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Category: 3. Business

  • Wind River and Hyundai Rotem Advance Industrial Rail Systems with a Modern Software Development Environment

    Applying a Software-Defined Vehicle Approach to Accelerate the Future of Railway Innovation

     

    ALAMEDA, CA, and SEOUL, South Korea – Nov. 11, 2025 – Wind River, an Aptiv company and global leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge, today announced that Hyundai Rotem, a leading provider of industrial rail and smart logistics solutions, will use Wind River® Studio Developer to modernize and automate its railway system software development environment. 

    Building on a 30-year relationship as a longtime VxWorks® customer, Hyundai Rotem will expand its use of Wind River solutions to advance its move toward cloud-native development –– driving greater flexibility, scalability, and efficiency as the company transitions to a software-defined rail system. 

    “We are thrilled to support Hyundai Rotem on its journey toward software-defined, autonomous transportation systems,” said Javed Khan, executive vice president and president of Software, Advanced Safety, and User Experience, Aptiv. “With Wind River, Hyundai Rotem can modernize its software development practices without compromising safety, security, or quality. This enables faster innovation, improved efficiency, and reduced costs while delivering secure, compliant, and reliable edge systems.”

    “Leveraging Wind River technology, Hyundai Rotem is making a strategic shift toward software-defined functions, which will help us automate our development environment, accelerate innovation, and maximize ROI across current and future projects. Together with Wind River and their mission-critical expertise across industries, we are creating for the future of intelligent rail,” said Won-Sang Lee, vice president and chief technical officer, RS R&D Hub, Hyundai Rotem.

    Studio Developer, a modern DevOps platform, will empower Hyundai Rotem with agile software development advancements such as CI/CD and cloud-native deployment to solve modern software development challenges that impede automation. Hyundai Rotem will also use Wind River Cloud Platform as the cloud infrastructure to host Studio Developer and will continue to use VxWorks for its safety-certified signaling and train control management system.

    Studio Developer is designed to accelerate the development, deployment, and operation of mission-critical systems at the intelligent edge. It enables agile practices such as CI/CD and cloud-native deployment to overcome barriers to automation. By increasing automation and collaboration, Studio Developer improves developer efficiency, enables shift-left testing, boosts agility, and extends system lifetime value. 

    Cloud Platform provides a robust, on-premises private cloud solution to deploy and manage complex cloud architectures in the most demanding environments. VxWorks remains the industry’s most trusted real-time operating system (RTOS), ensuring the highest levels of safety, security, and reliability for mission-critical rail systems. 

     

    About Wind River

    Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge. For more than four decades, the company has been an innovator and pioneer, powering billions of devices and systems that require the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability. Wind River software and expertise are accelerating digital transformation across industries including automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and telecommunications. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio supported by world-class global professional services and support and a broad partner ecosystem. To learn more, visit Wind River at www.windriver.com.

     

    About Hyundai Rotem

    Hyundai Rotem is a globally integrated enterprise that is helping to secure future sustainability in the areas of rail solutions, defense solutions, and eco-plants. The company is also pursuing a smart logistics business, supplying mobility products and automation facilities to increase logistical efficiency, including automated guided vehicles (AGVs), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and automated warehouse solutions. Hyundai Rotem further contributes to South Korean national security by developing ground weapon systems and smart unmanned weapon systems. For more information, visit Hyundai Rotem.

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  • Winners in the 22nd Annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business Announced

    Winners in the 22nd Annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business Announced

    Women-Owned Businesses and Professionals Were Honored at an Awards Ceremony in New York City

    FAIRFAX, Va., Nov. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world’s top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run, have announced the 2025 winners.

    The Stevie Awards for Women in Business is an international competition produced by the creators of the prestigious International Business Awards® and American Business Awards®. The Stevie is widely regarded as the world’s premier business award.




    Stevie Awards for Women in Business winners were announced at a ceremony on November 10 in New York City.






    Stevie Awards for Women in Business winners were announced at a ceremony on November 10 in New York City.

    Finalists in the 2025 competition were announced in September. The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award placements among the Finalists were revealed at a gala event at New York’s Marriott Marquis Hotel on Monday, November 10. More than 550 nominated women professionals and their guests attended the presentations, which were broadcast live via Vimeo.

