Investment brings Pictor’s total capital raised to approximately $30 million, supporting expanded U.S. and international commercialization efforts
CARLSBAD, Calif., June 30, 2026 — Pictor Holdings Inc., a global targeted proteomic platform company headquartered in Carlsbad, California, today announced the closing of a $7.5 million bridge round of growth capital. The financing was supported by existing investors and will be used to expand commercial partnerships, scale platform development and manufacturing capabilities, and support translational studies across key human and animal health markets.
The bridge round brings Pictor’s total capital raised to approximately $30 million. The investment builds on the company’s commercial momentum following a strong first year at its U.S. headquarters, Pictor has launched seven commercial products, secured four strategic partnerships, and expanded its leadership team with the appointments of Terry Kelly, PhD, as Chief Operating Officer and Tim Shannon as Chief Financial Officer.
“Proteomic assays should not be limited to the largest, most specialized settings. Pictor’s platform is designed to make protein insights more accessible, practical, and economical, so more partners can use them to improve health and wellness across people and animals. By helping labs generate more information from a single sample with fewer consumables, we also see an opportunity to support One Health and sustainability goals as adoption scales.” — Jamie Platt, PhD, CEO and Co-founder, Pictor Holdings Inc.
Proceeds from the bridge round will support the scaling of platform development and manufacturing capabilities, continued expansion of the company’s partner network, and advancement of large-scale translational studies across priority markets. Pictor expects to enter licensing stages with multiple partners within the next 12 to 18 months.
Pictor is evaluating a U.S.-based Series A financing to support the next phase of growth, with plans to further expand commercial operations, platform development, and strategic partnerships. The bridge round strengthens the company’s commercial position as it advances toward that milestone.
“The continued support of our existing investors reflects confidence in both the platform and the commercial model we’ve built around it. This capital positions Pictor to accelerate partnerships and scale operations as we advance toward our Series A.” — Tim Shannon, CPA, Chief Financial Officer, Pictor Holdings Inc.
Pictor Holdings Inc. is a global targeted proteomic platform company headquartered in Carlsbad, California, with laboratory and commercial operations in New Zealand, Australia, and India. The company develops multi-analyte proteomic assay solutions for human and animal health research environments, enabling laboratories and biopharma partners to run more analytes, faster, at lower cost. Pictor’s IP portfolio includes 16 patents, five pending, and seven registered trademarks. For more information, visit www.pictorproteomics.com.
Omen AI’s spectroscopic sensors are already deployed across data center customers managing 10–14 GW of capacity and industrial fleets generating over $150B in revenue
SAN FRANCISCO, June 30, 2026 — Omen AI, the continuous fluid analysis company, today announced a $31 million Series A led by Nava Ventures, bringing the company’s total funding to $41.5 million. The new round includes participation from CRV, Sheryl Sandberg, Mike Mattacola, Vanderbilt University, LMNT Ventures, Mann+Hummel, Borusan Ventures, Starhill Holdings, Hard Launch Capital, and executives from Bridgestone, GM, Johnson Controls, and TensorWave.
Omen AI uses fluid analysis to read the health of equipment such as servers in data centers and industrial machines, so companies know what’s failing before it fails, without waiting on quarterly lab tests. The company’s sensors attach directly to a machine’s fluid system (oil, coolant, or water) and deliver continuous, real-time analysis of metal content, bio-contaminants, wear patterns, and fluid degradation. For data center and industrial machine operators, every second counts. ITIC’s 2024 Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey found that over 90% of midsize and large enterprises report a single hour of unplanned downtime costs more than $300,000.
“At TensorWave, we are building among the most advanced AI compute clusters in the world,” said Piotr Tomasik, Co-Founder and President at TensorWave. “The fluid running through these massive systems is a critical variable that most of the industry is flying blind on. Omen is changing the game. They see the future of infrastructure exactly the way we do, better monitoring to optimally support compute customers. Excited to support their vision!”
“I started working with heavy equipment manufacturers as a teenager and watched machines fail because of the antiquated methods the industry uses for monitoring fluid health. Taking a sample, shipping it to a lab, and waiting days for results is dangerously inadequate when you’re protecting billions in GPU infrastructure and operating industrial machines,” said Zach Laberge, Founder and CEO of Omen AI. “Omen AI was built to prevent catastrophic failure. We help data centers push their hardware to the absolute limit, unlocking compute performance operators didn’t know they had, and enabling industrial machine operators to prevent costly failure.”
