The Q-Lab will build the research, tools, and field infrastructure needed to make better questioning
a rigorous discipline and practical skill

NEW YORK, October 1, 2026 — Siegel Family Endowment today announced a multiyear grant to support the launch of The Questions Lab (Q-Lab), an initiative by The Governance Lab (The GovLab) dedicated solely to the science and practice of inquiry. Q-Lab will serve as a formal hub for advancing question literacy and building the emerging field of question science, helping organizations across sectors strengthen their ability to formulate rigorous, inclusive, and actionable questions.

The grant builds on Siegel’s long-standing commitment to inquiry-driven philanthropy and follows the release of the foundation’s white paper, Better Questions, Better Insights: How Philanthropy Can Harness the Science of Questions for Deeper Impact. Together, the white paper and Q-Lab investment signal a broader effort to move the science of questions from an emerging idea to a field with dedicated research, practice, and institutional infrastructure.

“We have spent years using inquiry as a grantmaking practice, but this work cannot live inside one foundation alone,” said Joshua Elder, Senior Vice President and Head of Grantmaking at Siegel. “The Questions Lab gives the emerging science of inquiry a durable home. It creates the conditions for researchers, practitioners, funders, and communities to better understand what makes a question powerful, whose questions shape the agenda, and how disciplined inquiry can lead to deeper impact.”

Siegel’s support will help Q-Lab build the research, practical methods, and global community needed to make question formulation a more systematic and accessible practice across philanthropy, public interest technology, education, civic institutions, and other fields navigating complex social challenges.

The John Templeton Foundation is proud to join Siegel Family Endowment in supporting Q-Lab as it builds the intellectual infrastructure for a deeper and more humble culture of inquiry. “Many of humanity’s most important advances begin not with an answer but with a question,” said Timothy Dalrymple, President of the John Templeton Foundation. “At a moment when technologies can generate answers with remarkable speed, we have an opportunity to pay renewed attention to the questions that guide discovery, shape our understanding of the world, and open new possibilities for exploration.”

As artificial intelligence and data systems make it easier to generate rapid responses, the ability to ask sharp, generative questions is becoming increasingly important. Q-Lab will focus on building the science of questions as both a field of study and a practical capability, helping leaders move beyond information gathering toward deeper insight, better decision-making, and more democratic agenda-setting.

“The future of problem-solving depends not only on better answers, but on better questions,” said Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder of The GovLab and Q-Lab’s Founder. “Q-Lab is designed to help individuals and institutions ask questions that are rigorous, inclusive, and actionable. We’re excited to partner with Siegel and the John Templeton Foundation to build the infrastructure needed to make question science a discipline that serves the public interest.”

To learn more, please visit questionslab.org.

About Siegel Family Endowment
Siegel Family Endowment employs an inquiry-driven approach to grantmaking, informed by the scientific method and grounded in the belief that philanthropy is uniquely positioned to address complex societal challenges. Rapid technological change has reshaped how we live, work, and learn, transforming the global economy and redefining access to opportunity – from schools and workplaces to our built environment. To meet these shifts, we support technology that serves the public interest, including the tools, skills, and systems people need to engage with and shape a rapidly evolving world. Siegel Family Endowment was founded in 2011 by David Siegel, co-founder and co-chairman of financial sciences company Two Sigma.

SOURCE Siegel Family Endowment

Expands Health & Wellness-Focused Private Equity Firm’s Brand Building Capabilities

DENVER, Oct. 1, 2026 — Manna Tree, a global private equity firm investing in companies that empower consumers to live better, longer, today announced a majority investment in Zambezi, the award-winning independent creative agency known for building billion-dollar brands and breakthrough consumer campaigns. Terms were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Los Angeles and celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2026, Zambezi helps brands drive outsized growth through integrated creative, strategic storytelling, production marketing and sports partners. The agency has a proven track record of helping companies become category leaders, most recently propelling Liquid I.V. to billion-dollar brand status.

Brand-Building as a Core Investment Thesis

Since its founding in 2018, Manna Tree has focused on investing in consumer health and wellness companies with strong momentum and market share, applying a strategy centered on identifying and scaling category-defining brands. The Zambezi investment marks the firm’s latest step in expanding the services and resources it makes available to its portfolio companies to support meaningful expansion, adding marketing to its existing talent, supply chain, and finance capabilities. With Zambezi, Manna Tree adds creative, media and production marketing capabilities that enhance its ability to support companies across their growth cycle while extending its reach across the broader health and wellness ecosystem.

