MIAMI, Jan. 29, 2026 — Proceeds will be used to execute AI-led roll-up of title and escrow companies to enhance operational efficiencies in fragmented $25 billion industry. 

Propy, a tech company using AI and blockchain to automate real estate closings, today announced that it has secured a $100 million credit facility from Metropolitan Partners Group (“Metropolitan”), a private investment firm that provides growth and situational capital to small and mid-sized non-sponsored businesses in the U.S. The financing will be used to consolidate title and escrow companies into an AI-powered, end-to-end closing platform.

The announcement reflects a confluence of trends: mounting pressure to address the housing affordability issue, and AI reaching enterprise reliability. Transaction costs can approach 10% of a home’s value due to multiple parties involved in the process and manual fragmented workflows. In many cases, associated fees and closing costs exceed the down payment itself, eliminating years of savings for U.S. homebuyers. Propy’s technology aims to reduce one of the most overlooked barriers to homeownership: the friction built in every closing. Propy has launched an AI Agent that executes some functions of escrow officers such as checking emails, opening transactions 24/7, checking bank accounts and making calls to lenders and HOAs. 

Propy has seen strong inbound M&A interest for its roll-up strategy, completing a second $5 million acquisition and entering an LOI for a third $6 million deal in recent weeks, with roughly $75 million in its active pipeline. 

“We’re building the infrastructure layer that allows real estate to operate on par with modern financial markets: AI-enabled and more liquid,” said Natalia Karayaneva, Founder and CEO of Propy. “Multi-agent orchestration will allow transactions to become so smooth and cheap, that the new generation will be buying homes anytime they change a city. Instead of 4-7 million homes sold every year, we believe we’ll witness 20 million homes changing hands.”

Accelerating National AI-Led Roll-Up Strategy

Propy plans to acquire firms generating $5 million to $20 million in annual revenue across California, Texas, Tennessee, and other states, retaining local teams while using automation to increase volume and expand margins. Acquired firms are upgraded with automated workflows that cut manual workloads by up to 70%, with blockchain used as supporting infrastructure for auditability and settlement security.

Metropolitan structured the facility around licensed, cash-flowing title businesses, funding operational transformation with built-in downside protection.

“We are pleased to support Propy as it brings much-needed efficiency and transparency to residential real estate transactions,” said Paul Lisiak, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Metropolitan. “As a capital provider to growing, asset-backed businesses, we were drawn not only to the underlying durability of title and escrow operations but also to Propy’s practical approach to improving the closing process with next-generation AI tools. We look forward to partnering with Natalia and the Propy team as they continue to expand and make real estate transactions simpler, faster, and more cost-effective for consumers across the United States.”

Since 2021, Propy has processed more than $5 billion in transactions, with transaction volume roughly doubling year-over-year. The company is aiming to add approximately $100 million in annual revenue through continued consolidation.

Propy’s advisory board includes Chris Campbell (former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury), Mike Jones (Science Inc.), Dr. Michael S. Piwowar (former SEC Commissioner), and Michael Casey (Chairman of the Advanced AI Society). The company is backed by highly successful investor Tim Draper and other prominent investors.

About Propy

Propy is a tech company with licensed title and escrow operations powered by AI and smart contracts. Propy’s platform automates the entire real estate closing process, from offer to deed recording, allowing transactions to occur 24/7 with fewer intermediaries, less paperwork, and higher security. In doing so, Propy is removing inefficiencies with outdated legacy systems and removing cost barriers that prevent access to real estate. For more information, users can visit Propy.com. 

About Metropolitan Partners Group

Founded in 2008, Metropolitan Partners Group is a New York-based private investment firm. Metropolitan provides non-controlling growth capital to non-sponsored, entrepreneur-led businesses predominantly across the U.S., designed to preserve ownership, honor the management team’s vision, and accelerate scale, while delivering value and downside protection to its investors. To learn more, visit www.metpg.com/.

Contact

PR Director
Karla Vilhelem
Propy
[email protected]
(754) 215-4315

Image – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2872603/Propy.jpg

SOURCE Propy

$45M extension brings leading global institutions onto the cap table

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2026 — Talos, the premier provider of institutional digital asset infrastructure, technology and data supporting the full trading and portfolio management lifecycle, today announced a $45 million Series B extension, including new strategic investors Robinhood Markets, Sony Innovation Fund, IMC, QCP and Karatage, alongside returning investors a16z crypto, BNY and Fidelity Investments.

The fundraising round brings the company’s total amount raised in its Series B to $150 million. The post-money valuation will reach approximately $1.5 billion.

