• Grows 300% year-over-year to serve 350 school districts across 15 states
• Publishes outcomes data showing telehealth services improve student attendance and reduce school suspensions and expulsions
• Announces significant new investment to accelerate its mission
• Welcomes three seasoned operators to senior leadership team

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 3, 2026 — Cartwheel, the trusted mental health platform for K-12 schools, students, families, and staff, today announced exceptional growth that has propelled the company to become America’s largest K-12 mental health provider. Following nearly 300% year-over-year growth in new school district partnerships, Cartwheel now serves 350 school districts across 15 states and has established groundbreaking partnerships with state departments of health and education in Arizona, Georgia, and Virginia. The company has also secured a significant Series B financing, led by A-Street, to accelerate its mission.

“Cartwheel is fundamentally changing how youth and families access the mental health support they need to succeed in school and in life,” said Joe English, Co-Founder and CEO of Cartwheel. “By partnering with parents and schools as trusted allies, we’ve created a new standard for mental health that delivers measurably better outcomes at a significantly lower cost.”

Cartwheel’s school-centered model delivers exceptional impact on education and health outcomes.

• 58% of students experience full remission from anxiety—nearly double the 33% industry average for traditional telehealth
• 3x reduction in students with moderate to severe depression
• 62% reduction in absences per student (from 16 absences before care to 6 after care)
• 68% reduction in suspensions for students with prior disciplinary history

Cartwheel’s impact stems from its uniquely comprehensive care model. When school districts partner with Cartwheel, school counselors can refer students for clinical services with no waitlists. Cartwheel’s licensed clinicians deliver evidence-based care including individual therapy, family therapy, parent guidance, psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and proprietary specialty programs. Operating year-round with extended hours, Cartwheel allows students to receive care at home or at school, during evenings, weekends, and school breaks—all covered by the family’s insurance at no additional cost to most families.

Throughout care, Cartwheel works hand-in-hand with school staff through dedicated Clinical Program Managers who provide consultation on student cases, crisis management, and impact analysis. Bilingual Care Coordinators support families with scheduling, insurance navigation, and coordination with other providers. This collaborative model has enabled Cartwheel to achieve a 70% referral-to-care conversion rate—more than double the industry average.

Industry-Leading Technology Platform
Cartwheel’s HIPAA and FERPA compliant technology platform ensures seamless coordination among clinicians, parents, and schools. School staff can easily refer students into care, track progress, and collaborate with Cartwheel’s clinicians. Families can quickly complete their intake paperwork, schedule appointments, and communicate with their therapist. On the backend, district leaders can see real-time dashboards on access to care, student engagement, clinical and educational outcomes, and return on investment.

The platform has reduced workload for school staff, increased family engagement, and set a gold standard for transparency into impact and return on investment.

“Cartwheel has exceeded expectations,” said Dr. Alexander U. Ikejiaku, Associate Superintendent at Peoria Public Schools in Illinois. “Over the past two years, Cartwheel has become an indispensable partner in addressing student attendance, behavior, and mental health challenges, and it has our wholehearted endorsement for work with schools and states across the nation.”

Strengthening Leadership Team
To support this next chapter of growth, Cartwheel has welcomed three new leaders to its senior leadership team:

• Sarah Turrin, Chief Product Officer, brings deep healthcare product leadership experience. Prior to Cartwheel, she was Chief Product Officer at Color Health, a healthcare company focused on cancer care delivery, and previously led product teams at OneMedical and Lantern Health.
• Sam Bilow, VP of Finance, brings expertise in scaling high-growth companies from her work at Rubicon Founders where she worked to build and invest in transformational healthcare companies supporting underserved populations, including Imagine Pediatrics and Cadre Hospice.
• Sarah Shoff, VP of Customer Success, brings 15 years of edtech startup experience to Cartwheel. Sarah previously spent seven years at Udemy, where she led the implementation and customer success teams for the Americas.

Major New Investment to Fuel Growth
Cartwheel’s continued growth and innovation are fueled by a major new investment, raised last summer, from investors who see schools as a uniquely effective channel for tackling youth mental health. A-Street, which led the round, is a privately sponsored, multi-stage investment fund focused on backing and scaling innovative PK–12 solutions that improve student learning and achievement. The round included participation from new investors Citi Impact Fund, Britebound, and American Heart Association, as well as existing investors, including Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, Reach Capital, and Able Partners.

“We’re thrilled to partner with A-Street in this next chapter. They know schools, they know what it takes to scale with quality, and they share our conviction that every kid deserves access to excellent mental health care,” said Joe English. “We’re excited to build the future of school-based healthcare together.”

