Growth in specialty programs, preservation of historic Alfred I. duPont Institute building underscore Nemours Children’s continued commitment to Delaware andthe health of its children

WILMINGTON, Del., Dec. 17, 2024 — Nemours Children’s Health announced several significant investments today, including plans for a groundbreaking Maternal and Fetal Health Program, expansion of its neonatology, cancer and cardiology programs, and the revitalization of the historic Institute building on the Alfred I. duPont Campus in Wilmington. Investments in these projects will total $130 million in 2025—the largest one-year capital investment in Delaware in Nemours history.

Experience the full interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/nemours/9308251-en-nemours-childrens-makes-historic-investment-in-delaware

“We are proud to announce our next phase of growth as the largest provider of children’s health in Delaware,” said R. Lawrence Moss, MD, FACS, FAAP, President and CEO of Nemours Children’s Health. “Every dollar earned by Nemours is invested back into our mission. These capital investments build on Alfred I. duPont’s legacy of stewardship, and our strong financial position helps further Nemours Children’s vision to create the healthiest generations of children in Delaware and beyond.”

“Nemours has deep roots in Delaware and an enduring commitment to its children and families,” said Mark R. Marcantano, JD, President, Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware Valley. “We will continue working with our partners in state and local government, school districts, academic institutions, and community organizations to go well beyond medicine for Delaware’s kids.”

New Maternal and Fetal Health Program

Nemours will expand its Advanced Delivery Program at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware into a nationally leading, state-of-the-art Maternal and Fetal Health Program.

“As maternal-fetal care advances, Nemours sees transformational potential to elevate the health of children and families in Delaware through improved diagnostics and cutting-edge maternal-fetal therapies,” said Kate Deans, MD, MHSc, Surgeon-in-Chief, Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware Valley.

Nemours plans to expand the Advanced Delivery Program at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware to include four new labor and delivery birthing suites, eight new antepartum and postpartum rooms and three operating rooms that can be used for both fetal and maternal care.

Dr. Deans added, “It is critical that we provide these services to Delawareans who would otherwise need to leave our state to receive this level of care. This places unnecessary burden on families to travel away from their other children and their support networks. We aim to provide the highest level of quaternary care to these families right here in Delaware.”

Nemours commitment to a more comprehensive maternal-fetal health strategy has attracted distinguished specialists to expand its in utero diagnostic and surgical interventions. Three highly accomplished maternal-fetal medicine specialists will be joining the Nemours team over the next 15 months: Eric P. Bergh, MD, Julie Moldenhauer, MD, FACOG, FACMG, and Christina Paidas Teefey, MD, PMH-C.

Dr. Bergh will collaborate closely with the Advanced Delivery Program and Delaware executive team to expand Nemours existing care portfolio. Dr. Moldenhauer and Dr. Paidas Teefey will work with the Florida maternal-fetal medicine teams to offer highly specialized care in Florida.

“We are laying the foundation here in Delaware to become the nation’s first multi-hospital, multistate children’s health system providing fetal diagnosis and therapy—and, ultimately, one of the country’s largest fetal medicine programs,” said Dr. Deans.

Growth in Neonatology, Cancer and Cardiology programs

In Neonatology, Delaware’s only Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) will be expanding in 2025, adding 14 new inpatient rooms. With this expansion, the NICU will house 45 beds as a contiguous unit.

With the support of a generous donation by the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation, Nemours plans to open the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders in early 2025. Spanning 24,000 square feet, the first phase of the Moseley Foundation Institute will feature 24 inpatient beds reflecting a family-centered state-of-the-art design that overlooks the beautiful gardens of the Nemours Estate to promote healing and recovery. With further investment from Nemours with support by the Moseley Foundation, the Moseley Foundation Institute will also feature a 19,000-square-foot outpatient Day Hospital and Infusion Center—more than quadrupling its current size. In addition to providing a patient-centered care experience, the outpatient area is designed to foster clinical trial participation to advance the treatment of children with cancer, sickle cell disease and other blood disorders.

