Galderma Reports Record First Half 2026 Net Sales of 3.134 Billion USD and 24.6% Year-on-Year Growth at Constant Currency, Raises Net Sales Guidance for the Full Year

ZUG, Switzerland - Thursday, 23. July 2026

Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

 

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Galderma Group AG (SIX: GALD), the pure-play dermatology category leader, today announced its financial results for the first half of 2026.

    Net sales reached 3.134 billion USD, surpassing 3 billion USD for the first time in the first six months of the year and representing net sales growth of 24.6% at constant currency1.
    Broad-based, double-digit growth in both International markets and the U.S. as well as in all product categories, primarily driven by volume and complemented by favorable mix.
    Outperforming the market in each product category, with net sales growth year-on-year at constant currency of 12.1% in Injectable Aesthetics, 16.4% in Dermatological Skincare, and 67.9% in Therapeutic Dermatology.
    Demonstrating leadership in dermatology through ongoing geographic expansion and differentiated innovation, including Nemluvio® (nemolizumab), which generated 433 million USD in net sales, Relfydess™ (RelabotulinumtoxinA), which continues to ramp-up with approvals in 33 International markets, alongside continued investment in science-based innovation and medical education.
    Core EBITDA2 margin expansion of 328 basis points at constant currency, ahead of initial expectations for the first half, with Core EBITDA reaching 802 million USD, up 42.8% year-on-year at constant currency, and a Core EBITDA margin of 25.6%.
    Core EPS3 grew to 2.34 USD, up 68.5% year-on-year, driven by strong Core EBITDA and reduced financing costs.
    Raising 2026 full-year net sales guidance to 19-21% growth at constant currency (previously 17-20%) based on a strong trajectory, and confirming Core EBITDA margin of approximately 26% at constant currency.

 

“Galderma delivered a strong first half of 2026, with broad-based growth across geographies and product categories, reflecting the strength of our integrated dermatology strategy. Our upcoming inclusion in the Swiss Market Index, Switzerland’s leading blue-chip equity index, effective September 21, is an important milestone in our journey as a listed company and further recognition of Galderma’s progress. Building on this momentum, we are raising our full-year net sales growth guidance as we continue to advance our dermatology powerhouse ambition.”
 

FLEMMING ØRNSKOV, M.D., MPH

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

GALDERMA
 
    

 

Commercial performance

Galderma is on a strong trajectory in 2026 to deliver on another year of opportunities, as it continues to execute on its proven, growth-driven integrated dermatology strategy. Growth for the year is expected to be broad-based across its portfolio, complemented by new launches and geographic expansion.

For the first half of 2026, Galderma achieved net sales of 3,134 million USD, surpassing 3 billion USD for the first time in the first six months of a year. Year-on-year net sales growth was 24.6% at constant currency, predominantly driven by volume and complemented by favorable mix. Excluding the anticipated effects of Nemluvio’s gross-to-net pricing evolution, price contributed positively to growth. Growth remained strong in the second quarter of the year, with net sales up 23.8% year-on-year at constant currency.

Net sales growth remained broad-based, with double-digit growth in most of Galderma’s top 10 markets and across all product categories. Galderma continued to outperform the market in each of its product categories.

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Contacts

For further information:

Media

Christian Marcoux, M.Sc.
Chief Communications Officer
christian.marcoux@galderma.com
+41 76 315 26 50

Richard Harbinson
Corporate Communications Director
richard.harbinson@galderma.com
+41 76 210 60 62

Investors

Emil Ivanov
Head of Strategy, Investor Relations and ESG
emil.ivanov@galderma.com
+41 21 642 78 12

Jessica Cohen
Investor Relations and Strategy Director
jessica.cohen@galderma.com
+41 21 642 76 43

FPT Partners with Nuummite and e-CENS to Explore Strategic Technology Collaboration Across the Middle East and Africa

 HANOI, Vietnam -

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global technology corporation FPT and Nuummite, a MEA-based digital transformation and intelligent automation firm, have signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement to advance collaboration across the Middle East and Africa, creating a stronger platform for enterprise transformation through customer experience, data, AI, and cloud solutions. As part of the broader collaboration, e-CENS will contribute its regional data and analytics expertise alongside Nuummite’s digital transformation and intelligent automation capabilities.

Under the agreement, FPT will work with Nuummite and e-CENS to explore opportunities across a broad set of strategic areas, with an initial focus on Salesforce-led customer transformation and agentic AI, including Agentforce, Data Cloud, and cross-cloud delivery across sales, service, marketing, commerce, and analytics. This will be supported by a broader portfolio covering Adobe and Sitecore experience platforms, data and AI, intelligent automation, and cloud services. The partnership is designed to create a more structured model for joint business development and enterprise transformation by combining FPT’s global technology and delivery capabilities with Nuummite and e-CENS’ regional market access, data expertise and execution strength. Together, the companies aim to accelerate digital adoption and build stronger commercial momentum in priority sectors such as retail, real estate, insurance, aviation, and media and entertainment.

The agreement builds on an existing working relationship between FPT and Nuummite that began in 2024 and elevates it into a broader strategic collaboration, with a clearer framework for joint market activation, coordinated growth, and long-term partnership development.

“Customer experience, AI, and data are becoming central to a more mature, outcome-driven model of enterprise transformation across the region. Leveraging our AI maturity framework, CASAN, along with the FleziPT platform and an AI-augmented workforce, we are well positioned to work with Nuummite in helping organizations to accelerate execution, turning digital priorities into measurable efficiency, stronger growth, and long-term business value,” said Kenan Homsi - Regional Vice President, FPT Middle East and Africa, FPT Corporation.

“The opportunity is not in adding more technology. It is in making technology work in the market, around the customer, and against real business priorities. Nuummite and e-CENS understand how enterprises across the region buy, operate, and change, while FPT brings the depth and scale to deliver. Together, we can turn complex transformation agendas into practical programs that move faster, reduce risk, and produce measurable results,” said Bashar Hafez - Co-Founder and Managing Director, Nuummite and e-CENS.

Since opening its first office in the Middle East in 2020, FPT has expanded its regional presence rapidly, building strong client momentum across multiple sectors and accelerating growth in the market. The company recently secured a Regional Headquarters license for its operations in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, becoming the first Vietnam-based enterprise authorized to conduct regional operations in the Kingdom. This collaboration marks a further step in strengthening FPT’s growth strategy in MEA through a more structured channel model and supporting enterprise clients through a combination of technical scale, local execution, and market-led partnership development.

About FPT

FPT Corporation (FPT) is a globally leading technology and IT services provider headquartered in Vietnam, operating in three core sectors: Technology, Telecommunications, and Education. Over more than three decades, FPT has consistently delivered impactful solutions to millions of individuals and tens of thousands of organizations worldwide. As an AI-first company, FPT is committed to elevating Vietnam’s position on the global tech map and delivering world-class AI-enabled solutions for global enterprises. FPT focuses on three critical transformations: Digital Transformation, Intelligence Transformation, and Green Transformation. In 2024, FPT reported a total revenue of USD 2.47 billion and a workforce of over 54,000 employees across its core businesses. For more information about FPT's global IT services, please visit https://fptsoftware.com.

About Nuummite

Nuummite is a GCC-based digital transformation and intelligent automation partner with offices in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan, serving the region’s most ambitious enterprises across Salesforce, RPA, data, and AI. Its clients include IKEA Saudi Arabia, Sony (Modern Electronics), Abdul Latif Jameel, Tamer Healthcare, Alfaysaliah Group, Medad, Orange, flyadeal, SMSA Express, ARASCO, Emirates Post Group, and Silal. For more information, please visit https://nuummite.com.

