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BeCause Closes Seed Round with Tail-End Investment From Curiosity VC

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The AI-focused Firm Brings BeCause’s Total Seed Funding to $2.5M to Support the Sustainability Data Technology Company’s Growth

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Feb. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — BeCause, the Danish start-up transforming how the global hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their sustainability data, has secured a $600,000 (€556K) tail-end investment from Dutch investor Curiosity VC to close their seed round. This latest investment brings the company’s total seed funding to $2.5 million (€2.32M), including the $1.9 million (€1.76M) seed raised in November from Denmark’s Ugly Duckling Ventures, Estonia’s Superangel.io and other investors.

“We reserved some space at the end of our round for a strategic investor to join on equal terms and are thrilled to have found that partner in Curiosity VC. As an AI-focused fund, Curiosity brings key competencies and an international network to the table that will prove invaluable to us as we continue to unfold how artificial intelligence can enable more sustainability-focused operations in hospitality and tourism and across our growing set of solutions,” says BeCause co-founder and CEO Frederik Steensgaard.

Mission-Driven Growth

Using BeCause, hotels can fully automate the collection, analysis, and communication of their sustainability efforts through a centralized hub, making it much easier for properties to qualify for industry certifications like GreenKey and ensure regulatory compliance based on local frameworks. BeCause dramatically reduces the cost of repetitive and manual tasks by up to 60%, compared to the error-prone processes still widely used within the industry to manage sustainability data. This increase in efficiency and trust significantly improves operational effectiveness.

Hotels also gain critical insights into the types of sustainability investments that might be most valuable for their business and the planet while enabling them to leverage the growing consumer demand for sustainability-focused accommodations. Simultaneously/Finally, the platform allows travel marketplaces, like Booking.com, to get real-time information from green certification labels about a hotel’s sustainability status, which they can use to help travelers and customers make informed choices about their travel plans.

BeCause currently has over 20,000 hotels worldwide streaming sustainability data via its platform and counts more than 50 certifiers and 15 travel booking marketplaces amongst its users.

“What attracted us to BeCause is that they have a clear goal and a true passion for the problem at hand. Their advanced AI capabilities further enhance their ability to drive innovation, address complex challenges, and revolutionize sustainability efforts across sectors. Looking at how far they’ve already come, their execution powers are undeniable,” says Herman Kienhuis, Managing Partner at Curiosity VC. “They have a solid growth strategy in place and are perfectly positioned to solve the needs of stakeholders in hospitality, acting not just as a compliance tool, but as a strategic asset that opens improvement opportunities and aligns the industry with the evolving priorities of a more environmentally aware society.”

The now-completed seed round will enable BeCause to push ahead with its solution developed to support the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a pioneering regulation that strengthens the rules concerning ESG reporting for any company operating in the zone. Funding will also support the company’s accelerated growth rate to meet demand from global enterprise customers, such as Booking.com, easyJet, Google, Radisson Hotel Group, and other global marquee brands across the travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors.

“CSRD will transform how companies report on their sustainability. BeCause has a major role to play in ensuring hotels and tourism companies can seamlessly communicate their impact on people and the environment to their investors, governments, and the world,” Steensgaard adds. “We are grateful to our VC partners for believing in our vision and enabling us to meet the diverse needs of all our clients. Now it’s time to accelerate the future of sustainable tourism and hospitality.”

For more information about BeCause or to speak with CEO and Co-founder Frederik Steensgaard, please contact Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.

About BeCause
BeCause is an enterprise software company that streamlines the flow of sustainability data and creates synergies between different stakeholders in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries, empowering them to make decisions that result in positive, responsible change for people, the planet, and their profits. BeCause works with over 20,000 hotels, including brands like Radisson, certification entities like GreenKey, industry partners like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, and marketplaces like Booking.com. For more information, visit because.eco.

About Curiosity
Curiosity is an Amsterdam-based venture capital fund focused on early-stage investments in ambitious, diverse teams based in the Benelux, Nordics, and Baltics. The fund invests in AI-first software companies that create value for businesses and society. Curiosity is led by two experienced operator-investors, Herman Kienhuis and Maurice Beckand Verwee, supported by a community of expert advisors and portfolio company founders who all become co-owners of the fund. For more information, visit https://www.curiosityvc.com or email: hello@curiosityvc.com.

