• 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.

Funding will accelerate expansion of community-driven wellness platform that’s pioneering the movement from nightlife to “daylife”

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 28, 2025 — Sweatpals, the community-driven fitness platform transforming how people build meaningful connections through movement, today announced it has raised $12 million in funding led by Patron, a16z speedrun, and Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Ventures. The investment will fuel Sweatpals’ national expansion and platform development as it launches tools that help gyms, studios, instructors, and wellness hosts turn their communities into thriving social ecosystems, in turn helping like-minded people find each other through fitness.

As Americans increasingly trade late nights for early mornings, the way people socialize is changing. Only 54% of adults now drink alcohol, the lowest rate ever recorded, while younger generations are choosing wellness and movement as their new way to find community. Sweatpals is leading that shift by pioneering the “daylife movement” – where wellness experiences replace nightlife as the primary way people connect, helping people meet, move, and build real friendships through shared fitness experiences instead of drinks or swipes.

Sweatpals empowers users to not only discover fitness classes, events, and communities, but also become hosts themselves, creating sustainable income streams while building authentic connections in their communities. Sweatpals brings, on average, 30% additional customers to each host on the platform.

“When I first saw Sweatpals, I immediately recognized it as the future of how we connect,” said Kevin Hart, entertainer and founder of HartBeat Ventures. “As someone who’s built my career on bringing people together through entertainment, I see Sweatpals doing the same thing through fitness. They’re leading a movement that makes wellness accessible, social, and fun, and it’s exactly the kind of innovation that excites me as an investor.”

“Sweatpals represents a fundamental shift in consumer social behavior,” said Andrew Chen, General Partner at a16z speedrun. “While others focus on digital engagement, Sweatpals drives real-world community formation with built-in monetization. They’ve cracked the code on making community building both meaningful and economically sustainable.”

Co-founded by Salar Shahini and Mandi Zhou, two tech entrepreneurs who personally experienced the power of fitness and movement in creating belonging, Sweatpals has rapidly become a home for studios owners, event organizers, and everyday people seeking connection through movement.

“We’re building the infrastructure for human connection in an increasingly lonely world,” said Salar Shahini, Founder and CEO of Sweatpals. “This funding allows us to accelerate our vision where every gym, studio, park, and community space becomes a hub for meaningful relationships – where daylife becomes as iconic as nightlife once was.”

The new capital will accelerate:

• Studio, Gyms & Event Tools: Launching innovative platform features for studios, gyms, memberships and event organizers.
• Nationwide Expansion: Expanding to 12 new markets by early 2026.
• Host Monetization: Enhancing features that help hosts and organizers earn more through their communities.
• Social Tools: Bridging the gap between attending a fitness experience and connecting with like-minded people.

“What excites us most is how Sweatpals empowers everyday people to become community leaders and entrepreneurs,” said Mandi Zhou, co-founder of Sweatpals. “We’re seeing yoga instructors, run club organizers, and fitness enthusiasts turn their passion into purpose – building communities that truly change lives.”

The investment also included participation from Max Mullen (Instacart co-founder), WndrCo (Jeffrey Katzenberg, founder of Dreamworks Animations), Antler, Pear, and Deb Liu (Facebook Marketplace, Ancestry CEO). This funding round brings Sweatpals’ total funding to $17.2M.

“Sweatpals is turning wellness into the new social currency,” said Amber Atherton at Patron. “They’re bridging tech, community, and culture to create lasting change in how people connect – that’s a movement worth backing.”

Sweatpals is available nationwide and growing rapidly, with a presence in 24 cities and plans to launch in 12 more markets by early 2026. From studios to social clubs, Sweatpals is becoming the go-to platform for the next generation of community-first wellness experiences.

About Sweatpals

Sweatpals is a marketplace for IRL fitness experiences that transforms how people build meaningful connections through movement. Sweatpals is pioneering what it coined as the ‘Daylife’ movement – making wellness the new social currency. Sweatpals is backed by leading investors including a16z speedrun, Patron, Founders of Instacart and HotelTonight, and Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Ventures. Learn more at www.sweatpals.com.

