Investment led by VenturesLab accelerates development of AI-driven credit platform to transform $18 trillion credit market

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 9, 2025 — BON Credit, an AI platform focused on Generation Z credit and debt management, announced today it has raised $3.5 million in a funding round led by VenturesLab.

The capital infusion will accelerate BON Credit’s product and service development offerings as it seeks to become the clubhouse leader of next-generation credit management tools. The funding supports the initial rollout of BON Credit’s new app and establishes a foundation for long-term growth.

VenturesLab was founded in 2005 by Gang Mai and Tim Draper, and was the first investor in both PopMart and OKX. Mai was an early believer that blockchain technology would enhance the global influence of the U.S. dollar. Draper’s venture ecosystem invested in founders behind giants like Tesla, Robinhood, Twitch, Baidu and SpaceX. Together, their knowledge of how the financial industry operates were key drivers in attracting them to BON Credit.

“Today, over 100 million Americans carry credit card debts and badly need help,” said Gang Mai, Founding Partner of VenturesLab. “BON Credit develops agentic solutions to enable these consumers to build better credit, and is exactly the type of company VenturesLab wants to partner with.”

In addition to VenturesLab, the seed round included Hustle Fund, Outside VC, MBA Ventures, Sequoia Scout Fund, Accel Partners Scout Fund and other Silicon Valley executives. BON Credit was initially incubated by Foundation Capital and Inception Studio.

“BON Credit aligns with Outside VC’s thesis and mission to lift 100 million people into the middle class, and is in a great position to succeed because of its founders’ unique perspectives and operational approach,” said Ethan Austin, Founder and General Partner of Outside VC, noting the expertise of co-founders Samder Singh Khangarot and Darwin Tu. “The future of consumer fintech is being predicated by a new wave of innovation driven by AI, with BON positioned to benefit from this trend.”

BON Credit is expected to transform the $18 trillion U.S. consumer credit market and help fix the debt crisis. Using its own proprietary AI technology, BON Credit helps consumers manage their credit, debt and personal finance all in one user-friendly place. Through AI-driven conversations and personalized guidance, BON Credit puts credit and debt management on autopilot and empowers consumers – particularly members of GenZ – to enhance their financial literacy and achieve financial freedom over time.

“BON Credit is putting financial education in the hands of the people who need it, while demonstrating first-hand how AI can address personal needs,” said Khangarot. “Generation Z is AI-native, and is receptive to using it for financial assistance; BON can deliver what they want, how they want it.”

The San Francisco-based fintech company rolled out in October 2025. It utilizes CredGPT, the company’s proprietary AI co-pilot, to automate the selection of credit cards and loans; manage debt, repayment and personal budgeting; reward responsible financial behaviors; and optimize credit scores and financial freedom over time.

Khangarot and Tu met through Stanford University and immediately connected over their belief in the power of AI to transform credit and personal finance. Khangarot is a former engineer and global entrepreneur who was co-founder and chief business officer of Absolute Foods and co-founder of Growspace Crypto, one of India’s fastest-growing crypto startups. He also previously worked with India’s Ministry of Finance, supporting the launch of a $300 million fund-of-funds to back emerging entrepreneurs. Tu, a serial entrepreneur who has built successful companies in Silicon Valley and Asia, started his career with FICO, which launched the FICO Score, the number assessing credit risk based on a credit report. He is credited with developing the industry-standard score for all three U.S. credit bureaus and for leading the development of the first credit bureau score for TransUnion in Asia.

Austin highlighted the disruptive potential of the company’s approach. “No matter one’s age, the key to a successful financial future is a firm understanding of one’s credit and proper utilization of cash to fund one’s growth. BON’s leadership meshes a keen understanding of credit ratings and debt management with a smart approach to how artificial intelligence can help build one’s financial future.”

About BON CREDIT (https://BONcredit.ai)
San Francisco-based BON Credit is making financial freedom more accessible to all, utilizing powerful and personalized AI to transform the way American consumers interact with credit, debt and personal finance. It is revolutionizing credit and fixing the consumer debt crisis, particularly among GenZ consumers. BON Credit aims to empower consumers, celebrate good financial behavior and redefine the credit experience for the next generation.

CONTACT
RACHEL CHICK
MEKKY MEDIA RELATIONS
[email protected]
847.331.5861

SOURCE BON Credit

HUNTINGTON, N.Y., Dec. 9, 2025 — Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering first-in-class therapeutics for inflammation-driven conditions, today announced the appointment of Rute Fernandes as Executive Advisor to support commercialization strategy, scenario planning, and launch readiness across the company’s advancing pipeline.