“We’re proud to have some of the world’s most respected institutions, most of them existing clients and partners, join us as investors,” said Anton Katz, CEO and Co-Founder of Talos. “We extended our Series B round to accommodate interest from strategic partners who recognize Talos’s role in providing core institutional infrastructure for digital assets. At a time when traditional asset classes are increasingly migrating to digital rails, these partners wanted to be more closely aligned with our growth. Together, we’re building the foundation for the next generation of financial markets.”

This strategic round brings together partners and investors whose portfolio companies are involved in digital assets, ranging from trading and custody to liquidity provision and infrastructure. 

“Talos’s flexibility and rapid adaptability allow us to deepen our liquidity and deliver even more advanced features to Robinhood Crypto customers,” said Johann Kerbrat, SVP and GM of Crypto at Robinhood. “We’re happy to support their growth as they work to power the digital asset ecosystem.”

“Talos has built a comprehensive crypto platform from the ground up to address the complex needs of large financial institutions as they rapidly scale their businesses,” said Kazuhito Hadano, CEO, Sony Ventures Corporation. “At Sony Innovation Fund, we’ve been particularly impressed by the company’s evolution from order execution to a full front-, middle- and back-office solution, complemented by robust digital asset data and analytics. We’re excited to support Talos in this next phase of growth and help accelerate its continued expansion.”

A portion of the investment was settled using stablecoins, reflecting the growing use of blockchain-based payment rails in institutional transactions. Proceeds from the Series B extension will be used to expand product development across the Talos platform, from portfolio construction and risk management, to execution, treasury and settlement tools. In particular, Talos plans to expand its platform to support traditional asset classes as they migrate to become digital assets.

The fundraise follows a period of significant momentum for Talos, marked by the company roughly doubling revenues and number of clients each year for the past 2 years. Talos announced the launch of its RFQ platform with BlackRock’s traders on the Aladdin^® platform, as well as the acquisitions of four best-in-class digital asset firms: Coin Metrics, Cloudwall, Skolem and D3X Systems, enhancing the company’s capabilities across data, risk management, DeFi infrastructure and portfolio engineering. 

Investors additionally commented:

“Talos’s focus on institutional requirements – performance, safety and reliability – positions it as a preferred gateway for institutions entering digital asset markets and aligns with IMC’s view of how the market will continue to evolve and mature.” – Jae Park, CFO Crypto, IMC

“Digital assets are no longer a standalone market – they’re becoming the rails for broader capital markets. Talos is building the infrastructure that allows institutions to trade, manage risk and allocate capital seamlessly across that transition.” – Darius Sit, Founder of QCP

“Anton and the Talos team have built an exceptional, institutional-grade platform that is the essential infrastructure for the evolving digital asset ecosystem. Their relentless focus on innovation, combined with best-in-class execution, positions Talos as the dominant leader as traditional finance migrates to digital rails. As a long-term believer in high-quality infrastructure and deep tech, Karatage is proud to invest and support their next phase of growth and contribute to building the foundation for the future of financial markets infrastructure.” – Marius Barnett, Co-Founder and CEO, Karatage

About Talos

Talos provides institutional-grade technology and data that supports the full digital asset investment lifecycle, including liquidity sourcing, price discovery, trading, settlement and portfolio management. Engineered by a team with unmatched experience building institutional trading, portfolio and data systems, the Talos platform connects institutions to key providers in the digital asset ecosystem – exchanges, OTC desks, prime brokers, lenders, custodians, and more – through a single interface. For additional information, visit www.talos.com.

Talos Disclaimer: Talos offers software-as-a-service products that provide connectivity tools for institutional clients. Talos does not provide clients with any pre-negotiated arrangements with liquidity providers or other parties. Clients are required to independently negotiate arrangements with liquidity providers and other parties bilaterally. Talos is not party to any of these arrangements. Services and venues may not be available in all jurisdictions.

Media contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE Talos Trading

The onchain launch protocol now powers the majority of new DEX pools on Base, with over $1.5B in value created and $1B+ in trading volume in just nine months

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2026 — Doppler, the default launch protocol for teams raising capital onchain, today announced a $9 million seed round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Variant, Figment Capital, and Coinbase Ventures. The funding comes as Doppler has rapidly emerged as the core market infrastructure for new onchain assets, powering the majority of token launches and DEX pools on Base.

Since launching nine months ago, Doppler has become the default path to market for new onchain assets. Over 90% of new DEX pools on Base now launch via Doppler, and its infrastructure supports tokens created by leading applications including Zora, Base App, Paragraph, FxHash, and more. Today, more than 40,000 assets are created daily using Doppler, representing over $1.5 billion in value and more than $1 billion in cumulative trading volume.

