News

San Francisco – September 22, 2026 -- Teal Health has closed $22 million in Series A funding to scale its at-home cervical cancer screening device ahead of January 2027, when federal guidelines will require most U.S. health plans to cover self-collection HPV testing.

Funding round brings Teal Health's total capital raised to $45 million

The round was led by .406 Ventures, with continued participation from Emerson Collective (managed by Yosemite), Forerunner, and Serena Ventures, plus new backing from Japan-based MPower Partners. The capital will fund hiring across clinical, commercial, technology and operational teams as the company expands partnerships with payors, health systems, employers and providers.

New York – September 22, 2026 -- PulsePoint has launched DTC Explorer, a self-service workspace that lets pharma marketers build and publish clinically-informed consumer audiences in hours instead of the longer timelines previously required for custom segment creation.

New tool cuts audience-building time by connecting clinical claims data to consumer targeting

DTC Explorer draws on PulsePoint's proprietary Bespoke Audiences, which are built from de-identified diagnosis, drug, and treatment claims. Users can filter by consumer demographics, clinical signals, prescribed drugs, insurance provider, geography, or NPI list, reviewing real-time aggregate device and consumer counts as they refine selections before publishing directly to the PulsePoint platform for activation.

Minneapolis – September 22, 2026 -- Perforce Software has launched Delphix Synthetic Data, a tool it calls the first AI-native solution capable of generating realistic, referentially intact test data across enterprise systems on demand.

Perforce says the tool cuts test data wait times from weeks to minutes

The platform automatically scans metadata, schemas, and data relationships across source systems, removing the manual configuration required by legacy synthetic data tools. Developers, testers, and AI agents can describe the data they need using natural language prompts and receive it immediately, according to the company, rather than waiting days or weeks as with prior methods.

Perforce positions the tool for use cases where production data is restricted, incomplete, or unavailable, including new feature development, edge-case testing, and agentic development workflows.

Chicago – September 22, 2026 -- Charter Next Generation (CNG), a North American material science solutions provider, has named Todd Herndon as Chief Financial Officer, bringing more than 35 years of financial, commercial, and operational leadership experience to the role.

Herndon joins from Consilio, a global legal technology and enterprise legal services firm, where he served as CFO

His prior leadership roles include positions at Diversey, now part of Solenis; Gardner Denver, now part of Ingersoll Rand; and Capital Safety. Herndon began his career at S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. and has worked extensively with private equity firms including KKR, Bain Capital, CD&R, and Stone Point Capital.

Beijing – September 22, 2026 -- ADAMA Ltd. (SZSE 000553) has launched Actagon®, a ready-mix pre-emergent herbicide for wheat growers in India, targeting the herbicide-resistant grass weed Phalaris minor.

ADAMA combines two active ingredients into a single ready-mix formulation

Actagon® blends pyroxasulfone and metribuzin in one liquid formulation applied pre-emergence, eliminating the need for on-farm tank mixing. The dual-mode combination is designed to deliver long-lasting control of Phalaris minor along with other grass and broadleaf weeds while supporting resistance management strategies.

Launch targets Punjab and Haryana, India's top wheat-growing states

The rollout focuses on regions where Phalaris minor pressure is highest and farmers face mounting difficulty controlling the weed. Actagon® is registered in India, with commercial launch expected in September 2026.

San Francisco – September 22, 2026 -- The Biological Computing Co. (TBC) has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to bring what it calls the world's first neuron-derived AI video model to market, cutting inference costs by 80% and speeding generation by 5x compared to the base open-source model.

TBC's software layer runs on standard AI infrastructure without new hardware

The optimization is delivered through a proprietary software layer derived from measurements of living neural activity. The layer adds less than 0.1% to the underlying model's footprint, requires no biological hardware, and demands no change to existing customer workflows, according to TBC.

San Francisco/Philadelphia – September 22, 2026 -- Instacart (NASDAQ: CART) will add Gopuff to its Marketplace and deploy its Carrot Ads technology across Gopuff's digital storefront, giving more than 9,000 brand advertisers direct access to Gopuff's on-demand customer base in the U.S.

Gopuff will join over 2,200 national and local retail banners already on the Instacart Marketplace, offering Instacart customers delivery in as fast as 15 minutes from a catalog of thousands of groceries, snacks, beverages and household staples. Orders placed through Instacart will be fulfilled directly by Gopuff via its own network of micro-fulfillment centers.

San Francisco – September 22, 2026 -- Handshake, the career network for the AI economy, has launched AI Skills Studio, a free learning hub offering hands-on AI projects to more than one million employers on its platform. The tool was built with partners including Clay, Figma, Gamma, Google, Lovable, Notion, OpenAI, Replit, Salesforce, Southern New Hampshire University, and Vercel.

Job seekers complete AI 'missions' in 10 to 45 minutes using real practitioner tools

AI Skills Studio offers personalized, project-based missions that produce a tangible output, ranging from automated workflows to working software. An AI Skills Instructor guides learners through the process, and early users have built interactive games, data dashboards, personal portfolios, and sales and marketing tools.

McDonough, Ga. – September 22, 2026 -- Piedmont Orthopedics | OrthoAtlanta has added board-certified interventional pain specialist Vic Manocha, M.D., to its Henry County team, deploying him across both its McDonough office and its newly opened Locust Grove location.

New physician strengthens nonsurgical pain treatment capacity

Dr. Manocha treats acute and chronic back pain, neck pain, joint pain and musculoskeletal conditions using interventional techniques including spinal cord stimulation, peripheral nerve stimulation and minimally invasive spine procedures. He also maintains a focus on regenerative medicine and orthobiologic therapies for chronic spine and joint pain, and is the founder of RegenCures, a practice dedicated to orthobiologic treatments.

The Woodlands, Texas – September 22, 2026 -- Astound Ventures, a collaborative investment fund founded by hoteliers Burt Cabañas, Alex Cabañas and Kirk Jones, has raised more than $8 million toward a $30 million target aimed at boosting net unit margin across hotel real estate operations.

Fund targets $30 million entirely from industry "smart money"

Unlike traditional venture funds backed by institutional allocations, Astound is raising its entire pool from operators, owners and brands within the hospitality sector. Chairman Burt Cabañas is founder of Benchmark Resorts & Hotels and co-chairman of Pyramid Global Hospitality; CEO Alex Cabañas is Pyramid's executive chairman and a Convene Hospitality Group board member; CFO Kirk Jones previously served as CFO of Benchmark and Capella Hotels.