• Decube also completed the largest data governance related deal in the region in 2025
• Decube provides the trusted data context that AI and analytics rely on

SINGAPORE, Jan. 29, 2026 — Decube, a data trust and context platform for enterprise AI, has raised USD 3 million in its latest funding round*, which is being led by Taiwania Hive Ventures, with participation from Iterative and 500 Global.

The funding will support Decube’s global growth, continued product innovation, and rapid expansion across the APAC region, as enterprises increasingly look to operationalize AI on top of data they can trust.

The Context Data Layer Enterprises Need

As organizations invest heavily in AI, many are discovering a hard truth: AI systems are only as effective as the context provided to them. While enterprises have modern data platforms, warehouses, and pipelines, they often lack a unified way to explain what their data actually means, where it comes from, how it changes, and whether it should be trusted.

Decube is building what many enterprises are missing: a context layer for data.

In practical terms, Decube sits between raw data systems and AI or analytics use cases, providing the critical context required for responsible and scalable decision-making. This includes understanding lineage, ownership, quality, and usage policies—without relying on manual documentation or disconnected tools.

For business and data leaders, this context layer becomes the foundation that allows AI initiatives to move from experimentation to production with confidence.

Commenting on the success of this latest funding round, Jatin Solanki, Founder and CEO of Decube said: “Decube was founded on a simple insight: enterprises can’t scale AI without a trusted context layer across their data. This round validates what we are seeing at the heart of almost every large business: enterprises are racing to deploy AI, but most are still missing the context layer that makes AI reliable at an enterprise level. This funding allows us to move faster, expand strategically across APAC, and help our clients turn trusted data into production-grade AI, not experiments. We are building the foundation that lets AI actually work in the real world.”

With this funding, Decube plans to deepen its global footprint while expanding rapidly across the APAC region, where enterprises are modernizing data estates and preparing for AI at scale. The company will invest in product capabilities, regional partnerships, and enterprise deployments aligned with this growing demand.

The Missing Foundation Behind Enterprise AI Adoption

Decube’s platform helps enterprises move beyond fragmented metadata, spreadsheets, and tribal knowledge by unifying data understanding into a single system. This enables organizations to:

• Know where data originates and how it is transformed
• Establish accountability and ownership across data assets
• Continuously assess data reliability before it is consumed
• Provide trusted, explainable inputs to analytics and AI systems

This approach is increasingly critical for regulated and data-intensive industries, where AI adoption must balance speed, trust, and accountability.

Reflecting on the funding opportunity, Tawania Hive Co-Founder and Managing Partner Yan Lee said: “We were drawn to Decube because of the clarity of the problem they are solving and the strength of the team executing against it. As AI adoption moves from pilots to core enterprise systems, the need for scalable, production-grade data foundations is becoming non-negotiable. Decube is building a category-defining platform with strong early traction in regulated industries, and we are excited to support the company as it scales across Asia Pacific.”

Decube is already supporting enterprises across highly regulated industries including regional banks, financial institutions, telcos, and global corporates. In Indonesia, PT Superbank, which recently went public, is using Decube as part of its AI foundation to ensure that the data powering analytics and AI is governed, traceable, and ready for production use.

This reflects a broader shift among Chief Data Officers: moving from isolated governance initiatives toward operational data trust embedded directly into data workflows.

About Decube

Decube provides the trusted data context that AI and analytics depend on.  It provides enterprises with a unified layer to understand, trust, and operationalize their data—bringing together lineage, metadata, quality signals, and controls into a single foundation. Decube enables organizations to build analytics and AI systems on data that is not just available, but explainable and trustworthy.

SOURCE Decube

Founded by former Google DeepMind scientists, Poetiq emerges from “stealth” after setting a new state-of-the-art (SOTA) on ARC-AGI-2

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 29, 2026 — Poetiq, developer of an AI meta-system that makes LLMs work better, announced today that it raised $45.8 million in Seed funding co-led by FYRFLY Venture Partners and Surface Ventures with Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Operator Collective, Hico Ventures, and Neuron Venture Partners participating. The funding news follows Poetiq’s commanding results on ARC-AGI-2, an industry benchmark for machine reasoning and progress towards artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Poetiq can pair with any frontier LLM (OpenAI’s Chat GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, Meta’s Llama, etc.) to make it learn faster and solve harder problems. Clients provide Poetiq with a problem and a few hundred examples instead of the thousands or millions required for fine-tuning or RL post-training. Poetiq’s meta-system generates an agent that specializes in solving that problem and recursively improves the agent to become more accurate and cost-efficient.

