NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. and EDMONTON, AB , May 22, 2025 — CureDuchenne Ventures announced an initial $1M investment in Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc (Entos), a biotech company that develops genetic medicines utilizing its non-viral, redosable Fusogenix PLV delivery platform. Entos will use this funding to create a muscle-targeting therapeutic to deliver full-length dystrophin for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). 

Entos’ Fusogenix PLV platform is a delivery system that combines the best aspects of viral and non-viral approaches. Using a completely new mechanism for intracellular delivery of RNA, DNA and gene editing therapies, Fusogenix PLV is suitable for a wide range of best-in-class genetic medicines. Entos is committed to using this technology to develop cures and improve the lives of patients and their families. 

Entos will share information about this platform and their plans in Duchenne with families at the CureDuchenne 2025 FUTURES National Conference, held on May 22-25 in San Antonio, Texas. The session will be held on Friday, May 23 at 11:50 a.m. CT and will also be livestreamed.

“We are very excited by the potential of Entos Pharmaceuticals’ technology and look forward to collaborating with Entos in pursuit of a gene therapy that overcomes the limitations of current AAV-based approaches—one that would not exclude individuals with pre-existing immunity, allow for redosing, and, crucially, deliver full-length dystrophin to all of the necessary muscle tissues,” said Debra Miller, founder and CEO of CureDuchenne. “CureDuchenne has long been a leader in funding innovative therapeutic approaches, and this investment underscores our continued use of venture philanthropy to catalyze progress towards transformative treatments for Duchenne. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our donors and the Duchenne community—your support has made this investment possible and continues to drive progress toward a cure.”

“The Fusogenix PLV platform enables the safe, effective, and redosable delivery of full-length functional genes, like dystrophin, to muscle cells throughout the body. Given that Fusogenix PLV-based treatments can be given more than once, if needed, this could be a real game-changer,” said John Lewis, CEO of Entos Pharmaceuticals. “We’re hopeful this approach will make a real difference for people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and their families.”

About Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare, progressive, inherited neuromuscular disease that occurs in approximately one in every 3,500-5,000 males. It is caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes instructions for dystrophin, a key structural protein in muscle. Symptoms of DMD usually appear in infants and toddlers as difficulty in walking, climbing stairs, or standing from a sitting position. Most individuals with DMD will require full-time use of a wheelchair in their teens, and as muscle weakness and degeneration progresses to their upper limbs, lose the ability to perform other activities of daily living.  Cardiopulmonary complications are the primary cause of death.

About Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc
A new reality in genetic medicine lies ahead, one that will be ushered in with the advent of safe, effective, and redosable nucleic acid delivery technologies. Since its inception in 2016, Entos® has been dedicated to advancing next-generation genetic medicines using our proprietary Fusogenix™ PLV™ drug delivery system. The Fusogenix PLV platform is formulated with FAST proteins to enable the delivery of nucleic acid to target cells through direct fusion. Entos is pioneering the development of life-changing medicines for patients and has partnered with global companies, such as Eli Lilly, to accelerate and expand the impact of our platform. Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc. is headquartered in Edmonton, Canada, with its wholly owned U.S. and U.K. subsidiaries based in San Diego, California, and London, United Kingdom, respectively. For more information, visit www.entospharma.com, or follow Entos on LinkedIn. Entos^® word mark and design logo, Fusogenix™ and PLV™ are registered trademarks of Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About CureDuchenne Ventures  CureDuchenne Ventures, LLC is the investment arm of CureDuchenne, a non-profit patient advocacy organization and global leader in funding research, patient care, and innovations for improving and extending the lives of those with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). CureDuchenne Ventures has supported transformative treatments for DMD, including 19 projects that advanced to human clinical trials, and multiple equity investments in companies striving to overcome the limitations of first-generation exon-skipping and gene therapies. For more information, please visit cureduchenne.org. 

