NEW YORK, March 11, 2026 — Ernesta, which has quickly emerged as the largest custom-sized rug retailer in the United States, today announced it has raised $20 million in Series B financing led by Addition, with participation from existing investors True Ventures and Platform Capital Management.

The new capital will support Ernesta’s continued expansion as it builds the leading brand in the U.S. rug market through a growing omni-channel platform for both interior designers and homeowners that combines digital tools with experiential showrooms.

As part of its retail strategy, Ernesta plans to scale to 30 showroom locations nationwide by the end of 2027, building on the strong performance of its existing stores in key design markets. The new investment will also help Ernesta further develop its technology platforms, including enhancements to its Trade Portal, improvements to manufacturing and fabrication technology, and streamlined tools for ordering samples and managing custom projects.

Ernesta offers custom-sized rugs, including stair runners, cut precisely to fit any space, with curated styles and materials, transparent pricing, and delivery in as little as two weeks.

“Rugs are one of the most important design elements in the home, yet the category has historically been fragmented, opaque, and difficult for customers to navigate,” said John Foley, Founder and CEO of Ernesta. “We are building Ernesta to change that, with designer-quality custom-sized rugs, curated design and an experience that feels modern and empowering. Our continued 100% year-on-year growth speaks to how much interior designers and ambitious homeowners are appreciating the Ernesta approach.”

To support this next phase of growth, Ernesta has also announced two key leadership updates. Alan Smith, previously Chief Marketing Officer, has been promoted to President, reflecting his central role in scaling the company’s brand, growth strategy, and go-to-market organization. The company has also appointed Alexandria Norton as Chief Financial Officer, bringing deep financial leadership experience as Ernesta enters its next phase of growth.

“Ernesta is building a truly differentiated brand in a massive category that has lacked a modern consumer leader,” said Lee Fixel of Addition. “The team has combined strong product curation, a compelling retail experience, and proprietary technology to simplify the custom rug market. We’re excited to continue supporting their growth.”

Despite 100 million rugs sold annually, the U.S. rug market remains highly fragmented. Ernesta is positioned to capture this white space by becoming the first dominant, tech-enabled brand in the category.

“With Ernesta, we saw an opportunity to build the strongest brand in a category where design matters deeply to Trade and consumers,” said Jon Callaghan, Co-founder and Managing Partner at True Ventures. “The company is creating a modern platform that brings together retail, technology, and supply chain innovation in a way that has not existed before.”

About Ernesta

Founded in 2022, Ernesta is a New York-based custom-sized rug company focused on making it easy for interior designers and homeowners to find the perfect rug for any space. Ernesta offers designer-quality, custom-sized rugs, curated design selections, transparent pricing, and fast delivery through a growing omni-channel platform that includes e-commerce, trade tools, and experiential retail showrooms. Already the largest retailer of custom-sized rugs in the US, the company’s mission is to build the leading rug brand in the broader rug category.

SOURCE Ernesta

Round Funds Strategic Move Beyond POS into AI-Powered Restaurant Platform

CHICAGO, March 11, 2026 — Chowbus, the leading AI-powered platform for culturally rooted restaurants, today announced it has closed an $81 million round.  Built on a foundation of $120+ million Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)  – representing 9x growth over the past four years, and approximately $4 billion in annualized processed transaction volume across all 50 states and Canada, achieved in the last four years, the round was led by Prysm Capital and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Dutchess, Fika, and Avid Bank.

The raise marks an inflection point for Chowbus: having proven its model at scale with thousands of independent restaurants, the company is now expanding beyond its integrated POS and management platform into the significantly larger market for restaurant services – including marketing, accounting, supply ordering, and insurance, where operators spend far more than on software alone.

“Our journey has always been about technology, equality, and reinvention with purpose,” said Linxin Wen, CEO of Chowbus. “The success of our first AI product, AI Digital Ads, has proven that we can help independent restaurants compete at a much higher level. We are now building the next-generation AI restaurant platform to support entrepreneurs, the backbone of our communities. This is the most exciting era for the restaurant industry since the move to cloud-based POS.”

The Asian restaurant industry, a core market for Chowbus, represents approximately 16% of the total U.S. restaurant market and is projected to reach $240 billion in value by the end of 2026. Despite economic headwinds and rising inflation, this sector has grown 135% over the last 25 years.

