• Partnership and investment in LevelTen Energy – the world’s largest clean energy marketplace – strengthens ABB’s ability to support industrial and commercial customers secure affordable, long-term clean energy without compromising speed to power in a complex grid environment
• Enhances ABB’s electrification and advisory services by expanding end-to-end solutions spanning energy procurement, electrification, optimization, and emissions reduction
• Highlights ABB’s commitment to collaborating with innovative startups that accelerate the energy transition and create customer value

ZURICH, Aug. 6, 2026 — ABB has formed a strategic partnership and made a minority investment in LevelTen Energy, the world’s largest marketplace for clean energy transactions including power purchase agreements (PPAs). Headquartered in the United States, LevelTen has facilitated more than 20 GW of clean energy transactions in more than 35 markets across North America and Europe on behalf of a wide array of industry participants, including hyperscalers, commercial and industrial companies, and utilities.

The strategic partnership and investment strengthen ABB’s energy and carbon (E&C) advisory services offering by combining its expertise in electrification, digital solutions and energy management with LevelTen’s market-leading platform, Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

As businesses face increasing pressure to decarbonize operations, securing access to reliable, affordable clean electricity has become one of the most complex challenges on the path to net zero.

“Our customers are under real pressure to reduce their carbon footprint while managing energy costs and maintaining reliable, 24/7 operations,” said Stuart Thompson, President of Electrification Service division at ABB. “One important piece missing from the solutions we provide today: a straightforward way to secure long-term clean energy at the right price. LevelTen Energy brings exactly that capability. Through the partnership, ABB will be able to extend its energy and carbon advisory services with renewable energy procurement capabilities, helping customers move from planning and implementation to ongoing optimization and reporting.”

The collaboration is particularly relevant as regulatory requirements evolve. More businesses are moving beyond annual renewable energy matching toward more stringent expectations around when and where clean energy is generated and consumed. These customers increasingly rely on technologies such as battery energy storage systems, microgrids, and advanced energy management solutions, areas where ABB has extensive expertise. LevelTen’s capabilities in clean energy contracting and environmental attribute certificate trading complement these technologies, helping customers build more comprehensive and verifiable decarbonization strategies.

Thompson added: “The partnership is expected to accelerate growth opportunities for both companies. ABB will gain access to LevelTen’s extensive ecosystem of clean energy developers and projects, creating new opportunities to deliver monitoring, optimization and lifecycle services. At the same time, LevelTen will benefit from ABB’s domain expertise and global customer relationships, particularly within manufacturing, industrial and commercial sectors, as well as ABB’s strong presence in growth markets including Asia-Pacific.”

Bryce Smith, CEO of LevelTen Energy, said: “This strategic partnership will generate new clean energy solutions, allowing ABB’s global customers to seamlessly tap into clean power, capacity and portfolio management tools. Together, we have a real opportunity to help even more customers decarbonize.”

Together with recent investments such as Gridcog, ABB is expanding its capabilities across energy procurement, advisory and energy and carbon services to help commercial and industrial customers accelerate their energy transition and make more informed energy decisions.

This investment through ABB Electrification Ventures, the venture capital arm of ABB’s Electrification business area, is a key addition to ABB’s venture capital investments, reflecting the company’s commitment to building an ecosystem of innovative partners developing solutions that support productivity, efficiency and sustainability. With this latest partnership, ABB Electrification Ventures has invested more than $110 million in 18 startups since 2021.

ABB is a global technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. By connecting its engineering and digitalization expertise, ABB helps industries run at high performance, while becoming more efficient, productive and sustainable so they outperform. At ABB, we call this ‘Engineered to Outrun’. The company has over 140 years of history and around 110,000 employees worldwide. ABB’s shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ABBN) and Nasdaq Stockholm (ABB). www.abb.com

LevelTen Energy – https://www.leveltenenergy.com 

Contact: 
Prenade Makumborenga
[email protected]
+27 (0)69 564 4147

DUBAÏ, Émirats arabes unis, 6 août 2026 — Flytxt, l’un des principaux fournisseurs de solutions d’IA d’entreprise pour l’optimisation des places de marché, annonce aujourd’hui qu’IIFL Capital Services Limited, société de services complets en investissement et en gestion de patrimoine, a adopté son IA primée afin de renforcer l’engagement des investisseurs et d’accélérer la croissance des actifs sous gestion grâce à des recommandations d’investissement intelligentes.

