Recent funding round, led by Hudson Bay Capital, fuels expanded capacity and commercialization of formulated intermediates across oil & gas, mining, agriculture and industrial & CPG markets

SOLON, Ohio, Dec. 10, 2025 — Locus Fermentation Solutions (Locus FS), a U.S.-based biotechnology company producing performance-enhancing bio-based additives, today announced the close of an oversubscribed $20 million investment in a convertible note round at an equity valuation of $100M led by Hudson Bay Capital, with the opportunity to up-size the round. The capital will be used to expand the company’s domestic biomanufacturing capacity, accelerate commercial activities and product development across four strategic sectors: oil & gas, mining, agriculture, and industrial/CPG formulations. 

This latest round brings total funding this year to over $40 million in growth capital and includes participation from company leadership.

“This funding signals strong confidence in the future of Locus Fermentation Solutions,” said John Uhran, CEO of Locus FS. “Building on strong double-digit growth, including the acquisition of over 50 new customers in 2025, we have the team, technology and the financial momentum to scale what we do best—formulate and manufacture better performing, cleaner and more effective alternatives to traditional chemistry using our proprietary biomanufacturing platforms and glycolipid molecules.”

Investing in the Future of USA-Made, Bio-based Chemistry

With increasing emphasis on domestic manufacturing and supply chain resiliency, Locus FS is uniquely positioned as the only U.S. producer of glycolipid biosurfactants with TSCA approval for commercial-scale volumes. These non-GMO, palm-free bio-based ingredients deliver powerful surface activity and improved performance, with dramatically lower toxicity and greater biodegradability than conventional surfactants, making them ideal for replacing petrochemical-based formulations across multiple industries.

The newly secured funds will support:

• Expansion of U.S. fermentation and downstream processing capacity
• Commercial growth and customer acquisition across key markets
• Acceleration of commercialization efforts and new product launches
• Leveraging the company’s deep patent portfolio to drive innovation
• Deployment of digital tools and analytics to optimize business performance

“We’re seeing a global push toward performance-based sustainability in formulations—and Locus FS is delivering exactly that,” said Matt Russell at Hudson Bay Capital. “The company’s glycolipids and microbials aren’t just ‘green’—they’re engineered to outperform conventional options and are already being used successfully at scale.”

Positioned for Scaled Impact

Locus FS has already achieved strong commercial traction and technical validation across its focus markets:

• In Oil & Gas, the company’s glycolipid-enhanced treatments have enabled operators to substantially boost production while complying with strict environmental regulations.
• In Mining, Locus biosurfactants deliver improved metal and mineral recovery while increasing efficiency in leaching and flotation operations.
• In Agriculture, the company’s biologicals & glycolipid-based treatments consistently boost crop yields and farmer ROI, with statistically significant results in eight top-growing crops.
• In industrial and CPG formulations, Locus glycolipids help formulators reduce surfactant load and enhance performance while meeting clean-label and ESG targets.

With the addition of this new funding, Locus FS will continue building on its market leadership by launching new products, expanding distribution and partnering with companies looking to replace traditional chemistries with bio-based, high-performance alternatives. For more information, visit Locusfs.com.

About Locus Fermentation Solutions (Locus FS)
Locus Fermentation Solutions (Locus FS) is a USA-based biotechnology company delivering high-performance specialty chemical formulations enhanced with novel glycolipids and microbial blends. Built on deep microbial expertise, the company develops bio-based additives that act as powerful formulation amplifiers—pushing performance beyond the limits of traditional chemistry across industrial, CPG, energy, mining and agricultural applications. With a proprietary biomanufacturing platform and science-first approach, Locus FS helps customers solve complex formulation challenges and accelerate the transition to smarter, more sustainable solutions. Visit Locusfs.com to learn more.

SOURCE Locus Fermentation Solutions

The independent program – backed by its technology partners Infineon and Intel – addresses the missing link of closer collaboration between startups and corporates to help European deep tech founders move faster from “Pre to B” – taking breakthrough innovation to breakout success.

• Europe’s missing link: an independent, multi-partner scale-up program connecting startups and corporates to bridge the continent’s deep tech growth funding gap.
• Founder-first and non-dilutive: enabling startups to scale faster without giving up equity.
• From Pre-Seed to Series B: focused on turning early-stage deep tech ventures into globally competitive scale-ups.
• Collective impact: built on collaboration between world-leading technology firms such as Infineon and Intel, and a network of 300+ senior industry mentors.
• Pan-European mission: strengthening Europe’s sovereignty across critical frontier technologies.

DRESDEN, Germany, Dec. 10, 2025 — Ignite Next today announced its launch as Europe’s new scale-up program for deep tech innovation, designed to bridge the gap between early-stage founders and industrial-scale success.

