SAN FRANCISCO, July 29, 2026 — Ballistic Ventures, the venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to funding and incubating entrepreneurs and innovations in cybersecurity, and Decibel Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in technical founders building in AI and cybersecurity, today announced that Punit Minocha, former Executive Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at Zscaler will join both firms as Strategic Advisor.

Punit is a results-driven technology executive with more than three decades of experience building, scaling, and creating value at high-growth companies. He has held key leadership roles at Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, and Trend Micro, helping scale each business through multiple stages of development and contributing to the creation of market-leading companies with multi-billion-dollar revenues and enterprise values. A skilled communicator adept at aligning executives, boards, and investors, Punit brings a track record of translating strategic vision into operational execution and enterprise value.

In his advisory roles, Punit will help portfolio founders sharpen their corporate strategy and build the strategic channel partnerships and technology alliances needed to accelerate growth. He’ll work alongside Ballistic’s other functional advisors, spanning go-to-market, marketing, and finance, to give founders access to the specialized expertise needed at each stage of scaling their business. He will also join Decibel’s team of Founder Advisors to provide strategic business development advice to technical founders at the earliest stage.

“Punit has spent his career at the intersection of corporate strategy and technology partnerships, helping companies build the alliances and business models that accelerate growth,” said Barmak Meftah, Co-Founder and General Partner at Ballistic Ventures. “We’re committed to surrounding our founders with the best expertise across every function, and Punit’s ability to architect strategic channel partnerships and technology alliances gives our portfolio companies exactly the kind of guidance that helps them move faster.”

“I’m thrilled to join Ballistic Ventures at a time when cybersecurity founders need more than capital, they need partners who’ve been in the trenches of scaling a business from early stage to market leadership,” said Minocha. “I’ve spent my career building the partnerships, M&A strategies, and go-to-market engines that turn strong technology into lasting companies, and I’m excited to bring that experience to Ballistic’s portfolio as they build the next generation of category-defining cybersecurity companies.”

“Punit gives the masterclass on how a startup can cultivate strong strategic partnerships from day one and it is never too early to seek his advice” said Jon Sakoda, Founder of Decibel Partners. “The cybersecurity landscape is changing dramatically with AI, and Punit’s skills will undoubtedly help our founders take advantage of the tectonic shifts ahead.” 

“I have admired Decibel’s approach working closely with founders and early adopters from the earliest stage and am looking forward to supporting their founders” said Minocha. “We are at the beginning of the AI and cybersecurity ‘supercycle’ and the market is evolving faster than ever before. There is no better time to be a founder building in this space than right now.”

Punit joins fellow Ballistic and Decibel advisors who are guiding the firm’s portfolio companies in their growth.

Learn more about the Ballistic team at https://ballisticventures.com/team/ and the Decibel team at https://www.decibel.vc/team.

About Ballistic Ventures
Ballistic Ventures is a venture capital firm solely dedicated to early-stage cybersecurity and cyber-related companies. The partners have spent their entire careers defending against every cyber threat conceivable. Members of the firm have founded, operated, and funded over 100 successful cybersecurity firms – including Abnormal Security, AlienVault, ArcSight, Fortify, Mandiant, and Shape Security – led over 10,000 security professionals globally, and have 40+ years of experience in venture capital. The Ballistic portfolio includes Above Security, Aembit, Alethea, Armadin, ArmorCode, AuthMind, BreachRx, Codezero, Concentric AI, GetReal, Gomboc AI, Hypernative, Magnitude, Mimic, Native, Noma, Nudge, Oligo, OverAI, Pangea, Reach, Reveal Technology, Root Evidence, SpecterOps, Talon (PANW), Veza, WitnessAI, and Zip Security. Our experience provides entrepreneurs impactful support from people focused on the same mission. Our networks and relationships open doors for our founders. Learn more at ballisticventures.com.

About Decibel Partners
Decibel is an early-stage venture capital firm and an early believer in technical founders. We invest in the essential software used by engineering and security teams to build and protect our digital world, and specialize in enterprise software categories at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. We accelerate the path to product-market fit by engaging with some of the largest communities of technical early adopters across rapidly growing startups and the Fortune 1000. Our founding team’s history includes early investments in leading infrastructure software companies such as Cloudflare (NET), Elastic (ESTC), and MongoDB (MDB). The firm’s current portfolio includes Abacus, Censys, Cognition, DropZone, E2B, Ent Security, RunZero, Sublime Security, and SpecterOps. Learn more at decibel.vc.