Forte de plus de 15 ans d’innovation dans le domaine de l’IA, Flytxt accompagne aujourd’hui plus de 80 entreprises clientes réparties dans 50 pays, en les aidant à transformer leurs données clients en informations exploitables et à générer des résultats commerciaux mesurables.

Alors que les attentes des investisseurs ne cessent d’évoluer, les prestataires de services financiers sont soumis à une pression croissante pour fournir des conseils en investissement particulièrement pertinents et opportuns. En s’appuyant sur la plateforme d’IA de Flytxt, IIFL Capital peut mieux comprendre le comportement des investisseurs, identifier les opportunités d’investissement émergentes et fidéliser ses clients grâce à des recommandations adaptées à leurs objectifs financiers et à leurs préférences en matière d’investissement.

« L’adoption des technologies a toujours joué un rôle central dans la promotion de l’innovation chez IIFL Capital. Notre collaboration avec Flytxt reflète notre engagement à tirer parti de l’IA pour renforcer l’engagement des investisseurs et créer davantage de valeur pour nos investisseurs », déclare Mme Jyotsna Solanki, responsable de la business intelligence et de la croissance, IIFL Capital.

« L’IA n’a un impact concret que lorsqu’elle inspire confiance, qu’elle est transparente et facile à utiliser. C’est exactement ce que démontre notre partenariat avec IIFL Capital. Grâce à l’intelligence causale, nos solutions d’IA agentique permettent aux entreprises de raisonner, de prendre des décisions et d’agir avec une plus grande autonomie afin d’obtenir des résultats commerciaux mesurables », déclare Vinod Vasudevan, CEO, Flytxt.

Ce partenariat témoigne de la présence croissante de Flytxt dans le secteur des services financiers, où des sociétés de crédit non bancaires (NBFC), des fintechs, des compagnies d’assurance et des banques de détail de premier plan à l’échelle mondiale tirent parti de ses capacités d’IA pour accélérer la croissance de leur clientèle, renforcer l’innovation produit, rationaliser le service client et renforcer l’engagement client.

À propos d’IIFL Capital

IIFL Capital Services Limited (anciennement IIFL Securities Limited) est une société indienne proposant une gamme complète de services de courtage et d’investissement. IIFL Capital propose des services de courtage, de gestion de patrimoine, de distribution de produits financiers, de courtage institutionnel, d’analyse financière et de banque d’investissement.

Pour plus d’informations, rendez-vous sur https://flytxt.ai/

-IIFL Capital se asocia con Flytxt para aprovechar la IA de agentes para un crecimiento sostenible de los activos bajo gestión (AUM)

DUBAI, EAU, 6 de agosto de 2026 — Flytxt, proveedor líder de soluciones de IA empresarial para la optimización de mercados, anunció hoy que IIFL Capital Services Limited, una firma de gestión patrimonial y de inversiones de servicio completo, ha adoptado su galardonada IA para fortalecer la participación de los inversores y acelerar el crecimiento de los activos bajo gestión (AUM) a través de recomendaciones de inversión inteligentes.

Con más de 15 años de innovación en IA, Flytxt presta servicios a más de 80 empresas en 50 países, ayudándolas a transformar los datos de sus clientes en información útil y a obtener resultados empresariales medibles.

A medida que las expectativas de los inversores evolucionan, los proveedores de servicios financieros se ven sometidos a una presión creciente para ofrecer asesoramiento de inversión relevante y oportuno. Gracias a la plataforma de IA de Flytxt, IIFL Capital puede comprender mejor el comportamiento de los inversores, identificar nuevas oportunidades de inversión y ofrecer a sus clientes recomendaciones alineadas con sus objetivos financieros y preferencias de inversión.

“La adopción de tecnología siempre ha sido fundamental para impulsar la innovación en IIFL Capital. Nuestra colaboración con Flytxt refleja nuestro compromiso de aprovechar la IA para fortalecer la relación con los inversores y generar mayor valor para ellos”, afirmó Jyotsna Solanki, directora de Inteligencia de Negocios y Crecimiento de IIFL Capital.