SOURCE Sweatpals

AI-powered platform accelerates root cause analysis and empowers engineers to resolve incidents faster and with greater accuracy

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2025 — Wild Moose, the AI-powered Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) platform acting as a first responder for production incidents, today announced its emergence from stealth with $7 million in seed funding. The round was led by iAngels, with participation from Y Combinator, F2 Venture Capital, Maverick Ventures, and others. The company is also backed by a distinguished group of angel investors representing the forefront of AI research and reliability engineering, including Joel Pobar (AI researcher at Meta Superintelligence Labs, formerly Anthropic), Jeremy Edberg (Founding SRE at Reddit & Netflix) and Arash Ferdowski (Co-Founder of Dropbox).

Founded in 2023 by Yasmin Dunsky (CEO), Roei Schuster (CTO), and Tom Tytunovich (VP R&D), Wild Moose is pioneering a new category of AI-first responders for incident response. The platform automates triage, gathers context across fragmented observability and collaboration tools, pinpoints root causes, and recommends next best actions, all in real time, and under one minute. Early customers including Wix, Redis, GoFundMe, and Lemonade are already leveraging Wild Moose to shrink mean time to resolution (MTTR) by up to 80%, while reducing alert fatigue and freeing engineers to focus on building rather than firefighting.

“We were early to see the opportunity to apply generative AI to incident response, even before ChatGPT launched,” said Yasmin Dunsky, CEO and Co-Founder of Wild Moose. “Root cause analysis is one of the hardest problems in engineering, and in a critical workflow there’s no room for hallucinations or half-baked solutions. We know that there is no tolerance for generic recommendations and that developers want a tool that understands their system at least as well as they do. Wild Moose leverages the benefits of AI without compromising the control that engineering teams need, providing hyper-personalized, accurate, explainable results that engineers can trust, even in the most complex systems. We are deeply grateful to our investors for backing us in this mission.”

Most tools in incident management stop at alerting, correlation, or summarization. Wild Moose goes further, it conducts a structured investigation. On alert, the platform automatically gathers logs, metrics, traces, recent code changes, and incident history. It then cross-references anomalies, validates hypotheses against raw telemetry, determines the root causes, and then provides the steps that need to be taken. Instead of overwhelming teams with imprecise and generic recommendations and new user interfaces, Wild Moose surfaces the bottom line directly into Slack or Teams, where engineers already work, acting as another team member rather than another tool to manage. Wild Moose continuously codifies tribal knowledge into dynamic, self-updating playbooks that evolve with every incident and improves over time. The platform was built enterprise-first, with SOC 2–compliant controls, read-only integrations, in-memory data processing, and end-to-end encryption to ensure sensitive data is never exposed. The result is an SRE platform that delivers speed, accuracy, and trust at once, a combination rarely achieved in incident response.

The new funding will be used to scale operations, expand product development, and accelerate go-to-market efforts. After achieving impressive results with enterprise customers and proving to be extremely reliable in high-stakes tasks, Wild Moose will continue to build out its go-to-market team and invest in business development to deepen adoption among global enterprises where reliability, uptime, and resilience are directly tied to revenue and reputation.

“Wild Moose represents a new era in engineering,” said Mor Assia, Founding Partner at iAngels. “As teams increasingly leverage AI to develop and deploy faster, reliability becomes the foundation of trust between businesses and their customers. Wild Moose acts as the AI member of the R&D team, one that never sleeps, never misses a signal, and ensures consistency and quality at every step. It’s the silent force that protects uptime and performance, preventing the costly disruptions that can impact both revenue and reputation. We see it as a true competitive advantage, the game changing kind of technology every company will soon rely on to maintain excellence at scale.”