Nemours has also named two distinguished new leaders to advance its Cardiology practice: Aaron W. Eckhauser, MD, MS, will become chair of Cardiovascular Medicine, chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery and executive director of the Nemours Children’s Cardiac Center in the Delaware Valley, and Mark Twite, MA, MB, BChir, FRCP, will be chief of Cardiac Anesthesia and co-director of the Nemours Cardiac Center.

Revitalization of historic duPont Institute building

Nemours will continue to revitalize the original Alfred I. duPont Institute on its Wilmington campus as a state-of-the-art administrative office building, while paying homage to its origin as the founding A.I. duPont Institute.

The Institute opened in 1940 as a children’s orthopedic hospital and was the original health care structure funded by the Nemours Foundation. In 1984, the first major hospital expansion on the Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware campus was complete. The 450,000-square-foot expansion of Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital opened in 2014.

The renovations to the Alfred I. duPont Institute will preserve the building’s core architectural elements and maintain a direct connection to clinic spaces in the duPont Pavilion. To be completed mid-2026, the project includes an expanded, state-of-the-art Simulation Center to provide hands-on, interactive pediatric simulation experiences in a safe, realistic environment. This collaborative teaching and education enhance technical skills for care providers across the organization, improving the quality of care and leading to better outcomes.

“In the 80-plus years since our founding, Nemours has grown to become one of the nation’s most respected multistate children’s health systems,” said Marcantano. “Our commitment to Delaware’s families has only grown over the years, and that deep connection and partnership continues to advance the health of children in the First State.”

About Nemours Children’s Health
Nemours Children’s Health is one of the nation’s largest multistate pediatric health systems, which includes two free-standing children’s hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours Children’s seeks to transform the health of children by adopting a holistic health model that utilizes innovative, safe, and high-quality care, while also addressing children’s needs well beyond medicine. In producing the highly acclaimed, award-winning pediatric medicine podcast Well Beyond Medicine, Nemours underscores that commitment by featuring the people, programs and partnerships addressing whole child health. Nemours Children’s also powers the world’s most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, Nemours KidsHealth.org.

The Nemours Foundation, established through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy, and prevention programs to the children, families and communities it serves. For more information, visit Nemours.org.

SOURCE Nemours Children’s Health

The funding round was led by Morpheus Ventures with participation from Struck Capital, and Irregular Expressions. The investment will accelerate development of Salt’s proprietary AI orchestration platform and expand its market presence.

“We’re pleased to back the Salt AI team. Aber Whitcomb’s impressive track record of success in launching and scaling businesses, paired with the immense market opportunity makes this an exciting investment for us,” said Kristian Blaszczynski, Partner at Morpheus. “Very soon, AI will power almost every industry and Salt will be the engine on which enterprises execute.”

Salt offers a unified AI collaboration environment where organizations can securely connect their firewalled data to build AI automations, agentic workflows and bespoke AI solutions. With a visual drag and drop interface, and full-code capabilities, every member of an organization can collaborate in real time to build powerful AI on the Salt platform. Teams can deploy in one click to Salt’s cloud infrastructure that autoscales to meet the real-time needs of any use case.

“We’re at an inflection point where AI can transform how companies operate, but only if we make it truly accessible and actionable,” said Aber Whitcomb, CEO of Salt AI. “Salt’s platform enables teams to create powerful AI agents and workflows that automate complex tasks and drive real business impact. I’m excited to lead Salt as we help organizations build and scale their AI capabilities.”

Salt integrates with all major closed-source and open-source LLMs and supports diffusion models for generative art. Users can connect to 30+ enterprise data sources for both reading and writing, with new connections being released weekly.

To learn more about Salt AI’s platform and start building AI workflows today, visit www.salt.ai and register for their free trial.

About Salt AI
Founded in 2023 by Aber Whitcomb and Jim Benedetto, Salt’s mission is to empower every organization to harness AI to work smarter and gain competitive advantage. The platform features a visual-first interface for non-technical collaborators, and full-code capabilities for technical builders. Users can connect to all major closed and open-source LLMs and diffusion models, and integrate with 30+ enterprise data sources. Salt is the leading unified AI collaboration environment that enables organizations to build, deploy, and scale AI solutions.