Launching a token today is closer to running an IPO than deploying a website — except there are no banks, no underwriters, and no established playbook. Teams often spend months preparing launches, only to see snipers extract value, liquidity fail to materialize, and charts collapse within days. When 80–90% of tokens seek similar outcomes, yet each team continues to roll its own launch infrastructure, something is fundamentally broken.

“Capital formation has not fundamentally changed in over a century, despite how broken the IPO process has become,” said Austin Adams, creator of the Doppler Protocol and founder of Whetstone Research. “Tokenization of markets will finish what electronification started in the 1990s — leaping forward in efficiency and creating new markets while simultaneously lowering costs and barriers. In this new reality, the mechanism determines the outcome. That’s why we invented Doppler.”

Doppler compresses months of infrastructure work — token deployment, vesting, liquidity bootstrapping, governance, and fee routing — into a single, unified interface. At the core of the protocol are price discovery auctions designed to protect launches from snipers while generating protocol-owned liquidity from day one. This allows teams to focus on building applications and communities, rather than reinventing fragile and complex launch mechanics.

With customizable auctions for nearly any asset type, Doppler’s infrastructure supports tokenized equities, commodities, TGEs, content, art, creators, and ideas. Assets launched via Doppler are immediately tradeable across any interface supporting the underlying DEX, ensuring maximum distribution from day one.

The results have been significant. Since launch, more than six million pools have been deployed through Doppler, representing 93% of Uniswap v4 pools on Base and 91% across all supported networks. In total, this activity represents over 40,000 assets launched daily, with more than $1.5 billion in value created and over $1 billion in trading volume.

The $9 million seed round will enable Doppler to expand into self-serve markets, support larger token generation events, and deepen integrations across the onchain ecosystem. The team includes engineers with backgrounds at Uniswap, Primitive Finance, and Aztec, bringing experience building AMMs and market infrastructure at scale.

Already the default launch infrastructure for coins on Base, Doppler’s broader mission is to become the default infrastructure for entirely new asset classes that could not have existed before. Doppler helps teams build apps, not auctions — and is redefining how capital formation works onchain.

About Whetstone Research

Whetstone Research is building the future of onchain markets. Their first product is Doppler, a hyper-efficient price discovery and liquidity bootstrapping Protocol for projects that are meant to last. Their second product is Pure Markets, a launchpad for serious projects and trading terminal.

Contact

Bridgett Frey
[email protected] 

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2872541/Doppler_seed_round.jpg

SOURCE Doppler

LONDON, Jan. 29, 2026 — LifeArc Ventures, the venture capital arm of the medical research organisation, LifeArc, had its most active year to date in 2025, announcing investments in four new innovative life sciences portfolio companies and further funding and supporting its portfolio, which stood at 20 companies at year end.  

Since its inception in 2020, the portfolio has grown through Seed and Series A investments, expanding its investments into Series B in 2025. LifeArc Ventures participated in two new Series B rounds in transformative companies as part of top tier global syndicates, as well as supporting existing portfolio companies with their Series A and B raises. LifeArc Ventures anticipates another year of substantial progress in 2026, with multiple clinical starts expected alongside further new investments.

Clare Terlouw, Managing Partner of LifeArc Ventures, said: “This year we’ve announced four new investments, including our first in German, Swiss and Scandinavian companies. This geographic expansion is part of our long-term strategy to diversify the portfolio, entering new territories and therapeutic areas while sustaining our UK focus. We’re encouraged by the way our investments are maturing across the portfolio, and by our ability to attract talented individuals with the experience and expertise to support our growing footprint and ambitions. 2026 promises to be a transformative year for our portfolio companies and for our fund.” 

LifeArc Ventures invests broadly across therapeutics and tech-enabled biotechnology companies across all modalities and therapeutic areas as part of its direct investment strategy. LifeArc Ventures also runs a fund of funds strategy and has invested in ten leading global life sciences venture funds to date. The goal is to return capital to LifeArc’s balance sheet as part of the organisation’s long term financial sustainability, whilst supporting the translation of bold scientific ideas into transformative solutions for patients. 

A growing specialist team

The appointments of Olivia Cavlan, MD, as Partner, and Diana Röttger as Investment Principal, in 2025 further strengthened LifeArc Ventures’ commercial, operational and scientific expertise, reinforcing its ability to source and manage promising additional investments as well as actively supporting the growth and governance of our existing portfolio.

