Funding will scale Odyssey’s platform in regions including Asia, Africa, and Latin America

BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 1, 2026 — Odyssey Energy Solutions, the leading platform for financing distributed renewable energy (DRE) projects in emerging markets, today announced $74 million in new financing. The funding consists of a $27 million equity round and $47 million in debt. New equity investors include Broadscale Group, FMO, and Al Mada Ventures, with continued participation from existing investors including Union Square Ventures, Equal Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Twelve Below, FJ Labs, MCJ, and Transition Ventures. Debt financiers include British International Investment, BIO, the Facility for Energy Inclusion represented by Cygnum Capital and the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund represented by TripleJump.

The financing will support continued expansion of Odyssey’s platform, which connects more than 6,000 solar installers and engineering, procurement, and construction companies (EPCs) with financiers and equipment suppliers in more than 50 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, facilitating access to $3.6 billion in capital for distributed energy projects. Odyssey’s procurement platform, launched in 2024, aggregates equipment procurement across its large network of EPCs, offering these small-to-medium sized companies access to volume pricing with embedded supply chain credit. The platform has unlocked 1.5 GW of projects to date.

“The focus of financing for distributed renewable energy has historically been on post-construction capital—funding that flows once a project is built,” said Emily McAteer, co-founder and CEO of Odyssey Energy Solutions. “That has left a significant gap upstream, where thousands of small and medium EPCs and installers lack the working capital needed to procure equipment, complete construction, and unlock customer payments. Odyssey bridges this gap directly, providing companies with the equipment pricing and financing they need to accelerate project delivery.”

The announcement comes at a moment of accelerating demand for distributed renewable energy across Odyssey’s core markets. Falling solar and battery costs, rising oil prices, and evolving government policy have converged to make the unit economics of distributed solar materially stronger than fossil-fuel alternatives. In Nigeria, where diesel backup generators supply more electricity than grid-connected power plants, according to the International Finance Corporation, diesel prices rose more than 93% between February and April 2026 following supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. In India, where Odyssey’s platform has grown 205% over the past 12 months, new domestic manufacturing requirements for solar components are reshaping supply chains and driving demand for the procurement and financing infrastructure that Odyssey provides. Rapid data center construction across India, driven by rising AI compute demand, is further increasing electricity demand at a pace grid infrastructure is struggling to meet, adding urgency to distributed solar and storage as a complement to centralized power supply.

“Distributed solar in emerging markets has reached a watershed moment,” said Andrew Shapiro, founder and Managing Partner at Broadscale Group. “The demand is there, the economics work, and the remaining constraint to deployment at massive scale is access to capital and procurement infrastructure for installers. That is exactly what Odyssey provides and why we’re thrilled to support the company as they enable this critically important growth.”

“Having worked across distributed energy finance in India and emerging markets, I’ve seen firsthand both the scale of the opportunity and the barriers that have held the sector back,” said Piyush Mathur, co-founder and Managing Director of Odyssey Energy Solutions. “Today, the conditions for rapid deployment of clean energy have never been stronger. EPCs and distributed energy developers are growing at unprecedented rates, creating an urgent need for the procurement, financing, and technology infrastructure that can enable them to scale. That is the gap Odyssey is uniquely filling.”

The new capital will allow for expansion of Odyssey’s procurement platform, which aggregates equipment orders across smaller buyers to improve supplier terms and offers embedded supply chain credit. Given high demand from commercial and industrial customers for solar and storage solutions, installers typically have a much larger order book than they can supply at a given time due to working capital constraints. Procuring through Odyssey allows these companies to procure and construct more projects at once, accelerating project deployment.

The recent funding follows Odyssey’s $15M Series A, announced in May 2023, bringing the total capital raised by the company to $94M. The company is also among the inaugural portfolio partners of Multiplier, an advisory firm co-founded by Jigar Shah and Jonathan Silver, both former directors of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office.

About Odyssey Energy Solutions
Odyssey Energy Solutions is accelerating the clean energy transition in emerging markets. The platform connects more than 6,000 distributed energy companies with financiers and equipment suppliers across India, Africa, Latin America, and more than 50 countries worldwide, facilitating access to $3.6 billion in capital. Learn more at odysseyenergysolutions.com.

