NEWARK, N.J. and LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9, 2025 — HarbourView Equity Partners (HarbourView), an alternative asset management company focused on investment opportunities in the music, entertainment, media, and sports ecosystem, with approximately *$2.67B in regulatory assets under management, is leading a $30-million investment in Award-winning studio Lion Forge Entertainment (Lion Forge), further enhancing the company’s ability to fund and own its IP. The Steward Family and Polarity are investors in the round and continue to be the majority owners of Lion Forge Entertainment.

HarbourView’s investment is part of a new $30 million minority investment in Lion Forge, which plans to use the invested capital to scale and expand its IP portfolio and premium franchise pipeline, reinforcing the studio’s core lines of business and fueling key organic growth initiatives across the studio’s business verticals.

“We believe that content has the extraordinary power to influence the world,” said Sherrese Clarke. “This is a unique moment in the kids & family space and Lion Forge is seizing an opportunity to lean into its ability to tell compelling stories authentically and cultivate global franchises at scale. This synchronizes with our vision of how the next generation of multiplatform media companies can grow –by introducing fresh images, ideas and paradigms that reflect the evolving world in which we live and creating culturally authentic and socially relevant content.”

“Sherrese is a trailblazing investor, leading a culture-driving company. Her knowledge and track record will be immensely additive as we continue to scale our company and properties,” said David Steward II. “This is a validating moment for our young company. The synergy between the shrewd investment strategy of HarbourView and the franchise-building blueprint at Lion Forge will enable us collectively to optimize opportunities at the nexus of entertainment, culture and content and grow into a category defining leader from a position of strength.”

Stephanie Sperber, President and Chief Creative Officer of Lion Forge Entertainment, added, “We work with incredible creators and exceptional IP, and the backing of HarbourView will allow us to develop and invest in expanding our library. Sherese and her team see what we see – an opportunity in the marketplace for premium kids, family and YA franchises, which motivates us to double down on what we believe we do best – create global content and build franchises.”

A mission-driven entertainment company founded by David Steward II, Lion Forge Entertainment focuses on global IP that is both authentic and appealing to a broad audience. The company develops and produces animated and live action content targeting kids & family, YA and adult audiences, building on the success of earlier Lion Forge Animation projects including the Oscar®-winning Hair Love.

Lion Forge is uniquely equipped to create and deliver genuine, diverse stories, and its content pipeline has surged in the last few years. The studio’s latest series Iyanu has become a breakout cross-platform success on HBO Max and Cartoon Network, debuting as the number one series among kids on Cartoon Network and is a Top 10 Kids & Family series on HBO Max. Season 2 of the epic animated fantasy series, along with two feature films expanding its universe, have just been greenlit by Cartoon Network and HBO Max.

Lion Forge has a multi-year first-look deal with Nickelodeon covering animated series and features that has resulted in multiple projects in development including Marley & The Family Band series in partnership with the Bob Marley Estate, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in partnership with Simon & Schuster, and Iron Dragon in partnership with Mostapes. Additional strategic partnerships include an alliance with Penguin Young Readers, a division of Penguin Random House, to develop series and features based on select children’s books.

Lion Forge also recently joined forces with George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones) to adapt the renowned novella A Dozen Tough Jobs into an adult animated feature film; set a partnership with TalesVision to expand their short-form YouTube sensation, Lostlings, into a premium long-form series; entered into a first look deal with Oware to identify and develop global kids & family and YA content; and is working with Rebel Girls to develop content around Rebel Girls Sports in the unscripted space.

HarbourView’s investment in Lion Forge accentuates the firm’s commitment to targeting the optimal execution for its growing LP base and comes on the heels of numerous major deals. Last month, HarbourView closed $500 million in debt financing from KKR through a private securitization backed by its diversified, scaled music portfolio. This latest financing expanded on the nearly $500 million in debt financing HarbourView secured in 2024 from KKR-managed insurance vehicles and accounts and other investors.

Additional deals closed by HarbourView recently include an $85 million investment alongside Bpifrance in Animaj, the French AI-powered media company specializing in kids & family entertainment, and a partnership with Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios, Flavor Unit and Jesse Collins Entertainment, to finance a slate of Hip Hop biopics, starting with a Queen Latifah biopic, which followed an investment in Usher’s 2024 concert film “Rendezvous in Paris.”

Established in 2021, HarbourView Equity Partners has solidified its position in the industry, building a distinctly diverse portfolio featuring thousands of titles spanning numerous genres, eras, and artists. With data analytics and value creation at its core, the firm seeks to deliver differentiated returns in partnership with the creative ecosystem. The firm has acquired over 70 music catalogs encompassing over 35,000 songs across both master recordings and publishing income streams.

The investment was facilitated by Participant Capital. Lion Forge Entertainment is represented by Activist Artists Management, who advised on the transaction.

