GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., Jan. 9, 2024 — Pinpoint Search Group, a leading cybersecurity recruitment firm in the U.S., has published its annual report on cybersecurity funding for 2023. The report reveals an increase in the number of transactions compared to 2022 but a decrease in the total amount of funding raised. This trend of more transactions but less overall funding might initially appear troubling, but it signifies a shift in the investment strategies being employed by investors, along with other contributing factors.
In 2023, Pinpoint Search Group’s research team recorded 437 transactions in the cybersecurity vendor space, totaling $8.7 billion across 346 funding rounds and 91 M&As. This represents a 14 percent increase in transaction volume from 303 in 2022, but also a 40 percent decrease in fundraising from the previous year’s $14.5 billion.
This final quarter of the year witnessed a similar trend. In Q4 2023, the cybersecurity industry secured $1.6 billion in funding, marking a 45 percent decrease from the $2.9 billion raised in Q4 of the previous year. Despite this decrease in total funds, the quarter saw a 21 percent increase in funding rounds, rising from 70 in Q4 2022 to 85 in Q4 2023.
The decline in total funding raised can be attributed to a shift in investor focus in 2023. Investors adjusted their approaches, directing a greater portion of their funds into early-stage initiatives within the cybersecurity sector. This is evident as Seed, Series-A, and Series-B rounds comprised a considerable share of overall funding. In 2023, for instance, seed rounds alone made up 42 percent of all funding deals. This shift toward early-stage investments accounted for the higher number of funding transactions, even though the aggregate capital invested decreased.
“Overall, professionals in the cybersecurity sector have reason to be optimistic,” said Mark Sasson, founder and managing partner at Pinpoint Search Group. “While the industry experienced real pain in 2023, the demand for security solutions continues to grow. The impact on the professionals in the space will depend on how quickly investors and founders can transition from early-stage innovation to growth.”
For the full, detailed findings of Pinpoint Search Group’s 2023 annual report on cybersecurity funding, please click here.
About Pinpoint Search Group Pinpoint Search Group is a leading cybersecurity recruitment firm and specializes in filling vice president, director, and senior individual talent. Pinpoint’s collective experience recruiting hundreds of candidates in all segments of cybersecurity provides the company with the credibility to communicate with, qualify, and place professionals in today’s most competitive area of technology. Pinpoint also produces Cybersecurity M&A and Vendor Funding Reports highlighting M&As and funding in the cybersecurity space monthly, quarterly, and annually.
Media Contact: Christopher Joseph (CJ) Arlotta CJ Media Solutions, LLC for Pinpoint Search Group C: 631-572-3019 370962@email4pr.com
TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 9, 2024 — Rewst, a purpose-built automation platform for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), today announced a $31 million Series B led by Meritech Capital, joining existing investors OpenView, TDF Ventures, and Florida Funders. The funding will help accelerate Rewst’s growth and the value delivered to MSPs through the expansion of its product, customer success, education, and Robotic Operations Center (ROC) teams.
Despite having hundreds of repetitive processes ripe for automation, MSPs have been vastly underserved by traditional Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vendors. That’s because generic RPA tools are typically too expensive and resource intensive for MSPs. They also lack the multi-tenancy and native integrations unique to MSPs’ IT environments.
Founded in 2020, Rewst set out to solve these challenges by building the first purpose-built automation platform for MSPs. With 45 out-of-the-box integrations to popular products like Acronis, ConnectWise, Datto, Duo, Huntress, ITGlue, Kaseya, Microsoft, OpenAI, Pax8, and SentinelOne, Rewst’s vendor-agnostic approach allows MSPs to connect their entire tech stack. Users can then automate end-to-end processes by installing pre-built automations or visually designing their own workflows and forms. Common use cases include user onboarding/offboarding, billing reconciliation, adding/removing group membership, MFA alerting, just-in-time admin access, ticket categorization and prioritization, and more.
“At this point, we’re averaging about 75 to 80 hours of time savings per week with Rewst,” said Dustin Lepi, Automation Engineer at Network IT Easy. “That’s 300+ hours saved per month, allowing us to focus on the tickets that need human intervention rather than wading through the endless noise from automated alerts.”