“We are not just investing in a growing creative agency – with Zambezi we are investing in the future of our firm and our ability to support the next generation of category-defining health and wellness brands,” said Ross Iverson, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Manna Tree. “We know that great companies require more than capital to scale – they need to be the best brand in the marketplace. The Zambezi team brings world-class expertise in storytelling, consumer engagement and brand building that will strengthen how we help companies grow.”

Manna Tree portfolio companies, which include leading better-for-you brands such as Good Culture, Gotham Greens, Generous Brands, New Primal, Plant People, Verde Farms, and others will have access to Zambezi’s full suite of services including brand strategy, creative development, media, production through FIN Studios, and sports and culture partnerships.

Unlocking Growth at the Intersection of Wellness, Sports, and Culture

The investment positions Manna Tree at the growing convergence of health and wellness with sports, culture, and community. Consumer wellness brands are increasingly building direct relationships with consumers through live experiences, athlete partnerships, and culturally embedded campaigns rather than traditional advertising alone. “Zambezi’s deep expertise in this space, including work with the NFL, TaylorMade, and ESPN, provides a clear pathway into these high-impact consumer touchpoints for not only our portfolio companies but high-potential health and wellness brands across the broader market,” said Ellie Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Manna Tree.

Zambezi will continue to operate independently, serving its existing client base and pursuing new business, while also working alongside Manna Tree’s investment and portfolio operations teams to identify and act on shared opportunities. The agency will remain headquartered in Los Angeles and be led by its existing management team, including CEO Jean Freeman and President Laura Stayt.

“Today’s consumers expect brands to participate in culture, not simply market to them,” said Jean Freeman, Chief Executive Officer of Zambezi. “Manna Tree understands where consumer behavior is heading and shares our belief that strong brands are built through authentic connections, compelling storytelling and dynamic engagement. We’re excited to partner together as we help companies navigate their next era of growth.”

DLA Piper served as legal counsel to Manna Tree. Jones Spross served as legal counsel to Zambezi, with Pharus acting as its financial advisor.

About Manna Tree
Founded by Gabrielle (Ellie) Rubenstein and Ross Iverson in 2018, Manna Tree is a global private equity firm committed to investing in companies that empower consumers to live better, longer. The firm strategically invests in the consumer sector, particularly within the health and wellness ecosystem, focusing on growth-stage and buyout opportunities. Manna Tree has made investments in 15 companies to date, including companies like: Health-Ade, Gotham Greens, Vital Farms, Good Culture, Plant People, Verde Farms, Urban Remedy, and the New Primal.

About Zambezi
2026 AdAge Small Agency of the Year winner Zambezi is a proudly independent, women-owned agency bringing enduring creative and media ideas to sports, fitness, health and wellness and lifestyle companies, among others. Zambezi builds brands that are as high-performance as their products and services, spurring growth to $1B and beyond. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Minneapolis, the agency serves leaders in their sectors, including TaylorMade, LPL Financial, Club Pilates, Traeger Grills, UKG, NFL, ESPN, Under Armour, Atlantis Bahamas, and more. The rapidly growing firm has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. eight times, most recently in 2026. Zambezi’s  momentum over the past year has included being named ADWEEK Breakthrough Media Agency of the Year and receiving multiple awards for its creative work at Cannes Lions, The One Show, Emmys, Webbys, Clios, and more.

Media Contact:

Kate Schneiderman
[email protected] 

SOURCE Manna Tree Partners

Proceeds from the facility will support the deployment of compute infrastructure dedicated to customer contracts

NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2026 — SharonAI Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SHAZ) (“Sharon AI” or the “Company”), a leading Australian Neocloud delivering trusted AI infrastructure, today announced it has entered into its inaugural US$356m committed senior secured, GPU-backed SPV debt facility priced at a fixed rate of 9.95%, excluding fees.

The facility will be secured against the GPUs and associated cash flows, with the contract-backed funding structure reflecting the security and delivery discipline underpinning Sharon AI’s platform and marks a further step towards the Company’s ambition of delivering gigawatt-scale AI compute capacity across Australia, New Zealand and the broader Asia-Pacific.

The facility includes marquee Australian, Asian and global investors including Goldman Sachs and select large private credit funds. This facility is the first in an expected series of GPU financings supporting the scheduled build out of over 68,000 NVIDIA GPUs deployed by mid-2027.

With the closing of this transaction, Sharon AI will have secured over US$2.6bn of institutional debt and equity capital over the past 10 months, extending the Company’s capital markets program and underscoring Sharon AI’s ability to access diversified sources of capital as it scales its AI infrastructure platform for a growing customer base of hyperscale, AI natives, government, enterprise, and research organizations.