“Linxin and the Chowbus team have shown exceptional execution, transforming the business into a scaled, mission-critical platform for restaurants,” said Kerry Wei, Partner at Prysm Capital. “With strong recurring revenue, expanding transaction volume, and a strategic move into AI-driven services, Chowbus is at a clear inflection point. We’re proud to partner with the Chowbus team as they build the next-generation AI platform that empowers operators to compete and grow in an increasingly complex market.”

“Chowbus is leveraging AI to enter these massive service areas, providing 10x better efficiency than traditional solutions, while maintaining the essential human touch required in the hospitality industry,” said Harley Miller, CEO and Managing Partner of Left Lane Capital. “By moving beyond software to become a true operating partner, they’re helping these restaurants compete at a level previously reserved for chains.”

Chowbus plans to use the funds to expand its suite of AI-driven tools for marketing, automated accounting, and supply chain optimization; deepen service integration by moving beyond traditional SaaS to offer comprehensive business services that reduce overhead for restaurant operators, and pursue international expansion into Canada while strengthening support for the tens of thousands of independent restaurants currently using its POS and analytics platform.

About Chowbus

Chowbus is a full-stack technology platform dedicated to empowering independent, culturally rooted restaurants across the United States. Founded in 2016, the company provides intuitive POS systems, integrated marketing solutions, and powerful AI-driven tools designed to foster sustainable growth and cultural enrichment. For more information, visit www.chowbus.com.

About Prysm Capital

Prysm Capital seeks to partner with disruptive, generational companies at the inflection point of accelerated growth. With offices in New York, San Francisco, and Princeton, Prysm provides flexible growth capital to founders building category-defining technology and consumer businesses, including Replit, Island, FieldAI, Clear Street, Rivian, and Fanatics. For more information, visit www.prysmcapital.com.

About Left Lane Capital

Founded in 2019, Left Lane Capital is a New York and London-based venture capital and growth equity firm investing in high-growth internet and consumer technology businesses globally. Left Lane’s mission is to partner with extraordinary entrepreneurs who create category-defining companies across growth sectors of the economy. Select investments include Bilt Rewards, Holy, Olipop, Talkiatry, Blank Street, Kings League, Smalls, and more. For more information, visit www.leftlane.com.

Media Contact:
Mary Magnani, CodePR
[email protected]

SOURCE Chowbus

• Led by AI Pioneer Yann LeCun, AMI Brings Together Top Talent from Meta and Google to Build Next-Generation “World Models”
• Advancing “Practical Intelligence” That Operates in Real-World Industrial Environments, Accelerating Transformation Across Manufacturing and Robotics
• SBVA to Serve as Strategic Bridge Between Global AI Leadership and Asia’s Industrial Ecosystem

SEOUL, South Korea, March 11, 2026 — SBVA (CEO: JP Lee) announced today that it has committed a total of €30 million in the seed round of AMI (Advanced Machine Intelligence), a global frontier AI lab founded by Professor Yann LeCun, one of the world’s foremost pioneers in artificial intelligence.

The round includes participation from leading global institutional investors such as Greycroft Partners, Cathay Innovation, and Hiro Capital, as well as NVIDIA. In addition, prominent figures in the global technology industry, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, have also contributed capital to the round.

SBVA’s investment was made through its existing 2023 Alpha Korea Fund and Alpha Intelligence Fund, alongside its newly established Alpha AI Architecture Fund. Notably, the new fund includes prominent domestic and global corporations and institutions, including Coupang and Doosan, as limited partners (LPs), establishing a collaborative foundation to accelerate the adoption of next-generation AI architectures.

Yann LeCun, who leads AMI, was the founding director of Meta’s Facebook AI Research (FAIR) and a recipient of some of the world’s most prestigious honors in science and engineering, including the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering and the ACM Turing Award. Widely recognized as a foundational figure in modern deep learning, LeCun is joined at AMI by leading researchers and engineers from Meta, Google DeepMind, and other globally renowned technology organizations. Together, they are building a global frontier AI research lab.

