The Partnership Pioneers New Pathways to Prepare for the Women’s Wealth Wave (™)

HOUSTON, Oct. 29, 2025 — In a first-of-its-kind collaboration set to reshape the financial landscape, Stavis Wealth and Curate Capital today announced a shared mission to unite the worlds of venture capital and wealth management, creating a powerful ecosystem where female founders, investors, and advisors can build, scale, and sustain wealth.

Both female-founded and female-led, the two firms share a bold vision: to close the gender wealth gap, rewrite outdated business models, and deliver integrated solutions that support women at every stage of their financial journeys, from launching their first company to preserving a multigenerational legacy.

The collaboration marks an expansion of the Women’s Wealth Wave (™), a Stavis Wealth initiative to educate, equip, and empower women but also to expand their access to meaningful financial opportunities. The initiative combines actionable learning, mentorship, and community with strategic partnerships, including ventures like Curate Capital, that connect women directly to capital, investment insights, and long-term planning resources. It builds on Stavis Wealth’s white-glove approach to holistic wealth management and legacy design, reflecting the firm’s long-standing commitment to advancing women’s financial confidence, access, and impact.

Curate Capital, founded by Carrie Colbert, has redefined venture capital by pioneering the concept of Influential Investing(™), leveraging the capital and talents of top-tier creators to power the growth of the brands in which they invest. The firm’s concept creates a win-win-win scenario for influencers, founders, and investors.

“The future of wealth creation isn’t about keeping investing and planning apart but about connecting them,” said Deborah Stavis, Founder and CEO of Stavis Wealth. “Because we’re an independent firm, with direct involvement alongside the Curate leadership team, our clients gain visibility and access to innovative opportunities. When investments are woven together with long-term planning to build real legacy, it creates a level of coordination and opportunity that most wealth management firms just aren’t built to deliver.”

Founded in 2020, Curate Capital has raised more than $30 million and invested in more than 20 women-led companies, including Frances Valentine, Live Tinted, Nori, and Curie, demonstrating that empowering women-led innovation isn’t just good business; it’s reshaping consumer categories. In fact, data shows that women control a staggering 85% of consumer spending. Curate believes that women are now building the solutions that they wish existed. 

“Originally as a venture capital outsider, I sought to bring a fresh perspective to the asset class, identifying two key gaps – women being underfunded despite overdelivering and a stagnant venture capital model ripe for innovation – and set out to address both,” said Carrie Colbert, Founding and General Partner of Curate Capital. “Women are redefining what wealth looks like and how it’s created. By aligning with Deborah and her team, we’re building a platform that helps women grow businesses, exit successfully, and translate those wins into enduring, multi-generational wealth.”

The partnership is also a direct response to one of the most persistent inequities in finance: women-led venture capital firms still receive less than 2% of total VC funding, and female advisors remain underrepresented in wealth management. Together, Stavis Wealth and Curate Capital aim to change that. Not only by investing in women and supporting female-led companies, but by cultivating the next generation of women investors, advisors, and industry leaders through mentorship.

This collaboration marks a pivotal step toward a future where financial empowerment isn’t an afterthought, it’s built into the foundation of entrepreneurship. Together, Stavis Wealth and Curate Capital are championing a new model for wealth creation: one that’s inclusive, intentional, and deeply transformative.

About Stavis Wealth
Stavis Wealth is a Houston-based wealth management firm providing comprehensive, holistic financial planning, investment management, estate planning, and customized life insurance solutions under one roof. Founder Deborah Stavis has served Houston families for over 35 years as a private wealth manager, having owned and operated two successful Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firms, each amassing roughly 1 billion dollars in AUM. With this third round, Stavis Wealth is raising the bar once again, delivering a level of client experience and service excellence that other firms simply can’t match. Through initiatives like Women’s Wealth Wave(™), Stavis Wealth equips women with the education, strategies, and community to lead with confidence and protect their family legacy for generations.

About Curate Capital
Curate Capital is a Houston-based venture capital firm founded in 2020 by Carrie Colbert and dedicated to investing in female-founded consumer brands. Curate invests in extraordinary women building the products, services and technology the consumer wants for herself, her family and her life. Curate harnesses the power of influencers through its Influential Investing(™) program to directly impact portfolio company growth and drive outsized investor returns. Curate has invested in 20+ companies across categories like health & beauty, food & beverage, home & family, and fashion & apparel.