“As demand for sovereign and secure, trusted AI infrastructure continues to outpace available supply globally, and particularly across Australia, New Zealand and the broader Asia-Pacific, access to scalable debt capital is an important enabler of our growth,” said James Manning, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sharon AI.

“This facility demonstrates how we expect to access debt markets to fund our GPU deployments, leveraging our book of quality customer offtake now standing at a TCV of over US$8.8bn. This is designed to enhance return on equity and ultimately drive increased long-term shareholder value. With a strong balance sheet, growing contracted capacity pipeline and a disciplined approach to capital allocation, we believe we are well positioned to continue scaling our AI platform across the Asia-Pacific region.“

Jarden Australia acted as sole financial advisor and arranger.

ENDS

About Sharon AI

Sharon AI (NASDAQ: SHAZ) is a leading Australian Neocloud delivering trusted sovereign AI infrastructure. Through its AI Factory platform and world-class ecosystem of technology and co-location partners, Sharon AI expands access to the scalable capabilities organizations need to build, train and run AI, from model training through to inference and agentic AI. Serving customers globally, Sharon AI helps organizations move faster from AI potential to measurable value. For more information, visit www.sharonai.com.

Media
[email protected]

Investors
[email protected]

Disclosure Information

Sharon AI primarily uses its Investor Relations page (https://sharonai.com/investors/) to disclose material non-public information and to comply with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. The Company also notes that, at times, it discloses material non-public information through other communication mediums including, but not limited to, its X account (sharon__ai) and/or LinkedIn account (sharon-AI), press releases, and regulatory filings with the SEC, or through conference calls, webcasts, and investor days, etc. that the company may hold.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain, and our officers and representatives may from time to time make, “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are not historical facts, and which are not assurances of future performance. Forward-looking statements are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “should,” “would,” “project,” “strategy,” “plan,” “expect,” “goal,” “seek,” “future,” “likely” or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions or references to future periods. Examples of such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to express or implied statements regarding Sharon AI’s management team’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future including, without limitation, statements regarding:

• Service and product offerings;
• The deployment of assets and expansion of network procurement;
• Sharon AI’s ability to engage with additional potential customers;
• Expansion of Sharon AI’s data center footprint and capacity;
• The strengthening of Sharon AI’s partner network;
• Additional or future GPU financings;
• Complete fulfillment of all customer contracts;
• The impact and effect of debt structures designed to enhance return on equity and to drive stockholder value; and
• The Company’s position to continue scaling its AI platform across the Asia-Pacific region.

In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. You are cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those set forth in these forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, among others, all of the risks described in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and other reports subsequently filed with the SEC. Additional assumptions, risks and uncertainties are described in detail in our registration statements, reports and other filings with the SEC, which are available at www.sec.gov.

The forward-looking statements and other information contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and Sharon AI does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE SharonAI Holdings Inc.

The funding will scale production of OSCP’s ITAR-free photonic IMUs in Montréal as demand grows for navigation that works when GNSS is jammed.

MONTRÉAL, Oct. 1, 2026 — OSCPS Motion Sensing Inc., operating as OSCP, today announced that it has closed a Series A financing led by New Science Ventures, with participation from Emerging Ventures, and 2050 Capital. Somu Subramaniam, founder and managing partner of New Science Ventures, has joined OSCP’s board of directors.

OSCP’s photonic gyroscopes and inertial measurement units (IMUs) are built for platforms that must keep navigating when GNSS is jammed, spoofed or unavailable, a problem that now reaches well beyond declared conflict zones.

The company will use the funding to scale production in Montréal, grow its engineering and sales teams, and bring its next generation of photonic inertial sensors to market.

“Losing the satellite signal used to be a battlefield problem. Now it shows up over airports and shipping lanes,” said Kazem Zandi, founder and chief executive of OSCP. “Customers want navigation they can trust when GNSS drops out, and they want it ITAR-free. This round lets us build more of it here, and faster.”

“We are very excited to join the team at OSCP to build the world’s best IMUs in terms of navigation performance, size, and cost. These IMUs have the potential to completely change the autonomous navigation paradigm in a wide range of applications in the defence and transportation sectors,” said Somu Subramaniam, founder and managing partner of New Science Ventures.

Since the round closed in August, OSCP has introduced NavigationGate, an inertial navigation system for platforms that lose satellite signal, added ArduPilot support and an open-source ROS 2 driver for its MK2 IMU family, and qualified as a supplier on Canada’s Defence Drone Initiative Marketplace. For details, visit oscp.com.