“Mental health and academic success are intrinsically linked, and yet far too many students still lack the support they need to thrive in the classroom,” said Emily McGinty, Managing Director of A-Street. “Cartwheel is addressing this gap with an innovative model that expands access to timely, evidence-based care and removes common barriers such as stigma, cost and scheduling, and we are excited to support their efforts to strengthen both student well-being and educational outcomes.”

Mora Segal, Managing Director of A-Street, added, “What sets Cartwheel apart is not just the strength of its outcomes, but its ability to scale a deeply collaborative model across diverse school systems. The team has built the infrastructure, clinical rigor, and trust with schools required to operate at national scale, and we believe Cartwheel is uniquely positioned to become an indispensable partner for schools nationwide, ensuring students have access to high-quality mental health care.”

About Cartwheel
Cartwheel is the nation’s largest and most trusted telehealth provider for K-12 schools, students, and families. Cartwheel partners with 350 school districts across 15 states to deliver comprehensive mental health services to students, families, and school staff. Founded in 2022 by educators and clinicians, Cartwheel combines evidence-based clinical care with technology to ensure every child has access to high-quality mental health support. Cartwheel accepts all major insurance plans including Medicaid and provides care at no cost to uninsured families.

For more information or to join our team, visit: www.cartwheel.org 

Media Contact:
Cartwheel: Emily Paisner, 617-721-7486, [email protected] 

SOURCE Cartwheel

Funding accelerates the adoption of a universal integration layer, as grid reliability pressures mount

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3, 2026 — Derapi, a software company building the connective infrastructure for the distributed energy ecosystem, today announced it has raised $7 million in seed funding to expand its team and accelerate adoption of its universal API platform. As grid operators, utilities, and energy companies work to unlock flexibility from distributed energy resources (DERs), Derapi is making it easier for those resources to connect, coordinate, and participate at scale.

The round was led by Earthshot Ventures with participation from Tuesday Capital, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, WYVC, Breakthrough Venture Capital, WovenEarth Ventures, Radicle Impact, Raisewell Ventures, and notable angel investors including E8 Angels, GreenSky Capital, Aurora Venture Investments. These firms join existing investors UNION, Ubiquity Ventures, and M1C.

As global electricity demand continues to rise and grid reliability faces mounting pressure, distributed energy resources including solar, batteries, EV chargers, and smart devices are increasingly critical to meet peak demand. Despite rapid DER deployment, a lack of standardized, scalable integrations has limited their ability to participate meaningfully in grid services and virtual power plants (VPPs).

Derapi serves as a software hub for the distributed energy ecosystem, providing a single, trusted integration layer across devices, platforms, and programs. Its universal API enables secure data access, device control, and authorization across a fragmented landscape. By standardizing how systems connect, Derapi helps utilities, VPP operators, grid software providers, and energy platforms move faster, scale programs with confidence, and reduce engineering complexity.

“Distributed energy already holds enormous potential, but participation hasn’t kept pace with deployment,” said Stina Brock, CEO of Derapi. “We built Derapi to make distributed energy easier to connect, easier to trust, and easier to scale. When integration is simple and reliable, innovators can move faster and the grid can become more flexible and resilient.”

Customers say that shift directly impacts their ability to grow and respond to grid needs.

“Derapi has transformed the speed at which we onboard new battery partners,” said Gisela Glandt, Vice President of Partnerships and Business Development at Uplight. “With streamlined integrations, our utility partners can tap into more distributed energy resources and flexible load, while Uplight gains more capacity to focus on innovation.”

“The future grid will be distributed, dynamic, and software-defined,” said Ramsay Siegal, Partner at Earthshot Ventures. “Derapi is making that future real by turning fragmented devices into coordinated, grid-scale infrastructure. This is how we unlock the full potential of the grid in a time of rapid growth and transformation.”

With the new funding, Derapi is expanding to support the connection and coordination of millions of smart energy devices nationwide, empowering customers to move faster and to create entirely new products at the intersection of energy, software, and the grid.

To learn more about Derapi, contact [email protected].

About Derapi
Derapi is the foundational connectivity layer for the distributed energy future. Built by industry veterans from EnergyHub, Enphase, AutoGrid, Proterra, and other leading energy companies, Derapi delivers trusted, manufacturer-sanctioned software integrations that power the world’s most critical distributed energy programs. By owning the complexity of device connectivity and interoperability, Derapi enables energy providers, innovators, and grid operators to move faster and unlock flexibility, resilience, and affordability in the global energy transition.

