STEWARTVILLE, Minn., March 5, 2026 — Minnesota Medical Technologies Corporation, a leading innovator in continence care solutions, today announced it has raised $20.6 million of new capital through a Series A preferred equity financing co-led by HM Venture Partners and Southeast Minnesota Capital Partners. The company will use the new capital to fuel the commercial launch of its lead fecal incontinence product in the US market and scale operations to meet growing demand.

“This funding marks a pivotal moment for our company,” said David A. Jonas, CEO of Minnesota Medical Technologies Corporation. “With the support of our investors, we are now positioned to launch StaySure^™ into the newly cleared US market and expand our talented team. For the millions of people living with fecal incontinence, this represents an opportunity to finally access a safe, effective, and life-changing solution.”

The funds from the Series A financing will be used exclusively for:

• U.S. Market Entry: Establish the operation, commercial, and distribution infrastructure needed to successfully launch StaySure^™ across multiple channels in the US market.
• Talent Acquisition: Strategically build a high-performing team across sales, marketing, and customer care to accelerate market penetration, drive market education and brand awareness, and sustainable revenue growth.
• Financial Security – Provide debt reduction and financial security to support disciplined, sustainable growth.

Founded in 2015, Minnesota Medical Technologies Corporation was established to address one of healthcare’s most significant yet underserved conditions: fecal incontinence. In collaboration with Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist Adil Bharucha, MD, the company created a simple, single use device designed to provide an effective alternative to absorbent products that have historically dominated the market.

Fecal incontinence (which is commonly known as “accidental bowel leakage”) affects more than 2% of the global population, representing tens of millions of individuals worldwide, with most relying on adult diapers and pads rather than restorative solutions. This represents a substantial and largely untapped market opportunity for innovative, clinically validated interventions that improve quality of life.

Following the establishment of a world-class medical device manufacturing facility and the successful completion of a clinical trial at Mayo Clinic, the FDA granted clearance for StaySure^™ in July 2025. With regulatory approval secured, Minnesota Medical Technologies is now positioned to scale its commercialization efforts. This Series A fundraise will allow us to accelerate physician and patient education, expand distribution channels, and support broad market penetration of this differentiated solution, unlocking meaningful value in a large, underserved global market. 

About Minnesota Medical Technologies Corporation
Founded and driven by a talented, experienced team with a proven track record of value creation, including leadership experience from Rochester Medical Corporation (sold in 2013 for $262M to CR Bard), Minnesota Medical Technologies Corporation is committed to developing, making, and selling Continence Care Products of unmatched comfort, performance, and quality. The company’s innovative StaySure^™ product is a clinically proven, single use insert designed to safely and effectively manage accidental bowel leakage and fecal incontinence. By offering a discreet, patient-centered alternative to traditional absorbent products and invasive surgeries, StaySure™ represents a differentiated solution in a large and underserved market. With experienced leadership, validated clinical data, and regulatory clearance, the company is strategically positioned to scale commercialization and deliver meaningful impact for patients while generating significant long-term shareholder value. 

About HM Venture Partners
HM Venture Partners is a San Franciso-based venture capital firm that backs high growth medtech and biotech companies globally and across all stages. Founded in 2019 by Robert Luo, HMVP has three funds totaling over $600 million under management. Prior to founding HMVP, Mr. Luo was a senior investment officer in Mayo Clinic Treasury Services.

About Southeast Minnesota Capital Partners
SE MN Capital Partners is a venture capital management company based in Rochester, MN that manages two early-stage venture capital funds that focus on Minnesota medtech companies as well as seven single company special purpose vehicles. David Herbert and Harry Hoffman founded SMCP in 2022 following their retirements from business and investment leadership roles at Mayo Clinic.

Minnesota Medical Technologies Corporation Contact:
David A. Jonas
CEO and President
[email protected]
507-533-0366
www.mnmedicaltechnologies.com
www.staysuretoday.com

SOURCE Minnesota Medical Technologies

Investor Event will Focus on Connecting Capital, Technology and Science to Accelerate Drug Discovery

BOSTON, March 5, 2026 — Cambridge Healthtech Institute today announced the agenda for the third annual Bio-IT World Venture, Innovation & Partnering Conference, an exclusive gathering of more than 200 senior-level investors, corporate executives, entrepreneurs and startups, with a focus on connecting capital, technology, and science to accelerate drug discovery.