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Allstream Energy Partners Nominated in Multiple Categories for Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators

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Nomination Categories for Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators in AI & Automation, Advertising, Marketing & PR

HOUSTON, Sept. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Allstream Energy Partners has been nominated in multiple categories for Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators program, recognizing organizations redefining their industries through innovation, leadership, and emerging technologies.

The company received nominations in six categories:

Best Workplaces for Innovators North AmericaAI, Automation and Machine Learning ExcellenceAdvertising, Marketing and PRSmall & Mighty CompaniesInnovative Leader of the Year: Efrain Garcia, Founder and CEOInnovative Team of the Year

The nominations recognize Allstream’s investment in proprietary AI-driven marketing technologies, digital publishing solutions, and workflows designed to change how energy companies build visibility, authority, and customer engagement.

Where Oil and Gas Digital Marketing Meets Publishing

Allstream Energy Partners has developed an agency-plus-publisher model combining digital marketing, content creation, industry communications, media publishing, executive networking, and business development.

As artificial intelligence changes how buyers discover suppliers, manufacturers, engineering firms, service companies, and technology providers, Allstream helps clients position themselves to be recommended—not simply found.

Its integrated capabilities include AI marketing strategy, AI-optimized website development, SEO for Oil and Gas, Answer Engine Optimization, Generative Engine Optimization, AI search visibility, content marketing, industry publishing, public relations, social media, paid search, email marketing, event promotion, podcasting, branding, and digital advertising.

Innovation Built for Energy

Unlike a general marketing agency, Allstream was built specifically for oil and gas, energy, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and industrial markets. Each founder brings 27 years of experience supporting sales, business development, capital projects, technical services, industrial marketing, and digital strategy.

This experience gives Allstream an understanding of how technical buyers evaluate suppliers, how projects move through the market, and how engineering, procurement, operations, and executive teams consume information.

The company continues investing in proprietary methodologies that combine industry knowledge, journalism, publishing, AI optimization, communications, and business development strategy. As AI becomes an important starting point for supplier research and vendor discovery, Allstream helps organizations evolve beyond traditional SEO.

“Marketing has fundamentally changed,” said Efrain Garcia, Founder and CEO of Allstream Energy Partners. “Our team recognized early that AI would transform how buyers discover companies, evaluate expertise, and make purchasing decisions. These nominations reflect our commitment to innovation and our mission to help the energy industry succeed in an AI-first world.”

About Allstream Energy Partners

Allstream Energy Partners is a Houston-based, AI-powered marketing and media company serving the energy and industrial supply chain. Through SEO, GEO, AEO, AI-optimized websites, publishing, strategic communications, networking events, and business partnerships, Allstream helps Oil and Gas companies strengthen their brands, improve visibility across search engines and AI platforms, and generate qualified business opportunities.
Visit www.AllstreamEP.com

Media Contact:
Efrain Garcia
efrain@allstreamep.com
8324963004

Photo(s):
https://www.prlog.org/13170255

Press release distributed by PRLog

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SOURCE Allstream Energy Partners

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Krelva Accepted Into the HBS Foundry Bootcamp at Harvard Business School

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Foster Britton spent four years learning to trade. Jerry Klamm grew a website to $100,000 a month in high school. Their bootstrapped, pre-launch company, Krelva, joins the new program in October and opens Krelva Meet, small live rooms where day traders trade the market together at their respective skill levels.

BUFFALO, N.Y., Sept. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Krelva, a bootstrapped, pre-launch Buffalo company built for futures day traders, has been accepted into the HBS Foundry Bootcamp at Harvard Business School, a new online program for founders working toward their first check. Foster Britton started trading in 10th grade, at 15, before settling on futures trading. Jerry Klamm, 19, built Geometry Spot at 16, grew it to more than 175 million pageviews and $100,000 a month in revenue before he finished high school, and left the University at Buffalo to run Krelva full time.

