NEW YORK, Aug. 20, 2025 — Garage, the online marketplace revolutionizing the way America’s most essential equipment is bought and sold, today announced a $13.5 million Series A funding round led by Infinity Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, Benchstrength, Wayfinder Ventures, and FJ Labs. This round brings Garage’s total capital raised to $18 million and marks a major step forward in the company’s mission to serve America’s backbone industries more efficiently.

Founded by Martin Hunt and Alaz Sengul, Garage was born out of firsthand experience in the fire service. Hunt began serving as a volunteer firefighter in Delaware at the age of 15, and saw the challenges that funding constraints and rising equipment costs had on America’s local governments and first responders. Frustrated by the inefficiencies he witnessed, he set out to develop a more efficient and innovative approach to fleet management and surplus asset disposition.

Garage simplifies the complex process of buying and selling specialized equipment, including emergency vehicles and government surplus. “Local government and public safety is the backbone of America’s communities, yet the process for buying and selling their most critical equipment is just as fragmented and inefficient as it was decades ago– leaving one of the largest opportunities for innovation today” said Hunt. By connecting buyers and sellers nationwide, Garage allows municipalities to sell underutilized equipment to recover funds for their increasingly tight budgets, and buy equipment that would traditionally fall outside of their price range.

Unlike traditional auctions and brokers with local reach, Garage’s nationwide platform connects buyers and sellers from across the US while facilitating the entire lifecycle of selling surplus assets. The marketplace provides instant freight quotes, integrated payment solutions, and an AI appraisal tool, creating a seamless end-to-end experience. The company is already used by local governments, fire departments, and small businesses in all 50 states and equipment bought on the marketplace serves millions of Americans every day.

“Garage addresses a critical need in an underserved market with remarkable effectiveness” said Mario Ruiz, a General Partner at Infinity Ventures. “Martin and his team have the deep industry expertise and technical know-how to build AI-enabled solutions that will transform the way America’s critical assets are bought and sold.”

The $13.5M Series A funding will support Garage in expanding its engineering and go-to-market teams, scaling the marketplace’s capabilities, and continuing to grow its footprint across the United States. Garage also plans to scale its product, enhance its AI-driven services, and accelerate customer onboarding and success.

“Garage was born out of the deep respect and understanding of the challenges faced by the men and women working to keep Americans safe,” said Hunt. This funding enables us to grow our platform and deepen our support of the civil servants who protect and serve our communities.”

For more information about Garage or to explore its marketplace, visit www.shopgarage.com.

About Garage

Garage is the modern marketplace for buying and selling specialized equipment– powering the industries that keep America moving. Garage was founded by Martin Hunt and Alaz Sengul and is headquartered in New York, NY.

SOURCE Garage Technologies, Inc.

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 20, 2025 — Overhaul, the global leader of in-transit supply chain risk management, has secured $105 million in Series C equity funding led by Springcoast Partners with participation from Edison Partners. In addition to the Series C financing, the company also closed on a new debt facility with MidCap Financial.

As global supply chains face increasing complexity and disruption, companies require active risk management solutions that can prevent problems before they occur. Overhaul addresses this critical need through its comprehensive platform that combines real-time monitoring, predictive intelligence, and immediate response capabilities to protect high-value cargo from theft, damage, and delays. The company will use the investment to accelerate platform innovation, advance AI-driven capabilities, and continue building powerful, complete, enterprise-level solutions for the world’s largest brands while also pursuing strategic acquisitions.

“Expanding our relationships with Springcoast and Edison allows us to build on the momentum we’ve already created and deliver the solutions our customers are asking for,” said Barry Conlon, CEO of Overhaul. “The truth is, visibility is a data stream – not a standalone solution or app – and how we harness that stream is what truly sets us apart. Our engineering and development efforts are focused on solving real-world problems, and this investment helps us accelerate that mission.”

The investment also positions Overhaul to capitalize on consolidation opportunities in the supply chain technology sector, where the company expects to see continued market shifts as companies focus on profitability and growth fundamentals. The company’s recent acquisition of FreightVerify, which adds item-level tracking and inventory intelligence to its platform, demonstrates this consolidation strategy in action.

“Overhaul is building the system of record for global, high-value supply chains. The company’s proprietary data assets, operational depth, and commitment to solving real-world logistics challenges set it apart in a consolidating market,” said Holger Staude, Managing Partner of Springcoast Partners. “We’re proud to deepen our partnership with Barry and the Overhaul team as they complement their market-leading cargo security capabilities with powerful new inventory optimization tools,” added Chris Dederick, Principal at Springcoast Partners. 

