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Novity, a Leading Provider of Predictive Maintenance for Process Industries, Announces Strategic Investment from Acario Innovation

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SAN FRANCISCO, May 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Novity, the leading predictive maintenance platform for process industries, announced a strategic investment from Acario Innovation (“Acario”) the corporate venture capital division of Tokyo Gas. Tokyo Gas is simultaneously the largest gas utility in Japan and a globally diversified energy company with businesses spanning LNG, natural gas, electricity, and energy solutions serving over 13 million customer accounts.

The investment supports Novity’s expansion of its TruPrognostics platform, a hybrid AI and physics-based software solution that was spun out of Xerox PARC, the storied Silicon Valley R&D lab. Novity’s technology provides unmatched accuracy in early detection of faults in industrial equipment, with actionable leads times for any form of machinery, from compressors, to pumps, fans, induction motors and beyond.

Natural gas operations rely heavily on high-availability assets in this class, many of which operate 24/7. If any of this equipment suffers from unplanned downtime or failures, it creates substantial safety risk to personnel and disrupts supply, leading to significant lost revenue and higher operating costs. Downtime losses for only the processing and compression assets responsible for increasing natural gas pressure prior to pipeline transportation can easily exceed $500,000 per hour. Applying Novity’s AI in this category alone has demonstrated significant improvements to reliability, safety and maintenance efficiency for Fortune 500 operators in avoiding these issues with accurate early detection. While Tokyo Gas downstream customers are mainly located in Japan, the company has steadily expanded its upstream operations globally, with a significant presence in the United States. Through its Tokyo Gas Natural Resources subsidiary (“TGNR”), the company is consistently one of the largest producers in the Haynesville Shale, following the Chevron JV in 2025 and the Rockcliff Energy acquisition announced in 2022 and integrated thereafter.

With the unprecedented growth in power demand for AI data centers, reliability has become a major concern further downstream from natural gas supply. Operators are prioritizing speed to power, which has created a surge in behind-the-meter (BTM) power projects. Nearly 20GW in BTM power generation was announced in ERCOT alone in 2025 (35% of nationwide), with another 10GW through April of 2026. The majority of these assets are gas-fired turbines, which require a high level of reliability to ensure the onsite power is dispatchable. Novity is well positioned to provide stability and uptime in this asset class and the associated hybrid configurations that utilize battery storage.

“This investment reflects a shared conviction that AI-based predictive maintenance is now a foundational capability for critical energy infrastructure through the supply chain,” said Markus Larsson, Co-Founder and CEO at Novity. “We’re aligned on evaluating high-impact equipment use cases — starting with compression — where earlier detection and Remaining Useful Life Prognostics materially improves uptime and operational performance.”

“Improving reliability and operational efficiency across a diverse asset base is one of our core priorities,” said Kenji Maeda, CEO at Acario. “Predictive maintenance has historically been difficult to achieve, but we believe that with Novity’s hybrid AI solution, plant managers don’t just get anomaly alerts and alarms, but instead an actionable fault diagnosis and a precise failure timeline, often providing the ability to act months before issues arise.. We believe Novity is a powerful solution to address maintenance challenges in this regard, with the potential to support a wide range of industrial customers operating equipment in both field and factory environments.”

Novity’s goal is to enable all process industries to finally transition away from fixed maintenance schedules – starting with oil and gas infrastructure. To accomplish this, Novity’s platform uses a proprietary combination of physics-based models, machine learning, and AI, to detect early signals of developing equipment issues, translate them into actionable insights for reliability and maintenance teams, and avoid unplanned downtime events.

While the industry has previously attempted to solve these problems with wireless single sensors, the approach effectively limits operators to condition monitoring. By contrast, Novity is sensor agnostic and combines multiple types of data from multiple types of sensors, from acoustic emissions, temperature, mass, current, cavitation, open and close times for values and much more. Novity processes this data in its algorithms to drive actionable maintenance plans for operators by predicting specific dates for equipment failures that are updated dynamically in real time, with 90% or higher detection accuracy rates routinely observed in production.

