SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8, 2025 — Rotostitch, an innovative manufacturing startup in automated textile manufacturing technologies, announced today that it has raised $1M in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, led by Boost VC and Nova Threshold. The new capital will accelerate product development, scale manufacturing capabilities, and expand go-to-market efforts. “Rotostitch has the right team at the right moment,” said Emily Yu, investor at Boost VC. “We are particularly excited about their unique technical approach to tackle the apparel supply chain.”
Rotostitch is addressing a major transformation in the apparel industry: the shift to fully-automated, flexible manufacturing that shortens lead times and responds rapidly to fashion cycles. Rotostitch enables brands to move from concept to garment faster and more sustainably.
“This round enables us to bring our vision of smart, agile textile production into reality,” said Leah McClure, an ex-Tesla/Neuralink engineer and co-founder & CEO of Rotostitch. “With the backing of forward-thinking investors, we’re ready to revolutionize how apparel is made by reducing waste, increasing speed and giving brands a competitive edge.”
Rotostitch Co-Founder and CTO Anson Tsang, a former Princeton materials science PhD candidate and ex-Tesla/Apple engineer will help co-lead the company’s hardware platform. “The company’s proprietary manufacturing process will deliver dramatically greater speed and versatility compared to today’s technologies. This will drive the adoption of sustainable fashion technology and automation across the industry.” Anson and Leah also emphasized that Rotostitch’s architecture will allow the system to evolve over time as customer needs and industry standards continue to shift.
The company’s mission is to make advanced automation accessible, supporting a more responsive, local and sustainable supply chain.
About Rotostitch
Founded by ex-Tesla/Neuralink/Apple engineers, Rotostitch is transforming apparel manufacturing powered by proprietary hardware and software. Its mission is to enable on-demand, high-flexibility manufacturing that meets sustainability goals and adapts at the speed of modern fashion.
YL Ventures’ State of the Cyber Nation Report reveals multiple fundamental shifts as early stage funding surges and Israeli companies further assert dominance
SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 8, 2025 — Global venture capital firmYL Ventures‘ 10th annual State of the Cyber Nation Report reveals that 2025 marks the first time global VCs both outpaced Israeli funds at every stage and became the leading source of seed capital for Israeli cybersecurity companies. The sector saw 130 total funding rounds spanning all stages, totaling $4.4 billion.
The report also highlights several additional fundamental shifts in the ecosystem, including a surge in seed and early-stage activity reflecting a new generation of founders focused on building category-defining companies rather than pursuing quick exits. An indication of increased ecosystem maturity, 2025 also saw the most ever acquisitions of Israeli companies by other Israeli companies, with numerous scale-ups acquiring early-stage startups.
“This year’s data tells a compelling story of maturation and ambition,” said Or Salom, Analyst at YL Ventures, who authored the report. “Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneurs are no longer just building great technology; the Israeli cybersecurity ecosystem is consistently producing category leading companies at global scale.”
Marking its tenth year, the report also covers a decade of growth in the Israeli cybersecurity industry, which saw a surge of over 500% in total funding over the period.
