ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 15, 2026 — In an important step forward for the Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center (VEC), the Pentagon Memorial Fund (PMF) has secured a $12 million federal appropriation to support development of the long‑awaited national education facility adjacent to the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. This critical funding reflects bipartisan recognition of the importance of preserving and teaching the history of September 11, 2001, at the site where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.
The federal support, secured as part of recent appropriations measures supporting 9/11 memorial education initiatives, will accelerate design, planning, and preparatory work for the VEC while complementing the PMF’s ongoing private fundraising efforts. This allocation brings the project closer to its goal of establishing a comprehensive national education space that tells the full story of 9/11, honors the 184 lives lost at the Pentagon, and conveys the lessons of resilience, unity, and service for future generations.
“The Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center will be more than a building. It will be a place where every visitor—student, family, veteran, and citizen—can grasp the sacrifice and heroism of 9/11 with depth and meaning,” said Joe Kornhoff, Executive Director of the Pentagon Memorial Fund. “This federal support demonstrates that our nation stands united in its commitment to education and remembrance.”
The VEC, to be located near Arlington National Cemetery and within walking distance of the Pentagon Memorial, will offer state‑of‑the‑art exhibits, survivor and family testimonies, educational programming, and an enduring tribute to those whose lives were forever changed on September 11. It will fill a key gap in America’s 9/11 memorial landscape, bringing the Pentagon site in line with the World Trade Center and Flight 93 memorials in providing robust context and interpretation for visitors.
Alongside federal support, the PMF’s campaign has raised significant private resources, bringing the project closer to the total funds required to complete the VEC by the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in 2026.
“We are grateful to Members of Congress and Administration partners who recognize the enduring importance of telling this story well,” Kornhoff added. “As construction milestones approach, we look forward to sharing more ways the public can support and participate in this national effort.”
To learn more about the Visitor Education Center and how to support the mission, visit pentagonmemorial.org.
BENGALURU, India and NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 15, 2026 — CloudSEK, a Predictive Cyber Threat Intelligence firm specializing in AI-powered attack detection, today announced it has secured a strategic investment from Connecticut Innovations (CI), the strategic venture capital arm of the State of Connecticut, as part of its $10 million Series B2 round.
With this investment, CloudSEK becomes the first Indian-origin cybersecurity company to receive funding from a U.S. state-backed venture fund.
From left: Kyle Pond, Vice President – Sales, Americas, CloudSEK; Nivya Ravi, Associate Vice President – Partnerships, U.S., CloudSEK; Rahul Sasi, Co-founder and CEO, CloudSEK; Alison Malloy, Managing Director, Connecticut Innovations; Danny Qiao, Venture Investor, Connecticut Innovations; Matthew McCooe, CEO, Connecticut Innovations
Building Jobs, Talent, and Cybersecurity Research in the U.S.
“Becoming the first Indian-origin cybersecurity company to receive backing from a U.S. state fund is a milestone for CloudSEK, as well as for the entire Indian cybersecurity ecosystem,” said Rahul Sasi, CloudSEK co-founder and CEO. “With Connecticut as our U.S. anchor, we are committed to creating jobs, investing in localized research, and strengthening cyber resilience in the Western world. CloudSEK is proud to advance its identity as a truly Indo-American cybersecurity company.”
Founded in 2015 by Sasi, a cybersecurity researcher-turned-entrepreneur, CloudSEK has evolved from a research-first initiative into one of the world’s most trusted cyber threat intelligence platforms, serving more than 300 enterprises across the BFSI, healthcare, technology, and government sectors.
The groundbreaking partnership with CI was forged after CloudSEK emerged as a top startup at VentureClash, CI’s global investment pitch competition. At the event, Sasi and product owner, Nivya Ravi, pitched a distinguished panel of judges, including Indra Nooyi, former Chair and CEO of PepsiCo; Connecticut Governor, Ned Lamont; and senior leaders from Endiya Partners, IITM Research Park, and Capria Ventures. Governor Lamont’s participation underscored the state’s commitment to attracting cutting-edge technology companies.
