RADNOR, Pa., Oct. 31, 2023 — Saothair Capital Partners, LLC (“Saothair”) today announced the final closing of its inaugural fund, Saothair Fund I, L.P., with $125 million in investor capital commitments. The closing comes less than five months after launching the fundraising process and was well in excess of its initial target.
Saothair is a private equity investment firm focused exclusively on making control investments in manufacturing companies through complex corporate carve-outs, bankruptcies, out-of-court restructurings, turnarounds, and other special situations. The Saothair team leverages their decades of operational experience in manufacturing to assist their portfolio companies in driving continuous improvement in all aspects of their business.
Saothair received capital commitments from a group of highly-respected institutional limited partners that includes prestigious college and university endowments, single- and multi-family offices and outsourced CIOs. Pacenote Capital LLC served as exclusive placement agent for Saothair in connection with the fundraising.
Kevin Madden and Richard Lozyniak, Co-Founders of Saothair, commented: “We are humbled to have received such strong interest in our inaugural committed-capital fund. It was important to us as we embarked on this process to partner with the right group of investors, who understood and shared our enthusiasm for the unique nature of our investment strategy and who were looking for a long-term partnership with our firm. We are eternally grateful to Pacenote for their belief in us and our team, and for partnering with us to bring together this outstanding group of institutional investors.”
McGuireWoods LLP provided legal counsel in connection with the fundraising, and IQ-EQ served as fund administrator.
About Saothair Capital Partners
Saothair Capital Partners is a private investment firm focused exclusively on investing in lower-middle market manufacturing and industrial businesses facing unique financial or operational challenges. Saothair makes controlling equity investments in companies across a wide range of industries, including paper & packaging, plastics, metals processing, automotive or heavy truck, building products, healthcare-related products, food & beverage and other niche manufacturing. Saothair works in partnership with each of the key stakeholders invested in the long-term success of the business. For more information please see www.saothair.com.
Empowers Businesses to Integrate ESG Data Into Reporting & Decision Making, Funding Co-Led by Rho Ignition and Tola Capital
NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2023 — ESG Flo, an AI-powered data infrastructure platform, announced today that it has secured $5.25 million in seed capital. The funding round was co-led by Rho Ignition and Tola Capital with participation from Bain & Company and Contour Venture Partners.
Sustainability teams currently spend most of their time manually collecting data and are buried by ineffective processes, often leading to errors and a waste of time and effort. ESG Flo launched earlier this year from Bain & Company’s Founder’s Studio to help businesses create a robust, auditable ESG (environmental, social, and governance) data infrastructure. The technology leverages AI automation and deep learning to gather data spread across the organization to create reporting that complies with the EU CSRD and US SEC non-financial disclosure requirements.
“We envision a business world where ESG conversations are as important as financial ones. We’re on a mission to equip businesses with precise ESG data for integrated reporting and responsible decision making. Our new investors bring deep expertise in AI which will allow us to scale and support more businesses to take real steps in their sustainability journey,” said Patrick Obeid, founder and CEO of ESG Flo.
“Many solutions focus on the frontend presentation of ESG data, but what companies are struggling with most is ‘step zero’ of the process, which involves mapping, collecting and transforming data. This is exactly what ESG Flo accomplishes with a scalable product that uses backend technology, such as machine learning, to transform raw data into high-accuracy metrics ready for third-party verification in a matter of seconds, saving time for your sustainability team,” said Habib Kairouz, Managing Partner at Rho Ignition.
ESG Flo targets customers in the industrial, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors that need a centralized way to manage their sustainability data given stakeholder pressure and level of ESG impact.
“Amidst the evolving landscape of ESG regulations, including the forthcoming EU CSRD reporting and non-financial disclosure requirements in the US, there is an urgent demand for a robust data infrastructure that aligns with ESG regulatory mandates. Companies with strong ESG strategies gain a competitive advantage, and ESG Flo facilitates seamless integration of environmental, social, and governance factors into decision-making. This promotes sustainable and responsible practices that benefit stakeholders, the planet and future generations,” said Karolin Beck, Venture Partner at Tola Capital.