About Morpheus Ventures
Founded in 2016, Morpheus Ventures is one of the largest early-stage investors based in Los Angeles, and is investing in the disruption of large markets across the technology landscape from consumer to enterprise technologies including data analytics, machine learning, robotics, transportation, and SaaS. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles and backs great entrepreneurs worldwide.

SOURCE Salt AI

Global demand for high quality hyperscale colocation capacity for cloud and AI deployments continues to accelerate in the North American market, which is significantly constrained for large, campus-scale near-term capacity. With a portfolio of secured powered land, supply chain commitments and award-winning design, construction and operations teams, the Serverfarm platform is uniquely positioned as a trusted hyperscale partner to deliver to these demands with speed and at scale. 

“Following our recent 500MW+ Houston announcement, we’re delighted to have access to additional capital to support Serverfarm’s strong track record of providing near-term capacity to key customers”, said Avner Papouchado, CEO, Serverfarm. “Rapidly accelerating cloud and AI demand together with long-term and sizable commitments from hyperscale customers is driving growth across the Serverfarm portfolio.” 

“We are grateful for our financing partners and look forward to continuing to build on the strategic long-term relationships we have with them,” said Recep Kendircioglu, Global Head of Infrastructure, Manulife Investment Management. “The strong interest that we have received from the lender community is a testament to the strength of the Serverfarm platform and the company’s significant growth potential.”

The upsize added seven new lenders to the banking syndicate, which now totals 19 lenders.

About Serverfarm 

Serverfarm is an established multi-regional data center platform that provides data center solutions to key hyperscale, webscale, technology & network customers. These data center solutions include Colocation, Data Center Design, and IT Infrastructure Management, through Serverfarm’s proprietary InCommand DMaaS technology. For more information, visit serverfarmllc.com.

About Manulife Wealth & Asset Management

As part of Manulife Financial Corporation, Manulife Wealth & Asset Management provides global investment, financial advice, and retirement plan services to 19 million individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Our mission is to make decisions easier and lives better by empowering people today to invest for a better tomorrow. As a committed partner to our clients and as a responsible steward of investor capital, we offer a heritage of risk management, deep expertise across public and private markets, and comprehensive retirement plan services. We seek to provide better investment and impact outcomes and to help people confidently save and invest for a more secure financial future. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

SOURCE Serverfarm

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 17, 2024 — Ubiquity (the “Company”), a digital communications infrastructure owner, operator, and developer has successfully secured $420 million in green construction financing facilities, with proceeds used to expand deployment of last-mile open-access fiber networks across its core markets in Texas, California, Arizona, and Nebraska.

This financing milestone was achieved through the closing of the Company’s $275 million Green Construction Credit Facility led by Goldman Sachs and Nomura, alongside a successful upsize to $145 million of the Company’s existing Green Revolving Credit Facility led by Woodforest National Bank and a consortium of syndicate lenders. Proceeds from both facilities complement equity from existing sponsors, Generate Capital PBC (“Generate”) and 1248 Holdings, building upon Ubiquity’s track record of growth to expand its fiber network footprint, bringing high speed internet to more homes and businesses. Both facilities align with Green Loan Principles and Generate’s Green Financing Framework.

“Ubiquity has reached a significant financing milestone, further optimizing the Company’s capital structure,” said Jamie Earp, Ubiquity co-CEO and managing partner. “The continued support from investors and lenders will facilitate the efficient deployment of capital into Ubiquity’s core markets and delivery of best-in-class broadband to the customers and communities we serve.”

Founded in 2019, Ubiquity has been a trailblazer in the U.S. due to its differentiated open-access business model led by veterans of the digital infrastructure space, including former Tier 1 carrier network planners, builders, and operators. Ubiquity’s last-mile open-access fiber networks are critical communications infrastructure that enables a new generation of more energy-efficient connectivity, provides customer choice, and deepens its competitive moat with multi-tenant capabilities.

