• Die europäische Wachstumsbeteiligungsgesellschaft für Klimatechnologie Blume Equity leitete die Finanzierungsrunde unter Beteiligung von Energy Impact Partners und bestehenden Investoren.
• Overstory hat außerdem die nächste Generation seiner Wildfire Intelligence angekündigt, die nun ein proprietäres Brennstofferkennungsmodell verwendet, um das Risiko von Waldbränden dynamisch zu bewerten.
• Tamara Mendelsohn, ehemalige CMO bei Eventbrite, wurde zur Chief Operating Officer ernannt, um die nächste Wachstumsphase des Unternehmens zu leiten.

AMSTERDAM, 25. November 2025 — Overstory, der führende Anbieter von Vegetationsdaten für die Versorgungsindustrie, hat heute eine Serie-B-Finanzierung in Höhe von 43 Mio. USD bekannt gegeben. Die Finanzierungsrunde wurde von Blume Equity angeführt, unter Beteiligung von Energy Impact Partners LP („EIP”) und bestehenden Investoren, darunter B Capital, Semapa Next, Pale Blue Dot, CapitalT, Convective Capital, Bentley Systems, MCJ und Moxxie Ventures. Das Unternehmen wird die Finanzierung nutzen, um die Entwicklung seiner KI-basierten Risikomodelle zu beschleunigen, sein Angebot zur Verhütung von Waldbränden weiterzuentwickeln und weltweit zu expandieren.

Für Versorgungsunternehmen ist Vegetation nicht nur die Hauptursache für Stromausfälle und Waldbrände, sondern oft auch der größte Einzelposten bei den Betriebskosten. In den letzten Jahren haben die Baumsterblichkeit, die Arbeitskosten, die Nachfrage und extreme Wetterereignisse zugenommen, was Versorgungsunternehmen dazu veranlasst hat, neue Wege zu finden, um ihr Vegetationsmanagement zu optimieren und so die Widerstandsfähigkeit und Zuverlässigkeit zu erhöhen. Overstory nutzt hochauflösende Satellitendaten und künstliche Intelligenz, um Versorgungsunternehmen dabei zu unterstützen, Risiken Baum für Baum zu lokalisieren – wodurch Ausfälle reduziert, Waldbrände verhindert und eine sichere, zuverlässige und erschwingliche Stromversorgung gewährleistet werden.

„Innovation und Technologie sind zu den tragenden Säulen des Fortschritts im Bereich der Waldbrandprävention geworden”, erklärte Andy Abranches, Vice President für Waldbrandbekämpfung bei Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). „Satellitendaten, künstliche Intelligenz und die Erkenntnisse zum Vegetationsmanagement, die wir von Unternehmen wie Overstory erhalten, verändern die Herangehensweise von Versorgungsunternehmen an die Prävention von Waldbränden. Die Details sind in den Daten enthalten, und diese Präzision ermöglicht es uns, unsere Einsatzkräfte dort einzusetzen, wo die Gefahr von Waldbränden am größten ist.”

Michelle Capiod, Co-Gründungspartnerin bei Blume Equity, sagte: „Die Unternehmen, die den größten Einfluss auf unseren Planeten haben werden, sind diejenigen, die Klimalösungen mit echtem wirtschaftlichem Wert anbieten. Overstory ist ein hervorragendes Beispiel dafür – es wandelt Satellitendaten in umsetzbare Erkenntnisse um, die Versorgungsunternehmen dabei unterstützen, klimabedingte Katastrophen zu verhindern und die betriebliche Effizienz zu steigern. Dank ihrer kundenorientierten Herangehensweise und ihrer Führungsrolle im Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz konnten sie innovative und dennoch äußerst praktische Lösungen entwickeln, die einen greifbaren Return on Investment bieten. Dies ist genau die Art von skalierbarer, wirkungsvoller Klimalösung, die wir bei Blume Equity mit Stolz unterstützen.” 

Die Finanzierung folgt auf sieben Jahre katalytischen Wachstums, in denen Overstory mittlerweile sechs der zehn größten Versorgungsunternehmen in Nord- und Südamerika bedient. Das Team ist auf über 80 Personen angewachsen, die 16 Nationalitäten vertreten und verschiedene Fachgebiete abdecken, von maschinellem Lernen und Datenwissenschaft bis hin zu Baumpflegerinnen und Baumpfleger sowie Expertinnen und Experten für Waldbrände. Die nächste Phase des Unternehmens wird von der neuen Chief Operating Officer, Tamara Mendelsohn, geleitet werden. Als erfahrener Unternehmer und ehemaliger CMO von Eventbrite verfügt Herr Mendelsohn über umfassende Erfahrung in der Skalierung von Unternehmen von der Gründungsphase bis zum Börsengang.

„Versorgungsunternehmen befinden sich in einer entscheidenden Phase und sind jedes Jahr mit extremeren Wetterereignissen konfrontiert”, erklärte James Sprinz, Principal bei EIP. „Overstory geht diese Herausforderung auf eine Weise an, die Versorgungsunternehmen sofort umsetzen können, indem es Satellitendaten auswertet, um genau die Bäume zu identifizieren, die beschnitten werden müssen, die Masten, die entfernt werden müssen, oder die Anlagen, die ersetzt werden müssen.”

