Firm accelerates growth with fourth fund and expanded platform capabilities; welcomes fifth cohort to FCV Collective, its industry‑defining healthcare leadership network

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 18, 2026 — Frist Cressey Ventures (FCV) announced today that it has closed an oversubscribed $425 million Fund IV, bringing total assets under management to nearly $1 billion. The new fund reflects strong demand from strategic partners and confidence in the firm’s approach, and will expand FCV’s platform and founder-support capabilities through its differentiated healthcare network, hands-on leadership support, and healthcare policy expertise. Fund IV will also continue to drive the firm’s focus on early-stage healthcare companies transforming care delivery with technology and tech-enabled services, including AI-native business models.

“This milestone reflects the clarity of purpose, conviction, and deep commitment of our team, investors, and portfolio companies, all united by a shared mission to advance innovation in healthcare that improves lives and keeps patients at the center of everything we do,” said Sen. Bill Frist, MD, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Frist Cressey Ventures. “As we enter this next chapter, we’re excited to build strong, transformative, and enduring partnerships – and to serve as a trusted partner to the leaders and companies shaping the future of patient-centered care.”

The close of this oversubscribed fund caps a decade of momentum for FCV, coinciding with the firm’s ten-year anniversary and building on the strength of its previous funds. With 44 total investments and 14 successful exits, the firm has a track record of successfully investing across both value-based delivery and transformational AI technologies. Fund I and Fund II rank in the top 5% of all venture capital funds for their respective vintages and have emerged as market leaders across key benchmarks.

This successful track record makes the firm a partner of choice for founders. “Frist Cressey Ventures believed in Thyme Care’s model early, before the category was clearly defined, and has stayed committed as we have grown into a category-defining leader in specialty care management,” said Robin Shah, chief executive officer and co-founder of Thyme Care. “The firm has been a close partner and mentor throughout that journey, and its perspective has shaped how we think about scaling patient-centered care to help more people with cancer in more meaningful ways.”

“FCV brings a rare combination of healthcare experience and long-term strategic thinking,” said Justin Norden, chief executive officer and co-founder of Qualified Health. “As we build the operating layer that enables health systems to deploy governed AI across the enterprise, their support has been grounded in a clear understanding of both the urgency and complexity of this moment in healthcare.”

Fund IV continues FCV’s established success in partnering with leading healthcare organizations, including The Cigna Group Ventures, MedStar Health, and OhioHealth – an element integral to FCV’s model. FCV’s strategic LPs provide healthcare to more than 50% of the U.S. population, giving them expansive reach and underscoring their strong alignment with FCV’s mission. This LP base also reflects significant confidence in FCV as both an investor and a collaborative partner; 25% of the firm’s portfolio companies include at least one investor from among its strategic partners.

“Advancing a simpler, more connected health care experience requires a shared commitment to collaboration and continuous innovation across the industry,” said Craig Cimini, head of The Cigna Group Ventures. “Our collaboration with Frist Cressey will help advance solutions that drive better health outcomes, affordability, and experiences for the people we serve.”

“We have a greater opportunity than ever to use tech to address some of the most complex challenges in healthcare. Frist Cressey helps us identify real innovations, and advises on where we should be spending our time and capital,” said Bill Sheahan, Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of MedStar Health and Executive Director of the MedStar Institute for Innovation.

“We are growing our partnership and engagement with Frist Cressey because of its proven combination of meaningful strategic value while generating top decile investment returns,” said Jesse Longoria, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy & Growth Officer of OhioHealth. “The collaboration with Frist Cressey will help us see around corners and bring innovative opportunities to our organization.”

Fifth Class of the FCV Collective
In tandem, Frist Cressey is announcing the fifth class of the FCV Collective, a curated group of 16 executives from diverse segments of the healthcare industry united by a commitment to durable systems-level change. The Collective meets throughout the year, both virtually and in person, to discuss the most pressing topics facing our system, learn from each other, and build relationships with peers across the country. FCV also leverages its deep policy connectivity through key activities, including a visit to Washington D.C. to meet with policymakers and administration officials to better understand healthcare policy priorities and agenda-setting. Click here for the complete Collective 2026 cohort.

Frist Cressey Ventures’ Fund IV will serve as a catalyst towards building with the healthcare industry, providing backing and partnership to companies that improve millions of lives.

