MONTREAL, Sept. 1, 2026 — Scopia Surgical, a Montreal-based TechMed company developing real-time AI-powered surgical navigation for minimally invasive and robotic surgery, announced the closing of its oversubscribed $2.65M CAD pre-seed financing round. The financing was co-led by Linearis Ventures and Anges Québec with participation from Fonds Impulsion, an initiative of the Government of Quebec managed by Investissement Québec, HaloHealth, Richard Rubin, Suresh Madan, and other investors.

“This round, backed by investors who have built and scaled life sciences companies, gives us the resources and expert advisory needed to bring our vision into the first clinical evaluations”, said Gabriel Rivest, CEO and co-founder.

“The momentum behind this oversubscribed financing reflects our confidence in Scopia’s vision and its ability to unlock the transformative potential of physical AI within one of healthcare’s fastest-growing markets. We believe Scopia could become a category-defining company”, according to Manon Boisclair, Managing Partner, Linearis Ventures.

The proceeds will be used to grow the engineering and clinical teams, accelerate product development, and advance the first clinical validation of Scopia Surgical Navigation across several hospitals in Canada and the United States. “Our goal is to bring the full richness of preoperative imaging into the operating room, in real time on the systems hospitals already own to reduce complications and optimize surgical outcomes”, Rivest added.

In addition, the company is now focused on preparing for the regulatory and commercialization milestones. “Scopia Surgical captured the attention of the Angels through its potential to optimize surgeons’ practice with an innovative solution compatible with current operating room equipment. We are extremely proud to support these forward-thinking entrepreneurs”, said Hélène Moore, Anges Québec Representative.

About Scopia Surgical
Scopia Surgical is building a physical AI software platform for robotic surgery. By fusing real-time spatial intelligence with patient-specific digital twins, Scopia Surgical bridges the gap between human intervention and robotic execution. The technology, based on computer vision, enables existing systems to achieve unprecedented precision, transforming the operating room into a high-fidelity, autonomous-ready environment.
For more information, visit www.scopia.tech

About Linearis Ventures
Linearis, with its tandem Ventures Fund and Laboratory, is pioneering and supporting discoveries to prevent, detect, and cure diseases through direct investments in innovative AI-powered life sciences companies.
To learn more about Linearis Ventures, visit www.linearis.com

About Anges Québec
Anges Québec is Canada’s largest angel investor network, bringing together serial technology entrepreneurs, seasoned investors and industry experts, with more than $200M CAD invested since 2008, and over 115 active companies in the portfolio.
For more information, visit www.angesquebec.com

SOURCE Linearis

Data-led selection pilot finds 100 high-growth Slovenian companies that have doubled combined revenues to €2.1 billion

Provides a blueprint for identifying Europe’s future champions as the EU mobilises up to €80 billion in scale-up investment via the European Investment Bank’s ETC 2.0

BLED, Slovenia, Sept. 1, 2026 — One hundred high-growth companies with the potential to become global champions have been identified through a new data-led selection model designed to help close Europe’s competitiveness gap with the US and China.

Unveiled at the Future 500 Forum in Bled, the Future 100 Slovenia intends to answer a critical question as it mobilizes billions of euros in new scale-up investment: can it identify its most promising companies early enough, and connect them sufficiently to compete globally?

Slovenia is the first country in which the Future 500 methodology has been applied in full, creating a pilot that the initiative ultimately intends to deploy across Europe.

Stjepan Orešković, founder of the Future 500 Initiative, said: “Europe is beginning to mobilize the capital it needs, but €80 billion will not make Europe more competitive simply because it is available. We need to identify our future champions earlier and ensure they obtain the capital, markets and expertise to compete globally.

Select, connect, support. This is the model we want to develop. We want to work with each company on its growth strategy and connect it with the right people and institutions.”

The Future 500 methodology was developed by an international research team at IEDC – Bled School of Management, working with researchers from Harvard, Oxford, the University of Edinburgh and ESMT Berlin, institutions across Central and Eastern Europe.

The Future 100 was unveiled at the Future 500 Forum – Powering Europe’s Scale-Up Engine: From Selection to Acceleration, held alongside the Bled Strategic Forum.