About e-CENS

e-CENS, with roots dating back to 2003, is a trusted strategic partner for enterprises seeking to transform data into a powerful competitive advantage. Its expertise spans the entire data lifecycle—from data collection and governance to activation across marketing, sales, and customer experience—supporting leading global brands across retail and e-commerce, financial services, travel, and hospitality.

e-CENS has worked with prominent organizations including Saudia, Jarir, eXtra, Emirates, Oman Air, the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, du, Emaar, Carrefour, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, and MultiBank Group.

For more information, please visit https://e-cens.com.

 

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Media Contact

Mai Duong (Ms.)

FPT Corporation

FPT Software PR Manager

MCP.PR@fpt.com

Nuummite

marketing@nuummite.com

e-CENS

marketing@e-cens.com

 

Boyd Watterson Global Names John Creswell Global Chief Client Officer to Accelerate Global Growth and Client Engagement

 Kane CLI now takes a requirement all the way to a ship-or-hold verdict, designing the tests, running them in a real browser, and emitting an open .evidence proof pack that teammates, AI agents, and auditors can all verify, with no server or dashboard required

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest), the world's first Agentic AI-powered Quality Engineering platform, introduced a source-to-verdict loop in Kane CLI, its natural-language testing tool. Building on Kane CLI's evolution from a browser automation tool, the loop carries a product requirement to a ship decision, writing the tests, running them in the local browser, collecting the proof, measuring coverage from what actually happened, and returning a verdict.

As AI agents write, run, and fix tests, a green checkmark is no longer enough: a step that checks nothing passes, a test written against a spec that changed weeks ago passes, and an agent that says “done” without the click ever landing passes. Empty green and earned green are the same color on every dashboard, the number climbs while the risk does not move. Kane CLI closes that gap: it carries a requirement to a verdict, and proves every step of it.

One loop. Source to verdict.

You no longer hand Kane CLI a test script, you hand it your requirements. Nine stages form one traceable line:

Source → Business use case → Scenario → Acceptance criteria → test.md → Execution → Evidence → Coverage → Verdict

The first half is the AI doing the test-engineering; the second half is the proof. The number at the end is read off the machine, never typed, never assumed.

Ingest anything. Point Kane CLI at a PRD, Jira ticket, Confluence spec, Figma frame, or demo video and it pulls them into context — no other tool takes a Figma node or an mp4 as a requirement source.

AI designs the tests, and asks when it should. It extracts business use cases, breaks each into scenarios, and pins every scenario to acceptance criteria. When two sources disagree, it stops and asks which is current, rather than guessing.

Tests you can read, carrying their own coverage map. The output is test.md: plain Markdown a human can edit, where every step declares which criterion it proves. Traceability is built in, not a spreadsheet beside the tests.

Deterministic execution in a real browser. Authoring is loose and intent-based; execution replays a recorded run with no LLM in the loop, so it behaves the same every time. Autoheal kicks in only when the product has genuinely drifted, and flows can run past 50 steps.

One .evidence pack per run. Not a screenshot and a log, but the whole run: the agent's trajectory, the network as a HAR, the DOM where things diverged, the console, the video, and a root-cause writeup of any failure. It opens as a page with levels — L0 minimal, L1 coverage and quality signals, L3 signing, attestation, and per-file hashes.

Three scores behind every tick. Evidence-backed (was the pass real), legitimacy (did the agent really do it — a no-op click reads legit:false), and determinism (does it reproduce).

A coverage number allowed to fall. Coverage is computed from the pack, not asserted by the tool that ran it. Strict mode demotes tests that passed against a since-changed spec — a percentage that can fall is the only kind you can trust when it rises.

Then someone signs. Coverage, confidence, uncovered criteria, and stale sources roll up into one verdict, ship or hold, posted as a required check on the pull request, with the evidence link attached. The machine brings the proof; a person makes the call.

“Software now ships with agents in the loop, writing tests, running them, fixing what breaks. A green checkmark was built for a world where a person read every line; it was never built to survive an agent in that loop. Kane CLI carries a requirement all the way to a ship decision and shows its working, a record a teammate, an agent, and an auditor can all act on,” said Mudit Singh, Co-Founder and Head of Growth at TestMu AI.

.evidence is open. The pack is not locked inside a dashboard, it is plain YAML and Markdown, versioned, diffable in git, and readable by people, agents, and auditors. Teams can adopt it without adopting Kane CLI itself, and packs project to CI formats such as CTRF and JUnit. Think of it as the PDF of test evidence.

About TestMu AI

TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest) is the world’s first Agentic AI-powered Quality Engineering platform, helping teams build, test, and release software with confidence in an AI-first era by combining autonomous testing capabilities with real-world validation. For more information, visit www.testmuai.com.

 

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Media Contact

Nikhil Saxena

Corporate Communication Manager

TestMu AI

nikhils@testmuai.com

+91 9870981968

 

U.S. Federal Court Permanently Bans 19 Online Sellers of Fake Urolithin A Supplements and Awards $5.3 Million in Damages to Timeline

 LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Thursday, 23. July 2026 AETOSWire

Default judgment follows Timeline’s independent laboratory testing showing products sold under 19 online brands contained no detectable Urolithin A, or far less than advertised

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Timeline (Amazentis SA), the Swiss life-sciences company that pioneered the postbiotic ingredient Urolithin A and its branded form Mitopure®, together with its U.S. subsidiary Timeline Longevity, Inc., announced today that the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has granted the companies’ motion for default judgments and permanent injunctions against 19 online sellers found to have marketed and sold nutritional supplements falsely advertised as containing Urolithin A.

The order, entered July 15, 2026 by Judge Myong J. Joun in Amazentis SA et al. v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule “A”, Case No. 1:25-cv-12913-MJJ (District of Massachusetts), permanently enjoins 19 defaulting defendants from further manufacturing, marketing, distributing, or selling Urolithin A products (see full list in Notes to Editors below).

Timeline and Timeline Longevity, Inc. filed suit in October 2025, alleging that 30 defendants, operating through a network of online storefronts and private drop-ship stores, sold products marketed as containing Urolithin A that either contained no detectable Urolithin A whatsoever or contained Urolithin A at levels materially below the amount represented on the product label. In certain instances, defendants also used Timeline’s Mitopure® trademark without authorization to promote these falsely labeled products.

Independent laboratory testing commissioned by Timeline confirmed that products sold under these brands, many purchased by consumers seeking clinically validated cellular health benefits, contained no detectable Urolithin A or only a fraction of what was advertised. Additional evidence further demonstrated that defendants made a range of additional false and misleading claims, including that their products were made in the USA, were third-party tested and certified, and were vegan. Timeline also showed that many defendants provided false address information on product packaging and listings; and that they included undisclosed filler ingredients in their mislabeled Urolithin A products. Timeline previously entered stipulated judgments with those defendants that did appear in the case.

For the remaining 19 defendants that failed to appear or otherwise respond to the complaint, the Court entered default judgment in Timeline’s favor.

“We are very pleased with the Court's order that protects consumers and innovators like Timeline from bad actors who sell fraudulent products and misappropriate intellectual property," said Chris Rinsch, PhD, Co-Founder and President of Timeline. "Timeline has invested over 18 years and more than $50 million USD building the clinical evidence for our proprietary Mitopure® Urolithin A. Timeline will continue to vigilantly protect the integrity of the market. We will not hesitate to pursue available legal remedies against those who put consumers at risk and exploit our intellectual property without authorization."

The permanent injunction bars the 19 defendants and those acting in concert with them from continuing to import, market, advertise, distribute, offer for sale, or sell any product represented as containing Urolithin A. In addition, the Court has ordered the 19 defendants to pay damages to Timeline ranging from $500 to more than $2.7 million per defendant, reflecting the scope of each defendant's sale of fraudulent products. For a number of the defendants, the Court tripled the award as “enhanced damages.” The total damages awarded to Timeline on account of the 19 defendants’ sale of fraudulent products is more than $5.3 million.

