10x expansion in transaction capacity positions fintech startup to meet booming demand from trading companies in the fast-growing cross-border payments sector

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 21, 2025 — Tensec, a fintech startup focused on providing cross-border financial services, today announced a strategic $60 million credit facility with Upper90 Capital Management, LP (“Upper90”). The financing enables Tensec to expand its annual trade volume from $500MM to $5B, addressing surging demand from its import/export trading clients.

Tensec builds AI-native global financial tools for global trading companies on a zero-integration platform. Through Tensec and its banking partner, Stearns Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, these businesses can seamlessly offer foreign exchange (FX), cross-border payments, treasury, and other financial tools to their clients — unlocking new revenue streams and expanding service offerings. The company does this with a “Powered by Tensec” model, in which Tensec’s AI engine handles all technical, operational and compliance requirements.

The $60 million credit financing will enable Tensec to support higher transaction volumes from new clients while increasing the wallet share with its existing clients, powering growth through flexible, real-time cross-border payments and financial tools. This funding comes as demand surges from trading companies eager to participate in the cross-border payments market. With global payment volumes projected to grow from $194.6 trillion in 2024 to $320 trillion by 2032 — a 64% increase — the opportunity for new market entrants is unprecedented.

“The credit partnership with Upper90 is a catalyst for Tensec’s growth,” said Helcio Nobre, Tensec’s founder and CEO. “It allows us to rapidly scale our customer base and transaction volumes, bringing more global trade enablers into the cross-border financial services market. Upper90’s sophisticated approach to structuring growth capital makes them an ideal partner. This credit partnership allows us to bring exponentially more companies into the market as we scale from $500M to $5 billion in transaction volume.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Tensec as they embark on this next phase of exciting growth,” said Billy Libby, co-founder and CEO of Upper90. “Cross-border trade is a theme we have been focused on since starting Upper90, and when we met Tensec we were immediately impressed by the tech-first approach to this opportunity utilizing AI to reduce transaction costs and improve the customer experience. The team’s depth and breadth of experience, combined with their technology-first approach to the market, aligns perfectly with Upper90’s focus on capital-intensive, early-stage, technology businesses. Tensec’s platform is not only transforming how trading companies operate—it’s opening up an entirely new market, and we’re excited to support them on this journey.”

Tensec raised $12 million in seed funding earlier this year, led by Costanoa, to build the foundation for its services. This new credit financing enables Tensec to accelerate transaction volume, optimize client penetration, and scale efficiently without integration barriers. Tensec aims to add more than a hundred new trading partners over the next 18 months, each gaining instant access to compliant U.S. banking and payment capabilities that would otherwise require years and millions of dollars to replicate – the kind of infrastructure no trading company could ever realistically prioritize building themselves.

About Tensec
Tensec is a Silicon Valley technology company reimagining B2B cross-border financial services by providing the fastest and simplest way for businesses to move money across global markets. Founded by veterans from PayPal, Meta, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard and Credit Karma, Tensec equips global trade companies and FX service providers with the tools to directly deliver cross-border payments and financial solutions to their clients. Backed by world-class investors, Tensec is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Mexico City, and São Paulo.

Tensec is not a bank. Banking services in the United States are provided by Stearns Bank, Member FDIC. For more information, visit www.tensec.io.

About Upper90

Upper90  is a hybrid investment firm that is a first credit partner for early stage companies and solves complex bridge capital needs for later stage, profitable companies. Launched in 2018 by executives from Seamless-GrubHub and Goldman Sachs, Upper90 helps technology-enabled businesses with positive unit economics and collateral to accelerate growth.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Tensec US, Inc.

E-commerce customers increase revenue 30% with the digital customer experience optimization solution as leading Silicon Valley investors allow Moonshot AI to scale across industries

NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2025 — Moonshot AI, the AI-powered platform that turns websites into fully automated, self-optimizing living organisms, today announced $10 Million in seed funding. The no-code platform leverages generative AI to teach websites to evolve to increase conversions, sales, and revenue. The round was led by Mighty Capital and other investors who participated in the round include: Oceans Ventures, Uncorrelated, Garuda Ventures, and Almaz Capital.

