£2 billion investment will unlock new capital and compute for British founders, fueling next-generation AI breakthroughs and global expansion
LONDON, Sept. 18, 2025 — Hoxton Ventures today announced its participation in NVIDIA’s landmark UK AI investment of £2 billion to strengthen the UK’s position as a global leader in artificial intelligence. The alliance will expand access to capital and compute for British founders, empowering them to build the next generation of transformative AI companies.
Through this collaboration, NVIDIA, Hoxton Ventures, Accel, Air Street Capital, Balderton, and Phoenix Court will provide capital to accelerate the growth of the UK’s AI ecosystem by addressing historic challenges such as limited access to supercomputing power, constrained venture capital outside London, and barriers between academia and entrepreneurship. The investment will support emerging startups in innovation hubs across London, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, and beyond.
“Hoxton was founded on the belief that world-class companies can emerge from Europe — and the UK has the ingredients to be a global leader in AI,” said Hussein Kanji, Founder and Managing Partner at Hoxton Ventures. “By working with NVIDIA and other top investors, we’re bridging global scale with local knowledge to ensure that Britain’s brightest founders have the capital, compute, and infrastructure they need to build globally transformative businesses.”
This collaboration builds on Hoxton’s decade-long track record of backing ambitious UK and European founders at the forefront of AI and deeptech. The UK has many companies that are pioneers in next-generation AI, novel computing architectures, robotics, and advanced materials—such as CuspAI, Machenta, Milvus Advanced, and Universal Quantum—many spun out of the UK’s leading research institutions (Imperial College London, Oxford University, and the University of Sussex).
Another UK-founded portfolio company, Peptone, is already collaborating with NVIDIA to develop an AI to predict the shape of disordered proteins – a class of biology that has remained invisible to traditional experimental techniques. By focusing on deep scientific breakthroughs with real-world applications, Hoxton has cemented its role as a go-to partner for the UK’s most promising entrepreneurs.
About Hoxton Ventures Hoxton Ventures is a London-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies that can scale globally. The firm typically invests at the seed and Series A stages across sectors, with a focus on companies that have the potential to define new markets. Hoxton’s portfolio includes unicorns and market leaders such as Deliveroo, Darktrace, and Preply, as well as the next generation of standouts, including Avantia Law, Cusp AI, Finster, Kitt, Peptone, Skin Analytics and many others. For more information, visitwww.hoxtonventures.com.
While in private Beta, Titan processed over $1.5B in spot trading volume and is also now introducing Titan Prime API, Solana‘s most performant on-chain trading API to power platforms and traders across the entirety of Solana.
TORONTO, Sept. 18, 2025 — Titan, Solana‘s premier meta-dex aggregator, today announced the completion of a $7 million seed round led by Galaxy Ventures. With participation from Frictionless, Mirana, Ergonia, Auros, Susquehanna, and world-class angels, this raise accelerates Titan’s work of building a comprehensive gateway to internet capital markets — designed for traders seeking improved execution on Solana.
Titan Raises $7M Seed from Galaxy Ventures and Launches Publicly on Solana
Solana traders face fragmented liquidity and a growing number of aggregators, making it difficult to consistently find the best price. Titan solves this by consolidating all major aggregators and routers into one platform, properly comparing quotes, and providing full transparency to support consistently competitive trade execution.
After several months in private beta, where Titan processed over $1.5 billion in spot trading volume, the platform is now launching publicly to all traders. Titan leverages its proprietary advanced routing and meta-aggregation technology to consistently deliver the best swap prices across Solana liquidity sources as proven during live trading.
Titan is officially moving out of private beta and is now live to the public at titan.exchange.
“With significant price improvements from Titan’s unique routing algorithm — built on our deep understanding of market structure — and the fastest quote updates, Solana traders can gain the edge to consistently outperform. We’re excited to work hand in hand with traders and partners as we build the future of internet capital markets,” said Chris Chung, CEO of Titan.”At Galaxy Ventures, we look for teams working to build foundational infrastructure with long-term impact. We see Titan is doing exactly that. We believe they are creating the most advanced gateway to internet capital markets on Solana and their launch represents a major step forward for both traders and the broader DeFi ecosystem, and we’re thrilled to be part of this journey,” said Will Nuelle, General Partner of Galaxy Ventures.