About Frist Cressey Ventures
Founded by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD and Bryan Cressey, Frist Cressey Ventures (FCV) is a healthcare venture capital firm with $846M AUM focused on accelerating the growth of high potential healthcare companies through a differentiated healthcare network, hands-on leadership support, and healthcare policy expertise. Our mission is simple: to transform healthcare to improve lives. Our strategic partners, including The Cigna Group, MedStar Health and OhioHealth, provide healthcare to more than 50% of the U.S. population. We invest in early-stage startups that build technology or tech-enabled services to advance quality of care, system integration, patient outcomes, affordability, and access. To learn more about Frist Cressey Ventures, visit our website at www.fcventures.com.

Media Contact: 
Elena Riecke 
[email protected] 
917-485-1994

SOURCE Frist Cressey Ventures, LLC

Backed by Mindset Ventures and leading security investors to bring a “Cursor moment” to reverse engineering and make software researchers significantly more productive

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 18, 2026 — Zenyard, a company building the first purpose-built AI agent for software reverse engineering, today announced its emergence from stealth following a pre-seed funding round led by Mindset Ventures, with participation from TAU Ventures, Zuk Avraham, Raanan Raz, and additional investors.

Reverse engineering remains a critical capability across security research, vulnerability assessment, malware analysis, and threat intelligence. Yet it is considered one of the most difficult disciplines in cybersecurity and is practiced by only a small portion of cybersecurity engineers. The workflows researchers rely on today are manual, slow, and increasingly misaligned with the scale and complexity of modern software. Researchers often lose days reconstructing context, reaching dead ends, or skipping relevant code sections entirely because the time cost is simply too high.

Recently, generic AI tools and DIY MCP-based workarounds have entered the reverse engineering space. However, in real-world research environments, they frequently fall short. These approaches are limited to partial analysis, lack full binary context, and often produce inaccurate or hallucinated conclusions. As a result, many researchers remain skeptical of AI reverse engineering solutions that promise speed without reliability.

Zenyard is taking a different approach. The company is building the industry’s first AI agent designed specifically for reverse engineering workflows, created by reverse engineers. Instead of operating on snippets, the Zenyard agent understands entire binaries, handles the heavy lifting of decompiled code analysis, and provides explainability so researchers can trust the results. Zenyard integrates directly into the decompilers researchers already use, allowing them to move straight to meaningful insights with confidence without changing how they work.

“We built Zenyard out of our own experience working closely with security researchers and seeing the same bottlenecks repeat over and over,” said Yuval Luria, Co-Founder and CEO of Zenyard. “Even the best researchers spend too much time analyzing decompiled code with outdated tools instead of focusing on meaningful insight. Reverse engineering has not kept up with the pace of modern software. We’ve built Zenyard with the mission to help researchers focus on insight, not reconstruction, and give them AI they can actually trust on real, complex binaries.”

“We see a strong parallel between what tools like Cursor and Codex did for developers and what Zenyard is doing for reverse engineering,” said Boaz Albaraness, Managing Partner at Mindset Ventures. “As software complexity continues to grow, researchers need a fundamentally new way to understand binaries. Zenyard is creating a new category with a purpose-built AI agent, and the team’s firsthand experience with real-world reversing challenges, combined with deep security and AI expertise, uniquely positions them to lead this shift.”

Zenyard is already deployed across leading research teams in security and threat intelligence organizations, integrating directly into their existing workflows. The company’s research and development efforts are focused on expanding its multi-agent architecture to significantly accelerate expert researchers while empowering SOC and security analysts to investigate software and malware independently without requiring deep reverse engineering experience.

About Zenyard

Zenyard is building the first AI Agent for reverse engineering, created by reverse engineers. Designed to scale one of security’s scarcest skills – software understanding, Zenyard helps security researchers analyze complex binaries faster, avoid wrong turns, and focus on high-value analysis instead of manual reconstruction. With accurate and explainable results researchers can trust, Zenyard enables security teams to uncover vulnerabilities and mitigate threats with greater speed and confidence. For more information visit:www.zenyard.ai

SOURCE Zenyard

Backed by Bain Capital Ventures and Greylock, Cogent builds agentic systems to fight off escalating AI threats

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 18, 2026 — Cogent Security today announced $42 million in Series A funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from existing investor Greylock Partners and Definition. Founders and executives from OpenAI, Abnormal Security, and Datadog invested personally. The financing brings Cogent’s total funding to $53 million, just six months after the company’s official launch.