SOURCE Stavis Wealth

User Base Grows 483% in One Quarter as AI-Generated Code Outpaces Traditional Testing Capabilities

SEATTLE, Oct. 29, 2025 — TestSprite, the agentic testing tool for AI-native development, today announced the close of a $6.7 million seed round, bringing total funds raised to approximately $8.1 million. Trilogy Equity Partners led the round, with participation from both new and existing investors, including Techstars, Jinqiu Capital, MiraclePlus, Hat-trick Capital, Baidu Ventures, and EdgeCase Capital Partners. TestSprite is scaling to meet surging demand, growing 6X over the last three months, reaching over 35,000 users, following the launch of TestSprite 2.0 and its MCP server. The funding comes at a pivotal time, as the rise of AI-powered coding tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and GitHub Copilot accelerates development speed but creates a critical new bottleneck: testing and validating AI-generated code at scale. The oversubscribed round further cements TestSprite’s position as the testing backbone of the AI-native software development era.

Gartner projects that 90% of enterprise developers will use AI-assisted tools by 2028, up from under 14% in early 2024, indicating a massive total addressable market (TAM) exceeding $30–50 billion in the coming years. Andrew Ng, a globally recognized leader in AI and co-founder of Google Brain and founder of DeepLearning.AI, noted, “As AI gets better at generating code, ensuring that code works as intended becomes even more important. Reliable evaluation pipelines are critical for scaling trustworthy AI systems.”

“We’re witnessing a fundamental shift in software development. While everyone focuses on AI writing code faster, the real constraint is validation. TestSprite is the first to solve testing at the speed of AI, and the rapid growth quarter-over-quarter proves developers are desperate for this solution,” said Yuval Neeman, Managing Director, at Trilogy Equity Partners.

“Writing code is no longer the hard part—the real challenge is ensuring it behaves exactly as intended,” said Yunhao Jiao, CEO and co-founder of TestSprite. “AI coding tools like Cursor have made development 10x faster, but they’ve also created a new risk bottleneck: testing and validation can’t keep up. TestSprite is the autopilot layer that turns AI-written code into production-ready software without the manual testing overhead that’s slowing teams down.”

Many developers now find that vibe coding, building quickly with AI copilots, can become more frustrating and time-consuming than traditional development when debugging begins. TestSprite seeks to remove that pain entirely. Early adopters report cutting testing cycles from days to minutes, enabling teams to ship multiple releases per week instead of monthly.

TestSprite’s autonomous agent works directly inside AI IDEs and through MCP integration, enabling test-driven development throughout the coding process, not as a separate phase after code is written. TestSprite integrates natively into developers’ workflows, allowing developers to test without context switching to browsers or separate testing platforms. Developers validate and refine code iteratively as they build, producing production-ready software at completion without leaving their development environment.

TestSprite’s AI automatically generates frontend and backend tests, executes them, diagnoses failures, and proposes potential fixes through simple natural language commands. By enabling agentic testing where TestSprite’s AI agent writes, runs, and updates tests autonomously, it acts as an autopilot for software testing, dramatically accelerating developer velocity while maintaining quality.

TestSprite plans to channel funds toward expanding its engineering team to deepen capabilities in test generation, AI-powered test healing, and intelligent monitoring, while scaling infrastructure to support teams deploying thousands of code changes daily. TestSprite aims to become the industry standard testing layer for AI-native development by mid-2026.

About TestSprite
Based in Seattle, Washington, TestSprite is building the testing backbone for AI-native software development. Its MCP server integrates directly into developers’ AI IDEs, enabling continuous, test-driven development where code is validated iteratively throughout the entire build process—not just after it’s written. By supporting agentic coding workflows, where AI can autonomously write, test, and validate code, TestSprite functions as an autopilot for software quality, helping developers ship production-ready software at AI speed. Today, TestSprite powers the workflows of over 35,000 users from leading companies, such as Google, Apple, Adobe, Salesforce, ByteDance, Microsoft, and Meta, building the next generation of AI-native applications. Learn more at www.testsprite.com.

