Investors of nearly every type and size can now access differentiated private-market strategies, including General Partner (GP) stakes, professional sports, energy, and space and defense, through the SoFi Invest ecosystem

HOUSTON, Aug. 6, 2026 — CAZ Investments (“CAZ”), a leading Houston-based alternative investment firm, today announced that investors utilizing the SoFi Invest® platform can now invest in two CAZ funds, providing streamlined, cost-efficient access to diversified private-market assets.

The collaboration advances CAZ’s longstanding mission to broaden access to investment opportunities that have historically been available primarily to institutions and ultra-high-net-worth investors. Through SoFi Invest, individual “do-it-yourself” investors can now incorporate professionally managed private-market strategies into their portfolios through a familiar digital platform.

“For decades, many of the most compelling private-market opportunities were available only to a relatively small category of high-net-worth investors,” said Christopher Zook, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of CAZ Investments. “The regulatory changes in 2025 have allowed us to expand access to virtually all investors. By working with SoFi Invest, we are helping more investors participate in the long-term growth potential of private markets with the simplicity and convenience they expect from a modern investment platform.”

The CAZ funds available through SoFi Invest provide exposure to differentiated investment themes shaping the global economy. These include ownership interests in leading alternative asset management firms through GP stakes; professional sports franchises; the infrastructure and energy required to power artificial intelligence, robotics, and rising global electricity demand; and the modernization of the space and defense industries.

“This collaboration represents an important milestone in democratizing access,” Zook added. “When access to private markets is broadened thoughtfully and responsibly, more investors have the opportunity to build diversified portfolios designed for long-term wealth creation.”

To learn more about SoFi Invest and the CAZ strategies available on the platform, please visit https://sofi.app.link/private-markets.

About CAZ Investments
CAZ Investments is a Houston-based alternative investment firm that thematically curates differentiated investment opportunities for its global network of investors. Founded in 2001, CAZ has grown to become one of the world’s top 120 allocators* to private equity. With $11 billion+ in assets currently deployed, CAZ has created more than 100 private and registered funds to invest shoulder to shoulder with its network and provide unique exposure to asset classes such as GP Stakes, Professional Sports Ownership, Disruptive Technology, Energy, Real Estate, and more.

The CAZ global network consists of over 9,100 investors in all 50 states and 41 countries. The group includes more than 500 wealth management firms, investment advisors, family offices, and institutional investors, who value the innovative and differentiated opportunities that CAZ develops.

About SoFi
SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) is the everything app for digital financial services on a mission to help people achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions. 15.8 million members trust SoFi to borrow, save, spend, invest, and protect their money and buy, sell and hold their crypto – all in one app – and get access to financial planners, exclusive experiences, and a thriving community. Banks, fintechs, and brands use innovative capabilities from SoFi Tech Solutions to serve over 134 million global accounts. For more information, visit www.sofi.com or download our iOS and Android apps.

*Source: PREQIN

Media Contact:
Lisa Salazar
JConnelly for CAZ Investments
[email protected]

SOURCE CAZ Investments

Kickoff Week brings together the selected startups as they begin collaboration with corporate partners.

TOKYO, Aug. 6, 2026 — Scrum Studio Inc. and Tokyu Land Corporation today announced the selection of 13 startups to participate in Full Bloom 2026, a business co-creation program based at SAKURA DEEPTECH SHIBUYA, a global innovation hub within Shibuya Sakura Stage.

The selected cohort includes startups from Japan, Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand. The companies bring a wide range of technologies, including AI, XR, avatars, holograms, audio, energy-generating flooring, cooling materials, skincare, biosensors, and next-generation communications. The three focus areas are Entertainment & Media, Fashion & Beauty, and Food & Urban Innovation.

Full Bloom is a deeptech business co-creation program that builds on its predecessor, the Sakura Deeptech Shibuya Accelerator. The name “Full Bloom” reflects the hope that cutting-edge technologies from startups around the world will take root through co-creation with Japanese companies, cities, and culture, and ultimately flourish globally from Shibuya.

Centered on the theme of “Creative Deeptech,” Full Bloom leverages Shibuya’s position as a global hub where diverse cultural fields – such as media, gaming, music, fashion, food, and art – intersect and reach global audiences. Using Shibuya as a field for experimentation, the program aims to translate deeptech into valuable consumer experiences, greater urban vibrancy, and the creation of new content industries.

Full Bloom 2026 Kickoff Week

From June 29 to July 3, 2026, Scrum Studio and Tokyu Land Corporation hosted Full Bloom 2026 Kickoff Week, welcoming the selected startups. Centered at SAKURA DEEPTECH SHIBUYA, the week featured sessions designed to deepen participants’ understanding of the Japanese market and Shibuya’s urban and cultural assets, along with networking opportunities and initial discussions around business co-creation.

