Aqua gives wealth managers and fund sponsors an integrated system for building, managing, and scaling alternatives programs

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2026 — Aqua, a next-generation alternatives infrastructure solution, today announced the launch of the industry’s first turnkey alternative investments platform(TAIP), along with $18.8 million in total funding.

The company raised a $3.8 million seed round backed by Google’s AI Fund, Y Combinator, and others, followed by a $15 million Series A led by Arthur Ventures with participation from Alumni Ventures. Aqua plans to use the funding to accelerate business and platform development, expand its engineering and partnership teams, and deepen integrations across custodians and fund sponsors.

Designed to help wealth managers, RIAs, banks, trust companies, and fund sponsors build, manage, and scale institutional-quality alternatives programs, Aqua replaces the disconnected marketplaces, manual workflows, and spreadsheets most firms rely on today.

Aqua brings fund creation, operational workflows, investment lifecycle management, marketplace access, document intelligence, and investor servicing into one unified environment, enabling firms to build their own alternatives strategy and scale it on their terms.

“Demand for alternatives has grown fast, but most firms are still trying to meet client needs with spreadsheets, fragmented processes and manual solutions,” said Rohan Marwaha, Co-Founder and CEO at Aqua. “Firms have already transformed the way they manage traditional investments through technology. As access to alternatives becomes increasingly democratized, they need similar infrastructure to build repeatable, scalable alternatives strategies. We built Aqua around the way today’s advisors operate, so they can develop customized alternatives programs without having to manage the systems behind them.”

The platform reflects a shift underway across the industry. The first phase of growth in alternatives centered on expanding access. The next phase focuses on delivering the scalable infrastructure firms need to manage alternatives successfully. Aqua is the bridge between the two.

“Many firms still think a marketplace is the same thing as an alternatives strategy. It isn’t,” said David Coyle, Head of Growth at Aqua. “Advisors need more than access to alternatives; they need a repeatable way to educate clients, manage operations, and deliver alternatives with confidence as part of a broader wealth strategy. Aqua is the enablement engine ushering in the next generation of alternative investing.”

Aqua’s leadership team brings together decades of experience in wealth management and fintech. Before founding Aqua, Rohan Marwaha built solutions across technology and alternative investments for major alternative asset managers, while David Coyle has driven tech adoption at advisory firms for over 25 years. Head of Growth Partnerships Joe Ujobai spent more than 35 years in financial services and technology, with leadership roles in private banking and international expansion. The combined track record shapes how Aqua approaches the alternatives infrastructure problem: not as outsiders building for the industry, but as operators solving challenges from the inside.

Demand is already accelerating for access to Aqua’s integrated alternatives solution, with additional partnerships with major firms to be announced in the coming weeks.

To learn more about how Aqua is redefining alternatives infrastructure for wealth management, register to join the upcoming live webinar on September 23rd.

About Aqua
Aqua is an alternatives infrastructure platform built to simplify how alternative investments are built, managed, and scaled, enabling wealth managers, RIAs, banks, trust companies, family offices, and asset managers to run the full alternatives lifecycle through a unified operating platform. By bringing together fund creation, investment lifecycle management, marketplace capabilities, document intelligence, and operational workflows, Aqua helps firms move beyond fragmented point solutions and build alternatives programs they own outright.

CONTACT: Joe Steuter  [email protected] 

SOURCE Aqua

More than 5,000 companies have signed up for Lightfield since launch in November, deploying AI agents that build pipeline, work deals, and manage customers from a shared, living record of their business.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2026 — Lightfield today announced a $47 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, including participation from Maverick Capital, Coatue, Audacious, Alumni Ventures, Greylock, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

CRM was designed for people to type into, not for agents to work from. For forty years, customer relationships have been translated into fields, stages, and notes — a record of whatever someone had time to enter, stored in a structure agents can’t reason from.

Agents can now do the work those systems were built to track, but they cannot do that work reliably from data entered by hand. When layered onto legacy CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot, agents inherit incomplete fields, stale close dates, and notes written from memory after the call — and produce work companies cannot verify or trust. Solving this requires a new system of record designed for deep understanding, not AI features added to the old one.

