HERNDON, Va., March 4, 2026 — HawkEye 360, the global leader in signals intelligence data and analytics, today announced an additional close of its Series E financing, raising approximately $23 million in new capital. The second close includes participation from new investors Ghisallo, Principia Growth, and Sixty Degree Capital, as well as continued participation from existing investor Strategic Development Fund (SDF).

“The continued participation from both new and existing investors underscores confidence in our strategy and the progress we’re making as we scale the business,” said John Serafini, CEO of HawkEye 360. “We are advancing our capabilities through the integration of ISA and continued investment in our platform, supporting the signals intelligence our partners rely on to inform their missions.”

HawkEye 360 will use capital to strengthen its balance sheet and continue executing its strategic growth priorities, including the integration of Innovative Signal Analysis (ISA).

“This additional close reflects our disciplined approach to capital formation,” said Craig Searle, CFO of HawkEye 360. “It strengthens our balance sheet and provides flexibility as we continue integrating ISA, advancing our platform, and managing growth in a thoughtful and deliberate way.”

About HawkEye 360
HawkEye 360 is equipping defense, intelligence, and national security leaders with mission-critical signals intelligence to enable faster, better decision-making. By detecting, geolocating, and characterizing radio-frequency emissions worldwide, HawkEye 360 delivers trusted domain awareness and early-warning indicators to the US Government and allied partners. Our space-based collection, proprietary signal processing, and AI-powered analytics transform knowledge of RF spectrum into a strategic advantage. Proven by operational mission success, HawkEye 360 is redefining how signals intelligence strengthens national and global security.

SOURCE HawkEye 360 Inc.

LONDON, March 4, 2026 — Vivox AI, a UK-based technology company building regulator-ready, atomic AI agents for AML, KYB/KYC and financial crime, has raised £1.3 million (€1.5 million) in its first funding round to accelerate product development and scale its enterprise platform.

The round includes backing from Axel Weber, former president of Germany’s central bank and chairman of UBS Group, as well as Dan Cobley, former managing director at Google UK, senior executives from Barclays, the co-founder of Onfido, Kos Stiskin, co-founder of Finom, Startup Wise Guys, James Janis Berdigans, founder & executive chairman at Printify+Printful, Venture Together, alongside a group of strategic fintech and technology investors.

Vivox AI will use the funding to expand its core platform and advance a new class of AI agents designed specifically for highly regulated financial institutions.

Unlike general-purpose AI systems, Vivox AI’s agents operate as independent, auditable units, each responsible for a clearly defined task across onboarding, KYB, due diligence and financial crime workflows. This modular architecture enables financial institutions to deploy AI in production environments while maintaining regulatory control, auditability and operational accountability.

At the heart of the platform is a self-learning AI agent layer, implemented through Vivox AI’s AI agent, Rachel, which continuously improves performance through supervised feedback from experienced human analysts, while preserving explainability and governance controls. The agents securely connect to multiple internal and external data sources, enabling real-time enrichment and decision support across complex compliance processes.

Vivox AI’s platform is already deployed across enterprise customers operating in more than 100 countries, including the UK, Europe, US and Singapore. Clients include TransferMate, Altery, Osome and Telf. Across live deployments, the system has reduced complex compliance case processing times from approximately six hours to around 30 minutes, lowered false-positive screening alerts by up to 86 per cent, and enabled straight-through processing (STP) rates of up to 50 per cent for selected onboarding and due-diligence workflows. The platform also consolidates multiple analyst systems into a single interface.

The company’s proposition centres on what it describes as “atomic” AI agents – independent, auditable AI units designed to perform one clearly defined compliance function, such as corporate registry analysis, UBO identification, sanctions and PEP triage, adverse media reasoning, or enhanced due diligence review. Each agent can be validated, monitored and governed separately.

The system aligns by design with the latest regulatory and supervisory expectations, including recent FCA guidance on AI, the EU AI Act, as well as multiple emerging governance frameworks for AI, including those recently adopted in Singapore.

