Platform combines generative AI with anime aesthetics and K-pop entertainment systems to create autonomous virtual celebrities

SINGAPORE, Jan. 21, 2025 — Vivident, a startup developing AI-powered character IP technology, has secured $1.5 million in seed funding from global investors across South Korea, Japan, the United States, and Hong Kong. The round included participation from leading venture firms including Hashed, Mashup Ventures, TheVentures, Modhaus (Korea), Sfermion (US), as well as Japan’s largest CVC Z Venture Capital, Decima Fund, and Hong Kong-based CMCC Global’s Titan Fund.

The company is developing MoeLive, a platform that creates anime-style character IPs using generative AI technology and enables community interaction. MoeLive aims to deliver a new form of entertainment experience that combines Japanese animation culture with K-pop elements. The platform integrates various AI technologies to create autonomous AI characters and allows fan communities to actively participate in their growth and development. Vivident plans to launch a beta service in the first half of 2025, featuring direct chat interactions with characters.

The current virtual character industry faces limitations due to its dependency on human performers behind virtual avatars. To overcome these constraints and enable new business model innovation, Vivident is leveraging AI technology to create fully autonomous virtual characters. The company’s approach extends beyond basic chat interfaces, incorporating real-time livestreaming capabilities and multi-user participation systems to establish a new paradigm in AI celebrity entertainment.

“GD and his team have an impressive track record of building consumer products across web2 and blockchain technologies. What sets MoeLive apart isn’t just their innovative application of AI technology—it’s their deep understanding of fan culture. They are pioneering a new form of entertainment where communities come together to nurture and grow alongside their favorite characters. By blending Japan’s character-nurturing culture with the idol industry framework of Korea, MoeLive offers a truly unique and captivating approach,” said Jonathan Cheung, Principal at Titan Fund.

“Through MoeLive, we aim to create a new form of IP where technology, content, and community converge,” Kim added. “Our goal isn’t simply to create AI characters, but to develop character IPs that grow and evolve together with their fans.”

With this seed funding, Vivident will focus on developing its first service, MoeLive. The company plans to launch its beta service in the first half of 2025, targeting a simultaneous release in South Korea, Japan, and the United States by the end of the year.

Key Features of MoeLive:

• Advanced AI Character Creation: Generates unique anime-style characters with distinct personalities using generative AI
• Interactive Growth System: Enables fans to participate in character development through various activities and voting
• Community-Driven Experience: Allows multiple users to collectively nurture and interact with characters
• Multi-Platform Integration: Features real-time chat, live streaming, and social media interactions
• Autonomous Performance: Delivers authentic entertainment experiences through fully AI-powered virtual characters

About Vivident

https://www.vivident.xyz

Vivident is building an alternate reality platform that extends social simulation experiences with virtual characters into the real world using generative AI technology. Its platform, MoeLive, enables fans to not only chat with AI characters but also participate in their activities and growth, and even create and operate their own AI characters. Founded in May 2024, the company’s founding team brings extensive experience from leading gaming and entertainment technology companies including Krafton, Hyperconnect, Neosapience, Supertone, and UNOPND.

Leadership Profile

GD Kim is the Founder and CEO of Vivident, bringing extensive experience in tech, gaming, and web3 industries to lead the company’s vision of creating next-generation virtual entertainment.

Kim began his career at Bain & Company after receiving his B.A. in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University. As a consultant at Bain & Company, he specialized in tech, content, and due diligence projects, building a strong foundation in business strategy and analysis.

His journey in the gaming industry started at NPIXEL, where he served as CEO Staff and led the launch marketing for Gran Saga. The game achieved over 5 million pre-registrations and won the YouTube Works Awards Grand Prix – marking the first such achievement for both South Korea and the gaming industry. He then joined Krafton as Corporate Development Manager, where he executed investments in global game studios and gaming ecosystem companies.

Most recently, Kim spent over two years as the Chief Operating Officer at UNOPND, Hashed’s venture studio. During his tenure, he spearheaded the incubation of several successful web3-integrated content projects, including Modhaus’s tripleS and Ndus Interactive’s Xociety. His comprehensive role involved supporting founders from company establishment through fundraising, product development strategies, and overall corporate management.

