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EQT Launches Middle East Platform and Opens Abu Dhabi Office

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The launch of EQT’s Middle East platform reflects EQT’s commitment to the GCC, with Abu Dhabi serving as a strategic base as the firm builds its presence across GCC markets over timeThe platform will deepen support for EQT’s existing portfolio companies, build on longstanding institutional relationships developed across the region over more than a decade, and pursue new investment opportunities aligned with the GCC’s structural  economic transformationConsistent with EQT’s integrated, One EQT approach, the platform brings together investing  across Private Equity and Infrastructure and is designed to draw on EQT’s broader global capabilities

ABU DHABI, UAE, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ —  EQT, a leading global private markets firm with USD 389 billion in assets under management, today announced the launch of its Middle East platform and the opening of an office in ADGM, the international financial center of Abu Dhabi. 

The opening of the Abu Dhabi office establishes EQT’s active, on-the-ground presence in the GCC and marks the next step in a deepening relationship built over decades. ADGM’s globally connected financial ecosystem, strong regulatory framework and institutional environment made Abu Dhabi a natural location for the office and a strategic base from which EQT can deepen engagement with investors, companies and partners across the GCC. The office is the first location within a broader regional platform that EQT expects to develop over time, reflecting the distinct priorities and market dynamics across the GCC.

GCC economies are playing an increasingly important role in global capital flows and economic growth, supported by ambitious national development agendas focused on healthcare and life sciences, education, digital and technology, industrials, business services, infrastructure and energy transition. These priorities align closely with EQT’s long-standing thematic investment approach, active ownership model and deep global expertise, including in digital and AI infrastructure.

Some of EQT’s portfolio companies have had an established presence in the region for well over a decade, reflecting the depth of the region’s opportunity set and EQT’s familiarity with it well before the launch of a dedicated regional platform. EQT already has experience in the GCC through portfolio companies with an active presence in the region across investment strategies, including Nord Anglia Education, Virtusa, Banking Circle, Nothing and SAUR. Establishing a local platform will enable EQT to work more closely with these businesses and support other portfolio companies seeking to expand into the region.

EQT’s Middle East platform is led by Jimmy Mahtani, who has been appointed Chairman of GCC, alongside his existing role as Chairman of India and Southeast Asia for EQT Private Capital. The Abu Dhabi office is led by Smiyet Belrhiti, Head of Middle East, who has also been appointed Senior Executive Officer. Smiyet brings over two decades of experience across private equity, corporate development and investment in the GCC and broader MENA region, having built deep relationships with the region’s leading institutions, sovereign investors and business communities over the course of his career.

Jean Eric Salata, Chair of EQT  Group, said, “Abu Dhabi is a place where EQT has had the privilege of developing close ties over the past three decades with senior leaders at the largest regional investors. That history is an important part of why this next step matters. We are now deepening our commitment to the GCC by putting dedicated people and resources on the ground, operating as One EQT and bringing together those relationships and our investment experience in the region with the breadth of our global capabilities.”

Per Franzén, CEO and Managing Partner of EQT, said, “The launch of EQT’s Middle East platform reflects our conviction in the scale and momentum of opportunity across the GCC. Jimmy Mahtani, who has led our India and Southeast Asia business for over two decades and is a member of our Asia Investment Committee, is exactly the kind of senior leadership this platform needs from the outset. We see significant opportunities to support the growth of our existing portfolio companies and invest in new businesses across sectors undergoing structural transformation and attracting long-term capital. We believe EQT’s global sector expertise and company-building capabilities can contribute meaningfully to the GCC’s long-term economic development.”

H.E. Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chairman of ADGM, said, “Abu Dhabi continues to strengthen its position as a leading global financial centre, attracting the world’s foremost investment institutions and long-term capital to an ecosystem built for sustainable growth. This momentum reflects the strength of our economy and the confidence global investors place in Abu Dhabi as a gateway to opportunities across the region and beyond. We welcome EQT to ADGM and look forward to its contribution to our growing financial community as we continue to advance Abu Dhabi’s position as the Capital of Capital.”

Jimmy and Smiyet are joined by a dedicated local team spanning Private Capital and Infrastructure investment professionals, alongside capital raising and business operations colleagues reflecting EQT’s integrated, One EQT approach from the launch. The Middle East platform is designed to draw on EQT’s broader global capabilities, including Real Estate and Secondaries, as opportunities develop. 

