Funding will scale Odyssey’s platform in regions including Asia, Africa, and Latin America

BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 1, 2026 — Odyssey Energy Solutions, the leading platform for financing distributed renewable energy (DRE) projects in emerging markets, today announced $74 million in new financing. The funding consists of a $27 million equity round and $47 million in debt. New equity investors include Broadscale Group, FMO, and Al Mada Ventures, with continued participation from existing investors including Union Square Ventures, Equal Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Twelve Below, FJ Labs, MCJ, and Transition Ventures. Debt financiers include British International Investment, BIO, the Facility for Energy Inclusion represented by Cygnum Capital and the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund represented by TripleJump.

The financing will support continued expansion of Odyssey’s platform, which connects more than 6,000 solar installers and engineering, procurement, and construction companies (EPCs) with financiers and equipment suppliers in more than 50 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, facilitating access to $3.6 billion in capital for distributed energy projects. Odyssey’s procurement platform, launched in 2024, aggregates equipment procurement across its large network of EPCs, offering these small-to-medium sized companies access to volume pricing with embedded supply chain credit. The platform has unlocked 1.5 GW of projects to date.

“The focus of financing for distributed renewable energy has historically been on post-construction capital—funding that flows once a project is built,” said Emily McAteer, co-founder and CEO of Odyssey Energy Solutions. “That has left a significant gap upstream, where thousands of small and medium EPCs and installers lack the working capital needed to procure equipment, complete construction, and unlock customer payments. Odyssey bridges this gap directly, providing companies with the equipment pricing and financing they need to accelerate project delivery.”

The announcement comes at a moment of accelerating demand for distributed renewable energy across Odyssey’s core markets. Falling solar and battery costs, rising oil prices, and evolving government policy have converged to make the unit economics of distributed solar materially stronger than fossil-fuel alternatives. In Nigeria, where diesel backup generators supply more electricity than grid-connected power plants, according to the International Finance Corporation, diesel prices rose more than 93% between February and April 2026 following supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. In India, where Odyssey’s platform has grown 205% over the past 12 months, new domestic manufacturing requirements for solar components are reshaping supply chains and driving demand for the procurement and financing infrastructure that Odyssey provides. Rapid data center construction across India, driven by rising AI compute demand, is further increasing electricity demand at a pace grid infrastructure is struggling to meet, adding urgency to distributed solar and storage as a complement to centralized power supply.

“Distributed solar in emerging markets has reached a watershed moment,” said Andrew Shapiro, founder and Managing Partner at Broadscale Group. “The demand is there, the economics work, and the remaining constraint to deployment at massive scale is access to capital and procurement infrastructure for installers. That is exactly what Odyssey provides and why we’re thrilled to support the company as they enable this critically important growth.”

“Having worked across distributed energy finance in India and emerging markets, I’ve seen firsthand both the scale of the opportunity and the barriers that have held the sector back,” said Piyush Mathur, co-founder and Managing Director of Odyssey Energy Solutions. “Today, the conditions for rapid deployment of clean energy have never been stronger. EPCs and distributed energy developers are growing at unprecedented rates, creating an urgent need for the procurement, financing, and technology infrastructure that can enable them to scale. That is the gap Odyssey is uniquely filling.”

The new capital will allow for expansion of Odyssey’s procurement platform, which aggregates equipment orders across smaller buyers to improve supplier terms and offers embedded supply chain credit. Given high demand from commercial and industrial customers for solar and storage solutions, installers typically have a much larger order book than they can supply at a given time due to working capital constraints. Procuring through Odyssey allows these companies to procure and construct more projects at once, accelerating project deployment.

The recent funding follows Odyssey’s $15M Series A, announced in May 2023, bringing the total capital raised by the company to $94M. The company is also among the inaugural portfolio partners of Multiplier, an advisory firm co-founded by Jigar Shah and Jonathan Silver, both former directors of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office.

About Odyssey Energy Solutions
Odyssey Energy Solutions is accelerating the clean energy transition in emerging markets. The platform connects more than 6,000 distributed energy companies with financiers and equipment suppliers across India, Africa, Latin America, and more than 50 countries worldwide, facilitating access to $3.6 billion in capital. Learn more at odysseyenergysolutions.com.

