifts across volatility cycles, macro conditions, and liquidity environments,” said Shishu Bedi, Founder and CEO of Option Circle. “We believe the next stage of trading infrastructure must move beyond static algorithms toward adaptive systems capable of operating with discipline across those shifts.”

Building Autonomous Trading Infrastructure

In recent months, Option Circle introduced several components of its platform architecture:

• Volatility Intelligence Engine: A system designed to monitor and interpret real-time volatility dynamics.
• Next-Generation Backtesting Engine: A high-fidelity simulation framework for evaluating strategies across historical and synthetic market environments.
• Autonomous Platform Roadmap: A development plan integrating volatility analytics, backtesting infrastructure, and a forthcoming AI-driven Strategy Engine.

The company describes its approach as regime-based, meaning strategies are structured to adjust in response to shifting market conditions rather than operate under fixed assumptions.

To date, Option Circle has filed 38 patent applications covering elements of its trading architecture as part of its intellectual property strategy.

Market Context

Algorithmic trading has historically relied on predefined rule sets and parameter-driven strategies. Option Circle aims to build systems that adapt continuously to evolving market conditions through integrated analytics and automated decision layers.

The company positions its platform within a broader shift toward greater automation in financial markets, where resilience, governance, and adaptability are increasingly central to performance.

About Option Circle

Option Circle is a financial technology company developing an AI-driven autonomous trading platform. The company integrates machine learning-based regime classification, volatility intelligence, adaptive strategy modeling, and governed automated execution infrastructure to deliver institutional-grade trading intelligence built for evolving market conditions.

For more information, visit https://www.optioncircle.com

For investor relations inquiries and additional information, visit https://www.optioncircle.com/investors

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Option Circle’s strategy, development plans, commercialization initiatives, and anticipated market position. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Option Circle undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law.

Contact:
Katie Gerber
Dopamine Group
[email protected]
(408) 799-5864

SOURCE Option Circle

The Fast-Growing Beer Brand Raises Seed Capital to Accelerate National Retail Expansion

LOS ANGELES, March 11, 2026 — Hurray’s GIRL BEER, the humor-led flavored light beer brand leading a new wave of beer built for the next generation of drinkers, today announced a new funding round led by Lakehouse Ventures, with participation from Spice Capital, CPG industry insiders, entertainment executives – and, notably, despite the brand’s arbitrary ban of one guy named Connor, another guy named Connor.

The funding follows a successful California launch and rapid, multi-state expansion into the Southwest and Texas, where the brand is partnering with leading Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors distributors. In its first year, the brand secured retail placements with national chains including Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and Whole Foods.

“Beer is one of the most untapped frontiers in beverage for new-entrant brands. For the first time in history, the majority of alcohol consumers under the age of 30 are female,” said Ray Biebuyck, Founder & CEO of Hurray’s Girl Beer. “Nearly 60% of those women say they don’t drink beer because the category lacks flavor options. There is a clear opportunity to bring more fun and flavor to beer, and after proving the concept in our home market in 2025, we’re excited to take the next step.”

Over the past year, the brand has focused heavily on velocity in its home market, achieving top-15% performance across many grocery chain accounts. As the business expands, Girl Beer will continue pursuing deeper ACV and distribution in its existing footprint while selectively entering new markets that fit its strategic criteria: strong large-format grocery engagement, culture-setting retailers, and significant Gen Z, Millennial, and college-town demand.

“We’ve been incredibly fortunate to partner with blue-chip distributors and retailers as we head into a major 2026 expansion,” Biebuyck said. “This is the year we establish the brand across multiple markets – taking what we’ve learned from our California launch and scaling it nationally.”

In 2026, the funding will support Girl Beer’s sales and marketing efforts as the company continues its national rollout, including expansion into new markets in the Midwest and Southeast where the brand is already in advanced discussions with top-tier distributor and chain retail partners. The investment will also support additional viral marketing campaigns designed to drive nationwide brand awareness.

The company has also expanded its core team through several strategic moves across sales, marketing, and operations. Girl Beer retained BrightBev, founded by Molson Coors veteran Jeff Agase, to lead distributor expansion; hired Matt Webster, former Vice President at Juneshine, to oversee operations and production; tapped Elisha Sevier, founder of Peaklign Partners and formerly of Red Bull and Walmart, to lead retail sales; and brought on former Liquid Death creatives.

