For years, merchants have been forced to operate across a fragmented web of vendors, tools, and siloed data streams, with no single point of accountability. This patchwork infrastructure drives up costs, complicates risk controls, and prevents operators from fully leveraging their own data. pmtbox was built to eliminate that fragmentation and put control back in the hands of the merchant.

“Commerce has advanced, but the infrastructure behind it is still fragmented, expensive, and misaligned with the needs of merchants,” said Wayne Hamilton, CEO and Co-Founder of pmtbox. “The industry built around point solutions that solve individual problems, but collectively they created complexity, siloed data, and a lack of accountability. We believe merchants should own their data and fully understand their economics. pmtbox unifies payments, risk, and data into a single commerce layer; giving operators the control and leverage they’ve been missing.”

Ultimately, this gives merchants — including the approximately 1,300 customers pmtbox already serves — total control over their data, reducing the true cost of payments. While lowering implicit payment fees is an important first step, the most significant costs are hidden deeper within the business. By unifying the commerce stack, pmtbox allows operators to tackle these larger expenses head-on: preventing fraud, minimizing chargebacks, eliminating manual dispute resolution, and ensuring customer acquisition dollars actually convert at checkout.

“In building Divvy, I have seen first-hand the fragmentation and inefficiency of the underlying financial infrastructure that supports commerce,” said Alex Bean, Founding Partner at Tandem. “What I believe is unique at pmtbox is the team’s deep operator DNA – decades of experience across payments, risk, and scaling commerce businesses. They are not just attacking a surface-level problem; they are rebuilding a critical layer of the commerce infrastructure that mirrors how businesses are run today.”

Supplemental to expanding the company’s commerce architecture, the funding will be used to expand pmtbox’s engineering, risk and enterprise teams while accelerating enterprise go-to-market efforts across verticals where commerce complexity is highest. In addition to the capital milestone, Alex Bean joins the pmtbox board of directors, and Nick Thomas, founder of Finicity, also joins as an independent director. These additions bring two of Utah’s most successful fintech founders to help guide pmtbox’s next phase of growth.

To start unifying your commerce stack, please visit: pmtbox.com.

About pmtbox
pmtbox is a unified commerce platform that puts data and control back in the hands of merchants. By consolidating payments, risk intelligence, and transaction data into a single layer, it eliminates the fragmentation of legacy point solutions and gives operators full visibility into their true economics. Founded on the principle that infrastructure should strengthen merchant leverage rather than create dependency, pmtbox serves approximately 1,300 customers across industries where commerce complexity is highest. For more information, visit pmtbox.com.

Building on an established relationship, the investment advances a jointly developed, integrated approach to counter-UAS that is moving into broader operational deployment.

WHY IT MATTERS

The rapid proliferation of small, cheap and easily acquired unmanned aerial systems has created a new, pervasive threat to military platforms, critical infrastructure and civilian airspace.

• Strategic Operational Advantage: Modern battlefields are increasingly congested with hostile drones that can swarm, loiter or deliver precision payloads. By embedding Fortem’s AI driven detection, tracking and neutralization technology within the Sanctum suite, the U.S. and allied partners gain an instantaneous “killchain” that can suppress drone swarms before they become a kinetic risk.

• Economic Efficiency & Cost Savings: Traditional kinetic interceptors - missiles, rockets and directed energy weapons - are expensive per shot. Fortem’s software centric, low cost sensor platform reduces the cost per engagement by more than 80 % while delivering comparable effectiveness against low observable threats. Scaling production now will generate a sustainable, low maintenance logistics pipeline, delivering measurable savings and enabling more frequent training and readiness cycles.

• All Domain Interoperability: The Fortem solution is open architecture and MOSA compliant, allowing seamless integration not only with Sanctum’s airborne and ground-based nodes but also with allied air defense networks, joint force command and control systems, and emerging data links. This interoperability ensures allies can plug the technology into their own defense architectures without costly redesigns.

• Technology Leadership & Industrial Base Resilience: The partnership accelerates the co-development of next generation AI, edge computing, and high-resolution radar capabilities. By investing in Fortem, Lockheed Martin safeguards a critical component of the national security industrial base, creates high skill jobs, and positions the company at the forefront of the global UAS countermeasure market, projected to exceed $12 billion by 2030. The investment will enable Fortem to at least double manufacturing capacity and create new jobs at its production facility in Lindon, Utah.

EXPERT PERSPECTIVES

“This strategic collaboration will deliver robust mission capability aligned to our customer’s demand for rapidly fieldable solutions that scale in volume and evolve as fast as the UAS threat. This is just the latest example of our commitment to investing ahead of need to deliver at the speed of relevance, and with affordability in mind,” said Stephanie C. Hill, President, Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems.

“Low-cost, increasingly autonomous drone threats are scaling faster than traditional defenses were designed to handle,” said Fortem Technologies CEO Jon Gruen. “Our work with Lockheed Martin reflects a shared recognition that counter-UAS capabilities need to be autonomous, integrated and deployable at scale. Together, we’re taking technology that has already been proven in operational settings and accelerating its deployment to deliver a stronger, more responsive defense against evolving threats.”

About Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is a global defense technology company driving innovation and advancing scientific discovery. Our all-domain mission solutions and 21st Century Security® vision accelerate the delivery of transformative technologies to ensure those we serve always stay ahead of ready. More information at Lockheedmartin.com.

About Fortem Technologies

Fortem Technologies is the global leader in airspace security, delivering advanced solutions that protect against today’s autonomous aerial threats while ensuring the safety of tomorrow’s advanced air mobility. Fortem’s AI-powered SkyDome® Family of Systems combines TrueView™ sensors, command-and-control software, and autonomous DroneHunter® interceptors to defend military, government, and commercial operations worldwide from hostile or unauthorized drones. Fortem is the only company authorized to deploy a drone-on-drone kinetic interceptor in U.S. airspace, and its technology has been validated in operational deployments in Ukraine, the Middle East, and East Asia. Headquartered in Lindon, Utah, Fortem is privately held and backed by Lockheed Martin, DCVC, Toshiba, AE Industrial Partners, AIM13, Signia Venture Partners, and others. To learn more, visit fortemtech.com

The funding and Earlyasset’s emergence from stealth come as the venture ecosystem faces a growing liquidity bottleneck. Venture-backed companies are staying private far longer than in previous decades, while the IPO market has remained largely closed for much of the past two years amid macroeconomic uncertainty and valuation resets. According to analysis from Blackstone, the time companies stay private has stretched from roughly six years in 2000 to about 14 years today.

As a result, trillions of dollars in venture-backed private company equity are now tied up across the startup ecosystem. Industry estimates suggest the global venture capital ecosystem now represents more than $4 trillion in private company value held by founders, employees, and early investors. At the same time, roughly four million shareholders now hold equity in venture-backed companies, many of whom have limited options to convert those holdings into cash for life events such as exercising options, paying taxes, buying a home, funding education, or returning capital to investors.

Despite the size of the market, most venture secondary trading happens in just a handful of companies. Data from Caplight shows that more than 80 percent of venture secondary transaction volume is concentrated in just ten companies, leaving thousands of venture-backed businesses and their shareholders without practical liquidity pathways. The market is also beginning to attract significant institutional attention. In 2025, several major financial institutions moved into the space through acquisitions, including Goldman Sachs’ purchase of Industry Ventures and Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of EquityZen.

