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SEDCO Capital and Wahed Partner to Broaden Access to Makkah and Madinah Real Estate

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The companies intend to launch a publicly offered, Shariah-compliant real estate suite combining SEDCO Capital’s Saudi real estate expertise with Wahed’s digital investment capabilities supporting Vision 2030’s investment and economic diversification ambitions.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SEDCO Capital, a global, Shariah-compliant, and ESG-led asset management and investment advisory firm with over SAR 50 billion in assets under management, and Wahed Inc, (Wahed), a New York headquartered global Islamic financial technology company, with north of $2bn in assets under management today announced a strategic partnership to launch a publicly offered, Shariah-compliant real estate investment suite focused on Makkah and Madinah.

It is intended to give eligible investors, including Waheds 500,000 global investor base, diversified exposure to professionally sourced and managed real estate serving residents, pilgrims, businesses and visitors across the Two Holy Cities. It would bring together SEDCO Capital’s local investment and asset-management capabilities with Wahed’s experience as a category leader in making professionally managed investments easier for investors to access.

A long-term opportunity at the heart of Vision 2030

Makkah and Madinah sit at the center of one of the world’s most enduring demand stories. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 Pilgrim Experience Program aims to enable 30 million Umrah pilgrims annually by 2030, alongside a wider program of investment intended to improve the experience of pilgrims and visitors. Meeting that ambition requires continued development across accommodation, hospitality, retail, residential property and the infrastructure that supports both cities.

This will provide a Shariah-compliant route into this long-term growth story while directing private capital toward real assets that can help meet the needs of residents, pilgrims and visitors. The partnership also aligns with Vision 2030’s broader economic diversification goals: attracting international investment, increasing private-sector participation, deepening Saudi capital markets and supporting the growth of real estate and tourism sectors in Saudi Arabia..

Opening an opportunity that has historically been difficult to access

For overseas individual investors, direct access to real estate in Makkah and Madinah has often been limited by high entry values, local-market boundaries  and a scarcity of professionally managed products built for investor participation. It is intended to narrow that gap, giving eligible investors exposure to a professionally selected portfolio without requiring them to source and manage an individual property.

The concept responds to demand Wahed says it has seen from clients across international markets seeking credible, Shariah-compliant access to Saudi real assets – and, in particular, to Makkah and Madinah. It also builds on the successful launch of Wahed’s U.S. private real estate fund, which was designed to give accredited and non-accredited investors pooled exposure to professionally managed US based residential real estate from a $100 minimum.

Abdulwahhab Abed, Chief Executive Officer of SEDCO Capital noted “Makkah and Madinah are at the heart of the Kingdom’s most important transformations. The investment taking place is about meeting the needs of growing numbers global demand while creating lasting economic opportunity. SEDCO Capital brings deep local real estate capability and a long history of managing capital in the Kingdom. By partnering with Wahed, we intend to connect that expertise with a much broader investor audience and channel long-term international capital into opportunities that support Vision 2030.”

Mohsin Siddiqui, Chief Executive Officer of Wahed said: “Over the years, one question has come up again and again from Wahed clients around the world: how can I invest in Makkah and Madinah? For most people, there has never been a straightforward answer. This partnership is designed to change that. SEDCO Capital brings the local depth and real estate expertise; Wahed brings the distribution network, digital platform and experience of making professionally managed real estate easier to access. Together, we want to give everyday investors a credible, Shariah-compliant way to participate in the long-term growth of cities that mean so much to them.”

About Wahed

Headquartered in New York, Wahed Inc. (Wahed) is a global Islamic fintech and asset management company committed to democratising access to financial services. Licensed in nine countries, Wahed combines cutting-edge financial technology with Shariah principles to deliver innovative products that align with faith and values. With 500,000 clients globally and more than $2 billion in assets under management and administration across its entities, Wahed serves investors across multiple continents and is pioneering a new era of ethical and faith-based investing.

About SEDCO Capital

SEDCO Capital is a global, Shariah-compliant, and ESG-led asset management and investment advisory firm. Our investment philosophy is underpinned by three Ps: principles, partnership, and performance. We provide clients with investment solutions through a dynamic asset allocation process across diversified asset classes that deliver strong risk-adjusted returns. By adopting a global view to investing while looking through the lens of our proprietary Prudent Ethical Investment (PEI) approach, an integration of Shariah-compliant and Responsible Investment principles, we provide our clients with unparalleled global access to investments across developed and emerging markets, including Saudi Arabia, in alignment with their investment objectives. In 2014 we proudly became the first Saudi company and the world’s first Shariah-compliant asset manager to become signatory to the UN Principles of Responsible Investment (UNPRI) and we continue to be recognized for our commitment to responsible investments. SEDCO Capital oversees over $13.5 billion in total assets under management (AUM) and is headquartered in Jeddah with offices in Riyadh and Luxembourg. SEDCO Capital is licensed by the Capital Market Authority (License No. 11157-37). Find out more at www.sedcocapital.com

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Southwire Shares Fourth Annual Inclusion Report, Showcasing Inclusion in Action

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CARROLLTON, Ga., Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Our Future Is Powered by Inclusion.