SOURCE Ballistic Ventures

BOSTON, July 29, 2026 — H.I.G. Growth Partners (“H.I.G. Growth”), the dedicated growth capital investment affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm with $75 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce its investment in Rewind Software Inc. (“Rewind” or the “Company”), a SaaS resilience platform delivering industry-leading backup and recovery, business continuity, and comprehensive data governance and retention, all engineered to safeguard against data loss and disruption.

Based in Ottawa, Canada, Rewind protects company data across 16 leading cloud applications, enabling over 25,000 organizations to back up, restore, and ensure resilience of their SaaS workloads. H.I.G. Growth’s investment will support the Company’s growth, product innovation, and operational scale as AI adoption and the Atlassian cloud migration wave drive demand for enterprise-grade backup and recovery.

Mike Potter, CEO of Rewind, said: “We’re thrilled to partner with H.I.G. Growth as we embark on this next stage of our journey and bring mission-critical solutions to enterprises around the globe. H.I.G. Growth’s experience in scaling software businesses, strengthening go-to-market capabilities, and expanding channel partnerships aligns with our strategic vision for the company.”

Hans Sherman, Managing Director at H.I.G. Growth, said: “As AI adoption accelerates, and autonomous agents are able to read, write, and act on data inside SaaS applications, the importance of backup and recovery grows exponentially. Rewind’s differentiated platform closes the gap on business data left unprotected by SaaS platforms, delivering automated, compliant protection that becomes mission-critical for enterprises as they migrate to and adopt cloud environments. We are excited to partner with Mike and the entire Rewind team to support their continued growth and expansion.”

About Rewind

Rewind is a leading SaaS resilience platform that backs up the data and workflows businesses depend on. When things go wrong, whether through human error or an AI agent acting at scale, Rewind ensures that business-critical data is recoverable on demand. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Rewind protects more than 7 PB of business-critical data for over 25,000 organizations across 16 leading SaaS platforms, including Jira, Confluence, GitHub, Shopify, QuickBooks Online, and monday.com. Rewind pairs schema-aware recovery and enterprise-grade governance with a growing suite of resilience capabilities built for the AI era, designed with security at its core, maintaining SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certifications along with capabilities that support customers’ regulatory and compliance requirements. For more information, visit rewind.com.

About H.I.G Growth Partners

H.I.G. Growth Partners is the dedicated growth capital investment affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm with $75 billion of capital under management.* H.I.G. Growth seeks to make both majority and minority investments in strong, growth-oriented businesses located throughout North America, Europe, and Latin America. H.I.G. Growth Partners invests across all industries, with a focus on certain high-growth sectors where it has extensive in-house expertise, such as technology, healthcare, internet and media, consumer products and technology-enabled financial and business services. H.I.G. Growth works closely with its management teams to serve as an experienced resource, providing broad-based strategic, operational, recruiting, and financial management services from a large in-house team and a substantial network of third-party relationships. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at HIGgrowth.com.

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

Contact:
Hans Sherman
Managing Director
[email protected]

H.I.G. Growth Partners
800 Boylston St
Suite 910
Boston, MA 02199
P: 617.262.8455
higgrowth.com

SOURCE H.I.G. Capital, LLC

Releases CopyScore™ V2 for AI-Generated Video as Demand Grows for Pre-Production Copyright and Likeness Risk Review

LOS ANGELES, July 29, 2026 — CopySight, an AI IP governance company, today announced a $3 million seed round led by Mucker Capital, with participation from Taisu VC, Flint Capital, and Yellow Rocks!. The company has also launched CopyScore™ V2, extending its copyright and likeness risk-scoring platform from AI-generated images into video. The funding will be used to scale CopySight’s proprietary scoring architecture deeper into enterprise video production pipelines, furthering the company’s goal of making AI‑generated content commercially safe and trustworthy.