In response to strong chain retail demand, the company will also launch seven new flavors in its flavored light beer lineup: Strawberry, Mango, Tangerine, Peach, Passionfruit Orange, Strawberry Watermelon, and Grapefruit Guava. Each beer contains 95 calories, 4.2% ABV, and no added sugar, and will now be available in both 6-packs and mixed variety 12-packs.

“Beer is a $100+ billion category, yet it has seen very little real innovation in the last decade,” says John Neamonitis, Founder and General Partner of Lakehouse Ventures, which has invested in notable consumer brands including Billie, the women’s razor company acquired by Edgewell in 2021, and Bobbie, the high-growth baby formula company. “As an investor, there aren’t many markets where you see a dynamic like this. Combine that with a founder like Ray, who has both cultural and product insight, and we believe there’s a recipe to build something incredibly special.”

“Ray is a one-of-one founder – combining the business rigor of an investment banker with the cultural instinct of an art history major,” says Maya Bakhai, Founder and Managing Partner of Spice Capital and former investor for NBA player Kevin Durant, with portfolio companies including the viral sunscreen brand Vacation. “You can see it in the product – it speaks for itself. Ray saw what the broader beer industry missed: the next generation of drinkers wants flavor, fun, and brands that reflect culture. We’re excited to double down as the company scales nationwide and Hurray builds a platform of brands across beverage.”

The brand also received a strong endorsement from the founder’s mother. “This is my favorite beer,” said Valerie Biebuyck, adding, “seriously, I promise I’m not biased.”

ABOUT HURRAY’S GIRL BEER

Launched in Fall 2024 by Los Angeles-based consumer brand company Hurray, its Girl Beer is bringing a new generation of drinkers to the beer aisle. The brand pairs irreverent, narrative-driven marketing with flavored light beers made with real juice and organic flavors. Each 4.2% ABV beer contains 95 calories, zero added sugar, and comes in bright flavors like Pineapple Yuzu, Tangerine, Peach, and Strawberry Watermelon.

For more information, visit Girl Beer’s website or follow them on Instagram.

ABOUT LAKEHOUSE VENTURES
Lakehouse Ventures is an early-stage investment firm backing founders who are innovating the everyday products, services, and software of our everyday lives. The firm invests in entrepreneurs building from a place of insight and passion, believing that the people who have intimately felt the problem they are solving will create the things consumers want most. Lakehouse launched in New York City in 2017 and has deployed over $100 MM across 42 companies.

For more information, visit Lakehouse Ventures’ website.

Media Contacts:
[email protected]

SOURCE Hurray’s GIRL BEER

NEW YORK, March 11, 2026 — Ernesta, which has quickly emerged as the largest custom-sized rug retailer in the United States, today announced it has raised $20 million in Series B financing led by Addition, with participation from existing investors True Ventures and Platform Capital Management.

The new capital will support Ernesta’s continued expansion as it builds the leading brand in the U.S. rug market through a growing omni-channel platform for both interior designers and homeowners that combines digital tools with experiential showrooms.

As part of its retail strategy, Ernesta plans to scale to 30 showroom locations nationwide by the end of 2027, building on the strong performance of its existing stores in key design markets. The new investment will also help Ernesta further develop its technology platforms, including enhancements to its Trade Portal, improvements to manufacturing and fabrication technology, and streamlined tools for ordering samples and managing custom projects.

Ernesta offers custom-sized rugs, including stair runners, cut precisely to fit any space, with curated styles and materials, transparent pricing, and delivery in as little as two weeks.

“Rugs are one of the most important design elements in the home, yet the category has historically been fragmented, opaque, and difficult for customers to navigate,” said John Foley, Founder and CEO of Ernesta. “We are building Ernesta to change that, with designer-quality custom-sized rugs, curated design and an experience that feels modern and empowering. Our continued 100% year-on-year growth speaks to how much interior designers and ambitious homeowners are appreciating the Ernesta approach.”

To support this next phase of growth, Ernesta has also announced two key leadership updates. Alan Smith, previously Chief Marketing Officer, has been promoted to President, reflecting his central role in scaling the company’s brand, growth strategy, and go-to-market organization. The company has also appointed Alexandria Norton as Chief Financial Officer, bringing deep financial leadership experience as Ernesta enters its next phase of growth.

