Nexus Venture Partners leads round as demand surges for provably secure, shareable access to online accounts

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4, 2025 — Multifactor, the post-quantum security platform enabling the safest access to online accounts for both humans and AI agents, today announced it has raised $15 million in seed funding. The round was led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from Y Combinator, Taurus Ventures, Honeystone Ventures, Flex Capital, Pioneer Fund, Ritual Capital, Liquid2 Ventures and leading operators across security, AI and enterprise software including Mohan & Padma Warrior, Gokul Rajaram and Mathilde Collin.

The fundraise follows strong early demand for Multifactor’s first-of-its-kind technology that allows anyone to share online account access without exposing underlying credentials. Multifactor’s unique approach replaces the need for traditional password managers, turning any online account into a shareable ‘read-only’ link in the same manner to how Google Docs can be shared for viewing or editing. With Multifactor, banking platforms, email, calendars, social accounts, and enterprise systems can all be turned into a secure, revocable, one-click access link for use by humans or AI that never reveals underlying passwords or credentials. Permissions can be set to read-only, restricted by feature, or even limited by dollar amount, offering maximum ease and convenience. All activity is audited and recorded with cryptographic signatures, and is protected through Multifactor’s mathematically unbreakable, post-quantum security technology.

Founded by Ph.D. computer scientist and former CIA officer Vivek Nair, and Ph.D. mathematician and cryptographer Colin Roberts, Multifactor was built in response to a growing class of security risks created by the rapid rise of agentic AI. For AI agents, Multifactor provides a provably safe execution environment that prevents prompt injection, password theft, confused-deputy attacks, and the growing category of cross-agent hijacking incidents. Access is entirely capability-based: agents can only see or modify what the user has granted in advance.

“Passwords were never built for the agentic era, and they’re becoming the most fragile link in modern security,” said Vivek Nair, CEO and co-founder of Multifactor. “People aren’t going to hand AI agents the keys to their calendars, finances, or business systems unless they have complete confidence nothing will go wrong. Multifactor is the easiest, safest, and most verifiable way to collaborate with both humans and AI with security guarantees that are mathematically unbreakable.”

Launched to the public three weeks ago, Multifactor’s platform is based on a decade of cutting-edge cybersecurity research, and is informed by the founders’ experience deploying offensive and defensive tooling inside high-risk national security environments. With identity as the root cause of the majority of application security breaches, Multifactor is driving a fundamental shift away from fallible, fragmented and inconvenient password and credential-based systems, offering a provably secure zero-trust solution that cryptographically guarantees that only authorized users can access sensitive data.

“Multifactor is solving a multi-billion-dollar problem,” said Abhishek Sharma, managing director at Nexus Venture Partners. “Adoption of any new technology starts with trust. That, ultimately, is what Multifactor is bringing to the table. They’re creating trust. And by doing that, they’re eliminating one of the most significant barriers to mainstream adoption of agentic AI.”

About Multifactor
Multifactor is the security platform for the AI era. Using patented post-quantum cryptographic techniques, Multifactor enables anyone to share online accounts securely without ever exposing passwords or underlying credentials, making collaboration with humans and AI agents both safe and effortless. Multifactor is backed by Nexus Venture Partners, Y Combinator, and leading investors across security, AI, and enterprise software. Multifactor’s mathematically-guaranteed account manager is free to use and is now available at www.multifactor.com.

Media Contact:
Erin Simpson
7073975511
[email protected]

SOURCE Multifactor

Building a new, AI-native ‘language’ for permitting that connects chat, email, voice, and plans so cities can actually move applications—not just track them.

SEATTLE, Dec. 4, 2025 — Govstream.ai, a Seattle–based startup building AI-native permitting tools for local governments, has raised a $3.6 million Seed round to help cities shrink permitting timelines from months to weeks—on a path to days.

The round was led by 47th Street Partners, a Menlo Park–based firm, with participation from Nellore Capital in Palo Alto—Govstream.ai’s pre-seed lead investor—Ascend, a Seattle-based AI Fund, and a group of GovTech stalwarts, including Kevin Merritt (founder and former CEO of Socrata) and Andreas Huber (co-founder and CEO of First Due).

The funding will fuel a growing engineering and AI team in the greater Seattle/Bellevue region, focused on building a new “language” for permitting—one coherent, conversational system that ties together chat, email, voice, plans, and workflows to relieve pressure on city staff and give builders clearer, more predictable paths to approval. It is designed to fill the gaps left by legacy systems that mainly track applications but do little to ease day-to-day bottlenecks or speed up the work of getting homes and infrastructure built.

By treating permitting as one of the first, most fixable levers in the housing crisis, Govstream.ai aims to give cities and counties a practical way to adopt AI in line with their values: human-centered, transparent, and accountable. The company is partnering with a growing set of jurisdictions that want to move beyond pilots and into production use, restoring civic capacity and trust while unlocking more housing and development in their communities.

