With $14M raised so far, and over 30,000 users, Aligned enhances its AI-powered sales platform to act as the modern seller’s ‘Iron Man Suit’, helping close more deals faster

TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 30, 2025 — Aligned, the Digital Sales Room improving the buyer-vendor workflow from start to post-sale, announces it has secured an $8 million investment led by JAL Ventures. The round includes participation from existing investors NFX, Hetz Ventures, and CROs from leading SaaS companies, bringing the total amount raised to $14 million. The funding will be used to accelerate Aligned’s growth and the development of its AI capabilities aimed at redefining the buyer-seller dynamic. Aligned has already tripled its revenue in 2024 and achieved 142 percent in Net Revenue Retention (NRR), emphasizing the loyalty and satisfaction of its customers.

B2B sales teams are struggling to meet quotas, with lower win rates and longer sales cycles. While deals involve tighter budgets and more stakeholders, the real challenge is the growing complexity of the selling process from the buyer’s side: 77 percent of buyers say the process is overly complex, leaving 60 percent stuck in an indecisive state. With 95 percent of the buyer journey happening without direct sales interaction—driven by the widespread digitalization and avoidance of poor sales experiences—the need for Buyer Enablement has never been more critical.

Despite the significant growth of Sales Enablement, most tools still prioritize basic sales efficiency instead of addressing what drives sales—improving the buyer-seller process and enhancing the overall buying experience.

Gartner predicts roughly 30 percent of B2B sales cycles will be managed entirely through digital sales rooms by 2026. As leaders in this space, Aligned is on a mission to create a streamlined path for revenue teams to engage with customers, with its AI-powered workspace orchestrating the entire B2B sales process. Instead of chaotic emails, links, and attachments across multiple threads, the platform centralizes deal resources, tools, timelines, and communication in one shared space. This allows sales teams to continue selling when they’re not in the room, which helps attract the modern buyer and differentiates Aligned from its competitors.

Powered by AI-Assist and AI-Insights, Aligned helps sales teams enable champions to drive internal sales efforts, engage with more stakeholders, collaborate with prospects using mutual action plans, capture real-time insights on buyer intent, and follow templates for consistent execution. This keeps sellers actively involved in the process while allowing buyers to build consensus and make confident, faster decisions, reducing deal cycles by 30 percent and increasing win rates by 15 percent.

In 2024, Aligned grew rapidly, with 60 percent of new customer acquisition driven by word-of-mouth on social media and 30 percent by product virality. This has led to over 30,000 users across more than 450 customers, including Deel, SimilarWeb, Productboard, and Chili Piper.

Adding to its existing AI Assist and AI Insights tools, the funding will be used to accelerate product development, expanding its AI capabilities for both sellers and buyers to further lead the digital sales room category.

“As a former CRO and VP of Sales, I’ve felt the pain of losing deals because champions weren’t equipped to build internal consensus or ‘hidden’ stakeholders staying behind email threads,” says Gal Aga, CEO and Co-Founder of Aligned. “That’s why we built Aligned—to give modern sellers their ‘Iron Man Suit’: AI-driven, 24/7 buyer enablement, deal execution support, and ‘behind-the-scenes’ deal insights. I couldn’t be more excited about what’s coming next.”

“Aligned has shown that empowering champions and offering buyer enablement can dramatically shorten sales cycles and increase win rates,” says Amiram Levinberg, Co-Founder & General Partner at JAL Ventures. “By combining AI with a collaborative workspace that fixes the broken B2B workflow, they are introducing the next evolution of sales—one that is both AI-Led and Buyer-Led, and we are thrilled to be a part of this journey.”

About Aligned:
Founded in 2021 by Yotam Sela (CTO), Gal Deitsch (CPO), and Gal Aga (CEO), Aligned is a Digital Sales Room that is transforming the sales and customer success landscape. By streamlining buyer-seller workflows and standardizing a superior buying experience, Aligned is revolutionizing the industry. Through its unified, AI-powered workspace, Aligned fosters collaboration between sales teams and buyers, enhances communication, empowers buyer champions, and improves stakeholder alignment. This enables revenue teams to execute a consistent, winning process that results in more successful deals. Recognized by G2 as leaders in AI-driven Digital Sales Rooms, Aligned is at the forefront of shaping the future of Buyer Enablement. To learn more, visit: https://alignedup.com.