Why Attackers Are Winning

In 2025, over 48,000 new software vulnerabilities known as CVEs were published. That’s 162 percent higher than five years ago. Every enterprise software system has them, and new ones appear constantly as code changes and new threats emerge. Meanwhile, the time needed for hackers to figure out how to exploit new vulnerabilities has collapsed.

Attackers and security teams now operate at completely different speeds. Hackers using AI begin probing enterprises for vulnerabilities minutes after they’re first published. Fixing one on the defensive side still takes days or weeks. Security teams hunt down system owners through outdated directories and Slack threads. Developers field tickets without knowing which systems are affected or why this particular issue matters more than the hundreds of others in their queue.

Security backlogs grow faster than teams can clear them. Banks, hospitals, retailers, manufacturers, energy companies—they all face the same problem.

Finding vulnerabilities isn’t the hard part. Modern scanning tools handle discovery. The hard part is everything after: figuring out who owns what, understanding real-world risk, coordinating fixes across teams, proving the work was completed. It’s slow. It’s manual. And the threats now move at machine speed.

“Security teams are drowning in coordination work: chasing down system owners, writing tickets, proving fixes happened. We built AI agents that handle that work end-to-end, so security teams can finally keep pace with attackers,” said Vineet Edupuganti, CEO and co-founder of Cogent.

Cogent Security: AI Agents That Automate Remediation

Traditional security tools stop at detection, surfacing findings and leaving humans to handle the rest. Cogent’s AI agents investigate vulnerabilities, determine system ownership, assess real-world risk based on the environment, and generate remediation steps ready for engineers to implement. The agents then track fixes through to verified completion. Customers using Cogent have reduced exposure windows for critical risks by an average of 97 percent.

Cogent is built for enterprise governance. Every agent action is traceable and reproducible. The platform integrates directly into existing security and engineering workflows and operates under configurable approval gates and policy enforcement. Organizations can deploy autonomous AI agents without sacrificing control, auditability, or human oversight.

CSC is the leading AI-driven consolidator in commerce, having acquired Backcountry.com and four other brands in the past year alone. “Given the pace of our M&A activity, Cogent is central to our cybersecurity strategy—autonomously managing risk without slowing us down so we can stay focused on deploying AI,” said Justin Yoshimura, CEO of CSC Generation. “Cogent has become a meaningful competitive advantage for us.”

The Team

Cogent was founded by operators who have spent their careers both finding vulnerabilities and fixing them. Co-founders Vineet Edupuganti (CEO) and Geng Sng (CTO) came from Abnormal Security. Vineet led product strategy for a product loved by security teams. Geng built the ML fraud detection system now protecting half of the Fortune 500. Co-founder Thanos Baskous led infrastructure at Coinbase, where he ran large-scale vulnerability remediation.

The team also includes AI researchers from Google DeepMind who helped develop the transformer architectures behind ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Investment and Company Traction

Since launching in July 2025, Cogent is already working with dozens of Fortune 1000 companies. With the new funding, Cogent plans to accelerate product development, expand enterprise deployments, and continue building agentic security systems designed for governed, trustworthy execution at scale.

“The enterprise security landscape has reached a clear inflection point. The volume of vulnerabilities has outpaced what traditional, human-driven coordination can handle,” said Enrique Salem, partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “Cogent’s AI enables teams to accomplish five times more with the same resources. This represents a fundamental reset of what’s possible in security operations, and we’re proud to partner with this team as they continue to push the boundaries.”

“Cogent represents a new generation of security companies built natively for AI agents as first-class operators,” said Saam Motamedi, partner at Greylock Partners. “Vineet, Geng, and Thanos understand that securing AI agents requires a fundamentally new operating model, which allows them to move faster and deliver measurable customer value early. The technical depth of the team combined with that execution speed makes the customer signal impossible to ignore.”

About Cogent Security

Cogent is an applied AI lab building autonomous agents that close the execution gap in cybersecurity, the window between discovering vulnerabilities and actually fixing them. While attackers use AI to exploit flaws in minutes, defenders remain constrained by manual coordination that takes days or weeks. Cogent’s AI agents automate the time-intensive work of investigation, prioritization, and remediation, helping Fortune 500 companies achieve a 97 percent reduction in exposure windows for critical risks. Built by researchers and operators from Google DeepMind, Abnormal Security, and Coinbase, Cogent is backed by Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Learn more at cogent.com.