AMI is developing a next-generation World Model architecture centered on self-supervised learning and Joint Embedding Predictive Architectures (JEPA). Its goal is to enable AI systems to understand and reason about the world more like humans, realizing what the team describes as “practical intelligence” capable of operating in real-world environments.

SBVA will serve as a strategic partner connecting AMI with Asia’s industrial ecosystem. Through proof-of-concept (PoC) initiatives with major corporations, SBVA aims to support real-world industrial innovation. At the same time, it plans to foster technological collaboration across its portfolio companies in robotics, manufacturing, and AI, enabling Korean startups to adopt next-generation World Model architectures early and expand jointly into global markets.

“We are grateful for SBVA’s support and for its commitment to long-term scientific work,” said an AMI official. “It reflects our global vision and ambition and underscores our commitment to building deep partnerships in Korea and across Asia.”

“AMI is a leading pioneer of ‘world model’ AI designed to understand the physical world,” said JP Lee, CEO of SBVA. “As the AI paradigm shifts toward physical AI, we believe this investment represents a pivotal moment to strategically connect the industrial ecosystems of Korea and Asia with next-generation AI technologies.”

SOURCE SBVA

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., March 11, 2026 — Emboline, Inc., a privately held medical technology company focused on reducing stroke and ischemic damage during structural heart procedures such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), today announced it has closed $20 Million in growth capital from Trinity Capital, a leading international alternative asset manager.

Emboline recently completed enrollment in the PROTECT H2H investigational device exemption (IDE) clinical trial (NCT05684146), a prospective randomized study evaluating the Emboliner® Embolic Protection System. The funding will support Emboline’s upcoming commercial launch activities and continued development of its embolic protection technology platform.

The Emboliner® Embolic Protection System is designed to provide full cerebral and systemic embolic protection by capturing and removing embolic debris released during transcatheter heart procedures. Emboline also holds an extensive intellectual property portfolio related to aortic embolic protection technologies, including full-body embolic filtration and aortic deflection approaches.

Results from the completed IDE clinical study will be presented in a Late-Breaking Clinical Trial session on March 29, 2026, at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“Emboline’s embolic filtering technology is designed with the goal of giving interventional cardiologists greater confidence when performing complex structural heart procedures while helping reduce the risk of stroke and other embolic complications,” said Rob Lake, Senior Managing Director of Life Sciences at Trinity Capital. “We are pleased to support Emboline during this important stage as the company prepares to bring its technology to physicians and patients worldwide.”

“We are excited to partner with Trinity Capital at a pivotal moment for Emboline,” said Scott Russell, President and CEO of Emboline. “With the completion of our IDE clinical trial and regulatory submissions ahead, this financing positions us to prepare for commercial launch in the United States and Europe later this year. Our goal is to provide physicians with a comprehensive embolic protection solution that helps reduce stroke and ischemic injury during transcatheter procedures.”

With this financing, Emboline will advance preparations for the commercial introduction of the Emboliner® Embolic Protection System while continuing development of additional technologies designed to reduce embolic risk during structural heart interventions.

About Trinity Capital Inc.

Trinity Capital Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIN) is an international alternative asset manager that seeks to deliver consistent returns for investors through access to private credit markets. Trinity Capital sources and structures investments in well-capitalized growth-oriented companies across five distinct lending verticals: Sponsor Finance, Equipment Finance, Tech Lending, Asset Based Lending, and Life Sciences. As a long-term, trusted partner for innovative companies seeking tailored debt solutions, Trinity Capital has deployed more than $5.5 billion across over 463 investments since inception in 2008 (as of December 31, 2025). Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Trinity Capital’s dedicated team is strategically located across the United States and Europe. For more information on Trinity Capital, please visit trinitycapital.com and stay connected to the latest activity via LinkedIn and X (@trincapital).

About Emboline

Emboline, Inc. is a privately held medical technology company based in Santa Cruz, California, focused on developing technologies designed to reduce embolic complications during transcatheter cardiovascular procedures.

The company’s lead product, the Emboliner® Embolic Protection System, is designed to provide full cerebral and systemic embolic protection by capturing and removing debris that may be released during structural heart interventions and that could otherwise travel to the brain and other vital organs.

For more information, visit emboline.com.

The Emboliner® device is currently investigational and is not available for commercial sale.