Expanding the portfolio with high-impact investments complemented by targeted follow-ons

LifeArc Ventures deployed capital across a diverse array of therapeutic modalities and technologies, in particular areas with significant unmet needs such as autoimmune diseases, fibrosis and CNS disorders.

• GlycoEra AG’s $130 million Series B: LifeArc Ventures joined Novo Holdings, Catalio Capital Management, QIA, Sofinnova Partners, 5AM Ventures, Roche Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, Agent Capital, MP Healthcare Venture Management, and Sixty Degree Capital. The funding will be used to transform GlycoEra into a clinical stage company with its lead program targeting IgG4 applicable to multiple autoimmune conditions. GlycoEra is based in Switzerland and the U.S.

• Hillstar Bio’s $67 million Series A: Co-investing with Droia Ventures, Frazier Life Sciences and Novo Holdings, LifeArc Ventures supported the U.S.-based company’s launch focused on precision immunotherapies.

• Exciva’s €51 million Series B: LifeArc Ventures joined GIMV, EQT, Fountain Healthcare Partners and Andera to support the German company’s Phase 2 study evaluating Deraphan for treatment of agitation associated with Alzheimer’s disease (ADA). ADA represents a significant unmet need, affecting more than 30-50% of patients at any point in time. A phase 1 trial with Deraphan has been successfully completed and showed that the combination is safe and well-tolerated.

• Tribune Therapeutics’ €23 million Series A: LifeArc Ventures led the Series A, partnering with Scandinavian investors Novo Holdings, HealthCap, Innovestor’s Life Science Fund, Inven2, Industrifonden, and Investinor to help drive the Swedish/Norwegian company’s development of TRX-44, a first-in-class CCN5-mimicking therapy. This investment targets idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, advancing the program toward pivotal clinical trials.

In addition, two of our companies announced substantial further funding:

• Maxion Therapeutics’ $72 million oversubscribed Series A: Alongside the other existing investors Monograph Capital and BGF, and joined by new investors General Catalyst, British Patient Capital, Solasta Ventures, and Eli Lilly and Company, LifeArc Ventures supported Maxion’s plans to transform into a clinical-stage company, taking the lead KnotBody® program candidate MAX001 to clinical proof-of-concept for inflammatory diseases, unlocking new therapeutic possibilities.

• Affect Therapeutics’ $26 million Series B: LifeArc Ventures participated alongside Allumia Ventures, Artis Ventures, City Light Capital, and Limitless Ventures to help scale up Affect’s AI-powered virtual clinic. Already operating in more than 20 U.S. states, the platform integrates behavioral therapy, biological monitoring, and incentives to address substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health challenges, expanding partnerships with health plans and employers.

Substantive portfolio progress: from patents to partnerships

Several of LifeArc Ventures’ portfolio delivered substantial achievements in 2025, expanding IP, strengthening leadership, receiving clinical authorisations and forming strategic alliances including:

• AviadoBio and UgeneX Therapeutics’ exclusive option and license agreement: AviadoBio secured an option to worldwide rights (ex-Greater China) to UGX-202, an advanced optogenetics gene therapy for retinitis pigmentosa and retinal diseases, currently in Phase 1. The deal includes up to $413 million in milestones and royalties.

• Fluid Biomed appoints senior medtech executive John Kilcoyne as Independent Board Chair: The appointment brings decades of experience in leading high-growth medical device companies to Canada-based Fluid Biomed as it accelerates development of its unique polymer–based stent technology to treat brain aneurysms and stroke.

• Ikarovec substantive regulatory and clinical progress: positive FDA feedback on development plan for IKAR-001, first-in-class dual pathway gene therapy for geographic atrophy, and promising data presented on therapeutic potential in geographic atrophy and wet AMD.

• Maxion Therapeutics’ leadership and Board strengthened: Joel Edwards (formerly VP of Corporate Strategy and Operations at Ionis Pharmaceuticals) joined as Chief Business Officer to drive partnerships for the KnotBody® pipeline, while Dr. Santiago Arroyo (formerly CMO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals until its sale to J&J for $6.5bn) was appointed Non-Executive Director to guide clinical advancement post-Series A.

• RQ Bio accelerates seasonal influenza programme: After the success of developing Kavigale for COVID-19, RQ Bio has successfully turned its attention to generating potent and resilient long-acting antibodies for seasonal influenza A for vulnerable individuals.