    The 2025 competition attracted more than 1,500 nominations submitted by organizations and individuals in 48 nations. Winners were honored for achievements in more than 100 categories, including Executive of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, Startup of the Year, and Women-Run Workplace of the Year. Over 200 business professionals from seven specialized judging committees determined the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

    Grand Stevie Award trophies were presented to five organizations that submitted the best body of entries to the competition, in their own names or in the names of one or more clients. These awards cannot be applied for directly. Grand winners were determined by the total number of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards won in the competition, with a Gold Stevie win counting for 3 points, a Silver Stevie for 2 points, and a Bronze Stevie counting for 1.5.

    The 2025 Grand Stevie Award winners, listed in descending order by points, are as follows:

    • Award Writing Services with 92 points for nine Gold, 25 Silver, and 10 Bronze Stevie Award wins on behalf of themselves and their clients
    • Purpol Marketing Ltd., Chippenham, United Kingdom with 61 points with seven Gold, 14 Silver, and eight Bronze Stevie Award wins on behalf of themselves and their clients
    • IBM, worldwide, with 29 points, for four Gold, four Silver, and six Bronze Stevie Award wins
    • RISER, Armadale, Australia with 28.5 points for six Gold, three Silver, and three Bronze Stevie Awards on behalf of themselves and clients
    • FASSLING.ai with 25 points for four Gold, five Silver, and two Bronze Stevie Award wins

    The 2025 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organizations from around the world. Notable Gold Stevie Award winners in this year’s competition include:

    • Donna Dror, CEO, Usercentrics, Munich, Germany, for Best Female CEO of the Year – Business Service
    • Courtney Spaeth, CEO, growth[period], Tysons, VA USA for Best Female Entrepreneur in Business Services – 11 to 2,500 Employees
    • MeiLee Langley, Vice President of Global Indirect Marketing, Nextiva, Inc., Phoenix, AZ USA for Female Executive of the Year ñ Business Products – 11 to 2,500 Employees
    • Jelena Bajic, VP, TELUS Digital, Toronto, Canada, for Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Services – More Than 2,500 Employees
    • Kristen Dalton, President, Tripadvisor, Needham, MA USA for Female Thought Leader of the Year – Consumer Services
    • Prof. Olivia Mirza, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia, for Most Innovative Woman of the Year – Industry
    • Peta Warby, Founder, SANAME, Gold Coast, Australia, for Woman of the Year – Industry
    • Security Done Easy, Cary, NC USA for Best Female Business Blogger of the Year
    • Öksüt Madencilik, Ankara, Türkiye, for Achievement in Women-related Corporate Social Responsibility
    • Theory Crew, Armadale, Australia, for Achievement in Women-related Corporate Social Responsibility
    • SuperFresh, Istanbul, Türkiye, for Achievement in Corporate Responsibility
    • Mastercard, Nairobi, Kenya, for Achievement in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
    • PlayWise Partners, Los Angeles, CA USA for Achievement in Events & Observances Communications or PR
    • Sempra, San Diego, CA USA for Achievement in Ethical Leadership
    • Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, Taguig City, Philippines, for Achievement in Influencer Management

    Organizations that won more than two or more Gold Stevie Awards, other than the Grand winners mentioned above, include Buy From A Black Woman, Atlanta GA USA, Chang Robotics, Jacksonville Beach, FL USA, Cherishers 818 CIC, Staffordshire, UK, Elivate, Tahoe City, CA USA, Fernwood Fitness, Melbourne, Australia, Global Touch, El Cerrito, CA USA, Health Focus Manufacturers Sydney, Australia, How Many Elephants, Alresford, UK, HR EXAM PREP with Angela, Canton, MS USA, Lisa Blair OAM, Sydney, Australia, Mastercard, Nairobi, Kenya, Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, Taguig City, Philippines, My Mountain Mover, Orange, CA USA, Pacvue, San Francisco, CA USA, Premier Inc., Washington DC, Rockwood Custom Homes, Calgary, Canada, SANAME, Gold Coast, Australia, Songue PR, San Francisco, CA, Spear & Arrow, Dubbo, Australia, The Divorce Course Podcast, Kenmore East, Australia, The Equine Practice Company, Clayfield, Australia, The Flora May Foundation, San Clemente, CA USA, The Ginsburg Firm, Brisbane, QLD Australia, Toptana Technologies, Taholah, WA USA, and Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.

    Visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women for a complete list of Stevie winners by category.

    About the Stevie Awards

    Stevie Awards are conferred in nine programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Middle East Stevie Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Technology Excellence, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 nominations each year from organizations in more than 70 nations and territories. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

    Contact:
    Nina Moore
    [email protected]
    +1 (703) 547-8389

    SOURCE The Stevie Awards

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  • Private sector lost jobs in late October, new weekly ADP data shows

    Private sector lost jobs in late October, new weekly ADP data shows

    The private-sector job market contracted slightly in late October, according to a new report from payroll processing firm ADP.

    Private sector employers shed an average of 11,250 jobs a week in the four weeks ending Oct. 25, “suggesting that the labor market struggled to produce jobs consistently during the second half of the month,” ADP said.

    How the Federal Reserve perceives the labor market will be critical in their decision whether or not the central bankers to cut interest rates again at their meeting on Dec. 10.

    This is breaking news. Check back for updates here.

    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y

    -Greg Robb

    This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. 

    
  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
    

    
  11-11-25 0838ET
    

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  • BIS, South African Reserve Bank announce winners of G20 TechSprint

    BIS, South African Reserve Bank announce winners of G20 TechSprint

    • Fifteen shortlisted teams from around the world competed to develop innovative technological solutions to address trust and integrity in finance.
    • Solutions aim to establish trust among financial institutions through digital identity solutions, improve the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises to finance through credit data portability, and drive wider adoption of fast payment systems globally by mitigating fraud and cyber risks.
    • The winning teams are Team Ownapay SA (Proprietary) Ltd, Team Silence Laboratories Pte Ltd and Team FNA and Proto.

    The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), under the South African G20 Presidency, today announced the winners of the G20 TechSprint 2025 challenge on trust and integrity in finance.

    The G20 TechSprint is a joint initiative between the G20 Presidency and the BIS Innovation Hub to seek out best-in-class technological innovations aimed at solving challenges facing the global central banking and regulatory community.

    This year’s TechSprint, the sixth edition of the G20 global hackathon open to developers from around the world, was launched in May.

    Fifteen shortlisted teams presented their solutions to an independent panel of judges convened by the SARB in South Africa. Following are the winners for each of the three problem statements:

    • Ownapay SA (Proprietary) Ltd, from South Africa, won the category for problem statement 1, which invited submissions on developing digital identity solutions: establishing trust among financial institutions through innovative, verifiable and privacy-preserving digital identity technologies.
    • Silence Laboratories Pte Ltd, from Singapore, won the category for problem statement 2, which focused on credit data portability: improving the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises to finance through secure, consumer-consented data exchange solutions that facilitate seamless cross-border sharing of credit information.
    • FNA and Proto, from the United Kingdom, won the category for problem statement 3, which called for solutions to mitigate fraud and cyber risks: driving wider adoption of fast payment systems globally – and promoting financial inclusion and economic growth – through technology designed to reduce fraud and cyber risks.

    The 2025 edition of TechSprint has addressed trust and integrity, while advancing scalability and promoting financial inclusion.

    Thank you to all who contributed for your curiosity, discipline and commitment to a more open and trusted financial future.

    Pablo Hernández de Cos, General Manager of the BIS

    As policymakers, our unwavering commitment to fostering innovation is crucial. The G20 TechSprint has once again shown that some of the most scalable and forward-thinking solutions to global financial challenges can emerge from fintech start-ups in small towns as well as seasoned developers in global hubs.

    Hosting the TechSprint on African soil for the first time revealed the depth of talent and ingenuity across our continent and beyond. The solutions put forward underscore the urgent need to build open, trusted and inclusive financial systems that transcend borders and serve everyone.