In addition, Titan is introducing Titan Prime API, a meta-aggregator API that compares quotes from leading Solana routers, including Titan’s proprietary algorithm Argos, which outperforms competitors in 70–75% of cases. Powered by advanced simulation infrastructure, Titan Prime API handles the heavy lifting of router quote comparisons — a process that is both technically difficult and resource-intensive. Designed to power both platforms and traders across the ecosystem, Titan Prime API will roll out in phases and is now open for public waitlist requests.
About Titan
Titan is building the gateway to internet capital markets. The team has built Solana‘s first meta-aggregator, connecting all major routers to deliver the best possible prices for users. Titan also developed Argos, Solana‘s most performant aggregator router, which outperforms competitors 75% of the time. Together, these products help traders consistently capture best-in-class execution on Solana. For more information, users can visit titan.exchange.
Backed by renowned physicians, researchers, and leading tech VCs, MoldCo created an easy, affordable system for anyone to access Mold Toxicity treatment, in service of a healthier America.
BOSTON, Sept. 18, 2025 — MoldCo, the first clinician-led digital health platform standardizing mold detox as routine preventative care, today announces $8M in seed funding, co-led by Cantos and Collaborative Fund, bringing the company’s total funding to $11M. The new capital will support the expansion of MoldCo’s virtual clinic and advance its mission to address the widespread yet underdiagnosed health crisis of Mold Toxicity. MoldCo is making expert-led care for mold-related illness more affordable, accessible, and outcomes-driven for patients nationwide.
The Invisible Health Crisis Hiding in Half of U.S. Homes
Most physicians do not screen for or treat mold-related illness, despite more than 50% of U.S. households showing signs of mold, water damage, or dampness. As a result, public awareness remains low, widening a gap in care that leaves millions of patients across the country in the dark without a diagnosis or clear path to healing. People who suffer from mold exposure often spend years—and thousands of dollars—searching for explanations and cycling through specialists and misdiagnoses, when a simple screening for Mold Toxicity could have provided them with clarity.
Even when physicians identify mold as the cause, treatment is often prohibitively expensive or difficult to access. Many experience serious long-term symptoms, including Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), a debilitating condition triggered by mold exposure and frequently mistaken for chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, or anxiety.
A Scalable Solution for Mold Toxicity Care
Instead of enduring debilitating symptoms and waiting months to see a specialist, patients can immediately access expert, evidence-based Mold Toxicity care through MoldCo’s telehealth platform. Treatment averages just $150–$300 per month, far less than fragmented alternatives, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars and are often ineffective due to limited clinical expertise.
“My own journey through the confusing and often dismissive landscape of conventional medicine while battling mold illness was frustrating and isolating,” said Ariana Thacker, MoldCo founder and CEO. “It revealed a critical gap: individuals are suffering because the specialized knowledge needed to recognize and effectively treat these conditions is widely unavailable. MoldCo was born from that experience. By combining specialized clinical expertise with telehealth accessibility, we’re making evidence-based care available to everyone who needs it as quickly as possible, at a fraction of the current cost.”
“The profound impact of environmental factors, like those found in water-damaged buildings, on human health and the immune system has been documented for decades,” stated Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, a leading physician and foundational researcher in biotoxin illness and CIRS. “The days of simply living with mold & biotoxin-related illness have been replaced by peer-reviewed treatment protocols, developed from nearly 30 years of research and evidence-based care, and now being made accessible through MoldCo.”
How it Works
Through MoldCo’s telehealth platform, patients can gain clarity on their symptoms, access virtual care, and receive treatments delivered to their home in three simple steps. This streamlined, comprehensive approach directly addresses the accessibility barriers inherent in treating Mold Toxicity, providing patients with:
On-Demand Expert Care: Direct access to MoldCo’s rigorously vetted, certified specialists in Mold Toxicity, eliminating geographic constraints and long wait times.