About Earthshot Ventures
Earthshot Ventures is an early stage venture firm founded on the conviction that reinventing energy and industry is the next trillion-dollar opportunity. We back entrepreneurs tackling the hardest problems of today, and turning them into the most valuable companies of tomorrow. Our edge lies in software, AI, and critical systems that accelerate the shift to a smarter, more resilient, and secure economy.

Media Contact:
Rick Medeiros
[email protected]
(510) 556-8517

SOURCE Derapi

NEW YORK, Feb. 3, 2026 — Arbor, the AI research platform for enterprise operations, today announced it has raised $6.3 million in combined seed and pre-seed funding. The seed round was led by 645 Ventures, with participation from Next Play Ventures (led by LinkedIn Executive Chairman and former CEO Jeff Weiner), Chaac Ventures, Comma Capital, and notable angel investors, along with a previously unannounced pre-seed round. The funding will accelerate Arbor’s product development and team expansion in New York to meet surging demand from enterprise customers seeking to unlock insights trapped in offline conversations.

The people closest to enterprise operations know exactly what’s working and what needs to change. However, their insights rarely reach the executives making decisions. Traditional surveys and consultants are too slow and expensive to capture these voices at scale. Arbor bridges the gap by conducting AI-powered interviews with frontline employees and customers, turning millions of hours of conversations into executive-grade intelligence in minutes, not months.

Co-founders Veronica Ma and Kelly Zhou, who first met investing together at Insight Partners, brought on CTO and co-founder Ashish Dsa. The founding team brings deep 0-to-1 experience across multiple startups and backgrounds from Meta, Harvard, and Princeton.

The company is already working with a range of operationally complex enterprises, from multi-billion dollar transportation leaders like First Student to complex food manufacturers like Lyons Magnus. Here, frontline voices hold the insights executives need most. Early customers are achieving participation rates of 85-90%, while uncovering operational bottlenecks that drive seven-figure cost savings.

“There’s a crisis of wasted knowledge happening right now in every warehouse, every store, every manufacturing floor,” said Veronica, co-founder and CEO. “The people doing the work and the customers visiting the site know what’s broken. Companies are leaving millions on the table by not listening. Our mission is to unlock ground truth, and this funding lets us do it at the scale these industries deserve.”

That ground truth has always existed, but it’s been impossible to capture at the scale and quality that enterprises need. Traditional research means expensive consultants or low-impact DIY initiatives, with weeks of manual interviews and surveys, resulting in insights that are outdated by the time they’re delivered. Arbor’s platform automates the entire process, conducting thousands of conversations simultaneously and surfacing patterns in real-time. It’s the difference between asking 50 people and asking 5,000.

“The opportunity to transform how enterprises capture qualitative, conversational insights is massive,” said Nnamdi Okike, Co-founder and Managing Partner at 645 Ventures. “The Arbor team is uniquely positioned to unlock it, bringing the perfect blend of AI expertise and deep understanding of enterprise operations. They’ve already earned the trust of some of the world’s largest, most operationally complex companies. We’re excited to partner with them as they scale.”

The new capital will be deployed to expand Arbor’s team across engineering, product, and go-to-market functions, and to accelerate product development to serve additional industries and use cases.

To get in touch with the Arbor team, reach out to [email protected].

About Arbor
Arbor is the AI research platform for enterprises that power the global economy. The company transforms employee and customer conversations into executive-grade strategic intelligence, serving enterprises across manufacturing, logistics, retail, and beyond. Arbor’s full-stack AI platform delivers participation rates over 90% while replacing expensive consultants and traditional survey tools. Headquartered in New York, Arbor is backed by 645 Ventures, Next Play Ventures, and leading angels. Learn more at www.findarbor.com.

About 645 Ventures
645 Ventures is a venture capital firm that partners with exceptional founders building iconic companies. The firm invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, and growth stages across fintech, consumer, healthtech, enterprise, cybersecurity, infrastructure/developer tools and deep tech. 645 Ventures supports founders through its resource-intensive approach encompassing hiring, customer introductions and growth strategy, leveraging its proprietary software platform Voyager and deep Connected Network. 645 Ventures manages over $550M in AUM across five funds with investments in industry leaders including Goldbelly, Iterable, Overtime, Resident (acq. By Ashley Home, Inc.), Setpoint, ShopCircle and Shift5. Learn more at www.645ventures.com.