“At our 2025 VentureClash India pitch event, CloudSEK distinguished itself as a truly innovative provider of cybersecurity and predictive threat capabilities used by hundreds of businesses around the world,” said Alison Malloy, Managing Director, Investments at Connecticut Innovations. “We are excited to welcome CloudSEK to the CI portfolio and look forward to supporting their team as they establish their U.S. hub and pursue new customer and partnership opportunities in Connecticut.”
A Strategic U.S. Hub for an Indo-American Cybersecurity Powerhouse
CloudSEK will leverage this investment to accelerate its expansion in the U.S., with plans to establish its regional hub for operations, talent, and partnerships in Connecticut.The company is preparing to onboard strategic local talent and build deep collaborations with corporate partners, universities, and research ecosystems across the state.
CI funding will play an active role in enabling CloudSEK to:
Recruit high-quality cybersecurity and AI talent from the region
Establish partnerships with local academic and research institutions
Build its U.S. regional headquarters in Connecticut
Drive region-specific cybersecurity research and innovation
A Strong Foundation: Backed by Global Investors and Trusted by 300+ Enterprises
Prior to this round, CloudSEK’s Series B1 was led by U.S.-based strategic investor Commvault, with participation from MassMutual Ventures, Inflexor Ventures, Prana Ventures, and Tenacity Ventures. Early investors, including Meeran Family (Eastern Group), StartupXSeed, Neon Fund, and Exfinity Ventures continue to support the company’s long-term growth.
Additionally, CloudSEK recently announced a strategic partnership with Seed Group, a company of The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, to deliver predictive cyber intelligence and AI-attack detection capabilities organizations across the UAE.
A New Chapter in Indo-American Cybersecurity Collaboration
This landmark investment not only amplifies CloudSEK’s global trajectory but also symbolizes the rise of Indian cybersecurity innovation on the world stage. By establishing strong roots in Connecticut and continuing to scale globally, CloudSEK is poised to strengthen cyber resilience across continents and redefine cross-border technology collaboration.
About CloudSEK
CloudSEK is a Predictive Cyber Threat Intelligence platform purpose-built to detect and anticipate AI-driven attack chains before they form. Our cloud-native SaaS platform continuously maps digital footprints, correlates weak signals, and identifies emerging attack paths to help organizations stay ahead of evolving threats.To learn more about how CloudSEK can strengthen your external security posture and deliver value from Day One, visit https://cloudsek.com or drop a note to [email protected].
About Connecticut Innovations
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticut’s strategic venture capital arm and is the leading source of financing and ongoing support for innovative, growing companies. By offering equity and debt investments, strategic guidance and introductions to valuable partners, we help promising businesses thrive. For more information, please visit http://www.ctinnovations.com.
CloudSEK Media Contact Shashank Shekhar [email protected] +91 9811379924
Sable, a portfolio company of Turret Capital, announces its pre-seed funding and launch
NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2026 — Turret Capital, a leading healthcare-focused venture firm, today announced the launch of Sable, a pioneering biotech driven consumer beauty company. Backed by pre-seed investment from Turret Capital and SOSV, Sable debuts with a mission to disrupt the body care and beauty market through advanced topical solutions. By leveraging proprietary biotech innovations, Sable addresses the aesthetic needs of the modern consumer, offering high-performance products designed to visibly improve body contours and skin vitality.
Sable’s core offering is built upon breakthrough scientific discoveries at Columbia University Medical Center. Developed by a team of world-class scientists, preclinical research studies demonstrated that a novel ingredient could be selectively taken up by fat cells and achieve up to 70% reduction in fat cell volume. Inspired by these findings, Sable is further developing this exclusively licensed asset into an advanced topical formulation of body creams.
Addressing the New Era of Body Aesthetics and Longevity
As consumer interest in body-sculpting procedures and wellness-led lifestyle changes (such as GLP-1 medications) continues to surge, Sable fills a critical gap in the prestige beauty market. The product line is specifically formulated to address:
Targeted Aesthetic Contouring: Offering a topical solution for individuals seeking to enhance the visual definition of specific areas with stubborn concerns.