“Ernesta is building a truly differentiated brand in a massive category that has lacked a modern consumer leader,” said Lee Fixel of Addition. “The team has combined strong product curation, a compelling retail experience, and proprietary technology to simplify the custom rug market. We’re excited to continue supporting their growth.”

Despite 100 million rugs sold annually, the U.S. rug market remains highly fragmented. Ernesta is positioned to capture this white space by becoming the first dominant, tech-enabled brand in the category.

“With Ernesta, we saw an opportunity to build the strongest brand in a category where design matters deeply to Trade and consumers,” said Jon Callaghan, Co-founder and Managing Partner at True Ventures. “The company is creating a modern platform that brings together retail, technology, and supply chain innovation in a way that has not existed before.”

About Ernesta

Founded in 2022, Ernesta is a New York-based custom-sized rug company focused on making it easy for interior designers and homeowners to find the perfect rug for any space. Ernesta offers designer-quality, custom-sized rugs, curated design selections, transparent pricing, and fast delivery through a growing omni-channel platform that includes e-commerce, trade tools, and experiential retail showrooms. Already the largest retailer of custom-sized rugs in the US, the company’s mission is to build the leading rug brand in the broader rug category.

SOURCE Ernesta

Round Funds Strategic Move Beyond POS into AI-Powered Restaurant Platform

CHICAGO, March 11, 2026 — Chowbus, the leading AI-powered platform for culturally rooted restaurants, today announced it has closed an $81 million round.  Built on a foundation of $120+ million Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)  – representing 9x growth over the past four years, and approximately $4 billion in annualized processed transaction volume across all 50 states and Canada, achieved in the last four years, the round was led by Prysm Capital and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Dutchess, Fika, and Avid Bank.

The raise marks an inflection point for Chowbus: having proven its model at scale with thousands of independent restaurants, the company is now expanding beyond its integrated POS and management platform into the significantly larger market for restaurant services – including marketing, accounting, supply ordering, and insurance, where operators spend far more than on software alone.

“Our journey has always been about technology, equality, and reinvention with purpose,” said Linxin Wen, CEO of Chowbus. “The success of our first AI product, AI Digital Ads, has proven that we can help independent restaurants compete at a much higher level. We are now building the next-generation AI restaurant platform to support entrepreneurs, the backbone of our communities. This is the most exciting era for the restaurant industry since the move to cloud-based POS.”

The Asian restaurant industry, a core market for Chowbus, represents approximately 16% of the total U.S. restaurant market and is projected to reach $240 billion in value by the end of 2026. Despite economic headwinds and rising inflation, this sector has grown 135% over the last 25 years.

“Linxin and the Chowbus team have shown exceptional execution, transforming the business into a scaled, mission-critical platform for restaurants,” said Kerry Wei, Partner at Prysm Capital. “With strong recurring revenue, expanding transaction volume, and a strategic move into AI-driven services, Chowbus is at a clear inflection point. We’re proud to partner with the Chowbus team as they build the next-generation AI platform that empowers operators to compete and grow in an increasingly complex market.”

“Chowbus is leveraging AI to enter these massive service areas, providing 10x better efficiency than traditional solutions, while maintaining the essential human touch required in the hospitality industry,” said Harley Miller, CEO and Managing Partner of Left Lane Capital. “By moving beyond software to become a true operating partner, they’re helping these restaurants compete at a level previously reserved for chains.”

Chowbus plans to use the funds to expand its suite of AI-driven tools for marketing, automated accounting, and supply chain optimization; deepen service integration by moving beyond traditional SaaS to offer comprehensive business services that reduce overhead for restaurant operators, and pursue international expansion into Canada while strengthening support for the tens of thousands of independent restaurants currently using its POS and analytics platform.

About Chowbus

Chowbus is a full-stack technology platform dedicated to empowering independent, culturally rooted restaurants across the United States. Founded in 2016, the company provides intuitive POS systems, integrated marketing solutions, and powerful AI-driven tools designed to foster sustainable growth and cultural enrichment. For more information, visit www.chowbus.com.