“Edison Partners are excited to continue to support Overhaul in its mission to deliver high impact solutions to real supply chain problems for the world’s biggest brands. It’s a winning strategy with huge potential and this latest acquisition accelerates the vision we saw and backed in 2020,” added Ryan Ziegler, Managing Partner at Edison Partners.

Trusted by Fortune 100 companies, Overhaul serves industries including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, technology, logistics, automotive, consumer, and food and beverage. The company maintains a strong, direct partnership with law enforcement agencies, ensuring rapid recovery and intervention in the event of theft. Overhaul safeguards over $1.4 trillion in cargo trade at any given moment, achieving a 99.9% shipment protection rate.

Learn more about how Overhaul mitigates supply chain risk.

About Overhaul
Overhaul is the leading in-transit supply chain risk management platform for the world’s most trusted brands. Purpose-built to manage in-transit inventory and protect high-value, time-sensitive, and temperature-controlled shipments, Overhaul combines real-time data, contextual intelligence, and actionable alerts to prevent disruption or loss. With a device-agnostic approach and deep expertise in cargo security, compliance, and logistics, Overhaul empowers shippers, carriers, and logistics providers to move goods smarter, safer, and with greater control. Customers include Microsoft, Bristol Myers Squibb, CEVA Logistics, and Arvato. With the recent acquisition of FreightVerify, Overhaul now adds six of the top ten automotive manufacturers to its roster. For more information, visit over-haul.com, and follow on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.

About Springcoast Partners
Established in 2023, Springcoast is a New York-based growth equity firm focused on partnering with market leading software and technology companies. To learn more about Springcoast, please visit www.springcoast.com.

About Edison Partners
Edison Partners is a leading growth equity firm providing the financial and intellectual capital that CEOs and their executive teams need to grow and scale their companies. Named as a Top Growth Investment Firm by GrowthCap for two years running, Edison’s active portfolio has created aggregated market value exceeding $10 billion. Edison Partners manages over $2.2 billion in assets. For more information on Edison Partners, please visit edisonpartners.com and follow on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Overhaul

NEA and Salesforce Ventures lead round to help enterprise marketers gain visibility and influence over brand performance across the AI internet

NEW YORK, Aug. 20, 2025 — Bluefish, the leading AI marketing platform for the Fortune 500, announced a $20M Series A funding round led by NEA, with participation from Salesforce Ventures. Additional investors include Crane Venture Partners, Swift Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta, bringing total Bluefish funding to $24M within 12 months of launch. Bluefish also unveiled its new Custom AI Audiences feature, which enables brands to manage their AI performance with unprecedented granularity and precision. 

As AI becomes the first stop for product discovery and purchasing decisions, Bluefish helps enterprise marketers gain visibility and influence over AI-generated responses. Over the last six months, Bluefish has grown revenue 10x and now counts Adidas, Tishman Speyer, and Omnicom among its enterprise customers. This new financing will enable product expansion and help scale engineering and customer-facing teams. 

“Over the past year, the way consumers find and buy new products has radically changed, migrating from conventional search to AI,” said Bluefish CEO Alex Sherman. “Search marketers were the first to recognize this shift in consumer behavior, but it is increasingly clear that the entire enterprise marketing stack will need to be reimagined for AI. Successful marketers will need a suite of AI-native tools to track, measure, and optimize for this new channel. These tools will be critical to winning customers who are now spending more time in AI than on the open web. That’s what we are building at Bluefish.”

Rebuilding the enterprise marketing stack for AI
Bluefish analyzes millions of prompt responses for the world’s largest brands, delivering robust insights into how large language models (LLMs) respond to consumers and present brand narratives. The Bluefish platform enables marketers to shape their AI presence with targeted optimizations that boost brand visibility, favorability, and message consistency across all major AI channels, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta AI, and Google AI. 

The Bluefish platform was designed to support the entire marketing organization, including search, content, brand, and communications teams. AI Monitoring, AI Optimization (AIO), and AIO Measurement are key offerings that enable brands to:        

• Track – Monitor AI positioning and performance with real-time tracking of AI responses
• Optimize – Tune content strategies to address key opportunities surfaced by Bluefish data
• Measure – Track the impact of optimizations against custom AI segments and KPIs

Platform brings enterprise-grade sophistication to AI marketing
Bluefish has emerged as the enterprise choice for AI marketing. It delivers the level of control large brands expect, with full transparency into every prompt, response, and cited source. Unlike one-size-fits-all tools that lean on generic prompts or recycled data, Bluefish lets each customer build custom prompt methodologies—so insights and actions mirror their business, not someone else’s.