Axel A. Weber, Former Chairman, UBS; Former President, Deutsche Bundesbank, and investor in Vivox AI, says:
“In today’s environment, transparency, auditability, and regulatory alignment are not optional – they are a must. Vivox AI is building the blueprint for how regulated financial institutions should integrate AI safely and responsibly.”

Kos Stiskin, co-founder of Finom and investor, added:
“Vivox’s atomic agent architecture represents a differentiated and the most superior approach to applying AI across transaction monitoring and KYB operations.”

Tim Khamzin, founder and CEO of Vivox AI, says:
“We are excited to see Vivox AI beginning to play a meaningful role in the global financial crime compliance ecosystem. The role of the compliance analyst is rapidly evolving into that of a compliance engineer, focused on managing complex investigations and supervising AI agents rather than manual, repetitive processes. Our platform is designed to support this shift, enabling teams to operate with greater control, transparency and regulatory confidence.”

Alex Clements, Global Head of AML at TransferMate Global Payments, commented on implementing Vivox AI’s technology:
“The level of detail in Vivox AI’s AI governance framework is exactly right. It gives us confidence that we can demonstrate that same depth of control and transparency during audits and in any regulatory inspection relating to the use of AI.”

Founded in London, Vivox AI develops specialised AI agents for financial crime, onboarding and regulatory operations, enabling financial institutions to automate complex compliance workflows without compromising regulatory confidence. Following the funding, the company is expanding its engineering and product teams as it rolls out the next generation of its enterprise platform.

Media contact:
Anna Antimiichuk
Head of Marketing, Vivox AI
Phone: +447408812657
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Vivox AI

Driving Economic Growth and Ecosystem Transformation One Year After State Investment

LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2026 — Halogen Ventures, Jesse Draper’s venture capital fund focused on early-stage startups with a woman on the founding team, today announced its first nine investments in Alabama, marking a significant milestone one year after partnering with Innovate Alabama to invest $10 million to drive economic development and transform the founder ecosystem statewide.

Halogen Ventures is the first out-of-state venture capital firm to receive strategic funding from the state through Innovate Alabama for their third fund. Since receiving the funding one year ago, Halogen has been on the ground in Alabama, touring innovation centers and research labs, meeting entrepreneurs and state leaders across Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, Tuscaloosa, and Montgomery, and hosting pitch competitions that made national news and put local founders in front of new investment opportunities.

“We came to Alabama not just to invest capital, but to help remove barriers, open doors, and create long-term economic opportunity,” said Jesse Draper, Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures. “We’re seeing real momentum and capital flowing into companies that are hiring, scaling, and putting Alabama on the map as an emerging innovation hub.”

Alabama ranks 50th in the nation for female entrepreneurship, yet its tech sector has surged 50% since 2018 and is projected to double by 2030. Venture capital investment in the state has grown from $3 million a decade ago to $321 million in 2023.

“We are making a calculated bet on one of the most undervalued startup ecosystems in America, and we are just getting started. There is so much opportunity in Alabama and the quality of startups is next level!,” said Draper.

To date, as part of its plan to deploy $10 million across 20 companies over the next two years, Halogen has invested in companies across AI, healthcare, marketplaces, digital finance, workforce technology, robotics, and childcare solutions, including:

• Moxi – A flexible childcare and co-working platform helping working families access quality care and community services.
• Auditocity – An HR technology company automating compliance workflows with AI.
• Croux – An AI-powered staffing marketplace connecting job seekers to flexible, high-paying work opportunities.
• Skyfire AI – Advanced analytics and AI solutions driving enterprise decision-making.
• Nyad AI – An AI-powered operations intelligence platform built for efficiency at scale.
• Doctours – A medical tourism marketplace increasing healthcare access and transparency for patients nationwide.
• Yard – Developer of autonomous robotic workforce solutions for outdoor maintenance.
• KrillPay – A borderless digital wallet delivering affordable, inclusive fintech services across the U.S., Sub-Saharan Africa, and Canada.
• Accelerate Wind – A distributed wind energy company deploying small-scale turbine solutions to deliver affordable, resilient clean power to businesses and communities

These investments expand Halogen’s portfolio of more than 85 female-founded companies, including six unicorns, with a combined market valuation exceeding $15 billion. Notable portfolio companies including parking technology leader Metropolis and Upwards, the largest childcare provider in the U.S., already have a significant presence in Alabama. In the last quarter alone, Halogen Ventures’s businesses have raised over $2 Billion in follow on capital.