About Prysm Capital

Prysm Capital seeks to partner with disruptive, generational companies at the inflection point of accelerated growth. With offices in New York, San Francisco, and Princeton, Prysm provides flexible growth capital to founders building category-defining technology and consumer businesses, including Replit, Island, FieldAI, Clear Street, Rivian, and Fanatics. For more information, visit www.prysmcapital.com.

About Left Lane Capital

Founded in 2019, Left Lane Capital is a New York and London-based venture capital and growth equity firm investing in high-growth internet and consumer technology businesses globally. Left Lane’s mission is to partner with extraordinary entrepreneurs who create category-defining companies across growth sectors of the economy. Select investments include Bilt Rewards, Holy, Olipop, Talkiatry, Blank Street, Kings League, Smalls, and more. For more information, visit www.leftlane.com.

Media Contact:
Mary Magnani, CodePR
[email protected]

SOURCE Chowbus

The startup uses AI to generate highly optimized GPU kernels, improving AI workload performance without changing models or hardware.

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 11, 2026 — Standard Kernel, a startup building AI systems that automatically generate ultra-optimized GPU software, today announced a $20 million seed round led by Jump Capital, with participation from General Catalyst, Felicis, Cowboy Ventures, Link Ventures, Essence VC, and an incredible group of angels and strategic partners including David M. Siegel, Jeff Dean, Jonathan Frankle, Michael Carbin, Sachin Katti, Walden Yan, CoreWeave, and Ericsson Ventures.

As global investment in AI infrastructure accelerates, companies are deploying hundreds of billions of dollars into GPU clusters. Yet much of that hardware does not run at peak theoretical performance. Extracting maximum efficiency from modern accelerators requires deep expertise in hardware architecture, compiler behavior, and low-level systems optimization. Today, most performance-critical code is still written and tuned manually, making it difficult to keep pace with rapidly evolving chips and increasingly complex AI workloads.

Standard Kernel is taking a different approach. The company uses AI to autonomously generate highly specialized GPU kernels, the foundational units of computation that determine how efficiently models run. By operating deep in the stack and optimizing down to native chip instructions, Standard Kernel replaces static, one-size-fits-all libraries with code precisely tailored to specific workloads and hardware configurations.

In partner testing, Standard Kernel has demonstrated performance improvements ranging from 80 percent to 4x on end-to-end workloads running on NVIDIA H100 GPUs, outperforming NVIDIA’s highly optimized cuDNN library in certain scenarios.

Kernel generation has recently become a popular benchmark task for large language models, but most existing approaches focus on higher-level abstractions or simpler workloads. Generating instruction-level, hardware-specialized kernels that match or exceed the best human-engineered implementations remains an open challenge. Standard Kernel’s goal is to automate that frontier, enabling day-one peak performance on new hardware platforms without waiting for lengthy manual tuning cycles.

“What excites us about Standard Kernel is that they are applying AI to one of the most manual and technically demanding layers of the stack,” said Saaya Pal, Partner at Jump Capital. “Hardware innovation is accelerating, but the software that extracts peak performance from it has lagged behind. Automating instruction-level optimization has the potential to meaningfully change how AI infrastructure scales.”

“Standard Kernel is tackling one of the most consequential challenges in modern compute, driving optimization deep within the systems stack where performance is won or lost,” said Brian Venturo, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, CoreWeave. “As AI adoption continues to scale, breakthroughs in the layers beneath today’s models will define the next generation of capabilities. That depth of technical ambition and the caliber of the team are precisely why CoreWeave Ventures is proud to invest in Standard Kernel as they shape the future of AI systems.”

“Kernel generation is key for improving performance and efficiency of AI hardware,” added Dylan Patel, founder of SemiAnalysis. “As fleet sizes for users of AI hardware get larger, and more hardware diversity is introduced, Standard Kernel becomes key to deployment.”

With the new funding, Standard Kernel will accelerate development of its autonomous kernel generation platform, expand deployments with AI-native and enterprise partners, and continue advancing toward adaptive systems software that improves alongside new models and new hardware.

About Standard Kernel

Standard Kernel brings together expertise across machine learning, computer systems, and hardware-level optimization. The team includes alumni from MIT, Stanford, UIUC, and SJTU, and has contributed widely used open-source research and benchmarks, including KernelBench and Kernel Tree Search.