SOURCE Cogent Security

HOUSTON, Feb. 18, 2026 — Bayou City Hemp Company (BCH), a leading vertically integrated producer of hemp-derived THC beverages, today announced it is launching a funding round to accelerate expansion in core markets, scale its sales team, and bolster advocacy for responsible federal regulation. The round builds on recent insider-led investments in 2025, positioning BCH to capitalize on surging consumer demand and navigate evolving regulatory landscapes in the fast-growing THC beverage category.

BCH’s three-tier distribution model, leveraging established wine, spirits, and beer networks, provides a sustainable edge over DTC-focused competitors, enabling scalable growth amid regulatory shifts.

In just over two years since launching distribution, BCH has achieved 8x growth in distribution revenue, with 114% year-over-year growth despite regulatory headwinds. Operating in 15 states with 27 distributors, BCH is expanding to 40 in 2026, including MillerCoors network partnerships covering ~80% of Texas, its keystone market. This has driven rapid retail and on-premise penetration, with placements in over 4,000 accounts at major chains including Spec’s, Total Wine & More, Sprouts, Toot’n Totum, Circle K, Winn Dixie, Lowe’s, and others. Multi-year exclusive venue deals with White Oak Music Hall and ten additional nationwide locations underscore BCH’s mainstream traction.

“This funding round comes at a pivotal moment as the hemp-derived THC category transitions from uncertainty to regulated growth,” said Ben Meggs, CEO of BCH. “We’ve built a market-leading position through compliance, innovation, and a retail-first strategy that delivers velocity, selling over 2.5 million products in 2025, with 99% through three-tier distribution and over 40% on-premise, powered by proven, stable draft/keg formats and premium spirits like Ocho Verde. As federal restrictions loom in November 2026, we’re leading advocacy for extensions like the Hemp Planting Predictability Act (H.R. 7024) and the bipartisan HEMP Act to ensure consumer protection and industry sustainability. This capital will deepen our dominance in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Illinois while turning regulatory challenges into opportunities.”

The impending federal amendments, setting a 0.4mg total THC per container limit effective November 2026, restrict many intoxicating hemp products, but BCH is positioned as a compliant leader collaborating with Congress, Senate leaders, and coalitions to advocate for sensible policies. Industry momentum is strong: At the WSWA Access Live event, Total Wine & More founder David Trone and Breakthru co-chairman Charles Merinoff urged regulation over prohibition, noting the category’s broad appeal across demographics including seniors and veterans, its $1.1 billion current size, and $30 billion potential. BCH’s depth-focused strategy, concentrating on key states and scaling its sales team, supports forecasted 200% year-over-year revenue growth in 2026.

Founded in Houston in 2019 as one of Texas’s original seed-to-sale hemp processors, BCH features vertical integration, including 8th Wonder Brewery ownership and proprietary nanoemulsion technology for superior bioavailability, purity, and consistency. This enables fast-acting, low-dose products that appeal to consumers seeking mindful alcohol alternatives. The portfolio includes:

Howdy – Texas-inspired THC seltzers in flavors like Ranch Water Lime, Paloma Grapefruit, Sweet Tea, and Lemonade.

Beach Break – Low-calorie, flavorful THC seltzers designed for relaxed moments.

Wonder Water – Zero-calorie, zero-sugar sparkling waters with refreshing profiles.

Ocho Verde – Premium THC spirits in eight varieties, including agave, original, and espresso.

The Patriot – All-natural THC seltzers honoring veterans with patriotic flavors.

“Texas alone represents massive, untapped potential, with 60,000 TABC-licensed outlets and our coverage jumping from 20% to over 80% recently,” said Jeremy McKnight, Chief Growth Officer at BCH. “We’ve proven that adding doors and distributors drives immediate velocity, as seen in 2025, with new convenience and grocery chains scaling similarly. With this funding, we’re expanding our sales team to saturate core markets, fund chain expansions, and lead on regulation, ensuring we capture category dominance as hemp beverages go mainstream.”

About Bayou City Hemp Company

BCH is a Houston-based, vertically integrated leader controlling the supply chain from extraction to manufacturing. It leverages advanced supercritical CO₂ extraction and proprietary nanoemulsion technology to produce high-purity hemp-derived THC beverages and edibles (seltzers, draft, spirits, shots) with fast-acting effects and exceptional taste. Bolstered by 8th Wonder Brewery ownership and major distributor partnerships in core markets like Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Illinois, its model drives compliant scaling and growth. Learn more at www.bayoucityhemp.com.