“La IA solo genera un impacto real cuando es confiable, transparente y fácil de usar. Eso es precisamente lo que demuestra nuestra alianza con IIFL Capital. Impulsadas por la inteligencia causal, nuestras soluciones de IA con agentes permiten a las empresas razonar, decidir y actuar con mayor autonomía para lograr resultados comerciales medibles”, declaró el Dr. Vinod Vasudevan, consejero delegado de Flytxt.

Esta alianza refleja la creciente presencia de Flytxt en el sector de servicios financieros, donde las principales instituciones financieras no bancarias, empresas fintech, aseguradoras y bancos minoristas a nivel mundial están aprovechando sus capacidades de IA para acelerar el crecimiento de clientes, mejorar la innovación de productos, optimizar el servicio al cliente e impulsar una mayor interacción con ellos.

Acerca de IIFL Capital

IIFL Capital Services Limited (anteriormente IIFL Securities Limited) es una firma de servicios de corretaje e inversión integral que opera en India. IIFL Capital ofrece servicios de corretaje, gestión patrimonial, distribución de productos financieros, corretaje institucional, investigación y servicios de banca de inversión.

Para más información, visite https://flytxt.ai/

SINGAPORE, Aug. 6, 2026 — Acrab today announced a US$130 million Series B financing round, with continued support from existing leading investors Vertex Ventures SEA & India and Vertex Growth, as well as participation from renowned institutional investors across Europe and Southeast Asia.

Following its emergence from stealth with more than US$350 million in cumulative funding and the launch of its GΞLIX 1-powered Agent Box platform, Acrab is entering its next phase of commercialization, with visible paths to industrial deployments across domains and expected revenue within this year.

Acrab is building a full-stack AI computing platform combining purpose-built silicon, edge AI, and intelligent software orchestration.

The new funding will support product scaling, ecosystem expansion, and the development of Acrab’s next-generation computing platform.

About Acrab

Acrab is a technology company building agentic AI compute infrastructure for the next generation of intelligent systems. Founded in 2024, the company develops high-performance AI compute architecture and integrated software platforms designed to bring AI agents into action, providing personalized assistance and real-time execution across a range of edge environments.

By combining purpose-designed silicon, advanced edge AI models, full-stack software and system orchestration, Acrab provides the computing foundation for AI agent systems across everyday life, bringing assistance, creativity, utility and value.

For more information about Acrab, please visit https://www.acrab.ai/.

SOURCE Acrab

Backed by US$15 million and three decades of industry expertise, Triangle Group is set to scale Asia-Pacific’s live touring and festivals infrastructure, with former Live Nation Asia Pacific President Roger Field joining the founders full-time to turbocharge the next phase of growth.

SINGAPORE, Aug. 5, 2026 — Triangle announces it has raised US$15 million in combined equity and venture debt: a $10 million equity seed round led by DSG Consumer Partners, joined by Golden Gate Ventures, the Oberoi Family Office and prominent angel investors, plus a $5 million venture debt facility from Genesis Alternative Ventures. The capital raise marks the largest institutional bet on Asia-Pacific’s experience economy sector by a regional operator, a sign of the growing tailwind behind this fast-growing segment.

Alongside the capital raise, Roger Field, formerly President of Live Nation Asia Pacific and CEO of Live Nation Australia & New Zealand, has joined Triangle Asia as Executive Director and Operating Partner, after one year as an advisor and investor in the business.

“We set out to build seamless, end-to-end infrastructure for artists and festivals coming to Asia. A raise this size in this market, and the region’s most senior executive choosing to join us, are the clearest proof yet that vision is real, and ready to scale,” said Greg Hargrave, CEO & co-founder of Triangle.

With nearly 60% of the world’s Gen Z consumers living in the region, Asia-Pacific’s live entertainment market is projected to reach $75 billion by 2033, growing at 6.3% annually.

Together, the capital and the key hires complete a founding team with genuinely complementary skills: scaling businesses, entertainment industry expertise, regional relationships, and three decades of on-ground delivery. What distinguishes Triangle from the global operators is where it’s built from, how it thinks, and the depth of operational expertise the team brings.

“Running Live Nation across this region taught me one thing: Asia-Pacific doesn’t need a global template; it needs an operator who understands every market individually. That’s the business we’re building at Triangle, where the standards of a global player are applied with a regional focus,” said Roger Field.