How It Works
The AI boom is pushing data centers into liquid cooling at an unprecedented scale. Global data center capacity is expected to nearly double to 200 GW by 2030, according to McKinsey, and liquid cooling is becoming the default for new construction. As liquid-cooled infrastructure scales, the cooling fluid itself becomes a massive, unmonitored point of failure. Protecting billions in GPUs today still means mailing fluid samples to a lab and waiting days for results. Omen AI eliminates the waiting time with continuous monitoring.
Omen AI ships in two configurations:
Permanent sensor: Connects directly to the machine’s fluid system with a one-time, non-invasive installation. Continuously tracks metal content, bio contamination, and wear patterns, building a health trajectory over time.
Portable diagnostic unit: Delivers the same spectroscopic precision in a unit technicians can bring to any machine, on-site or in the field, for an immediate diagnosis.
Both form factors analyze 21+ elemental signatures simultaneously, replacing the sample-and-wait model with continuous, real-time data.
Deployed at Scale
Omen AI’s customers include:
Data centers representing $200B in assets operating 10–14 GW of capacity, where Omen AI monitors coolant health in real time
Industrial fleet operators including Carolina CAT and dealerships across the US and Canada
Together, those customers generate over $150 billion in revenue and operate more than 2 million machines.
“Whether it’s a liquid-cooled AI infrastructure or a fleet of industrial machines, the cost of an unplanned failure is staggering. Despite the high stakes, these systems are still monitored with lab tests that take days. Omen AI built the solution: continuous, real-time visibility into the health of the machines doing the world’s most critical work. Zach and his team aren’t just building a better sensor; they’re building the nervous system for the machines powering the modern world,” said Cory Rellas of Nava Ventures.
About Omen AI
Omen AI builds continuous fluid analysis sensors for the machines the world depends on. Its spectroscopic sensors attach directly to a machine’s fluid system and continuously analyze metal content, bio-contaminants, wear patterns, and fluid degradation, giving operators advance warning of failures that traditional quarterly testing would miss. Omen AI is deployed in data centers managing 10–14 GW of capacity and industrial fleets across North America.
Founded in 2024 by 20-year-old CEO Zach Laberge and based in San Francisco, Omen AI has raised $41.5 million in total funding. The company is backed by Nava Ventures, CRV, Sheryl Sandberg, Mann+Hummel, Caffeinated Capital, Vanderbilt, Genius Ventures, LMNT Ventures and a network of strategic operators from across the AI infrastructure ecosystem.
Simultaneously, Higharc announced an agreement with US LBM, the largest private distributor of lumber and building materials in the United States, marking the expansion of Higharc’s platform to the building materials supply chain.
Higharc: The AI-native platform for homebuilding
AI that actually works for the built world
Homebuilding is undergoing a fundamental shift as complex design, 3D modeling and estimating workflows move to AI. Across homebuilder and distributor teams, work that once required weeks of manual effort can now be automated.
“AI isn’t just assisting builders. It’s reshaping how builders work, cutting time and cost per job while giving buyers a more personalized experience,” said Marc Minor, CEO and co-founder of Higharc. “The builders and distributors leading the way use AI to automate their most complex workflows unlocking teams to focus on product improvement and customer experience.”
While AI is reshaping technical workflows across industries, most AI systems fail on basic spatial reasoning. In homebuilding, these errors mean delayed starts, materials overage, change order and frustrated buyers. Higharc’s AI platform is different. Higharc generates homes as spatial databases — capturing code requirements, construction standards and geometry — and creates the structured data foundation required for production-grade AI.
Higharc replaces AutoCAD and point solutions and enables builders to automate design, estimating and sales workflows. Using Higharc’s generative system, homebuilders produce precise and build-ready homes, complete with construction documents, real-time estimates and fully shoppable 3D models.