The May 19 event in Boston will be part of the 25^th annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, the premier global gathering of 2,900 leaders from the biomedical research and IT communities taking place May 19-21. Participants will include leaders from AstraZeneca, Breyer Capital, Eli Lilly and Company, F-Prime Capital, MIT, Obvious Ventures, Sanofi Ventures, SandboxAQ, Science Capital, Soufflé Therapeutics, Third Rock Ventures, T.Rx Capital, and Wellfleet Advisors, among many others.

This year’s event will include Keynote Fireside Chats featuring:

• Mike Nally, Chief Executive Officer, Generate:Biomedicines and CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering on Leadership at the Cutting Edge: Innovation, Strategy & Biotech’s Next Frontier. Since 2021, Nally has driven financing rounds exceeding $750 million and positioned Generate:Biomedicines at the forefront of AI-driven drug discovery.
• Michael Chambers, Founding CEO, Aldevron on Engineering Access: Scalable Genomics, Technology & the Future of Medicine, who built one of genomic medicine’s most critical infrastructure companies, leading to a landmark $9.6 billion exit.

“This is a unique opportunity to hear from exceptionally visionary leaders at the forefront of life sciences. These speakers will share their insights on the most compelling opportunities in the market today, while offering a forward-looking perspective on the critical challenges that must be solved to meaningfully advance drug discovery,” said Eileen Murphy, Conference Producer.

Other session topics will include Funding the Modern Pipeline: Capital Strategy Across Biology, Technology, and Informatics; The Future of Lab Funding: Building Stronger Pathways Between Academia, Capital, and Spinouts; The New Rules of VC, Pharma, and Industry Leader Collaboration; and more.

Participants in the investor conference will be able to take advantage of two more days of in-depth education and networking at the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, featuring more than 200 presentations on the advanced technologies driving progress in biomedical research, drug discovery, and clinical care.

The larger event will open at 4:30 p.m. on May 19 with a keynote presentation on Research, Funding and Advocacy for Rare Diseases, followed by a welcome reception in the Exhibit Hall, where 150 organizations will showcase their cutting-edge technologies and solutions.

To register for the Bio-IT World investor conference and the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, please click this link. Those who register by March 6 will enjoy a discounted rate. Media who would like a press pass should click here.

About Cambridge VIP
Cambridge VIP – Venture, Innovation & Partnering conferences unite senior-level investors, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and startup leaders from diverse sectors. These exclusive gatherings feature engaging industry panels and fireside chats, fostering meaningful networking and interactions. Join us at these innovative conferences to gain strategic insights, candid perspectives, and valuable business recommendations in your area of interest. Discover who’s investing, track funding activities, and witness the commercialization of emerging technologies solving real-world challenges.

About Bio-IT World Conference & Expo
Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Bio-IT World Conference & Expo is the world’s premier event showcasing technologies and analytic approaches that solve problems, accelerate science, and drive the future of precision medicine. Bio-IT World unites a global community of experts in life sciences, pharmaceuticals, clinical research, healthcare, informatics, and IT, all dedicated to advancing biomedical research, drug discovery and development, and healthcare innovations.

SOURCE Bio-IT World Conference & Expo

Round led by Harbert Growth Partners with participation from Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures and Bull City Venture Partners

RALEIGH, N.C., March 5, 2026 — Levitate, the AI-powered relationship marketing platform serving more than 8,000 businesses, today announced it has raised $16 million in a new funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $71 million.

The round was led by Harbert Growth Partners, with participation from Bull City Venture Partners and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures.

Levitate was founded in 2017 with the belief that AI could help relationship-based businesses scale meaningful, personal communication without losing what makes it effective: the human connection. Today, Levitate’s platform helps businesses stay top of mind with clients and prospects through consistent outreach, smarter targeting, and automation that still feels personal.