Aesthetic Maintenance: Supporting the consumer’s needs for those undergoing significant lifestyle or wellness transitions, helping to “future-proof” and “fine tune” aesthetic results.
Post-Treatment Complement: Helping to sustain and optimize the visual enhancement of the body following professional aesthetic services.
Scientific Innovation Meets Consumer Beauty
“Sable represents the next frontier of science-to-shelf beauty,” said Daniel Chai, MD, Founder and CEO of Sable. “By translating complex research into thoughtfully designed consumer products, we’re redefining the limits of topical body care. Sable is focused on helping people achieve and maintain their desired aesthetic look through evidence-based innovation that supports long-term body confidence”.
About Sable
Sable is a New York-based biotech beauty company dedicated to advanced aesthetic maintenance and body longevity. Utilizing licensed technology from Columbia University, Sable develops high-performance topical solutions for body contouring and sustained aesthetic results.
About Turret Capital
Turret Capital is a global venture capital firm that specializes in identifying and commercializing transformative healthcare technologies. With a focus on biotechnology and medical innovation, Turret creates and scales companies that address significant unmet needs in human health and wellness.
About SOSV
SOSV is a global venture capital firm that invests in deep-tech and life sciences companies, providing hands-on support to founders building breakthrough solutions across healthcare, sustainability, and advanced technologies.
Employee-Led Campaign Reflects More than 15 Years of Growing Impact
NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2026 — TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and AI solutions for global business, today announced a donation of more than $90,000 in toys to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation as part of its annual employee-led holiday fundraising campaign. The 2025 effort marked the largest single-year contribution in the company’s history of participating in the program.
TransPerfect employees shop for toys after raising more than $90,000 for Toys for Tots.
“In 2010 we collected $700 in the New York office and went toy shopping for Toys for Tots,” said Max Weisman, head of IP at TransPerfect and the founder of the company’s Toys for Tots effort. “I remember being thrilled with that result. In my wildest dreams I would never have imagined $90,000 and 27 offices participating. It is a true testament to the amazing generosity and spirit of our TransPerfect team.”
In the 15 years since the effort’s single-office beginnings, the fundraiser has grown into an important holiday tradition spanning dozens of locations. Over the years, TransPerfect employees have collectively raised and donated nearly $500,000 in toys to help bring holiday joy to children in need.
Toys for Tots, a program of the U.S. Marine Corps, collects and distributes new toys to less fortunate children each holiday season to spread hope and joy and help support a brighter future for disadvantaged youth.
During the 2025 campaign, employees across TransPerfect’s global network organized inventive fundraising activities, with the company matching all employee donations dollar for dollar. A total of $90,398 was raised, with participation from 27 offices across the United States and Canada.
TransPerfect President and Co-CEO Phil Shawe commented: “I’m proud of our many team members who gave their time, energy, and resources to help make the holidays brighter for children in need.”
For more information about TransPerfect’s Toys for Tots campaign or any of the company’s charitable efforts, visit www.transperfect.com or email [email protected].
About Toys for Tots Toys for Tots provides happiness and hope to less fortunate children during the Christmas holiday season. Toys for Tots also provides year-round support to less fortunate families experiencing challenges and exceptional circumstances, thus sending a message of hope beyond the holiday season. Since 1947, over 272 million children have been assisted. The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is the not-for-profit organization authorized by the U.S. Marine Corps and the Department of Defense to provide fundraising and other necessary support for the annual Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. For more information, visit https://www.toysfortots.org.
About TransPerfect TransPerfect is the world’s largest provider of language and AI solutions for global business. From offices in over 150 cities on six continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in 200+ languages to clients worldwide. More than 6,000 global organizations employ TransPerfect’s GlobalLink® technology to simplify the management of multilingual content. With an unparalleled commitment to quality and client service, TransPerfect is fully ISO 9001 and ISO 17100 certified. TransPerfect has global headquarters in New York, with regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com.