Building relationships on both sides, with the artist and with the consumer, Triangle will deliver to the same standard in every market, without homogenising the audience. The company manages all aspects of Live Touring and Festivals, including the financial risk of owning a tour or festival P & L, from first offer to last encore. For artists and their representation, this translates into a continuity of delivery across every market Triangle operates in, without a one-size-fits-all approach to how each artist gets there.

“We build around the specific artist in terms of who their audience is, which markets are ready, when to step up and when to hold. We’re not booking a one-off; we’re routing a region,” said Zaran Vachha, MD, Culture & Creative & Co-Founder of Triangle.

Founders Greg Hargrave and Zaran Vachha built Triangle on complementary backgrounds: Vachha has been deep in Asia’s touring and festival circuit, and Hargrave has been a fintech and public markets operator, who knows how to scale businesses. He was the former CEO of a multibillion-dollar ASX-listed company. Roger Field brings three decades in live entertainment, with past roles in ticketing, venue management and concert and festival promotion. His 13-year tenure at Live Nation culminated in becoming CEO of Live Nation Australia & New Zealand, then President of Live Nation Asia Pacific from 2020, responsible for 11 markets and more than 400 staff.

The timing behind Triangle’s capital raise reflects a genuine structural shift in the way audiences are consuming music in a globalised way. The worldwide reach of K-pop and Latin music is proof that an artist’s fanbase now exists everywhere, not just in their home market. Artists can no longer rely on sustainable income from recorded music, making live touring and opening new markets essential. Triangle will also target a wider layer of consumer-facing services, including travel and hospitality packages, that the experience economy now runs on.

The Investors

DSG Consumer Partners (DSGCP), which has backed some of India and Southeast Asia’s highest-growth consumer brands, led the round as its first investment in live entertainment, together with Golden Gate Ventures.

“Our conviction rests on timing and the team. The structural tailwinds are undeniable: new venues, government support, and surging fan demand,” said Sameer Mehta, Managing Director & Head of Southeast Asia, DSGCP.

The Oberoi family joins as a notable investor syndicate, and Genesis Alternative Ventures provided the venture debt facility.

“We are delighted to partner with Triangle as they build the infrastructure behind APAC’s experience economy,” said Eddy Ng, Partner, Genesis Alternative Ventures.

About Triangle:
Triangle Group is Asia-Pacific’s only homegrown, end-to-end live entertainment platform, spanning 18 cities in 9 countries. Formerly Creation Collective, it is headquartered in Singapore. (www.trianglegroup.live)

SOURCE Triangle Group

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 5, 2026 — Worldscape, the AI-native Decision Advantage Platform, after nearly quadrupling its operations in the last year from just 10 engineers to nearly 70, announced a $10 million Seed Round extension led by Scout Ventures, with participation from Radius Capital. The financing will support the expansion of the company’s engineering and AI research teams, accelerating capabilities and integrations with government, industry, and academic partners. Worldscape will also continue investing in autonomous AI agents, large-scale simulation, and its platform-native marketplace, enabling organizations to rapidly discover, integrate, and operationalize mission-ready applications, models, datasets, and intelligent agents within a secure, governed environment.

“Worldscape represents the next generation of decision advantage platforms,” said Cody Huggins, Partner at Scout Ventures. “The company is bringing together artificial intelligence, simulation, digital engineering, and distributed data into a unified platform that enables organizations to model, evaluate, and optimize complex missions. Worldscape has assembled top talent from across the ecosystem to build the foundational infrastructure for the future of mission engineering and intelligent decision-making.”

As operational environments become increasingly complex across physical and digital domains, organizations need faster and more intelligent ways to evaluate alternatives and make decisions. Worldscape brings together agentic AI, simulation, digital engineering, and distributed data into a single platform where humans and intelligent agents collaborate to generate, evaluate, automate, and optimize courses of action at scale.

“Our nation is entering an era where the speed and quality of decision-making will determine mission success,” said Mark Bolz, Founder and CEO of Worldscape. “Mission engineering must evolve beyond disconnected models and static analysis into living, AI-enabled environments where humans and intelligent agents continuously learn, experiment, and improve together. This investment accelerates that vision while expanding our team and platform to support critical Department of War programs.

