Al Capone’s Life-Saving and Favorite Colt .45 Pistol With Valentine’s Day Date Engraving, that he Nicknamed “The Sweetheart” Headed to Auction This Weekend, Saturday May 18th, at 3:00pm EST

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, May 15, 2024 — The world famous “Sweetheart,” Al Capone’s favorite Colt 1911 gun that saved his life many times, nicknamed “Sweetheart”, is heading to auction this weekend, online, in person, and via telephone, on Saturday May 18th at 3:00 p.m EST, at RichmondAuctions.com. Highly sought-after firearms from famous historical figures have consistently sold for millions in recent auctions, such as Ulysses S. Grant’s twin revolvers which sold for over $5 million, and Pat Garrett’s Colt revolver that sold for over $6 million. With a similar estimate to Pat Garret’s Colt revolver, Capone’s “Sweetheart” Colt pistol, bearing the patent engraving date of Valentine’s Day, that includes a package of pristine provenance, authenticity, and historical manufacturer’s documentation, carries a pre-auction estimated value of $2-3 million, and is expected to command a premium price. Prospective buyers may register online at RichmondAuctions.com.

Capone is often credited for saying that you can do more with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile alone. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, stories were even told that he had a gun in his hand right out of the womb. Capone’s oldest granddaughter, Diane Capone, shares in interviews that The Sweetheart was a constant companion to one of the wealthiest men in the country, oftentimes described as the most shot at man in America, and that Capone called his Colt 1911 his favorite gun and “Sweetheart” for saving his life on many occasions. With multiple bounties on Capone’s head by various rivals, the list of failed attempts on Capone’s life was long and a source of public fascination. Notable among these are the September 1925 North Side Gang ambush and the November 1927 machine gun assassination attempt by Joe Aielllo’s men.

According to Harvard Business School researchers, Capone’s intelligence made him a force to be reckoned with. Often referred to by friends and reporters as “The Big Shot”, “The Big Guy”, and “Big Al”, Capone’s personal style and tastes also contributed to his enduring legacy as the archetypal gangster and the most recognizable outlaw in popular culture. Considered an underdog from small beginnings, Capone started working at a candy store, then at the Harvard Inn for his mentor Frankie Yale, and later as a bodyguard and driver for Johnny Torrio. Capone’s first business card read “Furniture Dealer”. With operational efficiencies and brutal tactics, Capone built a vast enterprise with annual revenues topping $100 million. Capone famously stated, “this American system of ours, call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you like, gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it.”

As a gun of choice for the Delta Force and elite fighting units around the world, the Colt 1911’s history in battle has earned it the reputation as a trusted friend in dangerous places. Often credited with winning two World Wars, the 1911 serves as a symbol and personification of courage and protection; in the words of Capone, “experience has taught me that there are two things that people will always pay for: protection and pleasure.” The defensive firearm is also regarded as an asset on the competitive shooting circuit. The Sweetheart 1911 heirloom pistol was later modified by Capone’s only son, Sonny, whom he referred to as “son of my heart,” for competition shooting as a master-level marksman. The legendary 1911 Colt is regarded as a modern mechanical marvel and highly favored for its timeless design, accuracy, versatility, and reliability.

“Pre-auction interest continues to mount with motivated buyers placing starting bids, currently at $825,000, long before the excitement of the auction begins. This is one of the most historically significant and valuable guns of the 20th century. The gravity of the gun in your hands gives you the goosebumps. If there is a gun with the demand and potential to set new world records, this is the one. The incomparable collectability of The Sweetheart paired with the rare opportunity to own it, is simply electrifying and has attracted interest from a wide range of buyers including, private equity managers, museums, and parties from all over the world, including Japan, Australia, Italy, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, India, Mexico, Israel, England, China, and Germany. This Colt 1911 gun is more than a celebrity historical firearm; its romantic nickname, absolutely stunning presentation, profound storytelling value, and unique connection to Capone, make this gun a must-have and centerpiece for the world-class collector.” remarked Kim Williams, firearms specialist at Richmond Auctions, which recently set a world record for its sale of the most valuable antique advertising sign for $1.5 million, far exceeding the previous record of $400,000, and also recently sold several of the famed John Wayne’s family-owned firearms.

Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE Richmond Auctions

Investment to support Alkira’s exponential growth as the first end-to-end secure network infrastructure platform as-a-service, addressing significant demand as enterprises transition networks to meet rising cloud and A.I. needs

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 15, 2024 — Alkira®, the leader in on-demand network infrastructure as-a-service, today announced the closing of a $100 million Series C funding round, bringing the company’s total funding raised to date to $176 million. The round was led by Tiger Global Management, a leading global investment firm, with additional investment from Dallas Venture Capital, Geodesic Capital and NextEquity Partners; and participation from existing investors, including, Kleiner Perkins, Koch Disruptive Technologies and Sequoia Capital.

“The explosive growth of cloud applications and A.I. workloads are fueling a surge in demand for agile, secure, scalable cost-efficient networking solutions,” said Amir Khan, CEO at Alkira. “We’re fortunate to have strong partners to help us meet that demand while we accelerate growth, explore exciting new opportunities, and continue delivering exceptional value to our customers. Our talented team is the engine behind Alkira’s success, and we’re deeply grateful for their hard work and dedication in getting us to this point.”

Delivering Agility, Security and Scalability in the Cloud-First Era

According to Gartner, in 2024, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to total $679 billion and projected to exceed $1 trillion in 2027. This digital transformation is compelling enterprises to rethink their complete network infrastructure. Long-term trends like Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) are further reshaping how organizations use data, making efficient and secure networking even more critical. With its innovative network infrastructure as-a-service platform, Alkira empowers businesses to seamlessly deploy, manage and optimize their entire network infrastructure to prioritize efficiency, agility, security and scalability.

Alkira’s Differentiators

Alkira provides a unique value proposition by offering:

• On-demand network infrastructure as-a-service with integrated security and networking services available globally
• The ability to securely connect any cloud, any on-prem location, any remote user or app to any other point of presence
• Agility, elasticity, intelligence, security, and scale for traditional networking use cases
• A platform to build global, secure networks in minutes, eliminating the need to acquire hardware, manage physical circuits, and run software appliances or agents on-site

“Increasing cloud and A.I. use is also increasing the complexity, velocity, and scale requirements of network infrastructure,” said Rohit Iragavarapu, investor at Tiger Global.  “We believe Alkira is well positioned to unlock the growing potential of this rapidly evolving space with its visionary approach, market traction, and cutting-edge technology.”

“The future of technology is predicated on innovative solutions that are not only powerful but also accessible and easy to use,” said Avie Tevanian, co-founder and managing director of NextEquity Partners. “Alkira’s on-demand networking infrastructure is exactly that – it delivers tremendous value and simplifies the most difficult network challenges for enterprises. We’re excited to be a part of their journey as they continue to push the boundaries of network infrastructure.”

“Co-founders Amir Khan and Atif Khan, who successfully built and exited a networking company, have now put together an incredible team with deep technical knowledge and expertise in the networking space,” said Arvind Ayyala, partner, investments at Geodesic Capital. “We’re proud to support their innovative approach to creating on-demand network infrastructure and a comprehensive solution addressing both NaaS and cloud networking while integrating security — all crucial and perfectly aligned with today’s cloud and AI-first era.” 

“The entertainment industry never sleeps, and Warner Music Group has been working with Alkira for years to revolutionize how we manage and protect our network infrastructure,” said John Remo, SVP, global infrastructure and security at Warner Music Group. “Alkira’s innovative platform has not only simplified network management but has also empowered us to prioritize business growth initiatives with confidence. With Alkira, we’ve gained the agility and flexibility needed to navigate the dynamic entertainment landscape, and we look forward to the future, together.”

Accelerating Innovation

The substantial Series C investment will fuel Alkira’s efforts to accelerate innovation and revolutionize how networks are consumed by enterprises, including by:

• Expanding its best-in-class multi-cloud networking solution portfolio;
• Delivering new connectivity models for the global Wide Area Network (WAN) network;
• Further simplifying how customers connect to their business partners;
• Increasingly allow customers to stop looking at networking and security in isolation and instead providing them an end-to-end secure network;
• Readying the network for increased A.I. workloads and leveraging A.I. for efficient networking (Networking for A.I. and A.I. for networking).

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

About Alkira
Alkira is the leader in on-demand network infrastructure as-a-service. We unify multiple clouds, 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, no software to download, and no cloud 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.