On June 30, the startups attended a kickoff event where they introduced their businesses and exchanged views on potential opportunities for co-creation. On July 2 and 3, the startups participated in IVS2026, one of Japan’s largest startup conferences held in Kyoto. Scrum Studio and Tokyu Land partnered with Kyoto University Innovation Capital Co., Ltd. to host an exhibition booth and session. The startups also joined a co-hosted official IVS side event with Kyoto Chiesangyo Sozonomori, an organization dedicated to advancing Kyoto’s economy and creating new industries.

The startups also visited sites to explore potential locations for technology deployment, such as Shibuya Real Squid Game, an immersive experience held at Shibuya Fukuras, and ROKU KYOTO, LXR Hotels & Resorts, a luxury resort in Kyoto, to learn about the importance of carefully understanding the nuances of tradition and local culture when applying technologies to create memorable experiences. Through these visits, the startups explored Tokyu Land properties as potential sites for co-creation initiatives.

Going forward, the selected startups will use SAKURA DEEPTECH SHIBUYA as their base and collaborate with Japanese companies, local governments, investors, and industry experts to advance business development, pilot projects, and real-world implementation in the Japanese market.

Selected Startups

(Thirteen startups were selected for the program, 12 of which are listed below. One participant remains in stealth mode.)

AVITA (Japan) https://avita.co.jp/

Category: Entertainment & Media

AVITA develops services powered by avatars and AI, as well as humanoid robots and Physical AI. Built on more than 20 years of research by Hiroshi Ishiguro, a pioneer in android research, and a portfolio of more than 70 avatar-related patents, the company is advancing the real-world adoption of avatars across society.

bitBiome (Japan) https://bitbiome.co.jp/

Category: Fashion & Beauty

bitBiome operates a BIO x AI platform that accelerates next-generation bio-manufacturing backed by the world’s leading microbial database. Leveraging its unique single-cell genomics engine, the company translates vast biological data into actionable insights, enabling rapid enzyme and strain engineering to solve complex challenges across industrial sectors.

Brelyon (United States) https://www.brelyon.com/

Category: Entertainment & Media

Brelyon is an MIT spin-off adding a layer of immersion and AI to screens for headset-less immersion of screens all the way to automation via screens. By integrating its displays with AI, the company is advancing next-generation visual experiences and workflow automation with applications spanning entertainment, simulation, and teleoperations.

Decart (Israel) https://decart.ai/

Category: Entertainment & Media

Decart is a frontier AI research lab. Our real-time world models and ultra-optimized infrastructure power immersive experiences and physical AI. Video that transforms as people watch. Worlds generated in real time. Robots trained in simulation before entering the physical world. Decart is the engine that real-time AI runs on.

Delavie Sciences (United States) https://www.delaviesciences.com/

Category: Fashion & Beauty

Delavie Sciences develops science-backed skincare products focused on improving skin health, rejuvenation, and protection through advanced research and proprietary ingredients. Founded by Dr. Kyle Landry and Dr. David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School, Delavie presses the boundaries of longevity and aims to bring these advances to market.

Edge Sound Research (United States) https://www.edgesoundresearch.com/

Category: Entertainment & Media

EDGE Sound Research builds intelligent audio infrastructure for sports, entertainment, venues, and immersive media. Its platform automates how sound objects are captured, processed, rendered, and delivered, enabling personalized content, spatial experiences, and scalable sound workflows for broadcasters, leagues, venues, and technology partners.

Eztia (United States) https://www.eztiamaterials.com/

Category: Fashion & Beauty

Eztia develops advanced passive-cooling materials that deliver powerful, electricity-free heat relief, integrated directly into clothing, uniforms, and PPE. Its HydraVolt™ technology cools skin without power, batteries, or electronics—recharging with water alone. Validated in field pilots across Japan and Singapore with construction, logistics, and defense partners, Eztia makes heat protection accessible everywhere.

GATARI (Japan) https://gatari.co.jp/

Category: Entertainment & Media

GATARI develops Auris, a “game engine for the real world” that enhances the experiential value of venues, retail locations, and urban spaces, helping improve revenue, visitor traffic, and engagement. Using only a smartphone, users can scan a space and create, edit, deploy, and experience content without coding, allowing immersive content to be introduced without physically modifying existing facilities.

meleap (Japan) https://meleap.com/

Category: Entertainment & Media

meleap is a Japan-based company developing AR sports experiences that blend physical activity with digital technology. Its flagship platform, HADO, has expanded to more than 40 countries and has been experienced by over 10 million people worldwide. The company works with schools, businesses, and entertainment venues to create the future of sports.

