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Bisedge Secures €10 Million Long-Term Loan from Finnfund to Expand Electric Intralogistics Fleet in Nigeria and East Africa

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bisedge Logistics & Infrastructure today announced a €10 million long-term investment loan from Finnfund, the Finnish development financier and impact investor.

The facility will fund the expansion of Bisedge’s electric material handling fleet across its African operations, with a particular focus on Nigeria and the East Africa region. It follows the recent equity investment from Metier Private Equity and gives Bisedge further momentum as it enters its next phase of growth in Nigeria and East Africa.

Bisedge’s “Zero CapEx” model enables customers to modernise their fleet of forklifts, reach trucks and tractors with the latest technology from Linde Material Handling. The result: significant reductions in total cost of ownership, lower emissions through the transition from diesel and gas to electric equipment, and higher overall efficiency of intralogistics operations.

The long-term tenor of the Finnfund facility is well suited to Bisedge’s multi-year customer contracts and equipment lifecycle. It positions the company to scale its fleet and service operations in Nigeria and East Africa, broaden its market coverage, and deliver more efficient and sustainable material handling services to its clients.

Christian Wessels, Co-Founder & CEO of Bisedge, commented: “Our business is built on long-term partnerships with our customers, and Finnfund’s long-term capital is a natural fit for that model. This facility allows us to accelerate the electrification of intralogistics in Nigeria and East Africa, helping our clients lower their costs and emissions while keeping their operations running every day.”

Justin Nthala, Senior Investment Manager at Finnfund, said: “Bisedge shows how a service-based model can make clean technology accessible to African businesses. By removing the upfront cost of electric equipment, the company helps its clients cut emissions and improve productivity while creating skilled local jobs. We are pleased to support Bisedge’s expansion in Nigeria and East Africa.”

About Bisedge
Bisedge is a green logistics company specialising in the provision of electric material handling equipment through a “Zero CapEx” model, delivering end-to-end equipment management for improved uptime across its clients’ intralogistics operations. Bisedge provides material handling solutions as Equipment as a Service across Sub-Saharan Africa and the GCC, supporting intralogistics operations with over 1,350 colleagues by supplying equipment, improving operational efficiency, and helping clients reduce emissions through the transition from diesel to electric equipment. Bisedge is the exclusive partner of Linde Material Handling, the world’s leading manufacturer of material handling equipment, in Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya (East Africa) and South Africa. Bisedge was co-founded by Christian Wessels, Chief Executive Officer, and Jasper Graf von Hardenberg, Chief Operating Officer.

About Finnfund
Finnfund is a Finnish development financier and impact investor. Finnfund builds a sustainable future and generates lasting impact by investing in businesses that solve global development challenges with Finnish added value. Each year, Finnfund invests 200–250 million euros in 20–30 companies in developing countries. Its focus is particularly on digital infrastructure and solutions, clean energy, forestry, agriculture, and on providing funding for small and medium-sized enterprises through financial institutions. Today, Finnfund’s investments, commitments, and investment decisions total about 1.2 billion euros. The company has about 100 employees based in Helsinki and Nairobi.

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SOURCE Bisedge Holding

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Inovance Takes Industrial Intelligence to the Factory Floor at CIIF 2026

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Humanoid robot debut and automotive welding line put Inovance’s manufacturing architecture on show

SHANGHAI, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Inovance Technology (SZSE: 300124) presents its intelligent manufacturing architecture at the 2026 China International Industry Fair (CIIF) under the theme “Make Intelligence REAL.”

At the center of the booth is a Luban lock, a traditional Chinese puzzle whose wooden pieces interlock without nails or glue. Inovance uses it to show that design, production, energy and operations deliver more value when they work together.

Watch the Highlights:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YoKP2I3ogU

An automotive body welding demonstration line combines Inovance controllers, drives, robots and machine vision. Standardized process modules, digital-twin validation and predictive maintenance help customers shorten changeovers and raise output.