Media Contact
Inbar Kneller
ReBlonde for Aligned
[email protected] 

SOURCE Aligned

Hybrid Active Directory threat detection and response specialist exceeds 3,000% growth over five years

HOBOKEN, N.J., Jan. 30, 2025 — Semperis, a pioneer in identity-driven cyber resilience, today announced it surpassed $100M in annual recurring revenue (ARR), a milestone that fewer than one in every 1,000 venture-backed enterprise software companies achieve, according to venture capital firm Greylock Partners. Fueling Semperis’ rapid customer growth and ascension to ‘centaur status’ is the company’s comprehensive solution for enterprises combatting the ever-growing threat of identity-based attacks in Active Directory and Entra ID environments.

Putting Identity at the Center of Cyber Resilience

Semperis enters its next phase of growth as the cybersecurity industry shifts from focusing primarily on attack prevention to prioritizing extended coverage of the attack lifecycle with cyber resilience. This shift is partially driven by new regulations like the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and popular frameworks like NIST. Additionally, CISA, NSA, and other global cybersecurity agencies recently collaborated on a report sounding the alarm about Active Directory threats, compelling organizations to take corrective action to remove vulnerabilities that attackers exploit as entry points to carry out malicious objectives.

“Identity resilience has become the new security perimeter, making every aspect of an organization’s digital existence existentially dependent on the identity system, most often Active Directory. And when Active Directory and other identity systems are compromised, the foundations of a business dependent on them are at unacceptable risk. Recognizing the essential relationship between identity and business resilience, Semperis’ products and services are on the cutting edge of cyber use cases, setting them apart from competitors. You can’t simply bolt on identity security, because it is core to business operations and critical to sustain defense against sophisticated and motivated nation state–backed threat groups. Like business resilience, identity resilience must be addressed at the core,” said Chris Inglis, Semperis Strategic Advisor and former U.S. National Cyber Director.

Semperis’ Mission to Be a Force for Good

According to the Semperis Ransomware Risk Report 2024, 83% of surveyed organizations suffered from ransomware attacks in the previous year, with 78% of attack victims paying ransom, some multiple times. Core to Semperis’ mission to be a force for good is helping customers say no to ransomware demands. The company has built several free community tools, including Purple Knight, which 30,000 users leverage for assessing Active Directory, Entra ID, and Okta vulnerabilities in enterprise environments, and Forest Druid, which identifies Tier 0 attack paths.

“From our inception in 2015, we’ve been preaching the importance of putting identity at the center of your cyber resilience strategy,” said Mickey Bresman, Semperis CEO. “The biggest brands in the world rely on us to safeguard their hybrid AD environments, which are being targeted at unprecedented levels. I’m proud to offer organizations an alternative option to giving in to ransom demands by taking back control through comprehensive protection, from detection and response to full-on crisis recovery. We cover the entire identity attack lifecycle and provide specialized incident response support.”

The Rising Category of Identity Threat Detection and Response

Semperis is an early pioneer of Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), one of the fastest growing cybersecurity categories. Today, Gartner ranks ITDR a “top CISO trend” as organizations adopt Zero Trust models and recognize the increasing frequency of attackers successfully targeting identity system vulnerabilities.

With a focus on cyber resilience, Semperis provides the industry’s most comprehensive identity system defense platform, trusted by the largest enterprises and government agencies in the world, to dramatically reduce the success rate of ransomware and other destructive attacks.

The 2024 Forrester Total Economic Impact Report of Semperis details the potential millions of dollars in savings for enterprises after deploying Semperis, which enabled a 90% reduction in downtime, a 40% reduction in time spent manually monitoring for threats, and a decrease in overall cyber risk pre-, during, and post-attack.

“Congratulations to Mickey Bresman and the entire Semperis team for surpassing $100 million in annual recurring revenue, as they have reached rarified air amongst enterprise software companies. Identity-centric cyberattacks are rapidly increasing and traditional security solutions fall short of protecting an organization’s most critical assets. Semperis has ‘best in breed’ solutions that help organisations detect, remediate and recover from identity-based attacks. I look forward to working with Semperis in 2025 to expand its presence in Australia, New Zealand and throughout Asia Pacific and Japan,” said Malcolm Turnbull, Semperis Strategic Advisor and former Australian Prime Minister.

