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    <li>
      <p>
        Benepass, a benefits management platform, has secured USD 20 million in a funding round led by Portage and Clocktower Technology Ventures. Joining the round were Workday Ventures, Threshold Ventures, and Gradient Ventures.
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        The company plans to use this investment for growth initiatives, including expanding partnerships with brokers and HRIS providers, developing new platform features, and employing GenAI for insights into employee benefits usage.
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      <p>
        The firm also claimed that the Benepass' platform boasts a high engagement rate, with over 85% of employees using the offered benefits, showcasing a strong focus on delivering personalized and flexible benefit solutions to improve retention and satisfaction.
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    </li>
  </ul>
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  <p>
    <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/modern-benefits-leader-benepass-secures-20m-in-funding-302049177.html">
      Press release
    </a>
  </p>
</div>


Remote Work Infrastructure

<div>
 <p>Benefits management platform, Benepass has raised $20 million in a funding round with investors including Portage and Clocktower Technology Ventures. The funding will be used to further growth initiatives such as developing new platform features, expanding partnerships, and using GenAI for employee benefits insight.</p>
 <p>The firm revealed that over 85% of employees use the benefits offered by the Benepass platform, highlighting its commitment to providing personalized, flexible benefit solutions to enhance employee satisfaction and retention.</p>
</div>

Benepass raises USD 20 million for product development and expansion

Conservation Tech

<div>
 
 <p>Agricultural supply chain SaaS startup based in Finland, Orijin, has received seed funding from Brainforest and Gorilla Capital, of an undisclosed sum. </p>
 <p>According to the company, this financing will be allocated towards technology advancement, global expansion, and providing sustainable solutions for smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. </p>
 <p>Orijin's platform offers features such as deforestation monitoring and real-time product origin verification, specifically for coffee and cocoa supply chains. These services ensure alignement with the EU Deforestation Regulation. </p>
 
</div>

Orijin raises seed funding for product development and expansion

Sustainably solving the food shortages of the future

Smart Farming

<div>
 
 <p>Orijin, an agricultural supply chain SaaS startup based in Finland, has received seed funding from Brainforest and Gorilla Capital. The amount of funding remains undisclosed.</p>
 <p>This financing will be directed towards technological enhancement, global expansion, and providing sustainable solutions to smallholder farmers and agribusinesses.</p>
 <p>Orijin's platform offers features such as deforestation monitoring and product origin verification in real-time for coffee and cocoa supply chains. This ensures compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation.</p>
 
</div>

Foundation Models

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 
 <p>AI search engine Perplexity AI has started using OpenAI's o1 model in its Pro subscription tier.</p>
 <p>The o1 model is designed for reasoning tasks like solving puzzles, coding, and complex mathematical problems. The platform also supports other models such as GPT-4o and Claude 3 Sonnet/Opus.</p>
 <p>Perplexity is working on new homepage widgets to combine information from its Discover feed, weather updates, and stock prices. These widgets are part of their plan to build an AI-powered homepage for the internet, offering users a central hub for personalized information.</p>
 
</div>

Perplexity adds OpenAI o1 model and develops homepage widgets

Using online platforms, autonomy, electric and fuel-cell tech solutions to shape the future of trucking.

Truck Industry Tech

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 <p>Nikola, a manufacturer of electric and hydrogen trucks, has joined forces with WattEV, a company offering heavy-duty truck charging and electric Trucks-as-a-Service (TaaS). The collaboration involves the sale of 22 fully battery electric trucks.</p>
 <p>The transaction was made possible through Nikola's dealer Next Generation Trucks, following WattEV's prior purchase of 14 electric vehicles in 2023. This collaboration is set to help Nikola achieve its yearly delivery target of 300-350 trucks.</p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> Nikola’s other BEV customers include <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/11001"> Walmart </a> <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/14210"> , </a> <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/20702"> J.B. Hunt, </a> and <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/17991"> Alberta Motor Transport Association </a> .</p>

Nikola partners with WattEV to supply 22 BEVs

AI, robotics, and IoT to streamline the flow of goods and information

Logistics Tech

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

<div>
 <p>Data capture and digital solutions provider, Zebra Technologies, is set to acquire Photoneo, a company specialized in robotic vision sensors and intelligence software. The financial details of the acquisition have yet to be disclosed.</p>
 <p>Photoneo strengths lie in their 3D vision and AI robotics systems, which are certified to integrate seamlessly with major robotic manufacturers globally, particularly in robot-arm applications.</p>
 <p>Post-acquisition, Photoneo Brightpick Group will continue operations under a new name, Brightpick, with primary focus on warehouse robots. The acquisition deal is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2025.</p>
 
</div>

Zebra Technologies to acquire Photoneo from Photoneo Brightpick Group for undisclosed sum