The fast-rising firm has secured more than half a billion dollars since 2022
NEW YORK and BERLIN, Jan. 15, 2026 — Parloa, the premier provider of AI agents elevating enterprise customer experience, today announced it has raised $350 million in Series D funding, bringing its valuation to $3 billion. The round was led by General Catalyst, with strong continued support from Parloa’s existing investors, including EQT Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Durable Capital Partners, and Mosaic Ventures, underscoring deep conviction in the company’s vision, execution, and market leadership.
Parloa Founders Malte Kosub (CEO) and Stefan Ostwald (CAIO)
Closing just seven months after its Series C, this round brings Parloa’s total raised capital to more than $560 million in less than four years. The company will use the funds to continue its global expansion focused on the U.S. and Europe, enhance its AI Agent Management Platform (AMP) with further industry-defining functionality, and launch the Parloa Promise, a commitment to preeminent agent reliability, relentless innovation, and human-centric responsible AI.
Ascending the ranks
Trusted by leading Fortune 200 companies and global partners, including Allianz, Booking.com, HealthEquity, SAP, Sedgwick, Swiss Life, and TeamViewer, Parloa’s amassed funding situates the company among the most capitalized firms in the customer experience field. Having recently announced multiple financial achievements and product innovations, this round’s results crystallize Parloa’s position atop a highly competitive enterprise AI sector.
“Parloa is setting the standard for enterprise-grade AI throughout the customer journey,” said General Catalyst’s CEO Hemant Taneja, who ranks in the top 10 on the prestigious Forbes Midas List. “Their platform combines innovation and scalability, making them a clear leader in this rapidly evolving space. We truly believe Parloa’s approach to agentic AI will transform how global enterprises engage with customers, and we’re excited to support their vision and continued growth.” Taneja, along with General Catalyst’s President and Managing Director Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, will be added to the Supervisory Board for Parloa.
For co-founder and CEO Malte Kosub, the Series D is proof positive Parloa’s mission is exacting needed change, for enterprise teams as well as consumers: “This funding marks a pivotal moment for Parloa as we expand globally, advance our approach to reimagine customer experience, and help enterprises to build meaningful relationships with their customers.” said Kosub. “Our commitment to these organizations is clear: to enable exceptional, hyper-personalized customer journeys through agentic AI that deepen loyalty, responsibly and at scale.”
What Parloa provides
The preferred platform among native agentic AI solutions, AMP gives enterprise CX teams a clear, intuitive way to design, manage, and evolve AI agents that transform every customer interaction into a meaningful relationship. No heavy coding necessary; just powerful, natural language used to build bespoke agents that adapt fluidly across dialects, contexts, and changing customer needs.
With AMP, experience teams can simulate agents at scale while evaluating conversation performance, gaining actionable insight into behavior and ensuring every customer interaction meets rising expectations. Real-time dashboards provide transparency into what agents are doing and why, offering clear visibility into system behavior while meeting the world’s most rigorous standards for built-in compliance, safety, and enterprise-grade data security.
What’s next for Parloa
Parloa’s plan for geographic expansion is focused on key markets in North America and greater Europe, with offices scouted in metros like San Francisco and Madrid, a localized team in London, and a recently established U.S. HQ in midtown Manhattan.
Investors on why Parloa
Carolina Brochado, Head of EQT Growth US and Head of EQT Ventures: “Parloa is contributing to redefine what customer relationships look like at scale. Their ability to combine enterprise-grade AI with real-world intelligence, built on a strong foundation of safety and reliability, helps to set them apart in a crowded market.”
Apoorv Agrawal, Partner at Altimeter Capital: “Parloa combines a leading agentic AI platform with the enterprise DNA to deploy it at scale – forward-deployed engineers on the ground, Fortune 500 customers in production, and a world-class go-to-market team armed with fresh capital to capture the global CX market.”
Henry Ellenbogen, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Durable Capital Partners: “We believe the next generation of category-defining companies will be built on relationships, not transactions. Parloa is leading that shift by making AI personal, contextual, and enduring.”
Mona Gindler, Partner at Senovo: “The CX market is crowded with automation tools, but very few players are pushing the frontier of truly agentic AI. Parloa stands out by moving the industry from scripted workflows to adaptive, relationship-driven agents that learn and improve over time. That’s what category leadership looks like at this stage of the market.”