Pavegen (United Kingdom) https://www.pavegen.com/

Category: Entertainment & Media

Pavegen is an award-winning global cleantech leader pioneering smart city engagement and kinetic-solar technology. By harvesting human footsteps and sunlight, Pavegen converts everyday movement into off-grid electricity and actionable data. The platform empowers enterprises and engages citizens globally, building a connected, greener world where every step counts.

Scentian Bio (New Zealand) https://www.scentianbio.com/

Category: Food & Urban Innovation

Scentian Bio is digitizing smell. Its chips mimic the incredible power of insect olfaction (smell) to provide real-time chemical sensing. They combine synthetic biology and AI to produce an ’insect nose on a chip’ – providing quantitative chemical measurement in near-real-time. This is a platform technology and the first focus is the $8b food quality market where Scentian has strong commercial traction. Scentian Bio is a spin-out from New Zealand’s Bioeconomy Science Institute and is led by co-founders Jonathan Good, CEO, and Dr Andrew Kralicek, CTO.

VISBAN (Japan) https://visban.com/

Category: Entertainment & Media

VISBAN develops advanced network technology to accelerate the adoption of millimeter-wave communications and support high-speed, high-capacity connectivity. Without requiring additional base stations, its V-Mesh™ technology coordinates multiple RF-on-Glass™ repeaters along optimized multi-hop routes, enabling stable millimeter-wave coverage around obstacles and corners and across indoor and outdoor environments.

From the Program Mentors

Ian Condry, Professor, Comparative Media Studies / Writing, MIT

“This year’s cohort is a supremely fascinating range of startups focused on some of the most important challenges for deeptech in the 21st century. I am eager to see how they develop their products and visions. This is a truly promising group.”

Marc Lechanoine, Founder & CEO, ATOUT PARTNERS

“It was a true privilege to serve as a mentor for the 2026 SDS session, where I was deeply impressed by the high caliber, immense potential, and vibrant energy of the participating startups. The kickoff’s unique environment, centered within Tokyo’s dynamic ecosystem at the intersection of entertainment, technology, and design, proved to be an ideal catalyst for fostering cross-cultural synergy and collaboration. I thoroughly enjoyed helping these entrepreneurs bridge the diverse innovation landscapes of Japan, the US, New Zealand, and Israel, accelerating their capacity to operate as a cohesive unit. I am fully confident that this week has set the entire cohort on an exceptional trajectory to achieve their strategic goals by December.”

Eran Egozy, Professor of the Practice in Music Technology, MIT

“This year’s Full Bloom companies are really exciting. We have a great variety of ideas, technologies, and home countries. I am looking forward to working with them over the next several months and can’t wait to see the final results on demo day.”

Square Enix and Spotify Japan Join Full Bloom 2026 as Partners

Square Enix Co., Ltd. is an entertainment company that has delivered a wide range of content to users worldwide, centered on games within the digital entertainment space. In Full Bloom 2026, Square Enix will explore co-creation opportunities with the selected startups from the perspectives of games, IP, fan communities, immersive experiences, and next-generation entertainment.

Yurie Iino, North America Director, Group Investment & Business Development Office, Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.:

“We’re excited about Full Bloom 2026 as an opportunity to meet outstanding startups from around the world and co-create new value together. Through collaboration with startups gathered from across the globe, we look forward to encountering diverse ideas as we explore the future of entertainment together. Drawing on the expertise we’ve built through games and IP, Square Enix looks forward to working with the selected startups to create new experiences.”

Spotify Japan brings extensive expertise rooted in music and audio culture, spanning music, podcasts, creators, fan communities, and data-driven listener experiences. In Full Bloom 2026, Spotify Japan will explore how the selected startups’ technologies and services can be combined with music, audio, fan experiences, and brand communication to create new content experiences and support for creators.

Fumi Otsuka, Head of Strategy and Operations, Spotify Japan:

“We are delighted to join the SDS program. By combining the startups’ new technologies and services with our expertise in music and audio culture, we hope to pioneer new forms of content experiences and creator support together.”

With the participation of both companies, Full Bloom 2026 will expand opportunities for business co-creation spanning music, gaming, IP, media, and urban experiences.

Program Overview

Name: Full Bloom 2026

Location: SAKURA DEEPTECH SHIBUYA, 12F, Shibuya Sakura Stage Central Building, 1-2 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Operated by: Scrum Studio Inc.

