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Jolt Capital and Fonds de solidarité FTQ form strategic partnership to enhance Québec’s Venture Capital ecosystem via AI-powered intelligence platform

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MONTREAL and PARIS, May 7, 2026 /CNW/ – Jolt Capital, a leading European private equity firm specializing in growth-stage deeptech, and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ (“Fonds”), Québec’s largest development capital fund, today announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the growth of the province’s technology sector.

Under this agreement, the Fonds’ partner venture capital funds will gain exclusive access to Jolt.Ninja, Jolt Capital’s proprietary AI-native investment platform. Developed internally since 2016, Jolt.Ninja leverages advanced the latest developments in foundation models, natural language processing and agentic AI to monitor over 5 million company profiles in real-time and analyze more than 8 million patents to identify high-fidelity investment signals. This initiative marks the first step in a broader long-term collaboration between Jolt Capital and the Fonds aimed at strengthening the Québec innovation pipeline.

Augmenting the Québec VC Ecosystem

The integration of Jolt.Ninja provides Québec investors with an “always on” digital smart companion that augments every stage of the investment lifecycle:

Deal Sourcing: Identification of “off-radar” targets through automated screening that adds one new company every minute.Research & Analysis: Comprehensive sector analysis and access to an AI agent that supports partners at all stages of investment.Value Creation: Automated document ingestion, portfolio management playbooks, and monitoring of 8 million key executives for management transitions.Strategic Intelligence: Access to a repository of deeptech research reports–the Jolt Library–covering semiconductors, AI, and energy to democratize complex market insights.

This partnership underscores a shared commitment to an “alliance of middle powers” as recently extolled by Prime Minister Mark Carney. By bridging the investment ecosystems of Canada and Europe, both organizations are fostering a strategic corridor that allows high-growth technology companies to scale across international markets more efficiently.

Jean Schmitt, President and Managing Partner of Jolt Capital, commented:

“At Jolt Capital, we believe that the next generation of industrial giants will be built on data-driven discipline. By opening Jolt.Ninja to the Fonds and its partners, we are empowering the local ecosystem with the same intellectual engine we use to scale deeptech leaders in Europe. This collaboration is a testament to the power of middle powers working together to secure technological sovereignty and industrial excellence.”

Dany Pelletier, Executive Vice-President, Private Equity and Impact Investing at Fonds de solidarité FTQ, added:

“Our mission has always been to drive Québec’s socio-economic growth by supporting the businesses of tomorrow. Partnering with Jolt Capital allows our network of VC funds to leverage world-class AI tools to identify and support the most promising innovations. This is about giving our ecosystem a competitive edge on the global stage while ensuring sustainable value creation for the workers of Québec.”

Philippe Huneault, Vice President, Private Equity and Impact Investing,  Fund Management and Chief of International Business Development at Fonds de solidarité FTQ, stated:

“This partnership represents a natural evolution of our efforts to internationalize the investment landscape in Quebec. By combining Jolt’s technological capabilities with our deep local roots, we are creating a unique synergy that benefits the entire investment chain. This reflects our commitment to a fair technological transition, for the benefit of our partners and the economy as a whole.”

Jolt Capital’s Expansion in Canada

The partnership coincides with the unveiling of Jolt Capital’s new Montreal office at 1555 rue Peel. This milestone follows a period of rapid expansion by the PE firm in the Canadian market:

May 2024: Opening of the Montreal HQ and the recruitment of Clement Bourgogne to lead regional operations.November 2024: Execution of Jolt Capital’s first Canadian investment (Dolphin Semiconductor).August 2025: Relocation of Managing Partner Eoghan Hickey to Montreal to oversee North American growth.March 2026: Appointment of Tara Akhavan as the third full-time partner in Canada, further solidifying the local leadership team.

About Jolt Capital (www.jolt-capital.com)

Jolt Capital is a leading private equity firm specialized in growth investing in deeptech companies, with a mission to build future European leaders with a global focus. Since 2011, Jolt Capital invests in European B2B companies with revenues between €10M and €50M. Jolt Capital’s team is composed solely of experienced investors and managers of high-tech companies. Its proprietary AI platform, Jolt.Ninja, enables enriched sourcing, accelerated due diligence and automatic detection of investment or acquisition targets. Jolt Capital is located in Paris, Lausanne, Copenhagen, Milan, Montreal, Seoul, Tokyo, and London.