Acario’s investment follows previous investment from Myriad Ventures, WERU Investment, Japan’s first university originated independent asset management company, and Metawater, a water and environmental engineering company that was formed as a joint venture of Fuji Electric and NGK Insulators.

About Novity

Novity provides truly predictive intelligence purpose-built for industrial reliability teams in the energy and process industries. The company’s TruPrognostics AI platform combines physics-based models, machine learning, and contextual AI to diagnose faults, forecast remaining useful life, and recommend specific maintenance actions for rotating machinery and other industrial assets. Every model is transparent about what it can detect, what data it needs, and where its limits are. Novity works with data customers already collect, with diagnostic true positive rates routinely above 90% and proven deployments across upstream and midstream oil and gas, LNG terminals, and wastewater operations.

Learn more: www.novity.us

About Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.

Founded in 1885, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. is Japan’s largest provider of city gas primarily in the Tokyo metropolitan area and surrounding Kanto region. Since the liberalization of Japan’s electricity market, it has also been providing electricity in the same area. As of its group’s management vision “Compass2030,” Tokyo Gas promotes the challenge of achieving “Net-Zero CO2” and will lead the transition to a carbon-neutral society.

For more information about Tokyo Gas, visit www.tokyo-gas.co.jp.

About Acario Innovation LLC.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Acario Innovation LLC is the corporate venture capital and open innovation division of Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. The name “Acario” comes from the word “Akari,” which means “light” in Japanese. Acario is focused on funding market leading companies in the new energy economy, sustainability and digital transformation sectors, including mobility, energy storage, and next-generation customer and energy services. As a dedicated subsidiary of Tokyo Gas, Acario plays a key role on the path to Compass 2030, as outlined by Tokyo Gas.

For more information about Acario, visit www.acarioinnovation.com

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SOURCE Novity

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GLOBAL CONSUMER RWA SUMMIT 2026 Successfully Held at Hong Kong Science Park

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Industry Partners Join Forces to Build the Consumer RWA Ecosystem and Explore New Pathways for AI, Web3 and Real-World Consumption

HONG KONG, June 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The GLOBAL CONSUMER RWA SUMMIT 2026 was successfully held at the Charles K. Kao Auditorium, Hong Kong Science Park. The summit was jointly hosted by RWA.LTD, EOS, PG Protocol, GRIF and RWX, with media support from Feixiaohao.ai, ME, ChainCatcher, Odaily, Foresight News, PANews, MarsBit, CoinDesk, Bitcoin Magazine and other leading domestic and international media platforms. The event brought together distinguished guests from public affairs, finance, real-world industries, technology and Web3 to explore new opportunities in Consumer RWA, digital assets, AI and Web3 integration.

Under the theme “Connecting Global Consumption and Renewing the Value Ecosystem”, the summit focused on “RWA Powers the Next Wave of Real-World Consumption”, exploring the digital transformation of global consumer industries, innovative applications of real-world assets, brand value circulation, AI-driven industrial upgrading and Web3 infrastructure development. More than a single project showcase, the summit served as an industry-level platform for the global Consumer RWA ecosystem, connecting industrial resources, technology platforms, consumer brands, investment institutions, media organizations and Web3 partners to support the transition of Consumer RWA from concept discussion to real-world implementation.

During the opening session, distinguished guests delivered remarks and shared their views on the global digital economy, Hong Kong’s international advantages, consumer industry transformation and the development of the RWA ecosystem. Participants noted that RWA is becoming an important bridge between the real economy and the digital economy, while Consumer RWA, with its strong connection to real consumption scenarios, brand rights and user demand, has broad potential for practical industry adoption.