About HarbourView Equity Partners

HarbourView Equity Partners is an investment firm focused on opportunities to support content across the entertainment, sports, and media markets. The firm seeks businesses or assets powered by IP and investment opportunities that aim to build enduring asset value and returns. HarbourView has been extremely active since launching in 2021, amassing roughly $2.67 billion* in regulatory assets under management including over 70+ music catalogs to date and investments in various portfolio companies with management teams in its core industries. The firm’s distinctly diverse music portfolio features thousands of titles spanning numerous genres, eras, and artists, amounting to a diversified catalog of

~35,000+ songs across both master recordings and publishing income streams. The company is headquartered in Newark, NJ.

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*Regulatory AUM for private funds are calculated regardless of the nature of the gross assets under management as of 12/31/2024.

About Lion Forge Entertainment

Lion Forge Entertainment (LFE), one of the few Black-owned entertainment studios of scale in North America, was founded in 2019 by David Steward II to amplify authentic, diverse voices in both animated and live-action content. With “Diverse Stories, Authentically Told” as its driving mission, LFE has won an Academy Award for Hair Love and multiple Emmy® awards.

LFE is part of Polarity, a media and sports-focused firm whose portfolio includes publishers Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group and Magnetic Press within the broader Steward Family holdings, which range from technology, sports, and music among other interests. LFE is led by President and CCO Stephanie Sperber, an accomplished and award-winning media executive and franchise builder in the kids and family space.

Home Page ● LinkedIn ● Instagram ● Facebook

SOURCE HarbourView Equity Partners and Lion Forge Entertainment

ATLANTA, Sept. 9, 2025 — Red Dog Equity LLC, an Atlanta-based private equity firm, announced today that it sold Superior Waste Industries, LLC, a Shawnee, OK-based environmental services holding company, to GFL Environmental Inc. (NYSE: GFL) in an all-cash transaction. Superior was established in March 2022 by Billy Dietrich, a waste industry veteran with over 30 years of experience at leading environmental services companies, to acquire Central Disposal, a Shawnee, Oklahoma-based fully-integrated solid waste management company founded by Mike Adcock. Superior Waste went on to acquire Harley Hollan later in 2022, establishing its footprint in the Tulsa, OK market, Sue’s Recycling and Sanitation in 2024, which extended Superior’s reach into Vian and Eufaula, OK, and SDS Roll-off Dumpsters, deepening its commitment to the Shawnee, OK market in 2024. 

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome of our partnership with Billy Dietrich and the teams at Superior Waste and its subsidiaries,” said Toby Chambers, co-managing partner at Red Dog Equity. He added, “Investing in partnership with an outstanding entrepreneur, what we call a ‘Red Dog,’ focusing on people, systems, and processes, and being disciplined acquirers were the keys to the successful outcome here.” When asked his thoughts about GFL, Chambers stated, “We’ve known Patrick Dovigi, the Founder and CEO of GFL, for over fifteen years and are confident GFL will take excellent care of Superior’s team and customers.”

“We’re grateful to Billy [Dietrich], the Adcock family, all those on Superior’s teams who came to work every day to provide service to their communities, and our investor partners at TPO [the Pritzker Organization] and Monroe [Capital]”, said Tom Connolly, co-managing partner of Red Dog Equity. He continued, “We’re very proud of the company Billy built at Superior Waste and the outcome we were able to achieve for our investors.”

“Building a solid waste business like Superior has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember, and Red Dog was the perfect partner for me,” said Billy Dietrich, founder and CEO of Superior Waste. He added,” They supported me every step of the way.”

Stifel acted as exclusive financial advisor to Superior on this transaction.

About Red Dog Equity LLC
Red Dog Equity LLC is a private equity firm that invests in lower middle-market companies poised for strong growth in partnership with driven, entrepreneurial business leaders (“Red Dogs”). To learn more, please visit: www.reddogequity.com.

About Monroe Capital
Monroe Capital LLC (“Monroe”) is a premier asset management firm specializing in private credit markets across various strategies, including direct lending, technology finance, venture debt, alternative credit solutions, structured credit, real estate and equity. Since 2004, the firm has been successfully providing capital solutions to clients in the U.S. and Canada. Monroe prides itself on being a value-added and user-friendly partner to business owners, management, and both private equity and independent sponsors. Monroe’s platform offers a wide variety of investment products for both institutional and high net worth investors with a focus on generating high quality “alpha” returns irrespective of business or economic cycles. The firm is headquartered in Chicago and has 11 locations throughout the United States, Asia and Australia.

Monroe has been recognized by both its peers and investors with various awards including Private Debt Investor as the 2024 Lower Mid-Market Lender of the Year, Americas and 2023 Lower Mid-Market Lender of the Decade; Inc.’s 2024 Founder-Friendly Investors List; Global M&A Network as the 2023 Lower Mid-Markets Lender of the Year, U.S.A.; DealCatalyst as the 2022 Best CLO Manager of the Year; Korean Economic Daily as the 2022 Best Performance in Private Debt – Mid Cap; Creditflux as the 2021 Best U.S. Direct Lending Fund; and Pension Bridge as the 2020 Private Credit Strategy of the Year. For more information and important disclaimers, please visit www.monroecap.com. 