Builders across North America use Higharc to accelerate their design-to-construction workflows. Higharc customers report substantial impact and time savings including:
Compressing product development timelines from months or years to weeks or days
Cutting time to community open by 25-50%
Increasing margin by 10-15%
“We evaluated a lot of AI tools, but most produce outputs that require so much correction they’re unusable. Higharc is different. It’s grounded in how homes are actually built, so the outputs are usable from day one,” said Kyle Bear, VP of Research and Development at Signature Homes. “Higharc helps us move faster and operate with more precision and fewer downstream surprises. And as a result, we’re breaking ground on more homes each year while protecting margins and pricing power.”
Expanding AI estimating to the supply chain
The new funding will be used to scale AI product development and expand the platform to a broader segment of the homebuilding market.
As part of its expansion, Higharc today announced its AI Estimating product for building materials distributors, with US LBM as its first partner. Until now, estimating buildings was a famously complex, manual process prone to errors and delays. The new offering gives LBM distributors and dealers the ability to generate accurate material takeoffs from builder plan sets at enterprise scale.
At the center of this capability is Higharc’s AutoTranslate AI, which can translate any floorplan image into a rich 3D spatial data model. It combines proprietary AI vision models with deterministic construction logic to generate precise quantity estimates and align them directly to purchasable materials. The results are quantity estimates that reflect how homes are actually designed and built — not approximations.
“With advanced technology accelerating the building materials industry, what sets Higharc apart for US LBM is the ability to go from a static 2D plan to a precise and dynamic 3D data model in one step. That unlocks not just fast, accurate quoting but smarter material planning, the ability to sell the whole home and real-time collaboration with our customers — powering better outcomes for us, the builder and ultimately the homeowner,” said Jonathan Greene, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at US LBM.
Investing in the future of homebuilding AI
“Everything we’re building is in service of one outcome: to make homebuilding seamless so builders can build better homes more affordably. This next phase is about scaling that impact by deepening our AI capabilities and bringing suppliers onto the same trusted system builders already rely on,” explained Minor.
“We evaluate AI companies across every sector, and Higharc stands out as a clear leader in applying AI to residential construction,” said Josh Fredberg, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “Higharc is setting the standard for how homes will be designed, permitted and built in the age of AI. Leading builders are already standardizing on the platform, and we have conviction that this extension into supplier workflows will transform the broader builder supply chain.”
The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from Wellington Management and existing investors including Fifth Wall, Spark Capital, Lux Capital, SE Ventures (Schneider Electric’s venture arm), Simpson Strong-Tie, PSP Partners, RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Suffolk Technologies, Vertex Ventures, NC Tweener Fund and MetaProp.
About Higharc
Higharc is the homebuilding AI company for design through construction. By generating homes as 3D spatial data, Higharc enables builders and suppliers to design, estimate, sell and build homes better. Higharc works with leading homebuilders and supply chain partners. The company’s rapid rise has earned national recognition, ranking in the top 50 of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026.
Higharc is hiring. Join us to see how far and how fast you can go. Those who love homes and applying AI to critical industries can apply here.
About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2025, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 900 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has a global presence with leadership in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.
About US LBM
US LBM is the largest privately owned, full-line distributor of specialty building materials in the United States. Offering a comprehensive portfolio of specialty products, including windows, doors, millwork, wallboard, roofing, siding, engineered components and cabinetry, US LBM combines the scale and operational advantages of a national platform with a local go-to-market strategy through its national network of locations across the country. For more information, please visit uslbm.com or follow US LBM on LinkedIn.
Kim’s model combines AI systems with human-in-the-loop execution, allowing companies to improve quality, speed, and cost efficiency without depending only on either fully automated chatbots or traditional manual BPO operations.
“Customer support operations is entering a new phase,” said Sachin Jaiswal, Co-founder & CEO, Kim.cc. “The early wave of AI customer support focused heavily on automation, but full automation has not delivered on its promise for many real-world customer service. LLMs are powerful, but when the work becomes complex, high-stakes, or brand-sensitive, companies still need human judgment, quality control, and accountability. That is why we believe the next model is AI-native service delivery – where AI does the work, vetted by humans.”
Kim’s founding team brings a wealth of experience across AI, ecommerce operations and large-scale customer support, managing 2M inquiries a week. Their experience has shaped their view and helped build Kim into what it is today and what it can be in the future. They know that AI transformation in customer support is not only a software problem. It requires deep workflow understanding, quality control, human judgment, and strong operating systems.