Contacts:

About LifeArc

LifeArc is a not-for-profit medical research organisation with one clear purpose – transforming the lives of people living with rare diseases and drug-resistant infections. We aim to deliver this by conducting and funding pioneering research, and working with partners to accelerate the translation of scientific breakthroughs into new tests and treatments. Through our LifeArc Ventures team, we invest in innovative life sciences companies with significant follow-on investment reserved for successful portfolio companies. Our ventures approach focuses on investing in novel translational science and technology across a broad range of indications and the full spectrum of therapeutics, healthtech and medical devices – with the dual goal to generate financial returns to LifeArc and to deliver life-changing patient impact.

Find out more on www.lifearc.org / https://lifearcventures.com or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter (@LifeArcVentures).

SOURCE LifeArc

New fund invests in advanced energy systems, materials production, and applied AI powering industrial growth

SAN FRANCISCO and NEW YORK and LONDON, Jan. 28, 2026 — Voyager Ventures announced a $275 million Fund II to invest in energy, industrials, and climate technology companies foundational to future abundance. With this fund, Voyager now manages $475 million across North America and Europe. The firm invests in technologies that modernize the base layer of the economy, spanning energy production and distribution, advanced manufacturing, critical materials, physical AI, and compute.

“We launched Voyager in 2021 to invest early in the foundational technology companies for durable economic growth,” said Sarah Sclarsic, co-founder and general partner at Voyager Ventures. “Today we’re seeing the market validate demand and scale for energy, critical materials, advanced manufacturing, AI for optimizing physical systems, among other technologies that are drivers of the global economy. Now, more than ever, companies and countries are recognizing that these technologies are critical to creating lasting competitive advantage.”

“We are investing in technology companies that create systemic stability in an increasingly volatile world,” said Sierra Peterson, co-founder and general partner at Voyager Ventures. “The economy of the past was built on finite fuels and brittle processes that will continue to hamper prosperity until we transcend them. We’re investing in technology that simply performs better.

Voyager Ventures’ Fund II invests across these sectors:

• Energy + Efficiency: Technologies that generate, store, and use energy more efficiently, expanding capacity while strengthening resilience and reducing cost
• Materials Production: Technologies that enable core materials to be produced with speed, precision, and greater efficiency – domestically and at scale
• Software + AI: Software companies that layer intelligence onto the physical world, unlocking gains in efficiency, uptime, and operational precision across energy, logistics, and manufacturing
• Mobility: The delivery of high-performance mobility across air, land, sea, and the data layers in between
• Built Environment: Software and hardware that optimize how long-lived facilities and assets are designed, built, and run
• Carbon Management: Software and hardware to capture, reuse, and remove carbon

Sarah Sclarsic and Sierra Peterson together bring more than 30 years of experience building and operating companies and creating policy across energy, advanced materials, and mobility. Sarah conducted research in synthetic biology at MIT and helped build Modern Meadow, the world’s first company making bio-fabricated leather, as part of its founding team, and co-founded sustainable transportation unicorn Getaround. Sierra designed carbon markets at the International Energy Agency, shaped energy and industrial policy in the Obama White House, and later led corporate development teams for fintech companies that financed more than $3 billion in energy projects across North America.

Voyager’s portfolio includes Allie, Anthro Energy, Arbor Energy, and Astro Mechanica. Fund II has already begun investing, including in ENAPI, Leeta Materials, and Electroflow Technologies, with additional investments to be announced.

For more information, visit voyagervc.com

About Voyager Ventures

Voyager is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in frontier energy and industrial technology companies foundational to enduring abundance at global scale. With offices in San Francisco, New York and London, Voyager partners with founders across North America and Europe. The firm now manages $475 million across three funds.

Financing to Accelerate Deployment of High-Performance AI Compute Across Key Global Regions

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 28, 2026 — PaleBlueDot AI (“the Company”), a Silicon Valley-based AI compute platform founded in 2024, today announced the completion of a $150 million Series B financing, valuing the company at over $1 billion. The round was led by B Capital, a San Francisco- and Singapore-headquartered investment firm with more than $9 billion in assets under management.

The financing follows a year of significant growth, with revenue increasing more than 10-fold, driven by strong enterprise demand for scalable, cost-efficient AI compute solutions and the company’s ability to deliver capacity rapidly and reliably.

The AI Compute market has been growing exponentially, driven by development cycles, inference demand and real-time application usage that creates sharp, unpredictable spikes in usage. Organizations need global availability and performance reliability across regions to support stable, long-duration workloads. With a growing global footprint across North America, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, PaleBlueDot AI delivers enterprise-grade AI compute with speed and predictability across regions.

“With the vision to empower AI everywhere for everyone, ultimately, our mission is to make intelligence universally accessible,” said Stephen Watts, CEO of PaleBlueDot AI.