Poetiq was founded in June 2025 by co-CEOs Shumeet Baluja, PhD, and Ian Fischer, former AI researchers at Google DeepMind. Baluja was previously the CTO of Jamdat Mobile (IPO 2004) and spent the last 21 years with Google DeepMind, where he founded their mobile practice and started their fundamental computer vision research group. He has contributed to more than 170 patents in neural networks, machine learning, and applications and is one of the originators of YouTube’s copyright system. Fischer joined Google DeepMind through its 2015 acquisition of Apportable, a platform that ported iOS games to Android, where he was co-founder and CTO.

Collaborating at Google DeepMind, Fischer and Baluja noticed that frontier LLMs were struggling to solve most hard (or easy) problems. The current solution—to pre-train and post-train LLMs through reinforcement learning (RL)—takes weeks and is far too expensive for all but the biggest companies.

“LLMs are impressive databases that encode a vast amount of humanity’s collective knowledge,” said Shumeet Baluja, co-CEO of Poetiq. “They are simply not the best tools for deep reasoning. That’s why efforts to improve their problem-solving skills are so slow and expensive. For ARC-AGI 1 and 2, we used recursive self-improvement to produce specialized agents in a matter of hours. It demonstrates how much we can help with problems that have been too hard or too expensive for LLMs alone.”

An MIT study of 300 public AI implementations, published in August 2025, underscores the need for Poetiq. Although enterprises have invested $30 to $40 billion in GenAI, 95% of organizations are “getting zero return,” according to the researchers. Use cases that have struggled to generate an ROI are ideal candidates for Poetiq, as it can improve the reasoning capabilities of any LLM, including proprietary, in-house models.

“That Poetiq managed to top ARC-AGI within six months of launching is remarkable,” said Philipp Stauffer, General Partner at FYRFLY Venture Partners. “Rather than compete against frontier models, their team of six found a way to coax more intelligence from every LLM available. Poetiq will be a must-have for companies trying to make AI work for real-world business applications.”

“Poetiq is one of the rare AI startups that doesn’t need to outcompete frontier models or pick sides,” added Gyan Kapur, co-Managing Partner at Surface Ventures. “It can enhance any combination of LLMs, any native AI platform, and any AI use case. Poetiq can provide better performance at lower costs across diverse use cases by sitting on top of foundation models, and that is a unique position to be in.”

The Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC-AGI), developed in 2019 by AI researcher François Chollet, is a benchmark that measures an AI’s “human-like generalization” of problem-solving skills. In early December, Poetiq established a SOTA on the ARC-AGI-2 semi-private evaluation set, topping Gemini 3 Deep Think, the previous leader, at half the cost per task; this was done using Poetiq’s system on top of Gemini 3 Pro. Within a few days, OpenAI released GPT-5.2. Poetiq immediately incorporated this model into their system and showed a new SOTA at 75% accuracy (on the public evaluation set), a 16 percentage point improvement on the previous SOTA. OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman tweeted in response to this feat, Poetiq is “exceeding the human baseline on ARC-AGI-2 with gpt-5.2.”

For technical details on Poetiq’s ARC-AGI-2 results, read their blog posts at:

To learn more about the company, visit poetiq.ai

About Poetiq

Poetiq is on the fastest path to AGI with a meta-system that makes frontier LLMs smarter and more cost-effective at solving real-world problems. Through recursive self-improvement, Poetiq generates AI agents to solve business problems that are too difficult or too expensive for LLMs alone. With each problem they solve, Poetiq agents become faster and more accurate at solving related problems. Visit poetiq.ai to learn more.

Press Contact:
[email protected] 

SOURCE Poetiq

One of the most influential coaches in the modern game endorses the patented three-in-one system creating a new era of player development and competition.