Lightfield builds a comprehensive record from every customer interaction, captured as it happens, and structured so agents can understand what is true and predict what happens next. Every person and every agent at a company works from the same accurate, current picture of every customer: what they said, who said it, and how it changed the state of the business. Knowledge that once lived in one person’s head or one team’s tool becomes the context the whole company operates on.

“Agents don’t fail because the models aren’t capable. They fail because the data they work with is incomplete, inaccurate, and missing the structure needed for comprehension,” said Keith Peiris, cofounder and CEO of Lightfield. “Lightfield builds a world model of the business from every customer interaction, so every person and every agent works from the same understanding of what’s true and what happens next.”

Adopted by more than 5,000 companies in under a year

Since launching in November 2025, more than 5,000 companies have signed up for Lightfield, from high-growth early-stage startups to scaling companies with hundreds of users on the CRM.

“Building a system of record is one of the hardest things to do in software, because you have to earn a customer’s trust before they’ll hand you the data that runs their business,” said Joe Schmidt IV, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “This team earned it with thousands of companies in under a year.”

A CRM built for agents to understand your business

Four technical differentiators separate Lightfield from legacy CRM.

A record that updates itself. Lightfield ingests every customer interaction – email, calendar, calls, Slack, LinkedIn – and structures it into the record on its own.

A world model of the business. Lightfield connects every interaction to the people, deals, and accounts it touches, and preserves how each one changed over time. The result is a business world model that agents can reason and predict from, not a table of fields.

An agent harness for reliable work. Agents operate through a standardized SDK, run analysis in a code sandbox, and are monitored by evals that hold output quality consistent. The same request returns the same quality of work, not a different output each run.

An open platform. Every record is fully readable and writable through API, MCP, and CLI, so companies can build automations and agents on their customer data and connect Lightfield to the tools they already run. Anything a person can do in the product, an agent can do too.

“Every platform shift produces a new system of record. Salesforce defined it for the cloud era, and Lightfield is defining it for the agent era,” said Alex Rampell, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “Companies building with agents need more than a CRM with AI features. They need a system designed from the ground up for agents to work from. That’s what Lightfield has built.”

About Lightfield
Lightfield is reimagining CRM as a business world model, designed for agents to understand your company and perform work you can trust. It builds a comprehensive, trusted record of customer interactions from calls, emails and meetings – giving every person and every agent the same understanding of what’s true about their business. Companies use Lightfield to close deals faster, automate prospecting, diagnose performance gaps, and ramp new sellers with agents. More than 5,000 companies have signed up since Lightfield launched in November 2025. Learn more at lightfield.app.

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

SOURCE Lightfield

The Fund is expected to provide capital efficiency for insurance investors, and brings total capital raised for the Blue Ocean strategy to $7.6 billion.

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2026 — Blue Ocean, a maritime finance investment platform managed by EnTrust Global, today announced the successful close of the fourth vintage of its rated notes insurance fund, Blue Ocean Income Fund IV. The Fund closed with $1.3 billion in commitments and is intended to offer insurance investors (primarily U.S. insurance investors) a more capital-efficient way to access the Blue Ocean strategy. The Fund’s notes were rated by a leading global rating agency.

The closing brings total capital raised across the strategy for Blue Ocean to $5.0 billion since 2023, and $7.6 billion since the strategy’s inception in 2017. The Fund has already begun deploying capital to a number of transactions.

Since its founding, Blue Ocean has built a consistent track record of capital formation and deployment in the maritime finance space, providing flexible, asset-backed financing solutions to shipowners and operators across major shipping segments. The strategy fills a structural funding gap created by the retreat of traditional bank lenders, which have pulled back from maritime lending since the Global Financial Crisis due to regulation and a strategic focus on the largest listed owners, leaving the small- and medium-sized shipowners that make up the vast majority of this industry underserved and dependent on alternative capital.