“Our customers represent some of the most sophisticated marketers in the world,” said Bluefish COO Jing Feng. “They need customized solutions that enable differentiation in order to stay ahead. Generic one-size-fits-all platforms will inevitably fall short.”

This focus on enterprise is working. Bluefish has seen enormous customer demand since launch, with more than 80% of its customers coming from the Fortune 500, including category leaders across financial services, auto, CPG, and beauty brands. The two-year-old company already operates globally, supporting major customers across international markets and languages.

“We’re living through a paradigm shift as AI transforms how consumers discover, evaluate, and buy—the stakes for global brands have never been higher. Bluefish was built from the ground up to support the needs of enterprises, and is led by a proven team that has guided CMOs and marketing teams through the last major transitions of the internet. We believe Bluefish is defining the enterprise category for AI marketing,” said Ann Bordetsky, Partner at NEA.

Bluefish is led by a founding team of industry veterans with a 20-year track record building marketing technology for the world’s largest brands. CEO Alex Sherman previously co-founded PromoteIQ, a major retail media platform acquired by Microsoft in 2019. CTO Andrei Dunca previously co-founded LiveRail, a leading video advertising platform acquired by Facebook in 2014. COO Jing Feng previously held senior leadership roles at Microsoft, PromoteIQ, and LiveRail. 

“We have learned a lot about what it takes to deliver at Fortune 500 scale,” said Jason Spinell, Partner at Salesforce Ventures. “Bluefish is one of the few AI marketing platforms we’ve seen that is purpose-built for enterprise complexity. For brands who are looking for a partner that actually understands enterprise, Bluefish stands out.”

Introducing Bluefish Custom AI Audiences
Bluefish also unveiled the commercial release of its Custom AI Audiences capability, which allows enterprise marketers to define unique profiles and access tailored insights by customer segment. This feature enables brands to integrate their own proprietary approaches into the platform, creating significant competitive advantage.

Marketers can now better assess AI discoverability, citation influence, and content narrative shifts by audience to drive smarter AI optimizations.

About Bluefish
Bluefish is the AI marketing platform for enterprise brands. As product discovery transitions to AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google AI, Fortune 500 brands use Bluefish to gain visibility and influence over this critical new channel. Bluefish is led by the team behind PromoteIQ (acquired by Microsoft) and LiveRail (acquired by Facebook) and is headquartered in New York City. 

Learn more at bluefishai.com.

SOURCE Bluefish

New funding led by Sienna Venture Capital to fuel AI innovation and international growth

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 20, 2025 — Seemplicity, the exposure action platform that delivers faster fixes and stronger security, today announced a $50 million Series B funding round. The latest financing was led by Sienna Venture Capital, with participation from Essentia Venture Capital and existing investors Glilot Capital Partners, NTTVC and S Capital. Seemplicity plans to leverage this funding to increase its investment in AI capabilities and support a rapid expansion of the company’s go-to-market strategy.

Following robust Fortune 500 adoption, Seemplicity is on a mission to better protect today’s enterprise and give all security teams more time back for what matters. This is achieved by removing manual, tedious work and automating the aggregation, prioritization and remediation workflows of exposure management. Seemplicity delivers instant and continuous value to customers, reducing exposure noise by 95%, prioritizing the 5% that matters, and automatically creating remediation tasks that allow companies to save significant time and resources.

AI Companions for Actionable Exposure Management
The funding will be used to accelerate the development and deployment of Seemplicity’s AI Agents to deliver personalized risk insights and proactive, actionable guidance. These upcoming AI agents will serve as companions for more actionable exposure management, combining each organization’s business logic with external threat intelligence to simplify workflows and empower teams to fix the real issues behind vulnerabilities.

“This funding comes as we experience incredible growth and customer adoption, and is a clear signal that security teams need a more actionable approach to exposure management,” said Yoran Sirkis, CEO and Co-founder of Seemplicity. “Our AI-based platform proactively streams risk insights, generates the fixes, and assigns work automatically to give teams their most valuable resource back – time. We are now better-positioned to extend these benefits to a broader global market, working with new and existing go-to-market partners across the US, UK and Europe.”

Accelerated Customer Adoption
Founded in 2020 by cybersecurity veterans Yoran Sirkis, Ravid Circus, and Rotem Cohen Gadol, Seemplicity was built to automate and streamline the entire vulnerability management and remediation process. The funding follows a year of significant growth for Seemplicity, including an 800% increase in ARR since its Series A and a 3X growth in new customer acquisition. Today, Seemplicity processes more than 1.5 billion security findings daily across customers spanning all regions and industries.