Fernandes, a global C-suite executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience across Big Pharma, biotech, and tech, has held CEO, Board, regional, and country-level roles at organizations including Novartis, Shire, and Takeda. She has led high-impact initiatives spanning drug development, rare disease strategy, commercial operations, global launches, digital transformation, and large-scale integrations—managing P&Ls exceeding $2 billion and delivering sustained double-digit growth.

In her influential role at Sen-Jam, Fernandes will guide the company’s commercialization planning and execution, including strategic scenario development, valuation frameworks, go-to-market models, partner exploration, and launch readiness for priority assets. Her work will support Sen-Jam’s effort to maximize the value of its expanding anti-inflammatory platform, known for its unique multi-mechanism combination approach and accelerated 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway.

“Rute brings a rare combination of global insight, strategic clarity, and executional excellence,” said Jim Iversen, CEO of Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical. “As we advance multiple assets toward late-stage development—including SJP-001 for hangover prevention and SJP-002C for metabolic inflammation—her experience will sharpen our commercial strategy and ensure each program is positioned for rapid and scalable impact.”

Fernandes will support Sen-Jam as the company continues to generate momentum across its pipeline, following recent commercial and clinical advances, including the increasingly valuable corporate venture/Chemistry, Manufacturing & Controls (CMC) partnership with KVK-Tech, a new patent filing in stimulant withdrawal expanding its addiction platform, and a major funding commitment from TASK Clinical to advance SJP-001 into Phase 3 trials.

“Sen-Jam has built a differentiated anti-inflammatory platform with potential to shift how multiple diseases are treated, from metabolic dysfunction to respiratory illness to addiction,” said Rute Fernandes. “I am inspired by the team’s vision, their scientific rigor, and their commitment to delivering accessible therapies at scale. I look forward to helping Sen-Jam translate its clinical progress into long-term commercial value and meaningful real-world impact.”

Fernandes’ scope includes strategic scenario refinement, partner prioritization, and commercial model development; market and patient segmentation; positioning and differentiation strategy; pricing and access considerations; and internal capabilities and launch preparedness planning. These efforts align with Sen-Jam’s mission to deliver safe, scalable, and affordable anti-inflammatory therapeutics—leveraging proven molecules, novel mechanistic insights, and AI-enhanced data analysis to address global health needs.

About Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical
Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical is a clinical-stage biotechnology company reimagining how inflammation and addiction are treated through innovative, affordable, and rapidly deployable combination therapeutics. With a portfolio of over 60 global patents and 11 pipeline assets, Sen-Jam is advancing safe, effective solutions for global health challenges, including pain, addiction, and inflammatory disease. For more information, visit www.wefunder.com/senjam.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical
Christine Leonard
781-913-1902
[email protected]

SOURCE Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2025 — The Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) today reports the significant nationwide impact of its partnership with Verizon, which has strengthened digital readiness, entrepreneurship training, and access to economic opportunity for more than 30,000 small business owners since its launch. Over the past several years, the collaboration has delivered vital technology tools, grant funding, and educational resources that fuel business growth in rural, urban, and underserved communities.

In 2025 alone, more than 8,435 business owners registered for Verizon Digital Ready, nearly 2,000 veterans engaged in programming, and over 2,200 course completions helped founders strengthen their operations and digital capabilities. An additional 1,447 entrepreneurs registered for Verizon Skill Forward, with hundreds completing workforce-aligned training that enhances their competitiveness in today’s economy.

As a presenting sponsor at the 2025 AWBC Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., Verizon connected directly with small business owners and resource partners. Attendees heard firsthand from subgrant recipients about the real impact of Verizon’s support, and inspiring mainstage testimonials drove record-level interest and engagement in Verizon Digital Ready and Skill Forward throughout the network.

Verizon’s programs are fully integrated throughout the AWBC network, appearing across onboarding processes, capital readiness support, business plan development, and both live and virtual events. Verizon Digital Ready and Skill Forward are also consistently promoted through AWBC’s HOPE2Women Funding Center, VeteranStartup.org, Biz2Grow, and the TikTok Shop Veteran SOAR Business Accelerators, ensuring that entrepreneurs can easily access training, tools, and pathways to growth regardless of their location or business stage.

The partnership continues to generate meaningful success stories, including recent grant recipient Amy Brooks Hoffmann of Fleur de Lis Organized Solutions, who discovered Verizon Small Business Digital Ready through the Women’s Business Center of Kentucky and was awarded a $10,000 grant. “I found the courses offered on the Verizon Digital Ready site to be helpful in focusing my marketing messaging – having a clear understanding of who our clients are and how to communicate with them is the first step in reaching them,” said Hoffmann. Her favorite course, Defining Your Brand: Connecting to Customers, played a key role in refining her market strategy and strengthening her outreach efforts.