SOURCE Odyssey Energy Solutions

SHANGHAI, Sept. 1, 2026 — Mech-Mind Robotics, a portfolio company of Qiming Venture Partners and a global-leading robobrain company, successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on September 1, 2026 Beijing time and became the first listed embodied intelligence “Eye-Brain-Hand” company, marking the tenth IPO for Qiming Venture Partners this year. Mech-Mind Robotics (09615. HK) issued its shares at a price of HK$101.7 per share with a market capitalization of HK$12.71 billion.

Qiming Venture Partners exclusively invested in the Round A+ financing of Mech-Mind Robotics in early 2019, accompanying the firm in its development all the way. Before Mech-Mind Robotics’ IPO, Qiming Venture Partners held a 7.38 percent stake in the firm and is one of the firm’s leading senior independent investors under the Chapter 18C of the Listing Rules of the HKEX.

Founded in 2016, Mech-Mind Robotics (Mech-Mind means robobrain) is one of the few technology companies in the world that has achieved cross-industry, cross-scenario and cross-regional large-scale implementation of physical AI relying on intelligent robot technologies. Different from most robot manufacturers, Mech-Mind Robotics does not produce robots, but provides “Eye-Brain-Hand” standardized intelligent components — Mech Eye industrial 3D cameras responsible for perception, Mech-GPT multimodal embodied large models responsible for decision-making, and Mech-Hand dexterous hands responsible for execution.

As of June 15, 2026, Mech-Mind Robotics has deployed over 29,000 units of its products globally, which have been used in more than 50 typical scenarios in dozens of industries, handled over 100,000 types of goods, and served more than 100 Fortune Global 500 companies, including CATL, BYD, Midea, and Foxconn.

Calculated by revenue in 2025, Mech-Mind Robotics’ market share in the global “AI+3D vision guided general intelligent robot components” market is about 22.1 percent, ranking first; Calculated by shipments, the firm’s global market share exceeds 27 percent, larger than the sum of its four largest rivals ranking after the firm. In addition, the firm has the highest market share in China, Japan, and North America, and is one of the market leaders in Southeast Asia, Europe, and South Korea.

“The integration of artificial intelligence and robotics is one of the greatest opportunities of our time. Seizing this opportunity requires not a brainwave of a few geniuses, but sustained efforts in technology and product development. Mech-Mind Robotics seeks truth from facts, keeps pace with the times, strives to build capabilities to explore cutting-edge technologies, stable and reliable capabilities to develop products, and capabilities to serve customers globally, and continuously creates genuine value. Qiming Venture Partners’ belief in AI technology and long-term value tallies with our company. We are very honored to have received recognition and critical support from Qiming Venture Partners in our early days,” says Shao Tianlan, Chairman, Executive Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Mech-Mind Robotics.

“Qiming Venture Partners invested in Mech-Mind Robotics in 2019 for we were optimistic about the vast potential of intelligent robotics and believed the application of artificial intelligence in the physical world was still in the early stages of industrialization, and closed-loop implementation scenarios were limited. Mech-Mind Robotics boasts top R&D and commercialization capabilities, and its products are consistently used and validated by global-leading companies, with outstanding performance both at home and abroad. We expect that Mech-Mind Robotics will become a core supplier of physical AI infrastructure and reply on its mature commercialization loop to continuously drive long-term innovation in general embodied intelligence,” Alex Zhou, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, stated.

About Qiming Venture Partners

Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. Currently, Qiming Venture Partners manages eleven US Dollar funds and seven RMB funds with $9.5 billion in capital raised. Since our establishment, we have invested in outstanding companies in the Technology and Healthcare industries at the early and growth stages.

Since our debut, we have backed over 580 fast-growing and innovative companies. Over 210 of our portfolio companies have achieved exits through IPOs at the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX, Shanghai Stock Exchange, or Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or through M&A or other means. There are also over 80 portfolio companies that have achieved unicorn or super unicorn status.