“I’ve spent enough time in the trenches at Reddit and Netflix to know what actually matters when things are on fire,” said Jeremy Edberg, angel investor in Wild Moose and founding SRE at Reddit and Netflix. “Most observability tools just throw more dashboards at you, but Wild Moose actually learns how your systems work and acts like having another senior engineer on call. It’s not just summarizing logs, it’s connecting the dots between your code changes, your metrics, and that weird spike at 3 a.m. When you’re trying to keep a site up for millions of users, you need tools that think like engineers, not just tools that generate pretty graphs. That’s what Wild Moose gets right.”

About Wild Moose

Wild Moose is an AI-powered Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) platform that helps engineering teams resolve production incidents faster and with less effort. Acting as a first responder, Wild Moose automates triage, gathers context across tools, identifies root causes, and recommends next steps in real time. By reducing downtime, minimizing alert fatigue, and converting tribal knowledge into dynamic playbooks, Wild Moose enables organizations to maintain reliability at scale, without expanding on-call burden or headcount. Led by three technical co-founders – Yasmin Dunsky, Roei Schuster, and Tom Tytunovich – the company combines deep expertise in AI, reliability, and large-scale distributed systems. CTO Roei Schuster holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University specializing in Large Language Models, bringing cutting-edge academic insight into the design of Wild Moose’s intelligent investigation engine. To read publications by Roei Schuster, click here. Backed by Maverick, F2, iAngels and Y Combinator and trusted by companies including Wix, Redis, GoFundMe, Lemonade, and many others, Wild Moose is redefining incident response with speed, accuracy, and intelligence. To learn more, visit www.wildmoose.ai or contact Wild Moose at [email protected].

SOURCE Wild Moose

Venture Capital Veteran Brings Expertise to Help Technical Founders Go From Ideation to IPO

BOSTON, Oct. 28, 2025 — Encoded Ventures, a new early-stage venture capital firm founded by 20-year investing veteran Alex Benik, today announced its official launch and the latest in a series of investments focused on infrastructure software innovation.

Benik previously spent 22 years investing in infrastructure and security at Battery Ventures, a global, technology-focused investment firm, where he worked on investments in Habana Labs, Cumulus Networks, Nobl9, Opsgenie, and Guardicore. With Encoded, Benik sets his focus on infrastructure companies, targeting early-stage (inception, pre-seed, and seed) businesses in three critical areas: cloud infrastructure, data and AI infrastructure, and cybersecurity.

“Having known Alex for more than 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand his commitment to technical founders and early-stage businesses. Encoded is a natural extension of that passion. He’s a true mensch, and I’m proud to support him as a friend, investor, and advisor.” – Scott Tobin, Battery Ventures

In the investment community, Encoded Ventures sets itself apart by combining deep technical expertise with strong business acumen, which stems from Benik’s extensive background in infrastructure and enterprise software. Since establishing Encoded Ventures in 2024, Benik has invested in 10 early-stage businesses, including ConfigHub, DataFlint, Datum, Tenzai, Jazz Security, IPXO, and Atero AI, which was recently acquired by Crusoe. Half of Encoded’s investments to date are based in Israel where he has been deeply involved with start-ups for 15 years.

“Alex backed Atero at the earliest stage. After our first meeting at my prior company, I knew I wanted to work with him. His guidance, advice, and relationships in LLM infrastructure made him one of our most impactful investors. Now, with Atero’s acquisition by Crusoe, I’m eager to see as many of Encoded’s GPU-hungry companies running on our cloud as possible.” – Alon Yariv, Atero AI / Crusoe

“Modern infrastructure is undergoing radical transformation, and it’s vital that the founders get the help they need early on to successfully bring their products from idea to achieving early traction,” said Alex Benik, founder of Encoded Ventures. “Investing in the earliest stages of company formation, pre-product and often just the team, Encoded Ventures is seeking out next-generation companies that will provide the necessary infrastructure to drive continued growth and innovation across the infrastructure stack. Tapping decades of experience in working closely with technical founders from Day Zero, we understand what it takes to help them go from an idea to a company that scales with precision and purpose.” 

About Encoded Ventures

Encoded Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the next wave of cloud, data, and security infrastructure companies. Founded by Alex Benik after more than 20 years at Battery Ventures, Encoded partners with technical founders at the very earliest stages—typically pre-product, pre-revenue. The firm takes a hands-on, thesis-driven approach and invests globally, with a growing presence in Israel and North America. For more information, visit https://encoded.vc/.