SOURCE CureDuchenne

• The O-RAN ALLIANCE successfully concludes its seed funding initiative launched in November 2023
• Evolved O-RAN Digital Twin platform enables lab deployment of O-RAN-based networks in a few clicks
• The platform is designed for the research community to accelerate innovation at the intersection of AI, open RAN and network optimization

BONN, Germany, May 22, 2025 — The O-RAN ALLIANCE and the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things at Northeastern University have successfully concluded the seed funding initiative, launched by O-RAN ALLIANCE in November 2023 to support research and development of next generation open Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure.

The funding initiative was led by O-RAN ALLIANCE’s next Generation Research Group (nGRG). Its objective was to provide a forum to facilitate O-RAN related 6G research efforts and determine how O-RAN may evolve to support mobile wireless networks in the 6G timeframe and beyond, by leveraging industry and academic 6G research efforts worldwide. The purpose of the seed funding was to be a significant enabler for broader funding of research platforms for next generation infrastructure.

The Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things at Northeastern University, as the funding awardee, utilized the 200,000 USD sponsorship to evolve its Colosseum lab and research platform. The result is a comprehensive, automated O-RAN Digital Twin (O-DT) platform designed for the research community to accelerate innovation at the intersection of AI, open RAN and network optimization.

The evolved O-RAN Digital Twin platform enables researchers to deploy O-RAN-based networks—including base stations, user equipment, and Radio Intelligent Controllers (RIC)—in just a few clicks. The platform automatically initiates data collection, training, and testing pipelines for RIC-based xApps and rApps, and plays a key role in continuous validation of open-source protocol stacks. It is also ready to support future development of dApps for real-time network control and other cutting-edge use cases.

“The O-RAN ALLIANCE seed funding supported the efforts to advance Colosseum into a state-of-the-art platform that effectively enables the research community to develop innovations for the RAN,” said Michele Polese, Research Assistant Professor at Northeastern University and PI of the O-RAN O-DT project. “This initiative has sparked the creation of new solutions to tackle the next fundamental challenge toward fully realizing the Open RAN vision, i.e., intelligent and dynamic network control and optimization. We look forward to further evolving the O-RAN Digital Twin to address future needs of modern RANs.”

“It is exciting to see the outcomes of the O-RAN ALLIANCE seed funding initiative delivering tangible value to RAN researchers,” said Ravi Sinha, VP Technology and Solution Development at Reliance Jio and co-chair of nGRG. “These research outcomes form basis for future specification development within the O-RAN ALLIANCE, enabling a global market of scaled, innovative and competitive solutions, advancing our mission towards an open, intelligent, virtualized and fully interoperable RAN.”

About O-RAN ALLIANCE
The O-RAN ALLIANCE is a world-wide community of mobile operators, vendors, and research & academic institutions operating in the Radio Access Network (RAN) industry. As the RAN is an essential part of any mobile network, the O-RAN ALLIANCE’s mission is to re-shape the industry towards more intelligent, open, virtualized and fully interoperable mobile networks. The new O-RAN specifications enable a more competitive and vibrant RAN supplier ecosystem with faster innovation to improve user experience. O-RAN based mobile networks at the same time improve the efficiency of RAN deployments as well as operations by mobile operators. To achieve this, the O-RAN ALLIANCE publishes new RAN specifications, releases open software for the RAN, and supports its members in integration and testing of their implementations.
For more information, please visit www.o-ran.org.

About the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things at Northeastern University
Researchers and students at the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT) envision a future in which people and their environment are wirelessly connected by a continuum of AI-powered devices and networks, from driverless cars and search-and-rescue drone swarms to implantable medical devices and smart cities. The institute is home to world-leading expertise, facilities, and technologies dedicated to making wireless communications exponentially faster, more energy efficient, and more secure. Within WIoT, Open6G is a one-stop shop for Open RAN innovation. Located at the Northeastern University Boston and Burlington, MA campuses, Open6G is a hub for research, development, and testing of advanced wireless networks using Open RAN and AI technologies, and hosts world-leading experimental facilities for 5G research.