Many of our portfolio companies are today’s most influential firms in their respective sectors, including Xiaomi, Meituan, Bilibili, Zhihu, Roborock, Hesai Technology, UBTech, WeRide, HyperStrong, Insta360, Unisound, Biren Technology, Z.ai, Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals, Tigermed, Zai Lab, CanSino Biologics, Schrödinger, APT Medical, Sanyou Medical, AmoyDx, SinocellTech, Insilico Medicine, AusperBio, Yuanxin Technology, Medilink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, StepFun, among many others.

Early Investment Sudo AI Valued at Nearly $2B

TAIPEI, Sept. 1, 2026 — Cherubic Ventures today announced the close of its sixth fund (Fund VI) at $68.88 million. The fund size reflects the auspicious meaning of the number eight in East Asian cultures, where it is traditionally associated with prosperity and good fortune. With this close, assets under management across the firm’s six funds have surpassed US$500 million.

Investors across all six funds include leading global institutional investors and foundations, as well as publicly listed companies, family offices, successful entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals.

Fund VI maintains the firm’s early-stage focus, investing in AI-native companies across infrastructure, developer tools, enterprise software, healthcare, physical AI and robotics. Sudo AI, a robotics startup in the portfolio, has reached a valuation of nearly $2 billion two years after its founding, joining the ranks of unicorns.

“After ten years, I am more certain than ever about why I chose to invest at the earliest stages,” said Matt Cheng, Founder & Solo GP of Cherubic Ventures. “Working alongside exceptional founders, finding a path through uncertainty, and ultimately changing an industry is what keeps driving me.”

Investing Across AI, From Infrastructure to Industry Applications

As AI reshapes industries, Cherubic Ventures continues to look for founders using the technology to build new products and redefine markets. Since 2024, the firm’s AI-native investments have spanned infrastructure, developer tools, enterprise software, healthcare, physical AI and robotics.

In robotics, Sudo AI was co-founded by Hao Su, a leading researcher in embodied AI and 3D vision and co-author of PointNet, and serial entrepreneur Robin Han. Its sudo R1 robotic system is trained through virtual simulation and can reliably handle objects it has never encountered without relying on real-world manipulation data. This addresses a key bottleneck to deploying robotics at scale. Cherubic Ventures was its earliest institutional investor.

Cherubic Ventures is also an early investor in Entire, the developer platform founded by former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke. The company raised US$60 million earlier this year, the largest seed round ever for a developer tools startup.

While Fund VI is still at an early stage, its portfolio companies have already raised more than $500 million in subsequent funding. Other notable investments include AI-powered patent technology platform Patlytics, along with healthcare and drug development companies Max AI, Generation Lab and therapiAI.

A Decade Alongside Founders, Supporting the Next Generation

Founded in 2015, Cherubic Ventures was among the first venture firms in the world to adopt the solo GP model. It has invested in more than 200 companies globally, with early investments including Hims & Hers, Flexport, Calm, Paidy, 91APP and Astranis. 

Across its portfolio, Cherubic Ventures has been the earliest institutional investors in dozens of companies that went on to become unicorns. Hims & Hers is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and 91APP on the Taipei Exchange, while Paidy was acquired by PayPal for US$2.7 billion.

Fund VI marks the beginning of Cherubic Ventures’ second decade. “The past ten years have made me more certain that believing in founders before the answers are clear, and backing them through uncertainty, is at the heart of early-stage investing,” Cheng said. “In the next decade, we will continue to ‘Stay Early’ and work with the most exceptional founders to build the future we want to see.”

About Cherubic Ventures
Founded in 2015, Cherubic Ventures is a global early-stage venture capital firm that started in Taipei and has built a strong presence in the U.S. market. The firm backs outstanding founders from day one and was among the first venture firms in the world to adopt the solo GP model. Notable investments include Hims & Hers, Calm, Flexport, 91APP, Paidy, Formation Bio and Astranis. To date, Cherubic Ventures has invested in more than 200 startups and brings together more than 500 founders and investors in a distinctive global community.

SOURCE Cherubic Ventures

HONG KONG, Sept. 1, 2026 — H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”), a leading global alternative investment firm with $75 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce that Younghee Choi has joined the firm’s Capital Formation Group as Head of Asia. Younghee is based in Hong Kong and will lead capital formation efforts across Asia for H.I.G.’s global private equity, credit, and real assets platforms.