Created by the team behind the renowned Intel Ignite program and now independently operated, Ignite Next introduces a new collaborative model – bringing together the global leading technology players, including Infineon and Intel, to support the continent’s most ambitious deep tech founders.

Rather than operating as a traditional accelerator, Ignite Next positions itself as the missing link between startups and industry – a hands-on, non-dilutive program helping founders scale IP-heavy breakthrough technologies from Pre-Seed to Series B and beyond.

Its independent structure allows the team to work with multiple partners in even greater depth across a broad range of frontier technologies, from semiconductors, photonics, advanced manufacturing, robotics, AI, through to quantum computing.

A new model for Europe’s deep tech scale-ups:

Europe’s deep tech startups face a persistent challenge: strong scientific foundations and early funding, but limited industrial collaboration and scale-up support. Ignite Next directly addresses this gap between innovation and market success, enabling founders to reach commercial scale faster through direct access to relevant industry expertise and decision makers from strategic partners.

“We’re building the bridge that Europe’s deep tech founders have long needed,” said Markus Bohl, CEO and co-founder of Ignite Next. “Ignite Next brings world-class technology partners and founders together to turn scientific breakthroughs into successful businesses at scale – helping startups move faster from Pre to B, from inventions with potential to companies with global impact.”

Ignite Next’s non-dilutive, founder-first structure ensures startups can scale without sacrificing ownership, while its high-touch approach – guided by more than 300 senior industry mentors – gives founders direct access to technical expertise, market insight, and investor readiness support.

Dr. Daniel Schall, CEO, Black Semiconductor, commented: “Ignite Next enables deep tech founders to move faster and build strong momentum by pairing genuine technical expertise with hands-on leadership experience—delivering founder-level insight, focus, and connections.”

A virtuous circle of impact for startups, corporates and the deeptech community alike:

1. A clear north star: startup success – achieved through non-dilutive and high-touch support, and deep sector expertise.
2. Startups scale faster – attracting stronger investor interest and higher valuations.
3. VCs are recommending the program, leading to highly selective admissions.
4. Partners benefit through early access to technologies, talent, and collaboration opportunities.
5. The entire ecosystem strengthens – reinforcing Europe’s competitiveness in deep tech.

Nicolas Autret, Partner, Walden Catalyst, added: “Only 6% of global AI funding and 5% of quantum investment go to European companies – that’s the gap the Draghi Report warned about. Ignite Next tackles exactly this problem by helping Europe’s deep tech founders scale faster, without giving up equity. It’s the kind of competence and collaboration Europe needs to stay competitive on the global stage.”

Independence and collaboration – the next phase of Ignite:

Ignite Next builds on a proven blueprint of technical depth, senior mentorship, and focus on tangible commercial outcomes – now strengthened by its independent, multi-partner setup.

“We’re keeping everything that made Ignite successful – the technical depth, the selectivity, and the focus on the commercial impact – but with the ability to provide even more relevancy via our complementary, multi-partner set-up,” said Alois Eder, CTO and co-founder. “Independence means we can connect an even wider and stronger network of experts to our startups, offering broader and deeper technology coverage, better market access, and stronger outcomes for Europe’s innovation sectors.”

Each cohort is highly selective, typically drawing over 300 applications for just ten places. Startups are mostly referred to the program by leading venture capital investors and chosen for their potential to become Europe’s next scale-up success stories.

Alumni from the Ignite model include Black Semiconductor, Proxima Fusion, Corintis, Quantum Diamonds, Cerabyte, and Space Forge – each proving Europe’s outstanding capabilities in frontier technologies.

Dr. Francesco Sciortino, CEO of Proxima Fusion, added: “The Ignite Next team has been instrumental to Proxima’s journey from lab breakthrough to tangible traction. The team consistently had our back – combining technical guidance and company building advice with real industry access.”

Partners driving Europe’s deep tech future:

Ignite Next is backed by its core technology partners Infineon and Intel, who provide strategic industry expertise, infrastructure and technology access as well as technical and commercial mentorship. With technologies evolving faster and across more domains than ever, these partnerships give corporates early access to disruptive innovations, insight into emerging trends, and opportunities to influence technology roadmaps.

“At Infineon, we are committed to empowering Europe’s deep tech startups,” said Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG. “With Ignite Next, we are uniting leading technology partners to back the continent’s most ambitious founders and strengthen the importance of Europe as a world-class innovation hub. Together, we turn today’s European startups into tomorrow’s global tech champions.”

Additional corporate and institutional partners are set to join in the coming months, further strengthening Ignite Next’s value proposition to founders. All partnerships are long-term, offering startups sustained support while reinforcing a lasting commitment to Europe’s deep tech ecosystem and supply chain resilience.

