Funding Accelerates U.S. Manufacturing Expansion and Scaled Production of Affordable Hypersonic Weapons to Meet Pentagon’s Top Priority

TORRANCE, Calif., Dec. 5, 2025 — Castelion, a cutting-edge defense technology company working to restore America’s conventional deterrence capability, announced today it raised $350 million in Series B financing, positioning the company to directly advance a top Pentagon modernization priority: hypersonic munitions production at scale.

The capital raise supports critical technical and manufacturing milestones: integrating Castelion’s first hypersonic weapon, Blackbeard, with U.S. Army and U.S. Navy operational platforms; building its production and final-assembly facility, Project Ranger; and multi-service platform testing in 2026.

The round was led by Altimeter Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Lavrock Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, First In, Space VC, Cantos, BlueYard, Avenir, Champion Hill, and Interlagos.

“Blackbeard helps close America’s hypersonic capability gap against China and Russia,” said Bryon Hargis, CEO and Co-Founder of Castelion. “This funding lets us build fast, test often, and produce at volumes that matter in the real world.”

CAPITAL DEPLOYMENT: SPEED TO PRODUCTION

The company’s latest investment round enables Castelion to expand manufacturing and workforce development across the United States:

Project Ranger (Sandoval County, New Mexico): Tooling, commissioning and production ramp at the 1,000-acre solid rocket motor manufacturing campus announced in November. The facility will be capable of producing thousands of Blackbeard missiles per year and support hundreds of industrial high-skilled jobs in the region.

Test Cadence and Platform Integration: Continuing high-tempo test cadence in 2026 with increasingly complex capability demonstrations and integration with operational launch platforms.

Follow-on System Development: Parallel maturation of a second hypersonic product line, leveraging shared low-cost subsystem infrastructure.

INVESTOR CONFIDENCE IN DEFENSE INNOVATION

“Castelion was founded by a special team of SpaceX alumni who, in just 2.5 years, took a clean-sheet hypersonic from concept to 25+ flight tests and major integration contracts,” said Erik Kriessmann, Partner at Altimeter Capital. “We’re leading this round because of what they’ve achieved in record time and so they can rapidly scale production of one of the U.S. Department of War’s most critical capabilities: affordable, mass-produced hypersonics, from hundreds to thousands of missiles per year.”

“Castelion isn’t just building missiles; they’re rebuilding America’s industrial depth,” said Connor Love, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “This team has proven they can move from blank sheet design to hardware under test faster than anyone thought possible.”

“Lavrock invests in critical technologies that strengthen America’s national security, and Castelion is doing exactly that,” said Alex Poulin, Partner at Lavrock Ventures. “Hypersonics only matter if you can build them at scale. Castelion’s team understands that, and they’re engineering a production-ready capability designed for real-world manufacturing and deployment. We’re proud to be early backers of a team focused on delivering capacity, not just concepts.”

“Hypersonic weapons capacity will shape great power competition for generations,” said Katherine Boyle, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “China recognized this a decade ago and deployed at scale. Castelion leads America’s arsenal renewal with the speed, cost advantage, and volume at scaled production that our nation demands.”

“Castelion is transforming the economics of our defense industrial base,” said Paul Kwan, Managing Director, General Catalyst. “Modern deterrence demands hypersonic capability at a pace, scale and cost that the U.S. has never seen.”

BREAKING THE COST-SPEED PARADIGM

In 2025, Castelion conducted more than 20 development flight tests, validating weapon-critical subsystems including internally manufactured solid rocket motors, control actuation systems, flight computers, seekers, thermal protection materials, and mission software. Each campaign focuses on low-cost, mass-producible architectures which replace designs historically built in low volumes, at extreme cost, or only on multi-year timelines.

Castelion’s approach compresses design-to-launch cycles from years to months and establishes the industrial base required for high-rate missile production, not boutique inventory.

ABOUT CASTELION

Castelion builds American hypersonic deterrence through rapid, affordable, and scalable production of advanced strike weapons. Blackbeard is the first U.S. hypersonic system engineered from inception for industrial-rate output, commercial unit cost, and continuous flight test iteration. The company is headquartered in Torrance, California, with manufacturing operations in New Mexico, Texas, and California. For more information on Castelion, please visit www.castelion.com.

ABOUT ALTIMETER CAPITAL

Altimeter is a technology-focused investment firm built by a founder for founders. Altimeter’s mission is to help visionary entrepreneurs build iconic companies, disrupt markets and improve lives through all stages of growth. Altimeter manages a variety of funds that invest in the public and private markets and seeks to serve as an expert long-term partner to companies as they enter the public markets.

ABOUT LIGHTSPEED VENTURE PARTNERS

Lightspeed is a global, multi-stage, venture capital firm managing over $40B in assets. Since its founding in 2000, Lightspeed has been the first investor and an early backer of some of the most innovative companies in the world including Abridge, Anthropic, Castelion, Glean, Mistral, Navan, Netskope, Rubrik, Snap, Wiz, and more. Learn more at lsvp.com.