Overstory erweitert Wildfire Intelligence, um katastrophale Brände zu verhindern, bevor sie entstehen

Overstory hat sich einen Namen gemacht, indem es Versorgungsunternehmen dabei unterstützt, Vegetation zu identifizieren, die zu Stromausfällen und Funkenbildung führen könnte. Das Unternehmen hat heute die nächste Entwicklungsstufe seines Produkts Wildfire Intelligence vorgestellt, das nun durch sein proprietäres, branchenweit erstes Brennstofferkennungsmodell (Fuel Detection Model) unterstützt wird. Die Technologie unterstützt Versorgungsunternehmen dabei, Bereiche in ihrem Netzwerk zu identifizieren, die die risikoreichsten Brennstoffe enthalten, wo eine Funkenbildung am wahrscheinlichsten ist und sich ausbreiten kann. Im Gegensatz zu den heute üblicherweise verwendeten öffentlich zugänglichen Brandrisikokarten empfehlen die KI-gestützten Tools von Overstory die genauen Standorte und Maßnahmen, die einen überdurchschnittlich großen Einfluss auf die Eindämmung von Waldbränden haben.

„Versorgungsunternehmen stehen an vorderster Front, wenn es darum geht, die Sicherheit von Gemeinden zu gewährleisten, und sind bestrebt, die besten verfügbaren Daten zu nutzen. Wenn wir darüber sprechen, wie Satelliten und Fernerkundung sterbende Bäume und Waldbrandrisiken identifizieren können, zeigen sie großes Interesse”, sagte Fiona Spruill, CEO von Overstory. „Wir sind unseren zukunftsorientierten Investoren sehr dankbar, dass sie dieses nächste Kapitel unterstützen – die Erweiterung unseres Informationsprodukts um Stürme und Waldbrände, um Versorgungsunternehmen beim Aufbau eines widerstandsfähigeren und zuverlässigeren Netzes zu unterstützen.”

Für weitere Informationen besuchen Sie bitte overstory.com

Informationen zu Overstory:
Overstory ist eine KI-gestützte Plattform für Netzstabilität, die die Art und Weise revolutioniert, wie Versorgungsunternehmen Gemeinden vor Stromausfällen und Waldbränden schützen. Das Unternehmen nutzt hochauflösende Satellitenbilder und proprietäre KI-Modelle, um die entscheidenden Informationen bereitzustellen, die erforderlich sind, um Versorgungsunternehmen von einer reaktiven Wartung zu einer gezielten, risikobasierten Resilienzstrategie zu führen. Durch die genaue Ermittlung der Vegetation und Anlagen mit dem höchsten Risiko ermöglicht Overstory seinen Partnern, Ressourcen präzise einzusetzen, die Wirkung jedes ausgegebenen Dollars zu maximieren und ein sichereres, zuverlässigeres und widerstandsfähigeres Netz für alle aufzubauen. Overstory ist ein weltweit tätiges Unternehmen mit Hauptsitz in Boston, USA, und europäischer Zentrale in Amsterdam.

Informationen zu Blume Equity:
Blume Equity ist eine europäische Growth-Equity-Firma im Bereich Klimatechnologie mit Sitz in London und Amsterdam. Blume Equity arbeitet mit klimatechnologischen Scale-ups zusammen, die Effizienz und Klimaresilienz erhöhen. Das Blume-Team ist auf Wachstum spezialisiert und stellt visionären Unternehmern, die Innovation vorantreiben und die Klimakrise bewältigen, flexibles Scale-up-Kapital sowie Unterstützung bei der Wertschöpfung bereit. Für weitere Informationen zu Blume Equity besuchen Sie bitte unsere Website: https://blumeequity.com

Informationen zu Energy Impact Partners: 
Energy Impact Partners LP (EIP) ist ein globaler Energie-Investor mit einem firmeneigenen Modell zur Förderung von Innovationen. EIP bringt Unternehmer und einige der weltweit zukunftsorientiertesten Energie- und Industrieunternehmen zusammen, um Innovationen für eine bessere Energiezukunft voranzutreiben. EIP investiert in Venture Capital, Wachstums-/Private-Equity- und Kreditgeschäfte und strebt für seine Investoren attraktive risikobereinigte Renditen an, indem es seine differenzierte Strategie und sein industrielles Ökosystem nutzt. Mit über 80 Unternehmenspartnern und einem verwalteten Vermögen von über 4,5 Mrd. USD investiert EIP weltweit mit über 100 Fachkräften in seinen Niederlassungen in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Palm Beach, London, Köln und Oslo. Für weitere Informationen zu EIP besuchen Sie bitte www.energyimpactpartners.com.

Pressekontakt:
Cait Harding, VP Marketing, Overstory
[email protected]

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• European climate-tech growth equity firm Blume Equity led the round with participation from Energy Impact Partners and existing investors.
• Overstory also announced its next generation of Wildfire Intelligence, now using a proprietary Fuel Detection Model to dynamically assess wildfire risk.
• Tamara Mendelsohn, former CMO at Eventbrite, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer to guide the company’s next phase of growth.