Designed to support multiple tenants through high-capacity engineering, Ubiquity’s open-access networks flexibly deliver both lit and dark fiber services. The Company’s networks provide dedicated fiber for all residential and business connectivity use cases and are also capable of serving high-speed enterprise and carrier backhaul needs in parallel.

“Since inception, Ubiquity’s unique vision and ability to deliver open-access fiber networks at scale continues to deliver value to stakeholders through rapid deployment and customer acquisition,” said Ajay Ghanekar, Ubiquity co-CEO and managing partner.

Ubiquity’s strong track record of growth has delivered hundreds of thousands of addresses across its core four-state footprint, positioning Ubiquity as one of the largest privately funded Fiber-to-the-Premise builders in the country. The Company’s national fiber footprint has been further strengthened via its recently announced third-party partnership with AT&T, which includes opportunities to both add AT&T as a second tenant on Ubiquity’s existing networks as well as execute exclusive greenfield builds in new markets.

About Ubiquity
Ubiquity invests, develops, and manages digital communications infrastructure throughout the United States. Focusing on last-mile connectivity, Ubiquity’s open-access fiber platform is the largest and fastest growing of its type in the United States. The company partners with ISPs, wireless carriers, utilities, and municipalities to deliver connectivity and sustainability solutions in underserved communities. Please visit ubiquitygp.com for more information.

SOURCE Ubiquity

Media Capital Partnership Accelerates U.S. Expansion

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Dec. 17, 2024 — Mercurius Media Capital (MMC), the first U.S. media-for-equity fund, has announced a $6 million media capital investment in Airtasker Limited, a leading online marketplace for local services, to expand its U.S. presence. 

With the U.S. gig economy contributing over $1.2 trillion annually and projected double-digit growth, Airtasker’s platform is well-positioned to meet current demand and capitalize on future expansion.

“Airtasker’s success in Australia and expansion into the UK and U.S. showcase its potential as a global gig economy leader. Under Tim Fung’s leadership, the company is redefining how people connect with local service providers. We’re excited to support their growth through our media capital model.” said Piyush Puri, Founding Partner of MMC.

Media capital is a proven venture model where growth-stage startups trade equity with media companies in exchange for mass market reach and expertise. Bringing together premium media publishers under one roof, Mercurius Media Capital enables startups and media partners to compete for market share in the digital media landscape. The infusion of media resources will allow Airtasker Limited to scale its reach.

“We’re thrilled to partner with MMC to create new job opportunities across the U.S.,” said Airtasker Founder, Tim Fung. “MMC’s’ expansive portfolio of media partners and impressive record of investment in media for equity to scale world-changing technology will be invaluable. We can’t wait to get started!”

The media capital model is a fast-growing alternative capital source that has fueled the success of more than 1000+ startups globally, including Uber, Coursera and Airbnb.  

About Mercurius Media Capital
Mercurius Media Capital (MMC) is a U.S.-based independent media fund backed by leading media companies, including Sinclair Broadcast Group, TelevisaUnivision, and Willow TV. With over $50 million in media capital, MMC pools premium media inventory at scale to create a powerful platform for portfolio companies to build their brands and accelerate growth.

Through strategic partnerships with its media partners, MMC helps emerging brands amplify their U.S. presence, driving success in a competitive market. The fund has supported several high-growth companies, including Deskera (a B2B SaaS ERP platform), Edly (a fintech platform for students), RVnGo (a peer-to-peer RV rental platform), and Captain Experiences (a leading outdoor sports marketplace).

For more information, visit www.mmc.us.

About Airtasker Limited
Airtasker Limited (ASX: ART) is a leading online marketplace for local services, connecting people and businesses who need work done with people who want to work. With a mission to empower people to realize the full value of their skills, Airtasker aims to have a positive impact on the future of work by creating truly flexible opportunities to work and earn income. Since launching in 2012, Airtasker has put more than $600m into the pockets of workers (payments made after all fee revenue is deducted) and served 1.8m unique paying customers across the world. For more information visit: www.airtasker.com.