SANFORD, Fla., Jan. 29, 2026 — 360 Hoops, the emerging sports innovation company behind the patented three-in-one basketball system and circular gameplay format, today announced a landmark investment from Geno Auriemma, one of the most accomplished and influential basketball coaches in the history of the sport.

The Hall of Fame coach and 12-time National Champion said of 360 Hoops, “What stood out to me about 360 Hoops is that it doesn’t try to change basketball…it amplifies it,” said Auriemma. “More movement, more awareness, more decisions. Anything that gets players more involved and thinking about the game in real time is worth supporting.”

Auriemma’s investment and strategic advisory role mark a key validation for 360 Hoops as the company prepares for its official rollout in the second quarter of 2026, following extensive prototyping and pilot programming in 2025.

An Engagement Multiplier

360 Hoops is built around three integrated elements that can operate independently or together, forming a new basketball platform supported by patented intellectual property:

Product: A patented three-in-one basketball system

Gameplay: A proprietary circular format that allows players to score on any of three baskets

Activation: A customizable platform designed for community programming, events, and brand engagement

At the equipment level, the three-in-one system is designed to increase player involvement by creating more scoring opportunities, movement, and decision-making within a single play environment. The company’s flagship product, 360Flex, is a portable system adjustable from 4.5 to 10 feet and is scheduled to be available for purchase this spring. In addition to the portable system, the company plans to introduce a permanent in-ground version, with a ceiling-retractable, pro-grade model currently in development.

At the gameplay level, 360 Hoops introduces a proprietary 3v3v3 format played on a circular court, where players can attack and defend any of three baskets. The company states that up to five 360Flex systems can be operated within the general footprint of a traditional basketball court, enabling higher participation levels and expanded programming opportunities for facilities and operators. The company plans to host its own slate of tournaments while also partnering with approved operators to support broader adoption.

As an activation platform, 360 Hoops systems can be custom-designed for schools, clubs, municipalities, and brand partners, supporting signage, sponsorship, and experiential programming. The systems are designed to serve as focal points for community engagement while offering operators additional options for events and partnerships.

Drawing inspiration from how pickleball transformed tennis, 360 Hoops aims to do the same for basketball — offering a highly engaging, social, and accessible complement to the traditional game rather than attempting to replace it.

“Players learn by being involved,” Auriemma added. “This format forces awareness and decision-making in a way that reflects real basketball situations.”

Validation From a Trusted Voice in Basketball

Founded by Anthony Gomez and Shane Brey, 360 Hoops was built to expand participation, skill development, and engagement while preserving the fundamentals of the game. Auriemma’s investment aligns directly with that mission, reinforcing the company’s focus on scalable, community-based programming that enhances basketball without changing its core.

Shane Brey, Inventor and Co-Founder of 360 Hoops, said:

“Geno’s belief in what we’re building is incredibly meaningful. He sees the game better than anyone and understands what truly benefits players and communities. His investment validates 360 Hoops as a platform that enhances basketball and youth development without compromising the integrity of the sport we all love.”

Anthony Gomez, Co-Founder of 360 Hoops, added:

“This is a major vote of confidence in 360 Hoops as a company, and we don’t take it lightly. We’re grateful for Geno’s belief and know his support will accelerate our ability to scale, bring 360 Hoops to market, and deliver long-term value for the communities, partners, and players who experience it.”

Auriemma echoed that belief, saying:

“We need more ways to keep kids engaged with the game. 360 Hoops meets players where they are while still respecting basketball’s fundamentals.”

What’s Next

360 Hoops will launch sales this spring, introduce a nationwide slate of 360 Hoops Tournaments, and roll out its school experience model this fall. The company will also continue to announce additional investments, partnerships, and strategic initiatives in the coming months.

About 360 Hoops

360 Hoops is a sports innovation company reimagining basketball with its patented three-in-one hoop and circular gameplay, allowing players to attack, score, and defend all three baskets. While preserving the essence and global appeal of basketball, 360 Hoops enhances engagement, maximizes space efficiency, and gets more players moving and having fun. Played on a circular court with nonstop action, the game is designed for all ages and skill levels. By changing the shape of the game, 360 Hoops creates a fast-paced, dynamic experience while solving the common challenge of too many players and not enough hoops. With a mission to deliver the most fun way to fall in love with sports, 360 Hoops inspires movement and makes the game more accessible. Learn more at play360hoops.com.

