Funding will bring E3’s safety platform to more schools, hospitals, and government facilities

LOGAN, Utah, Aug. 17, 2026 — Emergent 3 (“E3”), the emergency situational awareness and response platform that gives organizations real-time clarity during a crisis, today announced a strategic investment from Arthur Ventures (“AV”), an early growth capital firm that leads investments in B2B software companies. The partnership provides E3 with growth capital and strategic support for its product roadmap and continued expansion across the K-12, healthcare, and government markets.

E3 serves more than 1,000 school districts, hospitals, and government facilities across 48 states, with over 100,000 users on the platform. While most safety tools stop at alerting users that an incident is occurring, E3 answers the questions that drive outcomes: which exits are safe, whether to evacuate or lock down, who is accounted for, and what responders need to know before they arrive.

E3 recently launched two features for K-12 customers. Roll Call is a student accountability tool that syncs with a district’s student information system, allowing administrators to take roll during any emergency and see which students are accounted for, which are safe, and which need to be found first. Reunification manages and documents the student-parent reunification process from staging to release, giving schools a verified record of every student’s safe return. Both build on E3’s existing platform, which includes Smart Maps, location-aware alerts, first responder access, and drill management.

“We built this as dads who wanted something better for our own kids” said PK Keller, Founder of E3. “From day one, our goal has been simple: an end-to-end school safety platform that is easy to use and just works. It’s been rewarding to see educators and first responders share E3 with one another and help bring the platform into healthcare and government.”

“After helping grow another software company, I wanted to build something with real purpose,” said Dalton Mickelsen, CEO of E3. “From day one, E3 has been intentional about the markets we serve and focused on protecting people when it matters most.”

About Emergent 3

Emergent 3 (E3) is the emergency situational awareness and response platform that gives organizations the clarity to protect their people when seconds matter. When an emergency happens, any staff member can trigger a location-aware alert, and leadership sees the incident unfold on an interactive map of the organization’s own floor plans – who is safe, who needs help, and where each person is. With built-in Smart Maps, real-time accountability, first responder access, drill reporting, and reunification, E3 provides coordinated action for schools, hospitals, and government facilities. The platform requires no additional hardware and serves thousands of facilities across the nation. Learn more at Emergent3.com.

About Arthur Ventures

Arthur Ventures is an early growth capital firm that leads investments in B2B software companies located outside Silicon Valley. Since 2013, they have partnered with 80+ companies in different cities across all regions of the United States and Canada. Arthur Ventures manages ~$2 billion and is actively investing out of its $800 million in capital committed to its 2025 fund vintages. Learn more at arthurventures.com.

SOURCE Emergent 3

Jeanty joins as an investor and the face of Nukleus, giving athletes and the professionals who manage their careers one shared source of truth instead of scattered spreadsheets and side conversations.

ISSAQUAH, Wash., Aug. 17, 2026 — Nukleus, a career operating system for the business of sports, today announced that Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty has joined the platform as an investor and its face, ahead of its public launch later this month. The partnership puts one of the NFL’s rising stars behind a system built to solve a problem most athletes live with: a career run by a team, an agent, a lawyer, a CPA, a financial advisor, a marketing agent, working off scattered emails, PDFs, and spreadsheets instead of one shared source of truth. Nukleus replaces the fragments with one platform, giving everyone in an athlete’s orbit the same data at the same time.

“The athlete is the nucleus. Everyone around them, from agents and lawyers to brands and advisors, should be operating off the same information, not chasing it down separately every time something changes,” said Hector Rivas, founder and CEO of Nukleus. “I’ve spent years around the business of sports, watching deals, data, and decisions get lost between people who know they’d be better off working together, but never had a way to actually do it. Nukleus is the system that keeps them on the same team.”

Rivas founded and ran a sports agency, giving him visibility into every piece of the business, not just one. That experience shapes Nukleus’s AI infrastructure, built on a knowledge base of collective bargaining agreements, contract structures, and athlete benefits to support the professionals working on an athlete’s behalf.

“Coming into the NFL, you become a CEO, directing a team of agents, advisors, and marketers, whether you’re ready or not. Nukleus is what finally gets them all on the same page, so I can actually run that team the way it should be run. That’s why I invested in it,” said Jeanty.

Unlike athlete-only tools, Nukleus serves the full ecosystem of sports: athletes join free, while the agents, CPAs, advisors, marketing agencies, brand collectives, trainers, and lawyers who serve them subscribe to run their side of the business.