Media Contact
Ellie Tippett
[email protected]
415.328.8079

SOURCE Find Arbor Incorporated

Funding Signals Confidence in New Category Making Global Travel More Accessible and Community-Driven

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3, 2026 — Kindred, the global home swapping platform, today announced it has raised $125 million to scale its growth as a community-driven travel alternative to hotels and short-term rentals.

The investment reflects growing momentum behind Kindred’s give-to-get model powering its next phase of growth as the product evolves from one home swapping community to a platform of interconnected sub-communities, enabling people to swap homes with friends-of-friends or existing trusted networks.

“Travel has long been dominated by two options: hotels and short-term rentals,” said Justine Palefsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Kindred. “Peer-to-peer home swapping is emerging as the third option, and it’s no longer niche. Our momentum signals that home swapping has become a global movement, and this funding allows us to build Kindred not just as a product, but as a social travel platform rooted in trust, generosity, and belonging.”

Founded in 2021, Kindred was built to make travel more accessible at a time when rising costs and housing pressures have reshaped how people move around the world. Today, the platform has grown to almost 300,000 members across 150+ cities, adding 150,000 members in 2025 alone, with almost 350,000 nights hosted to date. Top destinations on the platform include New York City, London, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Mexico City, and Paris to name a few.

The funding includes a $40 million Series B round co-led by NEA and Dylan Field, CEO of Figma, and an $85 million Series C led by Index Ventures.

“Kindred’s model meets the moment,” Palefsky added. “It radically lowers the cost of travel, often to around a tenth of the cost of traditional accommodations, while easing pressure on local housing markets.”

Kindred facilitates only non-commercial exchanges, meaning nights or credits can’t be bought or sold. As a result, over 90% of homes on Kindred are members’ primary residences, unlike short-term rental marketplaces. While members pay to access the service, no money is exchanged between hosts and guests.

“When travel is built on exchanging nights between peers instead of renting from commercial businesses, travel becomes more human, and homes stay on the market for locals,” Palefsky continues.

The capital will be used to evolve Kindred’s community experiences and offerings, including allowing members to build out new, trust-led sub-communities where they can open their homes to others within their extended networks, or with whom they share common interests or values.

“Kindred is leading a powerful cultural shift in how people choose to travel,” said Vlad Loktev, Partner at Index Ventures. Justine and Tas are a visionary duo with a clear POV on where travel is headed, and they have the momentum to turn that vision into reality. We believe Kindred has everything needed—team, technology, community—to become the defining platform in the home swapping space.”

“Kindred’s rapid growth reflects a growing willingness for people to open their homes to unlock future travel,” said Palefsky. “It’s a real sharing economy in action. The more you give, the more you can explore”.

Over the next year and beyond, Kindred will continue to invest in product, trust and safety infrastructure, as well as its growing ecosystem of sub-communities, further cementing its position as the leading global platform for home swapping.

About Kindred
Founded in 2021, Kindred is a global, members-only home swapping platform of 300,000 members that allows verified members to swap homes through a radically more accessible, responsible, human travel experience – unlocking a more meaningful way to see the world. Kindred revolutionized a third option of accommodation compared to hotels and short-term rentals. 90% of Kindred’s inventory is people’s primary residences, uniquely positioning it within the travel accommodation market. Kindred service fees average $20–45 per night— meaning a stay costs roughly one-tenth of a short-term rental in a comparable home. To learn more, visit livekindred.com.

Media Contacts
Megan Trivelli, The Sway Effect
P: 917-696-3701
Kejal Ashra-Blundell, Kindred
P: +44 7792 109808
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Kindred

Secures $30M in funding to Scale Open Real Estate Marketplace

NEW YORK, Feb. 3, 2026 — Orchard, the company delivering the best home buying and selling experience for both agents and consumers, today announced 40% revenue growth in 2025, outperforming the market during one of the industry’s most challenging recent years. This momentum follows the successful launch of 3 new markets in the spring of 2025, and the addition of over 500 agents over the last two years.

To accelerate future growth, Orchard has raised $30 million in a new round of funding. Investors doubled down on the company’s vision, as Orchard successfully transitioned from a “Buy Before You Sell” lender into a comprehensive real estate marketplace.

This new open marketplace model has resonated deeply in the market. Today, Orchard agents are armed with the broadest suite of products and services — including Buy Before You Sell, all-cash offers, unique listing services — allowing them to win more and to provide every customer with a customized solution that best suits their specific needs. All of these services are delivered through Orchard’s digitally integrated Title and Mortgage offerings.