One of the key highlights of the summit was the official launch of Health Token. Built around the healthcare and consumer ecosystem, Health Token explores new ways to connect quality healthcare resources, consumer rights and digital services, offering a new direction for the digital transformation and value circulation of the healthcare industry. The launch also marked another important step in the application of Consumer RWA within health-related consumption scenarios.

The summit also featured the establishment and certificate presentation ceremony of the GLOBAL CONSUMER RWA SUMMIT 2026 Presidium. Representatives from public affairs, financial investment, Web3 technology, real-world industries, international business and consumer brands joined the ceremony on stage, marking a new stage of structured, organized and international collaboration for the global Consumer RWA ecosystem. The Presidium will focus on compliance research, industry standards, real-world implementation, international cooperation, brand globalization and project incubation, helping the Consumer RWA industry build a more open, practical and sustainable collaboration mechanism.

The summit also presented the Consumer RWA Alliance and its industry collaboration mechanism. Jointly promoted by RWA.LTD, multiple industry organizations, technology platforms and international ecosystem partners, the mechanism aims to connect global consumer brands, real-world enterprises, technology platforms, investment institutions, cross-border industrial resources and media partners. It is designed to help projects with real consumption scenarios complete digital transformation, rights design, brand growth and global market connection. The collaboration will further promote Consumer RWA from individual projects to broader industry coordination, providing real-world enterprises with new pathways for asset circulation, user engagement and brand value release.

During the summit, the concept of a Consumer RWA Sandbox was also introduced. Based on the principles of “compliance first, scenario-based validation, redeemable rights and controllable risks,” the sandbox aims to provide a pilot environment for healthcare consumption, brand membership rights, IP assets, physical goods, cross-border consumer services, supply chain assets and other real consumption scenarios. Through the sandbox mechanism, project owners can test product structures, redemption processes, compliance frameworks, user experience, technical integration and business models before broader market deployment, reducing innovation risks and improving implementation efficiency.

RWA.LTD stated that the development of Consumer RWA should not remain at the level of conceptual packaging. Instead, it should be built on real consumer demand, verifiable assets, redeemable rights and compliant operations. Going forward, RWA.LTD will work with Presidium members, co-hosts, industry partners, technology service providers and global ecosystem resources to bring more projects with real business scenarios and sustainable value into the sandbox, gradually building a replicable, scalable and international development path for Consumer RWA.

In addition, the summit featured a book launch ceremony for “RWA: Reconstructing Financial Business Models”, co-authored by Dou Jun, Secretary General of the Hong Kong RWA Global Industry Alliance. The book explores the industrial logic, business models and practical pathways of RWA, providing industry participants with further theoretical and case-based references.

Tony Fu, Founder and CEO of RWA.LTD, delivered a keynote speech titled “Compliance Process for Consumer RWA”. In his presentation, he explained the core logic of Consumer RWA from the perspectives of product design, compliance framework, rights circulation, real-world implementation and ecosystem collaboration. He noted that Consumer RWA is not simply about putting assets on-chain. Rather, it should be built on real consumer demand and redeemable rights, forming a sustainable, verifiable and implementable value loop. Only by combining compliance with real industry scenarios can Consumer RWA truly serve the real economy and create long-term value for brands, users and ecosystem partners.

The summit also featured multiple keynote sessions, panel discussions and project roadshows covering topics such as verifiable on-chain economies in the AI era, the full lifecycle of RWA implementation, Web3 communities and DApps empowering RWA ecosystems, AI + RWA digital financial services, global payments, IP and AI entertainment ecosystems, new energy, cultural asset trading and Web3 commerce networks.

During the project showcase and roadshow sessions, the summit presented a wide range of representative projects related to Consumer RWA, AI, Web3, payments, IP, green energy and the digital transformation of real-world industries, including GRIF, GWA Web4.0, Ave.ai, DeBox, EOS, Zypher DAO, FizzDragon, Gat Pay, Fufuture, exSat, Thailand New Energy Vehicle Project, HGDAO & YH, Octopus Paul, Tianfu Tianmeishi, Hubei Senpin Youxuan, Tianyuan Group, Phenix, VITAL-X and KTX. These projects demonstrated the application potential of Consumer RWA across on-chain trading, Web3 communities, AI film, global payments, real-world consumption, IP assets, cultural assets, new energy and Web3 commerce ecosystems.