Through Verizon-funded subgrants, AWBC has also expanded support for Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) and Veteran Business Outreach Centers (VBOCs) nationwide. To date, the partnership has provided $1.53 million across 100 subgrants, including $545,000 awarded in 2025 to 26 organizations, allowing centers to reach entrepreneurs in rural areas, veteran communities, and regions with limited access to specialized digital resources. Participating resource partners include centers in Kentucky, Wisconsin, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and additional regions across the U.S., ensuring broad national reach supported by deep local programming.

“Five years into our partnership with Verizon, we are grateful for how this collaboration has strengthened our entire network and organization,” said Corinne Goble, CEO of AWBC. “Our shared commitment has ensured that entrepreneurs—whether in rural communities, veteran households, or rapidly growing urban centers—have the digital tools, training, and support they need to build strong, sustainable businesses.”

As AWBC and Verizon complete their fifth year of collaboration, the partnership remains focused on expanding access to digital readiness, strengthening entrepreneurial resilience, and supporting small business owners nationwide as they navigate an increasingly complex digital landscape.

Small business owners can access Verizon’s free programs at Verizon Digital Ready and Skill Forward.

About AWBC
The Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) is the leading national voice and resource for igniting the economic power of women’s entrepreneurship. AWBC advocates for and supports a network of over 150 Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) across the United States. These centers provide entrepreneurs with free coaching, networking opportunities, small business resources, training, and more. AWBC’s mission is to ensure that small business owners have the tools and support they need to succeed in business and contribute to the broader economy.

Media Contact:
Laura Henson
HVM Communications
917-539-7812
[email protected]

SOURCE Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC)

HAMILTON, N.J., Dec. 9, 2025 — Tidal Metals and Alexander Chemical Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for marketing, packaging, and distributing chlorine, a valuable co-product produced as part of Tidal Metals’ revolutionary magnesium-from-seawater process.

Over 90% of primary magnesium metal is produced by China using an 80-year-old, environmentally damaging, and energy-intensive refining process for mined magnesium ores. The US and Europe are completely dependent on foreign imports for their primary magnesium metals. Tidal Metals, an innovative technology company backed by deep tech venture capital leader DCVC, has developed a breakthrough technology that harvests pure magnesium metal from seawater or desalination waste brine, using only electricity. Tidal Metals’ process is low-cost, highly scalable, and environmentally harmless.

“The world’s oceans contain a nearly infinite supply of magnesium,” said Dr. Howard Yuh, CEO of Tidal Metals. “Extracting magnesium from seawater economically is a very challenging technical problem which our team has invested eight years of intensive R&D to solve.” The Tidal Metals process avoids terrestrial mining and costly chemical inputs and eliminates harmful mining waste streams. “Magnesium is 75% lighter than steel and 33% lighter than aluminum. Magnesium’s light weight and high strength makes it ideal for automotive, robotics, aerospace, and construction. Our lowest-cost, environmentally harmless production can quickly scale to supply growing demand from the U.S. and beyond. We cannot fail to secure our supply of this defining metal of the 21^st century.”

For every ton of magnesium harvested from seawater, Tidal Metals produces nearly three tons of high purity chlorine. One-third of the chlorine produced in the $8.5B US chlorine market is still being produced using asbestos. In July 2025, the US EPA reaffirmed its ban on asbestos, which will phase out completely over the coming decade. Tidal Metals will deliver a new source of low-cost, environmentally friendly, domestically produced chlorine.

Alexander Chemical Corporation is a market leader in chlorine marketing, packaging, and distribution. With the signing of their MOU, Alexander Chemical and Tidal Metals will collaborate to package and distribute Tidal Metal’s valuable chlorine co-product.

Robert Davidson, President and CEO of Alexander Chemical Corporation, added: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Tidal Metals for the commercialization of chlorine produced through their innovative magnesium process. This collaboration aligns with our commitment to deliver high-quality chemical solutions while supporting environmentally responsible technologies. We are eager to leverage our marketing and distribution expertise to bring Tidal Metals’ chlorine to market.”

Dr. Howard Yuh, CEO of Tidal Metals, stated: “This MOU with Alexander Chemical marks an exciting step toward realizing the value of our revolutionary magnesium-from-seawater process. Chlorine is an essential chemical that ensures the safety of our drinking water and an irreplaceable ingredient for numerous industries. We are advancing our mission to bring primary magnesium production back to the U.S. while strengthening and diversifying the chlorine supply chain. We look forward to collaborating with Alexander Chemical to unlock the full potential of this partnership.”

As the United States works to reshore vital industrial capabilities, including critical metals, minerals, and chemicals, the Tidal Metals-Alexander Chemical collaboration reflects the power of deep tech innovation coupled with strong industry domain expertise to leapfrog existing solutions and set new benchmarks for cost, quality, and environmental sustainability.