Press Contact:
Carmen Hughes
Ignite X
[email protected]
650.576.6444

SOURCE TestSprite

CustoMED’s cloud-based platform combines artificial intelligence and automation with 3D printing to generate surgical tools and implants directly from a surgeon’s pre-operative plan within minutes instead of weeks. The patient-specific devices are produced onsite or through certified partners and integrate seamlessly into existing surgical workflows, enabling fewer intraoperative errors and more predictable outcomes while allowing surgeons to maintain full creative and clinical control. The technology has already been used in hundreds of successful surgeries worldwide, with thousands more planned for the coming year.

“CustoMED’s patient-specific surgical tools enable more precise orthopedic surgeries through affordable, real-time solutions delivered directly into the operating room,” said Or Benifla, Co-founder of CustoMED. “By putting scalable, personalized technology directly in surgeons’ hands, our mission is to make computer-guided surgery fast, accessible, and routine, transforming what was once a boutique process into standard of care for every patient.”

CustoMED was founded by Dr. Amit Zabatani, Or Benifla, and Alon Jacobi, and originated from Sheba Medical Center’s 3D Printing & Innovation Lab, founded in 2018 by Dr. Dina Orkin together with the CustoMED co-founders. The lab has supported hundreds of surgeries across multiple hospital departments, making 3D technologies a routine part of patient care. CustoMED is part of Sheba Medical Center’s ARC Innovation ecosystem, which fosters clinician-led innovations and accelerates global deployment.

“CustoMED is embedding precision and surgeon-directed tools into everyday workflows, shortening the path from imaging to the operating room while preserving governance, quality, and safety,” said Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, Founder and Director of ARC Innovation and Chief Innovation, Transformation, and AI Officer at Sheba Medical Center. “The company exemplifies ARC’s mission to translate clinical insight into scalable, real-world impact.”

Funding proceeds will accelerate CustoMED’s expansion into additional automated orthopedic indications, support U.S. and EU regulatory milestones—with approvals anticipated for 2026—and enable the global deployment of its on-demand manufacturing model.

“We were immediately impressed by the ARC team’s world-class experience and CustoMED’s mission to improve surgical performance and patient outcomes,” added Raissa Hacohen, Managing Partner at Longevity Venture Partners. “CustoMED’s platform gives surgeons everywhere access to personalized planning and surgical tools that can raise the standard of care in orthopedic surgery.”

About CustoMED

CustoMED is a surgeon-first platform for AI-powered, patient-specific orthopedic surgery. Originating from Sheba Medical Center’s 3D Printing & Innovation Lab, CustoMED applies AI-driven automation and 3D printing to transform surgeons’ decisions into surgical guides and implants perfectly tailored to each patient. With hundreds of successful surgeries performed worldwide and $6M raised to date, CustoMED is scaling its solutions globally.

About ARC

ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate), the innovation arm of Sheba Medical Center, founded and directed by Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, is shaping the future of medical innovation by connecting entrepreneurs and clinicians, advancing the development and implementation of new technologies, and creating breakthrough economic frameworks in healthcare. ARC’s unique model—the first of its kind in global healthcare—has evolved into a global blueprint, with a network of innovation centers in leading hospitals and research institutions across London, Melbourne, Singapore, Berlin, and New Zealand. ARC’s global network promotes technology-based medical solutions and accelerates the adoption of innovation within health systems worldwide.

ARC provides startups and researchers with exclusive access to Sheba’s core assets, clinical data and medical talent, while advancing the hospital’s vision to serve as a global hub for AI-driven medicine. The model’s success has already led to exits totaling approximately $1 billion, with profits reinvested to further accelerate Sheba’s AI and data revolution.

About Sheba Medical Center

The largest and most comprehensive medical center in the Middle East, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer is generating global impact through its medical care, research and AI-based healthcare transformation. Sheba’s City of Health boasts acute-care, rehabilitation, children’s, cancer and geriatric hospitals, research and innovation hubs, medical simulation center, center for disaster response and a virtual hospital on one comprehensive campus in the center of Israel. Sheba serves as a true hospital without borders, welcoming patients and healthcare professionals from all over the world and consistently providing the highest-level medical care to all in need. For more information, visit: https://sheba-global.com

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2808183/MADE_by_SURGEONS.jpg

Contact:
Aviva Sapir 
Number 10 Strategies 
[email protected] 

SOURCE CustoMED

Fast growing National Security focused company adds additional resources to scale its Counter-UAS and Cybersecurity solutions

COLUMBIA, Md., Oct. 29, 2025 — BTS Software Solutions (BTS), a veteran-owned, fast-growing provider of intelligence operations, counter-UAS, cybersecurity, and data science solutions to national security focused agencies has announced a venture capital investment from Blue Delta Capital Partners, a growth-stage venture capital firm focused exclusively on the U.S. Federal Government market. The BTS management team will continue to be the majority owners of the company and will lead the veteran-owned firm to new heights. 