Europe first – but globally connected:

While the pan-European program is closely connected to the 45 most important deep tech hotspots in Europe, Ignite Next deliberately chose to headquarter the program in Dresden, at the heart of Silicon Saxony. The region is not only home to one-third of Europe’s chip production, but with TU Dresden also the university producing the most patents in Germany. With this Ignite Next opens up unmatched collaboration opportunities for startups and investors alike within one of the continent’s most important, vibrant, and fastest growing semiconductor ecosystems.

Dirk Panter, Saxony’s State Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour, Energy and Climate Action: “It is testament to the strength and importance of the ecosystem in (Silicon) Saxony that an internationally renowned program with world-leading partners in the hightech industry will be based and run out of Dresden. We are happy to welcome Ignite Next and its deep tech startups in the heartland of Europe’s semiconductor industry – and are convinced that this is the right place to build and scale global deep tech category leaders.”

Its location underscores the program’s pan-European ambition: uniting industrial, academic, and venture networks to scale European innovation globally.

While Europe remains its core focus, Ignite Next welcomes startups from around the world. Each three-month cohort provides deep technical mentorship, commercial validation, and investor engagement, helping startups reach product-market fit, go-to-market readiness, and Series A and B funding faster.

Michiel Scheffer, President, European Innovation Council, commented: “I’m happy to see that Ignite Next is specifically designed to support European deep tech startups to reach the breakout stage. This is exactly in line with what the EIC and me personally are strong proponents of: we need to build scale-ups for Europe critical technologies that aim for global leadership positions in their field. In Europe, we have the talent, the IP, and the opportunity to achieve that if we manage to provide the right funding and industrial support for this. I’m convinced that Ignite Next will play a significant role in this.”

About Ignite Next:
Ignite Next is Europe’s scale-up program for deep tech innovation, founded by the former Intel Ignite leadership team and now independently operated. The program accelerates early-stage, high-impact startups developing breakthrough technologies in semiconductors, physical AI, advanced computing, and other frontier domains. Non-dilutive and founder-first, Ignite Next partners with leading technology companies – including Infineon and Intel – to connect startups with world-class technical and business expertise, turning breakthrough innovation into breakout success.

Media contact:
Harry Ashcroft | Perseid PR
[email protected]
+44 7429 108277

SOURCE Ignite Next

NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2025 — Apple Tree Partners (“ATP”), a leading life sciences venture capital firm, has announced that on December 9, 2025, certain ATP affiliates filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 relief in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Court”) in order to implement a restructuring plan to ensure its portfolio companies have the funding and resources required to continue their critical missions to research and develop novel breakthrough treatments for cancer, neurological disorders, infectious diseases, and other serious diseases. Since its inception more than 25 years ago, ATP has delivered an industry-leading DPI of 1x on $2.5 billion. The firm’s debut fund, ATP I, stands as the second-highest returning fund globally for its vintage (1999). Its most recent fund, ATP Life Science Ventures, has best-in-class performance over 12 years with a net TVPI of 2.7x and a net DPI of 1.0x.

ATP and its affiliates will continue to operate during the reorganization.

“We undertake this restructuring to serve the best interests of our limited partners, our portfolio companies, their employees and founders, the health care professionals and institutions who partner with us in researching and developing new medical treatments, and ultimately, the patients who stand to benefit from everyone’s invention, dedication, risk, and effort,” said Seth Harrison, M.D., founder and Managing Partner, ATP. “We have no doubt that the fundamentals underpinning our investments are strong, and that our portfolio companies have shown and continue to show great promise to deliver significant returns on investment and meaningful new treatments and cures.”

ATP has retained B. Riley as financial and restructuring advisor to the firm, with Perry Mandarino, Senior Managing Director of B. Riley, as Chief Restructuring Officer. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP and Potter, Anderson & Corroon LLP have been appointed general bankruptcy co-counsels.

About Apple Tree Partners

Apple Tree Partners (ATP) is a leader in life sciences venture capital. ATP creates companies starting at various stages, from pre-IP ideas to asset spinouts, investing in them from seed stage through IPO and beyond. The core of ATP’s strategy is providing flexible capital and access to a world-class team of venture partners and EIRs, to build sustainable, research-driven enterprises that deliver therapeutics to improve human lives. For more information, visit www.appletreepartners.com.