The new investment will accelerate Levitate’s AI innovation roadmap, including both internal AI capabilities and customer-facing tools that make it easier for small businesses to execute high-quality relationship marketing at scale. Levitate will also continue to expand its Service-as-Software model, combining intelligent automation with hands-on strategy to help customers drive measurable outcomes.

“Our original thesis was simple: AI should help relationship-based businesses become more consistent, more thoughtful, and more scalable in how they show up for their clients,” said Jesse Lipson, Founder and CEO of Levitate. “This investment allows us to build more tools that make AI practical and accessible for small businesses, while continuing to strengthen the Service-as-Software experience our customers rely on.”

The company plans to use the funding not only to advance its AI innovation roadmap, but to expand its customer success and sales teams across the United States and Canada, and grow its market reach to serve a broader range of relationship-focused small businesses.

About Levitate

Founded in 2017, Levitate is more than just a software platform – it’s a catalyst for building authentic relationships. Levitate’s Happiness Platform equips relationship-based businesses with the tools and coaching to cultivate meaningful interactions with clients, donors, referral sources, and prospects. Levitate allows customers to send tailored emails at scale, post to social media, keep in touch with clients via text, send surveys & event invitations, generate & manage reviews, schedule meetings, send handwritten cards, remember key facts about their contacts, manage their website and blog, and more. For more information about Levitate, visit levitate.ai.

SOURCE Levitate

Funding to reduce caregiver burden at scale through AI-powered, connected senior living solutions

NEW YORK, March 5, 2026 — Sage, the first integrated Care Platform built for senior living and skilled nursing, today announced it has raised a $65 million Series C equity round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives with participation from existing investors IVP and Goldcrest. The investment will accelerate Sage’s mission to improve the quality of life for older adults and their caregivers.

By replacing the fragmented, reactive infrastructure of senior care with an AI-powered platform, Sage is shifting the industry from response to prevention — of the falls, declines, and avoidable hospitalizations that too often define it. Alongside the funding, Sage announced that it will host its inaugural Caregiver Summit in New York City in fall 2026 as part of its commitment to invest in the workforce it serves.

“Today, more than 40% of U.S. healthcare spending goes toward people over 65, with care needs becoming increasingly complex and ultimately pushing the caregiving workforce to a breaking point. We cannot solve the country’s caregiving crisis with staffing alone. Every caregiver I talk to says the same thing: current tools are not built for how care actually works, contributing to chaotic environments that fail both caregivers and residents,” said Raj Mehra, co-founder and CEO of Sage. “This investment allows us to put caregivers at the center of innovation — by delivering a platform that provides real-time intelligence, and by convening an inaugural summit to ensure their voices and expertise drive the future of the industry.”

The investment comes at an inflection point for America’s most vulnerable population. Today, care teams juggle paper logs, pagers, and outdated systems that tell them nothing until something has already gone wrong: a resident has fallen, a condition has deteriorated, an ambulance has been called. According to S&P Global, one in five Americans, or 72 million people, will be of retirement age by 2030. The caregiving workforce is nowhere near ready: the industry is short 1.8 million licensed caregivers, and those already on the job are leaving at an industry-wide turnover rate of 79%. Sage understands that labor alone will not fix this crisis. By arming caregivers with real-time intelligence and intuitive workflows, Sage empowers them to intervene before a preventable moment becomes a heartbreaking one.

The funding will accelerate Sage’s platform across three areas:

• Predictive AI for Resident Safety: Today, caregivers often discover safety issues after they happen, when intervention is no longer possible. Sage will evolve its AI-driven, industry-leading detection capabilities into a predictive engine that analyzes daily activity patterns, including sleep changes, nighttime wandering, bathroom frequency, and other fall-risk signals, to identify high-risk residents before an adverse event occurs and give caregivers the lead time to step in.
• Unified Caregiver Workflow: Caregivers in most communities toggle between multiple disconnected systems to piece together a resident’s status. This time-consuming process increases cognitive load and delays care. Sage is centralizing data from leading Electronic Health Records, including ALIS, August Health, ECP, PointClickCare and Yardi, into a single real-time care view that surfaces alerts, risk signals, and resident-specific context at the point of care.
• Deeper Investment in Skilled Nursing: Skilled nursing facilities operate under some of the most demanding clinical and regulatory conditions in healthcare, caring for residents with the most acute needs — yet their technology has not kept pace. Sage will deepen its platform’s capabilities for these environments, where integrated infrastructure, predictive intelligence, and streamlined workflows can have the most immediate impact on both caregiver experience and resident outcomes.