About The Pritzker Organization
The Pritzker Organization is the merchant bank for the business interests of the Tom Pritzker family. Additional information can be found at www.pritzkerorg.com.

SOURCE Red Dog Equity LLC

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 9, 2025 — Raken, a field management platform for the construction industry, today announced that Sverica Capital, a growth-oriented private equity firm specializing in technology, has acquired a majority stake in the company. Sverica’s investment will continue to support Raken’s impressive growth as the leading field-first solution built to help construction teams improve project visibility, boost productivity and reduce risk. Raken’s management team will stay in position to drive strategy and vision as the company continues to scale.

Raken has experienced a period of accelerated product innovation and expansion in recent years, growing from 13,000 to 70,000 users and broadening its daily reporting product suite into a comprehensive field platform that includes time tracking, safety management, project management, scheduling and more.

“This new chapter with Sverica represents an exciting milestone for Raken,” said Ty Kalklosch, CEO of Raken. “Their experience supporting high-growth software companies will help us continue to serve our customers’ growing needs, build innovative new solutions, and expand our field management platform for the construction industry.” Kalklosch will continue to lead the Company, while Jordan Richards, Managing Partner at Sverica, and Michael Dougherty, Principal at Sverica, will join Raken’s Board as part of the transaction.

“Raken has built an impressive platform that solves real problems for construction professionals,” said Jordan Richards, Managing Partner at Sverica. “We are excited to partner with Ty and the talented Raken management team as we reinvest back into the company, launch new product features and ultimately aspire to lead the category.”

Michael Dougherty, Principal at Sverica, added, “Raken is helping contractors automate key workflows and digitize what have historically been processes managed with pen and paper. The market opportunity and the team’s vision for the product are compelling.”

About Raken

Raken is the leading field-first construction management platform. With over 70,000 users, Raken’s easy-to-use app is built to streamline all critical field workflows—from daily reports, to time and production tracking, resource scheduling, safety management, RFIs and more. Real-time information flows from field to office so teams stay aligned, data becomes more reliable, and decision making improves. Raken’s simple mobile experience, powerful integrations, and industry-leading support, help contractors save time and money, reduce risk, and keep projects on track.

Raken was advised by Piper Sandler while Sverica was advised by Shea & Company.

About Sverica

Sverica Capital Management is a leading growth-oriented private equity firm that has cumulative committed capital of $2.2 Billion since inception. The firm acquires, invests in and actively builds companies that are, or could become, leaders in their industries. Since inception, Sverica has followed a “business builder” approach to investing and takes an active supporting role in its portfolio companies. Sverica devotes significant internal time and resources to help its management teams develop and execute growth strategies and proactively looks for levers to pull to accelerate growth by reinvesting back into those companies. Sverica firmly believes in building businesses collaboratively that can endure for the long term by starting with a strong foundation and bringing the right people and playbook to drive reinvestment and ultimately strong returns for our investors.

For more information, please visit www.sverica.com

SOURCE Raken

Company’s technology is already deployed in 60+ nuclear reactors across North America 

PHOENIX, Sept. 9, 2025 — Nuclearn, the AI platform designed specifically for nuclear operations, today announced it has raised $10.5 million in Series A funding to accelerate product development and market expansion. The round was led by Blue Bear Capital, with participation from SJF Ventures and follow-on investments from existing investors AZ-VC and Nucleation Capital. The new funding will be used to advance development of Nuclearn’s domain-specific AI solutions, expanding features that support operations, engineering, and regulatory compliance.

The funding comes as the nuclear industry experiences unprecedented growth, driven by surging demand for reliable, carbon-free baseload power. Data center electricity consumption is expected to more than double by 2030, with nuclear power emerging as the preferred solution for 24/7 clean energy.

Deployed in more than 65 reactors globally, Nuclearn’s platform combines advanced AI with deep nuclear domain knowledge to automate complex workflows that typically require weeks of specialized personnel effort. Developed by founders with over 30 years of combined nuclear operations experience and trained on millions of specialized nuclear industry documents and diagrams, the technology understands not only what nuclear professionals need, but also the regulatory and safety context behind every decision.

“AI is driving unprecedented innovation in nuclear, but there’s a critical gap everyone’s missing: operational expertise,” said Bradley Fox, CEO and Co-Founder of Nuclearn. “You can’t just flip the switch on a nuclear plant—they require decades of domain knowledge to run safely and efficiently. We’re nuclear professionals building AI that understands nuclear operational needs from day one. This Series A lets us scale that expertise to every plant as the industry grows to meet unprecedented energy demand.”