“Since serving the MSP market, they’ve become my favorite market,” said Aharon Chernin, Rewst’s CEO and founder. “They know what they need, and they’ll tell you if you ask! Automation is at the top of the list right now. From the beginning, we’ve focused on building not just the best platform for MSPs but a community where users learn from, and support, one another. With this funding, we will continue building out our ROC, training, and product, adding dozens of new integrations and enhancing the workflow-building experience. Rewst will be around for a long time to come, helping MSPs to succeed with automation.”
Less than two years since its birth, Rewst has emerged as the de-facto leader in the MSP automation market. The company has more than 700 MSPs, with a strong base in North America and a growing foothold in the EU and APAC. In a recent 30-day period, MSPs used Rewst to execute more than 46 million workflows, with self-reported time savings exceeding 251,000 hours. This figure includes manual effort freed up by automation, and high-hanging fruit that was previously ignored because the return was too low to do these tasks manually. In addition to time savings, MSPs benefit from consistent service delivery, reduced technician burnout, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
“We’re excited to partner with Aharon and the entire Rewst team,” said Alex Clayton, General Partner at Meritech Capital. “The tailwinds behind Rewst in the MSP space are massive; the technology surface area is growing, and MSPs are forced to do more with less. Automation is the key to unlocking efficiency, happy customers, and increased bottom lines. We spoke to many Rewst customers, both large and small, and the feedback was resoundingly positive. Rewst’s platform has become a no-brainer purchase for MSPs, and their pace of product development is unlike anything in the market today. This has created a vibrant community around the company. Additionally, we get excited about founders who are uniquely positioned to win a market, and Aharon represents that perfectly as someone who has seen this problem firsthand in the MSP space.”
Rewst has executed on a number of initiatives in 2023 to shorten time to value and empower MSPs to be successful with automation, including:
Crate Marketplace – Rewst released 50 pre-built automations, more than doubling its Crate Marketplace. Crates serve as ready-to-use templates, helping MSPs unlock immediate value.
Cluck University – Rewst continued to build out its Cluck U training to help MSPs master the art of automation through live group sessions, self-serve videos, step-by-step guides, and more.
Robotic Operations Center (ROC) – Rewst’s in-house automation experts assist customers in overcoming any hurdles during the automation process, while building and maintaining Crates.
RoboRewsty – The OpenAI-powered RoboRewsty is embedded in the platform to simplify the automation-building process, starting with automatic workflow documentation.
App Platform – App Platform allows MSPs to visually design branded front-ends, or apps, for employees and customers to interact with Rewst workflows and forms.
The Series B round brings Rewst’s total funding to $59 million.
Additional Resources:
About Rewst
Founded in 2020 and based in Tampa, FL, Rewst specializes in providing a purpose-built automation platform for Managed Service Providers. With a leadership team that has a proven track record of understanding and anticipating the needs of their customers, Rewst is well-positioned to drive the next evolution of RPA and empower MSPs to improve operational efficiency, service delivery, and customer satisfaction. Visit Rewst at https://rewst.io/ and follow the company on LinkedIn and YouTube.
About Meritech Capital
Meritech is a leading provider of late-stage venture capital to category-defining private technology companies and has been one of the top-performing venture firms of the past two-plus decades. The firm was founded in 1999 and cumulatively manages over $4 billion in total capital. Representative investments include Auth0, Anaplan, Braze, Carta, Coupa, Datadog, Facebook, Flock Safety, Looker, MuleSoft, NetSuite, Roblox, Salesforce, Segment, Snowflake, Tableau, and UiPath. The firm is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, and can be found at www.meritechcapital.com.
Media Contact: Ed Hadley, SVP Marketing [email protected] 413-822-4499
Umoja Unveils its Breakthrough Hedging Strategy to Secure Crypto Assets Following $2M Raise
ATLANTA, Jan. 9, 2024 — Umoja, founded by Robby Greenfield, the former Head of Social Impact at ConsenSys, has raised $2M from the likes of Quantstamp, Blockchain Founders Fund, Orange DAO, Hyperithm, Psalion, and Blizzard (Avalanche) among others. This funding helps to introduce DeFi‘s first asset risk management primitive – enabling anyone to insure their market losses just as a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund would. Its goal? To enable decentralized hedging of virtually any real-world asset risk – from crypto, to fiat, to even digital bonds, real estate, and commodities, representing a $500 trillion market opportunity.