“AI is transitioning from language interfaces to operational systems that execute tasks and integrate directly into real-world workflows. As AI becomes foundational to how companies operate, the need for high-performance, reliable, and cost-efficient infrastructure has never been more critical. At PaleBlueDot AI, we are committed to building a global AI compute platform to meet customers’ evolving inference and deployment needs, recognizing that broader adoption depends on compute that can scale efficiently and economically. We build our services with a customer-first mindset, which enables us to operate sustainably and support long-term growth for our customers and partners.”

The new capital will be primarily used to strengthen PaleBlueDot AI’s core technology capabilities, with significant investment in platform engineering and technical talent to further enhance its full-stack, multi-tenant cloud architecture, and acceleration of its AI Cloud Agent. The Company will expand its go-to-market capabilities and support continued global expansion, scaling operations to meet growing enterprise demand for trusted, high-performance AI compute.

About PaleBlueDot AI
PaleBlueDot AI is a Silicon Valley-based AI compute platform with a growing global footprint. The company delivers high-performance AI compute through a unified platform designed for enterprise-scale deployment. Guided by its mission to make intelligence universally accessible, PaleBlueDot AI enables organizations to build, deploy, and scale AI faster, better, and cheaper. Named after the image of Planet Earth taken on the 1990 Voyager space mission coined by Carl Sagan as “a pale blue dot,” the company shares a belief in the transformative potential of AI technology to benefit all of humanity.

Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE PaleBlueDot AI

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 28, 2026 — Mesh Security, the company delivering the world’s first Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) platform, today announced a $12 million Series A funding round led by Lobby Capital, with participation from S Ventures (SentinelOne CVC), and Bright Pixel Capital. Mesh provides the execution layer for modern security operations, as enterprises shift toward unifying fragmented security investments into a single, interoperable system that reduces exposure and improves business resiliency at scale.

Mesh Security provides the execution layer for modern security operations, enabling enterprises to run their security investments as a single, interoperable system at scale.

Over the past decade, organizations invested heavily in best-of-breed stacks across identity, endpoints, data, cloud, SaaS, networks, and CI/CD. While individual tools improved, security as a system did not. The result has been consistent across the industry: too many tools, scattered security data, disjointed operations, and growing exposure that no single product can truly own.

Mesh was built to address this structural gap.

Mesh is not another security product. It operates as an execution layer that sits above existing security investments, unifying visibility, context, and control without agents or rip-and-replace. By transforming fragmented stacks into a single operational fabric, Mesh enables organizations to move from human-driven security operations to system-driven exposure elimination.

Mesh’s platform is purpose-built to operationalize Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA), as defined by Gartner, in real-world enterprise environments. While CSMA has emerged as the industry’s architectural direction, most organizations struggle to execute it in practice. Mesh delivers the missing execution layer, enabling cross-domain visibility and control across business units, subsidiaries, teams, and environments without disrupting existing investments.

“For years, enterprise security has accumulated tools and data, but it never built an execution layer that connects them into a single operating model,” said Netanel (Neo) Azoulay, CEO and co-founder of Mesh Security. “Mesh was built to realize Cybersecurity Mesh by unifying context and control across best-of-breed environments, so security finally works as one system, without vendor lock-in.”

This shift is being driven by a broader market transition. Security leaders face increasing board-level pressure to reduce risk, prove ROI, and operate faster, while legacy architectures were never designed for execution at scale. As a result, ‘platformization’ is becoming a board-level mandate, and Cybersecurity Mesh is moving from theory to board-level priority.

Mesh is already deployed in complex production environments, working alongside leading security platforms to enable enterprise-wide adaptive defense that historically never operated together. The company’s approach is resonating across the ecosystem, including collaboration with leading security platforms such as SentinelOne, and with enterprises seeking to unlock the full value of their existing security investments.

“Mesh provides a clear way to understand where a security program stands,” said Bradley Schaufenbuel, VP and CISO at Paychex. “It helps identify the critical gaps that actually matter and drives the process of closing them. What stands out is that it doesn’t require replacing existing tools, it’s designed to make the security stack work as one zero trust system.”

“We’re thrilled to lead this investment in Mesh Security, as they pioneer the future of unified security operations and CSMA security,” said Buddy Arnheim, Founding Partner at Lobby Capital. “Mesh’s platform is uniquely positioned to help enterprises achieve true cybersecurity mesh architecture in an era of increasing complexity.”

The new funding will be used to further advance Mesh’s autonomous, agentic capabilities, expanding how the platform reasons over cross-domain attack paths and enables system-level remediation, while scaling sales and customer support to meet growing enterprise demand.