SOURCE O-RAN Alliance

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. and YORK, Maine, May 21, 2025 — Today marks the public launch of Great Circle Group, a new venture uniting industry leaders Electronics Unlimited (EU) and Navtronics with accomplished technology entrepreneurs Damon Tassone and Michael Wexler. The company aims to establish the marine technology industry’s premier national sales and service brand, delivering unparalleled quality and expertise to boat owners and partners nationwide.

The formation of Great Circle Group addresses growing demand for sophisticated, reliable marine technology services through three key differentiators: technology enablement across all business operations, a focus on creating the industry’s most attractive environment for technical talent, and the scale to provide consistent, high-quality service across multiple regions.

“We’re building the company we’ve always wanted to see in this space,” said Tim Greer, President of Navtronics and VP of Great Circle Group. “With Great Circle we can now expand our premium marine technology services well beyond our New England roots, and become the employer of choice for marine technicians, offering unprecedented career opportunities and advancement paths.”

While maintaining their established brand identities, Electronics Unlimited and Navtronics now operate under the Great Circle Group umbrella, with plans for strategic expansion. The company intends to grow both organically and by inviting additional high-quality sales and service providers to join the Great Circle family.

“Great Circle represents a significant evolution in marine technology services,” said Ron Muller, President of Electronics Unlimited and VP of Great Circle Group. “By bringing together our deep industry knowledge with forward-thinking technology leadership, we’re creating a platform that will attract the best service providers throughout the country while elevating the entire customer experience.”

“As lifelong boaters ourselves, we’ve seen technology increasingly become core to the boating experience and understand the critical importance of reliable, expert service,” said Michael Wexler, co-CEO of Great Circle Group. “We also see tremendous opportunity to develop innovative service offerings that leverage vessel data, emerging technologies, and enhanced connectivity.”

“We’re committed to a long-term vision of transforming this industry while maintaining the exceptional standards that EU and Navtronics are known for,” added Damon Tassone, co-CEO of Great Circle Group. “Our emerging national footprint allows us to reimagine what’s possible in marine technology sales and services, setting new standards of excellence that benefit the entire ecosystem.”

For more information about Great Circle Group, email [email protected].

About Great Circle

Great Circle unites premier marine technology sales and service providers to deliver exceptional quality, reliability, and customer experiences nationwide. Founded by industry veterans and technology entrepreneurs, the company is committed to transforming the marine service industry through technological innovation, talent development, and the advantages of scale.

About Electronics Unlimited

Founded in 1973, Electronics Unlimited has established itself as South Florida and the Treasure Coast’s premier marine technology provider. With nearly five decades of experience, EU has built a reputation for exceptional technical expertise and customer service in marine electronics sales, installation, and service throughout the region.

About Navtronics

Founded in 1992, Navtronics is the leading provider of marine technology solutions in Northern New England. The company serves boaters from Cape Cod to the Canadian border through its network of five locations in Massachusetts and Maine, including Salem, Gloucester, York, Portland, and Belfast.

SOURCE Great Circle Group

Partnership will leverage U.S. News’s insights on global higher education to assist colleges and universities seeking to establish a presence in India.

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2025 — U.S. News & World Report, a global authority in education rankings and consumer insights, today announced a strategic investment in White Bridge Education (WBE), a market-entry advisory firm in India specializing in international student outreach, recruitment and enrollment across South Asia and the Middle East.

This investment marks U.S. News’ continued expansion in India and builds on its mission to help students, families and institutions make confident, data-driven decisions about higher education.

Cofounded by Dr. Kimberly Dixit, Preeti Wadekar and Namita Mehta, White Bridge Education partners with global universities and higher educational institutions to provide customized solutions for student recruitment by offering integrated solutions including in-country representation, digital marketing strategies, customized student events, tours and fairs, research and advisory services, and brokering transnational education partnerships.

“As we continue to find ways to better serve our consumers and the industries that support them, this investment helps amplify our commitment to students and institutions around the globe,” said Neil Maheshwari, U.S. News & World Report CFO and COO. “We are excited about the synergies this partnership provides.”

WBE’s capabilities and credible brand will help U.S. News to deepen its engagement and footprint in the growing Indian economy. This strategic partnership also accelerates WBE’s access to exclusive content, tools, networking and branding opportunities that drive student mobility.