AMSTERDAM, Nov. 25, 2025 — Overstory, the leader in vegetation intelligence for the utility industry, today announced $43M in Series B funding. The round was led by Blume Equity, with participation from Energy Impact Partners LP (“EIP”) and existing investors including B Capital, Semapa Next, Pale Blue Dot, CapitalT, Convective Capital, Bentley Systems, MCJ and Moxxie Ventures. The company will use the funding to accelerate development of its AI-based risk models, advance its wildfire prevention offering, and expand globally.

For utilities, vegetation is not only the leading cause of outages and wildfires, but often the single largest operational expense. In recent years, tree mortality, labor costs, demand and extreme weather events have all increased, driving utilities to find new ways to sharpen how they manage vegetation to build more resilience and reliability. Overstory uses high-resolution satellite data and AI to help utilities pinpoint risks tree by tree – reducing outages, preventing wildfires, and ensuring power remains safe, reliable, and affordable.

“Innovation and technology have become the pillars of progress when it comes to wildfire prevention,” said Andy Abranches, VP of Wildfire Mitigation at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). “Satellite data, AI and the vegetation-management intelligence we get from companies like Overstory are transforming how utilities think about wildfire prevention. The details are in the data, and that precision allows us to deploy our crews where wildfire risk is greatest.”

Michelle Capiod, Co-Founding Partner at Blume Equity, said: “The companies that will drive the greatest impact on our planet are those that deliver climate solutions with real economic value. Overstory exemplifies this — transforming satellite data into actionable insights that help utilities both prevent climate-related disasters and drive operational efficiencies. Their customer-first approach and leadership in AI has enabled them to develop cutting-edge, yet highly practical, solutions that deliver a tangible return on investment. This is exactly the kind of scalable, high impact climate solution we’re proud to support at Blume Equity.” 

The funding follows seven years of catalytic growth, with Overstory now serving six of the ten largest utilities across the Americas. The team has grown to more than 80 people, representing 16 nationalities and spanning disciplines from machine learning and data science to arborists and wildfire experts. Guiding the company’s next phase will be its new Chief Operating Officer, Tamara Mendelsohn. A seasoned operator and former Eventbrite CMO, Mendelsohn brings experience in scaling a company from seed stage to IPO.

“Utilities are at a pivotal moment, facing more extreme weather events every year,” said James Sprinz, Principal at EIP. “Overstory is tackling this challenge in a way that utilities can act on immediately, making sense of satellite data to spot the exact tree to trim, pole to clear, or asset to replace.”

Overstory Expands Wildfire Intelligence To Prevent Catastrophic Fires Before They Start

Overstory has built its reputation helping utilities identify vegetation that could cause outages and sparks. Today, the company launched the next evolution of its Wildfire Intelligence product, now backed by its proprietary, industry-first Fuel Detection Model. The technology helps utilities pinpoint areas across their network that contain the highest risk fuels, where a spark is most likely to ignite and spread. Unlike publicly available fire risk maps commonly used today, Overstory’s AI-backed tools recommend the exact locations and actions that will have an outsized impact on wildfire mitigation.

“Utilities are on the front lines of keeping communities safe, and they’re eager to use the best data available. When we talk about how satellites and remote sensing can identify dying trees and wildfire risk, they lean in,” said Fiona Spruill, CEO of Overstory. “We’re grateful to our forward-thinking investors for supporting this next chapter – expanding our intelligence product to address storms and wildfires, helping utilities build a more resilient and reliable grid.”

For more information, please visit overstory.com

About Overstory:
Overstory is an AI-powered grid resilience platform shifting how utilities protect communities from outages and wildfires. The company harnesses high-resolution satellite imagery and proprietary AI models to provide the critical intelligence needed to move utilities from reactive maintenance to a targeted, risk-based resilience strategy. By pinpointing the highest-risk vegetation and assets, Overstory empowers its partners to direct resources with precision, maximize the impact of every dollar spent, and build a safer, more reliable, and more resilient grid for everyone. Overstory is a global company with a U.S. headquarters in Boston and a European headquarters in Amsterdam.

About Blume Equity:
Blume Equity is a European climate-tech growth equity firm based in London and Amsterdam. Blume Equity partners with disruptive climate tech scale-ups that increase efficiency and climate resilience. The Blume team are growth specialists, providing flexible scale-up capital and value creation support to visionary entrepreneurs who are driving innovation and solving the climate emergency. For more information about Blume Equity, please visit: https://blumeequity.com

About Energy Impact Partners: 
Energy Impact Partners LP (EIP) is a global energy investor with a proprietary model designed to drive innovation. EIP brings together entrepreneurs and some of the world’s most forward-thinking energy and industrial companies to advance innovation for a better energy future. Investing in venture, growth/private equity and credit, EIP seeks attractive risk-adjusted returns for its investors by leveraging its differentiated strategy and industrial ecosystem. With over 80 corporate partners and over $4.5 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally with over 100 professionals based in its offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Palm Beach, London, Cologne and Oslo. For more information on EIP, please visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.