Moonshot AI is building a new species of website — one that learns, experiments, and evolves on its own. Its platform continuously analyzes user behavior, generates new on-site experiences using generative AI, tests them live, and deploys the winners automatically. The result: websites that learn, adapt, and outgrow yesterday’s version of themselves.

As companies approach the busy holiday season, it is critical to have up-to-the-second optimized experiences. Moonshot AI’s founders, Aviv Frenkel, PhD and Evyatar Segal, bring their own history with the pains of e-commerce and digital experience optimization.

“There are B2B and B2C companies. Moonshot AI, to Evyatar and I, is a B-2-me company,” said Aviv Frenkel, Co-Founder and CEO of Moonshot AI. “I started out because I had a pain in my e-commerce business, and I wanted to fix it. Conversion rate optimization is like voodoo, you never know what works and what doesn’t, and every change you want to make requires a massive team. That’s why we started Moonshot AI.”

E-commerce customers have already seen a 30% uplift in customer revenue per visitor after a few months of using Moonshot AI, including Yáneken and DefenAge.

“As AI enters the post-hype cycle of market adoption and more and more companies are struggling to make an impact with AI tools and the online customer experience, we’re coming to the market at a critical time,” said Co-Founder and CTO of Moonshot AI, Evyatar Segal. “The benefit of launching in the e-commerce space is that we’ve been able to show the immediate ROI of our AI platform. We look forward to the ROI of our initial seed round and continuing to grow.”

As Moonshot AI’s model continues to learn from existing and future online businesses, the benefits could only increase.

“At Mighty Capital, we back innovators whose products deliver measurable business impact. Moonshot AI is doing exactly that — helping organizations boost their bottom line through AI-powered optimization. We’re proud to partner with them at this pivotal stage of growth as they help even more businesses profit with their revolutionary AI solution,” said Jennifer Vancini, Co-Founder and General Partner at Mighty Capital.

To learn more about Moonshot AI, visit www.moonshot-ai.com .

Press Inquiries:
Kathy Berardi
JMG Public Relations
[email protected]
678-644-4122

SOURCE Moonshot AI

Healthier Capital, Norwest, Define Ventures and other new strategic investors back Hyro as demand soars for healthcare-native AI agents across providers, payers and clinics

NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2025 — Hyro, the leading Responsible AI Agent Platform for healthcare, today announced $45 million in new growth funding led by Healthier Capital, with participation from Norwest and Define Ventures, as well as other existing investors. The round also included new strategic investments from Bon Secours Mercy Health, one of Hyro’s long-standing clients, and ServiceNow Ventures, the investment arm of ServiceNow. The financing comes just 10 months after Hyro’s previous raise and doubles the company’s valuation, bringing total funding to $95 million.

The investment will fast-track Hyro’s development of administrative, operational, and clinical AI agents designed to streamline healthcare consumer access across digital and voice channels. Hyro’s platform is already deployed at scale across more than 45 leading health systems, including newcomers Sutter Health, Tampa General Hospital, Prisma Health and Piedmont Healthcare. Over 30 million patients across the United States are already engaging with Hyro’s agentic chat and voice offering, and the platform is increasingly being adopted by health plans and mid-sized specialty and clinic groups. Building on this foundation, Hyro recently launched Proactive Px™, expanding its platform to cover 360-degree communications that are bi-directional, inbound and outbound, and designed to meet patients ahead of their needs.

Patient expectations have transformed as they increasingly demand instant, digital-first access to care, with AI reshaping interactions across call centers, websites, mobile apps, and SMS. At the same time, health systems face worsening resource constraints as staff shortages, burnout, and attrition plague the industry. While newer AI voice startups and CCaaS providers may offer polished interfaces, they often lack what healthcare requires most: deep data integration, multi-modal functionality, and enterprise-grade interoperability for healthcare specific workflows.

“After another 10 months of strong execution, landing new enterprise customers and expanding relationships with existing ones, we decided to bring on additional capital to further our mission of improving patient access to care and driving operational excellence for health systems,” said Israel Krush, CEO and Co-Founder of Hyro. “There are plenty of impressive demos in the market, but what healthcare organizations need are AI agents that are patient-ready and enterprise-ready today, designed around proven real-world workflows and best practices, deeply interoperable with EMR systems like Epic, and reinforced with robust safeguards. This new funding round reflects the industry’s growing trust in our approach. With support from both new strategic investors and long-time partners, we’re well-positioned to expand across new specialties and segments throughout the healthcare ecosystem.”