With the new capital, ESG Flo will expand its solution to offer a CSRD and SEC readiness solution, hire best in class engineers for product development to advance its AI engine, and scale its growth and marketing team to support more customers. As part of this round, Karolin, Habib and Patrick Quinlan, a proven entrepreneur with an expertise in ethics and compliance, join the company’s board alongside Ron Kermisch of Bain & Company.
About ESG Flo Based in New York, ESG Flo is an AI-powered data infrastructure platform that provides customers in the industrial, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors with a solid ESG data infrastructure to manage their reporting and decision making needs. The company was founded in 2022 by Patrick Obeid, within Bain & Company’ Founder’s Studio, and has raised $5.25 million in seed funding from Rho Ignition, Tola Capital, Bain & Company and Contour Venture Partners. For more information, visit esgflo.com.
About Rho Ignition Rho Ignition, a division of Rho Capital Partners (“Rho”), focuses on early stage investments in disruptive and innovative technology markets, with a current focus on SaaS, AI, Healthtech, FinTech and Robotics. Rho, founded in 1981, has invested over $2 billion in more than 300 companies across multiple waves of technology innovation. Visit www.rho.com for more information.
About Tola Capital Tola Capital is a venture capital firm that believes in the power of software, data, and AI to transform the way the world works. Founded in 2010 by experienced software operators at the forefront of cloud computing’s rise, the firm backs entrepreneurs who have enterprise technology experience and are building disruptive, industry transforming solutions with diverse teams. Tola Capital has successfully exited numerous startups, and continues to evolve as it supports founders into the era of AI. Visit www.tolacapital.com for more information.
Promise Robotics is the first company offering turnkey homebuilding production factories towards accelerating housing supply in both the U.S. and Canada
TORONTO, Oct. 31, 2023 — Promise Robotics, an AI company developing a cloud-based industrial production platform for robotic construction and assembly, today announced it raised USD$15 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding raised to date to USD$25 million. This round was led by Horizons Ventures with participation from Radical Ventures, Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), and strategic investors, including United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Relay Ventures, and Alate Partners. The new funding will help Promise Robotics commercialize its robotic factory platform to support its growing demand from homebuilders and to continue expanding
The construction and housing development industries are facing persistent supply and labor shortages at the time we face a gap of approximately 10.7 million homes in both the United States and Canada combined according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. To bridge this gap, new home building rates would need to triple – a near-impossible feat with traditional construction technology. Accelerating housing supply with outdated solutions also runs counter to our GHG Emission reduction targets, as buildings are responsible for 38% of global GHG emissions. Over the next few years, the reduction of carbon through more efficient methods of construction is one of the biggest opportunities available to reduce our GHG footprint.
Promise Robotics AI-driven system enables the homebuilding industry to deploy automation at scale to address labor shortages, save costs, and significantly increase the speed of sustainable home production from custom single-family to multi-story buildings. The company’s AI platform turns off-the-shelf industrial robots into ready-to-deploy production systems powered by its proprietary cloud-based operating system that manages the entire production lifecycle. Promise Robotics manages the entire automation lifecycle within factories as a service, freeing customers to focus on homebuilding and growing the business — something that hasn’t been available before.
“Builders are reluctant to invest in costly factories and then endure years of trial and error to achieve operational success,” said Ramtin Attar, CEO and co-founder of Promise Robotics. “These capital and knowledge barriers have historically impeded the industry’s ability to invest in automation technology. We have melded our first-hand expertise in automated homebuilding with transformative technology innovations to remove both barriers to broader adoption.”