Gregg S. Hymowitz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EnTrust Global: “Since the launch of our first Blue Ocean rated notes fund in 2018, we have seen interest in the strategy among insurance investors grow with each subsequent fund, and also through a number of other bespoke structures. Fund IV is our largest rated notes fund to date, and it includes significant commitments from insurance investors who are new to the Blue Ocean strategy, as well as investors who participated in prior vintages and have increased their commitments for Fund IV. Insurance investors, both in the U.S. and around the world, are an important part of our client base, and we are excited to continue to work on innovative structures and strategies to help meet their specific needs.”

Svein Engh, Blue Ocean Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager: “Our continuing success, both in terms of fund raising and capital deployment, is a reflection of what we have built at EnTrust Global. The Blue Ocean team today consists of 29 professionals globally¹ and our ability to source and structure opportunities is what continues to set Blue Ocean apart. Furthermore, our strong track record over more than 9 years of investing, combined with the strong demand for capital in a capital-intensive industry, helps drive our strategy forward.”

As of June 30, 2026, the Blue Ocean strategy has deployed a total of $7.2 billion across 127 total investments since inception while returning approximately $3.5 billion of invested capital to investors during that period. This growth has been driven by a global team with deep maritime finance expertise and a disciplined approach to sourcing and structuring transactions across market cycles.

EnTrust Global manages capital for insurance investors in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with insurance company capital representing roughly 20% of EnTrust’s client base worldwide. In line with the firm’s entrepreneurial foundation, EnTrust remains dedicated to developing compelling and differentiated investment opportunities, including those specifically for insurance investors. EnTrust’s Insurance Solutions group, together with the firm’s investment and structuring teams, works closely with insurance investor clients to develop investment solutions that seek attractive risk-adjusted returns combined with a strong focus on capital efficiency, ratings considerations, and predictable cash flows.

About EnTrust Global

EnTrust Global is an alternative investment firm with approximately $17.8 billion in total assets and approximately 600 institutional clients worldwide, ranging from U.S. Taft-Hartley plans to Sovereign Wealth funds. Co-founded in 1997 by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregg S. Hymowitz, the firm has dual headquarters in New York and London, with a network of 10 offices globally across key financial centers. EnTrust Global provides alternative investment opportunities across both private and public markets, with a focus on opportunistic credit and equity, as well as sector-specific strategies in maritime and sports, media, and entertainment, each of which is supported by a team of seasoned professionals. Separate from the Blue Ocean strategy, EnTrust Global’s maritime business also includes Purus, a maritime infrastructure company with a fleet of gas transport and offshore infrastructure vessels with a gross asset value of over $4.5 billion.

¹ Number of professionals includes operating advisers/consultants retained to assist in the sourcing and/or monitoring of certain investments. Total Assets is as of June 30, 2026. Total Assets may be based on estimates and includes mandates awarded but not yet funded, capital commitments that have not yet been called, amounts distributed to investors and contractually subject to recall, a non-binding target mandate and assets where EnTrust Global provides non-discretionary investment advisory services. There is no guarantee that all or any portion of such mandates awarded or target mandates will ever be funded, nor that amounts distributed will be recalled and, if they are not, the Total Assets amount would be reduced accordingly. Total Assets does not include capital that can be called after the expiration of the investment period to fund fees and expenses or to add to an existing investment. The firm’s “Regulatory Assets Under Management” calculation differs from “Total Assets” and is reflected in the firm’s Form ADV, Part 2A (Item 4). A rating is an opinion of the relevant rating agency at a specific point of time and is subject to various limitations. It is not a guarantee of performance and is subject to change.

To learn more about EnTrust Global’s Blue Ocean strategy, please visit https://entrustglobal.com/blue-ocean-fund/

CONTACT: Logan Flynn | [email protected]

SOURCE EnTrust Global

LONDON, Sept. 9, 2026 — MVB Financial Corp., a leading banking partner to fintechs and innovation-driven companies, and Velocity, an enterprise payments and treasury platform powered by stablecoins, today announced that MVB will participate in a Visa Direct pilot supporting stablecoin-enabled funding and settlement for eligible push-to-card payouts. Availability varies by eligibility and geography. Please contact your Visa representative for more information on availability.

