Led by Balderton Capital, the round funds Duvo’s U.S. expansion. Its Enterprise Execution OS lets people and AI agents run processes together across the systems a company already has, starting with retail and consumer goods.

NEW YORK and LONDON, Oct. 14, 2026 — Duvo today announced a $32 million Series A led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures, Northzone and Credo Ventures. The round brings Duvo’s total funding to $48 million and will fund its expansion, starting with retailers and CPG companies. Two executives lead the expansion. Michael Green joins from Databricks as Chief Commercial Officer.  He previously served as a Senior Vice President at Salesforce. Spencer Insolia recently joined as Managing Director, U.S. He was previously President of Kmart and a Managing Director at Accenture.

Duvo is the Enterprise Execution OS: one platform where a company’s operations run, with governed processes and clear user approvals. Duvo is built so that AI in operations doesn’t stop at the pilot. Every process a company adds runs on the same connections, the same approval rules and the same record of results, instead of becoming another standalone project.

The platform works the same way for every process. Duvo Clarity captures how the work really runs, through AI-led discovery interviews with the people who do it, screen recordings and existing documents. Duvo’s agents then run the approved steps across ERPs, supplier portals, spreadsheets and inboxes, through APIs where they exist and through the same screens people use where they don’t. That’s why Duvo can be live in weeks with the first process without a small army of engineers or a major systems integration project.

Decisions and exceptions go to the person who owns them, and operating cockpits show what is waiting for a decision and what the process delivered. Most companies run on systems that don’t talk to each other, and the manual work in those gaps is where value leaks. Duvo runs that work on one platform and recovers the value.

Gartner projects spending on business orchestration and automation technologies will exceed $21 billion by 2029, as enterprises consolidate fragmented automation tools onto a single platform. But turning that into operational results is proving hard. Gartner predicts that more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027 because of escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls. In a separate survey of 350 executives at companies with $1 billion or more in revenue, Gartner found that those reporting higher returns from AI agents and automation had cut staff about as often as those with modest or negative results.

“For a while I measured AI in heads, counting how many people an agent could replace. It’s the wrong unit,” said Tomáš Čupr, co-founder and CEO of Duvo and founder and Group CEO of Rohlik Group. “At Rohlik, the gains I’d point to came from work nobody had the hours for. Our planners used to check about eight at-risk products a day per market for shortages. Now every signal gets checked, around the clock. We think of it as raising the GDP of every employee: more value from the people a company has, not the same value from fewer of them.”

Duvo has unlocked over $100m+ for its clients, across finance, supply chain, commercial, customer care, marketing and HR. At Notino, Europe’s largest online beauty retailer, those results span finance, customer care and marketing. Its quarterly reconciliation of about $45 million a year in supplier bonuses went from 70 days to 15, and from around 120 specialist hours per cycle to under 10.

“Our business processes have evolved over decades, and Duvo gives us a way to understand them in detail, and quickly,” said Gordon MacPherson, Group Productivity Director at U.K. supermarket chain Morrisons. “It means decisions about which repetitive everyday tasks to simplify, redesign and automate can be based on evidence rather than assumptions. That gives us a much clearer path from identifying AI opportunities to putting them into operation, freeing up our people to concentrate on high-value work for the benefit of colleagues and customers.”

“Getting AI agents to work reliably across the enterprise remains incredibly difficult,” said Rob Moffat, Partner at Balderton Capital. “Duvo’s unique ability is in how it uses AI to capture how work actually happens in the enterprise and what the causes of loss are. Duvo then automates these processes in the same integrated system. This is only possible with the deep operational experience of the founder Tomáš who previously founded three companies including Rohlik, the leading online grocer. Feedback from customers and consultancy partners is off the charts positive. We are looking forward to supporting Tomáš and team as they build the global leader in this segment.”

Duvo is model-agnostic, so the AI underneath can change without rebuilding the processes on top of it. Companies with stricter security or sovereignty requirements can run open-weight models on dedicated GPUs, connect a model in their own cloud or on-premises, or use an AI endpoint they already approve. Every approval and every change written back to a company’s systems is recorded. Duvo is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 certified, and U.S. companies can buy it through Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace.

“Our clients don’t need more AI pilots. They need operations that actually change,” said Jan Hejtmánek, Partner and AI Institute Leader at Deloitte Central Europe. “Through our alliance with Duvo, we combine Deloitte’s transformation expertise with an Enterprise Execution OS that maps how processes really work and then runs them, with people in control.”

“I’ve spent half my career as a retail operator and half as a consultant, and the same gap showed up from both sides: the insight was there, the execution rarely followed. Duvo closes that gap, and that’s why I’m here,” said Spencer Insolia, Managing Director, U.S. at Duvo.

“We’re starting in the U.S. with retailers and consumer goods companies, because that’s the work we know best,” said Čupr. “But the processes we start with, like freight and invoice audit, aren’t unique to retail.”

Christoph Schwaiger, former CEO at ALDI SÜD Holding, has also joined as Senior Advisor.

U.S. companies can start with one process, such as freight audit or payables audit, or with a free process map.

About Duvo
Duvo is the Enterprise Execution OS: one platform where a company’s people and AI agents run its operations, process by process. Duvo captures how work actually happens, runs it across the ERPs, supplier portals and legacy applications a company already uses, and shows every team what it delivered, with people approving the decisions that need judgment. Its mission is raising the GDP of every employee. Founded in 2025 by the team behind Rohlik Group, Duvo has almost 60 employees and works with companies including Morrisons, Holland & Barrett, Boden, Notino and Allegro, and is backed by Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, Northzone and Credo Ventures. Learn more at duvo.ai.