Media Contact
GD Kim
CEO, Vivident
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Telegram: @gd_kim

SOURCE Vivident

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2025 — Firmament, a leading provider of structured equity capital solutions to small- and medium-sized enterprises, announced today its strategic investment in BP Environmental Services (“BP” or the “Company”), one of North America’s premier commercial waste and jobsite services companies. This transaction represents Firmament’s ninth platform investment in the environmental services sector since its inception.

Founded in 1998, BP Environmental has grown into a leading provider of solid and liquid waste collection services, catering to more than 2,500 customers across its extensive footprint. The Company has built a robust national network of hauling and equipment rental vendors, delivering reliable, efficient, and high-quality service to its clients.

BP partnered with Expedition Capital Partners (“ECP”) in 2021, driving growth through strategic acquisitions and operational enhancements. In 2025, ECP and Firmament joined forces to recapitalize BP, fueling the Company’s next phase of growth and innovation.

“This partnership marks an exciting milestone for BP as we continue to scale our operations and enhance our service offerings,” said Tom France, CEO of BP Environmental. “Firmament’s expertise in the environmental services sector, combined with ECP’s continued support, positions us to deliver even greater value to our customers while expanding our footprint across North America.”

Michael Hendrie, Managing Partner at Expedition Capital Partners, added: “BP Environmental has achieved remarkable growth over the past few years, and we’re thrilled to welcome Firmament as a partner in this next chapter. Together, we are well-equipped to drive continued success and capitalize on new opportunities in the waste management space.”

Brian Peters, Principal at Firmament, emphasized the firm’s excitement about the collaboration: “BP Environmental Services has established itself as a leader in the managed waste industry, with an impressive track record of innovation and customer-centric service. We are proud to partner with the BP team and ECP to support the Company’s growth strategy and deliver sustainable, high-quality solutions to its clients.”

About BP Environmental Services
BP Environmental Services (https://workwithbp.com) is a leading managed waste services company serving commercial customers across North America. With a focus on reliability, efficiency, and innovation, BP is dedicated to providing tailored waste management solutions that meet the evolving needs of its clients.

About Firmament
Firmament (www.firmament.com) provides control equity, minority equity and growth debt capital to lower-middle market businesses primarily in three core industry verticals: Technology, Healthcare and the Environment. Within these verticals, we make investments in service, software and specialty-manufacturing companies with significant scaling potential. We seek to be a value-added partner to entrepreneurs, management teams, and business owners, and curate solutions by deploying versatile capital in a user-friendly way. With offices across the United States, Firmament is focused on turning small business into big business.

About Expedition Capital Partners
Expedition Capital Partners (ECP) (https://www.expedition-partners.com) is a private equity firm specializing in investments in the lower middle market. ECP partners with businesses in fragmented industries, focusing on growth through strategic acquisitions, operational improvements, and leadership development.

Media Contact
Isabella Schepel
[email protected]

SOURCE Firmament

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 21, 2025 — NovoLINC, a thermal technology startup spun out of Carnegie Mellon University, announced seed funding led by M Ventures, with participation from Foothill Ventures and TDK Ventures. NovoLINC’s breakthrough nanocomposite thermal solutions reduce thermal resistance to an industry-record low (< 1mm²-K/W), according to company co-founders, CSO Prof. Sheng Shen and CTO Dr. Rui Cheng. In addition, the founders of NovoLINC have received grant funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for Innovation and ARPA-E’s COOLERCHIPS Programs.

The ever-increasing performance and power requirements of electronic chipsets directly result in enormous heat generation. Over the last decade, NVIDIA GPUs have seen power consumption grow from approximately 250W to 1,200W for flagship models. Similarly, power consumption for CPUs from Intel and AMD has nearly tripled between 2019 and 2024. However, advancements in thermal interface solutions have not kept pace, making them one of the primary bottlenecks in achieving efficient cooling and effective heat dissipation, especially as AI datacenters transition to liquid cooling. NovoLINC’s technology directly addresses these challenges by providing its products to semiconductor companies and hyperscalers.

Prof. Shen and Dr. Cheng commented: “With its unique nanostructured composite design, the NovoLINC technology offers outstanding thermal performance and reliability for cooling high-power electronics, such as CPUs and GPUs, making it particularly valuable for the rapidly growing data center industry.”

“Our team is collaborating closely with industrial partners to accelerate the manufacturing scaleup and the commercialization of our technology to meet the surging needs of high-power computing and sustainable AI data center operations,” added company co-founder and CEO, Dr. Ning Li.