ABOUT OSCP

OSCPS Motion Sensing Inc., operating as OSCP, designs and manufactures photonic gyroscopes and inertial measurement units. Founded in 2015 and based in Montréal, Québec, the company builds inertial sensors that deliver tactical-grade photonic accuracy at the size, weight, power and cost of MEMS, for navigation where GNSS is jammed, degraded or unavailable. Its customers work in space, defence, marine and subsea, rail, robotics and ground autonomy. OSCP products are made in Canada and are ITAR-free.

ABOUT NEW SCIENCE VENTURES

New Science Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in companies taking novel scientific approaches in information technology and life sciences. Founded in 2004, with offices in Greenwich, Connecticut, and London, the firm has more than US$1 billion in assets under management, based on original committed capital. For more information, visit newscienceventures.com.

Media contact: [email protected]

Five accomplished executives spanning technology, finance, operations, consulting and transformation will advise the independent IT sourcing firm as it continues to grow and evolve

BOSTON, Sept. 30, 2026 — UpperEdge, an independent IT sourcing and vendor negotiation advisory firm, today announced the formation of its inaugural Advisory Board. The five members are a former biopharma CIO, two former senior leaders from Accenture and EY, a former consumer products President and CFO, and a procurement and supply chain executive. Together they bring decades of experience leading, funding and delivering large-scale technology transformation.

The board’s formation comes as large enterprises navigate a rapidly changing technology landscape, including major platform transformations, evolving cloud and AI strategies, and significant changes in how enterprise software and IT services are priced, packaged and contracted. Collectively, the five board members have experienced these decisions from multiple perspectives, including the buyer, the provider, and the business executives responsible for funding and delivering transformation.

The Advisory Board will work with UpperEdge leadership throughout the year on growth strategy, client relationships, new market opportunities and the continued evolution of the firm’s offerings. It will support the firm as it expands its advisory services and invests in new, technology-enabled ways to deliver its negotiation expertise to clients.

“UpperEdge has built a strong business, but I believe we have significant opportunity ahead of us,” said David Blake, CEO of UpperEdge. “I wanted to surround our leadership team with accomplished people who bring different experiences and perspectives, who understand the executives and organizations we serve, and who are willing to challenge our thinking. Their perspective will help us sharpen our strategy, identify new opportunities, and continue evolving UpperEdge as we enter our next phase of growth, while ultimately helping us deliver even greater value to our clients.”

Advisory Board Members

Vince Ambrosino is a consumer products executive with operational, financial and strategic leadership experience at McCain Foods, Suntory and PepsiCo. At McCain Foods, he served as President of the North America Potato Division and Chief Financial Officer for the North America Region, where he helped restore growth and profitability. As Chief Operating Officer of Suntory Holdings in Japan, he led global initiatives to strengthen the company’s operating model and expand across Asia. Earlier in his career, he held senior finance and operating roles at PepsiCo in the U.S. and Canada, contributing to turnaround efforts and sustained margin expansion.

David Davidson is an enterprise transformation executive with more than 35 years of experience in corporate strategy, large-scale ERP transformation and cost optimization. As a Senior Managing Director at Accenture, he served on the North America Leadership Team and led the firm’s CFO & Enterprise Value Strategy & Consulting practice. Since retiring from Accenture in 2022, he has advised organizations in the music, wealth management and consumer products industries through David A. Davidson Consulting.

Lori Foster is an accomplished business leader and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience leading supply chain organizations and business transformations across multiple industries. Throughout her career, she led complex, large-scale global SAP implementations at multinational organizations, driving improvements in processes, technology, operations, and organizational performance. Today, Lori is an entrepreneur and business owner, applying her decades of leadership experience to building her own ventures.

Todd Smith is a former CIO with more than 30 years of experience leading global IT organizations through growth, transformation, and M&A. As Chief Information Officer of Horizon Therapeutics, he built a cloud-first IT organization that supported the company’s growth from $300 million to nearly $4 billion in revenue. He previously led Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ global SAP Center of Excellence and IT integration efforts and began his career at Accenture. He brings the perspective of the enterprise technology leaders UpperEdge advises.

Michael Yadgar is a technology executive and transformation strategist with more than 30 years of experience helping organizations navigate growth and large-scale change. A former partner at Accenture and EY, he built and led global SAP and technology businesses, including growing EY’s SAP practice to $2 billion in revenue. He advises C-suite executives and boards on complex transformation and operational challenges across a wide variety of industries.