“We’re solving the fundamental challenge of applying AI in highly regulated, safety-critical environments,” said Jerrold Vincent, CFO and Co-Founder of Nuclearn. “Our platform doesn’t just process nuclear terminology—it understands the operational context, regulatory implications, and safety considerations behind every decision.”

The platform operates within secure environments while helping to automate critical processes including condition report analysis, outage planning, and regulatory documentation—tasks that typically require weeks of specialized expertise.

With 440 operating reactors worldwide and dozens of new projects planned—with staffing needs of more than 500 workers per plant—the nuclear industry faces critical workforce challenges just as demand is surging.

“As one in four nuclear workers is set to retire in the coming years, Nuclearn provides nuclear plants with much-needed capabilities to avoid critical knowledge loss and uphold the industry’s safety-first standard—all at a time when reactors are extending their licenses further into the future,” said Joey Barrick, principal at SJF Ventures and former nuclear project lead. Nuclearn’s secure, flexible deployment options—on-premise, hosted, or government cloud—enable nuclear teams to quickly integrate AI that reduces manual work and frees up experts to focus on high-value decisions.

“We invested in Nuclearn because the founders have lived in the mission-critical world of nuclear operations and have built a deeply specialized AI solution that dozens of large-scale operations already trust,” said Ernst Sack, Partner at Blue Bear Capital. “Their platform isn’t just promoting ‘AI’—it’s operational, secure, and already delivering value at scale in an extremely risk-averse and trust-dependent industry. This is exactly the kind of purposeful, intelligent infrastructure we need to accelerate safe, sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy at scale.”

About Nuclearn

Nuclearn is the leading AI platform designed specifically for nuclear professionals and critical infrastructure operators. Founded by industry veterans, the company provides secure, on-premise-ready AI solutions that modernize workflows while maintaining the highest standards of safety and regulatory compliance. For more information, visit www.nuclearn.ai.

About Blue Bear Capital

Blue Bear is a venture capital and early growth equity firm driving digital technologies and machine intelligence into multibillion-dollar verticals across the energy, infrastructure, and climate industries. The team comes from leading energy private equity firms, startups, and large industrial technology developers. Blue Bear typically leads Seed through Series B rounds, with a portfolio covering operational AI, IoT, and cybersecurity technologies, all deployed with enterprise customers to drive connectivity and intelligence across the world’s most critical industries. For more information, visit www.bluebearcap.com.

About SJF Ventures

SJF Ventures is an impact venture capital firm established in 1999. The firm invests in high-growth companies creating a healthier, smarter, and cleaner future. Since its inception, SJF has invested in more than 90 portfolio companies driving positive environmental and social outcomes. The firm has offices in Durham, New York, and San Francisco. For more information, visit www.sjfventures.com.

SOURCE Nuclearn

New Funding Accelerates Rollout of Harbor Health’s Fully Insured Plans for Both Employers and Individuals

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 9, 2025 — Harbor Health, a primary and specialty care clinic group and health insurance company, today announced it has secured $130 million in new funding. Existing investors General Catalyst, 8VC, and Alta Partners co-led the funding, while DFO Management (Dell Family Office) increased its strong support of Harbor Health.

The funding enables Harbor Health to continue providing quotes to businesses in Central Texas for large employer health insurance plans. In addition, in November 2025, Harbor Health will be on healthcare.gov, the Individual Insurance Marketplace, offering fully insured individual and family health plans.

The new funding also allows Harbor Health to expand its clinical footprint to broaden consumer access in Texas and add specialty service lines to address growing care needs. Specialty areas include rheumatology, dermatology, cardiology, endocrinology, and mental health. 

“In serving more than 50,000 Central Texans, we see their needs go beyond primary care,” said Harbor Health Co-Founder Dr. Clay Johnston. “By integrating more specialty providers into our health teams, we’re surrounding each member with the expertise they need. Our insurance plans synergize with the care model so that everything is aligned to achieve the best health possible.”

Care and Coverage Working Together for Better Health Journeys

Harbor Health pairs care models with longitudinal coverage models that encourage people to do what’s best for their health and choose the best providers. Each Harbor Health member is connected to a dedicated health team and customized care pathways. This personalized approach helps to improve outcomes while lessening the emotional and financial burden the current healthcare system has on consumers.

“Offering coverage in combination with a condition-specific clinical model that optimizes quality and results is exactly what healthcare needs now for both employers and individuals,” said Alta Partners Managing Director, Dr. Pete Hudson.

Harbor Health insurance plans offer large group employers and individual consumers more coordinated care and coverage together at a lower cost than traditional plans. Designed by doctors, the plans are built around a robust network of primary care providers and specialists, giving members direct access to high-quality care within Harbor Health. The group also maintains strong partnerships with a wide array of external providers, ensuring that members receive timely referrals and coordinated treatment across the broader healthcare landscape.