Participants included Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia; Dr Anže Logar, Slovenia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Labor and Sport; Marta Kos EU Commissioner for enlargement, Kerstin Jorna; Director-General of DG GROW at the European Commission; Michiel Scheffer president of the European Innovation Council, and  representatives from the European Investment Bank, European Investment Fund, EBRD, Nasdaq and Google DeepMind.

The Future 500 Initiative argues that raising more capital is only half the answer. Europe must improve how it identifies potential winners and backs them.

For further information, visit future500initiative.com.

Mark Walter
Head of Capital Outcomes
Michael Macfarlane Associates
[email protected]
+447967789383

NEW YORK, Sept. 1, 2026 — Black Pearl Equities, a New York-based investment group (together with its affiliates, “Black Pearl”), announced today that it has successfully completed its tender offer, through a wholly owned subsidiary, to purchase all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Selectis Health, Inc. (OTCQB: GBCS ) (“Selectis” or the “Company”), a healthcare company, for $5.75 per share in cash.

The tender offer expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 31, 2026. As of the expiration, 2,789,027 shares had been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn, representing approximately 90.93% of Selectis’ outstanding shares of common stock. The conditions to the tender offer were satisfied, and Black Pearl has accepted for payment and will promptly pay the depositary for all validly tendered shares.

Black Pearl expects to complete the acquisition of Selectis through a merger without a vote or meeting of Selectis’ stockholders, pursuant to Section 16-10a-1108 of the Utah Revised Business Corporation Act. Each of the remaining shares of Selectis common stock not purchased in the tender offer will be converted into the right to receive the same $5.75 in cash per share that was paid in the tender offer. Upon completion of the merger, Selectis will become an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Black Pearl.

The information agent for the tender offer is Laurel Hill Advisory Group. Selectis stockholders who have questions regarding the tender offer should contact the information agent toll free at (844) 305-2265 or by email at [email protected].

Broadridge Corporate Issuer Solutions, LLC is acting as depositary for the tender offer.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release regarding future financial and operating results, benefits of the transaction, future opportunities for Selectis’ business and any other statements concerning future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects constitute forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on various expectations and assumptions about future events, and they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that can cause actual events and results to differ materially from historical results and those projected. Risks and uncertainties include the ability of Black Pearl to successfully integrate Selectis’ business and the risk that the expected benefits of the transaction may not be realized or maintained. Neither Selectis nor Black Pearl undertakes to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or developments.

About Selectis Health, Inc.

Selectis Health, Inc. is a healthcare owner-operator that acquires, develops, and manages skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and independent living facilities across the South and Southeastern United States. The Company currently operates eight properties in Arkansas and Oklahoma, providing post-acute and skilled nursing care, assisted and independent living services, and continuing care retirement programs, with reimbursement sourced through Medicare, Medicaid, and private pay arrangements. Selectis is focused on delivering quality resident care while pursuing strategic growth opportunities in an expanding senior healthcare market.

Contact

Selectis Health, Inc.
600 17th Street, Suite 2800
Denver, CO 80202

About Black Pearl

Black Pearl is a dynamic investment firm, advisory, and consultancy strategically diversified across healthcare sectors. Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, Black Pearl fosters strategic synergies and facilitates high-impact transactions.

Contact

Anthony Vitellozzi
Laurel Hill Advisory Group
(844) 305-2265
[email protected]

SOURCE Black Pearl Equities

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 1, 2026 — L’ATTITUDE Ventures, the largest Latino-focused early-stage venture capital firm investing in Latino(a) entrepreneurs, announced today that portfolio company Sunthetics, a pioneer in AI technology for chemical and pharmaceutical innovation, has been selected as a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on a $19.5 million U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) initiative to build the next generation of AI-enabled autonomous laboratories.

NSF’s Programmable Cloud Laboratories (PCL) Test Bed initiative will provide funding over four years to establish a nationwide network to test, scale and demonstrate novel methods and tools that advance automated science and engineering, accelerate discoveries and innovations across multiple fields, and strengthen U.S. leadership in scientific research and technology.

The San Marcos, Texas-based Sunthetics is part of a national network of 20 teams receiving a total of $400 million through NSF’s PCL initiative. The initiative represents a core NSF contribution to the U.S. government’s Genesis Mission, a national effort to harness AI for scientific discovery.