Inovance’s humanoid robot debuts on the line. Its seven-axis arms with precision force control are mounted on a wheeled base. Full-body liquid cooling, IP54 protection and hot-swappable batteries suit it to factory conditions. Guided by the line’s vision system and paired with an arc-welding robot, it autonomously loads, unloads and repositions workpieces.

A manufacturing ontology brings together process knowledge, equipment data and field experience to trace the causes of production anomalies, then turns findings into edge control strategies. WiTSnet industrial networking keeps synchronization jitter below 10 ns across 10 nodes, while INO AIR synchronizes 128 axes wirelessly with 99.9999% reliability.

This architecture already runs in automotive, metal and cable, and port logistics, including one of the industry’s first plant-wide control systems built on 5G-Advanced and virtual PLC clusters.

In metal rolling, the HD3X medium-voltage drive has cut customers’ scrap rates by 3–8%. Inovance’s electric propulsion system has completed first-flight validation on DreamFly Aerotech’s DF3000 eVTOL. At the company’s Nanjing plant, the InoOcean platform lifted spot-market energy storage returns 3–8% above peak/off-peak arbitrage and shortened payback by 0.92 years.

Like the joints of a Luban lock, manufacturing progress depends on every part of the value chain fitting together. Visit Inovance at Hall 6.1H, Booth C092, through October 16.

Make Intelligence REAL.

About Inovance

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Shenzhen, Inovance Technology develops industrial automation, motion control, digital energy, industrial robots, new energy vehicle powertrains and smart elevator systems for customers worldwide.

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SOURCE Inovance Technology

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atNorth to Discuss Biodiversity Integration in Digital Infrastructure at COP17 Convention on Biological Diversity

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The Nordic data center operator will contribute practical experiences, challenges, and lessons learned from embedding biodiversity considerations into its development strategy.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — atNorth, the leading Nordic high-density colocation and built-to-suit data center provider, today announced its participation in the UN COP17,Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 17) taking place in Yerevan, Armenia this October.

The conference will bring together global leaders to assess progress against the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Under the theme, ‘Taking Action for Nature,’ COP17 marks the first formal review of progress towards the Framework’s 2030 biodiversity targets, placing renewed emphasis on implementation and measurability.

As the digitalization of modern society continues to accelerate worldwide, demand for data center capacity is growing and attention is expanding beyond energy and carbon to the broader environmental impacts of development, including biodiversity. At the COP17 Convention, atNorth will join international discussions on how infrastructure providers can integrate nature considerations into planning, construction and operations.

Sharing practical insights from atNorth’s own commitment to restoration and biodiversity as part of its Data Center Blueprint for the future,the discussion will examine the role data center operators can play in supporting nature restoration. Examples informing the discussion include biodiversity monitoring programmes, conservation and replanting initiatives, species-support projects, heat reuse partnerships that contribute to circular resource use, and community engagement around biodiversity interventions across atNorth’s Nordic portfolio.

“The conversation around sustainable digital infrastructure has traditionally focused on carbon, energy and efficiency. While these remain critical priorities, biodiversity is emerging as another important consideration for operators, investors and policymakers,” said Cora Olsen, Director of Sustainability & Regeneration at atNorth. “Through the development of our Data Center Blueprint for the future, we’re exploring how biodiversity considerations can be embedded into planning, construction and operations benefitting local communities while balancing environmental, technical and commercial realities. At COP17, we hope to contribute practical insights to the growing discussion around the role of biodiversity in infrastructure development.”

As biodiversity considerations become increasingly relevant to infrastructure investors, developers, and policymakers, this level of practical collaboration and transparent knowledge-sharing will play a critical role in accelerating progress.

Participation at COP17 reflects atNorth’s broader commitment to responsible operations and aims to contribute to a formal nature strategy aligned with evolving global biodiversity frameworks. The business is already a signatory of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact and a participant in the UN Global Compact.