Said Earl Jones, Tidal Metal’s board chair and DCVC Operating Partner: “Winning in commodity markets like magnesium and chlorine can only be achieved through sustainable and defensible cost leadership. There are no green premiums. Tidal Metals technology produces the lowest cost magnesium and can serve domestic and global markets with no subsidies or tariff supports. We cannot outcompete China on labor, energy or capital costs, or lax regulations. We win like America has won for decades, with superior innovation brought to market through a peerless venture capital industry.”

About Tidal Metals

Tidal Metals, founded by three PhD scientists from MIT, Princeton, and Wisconsin, is a deep-tech company based in New Jersey that has developed a breakthrough suite of innovations for producing critical minerals and metals from seawater and brines – with no waste, no carbon emissions, and no harm to the environment. Tidal Metals’ first application is producing magnesium metal from seawater using only electricity to unlock an economically competitive and unlimited supply of this critical, structural metal needed for lightweighting transportation, national security, hydrogen storage, and manufacturing other structural metals. Visit us at www.tidalmetals.com. Watch our intro video at https://youtu.be/XKdRfaBst6k.

About Alexander Chemical Corporation

Alexander Chemical Corporation, headquartered in LaPorte, Indiana, is a leading distributor of industrial chemicals, serving a wide range of industries with high-quality products and customized solutions. With a focus on safety, reliability, and customer satisfaction, Alexander Chemical Corporation leverages its extensive expertise and distribution network to deliver innovative chemical solutions to clients across North America. For more information, visit www.alexanderchemical.com.

About DCVC

DCVC is deep tech venture capital. Over more than a dozen years, the firm has backed brilliant entrepreneurs using computational approaches to solve trillion-dollar problems in the real world across a broad set of industries, especially those that haven’t seen material progress in decades. With billions of dollars of assets under management, DCVC builds long-term relationships with the founders it backs. The firm has been with many of its companies from their very start — and through to their recognition by the public markets as category-defining businesses. For more information, please visit www.dcvc.com, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter @DCVC.

Media Contact for Tidal Metals
Contact Duncan O’Brien for more information: [email protected] or (203) 451-2315.

Media Contact for Alexander Chemical Corporation
Contact Chris Fairchild, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for more information: [email protected] or 618-570-3966

SOURCE Tidal Metals

The company’s AI procurement operating system bridges government and industry, accelerating how America builds and buys the technologies that power national security.

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 9, 2025 — Pryzm today announced a $12.2 million seed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) American Dynamism fund, with participation from existing investors XYZ Venture Capital, Amplify.LA, and Forum Ventures. The raise advances Pryzm’s mission to modernize how the federal government discovers, evaluates, and acquires emerging technology, while giving industry a clearer, faster path to identify opportunities, shape demand and compete on capability.

Built by alumni of Palantir and Lockheed Martin, Pryzm connects government and industry on a shared AI-powered platform that helps defense and civilian agencies move faster from concept to contract.

“The future of national defense depends on how fast we can get the right technology into the right hands,” said Nick LaRovere, Co-Founder and CEO of Pryzm. “Procurement shouldn’t be a barrier to innovation. It should be the spark that drives it. With this round led by a16z, we’re accelerating a new era of speed, adaptability, and technological advantage for national security.”

Reclaiming America’s Innovation Advantage

For decades, America’s military has served as a bastion of innovation, fueling the development of technologies that defend our freedoms and transform industry. From the internet to GPS, duct tape to compilers, breakthroughs born of the national security ecosystem have reshaped the world.

But in recent years, the burden of bureaucracy has throttled that innovation engine. Paperwork, opacity and countless information silos have made it harder for government teams to fund and field advanced technologies, and for industry to navigate the process. The result is a widening gap between what’s technologically possible and what the government can actually deploy.

That dynamic is beginning to shift. In a November 7, 2025, address titled “The Arsenal of Freedom,” Secretary of War Hegseth announced sweeping reforms to the Pentagon’s acquisition processes:

“We will foster competition, embrace modularity, and pursue multi-source procurements at every opportunity, moving fast to contract, test, scale, and deploy when a solution is clear.”

The key word here is fast. It’s time to move effectively, with speed.

Pryzm has been building ahead of this moment, supporting major federal programs and innovators like Forterra, Vannevar Labs, HII and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). As the government embarks on this new mandate, Pryzm’s platform provides the digital infrastructure needed to operationalize it, enabling a faster, more open, and more competitive acquisition system that closes the delta between innovation and deployment.

“Pryzm is building the connective tissue between America’s innovation base and its mission buyers,” said David Ulevitch, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz. “We believe their platform will redefine how the government collaborates with private industry to strengthen our technological edge.”