Founded by Ramtin Attar and Reza Nasseri, a former R&D executive at Autodesk and a distinguished Canadian homebuilder, Promise Robotics emerged less than three years ago. The venture is rooted in the founders’ extensive track record in large-scale automated home construction, having successfully completed thousands of homes operating a high-volume prefab factory out of Alberta, Canada. To enable the homebuilding industry, Promise Robotics’ robotic system aims to remove the risk for homebuilders by offering products that benefit from a decade of operational excellence, continuous improvement, and successful homebuilding. The company estimates that for every 1 million new homes, it can help the industry save $130B in cost, reduce GHG Emissions by 560MT, and generate 16,000 new categories of jobs.
“It’s hard to imagine we will be building homes the same way in 5-10 years. Promise Robotics is well-positioned to be a disruptive force in this industry,” said Kerry Liu, an investor at Horizons Ventures. “We studied the landscape and concluded that Promise Robotics was not only a technical leader, they had an immediate eye towards working with the home builder and rapid commercialization. This is not surprising given the background of the founders. We’re thrilled to support them on this journey.”
“We’re seeing incredible momentum as the team at Promise Robotics successfully deploys AI systems to automate home construction and to bring efficiencies to an industry struggling to maintain productivity,” said Salim Teja, Partner with Radical Ventures. “Promise Robotics is now poised to transform how buildings get made, creating a more sustainable and affordable built environment.”
With the support of the company’s headcount expansion of 200% in four months, Promise Robotics is setting up its robotic production line in a micro-factory in Alberta, Canada to kickstart its partnership with several homebuilders. The company is planning to make its turnkey factory production solution available to the broader North American homebuilders in 2025.
About Promise Robotics Promise Robotics is an AI company with a mission to enable the building industry to harness automation towards the production of more affordable and sustainable homes. The company offers turnkey ready-to-deploy industrial robotic systems powered by a proprietary cloud-based AI software platform that manages the entire production lifecycle from robotic planning to factory floor operations. Promise Robotics manages the entire automation lifecycle through its proprietary software to allow customers to focus on production. For more information, please visitwww.promiserobotics.com
AI-driven platform enables anyone to create how-to guides for any software process
BELMONT, Calif., Oct. 31, 2023 — Guidde, the video documentation platform harnessing generative AI, today announced a $11.6 million Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, joined by existing investors Entrée Capital, Honeystone Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, and new investor Tiferes Ventures. The Series A funding comes within a year of the company’s product launch, bringing its total capital raised to $15.6 million. Guidde will use the capital to expand its engineering and data science teams and grow its go-to-market team as it looks to develop its presence around the globe.
Organizations today rely on over 200 software apps on average to deliver on their mission, according to Okta’s Businesses at Work 2023 Report. As a result, employees are tasked with operating more tools with less training than ever before, negatively impacting software adoption and engagement. Video is seen as the most effective medium for driving adoption with 69% of people preferring video over text when learning about a product or service – but creating video-based knowledge at scale is still lagging behind. This is where Guidde steps in by empowering teams with AI-driven video documentation. The product leverages generative AI to enable anyone to create, edit and share how-to guides for any software or process – without requiring any prior design or video skills.
“Software apps have become essential to businesses of all types yet adoption challenges such as knowledge sharing, onboarding, training, and support remains an ongoing pain point across the board. What today’s software is missing is an effective navigation system,” said Yoav Einav, Co-Founder and CEO of Guidde.” “At Guidde we are building the ‘Waze for software’, which helps you navigate any application using video. In today’s landscape, if users struggle to grasp a product’s functionality, they’re unlikely to remain engaged. We’ve harnessed generative AI to craft a solution that boosts application adoption, engagement, and retention rates.”
Video creation today is fragmented, lengthy and hard – it typically involves multiple tools, multiple people and entails sometimes weeks of work to produce even a single video. Guidde fuses multiple point products with the power of AI to establish a single platform that allows anyone in an organization to create, edit, publish and analyze video and documentation for any software in less time that it takes to make a cup of coffee. Combining application workflow intelligence with AI generated storyline, voiceover, motion and interactivity, the platform enables organizations to capture and deliver their know-how at scale.