Today, Worldscape is supporting multiple initiatives from the Department of War and the Department of Energy while expanding its platform across a range of use cases. Its modular licensing model allows customers to begin with immediate requirements and expand through platform editions, capability packs, AI assistants, and advanced analytics. The platform is designed to operate across IL2 – IL7, including SAP and fully air-gapped environments.

Visit www.worldscape.ai to keep up on the latest news. 

About 

Worldscape, based in Redmond, WA, is an AI-native Decision Advantage Platform enabling governments and industry to model, simulate, plan, and optimize complex missions and operation through digital worlds, agentic AI, simulation, distributed data systems, and secure cloud infrastructure.

Media Contact

Worldscape
[email protected]
www.worldscape.ai

SOURCE Worldscape

Achievement reflects continued expansion following 2024 acquisition, with 18 additional service centers planned through 2027

NEW YORK, Aug. 5, 2026 — Franchise Equity Partners (FEP), a private investment firm on a mission to create long-term partnerships with quality franchisees and franchisors, today announced that its portfolio company, Velocity Auto Care, has reached a milestone of 50 Valvoline Instant Oil Change℠ service centers with the latest located at 2930 W Trenton Road in Edinburg, Texas.

The Edinburg service center is the 12th location opened since FEP partnered with Velocity Auto Care to acquire 38 Valvoline Instant Oil Change franchise locations from Valvoline in December 2024. The acquisition also included a development agreement to open an additional 75 service centers over seven years, supporting long-term expansion throughout Texas.

“Reaching 50 locations is an important accomplishment that demonstrates the strength of our partnership with Velocity Auto Care and our shared commitment to thoughtful, long-term growth,” said Mike Esposito, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Franchise Equity Partners. “Since the acquisition, the Velocity team has executed an ambitious expansion strategy while maintaining a focus on operational excellence and delivering an exceptional customer experience. We look forward to continuing that momentum across our development territory.”

Velocity Auto Care has continued expanding throughout its designated territory following the 2024 acquisition, including opening the first-ever Valvoline Instant Oil Change location in the Rio Grande Valley in 2025. The company now operates six service centers in the region.

Velocity Auto Care currently has 18 additional service centers in development, all expected to open by the end of 2027. Expansion over the next 18 months will focus on Austin, El Paso, Midland-Odessa, the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Las Cruces, New Mexico, and other high-growth markets throughout Central, South and West Texas.

“Our development pipeline reflects the significant opportunity we see across our territory,” said Robert Fish, CEO of Velocity Auto Care. “We’re building strategically in high-growth communities and remain on track to add an average of nine to 12 new locations annually as we continue working toward our long-term goal.”

The opening underscores Franchise Equity Partners’ strategy of partnering with experienced franchise operators to accelerate growth through operational support, strategic investment and disciplined expansion.

For more information about Franchise Equity Partners, please visit fep-us.com. For more information about Valvoline Instant Oil Change, visit vioc.com.

About Franchise Equity Partners:
Franchise Equity Partners is a private investment firm specializing in providing capital to franchise businesses and their owners. Its differentiated approach combines extensive corporate finance and operating experience with an initial target portfolio size of $1 billion to enable growth, ownership simplification, succession and estate planning, among other strategic business opportunities. To learn more about Franchise Equity Partners, please visit www.fep-us.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn.

ABOUT VALVOLINE INC.
Valvoline Inc. (NYSE: VVV) delivers quick, easy, trusted service at more than 2,400 franchised and company-operated service centers across the United States and Canada. The Company completes more than 30 million services annually system-wide, from about 15-minute stay-in-your-car oil changes to a variety of manufacturer-recommended maintenance services such as wiper replacements and tire rotations. At Valvoline Inc., it all starts with our people, including the 13,000 team members who are working to drive the full potential of our core business, deliver sustainable network growth, and innovate to meet the evolving needs of our customers and the car parc. For more information, visit vioc.com.

Contact:
Andrea Mazzola
Tidehouse
954-893-9150
[email protected]

SOURCE Franchise Equity Partners

BR Diversified Industrial Portfolio 8, DST Delivers 100% Leased,
Five-Property Industrial Portfolio

NEW YORK, Aug. 5, 2026 — Bluerock Value Exchange (BVEX), a national sponsor of 1031 Exchange and Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) investment programs with a 20+ year track record, today announced the launch of BR Diversified Industrial Portfolio 8, DST (“DIP 8”), an all-cash, unlevered DST offering seeking to raise approximately $58.4 million from accredited investors. DIP 8 is BVEX’s 46th individual DST program and eighth consecutive industrial-focused offering, reflecting the firm’s deep expertise in the industrial sector.

