COPENHAGUE, Dinamarca, 21 de enero de 2026 — Secomea, líder mundial en acceso remoto seguro para entornos OT industriales, anunció hoy una importante expansión de su organización de productos y tecnología, duplicando su inversión en el desarrollo de productos para acelerar la innovación, la escalabilidad y el liderazgo de categoría a largo plazo.

Esta medida refleja la creciente base de clientes de Secomea y la creciente demanda de soluciones de acceso remoto seguras, compatibles y fáciles de usar, diseñadas específicamente para ecosistemas industriales y de fabricación.

“El acceso remoto seguro se ha convertido en una infraestructura crítica para la fabricación moderna“, afirmó Michael Ferdinandsen, consejero delegado de Secomea. “A medida que el riesgo cibernético, la presión regulatoria y la colaboración global se aceleran, los fabricantes y constructores de maquinaria necesitan soluciones diseñadas específicamente para la tecnología operativa (OT), no adaptadas de las TI. Duplicar la inversión en productos nos asegura anticiparnos a estas demandas y seguir ofreciendo valor a largo plazo a nuestros clientes“.

Como parte de esta inversión ampliada, Secomea refuerza su liderazgo impulsando talento interno excepcional y dando la bienvenida a jugadores destacados. Juntos, este equipo liderará la estrategia de producto de Secomea, acelerará la implementación de tecnologías innovadoras e impulsará una visión de plataforma a largo plazo para redefinir el panorama de la conectividad industrial.

Knud Kegel ha ampliado su función de director de Producto (CPO) a director de Tecnología y Producto (CTPO).
En este rol ampliado, Kegel reúne la gestión de productos, la ejecución de ingeniería y la arquitectura de la plataforma bajo un mismo paraguas estratégico, lo que garantiza una alineación aún más estrecha entre las necesidades del cliente, la innovación de productos y la entrega de ingeniería.

“Nuestros clientes confían en Secomea para una misión crítica: acceso remoto seguro a sus sistemas ciberfísicos (CPS) sin ralentizar las operaciones”, afirmó Knud Kegel, CTPO de Secomea.

“Al unificar el liderazgo en productos y tecnología, podemos avanzar con mayor rapidez, escalar de forma más inteligente y seguir ofreciendo una plataforma diseñada para las realidades de OT”.

Para fortalecer aún más el liderazgo en ingeniería, Secomea ha nombrado a Thomas Have como vicepresidente de Ingeniería.

Have aporta una amplia experiencia de liderazgo en puestos de alta responsabilidad en tecnología, incluyendo recientemente su puesto como vicepresidente sénior de Ingeniería en LogPoint, con una sólida trayectoria en el desarrollo y escalado de plataformas de seguridad de nivel empresarial en entornos regulados.

“Secomea opera en la intersección de la ciberseguridad, el cumplimiento normativo y la continuidad operativa“, afirmó Thomas Have, vicepresidente de Ingeniería. “Esa combinación exige rigor técnico y un profundo conocimiento de cómo trabajan realmente los clientes. Me entusiasma ayudar a escalar una plataforma claramente diseñada para el uso industrial en el mundo real“.

Paralelamente, Secomea está estableciendo una función de marketing de productos dedicada a afinar el posicionamiento, aclarar el valor del cliente y reforzar el liderazgo de la categoría en acceso remoto seguro para OT.

La nueva función estará dirigida por Ingrid Arem Gundersen, líder de producto de Secomea a largo plazo, quien se centrará en fortalecer la conexión entre las necesidades del cliente, las capacidades del producto y la comunicación con el mercado.

“A medida que la categoría madura, la claridad cobra más importancia que nunca“, afirmó Ingrid Arem Gundersen.

“Nuestra misión es dejar claro por qué existe Secomea, para quién está diseñado y cómo aporta valor, ya sea responsable de la seguridad de OT, el tiempo de actividad o las operaciones de servicio global“.

A medida que los fabricantes se enfrentan a un riesgo cibernético creciente y una presión regulatoria, y los fabricantes de maquinaria escalan las operaciones de servicio globales, Secomea continúa invirtiendo donde más importa: una plataforma segura, confiable y fácil de usar que defiende la planta de producción al tiempo que permite la colaboración en todo el ecosistema industrial.

Acerca de Secomea

Secomea es una solución de Acceso Remoto Seguro (SRA) diseñada específicamente para redes industriales y equipos OT. Fundada en 2008, Secomea ayuda a fabricantes y constructores de maquinaria a proteger el acceso remoto a máquinas e instalaciones de producción, sin comprometer el tiempo de actividad ni la usabilidad.

Hoy en día, más de 8.000 clientes en todo el mundo confían en Secomea para reducir el riesgo cibernético, cumplir con los requisitos de cumplimiento y mantener las operaciones funcionando sin problemas.