“Cities are under intense pressure to add housing, support small businesses, and keep development sustainable, all while working inside permitting systems that were never really rethought for this moment,” said Saf Rabah, founder and CEO of Govstream.ai. “We’re using AI to bring back what digitization lost: being able to ask someone who can actually help, paired with a system that quietly reads the codes, emails, and plan sets in the background so staff get real decision support instead of spending hours hunting through documents.”

“Permitting has been digitized in pieces but not truly modernized end to end,” Rabah added. “Our goal is to give permit techs, planners, and reviewers an intelligent layer on top of the systems they already use, one that can reason over hundreds of pages of plans and regulations and surface the few things that really matter. That’s how cities move more homes and critical infrastructure from ‘submitted’ to ‘approved’ without burning people out on either side of the counter.”

Already live with the City of Bellevue, Washington, and moving into deployment with additional U.S. cities, Govstream.ai’s platform uses responsible, transparent AI to support overburdened permit techs, planners, and reviewers as they navigate growing housing demands, evolving codes, and tight budgets. For decades, permitting has gone through a piecemeal digitization phase: processes were lifted from paper and transplanted into software one tool at a time—one portal for intake, email for the conversation, separate systems for plan review, payments, and inspections.

These systems are good at storing and routing information, but not at actually helping people move through the process. Govstream.ai fills those gaps with an intelligent layer on top of existing systems, leveraging the data cities already have to validate documents, answer questions, and pre-check applications so staff can spend more time on complex cases and less time chasing missing information.

Govstream.ai’s products act as AI copilots for city staff and guided assistants for residents and builders:

• PermitGuide – Provides parcel-specific guidance and drafts responses across web, email, and voice, grounded in the city’s own codes and policies so staff can respond faster and stay consistent.
• Application Assistant – Offers blueprint-first, “complete on first submit” intake that checks submittals for completeness and basic compliance before they’re filed, cutting down avoidable resubmittals and back-and-forth.
• First Review – Gives reviewers better starting points by comparing revisions, highlighting meaningful changes, and surfacing key issues, so expertise goes to the cases that need it most.

Underneath these assistants is a transparent learning system: analytics and feedback loops show how the tools are used, where people get stuck, and how answers perform, so cities can refine guidance and keep the AI aligned with their own rules and standards. Together, they help cities answer questions more consistently, reduce avoidable resubmittals, and start reviews faster—without adding headcount or sacrificing safety, equity, or quality.

About Govstream.ai
Govstream.ai is an AI-native permitting company based in Seattle. Its Conversational Workflow™ platform helps cities shrink permitting timelines from months to weeks, on a path to days, by supporting overburdened permit techs, planners, and reviewers and giving builders clearer, more predictable paths to approval. Built as an intelligent layer on top of the systems cities already use, Govstream.ai’s products—PermitGuide, Application Assistant, and First Review—use responsible, transparent AI to validate documents, answer questions, and pre-check applications so more housing and infrastructure can move from plans to reality. Founded by govtech veteran Saf Rabah, a longtime builder of digital services for the government, Govstream.ai combines deep public-sector experience with modern AI engineering. To learn more, visit https://www.govstream.ai/

Media Contact:
Libby Dugan
[email protected]

SOURCE Govstream.ai

PARK CITY, Utah, Dec. 4, 2025 — Velvære, the premier wellness-focused, ski-in/ski-out residential community in Deer Valley’s East Village, today announces it has secured an additional $197 million in capital financing from Anchor Loans, a leading institutional lender with a track record in funding large-scale residential and community developments nationwide. The financing was arranged and advised by LFB Ventures, with equity backing from Toba Capital. The financing, combined with existing funds, has been restructured into a $555 million multi-product construction revolver to complete the build-out of Velvære’s estate lots, private amenities, and luxury vertical residential offerings.

Key Financing Highlights

• $197M in new financing secured from Anchor Loans
• $555M total financing following restructuring of existing capital
• Financing arranged and advised by LFB Ventures
• Equity backing from Toba Capital
• Funding will support:
  • Construction of private wellness and adventure amenities
  • Vertical development of luxury residences

 A $1 Billion Vision for Next-Generation Mountain Living

Velvære spans 60 acres and represents a $1 billion wellness-driven alpine community, developed by Pioche Partners, LLC, a joint venture between Bonfire Collective and VP Companies, Inc. The development is designed to integrate luxury homes, cutting-edge wellness amenities, and adventure-focused living. Their new financing will accelerate this vision, marking a pivotal milestone in the development of Deer Valley’s expanded East Village. Backed by partnerships with Fountain Life, Technogym, and Aescape, Velvære is positioned to capture strong buyer demand for high-end, slopeside wellness living in Deer Valley.

 Capital Strategy and Market Momentum

“Securing capital that mirrored the nature of our client’s vision was paramount to the capital markets effort,” said Blake Bitterlin, Founder & President of LFB Ventures. “We focused on engaging a single-source capital provider capable of consolidating legacy debt into a streamlined, revolving debt facility that addresses all the needs for land development, amenity, and home construction for each diverse product type, including the world-class amenities that define this one-of-a-kind community.”