“These structural dynamics are creating a real liquidity challenge across the startup ecosystem. Companies are staying private longer, which means equity is accumulating across millions of shareholders. The infrastructure around that ownership hasn’t kept pace. Earlyasset is building the kind of market infrastructure needed to unlock liquidity across a much broader set of companies.”

— Nick Moran, General Partner at New Stack Ventures

A Liquidity Gap for the Startup Economy

Today, venture-backed companies routinely remain private for more than a decade, leaving founders, employees, and early investors holding valuable but illiquid shares. While secondary markets exist, they often serve only a small number of highly visible companies. Smaller transactions frequently fail due to high legal costs, limited price transparency, and the operational burden placed on companies facilitating trades. Earlyasset is launching to address this gap.

“If you own stock in a public company, you know exactly what it’s worth and you can sell it today. If you own equity in a private startup, you probably have no idea what it’s worth and no easy way to sell it — and that’s been true for decades, regardless of what the economy is doing. That’s not a timing problem. That’s a plumbing problem. The basic infrastructure that makes transactions work in public markets was never built for private markets. That’s what we’re building.”

— Shawn Bercuson, Co-founder and CEO of Earlyasset

Expanding Access to Venture Secondaries

Traditional secondary transactions often take months to complete and require significant coordination among companies, shareholders, buyers, and legal teams. Industry data suggests they can take three months or longer to close and cost more than $10,000 in legal and administrative work, making smaller liquidity events impractical for many shareholders.

Earlyasset is positioning itself as critical infrastructure for venture secondaries, focused on reducing the friction that has historically limited liquidity. Rather than operating a brokered marketplace, Earlyasset plans to deploy capital alongside transactions, expand liquidity beyond the small set of companies that dominate today’s market, and introduce a proprietary valuation methodology designed to bring greater price transparency. The platform is built to enable faster, simpler transactions for shareholders and companies alike. Together, this approach combines capital, pricing intelligence, and streamlined execution to address the biggest barriers in today’s secondary market.

“As companies stay private longer, the market needs better infrastructure for liquidity. Our goal is to create a win for shareholders seeking liquidity, companies managing their cap tables, and investors deploying capital into the private market.”

— Shawn Bercuson, Co-founder and CEO of Earlyasset

Launching With a Waitlist for Shareholders

Earlyasset plans to launch its platform later this year. Shareholders seeking liquidity can sign up on Earlyasset’s waitlist beginning today.

Early users will be able to register their private holdings, access pricing insights, and request liquidity as the company builds its network of investors and capital partners.

About Earlyasset

Earlyasset is building critical infrastructure for the venture secondary market. With an estimated $8 trillion in private company value held across venture-backed and privately held companies, the gap between ownership and liquidity has never been larger. Unlike traditional secondary marketplaces, Earlyasset combines pricing transparency, transaction infrastructure, and capital to expand liquidity across private markets. Headquartered in Park City, Utah, the company is focused on connecting shareholders, companies, and investors in the growing venture secondary ecosystem. Learn more at www.earlyasset.com

The funding coincides with the release of three new enhancements to Tava Health’s tech-driven mental health platform: an AI-powered clinic operating system; a zero-budget employer benefit; and a care-navigation suite.

Tava Health is already in-network for 9 in 10 commercially-insured Americans through integrations with more than 200 health plans across all 50 states, with first-session availability in as little as 12 hours.

Making Outcome-Driven Care Accessible and Easy

“We raised this capital to invest deeply in our partners: the clinicians delivering care and the clinics managing the complexity behind it; the employers making care accessible and affordable for their employees; and the health plans moving beyond access toward real outcomes,” said Dallen Allred, Co-Founder and CEO of Tava Health. “When all three are better supported, the person sitting across from a clinician gets better care.”

Three New Products Across the Behavioral Health Lifecycle

Symphony by Tava Health: for Providers

For clinicians and group practices, the company is launching Symphony by Tava Health, a free, AI-assisted practice management platform purpose-built for behavioral health. The platform brings together an AI clinical scribe, AI-assisted treatment planning, integrated scheduling, and telehealth, and is designed to provide clawback-protected payment from more than 200 health plans, delivered within two weeks.

The administrative burden on mental health clinicians – including documentation, billing, coordination, and credentialing – routinely consumes hours that could otherwise go toward patient care. By eliminating that friction, Tava Health is directly expanding effective clinical capacity across its network and for providers nationwide.

TavaCare for Employers

TavaCare for Employers gives any organization access to Tava Health’s clinical network, plus the Tava Management Console – a free platform for bringing meaningful mental health benefits to their employees.

Employers choose how they want to offer TavaCare. For organizations that want to remove every financial barrier between an employee and the support they need, TavaCare can be fully sponsored – making sessions completely free for employees, with no copays, no insurance billing, and no out-of-pocket costs at the point of care.

For organizations that want to offer a meaningful benefit without a new budget line, TavaCare now works with employees’ existing insurance coverage — no per-employee-per-month fees, no procurement hurdles, no lengthy implementation cycles.

With TavaCare, standing up a best-in-class mental health benefit has never been easier.

Tava Guide: for Health Plans, Health Systems, and Care Coordinators

Rounding out the platform, Tava Guide gives health plans, health systems, and care coordinators a centralized hub to search for and generate referrals, and track patient progress throughout their care journey – closing the loop between a referral and a clinical outcome.

Proven Infrastructure at Scale

Tava Health’s expansion is built on a foundation of demonstrated clinical performance. Eighty-seven percent of Tava clients show measurable clinical improvement, and the company’s nationwide coverage model has shown that scale and clinical quality are not in tension, they’re interdependent.

“Tava Health is setting the new standard for mental healthcare infrastructure, delivery, and support,” said Sarah Kim, Partner at Centana Growth Partners. “While healthtech continues to benefit from technology and AI, Tava Health’s ability to solve administrative friction for providers while simultaneously removing the cost barrier for employers positions them as one of the most compelling mental health platforms in the market today.”

About Tava Health

Tava Health is a leader in innovative mental health services, dedicated to improving mental well-being and fostering a healthier world. We combine cutting-edge technology with personalized care to make mental health support accessible, effective, and scalable through organizations of all sizes. Our mission is to break down barriers to mental health care, ensuring everyone has the resources they need to thrive. For more information, visit www.tavahealth.com.

About Centana

Centana Growth Partners is a specialized growth equity firm that invests in the future of finance. Centana collaborates with companies across the entire financial services ecosystem, from institutions to fintech disruptors, to add strategic and long-term value to their portfolio companies. Centana empowers entrepreneurs with a combination of capital, network, and expertise to accelerate their growth. The Centana team taps into decades of financial services expertise and insight to invest in companies that bring real value and innovation to the industry. Visit centana.com for more information.

This Development Capital Facility is among the first ever structured for early-stage geothermal development, drawing on the best practices from the renewables and natural resource sectors. The financing establishes a revolving development credit facility designed to accelerate project development across Zanskar’s growing portfolio. The non-recourse facility covers key pre-construction activities, bridging projects to traditional bank project financing, and is structured to upsize to $100M as the portfolio scales.

For a sector that has long struggled to secure non-dilutive development capital, the deal is a watershed moment. It strengthens Zanskar’s ability to commercialize its pipeline of naturally-occurring geothermal systems and sets a scalable financing precedent for greenfield geothermal as a recognized asset class across the U.S.

