Tag Archives: artificial intelligence (AI)

Honeydew Revolutionizes Business Intelligence with Investment from Snowflake Ventures

Snowflake

At Snowflake, our mission is to empower every enterprise to achieve its full potential through data and AI. We actively support innovative companies within our ecosystem that demonstrate clear value for our customers, which is why we’re excited to invest in Honeydew, a former Snowflake Startup Challenge finalist. Honeydew’s Semantic Layer revolutionizes the way data teams collaborate on business intelligence and deliver impactful data-driven insights.

Underpinning Honeydew’s approach is our shared vision that “semantics should live in the data warehouse.” “A shared truth starts with a shared language — for people, for tools, for data transformation,” says Honeydew’s Co-Founder and CEO, David Krakov.

Honeydew makes it easier to make complex data more accessible, consistent and useful for Snowflake customers. In particular, its sophisticated semantic compiler enables end users to ask their own questions, using their own tools, on metrics processed directly in Snowflake. The compiler ensures that every ad hoc user question is translated to a Snowflake query that is both correct and lightning fast.

Bridging the gap between data, users and AI

In the age of AI, a robust and accurate understanding of data isn’t just important — it’s foundational. This is where Honeydew’s Semantic Layer shines. It acts as a crucial bridge that connects the business language that AI agents or BI tools use with intricate relationships, join paths, levels of granularity, metric definitions, nuances and dependencies within an organization’s data.

Honeydew built a Snowflake Native App for its Semantic Layer on Snowflake to provide seamless access within Snowsight UI, the Snowflake web interface, enabling applications built on Snowflake to leverage the Semantic Layer for query generation while extending Snowflake’s robust security features to it.

One logic and shared truth: Lightning-fast insights with Power BI

For organizations leveraging the power of Microsoft’s Power BI on Snowflake, Honeydew fundamentally transforms the BI experience by placing logic where the data resides. This changes how BI teams operate and empowers Snowflake customers to:

  • Increase speed and performance: Enable fast, direct queries on massive data sets, even those exceeding 1 billion rows.
  • Centralize governance: Build data access, business metadata, governance and cost controls once within Snowflake and seamlessly apply them across all Power BI instances.
  • Create a single source of truth for all critical business metrics: Say goodbye to duplicate logic. Defining key metrics and aggregations in SQL within Snowflake only once eliminates the need for complex Power BI DAX expressions or Tableau LOD calculations.

The tangible impact of Honeydew is clear. Just ask Pizza Hut. By tapping into Honeydew’s Semantic Layer, built natively on Snowflake, Pizza Hut has connected Power BI and Excel directly to its transactional data, giving business users real-time access to governed metrics without duplicating data. The results?

  • Reports delivered four hours earlier
  • 50% faster development of insights
  • 30% reduction in costs and engineering effort

Continued growth

Our investment in Honeydew reflects our belief in its vision and the transformative potential of its technology. We’re confident that Honeydew’s powerful Power BI integration and intelligent Semantic Layer will empower organizations to unlock deeper insights, improve data governance and ultimately make better, data-driven decisions. We’re excited to continue partnering with Honeydew and look forward to witnessing its growth and impact on the future of data and AI.

Discover how to leverage Honeydew for your Snowflake ecosystem at Snowflake Summit 2025 in San Francisco, June 2-5, 2025, by visiting Honeydew’s booth (#1204).

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MaxContact Strengthens AI Capabilities Through Acquisition of Conversational AI Firm, Curious Thing

FPE Capital

We are pleased to announce that MaxContact, a leading provider of customer engagement solutions, today announced its acquisition of Curious Thing, a conversational AI platform.

MaxContact was FPE’s seventh investment from FPE Fund II, the firm’s second specialist software and services fund. The move will significantly enhance MaxContact’s current AI capabilities while maintaining the company’s commitment to balancing technology with meaningful human connections in contact centres.

Integrating Curious Thing’s advanced conversational AI platform into MaxContact’s existing suite of solutions will accelerate the company’s product roadmap and provide clients with more sophisticated tools to enhance customer experiences. It also represents an exciting next step that builds upon MaxContact’s established AI offering, particularly its Spokn AI platform, which currently provides advanced speech analytics that helps businesses understand the ‘why’ behind 100% of contact centre conversations. The recent launch of Success Intelligence, an enhancement to Spokn AI that reveals the DNA of successful sales conversations through AI-powered analytics, further demonstrates MaxContact’s ongoing commitment to innovation in this space. Curious Thing’s conversational AI technology will strengthen these capabilities with the introduction of AI agents for sales, debt collection and customer use cases.