At Southwire, inclusion is more than a commitment. It is one of our core values and a key part of how we build worth for our team members, customers, communities and shareholders.

We’re proud to share our 2025 Inclusion Report, highlighting the progress we’ve made in advancing an inclusive culture and strengthening our impact across six key focus areas: People Leaders, Inclusive Workforce, Employee Resource Groups, Reputation and Community, Equity and Governance, and Value and Supply Chain.

Last year, our Inclusion Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) reached 70, an increase of 17 points since 2021. We also invested $1 million in inclusion-focused initiatives, contributed more than 4,800 volunteer hours in support of nonprofit organizations, and spent $890 million with small and certified-owned suppliers.

From bringing together more than 2,000 team members at Include Summit to earning recognition as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® and one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Inclusion, we continue to create opportunities for people to contribute, grow and lead.

As we look ahead, our focus remains clear: embedding inclusion into how we lead, operate and grow. When every team member is empowered to contribute, we create stronger ideas, better decisions and greater value for all our stakeholders.

We invite you to explore the full Inclusion Report to learn more about the people, programs and partnerships helping power our future.

Please also visit our social media channels and Inclusion website to help us share our story.

Together, we will continue Building Worth for generations to come.

For more Southwire news, visit www.southwire.com/newsroom.

About Southwire
Southwire Company, LLC is North America’s leading wire and cable company. The $9.7B organization is made up of more than 9,000 team members across the globe who unite as ONE Southwire each and every day to serve each other, their customers and their communities. Southwire and its subsidiaries provide solutions including building wire and cable, metal-clad cable, utility products, portable and electronic cord products and OEM wire products. In addition, Southwire offers electrical products, engineered solutions and a variety of field support services. For more on Southwire’s products and solutions, its community involvement and its vision of sustainability, visit www.southwire.com.

© 2026 Southwire Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Contact: Ashley Bush
Senior Director, Communications
Phone: (678) 684-7634
ashley.bush@southwire.com

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ZAGENO Earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2026 North American Life Sciences E‑Commerce Company of the Year Recognition

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Honored for transforming life sciences procurement through digital innovation, automation, and a customer-first platform

SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Frost & Sullivan has recognized ZAGENO with its 2026 North America Life Sciences E-Commerce Company of the Year Recognition for helping transform life sciences e-commerce beyond traditional online purchasing into a unified procurement orchestration platform. By serving as a single entry point into scientific procurement, ZAGENO enables scientists, procurement teams, suppliers, and enterprise systems to operate within one connected workflow—reducing procurement friction while improving governance, visibility, and operational efficiency across research organizations.

As life sciences organizations embrace increasingly digital, automated, and globally distributed research operations, procurement has become a strategic function requiring greater visibility, governance, and integration. Rather than navigating fragmented supplier portals, distributor systems, and punch-out catalogs, organizations increasingly need a single platform that orchestrates the entire procurement lifecycle. ZAGENO delivers that capability by unifying sourcing, ordering, approvals, supplier management, spend visibility, tracking, and payment into one governed workflow.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, ZAGENO has built one of the industry’s largest procurement ecosystems, providing access to more than 50 million laboratory products from over 5,000 suppliers. Serving as a single entry point into scientific procurement, the platform centralizes sourcing, ordering, approvals, tracking, and payment while integrating directly with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Procure-to-Pay (P2P), and accounting platforms such as SAP, Coupa, and Oracle NetSuite. Researchers can search by product name, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number, or chemical structure, compare pricing, availability, and delivery timelines in real time, and consolidate purchases from multiple suppliers into a single purchase order and invoice. At the same time, procurement teams maintain governance, supplier oversight, and spend visibility through configurable approval workflows operating seamlessly in the background.

“ZAGENO continues to redefine digital procurement by extending life sciences e-commerce beyond an online marketplace into a procurement orchestration platform,” said Ana Dominguez, Best Practices Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Its ability to unify supplier networks, enterprise systems, governance, and intelligent automation within a single workflow helps reduce procurement friction while enabling researchers and procurement teams to operate more efficiently. Investments such as the company’s expanded engineering hub in Bangalore have further accelerated innovation and enabled faster delivery of customer-driven enhancements aligned with evolving research needs.”

The platform reduces longstanding procurement inefficiencies by orchestrating suppliers, enterprise systems, and purchasing workflows through a single interface. Scientists save an average of 6.5 hours per week sourcing and ordering laboratory materials, while procurement teams benefit from configurable approval workflows, supplier governance, real-time spend visibility, automated three-way matching, and streamlined reconciliation that can reduce invoice processing time by as much as 40%. Together, these capabilities improve compliance, increase operational efficiency, and enable researchers to spend more time focused on scientific discovery.

ZAGENO continues to advance AI-powered capabilities that improve search precision, surface supplier and fulfillment insights, automate repetitive procurement tasks, and support smarter purchasing decisions across the procurement lifecycle. Combined with one of the industry’s largest supplier ecosystems, deep enterprise integrations, and a customer-driven innovation model, these capabilities position ZAGENO as a trusted procurement infrastructure partner helping life sciences organizations navigate increasingly complex research environments.