SOURCE 360 Hoops

From Unicorns to Universities, AI to Governments, and Silicon Valley to 60+ Global Locations: The Making of the Ultimate Innovation Platform

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 29, 2026 — Plug and Play’s 20-year journey from a small Silicon Valley office to a global innovation powerhouse is now chronicled in a new book “20 Years,” celebrating the founders and partners the company has connected along the way. Plug and Play uniquely combines a startup accelerator, open innovation partnerships, a global VC platform, and exposure to more than 25 industry verticals to create an innovation ecosystem in unmatched scale and impact. 

Milestones detailed in “20 Years”:

• More than $1 billion in assets under management across its global portfolio
• More than 550 partners within the Fortune 1000
• Global coverage with more than 60 offices across five continents
• More than 2,500 startup portfolio investments

Plug and Play manages a diversified portfolio of investment funds spanning early-to-growth-stage companies, including its GVA and Scale funds, as well as sector-focused funds in supply chain, sustainability, financial services, and regional innovation funds focused on Europe, Japan, and North America.

“Having started as a Silicon Valley real estate entrepreneur, I bought what became known as the ‘Lucky Building’ due to early tenants such as Google and PayPal,” said Saeed Amidi, founder and CEO of Plug and Play. “I talked with Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Peter Thiel during these early days as they discussed the platforms they were building to change the world. That exposure to entrepreneurial energy was a core reason I started Plug and Play, which provides funding, industry connections, and resources to help startups stand out and scale. Our book celebrates the journey, vision, and, most importantly, our people.”

The book offers an in-depth look at how much Plug and Play has transformed in the last five years, including:

• An expanded partner profile, including corporations as well as city and state governments, federal entities, foundations, economic development corporations (EDCs), and universities
• Growth from 10 U.S. locations to more than 20
• The launch of AI Centers of Excellence, global hubs bringing together leaders from the Plug and Play ecosystem to accelerate and discuss AI adoption through talent development and partnerships

“After 20 years, the last five have seen rapid change and transformation due to AI,” said Amidi. “Through our AI Centers of Excellence, we’re connecting executives, founders, and global leaders to better understand and adopt AI technology. All our initiatives set the stage for the next 20 years, as we prime our startups and partners to shape the future of technology.”

Additionally, the new book details Plug and Play’s unicorn success stories, which include PayPal, LendingClub, Dropbox, SoundHound, Rappi, N26, and Turing, among many others.

Jonathan Siddharth, co-founder and CEO of Turing, shared: “One of the people who was supportive throughout our entire journey was Saeed and Plug and Play. If you’re running a startup, two things I’d recommend: Try to get Plug and Play on the cap table, and specifically, try to have Saeed involved in some capacity.”

Download the free book at this link, and a limited number of physical copies will be distributed to media.

About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we’re present in 60+ locations across 25+ industries. We offer corporate innovation programs, helping our partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also run startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC where we’ve invested in hundreds of successful companies, including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, LendingClub, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit Plug and Play.

Plug and Play Press Contact
Jacky Tsang
Senior Communications & PR Associate
[email protected]

SOURCE Plug and Play

Amber Group, Fasanara Digital, and Paper Ventures join Flying Tulip’s previously disclosed institutional backers

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2026 — Flying Tulip, a full‑stack onchain exchange, today announced additional institutional participation from Amber Group, Fasanara Digital, and Paper Ventures.

These new participants join Flying Tulip’s previously disclosed cohort of institutional backers, including CoinFund, Lemniscap, FalconX, Nascent, Selini, Susquehanna Crypto, and others. For the prior funding announcement and a full list of participants, see: https://blog.flyingtulip.com/flying-tulip-raises-200m/ 

“This reflects continued institutional interest in verifiable onchain market structure where risk, reserves, and incentives are observable rather than assumed,” said Andre Cronje, founder of Flying Tulip.

Flying Tulip is building an onchain financial marketplace that unifies spot trading, derivatives, credit, a native stablecoin (ftUSD), and onchain insurance within a single cross‑margin system designed for capital efficiency and transparent risk management.