Umoja Raises $2M to Eliminate Crypto Losses
Deemed the “Yearn Finance for Risk,” Umoja enables anyone to hedge their market losses to truly benefit from the oncoming bull run.
Aside from being one of extremely few, ventured backed founders of color – championing Umoja with the support of Coinbase Ventures, Quantstamp, Blockchain Founders Fund, 500 Global – Greenfield’s blockchain career has most notably been in the social sector, where he served as ConsenSys’s former Head of Social Impact. In the role, Robby co-led some of the world’s first blockchain-for-good use cases, such as the world’s first stablecoin-based humanitarian aid program with Oxfam International, receiving the U.S. State Department’s first blockchain grant to further factory worker wellness, and helping co-found the Ethereum Foundation’s Devon Scholars program.
But how did Umoja get here? From global humanitarian aid to asset-hedging? For Greenfield, it all started in Nairobi, Kenya.
Expensive FX depreciation makes foreign investment extremely difficult. The result is that the cost of capital in some of the world’s most promising, but frequently under-resourced economies is very high. Revenue generating MSMEs across the global south – who all deserve access to credit, simply can’t afford it, as investors want risk-adjusted returns. “This isn’t just an FX issue – for the average consumer, business, and investor, hedging asset risks is a tiresome effort. The Umoja protocol was created to enable anyone to hedge the risk of everything to secure their financial wellness,” Greenfield remarked.
“Crypto hedging is only the beginning. Our vision is to hedge any digital asset, so that anyone can affordably hedge their risks just like a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund,” Robby stated.
“We’re thrilled to support Umoja’s innovative approach to decentralized hedging, which we believe will redefine risk management across a spectrum of assets,” said Aly Madhavji, Managing Partner of Blockchain Founders Fund.
World’s First Advisory, Investing and Content Management Business in Sports, Entertainment and Leadership Development – All on One Single Global Platform
Sports Icons Tom Brady, Serena Williams and Pau Gasol Among Founding Partner Team
NEW YORK, Jan. 9, 2024 —
The Consello Group, a leading global advisory and investing firm, today announced the launch of Consello Strive, a first of its kind global business focused on the convergence of sports, entertainment and leadership development – all on one single platform.
Consello Strive will operate in four specific areas: Advisory, Investing, Content/IP and Leadership Development.
The sports and entertainment industries are being transformed by emerging technologies, the globalization of leading brands and the institutionalization of ownership. Within this rapidly changing environment, Consello Strive will seek to empower those investing in or commercializing assets in the sports, media, and entertainment arena to maximize their business potential and create the highest sustainable value. Consello will advise on how best to evolve investments, businesses, leagues, teams, or brand strategy across technology, infrastructure, commercial partnerships and acquisitions, among other disciplines.
Consello Group co-founder, and seven-time Super Bowl champion, Tom Brady, will be joined as a founding partner in this new division by 23-time Grand Slam champion, Serena Williams, and two-time NBA champion, six-time NBA All-Star and NBA Basketball Hall of Famer, Pau Gasol. Mr. Gasol will also lead a team focused on expanding Consello Strive’s interests throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Consello Strive will be chaired by Mark Dowley, Chief Operating Partner at Redbird Capital, who has over 30 years of senior managerial experience in the sports and entertainment industries.
Other founding partners in the new enterprise are:
Declan Kelly
Janey Whiteside
Peter Mattoon
Dr. Oscar Salazar
Mindy Grossman
Over the course of the coming weeks, Consello will announce a number of commercial partnership agreements with leading third-party industry participants and individuals as part of its rollout of Consello Strive around the world.
Announcing the new division, Consello Group Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly said: “We believe that Consello Strive has the potential to change the entire global landscape of sports, entertainment and leadership development because of the opportunities that exist in the marketplace today and the unique experience, relationships and track record of the team we have assembled. Over the coming months we will be expanding our presence and partnerships further and rolling out a series of new services as part of the overall platform. We couldn’t be more excited to have this senior group come together to build this groundbreaking new business.”