About Balderton Capital
Balderton Capital is a multistage venture firm with more than 25 years of experience supporting Europe’s best founders from Seed to IPO. We have both early and growth funds and invest across the technology sector, with a proven track record backing AI, fintech, B2B SaaS, digital health, mobility, gaming and marketplace companies. Previous investments include Darktrace, Depop, Dream Games, Flywire, Kobalt, MySQL, Nutmeg, Peakon, Recorded Future, Talend and THG. Balderton’s current portfolio includes: Aircall, Contentful, Cleo, Fuse, GoCardless (Mollie), Lendable, Matillion, Photoroom, Primer, Proxima Fusion, Quantum Systems, Revolut, The Exploration Company, Tibber, Wayve, Writer and ZOE. https://www.balderton.com/.

SOURCE Duvo

Investment supports Zaria’s pending application to charter Zaria National Trust Bank with the OCC and supports the build-out of its infrastructure for structured finance and digital asset-backed lending markets

JACKSON, Wyo., Oct. 14, 2026 — Zaria Systems, Inc. (Zaria), which builds real-time infrastructure for mark-to-market credit and structured finance, today announced $5.2M in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The announcement follows Zaria’s recent application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to charter Zaria National Trust Bank (“ZNTB”), a special-purpose national bank that will limit its activities to the operations of a trust company and related activities.

Structured finance has long relied on periodic, batch-based checks to monitor and verify collateral – a model that’s outgrowing itself as securities-backed, digital asset-backed, and tokenized lending demands real-time monitoring and automated margin calls. Zaria provides that infrastructure, offering loan servicing, backup servicing, collateral management, and agency services to structured finance market participants and digital asset-backed lenders. If ZNTB’s charter is approved, those services would consolidate under a single, federally regulated trustee, giving transaction stakeholders one regulated counterparty across a deal lifecycle for the first time, rather than several providers stitched together.

“This financing lets us accelerate growth and scale our existing services,” said Emily Barron, Co-Founder and CEO of Zaria. “We’re currently running servicing, backup servicing, collateral management, and agency infrastructure for structured finance and digital asset-backed loans. This investment lets us grow that team, extend the technology, and build on to a strong foundation.”

“Zaria has already built real traction with structured finance and digital asset-backed lenders,” said Aaron Frank, Partner, Fintech at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “Emily and her team have combined deep structured finance expertise with the technical rigor to build that infrastructure from the ground up, and we’re proud to have been able to back them from the earliest days.”

ZNTB’s organizers and management team bring together corporate trust, fintech, banking, ratings, and regulatory experience from organizations including BNY Mellon, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Moody’s, SoFi, Affirm, NYDIG, Block, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, among others, and its platform is live with partners such as Ledn, Maple, Galaxy, Kraken, and Figure, providing backup servicing, agency, collateral management, and node services infrastructure across warehouse facilities, forward flow loan sale programs, and securitizations.

About Zaria
Zaria builds infrastructure for modern structured finance. Through Zaria National Trust Bank (proposed), the company plans to offer corporate trustee and agency services, loan servicing, collateral management, and backup servicing to banks, lenders, and asset managers operating across traditional and digital asset markets. Learn more at zaria.xyz.

About Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed is a global, multi-stage venture capital firm managing over $65B in assets. Since its founding in 2000, Lightspeed has been the first investor and an early backer of some of the most innovative companies in the world, including Anthropic, Databricks, Rubrik, Snap, and Wiz, among others. Learn more at lsvp.com.

SOURCE Zaria

The waitlist opens today at vayo.com for the personal travel agent built for trips, not tasks, that organizes everything you’ve booked, learns how you travel and never stops working for you

SEATTLE, Oct. 14, 2026 — Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) today announced a planned $100M* investment in its new company Vayo, which is launching in private beta with a waitlist now open at vayo.com. Vayo is where your trips live: a personal travel agent that knows how you travel and makes every trip better before you have to ask. Unlike a chatbot that answers questions in walls of text or an AI assistant that completes individual tasks, Vayo holds every trip together and keeps working on it long after the planning is done.

Planning a trip often means piecing together flights, hotels, activities and reservations across multiple channels, while keeping track of confirmation numbers, plans still in progress and details yet to be booked. Vayo calls the time, effort and mental load of managing it all a “planning tax.” Vayo takes on that work, bringing your existing reservations together from your inbox, filling in what’s missing and watching prices. Because every booking is connected, Vayo sees how one change affects everything else: when a flight changes, Vayo flags the late check-in and the dinner reservation now at risk. It’s like a thousand travel agents working for you, with the care of one who truly knows you.

“A trip isn’t a task, and travelers deserve more than a chatbot,” said Mike Fridgen, CEO and co-founder of Vayo. “With the backing of Booking Holdings, we’re building a personal travel agent that understands the entire trip, knows how you travel and never stops working for you. That’s Vayo.”

As a Booking Holdings company whose portfolio includes Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK, and OpenTable, Vayo combines the scale and supply of the global leader in online travel with a consumer experience built from the ground up. Built on openness, Vayo works across Booking Holdings brands and beyond, including reservations made through other travel platforms or directly with airlines and hotels. Travelers rarely book an entire trip through a single source, and a personal travel agent has to work the way travelers actually do.

“Travel is one of the most complex consumer experiences, and too much of the work still falls on the traveler to manage,” said Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings. “Vayo is exploring how AI can anticipate needs to make planning and managing a trip more seamless. I have confidence in the Vayo team and their ability to move with purpose, capitalize on early learnings and adapt at pace as they explore what the next generation of personalization in travel can look like.”