About Halogen Ventures
Halogen Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund focused on consumer technology companies with a female in the founding team. The Halogen team brings deep expertise and experience in understanding consumer and B2B trends and behavior and identifying entrepreneurs who will innovate and solve problems at scale. General Partner Jesse Draper is a fourth generation venture capitalist, and advocate for investing in women, one of Marie Claire’s ‘Most networked women in America’. Halogen has invested in over 75 early stage deals, including six unicorns. For more information, please visit www.halogenvc.com.

Media Contact:
Halogen Ventures

SOURCE Halogen Ventures

Funding fuels AI innovation and go-to-market expansion to help MSPs deliver high-caliber Cyber GRCaaS at scale

FAIRFAX, Va., March 3, 2026 — IntelliGRC, a cybersecurity governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platform purpose-built for managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs) focused on high-caliber and rigorous cyber frameworks, announced the closing of its $3.5 million Seed round on January 31, 2026. The funding accelerates product innovation, expands AI-driven capabilities, and scales go-to-market initiatives focused on enabling service providers to deliver high-caliber Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance as a Service (GRCaaS) at scale.

“Closing this round is a pivotal step in scaling IntelliGRC and further supports our mission in democratizing high-quality governance, risk, and compliance accessible at scale,” said Ozzie Saeed, Founder and CEO of IntelliGRC. “Most modern GRC systems were built on the promises of automations, automated evidence, and vast amounts of integrations, while still requiring the use of SMEs. We are building an intelligent, automated, continuously adaptive platform designed for scale and for the realities of service providers, drawing on our own trench-level experience. IntelliGRC transforms compliance from a subjective, manual obligation into a tangible, data-driven strategic advantage for MSPs, the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) via CMMC, and the customers they protect.”

The seed round was co-led by Kyle Hanslovan (Co-Founder & CEO, Huntress) and Blu Ventures. Blu Ventures will be represented on the Board by Marcos Torres, former CFO of Huntress Labs. Cooley (Corporate Counsel) assisted in organizing the round.

“From our first meeting with Ozzie and the IntelliGRC team, it was obvious that they are setting a new standard for GRCaaS,” said Marcos Torres, Venture Partner at Blu Ventures and former CFO of Huntress. “Delivering continuous compliance predictably, without the expensive experts that other tools require, clearly resonates with the market, as shown by their growth in recent quarters. Their balance of AI-driven tools and human expertise to make compliance accessible shows they truly understand the barriers businesses face and where the market is lacking. We are excited to co-lead this round and look forward to supporting IntelliGRC as they redefine the future of compliance.”

“It has been a privilege to support IntelliGRC on their seed round, and we are very bullish about what lies ahead,” said Andy Lustig, Partner at Cooley LLP. “I was introduced to Ozzie and the IntelliGRC team by Kyle Hanslovan, CEO and co-founder of Huntress, one of the brightest minds in the cyber industry. Given the way customers are responding, it’s clear that excitement around IntelliGRC’s CMMC/GRC solution is well placed, as they are solving a critical pain point for companies navigating complex regulatory requirements.”

The round reflects strong conviction from experienced operators, cybersecurity leaders, and strategic partners across the MSP and DIB ecosystems. Other notable investors include advisors, angels, partners, and customers (Some investors requested to remain private at this time):

• Jennifer VanderWeir (CEO, Vandy Advisors) & James VanderWeir (Current advisors to IntelliGRC and former MSP owners)
• John Ferrel (Co-Founder, Huntress)
• Marcos Torres (Former CFO, Huntress – Venture Partner, Blu Ventures)
• SaaS Ventures (Collin Gutman, Managing Partner – Seth Shuldiner, Co-Founder/Partner)
• Early Light Ventures (Scott Garber, Managing Partner)
• Kevin Blake (Integris)
• Rashaad Bajwa (Founder, Executive Chairman of the Board (Integris))
• Steven Freidkin (Founder & CEO, Ntiva)
• Ryan Bonner (Founder & CEO, DEFCERT)
• Hypershift Technologies (Gary Greenberg, Co-Founder – Nate Reynolds, Co-Founder)
• Dustin Bolander (CEO Cyberdrain & Beltex Insurance)