Advanced Lab Testing: Specialized biomarker testing from just $99, along with respective educational content.
Evidence-Based Treatments: Access to prescription-strength binders, targeted peptides, and specific compounded therapies, shipped directly to the patient.
Integrated Care Navigation: Continuous 24/7 support via dedicated care navigators through MoldCo’s platform, guiding patients through medical protocol and tracking progress seamlessly.
Investor Confidence in a Category-Defining Company
“The sheer scale of the Mold Toxicity crisis, hidden within the walls of our homes and workplaces and deeply impacting human health, represents exactly the kind of systemic, science-driven challenge Cantos exists to address,” stated Amee Kapadia, Partner at Cantos. “Patients have been left navigating a confusing, expensive, and often invalidating system for far too long. MoldCo is not just providing a service; they are building the essential infrastructure for accessible diagnosis and treatment, leveraging technology to bring scientifically validated protocols and expert care directly to those who have been profoundly overlooked. We are convinced they will lead the way in resolving this widespread health challenge.”
Andrew Montgomery, Partner at Collaborative Fund, commented, “We invest in companies creating a fundamentally better future, and MoldCo directly addresses the critical nexus of our living environments and our long-term health. Their intelligent, telehealth-first approach is precisely what’s needed to democratize access to this specialized care and empower individuals to break cycles of chronic illness linked to mold exposure. We’re proud to support their mission.”
What’s Next for MoldCo
In the next year, MoldCo will expand its specialized clinician network across the U.S., further develop its proprietary care technology, scale patient onboarding and support operations, and invest in clinical research collaborations as it continues to increase public and physician awareness of Mold Toxicity. The company aims to standardize mold detox as a crucial part of routine care, making it as common as a physical or dental exam and setting a new standard for the next wave of preventative health.
MoldCo is already offering advanced lab testing in 46 states and providing care in select states, including Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas. MoldCo will be available to patients nationwide by 2026.
To learn more about MoldCo or apply for care, visitwww.moldco.com.
About MoldCo MoldCo is the first clinician-led digital health platform standardizing mold detox as routine preventative care with affordable on-demand expert care, advanced lab testing, evidence-based treatments, and concierge care support. The company is on a mission to make mold solutions a standard component of full-body health and tackle the widespread, overlooked health crisis of Mold Toxicity. Leading tech VCs, world-renowned physicians, and pioneering researchers support MoldCo’s commitment to establishing mold detox as a crucial part of routine preventative care. Learn more at www.moldco.com.
DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 18, 2025 — Robo.ai Inc. (NASDAQ: AIIO), a company dedicated to building a global intelligent technology platform, announced today a strategic investment in Arkreen through DePIN technology company aitos.io. Arkreen is a pioneer in decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) with Hashkey and Hash Global as its anchor Investor. This collaboration marks a significant breakthrough for Robo.ai in integrating the intelligent machine economy with Web3 technologies, aiming to create an intelligent machine asset network by integrating AI robot technology with DePIN blockchain infrastructure.
Leveraging its unique positioning in the Middle East and deep industry resources, Robo.ai is building an intelligent robot ecosystem encompassing eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft), robotaxis, unmanned logistics vehicles, etc. Through this strategic partnership with Arkreen, Robo.ai can connect its ecosystem’s intelligent devices to Arkreen’s DePIN network, upgrading them into nodes capable of contributing data, enabling data monetization and efficient financing through Web3 economic models. The two parties will jointly launch an innovative circular mechanism combining intelligent machines and Web3, creating a self-reinforcing flywheel effect, significantly enhancing their competitiveness and visibility in the markets and Web3 community.