“We are experiencing a structural shift in the senior care market, necessitating a complete modernization of its underlying technology,” said Antoine Munfa, Managing Director within Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. “By shifting the industry from a reactive to a proactive model, Sage is creating the scalable infrastructure to help meet the historic demand of an aging population,” said Ryan Leary, Vice President within Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

In fall 2026, Sage will host its inaugural Caregiver Summit, bringing together frontline caregivers, senior living operators, and industry leaders for a conversation about the future of the profession. The event will feature keynote speakers, hands-on professional development, and continuing education, with the core purpose of giving caregivers — the people who show up every day for America’s older adults — a seat at the table in shaping the tools and policies that govern their work.

The $65 million Series C brings Sage’s total capital raised to $124 million. The new funding comes as Sage grows its platform with Sage Detect, an AI-powered, privacy-conscious monitoring system, and expanded EHR partnerships that extend the company’s footprint nationwide.

About Sage

Sage is the industry’s first fully integrated care platform for senior living and skilled nursing, built by founders who have watched family members navigate a broken care system firsthand. Sage replaces outdated infrastructure with modern software and AI-powered insights, so that aging is defined by dignity, visibility, and truly human care. Sage-powered communities have identified a $275 increase in NOI per resident per month, 50% reduction in falls and 50% faster response times compared to the industry.

About Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is one of the leading investors in alternatives globally, with over $625 billion in assets and more than 30 years of experience. The business invests in the full spectrum of alternatives, including private equity, growth equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, sustainability, and hedge funds. Clients access these solutions through direct strategies, customized partnerships, and open-architecture programs.

The business is driven by a focus on partnership and shared success with its clients, seeking to deliver long-term investment performance drawing on its global network and deep expertise across industries and markets.

The alternative investments platform is part of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which delivers investment and advisory services across public and private markets for the world’s leading institutions, financial advisors, and individuals. Goldman Sachs has approximately $3.6 trillion in assets under supervision globally as of December 31, 2025.

Since 2003, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives has invested over $13 billion in companies led by visionary founders and CEOs. The team focuses on investments in growth-stage and technology-driven companies spanning multiple industries, including enterprise technology, financial technology, consumer and healthcare.

SOURCE Sage

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., March 5, 2026 — HTA and Venture Atlas Labs announced a new commercial and clinical acceleration program that connects international health technology companies with leading U.S. clinical partners, evidence-generation opportunities, and strategic market entry pathways. Applications for its inaugural Rural Health Program will open soon.

HealthTech Bridge combines clinical engagement with practical commercialization guidance to help emerging healthtech companies successfully navigate the complex U.S. healthcare landscape. Unlike traditional accelerators, HealthTech Bridge is built specifically for the needs of international scaleups, offering structured clinical validation opportunities, including pilot studies and real-world clinical evaluations with provider partners, alongside commercialization strategy, reimbursement planning, investor readiness, and go-to-market support.

“For international healthtech companies, entering the U.S. market isn’t just about scaling what already works. It requires rethinking commercialization from the ground up. The U.S. healthcare system is complex, opaque, and often unforgiving to business models designed elsewhere,” said Elizabeth Jennings, Managing Partner of Venture Atlas Labs. “Through HealthTech Bridge, we’re helping founders pressure-test their strategy in real time, so they can enter the market with confidence and clarity.”

“Clinical evidence is a linchpin for success in healthcare innovation,” said Jeff Stinson, Director of HTA. “HealthTech Bridge is designed to help international founders not just understand the U.S. market, but generate the clinical proof and provider partnerships that accelerate adoption, reimbursement, and investor confidence.”

HealthTech Bridge builds on HTA’s nearly decade-long track record of facilitating real-world clinical partnerships and research collaborations. HTA’s accelerator ecosystem, including its flagship HeartX program, has historically guaranteed clinical pilots and studies for participants by working directly with hospitals and health systems that choose and sponsor cohort companies.