SOURCE Apple Tree Partners

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10, 2025 —

• Pantera Capital leads the fundraising, joined by Coinbase Ventures and Digital Currency Group (DCG)
• Surf raises $15 million to develop Surf 2.0, to serve the high demand of crypto insights from crypto traders, researchers and investors. Also to launch Surf Enterprise with SOC 2 compliance and data privacy
• Surf 1.0 already tops CAIA benchmark, outsmarting competitors by 4x https://asksurf.ai/home#benchmark 

Surf, the AI intelligence platform for digital assets, today announced it has raised $15 million led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and DCG. The funding will support the development of Surf 2.0, a more advanced version of the company’s domain-specific AI, and expand Surf’s enterprise offering.

Surf combines proprietary models built for digital asset analysis with industry-leading data, giving it a level of accuracy that general-purpose systems lack. Its first model, Surf 1.0, demonstrated this advantage: on CAIA, a benchmark that evaluates whether an AI model can perform the tasks of a junior human analyst, Surf outperformed competitors by up to 4x. The result highlights the limitations of general-purpose models and why investors are turning to specialized systems for consistent and reliable analysis. As interest in digital assets accelerates, both institutional teams and individual investors are looking for intelligence that can interpret market data reliably, without the inaccuracies of broad LLMs.

Surf’s platform uses a multi-agent architecture that analyzes social sentiment, onchain activity, and token and market behavior with advanced logic. Insights are delivered through a simple chat interface, giving users a single point of access without relying on manual, error-prone research.

Since launching in July, Surf has seen strong early adoption and consistent growth:

• Millions in Annual Recurring Revenue
• Generated over 1M research reports
• 50% growth month over month
• 80% of top exchanges and research firms use Surf

The funding will accelerate the development of Surf 2.0 and the company’s enterprise offerings. Surf 2.0 will introduce a more advanced model, expanded proprietary datasets, and new agents capable of executing multi-step workflows typically handled by experienced analysts. The enterprise offering will add enhanced security controls, dedicated infrastructure, and SOC 2 compliance to meet institutional requirements.

Teams at top firms already use Surf daily. A research associate at a global venture fund said, “Surf is an exceptional product. I use it daily, and increasingly find myself spending more time on Surf than on Perplexity.””When people make financial decisions, they want information they can trust. Generic AI tools aren’t built for that.” said Ryan Li, Co-founder and CEO of Surf. “We’re building Surf to give people something they can rely on, especially in a market that moves as quickly as crypto.”Added Nihal Maunder, Partner at Pantera Capital “Digital asset research has always required a level of context and detail that general LLMs don’t handle well. Surf is one of the first teams to take that seriously, and the traction they’ve shown tells us the market has been waiting for a tool like this.”

About Surf 

Surf is an AI intelligence platform for digital assets that delivers accurate, trusted insights through a simple chat interface. Using proprietary data and domain-specific models, Surf helps institutions and individual investors analyze projects, understand market conditions, and make informed decisions with confidence.

For individual users: Additional information is available at asksurf.ai/home

For enterprises: Additional information is available at https://asksurf.ai/enterprise

Contact
Kris Conesa
C-Suite Media Strategies
[email protected]

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2842671/Surf.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2842670/Surf_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Surf

Funding will support Quantum Art in reaching a 1,000-qubit commercial platform and global expansion

NESS ZIONA, Israel, Dec. 10, 2025 — Quantum Art, a developer of full-stack quantum computers based on trapped-ion qubits and a proprietary scale-up architecture, today announced that it has closed a $100 million Series A funding round. The investment accelerates the company’s path toward commercializing its systems, achieving quantum advantage, scaling its platform to enable quantum processors with thousands of qubits, and supporting Quantum Art’s expansion from early revenues into significant commercial scale.

Bedford Ridge Capital led the round alongside Battery Ventures, Destra Investments, Lumir Growth Partners, Disruptive AI, Harel Insurance, Karen W. Davidson, GTV, Yasmin Lukatz, Corner Capital, and Qbeat Ventures. 

Existing investors and stakeholders Amiti Ventures, which led the seed round, StageOne Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Entrée Capital, and the Weizmann Institute of Science continued participating in this round. The financing brings Quantum Art’s total funding to date to $124 million following a seed round in 2022.

The funding accelerates the development of Perspective, a 1,000-qubit multi-core system aimed at achieving quantum advantage, and supports prototyping of the company’s third-generation 2D architecture targeting thousands of qubits for high-impact, real-world applications.

“Investment support at this level reflects strong confidence in our technology and products,” said Dr. Tal David, CEO and co-founder of Quantum Art. “It reinforces the momentum behind our multi-qubit gate architecture and our path toward systems that scale from hundreds to ultimately thousands and millions of qubits.”

Quantum Art’s architecture uses reconfigurable, multi-core trapped-ion chains that preserve high connectivity as systems grow. Multi-qubit gates compress complex operations into a single step, while dynamic reconfigurable optical segmentation enables parallel computing regions within the same ion chain with optimal connectivity. Dense 2D arrays enable significant qubit scaling while preserving a compact system footprint. Together, these capabilities form a platform engineered for practical scalability and high-performance quantum algorithms.