Key Highlights of their Collaboration:
1. Asset Tokenization and Machine Economy
Robo.ai’s eVTOLs, Robotaxi, autonomous logistics vehicles, and other equipment to be launched could integrate into the Arkreen DePIN network as on-chain nodes, contributing real-time data and earning token incentives. These devices are designed following the RWA (Real-World Asset) approach to support the digital issuance and global circulation of assets, aiming to optimize financing and liquidity while ensuring compliance.
2. Global Payments and Ecosystem Closed Loop
Both parties will jointly develop stablecoin payments and utility token mechanisms to support cross-border transactions and in-ecosystem settlements. Leveraging a decentralized network, they aim to reduce transaction friction, perfecting the payment closed loop and commercial monetization pathways for the smart machine economy.
3. Middle East Strategic Empowerment
Robo.ai’s presence in the Middle East provides large-scale nodes and demonstration scenarios for DePIN, covering smart cities, new energy, and logistics. Combined with the region’s active ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) investment landscape, this enhances both parties’ visibility and liquidity in the digital asset market, accelerating technology validation and replication.
4. Data-Driven Intelligent Upgrades
Through on-chain data sharing and analysis, device operations are continuously optimized, such as autonomous driving route optimization and eVTOL energy management, improving operational efficiency and user experience. Decentralized data accounting enhances data credibility and traceability.
Robo.ai CEO Benjamin Zhai stated: “This strategic investment in Arkreen is a critical step toward the Web3 transformation of the intelligent machine economy. Arkreen’s DePIN blockchain infrastructure provides robust technical support for our intelligent device ecosystem, enabling asset monetization and global community collaboration. We look forward to working with Arkreen to leverage Web3 empowerment and our geopolitical advantages in the Middle East to jointly create a sustainable and intelligent global machine economy ecosystem.”
Arkreen Co-Founder and CEO Leo Lin stated: “Robo.ai’s strategic investment not only injects strong momentum into Arkreen’s global strategy but also provides valuable industry resources to accelerate the construction of our decentralized green energy asset network. Robo.ai’s deep expertise in intelligent robots and the Middle East market is highly complementary to our Web3 infrastructure. We believe this partnership will reshape the future of intelligent machines and the green economy, leading a new paradigm for the global digital economy.”
About Arkreen Arkreen is a Web3 technology company focused on decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), empowering global green energy asset networks and real-world assets (RWA) through blockchain technology to build a sustainable digital economy ecosystem.
About Robo.ai Inc. Robo.ai Inc. (Nasdaq: AIIO) is a technology company committed to building a globally leading artificial intelligence and robotics network platform. Our mission is to pave the way for an intelligent future by integrating smart terminals and building a unified AI operating system and a blockchain-empowered ecosystem. We aim to transform the company into a decentralized AI platform that connects all AI terminals, empowering users worldwide and ushering in a new era of digital-intelligent Internet of Things (IoT).
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from those anticipated; for details, please refer to the documents that the company files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2025 — Centari, the AI-powered deal insights platform trusted by AmLaw 25 and financial firms, today announced that it has raised $14 million in funding, including an oversubscribed Series A. The round was led by Sentinel Global with participation from GTMfund, South Park Commons, Alt Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Recall Capital, and strategic partners in the fintech and legal industries.
Centari’s Deal Intelligence Platform inaugurates a new category of AI purpose-built for high-stakes transactions spanning M&A, investment management, and finance. The platform moves beyond the capabilities of generalized productivity tools relying on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) or user-driven prompt engineering. Employing innovative orchestration methods and proprietary document processing, Centari’s Deal Reasoning Engine transforms complex transactional documents into structured insights with attorney-level accuracy, empowering firms to achieve superior outcomes in negotiations, pitches, and investment analyses with the full force of their intellectual capital.
“Generic AI products fall short when billions of dollars are on the line and precision is non-negotiable,” said Kevin Walker, CEO and founder of Centari and a former Paul Hastings M&A lawyer. “Our vision for Deal Intelligence is to empower firms to harness information on a scale that was never possible before, delivering rich insights to the right place at the right time to accelerate transactions.”