With more than 15 years of experience in capital formation and private markets, Younghee joins H.I.G. from Blackstone, where she held senior roles across the firm’s Institutional Client Solutions (“ICS”) and Private Wealth businesses, serving as Senior Managing Director and Head of Korea ICS. During her tenure at Blackstone, Younghee developed and expanded relationships with a broad base of leading institutional investors and played a key role in building the firm’s private wealth fundraising business in Korea.

Jordan Peer Griffin, Executive Managing Director and Global Head of the Capital Formation Group, commented: “We are pleased to welcome Younghee to H.I.G. Her extensive capital formation experience, longstanding relationships across Asia, and ability to build enduring partnerships with institutional and private wealth investors will further strengthen our presence in the region. Younghee’s leadership will be instrumental as we expand our Asian LP base and support the continued growth of H.I.G.’s global investment platforms.”

Younghee Choi, Head of Asia, also commented: “I am thrilled to join H.I.G. at such an exciting time in the firm’s growth. I look forward to working closely with the team to deepen our relationships with investors across Asia, broaden H.I.G.’s presence in the region, and connect our investors with the full breadth of the firm’s global capabilities.”

About H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. is a leading global alternative investment firm with $75 billion of capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Stamford in the United States, as well as international affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, and Hong Kong. H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to middle market companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach:

• H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
• H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche, and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets.
• H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
• H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 400 companies worldwide. The Firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $53 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at hig.com.

*Based on total capital raised by H.I.G. Capital and its affiliates.

Contact:

Media Relations
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H.I.G. Capital Hong Kong, Ltd.
Suite 3106, Level 31, Alexandra House
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Hong Kong, China
Phone: +852 2707 5000
hig.com

Three general partners with operating exits behind them will pair capital with commerce infrastructure for the consumer brands they back.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31, 2026 — F&F Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Founders & Funders™ community, today launched a $10 million ecommerce fund in partnership with SHOPLINE, the global commerce platform serving more than 700,000 merchants worldwide. The fund invests from pre-seed through Series A in consumer brands and the technology behind them.

The fund is led by three general partners who built the kinds of companies it intends to back. Jeff Erickson, General Partner and Founder of Founders & Funders™, scaled a consumer brand to eight figures before its sale to a private equity firm, and has since invested in more than 40 companies as an angel investor. Adam Shaw, Co-Founder of Founders & Funders™ and General Partner, built a physical product company from zero to $18 million, led a seven-figure consumer goods brand, and brings global supply chain and private equity experience. Jian Tam, General Partner, is a serial CPG entrepreneur with multiple ecommerce exits and more than twenty years in the category, including Co-Founder of ProteinWaffles.com.

Deal flow comes through the Founders & Funders™ community, which has run more than 300 events in the US and internationally over the past eight years. Its VC ReversePitch™ series, in which investors pitch founders on their thesis and check size rather than the other way around, runs in several major cities this fall, starting in Denver on September 17 and including stops in San Francisco and LA for Tech Week by a16z.

The fund’s current portfolio spans 13 consumer brands, among them Protein Waffles, NoLimit, See Sea, Link Luggage, OnGo Energy, Board Budder, and G Box.

“As the venture capital arm of Founders & Funders, we are fully committed to increasing the likelihood of success for the companies we invest in. We are already seeing the impact we are able to make working with our portfolio companies by leveraging our network connections, distribution channels, eCommerce expertise, experience, and relationships,” said Jeff Erickson, General Partner of F&F Ventures.

Portfolio companies get SHOPLINE alongside the capital — storefront, payments, marketing automation, loyalty, and multi-channel selling running on one system. Christopher Yang, Co-President of SHOPLINE, serves on the F&F Ventures investment committee.

“F&F is putting capital and operating experience into these companies at the same time, and that combination is what actually moves a young brand,” said Yang. “Our part is making sure the commerce side is built as one system from day one, while the company is still early enough to get it right.”