Media Contact: [email protected]

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NEW YORK, March 11, 2026 — Level Equity Management, LLC (“Level”), a middle-market private investment firm focused on providing expansion capital and strategic support to rapid growth software businesses, announced the final closing of Level Structured Capital III, L.P. (“LSC III” or the “Fund”), with $293.5 million in total capital commitments. The Fund was oversubscribed, exceeding its initial target of $225 million, reflecting strong support from Level’s existing investor base and significant commitments from new institutional investors.

LSC III continues Level Structured Capital’s strategy of partnering with durable, high-growth, capital-efficient software businesses through flexible structured credit and equity solutions intended to minimize dilution. The Fund will provide investments to companies seeking capital to accelerate growth initiatives, pursue acquisitions, and/or provide liquidity to shareholders.

“Level has raised $2 billion in the last 18 months across our equity and credit funds and co-investments. We were pleased to complete the fundraising cycle with LSC III well above target. It is always flattering and exciting to raise fresh capital and this is another great milestone for both our firm and our structured capital business,” said Ben Levin, Co-Founder and CEO.

About Level Equity

Level Equity is a middle-market private investment firm focused on providing expansion capital to rapidly growing software companies through its growth equity and structured capital strategies. Since inception, Level has raised over $5 billion in capital commitments and generated more than $2.2 billion of liquidity across 71 realizations. As of March 11, 2026, the firm manages over $6.4 billion in assets and has completed more than 125 investments.  Level partners closely with management teams to drive long-term value creation through its in-house operating platform, NextLevel Operations.

For more information, visit www.levelequity.com.

SOURCE Level Equity

The startup uses AI to generate highly optimized GPU kernels, improving AI workload performance without changing models or hardware.

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 11, 2026 — Standard Kernel, a startup building AI systems that automatically generate ultra-optimized GPU software, today announced a $20 million seed round led by Jump Capital, with participation from General Catalyst, Felicis, Cowboy Ventures, Link Ventures, Essence VC, and an incredible group of angels and strategic partners including David M. Siegel, Jeff Dean, Jonathan Frankle, Michael Carbin, Sachin Katti, Walden Yan, CoreWeave, and Ericsson Ventures.

As global investment in AI infrastructure accelerates, companies are deploying hundreds of billions of dollars into GPU clusters. Yet much of that hardware does not run at peak theoretical performance. Extracting maximum efficiency from modern accelerators requires deep expertise in hardware architecture, compiler behavior, and low-level systems optimization. Today, most performance-critical code is still written and tuned manually, making it difficult to keep pace with rapidly evolving chips and increasingly complex AI workloads.

Standard Kernel is taking a different approach. The company uses AI to autonomously generate highly specialized GPU kernels, the foundational units of computation that determine how efficiently models run. By operating deep in the stack and optimizing down to native chip instructions, Standard Kernel replaces static, one-size-fits-all libraries with code precisely tailored to specific workloads and hardware configurations.

In partner testing, Standard Kernel has demonstrated performance improvements ranging from 80 percent to 4x on end-to-end workloads running on NVIDIA H100 GPUs, outperforming NVIDIA’s highly optimized cuDNN library in certain scenarios.

Kernel generation has recently become a popular benchmark task for large language models, but most existing approaches focus on higher-level abstractions or simpler workloads. Generating instruction-level, hardware-specialized kernels that match or exceed the best human-engineered implementations remains an open challenge. Standard Kernel’s goal is to automate that frontier, enabling day-one peak performance on new hardware platforms without waiting for lengthy manual tuning cycles.

“What excites us about Standard Kernel is that they are applying AI to one of the most manual and technically demanding layers of the stack,” said Saaya Pal, Partner at Jump Capital. “Hardware innovation is accelerating, but the software that extracts peak performance from it has lagged behind. Automating instruction-level optimization has the potential to meaningfully change how AI infrastructure scales.”

“Standard Kernel is tackling one of the most consequential challenges in modern compute, driving optimization deep within the systems stack where performance is won or lost,” said Brian Venturo, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, CoreWeave. “As AI adoption continues to scale, breakthroughs in the layers beneath today’s models will define the next generation of capabilities. That depth of technical ambition and the caliber of the team are precisely why CoreWeave Ventures is proud to invest in Standard Kernel as they shape the future of AI systems.”