    Lesetja Kganyago, Governor, SARB

    Shortlisted teams

    Problem statement 1

    • Currency Network Ltd
    • Meeco
    • Ownapay SA (Proprietary) Ltd 
    • Settlefirst Assetsworks Private Ltd 
    • walt.id

    Problem statement 2

    • Akiba Digital (Pty) Ltd 
    • A team of eight individuals led by Amit Bapat1 
    • eSusFarm Africa 
    • Silence Laboratories Pte Ltd
    • Smile Technology Pte Ltd

    Problem statement 3

    • Banfico VOP 
    • ContexQ 
    • FNA and Proto 
    • Kasikorn Soft Company Ltd 
    • Mastercard 

    List of judges

    • Dr Joseph Atick, Executive Chairman, ID4Africa
    • Mr Raymond Chan, Executive Director (Enforcement and AML), Hong Kong Monetary Authority
    • Ms Mary Beth Christie, Independent non-Executive Director, Open Banking UK
    • Ms Violaine Clerc, Executive Secretary, Financial Action Task Force
    • Mr Jeremy Gray, Technical Director, Cenfri
    • Ms Gail Hodges, Executive Director, OpenID Foundation
    • Mr Guilherme Themes Miguel Jose, Head of Division at the Financial System Regulation Department, Central Bank of Brazil
    • Mr Stephen Linnell, Chief Executive Officer, PayInc
    • Mr Mark Munne, Head of Technology, Nexus Global Payments
    • Mr Kwame Oppong, Former Head FinTech and Innovation, Bank of Ghana
    • Mr P Vasudevan, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India

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  • Uli-epic: profiling RNA modifications from ultra-low input samples | Genome Biology

    Uli-epic: profiling RNA modifications from ultra-low input samples | Genome Biology

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  • At 3 Years, Eque-Cel Displays Deep and Durable Responses in Relapsed Multiple Myeloma

    At 3 Years, Eque-Cel Displays Deep and Durable Responses in Relapsed Multiple Myeloma

    The therapeutic landscape of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma has evolved rapidly with the advent of BCMA-directed cellular therapies, offering the possibility of deep and durable responses in a setting historically characterized by diminishing treatment returns with each subsequent line of therapy. However, questions have remained regarding long-term durability, late relapse, and safety with extended follow-up. Updated 3-year results from the phase 1b/2 FUMANBA-1 trial (NCT05066646; CTR20192510) presented by investigators from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences at the 22nd Annual International Myeloma Society (IMS) Meeting and Exposition begin to address these gaps.1

    In the study, equecabtagene autoleucel (eque-cel; Fucaso), a fully human anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy, continued to demonstrate sustained clinical activity at a median follow-up of 36 months. Among 107 efficacy-evaluable patients, the objective response rate (ORR) reached 96.3%, including an 83.2% complete response (CR) or better rate. In CAR T-cell therapy–naive patients (n = 95), outcomes were even more pronounced, with ORR and CR rates of 98.9% and 88.4%, respectively. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 30.46 months (95% CI, 24.11-42.15) in the overall population, extending to 39.82 months (95% CI, 30.26-not reached) among patients achieving at least a CR and 35.91 months (95% CI, 25.95-47.67) among those without prior CAR T-cell therapy. The median overall survival (OS) had not yet been reached, with 66.3% of patients alive at 3 years.

    “Eque-cel is an excellent product, and I hope it [will] benefit patients around the world,” lead study author Lugui Qiu, MD, shared in an interview with OncLive®, where he expanded on the clinical significance of these results, the durability of responses observed with eque-cel, and how these data inform the positioning of BCMA-directed CAR T-cell therapy in contemporary myeloma treatment sequencing.

    Qiu is part of the National Clinical Research Center for Blood Diseases, the State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, and the Blood Diseases Hospital & Institute of Hematology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College.

    OncLive: How was the phase 1b/2 FUMANBA-1 trial designed?

    Qiu: The study was designed as a registrational trial that evaluated eque-cel, a fully human anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy originally from a biotech [company] in China. This study started in 2019, and the enrollment finished in 1 year, so it went well.

    On June 30, 2023, eque-cel was approved by China’s National Medical Products Administration for relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients who had received at least 3 lines of prior therapy, including at least 1 proteasome inhibitor and an immunomodulatory drug [IMiD].2

    What long-term findings were presented at IMS?

    There were a total of 109 patients enrolled in this clinical trial, and 107 patients were efficacy evaluable. The total response rate was [96.3]%, and the CR [or better] rate was [83.2]%. We enrolled 12 patients who had received prior BCMA-directed CAR-T therapy. For those patients, the total response rate was 75%, with a median PFS of [approximately] 1 year. For patients without prior BCMA-directed CAR T-cell therapy, the total response was [98.9]%, and the CR rate was [88.4]%.