“We are excited to back the Kim team as they redefine what great customer support looks like at scale,” said Alok Goyal, Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners. ” Customer support is a $470B global market spanning software and services, yet a huge segment of it remains out of reach for cost-effective, high-quality service. Kim is changing that by combining AI automation with human oversight to deliver measurable outcomes at 40% lower support costs without compromising quality.”
With the latest funding, Kim can continue its expansion stateside and further build out its operations in India. By 2028, Kim plans to triple its workforce to over 100 employees. The team is actively hiring top talent for roles in sales, partnerships, customer success, and client-facing leadership roles.
“Our customers are not just looking for automation. They are looking for better outcomes – faster responses, lower cost, higher quality, and a partner who can actually run the operation,” said Phani Yedavilli, Co-founder & CBO / GTM Lead, Kim.cc. “Kim.cc brings AI and operations together, so brands can modernize support without taking on the risk of doing it alone.”
Kaushik Barodiya, Co-founder & CTO, Kim.cc, said, “We are building the operating system for AI-native service delivery. The goal is not to replace human expertise, but to make every workflow more intelligent, measurable, and scalable. By combining AI agents, workflow memory, quality checks, and human oversight, we can deliver a much more reliable model for customer support.”
To learn more about Kim.cc, open roles and the latest report, visit Kim.cc.
About Kim.cc Kim.cc is an AI-native customer support built for e-commerce brands. Trusted by 200+ Shopify merchants globally, Kim.cc combines intelligent automation with human oversight to deliver fast, accurate, and brand-aligned support at significantly lower operational cost. Learn more at kim.cc
Growth round accelerates LeapXpert’s mission to make every enterprise conversation on modern channels governed, intelligent, and actionable
NEW YORK, June 30, 2026 — LeapXpert, the leader in Governed Communication Intelligence, today announced a $180 million growth investment led by Riverwood Capital.
Enterprise communications have moved to messaging. The informal conversations that close deals, resolve problems, and build relationships now happen on channels like WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, and WeChat. For years, these conversations sat outside enterprise systems, creating operational, regulatory, and security challenges, and leaving conversation data largely untapped. Today, AI combined with enterprise governance can turn that data into one of the most valuable assets a company owns.
“The first generation of enterprise communication software archived conversations. The next governed them. The latest uses AI to unlock value from every interaction,” said Jeff Parks, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Riverwood Capital. “LeapXpert leads that progression today, and no one is better positioned for what comes next. Riverwood Capital is excited to join the board, support the company’s next phase of growth, and work with Co-Founders Dima, Avi, and the rest of the team to drive their vision forward.”
Hundreds of organizations rely on LeapXpert today, from leading financial institutions and government agencies to global enterprises. The company was named a Visionary in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Communications Governance and Archiving two years running, made the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 in 2024 and 2025, and recently joined the Financial Times’ 2026 list of the Fastest-Growing Companies in America.
“Messaging is where business happens now,” said Dima Gutzeit, Founder and CEO of LeapXpert. “The next wave of enterprise value will come from making those conversations trusted, connected, and actionable. But AI can only work with what enterprises can see and govern. Our mission is to give every organization the infrastructure to govern their conversations and the intelligence to act on them.”
“Financial services were our proving ground. Government became our fastest-growing segment. The Forbes Global 2000 is the third wave, and it has arrived,” added Avi Pardo, Co-Founder and CBO of LeapXpert. “The driver shifts vertical by vertical, but the underlying problem doesn’t: every enterprise needs its customer conversations governed and maximized. The partnership with Riverwood Capital lets us meet that demand everywhere.”
“LeapXpert saw years before most of the market that enterprise messaging would evolve from a compliance challenge into a strategic data asset. Today, the company sits at the center of one of the largest untapped sources of enterprise intelligence: trusted, governed customer conversations. As AI reshapes how organizations operate, that foundation becomes increasingly valuable, and LeapXpert is the infrastructure layer making it actionable. Our continued investment reflects our conviction in the team, the category they have created, and the scale of the opportunity ahead,” said Ricky Lai, General Partner at existing investor Portage Ventures.
LeapXpert will use the proceeds to deepen the platform’s ability to understand and act on governed conversations, accelerate growth across financial services, the public sector, and the broader enterprise market, and expand its senior leadership team.