Vayo’s private beta offers free, invite-only access initially focused on frequent travelers who feel the planning tax most: those who take multiple trips a year but don’t always have the time to plan them. The beta is designed as a learning period, giving early users a direct role in shaping the product and informing what gets built next. Vayo accesses only the travel confirmations needed to build and manage trips, keeping the rest of a user’s inbox private.

In the months ahead, Vayo plans to add direct booking, launch a native app and make it possible to plan trips with travel companions. It will also go deeper once a trip begins, helping travelers navigate the changes and decisions that come up along the way. The destination is a trusted travel agent in your pocket, for every trip in your life.

The waitlist is open now at vayo.com.

*Intention to invest subject to continued advancement of the product and market conditions.

About Vayo

Vayo, a Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) company, is where your trips live. Unlike general assistants built to complete individual tasks, Vayo is a personal travel agent designed around the whole trip. It knows how you travel with unprecedented depth, brings every detail together, and keeps working after booking to make each trip better. It’s like a thousand travel agents working for you, with the care of one who truly knows you. Vayo works across the travel industry, and its only agenda is your agenda. Vayo’s private beta waitlist is open at vayo.com.

About Booking Holdings

Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) is the world leader in online travel and services that support the entire travel journey. Our platforms-including Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable – utilize advanced AI, machine learning and other innovative technologies to simplify and personalize the travel experience for consumers and partners in over 220 countries and territories. Our mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. For more information, visit BookingHoldings.com and follow us on X @BookingHoldings.

SOURCE Vayo

$22.5 million in total Series A funding fuels Confido’s next phase of growth across multi-site healthcare operations

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2026 — Confido Health, the company building integrated AI agents for healthcare operations, today announced $22.5 million in total Series A funding to expand CareOS, its agentic AI operations platform. The round includes a new $12.5 million extension led by Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India), with healthcare private equity veteran Justin Saks joining as an investor and board advisor, and existing investors Together Fund and Blume Ventures also participating.

This latest investment will fuel Confido Health’s shift from a company building AI-powered voice agents for healthcare to a company building the agentic operating layer powering the transition of healthcare operations from systems of record to systems of action. Where systems of record store information, Confido’s seamlessly integrated AI agents act on it, creating an operational system of action that runs a practice from end to end. 

“Every healthcare platform we work with shares the same story and challenges. They’ve got endless amounts of data, but inconsistent systems to manage it holistically, which leaves them short-staffed and drowning in follow-up,” said Chetan Reddy, co-founder and CEO, Confido Health. “Systems of record were never going to fix that because information sitting in a database doesn’t call a patient back or collect a payment. That’s why we built CareOS. It does the work itself, not just the paperwork behind it. That’s what it means to move from systems of record to systems of action, and it’s what this round is helping us do at a much larger scale.”

Confido has seen 15x growth since its last round, driven by its unique distribution model centered around selling to private equity investors first, then expanding through warm introductions to their portfolio companies once results are proven. Confido’s platform achieved over 95% AI handle rates across critical end-to-end office use cases, which in turn added 3-5 full time employees on average in terms of load capacity within three months of going live. While providers project $10-15M in savings annually, their patients are also benefiting, with satisfaction scores of 4.55 out of 5 on average across a million different tasks.

Nowhere is that shift more urgent than in the private equity-backed provider groups that now operate roughly a third of the country’s specialty care practices in some markets. These multi-site organizations are exactly the kind of fragmented, high-volume operations a systems of action model is built for.

“After 14 years investing in multi-site healthcare, I’ve never seen anything quite like the growth potential embedded in Confido’s PE flywheel or the pace of its momentum and scale,” said Justin Saks, Investor and Board Advisor at Confido Health. “With a proven agentic operating layer clearing the obstacles hindering provider growth and access to an endless pipeline of customers, Confido has built a bulletproof distribution model that also solves one of the industry’s biggest pain points.”

From an economics standpoint, the large majority of medical groups reported operating costs were up double digits on average in 2025, while support-staff salaries and benefits alone consumed roughly 25-30% of practice revenue. Meanwhile, reimbursement rates are flat, but the deeper problem is labor. Practices across the country say their number one constraint is hiring and retention, and for the investors backing multi-site provider groups, the path to healthier margins starts with solving that shortage.

Confido’s CareOS is built to automate the work behind the conversation. The platform takes patient details, referral information, and payer requirements captured during intake to perform outreach and scheduling later on. By carrying context from one task to the next, a single interaction can trigger a referral, an appointment, a prescription refill, and a payment, instead of routing each one to a different tool or a different person.

That breadth is especially well suited for the complexity of independent healthcare groups including PE-backed provider platforms, with shared infrastructure across locations, different rules by provider and site, and support for the change management that multi-location expansion requires. Coupled with focused specialty depth – including ophthalmology/optometry, physical therapy, dental, and primary/community care – as well as the reusable knowledge of scheduling patterns, payer requirements and operational exceptions, means customers are interacting with agents that are well-versed in their speciality rather than starting from scratch.

“We have doubled collections in our payments department since deploying Confido,” said Michael Pascetta, Chief Financial Officer at Vision Innovation Partners. “We’re following up on patient balances even more, because the tool now makes outbound calls too. For me, that’s been a huge, huge win.”  

CareOS is also integrated with more than 50 existing systems of record, including EHRs, practice management systems, phone systems, billing systems, fax, and more, so provider groups can adopt it without replacing the technology stack they already run on.