IntelliGRC’s mission is rooted in a simple philosophy: good information security should be a default safety standard, not a luxury line item. Just as seat belts are not sold as optional upgrades, strong cybersecurity hygiene should not be treated as an add-on feature. By equipping MSPs and MSSPs with a provider-centric, multi-tenant platform, IntelliGRC helps make “seatbelt-grade” cyber safety the norm for organizations operating in highly regulated industries.

“At the end of the day, you can have all the cutting-edge security solutions in place, and when (not if) things go wrong and data confidentiality is compromised, you only have two things you can rely on: your cyber liability insurance and how well you can demonstrate ‘Due Care’ and ‘Due Diligence’ when facing accusations of negligence. We believe we are arming our partners with the ability to consistently demonstrate Due Care and Due Diligence, so their customers can rest assured that compliance is actively managed and maintained,” said Saeed.

Traditional GRC platforms rely on costly SMEs that struggle to scale and keep pace with today’s evolving regulatory landscape. IntelliGRC embeds practitioner-tuned AI and bulk automations for scale directly into the compliance lifecycle, leveraging intelligent content, logic, automated evidence collection/mapping/vetting, continuous control monitoring, and actionable remediations to streamline and strengthen compliance operations. This approach enables service providers to standardize, scale, and productize GRCaaS offerings without having to build a large bench of scarce GRC experts.

The Seed funding will be used to deepen IntelliGRC’s AI capabilities, enhance its Intelligent Control Library (ICL), asset-centric data modeling, expand integrations across the MSP ecosystem, parameter-driven remediations, and grow its sales, customer success, and enablement teams. The company will also invest in education and partner programs that help MSPs operationalize high-quality cyber compliance as a repeatable, profitable service.

“I’m pumped to support Intelli’s mission,” said Kyle Hanslovan, Co-Founder and CEO of Huntress. “Their timing to prepare and secure the Defense Industrial Base couldn’t be better. As a fellow founder with a bias towards deep domain expertise, I’m confident this team is well-positioned to ready our national security organizations against AI-assisted adversaries.”

“Our investors’ conviction in this vision is a powerful validation of the problem we’re solving and how we’re solving it. Their belief doesn’t just fuel our growth; it amplifies our ability to help MSPs deliver enterprise-grade security and compliance to small and midsized businesses, who are the backbone of our economy and the DIB. We’re honored by their vote of confidence, and I’m incredibly excited for the future we’re building together as we help service providers raise the security bar for the DIB, for SMBs, and beyond,” said Saeed.

About IntelliGRC
IntelliGRC is a provider-centric cyber governance, risk, and compliance platform built to empower MSPs and MSSPs to deliver high-caliber GRC-as-a-Service at scale. Through its multi-tenant architecture, asset-centric modeling, intelligent control library, and practitioner-tuned AI automations, IntelliGRC helps service providers transform complex, evolving compliance requirements into streamlined, repeatable, and profitable offerings for the Defense Industrial Base and other regulated markets. For more information, visit www.intelligrc.com 

SOURCE IntelliGRC

a leading designer of women’s special-occasion apparel

NEW YORK and DALLAS, March 3, 2026 — Trive Capital (“Trive”), the Dallas-based private equity firm, is excited to announce its recent investment into Adrianna Papell (“AP” or the “Company”), a leading designer of women’s special-occasion apparel. The Company’s existing management team will continue leading the business as it executes on key strategic initiatives to drive continued growth.

Founded in 1980 and headquartered in New York City, Adrianna Papell designs women’s occasionwear spanning cocktail, evening, and polished day-to-day separates, with styles still designed in NYC by its in-house team and known for fit, craftsmanship, and elevated detail. Since inception, the brand has sold over 40 million dresses and today serves customers through a mix of direct channels and a broad network of retail partners, with distribution across 27 countries.