“Hyro is delivering better levels of access, experience, and operational performance to leading healthcare organizations, delivering significant returns-on-investment,” said Amir Dan Rubin, CEO & Founding Managing Partner of Healthier Capital. “Hyro’s team, technology, traction and client-earned trust demonstrates an ability to deliver significant positive impacts at scale in healthcare,” added Rubin.

Hyro combines the flexibility of Large Language Models (LLMs) with its proprietary conversational engine, including its Small Language Models (SLMs) for healthcare organizations, and advanced knowledge graphs purpose-built for healthcare. This hybrid architecture enables Hyro’s AI agents to accurately resolve up to 85% of routine patient interactions, including registration, routing, scheduling, and prescription management, while maintaining full compliance with HIPAA and other robust healthcare standards. Designed for healthcare-first interoperability, these agents integrate directly into existing tech stacks through secure, and often exclusive, API calls, pulling relevant data from leading EHRs and CRMs to autonomously complete patient tasks such as scheduling appointments or refilling prescriptions. When needed, the system includes seamless contextual transfer to live agents, ensuring that human support is enhanced, not replaced. All interactions are captured and visualized within Hyro’s Patient Intelligence Dashboard, providing real-time visibility into key conversational metrics, operational impact, and AI performance.

“Healthcare is highly complex. What excites us about Hyro is their combination of advanced AI agents with deep healthcare-native design and safety mechanisms,” said Assaf Harel, Partner at Norwest. “Healthcare organizations need more than just polished chatbots, they need platforms that integrate seamlessly with EHRs, CRMs and clinical workflows embedded deep within the complex U.S. care ecosystem. Hyro is already proving it can deliver this at scale, and we believe it’s positioned to become the definitive AI communications layer for healthcare.”

“Bon Secours Mercy Health has partnered with Hyro for more than five years, and we’re excited to build on that foundation by further expanding its latest AI-powered scheduling capabilities in our call center later this year,” said Staci Lucius, President of the Medical Group, Urgent Care, & Employer Services at Bon Secours Mercy Health. “Accrete Health Partners’ strategic investment in Hyro demonstrates Bon Secours Mercy Health’s commitment to supporting technologies that improve patient access through meaningful collaboration,” added Cyril Philip, Vice President of Digital Ventures at Bon Secours Mercy Health and Accrete Health Partners.

About Hyro

Hyro, the leading Responsible AI Agent Platform for healthcare, enables health systems to safely automate workflows and conversations across their most valuable platforms, services, and channels—including call centers, websites, SMS, mobile apps, and more. Hyro’s clients, which include Intermountain Health, Baptist Health, and Hackensack Meridian Health, benefit from AI agents that are fully HIPAA-compliant, fast to deploy, easy to maintain, and simple to scale—generating better conversations, successful patient outcomes, and revenue-driving insights. Hyro was founded in 2018 by Israel Krush and Rom Cohen. Learn more at www.hyro.ai.

SOURCE Hyro

HighVista Venture Capital Fund XIV will seek to invest in highly sought-after early-stage fund managers at the forefront of innovation

BOSTON, Oct. 21, 2025 — HighVista Strategies LLC (“HighVista”), an employee-owned specialty alternative asset manager, today announced the close of $270 million in capital commitments for HighVista Venture Capital Fund XIV, L.P. (“HVC XIV” or the “Fund”). The Fund was significantly oversubscribed, surpassing its $200 million target with commitments from a diverse group of limited partners, including a range of institutions and family offices globally. 

The Fund will continue HighVista’s venture capital strategy, underpinned by a long track record tested over market cycles and the team’s extensive network in the venture ecosystem. Consistent with HighVista’s focus on hard-to-access and inefficient markets, the Fund will seek to invest in a concentrated portfolio of access-constrained, early-stage venture fund managers. HighVista believes these managers are well-positioned to capitalize on secular trends in artificial intelligence, enterprise software, fintech, life sciences, and blockchain. This strategy is enhanced by opportunistic co-investments and secondary transactions, leveraging the venture capital team’s deep industry experience.