Through the partnership, MVB will be able to use stablecoins to settle its Visa Direct payouts. The infrastructure brings stablecoin liquidity directly into MVB’s banking and payments operations, enabling more flexible pre-positioning and settlement options across MVB’s customers and the bank itself.  Enabled through Visa Direct, the arrangement allows eligible MVB participants to use stablecoins in connection with certain funding and settlement obligations. Digital-asset conversion, wallet connectivity and on-chain controls are performed by licensed partners. Delivered through a single API and regulated wallet infrastructure, the offering gives MVB customers access to stablecoin-enabled funding and settlement through the banking relationship and operational workflows they already use.

For MVB and Velocity, the partnership reflects a broader shift in how stablecoins are being adopted by financial institutions. Rather than operating as a separate digital asset product, stablecoin rails can sit underneath existing banking and payments infrastructure, giving institutions a new way to move and deploy liquidity while preserving the controls, relationships and systems already familiar to their customers.

“Banking is being rebuilt in real time, and stablecoins are at the center of that transformation,” said Larry F. Mazza, Chief Executive Officer of MVB Financial. “By allowing stablecoins to solve inefficiencies in capital movement for payouts, we’re giving our clients faster, more flexible ways to move money.”

The strategy aligns closely with emerging initiatives from major card networks, including solutions that allow sponsor banks to settle Original Credit Transactions (OCTs), issuer obligations, as well as traditional settlement in stablecoins.

For payments companies and fintechs, this can create greater flexibility over how capital enters and moves through the banking system. Velocity enables funds to be brought onchain, held as stablecoins and deployed into payment flows without requiring customers to manage separate infrastructure or fundamentally change how they interact with MVB.

“This is exactly where we believe stablecoins become most meaningful: when they disappear into the financial infrastructure businesses already rely on,” said Eric Queathem, Founder and CEO of Velocity. “MVB has built its business around serving some of the most forward-thinking companies in payments and fintech, and we’re excited to help bring these capabilities directly into that ecosystem. Visa Direct is a powerful starting point because it shows how stablecoin liquidity can connect directly into established global payment rails.”

The partnership also lays the groundwork for MVB to extend stablecoin infrastructure across a broader range of treasury, settlement and payment use cases. As stablecoins become increasingly integrated into established financial networks, MVB and Velocity intend to continue building the infrastructure required for institutions to use them as part of their day-to-day financial operations.

Together, MVB and Velocity are building toward a model in which stablecoin capabilities are a native part of banking infrastructure, giving financial institutions and their customers faster, more flexible and always-on ways to fund and move money while remaining connected to the payment networks they already use.

Media Contact: [email protected] 

SOURCE Velocity

Series 2 financing accelerates global commercialization amid growing customer demand and mass production shipments

BOSTON, Sept. 9, 2026 — Nanoramic, Inc. (“Nanoramic”), an industry leader in advanced materials and energy storage technology company, announced today the first close of its Series 2 equity financing round at a pre-money valuation of $250 Million USD. The round is led by Catalus Capital with participation from GM Ventures, existing investors and co-leads in Nanoramic’s previous Series 1 equity financing.

The financing comes amid accelerating commercial adoption, with mass production shipments of Neocarbonix® Slurry Precursor (NXSP) products now supporting programs with leading global battery manufacturers, automotive OEMs, consumer electronics companies, power tool manufacturers, and defense contractors.

NXSP is a drop-in battery manufacturing material that allows manufacturers to build higher-performing battery electrodes across all key chemistries in cathodes and anodes, while using their existing factories. NXSP enables higher performance, lower cost, and enhanced sustainability, including PFAS-free batteries and manufacturing solvent flexibility, for all major cathode chemistries and it enables up to 100% silicon content in anodes to support advancing performance requirements in mobile devices, drones, power tools, and other high performance applications. The drop-in capability allows manufacturers to lower production costs, lower electrode drying energy, and enhance cell-level performance without capital expenditure on new factory infrastructure.

Battery manufacturers across the globe are actively seeking materials that deliver higher performance, lower production costs, and compliance with strict, evolving global environmental regulations, such as the European Union’s REACH restrictions and prospective PFAS restrictions.