“We recognized the need to accelerate onboarding and time to value for our customers and have always felt that video was the right approach,” explains Savinder Chauhan, Vice President of Support at Perforce. “Guidde has been a key enabler – not only by expediting video creation, but also by increasing our capacity to produce rich, diverse content across our portfolio. In the past, crafting a typical video would require several tools and take many hours including the video creation, overlaying graphics, recording a voiceover, etc. Now, we accomplish that in less than five minutes.”
The business applications software industry has long struggled with technical writing for complex software products, as evidenced by Guidde’s initial and impressive market velocity,” said Dror Nahumi, General Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “Guidde’s product roadmap harnesses AI and editing technologies and creates a solid direction to streamline the creation, generation and maintenance of technical content for any organization”.
“Guidde is helping usher the Generative AI age for software. They have built a product that empowers anyone to create and share knowledge very quickly in a visual and interactive way, regardless of their technical skills or budget. We are excited to continue supporting Yoav, Dan and the team as they continue pursuing their mission” said Eran Bielski, General Partner at Entrée Capital.
Guidde has experienced rapid revenue growth since its launch late last year and is already being used by over 500 organizations such as SentinelOne, LiveNation, Nuvei and Redis, for training, onboarding, new feature announcements, FAQs, integrations and much more.
New users and teams can sign-up and try Guidde for free here.
About Guidde
Guidde is a generative AI platform that lets anyone create video documentation for any software or process in seconds. The company was founded in 2020 by repeat entrepreneurs Yoav Einav and Dan Sahar and is backed by Norwest Venture Partners, Entrée Capital, Tiferes Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, Honeystone Ventures, Operator Partners and notable angel investors. To learn more about Guidde, visit guidde.com.
NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2023 — LO3 Capital, a private investment firm committed to providing lower-middle market companies with transformative capital, announced today that it provided a senior subordinated debt investment to support Inspired Beauty Brands (IBB) with growth capital.
Based in New York, NY, IBB is an innovative developer and marketer of personal care products with a long standing reputation for producing high quality products and providing excellent service. IBB’s owned and operated brands include some of the most recognizable names in the industry, including HASK®, Gray Away®, and HnP®. IBB’s products are sold worldwide, through retailers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and Asia.
“This is an exciting time for our Company,” noted Sam Maniaci, IBB’s CEO. “LO3 worked diligently to understand our vision for continued growth and innovation. Their investment will facilitate our growth while allowing us to maintain our commitment to delivering safe, healthy, and high-quality products to consumers everywhere.”
“IBB provided LO3 with an opportunity to invest in an established brand with a superbly talented management team,” said Glenn Harrison, LO3’s managing partner. “We’re excited to invest in Sam Maniaci, CEO and Jeff’s Sieglen, President leadership as they take IBB to new heights.”
About LO3 Capital LO3 Capital is a minority owned private investment firm committed to helping lower-middle market companies grow. The firm has offices in Nashville, New York and Dallas and targets business with over $3 million of EBITDA across a variety of industries. LO3 Capital partners with management teams, business owners, and private equity firms to finance organic growth, acquisitions, recapitalizations, and ownership transitions. LO3 Capital was previously a division of Live Oak Growth Capital and continues to manage the Live Oak Growth Capital funds. For more information, please visit lo3capital.com.
Funding round is led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund and will help accelerate the deployment and scaling of intelligent, affordable aircraft
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 31, 2023 — Shield AI, the defense technology company building the world’s best AI pilot for aircraft, today announced it has raised $200 million in Series F funding in an oversubscribed funding round. This funding, led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) and co-led by Riot Ventures, with participation from Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest and returning investors Disruptive and Snowpoint, values Shield AI at $2.7 billion.