The project, led by Scripps Research in collaboration with UCLA and Sunthetics, will create an open, AI-guided platform for high-throughput chemical reaction discovery. The platform will integrate:

• Advanced robotics and automation
• AI models trained on chemical reactivity
• Open data formats and FAIR-compliant standards

“It is a privilege for our team to be part of this initiative and help build the future of American innovation,” said Sunthetics CEO and Founder Daniela Blanco. “The partnerships and technologies built in this effort will result in breakthroughs that redefine how we leverage AI in science for decades to come.”

Sunthetics empowers chemical and pharmaceutical companies with a machine learning platform that leverages small datasets, including as few as five data points, to create data-driven roadmaps for R&D scientists. The platform guides experimentation and identifies product pathways, enabling Sunthetics’ partners to achieve better results in a fraction of the time and bring products to market faster than traditional processes.

L’ATTITUDE Ventures General Partner Laura Moreno Lucas said the NSF initiative represents an important opportunity to demonstrate the impact of diverse, women-led companies in shaping the future of AI and scientific discovery.

“This is what it looks like when women-led AI companies are at the table building the infrastructure of the next scientific revolution,” Lucas said. “Daniela and the Sunthetics team are proving that the best AI for science is built by diverse founders who understand the problem deeply. The future of autonomous discovery is open, and it’s being built now.”

About Sunthetics, Inc.

Sunthetics is a machine learning company specializing in accelerating innovation and sustainability in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms and small datasets, Sunthetics’ software guides experimentation in chemical laboratories, empowering industries to reduce their carbon footprint while optimizing production efficiency. Founded with the mission of revolutionizing traditional manufacturing practices through democratized AI, Sunthetics has been recognized for its innovation in green technology and commitment to a sustainable future. For more information, visit www.sunthetics.io.

About L’ATTITUDE Ventures

With more than $100 million in assets under management, L’ATTITUDE Ventures is the largest Latino early-stage venture capital fund investing in technology-first visionary entrepreneurs. The fund provides capital, support, connections and visibility to empower founders building the next generation of innovative companies.

Led by Co-Founder and Managing Partner Sol Trujillo, and joined by partners Oscar Munoz, Laura Moreno Lucas and Pete Amaro, the team brings together experienced investors, proven entrepreneurs and global Fortune 100 executives to create value beyond capital. For more information, visit L’ATTITUDE Ventures.

Media Contact:
Marie Lazzara
JJR Marketing
630-400-3361
[email protected]

SOURCE L’ATTITUDE Ventures

Round backs the company’s physical AI control system for healthcare, a growing library of clinical skills deployed on partner robots and live in facilities today

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Sept. 1, 2026 — Norbert Health, whose physical AI control system turns robotic hardware platforms into autonomous nursing assistants, today announced its $14 million Series A, supported by William A. Marino with Cardinal Group, with participation from Exor Seeds, CareIT, and angel investors including Alexis Le-Quoc and Olivier Pomel (Datadog), Saeju Jeong (Noom) and Thomas Clozel (Owkin).

“Healthcare in the US is short close to a million nurses, and more than two million trained nurses no longer want to work bedside because the job keeps getting harder,” said Alex Winter, CEO and co-founder of Norbert Health. “Robots that assist nurses can help reduce the burden, but only if they have clinical skills. Previous attempts put logistics robots on healthcare floors and never touched the core of a nurse’s work. Norbert-powered robots build clinical skills in the real world, and they are the reliable path to the generic humanoid care helper of tomorrow. This round lets us accelerate.”

Norbert-powered robots make rounds, capture vitals without contact, run assessments, handle patient requests, and document every encounter into the EHR. Robots can already walk, navigate, and carry; but care requires clinical and care related skills, and Norbert supplies the clinical brain and voice that turns a mobile robot into a working member of the care team.

Those skills run on Norbert’s proprietary sensing and interaction AI stack: contactless physiology, mobility and motor function, cognitive and mental health markers, and behavioral and social activity. The interaction skills enable the robots to competently converse with patients across languages and communication styles, run structured assessments, and coordinate with staff. Together they help catch the small changes that become readmissions and acute events, and they free nurses and CNAs for the judgment, relationships and hands-on care that only they can deliver.

