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INITIATE Ventures Closes $45 Million to Fund and Co-create Companies at the Intersection of Healthcare, Life Sciences, and Tech

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Led by serial founders, INITIATE partners with exceptional leaders to build bold companies that solve vital healthcare challenges

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Today, INITIATE Ventures announced the close of $45 million in its debut venture capital fund and affiliated company creation platform. INITIATE invests in and co-founds transformative companies at the intersection of healthcare, life sciences, and technology. It is designed to empower bold ideas and exceptional entrepreneurs, leveraging the expertise of its experienced investor-operator team.

“Exceptional founders are looking for investors who bring more than just capital and domain expertise; they are seeking true partners who have walked in their shoes,” said Jessica Owens, INITIATE General Partner.

INITIATE is led by General Partners Jessica Owens and Iana Dimkova, who have decades of experience building and backing market-defining companies. Owens co-founded GRAIL, which was acquired in 2021 by Illumina, Inc (ILMN) for $8 billion. She was formerly a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. Prior to co-founding INITIATE, Dimkova was a director in the healthcare technology investing group of GE Ventures. Prior to GE Ventures, she was with Alvarez & Marsal and a startup that raised over $700 million to build one of the largest networks of radiation therapy centers in the U.S.

INITIATE’s team deeply understands the challenges and opportunities that health tech and life sciences companies face. The team contributes significant time, focus, real-world experience, and unparalleled networks to support founders.

“Exceptional founders are looking for investors who bring more than just capital and domain expertise; they are seeking true partners who have walked in their shoes,” said Jessica Owens, INITIATE General Partner. “After years spent founding, operating, and investing in these sectors, we’re now building a home for the next generation of world-class entrepreneurs, clinicians, and scientists.”

INITIATE Ventures focuses on early-stage health tech and life sciences companies raising Seed to Series A rounds. The firm invests in startups poised to make a lasting impact. INITIATE’s startup studio is designed to partner with entrepreneurs to co-create and launch new companies. The studio acts as an experienced co-founder, bringing both operational and strategic support in areas ranging from business development, talent acquisition, and fundraising.

“Technology innovation in healthcare and life sciences is creating an unparalleled opportunity to revolutionize human health,” said Iana Dimkova, INITIATE General Partner. “We’ve developed a best-in-class model for company creation that empowers exceptional entrepreneurs to build companies with the potential to deliver lasting impact and drive outsized returns.”

Initial investments include Cornerstone AI, a first-of-its-kind AI software solution that accurately and efficiently prepares vast types of healthcare data for analysis in a fraction of the time of traditional methods; Delfi Diagnostics, the developer of accessible blood tests driving early cancer detection; Macro Trials, a precision research clinical platform; and Persana, the first luxury aesthetic health concierge. Cornerstone AI, Macro Trials, and Persana were co-founded by INITIATE.

“INITIATE is the founding partner startups need. I have worked with the team to launch two companies, and the experience has been superb,” said Babak Azizzadeh, MD, FACS. “My entire career has been devoted to medicine, and I’ve connected with incredible innovators to create solutions to pressing needs, but company-building is something else entirely. The INITIATE team understands exactly how to take a novel solution and turn it into something that can benefit others at massive scale.”

About INITIATE Ventures

INITIATE is an early-stage venture capital firm that funds and co-founds transformative companies focused at the intersections of healthcare, life sciences, and technology. INITIATE partners with exceptional entrepreneurs who are reshaping the future of healthcare and driving tomorrow’s breakthroughs. The firm is led by Iana Dimkova and Jessica Owens, who bring decades of experience as serial founders and venture capital investors. INITIATE’s sectors of focus include biopharma tech and services, precision medicine, R&D tools, and health tech. Learn more about early-stage venture investing and co-founding with INITIATE at http://www.initiate.vc.

Media Contact

Amber Moore, Moore Communications, 1 5039439381, amber@moorecom2.com

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Skymizer and MiTAC Computing to Showcase a 2.8-Trillion-Parameter AI Model Running on a Single Air-Cooled Server at SC26

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2 TB card-memory configuration is designed to fit Kimi K3 within one server for enterprise on-premises deployment

TAIPEI, Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Skymizer and MiTAC Computing today announced a joint showcase at SC26 featuring Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3—a 2.8-trillion-parameter mixture-of-experts model—running on a single MiTAC server equipped with eight Skymizer HTX301 LPU cards and 2 TB of card-attached memory.