Velvære’s new capital investment follows record-setting market momentum in Deer Valley’s East Village, with explosive sales success at the new base, and multiple estate lot sales at Velvære closing between $4 million and $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. This sales velocity reflects Velvaere and the East Village’s status as the premier destination for ski-in/ski-out living in the market and reinforces Velvære’s positioning as the next evolution of mountain communities.

Unlocking the Next Phase of Velvære

“This financing will unlock the next chapter of Velvære,” said Dayson Johnson, Chief Revenue Officer of Bonfire Collective and Partner at Pioche Partners. “We’re not just building homes — we’re building a community where residents can live, explore, train, and recover with the same resources and energy professional athletes rely on, all while experiencing the connection and joy of mountain living.”

The community, a private, gated enclave within the East Village, offers direct ski-in/ski-out access via an onsite Deer Valley chairlift, along with a wellness center (“The Well”) featuring performance and recovery modalities, and a family-focused adventure center (“The Base”) with year-round recreation.

The first estate residences were completed in 2024, with additional residences and estate lots currently under development, priced from $4 million to $12 million.

For more information and regular updates on Velvære, please visit www.velvaereparkcity.com and follow along on Facebook at @velvaereparkcity and Instagram @velvaereparkcity.

ABOUT VELVAERE
Velvære is a new 60-acre community featuring direct ski-in/ski-out access to Deer Valley Resort. Residents will enjoy year-round mountain adventure and recreation through a privately-accessed onsite ski lift, extensive ski terrain, an integrated wellness center with cutting-edge modalities, and a family adventure center and ski beach. The community includes 115 estate homesites, private residences, and cabins. Velvære is a private enclave within Deer Valley’s East Village expansion and enjoys the benefits of being within walking distance from the new base village yet separate enough to enjoy privacy and exclusivity. For more information on Velvaere, please visit http://www.velvaereparkcity.com and follow along on Facebook at @velvaereparkcity and Instagram @velvaereparkcity.

ABOUT PIOCHE PARTNERS
Bonfire Collective
Bonfire Collective was established to combine the heritage of a 50-year-old best-in-class construction company with a legacy of building Utah’s ultra-estates with cutting-edge, technology and wellness-based master-planned communities. Bonfire Collective partners with developers, architects, and interior designers to create luxury wellness communities in some of the most highly sought-after locations in Utah and Idaho and adventure communities across the west.
www.Bonfirecollective.com

VP Companies, Inc.
Founded in 1992, VP Companies focuses on maximizing value in real estate investments through long-term strategic partnerships, development expertise, operational management efficiencies, capital formation, and targeted marketing. Over the last three decades VP Companies has specialized in high-end amenitized development, with a total of over $1.6 billion total sales. Notable developments include Colorado Golf Club, Clear Creek Tahoe, and Zenergy Health Club and Spa. VP has been active in the following states since inception: Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Washington, Utah, and Montana.
www.vpcompanies.com

ABOUT LFB VENTURES
LFB Ventures, Inc. (“LFB”), founded in 2017, is a leading real estate capital advisory firm in the housing industry. Since inception, LFB has arranged nearly $3 billion in capital for developers and builders nationwide. Led by industry veterans with first-hand experience in development, construction, and finance, the LFB team plays more than a capital advisory role – LFB becomes an extension of its client’s operational team through the life cycle of their projects. LFB is headquartered in San Diego, with additional offices in Los Angeles and New York.
www.LFBventures.com

SOURCE Velvaere

NEWARK, Del., Dec. 4, 2025 — SPhotonix, a fast growing deep tech start-up, has announced the successful completion of their over-subscribed $4.5 million pre-seed round led by Creator Fund, an innovative deep tech institutional investor, and XTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of XTX Markets.  SPhotonix’s first capital raise comes some 14 months after SPhotonix CSO, Prof. Peter Kazansky, who developed the technology over the last twenty years, revealed how he had preserved the human genome (15 GB) for billions of years, in a 5D Memory Crystal and recently stored the entire Wikipedia, perceived to be the carrier of all human knowledge in a small crystal. The investment enables the firm to scale its world-leading Photonics and Engineering teams whilst executing commercially to meet growing demand for its two core applications in advanced optics and data storage. A number of high profile business leaders join this round as angel investors.

The raise was led by SPhotonix CEO, Ilya Kazansky. Commenting on the success, Ilya said:

“We’ve had significant interest in our pre-seed round and we are delighted to partner with Creator Fund and XTX Ventures, and others, as we continue our path bridging innovation with commercial success. We are rapidly scaling to address growing opportunities, we recently launched our Swiss based R&D lab, which is now fully operational with a growing team of world leading experts.  All of our investors, were curated to align with our vision and will support executing our mission of making data storage scalable, durable and cost-efficient for the new generations growing data storage needs 

“Our proprietary FemtoEtch ™ technology has already found applications for fused silica optics, in industries including microscopy, high power laser (HPL), aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing . Looking at our data storage use cases, in particular as part of current and future cloud solutions for cold and archival storage, the market opportunity is significant. With a 133% increase in data generation in the past four years, global data storage capacity is becoming scarce and heavily unsustainable. The cold data storage market is set to top over $400 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research, with our optical data storage solutions leading on new, proven technology to address this enormous need.”