The funding follows a period of rapid progression for Quantum Art. The company published a detailed and aggressive multiyear roadmap along with additional technical milestones including demonstrating the world’s longest fully controlled trapped-ion chain of 200 ions, underscoring both the scalability and stability of its architecture. The company released early results in a collaboration with NVIDIA’s CUDA-Q platform where circuit depth decreased by 10X and secured a joint project with Ayalon Highways to explore how quantum computing can improve traffic congestion.

“Quantum computing advances only when extraordinary people come together,” said Dr. Amit Ben-Kish, CTO and co-founder of Quantum Art. “Our team has turned ambitious ideas into state-of-the-art systems at remarkable speed. This funding lets us strengthen this team and deepen our strategic partnerships that will accelerate our path to commercial-scale machines.”

About Quantum Art
Quantum Art, an Israeli company founded in 2022 as spin-off from the Weizmann Institute of Science, is a full-stack trapped-ion quantum computing company developing systems and solutions for complex computational problems. Its architecture combines scalable hardware with software designed for real-world applications in optimization, simulation, and advanced computing. For more information, visit https://www.quantum-art.tech/

SOURCE Quantum Art

Channel3 provides developers and merchants with a universal product graph for the next generation of commerce

NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2025 — Today, Channel3, the company building the connected database of every product on the internet, announced its $6 million seed round led by Matrix, with participation from Ludlow Ventures, Paul Graham, Sri Batchu (former CMO of TheRealReal) and Matteo Franeschetti (founder of EightSleep). The investment underscores growing momentum around agentic commerce, a new channel of AI-driven shopping experiences, and positions Channel3 to accelerate its mission of making every product on the web discoverable and actionable by AI.

The agentic AI race is redefining shopping, as companies compete to show that AI can deliver real value by helping consumers find, compare and buy products. Channel3 provides the underlying infrastructure for this emerging channel, giving developers and merchants AI-ready access to products across the internet. Today, Google, Amazon and ChatGPT own the agentic commerce channel because they own all the product data. Channel3 is changing that by building a comprehensive, real-time product database that’s accessible to every merchant and developer, thereby democratizing the foundation of AI-driven commerce.

“AI-driven shopping is only as powerful as the data it can act on,” said Alexander Schiff, co-founder and CEO of Channel3. “Developers building agentic commerce applications often get stuck on product data because collecting and maintaining it is too difficult and expensive. We handle the infrastructure layer, so developers can focus on building the best user experience.”

George Lawrence, co-founder and CTO, added, “Product data has always been a problem that no one has fully solved. Now, with multimodal AI models smart enough to understand products and inexpensive enough to operate at scale, Channel3 is making product data reliable, structured and actionable. This enables developers to build AI shopping experiences that are frictionless, intelligent and scalable.”

Channel3’s API provides access to a real-time product catalog that connects products, variants, images, attributes and merchant offers across the web. It allows any app or agent to search products, surface the best options and link users directly to merchants for purchase. Channel3 is neutral and storefront-agnostic, making discovery seamless across the web. The company’s technology uses multimodal AI models to match products across merchants, link variants, extract rich attributes and interpret product pages—ensuring AI agents can find the right products, regardless of how listings differ.

For merchants, Channel3 offers a frictionless way to participate in this new commerce channel. By syncing their catalog, merchants can make their products discoverable by the growing number of AI agents guiding consumer purchases with no technical work required on their end. Channel3 also ensures that product data is clean, structured and continuously updated so it can be surfaced on any AI platform even as standards, protocols and schemas evolve. Merchants also benefit from tracking and affiliate infrastructure, making it easy to attribute sales.

“The team at Channel3 is tackling a generational opportunity that we firmly believe will become the foundational layer for the agentic commerce era,” said Kojo Osei, Partner at Matrix. “We’re proud to partner with this team as they lead the charge in a massive, emerging market.”

Alexander Schiff and George Lawrence met at Duke University, where they co-founded their first startup together. Schiff led AI projects at Studio.com after working at Microsoft, and Lawrence, a former Palantir engineer, co-founded Channel3 to solve a growing pain point in AI shopping. Schiff first recognized the problem while building an AI tutor that could recommend products and earn affiliate revenue, realizing no existing solution could support this kind of agentic shopping. The company is also a Y Combinator alum.

Channel3’s catalog already includes 50 million products and continues to expand rapidly. The company will use the funding to expand its engineering team and further invest in the compute-intensive AI needed to process billions of tokens to understand every product online. To learn more, please visit trychannel3.com.

