Kirby Montgomery Appointed to Lead Local Team

BERLIN, LONDON and NEW YORK, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Code & Co., the global AI & Technology Due Diligence firm, today announces the opening of its New York City office and the appointment of Kirby Montgomery as Head of North America.

The US has long been a core market for the firm, accounting for a significant share of its 800+ engagements to date. Kirby will lead the local expert team, backed by Code & Co.’s practice and proprietary AI and software platform.

An operator-first appointment with a decade of PE-adjacent experience

Kirby brings twenty years of experience scaling software products across fintech, payments, and healthtech. Most recently, he was Head of Product and GM at SAP Taulia, leading the 0-to-1 build of a new payments line. Earlier, as VP of Product Management at C2FO, he helped replatform a supply chain finance product generating over $130M in gross revenue and launched the C2FO API platform. As Director of International Product at TreviPay (then MSTS), he helped scale annual transactions to $5B and expand from 4 to 30 countries, ahead of its acquisition by Corsair Capital in 2020. He also co-founded TheraWe, acquired by Rethink First (a K1 Capital platform).

Code & Co. first met Kirby in 2020 during its Tech DD on MSTS for the Corsair transaction. Over the next six years, he worked alongside the firm in a senior advisory capacity, making a full-time move the obvious next step.

From Our Leadership Team

“We have been serving US clients for years, but having a strong team on the ground, in their timezone, changes what we can deliver. Faster access and the speed to insight that modern deal-making demands, backed by our global team with 800+ deals behind them.”
– Dan Bender, Founding Partner

“Most investors are asking harder questions about AI than ever before and need answers they can act on. That is what drew me to Code & Co. The team has spent a decade building the tools, methodology, and track record to give investors real conviction and real-world action plans. I am here to scale that further, on both the buy-side and sell-side, and everything in between.”
– Kirby Montgomery, Head of North America

What We Do

Code & Co. offers an end-to-end suite of AI & Technology DD services, purpose-built for the pace and demands of modern deal-making.

AI & Tech DD: Fast, actionable, data-driven buy-side assessments covering every major market, strategy, and sector, supporting funds from first look through the entire value creation lifecycle.Sell-side & Vendor DD: Helping sellers get ahead of buyer scrutiny with rigorous exit readiness assessments and vendor DD materials that hold up to sophisticated acquirers.Lightning DD: Rapid pre-qualification delivering a sharp first point of view, driven by document analysis, deep research, and web signal intelligence, before significant time or capital is committed to a process.Cyber & IT DD: Full-spectrum infrastructure, security posture, and IT operational risk review, relevant across virtually every deal type.Embedded Software & Hardware: In-house expertise across embedded systems, hardware-adjacent software, and Industry 4.0 and IIoT environments.AI Future Readiness: Cutting through AI hype to assess whether a company’s strategy, architecture, governance, team, and roadmap are genuinely defensible and built to scale.Portfolio Monitoring & Continuous Diligence: Ongoing technology and AI maturity tracking across portfolio companies, powered by Code & Co.’s proprietary software stack.

About Code & Co.

Code & Co. is a leading AI & Technology DD firm serving private equity and growth investors globally. Founded in 2016, the firm has completed 800+ engagements for 200+ funds across buy-side, sell-side, and vendor mandates. Every team member is an operator with hands-on experience in technology, product, and AI. www.codeandco.com

Full press release: https://www.codeandco.com/media/code-co-opens-new-york-office

For inquiries: hello@codeandco.com

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LONDON, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fastmarkets and Expana, global leaders in commodity price reporting and market intelligence, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver deeper, more actionable forest products intelligence to customers.

Under the partnership, Fastmarkets’ trusted forest products price benchmarks will be integrated directly into the Expana platform, giving customers streamlined access to essential upstream pricing alongside downstream market insights. The collaboration is designed to support faster, more confident decision‑making across increasingly complex and volatile forest products markets.

