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leAD Sports & Health Tech Partners Rebrands as LEAD; Expands Family of Funds and Introduces Strategic Advisory Arm

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Since its founding in 2017, LEAD has grown from a Berlin-based accelerator program into a premier global venture corporation with $155M in assets 

BERLIN and LAKE NONA, Fla., Aug. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — LEAD, formerly known as leAD Sports & Health Tech Partners, today announced its new name and its expanded company structure, consisting of an institutional asset manager building a global family of funds and an advisory division working with organizations on their strategic innovation and investment initiatives.

This new positioning reflects LEAD’s growth and foothold in the marketplace, and reinforces its mission to enhance lives through sports and health technology. What began as an accelerator program founded in 2017 has now scaled into a premier global venture corporation with 70+ portfolio companies and $155 million in assets under management.

LEAD focuses on two pillars: investment and advisory, which are amplified by its global collective of renowned innovators, investors, athletes, and industry partners, among others.

“When we launched LEAD seven years ago, we were the first to not only see the investment potential in sports, but also recognize the continued convergence of sports and health. We were able to capitalize on these new opportunities, building a deep portfolio of the most innovative technologies that are defining the future of sports and health, and bringing more and more experts and innovators into the fold to create an incredibly powerful global network,” said Christoph Sonnen, co-founder of LEAD. “Our rebrand to LEAD better represents our vision, mission and desire to support entrepreneurs and organizations making an impact while building a world-class venture capital and advisory business at the forefront of sports and health technology.”

The company has expanded its family of funds to best serve founders and organizations operating at all stages across sports and health. LEAD invests globally and stage-agnostically through four investment vehicles:

LEAD ONE: As an evolution from our original accelerator program investment vehicle, LEAD ONE is a direct investment vehicle backing global pre-seed companies in sports and health technology; with financial backing and access to strategic venture partner organizations, including professional sports teams, player associations, sports federations, lifestyle brands, performance facilities, and health systems, including FC Cincinnati, Spartan Race and Exos, among others.Lake Nona Fund: A fund for seed-stage companies that have displayed product market fit and a management team capable of delivering scale.ADvantage: Launched in partnership with OurCrowd in 2018, this $50M fund is built to invest in Series A stage companies that display verified business metrics and are helmed by industry-leading operators.Locker Room: An invite-only fund for top-tier professional athletes and business leaders to invest in highly selective opportunities.

With its deep knowledge of the sports and health tech landscape and trends, access to dealflow and network of vetted startups, LEAD’s newly formalized strategic advisory practice serves as a consulting arm to organizations looking to develop and nurture their own innovation programs. What began as a one-time service for companies like adidas and the Orlando Magic, has since developed into a key offering of the business. In addition, LEAD acquired a majority stake in WhiteRock, a boutique advisory firm, to expand its portfolio of services by including M&A and sports business consulting. In totality, LEAD’s strategic advisory services include:

Advisory (powered by White Rock, a LEAD company): Expert guidance for end-to-end M&A advisory services and sports business consultingInnovation Intelligence: Unparalleled market intelligence and trend reporting, as well as tailored sourcing of product and technology solutionsVC as a Service: Full VC process management, including inbound deal flow vetting and analysis, corporate venture arm services and support in building internal venture capabilities.Equity Endorsements: Advise on investment participation opportunities and engagement models, including negotiation and management of equity-based endorsements for brands, athletes, and agents.

“LEAD has been a great innovation partner for the Orlando Magic and our affiliates. LEAD provides access to impressive, high-potential startups and their team helps keep a pulse on the most innovative trends and cutting-edge technology in the sports, health, and wellness space,” said Jay Riola, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at Orlando Magic.

Key to LEAD’s strength is its vast strategic network of notable investors, partners, advisors and athletes – including Harry Kane, Justin Rose, the Orlando Magic, and many more – who are deeply committed to offering their time, insights and support to LEAD’s portfolio companies. These relationships empower its portfolio to unlock incredibly valuable testing opportunities with its target audiences, real-time market insights, and the ability to test, learn, iterate and scale products and services.

About LEAD:
LEAD is a global venture corporation dedicated to enhancing lives through sports and health tech. Our family of funds delivers for entrepreneurs at every stage with capital, expertise, and strategic connections. Our advisory division helps corporations, consulting firms, sports properties, healthcare organizations and others bring their most innovative initiatives to life. While we work across different venture stages, industries, and areas of the world, on ideas for sports fans, athletes, and health-conscious consumers, everything we do has one thing in common: we aim to enhance lives, one idea at a time. Visit www.lead.vc for more.