The Advisory Board marks the latest step in UpperEdge’s evolution as it expands its advisory services, invests in technology-enabled offerings and continues helping the world’s largest enterprises get the most value from their technology investments.

About UpperEdge

UpperEdge is an independent IT sourcing and vendor negotiation advisory firm serving Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies. UpperEdge helps enterprises plan, negotiate and manage their most significant technology investments across enterprise software, cloud, AI and IT services. Because it has no vendor affiliations, UpperEdge represents only its clients’ interests. Learn more about the Advisory Board at https://upperedge.com/who-we-are/our-team/advisory-board/.

Media Contact:
Alyssa Meyer
UpperEdge
(810) 569-2605
[email protected]

SOURCE UpperEdge

The round comes as Rivian, Anduril, Joby, and Stoke Space put Flow’s AI agents to work in live hardware programs

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 30, 2026 — Flow Engineering, the agentic platform for hardware development, today announced a $50 million Series B at a $750 million valuation. The round was co-led by Antonio Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners and Gavin Baker, Managing Partner at Atreides Management. Sequoia Capital, which led Flow’s Series A, also participated in the round alongside Human Capital, Evantic, SV Angel, Odyssey, EQT, with contributions from Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf, Mercedes-Benz CIO Jonas von Malottki, and Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg. Roelof Botha has additionally joined Flow’s board as an independent director and personally invested in the company.

Over the past year, AI has changed how software is developed. At many leading software companies, AI now writes the majority of new code, and iteration cycles have come down from weeks to hours.

Flow believes the same shift is now coming to hardware development, and that it will let engineering teams design systems more complex than anything built today, in a fraction of the time. Bringing that shift to hardware is a substantially harder problem than it was for software development. In hardware, a single design change can ripple across mechanical, electrical and software systems, requiring teams to coordinate updates in parallel and verify that the entire system still meets millions of requirements and constraints, including regulatory standards. Today’s systems are so complex that integration and verification can no longer be done manually. Flow is building a platform where AI agents can continuously track changes, propagate updates across teams, and verify the results in seconds. Its goal is to reduce hardware iteration cycles from months to days, just as AI has transformed software development.

“Every hardware company now has to decide how fast it will adopt AI, and those that move first will win their markets,” said Pari Singh, Founder and CEO of Flow. “Flow has emerged as the de facto platform for agentic hardware. Ninety-six percent of our customers come to Flow inbound. The category leaders in each hardware vertical (space, automotive, defense, energy, etc.) are now built on Flow.”

AI adoption is accelerating. Since its Series A last October, Flow has added General Motors PPU, Rivian and Volkswagen’s joint venture (RV Tech), Anduril, Stoke Space, Intuitive Machines, and Pacific Fusion as customers. They join existing customers like Rivian, Joby Aviation, Astranis, and Radiant Industries, which use Flow as their default hardware development platform.

Flow’s adoption at Rivian has spread organically, growing from 40 to 1,500 users in 7 months. Rivian engineers now run millions of API calls each week. “We evaluated 30 tools and nothing came close to Flow. It allows Rivian to develop faster, safer and better by bringing a collaborative approach to systems engineering,” said Scott Mackenzie, Rivian Director of Product Development, Process & Tools.

The round brings together investors who have helped shape many of the defining hardware and AI companies of the past two decades. Gracias was an early investor in Tesla and serves on the boards of SpaceX, and Neuralink; his firm, Valor Equity Partners, has also backed Anduril. Baker was an exceptionally early investor in Nvidia, Tesla, xAI and SpaceX with a focus on AI, semiconductors, and advanced computing.

“We were introduced to Flow by world class engineers we’ve worked alongside for years. The market pull we observed from trusted executives with an unusually high bar is rare. It’s what led us to spend time with the team and the problem they’re solving. This customer signal gave us the confidence to lean in and support the company at an early stage,” said Gracias.

“We’re thrilled to be investing in Flow Engineering. Flow is building the OS on which physical products are specified, verified, and eventually designed, substituting software for scarce engineering capacity as hardware programs become increasingly more complex,” added Baker.

Flow will use the new funding to build the leading AI harness for hardware engineering, allowing frontier models to work securely with sensitive engineering data on live hardware programs. It will expand its review, branching and evaluation capabilities, along with the controls that increasingly complex programs require. Flow also plans to grow its engineering team across AI and systems engineering, pursue FedRAMP authorization and other certifications for customers in regulated industries, and scale its sales team to meet rising demand.