Nukleus’s leadership team includes founder and CEO Hector Rivas, who previously led ThriftBooks to more than $150 million in annual revenue; CTO Eric Ahlstrom (ESPN, Microsoft, Oracle); Chief Creative Officer Ben Miller (former creative director, University of Washington Football and CAA Sports); and CFO Matt Porter (former Controller, Disruptive Sports).

Nukleus opens to the public later this month. More information is available at nukleus.co.

About Nukleus

Nukleus is the operating system for the business of sports, connecting athletes with the agents, lawyers, CPAs, financial advisors, and marketing professionals who manage their careers. Nukleus replaces fragmented tools with a single shared system and is based in Washington state. Learn more at nukleus.co.

Contact:

Doug Hall

[email protected]

SOURCE Nukleus

Shared leadership structure formalizes how the founders already lead the company as the Aptitude enters its next stage of growth

GOLETA, Calif., Aug. 17, 2026 — Aptitude Medical Systems, Inc. today announced that co-founder JP Wang has been appointed Co-Chief Executive Officer. Wang will lead the company alongside co-founder and Co-CEO Scott Ferguson.

The appointment formalizes Wang and Ferguson’s existing shared leadership of  the company as it expands both the Metrix molecular diagnostic platform and its commercial reach.

Wang co-founded Aptitude with Ferguson and Jackson Gong in 2011. Since then, he has shaped the company’s strategy, vision, and culture while leading much of its work across technology, product development, manufacturing, and operations. He most recently served as President and Chief Technology Officer.

“JP and I have built Aptitude together for more than a decade, and this appointment reflects how we already lead the company,” said Ferguson. “JP has been the driving force behind our product platform, built the capabilities needed to manufacture at scale, and played a central role in shaping the team and culture we have today. We know the business deeply, bring complementary strengths, and share the same vision for its future. Formalizing this structure gives us greater clarity and allows us to move faster as we enter the next stage of growth.”

Aptitude is expanding from a company historically centered on research and product development into a commercial diagnostics company with products in the market and an expanding customer base. Its Metrix platform is designed to bring laboratory-quality molecular testing into homes and point-of-care settings. Aptitude currently offers FDA-authorized molecular tests for COVID-19 and Flu and is expanding both the commercial reach of Metrix and the platform’s test menu.

“We spent many years developing the technology and capabilities required to make high-quality molecular testing broadly accessible,” said Wang. “Our next challenge is to build on that foundation by bringing more tests to the Metrix platform and bringing those products to many more customers. We need to remain as strong at invention and product development as we become at commercial execution. Scott and I have already been leading that work together, and formalizing the Co-CEO structure brings greater clarity both internally and externally.”

The appointment formalizes Aptitude’s existing leadership model and does not change the company’s day-to-day operating structure or its existing relationships with employees, customers, and partners.

About Aptitude Medical Systems
Aptitude Medical Systems is a molecular diagnostics company based in Goleta, California, in the Santa Barbara area. The company develops, manufactures, and commercializes the Metrix platform, which brings laboratory-quality molecular testing to the point of care and the home. Founded in 2011, Aptitude produces FDA-authorized diagnostic products and is expanding the Metrix test menu to address a broader range of diagnostic needs. The company works with commercial and public-sector partners to expand access to molecular testing.

To learn more, visit www.aptitudemedical.com, follow Aptitude on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Aptitude Medical Systems, Inc.

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, Aug. 17, 2026 — JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC (“Jones”) today announced that it served as sole book-running manager for the $81.3 million initial public offering of Vogenx, Inc. (NASDAQ: VOGX) (“Vogenx”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of serious diseases associated with dysfunctions in human metabolism.

The offering consisted of 6,250,000 shares of Vogenx common stock at a public offering price of $13.00 per share, at the high end of the proposed range. All shares were offered by Vogenx. Gross proceeds to Vogenx from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses, were approximately $81.3 million.

Vogenx’s common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on August 12, 2026 under the ticker symbol “VOGX.” The offering closed on August 13, 2026.

“We are proud to have partnered with Vogenx on this important milestone. This transaction reflects the continued growth of our investment banking and capital markets platform and our ability to deliver thoughtful, high-quality execution for innovative healthcare companies accessing the public markets,” said Alan Hill, CEO of JonesTrading.