In addition to making its capabilities more usable and accessible for organizations of all sizes, Seemplicity will also use the new funding to further scale its U.S. operations, expand its presence across the UK and Europe, and drive revenue growth through new sales channels.

Seemplicity continues to demonstrate its power as a platform purpose-built to give critical time back to security, development, and IT operations teams. With 67% of cybersecurity professionals reporting burnout and the industry facing a global shortage of 4 million cyber workers, technology must do more than surface findings; it must simplify action. Seemplicity helps cyber professionals overcome dashboard fatigue by eliminating the drag between identification and fixing vulnerabilities, accelerating risk reduction and making every minute count.

“I’ve been following Seemplicity closely for over a year and have been consistently impressed by the team’s execution, the pace of new customer adoption, and the strength of their growth,” said Thomas Visan, Partner at Sienna Venture Capital. “They are tackling one of the most critical and underserved areas in cybersecurity. Their ability to bring clarity, speed, and automation to exposure management is exactly what modern enterprises are looking for, and we’re proud to support them as they scale globally.”

“We believe Seemplicity’s AI-powered platform addresses a critical gap in the cybersecurity market and positions the company as a global leader in exposure management,” said Lior Litwak, Managing Partner at Glilot Capital Partners and Head of Glilot+, the firm’s early growth fund. “Since leading the Series A, we have witnessed firsthand how the Seemplicity platform addressed exactly what enterprise security teams need to dramatically reduce their workload while improving cyber posture. We’re proud to continue supporting their next phase of growth.”

The funding milestone follows Seemplicity’s recent industry recognition, including receiving the 2025 Intellyx Digital Innovator Award and multiple Global Infosec Awards, where the company was named Publisher’s Choice for Exposure Assessment and Market Innovator in Vulnerability Management.

To learn more about the Seemplicity platform please visit: https://seemplicity.io/

About Seemplicity

Seemplicity revolutionizes exposure management with its exposure action platform. By automating and streamlining remediation processes, Seemplicity consolidates findings, accelerates risk reduction, and delivers tailored remediation plans for security, IT, and DevOps teams. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, the platform enables organizations to enhance operational resilience and build scalable security programs. For more information, visit www.seemplicity.io.

SOURCE Seemplicity

Series B bridge brings total funding to over $150M to scale Document Intelligence, drive adoption in regulated industries, and expand globally, with backing from KDB, Amazon, and AMD

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 20, 2025 — Upstage, a key AI company specializing in enterprise-grade generative AI solutions, today announced a $45 million Series B bridge round backed by Korea Development Bank (KDB), Amazon, and AMD. The raise brings total capital to $157 million and will accelerate development of its next-generation Solar language model, advance document AI products, and go-to-market expansion in the U.S. and APAC.

The new funding will also advance R&D efforts to enhance Solar’s capabilities and expand enterprise use cases, including document parsing, agentic task execution, and workflow automation. Recently, Upstage announced a strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), its preferred cloud provider, to advance its Solar language models and expand access to generative AI technology. Under the AWS collaboration, Upstage will use AWS for building and deploying foundation models, utilizing AWS’s machine learning infrastructure including SageMaker and AWS-designed silicon including AWS Trainium and Inferentia.

These enhanced AI capabilities are being strategically deployed to address significant inefficiencies in target industries, particularly insurance. A recent analysis of the U.S. insurance space found that claims adjudication costs reached $25.7 billion, with $18 billion tied to overturned denials and unnecessary review cycles – much of it driven by manual, paper-heavy operations and outdated, fragmented systems. Upstage is tackling this challenge head-on, with insurance as its first major global vertical, where resource-heavy areas like claims processing and broker submissions are especially ripe for automation.

At the center of the strategy is the Document Intelligence suite, which incorporates Document Parse — for transforming unstructured documents into structured, LLM-ready formats — and Information Extract, which pulls key data points from raw text. Whether processing policies, loss runs, financial statements, invoices, or emails, the platform processes high-variation document packets with over 95 percent accuracy, eliminating manual data entry, reducing processing time, and enabling faster, more automated decision-making.

Unlike traditional OCR tools that extract static fields without understanding context, Upstage’s Document Intelligence interprets documents holistically, understanding layout, meaning, and purpose to deliver structured outputs ready for real-world workflows.