 

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BinBase Expands 2026 BIN Dataset with Instant Payout Intelligence for iGaming, Gambling, and Cross-Border Transfers

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BinBase updates its 2026 dataset with specialized Fast Funds, Visa Direct, and Mastercard MoneySend indicators to help iGaming operators and payout platforms execute seamless, instant card disbursements.

MIAMI, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — BinBase, a global provider of payment routing intelligence and card issuing data, has introduced specialized instant payout indicators as part of its upgraded 2026 BIN Database. Tailored for iGaming operators, online gambling platforms, crypto-to-fiat ramps, and payout aggregators, the updated dataset helps platform engineers streamline real-time card disbursements and Push-to-Card (P2C) transactions.

In high-velocity sectors such as online betting and gaming, instantaneous player payouts are a primary driver of customer retention. However, executing Push-to-Card transactions through protocols like Visa Direct and Mastercard MoneySend requires knowing whether the receiving card issuer supports Fast Funds for specific merchant category codes (MCCs). Attempting instant payouts on non-eligible cards leads to declined transactions, elevated processing fees, and poor user experiences.

The 2026 BinBase release solves this operational bottleneck by delivering dedicated attributes for real-time fund disbursements:

Fast Funds Eligibility: Granular indicators identifying domestic and cross-border Fast Funds support across global Visa and Mastercard ranges.Online Gambling Fast Funds (OG FF): Dedicated flags specifically identifying card ranges authorized to receive real-time gambling and betting payouts.Mastercard MoneySend & Visa Direct Indicators: Precise protocol compatibility markers (MS Ind & MT Ind) ensuring push transactions are routed only to eligible recipient cards.Direct Debit & Pull-Funds Support: Indicators for recurring collections and account-funding transactions.

“Player payouts in iGaming cannot wait for standard 2-to-3-day ACH settlements,” said a spokesperson for Damiko Inc. “By embedding our Fast Funds and Gambling FF flags into their payment engines, operators can instantly validate recipient cards before initiating a transfer, guaranteeing high success rates and instant liquidity for their users.”

Fintech engineers and payout architects can examine the full 29-field database schema and access a free 2026 sample dataset on GitHub.

To explore commercial licensing, bulk database downloads, or custom data feeds, visit BinBase at https://binbase.com.

About Damiko Inc

Damiko Inc is a US-based fintech data provider specializing in card issuer analytics, payment routing data, and global BIN database solutions. Operating through its flagship product, BinBase.com, the company supplies high-precision transaction intelligence to help merchants and payment facilitators worldwide optimize approval rates and mitigate processing fees.

Media Contact
Fedor Lavrikoff, BinBase, 1 7866133334, sales@binbase.com, www.binbase.com 

View original content:https://www.prweb.com/releases/binbase-expands-2026-bin-dataset-with-instant-payout-intelligence-for-igaming-gambling-and-cross-border-transfers-302829344.html

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Walnut Coding’s Young Coders Serve as ‘Instructors’ at Huawei Cloud Developer Training Camp

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Ages 8 and 15, students showcase AI-era project-building skills from concept to working application

BEIJING, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Walnut Coding (the “Company”), a leading online platform for youth coding education, said two of its students – ages 8 and 15 – have joined the “instructor” lineup at Huawei Cloud Developer Training Camp, making them among the youngest “instructors” in the program’s history. The Company cites the pair as a prime example of how young learners can combine coding fundamentals with AI tools to turn ideas into working applications.

The two students, Bolin Du, 8, and Peiqi Gao, 15, built working applications using Huawei Cloud CodeArts, an AI coding assistant, then presented the projects to the training camp themselves – walking the audience through their design choices, technical builds, and debugging process.

The move lands at a moment when AI coding tools are forcing a rethink across the education sector. Tools that can generate functioning code from a plain-language prompt have undercut the traditional argument for teaching children to program – that they need the skill to build things themselves. Walnut Coding’s answer is that the more valuable skill now is judgment – knowing what problem to solve, breaking it into parts, and determining whether an AI’s output actually works.

Gao built a travel-planning application that generates routes, itineraries, and recommendations based on user input, handling the project end to end, from requirements and design through coding and debugging. Du, the younger of the two, built an interactive calendar application, using HTML for page structure, CSS for visual design, and JavaScript for interactive features. Both students then took on an instructor’s role at the camp, presenting their project goals and technical implementation to the audience – a step Walnut Coding says separated the work from a typical classroom assignment.