SOURCE Odyssey Energy Solutions

SHANGHAI, Sept. 1, 2026 — Mech-Mind Robotics, a portfolio company of Qiming Venture Partners and a global-leading robobrain company, successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on September 1, 2026 Beijing time and became the first listed embodied intelligence “Eye-Brain-Hand” company, marking the tenth IPO for Qiming Venture Partners this year. Mech-Mind Robotics (09615. HK) issued its shares at a price of HK$101.7 per share with a market capitalization of HK$12.71 billion.

Qiming Venture Partners exclusively invested in the Round A+ financing of Mech-Mind Robotics in early 2019, accompanying the firm in its development all the way. Before Mech-Mind Robotics’ IPO, Qiming Venture Partners held a 7.38 percent stake in the firm and is one of the firm’s leading senior independent investors under the Chapter 18C of the Listing Rules of the HKEX.

Founded in 2016, Mech-Mind Robotics (Mech-Mind means robobrain) is one of the few technology companies in the world that has achieved cross-industry, cross-scenario and cross-regional large-scale implementation of physical AI relying on intelligent robot technologies. Different from most robot manufacturers, Mech-Mind Robotics does not produce robots, but provides “Eye-Brain-Hand” standardized intelligent components — Mech Eye industrial 3D cameras responsible for perception, Mech-GPT multimodal embodied large models responsible for decision-making, and Mech-Hand dexterous hands responsible for execution.

As of June 15, 2026, Mech-Mind Robotics has deployed over 29,000 units of its products globally, which have been used in more than 50 typical scenarios in dozens of industries, handled over 100,000 types of goods, and served more than 100 Fortune Global 500 companies, including CATL, BYD, Midea, and Foxconn.

Calculated by revenue in 2025, Mech-Mind Robotics’ market share in the global “AI+3D vision guided general intelligent robot components” market is about 22.1 percent, ranking first; Calculated by shipments, the firm’s global market share exceeds 27 percent, larger than the sum of its four largest rivals ranking after the firm. In addition, the firm has the highest market share in China, Japan, and North America, and is one of the market leaders in Southeast Asia, Europe, and South Korea.

“The integration of artificial intelligence and robotics is one of the greatest opportunities of our time. Seizing this opportunity requires not a brainwave of a few geniuses, but sustained efforts in technology and product development. Mech-Mind Robotics seeks truth from facts, keeps pace with the times, strives to build capabilities to explore cutting-edge technologies, stable and reliable capabilities to develop products, and capabilities to serve customers globally, and continuously creates genuine value. Qiming Venture Partners’ belief in AI technology and long-term value tallies with our company. We are very honored to have received recognition and critical support from Qiming Venture Partners in our early days,” says Shao Tianlan, Chairman, Executive Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Mech-Mind Robotics.

“Qiming Venture Partners invested in Mech-Mind Robotics in 2019 for we were optimistic about the vast potential of intelligent robotics and believed the application of artificial intelligence in the physical world was still in the early stages of industrialization, and closed-loop implementation scenarios were limited. Mech-Mind Robotics boasts top R&D and commercialization capabilities, and its products are consistently used and validated by global-leading companies, with outstanding performance both at home and abroad. We expect that Mech-Mind Robotics will become a core supplier of physical AI infrastructure and reply on its mature commercialization loop to continuously drive long-term innovation in general embodied intelligence,” Alex Zhou, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, stated.

About Qiming Venture Partners

Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. Currently, Qiming Venture Partners manages eleven US Dollar funds and seven RMB funds with $9.5 billion in capital raised. Since our establishment, we have invested in outstanding companies in the Technology and Healthcare industries at the early and growth stages.

Since our debut, we have backed over 580 fast-growing and innovative companies. Over 210 of our portfolio companies have achieved exits through IPOs at the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX, Shanghai Stock Exchange, or Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or through M&A or other means. There are also over 80 portfolio companies that have achieved unicorn or super unicorn status.

Many of our portfolio companies are today’s most influential firms in their respective sectors, including Xiaomi, Meituan, Bilibili, Zhihu, Roborock, Hesai Technology, UBTech, WeRide, HyperStrong, Insta360, Unisound, Biren Technology, Z.ai, Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals, Tigermed, Zai Lab, CanSino Biologics, Schrödinger, APT Medical, Sanyou Medical, AmoyDx, SinocellTech, Insilico Medicine, AusperBio, Yuanxin Technology, Medilink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, StepFun, among many others.