Standard Kernel is hiring engineers and researchers interested in building AI systems that optimize AI itself. Learn more at https://standardkernel.com/ or contact [email protected].

SOURCE Standard Kernel

NEW YORK, March 11, 2026 — Level Equity Management, LLC (“Level”), a middle-market private investment firm focused on providing expansion capital and strategic support to rapid growth software businesses, announced the final closing of Level Structured Capital III, L.P. (“LSC III” or the “Fund”), with $293.5 million in total capital commitments. The Fund was oversubscribed, exceeding its initial target of $225 million, reflecting strong support from Level’s existing investor base and significant commitments from new institutional investors.

LSC III continues Level Structured Capital’s strategy of partnering with durable, high-growth, capital-efficient software businesses through flexible structured credit and equity solutions intended to minimize dilution. The Fund will provide investments to companies seeking capital to accelerate growth initiatives, pursue acquisitions, and/or provide liquidity to shareholders.

“Level has raised $2 billion in the last 18 months across our equity and credit funds and co-investments. We were pleased to complete the fundraising cycle with LSC III well above target. It is always flattering and exciting to raise fresh capital and this is another great milestone for both our firm and our structured capital business,” said Ben Levin, Co-Founder and CEO.

About Level Equity

Level Equity is a middle-market private investment firm focused on providing expansion capital to rapidly growing software companies through its growth equity and structured capital strategies. Since inception, Level has raised over $5 billion in capital commitments and generated more than $2.2 billion of liquidity across 71 realizations. As of March 11, 2026, the firm manages over $6.4 billion in assets and has completed more than 125 investments.  Level partners closely with management teams to drive long-term value creation through its in-house operating platform, NextLevel Operations.

For more information, visit www.levelequity.com.

SOURCE Level Equity

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., March 11, 2026 — Emboline, Inc., a privately held medical technology company focused on reducing stroke and ischemic damage during structural heart procedures such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), today announced it has closed $20 Million in growth capital from Trinity Capital, a leading international alternative asset manager.

Emboline recently completed enrollment in the PROTECT H2H investigational device exemption (IDE) clinical trial (NCT05684146), a prospective randomized study evaluating the Emboliner® Embolic Protection System. The funding will support Emboline’s upcoming commercial launch activities and continued development of its embolic protection technology platform.

The Emboliner® Embolic Protection System is designed to provide full cerebral and systemic embolic protection by capturing and removing embolic debris released during transcatheter heart procedures. Emboline also holds an extensive intellectual property portfolio related to aortic embolic protection technologies, including full-body embolic filtration and aortic deflection approaches.

Results from the completed IDE clinical study will be presented in a Late-Breaking Clinical Trial session on March 29, 2026, at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“Emboline’s embolic filtering technology is designed with the goal of giving interventional cardiologists greater confidence when performing complex structural heart procedures while helping reduce the risk of stroke and other embolic complications,” said Rob Lake, Senior Managing Director of Life Sciences at Trinity Capital. “We are pleased to support Emboline during this important stage as the company prepares to bring its technology to physicians and patients worldwide.”

“We are excited to partner with Trinity Capital at a pivotal moment for Emboline,” said Scott Russell, President and CEO of Emboline. “With the completion of our IDE clinical trial and regulatory submissions ahead, this financing positions us to prepare for commercial launch in the United States and Europe later this year. Our goal is to provide physicians with a comprehensive embolic protection solution that helps reduce stroke and ischemic injury during transcatheter procedures.”

With this financing, Emboline will advance preparations for the commercial introduction of the Emboliner® Embolic Protection System while continuing development of additional technologies designed to reduce embolic risk during structural heart interventions.

About Trinity Capital Inc.

Trinity Capital Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIN) is an international alternative asset manager that seeks to deliver consistent returns for investors through access to private credit markets. Trinity Capital sources and structures investments in well-capitalized growth-oriented companies across five distinct lending verticals: Sponsor Finance, Equipment Finance, Tech Lending, Asset Based Lending, and Life Sciences. As a long-term, trusted partner for innovative companies seeking tailored debt solutions, Trinity Capital has deployed more than $5.5 billion across over 463 investments since inception in 2008 (as of December 31, 2025). Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Trinity Capital’s dedicated team is strategically located across the United States and Europe. For more information on Trinity Capital, please visit trinitycapital.com and stay connected to the latest activity via LinkedIn and X (@trincapital).