SOURCE Castelion

SHANGHAI, Dec. 4, 2025 — OTR Therapeutics, a biotechnology company dedicated to transforming early-stage innovations into globally impactful therapies, emerged from stealth and announced today the successful completion of a $100 million Series A financing closed in June 2025. The round was backed by True Light Capital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek, LAV, Pfizer Ventures, and Sirona Capital.

Founded in March 2025, OTR Therapeutics is establishing a novel, scalable, and capital-efficient model that synergizes internal R&D with strategic curation of high-potential external innovation. This integrated approach enables the company to focus on scientific rigor and operational agility, leveraging its deep regional insights and the development efficiency of the local ecosystem to accelerate innovative therapies to patients worldwide.

The proceeds of the financing will advance OTR’s pipeline of differentiated programs that target significant treatment gaps in immunology & inflammation, oncology, and other disease areas. The funds will also expand OTR’s R&D hub capability, which emphasizes both scientific excellence and strategic partnership agility to foster expedited development of high-impact therapies.

In line with its strategy, OTR also announced the acquisition of a preclinical program with best-in-class potential for neurological diseases with high unmet needs. This acquisition is part of the company’s strategic and ongoing efforts to identify and advance promising early-stage assets into global clinical development, alongside its internal proprietary discovery programs to address a broader range of critical patient needs.

“The rapidly evolving global pharmaceutical R&D landscape demands greater novelty, speed and efficiency,” said Dr. Zhui Chen, Founder and CEO of OTR Therapeutics. “At OTR, we aim to build a next-generation biotech model that delivers unprecedented R&D and capital efficiency. It enables us to stay agile while remaining rigorously focused on propelling novel, differentiated drug candidates through global clinical translation in a disciplined and efficient manner. We are grateful for the strong support from our investors and their confidence in our vision and capability to deliver transformative therapies for patients.”

Co-founded by Zhui Chen, Ph.D., Shannon Chuai, Ph.D., and Yuan Shi, Ph.D., OTR Therapeutics is led by a team of seasoned drug hunters and entrepreneurs in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries with a proven track record of delivering breakthrough innovation, operational excellence, and financial success.

Yi Shi, Managing Director, LAV: “We believe the biopharma industry is shifting towards more capital-efficient and specialized R&D models. OTR Therapeutics is at the forefront of this evolution, demonstrating how a focused, integrated framework can expedite the journey of translating early-stage innovation into global clinical development.”

Michael Baran, Partner, Pfizer Ventures: “Pfizer Ventures identifies and invests in emerging companies who are developing innovative medicines and technologies that have the potential to shape the future of our industry. To this end, we’re pleased to be able to support OTR Therapeutics as it scales its R&D capabilities and builds a portfolio of potentially transformative therapies.”

About True Light
True Light (Shanghai) Private Equity invests in innovative, high-growth businesses in Greater China. It is a subsidiary of True Light Capital and is registered with the Asset Management Association of China. True Light Capital is an asset manager headquartered in Singapore and currently has assets under management of ~US$4b from global investors. It manages funds that are focused on investing in high-quality investment opportunities which have a nexus to or have a major business relationship with Greater China. True Light Capital and True Light (Shanghai) Private Equity are independent, wholly-owned subsidiaries of Temasek (www.temasek.com.sg). For more information on True Light, please visit: www.truelightcap.com.

About OTR Therapeutics
OTR Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to transforming early-stage innovations into globally impactful therapies for critical diseases with high unmet medical needs. With a strategic focus on oncology, immunology and inflammation, and cardiometabolic diseases, we discover and acquire distinctive assets in preclinical and early clinical stages, and accelerate their development into differentiated, clinically impactful treatments through our R&D hub built for speed, quality and efficiency. By combining scientific rigor with agile partnerships, we deliver exceptional value to our partners and patients worldwide. From our advanced R&D center in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, we actively collaborate with a global network of partners across the US, Europe, and Asia. www.otr-tx.com

SOURCE OTR Therapeutics

Honeyjar is a secure, collaborative workspace with an AI co-pilot that executes like a comms teammate — powered by the data and workflows pros rely on.

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4, 2025 — Honeyjar, the AI co-pilot for communications & PR, today announced a $2M pre-seed fundraise and the launch of its Early Access waitlist for agencies, in-house teams, and independent pros. The round was led by Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner at Human Ventures, and Kevin Mahaffey, Founder of SNR Ventures. 

Honeyjar unifies the core workflows of communications — from messaging and media research to list building, pitching, events, and coverage tracking — into one collaborative workspace powered by news, social and events data. Its proprietary agents leverage brand context, goals, and campaign history to guide communicators across the end-to-end execution of communications, acting like a teammate.