Media Contact:
Richard Lalosh
[email protected] 
+1(607) 287-9966
guyergroup.com

SOURCE Encoded Ventures

BOSTON and LONDON, Oct. 28, 2025 — Indico Data, the leader in AI-powered automation for insurance operations, today announced a strategic investment from Aviva Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund for Aviva plc, one of the UK’s largest insurers. The investment reinforces Indico’s growing leadership in the London Market and its expanding adoption among global property and casualty carriers.

As part of the investment, Arslan Hannani, Chief Innovation Officer at Aviva, will join Indico’s Board of Directors as a Board Observer and Advisor.

“This partnership underscores the increasing demand for intelligent automation that transforms how insurers handle the critical ‘front door’ of their business — from submission ingestion to claims intake to policy servicing and beyond,” said Tom Wilde, CEO of Indico Data. “Aviva’s investment and Arslan’s participation on our board validate Indico’s vision for the agentic insurance enterprise and our mission to help carriers turn unstructured data into competitive advantage.”

Aviva Ventures invests in companies driving transformation across insurance and financial services through emerging technologies and new business models.

“Indico’s technology is reshaping how insurers operate by bringing AI deeper into core workflows,” said Arslan Hannani, Chief Innovation Officer at Aviva. “We’ve seen firsthand the impact Indico is having in streamlining operations and unlocking new efficiencies, particularly in complex markets like London and beyond. We’re excited to support its continued growth.”

This investment builds on Indico’s growing footprint among top global carriers, who leverage its Agentic AI platform to automate underwriting, claims, and operations processes that depend on unstructured data.  Aviva’s investment follows a strategic investment from Guidewire earlier in 2025.

About Indico Data

Indico Data is the leading provider of AI solutions that automate complex insurance operations by transforming unstructured data into actionable insights. Trusted by leading carriers across North America and the London Market, Indico’s Agentic AI platform enables insurers to streamline underwriting, claims, and policy operations while improving accuracy, speed, and compliance.
 www.indicodata.ai

About Aviva Ventures

Aviva Ventures is the corporate venture capital fund for Aviva plc, one of the UK’s leading insurance, wealth, and retirement businesses. Aviva Ventures invests in early- and growth-stage companies driving innovation across insurance, financial services, and sustainability.
 www.aviva.com

SOURCE Indico Data

Funding fuels platform expansion, helping the automotive ecosystem move vehicles faster and at lower cost through improved efficiency in loan payoff and title release 

DALLAS, Oct. 28, 2025 — EPIC™, a financial technology company transforming how the automotive industry manages the loan payoff and title release process, today announced it has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by FM Capital, with participation from Automotive Ventures and other strategic industry investors. The funding will support continued market expansion and platform innovation. 

“EPIC is eliminating one of the industry’s most stubborn bottlenecks,” said Chase Fraser, Managing Partner at FM Capital. “Its digital network for loan payoff and title release replaces outdated manual processes with the speed and precision today’s automotive ecosystem demands.”

Legacy processes for loan payoffs and title releases create friction, delay, and financial risk for the automotive industry. EPIC replaces that with a modern financial infrastructure — a secure, digital clearinghouse that streamlines every step, from payoff quote to title release. 

“Our investment in EPIC reflects a shared vision to digitize a key segment of the automotive transaction process that has been unsolved,” said Steve Greenfield, General Partner of Automotive Ventures. “The EPIC platform reduces errors, saves time, and moves the industry toward a unified, digital workflow, saving dealerships thousands every month in holding and processing costs.” 

“This funding lets us reach more partners and further improve how dealers, lenders, and insurers manage loan payoffs and title releases,” said Brandon Hall, CEO of EPIC. “Faster, more efficient processing helps our partners save time, reduce errors, and boost profit opportunities.” 