“We see CopySight as defining the IP layer for generative AI and modern content creation,” said David Borcsok, Partner at Mucker Capital. “AI cannot scale without trust. They are addressing the essential capabilities around risk and ownership that will only become more critical as AI evolves.”

CopySight is establishing the industry’s first infrastructure benchmarks for IP clearance, rights-holder detection, and chain-of-creation documentation as generative AI moves into commercial production. Since January 2026, the platform has processed more than 87,000 copyright and IP risk checks across studio, platform, legal, and enterprise workflows, a 25x increase in usage over that period. CopySight classifies risk across five primary categories: trademarks, characters, brand and iconic designs, celebrity likenesses, and art and styles. Every assessment is recorded in an immutable chain-of-creation log that serves as supporting compliance documentation, including for projects such as Raksha World’s successful U.S. Copyright Office registration for AI-supported creative content.

With the launch of CopyScore™ V2, CopySight expands into generative video where unintended IP exposure can appear across thousands of frames. The platform analyzes content frame by frame, comparing characters, faces, logos, and styles against reference libraries and combining those signals with prompts, model versions, and generation settings, flagging potential risk in milliseconds. The system can identify transient risks, such as a logo appearing briefly in the background or a split-second celebrity likeness match. For high-stakes compliance workflows, Deep Thinking Mode applies multi-pass analysis to ambiguous segments, while customizable sensitivity thresholds allow enterprises to align reviews with internal legal standards.

CopySight analyzes intellectual property against the market’s largest dedicated IP dataset, using proprietary technology and a patented IP segmentation process to establish a new standard for content validation.

“AI has completely unlocked how we create, but hitting a piece of protected IP is just a factual reality of the process right now,” said Artem Petrov, co-founder and CEO of CopySight. “We built CopySight to clear the path for it. Foundational models, Hollywood studios, individual creators, everyone downstream needs the exact same thing: objective proof that what they just made is safe to ship. We want AI to scale, reach its potential, and we are here to help protect everyone on that mission.”

Founded by technical and creative teams from Snap, Apple, and Meta, CopySight is working with major Hollywood studios on IP hygiene, review, and validation workflows that support production teams and strengthen content risk management. Customers, partners, and platform users include AGBO, ArentFox Schiff, and OpenArt. Advisors are Doug Shapiro (former Chief Strategy Officer at Turner and WarnerMedia), Tomasz Kornuta (Senior Research Manager at Nvidia), and Greg Coleman (Global Head of Marketing and Franchise at Amazon).

About CopySight

CopySight is an AI IP governance platform that helps studios, gaming companies, platforms, and enterprises evaluate and manage copyright risk in AI-generated content. Its CopyScore™ system assesses assets for infringement exposure and copyrightability, enabling teams to verify, attribute, and clear content before distribution. CopySight works with global brands, studios, and leading AI platforms to support emerging standards for content ownership, authenticity, and trust. Learn more at copysight.ai

Media Contact:

Laura Anderson McGrath for CopySight
[email protected]

SOURCE CopySight AI Inc

SAN FRANCISCO, July 29, 2026 — UNIT AI, a physical AI company making enterprise-grade automation more accessible for retailers and third-party logistics (3PL) providers, today announced $12 million in funding to accelerate commercial deployments of its modular, AI-powered platform for end-to-end ecommerce fulfillment and returns across North America. The round was co-led by Prologis Ventures, Dynamo Ventures, and Ground Up Ventures, with participation from eGateway Capital, Recursive Ventures, Think + Ventures, ZEP Fund, and Crosscourt.

The financing comes as retailers and 3PLs face mounting pressure to fulfill more frequent e-commerce orders, manage rising return volumes, and improve labor productivity. UNIT’s modular platform helps operators bring enterprise-grade automation into existing fulfillment environments quickly and cost-effectively. The funding will expand deployment capacity, accelerate product innovation, and support continued commercial growth as the company scales across North America.

UNIT’S platform can deploy in as little as 1,000 square feet and deliver ROI in under 12 months. In just 22 months, UNIT is already working with leading retailers and logistics providers, including Barrett, ShipCalm, DaVinci, Carter, as well as global apparel brands. The company also has a growing pipeline of enterprise brands and 3PLs whose fulfillment networks collectively ship billions of inventory units each year.