Foto: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2866258/Michael_CEO_Secomea.jpg
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2648155/5728104/Secomea_Logo.jpg

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 21, 2026 — Upscale AI, Inc., a category-defining pure-play AI networking infrastructure company, today announced $200 million Series A financing led by Tiger Global, Premji Invest, and Xora Innovation with participation from Maverick Silicon, StepStone Group, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, Intel Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures. This new investment brings the total funding received to over $300 million.

The rapid investor backing reflects a growing industry consensus: networking is a critical bottleneck to scaling AI, and traditional network architectures designed to connect general purpose compute and storage are fundamentally unsuited for the AI era. The distinction is essential: traditional networking connects endpoints, whereas AI networking unifies the cluster. As specialized AI compute continues to scale, it is increasingly constrained by retrofitted or proprietary networking architectures. Legacy data center network solutions were designed for a pre-AI world, not for the massive, tightly synchronized scale-up required at rack scale.

Upscale AI was built from day one to solve this problem.

Upscale AI unifies GPUs, AI accelerators, memory, storage, and networking into a single, synchronized AI engine. As a core element of Upscale’s AI strategy, the purpose-built SkyHammer™scale-up solution enables the unified rack by collapsing the distance between accelerators, memory, and storage, transforming the entire stack into one cohesive, synchronized system. Upscale’s AI platform is built on and actively advances open standards and open source technologies, including ESUN, Ultra Accelerator Link (UAL), Ultra Ethernet (UEC), SONiC, and the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI). The company is an active participant in the Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium, Ultra Ethernet Consortium, Open Compute Project, and SONiC Foundation.

With an additional $200M in new financing, Upscale AI will be delivering the first full-stack, turnkey platform spanning silicon, systems, and software built to interconnect the heterogeneous future of AGI. The company will use the funding to rapidly expand its engineering, sales, and operations teams as it moves into commercial deployment. Upscale AI is experiencing strong early traction for its solutions for hyperscalers and AI infrastructure operators pursuing scalable, open networking alternatives.

Upscale AI’s networking solutions are slated to ship this year.

“This investment accelerates our mission to fundamentally re-architect networking for the AI era,” said Barun Kar, CEO of Upscale AI. “With a world-class team and strong customer pull, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build the open AI networking platform the industry has been waiting for.”

“Upscale AI has built extraordinary momentum in an exceptionally short time,” said Rajiv Khemani, Executive Chairman of Upscale AI. “The market is demanding open, scalable AI networking solutions, and Upscale AI is uniquely positioned to help customers break through today’s networking constraints.”

Supporting Quotes

• “AI is fundamentally reshaping infrastructure, and networking is at the center of that transformation,” said Rohit Iragavarapu, Partner at Tiger Global. “Upscale AI combines deep technical execution with strong industry relationships to build the next generation of AI networking.”
• “As AI systems scale, interconnect efficiency has become a defining driver of performance and economics—not just raw compute. What stands out about Upscale AI is not only their purpose-built approach to scale-up networking silicon, but the depth of experience of a team that has successfully built and deployed this class of infrastructure before,” said Sandesh Patnam, Managing Partner at Premji Invest. “Their ability to deliver proprietary-grade performance while embracing open standards reflects both strong technical conviction and real-world operating insight. We are excited to partner with Rajiv, Barun, and team again as they build critical infrastructure for the next generation of AI systems.”
• “AI workloads are outpacing the capabilities of traditional networks,” said Phil Inagaki, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Xora Innovation. “Upscale AI is rebuilding the entire stack from the ground up and leading the effort to democratize AI networking infrastructure at scale.”
• “Since our seed investment, Upscale AI has executed with impressive speed and discipline,” said Andrew Homan, Managing Partner at Maverick Silicon. “Our continued support reflects strong conviction in both the market opportunity and the team’s ability to deliver.”
• “From the outset, Upscale AI stood out as a startup well positioned to define its own path in the AI networking space,” said John Avirett, Partner at StepStone Group. “Upscale AI has already drawn significant customer interest, and we expect the team to translate that momentum into a strong roster of deployments with leading hyperscalers and AI infrastructure operators.”
• “Every computing era has its chokepoint. In the AI era, it’s networking,” said Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner at Mayfield. “Barun, Rajiv, and their world-class team are reimagining the entire stack from first principles and building an open platform for networking that can support the next generation of AI infrastructure.”
• “Upscale AI is perfectly aligned with Prosperity7’s vision of backing transformative companies that are pushing the edge of what’s possible,” said Abhishek Shukla, U.S. Managing Director at Prosperity7 Ventures. “We take a long-term approach to investing, and we see significant potential for Upscale AI to capture strong market demand in the AI networking space in the coming years.”
• “Scalability is the top priority for large enterprises evaluating networking solutions, and Upscale AI has architected its entire portfolio for scalability in the AI era,” said Srini Ananth, Managing Director at Intel Capital. “By delivering an open, turnkey solution, Upscale AI is removing complexity from networking infrastructure and unlocking scaled AI adoption for enterprises.”
• “As AI infrastructure scales, advanced networking is essential to meet the demand of AI workloads,” said Quinn Li, Senior Vice President, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and global head of Qualcomm Ventures. “As an early investor, we’re excited to support Upscale AI’s team as they push the boundaries of AI networking infrastructure.”
• “Collaboration is key for accelerating the future of AI infrastructure,” said Robert Hormuth, Corporate Vice President, Architecture and Strategy, Data Center Solutions Group, AMD. “By adopting UALink early, Upscale AI is helping to foster an ecosystem centered on openness, choice, and interoperability.”
• “AI networking is on track to become a $100B annual market by the end of the decade,” said Alan Weckel, Co-Founder and Technology Analyst at 650 Group. “Upscale AI is entering at exactly the right moment with open, high-performance solutions built to scale.”
• “The networking market has reached a clear inflection point with AI,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Upscale AI’s SkyHammer architecture makes them one of the most important companies to watch.”