“This partnership marks a meaningful milestone for White Bridge Education,” said Preeti Wadekar, White Bridge Education co-founder and CEO. “It affirms our unique position in India’s international education space and reinforces our shared commitment to transparency, ethics, and student-first values, with full operational and editorial independence of our respective organizations.”

WBE will continue to operate independently under its leadership team with its original founders retaining as majority shareholders. U.S. News will continue to retain its editorial independence: U.S. News editors will not provide White Bridge Education services, and any purchase of those services will not affect school rankings.

About U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is the global leader for journalism that empowers consumers, citizens, business leaders and policy officials to make confident decisions in all aspects of their lives and communities. A multifaceted media company, U.S. News provides unbiased rankings, independent reporting and analysis, and consumer advice to millions of people on USNews.com each month. A pillar in Washington for more than 90 years, U.S. News is the trusted home for in-depth and exclusive insights on education, health, politics, the economy, personal finance, travel, automobiles, real estate, careers and consumer products and services.

About White Bridge Education
White Bridge Education (WBE) is a market entry advisor for global universities and higher education institutions expanding into South Asia and the Middle East. Based in Mumbai, the organization offers services spanning strategy, outreach, and partnership development. Its work is grounded in regional expertise, strong networks, and a student-centered approach that emphasizes ethical, outcomes-driven recruitment. WBE focuses on connecting institutions with the right students and stakeholders, aiming to deliver long-term value and impact in international education through collaborative, transparent practices and strategic alignment with each university’s regional goals.

SOURCE U.S. News & World Report

SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2025 — LMArena, the open community platform for evaluating the best AI models, has secured $100 million in seed funding led by a16z and UC Investments (University of California) with participation from Lightspeed, Laude Ventures, Felicis, Kleiner Perkins and The House Fund. The funding coincides with the relaunch of LMArena happening next week—a faster, sharper, fully rebuilt platform designed to make AI evaluation more rigorous, transparent, and human-centered.

In a space moving at breakneck speed, LMArena is building something foundational: a neutral, reproducible, community-driven layer of infrastructure that allows researchers, developers, and users to understand how models actually perform in the real world. Over four hundred model evaluations have already been made on the platform, with over 3 millions votes cast, helping shape both proprietary and open-source models across the industry, including those from Google, OpenAI, Meta, and xAI.

“In a world racing to build ever-bigger models, the hard question is no longer what can AI do. Rather, it’s how well can it do it for specific use cases, and for whom,” said Anastasios N. Angelopoulos, co-founder and CEO at LMArena. “We’re building the infrastructure to answer these critical questions.”

The new LMArena next week reflects months of feedback from the community and includes: a rebuilt UI, mobile-first design, lower latency, and new features like saved chat history and endless chat. The legacy site will remain live for a while, but all future innovation is happening on lmarena.ai.

“AI evaluation has often lagged behind model development,” said Ion Stoica, co-founder at LMArena and UC Berkeley professor. “LMArena closes that gap by putting rigorous, community-driven science at the center. It’s refreshing to be part of a team that leads with long-term integrity in a space moving this fast.”

Backers say what makes LMArena different is not just the product, but the principles behind it. Evaluation is open, the leaderboard mechanics are published, and all models are tested with diverse, real-world prompts. This approach makes it possible to explore in-depth how AI performs across a range of use cases.

“Our mission has always been to make AI evaluation open, scientific, and grounded in how people actually use these models. As we expand into new modalities and deepen our evaluation tools, we’re building infrastructure that doesn’t just evaluate AI, it helps shape it” said Wei-Lin Chiang, co-founder and CTO of LMArena. “We’re here to ensure AI is reliably measured through real-world use.”

LMArena is already working with model providers to help them uncover performance trends, gather human preference data, and test updates in real-world conditions. The company’s long-term business model centers on trust: as they look to develop advanced analytics and enterprise services while keeping core participation free and open to all.