Leadership Expansion with IPO Experience and Other Recent Developments

Semperis recently announced new C-suite additions: Jeff Bray, Chief Financial Officer; Mike DeGaetano, Chief Revenue Officer; and Annabel Lewis, Chief Legal Officer. All come from high-growth cyber companies and have firsthand IPO and public company experience.

In June 2024, Semperis announced its latest round of strategic growth financing: $125 million from J. P. Morgan and Hercules Capital. Other recent updates include being named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 List for the fifth consecutive years and various product announcements, including a new SaaS offering for small to midsized businesses and expansion of its AI-powered threat detection and response capabilities.

Supporting Investor Quotes

“Insight Partners was thrilled to partner with Semperis in 2020, and five years later we are more bullish on the company and its award-winning hybrid identity protection solutions. “Congratulations to Mickey and the team on surpassing $100 million in ARR. Mickey, Guy and Matan had the foresight of identity security becoming a top priority for organizations years before others. This enabled the team to have an enterprise-ready platform in the market when the demand surfaced. Today, that demand has never been greater,” said Teddie Wardi, Managing Director at Insight Partners and a member of Semperis’ Board of Directors.

“Congratulations to Mickey and the entire Semperis team on the $100 million ARR milestone. KKR is proud to support the company’s hybrid identity resilience mission and is thrilled to see the growing number of organizations in the world trusting Semperis to defend their critical identity systems from cyberattacks. Semperis’ leading identity protection technology and incident response expertise are delivering category-defining innovation against serious identity-based attacks,” said Ben Pederson, KKR Managing Director and a member of Semperis’ Board of Directors.

“For Semperis, reaching $100 million in ARR is a monumental milestone and reflective of years of innovation, growth, and an unwavering commitment to addressing pressing cybersecurity challenges. At Paladin, we look forward to seeing what’s next for Semperis, as hybrid identities, most often Active Directory, will continue to be under constant attack, especially at public sector organizations. What Semperis has done to revolutionize the Active Directory process and reduce recovery time from days to mere minutes is remarkable,” said Tom Clute, Principal, Paladin Capital Group.

“Semperis is proof that specialized ‘best-in-breed’ solutions can grow into huge companies, helping enterprises worldwide address a specific attack vector more effectively. At Ten Eleven Ventures, we have admiration for Semperis achieving $100 million in ARR as it demonstrates how a specialized strategy can lead to immense growth and scale. Since our initial investment in 2022, the company has solidified its place as a cybersecurity centaur and I couldn’t be happier,” said Mark Hatfield, Founder and General Partner, Ten Eleven Ventures and a Semperis Strategic Advisor.

About Semperis

For security teams charged with defending hybrid and multi-cloud environments, Semperis ensures the integrity and availability of critical enterprise directory services at every step in the cyber kill chain and cuts recovery time by 90%. Purpose-built for securing hybrid identity environments—including Active Directory, Entra ID, and Okta—Semperis’ AI-powered technology protects over 100 million identities from cyberattacks, data breaches and operational errors. The world’s leading organizations trust Semperis to spot directory vulnerabilities, intercept cyberattacks in progress and quickly recover from ransomware and other data integrity emergencies. Semperis is headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, and operates internationally, with its research and development team distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Israel.

Semperis hosts the award-winning Hybrid Identity Protection conference and podcast series (www.hipconf.com) and built the community hybrid Active Directory cyber defender tools, Purple Knight (www.semperis.com/purple-knight/) and Forest Druid. The company has received the highest level of industry accolades, recently named to Inc. Magazine’s list of best workplaces for 2024 and ranked the fastest-growing cybersecurity company in America by the Financial Times. Semperis is a Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Alliance and Co-Sell partner and is a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA).

Learn more: https://www.semperis.com 

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Media Contact:
Bill Keeler
Senior Director, PR & Comms
[email protected]

SOURCE Semperis

CHICAGO, Jan. 30, 2025 — Nurse Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage healthcare startups founded and led by nurses, is proud to announce the launch of the Nurse Capital Network (NCN), an exclusive, invitation-only community designed to connect and empower nurse entrepreneurs and inventors. 

