SEBO, a German-engineered vacuum manufacturer with a nearly fifty-year history of commitment to building the best vacuum possible, has been recognized for the third year in a row in the Newsweek Readers' Choice Awards for Best Vacuum, with the SEBO FELIX taking first place in the 2026 awards.

The recognition reflects a broader shift in consumer priorities toward products that are built to last and designed to perform consistently, year after year.

"Winning this award for the third consecutive year is incredibly meaningful because it reflects the trust consumers place in SEBO," said Adam Riccardi, CEO of SEBO America. "We're proud to build products that deliver exceptional performance, stand the test of time, and continue to earn that trust year after year."

Founded in Germany in 1978, SEBO has earned a reputation for precision engineering and for products designed to be maintained rather than discarded.

The FELIX is engineered as a complete cleaning system rather than a single-feature product. Effective vacuuming depends on more than suction alone; carpet agitation, airflow, filtration, maneuverability, and floor adaptability work together to deliver consistent results across both carpet and hard flooring.

Key features that differentiate the SEBO FELIX include:

• Triple-layer filtration that captures fine dust, allergens, and microscopic particles before they return to the home — an appealing feature for allergy sufferers and pet owners.
• Premium bagged technology offers cleaner disposal, more consistent airflow, and improved long-term reliability, as homeowners rediscover the advantages of a well-designed bagged system.
• Serviceable design with replaceable components and straightforward maintenance, engineered for years of dependable performance and translating into both long-term savings and a more sustainable approach to ownership.

The award reinforces SEBO's position that exceptional products succeed through reliable performance and thoughtful engineering rather than short-lived innovation.

The Newsweek Readers’ Choice™ Awards recognize standout businesses, brands, and products across a wide range of consumer categories. Winners are determined through a public voting process in which readers select the companies and organizations they believe deliver exceptional quality, value, and customer experience.

The 2026 program highlights leading companies and products across numerous categories, including Home Goods.

“Each year, the Readers’ Choice Awards celebrate the best of the best, as chosen by the people who matter most — our readers,” said Newsweek Editor-in-Chief, Jennifer H. Cunningham. “We’re proud to recognize those organizations that continue to raise the bar for quality, innovation, and customer experience.”

About SEBO

Founded in Germany in 1978, SEBO is a leading manufacturer of premium vacuum cleaners known for exceptional performance, innovative engineering, and long-lasting reliability. Designed with durability, advanced filtration, and repairability in mind, SEBO vacuums are built to deliver years of dependable cleaning while supporting healthier indoor environments. With a commitment to quality craftsmanship and customer satisfaction, SEBO continues to set the standard for high-performance home cleaning. Learn more at sebo.us.

About Newsweek

Newsweek is the global digital news organization built around the iconic 93-year-old American magazine. Newsweek reaches 100 million people monthly with its thought-provoking news, opinion, images, graphics, and video delivered across a dozen print and digital platforms. Headquartered in New York City, Newsweek also publishes international editions in EMEA and Asia. For more information, visit www.newsweek.com.

Media Contact

cole@sebo.us

Remote Quality Bookkeeping today announced the opening of a new office in Attleboro, Massachusetts. The firm has also named Joseph Kisamore a partner. The two moves extend the company's presence in the Northeast and add senior leadership to the practice.

The firm serves approximately 250 clients across the country. It works from its headquarters in Ogunquit, Maine, and its new Massachusetts office. Remote Quality Bookkeeping was founded in 2000. It provides remote bookkeeping, payroll, tax, and CFO services to small businesses, franchises, and nonprofits.

The expansion arrives at a turning point for the accounting software many of those clients rely on. Intuit stopped selling new subscriptions for several QuickBooks Desktop versions in the United States after September 30, 2024. The company is expected to end support for the product by May 2027 as it moves customers toward cloud-based tools.

Desktop Software Remains Widely Used

Desktop accounting software still has a large user base. Industry estimates put the share of QuickBooks users who prefer desktop versions at roughly 67%, or about 4.6 million businesses. Intuit holds more than 80% of the small-business accounting software market. 

For firms built around desktop workflows, the change is disruptive.

"It felt like a kick in the gut," said Mark Kilduff, founder and CEO of Remote Quality Bookkeeping, describing his reaction to the phaseout. "We've relied on the desktop product for decades, and now we're being pushed into a system that doesn't function the same way."

Kilduff said the move to QuickBooks Online slows down work that spans many clients and datasets.

"In desktop, I can isolate issues and analyze data in minutes," he said. "In the online version, it can be significantly more time-consuming to do the same work."

Added Capacity to Support the Transition

The firm manages hundreds of clients across multiple platforms. That work requires staff who can move between systems and keep each client's records accurate. As clients navigate the QuickBooks Desktop transition, the new Attleboro office and Kisamore's expanded role give the firm more capacity to support them. 

Kilduff said the firm will keep helping clients adapt to new systems. It will also keep looking for tools that fit the way accountants work.

"The challenge," he said, "is finding a solution that actually works for the people doing the work."

About Remote Quality Bookkeeping

Remote Quality Bookkeeping is a national remote bookkeeping and accounting firm. It was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Ogunquit, Maine, with an additional office in Attleboro, Massachusetts. The firm provides bookkeeping, payroll, tax, forensic accounting, document management, and CFO services to small business owners, franchise operators, and nonprofits. Learn more at myrqb.com.

Media Contact

Remote Quality Bookkeeping
sales@myrqb.com
+1 866-567-4258

Dottie Herman, vice chair of Douglas Elliman, is expanding her advisory work to support investors and developers navigating complex real estate projects, including hotel-to-residential conversions and other adaptive reuse opportunities. The move reflects growing demand for strategic guidance as market conditions continue to shift in major cities such as New York.

Responding to Changing Market Needs

Interest in repurposing commercial properties has increased in recent years, and Herman has been working closely with clients who are considering large-scale conversions. These projects tend to involve more than just a simple purchase. Zoning approvals, financial reviews and long-term planning all play a role before anything can move ahead.

In many cases, Herman’s job begins early in the process. She helps clients think through whether a deal makes sense and what challenges may come up along the way. Rather than handling transactions directly, she focuses on giving clients a clearer picture before they commit.

A Consulting Approach Built on Experience

Much of Herman’s advisory work has grown naturally through relationships she has built over time. Many clients come through referrals, while others follow her weekly newsletter, where she shares observations about the market and answers common questions.

Herman’s current projects include collaborating with investors who are exploring commercial properties in New York City. Some are looking at hospitality assets and weighing whether a shift to residential use could function in today’s environment.

Expanding Media and Public Engagement

In addition to consulting, Herman stays connected to a broader audience through her radio shows. She has hosted “Eye on Real Estate” for over a decade, where listeners call in to ask questions about market trends, financing and property decisions.

Herman’s second show, “Real Talk,” takes a different approach. It focuses on personal experiences, career changes and real-life challenges. Many guests share stories about shifting direction later in life, which has resonated with a wide audience.

A New Book Focused on Lessons in Business

Herman is also finishing a book that reflects on her career and the lessons she has picked up along the way. The focus is not limited to real estate. Instead, it looks at decisions, setbacks and moments that shaped how she approaches business.

The goal is to offer insights that readers can apply in their own work, regardless of industry. The book highlights how experience, both good and difficult, can influence long-term thinking.

Industry Involvement and Emerging Models

Beyond her advisory and media efforts, Herman continues her involvement in board service, including her role with Adelphi University. She is also connected to newer real estate models that give buyers the option to purchase partial ownership in second homes.

These arrangements differ from traditional timeshares. Buyers hold equity in the property, and ownership can be transferred if plans change. The model has started to gain attention among those looking for more flexible ways to invest.

Continued Focus on Strategic Growth

Herman’s advisory guidance comes at a time when many investors are rethinking how properties can be used. Some are looking for ways to reposition assets, while others are trying to better understand shifting demand.

Herman’s role continues to center on helping clients sort through those decisions. By offering a practical view of what works and what may not, she helps clients move forward with more confidence. Furthermore, she will continue to have an impact in both real estate and business as she actively advises clients and shares insights drawn from decades of experience.

About Dottie Herman

Herman’s role continues to center on helping clients sort through those decisions. By offering a practical view of what works and what may not, she helps clients move forward with more confidence. Furthermore, she will continue to have an impact in both real estate and business as she actively advises clients and shares insights drawn from decades of experience. For more information, follow Dottie Herman on LinkedIn.

About Marquis Who's Who

Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the first edition of Who’s Who in America®, Marquis Who’s Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Who’s Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms worldwide. The suite of Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who’s Who® website, marquiswhoswho.com.

Media Contact

Marquis Who’s Who
info@marquiswhoswho.com

ZenoX Media, the performance marketing agency that has generated over $236 million in advertising results for 160 e-commerce brands, today announced the release of Scaley AI, a fully autonomous Google Ads platform trained on real media buyer conversations and campaign data.

Scaley AI is not a dashboard with suggestions. It is a fully autonomous system that handles campaign creation, budget allocation, and real-time performance tracking with very little manual intervention. The platform automatically applies performance labels to products, ensuring campaigns stay optimized based on live data rather than periodic human reviews. An integrated AI bot, trained on more than 200 standard operating procedures and client Slack communication from ZenoX Media's work with clients, answers Google Ads questions instantly and makes optimization decisions on the fly.

"Most automation tools provide generic recommendations that don't account for the nuances of individual business models," said Christopher Krassnig, founder of ZenoX Media. "Scaley AI's training comes from real client work across more than ten different niches, so the suggestions reflect what actually works in live campaigns, not theoretical best practices. Early results show an average of 27% more sales and 21% higher return on ad spend within the first 30 days of use."

The platform addresses a gap in the Google Ads automation market. While Madgicx focuses primarily on Meta advertising, few tools concentrate specifically on Google Ads optimization. Scaley AI allows e-commerce brands and dropshippers to access ZenoX Media's proprietary Predictive KPI Signal Scaling methodology without requiring full agency management.

ZenoX Media has scaled more than 160 brands across fashion, electronics, and other e-commerce categories. The agency's track record includes taking one client from zero to $118,000 in monthly revenue within 60 days. Others now generate seven-figure monthly revenues through Google Ads alone, with results documented in detailed Trustpilot reviews from clients across multiple industries.

"We solve the bad scaling loop where brands increase budgets, watch their ROAS collapse, then scale back down," Krassnig added. "Scaley AI systematizes the Predictive KPI Signal Scaling framework we've developed and refined with more than 200 e-commerce brands, measuring real statistical performance signals before committing budget. This allows more businesses to break through that ceiling without guesswork."