    After a median follow-up of 3 years, in the whole group, the median PFS was [30.46] months. For the 95 patients without prior CAR-T therapy, the median PFS was [35.91] months, and the median OS was not yet reached. [In total], 66.3% of patients were still alive at the 3-year follow-up.

    What was observed with regard to the safety profile?

    The safety profile is [good]. During the trial, [93.6]% of patients [experienced CRS], but mostly grade 1 or grade 2. Only 1 patient experienced grade 3 CRS, and there were only 2 patients who [developed] ICANS. There were no toxicity-related deaths in this trial.

    Several commercial BCMA-directed CAR-T therapies are [available globally]. In my impression, eque-cel has efficacy comparable with ciltacabtagene ciloleucel, and the safety profile is better than idecabtagene vicleucel. Eque-cel is a good product balancing [both] the efficacy and safety profiles.

    What are the next steps for analyzing eque-cel in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma?

    We have also launched a real-world study of eque-cel in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma following market approval. [At IMS, we had] a poster reporting 150 cases from this real-world study. The results show that the efficacy and safety profile in the real-world setting were similar to [those in] our clinical trial.

    This product has benefited many heavily pretreated patients, including those previously treated with proteasome inhibitors, IMiDs, anti-CD38 antibodies, and even some patients who had prior BCMA-directed CAR T-cell therapy. [These patients] can still benefit from eque-cel.

    References

    1. Li C, Zou D, Zhou K, et al. Three-year follow-up of FUMANBA-1: a phase 1b/2 study of fully human anti-BCMA CAR-T equecabtagene autoleucel in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Presented at the 22nd Annual International Myeloma Society Meeting and Exposition; September 17-20, 2025; Toronto, Canada. Abstract OA-08.
    2. Innovent and IASO Bio announce the NMPA approval of Fucaso, the first fully-human BCMA CAR-T therapy for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. News release. Innovent Biologics, Inc. July 3, 2023. Accessed November 11, 2025. https://www.iasobio.com/info.php?id=224

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  • S&P Global to Present at J.P. Morgan 2025 Ultimate Services Investor Conference on November 18, 2025

    S&P Global to Present at J.P. Morgan 2025 Ultimate Services Investor Conference on November 18, 2025

    Session will be Webcast

    NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Martina Cheung, President and Chief Executive Officer of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), will participate in J.P. Morgan’s 2025 Ultimate Services Investor Conference on November 18, 2025 in New York, New York. Ms. Cheung is scheduled to speak from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time). The “fireside chat” will be webcast and may include forward-looking information.

    Webcast Instructions: Live and Replay
    The webcast (audio-only) will be available live and in replay through the Company’s Investor Relations website http://investor.spglobal.com/Investor-Presentations (please copy and paste URL into web browser). The webcast replay will be available within 24 hours after the end of the presentation and will remain accessible for 30 days, ending on December 18, 2025. Any additional information presented during the session will be made available on the Company’s Investor Presentations web page.

    About S&P Global 
    S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) provides essential intelligence. We enable governments, businesses and individuals with the right data, expertise and connected technology so that they can make decisions with conviction. From helping our customers assess new investments to guiding them through sustainability and energy transition across supply chains, we unlock new opportunities, solve challenges and accelerate progress for the world.

    We are widely sought after by many of the world’s leading organizations to provide credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help the world’s leading organizations plan for tomorrow, today. For more information, visit www.spglobal.com.

    Investor Relations: http://investor.spglobal.com

    Contacts:

    Investor Relations
    Mark Grant
    Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer
    Tel: + 1 (347) 640-1521
    mark.grant@spglobal.com

    Media
    Orla O’Brien
    Global Head of Public Relations
    Tel: +1 (857) 407-8559
    orla.obrien@spglobal.com

    SOURCE S&P Global

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  • Crypto trading protocol Lighter raises $68 million at $1.5 billion valuation

    Crypto trading protocol Lighter raises $68 million at $1.5 billion valuation

    “Pivot from crypto to AI” became a refrain in Silicon Valley after ChatGPT launched in 2022. Opportunistic founders looked to jump from one flagging hype cycle to the newer, shinier thing in tech. Vladimir Novakovski, though, pivoted from AI to crypto—and he’s attracted a who’s who of investors to back his startup Lighter, one of the fastest growing projects in digital assets.