Focus areas: Entertainment & Media, Fashion & Beauty, Food & Urban Innovation

Website: https://fullbloom.sakuradeeptechshibuya.com/

About SAKURA DEEPTECH SHIBUYA

SAKURA DEEPTECH SHIBUYA is a global innovation hub established at Shibuya Sakura Stage, dedicated to nurturing and supporting deeptech startups. Working with top-tier industry, government, and academic partners from around the world, it drives growth support, business co-creation, community building, and proof-of-concept opportunities for deeptech startups. Website: https://www.sakuradeeptechshibuya.com/en/

About Tokyu Land Corporation

Tokyu Land Corporation promotes area value enhancement and vibrancy across the greater Shibuya area by creating new industries and cutting-edge businesses in co-creation with startups.

SAKURA DEEPTECH SHIBUYA, the stage for Full Bloom 2026, is a global innovation hub established by Tokyu Land Corporation within Shibuya Sakura Stage, dedicated to nurturing and supporting deeptech startups. Leveraging its expertise in urban development and facility management, its business foundation in Shibuya, and its network across industry, government, and academia, Tokyu Land Corporation supports business co-creation between startups from around the world and Japanese companies. URL: https://www.tokyu-land.co.jp/

About Scrum Studio Inc.

Scrum Studio Inc. drives new business and value creation between Japanese companies and startups around the world. Leveraging open innovation methodologies, the company operates business co-creation programs, including Hokkaido F Village X and Full Bloom, that facilitate collaboration among leading corporate partners, startups, and municipalities across industries. It also operates an incubation business that supports overseas startups entering the Japanese market. URL: https://scrum.vc/ja/studio/

Contact: Ken Varhama

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Scrum Ventures

NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2026 — Willow Tree Credit Partners LP (“Willow Tree”), a leading middle market private credit firm, today announced the successful closing of Willow Tree Fund II-CV, LP and its parallel vehicles, a private credit continuation vehicle complex with assets representing an aggregate transaction value of approximately $730 million.

The transaction was led by HarbourVest Partners (“HarbourVest”), with participation from a syndicate of institutional investors and Willow Tree. The continuation vehicle was established to acquire a diversified portfolio comprising approximately 130 securities, primarily first-lien loans and sponsor-backed companies, from Willow Tree Fund II LP and its parallel funds, a late 2020/early 2021 vintage fund. The transaction allows Willow Tree to continue managing the underlying portfolio while providing existing limited partners with the option to realize liquidity or maintain exposure through the continuation vehicle.

“We believe this continuation vehicle reflects the strength and consistency of the portfolio we’ve built in Fund II and our commitment to delivering solutions that serve our limited partners at every stage of a fund’s life. Continuation vehicles are becoming an increasingly important tool across private markets and we believe this structure demonstrates how they can benefit existing investors, new capital partners and managers while preserving high-quality assets,” said Tim Lower, Founder and CEO of Willow Tree. “We saw an opportunity to provide our existing investors with optionality for liquidity while continuing to steward a portfolio we know deeply. HarbourVest’s leadership in this transaction reflects the strength of our platform, and we’re grateful for their partnership and conviction.” 

“We are incredibly excited to partner with Tim Lower and the Willow Tree team,” said Sean Gillespie, Principal at HarbourVest Partners. “They have built an exceptional platform and delivered consistently strong returns for their investors. We believe this transaction showcases our ability to lead and structure credit secondaries solutions for leading GPs, while gaining exposure to a high-quality, diversified portfolio of senior loans.”

Evercore served as financial advisor on the transaction. Morgan Lewis served as legal counsel to Willow Tree and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel to HarbourVest.

About Willow Tree

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.

About HarbourVest  

HarbourVest is an independent, global private markets firm with 44 years of experience and more than $160 billion assets under management as of March 31, 2026. Our interwoven platform provides clients access to global primary funds, secondary transactions, direct co-investments, real assets and infrastructure, and private credit. Our strengths extend across strategies, enabled by more than 1,200 team members across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.  

Media Contact
5W Public Relations
[email protected]

HarbourVest Media Contact
[email protected] 

SOURCE Willow Tree

Financing includes strong support from Pennsylvania investors and former Major League Baseball All-Star Andre Ethier

WEST CHESTER, Pa., Aug. 6, 2026 — Meduloc, an orthopedic medical device company commercializing an innovative flexible nitinol intramedullary fracture fixation platform, today announced the closing of its $4 million Series B financing.

The round was led by GenHenn Capital, with participation from Life Sciences Greenhouse Investments (LSGI)¹, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania², Broad Street Angels and former Los Angeles Dodgers player Andre Ethier, together with additional existing and new investors.