“We invested in LMArena because the future of AI depends on reliability,” said Anjney Midha, General Partner at a16z. “And reliability requires transparent, scientific, community-led evaluation. LMArena is building that backbone.” Jagdeep Singh Bachher, chief investment officer at UC Investments, added, “We’re excited to see open AI research translated into real-world impact through platforms like LMArena. Supporting innovation from university labs such as those at UC Berkeley is essential for building technologies that responsibly serve the public and advance the field.”

The relaunch of LMArena next week is a significant step forward, but it’s far from the finish line. The team is actively shipping new features, refining the platform, and working closely with the community to shape what comes next.

About LMArena: 
LMArena is an open platform where everyone has access to leading AI models and can contribute to their progress through real-world voting and feedback. Built with scientific rigor and transparency at its core, LMArena enables developers, researchers, and users to compare model outputs, uncover performance differences, and advance the reliability of AI systems. With a commitment to open access, reproducible methods, and diverse human judgment, LMArena is shaping the infrastructure layer AI needs to earn long-term trust. Learn more at lmarena.ai.

Press Contact:
Cherry Park
[email protected]

SOURCE LMArena

DUBAI, UAE, May 21, 2025 — Ajna Capital, a leading early-stage Web3 venture fund, has included SuperSol as part of its growing portfolio of next-generation blockchain investments. SuperSol, the first native Layer-2 solution purpose-built for the Solana blockchain, represents one of several strategic projects Ajna Capital is backing to drive scalable on-chain growth. This founding stake highlights Ajna Capital’s conviction in Solana as a foundational asset class for the next generation of internet infrastructure — and its commitment to supporting projects that make Solana faster, more scalable, and more resilient.

SuperSol addresses critical challenges in the Solana ecosystem — including network congestion and performance bottlenecks — by introducing a rollup-based architecture that improves throughput and lowers costs without fragmenting liquidity. Unlike traditional L2s, SuperSol is designed to be seamless for users and developers, ensuring that transactions ultimately settle back on Solana‘s base layer without requiring ecosystem migration.

At the heart of SuperSol’s innovation are its Evanescent Rollups, a demand-driven approach to high-speed execution on Solana. These rollups activate dynamically, processing transactions off-chain and submitting cryptographic proofs to Solana‘s mainnet only when necessary. This ensures instant transactions and scalability without overloading the base layer. By preventing wasted resources and reducing computational overhead, SuperSol ensures predictable transaction costs, allowing developers to build with confidence.

Eva Oberholzer, CEO of SuperSol, brings a wealth of experience to the project. As the former Chief Growth Officer at both Cardano and Dfinity, she has been instrumental in scaling blockchain ecosystems. Eva co-founded SuperSol to scale Solana efficiently while preserving the speed, security, and efficiency that define it.

“We’re building the most robust Layer-2 for Solana — designed from the ground up for high-performance applications,” said Eva Oberholzer. “With Ajna’s backing, we’re doubling down on our vision to deliver seamless scalability for gaming, DeFi, and beyond.”

Key Highlights of SuperSol:

• Solana-Native L2: SuperSol is the first Layer-2 rollup architecture designed specifically for Solana, optimized for high throughput and ultra-low latency.
• Evanescent Rollups: A demand-driven approach to high-speed execution, ensuring instant transactions and scalability without overloading the base layer.
• No Fragmentation: All SuperSol transactions eventually settle on Solana, maintaining composability and liquidity across the ecosystem.
• Built for High-Performance Apps: From DeFi to GameFi to DePIN, SuperSol’s infrastructure enables real-time, scalable execution for demanding applications.

Developer-Focused Execution: Offers customizable environments tailored to the needs of next-gen Solana builders.

SuperSol is currently raising a strategic round to scale its team, expand validator infrastructure, and onboard its first wave of DeFi and gaming partners, alongside several other high-potential Web3 projects supported by Ajna Capital.

“Being an early investor in Solana — SuperSol was a natural extension and a no-brainer,” said Gourish Singla, Founding Managing Partner of Ajna Capital. “Their rollup-first approach is exactly what the network needs right now: scalability without compromise, composability without fragmentation. We’re excited to support their mission to make Solana unstoppable.”