“Krelva Meet is the room I wish I had at 15.” Foster Britton, co-founder, Krelva

Krelva exists because of how hard Britton’s first four years were. Trading is highly complex, the internet is full of people teaching it, and most of what a beginner finds is confusing, contradictory, or sold by someone with something to sell. The question is never whether there is enough information. It is where to start and who to listen to.

“I started trading in 10th grade, in forex before anything else, and it took me four years to get it right,” Britton said. “It was not that the charts were hard. It was that there is so much online, most of it is confusing, and there is no way to know where to start or who to listen to.”

Today Krelva has two things. The first is a free beginner course that shows people where to start; it teaches the basics without promising anyone a payday. The second is Krelva Meet, which opens in October at $50 a month with a 14-day free trial: a new way to trade Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 futures, not alone and not in a crowd of strangers, but in a small live room with people at your own verified level.

Krelva Meet started with a frustration anyone who has spent time in a trading Discord will recognize. People post their results, and some of those results are real. Screenshots are easy to fake, a few prop firms now issue verified payout cards, and none of it tells a beginner whether the person answering their question is actually where they say they are. So the beginner guesses, and the loudest voice usually wins.

Krelva Meet checks. Every trader has a level that Krelva verifies before they enter a room, and the company is building direct brokerage verification so the check happens automatically. Rooms are built from traders at the same level. Someone who has never passed a prop firm evaluation sits with others who have not either. Pass one, and you move up to rooms with traders who have passed. Get paid out, and you move up again. Alongside the rooms, Krelva is launching a rating: simple, earned over time, and moved by how you answer questions during the session rather than by what you claim. Rooms are not a signal service and tell no one what to buy or sell. They are about the process: reading the market before the open, talking it through with people at your level, and finding out afterward where and why you were right or wrong.

Krelva does not claim to make anyone a better trader faster. It is trying to give people a place to start.

“Krelva Meet is the room I wish I had at 15,” Britton said.

The HBS Foundry Bootcamp at Harvard Business School has drawn attention since its launch for its $699 price and its format, which from Krelva’s understanding pairs weekly live sessions with HBS faculty and guests with AI versions of those same professors, built to push back on weak ideas.

“I’m interested in this new program at Harvard Business School. I think using AI tools to learn is the future, but I’m curious to see how Harvard does it and if it actually works,” Klamm said. “I like that it says the AI professors are built to challenge weak ideas, so I’m going to push it to the limit and see how it performs compared to a real professor.”

The waitlist for Krelva Meet is open now at https://krelva.com.

“Most traders look at the chart at 9:30 every morning by themselves. There are thousands of other traders just like you,” Klamm said. “Why would you trade alone if you could trade with a group you trust? That is the whole idea.”

About Krelva

Krelva is a Buffalo, New York company built for futures day traders. Its free beginner course, built by co-founder Foster Britton, teaches the basics of trading. Its paid product, Krelva Meet, puts traders in small live rooms with other traders at the same verified level to trade Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 futures together, for $50 a month with a 14-day free trial. Krelva was founded in 2026 by Jerry Klamm and Foster Britton. Learn more at https://krelva.com.

Media Contact

Jerry Klamm, Krelva, 1 716-261-7634, info@krelva.com, https://krelva.com/

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SOURCE Krelva

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Larry Ellison Cancels His Plan to Sell Oracle Stock

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AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) today announced that Larry Ellison, Executive Chair of the Board and Chief Technology Officer, has cancelled his 10b5-1 Plan to sell Oracle stock. No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock.

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL, and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

“Safe Harbor” Statement: Statements in this press release relating to future plans, expectations, beliefs, intentions and prospects, are “forward-looking statements” and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. A detailed discussion of risks that affect our business is contained in our SEC filings, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, particularly under the heading “Risk Factors.” Copies of these filings are available online from the SEC or by contacting Oracle’s Investor Relations Department at (650) 506-4073 or by clicking on SEC Filings on the Oracle Investor Relations website at www.oracle.com/investor/. All information set forth in this press release is current as of September 12, 2026. Oracle undertakes no duty to update any statement in light of new information or future events.

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SOURCE Oracle

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