Tom Bradyadded: “Since the start of our journey at Consello our mission has been very clear – to make the best in the world even better. With Consello Strive we are bringing the very best in the world together to help advise people everywhere in the fields of sports and entertainment in ways that have never been done before. I am especially passionate about the launch of our leadership development vertical because working with leaders to drive them to search for improvement in whatever they do is something my partners and I have been devoted to our entire careers.”
Serena Williamsadded: “I am excited to deepen my relationship with Consello by joining Consello’s Strive platform as a partner. The next chapter of my life will be as exciting and fulfilling as the last one, and I have no doubt that the team we have assembled here will help me do just that. I am also excited to help Consello Strive as a business to grow and expand around the world.”
Pau Gasolsaid: “I’ve seen firsthand the lasting impact that sports can create, both on and off the court. Joining Consello Strive as a partner is a natural step for me because of my passion for growth, mentorship, and creating impactful change, just like I am already doing through Gasol16 Ventures, my investment vehicle, and through the Gasol Foundation, whose mission is to eradicate childhood obesity. I’m excited about embarking on this journey, and I will additionally be focusing on building out our offering in the Spanish-speaking world where some of the greatest athletes, entertainers and leaders show us daily what it means to be truly great.”
Mark Dowley, Chairman of Consello Strive, said: “We have assembled an unstoppable team of athletes, trusted advisors to the world’s business leaders, and proven global operators, who together will bring a broad-based set of perspectives, experiences and skills to the fore on behalf of the sports, entertainment and media leaders across the world. Consello Strive is unlike any other business in the market; my partners and I look forward to applying our knowledge and expertise to help our clients identify and unlock their full potential in the high growth sectors of sports, entertainment and media.”
Consello partner Janey Whiteside said: “Consello’s unparalleled connection to the world’s business leaders paired with the incomparable expertise of the sports icons involved, gives Consello Strive a unique opportunity to partner, advise and invest across the dynamic $550bn landscape that we see in front of us today in sports and entertainment. Commercializing that opportunity is something we believe we are better positioned to do than anyone else in the world today.”
Consello partner Mindy Grossman said: “I have spent my entire life working with and mentoring emerging leadership talent across multiple different businesses and industries, and that has taken me on an unforgettable journey through retail, sports, television, media and entertainment, and health and wellness. Launching Consello Strive today brings all those passions and interests together into one place and one platform and I truly believe we can and will change lives as part of what we are doing. I am especially thrilled that my friend and collaborator of more than 20 years, Serena Williams, is expanding her role with us on this journey and I am very confident we all can change the world together.”
Consello was launched less than two years ago and already has more than 100 employees and advisors, with offices in New York, London, Miami, Barcelona and Atlanta.
About Consello
The Consello Group is a financial services advisory and strategic investing platform. At Consello we invest capital to grow companies, we execute for our banking clients across industries, and we provide business development and marketing services to help companies grow and evolve. We also advise across sports, entertainment and leadership development, and our digital assets advisory business helps companies participate in the global digital financial services ecosystem.
Consello offers these six distinct but integrated lines of businesses all on one platform: Sports, Entertainment and Leadership Development; M&A Advisory and Investment Banking; Investing; Growth and Business Development; Marketing and Brand Advisory; and Digital Assets Advisory.
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 8, 2024 — Trice, a cloud-native API-first platform enabling direct connectivity for real-time bank payments, announced the closing of its seed investment round. This round featured strategic investments from Diagram Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), and JAM FINTOP.
Request for Payment (RfP) Functionality
The milestone paves the way to extend Trice’s innovative real-time payments-as-a-service platform, allowing companies to quickly deploy high-impact use cases powered by the RTP® network from The Clearing House and the FedNow Service. Trice’s platform introduces a paradigm shift for Account (A2A) transfers and Payouts, enabling customers to integrate Request-for-Pay (RfP) functionality, seamlessly receive instant and irrevocable deposits, load funds, top up balances, and enable recurring transfers.