“We are committed to a new advanced clinical model and payment structure that rewards providers to reduce population health risks and lower overall costs,” said Harbor Health Co-Founder Tony Miller. “People want personalized care and clear guidance on how to make lifestyle changes and informed decisions about treatment and costs. Employers need better options to keep rising healthcare benefit costs under control. We know we can deliver the plans at a 10% to 20% savings while making the plans richer for the members.”

Harbor Health’s Impact Inspires Sustained Investor Backing

The new approach to health delivery and the history of success by both Johnston (Inaugural Dean of the University of Texas Dell Medical School) and Miller (Founder of Bind/Surest) keep investors energized. General Catalyst remains a solid supporter of Harbor Health, as they continue to prove the company’s clinical model is working for consumers and leading to positive health outcomes.

“Harbor Health is driving meaningful innovation in both care delivery and now in health insurance coverage, and we are excited to support the company’s continued momentum in Austin and beyond,” said Chris Bischoff, Managing Director at General Catalyst. “Harbor Health is radically improving how care and coverage work together, with more than 50,000 people served in Central Texas, a net promoter score of 90, and measurable savings already delivered. Their model aligns with our Health Assurance thesis, and we are proud to back their mission to build a more accessible, affordable, and outcomes-driven healthcare future.”

The new funding announcement for Harbor Health follows several significant successes:

• Harbor Health has cared for more than 50,000 people in Central Texas (Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties), and that number is growing rapidly.
• The vast majority of Harbor Health members say they would likely recommend the company and care to a friend or colleague (net promoter score [NPS] of 90).
• Harbor Health has grown from three clinic locations in 2022 to 11 clinics, including three Express Care clinics that offer extended hours, with more locations coming soon.
• Harbor Health operates two mobile clinics and an infusion center.

This funding round also includes returning investors Health 2047 Capital Partners, Lemhi Ventures, Martin Ventures, Breyer Capital, and a series of individuals. 

With continued growth in its insurance plans, clinical footprint, and specialty care services, Harbor Health continues its original vision to be the leading “pay-vider” across Texas.

About Harbor Health:

Harbor Health was created by people who have spent decades trying to make health better, including those who provide health to those who figure out how to pay for it. Harbor Health’s mission is to make the entire health system work better for consumers so that everyone can achieve optimal health. For more information, visit www.harborhealth.com.

SOURCE Harbor Health

In just five months after launch, Higgsfield amassed more than 11 million users. With more than 1.2 billion social media impressions in the same time period, Higgsfield.ai has established itself as the dominant video AI generation platform for professional creators, surpassing the combined reach of all competitors.

Click-to-Video is a new category for AI media creation, pioneered by Higgsfield. While Text-to-Video and Image-to-Video rely on complex prompts, Click-to-Video replaces guesswork with simplicity: one click transforms curated presets into cinematic, brand-ready clips. This shift moves AI video beyond experimentation into predictable, scalable, enterprise-grade production.

This financing marks the convergence of breakthrough innovation with transformative industry expertise. Founder and CEO Alex Mashrabov has assembled a world-class team that blends frontier AI research with deep video expertise to build the leading AI-powered creative platform and flag-bearer for the attention economy.

As Higgsfield scales from professional creators to enterprise teams, its platform delivers the rigor, control, and performance demanded by global brands.

Key Differentiators

Higgsfield integrates its own proprietary models and best-in-class third-party models into enterprise-grade workflows, delivering:

• Ease of Use: Accessible from any browser. Drag-and-drop, point-and-click templates instead of the tedious process of prompt engineering tweaks for each model.
• End-to-end workflows: Ideation, editing, and post-production in one platform, enabling an easy journey from storyboarding to final production.
• The newest Draw-to-Video lets anyone bring their creative vision to life at the speed of the Internet.
• UGC Factory and Higgsfield Ads propel the adoption of AI-generated UGC-style ads and rapid A/B creative at scale.
• Higgsfield Speak enables photo-realistic Digital Ambassadors that feel human, capable of showing emotion, and inspiring trust to promote and sell products.
• Enterprise performance: a proprietary engine optimized for maximum speed at the lowest inference cost.

The Leadership Vision

Alex Mashrabov, Co-Founder & CEO
“For decades, creativity was gated, intermediaries dictated the pace, tools, and economics. The Higgsfield platform requires zero cognitive load and dismantles the model of cumbersome traditional production processes. We are the platform that makes creativity move at the speed of culture. Every frame we render accelerates a flywheel that empowers both brands and creators.”

Yerzat Dulat, Co-Founder & CTO
“Engineering at Higgsfield is not about catching up; it’s about breaking through. We’ve consistently pushed the edge of technology, powered by exceptional engineers who thrive on solving the hardest challenges. We created a unique culture within the team, spanning from Asia to Silicon Valley, to push boundaries. Daily product improvements allow us to get ahead of the competition. That’s the network effect: adoption drives intelligence, intelligence drives adoption. We refuse to wait for permission from incumbents; we’ll outlast and outscale them.”