“The funding unlocks our ability to recruit world leading specialists, to innovate through the final TRL stages needed to bring 5D optical to earth and space-borne data centres, picking up on the breakthroughs we’ve recently had with writable and rewritable forms. Furthermore, we can now capture and capitalise on the interest we’ve had to date from hyper scalers and corporate partners in the ecosystems, to create the right partnerships for progression, being announced soon. It’s a really exciting moment in our history.”

Alexandra Ntemourtsidou, General Partner at Creator Fund commented: “We are delighted to partner with SPhotonix as they commercialise two decades of research into optics for long-term data storage. Today’s data storage needs are putting a huge strain on legacy technologies. Industry must now look towards new storage paradigms. Peter and Ilya bring a rare combination of deep technical rigour and commercial focus; we are thrilled to back them on their mission to bring 5D optical memory technology to market.”

Creator Fund invests in frontier startups being built at Europe’s leading universities. Since its inception in 2019, it has backed 56 companies across 9 countries. It focuses on PhD founders building out of their research in Artificial Intelligence, BioTech, Robotics, Advanced Materials, and Physics. 

Gabriele Papievyte, Head of XTX Ventures said, “At XTX Ventures, we are committed to supporting leading academic and deep‑tech teams as they move from lab to market. We were deeply impressed by SPhotonix’s dedication to developing their unique technology for data storage and advanced optics, and we are excited to help them on their journey.”

XTX Ventures is the venture capital arm of XTX Markets, investing in early-stage companies where AI and machine learning are a core technology. Leveraging the firm’s deep expertise in machine learning and financial technology, the Ventures team provides tailored operational support and guidance, to help its portfolio companies grow and thrive. XTX Ventures can lead investments, co-invest and provide dedicated follow-on capital.

SPhotonix has achieved some notable successes in the past 12 months. From being featured in the Mission Impossible film, The Final Reckoning, to delivering highly precise test targets for a wide range of R&D labs across the globe, SPhotonix is now being recognised as an innovator and executor of photonics, data storage and optic applications. The 5D optical laser fusion technology invented by Prof Peter Kazansky, a world renown academic and scientist, has successfully transferred from a well tested and proven R&D concept into full commercialization.

Find out more about SPhotonix here.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2837784/SPhotonix.jpg

SOURCE SPhotonix

Applying Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), Eikona’s AI engine learns from user engagement and generates content that people respond to, driving double-digit uplifts in sales for lifecycle marketing

TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 4, 2025 — Eikona, a breakthrough generative AI company built for lifecycle marketing, today announced a $5 million seed round. The round was led by StageOne Ventures with participation from Crescendo Venture Partners, Wix Ventures, and Clarim Ventures, along with prominent angel investors from industry and academia. Eikona applies Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) to fine-tune generative models so marketing content can continuously adapt to how customers actually engage with it. Leveraging user feedback to guide its AI engine, Eikona drives double, and in some cases triple digit uplift in key lifecycle metrics such as sales, retention, and clicks.

While social media reshaped marketing by introducing the personalized feed with curated content tailored to each user’s behavior and preferences, traditional lifecycle marketing hasn’t kept up, with no equivalent algorithmic approach to date. At a time when, according to Gartner, marketing budgets have stalled and the costs associated with acquiring a customer are 5-7 times greater than retaining one, lifecycle marketing has never been more important. There is an urgent need for marketing to evolve its approach to reach customers more effectively without requiring eye-watering budgets. While GenAI holds the key to unlocking adaptive content for lifecycle marketing, there remains a gap between the current out-of-the-box solutions and scalable, production-grade content creation.

Taking inspiration from social media’s ability to comprehend and respond to user preferences, Eikona deploys GenAI to create an ‘adaptation layer’ between lifecycle marketers and their audiences. Every email, SMS, push notification, and instant message is run through this adaptive, constantly learning neural net, evolving the content to maximize performance for each end-user. Built on top of foundation models, Eikona’s engine adjusts imagery, video, microcopy, and layouts, while preserving brand, product, and legal integrity.

“Creating engaging content was always the holy grail for digital marketing, and GenAI provides the blueprint to achieve it. This is what we have built at Eikona, a GenAI solution that creates amazing images and copy, while keeping product and brand intact, guided by performance instead of prompts,” said Nir Weingarten, Eikona’s Co-founder and CEO. “Closing the feedback loop of user engagement enables us to break free of prompting. As human prompters, we’re biased toward what we think people want to see, we are limited by what we can describe in the prompt, and we don’t scale. Eikona’s GenAI Reinforcement Learning solution replaces prompting and A/B testing with an intuitive, automated alternative that can truly unleash the potential of this incredible technology and completely reinvent how businesses speak to their audiences.”