“Kernel generation is key for improving performance and efficiency of AI hardware,” added Dylan Patel, founder of SemiAnalysis. “As fleet sizes for users of AI hardware get larger, and more hardware diversity is introduced, Standard Kernel becomes key to deployment.”

With the new funding, Standard Kernel will accelerate development of its autonomous kernel generation platform, expand deployments with AI-native and enterprise partners, and continue advancing toward adaptive systems software that improves alongside new models and new hardware.

About Standard Kernel

Standard Kernel brings together expertise across machine learning, computer systems, and hardware-level optimization. The team includes alumni from MIT, Stanford, UIUC, and SJTU, and has contributed widely used open-source research and benchmarks, including KernelBench and Kernel Tree Search.

Standard Kernel is hiring engineers and researchers interested in building AI systems that optimize AI itself. Learn more at https://standardkernel.com/ or contact [email protected].

SOURCE Standard Kernel

The milestone reflects investor conviction in a fundamentally different retail model designed to eliminate the inefficiencies embedded in traditional pricing.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 11, 2026 — Quince, the consumer technology platform redefining how premium goods are produced, priced, and distributed, today announced a $500 million Series E financing led by ICONIQ, with participation from Basis Set Ventures, Wellington Management, Wndrco, Marcy Venture Partners, Ballie Gifford, Notable Capital and DST Global. The financing results in a post-money valuation of $10.1 billion and will support the continued growth and global expansion of Quince’s proprietary Manufacturer-to-Consumer (M2C) operating system.

Quince began by testing a simple premise: premium quality should not require legacy retail markups. The company first proved the model in material-led categories such as cashmere, where composition and craftsmanship are measurable. As customers returned and demand expanded, growth followed, not through trend cycles, but through supply chain innovation and AI designed to deliver consistent quality and pricing at scale. Today, Quince is a platform that serves millions of customers across a broad set of categories, with repeat purchasing reinforcing that trust is anchored in the system, not in any single product.

The explanation behind that momentum is a unique end-to-end business model and proprietary technology and AI that power decision making. Rather than chasing seasonal volatility, Quince invested in structural redesign. By partnering directly with specialist manufacturers and removing traditional intermediaries, the company challenges a retail model that has long embedded financial and environmental inefficiencies into the price of goods. Excess production, layered margins, and inventory risk inflate cost without improving quality. Quince’s Manufacturer-to-Consumer platform addresses those distortions directly: reducing waste, compressing supply chains, and preserving material standards as it expands across essential categories.

What differentiates Quince is not pricing. It is the system behind how products are made, priced, and delivered. This structural operating advantage is built through proprietary technology, disciplined capital deployment, integrated manufacturing relationships, and a world-class team executing the platform at scale.

Traditional retailers typically forecast demand months in advance, placing bulk production orders long before products reach shelves. Excess inventory is routinely discounted, destroyed, or written off, costs that ultimately become embedded in consumer pricing. Quince instead forecasts demand weekly at the SKU and size level, introducing production through small-batch test orders before scaling. Factory integrations, materials verification systems, and real-time production planning allow inventory targets to be measured in weeks rather than quarters. By narrowing the distance between maker and customer, the company reduces excess inventory, shortens supply chains, and removes the financial and environmental inefficiencies historically built into retail pricing. The Company has re-defined the way goods get to market.

“For decades, consumers have been conditioned to equate higher prices with higher quality,” said Matt Lippert, Chief Commercial Officer at Quince. “We play in categories where quality is tangible and measurable to disprove that assumption. The model is simple: design a different system that eliminates the waste consumers have traditionally paid for in retail. That starts with real care around quality, from the materials we source all the way through how products are made, while removing excess production, unnecessary intermediaries, and inventory risk. When those inefficiencies come out of the system, people experience the benefits through more consistent quality and more accessible pricing. Over time that creates trust, and increasingly customers come to Quince first when they’re looking for something because they know what they’re going to get.”

That operating model has translated into exceptional growth, and last year surpassed $1 billion in top-line revenue. Since launch, Quince has experienced triple digit growth year over year, every single fiscal year.