“AI is solving foundational problems in mathematics, biology and physics. When AI is able to develop massively complex hardware systems in days, the world is going to look very different,” added Singh.

Contact

Communications at Flow

[email protected]

About Flow Engineering

Flow is building the agentic systems engineering platform for the companies building the physical world. Next-gen hardware teams use Flow as their default platform to design, build, and iterate on hardware faster without sacrificing engineering rigor. Today, thousands of engineers at companies including Rivian, Anduril, Joby, Astranis, and Radiant are building on Flow.

Flow gives these teams a living system of record that connects requirements, CAD, simulation, code, and test. On top of this system of record, Flow’s agents continuously analyze engineering changes, identify downstream impact, and verify requirements and test coverage — so work stays aligned across the tools engineers already use.

Flow is backed by Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, and Sequoia Capital.

https://flowengineering.com/

SOURCE Flow Engineering

The AI 3D multimodal model company also launches its official iOS and Android app, giving 3D printing enthusiasts a quicker, simpler way to create 3D models on their phones.

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 30, 2026 — Meshy, the world’s leading AI 3D multimodal model company, today announced that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) has surpassed US$100 million, up 100x from US$1 million in under two years, marking one of the fastest revenue ramps in the AI industry and making Meshy the first AI 3D company to reach the milestone.

The milestone caps a period of rapid scaling across every dimension of the business. Meshy is now used by more than 15 million registered users and over 3,000 companies and educational institutions worldwide, who together have generated more than 100 million 3D models on the platform. Half of the world’s ten most valuable companies, by market capitalization or private valuation, are Meshy customers, and teams at 200 of the Fortune Global 500 build with Meshy.

Meshy launched the world’s first publicly accessible generative AI product for 3D in 2023, creating the category, and has led it ever since in model capability, user scale and revenue. This month, the company released Meshy 7.1, raising geometry generation to Ultra 4K resolution, and open-sourced its full alignment benchmark suite for image-to-3D generation: on both the geometry and texture benchmarks, Meshy 7 leads the industry, scoring 5.6 percentage points above the average of the latest comparable systems in end-to-end texture alignment. The $100 million milestone shows that the hardest frontier in multimodal AI now runs as a scaled, sustainable business. In July 2026, the company closed a nearly $400 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation, the largest funding round to date in AI 3D.

“Surpassing $100 million in ARR in under two years reflects the growing demand for AI-powered 3D creation,” said Faye Pan, VP of Growth at Meshy. “From game studios and film teams to educators and home 3D printing enthusiasts, our customers are showing just how broadly this technology can be used—and how much opportunity lies ahead. We’re grateful to the customers and creators who have trusted Meshy to bring their ideas to life. Their creativity and support have made this milestone possible.”

Understanding and generation: the division of labor behind the growth

Meshy’s climb from US$1 million to US$100 million in ARR coincided with the fastest two years of progress in general-purpose models, culminating in releases such as GPT-6 Astra. The two curves are connected: frontier models excel at understanding, planning and coding, while Meshy’s diffusion-based foundation models excel at generation, reconstructing every detail of a text prompt or an image into assets ready for a game engine or a 3D printer, typically in under a minute. A general model knows a face has two eyes; Meshy knows exactly how large those eyes should be. The two already work together in production: the spatial understanding of frontier models can drive Meshy’s API to turn a single image into a complete 3D scene, a workflow that was impossible a model generation ago.

The official Meshy mobile app is now live

Alongside the milestone, Meshy announced that its official mobile app is now available on iOS and Android. Powered by Meshy 7, the app turns photos, sketches and text into fully textured 3D models directly on a phone, with printability checks, AI repair, AR preview and export to industry-standard formats including STL, GLB, FBX, OBJ, USDZ and 3MF. Every creation syncs across web and mobile through a single Meshy account, and users can explore and remix models from the Meshy community.

The app makes 3D creation more accessible than ever: anyone can photograph an object, generate a model in about a minute, preview it in AR at real-world scale, and send it to a 3D printer, with the entire workflow running on a phone.

From AI for Work to AI for Fun

Meshy’s mission is an unlimited supply of fun powered by AI. Mora, the research architecture (Multimodal Open-world Real-time Architecture) it recently introduced, generates explorable, interactive worlds in real time; a publicly playable early demonstration, Mora 1, is live at mora.fun. The company’s first AI-native game, Black Box: Infinite Arsenal, generates in-game gear and combat mechanics from player prompts and makes its official public debut at Steam Next Fest at the end of 2026. Nearly all of the industry’s attention and resources today go to AI for work. Meshy is one of the earliest companies building for the phase after it, and among the best prepared.