Norbert is live in production, rounding on hundreds of patients daily across skilled nursing facilities since August 2025. Patient acceptance is 96%. Monitoring compliance has reached 82%, nearly two times better than the baseline for manual remote monitoring. Every week, care teams catch acute events early, before they become bigger problems. And practically, our robots help activate compliant reimbursable opportunities and better value based care capabilities that are profitable from day one.

“Norbert is the rare physical AI company already earning its place in live clinical operations: real patients, real facilities, real workflows, every day,” said Filippo Monteleone, President and Founder of CareIT, a leading healthcare investment firm with a strong seed portfolio. “The deployments are working, and the lead grows wider from here.”

“Healthcare labor is one of the largest markets in the US economy, and robots have never had a credible route into it until now,” said Saeju Jeong, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Noom, a digital health platform that uses psychology and technology to help people live healthier lives. “Norbert built that route, and this is the team to define the category.”

New capital will deepen the clinical skill library, advance regulatory clearances, and expand deployments across skilled nursing and into new care settings. Current development areas include post-fall neurological evaluations, pressure injury prevention protocols, cognitive screening, and fall risk reassessment, each shipping on top of the existing installed base.

About Norbert Health

Norbert Health builds the physical AI control system for care: contactless medical-grade sensing, clinical protocol execution, EHR integration, and reimbursement infrastructure, deployed on partner robotic hardware platforms. Norbert is live in skilled nursing facilities across the United States and has raised $19 million to date. Learn more at www.norberthealth.com.

SOURCE Norbert Health

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 1, 2026 – Tripo AI, the world’s leading AI company in generative 3D, has raised approximately 3 billion yuan in its Series B and Series B+ financing rounds as the company announced a major breakthrough in AI 3D generation.

Led by MPCi, the latest funding attracted a diverse set of institutions from various sectors. Major strategic and industry investors included Perfect World, BlueFocus, SPC, Yanqu Games, ThunderSoft, and 37 Interactive Entertainment. The financing rounds were also backed by financial investors such as CDH Venture and Growth Capital, CICC, CMC Capital Partners, Hongtai Aplus, 3H Health, Zhongping Capital, and GreatOrigin Asia. Existing investors Fortune Capital, Primavera Capital, 4399 Network, Muhua Tech Ventures, Vitalbridge Capital, INCE Capital, and T-Capital further increased their investments.

The completion of the financing rounds came as Tripo announced a major breakthrough in 3D-native foundation models with the preview release of Tripo P2.0, its latest 3D-native foundation model that allows quad topology, a first for the industry. As an upgrade from Tripo P1.0, P2.0 enables the generation of high-quality and production-ready 3D objects in mere seconds.

Enterprises across industries have deployed Tripo’s 3D-native foundation models as the company continues to push the boundaries of what AI 3D technology can achieve. The latest financing rounds reinforce the leading status of Tripo AI in generative 3D.

The funding will accelerate the development and advancement of 3D-native foundation models and 3D data infrastructure, expand computing infrastructure for AI training and inference, and fuel product development and commercialization.

About Tripo AI

Tripo AI is a global leader in the development of 3D-native foundation models and world models. Founded in 2023 by leading scientists in AI and computer graphics, the company has developed a comprehensive end-to-end product ecosystem, built around its proprietary 3D-native foundation models and world models. With Tripo Studio and Tripo API, Tripo AI has transformed 3D generation. Powered by a world-class AI 3D research team, the company is advancing AI toward understanding, generating, and interacting with 3D environments.

Tripo AI’s models and products have been widely adopted by individual users and enterprises globally, serving industries including intelligent manufacturing, virtual reality, interactive entertainment, and embodied AI, empowering enterprises to unlock new productivity and scale applications of generative 3D.

Yinyin Wang
[email protected]

SOURCE Tripo AI

Financing led by The Venture City, Capital Factory, Scalpel Ventures and Evoce Capital; funds will be utilized to run multiple clinical studies in oncology to advance a novel and revolutionary red blood cell based liquid biopsy platform invented at the University of Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 1, 2026 — Senticell, Inc. (“Senticell” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of liquid biopsy built on red blood cell (RBC)-bound nucleic acids, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed seed financing round approaching $7 million. The round drew participation from The Venture City, Capital Factory, Scalpel Ventures, Evoce Capital, as well as a group of high-net-worth individuals.

