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HCLTech and Guardian Sign New Expanded Partnership for AI-powered Modernization Across Technology and Operations

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NEW YORK and NOIDA, India, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — HCLTech (NSE: HCLTECH) (BSE: HCLTECH), a leading global technology company, today announced a new seven-year agreement with The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® (Guardian), one of the largest mutual companies in the U.S. and a leading provider of insurance, retirement, wealth management and employee benefits solutions. The new agreement builds on the companies’ previously announced partnership and expands their collaboration to advance Guardian’s AI-powered modernization across technology and operations to support long-term business growth.   

Through this partnership, the companies aim to accelerate value realization and efficiency for Guardian through differentiated experiences and reduced friction, while creating AI-led solutions and IP for the insurance industry. Additionally, HCLTech will accelerate technology and talent transformation across data, applications and engineering while also driving operational excellence across group benefits, individual protection, retirement and wealth management, resulting in reduced costs, faster time to market and continued delivery of high-quality experiences for customers, advisors and distribution partners.   

HCLTech will expand the use of its AI Service Transformation Platform, AI Force to create and deploy agentic capabilities for the business, and further advance AI adoption and innovation. These capabilities will align with Guardian’s product operating model and help create a more resilient delivery foundation that can scale with the business.

As part of the expanded strategic partnership, HCLTech will acquire Guardian India, a high-impact global capability center with a large pool of specialized talent supporting technology, operations and shared services playing a vital role in advancing Guardian’s transformation. Nearly 2,000 employees will integrate into HCLTech with the establishment of a dedicated Strategic Business Unit focused exclusively on supporting Guardian to drive technology innovation, engineering excellence, operational transformation and maturity across Guardian’s products and services. Karunakaran Azhisur, Country Head of Guardian India, will join HCLTech to lead this Strategic Business Unit.

“This partnership is an important step in advancing our operating model and scaling AI across our enterprise,” said Steve Rullo, chief digital and technology officer at Guardian. “Together with HCLTech, we are strengthening how we operate to drive greater consistency and scalability while continuing to invest in the capabilities that differentiate Guardian, strengthen operational excellence, and create value for our customers, policyholders and distribution partners.”  

“This expanded partnership is another testament to our continued leadership in the insurance industry and reflects the strength of our relationship with Guardian to further drive their AI-enabled journey, as well as a shared focus on scaling AI and modernizing operations,” said Srinivasan Seshadri, chief growth officer and global head of financial services at HCLTech. “We are excited to welcome the talented team joining us from Guardian. Together, we have a unique opportunity for us to partner to co-create products and intellectual property that will deepen HCLTech’s domain expertise, further strengthen our AI-intrinsic platforms and help clients achieve sustained business growth.”

About HCLTech

HCLTech is a global technology company, home to more than 223,000 people across 60 countries, delivering industry-leading capabilities centered around AI, digital, engineering, cloud and software, powered by a broad portfolio of technology services and products. We work with clients across all major verticals, providing industry solutions for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Technology & Services, Semiconductor, Telecom and Media, Retail and CPG, Mobility and Public Services. Consolidated revenues as of 12 months ending June 2026 totaled $14.8 billion. To learn how we can supercharge progress for you, visit hcltech.com.

For further details, please contact:

Meredith Bucaro, Americas
meredith-bucaro@hcltech.com 

Elka Ghudial, Europe
elka.ghudial@hcltech.com 

James Galvin, APAC
james.galvin@hcltech.com

Nitin Shukla, India, Middle East & Africa
nitin-shukla@hcltech.com

 

SOURCE HCLTech

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NINJIO Acquires SafeStack to Expand Human Risk Management Platform with Secure Code Training

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Acquisition integrates SafeStack’s developer security training into the NINJIO platform

LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — NINJIO, a leader in cybersecurity awareness and human risk management, today announced its acquisition of SafeStack, a purpose-built developer, security, and application security training platform.

SafeStack currently powers NINJIO Secure Code, NINJIO’s secure development training solution. The acquisition brings SafeStack’s technology and expertise into the NINJIO platform, allowing organizations to combine cybersecurity awareness training for employees with secure coding education for software developers.

The move expands NINJIO’s human risk management platform beyond cybersecurity awareness training and phishing simulations and deeper into the software development lifecycle.

What does the acquisition mean for customers?

Organizations using NINJIO will gain access to a more integrated approach to reducing human cyber risk across both employees and development teams.

The combined platform will help organizations:

Deliver cybersecurity awareness training to employeesTrain developers in secure coding practicesReduce software security vulnerabilitiesStrengthen application security programsManage human cyber risk across the organization

Customers can expect continued support for existing products while NINJIO and SafeStack complete product and platform integration.

Why did NINJIO acquire SafeStack?

The acquisition is a natural extension of the integrated partnership between the two companies as they seek to offer a better solution to the market.

“SafeStack has already been an important part of the NINJIO story as the engine behind NINJIO Secure Code,” said Gary Noke, CEO of NINJIO. “This acquisition allows us to go deeper and move faster. Together, we can offer organizations a more complete solution: security awareness for the workforce and secure code training for the teams building the technology they rely on every day.” 