Onchain redemption right (“Perpetual PUT”)

A core feature of Flying Tulip’s Capital Allocation is an onchain redemption right (“Perpetual PUT”) issued to primary-sale participants.

In plain terms: eligible participants can burn $FT and redeem up to their original principal, in the same asset contributed, subject to onchain reserves and protocol parameters. Redemptions are programmatically settled from a segregated onchain reserve seeded from contributed capital. This design is intended to provide downside protection while preserving upside exposure.

Learn more: https://docs.flyingtulip.com/capital-allocation/ 

Built for transparent risk management

Flying Tulip’s approach emphasizes auditable controls and clear system constraints:

• Onchain settlement for redemption and position management
• Segregated redemption reserve for primary-sale participants
• Safety rails designed to limit abnormal outflows, including a Circuit Breaker rate‑limit mechanism

Circuit Breaker docs: https://docs.flyingtulip.com/risks/circuit-breaker/ 

About Flying Tulip

Flying Tulip is an onchain financial marketplace that unifies spot, derivatives, credit, and risk transfer in a capital‑efficient, cross‑margin system. The platform is built for transparent risk management and long‑term sustainability. Learn more at https://flyingtulip.com 

Important Information

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities or tokens in any jurisdiction. Participation in any token distribution (if applicable) may be subject to eligibility checks and jurisdictional restrictions. Digital assets involve risk, including the possible loss of value.

Any redemption right described is programmatic, subject to onchain reserves and protocol parameters, and may be rate‑limited in certain conditions. It is not a deposit, not insured, and not a guarantee. This release may contain forward‑looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Official addresses and announcements will be published only via Flying Tulip’s official channels and website.

SOURCE Flying Tulip

—$1B+ in Portfolio Revenue from Fifth Wall LPs, 20 New Strategic LPs in its Flagship Strategy, and Seven Promotions Across the Firm—

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29, 2026 — Fifth Wall—the largest investment firm focused on technology for the built environment, founded by Brendan Wallace—closed out 2025 with strong organizational and investment momentum across its integrated platform spanning PropTech and Climate. The Firm reached a major milestone in 2025: generating more than $1B in revenue for its nearly 170 portfolio companies through its global network of nearly 115 strategic LPs. Over the course of the year, Fifth Wall secured more than 20 new strategic LP investments from Public Storage, Kite Realty, and Federal Realty, amongst others, exited two of its largest investments in ServiceTitan and Industrious, completed 30 investments across its funds into companies like Juniper Square, Wander, and Runwise, advanced seven senior promotions across its team, and expanded its Los Angeles-based team with five new hires.

Investment Momentum & Market Leadership

Fifth Wall sustained strong investment momentum in 2025, accelerating activity year-over-year and reinforcing its position as the most active investor at the intersection of real estate and technology. The Firm more than doubled its pace of new investments compared to 2024 and completed 30 total transactions—reflecting sustained conviction in its existing PropTech and Climate portfolio alongside expanding deployment into emerging category leaders.

During the year, Fifth Wall co-led Juniper Square’s $130M Series D at a $1.1B valuation, making it one of the first true PropTech unicorns of the AI era and the Firm’s 25th unicorn since inception. Fifth Wall also co-led Wander’s $50M Series B, led Ridley’s $6.4M seed round, doubled down on Runwise with its $55M Series B, participated in the first institutional financing of NavigateAI, and incubated and capitalized PropMatic in partnership with second-time founders Mark Schmulen and Matthew Hager as Entrepreneurs in Residence. The Firm also completed multiple additional strategic investments, with seven new deals to be announced in Q1, including Sekra which launched this week.

Fifth Wall reached a major value creation milestone in 2025 as portfolio companies surpassed $1B in cumulative revenue generated through partnerships with the Firm’s strategic LP network of nearly 115 real estate, hospitality, and construction partners. The year included meaningful liquidity activity, highlighted by CBRE’s $800M acquisition of Industrious and the Firm’s exit from ServiceTitan following its successful IPO.

Momentum continued into early 2026, with portfolio company ClassPass announcing its $7.5B merger with EGYM and Fifth Wall portfolio company BitGo completing its IPO, the Firm’s eighth public company following Opendoor, Procore, ServiceTitan, SmartRent, Blend, Hippo, and Doma.