Jens Rassloff, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Parloa: “This investment marks a defining moment for Parloa. The scale of commitment and trust from our investors reflects not only the strength of our technology and execution, but also our conviction that agentic AI in customer relationships is entering a decisive phase. With this capital, Parloa is uniquely positioned to be a global category leader.”
About Parloa
Parloa empowers global enterprises to build, train, and manage AI agents for premier customer experience. Founded by Malte Kosub and Stefan Ostwald, Parloa began with the belief that every great conversation is the start of a relationship, a principle that still guides how the company builds technology today. Leading global brands use Parloa’s advanced AI agents to improve service at scale, increase customer loyalty, and unlock new revenue. Parloa employs 380 people across offices in New York, Berlin, and Munich.
The $80 million Series A extension brings Higgsfield’s total Series A funding to more than $130 million, following growing use of the platform by brands and agencies producing commercial video.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 15, 2026 — Higgsfield today announced an $80 million Series A extension with participation from Accel, AI Capital Partners (Alpha Intelligence Capital’s US-based fund), and Menlo Ventures and others, bringing total Series A funding to more than $130 million and valuing the company at more than $1.3 billion. The financing follows Higgsfield reaching a $200 million annual run rate in under nine months, doubling from $100 million in about two months – a pace faster than that of high-growth software companies, including Lovable, Cursor, OpenAI, Slack, and Zoom.
Since launching in April 2025, the platform has attracted over 15 million users worldwide and now powers 4.5 million video generations per day. Higgsfield is reinventing marketing production through high-quality, automated creative generation at scale, which has accumulated more than 3 billion social media impressions, positioning it among the most popular GenAI platforms by social media reach.
Reportedly, 85% of Higgsfield’s usage now comes from social media marketers, and 80% of that segment is already delivering commercial work – a major sign that the platform adoption has evolved beyond casual content creation. One non-obvious signal from Higgsfield’s internal data is where adoption is accelerating fastest: among marketers treating generative video as production infrastructure, running end-to-end workflows – ideate, storyboard, animate, edit, and publish – inside a single system.
There is an emerging category of direct-to-consumer advertisers moving their entire creative pipeline to a GenAI-first operating model. They run automation pipelines such as URL-to-Ad, turning a product page into multiple campaign-ready, on-brand video variants in minutes. Reportedly, several customers using Higgsfield’s beta marketing automation product are already spending over $200,000 per year.
“Traditional video production wasn’t built for the pace modern marketing demands,” said Alex Mashrabov, co-founder and CEO of Higgsfield. “We built Higgsfield so video can be produced like software—fast iteration, tight creative control, and repeatable output. In that world, a 16-year-old with taste can outperform a studio pipeline, because on social media the advantage goes to what earns attention and converts, not what took the longest to produce.”
Jeff Herbst, a Higgsfield board member and former head of corporate development at NVIDIA, said the company’s adoption signals a move from pilots to embedded production use.
“When a platform moves beyond pilots and into daily production across enterprises, the outcome is clear,” said Herbst. “That’s where Higgsfield is today.”
Antoine Blondeau, founder and managing partner of the Alpha Intelligence Capital platform, added: “Higgsfield is the category leader because they’ve compressed the build-ship-learn loop to days and turned speed into a decisive advantage. We’re proud to lead the strategic push for this round so Higgsfield can expand the platform to let customers plan, produce, publish, and iterate at that same velocity.”
Higgsfield’s CEO says the new funding will support enterprise and international expansion of AI models built for commercial advertising, marketing content production, music videos, as well as continued R&D. The company also plans to expand its API and marketing automation capabilities for customers building high-throughput marketing content systems.
About Higgsfield Higgsfield is an AI-native generative video platform built for professional creators, brands, agencies, and marketing teams producing high-fidelity videos at scale. The company develops its own generative video and image models and integrates leading third-party models such as OpenAI’s Sora, Google’s Veo and Nano Banana, Alibaba’s WAN, Kuaishou’s Kling, Bytedance’s Seedream and Seedance, MiniMax, and others into a single, production-ready workflow, allowing teams to select the best model for each creative task without rebuilding pipelines.