Kimi K3 uses native MXFP4 (quantization-aware trained) weights. The 2 TB memory capacity is designed to accommodate the approximately 1.56 TB weight set while leaving capacity for KV cache. Final memory allocation and supported workloads remain subject to engineering validation.

Skymizer will also participate in ICCAD-Expo 2026 in Beijing on November 19–20 with local partners, bringing the same HTX301 product announcement to audiences in China. Together, the SC26 announcement in Chicago and participation in Beijing give the product announcement a global reach, connecting with enterprise AI customers and partners in both markets.

From COMPUTEX to a larger model platform

The platform builds on Skymizer’s demonstration of Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B, a 30-billion-parameter multimodal MoE model, at COMPUTEX 2026 on June 2–5.

“At COMPUTEX, we demonstrated Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B on our evaluation hardware,” said Luba Tang, Chief Technology Officer of Skymizer. “Our team is currently successfully extending that work to a single-server configuration designed for Kimi K3. LISA™ provides a common instruction set and toolchain as we develop the memory-residency and scheduling capabilities required for larger models.”

“Enterprises want greater control over the models, data, and infrastructure behind their AI services,” said William Wei, Chief Marketing Officer of Skymizer. “Our work with MiTAC aims to make larger open-weight models more practical to deploy on premises. Workload validation remains essential to assessing power, cost, and deployment requirements.”

“At SC26, MiTAC Computing is showcasing scalable, full-stack AI infrastructure solutions designed to support evolving AI workloads. Our collaboration with Skymizer explores Prefill–Decode disaggregation and optimized AI inference deployment across diverse workloads. By combining MiTAC’s server engineering expertise and scalable infrastructure platforms with Skymizer’s inference technologies, we aim to provide customers with greater flexibility and efficiency in AI deployment,” said a MiTAC spokesperson.

Built for enterprise on-premises deployment

For enterprises seeking to operate AI within their own infrastructure, fitting a large open-weight model within one air-cooled server offers a practical direction for deployment. Skymizer’s capacity-first cards and decode-optimized architecture are designed to support that goal while allowing enterprises to retain control over their models, private data, and AI operations. Deployment still requires careful matching of memory, compute, power, and cooling to the workload. The approach targets enterprise needs in financial services, healthcare, government, manufacturing, and semiconductor design, where data governance and operational control are central to adoption.

AI-assisted delivery for enterprise deployment

Bringing ultra-large models on premises also requires a practical path from hardware to a working service. Skymizer is developing an AI-assisted delivery approach to help enterprises select models for their workloads, prepare the software environment, install and configure the inference stack, and validate the deployment before use. The aim is to make these steps more consistent and repeatable while keeping model, data, and deployment decisions under enterprise control.

The approach is designed around shared deployment tools that different AI assistants can use, rather than dependence on a single agent or service. Over time, Skymizer plans to extend this assistance to ongoing operations and maintenance, helping teams diagnose issues and manage updates while retaining human oversight and approval. This work supports Skymizer’s “Own Your Intelligence” direction by addressing how enterprises deploy and maintain the AI systems they choose to own.

Availability

HTX301 chip production is expected to begin in Q1 2027. Development and validation of the server platform are ongoing. Sampling and broader commercial availability will be announced separately as integration and validation progress. Further information: skymizer.ai/events/sc26 

About MiTAC Computing Technology Corp.

MiTAC Computing Technology Corp., a subsidiary of MiTAC Holdings, delivers comprehensive, energy-efficient server solutions backed by industry expertise dating back to the 1990s. Specializing in AI, HPC, cloud, and edge computing, MiTAC Computing employs rigorous methodologies to ensure uncompromising quality — across barebones, systems, racks, and cluster levels — fully achieving performance and integration.

About Skymizer

Founded in 2013, Skymizer Taiwan Inc. develops purpose-built Language Processing Unit (LPU) IP and silicon for on-premises and on-device LLM inference. Its HyperThought™ platform pairs compiler-driven software with transformer-optimized hardware, and its LISA™ (Language Instruction Set Architecture) scales a single toolchain from 4-billion-parameter models to the trillion-parameter class. The HTX301-4S card has an approximately 155W card-level power figure; workload-specific and whole-system power remain subject to engineering validation. Multi-card systems are designed to support larger model-memory requirements while enabling enterprises to retain control of models, data, and deployment. Learn more at skymizer.ai.