Tobias Egle, M Ventures’ associate commented: “Efficient thermal interface solutions have become a crucial aspect of data center infrastructure due to the increasing power in packages, shrinking features, and heterogeneous integration of chips. We are delighted to welcome the NovoLINC team to our semiconductor portfolio.”

Eric Rosenblum, Foothill Ventures’ Managing Partner, added: “There is a current goldrush in the tech community around AI applications, supported by ever more powerful chips and faster connections. However, there is an increasing realization that this boom is capped by energy consumption and heat dissipation. NovoLINC addresses both head-on, and we are thrilled to back them as they start this journey.”

“Cooling contributes to 40% of data center’s energy consumption. NovoLINC’s thermal interface solutions offer the industry’s lowest thermal resistance, and scalable solutions to keep up with the ever-increasing power and heat generated by the next-generation computing chips. We are excited to partner with NovoLINC to make chip cooling more efficient,” remarked Tina Tosukhowong, TDK Ventures’ Investment Director.

About NovoLINC

NovoLINC is a pioneering startup in advanced thermal interface solutions, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. NovoLINC has developed a unique nanostructured materials system and proprietary manufacturing process to revolutionize thermal management for high-performance computing, data centers, automobile, aerospace and power electronics. With a team of industry experts and partnerships with leading technology companies, NovoLINC aims to enable sustainable scaling of semiconductor and data-center industries. Interested partners may contact the company via [email protected].

About M Ventures

M Ventures is the strategic, corporate venture capital fund of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, investing in Biotechnology and Technology. M Ventures covers the areas of Healthcare drug development, Life Science tools, Electronics and Frontier Technology & Sustainability. We invest – with dual strategic and financial foci – into visionary companies that find new ways to: treat the most challenging diseases, empower scientists with cutting-edge research and development tools, develop new solutions that change the way in which information is accessed, stored, processed, and displayed and address some of the most complex challenges in sustainability and technology convergence. For more information, visit www.m-ventures.com.

About Foothill Ventures

Foothill Ventures is a $250M AUM American venture capital firm, based in Los Altos, California. Foothill Ventures is among North America’s most active seed investors in semiconductors, and has backed companies such as d-Matrix, HyperLight, Tetramem, Metalenz, Aviva Links, Quintessent and others. For more information, visit www.foothill.ventures.

About TDK Ventures

TDK Ventures was established in 2019 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of TDK Corporation, the corporate venture company’s vision is to propel the digital and energy transformations of segments such as robotics and industrial, next-generation transportation, mixed reality and the wider IoT/IIoT markets. For more information, visit www.tdk-ventures.com.

SOURCE NovoLINC, Inc.

Round led by Ansa Capital underscores industry need for an end-to-end carbon accounting platform that engages overlooked industries and drives business impact

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 21, 2025 — Gravity, the leading enterprise carbon accounting and energy management platform, today announced a $13M Series A funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to over $20M. The round was led by Ansa Capital, with participation from existing investors Eclipse, Hanover, and Caffeinated Capital, along with new investors Communitas Capital, Buoyant Ventures, and WEX Venture Capital. As part of the round, Marco DeMeireles, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ansa Capital, will join Gravity’s board of directors.

Amidst a surge in carbon reporting requirements, sustainability teams are drowning in disclosure obligations, with little business impact to show for their efforts. With the majority of their time and resources spent on reporting and stakeholder engagement, there is little focus on action, which leads to companies leaving an estimated $2T on the table in energy efficiency savings alone. Gravity addresses this challenge head-on by delivering a carbon management solution that automates data collection and reporting, while empowering companies, even those in critical hard-to-abate industries, to reduce their energy consumption and costs.

“Too often, sustainable disclosure is a manual, time-consuming chore that’s detached from evergreen business priorities. Ultimately, behind every ton of emissions is a cost – whether it’s energy spend, logistics investments, or purchased goods and services,” says Saleh ElHattab, CEO and Co-Founder of Gravity. “Gravity taps into the fact that these cost centers are already well-tracked and can be measured automatically, while connecting the task of reporting back to every company’s core financial priorities of cost and risk mitigation. Reporting should be easy and connected to business value.”

Unlike other platforms that require manual data entry, Gravity automates data collection and calculates audit-ready sustainability reports, offering a frictionless experience that has convinced over 60% of Gravity’s customers to switch from other providers. Gravity’s industry-leading data collection capabilities seamlessly integrate with each customer’s existing energy tracking, supplier engagement, ESG measurement, and reporting modules, dramatically lowering their compliance burden and time spent on disclosure. One customer reported that Gravity’s AI-powered bill scanning saved them an estimated 4,600 hours — or 578 days of work — annually.