Powering a Smarter Defense Ecosystem

But translating these reforms into real-world outcomes requires more than policy; it requires systems, data, and tooling capable of executing acquisition at the speed modern defense demands. That’s where Pryzm comes in.

Every year, the U.S. government spends over $900 billion on defense and national security, but much of that process still runs on outdated tools and fragmented systems. Pryzm bridges this gap by giving federal acquisition teams and private-sector innovators a unified, AI-driven view of market intelligence, budgets, and program activity.

“Pryzm isn’t just speeding up procurement. They’re becoming the operating system the entire defense ecosystem runs on. You can feel that shift happening across startups, primes, and government teams,” said Ross Fubini, Founder & Managing Partner, XYZ. “It’s rare to see a company define a category this quickly in a space as complex as federal acquisition.”

For industry, Pryzm delivers real-time insights that help companies identify opportunities, align with funding priorities, and engage the right stakeholders, empowering startups, primes, and dual-use companies to navigate federal capture with confidence.

For government users, Pryzm creates a digital thread of every defense dollar, streamlining decision-making and accelerating acquisition timelines, so teams can source and procure emerging technologies faster. The result is that the highest-capability companies can compete and win, while agencies deliver mission-critical technologies where they’re needed most.

A Year of Rapid Growth

Pryzm’s differentiated approach is paying dividends and setting the stage for an ambitious 2026 and beyond. Over the past year, the company has:

• Developed a first-of-its-kind AI platform, fusing public data and each users’ internal data into a comprehensive, targeted digital thread.
• Achieved both IL5 and FedRAMP High authorizations, allowing users to securely connect sensitive mission and procurement data across Pryzm, making true end-to-end procurement automation possible.
• Selected by the DIU for its Enterprise Workflow and Reporting Platform (eWARP) effort, powering AI-driven program, budget, and contract management.
• Supported leading government contractors in their capture efforts, including Forterra, HII, Vannevar Labs, and REGENT Craft.
• Opened a new office in Arlington, VA and expanded its Boston, MA headquarters.

Fueling the Next Phase

With this new funding, Pryzm is well-positioned to scale its impact across both government and industry. The company plans to expand its customer base, deepen deployments with existing partners, and continue to enhance its AI platform with next-generation capabilities. It will also grow its federal compliance posture with new certifications and authorizations, and increase its engineering and go-to-market teams across Washington, D.C., Boston, and New York.

By bridging the gap between cutting-edge innovation and real-world deployment, Pryzm is turning a long-stalled vision of faster, more open, and more competitive federal procurement into a reality. This work ensures America continues to lead, protect, and inspire on the global stage.

About Pryzm

Pryzm is the AI operating system for federal capture and acquisition. Built by alumni of Palantir and Lockheed Martin and designed for both commercial and federal users, Pryzm is trusted across the national security ecosystem to unify market intelligence, relationship insights, and real-time program awareness into a single, actionable view. The company is committed to ensuring the United States and its allies can rapidly field technology to the missions that matter most. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., with offices in Arlington, Va. Learn more at www.pryzm.io.

SOURCE Pryzm Dynamics Inc.

In partnership with multibillion-dollar family offices, former builders from Amazon, PayPal, Expedia, Deloitte and IBM join forces to target critical fractures in AI and Cyber Intelligence

NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2025 — VQ Capital launched today as a thesis-driven, AI-native investment platform designed to scale companies into category leaders. The firm focuses on two foundational theses: the AI Transformation of Consumer Companies and the “Golden Dome” for Cyber Intelligence.

The Era of Compounding Change: For decades, technological progress followed the predictable, linear cadence of Moore’s Law. VQ Capital posits that this era is over. The global economy has entered a phase of compounding, driven by the convergence of hardware capabilities, AI algorithms and massive scale.

“AI acts as a massive force multiplier for talent,” said John Kim, co-founder and managing partner of VQ Capital. “As individual leverage compounds, the advantage shifts from massive, scaled organizations toward agile units of high-performance talent. We believe the biggest winners of this era will be built by small, extraordinary teams capable of out-maneuvering incumbent giants.”

Targeting Critical Market Fractures: VQ Capital is engineered to address specific hurdles blocking today’s companies from reaching full potential:

• AI Transformations: AI is fundamentally rewriting how marketing-led companies operate—from distribution to operations. VQ Capital brings proven playbooks and deep operational expertise to drive end-to-end AI transformation, helping founders rebuild customer acquisition, marketing, supply chain, fulfillment and core operations into compounding, AI-native systems.
• Cyber Intelligence: While adversaries operate with integrated speed, Western cyber capabilities remain trapped in silos, leading to billions in redundancy. The firm’s “Golden Dome” thesis invests in the technology layer that bridges these isolated tools, transforming a chaotic landscape into a unified, interoperable shield.