The first cohort launching through HealthTech Bridge — the Rural Health Program — will soon begin accepting applications. This program will connect innovations that focus on improving cardiometabolic health with rural healthcare providers, community partners, and clinicians working to close gaps in access, outcomes, and care delivery for underserved populations. Rural communities face particularly stubborn challenges, including workforce shortages, infrastructure limitations, and limited access to care.

The Rural Health Program aims to facilitate clinical evaluations and pilot implementations in rural settings, enabling companies to generate evidence in environments where healthtech solutions can make a measurable difference. Participating organizations will gain early access to real-world data and feedback that can inform product development, deployment strategies, and future commercial relationships.

HealthTech Bridge is tailored for startups and scaleups that have demonstrated traction outside the United States but need support with the clinical, regulatory, and commercial complexities of the U.S. healthcare market. The program offers a structured international-focused curriculum, mentorship from proven health care leaders, facilitated clinical studies with U.S. provider organizations, and introductions to investors. Learn more at healthtechbridge.com.

ABOUT HTA
HTA helps drive innovation for healthcare provider organizations through its accelerator programs and internal innovation initiatives. Its flagship accelerator, HeartX, recruits from around the world to support the most accomplished cardiovascular-focused startups in digital health, medical devices, and diagnostic platforms. Companies accepted into the program are guaranteed at least one pilot project or clinical trial with one of the ten largest hospitals and health systems in Arkansas. More information is available at HTA.health.

ABOUT VENTURE ATLAS LABS
Venture Atlas Labs helps international healthcare innovators scale into the U.S. and throughout Europe. By partnering with innovation hubs and investors around the world, Venture Atlas Labs guides commercialization via health economics in 28 countries, regulatory and quality risk structuring, and strategic advice. Their healthcare commercialization workshops are incorporated into clusters, accelerators, and conference programming throughout Europe. Learn more at ventureatlaslabs.com.

For more information, contact:

Jeff Stinson
+1.501.766.0633
[email protected]

Elizabeth Jennings
[email protected]

SOURCE HealthTech Bridge

Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, the AI-native company is redefining procurement with a virtual workforce that executes purchasing end-to-end

NEW YORK, March 5, 2026 — Lio (formerly known as askLio), the company building an agentic AI platform for enterprise procurement, today announced a $30 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from SV Angels, Harry Stebbings and Y Combinator. The new capital brings Lio’s total funding to $33 million and will be used to accelerate product development and support its expansion into the U.S.

Procurement is one of the largest spend categories in the enterprise, yet it still runs like an administrative back-office function. Enterprises spend over $180 billion annually on procurement talent, compared to roughly $10 billion on procurement software, reflecting how much work still happens manually around existing systems. Workflows remain slow and manual, with requests moving through layers of systems, rules, and approvals. Even with heavy investment in eProcurement software, decisions still happen at human speed – forcing teams to scale headcount or outsource work, often at up to 20x the cost of software.

Lio addresses this challenge by introducing Agent Operating Procedures (AOPs) to procurement – a shift enabled by recent advances in AI that make autonomous execution of complex enterprise workflows possible for the first time.

Rather than adding another layer of procurement software, Lio provides enterprises with a virtual, agentic procurement department. Its agents operate as a procurement workforce, executing the same standard operating procedures as experienced buyers, shared service centers, or outsourced BPOs, but at machine speed and scale. The agents triage requests, analyze quotes, compare suppliers, negotiate, onboard vendors, and execute purchases end-to-end across ERPs, systems of record, inboxes, contracts, and the open web. This represents a fundamentally new approach to back-office operations, challenging the long-standing assumption that procurement work must scale with headcount.

Rather than simply moving tasks between systems, Lio’s agents do the work itself – replacing fragmented workflows and expensive human review with intelligent automation that frees procurement teams to focus on strategy, compliance, and savings.

“The procurement organization of the future will look fundamentally different from today,” 

said Vlad Keil, founder and CEO of Lio.

“Teams won’t scale through headcount or more tools, but through AI agents that execute work end-to-end. Procurement teams will shift from doing manual work to directing and supervising an AI workforce. Lio was built to create virtual buyers that work alongside human teams, together shaping the procurement workforce of the future.”