“We are grateful for the confidence and strong support from our longstanding limited partners and are delighted to welcome new investors as this strategy gains broader appeal,” said Caroline Page, Head of Relationship Management and a Partner at HighVista. ”This successful close reflects our team’s consistent and disciplined approach.” 

“We believe we are at an inflection point for technological innovation, driven by transformational platform shifts like AI and blockchain, which are creating extraordinary investment opportunities,” said Kirsten Morin, Co-Head of Venture Capital and a Partner at HighVista. “HVC XIV is designed to seize this moment by partnering with visionary investors poised to back the next wave of category-defining companies. We are excited to deploy this capital and strive to continue delivering strong results for our investors.” 

About HighVista 

HighVista Strategies LLC is an employee-owned alternative asset manager that brings investors alpha opportunities in structurally inefficient markets. Based in Boston and founded in 2004, HighVista manages over $10 billion of capital on behalf of sophisticated investors globally. HighVista is a partner for investors looking beyond the standard playbook for differentiated ideas that can amplify returns. HighVista’s investment strategies span private markets, including private credit, lower middle market private equity and early-stage venture capital; public markets, including biotechnology equities and hedged public markets strategies; as well as multi-strategy alternatives. 

Important Disclosure

The views and options expressed here reflect the judgments and opinions of HighVista Strategies LLC at the time of this publication, do not purport to be complete, and are subject to change. No obligation to update or otherwise revise such views and opinions is being assumed. This publication does not constitute, and should not be construed as, an offer of advisory services, securities or other financial instruments, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or other financial instrument, or a recommendation to buy, hold or sell a security or other financial instruments in any jurisdiction. Capital commitment amount has been rounded. Information provided contains forward-looking statements that are inherently uncertain because the matters they describe are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond control.

Contact: 
Emma Geraghty
[email protected]

SOURCE HighVista Strategies LLC

Funding supports continued scale of higher education partnerships for student-led peer learning; education leader Megan Dusenbery appointed CEO; founder Samyr Qureshi becomes Executive Chairman.

MIAMI, Oct. 21, 2025 — Knack, the leading student success technology platform that enables higher education institutions to power and scale peer learning programs, today announced the appointment of Megan Dusenbery as Chief Executive Officer. Founding CEO Samyr Qureshi will transition to Executive Chairman of the Board. The company also announced it has raised a Series B funding round led by New Markets Venture Partners (NMVP).

After a decade of launching and leading the company, Samyr Qureshi will transition from CEO to Executive Chairman, remaining engaged in go-to-market and long-range strategy. Under his leadership, Knack launched on hundreds of campuses nationwide, partnering with prominent institutions such as Fordham University, Northeastern University, University of San Diego, University of Florida, and Georgia Tech, among dozens of others. Knack’s partnerships have enabled student peer tutors to earn millions of dollars and have demonstrably helped institutions strengthen their retention and graduation rates.

“I’m thrilled for this next chapter, for me and for the company,” said Samyr Qureshi, Founder & Executive Chairman. “With nearly 20 years of experience partnering with higher education institutions, Megan brings a rare combination of domain depth and disciplined execution. I could not be more excited to support Knack in a new capacity under Megan’s leadership.”

Dusenbery brings extensive experience in higher education partnerships and revenue leadership, most recently serving as Chief Partnerships Officer at the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) and previously holding senior roles at Kaplan, including Senior Vice President of Higher Education.

“I’m honored to lead Knack’s talented team into this exciting new phase of growth. At this pivotal moment in higher education, it is more crucial than ever to invest in solutions that yield meaningful retention outcomes for students. What excites me most about Knack is that our platform not only delivers measurable retention outcomes for institutions but also creates paid high-impact job opportunities for students to lead, mentor, and gain real-world skills—impacting both student learning and workforce readiness,” said incoming CEO, Megan Dusenbery.

As part of the transaction and leadership transition, Robb Doub, General Partner at NMVP, and Megan Dusenbery will join Knack’s Board of Directors. Samyr Qureshi will remain on the board as Executive Chairman.

“Megan is the right leader for this phase,” NMVP’s Doub added. “We’re looking forward to working with her and the team.”