About Tiger Global Management
Founded in 2001, Tiger Global Management, LLC (“Tiger Global”) is a New York-based investment firm pursuing a long-term approach to investing in leading, global public and private companies that leverage technological innovation. Tiger Global’s public equity business includes fundamentally oriented long/short, long-focused and crossover strategies, targeting investments in high-quality, public growth companies. The private equity business invests in early through late stage companies that pursue innovative approaches to new and existing industries, building on over 20 years of experience investing in hundreds of businesses in more than 30 countries with more than 90 portfolio company IPOs. With a strong track record investing across sectors and stages, Tiger Global aims to be a thought partner to companies and their management teams across their lifecycle in public and private markets.  The Firm’s mission is to generate world-class returns for its investors and to do so in a way that makes its employees, partners and portfolio companies proud.

Media Contacts                                                                                                                            

Lumina Communications for Alkira
[email protected]

SOURCE Alkira

Founded in 2023, Haven has quickly gained significant traction in the market, serving 120 customers, including notable startups such as Mesh, Martian, Coframe, and many others. The company’s success is attributed to its unique approach to accounting, which prioritizes exceptional customer service and the use of technology to automate repetitive tasks.

“We’re thrilled to have the support of such an incredible group of investors as we continue to grow and redefine the accounting experience for startups and SMBs,” said Cyrus Shirazi, CEO and founder of Haven. “Our focus on providing a world-class customer experience and leveraging technology to streamline processes has resonated with our clients, and we’re excited to use this funding to further enhance our services.”

Haven’s founding team, led by Shirazi, works together in the Hudson Valley, NY, fostering a unique culture of collaboration and customer-centricity. Shirazi brings extensive experience to his role, having served as the first business hire at fintech bank Meow and as an early employee at tax credit firm MainStreet.

With well over 50% of its growth driven by organic referrals, warm introductions, and inbound leads, Haven has demonstrated the effectiveness of its customer-first approach. The company plans to use the funds raised to invest in delivering the best customer experience in the accounting industry, building technology and hiring top-tier talent.

For more information about Haven and its services, please visit www.usehaven.com.

About Haven:

Haven is a modern accounting team that combines exceptional customer service with advanced technology to provide startups and SMBs with a seamless, stress-free accounting experience. Founded in 2023, Haven has quickly established itself as an emerging leader in the industry, serving over 120 clients and achieving profitability within its first year of operation.

SOURCE Haven

MONTREAL, May 15, 2024 – Relocalize, a Quebec-based cleantech startup, today announced the 2nd closing of its $5.8 million seed funding round to scale up its autonomous microfactory platform, raising $1 million more capital than originally anticipated.

Relocalize cuts greenhouse gas emissions and costs by deploying microfactories at grocery distribution centers to produce food and beverages hyper-locally. By decentralizing production, Relocalize is able to eliminate 100% of middle-mile transportation and de-risk supply chains.

This seed extension was spearheaded by Desjardins Capital with ongoing support from initial seed investors, including i4 Capital, Waterpoint Lane, and RGS Ice. The investment will be used to accelerate the development and deployment of Relocalize’s technology platform and deploy full-scale microfactories in Canada and the United States. The company plans to double its engineering team in the coming months to meet strong demand from retailers in the packaged ice market segment.

D. Wayne McIntyre, CEO of Relocalize, emphasized the impact of the new funding: “Bringing on a capital partner like Desjardins Capital at the seed stage gives our vision for a truck-free future for manufactured foods a huge boost. We’ll be moving quickly to scale up deployments of our first-to-world micro-factories with grocery retailers.”

Nathalie Bernard, Chief Operating Officer at Desjardins Capital, said: “Relocalize’s vision is to provide solutions to reduce the environmental impact of food and beverage production and transportation. This investment is consistent with Desjardins Group’s objective of achieving, by 2040, a net zero emissions balance sheet on its extended operations and on its equity financing and investment activities in three key carbon-intensive sectors: energy, transportation and real estate.” 

This seed round extension follows the first seed round closing of $3.5M in September, led by i4 Capital, a Quebec-based deeptech fund, Waterpoint Lane, a Toronto-based impact fund and RGS Ice based in California.

About Relocalize

Relocalize is pioneering the transformation of the food system sustainability through decentralized production. Their autonomous production platforms, strategically positioned in retailer distribution centers, aim to disrupt traditional food and beverage industries by eliminating unnecessary transportation and associated emissions. For more information, visit https://www.relocalize.com/. 