Ben Booth, CEO of MaxContactThe strategic acquisition of Curious Thing represents a major milestone in our AI strategy. We’ve always believed that the best conversation outcomes come from empowering human agents with the right technology, not replacing them. Curious Thing’s AI abilities will therefore help our clients’ contact centre teams become more efficient while maintaining that crucial human connection. We’re seeing a significant shift in how UK businesses approach customer engagement and digital transformation. Our clients are looking for solutions that empower their teams with AI-driven insights and assistance while preserving the authenticity and empathy that human agents can provide. This acquisition positions us perfectly to meet that need.

Chris Kay, Partner at FPEWe are thrilled to support MaxContact as they take this next strategic step. The acquisition of Curious Thing not only strengthens MaxContact’s AI capabilities but also reinforces our commitment to backing ambitious, innovative software companies. MaxContact is well-positioned to deliver enhanced solutions to their clients and drive continued growth in this rapidly evolving space.

The FPE investment was led by Chris Kay, Dan Walker and Sam Greenberg. MaxContact was advised on the transaction by Stephenson Harwood and Corrs Chambers Westgarth (Legal).

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Convergence, a pioneer in AI agent technology, signs a definitive agreement to be acquired by Salesforce

Balderton

We’re delighted to announce that Convergence, a pioneer in AI agent technology, has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Salesforce. Read the full story on the Salesforce newsroom.

Balderton led Convergence’s seed in September 2024. A few personal words from our Partner, James Wise, are below: 

Since announcing our seed investment into Convergence under 9 months ago, Marvin, Andy and team have been executing at lightning speed. They put together one of the most talented teams working on reinforcement learning in the world, developed a benchmark-beating web-browsing model and have helped 100,000s of users automate millions of tasks.

From the second we met them, we shared their passion for building full-stack solutions for agents, from model to user, to help people automate repetitive daily tasks and instead focus on what matters most. Joining Salesforce will allow them to continue on this mission, while remaining an integral part of the UK’s AI ecosystem, where they will continue to grow their team and capabilities. You can learn more about how Convergence will support Salesforce’s AI efforts in their post here.

From Revolut to Depop, Wayve to Dream Games, we’ve been on many different journeys as early-stage investors, however, none of us appreciated quite how quickly the Convergence team could build and scale such an impactful team and company. One of our core beliefs at Balderton is that the best way to change the world is to start a business. Marvin, Andy and the team embraced that value and put turbo-chargers underneath it.

As their board member, first user, and social-media advocate for the best part of a year, it’s been a pleasure working together, and we look forward to seeing the team continue on their mission as part of Salesforce.

James Wise and Marvin Purtorab
James Wise, Balderton and Marvin Purtorab, Convergence

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Algoma raises $2.3M Seed for its AI-native real estate development platform

SOSV

We’re thrilled to announce that Algoma, a participant in our HAX startup development program has secured a $2.3M Seed round led by Zacua Ventures, with participation from SOSV, Iron Prairie Ventures, DOMiNO Ventures, Compose VC and a network of angel investors across AI, construction, and real estate.

Real estate is the world’s largest asset class, globally valued at over $600 trillion, yet much of it still runs on manual labor and outdated processes. The pain is most acute during pre-construction, where developers must navigate high-stakes decisions with fragmented information and little transparency.

Algoma’s AI-native real estate development platform helps developers turn an address into a deal, accelerating confident decision-making abilities by delivering site feasibility in minutes and at the fraction of the cost as traditional methods.

The Algoma platform includes:

  • Instant zoning analysis
  • Market intelligence
  • Site-specific design massing
  • Unit mix and layouts
  • Pro-forma generation
  • Visualization for investors and agencies

Algoma’s founding team blends deep domain expertise across real estate, AI, and strategy:

  • Josef Bromovsky, CEO, has spent his career building technology at some of the world’s largest construction and infrastructure firms, focusing on digitizing early-stage planning and design.
  • Kyle MertensMeyer, Chief Product Officer, is an award-winning design architect and AEC Entrepreneur whose design work spans five continents, focusing on materiality and sustainable systems.
  • Seyfihan Usarer, COO, is a former McKinsey consultant and member of TikTok’s Monetization Strategy Team, with a background in leading digital transformations and scaling digital platforms.

Kira Colburn

See their press release here and more in Tech Funding News.