By combining Fastmarkets’ authoritative, IOSCO‑compliant price assessments with Expana’s downstream intelligence and analytics, customers can access critical pricing for key forest product categories – including pallets, wood, recovered paper and packaging – within a single workflow.

“As forest products markets become more volatile and margin pressure increases, customers need trusted price benchmarks embedded alongside downstream intelligence,” said Raju Daswani, CEO at Fastmarkets. “Partnering with Expana allows us to deliver that combination in a way that is practical, decision‑ready and directly aligned with how Expana’s agri-food customers operate.”

Fastmarkets delivers some of the most widely relied-upon forest products price assessments globally, spanning pulp, recovered paper, timber, biomass, wood products, pallets, tissue, nonwovens and graphic paper. These benchmarks provide transparency and confidence to buyers, sellers and traders navigating dynamic market conditions.

“At Expana, we are committed to providing our users with comprehensive, reliable data to support smarter decision-making,” said Julie Harris, CEO at Expana “Fastmarkets’ authoritative forest products price benchmarks are a natural fit for our customers, and this partnership represents a meaningful step forward in expanding the insights available on our platform,” she added.

Expana delivers comprehensive market intelligence and analytics across food, beverage and FMCG supply chains, with deep expertise in packaging materials, industrial inputs and cost modeling. The platform’s advanced analytics and forecasting tools help customers understand cross-commodity relationships and supply chain impacts, enabling more strategic procurement decisions across volatile markets.

The partnership reflects a shared commitment by Fastmarkets and Expana to improving market transparency and equipping customers across the value chain with high‑quality, decision‑critical intelligence.

For more information, contact media@fastmarkets.com or visit www.fastmarkets.com.

ABOUT FASTMARKETS

Fastmarkets is an industry-leading PRA and information provider for the agriculture, forest products, metals, carbon and energy transition markets. Its benchmark prices, analytics, forecasts, and insights are critical to customers seeking to trade, manage risk, and understand complex global markets.

Fastmarkets was founded in 1913, with a heritage dating back to 1865 through several of its acquired brands. Fastmarkets employs more than 700 people worldwide, with offices across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. The company is privately held and backed by Astorg, a leading European private equity firm.

ABOUT EXPANA

Expana is the world’s leading agrifood-focused Price Reporting Agency and global information provider. In markets defined by volatility, opacity and risk, Expana equips businesses with the foresight when to buy or sell, how much, where to source, what to reformulate and how to price. By uniting frequently updated pricing data, predictive forecasts, cost modeling and expert analysis, Expana transforms market data into negotiation power and boardroom-ready intelligence. The result: reduced risk, millions saved in COGS, stronger supply resilience, and faster, more confident growth.

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BANGKOK, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Every summer, Thailand turns up the heat — and millions of households begin the all-too-familiar search for relief. But choosing the right air conditioner is far more complicated than it sounds. Cooling power, energy efficiency, noise levels, humidity control, smart features, durability — the list of must-haves is long. It seems impossible to find an air conditioner that truly balances all these “skill points”. That is, until Midea CHIONE entered the picture. Designed to be the “cool ideal” for every home, CHIONE was built to deliver on every front, so you never have to compromise again.

First Things First: Energy Efficiency Is Non-Negotiable

With so many features to evaluate when shopping for an air conditioner, it’s easy to get lost in the specs. But ask any Thai homeowner what matters most, and the answer is almost always the same: electricity bills. Air conditioning can account for roughly 40–60% of a household’s monthly energy costs — a figure that turns every degree of comfort into a source of financial stress.

The nighttime struggle is real. During the long Thai summer, many families set a timer to switch the AC off after falling asleep, only to wake up drenched in sweat at 2 a.m. and spend the rest of the night tossing and turning. Don’t turn it on? Too hot to bear. Turn it on? It hurts just thinking about the electricity cost.