“Quince has built hyperefficient infrastructure that enables it to deliver unmatched value to consumers at scale and, in turn, has built a brand people love,” said Yoonkee Sull, General Partner at ICONIQ. “By redesigning how premium products are manufactured and delivered, compressing traditional retail cycle times and reducing waste, and building a deep understanding of what customers want in real-time, the company is correcting structural inefficiencies that have long defined retail economics. We are excited to triple down in Quince following a year of strong execution by the team and believe the platform is positioned for durable, long-term growth.”

With this financing, Quince joins a limited cohort of private consumer companies valued at $10 billion or more, a milestone that reflects investor conviction not in a product, but in a platform. As the company expands globally, its proprietary Manufacturer-to-Consumer operating system is designed to compound, strengthening forecasting precision, production efficiency, and category expansion with each additional customer interaction.

About Quince

Quince is a consumer technology platform rebuilding retail from the infrastructure up. Through its proprietary Manufacturer-to-Consumer (M2C) operating system, the company integrates AI–driven demand forecasting, real-time production planning, and direct factory partnerships to align supply precisely with customer demand, removing the layers of markup, inventory risk, and inefficiency historically embedded in pricing.

The company was built on a simple premise: premium quality should not require traditional retail markups. By redesigning how products are made, priced, and delivered, Quince restores transparency to modern retail and expands access to high-quality products across the categories people care about most. That system has quickly established Quince as a trusted destination for customers seeking premium materials, consistent quality, and pricing free from traditional retail markups. The result is a structurally more efficient model that challenges the economics of traditional retail and positions Quince as one of the fastest-growing consumer platforms in the industry.

Media Contact
Dakota Kate Isaacs
Head of Brand Strategy & Narrative, Quince
[email protected]

SOURCE Quince

TASCHKENT, Usbekistan, 11. März 2026 — Uzum (das „Unternehmen”), Usbekistans führendes digitales Ökosystem, gibt den Abschluss einer strategischen Investition von mehr als 130 Millionen US-Dollar bekannt, angeführt von staatlichen Einrichtungen des Sultanats Oman (der „Investor“).

Die Transaktion kombiniert Primäreigenkapital und strukturiertes Kapital und begründet eine Pre-Money-Bewertung von 2,3 Milliarden US-Dollar als Referenzwert, wobei die Umwandlungsbedingungen an die nächste qualifizierte Finanzierungsrunde des Unternehmens gekoppelt sind. Die Investition markiert einen deutlichen Sprung gegenüber den bisherigen Finanzierungsrunden von Uzum und stärkt die Position des Unternehmens im Vorfeld seiner Serie B erheblich.

An der Transaktion beteiligen sich auch die bestehenden internationalen Anteilseigner VR Capital, Tencent und FinSight Ventures. Dies unterstreicht das starke internationale Vertrauen in das langfristige Wachstum von Uzum sowie die schnell wachsende digitale Wirtschaft Usbekistans.

Das Kapital soll die nächste Wachstumsphase von Uzum in seinen Kernbereichen – E-Commerce, digitales Bankwesen, Zahlungsverkehr und Verbraucherkredite – beschleunigen, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Ausbau des Produktangebots, der Stärkung der Infrastruktur und der Ausweitung des landesweiten Zugangs zu digitalen Diensten liegt. Uzum hat ein vollständig integriertes Ökosystem aufgebaut, das Handel und Fintech auf nationaler Ebene vereint. Seine Plattformen – darunter Uzum Market, Uzum Tezkor, Uzum Bank und Uzum Nasiya – werden von über 20 Millionen Menschen genutzt, was mehr als der Hälfte der usbekischen Bevölkerung entspricht.

Internationales Vertrauen in Usbekistans Wachstumskurs

Der Investor bringt langjährige regionale Erfahrung sowie einen starken Fokus auf wachstumsstarke Verbraucher- und Technologiemärkte mit. Die Partnerschaft spiegelt das wachsende internationale Interesse an Usbekistan als einer der attraktivsten aufstrebenden digitalen Volkswirtschaften der Welt wider.

„Diese Investition ist eine starke Bestätigung sowohl für die Strategie von Uzum als auch für das digitale Potenzial Usbekistans”, sagte Djasur Djumaev, Gründer und Geschäftsführer von Uzum.