About Knack

Founded in 2015, Knack is the leading student success technology platform that enables higher-ed institutions to power and scale peer learning programs, making support more personalized and accessible for every student, from freshman to senior year. Institutions such as Auburn University, Fordham University, the University of Maine, Rutgers University, and dozens of others partner with Knack to identify, credential, and deploy high-achieving students as paid peer tutors—expanding academic support while creating meaningful, skill-building work. Knack is backed by leading venture investors and education companies, including New Markets Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures, ETS.org, Chegg, Arizona State University Enterprise Partners, Village Capital, and Bisk Ventures. Learn more at joinknack.com.

About New Markets Venture Partners

Founded in 2002 by Mark Grovic and Robb Doub, New Markets Venture Partners is one of the longest-running venture firms focused on education and workforce technology. In 2023, the firm raised over $160 million for its oversubscribed Economic Mobility Fund to back evidence-based solutions that improve student and worker outcomes. Learn more at newmarketsvp.com.

SOURCE Knack

Financing led by Biotech Specialist Funds and a Generalist with significant participation from Series A investors 

Proceeds will support the Phase 3 Program for patients with Cannabis Use Disorder

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa., Oct. 21, 2025 — PleoPharma, Inc., a privately held company focused on finding treatments for cannabis-related health issues, announced today the closing of a $36MM Series B financing round. 

PleoPharma will use the proceeds to advance its lead asset, PP-01.  This  investigational product is currently the first, and only Fast Track-designated treatment for the mitigation of Cannabis Withdrawal in patients with Cannabis Use Disorder, which is now entering Phase 3. 

“Recent government data from SAMHSA reported that cannabis addiction continues to accelerate with over 20 million people reported to have Cannabis Use Disorder in the US, an underserved population with no effective or FDA approved solution.  We are grateful to have the partnership of this incredible group of new and existing investors who share our commitment to deliver first in class treatments for those with cannabis addiction and withdrawal,” said Ginger Constantine MD, co-founder and CEO of PleoPharma, Inc.

SuperVision Partners LLC served as the lead placement agent for the offering along with Castle Hill Capital Partners, Inc.

About cannabis withdrawal/cannabis use disorder
The US Government (SAMHSA) reported that in 2024, ~20.6 million Americans had cannabis use disorder. Between 2018 and 2023, the reported number of individuals who received treatment for cannabis-related health problems grew an average of 27% annually (samhsa.gov). People with cannabis use disorder commonly experience significant withdrawal symptoms for which there are currently no FDA approved medications.

“We recognize that many people do use cannabis without becoming dependent”, said Ginger Constantine, “but as with alcohol, some may develop a dependence or use disorder that is worsened by withdrawal symptoms. Our mission is to provide a treatment option for those who want help discontinuing cannabis.”

About PP-01
PP-01 is a dual mechanism of action investigational product that targets suppressed CB1 receptors and neurotransmitter dysregulation in the mesolimbic reward pathway. PP-01 is entering Phase 3 and has the potential to be the first-in-class treatment to mitigate the withdrawal symptoms experienced by many patients with cannabis use disorder (dependence/addiction). PP-01 is intended as a once daily oral product with a rapid onset of action and excellent safety and tolerability.

About PleoPharma, Inc.
PleoPharma, Inc. is a clinical stage development company in the neuropsych and addiction space focused on finding solutions for people suffering from cannabis addiction and other cannabis-related health problems.

The PleoPharma team includes a world class management team and board of directors who have produced multiple high value exits, >50 worldwide product approvals, and 100+ INDs.

For more information on PleoPharma Inc., please visit www.PleoPharma.com or email Dawn Halkuff, head of Investor Relations at [email protected].

This release includes ‘forward-looking statements’ regarding the operations of PleoPharma, Inc., actual results may differ from its expectations, estimates, and projections and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein are forward-looking statements that reflect the current beliefs and expectations of management of PleoPharma. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. PleoPharma does not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

SOURCE PleoPharma, Inc

LISBON, Portugal, Oct. 21, 2025 — Printr, the first chain-abstracted launchpad built for the memecoin era, today announced it has secured a total of $4.5 million in funding, alongside its official product launch.