Key Findings from the YL Ventures’ 2025 State of the Cyber Nation Report:
Global Investment Leadership
US VCs now lead Israeli cyber investments across all stages
US VCs led 44 seed rounds, Israeli VCs led 35, and 13 seed rounds were co-led by US and Israeli VCs
Top-tier VCs including Sequoia, Mayfield, Greylock and General Catalyst doubling down on Israeli cyber
Split-seed strategy: Increasingly favored by cybersecurity founders seeking to ground their early trajectory with both an Israeli cybersecurity VC’s domain expertise while securing the scale, reach and long-term capital potential of leading global funds
Record Early-Stage Activity
71 seed rounds in 2025, a 97% increase from 2023 and 42% increase from 2024
33 Series A rounds and 17 Series B rounds, marking significant increases over previous years
The increase reflects a market in which founders enter with more mature strategies and investors are comfortable investing more, earlier
Homegrown Consolidation
Israeli cybersecurity companies acquired 12 domestic startups in 2025
Notable acquirers include Check Point, Cato Networks, Cyera, Pentera, and Orca Security
Demonstrates the maturation of Israeli companies into platform builders
Mega-Rounds Drive Growth
Cyera raised $540M in Series E funding
Armis raised $435M in Series E funding
Cato Networks raised $359M in Series G funding
Island raised $250M in Series E funding
Dream Security reached unicorn status with $100M in Series B funding
Hot Investment Categories
Security for AI leads seed round funding (12 companies vs. 8 in 2024)
Endpoint Security has seen dramatic growth, with 11 funding rounds this year compared to just one in 2024
2015-2025: A Decade of Comprehensive Analysis
Overall funding surged by more than 500% (from $689M to $4.4B)
Average Seed Round grew by more than 230% (from $2.9M to $9.6M)
Number of Seed Rounds rose by nearly 130% (from 31 to 71)
Number of rounds grew by over 80% (from 72 to 130)
The report also highlights several high-profile exits, including Wiz’s acquisition by Google and CyberArk’s acquisition by Palo Alto Networks, further validating the strength and maturity of the Israeli cybersecurity sector.
“After a decade of analysing every funding round and exit in this ecosystem, the trajectory in 2025 is unmistakable,” added Yoav Leitersdorf, Managing Partner at YL Ventures. “Israeli cybersecurity now operates at a scale, pace and level of consistency that surpasses anything we’ve seen. The question is no longer how much Israeli cybersecurity companies can scale, but rather how fast.”
The full YL Ventures State of the Cyber Nation 2025 report, including all data updated through the end of the year, will be published on January 7, 2026.
To see key findings and register to get the full report when it goes live, visit: stateofcybernation.ylventures.com
About YL Ventures
YL Ventures is a venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to cybersecurity. For nearly two decades, the firm has partnered with top Israeli founders from inception, helping build category-leading companies that define the market. With offices in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv and $800M under management, YL Ventures provides access to an unrivaled network of CISOs and industry leaders, shaping the next generation of Israeli cybersecurity innovation. Repeatedly recognized by PitchBook and TIME magazine for both performance and influence, YL Ventures stands at the forefront of cybersecurity venture capital.
Corma helps teams manage their internal software stack, limiting bloat, reducing costs, and improving efficiency.
PARIS, Dec. 8, 2025 — Corma, a SaaS management solution to help IT teams control software overload, has raised €3.5 million in Seed funding to continue its mission to solve the complex and expensive internal software management problem. The round was led by XTX Ventures with follow-on investments from Tuesday Capital, Kima Ventures, 50 Partners, and Olympe Capital. The funding will be used primarily for product development, AI buildout, and commercial expansion.
Corma Co-Founders: (from left to right) Samuel Bismut, Héloïse Rozès, & Nikolai Fomm
The average internal software stack has grown tenfold in the past eight years (from 8 apps in 2015 to 112 in 2023), becoming a significant drag on productivity and financial performance that will only get worse with AI. Additionally, calculating the cost of a software portfolio is challenging and constantly evolving due to company growth, workforce expansion, new service subscriptions, and shifting business models.
“We see teams everywhere that are overwhelmed by the number of apps they need to manage every day. They lose money left and right, spend their day on operational tasks instead of strategic initiatives. At the same time, the risks of data leaks and access abuse increases every day with the rise of Shadow AI and the overall permission sprawl,” says Corma co-founder and CEO, Héloïse Rozès.
With an increasing amount of software to manage internally, IT departments are unaware of how many apps are in use, how much they pay for them, and whether or not they’re useful. Corma’s specialized agents collect key information such as license renewal terms, authorized users, and usage metrics, enabling data-driven software investment decisions that reduce total spend by up to 20% and save hundreds of hours on provisioning and access reviews.