This case is part of Timeline’s ongoing global enforcement program to protect consumers from counterfeit and mislabeled Urolithin A products, to safeguard the integrity of the Urolithin A market, and to defend the clinical research and intellectual property that form the foundation of that market and Timeline’s work.

Consumers seeking authentic, clinically validated Urolithin A can purchase Timeline’s products containing its proprietary Mitopure® Urolithin A by visiting www.timeline.com.

About Timeline

Timeline (parent company Amazentis) is a pioneering Swiss health science company committed to revolutionizing the longevity industry with its groundbreaking, clinically proven, proprietary ingredient Mitopure® Urolithin A. Offering a comprehensive approach to cellular health, Timeline incorporates the benefits of Mitopure inside its next-generation nutritional supplements and topical skin health products. Timeline seeks to push the boundaries of human healthspan, contributing to a future where everyone can live longer, healthier lives. The company is backed by over 18 years of research by distinguished scientists, multiple clinical studies, and over 100 global patents. Nestlé Health Science and L’Oréal are investors in the company.

About Timeline Longevity, Inc.

Timeline Longevity, Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of Amazentis SA and markets Mitopure®-based nutrition products directly to consumers across the United States.

Notes to Editors

Full list of the 19 defaulting, permanently enjoined defendants in Amazentis SA et al. v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule “A”, Case No. 1:25-cv-12913-MJJ:

Kroppssund

Saglikli

Pepeior

Sveikata

Gesundgeist

Vivacityx

Boa Saude

Sundhedsliv

Vivesano

Marafiki

EMAW

DUCRKACS

Glyxcodian

VNNIQ

Hipamus

RGD

Vivalifer

Fitura

CystoRebalance

 

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Vultr and AMD Support the University of Cambridge's TESSERA AI Project to Accelerate Global Environmental Monitoring

 CAMBRIDGE, England - 

Cambridge University's Energy & Environment Group Deploys Planetary-Scale Foundation Model on Vultr Cloud GPU Infrastructure Powered by AMD Instinct™ MI325X GPUs

 

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vultr, the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company, and AMD, a leader in high-performance and AI computing, have announced their support for the University of Cambridge's Energy & Environment Group in developing TESSERA, a groundbreaking AI foundation model designed to monitor environmental change internationally at unprecedented scale.

Vultr is providing the computational infrastructure, based on AMD Instinct MI325X accelerators, necessary to generate global embeddings covering Earth's land surface from 2017 to 2025, enabling applications in agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and renewable energy infrastructure monitoring. The collaboration represents a significant advancement in applying artificial intelligence to planetary conservation challenges.

TESSERA processes data from European Space Agency Sentinel satellites to create detailed embeddings - compressed AI representations - of every 10-meter square of Earth's surface. TESSERA represents the most accurate pixelwise foundation model ever created from Sentinel satellite data, and leads the field in results and reproducibility. These embeddings enable researchers, governments, and organizations worldwide to track environmental changes, from crop health monitoring to deforestation detection, at a scale and accuracy previously unattainable.

"This collaboration positions Vultr at the intersection of cutting-edge AI infrastructure and planetary conservation," said Kevin Cochrane, Chief Marketing Officer at Vultr. "By providing the computational resources required for TESSERA and embracing open source technology, Vultr is enabling research that has immediate real-world impact, from helping smallholder farmers optimize crop yields to tracking biodiversity loss in critical ecosystems."

Stephanie Dismore, Senior Vice President, EMEA at AMD added, “TESSERA shows what becomes possible when world-class research teams can scale AI with the right compute and an open software foundation. By running on Vultr cloud infrastructure powered by AMD Instinct™ MI325X GPUs and the AMD ROCm™ open software stack, University of Cambridge researchers can efficiently process petabytes of satellite data and generate planetary-scale embeddings that help turn environmental observation into actionable insight.”

The project will leverage Vultr's AMD-powered infrastructure, including 4x8 MI325X GPU configurations, to process and host the embeddings. This infrastructure will support both the intensive training requirements and long-term storage needs of the global dataset.

Professor Anil Madhavapeddy, Professor of Planetary Computing at Cambridge's Department of Computer Science & Technology and Co-Director of the Cambridge Centre for Earth Observation, emphasized the project's commitment to open access: "Our goal is to democratize access to planetary-scale environmental monitoring. By making TESSERA's embeddings freely available under a CC-BY license and publishing the complete training pipeline, we're ensuring that any researcher, government, or organization worldwide can deploy this technology for their specific conservation needs."

The Energy & Environment Group will release not only the embeddings but also a fully reproducible pipeline for training the model from scratch on Vultr infrastructure, enabling deployment and fine-tuning for region-specific applications.

The project's computational requirements include both GPU resources for model training and CPU capacity for processing raw satellite observations.

Three Key Application Verticals

The collaboration will develop case studies across three primary verticals:

Agriculture & Farming Optimization: Enabling precision agriculture through crop health monitoring, yield prediction, and risk management at 10-meter resolution, with particular focus on supporting smallholder farmers in developing regions.

Biodiversity Monitoring & Conservation: Tracking habitat changes, species distribution, and ecosystem health across diverse environments, from tropical forests to UK hedgerow networks critical for species like hedgehogs.

Renewable Energy Infrastructure: Detecting and mapping solar installations, wind farms, and other renewable energy infrastructure to support energy transition planning and policy development.

"This partnership exemplifies how cloud infrastructure can accelerate scientific research with genuine planetary impact," concluded Professor Madhavapeddy. "We're enabling a new paradigm for open, accessible environmental monitoring that can inform policy decisions and conservation actions in the UK and worldwide."

The collaboration began in November 2025, with the first global embeddings now available for public access since early 2026.

About Vultr

Vultr is on a mission to make high-performance cloud infrastructure easy to use, affordable, and locally accessible for enterprises and AI innovators around the world. Vultr is trusted by hundreds of thousands of active customers across 185 countries for its flexible, scalable, global Cloud Compute, Cloud GPU, Bare Metal, and Cloud Storage solutions. Founded by David Aninowsky and self-funded for over a decade, Vultr has grown to become the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company.

Learn more at: www.vultr.com.

About AMD

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.

About the University of Cambridge Energy & Environment Group

The Energy & Environment Group at Cambridge's Department of Computer Science & Technology applies computational approaches to planetary challenges including climate change, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable resource management. The group bridges academic research and real-world impact through partnerships with organizations including UNEP-WCMC, IUCN, and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.

 

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New Visa Data Reveals How the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Created Pop-Up Economies Across Canada, Mexico and the United States

 New Visa data reveals the FIFA World Cup 26™ drove a nearly 20% surge in cross-border transactions across host cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

(BUSINESS WIRE)--After the final whistle blew on the FIFA World Cup 2026™, millions of fans returned home with unforgettable memories and a trail of economic activity that stretched across countries. Every tap to pay left a lasting impact, as spending throughout the tournament delivered a meaningful boost to merchants and local economies across host cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

According to new data from Visa, the tournament drove significant growth in cross-border spending, international travel, and digital commerce across host cities. The findings show how a major global event creates “pop-up economies,” defined by Visa as temporary, highly concentrated periods of commercial activity that emerge around major cultural, entertainment and sporting events.

The data reveals that fans traveled from around the world to follow their teams, generating a surge in Visa cardholder spending across restaurants, transportation, entertainment, retail, lodging, and other sectors. From iconic host cities to emerging fan destinations, the tournament created a broad and lasting economic impact that extended well beyond stadium walls.

A Tournament of Pop-Up Economies

Visa data illustrates the scale, reach and pace of economic activity generated throughout the tournament[1]:

Cross-border Visa transactions in FIFA World Cup 2026™ host cities increased nearly 20% year-over-year during the tournament period.