Printr is the first project incubated and supported by Bybit Venture Studio – a new initiative dedicated to empowering visionary founders and high-potential early-stage projects in the Web3 ecosystem. Printr has also secured a $2 million seed extension from a strong lineup of investors including Mantle EcoFund, Mirana Ventures, L1D, Sfermion, Flowdesk, and prominent angel investors from LayerZero as well as the broader trading and memecoin communities. This builds on Printr’s earlier $2.5 million pre-seed round, backed by Axelar, Sui Foundation, Flow Blockchain, Draper Dragon, and Bitscale Capital.

As part of the announcement, Printr, along with Mantle and Byreal have entered into a strategic partnership, setting the stage for deep alignment across liquidity, discovery, and product surfaces. The partnership highlights the growing importance of token creation as a new onchain primitive, and paves the way for future integrations between Printr and Bybit’s multi-product Web3 stack.

Distribution Without Limits

Printr is solving one of crypto‘s biggest challenges: fragmented liquidity and user bases across chains. Traditionally, creators must choose a single chain at launch, forcing them to expand later through bridges and fragmented versions of the same token.

With Printr, creators can now launch tokens natively on one or multiple chains at once – including Solana, Mantle, Ethereum, BNB, Sui, Base, and dozens more. Paired with cross-chain swaps and one-click bridging, Printr unifies liquidity and communities from day one.

Fed, Co-Founder of Printr:
“This partnership with Bybit accelerates our goal to abstract away the complexity of launching and trading tokens across chains. With Bybit’s global reach, deep liquidity, and growing Web3 stack, Printr can scale token creation to every corner of crypto – starting from day one.”

Emily, Key Advisor of Mantle & Founder of Byreal:
“At Mantle and Byreal, we see token creation as the next frontier of onchain innovation. Printr’s chain-abstracted architecture brings that vision to life. This partnership connects Mantle’s modular infrastructure and Byreal’s liquidity engine with Printr’s creation layer, laying the foundation for seamless discovery, trading, and distribution. Through Bybit Venture Studio, we’re proud to support Printr in shaping the next phase of token launches.”

Printr’s chain-abstracted architecture is made possible by Axelar and LayerZero, two of the leading cross-chain infrastructure providers in Web3.

“The future of crypto will be defined by applications that reach users wherever they are,” said Georgios Vlachos, Co-founder of Axelar Network and Director at Axelar Foundation. “Printr is building exactly that kind of experience, making token launches culture-driven, not technology-driven. We’re excited to support Printr in bringing seamless liquidity and distribution across ecosystems.”

Starting today, users can access Printr at app.printr.money to:

• Launch tokens on one or multiple chains in just a few clicks
• Trade any asset into any token with built-in cross-chain swaps
• Move assets across chains and capture arbitrage opportunities across ecosystems
• Earn points and rewards for creating, trading, and referrals

The next era of token creation is here – and it starts on every chain.

About Printr

Printr is the first chain-abstracted token launchpad, built for the next generation of onchain creation. With Printr, anyone can launch tokens on a single chain or across multiple chains in just a few clicks – without writing any code. Printr combines one-click omnichain token creation, cross-chain swaps, and built-in bridging with a 90% revenue-share model and points program that rewards creators, traders, and referrers. Powered by bonding curves, Axelar and LayerZero, Printr takes memecoins beyond single-chain limits allowing memecoin creators to reach global liquidity, and scale faster than ever.

Media Contact

Lennon Tan, Head of Marketing at Printr

[email protected]

About Bybit Venture Studio

Bybit Venture Studio is a new initiative dedicated to empowering visionary founders and high-potential early-stage projects in the Web3 ecosystem. The Venture Studio provides strategic guidance, hands-on support, and access to Bybit’s comprehensive product suite – including Launchpad, Launchpool, DEX, Spot, Perpetuals, and Options listings, as well as deployment on Mantle Network. By leveraging Bybit’s global platform, network, and expertise, the Venture Studio aims to accelerate innovation and help builders bring transformative ideas to life.

For media inquiries, please contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Printr

LONDON, ON, Oct. 21, 2025 — PSD Citywide, an international leader in enterprise asset management software solutions, today announced it has received a strategic investment from Norwest, a global growth equity and venture capital investment firm, to accelerate its expansion across the U.S. and Canada. With this investment, PSD Citywide will continue its rapid expansion across North America, double down on product innovation, expand the team and continue to drive operational efficiencies for its municipal customers.