The platform targets brands seeking to build internal performance marketing capabilities rather than outsourcing permanently. ZenoX Media is also preparing to roll out coaching services for teams looking to develop in-house Google Ads management.

Scaley AI operates on a subscription model, with users able to connect multiple Google Ads accounts. The platform provides one-click application of recommended optimizations while maintaining human oversight for final decisions. The system delivers real-time campaign adjustments based on data intelligence, with complete campaign autonomy that eliminates the manual intervention required by most automation tools.

About ZenoX Media

ZenoX Media is a performance marketing agency specializing in Google Ads for e-commerce brands. The agency has generated over $236 million in advertising results across 160 clients internationally. Founded by Christopher Krassnig, ZenoX Media solves scaling problems that prevent e-commerce businesses from growing sustainably through its proprietary Predictive KPI Signal Scaling framework, which measures statistical performance signals before allocating budget to scale. The company delivers a holistic, full-funnel strategy covering product pricing, landing pages, creatives, and audience targeting. For more information, visit zenoxmedia.com.

Media Contact

hello@scaleyai.com

At 6:00 a.m. on June 28, the starting gun officially flagged off the Giro d’Italia RIDE LIKE A PRO China Tour Xiamen Open Race 2026 at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center. Thousands of cyclists surged past the starting line, heading north along Island Ring Road like a pink storm sweeping across the city.

This marks the historic debut in Xiamen for the 117-year-old Giro d’Italia brand, and the first time for the city to host a world-class premier road cycling race. The 77-kilometer closed-circuit course traversed five administrative districts, seamlessly weaving together Xiamen’s most iconic coastal landmarks. Major urban thoroughfares underwent full traffic closure for a cycling competition for the first time in history.

As the ceremonial horns sounded, Xiamen took center stage. A lineup of distinguished heavyweights — including SUN Weimin, President of Chinese Cycling Association; RUAN Dunliang, Director-General of Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Sports; Michele Napoli, CEO of RCS Sports and Events DMCC; and legendary cyclist Chris Froome — jointly flagged off the race. The event comprised four competition categories, bringing together professional riders and cycling enthusiasts from numerous countries and regions to compete on the same stage.

“Riding across the cross-sea bridge was absolutely exhilarating!” exclaimed XUE Fuwen from Winspace Xiamen, pumping his fists in the air as he crossed the finish line. XUE captured the Men’s Elite championship with a stunning time of 1:37:08. His teammate WANG Qiang followed closely to secure third place, bringing immense honor to the local cycling community. In the Women’s Elite category, ZHANG Tingting from Bigrock claimed the crown with a powerful sprint finish at 1:56:25.

“As a local Xiamen team, we were deeply motivated to secure this championship on our home turf. Thanks to our flawless teamwork, we made it happen,” said Wang Qiang, captain of Winspace, in a post-race interview. He expressed his hope that Xiamen will continue to host more cycling events in the future, promising that local teams will always compete with full dedication and strive for excellence.

The debut of the legendary Giro d’Italia further expands the landscape and ecosystem of high-level sports in Xiamen. Though the race has concluded, the passion remains unquenched. This romantic and exhilarating pink storm has officially added another dazzling luster to Xiamen’s golden reputation as an "International Coastal Sports City."

Media Contact

Nancy Tsoi
nancy.tsoi@renxisports.com

KOR Protocol, the platform building the creative asset clearinghouse, today announced a $7.5 million Series A, capital provided by 1kx and Blockchain Capital at a $100 million valuation. KOR is also supported by existing investors and strategic partners across entertainment, technology, and venture capital.

AI has collapsed the cost of production, but the barrier to being discovered, distributed, and paid has never been higher. Independent talent now has the tools to make professional work, but not the coordinated system to turn that work into opportunity. KOR is building the clearinghouse for this market: an end-to-end system of action where output can be registered, talent can be guided by AI agents, opportunities can be routed to the right labels, agencies, MCNs, brands, curators, and platforms, and payments can move faster and more transparently across the ecosystem. 

KOR is starting with entertainment because it is where the mismatch is most visible. Entertainment has the largest attention flows, the highest upside outcomes, and one of the clearest gaps between what gets consumed and who captures the value. AI has commoditized tools and knowledge work, but it cannot commoditize original creativity, cultural gravity, or the ability to command attention. Yet much of the entertainment industry still relies on manual scouting, fragmented platform data, slow deal flow, and outdated payment systems. KOR is designed to rebuild that infrastructure for the AI era.

The Series A reflects growing demand for better systems around talent discovery, rights management, licensing, and payments. The funding will help KOR expand its products, grow its library of licensed music and entertainment content, deepen its industry partnerships, and bring more creators, rights holders, and entertainment businesses onto the platform.

Ritty Quin was appointed CEO late last year to lead the company’s next phase of growth across the technology engine and the creator economy. A PhD holder and UCL alumnus, he began his career at ByteDance before moving into marketing roles across the technology space. Quin is also a YouTube Partner and electronic music producer signed to Live Nation Asia. He has generated over 30 million impressions as a creator, appeared on Beatport’s Top 100 House Charts and BBC Radio 1 Dance, and headlined Creamfields Asia in 2025. 

“AI has removed many of the barriers to creating professional work, but it has not fixed what happens next,” said Quin, CEO of KOR. “As both an artist and an operator, I know how difficult it is to translate strong work and audience momentum into distribution, partnerships, and sustainable revenue. KOR is building the system that connects those pieces by helping talent get recognized earlier, reach the right opportunities, and build lasting careers.”

Since launch, KOR has built meaningful traction across its ecosystem, surpassing 1 million lifetime sign-ups, established relationships with more than 1,000 creative and rights partners, and generated more than $2 million in gross revenue. Current partners and collaborators include globally recognized brands and franchises including Black Mirror, Beatport, mau5trap, Imogen Heap, Banijay Group, KDDI, and more. The company sees this as early evidence that creators and entertainment businesses are looking for better systems to manage the next phase of the talent economy.

KOR’s platform focuses on three parts of the creator journey: producing and registering work, finding the right audience and commercial partners, and turning that momentum into revenue. It helps establish origin, authenticity, ownership, and clearance for creative work, while using audience insights and workflow tools to connect talent and content with relevant opportunities. The platform also helps creators and commercial partners manage licensing, payments, commissions, revenue sharing, and other financial processes more efficiently.

KOR’s product suite includes Pacer, KORUS, VRSNS, Streamline, and KOR Hubs. Pacer is an AI-powered workspace that helps artists and their teams manage release strategy, audience insights, fan engagement, partner outreach, and campaign execution. It brings information from across an artist’s career into one place and helps turn that information into a clear plan of action. KORUS is a music creation and remix platform that allows artists to release official music packs for fans and creators to reinterpret with permission. The platform is designed to make collaborative music more accessible while ensuring that original artists and rights holders retain control and participate in the value created. VRSNS, Streamline, and KOR Hubs provide additional tools around content creation, audience intelligence, community building, and direct monetization.

The funding will support KOR’s next phase of growth as it expands its products, develops new partnerships across music and entertainment, and brings more creators and commercial partners onto the platform. KOR’s long-term goal is to become the place where emerging talent meets opportunity: helping creators get discovered earlier, enabling entertainment businesses to identify stronger signals, and giving the next generation of artists, filmmakers, DJs, and digital creators a clearer path from making work to building sustainable careers.

About KOR Protocol

KOR Protocol is building the clearinghouse for talent in the AI era. The platform helps creators, artists, rights holders, and entertainment businesses move from creation to discovery, distribution, and monetization in one coordinated environment. Through products including Pacer, KORUS, VRSNS, Streamline, and KOR Hubs, KOR connects emerging talent with the labels, agencies, brands, platforms, and communities that can help scale their work. To learn more, visit korprotocol.io.

Media Contact

aakanksha@korprotocol.io

Lucra, the leading social competition platform, today announced a partnership with EX Sports, the sports engagement and gaming platform focused on Tier 2 and Tier 3 sports communities worldwide. EX Sports will deploy Lucra's mini-games product across its platform, activating between 30 and 50 sports-focused mini-games across multiple verticals over the next three to four years — one of the largest deployments of Lucra's mini-games product to date.

Lucra's mini-games product gives sports properties, media platforms, and entertainment brands a turnkey way to embed competitive gameplay directly into their existing fan experience with no engineering lift required. Lucra handles all payments, compliance, fraud prevention, and reward fulfillment out of the box, allowing partners to go from contract to live competition in weeks. For EX Sports, the integration delivers a scalable engagement layer across its platform and partner ecosystem — giving fans a reason to interact, compete, and earn rewards every day, not only during live events.

EX Sports was founded on the conviction that Tier 2 and Tier 3 sports communities are consistently overlooked by mainstream media and gaming platforms. The company entered the Web3 gaming sector in 2022 and built sports-based gaming experiences tied to live streaming events, generating strong engagement during broadcasts. But that experience also revealed a crucial insight: even the most passionate fan communities won't fight through complex onboarding. Traditional sports fans are difficult to convert into standalone Web3 ecosystems, and the window between live events is where fan attention is hardest to hold. The Lucra partnership is EX Sports' answer to both problems.

Through Lucra's accessible, plug-and-play competition infrastructure, fans watching or following live events through EX Sports and its partner network can participate in skill-based competitions, live predictions, and loyalty challenges without friction. Earned rewards are redeemable as gameplay credits and ecosystem benefits that keep fans active between events — addressing what EX Sports sees as one of the largest unsolved opportunities in sports media: maintaining meaningful fan engagement outside the live broadcast window.

"Most sports media companies still monetize attention only during the event itself," said Dylan Robbins, founder and CEO of Lucra. "EX Sports has spent years figuring out what actually keeps Tier 2 and Tier 3 sports fans engaged between live events. Our platform gives them the competition and rewards infrastructure to build loyal communities and create continuous engagement loops, not just a spike on game day."

For EX Sports, the Lucra partnership accelerates the U.S. expansion of its platform, including the wider rollout of the Urbanballer ecosystem. By deploying Lucra's mini-games product, EX Sports gains a competition and loyalty engine built around accessibility and retention — low barriers to entry, continuous engagement loops, and reward mechanics that compound across games, creator communities, and live event activations.

"We've spent years learning what actually keeps sports fans engaged between live events, and the answer always comes back to removing friction," said Toli Makris, CEO of EX Sports. "Our early Web3 experiences showed us that even passionate fan communities won't fight through complex onboarding. Lucra's mini-games product lets us meet fans where they already are and give them a simple, rewarding reason to compete and come back. That's exactly the gap we've been building toward closing."