Media Contact
Interdependence PR
Angelic Venegas, Account Director
[email protected]  

SOURCE Mercurius Media Capital

We believe Altriarch’s historical three-year performance demonstrates the strategy’s potential to generate risk-adjusted returns for institutional investors.*

CHARLESTON, S.C., Dec. 17, 2024 — Altriarch Asset Management (“Altriarch”), a private credit firm, announced today that it has reached its three-year performance milestone following the launch of its lender finance strategy in November 2021.  Altriarch leverages rigorous research to design financing solutions suited to underserved markets.  Its approach emphasizes discipline, innovation and risk management, catering to institutional investors seeking exposure to alternative credit strategies.

The Firm’s disciplined and innovative investment solutions have fueled significant AUM growth.  This progress is supported by strong investor confidence, including a recent $70 million commitment from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.

Strategy Highlights:

• Investment Focus: Crafting tailored asset-based loans secured by accounts receivable and related assets, targeting fragmented markets not well served by traditional lenders.
• Annualized Yields: 14.00% in 2022, 14.41% in 2023, and on pace to achieve a net target of 14.00% in 2024.
• Flagship Fund: Altriarch Specialty Finance Fund, LP, launched in August 2023, positioning itself to address evolving market opportunities and demand.

Danielle Brown, General Partner, commented on the strategy’s achievements and approach, saying, “We are proud of our progress over the past three years.  AUM growth and achieving consistent returns are both significant accomplishments made possible by the trust of our investors and the hard work of our team.  We remain focused on delivering tailored financing solutions that create value for both our investors and the niche markets we serve, empowering businesses to thrive.”

*Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There can be no assurance that any Altriarch investment or strategy will achieve its objectives or avoid substantial losses.

About Altriarch

Altriarch Asset Management is a private credit firm based in Charleston, South Carolina, specializing in asset-based credit solutions for fragmented markets underserved by traditional lenders.  The Firm provides investors, including institutional investors and family offices, with access to various investment opportunities.  For more information, please visit www.altriarch.com.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION

Past performance is not indicative of future results.  This information is provided for illustrative purposes only and is not a prediction, projection or guarantee of future performance.  The investments discussed herein may be unsuitable for investors depending on their specific investment objectives and financial position.  Investors should independently evaluate each investment discussed in the context of their own objectives, risk profile and circumstances.

Alternative investments often are speculative, typically have higher fees than traditional investments, often include a high degree of risk and are appropriate only for eligible, long-term investors who are willing to forgo liquidity and put capital at risk for an indefinite period of time.  They may be highly illiquid and can engage in leverage and other speculative practices that may increase volatility and risk of loss.

SOURCE Altriarch Asset Management

Funding led by new investor Thrive Capital

Company expects to cross $3B in revenue run rate and achieve positive free cash flow in fourth quarter

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17, 2024 — Databricks, the Data and AI company, today announced its Series J funding. The company is raising $10 billion of expected non-dilutive financing and has completed $8.6 billion to date. This funding values Databricks at $62 billion and is led by Thrive Capital. Along with Thrive, the round is co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, Insight Partners and WCM Investment Management. Other significant participants include existing investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and new investors ICONIQ Growth, MGX, Sands Capital and Wellington Management.

The company has seen increased momentum and accelerated growth (over 60% year-over-year) in recent quarters largely due to the unprecedented interest in artificial intelligence. To satisfy customer demand, Databricks intends to invest this capital towards new AI products, acquisitions, and significant expansion of its international go-to-market operations. In addition to fueling its growth, this capital is expected to be used towards providing liquidity for current and former employees, as well as pay related taxes. Finally, this quarter marks the first time the company is expected to achieve positive free cash flow.

“We were substantially oversubscribed with this round and are super excited to bring on some of the world’s most well-known investors who have a deep conviction in our vision. These are still the early days of AI. We are positioning the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to deliver long-term value for our customers and our team is committed to helping companies across every industry build data intelligence,” said Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks. “We’re building transformative data and AI infrastructure and excited to move aggressively in service of our customers and their success.”