About Desjardins Capital

Backed by 50 years’ expertise, Desjardins Capital‘s mission is to contribute to the prosperity of individuals and communities by investing in the growth of Quebec businesses. With assets under management of $3 billion as of December 31, 2023, Desjardins Capital contributes to the longevity of nearly 760 companies, cooperatives and funds in various sectors of activity from all regions of the province. In addition to contributing to socio-economic development, productivity and the adoption of sustainable practices, this subsidiary of Desjardins Group offers entrepreneurs access to a broad business network, enabling them to be accompanied and supported in their projects. 

SOURCE Relocalize

BOSTON, May 15, 2024 — Metaplane, the leading data observability platform, today announced an investment from Snowflake Ventures, on the heels of a sharp increase in joint customers with Snowflake, strategic product development, and Metaplane’s Series A fundraising announcement just a few months ago led by Felicis Ventures. This brings Metaplane’s total investment to just over $23M raised within the past 2 years, with additional investor participation from Khosla Ventures, Flybridge, Y Combinator, Stage 2 Capital, B37, and SNR.

Metaplane was founded to help save time and preserve trust for data teams. Their data observability platform proactively detects data quality issues before downstream users are impacted. This is accomplished with proprietary ML-based anomaly detection, end-to-end column-level lineage to ease incident management, and tools to help proactively prevent incidents before they occur.

Several of Metaplane’s high-impact product investments were built specifically for joint customers with Snowflake, including:

The growing list of joint customers includes the fastest-growing startups like Ramp, Klaviyo, and ClickUp as well as leading enterprises like Bose and Sotheby’s. As more users choose the Snowflake Data Cloud for their analytics, ML / AI, and application development, the need to ensure trusted, accurate, high-quality data is higher than ever.

“Like the iPhone, Snowflake is an enabling technology,” says Kevin Hu, CEO of Metaplane. “While companies have been running SQL scripts to check data quality for decades, Snowflake has made it possible to achieve continuous visibility into the state of your data. They have not only enabled the category of data observability but also have been the central partner in its ongoing development.”

“However, this is only the beginning. As Snowflake continues to push our industry forward across data, apps, and AI, the need for reliable data will only grow. Their investment supports our commitment to developing the best-in-class integration for both the existing Metaplane service and our Snowflake Native App. If Snowflake is the iPhone of data platforms, Metaplane is the AirPods – seamlessly integrated and best when paired together.”

Metaplane’s near-term product roadmap for the Snowflake Data Cloud integration includes support for Snowflake features such as Tasks, Streams, Secure Data Share, Snowpipe, Snowpark, Snowflake Native Apps, Streamlit in Snowflake, and Snowpark Container Services. Together, these integrations empower customers with some of the most critical workloads such as data engineering, collaboration, application development, and AI/ML.

“Snowflake customers continue to expand the possibilities of data by leveraging innovative features in the Data Cloud, such as Snowpark, Dynamic Tables, and the Snowflake Native App Framework,” said Ashwin Kamath, Senior Product Manager, Observability at Snowflake. “We chose to invest in Metaplane because it helps ensure the high-quality data necessary across these initiatives. Outside of the perfect technical fit and strength of their team, joint customer feedback on how Metaplane and Snowflake work together has been resoundingly positive.”

About Metaplane
Metaplane ensures that companies can trust the data that powers their business. Metaplane’s best-in-class data observability platform monitors your data warehouse to catch data quality issues when they happen and help prevent incidents before they occur. In doing so, Metaplane helps avoid costly mistakes, saves data teams hours spent debugging, and fixes issues before downstream users and customers are affected. To learn more or get started for free, visit https://www.metaplane.dev.

Media Contact 
[email protected]

SOURCE Metaplane

PHOENIX, May 15, 2024 — Trinity Capital Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIN) (“Trinity”), a leading provider of diversified financial solutions to growth-stage companies, today announced the commitment of $25 million in growth capital to Elevate K-12 (“Elevate”), a Chicago-based company that provides high-quality synchronous LIVE teaching for K-12 classrooms in the United States.

Elevate delivers high-quality LIVE teaching to K-12 classrooms from state-certified and qualified teachers to solve the challenges caused by teacher vacancies across the country. The company was featured in Time and Statista’s list of the top 250 EdTech companies and was recently recognized as one of Forbes’ America’s Best Startup Employers for 2024.