About Ajna Capital
Ajna Capital is a Web3-native early-stage venture fund backing bold founders building core infrastructure and real-world blockchain applications.

About SuperSol
SuperSol is a blockchain infrastructure company developing Layer-2 scaling solutions to enhance performance and usability within the Solana ecosystem.

SuperSol on X/Twitter: https://x.com/_supersol

Contact
Ajna Capital
[email protected]

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2693113/Ajna_Capital.jpg

SOURCE Ajna Capital

Investment led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from 8VC, Tru Arrow, SineWave, In-Q-Tel and Zero Prime to fuel expansion of DataHub, the leading open source metadata platform

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 21, 2025 — DataHub, by Acryl Data, the leading open source metadata platform, today announced it has raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. This latest round brings the company’s total funding to $65 million, enabling accelerated development of its context management platform that provides discovery, observability, and control across data, AI models, and AI agents.

As part of the investment, Lauri Moore of Bessemer Venture Partners will join DataHub’s board of directors.

“Rapid adoption of AI in the enterprise is revealing the significance of comprehensive visibility, reliability, and trust across their data and AI ecosystem—far beyond traditional data cataloging to a machine-scale world where AI agents become the power users of data,” said Swaroop Jagadish, CEO and co-founder of DataHub. “DataHub is uniquely positioned to lead this new category of AI & data context management with our architecture built for extreme scale, performance, and real-time machine-scale automations.”

Enterprises are facing critical challenges in accessing, maintaining reliability, and securing their data and AI supply chain. Today’s organizations struggle with “missing context” that prevents both humans and machines from effectively working with data.

1. Data consumers can’t easily find relevant datasets.
2. Data engineers lack visibility to prevent disruptions when making changes.
3. Governance teams struggle to track sensitive data access.

For AI systems, this context gap is even more critical–AI models need to know when new data is available for refreshing predictions, which enterprise data is trustworthy, and how to analyze schema changes automatically. DataHub addresses this fundamental challenge by providing a real-time metadata platform that brings order to data and AI chaos, enabling machines to interact with an organization’s data assets with complete context awareness.

“With the shift toward business-critical AI and customer-facing predictive applications, enterprises need robust metadata management to ensure AI systems can reliably work with data,” said Shirshanka Das, CTO and co-founder of DataHub. “DataHub provides the context that AI systems need to understand data lineage, quality, and semantics—enabling organizations to unlock the full potential of their AI investments.”

DataHub’s open source offering is being used by more than 3,000 organizations globally including Apple, Chime, Foursquare, Netflix, Optum, Pinterest, and Slack. The company has experienced 6x growth in selling the enterprise managed service, DataHub Cloud, over the last two years.

DataHub’s unique event-driven architecture provides real-time visibility as a significant advantage over legacy vendors. Its extensibility and scalability are stand-out benefits along with a full-spectrum of deployment options, from single-node to cloud-hosted, hybrid and decentralized deployments. This architectural advantage has led to competitive wins against established players, with customers citing DataHub’s superior performance, unified capabilities across discovery and data observability, and the ability to support AI governance needs.

“Metadata is the missing link enabling organizations to transition from human-scale data analytics to machine-scale enterprise AI,” said Lauri Moore, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “DataHub is uniquely positioned to address this critical need with its schema-first, event-oriented architecture that brings data and model context and control into a single pane of glass. Enterprises will use DataHub to develop AI ‘safely’ – in a way that respects user privacy and ensures people, models, and agents only access the data and context when and where they are supposed to – without compromising velocity.”

In addition to the funding, the company is rebranding itself to just be known as DataHub. The name change accurately reflects its core mission of building a metadata platform that is powering AI-ready data systems at scale. DataHub will use the new capital to:

• Invest in the DataHub open source community, which has grown 50x to over 13,000 members
• Accelerate R&D with focus on AI governance and context management capabilities
• Scale go-to-market operations to meet growing enterprise demand
• Build enterprise-grade customer success capabilities

For more information about DataHub, visit www.datahub.com.