Early Investment Sudo AI Valued at Nearly $2B

TAIPEI, Sept. 1, 2026 — Cherubic Ventures today announced the close of its sixth fund (Fund VI) at $68.88 million. The fund size reflects the auspicious meaning of the number eight in East Asian cultures, where it is traditionally associated with prosperity and good fortune. With this close, assets under management across the firm’s six funds have surpassed US$500 million.

Investors across all six funds include leading global institutional investors and foundations, as well as publicly listed companies, family offices, successful entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals.

Fund VI maintains the firm’s early-stage focus, investing in AI-native companies across infrastructure, developer tools, enterprise software, healthcare, physical AI and robotics. Sudo AI, a robotics startup in the portfolio, has reached a valuation of nearly $2 billion two years after its founding, joining the ranks of unicorns.

“After ten years, I am more certain than ever about why I chose to invest at the earliest stages,” said Matt Cheng, Founder & Solo GP of Cherubic Ventures. “Working alongside exceptional founders, finding a path through uncertainty, and ultimately changing an industry is what keeps driving me.”

Investing Across AI, From Infrastructure to Industry Applications

As AI reshapes industries, Cherubic Ventures continues to look for founders using the technology to build new products and redefine markets. Since 2024, the firm’s AI-native investments have spanned infrastructure, developer tools, enterprise software, healthcare, physical AI and robotics.

In robotics, Sudo AI was co-founded by Hao Su, a leading researcher in embodied AI and 3D vision and co-author of PointNet, and serial entrepreneur Robin Han. Its sudo R1 robotic system is trained through virtual simulation and can reliably handle objects it has never encountered without relying on real-world manipulation data. This addresses a key bottleneck to deploying robotics at scale. Cherubic Ventures was its earliest institutional investor.

Cherubic Ventures is also an early investor in Entire, the developer platform founded by former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke. The company raised US$60 million earlier this year, the largest seed round ever for a developer tools startup.

While Fund VI is still at an early stage, its portfolio companies have already raised more than $500 million in subsequent funding. Other notable investments include AI-powered patent technology platform Patlytics, along with healthcare and drug development companies Max AI, Generation Lab and therapiAI.

A Decade Alongside Founders, Supporting the Next Generation

Founded in 2015, Cherubic Ventures was among the first venture firms in the world to adopt the solo GP model. It has invested in more than 200 companies globally, with early investments including Hims & Hers, Flexport, Calm, Paidy, 91APP and Astranis. 

Across its portfolio, Cherubic Ventures has been the earliest institutional investors in dozens of companies that went on to become unicorns. Hims & Hers is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and 91APP on the Taipei Exchange, while Paidy was acquired by PayPal for US$2.7 billion.

Fund VI marks the beginning of Cherubic Ventures’ second decade. “The past ten years have made me more certain that believing in founders before the answers are clear, and backing them through uncertainty, is at the heart of early-stage investing,” Cheng said. “In the next decade, we will continue to ‘Stay Early’ and work with the most exceptional founders to build the future we want to see.”

About Cherubic Ventures
Founded in 2015, Cherubic Ventures is a global early-stage venture capital firm that started in Taipei and has built a strong presence in the U.S. market. The firm backs outstanding founders from day one and was among the first venture firms in the world to adopt the solo GP model. Notable investments include Hims & Hers, Calm, Flexport, 91APP, Paidy, Formation Bio and Astranis. To date, Cherubic Ventures has invested in more than 200 startups and brings together more than 500 founders and investors in a distinctive global community.

SOURCE Cherubic Ventures

HONG KONG, Sept. 1, 2026 — H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”), a leading global alternative investment firm with $75 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce that Younghee Choi has joined the firm’s Capital Formation Group as Head of Asia. Younghee is based in Hong Kong and will lead capital formation efforts across Asia for H.I.G.’s global private equity, credit, and real assets platforms.

With more than 15 years of experience in capital formation and private markets, Younghee joins H.I.G. from Blackstone, where she held senior roles across the firm’s Institutional Client Solutions (“ICS”) and Private Wealth businesses, serving as Senior Managing Director and Head of Korea ICS. During her tenure at Blackstone, Younghee developed and expanded relationships with a broad base of leading institutional investors and played a key role in building the firm’s private wealth fundraising business in Korea.