“Organizations are increasingly inundated with new software, resulting in unchecked SaaS adoption and spend, rather than the promised productivity and efficiency gains,” said Ethan Imboden, Partner at Tuesday Capital. “Corma restores visibility and control to leadership and IT teams, providing the critical tools and insights growing companies need to thrive in the AI era.”
With a 4.8/5 customer satisfaction rating on Gartner and a diverse user base which includes companies such as Brevo, Owkin, Mobilexpense, Skello, Hack The Box, and Brut, Corma was selected as the youngest company in this year’s Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in SaaS Management as well as the vendor with the highest speed of shipping new features.
About Corma Founded in 2023 in Paris, France, Corma is redefining how small and mid-size companies understand, manage, and optimize their software spend. Created in response to widespread software sprawl and rising AI complexity, Corma offers clarity, efficiency, and the foundation needed to boost productivity. Built with an international vision from the start, Corma enables teams to work better, focus on what matters, and thrive in the age of AI. For more information, visit Corma’s website: https://www.corma.io/
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2025 — OODA, a leader in strategic advisory and research at the intersection of technology, national security, and business, is pleased to announce the launch of OODA AI, a powerful new capability that provides members with direct, AI-enabled access to the full depth of OODA’s intelligence and research archive.
Built on advanced retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture, OODA AI allows users to query across the entire corpus of OODA content, including long-form research and analysis on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, energy technology, biotechnology, defense innovation, disruptive technology companies, and geopolitical risk. By combining state-of-the-art AI summarization with OODALoop.com curated research, the system delivers precise, actionable insights backed by authoritative sources.
Key Features of OODA AI include:
AI-Powered Summarization Across All OODA Content: From executive briefs to deep-dive reports, OODA AI instantly distills complex analysis into concise, decision-ready insights.
Vetted Source Linking: Every AI-generated response includes direct links to the underlying OODA research that informed the result, ensuring transparency and verifiability.
Real-Time Intelligence Advantage: Continuous ingestion of new OODA reporting ensures users are accessing the most recent and relevant insights into fast-moving domains like AI, quantum computing, space, biotech, and global security.
Conversational Analysis: Members can interact with OODA AI in natural language, refining queries and drilling down into key issues without needing to form complex queries or manually read through large numbers of results.
Contextual Accuracy via RAG: By leveraging retrieval-augmented generation, the system grounds responses in the exact content of OODA’s vetted research, minimizing hallucination risk and preserving analytic rigor.
Cross-Domain Insight Integration: OODA AI surfaces connections across technology, business, and geopolitical analysis to highlight emerging patterns, opportunities, and risks.
Scalable Intelligence for Executives and Analysts: Whether for board-level briefings, policy planning, or operational decision-making, OODA AI empowers leaders with trusted, context-rich intelligence at speed.
“OODA AI represents a major step forward in making our research more accessible, actionable, and transparent,” said Matt Devost, CEO of OODA. “Capitalizing on over 20 years of human analysis and curation and combining it with the latest generation of AI technology we are equipping our members to make faster, better-informed decisions in an era defined by disruptive technology and global competition.”
OODA AI leverages the powerful capabilities of Vectara, a trusted leader in secure neural information retrieval and generation, to deliver grounded, contextually accurate answers with links to the exact OODA research that informed them. This ensures results that are both highly useful and transparently sourced.
Commenting on the deployment of this enterprise-grade application, Eva Nahari, Chief Product Officer of Vectara, added “OODA’s adoption of Vectara to power OODA AI demonstrates how expert human judgment and retrieval–augmented GenAI together can give decision–makers a faster path from question to defensible, well-cited answer.”
OODA AI is now available to members of the OODA Network as part of the community’s growing suite of tools for anticipating change and seizing opportunity.
For more information or to experience OODA AI, visit www.oodaloop.com.
About the OODA Network The OODA Network is a membership community designed for forward-thinking leaders navigating the convergence of technology, risk, and opportunity. Through exclusive research, events, and peer engagement, members gain the insights and connections needed to anticipate change and act decisively in a rapidly evolving world.
