True Ventures leads funding to scale BEACON platform that gives benefits consultants their time back for strategic client work

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15, 2025 — Planyear, the AI-native platform transforming how benefits consultants work, announced it has raised $12 million in seed funding led by True Ventures. The round will accelerate development of Planyear’s BEACON platform, which automates administrative tasks that consume up to 70% of consultants’ time, freeing them to focus on strategic guidance and client relationships.

“AI has begun to transform the underlying economics of insurance brokerage,” said Craig Hasday, President, National Employee Benefits Practice at EPIC. “Using AI, firms will increase the efficiency and accuracy of their interaction with clients and insurance carriers with significantly improved control of data and awareness of pricing and coverage trends. This will reduce response times and increase profitability at the same time. The result will be an improved client experience with a greater focus on consulting and streamlined administration.”

Founded by benefits industry veterans who experienced firsthand the frustration of spending more time on spreadsheets than serving clients, Planyear emerged from a working brokerage with a deep understanding of the industry’s operational challenges. The BEACON platform combines AI automation with benefits expertise to handle client & employee questions, document processing, census standardization, renewal workflows, and RFP responses—tasks that traditionally require countless manual hours during peak seasons.

“Benefits consultants entered this industry to help people navigate healthcare decisions, not to wrestle with data entry,” said Tariq Hilaly, CEO of Planyear. “We’ve lived the late nights during renewal season, the frustration of manual processes, and the missed opportunities when you’re too buried in administration to focus on strategy. BEACON gives consultants their most valuable resource back: time.”

The benefits consulting industry manages over $1.4 trillion in annual healthcare spending, yet relies heavily on manual processes that haven’t evolved with modern technology expectations. Planyear’s AI-powered approach addresses critical bottlenecks including repetitive and high-volume employee support requests, plan spreading that can take hours per client, census data standardization across multiple formats, and the creation of custom, branded employee communications materials such as benefits microsites and decisioning support. Planyear is already working with 6 of the top 10 brokerage firms. Early customers report a 75% reduction in manual data entry, a 50% faster renewal process, and nearly double the client capacity within the first year of using the technology.

“The benefits industry is ripe for transformation, but it needs solutions built by people who understand the nuanced challenges consultants face daily,” said Puneet Agarwal, Partner at True Ventures. “Planyear’s team combines deep industry expertise with sophisticated AI capabilities to create genuine operational leverage. They’re not just automating tasks—they’re restoring the strategic advisory role that makes benefits consulting valuable.”

Benefits consultants spend far less time on strategic advisory work than on time-consuming data processing and administrative tasks. This imbalance has contributed to consultant burnout and limited the industry’s ability to deliver the personalized guidance that modern employers increasingly demand.

The funding will support platform expansion across key workflow areas as well as enhanced support for employers, general agents and carriers. Planyear will also expand its sales team and further develop its AI products to keep up with rapid technological changes and prepare for future capabilities.

About Planyear

Planyear is the AI-native platform that gives benefits consultants their time back. Born from a brokerage and built by benefits professionals, our BEACON platform automates the manual tasks that steal time from strategic work—from document processing to renewal workflows. We combine deep industry knowledge with AI innovation, empowering consultants to advise with confidence and deliver modern experiences that today’s employers and employees expect. Planyear transforms how benefits consultants work, strengthening relationships while driving growth. Learn more at www.planyear.ai.

SOURCE Planyear

Category-Defining Platform for Community Management Reaches Unicorn Status with Growth Investment to Accelerate Market Expansion

WILMINGTON, N.C., Oct. 15, 2025 — Vantaca, the AI-first community association management platform, today announced a $300+ million minority growth investment led by Cove Hill Partners at a $1.25 billion valuation. Cove Hill Partners joins existing minority investor JMI Equity in supporting Vantaca’s vision and next phase of growth, with the founding management team continuing to lead the company’s strategy and operations. This momentum builds on five consecutive years of recognition on the Inc. 5000 reflecting Vantaca’s consistent growth trajectory, including a 95% revenue increase over the last year, while serving more than 500+ management companies and six million households nationwide.