About Emboline

Emboline, Inc. is a privately held medical technology company based in Santa Cruz, California, focused on developing technologies designed to reduce embolic complications during transcatheter cardiovascular procedures.

The company’s lead product, the Emboliner® Embolic Protection System, is designed to provide full cerebral and systemic embolic protection by capturing and removing debris that may be released during structural heart interventions and that could otherwise travel to the brain and other vital organs.

For more information, visit emboline.com.

The Emboliner® device is currently investigational and is not available for commercial sale.

Media Contact: [email protected]

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/678735/Emboline_Logo.jpg

• Led by AI Pioneer Yann LeCun, AMI Brings Together Top Talent from Meta and Google to Build Next-Generation “World Models”
• Advancing “Practical Intelligence” That Operates in Real-World Industrial Environments, Accelerating Transformation Across Manufacturing and Robotics
• SBVA to Serve as Strategic Bridge Between Global AI Leadership and Asia’s Industrial Ecosystem

SEOUL, South Korea, March 11, 2026 — SBVA (CEO: JP Lee) announced today that it has committed a total of €30 million in the seed round of AMI (Advanced Machine Intelligence), a global frontier AI lab founded by Professor Yann LeCun, one of the world’s foremost pioneers in artificial intelligence.

The round includes participation from leading global institutional investors such as Greycroft Partners, Cathay Innovation, and Hiro Capital, as well as NVIDIA. In addition, prominent figures in the global technology industry, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, have also contributed capital to the round.

SBVA’s investment was made through its existing 2023 Alpha Korea Fund and Alpha Intelligence Fund, alongside its newly established Alpha AI Architecture Fund. Notably, the new fund includes prominent domestic and global corporations and institutions, including Coupang and Doosan, as limited partners (LPs), establishing a collaborative foundation to accelerate the adoption of next-generation AI architectures.

Yann LeCun, who leads AMI, was the founding director of Meta’s Facebook AI Research (FAIR) and a recipient of some of the world’s most prestigious honors in science and engineering, including the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering and the ACM Turing Award. Widely recognized as a foundational figure in modern deep learning, LeCun is joined at AMI by leading researchers and engineers from Meta, Google DeepMind, and other globally renowned technology organizations. Together, they are building a global frontier AI research lab.

AMI is developing a next-generation World Model architecture centered on self-supervised learning and Joint Embedding Predictive Architectures (JEPA). Its goal is to enable AI systems to understand and reason about the world more like humans, realizing what the team describes as “practical intelligence” capable of operating in real-world environments.

SBVA will serve as a strategic partner connecting AMI with Asia’s industrial ecosystem. Through proof-of-concept (PoC) initiatives with major corporations, SBVA aims to support real-world industrial innovation. At the same time, it plans to foster technological collaboration across its portfolio companies in robotics, manufacturing, and AI, enabling Korean startups to adopt next-generation World Model architectures early and expand jointly into global markets.

“We are grateful for SBVA’s support and for its commitment to long-term scientific work,” said an AMI official. “It reflects our global vision and ambition and underscores our commitment to building deep partnerships in Korea and across Asia.”

“AMI is a leading pioneer of ‘world model’ AI designed to understand the physical world,” said JP Lee, CEO of SBVA. “As the AI paradigm shifts toward physical AI, we believe this investment represents a pivotal moment to strategically connect the industrial ecosystems of Korea and Asia with next-generation AI technologies.”

SOURCE SBVA

The milestone reflects investor conviction in a fundamentally different retail model designed to eliminate the inefficiencies embedded in traditional pricing.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 11, 2026 — Quince, the consumer technology platform redefining how premium goods are produced, priced, and distributed, today announced a $500 million Series E financing led by ICONIQ, with participation from Basis Set Ventures, Wellington Management, Wndrco, Marcy Venture Partners, Ballie Gifford, Notable Capital and DST Global. The financing results in a post-money valuation of $10.1 billion and will support the continued growth and global expansion of Quince’s proprietary Manufacturer-to-Consumer (M2C) operating system.