Today, EPIC is partnered with automotive dealers, vehicle lenders, and automobile insurers across the U.S. — helping them drive efficiency and improve overall profitability. EPIC plans to expand its reach to additional markets, such as powersports and RV markets in its next growth phase. 

For more information on EPIC, visit: www.withepic.com. 

About EPIC 

EPIC™ is the loan payoff clearinghouse for the automotive ecosystem. Powering digital connectivity to the industry’s largest network of financial institutions, its modern infrastructure enables secure financial transactions and reliable title releases — all within a single, unified platform. Learn more at www.withepic.com. 

For media inquiries, please contact:
Laurie Halter
Charisma! Communications
503-816-2474
[email protected]

SOURCE EPIC

The annual list highlights the private equity firms, venture capital firms, and lenders with track
records of backing founder-led companies.

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2025 — Vesey Street Capital Partners is proud to announce its recognition on the Inc.Founder-Friendly Investors list, honoring the private equity firms, venture capital firms, and lenders with a track record of backing founder-led companies. This year’s list recognizes Vesey Street Capital Partners among 248 firms.

The prestigious list celebrates the investors that believe in backing founder-led businesses and helping them thrive. All companies on the list have successful track records of collaboration and remaining actively involved with the businesses they invest in.

“Raising capital is no small feat for today’s entrepreneurs. That’s why discovering investors who offer more than just financial backing—those who bring mentorship, resources, and a true spirit of partnership to your growth journey—is both rare and invaluable,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors are collaborators and dedicated to helping their portfolio companies succeed.”

“We’re proud to once again be recognized by Inc. as a top Founder-Friendly Investor. We remain focused on being a great partner to founders of lower middle-market healthcare companies,” said Adam Feinstein, Founder & Managing Partner at Vesey Street Capital Partners.

Mike Doyle, Managing Partner at Vesey Street Capital Partners, noted, “Supporting founder-led businesses is at the core of what we do. We remain committed to helping them scale while staying true to the vision that makes them exceptional.”

To compile the list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders filled out a questionnaire about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms and shared data on how their companies have grown during these partnerships.

For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors

ABOUT VESEY STREET CAPITAL PARTNERS

Vesey Street Capital Partners is a private equity firm specializing in buyouts of lower middle-market healthcare services businesses. VSCP invests on behalf of a wide array of Limited Partners, including asset management firms, family offices, pension funds, and other institutional investors. Since its inception, VSCP has consummated 44 transactions across twelve platform businesses and deployed over $1 billion of equity capital. For more information, please visit www.vscpllc.com.

ABOUT INC.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

About the 2025 List of Founder-Friendly Investors

The 2025 List of Founder-Friendly Investors was created by Inc. and was based on references shared by Vesey Street Capital Partners in July 2025. The full extent of the scope of firms considered for this award is unknown. The fee to apply for this award was $1,990. There was no compensation paid for winning the award. Inc. is not affiliated with Vesey Street Capital Partners or is an investor in an investment vehicle sponsored by Vesey Street Capital Partners. There can be assurance that other firms or surveys would reach the same conclusion.

Media Contact:
Tiffany Laing
646-847-2474
[email protected]

SOURCE Vesey Street Capital Partners

GREENWICH, Conn., Oct. 28, 2025 — ECP Growth, a leading growth stage investment firm that partners with entrepreneurial businesses creating products, solutions, and technologies across the consumer value-chain, today announced it has been named to Inc.’s Founder-Friendly Investors list for 2025 for the third consecutive year. The annual list honors investment firms with strong track records of partnership with founder-led companies to support long-term growth.

For nearly 15 years, ECP Growth has taken a tailored, hands-on approach to working with founders and entrepreneurs building the next generation of consumer-focused businesses. The firm provides capital and operational support to meet the unique needs of each portfolio company across a range of industries, including consumer packaged goods, e-commerce, consumer tech, supply chain, SaaS, healthcare, and more.