Jordan Peer Griffin, Executive Managing Director and Global Head of the Capital Formation Group, commented: “We are pleased to welcome Younghee to H.I.G. Her extensive capital formation experience, longstanding relationships across Asia, and ability to build enduring partnerships with institutional and private wealth investors will further strengthen our presence in the region. Younghee’s leadership will be instrumental as we expand our Asian LP base and support the continued growth of H.I.G.’s global investment platforms.”

Younghee Choi, Head of Asia, also commented: “I am thrilled to join H.I.G. at such an exciting time in the firm’s growth. I look forward to working closely with the team to deepen our relationships with investors across Asia, broaden H.I.G.’s presence in the region, and connect our investors with the full breadth of the firm’s global capabilities.”

About H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. is a leading global alternative investment firm with $75 billion of capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Stamford in the United States, as well as international affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, and Hong Kong. H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to middle market companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach:

• H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
• H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche, and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets.
• H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
• H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 400 companies worldwide. The Firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $53 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at hig.com.

*Based on total capital raised by H.I.G. Capital and its affiliates.

Contact:

Media Relations
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H.I.G. Capital Hong Kong, Ltd.
Suite 3106, Level 31, Alexandra House
18 Chater Road, Central,
Hong Kong, China
Phone: +852 2707 5000
hig.com

Three general partners with operating exits behind them will pair capital with commerce infrastructure for the consumer brands they back.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31, 2026 — F&F Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Founders & Funders™ community, today launched a $10 million ecommerce fund in partnership with SHOPLINE, the global commerce platform serving more than 700,000 merchants worldwide. The fund invests from pre-seed through Series A in consumer brands and the technology behind them.

The fund is led by three general partners who built the kinds of companies it intends to back. Jeff Erickson, General Partner and Founder of Founders & Funders™, scaled a consumer brand to eight figures before its sale to a private equity firm, and has since invested in more than 40 companies as an angel investor. Adam Shaw, Co-Founder of Founders & Funders™ and General Partner, built a physical product company from zero to $18 million, led a seven-figure consumer goods brand, and brings global supply chain and private equity experience. Jian Tam, General Partner, is a serial CPG entrepreneur with multiple ecommerce exits and more than twenty years in the category, including Co-Founder of ProteinWaffles.com.

Deal flow comes through the Founders & Funders™ community, which has run more than 300 events in the US and internationally over the past eight years. Its VC ReversePitch™ series, in which investors pitch founders on their thesis and check size rather than the other way around, runs in several major cities this fall, starting in Denver on September 17 and including stops in San Francisco and LA for Tech Week by a16z.

The fund’s current portfolio spans 13 consumer brands, among them Protein Waffles, NoLimit, See Sea, Link Luggage, OnGo Energy, Board Budder, and G Box.

“As the venture capital arm of Founders & Funders, we are fully committed to increasing the likelihood of success for the companies we invest in. We are already seeing the impact we are able to make working with our portfolio companies by leveraging our network connections, distribution channels, eCommerce expertise, experience, and relationships,” said Jeff Erickson, General Partner of F&F Ventures.

Portfolio companies get SHOPLINE alongside the capital — storefront, payments, marketing automation, loyalty, and multi-channel selling running on one system. Christopher Yang, Co-President of SHOPLINE, serves on the F&F Ventures investment committee.

“F&F is putting capital and operating experience into these companies at the same time, and that combination is what actually moves a young brand,” said Yang. “Our part is making sure the commerce side is built as one system from day one, while the company is still early enough to get it right.”

About F&F Ventures

F&F Ventures is the venture capital arm of Founders & Funders™, investing pre-seed through Series A in consumer brands and the technology behind them. The firm originates its deal flow from Founders & Funders, the eight-year-old relationship engine for venture, with a massive network and events in 12 cities and four-plus countries, including its VC ReversePitch™ series. F&F Ventures pairs capital with operating support, giving portfolio companies the network, distribution, and commerce infrastructure that increase their likelihood of success. Learn more at fandf.vc.