“We’re honored to receive this recognition from Frost & Sullivan. As research organizations become more connected and more complex, procurement has evolved far beyond purchasing. Our vision has always been to simplify that complexity by bringing scientists, procurement teams, suppliers, and enterprise systems together through a single procurement orchestration platform. We’re proud to see that vision recognized, and even more excited about what’s ahead for our customers,” said Florian Wegener, CEO & Co-Founder, at ZAGENO.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan honors one company with its Company of the Year Recognition, awarded to organizations that demonstrate exceptional growth, innovation, and customer value. The selection process includes rigorous research, competitive benchmarking, and in-depth industry analysis.
Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards recognize companies worldwide for excellence in leadership, technology innovation, customer service, and strategic execution—highlighting those that are shaping the future of their industries.

About Frost & Sullivan

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Lindsey Whitaker
P: +91- 9953764546
E: Lindsey.Whitaker@frost.com

About ZAGENO

ZAGENO is the procurement orchestration platform for life sciences, connecting scientists, procurement teams, suppliers, and enterprise systems through a single, governed workflow. With access to more than 50 million laboratory products from over 5,000 suppliers, ZAGENO helps research organizations simplify procurement and accelerate discovery. Talk to the ZAGENO team to learn more: https://go.zageno.com/request-a-demo.

Contact:
Ivana Visnjic-Lynch
P: +1 508 524 5206
E: ivana.visnjic-lynch@zageno.com

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Shutterstock Appoints Three Accomplished Business Leaders to Board of Directors

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Timothy Adams, Matthew Salzberg, and Michael Thompson bring extensive financial, operational, investment, and technology expertise to Shutterstock’s Board

NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), a family of brands delivering scalable creative and GenAI solutions to help customers fuel great work, today announced the appointment of Timothy Adams, Matthew Salzberg, and Michael Thompson to its Board of Directors.

The appointments add three accomplished executives and investors with deep experience across technology and emerging markets, investment and capital allocation, building and scaling businesses, and public-company finance and governance. Their collective expertise further strengthens the Board as Shutterstock remains focused on creating long-term value for the Company and its shareholders.

“The caliber of leaders joining our Board speaks to both the strength of Shutterstock and the opportunity ahead,” said Jon Oringer, Executive Chairman of the Board at Shutterstock. “Tim, Matt, and Michael have each built impressive careers leading, investing in and advising companies through periods of growth and transformation. They bring deep financial, operational, governance, and technology expertise, along with the independent perspective that comes from having successfully navigated complex business environments. We are thrilled they have chosen to bring that experience to Shutterstock.”

Timothy Adams is a seasoned financial executive and board director with more than 20 years of leadership experience across public and private technology companies. He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Validity Inc. and previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Rapid7, Inc., and BitSight Technologies, Inc. Adams also served on the Board of Directors of Model N, where he chaired the Audit Committee. Throughout his career, he has led and advised on IPOs, M&A transactions, capital raises, and strategic financings, bringing extensive experience in public-company governance, financial discipline, and investor relations. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from Murray State University, and an M.B.A. from Boston University.

Matthew Salzberg is a CEO, investor, and founder with extensive experience building, scaling, and transforming technology-enabled businesses. He is co-founder and Chairman of Unlimited, an alternative investment manager, and co-founder of Embark Veterinary and Coldcart. Salzberg founded Blue Apron in 2011 and served as CEO for its first six years, growing the company from an idea into a nationally recognized consumer brand with approximately $910 million in annual revenue and more than 5,000 employees. He led Blue Apron’s 2017 initial public offering and later served as Chairman of its Board. Salzberg also founded venture capital firm Material, and previously served as CEO of Ambr Group. He holds an A.B. in Economics, summa cum laude, from Harvard College, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Michael Thompson has served as Managing Partner of Reinvent Capital, a private investment fund focused on technology companies, since 2017. Previously, he founded and served as Managing Partner of BHR Capital, a New York-based hedge fund. Thompson has invested in and advised numerous innovative technology companies throughout his career, with particular experience across aerospace, advanced energy, emerging technologies, and AI applications in the physical world. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Joby Aviation, Oklo Inc. and American Banknote Corporation, and is an advisor to Xona Space Systems. Thompson holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Finance from the Honors Program at the University of Georgia.

About Shutterstock
Shutterstock is in the business of turning ideas into impact. Powered by a global network of millions of creators and our cutting-edge technology, we provide businesses, creatives, and brand leaders with the essential, universal ingredients to make their work more effective. Shutterstock offers access to one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of high-quality licensable assets, specialized training datasets, evaluation tools, and end-to-end strategic partnerships for the full model training lifecycle, as well as advertising and distribution solutions, exclusive editorial content, and full-service studio production—delivering unparalleled resources to fuel great work.

Discover our impact at www.shutterstock.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube.

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SOURCE Shutterstock, Inc.

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