About Us
DataHub, by Acryl Data, is an AI & Data Context Platform. Innovated jointly with a thriving open-source community of 13,000+ members, DataHub’s active metadata platform provides real-time context of AI and data assets with best-in-class scalability and extensibility. The company’s enterprise SaaS offering, DataHub Cloud, delivers a fully-managed solution with AI-powered discovery, observability, and governance capabilities. Organizations rely on DataHub to accelerate time-to-value from their data investments, ensure AI system reliability, and implement unified governance—enabling AI & data to work together and bring order to data chaos.

Media Contact
Loopr Marketing
[email protected] 

SOURCE Acryl Data

BANGALORE, India, May 21, 2025 — CloudSEK, a leader in AI-powered cyber threat prediction and intelligence, has raised $19 million across its Series A2 and B1 funding rounds. The round included participation from a mix of India– and US-based investors, such as MassMutual Ventures, Inflexor Ventures, Prana Ventures, Tenacity Ventures, and select strategic investors, including Commvault. Notably, Meeran Family (founders of Eastern Group), StartupXSeed, Neon Fund and Exfinity Ventures are among CloudSEK’s earlier backers and continue to support the company’s long-term vision.

Founded in 2015 by cybersecurity researcher-turned-entrepreneur Rahul Sasi, CloudSEK was created with a mission to build a safer digital future by proactively predicting and mitigating cyber threats. What began as a research-driven initiative has since evolved into one of the industry’s most trusted threat intelligence platforms—serving 250+ enterprises across banking, healthcare, technology, and the public sector.

The newly raised capital will fuel CloudSEK’s continued product innovation and global expansion, with a focus on advancing its AI models and platform integrations. Unlike traditional tools that respond after an incident, CloudSEK identifies Initial Attack Vectors (IAVs)—the earliest signs of a potential breach, such as leaked credentials, exposed APIs, or compromised vendors.

“We built CloudSEK to predict the initial attack vector and stop threats before they hit the headlines with the goal of preventing threats before they escalate,” said Rahul Sasi, Co-founder & CEO of CloudSEK. “Unlike conventional threat intelligence that focuses on indicators of compromise after an attack, our platform detects the earliest signals—leaked credentials, exposed APIs, compromised vendors—weeks before an incident unfolds. That’s our version of threat intelligence: predictive, not forensic.”

“Today, over 60% of our net new revenue comes from international markets, with the U.S. emerging as our fastest-growing region. We’ve achieved this scale while staying cash flow positive. This round—backed by top financial and strategic investors—not only validates our vision but reinforces what we’ve believed from day one: cybersecurity must be proactive, not reactive,” Rahul Sasi added.

CloudSEK’s differentiated approach has resonated globally, earning the company a 4.8-star rating on Gartner Peer Insights across 195 reviews, making it one of the most recommended vendors in the cybersecurity space.

“Early visibility into threats is no longer optional. CloudSEK’s predictive intelligence helps enterprises take control of the narrative—before attackers do,” said Dr. Durga Dube, CISO of a Fortune Global 100 company.

“CloudSEK has created a great product based on cutting-edge AI, appropriate for the security needs of top global companies. Tenacity is excited about backing and working closely with Rahul and his team to help build a great global technology product company from India.” — Rohit Razdan, Partner, Tenacity Ventures.

“CloudSEK has grown 3x in ARR over the last 24 months and continues to grow well above industry standards,” said Kalyan Kumar Vattipalli, VP of Finance at CloudSEK. “The round attracted significant interest from global financial investors, and we will soon be announcing Series B2 as an extension of B1, both to onboard new investors and to facilitate partial exits for some of our early backers.”

With this funding and a strategic investor on board, CloudSEK is doubling down on its vision to make predictive threat intelligence a global cybersecurity standard for —empowering organizations to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated threat actors.

About CloudSEK:

 CloudSEK is a contextual AI company that predicts Cyber Threats. Our Cloud SaaS platform constantly seeks security solutions for our customers’ digital risks.