“The most interesting applications of AI right now are those that amplify the superpowers of professionals who are already excellent at their craft,” said Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner at Human Ventures. “Technology shouldn’t replace how you build relationships or do your job but it should give you better tools to excel at both. Honeyjar does this for communications professionals. It handles the tedious tasks so they can focus on what humans do best — strategic thinking, storytelling, and relationship building.”

Before founding Honeyjar, the team experienced the full spectrum of communications work — running and working at agencies, handling comms for startups and Fortune 500 companies, in-house roles, and consulting — seeing firsthand how much time is spent on repetitive, time-intensive tasks. Honeyjar is built to extend the capacity of communications professionals, make agency operations more efficient, and free time for strategic, high-value work.

“Strategy, relationships, and judgment will always be the human part of communications and PR — that’s the art,” said Michelle Masek, CEO and Founder of Honeyjar. “But communicators spend too many hours on building media lists, creating briefing docs, chasing event details, and stitching AI tools together. We’re building Honeyjar to be a secure, collaborative workspace with AI agents that work alongside you and your team, helping you shape stories, find opportunities, run campaigns, and measure impact effectively and efficiently.”

“I’ve seen firsthand how, when done right, communications can be the most effective form of marketing that exists. But most teams get bogged down in the tasks and motions, leaving less time to be strategic about the story and the results. Honeyjar automates the essential tasks and workflows so more focus can go to the story, strategy, and stakeholders – with the mechanics happening automatically,” said Kevin Mahaffey, Founder of SNR Ventures.

In addition to its lead investors, Honeyjar is backed by a powerhouse group of media, communications, and marketing angel investors and advisors who recognize both the $15B communications & PR market opportunity and the urgent need for comprehensive, purpose-built AI for PR:

• Margit Wennmachers, communications leader and former CMO at a16z
• Jesse Angelo, Founder and CEO of Checker Media, former President of Global News and Entertainment at VICE, and Publisher of the New York Post
• Josh Constine, former Editor at Large at TechCrunch
• Desiree Gruber, creator of Project Runway and Founder of Full Picture
• Joanne Bradford, former executive at Microsoft, SoFi, and Pinterest
• Becky Porter, former CEO of Outcast Agency
• Ajay Arora, Senior VP of Product Management and Engineering at The Walt Disney Company, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN

To learn more about Honeyjar or request access to the Early Access Program, visit www.honeyjar.ai/earlyaccess.

About Honeyjar

Honeyjar is the operating system for modern communications and PR. Built by veteran comms leaders and backed by industry icons from TechCrunch, VICE, a16z, Outcast, and Disney, Honeyjar gives communications professionals and non-experts an AI co-pilot they can depend on. The platform unifies core workflows and data including strategic messaging, announcements, media research, list building, contact management, events and speaking programs, briefing docs, coverage tracking, sentiment, and reporting – bringing purpose-built AI to communicators.

Media Contact 
Akeena Legall
Communications
[email protected] 

SOURCE Honeyjar AI

Nexus Venture Partners leads round as demand surges for provably secure, shareable access to online accounts

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4, 2025 — Multifactor, the post-quantum security platform enabling the safest access to online accounts for both humans and AI agents, today announced it has raised $15 million in seed funding. The round was led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from Y Combinator, Taurus Ventures, Honeystone Ventures, Flex Capital, Pioneer Fund, Ritual Capital, Liquid2 Ventures and leading operators across security, AI and enterprise software including Mohan & Padma Warrior, Gokul Rajaram and Mathilde Collin.

The fundraise follows strong early demand for Multifactor’s first-of-its-kind technology that allows anyone to share online account access without exposing underlying credentials. Multifactor’s unique approach replaces the need for traditional password managers, turning any online account into a shareable ‘read-only’ link in the same manner to how Google Docs can be shared for viewing or editing. With Multifactor, banking platforms, email, calendars, social accounts, and enterprise systems can all be turned into a secure, revocable, one-click access link for use by humans or AI that never reveals underlying passwords or credentials. Permissions can be set to read-only, restricted by feature, or even limited by dollar amount, offering maximum ease and convenience. All activity is audited and recorded with cryptographic signatures, and is protected through Multifactor’s mathematically unbreakable, post-quantum security technology.

Founded by Ph.D. computer scientist and former CIA officer Vivek Nair, and Ph.D. mathematician and cryptographer Colin Roberts, Multifactor was built in response to a growing class of security risks created by the rapid rise of agentic AI. For AI agents, Multifactor provides a provably safe execution environment that prevents prompt injection, password theft, confused-deputy attacks, and the growing category of cross-agent hijacking incidents. Access is entirely capability-based: agents can only see or modify what the user has granted in advance.