BTS is excited about this significant milestone in the Company’s evolution, with Blue Delta providing the equity capital, additional resources, and industry expertise needed to further enhance the Company’s proven capabilities for its national security customers, support future strategic acquisitions, and expand its impact to the Nation’s missions.

“We are delighted to secure this investment from Blue Delta as we embark on the next chapter in BTS’s growth,” said David Tohn, CEO of BTS. “Blue Delta’s deep and proven expertise in the national security market and their successful track record with companies like ours make them an ideal partner for our team as we continue to drive innovation for our national security and homeland defense customers and deliver unparalleled value to our Nation’s missions.”

“BTS has built an impressive reputation for delivering mission-critical solutions to our country’s national security customers and we are flattered to have the opportunity to back David and Dan and their team in supporting their growth plans, helping to amplify their impact in our core market,” said Kevin Robbins, co-founder of Blue Delta Capital Partners.

Dan Cummings, COO of BTS, added, “We are excited to have Blue Delta on our team, further accelerating our growth trajectory in counter-UAS and cybersecurity, while they also are fully aligning with BTS’s core values of Mission focus and dedication to our employees and customers.”

Assistance on the transaction for BTS came from Tidelock Partners, Next-Stage Partners, Miles & Stockbridge BDO, RSM and Aprio, while Blue Delta was assisted by Holland & Knight.

About  BTS
BTS Software Solutions (BTS) is a veteran-owned, fast-growing provider of intelligence operations, counter-UAS, cybersecurity, and data science solutions to national security focused agencies. Learn more at www.unleashbts.com.

About Blue Delta Capital Partners
Blue Delta, a growth-stage venture capital firm founded in 2009, focuses on the U.S. federal government services market. Learn more at www.bluedeltacapitalpartners.com

SOURCE BTS Software Solutions

SINGAPORE, Oct. 29, 2025 — ELD Asset Management Pte. Ltd. today announced its support for Daylight Energy’s recently disclosed $75 million financing package—combining $15 million in equity led by Framework Ventures with a $60 million project development facility led by Turtle Hill Capital—to scale a decentralized residential solar-and-storage network in the United States. The raise also includes participation from a16z crypto, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Room40 Ventures, EV3, Crucible Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Not Boring Capital.

Under the initiative, Daylight will fund homeowner subscriptions that bundle rooftop solar and battery backup with no upfront cost, targeting initial rollouts in Illinois and Massachusetts. The company expects to pair monthly energy subscriptions with grid-service revenues by aggregating home batteries into a dispatchable virtual power resource. 

“This is operating leverage without unnecessary dilution,” said Jason Harrison, Senior Vice President at ELD Asset Management. “By aligning venture equity with a specialty project facility, the structure keeps execution focused on physical rollouts and measured electricity, not overhead—exactly the configuration long-horizon allocators want to see.” 

Why this matters

Daylight’s model targets a key friction in residential solar, where customer acquisition can exceed 60% of install cost across many programs. Its subscription aims to lower a typical household’s bill while creating a networked battery fleet that can earn market-based compensation during grid stress events—helping households and the grid simultaneously.

Technology & financing innovation

Daylight is launching DayFi, a protocol that maps metered electricity revenues from its distributed portfolio to on-chain claims, enabling transparent, energy-backed payouts. “Linking yield to measured electricity rather than speculative flows is the signal institutions have been waiting for,” Harrison added.

Framework Ventures Co-Founder Vance Spencer said Daylight can become the financing layer for distributed energy, while Turtle Hill Capital described the facility as purpose-built specialty credit that accelerates deployment. 