About F&F Ventures

F&F Ventures is the venture capital arm of Founders & Funders™, investing pre-seed through Series A in consumer brands and the technology behind them. The firm originates its deal flow from Founders & Funders, the eight-year-old relationship engine for venture, with a massive network and events in 12 cities and four-plus countries, including its VC ReversePitch™ series. F&F Ventures pairs capital with operating support, giving portfolio companies the network, distribution, and commerce infrastructure that increase their likelihood of success. Learn more at fandf.vc.

About SHOPLINE

Founded in 2013, SHOPLINE is a leading global Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider and omnichannel commerce enabler. The platform empowers over 700,000 merchants worldwide to build, market, and scale their businesses through a comprehensive suite of unified commerce solutions, including e-commerce website creation, social commerce, live shopping, and point-of-sale systems. Headquartered in Singapore, SHOPLINE operates globally with a thriving partner ecosystem designed to level up retail operations for brands of all sizes. Learn more at www.shopline.com.  Follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact

David Wamsley
Rosebud Communications
[email protected]
415.259.9104

SOURCE SHOPLINE

This asset purchase brings the Omni Cyber Solutions Agentic Platform and its AI-powered security operations technology into the Athena Agentic portfolio, enhancing the Athena Unified Cyber Operations Platform’s vulnerability scanning, Shadow AI, and penetration testing capabilities.

DALLAS, Aug. 31, 2026 — Athena Agentic today announced the purchase of the Omni Cyber Solutions (OCS) Agentic Platform, an AI-powered cybersecurity platform. Under the asset purchase, Athena Agentic acquires the platform’s technology and intellectual property and will integrate its capabilities into the Athena Unified Cyber Operations Platform. This marks Athena Agentic’s second acquisition in under sixty days.

Omni Cyber Solutions earned its reputation building full security operations centers for some of the most demanding customers in the world, across the financial services, government, and enterprise sectors on multiple continents. That experience directly informs the practical design of the Agentic Platform.

The purchase positions Athena Agentic at the intersection of two forces reshaping cybersecurity: autonomous, machine-speed operations and the global demand for trusted, sovereign-ready security delivery. As adversary breakout times shrink to seconds and the average cost of a data breach surpasses $4.44 million, the ability to deploy, staff, train, and operate autonomous security operations anywhere in the world has become a board-level priority.

The Agentic Platform’s capabilities will be reimagined and integrated across the Athena Unified Cyber Operations Platform, enabling customers to move from fragmented tooling and manual staffing to unified, autonomous operations that can be deployed and scaled globally. Existing customers will continue to receive full product support and will gain access to enhanced capabilities as integration work progresses.

“Bringing our Agentic Platform to Athena Agentic opens a new chapter for the technology we built. We have always believed that world-class security operations should be within reach of every enterprise, not just the largest few. Now the platform has the home and the partners to reach global scale.”
— Brett Kelsey, Chief AI Officer, Athena Agentic

Terms of the asset purchase were not disclosed. The transaction is effective July 16, 2026.

About Athena Agentic

Athena Agentic pioneered the Unified Cyber Operations Platform (UCOP): the first platform to unify autonomous security operations, vulnerability management, AI governance, and GRC into a single intelligent ecosystem. Rather than forcing organizations to manage dozens of disconnected tools and siloed teams, UCOP breaks down operational barriers and enables every cyber function to operate as one coordinated system.

At Athena Agentic, we believe cybersecurity should be unified, autonomous, and always protecting. Our mission is simple: empower organizations to defend at machine speed while giving security leaders the visibility, intelligence, and confidence to focus on strategic decisions instead of operational noise.

Athena Agentic is the AI-native technology platform owned by Agentic Cyber AI, LLC.

SOURCE Athena Agentic

Strategic investors join as Diffraqtion caps its pre-seed with $10M total funding, following on-sky demonstrations, advancement under its DARPA program, and NASA awards in orbital debris tracking and orbital edge computing.

SOMERVILLE, Mass., Aug. 31, 2026 — Diffraqtion, an MIT and University of Maryland spinout building quantum camera platforms for defense and space sensing, today announced strategic investments from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Presidio Ventures, the venture arm of Sumitomo Corporation, bringing total funding to over $10M.