“Healthcare administration is a trillion-dollar cost center, and for decades the only way to manage it was to hire more people,” said Vikram Vaidyanathan, Partner & Senior Managing Director, Z47. “Confido is building AI staffing for healthcare. Every provider runs on a different patchwork of systems, and Confido’s platform CareOS along with forward-deployed engineers make deployment seamless, so its virtual employees become an integral part of the workforce. Confido understands a clinic’s operations as well as the people running it. We’re excited to lead their Series A and back their vision of a hybrid healthcare workforce in the US.”

As private equity consolidation in healthcare accelerates, Confido is extending its systems-of-action model further into the operational back office of the practices it serves.

About Confido Health
Based in New York City, Confido Health builds and deploys AI agents for healthcare operations. By integrating with more than 50 systems of record without requiring any change to a practice’s existing tech stack, Confido increases an administrative staff’s capacity to serve patients, by automating routine tasks like appointment scheduling, insurance verification, billing, and patient outreach. Private equity-backed healthcare platforms use Confido to standardize patient access and operations across their portfolios, recovering lost revenue and expanding capacity without adding headcount. Learn more at www.confido.health.

SOURCE Confido Health

U.S. Army-backed initiative seeks U.S. biotechnology innovators developing technologies with potential defense and national-security applications

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 14, 2026 — The Defense Innovation Networking Group (D!NG) today announced that the submission window is officially open for the inaugural cohort of the Validation of Emerging Defense & Detection Equipment for Readiness (VEDDER) Biotechnology  Accelerator, a national initiative connecting biotechnology innovation with defense and national-security missions.

Selected by the U.S. Army to establish and operate VEDDER, D!NG received an $8 million first-year award, with four option years valued at a total of $95 million and a contract production ceiling of up to $500 million.

The accelerator is seeking U.S. biotechnology startups and other nontraditional innovators developing technologies with potential applications in biological threat detection, protection, response and defense readiness. The specific topics are: Rapid Small-Molecule Design for CBRN Medical Countermeasures and Low-SWaP Distributed Sensing with On-Device Edge AI.

For Cohort 1, applicants developing solutions in either Small-Molecule Drug Discovery or Distributed Sensing are invited to submit information about their technology, stage of development, potential defense applications, and technical or commercialization needs. Submissions are open through October 30, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Final eligibility and submission requirements are available through the official application process.

Biotechnology at Mission Speed

VEDDER will help biotechnology startups better understand government requirements, mature and validate promising technologies, access specialized resources and navigate the transition from commercial innovation to potential defense applications.

“America does not have an innovation problem. We have a translation problem–getting extraordinary technologies from talented companies into the hands of the people who need them,” said Heath Murray, Chairman of the Board of D!NG. “VEDDER gives us an opportunity to build a faster, more connected pathway between biotechnology innovators and the national-security mission.”

Greg Sapp, D!NG Board Member and VEDDER architect, said the accelerator is designed to make the Department of War (DoW) more accessible to emerging biotechnology companies.

“DoW should be able to reach the best American biotechnology innovation wherever it is being developed, and innovators should have a clearer path to understand and address national-security problems,” Sapp said. “VEDDER gives us the opportunity to connect mission, technology, capital, and execution so promising capabilities can move faster.”

Connecting Commercial Innovation to National Security

VEDDER is designed to address barriers biotechnology companies face when entering government markets by connecting participants with a networked ecosystem of resources, including technical validation, contracting and acquisition support, shared business services, legal support, mentorship, capital networks and strategic partnerships.

Interested companies can learn more and submit for Cohort 1 at www.dingusa.org/go/press-release-cohort1

What They’re Saying

Policymakers

“I am proud to have supported this Hoosier group’s application, and I am pleased they were selected and will play a key role in biotech innovation for our national security. This is another example of Indiana’s leadership in the biotech industry.”

• U.S. Sen. Todd Young, Indiana  

“I applaud the Defense Innovation Networking Group for its leadership in advancing the VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator and for helping position Ohio at the forefront of biotechnology, biodefense, and national security innovation. This initiative is an important opportunity to strengthen America’s defense industrial base while building on Ohio’s growing role in defense, advanced manufacturing, and emerging technology. I’m proud to support D!NG’s work and excited to see the impact VEDDER can have for Ohio and the nation.”

• State Representative Ty Mathews | 83^rd Ohio House District

Life Sciences Community

“Biotechnology companies are developing capabilities with implications that extend well beyond traditional commercial markets. VEDDER can give innovators a clearer path to understand national-security focus areas, connect with new partners and access resources that can help promising technologies advance. Indiana’s deep life-sciences ecosystem makes our state an important part of that national conversation.”

• Kristin Jones, President and CEO, Indiana Life Sciences Association

Academia

“Some of the most important advances in biotechnology happen when promising science is given a clear pathway from the laboratory to real-world application. The VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator can help create that pathway by bringing together innovators, technical expertise and mission-driven resources to advance technologies with the potential to strengthen human health, resilience and national security.”

• Dr. Aleksandra Stankovic, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital

“Turning scientific innovation into capabilities that can address national-security challenges requires more than great research. Innovators also need access to advanced computing, secure research environments, technical expertise and pathways that allow them to work effectively with government. VEDDER can help bring those pieces together, connecting biotechnology innovators across the country with the infrastructure and resources needed to advance promising dual-use technologies toward real-world applications.”

• Dr. Erik Deumens, Senior Director of Research Computing, University of Florida Information Technology

“Breakthrough biotechnology innovations can improve lives, strengthen our economy and enhance national security. VEDDER has the potential to help innovators accelerate the path from discovery to deployment by connecting them with the expertise, resources and partnerships needed to turn promising ideas into real-world solutions. We are proud to support an initiative that advances both scientific innovation and national readiness.”