About Upscale AI
Upscale AI is a high-performance AI networking company accelerating AI democratization through open-standard, full-stack, turnkey solutions. Its portfolio of silicon, systems, and software is purpose-built for ultra-low-latency networking, enabling breakthrough performance and scalability across AI training, inference, generative AI, edge computing, and cloud-scale deployments.

For more information, visit https://upscaleai.com.

SOURCE Upscale AI

CHICAGO, Jan. 21, 2026 — Renterra, a leading software platform for equipment rental businesses, today announced it has closed a $9 million Series A financing round led by Avenue Growth Partners, with participation from existing investors. The funding will support Renterra’s continued expansion, team growth, and investment in technology, including accelerating its position as the leading platform bringing practical AI to the equipment rental industry as it scales across North America.

Renterra provides an all-in-one operating system for rental companies, helping businesses modernize operations, improve customer experiences, and unlock new growth opportunities. Today, the platform is used by hundreds of rental companies across the United States and Canada, supporting hundreds of millions of dollars in rental transactions annually.

The Series A marks a major milestone in Renterra’s evolution as it builds the next generation of rental software, with a growing focus on applying AI to help rental businesses operate smarter, market more effectively, and make better decisions at scale.

“This investment gives us the fuel to move even faster and think even bigger,” said Andy Feis, Co-Founder and CEO of Renterra. “Rental businesses are the backbone of construction, infrastructure, and local economies, yet they’ve historically been underserved by technology. We’re building the platform that will define how this industry operates for the next decade, with AI playing a practical role in helping rental companies win. We’re excited to partner with Avenue Growth Partners and our existing investors as we scale.”

Avenue Growth Partners is an early growth equity firm with deep experience helping high-potential vertical software companies become category leaders.

“Renterra has built a product that is already having a transformational impact on how rental businesses operate,” said Ryan Russell, Co-Founder and Partner at Avenue Growth Partners. “The team’s combination of industry expertise and modern software positions Renterra to become foundational to the rental industry, especially as AI becomes an increasingly important driver of competitive advantage.”

With the new funding, Renterra plans to grow its team across engineering, product, customer success, and go-to-market functions, while continuing to invest in its platform and long-term roadmap.

For press inquiries:
Renterra
[email protected]

SOURCE Renterra

Capital Will Accelerate Nationwide Clinic Growth And Expand Zarminali’s Proprietary Technology Platform

CHICAGO, Jan. 21, 2026 — Zarminali Pediatrics, the first outpatient pediatric destination purpose-built to provide integrated primary and specialty care nationwide, today announced a $110M Series A funding round. Healthier Capital led the round, along with participation from existing investor General Catalyst, and new investor K2 HealthVentures.

Since its founding in 2024, Zarminali has rapidly emerged as a leader in modern pediatric healthcare, establishing a footprint of 28 clinics across 8 states in under two years. In 2026, the company plans to open 15 de novo clinics – including several in new markets such as Chicago, Milwaukee and Dallas – and welcome additional established practice groups into its growing network, continuing its nationwide expansion to serve more families. The new capital will be used to accelerate the rollout of Zarminali’s proprietary technology platform, enter new markets and open de novo clinics uniquely designed for pediatric patients and their families, and expand services beyond primary care to include both urgent and specialty care offerings.

With this latest raise, Zarminali has secured a total of $150 million in funding to date. Additionally, Amir Dan Rubin, CEO & Founding Managing Partner of Healthier Capital and former CEO of Amazon One Medical, will be joining Zarminali’s Board of Directors, alongside existing board members Holly Maloney, Managing Director & Head of Health Assurance at General Catalyst; Brandon Kerns, CFO of CareBridge Health and former CFO of Main Street Health and Landmark Health; and Margaret McKenna, former co-CTO of Devoted Health.

Having personally dealt with finding comprehensive pediatric care for a child with an autoimmune disorder and the stress that experience can place on families navigating the healthcare system, Founder & CEO Danish Qureshi committed himself to the mission of changing the way that pediatric care is delivered.