“We are honored to be recognized on Inc.’s list of Founder-Friendly Investors for the third year in a row,” said Marcel Bens, CEO of ECP Growth. “At ECP Growth, we take pride in partnering with founders and management teams to drive long-term value creation and innovation in response to evolving consumer needs. This recognition is a testament to our collaborative approach and commitment to supporting entrepreneurial growth.”

In May 2025, ECP Growth closed its Fund IV with $100 million in committed capital to invest in growth-stage businesses across North America. The fund expects to partner primarily with fast growing companies, emphasizing businesses that are profitable or demonstrating a clear short-term path to profitability.

“Raising capital is no small feat for today’s entrepreneurs. That’s why discovering investors who offer more than just financial backing—those who bring mentorship, resources, and a true spirit of partnership to your growth journey—is both rare and invaluable,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors are collaborators and dedicated to helping their portfolio companies succeed.”

To compile the list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders filled out a questionnaire about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms and shared data on how their companies have grown during these partnerships.

For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors.

About ECP Growth
ECP Growth is a growth stage investment firm that partners with entrepreneurial businesses creating products, solutions, and technologies across the consumer value-chain. Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, ECP Growth takes a thematic approach to investing in companies that sit within resilient categories and have attractive growth fundamentals, with a goal of long-term value creation. ECP Growth was founded in 2011 in partnership with the Tengelmann Group, a 150-year-old family-owned company that today is one of the world’s largest private consumer goods holding companies and an experienced growth investor. For more information, please visit www.ECPgrowth.com.

About Inc. 
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

Contacts:

ECP Growth
Marissa Foray
ECP Growth
[email protected]
203-321-5461

Kate Thompson / Heather Milke
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
212-355-4449

SOURCE ECP Growth

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2025 — Halifax Group, a middle market private equity firm that partners with management to invest in market-leading companies, today announced that it has been named to Inc.’s 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors list. The list recognizes private equity, venture capital, and debt firms with the best track records of backing entrepreneurs.

This year’s list, Inc.’s seventh annual Founder-Friendly Investors list, features 248 firms that support entrepreneurs to drive growth in their businesses. All the firms on the Inc. list have remained actively involved with the businesses in which they invest.

Chris Cathcart, Managing Partner at Halifax, said, “Halifax is honored to be recognized once again by Inc. This recognition underscores the enduring strength of our partnerships with entrepreneurs. We view each investment as a collaboration — working closely with founders to help them realize their ambitions, strengthen their organizations, and build lasting value for their communities. Our team is committed to earning their trust through consistency, transparency, and practical support as we work together to position their businesses for long-term success.”

Halifax has invested more than $850 million in 22 founder- and family-owned companies since the firm was founded in 1999. The firm invests in companies across Health & Wellness, Outsourced Business Services, and Franchising.

“Raising capital is no small feat for today’s entrepreneurs. That’s why discovering investors who offer more than just financial backing—those who bring mentorship, resources, and a true spirit of partnership to your growth journey—is both rare and invaluable,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors are collaborators and dedicated to helping their portfolio companies succeed.”

The Inc. 2025 Founder Friendly Investors award is given to investors who back founder-led businesses and help them thrive. Winning firms are selected based upon their track record, reputation, leadership and founder references. For investments to qualify, portfolio company founders must have remained actively involved in their business for at least one-year post-investment. Halifax submitted stories of founder-led investments and our value creation and paid a fee to Inc. for submitting an entry. Inc. compiled its list by directly surveying entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms and worked with lenders. Inc. then examined data on portfolio company growth during those partnerships. This award is not to be construed as indicative of future performance. To see the complete list, go to: https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors.

About Halifax Group
Founded in 1999, Halifax Group is a private equity firm that partners with managers and entrepreneurs to recapitalize and invest in lower middle-market businesses with total enterprise values generally between $100 million and $300 million. Halifax specializes in equity recapitalizations, corporate carve-outs, and management buyouts and invests across a variety of industries, including health and wellness, outsourced business services, and franchising. The firm is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and maintains an office in Raleigh, NC.

Contact:
Lambert by LLYC
Caroline Luz
(203) 570-6462
[email protected]

SOURCE Halifax Group