“We’re proud to partner with Adrianna Papell and support a brand that has earned the trust of customers over many decades,” said Andrew Frank, Partner at Trive Capital. “We’re excited to work alongside the team to build on that trust through continued investment in product excellence and customer service, while supporting the initiatives that will drive the company’s next phase of growth.”

Adrianna Papell’s CEO, Adam Berkman, stated, “Partnering with Trive provides a great opportunity to transform Adrianna Papell from the top social-occasion brand into a major global lifestyle brand. With Trive’s support, we expect to significantly broaden our product offering into new categories and accelerate growth – organically and through acquisition – across underpenetrated distribution channels, including DTC and international markets. This transaction validates our amazing team’s performance in fulfilling our brand’s mission to ‘wear life beautifully’: to celebrate every day, to wear your happiest moments and most unforgettable evenings, and every second in between — with elegance, grace, and impeccable style. Forty-five years strong, our team is excited to begin the next chapter of Adrianna Papell, building our incredible brand and leveraging our capabilities to take the company to the next level.”

About Adrianna Papell
Adrianna Papell is a women’s apparel company offering a range of products across occasionwear, dresses, and everyday categories. The Company sells through a multi-channel model to retail customers in the U.S. and internationally, with distribution across 27 countries.

About Trive
Trive Capital is a Dallas, Texas based private equity firm with more than $8 billion of regulatory assets under management. Trive focuses on investing equity and debt in what it sees as strategically viable middle-market companies with the potential for transformational upside through operational improvement.

The Trive team is comprised of seasoned investment professionals who have been involved in over 250 middle-market transactions representing in excess of $10 billion in revenue across Trive’s targeted industry sectors and situations.

SOURCE Trive Capital

Round led by Scout Ventures, with participation from Radius and Washington Harbour Partners

SEATTLE, March 3, 2026 — Worldscape.ai, a developer of AI-powered geospatial intelligence software for defense, government, and enterprise applications, today announced the completion of its seed funding round. The round was led by Scout Ventures, with participation from Radius and Washington Harbour Partners.

The funding will accelerate development and deployment of Worldscape.ai’s platform, an AI-native data fabric designed to unify massive volumes of distributed data into a secure, real-time, decision-ready operating picture. Built to support both mission-critical defense environments and large-scale enterprise use cases, the platform enables organizations to operate with greater speed, clarity, and confidence in increasingly complex, data-rich environments.

Worldscape.ai allows users to connect disparate data sources in a common language—securely, efficiently, and at global scale—and then deploy custom applications and agentic AI simulations within a unified environment. The platform supports high-tempo defense and intelligence workflows such as ISR, operational planning, and mission rehearsal, while also enabling enterprise use cases including infrastructure planning, supply chain optimization, digital twins, and large-scale spatial analytics.

“Across defense, government, and the enterprise, organizations are struggling with the same core challenge: data is everywhere, but insight is slow,” said Cody Huggins, Partner at Scout Ventures. “Worldscape.ai is building an AI-native platform that dramatically accelerates understanding and decision-making across both national security and commercial environments. This dual-use approach positions the company to deliver meaningful impact at scale.”

Worldscape.ai’s open architecture supports a dual-use platform strategy spanning kill chain and supply chain applications, enabling rapid integration with existing systems, partner ecosystems, and major cloud environments. Rather than forcing centralized migration, the platform brings advanced AI and spatial intelligence to users where they already operate.

“This investment allows us to move faster for both mission-driven and commercial customers,” said Mark Bolz, Chief Executive and Product Officer of Worldscape.ai. “From defense and intelligence teams operating in contested environments to enterprises managing complex infrastructure and operations, the need is the same: a secure, real-time, agentic view of the world at scale. As AI becomes foundational across industries, an AI-native data fabric is no longer optional—it’s essential.”