A Team of Operators: The firm’s leadership is uniquely structured to execute these mandates. The Cyber strategy is driven by Yotam Avrahami, a former Partner at New Vista Capital and Deloitte, and a veteran of the Israeli Special Forces with experience executing hybrid cyber and kinetic missions.

The AI transformation capabilities are anchored by an elite team of operators, including Brian Lent, a key architect of Amazon’s early predictive analytics and instrumental in the incubation of Google at Stanford University; John Kim, who scaled paid search pioneer Overture and led global enterprises at PayPal and Expedia; and Praveen Hirsave, a technologist with deep roots in scaling AI systems at IBM.

A New Investment Model: As traditional venture fund lifecycles stretch toward 20 years, VQ Capital utilizes a deal-by-deal structure to solve the liquidity crisis.

“Our model is built for today’s compounding environment,” said Avrahami. “We bring in partners who share our mindset and want to co-invest side-by-side with our team. Unlike traditional blind-pool funds, we combine the flexibility to execute complex, high-conviction deals with a relentless focus on generating faster, more efficient returns.”

“We named the firm VQ for a specific reason,” added Lent. “To succeed in this next computing cycle, you need more than just IQ or EQ. We are here to back the builders who possess the Vision Quotient required to see the future as well as the operational ability to build it.”

For more information, visit www.VQCapital.com.

About VQ Capital

VQ Capital is a thesis-driven, AI-native investment platform dedicated to scaling companies into category leaders in partnership with multibillion-dollar family offices. The firm focuses on two foundational theses: the AI Transformation of Consumer Companies and the “Golden Dome” for Cyber Intelligence. VQ embodies the Vision Quotient: the unique combination of vision and operational capability required to drive measurable enterprise value in the Era of Compounding Change.

SOURCE VQ Capital

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 9, 2025 — Safebooks Inc., the pioneer in Financial Data Governance, today announced its emergence from stealth and securing $15M in seed funding led by 10D, Propel Ventures, and Mensch Capital with participation from Moneta Venture Capital, Magnolia Capital, Cerca Fund, Blue Moon, and other strategic investors.

With its emergence from stealth, Safebooks introduced a first-of-its-kind solution for the Office of the CFO: Agentic Revenue Integrity (ARI). ARI is the intelligent automation layer for quote-to-revenue finance operations that not only monitors revenue data but acts on it, delivering precision, speed, and real-time assurance. It works on top of your existing systems, processes, and infrastructure, so nothing needs to change or be replaced.

Traditional revenue, order, and deal desk management processes rely heavily on manual reviews, reconciliations, and data entry, underscoring the growing need for order management automation. Safebooks replaces those manual dependencies with continuous monitoring, reconciliation, and AI-powered automation. This drives faster deal reviews, eliminates manual inefficiencies, unifies structured and unstructured data into a single, trusted source of truth, and ensures enterprise-grade, audit-ready compliance at scale.

“Finance teams spend most of their time on data integrity, ensuring revenue data matches across systems. We built Safebooks to automate that work, using AI, as part of a deep data platform that understands how financial data, structured and unstructured, connects across the CFO’s entire tech stack. It restores confidence in the data itself, without the manual effort,” said Ahikam Kaufman, Safebooks co-founder and CEO. Ahikam previously co-founded Check, the payments company acquired by Intuit, and held senior leadership roles at Mercury, HP, and Intuit.

Safebooks builds a complete map of how financial data connects across systems, linking opportunities to invoices, contracts to billing records, and payments to revenue recognition. The platform reads documents in any format and validates they match what’s in your CRM, ERP, and billing systems. AI monitors these connections continuously, catching discrepancies as they happen and can also auto-remediate them. The result is unified visibility across all revenue data without replacing existing systems or processes.

Since launch, Safebooks has monitored over $40 billion in financial transactions, and eliminated thousands of hours of manual reconciliation for enterprise SaaS companies. Using ARI to connect systems, documents, and data sources in real time, Safebooks continuously validates every transaction to ensure revenue data completeness and accuracy, giving finance leaders live visibility and confidence in their numbers. This transforms revenue assurance from a reactive exercise into a continuous, proactive control that accelerates deal cycles and improves cash flow predictability.

“AI is redefining how enterprises operate, and the Office of the CFO is the next domain to be transformed. Safebooks AI is building the foundational infrastructure for this shift, empowering large organizations to run on trusted, governed, and continuously accurate financial data. Every enterprise will need this layer to operate with confidence at scale, and Safebooks is years ahead in making that future real,” said Yahal Zilka, Managing Partner at 10D.