Seattle-Based Startup Delivers Breakthrough Results for Enterprise Advertisers, Driving +50% Increase in Conversions Through Predictive AI Technology
SEATTLE, Dec. 8, 2025 — Scowtt, the AI-powered advertising optimization platform, today announced it has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Inspired Capital, alongside LiveRamp Ventures, Angeles Investors, and Angeles Ventures.
Founded in 2024, Scowtt is revolutionizing the $300 billion performance marketing market by using advanced predictive AI models to transform how advertisers optimize their paid campaigns across all major platforms. Unlike traditional advertising technology that relies on proxy signals and backward-looking data, Scowtt leverages customers’ first-party CRM data to create predictive, real-time signals that dramatically improve advertising performance—without requiring any organizational change or new platform adoption.
Scowtt is already delivering exceptional performance gains for brands by turning CRM stages into a durable, predictive advantage for paid media: LaserAway achieved a 59% increase in Purchase ROAS after activating Scowtt’s predictive models on top of its first-party CRM data, shifting optimization from platform proxies to real purchase likelihood; Advanced Hair Restoration boosted Purchase ROAS by 64% by unlocking CRM pipeline stages with Scowtt’s predictive models, enabling stage-based predictions that identify the leads most likely to convert into high-value customers; and a leading Education advertiser drove 38% ROAS growth by modeling enrollment propensity from CRM lifecycle signals, generating new real-time inputs that improved performance across search and social.
“After spending nearly two decades building advertising platforms at Meta, Google, and Microsoft, I saw firsthand the fundamental limitations of how enterprise advertising works today,” said Eduardo Indacochea, CEO and Founder of Scowtt. “These scaled platforms are optimized for the success of the platform at the network level, not the growth needs of individual advertisers. We built Scowtt to bridge that gap. We use cutting-edge AI to unlock the full potential of customers’ first-party data and deliver the kind of performance that simply wasn’t possible before. This is the future of performance marketing.”
Scowtt’s approach enables advertisers to acquire customers more efficiently, and Scowtt delivers measurable impact without disrupting existing workflows. The platform works across virtually every major advertising channel—search, social, and media—operating passively in the background once activated.
Scowtt’s long-term vision goes beyond better ad optimization. The company is building an operating system for growth, a closed-loop system where businesses automate marketing performance using CRM intelligence while also deploying Agentic AI to identify and complete sales.
In a post-cookie advertising landscape where traditional “look-alike” targeting has become less effective, Scowtt’s AI-driven algorithms analyze customers’ proprietary CRM data and other first-party sources to predict which leads will convert into valuable customers. This predictive approach represents a fundamental shift from the reactive, proxy-based optimization that has defined digital advertising for the past two decades.
“The Scowtt team represents the absolute best of enterprise advertising technology,” said Lucy Deland, General Partner at Inspired Capital. “The founding team has spent decades building and selling the advertising platforms that power today’s digital economy. They understand both the technical architecture of these systems and the real challenges advertisers face. We believe Scowtt is the next generation of adtech.”
About Scowtt Scowtt is an AI-powered advertising optimization platform that helps enterprise advertisers maximize the performance of their paid campaigns across all major advertising channels. By leveraging first-party CRM data and predictive AI models, Scowtt delivers real-time signals to advertising platforms that dramatically improve lead quality, reduce customer acquisition costs, and accelerate revenue growth. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Seattle, WA, Scowtt is backed by Inspired Capital, LiveRamp Ventures, Angeles Investors, and Angeles Ventures. For more information, visit www.scowtt.com.
TORONTO, CANADA, Dec. 8, 2025 – Tuhk Inc., a fintech startup founded by Ethoca and NuData Security veterans, secured US$6 million in seed funding led by FINTOP, with participation from Lloyds Banking Group and Capital One Ventures. The platform aims to revolutionize payments by enabling secure, real-time collaboration among merchants, banks, and service providers to combat the global US$10.5 trillion cybercrime threat.