“This financing reflects strong investor conviction in the underlying science and in our team’s ability to translate that science into a scalable diagnostic platform,” said Neha Shah, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Senticell. “Being oversubscribed and welcoming a group of investors who understand the clinical need firsthand, gives us both the capital and the opportunity to rapidly advance what will be a major breakthrough in cancer diagnosis and ultimately treatment decision-making.”

Senticell’s liquid biopsy platform is exclusively licensed to the company from the University of Pennsylvania and is built on more than a decade of published, peer-reviewed research demonstrating red blood cells actively bind and retain disease-associated DNA and RNA. These unique insights were first identified by Dr. Nilam Mangalmurti, who is the scientific co-founder of Senticell and acts as the company’s Chief Scientific Advisor.

Since red blood cells are the body’s most abundant cell type (an estimated 30 trillion in circulation), remain in circulation for roughly 120 days, and come into contact with every tissue in the body, they represent a largely untapped molecular diagnostic reservoir that can significantly lower limits of detection of liquid biopsy. Senticell is rapidly advancing a proprietary RBC liquid biopsy platform to identify clinically actionable disease signals in oncology that today’s plasma-based tests miss and enable more consistent application in early-stage disease and low-shedding tumor states.

“Decades of research suggested that red blood cells were doing far more than carrying oxygen. Our discovery that red blood cells bind nucleic acids revealed that they could provide a distinct window into disease—one that may capture information not readily accessible through conventional liquid biopsies. Importantly, we recognized that this biology could be harnessed for diagnostics. That insight led to the development of a new technology to isolate and rapidly analyze RBC-associated nucleic acids, including oncogenic driver mutations. We are now building on this discovery to develop a reliable diagnostic platform with the potential to transform cancer detection and improve patient lives,” said Dr. Mangalmurti.

Central to Senticell’s data package are two prospective clinical studies currently underway at Penn Medicine, together enrolling approximately 300 patients and comparing Senticell’s red-cell signal against plasma-based tests and determining tissue concordance. The company is actively enrolling 200 lung and pancreatic cancer patients at UPenn, evaluating pre-surgical driver detection and recurrence monitoring, with completion in Q1 2027. In addition, Senticell is providing RBC-based in-vitro analytical support for a clinical study (head & neck and cervical cancer cohorts, ~100 patients across UPenn and UPenn-Botswana) evaluating MRD and post-treatment monitoring, with results expected in Q4 2026. Finally, foundational work under Senticell’s Sponsored Research Agreement with Penn Medicine is establishing rapid, culture-independent pathogen detection for sepsis and pneumonia on the RBC platform; the Company expects to formalize this into a dedicated clinical study following the completion of its oncology proof-of-concept work.

With its transformative technology based on decades of research, Senticell has attracted a world-class scientific advisory board including:

• Steven Albelda, MD (Penn Medicine, Emeritus), a tumor immunologist and co-founder of Capstan Therapeutics (acquired by AbbVie)
• Chris Hunter, PhD (Penn Vet), a cytokine biologist and founder of Surface Oncology (acquired by Coherus)
• David Roth, MD, PhD (Penn Medicine, Emeritus), founder of the Center for Personalized Diagnostics at UPenn.

“I have closely followed Dr. Mangalmurti’s research at Penn. Senticell will translate these basic science findings into clinically applicable RBC-platforms that will be more sensitive, more rapid, and less expensive than currently available testing approaches in diseases like cancer and infections,” said Dr. Steven Albelda, Scientific Advisor to Senticell.

Looking ahead, Senticell views this seed round as the foundation for a much broader platform. “Red blood cells have been hiding in plain sight as a diagnostic tool for decades, and we are just beginning to unlock what they can tell us,” said Shah. “Our vision is to build the definitive RBC-based diagnostics platform, one that starts in oncology but ultimately extends across disease areas where earlier, more sensitive detection can change how patients are treated. This is the first step toward making that a reality.”

About Senticell

Senticell is a biotechnology company developing a new class of liquid biopsy diagnostics based on red blood cell (RBC)-bound nucleic acids. Founded on research pioneered at Penn Medicine, Senticell’s platform is designed to unlock disease signals that plasma-based liquid biopsy often cannot detect, with initial applications in oncology and infectious diseases. Senticell holds an exclusive, worldwide license to its foundational RBC platform from the University of Pennsylvania and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.senticell.bio.