“Worldscape.ai is tackling one of the most persistent challenges in national security: enabling decision-makers to act decisively in complex, data-saturated environments,” said Mina Faltas, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Washington Harbour Partners. “We back companies that strengthen operational advantage for the warfighter and the broader defense enterprise, and Worldscape’s AI-native approach to geospatial intelligence supports faster, more informed decisions across planning and operations—while remaining extensible to demanding commercial and enterprise use cases.”

The company will use the funding to expand engineering and go-to-market teams, advance self-service onboarding and marketplace capabilities, and deepen partnerships across the Department of Defense, allied governments, enterprise customers, and hyperscale cloud providers. Additional announcements related to platform expansion and strategic collaborations are expected later this year.

About Worldscape.ai
Worldscape.ai is building the data fabric for the AI era. Designed for defense, government, and enterprise organizations, the platform enables users to unify disparate data, deploy custom applications, and run agentic AI simulations in a secure, real-time environment. Worldscape.ai supports decision-making across mission-critical national security and large-scale commercial use cases.

For more information, visit www.worldscape.ai.

Media Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE Worldscape.ai

Funding to Accelerate U.S. Advanced Battery Manufacturing.

ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 3, 2026 — EGI Battery Inc., a U.S.-based advanced battery technology and manufacturing company, today announced the successful close of a $10 million seed financing round led by TSV Capital and supported by several prominent U.S. family offices. The new capital will accelerate the company’s manufacturing scale-up, commercial expansion, and continued development of high-performance batteries for aerospace, uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), robotics, and critical infrastructure applications.

“We are thrilled to welcome TSV Capital and our new family office partners as investors in EGI Battery,” said Tom McGuckin, CEO and Founder of EGI Battery Inc. “This funding validates both the strength of our technology and the urgency of the market demand for secure, domestically designed and manufactured batteries. With this support, we are advancing Michigan-based manufacturing operations to execute our 2026 commercial plan.”

Eugene Zhang, Founding Partner at TSV Capital (TSCV) added, “EGI represents exactly the kind of founder-led, technically rigorous company we look to back at TSVC. Advanced batteries are foundational to aerospace, robotics, UAS, and critical infrastructure. Building this capability domestically is not only a market opportunity — it’s a strategic imperative. We are proud to support the EGI team as they scale U.S.-based manufacturing with a resilient supply chain.”

Fast Track to Advance U.S. Battery Manufacturing

This seed round will fund:

• EGI’s Zeeb Campus expansion and operational readiness for manufacturing.
• Continued engineering and product development for commercial battery clients and qualified government battery design programs.
• Strengthening domestic supply chain partnerships and progressing toward NDAA compliance with transparency into a non-China material supply chain.

EGI is executing a U.S.-based industrialization roadmap centered on scalable production, a secure domestic supply chain, and rigorous quality standards, including ISO 9001 and AS9100 certification targets. Through development of its production workflows at the Zeeb manufacturing campus, EGI is targeting at least 95% NDAA-compliant materials by cost in 2028, reinforcing a commitment to resilient, trusted domestic energy solutions and long-term U.S. commercialization.

About EGI Battery Inc.

EGI Battery Inc. is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, advancing America’s next generation of battery design and manufacturing. Led by an experienced team of battery industry veterans, the Company develops and produces high-performance lithium-ion batteries for dual-use aerospace, unmanned systems, robotics, and emerging mission-critical applications. EGI Battery maintains a performance-driven and production-ready technology roadmap and is actively advancing intellectual property and manufacturing capabilities to meet industry demand in the United States.

For more information, visit: www.egibattery.com 

Media Contact

Adam S. Carpenter
Senior Director of Marketing
EGI Battery
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE EGI Battery Inc.

—Led by Fifth Wall with strategic backing from Progressive Insurance and top credit unions, the capital fuels growth for RenoFi’s AI-enabled renovation financing platform—

PHILADELPHIA, March 3, 2026 — RenoFi, the first of its kind, AI-enabled renovation financing platform empowering every homeowner to be a renovator, today announced it closed a $22M Series B funding round. The round was led by Fifth Wall—the largest asset manager investing at the intersection of real estate and technology—with meaningful participation from Progressive Insurance and other new investors. Investment in RenoFi from Fifth Wall and Progressive Insurance underscores the growing need from homeowners to find renovation-specific financing solutions. This funding brings RenoFi’s total capital raised to date to $65M.