    Lighter is both a decentralized exchange designed to not be controlled by a single entity as well as a blockchain. It allows users to trade perpetual futures, a type of derivative that lets traders speculate on future prices for cryptocurrencies. It will also soon roll out spot trading for tokens like Bitcoin, Novakovski said.

    On Tuesday, Lighter announced that it has raised $68 million in a new funding round. According to the 40-year-old Novakovski, who founded Lighter in 2022 and serves as CEO, the fundraise was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and the fintech investor Ribbit Capital. Other participants included Haun Ventures and the online brokerage Robinhood, which rarely makes venture investments.

    The round valued Lighter at around $1.5 billion, according to two sources familiar with the deal, who asked for anonymity to discuss private business dealings. Novakovski declined to comment on Lighter’s valuation but said the deal was for equity and token warrants, or allocations of a yet-to-be-released cryptocurrency.

    “What we want to do is to be the infrastructure layer that verifies that everything that happens in finance happens fairly, happens correctly, happens transparently,” Novakovski said in an interview.

    Trading to AI to trading

    The fundraise for Lighter comes amid a wave of buzz for crypto “perps,” or perpetuals. These are derivatives popular in the crypto industry and let traders hold futures contracts that don’t expire, provided they maintain the necessary margin requirement. 

    While so-called perps have been around for years, the recent rise of Hyperliquid, another decentralized exchange, has shaken up the market. With only 11 employees, Hyperliquid cofounder Jeff Yan managed to challenge centralized behemoths like Binance, which has responded by closely aligning itself with its own Hyperliquid competitor: Aster.

    Lighter is entering an intensely competitive market, but Novakovski has the intellectual chops to compete. “Vlad and the team that he’s built is like 85% to 90% of why we made the investment,” Joey Krug, a partner at Founders Fund, told Fortune.

    After Novakovski immigrated from Russia to the U.S. as a child, he won a place on the U.S. national teams for the International Olympiad in informatics and physics. At the age of 16, he went to Harvard, graduated early, and, at only 18 years old, began working at the hedge fund Citadel Investment Group. (Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, personally recruited him, Novakovski said.)

    Novakovski then had an almost 15-year career at various companies as an engineer and trader before he became a founder himself. In 2017, he and Scott Wu, whom Novakovski previously worked with at the investment firm Addepar, founded their own startup together: Lunchclub, an AI-powered platform for social networking. 

    They raised around $30 million, and, in the beginning of the pandemic, saw their product attract a swathe of isolated users looking to meet new people. But, in 2022, growth plateaued. “We had three paths, which is: try to make it into something profitable but small, try to figure out a way for it to go from what it was to like a TikTok or Snapchat, which didn’t seem particularly viable,” said Novakovski. “The third path: to pivot to something else we were really excited about.”

    Wu left Lunchclub to found the AI coding startup Cognition, which has since notched a valuation of $10.2 billion, and Novakovski decided to return to his roots as a trader.

    He pivoted Lunchclub to Lighter, retained 80% of the team, and raised a new stash of capital: $21 million in a previously unreported round in 2024 led by Haun Ventures and Craft Ventures. Other participants included Dragonfly and Robot Ventures. That, combined with Lighter’s most recent round, puts the amount that Lighter has raised so far at almost $90 million.

    After two years of development and testing, he launched Lighter in January. As opposed to Hyperliquid, which runs on its own layer 1 blockchain, Lighter runs on its own layer 2 on Ethereum, which Novakovski mentioned as a key distinguisher between the two competing products.

    Lighter’s blockchain has quickly become one of the top layer 2 blockchains on Ethereum by total volume locked, or the total amount of funds on a blockchain, according to data from the crypto analytics site L2BEAT. And his business is already profitable, Novakovski said. “We’re pretty happy about our position right now,”  he added, when asked about how his product compares to Hyperliquid, “but we’re working hard.”