“This is a pivotal moment not just for Upstage, but for the future of generative AI in the enterprise,” said Sung Kim, Co-Founder and CEO of Upstage. “The next phase of AI is about performance, precision, and readiness for real-world complexity. That is exactly what we’ve built with our suite. Our collaboration with AWS brings scale, credibility, and deep technical alignment — all critical as we deliver production-ready AI from day one in high-stakes sectors like commercial and public sector insurance.”

“Most enterprise teams are still buried in document chaos,” said Kasey Roh, U.S. CEO at Upstage. “We bring structure and speed to that mess, helping carriers and brokers move faster, reduce costs, and serve clients with confidence.”

Solar LLM, a family of Upstage’s proprietary small LLMs trained with Amazon SageMaker and available in Amazon Bedrock Marketplace, underpins Upstage’s broader GenAI stack. The company also offers its Universal Information Extractor — an AI agent for document-level understanding — through the AWS AI Agents and Tools Marketplace.

Upstage’s models are already being used by Fortune 500 companies, including Samsung, and are widely used by Korean insurance companies. It is also deployed across multiple public sector and government institutions, demonstrating Upstage’s ability to move from concept to production. Adoption is growing in the U.S. insurance and other highly structured industries.

The Series B bridge funding will support growth across sales and marketing hires and continued international expansion.

Upstage was recently named to the CB Insights AI 100 list, selected from thousands of global applicants — a milestone that reinforces Upstage’s traction in global markets. This bridge round builds on the company’s $72 million Series B announced in 2024, led by Korean investors including SK Networks and Shinhan Venture Investment.

To learn how Upstage can support your organization, contact our team to schedule a demo.

About Upstage
Upstage is building the future of enterprise AI through domain-specific language models and intelligent tools designed for high-impact business use. With deep expertise in LLM development, document AI, and agentic workflows, the company enables regulated industries and global enterprises to unlock the full potential of generative AI — securely, efficiently, and at scale.

For media inquiries:
Adalia Roberts
[email protected]
347-431-5801

SOURCE Upstage AI

Astro Mechanica’s engine design addresses biggest economic challenge associated with supersonic flight: fuel efficiency

Astro Mechanica’s technology is first being developed for military use and then commercial aircraft as technology matures – UAV is the venture capital arm of United Airlines

CHICAGO, Aug. 20, 2025 — United Airlines Ventures (UAV), the venture capital arm of United Airlines, today announced an investment in aerospace startup Astro Mechanica. Astro Mechanica’s adaptive propulsion concept and advanced airframe design has the potential to unlock supersonic aircraft with near-term applications for national defense, orbital launch, and long-range cargo delivery.

UAV was established in 2021 to invest in early-stage start-up companies focused on innovative technologies with the potential to shape the future of aviation and travel.

“Astro Mechanica is developing an adaptive engine concept for strategic military and commercial applications, addressing the challenging yet worthwhile pursuit of supersonic flight,” said Mukul Hariharan, Managing Partner at United Airlines Ventures. “UAV is excited to join Astro Mechanica’s renowned investment partners to support its exceptional management team as they advance their engine technology and progress towards their first aircraft prototype.”

Astro Mechanica’s engine, Duality^™, is being designed to utilize a hybrid electric architecture to optimize performance across a wide range of flight speeds and profiles, which would create an engine that would be efficient from takeoff to Mach 3+. With these changes, Astro Mechanica is developing the world’s first supersonic aircraft that has transpacific capability.

“We are excited to form this relationship with United Airlines Ventures (UAV),” said Ian Brooke, CEO and founder of Astro Mechanica. “This investment reflects strong conviction in Astro Mechanica from an experienced and credible industry leader, and we appreciated UAV’s deep technical grasp of our novel high-speed propulsion technologies. We look forward to working with them as an advisor and a collaborator as we move into flight testing for the next era of passenger travel.”

Duality^™ is designed to separate the propulsion units from the turboshaft engine by using electric motors. This allows it to behave like a turbofan at slower speeds, a turbojet at faster speeds just below supersonic, and switch to a ramjet at very high supersonic speeds.

About United Airlines Ventures

United Airlines Ventures (UAV) was established in 2021 to invest in early-stage start-up companies focused on innovative technologies with the potential to shape the future of aviation and travel. To date, UAV has made more than 30 investments in companies developing technologies across aerospace, technology, energy transition, and more. Learn more at unitedairlinesventures.com.