Fans from Colombia, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Brazil generated the highest levels of cross-border spend across host cities.

Santa Clara/San Jose, Boston, and Miami recorded the largest increases in in-person spending from international and domestic cardholders.

Consumers spent most heavily on transportation and entertainment, underscoring the broad economic benefit generated by tournament tourism.

Tap to pay transactions rose nearly 12%, reflecting fans’ preference for fast, secure and seamless payment experiences while traveling.

Ecuador v Curaçao and Colombia v Ghana, both in Kansas City, and Croatia v Ghana in Philadelphia were examples of matches that generated the highest year-over-year uplift creating significant spending spikes before, during and after kickoff.

“This was one of the most impactful FIFA World Cup™ tournaments we’ve seen to date both on and off the pitch,” said Frank Cooper III, Chief Marketing Officer of Visa. “FIFA World Cup 2026™ demonstrated how global events can create far-reaching economic value for businesses, cities and communities. For a few precious days, entire cities came alive with new visitors, new spending and new opportunities for local businesses. Through Visa’s network, we could watch those economies emerge, move from city to city and connect millions of fans with the merchants and communities hosting the world’s biggest sporting event.”

Pop-Up Economies Reached Far Beyond the Stadium

While matches took place inside stadiums, the economic impact spread throughout local communities. Restaurants, bars, retail districts, hotels, transit systems and entertainment venues all experienced increased levels of activity as fans gathered for matches and explored host cities. Several cities achieved standout performance in specific categories[1]:

Boston led growth in year-over-year dining transactions as fans celebrated their nations in local bars and restaurants.

Guadalajara recorded the highest transportation spending growth as fans from around the world traveled to the stadium.

Atlanta saw strong entertainment activity tied to fan celebrations and cultural events, while New York City experienced a surge in retail spending.

These trends demonstrate how a pop-up economy distributes opportunity across an entire host market. The benefits reach businesses directly tied to the tournament and merchants serving everyday visitor needs, from neighborhood restaurants and independent retailers to hotels, transit providers and global brands.

The Tournament Moments That Moved Markets

Some of the tournament’s most memorable moments didn’t just capture attention. They sparked waves of economic activity around the world. Norway’s surprise run to the quarterfinals generated significant increases in consumer spending and transaction activity both in the country and around the world as fans rallied behind the country. In Norway, Visa transaction volumes nearly doubled during matches. Across Norway’s tournament run, increased transaction activity was recorded across a broader set of countries with each successive match, with spending eventually rising in more than 60 countries worldwide when Norway played, demonstrating how a pop-up economy can be fueled by fan passion and engagement.[2]

Moments like this show how fan attention can translate into immediate shifts in economic activity. A major matchup, an unexpected result or a deep tournament run can quickly change travel patterns, increase demand and activate a new pop-up economy in the next destination.

From tourism and local business growth to digital payment adoption, the tournament demonstrated how shared moments of passion can drive commerce at an unprecedented scale. As fans return home, Visa’s data illustrates a lasting legacy, capturing the FIFA World Cup 2026™ as more than a single global event. It was a series of interconnected pop-up economies, each created by the movement, passion and spending of fans. Together, they generated economic opportunity across host communities and demonstrated the role seamless digital payments play in helping businesses serve global demand at speed and scale.

About Visa

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, sellers, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.

[1] Source: Visa cardholder transactions over VisaNet. This data includes all Visa card-present volume in the U.S. and Canada as well as Visa card-present cross-border volume in Mexico compared against the same period in 2025. Date range for U.S. and Canada is between 6/11-7/19 while date range for Mexico is from 6/11-7/5.

[2] The analysis in the report was based on aggregated domestic spending data on the number of transactions at entertainment providers, retail goods merchants, specialty food and grocers, quick-service restaurants, full-service restaurants, bars and cafes. The lift is calculated by taking the volume of Visa transactions that occurred during a 12-hour period before and after a match started and comparing it against a comparable typical day of the week and time of day for each country included in the analysis in late May and early June before the FIFA World Cup™ started.

 

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Comms Contact

Conor Febos

press@visa.com

Moniepoint Publishes Inaugural Impact Report, Revealing How First-Time Access to Credit Is Transforming African Businesses

 The Company disbursed more than $700 million in credit to MSMEs in 2025

 

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Moniepoint Inc. ("Moniepoint" or the "Company"), Africa's all-in-one financial ecosystem platform for individuals, businesses, and their customers, today publishes its inaugural Impact Report titled "Creating Financial Happiness".

The report captures Moniepoint’s evolution from a financial infrastructure provider into a comprehensive financial ecosystem, now serving over 20 million businesses and individuals, processing over $250 billion in transaction value annually. It also highlights the impact of expanded access to credit, banking, and business management tools for MSMEs in Nigeria, which face a funding gap of approximately $32.2 billion.

At the heart of the report is access to credit. In 2025, Moniepoint disbursed more than $700 million in loans to MSMEs. For three out of four borrowers, a Moniepoint loan was the first formal business credit their enterprise had ever accessed. Meanwhile, businesses that received Moniepoint credit recorded a 36% increase in average transaction value - reinforcing the case for a more data-driven approach to lending.

Moniepoint also increased lending to women-owned businesses by more than 300% in 2025, with women accounting for 36% of its loan portfolio - well above the industry benchmark of 15-25%. For 62% of surveyed women entrepreneurs, a Moniepoint loan was the first formal business financing they had ever received.

“Our inaugural Impact Report highlights the significant impact of modern fintech infrastructure in expanding financial access across Africa for individuals, businesses, and their customers. For so many of the entrepreneurs we lent to last year, ours was the first formal loan their business had ever received - a reminder of how much untapped potential exists across the continent, unlocked when access to credit is no longer a barrier,” said Tosin Eniolorunda, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Moniepoint Inc.

“Our goal now is the same as what we set out to achieve ten years ago: to build the infrastructure required to promote financial inclusion for everyone. We remain steadfast in our promise to deliver this, one transaction at a time.”

Beyond its commercial operations, the report highlights Moniepoint’s broader contribution to economic and social development through investments in talent, education, entrepreneurship, and community development. Guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Moniepoint has expanded employment pathways through initiatives such as its Women in Tech and DreamDevs engineering programmes, while supporting STEM education, financial literacy, women entrepreneurs, and underserved children, collectively reaching tens of thousands of Beneficiaries.

Named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies in 2025, and consistently recognised by the Financial Times among Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies, Moniepoint has grown into a global company employing more than 3,300 people across 10 countries.

For more insights, visit impact.moniepoint.com

For more information, please visit https://moniepoint.com

 

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Edidiong Uwemakpan

press@moniepoint.com

Francisco Partners Closes $21 Billion Across Flagship and Agility Funds

 SAN FRANCISCO - Thursday, 23. July 2026 AETOSWire  

Largest fundraise in the firm’s history brings total capital raised to more than $75 billion

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Francisco Partners (“FP”), a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology companies, today announced the closing of $21 billion in capital commitments across its Francisco Partners VIII, L.P. flagship fund and Francisco Partners Agility IV, L.P., its middle-market fund. FP exceeded its initial targets of $14.0 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively. This milestone builds on Francisco Partners' longstanding track record of performance, underscored by its distinction as the only firm to rank among the top three performers in each of the past six HEC-Dow Jones Large Buyout Performance Rankings.*

“In our business, long-term success is created through a series of relationships built on years of trust and collaboration," said Dipanjan (“DJ”) Deb, Co-Founder and CEO of Francisco Partners. "We want to thank our investors for their support, our management teams for their dedication and performance, our friends and partners throughout the technology ecosystem, our lenders and banks for their partnership, and the team at FP for their pursuit of excellence.”