Gravity’s platform also turns the act of reporting into one of value creation. Through energy audits, financing partnerships, and a marketplace of trusted vendors, Gravity is a one-stop shop for companies to execute projects that improve balance sheets by enhancing energy efficiency and unlocking new electrification and energy storage opportunities. One Gravity project – an HVAC optimization for a Midwestern utility – saved the customer over $2M annually. Another project, for a vertically integrated developer in Nevada, secured over $1M in federal incentives for construction improvements that were both sustainable and modernizing.

“Gravity is the first platform we’ve seen successfully leverage LLMs to automate emissions reporting for large-scale organizations and turn carbon accounting into a value driver by identifying and executing cost-saving opportunities through their marketplace,” said Marco DeMeireles, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Ansa Capital. “With a founding team that combines deep industrial expertise with world-class climate strategy and engineering excellence, we believe Gravity will be instrumental in helping the largest emitters move beyond emissions calculation to actively managing their energy costs through pragmatic, high-ROI actions on one convenient platform.”

The solution has struck a chord with the market, driving 400% year-over-year revenue growth. Gravity works with Fortune 500 companies, global enterprises, and leading private equity firms, including WM, Autodesk, and MiddleGround Capital. It is also supporting the companies that make up their supply chains and portfolios, including construction firms like McCarthy Holdings, Inc.; distributors like TTI, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway Company; and metals suppliers like Wisconsin Aluminum Factory.

“We chose Gravity because it was the only solution that truly automated the data ingestion process and empowered us to go beyond reporting to reduce costs and increase business resilience,” explains Sachin Shivaram, CEO of Wisconsin Aluminum Factory. “Thanks to Gravity, we are executing energy projects that deliver over $400,000 in annual savings, more than paying for itself. The team consistently goes above and beyond to anticipate our business needs, shepherding us through a journey that would have otherwise been very difficult.”

Gravity plans to invest the Series A funds in product research and development as the company expands its carbon management solution and customer experience. In particular, Gravity will double down on its energy efficiency marketplace, making it easier for customers to identify and implement energy efficiency projects and introducing new decarbonization and financing partners. The company will also expand its team in the US and EU to deliver the platform to new markets and empower customers to meet new regulatory reporting requirements.

To learn about Gravity’s solution and see the platform, visit their website here.

About Gravity
Gravity is an end-to-end carbon accounting and energy management solution that aligns sustainability and business impact. Built for energy-intense operations and companies with complex supply chains, Gravity empowers the world’s makers and leading institutions to easily comply with emissions reporting requirements, win over customers, and reduce costs by optimizing energy use. With industry-leading technology, Gravity ensures customers can navigate the changing regulatory environment with confidence and execute projects that drive meaningful energy reductions, while protecting – and enhancing – their bottom line. Learn more and arrange a demo at www.gravityclimate.com.

About Ansa Capital
Ansa Capital makes high-conviction, thesis-driven investments in technology companies scaling from early venture to early growth. Backed by leading institutions, including Princeton and Accolade Partners, we focus on investing in new markets, innovative distribution models, and modern software tools—serving as the hub for tomorrow’s leading companies, operators, and ideas. We leverage our prior experience as partners to companies like CrowdStrike, Coinbase, Zscaler, and Peloton to support our operators’ evolution into category definers. Our commitment extends beyond capital: our team and network of advisors aid founders in operational scaling, while our Revenue Council of experienced go-to-market leaders provides indispensable tools and resources to accelerate the path to market leadership. Our ambition is to be your most aligned and impactful partner. Learn more at www.ansa.co

SOURCE Gravity

$20 million round enables communications leader to scale its footprint, addressing essential governance needs in the financial sector and beyond

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2025 — LeapXpert, the responsible business communication pioneer, today announced it has secured $20 million in Series B funding. The funding round was led by Portage, with participation from existing investors, including Rockefeller Asset Management, Uncorrelated Ventures, and the Partnership Fund for New York City.

LeapXpert continues to see strong and growing demand for its communication platform among hundreds of leading financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, and enterprises worldwide. The company is on track for profitability this year.