UNIT was founded by warehouse automation veterans Guy Glass, who previously founded Caja Robotics (acquired by Fives), a leader in goods-to-person warehouse automation, and Avihou Barkay, President of Plus One Robotics and GM of Caja Robotics. After decades of designing and deploying robotic fulfillment systems for global warehouse operators, Glass and Barkay founded UNIT to remove the cost, complexity, and infrastructure barriers that have historically limited automation adoption.

“After decades of building warehouse automation, we realized the next breakthrough wasn’t building bigger systems; it was making automation dramatically more accessible,” said Guy Glass, Founder of Unit AI. “The world’s largest retailers and logistics providers are looking for enterprise-grade automation that can be deployed in a week instead of months. This funding allows us to scale our deployment capacity, accelerate product innovation, and meet that growing demand.”

Today’s fulfillment infrastructure wasn’t built for the realities of modern commerce. E-commerce growth has increased the pressure on retailers to fulfill more frequent orders while managing rising return volumes, labor shortages, and higher shipping costs. At the same time, companies are moving toward more distributed fulfillment strategies, placing inventory closer to customers through regional warehouses, micro-fulfillment centers, and back-of-store operations.

UNIT enables retailers and logistics providers to automate D2C inventory management and returns wherever inventory lives, from traditional distribution centers to regional fulfillment hubs and back-of-store retail operations. Its standardized Physical AI platform provides predictive inventory software to store, retrieve, and manage individual items without requiring companies to redesign existing facilities.

“Retailers and 3PLs need automation that solves real operational pain points — improving throughput, labor productivity and returns management without forcing a full facility redesign,” said Todd Lewis, senior vice president, Prologis Ventures. “UNIT is addressing a clear market need with a modular platform that gives operators flexible automation that can scale and adapt to changing customer demands.”

About UNIT AI

UNIT AI develops Physical AI-powered software that automates each-level inventory management, e-commerce fulfillment, and returns for retailers, brands, and third-party logistics providers. Its modular, pay-per-use platform enables customers to automate fulfillment operations, scale incrementally, and reduce costs while accelerating deployment across their warehouse networks.

Press Contact:
Kathy Osborne
607-434-2065
[email protected]

SOURCE Unit AI

OTTAWA, ON, July 29, 2026 — Woodway Assurance today announced that international healthtech venture capital firm Nina Capital has invested in the Canadian company. The investment reflects growing demand for privacy-enhancing technologies such as Woodway’s EviData^TM, which helps organizations use data responsibly for AI, analytics and data sharing.

Healthcare and life sciences organizations hold large volumes of high-value data, but projects often stall because of uncertainty about whether and how the data can be used safely. Woodway’s flagship software, EviData, offers a single automated, AI-enabled workflow that assesses privacy risk across both structured data and unstructured text, recommends and performs privacy-preserving data transformations, evaluates de-identified, anonymized and synthetic data.      

Importantly, the software produces objective evidence aligned with recognized guidance and international standards, including ISO de-identification standards, anonymization expectations under the GDPR and the HIPAA Expert Determination Method. This helps organizations move initiatives forward, reduce delays and give business, technical, privacy, legal and governance teams a clear basis for defensible decisions.

“Data is essential for research, AI, and improving patient care. However, necessary privacy and regulatory concerns, as well as complex operational challenges, often prevent organizations from leveraging it fully.” said Marta G. Zanchi, founding managing partner at Nina Capital. “We’re investing in Woodway because EviData directly addresses that challenge with an authoritative solution grounded in extensive research, recognized guidance, international standards, and world-renowned expertise in the field. We see tremendous potential for EviData to reduce friction, accelerate clinical innovation, and facilitate the more rapid delivery of promising treatments to patients.”

The investment follows a period of momentum for Woodway, including the launch of EviData 3.0, a growing client base and new strategic partnerships. The capital will support further product development, commercial growth and entry into new international markets.

“Nina Capital’s backing is an important endorsement of our approach to solving one of the biggest barriers to responsible data use,” said Dr. Khaled El Emam, founder and CEO of Woodway Assurance. “Nina Capital’s health data and technology expertise and international network make them a strong partner as we expand globally. Together, we can bring EviData to more organizations that need faster, scalable and defensible ways to leverage data.”