The New York-based startup will use the capital to invest in R&D and hiring to scale Centari’s suite of products for dealmakers. The company’s team includes former attorneys from Kirkland & Ellis, Davis Polk, and other noted firms.
“At Sentinel Global we back category-leading teams who transform industries. Centari’s domain-specific intelligence in a massive market is exactly what drew us to lead this round,” said Jeremy Kranz, Managing Partner at Sentinel Global. “Centari is the first platform that actually thinks like an experienced deal lawyer, because it was built by an experienced deal team. Generic AI can draft emails, but can’t close deals. Other legal AI tools require constant prompting and still produce inconsistent results. Centari delivers attorney-level precision on billion-dollar transactions, automatically,” Kranz’s previous investments include DoorDash, Coinbase, Zoom, and Affirm.
“Our product-obsessed approach and commitment to precision and security has earned us the trust of leading law firms and investment institutions,” said Walker, adding, “This funding allows us to scale our mission with an incredible group of partners.”
About Centari Based in New York, Centari is the Deal Intelligence Platform purpose-built for legal and financial professionals. Founded by a team of experienced attorneys and machine learning engineers, Centari’s proprietary Deal Reasoning Engine transforms complex transactional documents into strategic insights, enabling deal teams to negotiate with confidence, accelerate closings, and achieve superior outcomes. The company’s customers include AmLaw 100 and global investment firms.
About Sentinel Global Sentinel Global is a multi-stage venture capital firm investing in enterprise technology companies that are reshaping the systems underpinning global markets. Sentinel helps founders bring scalable, defensible, and adoption-ready platforms to market. The firm provides deep research, high-conviction capital, and access to a global network of institutions, partners, and domain experts.
JERICHO, N.Y., Sept. 18, 2025 — Global consulting firm J.S. Held announces that GRO-WELL® Brands, Inc., one of the largest green waste recycling companies in the Southwestern U.S., successfully closed a $24.4 million refinancing on August 28, 2025, agented by Ares Commercial Finance (“ACF”). GRO-WELL is one of the leading producers of mulch and soil products distributed through big box retailers in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Washington state.
J.S. Held Secures $24.4M Refinance for GRO-WELL® Brands
To support the refinancing, GRO-WELL engaged J.S. Held as a refinancing advisor and appointed Michael Jacoby as the lead advisor. The J.S. Held team led a comprehensive financial assessment, refined the company’s forecast model, and developed a confidential memorandum used to engage over 80 potential financing partners. These efforts resulted in 19 submitted term sheets and a successful close with ACF.
Commenting on the transaction:
Michael Jacoby | Strategic Advisory Practice Lead | J.S. Held
“Our team’s knowledge of today’s lending environment, combined with our expertise in preparing and validating financial forecasts, as well as our deep understanding of asset-based lending, borrowing bases, and ineligible accounts receivable and inventory, enabled us to find the right lending partner, advocate on our client’s behalf, negotiate a loan agreement that met the needs of GRO-WELL, and close the financing within the required timeframe.”
Daniel Prawda | Founding Partner | GEF Capital Partners
“We are excited to be partnering with ACF as a capital solutions provider on this refinancing. The skill set J.S. Held brought to the table (as well as their relationships and trust amongst the ABL lender community) was exactly what we needed to complete this refinancing project in a timely and successful fashion. J.S. Held has proven to be a reliable and trusted partner when it comes to debt refinancing. With the enhanced liquidity capacity provided by ACF, we are excited to channel our attention and resources back into growth initiatives.”
Sridharan Kannan | Managing Director | Ares Commercial Finance
“We are pleased to support GRO-WELL® with flexible capital as it continues to build on its momentum as a well-known brand and support its growth trajectory. We look forward to our continued work with the company’s management team, along with their private equity sponsor, GEF, as they execute on their strategic initiatives, and appreciate the J.S. Held team’s thoughtful approach and execution.”