READ COMPLETE ARTICLE

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Akido Raises $60 Million Series B to Expand Reach of ScopeAI, its Breakthrough Health Artificial Intelligence

Oak HC FT

Akido’s ScopeAI is a first-of-its-kind system that fully integrates AI into a provider visit

Akido Labs, Inc. (“Akido”), the AI and care delivery company reimagining healthcare, today announced it has raised $60 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Oak HC/FT with participation from Greco, SNR, and existing investors Y Combinator, Future Communities Capital, Jeff Dean (Chief Scientist, Google DeepMind & Google Research), and the Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center. Funding will be used to expand the reach of ScopeAI, a system that increases clinical capacity and improves healthcare access.

ScopeAI is transforming how Akido providers practice medicine – enabling them to care for dramatically more patients without compromising on quality. This unlocks time for providers to focus on complex cases, while increasing the total number of patients the system can support. The U.S. population requires over 3 billion doctor visits per year, yet only 825 million are currently available. The result is longer waits, especially for specialists, rushed appointments, and rising rates of preventable disease. Akido is addressing this crisis by embedding powerful medical intelligence directly into the clinical workflow – bringing scale, efficiency, and consistency to the front lines of care.

“We built ScopeAI to tackle the single biggest challenge facing healthcare systems worldwide: the physician shortage. With demand for care far exceeding supply, AI is the key to addressing the global doctor deficit, empowering healthcare providers, and ensuring patients receive the timely, high-quality care they deserve, regardless of financial means or geography,” said Prashant Samant, Co-Founder & CEO of Akido. “At Akido, we believe exceptional healthcare is a basic human right. Our work has always focused on democratizing high quality healthcare, and this funding enables us to accelerate that mission.”

In a ScopeAI visit, a trained Medical Assistant (MA) meets with a patient, guided by intelligent prompts from ScopeAI throughout the encounter. ScopeAI uses clinical reasoning to actively listen, adapt in real time, and build a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s condition. Its scribing and auditory capabilities allow for dynamic conversation while simultaneously generating a full clinical report, including a preliminary diagnosis, treatment plan, and justification log for each decision it makes. With ScopeAI, providers gain a deeper, more complete picture of a patient’s health with less time spent capturing it. An Akido provider can oversee a team of MAs conducting ScopeAI visits, increasing access to care while enabling the provider to focus on higher-acuity or more complex cases.

Akido’s AI-based healthcare visits have delivered 5x more face-to-face time with patients and have achieved a 96 NPS score. With this new funding, Akido will accelerate the development and deployment of ScopeAI throughout its Akido Care medical network of 240 providers across 26 specialties. It will also help support Akido’s entrance into new markets like the recently announced first-of-its-kind healthcare program in New York City that is designed to address specific chronic diseases for professional rideshare and for-hire drivers.

“Akido is delivering on the promise of changing how patients experience a visit with their provider through AI,” said Andrew Adams, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Oak HC/FT. “With its robust, longitudinal dataset, Akido has the refinement in its foundational model to offer clinical accuracy where others have struggled. We are excited to partner with their exceptional team of healthcare and technical operators to scale ScopeAI, expanding access to high-quality, AI-powered care for more patients.”

Akido was founded in 2015 with the goal of reimagining healthcare for historically vulnerable communities by leveraging AI and machine learning. In 2022, Akido launched Akido Care, a medical network that today includes nearly 100 clinics, offering primary and specialty care across 26 sub-specialties. This dual strategy is what created the opportunity for Akido to leverage its proprietary dataset of over 10 million patient case studies and reinforcement-loop-human-feedback (RLHF) environment to launch ScopeAI. ScopeAI is one of the most sophisticated clinical AI systems available to providers, and it is continuously refined by incorporating real-time provider feedback. By integrating ScopeAI into the Akido Care medical network, Akido is positioned to empower providers to deliver highly personalized care to an individual patient while also scaling programs at a population level.

About Akido

Akido is pioneering a reimagined healthcare system with AI at its core; one that bridges artificial intelligence and empathy to bring exceptional healthcare to everyone. Its breakthrough technology unlocks the ability to transform the clinical experience, empowering providers and patients through an entirely new healthcare model. Founded in 2015, Akido was created out of the University of Southern California’s Digital Health Lab with the idea that empowering government, healthcare, and nonprofit services with population-based data could help usher in a new era of preventive public health. Known for developing award-winning data and technology solutions, today Akido leverages its market-leading technology to power its bicoastal Akido Care medical network, which includes more than 240 providers and 90 clinics across both coasts and a patient base of nearly half a million. For more information, please visit www.akidolabs.com.