Market focus

The financing prioritizes installation in Illinois and Massachusetts, where interconnection rules and demand for resilience support faster cycle times and robust data collection—intended to shorten underwriting loops for lenders and offtakers. Daylight confirms subscriptions are live in both states, with DeFi-based financing to expand in Q4 2025. 

About Daylight Energy

Daylight turns homes into distributed power plants through a monthly energy subscription and an integrated battery network that trades with the grid. Backers include Framework Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto). 

About ELD Asset Management

Founded in 2017 (UEN: 201725839Z), ELD Asset Management Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-based firm advising clients on strategy and portfolio allocation informed by global macro and market research. More insights: eldglobal.com/news. Singapore Business Directory+2Companies.sg+2

Contact

Mr Luke Tan
ELD Asset Management
[email protected] 

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2808073/ELD_Asset_Management.jpg
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2808074/ELD_Asset_Management_Logo.jpg

SOURCE ELD Asset Management

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 28, 2025 — Pinetree Therapeutics, a preclinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering targeted protein degraders for drug-resistant cancers, announced the successful closing of an oversubscribed $47 million Series B financing. The proceeds will advance its lead preclinical oncology programs to Phase I clinical studies and accelerate development of Pinetree’s AbReptor™ platform. Participating investors include existing investors DSC Investment, WIDWIN Investment, STIC Ventures, Samho Green Investment, Atinum Investment, S&S Investment, SJ Investment Partners, Smilegate Investment, and Gauss Capital Management, as well as new investors Korea Investment Partners and SV Investment.

Founded in 2019, Pinetree is an industry leader in the targeted protein degradation (TPD) field, developing a novel class of modular bispecific and multispecific protein degraders designed to selectively eliminate disease-driving membrane-bound and extracellular proteins. The AbReptor™ platform has demonstrated compelling preclinical efficacy and safety in degrading receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) that drive tumor growth and resistance, including targets refractory to existing tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and immune checkpoint therapies.

“The AbReptor™ platform has repeatedly demonstrated durable activity across a broad range of RTK targets, including models resistant to standard-of-care therapies, and has unlocked the potential to develop a novel class of degrading antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), which aim to overcome the limitations of traditional ADCs, including tolerability and limited durability. Our platform also offers new therapeutic approaches for targeting inflammatory cytokines in disease tissues, representing a potential alternative to current immunology and inflammation therapies,” said Ho-Juhn Song, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Pinetree Therapeutics. “We are thrilled by the strong support from our investors and look forward to using these proceeds to advance differentiated therapies that address significant unmet clinical needs.”

The Series B financing will support IND-enabling studies and Phase I clinical trials for Pinetree’s lead programs, expand its multispecific degrader portfolio, and enable strategic collaborations to unlock new target classes. “We are excited to continue our partnership with Pinetree as they advance a highly differentiated platform with the potential to meaningfully impact patients with RTK-driven tumors,” said Yohan Kim, Executive Director of DSC Investment. “We see significant promise in Pinetree’s approach to overcoming resistance and improving tolerability, particularly for patients with limited treatment options.”

This financing follows a July 2024 collaboration with AstraZeneca, which included an exclusive global license option for Pinetree’s preclinical EGFR degrader candidate, valued at over $500 million in potential milestones and royalties, reflecting growing interest in AbReptor™ therapeutics. Pinetree continues to expand its pipeline and strategic partnerships to deliver novel TPD programs that aim to transform treatment for patients with hard-to-treat cancers and other diseases.

About Pinetree Therapeutics

Pinetree Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, MA, is a preclinical-stage biotech company developing next-generation targeted protein degraders (TPDs) to overcome drug resistance and tumor recurrence in oncology, with applications in inflammation and immunology. Its proprietary AbReptor™ platform enables selective degradation of membrane-bound and extracellular proteins, offering a differentiated mechanism of action and durable therapeutic benefit. Pinetree is also advancing trispecific degraders and ADC-integrated platforms, and has entered strategic partnerships, including a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca. [https://www.pinetreetx.com/]

About DSC Investment

Founded in 2012, DSC Investment is one of the most active venture capital firms in South Korea, with approximately $1.0 billion in assets under management. The firm is committed to driving innovation and high growth across various industries, including bio-healthcare, deep tech, and content & commerce. It has built a strong track record of early-stage investments in some of South Korea’s most successful startups. With a continued focus on identifying high-potential entrepreneurs and transformative technologies, DSC Investment continues to expand its investment portfolio and support the next generation of global innovators. [http://dscinvestment.com/]