About the Fonds de solidarité FTQ

The Fonds de solidarité FTQ is a source of pride in Québec, delivering on its mission through a unique business model created more than 40 years ago. Since then, the Fonds has mobilized and engaged Québec by leveraging the retirement savings of more than 816,000 shareholders-savers.

With net assets totaling $23.0 billion as of November 30, 2025, the Fonds supports thousands of companies through direct and indirect venture and growth investments, guided by the belief that its investments generate both financial and societal impact. For more information, visit fondsftq.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Le Fonds de Solidarité des Travailleurs du Québec (FTQ)

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commercetools Named a Leader in 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce as AI Reshapes the Market

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commercetools is a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce for the seventh consecutive year.commercetools has been driving AI innovation on how enterprises build, operate and sell, including capabilities like Sphere, Commerce MCP and commercetools for Builders.commercetools is helping global enterprises modernize complex commerce operations and prepare for a future where both people and AI agents discover, shop and transact.

BOSTON, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — commercetools, the digital commerce AI company, today announced it has been positioned as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce. This marks the seventh consecutive year commercetools has been recognized as a Leader in the report.

As AI reshapes commerce, commercetools is expanding how it supports the enterprises who build and operate commerce experiences, and the shoppers who use them. Global enterprises including JD Sports, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Chemist Warehouse and Mirion Technologies are using commercetools to modernize complex digital commerce, accelerate growth and adopt new AI-powered ways of operating and selling.

“Commerce is moving from systems that simply respond to human instructions toward systems that can increasingly understand, decide and act,” said Doug McNary, Chief Executive Officer at commercetools. “We’re proud to be named a Leader for the seventh consecutive year. Enterprises shouldn’t have to choose between the flexibility they need today and the autonomy they’ll need tomorrow. Our focus is giving them the technology to support both.”

Over the past year, commercetools has introduced new products and capabilities designed to bring AI across the commerce lifecycle:

Sphere: Brings together commercetools’ AI-native infrastructure and agent governance through Commerce MCP into a unified platform for enterprises to build, operate and sell with AI.commercetools for Builders: Helps anyone build, extend and evolve enterprise commerce faster with AI.AgentSphere: Lets enterprises build and manage AI agents to run commerce operations and agentic shopping, with appropriate guardrails to do so safely and at scale.Modular commerce offerings: Gives enterprises the flexibility to start with the capabilities they need and expand over time, accelerating time to value without requiring a full commerce transformation upfront.Commerce Integration Layer: Centralizes integration logic behind customer-facing experiences. Storefronts, mobile apps and AI agents connect through a unified layer hosted and maintained by commercetools.Smart Data Modeler: Uses AI to accelerate product data modeling, helping teams build the right foundation faster and reduce time-to-launch.

commercetools’ customers include large enterprises across retail, manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare and telecommunications in markets around the world.

To learn more about commercetools’ position as a Leader, download your complimentary copy of the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant report today.

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce Platforms, Aditya Vasudevan, Penny Gillespie, Sandy Shen, Jason Daigler, Mike Lowndes, 19 October 2026

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates.

Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About commercetools

commercetools, the global digital commerce AI company, helps enterprises transform commerce for the AI era. Built API-native from the start and AI-first by design, our technology enables agentic shopping experiences, automates commerce operations and gives businesses the agility to modernize faster, innovate continuously and operate more intelligently.

More than 500 global brands, retailers and enterprise companies rely on commercetools to power their digital commerce. Together, they process more than $100 billion in annualized GMV, over 700 million orders and more than one billion customer records on our platform.

Media Contact: comms@commercetools.com 

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SOURCE commercetools

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Phylo’s Biomni Lab to expand the use of AI agents in scientific research at Bayer

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Phylo, Inc. announced today a partnership with Bayer to deploy Biomni Lab, Phylo’s agentic AI platform to accelerate scientific research and evaluation. 

Under the agreement, Phylo will provide Bayer with full access to its agentic platform that helps Bayer scientists bring together scientific literature, biomedical data, and analytical methods in one environment, reducing the manual effort required to assemble and assess evidence. The platform’s inspectable workflows preserve the context behind each result, allowing researchers to review the underlying sources, methods, and execution and apply their own scientific judgment. Bayer scientists will gain access to Biomni Lab for workflows focused on assembling literature and omics evidence for drug discovery.