Shield AI, the defense technology company building the world’s best AI pilot for aircraft, today announced it has raised $200 million in Series F funding in an oversubscribed funding round.
“We’re building the world’s best AI pilot to ensure air superiority and deter conflict because we believe the greatest victory requires no war. This funding accelerates the scaling of Shield AI’s products, enabling the deployment of intelligent, affordable mass—the most important non-nuclear deterrent for the next 30 years,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s President, co-founder, and former Navy SEAL.
Shield AI builds an AI pilot called Hivemind, which enables teams of intelligent aircraft to operate autonomously in high-threat environments on the edge, without the need for remote operators, command inputs, or GPS. The technology approach is similar to those in the self-driving car industry and its software stack is aircraft agnostic, allowing Shield AI to provide autonomy to a variety of form factors across the aerospace industry. This announcement comes on the heels of the company’s recent launch of its V-BAT Teams product. This product enables a single human operator to command a minimum of four V-BATs, generating real-time AI-driven flight paths, and exhibiting dynamic read-and-react behaviors autonomously. Except for lethal decision-making, V-BAT Teams can complete missions from start to finish without the need for an operator or pilot.
Concurrently, the company has been diligently working on integrating Hivemind into uncrewed fighter jets, a significant effort supported both through government programs and company R&D. In December 2022, Shield AI, along with its government partners, made aviation history by autonomously maneuvering a modified F-16 in real-world air-combat scenarios. The company continues to fly and test its autonomy on fighter jets and has more autonomous maneuver flight hours of fighter jets than any company in the world.
“The increasing number of military conflicts we have seen over the last 18 months unfortunately paints a sobering view of our future defense technology needs and the important role AI will play,” said Thomas Tull, Chairman of USIT. “Shield AI continues to be a pioneer in this sector, driving much needed innovation by developing state-of-the art AI pilots. We are proud to continue supporting their mission as they leverage these cutting-edge technologies to deter conflict before it begins.”
The funds from the Series F round will be used to:
Scale and deploy Shield AI’s V-BAT Teams product domestically and internationally.
Accelerate tech integration with third-party uncrewed platforms.
“As deep-tech investors, we have seen a large swath of autonomy efforts in every realm and Shield AI has a clear lead. Battlefields are increasingly dominated by drone warfare and the enemy is doing everything in their power to make it a hostile environment, including blocking communications and GPS. Modern air forces are flying blind. Shield’s AI pilot doesn’t require GPS or communications because it’s smart and adaptable to the environment. Their AI is trainable and adaptable to many different missions and has flown teams of quadcopters, V-BATs, and modern fighter jets. The closest tech comparable we’ve seen is what Tesla is doing with their self-driving stack. Their combination of market-leading AI technology and top-tier growth is why we are excited to continue to invest in the Company,” said Stephen Marcus, Co-Founder and General Partner of Riot Ventures.
About Shield AI Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company whose mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. In pursuit of this mission, Shield AI is building the world’s best AI pilot. Its AI pilot, Hivemind, has flown a fighter jet (F-16), a vertical takeoff and landing drone (V-BAT), and a quadcopter (Nova). The company has offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and abroad. Shield AI’s products and people are currently in the field actively supporting operations with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. allies. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn,Twitter, and Instagram.
Managed revenue grows by over 6x since its Series B in October 2020
NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2023 — Kasa Living, Inc., the leading tech-powered hospitality brand, today announced the close of a $70 million Series C fundraise. Citi Ventures and FirstMark Capital led the all equity round with participation from new investors New York Life Ventures and Fireside Investments. All major existing investors including RET Ventures, Zigg Capital, and Ribbit Capital participated in the twice upsized and oversubscribed round.
Kasa Magnificent Mile Chicago apartment.
Jonathan Langer, a seasoned industry veteran with board experience at KKR Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE: KREF), Westin Hotels & Resorts, and Hilton Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HLT) has joined Kasa’s Board of Directors.