The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform democratizes access to data and AI, making it easier for organizations to harness the power of their data for analytics, machine learning, and AI applications. Built on an open source foundation, the platform enables organizations to drive innovation to increase revenue, lower costs, and reduce risk. Customers use the Data Intelligence Platform to find and treat diseases and cancer earlier, identify new ways to combat climate change, detect financial fraud, develop pharmaceuticals faster, reduce time to mental health intervention, decrease local financial inequality and much more.

“Databricks, driven by its mission to democratize data and AI, has emerged as the platform of choice,” said Joshua Kushner, CEO of Thrive Capital. “We have witnessed the team’s unrelenting execution, and consider it an honor to be partners with the company for the long term.”

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of Databricks’ recent momentum which includes:

• Growing over 60% year-over-year in the third quarter ended October 31, 2024
• Expecting to cross $3 billion revenue run-rate and be free cash flow positive in the fourth quarter ending January 31, 2025
• Continuing to achieve non-GAAP subscription gross margins above 80%
• Having 500+ customers consuming at over $1 million annual revenue run-rate
• Achieving $600 million revenue run rate for Databricks SQL, the company’s intelligent data warehousing product, up more than 150% year-over-year

Databricks’ momentum builds upon a year of global business expansion. To continue to serve its customers around the world, Databricks announced its new European regional hub in London and Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) regional hub in Singapore, as well as an expanded presence in Latin America and the Middle East.

About Databricks

Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Block, Comcast, Condé Nast, Rivian, Shell and over 60% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to take control of their data and put it to work with AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on X, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Databricks

Acre is a new way to buy a home that streamlines the end-to-end homeownership experience and delivers compelling financial outcomes.

DURHAM, N.C., Dec. 17, 2024 — Acre Homes, a tech-enabled real estate company, announced the successful close of a seed round led by Anthemis, bringing its total venture capital raised to over $10MM. The fundraise included notable participation from Sovereign’s Capital, Home Technology Ventures, Studio VC, Front Porch Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, and former CEO of Invitation Homes Fred Tuomi. The funding will support the company’s efforts to accelerate growth in existing markets, including newly launched Atlanta.

“We believe Acre is well-positioned to deliver a sorely needed, consumer-centric solution in real estate,” said Sean Park, Founder, CIO and General Partner at Anthemis. “The team’s deep expertise and unique approach to solving a very real, very complex problem is impressive, and we look forward to supporting their growth.”

“Our team is thrilled to have secured this investment, particularly given the challenges of the current fundraising environment,” said Mike Schneider, CEO and Co-founder of Acre Homes. “This success is a reflection of the quality of our team, encouraging market traction, and the widespread interest in supporting innovative housing solutions. We founded this company because buying a home no longer makes sense for a growing number of Americans. Compared to a mortgage, Acre delivers an exceptional homebuying experience and compelling financial outcomes. This round enables us to expand our reach and impact for even more prospective home buyers.”

Acre was founded in 2021 by Mike Schneider (First, RE/MAX), Kent Keirsey (US Army, First, Collective Health), Pete Crawford (US Army, McKinsey & Company), and Irene Tollinger (NASA, Collective Health), experienced entrepreneurs in real estate and technology. In just three years, Acre has successfully launched in the greater Raleigh and Atlanta metro areas, serving a broad range of customers looking for a strong alternative to both renting and a traditional mortgage.

Early Acre customers include growing families, mobile professionals, and both new and experienced homebuyers. Compared with a traditional mortgage, the average Acre customer has saved $9K in purchase costs, and is projected to benefit from an additional $50K through ongoing savings and home appreciation*.

About Acre Homes
Acre Homes is a Durham, NC-based company building a better way for customers to buy and live in homes they love. The company’s modern approach simplifies the home buying process and provides flexible, financially attractive options for residents. Acre’s unique shared home appreciation model gives customers a way to benefit from their home’s appreciation without debt. To learn more, visit www.acrehomes.com.