“Fifth Wall’s platform has been game-changing in helping us scale beyond just their significant capital investment” said Lee Hoffman, Co-Founder & President, Runwise. “Through strategic introductions to real estate owners, hands-on support across marketing and communications, and access to the Firm’s LP network, we were able to rapidly expand deployments across 12 LP portfolios and more than 140 buildings. Fifth Wall’s distribution helped deliver nearly $5M in energy savings for Fifth Wall LPs and more than $2M in revenue for Runwise, and we’re ambitiously expanding that number into 2026.” 

Capital Formation, Consolidated Investment Mandate, and Platform Expansion

In 2025, Fifth Wall launched REACT, its newest investment strategy designed as an integrated vehicle investing opportunistically across both PropTech and Climate alongside the Firm’s core PropTech Fund. In Q4 2025, the Firm completed an additional close on REACT, bringing total commitments to $125M and, combined with its latest $288M PropTech-focused Fund, totaling $414M.

“In 2021, demand from our LP base led us to launch dedicated PropTech and Climate strategies,” said Brendan Wallace, Founder, CEO & CIO, Fifth Wall. “As the market matured over the course of the past two years, we’ve re-integrated our climate investments into our core PropTech platform—a model that closely mirrors our earliest funds and one that we believe contributed meaningfully to their performance. Climate has always been most effective for us when it’s embedded within the core economics of how buildings operate.”

Fifth Wall’s first two PropTech funds consisted of a $212M Fund in 2017 and a $503M fund in 2019. These funds have already had seven IPOs returning $640M to Fifth Wall LPs. Fifth Wall also maintains a significant position in Bitgo, which went public last week, although Fifth Wall has not yet exited that position. Many of Fifth Wall’s most successful climate-related investments were made from these first two vintages, including Aurora Solar, Urbint, and Lime, which has been considering an IPO.

The Firm also expanded its investor base with more than 20 new strategic LPs across real estate, construction, hospitality, and infrastructure, including Federal Realty, Independence Realty Trust, Kilroy Realty, Kite Realty Group, Public Storage, Ryman Hospitality, Riyadh Valley Co, Sidara, and TITAN Group. These new LPs have added to Fifth Wall’s nearly 115 strategic LPs across its platform.

Leadership & Organizational Expansion

Throughout 2025, Fifth Wall continued to strengthen its leadership and organizational bench through a series of senior promotions and targeted team expansion. The Firm promoted Luke Harris to Chief Operating Officer, Elise Szwajkowski to Chief Marketing Officer, and Mary Hogan Preusse to Chief Strategic Advisor.

Fifth Wall also elevated Anastasia Istratova and Virginia Drennen to Partner, and Alec Morgan and Cherie Poon to Principal, reflecting the continued development of its senior investment team and its long-term commitment to internal leadership progression. In parallel, the Firm continued to build out its LA-based team bringing on five new hires across its investment and platform functions.

About Fifth Wall

Founded by Brendan Wallace, Fifth Wall is the largest investment firm focused on technology for the built environment. The Firm is driving the growth of nearly 170 companies, backing category-defining PropTech leaders such as Opendoor, Procore, Blend, Hippo, and Bilt Rewards. It’s supported by nearly 115 of the world’s largest real estate owner-operators including CBRE, Hilton, Hines, Marriott, Public Storage, Related, and Starwood. Founded and headquartered in Los Angeles, Fifth Wall’s other offices include New York City, San Francisco, and London. For more information, visit fifthwall.com.

SOURCE Fifth Wall

HOUSTON, Jan. 29, 2026 — PranaX Corporation, a leading biotechnology company focused on regenerative biologics, today announced the closing of its oversubscribed $17 million Series A financing. The Series A round was led by family offices, trusts, and individual investors, a group with deep expertise across biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and healthcare innovation.

The financing comes amid growing recognition of the exosome wellness sector as a promising frontier in regenerative medicine. As consumer and provider demand shifts toward science-backed, biologically informed solutions that support healthy aging and overall quality of life, exosomes are increasingly viewed as a foundational component of next-generation regenerative strategies. PranaX continues to push the field forward by developing exosome-based technologies that may deliver transformative benefits to retain or restore quality of life. PranaX envisions a world where the limitations of aging and degeneration are no longer barriers to a long fulfilling life.