As Mesh enters its next phase of growth, the company remains focused on a single goal: enabling security teams to execute, not just observe. Rather than adding dashboards or alerts, Mesh is designed to eliminate exposure by design through autonomous, system-level execution.

About Mesh Security

Mesh Security is building the execution layer for modern security operations. By unifying context and control into a single operating model, Mesh enables organizations to transform fragmented security stacks into real-time, adaptive defense. Mesh operates agentlessly, without rip-and-replace, allowing enterprises to unlock the full value of their existing security investments while reducing exposure at scale. Mesh is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with operations in Tel Aviv, Israel.

For more information, visit www.mesh.security

Media inquiries: Kate Turchin | (510) 220-7777 | [email protected] 

SOURCE Mesh Security

AI-powered voice coaching platform surpasses $10M annual recurring revenue (ARR) with just seven employees, helping professionals in over 150 countries speak English clearly and confidently

NEW YORK, Jan. 28, 2026 — BoldVoice, the AI-powered voice coaching platform for non-native English speakers, today announced its $21 million Series A round led by Matrix, with participation from Flybridge, Xfund, Corazon Capital, Alumni Ventures, Umami Capital and Y Combinator. To date, BoldVoice has surpassed five million downloads, serves professionals in more than 150 countries and recently crossed $10 million in ARR. The funding will accelerate global expansion and the development of new AI-powered coaching capabilities and proprietary speech models.

An estimated 70-75% of English speakers are non-native, making English the universal language of the global economy. In today’s workplace, professionals increasingly rely on English for meetings, presentations and client interactions across regions and time zones. Yet for more than one billion non-native English speakers, pronunciation and clarity can directly impact professional outcomes. Research shows that speakers with foreign accents are less likely to be promoted, underscoring a persistent and largely unaddressed barrier to career advancement.

BoldVoice is built to break the invisible barrier non-native English professionals face. The platform helps users improve their speech clarity and confidence with real-time pronunciation feedback alongside expert-guided coaching. Users record their voice and receive instant, phoneme-level feedback from proprietary speech models trained for accent and pronunciation analysis. Combined with video lessons from expert voice and accent coaches, the platform enables daily practice and measurable improvement.

“AI has transformed how we write, but spoken communication — where teams actually build trust and close deals — has been left behind. We’re fixing that,” said Anada Lakra, co-founder and CEO of BoldVoice. “We’re giving a billion non-native English speakers a personal voice coach.”

Ilya Usorov, co-founder and CTO of BoldVoice, added, “Speech feedback only works if it is extremely precise. General speech recognition systems aren’t designed to hear the nuances of accented speech. At BoldVoice, we’re building the ears on the machine with AI models trained specifically for accent and pronunciation analysis, so we can deliver precise and actionable feedback in real time.”

Alternatives like traditional speech and accent coaching are expensive and difficult to access, often costing between $200-300 per hour. BoldVoice offers unlimited, on-demand practice for less than the cost of a single coaching session over an entire year, making high-quality speaking improvement accessible at a global scale.

“There are millions of non-native English speakers whose careers are held back by something coachable—and BoldVoice has built the AI to coach it at scale,” said Kojo Osei, Partner at Matrix. “They’re defining a new category in professional communication and we’re excited to support their growth.”

Founded by Lakra and Usorov after experiencing these challenges firsthand, BoldVoice has scaled rapidly with just seven employees, demonstrating the strength of its AI-native product and market demand.

The BoldVoice app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and more information can be found at boldvoice.com. The company is hiring across growth, product and engineering.

About BoldVoice:
BoldVoice is an AI-powered voice coaching platform for non-native English speakers that helps professionals worldwide communicate clearly and confidently. Combining real-time AI feedback on pronunciation with expert-guided coaching, the platform supports individuals and companies in improving spoken English across global teams. Founded by Anada Lakra and Ilya Usorov, BoldVoice has backing from Matrix Partners, Flybridge, Xfund, Corazon Capital, Liquid 2, Alumni Ventures, Umami Capital and Y Combinator. The app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Learn more at boldvoice.com.

About Matrix:
Matrix is an early-stage venture capital firm investing from idea through Series A. As a close-knit team of former founders and company builders, Matrix partners with companies with deep technical expertise and a clear vision of the future. The firm has backed industry-defining companies including Apple, FedEx, Canva and Oculus.