Tuhk’s distributed platform transforms fragmented data into a cohesive intelligence network, designed to proactively neutralize fraud, maximise transaction approvals, reduce chargebacks, and streamline dispute resolution – all of which supports better service for genuine customers. The funding will be used to supercharge Tuhk’s imminent launch in the UK, US, and Canada alongside major banks and merchants, delivering rapid validation through real-world deployments that showcase its fraud-fighting prowess against first-party fraud and misuse. Tuhk’s go-to-market strategy will expand globally, deepening integrations with financial systems to enhance risk decisioning and customer experiences while fortifying the ecosystem against emerging threats.
“This funding round represents an important milestone for Tuhk, and we are grateful for the support from partners like Lloyds Banking Group, Capital One Ventures, and FINTOP,” said Andre Edelbrock, Tuhk Co-Founder and CEO. “Their investment reflects shared confidence in our approach and provides valuable strategic guidance as we advance our work together. The capital will accelerate development of our collaborative technology platform, designed to connect financial institutions and businesses in real time. By enabling secure data exchange and coordinated decision-making, the platform helps reduce fraud losses, streamline dispute resolution, and support faster, more reliable payment approvals. With these resources, we look forward to expanding the platform’s reach and delivering practical, scalable solutions that strengthen the global payments ecosystem.”
“Collaboration is the only way we combat the increasing global threat of fraud and stop it from happening in the first place,” said Liz Ziegler, Fraud Prevention Director at Lloyds Banking Group. “By accelerating the secure sharing of data and information, we’ll collectively be in a far stronger position to stop the bad actors whilst ensuring a safer system for our customers.”
Robin Scher, Head of Fintech Investment at Lloyds Banking Group, stated, “We’re pleased to support Tuhk’s growth through this investment, helping them strengthen their presence in the UK and lay the foundations for future expansion. This partnership reflects our shared commitment to developing innovative tools and harnessing cutting-edge technology to enhance the industry’s ability to tackle financial crime and protect customers.”
Nathan Krishnamurthy, partner at Capital One Ventures, added, “Tuhk has a bold vision to redefine fraud prevention through collaboration. It unlocks a powerful multiplier to help prevent credit card fraud and disputes, by connecting signal data for scaled impact across the payments landscape.”
John Philpott, General Partner at FINTOP, said, “Tuhk’s real-time collaboration platform is a masterclass in that by uniting merchants, banks, and service providers against fraud‘s relentless evolution, Tuhk doesn’t just defend; it redefines resilience, unlocking scalable growth for the entire payments stack.”
Tuhk is poised to scale impact, uniting stakeholders to tackle fraud‘s evolution and drive growth across the payments landscape.
About Tuhk Tuhk (pronounced ‘tuck’) is the pioneering real-time data collaboration platform redefining fraud prevention and payments efficiency for merchants, banks, and service providers worldwide. Founded in 2025 by veterans from Ethoca and NuData Security, Tuhk transforms siloed data into a unified intelligence network, enabling proactive threat detection, elevated transaction approvals, and seamless resolutions—all while scaling secure, frictionless commerce against the $10.5 trillion cybercrime crisis.
Funding Accelerates U.S. Manufacturing Expansion and Scaled Production of Affordable Hypersonic Weapons to Meet Pentagon’s Top Priority
TORRANCE, Calif., Dec. 5, 2025 — Castelion, a cutting-edge defense technology company working to restore America’s conventional deterrence capability, announced today it raised $350 million in Series B financing, positioning the company to directly advance a top Pentagon modernization priority: hypersonic munitions production at scale.
Castelion raises $350M Series B
The capital raise supports critical technical and manufacturing milestones: integrating Castelion’s first hypersonic weapon, Blackbeard, with U.S. Army and U.S. Navy operational platforms; building its production and final-assembly facility, Project Ranger; and multi-service platform testing in 2026.