Robust Financial Strength Amid Market Challenges
This funding round is a strong validation of Kasa’s proven, asset light business model especially noteworthy against the backdrop of the most challenging PropTech fundraising environment in the past decade. After the fundraise, Kasa has the strongest balance sheet in the industry which allows Kasa to go on offense to grow its property portfolio meaningfully without the need for further external funding.
Technology-Powered Hospitality
Kasa has built a truly differentiated proprietary hospitality operating system that materially improves profits for owners and enhances the experience for today’s modern travelers across a diverse range of investor-owned accommodations, including multifamily apartments, single-family homes and boutique hotels. Kasa consistently improves property profitability by >50% and uplevels property review scores meaningfully across a wide range of channels. Kasa operates the number one rated properties in their category on Tripadvisor in Seattle, Chicago, Denver, and Austin, as well as top-5 properties in San Francisco and Pittsburgh.
Strategic Partnerships Catalyze Growth
Kasa’s success in increasing profitability after taking over properties has attracted interest from a consortium of real estate investors. These partners have dedicated over a billion dollars to-date to invest in real estate powered by Kasa, setting the stage for rapid, capital-efficient expansion for the leading tech-powered accommodations company in the years ahead.
“Kasa’s proprietary operating system allows its real estate partners to adapt to changing resident and guest preferences while optimizing for profitability, safety, and visibility across multiple asset types,” said Jeff Flynn, Head of PropTech Investing at Citi Ventures. “We believe that Citi can be a valuable partner to Kasa and its real estate owners as they continue to expand their property footprint.”
“We stand at a watershed moment in the evolution of the hospitality industry. Owners are grappling with rising costs, while consumers crave a seamless, digital-first travel experience in desired locations. Kasa is bridging this gap, revolutionizing the way owners and guests alike think about accommodations. Our model isn’t just an alternative; it’s the future” said Roman Pedan, Founder & CEO of Kasa.
Trusted by the Most Discerning Real Estate Investors
Kasa has earned the trust of some of the world’s most discerning real estate owners, including global stalwarts like Greystar, AMLI Residential, and Starwood Capital and local hospitality investors and developers in cities like San Francisco, New York, Miami and Nashville, further solidifying its position as the industry standard for alternative accommodations.
“The consumer trends behind furnished apartment rentals are very strong. The industry is at a turning point as apartment owners increasingly seek ways to harness this demand,” said Andrew Livingstone, Chief Operating Officer of Greystar, the largest manager of apartments globally, “We have been extremely impressed by Kasa’s platform and are proud to work alongside them in some of our communities. We believe Kasa has become an industry standard and are proud to have them as our recommended supplier partners for the sector.”
Investor Quotes
“Kasa is setting the industry standard in the short-term rental market, especially within institutionally owned apartment communities,” said Christopher Yip, partner at rental technology focused venture capital firm RET Ventures. “We and our limited partners who represent over 2.5 million apartment units evaluated over a dozen companies in the sector, and Kasa stood out for the strength of its trust & safety systems, the quality of its guest experience and the level of profitability that it delivers to its partners.”
“We’ve been impressed by Kasa’s relentless execution and resilience throughout a rapidly changing real estate, technology and travel market,” said Adam Nelson, Managing Director at FirstMark Capital. “Kasa has continued to impressively scale utilizing an asset-light business model which has proven to drive long-term sustainable margins and meaningful public market equity value.”
“In my three decades in the hospitality industry, I’ve seen countless innovations come and go, but Kasa’s truly unique ability to empower smaller hotel owners to excel against industry giants is an enduring game changer for the future of hospitality,” said Jonathan Langer, Founding Partner and Managing Member of Fireside Investments. “I have never seen hotels in high cost cities like New York or San Francisco operate at the margins and guest satisfaction scores that Kasa-powered properties deliver.”
Key Takeaways
Kasa closes a $70 million Series C funding round, defying market trends.