The participation of LSGI, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Broad Street Angels reflects strong support from the Pennsylvania investment community, including significant backing from the Greater Philadelphia region.

The financing will support Meduloc’s controlled alpha launch, continued generation of clinical evidence and development of the commercial infrastructure required to bring its fracture fixation platform to a broader range of surgeons and patients.

“Closing this financing is a significant milestone for Meduloc as we move from product development and regulatory clearance into controlled commercialization,” said Sarah Sachinis, President and CEO of Meduloc. “We are extremely grateful for the confidence and support of our investors, and particularly proud of the strong backing we have received from the Greater Philadelphia and Pennsylvania life sciences and investment communities. This capital enables us to begin our alpha launch, build meaningful clinical experience and establish the foundation for broader adoption across adult and pediatric fracture care.”

Meduloc’s FDA-cleared, sterile, single-use system uses a flexible nitinol intramedullary implant designed to provide fracture stability while preserving anatomy and avoiding joint violation in certain applications. The platform can be used across a range of upper- and lower-extremity long-bone fracture applications in adult and pediatric patients.

“Meduloc has developed a differentiated technology with the potential to address important needs in fracture fixation,” said Bill Hagaman of GenHenn Capital. “With FDA clearance, encouraging early clinical experience and an experienced team, the company has reached an exciting inflection point. We are pleased to lead this financing and support Meduloc as it enters its next phase of growth.”

“As a former professional athlete, I have seen how injuries and recovery can affect both performance and quality of life,” said Andre Ethier. “Meduloc’s approach stood out to me because of its potential to provide surgeons with an innovative treatment option and help patients return to the activities that matter to them. I’m excited to support the team as it brings this technology into broader clinical use.”

Meduloc expects to begin its controlled alpha launch in early August 2026, working with a select group of orthopedic surgeons and institutions to build clinical experience across multiple fracture applications and collect surgeon feedback to support future commercial expansion.

¹ This project was financed in part by a grant to Life Sciences Greenhouse Investments from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.² This project was financed in part by a grant to Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

About Meduloc

Meduloc is an orthopedic medical device company focused on advancing fracture fixation through an innovative flexible nitinol intramedullary platform. Its FDA-cleared, sterile, single-use system is designed for use across a range of long-bone fracture applications in adult and pediatric patients. Meduloc’s technology is intended to provide stable fixation while preserving anatomy and offering surgeons a versatile alternative for fracture treatment.

For more information, visit www.meduloc.com

SOURCE Meduloc

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 6, 2026 — Body Vision Medical, a global leader in AI-powered intraoperative imaging, has closed a new round of funding to capitalize on the rising demand for advanced imaging technology used to support the diagnosis and treatment of early-stage lung diseases. The round was led by Business Asia Consultants, Inc. (BAC), a U.S. corporation, and Sprim Global Investments, headquartered in Singapore.

BAC is an international sales, marketing, and business development consulting firm led by President and CEO Larry Kronick. The company specializes in guiding medical device and healthcare technology firms through market expansion across Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

According to Mr. Kronick: “The global market for Body Vision technology continues to expand exponentially as more countries launch their nationalized lung cancer screening programs. We’re positioned to address this demand with a navigation and advanced imaging solution that not only can improve diagnostic yield during biopsy procedures deep in the lung, but we can provide this technology at a very affordable cost.”

Sprim deploys strategic capital into early-stage startups while leveraging its parent network’s deep regulatory, clinical, and commercialization expertise to de-risk execution. Gonzalo Rubio, representing Sprim, said: “We are excited to have this opportunity. Body Vision technology continues to prove its value in the hands of thoracic surgeons and interventional pulmonologists across the globe. With access to 46 countries through more than 20 established and highly trained distributors, we see this technology having a significant impact on the early diagnosis and localized treatment of lung cancer and other diseases well into the future.”

About Body Vision Medical 

Body Vision Medical believes in saving lives through the globalization of innovative medical technology. LungVision® provides AI-powered real-time image guidance to address the clinical need for early, definitive lung cancer diagnosis and to enable localized treatment of lung lesions via minimally invasive procedures.

Visit BodyVisionMedical.com to learn more.

Contact
Mike Hostetler
+1.651.366.9584
[email protected]

SOURCE Body Vision Medical

Esther Ikoro awarded an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship to expand Wait, What?!, a hand-drawn science series created with artist Moriz Oberberger

GREENWICH, Conn., Aug. 6, 2026 — O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC (OSV), an investment firm that empowers creators, has awarded an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship to Esther Ikoro, a science communicator based in Trail Creek, Indiana.