The round was led by Altimeter Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Lavrock Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, First In, Space VC, Cantos, BlueYard, Avenir, Champion Hill, and Interlagos.
“Blackbeard helps close America’s hypersonic capability gap against China and Russia,” said Bryon Hargis, CEO and Co-Founder of Castelion. “This funding lets us build fast, test often, and produce at volumes that matter in the real world.”
CAPITAL DEPLOYMENT: SPEED TO PRODUCTION
The company’s latest investment round enables Castelion to expand manufacturing and workforce development across the United States:
Project Ranger (Sandoval County, New Mexico): Tooling, commissioning and production ramp at the 1,000-acre solid rocket motor manufacturing campus announced in November. The facility will be capable of producing thousands of Blackbeard missiles per year and support hundreds of industrial high-skilled jobs in the region.
Test Cadence and Platform Integration: Continuing high-tempo test cadence in 2026 with increasingly complex capability demonstrations and integration with operational launch platforms.
Follow-on System Development: Parallel maturation of a second hypersonic product line, leveraging shared low-cost subsystem infrastructure.
INVESTOR CONFIDENCE IN DEFENSE INNOVATION
“Castelion was founded by a special team of SpaceX alumni who, in just 2.5 years, took a clean-sheet hypersonic from concept to 25+ flight tests and major integration contracts,” said Erik Kriessmann, Partner at Altimeter Capital. “We’re leading this round because of what they’ve achieved in record time and so they can rapidly scale production of one of the U.S. Department of War’s most critical capabilities: affordable, mass-produced hypersonics, from hundreds to thousands of missiles per year.”
“Castelion isn’t just building missiles; they’re rebuilding America’s industrial depth,” said Connor Love, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “This team has proven they can move from blank sheet design to hardware under test faster than anyone thought possible.”
“Lavrock invests in critical technologies that strengthen America’s national security, and Castelion is doing exactly that,” said Alex Poulin, Partner at Lavrock Ventures. “Hypersonics only matter if you can build them at scale. Castelion’s team understands that, and they’re engineering a production-ready capability designed for real-world manufacturing and deployment. We’re proud to be early backers of a team focused on delivering capacity, not just concepts.”
“Hypersonic weapons capacity will shape great power competition for generations,” said Katherine Boyle, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “China recognized this a decade ago and deployed at scale. Castelion leads America’s arsenal renewal with the speed, cost advantage, and volume at scaled production that our nation demands.”
“Castelion is transforming the economics of our defense industrial base,” said Paul Kwan, Managing Director, General Catalyst. “Modern deterrence demands hypersonic capability at a pace, scale and cost that the U.S. has never seen.”
BREAKING THE COST-SPEED PARADIGM
In 2025, Castelion conducted more than 20 development flight tests, validating weapon-critical subsystems including internally manufactured solid rocket motors, control actuation systems, flight computers, seekers, thermal protection materials, and mission software. Each campaign focuses on low-cost, mass-producible architectures which replace designs historically built in low volumes, at extreme cost, or only on multi-year timelines.
Castelion’s approach compresses design-to-launch cycles from years to months and establishes the industrial base required for high-rate missile production, not boutique inventory.
ABOUT CASTELION
Castelion builds American hypersonic deterrence through rapid, affordable, and scalable production of advanced strike weapons. Blackbeard is the first U.S. hypersonic system engineered from inception for industrial-rate output, commercial unit cost, and continuous flight test iteration. The company is headquartered in Torrance, California, with manufacturing operations in New Mexico, Texas, and California. For more information on Castelion, please visit www.castelion.com.
ABOUT ALTIMETER CAPITAL
Altimeter is a technology-focused investment firm built by a founder for founders. Altimeter’s mission is to help visionary entrepreneurs build iconic companies, disrupt markets and improve lives through all stages of growth. Altimeter manages a variety of funds that invest in the public and private markets and seeks to serve as an expert long-term partner to companies as they enter the public markets.