“From our very first meeting, it was clear that the Eikona team is exceptional, and that we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to partner with them,” said Avi Shulman, Principal at StageOne Ventures. “They quickly demonstrated impressive commercial execution combined with deep technical understanding of what this market truly needs. This is a rare opportunity to change how organizations approach marketing, making it genuinely personalized, and ultimately driving direct, measurable impact on business outcomes.”

“A/B testing has barely changed in 20 years, it’s slow, manual, and often misses what really drives performance,” said Amir Ariely, advisor for Eikona and former Global Creative Director at Google. “Eikona is changing that. The AI learns from performance and actually closes the creative loop, generating new ideas and assets that get smarter with every result. It’s the first time creativity and data truly work together at scale, and I’m excited to be part of what they’re building.”

Integrating directly into a company’s marketing automation stack (email, SMS, IM, push notifications), Eikona’s GenAI engine was developed for industries where customer loyalty is viewed as a critical strategic asset. Eikona is already being used by dozens of companies across the globe, including in the retail, telecom, finance, healthcare, insurance, and travel sectors.

About Eikona

Eikona is an Israeli-American GenAI Marketing company, founded by Nir Weingarten (CEO) and Omer Hacohen (CTO). Eikona is developing GenAI technology to redefine lifecycle marketing through adaptive, RLHF-powered A/B testing. Designed for sectors where customer loyalty is critical, Eikona’s enterprise-grade platform continuously learns from real-world engagement to optimize content performance across email, SMS, instant messages and in-app channels. Serving businesses across retail, telecom, finance, insurance, healthcare, and more, Eikona drives measurable uplifts in sales, retention, and conversions.

Learn more at https://eikona.io/

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2837643/Eikona.jpg

Media Contact
Gavin Horwich
[email protected]

SOURCE Eikona

Latest financing marks Insight’s first investment in a Japanese company

TOKYO, Dec. 4, 2025 — Fact Base Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Masataka Takeuchi), operator of the drawing management system ZUMEN, today announced that it has raised a USD$28.5 million Series C round, led by global software investor Insight Partners.

Japan’s manufacturing industry continues to face structural challenges such as labor shortages and a lack of successors. Many factories still rely heavily on paper-based and person-dependent processes, limiting productivity and global competitiveness. Meanwhile, the demand for digital transformation (DX) and supply chain resilience is growing worldwide, making the establishment of digital infrastructure in manufacturing a critical area for growth.

Against this backdrop, Fact Base has been addressing the operational challenges of small and mid-sized manufacturers through ZUMEN, its drawing management system that streamlines information sharing and order management from design to production. Over the past two years, the company’s revenue has increased approximately 16-fold, the number of client companies has grown by 13 times, and its presence has expanded from Japan to 12 countries.

Looking to the Future

With this new round of funding, Fact Base will strengthen its overseas hiring and accelerate region-specific marketing initiatives. The company also plans to enter the European market in 2026, expanding its global footprint. In parallel, Fact Base will enhance the functionality of ZUMEN while launching new business lines to diversify its portfolio.

Fact Base aims to leverage its growing domestic and international customer base to develop direct procurement features and systems that facilitate inter-company collaboration. The company will continue to enhance its product offerings to contribute to factory automation (FA) and manufacturing efficiency.

Through continued expansion into Europe and beyond, Fact Base remains committed to realizing its mission of “making manufacturing seamless worldwide.”

Insight Partners’ First Japanese Investment

Fact Base’s Series C round is the first investment that New York-based Insight Partners has made in a Japanese company. The firm’s support is a vote of confidence in Fact Base and it’s potential to transform manufacturing operations in Japan and around the world.

“We are pleased to announce that Fact Base has raised a total of 4.4 billion yen in funding from Insight Partners, a leading U.S. venture capital firm. This investment marks Insight Partners’ first-ever investment in a Japanese company, which we believe is a strong validation that our product and business have reached a standard that can compete globally,” said Masataka Takeuchi, CEO of Fact Base.

Continued Takeuchi, “As a Japan-born SaaS company, we have steadily built our track record overseas, particularly across Asia and North America. Our mission—to transform factory operations by starting with drawings and manufacturing data—comes from a uniquely Japanese perspective. We are confident that this approach allows us to present a new vision of what ‘manufacturing excellence from Japan’ can look like on the world stage.”

Fact Base exists today thanks to the dedication of the factories and frontline teams who embrace continuous improvement and take on challenges. To meet their expectations, Fact Base will continue refining a product that serves the people on the ground and delivers lasting value across the manufacturing industry.

“For SME manufacturers, managing technical drawings is a manual and time-consuming process,” said Max Wolff, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “With ZUMEN, Fact Base is not only freeing up manufacturers to perform more critical tasks – they are also creating a one-stop shop that minimizes manual searches, reduces errors, and accelerates time-to-delivery. We are delighted to partner with Fact Base on this exciting next chapter in their growth journey.”

Organization and Hiring

As the business has scaled rapidly, Fact Base’s organization has also expanded significantly —growing sixfold in headcount over the past two years. The company now operates a total of 11 offices — four in Japan and seven overseas — with approximately 34% of employees being non-Japanese nationals.