The partnership is also designed to be complementary to EX Sports' longer-term strategy. The company is in discussions with strategic gaming partners in the Middle East around the development of AAA sports gaming titles connected to existing and future sports IPs with a focus on building premium long-term gaming franchises by 2030. Where that initiative focuses on depth and franchise development, the Lucra partnership focuses on scale, accessibility, and continuous fan engagement today — building the engaged user base, behavioral data, and loyalty infrastructure that strengthens the broader platform as it grows.

The first mini-games are live in the EX Sports app, with an expanded library of sports verticals rolling out through the end of 2026. Download the EX Sports app for Apple or Android to play today.

About Lucra

Lucra is a plug-and-play SDK that integrates into apps or websites, enabling peer-to-peer competitions with real-money or rewards. It handles compliance, payments, fraud prevention, and settlement out of the box, so partners can instantly offer gamified experiences without building or managing complex infrastructure themselves. Top entertainment, hospitality, and consumer brands, including Five Iron Golf, Puttshack, Backyard Sports, ChessKings, TouchTunes, and more, use Lucra's white-label technology to power tournaments and challenges, build loyalty, and drive new revenue. Learn more at www.playlucra.com. 

About EX Sports

EX Sports is a sports engagement, gaming, and media platform focused on underserved sports communities and next-generation fan participation models. The company combines live events, streaming, gaming, creator ecosystems, and loyalty infrastructure to create interactive sports experiences globally. Learn more at www.ex-sports.io.

Media Contact

Lindsay Linhart
Brand Strategist, Lucra
lindsay@playlucra.com

Super.com, the savings super app for everyday Americans, today announced $65 million in Series D funding led by TPG, valuing the company at $1.2 billion. The new capital will accelerate the app’s mission to put more money back in the pockets of millions of Americans.

An App Built For The People Who Need It Most

Super.com’s model is built around a simple truth: the best rewards programs have historically been reserved for those who need them least — the highest earners with the highest credit scores. The Super.com app flips that script, offering rich, tangible benefits to everyday Americans regardless of income or credit history.

Millions of Americans have trusted Super.com on their savings journeys — and since 2016, the app has put more than $1 billion back in their pockets in direct savings. NASCAR recently named Super.com its official savings partner, showcasing the Super.com savings app to its 70 million fans. This partnership introduces the app to one of the most mainstream American consumer audiences, with strong overlap to the value-conscious households that Super.com is built to serve. 

Super+: The Membership Companion That Multiplies What Super.com Does

The Super.com app’s flagship Super+ has grown to nearly 1 million members. Think of Super+ like a Costco membership with over 15 benefits focused on saving, earning, credit building, and more — all for a single low monthly fee that delivers compounding value across the full Super.com app.

The model mirrors how Amazon Prime relates to Amazon or Uber One to Uber: the underlying app is open to everyone, and the membership is the multiplier for customers who use it most. Members get up to 40% off hotels with member-only rates, an additional 10% cashback on hotel bookings up to $100 a month, and discounts on flights, theme parks, entertainment, and everyday purchases. The membership also unlocks additional financial tools: a secured charge card that earns cashback on everyday purchases, cash advances, and a full suite of credit-building tools. With one single membership, members unlock the full range of benefits — and many find it pays for itself through just one benefit in the very first month.

“Costco proved millions of Americans will pay for a membership that genuinely saves them money. Amazon Prime proved they’ll pay for one that makes their lives easier. Super.com is building both — for the everyday household, where every dollar matters most. This Series D helps us put that app in front of every American," said Hussein Fazal, CEO and co-founder, Super.com.

Expanding Member Value and Savings Personalized By AI 

The Series D capital will be deployed to deliver more value to Super+ members — expanding the ways they can save, earn, and improve their financial lives. Super.com is actively investing in new categories of products that put more money back in members’ pockets across the moments that matter to everyday households.

Super.com is also accelerating its AI investments to deliver a deeply personalized membership experience. The newly redesigned app now surfaces the next best thing a member can do to save money every time they open it. A member who just booked a flight sees hotel deals, tours, and activities in the city they're headed to. A member who just took out a cash advance is shown ways to earn money or build their credit. The result is a membership that gets smarter and more valuable the more a member uses it — and this is just the beginning.

“TPG looks to invest in innovative companies that are reshaping and enhancing the consumer experience through technology. Super.com is purpose-built for value-conscious consumers, providing access to meaningful benefits and rewards through a single, easy-to-use platform. We’re proud to partner with the company in its next stage of growth," said Arun Agarwal, Partner, TPG.

A Breakout Year, A Strengthened Bench

2025 was a breakout growth year for Super.com. The company became profitable and grew revenue over 50%, surpassing $200 million in net revenue diversified across recurring and transactional revenue streams. Its Super+ membership is now approaching 1 million members and continues to grow with over half of U.S. hotel bookings now coming from Super+ members. 

Super.com also added significant senior talent to the team. Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, joined as a board observer and advisor. Ryan Fujiu, former CPO at Bird and head of driver growth at Uber, joined to lead product. Michele Lee, formerly general counsel at Pinterest, joined as Super.com's general counsel. All three bring experience scaling companies through their next chapters of growth.

"Super.com is one of the most exciting companies I have put my capital and conviction behind. Hussein and his team are doing what the best entrepreneurs do — taking what's been reserved for the wealthiest and putting it in the hands of everyday households. That's a category-creating bet, and it's the reason why I joined the board," said Harley Finkelstein, President, Shopify.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as sole placement agent to Super.com on the transaction. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP served as legal counsel to Super.com.

About Super.com

Super.com is the savings super app for everyday Americans. The app helps customers save across travel, entertainment, financial services, and daily spending. The Super+ membership supercharges the app. Members get 10% cashback on hotels, unlock financial tools like cash advances and credit building, and much more. Since 2016, Super.com has delivered more than $1 billion in savings. Learn more at www.super.com.

Media Contact

Super.com Communications
press@super.com

CHEQ, the leading identity, security, and intelligence platform for the open web, announced that Udi Mokady, founder of CyberArk and one of the most recognized architects of modern identity security, has been elevated to chairman of the board. The appointment marks a deepened commitment by Mokady to CHEQ’s mission at a pivotal moment, following the company's announcement of CHEQ Agent Intent, the industry's most comprehensive solution for securing the agentic web.

Mokady founded CyberArk in 1999 and built it into the global standard for privileged access management and identity security, establishing it as one of the most consequential companies in the history of cybersecurity. He is known not only as a visionary in the field, but as a builder of lasting organizations: companies that put customers at the center and create cultures that people are proud to be part of. CyberArk was acquired by Palo Alto Networks in February 2026 for $25 billion.

One of the most influential leaders in cybersecurity, Mokady has in recent years invested in a range of emerging ventures and served on several leading technology company boards. He joined CHEQ’s board in December 2023. His elevation to chairman reflects his growing conviction in CHEQ’s strategic direction and the urgency of the problem the company is solving. As chairman, he will advise on the company’s strategy and operational model as it scales.

"I have spent my career building and backing companies that solve the most important problem in cybersecurity: trust at scale," said Mokady. "Trust starts with identity — ensuring that every identity has legitimate credentials and access is fundamental to protecting every organization. The agentic web is the next frontier of that challenge, and CHEQ is the team addressing it head-on. CHEQ is solving a real business problem that every organization must contend with. As AI agents proliferate across the open web, CHEQ provides both the intelligence and the security guardrails that give organizations the visibility and control to embrace this new era with confidence. I'm excited to step into the chairman role at this defining moment."

CHEQ's platform combines the world's largest independent identity graph for fraud and trust, observing 6 billion authenticated user activities daily across 3 million websites and apps, with non-human detection across the entire customer journey. Earlier this month, CHEQ launched CHEQ Agent Intent, laying out the company's vision for trust, identity, intent, and control across every entity on the open web: human, bot, and AI agent alike.

"Few people understand the trajectory of cybersecurity better than Udi," said Guy Tytunovich, founder and CEO of CHEQ. "His decision to take on the chairman role tells you everything you need to know about where we are heading. CHEQ is building the trust infrastructure for the agentic web, and Udi's counsel and partnership will help us do it at the scale this moment demands. We are honored to have him at the table."

The appointment marks a pivotal moment for CHEQ as the company continues to scale to address the accelerating proliferation of AI agents acting on behalf of users — a challenge that demands bold leadership and a new class of solutions. Today, more than 15,000 organizations rely on CHEQ to secure the entities interacting with their digital experiences, whether human, bot, or AI agent, at a moment when telling one from another has never mattered more.

About CHEQ

CHEQ is the leading identity, security, and intelligence platform for the open web, trusted by the world's leading brands across industries including cybersecurity, financial services, retail and ecommerce, and technology. More than 15,000 companies, from the Fortune 50 to industry innovators, rely on CHEQ to secure their websites, protect their marketing investments, and govern who interacts with their digital experiences. CHEQ's platform combines the industry's only triple-layer traffic, trust, and identity intelligence engine with the world's largest independent identity graph for fraud and trust. Founded in 2016, CHEQ is a global organization with offices in New York, London, Tokyo, and Tel Aviv. For more information, visit cheq.ai.

About Udi Mokady

Udi Mokady is the founder of CyberArk, which he led from inception in 1999 through its IPO on the Nasdaq and 11 years as a public company, until its acquisition by Palo Alto Networks for $25 billion in 2026, one of the largest cybersecurity acquisitions in history. Across his tenure as CEO and executive chairman, Mokady established CyberArk as the global standard in identity security and privileged access management, building it into one of the most important cybersecurity companies of its generation. Beyond his operating career, he invests in emerging businesses, serves on the boards of multiple technology companies, and works closely with entrepreneurs to build and scale organizations. He is recognized internationally as one of the most influential leaders in cybersecurity.

Media Contact

lorie@aciostrategies.com

As millions of fans tune in for soccer's biggest matches, SKYN® is introducing a different kind of post-match analysis.

Today, SKYN launches Heat Map, the second chapter in the brand's summer campaign that borrows the visual language of sports broadcasting to tell a very different kind of story. Where broadcasters use heat maps to track player movement on the pitch, SKYN's Heat Map visualizes the chemistry, anticipation, and emotional intensity that unfold between couples after the game.

Heat Map transforms football's iconic heat map into a new visual language for attraction, chemistry, and human connection.