Media contact:
Cait Harding, VP Marketing, Overstory
[email protected]

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DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 25, 2025 — Aramco Ventures, the venture capital arm of Aramco, today announced plans to open a new office in Paris, France, in 2026. The expansion underscores Aramco’s growing commitment to global innovation, as the company continues to invest in next-generation technologies that support its long-term strategy for business diversification and energy transformation.

With over $7 billion in allocated capital, Aramco Ventures plays a key role in identifying and investing in innovative startups and technology solutions across many sectors. The Paris office will serve as a key resource for accessing France and Europe’s vibrant innovation ecosystem, recognized globally for its strengths in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, industrial digitization, and quantum computing.

Paris: A Strategic Choice for Innovation and Growth

France is fast emerging among the EU’s leading hubs for AI, digital, and quantum innovation, driven by bold government initiatives and a maturing ecosystem of start-ups, universities, researchers, and investors. Notable efforts such as the National Quantum Strategy and national investments in AI have positioned France as a prime destination for global technology investment.

This innovation momentum is complemented by academic institutions such as Paris-Saclay University, ranked first in Europe for mathematics, physics, and engineering, and innovation platforms like Station F, the world’s largest start-up campus.

Ahmad O. Al Khowaiter, Aramco Executive Vice President of Technology & Innovation and Aramco Ventures Chairman, said: “Aramco is harnessing advanced technologies that have potential to solve some of the world’s toughest problems. Aramco Ventures, our global venture capital program, plays an important role in this by funding start-ups and high-growth companies at the forefront of innovation, in areas from sustainability to industrial AI. This supports Aramco’s diversification and adds to its competitive edge. Through the new office in Paris, Aramco Ventures will extend its international footprint with a view to contributing further to exciting scientific and technology advances in France, one of the top three venture capital markets in Europe, as well as the broader European region.”

Building on Existing Investment Success in France

Aramco is not new to the research ecosystem of France, as it has a fuel research center in Paris that concentrates on energy, transport, and the environment. Furthermore, Aramco’s venturing programs have made two investments in French start-ups already: Pasqal, a quantum computing company; and Prophesee, a developer of a neuromorphic vision platform designed to improve the efficiency and intelligence of video processing systems. With its Paris office, Aramco Ventures will aim to deepen collaboration with founders, institutions, and investors in France, helping scale next-generation technologies across AI, quantum, deeptech, and sustainability domains.

About Aramco Ventures

Aramco Ventures is the corporate venturing arm of Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies. Headquartered in Dhahran with offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Aramco Ventures’ strategic venturing programs invest globally in start-up and high growth companies with technologies of strategic importance to its parent company, Aramco, primarily supporting its operational decarbonization, new lower-carbon fuels businesses, and digital transformation initiatives. Aramco Ventures also operates Prosperity7, the company’s disruptive technologies investment program.

For more information, please visit www.aramcoventures.com.

SOURCE Aramco Ventures

SHANGHAI and SUZHOU, China, Nov. 24, 2025 — Phrontline Biopharma (“Phrontline”), a next-generation antibody–drug conjugate (ADC) company, today announced the closing of a $60 million Pre-A+ financing round. The round was led by Lapam Investment, with participation from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC), Guofang Innovation, Hankang Venture Capital, Songqing Capital, Jifeng Ventures, and Sino Biopharmaceutical Limited. Existing shareholders — Decheng Capital, Medfine Health Fund, and C&D Emerging Investment — also participated and increased their investment in the company. This financing reflects strong investor confidence in Phrontline’s differentiated bispecific and dual-payload ADC platforms, its strategically designed pipeline, and its rapidly expanding global development capabilities. Proceeds will support advancement of the company’s clinical-stage and preclinical ADC programs, expansion of global clinical operations, and strengthening of key strategic partnerships.

Building a Leading Bispecific and Dual-Payload ADC Platform

Founded in 2022, Phrontline is among the first biotechnology companies globally to focus on bispecific antibody ADCs (BsAb-ADCs) and dual-payload ADCs. The company has built an end-to-end ADC platform spanning antibody discovery, linker–payload engineering, site-specific conjugation, and functional characterization — resulting in a proprietary, highly differentiated technology engine.

Leveraging this platform, Phrontline has designed multiple dual-target combinations and complementary payload strategies tailored to specific tumor indications and has advanced nearly ten innovative ADC programs. Among them, TJ101, a bispecific ADC targeting EGFR and B7-H3, is currently enrolling patients in parallel first-in-human clinical trials in China and the United States. Preclinical data demonstrate superior efficacy and safety relative to peer programs, positioning TJ101 as one of the leading next-generation EGFR/B7-H3 bispecific ADC candidates worldwide.

Strategic Collaborations Accelerating Global Expansion.

On October 20, 2025, Phrontline announced a global strategic collaboration with Samsung Bioepis. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will jointly develop two next-generation bispecific, dual-payload ADC candidates with differentiated mechanisms of action, leveraging Phrontline’s proprietary BsAb and dual-payload ADC platforms.

On October 31, 2025, Phrontline entered into an exclusive license agreement with Sino Biopharmaceutical Limited for TJ101 in Mainland China and the Hong Kong SAR. Sino Biopharmaceutical will make an upfront payment of an undisclosed amount, along with potential development and commercial milestone payments and sales-based royalties. This collaboration represents a key inflection point for Phrontline’s lead asset as it transitions into accelerated global clinical development.