NCN will foster information sharing, networking with funders and industry experts, and creative collaboration that cultivates entrepreneurial innovations in products and services that transform the nursing care ecosystem.

“Nurse Capital is committed to providing a space where nurse-led ventures can thrive,” said Nurse Capital Co-founder Beth A. Brooks, Ph.D., RN, FACHE. “The Nurse Capital Network is more than just a resource for funding. Nurse entrepreneurs often find their career path lonely due to the unique challenges of balancing business responsibilities with their healthcare expertise.”

Membership in the Nurse Capital Network is by invitation only to nurse entrepreneurs committed to advancing healthcare innovation. Key features of the Nurse Capital Network include:

• Networking Opportunities: Members can connect with General Partners, Limited Partners, and other members to build meaningful relationships.
• Mentorship & Peer Learning: Opportunities for both mentoring and being mentored by seasoned industry leaders and fellow entrepreneurs.
• Educational Sessions: Expert-led discussions and workshops designed to enhance members’ skills, knowledge, and understanding of industry challenges.
• Access to Resources: Exclusive access to funding opportunities, business tools, and insights to support members’ entrepreneurial journeys.

“We created Nurse Capital Network to provide support to ensure that the businesses of nurse entrepreneurs have the greatest impact on advancing nursing and healthcare innovation,” said Nurse Capital Co-founder Maura Weston, Ph.D., RN, FAAN.

About Nurse Capital
Nurse Capital is a nurse-founded and managed venture capital fund based in Chicago that makes early-stage investments in nurse entrepreneurs leading high-growth-potential businesses that are transforming the future of healthcare. Learn more at https://nursecapital.net/. To submit a pitch deck, contact Nurse Capital at https://nursecapital.net/contact/

SOURCE Nurse Capital

On-demand network infrastructure leader paves way for strong growth and market leadership in 2025

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 30, 2025 — Alkira, the leader in Network Infrastructure as a Service, today announced significant achievements across all aspects of its business in 2024, including a major funding round, industry recognition, product innovation, and customer growth.

The company secured $100 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global in May 2024. New investors Dallas Venture Capital, Geodesic Capital, LIAN Group, and NextEquity Partners joined existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and Sequoia Capital in the round. This was the company’s first funding round since 2020, and it underscored strong investor confidence in Alkira’s vision and growing market position. The funding announcement coincided with Alkira being named #25 on the Deloitte Fast 500 list of North America’s fastest-growing companies, ranking #6 in the Bay Area with a 7,194% growth rate over three years.

“2024 was a transformative year for Alkira as we continued to deepen our customer and partner relationships, while significantly bolstering our network infrastructure as a service platform to align with rapid market shifts,” said Amir Khan, CEO of Alkira. “Our Series C funding and industry accolades validate our innovative approach, while our expanded global presence and enhanced product capabilities demonstrate our commitment to meeting the evolving needs of enterprises worldwide. Thanks to our success in 2024, we’ve effectively set the stage for another stellar year in 2025.”

Industry Recognition, Product Innovation, and Global Expansion

Throughout 2024, Alkira received numerous awards and recognition, including America’s Best Startup Employers from Forbes, TMCNet’s Cloud Computing Excellence Award for Backbone as-a-Service, Network World’s Best of Enterprise Network Award in the SDN/NaaS category, and the Gold Globee Award for IT Cloud/SaaS.

Additionally, Alkira enhanced its platform with over 110 new features and capabilities. As enterprises increasingly prioritize secure access and zero-trust architectures, the company launched its comprehensive Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution, enabling organizations to secure remote access to applications and resources across multiple clouds while maintaining strict security controls and visibility. The introduction of its Cloud Exchange Point in Google Cloud Platform marked another advancement in multi-cloud connectivity, allowing customers to establish secure, high-performance connections between more cloud providers with unprecedented ease.

Alkira also achieved several expansion milestones, including its first customer deployment in China, marking the company’s entry into one of the world’s largest technology markets. The company also expanded its global cloud backbone to over 55 regions worldwide, ensuring comprehensive coverage and optimal performance for multinational enterprises. The achievement of PCI-DSS certification further demonstrated Alkira’s commitment to maintaining the highest security standards, particularly crucial for customers in the financial services, healthcare, and retail sectors.