About Widwin Investment

Founded in 2008, Widwin Investment is a leading venture capital firm dedicated to identifying and nurturing high-growth opportunities across healthcare, software, and innovative technology platforms. The firm has established a strong track record in growth-stage and buyout investments, building a diverse portfolio across sectors where technology, scalability, and domain expertise drive success. While maintaining a selective investment approach, Widwin has made an outsized impact by supporting disruptive companies that are shaping the future of their industries. [http://widwininvest.com/]

Contact
Zachary Park
[email protected]
Pinetree Therapeutics, Inc
Cambridge, MA
+1-617-945-2309

SOURCE PineTree Therapeutics

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2025 — North Castle Partners is honored to be recognized by Inc. Magazine as a Top Founder-Friendly Private Equity Firm for its fifth consecutive year. Since inception in 1997, North Castle Partners has partnered with and invested in founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and the management teams of consumer facing businesses operating in the healthy, active, and sustainable living markets.

2025 has been an incredible year for North Castle and 3 of its founder-led management teams. In January, North Castle sold its investment in Barry Bootcamp reflecting a 9-year partnership with founders and management that grew Barry’s from 17 to 100+ global locations. In September, North Castle exited its investment in Turnbridge, where North Castle partnered with the founder CEO to more than double its capacity to help young adults and teens overcome mental health and substance use disorders. Most recently, CR Fitness Holdings, a North Castle portfolio company, attained a strategic growth investment from a global investment firm to support the company’s future growth and reinforce its position as a leading operator in the high-value, low-price fitness sector. Since North Castle’s initial partnership with the founders in 2019, CR Fitness has grown from 19 to 90 clubs and expanded into 4 additional states. The founders will continue to lead the company through its plan to open additional 100+ clubs over the next five years.

For more than 25 years, partnering with founder entrepreneurs has been a cornerstone of North Castle’s mission and an integral part of our success. Since NCP’s inception, the majority of our investments have benefited from a founder entrepreneur holding a senior position at the company following North Castle’s investment. Today, more than 90% of our current partner companies have a founder serving as CEO or in another leadership role, with founders holding leadership positions in each of the 11 companies (100%) of our most recent fund.

North Castle’s vision is to realize the exponential power of values-based partnerships to help entrepreneurs and their companies consistently achieve their full potential. Founders often choose to partner with North Castle because of our focused, hands-on approach and relevant knowledge, experience, and resources.

Many of our partnerships with founders continue through exit whether the realization allows the founders to further grow the company or as a sale to a strategic buyer solidifying the company’s legacy. Following exit, some founders continue their partnership with North Caste in an advisory capacity. Sami Elsaden, founder of Contigo (sold to Newell Rubbermaid in 2014), and Dennis Lee and Tim Porth, co-founders of Octane Fitness (sold to Nautilus in 2015), are still members of the NCP team today.

If you are a founder looking to learn more about North Castle Partners and our partnership-focused and values-based approach to investing, please visit www.northcastlepartners.com.

SOURCE North Castle Partners, L.L.C.

Despite rapid advances in AI capabilities, today’s AI agents can’t remember. Users constantly re-paste context to LLMs, re-explain preferences, and watch coding assistants repeat rejected solutions. This memory gap makes personalization and long-term learning nearly impossible. Developers spend valuable time building memory systems instead of focusing on what makes their applications unique. Workarounds like RAG pipelines or overloading context windows fail to provide true persistence and efficiency.

“Every agentic application needs memory, just as every application needs a database,” says Taranjeet, Co-founder and CEO of Mem0. “We’re using this funding to become the default memory layer for AI agents, making LLM memory accessible and reliable for all developers.”

Mem0 provides production-ready agent memory infrastructure that developers can integrate with just three lines of code. Their memory layer stores important information from past interactions, forgets outdated and conflicting information, and recalls relevant details. Since launching, they’ve reached 41,000 GitHub stars and 14 million downloads, with API calls growing from 35 million in Q1 to 186 million in Q3 2025.

Thousands of teams, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, now use Mem0 in production. Frameworks like CrewAI, Flowise, and Langflow use it natively, and AWS chose Mem0 as the exclusive memory provider for its Agent SDK.

