Innovation

OPSWAT Launches $10 Million Cybersecurity Skills Scholarship Learning Program

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 12, 2024

OPSWAT - a global leader in perimeter defense cybersecurity solutions for critical environments - announced that it is launching a $10 million scholarship program to offer essential CIP training courses. This initiative addresses the increasing demand for certified cybersecurity professionals, mainly within critical infrastructure industries.

Doowon Climate Control To Invest Over $30 Million In Georgia-Based Manufacturing Facility

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 11, 2024

Governor Brian Kemp recently announced that Doowon Climate Control America (an auto parts manufacturer and supplier) will invest over $30 million in a new manufacturing facility in Metter, creating 200 new jobs in Candler County. This marks the second automotive supplier announced in Candler County in under six months.

Canada Nickel Looking To Build Largest Nickel Procesing Plant In North America

By Annie Baker ● Feb 10, 2024

Nickel mining company Canada Nickel is planning to develop a nickel processing plant in Ontario, which would cost about $1 billion. This plant would be the largest in North American once it is done.

Rockwell Automation Reveals New Open Process Automation Offerings

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 10, 2024

Rockwell Automation (the world's largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation) has announced significant new offerings supporting Open Process Automation. And the innovations include PlantPAx’s control platform, Embedded Edge Compute Module, FactoryTalk Optix, and FactoryTalk DataMosaix.

Humble Bundle Has Now Raised Over $250 Million In Charitable Donations

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 9, 2024

Humble Bundle (a digital retailer with a goal) to be a force for good in the world announced it has surpassed a momentous milestone: raising over $250 million for charities worldwide, together with its global community of game, book, and software lovers, by directing a portion of nearly every sale to a variety of worthy causes.

Google Launches New AI Features And Rebrands Bard To Gemini

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 8, 2024

Late last year, Google revealed a new large language model (LLM) called Gemini. Gemini was labeled Google’s most capable AI model with sophisticated multimodal reasoning capabilities. And now Google’s AI chatbot Bard is being rebranded to Gemini.

CSW Industrials Deploys Over $30 Million To Execute Acquisition Strategy

By Noah Long ● Feb 7, 2024

CSW Industrials announced the strategic deployment of $30.3 million, excluding future earn-outs, upon completing the acquisitions of Dust Free, LP, Guardian Drain Lock, and Sure Grade Drain.

nference Signs Multi-Year Licensing Deal With The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 7, 2024

nference (a company dedicated to transforming healthcare by making biomedical data computable) announced a multi-year licensing agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This collaboration provides the Gates Foundation access to nference's nSights platform, where researchers can access a repository of extensive clinical data and expertise from top-ranked medical institutions.

Recurrent Energy: $160 Million In Project Financing Closed And Microsoft Secured As Customer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 6, 2024

Recurrent Energy (a subsidiary of Canadian Solar) and a global developer and owner of solar and energy storage assets) announced that it has secured $160 million in project financing for its 127 MWdc Bayou Galion Solar project, located in Morehouse Parish in Northeast Louisiana. This project is currently under construction and is expected to be operational by fall 2024.

Why Autodesk Is Buying PIX Of X2X

By Noah Long ● Feb 5, 2024

Autodesk recently announced it has agreed to acquire the PIX business of X2X. PIX is a production management platform for secure review and content collaboration between creatives and executives in the media and entertainment industry throughout the production process.

QuicksortRx: $100 Million Saved For Health Systems

By Annie Baker ● Feb 1, 2024

QuicksortRx - a technology company helping health systems improve pharmacy purchasing and reduce medication costs - announced that its clients have achieved over $100 million in medication cost savings through the platform since its launch in late 2018.

Databricks Hires The Team At Einblick

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 31, 2024

Databricks announced that it has welcome the Einblick team to the company. Einblick was founded by researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University, whose research explored the boundary of machine learning, human-computer interaction, and NLP. The Einblick team spent the last four years building an AI-native collaboration platform that helps users solve data problems with just one sentence.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: $25 Million Gift Received To Search For Ocean-Based Climate Solutions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2024

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) announced a $25 million gift to support ocean-based climate solutions from the chair of the Institution’s board of trustees, Paul Salem. This gift comes as it has been the warmest year on record and faces the possibility of rapid and unregulated efforts to mitigate climate change.

CDPQ And SMBC Aviation Capital Partnering To Create $1.5 Billion Aircraft Financing Platform

By Annie Baker ● Jan 30, 2024

CDPQ (a global investment group) and SMBC Aviation Capital (the world's second-largest aircraft leasing company) announced they had finalized an agreement to create a $1.5 billion global aircraft financing and leasing platform dedicated to modern, fuel-efficient NextGen aircraft.

Exclusive: AI Health Data Platform xCures Expands Beyond Cancer to Improve Care and Research

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 30, 2024

xCures announced the expansion of its AI-driven platform that transforms the value of US healthcare data by utilizing real-time and regulatory-grade data in any therapeutic area.