Mahi de Silva, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer
“Brands must leverage AI; it’s time to abandon the outdated, tired methods for content production, advertising, and customer conversion. Higgsfield is building a new creative operating system that can serve Fortune 500 companies, agencies, and a vast array of global creators.”

Investor Perspectives

Jeff Herbst, GFT Ventures and Board Member of Higgsfield AI, “I spent 20 years at NVIDIA helping to lay the infrastructure, expand the developer ecosystem, and create the platform that today powers AI-native applications like Higgsfield. That journey ultimately paved the path for NVIDIA to become the world’s most valuable company.

Higgsfield now stands at an equally profound inflection point, where application-layer AI, the creator economy, and enterprise demand converge. Alex and the Higgsfield team have a proven track record of building transformative technology, and their competitive programming discipline makes them the company to bet on to win video AI.

We believe this is still just the beginning of the hyper-growth cycle for AI applications, and Higgsfield has already shown the early signs of becoming a category-defining winner in the massive video production market.”

Kevin Yorn, BroadLight Capital
“Higgsfield’s Video Reasoning Engine is a catalytic force at the intersection of culture and commerce. By streamlining content production and enabling new forms of creative expression, Higgsfield is handing the keys of culture to creators and brands – and reimagining the media landscape in the process.”

Avie Tevanian, NextEquity Partners
“During my time at Apple, we drove many breakout moments like the iPhone. Generative AI is no less transformative, and Higgsfield is the backbone of tomorrow’s video intelligence.”

Amy Wu, Menlo Ventures
“At Menlo, we bet on category creators like Anthropic, and Higgsfield is pioneering the future of video creation, a $200B annual market in the US alone. The magic of their product is combining accessibility with professional quality and controllability, speed with cost effectiveness, the success of which has led to their rapid adoption by creatives around the world.” 

Antoine Blondeau, Alpha Intelligence Capital
“Higgsfield is the future of content creation: uncompromising quality at unprecedented speed. In a world where influence is measured in moments, Higgsfield helps brands and creators produce at the speed of culture. As a former AI entrepreneur and now deep AI investor, I am struck by the team’s execution – outpacing agencies and the GenAI industry alike.”

Renee Li, Founder & CEO of Alpha Square Group

“Higgsfield is democratizing cinematic storytelling for the future, where every creator can produce professional-grade content. We’re backing the team behind the paradigm shift that will transform how humanity tells stories.”  

Market Opportunity

Higgsfield is unlocking the $600B short-form video market, which incumbents and outdated tools have artificially constrained. Structural tailwinds are undeniable. AI quality is converging at scale, and Fortune 500 adoption is underway. Higgsfield is driving the transformation.

Higgsfield doesn’t waste time upgrading broken systems; it ignores them completely. By unleashing creative tools, it’s building cultural infrastructure that runs on talent, not location. No gatekeepers. No boundaries.

Use of Proceeds

This Series A funding will expand its enterprise platform while accelerating global engineering and go-to-market momentum.

About Higgsfield

Founded in 2023, Higgsfield is building the Video Reasoning engine for the attention economy. Its AI-native, browser-based platform condenses ideation, editing, and post-production into a single workflow, enabling creators and enterprises to produce cinematic-quality short-form video in minutes instead of weeks.

Higgsfield delivers fast, controllable, and scalable outcomes that preserve narrative continuity and cultural resonance across media, marketing, and brand communication. With operations spanning the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Higgsfield is headquartered in Silicon Valley and backed by world-class investors and veteran technologists with a track record of billion-scale products and outcomes.

SOURCE Higgsfield Inc.

Simpson will oversee the firm’s venture capital investment diligence, manager relationships, and portfolio construction

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 9, 2025 — GEM, a $12B leading provider of institutional investment solutions for endowments, foundations, sovereigns, families, and other long-term investors, announced today that Kate Simpson has joined the firm as a Managing Director on the firm’s Investment team.

In her new role, Simpson will oversee GEM’s venture capital platform, including sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities, developing manager relationships, and guiding portfolio construction. Since its inception in 2007, GEM has been a leading institutional investor in venture capital across primary fund commitments, secondary fund purchases, and co-investments. Simpson’s appointment underscores the firm’s commitment to backing talented investors who have the potential to deliver outsized returns in an ever-evolving VC landscape.¹

“Kate is a seasoned investor with demonstrated expertise across the venture spectrum,” said Jay Ripley, GEM’s Head of Investments. “We are excited to welcome Kate to the team and look forward to her invaluable leadership as we continue to pursue what we believe are the highest-quality venture opportunities on behalf of our clients.”