“Passwords were never built for the agentic era, and they’re becoming the most fragile link in modern security,” said Vivek Nair, CEO and co-founder of Multifactor. “People aren’t going to hand AI agents the keys to their calendars, finances, or business systems unless they have complete confidence nothing will go wrong. Multifactor is the easiest, safest, and most verifiable way to collaborate with both humans and AI with security guarantees that are mathematically unbreakable.”

Launched to the public three weeks ago, Multifactor’s platform is based on a decade of cutting-edge cybersecurity research, and is informed by the founders’ experience deploying offensive and defensive tooling inside high-risk national security environments. With identity as the root cause of the majority of application security breaches, Multifactor is driving a fundamental shift away from fallible, fragmented and inconvenient password and credential-based systems, offering a provably secure zero-trust solution that cryptographically guarantees that only authorized users can access sensitive data.

“Multifactor is solving a multi-billion-dollar problem,” said Abhishek Sharma, managing director at Nexus Venture Partners. “Adoption of any new technology starts with trust. That, ultimately, is what Multifactor is bringing to the table. They’re creating trust. And by doing that, they’re eliminating one of the most significant barriers to mainstream adoption of agentic AI.”

About Multifactor
Multifactor is the security platform for the AI era. Using patented post-quantum cryptographic techniques, Multifactor enables anyone to share online accounts securely without ever exposing passwords or underlying credentials, making collaboration with humans and AI agents both safe and effortless. Multifactor is backed by Nexus Venture Partners, Y Combinator, and leading investors across security, AI, and enterprise software. Multifactor’s mathematically-guaranteed account manager is free to use and is now available at www.multifactor.com.

Media Contact:
Erin Simpson
7073975511
[email protected]

SOURCE Multifactor

Building a new, AI-native ‘language’ for permitting that connects chat, email, voice, and plans so cities can actually move applications—not just track them.

SEATTLE, Dec. 4, 2025 — Govstream.ai, a Seattle–based startup building AI-native permitting tools for local governments, has raised a $3.6 million Seed round to help cities shrink permitting timelines from months to weeks—on a path to days.

The round was led by 47th Street Partners, a Menlo Park–based firm, with participation from Nellore Capital in Palo Alto—Govstream.ai’s pre-seed lead investor—Ascend, a Seattle-based AI Fund, and a group of GovTech stalwarts, including Kevin Merritt (founder and former CEO of Socrata) and Andreas Huber (co-founder and CEO of First Due).

The funding will fuel a growing engineering and AI team in the greater Seattle/Bellevue region, focused on building a new “language” for permitting—one coherent, conversational system that ties together chat, email, voice, plans, and workflows to relieve pressure on city staff and give builders clearer, more predictable paths to approval. It is designed to fill the gaps left by legacy systems that mainly track applications but do little to ease day-to-day bottlenecks or speed up the work of getting homes and infrastructure built.

By treating permitting as one of the first, most fixable levers in the housing crisis, Govstream.ai aims to give cities and counties a practical way to adopt AI in line with their values: human-centered, transparent, and accountable. The company is partnering with a growing set of jurisdictions that want to move beyond pilots and into production use, restoring civic capacity and trust while unlocking more housing and development in their communities.

“Cities are under intense pressure to add housing, support small businesses, and keep development sustainable, all while working inside permitting systems that were never really rethought for this moment,” said Saf Rabah, founder and CEO of Govstream.ai. “We’re using AI to bring back what digitization lost: being able to ask someone who can actually help, paired with a system that quietly reads the codes, emails, and plan sets in the background so staff get real decision support instead of spending hours hunting through documents.”

“Permitting has been digitized in pieces but not truly modernized end to end,” Rabah added. “Our goal is to give permit techs, planners, and reviewers an intelligent layer on top of the systems they already use, one that can reason over hundreds of pages of plans and regulations and surface the few things that really matter. That’s how cities move more homes and critical infrastructure from ‘submitted’ to ‘approved’ without burning people out on either side of the counter.”

Already live with the City of Bellevue, Washington, and moving into deployment with additional U.S. cities, Govstream.ai’s platform uses responsible, transparent AI to support overburdened permit techs, planners, and reviewers as they navigate growing housing demands, evolving codes, and tight budgets. For decades, permitting has gone through a piecemeal digitization phase: processes were lifted from paper and transplanted into software one tool at a time—one portal for intake, email for the conversation, separate systems for plan review, payments, and inspections.

These systems are good at storing and routing information, but not at actually helping people move through the process. Govstream.ai fills those gaps with an intelligent layer on top of existing systems, leveraging the data cities already have to validate documents, answer questions, and pre-check applications so staff can spend more time on complex cases and less time chasing missing information.