“We are excited to lead this Series B investment round in LeapXpert,” said Ricky Lai, Partner at Portage Ventures, who joined the company’s Board of Directors. “We believe that LeapXpert’s innovative platform addresses a critical need of the modern workplace for governed communications across messaging channels. With exceptional leadership and a proven track record, we believe the company is well positioned as a market leader. We look forward to supporting their continued transformation of business communication and driving global expansion.”

The LeapXpert Communications Platform redefines how businesses communicate, enabling relationship owners to engage clients on their preferred platforms while ensuring governance, compliance, and security. This award-winning, cloud-based solution facilitates seamless and governed communication across modern channels without compromising on enterprise control, data retention, security needs, or regulatory requirements. The platform integrates seamlessly with popular messaging channels including iMessage, WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram, WeChat, Signal, and LINE on the client side, alongside enterprise platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, Salesforce, and dozens more on the corporate end, bridging the gap between consumer-first and enterprise-grade systems.

“This latest funding round fuels our growth trajectory as we scale to meet the surging demand for our solutions,” said Dima Gutzeit, Founder and CEO of LeapXpert. “We’ve solidified our position as the industry’s trusted partner and de facto standard for enterprise-grade governance and compliance across modern communication channels. With this investment, we’ll expand our reach, accelerate product innovation, and empower businesses to optimize the ways they communicate and unlock the full potential of their relationship and communication data.”

“We’re on a mission to bring the benefits of governed modern communications to businesses around the globe,” said Avi Pardo, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at LeapXpert. “Beyond the pressing need in financial services, we now see growing interest in many additional vertical markets. We are committed to accelerating our global expansion, boosting our sales efforts, enhancing our marketing initiatives, and strengthening partnerships across key regions. “At the same time, we’re strengthening our customer success framework to empower our growing customer base to fully harness the potential of our platform, further cementing LeapXpert’s leadership in responsible business communications.”

Previously named a Gartner Cool Vendor, LeapXpert was recognized as a Visionary in Gartner’s new Magic Quadrant for Digital Communications Governance and Archiving (DCGA) published earlier this month. The company also ranked #14 in New York City and #113 overall on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list of America’s fastest-growing tech companies for 2024. Additional recent accomplishments included being named Microsoft Partner of the Year three years in a row and winning the Best Unified Communications Platform<$250M for 2024.

About LeapXpert

LeapXpert, the responsible business communication pioneer, provides enterprises with peace of mind through governed, compliant, and secure communication solutions. The LeapXpert Communications Platform enables governed and efficient communication between employees and clients through consumer messaging channels, while boosting productivity and decision-making with Communication Intelligence. The company is headquartered in New York, with offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Asia. Hundreds of enterprise customers, with hundreds of thousands of users in more than 45 countries, depend on LeapXpert daily for Digital Communications Governance & Archiving (DCGA) solutions. For more information, visit www.leapxpert.com.

About Portage

Portage is a global investment platform focused on FinTech and Financial Services with over US $2.5 Billion assets under management.

Our team partners with ambitious companies across all stages, through Portage Ventures and Portage Capital Solutions. We provide flexible capital and deliver a global network of investors, commercial partners, advisors, and value creation experts. With deep industry knowledge and entrepreneurial experience, Portage is committed to supporting the leaders who are reshaping financial services. Portage operates in the United States, Canada and Europe. Portage is a platform within Sagard, a global multi-strategy alternative asset management firm with over $27B under management. For more information, visit www.portageinvest.com.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1770411/LeapXpert_Logo.jpg

SOURCE LeapXpert

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 17, 2025 — Infinity Real Estate Partners has received an $18.75 million investment from American South Capital Partners (“ASCP”), a joint venture of SDS Capital Group and Vintage Realty Company, for the acquisition and renovation of a 1,068-unit affordable housing portfolio with assets located in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The portfolio consists of seven communities built between 1968 and 1973 ranging in size from 81 to 200 units, 95% of which are governed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Assistance Program.

• Boulder Creek, Greenville, SC
• Crescent Hill Apartments, Spartanburg, SC
• Roosevelt Gardens, Orangeburg, SC
• Spring Grove Apartments, Taylors, SC
• Cedar Moor Apartments, Raleigh, NC
• Timber Ridge, Charlotte, NC
• Brentwood Crossing, High Point, NC

Approximately 25% of renters in each of these markets are severely rent burdened having to pay as much as 50% of their income on rent, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

“Infinity Real Estate Management is thrilled to announce the acquisition of an affordable housing portfolio, marking a significant step in our commitment to preserving housing affordability for the next 20 years,” said Infinity Real Estate Chief Investment Officer Gregory B. Jones. “This achievement would not have been possible without the invaluable support of our equity partner, American South Capital Partners. Together, we are ensuring that these homes remain accessible to families and individuals who need them most, reinforcing our shared mission to strengthen communities through sustainable and equitable housing solutions. Infinity and its partners are proud to play a role in creating long-term stability and opportunity, and we look forward to continuing this journey with partners who share our vision for a brighter future.”