J.S. Held is a global consulting firm that combines technical, scientific, financial, and strategic expertise to advise clients seeking to realize value and mitigate risk. Our professionals serve as trusted advisors to organizations facing high stakes matters demanding urgent attention, staunch integrity, proven experience, clear-cut analysis, and an understanding of both tangible and intangible assets. The firm provides a comprehensive suite of services, products, and data that enable clients to navigate complex, contentious, and often catastrophic situations.
J.S. Held experts serve organizations across six continents, including 84% of the Global 200 Law Firms, 75% of the Forbes Top 20 Insurance Companies (90% of the NAIC Top 50 Property & Casualty Insurers), and 71% of Fortune 100 Companies.
J.S. Held, its affiliates and subsidiaries are not certified public accounting firm(s) and do not provide audit, attest, or any other public accounting services. J.S. Held is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Securities offered through PM Securities, LLC, d/b/a Phoenix IB or Ocean Tomo Investments, a part of J.S. Held, member FINRA/SIPC. All rights reserved.
CONTACT: Kristi L. Stathis J.S. Held LLC [email protected] +1 786 833 4864
Backed by a $15 million investment, families, funders, and researchers unite to advance long-awaited breakthroughs against this deadly childhood bone cancer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 18, 2025 — Supported by patient-driven foundations, eight leading research institutions, including over 20 researchers, and a $15 million dollar investment, Break Through Cancer’s Defying Osteosarcoma TeamLab mobilizes the largest, most unified effort in pediatric osteosarcoma research in North America.
While other cancers have benefited from waves of innovation and precision medicine, the standard chemotherapy treatment for osteosarcoma has remained unchanged for more than four decades. An aggressive bone cancer affecting hundreds of children and adolescents each year, osteosarcoma is a devastating diagnosis, with approximately one-third of osteosarcoma patients succumbing to their disease and nearly all are left with profound, life-altering consequences from amputations, limb-sparing surgeries, and the impact of high-dose chemotherapy. For those whose disease has spread to the lungs, the odds are much worse, with survival dropping to about 20-30%.
Now, a coalition of families touched by osteosarcoma, advocacy organizations, and philanthropic foundations have come together with unprecedented unity to enable this research initiative.
“The osteosarcoma community’s collective resolve stems from the fact that children and adolescents with osteosarcoma have faced largely unchanged outcomes for over 40 years. They deserve better,” said Mac Tichenor, president of The Osteosarcoma Institute, a foundation focused on increasing osteosarcoma treatment options and survival rates through funding promising breakthrough science. “This Break Through Cancer project brings a bold, broad collaboration, from discovery through clinical trials, that offers the best hope in decades for improving their futures.“
The Defying Osteosarcoma TeamLab is designed to dismantle the barriers that have historically slowed progress in this disease: inadequate data sharing, siloed infrastructure, and absence of unified investment. By aligning institutions, data, and funding under a single collaborative framework, the TeamLab brings together more than 20 researchers from eight institutions (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, BC Cancer Research Institute, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, Stanford Medicine, and The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center) in a coordinated, multi-year effort to rewrite the future of osteosarcoma care.
Unlike traditional research groups, the Defying Osteosarcoma TeamLab is an internationally integrated team dedicated to radical collaboration to tackle this devastating childhood cancer. Researchers will work collaboratively across institutions, sharing samples, insights, and data in real-time. This cross-institutional collaboration, led by Break Through Cancer, ensures that discoveries are shared and that every patient’s data contributes to a broader understanding of the disease.
“What makes the Defying Osteosarcoma TeamLab different is not just the scale of investment, it’s the strategy. We’re aligning institutions, data, and funding in a way that makes real, lasting progress not only possible, but inevitable. It’s time to provide these children with new treatment strategies and not the same protocols developed in the last century,” said Tyler Jacks, President of Break Through Cancer.
The project will be driven by a set of shared goals: to build infrastructure that enables smarter trials, to generate the biological insights needed for personalized treatment, and to lay the groundwork for a new standard of care. While the initiative includes clinical and laboratory work, its core promise lies in something deeper, a sustained commitment to doing osteosarcoma research differently, and smarter. As Break Through Cancer and its collaborators launch the Defying Osteosarcoma TeamLab, the message is clear, patients and families facing osteosarcoma deserve more than incremental progress. They deserve an ambitious plan that unites the best minds, the best institutions, and the most determined advocates.