Govstream.ai’s products act as AI copilots for city staff and guided assistants for residents and builders:

• PermitGuide – Provides parcel-specific guidance and drafts responses across web, email, and voice, grounded in the city’s own codes and policies so staff can respond faster and stay consistent.
• Application Assistant – Offers blueprint-first, “complete on first submit” intake that checks submittals for completeness and basic compliance before they’re filed, cutting down avoidable resubmittals and back-and-forth.
• First Review – Gives reviewers better starting points by comparing revisions, highlighting meaningful changes, and surfacing key issues, so expertise goes to the cases that need it most.

Underneath these assistants is a transparent learning system: analytics and feedback loops show how the tools are used, where people get stuck, and how answers perform, so cities can refine guidance and keep the AI aligned with their own rules and standards. Together, they help cities answer questions more consistently, reduce avoidable resubmittals, and start reviews faster—without adding headcount or sacrificing safety, equity, or quality.

About Govstream.ai
Govstream.ai is an AI-native permitting company based in Seattle. Its Conversational Workflow™ platform helps cities shrink permitting timelines from months to weeks, on a path to days, by supporting overburdened permit techs, planners, and reviewers and giving builders clearer, more predictable paths to approval. Built as an intelligent layer on top of the systems cities already use, Govstream.ai’s products—PermitGuide, Application Assistant, and First Review—use responsible, transparent AI to validate documents, answer questions, and pre-check applications so more housing and infrastructure can move from plans to reality. Founded by govtech veteran Saf Rabah, a longtime builder of digital services for the government, Govstream.ai combines deep public-sector experience with modern AI engineering. To learn more, visit https://www.govstream.ai/

Media Contact:
Libby Dugan
[email protected]

SOURCE Govstream.ai

PARK CITY, Utah, Dec. 4, 2025 — Velvære, the premier wellness-focused, ski-in/ski-out residential community in Deer Valley’s East Village, today announces it has secured an additional $197 million in capital financing from Anchor Loans, a leading institutional lender with a track record in funding large-scale residential and community developments nationwide. The financing was arranged and advised by LFB Ventures, with equity backing from Toba Capital. The financing, combined with existing funds, has been restructured into a $555 million multi-product construction revolver to complete the build-out of Velvære’s estate lots, private amenities, and luxury vertical residential offerings.

Key Financing Highlights

• $197M in new financing secured from Anchor Loans
• $555M total financing following restructuring of existing capital
• Financing arranged and advised by LFB Ventures
• Equity backing from Toba Capital
• Funding will support:
  • Construction of private wellness and adventure amenities
  • Vertical development of luxury residences

 A $1 Billion Vision for Next-Generation Mountain Living

Velvære spans 60 acres and represents a $1 billion wellness-driven alpine community, developed by Pioche Partners, LLC, a joint venture between Bonfire Collective and VP Companies, Inc. The development is designed to integrate luxury homes, cutting-edge wellness amenities, and adventure-focused living. Their new financing will accelerate this vision, marking a pivotal milestone in the development of Deer Valley’s expanded East Village. Backed by partnerships with Fountain Life, Technogym, and Aescape, Velvære is positioned to capture strong buyer demand for high-end, slopeside wellness living in Deer Valley.

 Capital Strategy and Market Momentum

“Securing capital that mirrored the nature of our client’s vision was paramount to the capital markets effort,” said Blake Bitterlin, Founder & President of LFB Ventures. “We focused on engaging a single-source capital provider capable of consolidating legacy debt into a streamlined, revolving debt facility that addresses all the needs for land development, amenity, and home construction for each diverse product type, including the world-class amenities that define this one-of-a-kind community.”

Velvære’s new capital investment follows record-setting market momentum in Deer Valley’s East Village, with explosive sales success at the new base, and multiple estate lot sales at Velvære closing between $4 million and $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. This sales velocity reflects Velvaere and the East Village’s status as the premier destination for ski-in/ski-out living in the market and reinforces Velvære’s positioning as the next evolution of mountain communities.

Unlocking the Next Phase of Velvære

“This financing will unlock the next chapter of Velvære,” said Dayson Johnson, Chief Revenue Officer of Bonfire Collective and Partner at Pioche Partners. “We’re not just building homes — we’re building a community where residents can live, explore, train, and recover with the same resources and energy professional athletes rely on, all while experiencing the connection and joy of mountain living.”

The community, a private, gated enclave within the East Village, offers direct ski-in/ski-out access via an onsite Deer Valley chairlift, along with a wellness center (“The Well”) featuring performance and recovery modalities, and a family-focused adventure center (“The Base”) with year-round recreation.

The first estate residences were completed in 2024, with additional residences and estate lots currently under development, priced from $4 million to $12 million.

For more information and regular updates on Velvære, please visit www.velvaereparkcity.com and follow along on Facebook at @velvaereparkcity and Instagram @velvaereparkcity.