Inspired by the way broadcasters use heat maps to track where the action happens on the pitch, Heat Map shifts the focus to the chemistry, anticipation, and emotional intensity that unfold beyond the game.

Throughout the campaign, SKYN content mirrors the familiar language of football coverage, complete with pre-match build-up, tactical analysis, expert commentary, and post-match breakdowns. But instead of tracking player movement, Heat Map visualizes the emotional journey between couples on the path to "scoring."

"Football fans are obsessed with analyzing where the action happened. We wondered what would happen if you applied that same lens to attraction, seduction and connection," says Gian Carlo Lanfranco, co-founder and co-CCO, L&C. "Heat Map takes one of the sport's most iconic visual codes and turns it into a story about chemistry — the glances, the anticipation, the tension, and the moments that can turn a match night into something more. It's football analysis reimagined through the lens of human connection."

The campaign is rooted in a simple observation: the conversation doesn't end when the match does. Fans spend hours scrolling highlights, debating key moments, and reliving the action across social media.

"'Feel Everything' is about celebrating the emotions, sensations, and connections that make experiences meaningful," says Marta Toth, VP Global Marketing & Innovation, SKYN. "Soccer naturally creates for fans all around the world the kind of anticipation, excitement, and emotional investment that SKYN champions, making it a powerful cultural space for the brand to show up in an authentic way. Heat Map extends that idea by exploring the chemistry and connection that can happen beyond the match, reinforcing our belief that the best experiences are the ones you fully feel, when you 'Feel Everything.'"

The campaign will roll out across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok with content timed to coincide with many of the summer's biggest soccer matches. Each execution uses the visual language of sports broadcasting to tell a different kind of story, blending soccer culture, entertainment, intimacy, and human connection.

As a brand built around helping people feel more, SKYN continues to find new ways to participate in culture's biggest moments while staying true to its core belief: the best experiences happen when you feel everything.

About SKYN

SKYN is on a mission to reimagine intimacy — designing condoms, lubricants and massagers that center shared pleasure, comfort and connection. With SKYNFEEL®, a technologically advanced and patented soft non-latex material, designed to adapt smoothly & seamlessly to the body for the most natural fit and feeling, the brand invites people to experience more — without compromise. SKYN is a brand of LifeStyles Healthcare, a global leader in the sexual wellness sector, owned by the Chicago based private-equity firm Linden Capital Partners.

Media Contact

emma@lc-nyc.com

The 2026 Golden Osmanthus Industrial Design Award (GODA) was officially launched in Nanning, China, on July 2, 2026 (Beijing Time). Hosted by the Golden Osmanthus Industrial Design Award Organizing Committee and organized by the Harbin Design Center and Guangxi Future Intelligent Industrial Design Center, the award is presented through a competitive design competition with winners selected from global entries.

GODA is strategically aligned with the development needs of Guangxi's ten major modern pillar manufacturing industries and the unique application scenarios of the ASEAN region. By fully leveraging industrial design as the starting point of the innovation chain and the source of the value chain, the award aims to build a globally oriented platform for industrial design innovation. The competition features three categories: the Guangxi Products Renewal Track, the ASEAN Application Track, and the Public Creative Track.

The Guangxi Products Renewal Track focuses on Guangxi’s ten major modern manufacturing pillar industries and county-level distinctive industries, inviting entries across six categories: Artificial Intelligence, High-End Equipment, Smart Transportation, Food Processing, Home & Lifestyle, and Intangible Cultural Heritage & Craft.

The ASEAN Application Track adopts the same six competition categories as the Guangxi Products Renewal Track and features a convenient "one-click selection, simultaneous evaluation" application mechanism. Entrants may choose whether to participate in the ASEAN Application Track simply by selecting the corresponding option during registration without submitting duplicate application materials.

The Public Creativity Track is open to the general public as well as university faculty and students, aiming to stimulate creativity across society while further enhancing public engagement and the overall influence of the Award.

GODA features a comprehensive awards system, including the Grand Award, Gold Award, Excellence Award, ASEAN Application Award, and Public Creativity Award with a total prize pool of RMB 3 million. The Award also adopts a diversified entry solicitation mechanism comprising four channels: Public Submission, Institutional Recommendation, Targeted Invitation, and Expert Nomination, enabling the discovery of outstanding design talent from around the world.

The competition schedule (Beijing Time) is as follows: Entries are now being accepted through the end of July. The evaluation process will take place from August to September, and the winners will be officially announced at the China (Guangxi)-ASEAN Industrial Design Week in late September where the award ceremony will also be held.

We cordially invite manufacturing enterprises, design agencies, professional designers, university faculty, students, as well as innovative individuals and teams from around the world to participate. For submissions and further details, please visit the official GODA website at www.godaaward.com.

About Golden Osmanthus Industrial Design Award (GODA)

Hosted by the Golden Osmanthus Industrial Design Award Organizing Committee and organized by the Harbin Design Center and Guangxi Future Intelligent Industrial Design Center, the competition is aligned with Guangxi’s manufacturing priorities and ASEAN regional applications. GODA supports the development of Guangxi’s ten major modern manufacturing industries while addressing the region’s unique industrial needs. By positioning industrial design as a driver of innovation and value creation, the award aims to build a globally oriented platform for industrial design excellence.

Media Contact

feedback@godaaward.com

More than 100 government officials, investors, industry experts, and technology founders gathered Monday for the second Digiloong Cup Global AI Innovation Competition’s Macao Investment Summit and AI Ecosystem Forum. Co-hosted by Century Huatong and the Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) of the Macao Special Administrative Region, the event connected frontier AI technology and industry capital with Macao’s innovation ecosystem, helping promising mainland AI startups reach global markets through Macao’s role as a commercial platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Officials and executives attending the summit included Alex Che Weng Keong, president of IPIM’s board of directors; Chao Ka Chon, a member of the Macao Legislative Assembly and chairman of the Macao-Hengqin Cultural and Technology Industry Association; Wang Ji, chairman of Century Huatong; Deng Qi, executive director of Shengqu Capital; and U Si Man, acting senior manager of IPIM’s Investment Promotion and Economic and Trade Expansion Department. They discussed ways to advance Macao’s AI industry and strengthen its innovation ecosystem.

Government and Business Align on Macao's AI Future

Che delivered the summit’s opening address. He said the global gaming industry is accelerating its shift toward AI, and that Macao can draw on its location in the Greater Bay Area, its international platform, and its convention-and-exhibition strengths to offer the mainland gaming and AI sectors real-world testing, resource connections and support for expanding overseas. Macao continues to improve its business environment for technology innovation, Che said, moving ahead with a technology park, establishing a 20 billion-pataca ($2.5 billion) guidance fund and building out its startup ecosystem. He said IPIM will deepen its services to government and business, helping companies set up operations in Macao and expand innovation cooperation.

Wang then gave a welcome address on behalf of the host and offered three core assessments of the industry drawn from operating experience. First, he said, the productivity gains from AI tools are now well proven, but efficiency improvements are only the price of entry and cannot build a lasting competitive moat. Second, the reshaping of technical capabilities will mark the industry’s turning point: AI agents can automate roughly 80% of standardized work, and a company’s core competitiveness will no longer rest on basic execution but on creative judgment and aesthetic sensibility. Third, competition has entered a phase decided by ecosystems, in which a company’s long-term potential depends on the completeness of its industry ecosystem and the depth of the real-world data it has accumulated, rather than on the parameter count of a large model alone.

On the decision to bring the Digiloong Cup to Macao, Wang said the city is a key hub linking mainland and global innovation resources, with substantial untapped potential for industrial transformation. He also announced that Century Huatong will sign a strategic cooperation memorandum with IPIM, under which the two will work closely to build out the full AI value chain and take digital-entertainment content overseas, making Macao a key pillar of Century Huatong’s global industrial strategy.

U took the stage for a policy briefing, explaining how Macao’s platform advantages can support the gaming industry’s overseas expansion. She said Macao’s positioning as “one center, one platform and one base” provides structured support for taking games abroad. As a center, Macao draws on the tourism reach of the more than 40 million visitors it receives each year to run “gaming-plus-tourism” cross-sector marketing and esports tie-ins. As a platform, it serves as a “precise liaison” between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, helping companies reach European, Latin American and African markets through those countries and addressing the difficulty of repatriating overseas earnings. As a base, it partners with universities to train talent and uses a tech R&D park to build a cycle that runs from innovation and incubation to overseas expansion. Combined with a low-tax environment and one-stop setup services, this offers comprehensive support for mainland games expanding overseas.

Deng Qi, executive director of Century Huatong’s Shengqu Capital, outlined the company’s positioning in AI and gave an update on the second Digiloong Cup. The competition drew more than 200 registrations and nearly 100 strong project submissions, Deng said, and entries are now being judged. A final review by expert judges will be held in Shanghai in the second half of next month to select the winning teams in each category.

In his remarks, Chao, a member of the Macao Legislative Assembly and chairman of the Macao-Hengqin Cultural and Technology Industry Association, said AI is a core driver of the global digital economy and a key emerging sector for Macao as it implements its “1+4” appropriate economic diversification strategy and works to diversify and upgrade its industries. Macao is a hub for AI innovation going global, he said, and the association, guided by its mission to “connect Macao and Hengqin, serve the world,” acts as a bridge connecting government and business, industry and investment, and companies with universities and research institutes. As a supporting organization of the Digiloong Cup Global AI Innovation Competition, the association will provide cross-border companies with end-to-end, one-stop services and use the Digiloong Cup to build an industry-investment matching platform, inviting companies to set up in Macao and Hengqin.

The summit also held a ceremony awarding membership plaques to new members of the Macao-Hengqin Cultural and Technology Industry Association. Century Huatong and more than 10 leading mainland cultural and technology companies were granted membership. Going forward, they will use the association’s platform to expand ongoing collaboration between Macao and Hengqin in digital innovation and AI-driven entertainment, helping promising mainland AI projects reach Portuguese-speaking markets through Macao.

Keynote Addresses: A Close Look at the Future of the AI Industry

The summit featured a high-level keynote session in which two leading industry experts and investors took the stage, unpacking the current opportunities and future trends of the AI industry from two perspectives: underlying technology and industry investment.

Dr. Liu Wei, founder of AI foundation model company Video Rebirth and an IEEE Fellow, spoke on “Building Video-Native World Models,” offering a detailed look at the technology behind them and its value to the industry. AI is undergoing a critical leap from “perception intelligence” to “cognitive intelligence,” he said: large language models have taught machines to understand and generate language, while world models will let AI truly understand the physical world and gain the ability to simulate, predict and plan. He argued that video is the best path to world models and will open a physical-AI market far larger than that of language models. China’s technology in this area leads the world, he said, and his team’s proprietary BACH model is iterating rapidly, with applications across demanding sectors such as autonomous driving and robotics.