Infinity will use a portion of the investment to fund interior and exterior improvements across the portfolio including new appliances, cabinets and flooring. So as not to displace tenants, Infinity will complete the renovations while units are occupied. In addition to new security systems, Infinity also will address deferred maintenance repairing or replacing roofs, air conditioning and plumbing as needed.

“Infinity has extensive experience with this asset type and with their programmatic approach to unit renovations, they will bring much needed quality affordable housing to their respective markets,” added David Alexander ASCP Managing Partner and CEO of Vintage Realty Company.

Upon completion, 100% of the units will be affordable to individuals and families earning 60% or less of the area median income (“AMI”), qualifying the investment for 100 percent of Community Reinvestment Act Credit. Additionally, through its non-profit partner Mercy Housing, each property will have a dedicated community coordinator that works with local organizations to provide supplemental services like after school care, financial literacy, and resume services for tenants.

ASCP invests in affordable housing real estate projects located in 10 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas). ASCP funds have collectively committed more than $176 million to 26 projects, financing more than 7,025 housing units – 82% of them affordable to families at less than 80% of the AMI.

“Maintaining this housing as affordable – as well as improving the quality of the housing – was critical to ASCP as an investor. This investment is making a tangible impact on the lives of the families living here. We’ve been true to our mission. We hope this new partnership with Infinity only continues to grow and impact more families across the South,” said Deborah La Franchi, ASCP Managing Partner and SDS Capital Group CEO.

About American South Capital Partners
American South Capital Partners manages a family of real estate impact funds focused on investing in transformative projects in 10 states across the Southern U.S. American South Capital Partners, is a joint venture between Los Angeles-based impact fund manager SDS Capital Group (www.sds.capital) and Vintage Realty Company, a Shreveport, Louisiana-based property developer/manager (www.vintagerealty.com).

Infinity Capital Partners, LLC
Infinity is an independent, privately owned alternative investment manager based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 2002, Infinity’s investors include high net worth individuals, family offices, wealth management firms, and institutional investors. Infinity has expanded its capabilities considerably over the past 20 years to now include not only its core fund of hedge funds business, but to additionally offer a broad suite of alternative investment offerings. These include dedicated teams focused on private real estate funds and private credit strategies, as well as the ability to offer clients custom hedge fund portfolios and unique access to special situation investments within the alternative investment space.

Media Contact:

Bruce Beck/DB&R Marketing Communications, Inc.
[email protected]
(818) 540-8077

SOURCE American South Capital Partners

NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2025 — Leap, the leading platform for physical retail, announced a $20 million financing as it demonstrates profitability. Tribeca Venture Partners and DNX Ventures, along with existing investors, participated in the fundraise. The funding will be used to expand Leap’s network of stores, enhance its retail operations and enable further investment into its platform technology and data analytics capabilities. Leap currently operates more than 100 stores in 12 Tier One U.S. markets for leading brands like Grown Brilliance, Ring Concierge, Godiva and Malbon Golf.

Leap is also pleased to announce the appointment of Karen Katz, former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Neiman Marcus Group, to its board of directors. Karen spent 33 years at the Neiman Marcus Group, including eight years as CEO. During her tenure, she grew the company’s digital presence and helped launch its omnichannel strategy, while also leading the acquisition of German e-tailer MyTheresa. Karen currently serves as Chairperson of the Board of The RealReal and has been a Board Member of Under Armour for more than 10 years, among other board positions.

“Brands continue to see the value in brick-and-mortar, as they strive to meet their customers with immersive shopping experiences in the markets where they already have a strong following and can build loyalty with newly acquired customers,” said Amish Tolia, co-founder and CEO at Leap. “Leap’s first-party data, economies of scale and shopper marketing file are significant benefits to modern brands that need the support to accelerate their omnichannel pursuits. Leap continues to enable brands to focus on what they do best – creating and marketing great products and serving their customer base while leveraging a data-driven platform to power their retail channel.”