“Zanskar has successfully transitioned from a pure geothermal explorer and operator to pioneering the financial infrastructure the entire industry needs to scale. This facility unlocks the critical bottleneck of early-stage project financing,” said Carl Hoiland, CEO and Co-founder of Zanskar. “We are deeply appreciative of our partners, Just Climate and Spring Lane Capital, whose innovation and commitment have not only validated our business model but have created a blueprint for accelerating a significant expansion of dispatchable, clean geothermal energy in the U.S.”

Diego D’Sola, Vice President of Finance at Zanskar, added: “The geothermal industry has been stagnant for decades and lacking the right financial structures. We believe this facility charts a cost-of-capital trajectory that will put geothermal on par with other mature energy asset classes.”

Zanskar has assembled one of the industry’s leading portfolios of greenfield geothermal projects under development and will use the project financing to rapidly build multiple geothermal power plants across the U.S. Zanskar is working towards delivering gigawatts of clean, firm power to American homes and businesses, and will create hundreds of jobs as it embarks on this historic geothermal development campaign.

“Zanskar has built a differentiated, AI-powered exploration platform that improves drilling success rates and lowers development costs. It has secured a substantial acreage with considerable resource potential. We are pleased to partner with Zanskar on this flexible, purposefully constructed Development Capital Facility which is designed to grow as the company accelerates the delivery of large-scale, dispatchable clean baseload power in a market experiencing rapidly increasing electricity demand,” said Natalia Simakina, Managing Director at Just Climate.

“Spring Lane is excited to follow on our Series C investment in Zanskar by co-leading this groundbreaking geothermal industry development capital facility,” said Jason Scott, Partner and Entrepreneur in Residence, Spring Lane Capital. “We were happy to develop this capital solution with Generation’s Just Climate and believe that it creates a path for not only Zanksar but other geothermal developers and operators to scale this crucial source of clean, firm power at a time of rising energy demand and volatile supply and prices. Spring Lane believes that a key to helping support companies like Zanskar is identifying, structuring, and financing project capital needs off balance sheet to accelerate the growth of their businesses.”

This announcement follows Zanskar’s recent $115 million Series C raise in January 2026, which has since been expanded with an additional investment from Just Climate. With two discovery sites in Nevada announced last year, and the landmark Lightning Dock project in New Mexico already providing energy to utility customers, Zanskar is poised to deliver clean, firm geothermal energy at a time of high demand.

About Zanskar
Zanskar is the first AI-native geothermal energy company using AI to transform how we find, assess, and deliver geothermal energy. Combining artificial intelligence, modern drilling, and computational geoscience, Zanskar is expanding the frontier of American geothermal discovery, unlocking value from hidden, forgotten, or underutilized geothermal fields. Following the turnaround of Lightning Dock in New Mexico, now the site of the most productive pumped geothermal well in the United States, and record-breaking discoveries at Pumpernickel and Big Blind in Nevada², Zanskar is showing that geothermal can be predictable, profitable, and massively scalable. Zanskar is actively deploying this model across a growing portfolio of newly discovered or overlooked sites to develop, build, own, and operate high-grade geothermal assets as a foundational component of the modern grid. Learn more: zanskar.com

.

About Just Climate
Established by Generation Investment Management, Just Climate is a specialist investment business focused on scaling solutions for the highest-emitting, most off-track sectors of the economy. The challenge of achieving a net-zero world and addressing climate-related risk is huge, urgent and needs tremendous mobilisation of capital. Just Climate’s mission is to establish climate-led investing as a capital allocation imperative for institutional investors globally. For more information, please visit us at justclimate.com.

About Spring Lane
Spring Lane Capital is an investment firm based in Boston, MA and Montreal, QC, deploying tailored project finance and corporate equity across the “missing-middle” in sustainable real assets. We invest in sectors where decentralized, low‑carbon assets are scaling fast including energy, transportation, waste to value, food and agriculture. We are a team of builders and operators—not just investors—bringing the technical expertise and hands-on partnership needed to scale the sustainable infrastructure of tomorrow and deliver long-term value. For more information, please visit us at www.springlanecapital.com.

About Tierra Adentro Growth Capital
Tierra Adentro Growth Capital (TAGC) is a newly launched investment platform providing strategic capital for next generation infrastructure. A generalist infrastructure firm, TAGC aims to meet American reindustrialization needs through innovative growth capital solutions across advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure, and advanced energy—with a particular focus on geothermal power. The firm leverages decades of experience in infrastructure finance to develop innovative funding models. Learn more: TAGrowth.com.

Founded with a long-term, credit-first approach to specialty finance, Rizz Lending combines disciplined institutional underwriting with technology-enabled workflows, AI-driven analytics, and e-commerce-style origination and servicing. This approach enables the company to finance vehicles and borrowers that often fall outside the scope of traditional auto lenders while delivering certainty of execution, conservative credit structures, and fast funding—key advantages in a niche where asset expertise and reliability are paramount.

“The closing of our $300 million warehouse facility marks an important milestone for Rizz Lending,” said Brad Bonham, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rizz Lending. “Our team brings decades of experience across specialty finance, structured credit, and high-value automotive assets. By pairing that expertise with a data-driven platform and technology-enabled execution model, we’ve built a scalable platform designed to deliver consistent outcomes for dealers, borrowers, and capital partners.”

Based in Riverton, Utah, Rizz Lending partners with dealers and customers to provide flexible financing solutions for specialty vehicles. With expanded funding capacity and a growing licensed footprint, the company plans to continue selectively onboarding dealer partners and referral relationships aligned with its credit philosophy, operational standards, and long-term growth strategy.

As part of the investment, Justin Wisz, Partner at Thicket Ventures, has joined CurrentClient’s Board of Directors.

“We are thrilled that our company received the validation of such a well-respected investor as Thicket Ventures and that Justin has joined our board of directors,” said Dustin Belliston, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CurrentClient. “This investment allows us to significantly support our growth as we seek to improve the way advisors communicate in real-time with modern clients. My co-founders Andrew Clark, Jeff Hutchins and I are excited for the growth opportunity this funding provides our company and our clients.

Since 2021, regulators have fined dozens of firms more than $2.7 billion for violations of federal securities laws involving off-channel communications. CurrentClient is redefining how advisors communicate with clients amid this environment by offering a compliant, integrated, and intuitive phone and messaging system designed specifically for registered investment advisors and financial planners. CurrentClient’s platform has quickly gained traction among advisors seeking to streamline communication, reduce compliance risk, and deliver a more modern client experience.

“Thicket Ventures invests in companies that will be critical to the foundational architecture of the financial services industry,” said Wisz. “CurrentClient is building the communication infrastructure that solves a difficult and costly problem for thousands of financial advisors. We’re excited to help accelerate that mission.”

CurrentClient also announced that Austin Guest has joined the company as Head of Sales. As the former head of sales at FINNY, Guest brings extensive experience scaling go-to-market teams in fintech and advisor-focused SaaS, with a track record of accelerating adoption among RIAs, broker-dealers, and enterprise wealth platforms.

“Austin’s experience and expertise in the financial advisor space is precisely what we need as we take CurrentClient to the next level,” Belliston said. “We are excited in what the combination of our new investment and Austin’s leadership will bring as we scale.”