About Astro Mechanica

Astro Mechanica is a vertically integrated aerospace company building a faster, more connected future. Its mission is to democratize high-speed flight by making supersonic travel flexible, accessible, and sustainable. The company believes that rapid, on-demand, point-to-point global mobility will become the new standard for moving people and goods across the planet. To achieve this, Astro Mechanica is integrating its advanced airframe and engine technologies—which include Duality^™, its proprietary dual-use propulsion system—with a new flight operations model to make supersonic transport as efficient and economical as commercial air travel is today. In the near term, the company is developing adaptable, high-speed systems to close aircraft performance gaps for the United States government. Learn more at www.astromecha.co.

United Airlines Ventures Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Other Important Information

UAV is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Airlines, Inc., whose parent company, United Airlines Holdings, Inc., is traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol “UAL”. This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to, among other things, plans and projections regarding the benefits of the investment. All statements that are not statements of historical facts are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on historical performance and current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections, which involve inherent risks, assumptions and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, may be beyond our control and could cause our future financial results, plans, objectives, goals, targets, commitments, strategies, initiatives and intentions to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the statements. These risks, assumptions, uncertainties and other factors include, among others, any failure to meet stated corporate citizenship goals, targets, commitments, strategies, initiatives and intentions in the time frame expected or at all as a result of many factors, including changing societal, market, competitive, regulatory or stakeholder expectations; any delay or inability of UAV to realize the expected benefits of the investment, including from a delay or failure of any project or technology to be fully developed or become operational or serve the purpose for which it was designed; and the other risks and uncertainties identified in United’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, as well as United’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  United undertakes no obligation to update any statement included in this press release, except as otherwise required by applicable law or regulation.

Media Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE United Airlines Ventures

• SK leads Series D to accelerate the scale and global delivery of SCC55®.
• Group14 also acquires the 75% balance of the South Korea joint venture with SK, taking direct control over the manufacture of the company’s silicon battery material in Asia.

WOODINVILLE, Wash., Aug. 20, 2025 — Group14 Technologies today announced that it has closed a US$463M round led by SK, Inc., with strong participation of other existing investors, including Porsche Investments, ATL, OMERS, Decarbonization Partners, Lightrock Climate Impact Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, and others. The funds will be used to continue scaling the manufacture of Group14’s silicon battery material, SCC55, in the U.S. and South Korea, and help meet overwhelming demand amid surging requirements for energy storage worldwide.

In addition, Group14 obtained full ownership of its joint venture with SK Inc., located in Sangju, South Korea. Formed in 2021, the joint venture’s battery active materials (BAM) factory produces Group14’s flagship technology, SCC55, at EV scale to support the global battery manufacturing industry.

“This is a defining moment for Group14 and a clear signal that the future of high-performance energy storage, powered by our silicon battery material, is already here,” said Rick Luebbe, CEO and Co-Founder of Group14. “We’re strengthening regional battery supply chains and safeguarding our customers from global trade uncertainty.”

As Group14’s third commercial battery active materials factory, BAM-3 is strategically located in Asia, home to the world’s largest battery manufacturers. In September 2024, the 10-gigawatt-hour factory began delivery of SCC55 to over 100 electric vehicle and consumer electronics battery manufacturing customers worldwide.

“Group14 technology is already integrated into millions of ATL batteries powering AI-enabled smartphones,” said Joe Kit Chu Lam, Executive Vice President at ATL, a subsidiary of TDK Corporation. “We support even broader delivery of their silicon anode material to power the next generation of high-performance silicon batteries.”

Group14’s first and second BAM factories are located in Washington state. The company is expanding silicon battery infrastructure in Europe with a state-of-the-art silane gas factory in Germany, which will supply a critical precursor for next-generation energy storage technologies.

Following the Series D round, Group14 has raised over US$1B of equity to fund its growth.

About Group14 Technologies
Group14 Technologies is a global leader in advanced silicon battery materials, transforming the future of rechargeable energy storage. Group14’s material, SCC55®, delivers unparalleled performance to any battery and any application – powering millions of devices from EVs to AI-enabled technologies. With commercial-scale factories in the U.S. and Asia, and customers representing 95% of global lithium-ion battery production, Group14 is accelerating the global transition to electrification and ushering in the silicon battery era.

Visit us at www.group14.technology.

SOURCE Group14 Technologies

SynergySuite Secures $12 Million to Lead the AI-First Future of Restaurant Operations

SANDY, Utah, Aug. 20, 2025 — SynergySuite announced it has raised $12 million to accelerate the next phase of its AI-powered back-of-house platform, built for restaurant operators ready to simplify operations and scale smarter. The funding will be used to support global expansion, drive continued product innovation, and meet the growing demands of enterprise and multi-unit restaurant brands.