Tolia continued, “This capital infusion will enable us to accelerate our growth and enhance our operations and technology as we continue to onboard premium brands and strengthen our fleet across markets. And we’re thrilled to welcome Karen to our board of directors, whose deep luxury and retail experience will undoubtedly help propel us further towards our vision and support the growth of our platform and our brands.”

About Leap
Leap is building the world’s largest network of branded retail stores – powered by data, technology, and scale. Leap’s platform enables brands to deploy stores that work in concert with ecommerce more rapidly at reduced cost and risk. Brand stores powered by Leap bring modern brands to life with compelling, immersive customer experience and operations driven and informed by millions of data points.

Learn more about Leap’s platform, and brand stores powered by Leap, at http://leapinc.com.

Contact:
Scott Cianciulli
[email protected]

SOURCE Leap

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 16, 2025 — Adversarial actors are rapidly leveraging AI to launder funds, obscure payments, and commit financial crimes with growing sophistication. Financial institutions must catch up, adopting AI solutions with proven track records, robust controls, and rapid deployment. The right approach unifies accuracy, speed, and scale to combat these evolving threats.

Today, Quantifind, the leader in AI-powered financial crime intelligence, announced raising $22 million in funding from Deloitte Ventures and Stephens Group as well as existing investors, Citi Ventures, S&P Global, DNS Capital, and USVP, after growing by 200% in 2024. This investment accelerates the global expansion of Quantifind’s AI solutions delivered through its flagship platform, Graphyte, and powers the launch of Quantifind’s Payments Risk Intelligence solution. Quantifind’s advanced transaction screening for payments enables financial institutions to proactively detect and mitigate financial crime and sanctions risks while allowing the uninterrupted flow of legitimate payments.

Outdated systems rely on rigid rules and static scenarios that often fail to detect sophisticated financial crimes, and legacy sanction screening relies on simple fuzzy matching, generating excessive false positives. These inefficiencies drain resources, create operational bottlenecks, and allow critical threats to go unnoticed. Most systems lack contextual analysis of counterparty relationships, assessing transactions in isolation and missing key risk patterns. These inefficient screening and detection solutions impact revenue as good customers and valid transactions are either turned away or delayed.

Scalability limitations further compound the challenges. Traditional solutions struggle to handle increasing payment volumes, leading to performance bottlenecks, rising costs, and operational inflexibility—leaving institutions ill-prepared for today’s fast-paced payment environments.

“AI has become the weapon of choice for fraudulent and criminal actors within the financial services ecosystem,” said Ryan Morrow, Managing Director at Stephens Group, “Our investment in Quantifind reflects our belief that Quantifind’s AI Graphyte technology tips the balance back in favor of bank compliance and law enforcement.”

“Quantifind’s AI technology continues to redefine how financial institutions address the ever-evolving challenges of financial crime,” said Vibhor Rastogi, Head of AI Investments at Citi Ventures. “By delivering unprecedented speed, accuracy, and scale, Quantifind empowers organizations to operate with confidence and precision in an industry that demands constant vigilance.”

Quantifind Graphyte Platform:  Comprehensive AI Innovation

Quantifind’s Payments Risk Intelligence solution combines speed, scale, and accuracy and includes cutting-edge technological advancements to address the dynamic and high-stakes nature of transaction and name screening:

• Name Science for AI Accuracy: Leveraging the latest GPU-based AI transformer models, Graphyte extracts, matches, and alerts on the correct entity by maximizing signals from metadata and hidden features. Other solutions create arbitrary distinctions between name matching and entity resolution and suffer high false positive rates.
• Precise Language Models: Hidden relationships and dynamic risk typologies require the accuracy of large language models with the speed of real-time machine learning. Open-source solutions cannot offer the simultaneous speed and accuracy of Graphyte – and anything less cannot meet the bandwidth demands of payment screening.
• AI Model Implementations for Enterprise Scale: Graphyte separates feature discovery from runtime decisions. At Tier-1 banks, Graphyte has proven the ability to screen tens of millions of entities in hours, with sub-100-ms API response times.
• Real-Time Data Engine for Fast AI: Quantifind’s proprietary Real-Time Cluster (RTC) is a purpose-built, distributed query and storage engine optimized for speed and scale. Leveraging patented in-memory data management techniques and advanced name science, RTC enables rapid extraction of critical signals from terabytes of unstructured data, searching billions of documents in real-time with unparalleled efficiency—delivering insights at the speed modern compliance demands.
• Built-in AI Controls and Oversight: From monitoring against AI bias to detecting model drift, Graphyte’s machine learning operations (ML-Ops) are category-defining and provide transparency across the model process. Real-time monitoring and audit reporting keep managers informed and compliant.