• Lucy Flesch, Frederick L. Hovde Dean of the College of Science, Purdue University

“Some of the most promising biotechnology breakthroughs begin with researchers and entrepreneurs who see an entirely new way to solve a difficult problem. Turning those ideas into companies, and ultimately into capabilities that can serve important national-security needs, requires the right connections, resources, and pathways to market. VEDDER can help create those pathways, giving emerging companies greater access to the expertise, partners, and government opportunities they need to move promising innovations from idea to impact.” 

• Julie Heath, Associate Vice President, IU Innovates, Indiana University

Startup Community

“Some of the most consequential advances in biotechnology begin with early-stage companies tackling complex scientific challenges. Access to specialized laboratory facilities, capital, technical expertise, and industry partnerships can make the difference between a promising technology that stalls and one that reaches the market. The VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator creates an opportunity to connect those innovators with the expertise, resources, and mission-driven partnerships needed to turn promising technologies into meaningful capabilities for our national security.”

• John Flavin, Founder and CEO of Portal Innovations

“Startups are built to move fast, but breaking into defense can be difficult—especially for biotechnology companies like MN8 that operate at the intersection of human performance, health and national security. VEDDER can give innovators a clearer path to understand Army needs, validate their technologies and turn commercial innovation into capabilities that strengthen warfighter readiness and performance.”

• Stephen Schweickart, Co-founder, MN8

About VEDDER: The VEDDER Biotechnology Accelerator is a national biotechnology accelerator designed to connect innovative U.S. companies with resources, expertise, capital and government pathways supporting potential national-security applications. VEDDER stands for Validation of Emerging Defense & Detection Equipment for Readiness.

About D!NG: The Defense Innovation Networking Group (D!NG) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization focused on strengthening the defense innovation ecosystem through collaboration, education and connections among industry, academia and government. www.DINGUSA.org The Defense Innovation Networking Group (D!NG) is a U.S. Government contractor and is not a government agency.

Media Contact
D!NG Communications Lead
[email protected]

SOURCE Defense Innovation Networking Group (D!NG)

Investment will fuel continued innovation in agentic data management as enterprises move AI initiatives from pilot to production

BOSTON, Oct. 14, 2026 — Tamr, the leading AI-native master data management (MDM) platform, today announced $21 million in growth equity financing led by Volition Capital, a Boston-based growth equity firm, with participation from existing investors. The new capital will help Tamr fuel product innovation and expand the platform’s agentic data mastering capabilities.

AI agents today depend on clean, accurate data to operate effectively—yet many organizations still struggle with overlapping, incomplete, and inaccurate records across CRM, ERP, procurement, and other operational systems, as well as within their data warehouses and data lakes. As companies move from AI experiments to AI in production, the importance of a trusted data foundation increases dramatically. Tamr addresses this by unifying, cleaning, and enriching fragmented enterprise data—enabling organizations to work from a single source of truth and providing the context needed to power enterprise AI initiatives, improve decision-making, and drive revenue growth.

Dhesen Ramsamy, Group Chief Technology and Data Officer at Old Mutual, stated, “We are on the accelerated path to becoming an AI-led financial services organization, and that starts with having data that AI can trust. At our scale, mastering millions of records from multiple product systems, we chose Tamr with its AI-native approach as our group’s real-time MDM platform. Tamr has partnered closely with Old Mutual Group over the years, delivering solutions to problems that the legacy systems could not facilitate, and we view Tamr capabilities as foundational to our group growth ambitions.”

Originating from research at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Tamr was co-founded in 2013 by a team of academic innovators including Dr. Michael Stonebraker, winner of the 2014 ACM A.M. Turing Award; Andy Palmer, who now serves as chairman; Alex Pagan, Tamr CTO; Ihab Ilyas of the University of Waterloo; Daniel Bruckner; and George Beskales. The company holds 19 patents in AI/ML mastering, clustering, and data curation, and its platform is used by global enterprises across insurance, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, technology, retail, and higher education.

Led by CEO Anthony Deighton, Tamr enters this next phase of growth with strong momentum, having more than doubled its SaaS revenue in its prior fiscal year. This progress has been accompanied by continuous product innovation, with the company adding new, powerful AI agents to the platform and enhancing its unique Curator Hub, an agentic data curation capability that pairs AI agents with human expertise. Additional recent product developments include a “Bring Your Own Agent” architecture for low-code integration of custom AI agents; multi-domain mastering across products, locations, and custom entities; and enterprise knowledge graph functionality for identifying and leveraging cross-entity relationships.

With the new capital, Tamr plans to further advance its agentic capabilities, particularly around data curation and context delivery, while continuing to scale the platform’s underlying AI and operational infrastructure.

“As enterprises put AI to work across more of their operations, data quality and reliability become non-negotiable,” said Anthony Deighton, CEO of Tamr. “I believe the only way to solve the messy, siloed data problem in the enterprise is by using AI to prepare data for AI applications. This new investment and partnership with Volition enable us to accelerate development of the agentic capabilities our customers need to solve this problem at scale.”

Tomy Han, Partner at Volition Capital, said: “Enterprise AI programs stall most often at the data layer, and budgets are increasingly shifting toward the data foundation as a result. But legacy rules-based engines won’t solve the problem, and neither will AI bolted on to the side. Tamr is one of the very few data platforms that was AI-native before the term existed, where machine learning is the architecture and not a feature. That’s what drew us in, and it’s why blue-chip enterprises across industries have built their data foundations on Tamr.”

About Tamr
Tamr provides the leading AI-native master data management (MDM) solution — delivering the trusted data businesses need to power their AI initiatives. By unifying, cleaning and enriching fragmented enterprise data, Tamr helps organizations work from a single, up-to-date foundation that improves decision-making, customer experiences and revenue growth.