“The Citywide Platform empowers municipalities to overcome the challenges posed by aging infrastructure, budget constraints, inefficient processes and disconnected technologies,” said PSD Citywide Founder and CEO Matt Dawe. “What began as an industry publication has evolved into the most scalable, secure and purpose-built solution helping hundreds of municipalities manage their physical assets and provide a better citizen experience. We welcome Norwest’s deep expertise in government technology and their proven ability to partner with founder-led companies as we prepare for rapid expansion across the U.S. and Canada.”

Transforming How Municipalities Manage Assets, Budgets, and Citizen Services
The Citywide Platform includes:

• Five modular, cloud-native and fully integrated products designed for municipal operations
• Enterprise asset management (EAM); permitting, planning and licensing (PLL); budgeting and mapping (GIS) capabilities
• A mobile experience and robust API for greater flexibility
• An intuitive user experience with powerful functionality that gives end users access to the insights and tools they need to effectively manage key processes

PSD Citywide has helped communities manage over $400 billion in municipal assets. The platform’s design ensures each client receives a solution configured to best meet its specific needs. This proven approach has driven exceptional growth in the U.S. of more than 300% over the last year. The partnership with Norwest will allow the company to continue its strong growth in Canada while offering a significant opportunity to accelerate its expansion in the U.S. market.

“Municipal leaders can unlock tremendous value by digitizing core asset management workflows and deploying software designed specifically for the complexities of managing public infrastructure,” said Norwest Principal Chris Sondej. “PSD Citywide stands out with its purpose-built platform, deep customer relationships and consistent growth. Matt and the PSD Citywide team have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to helping municipalities manage their critical infrastructure and better serve their communities. With our team’s experience scaling GovTech SaaS platforms and our conviction in PSD Citywide’s roadmap, we’re excited to support the company’s continued expansion across North America.”

As part of the investment, Norwest General Partner Ran Ding, Principal Chris Sondej and Vice President Gabe Stauber will join the PSD board of directors.

EY Parthenon served as exclusive financial advisor for PSD. Stikeman Elliott LLP served as legal counsel for PSD. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as legal counsel to Norwest. 

About PSD Citywide
PSD Citywide is a leading provider of enterprise asset management, maintenance, financial, GIS and permitting software solutions, along with advisory services. Offering the only purpose-built, fully unified cloud-based SaaS solution for municipal governments, PSD Citywide supports the management of over 500 clients across North America. With a multidisciplinary advisory team of Asset Management, Finance, Engineering and Municipal practitioners, combined with an in-house software development group, PSD Citywide delivers comprehensive solutions to ensure best-in-class service for its clients. For more information, visit www.psdcitywide.com.

About Norwest
Norwest is a global venture and growth equity investment firm managing more than $15.5 billion in capital. Since its inception, Norwest has invested in more than 700 companies and currently partners with more than 250 companies in its venture and growth equity portfolio. The firm invests in early- to late-stage businesses across key sectors with a focus on enterprise, healthcare and consumer. The Norwest team offers a deep network of connections, extensive operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, Calif.; Mumbai, India; and Tel Aviv, Israel. For more information, please visit www.norwest.com.

SOURCE PSD Citywide

API-first platform structures contract data on-prem, works with the tools firms already use, and makes their existing AI significantly smarter — cutting contract review time by 80%

WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 21, 2025 — Syntracts, an API-first contract intelligence platform built for full on-premises deployment, today announced a $5.3M seed round led by Hyperplane, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Top Harvest Capital, and Fortitude Ventures, and continued support from existing investors Myriad Venture Partners and Point72 Ventures. The new funding will accelerate adoption across BigLaw and corporate legal teams, following a multi-year AmLaw 25 partnership awarded following rigorous competitive evaluations and Syntracts’ selection to A&O Shearman’s Fuse incubator.

Syntracts serves as a secure infrastructure layer that integrates seamlessly with firms’ existing workflows and AI tools. Through its API, teams can ingest documents, organize them into structured, searchable data, and query results directly inside their systems. By turning legacy contracts into reliable, searchable knowledge, Syntracts makes a firm’s existing AI tools smarter, faster and more accurate — all while keeping every piece of data private and on-prem.