Safebooks, founded in 2023 and headquartered in San Francisco, is pioneering Agentic Revenue Integrity, the agentic layer that autonomously runs quote-to-revenue operations with accuracy, intelligence, and real-time control. Built on a foundation of governed, trusted financial data and powered by its proprietary Financial Data Graph, Safebooks automates document and cross-system reconciliations, hundreds of data controls, and documentation, to ensure every transaction is complete, accurate, and compliant across structured and unstructured data. By eliminating manual reviews and continuously monitoring data across systems, Safebooks helps finance teams prevent revenue leakage, accelerate deal cycles, and operate with speed, efficiency, and confidence at scale.

Learn more at safebooks.ai.

Media Contact:
Yuval Michaeli
Safebooks Inc.
[email protected]
+6504952927

SOURCE Safebooks

KKR joined by Sixth Street Growth, TenEleven, and Carrick Capital as Principal Investors

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2025 — Saviynt, a leading identity security company, today announced a $700M Series B Growth Equity Financing at a valuation of approximately $3 billion. Funds managed by KKR, a leading global investment firm, led the round with participation from Sixth Street Growth and TenEleven, as well as new funding from existing Series A investor Carrick Capital Partners. The multi-firm investment underscores a shared conviction that identity management is the foundational infrastructure for organizations deploying AI at scale.

Saviynt’s AI-powered platform manages, secures, and governs access for human, non-human, and AI agent identities across an organization’s applications, data, and infrastructure. By converging identity management and governance (IGA), privileged access management (PAM), application access governance (AAG), identity security posture management (ISPM), and access gateways across all types of identities, Saviynt simplifies compliance, reduces risk, and improves efficiency for companies moving to cloud and AI-driven infrastructure.

As enterprises adopt copilots, autonomous agents, MCP servers, and AI-driven workflows, the need for an AI-driven Identity Security platform that addresses all posture, lifecycle, access, and privilege use cases across these non-human identities and their interactions with human identities is foundational.

“This is a defining moment for Saviynt and the industry,” said Sachin Nayyar, Founder & CEO of Saviynt. “The demand for secure, governed identity has never been greater, and this growth investment gives us the resources to meet it head-on. We chose to strategically partner with KKR and Sixth Street Growth because they understand how central identity has become to enterprise AI strategies, and they have long track records of helping category leaders scale globally. We’re excited to work with them to accelerate innovation and bring identity security to every organization operating in the AI era.”

AI Has Accelerated Identity’s Scale Problem

Legacy identity and access management tools were designed for human users and static access patterns. Today’s enterprises must govern:

• Employees and contractors
• Machine identities and workloads
• Service accounts, certificates, keys, secrets
• Partners, contractors, and other supply chain identities
• And now, AI agents that operate continuously and make real-time decisions

AI-generated identities are the newest and fastest-growing type of identity class, and the one with the greatest potential to reshape how work, productivity, and operations function across the enterprise.

Identity security provides AI the important guardrails it needs to deliver real value and control risk. This shift has transformed identity governance from a security and compliance function into a strategic requirement for AI adoption.

“Saviynt has built one of the most advanced and comprehensive identity security platforms in the market, purpose-built for the AI era,” said Ben Pederson, Managing Director at KKR. “The Company is redefining how organizations secure their digital ecosystems, and we look forward to strategically partnering with Sachin and the Saviynt team to help further scale their platform globally, advance their next-generation AI capabilities, and leverage KKR’s proven experience supporting leading cybersecurity businesses to accelerate growth and innovation.”

Saviynt’s Market Momentum

Saviynt’s growth reflects the rising urgency around governing human, machine, and AI-agent identities at scale. Recent events driving momentum include:

• Expanded to 600+ global enterprise customers, representing more than 20% of Fortune 100 companies
• Extended its platform, adding innovative new products for AI Agent Identity Management, Non-Human Identity Management, Privileged Access Management, and Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM)
• Added AI-enabled intelligence across its core Identity platform, resulting in significant efficiency gains in application onboarding, access certification, access reviews, and provisioning / deprovisioning processes
• Delivered significant integrations with major ecosystem players, including AWS, CrowdStrike, Zscaler, Wiz, and Cyera

Capital to Accelerate Research & Development

The funding will be used as growth capital to increase, expand, and accelerate product development; generate additional AI-based utilities, methodologies, and programs that facilitate the migration from legacy solutions to Saviynt’s platform; and enable deeper integration with hyper-scalers, software/SaaS platforms, professional services firms, and value-added resellers.

New and Existing Investor Alignment Signals Category Definition

KKR’s investment builds on its extensive experience supporting leading businesses across the cybersecurity landscape, including identity and access management, threat detection, and security software. With a 20-year track record, KKR has backed category-defining cybersecurity platforms such as Darktrace, ReliaQuest, and KnowBe4, and has deep identity-security expertise through its work investing in and partnering with industry leaders like Ping Identity, ForgeRock, and Semperis. This breadth of experience, combined with KKR’s technical insight and industry relationships, provides strong validation of Saviynt’s platform and positions KKR to help the company scale its identity security offering globally. The investment will be made primarily through KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth Fund III.