“We are dedicated to building the future of real estate by putting the power back in the hands of consumers and the agents who support them,” said Court Cunningham, CEO and Founder of Orchard. “With Orchard, customers have the broadest choice of sale options, great local agents to guide them, and superior closing technology. We’re proud to be delivering the best consumer experience out there today. This funding allows us to continue innovating on behalf of our customers to ensure the process of finding and securing a home is as seamless as possible.”

This new round of equity funding will support Orchard’s continued growth and innovation, including market expansion. Orchard plans to launch two additional markets this year.

By marrying local expertise with the broadest range of financial and sale options, Orchard continues to define the future of the industry by removing the friction, uncertainty, and stress traditionally associated with the home buying and selling process.

About Orchard

Orchard is transforming the way people buy and sell their home, offering a modern real estate marketplace that provides homeowners with certainty and convenience. Through its innovative suite of services, exceptional local agents, and unified digital commerce platform, Orchard offers a seamless, tech-driven experience from search to close. It’s the new way to home. Orchard is headquartered in New York City and offers its services in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. Learn more at https://orchard.com/

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Orchard

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2026 — Principle, a Strategic Foresight AI platform that enables companies to simulate competitive futures before committing resources, today announced $2 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by SMRK VC and SMOK VC, with participation from RideHome AI Fund, a16z Scout Fund, Bain Capital Scout Fund, and Unpopular Ventures.

Strategic decisions at most companies are made with outdated information, gut instinct, and static planning documents that become obsolete the moment market conditions shift. While oil majors like Shell pioneered sophisticated scenario planning decades ago, this capability has remained locked inside organizations with deep pockets and long time horizons.

“Every Fortune 500 company we talk to has the same pattern,” said Artur Kiulian, co-founder and CEO of Principle. “They misread market signals, they react too slowly to structural shifts, and by the time something obvious in hindsight becomes clear, it’s already too late.”

From Static Strategy to Living Simulations

Principle creates digital twins of companies, competitors, regulators, and market forces, then runs adversarial simulations across hundreds of strategic directions. Unlike generic AI tools that provide stateless answers to one-off questions, Principle maintains persistent models that continuously update as new market intelligence arrives – competitor moves, regulatory changes, pricing shifts, M&A activity.

The platform is already in pilots with multiple Fortune 500 companies, governments, leaders in the energy market, and established technology companies exploring M&A pathways.

“Principle helps us build that muscle: turning strategy into an iterative process where we explore scenarios, learn quickly, and decide based on evidence, not intuition alone.” said Oleksandr Kosovan, CEO & Founder of MacPaw.

Origin: From National AI Models to Strategic Foresight

Principle emerged from work with governments navigating AI adoption. In 2025, the founding team signed an MOU with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation to develop national AI capabilities – work that produced collaborative research on sovereign models recognized in the best data journalism picks of 2025. That engagement expanded to the Middle East: benchmarking AI models with Doha Graduate Studies University as part of Qatar’s sovereign AI initiative, and collaborating with Dubai Health Authority on population health strategy.

A consistent gap emerged: organizations could deploy powerful AI models, but struggled to translate them into strategic decisions.

“Governments and enterprises would invest heavily in AI infrastructure, then face a utilization problem,” said Kiulian. “That’s when we realized the real opportunity wasn’t building more AI — it was building the decision layer on top of it.”

Working alongside Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DCAI) and Dubai Future Foundation, Principle developed scenario modeling for health system resilience.

“The future belongs to those who ask the most important questions,” said Khalfan Juma Belhoul, CEO of Dubai Future Foundation.

LLMs as World Models

Recent advances in large language models have unlocked a new capability: the ability to simulate not just environments, but the logic of how markets, competitors, and organizations actually behave. Principle’s founding team – with backgrounds spanning Google’s behavioral simulation research, physics modeling at CERN, and strategic technology work for the White House – recognized that LLMs could finally make strategic foresight scalable.

“Every major platform shift creates new primitives for human interaction,” said Chris Messina, General Partner at Ride Home AI Fund and inventor of the hashtag. “The common objection we hear is ‘I can just use ChatGPT for this,'” said Kiulian. “But a generic LLM is stateless — no memory of your company, no persistent model of your competitors. We’re running continuous simulation engines that learn from outcomes.”

Principle has already begun building on this foundation, training a custom model on AWS’s Nova architecture to improve plausibility classification of future market events – joining early adopters like Reddit, Sony, and Booking.com in building domain-specific “Nova” models that embed deep vertical expertise.

Built for the Enterprise Blindspot

The company is initially targeting mid-market and Fortune 500 corporate strategy teams – organizations large enough to face complex competitive dynamics but lacking the resources to build in-house foresight capabilities. 