Ji Xing, a partner at Lighthouse Capital and managing partner of the Lighthouse Founders’ Fund (L2F), gave a keynote titled “A New Investment Paradigm for the AI Era.” He said AI is entering a 30-year window of industrial change, with technology iteration and demand growth far outpacing the mobile internet and power industries; despite a short-term valuation bubble, its long-term growth potential is vast as a foundational productivity technology. Investing, he said, comes down to two things: whether the team fits its sector and whether the product fits its market. Firms can connect startups with industry resources and share experience gained through market cycles. Lighthouse Capital established the Lighthouse Founders’ Fund to invest deeply in AI, embodied intelligence and frontier technology, working with industry partners such as Century Huatong to build an innovation ecosystem and support top founders over time.

Two Roundtables: AI in Practice and the Embodied-Intelligence Sector

The summit also held two substantive roundtable discussions, moderated by Deng Qi of Shengqu Capital, bringing together leading AI founders to examine real industry pain points, deployment challenges and future paths.

The first roundtable, “Smart R&D, Smart Design, Smart Play,” focused on deploying AI applications and monetizing them. Xue Rui, founding partner and CFO of Math Magic; Mao Shuhan, co-founder and CEO of Knevo; and He Leilei, partner at Muyan Zhiyu and producer of Xingmian, shared the stage. Xue said Math Magic’s proprietary 3D AI links design, physical production and its creator community end to end, an integrated approach that creates a distinctive competitive advantage. Mao said Knevo uses a personalized user system and a market-review process to close gaps in digitizing investment decisions in financial AI. He Leilei described how AI is reshaping emotional interaction in games, building user assets and widening the boundaries of IP monetization. The discussion made clear that AI is no longer just an efficiency tool but is penetrating deep into the core value chains of many industries.

The second roundtable, “Embodied Everything,” focused on embodied intelligence, one of the most closely watched areas in AI today. Three leading founders took part: Dr. Liu Wulong of Beta Infinity, Xue Kehan of xLean and Xarathustra of SomniaLab. They debated the bottlenecks in embodied-intelligence technology, the challenges of product deployment, the industry’s diverging technical approaches and the paths to commercialization. Liu Wulong backed a general purpose robot-brain approach, building a data flywheel with a hybrid architecture and a spatiotemporal memory module, and argued that iterating one use case at a time is the key to the widespread adoption of home robots. Xue Kehan pointed to cleaning robots as a deployment entry point, using high-frequency interaction to collect comprehensive, multidimensional real-world data that can generalize across categories. SomniaLab focuses on emotional empathy, tackling EQ technology barriers such as biomimetic materials and facial-muscle articulation. The panelists agreed the sector has considerable room to grow but, constrained by data collection, technical standards and the path to commercialization, requires long-term investment.

From technology development in Hangzhou and investor matchmaking in Shanghai to its global launch in Macao, the second Digiloong Cup is building, under a new model, a complete AI innovation loop that runs from technology innovation to project incubation, capital support, industrial deployment and cross-border expansion. As Wang said at the event, the second half of the AI industry has begun, and Macao is rapidly entering a new phase of innovation-driven growth. Going forward, Century Huatong will continue to use the Digiloong Cup platform to bring together Macao’s innovation strengths, the resources of the China-Portuguese-speaking countries market and global capital, working to unlock the value of AI innovation, support industrial upgrading and help China’s AI innovators expand overseas.

About Century Huatong

Century Huatong is a China-based digital technology company engaged in internet gaming, artificial intelligence cloud data, and advanced manufacturing. Founded in 2005 and publicly listed in Shenzhen, the company has evolved from its origins in automotive parts into a diversified global technology enterprise with operations spanning entertainment, data infrastructure, and innovation-driven industries. Through subsidiaries such as Century Games, Century Huatong develops and publishes globally recognized mobile and online games.

Media Contact

lixiaorang.lois@digiloong.com

MixRoute, the unified API gateway for large language models, today confirmed that it will offer OpenAI's GPT-5.6 model family as soon as the models reach general availability. GPT-5.6 will join Anthropic's Claude Fable 5, which is already live on the platform. The result gives developers access to both frontier systems through a single API key and a single top-up, without a separate OpenAI or Anthropic subscription.

OpenAI previewed the GPT-5.6 family on June 26, 2026, opening access to a limited group of partner organizations ahead of a wider public release expected in the coming weeks. The family includes three modes: Sol, the flagship model built for the hardest problems; Terra, a balanced option for high-volume business tasks; and Luna, a faster, lower-cost model for everyday work. Of the three, Sol is the mode positioned to compete most directly with Anthropic's most capable models.

Independent benchmark reporting suggests the two systems trade wins rather than one clearly leading. GPT-5.6 Sol has topped Terminal-Bench 2.1 in published results, while Claude Fable 5 has held the lead on SWE-Bench Pro. According to those comparisons, each model is stronger on different classes of work. For teams, the practical takeaway is that access to both models, rather than a single provider, offers the widest coverage.

MixRoute is built for exactly that scenario. A single top-up unlocks both models plus more than 200 others, available around the clock at official provider pricing with zero markup. Teams no longer need to maintain and pay for separate OpenAI and Anthropic accounts to work across the two ecosystems.

"The frontier is no longer a single model from a single lab," said Alan Lu at MixRoute. "Sol and Fable 5 are each better at different things, so forcing developers to pick one provider means leaving capability on the table. MixRoute exists so teams can reach the right model for each task without juggling subscriptions or paying a markup to do it."

Claude Fable 5 is available on the platform today. GPT-5.6 will be added once OpenAI opens the models to the public, at which point existing MixRoute users will be able to call both through the same endpoint they already use.

About MixRoute

MixRoute is a unified API gateway that gives developers access to more than 200 AI models through a single API key and one OpenAI-compatible endpoint. The platform charges official provider pricing with zero markup, so teams can call frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others without separate subscriptions or per-provider accounts. Reserved capacity helps reduce rate-limit errors, and consolidated billing replaces multiple invoices with a single top-up. Learn more at mixroute.ai.

Media Contact

Andrew B.
Savon PR
hello@savonpr.com

HostColor (HC), a globally recognized dedicated cloud hosting provider, has launched AMD Ryzen and AMD EPYC Amsterdam dedicated servers in the Netherlands, connected to 10 Gbps internet bandwidth ports. These AMD-based dedicated hosting services are delivered from three locations: the MainCubes AMS01 data center at Capronilaan 2, 1119 NR Schiphol-Rijk; the Equinix AM4 data center at Science Park 610 in Amsterdam; and the nLighten facility at Koolhovenlaan 120 in Schiphol-Rijk.

The AMD-powered servers are offered with a choice of AMD Ryzen and AMD EPYC processors. Ryzen CPU platforms are available with Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 9 7950X3D, or Ryzen 9 9950X processors. Bare metal servers based on the AMD EPYC CPU series offer processors such as the EPYC 7443P, EPYC 7543P, EPYC 9354P, EPYC 9274F, EPYC 9374F, EPYC 9275F, EPYC 9375F, EPYC 9474F, EPYC 9475F, EPYC 9575F, EPYC 9654, EPYC 9754, and EPYC 4564P.

All HostColor's Amsterdam-hosted, AMD-processor-based bare metal server and cloud infrastructure services, provided from the MainCubes AMS01 and Equinix AM4 data centers, are delivered with metered data transfer by default. This is measured in terabytes (TB) of transmitted data per month, via 10-gigabit internet connection ports. At the customer's request, the infrastructure service can be set to an unmetered bandwidth networking model.

"Due to excellent connectivity options and market demand, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has become one of HostColor's primary global locations for delivering AMD Ryzen- and AMD EPYC-powered dedicated servers with 10 Gbps internet connection ports," says HostColor CEO Dimitar Avramov. He adds that the other EU point of presence (POP) for AMD-based HPC servers is Frankfurt. This will be announced in Q3 of 2026. With Ashburn, New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo now included among our on-net POPs, HostColor has a global footprint for delivering AMD-powered bare metal and cloud infrastructure services.

The average service delivery time for HostColor's Amsterdam-based AMD-powered dedicated hosting service plans varies depending on stock availability. Stocked configurations are delivered within eight to 48 hours of placing an order. A variety of preconfigured services are available for delivery in as little as four hours. Custom, on-demand bare metal infrastructure solutions take up to 14 days to provision and deliver.

Data Storage IaaS Solutions

HostColor recently announced new dedicated data storage IaaS solutions delivered from data centers across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America. The portfolio includes bare metal data storage service plans and customizable cloud data storage solutions. HostColor's data storage IaaS allows organizations to conveniently, securely, and privately store their data at the edge while applying their custom data retention and protection policies. "At the edge" means that organizations' private data storage infrastructure will be accessible with the lowest possible latency. Lower latency means lower round-trip delay for data transfer, safeguarding the data and improving transfer speed.

HostColor's dedicated data storage customers can use Linux containers (LCX), Kubernetes containers, Microsoft Hyper-V, Proxmox VE, VMware ESXi, and other cloud computing infrastructure platforms. Those using HostColor's cloud data storage solutions can choose from metered data transfer quotas in terabytes per month or unmetered bandwidth quotas, which start at 250 Mbps and are scalable up to 10 Gbps.

Organizations using HostColor's data storage solutions benefit from unmetered bandwidth quotas, which allow unlimited data transfer up to the full capacity of their internet connection ports. HostColor does not charge for internet traffic, IOPS, DNS lookups, DNS zones, internet traffic zones, or infrastructure technical support. As a result, HostColor customers save significant financial resources.

Free Infrastructure Technical Support

HostColor provides free infrastructure technical support for access to technical support for the core functionality of its data storage solutions. As part of its service level agreement (SLA), HostColor provides data storage services with "free infrastructure technical support" (FITS). FITS covers the core functionality of the virtual network interfaces. However, it does not cover maintenance and support for operating systems (OS), custom configurations, or installed software applications. These are covered by the next level of SLA-defined technical support.

Semi-Managed Data Storage Services

According to HostColor's SLA, the company's entire line of bare metal and cloud data storage services is "semi-managed." The provider is responsible for installing and configuring server instances according to the customer's custom Linux infrastructure configurations. Upon request, HC Support will reinstall the operating system (OS), configure and manage network settings, create and maintain virtual private networks (VPNs), and help customers troubleshoot OS, network, or software configuration issues on the server side.