About CurrentClient

CurrentClient is the modern communication platform for financial advisors, offering a compliant, integrated, and intuitive phone and messaging system designed to eliminate friction and enhance client engagement. Founded in 2022, the company is headquartered in Provo, Utah.

The funding will enable Rasa to expand its leadership team, accelerate product development, and scale its affordable criminal record sealing and expungement services across America.

Founded by attorney, former public defender, and access-to-justice advocate Noella Sudbury, Rasa leverages technology to streamline criminal record sealing and expungement services under applicable state laws, to the 1 in 3 Americans struggling with a criminal record. Since launching its platform in September 2022, more than 26,000 people have used Rasa’s tools to understand what is on their record and determine eligibility for clearance. To date, over 5,000 cases have been successfully cleared through Rasa’s services.

Originally launched in Utah, Rasa now operates in Utah, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, with plans to expand nationwide. It was the launch in Pennsylvania—with an initial focus on Pittsburgh—that helped attract investment from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, which works to advance prosperity across the region.

“I started this company four years ago, with a dream to build an app to help people clear their criminal records and access new opportunities in life,” said Sudbury, Founder and CEO of Rasa Legal. “This fundraise is a key milestone for our company, and I am excited to see how these new strategic partners and dollars will help us scale our impact across America.”

Investor Perspectives

“Rasa sits at the intersection of education, workforce access, and justice,” said Amy Nelson, Partner at Rethink Education. “By combining technology with legal expertise, the team is building scalable infrastructure that removes barriers to education, employment, and opportunity. We’re proud to lead this round and support their national expansion.”

Jesse Draper, founding partner of Halogen Ventures, said: “Roughly thirty percent of Americans have a criminal record, representing a significant and often overlooked portion of our country’s people. Helping people clear their records and get into the workforce strengthens our economy and reduces homelessness and recidivism by giving people lawful pathways to support their families and rebuild their lives. Rasa Legal is positioned as the most credible technology to tackle this issue and Halogen couldn’t be more excited to double down on this investment.”

Vinesh Kapil, Director of Impact Investments for Social Finance adds, “We aim to put capital to work in ways that expand opportunity and create measurable, positive outcomes for individuals and communities. Rasa Legal’s technology-enabled approach to record clearance directly addresses one of the greatest barriers to economic mobility — access to meaningful career pathways.”

Proven Traction and National Recognition

Rasa’s platform includes a mobile-friendly eligibility tool that provides instant legal information about a person’s criminal record and potential eligibility for sealing or expungement under state law. Beyond record clearance services, the platform has the capability to connect users to scholarships, education, health insurance, and fair chance hiring opportunities.

The company’s technology has been highlighted by the American Bar Association and recognized by the American Legal Technology Awards as the Best New Legal Tech Startup in America. Rasa has partnered with NBA teams to power community record clearance clinics and has worked alongside employers such as Flagger Force to connect individuals with records to fair chance hiring opportunities and record clearance support.

Sudbury, a former public defender, previously led Utah’s successful Clean Slate campaign, resulting in automated record clearance relief for more than 500,000 Utahns. Her work has been recognized locally and nationally. Noella was named Woman of the Year by Utah Business Magazine and selected by Inc. Magazine as one of the Top 200 most dynamic female founders in America. Noella is a passionate advocate for using technology to bridge the access-to-justice gap, which she notably shares in an October 2024 TedX Talk.

Scaling Impact

It is estimated that 1 in 3 Americans–close to 100 million people–have a criminal record, creating barriers to employment, housing, education, and economic stability. Many are legally eligible for record clearance but lack affordable, accessible legal support. While having a criminal record holds people back long after their time in the justice system, clearing a record has an almost immediate transformative impact, especially when it comes to jobs. People without records are 63% more likely to get a job interview and average wages go up by over 20% within one year of record clearance.

“This round gives us the fuel to move from proving the model to scaling it,” Sudbury added. “We believe technology can dramatically expand access to justice and new opportunity — and this is just the beginning.”

About Rasa Legal

Rasa Legal is a mission-driven legal technology company making simple and affordable record clearance a possibility for everyone. Through innovative tech and AI tools and a streamlined legal process, Rasa’s lawyers provide criminal record sealing and expungement services in Pennsylvania, Utah, and Arizona, with plans to scale nationwide. Since launching in September 2022, more than 26,000 people have used Rasa’s tools, and over 5,000 have successfully cleared their records. Rasa’s platform also connects platform users to jobs, housing, and health care resources. For more information, or to check eligibility for sealing or expungement services, visit rasa-legal.com.

Founded by repeat fintech entrepreneurs, Jump has rapidly become the fastest-growing wealthtech software application in industry history, scaling from zero to 27,000 advisors in less than two years since launch – and now adding more than 2,000 new advisors each month. Nearly one in ten U.S. financial advisors now uses Jump, making it a core platform across the industry – from independent advisors and enterprise Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) such as Focus Financial Partners, Integrated Partners and Merit Financial Advisors, to independent broker-dealers including LPL Financial, Osaic and Cetera, as well as financial institutions like Allianz Life and Manulife. Jump’s seven-time award-winning AI-native technology has processed a cumulative 183 continuous years’ worth of client meetings, completing millions of tasks for advisory, insurance and other financial services firms managing an estimated $12 trillion in assets for their clients.

“An enterprise RIA recently shared that Jump ranked number one among more than 40 AI pilots they ran last year in terms of delivering real advisor impact and measurable ROI for the firm,” said Parker Ence, co-founder and chief executive officer of Jump. “They saw not only Jump’s usual one to two hours saved per advisor per day, but also a meaningful increase in their overall organic growth rate. This new funding will allow us to invest aggressively in product research and development as we accelerate our vision for an AI-native operating system. We are grateful for the trust our customers, partners and investors have placed in us, and we are excited about the days, months and years ahead.”

The new capital will fuel Jump’s next phase of growth, building on the success of its category-defining AI meeting assistant for advisors and expanding into a comprehensive intelligence and AI orchestration layer tailored for modern advisory firms. Jump is widely recognized for its intuitive workflows, extensive integrations, ease of adoption by advisors and full compliance and configurability – making it ideal for enterprise deployment with robust compliance and data controls.

“We believe Jump is defining the category for AI in financial services,” said Crissy Behrens, managing director at Insight Partners. “The team has demonstrated exceptional product velocity, strong enterprise traction and a clear product vision for where AI is headed in wealth management and beyond. We believe Jump’s clarity of purpose, as well as its focus on real advisor needs, well position the company to shape what comes next for the industry.”

Over the coming year, Jump plans to apply these same product principles across a growing number of high impact workflows aimed at solving three fundamental challenges faced by financial services firms: operational friction, organic growth and client experience. Simultaneously, Jump is accelerating product innovation beyond automation toward a broader suite of agentic, insight-driven AI capabilities that can proactively identify opportunities, risks and next best actions for advisors – backed by enhanced enterprise-grade functionality designed for complex firm structures and large-scale deployments.

“The power of AI presents an opportunity for financial professionals to enhance their operations to better serve their clients,” said Eric Thomes, chief distribution officer at Allianz Life. “Jump is focused on the type of practical, advisor-first innovation that can help financial professionals today and in the years ahead.”