Daytime is no easier. Remote workers face a similar dilemma — 8 to 10 hours of cooling is essential for productivity, but every hour the AC runs feels like watching money evaporate. Many resort to toggling the unit on and off repeatedly, or even escaping to a cafe shop —just to save a bit on the electricity bill.

In both cases, comfort is constantly sacrificed at the altar of the electricity bill. Before style, before smart features, before anything else, an air conditioner must prove it can keep you cool without draining your wallet.

But real-world results from Midea CHIONE tell a very different story. Parenting influencer หม่ามี๊น้องธิริน put the unit to the test in her own home — and was stunned by what she found. She ran the CHIONE for a total of more than 21 hours, and the entire energy consumption came in at just over 6 kWh. “It’s dramatically less than what we used to pay,” she shared. “I used to stress every time I turned on the AC, but now I can keep our home cool with real peace of mind and enjoy the coolness with my little one. The savings are right there on the meter — you can’t argue with that.”

The Technology Behind the Ideal

How does Midea Chione deliver such dramatic real-world savings without compromising living comfort? A smarter cooling experience brought by several layers of innovation working together:

Inverter Technology forms the foundation. Unlike conventional fixed-speed compressors that waste energy through constant start-stop cycles, Midea’s inverter system maintains continuous, stable operation — eliminating the biggest source of hidden energy waste.AI ECOMASTER, the heart of Midea CHIONE that transforms your AC from a simple reactive machine into a highly proactive smart system. Supported by giga-data foundation, it factors in conditions dynamically. It predicts rather than reacts. This smarter AI algorithm allows more precise indoor adjustments to enhance occupant comfort with less consumption. It handles daytime fluctuations and avoids excessive cooling at night . This real-time intelligence translates into extraordinary, tangible value. Verified by SGS, Midea CHIONE maintains an ultra-precise ±0.3°C temperature control to deliver 30% extra energy savings.Smart Control makes life easier and savings visible. Through the Smarthome app, users can monitor daily, weekly, and monthly energy consumption in real time, and receive usage alerts. Via Location-Based Services (LBS), your air conditioner can automatically be on when you are 15 kms away, ensuring a chill moment when you arrive. During nights, the Sleep Curve personal setting empowers you to fully customize your resting environment by tailoring sleep duration and precise temperature shifts to your exact habits.Beyond efficiency, CHIONE also ensures comfort never takes a back seat — with AI Humidity Control maintaining the ideal 40–70% range, Silent Mode cutting outdoor unit noise energy by 50%, COOLFLASH dropping room temperature by 5°C in just 10 minutes, and Prime Guard durability protection built for Thailand’s demanding climate.

This is what “My Cool Ideal” really means — an air conditioner that doesn’t ask you to choose between saving money and living comfortably. If a household saves approximately 500 THB per month on air conditioning costs, that adds up to 6,000 THB annually — meaning the investment in a Midea CHIONE could pay for itself in just a few months. This isn’t just an appliance purchase; it’s a rational household investment with measurable, monthly returns.

Now It’s Your Turn: Share Your Cool Moments with Midea

Midea is inviting real users across Thailand to join the conversation and share your ‘WoW’ moment with Midea AC. Simply share a snapshot of your everyday life with Midea: your cool work-from-home setup, your family’s comfortable living room, or any moment where Midea made your day better.

To participate, simply like Midea’s official post on Facebook and leave a comment with your story along with a real photo of your Midea AC in your home. The top three comments ranked by likes will win amazing prizes — 1st place takes home Midea Chione air conditioner, 2nd place receives a Mini Bar, and 3rd place wins a Stand Fan. This activity is exclusively open to residents of Thailand who are real Midea air conditioner users. Don’t miss your chance — show your story and the comfort speaks for itself!

(* This event is open to residents of Thailand only and is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by Facebook. Midea reserves the right of final interpretation of this event.)

Follow Midea:

Official WebsiteShopeeFacebookTikTokYouTube

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SOURCE Midea