Smiyet Belrhiti, Head of Middle East, added, “Across the Middle East, we are seeing a growing pool of high-quality companies in sectors central to EQT’s long-term strategies. EQT’s presence here reflects our conviction in the region’s potential to produce globally significant companies over the next decade. We are committed to being a long-term partner in that journey, bringing our global platform, operational expertise and ‘future proofing’ capabilities to support businesses across the region.”

With the addition of Abu Dhabi, EQT now has offices in more than 25 countries that together account for more than 80 percent of global GDP.

Contact:
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com 

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Protean launches Enterprise DPDP Governance & Consent Platform at Global Fintech Fest

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MUMBAI, India, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Protean eGov Technologies today launched its Enterprise DPDP Governance & Consent Platform at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai. The platform was launched at the Protean pavilion by Shri Suvendu Pati, Chief General Manager, FinTech Department, Reserve Bank of India, who spoke at the event on consent as a design principle for India’s digital financial ecosystem.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 has moved decisively from statute to operation. With the DPDP Rules notified in November 2025 and substantive obligations enforceable from May 2027, organisations are required to demonstrate privacy governance that is continuous, auditable and evidenced.

At the centre of the platform is the consent stack. DPDP-compliant consent journeys are embedded directly within an enterprise’s existing web, mobile and assisted channels, so a customer never leaves the journey they are in. When consent is granted, updated or withdrawn, the policy engine validates the request, propagates it automatically to every mapped enterprise application and third-party processor, tracks acknowledgement, and writes an immutable artefact to the consent vault – producing regulator-ready evidence from the customer’s action itself rather than from a subsequent reconciliation exercise.

The platform brings the eight statutory obligations of a Data Fiduciary into a single operating system for privacy, organised across four governance pillars. Internal Privacy Governance covers data discovery, the Record of Processing Activities, data flow mapping, gap assessment and governance dashboards. Processor Risk Governance covers Data Protection Impact Assessments, a central processor registry, third-party risk assessment and remediation tracking. Data Principal Governance covers consent management, a rights management portal, grievance redress and dedicated workflows for minors and nominees. Regulatory Operations covers retention and deletion, breach management, audit monitoring and compliance reporting.

Speaking at the launch, Shri Suvendu Pati, Chief General Manager, FinTech Department, Reserve Bank of India, said: “The Digital Personal Data Protection Act moves consent from a matter of paperwork to a matter of design. For the financial sector, the task ahead is to make consent verifiable, revocable and auditable at scale – so that every individual knows what data is being used, for what purpose, and retains the ability to withdraw that permission at any time.”

Speaking on the launch, Mr. Ajay Rajan, MD & CEO, Protean eGov Technologies, said: “Consent is becoming the connective tissue of India’s digital economy. Our conviction is that privacy and growth are not opposing forces – an enterprise that can show an individual exactly what was permitted, when, and for how long, earns the trust that lets it do more, not less. That is the shift we are enabling: from privacy as a legal obligation to privacy as an enterprise capability.”

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Rakesh Dosi, Chief Business & Product Officer, Protean eGov Technologies, said: “Most enterprises today can tell you their privacy policy. Very few can tell you, for a single customer, what was consented to and which downstream system acted on it. One customer action should update every mapped system and leave behind evidence – that is what we have built.”

Protean eGov Technologies has built and operated national digital public infrastructure for over two decades. As an Account Aggregator licence holder, the company brings direct operating experience of the consent artefact lifecycle – issuance, revocation and secure data sharing – at national scale. This is that same conviction applied to Privacy.

To know more – https://www.proteantech.in/services/consent-stack 

Product note

Protean Enterprise DPDP Governance & Consent Platform

Launched at the Global Fintech Fest, 11ᵗʰ September 2026, Mumbai

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is no longer a policy exercise. The Rules were notified in November 2025, the Consent Manager registration framework comes into force in November 2026, and substantive obligations become enforceable from May 2027 with penalties of up to ₹250 crore. Multiple stakeholders – the Data Principal, the Consent Manager, processors, third-party vendors, internal business functions and the Data Protection Board – converge on a single accountable owner: the Data Fiduciary. Every one of those connections is an obligation to design, run and evidence.

Embedded consent experience. DPDP-compliant consent journeys are deployed within an enterprise’s existing web, mobile, branch, contact centre and partner channels. Consent is captured against the five principles of validity – freely given, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous – with itemised notice and unbundled purposes. Customers never leave the journey they are in.