The $300+ million minority investment represents strong validation of Vantaca as a category winner in the rapidly expanding community association management software market. The investment will fuel expansion of Vantaca’s winning market strategies, including but not limited to:

• AI-driven transformation for Community Association Management companies (CAMs) – democratized, deeply embedded AI that helps customers move faster, operate smarter, and scale with confidence.
• Market momentum – accelerating adoption among the fastest-growing management companies, powered by expanded go-to-market capabilities to capture market share and reach additional households nationwide.
• Ecosystem expansion – extending end-to-end capabilities that enhance the full homeowner experience, including residents, vendors, boards, and management companies.

With its proven ability to drive customer success through operational transformation, Vantaca is well-positioned to capture significant market share as the industry embraces AI-driven modernization.

“This investment validates what our customers and industry partners already know, which is that Vantaca is defining the future of community management through AI-native automation and operational excellence,” said Ben Currin, CEO of Vantaca. “Leading investment firms recognized our unique position as the platform delivering true agentic AI capabilities that transform daily operations rather than just digitizing old processes. This partnership accelerates our mission to help management companies scale profitably while delivering exceptional homeowner experiences.”

Vantaca’s HOAi platform transforms how community management companies operate, automating and streamlining critical workflows spanning finance, budgeting, communications, and resident services. Early adopter customers are achieving dramatic operational improvements, with more than one million tasks already automated through agentic AI, resulting in over 100K+ hours being saved and returned to management company teams. These efficiencies are freeing teams to focus on strategic growth and better service for the communities they support. Transformation stories such as these are spreading rapidly through industry networks as respected management company executives share their success at conferences and peer discussions.

“Vantaca represents the rare combination of market leadership, technological innovation, and exceptional execution that we believe defines category-winning companies,” said Jane Levy Vance, Co-Founder and Partner at Cove Hill Partners. “We believe their AI-first approach has sustainable competitive advantages and delivers significant value to customers. We’re excited to partner with the Vantaca team as they scale their platform, introduce new capabilities, and expand into new markets.”

“We’ve had the privilege of partnering with Vantaca over the past few years through a period of tremendous growth and execution,” said David Greenberg, Partner at JMI Equity. “It’s rewarding to see the Company continue on this trajectory and we look forward to partnering with the team as they continue to accelerate innovation and extend their market share in the industry.”

Vantaca’s comprehensive platform combines core community management software with integrated payments, business intelligence, and agentic AI capabilities that create a unified ecosystem for all stakeholders. Vantaca’s recent achievements include recognition on the Inc. 5000 list, industry-leading customer advocacy scores, and dominant presence at major industry conferences where the company’s thought leadership and customer success stories demonstrate the tangible impact of AI transformation on community management operations.

Goodwin Procter LLP served as legal counsel to Vantaca. William Blair acted as Vantaca’s exclusive financial advisor.

About Vantaca
Vantaca is the AI-first community association management platform that empowers management companies to automate routine work while focusing on relationships and growth. Serving over 500 management companies, representing six million doors across the United States, Vantaca combines intelligent automation, comprehensive workflows, and integrated tools to help build better communities.

Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list for five consecutive years, Vantaca combines integrated payments, business intelligence, and agentic AI to unify the entire ecosystem for management companies including vendors, boards, and homeowners and is uniquely positioned to lead modernization through operational excellence and customer success.

For more information about Vantaca, visit www.vantaca.com

About Cove Hill Partners

Cove Hill Partners is a leading investment firm focused on partnering with exceptional management teams building category-defining software companies. Cove Hill brings deep expertise in vertical software markets and a track record of supporting companies through transformational growth phases. Cove Hill has an innovative structure that provides the flexibility to enable a patient, concentrated, and value-add approach in a small portfolio of long-term investments. For more information, visit www.covehillpartners.com.

About JMI Equity

Founded in 1992, JMI Equity is a leading growth equity software investor based in the greater Washington, D.C. area and San Diego. With a focus on software companies, JMI has collaborated with countless entrepreneurs, founder-owners, and management teams, investing in more than 190 companies since its inception. To date, the firm has completed more than 120 exits and facilitated 19 IPOs. As of June 30, 2025, JMI’s portfolio of industry-leading cloud software companies represents $10 billion in combined revenue, $84 billion in aggregate enterprise value, and over 38,000 jobs. For more information, visit: www.jmi.com.

Media Contact:
Ryan Kelly
PR and Communications Director, Vantaca
732.770.5942 I [email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Jane Levy Vance
Co-Founder and Partner, Cove Hill Partners
1-857-245-6060 I [email protected]

SOURCE Vantaca LLC

PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 15, 2025 — IO Health™ Technologies has closed a $2 million seed round, led by Nina Capital, to expand its AI-driven compliance and quality platform for home health and hospice providers.