“Much of AI’s early progress has focused on helping people work more efficiently. We see an equally exciting opportunity to help people create, express themselves and play,” Faye Pan added. “Across games, film and interactive worlds, AI is opening up new possibilities for both creators and audiences. Mora offers a glimpse of that future: worlds people can generate, explore and play in, all in real time. Our ambition is to make the possibilities for creativity and play limitless, and we’re building toward that vision step by step.”

About Meshy

Meshy builds multimodal foundation models for AI-powered 3D generation, turning text and images into production-ready 3D assets for games, film and 3D printing. Founded by Ethan Hu, who holds a Ph.D. from MIT, Meshy serves more than 15 million registered users worldwide. In July 2026, the company raised nearly $400 million in a Series B round at a $1.5 billion valuation, the largest round to date in AI 3D. Learn more at meshy.ai.

SOURCE Meshy

The standalone institutional venue brings liquidity discovery, standardized loan-level data and privacy-preserving workflows to a private credit market projected to reach $3.4 trillion by 2030

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2026 — Percent, the platform powering modern private credit markets through access, liquidity and data, today unveiled PCTX, a standalone electronic trading venue purpose-built for institutional private credit. Operating separately from Percent.com, PCTX is designed specifically for institutional investors and managers to access liquidity, evaluate assets and transact in directly originated private credit more efficiently.

The U.S. private credit market is projected to outpace U.S. high yield bonds and leveraged loans and reach $3.4 trillion outstanding by 2030, yet loan-level trading still occurs largely through bilateral transactions coordinated over email, spreadsheets and phone calls. As the market grows, the lack of standardized documentation, trading conventions and settlement systems can constrain price discovery, portfolio rebalancing and liquidity management. PCTX brings discovery, negotiation, documentation and settlement into a single electronic workflow, creating a more structured way for institutions to find counterparties and transact.

“Private credit has become a major asset class, but the systems for finding liquidity and trading assets have not kept pace,” said Prath Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Percent. “PCTX is the first and only electronic trading venue created specifically for private credit, giving institutional market participants a more efficient way to seek loan-level liquidity without sacrificing the privacy that defines the asset class. Even when a manager has no intention of selling an asset, the ability to source a credible mark from another qualified institution can provide additional insight into how the market should value that asset. That kind of price discovery simply hasn’t existed at scale in private credit.”

PCTX serves private credit asset managers, direct lenders, insurance companies, banks, family offices and other institutional market participants. Its tiered visibility model allows users to identify potential assets and counterparties without immediately revealing sensitive information, with greater access to loan-level data and identity provided as a potential transaction progresses.

The venue will support individual loan and loan portfolio indications of interest, BWICs and OWICs, adapting trading protocols familiar to institutional fixed-income markets for private credit. PCTX is designed around traditional, directly originated loans and the workflows institutions already use. Loan information can be added manually, through spreadsheets or through direct integrations with portfolio management systems, while PCTX supports the process through documentation, settlement instructions and servicing transitions. The venue is live and at the time of launch over a dozen managers, representing $250 billion in private credit AUM, have already signed up.

After eight years of building in private credit, PCTX marks the next step in Percent’s evolution, extending that experience into a venue designed to support a more connected and efficient institutional market.

Disclaimer: PCTX is operated by Cadence Group, Inc. d/b/a Percent Technologies (“Percent Technologies”). PCTX does not permit or facilitate transactions in securities, does not provide brokerage or investment advisory services, and is not registered as a broker-dealer, investment adviser, national securities exchange or alternative trading system. PCTX permits only preliminary, non-binding indications of interest concerning eligible private credit assets that are not securities.

About PCTX
PCTX is a standalone electronic trading venue purpose-built for institutional private credit. Built and operated by Percent, PCTX is designed specifically for institutional investors and managers to access liquidity, evaluate assets and transact in directly originated private credit more efficiently. The venue brings discovery, negotiation, documentation and settlement into a single electronic workflow, creating a more structured way for institutions to find counterparties and transact in privately negotiated individual loans and loan portfolios. For additional information, please visit www.pctx.com.

About Percent
Percent is unlocking private credit by enabling efficient access, liquidity optionality, and data for all market participants. Through its digital primary issuance and secondary markets platform, Percent provides all deal counterparties with a unified environment to source, structure, distribute, service and trade private credit assets. Founded in 2018, Percent has facilitated billions in private credit transaction volume — bringing transparency and standardization to a historically fragmented asset class. For additional information, please visit www.percent.com.