Advancing Next-Generation ADCs Through Science and Conviction

“From the beginning, our strategy has been guided by biology and translational science. We believe that dual-target synergy and complementary payload mechanisms can unlock new therapeutic options for patients whose tumors are resistant to current therapies,” said Tony Chen, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Phrontline Biopharma. “Our preclinical and emerging clinical data are beginning to validate this vision.” “We are deeply grateful to both our new and existing investors for their continued confidence in Phrontline,” Dr. Chen added. “This financing marks an important milestone for the company and will allow us to accelerate our clinical programs and global expansion as we work to deliver truly innovative ADC medicines to patients around the world.”

Investor Perspective

“Phrontline is a highly execution-focused and resilient team,” said Ji Wang, Investment Lead at Lapam Investment. “By leveraging its proprietary bispecific antibody and dual-payload ADC platforms, the company has built a differentiated pipeline aimed at major unmet medical needs. Its preclinical data show compelling efficacy and safety and demonstrate the strong scalability of its platform.

“We look forward to supporting Phrontline as its programs advance through clinical development and as the company continues to drive innovation in next-generation ADC therapeutics,” Wang added.

About Phrontline Biopharma

Phrontline Biopharma is a biotechnology company dedicated to the research and development of next-generation ADCs. Founded in 2022 by a team of seasoned industry veterans with deep and complementary experience in ADC drug discovery and development, Phrontline has built a globally competitive platform for bispecific and dual-payload ADCs. The company has established a robust pipeline of innovative candidates spanning preclinical to early clinical stages and is committed to advancing a new paradigm in precision oncology through scientific innovation and to bringing transformative therapies to patients worldwide.

SOURCE Phrontline Biopharma

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 24, 2025 — Cordance Medical, a pioneer in noninvasive focused ultrasound technology for brain disease treatment, today announced an oversubscribed seed financing round led by Sonder Capital. The round surpassed its $8M target and included participation from existing and new investors, including Shanda Grab Ventures, Angel Physician’s Fund, SmartGateVC, and R42. The Sontag Foundation Innovation Fund, a subsidiary of The Sontag Foundation, and the Brain Tumor Investment Fund, a venture subsidiary of the National Brain Tumor Society, also joined the round, highlighting the platform’s potential impact on neuro-oncology care.

The funding will support the company’s first-in-human clinical trial of its focused ultrasound platform designed to safely and temporarily open the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This capability could unlock new treatment options for brain cancer and other neurological conditions by enabling therapeutic agents to reach the brain more effectively.

With a system designed for scalable outpatient adoption, Cordance’s platform distinguishes itself through patient-specific signal processing combined with real-time monitoring of BBB opening – all without requiring patient head fixation or live imaging during treatment. The company has already received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in neuro-oncology and was recently awarded a grant from the National Cancer Institute at the NIH to support its upcoming U.S. clinical trial.

“Our team is thrilled to announce this financing round and is grateful to all our investors for their confidence in our mission,” said Bhaskar Ramamurthy, PhD, Co-founder and CEO of Cordance Medical. “Alongside our academic collaborators and industry partners, this strong syndicate backing reflects the urgent need for precision therapies in neurology, where patients face extremely limited treatment options. Combined with NIH support for our first-in-human trial, this funding accelerates our path to delivering transformative care.”

“Focused ultrasound continues to revolutionize treatment across multiple therapeutic areas,” said Deborah Kilpatrick, PhD, Partner at Sonder Capital. “We believe that Cordance has the potential to establish new standards of care in neurology with a platform purpose-built for practical, outpatient delivery of BBB-mediated therapies for both pediatric and adult patients.”

About Cordance Medical
Cordance Medical is developing a noninvasive focused ultrasound platform to temporarily and safely open the blood-brain barrier, enabling new therapeutic approaches for brain cancer and other neurological diseases. Based in Mountain View, California, Cordance Medical is backed by leading healthcare investors committed to advancing neurology care. For more information, visit https://cordancemedical.com/.

Media Contact:
Alexander Jonsson
[email protected]
+1 (650) 241-8275

SOURCE Cordance Medical

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 24, 2025 — NetFoundry today announced that Cisco Investments has joined its Series A funding round as a strategic investor. The Series A, led by SYN Ventures, and first announced earlier this year, now totals over $15 million with the addition of Cisco Investments. NetFoundry’s Identity-First Overlays™ already delivers over one billion sessions per month, and the new funding will enable NetFoundry to continue to scale.

NetFoundry’s Identity-First Overlays™ ingrain security within the network fabric, using identity‑based micro‑segmentation to directly embed authentication and policy enforcement. This enables secure‑by‑default sessions between endpoints, APIs, and applications across a variety of environments.

“Our team is thrilled to welcome Cisco Investments to our group of strategic partners,” said Galeal Zino, co-founder and CEO, NetFoundry. “This funding enables us to expand our reach and continue our momentum in unifying identity, authorization, networking and security for the benefit of our customers.”

“The future of both networking and security lies in their fusion, where identity and policy are embedded directly into the network,” said Janey Hoe, Vice President of Cisco Investments. “Cisco Investments is excited to support NetFoundry as they advance this approach.”