Jump’s proprietary insights and capabilities were recently showcased in the company’s inaugural Insights Report, which highlights how advisors are using AI to save time, enhance client engagement and scale their practices. To learn more about Jump and how it is helping advisors and firms thrive in the age of AI, visit jump.ai.

About Jump

Jump is the leading AI assistant and intelligence engine built for financial advisors and other financial services professionals. Founded in 2023, it delivers 20+ AI-powered features that reduce busywork—automating meeting prep, note-taking, recaps, follow-ups and CRM updates—and surfaces growth insights, while embedding industry-leading compliance. With 27,000+ advisors on the platform and top advisor satisfaction ratings (including #1 in advisor satisfaction and adoption according to the 2025 T3/Inside Information Software Survey and 2025 Kitces Report On Financial Advisor Technology Use), Jump is the category leader in advisor-AI.

Deeply integrated, fully customizable and built with compliance at its core, Jump empowers firms to elevate the advisor-client experience in the age of AI, without compromising regulatory rigor. Learn more at jump.ai.

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.

🐝 Explore career opportunities building AI tools for financial advisors and modernizing financial workflows — Beehive Jobs

Ollin was founded around a focused thesis: the next generation of enduring software companies will be AI-native from day one, built around proprietary data loops, disciplined capital deployment, and early evidence of real market demand. The firm targets founders building defensible, scalable businesses with the potential to define categories inside their verticals.

“We’re in a moment where AI is evolving incredibly fast,” said Tom Wilkinson, Founder and Managing Partner at Ollin Ventures. “The companies being formed right now have a structural advantage because they’re building AI into the foundation of their products, not trying to bolt it on later. We’re seeing teams of two reach multi-million-dollar ARR in under six months. That level of capital efficiency simply wasn’t possible in prior cycles.”

As Utah’s venture ecosystem has matured, many of the state’s more established firms have raised larger funds and shifted toward investing at later stages. That evolution has created an opportunity at the pre-seed level, a gap Ollin was designed to fill.

The firm collaborates closely with later-stage investors across the region. Larger funds frequently share promising companies that are too early for their mandate, and Ollin partners with those founders at inception, helping invest in, incubate, and mentor them through early product-market fit. As those companies mature, Ollin works alongside those same later-stage firms as they lead subsequent rounds.

“When you back the right founders early, the impact compounds,” said Stephen Smith, Co-Founder and General Partner at Ollin Ventures. “You’re helping create meaningful opportunities for employees, delivering real value to customers, and elevating Utah as a place where enduring companies are built. Venture, at its best, is a catalyst for positive impact and that’s what motivates us.”

Brady Harris, General Partner at Ollin Ventures, brings a long-term capital markets perspective to the firm. Over his career, Harris scaled four companies from early revenue stages to $100–$200+ million in revenue and sold each to private equity firms. He also serves on multiple advisory boards for later-stage funds.

“Having built and exited multiple companies, I’ve seen firsthand what private equity and later-stage investors are looking for,” Harris said. “Staying close to those markets allows us to recognize early which companies are building the kind of revenue quality, defensibility, and operational discipline that sophisticated capital will value down the road.”

Several of Ollin’s portfolio companies are already demonstrating revenue traction, enterprise adoption, and follow-on financing. With Fund I closed and additional investments planned, the firm expects to begin early conversations around Fund II later this summer.

Ollin remains focused on partnering with disciplined founders building AI-native software companies designed to endure.

Unlike traditional venture rounds, this funding came from the leaders of restaurant brands who believe deeply in Ovation’s mission and impact. These customers invested in a platform they already rely on and believe will resonate with their peers across the industry.

“This is the most meaningful capital we could raise–especially since we didn’t start with the intent to raise. We just had enough customers reach out to invest so we put this small, but significant, round together,” said Zack Oates, Founder and CEO of Ovation. “When the people using your product every day choose to invest their own money, that’s the ultimate validation. It tells us we’re building something that truly matters to operators and is an honor.”

Zack Oates, Founder and CEO, Ovation

One of those operators is Jim Bitticks, the CEO of Dave’s Hot Chicken, who says the decision to invest was a natural extension of the value Ovation delivers.

“Ovation doesn’t feel like another piece of restaurant tech—it feels like a partner,” said Jim. “We see the impact in our guest relationships, our online reputation, and our ability to fix issues before they turn into lost guests. Investing in Ovation was an easy decision because we believe in what they’re building and how closely they listen to operators like us.”

Jim Bitticks, CEO, Dave’s Hot Chicken

Kyle Archer, Owner and Chief Financial Officer of Elevated, Inc., the largest franchise operation of Cheba Hut, explained:

“I invested in Ovation because it gives us clear, real-time insight into what guests are experiencing at the store level and the ability to act on it immediately. It’s become a critical part of how we protect our brand and keep guests coming back.”

Kyle Archer, Owner and CFO, Elevated, Inc.

The customer-led round reflects a growing trend in SaaS toward founder- and customer-aligned growth, where companies prioritize long-term value creation over short-term hype. For Ovation, the partnership represents their internal mantra that they are not a technology company selling to the hospitality industry, but a fellow hospitality company selling technology.

Funds from the round will be used to accelerate product innovation, expand Ovation’s AI-driven insights, and continue building tools that help restaurant teams turn guest feedback into measurable business outcomes—without losing the human connection at the heart of hospitality.

About Ovation

Ovation is a guest experience and reputation management platform for multi-unit restaurants. Thousands of restaurants, including over 1,000 brands like Swig, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Cheba Hut, The Great Greek, and MOOYAH, use Ovation to collect more feedback, recover guests through real-time communication, boost online reputations, and improve operations with AI-driven insights.

This Series C positions Zanskar for rapid growth by enabling the company to advance its gigawatt-scale pipeline through a historic geothermal exploration and development campaign. Zanskar will spearhead one of the largest ever expansions of American geothermal power supporting construction on multiple geothermal power plants throughout the Western U.S., which are slated to begin delivering power before 2030. Zanskar will also expand its industry leading discovery platform and exploration drilling programs, and establish new relationships with strategic partners and customers.

This round marks the largest venture investment to date into AI-enabled discovery of geothermal resources, signaling a decisive shift in market confidence toward the commercial potential of undiscovered, naturally-occurring geothermal systems. By uncovering gigawatts of new geothermal potential in just a few years, and at a fraction of the traditional cost, Zanskar has proven that high-grade natural systems aren’t rare: they are just hidden. This disrupts conventional thinking that these systems are too risky or too constrained to develop at any meaningful scale, and sets the stage for rapid growth in the geothermal sector.

“We started Zanskar with the belief that AI would have as profound an impact on geothermal cost and scalability as modern drilling technologies have. It would do so by enabling us to find more hidden geothermal systems, and to produce more power from each of those systems, than legacy models assumed. The result is a terawatt-scale opportunity,” said Carl Hoiland, CEO and Co-founder of Zanskar. “We’ve already confirmed multiple large, previously unknown geothermal resources across the Western U.S., and deeper drilling has validated that these systems can produce far more energy than expected. Thanks to the support of forward-thinking investors across energy, infrastructure, and technology, and the exceptional progress of our world class team, we are ushering in a new wave of clean, firm, geothermal power.”

Zanskar’s AI-native platform is a unified operating system for geothermal discovery and development that lowers discovery costs and increases the size of each geothermal field. Zanskar’s unique approach of marrying boots-on-the-ground geoscience with custom built software and AI tools has empowered Zanskar to collapse discovery timeframes and costs relative to industry best practices. This has firmly established Zanskar as the leading geothermal exploration company.