The new financing builds on Woodway’s $1-million CAD seed round, announced in December 2025.

About Woodway Assurance:
Woodway Assurance is the Canadian technology company behind EviData, an automated, AI-enabled platform that helps organizations use data for AI, analytics and data sharing by assessing privacy risk, performing privacy-preserving data transformations and generating objective evidence. Woodway is a spin-off from the Electronic Health Information Laboratory at the CHEO Research Institute, founded and directed by Woodway CEO Dr. Khaled El Emam. The company builds on 20+ years of pioneering research and privacy-enhancing technologies developed by El Emam and the EHIL team. In 2026, EHIL received the Privacy and Human Rights Award from the Global Privacy Assembly, the international forum of data protection authorities, and the human rights organization Access Now.

About Nina Capital:
Nina Capital is an international, specialized venture capital firm investing in healthcare transformation powered by information technology, led by need-driven founders. Focused on pre-seed and seed-stage investments and guided by deep industry experience, Nina Capital supports health technology solutions that drive lasting healthcare impact. Nina Capital’s diverse, multinational, and multidisciplinary team is led by former healthcare technology founders and operators, and combines expertise from numerous healthcare and technology sectors. Since 2019, Nina Capital has invested in over 50 companies across nearly 20 countries, touching the lives of tens of millions of people through healthcare technology innovations.

Media contacts: Woodway Assurance – Anne-Marie Hayden, [email protected]; Nina Capital – Marta G. Zanchi, Ph.D., [email protected]

DENVER, July 29, 2026 — SDR Ventures is pleased to announce that Boxzooka (the “Company” or “Boxzooka”), a technology-driven third-party logistics (3PL) and fulfillment partner for premium, high-growth e-commerce brands, has received a majority growth investment from Tower Arch Capital. SDR served as the exclusive sell-side advisor to Boxzooka throughout the transaction process.

Founded in 2014 by Brendan Heegan, Boxzooka is a leading software-driven fulfillment platform built for high-growth, brand-sensitive e-commerce companies. The Company partners with emerging, luxury-oriented apparel, beauty, and wellness brands to deliver highly customizable, high-touch fulfillment solutions that improve order accuracy, brand presentation, and customer experience. Boxzooka’s Fulfillment Platform-as-a-Service (FPaaS) is purpose-built for demanding applications such as complex forward and reverse logistics, premium unboxing, and real-time order visibility, where brand protection and operational precision are essential

“This partnership with Tower Arch Capital is an important next step for Boxzooka,” said Brendan Heegan, Founder & CEO of Boxzooka. “We have a strong platform, a great team, and a reputation for quality and service. We are very excited for this new partnership with Tower Arch and leaning on their expertise in scaling logistics enterprises.  We are grateful to SDR Ventures, Curran & Company, LLP, and Taft Law for their work getting us here.”

Boxzooka has built a differentiated position through proprietary fulfillment technology, close customer relationships, and a consultative approach to complex logistics and brand-experience challenges. The Company’s ability to deliver tailored, high-touch fulfillment at scale, while holding high standards for accuracy, quality, and speed, has made it a trusted partner for premium, high-growth e-commerce brands. That operational discipline and customer focus have driven Boxzooka’s growth.

“Congratulations to Brendan, Nick, and the whole Boxzooka team; they’ve been great to work with throughout this process,” said David Topham, Partner at Tower Arch Capital. “Boxzooka has built something unique: a fulfillment platform that combines proprietary technology with the kind of high-touch, consultative service that complex, brand-sensitive customers need. We’re excited to partner with the entire Boxzooka team and further build on its leadership in software-driven, omni-channel fulfillment.”

“We’re proud to have worked with the Boxzooka team on this transaction and to support a Company with such a strong reputation for technology and customer focus,” said Scott Mitchell, Managing Partner at SDR Ventures. “We believe this partnership with Tower Arch Capital will accelerate software commercialization and create long-term value for Boxzooka’s customers, employees, and stakeholders.