The round also drew support from HighSage Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Flintlock Capital and Gaingels, with continued participation from existing backers Canaan, First Round Capital, Curql, TruStage Ventures, and a growing network of credit union partners including Ardent Credit Union, Chartway Credit Union, First Community Credit Union, and USALLIANCE Financial. Together, this diverse group of venture, corporate, and credit union investors reflects conviction and broad market validation of RenoFi’s model.

The Series B financing will propel RenoFi’s profitable growth trajectory. The company plans to more than triple its distributed retail team of renovation financing specialists over the next year, while expanding partnerships with credit unions and embedded financing platforms. And with this round, RenoFi is accelerating the build of its platform – an orchestration layer for mortgage lending that pairs modern credit underwriting with a proprietary AI-enabled renovation-underwriting engine to unlock After Renovation Value financing. As the platform evolves, RenoFi is building towards near-real-time approvals for renovation loans, turning what has historically been a cumbersome, lengthy process into a fast, modern experience.

Founded in 2018 by Justin Goldman, Robert Shedd, and Lee Miller, RenoFi is transforming how homeowners finance renovations. By partnering with credit union lenders nationwide, RenoFi enables access to its groundbreaking Renovation HELOC, the first home equity line of credit in the U.S. that leverages a property’s After-Renovation Value (ARV), rather than just its current value. This allows equity-light homeowners-especially recent buyers-to unlock 11x more borrowing power on average without refinancing their existing mortgage. RenoFi is the only way for homeowners to access the ARV borrowing power of their homes without refinancing their first mortgage-no other lender or fintech offers ARV-based home equity products.

“Millions of homeowners want to renovate, but many lack the equity to borrow what they need,” shared Goldman, Co-Founder and CEO, RenoFi. “Robert, Lee and I built RenoFi to fix that. By creating the world’s first Renovation HELOC, building technology for the incredibly manual mortgage process, and partnering with a network of trusted credit unions, we’ve made it possible for homeowners to fund their dream projects without draining savings, racking up high interest rate debt or giving up their low-rate mortgage. This new capital will allow us to meaningfully scale our team, grow embedded financing partnerships, and help millions of more families to turn renovation plans into reality.”  

Since inception, RenoFi has facilitated over 8K renovation loans, representing more than $1.5B in funded loans and $2B in renovation project value analyzed through RenoFi’s proprietary Renovation Underwriting platform. The company is now licensed in 48 states as a mortgage originator, attracting more than 10K new homeowners a month to its platform. RenoFi has grown to be the only one-stop shop for any renovating homeowner, spanning purpose-built home equity loans, purchase loans, cash-out refinance loans, construction, land lot, renovation loans, personal loans, HEIs, as well as investment property financing.

“RenoFi is transforming how homeowners finance and ultimately plan renovations,” said Dan Wenhold, Partner, Fifth Wall. “By enabling unmatched access to capital, particularly for the underserved segment of equity-light homeowners, RenoFi is making more renovations possible and unlocking growth across the $500B home improvement market. We are excited to partner with RenoFi to help them accelerate this momentum.”

Over the past few years, rising interest rates and locked-in low mortgage rates have changed how homeowners think about renovation financing. Many are unwilling to refinance, leading to a boom in home equity products like HELOCs and home equity loans. But most of these solutions cater to homeowners with significant built-up equity, leaving out a large segment: recent buyers who haven’t yet built significant equity but still have big renovation needs. This gap in the market has created a strong demand for flexible, renovation-specific financing solutions that work for equity-light homeowners—exactly the segment RenoFi serves. Unlike today’s traditional lenders that offer a horizontal mix of products for all use cases, RenoFi is vertical by design: it’s the only renovation-specific partner for homeowners across the entire lending stack.