“Spring Lane is excited to lead the Series C financing for Zanskar and join the Board of the company,” said Jason Scott, Partner and Entrepreneur in Residence, Spring Lane Capital. “We are eager to support Zanskar because we believe there is a near infinite demand for firm, clean power around the world right now and geothermal energy is one of the only immediate ways to serve this enormous market. Zanskar is unique in that they have identified more geothermal anomalies in North America than any other company in decades. We believe that Spring Lane’s financial and operational support will enable them to rapidly develop enormous amounts of geothermal capacity, initially across the Western US.”

“The world class team at Zanskar is exactly what this country needs: fast, disciplined and very effective,” said Andrew Beebe, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures. “They are positioning geothermal to be one of the cheapest, cleanest and safest energy sources in America—right when we need it most.”

“We’ve always been inspired by the early, legendary explorers that came before us. Their resourcefulness and unfailing optimism laid the groundwork for discovery today. We like to think they’d be proud to see how we’ve resurrected and accelerated grassroots exploration with big data, modern computing, and more efficient field data collection, resulting in a pace of discovery not seen before,” said Joel Edwards, co-founder and CTO of Zanskar. “The resources we need are out there, hidden within the Earth’s crust, and we’re working hard to find the most exceptional hotspots to build a new era of geothermal energy, starting in the United States”.

As the U.S. races toward meeting demand for baseload power, and hyperscalers seek out clean, firm power for their data centers, Zanskar is positioned to deliver gigawatts of power—proving AI has the ability to help meet its own power demands. As it builds out geothermal power plants across the U.S., Zanskar seeks out engineers, developers, financers and others to join the team to help discover and deliver geothermal power at a pace, scale, and cost that solves energy, forever.

About Zanskar

Zanskar is the first AI-native geothermal energy company using AI to transform how we find, assess, and deliver geothermal energy. Combining artificial intelligence, modern drilling, and computational geoscience, Zanskar is expanding the frontier of American geothermal discovery, unlocking value from hidden, forgotten, or underutilized geothermal fields. Following the historic turnaround of Lightning Dock in New Mexico, now the site of the most productive pumped geothermal well in the United States, and record-breaking discoveries at Pumpernickel and Big Blind in Nevada, Zanskar is showing that geothermal can be predictable, profitable, and massively scalable. Zanskar is actively deploying this model across a growing portfolio of newly discovered or overlooked sites to develop, build, own, and operate high-grade geothermal assets as a foundational component of the modern grid. Learn more: zanskar.com

🐝 Join Zanskar’s team advancing geothermal energy and building sustainable energy solutions. — Beehive Jobs

“Paramify has become the platform of choice for organizations that prioritize transparent, excellent risk management over superficial compliance and ‘security theater’,” said Kenny Scott, Founder and CEO of Paramify. “Our growth — more than 4x year-over-year — has been driven almost entirely by organic customer demand and the strength of our product. With this investment, we will scale both the product and our team to meet that demand and continue delivering the automation, control, and speed that enterprise GRC teams have been asking for.”

The company’s platform is widely adopted across federal and highly regulated environments, supporting a broad set of frameworks including FedRAMP, CMMC, FISMA, and other federal and commercial standards. Today, Paramify serves more than 150 enterprise organizations, ranging from global technology leaders to hyper-growth innovators, including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Elastic, Ramp, and xAI. Many top advisory and assurance firms, including Coalfire, Schellman, A-lign, and Steel Patriot Partners, also partner with Paramify to scale faster while improving compliance and risk management for their customers.

“Paramify has fundamentally improved how Axon runs its compliance program,” said Colton Bohn, Senior Security Engineer at Axon. “Automation, built-in controls, and continuous product expansion have delivered significant efficiency gains and are helping our teams operate at scale.”

With the additional capital, Paramify will accelerate development to simplify and automate risk management and compliance across commercial (SOC 2, PCI DSS, HITRUST, HIPPA), government (FISMA, DoD ATO, GC Security Control Profile), and international frameworks (ISO 27001), for both small and complex enterprise-level organizations.

“Paramify has become an important partner in enabling faster, more predictable federal and enterprise compliance outcomes for our clients,” said Karen Laughton, Executive Vice President, Advisory at Coalfire. “Their technology eliminates the friction, rework, and ambiguity that have historically slowed down complex engagements. Working with Paramify allows our teams to deliver higher-quality results in less time, which is a benefit both to our clients and the broader compliance ecosystem. We are excited to support their continued growth.”

Expanding Beyond Federal Compliance

Paramify’s mission is to make enterprise risk management accessible, efficient, and repeatable for organizations operating across multiple frameworks, systems, and product environments. Preparing for federal authorization has traditionally required months, or even years, of manual documentation and evidence gathering. Customers using Paramify have demonstrated the ability to produce high-quality, audit-ready materials in a fraction of that time, in some cases drafting a complete authorization package in only a few hours.

With the additional capital, Paramify will accelerate development across three core areas:

• Enterprise Risk & Issues Management - Simplify and automate risk management across business units, products, and frameworks — including commercial (SOC 2, PCI DSS, HITRUST, HIPPA), government (FISMA, DoD ATO, GC Security Control Profile), and international frameworks (ISO 27001) — in one easy-to-manage platform.

• Continuous Monitoring - enabling ongoing assessment, triage, and resolution of issues across complex operating environments.

• Automated Evidence Operations - Delivering automation in ways that meet enterprise security expectations, without the risks introduced by invasive third-party data collection models.

Paramify will also expand support for commercial, international, and AI-focused frameworks, enabling organizations to manage an increasingly wide and demanding compliance landscape from one platform.

About Paramify

Paramify is the leading enterprise Risk Management platform for GRC professionals, consultants, and advisory firms, using automation and AI to eliminate the paper chase and manual tasks in frameworks like FedRAMP, CMMC, DoD Impact Levels, GovRAMP, SOC 2, and more — cutting compliance work from months to hours. Founded in 2022, Paramify powers hundreds of enterprise programs, including over 20% of the FedRAMP Marketplace, and is trusted by top GRC consulting and advisory organizations as the go-to platform for delivering faster, higher-quality outcomes. Learn more at www.paramify.com.

About Moore Strategic Ventures

Moore Strategic Ventures, LLC is the privately held investment company for Louis M. Bacon, Founder and CEO of Moore Capital Management, LP.

‍

The proceeds from the transaction will be used to accelerate Pronto’s sales and growth initiatives and its pipeline of new product functionality and technology integrations.

“Corporations and higher education institutions have an increasingly urgent need to provide safe and secure instant communication and collaboration to front-line employees and students who are on the go. Pronto is focused on meeting this need through its easy-to-use team communications platform,” said Pronto Co-Founder and CEO Zach Mangum. “SEVA’s investment will allow us to expand our footprint and product offerings to help our customers make their organizations as effective and responsive as possible. We are excited to partner with the SEVA team on the next stage of our growth.”

Since launching in 2018, Pronto has become the preferred secure team communications platform for hundreds of top enterprises and educational institutions, such as Marriott Hotels, Chick-Fil-A, and California Community Colleges. Pronto’s mobile-first design replaces traditional email and texting for front-line, deskless employers and their teams in field services and hospitality. Instructors and students at educational institutions also extensively use Pronto’s services. The Pronto platform centralizes communications and enables better collaboration through the exchange of private and secure messaging, video, file sharing, and instant translation on mobile devices.