“Enterprise AI has optimized individual productivity — coding assistants, document drafting. Palantir helps companies make their internal data work again. What’s missing is the layer that shapes where the business actually goes. We adopted military wargaming techniques and applied them to corporate strategy,” said Yurii Filipchuk, co-founder of Principle.

Use of Funds

The funding will accelerate Principle’s transition from high-touch pilot delivery to a productized platform, with investment in the simulation core, real-time market intelligence integration, and an interface that allows strategy operators to interact with scenarios directly. The company is also expanding its enterprise pilot program, targeting additional Fortune 500 customers across industrial, technology, and financial services verticals.

About Principle

Principle is the Strategic Foresight Simulation platform that helps companies model competitive futures before committing resources. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in San Francisco. Users can learn more at futureprinciple.com

Contact
Yurii Filipchuk
Principle
[email protected]

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SOURCE Principle

—Founded by top agent James Harris and Afterpay Co-Founders Nick Molnar & Anthony Eisen, Breezy debuts with a $10M pre-seed round to redefine agent productivity—

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2026 — Breezy—the AI operating system built exclusively for residential real estate professionals—today announced its official launch. The platform represents a breakthrough for the $500B residential real estate services industry, bringing AI-powered workflows and client-ready tools to one of the world’s largest yet most underserved professional sectors.

To accelerate product development and prepare for launch, Breezy raised an oversubscribed $10M pre-seed led by Ribbit Capital—a global investment firm known for backing founders who challenge the status quo—with meaningful participation from Fifth Wall, DST Global, Liquid 2 Ventures, Eyal Ofer’s O.G. Venture Partners, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications Fidji Simo, and Lightspark’s Co-Founder & CEO David Marcus, amongst others.

Built by Agents, Backed by Entrepreneurs

Founded in early 2024 by top-producing agent James Harris, Afterpay Co-Founders and seasoned technology entrepreneurs Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen, and leading venture capitalists the Khalili Brothers, Breezy was created to give agents back control of their time and deal flow. Despite being the backbone of every transaction, agents remain chronically underserved by technology—many still rely on notes and spreadsheets to manage multimillion-dollar businesses.

From day one, Breezy has been shaped by a curated community of more than 200 highly influential real estate agents across the country, representing a cross-section of brokerages and production levels. Their real-time feedback as active practitioners has been embedded directly into the platform’s functionality, ensuring the product reflects how agents actually work—not how technologists think they should.

“I wanted a tool that could think like I do—adjust comps, track client needs, and automate repetitive tasks—so I could focus on delivering the best experience for my clients and growing my business. That wish became Breezy’s mission,” said Harris.

“After 25 years in luxury real estate, I was still burning hours bouncing between half a dozen tools to prepare for one client meeting. None of them were built with agents in mind. That was the spark for Breezy. From that moment, I became obsessed with building a platform entirely for agents—one that gives them back their time, helps them win more business, and becomes their ultimate competitive advantage.”

Underbuilt: Turning Insight into Advantage

As part of this commitment, Breezy is launching Underbuilt, a proprietary data platform that reveals the true building potential of residential properties. The platform has been incubated by Harris for nearly two years inside his own real estate practice, developed alongside his active brokerage work, and refined through continuous use across live client engagements.

“One of the biggest unlocks in this business is being able to create opportunity where others don’t see it,” said Harris. “When an agent can show a client how underbuilt a property is—when they can uncover real, buildable potential—that agent becomes irreplaceable. They’re not just opening doors; they’re opening possibilities. That kind of insight creates trust, loyalty, and value in a way no generic pitch ever could.”

Top Investors Back Agent-First AI Platform

“James has lived and breathed real estate at the highest level for over two decades. His obsession with elevating agents and improving the way that they work is exactly why Breezy is going to change the game,” stated Micky Malka, Founder of Ribbit Capital. “This isn’t just another PropTech tool—it’s founder-market fit meets cutting-edge technology: James’ lived experience, reimagined through AI, to solve problems agents have battled for years.”

“AI is transforming every corner of the built world—and residential real estate agents are no exception,” shared Brendan Wallace, CEO & Chief Investment Officer, Fifth Wall. “With over 2M residential agents in the U.S. alone and nearly 20M globally, this is one of the largest professional categories on the planet and among the most underserved by technology. Breezy is the first true vertical AI platform for agents. Its purpose-built OS can unlock productivity across a $500B industry, reshaping how agents work from the palm of their hand.”