ABOUT LIGHTSPEED VENTURE PARTNERS
Lightspeed is a global, multi-stage, venture capital firm managing over $40B in assets. Since its founding in 2000, Lightspeed has been the first investor and an early backer of some of the most innovative companies in the world including Abridge, Anthropic, Castelion, Glean, Mistral, Navan, Netskope, Rubrik, Snap, Wiz, and more. Learn more at lsvp.com.
SHANGHAI, Dec. 4, 2025 — OTR Therapeutics, a biotechnology company dedicated to transforming early-stage innovations into globally impactful therapies, emerged from stealth and announced today the successful completion of a $100 million Series A financing closed in June 2025. The round was backed by True Light Capital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek, LAV, Pfizer Ventures, and Sirona Capital.
Founded in March 2025, OTR Therapeutics is establishing a novel, scalable, and capital-efficient model that synergizes internal R&D with strategic curation of high-potential external innovation. This integrated approach enables the company to focus on scientific rigor and operational agility, leveraging its deep regional insights and the development efficiency of the local ecosystem to accelerate innovative therapies to patients worldwide.
The proceeds of the financing will advance OTR’s pipeline of differentiated programs that target significant treatment gaps in immunology & inflammation, oncology, and other disease areas. The funds will also expand OTR’s R&D hub capability, which emphasizes both scientific excellence and strategic partnership agility to foster expedited development of high-impact therapies.
In line with its strategy, OTR also announced the acquisition of a preclinical program with best-in-class potential for neurological diseases with high unmet needs. This acquisition is part of the company’s strategic and ongoing efforts to identify and advance promising early-stage assets into global clinical development, alongside its internal proprietary discovery programs to address a broader range of critical patient needs.
“The rapidly evolving global pharmaceutical R&D landscape demands greater novelty, speed and efficiency,” said Dr. Zhui Chen, Founder and CEO of OTR Therapeutics. “At OTR, we aim to build a next-generation biotech model that delivers unprecedented R&D and capital efficiency. It enables us to stay agile while remaining rigorously focused on propelling novel, differentiated drug candidates through global clinical translation in a disciplined and efficient manner. We are grateful for the strong support from our investors and their confidence in our vision and capability to deliver transformative therapies for patients.”
Co-founded by Zhui Chen, Ph.D., Shannon Chuai, Ph.D., and Yuan Shi, Ph.D., OTR Therapeutics is led by a team of seasoned drug hunters and entrepreneurs in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries with a proven track record of delivering breakthrough innovation, operational excellence, and financial success.
Yi Shi, Managing Director, LAV: “We believe the biopharma industry is shifting towards more capital-efficient and specialized R&D models. OTR Therapeutics is at the forefront of this evolution, demonstrating how a focused, integrated framework can expedite the journey of translating early-stage innovation into global clinical development.”
Michael Baran, Partner, Pfizer Ventures: “Pfizer Ventures identifies and invests in emerging companies who are developing innovative medicines and technologies that have the potential to shape the future of our industry. To this end, we’re pleased to be able to support OTR Therapeutics as it scales its R&D capabilities and builds a portfolio of potentially transformative therapies.”
About True Light True Light (Shanghai) Private Equity invests in innovative, high-growth businesses in Greater China. It is a subsidiary of True Light Capital and is registered with the Asset Management Association of China. True Light Capital is an asset manager headquartered in Singapore and currently has assets under management of ~US$4b from global investors. It manages funds that are focused on investing in high-quality investment opportunities which have a nexus to or have a major business relationship with Greater China. True Light Capital and True Light (Shanghai) Private Equity are independent, wholly-owned subsidiaries of Temasek (www.temasek.com.sg). For more information on True Light, please visit: www.truelightcap.com.