The launch of DIP 8 follows the successful completion of BR Diversified Industrial Portfolio 7 (“DIP 7”), reflecting continued strong demand for BVEX’s industrial 1031 exchange platform. DIP 8 continues that momentum, offering investors the opportunity to secure a fully leased, income-producing industrial portfolio.

DIP 8 is comprised of five mission-critical industrial properties across Florida, Illinois, and Missouri, and totals approximately 460,000 rentable square feet of warehouse, distribution, and industrial outdoor storage. The portfolio features several attractive investment characteristics, including:

• Credit-rated, large national tenants
• 100% occupancy rate with long duration triple-net leases providing durable, predictable cash flows throughout the anticipated hold period
• A weighted-average lease term of nearly 13 years
• Potential for rent growth with current in-place rents 20% below current market rates

The DST currently distributes 4.8% on an annualized basis under its Master Lease structure, paid monthly to investors. DIP 8 is further structured to provide investors with meaningful exit flexibility at the conclusion of the hold period. Beneficial owners may elect to (i) contribute their interests into the Operating Partnership on a tax-deferred basis pursuant to a 721 UPREIT Exchange, (ii) redeem their interests for cash proceeds and complete a subsequent 1031 Exchange, or (iii) receive cash on a taxable basis — providing each investor the ability to pursue the exit path most aligned with their individual tax and estate planning objectives.

“We continue to see strong demand from 1031 exchange investors seeking income-producing industrial portfolios in high-growth markets, particularly in an all-cash structure that eliminates leverage risk,” said Josh Hoffman, President of Bluerock Value Exchange. “DIP 8 checks all the boxes for our investors: a geographically diversified, fully leased portfolio anchored by long-tenured national tenants, with in-place rents averaging 20% below current market rates. The industrial sector is supported by powerful structural tailwinds — declining new supply, sustained demand, and projected rent growth well above the broader real estate market — and we believe this offering is exceptionally well-positioned to capitalize on that environment.¹“

¹ Source: CoStar

About Bluerock Value Exchange
With a 20+ year track record, Bluerock Value Exchange is a national sponsor of syndicated 1031-exchange offerings with a focus on Premier Exchange Properties™ that seek to deliver stable cash flows and potential for value creation. Bluerock has structured 1031 exchanges of more than $3 billion in total property value and 17 million square feet of property.  Additional information can be found at bluerockexchange.com.

About Bluerock
Bluerock is a leading alternative investment manager with more than $20 billion in acquired and managed assets and a 24-year history of delivering innovative income and tax-advantaged investment solutions to individual investors. Bluerock’s platform offers access to investment programs spanning 1031 and 721 exchange solutions, private and public real estate, and alternative credit. The firm partners with financial advisors, providing education and practice management resources that help them better serve clients and grow their businesses. Learn more at bluerock.com.

SOURCE Bluerock Value Exchange

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 5, 2026 — Avatar Robotics, a startup building the unlimited workforce for industrial labor, today announced it has raised a $6.5 million Seed round led by AlleyCorp, alongside a pre-seed led by defy.vc, and participation from Headline, Henry Ford III, Refashiond, Paul Vogel, Jack Huffard, and Samuel Udotong.

Avatar Robotics addresses one of the largest structural constraints facing the U.S. economy: persistent labor shortages across warehousing, logistics, and manufacturing. As companies reshore operations and demand faster fulfillment, many facilities struggle to hire and retain enough workers for physically demanding or repetitive jobs.

Avatar unleashes a new category of industrial infrastructure that combines robotics, remote human operators, and AI-driven autonomy. Its humanoid robots can perform high-value warehouse and manufacturing workflows such as picking, packing, kitting, sorting, cycle counting, and material movement — delivering flexible labor capacity 24/7.

Since launching in December 2025, Avatar Robotics has packed, sorted, and helped ship more than 900,000 products, including for a leading global beauty retailer, via robots deployed across live customer environments. The company has also begun a post-pilot expansion with a multi-billion-dollar warehouse operator to support sorting and picking workflows, with additional deployments underway.