ABOUT VELVAERE
Velvære is a new 60-acre community featuring direct ski-in/ski-out access to Deer Valley Resort. Residents will enjoy year-round mountain adventure and recreation through a privately-accessed onsite ski lift, extensive ski terrain, an integrated wellness center with cutting-edge modalities, and a family adventure center and ski beach. The community includes 115 estate homesites, private residences, and cabins. Velvære is a private enclave within Deer Valley’s East Village expansion and enjoys the benefits of being within walking distance from the new base village yet separate enough to enjoy privacy and exclusivity. For more information on Velvaere, please visit http://www.velvaereparkcity.com and follow along on Facebook at @velvaereparkcity and Instagram @velvaereparkcity.

ABOUT PIOCHE PARTNERS
Bonfire Collective
Bonfire Collective was established to combine the heritage of a 50-year-old best-in-class construction company with a legacy of building Utah’s ultra-estates with cutting-edge, technology and wellness-based master-planned communities. Bonfire Collective partners with developers, architects, and interior designers to create luxury wellness communities in some of the most highly sought-after locations in Utah and Idaho and adventure communities across the west.
www.Bonfirecollective.com

VP Companies, Inc.
Founded in 1992, VP Companies focuses on maximizing value in real estate investments through long-term strategic partnerships, development expertise, operational management efficiencies, capital formation, and targeted marketing. Over the last three decades VP Companies has specialized in high-end amenitized development, with a total of over $1.6 billion total sales. Notable developments include Colorado Golf Club, Clear Creek Tahoe, and Zenergy Health Club and Spa. VP has been active in the following states since inception: Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Washington, Utah, and Montana.
www.vpcompanies.com

ABOUT LFB VENTURES
LFB Ventures, Inc. (“LFB”), founded in 2017, is a leading real estate capital advisory firm in the housing industry. Since inception, LFB has arranged nearly $3 billion in capital for developers and builders nationwide. Led by industry veterans with first-hand experience in development, construction, and finance, the LFB team plays more than a capital advisory role – LFB becomes an extension of its client’s operational team through the life cycle of their projects. LFB is headquartered in San Diego, with additional offices in Los Angeles and New York.
www.LFBventures.com

SOURCE Velvaere

NEWARK, Del., Dec. 4, 2025 — SPhotonix, a fast growing deep tech start-up, has announced the successful completion of their over-subscribed $4.5 million pre-seed round led by Creator Fund, an innovative deep tech institutional investor, and XTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of XTX Markets.  SPhotonix’s first capital raise comes some 14 months after SPhotonix CSO, Prof. Peter Kazansky, who developed the technology over the last twenty years, revealed how he had preserved the human genome (15 GB) for billions of years, in a 5D Memory Crystal and recently stored the entire Wikipedia, perceived to be the carrier of all human knowledge in a small crystal. The investment enables the firm to scale its world-leading Photonics and Engineering teams whilst executing commercially to meet growing demand for its two core applications in advanced optics and data storage. A number of high profile business leaders join this round as angel investors.

The raise was led by SPhotonix CEO, Ilya Kazansky. Commenting on the success, Ilya said:

“We’ve had significant interest in our pre-seed round and we are delighted to partner with Creator Fund and XTX Ventures, and others, as we continue our path bridging innovation with commercial success. We are rapidly scaling to address growing opportunities, we recently launched our Swiss based R&D lab, which is now fully operational with a growing team of world leading experts.  All of our investors, were curated to align with our vision and will support executing our mission of making data storage scalable, durable and cost-efficient for the new generations growing data storage needs 

“Our proprietary FemtoEtch ™ technology has already found applications for fused silica optics, in industries including microscopy, high power laser (HPL), aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing . Looking at our data storage use cases, in particular as part of current and future cloud solutions for cold and archival storage, the market opportunity is significant. With a 133% increase in data generation in the past four years, global data storage capacity is becoming scarce and heavily unsustainable. The cold data storage market is set to top over $400 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research, with our optical data storage solutions leading on new, proven technology to address this enormous need.”

“The funding unlocks our ability to recruit world leading specialists, to innovate through the final TRL stages needed to bring 5D optical to earth and space-borne data centres, picking up on the breakthroughs we’ve recently had with writable and rewritable forms. Furthermore, we can now capture and capitalise on the interest we’ve had to date from hyper scalers and corporate partners in the ecosystems, to create the right partnerships for progression, being announced soon. It’s a really exciting moment in our history.”

Alexandra Ntemourtsidou, General Partner at Creator Fund commented: “We are delighted to partner with SPhotonix as they commercialise two decades of research into optics for long-term data storage. Today’s data storage needs are putting a huge strain on legacy technologies. Industry must now look towards new storage paradigms. Peter and Ilya bring a rare combination of deep technical rigour and commercial focus; we are thrilled to back them on their mission to bring 5D optical memory technology to market.”

Creator Fund invests in frontier startups being built at Europe’s leading universities. Since its inception in 2019, it has backed 56 companies across 9 countries. It focuses on PhD founders building out of their research in Artificial Intelligence, BioTech, Robotics, Advanced Materials, and Physics. 