About LeapXpert
LeapXpert is the leader in Governed Communication Intelligence. The LeapXpert Communications Platform brings enterprise-grade governance to the consumer messaging channels employees and clients already use. Every conversation is captured, governed, and understood in real time, turning client interactions into intelligence businesses can act on. Hundreds of the world’s most demanding enterprises across financial services, government, and the Forbes Global 2000 rely on LeapXpert daily. For more information, visit LeapXpert.com.
About Riverwood Capital
Riverwood Capital is one of the leading investment firms solely dedicated to AI-powered Proven Growth technology. Our mission is to invest in and support a select group of high-growth technology companies as they scale into enduring, category-defining platforms, growing from $10s of millions in revenue to $100s of millions and beyond. We manage over $6 billion and have been exclusively focused on the Proven Growth technology segment since our founding in 2008. Over the past decade, we have partnered with more than 90 exceptional companies, working closely with founders and management teams to provide deep operational, strategic, and global expertise. Riverwood has offices in Menlo Park, Calif.; Miami, Fla.; New York, N.Y.; and São Paulo, Brazil.
Advisors
Houlihan Lokey served as sole financial advisor and Cooley LLP served as legal advisor to LeapXpert on the transaction. Foley & Lardner LLP served as legal advisor to Riverwood Capital.
OversubscribedRound led by Maverick Silicon, with participation from Celesta Capital, BDC Capital, MediaTek Innovation Fund, TXC Corporation, and Ultratech Capital Partners
Stathera silicon timing technology delivers performance demanded by modern mobile, IoT, and AI data center systems
Proceeds to scale mass production of Stathera’s GEN2 32.768 kHz timing portfolio, launch development of GEN3 AI, communications, enterprise, and data center (CED) market solutions, and establish Silicon Valley presence to engage leading customers
MONTREAL, June 30, 2026 — Stathera Inc., a fabless semiconductor company pioneering silicon timing solutions, announced the close of an oversubscribed US$55 million Series B financing. As the market consolidates around a dominant incumbent, the round positions Stathera to become the leading independent alternative for AI data center and hyperscale customers. The round was led by new investor Maverick Silicon with continued backing from existing investors Celesta Capital, BDC Capital, MediaTek Innovation Fund, TXC Corporation, and Ultratech Capital Partners. The financing brings total funding to US$75 million.
Stathera will use the proceeds to fund mass production of its GEN2 silicon timing portfolio while accelerating development of its next-generation platform for AI data centers and growing the company’s engineering and commercial teams. With this expansion, Stathera will establish a Silicon Valley office to engage leading AI, data center, and hyperscale customers.
“Timing is the foundation of modern electronics, and AI has elevated it from a humble component into critical infrastructure,” said George Xereas, CEO and co-founder of Stathera. “AI data center performance is increasingly limited not by raw compute, but by how quickly and coherently data can move and remain synchronized across tens of thousands of processors and the networking connecting them – synchronization that must run on precision timing. For decades that timing has meant quartz, but Stathera is using semiconductor technology to move this foundational hardware to a new era of silicon. As the silicon timing market has continued consolidating around a single supplier, customers are telling us they want an independent, next-generation alternative. This is exactly what we are building as we scale Stathera’s GEN2 silicon timing into mass production today and build our next-gen product, architected from the ground up for AI.”
Proven Technology, Scaling to Volume Stathera’s GEN2 32.768 kHz product line, built on the company’s proprietary microfabrication technology, is moving into mass production, and its broader GEN2 portfolio is now sampling with Tier 1 OEMs. The 32.768 kHz reference is one of the highest-volume and most demanding sockets in electronics, used in virtually every electronic device, such as smartphone, wearable, and IoT devices, and among the largest opportunities to replace legacy quartz with silicon.
Manufactured in standard semiconductor fabs, Stathera’s silicon oscillators replace the quartz crystal with decisive advantages: a footprint up to 85% smaller than the standard SMD quartz package, higher reliability, far greater shock and vibration resilience, and no external load capacitors, giving designers more placement flexibility. The result is high-precision, low-power timing built for the size and battery constraints of modern mobile, wearable, and IoT devices.