„Wir konzentrieren uns auf den Aufbau einer Infrastruktur auf nationaler Ebene – technologiegetrieben, inklusiv und auf die tägliche Nutzung durch Millionen von Menschen und Unternehmen ausgerichtet. Die Unterstützung des Investors gibt uns zusammen mit unseren bestehenden internationalen Anteilseignern starken Rückenwind, während wir uns auf die Series B vorbereiten und unser Ökosystem weiter ausbauen.”

Uzum wurde bei dieser Transaktion von DLA Piper beraten. Der Investor wurde bei dieser Transaktion von Greenberg Traurig beraten.

Foto – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2929184/Uzum_Holding_LTD.jpg
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Tom Walker to Transition to Executive Chairman; Kristy Campbell to Support Leadership Transition for Midwest Venture Studio

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 10, 2026 — Building on more than a decade of growth, innovation, and economic impact, Rev1 Ventures, the Midwest venture studio that partners with innovators in Saas/AI, deep tech and life sciences, today announced it is launching a national search for its next Chief Executive Officer and President to guide the organization into its next phase of expansion and innovation.

As part of a long-planned leadership evolution developed with the Board of Directors, Tom Walker will transition to Executive Chairman of the Board by the end of the year. He will remain CEO throughout the search process and transition period, ensuring operational continuity and stability. As part of the strategic evolution of Rev1, Walker is focusing on capital efforts and building the next-generation fund strategy, while maintaining a close connection to the nonprofit mission.

“Over the last decade, we’ve worked intentionally to strengthen Rev1’s foundation, growing our nonprofit impact, building a capital platform, and structuring the organization for the future,” said Walker. “This is the right time to bring in a new leader who can build upon what we’ve accomplished, solidify Rev1’s position as one of the top venture development organizations in the country, and lead us into the next decade. My commitment to Rev1, our partners and founders remains unchanged, and I will continue to guide the organization’s capital efforts while supporting the new CEO’s transition.”

This announcement comes on the heels of Rev1 opening Rev1 at The Peninsula, a 43,000-square-foot downtown innovation hub designed to accelerate high-growth software and advanced technology startups. The new space reflects Rev1’s mission and vision, signaling the organization’s long-term commitment to homegrown entrepreneurship and ecosystem growth.

Kristy Campbell, current President and COO, will continue supporting Rev1’s Ventures operations through the end of the year, including services, partnerships, and the innovation space as she steps back from full-time work to begin her transition toward retirement in 2027. Under her leadership, the organization has aligned services to founder needs and successfully launched the new downtown hub.

“Rev1 Ventures has been an incredible opportunity to strengthen services that better serve founders,” added Campbell. “I’m proud of the foundation we’ve built that positions the organization for its next chapter, and I’m excited for the new leader to continue advancing this important work.”

Since 2015, Rev1 has supported more than 1,400 startups, including funding 150 unique companies, generating $3.3 billion in economic impact in Columbus and over $7 billion statewide.

The Board has engaged BeecherHill to lead a national search. The firm will work closely with the Board and leadership team to identify a CEO with deep experience in venture capital, startup growth, and ecosystem building. The Board anticipates naming a new CEO by late summer, allowing for a seamless transition through the end of the year.

Rev1’s day-to-day operations, founder services, venture studio programming, and investment activity will continue uninterrupted throughout the search process.

“Rev1’s mission and focus remain unchanged, and the foundation we’ve built is strong,” added Walker. “The depth of venture development expertise here is among the best in the country, and our leadership team will continue driving regional impact while providing a solid foundation for our next CEO to build on as we enter our next decade of growth.”

About Rev1 Ventures
Rev1 Ventures is where founders go to build. As a Midwest venture studio, Rev1 partners with innovators in Saas/AI, deep tech, and life sciences to turn bold ideas into scalable companies. From day one, Rev1 helps startups move faster and grow smarter by validating markets, gaining traction, and becoming venture ready. A catalyst for early-stage growth, Rev1 connects founders to the mentors, partners, and early customers that accelerate progress and position startups to attract investors. With hands-on support, a powerful network, and collaborative spaces designed for growth, Rev1 gives startups the foundation to build stronger and scale. For more information, visit https://www.rev1ventures.com.

SOURCE Rev1 Ventures