FP partnered with institutional investors from around the world, including a diverse group of public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, foundations, endowments, private wealth, and family offices. The combined closings mark FP’s largest fundraise in its 27-year history and bring the firm’s total capital raised to more than $75 billion.

“Closing these funds in one of the most selective fundraising environments in recent years reflects limited partners’ confidence in our investment team and the strength and durability of the relationships Francisco Partners has built over more than two decades,” said Andrew Brown, Global Head of Investor Relations at Francisco Partners. “We are grateful for the continued support of our longstanding investors and delighted to welcome several new institutional partners from around the world.”

Since inception, Francisco Partners has invested in more than 500 technology companies. The newly closed funds will continue Francisco Partners’ long history of partnering with founders, management teams and corporate partners to build market-leading technology businesses that power critical industries and digital transformation globally.

The FP investment team is organized around dedicated end-market teams, enabling the firm to develop deep expertise across the technology landscape and identify companies whose products and services deliver meaningful value to customers. The firm believes this sector-focused approach continues to differentiate its investing, particularly during periods of disruption and rapid innovation.

“We believe we are entering a particularly dynamic period for technology investing. The rapid evolution of AI is creating potential risk, but also a real opportunity for companies that can harness its power to build better products, improve productivity and deliver greater value to customers,” added Deb. “AI innovation is happening at an extraordinary pace, but we believe that periods of disruption most benefit companies that are able to apply new technology to efficiently help their customers build better businesses.”

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as fund counsel.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 25 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 500 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. With over $75 billion in capital raised to date, the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

*Press Release: Francisco Partners Ranks in Top Three of the HEC Paris-Dow Jones Annual Global Large Buyout Performance Ranking for Sixth Consecutive Year

https://www.franciscopartners.com/media/francisco-partners-ranks-in-top-three-of-the-hec-paris-dow-jones-annual-global-large-buyout-performance-ranking-for-sixth-consecutive-year.

 

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Media Contacts

Francisco Partners

Prosek Partners

pro-FP@prosek.com

Humanoid Raises $152 Million at $1.35 Billion Post-Money Valuation, Becoming Europe's First Pure-Play Humanoid Robotics Unicorn

LONDON - Thursday, 23. July 2026

Humanoid announces its Series A investment round, reaching a $1.35 billion valuation just two years after founding.

It is the largest ever Series A for a humanoid-first robotics company in Europe, positioning Humanoid as the leading humanoid-first robotics unicorn in the UK and continental Europe.

The new capital will accelerate Humanoid's next-generation robot development, commercial deployments with global industrial leaders, and evolution of the proprietary AI platform on the path toward general-purpose humanoids.

The investment marks a defining moment for Europe's tech ecosystem, showing that globally competitive Physical AI companies can be built and scaled in Europe.

 

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Humanoid, a UK-based AI and robotics company building industrial humanoid robots, announced a $152 million Series A financing at a $1.35 billion post-money valuation. This funding brings the total amount raised to date to $270 million. The round was led by Prime Movers Lab, a venture capital firm focused on investments in breakthrough scientific startups working to revolutionize the world's most important industries and transform billions of lives, with participation from Schaeffler, Bosch, Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital, and Aglaé Ventures.

Now is a defining moment for the European technology ecosystem which positions the region among the global leaders in one of the world's fastest-growing tech sectors. Until now, much of the Physical AI momentum has been concentrated in the United States and China. The investment demonstrates that the UK and continental Europe can produce and scale globally competitive humanoid robotics companies at the cutting-edge of the field.

The new capital will fund Humanoid's next phase of growth, strengthening its technology leadership and accelerating its commercial deployments and business expansion. The company will focus on:

Development and launch of its next-generation humanoid robotics platform;

Long-term commercial deployments at customer facilities across logistics, manufacturing, retail, and other sectors, beginning with the roll-out of Beta version robots in Q4 2026;

Start of mass manufacturing of wheel-based humanoid robots;

AI and software development, including Humanoid's proprietary AI brain KinetIQ, on our way toward a general-purpose robot for industrial applications.

Humanoid has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the industry and secured major partnerships with Fortune 500 companies, including SAP, NVIDIA, Bosch, and Siemens. Most notably, Humanoid recently signed the industry's largest publicly announced commercial agreement with Schaeffler for the large-scale deployment of thousands of humanoid robots in manufacturing environments.

“In just two years, we've gone from an idea to becoming Europe's first pure-play humanoid robotics unicorn, partnered with some of the world's leading industrial companies and built one of the strongest pipelines in the industry. What we've accomplished in such a short time would typically take a decade. None of this would have been possible without an extraordinary team that challenges every single day what people believe is possible. This funding gives us the resources to move even faster and to turn humanoid robots from breakthrough technology into everyday industrial tools,” noted Artem Sokolov, Founder and CEO of Humanoid.

"Humanoid robotics will be one of the defining technologies of the next decade, reshaping how commercial and industrial work gets done. We expect the field to consolidate around a handful of category leaders across the US, Europe, and China. Humanoid AI will be one of a small cadre of robotics companies that will define humanoid robotics in Europe and beyond," said Zia Huque, General Partner at Prime Movers Lab.

Klaus Rosenfeld, CEO of Schaeffler AG, commented: “Humanoid robotics is rapidly moving from a visionary concept to an industrial reality, and Schaeffler, as a leading motion technology company, is uniquely positioned to help shape this evolution. By combining our decades of industrial expertise and manufacturing excellence with Humanoid’s breakthrough physical AI platform, we are actively backing one of the most exciting frontiers in technology. We are proud to support Humanoid as both a strategic investor and a commercial partner as they scale a technology that holds the power to fundamentally redefine productivity across global industries.”

“We see significant growth opportunities in the field of humanoid robotics. Through our subsidiary Robert Bosch Robotics GmbH we have already entered into a manufacturing partnership with Humanoid. Bosch will act as Humanoid's contract manufacturing partner, while also providing strategic consulting and technical expertise in hardware design, production, and supply chain,” noted Mathias Pillin, Chief Technology Officer of Robert Bosch GmbH.

"Humanoid has demonstrated exceptional execution in a remarkably short period of time, transforming breakthrough AI and robotics technology into real industrial deployments. We are excited to support the company's next stage of growth as a long-term strategic partner and look forward to contributing to its global expansion,” Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital said.

The valuation reflects both Humanoid's speed of execution and growing market confidence that humanoid robots are becoming commercially viable. What was once considered a long-term research experiment is now a deployable industrial technology. With its wheeled robots, Humanoid aims to address global labor shortages across manufacturing, logistics and other critical sectors, solving real operational problems for its customers.

The company's vertically integrated approach combines proprietary robotics hardware with its own AI brain, KinetIQ, which enables robots to understand, reason, and execute complex physical tasks in real industrial environments. With this financing, Humanoid aims to accelerate the transition toward a future where intelligent robots work safely alongside people across the world's industrial economy.

About Humanoid

Humanoid is a UK-based robotics company building humanoid robots for industrial use. Founded by Artem Sokolov in 2024, Humanoid brings together over 250 engineers, researchers, and innovators from top global tech companies. All robots run on KinetIQ, Humanoid’s proprietary four-layer AI framework designed for real-world deployment.

With offices in London, Boston, Vancouver, and San Diego, the company is focused on building commercially viable, scalable, and safe robotic solutions for real-world applications.

 

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Bitget Emerges as a Leading TradFi Trading Venue With Nearly $70B in Q2 Perpetual Volume, TokenInsight Report Finds

 

VICTORIA, Seychelles - Tuesday, 21. July 2026

(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bitget, the world's largest Universal Exchange (UEX), has emerged as one of the leading venues for TradFi trading products, generating nearly $70 billion in TradFi perpetual trading volume in Q2 2026, according to the TokenInsight Q2 2026 Crypto Exchange Report. The report cements Bitget's growing presence in the rapidly expanding TradFi segment, where crypto exchanges are increasingly connecting digital asset infrastructure with global financial markets.