Off-Bank-Core Technology
Customers increasingly demand speed, simplicity, and instant access when moving funds between their accounts. The Trice platform provides NeoBanks, Digital Wallets, Investing Apps, FinTechs, Lenders, Payment Providers, Banks and Credit Unions with technology that works independently from traditional core banking systems, allowing Trice to offer a future-proof modern payments gateway built specifically to support real-time bank payments, with scalable infrastructure, streamlined onboarding, and simplified operations. Companies can deploy solutions and experiences with Trice’s developer-friendly APIs in a matter of weeks, with the flexibility to utilize Trice sponsor banks or seamlessly connect with their own banking partners.
This round of funding enables Trice to continue building developer-friendly tools, expanding its engineering team to accelerate the product roadmap, rolling out bank-grade risk and compliance controls, and deepening partnerships and enterprise agreements.
RTP usage in the US continues to grow with 64 million transactions or $34 billion was processed in 3Q23. More than 345 banks and credit unions are currently utilizing the Real-Time Payments (RTP®) Network. pymnts.com projects real-time transactions to encompass nearly 28% of all electronic transactions globally by 2027.
“I am thrilled to announce the successful completion of our seed funding round, led by visionary investors who share our commitment to transforming the future of payments. With the support of our investors, we are excited to launch our state-of-the-art real-time payments platform. This investment validates our mission to deliver simple, seamless, and scalable real-time payments capabilities. We are grateful for the trust placed in Trice and look forward to the exciting journey ahead.” said Doug Yeager, Founder and CEO of Trice.
Steve Schultz, Partner at Diagram Ventures said, “Diagram Ventures is thrilled to lead the seed investment in Trice as part of our commitment to fostering innovation in fintech. Together with co-investors JAM FINTOP and RBC, we are confident in Trice’s ability to enable high-impact use cases for real-time payments. We look forward to supporting Trice on its journey to make real-time payments a reality”.
“Trice is a leading real-time payments gateway company, and we recognize the potential of Trice’s innovative platform to revolutionize the payments landscape. RBC’s investment underscores our commitment to supporting cutting-edge innovation and our confidence in Trice’s ability to drive meaningful advancements in the payments industry. We look forward to working with Trice as they shape the future of seamless, efficient, and secure financial transactions.” said Barrie Laver, Head Venture Capital & Private Equity at Royal Bank of Canada
Availability and Next Steps
Trice’s API-first, real-time payments-as-a-service platform, launched on November 14, 2023, with access to the RTP network from the Clearing House and includes Request for Pay (RfP) functionality. FedNow Service support is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2024. For media inquiries, product demonstrations, or further information, please contact [email protected].
About Trice
Committed to reshaping the landscape of financial transactions, Trice leverages innovative technology to provide a seamless, efficient, and secure API driven platform for real-time payments. With a mission to enable high-impact use cases for real-time bank payments, Trice is at the forefront of changing the way businesses and consumers experience the speed and convenience of modern payment solutions. For more information about Trice, please visit www.trice.co.
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 9, 2024 — Burro, a Philadelphia-based autonomous mobility company, closed a $24 million Series B co-led by New York City-based growth equity firm Catalyst Investors and Translink Capital, along with existing investors S2G Ventures, Toyota Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Cibus Capital. As part of the round, Brian Rich, managing partner with Catalyst Investors, and Kaz Kikuchi from Translink Capital, will join the company’s Board.
Burro team photo with new product: Burro Grande
Burro is an autonomy company building the future of work outdoors. Founded in 2017, the company began with a mobility platform designed to help customers meet rising wages and a shrinking workforce. Today, Burro has more than 300 robots working as harvest assist robots in nurseries and permanent crops, where they tow trailers autonomously, patrol depot yards, and serve as a platform and physical API for a growing set of technology partners.
While robotics has been successfully used indoors for years, Burro is the first collaborative robotic platform to work safely and reliably outdoors alongside human workers. This enables customers to increase workforce efficiency within one year of investment. With over 75,000 autonomous miles in paid commercial use and more than 300,000 hours in operation, Burro’s reliability and scalability has been continuously enhanced, positioning the company for expansion into new markets and regions.