By maximizing the active material within the battery cell and lowering internal resistance, NXSP delivers concrete performance improvements across major industries:

• AI Infrastructure & Edge Computing: Enables longer runtime and higher burst power delivery for demanding AI inference tasks.
• Stationary Storage (ESS): Lowers the cost per kilowatt-hour ($/kWh) and extends calendar and cycle life.
• Electric Vehicles (EVs): Increases driving range and enables faster charging capabilities.
• Drones & Aviation (eVTOL): Extends flight times and increases payload capacity.
• Consumer Electronics: Extends battery life and allows for thinner device profiles.
• Power Tools: Increases torque, reduces heat generation, and allows battery packs to be smaller and lighter.

“Neocarbonix has been demonstrated broadly across key applications, chemistries, and geographies, with mass production shipments growing over the past six months to meet customer demand,” said John Cooley, Founder and CEO of Nanoramic. “We have demonstrated the commercial maturity and industrial viability of our technology. The support from Catalus, GM Ventures, and other investors is key to our global commercialization efforts.”

“Nanoramic continues to demonstrate strong operational execution in translating advanced battery material innovations into scalable commercial products,” said Stephen Fratamico, Venture Analyst at Catalus Capital. “We are pleased to lead this round as Nanoramic meets growing customer commitments across global energy storage, automotive, and defense markets.”

“Nanoramic has advanced Neocarbonix from a technology concept into a production reality. Our continued participation reflects the team’s ongoing progress and our commitment to innovation in battery materials,” said Kevin McCabe, President of GM Ventures.

About Nanoramic, Inc.

Nanoramic, Inc. is an industry-leading energy storage and advanced materials company that has developed Neocarbonix®, an innovative battery platform. Nanoramic is commercializing Neocarbonix to transform energy storage for all battery applications by increasing energy density and longevity while reducing costs and improving sustainability. Nanoramic works with major automakers, consumer electronics companies, and battery manufacturers to develop and commercialize batteries made with Neocarbonix. To learn more, visit www.nanoramic.com.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Nanoramic

Herkelrath joins as Algorand deepens its focus on institutional adoption and post-quantum resilience

DOVER, Del., Sept. 9, 2026 — Algorand Foundation U.S. Inc (“Algorand”) today announced the appointment of William Herkelrath as Chief Executive Officer. Herkelrath succeeds Staci Warden, who is stepping down after nearly five years leading Algorand.

Herkelrath brings two decades of experience across AI, enterprise software, institutional finance, and blockchain infrastructure, most recently as co-founder of K3 Labs, an AI-first automation platform for building and running AI agent-managed workflows, and previously in leadership roles at Chainlink and Curv.

“I joined Algorand because they are a leader in decentralized post-quantum cryptography. With both AI and quantum threats on the horizon, Algorand has a unique opportunity to become a trusted partner in bringing verifiable and trusted security to a wide variety of institutions as they roll out the next generation of digital assets and cybersecurity infrastructure,” said Herkelrath.

“Leading the Algorand Foundation has been one of the great privileges of my career. Together with its ecosystem entrepreneurs, the Algorand Foundation has proven the case for what a public blockchain can do for real-world finance, and I could not be prouder of what we have accomplished. William brings the vision and experience to lead Algorand through its next chapter, and I am excited for him and the team to carry that work forward,” said Warden.

This news comes at a pivotal moment for Algorand. Google’s Quantum AI paper cited the network more than 30 times as a key innovator in the space. Post-quantum accounts are already live today, built on a strong track record of pioneering the use of Verifiable Random Function (VRF) and backed by a large ephemeral validator set.

Alongside the leadership transition, Algorand also announced changes to its Board of Directors. Herkelrath and Alex Fowler, Chief Strategy Officer at Nexus Laboratories, are joining the board, and Rebecca Rettig and Michael Mosier are departing.

Herkelrath officially became Algorand’s Chief Executive Officer on August 31.  He will work alongside the existing leadership team as Algorand continues its focus on institutional adoption and post-quantum resilience.