About SHOPLINE

Founded in 2013, SHOPLINE is a leading global Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider and omnichannel commerce enabler. The platform empowers over 700,000 merchants worldwide to build, market, and scale their businesses through a comprehensive suite of unified commerce solutions, including e-commerce website creation, social commerce, live shopping, and point-of-sale systems. Headquartered in Singapore, SHOPLINE operates globally with a thriving partner ecosystem designed to level up retail operations for brands of all sizes. Learn more at www.shopline.com.  Follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact

David Wamsley
Rosebud Communications
[email protected]
415.259.9104

SOURCE SHOPLINE

This asset purchase brings the Omni Cyber Solutions Agentic Platform and its AI-powered security operations technology into the Athena Agentic portfolio, enhancing the Athena Unified Cyber Operations Platform’s vulnerability scanning, Shadow AI, and penetration testing capabilities.

DALLAS, Aug. 31, 2026 — Athena Agentic today announced the purchase of the Omni Cyber Solutions (OCS) Agentic Platform, an AI-powered cybersecurity platform. Under the asset purchase, Athena Agentic acquires the platform’s technology and intellectual property and will integrate its capabilities into the Athena Unified Cyber Operations Platform. This marks Athena Agentic’s second acquisition in under sixty days.

Omni Cyber Solutions earned its reputation building full security operations centers for some of the most demanding customers in the world, across the financial services, government, and enterprise sectors on multiple continents. That experience directly informs the practical design of the Agentic Platform.

The purchase positions Athena Agentic at the intersection of two forces reshaping cybersecurity: autonomous, machine-speed operations and the global demand for trusted, sovereign-ready security delivery. As adversary breakout times shrink to seconds and the average cost of a data breach surpasses $4.44 million, the ability to deploy, staff, train, and operate autonomous security operations anywhere in the world has become a board-level priority.

The Agentic Platform’s capabilities will be reimagined and integrated across the Athena Unified Cyber Operations Platform, enabling customers to move from fragmented tooling and manual staffing to unified, autonomous operations that can be deployed and scaled globally. Existing customers will continue to receive full product support and will gain access to enhanced capabilities as integration work progresses.

“Bringing our Agentic Platform to Athena Agentic opens a new chapter for the technology we built. We have always believed that world-class security operations should be within reach of every enterprise, not just the largest few. Now the platform has the home and the partners to reach global scale.”
— Brett Kelsey, Chief AI Officer, Athena Agentic

Terms of the asset purchase were not disclosed. The transaction is effective July 16, 2026.

About Athena Agentic

Athena Agentic pioneered the Unified Cyber Operations Platform (UCOP): the first platform to unify autonomous security operations, vulnerability management, AI governance, and GRC into a single intelligent ecosystem. Rather than forcing organizations to manage dozens of disconnected tools and siloed teams, UCOP breaks down operational barriers and enables every cyber function to operate as one coordinated system.

At Athena Agentic, we believe cybersecurity should be unified, autonomous, and always protecting. Our mission is simple: empower organizations to defend at machine speed while giving security leaders the visibility, intelligence, and confidence to focus on strategic decisions instead of operational noise.

Athena Agentic is the AI-native technology platform owned by Agentic Cyber AI, LLC.

SOURCE Athena Agentic

Strategic investors join as Diffraqtion caps its pre-seed with $10M total funding, following on-sky demonstrations, advancement under its DARPA program, and NASA awards in orbital debris tracking and orbital edge computing.

SOMERVILLE, Mass., Aug. 31, 2026 — Diffraqtion, an MIT and University of Maryland spinout building quantum camera platforms for defense and space sensing, today announced strategic investments from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Presidio Ventures, the venture arm of Sumitomo Corporation, bringing total funding to over $10M.

Following strong investor interest, Diffraqtion elected to cap its pre-seed, which also includes SBI US Gateway Fund with Plug and Play, Collaborative Fund, and TekVentures, with follow-on participation from existing investors Aether VC, milemark•capital, and ADIN.

The investment follows seven months of rapid progress since the round’s first close led by Ground State Ventures, announced in January 2026. The company completed on-sky demonstrations at a partner observatory, distinguishing closely spaced objects. Its DARPA Direct-to-Phase-II SBIR advanced into its second option period, and NASA has since selected Diffraqtion for an SBIR Phase I in orbital debris tracking and named the company winner of its $100,000 Space to Soil Challenge for adaptive sensing and onboard processing.