About Oak HC/FT

Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity firm specializing in investments in fintech and healthcare. Using partnership as a foundation, Oak HC/FT guides companies and founders at every stage, from seed to growth, to create businesses that make a measurable and lasting impact. Founded in 2014, Oak HC/FT has invested in over 85 portfolio companies and has over $5.3 billion in assets under management. Oak HC/FT is headquartered in Stamford, CT, with an office in San Francisco, CA. Follow Oak HC/FT on LinkedIn and X and learn more at https://www.oakhcft.com/.

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Coupa Acquires Cirtuo, Leader in AI-Powered Category Management

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Cirtuo’s technology will unlock the full potential of AI-powered category management and sourcing, accelerating Coupa’s autonomous spend management vision and roadmap

FOSTER CITY, Calif.—Coupa, the leader in AI-native total spend management, today announced it has acquired Croatia-based Cirtuo, an industry leader in AI-powered category management. This strategic investment accelerates Coupa’s autonomous spend management vision and underscores Coupa’s commitment to developing AI-powered solutions that improve productivity, agility, and resilience while delivering margin impact.

Category managers are under mounting pressure to align procurement strategies and initiatives with enterprise priorities such as sustainability, risk mitigation, and innovation. Recognizing the widening gap between strategic planning and tactical buying, organizations are turning to AI-enabled solutions to bridge productivity and efficiency gaps.

By integrating Cirtuo’s AI-enabled category management capabilities with Coupa’s leading Total Spend Management platform, Coupa is set to deliver a comprehensive solution that seamlessly translates robust, data-driven strategies into sourcing pipelines, supplier actions, and savings realization. This includes supporting the full supplier strategy lifecycle, from strategy planning, to execution, to monitoring, all within a unified system. These new capabilities will help procurement stakeholders not only drive cost reduction and cost avoidance, but extend to deliver a deeper understanding of business needs.

“Transforming the end-to-end procurement process requires reimagining technology’s role. We’re investing heavily in GenAI to automate routine tasks, enhance strategic decision-making, and bring autonomous procurement to market,” said Salvatore Lombardo, Coupa Chief Product and Technology Officer. “With the acquisition of Cirtuo, we strengthen our AI-native solutions and fill a critical gap in Coupa’s Strategic Sourcing Suite. This allows us to deliver a comprehensive category management solution where customers can create margin impact, especially in direct spend categories, by integrating analysis, strategy, and execution in one place.”

“Cirtuo empowers procurement teams to build AI-guided, insight-driven strategies that align with business priorities and flow directly into tactical activities resulting in seamless, closed-loop procurement processes,” said Drasko Jelavic, Cirtuo CEO. “We’re excited to join Coupa as businesses embrace digital transformation in the AI era.”

Making Category Strategies Actionable
Cirtuo’s market leading category management solution continues to be recognized for its pioneering technology by procurement practitioners, technology experts, and customers. Key solutions include:

  • Guided Category Strategy: Guides users with an interview-style approach to craft holistic category strategies without robust training enabling in-depth spend analysis and actionable insights for data-driven category management.
  • Guided Supplier Strategy: Leverage supplier relationships by connecting the dots between category and supplier strategies. Develop strategies that align seamlessly with business requirements and extend the focus on relationship metrics.
  • Initiative Management & Value Tracking: Manage your strategic savings, supplier, and risk mitigation initiatives end-to-end with clearly defined tasks, owners, milestones, and timelines to easily demonstrate impact on savings and value tracking.

As a leader in AI-powered category management, Cirtuo has helped some of the world’s biggest and best global brands create real business impact, including Ball Corporation, Braun, Molson Coors, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Utz Brands, Walmart, and more. Customers are saying:

  • “Cirtuo greatly enhances the category strategies that we’re developing. Cirtuo follows best practices and helps us to be more strategic and get us out of the tactical execution that we are stuck in. It’s easy to use. It’s a no-brainer.” – Michael DeWitt, VP of Indirect Spend Management & Center of Excellence, Walmart
  • “The digitization of category management is a required and necessary journey. Through Cirtuo Guided Strategy Creation, integrated market intelligence and AI, Cirtuo makes it faster and easier.” – Stephane Morel, Procurement Director, ex-Novartis
  • “By providing proof-of-impact to BT and capturing the pay-for-performance element of BT Sourced’s total compensation, Cirtuo enables our procurement team to develop high-quality category strategies that generate savings and present new opportunities.” – Cyril Pourrat, Chief Procurement Officer, BT Sourced

Attendees at Coupa’s flagship annual event, Inspire, will have a chance to learn more about the power of combining Coupa and Cirtuo from Cirtuo’s CEO Drasko Jelavic at a dedicated breakout session and in the Expo Hall. Learn more about cirtuo.com and coupa.com.