“The United States has a massive labor shortage, and the warehouses and factories that power daily life are struggling to hire enough workers,” said Colin Webb, Founder and CEO of Avatar Robotics. “For the first time, affordable robotics, high-speed connectivity, and AI-driven autonomy make it possible to create a new kind of workforce. Avatar Robotics gives businesses access to scalable industrial labor, while enabling workers to operate fleets of robots remotely from safer and more comfortable environments. Over time, this can dramatically lower the cost of goods and expand economic opportunity to people anywhere in the world.”

Unlike traditional automation systems that require rigid workflows and expensive upfront integration, Avatar is plug-n-play, using remote operators to complete tasks reliably from day one. While operating, Avatar Robots continuously learn from the data they generate, enabling robotic foundation models to bring intelligent automation to every task.

The result is a new kind of robotics infrastructure for the physical economy. Customers get labor capacity immediately. Avatar Robotics produces the data needed to improve autonomy, where eventually one warehouse operator will command entire fleets of robots. In the future, Avatar will power an ever-growing suite of autonomous workflows for today’s highly manual, complex tasks.

 “Avatar Robotics has built strong partnerships with their initial customers — and is already delivering meaningful value in real workflows — through their human-in-the-loop system, which is performing at a level competitive with skilled human operators,” said Brannon Jones, Principal at AlleyCorp. “In doing so, Avatar Robotics has also generated large datasets of robot control data, which the industry currently lacks and will help to inform foundation models and enable more scalable labor supply.”

“Colin’s vision for Avatar instantly captivated me,” said Amy Yin, Partner, defy.vc. “The path to full robotic autonomy will require both better hardware and massive amounts of real-world data. Avatar’s approach is incredibly clever: use remote human operators to bridge the gap today while improving autonomy with every task completed. I believe that model can help Avatar build one of the largest humanoid robot fleets in the world.”

The new capital will be used to expand deployments, accelerate autonomy software development, scale robot fleets, and grow the company’s engineering and operations teams.

Avatar Robotics’ team includes engineers and operators from Cruise, Apple, Tesla, Intuitive Surgical, and Unity, with research backgrounds from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The founder and CEO, Colin Webb, graduated from MIT (delivering the commencement address), and has developed various autonomous solutions ranging from AI powered drones and self-driving cars, to founding a recently acquired AI startup with cofounder Nenye Anagbogu, who has teamed up with Webb once again at Avatar.

Avatar Robotics envisions scaling to millions of robots operating across warehouses, factories, mines, farms, and future infrastructure projects — allowing businesses of any size to access industrial-grade labor on demand, and enabling workers globally to control fleet-scale physical systems virtually.

To get in touch with the Avatar Robotics team, reach out at [email protected].

About Avatar Robotics

Avatar Robotics is building the unlimited workforce for industrial labor. Avatar combines humanoid robots, a global fleet of robot operators, and AI autonomy to help businesses scale warehouse, logistics, and manufacturing operations with affordable, flexible, always-available labor. Businesses with tedious, hard-to-automate tasks including kitting, sorting, picking, packing, rework and assembly tasks can tap into Avatar’s overnight scalable labor, capable of 24/7 work. Avatar robots are currently fulfilling thousands of big brand retail products daily.

Avatar Robotics is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Learn more at www.avatarrobotics.com

About AlleyCorp

AlleyCorp is a New York-based venture capital firm that incubates and invests in transformative companies across healthcare, AI, enterprise software, consumer tech, deep tech, and more.

As one of the most active early-stage investors in New York, AlleyCorp focuses on investing at the incubation, pre–seed, seed, and Series A stages. Founded by serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan, AlleyCorp’s past incubations have included MongoDB (NASDAQ: MDB), Business Insider, Zola, Gilt Groupe, Radical AI, and Transcend Therapeutics. Learn more at alleycorp.com.

About defy.vc

defy.vc is a Silicon Valley–based early-stage venture capital firm, currently investing out of defy III. With $700M under management across its funds, defy takes an artisanal approach to company building—backing founders with conviction and providing hands-on support from inception through exit. Our team blends decades of venture experience with entrepreneurial and operating expertise, partnering with the boldest founders shaping the future. Connect with defy at https://defy.vc and @defyvc.

Media Contact
Kelsey Cullen, KCPR
[email protected]
650.438.1063

SOURCE Avatar Robotics