The platform is designed for real production environments, with collaborative workflows and precise cinematic capabilities including camera motion, scene structure, and style consistency.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 15, 2026 — Pinch, the AI-powered post-purchase intelligence platform that helps retailers reward loyal customers and prevent return fraud, announced a $5 million total seed round. The seed round was co-led by Dynamo Ventures and Infinity Ventures with additional participation from Defined Capital and PayPal Ventures.
Built by fraud and risk leaders from PayPal, Google, and Simility, Pinch was born out of a simple realization: retail was fighting modern return abuse with blunt, static policies that hadn’t evolved. After two decades of building fraud and risk systems that protected billions in global payments, Arthi Rajan Makhija, Co-Founder and CEO, saw the same pattern emerging in e-commerce returns. Together with Co-Founders Chirag Vaya (CPO) and Jayan Tharayil (COO), she assembled a team of former PayPal, Google, and Simility leaders to launch Pinch AI, the industry’s first post-purchase risk operating system. The autonomous, AI-driven platform evaluates customer intent, detects emerging abuse patterns, and dynamically orchestrates return and refund decisions across checkout, return initiation, and warehouse operations, giving retailers the intelligence to protect margins without punishing loyal customers
Average e-commerce return rates hover around 25%, with apparel and luxury often seeing even higher rates, creating a major drag on margins and growth. Pinch delivers two clear outcomes for retailers:
~8%reduction in return rate, by identifying and proactively denying only abusive returns or applying graduated interventions to high-risk behavior.
~20% increase in VIP retention, by dynamically improving the return experience for a brand’s most loyal customers – protecting trust while driving repeat purchases.
The result is fewer bad returns, stronger customer relationships, and a measurable improvement to both margins and lifetime value. Pinch enables retailers to turn returns from a cost center into a growth lever.
“Traditional return systems rely on blunt policies, manual investigations, and guesswork that treat every shopper the same by rewarding bad actors and frustrating loyal customers,” said Arthi Rajan Makhija, CEO & Co Founder. “Abusive behaviors like wardrobing, empty-boxing, counterfeit swaps, and FTID fraud are surging, yet most retailers have no unified view of post-purchase risk. We built Pinch to give retailers an intelligent operating system that continuously learns, adapts, and intervenes in real time. Our platform identifies the abusive 1% without penalizing the loyal 99%, allowing brands to boost margins while actually improving the customer experience.”
Pinch’s technology is already delivering a measurable impact for enterprise retailers. A North American premium apparel brand using Pinch reduced overall returns by 8%, driving a 10% lift in contribution margin by proactively identifying and intervening on abusive behaviors such as wardrobing, empty boxing, and SKU swapping. Pinch also automated 80% of return reviews end-to-end, freeing up valuable operational capacity while enabling instant refunds and elevated return experiences for trusted VIP customers, resulting in a 20% increase in VIP retention.
“While many fraud vendors try to force-fit return and policy abuse into platforms built for other use cases, Pinch built its solution from the ground up for this specific problem, and it shows,” says Rohit Nathany, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Mejuri. Their native Shopify integration meant we could move fast, but what really differentiated them was their customer-first approach, giving us the flexibility to block fraudulent activities while actually enhancing the experience for our most loyal customers. That combination of focused expertise, purpose-built technology, and true partnership is rare to find.”
“From the beginning, it was clear this team had the domain expertise and technical depth to solve a problem retailers have struggled with for years,” said Jon Bradford, Managing Partner at Dynamo Ventures. “They’ve lived inside the fraud infrastructure of major global platforms and understand how fragmented post-purchase data creates blind spots that erode margins. Pinch is a full-stack intelligence layer that unifies signals for cross-checkout, returns, and warehouse operations. The early traction with enterprise retailers has been extraordinary, and what the team has built in such a short time is exceptionally impressive.”
“Having worked alongside Arthi, Jayan, and Chirag since our PayPal days, I can say firsthand that you couldn’t assemble a better team to solve this problem for merchants,” says Jay Ganatra, Managing Partner, Infinity Ventures. Their rare combination of risk and fraud expertise and customer-first thinking is what sets Pinch apart and why we believe it’s the best product in the market.”