About Break Through Cancer
Founded in 2021, Break Through Cancer empowers outstanding researchers and physicians to both intercept and find cures for several of the deadliest cancers by stimulating radical collaboration among outstanding cancer research institutions, including its founding partners: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The Foundation is supported by a Board of Directors from the five partner institutions and a Scientific Advisory Board of U.S. cancer experts. The Foundation was launched with an extraordinary challenge pledge of $250 million from Mr. and Mrs. William H. Goodwin, Jr. and their family, and the estate of William Hunter Goodwin III.
NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2025 — Phia, the AI-powered shopping agent founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, today announced its $8 million seed round led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from investors such as Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner, Sara Blakely, Michael Rubin, Desiree Gruber, and Sheryl Sandberg.
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni
Launched in April 2025, Phia’s iOS app and mobile browser extension gives consumers a powerful AI agent that compares prices, calculates resale value, summarizes product details, and tracks price drops in real time to help them make smarter decisions instantly. In five months, Phia has amassed 500,000 users, secured over 5,000 direct brand partnerships, and driven tens of millions of dollars in sales.
“AI is reshaping nearly every industry, but shopping is stuck in the past,” said Phoebe Gates, Phia co-founder. “Consumers still waste hours comparing prices and hunting for deals, only to still end up overpaying.”
Sophia Kianni, Phia co-founder, adds, “We started Phia to make it easy for consumers to find the best price on items they love and to create a new search engine for shopping that learns from user data at scale to deliver personalized results.”
Phia currently hosts billions of fashion products and ingests hundreds of millions more each day. It also has one of the largest secondhand fashion databases in the U.S., with over 300M items indexed.
“Phia is redefining how people make purchase decisions,” said Annie Case, Partner at Kleiner Perkins. “During diligence, we saw Phia tackling key pain points: helping consumers compare prices and discover new brands, while giving brands lower acquisition costs, better discoverability, and smarter retargeting.”
In its next iteration, Phia will introduce a personalized shopping agent powered by a proprietary LLM trained on millions of datapoints from users’ transactions. To overcome the cost of interpreting a large data set, Phia has built proprietary multimodal agents that do it at 10x the speed and half the cost compared to off-the-self GPTs. Phia’s shopping agent will deliver personalized purchase suggestions tailored to each user’s tastes, behaviors, and budget.
“Phia is perfectly positioned to disrupt E-commerce with AI,” said Michael Rubin, founder and CEO of Fanatics and investor in Phia. “It’s a product I believe in, in an industry I care deeply about, and I’m proud to help champion what they’re building.”
With this funding, Phia will grow a world-class team across engineering, AI research, product, and marketing to accelerate the next phase of growth. The company is investing in proprietary model development and GPU infrastructure to handle large-scale data while expanding its platform into new verticals. At the same time, Phia will build out its consumer brand and partnerships to bring Phia’s shopping agent to a wider audience.
About Phia
Phia is an AI-powered shopping agent that helps users find the best pieces across 40,000+ retail and resale sites instantly. Phia combines real-time price intelligence, resale insights, and AI-driven recommendations to streamline every buying decision. Founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, Phia is headquartered in New York City with a team from Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, Georgia Tech, and alumni of Pinterest, Amazon, Meta, and Google.
The Series C round accelerates deployment of PassiveLogic’s ground-up AI platform, enabling real-world autonomous control across buildings and infrastructure.
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 18, 2025 — PassiveLogic, the category-defining pioneer in generative autonomy, today announces it has raised $74 million in Series C funding to scale its vision to meet global demand for physical AI in our everyday infrastructure. noa, Europe’s largest built-world VC, led the round, joined by new investors, Prologis Ventures, Johnson Controls, and PSP Growth. They join existing backers Addition, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Keyframe, and Brookfield bringing total funding to over $125 million.