“Our rapid growth is proof of what millions of parents, clinicians, and children already know to be true: Our pediatric healthcare system is broken, and Zarminali’s family-centered, technology-enhanced healthcare model is the necessary solution,” said Danish Qureshi. “With this additional capital, we will be able to further expand our delivery of comprehensive and cohesive pediatric care to countless families across the country.”

“Zarminali Pediatrics represents a fundamentally better way to care for children – one that is built around families, empowered clinicians, and creative uses of technology,” said Amir Dan Rubin. “I am proud to support the team’s mission to unify primary, specialty, and urgent care all under one umbrella with one unified technology backbone – a solution that is both innovative and intuitive.”

“Zarminali is building the digital, operational, and clinical infrastructure for what modern pediatric care should look like in the U.S.,” said Holly Maloney. “The team has consistently outperformed expectations, and we believe they have the potential to build the first truly scaled, sustainable pediatric health system in the country, which is why we remain committed to investing in the company.”

A recent 2025 study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that the physical, mental, and developmental health of American children has significantly deteriorated across nearly every major health indicator over the past seventeen years – highlighting an increasingly urgent need to reshape pediatric care in the United States. Zarminali Pediatrics provides a modern, purpose-built healthcare alternative that delivers elevated, seamlessly coordinated care across the full pediatric continuum. By designing care around coordination, continuity, and seamless access, Zarminali is the ideal partner for families through every stage of a child’s health journey.

In addition to its primary care offerings, Zarminali Pediatrics will expand its specialty services to include speech therapy, occupational therapy, and behavioral health services across its clinic footprint, as well as urgent care in select locations. The company also plans to expand services to include 24/7 telehealth, to ensure families have access to care whenever a need arises. To learn more about Zarminali visit: http://zarminali.com.

About Zarminali Pediatrics
Zarminali Pediatrics is building the nation’s leading pediatric multispecialty group, focused on supporting families to shape healthy futures for their children – from birth through adulthood – by completely transforming the way pediatric care is delivered nationwide. Zarminali is tackling today’s challenges of increased administrative burden on clinicians and a siloed approach to pediatric care through intentional design of care delivery, enhanced by leading technology and collaborative, expert care teams. We are leading the way towards a healthier future for pediatric patients and a happier future for pediatric clinicians across the country. Visit zarminali.com for more information or follow our journey to provide more connected care on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

SOURCE Zarminali Pediatrics

The company will use the follow-on seed to advance the development of its high-performance CPU microarchitecture designed for the surging compute demands of AI workloads

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 21, 2026 — AheadComputing, Inc., the company pioneering breakthrough microarchitecture to deliver industry-leading CPU performance, today announced it has raised $30M in a Seed2 round, bringing the company’s total funding to $53M to date. The round was co-led by Eclipse, Toyota Ventures, and Cambium, with additional participation from Corner, Trousdale Ventures, EPIQ, MESH, and Stata.

AI workloads are reshaping compute across hyperscale data centers, workstations, PCs, and high-end embedded systems. While GPU performance is taking center stage, CPU performance remains essential for AI workloads, yet is often overlooked as a critical component of overall system capability. Industry forecasts predict that 70% of all data center workloads will be AI workloads by 2030, and a high-performance CPU is essential to the efficient execution of these workloads. The AI workload mix is shifting towards inference and agentic AI workloads, making higher per-core CPU performance an industry priority.

“Our team of system architects and engineers, with over 1000 years of combined CPU design experience, continues to push CPU performance forward and beyond the boundaries of traditional CPU innovation,” said Debbie Marr, CEO and co-founder of AheadComputing. “This additional funding will allow us to continue to challenge traditional rules and sustain a fast pace of transformation and develop the fastest high-performance, general-purpose CPU because everybody deserves better compute.”

Since its founding in 2024, AheadComputing has made rapid progress through product development, technical collaborations with semiconductor ecosystem partners, and customer design exploration with hyperscalers and compute providers. Its approach combines the extensibility of RISC-V with a breakthrough microarchitecture, demonstrating that open architectures can deliver top-tier performance for modern AI and Data Center applications. By collaborating deeply with technical partners across the ecosystem, AheadComputing is helping bring RISC-V into mainstream data-center and AI infrastructure.

“AheadComputing is shaping a massive addressable market at a time when the compute industry is undergoing a fundamental shift driven by surging AI workloads, escalating performance bottlenecks, and an urgent need for more scalable, high-performance CPU cores,” said Greg Reichow, Partner at Eclipse and AheadComputing Board member. “The team’s roadmap takes a novel approach by making CPUs more powerful than ever before. By leveraging RISC-V’s extensibility and pairing it with a breakthrough microarchitecture, the team is unlocking levels of performance and efficiency that the industry has been chasing for years and ultimately, setting a new bar for what modern CPUs can deliver.”

This new capital will support enhancing R&D, software innovation, and test chip development.  Additionally, AheadComputing continues to scale its team of nearly 120 people, which has collectively shipped 70+ products over the course of their careers. The team’s first product is currently in development, which is made possible by key collaborations with ecosystem partners, including Alchip, Cadence, Skyechip, and Tenstorrent.