“The success of this offering underscores the strength of Jones’s relationships across the fundamental biotech investment community,” said Moe Cohen, Head of Investment Banking at Jones. “Our ability to connect compelling companies with sophisticated, long-term healthcare investors was an important component of the transaction, and we are pleased to support Vogenx as it begins its next chapter as a public company.”

“This transaction is a milestone that represents years of hard work from a dedicated team,” said Vogenx CEO James Green. “We are now well-capitalized to further the development of therapeutics for the treatment of diseases associated with dysfunctions in human metabolism, including PBH and gastroparesis. We are grateful to the Jones team for their partnership, commitment and execution throughout this process, and for helping us reach this important milestone.”

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any offer or sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Jones

JonesTrading Institutional Services, LLC (“Jones”) is a leading full-service investment banking firm, providing a comprehensive suite of services, including capital markets, M&A, and strategic advisory to corporate clients. The firm is dedicated to building lasting partnerships by delivering innovative solutions, deep industry expertise, and tailored strategies that drive value and success. Founded in 1975, JonesTrading has established itself as the global leader in block trading and a premier liquidity provider to institutional investors. The firm’s offerings also include derivatives trading, outsourced trading, electronic trading, prime services, private markets trading, and research/market intelligence. Member FINRA and SIPC.

For more information, please visit www.jonestrading.com

Megan Bracero
[email protected]

SOURCE JonesTrading Institutional Services

Funding will accelerate the product roadmap and support VastAdvisor’s go-to-market plan.

DANA POINT, Calif., Aug. 17, 2026 — VastAdvisor, the AI-powered Organic Growth OS for wealth management firms, today announced the close of its $1 million SAFE round led by investments from fintech industry titans. The firm will utilize this funding to accelerate its product roadmap and support its go-to-market efforts.

Debuting earlier this year at Future Proof Citywide, VastAdvisor has initiated its enterprise relationships and will be expanding across registered investment advisors (RIAs), broker-dealers and wealth platforms. VastAdvisor is building a new category of organic growth infrastructure focused not on managing assets, but on acquiring them — an area long underserved in wealth management. The platform integrates AI-driven audience intelligence, campaign orchestration, compliance automation, and continuous performance optimization into a single, self-improving system. 

Dani Fava, chief strategy officer at Carson Group, Jason Pereira, CFP, senior partner at Woodgate Financial and Sally George, partner at Convergency Partners, led the funding round.

“It has been so meaningful and validating having not only a financial investment from fintech juggernauts but also having their support and encouragement as VastAdvisor develops and permeates the wealth management ecosystem,” said Ian Karnell, chief executive officer and co-founder of VastAdvisor. “We are already off to the races on our journey to become the category-defining organic growth infrastructure in wealth management; this backing will propel us further.”

VastAdvisor’s platform utilizes fine-tuned AI models trained on firm-specific data to optimize targeting, messaging, and conversion — enabling firms to reduce acquisition costs while strengthening campaign performance and compliance posture. Since referrals don’t scale and lead brokers don’t provide ownable leads or a consistent system for generating those, meaningful and repeatable organic growth has been elusive for many firms. Through the VastAdvisor platform, every campaign learns, every dollar compounds and every decision is governed from the start.

“VastAdvisor is a platform that has to be witnessed; its capabilities are exactly what the wealth management industry has needed but could never realize all in one place,” Pereira said. “Organic growth has globally been an issue for years but it doesn’t have to be anymore thanks to VastAdvisor.”

The $1 million SAFE round funding follows several key hiring announcements to VastAdvisor’s leadership team including Phil Gale, co-founder and chief operating officer, Eli Gassert as chief technology officer and Dr. Edoardo M. Airoldi as acting chief data officer.

For more information about VastAdvisor, go to https://www.vastadvisor.ai/. To book a demo, go to https://calendar.vastadvisor.ai/widget/booking/qk1kAd1IMdztH2asCjHj.

About VastAdvisor

VastAdvisor is the AI-powered Growth OS for modern RIAs and enterprise wealth platforms. The company delivers a governed, AI-native system for client acquisition — combining audience intelligence, campaign automation, compliance monitoring, and continuous optimization in a single platform. By turning firm data into learning and learning into growth, VastAdvisor enables wealth management firms to build scalable, measurable, and defensible acquisition infrastructure.