With the new funding, Pinch will accelerate product development across its abuse prediction models, warehouse intelligence systems, and adaptive return engine; expand its go-to-market efforts; and expand its integration ecosystem across the full retail technology stack, including order management systems (OMS), return management systems (RMS), warehouse management systems (WMS), and customer experience (CX) platforms.
About Pinch AI Pinch is an AI-powered post-purchase intelligence platform redefining how retailers control returns, refunds, and customer trust. Built by industry veterans who previously built PayPal’s trust and safety ecosystem ground up, Pinch delivers real-time buyer intent scoring, automated policy enforcement, and warehouse intelligence that helps merchants protect margins while elevating the customer experience. To learn more, visit pinch.ai.
Payments data analytics company launches first product as VAMP enforcement drives demand for real-time visibility
SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 15, 2026 — RouteSense, a data analytics company delivering predictive intelligence for the payments industry, announced its official launch alongside a ~$2 million pre-seed round led by Redbud VC with participation from FOVC, Cultivation Capital, Service Provider Capital, and the University of Missouri AACE Fund.
“As network oversight becomes more stringent, the industry needs better intelligence, not more guesswork,” said Stephen Martin, CEO of RouteSense. “Our mission is to help teams understand MID health at a glance so they can act proactively and responsibly.”
By providing a unified intelligence layer that consolidates fragmented payment data across the transaction lifecycle, RouteSense gives merchants, processors, and acquirers the near-real-time visibility they need to make faster, more informed decisions. The company launches with Pathfinder, a MID health analytics and transaction routing platform designed for merchants operating multiple approved merchant accounts.
Pathfinder evaluates MID performance continuously using network-defined health indicators and approval trends, allowing transactions to be directed toward MIDs with available capacity based on current conditions. Rather than relying on static rules or delayed reporting like most orchestration platforms, Pathfinder enables dynamic, data-driven allocation aligned with existing card network frameworks.
Persistent MID health visibility has become increasingly critical following Visa’s enforcement of the Visa Acquiring Monitoring Program, the most significant update to card-not-present acquiring oversight in more than two decades. Under VAMP, performance thresholds are assessed on a monthly basis, making early visibility and intervention essential for maintaining compliant portfolios.
“Regulation, fraud behavior, and dispute dynamics have all evolved,” said Colin Martin, COO of RouteSense. “With VAMP now actively enforced, compliance depends on timely, accurate insight. Pathfinder gives merchants with multiple MIDs the clarity they need to manage portfolio health while maintaining strong authorization performance.”
Legacy systems often surface issues weeks after the underlying activity has occurred. Pathfinder provides near real-time insight, allowing teams to identify deteriorating trends earlier and take corrective action before issues escalate into fines, holds, or forced account actions.
“In payments, the difference between reactive and predictive analytics is material,” said Robert Matthews, CTO of RouteSense. “Reactive reporting explains what happened after the fact. Predictive intelligence helps teams make better decisions in real time.”
Pathfinder is powered by RouteSense’s data platform. At launch, it delivers real-time MID health analytics and intelligent transaction routing. RouteSense’s broader vision is to become the operating intelligence layer for acquirers globally, providing continuous portfolio visibility, predictive risk signals, and lifecycle MID health management through a modern, data-driven infrastructure.
RouteSense was founded by a leadership team with more than 75 years of combined experience across acquiring, PayFac infrastructure, dispute technology, and real-time analytics. Co-founders Stephen Martin, Robert Matthews, and Colin Martin bring deep industry roots, including family involvement in the founding of the Electronic Transactions Association and the early commercialization of electronic payment terminals. CTO Robert Matthews previously led engineering at Midigator, a chargeback and dispute management platform acquired by Equifax, where he later oversaw global disputes engineering.
RouteSense is currently onboarding select merchants, acquirers, payment service providers, and processors.