Customer Success, Operational Excellence, and Channel Growth

Alkira demonstrated operational efficiency, successfully deploying its solution for a retail customer with 1,000+ stores in just two weeks. Connector count grew by 150% year-over-year, reflecting strong customer adoption and expansion.

Alkira’s partner ecosystem saw notable growth in 2024, with a 255% year-over-year increase in channel Annual Contract Value (ACV). Partner engagement reached new heights with 52% of partners submitting customer opportunities, while the company expanded its global presence with new partners in China, Australia, and Canada. The team grew strategically with the addition of four new channel account managers and a channel solutions architect.

Demonstrated Business Impact

According to the Nemertes REV Report released in November, Alkira customers achieved several improvements in operational efficiency:

• Cloud Integration: 96% reduction in time required to add new clouds, enabling rapid expansion of cloud operations
• Data Center Connectivity: 93% faster connection of data centers, significantly improving network agility
• Cloud Management: 84% reduction in time spent managing clouds, freeing IT resources for strategic initiatives
• Security Infrastructure: 73% reduction in required firewalls, leading to substantial cost savings
• Partner Integration: 91% improvement in speed of adding new partners, accelerating business relationships
• Device Optimization: 44% reduction in devices needed for cloud connection, streamlining network architecture

“The hidden costs of our multi-cloud infrastructure were staggering once we correlated the data across regions, accounts, and platforms,” said Steve Savage, Network Architect at Infor. “With Alkira, we’ve not only reduced our cloud routing and firewall footprint by over 60%, but we’ve transformed our cloud network integration process from a series of niche one-off exercises into a streamlined, repeatable methodology. This allows us to accelerate time to value while maintaining robust security across our cloud estate.”

These results highlight how Alkira’s platform is reshaping traditional approaches to enterprise networking, enabling organizations to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, security, and control. As businesses face increasingly complex infrastructure demands in 2025, Alkira remains focused on delivering solutions that address the evolving needs of global enterprises.

To learn more about Alkira, please visit https://www.alkira.com.

About Alkira
Alkira is the leader in Network Infrastructure on Demand. We unify any environments, sites, and users via an enterprise network built entirely in the cloud. The network is managed using the same controls, policies, and security systems network administrators know, is available as a service, and can instantly scale as needed. There is no new hardware to deploy, software to download, or architecture to learn. Alkira’s solution is trusted by Fortune 100 enterprises, leading system integrators, and global managed service providers. Learn more at alkira.com and follow us @alkiranet.

Media Contact: 
[email protected]

SOURCE Alkira

Transaction results from oversubscribed $2B equity round announced in October 2024, and proceeds will be used to finance development of new data center campuses and purchase of equity from existing investors

DALLAS, Jan. 30, 2025 — DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class edge colocation, interconnection, and managed services, today announced a $250M equity investment from TJC LP (“TJC”, formerly “The Jordan Company”) and a $600M secondary share offering. The new funding resulted from excess investor interest in the $2B primary equity round announced in October 2024, and brings the total debt and equity raised in the past year and a half to nearly $5B.

Participants in the secondary share purchase acquired shares from existing investors and reflect the ongoing demand for, and interest in, high-quality investments in the data center sector being driven by artificial intelligence.

“We are delighted to have TJC join our investor group,” said Raul K. Martynek, DataBank’s CEO. “Their investment and the secondary offering signal both confidence in our strategy and our proven ability to execute and scale the DataBank platform.”

“We could not be more excited to partner with Raul, DataBank, and the other world-class digital infrastructure investors supporting DataBank’s robust growth plans,” said Eion Hu, Partner at TJC. “Data centers are the cornerstone of the digital transformation and artificial intelligence, and we believe DataBank is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the sustained demand for reliable, scalable, and energy-efficient infrastructure in an increasingly data-driven world.”

BofA Securities and Citizens Capital Markets Inc. acted as financial advisors for DataBank. Proskauer Rose LLP acted as legal counsel to DataBank and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to TJC.