Since launching in 2023, Lio’s agents have managed billions of dollars in enterprise spend and are used by dozens of Global 2000 and Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Customers include Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer; Brose, among the largest family-owned automotive suppliers globally; and Novozymes, a global leader in biological solutions — alongside enterprises across chemicals, postal services, retail, transportation, medical technology, and pharmaceuticals.

“Leading organizations are transitioning to AI augmented procurement operating models, and they are doing so quickly. Agentic AI systems for procurement, such as Lio, will be pivotal in that shift. What sets Lio apart is the level of innovation and creativity its founder has applied to solving one of the hardest challenges in this space: serving the enterprise customer. They are reimagining how procurement can operate in a wide range of environments and the technology is fundamentally different from anything I have used in my career. The impact is real, and the ROI is compressed from years to weeks,”

said Jared Petras, Senior Director of Global Procurement Digital Transformation at Walmart.

“In collaboration with Lio, we are redefining the future of Purchasing at Schaeffler. The rapid progress and measurable outcomes underscore the transformative potential of agentic AI. This collaboration strengthens our AI-driven capabilities, increases efficiency at scale, and underlines our ambition to be a pioneer in innovation and operational excellence.”

said Andreas Schick, COO at Schaeffler, one of the world’s largest automotive and industrial suppliers.

Customers using Lio report:

• Over 95% adoption rates, delivering a consumer-grade purchasing experience with just a few clicks
• 85% less manual work, eliminating the need to outsource large portions of procurement operations
• 10% incremental savings, driven by better sourcing, negotiation, and real-time optimization
• 100% customer retention, fueled by rapid deployment and measurable results

In one example, a global tier-1 industrial manufacturer automated 75% of previously outsourced procurement work in six months, freeing the equivalent of 10 full-time employees.

“We’re entering a phase in the enterprise where AI moves beyond workflow co-pilots to autonomous, multi-agent execution,”

said Seema Amble, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

“Lio is applying that shift to procurement – one of the largest and most operationally complex functions in the enterprise.”

About Lio
Lio (formerly known as askLio) builds the world’s most advanced AI procurement workforce for enterprise companies worldwide. Every purchase request is managed by specialized agents working in parallel – researching vendors, negotiating terms, managing approvals, and tracking deliveries simultaneously. What once consumed your team’s hours is now executed by a coordinated network of AI Agents. Learn more at lio.ai.

About Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic: We invest in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across bio + healthcare, consumer and enterprise apps, crypto, fintech, infrastructure, and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has over $90B under management across multiple funds.

CONTACT: Jill Staebe, Head of Marketing – [email protected]

Video – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2927062/Lio_Technologies_Video.mp4
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2927055/Lio_Technologies_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Lio Technologies GmbH

HERZLIYA, Israel, March 5, 2026 — Vintage Investment Partners (“Vintage”), a global venture capital platform with $4.4 billion in AUM and founded in 2003, today announced that David Chiodo has joined Vintage’s investment team. Based in New York, David will further deepen Vintage’s commitment to, and engagement with, VC fund managers, founders, and the broader venture ecosystem in the U.S. & Canada.

Vintage has been an active investor in the North American venture market for many years, backing leading venture funds and leading private tech companies, while facilitating cross-border investment and corporate innovation through its Fund of Funds, Growth, and Secondary investment strategies. Establishing a dedicated, on-the-ground presence in New York reflects the firm’s continued commitment to serving its partners across the U.S. and Canada.

David has a strong background in fund investments, venture secondaries, and value creation. Prior to joining Vintage, David was a Vice President at Sagard Private Equity Solutions (FKA Performance Equity Management), where he helped lead the firm’s emerging venture program. His focus included sourcing, evaluating, and managing VC fund commitments, along with executing GP-led, LP-led, and direct secondary transactions.

He previously served as a Senior Associate at EY-Parthenon in the Private Equity Value Creation practice, advising private equity clients on operational diligence, transaction execution, and portfolio strategy across technology, transportation, and industrial sectors. David holds a B.S. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University and is the Co-Head of the NYC Chapter of the Emerging Allocators Association.