Learn more about how you can master spend and cost management without sacrificing growth.

Kaizen Equity Partners served as financial advisor to Cirtuo. Kirkland & Ellis and Wolf Theiss served as legal counsel to Coupa.

About Coupa
Coupa is the leader in AI-native total spend management. Using its trusted, community-generated, $8 trillion dataset, Coupa brings autonomous AI agents, a network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers, and leading apps together on one unified platform to seamlessly automate the buying process and connect to customers in a whole new way. With Coupa, you’ll make margins multiply™. Learn more at coupa.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

About Cirtuo
Cirtuo is the pioneer in digital category management and strategy creation. Based on the original consulting blueprint for category management and refined in countless client workshops, Cirtuo distills the insights from hundreds of category strategies across global and local procurement organizations and spend categories into one digital consultant: Cirtuo Guided Strategy Creation™ Pro. Cirtuo supports over 5,000 category managers of leading national and multinational companies like Siemens Energy, Boeing, Walmart, Novartis, Molson Coors, or British Telecom across industries and 40+ countries in creating business-centric and actionable category and supplier strategies that deliver unparalleled impact and value.

Read the release on the Coupa website here.

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EQT, Hg and TA-owned IFS valued at EUR 15 billion in minority stake sale, following investment from Hg, ADIA and CPP Investments

eqt

IFS

  • Hg increases its stake in enterprise software provider IFS and becomes co-control shareholder alongside EQT, while existing minority shareholder TA Associates remains invested
  • New investors in this transaction include a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (“ADIA”) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPP Investments”)
  • IFS continues to perform strongly, having recently surpassed EUR 1 billion in ARR while growing by more than 30% year-on-year

IFS, a leading provider of cloud enterprise software and Industrial AI applications, announces it has achieved a valuation of over EUR 15 billion following a significant pivot to AI-driven growth. The valuation comes as Hg increases its stake to become a co-control shareholder alongside EQT, with TA Associates (“TA”) remaining as minority shareholder. New minority shareholders also include a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (“ADIA”) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPP Investments”). Hg and the new investors are acquiring shares in IFS from EQT, which is selling through its EQT VIII and EQT IX funds, as well as from TA and other minority investors.

The transaction follows many successful years of growth for IFS, delivering more than EUR 1 billion in ARR (“annual recurring revenue”) last year. Total revenue for 2024 was over EUR 1.2 billion, with some of the world’s largest industrial companies choosing IFS over legacy vendors. Demand for IFS’s industrial AI capabilities has increased significantly over the past 12 months as organizations across IFS’s focus industries of Aerospace & Defence, Engineering & Construction, Energy & Utilities, Manufacturing, Telco and Service, continue to realise the rapid and transformative value that IFS.ai delivers. IFS will continue to expand its capabilities with the industrial application of generative and agentic AI, so that customers can automate workflows, improve efficiency and deliver amazing moments of service to their own customers.

Over the past year, IFS added 350 new customers including Exelon who adopted IFS to streamline asset maintenance across its energy grid, Rolls-Royce who is using IFS to transform service delivery of its Power Systems business, and Total Energies who is deploying IFS as the single platform for management and servicing of its global operated asset portfolio. Moreover, an increasing number of large businesses are moving to IFS which is reflected in the average deal size of IFS’s largest customers increasing by 64% year-on-year.

Mark Moffat, CEO of IFS, said: “IFS’s success and sustained growth is centred around a commitment and track record of rapidly delivering business value to our customers. We have a differentiated proposition that continues to drive momentum in the industrial setting, specifically with the agentic and generative capabilities of IFS.ai, which enables us to be the technology of choice for the businesses that service, power and protect our planet.” Moffat continued: “The investment and continued commitment from Hg, EQT and TA will help IFS further accelerate our journey to be the undisputed category leader of Industrial Software.”

Johannes Reichel, Partner and Co-Head of Technology in the EQT Private Equity advisory team, added: “EQT’s relationship with IFS started in 2015 and it has been remarkable to see the company’s growth since then. Starting as a software vendor focused on Northern Europe, IFS has become a global provider of enterprise solutions while embracing the power of AI for the benefit of its industrial clients. It’s a prime example of EQT’s ability to “run with the winners”, where we partner with management teams over the long-term to scale regional players into global champions. We are excited to work alongside Hg to continue supporting IFS through this next phase.”