About DataBank
DataBank helps the world’s largest enterprises, technology, and content providers ensure their data and applications are always on, always secure, always compliant, and ready to scale to meet the needs of the artificial intelligence era. Recognized by Deloitte and Inc. 5000 in 2024 as one of the fastest-growing private US companies, DataBank’s edge colocation and infrastructure footprint consists of 65+ “HPC-ready” data centers in 27+ markets, 20 interconnection hubs, and on-ramps to an ecosystem of cloud providers with virtually unlimited reach. We combine these platforms with contract portability, managed security, compliance enablement, hands-on support, and a guarantee of 100% uptime availability, to give our customers absolute confidence in their IT infrastructure and the power to create a boundless digital future for their business. To learn more, Follow us on LinkedIn or Subscribe to our YouTube channel. To tour a facility, visit DataBank or call 1(800) 840-7533.

About TJC
TJC LP, formerly known as The Jordan Company, has worked for more than 40 years with CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs across a range of industries including Consumer & Healthcare, Diversified Industrials, Industrial Technology, Logistics & Supply Chain and Technology & Infrastructure. With $32.1 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2024, TJC is managed by a senior leadership team that has invested together for over 23 years on over 85 investments. TJC has offices in New York, Chicago, Miami and Stamford. For more information, please visit www.tjclp.com.

SOURCE DataBank

Cash flow can be volatile for small and medium businesses (SMBs). Half of US B2B invoices are currently overdue, and 60% of SMBs struggle with delayed payments, damaging the foundational stability of any enterprise. Outdated, manual systems that SMBs rely on exacerbate the already fraught task of signing contracts and collecting payments on time. Anchor’s platform is the first of its kind to deliver a fully integrated, digital-first approach to managing proposals, agreements, invoicing, billing, and payments – all at no upfront cost to the customer.

At the core of Anchor’s solution is the move away from rigid, PDF-based manual workflows to digitally native and interactive proposals and agreements. This foundational shift enables unparalleled simplicity, flexibility, and certainty from the very first step of the transaction journey. Traditional workflows can involve up to 50 steps, resulting in errors, fraud, delays, and inefficiencies. Anchor digitizes and consolidates every step into one seamless system. Anchor’s customers often see a more than 30% increase in profits, reduction in revenue losses from over 5% to under 1%, and a reduction in agreement signing time from over 45 days to less than 24 hours.

“Small businesses are the beating heart of the economy, and yet too many are becoming casualties to the unnecessary manual work associated with invoicing and payments. Existing solutions can’t address the current payment challenges because they are shackled to the limiting legacy of the non-dynamic PDF era. Anchor brings a truly innovative approach, leaving behind outdated processes,” said Rom Lakritz, CEO & Co-Founder of Anchor. “We are fortunate to have industry leaders as investors supporting us on this journey, as we continue to deliver value, not just to businesses but to the broader economy they are part of.”

Anchor serves US professional service businesses, with particular strength in accounting, bookkeeping, and tax firms. With its sophisticated functionality and innovative platform, Anchor is revolutionizing how businesses operate while also presenting a radical pricing model with tremendous benefits for customers. As the only free-to-use product, with no monthly subscription or processing fees, and only a flat $5 fee per transaction, Anchor is moving away from the outmoded approach of taking a percentage of the payment being processed. Built around a vision of getting paid only when its customers are paid, Anchor is making it easier and fairer for businesses when managing their payments and invoices.

 “By transforming customer operations away from file-based point solutions to a digital-based end-to-end system, Anchor is radically improving customer efficiency, resulting in dramatic expense reduction, revenue growth and cash flow improvement. Anchor’s solution will materially improve the survival rates of small and medium businesses, driving economic growth on a broader scale,” said Sam Landman from Mosaic General Partnerships. “After witnessing their exponential growth, and hearing the intense customer love for the product, we couldn’t be more delighted to join Anchor in order to fully realize their vision.”

With tremendous growth of over 500% in 2024, the company is poised to help tens of thousands of businesses combat inefficiencies and unlock new potential. By reinventing how businesses manage time and money, Anchor is building a future where every business, no matter its size, can thrive.

About Anchor
Anchor is reinventing financial workflows for small and medium businesses by simplifying proposals, agreements, invoicing, and payments. By moving away from rigid, PDF-based workflows to digitally native proposals and interactive agreements, Anchor enables businesses to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce revenue loss, and enhance cash flow. Trusted by thousands of accounting and professional-service business owners, Anchor is committed to enabling businesses to thrive in an increasingly complex financial landscape. For more information, visit www.sayanchor.com.