“We are excited to see the continued momentum behind NetFoundry,” said Jay Leek, Founder and Managing Director of SYN Ventures. “The addition of Cisco Investments further strengthens NetFoundry’s mission and expands their market opportunity.”

NetFoundry’s secure‑by‑default, identity‑driven approach enables enterprise workflows to connect without exposure of critical infrastructure, working seamlessly across diverse environments and connectivity methods. By embedding zero‑trust principles into every session, NetFoundry helps organizations maintain agility, reliability, and security in increasingly distributed and dynamic ecosystems.

For more information, visit netfoundry.io or email [email protected]. 

About NetFoundry
NetFoundry’s Identity-First Overlays™ serve innovators everywhere, including 2 of the largest 5 companies in the USA. Businesses use NetFoundry’s cloud services to instantly spin up secure by design overlays, or use NetFoundry’s platform to instantiate self-hosted overlays, including at air-gapped sites. Software providers use NetFoundry to add zero trust connectivity to their products, including in white-label models. NetFoundry is the inventor and maintainer of the world’s most used open source zero trust software, OpenZiti. 

SOURCE NetFoundry

Founded by ex-Tesla engineers, Maritime Fusion combines high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable technology with DOE and Columbia Research partnerships to bring fusion energy to ships.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 24, 2025 — Maritime Fusion, a fusion energy company developing first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors for maritime and off-grid applications, today announced the closing of a $4.5 million seed round led by Trucks VC, with participation from Silicon Valley legend Paul Graham, Alumni Ventures, Aera VC, Y Combinator, and several strategic angel investors. The capital accelerates the company’s mission to develop its HTS cable technology and bring fusion power to the commercial shipping industry before grid-scale adoption.

While most fusion companies aim directly for grid electricity production that requires high power density and a large capacity factor to be cost competitive, Maritime Fusion is taking a different approach. The company is developing a low-power-density tokamak reactor optimized for off grid applications, where the first viable commercial use cases require 10× less power with zero emissions, far lower uptime requirements, and cost parity with alternative energy sources. This approach to commercialize the tokamak also alleviates the main unsolved materials science and confinement challenges that emerge between breakeven fusion and grid scale reactors.

“Breakeven fusion is on the horizon, but the grid may not be the first place fusion achieves commercial success” said Justin Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Maritime Fusion and a former Tesla engineer. “By targeting applications that require lower power and lower uptime, we simultaneously reduce challenging physics problems from power exhaust to nuclear activation, while also decreasing the burden and cost impact of maintenance operations that are unavoidable in any first-of-a-kind deployment.”

Maritime Fusion is developing Yinsen, a low-power-density HTS tokamak designed with an emphasis on reducing the scope between breakeven class devices and grid scale reactors. The company is advancing the physics basis for Yinsen through two research relationships:

• A Sponsored Research Agreement with Columbia University, focused on pulse scenario development and time dependent plant systems.
• Participation in the U.S. Department of Energy’s DIII-D National Fusion Facility, enabling targeted experiments aligned with Maritime Fusion’s operating regime.

Maritime Fusion has launched a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable program centered on its patent-pending SHIELD (Superconducting High Integrity Energy Link & Distribution) architecture. The cable recently reached a major milestone, carrying 5,000 amps at 77K in a liquid-nitrogen-cooled bench test at the company’s new San Francisco HTS lab.

SHIELD has a smaller diameter than a quarter (excluding cryostat hardware) but can handle up to 8,000 amps at 77K self-field and even higher current under fusion-relevant conditions. The architecture is also highly modular, allowing for easy packaging of an array of insulated cable bundles to enable industry-leading engineering current densities, strong mechanical robustness, and simplified integration into fusion magnets. 

While SHIELD is the heart of Maritime Fusion’s tokamak magnets, the company also plans to sell this same cable into commercial power distribution sectors starting with AI datacenters, where demand for dense high-power transmission is growing rapidly. Compared to copper material, an HTS solution offers enormous energy savings by avoiding ohmic losses, requiring only ~1.5 W/m of cryocooling at 77K. The main difference in the fusion grade cable compared to power distribution is the need for REBCO tape with Advanced Pinning for high field fusion applications, but nearly all other features of the cable are otherwise the same. The value of efficient power transfer coupled with a much smaller physical footprint enabled by HTS conductors, can exceed $10M per year in cost savings for large-scale datacenter operators.

“Fusion’s impact on transportation will be enormous, obviously for the grid, but also for large-scale applications like maritime,” said Jeffrey Schox, partner at Trucks Venture Capital. “The team picked a smart first channel, allowing them to make a significant impact well before the largest barriers to grid fusion are fully solved.”

Maritime Fusion is hiring across engineering, manufacturing, and business development.
Candidates can apply here.

About Maritime Fusion

Maritime Fusion is developing HTS cable technologies and a low-power-density fusion reactor designed for off-grid applications. Founded by former Tesla engineers, the company is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by Trucks VC, Paul Graham, Alumni Ventures, Y Combinator, Aera VC, and leading deep-tech investors.