Tamr’s patented, agentic approach combines machine learning and AI agents with human oversight to scale data quality faster than traditional rules-based or DIY approaches. With intuitive 360-degree views linking records across silos, businesses can improve data accessibility and tap into the most accurate information in real time. Learn more at tamr.com.

About Volition Capital
Volition Capital is a Boston-based growth equity firm that principally invests in high-growth, founder-owned companies across the software, internet, and consumer sectors. Founded in 2010, Volition has over $2.6 billion in assets under management and has invested in more than 60 companies. The firm selectively partners with founders to help them achieve their fullest aspirations for their businesses. For more information, visit www.volitioncapital.com.

Media Contacts
Sara Card
[email protected]

Peter Moran
[email protected]

SOURCE Tamr

RAV3N Radar delivers decision-ready narrative intelligence insights from day one, with zero
learning curve and zero overhead, delivered where you work, directly to Slack

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2026 — Blackbird.AI, the leader in protecting organizations and executives from disinformation-based narrative attacks that cause financial, operational, reputational, and physical harm, announced today that it has expanded its agentic narrative intelligence product portfolio with the launch of ‘RAV3N Radar.’

RAV3N Radar provides continuous, automated early warning of narrative threats and opportunities across the entire digital landscape—24/7 monitoring, landscape insights, threat actors, velocity signals, topics, and escalation detection—turning what it finds into easy-to-understand, decision-ready intelligence delivered directly into Slack. RAV3N Radar is powered by Blackbird.AI’s groundbreaking, context-aware narrative intelligence agent, RAV3N Agent.

“AI has radically accelerated narrative attacks against organizations. Our customers want real-time, actionable narrative intelligence with full context, where they work. RAV3N Radar helps teams identify who’s targeting their organization and executives to coordinate better triaging and response,” said Wasim Khaled, CEO and Co-founder of Blackbird.AI. “Drawing on our work with leading brands and national security organizations, we’re bringing narrative intelligence into the agentic enterprise starting with Slack for its best-in-class Agentforce ecosystem. More integrations and our rapidly advancing actioning capabilities will unite people, agents, and intelligence in the flow of work to counter growing threats.”

With RAV3N Radar, organizations control exactly how real-time, actionable narrative intelligence reaches them: what to monitor, who receives it, when it’s sent, and where it’s delivered. Each brief/real-time alert documents:

• The narrative – what’s being claimed, how it’s framed
• The network spread – which platforms it is on and how fast it is moving
• The actors and communities – Who is spreading it and which audiences it is reaching
• The tactics – evidence of coordinated or artificial amplification, where the data supports it
• What changed – which narratives are new, growing, or fading since the last brief
• Supporting context and evidence – links to the source posts, with direct quotes

“At Vantor, we’ve found RAV3N Radar valuable for bringing media activity, sentiment, and emerging narrative threats into our daily situational awareness,” said Norm Laudermilch, Chief Information Security Officer at Vantor. “Its concise summaries help us connect narrative intelligence with traditional cyber threat intelligence and look for signals that could provide earlier warning of cyber attacks. It’s become a useful part of how we monitor a fast-changing information environment.”

The size and scale of harmful narrative attack campaigns continue to grow exponentially. “By 2028, Gartner predicts enterprise spending on battling misinformation and disinformation will surpass $30 billion, cannibalizing 10% of marketing and cybersecurity budgets to combat a multifront threat.” 

What makes Blackbird.AI RAV3N Radar unique

• Zero learning curve. No new platform to master, and easy setup to get value on day one.
• Fast time to insight. Actionable, decision-ready narrative intelligence starts flowing immediately after onboarding, not after a lengthy implementation
• Built for every team, at every maturity level. Whether you’re standing up narrative intelligence for the first time or supplementing an existing security operations team or comms function, RAV3N Radar fits in seamlessly
• Quick Actions, right in the channel. Kick off context-aware responses directly from Slack, including deep dives, disinformation contextual checks, or a request to Blackbird.AI’s RAV3N Watch Intelligence team for a full analyst report from subject matter experts.
• Direct access. RAV3N Agent access in Slack lets you use natural language queries to explore alerts, insights, and threats further, and receive recommendations for next steps.
• Meets you where you work. Delivers easy-to-understand, decision-ready intelligence directly to Slack or email.
• A natural next step. When something warrants deeper investigation, escalate directly to Blackbird.AI’s Constellation Narrative Intelligence Platform or request a Blackbird.AI RAV3N Watch Intelligence analyst report — without switching tools
• Operates alongside your agents. Blackbird.AI’s MCP protocol enhances what your team already uses.

The World Economic Forum named narrative attacks a top global threat, and they now move at machine speed,” said Naushad UzZaman, CTO and Co-founder of Blackbird.AI. “Our answer is agents that do the research and deep analysis so people can make informed and actionable decisions to significantly reduce risk. RAV3N Radar runs continuously, investigates follow-up questions on demand, and works alongside the other agents a team already uses in Slack.”

Narrative attacks now target leadership teams, global brands, and national security organizations. A recent example includes foreign nation-states targeting the data center industry, as seen in this Blackbird.AI RAV3N team report, ‘How Hostile Foreign State-Aligned Networks Amplify America’s Data Center Backlash.’

To see how RAV3N Radar works firsthand, request a demonstration here.

Gartner® has positioned Blackbird.AI as a Market Shaper in ‘The Emerging Market Quadrant for Narrative Intelligence – Startup Vendors as of June 2026.’ The company placed highest for Potential to Execute and furthest to the right for Potential for Market Disruption. A RAV3N blog summarizing the Gartner report is available here.