SOURCE Senticell

Initial Hot-Fire Testing Successfully Demonstrated the Next-Generation Drop-In Rocket Propellant in Venus’ Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine

SALT LAKE CITY and HOUSTON, Sept. 1, 2026 — Today, CycloKinetics, Inc. announced that it has selected Venus Aerospace and its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) technology to test CycloRP fuel, a drop-in replacement for RP-1/RP-2. CycloKinetics, which produces drop-in propellants designed to work in existing engines without modification, has designed CycloRP, built for higher energy density and cleaner combustion, as a replacement for RP-1 and RP-2. The testing program is sponsored by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory and backed by the Department of War’s Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering.

Testing will happen in two rounds. The first, completed in July 2026, evaluated CycloRP’s combustion performance in the RDRE and confirmed the fuel detonates successfully. The second will build on those results to assess CycloRP’s performance as a coolant, circulating the fuel through the engine to help manage temperature, measured against the known cooling performance of RP-1/RP-2. Results from both rounds will feed into a fuller technical readout expected in early 2027.

“We built CycloRP to be a true drop-in replacement, no engine redesign, no compromise on performance, and testing it in a live rotating detonation rocket engine, backed by the U.S. Air Force, is exactly the kind of real-world validation this technology needs,” said Mukund Karanjikar, CEO and founder of CycloKinetics. “Our work with Venus Aerospace serves as a strong example of how domestically produced propellants can support the next generation of hardware, manufactured right here in the U.S.”

“Our flight-proven rotating detonation rocket engine is changing what’s possible in propulsion. Efficient fuel is a critical piece of getting there,” said Sassie Duggleby, Co-Founder and CEO of Venus Aerospace. “This testing gives the Air Force and CycloKinetics the chance to see how a domestically produced, drop-in propellant performs in real hot-fire testing, side by side with the fuels we know today. Testing like this is how we get to a different economics of space.”

This testing builds upon previous testing CycloKinetics and Venus conducted in June 2025 at Venus’ Houston facility. This new program builds on that work and reflects continued momentum for both companies.

Both companies plan to share updates once final testing has concluded.

About CycloKinetics
CycloKinetics, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is an advanced technology company developing high-performance, fully drop-in propellants and fuels for aerospace and defense applications. Its proprietary propellants are designed to outperform conventional propellants and fuels while integrating seamlessly into existing systems, enabling improved range, endurance, payload capacity, and overall mission performance. Its propellants are drop-in replacements for the current propellants and fuels which power turbine-powered platforms including Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) and Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) applications, long-range and attritable missiles, next-generation propulsion, space launch systems, and commercial jets.

CycloKinetics produces its propellants domestically, supporting secure and rapidly scalable supply for defense and aerospace customers. Its industrial manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City became operational in 2025, with deliveries to customers already underway. The company’s feedstock-flexible production process enables manufacturing to be optimized for locally available resources, strengthening supply chain resilience and supporting distributed and in-theater production capabilities. For more information, visit www.cyclokinetics.com 

About Venus Aerospace
Venus Aerospace is building next-generation propulsion systems for defense, space, and future high-speed flight. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Venus is developing flight-proven Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) technology designed to deliver greater efficiency, range, and scalability for defense and space missions. Venus’ propulsion systems are designed for domestic manufacturing and mission flexibility across national security and aerospace applications. Venus is backed by Mercury Fund, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Prime Movers Lab, Airbus Ventures, Trousdale Ventures and others. To learn more, visit www.venusaero.com.

Media Contacts:
Kate Gundry
[email protected]
617-797-5147

Sarah Boland Heine
Head of Communications
[email protected] 
502-471-6186

SOURCE Venus Aerospace

Led by Insight Partners with participation from Galvanize, the round will accelerate US expansion of Gridsight’s AI-driven capacity management solutions amid the strongest sustained growth in electricity demand in decades.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 1, 2026 — Gridsight, the AI-powered capacity management platform for utilities, today announced it has raised a US$26 million Series B led by Insight Partners, with participation from Galvanize and existing investors Airtree, Energy Transition Ventures and Aera VC. The round will accelerate Gridsight’s US expansion while supporting continued growth in Australia at a moment when utilities face their most complex capacity challenge in decades, connecting a surge of data centers, EVs and distributed energy resources while keeping power affordable and reliable for the customers and communities they serve.