Targeting the AI Data Center Timing Opportunity Precision timing has become strategic infrastructure for AI data centers, where synchronization, jitter, and resilience govern the performance of GPU clusters, networking infrastructure, switches, and optical interconnects. This has made the communications, enterprise, and data center (CED) segment the fastest-growing category in the US$11 billion annual timing market, and industry estimates put the AI data center time-synchronization opportunity alone at a cumulative US$1.5 billion by 2030 as requirements tighten from microseconds toward nanoseconds.
With Series B, Stathera is launching development of its GEN3 platform, a ground-up design based on its proprietary DualMode® architecture and purpose-built for the performance and reliability demands of AI-CED applications. After several years of foundational work and IP development, the company is mobilizing a dedicated GEN3 program and targeting first customer samples in 2028.
“Traditional quartz-based timing has powered the electronics industry for decades, but modern AI and edge infrastructure are creating new requirements around size, power, stability, and synchronization at scale,” said Josh Miner, Principal at Maverick Silicon. “MEMS-based timing offers a fundamentally different approach, with advantages in integration, resilience, and programmability. That is what Stathera is building. As timing becomes mission-critical to AI infrastructure, the market needs a next-generation, independent leader. We are proud to lead this round and to partner with George Xereas, CEO and the Stathera team as they scale.”
“Silicon-based timing is emerging as a compelling solution to meet the precision and scale that connected systems demand, today and for the next generation,” said Nicholas Brathwaite, Founding Managing Partner of Celesta Capital. “We’re proud to back Stathera and pleased with how far the team has come. Their progress demonstrates clear technical leadership and execution and reflects the strength of Canada’s world-class engineering talent and potential for further industry-shifting deep tech investments.”
About Stathera Stathera is a fabless semiconductor company building the next generation of MEMS-based precision timing. Built on its proprietary DualMode® architecture and a portfolio of silicon timing innovations, Stathera is re-architecting the legacy quartz-based timing industry to meet the performance, power, and reliability demands of modern electronics, from smartphones and IoT to the AI data center. Headquartered in Montreal, Stathera is backed by leading deep-technology and strategic semiconductor investors. For more information, visit www.stathera.com.
About Maverick Silicon Maverick Silicon is a division of Maverick Capital focused exclusively on the semiconductor and computing infrastructure sector. Maverick Capital is an investment adviser founded by Lee S. Ainslie III with over thirty years of operating history.
About Celesta Capital Celesta Capital is a venture capital firm built by global deep tech operators. Since 2013, we’ve backed the foundational technologies that unlock every major technology wave: semiconductors and intelligent hardware, next generation infrastructure software, bio-convergence, and industry transformers. Founded by Silicon Valley veterans who’ve built, scaled, and exited major global technology companies, today we bring that operating experience to support deep tech founders from breakthrough to global scale. For more information, visit www.celesta.vc.
The Singapore-headquartered merchant operating system grew annualised recurring revenue 61% in 2025 and turned profitable across four Southeast Asian markets on a lean capital base.
SINGAPORE, June 30, 2026 — Qashier, a unified merchant operating system for Southeast Asia, today announced a US$6.125 million Series A+ financing round comprising equity and debt. The round was led by Cocoon Capital, IFP Securities and BlackSoil Global, with participation from strategic angel investors. The capital will support regional expansion and product development.
Qashier Founders, Christopher Choo and Frank Zhao Liang.
The raise follows a year of disciplined operating progress. Qashier now processes US$1 billion in annualised payment volume for more than 20,000 merchants across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, and has been profitable every month since December 2025. Over the year it grew annualised recurring revenue 61% and secured its Major Payment Institution licence in Singapore in February 2025. The company has reached these milestones having raised under US$20 million to date, a level of capital efficiency rare among payments businesses at its scale.
Southeast Asia is home to more than 70 million SMEs and a digital payments market exceeding US$1 trillion, yet most merchants still run their businesses on disconnected systems — separate providers for point-of-sale, payment acceptance, inventory, customer engagement and financing. That fragmentation adds cost, creates blind spots, and holds back businesses trying to grow across outlets and borders.
Qashier brings these functions onto a single platform, combining payments, business software, CRM and embedded financial services across more than 50 integrated modules — spanning ordering, inventory management, loyalty and automated marketing — and over 20 regional payment methods, including cards, QR, e-wallets and buy-now-pay-later. Crucially, Qashier owns its end-to-end payments stack — KYC, processing, payouts and cross-border settlement — giving merchants a faster, fully integrated experience and more competitive pricing, while generating the proprietary transaction data that powers the rest of the platform.