Gabriele Papievyte, Head of XTX Ventures said, “At XTX Ventures, we are committed to supporting leading academic and deep‑tech teams as they move from lab to market. We were deeply impressed by SPhotonix’s dedication to developing their unique technology for data storage and advanced optics, and we are excited to help them on their journey.”

XTX Ventures is the venture capital arm of XTX Markets, investing in early-stage companies where AI and machine learning are a core technology. Leveraging the firm’s deep expertise in machine learning and financial technology, the Ventures team provides tailored operational support and guidance, to help its portfolio companies grow and thrive. XTX Ventures can lead investments, co-invest and provide dedicated follow-on capital.

SPhotonix has achieved some notable successes in the past 12 months. From being featured in the Mission Impossible film, The Final Reckoning, to delivering highly precise test targets for a wide range of R&D labs across the globe, SPhotonix is now being recognised as an innovator and executor of photonics, data storage and optic applications. The 5D optical laser fusion technology invented by Prof Peter Kazansky, a world renown academic and scientist, has successfully transferred from a well tested and proven R&D concept into full commercialization.

Find out more about SPhotonix here.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2837784/SPhotonix.jpg

SOURCE SPhotonix

Applying Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), Eikona’s AI engine learns from user engagement and generates content that people respond to, driving double-digit uplifts in sales for lifecycle marketing

TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 4, 2025 — Eikona, a breakthrough generative AI company built for lifecycle marketing, today announced a $5 million seed round. The round was led by StageOne Ventures with participation from Crescendo Venture Partners, Wix Ventures, and Clarim Ventures, along with prominent angel investors from industry and academia. Eikona applies Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) to fine-tune generative models so marketing content can continuously adapt to how customers actually engage with it. Leveraging user feedback to guide its AI engine, Eikona drives double, and in some cases triple digit uplift in key lifecycle metrics such as sales, retention, and clicks.

While social media reshaped marketing by introducing the personalized feed with curated content tailored to each user’s behavior and preferences, traditional lifecycle marketing hasn’t kept up, with no equivalent algorithmic approach to date. At a time when, according to Gartner, marketing budgets have stalled and the costs associated with acquiring a customer are 5-7 times greater than retaining one, lifecycle marketing has never been more important. There is an urgent need for marketing to evolve its approach to reach customers more effectively without requiring eye-watering budgets. While GenAI holds the key to unlocking adaptive content for lifecycle marketing, there remains a gap between the current out-of-the-box solutions and scalable, production-grade content creation.

Taking inspiration from social media’s ability to comprehend and respond to user preferences, Eikona deploys GenAI to create an ‘adaptation layer’ between lifecycle marketers and their audiences. Every email, SMS, push notification, and instant message is run through this adaptive, constantly learning neural net, evolving the content to maximize performance for each end-user. Built on top of foundation models, Eikona’s engine adjusts imagery, video, microcopy, and layouts, while preserving brand, product, and legal integrity.

“Creating engaging content was always the holy grail for digital marketing, and GenAI provides the blueprint to achieve it. This is what we have built at Eikona, a GenAI solution that creates amazing images and copy, while keeping product and brand intact, guided by performance instead of prompts,” said Nir Weingarten, Eikona’s Co-founder and CEO. “Closing the feedback loop of user engagement enables us to break free of prompting. As human prompters, we’re biased toward what we think people want to see, we are limited by what we can describe in the prompt, and we don’t scale. Eikona’s GenAI Reinforcement Learning solution replaces prompting and A/B testing with an intuitive, automated alternative that can truly unleash the potential of this incredible technology and completely reinvent how businesses speak to their audiences.”

“From our very first meeting, it was clear that the Eikona team is exceptional, and that we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to partner with them,” said Avi Shulman, Principal at StageOne Ventures. “They quickly demonstrated impressive commercial execution combined with deep technical understanding of what this market truly needs. This is a rare opportunity to change how organizations approach marketing, making it genuinely personalized, and ultimately driving direct, measurable impact on business outcomes.”

“A/B testing has barely changed in 20 years, it’s slow, manual, and often misses what really drives performance,” said Amir Ariely, advisor for Eikona and former Global Creative Director at Google. “Eikona is changing that. The AI learns from performance and actually closes the creative loop, generating new ideas and assets that get smarter with every result. It’s the first time creativity and data truly work together at scale, and I’m excited to be part of what they’re building.”

Integrating directly into a company’s marketing automation stack (email, SMS, IM, push notifications), Eikona’s GenAI engine was developed for industries where customer loyalty is viewed as a critical strategic asset. Eikona is already being used by dozens of companies across the globe, including in the retail, telecom, finance, healthcare, insurance, and travel sectors.