About RenoFi
RenoFi is the AI-enabled renovation financing platform empowering every homeowner to be a renovator. Headquartered in Philadelphia and founded in 2018, RenoFi created the world’s first Renovation Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC), a one-of-a-kind solution that uses a home’s After-Renovation Value (ARV)—not just its current value—to unlock dramatically more borrowing power. By leveraging its proprietary Renovation Underwriting technology platform, RenoFi enables lenders, embedded partners and consumers alike to finance major home renovations.  Partnering with trusted credit unions and lenders nationwide, RenoFi offers a full suite of renovation loan products at competitive rates, serving homeowners in 48 states. To date, RenoFi has helped finance over $2B in renovations, enabling equity-light homeowners to access 11x more funds on average without refinancing their existing mortgage. Please visit www.renofi.com.

About Fifth Wall
Founded in 2016, Fifth Wall, is the largest asset manager investing at the intersection of real estate and technology. The firm is backed by a global mix of more than 110 strategic limited partners from 20-plus countries, including BNP Paribas Real Estate, British Land, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Hilton, Hines, Host Hotels and Resorts, Kimco Realty Corporation, Lennar, Marriott International, MetLife Investment Management, MGM Resorts, Related Companies, Starwood Capital, and Toll Brothers, amongst others. This consortium represents one of the largest groups of potential partners in the global built world ecosystem, resulting in transformational investments and collaboration with portfolio companies to improve efficiency and maximize returns. Headquartered in New York City and Los Angeles, Fifth Wall’s other offices include San Francisco, London and Singapore. For more about Fifth Wall, its LPs and portfolio, visit www.fifthwall.com.

SOURCE RenoFi

Agricultural company develops gene edited traits that shifts a crop’s energy from defense to yield

NORWICH RESEARCH PARK, England, March 3, 2026 — ALORA, an agricultural biotechnology company developing gene-edited crop traits that redirect plant energy from stress defense to yield, today announced the appointment of Adam Helms as Chief Executive Officer and the close of a funding round led by the Neglected Climate Opportunities Fund, a subsidiary of the Grantham Environmental Trust, with participation from Toyota Ventures.

Helms joins ALORA as the company advances early results in yield and heat tolerance traits toward broader validation. ALORA’s research has demonstrated yield improvements in rice of up to 1.5x under optimal conditions and 2–4x under extreme heat stress in controlled environments, with initial 2025 United Kingdom field trials confirming open-field performance. The company’s focus in 2026 is reproducing these results across additional genetic backgrounds to support future commercial partnerships.

“ALORA has generated compelling early trait data, and I’m excited to work with this team to advance that science toward commercial relevance,” said Adam Helms, incoming CEO. “Our priority this year is building proof points that matter to partners and investors by validating traits across multiple lines, crops, and geographies to enable substantive industry discussions.”

Founding CEO Luke Young transitions to Chief Technology Officer, where he will lead ALORA’s continued research and development efforts.

“We’re pleased to continue our support of ALORA and welcome Adam to the team,” said Caroline de Bossart, Director at the Grantham Environmental Trust. “His experience building early-stage companies will be valuable as ALORA translates its initial results into a broader validation program.”

ALORA will attend World AgriTech in San Francisco on March 17–18, 2026.

About ALORA

ALORA is an agricultural company utilizing gene editing to develop crop traits that shift a plant’s energy from defense to yield. The company’s work spans controlled environment research and international field trials, with primary operations at the Norwich Research Park, UK. For more information, please visit www.alora.world.

About the Grantham Environmental Trust’s Neglected Climate Opportunities Fund

Neglected Climate Opportunities LLC is a climate-focused venture capital vehicle and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust which, along with its affiliate, the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, believe that innovation and technology are the best hope for an enduring future. For more information, please visit www.granthamfoundation.org.

About Toyota Ventures

Toyota Ventures is the early-stage venture capital arm of Toyota. Founded in July 2017, its mission is to discover what’s next for Toyota by helping startups bring disruptive technologies and business models to market quickly. With more than $800 million in assets under management, the firm is dedicated to investing in talented entrepreneurs around the world who are driving innovation in deep technology and climate solutions. For more information about Toyota Ventures and its portfolio companies, please visit www.toyota.ventures.    

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SOURCE ALORA Innovations Inc.