“Graphyte for payments transaction monitoring and screening represents the culmination of our commitment to delivering unmatched speed, accuracy, and scalability,” said Ari Tuchman, CEO and co-founder of Quantifind. “By enhancing our Payments Risk Intelligence solution with real-time transaction screening, we empower institutions to meet modern compliance demands while staying ahead of sophisticated adversaries.”

“Quantifind’s recent $22 million funding round reinforces the market need for true AI-native solutions in financial crime intelligence.” Jay Crone, Managing Director of Deloitte Ventures remarked: “Throughout our due diligence, Quantifind’s products stood out for their ability to leverage AI to deliver material efficiency improvements to their clients’ highly resource-intensive screening processes.”

About Quantifind

Quantifind is the leader in financial crime intelligence automation, providing purpose-built AI solutions that transform how organizations detect and mitigate risk. The Graphyte™ platform serves as an essential AI co-pilot, delivering real-time, accurate risk assessments by integrating internal data with complex, unstructured public information to uncover hidden threats and reduce false positives with unprecedented accuracy, speed, and scale. This empowers customers to collaborate with trusted entities, focus on critical risks, and strengthen compliance with greater confidence and precision.

For more information about Quantifind’s innovative solutions, visit www.quantifind.ai

Media Contact
Annalisa Camarillo
EVP of Marketing
Quantifind
Email: [email protected] 

SOURCE Quantifind

NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 2025 — Good Springs Capital LP (“Good Springs”), a private investment firm focused on partnering with founders, families, and entrepreneurial management teams in the industrial and services sectors, today announced the successful final close of its inaugural fund, Good Springs Capital Fund I (“Fund I”). Fund I closed with total committed capital of $570 million, bringing Good Springs’ assets under management to approximately $611 million. Fund I is anchored by the Chickasaw Nation and includes a diverse group of investors.

Good Springs Capital is led by Managing Partners David Van Geyzel and Udi Toledano, the former President & CEO and Chairman, respectively, of Alleghany Capital Corporation, the private investment arm of Alleghany Corporation, which was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2022. The founding team at Good Springs Capital also includes Partners Rob Hulick and Rich Albano, and Vice President Oren Bentley – key leaders in building Alleghany Capital Corporation into a $5 billion business.

David Van Geyzel stated, “We established Good Springs Capital to expand upon our team’s successful history partnering with talented middle-market entrepreneurs in the industrial and services sectors. Our senior team has worked together for more than a decade and we are pleased to have surpassed $600 million in assets under management within 18 months since launch. We are grateful to our anchor investor, the Chickasaw Nation, and to our other investors for their trust and support in providing us the opportunity to continue to implement our investment strategy and value creation model.”

Udi Toledano added, “2024 was a milestone year for Good Springs. In addition to closing our inaugural fund, we completed our first two platform investments. In June we closed our investment in family-held Kimbel Mechanical Systems and in October we invested in founder-owned Tectonic Engineering Consultants, Geologists & Land Surveyors.”

Kimbel is a leading mechanical contractor offering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical installation services to the nation’s leading homebuilders and Tectonic is a leading multi-disciplined engineering firm focused on the transportation, telecommunications, energy, and water infrastructure end markets.

“We are excited about the growth potential of our first two portfolio companies and the partnerships we have built with their management teams,” said Rob Hulick. “We believe that Good Springs is well-positioned to deploy additional capital in new platforms and add-ons in our target sectors in the years ahead.”

About Good Springs Capital

Good Springs, based in New York, NY, is a private investment firm focused on making control investments in middle-market companies run by founders, families, and entrepreneurial management teams in the industrial and services sectors. Good Springs is honored to have the Chickasaw Nation as a strategic partner. Good Springs approaches opportunities with a long-term mindset and strives to build strong partnerships with talented management teams. It supports successful companies in pursuing their next chapter of growth through the implementation of the Good Springs Growth System. For additional information about Good Springs, please visit www.goodspringscap.com.

Media Contact:
Kristina Mayne
[email protected] 

SOURCE Good Springs Capital LP