US electricity demand is rising after fifteen years of stagnant growth, driven by AI data centers, EVs, and electrification. But new construction alone cannot meet this growing demand. As the cost and timeline of building new infrastructure climb, regulators are shifting incentives toward better use of existing grid capacity. The opportunity lies within existing networks, where as much as three-quarters of grid capacity goes unused on average, varying by location, time of day, and season. Greater visibility and smarter management of this latent capacity allows utilities to connect more load today, without waiting for new infrastructure. Gridsight’s intelligent platform gives utilities a unified view of available network capacity and the tools to act on it in real-time.

“The grid’s capacity challenge is not uniform,” said Brendan Banfield, Co-founder and CEO of Gridsight. “For the majority of the year, significant capacity exists; but it is uneven, dynamic and geographically dependent. Our platform helps utilities quantify that capacity, connect customers faster and direct investment to the pockets of the grid that maximize its impact. Our goal at Gridsight is to use data and intelligence to ensure energy is an enabler for economic and technological progress, not its limiting factor.”

Gridsight is already working with leading US utilities, including Xcel Energy and United Illuminating, an Avangrid subsidiary. In Australia, where Gridsight was founded, Endeavour Energy deployed Gridsight’s unified capacity management platform for real-time solar management, doubling static solar export capacity for households from 5 kW to 10 kW paired with real-time dynamic control to protect the local grid. This program is expected to unlock more than $100 million in value for customers and 600 MW of additional solar capacity for the grid.

“Australia leads the world in rooftop solar adoption, and Endeavour Energy is at the forefront of that transition. Gridsight has been an invaluable strategic partner since 2021, helping us embrace AI and make data-led decisions on how we connect, manage, flex and plan our network. We’ve doubled customers’ solar export capacity within our existing poles and wires, are operating the grid closer to its full potential, and delivering better value for our customers. We’re proud of our partnership with Gridsight and the work we’re doing to accelerate Australia’s energy transition.” said Danny Cooper, CEO Endeavour Energy.

At the core of Gridsight’s platform is its Foundational Grid Model, a continuously updated, utility-specific model that brings fragmented grid data into a single, trusted view of the network. Unlike general-purpose AI, Gridsight’s AI agents combine utility-specific grid models with electrical physics to help engineers analyze complex networks in real-time, make better, faster decisions, and drive automation.

“Gridsight is now an integral part of how our Distribution teams operate and plan, turning data our network produces into intelligence our engineers can act on. As complexity in our distribution system continues to grow, this partnership helps us make rapid decisions to safely get the most out of our existing grid.” – Todd Conner, Senior Vice President, Electric Distribution Xcel Energy

With deployments at leading utilities across the US and Australia, Gridsight is translating platform capability into measurable outcomes at scale. This round of US expansion comes as demand growth accelerates and grid investment cycles lengthen, meaning utilities are increasingly looking for solutions that deliver results within existing infrastructure. This is the problem Gridsight was built to solve.

“The energy transition is stress-testing utility networks in ways they were never designed to handle,” said Rachel Geller, Managing Director at Insight Partners, “Gridsight’s platform provides the intelligence, visibility, and control needed to unlock latent capacity, connect more load, and stay ahead of demand without waiting for new infrastructure. The US market opportunity is substantial, and we’re proud to back this team.”

About Gridsight

Gridsight is the AI-powered capacity management platform for utilities. Founded in Sydney, Australia in 2020, Gridsight gives utilities a dynamic, decision-ready view of what their networks can carry, where and when, helping them connect new demand faster, make better use of existing infrastructure and direct investment where it is needed most. Its customers span Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the UK. More at gridsight.ai.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2025, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 900 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has a global presence with leadership in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing tailored, hands-on software expertise throughout their growth journey, from first investment to IPO. 

About Galvanize

Galvanize is a global asset manager investing at the intersection of energy innovation, resilience, and intelligence. The firm deploys capital across seed, venture, growth, public equities, credit, and real estate, combining investment expertise with deep in-house capabilities in technology, policy, and markets. Galvanize is structured to rapidly identify and execute on investment opportunities created by the energy transition, across all sectors of the economy.

SOURCE Gridsight