“PranaX was founded on the belief that exosomes can redefine how we approach aging and long-term wellness,” said Steven J. Greco, PhD, Founder and Chief Operating Officer of PranaX. “We are building a science-driven platform that bridges rigorous biological understanding with real-world impact. This financing validates both our mission and our differentiated approach, and it positions us to scale thoughtfully while remaining grounded in scientific integrity.”

Proceeds from the Series A financing will be used to advance PranaX’s research and development initiatives, expand scientific and operational infrastructure, support strategic partnerships, and accelerate product development and commercialization efforts. As PranaX enters its next phase of growth, the company remains committed to advancing the future of regenerative biologics through responsible innovation, scientific rigor, and a steadfast focus on improving quality of life.

About PranaX

PranaX is a regenerative biotechnology company dedicated to harnessing stem cell-derived exosomes through evidence-based science. The company’s overarching mission is to unlock the properties of exosomes to promote wellness and lead individuals towards healthier, more fulfilling lives. The company’s research, development, and manufacturing operations are headquartered within the Levit Green life science campus in Houston, Texas.

SOURCE PranaX

Investment by industry leaders in plastic-free chewing gum brand signals confidence in its expansion of American retail footprint

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2026 — Milliways, the plastic-free chewing gum brand that has built a global following, has secured $3 million to continue its expansion in the United States.

The investment group includes Mehmet Yüksek, former CEO of Perfetti Van Melle North America, and Leon Amram, former owner of Intergum, alongside other industry executives who collectively bring decades of experience building global chewing gum brands. The latest funding round will be used to accelerate marketing, expand retail distribution and grow inventories as the brand builds on a successful first year in the US market.

Founded in 2021 by entrepreneur Tom Raviv, and now the one of the largest gum companies in the UK, Milliways has raised a total of $10 million since launching and grown to over 10,000 stores globally.

In just over a year since its US launch, Milliways has scaled to more than 2,000 stores nationwide including Sprouts, Meijer, Hy-Vee, Raley’s and Fred Meyer, and is the best-selling plastic-free gum brand, according to recent SPINS data.

“Consumer demands are changing faster than ever. The power of AI and social media means people are better informed, more curious, and quicker to adopt new habits. Whether it’s GLP-1s, longevity hacks, or plastic-free chewing gum, the desire to live healthier lives is now at the top of everyone’s agenda. And it’s not just the big changes that people care about, but the incremental improvements too. As a lifelong gum chewer who cares deeply about my health, I didn’t want to chew on plastic gum anymore, and I believed millions of people felt the same – that’s why I launched Milliways,” said Raviv. “Milliways has an exciting year ahead with new retailers getting behind our mission.”

Milliways uses 7 naturally-derived ingredients and addresses rising consumer demand for clean label, better-for-you alternatives amid changing diets and growing concern of microplastics in conventional gum. The conventional chewing gum category has come under increased scrutiny, driving strong growth in natural alternatives – a segment that is now outpacing the total gum category.

“Conventional chewing gum is one of the most concentrated, direct sources of microplastic ingestion which science indicates can impact our health,”^1,2 said Raviv, “We’re seeing the embrace of high quality, plastic-free alternatives from retailers and shoppers, and we’re excited to continue growing our presence across the US. This new funding round allows us to make Milliways available to more consumers every day.”

Milliways gum is plastic-free, plant-based, biodegradable, sugar-free, aspartame-free, non-GMO and boosted with xylitol. It’s available in flavors including Spearmint, Peppermint, Mighty Mint, Bubblemint, Strawberry and Watermelon, and retails at a suggested $2.49 (10-piece) and $5.99 (30-piece) packs.

Visit www.milliwaysfood.com for more information.