Media Contact Allie Zendrian Public Relations [email protected] 516-581-7202

SOURCE VastAdvisor LLC

Phase 1b/2a clinical trial assessing safety and efficacy of LTX-001 in adults with schizophrenia initiated

Financing advances LTX-001 through initial readout from Phase 1b/2a trial and progresses LTX-002 through additional dosing cohorts of ongoing Phase 1/2 trial in ALS

WORCESTER, Mass., Aug. 17, 2026 — Leal Therapeutics, Inc. (Leal), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class neuro-metabolic therapeutics, today announced a second close of $30 million of its Series A financing. The round includes new investor Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), in addition to existing investors OrbiMed, Newpath Partners, Euclidean Capital, SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), Chugai Venture Fund, Alexandria Venture Investments, and PhiFund.

Proceeds from the second closing of Series A financing will be used to advance LTX-001 through an initial readout of its Phase 1b/2a clinical trial in schizophrenia patients, as well as progress LTX-002 through additional dosing cohorts in an ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

LTX-001, a first-in-class brain-penetrant oral GLS1 inhibitor, has completed single ascending dose (SAD) and multiple ascending dose (MAD) Phase 1 trials and demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile and dose dependent CNS target engagement. Leal today also announces the initiation of the Phase 1b/2a trial (NCT07734493) in adults with schizophrenia, with initial data expected by year-end. 

LTX-002 is an intrathecally delivered antisense oligonucleotide designed to restore healthy sphingolipid levels in the central nervous system (CNS) by targeting SPTLC1.  LTX-002 is being investigated in NeurALS, a Phase 1/2 trial (NCT07660614) in adults with ALS.

“We are very excited to partner with our top-tier syndicate of investors which now includes Lilly”, said Asa Abeliovich, M.D., Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Leal. “This funding will support us through key clinical milestones for LTX-001 in schizophrenia, including initial data from the now ongoing Phase 1b/2a trial, and LTX-002 in ALS, while also advancing our preclinical pipeline towards clinical development.”

About Leal Therapeutics:

Leal Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel neuro-metabolic therapeutics for patients with high-need central nervous system disorders. Leal was launched in 2021 and is headquartered in Worcester, Mass.  Leal’s lead programs address the critical intersection between CNS and metabolic disorders.  The Leal team has particular expertise in CNS therapeutic development, as well as leveraging human genetics, functional genomics and biomarker analyses to support our mission.  Leal has the technological capability to develop and produce small molecule and nucleic acid CNS therapeutics, and is also developing a next-generation CNS delivery platform utilizing antibody-like shuttle technology to enable the transport of peripherally administered therapeutics to the brain.

Media contact: Tehya Frank, [email protected] 347-640-1334

SOURCE Leal Therapeutics

Deployments demonstrate measurable revenue impact and proprietary advances in Physical AI following $20 Million Series A

LOS ALTOS, Calif., Aug. 17, 2026 — Palona AI unveiled its multimodal AI operating layer for physical businesses, proven first in restaurants. Palona works with operators including Din Tai Fung, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, Giordano’s, Rooted Hospitality and Cali BBQ to connect customer demand, live operations and intelligent action.

Palona closed its Series A financing, bringing total funding to $20 million, including converted SAFEs. Investors include Ardenwood Ventures, CrimsonOx, UpHonest, Turbo, Llama Ventures, Neo, Fusion Fund, Defy and Maynard Webb, together with other institutional, strategic and individual investors.

Restaurants are Palona’s first proof market, but the platform can extend to any physical business where customers and frontline teams interact.

“Physical businesses need AI that can understand what is happening and act in real time,” said Maria Zhang, founder and CEO of Palona AI. “Palona turns demand, operational context and live signals into actions that drive revenue, quality and execution.”

Palona’s product suite includes Revenue Expansion, Revenue Intelligence and Operations Excellence. It captures and converts demand across calls, catering, private events and large-order inquiries; identifies intent, value and urgency; and turns operational signals into manager-ready workflows.

Together, these capabilities form a continuous Capture → Understand → Act → Learn system that drives coordinated action across people, systems and AI agents, not another dashboard.

A multi-brand production study spanning Cali BBQ, Rooted Hospitality and Giordano’s recorded 481 orders over 194 location-days and identified 305 large-order and catering inquiries across seven restaurants. At Cali BBQ, after more than a year in production, Father’s Day revenue increased 20% year over year, while Palona became the restaurant’s highest Average-Order-Value channel as its Revenue Expansion capabilities expanded to support catering and large orders.