Simpson brings more than 20 years of investment experience to GEM. Most recently, she served as Partner at TrueBridge Capital Partners, where she worked closely with leading venture firms—with a particular focus on seed & micro-venture capital investments—and led TrueBridge’s customized solutions business. Her previous experience includes roles as an Advisor at Atlas Diligence, LLC, a Director at Parish Capital Advisors, and an Investment Associate at UNC Management Company.

Simpson added: “I am thrilled to join GEM and help further shape the firm’s venture capital strategy. GEM has built a strong reputation as a thoughtful, long-term partner to institutional investors—from long-standing OCIO clients to a growing roster of private fund investors—through its deep commitment to investment diligence, disciplined portfolio construction, and enduring manager relationships. I look forward to contributing to that work while expanding our venture platform for the future.”

Beyond her professional responsibilities, Simpson serves as Trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee at St. Andrew’s School and previously served on the Board of the John Rex Endowment. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About GEM
GEM is a leading provider of institutional investment solutions for endowments, foundations, sovereigns, families, and other long-term investors. Since 2007, GEM has specialized in delivering the highest quality service and support to our clients, enabling them to achieve their long-term investment goals. With a global reach, broad investment capabilities, and an experienced team, GEM strategically tailors solutions to meet the unique needs of each investor we serve. For more information, visit www.geminvestments.com.

Contact
Prosek Partners on behalf of GEM: [email protected]

¹ Returns are not guaranteed.

SOURCE GEM

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2025 — Runware, a performance & price-focused AI-as-a-Service provider, today announced a $13M fundraise led by global software investor Insight Partners, with participation from previous investors a16z Speedrun, Begin Capital, and Zero Prime. The funding will be used to expand Runware’s capabilities from image and video generation to all-media workflows, including audio, LLM, and 3D. To date, more than 4B visual assets have been generated on Runware’s inference engine and over 100K developers have been onboarded in less than a year since launch. The platform hosts +400K AI models and powers media inference for more than 250M end users through customers like Quora, NightCafe, OpenArt, FocalML.

Runware runs its AI media generation API on the proprietary Sonic Inference Engine^®, which integrates custom-designed hardware and bespoke software to achieve greater cost efficiency and generation speed. As compute intensive workloads like video generation gain popularity and GPU costs burn through budgets, consumer AI apps are increasingly looking to cut costs. Specialized solutions like Runware deliver all-media generation and provide up to 10x cost savings on implementation & inference. Alongside inference savings, Runware’s API unifies all model providers under a common data standard, reducing the time engineering teams spend on adding a new model to minutes through a simple parameter change.

All-Media Generation in one API: Images, Video, Audio, LLM

Following its recent round, Runware is investing heavily in extending its inference engine and API to all AI media workloads. The company already integrates all image and video models integrated from Black Forest Labs, OpenAI, Ideogram, ByteDance, Kling, Minimax Hailuo, Google Veo, PixVerse, Vidu, Alibaba Wan & Qwen, and is actively expanding into audio and LLM models. A full featured media generator or content creation tool can now be built with Runware’s API in minutes. Its model hub currently hosts +400K AI generation models.

By supporting all media generation on its inference engine, Runware takes the complexity out of AI integration. Its API can replace the need for tens or hundreds of individual model integrations, or massive in-house infrastructure, ML teams, and six-figure R&D budgets. Many product teams can now ship AI media features same-day, with no setup. Across media and model types, Runware aims to be the fastest, cheapest, most flexible API for any and all AI workloads.

“As more and more models launch, devs can have tens or even hundreds of endpoints to integrate with and maintain. We see model providers now moving to our platform and offering their APIs from our inference pod, because we can deliver up to 90% lower inference cost than any cloud provider.” Flaviu Radulescu, Founder at Runware

How Runware cuts generation costs by up to 90%

Runware’s ability to make fundamental hardware optimizations is based on Flaviu Radulescu’s previous 20 years of experience building bare metal data clusters for clients like Vodafone, Booking.com, and Transport for London. Runware designs and builds its own custom GPU and networking hardware, packaged in a proprietary inference pod optimized for rapid deployment and use of cost-effective renewable energy. Its vertically integrated design can reduce inference costs by up to 90%—savings passed on to clients.

“Runware is a hidden gem every serious AI application should consider. It offers incredibly competitive pricing across top models, consistently strong performance, and responsive, helpful customer support. If you’re building with AI, Runware should be on your radar.” Coco Mao, CEO at OpenArt

“The core of Runware’s advantage is its purpose-built Sonic Inference Engine®. While others often rely on commodity cloud infrastructure, Runware built its own workload-specific infrastructure — giving it control over latency, throughput, and cost at a fundamental level. That technical edge can be transformational and is what makes Runware a performance leader in AI media generation.” George Mathew, Managing Director at Insight Partners. Mathew joins Runware’s board as part of the fundraise.

Unlocking developer flexibility

Runware delivers its cost and performance edge without compromising quality or flexibility, thanks to its custom Sonic Inference Engine^® and developer API. Built for composable workflows, it lets developers mix and match models from day one, integrating new ones into existing pipelines. Features previously limited to image generation, such as batch processing, parallel inference, ComfyUI support, and ControlNet or LoRA editing, now extend to video.