AI Takes Center Stage in a $500B Market

The launch comes as residential real estate reaches an AI inflection point. MLS data is now standardized enough to power reliable insights, consumers are already using AI in their home search process, and brokerages report accelerating adoption among agents. Yet most tools stop at chat. Breezy’s suite of tools—including development opportunity analysis, personalized lead nurturing, and branded comps on the go—is designed to deliver the speed, intelligence, and presence today’s clients expect.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Breezy will use the capital to strengthen its product and data foundation, expand its engineering and design teams, and invest in security, go-to-market, and brokerage-wide rollout readiness. An exclusive waitlist opens today, with a broader U.S. launch slated for H1 2026. The platform is being built with international expansion in mind, with near-term opportunities in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Dubai.

About Breezy

Breezy is the AI workspace redefining how real estate gets done. In one clean interface, Breezy turns weeks of admin into seconds: auto-creating on-brand comps, capturing conversations so no detail or follow-up is missed, keeping pipelines updated automatically, and revealing development opportunities others overlook. Co-founded by industry leader James Harris, entrepreneur Nick Molnar, and the Khalili Brothers, Breezy pairs lived-in workflow design with AI precision and effortless elegance—giving agents time back to win more business. Learn more and join the waitlist at Breezy.com.

About Ribbit

Ribbit is a global investment firm that partners with visionary entrepreneurs revolutionizing traditional markets. For over a decade, Ribbit has partnered with founders challenging the status quo and building transformative companies across six continents, including Coinbase, Credit Karma, Crusoe, Decagon, Groww, Harmonic, Listen Labs, Nubank, QuintoAndar, ONE, Revolut, Robinhood, and others.

About O.G. Venture Partners

O.G. Venture Partners (OGVP) is a global, single-LP venture capital fund founded in 2017 and backed by Eyal Ofer’s Ofer Global. Focused primarily on early growth-stage investments, typically in Series B and C rounds, OGVP manages ~$2 billion in AUM. Its active portfolio includes companies such as Peregrine, Neko Health, Superplay, SSI, Coralogix, IVIX, Dandy, Buildots among others.

SOURCE Breezy

VIENNA, Va., Feb. 2, 2026 — DC Capital Partners (“DC Capital”), a private equity investment firm with deep expertise in Government and Engineering markets, announced today that it has made a majority investment in Knexus, a provider of applied artificial intelligence (“AI”) capabilities supporting complex, mission-critical government programs.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, Knexus is a trusted partner to U.S. defense and civilian agencies, designing, building, and operating enterprise-grade AI systems that enable secure adoption of next-generation AI in production environments. The Company maintains long-standing client relationships across defense and civilian agencies and has tremendous expertise in deploying Google enabled AI solutions. Knexus is a Google Public Sector Premier Partner, implementation partner for Gemini for Government and received the 2025 Google Cloud Partner of the Year Award for Business Applications in Government, reinforcing its role as a trusted bridge between leading commercial AI technologies and federal mission requirements.

“The U.S. Government’s focus on artificial intelligence continues to accelerate as agencies seek to modernize operations, improve readiness, and enable faster, more informed decision-making,” said Thomas J. Campbell, Founder and Managing Partner of DC Capital Partners. “Knexus has built a differentiated capability at the intersection of AI and mission execution. We are excited to partner with the Knexus team to support the next phase of growth through investment in business development, technology, and operations, consistent with DC Capital’s systematic approach to building durable, mission-focused government technology platforms.”

“The partnership with DC Capital represents a pivotal milestone for Knexus,” said Adam Lurie, Chief Executive Officer of Knexus. “Over the last several years, our team has made meaningful progress building a modern applied AI platform purpose-built for government missions. We have had a front row seat to witness how AI can be leveraged for the public good and this partnership with DC Capital will accelerate our ability to scale and put AI Solutions in the hands of our customers.”

“Knexus stands out for its ability to move AI from concept to production in environments where reliability, security, and trust are paramount,” said Jerry Chernock, Partner at DC Capital Partners. “The Company’s combination of technical depth, disciplined delivery, and strong customer relationships aligns well with DC Capital’s focus on building scalable, execution-driven platforms and positions Knexus well as AI adoption continues to expand across the federal government.”

DC Capital has a long-standing investment focus on government services and defense technology; themes the firm and its principals have pursued for more than three decades in support of the government’s most critical missions. Recent investments in these sectors include C5MI, Rivencore Global Solutions, Valkyrie Enterprises, SiOnyx, Hill Technical Solutions, Digital Force Technologies, Revenue Solutions, and Owl Cyber Defense Solutions with past successful investment exits including National Interest Security Company (“NISC”), SC3 and QRC Technologies.