PassiveLogic Raises $74 Million to Scale Physical AI in the Real World
PassiveLogic is transforming how buildings and physical infrastructure are designed, operated, and optimized through a first-of-its-kind autonomous control platform.
As physical AI, industrial robotics, and humanoids come of age, PassiveLogic delivers the world’s first “robot-of-robots” platform, orchestrating whole environments: sensors, IoT, systems, energy, infrastructure, and other automations. By extending generative AI beyond the niche of LLMs to the wide world of physical systems, the platform lets anyone design their own custom autonomous systems and AI agents for the built world.
The platform manages the full complexity of built environments—from data centers and hospitals to office towers and industrial campuses. Beyond fully autonomous, cross-system pathfinding control, it adds next-generation capabilities such as asset tracking, dynamic energy management, environmental digital twins, pre-emptive fault detection, predictive maintenance, physics-based analysis, and adaptive environmental control—bringing holistic, system-level intelligence to a field long bound by static, rules-based logic.
The Hive real-time decision engine—powered by an on-site GPU cluster—gives every building function, from HVAC and energy to logistics, one unified intelligent brain. By applying autonomous robotics technologies to infrastructure, PassiveLogic is expanding the existing market for building automation ($191 billion by 2030), projecting a current global market for Autonomous Buildings of $1.3 trillion.
“As an early investor, we’ve seen PassiveLogic’s potential to redefine automation for the physical world,” said Gregory Dewerpe, Founder and Managing Partner at noa. “Their platform isn’t just about saving energy, it’s about giving buildings the ability to understand, adapt, and act autonomously. This is the kind of foundational technology the built world has been missing.”
“PassiveLogic is delivering the kind of step-change innovation we look for—not just as investors, but as operators. Their platform brings true autonomy to building systems, allowing for smarter, more efficient, real-time control across entire environments,” said William O’Donnell, Global Head of Corporate Development and Growth at Prologis. “We’re excited to support the team and to bring this technology into our portfolio to help us operate even more intelligently at scale.”
“Buildings account for almost 40 percent of global carbon emissions, yet most are still controlled by outdated systems designed in the 1990s,” said Troy Harvey, co-founder and CEO of PassiveLogic. “With this funding, we’re accelerating the deployment of true autonomy for the built world, enabling systems that are not just more energy efficient, but fundamentally smarter, safer, and more responsive across every aspect of operations.”
PassiveLogic’s ecosystem includes its flagship product, Hive, which uses real-time physics-based digital twins and AI models to make independent, millisecond level decisions;, Sense Nano, a wireless sensor for capturing occupancy and environmental data in real time;, and Quantum Lens, a mobile app that lets users create a fully defined digital twin of any building using just a smartphone. Together, these tools support a scalable architecture that adapts seamlessly to new builds and retrofits alike across a wide range of facilities.
About PassiveLogic
PassiveLogic makes generative AI software for the built environment, enabling generative autonomy for things, and universal real-time collaboration between teams by reimagining how we design, build, operate, maintain, and manage buildings and industrial systems as infrastructural robots. Using physics-informed AI and Quantum digital twins, PassiveLogic is powered by the world’s fastest AI compiler, to deliver next-generation control systems. Users can build generative autonomous infrastructure in minutes and easily collaborate with AI agents through an intuitive suite of ‘choose your own adventure’ tools.
The company is seizing a generational opportunity to reinvent building automation—replacing aging control systems with the industry’s first modern platform powered by autonomous in-building physical AI agents—all while tackling the climate challenge head-on.
noa is Europe’s largest built world venture capital firm, backing technology to accelerate the decarbonisation of the built world. Launched in 2019 as A/O, noa partners with visionary founders to drive disruption across the entire spectrum of the built world, from structures and materials to energy and environment. noa is backed by some of the largest and most forward-thinking real estate owners, operators, and family offices in Europe who share noa’s determination to decarbonise the world’s largest and most polluting asset class, and its commitment to accelerate sustainable living.