Intelligent consent orchestration. A single customer action – consent granted, updated or withdrawn – is validated by the policy engine, propagated automatically to every mapped enterprise application and processor with acknowledgement tracked, and recorded instantly as an immutable artefact in the consent vault. Compliance evidence is a by-product of the transaction, not a separate exercise.

Four governance pillars. Internal Privacy Governance – data discovery, ROPA, data flow mapping, gap assessment and governance dashboards. Processor Risk Governance – DPIA, third-party risk management, processor registry and remediation tracking. Data Principal Governance – consent management, rights management portal, grievance management, minor and nominee workflows. Regulatory Operations – retention and deletion, breach management, audit monitoring and compliance reporting.

Regulatory automation. Retention runs on configurable, purpose-based timelines with automated deletion triggers, propagation to processors and retained deletion evidence. Breach management runs from incident intake and severity classification through a 72-hour notification workflow and regulator communication to root cause analysis and closure.

Relationship-based workflows. Verifiable guardian consent before any processing of a minor’s personal data, with age validation and transition on attaining majority. Nominee registration with identity validation and controlled, auditable rights access upon a defined invocation event.

One source of truth. Discover, map, design, orchestrate, evidence – every downstream privacy activity is derived from verified enterprise metadata rather than manual configuration, on a governance foundation of a policy engine, workflow orchestration, an API gateway, the consent vault and an immutable audit trail.

A six-stage path to compliance maturity runs from data discovery and ROPA through data flow mapping, DPIA and processor assessment, and gap remediation, to continuous privacy operations – combining advisory, governance, process design and technology enablement in a single engagement.

Protean eGov Technologies has built and operated national digital public infrastructure for over two decades, is an Account Aggregator licence holder with proven experience of the consent artefact lifecycle, and has implemented consent management capabilities for initiatives including Bima Sugam and CERSAI. This is that same conviction applied to Privacy.

About Protean:

Incorporated in December 1995, Protean eGov Technologies Limited is engaged in the business of developing citizen-centric and population-scale e-governance solutions. Protean is an information technology-enabled solutions company conceptualizing, developing, and executing critical and population-scale greenfield technology solutions. The company collaborates with the Indian government and has extensive experience in creating digital public infrastructure and developing innovative citizen-centric e-governance solutions.

 

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Envision Energy Unveils EN-252/16.7 Offshore Wind Turbine to Deliver High Performance and Reliability in High-Wind Environments

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HAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Envision Energy, a global leader in green technology, launched the EN-252/16.7, its next-generation offshore wind turbine developed for high-wind environments and tailored to the requirements of international offshore markets. With 16.7 MW rated power, a high-performance rotor and an integrated powertrain, the new turbine is designed to deliver higher energy production, greater reliability and increased project ROI.

The EN-252/16.7 builds on Envision’s proven Model Z platform and more than a decade of offshore wind development and operational experience. The Model Z platform has been in operation since 2023, providing a foundation of operating data and engineering experience for the next generation of offshore turbines. The international EN-252/16.7 is tailored with a Europe-specific high-performance rotor and is being developed through extensive component- and system-level validation. The turbine combines high-capacity generation with vertically integrated key component technologies, advanced safety and grid capabilities, and AI-powered lifecycle monitoring through Envision’s Galileo system.

Christian Schrimpf, Executive Vice President of Offshore Wind at Envision Energy, said: “The next phase of offshore wind is not simply about increasing turbine scale. The real value of scale lies in how effectively it translates into higher energy production, greater reliability and stronger economics across the project lifecycle. With the EN-252/16.7, we are bringing these capabilities together to help customers capture more value from offshore wind over the long term.”

Higher Performance for increased project ROI

With 16.7 MW rated power and a swept-area-to-power ratio of approximately 2.99 square meters per kilowatt, the EN-252/16.7 is designed to increase energy production from high-wind offshore resources. For a gigawatt-scale offshore wind farm, the turbine can deliver approximately 1-2% higher annual energy production while reducing turbine quantity by around 10% compared with currently available turbines, contributing to an estimated 2-4% reduction in levelized cost of energy (LCOE), depending on site conditions and project configuration. For suitable site-specific conditions, the turbine can also be uprated, creating further potential to reduce turbine numbers and capital expenditure for the project (CAPEX).

Proven Engineering for Long-Term Reliability

The EN-252/16.7 is supported by extensive component- and system-level validation through Envision’s in-house testing facilities. Testing includes drivetrain system loading tests and more than 600 hours of highly accelerated life testing for drivetrain, helping capture component boundaries and system interactions under demanding operating conditions.