Developers can get started today at www.mem0.ai or explore the open-source GitHub repository.

About Mem0: Mem0 is a San Francisco based startup founded by Taranjeet Singh (formerly with Paytm and Khatabook) and Deshraj Yadav (formerly with Tesla). The platform enables developers to add persistent AI memory to their systems with just three lines of code. Backed by Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures, Peak XV Partners and leading technology executives, Mem0 has become the go-to provider for AI agent memory across the AI ecosystem. Learn more at www.mem0.ai.

SOURCE Mem0.ai

• OceanPal launches SovereignAI focused on commercializing the NEAR Protocol
• Deep alignment on a shared vision for universal AI sovereignty with the NEAR Foundation will facilitate the implementation of a NEAR treasury strategy
• Capital generated from treasury management strategy will be used to build a unique blockchain-native, confidential AI-cloud infrastructure using NVIDIA tech and powered by NEAR

ATHENS, Greece and NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2025 — OceanPal Inc. (“OceanPal”, “OP”, NASDAQ: OP), today announced the closing of a $120M private investment in public equity transaction for the purchase and sale of common stock and/or pre-funded warrants to purchase shares of common stock (the “Offering”). The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the transaction to implement a digital asset treasury strategy through its new wholly owned subsidiary, SovereignAI Services LLC (“SovereignAI”), focused on commercializing the NEAR Protocol, a blockchain platform architected for Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) use cases. As a result of this transaction, OP, through SovereignAI, is expected to serve as the leading public investment vehicle to gain exposure to NEAR, the NEAR Protocol’s native token, and the foundational AI infrastructure needed to enable agentic commerce.

The NEAR Protocol’s focus on agentic AI & chain abstraction aligns with increasing institutional interest in automation, compliance, and scalable AI infrastructure, proven by continued support from leading TradFi and crypto-native funds. NEAR’s AI-centric tech stack allows AI agents to function as independent economic actors, allowing them to transact, manage assets, and make automated decisions, all while maintaining data privacy, governance, and economic rights of their end users. 

SovereignAI intends to monetize its infrastructure business by accumulating NEAR with the objective of acquiring at least 10% of the NEAR token supply over time. SovereignAI represents an evolution in the treasury company landscape, moving beyond passive accumulation models to focus on the successful execution against operating and infrastructure businesses, leveraging the yield from its balance sheet to build an innovative unique blockchain-native, confidential AI infrastructure.

“We believe NEAR presents the greatest asymmetric upside across mature projects in the digital asset market, which we aim to capture and offer to our shareholders,” said OceanPal’s newly appointed Co-CEO, Sal Ternullo. “This is a public company launching as an active, strategic partner with the NEAR Foundation to advance a shared vision of universal AI sovereignty by leveraging the NEAR Protocol’s vertically integrated AI products and rails, which were purpose-built for these exact use cases. We plan to use this decentralized, confidential compute infrastructure to capitalize on the explosive demand for privacy-first, regulatory compliant AI across enterprise markets including finance, healthcare, and media while enabling businesses and consumers to maintain control and ownership.”

Mr. Ternullo brings deep expertise in early-stage investing, asset management, and working with frontier technologies at firms like State Street, KPMG, most recently serving as General Partner at A100x. The OP executive team also includes newly appointed Chief Operating Officer (“COO”), David Schwed, who brings extensive experience in information security and privacy in both traditional financial institutions and crypto-native contexts, working at firms including BNY and Galaxy, while most recently serving as the Chief Information Security Officer for Brokerage & Money at Robinhood.

“SovereignAI is positioned at the convergence of two massive transformations – AI and digital ownership,” said Mr. Schwed. “Our strategy goes beyond treasury management to actively build the infrastructure enabling user-owned, privacy-preserving AI at scale. NEAR Protocol’s architecture provides the trust, security, and economic alignment necessary to realize true AI sovereignty and unlock the next generation of autonomous agent commerce.”