During the panel sessions, guests discussed topics including “Development and Implementation of the Consumer RWA Sector” and “Consumption as Capital: Connecting Industry Liquidity Through Blockchain.” The discussions explored how RWA can help real-world enterprises improve asset efficiency, expand growth channels and build new models of industry collaboration from the perspectives of enterprise pain points, brand globalization, inventory circulation, cross-border resource allocation, on-chain tools and ecosystem development.

During the summit, several partnership signing ceremonies were held, covering cooperation between RWA infrastructure partners and the Singapore RWA Incubation Fund, strategic cooperation between EOS and a Singapore RWA company, collaboration among Korean enterprises, GRIF and RWA infrastructure partners, as well as a three-party partnership among the Singapore RWA Incubation Fund, VITAL-X and RWA.LTD. These partnerships are expected to further promote resource integration across different regions, industries and technology ecosystems, supporting the real-world implementation of Consumer RWA in Asia and global markets.

The successful hosting of GLOBAL CONSUMER RWA SUMMIT 2026 provided a high-quality platform for the global Consumer RWA industry and further brought together forces from Web3, AI, real-world industries, fintech, media and international organizations. With the continued development of the Presidium mechanism, the sandbox mechanism, the Consumer RWA Alliance collaboration mechanism and multiple industry partnerships, Consumer RWA is expected to become an important new infrastructure connecting real-world consumption, brand value and the digital economy.

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SOURCE RWA.LTD

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Visa and Mintoak Join Forces to Bring Merchant SaaS Capabilities to Acquirers Across Asia Pacific

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Enabling acquirers to build on payments with cloud-native, API-led platforms that scale value-added services and strengthen merchant relationships

SINGAPORE, June 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Visa (NYSE: V), a global leader in digital payments, today announced a partnership with Mintoak, a merchant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) fintech platform, to enable acquirers across Asia Pacific to strengthen their merchant propositions beyond core payment acceptance.

The partnership enables banks and financial institutions to move beyond transaction-led acquiring towards platform-led models, allowing acquirers to deliver a digital-first merchant experience that integrates omnichannel payment acceptance across card-present and card-not-present environments with value-added services such as reporting, merchant engagement tools, and integrated banking solutions.

By bringing together Mintoak’s cloud-native, API-led platform and Visa’s payments network, data and advisory capabilities, the collaboration is designed to accelerate speed to market and improve merchant activation. It also unlocks new revenue streams through scalable value-added services, including data-driven insights that help clients make informed decisions.

“Acquirers play a critical role in the payments ecosystem, but the expectations of merchants are evolving rapidly,” said Prateek Sanghi, Head of Visa Consulting & Analytics Asia Pacific, Visa. “By partnering with Mintoak, we are empowering acquirers with modular, software-led capabilities that support deeper merchant engagement, more efficient servicing and sustainable, long-term growth.”

Mintoak’s platform delivers a unified merchant interface across payment acceptance, business insights and service management. Built for rapid deployment and modular integration, it enables acquirers to modernise their technology stack while retaining ownership of the merchant relationship.

“This partnership brings together Visa’s global payments leadership and Mintoak’s SaaS capabilities to help acquirers build stronger, more valuable merchant relationships,” said Raman Khanduja, Co-founder & CEO of Mintoak. “By building on the foundation of payments with platform-led engagement, we are enabling acquirers to strengthen competitiveness, enhance merchant lifetime value and unlock new avenues for growth in the SME segment.”