That data advantage is most visible in QashierLoans, the company’s revenue-based lending product launched in June 2025. Underwritten entirely on proprietary platform data and repaid automatically from each merchant’s daily sales, QashierLoans has disbursed more than US$10 million to over 100 SMEs since launch — extending Qashier’s role from commerce software provider to financial operating partner, and turning every transaction on the platform into a sharper credit signal.
“We are building the operating system for Southeast Asia’s SME economy — and we are building it profitably,” said Christopher Choo, Co-Founder and CEO of Qashier. “Merchants should not have to stitch together five vendors to run one business. By bringing payments, software, financial services and customer engagement into a single ecosystem, we give them clarity, lower costs and the confidence to scale across markets. This round lets us leverage that advantage into the next phase of growth.”
Cocoon Capital has backed Qashier since its early days. “We have been proud to support Qashier since its beginning, and this latest round is a testament to what the team has built,” said Michael Blakey of Cocoon Capital. “What continues to impress us is their ability to navigate every obstacle placed in their path with resilience and ingenuity. Qashier’s cofounders, Christopher Choo and Franklin Zhao, have an exceptionally clear and compelling vision for what Qashier is becoming, ‘the default operating infrastructure for commerce across Southeast Asia,’ and we remain firmly committed to supporting that journey.”
With the new funding, Qashier will focus on enhanced omnichannel payments, broader embedded financial services, and AI-enabled insights and workflow automation. It will also expand its offering for larger, multi-outlet businesses, particularly in food and beverage and beauty and wellness, where merchants require sophisticated workflows, consolidated reporting and a consistent customer experience across locations and markets. Qashier is preparing for a Series B round to fund its next phase of growth, with milestones expected in recurring revenue, payment licensing and loan disbursements.
About Qashier
Qashier is a unified merchant operating system that brings together payments, business software, embedded financial services and customer engagement tools on one platform. Operating across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, Qashier supports more than 20,000 SMEs with an integrated ecosystem built for Southeast Asia’s digital economy.
About Cocoon Capital
Cocoon Capital® is a Singapore-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in enterprise software and deep tech across Southeast Asia. Founded in 2016, Cocoon has more than USD 90 million assets under management and has made over 30 investments to date. The firm backs companies building transformative solutions in sectors including medtech, advanced manufacturing, logistics, diagnostics, and climate tech. With its slogan “Dare to Change™”, Cocoon stands apart by leading early, taking concentrated positions, and working hands-on with founders from Seed through Series A. Portfolio companies include Aprisium, TransTRACK, Shomvob, Augmentus, Bioactivx, BuyMed, See-Mode Technologies, and Volt14. Learn more atwww.cocooncap.com.
Rev1 Doubles Scaleup Suite Residents and Sees Continued Growth in Membership
COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 30, 2026 — Rev1 at The Peninsula is emerging as the hub for AI innovation in downtown Columbus, with the addition of Spearfish, Symmitri and jakib.ai to its growing roster of Scaleup Suite residents. The companies join RWX in establishing a presence at the founder-focused innovation space, creating a concentrated community of high-growth technology companies, investors, and experienced operators under one roof.
Since launching earlier this year, the innovation hub designed to help software and advanced technology startups grow faster has grown to nearly 90 members, reflecting strong demand for founder-focused workspace, community, and resources in downtown Columbus.
“When ambitious companies share a space with experienced operators, investors, and mentors, ideas move faster, partnerships form more naturally, and founders gain access to the kinds of relationships that can change the trajectory of a business,” said Tom Walker, CEO of Rev1 Ventures. “That’s the environment we’re intentionally creating here and why we’re seeing such high-demand so quickly.”
For Spearfish, the decision to join The Peninsula was driven by the unique concentration of experienced founders and AI-focused activity under one roof.
“The magic of Rev1 at The Peninsula is collision,” said Ray Bohac, founder and CEO of Spearfish. “Proven founders and AI-centric capital in one building, running into each other by chance, sharpening each other constantly. Rev1 has fused seasoned operators with the energy of AI investment into a single hyper-focused place, and the spontaneous connections that come out of it are impossible to replicate anywhere else. Getting to participate in that is a dream.”