For more information, visit aheadcomputing.com

Toyota Ventures:
“AheadComputing is focused on developing a ‘true performance CPU core’ that can break through the per-core performance limitations of today’s microarchitectures,” said Chris Abshire, principal, Frontier Fund at Toyota Ventures. “The company’s technology is addressing the growing demand for high-performance, energy-efficient processors by balancing raw processing power with superior power efficiency. We look forward to supporting the world-class team at Ahead Computing as they bring the most performant CPU to market.”  – Chris Abshire, principal, Frontier Fund, Toyota Ventures.

Cambium: 
“The RISC-V software ecosystem is large and rapidly expanding to meet the needs of the emerging AI workloads. AheadComputing will further accelerate the RISC-V ecosystem by giving software developers something they have lacked – a world-class CPU.” – Bill Leszinske, Partner at Cambium Capital

ALCHIP:
“The compute industry is at an inflection point. Alchip is delighted to collaborate with AheadComputing as they architect breakthrough CPU performance precisely when the industry needs it most. As AI workloads shift toward inference and agentic computing, AheadComputing is positioned to redefine what’s possible in high-performance computing.” – Dave Hwang, SVP and Alchip NA GM

Tenstorrent:
“The path to transformative CPU performance isn’t about chasing incremental gains—it’s about fundamental rethinking. You have to redesign core microarchitecture and goals. Debbie and her team at AheadComputing are approaching this problem with the kind of first-principles thinking that actually moves the industry forward. This team has collectively shipped over 70 products and holds hundreds of compute patents, representing both technical insight and execution capability. This is the caliber of engineering that delivers generational leaps, not evolutionary steps.” – Jim Keller, CEO of Tenstorrent and Board Member at Ahead

About AheadComputing
AheadComputing Inc. is an IP design house focused on developing, licensing, and supporting high-performance microprocessor cores and related technologies. With a leadership team boasting decades of experience in CPU architecture and innovation, the company is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of compute performance through cutting-edge RISC-V processors. AheadComputing’s solutions empower industries ranging from cloud computing to AI and edge applications, providing unmatched efficiency and scalability. Headquartered in Portland, OR, the company is poised to revolutionize the computing landscape by delivering breakthrough per-core performance and setting new industry benchmarks. For more information, visit www.aheadcomputing.com

Media Contact
[email protected] 

SOURCE AheadComputing

Led by Centana Growth Partners, the funding accelerates Benepass’ platform expansion to help employers better control healthcare spending and expand employee choice.

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2026 — Benepass, a global benefits capital management platform, today announced it has raised $40 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Centana Growth Partners, with participation from FoW Partners and existing investors Portage Ventures and Threshold Ventures. The funding will support Benepass’ efforts to expand into larger, more complex employers with their pre- and post-tax benefit offerings. The platform will be positioned to support more specialized and cost-sensitive programs.

“Benepass has demonstrated strong momentum across customer adoption, and platform usage,” said Matthew Alfieri, Partner at Centana Growth Partners. “What stood out in diligence was the consistency of customer praise across flexibility, its user experience, and a highly collaborative support model, which reinforced our conviction that Benepass is well-positioned helping employers manage benefit dollars with greater precision and flexibility.”

Healthcare costs are projected to rise by as much as 10 percent this year, driven by increased utilization, chronic conditions, and specialty drugs such as GLP-1 medications.¹ At the same time, more than a quarter of employers are shifting costs to employees through higher premiums and deductibles², a strategy that is becoming less effective as inflation strains household budgets.

With the new funding, Benepass will expand its platform to give employers greater control over healthcare spending while increasing employee choice. This includes continued investment in its Health Savings Account offering. Employers gain greater control over their investment philosophy. Integrated enrollment and a $125 minimum investment threshold make it easier for employees to participate.

The company will also expand Specialty Health Reimbursement Accounts as a cost management option for employers, beginning with programs designed to support GLP-1 medications. These accounts allow employers to define eligible medications, restrict merchants, and tailor access to complementary interventions such as nutrition counseling, fitness programs, and behavioral therapy. The approach is designed to support weight management programs without necessarily increasing premiums, claims, or deductibles for the broader employee population.

Benepass will pair these offerings with enhanced employee outreach around eligible benefits, including items that may qualify under Health Savings Accounts as well as Flexible Spending Accounts.

Greater participation in pre-tax accounts lowers employees’ taxable income and out-of-pocket costs. Employers benefit from reduced payroll taxes, making these accounts a rare win-win as healthcare expenses climb.

“As benefits have multiplied, their value to employees have become fragmented,” said Jaclyn Chen, CEO of Benepass. “By consolidating benefits on a single platform and expanding employee choice, employers can turn benefits into something people actually understand, use, and value. This funding allows us to keep scaling that foundation.”