About Channel3: 
Channel3 is building the connected database of every product on the internet. The company provides developers and merchants with a real-time, universal product graph, enabling new AI-driven shopping experiences across the web. Channel3 is a Y Combinator alum and is backed by Matrix Partners, Ludlow Ventures, and notable angel investors including Paul Graham, Sri Batchu and Matteo Franceschetti.

About Matrix: 
Matrix is an early-stage venture capital firm investing from idea through Series A. As a close-knit team of former founders and company builders, Matrix partners with companies with deep technical expertise and a clear vision of the future. The firm has backed industry-defining companies including Apple, FedEx, Canva and Oculus.

SOURCE Channel3

New funding adds capacity for growth and supports major deployments planned for 2026

BEVERLY, Mass., Dec. 10, 2025 — Highland Electric Fleets announced today that it has secured up to $150 million in new equity financing from Aiga Capital Partners, adding capacity to support growth and building on an already strong balance sheet. The investment will help Highland expand into new markets and support additional deployments beginning in 2026.

The company’s model is anchored by long-term, government-backed contracts that provide stable, predictable revenue and support the development of high-quality assets across its portfolio. This foundation, combined with Highland’s Electrification-as-a-Service (EaaS) model — which manages financing and incentives, site work, vehicle and charger procurement, utility coordination, training, and ongoing support — underpins the company’s strong track record. It also supports Highland’s ability to raise new equity and unlock additional debt capacity as it scales.

Highland currently operates in over 30 states, supporting cities and school districts of all sizes in communities from Compton, California to Canutillo, Texas to Jackson, Michigan to Dixie County, Florida. Its electric buses have collectively traveled more than 7 million miles. Highland is preparing for a major expansion of deployments in 2026, supported by larger district rollouts, multi-site projects, and new charging hubs coming online. Across its footprint, districts are moving into the next phases of their electrification plans, and Highland is positioned to support more complex deployments with reliable infrastructure, financing, and long-term operations. The investment also supports Highland’s entry into new markets launching in 2026, where demand for dependable electrification partners continues to grow.

Highland recently announced that it will supply 500 electric school buses as the Official Electric School Bus Provider for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Team USA, supporting transportation operations throughout the Games. In parallel, Highland is expanding its broader Southern California presence with new depot and charging infrastructure across Los Angeles County, strengthening its long-term footprint in the region.

Aiga Capital Partners, which specializes in long-lived, essential infrastructure, invests in platforms that provide reliable services and durable community value. Its investment in Highland reflects confidence in the company’s operating capabilities, the performance of its assets, and its track record for long-term national growth. Aiga’s approach centers on supporting teams with proven business models that can execute and scale responsibly.

As part of the investment, Angel Fierro, Managing Partner of Aiga Capital Partners, will join Highland’s Board of Directors. “At Aiga, we back platforms that can scale essential infrastructure with consistency and discipline,” said Fierro. “Highland’s Electrification-as-a-Service model, supported by long-term contracts and a high-quality asset base, positions the company to lead the next chapter of fleet electrification, and we are excited to support their continued growth.”

Highland’s balance sheet is further supported by multiple forms of capital raised over the past three years, including approximately $200 million in construction debt and tax advantaged financing from long-term partners, along with revenue from district customers.

Highland CEO Duncan McIntyre said the investment supports the company’s long-term vision. “This investment strengthens our balance sheet and allows us to execute on large-scale, long-term contracts with our school district and municipal partners. With Aiga’s support, we are well-capitalized to deploy the reliable infrastructure our customers need while maintaining the financial discipline our funding partners expect.”

Rothschild & Co served as Highland’s exclusive financial advisor, and Latham & Watkins served as its legal advisor. Aiga was advised by McDermott Will & Schulte.

About Aiga Capital Partners

Aiga is a minority-owned investment platform supporting the energy transition with structured debt and equity solutions for developers of sustainable assets in North America. In an effort to contribute towards net zero emission goals, its strategy targets capital deployment opportunities in power (renewable energy, battery energy storage, energy efficiency), transportation (electric vehicle infrastructure), and low carbon fuels and chemicals.

About Highland Electric Fleets

Highland Electric Fleets is North America’s leading provider of Electrification-as-a-Service. Founded in 2019, Highland partners with school districts, municipalities, and fleet operators to make the transition to electric fleets simple and affordable. Highland proudly serves as the Official Electric School Bus Provider of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Team USA. From pioneering vehicle-to-grid technology to managing some of the nation’s largest electric school bus fleets, Highland delivers reliable, cost-effective solutions that support local communities and drive the future of transportation. Learn more at www.highlandfleets.com.