Following strong investor interest, Diffraqtion elected to cap its pre-seed, which also includes SBI US Gateway Fund with Plug and Play, Collaborative Fund, and TekVentures, with follow-on participation from existing investors Aether VC, milemark•capital, and ADIN.

The investment follows seven months of rapid progress since the round’s first close led by Ground State Ventures, announced in January 2026. The company completed on-sky demonstrations at a partner observatory, distinguishing closely spaced objects. Its DARPA Direct-to-Phase-II SBIR advanced into its second option period, and NASA has since selected Diffraqtion for an SBIR Phase I in orbital debris tracking and named the company winner of its $100,000 Space to Soil Challenge for adaptive sensing and onboard processing.

Diffraqtion’s quantum cameras resolve detail below the diffraction limit, the hard resolution floor that the aperture of a lens imposes on every conventional optical system. By sorting incoming light by its shape rather than its brightness, they measure information conventional cameras discard, reducing the aperture and compute needed to classify far-away objects. Company simulations indicate that the approach can resolve features up to 20 times smaller, and that onboard processing classifies targets orders of magnitude faster than conventional pipelines. The method is passive and draws on quantum estimation theory rather than quantum computing, without using qubits or cryogenics.

The new funding takes the technology into its first fielded camera, with flight heritage planned through a hosted payload on a partner spacecraft. To lead the effort, Diffraqtion has appointed Peter Kazlas as Head of Engineering. Kazlas brings 25 years of experience taking novel optics from lab bench to volume production, including at E Ink and QD Vision, acquired by Samsung.

“For as long as cameras have existed, seeing farther has meant building bigger optics,” said Johannes Galatsanos, CEO and Co-Founder of Diffraqtion. “Our cameras break that paradigm, delivering better mission capability at a fraction of the aperture, size, and cost. Now we’re building our first fielded camera and preparing for operational engagements in space domain awareness and reconnaissance.”

“What excites us about Diffraqtion is how they’re applying quantum-enabled imaging to extract more information from light and improve target detection and classification with smaller, more efficient sensing systems,” said Chris Moran, Vice President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. “We invest in technologies with the potential to shape future mission capabilities, and this team’s rapid progress from laboratory development toward flight demonstration is particularly promising.”

“What drew us to Diffraqtion is that the same physics advantage applies whether the camera is observing the sky or the earth, or guiding a physical system,” said Ross Leav, SVP at Presidio Ventures. “As the venture arm of Sumitomo Corporation, we see significant opportunity to bring this capability to industrial and commercial markets globally, and we’re excited to support the team as they move into deployment.”

About Diffraqtion

Diffraqtion builds quantum camera platforms that let machines resolve detail beyond the limits of conventional optics, pairing photonic hardware with a proprietary model layer that turns raw imagery into real-time intelligence. The company is developing the technology for space domain awareness and reconnaissance, with applications across drones, autonomy, and precision inspection. Diffraqtion is an MIT and University of Maryland spinout headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Media Contact: [email protected] | www.diffraqtion.com 

SOURCE Diffraqtion

• Fintech veteran Daniel Sogorka takes the helm to scale Informed’s existing business, lead innovation of new products, and expand beyond auto lending into adjacent verticals
• Informed enters this next chapter processing more than 5 million applications annually, with its strategy, product roadmap, and customer commitments unchanged
• Informed has automated over $350B in loan originations for customers including eight of the top ten U.S. auto lenders, powered by a Fraud Data Network of 2 billion data points

SAN MATEO, Calif., Aug. 31, 2026 — Informed, the AI-powered platform that helps lenders verify applications, detect fraud, and accelerate loan funding across auto and consumer lending, today announced the appointment of Daniel Sogorka as Chief Executive Officer. The leadership transition reflects Informed’s next phase of growth, as the company scales its fraud protection technology across an expanding set of adjacent vertical markets beyond its original focus in auto lending.