Proven ability to dramatically improve property profitability by >50%.
Strategic partnerships with institutional investors pave the way for rapid expansion.
Discover a curated collection of exceptional accommodations across the U.S. at kasa.com.
For partnership opportunities to enhance your property’s profitability, visit kasa.com/property-partners.
About Kasa:
Kasa Living, Inc. is a tech-powered, flexible accommodations brand and operator founded in San Francisco in 2016 by Roman Pedan. Kasa partners with real estate owners to transform investor-owned multifamily apartments, boutique hotels, and single-family homes into professionally managed accommodations. Leveraging advanced technology and deep industry experience with a team from Airbnb, KKR, and Apollo, Kasa delivers high-quality experiences to guests of all types. For more information, visit www.kasa.com.
CrowdStrike Falcon Fund Invests and Forms Partnership with Aembit to Help Drive Identity Security through Workload Identity and Access Management
SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct. 31, 2023 — Aembit, the Workload Identity and Access Management (IAM) Company, today announced an investment by CrowdStrike, via its strategic investment vehicle, the CrowdStrike Falcon Fund. CrowdStrike’s investment closes Aembit’s previously announced seed funding round from Ballistic Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Okta Ventures. As part of that investment, Aembit and CrowdStrike will partner on a technical integration with go-to-market alignment. This partnership will help provide customers with a comprehensive Zero Trust strategy by assessing the identity and health of workloads before permitting access to sensitive resources.
“Zero Trust principles are beginning to influence workload-to-workload deployments, similar to how they influence user access to resources,” said David Goldschlag, CEO and co-founder of Aembit. “The combination of workload identity, risk assessment, and policy-based access allows enterprises to provide sophisticated identity security across their applications without burdening their development and operations teams. We are excited to be partnering with CrowdStrike to bring Aembit’s Workload IAM approach to the enterprise.”
Enterprise applications are becoming more distributed, as they include software the enterprise develops, databases, and APIs from customers and partners. Despite this complexity, many companies rely on secrets and secret managers for workload-to-workload access which are brittle, hard to manage, and do not allow for the creation, enforcement, and auditing of workload access policies. Furthermore, while workloads have identities and continually changing security postures as users do, the technical means and workflows to manage them are radically different.
To solve this, Aembit has pioneered one of the first cloud services for workload identity and access management (IAM). Aembit cryptographically identifies workloads based on a range of characteristics including attestation, assesses their security posture, and defines conditional access policies that determine workload access rights. Aembit also eliminates static workload identity secrets, removes the need for developers to code workload-to-workload authorization, and makes it easy to centralize visibility and control. With Aembit, enterprises manage access, not secrets.
“Identity is a critical pillar to securing the modern enterprise at each layer of the stack,” said Gur Talpaz, vice president of corporate development at CrowdStrike and head of Falcon Fund. “As cloud adoption has proliferated, the complexity associated with managing federated workloads at each layer has become daunting and resulted in significant exposure. Aembit enables enterprises to take control of their machine identity access management and scale their security programs within their rapidly expanding cloud estate. We are excited to partner with the Aembit team to bring joint solutions to our customers.”
The CrowdStrike Falcon Fund is a cross-stage investment fund and the largest corporate venture arm in the cybersecurity industry. The program is designed to build an ecosystem of next-generation security leaders that share a common mission through a unique combination of investment and deep technical integrations with the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, giving CrowdStrike customers access to cutting-edge third-party capabilities.
Enterprises can learn more about and begin using Aembit for free at www.aembit.io.
Aembit is the Workload Identity Platform that lets every business safely build its next generation of applications by inherently trusting how it connects to partners, customers, and foundational services. Aembit provides seamless and secure access from your workloads to the services they depend on, like APIs, databases, and cloud resources, while simplifying application development, delivery, compliance, and audit.