Media Contact
Gavriella Weinreb
[email protected]

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2609631/Team_Anchor.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2609632/Anchor_Billing_Collections_Platform.jpg

SOURCE Anchor

John Kennedy awarded $100,000 Fellowship to transform classroom air with affordable, DIY air purifiers

GREENWICH, Conn., Jan. 30, 2025 — O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC (OSV), an investment firm that empowers creators, has awarded an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship to John Kennedy, a founder, investor and education leader based in North Carolina.

Kennedy will scale the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation’s Clean Air K12 initiative, which provides schools with grants, support and resources for do-it-yourself (DIY) air purifiers known as Corsi-Rosenthal Boxes. He will pursue the initiative’s first district-wide implementation, which will take place in the Greater Houston area.

Poorly ventilated elementary schools can significantly affect students’ health and cognitive performance. The Corsi-Rosenthal Box is a powerful, DIY air purifier that users can build for $60. It is easy to construct, with instructions available on Corsi-Rosenthal’s website. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency testing has demonstrated that, after running for one hour, the box is 99.4% effective in removing infectious aerosols in a typical room.

OSV’s founder and CEO, Jim O’Shaughnessy, commented, “The Corsi-Rosenthal Box is a simple, affordable solution to classroom air quality problems. We’re excited to support John and the Corsi-Rosenthal team in rolling out this innovation as widely as possible.”

“Nobody gets to choose the air they breathe. At Clean Air K12, we believe that schools deserve better indoor air, and that we can transform classrooms through DIY air purifiers,” said Kennedy. “The O’Shaughnessy Fellowship is a transformative opportunity for us to grow our classroom-level grant program and, for the first time, pursue system and district-level partnerships. We’re honored to be a vehicle for change and offer students and educators a fresh breath of air.”

About John Kennedy

John Kennedy is a director at the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation and leads the Clean Air K12 initiative. Previously, he founded and served as CEO of Mesa Cloud, a graduation tracking platform acquired by Panorama Education in 2023. Kennedy was a high school student when he founded Mesa Cloud in 2017. He currently leads AI Solutions for Panorama Education, is an angel investor and sits on the investment committee of a southeastern family office. Kennedy graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he was an Innovation Scholar.

About the Fellowship Program

The O’Shaughnessy Fellowships program, launched in 2023, discovers and empowers the world’s boldest creatives, builders and researchers. Fellows receive a $100,000 grant and access to OSV’s network of founders, investors and experts.

OSV will award 12 Fellowships in 2025. Applicants will also be considered for the O’Shaughnessy Grants program, which provides 20 additional $10,000 grants to promising innovators.

Kennedy is the second Fellow of 2025. More information about previous Fellows is available on OSV’s website.

Applications for the Fellowships remain open until and including April 30, 2025. Individuals interested in applying can do so via OSV’s website.

About O’Shaughnessy Ventures

OSV is a creative investment firm that empowers and inspires creators to bring their ideas to life. Founded by Jim O’Shaughnessy, a pioneer in quantitative investing, founder of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, and author of four books on investing, OSV aims to provide financial support and to partner in growing the next life-changing creative ideas.

OSV combines Jim’s deeply rooted interest in all things art, science, investing and tech with his long-held desire to establish scenarios designed to help promising creators and their inspiring ideas succeed, regardless of age, location, job history or level of education. For more information, visit OSV’s website.

Media Contact:
Ena Gong
O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC
(917) 355-7420
[email protected] 

SOURCE O’Shaughnessy Ventures

CANYON, Texas, Jan. 30, 2025 — SaveBeef.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to safeguarding the long-term viability of the beef industry, is proud to announce its launch of the Strategic Beef Reserve initiative. This forward-thinking program aims to stabilize the beef market, ensure a sustainable supply chain, and protect the interests of Ranchers, Processors, Consumers, and the environment.

As part of this groundbreaking initiative, SaveBeef.org will be accepting Bitcoin donations to fund the development and maintenance of the Strategic Beef Reserve. The decision to incorporate cryptocurrency underscores the organization’s commitment to leveraging innovative financial solutions to drive positive change in the agricultural sector.