Since its founding, Informed has helped lenders automate more than $350 billion in loan originations, reducing fraud losses, cutting manual review time, and accelerating funding decisions for eight of the nation’s top ten auto lenders along with numerous credit unions and consumer lenders. That impact is powered by Informed’s Fraud Data Network, built on years of lending data spanning more than 100 million documents and 2 billion data points, giving lenders a depth of insight that’s difficult to replicate. As Informed enters this next chapter, its focus on measurable impact around faster funding, lower fraud losses, and reduced cost per loan remains at the center of the company’s strategy.

“Informed has built something rare: a data advantage lenders genuinely trust to fight fraud,” said Sogorka. “With more than 2 billion data points behind the platform, we can catch what others miss, and it’s the foundation we’ll build on as we bring that same trust to new markets. I’m excited to work alongside this team to continue building on the strong foundation the Informed team has created.”

Sogorka joins Informed after two decades of lending industry leadership, including senior roles at Black Knight / ICE, ServiceLink / FNF, Sagent, and Rocket Pro. He brings deep expertise in mortgage lending along with a track record of building and scaling B2B technology businesses focused on efficiency and customer experience.

“We invested in Informed with the vision to transform fraud detection and verification across the lending industry,” said John DeLoche, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Invictus Growth Partners and Informed board member. “Dan brings exactly the scaling experience and lending industry expertise this next chapter requires. Under Dan’s leadership, we are confident this exceptional team will keep innovating to deliver even greater ROI for lenders.”

“Informed has demonstrated that its technology can deliver meaningful, measurable results for many of the largest lenders in the country,” said William Nettles, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Invictus Growth Partners and Informed board member. “The combination of Informed’s proprietary data advantage, industry leading ability to automate workflows and strong customer relationships creates a compelling foundation for continued growth.  Dan is exceptionally well suited to lead the company into its next chapter.”

Informed’s leadership team and board are aligned behind the transition. The company’s strategy, product roadmap, and commitments to customers remain unchanged.

About Informed

Informed (Informed.IQ) is an AI-powered platform that helps lenders speed up loan processing while reducing fraud, cost, and risk, using Document AI and machine learning to automate and validate application verifications. The company serves eight of the nation’s top ten U.S. auto lenders, along with numerous credit unions and consumer lenders, and has automated more than $350 billion in loan originations to date. Informed is backed by leading investors including Invictus Growth Partners.

About Invictus

Invictus Growth Partners is a middle-market growth equity firm with $1.3 billion in assets under management, investing in bootstrapped and capital-efficient cloud software, cybersecurity, and fintech companies. The firm is deploying more than $600 million from recently closed funds and provides portfolio companies exclusive access to DIANE, its AI-driven value-creation platform, which has delivered a significant increase in direct sales conversion and can provide access to thousands of warm customer introductions. Invictus makes majority investments with $30 million to $100+ million equity checks. Visit us at www.invictusgrowth.com.

Media Contact
Amelia Chen
VP, Marketing
[email protected] 

SOURCE Informed.IQ

Funding will accelerate pilot-scale production of lithium-6 and lithium-7 isotopes, strengthening a critical domestic supply chain for next-generation energy technologies.

SANTA FE, N.M., Aug. 31, 2026 — Molten Salt Solutions, Inc. (MSS), a New Mexico-based company with a novel large-scale production method for enriching lithium, announced the closing of an oversubscribed $7 million round of seed funding. The round was led by Dolby Family Ventures with participation from Vanedge Capital Partners, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, True Ventures, and Future Ventures. 

Fusion systems require large, reliable supplies of enriched lithium-6. Lithium-7 is used in advanced fission molten salt reactors. Currently, the United States lacks commercial-scale production of either isotope, making rebuilding the secure, domestic source of both isotopes a recognized national priority for energy security. 

“Fusion and small modular fission reactors are racing toward commercialization and are necessary to meet growing global power demands. Both depend on a secure domestic supply of enriched lithium. MSS meets this need,” said John Elling, CEO of Molten Salt Solutions. “This investment enables us to scale our technology and production capability to meet the demands of advanced reactors today and in the future.”

The financing will accelerate MSS’s transition from laboratory-validated technology to pilot-scale production fulfilling active customer agreements, expand the technical and operations teams, and deepen partnerships across the fusion and advanced nuclear supply chain. The company is also advancing a broader portfolio of enriched isotopes to serve emerging markets. 