These were not classroom exercises but working projects, built and presented inside a professional developer-training environment. The experience demanded more from both students than simply producing something functional – they needed to articulate their reasoning, defend technical choices, and refine the final result under scrutiny. Their participation signals a broader shift underway in what youth coding education can deliver.

AI is making code generation easier, but it is also redrawing which skills actually matter. A student who relies only on one-click generation may get a rough prototype quickly, but still struggle to spot logical flaws, judge whether the output is reliable, or turn an abstract idea into a product that actually works. Students with programming foundations, by contrast, are better positioned to define requirements, evaluate what the AI produces, correct its errors, and treat the technology as a tool rather than a shortcut to lean on.

“AI can help children generate code faster, but it cannot decide for them what problem they should solve, nor can it make the final judgment about whether the result is truly effective,” said Pengxuan Zeng, founder and CEO of Walnut Coding. “What these two students demonstrated is not just coding technique, but the ability to define needs, break down tasks, verify outcomes, and turn an idea into a working product. That is why we believe young people still need to learn programming in the AI era.”

Walnut Coding structures its courses around that thesis, pairing student-led project work with teaching-assistant guidance and AI-assisted support. According to the Company, this data is continuously fed back into its systems to refine the personalization of AI-assisted feedback — a closed-loop process linking teaching, practice, feedback, and curriculum development.

The Company frames the payoffs less around producing professional software engineers than around a broader form of literacy. As AI continues to reshape how tasks get done, the ability to understand the technology, structure problems clearly and collaborate effectively with intelligent tools may prove one of the most durable skills a young learner can develop.

Walnut Coding says it plans to keep expanding opportunities for students to build practical projects, partner with industry technology platforms such as Huawei Cloud, and develop the core capabilities needed to build with technology in the AI era.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/walnut-codings-young-coders-serve-as-instructors-at-huawei-cloud-developer-training-camp-302833884.html

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MOREH Showcases High-Performance LLM Inference on AMD GPUs at AMD Advancing AI 2026

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Moreh, an AI infrastructure software company, led by CEO Gangwon Jo, participated in AMD Advancing AI 2026, AMD’s flagship annual AI event held in San Francisco on July 22–23 (local time), where it demonstrated its distributed inference solution, the MoAI Inference Framework, running on AMD GPUs.

At the event, Moreh presented a live demonstration of the GLM-5.1 large language model (LLM) powered by the MoAI Inference Framework on a system equipped with 32 AMD Instinct™ MI300X GPUs across four nodes. Visitors experienced the chatbot firsthand, evaluating its response speed and service quality while observing performance across a range of real-world use cases.

Unlike conventional demonstrations that simply run an AI model, Moreh’s showcase displayed key inference service metrics in real time, including GPU utilization, Tokens Per Second (TPS), Time To First Token (TTFT), and Time Per Output Token (TPOT). This enabled attendees to directly verify both inference performance and GPU resource efficiency in a production-like service environment.

Global AI industry leaders and enterprise customers attending the event expressed strong interest in the system’s fast response times and stable performance. In particular, the live deployment of the computationally demanding GLM-5.1 model on AMD GPUs at production-grade service levels received positive feedback from visitors.

Moreh’s MoAI Inference Framework is widely recognized as the world’s first commercially deployed distributed inference solution built for the AMD ecosystem. Its distributed inference and heterogeneous computing technologies are designed to dramatically reduce AI service costs, enabling broader adoption of AI worldwide. The technology addresses one of the industry’s biggest challenges-the rapidly rising infrastructure and service costs caused by increasingly larger AI models-by delivering a more efficient inference infrastructure.

Moreh CEO Gangwon Jo stated, “This event provided an opportunity for global customers to verify firsthand that top-tier inference performance can be achieved on AMD GPU environments,” and added “We will continue advancing our AI infrastructure software so enterprises can operate AI services as efficiently as possible, regardless of the underlying GPU platform.”

Moreh develops its own AI infrastructure engine and has expanded its end-to-end AI capabilities through its foundation LLM subsidiary, Motif Technologies, covering both AI infrastructure and foundation models. The company is also strengthening its presence in the global AI market through strategic partnerships with leading technology companies, including AMD and Tenstorrent.

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