Founded in 2023 by home health veterans, IO Health™ develops tools to optimize clinical, operational and financial performance. Their novel patent-pending technology delivers productivity to clinicians in real time at the point of care, without requiring lengthy implementation, clinician retraining or EMR replacement.

According to CEO Dr. David Bell, the technology is designed to meet one of the industry’s most pressing challenges: delivering better patient experience in the face of compliance demands, shrinking margins and staff shortages. Agencies know they need to improve quickly to survive.

“We designed IO Health to address the single biggest lever of improvement: accurate documentation. Better documentation means less back-office workload, faster billing, and happier clinicians.” According to Dr. Bell. “Accurate, compliant documentation produces 4-5x better clinical and financial results than efficiency alone.”

Customers like Mark Hunt, President of Elevate Home Health, have been enthusiastic: “we have seen a significant improvement in accuracy of our functional scores, clinician efficiency and the QA team’s workload.”

Customer data from early deployments point to measurable outcomes:

• 25% reduction in QA rework loops
• 36% lower clinician turnover

Nina Capital, with offices in Barcelona and Silicon Valley, focuses on health tech innovation with multi-national market opportunities. Nina was drawn to IO Health’s operator-led approach.

“IO Health’s model addresses compliance and documentation at the source, not after the fact. Its unique architecture addresses a core problem in care delivery: the disconnect between field-level care and financial outcomes, aligned with patient acuity,” says Marta G. Zanchi, Managing Partner of Nina Capital. “We believe it can set a new standard in post-acute care and prove its value as an indispensable layer of infrastructure for the home health ecosystem.”

The founding team’s deep operational expertise is soon to be expanded even further with the addition of Marc Subirats, General Partner of Nina Capital, to the IO Health Board of Directors. “As the founder and former CEO of Advance Medical, a global leader in virtual care services (acquired by Teladoc Health), my partner Marc Subirats understands firsthand the challenges of scaling in the healthcare ecosystem. His experience will be a tremendous asset to IO Health as they grow,” adds Dr. Zanchi.

The funding will be used to expand IO Health™’s Care Optimized suite for home health and hospice, which includes:

• ioAssist ™ for point-of-care validation, compliance and best practice education (including HOPE starting Oct 1 for hospice)
• ioIQ ™ for QA optimization
• ioDoc ™ for automated patient handbooks

The U.S. home health sector, projected to exceed $150 billion annually by 2030, faces rising regulatory requirements and mounting financial strain. Industry operators have increasingly sought workflow technologies that integrate with existing EMRs rather than replace them.

IO Health™ joins a growing group of “intelligent overlay” startups, but differentiates itself with what Bell calls “compliance, education, and quality tools that drive bottom-line results.” The company’s flagship product, ioAssist™, overlays existing EMRs and provides real-time validation, education and best practices to clinicians in the field.

“Post-acute providers don’t need extra applications for clinicians to log into or big workflow changes.” Bell said. “We need help.”

Visit iohealth.ai to see how this tool is evolving legacy systems.

About IO Health

IO Health Technologies is a California-based health tech company redefining post-acute and home-based care through its Care Optimized™ platform. Built by home health veterans, IO Health overlays existing EMRs with AI-powered point-of-care tools like io Assist™, io Doc™, and io IQ™; helping agencies improve OASIS accuracy, reduce documentation time, and strengthen operational performance without workflow disruption.
www.iohealth.ai

About Nina Capital

Nina Capital is a European venture capital firm that invests exclusively in early-stage health technology companies building the infrastructure for data-driven healthcare. Headquartered in Barcelona, the fund partners with mission-driven founders worldwide who are advancing healthcare systems through digital transformation and applied science.

www.ninacapital.vc

SOURCE io Health

Investment to support growth initiatives, including near-term add-on acquisitions

CHICAGO, Oct. 15, 2025 — GTCR, a leading private equity firm, announced today the simultaneous signing and closing of a strategic, structured minority investment in Solmetex (the “Company”). Solmetex is a leading provider of dental products, systems, and consumables such as amalgam separation, waterline safety solutions, dental isolation technology, and regenerative biomaterials.