Piper Sandler served as exclusive financial advisor to Saviynt, and Cooley LLP served as legal counsel to Saviynt. Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal advisor to Carrick Capital Partners. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP served as legal advisor to KKR & Co. Inc. Moelis & Co served as financial advisor to Sixth Street Growth, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to Sixth Street Growth.

About Saviynt

Saviynt’s AI-powered identity platform manages and governs human and non-human access to all of an organization’s applications, data, and business processes. Customers trust Saviynt to safeguard their digital assets, drive operational efficiency, and reduce compliance costs. Built for the AI age, Saviynt is helping organizations safely accelerate their deployment and usage of AI today. Saviynt is recognized as the leader in identity security, with solutions that protect and empower the world’s leading brands, Fortune 500 companies, and government institutions. For more information, please visit www.saviynt.com.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com. For additional information about Global Atlantic Financial Group, please visit Global Atlantic Financial Group’s website at www.globalatlantic.com.

About Sixth Street Growth

Sixth Street Growth makes investments in mid- and late-stage technology companies. Sixth Street Growth is the dedicated growth investing platform of Sixth Street, a leading global investment firm with over $115 billion in assets under management and committed capital. Sixth Street has invested over $10 billion in more than 70 companies through its Growth franchise since inception. For more information, and additional disclosures, visit www.sixthstreet.com/growth, and follow Sixth Street on LinkedIn.

SOURCE ​Saviynt

NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2025 — Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, generating nearly half of the national GDP and employing millions. Despite their outsized contribution, however, many of these businesses face restrictive pathways to capital and growth. The primary driver of each limitation is the same: inadequate financial management.

Missed expenses, disorganized transactions, incomplete documentation: these seemingly small issues can prevent otherwise strong businesses from accessing capital, becoming profitable, or even getting acquired at fair value. After working with over 10,000 small businesses, Bags has seen that the majority of small businesses are strong, but their books often don’t show it, and that gap is costing them opportunities.

That’s where Bags comes in.

Founded in 2020 by Daniel Taylor, William Hayden, and Ignacio Semerene, Bags is transforming how small businesses understand, manage, and grow with their finances. The company pairs responsible AI-insights with human expertise, CFO level reporting, and bookkeeping accuracy to help small businesses scale, unlock growth opportunities, and access capital.

“We’re changing the way small businesses think about money,” says CEO Daniel Taylor. “By combining AI financial reviews, CFO level reporting, and access to over $10 billion in available credit, we help entrepreneurs become stronger operators and grow their businesses with confidence.”

And it’s working.

Businesses using Bags grow an average of 250% year over year, are 4.5x more likely to get funded, and secure financing 5x faster than the national average.

Now, the company is scaling that impact even further with the announcement of a $2.75 million investment round led by Ford Foundation, with participation from Partnership Fund for New York City, Zeal Capital Partners, Slauson & Co, Limited Ventures, and Blueprint FTC, which joins Bags’ growing list of current investors, including Slauson & Co, Connecticut Innovations, Howard Schultz Family Foundation and Swanston Labs, bringing total capital raised to $7 million.

“Well-informed financial management is the key to making prudent decisions and unlocking access to growth-enabling credit for small businesses,” says Roy Swan of Ford Foundation. “We’re pleased to support the Bags team as they expand their impact across the U.S.“

While most AI bookkeeping tools leave 5–25% of transactions misclassified and many fractional CFOs cost $10K–20K/month, Bags has found a way to make precision, clarity, and growth guidance affordable.

As a first step, Bags offers small businesses free AI-powered financial reviews that assess financial statements to identify errors and areas for improvement, explain likely causes of errors, and describe the ideal solution or approach.

“By equipping small businesses with better financial management tools, guidance and access to debt capital, Bags is helping a critical part of our economy remain competitive and financially resilient,” said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of Partnership Fund for New York City. “A New York-based company themselves, Bags is a great example of applying new technology to solve real problems that serve the public interest.”

The investment will help Bags deepen its product capabilities for small businesses and expand partnerships with mission-driven lenders and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Following their most recent partnership announcement with TruFund Financial Services, Bags plans to support additional CDFI and MDI pilots in 2026, modernizing how borrowers get prepared, packaged, funded, and supported post-loan—improving lender throughput and borrower outcomes with real-time financial visibility.

Bags’ vision is simple: a future where small businesses are no longer underfunded or overwhelmed by financial systems that weren’t built for them. One where they are equipped with clean books, informed about what they say, and truly ready to grow because of it.

Learn more at securebags.com/financial-review.
Contact Bags at [email protected].

SOURCE Bags