Contact: Victor Wang, [email protected]

SOURCE Bayou City Hemp Company

ARCYN Defense has closed its seed financing round to accelerate development of next-generation air and counter-threat defense systems designed for modern, contested battlefields. Formerly Marteos Industries, the company is advancing an edge-AI-enabled, kinetic defense platform focused on precision, resilience, and affordability at scale. ARCYN is preparing its minimum viable product for upcoming demonstrations with the U.S. Department of War and has assembled a seasoned leadership team and advisory board of senior military and space operations leaders. The company aims to redefine the economics of air defense in response to rapidly proliferating, low-cost threats. 

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2026 — ARCYN Defense today announced the successful close of its seed financing round to accelerate development of its next-generation air and counter-threat defense systems.

Formerly Marteos Industries, ARCYN Defense is building on an early prototype air defense platform that leverages edge artificial intelligence, advanced sensing, and kinetic technologies to deliver affordable, high-precision protection against emerging battlefield threats. The company’s minimum viable product is currently under development and preparing to participate in several upcoming demonstrations with the U.S. Department of War (DOW).

ARCYN Defense also announced the appointment of its management team, led by Dr. Aaron Poynton, Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Fazel Farahmand, Chief Technology Officer, and Lou Schiliro, Head of Operations.

In addition, the company confirmed the formation of a distinguished advisory board that includes Major General Brook Leonard (Ret.), former Deputy Commander and Director of Operations for Combined Task Force–Space Operations and former Chief of Staff to U.S. Space Command; Lieutenant General Eric Wesley (Ret.), former Deputy Commanding General of U.S. Army Futures Command and former Commanding General at Fort Benning, Georgia; and Colonel Terry Virts (Ret.), U.S. Air Force, former NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station.

ARCYN Defense is focused on redefining the economics of modern defense by delivering systems designed for speed, adaptability, and scale in contested environments where low-cost, proliferated threats are reshaping the character of warfare.

“Our mission is to build defense systems aligned with today’s operational realities,” Poynton said. “ARCYN is focused on precision, resilience, and affordability at a scale that enables real deterrence.”

About ARCYN Defense
 ARCYN Defense is a U.S.-based defense technology company developing next-generation air and counter-threat defense systems powered by edge AI and advanced kinetic technologies, purpose-built for modern and future operational environments.

For media inquiries, contact:
Aaron Poynton
443.643.8811
[email protected]

SOURCE ARCYN Defense

EAST LANSING, Mich., Feb. 18, 2026 — Iaso Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company redefining infectious disease prevention with its novel synthetic vaccine platform, today announced that it will present at the 2026 World Vaccine Congress in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, March 31. President and CEO Robert Forgey, MS, MBA, will provide an overview of Iaso’s technology and commercial strategy during his live presentation at the Innovator Showcase.

2026 World Vaccine Congress
Date: Tuesday, March 31
Time: 1:30 p.m. ET
Session: Innovator Showcase
Location: Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

The presentation will showcase how Iaso’s synthetic vaccine platform delivers the broad protection and scalable production needed to combat infectious diseases, including the escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance, to transform global health.

In addition to the presentation, Iaso will host meetings with industry stakeholders, including investors and strategic partners, at Booth 589 in the Emerging Business Zone.

About Iaso Therapeutics
Headquartered in East Lansing, Michigan, Iaso Therapeutics is redefining infectious disease prevention with its novel synthetic vaccine technology designed to combat the escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance. The mQβ platform combines synthetic antigens with an engineered conjugate carrier to deliver broad-spectrum vaccines with unmatched potency, room-temperature stability, and global scalability. With a growing preclinical pipeline leveraging the platform’s multi-target capability, Iaso’s leading vaccine candidates are positioned for rapid translation to human trials. For more information, visit IasoTherapeutics.com.

Company Contact
Robert Forgey, MS, MBA
[email protected]
+1 773-437-0274

SOURCE Iaso Therapeutics, Inc.

Valuation doubles and annual recurring revenue grows nearly four times, driven by Fortune 1000 adoption

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 18, 2026 — Selector, a leader in AI-driven observability and network intelligence, today announced a $32 million funding round, doubling the company’s valuation to $375 million. The new round was led by AVP alongside Ansa Capital, Two Bear Capital, Sinewave Ventures, Singtel Innov8 and other existing investors. The investment will be used to accelerate AI innovation, product development, global go-to-market expansion, and customer success.