Founded in 1994 as a dental water treatment company focused on the safe removal of mercury waste from dental offices, Solmetex now provides amalgam separation solutions to over 85,000 dental offices across the United States. Through the acquisition and integration of complementary products, the Company has expanded its portfolio to include solutions for dental waterline treatment and maintenance, modern dental isolation solutions and regenerative biomaterials.

GTCR will collaborate with Solmetex’s current shareholders, including AGIC Capital (“AGIC”), an international private equity firm with expertise in healthcare and industrial technology investments spanning Europe, Asia, and the United States. GTCR looks forward to working alongside Solmetex CEO Gene Dorff, an experienced dental industry professional with more than two decades of sector expertise, and the Company’s management team to drive continued expansion of the Company and its service offerings.

The staged investment structure, with potential funding of up to $200 million, will support the acceleration of Solmetex’s expansion strategy through both organic growth, leveraging the Company’s current product portfolio and solutions, as well as through strategic value-enhancing acquisitions.

“We are excited to support Solmetex’s next phase of growth,” said Luke Marker, Managing Director. “Solmetex is a high-quality business that is uniquely situated in the dental supply chain, and we look forward to leveraging our team’s investment expertise across the U.S. healthcare ecosystem to build upon its strong foundation.”

“We are pleased to partner with AGIC through this structured investment,” said Jason Prager, Managing Director. “Through flexible capital solutions and strategic insights, GTCR supports exceptional management teams in executing growth initiatives and driving value creation.”

About Solmetex
Founded in 1994, Solmetex was established as a dental water treatment consumables company focused on safely supporting the removal of mercury waste from dental offices. Today, the company serves more than 85,000 dental practices across the U.S., providing trusted solutions for their amalgam separation needs. Through a series of strategic acquisitions, Solmetex has expanded its portfolio beyond amalgam separation to include systems and consumables for dental waterline treatment and testing, advanced dental isolation solutions, and regenerative biomaterials. These additions have established Solmetex as a comprehensive, trusted platform delivering innovative solutions that are relevant to every dental practice. For more information, please visit www.solmetex.com.

About GTCR

Founded in 1980, GTCR is a leading private equity firm that invests behind The Leaders Strategy™ – finding and partnering with management leaders in core domains to identify, acquire and build market-leading companies through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. GTCR is focused on investing in transformative growth in companies in the Business & Consumer Services, Financial Services & Technology, Healthcare and Technology, Media & Telecommunications sectors. Since its inception, GTCR has invested more than $30 billion in approximately 300 companies, and the firm currently manages approximately $50 billion in equity capital. GTCR is based in Chicago with offices in New York and West Palm Beach. For more information, please visit www.gtcr.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

About AGIC Capital
AGIC is a growth-oriented private equity firm that invests in thriving middle-market businesses focused on advanced industrial and healthcare technologies in Europe & beyond. AGIC’s differentiated investment strategy combines deep business model expertise and proactive thematic research with a collaborative, management-first approach to value creation. Launched in 2015, AGIC currently has $2.2 billion in assets under management. The firm’s more than 25 professionals are based in Europe and Asia. For more information about AGIC’s investment philosophy, visit www.agic-group.com.

Media Contacts

For GTCR:

Josh Clarkson / Ryan Smith

212.279.3115

[email protected]

For AGIC:
[email protected]

For Solmetex:
Nils Classen
800.216.5505 (x5634)
[email protected]

SOURCE GTCR

Investment in Alfred marks venture fund’s entry into Norway and deepens focus on next-generation AI platforms.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15, 2025 — SeaX Ventures, a global deep tech venture capital fund, today announced its investment in Alfred, an Oslo-based AI startup redefining how enterprises scale sales productivity. This marks SeaX’s first investment in Scandinavia and underscores the firm’s growing commitment to next-generation AI platforms transforming global industries.

The investment marks a significant milestone in SeaX’s global expansion and underscores the firm’s commitment to advancing the next wave of AI innovation across continents. Operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, deep tech, and enterprise transformation, SeaX has built a global portfolio spanning the U.S., Asia, and Europe, with a focus on technologies that drive measurable impact across industries.

“Entering the Nordics represents an exciting step in our mission to connect innovation ecosystems around the world,” said Dr. Kid Parchariyanon, Founder and Managing Partner of SeaX Ventures. “Our mission has always been to bridge innovation ecosystems globally and back founders who use AI to fundamentally reshape how industries operate. Alfred exemplifies this vision — transforming sales from process-driven to intelligence-driven.”