WOBURN, Mass., Oct. 31, 2023 — iQ3Connect, a provider of a web-based immersive training and collaboration platform, today announced a seed round of funding through the NOVA Prime Fund, a venture capital fund created by global innovator LG Electronics.
iQ3Connect provides a web-based solution that empowers individuals, teams and enterprises to create, deploy, collaborate and learn with immersive and interactive 3D content on any VR, AR, PC or mobile device. Transforming immersive 3D into a scalable tool for enterprises, iQ3Connect offers a Training and Experience Platform that enables companies to rapidly create and deploy interactive virtual training and an Immersive Collaboration Platform, which provides a multi-user virtual workspace for companies. iQ3Connect also offers a host of services, from training and experience creation to hosting and management.
The NOVA Prime Fund is focused on investing in mission-driven companies innovating in sustainable energy, digital health, and industries of the future. LG NOVA, LG Electronics’ North America Innovation Center, serves as a contributing source to the NOVA Prime Fund for investments as a part of its Mission for the Future program, an initiative to build the future through cross-industry collaboration between startups and LG. As part of this investment, Jinhwan An from the LG NOVA team will join the iQ3Connect board of directors.
“The NOVA Prime Fund is committed to accelerating innovation for good to build a better future for people,” said Ali Diallo, Managing Partner at NOVA Prime Fund. “This strategic investment will help iQ3Connect advance their mission to help companies use their 3D platform and the metaverse to sustainably train the workforce of the future.”
“We share LG’s vision for the future,” said Ali Merchant, CEO of iQ3Connect. “Through our technology, our customers are advancing innovation at scale to make their organizations more efficient, sustainable, and competitive. Thanks to NOVA Prime Fund and their investment, even more organizations will be able to take advantage of the opportunity our 3D immersive platform offers.”
Founded in 2017, iQ3Connect is already deployed in numerous Global 2000 companies. As an example, a world leader in semiconductor and display manufacturing equipment is using iQ3Connect for customer support, manufacturing technician training, and knowledge transfer between different locations. They have trainers/SMEs creating and using multi-user virtual classrooms for training at scale.
One of the world’s largest oilfield services companies is scaling iQ3Connect for remote meetings for design and manufacturing teams and on-site construction planning, as well as operations and safety training for employees. Additionally, the Yokogawa Bridge Corporation, one of Japan’s top five fabricators and erectors of steel structures for bridges and buildings, uses a full-scale 3D bridge model with the iQ3Connect Platform to enable structure and design reviews in immersive 3D.
“We believe in the power of immersive technology to reshape the training industry, and iQ3Connect is at the forefront of this revolution,” said Ella Hood, Managing Director of Cherrystone Angel Group, an early investor in iQ3Connect. “Their web-based platform is versatile, scalable and addresses critical pain points in corporate training and team collaboration. As businesses worldwide prioritize upskilling their workforce, iQ3Connect’s Training and Experience Platform is poised for widespread adoption, presenting an immense growth opportunity.”
About NOVA Prime Fund NOVA Prime Fund is a venture capital fund with a target of more than $100M and an objective of investing in private companies focused on clean energy, digital health, immersive AI, and industries of the future. The Fund will invest in high-growth technology companies and seek to accelerate them in collaboration with LG NOVA. Aligned on innovating for a better life, NOVA Prime Fund’s portfolio companies will be predominantly sourced from the Mission for the Future corporate acceleration program, led by LG NOVA, LG Electronics North America Center of Innovation. NOVA Prime Fund will focus on investing in mission-driven companies working towards solutions for a sustainable future for people and the planet.
About iQ3Connect iQ3Connect provides a web-based solution empowering individuals, teams, and enterprises to create, deploy, collaborate, and learn with immersive and interactive 3D content on any VR, AR, PC, or mobile device. iQ3Connect is on a mission to transform immersive 3D into a scalable and pervasive communication tool for enterprises to save time, reduce cost, and achieve sustainable operations. www.iq3connect.com