“Our mission is simple: enable law firms to use AI that’s both private and verifiable,” said Doug Bemis, co-founder of Syntracts and former CTO at Uber AI Labs. “Firms don’t need another app — they need a secure data layer that powers their existing AI with clean, structured knowledge from their own contracts. That’s Syntracts: infrastructure that runs fully on-prem and makes what they already use smarter, faster, and more reliable.”

Through its secure API, firms can pull documents from systems like iManage, NetDocs or SharePoint and organize them into structured data. They can then send those results back into the tools they already use — from dashboards to AI assistants — while keeping every bit of information inside their own environment.

Unlike legal AI tools that rely on third-party APIs, cloud-hosted large language models (LLMs), or brittle prompt engineering, Syntracts delivers a fully controllable, privacy-first architecture. Its specialized models are fine-tuned using synthetic legal data derived from each client’s own documents, making their existing AI smarter, more accurate, and contextually aware. The result is structured, auditable outputs that plug seamlessly into real-world legal workflows — all delivered fully on-prem so nothing ever leaves the firm’s walls.

“In law, you shouldn’t have to choose between airtight privacy and answers that are consistent and reliable,” said Christopher Martin, co-founder of Syntracts. “We’re building the secure AI backbone for the legal industry — one that helps firms unlock the full value of their data safely and at scale. The backing from Hyperplane, Myriad Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Point72 Ventures highlights how critical a privacy-first foundation is to the future of legal AI.”

While generative AI has shown promise in law, firms remain concerned about accuracy, privacy, and reliability. Syntracts cuts contract review time by at least 80% turning hours of work into minutes — while keeping all data inside the firm’s environment. Its structured system delivers answers lawyers can trust, with the consistency and control that generic prompting can’t match.

“As AI adoption accelerates across the legal and enterprise markets, the biggest challenge users face is accuracy and trust,” said John Murphy, co-founder and managing partner at Hyperplane. “What excites us about Syntracts is their approach to solving this through small, specialized language models trained on proprietary synthetic data. The platform seamlessly integrates into existing workflows and AI tools, delivering unrivaled accuracy, transparency, and privacy.”

“First-generation legal AI tools could read contracts, but they couldn’t understand them because they lacked the context of how deal points relate to each other within a transaction,” said Chris Fisher, founder and managing partner at Myriad Venture Partners. “Syntracts solves that with custom-trained models that capture not just terms, but the structure and relationships between those terms, delivering true deal intelligence. And they’re doing it entirely on-premise, which we believe is the only viable path for handling confidential transaction data.”

Momentum: Recognition and Customers
Syntracts was recently selected for the leading innovation program, A&O Shearman’s Fuse incubator, further validating its approach. Syntracts has secured multi-year partnerships with AmLaw firms following rigorous competitive evaluations, demonstrating its advanced, on-site architecture.

Why Syntracts

• API-first: Lets firms easily connect Syntracts to their existing tools — pull in documents, organize data, and send structured results back into their systems.
• Supercharge existing AI: Feed firm-specific structured data into the AI systems and assistants that firms already use to reduce hallucinations and increase precision.
• Structured intelligence, not prompts: Outputs are formatted for direct integration into legal workflows and KM databases.
• Total privacy: Models run fully on-prem; no data leaves client systems or touches third-party LLMs/APIs.
• Firm-specific models: Synthetic legal data built from each customer’s own documents, making existing data smarter, more searchable, and more reliable.

About Syntracts:
Syntracts is transforming contract intelligence with an API-first, on-premises AI platform that integrates seamlessly with existing legal workflows. Built for BigLaw and corporate legal teams, it lets firms run accurate, secure AI analysis on private documents — with zero data leaving their environment. Using synthetic data and fine-tuned legal models that augment existing AI tools, Syntracts delivers the transparency, verifiability, and privacy modern firms demand. Co-founded by former Uber AI Labs CTO Doug Bemis and Big Law veteran Christopher Martin, Syntracts combines deep AI and legal expertise to boost productivity, reduce risk, and set a new standard for secure legal AI. Learn more at https://www.syntracts.com/.

SOURCE Syntracts