Founded by serial entrepreneur Edwin Fjeldtvedt, previously the founder of Favrit (formerly Ordr), alongside Espen Sjaavik, Alexandra Leisse, and Amr Abdelwahab, Alfred is building an AI-powered knowledge and learning platform designed to help enterprises scale sales the right way. It combines the expertise and best practices of top-performing sales organizations with intelligent automation.

Alfred’s platform uses multiple AI agents to act as a world-class revenue team, embedding the intuition, playbooks, and preparation of elite sellers directly into enterprise workflows. The result is sales teams that learn continuously, stay one step ahead, and focus on high-value human relationships.

“Most technology today focuses on efficiency,” said Edwin Fjeldtvedt, Co-Founder and CEO of Alfred. “But efficiency without effectiveness just means doing the wrong things faster. Alfred helps organizations sell the right way, combining proven methods, structured learning, and AI-driven preparation to drive sustainable growth.”

As SeaX continues to expand across the globe, its investment in Alfred highlights a growing emphasis on Europe’s emerging AI ecosystem, and reinforces the firm’s long-term vision to empower founders building the technologies that will define the future economy.

About SeaX Ventures
SeaX Ventures  is a global venture capital firm dedicated to investing in deep-tech startups that are shaping the future through groundbreaking innovations. With a mission to empower entrepreneurs building exponential technologies, SeaX Ventures focuses on sectors with high potential to drive 1% GDP growth and reduce 1% of Global Carbon Emissions within the next decade. SeaX delivers unique access to a highly selective group of innovative companies from around the globe. SeaX leverages its relationship with over 500+ listed companies, MNCs, and huge family businesses in Southeast Asia to explore business opportunities together with portfolio companies. For more information, visit https://seaxventures.vc

About Alfred
Alfred is a Knowledge and Learning Management platform (LMS) that delivers contextual enablement to help companies scale sales productivity through the knowledge and processes of the best. The platform is powered by multiple AI agents, designed to operate as a world-class revenue team with a mentor who not only prepares and completes the “homework,” but also helps sellers learn ahead of the moments that matter. The result: sales teams stay one step ahead, always equipped with the right keys at the right time – rather than being ghosted or deprioritized at the end of a process. Inspired by Batman’s butler, Alfred is the wise, trusted mentor who ensures the hero is always prepared and ready to perform when it counts.

Media Contact:
Matt Costantini
[email protected]
[email protected]

SOURCE SeaX Ventures

Purpose-built for the unique needs of the industrial sector, Corbel deploys AI agents which seamlessly power sales, customer service, and parts operations. By delivering unparalleled personalization and efficiency across the customer lifecycle, Corbel is setting a new standard for an industry long overlooked by digital transformation

NEW YORK, Oct. 15, 2025 — Corbel, an AI-powered operating system for industrial equipment manufacturers, today announced it has secured $6.7 million in Seed funding to revolutionize the sales experience. The round was led by Ibex Investors, with participation from Joule Ventures, Restive Ventures, and Selah Ventures.

Set to surpass a trillion dollars in market value by 2030, industrial equipment is a cornerstone of the global economy. More than half of procurement leaders see AI as transformational – especially in areas like sourcing and supplier risk management. Yet 70% of manufacturers are still inputting data manually, while many sales teams continue to rely on legacy tools, static PDFs, and manual quoting processes to sell increasingly sophisticated machines. This gap slows down deals, limits growth, and makes it harder to compete. By transforming messy, but mission-critical, product data into AI-native intelligence, Corbel delivers a new way to guide buyers from exploration to purchase.

“We’re building the infrastructure which underpins how industrial equipment gets sold: AI-powered, data-driven, and designed to deliver personalized solutions at scale. The future of this industry isn’t reps buried in busywork, it’s sales teams doing what they do best – building relationships, applying expertise, and closing,” said Le’ora Lichtenstein, CEO and Co-Founder of Corbel. “Corbel incorporates detailed product intelligence at every step of the sale – from discovery to quote to financing – giving teams the modern digital firepower they need to win more business.”

Corbel’s operating system is rooted in deep product intelligence. Its AI agents are trained on each manufacturer’s proprietary machine data, including product catalogs, technical specs, pricing sheets, and the human expertise embedded in videos, sales transcripts, and email interactions. By sifting through reams of unstructured information, Corbel builds a robust sales intelligence layer that powers smarter selling and a seamless buyer experience, helping sales teams guide customers to the right machine, surface relevant upsells, and present tailored financing options. This drives measurable impact for manufacturers, accelerating sales cycles, boosting conversion rates, and unlocking greater deal value.