ABOUT SDR Ventures
SDR Ventures is a Denver-based investment bank serving lower-to-middle market business owners across North America. We specialize in sell-side advisory, buy-side representation, exit planning, capital raising, and strategic consulting for privately held companies. Our team works with founders and operators across industries, including manufacturing, distribution, business services, healthcare, technology, food and beverage, agribusiness, industrial, pets, consumer, and data center. The SDR Ventures approach of “Thinking Like Owners” helps businesses maximize their value.

For more information, please visit www.sdrventures.com 

Media Contact: 
Kristy Marshall
SDR Ventures
720-221-9220
[email protected]

SOURCE SDR Ventures

FirstMark Capital led the round, with Thomson Reuters Ventures and Y Combinator participating.

NEW YORK, July 29, 2026 — Henry AI Inc. (“Henry”), the AI platform automating back-office knowledge work for commercial real estate teams, today announced a $16.5 million Series A led by FirstMark Capital, with strategic participation from Thomson Reuters Ventures and follow-on investment from Y Combinator, Susa Ventures, 1Sharpe, StoryHouse Ventures, Pioneer Fund, RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Karman Ventures, and Coalition Operators. Adam Nelson, Partner at FirstMark Capital, has also joined Henry’s board of directors.

The raise comes as Henry has established itself as operating infrastructure for the industry’s largest firms. Today, teams from all of the largest commercial real estate brokerages are on the platform, reaching more than 150 firms in total.

Henry automates the document layer that has long functioned as CRE’s most expensive hidden cost: offering memorandums, underwriting, pitch decks, and buyer lists. The platform has produced more than 20,000 client-ready deliverables representing more than $150 billion in underlying deal value. Analyst production time is down 90%, work previously estimated at 15 hours per deliverable now takes about 30 minutes of human review, with a platform-wide median turnaround of under four hours. More than 20% of Henry’s customers have reduced staffing requirements as a direct result.

The customer impact is concrete. At Colliers, EVP Tom de Jong cut broker-opinion-of-value turnaround from three to four days to under two hours. At Cooper Horowitz, a single deal memorandum went from as much as 18 hours to under 15 minutes. At Compass, broker Erich Bubbel cut time per offering package from up to seven hours to about 20 minutes. At Marcus & Millichap, National Retail Group’s Kodi Traver describes the platform as “almost like a second office of agents — a new teammate, but he never sleeps and always gets work done fast.”

Commercial real estate firms sit on decades of proprietary transaction data, including underwriting models, client relationships, deal history, scattered across old files and individual analysts’ heads. That is why Henry has launched Henry Deal, which turns a firm’s entire institutional memory into deliverables across the full lifecycle of a transaction, from underwriting to packaging to close.

“Every deal in commercial real estate is buried under a pile of documents that someone had to make by hand,” said Sammy Greenwall, co-founder and CEO of Henry. “But the documents are just the surface. The real problem is that these firms are sitting on the most valuable data in the industry and can’t actually leverage it. We started by automating the deck. With Henry Deal, we’re shipping the system of record that turns that institutional knowledge into every deliverable a deal needs. Winning the deal today, the entire back office tomorrow.”

“What made Henry impossible to ignore was not just the growth, but the evidence that customers were beginning to treat it as an extension of their team,” said Adam Nelson, Partner at FirstMark Capital. “Henry combines deep commercial real estate expertise with a technical team that is translating that insight into product at remarkable speed. The company began with one of the industry’s most painful back-office bottlenecks; today, it is becoming the system firms rely on to underwrite, win, and execute deals. We believe Henry is on a path to becoming the intelligence layer for commercial real estate.”

Henry will use the new capital to expand its engineering and product teams and build out from a document engine into the system of record for CRE deals. The proceeds fund that expansion, beginning with the June 15 launch of Henry Deal.

“The bottleneck in CRE has never been the data — it’s the cost of turning data into finished deliverables,” said Adam Pratt, co-founder and CTO of Henry. “Every step in the deal chain has been done manually by expensive people under deadline pressure. We built Henry to automate that entire layer. Now we scale it.”