Fact Base is actively hiring across a wide range of roles, including engineering, sales, and customer success, to strengthen its organization in preparation for a future IPO.

About Fact Base Inc.

Founded in September 2022, Fact Base is a manufacturing SaaS startup with the mission to “make manufacturing seamless.”

Its core product, ZUMEN, was developed to promote digital transformation (DX) among small and mid-sized manufacturers. Many production sites still rely on paper-based drawings and manual processes, making it difficult to manage and utilize accumulated design data effectively. ZUMEN solves these issues by centralizing drawings and related documents in the cloud, improving operational efficiency and supporting data-driven manufacturing across Japan’s industrial landscape.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of June 30, 2025, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 875 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has a global presence with leadership in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

SOURCE Fact Base

Annual award recognizes investors with proven track records of championing founder-led companies

NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 2025 — Evolution Equity Partners is honored to be named an Inc. Magazine Top Founder-Friendly Investor for 2025, marking the firm’s second consecutive year on the prestigious list. The recognition highlights investment firms committed to supporting founder-led companies through hands-on partnership, operational expertise, and long-term alignment.

The annual list honors investment leaders with strong histories of backing growth-stage businesses and working alongside entrepreneurs to scale innovation. Selection is based directly on feedback from founders who have partnered with private equity, venture capital, and growth investors—evaluating not only financial performance, but the depth of collaboration, strategic guidance, and overall value creation.

“Raising capital is no small feat for today’s entrepreneurs. That’s why discovering investors who offer more than just financial backing—those who bring mentorship, resources, and a true spirit of partnership to your growth journey—is both rare and invaluable,” said Bonny Ghosh, Editorial Director at Inc. “The 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors are collaborators and dedicated to helping their portfolio companies succeed.”

To determine this year’s honorees, Inc. surveyed founders who have partnered with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms, gathering insights into how investors contributed to growth, product evolution, leadership development, and long-term strategy. Firms selected demonstrate a consistent pattern of trust, transparency, and meaningful operational impact.

“At Evolution, we have the privilege of partnering with extraordinary founders who are solving some of the most complex and consequential challenges in cybersecurity and AI,” said Richard Seewald, Founder & Managing Partner of Evolution Equity Partners. “Our philosophy is simple: invest with conviction, support with expertise, and stand alongside entrepreneurs as true partners. Being recognized again by Inc.—based directly on founder feedback—is especially meaningful. It affirms our commitment to building enduring companies together.”

Evolution Equity Partners invests in category-defining software and cybersecurity companies globally, supporting founders with deep domain expertise, a transatlantic operating platform, and a network of leaders across enterprise, policy, and technology.

For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit: https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors

About Evolution Equity Partners

Evolution Equity Partners, headquartered in New York City, partners with rapidly growing cybersecurity software companies that safeguard our digital world. The firm was founded by investor and technology entrepreneurs Richard Seewald and Dennis Smith, who manage and lead the firm, and its partners have been involved as founders, investors and as senior operating executives in leading software companies around the world. Evolution has invested in over seventy cybersecurity companies building a growing portfolio of market leaders. Learn more at www.evolutionequity.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

About Inc.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

SOURCE Evolution Equity Partners

Investment affirms IMTC’s ability to optimize fixed income portfolios at scale

NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 2025 — IMTC, a leading fixed income technology partner to the buy-side, announced the closing of a $12 million Series A funding round led by Nyca Partners, a venture capital firm focused on fintech innovation.

Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC (“Lord Abbett”), an independent, privately held investment management firm, and an IMTC client, joined the round as a strategic investor – its first equity stake in a fintech partner. IMTC’s highly efficient end-to-end investment platform will empower Lord Abbett to build and rebalance fixed income client portfolios at a significant scale.

Additional participants in the round include Tribeca ESP and several existing investors, underscoring continued confidence in IMTC’s growth trajectory.

WHY IT MATTERS:

• Renewed support from Nyca and validation of IMTC’s hyper-efficient business model: This round represents Nyca’s latest investment in IMTC, further validating IMTC’s commitment to optimizing the fixed income market. IMTC’s cutting-edge technology provides full end-to-end, interconnected workflows and drives significant operational efficiencies for investment firms. Nyca first backed IMTC in 2022.
• Rapid Separately Managed Account (SMA) growth: The fixed income SMA market – where IMTC holds a leadership position – is expanding quickly, with about $16 billion in flows entering taxable fixed income SMAs in Q4 2024¹, more than the prior two years combined.
• Large market opportunity: SMA municipal fixed income assets, both taxable and tax-exempt, were estimated at $1.2 trillion as of Q1 2025, up from $100 billion in 2008². This represents a significant market opportunity for scalable technology solutions.

FROM LORD ABBETT MANAGING PARTNER DOUG SIEG:

“This investment underscores our commitment to IMTC and confidence in their leadership in fixed income technology. Their powerful platform delivers significant results for SMA managers, and we believe our partnership will accelerate industry innovation and enable us to deliver expanded, personalized solutions to clients in this evolving marketplace.”