SOURCE Percent

With $8.8M in funding led by Norwest, new Know Your Agent (KYA) platform empowers
companies to confidently do business with agents

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 30, 2026 — Beltic, the company building agent verification infrastructure, today emerges from stealth with $7.3 million in Seed funding led by Norwest, with participation from Restive Ventures, Oxford Seed Fund, and Collide Capital, who also led a $1.5 million pre-seed round that included Latitud Ventures, Positive Ventures, and other notable angels. This latest round will fuel Beltic’s mission to give businesses the confidence to trust AI agents to act on their behalf. Beltic provides the infrastructure to verify agents and authorize them to take action, creating a safe foundation for the agentic economy.

“As money moves increasingly in real time, identity and trust infrastructure has to keep pace. Beltic is building the verification layer for that future. One that can establish trust instantly, programmatically and portably across businesses, financial institutions and, increasingly, autonomous agents,” said Jordan Leites, Principal at Norwest. “Isha and Mike have the rare combination of domain expertise and ambition to define this category, and we’re excited to partner with them.”

As agents begin initiating transactions on businesses’ behalf, merchants, payment providers, financial institutions and card networks need a reliable way to verify that each agent is authorized. This is the foundation of “know your agent” (KYA), the agentic equivalent of “know your customer” (KYC). Without it, AI guardrails have nothing reliable to verify against. Building this trust layer is as urgent as building the payment rails themselves.

“For decades, a large part of risk management was asking and verifying, ‘are you human?’,” said Isha Bhatnagar, Beltic CEO and co-founder, and former Coinbase head of product for global regulatory experience. “Agents can already gather information on people’s behalf. The next opportunity is letting them act autonomously, but the safeguards built to protect humans and businesses have become the barrier. Beltic verifies both the agent and the transaction, so companies can safely accept agent traffic and send agents into the world.”

Legacy systems built for human traffic will break under agent traffic. At scale, every transaction requires a new layer of verification: identifying the agent, verifying the entity behind it, and determining whether each action is authorized — all in real time.

“Stakes are even higher when there are no humans in the loop and thousands of transactions per second. One bad decision will not become one bad outcome; it becomes thousands, before anyone notices,” said Farhan Afsahi, Beltic’s CTO. “AI-native isn’t a label: AI-native agent verification requires an AI-native verification stack. We built our whole infrastructure to set the standards for the agentic economy.”

As part of that effort, Beltic is spearheading verification for secure agent-to-agent transactions. “Most people envision a simple chain, where a human authorizes an agent and that agent acts, but the reality is recursive,” Isha explained. “Agents call other agents, orchestrate further agents beneath them, and hand work to systems they do not own. Each handoff is a delegation event, and risks and assumptions reset in each instance. Inherited trust without verification is simply assumed trust.”

Beltic’s platform works on both sides of a transaction, at the scale and speed today’s most innovative companies demand. This approach is enabled by the founding team’s unique combination of identity, payments, and data expertise:

• Isha spent six years at Coinbase building the identity and onboarding infrastructure behind 50 million-plus users and its first institutional clients.
• Co-founder Mike Allan previously founded Atar (acq. Porto Seguro, one of the largest insurance companies in LatAm), a banking-as-a-service provider that scaled across Brazil’s payments and core banking systems.
• CTO Farhan Afsahi co-founded Verifiet, which Beltic acquired in 2025, giving the company a global entity data infrastructure platform spanning global jurisdictions and more than 500 million entities.

“Every enterprise is asking us some version of the same question,” said Mike. “How do I know this is really my customer’s agent, how do I know it’s allowed to take this action, and how do I stop the bad ones without blocking the good ones? That’s the exact problem we built Beltic to answer. No matter what rails a company is running on, our platform keeps transactions, and the businesses behind them, safe. Getting this right is what unlocks everything else.”

Beltic is now partnering with a select group of companies at the forefront of agentic commerce and payments. Design partners will get early access to Beltic’s infrastructure and help shape the standards for how agents transact. Interested companies can reach the team at [email protected].

About Beltic
Founded in 2025 and headquartered in San Francisco, Beltic builds agent verification infrastructure. The company’s platform verifies the identity, authority, and transactional legitimacy of AI agents in real time, enabling them to safely accept and deploy agentic traffic across any protocol or payment rail. Beltic is backed by Norwest, Restive Ventures, Collide Capital, Oxford Seed Fund, Latitud Ventures, Positive Ventures and notable angels. Learn more at https://beltic.com/.

Media contact:
[email protected] 

SOURCE Beltic