Nic Humphries, Senior Partner and Head of the Saturn funds at Hg, commented: “With 20 years’ experience investing in software, we recognise exceptional businesses when we see them. Our increased investment in IFS reflects our conviction in their long-term vision and strong execution, which enables their customers’ digital transformation.” Jonathan Wulkan, Partner at Hg, added: “Since our initial partnership in 2022 alongside EQT, Mark and the team have not only delivered impressive and consistent growth but have emerged as a global leader in Industrial AI – translating the promise of AI into practical solutions that drive efficiency and sustainability for essential industries, with significant potential for continued growth.”

Naveen Wadhera, Managing Director at TA, commented: “IFS’s exceptional leadership, strong execution, and transformative AI capabilities are redefining what’s possible in enterprise software. We remain confident in the company’s vision and are excited to be part of its continued journey.”

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to complete end of Q2 2025. IFS and selling shareholders were advised by Arma Partners and White & Case, EQT was also advised by Evercore, and Hg was advised by Morgan Stanley & Co. plc and Skadden.

Contact
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

Hg
Tom Eckersley, tom.eckersley@hgcapital.com
Sam Ferris, sam.ferris@hgcapital.com

TA
Maggie Benoit, mbenoit@ta.com

IFS
EUROPE / MEA / APJ: Adam Gillbe, adam.gillbe@ifs.com
NORTH AMERICA / LATAM: Mairi Morgan, mairi.morgan@ifs.com

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About EQT
EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization with EUR 269 billion in total assets under management (EUR 136 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT owns portfolio companies and assets in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas and supports them in achieving sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtgroup.com
Follow EQT on LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Instagram

About Hg
Hg supports the building of sector-leading enterprises that supply businesses with critical software applications or workflow services, delivering a more automated workplace for their customers. This industry is characterised by digitization trends that are in early stages of adoption and are set to transform the workplace for professionals over decades to come.

Hg’s support combines deep end-market knowledge with world class operational resources, together providing compelling support to entrepreneurial leaders looking to scale their business – businesses that are well invested, enduring and serve their customers well.

With a vast European network and strong presence across North America, Hg’s 400 employees and around $75 billion in funds under management support a portfolio of around 50 businesses, worth over $160 billion aggregate enterprise value, with around 115,000 employees, consistently growing revenues at more than 20% annually.

About TA
TA is a leading global private equity firm focused on scaling growth in profitable companies. Since 1968, TA has invested in more than 560 companies across its five target industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and businesses services. Leveraging its deep industry expertise and strategic resources, TA collaborates with management teams worldwide to help high-quality companies deliver lasting value. The firm has raised $65 billion in capital to date and has more than 150 investment professionals across offices in Boston, Menlo Park, Austin, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA can be found at www.ta.com.

About IFS
IFS is one of the world’s leading providers of Industrial AI and enterprise software for hardcore businesses that service, power, and protect our planet. Our technology enables businesses which manufacture goods, maintain complex assets, and manage service-focused operations to unlock the transformative power of Industrial AI™ to enhance productivity, efficiency, and sustainability.

IFS Cloud is a fully composable AI-powered platform, designed for ultimate flexibility and adaptability to our customers’ specific requirements and business evolution. It spans the needs of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Field Service Management (FSM). IFS technology leverages AI, machine learning, real-time data and analytics to empower our customers to make informed strategic decisions and excel at their Moment of Service™.

IFS was founded in 1983 by five university friends who pitched a tent outside our first customer’s site to ensure they would be available 24/7 and the needs of the customer would come first. Since then, IFS has grown into a global leader with over 7,000 employees in 80 countries. Driven by those foundational values of agility, customer-centricity, and trust, IFS is recognized worldwide for delivering value and supporting strategic transformations. We are the most recommended supplier in our sector. Visit ifs.com to learn why.

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EQT leads funding round exceeding USD 500 million in ReliaQuest, a leader in AI-powered security operations

eqt

Drone TampaWaterStreet-4

  • Growth round is led by EQT Growth and existing investors KKR and FTV Capital
  • The round values US-based ReliaQuest at USD 3.4 billion

EQT is pleased to announce that the EQT Growth fund (“EQT”), as well as existing investors KKR and FTV Capital, have led a growth funding round in ReliaQuest (the “Company”), a leader in AI-powered security operations. The round brings the Company’s valuation to USD 3.4 billion and is also joined by Ten Eleven Ventures and Finback Investment Partners. This new funding will support ReliaQuest’s continued growth, fueling further innovation in agentic AI-driven cybersecurity automation and supporting the Company’s ongoing international expansion.  