Who is SafeStack?

Founded and led by Laura Bell Main, SafeStack has developed a globally recognized training platform for developers, security teams, and application security professionals. The company serves customers around the world, including some of the most recognized enterprise organizations in its region. The company provides role-based training for:

Software developersSecurity teamsApplication security professionalsEngineering organizations

SafeStack serves organizations globally and focuses on helping teams build secure software through practical security education.

What does SafeStack’s founder say about the acquisition?

“SafeStack was built to help developers and security teams work together to create safer software,” said Laura Bell Main, Founder and CEO of SafeStack. “Through our partnership with NINJIO, we saw firsthand how powerful it could be to combine developer security training with broader human risk management. Joining NINJIO gives us the opportunity to bring that vision to more organizations globally and help make secure development a natural part of how teams build.” 

Key Facts

Topic

Details

Acquirer

NINJIO

Acquired Company

SafeStack

Industry

Cybersecurity Awareness Training

Focus Area

Human Risk Management and Secure Code Training

Existing Relationship

SafeStack powers NINJIO Secure Code

Customer Impact

Integrated security awareness and secure development training

Frequently Asked Questions

What does SafeStack do?

SafeStack provides secure software development and application security training for developers, security professionals, and engineering teams.

Why is the acquisition important?

The acquisition allows organizations to address human cyber risk across both workforce behavior and software development practices through a single solution.

Will NINJIO Secure Code continue to be available?

Yes. NINJIO Secure Code will continue to be supported and enhanced as SafeStack’s capabilities become more deeply integrated into the solution.

How does this affect cybersecurity teams?

Cybersecurity teams will be able to combine employee awareness training and developer security education within a more unified human risk management strategy.

About NINJIO 
NINJIO’s human risk management platform reduces cybersecurity risk through personalized security coaching, engaging awareness training, and adaptive testing. Our multi-pronged approach to risk mitigation focuses on the latest attack vectors to build employee knowledge and the behavioral science behind social engineering to sharpen users’ intuition. Our simulated phishing and coaching tools build a proprietary Emotional Susceptibility Profile for each user to identify their specific social engineering vulnerabilities and change behavior. 

About SafeStack 
At SafeStack, we believe software should be built to last, secure from today’s risks and safe for whatever comes next. Security protects against known threats, but safety prepares for the unknown. That’s why we embed AppSec directly into your workflow, making security second nature. Our courses and platform provide structured education and hands-on guidance to roll out a world-class application security program and meet compliance goals, all tailored to fit your team’s size and resources. SafeStack helps you build software that’s both safe and secure. Because security should support innovation for software that lasts and does good for the people who use it.

Media Contact
Tom Richards
NINJIO
trichards@ninjio.com 
+1 805 864 1999

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ninjio-acquires-safestack-to-expand-human-risk-management-platform-with-secure-code-training-302827087.html

SOURCE NINJIO

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Illumina expands Billion Cell Atlas program with new AI drug developers

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Partners will use unprecedented data scale to advance more precise medicines to approval

SAN DIEGO, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) today announced that the Billion Cell Atlas alliance has added three new member companies, including AI-native drug developer Formation Bio. As leaders in AI-driven drug discovery, design, and development, alliance members will use the unprecedented scale of Illumina’s genome-wide perturbation data as infrastructure for the next generation of therapeutics.

“We are building the cell atlas to address key bottlenecks across the drug discovery and development continuum,” said Rami Mehio, senior vice president and general manager of BioInsight at Illumina. “We are creating the foundational framework to train virtual cell models and solve some of the most fundamental challenges in biology. Together, partners using this unique dataset can have a significant impact in de-risking and accelerating the journey from biological insights to approved drugs.”

Introduced in January 2026 with founding participants AstraZeneca, Merck, and Eli Lilly and Company, the Atlas enables users to discover and validate novel targets, characterize drug and disease mechanisms of action, and explore potential new indications. Over 350 million cells have been sequenced to date, generating upwards of six petabytes of genomic data. The scale and diversity of the Atlas across hundreds of disease-relevant and healthy cell types can reveal how diseases originate and develop, as well as how we may be able to reverse their progression.

“Formation Bio’s model is to identify and acquire promising medicines already close to or in the clinic, then use AI and technology to develop them faster and more efficiently. A core part of that model is making better asset-selection and indication decisions, especially for first-in-class programs where the evidence is often fragmented,” said Benjamine Liu, CEO and co-founder of Formation Bio. “We are excited to leverage the Illumina Billion Cell Atlas to credential therapeutic-area hypotheses and target-indication pairs against a new layer of cell-specific causal biology. Combined with genetics, human biology, translational evidence, and clinical data, these insights can help us choose the right assets, indications, patients, and trial designs—and ultimately increase the probability that important new medicines reach patients.” 

Transforming drug discovery and development requires biological understanding at scale

For Formation Bio, the Atlas can provide insight into why a drug might work or fail in a specific patient population. Single-cell perturbation data at scale will enable researchers to build more precise models of how candidate drugs interact with disease biology, improving their ability to identify which patient subgroups are most likely to respond and inform clinical trial design. The Atlas will also strengthen one of the most consequential decisions in drug development: choosing which assets to advance and in which indications.