“I’m very excited to join Vintage and deepen the firm’s U.S. presence. Vintage is defined by its service-first culture and a highly connected global network, and I look forward to partnering with the leading venture capital fund, companies and LPs across the U.S. and Canada,” David shared.

“As we continue to build long-term partnerships across the U.S. and Canadian venture ecosystem, having a local presence will enhance our efforts tremendously. In particular, with David’s addition, we not only see significant opportunities to partner with leading emerging managers, but also increase our support of CEOs, founders and fund managers through tailored secondary solutions, while also participating in direct investments into breakout companies at the growth stage. David’s combination of experience, analytical rigor, and relationship-driven approach aligns with our values and global strategy,” said Asaf Horesh, Co-Managing Partner at Vintage.

“David’s background investing in leading fund managers, sourcing secondaries, and value creation well equips him to support our partners and identify exceptional opportunities across the market. We are very pleased to welcome him to Vintage and strengthen our presence in the U.S.,” added Abe Finkelstein, Co-Managing Partner at Vintage.

About Vintage Investment Partners

Founded in 2003, Vintage Investment Partners is a global venture capital platform managing more than $4.4 billion across Fund-of-Funds, Secondary, and Growth-Stage strategies in the U.S., Europe, Israel, and Canada. Vintage is invested in many of the world’s leading venture funds and growth-stage tech startups and has exposure directly and indirectly to over 7,400 technology companies. Through Value+, its free-of-charge platform connecting venture-backed startups with corporations seeking innovation, Vintage has facilitated more than 300 pilots, purchase orders, and paid proof-of-concepts, generating hundreds of millions of USD in revenue for startups.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2926919/David_Chiodo_Vintage_Investment_Partners.jpg

SOURCE Vintage Investment Partners

• AgriPass Empowers Small and Mid-Sized Farmers to Transition to Sustainable, Regenerative Agriculture, reducing erosion, herbicides and supporting water conservation
• Replaces up to 20 manual workers in a day to focus on more strategic work 
• Designed for commercial deployment with affordable solution  

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 5, 2026 — AgriPass has completed a $7.5M seed funding round to accelerate the commercial scale-up of RHIC, its human-inspired robotic weed control platform, to expand across the United States and Europe.

RHIC (Robot of Human Inspired Cultivation) combines advanced computer vision with real-time contextual AI to guide selective mechanical actuation, targeting weeds at the root level while minimizing soil disruption and eliminating chemical dependency. 

The funding round was led by Harbor Venture Consulting, with support from existing investors includingE44 Climate Ventures, and strategic ecosystem partners. The funding will support manufacturing readiness, expansion of commercial field operations, and continued development of the AI-driven cultivation platform across additional crops and use cases.

Established in 2023, AgriPass already has active commercial deployments in both the EU and the U.S., with contracted and advanced-stage engagements contributing to projected 2026 revenue.  The platform empowers farmers, particularly small and mid-sized operations, in the transition to sustainable, and regenerative agriculture through adaptive, selective, non-chemical weed control that works at commercial scale. It is initially focused on high-value vegetable crops, where labor shortages, weed pressure, and soil health constraints most directly impact productivity and farm economics.

“Labor volatility, regulatory pressure, and soil degradation are redefining farm operations. Food security now depends on building more resilient production systems and agriculture is undergoing a structural transformation to meet these challenges,” said Liron Yanay, CEO of AgriPass. “We built RHIC to replicate human agronomic judgment in real time, guiding soil-safe, selective mechanical action at commercial scale. This funding enables us to expand across the U.S. and Europe and scale our durable cultivation platform designed for long-term performance.”

At its core, RHIC integrates contextual AI with mechanical actuation, guiding physical intervention based on weed presence, crop proximity, and soil conditions as work is performed. The platform adapts depth and engagement dynamically, delivering human-like selectivity at industrial scale.

AgriPass collaborates with partners across the ag-robotics and food-system ecosystem, including FYELD Agriculture OEM, EIT Food, and the NVIDIA Inception Program, supporting both technology development and field deployment. The company was recently named a winner of the 2025 Climate Solutions Prize, and CEO Liron Yanay was recognized as a leading Woman in AgFood 2025.