Aaron Rinberg, Partner at Ibex Investors added: “Corbel has built a highly proficient, AI-powered CPQ platform that brings much-needed innovation to industrial manufacturing, a legacy industry long overdue for disruption. By integrating seamlessly into existing sales workflows and embedding flexible installment payments, Corbel is reinventing the quoting and purchasing experience for both buyers and sales teams. We’ve been incredibly impressed by Corbel’s impact and we’re thrilled to partner with them together on this journey.”

Corbel’s solution is already powering configuration, quoting and financing for eight manufacturers, across verticals including metalworking, woodworking, and additive manufacturing machinery. In just six months since launching its broader sales platform, Corbel has processed over $60 million in quoting volume. To date, it has facilitated over $1.7 million in financing across 41 transactions, with industry-leading approvals rates exceeding 90% on customer applications.

Scott Donahy, VP of Sales Marketing from Piranha Fabrication commented: “While reps are often experts in some machines, they rarely have the tools to extend that knowledge across every product — or to buyers exploring on the website. Corbel’s platform empowers our team with instant, data-backed recommendations; pouring over in seconds tens of thousands of data points that would take a human months to process. With Corbel behind it, our sales team zeroes in on the right equipment for each customer. It has strengthened how we sell, enabling our reps to focus on the conversations and nurtured relationships that close deals.”

With this funding, Corbel will expand its engineering and go-to-market teams, deepen its AI capabilities, and scale deployments with leading OEM partners across North America.

About Corbel

Corbel is an AI-powered operating sytem designed to transform the industrial equipment industry through a revolutionary Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) system with embedded finance to help facilitate the sale of high-ticket items. Founded in 2022 by Le’ora Lichtenstein, after many years in private equity where she led structured credit investments across real estate, venture, and equipment finance, and Dor Litay, an expert in building complex systems at scale for under-digitised environments, Corbel’s platform leverages artificial intelligence to automate and streamline the quoting and sales process for equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers. By improving speed, precision, and efficiency, Corbel’s platform helps industrial equipment sales teams close more deals and increase revenue without disrupting existing sales operations. For more information visit: https://corbelpay.com/

Media Contact

Gavin Horwich, Headline Media

[email protected] 

SOURCE Corbel

Woz combines AI efficiency. speed with human expertise, moving beyond prototypes to deliver production-ready products at the level of the world’s top tech companies.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15, 2025 — Woz today announced it raised $6 million in seed funding for its groundbreaking platform that is the first to combine AI with expert human oversight to build business-ready mobile apps. The funding round was led by Cervin Ventures, with participation from Burst Capital, Y Combinator, Untapped Ventures, MGV, and the Lacob Family, co-owners of the Golden State Warriors.

Vibe-coding tools can create shortcuts and vulnerabilities, which may work for prototypes, but fall short for reliable business applications. Woz takes an anti-vibe coding approach: rather than giving AI unlimited freedom, Woz sets clear tasks, processes, and guardrails. When the AI hits a snag, humans step in to correct it, and every app undergoes a thorough quality review by a human engineering expert. The result: robust, scalable, and secure applications that businesses can confidently deliver to their customers.

“Woz can be replicated across many product categories and specialized for many verticals,” explains Co–Founder and CEO Ben Collins. “Today, we’re building mobile apps. Tomorrow it will be web apps, TV apps, IoT software, and AR/VR, as well as specialized software for regulated sectors like healthcare and insurance. It’s a new approach to product building similar to an ‘AI App Factory’. Just as the physical factory powered the industrial revolution, Woz unlocks the next great leap in how the world builds.”

Unleashing the Potential of AI & Expert Human Engineering

Woz combines agentic AI, manufacturing principles, and human engineering to produce business-grade mobile apps at scale. By breaking complex processes into discrete steps and assigning each AI agent a specialized role, this assembly-line model ensures consistency, quality, and scalability. It is the first system of its kind, designed for seamless AI and human collaboration. The codebases Woz generates are not the messy “spaghetti code” typical of other app builders. Instead, they are clean, well-structured, secure, and human-readable – a reliable foundation for building powerful, future-ready applications.