Media Contact:
[email protected] 

SOURCE Maritime Fusion

Opti is transforming Identity and Access Management (IAM) by giving security teams an AI engine that understands enterprise access at scale – turning complex identity decisions into precise, explainable, and instantly actionable insights

NEW YORK, Nov. 24, 2025 — Opti, the AI-native identity security platform, has secured $20M seed funding in a round led by YL Ventures, Mayfield Fund and Hetz Ventures, with participation from Squared Circle Ventures, LocalGlobe, Maple Capital and angel investor and cybersecurity trailblazer Shlomo Kramer. The funding will be used to accelerate product expansion and global growth.

Identity and access management is at the heart of every cybersecurity challenge – but just 50% of organizations rate their IAM tools and investments as effective, due to manual processes and limited adoption of advanced tools and automation. 

Without automation, businesses struggle to manage a growing and complex range of identity-associated vulnerabilities. Research from McKinsey shows that automation in a cybersecurity context not only improves efficiency, but also enhances overall risk management. Additional studies focusing on critical infrastructure, for example, demonstrate that AI can increase threat detection by up to 98%. Opti brings these advances to identity security with a fully automated platform that cuts costs, saves time and reduces risk and vulnerabilities.

Opti introduces a new automated operating model for identity security, one where AI interprets identity risk, recommends least privilege decisions, and orchestrates clean, safe access across an enterprise. The platform’s pre-trained AI models are built to understand identity context – setting a new benchmark for how identity-based threats are managed. By deploying domain-expert LLMs, trained on curated identity data and frameworks, Opti interprets complex relationships between users, systems, and access rights.

“Identity has evolved into a massive data ecosystem that enterprises struggle to control. Teams work incredibly hard, but they spend their time managing complexity instead of focusing on strategic opportunities,” said Barak Perelman, CEO and Co-founder. “Opti gives them an intelligence layer that elevates and automates their capabilities – making identity operations faster, clearer, and safer.”

“Opti is redefining how enterprises approach identity security. For too long, the space has relied on fragmented, manual, and outdated systems,” said Yoav Leitersdorf, Managing Partner at YL Ventures. “Opti’s AI-native IAM platform introduces a smarter, faster, and more efficient way to manage and mitigate identity risk. Their agentic technology delivers measurable impact by reducing complexity, saving resources, and strengthening enterprise defenses. We’re proud to back their vision and partner with this exceptional team.”

Opti’s AI-Native platform analyzes thousands of data points and their business context to provide teams with ⁠real-time detection of identity vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and overprivileged access. In addition, it offers validated least privilege recommendations generated by domain-specific identity models. Opti’s agentic AI orchestration continuously verifies access corrections with full human oversight and leverages compliance models to transform access and entitlements into straightforward user access reviews.

Built with complex identity infrastructures in mind, Opti is trusted by large enterprises across finance, retail, healthcare, and technology, sectors where identity context, risk reduction, and continuous compliance are mission-critical.

About Opti

Founded in 2024, Opti is an AI-native platform revolutionizing identity and access management (IAM) for enterprises. Built by serial cybersecurity entrepreneurs Barak Perelman, Mille Gandelsman, and Ido Trivizki, it uses advanced GenAI and specialized large language models (LLMs) to automate identity operations, reduce security risks, and enhance compliance. Opti empowers organizations to work more efficiently, more securely, and more cost-effectively.

Learn more at: https://www.opti.ai/

Contact:
Gavin Horwich
[email protected]

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2830397/Opti_Team.jpg

SOURCE Opti

NEW YORK, Nov. 24, 2025 — Model ML, the leading global AI workflow automation platform for financial services, today announced a $75 million Series A financing led by FT Partners, the global leader in FinTech investment banking. The round also includes significant participation from Y Combinator, QED, 13Books, Latitude and LocalGlobe, and comes just six months after the company’s seed raise, led by LocalGlobe, and only twelve months after its launch.

“We’re thrilled to announce this round with such an exceptional group of investors as we continue our mission to transform how financial institutions work. This financing enables us to accelerate global expansion and advance our AI capabilities across key financial hubs as we scale to meet rapidly growing enterprise demand,” said Chaz Englander, CEO of Model ML. “We couldn’t imagine a better strategic partner for us than FT Partners – Steve McLaughlin and his team have long been pioneers in leveraging data and technology in investment banking, and our tight collaboration will show how AI can redefine the entire financial advisory workflow.”

“Model ML is setting a new standard for how financial institutions leverage AI to achieve superior client results,” said Steve McLaughlin, Founder & CEO of FT Partners. “While we expect significant efficiency gains, the true power of Model ML lies in the insights it will unlock for our clients, investors, and the broader FinTech ecosystem. We believe Model ML will fuel the next evolution of world-class service for our clients and transparency across all stakeholders in transactions.”

Addressing a Critical Market Need

Founded by brothers and repeat entrepreneurs Chaz and Arnie Englander, Model ML enables financial teams to build AI workflows that automate client-ready Word, PowerPoint, and Excel outputs directly from trusted data, in exact prior formats. This capability is applicable across entire organizations, driving group-wide deployments. It is now in use at several of the world’s largest banks, asset managers and consultancies, including two of the Big Four accounting firms.