Diffraqtion’s quantum cameras resolve detail below the diffraction limit, the hard resolution floor that the aperture of a lens imposes on every conventional optical system. By sorting incoming light by its shape rather than its brightness, they measure information conventional cameras discard, reducing the aperture and compute needed to classify far-away objects. Company simulations indicate that the approach can resolve features up to 20 times smaller, and that onboard processing classifies targets orders of magnitude faster than conventional pipelines. The method is passive and draws on quantum estimation theory rather than quantum computing, without using qubits or cryogenics.

The new funding takes the technology into its first fielded camera, with flight heritage planned through a hosted payload on a partner spacecraft. To lead the effort, Diffraqtion has appointed Peter Kazlas as Head of Engineering. Kazlas brings 25 years of experience taking novel optics from lab bench to volume production, including at E Ink and QD Vision, acquired by Samsung.

“For as long as cameras have existed, seeing farther has meant building bigger optics,” said Johannes Galatsanos, CEO and Co-Founder of Diffraqtion. “Our cameras break that paradigm, delivering better mission capability at a fraction of the aperture, size, and cost. Now we’re building our first fielded camera and preparing for operational engagements in space domain awareness and reconnaissance.”

“What excites us about Diffraqtion is how they’re applying quantum-enabled imaging to extract more information from light and improve target detection and classification with smaller, more efficient sensing systems,” said Chris Moran, Vice President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. “We invest in technologies with the potential to shape future mission capabilities, and this team’s rapid progress from laboratory development toward flight demonstration is particularly promising.”

“What drew us to Diffraqtion is that the same physics advantage applies whether the camera is observing the sky or the earth, or guiding a physical system,” said Ross Leav, SVP at Presidio Ventures. “As the venture arm of Sumitomo Corporation, we see significant opportunity to bring this capability to industrial and commercial markets globally, and we’re excited to support the team as they move into deployment.”

About Diffraqtion

Diffraqtion builds quantum camera platforms that let machines resolve detail beyond the limits of conventional optics, pairing photonic hardware with a proprietary model layer that turns raw imagery into real-time intelligence. The company is developing the technology for space domain awareness and reconnaissance, with applications across drones, autonomy, and precision inspection. Diffraqtion is an MIT and University of Maryland spinout headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Media Contact: [email protected] | www.diffraqtion.com 

SOURCE Diffraqtion

Ben Nager joins as a Partner with Counsel Shelley Azizi and paralegal John ‘Jack’ McCann.

NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2026 — Norm Law LLP, an AI-native full-service law firm running on the Norm Ai platform, today announced the expansion of its Private Funds practice with the addition of Ben Nager, Shelley Azizi, and John ‘Jack’ McCann.

Nager joins Norm Law from Sidley Austin as a Partner to lead the firm’s Blue Sky filings and state securities regulatory capabilities within its Private Funds practice. He is joined by Counsel Shelley Azizi and paralegal Jack McCann, both former Sidley colleagues, bringing together an established team with deep experience managing state and federal securities filings for institutional investment funds.

“Ben, Shelley, and Jack bring an established practice grounded in detailed knowledge of securities requirements across all 50 states,” said Mike Schmidtberger, Chair of Norm Law and former Chair of the Executive Committee of Sidley Austin, “I worked with Ben and Shelley for many years and am glad to be reunited with them.”

Norm Ai has developed technology that incorporates jurisdiction-specific filing requirements, deadlines, fees, and other rules into a central workflow. The platform organizes fund and investor information, identifies upcoming obligations, flags missing or inconsistent data, and gives clients direct visibility into required actions and filing status. Norm Law attorneys remain responsible for reviewing the applicable rules, resolving legal questions, and completing filings with federal and state regulators.

“Norm Ai and Norm Law uniquely integrate world-class legal talent with the frontier of legal AI,” said John Nay, founder and CEO of Norm Ai. “Norm Ai embeds deep knowledge of the relevant laws and regulations into software that drives faster, more consistent outcomes for clients. This is exactly why we built an AI company and a full service law firm together.”

“Blue Sky work involves hundreds of jurisdiction-specific requirements, recurring deadlines, and large volumes of fund and investor data,” said Scott Worland, Chief Technology Officer at Norm Ai. “Our engineers built a platform that turns that complexity into a structured workflow. Clients submit information in one place, relevant obligations are surfaced automatically, and the legal team can focus on the exceptions and decisions that require judgment.”