The report found that TradFi perpetuals became one of the fastest-growing segments across crypto exchanges during Q2, with monthly trading volume increasing from $52 billion in January to $268 billion in June. Equity perpetuals became the main growth driver during the quarter as exchanges expanded into tokenized stocks, IPO products, and other real-world assets. TokenInsight noted that TradFi perpetuals have evolved from an emerging product category into a strategically important area of competition for exchanges.

Bitget's growth in TradFi markets follows a series of product launches under its Universal Exchange strategy, including IPO Prime and Stocks 2.0, which were highlighted by TokenInsight among the industry's notable Q2 developments. The report also found that TradFi perpetuals accounted for 8.61% of Bitget's total derivatives volume, the second-highest penetration rate among major centralized exchanges.

During the quarter, Bitget maintained a top-three position across both commodity and equity perpetual markets, while recording nearly $70 billion in TradFi perpetual trading volume. The exchange also expanded its broader derivatives position, with futures open interest market share increasing from 7.81% in Q1 to 8.58% in Q2, marking one of the strongest gains among major exchanges tracked by TokenInsight.

"The data points to a market that is starting to catch up with the vision behind our Universal Exchange," said Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget. "UEX is built around the belief that investors don't want separate platforms for crypto and traditional finance, they want frictionless access to opportunities across both. The trading volumes we're seeing today reinforces that this is where the market is heading."

The findings come as the broader exchange industry shifts toward multi-asset trading. While total crypto exchange volume declined modestly to $16.5 trillion in Q2, spot activity recovered from $3.3 trillion to $4.5 trillion as market participants responded to renewed volatility and Bitcoin's repeated tests of the $60,000 support level.

Bitget's Universal Exchange ecosystem brings together crypto, tokenized equities, commodities, and other global assets through a unified trading experience. As TradFi and crypto markets continue to converge, Bitget continues expanding the infrastructure needed to support increasingly diverse trading activity.

Read TokenInsight's Q2 2026 Crypto Exchange Report here.

About Bitget

Bitget is the world's largest Universal Exchange (UEX), serving over 125 million users and offering access to over 2M crypto tokens, 500+ tokenized stocks, ETFs, commodities, FX, and precious metals such as gold. The ecosystem is committed to helping users trade smarter with its AI agent, which co-pilots trade execution. Bitget is driving crypto adoption through strategic partnerships such as MotoGP™. Aligned with its global impact strategy, Bitget has joined hands with UNICEF to support blockchain education for 1.1 million people by 2027. Bitget currently leads in the tokenized TradFi market, providing the industry's lowest fees and highest liquidity across 150 regions worldwide.

For more information, visit: Website | X | Telegram | LinkedIn | Discord

Risk Warning: Digital asset prices are subject to fluctuation and may experience significant volatility. Investors are advised to only allocate funds they can afford to lose. The value of any investment may be impacted, and there is a possibility that financial objectives may not be met, nor the principal investment recovered. Independent financial advice should always be sought, and personal financial experience and standing carefully considered. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Bitget accepts no liability for any potential losses incurred. Nothing contained herein should be construed as financial advice. For further information, please refer to our Terms of Use.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5751a946-60e6-4aaf-b014-27b8640566b1

Contacts :

For media inquiries, please contact: media@bitget.com

Bitget Enhances Algorithmic Trading Experience with Siebly.io SDK Integration

 

VICTORIA, Seychelles - Tuesday, 21. July 2026

 

 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bitget, the world’s largest Universal Exchange (UEX), today announced a collaboration with Siebly.io, a provider of professional-grade API SDKs for algorithmic traders and developers, to simplify integration with Bitget’s V3 Unified Trading Account and V2 Classic APIs. The collaboration gives developers access to the Bitget SDK by Siebly, enabling faster, more reliable connectivity across Bitget’s spot, futures, copy trading, and real-time market data infrastructure.

Developers and algorithmic traders increasingly rely on stable API tooling to build, test, and deploy trading systems. However, fragmented API environments, inconsistent client libraries, and complex migration paths can slow down development and introduce operational risk. By working with Siebly, Bitget is helping developers reduce integration complexity while supporting both its new Unified Trading Account architecture and existing V2 Classic workflows.

Siebly.io provides ready-made developer tools that help trading teams connect to crypto exchanges without building every API connection from scratch. For developers and algorithmic traders, especially those built with JavaScript and TypeScript, they can connect to Bitget faster, reduce technical errors, and spend more time building trading strategies, bots, and market data tools instead of managing complex API integrations.

“UEX is about delivering a better trading experience for users and developers worldwide independent of the assets they trade,” said Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget. “Collaborating with Siebly makes it easier to build reliable tools across Bitget’s unified account architecture, helping traders spend less time on integration and more time building strategies on Bitget.”

Siebly’s SDKs provide comprehensive coverage across Bitget’s ecosystem, including spot trading, futures trading, copy trading, public market data streams, and private account management. For latency-sensitive strategies, the SDK also supports WebSocket API functionality, allowing developers to execute REST-like request-response patterns over a persistent connection and reduce request overhead without the added complexity of managing WebSockets manually.

The SDK also includes built-in support for HMAC, RSA, and Ed25519 authentication, helping developers securely interact with Bitget’s infrastructure while maintaining flexibility across different authentication standards. With consistent development patterns across supported exchanges, Siebly’s tooling is designed to help developers move between platforms with less friction and shorter implementation cycles.

“Developers building automated trading systems need SDKs that are consistent, secure, and tested in production environments,” said Tiago Siebler, Lead Developer at Siebly.io. “By collaborating with Bitget, we are making it easier for developers to integrate with one of the industry’s leading trading ecosystems.”

Bitget’s UEX framework is strengthened with this collaboration by improving the infrastructure layer that connects developers, trading systems, and Bitget’s unified account environment. By making API access more efficient across spot, futures, copy trading, and real-time data, Bitget continues to expand the tools available to retail and professional developers building the next generation of crypto trading applications.

About Bitget

Bitget is the world's largest Universal Exchange (UEX), serving over 125 million users and offering access to over 2M crypto tokens, 500+ tokenized stocks, ETFs, commodities, FX, and precious metals such as gold. The ecosystem is committed to helping users trade smarter with its AI agent, which co-pilots trade execution. Bitget is driving crypto adoption through strategic partnerships such as MotoGP™. Aligned with its global impact strategy, Bitget has joined hands with UNICEF to support blockchain education for 1.1 million people by 2027. Bitget currently leads in the tokenized TradFi market, providing the industry's lowest fees and highest liquidity across 150 regions worldwide.

For more information, visit: Website | X | Telegram | LinkedIn | Discord

For media inquiries, please contact: media@bitget.com 

Risk Warning: Digital asset prices are subject to fluctuation and may experience significant volatility. Investors are advised to only allocate funds they can afford to lose. The value of any investment may be impacted, and there is a possibility that financial objectives may not be met, nor the principal investment recovered. Independent financial advice should always be sought, and personal financial experience and standing carefully considered. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Bitget accepts no liability for any potential losses incurred. Nothing contained herein should be construed as financial advice. For further information, please refer to our Terms of Use.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/612e9d67-4e31-4a79-9a13-339ba2b3ee79

Bitget Launches Industry-First Quanto Perpetual Futures for TradFi Assets

 

VICTORIA, Seychelles - Tuesday, 21. July 2026

 

(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bitget, the world's largest Universal Exchange (UEX), has launched the industry's first TradFi Quanto Perpetual Futures, a new derivative market structure which enables trading of non-USD-denominated stocks using USDT without any currency conversion. The first contract, MINIMAXHKDUSDT, tracks Hong Kong-listed AI company MiniMax and is live today with up to 20x leverage only on Bitget.