Benepass currently serves over 250 employers globally and has supported more than 4.5 million card transactions to date. Since January 2025, its revenue has more than doubled according to internal company data. The company is also a Workday Wellness partner for financial benefits, reflecting growing enterprise demand for flexible and compliant benefits infrastructure.

About Benepass

Founded in 2019, Benepass is a global benefits capital management platform that modernizes how employers deliver and manage benefits, pre and post tax. Powered by a proprietary financial ledger, Benepass ensures precise and compliant distribution of benefit dollars across local currencies and programs. Currently, the company has processed more than 4.5 million card transactions, and serves over 250 employers worldwide. Benepass is also a Workday Wellness strategic partner for financial benefits.

About Centana Growth Partners 

Centana Growth Partners is a specialized growth equity firm that invests in the future of finance. Centana collaborates with companies across the entire financial services ecosystem, from institutions to fintech disruptors, to add strategic and long-term value to their portfolio companies. Centana empowers entrepreneurs with a combination of capital, network, and expertise to accelerate their growth. The Centana team taps into decades of financial services expertise and insight to invest in companies that bring real value and innovation to the industry. Visit centanagrowth.com for more information.

__________________________

¹ Plier, R. (2025, August 14). Employers project 10% rise in health care costs for 2026. Word on Benefits Blog. International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. 

² Society for Human Resource Management. (2025, September 25). Employers project big jump in health care costs 2026. SHRM. 

Media Contact

Corey Goldman
[email protected]
416-322-2863

SOURCE Benepass

Collaboration breaks down barriers for DisabilityTech startups to get funding

WATERTOWN, Mass., Jan. 21, 2026 — Today, the Perkins Howe Innovation Center announced a new collaboration designed to solve a long-standing problem for the disability community: bringing more accessible products and services to market. The new collaboration with Adaptation Ventures will unite DisabilityTech innovators with early-stage investors, accelerating the development of accessible products and services that people with disabilities need.

“Investment in DisabilityTech companies is growing, but access to ‘first money in’ remains a barrier for founders,” said Sandy K. Lacey, Executive Director of the Perkins Howe Innovation Center. “Innovation doesn’t happen without resources. By formalizing this strategic relationship with Adaptation Ventures, we can help move more early capital into the sector and support companies at the moment it matters most.”

By aligning their complementary programs, the Perkins Howe Innovation Center and Adaptation Ventures create new pathways for promising DisabilityTech startups to succeed. Perkins will draw on its connections across the disability and startup ecosystems to identify and refer high-potential companies, while Adaptation Ventures – a pioneering pre-seed VC fund exclusively focused on DisabilityTech – will support founders with early capital, strategic guidance, and investor networks.

“Working closely with the Perkins Howe Innovation Center allows us to engage earlier and more meaningfully with founders who are solving real accessibility challenges,” said Brittany Palmer, Managing Partner at Adaptation Ventures. “Perkins’ longstanding leadership in disability innovation makes them a natural collaborator as we work to ensure early investments translate into meaningful impact.”

This announcement follows the release of Perkins’ latest market research, “Defining DisabilityTech, Volume II: The Accessible Innovation Opportunity,” unveiled earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show. Drawing on analysis from McKinsey research, the report highlights several defining trends shaping the sector, including:

• DisabilityTech Is Entering a Breakthrough Phase: Early-stage (through Series A) DisabilityTech investment grew from $818 million in 2022 to $1.1 billion in 2024, signaling rising mainstream momentum.
• Early Capital Is Still the Bottleneck: Despite growth, DisabilityTech founders continue to cite first-money-in funding as their biggest barrier.
• AI Makes Accessibility Non-Negotiable: As AI becomes foundational, accessibility must be built in early—or exclusion will scale with the technology.

Together, Perkins and Adaptation Ventures aim to attract new investors, support emerging founders, and reduce friction points that slow the path from idea to impact. By connecting innovators with aligned capital and expertise, the collaboration will help bring accessible products and services to market for the 1 in 4 people worldwide who live with a disability.

About the Perkins Howe Innovation Center
The Perkins Howe Innovation Center—recognized on the Forbes Accessibility 100 as one of the “biggest innovators and impact-makers in accessibility”—unlocks the power of entrepreneurs and the disability community to create solutions to real-world accessibility challenges. The Center serves as a convener and catalyst of innovation by bringing together people with disabilities, startups, investors, researchers, and industry leaders to spotlight lived experience and solve everyday accessibility challenges. Learn more at Perkins.org/Innovation.

About Adaptation Ventures
Adaptation Ventures is a pioneering pre-seed fund dedicated to fueling tech innovation in disability, neurodivergence, and accessibility. It backs mission-driven founders building venture-scalable solutions for the nearly 2 billion people who live with disabilities and control $18 trillion in annual purchasing power. Adaptation’s Managing Partners, Brittany Palmer and Rich Palmer, have been on all sides of the table – as exited founders, global operators, and leading early-stage investors – and offer personal insight as disability advocates with lived experience ranging from limb difference and traumatic brain injury to neurodivergence. Its portfolio companies represent a range of sectors and industries, and benefit from a robust community of investors, experts, and hands-on guidance to help them scale. The Managing Partners have also worked to make the fund more accessible to new and seasoned investors, with smaller investment minimums. Adaptation sees disability innovation as the catalyst for a new era of entrepreneurship – one that delivers both purpose and performance. Interested investors, founders, and others can learn more on the Adaptation Ventures website.

About Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins helps children with disabilities find their place in the world. For nearly 200 years, Perkins has been the global leader in education services for children and young adults with disabilities with visual impairments. From its renowned Massachusetts-based school, Perkins develops best-in-class teaching practices and shares them worldwide—through teacher training, sustainable education programs, and accelerating innovation for people with disabilities. With a mission to make quality learning accessible to the 240 million children with disabilities globally and reached almost two million children last year. Perkins is continually innovating to meet the evolving needs of children, families, and educators—breaking down barriers and building brighter futures, one student at a time. Perkins.org

Media Contact:
Perrin McCormick
[email protected]
617-972-7333

SOURCE Perkins School for the Blind

Investment will launch a new joint venture in Abu Dhabi to bring nutrition technologies for healthy aging and disease remission to the MENA region

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21, 2026 — L-Nutra Inc., the world’s first nutri-technology company advancing science-driven nutrition for longevity and nutrition as medicine, announced today a $36.5 million investment in its Series D funding round. The investment, led by Mubadala Investment Company “Mubadala”, an Abu Dhabi sovereign investor and one of the world’s most reputable global investment firms with more than $330 billion in assets under management, brings L-Nutra’s total Series D raise to $83.5 million.

As part of this investment, Mubadala and L-Nutra will establish a local joint venture in Abu Dhabi to produce best-in-class scientific medical nutrition therapies and longevity nutrition for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The two organizations have already begun delivering healthier nutrition and education programs across seven Abu Dhabi schools.

“We are on the cusp of enhancing human healthspan, adding years to our life and life to our years. As the world’s first nutri-technology company, we have spent decades advancing nutrition R&D and developing effective interventions that can be integrated within our healthcare system,” said Joseph Antoun, MD, PhD, Chairman and CEO of L-Nutra. “By reformulating food into clinically validated nutrition programs, we now can support patients and individuals seeking to embark on a healthy longevity journey.”

“This investment reinforces Abu Dhabi’s ambition to expand as a regional hub for longevity science, preventive health, and advanced nutrition technologies, and operates as a natural extension of the sector capabilities we are building across the UAE’s emerging life sciences ecosystem,” said Ismail Ali Abdulla, Executive Director of UAE Clusters, at Mubadala’s UAE Investment Platform. “In addition to Mubadala Bio, our biomanufacturing and biotechnology national champion, we continue to execute Mubadala’s life sciences strategy by investing in innovative solutions that advance human health and longevity. We look forward to supporting L-Nutra’s international expansion, including across the MENA region through localized development of its core technologies in Abu Dhabi, while further advancing the UAE’s economic diversification and knowledge-based economy.”

Mubadala’s investment complements a roster of exceptional, blue-chip investors that have long supported L-Nutra’s mission. This includes Brentwood Associates, a leading private equity firm dedicated to building long-term value in essential service sectors; Stéphane Bancel, a globally recognized biotech leader whose work at Moderna played a pivotal role in the fight against COVID; and 618 Ventures, a pioneering San Diego-based tech venture capital firm.

About L-Nutra

L-Nutra, the premier nutri-technology company, leads the discovery, design, and commercialization of Nutrition for Longevity and Nutrition as Medicine programs that enhance human healthspan and drive remission in chronic diseases. In partnership with 18 global university research centers, L-Nutra has developed breakthrough nutrition formulations inspired by precision nutrition and powered by cellular longevity science. Supported by 47 clinical trials, 137 granted patents, and a rapidly expanding global presence, L-Nutra is redefining the role of nutrition to treat aging and chronic disease. L-Nutra’s programs — including Prolon for longevity and its medical nutrition therapies for chronic conditions — are designed to maximize safety, nourishment, and therapeutic benefit while improving health outcomes across populations. For more information, visit www.l-nutra.com.

About Mubadala

Mubadala Investment Company is a sovereign investor managing a global portfolio, aimed at generating sustainable financial returns for the Government of Abu Dhabi.

Mubadala’s US $330 billion (AED 1.212 trillion) portfolio spans six continents with interests in multiple sectors and asset classes. We leverage our deep sectoral expertise and long-standing partnerships to drive sustainable growth and profit, while supporting the continued diversification and global integration of the economy of the United Arab Emirates.  

For more information about Mubadala Investment Company, please visit: www.mubadala.com

SOURCE L-Nutra Inc.