The Peninsula’s second-floor Scaleup Suites are designed for companies ready to scale, while its first floor features 14,500 square feet of flexible workspace, including a founder lounge, event space, meeting rooms, and membership options designed to foster collaboration among entrepreneurs.
“What stood out to us was not just the space itself, but how intentionally it is designed for interaction,” said Jonathan Poma, founder and CEO of Symmitri. “We’re building alongside other companies at a similar stage upstairs, and downstairs there is always something happening in the founder lounge or event space that pulls you back into the broader Rev1 community. That constant connection between focused work and spontaneous collaboration is exactly what we were looking for. As an AI company, this move is about putting us in an environment that matches the pace we are trying to operate.”
Combining workspace, community, mentorship, and access to capital, Rev1 at The Peninsula delivers an environment where founders can accelerate growth while contributing to the broader Columbus innovation economy.
“I’ve learned throughout my career that what matters most in an innovation ecosystem isn’t mass or volume – it’s talent density,” said Andy Jenks, co-founder of Jakib.ai. “When exceptional people are brought together and put shoulder to shoulder, even across different companies, it can create magic. That’s what we were looking for in Columbus, and it’s exactly what we found at The Peninsula. You can see it in the founders and people on the scale-up floor every day.”
Rev1 at The Peninsula is supported by the City of Columbus and Downtown Columbus, Inc. (DCI), and is a key component of the region’s economic development strategy to attract and retain high-growth companies in downtown Columbus.
To explore membership opportunities or learn more about Rev1 at The Peninsula, visit rev1ventures.com/peninsula.
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FORT COLLINS, Colo., June 30, 2026 — The landscape of American entrepreneurship is shifting away from labor-intensive startups toward high-tech, automated systems that work even when the owner is asleep. At the center of this evolution is Healthy Smart Mart™, the pioneer of the micro-market franchise industry. For the ambitious entrepreneur, these markets represent more than just a refreshment stand; they are a sophisticated wealth engine designed to transform a side hustle into a scalable business empire.
The Power of Automated Retail
From Side Hustle to Wealth Engine: How Micro Markets are Funding the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
Unlike traditional vending, which is often limited by mechanical spirals and cash-only hurdles, the Healthy Smart Mart™ model utilizes seamless, cashless convenience. For the entrepreneur, this means the end of “trading time for money.” By placing an unmanned, high-tech market within a corporate office, owners tap into a captive audience of professionals who prioritize quality and speed. The result is a business that operates 24/7 without the overhead of a payroll or the headaches of traditional staffing.
Why Office Markets are the Ultimate Asset
The strategy is simple: target the professional environment where employees are already looking for better breakroom options. While an office sees a market as an amenity, the entrepreneur sees it as a consistent revenue stream.
Low Overhead: No rent for the space is typical, as offices provide the footprint to benefit their staff.
Data-Driven Growth: Integrated technology allows owners to track inventory and sales in real-time from a smartphone.
Premium Positioning: By offering healthy, fresh options, owners command higher margins than traditional “junk food” vendors.
Scaling to the Next Level
Healthy Smart Mart™ provides the blueprint for those who want to lead the industry rather than just participate in it. Because the model is so lean, the transition from one location to ten is remarkably fluid. This scalability is what turns a modest investment into a true wealth engine. For the next generation of entrepreneurs, the path to financial independence isn’t found in a cubicle—it’s found in owning the market right outside of it. By leveraging the pioneering technology of Healthy Smart Mart™, savvy owners are reclaiming their time and building a legacy of automated success.
About Healthy Smart Mart™
Healthy Smart Mart™ offers a premier business opportunity for entrepreneurs ready to enter the micro market industry. By transforming traditional workplace break rooms into modern, cashless convenience stores, they help operators build profitable businesses. The company provides a proven model, innovative technology, and a unique funding program to ensure success.
Bill Way, CEO, is a recognized authority in the field and a number-one Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Most notably, his latest book, Micro Markets – Profit From The Automated Convenience Store BOOM! outlines the future of the vending and micro market industry and is the first and ONLY book in print on the subject. Mr. Way is available for interviews, which tend to be quite fun and extraordinary. For more information, please visit HealthySmartMart.com.
Contact Information Name: Bill Way Email: [email protected] Phone Number: (970) 222-8582