The capital infusion follows last month’s announcement of eight foundational U.S. patents, covering causal inference, large language model (LLM) training, AI-powered correlation, predictive maintenance, and network path intelligence. By horizontally correlating data across the entire stack, the Selector AI solution eliminates the silos of traditional vertical tools to provide a single pane of glass for true root-cause analysis, offering a flexible architecture that adapts to enterprise workflows rather than forcing them into rigid, vendor-defined platforms.

The company has seen strong momentum in 2025, marked by sustained enterprise growth, increased global adoption, and major product innovation, with key milestones such as:

• Cumulative annual recurring revenue (ARR) reached 230% of 2024 levels, marking the fourth year the company doubled ARR
• New ARR booked reached 370% of 2024, driven by accelerating enterprise demand
• Added three new Fortune 20 customers across manufacturing and healthcare; approximately 80% of customers are now Fortune 1000 organizations
• Continued global expansion through major cloud marketplaces and regional partnerships
• Expanded into the Japanese market, establishing new strategic partnerships and onboarding the company’s first Japanese enterprise customers

“Selector’s ability to deliver consistent strong growth while serving the world’s most complex Fortune 20 networks is a testament to the team’s execution and the mission-critical nature of the platform,” said Alex Scherbakovsky, general partner at AVP. “By providing one platform and one shared operational view, Selector helps enterprises understand and troubleshoot complex infrastructure challenges in real time. We are excited to partner with Selector to support the company’s international expansion and continued product innovation.”

“The increased adoption by Fortune 20 and Fortune 1000 organizations underscores the trust customers are placing in Selector,” said Kannan Kothandaraman, CEO of Selector. “Enterprises are moving away from fragmented monitoring tools toward platforms that deliver intelligence, context, and automation at scale, and our rapid customer expansion validates our efforts to help them navigate this transition and modernize their operations.”

Selector also announced plans to release its next generation ChatOps capabilities providing a more powerful Agentic ChatOps, designed to support multi-turn reasoning, iterative investigation, and deeper operational context.

About Selector

Selector delivers an AI-powered observability and network intelligence platform that unifies data, correlation, and automation across domains. By combining large language models, knowledge graphs, and causal reasoning, Selector enables teams to detect, diagnose, and resolve issues faster. Leading telecommunications providers, cloud service providers, and global enterprises rely on Selector to reduce MTTR, prevent outages, and accelerate transformation.

Selector is backed by leading investors, including Ansa Capital, Atlantic Bridge Ventures, AT&T Ventures, AVP, Bell Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Hyperlink Ventures, Two Bear Capital, Sinewave Ventures, and Singtel Innov8.

Media Contact:

Stephen Ochs

[email protected]

Georgiana Comsa

Silicon Valley PR

[email protected]

SOURCE Selector

Investment Led by Edge Medical Ventures to Accelerate U.S. Commercial Growth and Clinical Adoption of FDA-Cleared LibAirty™ System

OR YEHUDA, Israel and JERSEY CITY, N.J., Feb. 18, 2026 — Synchrony Medical, a respiratory care technology company and creator of the FDA-cleared LibAirty™ Airway Clearance System, today announced it has closed an oversubscribed $5 million funding round. The investment, led by Edge Medical Ventures with participation from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), Broadfin Holdings, Consensus Business Group (CBG), and angel investors, will accelerate U.S. commercial expansion, support ongoing clinical research and product development, and broaden patient access to LibAirty™.

For millions living with chronic lung conditions, airway clearance is essential to managing symptoms, preventing infections, and slowing disease progression. The LibAirty™ system delivers this vital therapy through a daily home treatment that has shown the ability to clear twice as much sputum as conventional therapies with enhanced user comfort and satisfaction. Since its commercial launch in late 2025, LibAirty™ has received an enthusiastic response from both patients and clinicians, demonstrating immediate impact on daily condition management.

“This funding enables us to advance our mission of delivering meaningful clinical outcomes by bringing effective, easy-to-use airway clearance into more homes and empowering patients to manage their respiratory health,” said Anat Shani, CEO of Synchrony Medical. “Supported by our exceptional investors and new board members, we’re well positioned to scale our U.S. market presence, expand our clinical evidence base, and advance product innovation.”