Quince began by testing a simple premise: premium quality should not require legacy retail markups. The company first proved the model in material-led categories such as cashmere, where composition and craftsmanship are measurable. As customers returned and demand expanded, growth followed, not through trend cycles, but through supply chain innovation and AI designed to deliver consistent quality and pricing at scale. Today, Quince is a platform that serves millions of customers across a broad set of categories, with repeat purchasing reinforcing that trust is anchored in the system, not in any single product.

The explanation behind that momentum is a unique end-to-end business model and proprietary technology and AI that power decision making. Rather than chasing seasonal volatility, Quince invested in structural redesign. By partnering directly with specialist manufacturers and removing traditional intermediaries, the company challenges a retail model that has long embedded financial and environmental inefficiencies into the price of goods. Excess production, layered margins, and inventory risk inflate cost without improving quality. Quince’s Manufacturer-to-Consumer platform addresses those distortions directly: reducing waste, compressing supply chains, and preserving material standards as it expands across essential categories.

What differentiates Quince is not pricing. It is the system behind how products are made, priced, and delivered. This structural operating advantage is built through proprietary technology, disciplined capital deployment, integrated manufacturing relationships, and a world-class team executing the platform at scale.

Traditional retailers typically forecast demand months in advance, placing bulk production orders long before products reach shelves. Excess inventory is routinely discounted, destroyed, or written off, costs that ultimately become embedded in consumer pricing. Quince instead forecasts demand weekly at the SKU and size level, introducing production through small-batch test orders before scaling. Factory integrations, materials verification systems, and real-time production planning allow inventory targets to be measured in weeks rather than quarters. By narrowing the distance between maker and customer, the company reduces excess inventory, shortens supply chains, and removes the financial and environmental inefficiencies historically built into retail pricing. The Company has re-defined the way goods get to market.

“For decades, consumers have been conditioned to equate higher prices with higher quality,” said Matt Lippert, Chief Commercial Officer at Quince. “We play in categories where quality is tangible and measurable to disprove that assumption. The model is simple: design a different system that eliminates the waste consumers have traditionally paid for in retail. That starts with real care around quality, from the materials we source all the way through how products are made, while removing excess production, unnecessary intermediaries, and inventory risk. When those inefficiencies come out of the system, people experience the benefits through more consistent quality and more accessible pricing. Over time that creates trust, and increasingly customers come to Quince first when they’re looking for something because they know what they’re going to get.”

That operating model has translated into exceptional growth, and last year surpassed $1 billion in top-line revenue. Since launch, Quince has experienced triple digit growth year over year, every single fiscal year.

“Quince has built hyperefficient infrastructure that enables it to deliver unmatched value to consumers at scale and, in turn, has built a brand people love,” said Yoonkee Sull, General Partner at ICONIQ. “By redesigning how premium products are manufactured and delivered, compressing traditional retail cycle times and reducing waste, and building a deep understanding of what customers want in real-time, the company is correcting structural inefficiencies that have long defined retail economics. We are excited to triple down in Quince following a year of strong execution by the team and believe the platform is positioned for durable, long-term growth.”

With this financing, Quince joins a limited cohort of private consumer companies valued at $10 billion or more, a milestone that reflects investor conviction not in a product, but in a platform. As the company expands globally, its proprietary Manufacturer-to-Consumer operating system is designed to compound, strengthening forecasting precision, production efficiency, and category expansion with each additional customer interaction.

About Quince

Quince is a consumer technology platform rebuilding retail from the infrastructure up. Through its proprietary Manufacturer-to-Consumer (M2C) operating system, the company integrates AI–driven demand forecasting, real-time production planning, and direct factory partnerships to align supply precisely with customer demand, removing the layers of markup, inventory risk, and inefficiency historically embedded in pricing.

The company was built on a simple premise: premium quality should not require traditional retail markups. By redesigning how products are made, priced, and delivered, Quince restores transparency to modern retail and expands access to high-quality products across the categories people care about most. That system has quickly established Quince as a trusted destination for customers seeking premium materials, consistent quality, and pricing free from traditional retail markups. The result is a structurally more efficient model that challenges the economics of traditional retail and positions Quince as one of the fastest-growing consumer platforms in the industry.

Media Contact
Dakota Kate Isaacs
Head of Brand Strategy & Narrative, Quince
[email protected]

SOURCE Quince