“Before Palona, calls we couldn’t answer represented demand we couldn’t capture. Now we’re converting more of those conversations into orders and identifying catering opportunities we previously had no dedicated process to manage. For an operator, that’s where AI becomes real. It creates measurable revenue while helping the team execute better,” said Shawn Walchef, CEO of Cali BBQ.

Palona invented a proprietary Interaction Model for Physical AI. Unlike systems that only detect objects or describe scenes, it represents how people, objects, places and processes relate over time. Using spatial, temporal and semantic context with calibrated uncertainty, it determines what is happening, whether action is required and which workflow should follow. Palona holds U.S. Patent No. 12,481,517 for orchestrating specialized AI agents based on user intent, model performance and real-time computing requirements.

About Palona AI

Palona AI is the AI operating layer for physical businesses, proven first in restaurants. Palona captures demand, understands live operations and coordinates workflows that help businesses grow revenue, protect quality and execute with consistency.

For more information, visit palona.ai.

SOURCE Palona

Ballast Point Partners leads Takt’s first institutional round as the company invests in its platform, expands AI and automation capabilities, deepens enterprise integrations, and supports customers’ growing global operations.

RESTON, Va., Aug. 17, 2026 — Takt, a warehouse labor management and intelligence platform that unifies labor, automation and robotics data, today announced a $9.25 million Series A financing led by Ballast Point Partners. The round is Takt’s first institutional financing. Founded in 2021, Takt supports more than 100 warehouses across North America and international markets, including operations for Fortune 500 retailers, global brands and some of North America’s largest third-party logistics providers. The company has added more warehouse sites this year than in any previous year.

Distribution centers have absorbed a decade of new technology — goods-to-person systems, autonomous mobile robots, sortation, voice — and each system produces its own data. Labor performance lives in one place, automation throughput in another, time and attendance in a third. Supervisors reconstruct the shift by hand, and by the time the picture is complete, the shift is over.

“Warehouses generate more data than ever, but the people responsible for their performance still struggle to see where operations are going off track in time to change the outcome,” said Glynn LoPresti, co-founder and CEO of Takt. “That is not a reporting gap. It is a modeling gap. Takt closes it by treating labor, automation and robotics as one operation.”

Takt integrates with warehouse management systems, time clocks, robotics and material handling controls, and homegrown applications, then measures that activity continuously against engineered labor standards. Operations teams use Takt to build labor plans, set goals and incentives, coach employees, and connect performance to cost and profitability. TaktAI reasons over the combined model to identify where results are moving and why, so supervisors can make intraday moves before problems compound.

Kenco, one of North America’s largest third-party logistics providers, selected Takt as its labor management and warehouse intelligence system and deployed it across 19 distribution centers. At a single-client CPG site, average cost per pallet fell 15%, or $229,000 annually. ODW Logistics replaced a legacy labor management system with Takt and reported a 29% improvement in workforce performance and a 39% increase in employee retention.

“The way warehouses run has changed faster than the technology used to measure them, and that gap is what drew us to this category,” said Sean Barkman, a Partner at Ballast Point Partners who joins Takt’s Board of Directors. “What stood out about Takt was the evidence. Kenco standardized 19 distribution centers on the platform, plans to extend it to 30 more, and can point to results site by site. Enterprise operators do not expand a deployment at that pace unless the product is working.”

The Series A will fund broader integrations with tier-one warehouse management, robotics and material handling systems; an expansion into order orchestration, resource scheduling and engineering tools; and a set of TaktAI agents that move from explaining what changed to acting on it, rebalancing labor against the live order profile within bounds supervisors set. Takt will also continue expanding across the United Kingdom, the European Union and Asia-Pacific.

The full announcement is at www.takt.io/blog/series-a

About Takt

Takt is a warehouse labor management and intelligence platform that unifies labor, automation and robotics data into a single model of how an operation actually runs. Operators use Takt to plan labor, manage and incentivize performance, engage employees, understand operational costs, and improve performance while work is still in progress. Takt supports more than 100 warehouses across North America and international markets for retailers, e-commerce brands and third-party logistics providers. Learn more at www.takt.io.