About Eikona

Eikona is an Israeli-American GenAI Marketing company, founded by Nir Weingarten (CEO) and Omer Hacohen (CTO). Eikona is developing GenAI technology to redefine lifecycle marketing through adaptive, RLHF-powered A/B testing. Designed for sectors where customer loyalty is critical, Eikona’s enterprise-grade platform continuously learns from real-world engagement to optimize content performance across email, SMS, instant messages and in-app channels. Serving businesses across retail, telecom, finance, insurance, healthcare, and more, Eikona drives measurable uplifts in sales, retention, and conversions.

Learn more at https://eikona.io/

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2837643/Eikona.jpg

Media Contact
Gavin Horwich
[email protected]

SOURCE Eikona

Latest financing marks Insight’s first investment in a Japanese company

TOKYO, Dec. 4, 2025 — Fact Base Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Masataka Takeuchi), operator of the drawing management system ZUMEN, today announced that it has raised a USD$28.5 million Series C round, led by global software investor Insight Partners.

Japan’s manufacturing industry continues to face structural challenges such as labor shortages and a lack of successors. Many factories still rely heavily on paper-based and person-dependent processes, limiting productivity and global competitiveness. Meanwhile, the demand for digital transformation (DX) and supply chain resilience is growing worldwide, making the establishment of digital infrastructure in manufacturing a critical area for growth.

Against this backdrop, Fact Base has been addressing the operational challenges of small and mid-sized manufacturers through ZUMEN, its drawing management system that streamlines information sharing and order management from design to production. Over the past two years, the company’s revenue has increased approximately 16-fold, the number of client companies has grown by 13 times, and its presence has expanded from Japan to 12 countries.

Looking to the Future

With this new round of funding, Fact Base will strengthen its overseas hiring and accelerate region-specific marketing initiatives. The company also plans to enter the European market in 2026, expanding its global footprint. In parallel, Fact Base will enhance the functionality of ZUMEN while launching new business lines to diversify its portfolio.

Fact Base aims to leverage its growing domestic and international customer base to develop direct procurement features and systems that facilitate inter-company collaboration. The company will continue to enhance its product offerings to contribute to factory automation (FA) and manufacturing efficiency.

Through continued expansion into Europe and beyond, Fact Base remains committed to realizing its mission of “making manufacturing seamless worldwide.”

Insight Partners’ First Japanese Investment

Fact Base’s Series C round is the first investment that New York-based Insight Partners has made in a Japanese company. The firm’s support is a vote of confidence in Fact Base and it’s potential to transform manufacturing operations in Japan and around the world.

“We are pleased to announce that Fact Base has raised a total of 4.4 billion yen in funding from Insight Partners, a leading U.S. venture capital firm. This investment marks Insight Partners’ first-ever investment in a Japanese company, which we believe is a strong validation that our product and business have reached a standard that can compete globally,” said Masataka Takeuchi, CEO of Fact Base.

Continued Takeuchi, “As a Japan-born SaaS company, we have steadily built our track record overseas, particularly across Asia and North America. Our mission—to transform factory operations by starting with drawings and manufacturing data—comes from a uniquely Japanese perspective. We are confident that this approach allows us to present a new vision of what ‘manufacturing excellence from Japan’ can look like on the world stage.”

Fact Base exists today thanks to the dedication of the factories and frontline teams who embrace continuous improvement and take on challenges. To meet their expectations, Fact Base will continue refining a product that serves the people on the ground and delivers lasting value across the manufacturing industry.

“For SME manufacturers, managing technical drawings is a manual and time-consuming process,” said Max Wolff, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “With ZUMEN, Fact Base is not only freeing up manufacturers to perform more critical tasks – they are also creating a one-stop shop that minimizes manual searches, reduces errors, and accelerates time-to-delivery. We are delighted to partner with Fact Base on this exciting next chapter in their growth journey.”

Organization and Hiring

As the business has scaled rapidly, Fact Base’s organization has also expanded significantly —growing sixfold in headcount over the past two years. The company now operates a total of 11 offices — four in Japan and seven overseas — with approximately 34% of employees being non-Japanese nationals.

Fact Base is actively hiring across a wide range of roles, including engineering, sales, and customer success, to strengthen its organization in preparation for a future IPO.

About Fact Base Inc.

Founded in September 2022, Fact Base is a manufacturing SaaS startup with the mission to “make manufacturing seamless.”

Its core product, ZUMEN, was developed to promote digital transformation (DX) among small and mid-sized manufacturers. Many production sites still rely on paper-based drawings and manual processes, making it difficult to manage and utilize accumulated design data effectively. ZUMEN solves these issues by centralizing drawings and related documents in the cloud, improving operational efficiency and supporting data-driven manufacturing across Japan’s industrial landscape.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of June 30, 2025, the firm has over $90B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 875 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has a global presence with leadership in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

SOURCE Fact Base