“We are excited to be part of the Elevate K-12 journey,” said Kevin Zeidan, Managing Director, Tech Lending at Trinity. “Their commitment to providing high-quality, live instruction to underserved schools across the country is essential, and we look forward to the company’s continued expansion and growth.”

This new growth capital will enable Elevate to increase working capital, scale operations, and fund growth initiatives.

“Elevate is boldly creating the new category of LIVE teaching to ensure all children receive a remarkable education, because that is what they deserve,” said Shaily Baranwal, CEO and Founder of Elevate. “This capital enables us to accelerate our ability to serve the needs of schools, districts, students, and teachers.”

About Trinity Capital Inc.

Trinity Capital Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIN), an internally managed business development company, is a leading provider of diversified financial solutions to growth-stage companies with institutional equity investors. Trinity Capital’s investment objective is to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation through investments, including term loans and equipment financings and equity-related investments. Trinity Capital believes it is one of only a select group of specialty lenders that has the depth of knowledge, experience and track record in lending to growth stage companies. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.trinitycap.com.

About Elevate K-12

Elevate K-12 is a Chicago-based instructional services company that brings remarkable LIVE teaching to K-12 classrooms across the U.S. Schools and districts partner with Elevate K-12 to provide effective and engaging teaching to their students in any classroom, especially in hard-to-staff subjects. Its tech-enabled service was built for K-12 education and is powered by certified, qualified teachers using state-aligned curriculums. Elevate K-12 is rapidly expanding throughout the U.S., providing equity in education nationwide. For more information, visit elevatek12.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Trinity Capital Inc.

Latest raise to support continued sales growth, product innovation, and acquisitions.

IRVINE, Calif., May 15, 2024 — Restaurant365, the leading all-in-one restaurant enterprise management platform, today announced a $175 million funding round led by long-term partner ICONIQ Growth with participation from current investors, including KKR and L Catterton. The funding comes on the heels of 12 consecutive quarters exceeding sales targets, which drives confidence in future growth potential. 

“Restaurant365’s growth is a testament to their ability to create powerful solutions that bolster operations, improve margins and empower the workforce at restaurant companies of all sizes,” said Will Griffith, Founding Partner of ICONIQ Growth. “We’re honored to participate in this incredible opportunity to help the restaurant industry succeed in a way that once seemed impossible.”

Proceeds from the round will be invested in expanding enterprise features and growing the workforce and payroll product suite to continue supporting the world’s largest, most notable hospitality brands. Funds will also strengthen the company’s balance sheet to facilitate future acquisitions and support continued organic growth.

“We’re grateful our investors continue to value the business and its upward trajectory as demonstrated by this most recent vote of confidence,” said Restaurant365 CEO and Co-founder Tony Smith. “We take that trust from them seriously as well as the trust placed in us by our customers and the industry at large. We will continue our relentless pursuit of developing products that add value in new ways to this great industry.”

This latest round follows Restaurant365’s recent acquisition of ExpandShare, an AI-powered learning management system built to deliver and track impactful restaurant training content.

In addition to adding employee training to its offerings, Restaurant365 expanded its all-in-one platform over the past year with tip automation, task management, restaurant intelligence dashboards, and Capture AI, which brings the power of machine learning to invoice management.

About Restaurant365®

Restaurant365 is the industry’s leading all-in-one, cloud-based accounting, inventory, scheduling, payroll, and HR solution developed specifically for restaurants. R365’s restaurant enterprise management software simplifies day-to-day management for operators, allowing them to control food costs and optimize labor. Integrations and open APIs enable Restaurant365 to connect with other systems, including POS providers, vendors, and banks. The result is accurate, timely reporting that provides a clear and complete view of their businesses. Restaurant365 is based in Irvine, California with an office in Austin, Texas. The company is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, ICONIQ, KKR, L Catterton, and Serent Capital. Additional information is available at restaurant365.com.

About ICONIQ Growth

ICONIQ Growth partners with visionaries defining the future of their industries to transform the world. Our investment platform and unique ecosystem helps amplify our portfolio companies’ success from early growth stage to IPO and beyond. Our portfolio includes Adyen, AirBnB, Alibaba, Alteryx, Automattic, BambooHR, Braze, Chime, Collibra, Coupa, Datadog, Docusign, Gitlab, Marqeta, Miro, Procore, Red Ventures, Relativity, ServiceTitan, Snowflake, Sprinklr, Truckstop, Uber, Wolt, and Zoom, among others. For more information, please visit ICONIQGrowth.com.