Ikoro will use the fellowship to expand Wait, What?!, an animated series that depicts scientific concepts and processes that are usually too small, slow, abstract or vast to see. Each episode unfolds in an original, hand-drawn world illustrated and animated by Moriz Oberberger, bringing a single scientific idea to life through narration, metaphor and visual storytelling. The first five videos in the series have drawn more than 700,000 views online. Over the next 12 months, Ikoro plans to publish multiple new episodes exploring the intricacies of plants, animals and natural phenomena.

Ikoro created and hosts the natural science YouTube channel See You Outside. She works with Discovery Education’s Mystery Science, helping students think like scientists by answering their submitted questions, and has appeared in the Nature Side Quest segment on CBS’s Mission Unstoppable with Miranda Cosgrove. As a 2023-24 fellow of the John Templeton Foundation and Public Radio Exchange’s Big Questions Project, she co-created Second Sunday, a podcast on faith through a queer Black lens that won a Silver Signal Award in the religion and spirituality category and three Black Podcasting Awards, including Podcast of the Year. She came to science communication from public health, holding a Master of Public Health from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earlier working in education and health programs in Chicago.

OSV’s founder and CEO, Jim O’Shaughnessy, commented, “Esther’s animated approach to complex ideas makes science tangible in a way words alone can’t. We’re thrilled to be backing her.”

“I want to contribute to the landscape of iconic science media,” said Ikoro. “The O’Shaughnessy Fellowship is helping me bring that vision to life.”

About the O’Shaughnessy Fellowships Program

Launched in 2023, the O’Shaughnessy Fellowships program discovers and empowers the world’s boldest creatives, builders and researchers. Fellows receive a grant of up to $100,000 and gain access to OSV’s network of founders, investors and experts. OSV will award up to 20 fellowships in 2026.

Ikoro is the eighteenth fellow announced in 2026. More information about previous fellows is available at OSV’s website.

Applications for the O’Shaughnessy Fellowships are now closed and will reopen on Jan. 1, 2027. Individuals interested in applying can do so via OSV’s website.

About O’Shaughnessy Ventures

OSV is a creative investment firm that empowers creators to bring their ideas to life. Founded by Jim O’Shaughnessy, a pioneer in quantitative investing, founder of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, and author of five books, OSV aims to provide financial support and to partner in growing the next life-changing creative ideas.

OSV combines Jim’s deeply rooted interest in all things art, science, investing and technology with his long-held desire to establish scenarios designed to help promising creators and their inspiring ideas succeed, regardless of age, location, job history or level of education. For more information, visit OSV’s website.

Media Contact:
Ena Gong
O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC
(917) 355-7420
[email protected]

SOURCE O’Shaughnessy Ventures

Backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Gradient, Spotify’s Recommendation Tech Comes for E-commerce

NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2026 — Malachyte, a behavior intelligence company, today announced the close of a $10 million seed funding round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Gradient Ventures with participation from Harpoon Ventures. Malachyte was co-founded by Sidd Motwani (CEO), Ian Anderson (CTO), and Shivaditya Sinha (COO), the team behind the behavioral intelligence infrastructure that powers 90%+ of Spotify’s recommendations across 800M+ users and 1B+ items. Now, they’re bringing that same technology to every retailer and e-commerce brand.

The raise comes as consumer e-commerce faces a conversion problem. Advances in ML-driven ad targeting on Google, Meta, and TikTok have made audience acquisition more precise than ever, yet the website experience most shoppers meet remains static. Today’s digital personalization stack can’t read the context a shopper arrives with, can’t adapt in real time as they browse, and can’t recognize a first-time visitor at all, leaving most shoppers with a generic online storefront.

Meanwhile, customer acquisition costs have risen roughly 40% between 2023 and 2025 (LoyaltyLion), and the average e-commerce brand now loses $29 per new customer after marketing and returns (SimplicityDX). Every unconverted visit compounds that loss.

“Brands are paying more than ever to acquire customers, then trying to convert them with a stack that only understands the fraction it already recognizes,” says Malachyte CEO Sidd Motwani. “Our technology reads behavior instead of logins or cookies, so it understands every visitor before their first click, and keeps sharpening with every action. That’s infrastructure built for how commerce works today.”

“Malachyte’s technology has driven our ability to recommend the right product at the right time across our entire user journey. It works for every visitor from the moment they land on our site, not just the ones we already recognize,” said Emilee Walch, VP of Digital Product at Brunt Workwear. “The ROI was clear quickly, and the results we’ve seen so far are just the beginning of what’s possible for us as a brand.”