About Ballast Point Partners

Ballast Point Partners, headquartered in Tampa, Florida, is a later-stage venture capital and growth equity fund founded in 2002 to provide expansion capital for rapidly growing, privately owned companies, with a particular emphasis on companies located in Florida, the Southeast, and Texas. The Ballast Point partners have more than 90 years of combined experience investing in and building high-growth companies in several industries, including software, technology-enabled business services, and healthcare. Ballast Point Partners has over $550 million under management across four funds and seeks to make initial equity investments ranging in size from $5 million to $15 million. For additional information, visit www.ballastpointpartners.com.

SOURCE Takt, Inc.

Former AWS principal engineers launch Xpander to overcome the challenges enterprises are facing when aiming to become AI-native and to enable AI utilization at unparalleled scale

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 17, 2026 — Xpander today announced a $7.5 million Seed round led by Pico Venture Partners with participation from Emerge Ventures, Samsung Next, and SeedIL. The funding will be used to accelerate Xpander’s market penetration with its turnkey, vendor-neutral, all-in-one AI enablement platform. The company also introduced Omni, its enterprise AI agent, which achieved a 90.9% score on the GAIA benchmark.

Xpander was founded by David Twizer, Ran Sheinberg, and Moriel Pahima to allow enterprises to harness the true power of AI by freely adopting, building, running, and managing AI agents without needing to adjust infrastructures or compromise security, compliance, and regulatory requirements.

Enterprise AI adoption is now universal, but meaningful deployment remains limited as organizations struggle to adapt their existing workflows and infrastructure to AI-driven operations. According to McKinsey, 88% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, yet only around 1% describe their deployments as mature and roughly two-thirds remain stuck in pilots. Due to this and despite its potential, AI is more often viewed as a tool bolted onto existing workflows instead of a foundation that allows businesses to build on and scale.

Xpander bridges this gap, helping organizations overcome the infrastructure, security, and governance challenges that have historically limited enterprise AI adoption. Its platform seamlessly integrates into any company’s operations and is available across major cloud environments and AI models, enabling the AI-native foundation for any business. Xpander enhances productivity and efficiency, without hindering scale, speed, and flexibility.

Instead of organizations limiting their AI adoption to off-the-shelf tools or by adding restrictions, Xpander’s customers use Omni, its flagship agentic Forward Deployed Engineer, to achieve full flexibility with AI. Whether creating an AI teammate for every employee, enabling every team to build its own agents, or ensuring every process is with AI built in, Omni simplifies the most complex user tasks into simple and autonomous, while also supporting collaborative multi-agent workflows to meet business objectives.

“Every company is working to harness the power of AI and become AI-native, yet most find it unattainable,” said David Twizer, CEO and co-founder of Xpander. “Our experience at AWS, helping large enterprises move to the cloud in complex multi-year projects, has inspired us to build a platform that smoothly facilitates AI migration and adoption for organizations, to allow them to grow their businesses faster than ever before.”

“We are excited to join Xpander’s journey in solving the biggest problem that enterprises and decision makers are facing when attempting to adopt AI,” said Tal Yatsiv, General Partner at Pico Venture Partners. “The market is inflated with point solutions but lacking platforms that enable true enterprise-wide AI transformation. We chose Xpander due to the team’s unique experience and expertise and their proven early results. With diverse customers using the platform successfully, it was clear to us that Xpander is positioned to lead this critical category.”

At the core of Xpander’s platform is its universal agent harness, a model, framework, and cloud-agnostic runtime that executes AI agents as portable workloads within a customer’s own environment while securely rendering agent interfaces on demand. The same infrastructure that gives enterprises deployment flexibility also powers governance. Organizations can rapidly build, deploy, and manage production-grade custom agentic applications across their products, workflows, and data, with centralized visibility and lifecycle management built in.

The platform is already driving real impact for Xpander’s customers, which include global enterprises across the retail, manufacturing, financial services, technology, and government sectors.

Both the platform and Omni are available today at http://chat.xpander.ai/. Omni’s full GAIA benchmark results and methodology are available at github.com/xpander-ai/xpander-ai-gaia-results.

About Xpander

Founded in 2024 by former AWS Principal Engineers David Twizer (CEO), Moriel Pahima (CTO), and Ran Sheinberg (CPO), xpander.ai provides a vendor-neutral platform that enables enterprises to build, deploy, and govern AI agents across any model, cloud, or framework. The company also developed Omni, its flagship agent and agentic Forward Deployed Engineer, which helps organizations rapidly build and manage production-grade AI applications. xpander.ai is SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR compliant, and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Media contact

[email protected] 

SOURCE Xpander