SOURCE BoldVoice

Fresh capital to accelerate seamless and secure charging for fleets and drivers, while enabling strategic partnerships that put JustPlug on a clear path to scale

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 28, 2026 — Emobi, North America’s largest EV charging roaming and JustPlug infrastructure, today announced the closing of a $3.4 million seed raise. The round was led by Florida Funders, with participation from existing investors, including Aves Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Gaingels, Gener8tor, Goodwater Capital, Oasis Capital, OneSixOne Ventures, Ride Wave Ventures, and Y Combinator. The capital will be used to scale Emobi’s technical infrastructure and support the rapid expansion of its proprietary product, JustPlug, the first cloud-based Plug & Charge solution, through commercial partnerships with automakers, fleets, charging operators, and infrastructure providers. Currently, Emobi is doing pilot programs with three of the top 10 EV automakers in North America. These pilots are designed to test and implement JustPlug, paving the way for large-scale commercial rollouts of a secure and automated charging in every EV on the road under these top automaker brands.

The funding comes on the heels of several milestones, further solidifying Emobi’s leadership in the EV charging space. This includes the launch of JustPlug, Emobi’s patented, cloud-based solution that enables secure, automatic EV charging with no special hardware, software, or setup required. It uses ISO 15118 digital certificate infrastructure for authentication via cloud, while using AI-powered memory map for charger-vehicle identification. JustPlug is uniquely designed to solve a persistent challenge in the industry: the majority of existing chargers and vehicles lack the necessary hardware and firmware to support traditional Plug & Charge functionality, leaving about 80% of chargers and vehicles unable to adopt this capability. JustPlug removes this long-standing barrier by extending Plug & Charge functionality across both modern and legacy infrastructure , addressing this critical gap in the market. By removing the need for apps and cards, JustPlug securely automates the charging process, allowing EV drivers to simply plug-in and start charging, further positioning EV charging to be better than fueling.

Notably, the capital has already enabled Emobi to translate JustPlug from a breakthrough technology into live, scalable deployments through key industry partnerships. In 2025, Emobi announced multiple commercial collaborations that demonstrate JustPlug’s flexibility across public, fleet, and customer-managed charging environments. These include partnerships with Flipturn to bring roaming and Plug & Charge–ready infrastructure to customer-managed charging sites; ElectricFish to enable JustPlug on grid-independent, ultra-fast public and fleet charging depots; and Curo to deliver seamless EV charging access for fleets nationwide. Together, these partnerships validate JustPlug’s ability to operate across diverse infrastructure models and accelerate adoption at scale.

The funding will also allow Emobi to accelerate the growth of its EV charging ecosystem, which spans over 140,000 charging ports across 28+ networks. In addition to scaling its technical capabilities, Emobi’s strategic focus includes nurturing and expanding partnerships with key industry players, such as Monta, a leading provider of EV charging software solutions, and Parkopedia, a digital parking and EV charging solution, and other e-mobility service providers in the North American market. These collaborations are integral to Emobi’s mission of providing seamless, secure, and reliable EV charging experiences, from automakers and fleets to drivers.

“For over a decade, the EV industry has promised seamless charging but drivers are still fumbling with apps, RFID cards, and closed ecosystems,” said Lin Sun Fa, CEO of Emobi. “We’re not waiting for another round of network upgrades or regulatory alignment – JustPlug breaks that stalemate. It’s the first solution that cuts through the fragmentation and gives power back to the people who actually drive EVs. This funding accelerates that mission and positions Emobi to make seamless and secure charging the norm, not the exception.”

“Emobi is positioning itself as a leader in the rapidly evolving EV infrastructure market,” said Michael Kadow, Partner, Florida Funders. “Their innovative approach to solving fundamental challenges in EV charging, backed by a clear strategy and a strong team, ensures they will play a pivotal role in shaping the industry’s future. We applaud Emobi’s commitment to making the charging experience seamless, secure, and universally accessible.”

The closing of this seed round ensures Emobi is poised for continued growth and impact in the electric vehicle industry. With a focus on enhancing accessibility, scalability, and the user experience, Emobi is set to accelerate the adoption of EV charging solutions across North America.

About Emobi
Emobi enables seamless and secure EV charging across networks, providing unified infrastructure for app makers, fleets, and automakers, while maximizing charger utilization. Its secure, fully automated charging technology, JustPlug, simplifies EV charging and works instantly with no special hardware or software required. Emobi holds two provisional patents, integrates with over 140,000 chargers across the U.S. and Canada, and serves over 40 enterprise customers. Emobi is trusted by the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Transportation and backed by global investors including Florida Funders and Y Combinator. For more information, visit www.emobi.ai.

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SOURCE Emobi