Under the hood, Malachyte uses two-headed vector AI to understand preference and intent simultaneously, the same way an actual shopper does, leveraging visuals and context rather than keywords or tags. Because it’s persistent across channels, a signal picked up in search sharpens what that same shopper sees later on a product page, a category page, or in an email or SMS the next day. And it holds up in production: sub-200ms latency under Cyber Monday-level load, auto-scaling with no outages, a merchandiser control layer that gives operators the ability to set merchandising rules and overrides, and onboarding in as little as seven days.

McKinsey projects that, by 2030, agents could orchestrate up to $1 trillion of U.S. retail and, counterintuitively, that makes understanding real shopper behavior even more valuable.

“As commerce enters the agentic era, two major forces are converging: consumers have so much less patience when website or search experiences are not tailored to their intent, and agents are increasingly shaping the buyer journey. Yet most commerce infrastructure is not built to understand buyer intent in real time, whether that’s for a human or an agent.” says Maha Malik, Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners. “The Malachyte team has spent their careers solving some of the hardest problems in personalization at massive scale making them exceptionally well positioned to help brands meet this much higher bar for relevance.”

Malachyte’s platform is live with a growing roster of brands:

• HalloweenCostumes.com (Fun.com): +31% revenue per visitor
• Brunt Workwear: 80% lift in add-to-cart click-through rate
• Jordan Craig: 17% lift in new-visitor revenue per visit — significant given 80% of their traffic is first-time visitors with no purchase history

Funds from the seed round will be deployed across two priorities: scaling distribution of the existing infrastructure and hiring senior commercial and product leadership.

About Malachyte
Malachyte is a behavior intelligence company that increases revenue per visitor for consumer e-commerce brands, for every shopper, across every channel, from the first session. Built by the team behind Spotify’s personalization infrastructure, Malachyte’s Behavior Intelligence technology delivers real-time, adaptive personalization without cookies, logins, or pre-existing customer data. The company is headquartered in New York. Learn more at malachyte.com.

Media Contact:
Lindsay Stevens
1213200963
[email protected]

SOURCE Malachyte

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Aug. 6, 2026 — Belgian Boys, the fast-growing brand rewriting the rules of the breakfast aisle, today announced Louisa Lawless is joining their team as Chief Commercial Officer, a hire designed to accelerate the brand’s next stage of growth. Lawless joins the leadership team with nearly two decades of commercial leadership across some of the food and beverage industry’s most recognized brands, including Nutrabolt, Core Nutrition, and Red Bull North America. She will lead Belgian Boys’ push to expand distribution, deepen retailer partnerships, and scale the brand into a category all its own.

Lawless most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer at Korb Health Group, where she led a team focused on the high-growth verticals of personalized weight loss, women’s and men’s health, and longevity care. Prior to that, as EVP, Commercial Marketing & Sales at Nutrabolt, she led the commercialization of the Bloom, C4, Cellucor, and Xtend portfolios and delivered explosive year-over-year growth in several highly competitive categories. Earlier in her career, she served as Chief Strategy Officer at Core Nutrition, where she helped engineer the brand’s $525 million acquisition by Keurig Dr Pepper, and at Golden West Food Group/Stratus Group, where she led the development of the branded and private label portfolio and built brands from their inception. She began her career in beverage leadership roles at Red Bull North America, ultimately overseeing the largest energy drink market in the world.

“I meet a lot of talented executives in this industry, but every once in a while you meet someone whose resume is exceptional and who you just click with on a human level. Louisa’s energy is contagious,” said Anouck Gotlib, CEO of Belgian Boys. “Louisa’s track record speaks for itself, but what sealed it for us was how excited she is about building, and how naturally she connected with our team and our mission from the very first conversation.”

“I’ve admired Belgian Boys from the outside for a long time; the brand has real permission to create a new category, and that’s a rare thing in CPG,” said Lawless. “I’m energized by the opportunity to bring my experience in scaling emerging brands, building high-performing commercial teams, and leading the commercial strategy into the next stage of brand acceleration with a team that is truly passionate about the product and the mission.”

Building a brand in today’s world takes a point of view. As CCO, Lawless will lead that charge for Belgian Boys, shaping how the brand shows up commercially, in stores, online, and in everyday routines, while staying true to the foundation that got it here: real ingredients, delicious products, and a brand people actually want at their table.

Lawless holds a BFA from Texas Christian University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She is based in Long Beach, California.

About Belgian Boys

Belgian Boys is a women-led company sparking moments of joy with European-inspired foods. Their quick-and-easy breakfast offerings empower busy families to start the day with happiness baked into every bite. With whimsical packaging, non-GMO ingredients, and no artificial flavors or preservatives, Belgian Boys products are as delightful as they are convenient. Belgian Boys has been on Instacart’s Fastest-Growing Brands list for three years running an honoree on The Lead’s Foremost 50 list. For more information, visit www.belgianboys.com.