The contract prices the underlying stock in its local currency, HKD for Hong Kong equities or JPY for Japanese equities, but settles margin, funding fees, and realized P&L entirely in USDT. The system treats the local-currency price as numerically equivalent to USDT at 1:1, so the contract's price movement matches the underlying stock exactly, without any fiat involvement.

"Quanto contracts are not new in crypto derivatives, but no major exchange has applied the structure to traditional financial assets until now," said Gracy Chen, CEO at Bitget. "From Pre-IPO access to US stock options, we are building a trading environment where crypto infrastructure serves global financial markets. The Quanto contracts remove the last barrier for global traders: currency conversion. Anyone holding USDT can now trade Hong Kong and other non-USD stocks as easily as they trade Bitcoin. This is convergence in practice which Bitget has been able to crack."

The problem the product solves is straightforward. A user who wants to buy Hong Kong stocks in HKD normally has to convert USDT to HKD first, taking on exchange rate risk on both the position and the conversion itself. Bitget's quanto structure removes that step. A trader opening a long position of 10 MINIMAXHKDUSDT contracts at 30 and closing at 50 earns 200 USDT, calculated as (50 minus 30) times 10, settled directly to the futures account. No forex conversion happens at any point.

The launch lands in a market that is growing fast. TokenInsight's Crypto Exchange Report Q2 2026 found that TradFi perpetuals were the fastest-growing segment across the crypto exchange industry in the quarter. Monthly volume expanded from roughly $52 billion in January to $268 billion in June, a fivefold increase over the first half of the year, with equity perpetuals overtaking commodities as the primary growth driver. Bitget was one of the fastest-growing platforms in the sector. The exchange generated approximately $69 billion in TradFi perpetual volume during Q2, capturing 11.01% market share and ranking second among all exchanges.

The quanto launch follows a year of product firsts that have made TradFi a core part of Bitget's business rather than a side feature. The exchange introduced tokenized stock perpetual contracts offering synthetic exposure to publicly traded companies with USDT settlement and up to 100x leverage, then added CFD trading in late 2025 for access to global equities, commodities, and forex through stablecoin settlement. In April 2026, Bitget launched IPO Prime, the industry's first Pre-IPO trading service, powered by Republic, giving users exposure to private companies such as SpaceX before public listing. In July, Bitget became the only major crypto exchange offering US stock options, with long call and long put strategies on US-listed equities alongside crypto and CFD markets.

The MINIMAXHKD Quanto Perpetual Contracts is now live on Bitget and supports up to 20x leverage, 24/7 trading, and funding rate settlement every 8 hours. To know more visit here.

About Bitget

Bitget is the world's largest Universal Exchange (UEX), serving over 125 million users and offering access to over 2M crypto tokens, 500+ tokenized stocks, ETFs, commodities, FX, and precious metals such as gold. The ecosystem is committed to helping users trade smarter with its AI agent, which co-pilots trade execution. Bitget is driving crypto adoption through strategic partnerships such as MotoGP™. Aligned with its global impact strategy, Bitget has joined hands with UNICEF to support blockchain education for 1.1 million people by 2027. Bitget currently leads in the tokenized TradFi market, providing the industry's lowest fees and highest liquidity across 150 regions worldwide.

For more information, visit: Website | X | Telegram | LinkedIn | Discord

For media inquiries, please contact: media@bitget.com

Risk Warning: Digital asset prices are subject to fluctuation and may experience significant volatility. Investors are advised to only allocate funds they can afford to lose. The value of any investment may be impacted, and there is a possibility that financial objectives may not be met, nor the principal investment recovered. Independent financial advice should always be sought, and personal financial experience and standing carefully considered. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Bitget accepts no liability for any potential losses incurred. Nothing contained herein should be construed as financial advice. For further information, please refer to our Terms of Use.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/886dfb0b-711a-4231-9cb4-29d5710d3ec1

MediaCo Appoints Brian Fisher as President

 NEW YORK - Wednesday, 22. July 2026

Leadership Appointments Align Executive Team to Support Company's Next Phase of Growth

(BUSINESS WIRE)--MediaCo Holding Inc. (Nasdaq: MDIA) today announced executive leadership appointments that align the Company's leadership structure to support its long-term growth strategy.

Effective immediately, Brian Fisher has been appointed President of MediaCo. Albert Rodriguez will continue to serve as Chief Executive Officer, focusing on the Company's long-term strategy, growth initiatives and shareholder value, while Fisher assumes responsibility for leading the Company's day-to-day operations and execution.

The Company also announced that Roberto Castro has been appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer and Interim Treasurer, overseeing the Finance organization while a search is conducted for a permanent Chief Financial Officer.

"MediaCo has built tremendous momentum, and these leadership appointments position us well for our next phase of growth," said Albert Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer of MediaCo. "Brian is the right leader to serve as President, and Roberto's financial expertise will provide strong leadership and continuity for our Finance organization."

"I'm honored to serve as President during such an exciting time for MediaCo," said Brian Fisher. "We have a strong portfolio of brands, a talented team and a clear strategic vision. I look forward to executing our strategy and creating long-term value for our audiences, partners and shareholders."

These appointments reflect MediaCo's continued commitment to operational excellence, disciplined execution and long-term value creation.

About MediaCo

MediaCo Holding Inc. (Nasdaq: MDIA) is a diverse-owned, multi-platform media company serving multicultural audiences nationwide. Its powerhouse brands—including HOT 97, WBLS, EstrellaTV, Estrella News, Que Buena Los Angeles, and the Don Cheto Radio Network—reach more than 20 million people each month across television, radio, digital, and streaming platforms. Its Sigma Audio Networks LLC, a groundbreaking national multicultural audio network, is modernizing how advertisers reach America’s growing multicultural audiences.

 

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Media Contact:

Renee Mizrahi, SVP, Marketing & Communications, rmizrahi@mediacoholding.com

StructureCraft Scales Data-Driven Design on NetApp

 Structural engineering firm modernizes data infrastructure to support global collaboration

 

(BUSINESS WIRE)--NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, today announced that StructureCraft, an award-winning global structural engineering and construction firm known for complex timber and hybrid builds, is now using NetApp to modernize and create an AI-ready data infrastructure. The new infrastructure enables the company’s employees to collaborate globally, store and manage large-scale design workloads, and take advantage of AI-driven tools on a scalable, centralized platform.

StructureCraft specializes in innovative timber engineering, structural design, and sustainable building solutions for large-scale architectural projects worldwide. Its globally distributed team delivers complex projects across North America, Europe, and Asia, guided by a core purpose to engineer and build beautiful, efficient structures.

The StructureCraft team regularly takes on complex projects such as designing and constructing of the Barbados National Performing Arts Pavilion, a ground-breaking structure that boasts the world’s first 80-foot clear-span all-wood truss, engineered completely without metal screws or fasteners and delivered on a constrained timeline of less than four months from concept to completion. The team worked on the ground in Barbados, needing reliable and speedy access to its main data storage at headquarters.

To achieve these feats of design and engineering, StructureCraft relies on advanced 3D and computational design tools, including AI‑enabled Rhino 3D, which generate large, complex, file-intensive datasets. As the company grew, it found its previous storage solution made data management unnecessarily complex and could not scale to support future data infrastructure goals. StructureCraft is now running its file shares and virtualized infrastructure fully on NetApp.

“I found NetApp quite easy to work with in my previous experience, so when it was time to replace our data infrastructure, it was a simple choice,” said Peter Meschke, IT Manager at StructureCraft. “We run NetApp Snapshots hourly, enabling our designers to recover quickly if a file is damaged or misplaced without losing hours of work. With NetApp’s data management and resilience technology, we’ve simplified our operations, enhanced our resilience, and increased productivity. Now, we have the foundation and confidence we need to focus on driving innovation.”