About RouteSense
RouteSense is a data analytics company purpose-built for the payments industry. Using predictive analysis and real-time intelligence, RouteSense helps merchants, acquirers, and processors make better business decisions by transforming fragmented payment data into actionable insight. The company’s first product, Pathfinder, delivers real-time MID health analytics and intelligent transaction distribution for merchants operating multiple MIDs, with a platform designed to expand across the full payment lifecycle. Learn more at routesense.ai.
HONOLULU, Jan. 15, 2026 — Olelo Intelligence, the AI sales coaching platform built for high-volume automotive repair shops, today announced the completion of a $1 million angel round. The platform analyzes service advisor calls in real time, identifying missed sales opportunities and coaching managers on how to grow revenue, helping shops convert more calls into booked appointments without adding headcount.
The round was led by Hawaiʻi Angels, which contributed $500,000 to the financing. Clif Purkiser shepherded the deal for the investor group.
A service advisor can use Olelo Intelligence’s AI sales guidance platform to improve call handling and recover missed sales opportunities at a high-volume automotive repair shop. Olelo analyzes service advisor calls in real time, helping shops convert more customer conversations into booked appointments and approved services.
Olelo Intelligence Co-Founders Miki Hardisty (CEO) and Ed Moore (Chief Revenue Officer). The Honolulu-based startup provides AI sales guidance for high-volume automotive repair shops, helping operators identify missed sales opportunities and recover revenue in real time.
“What stood out to us about Olelo was the execution,” said Purkiser. “The company showed strong customer adoption, early revenue, and clear momentum. Furthermore, this is a huge market. The US auto repair sector is 190B and growing and managing increasing complexity.”
Since closing the round in fall 2025, Olelo has scaled to more than 100 live shop locations across 62 franchisees, including a national partnership with AAMCO Transmissions & Total Car Care, the world’s largest transmission repair franchise. Customers have adopted both daytime call coaching and after-hours AI phone agents that capture opportunities when staff are unavailable.
“Within about two months, we saw roughly a 15% increase in revenue per store—about $20,000 a month per location,” said a multi-location automotive franchise operator. “Olelo gave our managers visibility into missed calls and the ability to recover deals quickly. This was something we couldn’t do with any generic solution out there to date.”
“Service advisors are the heartbeat of every shop, but they’re juggling a hundred things and have no way to know what’s working on the phone,” said Miki Hardisty, CEO and Co-Founder of Olelo Intelligence. “The best advisors want to get better—we show them exactly where the money is slipping away and how to get it back. Completing our angel round in fall 2025 allowed us to deepen the product and scale what was already measurable results quickly. This industry is built on trust. We are focused on helping them solve their enablement challenges. But we won’t stop there. It is a big market we can expand into.”
Olelo’s trajectory reflects the strength of Hawaiʻi’s startup ecosystem. After participating in the Blue Startups Accelerator, the company raised capital from Hawaiʻi Angels and leveraged that foundation to scale across the US and Canada. With the platform proven in franchise and independent repair environments, Olelo is now addressing a fragmented market of nearly 300,000 automotive service locations in the United States.
Olelo was founded by Co-Founder and CEO Miki Hardisty. Miki has spent her career in building and scaling applied AI and technology solutions as a technology and operations executive who returned to Hawaiʻi after serving as National CTO at Jack in the Box and as CTO and COO at ProService Hawaiʻi. She is joined by Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer Ed Moore, who has built and led billion-dollar sales organizations.
About Olelo Intelligence Olelo Intelligence is a Hawaii-based AI sales guidance platform for high-volume automotive repair shops. The company helps operators increase revenue by identifying missed sales opportunities in service advisor calls and providing actionable insights that improve call conversion, appointment booking, and service authorization. Learn more at olelo-ai.com.
About The Hawaiʻi Angels The Hawaiʻi Angels is a Honolulu-based network of early-stage investors that has supported founders in Hawaiʻi and beyond since 2002. Members invest individually but often collaborate on deals like Olelo’s, offering not just capital but also coaching and connections to help startups grow. Learn more or inquire about membership or corporate/VC sponsorship at hawaiiangels.org.
Media Contacts: Miki Hardisty, Olelo Intelligence (808) 818-5120 [email protected]