About HostColor

Since 2000, HostColor (HC) has been a leading hosting provider offering customizable dedicated cloud infrastructure and bare metal servers from over 120 physical and virtual data centers in the United States and around the world. HC helps organizations maintain a competitive advantage in the cloud, optimize their technology infrastructure, and minimize costs. Its semi-managed edge cloud and edge bare metal server hosting services include low-latency data and application delivery, unlimited data transfers, and business continuity infrastructure supported by a team of technology experts.

HostColor provisions U.S. edge servers from Albany, New York; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Ashburn and Herndon, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia; Amarillo, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio, Texas; Bend and Portland, Oregon; Billings, Montana; Birmingham, Alabama; Boise, Idaho; Cambridge/Boston, Massachusetts; Casper, Wyoming; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa, Florida; Kansas City and Saint Louis, Missouri; Las Vegas, Nevada; Little Rock, Arkansas; Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento, Santa Clara, and San Diego, California; Madison, Wisconsin; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Nashville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City and the State of New York; Omaha, Nebraska; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle and Spokane, Washington; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. For more information, visit www.hostcolor.com.

Disclaimer

HostColor uses its own IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, as well as leased IP resources and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) managed by partner Network Operations Centers (NOCs), for most of its bare metal server and cloud infrastructure delivery locations. The data centers used by HostColor to deliver hosting services are ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and SSAE 16 SOC I, SOC II, and SOC III certified. All are HIPAA and PCI-DSS compliant.

Media Contact

PR Department
HostColor.com
pr@hostcolor.com
+1 888-222-1495

The Scientific Association for Botanical Education and Research (SABER) welcomes the issuance of two Notices of Intent from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to begin the temporary scheduling of concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) and three related synthetic derivatives, and commends the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the scientific and medical review that supported the action.

The action, announced July 1, 2026, consists of two Notices of Intent (NOIs) filed with the Federal Register. One NOI addresses the temporary placement of 7-OH above a specified threshold into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The second would place three derivatives that do not occur naturally in kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) into Schedule I:

• Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (MP) 
• Dihydro-7-hydroxymitragynine (MGM-15) 
• The 9-fluoro derivative of 7-hydroxymitragynine (MGM-16) 

“This action reflects exactly the kind of science-based, targeted approach we have long advocated,” said Thomas Brendler, PhD, Chair of SABER’s Steering Committee. “Federal agencies reviewed the available evidence and drew a careful line between natural kratom and the concentrated and synthetic products that have raised serious public health concerns. Making that distinction is essential to protecting consumers without discarding a botanical with a long history of traditional use.”

Concurrent with the NOI addressing 7-OH, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment on the proposed threshold level — specifically, what concentration or quantity of 7-OH in a product constitutes an imminent hazard to public safety. After a 30-day comment period, OASH will forward the submitted comments to the Attorney General, who may then issue a temporary scheduling order placing 7-OH above the threshold in Schedule I for up to two years if such action is necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to public safety.

Federal agencies emphasized that the action is not intended to regulate natural kratom leaf that does not contain enhanced levels of 7-OH. Although 7-OH can occasionally be found in post-harvest kratom leaf in trace amounts as an oxidative degradation product of mitragynine, scheduling 7-OH above a defined threshold is not intended to capture leaf products. By contrast, MP, MGM-15, and MGM-16, which also do not occur naturally in the plant, are achieved only by chemical synthesis.

“As policymakers consider how to approach kratom and related products, it is important to recognize that not all products are the same,” said Paula Brown, PhD, a member of SABER’s Scientific Steering Committee. “Highly concentrated and synthetic 7-OH products marketed as kratom extracts are fundamentally different from the traditional botanical and treating them identically serves no one.”

Brown noted that the enforcement actions preceding the scheduling process — including FDA warning letters issued to companies marketing 7-OH products in 2025 and the subsequent seizure of unlawful 7-OH products — reflected mounting concern about concentrated and synthetic material entering the consumer market under the kratom label.

“Clear regulatory distinctions, grounded in science, allow legitimate research and responsible botanical products to move forward while removing the most dangerous material from the market,” she said. “That is a constructive outcome for consumers, clinicians, and public health.”

SABER views the temporary scheduling of concentrated and synthetic 7-OH derivatives as consistent with a broader movement toward evaluating botanical compounds through the same rigorous, evidence-based framework applied to other substances, and commends the DEA, HHS, and FDA for distinguishing these products from the natural botanical. SABER encourages continued investment in research to further clarify the safety profile of kratom and its constituent alkaloids and looks forward to informed public health decisions grounded in sound science.

About Scientific Association for Botanical Education and Research (SABER)

The Scientific Association for Botanical Education and Research (SABER) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the evidence-based study, science-forward regulation, and safe access to botanical compounds. Led by a Scientific Steering Committee of medical professionals and researchers, SABER utilizes research partnerships, policy advocacy, and public education to ensure that natural products are studied responsibly and regulated appropriately. To learn more, visit www.saberscience.org.

Media Contact

Paloma Lehfeldt
info@saberscience.org

PepScribe, a telehealth practice connecting patients with U.S.-licensed clinicians for personalized peptide and related therapies, today announced its public launch. The company offers clinician-led online assessments and monthly treatment plans for goals including weight management, hormone health, longevity and cellular health, and recovery.

Consumer interest in peptide therapy has surged, but much of the online supply runs through unlicensed "research chemical" sellers that ship unverified compounds with no prescription, no clinician, and no accountability for what is actually in the vial. PepScribe was built as the opposite of that model: every therapy requires a clinical evaluation by a U.S.-licensed clinician, and every dose is compounded in the United States by a licensed 503A pharmacy. No hidden overseas supply chain.

Getting started takes about three minutes. Patients complete a free online assessment, and a licensed clinician reviews it — typically within 24 hours. If the clinician determines a therapy is appropriate, the prescription is filled by a licensed 503A compounding pharmacy and shipped directly to the patient's home. If it isn't the right fit, the clinician says so, and the patient is never charged. Ongoing care includes asynchronous clinician messaging, lab-driven dose adjustments, and scheduled follow-up reviews.

Peptide therapy grew faster than the infrastructure around it, leaving many patients to buy from anonymous online sellers with no way to know where a compound was made or what it contains. PepScribe was built to remove that uncertainty: every prescription is written by a U.S.-licensed clinician, and every compound comes from a licensed 503A pharmacy in the United States.

At launch, PepScribe's catalog includes compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide for weight management, sermorelin for growth-hormone support, and NAD+ for cellular health, alongside treatments spanning hormone health, sexual health, and hair and skin. The intake is universal: clinicians match patients to therapies based on goals, symptoms, and medical history, and remain the prescriber of record throughout care.

PepScribe is LegitScript-certified, an independent third-party verification of clinician licensure and pharmacy compliance that is required to advertise telehealth services on major platforms. Compounded medications are prepared for individual patients under a clinician's prescription and are not FDA-approved. PepScribe is available in eligible states, with additional states rolling out on an ongoing basis. Patients can check availability and begin a free assessment at pepscribe.com.

About PepScribe

PepScribe is a telehealth practice that connects patients with U.S.-licensed clinicians who evaluate each intake and, when clinically appropriate, prescribe personalized peptide and related therapies for goals including weight management, hormone health, longevity and cellular health, and recovery. Its core offering pairs a clinician-led online assessment with monthly treatment plans — including compounded semaglutide, tirzepatide, sermorelin, and NAD+ — with every dose compounded in the United States by licensed 503A pharmacies and shipped directly to patients' homes. No hidden overseas supply chain. Every assessment is reviewed by a licensed clinician, typically within 24 hours, and patients are not charged unless a treatment is prescribed. Ongoing care includes asynchronous clinician messaging, lab-driven dose adjustments, and scheduled follow-up reviews. Beyond peptide therapy, PepScribe's catalog spans hormone health, sexual health, and hair and skin treatments. PepScribe is LegitScript-certified, an independent third-party verification of clinician licensure and pharmacy compliance. Compounded medications are prepared for individual patients under a clinician's prescription and are not FDA-approved. More information and the full treatment catalog are available at pepscribe.com.

Disclaimer

This press release concerns telehealth services and compounded prescription medications. PepScribe does not manufacture pharmaceuticals or guarantee clinical outcomes. Compounded medications are prescribed only after evaluation by a licensed healthcare provider, are prepared by licensed 503A compounding pharmacies for individual patients, and are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). PepScribe is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Novo Nordisk (makers of Ozempic® and Wegovy®) or Eli Lilly (makers of Mounjaro® and Zepbound®), and its compounded treatments are not generic equivalents of these branded medications.Availability of services and treatments varies by state and is subject to applicable laws and clinician judgment. Statements regarding potential health, wellness, longevity, weight management, or other therapeutic benefits are provided by the issuer and should not be interpreted as guarantees of efficacy or medical advice. Patients should consult a qualified healthcare provider regarding their individual medical needs.

Media Contact

Media Relations
PepScribe
pepe@pepscribe.com

MD LOCAL GLOBAL LIMITED (MDLG) today officially announced the launch of the Fernie Cultural Universe, a visionary long-term cultural ecosystem that seamlessly bridges Eastern philosophy, animated art, and European heritage. Anchored at the historic Fernie Castle in Scotland, the project integrates original animation intellectual property (IP), an authentic Oriental garden, and immersive digital platforms to create a global sustainable cultural venue.

Guided by the foundational values of civilization, faith, forgiveness, and freedom, the Fernie Cultural Universe transcends the traditional concept of a heritage site. The project is uniquely positioned around three irreplaceable core assets:

• The Historic Anchor: The profound architectural and historical legacy of a 16th-century Scottish tower.
• The Eastern Sanctuary: A meticulously designed Oriental garden nestled within the medieval fortress grounds, creating a striking cross-cultural contrast.
• The Original IP: A bespoke animation universe built upon Eastern myths and philosophical fables tailored for a global audience.

A Vision Built on Three Core Pillars

The ecosystem operationalizes its ambitious vision through three distinct, interconnected pillars designed to engage both physical visitors and digital audiences worldwide:

• Fernie Animation Castle: A physical transformation of the Fernie Castle estate featuring the new Oriental garden, an on-site animation art museum, and immersive visitor trails where ancient stone architecture serves as the canvas for modern animated art.
• Original Animation Development: The creation of refined, cinematic 2D animated shorts. Drawing inspiration from classic Eastern mythology and philosophy, these narratives explore profound themes of truth, illusion, transformation, and identity.
• Digital Animation Art Museum: A borderless online platform curated around philosophical themes, expanding the project's reach to a global digital audience.