About Knexus

For two decades, Knexus has worked with dozens of agencies across the US Government as a trusted partner to deliver tailored AI solutions to mission-critical problems. With three patents and over 100 peer reviewed scientific papers, the scientists and engineers of Knexus are routinely advancing the frontier between human and machine intelligence. As a Google Cloud Premier Partner and 2025 Google Cloud Partner of the Year for Business Applications in Government, Knexus offers its customers expertise in working with Google Cloud’s AI products, such as the Vertex AI platform and Gemini models, to deliver AI solutions to the public sector.

Learn more at www.knexus.ai.

About DC Capital Partners

DC Capital Partners is a private investment firm headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, that partners with founder-led and management-owned businesses in U.S.-based Government and Engineering markets. The firm makes control investments in differentiated middle-market companies and takes an active ownership role, drawing on deep sector knowledge to build enduring, high-quality platforms. The firm’s disciplined, repeatable investment process has supported a track record of successful exits and long-term partnerships.

For more information, visit www.dccp.com.

SOURCE Knexus; DC Capital Partners

Nyca Partners led the round and Osama Bedier, former Google and GoDaddy executive, will join the company’s board

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2026 — Loop AI, the enterprise-grade AI platform purpose-built for the restaurant and retail back office, today announced its $14M Series A funding round. The round was led by Nyca Partners with participation from prominent investors Gokul Rajaram, Base10, Afore Capital, Converge, Alumni Ventures, Data Tech Fund, John Pepper, 9Yards Capital and Operators Studio. As part of the financing, Osama Bedier, investment partner at Nyca Partners and former Google and GoDaddy executive, will join Loop AI’s Board of Directors. 

“Loop sits at the intersection of several transformative trends in the restaurant industry, including the rise of AI, a growing focus on customer experience and the drive for greater operational efficiency. These will be essential pillars shaping the future of dining,” said Bedier. “Anand and Sundar are building a remarkable company and transformative technology that will be indispensable for restaurant operators. I’m thrilled to join them on this journey and to contribute to the company’s next phase of growth.”

As of 2025, the U.S. delivery market is valued at approximately $140B with a 10% market share. However, this is projected to surge to $1T with a 30% market share by 2035. As the fastest-growing channel in the industry, delivery is transforming restaurant operations from traditional back-of-house production models to dynamic, consumer-centric businesses. 

“Delivery is the new drive-thru, and it is poised to fuel the next decade of growth for the restaurant industry. As consumer behavior continues to shift towards takeout and delivery, our mission to make delivery more profitable for restaurant operators has never been more vital,” said Anand Tumuluru, co-founder and CEO of Loop AI. “We are incredibly grateful for the support from both new and returning investors in our Series A raise. Their backing empowers us to continue equipping restaurants with the essential tools they need to thrive amid shifting consumer preferences and industry dynamics.”

The shift towards delivery impacts everything from site selection and channel strategy to margins and overall efficiency. Loop AI’s technology empowers restaurant operators to embrace delivery as a growth engine, leveraging agentic workflows to maintain in-store level margins while scaling off-premise revenue.

“Loop AI has become an essential technology driving the explosive growth of our delivery segment,” said Robert Linder, CFO of California-based casual dining concept Lazy Dog. “By harnessing its powerful capabilities, we’re able to meet customers where they are and scale our delivery strategy with greater efficiency and precision.” 

This funding will be used to expand Loop AI’s product suite and grow headcount for their offices in New York, San Francisco, Tampa, and Bangalore. Since 2024, Loop AI has grown 6x to support thousands of restaurants. Using Loop AI’s agentic workflows, customers such as Lazy Dog and Starbird grew ~10% while growing their flow through.

“Over the past several years, Loop has helped us look at third-party delivery as a profitable growth channel,” said Aaron Noveshen, founder of The Culinary Edge and CEO of fast casual brand Starbird. “Loop’s technology has deepened our insights into customer behavior and preferences, helping us refine the way we serve them. We are excited to continue building on this strong partnership.”

About Loop AI
Founded in 2022 by a team of engineers and restaurateurs, Loop AI is the enterprise-grade AI platform purpose-built for the restaurant and retail back office. Operating as an agentic co-worker, Loop AI empowers brands to drive profitable growth by automating complex tasks across finance, operations and marketing. Loop AI is trusted by 300+ brands — both public and private — powering thousands of locations in the U.S. Learn more at LoopAI.com. 

Media Contact
Alexa Borislow
[email protected]

SOURCE Loop AI