Media contact:
[email protected] 

SOURCE Restaurant365

LONDON, May 14, 2024 — Sona, the next-generation, intelligent workforce management platform for frontline enterprises founded by Steffen Wulff Petersen, Oli Johnson and Ben Dixon, announced today its $27.5M Series A. Felicis led the financing with participation from Northzone, Google’s AI-fund Gradient, SpeedInvest, Antler, BAG Ventures, and numerous notable angels participated in the round. Sona has raised $40M+ to date and will use this fresh round of capital to expand its go-to-market function and build more advanced AI capabilities on its platform. In 2023 alone, Sona experienced an explosive 400%+ revenue growth. To date, over 4.6 million shifts have been created on Sona.

The frontline workforce represents nearly 2 billion people worldwide, 56% of the global workforce. In spite of this, frontline innovations have received <1% of VC funding, with 99% of venture investment deployed in technology for white-collar staff. Today, the tools and systems provided to frontline enterprises are ineffective, poorly-integrated, and not built for the complexity of frontline workflows. For decades, this lag in innovation has led to a poor experience for employees and incorrect deployment of labor, leading to unnecessary costs, suboptimal service, and revenue left on the table.

“With Sona, we’re building the ‘self-driving car’ of running a restaurant or a care home”, said Steffen Wulff Petersen, co-founder of Sona. “The last 20 years of workforce management was dominated by legacy point solutions that digitized simple paper processes. Sona is building the next generation of WFM with a truly intelligent platform that enables organizational leaders in complex, multi-location enterprises to put the right people, in the right place, at the right time; and to seamlessly manage their workforce end-to-end.”

Since 2020, frontline enterprises have faced multiple external headwinds: inflationary forces, demand volatility, and staff shortages. These businesses already operate with low single-digit margins and labor mismanagement remains the single biggest, and controllable, cost. Companies are now actively modernizing as they are entering the vendor replacement cycle or moving away from paper and spreadsheets. With Sona’s industry-specific and highly configurable software, their customers can pull multiple efficiency levers. AI acceleration, accurate forecasting, data-driven productivity models, and automated scheduling drive more intelligent deployment of labor which directly translates into significant profit increases.

“It’s great to see Sona provide an industry-leading solution for such a critical area for hospitality. Having been involved with ever-evolving workforce management platforms for nearly ten years, the results seen with Sona are impressive – from smart AI-enabled dynamic forecasting to auto-scheduling and, importantly, employee preferences and a slick ‘consumer grade’ app for ease of use,” said David Campbell, tenured executive (Chairman, CEO) of numerous hospitality businesses (including wagamama, PizzaExpress, The Ivy Collection, Bill’s Restaurants, Ole & Steen) and industry employee initiative Hospitality Rising. “Quite rightly, hospitality businesses are driving productivity and efficiency while building customer service – Sona has demonstrated the ability to help grow sales and optimise staffing.”

Sona’s exponential growth is driven by the speed of product delivery, high configurability, and sector expertise translating into product features specific to the social care and hospitality industries today. Unlike legacy platforms, Sona’s modern technology has been built from the ground up for real-time data processing and insights. Leveraging the Elixir programming language and large language models, Sona offers AI-powered real-time actionable feedback driving intelligent decision making leading to workforce productivity gains.

“We are proud to lead Sona’s Series A round and support its mission to empower frontline enterprises with cutting-edge workforce management solutions,” shared Niki Pezeshki, General Partner at Felicis. “We believe in Sona’s potential to redefine how businesses in sectors like social care, restaurants, and hospitality manage their workforce, and we’re excited to be part of their journey towards reshaping the future of work. Ben, Oli, Steffen and the Sona team have already helped over 100,000 frontline workers schedule shifts, and we know so many more will appreciate smarter software that enables their work.” 

About Sona

Sona is the next-generation, intelligent workforce management platform for frontline enterprises founded by Steffen Wulff Petersen, Oli Johnson and Ben Dixon. Today, care homes, restaurants, and hotels all use Sona to empower their staff, driving intelligent deployment of labor which directly translates into significant operating efficiencies. To learn more, visit www.getsona.com.