About Henry

Henry is the AI platform automating back-office knowledge work for commercial real estate teams. By replacing manual, high-cost workflows across deal production — from offering memorandums and pitch decks to underwriting packages and transaction summaries — Henry reduces deliverable production time by 90% and helps CRE firms close more deals with fewer resources. Henry is backed by FirstMark Capital, Y Combinator, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Susa Ventures, 1Sharpe, StoryHouse Ventures, Pioneer Fund, RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Karman Ventures, and Coalition Operators. Learn more at henry.ai.

About FirstMark Capital

FirstMark Capital is a New York-based venture capital firm and one of the most active early-stage investors in enterprise technology. Its portfolio includes Shopify, Discord, Pinterest, Miro, and DraftKings. For more information, visit firstmark.com.

Media Contact:

FGS Global
[email protected]

SOURCE Henry AI

The inaugural program connects biotech and medtech startups from Israel and Taiwan with U.S. investors, regulators, mentors and industry partners.

BOSTON, July 29, 2026 — MassChallenge launches Breakthrough Bio, a global program built to give top biotech and medtech startups in-depth access to the U.S. life sciences ecosystem and the commercialization support that has long been out of reach from abroad. The Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) and Taiwan’s Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB) join Breakthrough Bio as its inaugural partners, leading the way for their startup ecosystems.

Innovation in biotech and medtech has gone global. Groundbreaking science and technology are emerging from academic labs, corporate spinouts, and founder-led startups across Israel, Taiwan, and other countries worldwide. What has not kept pace is access. The capital, mentorship, regulatory expertise and industry relationships that turn breakthroughs into products that reach patients and create durable companies remain concentrated in a few ecosystems.

Breakthrough Bio exists to close that gap. With deep roots in the U.S. life sciences ecosystem, MassChallenge gives high-potential startups from Israel and Taiwan a direct, guided path into one of the most critical expansion markets for their growth, helping them form strategic partnerships, secure investment, and accelerate the development and early market entry that turn breakthroughs into scalable companies.

Breakthrough Bio provides a highly personalized commercialization experience tailored to each company’s stage, technology and growth objectives. Participating startups receive curated engagement with U.S. investors, pharmaceutical and healthcare leaders, regulatory experts, talent, mentors and business development partners.

The program kicks off in early January 2027, anchored by ecosystem immersions on the ground in Boston and Cambridge, in San Diego around LSI USA and in Philadelphia around the 2027 BIO International Convention. Between immersions, participants continue with personalized virtual engagement from a curated roster of expert mentors, targeted curriculum and hands-on preparation for each conference and ecosystem visit. At each stop, MassChallenge guides participants through the largest and most influential gatherings in the field and brings the full weight of the U.S. ecosystem to bear on their success.

Applications for the inaugural Israel cohort open July 29 and close at 12:00 p.m. Israel time on August 18, 2026. Eligibility details and the application are available upon logging into the Israel Innovation Authority online portal at https://innovationisrael.org.il/en/calls_for_proposal/pilots-accelerator-biotech-medtech/.

Applications for the Taiwan cohort open September 1, 2026, and close October 16, 2026. Eligibility details and application information will be available through MassChallenge and the Development Center for Biotechnology closer to the opening date.

Cait Brumme, CEO, MassChallenge: “Great science is being created everywhere, but the path to market still is not open to everyone. Breakthrough Bio goes beyond exposure programs to give the best companies from these ecosystems the one-to-one support, regulatory guidance, investor relationships and industry connections that accelerate commercialization faster, so their innovations reach patients here and in their home countries.”

Dror Bin, CEO, Israel Innovation Authority: “Israel is home to a vibrant innovation ecosystem that consistently produces world-class technologies and companies. One of the most important challenges for early-stage startups, however, is transforming technological excellence into commercial success by securing their first strategic customers and partners in global markets. That is where the Israel Innovation Authority plays a critical role in helping promising startups bridge this critical gap by connecting them with the right ecosystems, expertise and opportunities. Breakthrough Bio provides exactly this kind of bridge, enabling Israeli biotech and medtech companies to validate their technologies, forge strategic partnerships and accelerate their path to international growth. By helping more Israeli startups succeed globally, we strengthen both our innovation ecosystem and Israel’s position as a leading hub for science, technology and innovation.”