Nager brings almost 30 years of experience advising investment banking and fund management clients on securities regulatory matters. He has coordinated Form D and state notice filings for hedge funds, commodity pools, and private equity funds and led large-scale, 50-state remediation projects involving registration and exemption issues. He has also helped obtain FINRA approval for hundreds of initial and secondary offerings by REITs, SPACs, banks, corporate issuers, commodity ETFs, and commodity pools.

Azizi joins Norm Law as Counsel, bringing 20 years of experience advising pooled investment funds, including hedge funds, private equity funds, REITs, and other private entities, on federal and state securities regulatory matters, with an emphasis on Regulation D offerings. McCann joins as a Paralegal, supporting the team’s Blue Sky and related securities filing work.

Clients representing more than $35 trillion in assets under management leverage Norm Ai. Norm Law uses the same technology to serve institutional clients as outside counsel. These additions expand Norm Law’s ability to support clients across private funds, securities regulation, technology transactions, intellectual property, M&A, and other high-stakes matters.

About Norm Ai

Norm Ai builds agentic law, embedding law into AI agents. Its systems help govern how AI operates in high-stakes, regulated environments across a client base representing more than $35 trillion in combined assets under management. Norm Ai also powers Norm Law, the first AI-native law firm built for institutional clients. Norm Ai has raised more than $260 million from Khosla Ventures, Craft Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Coatue, Blackstone, Vanguard, Citi, New York Life, TIAA, Henry R. Kravis, and Marc Benioff. For more information, visit norm.ai.

About Norm Law

Norm Law is the first AI-native full-service law firm. Norm Law’s model is designed to help its attorneys analyze those materials, identify issues, and move transactions forward efficiently while remaining focused on clients’ commercial objectives. It combines top-tier legal talent with AI agents powered by Norm Ai to deliver legal work with greater speed, consistency, and scale. For more information, visit normlaw.com.

Media Contact: [email protected] 

SOURCE Norm Law

SUZHOU, China, Aug. 31, 2026 — Convergen, a biotechnology company pioneering targeted protein degradation (TPD) therapies for diseases driven by pathological protein aggregates, today announced the closing of a $15 million Seed+ financing round. This round was led by MPCi, with participation from LAV, BioTrack Capital and a leading biotech fund. Prior to this round, the company raised $10 million in a seed financing round led exclusively by Qiming Venture Partners.

The proceeds will be used to further advance Convergen’s proprietary degrader platform and accelerate its pipeline for neurodegenerative disorders and other protein aggregation diseases.

“We are grateful to the distinguished group of investors and their confidence in our science, platform and team,” said Dr. Jinquan Sun, CEO of Convergen. “We have made significant progress in advancing our protein degradation platform. This financing will enable us to accelerate our lead asset toward the clinic while continuing to advance our pipeline, with the goal of bringing new therapeutic options to patients with neurodegenerative diseases and beyond.”

Addressing a Critical Unmet Need
Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s represent one of the largest unmet medical needs globally, with pathologic protein aggregation at the core. Convergen’s scientific founder Prof. Ting Han, whose laboratory reported the first TRIM21 molecular glue, established the proof-of-concept of the first TrimTAC degrader (November 2024 in Cell) which targets protein aggregopathies by exploiting TRIM21’s unique property. Beyond neurodegeneration, TrimTAC has demonstrated potential in selectively degrading other targets for autoimmune diseases.

MPCi said: 
“Convergen’s degrader platform is truly differentiated in the targeted protein degradation landscape. Matrix Partners China has long adhered to an investment philosophy of ‘investing early, investing in high barriers, and investing in differentiation,’ with a focus on the application potential of breakthrough technology platforms across disease areas. We are highly confident in the extensibility of Convergen’s original platform and in the team’s ability to translate scientific discovery into clinical drugs. We look forward to partnering with the company to advance novel therapeutic options to patients worldwide.”

About Convergen
Convergen is a biotechnology company pioneering the next-generation targeted protein degradation technology designed to selectively eliminate pathological protein aggregates. Founded to address the significant unmet medical needs in neurodegenerative disease and beyond, the company combines cutting-edge academic research with industry-proven drug development expertise.

SOURCE Convergen