Shalin Mehta, SEVA Founder and Managing Partner, will also join Pronto’s Board of Directors as part of the transaction. The investment is being made through SEVA I LP.

“Pronto’s compliant and intuitive platform has made it easy for employers and university faculty to collaborate and improve engagement with their front-line employees and students, respectively, while ensuring enterprise-grade security, privacy, and accountability,” Mehta said. “We are excited to support Zach and his team as they continue to build upon Pronto’s momentum.”

Pronto is the fourth investment for SEVA. The firm’s previous investments include Chicory, Teleskope Technologies, and TitanFile.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

ABOUT PRONTO

Pronto is the leading secure team communications platform for front-line employers and higher education institutions. No fancy syntax or confusing hashtags, just seamless communication so everyone can learn faster and work smarter. With auto-translation, group messaging and file sharing capabilities, Pronto makes having your voice heard and understood easier than ever.

Pronto is based in Lehi, Utah. To learn more, please visit pronto.io

ABOUT SEVA

SEVA is a growth equity firm exclusively focused on serving customer-centric founders building fast-growing, profitable, founder-led, internet, software, data, marketplace, and technology-enabled services companies.

SEVA is based in Brooklyn, NY. To learn more, please visit sevagrowth.com

.

This Series B comes less than two years after 401GO’s $12M Series A fundraising round, underscoring continued investor conviction in the company’s fully in-house retirement infrastructure.

The investment will expand 401GO’s embedded partnerships with Human Capital Management providers, financial institutions, and financial advisors while scaling the company’s team, product offerings, and end-to-end technology.

Unlike providers that depend on legacy recordkeeping engines and third-party compliance tools, 401GO’s unified system delivers consistent payroll integrations and holistic service to partners, resulting in a more frictionless experience for plan sponsors.

“We believe the market is demanding reliable 401(k) solutions, not fragmented systems built on a mix of old vendors, which is the way other fintech providers have approached this challenge. We are now scaling our in-house technology to meet that demand across the entire partner ecosystem,” said Dan Beck, CEO and co-founder of 401GO. “This is why we believe we offer a compelling service at a price point others struggle to compete with; we own our platform while others rent theirs.”

In leveraging its unique value to partners, 401GO has grown to serve over 5,000 customers, 50,000 participants, and manage more than $1B in assets, and is now the fastest organically growing retirement provider in the U.S., according to data from 2024 and 2025 PlanSponsor surveys*.

“At Centana, we invest in companies that we believe are reshaping essential financial infrastructure, and we believe 401GO has taken a differentiated approach to the wealthtech space with its integrated platform,” said Ben Cukier, Partner, Centana Growth Partners. “We’re excited to support Dan and the entire 401GO team.”

The retirement market is expanding rapidly, driven by SECURE Act mandates and the rise of state programs, with total 401(k) plans less than $5M in assets expected to rise from 600,000 to over one million by 2029**. This supports data from PlanSponsor Surveys that indicates small plans are leading the industry growth with a 17% annual rate since 2021***, yet traditional platforms weren’t designed for the needs of this segment. 401GO’s approach is designed to respond to this new era of fast regulatory and market change.

About 401GO
401GO is a leading fintech company that is modernizing 401(k) plans with its fully-owned technology. Through its innovative blend of cutting-edge technology and personalized human support, the company is empowering individuals to secure their financial futures with confidence while enabling financial advisors, payroll providers, and HR teams to deliver retirement plans seamlessly. With a commitment to empowering individuals to secure their financial futures, 401GO stands out in the competitive fintech sector by offering a unique approach that marries advanced technological solutions with a high-touch, partner-based model. This hybrid model ensures that customers receive the benefits of state-of-the-art digital tools alongside the guidance and support of seasoned retirement experts. For more information, visit 401go.com.

About Centana Growth Partners
Centana Growth Partners is a specialized growth equity firm that invests in the future of finance. Centana collaborates with companies across the entire financial services ecosystem, from institutions to fintech disruptors, to add strategic and long-term value to their portfolio companies. Centana empowers entrepreneurs with a combination of capital, network, and expertise to accelerate their growth. The Centana team taps into decades of financial services expertise and insight to invest in companies that bring real value and innovation to the industry. Visit centanagrowth.com for more information.

🐝 Help 401GO build modern retirement and benefits software that simplifies plan administration — Beehive Jobs

DoD Accelerator fund made the investment.

The company intends to use the funds to support rapid production of both the Dragonfly Unmanned Aircraft and the Deployable Communications Kits, and expand field operations.

Led by President Michael Baxter, Baxter Aerospace operates at the intersection of edge connectivity, unmanned aerial systems, and precision manufacturing. The company’s current efforts center around:

• Precision components for energy systems – Leveraging its vertically integrated factory, Baxter also manufactures bespoke, ultra-high-reliability components for the fusion and nuclear energy sectors, serving customers in defense and critical infrastructure.

• Deployable communications kits – The company is provisioning aircraft and field-deployed platforms with broadband satellite communications systems to support austere operations across firefighting, disaster response, and defense missions. These systems incorporate compact, mobile terminals enabled by leading low Earth orbit (“LEO”) networks, procured through formal reseller agreements and operated on a wide array of U.S. government public safety use cases.

• BA-1 Dragonfly unmanned aircraft – A Group 3 VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) unmanned aircraft (“UAS” or “unmanned aerial system”) purpose-built for persistent ISR (“intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance”) and data relay, Dragonfly features vectoring, modular payloads, and over 12 hours of endurance. It supports situational awareness in comms-denied environments, aligning with new CONOPs across defense and public safety operations.

Additional investors include Pluralsight co-founder Aaron Skonnard and Lucid co-founder Karl Sun. Both Skonnard and Sun helped build Utah-based companies that achieved global scale and cemented the region as a hub for enterprise technology innovation. Skonnard and Sun will provide mentorship and ongoing support to Mindsmith as the company enters its next stage of growth. In addition to his investment, Skonnard has also been named to Mindsmith’s board of directors.

AI Solutions to Create Better e-Learning Outcomes

Mindsmith enables organizations to create high-quality, instructionally sound e-learning experiences up to 12 times faster than traditional methods. The company’s AI-native authoring platform empowers learning and development (L&D) teams to transform existing content into beautiful and impactful interactive training experiences that drive measurable results without sacrificing quality or budget.

“We built Mindsmith so teams can quickly create more powerful and engaging learning programs that drive real business impact. By turning static content into dynamic, instructionally grounded courses in minutes, L&D teams can focus on more strategic and ambitious projects without sacrificing valuable time and budgetary resources,” said Zack Allen, co-founder and CEO of Mindsmith. “Our platform is where intelligence meets instructional integrity, allowing teams to leverage AI throughout every step of the process to lean into their professional workflow and make content that produces results.”

Speed with Real Learning Impact

Mindsmith’s technology is built on the belief that speed means nothing without substance. Every output is grounded in modern learning science to ensure higher engagement, stronger retention, and measurable behavior change. Built-in analytics give L&D leaders the insights they need to track performance and continuously improve their content over time.