FROM NYCA PARTNERS MANAGING PARTNER HANS MORRIS:

“Nyca’s continued support of IMTC highlights their exceptional ability to transform how the SMA market operates. Their forward-thinking approach to automating workflows and enabling scale for asset managers is a key driver in advancing efficiency, client service, and long-term growth in this segment.”

FROM IMTC CEO RUSSELL FELDMAN:

“We thank Nyca, Lord Abbett, and our other dedicated investors for their commitment to IMTC as it further validates our platform, vision and commitment to making the fixed income market more efficient. These investments allow us to continue to leverage our leading technology by accelerating product development and scaling operations while expanding our team to serve our growing client base.”  

BACKGROUND:

• As the fixed income SMA market experiences unprecedented growth, firms are increasingly turning to IMTC to power efficient, scalable, and tailored investment solutions that streamline workflow, reducing the time it takes to optimize bond portfolios by more than 95%.
• IMTC’s investment management system stands out in the market by offering dynamic portfolio construction, unparalleled connectivity to leading firms, and the flexibility and scalability that the buy-side needs to grow efficiently.
• The platform delivers advanced operational intelligence, which enables firms to automate manual workflows and customize accounts at scale, driving efficiency and improved outcomes.
• Many clients view IMTC not just as a technology provider but as a true partner, benefitting from the highly consultative nature of its sales and implementation processes and the firm’s commitment to treating clients as integral members of the IMTC community.

ABOUT IMTC

IMTC is an enterprise fintech provider that is fundamentally changing the way asset and wealth management firms manage fixed income assets for their clients. IMTC’s cloud-native portfolio and order management platform provides a comprehensive suite of tools combining advanced analytics, automation capabilities, and actionable insights. IMTC empowers firms with the ability to customize accounts at scale, modernize tech stacks, and launch products previously inaccessible. Clients benefit from making faster, more accurate, and more compliant investment decisions across portfolios, simultaneously. For more information, visit our website or follow on LinkedIn.

ABOUT LORD ABBETT

Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC is a privately held global asset management firm founded in 1929. From the day we first opened for business, our approach to investing for and serving our clients has been rooted in our core beliefs: Our clients always come first, our firm maintains a singular focus on the management of money, and our perspective is shaped by our independent thinking. These beliefs and our experience have empowered us to serve generations of clients and navigate changing markets. Today, we manage approximately $242 billion for individuals and institutions around the world across a full range of actively managed investment solutions that includes equities, fixed income, and alternative credit.

ABOUT NYCA PARTNERS

Founded in 2014, Nyca Partners is a leading venture capital firm focused on connecting innovative companies to the global financial system. With over $870 million in assets under management and investments in more than 100 portfolio companies, Nyca is one of the premier fintech venture capital firms in the world. The firm’s unique Limited Partner Advisor model brings together over 90 of the most respected professionals in financial services, technology, and academia as both investors and advisors. Nyca invests across various stages from seed to growth, with a particular emphasis on early-stage fintech companies that are transforming payments, lending, digital banking, capital markets, and financial infrastructure. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in San Francisco.

Media Contact
Randy Williams
EPH2 Communications
[email protected]
+1.917.213.5980

¹ Source: BNY report, March 9, 2025
² Source: Seeking Alpha, September 18, 2025

SOURCE IMTC

PARIS, Dec. 4, 2025 — Brevo, a European leader in customer engagement software, has closed its latest €500 million financing round, officially becoming a unicorn. General Atlantic, a leading global investor, and Oakley Capital, a leading, pan-European mid-market investor, are joining the Company’s shareholders. Bpifrance and Bridgepoint, one of the world’s leading mid-market investors, remain minority investors, with the latter reinvesting via Bridgepoint Development Capital V, a lower middle-market fund focused on supporting fast-growing businesses across Europe. Partech, an investor since 2017, is fully exiting its stake. Following this transaction, Brevo’s management and employees have become the company’s largest shareholder. The new funding will support continued large-scale investments in AI, accelerated growth in the United States, and an intensified M&A strategy. Brevo will surpass €200 million in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) in 2025, with a double-digit EBITDA margin. Brevo operates in 180 countries, including France, Germany and USA, the three of which account for 65% of total revenues. The Company aims to reach one billion Euros in annual revenue by 2030.

The successful bet on repositioning

In 2023, Sendinblue became Brevo to reflect the Company’s evolution while staying true to its mission: empowering millions of companies to build stronger relationships with their customers. Originally focused on email marketing, the Company has significantly expanded its offering over the years, becoming one of the most comprehensive, intuitive, and efficient Customer Platforms on the market. It integrates marketing automation, CRM, Customer Data Platforms, SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications, all the way to social CRM. Brevo continuously develops and deploys new features, enabling more than 600,000 clients to benefit from the full range of today’s most in-demand consumer engagement tools.

Continued investment in AI and product development

Historically, over 50% of Brevo’s workforce and talent have been dedicated to product development and R&D. This long-standing focus on research and innovation will now be amplified to leverage the rapid pace of technological progress, ensuring Brevo continues to deliver the best possible experience to its customers.