“Robots have long been stuck in warehouses and factories, and few robotics companies have successfully scaled outdoors into industries like agriculture, nurseries, and construction, where trillions of dollars are spent annually on labor,” said Charlie Andersen, CEO of Burro. “We have built a world-class product based upon state-of-the-art autonomous AI technology, and with this funding, we will deliver solutions for real-world problems, distributed world-wide through our network of dealers. With the incredible teams at Catalyst Investors and Translink Capital, and their strong track records of growing businesses, we are well on our way.”
“What sets Burro apart among the robotics sector is the team’s brilliant vision for augmenting – not replacing – labor with machines that work safely and reliably outdoors alongside humans, exponentially increasing efficiency and production,” said Brian Rich, managing partner at Catalyst Investors. “The Burro approach is already proven and its ROI demonstrated for farms and nurseries, perfectly positioning them to become the dominant outdoor robotics company for various industries and uses.”
“At Translink, we really like companies in the autonomy and robotics sector. We are especially excited about how Burro has brought automation to the agriculture sector,” said Kaz Kikuchi, partner at Translink Capital. “With their unique approach, Burros can work year-round, combatting the innate seasonality of work outdoors, by operating in a variety of crops and performing multiple tasks with one platform. Burro is positioned to be the first robotic company to successfully scale in agriculture and other outdoor environments.”
This year, the Burro company will expand its commercial, product and engineering teams, bring on more dealers, and launch new products in direct response to customer demand, beginning with its new product offering: Burro Grande. Burro Grande expands beyond people scale (less than 500 lb. payload, light-duty towing) to a true pallet scale vehicle (1,500 lb. payload, 5,000 lb. towing), and features Burro Operation System Software V 5.0, which includes indoor/outdoor Lidar based localization for autonomous movement across indoor and outdoor operations.
Burro is rapidly growing in the US within berry and grape farming and nurseries with additional systems working at scale in Australia and New Zealand. The company is on track to tackle the $1.2 trillion US outdoor labor market, where automation can address some of the industry’s most pressing challenges.
About Burro: The #1 challenge facing our global food supply system (and incidentally the world’s largest industry, agriculture) is labor scarcity. Headquartered in Philadelphia, with an office in Visalia, California, Burro is backed by top Agtech and autonomy investors, including S2G, Catalyst Investors, Translink, Cibus, FPrime, Toyota Ventures, FFVC, Xplorer, and Radicle, Burro was created to free people from tedious work outdoors with collaborative robots.
Burros can be described as Disney’s Wall-E for agriculture and work outdoors, in a 1.0 format. They function, today, as people/pallet scale autonomous ground vehicles for carrying, towing, patrolling, and mowing, and are designed to lay the base for the fully autonomous future of work outdoors. The company has hundreds of robots in paid commercial use within nurseries, berries, vineyards, citrus, and beyond, in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South America and with an ever growing list of customers.
About Catalyst Investors: Catalyst Investors is a growth equity firm based in New York. Over the past 20-plus years, Catalyst has invested in rapidly growing technology companies and has established a successful track record of partnering with entrepreneurs and helping companies scale. Recent investments and exits include Breezeway, BrightFarms, ChowNow, Clinicient, EDB, Fusion, LinkSquares, Pax8, Presence and Weave. For more information, visit www.catalyst.com.
About Translink Capital: Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Translink Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in technology-based startups in the consumer, enterprise and robotics sectors. Founded in 2006, the firm has over $1 billion of assets under management and has been engineered to bring founders and their innovative companies together with a unique set of resources and networks to support their journey to build foundational companies in their sector.
About S2G Ventures:
S2G Ventures partners with entrepreneurs who are working on solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges across the food, agriculture, oceans, and clean energy markets. The firm provides capital, mentorship, and value-added resources to companies pursuing innovative market-based solutions that generate positive social, environmental, and financial returns. S2G structures flexible capital solutions that can range from seed and venture funding through growth equity to debt and infrastructure financing. For more information about S2G, visit s2gventures.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.
About Cibus Capital: Cibus Capital LLP is the London-based investment advisor to the Cibus funds. The Cibus funds partner with food and agriculture companies that provide investors with a risk-adjusted return on capital and a sustainable competitive advantage. Cibus has raised over USD 1bn to invest in two strategies: mid-market growth/buyout investments in food production and processing businesses and venture agrifood technology companies. For more information visit cibusfund.com.