1. https://www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/2025/StopchewingNewresearchrevealstheshockingnumberofmicroplasticsinasinglepieceofgum.html
2. https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/01/microplastics-in-body-polluted-tiny-plastic-fragments.html

   Category data: (UK: IRI Circana 52 w/e December 2025), (FRANCE: NIELSON 52 w/e December 2025), (USA: SPINS 52 w/e December 2025)

SOURCE Milliways

MIAMI, Jan. 29, 2026 — Proceeds will be used to execute AI-led roll-up of title and escrow companies to enhance operational efficiencies in fragmented $25 billion industry. 

Propy, a tech company using AI and blockchain to automate real estate closings, today announced that it has secured a $100 million credit facility from Metropolitan Partners Group (“Metropolitan”), a private investment firm that provides growth and situational capital to small and mid-sized non-sponsored businesses in the U.S. The financing will be used to consolidate title and escrow companies into an AI-powered, end-to-end closing platform.

The announcement reflects a confluence of trends: mounting pressure to address the housing affordability issue, and AI reaching enterprise reliability. Transaction costs can approach 10% of a home’s value due to multiple parties involved in the process and manual fragmented workflows. In many cases, associated fees and closing costs exceed the down payment itself, eliminating years of savings for U.S. homebuyers. Propy’s technology aims to reduce one of the most overlooked barriers to homeownership: the friction built in every closing. Propy has launched an AI Agent that executes some functions of escrow officers such as checking emails, opening transactions 24/7, checking bank accounts and making calls to lenders and HOAs. 

Propy has seen strong inbound M&A interest for its roll-up strategy, completing a second $5 million acquisition and entering an LOI for a third $6 million deal in recent weeks, with roughly $75 million in its active pipeline. 

“We’re building the infrastructure layer that allows real estate to operate on par with modern financial markets: AI-enabled and more liquid,” said Natalia Karayaneva, Founder and CEO of Propy. “Multi-agent orchestration will allow transactions to become so smooth and cheap, that the new generation will be buying homes anytime they change a city. Instead of 4-7 million homes sold every year, we believe we’ll witness 20 million homes changing hands.”

Accelerating National AI-Led Roll-Up Strategy

Propy plans to acquire firms generating $5 million to $20 million in annual revenue across California, Texas, Tennessee, and other states, retaining local teams while using automation to increase volume and expand margins. Acquired firms are upgraded with automated workflows that cut manual workloads by up to 70%, with blockchain used as supporting infrastructure for auditability and settlement security.

Metropolitan structured the facility around licensed, cash-flowing title businesses, funding operational transformation with built-in downside protection.

“We are pleased to support Propy as it brings much-needed efficiency and transparency to residential real estate transactions,” said Paul Lisiak, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Metropolitan. “As a capital provider to growing, asset-backed businesses, we were drawn not only to the underlying durability of title and escrow operations but also to Propy’s practical approach to improving the closing process with next-generation AI tools. We look forward to partnering with Natalia and the Propy team as they continue to expand and make real estate transactions simpler, faster, and more cost-effective for consumers across the United States.”

Since 2021, Propy has processed more than $5 billion in transactions, with transaction volume roughly doubling year-over-year. The company is aiming to add approximately $100 million in annual revenue through continued consolidation.

Propy’s advisory board includes Chris Campbell (former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury), Mike Jones (Science Inc.), Dr. Michael S. Piwowar (former SEC Commissioner), and Michael Casey (Chairman of the Advanced AI Society). The company is backed by highly successful investor Tim Draper and other prominent investors.

About Propy

Propy is a tech company with licensed title and escrow operations powered by AI and smart contracts. Propy’s platform automates the entire real estate closing process, from offer to deed recording, allowing transactions to occur 24/7 with fewer intermediaries, less paperwork, and higher security. In doing so, Propy is removing inefficiencies with outdated legacy systems and removing cost barriers that prevent access to real estate. For more information, users can visit Propy.com. 

About Metropolitan Partners Group

Founded in 2008, Metropolitan Partners Group is a New York-based private investment firm. Metropolitan provides non-controlling growth capital to non-sponsored, entrepreneur-led businesses predominantly across the U.S., designed to preserve ownership, honor the management team’s vision, and accelerate scale, while delivering value and downside protection to its investors. To learn more, visit www.metpg.com/.

Contact

PR Director
Karla Vilhelem
Propy
[email protected]
(754) 215-4315

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SOURCE Propy