“This partnership reflects our belief that AI should expand scientific curiosity, not just speed up routine work. Giving our scientists an AI partner that brings rigor to every step lets them explore more ideas, ask bolder questions, and find the insights that move drug discovery forward, ultimately accelerating the pace at which we can bring new medicines to patients,” said Sai Jasti, Senior Vice President, Head of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Bayer Pharmaceuticals R&D.

“For agentic AI to matter in research, it has to earn the trust of the scientists doing the work. Bayer’s selection of Biomni Lab is a strong endorsement of the scientific rigor and AI capabilities we’ve built into the platform,” said Kexin Huang, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Phylo. “Our vision is an AI-native operating system for biopharma, where every scientist can direct a team of AI agents to pursue complex research questions. With Bayer, we aim to show what becomes possible when AI capabilities meet deep scientific expertise: more hypotheses explored, more discoveries made, and new possibilities for medicine.”

About Phylo

Phylo’s mission is to bring the best agentic intelligence to every biomedical scientist. Its enterprise-grade AI platform, Biomni Lab, is the first Integrated Biology Environment—a unified workspace where scientists collaborate with AI agents across literature research, experimental design, biological data analysis, and scientific decision-making.

Biomni Lab is now used by leading global biopharma, including Bayer, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Ono Pharmaceutical. Phylo is based in South San Francisco, backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Menlo Ventures.

For more information, visit phylo.bio. To learn more about Biomni Lab, visit biomni.phylo.bio.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/phylos-biomni-lab-to-expand-the-use-of-ai-agents-in-scientific-research-at-bayer-302917080.html

SOURCE Phylo, Inc.

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Sandler Partners Welcomes Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region

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New Hire Announcement | Independent Technology Distributor Sandler Partners grows its Sales Engineering team, adding Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sandler Partners, the leading independent Technology Solutions Distributor, announces the addition of Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region, further strengthening its dedicated sales engineering team and the technical support available to Partners in the West Region.

Bryan brings more than two decades of experience designing and delivering complex technology solutions, including enterprise and Cloud architecture roles at Lumen/Savvis and IBM focused on infrastructure modernization and customer success. His expertise spans automation, edge computing, disaster recovery, application performance monitoring (APM), and DevSecOps. In his role, Bryan will support Partners across the West Region, aligning early with them on strategy and leading thoughtful discovery to help them find the right fit for each client.

For Bryan, strong relationships and solid values guide his life and form the foundation of his professional success, a perspective that fits naturally within the Sandler Partners community. When he is not working, Bryan spends time with his family, including his wife, three sons, and a grandson, RVing, boating, and biking, along with pursuing his passion for freediving.

“Bryan brings the kind of hands-on experience our Partners value: he’s been in the room on complex deals and knows how to turn a customer’s needs into the right solution,” says Justin Marano, Chief Revenue Officer, Sandler Partners. “He came to Sandler for the freedom to work across best-of-breed Providers, and our Partners in the West will feel that right away. He’s collaborative, grounded, and focused on helping Partners win. I’m excited to have him on the team.”

“I’m excited to get to work alongside our Partners, helping them navigate complex opportunities and bring clarity to technical decisions,” says Bryan. “For me, it all comes back to relationships. When you build them on trust and shared values, the results follow for our Partners and their clients. That’s something that the Sandler community really embodies, and I look forward to getting to work with our Partners!”

About Sandler Partners
Sandler Partners helps empower its network of leading independent Sales Partners to deliver a comprehensive range of technology solutions to organizations worldwide, including Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Connectivity, Cloud, Colocation, Mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), and Continuity. Its community-focused approach enables Partners to identify the right solutions for customers quickly and objectively from a diverse portfolio of 220+ Providers. Partner sales agents, VARs, and MSPs gain access to an innovative suite of sales tools within the Sandler Portal—including SCOUT, Solutions Finder, Scout for Solutions, and the Marketing Center—several of which are AI-powered, all backed by a robust support network, dedicated Sales Engineering expertise, and rich marketing resources. Together, these tools and resources empower Partners to focus on what they do best: delivering quality, value, performance, innovative solutions, unmatched expertise, and exceptional service to their clients. Members of the Sandler Partners community also benefit from the industry’s strongest negotiated agreements and a dedicated team committed to ensuring commissions are accurately identified, tracked, and paid. For more information, visit www.sandlerpartners.com.

Sandler Partners – Media Contact
Tina S. Dyksterhouse
tina@sandlerpartners.com
310-861-2295

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sandler-partners-welcomes-bryan-rias-as-director-sales-engineer-west-region-302916413.html

SOURCE Sandler Partners

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