Announced last February with a €50 million investment over the next five years, the Brevo AI Lab has already given rise to new features such as Marketing, Sales and Conversations agents and the MCP (Model Complex Protocol) connector, which links Brevo’s Customer Platform to AI assistants and applications such as Claude, ChatGPT or Mistral’s Le Chat. Brevo aims to reinforce its position as a European leader in customer engagement software while accelerating the integration of AI and advanced technologies at the core of its product.

At the same time, Brevo is seeing exceptional traction on its Sales CRM, which helps sales teams better track opportunities and automate lead conversion. This momentum is driving the Company to further accelerate investment in this strategic product, which has become a key driver of its growth.

Growth Priorities: United States, Mid-Market, and M&A

The United States, which already represents a meaningful share of Brevo’s revenue, continues to show substantial long-term potential. Growth in the region is accelerating, with the U.S. now generating 24% of all new revenue. To support this trajectory, Brevo will continue to invest significantly in the market through 2030, with over €100 million planned for investment.

Brevo is also experiencing strong momentum in the mid-market segment, where revenue is growing twice as fast as the rest of the business. This validates the Company’s strategy of expanding its offering for mid-sized organizations and reinforces the segment as a key pillar of Brevo’s growth plan.

This new funding round will enable Brevo to accelerate its external growth strategy. With 11 acquisitions since its creation, Brevo leverages M&A with two clear objectives: integrating new, differentiating technologies into its platform, and expanding market share in key geographies.

Armand Thiberge, founder and CEO of Brevo, comments : “I’m very pleased to welcome Oakley Capital and General Atlantic, two global investment firms that share our vision and high standards. Our ambition remains unchanged: to build a global European CRM leader capable of competing with US players through product excellence. This new phase will allow us to further accelerate our product roadmap, notably by leveraging AI, and to strengthen our operational excellence.”

Peter Dubens, co-Founder and Managing Partner at Oakley Capital, said: “We’re pleased to be partnering with a proven founder like Armand. He has built a remarkable company combining a unique product offering, international scale, and profitable growth. We see significant opportunity to further internationalise the business and expand into the mid-market, and we look forward to working in partnership with Brevo and General Atlantic to achieve this.“

Sascha Günther, Managing Director at General Atlantic, added: “We see strong secular tailwinds in AI-driven customer engagement software platforms that serve SMBs and mid-market clients. Brevo is uniquely positioned at the centre of this shift with a product-led, capital-efficient foundation, and a visionary founder in Armand. We’re excited to support Brevo in becoming a global category leader.“

Thomas Moussallieh, Partner at Bridgepoint, commented: “Brevo’s journey over the past five years has been extraordinary. Together, we’ve scaled the business internationally, expanded its capabilities, and built a platform that now leads its category in Europe. The five-fold ARR growth and nine strategic acquisitions under our partnership reflect the vision and ambition of Armand and the team. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved together and look forward to supporting Brevo’s next chapter through our reinvestment via BDC V.“

About Brevo

Brevo offers the most intuitive Customer Platform for the sustainable growth of all businesses and organizations (including nonprofits). With Brevo, companies benefit from a unified view of the customer journey through an all-in-one marketing and sales platform featuring email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat campaigns, and much more. Today, more than 600,000 companies including eBay, H&M, Louis Vuitton, Carrefour, and Michelin trust Brevo’s reliability to deepen their customer relationships. A B Corp–certified and Next40 company, Brevo employs over 1000 people worldwide. Its headquarters are located in Paris, France. For more information:

www.brevo.com

About General Atlantic

General Atlantic is a leading global investor with more than four and a half decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 830 companies throughout its history. Established in 1980, General Atlantic continues to be a dedicated partner to visionary founders and investors seeking to build dynamic businesses and create long-term value. Guided by the conviction that entrepreneurs can be incredible agents of transformational change, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector-specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon, and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with and scale innovative businesses around the world. The firm leverages its patient capital, operational expertise, and global platform to support a diversified investment platform spanning Growth Equity, Credit, Climate, and Sustainable Infrastructure strategies. General Atlantic manages approximately $118 billion in assets under management, inclusive of all strategies, as of September 30, 2025, with more than 900 professionals in 20 countries across five regions. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit: www.generalatlantic.com

About Oakley Capital

Oakley Capital was founded 20 years ago to be the partner of choice for exceptional founders and entrepreneurs. We back private, pan-European businesses with an enterprise value from €100m to €1bln+, acquiring control or co-control stakes and supporting complex deals such as carve-outs. We have a diverse team of over 200 professionals working across five locations, including London, Munich, Milan, Madrid, and Luxembourg, offering us genuine European reach and local cultural expertise. Our unique origination capabilities help us unearth attractive opportunities across our four core sectors: Technology, Business Services, Digital Consumer and Education. We focus on building long-lasting, repeat partnerships with exceptional founders, many of whom go on to invest in our funds.

Illustrative visuals available by clicking here.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2838636/Brevo_Logo.jpg

CONTACT: Fabrice Pelosi – [email protected] 

SOURCE Brevo