This is particularly important for first-in-class medicines, where the target biology may be compelling but clinical precedent is limited. By integrating cell-state-specific perturbation data with genetic, human, translational, and clinical evidence, Formation Bio can more rigorously credential target-indication pairs, identify the disease contexts and patient populations most likely to respond, and prioritize programs with the strongest probability of clinical success.

“The next frontier of AI in biology hinges on the creation of foundational training datasets,” said Kyle Farh, vice president of Artificial Intelligence at Illumina. “Up until now, most single cell data has been observational. We aim to change that, and in the process, reimagine what is possible in biology.” 

About the Illumina Billion Cell Atlas

The Illumina Billion Cell Atlas — the world’s largest genome-wide genetic perturbation dataset — is capturing how one billion individual cells respond to genetic changes via CRISPR across more than 200 disease-relevant cell lines. The program launched in January 2026, and members include AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, Formation Bio, Merck, and two additional AI-driven drug discovery partners. It will be the most comprehensive map of human disease biology upon completion. To learn more about the Illumina Billion Cell Atlas and other multiomics initiatives, visit this link.

About Illumina  

Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving customers in the research, clinical, and applied markets. Our products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology, reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments. To learn more, visit illumina.com and connect with us on XFacebookLinkedInInstagramTikTok, and YouTube.  

Contacts

Investors:
Illumina Investor Relations
858-291-6421
IR@illumina.com

Media:
Christine Douglass
PR@illumina.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/illumina-expands-billion-cell-atlas-program-with-new-ai-drug-developers-302827780.html

SOURCE Illumina, Inc.

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CNCF Strengthens Partnership with Broadcom as a Platinum Member to Advance AI-Ready Cloud Native Infrastructure

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Collaboration with CNCF reflects Broadcom’s continued investment in open source innovation, cloud native resilience and the technologies powering the next generation of AI workloads

Key Highlights

Broadcom has elevated its membership to Platinum, deepening its commitment to the CNCF ecosystem and cloud native community.Broadcom recently contributed Velero, a Kubernetes-native backup, restore and migration platform, to the CNCF Sandbox.CNCF Platinum membership reinforces a shared commitment to open source collaboration, vendor-neutral innovation and long-term ecosystem sustainability.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, today announced that Broadcom has upgraded its membership to Platinum, reinforcing the company’s mission to advance cloud native technologies that help organizations build resilient infrastructure for the AI era.

As enterprises increasingly move AI and data-intensive workloads into production, cloud native technologies are vital in delivering the scalability, reliability and operational efficiency required to support these environments. Broadcom’s expanded investment in CNCF reflects its ongoing commitment to open source collaboration and the technologies enabling organizations to build and operate modern application platforms.

“Broadcom has had a longstanding engagement with CNCF and is committed to supporting the future of cloud native computing as the technology where AI runs,” said Jonathan Bryce, executive director, CNCF. “From contributing projects like Velero to helping organizations operate complex cloud native environments, Broadcom plays an important role in the ecosystem. We look forward to expanding our partnership and supporting the growth of the communities building the next era of cloud native.”

The membership elevation follows Broadcom’s recent contribution of Velero to the CNCF Sandbox. Velero is a Kubernetes-native backup, restore and migration project that enables platform teams to protect cluster state and persistent data, safeguard AI workflows to mitigate disaster recovery and migrate workloads across clusters and environments. Broadcom has been a long term contributor to the CNCF ecosystem and a top three contributor to Kubernetes for the past decade. The company originated projects such as Harbor, Antrea, Velero, and Contour and is a maintainer for projects such as Cluster API, etcd, containerd, Kubernetes CSI, and controller-runtime.

“Cloud native adoption has moved well beyond application deployment and now encompasses platform operations, resilience, security and lifecycle management,” said Dilpreet Bindra, senior director of engineering, VCF Division, Broadcom. “By advancing our membership to Platinum, we’re helping fortify the open technologies teams depend on to operate Kubernetes environments with confidence. We are pleased to continue to uplift the cloud native community and supporting the technologies that enable organizations to help organizations modernize their platforms, protect critical workloads and accelerate innovation.”

To learn more about becoming a CNCF member, visit https://www.cncf.io/about/join/.

About Cloud Native Computing Foundation
Cloud native computing empowers organizations to build and run scalable applications with an open source software stack in public, private, and hybrid clouds. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of the global technology infrastructure, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. CNCF brings together the industry’s top developers, end users, and vendors and runs the largest open source developer conferences in the world. Supported by nearly 800 members, including the world’s largest cloud computing and software companies, as well as over 200 innovative startups, CNCF is part of the nonprofit Linux Foundation. For more information, please visit www.cncf.io.

Media Contact
Haley White
The Linux Foundation
pr@cncf.io

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cncf-strengthens-partnership-with-broadcom-as-a-platinum-member-to-advance-ai-ready-cloud-native-infrastructure-302827092.html

SOURCE Cloud Native Computing Foundation

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