“Speed is meaningless if the learning doesn’t stick,” said Ethan Webb, co-founder of Mindsmith. “AI’s promise isn’t just faster content creation, it’s smarter content creation. Similar to popular tools like Canva or Miro that make visual creation and collaboration more intuitive for all users, Mindsmith brings that ease to corporate training materials. Our goal is to help companies create training that actually changes behavior and improves long-term performance. When intelligence meets instructional integrity, companies can finally scale training that changes performance.”

Enterprise Ready and Built to Scale

Mindsmith is built for enterprise learning environments, with SOC 2 certification, cloud-native architecture, and real-time collaboration. Customers, including Laing O’Rourke, Gaylor Electric, Hubspot, and multiple Fortune 500 companies, use Mindsmith to accelerate global learning programs. Inspired by many of today’s most popular and well-used AI intuitive design tools, the Mindsmith platform combines enterprise-grade security and scalability with a modern, intuitive user experience. Mindsmith customers hail from a number of industry sectors, including energy, oil and gas, manufacturing, technology, IT services, hospitality, finance, insurance, retail, and cybersecurity.

“Mindsmith has been a significant upgrade over the legacy e-learning tools we used in the past. With an intuitive and easy-to-use approach to tackling course creation, Mindsmith has driven significant value for our team. We see Mindsmith as a key partner through every stage of course creation,” said Killian Vigna, Instructional Designer at Hubspot.

Mindsmith’s Dynamic SCORM packages and open integration framework connect seamlessly with existing learning management systems and enterprise platforms, reducing friction for learning teams and IT leaders alike. Real-time collaboration allows instructional designers, subject matter experts, and reviewers to build and refine content together in one shared workspace.

“Few companies at this stage experience the level of enterprise demand Mindsmith has generated,” said Erika Nash, Partner at Next Frontier Capital. “Companies are eager to move beyond outdated e-learning tools and adopt modern, AI-enabled solutions, and Mindsmith is leading that transition.”

“The Mindsmith team has achieved the rare balance between cutting-edge AI and deep learning design expertise,” said ChenLi Wang, General Partner at WndrCo. “Mindsmith’s AI platform solves a real, measurable pain point for L&D teams, and the market demand we’re seeing speaks volumes about the urgent need for this type of solution.”

Utah’s Next Workforce Learning Success Story

Mindsmith joins Utah’s growing lineage of successful e-learning and education technology innovators. The Mindsmith team includes a number of industry veterans from e-learning startups and the company plans to more than double its headcount over the next year as demand for its AI-native platform accelerates.

“Utah has a deep legacy of shaping the future of learning technology, and Mindsmith is poised to join the pantheon of great innovative companies that have come from the region. Mindsmith’s exciting AI platform unlocks a new era in content creation, where learning teams can move faster, think bigger, and focus on impact instead of process. Mindsmith represents the next leap forward in how organizations will build knowledge and develop their people,” said Aaron Skonnard, co-founder of Pluralsight and Mindsmith board member.

About Mindsmith:

Mindsmith is the AI-native authoring platform that helps organizations create high-quality, instructionally sound e-learning 12 times faster than traditional methods. By combining AI speed with proven learning science and enterprise-grade scalability, Mindsmith empowers teams to build engaging, effective, and scalable training programs that drive real outcomes. For more information, visit www.mindsmith.ai.

Crew previously raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Kickstart Fund, and has seen significant recent acceleration in growth, doubling its daily active users and debit card transaction volume in the past month. Crew’s mission to merge everyday banking with control and clarity uniquely positions it as a financial technology tool that helps people stick to their financial plan.

“Millions of people feel out of control financially, and existing solutions aren’t working for them,” said Gentry Davies, CEO and co-founder of Crew. “We believe your bank account, spending card, and budget should be a single cohesive experience, and that it should actually be delightful to use.”

Davies and co-founder Steve Domino were previously leaders at Divvy, where they helped scale the company from $10 million to over $400 million in revenue before its acquisition by Bill.com. “Crew is engineered for security and scale, without the complexity,” said Domino. “We built a banking experience that’s fast, reliable, and straightforward so people can manage money with confidence.”

Crew’s key features include:

• High-Yield Checking Account: Earn competitive APY on checking account balances.

• Proactive budgeting: Crew’s budgeting lives before the authorization, helping users control transactions before they happen.

• Unlimited Pockets: Divide your deposits up to reflect your budget.

• Debit card: Flexibly spend from your budget in real time. Just swipe right on a pocket to switch which pocket your card is spending from.

• Virtual Cards: Create unique card numbers for each of your bills, set monthly limits, and easily cancel them anytime.

• Paycheck automation: Split your paycheck automatically into your pockets to power your budget.

• FDIC Insured Deposits: Deposits held by Bangor Savings Bank, Member FDIC.³

About Crew

Crew Finance, Inc. is a Utah–based fintech company reinventing how consumers bank, budget, and save. Founded by former Divvy product leaders, Crew combines the best of budgeting and banking into one seamless platform. Deposits are FDIC insured through Bangor Savings Bank, Member FDIC.³

The app is available nationwide via the App Store and Google Play. New users can sign up at trycrew.com/download and use code SEED for a 0.5% APY boost¹ for 3 months.

Crew is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Bangor Savings Bank, Member FDIC. The Crew Mastercard® Debit Card is issued by Bangor Savings Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to license by Mastercard International Incorporated. Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circle design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated. Spend anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

1. Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is variable and may change after account opening. The advertised 3.2% checking APY is accurate through Nov. 30, 2025 and may change at any time. There is no minimum balance or deposit required to obtain the advertised APY. Enter code SEED when signing up and fund your account by Nov 30, 2026 to boost your Crew Checking APY by 0.5% for three months.

2. National average interest checking rate of 0.07% and savings interest rate of 0.40% retrieved on November 4, 2025 from the FDIC National Rate Caps Home here, updated October 20, 2025

3. FDIC insurance coverage protects against the failure of an FDIC insured depository institution. Pass through FDIC insurance coverage is subject to certain conditions as described in our terms.

While the brand of Element Ventures may be new to Utah, its existing partnership, comprised of Jeff Danley, Jeff Burningham, and Jamie Dunn, has been investing in Utah for over a decade, raising multiple venture funds under the Peak Ventures name and backing many of the state’s most successful companies — including Divvy, Filevine, Podium, Owlet, Pura and dozens more.

“Sam fits perfectly with how we think about investing – practical, founder-first, and Utah-rooted,” according to Element Ventures co-founder Jeff Danley. “He understands what it takes to build and scale, has seen successful exits first-hand, and shares our long-term commitment to Utah’s success. We are thrilled to have him join Element Ventures, and we look forward to backing the next wave of standout founders and companies.”

Based in Salt Lake City, Sam will focus primarily on pre-seed and seed investments, while also maintaining the fund’s unique flexibility to participate in later-stage or cross-sector opportunities.

“Utah has a unique blend of cultural, educational, and entrepreneurial strengths that consistently produces outsized successes,” said Andersen. “I’m excited to help Element Ventures continue building on that foundation, supporting founders who are defining the next decade of innovation in our state.”

Sam brings deep experience across investment, growth, and operational strategy, having worked at the intersection of finance, venture capital, and technology throughout his career.

Element Ventures continues to expand its role in supporting the region’s startup ecosystem through early partnerships with high-potential founders and scalable platforms across the Mountain West.