ReliaQuest has established itself as a global cybersecurity leader, delivering a differentiated, AI-driven approach to security operations for large enterprises. The company’s technology platform, GreyMatter, seamlessly integrates with over 200 different cybersecurity tools, allowing security teams to leverage their current or future technology stack to drive greater visibility and AI-driven automation. This enables security teams to detect, contain, investigate and respond to cyber threats across a variety of cyber solutions within minutes, all while eliminating the most mundane cybersecurity work and delivering more value from existing investments.

This latest round comes at a time of accelerating growth for ReliaQuest. Since the Company’s last funding round in 2020, it has grown Annual Recurring Revenue more than 4x – recently surpassing USD 300 million – and is currently growing more than 30 percent year-over-year while operating profitably. 

“Everything we have done at ReliaQuest has always been driven by the problem we solve for our customers. Enterprise security teams have more data in more places than ever before, and the speed of the threat is rapidly increasing. CISOs need a way to contain threats within minutes without added cost or technical overhead, leveraging the latest innovations in Agentic AI,” said Brian Murphy, ReliaQuest founder and CEO. “This new investment is a key step along our growth trajectory as a company, but most importantly it will allow us to deliver better security outcomes for even more CISOs around the world.” 

“Brian’s passion and dedication to building a world-class, mindset-driven organization is at the core of ReliaQuest’s success and sets a strong foundation upon which to build a category-defining cybersecurity company,” said Kirk Lepke, Partner in the EQT Growth advisory team. “By enriching GreyMatter with AI and automation capabilities, ReliaQuest has accelerated ahead of the pack, and now stands out as one of the only software vendors capable of managing security operations for the most complex enterprise environments. We are delighted to lead this funding round and look forward to supporting the company with our global platform as they continue to deliver solutions needed to push the industry forward.”

EQT Growth was advised by Piper Sandler and Freshfields US LLP.

Contact
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

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About EQT
EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization with EUR 269 billion in total assets under management (EUR 136 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT owns portfolio companies and assets in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas and supports them in achieving sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtgroup.com
Follow EQT on LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Instagram 

About ReliaQuest
ReliaQuest exists to Make Security Possible. Our Agentic AI-powered security operations platform, GreyMatter, allows security teams to detect threats at the source, contain, investigate and respond in less than 5 minutes—eliminating Tier 1 and Tier 2 security operations work. GreyMatter uses data-stitching, detection-at-source, AI, and automation to seamlessly connect telemetry from across cloud, multicloud, and on-premises technologies.

ReliaQuest is the only cybersecurity technology company that delivers outcomes specific to each organization’s unique architecture, technology, and business needs.

With over 1,000 customers and 1,200 teammates across six global operating centers, ReliaQuest Makes Security Possible for the most trusted enterprise brands in the world. Learn more at www.reliaquest.com.

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Beyond voices: Dubformer raises €3.4 million to transform the art of dubbing

Almaz Capital

Dubformer, an Amsterdam-based startup specialising in professional AI dubbing, announced a €3.4 million Seed funding round to push the boundaries of emotional expression in AI dubbing, enhancing media localisation for TV, broadcast, and film productions.

The round was led by Almaz Capital, with s16vc and FinSight as key investors, along with angel investors such as Arul Menezes, founder of Microsoft Translator, and Funa Maduka, former head of International Original Film at Netflix.

This funding will enable Dubformer to advance its Emotion Transfer technology that enhances dubbing by transferring emotions instead of cloning voices, aligning with their mission to make content accessible and enjoyable globally.

“With Emotion Transfer, we also capture the acoustic characteristics — such as echoes and reverberations — enhancing the overall experience. Our focus is on creating full immersion, making sure the dubbing never feels out of place,” said Anton Dvorkovich, Founder & CEO of Dubformer.

Dubformer was founded in 2023 by Anton Dvorkovich, a machine translation expert with 10+ years of experience and former Head of NLP & Speech at Yandex. The core team, experts in AI and speech technology, previously launched the world’s largest AI dubbing solution which had over 5 million users and 150 million minutes watched daily.

Dubformer develops AI-powered software for professional media dubbing, focusing on TV shows, series, and animation. With a mission to break down language barriers, Dubformer’s proprietary AI technologies localise video content for a global audience, translating it into 130+ languages.

Despite advances in the AI dubbing industry, Dubformer says the quality of AI-generated dubbed content still falls short of being convincingly realistic. Recent research indicates that emotional voices are likely to be identified as human, while neutral tones are generally associated with AI.