About OTR Therapeutics OTR Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to transforming early-stage innovations into globally impactful therapies for critical diseases with high unmet medical needs. With a strategic focus on oncology, immunology and inflammation, and cardiometabolic diseases, we discover and acquire distinctive assets in preclinical and early clinical stages, and accelerate their development into differentiated, clinically impactful treatments through our R&D hub built for speed, quality and efficiency. By combining scientific rigor with agile partnerships, we deliver exceptional value to our partners and patients worldwide. From our advanced R&D center in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, we actively collaborate with a global network of partners across the US, Europe, and Asia. www.otr-tx.com
Honeyjar is a secure, collaborative workspace with an AI co-pilot that executes like a comms teammate — powered by the data and workflows pros rely on.
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4, 2025 — Honeyjar, the AI co-pilot for communications & PR, today announced a $2M pre-seed fundraise and the launch of its Early Access waitlist for agencies, in-house teams, and independent pros. The round was led by Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner at Human Ventures, and Kevin Mahaffey, Founder of SNR Ventures.
Honeyjar unifies the core workflows of communications — from messaging and media research to list building, pitching, events, and coverage tracking — into one collaborative workspace powered by news, social and events data. Its proprietary agents leverage brand context, goals, and campaign history to guide communicators across the end-to-end execution of communications, acting like a teammate.
“The most interesting applications of AI right now are those that amplify the superpowers of professionals who are already excellent at their craft,” said Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner at Human Ventures. “Technology shouldn’t replace how you build relationships or do your job but it should give you better tools to excel at both. Honeyjar does this for communications professionals. It handles the tedious tasks so they can focus on what humans do best — strategic thinking, storytelling, and relationship building.”
Before founding Honeyjar, the team experienced the full spectrum of communications work — running and working at agencies, handling comms for startups and Fortune 500 companies, in-house roles, and consulting — seeing firsthand how much time is spent on repetitive, time-intensive tasks. Honeyjar is built to extend the capacity of communications professionals, make agency operations more efficient, and free time for strategic, high-value work.
“Strategy, relationships, and judgment will always be the human part of communications and PR — that’s the art,” said Michelle Masek, CEO and Founder of Honeyjar. “But communicators spend too many hours on building media lists, creating briefing docs, chasing event details, and stitching AI tools together. We’re building Honeyjar to be a secure, collaborative workspace with AI agents that work alongside you and your team, helping you shape stories, find opportunities, run campaigns, and measure impact effectively and efficiently.”
“I’ve seen firsthand how, when done right, communications can be the most effective form of marketing that exists. But most teams get bogged down in the tasks and motions, leaving less time to be strategic about the story and the results. Honeyjar automates the essential tasks and workflows so more focus can go to the story, strategy, and stakeholders – with the mechanics happening automatically,” said Kevin Mahaffey, Founder of SNR Ventures.
In addition to its lead investors, Honeyjar is backed by a powerhouse group of media, communications, and marketing angel investors and advisors who recognize both the $15B communications & PR market opportunity and the urgent need for comprehensive, purpose-built AI for PR:
Margit Wennmachers, communications leader and former CMO at a16z
Jesse Angelo, Founder and CEO of Checker Media, former President of Global News and Entertainment at VICE, and Publisher of the New York Post
Josh Constine, former Editor at Large at TechCrunch
Desiree Gruber, creator of Project Runway and Founder of Full Picture
Joanne Bradford, former executive at Microsoft, SoFi, and Pinterest
Becky Porter, former CEO of Outcast Agency
Ajay Arora, Senior VP of Product Management and Engineering at The Walt Disney Company, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN
To learn more about Honeyjar or request access to the Early Access Program, visit www.honeyjar.ai/earlyaccess.
About Honeyjar
Honeyjar is the operating system for modern communications and PR. Built by veteran comms leaders and backed by industry icons from TechCrunch, VICE, a16z, Outcast, and Disney, Honeyjar gives communications professionals and non-experts an AI co-pilot they can depend on. The platform unifies core workflows and data including strategic messaging, announcements, media research, list building, contact management, events and speaking programs, briefing docs, coverage tracking, sentiment, and reporting – bringing purpose-built AI to communicators.