Gartner recently published a report titled “AI Vendor Race: Blackbird.AI Is the Company to Beat for Disinformation Narrative Intelligence.” In the report, Gartner states that “Blackbird.AI’s strong brand, defining thought leadership, industry-first feature expansion, and key partnerships make it the frontrunner in the disinformation narrative intelligence AI race.”

Source: Gartner Report, “Emerging Market Quadrant for Narrative Intelligence,” 26 June 2026: By Alfredo Ramirez IV, Apeksha Kaushik, Akif Khan, Amber Boyes, and David Senf.

Source: Gartner^®, Press Release, 21 October 2025, “Gartner Predicts Enterprise Spending on Battling Misinformation and Disinformation Will Surpass $30 Billion by 2028.”

Source: Gartner^®, AI Vendor Race: Blackbird.AI Is the Company to Beat for Disinformation Narrative Intelligence, Alfredo Ramirez IV et al., 8 December 2025

GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product, or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Blackbird.AI
BLACKBIRD.AI protects executives and organizations from narrative-based disinformation attacks that cause financial, operational, reputational, and physical harm. Our AI-driven Narrative Intelligence Platform identifies key narratives that impact your executives, organization, and industry; the influence behind them; the networks they touch; the anomalous behavior that scales them; and the cohorts and communities that connect them. This information enables organizations to proactively assess narrative threats as they scale and become harmful, thereby improving strategic decision-making. A diverse team of AI experts, threat intelligence analysts, and national security professionals founded Blackbird.AI to defend information integrity and fight a new class of narrative threats. To learn more, visit Blackbird.AI.

Media Contact:
Daniel Patterson
[email protected]

SOURCE Blackbird.AI

The combination brings together deep expertise in liquid cooling, mechanical and electrical (M&E) engineering, ODM manufacturing, connectivity and facilities management (FM), giving data centre operators worldwide a single partner from design through to operation.

LONDON, Oct. 14, 2026 — 3C, the liquid-cooling-led data centre infrastructure services company founded by former CoolIT Systems CEO Steve Walton, has merged with Datalec Precision Installations, the London-based data centre engineering specialist founded in 2012, to create 3C Datalec, a global platform that designs, builds and operates critical infrastructure for AI data centres.

Backed by new investment from Longbow Capital, S2G Investments, Apogem Capital and QIC, 3C Datalec will accelerate its international growth, invest in specialist talent and expand its technical capabilities as AI demand grows. Over the next 12 months, the company will hire 200 engineers and open new facilities in Warsaw, Poland; Calgary, Alberta; and Austin, Texas.

The combined business has approximately 1,000 team members and forecasts 2026 revenue to be over US$400 million, with offices and manufacturing facilities across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and North America. It works with four of the five largest hyperscalers and over 25 colocation providers, alongside neoclouds and enterprise customers, with active projects in 16 countries totalling hundreds of megawatts (MW).

As AI workloads drive up compute density, power requirements and thermal complexity, 3C Datalec organises its capabilities into three pillars:

Create – design and engineering
Construct – liquid cooling, M&E, ODM manufacturing and connectivity installation
Care – commissioning, operations, maintenance and facilities management

“Rack densities have outgrown air, and liquid cooling is no longer optional,” said Steve Walton, CEO of 3C Datalec. “At CoolIT, we spent years preparing for this moment and became a global leader in liquid cooling. The hard part now is making cooling, power, construction and operations work as one system, while running at scale. We’re combining our liquid cooling expertise with Datalec’s engineering, manufacturing and FM capabilities, so customers have one partner from design to operation.”

The industry is running short of skilled data centre engineers, so 3C Datalec is training its own. Team members have access to apprenticeships, technical training and career development programs through the company’s internal university, and will share in its success through the Leadership & Employee Equity Program (LEEP). The goal: build the next generation of liquid cooling and critical infrastructure specialists.

“Datalec has always been a people-first business. We’ve grown by building strong relationships, delivering for our customers and creating a culture that people want to be part of,” said Danny Keeper, Group Director & Co-Founder of Datalec. “Finding a partner in 3C that genuinely shares those values was extremely important to us. This partnership allows us to grow globally while protecting the culture and identity that have been at the heart of Datalec since day one.”

“Our customers have trusted Datalec with their most critical sites for more than a decade, and we earn that trust on every project,” added Stuart Richmond, Group Director & Co-Founder of Datalec. “Joining 3C means we can now offer liquid cooling at global scale, but our commitment doesn’t change: the same teams, the same contacts and the same focus on getting it right for every customer.”

“AI is rewriting the requirements for data centre infrastructure and liquid cooling sits at the centre of that shift,” said Matthew Cunning, Director at Longbow Capital. “Steve helped build a category leader in liquid cooling and Datalec brings a proven delivery business with a loyal customer base. We’re backing 3C Datalec to become the partner of choice for AI-ready infrastructure.”

“The next phase of data centre investment will be shaped by both new development and the need to upgrade existing facilities for higher-density workloads,” said Bala Nagarajan, Managing Director at S2G Investments. “Datalec has built deep trust delivering complex projects in that environment, and 3C brings the experience and capabilities to extend those relationships into a broader set of services across the life of a facility.”

Datalec’s headquarters will remain in London, and its founding leadership team will continue in their executive roles within the enlarged group. Financial terms were not disclosed.