High-stakes deliverables like pitch decks, investment memos, and diligence reports are still built through slow, manual processes that strain teams and stall business momentum. Entire deal teams across all levels of seniority lose time formatting outputs and chasing down inconsistencies across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. These inefficiencies introduce reputational risk and slow decisions.

That’s the gap Model ML is built to close. Model ML’s agent workflows go far beyond simple data retrieval and chat interface flows. They interpret schemas, reason across multiple sources, write the code needed to extract or transform data, and generate finished, branded outputs—long PowerPoint decks, research reports, investment memos—with verification built in.

Model ML’s verification capabilities are a big differentiator. The company recently ran a verification workflow, testing the AI against consultants from McKinsey and Bain on real Word and PowerPoint outputs. The consultants took over an hour to complete the task. Model ML did it in under three minutes and still caught more errors. In other words, it wasn’t just 20x faster; it was more accurate.

Chaz continued, “High-stakes business runs on documents: pitch decks, diligence summaries, investment memos. But most firms still build them the hard way. Analysts spend entire weekends cross-checking numbers and formatting slides. Despite all that effort, mistakes still slip through because no one can realistically verify every data point in a 100-page deliverable. That’s why we built Model ML. Our agents reason across data sources, write the code to extract and transform what’s needed, and generate finished, branded outputs with verification built in. We’re eliminating the grunt work so teams can focus on the analysis that actually matters.”

Industry-Leading Advisors

Model ML is guided by a prestigious advisory board including:

• Sir Noel Quinn (Former CEO, HSBC)
• Axel Weber (Former Chairman, UBS)
• Saul Nathan (Former Chairman, Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley)
• Jeff McDermott (Former Global Co-Head of Investment Banking, UBS and Nomura)
• Philip Rickenbacher (Former CEO, Julius Baer)
• Keith Robinson (Chairman, Tech IB, Barclays EMEA; Ex-Chief Strategy Officer @ Sage)

“Model ML is creating the blueprint for how modern financial services firms will operate,” said Axel A. Weber, Former Chairman, UBS. “In today’s world, precision and speed are essential, reputation and innovation are a must. Model ML delivers this at scale.”

“Model ML is creating something remarkable that will transform financial services entirely,” Sir Noel Quinn, Former Group CEO at HSBC. “By seamlessly integrating an intuitive, user-friendly interface with cutting-edge AI, Model ML is empowering financial professionals to work smarter, extract deeper insights, and enhance efficiency.”

“Model ML has moved faster than almost any company we’ve seen,” Colin Evans, OpenAI “Their acute product–market fit, relentless product focus, and genuine care for their customers are setting them apart. They’re consistently pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with LLMs—and showing the world what AI in financial services can truly look like.”

Customer Traction

In less than a year, Model ML has grown its customer base to include several of the largest investment banks, asset managers, and consultants in the world.

“Model ML has been a bit of a game changer for us,” Fiona Satchell, Senior Managing Director, Three Hills Capital. “From automating monthly portfolio reporting updates to generating initial drafts of our investment memos, it has streamlined critical processes across the team. By removing much of the manual, repetitive work, it has freed our teams to dedicate more time to value-added analysis, sharper investment insights, and driving stronger outcomes across our portfolio.”

Big 4, Deal Advisory “Model ML is generating a lot of excitement in our team. Over my 25-year career, I’ve seen teams spend hours on repetitive tasks and fixing errors in client-deliverable decks. Model ML is enabling us to dramatically reduce the level of effort required to check deliverables, helping save much-needed time for our teams. Beyond the product, their flexible approach to developing a solution that works for us makes them incredibly easy to work with.

Big 4, Deal Advisory “We’ve been blown away by Model ML’s capabilities and their team. Their AI modules have not only freed up over 90% capacity during review and prep stages for our teams, but they’ve also demonstrated how they can achieve the same outputs with higher accuracy than if we performed the workflows manually. We know this is a crowded space, and we spent months doing our due diligence. We’re confident Model ML is the right team for our needs.”

Use of Investment Proceeds

This new financing will be used to accelerate global expansion and deepen AI capabilities across key financial hubs. The company will build out dedicated onboarding and customer success teams in San Francisco, New York, London, and Hong Kong to support rapid enterprise adoption.

In parallel, Model ML will scale its AI engineering and infrastructure teams in New York and London, focusing on advancing its proprietary agentic systems and workflow automation modules. These investments will ensure seamless deployment, integration, and scaling for the firm’s growing roster of global banking, private equity, and consulting clients.

About Model ML

Model ML is the AI workflow builder for financial services. It enables teams to build AI Modules that automate client-ready Word, PowerPoint, and Excel outputs directly from trusted data, in exact prior formats. Founded by brothers and repeat entrepreneurs Chaz and Arnie Englander, the company is guided by a world-class advisory board and is already working with some of the largest financial institutions globally.

About FT Partners

Financial Technology Partners and its affiliates (FT Partners) is the leading global investment bank focused exclusively on FinTech, providing world-class strategic and financial advisory services to CEOs, founders, and investors across the global FinTech landscape. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York and London, the firm has advised on many of the most significant transactions in FinTech.

SOURCE Model ML