Today, Woz can produce thousands of high quality apps in parallel; giving entrepreneurs, SMBs, and established non-tech enterprises, access to the same caliber of engineering once reserved for elite tech companies. “Global brands can’t compromise on quality. Like in sports, many of these organizations don’t have robust engineering teams. By combining access to expert product building with AI, Woz unlocks enormous value,” said Kirk Lacob, Woz investor & Executive Vice President Golden State Warriors.

The Fading Promise of Vibe-Coding

The AI app builder landscape has exploded, with dozens of platforms promising users the ability to go from prompt to web app in record time. But these tools come with trade-offs: code quality and depth are often sacrificed for speed and breadth, leaving developers to rebuild much of this throwaway code before it can be deployed in production. While these platforms claim to make everyone a software developer, their technology is not yet mature enough to deliver reliable, production-ready applications.

As the initial AI excitement fades and limitations become apparent, leading AI app builders are seeing sharp declines in traffic. Analysis from Barclays shows that as of September, site visits to Lovable dropped 40% from their peak in June, while competitors Bolt.new and Vercel’s v0 fell 27% and 64%, respectively.

Injil Muhammad, CEO and cofounder of Buddle, a learning and development platform for Gen-Z talent and a Woz customer, observed this firsthand: “Vibe-coding tools are great for quickly testing ideas, but moving toward sustainable, production-ready applications requires technical expertise that is not easy to find.”

“It’s clear that vibe-coding is not the end game,” added Taylor Oliver, Partner at Cervin Ventures and Woz board member. “The real breakthrough comes when AI-generated apps produce scalable, secure code that serves as the foundation for lasting businesses. Woz’s approach uniquely positions them to lead this shift.”

The new funding will fuel product development and hiring to meet growing demand, while maintaining the company’s commitment to uncompromising quality. The Woz platform is available today at www.withwoz.com.

About Woz

Woz is the first platform that applies AI with expert human oversight to build business-ready apps. Unlike tools that churn out disposable prototypes, Woz builds robust, scalable, and secure products that meet the strictest business requirements. From startups launching their first product to enterprises modernizing legacy solutions, Woz makes it possible to build, scale, and run world-class products with the power of AI. Founded by MIT engineers Ben Collins and Brad Eckert, the company has raised $6 million from Cervin Ventures, Y Combinator, and other leading investors. Woz is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Learn more at www.withwoz.com.

SOURCE Woz

CHICAGO, Oct. 15, 2025 — Moderne Ventures is pleased to announce its Fall2025 Passport Class. Moderne Ventures is a multi-stage VC firm investing in transformative technologies like AI, SaaS, robotics, sustainability and digital transactions that are shaping our future – including how we do business across trillion-dollar, antiquated industries like real estate, finance, insurance and beyond. The Moderne Passport Program is an intensive six-month industry immersion program providing its participants with education, exposure, insight, and relationships to drive customer growth.

“Moderne is a generalist investor with vertical expertise. We are intentionally looking for breakthrough technologies that can transform our core industries and expand beyond them to capture larger venture returns,” said Constance Freedman, Founder and Managing Partner of Moderne Ventures. “This latest Passport cohort brings innovations that include advanced risk assessment platforms, efficiency boosting AI assistants, and customer retention tools.”

We are pleased to announce the six new companies joining Moderne Passport:

• Algoma (algoma.co)  – (New York, NY): Hyperefficient market analysis and feasibility
• BrokerBot (brokerbot.ai)  – (Lakeway, TX): Omnichannel AI-powered assistant automating admin and compliance 
• ElectroTempo (electrotempo.com)  – (Arlington, VA): AI geospatial intelligence and optimization platform turning investment risk into ROI
• Optera (opteraclimate.com) – (Boulder, CO):  Enterprise software enabling enterprises to manage and reduce emissions across their value chain
• Renew  (heyrenew.com)  – (Brooklyn, NY): An automated proactive customer retention platform
• Virtuo (virtuo.com) – (Calgary, Alberta, CA): Connected experience platform behind better service, smoother operations, and happier customers

“We’re proud to welcome our 23rd Passport cohort, having supported over 150 companies through the program. Moderne helps companies break into complex industries by providing targeted access to potential customers, strategic capital and real-time feedback from our network of leading operators. By tapping into our deep relationships with industry partners, we help companies unlock new distribution channels and accelerate meaningful growth,” said Carolyn Kwon, Head of Platform at Moderne Ventures.