The toolkit to build machine learning applications at scale

Machine Learning Infrastructure

<div>
 <p>Scope Technologies, a company specialising in quantum security and machine learning, has announced a private placement increase to CAD 1.8 million (~USD 1.3 million), offering 1,285,714 units at CAD 1.40 (~USD 1) per unit. </p>
 <p>The funds will be utilised to expand the company’s team and support its general operations. </p>
 <p>Scope Technologies provides two products, GEM and QSE. GEM is an AI-powered visual recognition platform designed specifically for businesses. It boasts custom neural networks that are tailored for tasks like image detection and behavioural analysis. On the other hand, QSE is a product that focuses on data security. It uses quantum-proof encryption with an entropy-based key generation to effectively protect against both current and future security threats. In addition, it features decentralized cloud storage for immutable and secure data protection, safeguarding against ransomware attacks.</p>
 
</div>

Scope Technologies increases private placement offering to CAD 1.8 million

Artificial intelligence is identifying and testing new therapies faster than ever.

AI Drug Discovery

<div>
 <p>Firefly Neuroscience, a company specializing in AI-powered brain health solutions, has successfully secured USD 12.4 million in growth funding. This consists of USD 2.4 million in convertible notes at USD 3.00 per share and a USD 10 million equity line of credit.</p>
 <p>These funds will be used for various purposes such as growth initiatives, commercialization of the FDA-510(k) cleared Brain Network Analytics (BNA) technology, and general working capital.</p>
 <p>The company dedicates itself to providing neuroscientific solutions that improve outcomes for patients suffering from mental illnesses and neurological disorders. They have developed the BNA™ software platform, which employs AI for the analysis of brain waves, thereby facilitating early detection of neurological deviations. It features a proprietary database with standardized, high-definition longitudinal EEGs obtained from over 17,000 patients, covering 12 disorders and clinically normal patients.</p>
</div>

Firefly Neuroscience raises USD 12.4 million in growth funding to commercialize technology

Leveraging personal data for custom-fit diagnosis and treatment

Precision Medicine

<div>
 <p>The Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council has confirmed its decision to delist precision medicine company OpGen Inc. (Nasdaq: OPGN) from the Nasdaq Capital Market. The company failed to comply with minimum stockholders' equity requirements, necessitating the delisting.</p>
 <p>OpGen will file a Form 25 Notification of Delisting with the SEC, after which its common stock will transition to the OTC Markets, where it will continue trading under the symbol OPGN. The company has expressed plans to apply for a relisting once it has fulfilled the necessary Nasdaq listing standards.</p>
 <p>OpGen is known for developing molecular microbiology solutions. These include the Acuitas AMR Gene Panel, which is used for bacterial detection, and test kits for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.</p>
</div>

Nasdaq affirms delisting of OpGen after failed appeal

Giving creators the power of content monetization and audience engagement.

Creator Economy

<div>
 <p>Rumble has obtained a major strategic investment of USD 775 million from Tethe. In terms of specifics, this investment deal includes the acquisition of 103,333,333 Rumble Class A Common Stock shares, each valued at USD 7.50.</p>
 <p>Of the total funds, Rumble has decided to set aside USD 250 million to foster the company's growth strategies. It will direct the remainder to finance a self-tender offer for the purchase of up to 70 million shares of its Class A Common Stock at the same rate of USD 7.50 per share. The transaction completion is planned for the first quarter of 2025.</p>
 <p>In the wake of this transaction, the board and governance structure of Rumble will remain intact. Furthermore, Chris Pavlovski will continue to exercise his super-majority voting control.</p>
 
</div>

Rumble raises USD 775 million in strategic investment to support growth

<div>
 <p>InstaDeep, an AI company, has made Nucleotide Transformers (NT) publicly accessible. NT is a group of base models for genomics data analysis created in conjunction with NVIDIA. It uses an encoder-only transformer architecture and is trained similarly to BERT by using a masked language model objective. The NT model can generate embeddings for smaller models or be customised for specific tasks. It was trained using genetic data from 850 species including bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, and mammals.</p>
 <p>InstaDeep claims that the NT model surpasses other leading genomics base models like Enformer, HyenaDNA, and DNABERT-2 in 18 downstream tasks.</p>
</div>

All updates

Benepass raises USD 20 million for product development and expansion

Orijin raises seed funding for product development and expansion

Orijin raises seed funding for product development and expansion

Perplexity adds OpenAI o1 model and develops homepage widgets

Nikola partners with WattEV to supply 22 BEVs

Zebra Technologies to acquire Photoneo from Photoneo Brightpick Group for undisclosed sum

Scope Technologies increases private placement offering to CAD 1.8 million

Firefly Neuroscience raises USD 12.4 million in growth funding to commercialize technology

Nasdaq affirms delisting of OpGen after failed appeal

Rumble raises USD 775 million in strategic investment to support growth

InstaDeep releases open-source genomics AI model Nucleotide Transformers

Remote Work Infrastructure

Benepass raises USD 20 million for product development and expansion

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