To learn more about how CloudSEK can strengthen your external security posture and deliver value from Day One, visit https://cloudsek.com or drop a note to [email protected]. 

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2693114/Team_CloudSEK.jpg

SOURCE CloudSEK

SJF Ventures invests in AI-powered supply chain risk management platform helping enterprises navigate global trade chaos

BOZEMAN, Mont., May 21, 2025 — Tradeverifyd, the supply chain risk management platform designed to help enterprises identify, assess, and mitigate risks before they impact operations, announced the company secured $4 million in new funding from SJF Ventures.

Businesses struggling to adapt to the impact of shifting trade policies and tariffs on supply chains — delays, unexpected costs, and compliance challenges are now daily realities — are turning to Tradeverifyd’s predictive intelligence and real-time monitoring. The new funding, which builds on an $8 million Series A round in January, is the result of the platform proving crucial for global enterprises.

“Global supply chains are more vulnerable than ever before,” said Michael Prorock, founder and CEO of Tradeverifyd. “To navigate the chaos, enterprises need visibility deep into their supply chains and predictive intelligence to anticipate and address disruptions. Tradeverifyd’s AI-powered intelligence lets enterprises assess each supplier’s ability to deliver, respond immediately to detentions, and get ahead of future risks. We help enterprises transform chaos into clarity and supply chain risk into a competitive advantage.”

Slowdowns and blank sailings at U.S. ports are the latest evidence of tumultuous global supply chains as rapidly changing trade regulations and tariffs overlap with geopolitical, environmental, and compliance risks. Tradeverifyd uses a secure blend of open-source intelligence and first-party data to illuminate supply chains from final product back to their raw materials, then deploys agentic AI technology and real-time monitoring to inform enterprises of potential risks.

The platform has proven successful in building resilient supply chains for several of the largest global enterprises, and is utilized by government agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. One company using Tradeverifyd avoided $12 million in one-time costs by resolving a supply chain bottleneck, while another achieved a 7x increase in operational efficiency. Across clients, Tradeverifyd has consistently delivered significant savings in procurement costs through deep, multi-tier supply chain visibility and proactive risk mitigation. This momentum helped Tradeverifyd grow its year-over-year revenue 10x in 2025.

“Global supply chains are experiencing significant disruption due to tariffs, increased regulatory scrutiny, and environmental events,” said David Griest, Managing Director at SJF Ventures. “We’ve been tracking the company for some time; Tradeverifyd stands out for its ability to identify and mitigate supply chain risks, ensure compliance, and enhance resilience for enterprise customers. The platform is built for scale and managing complex, multi-tier global supply chains. This investment presents a tremendous opportunity to help businesses navigating trade chaos — and we see enormous growth ahead.”

Another key element of the platform is the Tradeverifyd Score™, an objective measurement of a supplier’s ability to successfully fulfill orders. It operates like a credit score for supply chain reliability and allows enterprises to make informed, proactive decisions at every level of their organization. Tradeverifyd also features secure data sharing and automated documentation management to deliver supplier collaboration at scale, allowing companies to comply with mounting global regulations like the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

Tradeverifyd will use the new funding to further invest in its go-to-market team to meet soaring demand for its agentic AI-powered solution, especially among large enterprises, as well as increase customer support staff to help companies proactively manage risks before they become disruptions.

About Tradeverifyd
Tradeverifyd, with headquarters in Bozeman, MT, and strategic locations globally, serves as the go-to partner for enterprises to achieve excellence in digital supply chain transformation as they move from reactive to proactive modes of reducing supply chain risk.

About SJF Ventures
Founded in 1999, SJF Ventures is an impact venture capital fund whose mission is to catalyze the development of highly successful businesses that drive lasting, positive changes. Its deep experience in supply chain and logistics includes portfolio companies HYLA, Iron Sheepdog, Lineage, Optoro, Perishable Shipping Solutions, ShipMonk, and Tive.

Media Contact: Chris Marley, [email protected]

SOURCE mesur.io