HyperThought™ and LISA™ are trademarks of Skymizer Taiwan Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 

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SOURCE Skymizer Taiwan Inc.

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Everee Expands Payroll Infrastructure to Power Complete Embedded Payroll Experiences

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New APIs enable software platforms to bring company payroll management and worker experiences into their own products, while Everee handles payroll processing, payments, taxes and compliance behind the scenes

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Everee, a payroll technology company specializing in flexible payroll and payments, today announced a major expansion of its Payroll Infrastructure offering, giving software platforms the ability to build and deliver a complete embedded payroll experience directly within their products.

With the introduction of company-level payroll APIs, Everee is extending its existing worker-facing capabilities to support the administrative side of payroll. Software platforms can now integrate company onboarding, payroll configuration, worker management, deductions and financial reporting into their own applications, creating a unified experience for the businesses and workers they serve.

The expansion enables platforms to offer payroll as a native part of their software rather than requiring customers to manage payroll through a separate provider or application. Everee powers the underlying payroll engine and handles payroll calculations, payments, tax filings and operational support.

“Software platforms want to own the customer experience, but building and operating payroll from scratch is incredibly complex,” said Brett Barlow, CEO at Everee. “With this expansion, we’re removing that barrier. Our partners can build payroll directly into their products, control the experience from end to end, and leave the complexity of running payroll to us. We’re giving software companies the infrastructure to offer a complete payroll product without having to become payroll operators.”

Bringing the Entire Payroll Experience Into One Platform

Everee’s Payroll Infrastructure has enabled software companies to integrate worker-facing payroll functionality, including employee onboarding, direct deposit, pay history, pay stubs and tax documents.

The expanded APIs now extend that functionality to company-level payroll administration, enabling platforms to build experiences that support:

Company onboarding: Create and onboard employer customers, collect required information and manage onboarding workflows.Payroll configuration: Set up work locations, payroll calendars, approval groups, cost centers and pay codes.Worker management: Create and maintain worker records, payroll settings, deductions and leave policies.Payroll data and reporting: Access payment information, payroll costs, payroll journals and financial reports.Payroll execution: Submit hours and pay items and manage payroll runs through an API, with the new Run Payroll API scheduled for release in November.

Together with Everee’s existing worker-facing APIs, these capabilities give software platforms greater control over how payroll is delivered within their products.

Everee handles the underlying payroll calculations, payments, tax filings and related operations, allowing partners to focus on building differentiated software experiences and serving their customers.

Built for Software Platforms That Want to Own the Experience, Not the Complexity

The expanded offering is designed for vertical software providers and workforce technology platforms, including those serving staffing, healthcare, hospitality, workforce management and other industries where payroll is closely connected to day-to-day operations.

By embedding payroll directly into their applications, these platforms can bring workforce management and payroll workflows together, reducing the need for customers to switch between disconnected systems.

Everee’s infrastructure supports payroll for W-2 employees and 1099 contractors, including flexible and same-day payment capabilities that help platforms serve businesses with dynamic workforce needs.

Unlike a traditional payroll integration that directs customers to a separate application, Everee’s API-driven approach allows partners to design and control their own payroll experience while relying on Everee for the underlying technology and operational expertise.

Accelerating Development With AI-Ready Integration Tools

Alongside the expanded payroll APIs, Everee has introduced a redesigned developer experience built to support AI-assisted software development.

The new Payroll Infrastructure guide includes machine-readable documentation, structured implementation instructions and agent-ready resources designed for use with AI coding tools.

Developers can direct compatible coding agents to Everee’s documentation to help navigate integration workflows, configure sandbox environments and implement payroll functionality within their applications.

The approach is designed to simplify the integration process and help software teams move from development to implementation with greater efficiency.

“AI is fundamentally changing how software gets built, and we believe integrating payroll infrastructure should be no exception,” said Piers Mainwaring, Co-founder and CIO of Everee. “We’ve designed our developer experience so AI coding agents can guide partners through the integration process, from initial setup to implementation. Instead of navigating complex documentation and building everything from scratch, developers can use AI to accelerate development and bring embedded payroll capabilities to market faster.”