Media Contact:

Mia Fazio

512-914-5709

[email protected]

SOURCE Belgian Boys

Agreement positions Bedrock’s autonomous technology at FMS’s North Sea base, combining autonomous ocean intelligence with FMS’s offshore infrastructure

RICHMOND, Calif., Aug. 6, 2026 — Bedrock Ocean Exploration (“Bedrock”), the intelligence infrastructure powering the ocean economy, today announced a multi-year strategic partnership with First Marine Solutions (“FMS”), an established leader in survey and positioning services to the offshore energy sector. The partnership establishes a UK and European operational hub for Bedrock’s autonomous ocean intelligence technology at FMS’s Aberdeen headquarters, creating an integrated offering that pairs Bedrock’s intelligence stack with FMS’s offshore experience, regional presence, and consultancy services.

Under the agreement, Bedrock will station a complete kit of its autonomous underwater vehicles at FMS’s facility in Aberdeen, strategically positioned to support UK and European operations. Bedrock will provide data processing expertise and comprehensive training for FMS personnel, enabling FMS to perform the majority of operations and maintenance locally without the need to ship equipment back to the United States.

FMS, in turn, will provide the operational infrastructure to deploy and deliver services at scale, including dedicated facilities for Bedrock, logistics support, marine consultancy services, and a dedicated team of survey engineers trained in collaboration with Bedrock.

The combined offering is designed to give clients in offshore energy and subsea infrastructure a vertically integrated solution. The partnership brings together autonomous data acquisition, in-region operational support, and decades of industry-leading survey, processing, and reporting capability.

“FMS has built a reputation in the North Sea and beyond for being exactly the kind of partner the offshore energy sector relies upon; experienced, adaptive, and operationally excellent,” said Matthew Tirman, Chief Executive Officer of Bedrock. “Pairing our autonomous technology with FMS’s regional infrastructure and personnel allows us to deliver Bedrock-quality data to clients across the UK and Europe at the speed and cost the market needs. This partnership is a major step in how we bring the future of subsea insights to the operators building offshore energy infrastructure for the next century of the ocean economy.”

“Bedrock represents a step change in how subsea data is collected, processed, and delivered as insights at a pace the industry hasn’t seen before. We are pleased to bring that capability to our clients, complementing the survey and consultancy services for which we are known across the offshore industry,” said Steven Brown, CEO of First Marine Solutions. “Hosting Bedrock’s AUV systems in Aberdeen, with our team trained to operate and maintain them, will result in faster response times, increased flexibility, and the opportunity to offer the offshore energy sector a genuinely differentiated service.”

Beyond field operations, the two companies will collaborate to raise awareness of the new capabilities available to customers, and how they will shape maritime industries in the years to come. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the ocean economy would have been the world’s fifth largest economy if it was considered a country in 2019. The same report anticipates the ocean economy will quadruple in size between 1995 to 2050, driven in part by digitization and autonomous technologies.

With presence in the North Sea, the partnership between Bedrock and FMS further demonstrates the value of autonomous ocean intelligence to the ongoing growth of the ocean economy, even in the most demanding environments on the planet.

About Bedrock Ocean Exploration

Bedrock is the intelligence infrastructure powering the ocean economy. We unlock ocean insights at unprecedented speed.

Bedrock is building persistent ocean intelligence solutions that will enable the ocean economy to solve the world’s most pressing challenges in maritime security, infrastructure, energy, and climate. Our modular architecture delivers entirely new intelligence capabilities for government and commercial partners. With our streamlined “fly-and-deploy” approach, missions can be mobilized from any vessel of opportunity in just 24 to 72 hours.

Our automated intelligence pipeline provides comprehensive insights in hours, not weeks. By completely eliminating the logistics of traditional solutions, we enable our customers to make critical decisions within their operational window while reducing costs and keeping crews safe on shore.

Bedrock was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Richmond, California. For more information, please visit www.bedrockocean.com.

About First Marine Solutions

Since 2009, First Marine Solutions (FMS) has established itself as a leading provider of integrated mooring solutions to the global energy sector. Offering a complete end-to-end service, FMS supports clients throughout every stage of a project’s lifecycle; from system design and engineering to survey and installation, the provision of offshore equipment and personnel, and eventual decommissioning. This comprehensive approach enables FMS to provide a true holistic solution, delivering technical expertise, operational excellence, and reliable project execution worldwide. For more information, please visit www.firstmarinesolutions.com.

SOURCE Bedrock Ocean Exploration