The round was led by Oyster Capital (Dublin), with continued support from First Analysis (Chicago) and an expanded multi-year credit facility from Lago Innovation (Chicago), a clear vote of confidence in SynergySuite’s category-defining technology and consistent performance.

“Operators don’t need more dashboards and apps—they need answers,” said Jared Neilsen, CEO of SynergySuite. “This funding lets us expand our AI engine that’s already transforming operations, delivering faster decisions, smarter forecasting, and stronger margins, scaling that across thousands more locations.”

SynergySuite’s proprietary AI engine, leverages machine learning and large language models to solve the operational inefficiencies that cost restaurants time and margin every day.

Designed for true scalability, SynergySuite is virtually unique in its ability to manage large restaurant chains at both the individual outlet level and across complex franchise networks—whether corporate-owned, franchisee-owned, or a hybrid. The platform streamlines critical workflows for shift teams, general managers, and franchise leaders, while also providing franchise rollup tools that give corporate teams and individual franchise owners clear, actionable insights across thousands of locations. Core capabilities include real-time inventory tracking, AI-powered forecasting and dynamic ordering, intelligent labor planning, and enterprise-grade tools like automated royalty tracking—all unified in a single AI-driven system.

By reducing waste, optimizing labor costs, and increasing efficiency across every location, SynergySuite helps brands drive consistent profitability and operational excellence at scale. Most importantly, it frees up managers to focus on delivering better guest experiences and accelerating growth.

What sets SynergySuite apart is not just the breadth of it’s suite, but the AI that powers them, and the depth of its integrations.

The platform offers deeper, more robust integrations with leading POS, payroll, accounting, and vendor management systems than any other competitor, giving restaurant brands the flexibility to plug into their existing tech ecosystem without sacrificing performance or visibility.

“Too often, operators are forced to choose between best-in-breed tools and true integration,” Neilsen said. “With SynergySuite, they don’t have to choose. They get a unified platform that actually works together—and works well.”

Founded in Dublin and now headquartered in the U.S, SynergySuite is trusted by top-performing brands like Pollo Campero, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and Shipley Do-Nuts, and maintains one of the industry’s highest customer retention rates. With global teams across the U.S., Ireland, the UK, and Montenegro, the company is supporting rapid adoption from fast-growing concepts and large global franchises alike.

In 2025, SynergySuite has been recognized for its innovation and customer impact, earning Stevie Awards for Company of the Year (Food & Beverage and Hospitality & Leisure), Titan Awards for Restaurant and Business Technology, a BRIX Holdings Vendor Award for Best Customer Service, and finalist recognition in the SaaS Awards for ERP and HR & Workforce Management.

This capital will accelerate SynergySuite’s growth strategy as it continues to deliver on its promise: powerful automation, practical AI, and a connected platform designed by operators, for operators.

“Our customers don’t ask us for tech,” added Neilsen. “They ask us for smarter, simpler ways to run their business. That’s what our AI is built for, and now we’re scaling it even faster.”

SOURCE SynergySuite

At a Glance

• Fund Size: $60M, 20% oversubscribed — 3× Fund I
• Focus: Veteran-led, dual-use national security tech
• Market Tailwinds: Record defense budgets; surge in A&D IPOs/M&A
• Core Sectors: Space, counter-UAS & autonomy, quantum sensing, robotics, edge computing, AI/ML, cyber
• Capital Efficiency: $250M+ in non-dilutive funding secured by portfolio companies; Fund I achieved >10:1 leverage
• HQ: McLean, VA — near DoD, policymakers, and defense venture ecosystem

MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 19, 2025 — Veteran Ventures Capital (VVC), a venture capital firm investing in dual-use national security technologies, today announced the final close of Veterans Fund II at $60 million, oversubscribed due to strong investor demand. Across both funds, VVC-backed companies have already secured more than a quarter billion dollars in non-dilutive government funding—clear evidence of the capital efficiency and impact of the firm’s model. The fund is triple the size of VVC’s inaugural $20 million Fund I and positions the firm to accelerate mission-critical innovations at a moment of historic opportunity for the defense and aerospace sectors.

Historic Tailwinds
U.S. defense spending has reached record highs—over $900 billion in FY2025, with $145 billion allocated to research, development, test, and evaluation [1]. Budgets are expected to keep rising, driven by priorities in unmanned systems, AI integration, and the rapid fielding of advanced hardware solutions [2]. PwC reports that investment in space is also surging, as national security priorities converge with commercial opportunities—accelerating innovation across the sector [3].