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  • FTSE 100 hits record high as job market data weakens pound; AstraZeneca shines – Reuters

    1. FTSE 100 hits record high as job market data weakens pound; AstraZeneca shines  Reuters
    2. FTSE 100 Live: Blue-chip record run continues, Vodafone dividend cheer  London Evening Standard
    3. Will the Bank of England now play Santa with a December rate cut?  The Times
    4. FTSE 100 LIVE: Markets rally as UK jobs data suggests interest rate cut in December  Yahoo Finance UK
    5. FTSE 100 Set For Gains As Market Optimism Grows  Finimize

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  • Rocket Lab delays first Neutron launch to 2026

    Rocket Lab delays first Neutron launch to 2026

    WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab has delayed the first launch of its reusable Neutron rocket to 2026, saying it wants to maximize the chances that the flight will be a success.

    The company disclosed in its third-quarter financial results Nov. 10 that it now expects the first Neutron to be on the pad at Launch Complex 3 in Virginia in the first quarter of 2026, “with the first launch thereafter,” it stated.

    Rocket Lab had been working toward a first launch before the end of this year. In February, after a report by a financial firm suggested Neutron’s debut could slip to as late as mid-2027, the company defended its 2025 target. By August, Chief Executive Peter Beck said the company was working “extremely hard” to fly Neutron this year but would need a “green-light schedule,” or one with no setbacks, to achieve that.

    Beck, speaking on a Nov. 10 earnings call, did not cite any specific issues that caused the latest delay. Instead, he said the company was taking a meticulous approach to testing Neutron before its first flight.

    “With all of the hardware in front of us now and significant testing programs underway across all parts of the vehicle, we can say we need a little bit more time to retire the risks,” he said. That approach, he added, reflects the “Rocket Lab process,” in which “our hardware is always looking beautiful and, more importantly, always working beautifully.”

    That involves extensive ground testing of integrated systems down to individual subcomponents, he explained, from the Archimedes engines that will power Neutron to the vehicle’s distinctive “hungry hippo” payload fairing, which remains attached for reuse.

    “We’ve seen what happens when others rush to the pad with an unproven product, and we just refuse to do that,” Beck said. He reiterated that the company’s goal is to reach orbit on the first Neutron launch. “You won’t see us minimizing some qualifier about just clearing the pad and claiming success.”

    While Rocket Lab is now projecting Neutron will be on the pad in the first quarter of 2026, Beck said he could not be more specific about when it will actually launch. “It really depends on what you find” during testing, he said, including a hot-fire test of the first-stage engines. If those tests uncover no major issues, “then it’s a fairly straightforward path.”

    “I’m suspicious if everything just flies through,” he added. “Generally, you expect to see something.”

    Beck said the latest schedule shift will have “insignificant” long-term financial impacts. However, the cost of developing Neutron has grown from earlier estimates of $250 million to $300 million. Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer, said the company will have spent $360 million on Neutron development through the end of 2025, including about $15 million per quarter for workforce costs.

    Overall spending on Neutron will “hopefully” peak in the fourth quarter of this year, Spice said. “It all depends on the timing of that first launch.”

    Billion-dollar war chest

    Despite the delay, Rocket Lab shares rose more than 8% in after-hours trading Nov. 10. Investors appeared to respond to strong quarterly results, including record revenue of $155 million for the third quarter. The company projects $592.1 million to $602.1 million in revenue for the full year.

    Rocket Lab shares have surged more than 150% in the last six months. The company took advantage of the rise with an “at-the-market” sale of shares in the third quarter, raising $468.8 million. It now holds a little more than $1 billion in cash and equivalents.

    Part of those funds will be used to complete Rocket Lab’s planned acquisition of Mynaric, a German optical communications terminal manufacturer, announced in March. The deal has not yet closed amid questions over whether the German government will approve the sale to a U.S. company.

    On the call, Beck expressed confidence the Mynaric acquisition will move forward. Mynaric completed a financial restructuring in August, “which was a pivotal moment in the acquisition process,” he said. “Rocket Lab has been a force multiplier for the U.S. space industry, and we’re ready to bring that same energy to the European space sector with our first foothold and expansion into Germany.”

    Beck said the company also has an active pipeline of potential acquisitions that could be financed with its new capital. He declined to name specific targets but said they range from “tuck-ins,” or companies offering specialized capabilities, to larger, more strategic deals.

    “We’re always looking for big, needle-moving stuff,” he said. “We always look for things that we think have a step change in the scale or other elements of the company.”

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