Media Contacts

Highland Electric Fleets

Chris Orlando 
[email protected]
508-468-9802

SOURCE Highland Electric Fleets

LONDON, Dec. 10, 2025 — Sir Nick Clegg, Yann LeCun and others join HIRO III, a UK/Europe-focused multi-stage VC, focused on Spatial AI, Robotics, Longevity, Games, Space & Defence.

HIRO Capital, a founder-led VC firm, today announced that Sir Nick Clegg, former President, Global Affairs at META and former UK deputy Prime Minister, has joined the Fund as a General Partner for the launch of HIRO III. HIRO III is a large multi-stage fund able to deploy from €5m-€50m each into promising innovators, targeting the scale-up capital gap in the UK and Europe.

The HIRO founding GP team of Luke Alvarez, Cherry Freeman and UK games legend Sir Ian Livingstone CBE have strong pedigree as founder-entrepreneurs, with multiple exits and IPOs between them totalling >€10bn. That track record has been built on technical expertise and scaleup knowhow from decades of building and investing in start ups. 

HIRO’s foundations as an investor in spatial computing position it perfectly for the new era of technology in which we will see extraordinary value creation across Europe in areas from spatial AI and robotics through to defence and longevity.

Sir Nick Clegg said: “I joined HIRO because I share with the founders a belief in the rise of immersive computing and Spatial AI. We will move from staring at the internet, to living in the internet. We are right in the early stages of that platform shift with the convergence of spatial technologies and next generation world model AIs. Unlike other funds, HIRO is wholly focused on those themes, entirely within Europe.

This is an amazing moment of opportunity for the UK/Europe’s tech ecosystem. We have some of the most outstanding researchers and universities on the planet, and great engineers and entrepreneurs too. Our problem is not a lack of innovation, it is a lack of capital at scale. Europe may have its critics, but we have a vibrant start-up scene which is now ready to accelerate – I believe the HIRO team has the unique geographic and technological reach to help make that happen.”

Alongside the appointment, HIRO’s team will be strengthened by the new Advisory Board. The board brings exceptional domain expertise across each of the four core themes of the HIRO thesis: Spatial AI and Cloud, Autonomy & Robotics, Space & Defence, and Augmentation & Longevity.

Professor Yann LeCun said: “I am delighted to be joining the HIRO Advisory Board. We are entering a new phase of AI – an era of systems which can understand the physical world, have persistent memory and which can reason and plan complex actions. HIRO’s track record of investing in spatial technologies, 3D tech, wearables and gaming means they are exceptionally well placed to capitalise on this new wave of opportunity in Europe.”

The new board includes Professor Yann LeCun, former Chief Scientist of Meta and Turing prize winner for deep learning AI; Malcolm Turnbull, former PM of Australia and a leading tech investor; Major Tim Peake, scientist, test pilot and the first British ESA astronaut; Laurent Solly, VP Europe at META; security and defence expert Professor Deeph Chana of Imperial, London, founding Director of NATO DIANA & the Nato Innovation Fund; Hannah Gladman, Strategy & Special Projects at Google DeepMind; Dr Jack Scannell, biotech investor, longevity founder, creator of Eroom’s Law; Edward van Cutsem, Chairman of Private Markets at Westerly Winds and ex-MD at BlackRock; Professor Paul Newman, Professor of Information Engineering at Oxford and founder of the Oxford Robotics Institute; Caroline Daniel, former Financial Times journalist and strategist; and Loredana Crisan, Chief Design Officer at Figma.

Luke Alvarez, HIRO managing partner said: “I am delighted to welcome Sir Nick to our team, together with Yann and our other amazing Advisory Board members. Today, we are in the early stages of a Cambrian explosion of new technologies, powered by the accelerating convergence of computing into the physical world, onto the human body and into autonomous agents. We all share the same belief in Europe’s potential to be at the forefront of tech and the same passion to play a part in UK & European success. Our new advisory Board has been selected for their vision, their technology expertise and their networks globally and across Europe. We look forward to announcing the first HIRO III investments in 2026.”

About HIRO Capital 

HIRO Capital is a founder-led London and Luxembourg based Venture Capital firm investing in the Superabundant future of humanity. HIRO invests from Series A to Series C / Scale-Up, in our specialist thematic sectors of AI, Spatial Computing, Autonomy, Robotics, Longevity, Augmentation, Games, Simulation and Space & Defence technologies. We focus on entrepreneurs and innovators in the broadly defined Europe+ region, which includes the EU, UK, Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine. We are founders & leaders who back Founder Leaders. We are optimists and futurists. We believe that Europe+ can and should be a global leader in the next phase of human evolution, enabled by technology. We know that people’s creativity, ambition and entrepreneurship will build better human societies. https://hiro.capital/ 

HIRO is named after the hero you become when you play a game or sport; the hero you are when you build a company; and it pays tribute to Hiro Protagonist, the hacker hero of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, who codes the 3D digital world and saves humanity against the odds.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2842654/HIRO_Capital_Logo.jpg

SOURCE HIRO Capital

Funding led by Foundry accelerates the first full-stack, AI-powered platform enabling profitable, compliant and traceable textile disposition across retail supply chains.

NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2025 — SuperCircle, the full-stack textile waste management platform for the world’s top retail brands, today announced $24M in Series A funding led by Foundry, with other investors including BBG Ventures, Renewal Fund and Elemental Impact. The funding propels SuperCircle’s expansion as the critical AI-powered operating system solving retail’s vast and growing end-of-life problem.

A Scalable Solution for Retail’s Waste Problem

SuperCircle’s digital operating layer enables global brands to transform waste from a cost center into a cash generator. Nearly $163 billion of unsold inventory is discarded globally each year — with U.S. retailers absorbing significant losses across returns, processing costs, damaged goods, and unsellable stock, while more than 85% of textiles end up in landfills or incinerators. SuperCircle provides the operating system retailers need to capture value from this would-be waste while complying with new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations holding brands accountable for end-of-life processing.

SuperCircle powers post-consumer and post-industrial end-of-life optimization for 75+ leading partners — including J.Crew, GUESS, Reformation, FIGS and Parachute Home — across nationwide customer trade-in programs and supply chain disposition spanning store fleets and distribution centers.

“In my early career inside major retail supply chains, I saw firsthand how much product was written off or discarded annually, garnering only pennies on the dollar because there were no better, viable end-of-life pathways,” said Chloe Songer, CEO and Co-founder of SuperCircle. “We built SuperCircle to give retailers a scalable, financially sound system for end-of-life, enabling value generation from textiles long after purchase via consumer trade-in, and drastically reducing supply chain losses on excess, damages, and returns — capturing maximum value from every t-shirt, sneaker, sheet set, and handbag produced.”

As retailers face tightening margins and rising operational costs, SuperCircle delivers the critical digital infrastructure needed to reduce waste-related losses — ensuring every textile produced delivers maximum value. The company’s AI-powered proprietary sort engine determines the most profitable and sustainable next life for every item — capturing and then, traceably and responsibly routing damaged and low-value returns, excess and obsolete inventory, production scraps, and post-consumer trade-in garments across the continental U.S. and Canada.

SuperCircle ingests 50+ garment-level data points to create a digital twin of each textile, building a rapidly compounding dataset that continually strengthens its sortation engine. This intelligence drives measurable cost savings, reduces waste handling and write-downs, and unlocks incremental revenue streams. Brands are provided with the data and digital infrastructure required to operate in the next era of retail — where every produced asset’s utility and value must be maximized long past production.

Propelling a Paradigm Shift: The OS Powering Circular Supply Chains

Series A funding will accelerate SuperCircle’s technology development, expand supply chain integrations, grow its processing and reverse logistics footprint, advance data architecture for seamless compliance reporting, and support rapid onboarding of enterprise retailers.

“Retail needs a turnkey system that flips the script on its waste reckoning — turning would-be cost centers into revenue streams,” added Nisha Dua, Managing Partner at BBG Ventures. “SuperCircle has built the digital infrastructure to move the industry beyond incremental fixes and point solutions, enabling an entirely new system at scale.”

“SuperCircle is giving retailers unprecedented visibility and control at end-of-life, an area historically dominated by opaque, low-value liquidation,” said Jaclyn Hester, Partner at Foundry. “Their platform is the new industry standard for waste management infrastructure, delivering regulatory readiness, measurable impact, and profitable financial outcomes.”

SuperCircle has diverted more than 6 million textiles from landfill and aims to profitably, responsibly divert 1 billion+ textiles by 2030.

About SuperCircle

SuperCircle is a full-stack textile waste management platform that captures apparel, footwear, accessories, home and health textiles, and beyond — and routes them to their most profitable, sustainable next-life via AI-powered sortation that allocates to +50 reuse & recycling streams. SuperCircle leverages proprietary technology and operating systems to maximize next-life outcomes, with an industry-leading proportion of textiles collected going into fiber-to-fiber recycling feeds, and nothing sent to landfill — ever. SuperCircle works with some of the world’s best brands, retailers, and producers, including J.Crew, GUESS, Reformation, FIGS, Parachute Home, and more to offer both front-end solutions enabling consumers to trade-in old textiles, as well as back-end offerings collecting fabric scraps, excess inventory, damages, and returns. SuperCircle is on a mission to end the textile waste crisis and has recycled over 6 million garments to date. For more information, please visit supercircle.world.

SOURCE SuperCircle