In conjunction with the funding, Synchrony announced the appointment of Kevin Kotler, General Partner of Broadfin Holdings, and Elad Duschak, Strategic Advisor to CBG for Healthcare, to the company’s Board of Directors, strengthening strategic oversight as the company enters its next phase of growth.

“The LibAirty™ System, with its proven clinical advantage, is poised to disrupt a market with high demand and strong growth,” said Kevin Kotler, General Partner of Broadfin Holdings. “We look forward to working with the team to scale nationwide and create meaningful value for both patients and shareholders.”

Synchrony will continue to expand its U.S. team and operations from its Jersey City headquarters. The financing includes $1M funding from the NJEDA through the New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Fund (NJIEF)’s co-investment with Edge Medical Ventures, further supporting the company’s growth and presence in the state.

“Synchrony exemplifies the type of innovation we seek to support, addressing an unmet clinical need through strong clinical foundations and a clear path to transforming patient care,” said Shai Policker, Chairman of Synchrony and Managing Partner at Edge Medical Ventures. “This demonstrates how Edge’s transatlantic presence, combined with the company’s proven execution capabilities, can establish a new standard of care and bring it to market.”

“As partners of EdgeLabs (formerly MEDX Xelerator), we are proud to support Synchrony from its early stages of development and witness its remarkable progress,” said Mr. Vincent Tchenguiz, Chairman of Consensus Business Group. “We are pleased to continue supporting this important, high-impact medical innovation and make it more widely available for patients.”

About Synchrony Medical 

Synchrony Medical is a respiratory care technology company dedicated to providing advanced at-home airway clearance therapy. The company’s FDA-cleared LibAirty™ Airway Clearance System transforms respiratory therapy into an easy-to-manage daily routine that patients can perform independently at home, setting a new standard of care for those living with chronic lung disease. Developed in collaboration with leading pulmonologists at Sheba Medical Center, LibAirty™ was founded through Edge Medical Ventures’ EdgeLabs (formerly MEDX Xelerator) and is supported by the Israel Innovation Authority. Synchrony Medical is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, with additional operations in Or Yehuda, Israel. For more information, visit https://libairty.health.

Media Contact:
Aviva Sapir
Number 10 Strategies
[email protected]

SOURCE Synchrony Medical

The Series E doubles Vestwell’s valuation as the company surpasses 2 million active savers, $50 billion in assets, and $200 million in annual recurring revenue

NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2026 — Vestwell, the infrastructure platform powering America’s modern savings economy, has raised $385 million in Series E funding. The round was led by Blue Owl Capital and Sixth Street Growth, with participation from new and existing investors, including Neuberger Berman, SLW, Morgan Stanley, Franklin Templeton, TIAA Ventures, and HarbourVest. JPMorgan was placement agent and structuring agent for Vestwell in connection with the financing.

The financing doubles Vestwell’s valuation since its 2023 Series D and brings total capital raised to $660 million. Vestwell has surpassed $200 million in annual recurring revenue and continues to grow profitably. The financing reflects investor confidence in Vestwell’s role as the infrastructure layer for how Americans save.

Vestwell’s growth comes at a critical time, as millions of Americans remain financially vulnerable and under-prepared for emergencies and major life milestones such as college education and retirement.

What This Capital Unlocks

Vestwell is expanding its distribution across all channels where income is earned and benefits are delivered, while advancing intelligent, AI data-driven experiences and extending savings pathways beyond retirement. By embedding savings more deeply into payroll, benefits platforms, financial institutions, and government-led public programs, Vestwell’s platform reaches workers and families where saving actually happens.

The company is also expanding access to more sophisticated, professionally managed investment solutions. These capabilities—historically reserved for larger, institutional plans—move beyond basic, age-based defaults to incorporate a broader set of personalized factors tied to long-term retirement income goals. As a result, more employers and savers can benefit from a tailored, holistic investment approach using Vestwell’s award-winning technology.

Ongoing investment in AI-native capabilities personalizes guidance, automates administration, and surfaces actionable insights for savers and their employers. Together, these advances enable saving to start earlier, adapt more holistically to life’s needs, and operate as a connected, end-to-end experience.

“We’re focused on an ambitious goal to close the $50 trillion savings gap in America,” said Aaron Schumm, founder and CEO of Vestwell. “This capital allows us to move faster on the work that matters most. It reflects strong confidence from leading investors in our unified savings platform and our ability to scale across payroll, partners, and products. We’re deepening the intelligence behind the platform and expanding access beyond retirement so more people can save in ways that best fit their lives.”