Capital markets are reflecting this momentum. Objective IBV notes that aerospace and defense deal volume jumped ~20% in Q1 2025—the highest since 2022—with transaction multiples reaching 13.2× EBITDA [4]. Recent acquisitions—AeroVironment + BlueHalo, Applied Intuition + EpiSci, and Anduril + Dive Technologies—underscore a robust exit environment in the very sectors VVC targets.

For VVC and Fund II, these forces translate into a rapidly expanding addressable market and an urgency to deploy solutions faster. As defense and aerospace agencies commit greater resources to modernization, demand is surging for exactly the kind of dual-use, mission-critical technologies we back—especially in space situational awareness, in-space propulsion, counter-UAS, and autonomous systems.

Investor Confidence
Fund II drew strong support from institutional investors—including the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, the State of Tennessee, and university endowments—alongside Hersh Family Investments, prominent family offices, and leading wealth management firms. This diverse LP base reflects deep confidence in VVC’s differentiated model: sourcing and scaling mission-critical, veteran-led companies; leveraging our team’s unmatched blend of defense, operational, and venture expertise; and unlocking substantial non-dilutive government capital.

“VVC has consistently proven that veteran leadership at our portfolio companies paired with deep domain expertise can generate outsized returns while meeting urgent national-security needs,” said Derren Burrell, Founder and Managing Partner of Veteran Ventures Capital. “Our ability to marshal private capital alongside significant non-dilutive government funding creates a powerful flywheel—one that accelerates the fielding of urgent dual-use technologies and helps our portfolio companies successfully bridge the much-feared valley of death within defense acquisition.”

Proven Leadership for a Historic Opportunity
VVC’s partners bring more than a century of combined experience in military leadership, strategic contracting, business development, M&A execution, and venture capital. They have managed multi-billion-dollar defense programs, driven billion-dollar business development pipelines, advised senior policymakers, and scaled frontier technologies in both government and commercial markets. This rare combination of mission experience, operational clarity, and capital markets expertise gives VVC unmatched access and insight to identify, fund, and scale the dual-use technologies most critical to U.S. and allied security.

“Our team invests with discipline, but we operate with urgency,” said Josh Weed, VVC General Partner. “This oversubscribed Fund demonstrates the trust LPs have placed in our investment thesis, our team and most importantly the founders we support —mission-focused leaders who are building for the frontlines, whether in orbit, at the tactical edge, or across critical infrastructure. Fund II allows us to back more of them, and with more meaningful capital.”

Early Portfolio Highlights
Fund II is already deploying capital into companies solving high-consequence problems in space, sensing, autonomy, and defense infrastructure. Early investments include:

• Agile Space Industries — chemical in-space propulsion leader addressing the global shortage of high-thrust systems via additive manufacturing and vertical integration. Backed by Lockheed Martin Ventures and national security space customers, enabling U.S. and allied orbital capabilities.
• Turion Space — proprietary DROID satellite architecture delivers high-throughput non-earth imaging and real-time space domain awareness at a fraction of industry cost. Backed by $30M+ in STRATFI/TACFI awards and integrated with the U.S. Space Force Unified Data Library.

“Our job doesn’t stop at investment,” said Steve Kiser, General Partner. “We work alongside our companies to unlock non-dilutive capital, scale defense go-to-market strategies and build resilient operations. That’s how we deliver returns, and that’s how we deliver national impact.”

About Veteran Ventures Capital
Veteran Ventures Capital (VVC) is a veteran-owned investment firm dedicated exclusively to backing veteran-led companies at the nexus of national security and commercial technology. We focus on dual-use sectors where mission alignment and market opportunity intersect—defense, aerospace, advanced sensing, robotics, cyber, and emerging fields such as quantum sensing and edge computing.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in McLean, Virginia, VVC’s team combines decades of military command, defense acquisition, and venture investing experience. We leverage this operational expertise and deep national security connectivity to identify, fund, and scale mission-critical technologies, delivering national impact alongside competitive returns for our investors.

For more information, visit www.veteranventures.us or contact [email protected]

[1]: U.S. Department of Defense, Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Overview, March 2025.
[2]: Deloitte, 2025 Aerospace & Defense Industry Outlook, January 2025.
[3]: PwC, Aerospace & Defense Review and Forecast, June 2025.
[4]: Objective IBV, Q1 2025 Aerospace & Defense Industry Report, May 2025.

SOURCE Veteran Ventures Capital