Strategic Beef Reserve: Designed to store and manage beef stocks in a way that combats supply chain disruptions, and supports Ranchers, Processors and Consumers alike. The beef industry faces increasing challenges, from fluctuating market prices to environmental pressures and disruptions in global trade. SaveBeef.org’s Strategic Beef Reserve seeks to address these issues by creating a buffer to ensure stability and continuity within the sector. This initiative is crucial to providing Ranchers and Processors with the confidence to continue their vital work and produce high-quality beef for generations to come. Working strategically to ensure availability of beef and beef related products through herd-share and cooperative agricultural practices, the initiative will ensure that beef remains accessible even during times of crisis or supply shortages.

Bitcoin: Incorporating Bitcoin into the initiative reflects SaveBeef.org’s forward-thinking approach to funding. Bitcoin, with its decentralized nature and growing acceptance worldwide, provides an innovative and secure means for supporters to contribute. By accepting cryptocurrency donations, SaveBeef.org expands its donor base globally, opening new doors for individuals and organizations who wish to support the future of the beef industry on a global level.

“By accepting Bitcoin, SaveBeef.org is not only embracing cutting-edge technology but also aligning with the values of transparency, innovation, and global reach,” said Steve Williams, spokesperson for SaveBeef.org. “This allows us to engage with a broader audience of supporters, ensuring that the beef industry can thrive well into the future to benefit both producers and consumers.”

Donors interested in learning more about SaveBeef.org’s Strategic Beef Reserve initiative or to make a donation, please visit https://geyser.fund/project/savebeef or contact Steve Williams [email protected].

Media Contact:
Steve Williams
830-353-3199
[email protected] 

SOURCE I Am Texas Slim Foundation

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2025 — Transcend is partnering with Nomura, one of the world’s leading financial services firms, to implement Cash and Collateral Management modules that are built on Transcend’s pioneering technology. By harmonizing key operational systems and data in one platform, Nomura aims to position itself to better manage and optimize its collateral, funding, and liquidity across its Global Markets business.

Transcend and Nomura first partnered in 2019 to improve collateral operations and eligibility validation processes for bilateral derivatives. The partnership has since expanded to include optimized collateral allocations with multiple triparty agents. The Transcend platform enables users to make collateral allocation decisions using a variety of factors including haircut, asset quality, and funding maturity, among others. Following these successful engagements, Nomura made a strategic investment in Transcend in 2023.

The relationship is now further expanding to include inventory management, sources and uses, and intraday liquidity monitoring capabilities.

“We are delighted to expand our relationship with Nomura,” said Bimal Kadikar, CEO and Founder of Transcend. “With the implementation of an array of new services across business areas, we are realizing the vision of a single, unified platform for optimizing collateral, funding and liquidity across the firm.”

“Optimizing collateral and financial resources is a competitive advantage in today’s global financial economy,” said Anthony Kowalski, Chief Operating Officer of Global Rates at Nomura. “With Transcend, we have delivered value along each step of the way and are really excited about where we are headed.”

Transcend has experienced significant client growth over the last several years. Leveraging its industry-leading collateral optimization platform, businesses from asset managers to insurers to regional banks to sell-side broker-dealers are benefiting from financial resource savings, better risk management, and operational efficiency. Transcend looks forward to continued expansion of its product and company footprint in the years to come.

ABOUT TRANSCEND

Transcend is a financial technology company with a mission to improve efficiencies in capital markets through advanced technology. Our unparalleled and innovative modular technology helps clients achieve next-level performance through collateral, funding, liquidity and capital optimization solutions. With seamless connectivity to the world’s leading triparty agents, central counterparties (CCPs), custodians, and nostros, Transcend is the partner of choice for inventory analytics, optimization, and automation within a business line or across an enterprise.

Transcend has a growing roster of top-tier financial institutions including G-SIB banks, broker-dealers, asset managers, and insurance companies. Visit transcendstreet.com to learn more about how Transcend addresses an array of complex financial, operational, and regulatory concerns.

ABOUT NOMURA

Nomura is a global financial services group with an integrated network spanning approximately 30 countries and regions. By connecting markets East & West, Nomura services the needs of individuals, institutions, corporates and governments through its three business divisions: Wealth Management, Investment Management, and Wholesale (Global Markets and Investment Banking). Founded in 1925, the firm is built on a tradition of disciplined entrepreneurship, serving clients with creative solutions and considered thought leadership. For further information about Nomura, visit www.nomura.com.

SOURCE Transcend