Led by WestCap, the Series D Round Values the Company at $1.2 Billion and Marks the Next Chapter for Personalized, High-Quality Learning at Scale

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2026 — Preply, the #1 global language learning marketplace, today announced the closing of its Series D round, securing $150 million in funding led by WestCap, a strategic operating and investing firm with over $6 billion in assets under management. Goldman Sachs International acted as sole placement agent in the transaction. The latest funding round values the company at $1.2 billion, marking a significant milestone in Preply’s mission to make transformative learning experiences accessible to people around the world.

A pioneer in online language learning, Preply’s platform connects more than 100,000 tutors with learners in 180 countries, facilitating one-on-one lessons in more than 90 languages. Powered by a unique combination of human-led instruction, paired with its AI-supported tutoring co-pilot suite, Preply is redefining how people learn through high-quality, flexible and tailored learning experiences designed to drive real progress with every lesson.

Preply’s Series D fundraise comes at a time when an estimated 1.8 billion people, or roughly one in every four people worldwide, are actively striving to achieve proficiency in a second language, according to global education data platform HolonIQ. It’s estimated that the global direct-to-consumer language learning market will reach $227 billion by 2035, and has already delivered 3X growth over the last five years, with long-term forecasts indicating sustained, exponential growth in years to come.

Since its Series C raise, Preply has more than tripled its number of bookable tutors and expanded its offering by adding over 40 new languages to the platform. In the last twelve months the company continued improving EBITDA and became EBITDA positive. 

With this capital, and the support of new and existing investors, including The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Horizon Capital, among others, Preply will strengthen its commitment to delivering the world’s most personalized learning experiences at scale. The company plans to advance its AI and data capabilities, expand its product and engineering teams to enhance the platform experience, and accelerate its global growth to reach more learners and tutors across the globe as it reshapes the traditional education system. The WestCap team, with its strong track record of building and scaling global marketplaces such as Airbnb and StubHub, will help Preply further deepen its impact worldwide.

“We feel extremely fortunate and deeply responsible for shaping how people will learn in the future,” says Preply co-founder and CEO Kirill Bigai. “Today, we connect people with the world’s best tutors, amplified by AI, bringing learning efficiency to a level that was previously unreachable. We are happy to partner with the WestCap team, who has deep expertise in helping founders to build legendary world-changing brands. This investment will help us to continue to innovate at the intersection of human tutoring and AI, creating opportunities everywhere for people to connect, belong, succeed, and ultimately to progress in their lives no matter where they are in the world.”

As other learning platforms increasingly turn to automation, Preply remains committed to the power of human connection, using AI to enable and enhance tutor-driven learning and support its tutoring co-pilot suite. In fact, Preply’s 2025 Efficiency Study, conducted in partnership with the nonprofit research organization LeanLab Education, revealed that 96% of learners consider learning with a human tutor and engaging in real conversations as essential to their progress, while 97% said these interactions were key to boosting their confidence.

The study also found that learners progressed up to 3x faster with Preply when compared to average benchmarks, with one in three learners moving up a full CEFR level in just 12 weeks. This indicates that human guidance remains a powerful driver of meaningful learning, and can be supercharged when paired with AI, like Preply’s tutoring co-pilot, which tracks progress, delivers actionable insights, and automates administrative tasks, enabling tutors to focus on teaching and learners to more quickly reach their goals.

“Preply is setting a new standard for personalized education at scale, and the opportunities are virtually limitless,” says Allen Mask, Partner at WestCap and former senior executive at Airbnb, who is joining the Preply board. “Data shows that learners thrive when real human instruction is supported by technology, and in today’s increasingly connected world, there is a real demand for democratizing access to high-quality learning in a modern and effective way. Preply has the market-leading product, the experienced leadership team, and the vision to shape how people communicate globally.”

This latest round brings Preply’s total funding to approximately $299 million to-date, underscoring long-term investor confidence in the company’s mission and growth trajectory. With continued momentum across its global marketplace, Preply is well positioned to expand its impact, build on its proven learning outcomes, and further establish itself as the category leader in human-led, AI-enabled learning.

For more information, visit Preply.com.

ABOUT PREPLY
Preply is the human-led, AI-enabled language learning platform building the future of learning. With a global network of more than 100,000 tutors teaching over 90 languages, we are the category leader and the largest online marketplace that brings human tutors together with learners from 180 countries, supporting them with always-on, AI-powered tools to deliver real progress with every lesson.

Our mission is to create life-changing learning experiences by powering real progress through personalized learning, motivation, and high-quality tutoring at scale. We believe that we are uniquely positioned to become the company that understands human learning better than anyone else on the planet.

ABOUT WESTCAP
WestCap is a strategic operating and investing firm that partners with visionary leaders to build generational businesses. Our team is comprised of seasoned industry leaders and entrepreneurs who guide companies through the most pivotal stages of growth. Some of our notable investments include Airbnb, StubHub, Klarna, Ipreo, Addepar, Hopper, iCapital and GoodLeap. The firm has offices in New York, San Francisco and London. For more information, please visit www.westcap.com.

CONTACT
Lauren Doyle
Global PR & Communications, Preply
[email protected] 

SOURCE Preply