Media Contact
Genie Ko
(984) 266-2101
[email protected]

SOURCE Acre Homes

The Eclipse-led round positions Starboard to meet soaring demand for AI-powered logistics solutions, addressing increasingly complex global trade challenges

TORONTO, Dec. 17, 2024 — Starboard, an emerging leader in AI-powered logistics solutions, announced today it has raised $5.5 million in funding led by Eclipse, with participation from previous backers Garuda Ventures and Everywhere Ventures. This funding will fuel Starboard’s mission to create the default digital platform for global trade, expanding its engineering team in Toronto and accelerating its AI-driven product development to simplify supply chain complexities.

As global trade grows more complex, the logistics industry is under immense pressure to adapt. Recent events like the U.S. port strike highlight the vulnerability of the global supply chain and the critical need for innovative solutions to streamline operations and reduce costs for operators. Notably, U.S. business logistics costs reached $2.4 trillion in 2023, accounting for 8.7% of the nation’s GDP, reflecting the challenges companies face in adjusting to shifting consumer demand.

Starboard is building the virtual infrastructure for global trade, allowing freight companies to leverage AI and machine learning to optimize their operations. This includes processing shipments in real time, reconciling invoices, following up on payments, and more. With strong demand for AI-powered logistics, Starboard’s tools have demonstrated the ability to reduce operational expenses by up to 50%, allowing smaller freight businesses to focus on strategic tasks and improve competitiveness in a complex industry. Given that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent about 90% of businesses worldwide and more than 50% of employment, Starboard’s solutions have the potential to make a substantial impact on the global supply chain.

“This investment is a pivotal step in our mission to unlock the power of AI for our customers,” said Sumeet Trehan, Co-Founder and CEO of Starboard. “Global trade has long been plagued by inefficiencies that drive up costs and reduce competitiveness. Our platform is designed to empower SMB freight forwarders—the backbone of more than $20 trillion in global trade and $1 trillion in logistics spend—with the tools they need to thrive in this complex ecosystem.”

Since launching its AI-powered platform, Starboard has grown shipment counts and is planning to reach $2M ARR in 2025. Recent product milestones include the launch of the Starboard Control Tower, which helps freight forwarders streamline shipment operations. Their AI reduces manual data entry, automates document generation, handles regulatory filings, and follows up with vendors, making global trade easier and more efficient. It also launched a real-time quoting tool that leverages AI and machine learning to enhance quoting accuracy and speed.

“As global trade becomes increasingly complex, there is a growing need for AI-driven transformation in logistics,” said Kaitlyn Glancy, Partner at Eclipse. “By addressing these complexities, the Starboard team is delivering solutions that make logistics more efficient and accessible, empowering companies of all sizes — and economies — to thrive.”

Fueled by this funding round, Starboard will continue to build a robust engineering team based in Toronto and accelerate its product roadmap.

“Starboard’s successful funding round demonstrates Toronto’s growing strength as a global hub for AI and logistics innovation,” said Stephen Lund, CEO of Toronto Global. “As Toronto continues to enable and grow transformative companies like Starboard, we’re seeing the real impact of combining artificial intelligence with traditional industries to solve global challenges.”

“It will take a special combination of domain expertise and technological savvy to truly penetrate this market,” said Rishi Taparia, Co-Founder and General Partner at Garuda Ventures. “That’s why we were thrilled to partner with Sumeet and the Starboard team earlier this year as they got started, and excited to welcome Katilyn and Eclipse to the team as we reimagine logistics and global trade with AI.”

“Starboard has, within record time, gained investor and customer confidence. This successful seed fundraise is a testament of the potential we see in the big idea and initial solution portfolio,” said Kamal Aissa, Partner at Kearney, MEA.

For more information, visit www.starboard.biz.

About Starboard
Starboard is building virtual infrastructure for global trade. Their flagship product is an AI based TMS and rate management system that helps mid sized freight forwarders operate more efficiently and win more business. Based in Toronto, Starboard’s team combines legacy industry expertise with advanced technology from companies like Flexport, Maersk, Google and Linkedin. For more information, please visit www.starboard.biz.

SOURCE Starboard