With the initial deployment complete, StructureCraft is looking to consolidate its data operations in a single location to avoid frequent cross-continental data transfers and improve operational efficiency. To take advantage of new technologies, the company is also building StructureCraft OS, a framework that will allow team members to securely build their own AI tools to enhance their workflows, stored on their NetApp data infrastructure.

“Making your data intelligent makes it simple to manage,” said Riccardo Di Blasio, Senior Vice President of North America at NetApp. “Companies like StructureCraft are focused on bringing true craftsmanship to their projects, not managing data. By providing a simple and powerful data infrastructure, we enable them to excel at what they do best and build beautiful cultural centers.”

Additional Resources

The Best Data Storage Lineup Anywhere

Barbados National Performing Arts Centre, Phase 1

About StructureCraft

We are an award-winning group of structural engineers and master builders working globally to create beautiful and efficient structures. Since our start in 1998, we have developed a practical and technology-forward approach to the structural design of all materials, including steel, concrete, and glass - but particularly of timber, where the structure is exposed as architecture. Visual quality aligned with budget and material efficiency are key considerations as we strive to create excellence in the built environment.

From Abbotsford (CAN), Vancouver (CAN), Seattle (USA) and Trento (Italy), our diverse team of 150+ includes professional engineers, digital designers, and project managers in the office, and a skilled crew of craftsmen in the shop and on site. With over 28 years of experience, we have acted as the structural engineer and builder for over 10 million sqft of structures, including many of North America's most significant mass timber projects.

About NetApp

For more than three decades, NetApp has helped the world’s leading organizations navigate change – from the rise of enterprise storage to the intelligent era defined by data and AI. Today, NetApp is the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, helping customers turn data into a catalyst for innovation, resilience, and growth.

At the heart of that infrastructure is the NetApp data platform – the unified, enterprise-grade, intelligent foundation that connects, protects, and activates data across every cloud, workload, and environment. Built on the proven power of NetApp ONTAP, our leading data management software and OS, and enhanced by automation through the AI Data Engine and AFX, it delivers observability, resilience, and intelligence at scale.

Disaggregated by design, the NetApp data platform separates storage, services, and control so enterprises can modernize faster, scale efficiently, and innovate without lock-in. As the only enterprise storage platform natively embedded in the world’s largest clouds, it gives organizations the freedom to run any workload anywhere with consistent performance, governance, and protection.

With NetApp, data is always ready – ready to defend against threats, ready to power AI, and ready to drive the next breakthrough. That’s why the world’s most forward-thinking enterprises trust NetApp to turn intelligence into advantage.

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NIQ and Circle K Expand Global Analytics Collaboration Across More Than 12 Countries

 CHICAGO - 

Expanded agreement enables Circle K’s Business Units to accelerate smarter merchandising, pricing, and operational decisions across North America and Europe

 

(BUSINESS WIRE)--NielsenIQ (NYSE: NIQ), a leading consumer intelligence company, and Circle K today announced a multi-year global agreement spanning more than 12 countries across North America and Europe. The collaboration brings together NIQ’s global scale, AI-powered analytics, and deep local market intelligence to help Circle K transform decision-making, accelerate growth, and deliver best-in-class customer experiences across its expanding global footprint.

In an increasingly competitive and fast-changing retail landscape, the collaboration enables Circle K to stay ahead of evolving consumer demand, optimize performance, and unlock new growth opportunities across markets. Through NIQ’s AI-driven insights and decisioning platforms, Circle K’s Business Units and Global Center of Excellence will accelerate smarter merchandising, pricing, and operational decisions—tailored to local market dynamics while aligned to a global strategy.

In Europe, the agreement enables Circle K teams to tailor analytics, assortment, and pricing insights to local market conditions while maintaining alignment across regional operations.

In Canada, Circle K is expanding its use of NIQ’s predictive and prescriptive analytics capabilities, gaining access to the same advanced solutions currently deployed in the United States. The expanded implementation will also deliver greater market‑level granularity, enabling deeper, more localized insights to support the Business Units’ merchandising and operational decision making.

“As Circle K’s footprint continues to expand, having a trusted analytics partner with both global scale and deep local expertise is increasingly important,” said Trey Powell, SVP of Food & Retail at Circle K. “NIQ’s advanced analytics and AI-driven insights help our teams make smarter, faster decisions, enabling us to better serve customers and accelerate growth across markets.”

Supporting the global rollout is NIQ’s dedicated service model, including onsite support across Circle K offices worldwide. This hands‑on approach is designed to drive adoption, maximize value, and ensure Circle K’s merchandising and analytics teams are fully enabled to accelerate insights, improve decision‑making, and increase business impact.

“Winning in today’s retail environment requires both global scale and precision at the local level,” said James Hunt, Managing Director of Beverage Alcohol, Tobacco & Convenience at NIQ. “Through this expanded collaboration, Circle K is leveraging AI-driven insights, analytics, and decisioning capabilities to move faster, operate at a consistent global scale, and deliver stronger outcomes for both the business units and most importantly, their customers.” Together, NIQ and Circle K will continue to strengthen their collaboration as Circle K advances its global growth strategy, leveraging data‑driven insights to enhance performance across markets.

FAQs

What is being announced in this agreement between NIQ and Circle K?

NIQ and Circle K are expanding their collaboration through a multi‑year global agreement that spans more than 12 countries across North America and Europe. The agreement extends Circle K’s use of NIQ’s predictive and prescriptive analytics to support smarter decision‑making across merchandising, pricing, and operations.

Which regions are included in the expanded agreement?

The agreement spans multiple markets in North America and Europe. In Europe, it enables greater local customization by market, while in Canada it expands Circle K’s access to the same advanced analytics capabilities currently deployed in the United States.

How will Circle K use NIQ’s analytics capabilities?

Circle K will use NIQ’s Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics to gain deeper, more localized insights that support decision‑making across merchandising, pricing, and operational strategies. The expanded implementation provides greater market‑level granularity, helping teams respond more effectively to local consumer and competitive dynamics.

How does this agreement support Circle K’s global growth strategy?

As Circle K continues to expand globally, the agreement provides a flexible framework that allows NIQ solutions to be deployed consistently across regions while being tailored to the specific needs of individual markets. This balance of global alignment and local relevance helps Circle K manage complexity as it scales.

What role does NIQ’s service model play in this collaboration?

The expanded collaboration is supported by NIQ’s dedicated service model, which includes onsite support across Circle K offices worldwide. This hands‑on approach is designed to drive adoption, maximize value, and ensure Circle K teams are fully enabled to use insights effectively.

About NIQ

NielsenIQ (NYSE: NIQ) is a leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete and trusted understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. By combining an unmatched global data footprint and granular consumer and retail measurement with decades of AI modeling expertise, NIQ builds decision systems that help companies turn complex data into confident action.

With operations in more than 90 countries, NIQ covers approximately 82% of the world’s population and more than $7.4 trillion in global consumer spend. Through cloud-based platforms, advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, NIQ delivers The Full View™—helping brands and retailers understand what consumers buy, why they buy it, and what to do next.

For more information, please visit www.niq.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release regarding the expanded global analytics collaboration between Circle K and NIQ may contain forward-looking statements regarding anticipated consumer behaviors, market trends, and industry developments. These statements reflect current expectations and projections based on available data, historical patterns, and various assumptions. Words such as "will," "anticipates," "projects," "believes," "forecasts," "plan," "look ahead," "indicates," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future outcomes and are subject to inherent uncertainties, including changes in consumer preferences, economic conditions, technological advancements, and competitive dynamics. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. While we strive to base our insights on reliable data and sound methodologies, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances, except to the extent required by applicable law.

© 2026 Nielsen Consumer LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Media Contact: media.relations@niq.com