The collaboration supports Visa’s ambition to expand card and digital acceptance among underpenetrated small and medium-sized businesses across Asia Pacific. By unlocking faster, lower-cost onboarding and scalable, cost-effective acceptance, the solution is designed to increase acceptance density, drive transaction growth and accelerate ecosystem digitisation across the region.

It also reinforces Visa’s commitment to supporting acquirers as they navigate evolving market dynamics including margin pressure and rising service expectations through data-driven insights, platform-led capabilities and strategic partnerships.

About Visa

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.

About Mintoak

Mintoak is a leading merchant SaaS platform that enables merchant acquirers to monetise and empower SMEs through payments and commerce enablement solutions. The platform helps acquirers move beyond payment acceptance to deliver platform-led engagement across the merchant lifecycle, including payments, cross-sell, servicing and engagement campaigns.

Built on a modular, cloud-native and API-first architecture, the platform integrates seamlessly with existing acquiring infrastructure, enabling faster go-to-market and scalable deployment. Today, it operates across 20+ countries, empowering over 4.9 million merchants globally.

Its clients include HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank in India, as well as Absa Bank, Burgan Bank, Ahli United Bank and NMB Bank across international markets.

 

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SOURCE Visa Worldwide Pte. Limited

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SOPHiA GENETICS Announces Pricing of $50 Million Public Offering of Ordinary Shares

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BOSTON and ROLLE, Switzerland, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SOPHiA GENETICS (Nasdaq: SOPH), a global leader in Ai-driven precision medicine, announced today the pricing of its previously announced underwritten public offering of 10,526,000 ordinary shares at a public offering price of $4.75 per ordinary share. The gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company are expected to be approximately $50 million. All of the ordinary shares to be sold in the proposed offering will be sold by the Company. In addition, the Company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,578,900 additional ordinary shares at the public offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close on June 18, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

TD Cowen is acting as the lead book-running manager for the offering. Guggenheim Securities is acting as book-running manager, and BTIG and Craig-Hallum are acting as lead managers for the offering.

A registration statement on Form F-3 (File No. 333-289266) relating to the ordinary shares and other securities of the Company has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and was declared effective on August 15, 2025. The offering may be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to this offering has been filed with the SEC and a final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering will be filed with the SEC. Electronic copies of the final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus will be available on the SEC’s website located at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to this offering, when available, may be obtained for free by contacting TD Securities (USA) LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717 or by email at TDManualrequest@broadridge.com.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Any offers, solicitations or offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. There is no intention or permission to publicly offer, solicit, sell or advertise, directly or indirectly, any securities of SOPHiA GENETICS SA, such as the ordinary shares, in or into Switzerland within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (“FinSA”) and these securities will not be listed or admitted to trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange or on any other regulated trading venue (exchange or multilateral trading facility) in Switzerland. Neither this press release nor any other offering or marketing material relating to these securities, such as the ordinary shares, constitutes or will constitute a prospectus pursuant to the FinSA, and neither this press release nor any other offering or marketing material relating to these securities, such as the ordinary shares, may be publicly distributed or otherwise made publicly available in Switzerland.

About SOPHiA GENETICS

SOPHiA GENETICS (Nasdaq: SOPH) is a cloud-native healthcare technology company on a mission to expand access to data-driven medicine by using Ai to deliver world-class care to patients with cancer and rare disorders across the globe. It is the creator of SOPHiA DDM™, a platform that analyzes complex genomic and multimodal data and generates real-time, actionable insights for a broad global network of hospital, laboratory, and biopharma institutions.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our expectations regarding the expected closing of this offering. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “would”, “expect”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential”, “seem”, “seek”, “future”, “continue”, or “appear” or the negative of these terms or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to various factors, including those described in our filings with the SEC. No assurance can be given that such future results will be achieved. Such forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update these forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which such statements are based, unless required to do so by applicable law. No representations or warranties (express or implied) are made about the accuracy of any such forward-looking statements.

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