Reliability is further supported by Envision’s vertically integrated approach to the development and manufacturing of key components. The company has accumulated experience across approximately 12,000 gearboxes, 12,000 main-bearing sets, 25,000 blade sets, 23,000 generators and 28,000 converters.

Safety and Resilience in Extreme Conditions

The EN-252/16.7 is designed to support safe and resilient operation under demanding offshore conditions, including extreme wind events, withstanding a 10-minute average extreme wind speed of up to 58.5 m/s and a three-second gust once in 50-year of up to 82 m/s. Safety is further supported by the turbines integration capability with energy storage. Combined with Envision BESS, the system can provide long-duration backup power for critical turbine devices and safety-related functions when external grid power is unavailable, including during pre-commissioning and severe storm or typhoon conditions.

The turbine further incorporates grid-forming control, black-start capability and stable operation under weak-grid and grid-fault conditions. Autonomous operating capabilities further support continuous power supply to critical turbine systems when conventional grid support is disrupted, extending resilience from extreme-weather protection to electrical and operational continuity.

AI-Powered Lifecycle Optimization

The EN-252/16.7 extends reliability into turbine operation through Envision’s AI-driven Galileo system, which supports earlier fault detection and more proactive maintenance throughout the turbine lifecycle. Commercially applied across more than 20,000 turbines since 2020, Galileo uses more than 30 functional models to monitor major components and critical failure modes, providing early-warning reports approximately one to six months in advance per different conditions

Earlier fault detection supports more timely maintenance planning, helping reduce unplanned interventions and lifecycle operating expenditure (OPEX). The turbine also includes an AI-turbine interface to support future upgrades and the continued evolution of intelligent turbine operations.

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SOURCE Envision Energy

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WhalesBot Launches EliteMind, Bringing Physical AI Into STEM & AI Education

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Powered by W-Hong LLM, EliteMind lets students take AI models and programs from digital learning into real-world sensing, reasoning and action.

SHANGHAI, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — WhalesBot, a global leader in STEM and AI education, has announced EliteMind, a modular Physical AI robot designed to bring AI learning into the physical world for elementary and middle school students. With EliteMind, students can develop their own models and programs in WhalesBot’s learning platform, then deploy them directly for testing and hands-on experimentation, turning digital AI projects into tangible, interactive experiences.

Powered by W-Hong LLM, WhalesBot’s AI model built for STEM and AI education, EliteMind brings perception, reasoning, and physical action together in a complete Physical AI loop. It integrates intent recognition, voice interaction, visual understanding, and AI-powered creation with physical control, giving students a hands-on way to understand how AI works in the physical world. Its lightweight, modular design allows sensors and actuators to be combined across different robotic configurations, enabling students to build and explore a range of real-world AI applications.

EliteMind connects with OceanLevel, WhalesBot’s AI literacy learning platform, to bridge structured AI learning and hands-on practice in the physical world. Within this system, WhalesBot OceanLevel provides age-appropriate AI courses, AI tools, model training, and programming, while EliteMind brings what students learn and build in the digital environment into the real world for practice, testing, and feedback. Together, they bring AI understanding, digital creation, and hands-on practice into one continuous learning experience.

“As AI increasingly operates in real-world systems, AI education also needs to move beyond the screen,” said Xufeng Fei, CEO of WhalesBot, who has advocated for STEM and AI education for decades. “With EliteMind, we aim to support a learning journey from foundational AI literacy to hands-on practice and competition, helping students build practical AI skills step by step.”

The launch of EliteMind further strengthens WhalesBot’s growing portfolio of AI products powered by W-Hong LLM and adds a new physical dimension to its STEM & AI Learning Ecosystem. Looking ahead, WhalesBot will continue to develop new ways to help students move from understanding AI to building with it and applying it in the real world.

For more information about EliteMind and the WhalesBot STEM & AI Learning Ecosystem, visit https://www.whalesbot.ai/

About WhalesBot

WhalesBot Technology, founded in 2018 and headquartered in Shanghai, China, provides STEM and AI education solutions for learners aged 3 to 22, with more than 1 million units sold in over 81 countries and regions. WhalesBot also sponsors ENJOY AI, an international STEM and robotics competition built around creative robotics and coding challenges.

Connect with WhalesBot:

LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube

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SOURCE WhalesBot

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