The video localisation market, currently worth €6.6 billion, is growing at a compound annual growth (CAGR) of 16% to meet the increasing global demand. In addition to independent companies offering dubbing solutions, major players also invest in internal innovation to enhance content localisation and expand audience reach.

At the core of Emotion Transfer lies its ability to generate fine-grained local aspects of speech — such as intonation, emotion, and pace — using source audio as a reference. This is generative dubbing, not mere voice replication. Because languages have unique prosodic features, perfectly mimicking all speech nuances is impossible.

This approach delivers dubbing that is more natural and immersive compared to conventional technologies such as text-to-speech or voice cloning.

Since its launch, Dubformer has grown rapidly, gaining traction among media companies and content creators. Over the past six months, the platform’s growth has accelerated significantly, averaging more than 50% month-over-month, reflecting the surging demand for high-quality, emotionally expressive AI dubbing.

Dubformer now serves over 200 clients across the U.S. and Europe, including Paramount, Little Dot Studios, and Mainstream Media. It also has partnered with companies such as Voxx (Los Angeles), Presto (Czech Republic), and Gobavo (Turkey).

“In a rapidly evolving AI dubbing landscape, Dubformer is committed to driving the industry forward by addressing its key challenges. Through capturing the emotional essence of content, we enable media companies to expand their global audience reach while reducing localisation costs — all without compromising viewer satisfaction,” said Dvorkovich.

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Candid Health Raises $52.5 Million Series C to Enhance GenAI Features, Expand Revenue Cycle Automation Platform to More Providers

Oak HC FT

Candid Health, the autonomous revenue cycle automation platform for healthcare providers, today announced it has raised $52.5 million in Series C funding led by Oak HC/FT with participation from existing investors. This brings the company’s total amount raised to $99.5 million.

Providers spend more than $100 billion annually on revenue cycle management, yet today’s billing requirements outpace available tooling. According to research by McKinsey, streamlining the claims submission process could save up to 18% of administrative costs as submission error rates have continued to increase.

Candid’s platform addresses the root cause of RCM inefficiency through modern data engineering and automation. Unlike traditional RCM companies which aim to make manual clean up work more efficient, Candid improves touchless claim rate, which is the percentage of claims submitted, processed and adjudicated correctly the first time with no manual intervention. Candid’s platform significantly increases the number of claims submitted correctly the first time, thereby eliminating avoidable, manual work for billing teams.

With touchless claim rates and payor net collection rates greater than 95%, the Candid platform drives industry-leading results. Candid clients experience increased overall net collections and faster reimbursement times while reducing costs with a scalable technical infrastructure.

“At Candid, we are reimagining the level of automation that an RCM platform can drive, and with AI, we are positioned to further improve billing performance,” said Nick Perry, CEO & Co-Founder of Candid Health. “We are excited to continue to grow and scale alongside our customers, fully supporting them along their journey, while forging relationships with more providers.”

The company grew revenue nearly 250% YoY in 2024. With this Series C investment, Candid will look to expand its customer relationships with multi-site provider groups nationally.

“The Candid leadership team has an exceptional blend of technical and product expertise, and they have rigorously built a platform with their customers’ needs top of mind,” said Billy Deitch, Partner at Oak HC/FT. “Our team has been investing in the RCM space for more than 25 years, and we think Candid is uniquely positioned to make a meaningful impact in this market. We are humbled at the opportunity to partner with the company as it expands its footprint with healthcare providers nationwide.”

About Candid Health 

Candid was founded by Nick Perry (CEO), Doug Proctor (COO) and Adam Reis. The team is on a mission to simplify medical billing, allowing providers to focus on delivering quality care. Trusted by more than 200 leading healthcare organizations, Candid’s revenue cycle platform leverages advanced automation to decrease the cost to collect and increase net collection rates. The company is backed by Oak HC/FT, 8VC, First Round Capital, Y Combinator, and Boxgroup. Learn more at https://www.joincandidhealth.com/company.

About Oak HC/FT 

Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity firm specializing in investments in fintech and healthcare. Using partnership as a foundation, Oak HC/FT guides companies and founders at every stage, from seed to growth, to create businesses that make a measurable and lasting impact. Founded in 2014, Oak HC/FT has invested in over 85 portfolio companies and has over $5.3 billion in assets under management. Oak HC/FT is headquartered in Stamford, CT, with an office in San Francisco, CA. Follow Oak HC/FT on LinkedIn and X and learn more at https://www.oakhcft.com/.

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