Tsai-Kun Li, President, Development Center for Biotechnology: “With National Health Insurance and science institutes, exemplified by DCB, based on a public-private partnership, Taiwan has built up one of the most dynamic biotech and medtech ecosystems in Asia, with a growing startup pipeline ready to leap into global markets. It has been a great challenge for many of them to soft-land in the U.S. market. Sustained access to investors, regulatory expertise and industry partners who understand how to translate innovation into commercialization in the U.S. is needed. Breakthrough Bio bonds our efforts and connects Taiwan’s bio-clusters and startups with leading U.S. life sciences hubs. Through our leadership of the BIO HUB at the National Biotechnology Research Park, we bring together resources from industry and government with academic strengths in basic research and clinical medicine to boost young startups. Cooperation with Breakthrough Bio and MassChallenge further opens critical pathways for introducing ‘created in Taiwan’ innovations to the U.S. market. Moreover, enhanced by the Taiwan-Berkeley Health Innovation Accelerator, the joint program driven by Taiwan’s National Development Council and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, this partnership gives Taiwanese innovations access to complementary networks and commercialization resources across both the East and West Coasts.”

Partnership Inquiries
Government and innovation agencies interested in participating in the 2027-28 Breakthrough Bio program can contact John Valentine, Senior Director of Industry Alliances, at [email protected].

About MassChallenge

MassChallenge is a global institution that backs startups building solutions to complex, systems-critical challenges, working where complexity is high and the path to market is hardest. Founded in Boston, Massachusetts, with offices in Texas, Israel, Switzerland and the UK, MassChallenge connects startups with the partners, programs and capital needed to accelerate commercialization and real-world impact. Since 2009, MassChallenge has supported more than 5,000 startups that have raised over $27 billion in funding. Learn more at masschallenge.org.

SOURCE MassChallenge

Coinbase Ventures and Franklin Templeton join as new investors, with follow-on support from Brevan Howard Digital and existing backers, as Soter continues to build specialized insurance products for the digital asset economy.

ABU DHABI, UAE, July 29, 2026 — Soter Insure, a provider of specialized insurance products tailored to the digital asset economy, today announced the first close of its Series B funding round, led by Galaxy Digital, who also led the Series A, with new participation from Coinbase Ventures and Franklin Templeton and follow-on investment from Brevan Howard Digital and other existing backers. A second close is expected to follow in the coming weeks as Soter finalizes participation from additional strategic investors. Final close of the Series B will bring total funding to date of $23.5mm USD and over 500 BTC and 2000 ETH.

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi and operating out of Bermuda, with offices in London, New York and Dubai, Soter Insure was incubated by Further Ventures and WebN Group. The company offers specialized digital asset insurance products for financial institutions, including, Directors & Officers (D&O), Professional Indemnity (PI), Crime, Specie, Slashing and Smart Contract Failure coverage, uniquely denominated in both fiat and native digital assets.

As the digital asset space continues to mature, the lack of adequate insurance products and scarce capacity remains a significant barrier to broader institutional adoption. Soter Insure addresses this gap by offering comprehensive insurance solutions tailored to the unique risks of decentralized technologies, thereby instilling confidence in institutional and retail participants.

The new funding will support the continued expansion of Soter Insure, deepening its underwriting and technology capabilities and scaling operations across key markets.

“Our mission at Soter is to set a new standard for risk management in the digital asset space. Reaching the first close of our Series B – with Galaxy leading again and new partners like Coinbase Ventures and Franklin Templeton joining alongside the continued support of Brevan Howard Digital – is a powerful validation of the platform we are building and the network effect of our strategic capital stack. Special thanks to Galaxy Digital for their vision and leadership in continuing to support us with the ability to provide solutions at institutional scale. With this capital we will accelerate our product roadmap, expand capacity, and extend our global footprint, and we look forward to welcoming further partners at our second close,” said Henson Orser, Founder and CEO of Soter Insure.

Chris Ferraro, President and CIO of Galaxy said: “Insurance remains a key gap to institutional adoption of digital assets, and Soter has built a platform that closes it. We’re proud to lead this round again, and our continued investment reflects the strength of the team and the growing importance of specialized risk solutions for this asset class.”

For more information about Soter Insure, visit soter.insure.

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SOURCE Soter Services North America LLC