The strategy is supported by NEAR Protocol ecosystem-aligned strategic advisors, leading investors, and operating partners. The NEAR Foundation and the following key individuals will not only contribute capital to the transaction but will also support the strategy on a go-forward basis. OP has constructed a world class Advisory Board for SovereignAI chaired by Illia Polosukhin, CEO & co-founder NEAR Foundation, alongside, Richard Muirhead (founder, Fabric Ventures & NEAR Foundation Council member since inception), Lukasz Kaiser (OpenAI), Philippe Sachs (Nscale), Andy Brown (Sandhill East), and Jackie Kennedy (Quicknode) providing direct access to AI experts, hyperscalers and infrastructure companies to deliver on its mission.

“We are very pleased to welcome SovereignAI to the NEAR ecosystem,” said Mr. Polosukhin, CEO & co-founder NEAR Foundation. “I look forward to working with them to realize a shared vision of achieving true universal AI sovereignty by enabling private, user-owned AI and autonomous agent commerce. We believe the NEAR Protocol’s AI-centric tech stack will allow user-owned AI to meet its moment.”

The transaction involved several strategic participants, including crypto-native investors such as Kraken, Proximity, Fabric Ventures, G20 Group – among others. Clear Street LLC and Cohen & Company Capital Markets, a division of Cohen & Company Securities, LLC (“CCM”), served as financial advisors and placement agents to SovereignAI. Sealion Capital LLC served as advisor to OceanPal Inc.

Reed Smith LLP served as legal advisor to NEAR Foundation and will represent SovereignAI following the closing of the Offering. Paul Hastings LLP served as legal advisor to Clear Street LLC and CCM, and Seward & Kissel LLP acted as legal advisors to OceanPal Inc.

Following the transaction, OP will continue to operate as a global provider of shipping transportation services, specializing in the ownership and operation of dry bulk vessels and product tankers. OP expects to continue its seaborne transportation of bulk commodities as well as refined petroleum products.

Securities Disclaimers:

The information provided in this press release is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, endorsement, analysis, or recommendations with respect to any financial instruments, investments, or issuers. Investment in cryptocurrency and NEAR projects involves substantial risk, including the risk of complete loss. This press release does not take into account the investment objectives, financial situation, or specific needs of any particular person and each individual is urged to consult their legal and financial advisors before making any investment decisions.

The offer and sale of the securities in the Offering, including the shares of common stock underlying the pre-funded warrants, was made to institutional accredited investors in a transaction not involving a public offering pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and have not been registered under the Securities Act or applicable state securities laws. Accordingly, the securities issued in the Offering and shares of common stock underlying the pre-funded warrants may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an effective registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and such other applicable state securities laws.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

The private placement was conducted in accordance with applicable Nasdaq rules and was priced to satisfy the “Minimum Price” requirement (as defined in the Nasdaq rules).

About OceanPal Inc.

OceanPal Inc. is a global provider of shipping transportation services, specializing in the ownership and operation of dry bulk vessels and product tankers. OP is engaged in the seaborne transportation of bulk commodities, including iron ore, coal, and grain, as well as refined petroleum products. OP’s fleet is primarily employed on time charter trips with short to medium duration and spot charters, with a strategic focus on maximizing long-term shareholder value.

About SovereignAI

SovereignAI is a wholly owned subsidiary of OP formed to implement the company’s digital asset treasury strategy, and developer of confidential AI infrastructure offering a superior path to get exposure to the intersection of AI and blockchain in the public markets. SovereignAI will use NEAR Protocol’s purpose-built technology to establish private, user-owned agentic commerce. Funds generated by SovereignAI’s holistic treasury management strategy of NEAR tokens will be used to further the Company’s goal of building unique blockchain-native AI infrastructure.

To learn more about SovereignAI, please visit: https://www.svrn.net/

Media Contact: [email protected]

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical facts and include, without limitation, statements regarding the potential for and amount of additional cash proceeds from warrant exercises, the anticipated use of proceeds from the announced Offering, future announcements and priorities, expectations regarding management, corporate governance, market position, business strategies, future financial and operating performance, and other projections or statements of plans and objectives.

These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions, and projections, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors—many of which are beyond OP’s control—that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Important factors that may affect actual results include, among others, OP’s ability to execute its growth strategy; its ability to raise and deploy capital effectively; developments in technology and the competitive landscape; the market performance of NEAR; and other risks and uncertainties described under “Risk Factors” in OP’s Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on April 15, 2025, and in other subsequent filings with the SEC. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. OP undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE OceanPal Inc.