The deployment of Hoopo’s trackers puts ZIM at the forefront of technological innovation in this field, and underscores ZIM’s dedication to delivering unparalleled solutions to its customers, as this advanced solution offers comprehensive tracking information including geofence alerts and open/close door notifications and more, while ensuring high reliability and durability combined with significant cost and energy efficiencies.
In 2022, ZIM announced an investment in Hoopo Systems, a trailblazing company specializing in the development of innovative tracking solutions for unpowered assets. Lately, Hoopo completed the development of hoopoSense Solar, its new product for the maritime industry, enabling ZIM to outline an extensive project to integrate these cutting-edge tracking devices into ZIM’s dry-van container fleet.
The decision to adopt Hoopo’s solution followed an exhaustive and meticulous evaluation process that entailed extensive pilot testing comparing the hoopoSense Solar with several of the market’s foremost tracking solutions. After this thorough and rigorous analysis, it unequivocally emerged that Hoopo’s solution excelled as the pinnacle of technological advancement and the most fitting choice to fulfill ZIM’s requirements.
Eli Glickman, President, and CEO of ZIM said: “We are delighted to witness the fruition of our investment in Hoopo’s unique technological solution. We are now ready to deploy their cutting-edge, durable, and cost-efficient tracking devices on a large scale. This deployment will significantly elevate our service levels, providing invaluable information to our customers while ensuring transparency and reliability.”
Ittay Hayut, CEO & Co-Founder of Hoopo added: “At Hoopo, we understand that dry container visibility is not only a fundamental operational and logistics need but also a critical market requirement. Our unwavering mission has been to engineer a tracking solution for the maritime industry that delivers the most reliable data and boasts an extended lifespan to equal a container lifetime. In our design, we have prioritized our commitment to innovation by embedding highly advanced technologies while ensuring seamless updates as new technologies emerge in the future. Having ZIM as a strategic investor and a design partner reassured that our solution provides a market-fit response to the industry’s evolving challenges and needs. We take pride in the agreement with ZIM, evidencing our offering of unparalleled value to our customers.
The ZIM global rollout is poised to install Hoopo’s top-tier tracking devices on its hundreds of thousands of dry-van containers.
About ZIM
Founded in Israel in 1945, ZIM (NYSE: ZIM) is a leading global container liner shipping company with established operations in more than 90 countries serving approximately 34,000 customers in over 200 ports worldwide. ZIM leverages digital strategies and a commitment to ESG values to provide customers innovative seaborne transportation and logistics services and exceptional customer experience. ZIM’s differentiated global-niche strategy, based on agile fleet management and deployment, covers major trade routes with a focus on select markets where the company holds competitive advantages. Additional information about ZIM is available at www.ZIM.com.
About Hoopo Systems
Hoopo was founded in 2016 by a team of leading experts in RF communications and geolocation technologies. It offers a unique power-efficient tracking solution that enables real-time Location Intelligence including both tracking and status monitoring for unpowered assets. By integrating a suite of innovative technologies, Hoopo’s system ensures accurate asset positioning while maximizing power efficiency and cost. Hoopo is working on supply-chain innovation with leading companies in transportation, aviation, waste management, and maritime logistics.
To learn more about Hoopo, visit https://www.hoopo.tech or contact [email protected]
Forward-Looking Statements
The following information contains or may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements (as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue,” the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions about the Company, may include projections of the Company’s future financial results, its anticipated growth strategies and anticipated trends in its business. These statements are only predictions based on the Company’s current expectations and projections about future events or results. There are important factors that could cause the Company’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to: market changes in freight, bunker, charter and other rates or prices, supply-demand fluctuations in the containerized shipping market, new legislation or regulation affecting the Company’s operations, new competition and changes in the competitive environment, our ability to achieve cost savings or expense reductions, the outcome of legal proceedings to which the Company is a party, global, regional and/or local political instability, inflation rate fluctuations, capital markets fluctuations and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including under the caption “Risk Factors” in its 2022 Annual Report filed with the SEC on March 13, 2023.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8, 2024 — LAMF Global Ventures Corp. I (Nasdaq: LGVCU, LGVC, LGVCW) (“LAMF” or the “Company”), announced today that on January 8, 2024, its board of directors (the “Board”) decided to extend the date by which the Company must consummate an initial business combination (the “Deadline Date”) from January 16, 2024 to February 16, 2024. This is the third of up to six one-month extensions of the Deadline Date available to the Company pursuant to its amended and restated memorandum and articles of association.