Block Announces Sustainable Banking Initiative With $25 Million Investment

By Annie Baker ● Jan 29, 2024

Block announced the Sustainable Banking Initiative, a $25 million investment into helping decarbonize the economy and promote sustainability through community lending, along with the company’s first Commerce and Climate Survey.

RenovoRx: $6.1 Million Private Placement Closed

By Annie Baker ● Jan 29, 2024

RenovoRx - a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel precision oncology therapies based on a local drug-delivery platform - announced that it had closed a private placement, resulting in gross proceeds of approximately $6.1 million, before deducting offering expenses.

Vertical Aerospace Founder Backing Company With $50 Million Investment Commitment

By Annie Baker ● Jan 29, 2024

Vertical Aerospace (a global aerospace and technology company pioneering zero-emissions aviation) recently announced that it has secured $50 million in committed funding from founder, majority owner, and CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick. This investment provides the platform for further funding rounds.

Atly Launches ‘Follow Your Friends’ Feature

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2024

Atly - a user-generated social mapping platform transforming location-based knowledge sharing - has launched a new "Follow Your Friends" feature. This tool allows Atly users to follow their friends within the app, automatically surfacing their recommended points of interest alongside the number of recommendations each location has on an Atly map.

Why vidIQ Is Buying Creator Now

By Noah Long ● Jan 29, 2024

vidIQ announced it is buying Los Angeles-based creator education platform Creator Now. Launched in 2021, Creator Now was founded by YouTube star Airrack along with co-founders, Zack Honarvar and Kate Ward. And the company has been on a mission to connect up-and-coming creators with the educational resources and community they need to successfully grow and monetize on YouTube.

Publicis Investing €300 Million In AI Over 3 Years

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2024

Advertising giant Publicis recently announced it has laid out a strategy in becoming the industry’s first "AI-powered Intelligent System." In a presentation by Arthur Sadoun, global CEO; Carla Serrano, global CSO, Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient; Dave Penski, CEO of Publicis Media & Sam Levine Archer, Chief Solutions Architect Publicis North America, it was discussed that Publicis is making 3 strategic bets: putting data and technology at the center with the acquisition of Sapient and Epsilon, implementing a country model, and building a single operational backbone.

Kyndryl Launches New Security Edge Services With Cisco

By Annie Baker ● Jan 29, 2024

Kyndryl - the world's largest technology infrastructure services provider - announced two new security edge services developed jointly with Cisco to help customers improve their security controls and proactively address and respond to cyber incidents.

Vista Equity Partners Completes $4 Billion EngageSmart Acquisition

By Dan Anderson ● Jan 28, 2024

EngageSmart (a leading provider of vertically tailored customer engagement software and integrated payments solutions) has announced the completion of its acquisition by an affiliate of Vista Equity Partners (a leading global investment firm focused exclusively on enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled businesses) for $23 per share in cash, valuing the company at about $4 billion.

Ares Management: Automated Industrial Robotics Launched To Capitalize On Manufacturing Demand

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2024

Ares Management announced the launch of Automated Industrial Robotics, a newly formed industrial automation company designed to capitalize on increasing global demand for manufacturing automation solutions. And an Ares Private Equity fund has invested substantial equity capital to support AIR’s acquisition and organic growth strategy.

University Of Texas At San Antonio Launches College In AI, Cyber, Computing, And Data Science

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2024

The University of Texas at San Antonio announced a pioneering initiative to reshape its academic landscape by launching a new college dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, computing, data science, and related disciplines.

Wealth Partners Capital Group And HGGC Form Strategic Partnership With True North Advisors

By Noah Long ● Jan 25, 2024

True North Advisors, LLC - a Texas-based registered investment adviser (RIA) - announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Wealth Partners Capital Group (WPCG), a financial services holding company, and HGGC, a firm focused on partnership investing.

Klarna Launches Klarna Plus In The US

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2024

Klarna – an AI-powered global payments network and shopping assistant - announced its entry into the subscription service model with the launch of Klarna Plus (issued by WebBank), which is now available to eligible US consumers through the Klarna app for a monthly fee of $7.99.

Netflix Becoming Home For WWE ‘Raw’ In 2025 In A $5+ Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2024

Why Deloitte Is Buying The Assets Of Giant Machines

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2024

Deloitte announced that it had acquired substantially all of the assets of Giant Machines, a digital product company based in New York City. The Giant Machines business focuses on strategizing, designing, and engineering innovative digital products, and will help bolster Deloitte Digital and Deloitte Engineering capabilities to offer clients a robust suite of services to deliver strategic and scaled engineering solutions.

Howard University Partners With Quantasy To Help Students Manage Mental Wellness

By Noah Long ● Jan 22, 2024

Quantasy has announced a partnership between Howard University and True Voice, the app known for its commitment to mindfulness and holistic well-being. Mental health is a major challenge for college students so that Howard will offer exclusive access to the wellness app. Howard University is the first academic institution to use True Voice to help create a culture of mindfulness that can be implemented daily.