Cross-Disciplinary Collaborations: Kengo Kuma and European Animation Practitioners

To bring this cross-cultural vision to life, MDLG has established collaborations with respected international figures in architecture and film.

The design of the Oriental garden zone has been commissioned to the studio of celebrated Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The design philosophy preserves the castle’s original historic character while weaving in the tranquility and contemplative spirit of traditional Eastern courtyards, offering visitors an immersive sanctuary for reflection.

On the creative production front, the project works with a network of experienced European animation directors, screenwriters, visual artists, and international film producers. Heavily inspired by timeless Eastern classics such as "Journey to the West," this creative coalition utilizes delicate 2D animation to deliver visually striking, philosophical fables crafted with universal international aesthetics.

Fostering a Global Co-Creation Community

Parallel to the ongoing design and planning phases of its physical venue and upcoming digital platform development, the project is launching an early co-creation community. Rather than acting as passive consumers, community members will serve as active partners in the universe's evolution long before the castle site opens to the public. Members will receive phased access to exclusive, behind-the-scenes assets, including original conceptual artwork, creative production journals, and philosophical essays.

For more information regarding the project, partnership opportunities, or to join the co-creation community, please visit www.fernieculturaluniverse.com.

About MD LOCAL GLOBAL LIMITED (MDLG)

MDLG is a wholly-owned UK subsidiary of MDJM LTD (NASDAQ: UOKA), headquartered at Fernie Castle. The parent company takes the Eastern philosophy of "the unity of knowledge and action" as its core tenet — knowledge and practice are inseparable. MDLG’s mission is to revitalize dormant historic buildings into dynamic hubs brimming with culture and creativity. The Fernie Cultural Universe embodies this philosophy: more than an ancient castle, it houses an Oriental garden and a breeding ground for original animation universes. MDLG in one sentence: We steer clear of noisy commercial development, and only build living cultural vessels with genuine vitality. For more information, visit www.mdlocalglobal.com.

Media Contact

Erica Guo
contact@fernieculturaluniverse.com

The American Kratom Association (AKA) today supported the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) announcement of its intent to temporarily schedule high-potency 7-hydroxymitragynine, commonly known as 7-OH, and its follow-on products under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

The DEA action confirms what the AKA has repeatedly warned state and federal policymakers: chemically manipulated 7-OH opioid products are not natural kratom leaf products. They are high-potency opioid products that have been falsely marketed as “kratom” while exposing consumers to serious and unnecessary risks.

“This DEA action should end the debate,” said Mac Haddow, Senior Fellow on Public Policy for the American Kratom Association. “Chemically manipulated 7-OH opioids are not kratom. They are dangerous products that exploited the reputation of natural kratom leaf, misled consumers, and created a public health threat that responsible regulators can no longer ignore.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., echoed that position in an official HHS statement commending the DEA, saying:

“I commend the DEA for taking decisive action to address these addictive and harmful substances. 7-OH, MP, MGM-15, and MGM-16 are dangerous opioids that fuel addiction and put American lives at risk. HHS reviewed the science and recommended this action. The Trump Administration will continue using every available authority to stop these deceptive products, hold bad actors accountable, and protect American families.”

These actions are not intended to regulate natural leaf kratom that does not contain enhanced levels of 7-OH. Although 7-OH occurs naturally in trace amounts in the kratom plant, scheduling 7-OH above a certain threshold level does not intend to capture the kratom botanical leaf in the present temporary scheduling recommendation. MP, MGM-15, and MGM-16 do not occur naturally in the plant. MP is a chemical rearrangement product of 7-OH, while MGM-15 and MGM-16 are synthetic derivatives of 7-OH.

DEA’s notice targets 7-OH above a specified threshold and includes related forms such as isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and follow-on products. That distinction is critical. Natural kratom leaf contains only trace or very low levels of 7-OH. The products now flooding the marketplace are different. They are concentrated, isolated, converted, or chemically manipulated products designed to deliver powerful opioid-like effects.

“State officials should be very clear about what happened here,” Haddow said. “The 7-OH industry created this crisis. They manufactured or distributed high-potency opioid products, dressed them up as kratom, and then tried to force natural kratom consumers to pay the price for their recklessness.”

The AKA is calling on governors, attorneys general, state legislatures, health departments, pharmacy boards, and law enforcement officials to take immediate action to remove chemically manipulated 7-OH opioid products and their derivatives from the marketplace.

“Any state official still claiming that 7-OH products are just another form of kratom is ignoring the science, ignoring DEA, and ignoring the growing evidence of harm,” Haddow said. “Natural kratom leaf should be responsibly regulated. 7-OH opioid products should be banned.”

The AKA has consistently supported state and federal policies that preserve access to properly manufactured natural kratom leaf products while banning unsafe synthetic, semi-synthetic, chemically manipulated, adulterated, or mislabeled products. Responsible kratom regulation should include age restrictions, accurate labeling, serving-size disclosures, contaminant testing, good manufacturing practices, and strict limits on 7-OH content.

“What lawmakers should not do is use the 7-OH crisis as an excuse to ban natural kratom leaf,” Haddow said. “That would reward the very bad actors who created this problem. The right answer is to shut down the 7-OH opioid marketplace and protect consumers who rely on safe, natural kratom leaf products.”

The DEA announcement also exposes the failure of policymakers who have accepted misleading claims from 7-OH manufacturers and distributors that their products are “natural” simply because 7-OH can occur in trace amounts in kratom leaf or as a metabolite of mitragynine in the body.

“That argument was always deceptive,” Haddow said. “The fact that trace amounts of 7-OH may occur naturally does not justify selling chemically manipulated, high-dose 7-OH opioid products in gummies, tablets, shots, strips, nasal sprays, and other rapid-delivery forms. That is not natural kratom. That is a dangerous chemical manipulation of kratom alkaloids.”

The AKA also warned that medical examiners, coroners, and public health agencies must stop using broad and misleading “kratom-related death” categories that fail to distinguish between natural kratom leaf, adulterated products, polydrug intoxications, and chemically manipulated 7-OH opioid products.

“DEA’s action makes precision essential,” Haddow said. “When public health officials lump everything together as ‘kratom,’ they mislead lawmakers and the public. That confusion has allowed 7-OH profiteers to hide behind natural kratom consumers while selling products that responsible kratom advocates have opposed from the beginning.”

The AKA is urging states to immediately adopt or amend consumer protection laws to:

1. Ban chemically manipulated 7-OH opioid products and derivatives;
2. Prohibit synthetic, semi-synthetic, converted, or concentrated 7-OH products falsely marketed as kratom;
3. Preserve lawful access to natural kratom leaf and properly manufactured kratom products;
4. Require clear serving-size labeling, age restrictions, contaminant testing, and good manufacturing practices;
5. Enforce against mislabeled, adulterated, and rapid-absorption products designed to evade responsible regulation.

“This is a defining moment for state policymakers,” Haddow said. “They can stand with consumers and science, or they can continue allowing 7-OH profiteers to endanger the public and destroy trust in the kratom marketplace.”

The American Kratom Association stands ready to work with DEA, FDA, HHS, Congress, governors, attorneys general, state legislatures, and responsible industry participants to remove dangerous 7-OH opioid products from the marketplace while preserving access to properly regulated natural kratom leaf.

“The message to every state official should be simple,” Haddow said. “Do not ban kratom because of 7-OH. Ban 7-OH because it is not kratom.”

About American Kratom Association (AKA)

American Kratom Association (AKA) is a consumer-based, nonprofit organization, focused on furthering the latest science as guidance for kratom public policy. AKA works to give a voice to millions of Americans by fighting to protect their rights to access safe and natural kratom. For more information, visit www.americankratom.org and learn more at kratomanswers.org.

Media Contact

Mac Haddow
Senior Fellow on Public Policy
press@americankratom.org
+1 571-294-5978

The Prelude Network® (Prelude), North America's largest network of fertility clinics, today announced the rebranding of its Houston fertility practices. Effective July 1, Aspire Houston Fertility Institute (Aspire HFI) has officially become Aspire Fertility.

The rebranding is part of a broader initiative to align Aspire Fertility locations under a unified brand, creating greater consistency and recognition across the organization's growing network while preserving the personalized care patients have come to expect. In 2026, Aspire Fertility has been recognized by Castle Connolly as the No. 1 physician practice in Texas with the highest number of Top Doctors in Reproductive Medicine and Women’s Health Care.

Part of The Prelude Network, Aspire Fertility clinics include Aspire Fertility Houston, Aspire Fertility Austin, Aspire Fertility Dallas, and Aspire Fertility San Antonio. Each clinic provides comprehensive reproductive care led by nationally recognized physicians and offers a full spectrum of fertility services for women and men.

"Every clinic within Prelude is committed to providing patients with a streamlined process of care that enhances their experience during one of the most challenging journeys of their lives, including our Aspire practices,” said TJ Farnsworth, founder and CEO of Inception Fertility™, the parent company of Prelude. “This transition reflects our connection to a larger statewide network dedicated to helping individuals and families achieve their dreams of parenthood."

Aspire Fertility was founded by patients for patients, including Farnsworth, who launched the network after he and his wife, Margaret, experienced their own infertility journey.

"As patients ourselves, we experienced firsthand the emotional and physical challenges that often accompany fertility treatment, and we saw opportunities to make the process more supportive, transparent, and patient-centered,” said Farnsworth. “That experience inspired us to create Aspire Fertility — a place where individuals and families feel empowered, cared for, and supported throughout every step of their journey to parenthood."

With 14 locations across the Greater Houston area, Aspire Fertility offers a comprehensive range of fertility services, including diagnostic testing, in vitro fertilization (IVF), intrauterine insemination (IUI), fertility preservation, preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), LGBTQ+ family-building services, and third-party reproduction. The practice is home to some of the region’s most respected reproductive specialists, many of whom have been recognized by their peers as Houston Top Doctors by Houstonia magazine.

Aspire Fertility patients will continue to receive care from the same medical team at the same Houston locations, with no changes to appointments, treatment plans, contact information, or access to medical records.

"Our commitment to patients remains unwavering," added Dr. Jason Yeh, board-certified reproductive endocrinologist, fertility specialist, and Medical Director at Aspire Fertility in Houston. "This change is about clarity, connection, and strengthening our ability to serve patients as part of one coordinated network of fertility specialists. Patients can continue to expect the same high level of personalized care and support throughout every step of their fertility journey."