About Algorand

Algorand is a public, decentralized network for financial empowerment. Algorand offers tools to move money across borders, issue and manage assets, verify identity, and develop services that rely on dependable performance, instant settlement, and post-quantum resilience. Organizations use Algorand to create practical tools for payments, asset tokenization, programmable finance, identity, public records, and other financial services. Algorand’s all-in-one blockchain infrastructure powers financial applications that are easy to build, simple to use, and unlock economic opportunity for users.

Today, the Algorand ecosystem spans startups, developers, governments, and global partners building real-world financial and digital asset solutions. With Algorand, you decide where your money lives, how it moves, and who can access it. To learn more, visit algorand.co.

Disclaimer: This press release is provided for informational purposes only. The information is provided by the Algorand Foundation and, while we strive to keep it accurate and current, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to its completeness, accuracy, reliability, or suitability for any purpose. Nothing in this release constitutes legal, financial, tax, or investment advice, nor an endorsement, guarantee, or investment recommendation. References to third parties, including any organizations, agencies, products, or platforms, are for informational purposes only and do not imply any endorsement, affiliation, or partnership beyond what is expressly stated. All third-party names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Operational figures reflect information available as of the date of this release and may be subject to revision. Any statements regarding future plans, integrations, deployments, or timelines are forward-looking and subject to change. The Algorand Foundation undertakes no obligation to update these statements except as required.

SOURCE Algorand Foundation

HOUSTON, Sept. 9, 2026 — Sallyport, a Houston-based investment firm, today announced the launch of Truss Infrastructure Services (“Truss”), a new platform focused on acquiring and strengthening essential service businesses by connecting domain expertise, purpose-built technology and commercial reach.

Infrastructure operators are facing rising compliance and risk-management demands. At the same time, they are under growing pressure to use technology to operate more efficiently. Truss is assembling specialized service businesses that solve critical operational and asset management challenges, with a focus on embedding purpose-built technology directly into how those services are delivered.

“Truss represents an exciting opportunity to create a great business in a market Sallyport knows well and has successfully invested in before,” said Kyle Bethancourt, Managing Partner of Sallyport. “Aging infrastructure, increasing compliance requirements and the need to safely modernize critical assets are creating greater demand for specialized service providers with deep industry expertise.”

Louis Krannich will serve as Chief Executive Officer of Truss, bringing experience both as an operator of major energy infrastructure and as a leader of service businesses supporting those operators. He began his career with El Paso Corporation and PG&E before becoming Chief Executive Officer of Sallyport-backed Remote Operations Center (“ROC”), which he scaled into the largest third-party control center in the U.S. Following EverLine’s acquisition of ROC in 2019, Krannich helped scale the combined business through acquisitions, new market entry and technology deployment. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Summit Midstream.

“Having spent my career on both sides of this industry, I believe there is a compelling opportunity to build a different kind of infrastructure services company,” said Krannich. “We’re focused on essential services where judgment and execution remain critical, and where technology can meaningfully improve how the work gets done and how customers are served.”

“We’ve had the opportunity to partner with Louis before, and we’re excited to do it again,” said Ryan Howard, Managing Partner of Sallyport. “He brings a unique perspective to the market and shares our long-term approach to creating value. Partnering with him again was an easy decision.”

Submar, a leading provider of erosion remediation and maintenance services, became the first company to join Truss earlier this summer. The Louisiana-based business protects critical pipeline infrastructure with engineered erosion control systems delivered through a turnkey approach spanning site assessment, engineering, design, permitting and installation.

“Since partnering with Sallyport and Truss, we’ve been impressed by their approach to working with our team,” said Joseph Fournet, President of Submar. “They took the time to understand our business, our people and our customers, and have been thoughtful about where they can help us grow. That gives us a lot of confidence about what we can accomplish together.”

The name Truss reflects the power of connection. A truss brings individual components together to create a stronger whole. Truss seeks to connect specialized businesses in ways that benefit each company and the broader portfolio. Each business builds on its distinct strengths while gaining access to broader capabilities, knowledge and resources.