About 3C Datalec

3C Datalec designs, builds and operates critical infrastructure for AI and high-density data centres. Formed in 2026 through the combination of 3C, founded by former CoolIT Systems CEO Steve Walton, and Datalec Precision Installations, founded in London in 2012, the company brings liquid cooling, M&E engineering, ODM manufacturing, connectivity and facilities management together, built around Create • Construct • Care. With approximately 1,000 team members and active projects in 16 countries, 3C Datalec serves hyperscalers, colocation providers, neoclouds and enterprises across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and North America. 3C Datalec is backed by Longbow Capital, S2G Investments, Apogem Capital, and QIC. For more information, visit www.datalecltd.com.

About S2G Investments

S2G Investments is a multi-asset investment firm focused on scaling durable, market-defining businesses across food & agriculture, energy, and oceans. We provide capital and value-added resources to companies commercializing solutions designed to improve efficiency, resilience, and long-term value across industries powering the global economy. Through fit-for-purpose financing and a systems-focused investment approach, S2G is committed to driving measurable, sustained outcomes with tailored solutions that span late-stage venture, growth equity, structured finance, and infrastructure. For more information about S2G, visit s2ginvestments.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.

About Longbow Capital

Longbow Capital is a Canadian investment manager focused on investing in energy, power, industrials, and technology. Since its founding in 1997, Longbow has been a long-term strategic partner and an engaged and effective shareholder in over 150 high-growth investments. Longbow’s investment track record, extensive relationship network, and deep understanding of how our energy system works enable us to source, evaluate, and invest in opportunities arising from some of the most significant societal and economic shifts underway today – decarbonization, digital infrastructure buildout, and deglobalization – where technology-driven change is reshaping markets and creating compelling investment opportunities.

About Apogem Capital

Apogem Capital is a leading private markets investor with 35 years of expertise across private credit and private equity in North America. As of June 30, 2026, the firm manages approximately $44 billion in assets.¹ Apogem provides a comprehensive suite of solutions, including direct lending, private equity funds and co-investments, GP-led transactions and LP secondaries, GP stakes, and private real assets.

With a team of over 250 professionals, including more than 120 investment professionals, Apogem combines deep domain expertise with the stability and long-term perspective of its parent company, New York Life Insurance Company. Apogem Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary of New York Life through New York Life Investment Management Holdings, LLC. For more information, visit apogemcapital.com.

¹ AUM is estimated and unaudited as of June 30, 2026, and includes non-discretionary and co-advised assets.

Additional capital to fuel continued M&A activity

CHICAGO, Oct. 14, 2026 — VestGen Wealth Partners, LLC (VestGen), the wealth management firm revolutionizing the industry by solving for advisor succession while providing dedicated client service across generations, announced today it has secured growth capital through Willow Tree Credit Partners (Willow Tree). Willow Tree has a proven track record investing with large-scale wealth management firms and is well-positioned to support VestGen’s ambitious growth goals.

“After launching only two years ago and successfully integrating 19 firms representing $7.5 billion in assets primarily in the Midwest, access to institutional capital will allow us to continue our aggressive growth strategy,” said Jason Hanavan, CEO of VestGen. “Willow Tree is the right partner to help us fulfill our vision and continue our momentum in the quickly consolidating and evolving independent wealth management space. We have achieved tremendous success in a short time and look forward to even greater things in the near-term that will set us up for long-term success.”

Tim Lower, founder and CEO of Willow Tree, added, “We are excited to partner with Jason and the VestGen team. They have built a scaled platform and shown a disciplined ability to source, close and integrate high-quality firms. We are pleased to provide flexible capital to support their acquisition strategy and look forward to a long-term partnership.”

Strong debut and growth

In late 2024, VestGen launched with an impressive roster of 10 financial advisory firms collectively managing $5.3 billion in assets. The firm added nine more practices representing $2.2 billion in client assets and expanded its leadership team in 2025. The firm now oversees $8.5 billion in assets.

VestGen continues to support NextGen advisor teams to achieve its ambitious growth goals through innovative succession support and NextGen professional development. The firm also added VestGen Retirement Services to serve as the foundation for a broader, fully integrated solution for plan sponsors and participants.

Raymond James & Associates, Inc. served as financial advisor to VestGen. White & Case LLP acted as legal counsel to Willow Tree Credit Partners and Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP acted as legal counsel to VestGen.

About VestGen Wealth Partners

VestGen Wealth Partners, LLC is a first-of-its-kind wealth management ecosystem designed to seamlessly connect advisors, families, and their legacies under one unified platform. By combining cutting-edge technology, intergenerational talent, and unwavering commitment to client success, VestGen is redefining what it means to preserve wealth and relationships for generations. VestGen integrates comprehensive financial planning, tax, wealth management, insurance, and legal services into a family office experience, providing clients with the personalized and sophisticated service they deserve. With a mission to build wealth, preserve legacies and empower the future of wealth management, VestGen is poised to become the premier destination for advisors and investors alike. For more information, visit vestgen.com.

About Willow Tree Credit Partners

Willow Tree Credit Partners LP is a private credit alternatives firm founded in 2017 by industry veteran Tim Lower. Headquartered in New York, with satellite offices in Miami and Chicago, Willow Tree is a credit alternatives platform focused on providing senior secured, floating rate middle market loans to financial sponsor-backed and family-owned middle market businesses. Through a multi-pronged origination effort that includes a growing network of operating advisors and financial sponsors, Willow Tree focuses on sourcing and structuring bespoke capital solutions for businesses with EBITDA ranging from approximately $5 to $75 million.

Disclosure

VestGen Advisors, LLC is an SEC-registered investment advisor. For more information, visit vestgen.com.

Media Contacts

For VestGen
Donald C. Cutler or Lorene Yue
Haven Tower Group
424.317.4864 or 414.317.4854
[email protected] or [email protected] 

For Willow Tree
5W Public Relations
[email protected]

SOURCE VestGen