Live updates and demonstrations will be shared at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in San Francisco, March 16–18, 2026.

About AgriPass

AgriPass Robotics is an AI and Robotics company specializing in human-inspired AI for adaptive field operations in agriculture. The company develops real-time AI decision-making technology that enables agricultural machinery to interpret agronomic context and dynamically adjust operational decisions. Its RHIC (Robotic Human-Inspired Cultivation) platform translates human field decision-making into machine action, supporting farmers in addressing labor shortages while maintaining sustainable, stable and efficient operations.

Media Contact:
Nicole Conley
[email protected]

SOURCE AgriPass

The end-to-end platform validates demand, executes growth, and finances scale for direct-to-consumer brands; ZyG raises $58M seed round

Tel Aviv, ISRAEL, March 5, 2026 — ZyG today announced the launch of its Agentic Operating System, an end-to-end platform redefining how direct-to-consumer (DTC) products become brands. In an eCommerce market where 90% of new product launches never reach scale, success demands far more than a great product. It requires integrated execution across marketing, data, and capital, which product innovators and DTC brands simply don’t have access to. Until now. The ZyG platform validates scale potential before launch, executes every stage of the customer lifecycle, and removes much of the financing risk involved in scaling a DTC brand.

Built by ironSource founders alongside world-class experts in AI, growth, and eCommerce, ZyG has raised a $58M seed round from leading investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Viola Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Disruptive AI, Emerge, Access Industries, Stardom Ventures, and Jibe Ventures.

“Today, product innovators are set up to fail. You can build an incredible product and website, but still have no viable path to becoming a brand that reaches $100M+ in annual sales. Most DTC products stall because founders are forced to master growth marketing, data science, and capital strategy, all at once. That’s unrealistic,” said Omer Kaplan, Co-Founder and CEO of ZyG. “ZyG exists to change that equation. We’re building a new partnership model that lets founders focus on what they do best – creating amazing products – while our data, technology, AI agents, and financing, power the product to scale.”

A New Partnership Model

ZyG works with product innovators, entrepreneurs, and DTC brands, offering an innovative business model that is completely aligned with its partners.

Products whose scale potential is validated, reaching a strong ‘ZyG Score’ on the proprietary Agentic Marketability Test, can partner with ZyG, which executes the entire digital layer and supports operational scale, saving partners both the time and the costs of growing headcount, agencies and tools.

The business model is a simple pay-as-you-grow consumption fee and the partners maintain full control of their brand IP and recognize 100% of revenue generated.

ZyG also offers products with a high ZyG Score cohort financing based on its proprietary models, addressing the inherent challenges DTC products face in financing growth, especially for LTV-driven products where customer acquisition costs are recouped over time.

“It is very clear what product innovators and DTC brands don’t need: more software, more agencies, or higher headcount,” said Kaplan. “What ZyG is offering is an Operating System that executes every aspect of growth, allowing partners to focus on product innovation while preserving their equity.” 

A New Infrastructure for eCom Scale

At the heart of the ZyG Operating System is a unified data layer that transforms disparate sources – pixels, platforms, and the many specialized tools used in DTC growth – into a single source of truth across the user journey.

This data foundation is critical to building a strong, trustworthy network of AI Agents that can execute the entire digital layer from brand optimization to store building, creative generation, performance marketing, organic growth (SEO, GEO, and influencers), conversion, retention (customer support and email/SMS), to logistics optimization. The connectivity and collaboration between the Agents, built on a shared context, allow signals from any point in the customer journey to continuously inform and improve the entire system.

The data layer is also the basis for proprietary predictive models that optimize growth, including LTV forecasting, attribution and cohort analysis, churn prediction, pricing optimization, and inventory demand forecasting.

The result is a compounding intelligence loop where every signal strengthens the models and drives smarter growth decisions.

About ZyG

ZyG is an Operating System for eCom scale, turning great products into successful brands. ZyG’s platform is designed to help product inventors and DTC brands validate, scale, and finance their growth, powered by data-driven AI agents. For more information, visit www.zyg.com or contact [email protected].

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SOURCE ZyG