“We’re building Truss for the long term,” said Krannich. “The goal is not to make every company look the same. It’s to give each business capabilities and insight that can be difficult to develop on its own, while building on the strengths that earned the trust of its customers.”

About Sallyport

Founded in 2023 and based in Houston, Texas, Sallyport is an investment firm dedicated to providing capital and leadership to growing companies across various industries. As a value-add partner, Sallyport collaborates closely with management teams to grow and build thriving businesses. Its mission is to create enduring value for investors, companies and communities. For more information, visit www.sallyportinvestments.com.

About Truss

Founded in 2026 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Truss Infrastructure Services builds and strengthens essential service businesses supporting critical infrastructure operators. Truss creates value by connecting domain expertise, commercial reach and purpose-built technology across a growing network of specialized companies. For more information, visit www.trussinfrastructure.com.

SOURCE Sallyport

U.S.-Led Round Follows Expert Roster Growth and Recognition Among Canada’s Top 100 AI Startups

MONTREAL, Sept. 9, 2026 — Onix, the company behind Personal Intelligence®, a new category of AI built on trusted experts rather than the average internet, today announced $5 million USD (approximately $7 million CAD) in pre-seed funding led by Alpha Edison, with participation from Garage Capital, Ride Home Fund, and strategic investors including Jeremy Zimmer, co-founder of UTA, and JS Cournoyer, co-founder of Real Ventures.

The round marks the company’s first institutional capital and reflects growing confidence in its fundamentally different approach: private, expert-owned intelligence systems trained exclusively on licensed expert knowledge and governed by the experts themselves. The funding will accelerate platform development, expert onboarding, research and evaluation, as Onix heads to public availability. This momentum comes at a time when more people turn to AI for health advice, while trust and provenance emerge as defining challenges for the AI industry.

“The next generation of AI will be defined by trust,” said Nick Grouf, Managing Partner at Alpha Edison. “Onix has built a fundamentally different approach around human expertise and privacy. That’s why we invested.”

Early participants are already seeing the impact. “I was skeptical of digital medical advice. Then Jordan Metzl’s onix actually changed my behaviour, and no app has ever done that,” said James Schauer, a startup founder who used the platform while managing a knee injury. Cindy P., a Hashimoto’s patient dismissed for almost 30 years, said McCall McPherson’s onix “coached me exactly how to advocate for myself. My doctor did a complete 180.”

Experts see the same gap from the other side. “All the work we put into our careers, the biggest problem is it never reaches the people who need to hear it,” said Dave Rabin, MD, PhD. “Onix is going to demonstrate that AI can scale that knowledge and help heal the world.”

The financing stands out in a tight Canadian venture market. According to the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA), the round is more than seven times the average Canadian pre-seed deal in 2025 and exceeds the average Canadian seed round. It also comes as U.S. investor participation in Canadian pre-seed venture deals fell from 23% in 2024 to 8% in 2025, making a U.S.-led investment in a Canada-based company a notable signal of confidence.

The funding comes amid significant momentum for Onix, including the addition of new health experts, a partnership with Mila, the Montreal-based AI research institute founded by Yoshua Bengio, and recognition as one of Canada’s Top 100 AI Startups for 2026 by ALL IN. New health experts joining the platform include Tim Westbrook, MS, addiction recovery expert; Robin Berman, MD, psychiatrist and parenting expert; Aric A. Prather, PhD, sleep psychologist; Dr. Sanjay Bhojraj, MD, integrative cardiologist; Nathalie Niddam, CNP, BPC, longevity and biohacking expert; Shivani Gupta, PhD, Ayurvedic practitioner focused on inflammation; and Ashley Shrader, DNP, IFMCP, family nurse practitioner.

Onix was co-founded by David Bennahum, a former WIRED contributing editor and serial technology entrepreneur, and Dr. Nicholas Nadeau, who scaled humanoid robotics company 1X as CTO.