About LAMF Global Ventures Corp. I
LAMF Global Ventures Corp. I is a special purpose acquisition company whose business purpose is to effect a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. LAMF is sponsored by affiliated parties of LAMF LLC (d/b/a Los Angeles Media Fund), a multifaceted media and entertainment company whose primary business is financing and producing feature films, television series, documentary projects and live events, the management of professional athletes, and investing in complementary technology businesses to the foregoing. LAMF is led by Jeffrey Soros, its Chairman, and Simon Horsman, its Chief Executive Officer, the co-founders of LAMF LLC. The members of LAMF’s sponsor also include affiliates of 10X LLC (“10X Capital”), an investment firm connecting Wall Street with Silicon Valley. 10X Capital invests across the capital structure, with a focus on companies using technology to disrupt major industries, including finance, healthcare, natural resources, transportation, infrastructure, agriculture and real estate. LAMF’s securities are traded on Nasdaq under the ticker symbols LGVC, LGVCU and LGVCW.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2024 — Rincell Corporation, an advanced chemistry battery cell manufacturer, announced it has raised a $1.2 million seed round investment in an oversubscribed round led by U.S. based NextGen Battery Chem Ventures LLC, managed by Sandiip Bhammer.
Rincell Corporation was founded in 2023 by Jignesh Parikh and Dr. Jagjit Nanda. Jignesh, Rincell’s CEO, has a distinguished track record in scaling businesses, high-volume manufacturing, and supply chain. Jignesh is a former CEO at American Lithium Energy and has held executive leadership roles at Hitachi, Intel, and Western Digital. Jignesh expressed his excitement about the milestone, “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Sandiip Bhammer – a veteran clean-tech investor and Founder of early-stage India climate fund Green Frontier Capital. Not only does Sandiip have a stellar reputation for supporting founders, but we’ve immediately felt the positive impact in just the short period of time we’ve started working together. With this investment, Rincell is poised to accelerate our mission of electrifying critical sectors with high capacity-performance batteries using secure supply chain.”
Dr. Jagjit Nanda, Rincell’s Chief Scientific Officer, is a respected figure in new battery technology research. As a Distinguished Scientist & Executive Director at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center and former scientist at Oak Ridge National Lab, his work in solid state chemistry and battery materials has been groundbreaking. Dr. Jagjit Nanda added, “This partnership with NextGen Battery Chem Ventures will help bring our innovative silicon-graphite, LMFP and Sodium-ion battery chemistries to market faster.”
Commenting on the investment in Rincell, Sandiip Bhammer stated, “Our investment in Rincell reflects a commitment to pioneering technologies that are set to revolutionize global energy storage and supply.“
Rincell has made rapid progress and in just one year since its founding, has already been shipping samples of its highest capacity-performance 18650 and 21700 Silicon-Graphite batteries to government and commercial customers, including Inventus Power, the largest independent battery pack manufacturer in North America. Chris Turner, Chief Technology Officer at Inventus Power added, “We are excited about the progress Rincell has made to commercialize its silicon-graphite anode 18650 and 21700 cells and will continue to work closely with Rincell to leverage its innovative cell technology when designing next generation advanced battery systems for medical, industrial/commercial, defense, and xEV applications.“
The infusion of capital from NextGen Battery Chem Ventures will allow Rincell to get its 18650 and 21700 silicon-graphite batteries ready for commercial production in CY2024.
About Rincell: Rincell Corporation was founded to accelerate the electrification of high-impact carbon emission products, fostering a sustainable future with a secure supply chain. Rincell is committed to Domestic & Ally manufacturing of its high-capacity and performance Silicon-Graphite, LMFP, & Sodium-ion batteries for government and commercial applications.