About Felicis

Founded in 2006, Felicis is a venture capital firm investing in companies reinventing core markets, as well as those creating frontier technologies. The firm was the first to offer a Founder Development pledge, providing needed resources to help founders scale themselves. Felicis focuses on early-stage investments and currently manages over $3B in capital across nine funds. The firm is an early backer of more than 49 companies valued at $1B+. More than 100 of its portfolio companies have been acquired or gone public, including Adyen, Credit Karma, Cruise, Fitbit, Guardant Health, Meraki, Ring, and Shopify. The firm is based in Menlo Park and San Francisco in California. Learn more at felicis.com.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2217830/Sona_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Sona

MINNEAPOLIS, May 14, 2024 — SHAED, a pioneering platform that enables the future of mobility, is proudly unveiling its first marketplace product, CommercialEVs.com. This product is part of a first-of-its-kind solution aimed at transforming the transportation industry. SHAED’s innovative approach connects all stakeholders and stages within the lifecycle of commercial vehicles, seamlessly integrating the physical, technological, and operational aspects of mobility.

SHAED, which stands for Shared, Hydrogen, Autonomous, Electric, and Distribution, is redefining the way we think about sustainable transportation through education, the digitization of legacy processes, and AI-driven recommendation engines.

The Journey: From Concept to Ecosystem
The SHAED team draws on extensive experience from all aspects of the commercial transportation sector. Recognizing the disruptions and challenges inherent to this evolving industry, the SHAED platform creates a collaborative environment, leading with its marketplace solution. The SHAED marketplace is the first product launched from its robust roadmap, which offers a comprehensive solution addressing:

Product Lifecycle: Starting with the initial concept and continuing through manufacturing, upfitting, charging, and support services, SHAED’s product roadmap covers the entire vehicle journey from acquisition to disposition.

Software and Tools: SHAED recognizes that the shift to sustainable energy disrupts traditional processes and tools. The company’s solution facilitates the digitization of legacy processes, leveraging modern architecture to infuse AI into workflows, streamlining operations, and enabling automation.

Sustainable and Profitable: SHAED’s platform empowers businesses to transition responsibly to sustainable solutions, catering to users at every stage of the process. By optimizing the customer journey, SHAED enables users to reduce their carbon footprint today while enhancing profitability for tomorrow.

CommercialEVs.com Marketplace
SHAED is thrilled to announce the launch of CommercialEVs.com, an innovative marketplace crafted on modern platform architecture. Its product infrastructure fosters engagement among all stakeholders in a standardized, collaborative environment, simplifying the successful deployment of EVs at scale. With a dedicated focus on providing comprehensive resources, education, and performance transparency, SHAED is committed to empowering businesses to embrace sustainable mobility solutions.

The Power of AI and Future Growth
SHAED’s platform is built to accommodate the accelerating capabilities of AI, providing the framework for future recommendation engines and delivering a seamless end-to-end digital experience. Developed collaboratively by top-tier developers and industry experts, SHAED is finely tuned to address and adapt to specialized challenges inherent in the mobility sector.

From Industry to Ecosystem
Clean energy vehicles necessitate a departure from conventional problem-solving approaches within specific industries toward embracing an ecosystem mindset, characterized by interoperability across multiple domains. SHAED’s ecosystem harnesses a diverse array of expertise, resources, and perspectives to confront the intricate challenges within mobility, transcending traditional industry silos. The mobility platform fosters a dynamic and adaptive environment, facilitating rapid scaling and adaptation as new technology emerges.

People-Centered Progress
SHAED’s vision is not just about technology and infrastructure but about people. By fostering meaningful conversations and offering solutions that address real-world needs, SHAED empowers businesses and individuals with the essential tools to navigate the evolving landscape of sustainable mobility.

“SHAED’s mission aligns with the urgency of our times, catalyzing the shift towards a sustainable future. By fusing the most advanced technologies, we’re not just predicting the future; we’re actively creating it. Our platform doesn’t just adapt to changes; it drives them, ensuring that every participant in the mobility ecosystem can thrive amidst rapid evolution,” said Ryan Pritchard, CEO.

Series Seed Funding
SHAED has been funded by a $5.7 million Seed Preferred round, which closed in 2023 and was led by EnerTech Capital, along with Powerhouse Ventures, Joe Pritchard, CEO of Pritchard Companies, and two undisclosed corporate strategic partners.

For more information, please contact:
Eddie Schick, CFO
Email: [email protected]
shaed.ai
commercialevs.com

SOURCE SHAED, Inc.