“We chose Runware as our primary inference partner for their price and the flexibility of the API. NightCafe users are avid explorers of AI – they want to try all the models, hyperparameters, LoRAs and other options. On other providers there are often different endpoints for all these things, but not a single endpoint that combines them all. On Runware it’s a single endpoint that we send all the user’s options to. It also happens to be less than half – sometimes less than 1/5 – of the cost of other providers.” Angus Russell, Founder at NightCafe

“We moved to Runware on a day where we had a big traffic surge. Their API was easy to integrate and handled the sudden load very smoothly. Their combination of quality, speed, and price was by far the best in the market, and they’ve been excellent partners as we’ve scaled up.” Robert Cunningham, Co-Founder at Focal

About Runware

Runware delivers AI-as-a-Service at 90% lower cost and with higher speed than competitors. Built for scale, the service has already powered 4 billion+ creations for +100K developers and +250M end-users worldwide. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in San Francisco, Runware is backed by Insight Partners and a16z Speedrun. Learn more about Runware at runware.ai.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2024, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 800 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

SOURCE Runware

With Seed funding round led by Lightspeed, Sphinx unveils AI copilot for data scientists that thinks in statistics and patterns to find value in raw information

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2025 — Sphinx, the company building AI for data, launched today with a $9.5 million Seed round and an AI copilot for data professionals to transform raw information into actionable insights. The round was led by Lightspeed, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Box Group, K5, Impatient VC and others. Sphinx is also backed by Steve Cohen, Naveen Rao, and leaders from Databricks, Windsurf, and Together AI. The funding will be used to continue building agentic AI that natively interacts with data and data science workflows.

While AI has quickly become a key component of software development, data science has been underserved by the benefits of the technology. The way data scientists work is fundamentally more iterative and exploratory than the workflow of software developers. Unlike other copilots, Sphinx Copilot is purpose-built for data, with a focus on building accurate representations, rigorously verifying models, and grounding responses with quantitative evidence rather than rushing to generate code or conclusions.

“Sphinx brings frontier AI capabilities to data analysis, redefining how AI reasons with data,” said Bucky Moore, partner at Lightspeed. “Starting with the core workflows of data teams, Sphinx’s agents will continue to handle more of the tedious work that goes into deriving insights from data. It’s more critical than ever for enterprises to glean key information from their data to fuel business decisions and Sphinx enables this at record speed. Rohan and Jamie are on a mission to define how enterprises leverage AI to become truly data-driven.”

Sphinx copilot, available today, works collaboratively to transform raw information into actionable insight via autocomplete and agentic reasoning. It refines forecasts, optimizes operations, and can power applications from supply chains to sabermetrics. Built for data professionals, Sphinx integrates a benchmark-leading agent into environments including Jupyter notebooks and VSCode to meet data teams where they already work.

“AI is driving a paradigm shift for natural language and code, but traditional data has been left behind,” said Rohan Kodialam, co-founder and CEO of Sphinx. “Our researchers and engineers are aggressively innovating on the interface between AI and data to drive tangible value for our partners across industries including CPG, retail, and financial services.”

Sphinx builds on recent research breakthroughs in reasoning models, with a distinct focus on the interpretation of tabular and semi-structured information and balancing data exploration with value extraction. Sphinx is ready to accelerate over 93 million users of Jupyter worldwide, and to enable a $100 billion market for data insights.

“Sphinx has helped our data scientists uncover patterns in shopper behavior in minutes instead of hours or days,” said Brian Tate, CEO of Oats Overnight. “It’s become a powerful part of our analytics workflow, and we’re looking forward to deepening the partnership.”

Sphinx was founded by Rohan Kodialam, an AI research leader at Citadel, and Jamie Bloxham, an early technology lead at MosaicML. While leading AI research and data science teams, they confronted a persistent obstacle: frontier models remained isolated from the data-science tooling and structured datasets that inform commercial decisions. Sphinx’s mission is to close the gap through focused research in representation learning and reinforcement learning, combined with products that delight and dramatically accelerate the work of data practitioners.

For more information go to www.sphinx.ai.

About Sphinx:
Sphinx is an applied AI research firm building agents that effectively interface with data. Our agents excel at interpreting data, exploring hypotheses, and ultimately at finding commercially relevant insights from raw information. Sphinx’s copilot product is currently available on top of Jupyter, and allows data professionals to leverage our AI to accelerate their workflows. www.sphinx.ai

About Lightspeed:
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in AI, Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech. Over the past 25 years, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Abridge, Affirm, Anthropic, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Glean, Mistral, Moveworks, Navan, Netskope, Rubrik, Snap, Wiz, and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage over $30B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. www.lsvp.com

SOURCE Sphinx