Everee’s expanded company-level payroll APIs are available to partners now. Software platforms interested in building embedded payroll experiences can learn more about Everee Payroll Infrastructure, explore the developer documentation and request sandbox access at everee.com/technology.

About Everee

Everee is a payroll technology company making it easier for businesses and software platforms to pay workers with greater speed and flexibility. Through its payroll solutions and embedded payroll infrastructure, Everee helps organizations simplify payroll operations, support dynamic workforces and deliver modern payment experiences. Everee’s technology supports flexible pay schedules, instant payment capabilities and payroll solutions for W-2 employees and 1099 contractors.

Learn more at everee.com.

Media Contact

Dana Gagnon, CCO
dana.gagnon@everee.com 

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Innatera Rolls Out Neuromorphic Developer Program with New Portal and Evaluation Hardware on DigiKey

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Developers gain access to the hardware, software, and technical support to build innovative neuromorphic AI applications

DELFT, Netherlands, Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Innatera, the leader in neuromorphic compute, today announced the rollout of its Developer Program, bringing together a new Developer Portal and Pulsar evaluation hardware available through DigiKey. Hardware is now available through DigiKey in the European Union, with availability expected to expand to additional countries by the end of 2026. Building on its previously announced program, the launch gives engineers, researchers, and hobbyists the tools and resources to develop, test, and deploy neuromorphic AI applications.

The program supports development with Pulsar, Innatera’s latest Spiking Neural Processor, which brings ultra-low-power intelligence directly to where sensor data is captured. Applications include human presence detection, keyword spotting, audio scene classification, and predictive maintenance across consumer and industrial devices.

“Neuromorphic computing will advance through what developers build with it,” says Sumeet Kumar, CEO of Innatera. “Our responsibility is to put this technology into their hands with tools they can use confidently. By bringing evaluation hardware together with familiar software workflows, technical guidance, and a developer community, we’re helping more engineers move from experimentation to applications that solve real-world challenges.”

The Developer Portal serves as the program’s central hub for software, documentation, application examples, community discussion, and support. It provides access to the Innatera SDK, comprising two complementary components: Talamo for AI application development and compilation, and Spine for embedded development and execution on Pulsar.

Using Talamo’s Python-based workflow and PyTorch integration, developers can build sensor-processing pipelines, train neural networks, and simulate applications before deploying them to hardware. Talamo’s application compiler translates these pipelines into embedded applications, while Spine provides the embedded toolchain and firmware needed to run them on Pulsar. Together, they streamline the path from model development to on-device evaluation.

Alongside the portal, developers in the European Union can purchase Pulsar evaluation hardware through DigiKey. Availability to other countries will be expanded in phases. The hardware combines two complementary boards:

IgnisCore is the processing module, featuring Pulsar alongside USB connectivity for programming and debugging, onboard memory, and circuitry for monitoring processor power consumption.SensForge connects to IgnisCore to add microphones, radar, motion and temperature sensors, Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, and expansion interfaces, supporting prototyping with real sensor inputs.

Together, the boards allow developers to explore Pulsar’s capabilities, evaluate applications using acoustic and motion data, and assess power consumption as they develop their designs. For researchers and academic teams, this provides a platform to move beyond simulation and run and evaluate their own applications on physical neuromorphic hardware.

Developers can register at developer.innatera.com to access the Innatera SDK and supporting resources, and purchase Pulsar evaluation hardware through DigiKey at https://www.digikey.de/en/supplier-centers/innatera, subject to regional availability.

About Innatera
Innatera enables the world’s sensor data to be processed as soon as it is captured, directly at the source. Incorporated in 2018 as a spin-off from the Delft University of Technology, it develops a line of neuromorphic processors that mimic the mechanisms the brain uses for processing sensory data. Using a radically new computing architecture that is massively more efficient than conventional technologies, its chips enable breakthrough physical AI capabilities even in devices powered by small batteries. Innatera’s technology makes intelligence pervasive for a smarter, safer, and cleaner world.

Innatera has raised EUR 55m in funding from leading European deep-tech investors, and with its remarkable capital efficiency, aims to bring intelligence to a billion sensors by 2030.

For more information, visit www.innatera.com.

Media Contact:
Cosmin Balan
Marketing Manager
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212-481-3456

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