For more information, visit www.aspirefertilityhouston.com.

About The Prelude Network

The Prelude Network® (Prelude), the fastest-growing network of fertility clinics and largest provider of comprehensive fertility services in North America, is the clinic network of Inception Fertility™ — a family of fertility brands that touches every part of the fertility journey, including diagnostics and treatment to financial accessibility.

Each clinic, as part of Prelude, is committed to delivering the highest level of personalized fertility care by the nation's leading reproductive endocrinologists, embryologists and practitioners by focusing on an excellence in science, medicine and the patient experience. The growing Prelude Network has more than 90 total locations nationwide, offering a wide range of fertility services including egg freezing, IVF, genetic testing, LGBTQ+ fertility options, and egg/embryo storage, among others.

Those clinics within Prelude include Aspire Fertility Austin (Texas); Aspire Fertility Dallas (Texas); Aspire Fertility San Antonio (Texas); Aspire Fertility Houston (Texas); Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago (Illinois); Center for Reproductive Medicine (Florida); Indiana Fertility Institute (Indiana); IVFMD (Florida); Main Line Fertility (Pennsylvania); NYU Langone Fertility Center (New York); NYU Langone RSNY (New York); Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine (Canada); Pacific Fertility Center (California); Regional Fertility Program (Canada); Reproductive Biology Associates (Georgia); Reproductive Science Center of New Jersey (New Jersey); Tennessee Fertility Institute (Tennessee), and The Reproductive Medicine Group (Florida).

About Aspire Fertility

Part of The Prelude Network® (Prelude), the largest network of fertility clinics in North America, Aspire Fertility has been helping individuals and couples build their families for 30 years. With locations throughout the Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio metropolitan areas, the Aspire family of clinics provides five-star fertility care to patients, led by industry experts who are on the leading edge of reproductive medicine. They offer a full spectrum of comprehensive female and male fertility care, including IVF, egg freezing, genetic screening (PGD/PGS), egg donation, surrogacy and LGBTQ+ fertility.   

About Inception Fertility™ 

Inception Fertility™ (Inception) is a family of fertility brands committed to helping patients build their own families. Built by patients for patients, Inception's purpose is to achieve the highest bar in experience, science and medicine in an effort to enhance each patient's experience and achieve better outcomes.    

Inception's medical experts are leading pioneers in fertility care. Our doctors are some of the first to use breakthrough assisted reproductive technologies (ART) — including in vitro fertilization (IVF), preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) and fertility preservation services — and they continue to lead the industry by building on these technologies through development, research and thought leadership.   

Through its growing family of national organizations — which includes The Prelude Network®, the fastest-growing network of fertility clinics and largest provider of comprehensive fertility services in North America; MyEggBank®, one of the largest frozen donor egg banks in North America; BUNDL Fertility™, a multi-cycle fertility service bundling program; HavenCryo™, a long-term reproductive preservation and storage solution provider and NutraBloom®, a premium lifestyle brand with expertly formulated supplements to support individuals' health and wellness goals for preconception — Inception is working to deliver on its promise to push the envelope of what is possible for exceeding patient expectations.   

Media Contact

Mia Humphreys
mhumphreys@kruppagency.com

According to new research from the World Impact Media Organization, Kazakhstan’s economy grew 3.7% in the first five months of 2026, building on 6.5% GDP growth in 2025, according to recent figures. Taken with new international investment data, the numbers suggest growth that is becoming steadier and less dependent on any single commodity.

The figures arrive at an unsettled moment for the global economy, with trade flows shifting, markets volatile, and competition for investment intensifying. Across much of the world, growth is slowing while inflation lingers and financial conditions tighten. Against that backdrop, Kazakhstan has so far held up comparatively well.

What the latest figures show

• GDP grew 6.5% in 2025 and 3.7% in the first five months of 2026, with the real sector up 4% and services up 3.6%.
• Foreign direct investment reached $20.5 billion in 2025, up 14.4% year on year, with flows diversifying beyond extractive industries.
• UNESCAP data show $19 billion in greenfield investment in 2025, a 266% increase and nearly 89% of all greenfield investment into Central Asia.
• Capital investment rose 7% and private investment 17.4% in the first five months of 2026.
• Growth is broad-based: construction up 13.4%, manufacturing up 9%, transport and warehousing up 8.4%, and trade up 5.6%.

“These figures describe a clear shift. Kazakhstan is increasingly growing on investment, manufacturing, and modern services rather than commodities alone, and it is doing so while much of the global economy slows,” said Jasmine Abdul, Chief Editor, World Impact Media Organization.

Broad-based growth across the economy

According to official national statistics, growth is spreading across the economy. Construction was among the fastest-growing industries, rising 13.4% in the first five months of the year compared with the corresponding period a year earlier. Manufacturing increased by 9%, transportation and warehousing grew by 8.4%, trade advanced by 5.6%, and agriculture (3.6%) and telecommunications (3.7%) posted steady growth. Investment appears to be the principal driver, with the strongest gains in energy infrastructure, information and communications technologies, manufacturing, agriculture, and transport.

Investment remains the principal driver of this transformation. In recent years, this process has accelerated and is often described domestically as President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s “investment cycle,” a term he introduced in his State of the Nation Address.

Reforms aimed at a predictable investment environment

Publicly stated government targets include doubling the economy to $450 billion by 2029 while attracting at least $150 billion in foreign investment over the same period. Recent reforms include the updated Investment Policy Concept through 2030, the Investment Headquarters mechanism for interagency coordination on investor concerns, and the National Digital Investment Platform, intended to streamline administrative procedures and increase transparency.

Investment projects exceeding a defined threshold in priority sectors may qualify for Investment Agreements that guarantee legislative stability for up to 25 years. Combined with tax incentives, customs preferences, infrastructure support, and project facilitation, these mechanisms are designed to reduce investment risk. Kazakhstan has also expanded its network of bilateral investment protection agreements with key partners, including Qatar, Singapore, China, and Saudi Arabia. The country operates 18 Special Economic Zones and 67 industrial zones, with some 586 investment projects already implemented within them. The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) operates under English common law and offers independent dispute resolution and access to green finance, Islamic finance, and fintech.

Diversification into industry, agriculture and energy

Over the past several years, this country has implemented a comprehensive package of reforms, promoted by President Tokayev and designed to strengthen its investment ecosystem, as reaffirmed at the 37th plenary session of the Foreign Investors’ Council. Investment in manufacturing expanded by more than 47.4% in 2025, with policy shifting toward higher value-added production, technological modernization, and export-oriented manufacturing. In agriculture, output rose 3.6% over the first five months of 2026, investment in agriculture increased by 36.4%, and investment in food manufacturing rose 2.7 times. On energy, Kazakhstan now operates a growing number of renewable energy facilities, with additional wind, solar, and hydropower projects scheduled for commissioning in 2026 alongside the modernization of conventional power plants.

Taken together, the data point to a growth model increasingly driven by investment, manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, and modern services rather than commodity exports alone, with institutional reforms supporting a more predictable business environment.

Kazakhstan has also continued expanding its network of international agreements on mutual investment protection through its multilateral foreign policy, aimed, among other things, at strengthening external economic ties. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has repeatedly highlighted this pattern in recent public remarks, according to The Astana Times — including a Dec. 25, 2025 statement that Kazakhstan had signed more than $70 billion in commercial agreements that year following international negotiations, and a June 2026 announcement of over $12 billion in agreements signed during his visit to Brussels. Bilateral investment protection agreements have been signed with several key partners in recent years, according to UNCTAD’s Investment Policy Hub and Kazakhstani government sources, including Singapore (2018, entered into force 2024), Qatar (2022), China (2025), and Saudi Arabia (2026) — a development that strengthens investor confidence and aligns the national legal system with international practices.

Sources

All figures in this release are drawn from official Kazakhstani statistics and independent publications. Primary sources are listed below.

1. Bureau of National Statistics / Prime Minister of Kazakhstan — GDP growth 6.5% in 2025
2. The Astana Times — Kazakhstan's GDP grows 6.5% in 2025
3. Bureau of National Statistics — National accounts, short-term economic indicators 
4. Bureau of National Statistics — National accounts publications (sectoral growth)
5. Bureau of National Statistics — Investment statistics (Jan–May 2026)
6. State of the Nation Address, President Tokayev (akorda.kz) — $450 billion GDP target by 2029
7. Trend.az (citing President Tokayev) — $450 billion target
8. Prime Minister of Kazakhstan — $150 billion foreign investment target by 2029
9. The Business Year — Investment in Kazakhstan 2025
10. The Astana Times — Recent developments in Kazakhstan's investment landscape
11. Qazinform / QazIndustry — Special economic zones
12. Government of Kazakhstan (gov.kz) — Investment projects in SEZs
13. The Times of Central Asia — Special economic zones as a driver of growth
14. UN ESCAP via The Astana Times — Kazakhstan leads Central Asia in greenfield investment
15. UN ESCAP — Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Trends 2025/2026 (repository)
16. National Bank of Kazakhstan — Balance of payments / direct investment statistics
17. The Astana Times — Renewable energy capacity
18. QazaqGreen (citing Ministry of Energy) — Renewable energy facilities
19. U.S. State Department — 2025 Investment Climate Statements: Kazakhstan
20. The Astana Times — Kazakhstan reaffirms its role as reliable and reform-oriented investment destination 
21. The Astana Times — President Tokayev: Kazakhstan secures over $70 billion in commercial agreements in 2025
22. Kazakhstan Today — Agreements worth more than $12 billion signed during Tokayev’s visit to the EU (June 2026)
23. UNCTAD Investment Policy Hub — Kazakhstan–Singapore BIT (2018)
24. UNCTAD Investment Policy Hub — Kazakhstan–Qatar BIT (2022) 
25. UNCTAD Investment Policy Hub — China–Kazakhstan BIT (2025)
26. Kazinform — Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia nearly triple trade turnover (mutual investment protection agreement, 2026)
27. Official website of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Akorda) — State of the Nation Address: “Kazakhstan in the Era of Artificial Intelligence”

About World Impact Media Organization

World Impact Media Organization is an independent international media and analysis platform covering global markets, industry, and policy developments. The organization provides fact-based reporting and neutral analytical perspectives to support informed decision-making among institutions, investors, and the public. For more information, visit worldimpactmedia.org.

Media Contact

Jasmine Abdul
Chief Editor, World Impact Media Organization
jasmine@worldimpactmedia.org