A New Approach to Saving

For decades, saving in America has been fragmented. Separate systems for retirement, emergencies, education, disability, and long-term goals each had their own rules, vendors, and barriers to participation.

Today, Vestwell supports more than 2 million active savers and administers over $50 billion in assets through employers, financial institutions, advisors, payroll providers, and government agencies nationwide. Its innovations lower barriers to participation, deliver measurable outcomes, and expand access to modern savings across income levels, languages, and communities.

A secure retirement remains foundational, but achieving that goal requires a broader approach to saving that starts with the first dollar. Vestwell’s platform already powers a broad set of savings pathways—from workplace emergency savings and programs that seed early wealth for college savings and student debt solutions, to ABLE accounts that protect benefits for people with disabilities—delivered through a single, modern infrastructure layer.

“Vestwell has built a resilient platform with strong underlying economics and a clear path for continued expansion,” said Tim DeGrange, a principal of Blue Owl Capital. “The company’s ability to scale profitably while broadening both its product offering and distribution reflects the durability of its model and the strength of its execution. Vestwell is building long-term infrastructure for the savings ecosystem, enabled for today’s age of AI.”

As adoption accelerates across both the private and public sectors, Vestwell has emerged as the connective layer across how saving works in the U.S.

At Scale Today

• More than 2 million active savers using Vestwell-powered programs
• More than $50 billion in assets administered across workplace, institutional, and government channels
• Nearly 30,000 plans added through the Accrue 401k acquisition
• More than 40 government programs leveraging Vestwell infrastructure
• Multilingual experiences across more than 20 languages and AI-powered assistance delivering real-time, personalized support

“Vestwell’s platform has reached an important inflection point, combining innovation and scale with the flexibility to support a broad and evolving set of savings use cases,” said Alex Goodman, principal at Sixth Street Growth. “As demand for integrated savings solutions accelerates across employers, advisors, and partners, we believe Vestwell is well-positioned to build on its momentum and expand its impact over time.”

“The Vestwell team has built a leading savings platform that is extending its reach across major payroll providers with the Accrue 401k acquisition,” said Michael Noryko, managing director at SLW. “Aaron Schumm, Dave Sheen and the leadership team at Vestwell have a long track record of building value with successful acquisitions. They are well positioned to be the backbone for the modern savings economy and we look forward to extending our partnership.”

About Vestwell
Vestwell is the backbone of the modern savings economy. Vestwell is a financial technology company that makes it easier for more Americans to save for life’s most important moments—from retirement to education and healthcare. Founded in 2016, Vestwell’s platform removes traditional barriers to saving, making it accessible, efficient, and approachable for everyone.

Vestwell provides a comprehensive suite of workplace savings solutions, including retirement plans, student loan repayment benefits, and specialized accounts for education, emergencies, and disability savings.

Trusted by financial advisers, employers, payroll providers, financial institutions, and government agencies. With a commitment to closing the savings gap and fostering a secure financial future for all, Vestwell provides the accessible savings technology everyone deserves.

For more information, visit www.vestwell.com.

About Blue Owl Capital Inc.
Blue Owl (NYSE: OWL) is a leading asset manager that is redefining alternatives^®. With over $307 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2025, we invest across three multi-strategy platforms: Credit, Real Assets and GP Strategic Capital. Anchored by a strong permanent capital base, we provide businesses with private capital solutions to drive long-term growth and offer institutional investors, individual investors, and insurance companies differentiated alternative investment opportunities that aim to deliver strong performance, risk-adjusted returns, and capital preservation.

Together with approximately 1,365 experienced professionals globally, Blue Owl brings the vision and discipline to create the exceptional. To learn more, visit www.blueowl.com or LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blue-owl-capital

About Sixth Street Growth
Sixth Street Growth provides growth equity and bespoke capital solutions to mid- and late-stage technology companies. Sixth Street Growth is the dedicated growth investing platform of Sixth Street, a leading global investment firm with over $125 billion in assets under management and committed capital. Sixth Street has invested over $10 billion in more than 70 companies through its Growth franchise since inception. For more information, and additional disclosures, visit www.sixthstreet.com/growth, and follow Sixth Street on LinkedIn.

About SLW
SLW focuses on providing flexible expansion capital to later-stage growth companies in the technology and technology-enabled industries. For more information about Silver Lake Waterman, please visit www.slw.vc.

SOURCE Vestwell