About atNorth’s Participation

Event: The 2026 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 17)

Date: 28 October 2026, 11am 

Location: The Nordic Pavillion

Session Information:

Led by Justice Selorm Nutakor, Sustainability & Regeneration Manager at atNorth, the panel discussion entitled ‘Strategic and practical work with biodiversity at data centers: lessons and look into the future’ will explore how biodiversity considerations can be integrated across the full lifecycle of data center development, from planning and design through construction and ongoing operations.

Key themes include:

Why biodiversity is increasingly becoming a business and infrastructure topic.The role of business in supporting biodiversity outcomes. Experiences integrating biodiversity into infrastructure development.Balancing environmental, technical and business priorities.Shaping initiatives in line with community priorities.

About atNorth

atNorth is a leading Nordic data center company that offers cost-effective, scalable high-density colocation and built-to-suit services trusted by industry-leading organizations.

With sustainability at its core, atNorth’s data centers run on renewable energy resources and support circular economy principles. All atNorth sites leverage innovative design, power efficiency, and intelligent operations to provide long-term infrastructure and flexible colocation deployments.

atNorth is headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland and operates seven data centers in strategic locations across the Nordics, as well as four mega sites under development across Kouvola, Finland, Ølgod, Denmark, Sollefteå, Sweden and Haugaland, Norway. The business also has an additional metro site under development in Stockholm, Sweden.

For more information, visit atNorth.com or follow atNorth on LinkedIn.

Press Contact:

Laura Cameron
Mead Cameron for atNorth
+44 (0) 7740 948 378
laura@meadcameron.com 

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/atnorth/r/atnorth-to-discuss-biodiversity-integration-in-digital-infrastructure-at-cop17-convention-on-biologi,c4408389

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Achyuta Samanta Elected First President of Indian UniSport Federation

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BHUBANESWAR, India, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Noted educationist, social reformer and Founder of KIIT and KISS, Dr. Achyuta Samanta (https://achyutasamanta.com/), has been unanimously elected the first President of the Indian UniSport Federation (IUSF) at its inaugural Annual General Meeting here on Sunday. Addressing the members after his election, he called for collective efforts to prepare Indian athletes for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in India and urged all stakeholders to work together to realise the Prime Minister’s vision for sports development in the country.

Recognised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Federation aims to strengthen university sports, promote transparent governance and create greater opportunities for young athletes across the country.

His election recognises his significant contribution to university sports through KIIT (https://kiit.ac.in/) and KISS (https://kiss.ac.in/), where he has championed a model integrating education, sporting excellence and athlete welfare. Under his leadership, the institutions have developed a comprehensive sports ecosystem featuring more than 30 sports facilities, professional coaching, sports science, nutrition, medical care and rehabilitation support.

As many as 24 KIIT and KISS athletes have represented India at the Olympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and World University Games. KIIT has also served as India’s nodal university for the World University Games since Napoli 2019. More recently, 54 students from KIIT and KISS represented India at the 20th Asian Games held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. The participation of such a large contingent from a single Indian university was a significant achievement. At the continental sporting event, athletes from KIIT and KISS won a total of 21 medals, comprising three gold, seven silver and 11 bronze medals.

As IUSF President, Dr. Samanta has emphasised fair competition, accountable governance and athlete-centred development. He expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, universities and sports stakeholders for their support.

Dr. Samanta has held several positions in national and international sports organisations and received recognition for his contributions. He previously served as President of the Volleyball Federation of India and currently serves as President of the Odisha Volleyball Association. He is also associated with the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB). Over the years, he has developed strong relationships with leading international sports bodies, including FIFA, FIVB and FIDE. In recognition of his contributions to the promotion of volleyball and chess, he has received the highest honour conferred by the FIVB.

Since 2004, Samanta has consistently worked to promote sports and support athletes through KIIT and KISS. The institutions have developed international-standard sporting infrastructure and provided students with opportunities to showcase their talents at state, national and international levels. One of its athletes has received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, while 14 others have been honoured with the Arjuna Award.

 

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SOURCE KIIT

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