Moderne Ventures accepts Passport applications on a rolling basis with the next class launching in December 2025.

Moderne Ventures Overview

Moderne Ventures  is a multi-stage VC firm with a 17-year track record, generating top tier returns across five funds. Moderne manages over $600M AUM to invest in transformative technologies like AI, SaaS, robotics, sustainability, and digital transactions that our shaping our future including how we do business across trillion-dollar industries like real estate, finance, insurance and beyond. Moderne’s unfair advantage: its network of 1,500+ execs and corporates we activate through our proprietary Moderne Passport Program to help portfolio companies drive explosive growth. The Moderne Platform de-risks venture – producing top tier Venture returns while maintaining a PE/Buyout risk profile.

Moderne has invested in more than 50 companies with additional equity in over 150 Moderne Passport companies across five funds. The firm has built a stellar track record as a lead investor in companies like DocuSign, ICON, Proof, Caribou, Porch, and Xeal.

CONTACT: Carolyn Kwon, [email protected]

SOURCE Moderne Ventures

• USD $11M raised to help the company meet its goal of revitalizing local manufacturing industries
• Investors include Lavrock Ventures, Squadra Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Cox Exponential, Ericsson Ventures and the Scottish National Investment Bank

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. and EDINBURGH, Scotland, Oct. 15, 2025 — Launchpad, the AI-first robotics company powering real-world assembly automation, today announced that it had successfully concluded a Series A funding round raising a total of USD $11 million.

The funds will be used to accelerate the development of Launchpad’s innovative technology whilst meeting demand from existing and new customers in the US, UK and Europe.  The round was co-led by Lavrock Ventures and Squadra Ventures, with participation from strategic and financial investors including Ericsson Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Cox Exponential and the Scottish National Investment Bank.  This is in addition to the USD 2.5 million in grant funding awarded to Launchpad by Scottish Enterprise.

Launchpad’s technology is reimagining the manufacturing industry with AI and advanced robotics to power firms’ critical automation strategies.  This is a sector experiencing significant challenges in attracting and retaining talent.  According to Deloitte, the US manufacturing industry could have up to 1.9 million unfilled positions by 2033.

While robotics have the potential to address this workforce challenge, the expense of traditional systems remains a barrier to adoption, particularly for small- to medium-sized firms.  Recent figures from the International Federation of robotics show a 9% drop in robot installations in the US over 2024.  Launchpad, which has a new R&D center in Edinburgh, Scotland, has invested in advanced AI tools which the company estimates halve the time and cost of delivering automation solutions.

Jon Quick, CEO of Launchpad, said, “Launchpad has built a technology that is helping manufacturers manage the optimal integration of humans and robots. We see AI tools, such as those being pioneered by Launchpad, as reimagining the manufacturing industry and revitalizing local economies.”

Steve Smoot, Managing Partner at Lavrock Investors, said, “We are proud to invest our capital and time in support of Launchpad’s quest for a more innovative, automated, resilient future in advanced manufacturing.  The company has an impressive track record, proven management team, and clear vision of what it will take to make a lasting impact in this dynamic and extremely important industry.”

Guy Filippelli, Managing Partner at Squadra Ventures, said, “Since 2020, America has lost more than a quarter of its manufacturing jobs. The message is clear: cost matters. With Launchpad, we’re rewriting that story – using AI to build a new era of globally competitive domestic manufacturing that can win and lead the future.”

Adrian Gillespie, Chief Executive Officer of Scottish Enterprise, said, “With its R&D center in Edinburgh, Launchpad is able to draw on Scotland’s long-standing academic, technical and entrepreneurial strengths.  The company has quickly become an influential part of the Scottish innovation community, and we look forward to supporting its next growth phase.”

About Launchpad

Launchpad, founded in 2020, was created to reimagine manufacturing and revitalize local economies.  The company addresses labor shortages and improves competitiveness by combining proprietary AI-first technology with advanced robotics to help firms manage the optimal integration of humans and robots.  It estimates its systems halve the time and cost of delivering automation solutions.  With offices in Los Angeles, CA, and Edinburgh, UK, Launchpad’s technology is already deployed in factories across the US and Europe.

For more information, please contact:
Dan Bradley, Communications Director, Launchpad
[email protected]
+44 (0)7816 829166

SOURCE Launchpad Build, Inc