It launched with a cohort of Founding Experts across key health and wellness categories, including William Li, MD; Jordan Metzl, MD; Michael Rich, MD; Dave Rabin, MD, PhD; Jill Carnahan, MD; Krista Ramonas, MD; Joel “Gator” Warsh, MD; Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, MD; Elissa Epel, PhD; Nicole Beurkens, PhD; Meenal Agarwal, OD; Christian Drapeau, MSc; Juliana Hauser, LMFT; Ashley Koff, RD; McCall McPherson, PA-C; and Mark Sisson.

“Today’s AI dilutes knowledge, depriving people from accessing true expertise that defines the standards of human care,” said David S. Bennahum, Co-founder and CEO of Onix. “We believe the future belongs to technologies that preserve provenance, authorship, and human judgment, so people know who they’re learning from and experts retain ownership of the knowledge they’ve spent a lifetime building.”

“The AI industry optimized for scale by scraping everything public,” said Nicholas Nadeau, PhD, Co-founder and CTO of Onix. “But the most valuable knowledge was never public: the unpublished frameworks, the case notes, the judgment an expert builds over a career. You can’t scrape that; you have to earn it. Onix builds with experts, so their knowledge reaches people intact and stays theirs.”

Onix is currently available in early access on iOS. Full commercial availability is expected later this year, with Android to follow.

To learn more, visit Onix.life and follow Onix on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and YouTube.

ABOUT ONIX

Onix is the world’s first Personal Intelligence® solution, a private, expert-driven AI built from the minds you’d most want in your corner to solve life’s hardest problems.

Onix doesn’t replace humans; it amplifies them. Participants get guidance from the experts they trust, anytime, anywhere, with personal, private advice. Onix gives experts a way to license their knowledge intentionally and maintain governance over how their intelligence systems operate, while scaling their work to help more people without surrendering their IP to centralized AI platforms.

PRESS CONTACT
Sara White
[email protected]
832-314-2640

SOURCE Onix

GALWAY, Ireland and BRAINTREE, Mass., Sept. 9, 2026 — Neurent Medical, the pioneer behind the NEUROMARK® System for the treatment of chronic rhinitis, today announced that it has secured a €25 million growth debt financing facility from Claret Capital Partners.

The financing will support the continued commercial expansion of NEUROMARK®, accelerate investment in sales and marketing initiatives, strengthen the company’s balance sheet, and provide additional capital to support future growth opportunities.

The financing follows Neurent Medical’s successful €62.5 million Series C financing completed earlier this year, further reinforcing the company’s position as a leader in minimally invasive treatments for chronic inflammatory sinonasal diseases.

Brian Shields, CEO of Neurent Medical said:

“This financing represents another important milestone for Neurent Medical as we continue to scale our commercial operations and expand patient access to NEUROMARK. We are delighted to deepen our relationship with Claret Capital Partners, whose continued support reflects confidence in our technology, clinical evidence, commercial progress and long-term vision. The facility provides significant financial flexibility while allowing us to continue executing our growth strategy with minimal dilution to shareholders.”

Daniel Mallon, Principal at Claret Capital Partners comments: 

“Neurent Medical has demonstrated exceptional progress in establishing NEUROMARK as a leading treatment option for chronic rhinitis. We are pleased to further support the company as it continues its commercial expansion and works to improve outcomes for millions of patients suffering from chronic rhinitis.”

About Neurent Medical

Neurent Medical is dedicated to transforming the treatment landscape for chronic inflammatory sinonasal diseases. Its flagship NEUROMARK® System utilizes proprietary impedance-controlled radiofrequency technology to target hyperactive posterior nasal nerves, offering durable relief from chronic rhinitis symptoms. The company is headquartered in Galway, Ireland, with U.S. operations in Braintree, Massachusetts.

For more information visit www.neurentmedical.com. 

About Claret Capital Partners

Claret Capital Partners is Europe’s largest independent growth debt fund manager. Since 2013, the firm has invested over €1.5bn through its funds, supporting more than 210 companies across the technology, life sciences and impact sectors. Its team has been active in investing into European companies for over 25 years, providing innovative debt solutions that help entrepreneurs and their investors grow their companies while minimising dilution.

For more information visit www.claret-capital.com 

Claret Capital Partners Limited (company registered number 12516001) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 993228).

SOURCE Neurent Medical