This raise follows MSS’s $3 million pre-seed and more than $5 million in grant funding, including support through New Mexico’s Advanced Energy Award. 

About Molten Salt Solution: Molten Salt Solutions, Inc. (MSS) is a New Mexico based company producing enriched stable isotopes for fusion and the advanced nuclear market. Founded by serial entrepreneurs and isotope enrichment leaders from Los Alamos National Laboratory, MSS has developed a proprietary platform that is 100X more efficient than legacy enrichment approaches. MSS is building a secure domestic supply of high-purity lithium-6 and lithium-7 for the fusion and advanced-nuclear sectors, alongside a growing portfolio of enriched isotopes for advanced technologies. Learn more at https://moltensaltsolutions.com; [email protected]. 

About Dolby Family Ventures: Dolby Family Ventures (“DFV”) is an early-stage venture capital firm. Founded in 2014, DFV formalizes the Dolby family’s ongoing, multi-generational commitment to Ray Dolby’s legacy of discovering and supporting visionary entrepreneurs. DFV focuses on seed and pre-seed investments across a range of science- and technology-driven sectors, including climate, robotics and automation, aerospace, digital innovation, and compute, as well as on disease-modifying treatments in neurodegeneration and neuropsychiatry. Advanced energy solutions has been an active area of investment for the firm over the past decade, having made over 10 investments since 2016 supporting this thesis. DFV is not affiliated with Dolby Laboratories, Inc. For more information, visit www.dolbyventures.com. 

About Vandege Capital: Vanedge Capital is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Vancouver, Canada. Founded in 2010, the firm partners with founders solving hard technology problems across energy, advanced materials, computing, artificial intelligence, computational biology, and defense. Notable investments include SpaceX, Echodyne, Mojo Vision, Canalyst, and Raxium. For more information, visit vanedgecapital.com.

About Alumni Ventures: Alumni Ventures is one of the most active venture firms in the world, making startup investing more accessible for individuals. Powered by an 850,000+ member network of alumni, founders, experts, investors, and subscribers, AV co-invests alongside leading firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and NEA. The firm regularly invests in the nuclear and broader energy sectors, backing companies such as Pacific Fusion, X-Energy, Aalo Atomics, Radiant Nuclear, Thea Energy, Realta Fusion, and Valar Atomics.

Since its founding in 2014, Alumni Ventures has raised over $1.6 billion from over 25,000 Investors and Syndicate Members, and invested in 1,800+ companies across every major sector and stage. The firm has been named one of PitchBook’s most active U.S. venture firms every year since 2018, and was ranked #20 in Time Magazine’s list of America’s Top Venture Capital Firms of 2025. Learn more at av.vc.

About Gaingels: Gaingels is amongst the largest investors in the world aiming to show the world that equity of access and representation in venture capital delivers positive returns. Learn more at https://gaingels.com/.

About True Ventures: True Ventures is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that is first to believe in brilliant founders and invests in them at the earliest stages, when partnership matters most. Founded in 2005, the firm manages $4 billion in committed capital across over 450 teams spanning AI, software, hardware, cybersecurity, consumer, digital biology, and more. Notable investments include Enveda, Iceye, Handshake, Basecamp Research, Peloton, Duo Security, Ring, HashiCorp, and more. For more information visit www.trueventures.com.

About Future Ventures: Future Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in frontier technologies that have the potential to transform industries and address some of the world’s most consequential challenges. Founded in 2018, the firm manages over $1.4B in committed capital and partners with visionary founders at the earliest stages, focusing on breakthrough science and engineering across energy, advanced computing, AI, biotechnology, aerospace, robotics, novel chemistry, and beyond. Future Ventures has a long-standing focus on advanced energy, with investments spanning fusion, next-generation nuclear, energy storage, critical materials, and other technologies aimed at enabling abundant, reliable, and sustainable energy. Notable investments include Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Realta Fusion, Subcritical Systems, and Red Metals. For more information, visit future.ventures.

SOURCE Molten Salt Solutions