Nano-Heating and Thoughtful Design Provides Innovative Pain Relief Solution to
Spoil Your Cat with Comfort

CHICAGO: Knead Cats proudly announces its official US launch, introducing the world’s first therapeutic cat bed to provide functional comfort for cats and offer a solution to the common, overlooked problem of feline arthritis. Knead’s Therapeutic Cat Bed uses proprietary nano-heating technology, orthopedic memory foam and heat-activated herbal pads to give much-needed relief and comfort.

In collaboration with veterinarians and cat behaviorists, Knead spent approximately two years researching feline health, sleep science and overall comfort. They discovered that one of the biggest issues cats face as they age is arthritis. Studies show that if a cat is over 6 years old, there’s a 60% chance it has arthritis, and for cats over 10, that number jumps to 90%. Symptoms of arthritis, including swelling, inflammation and pain, have a significant impact on a cat’s life, and the disease often goes undiagnosed, leaving many cats suffering in silence. Knead created a solution.

“Our Therapeutic Cat Bed is more than just a product; it’s a breakthrough in feline care,” said Ben Li, co-founder of Knead. “Cats often hide their pain, and we wanted to design a bed that delivers the relief that they desperately need. After many rounds of lab and in-home testing, we created a revolutionary product that perfectly blends thoughtful, aesthetic design with modern technology and natural remedies, and is truly loved by cats and their owners.”

Key features of the Knead Therapeutic Cat Bed include:

• Proprietary Nano-Heating Technology: Ultra-efficient (10x faster than existing solutions, fully heating within two minutes), cat-safe warmth is provided through nanotube heating and lava-stone-infused fabric combined with smart temperature control to ease joints and muscles instantly.
• Orthopedic Memory Foam: Spongy, ergonomic, cat-cradling contours evenly support a cat’s common resting positions to hug their bodies, support their joints, enhance mobility and provide a sense of safety and comfort.
• Heat-Activated Herbal Pads: Natural remedies help reduce inflammatory signs of arthritis and promote calming behavior.
• UL-Certified Safety and Low Maintenance: Low voltage DC technology ensures safety, while a removable, machine-washable cover and waterproof memory foam make care simple.
• Stylish Design: Made with a sleek, modern look that complements any home decor.
• Portable: Can be equipped with a power bank for on-the-go comfort.

Knead’s flagship product is an all-in-one solution that enhances the quality of life for cats and for their owners. With its US launch, Knead invites pet care professionals, cat lovers and advocates to join in this journey of compassion, innovation and transformation.

“We are tired of cats and their owners getting the short end of the stick in the pet space,” adds Li. “We are putting both of them at the forefront with innovative products, beautiful designs and true understanding of an animal that is so many people’s prized companion. It’s time for cats to come first.”

The Knead Therapeutic Cat Bed is now available to order for $189.00 with a 20% launch discount (originally $239.00).

ABOUT KNEAD CATS
Knead is passionately dedicated to improving the lives of cats by creating products that provide the comfort and care they truly deserve. Merging functionality with style, Knead aims to strengthen the bond between cats and their owners, driven by a science-backed understanding of feline needs. Committed to innovation and purpose-driven solutions, Knead empowers cat lovers to feel proud of the care they provide.

SINGAPORE — Surfin, a financial technology platform dedicated to serving the underserved middle class, has raised $12.5 million from Insignia Ventures Partners. This funding round comes as Surfin announces its service to 60 million individuals across eight countries on three continents, with approximately $2.7 billion in cumulative transactions.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Singapore, Surfin began with consumer lending and expanded into a suite of financial services including payments and remittance, credit card issuance, and wealth management. Leveraging AI and analytics, Surfin is committed to offering an ecosystem of transparent and innovative financial services to the growing middle class that is often overlooked by traditional banking systems.

The company has a significant presence in Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Uganda, and Australia. In Indonesia, its largest market, Surfin holds licenses for P2P lending, mutual fund distribution, remittance, and payment gateway services.

This Series A round marks Surfin’s first external funding since its inception, having been bootstrapped and self-financed without any third-party debt.

Surfin’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Yanan Wu, said: “Surfin’s vision has always been to build a financial technology services ecosystem on top of our scalable and sustainable risk management system, powered by AI and big data. This system has been stress-tested by the behavior of 60 million users across three continents. Recently, we’ve leveraged this system to launch remittance, payment, wealth management, and credit card services, deepening our mission of financial inclusion in the markets where we operate.”

In 2023, Surfin launched Ayovest in Indonesia, a mutual fund trading platform designed for young, first-time investors to invest productively and safely, starting from as low as IDR 10,000. Ayovest has been operating under the license of the OJK since its inception.

Also in 2023, Surfin established its credit card business in Mexico, “Sufinc,” in partnership with Visa. Sufinc offers a credit card designed to strengthen Surfin’s consumer finance presence in Central America, with flexible payment terms, no annual fees, and global acceptance.

Seasoned Finance Executives Drawn to Surfin’s Mission of Financial Inclusion in the Era of AI

More than 2500 people across the globe have joined Dr Wu on Surfin’s mission. Its leadership team includes former Shopee, Akulaku, and Baidu executives. Surfin is also advised by a board composed of accomplished, multi-hyphenate finance

Surfin’s Board Member, Nobel laureate Michael Spence, commented:”Surfin has the potential to reshape financial mobility and inclusion for millions of families globally. I have a long-standing interest in asymmetric information in markets and the challenges it presents. Surfin’s approach to addressing the information challenges of credit access through AI and data science is innovative and much-needed. It’s a privilege to support its mission of advancing financial inclusion.”

Surfin’s ecosystem of products is powered by a unified credit scoring engine, enabled by AI and data analytics. This core technology allows Surfin to lend sustainably at scale across different geographies and enter new financial service use cases.

Surfin’s ambitions to scale its consumer loans business and reach more consumers across income classes with a full suite of products, from robo-advisory to remittances, laid the groundwork for the partnership with Insignia Ventures Partners and Surfin’s first round of institutional funding.

Founding Managing Partner Yinglan Tan shares, “Surfin represents two key shifts in the way companies are growing from Southeast Asia. It is a company headquartered and operating in the region, but with a multi-country presence and global ambitions from early on. It is also a company leveraging the wave of AI transforming industry to deliver more equitable credit access to the underbanked. In a space that is highly competitive and challenging at scale, this combination of proven multi-market entry with licensed multi-jurisdiction products and robust risk management capabilities positions them in a unique place to scale. Their operational track record is more impressive considering they have been bootstrapped thus far. We are privileged to be working with Dr Wu and his team to scale their financial services ecosystem further, both in terms of reach and use cases.”

Paren, an EV data platform startup, raises capital from Base10 Partners

Paren Inc., a software platform powering electric mobility with unified data insights, today announced that it has raised $3M in its first round of financing. The round was led by Base10 Partners. Founders Network Fund and Luc Vincent (founder, Google Street View and Lyft 5) also participated in the round. Paren will use the capital to scale its current data platform and build new services on top of it.

Paren was founded in 2023 with the goal of accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles by enabling a seamless driving experience. The company, after acquiring EVSession, LLC in March 2024 and experiencing accelerated growth, recently completed an additional acquisition of EVAdoption LLC, an EV infrastructure data and analysis firm. Loren McDonald, EVAdoption’s founder and a trusted industry expert joins the executive team as Chief Evangelist.

Paren estimates that 100 million public fast charging sessions will occur in the U.S. in 2024 and expects over 1 billion charging sessions by 2030 at which time a projected 7.5% of vehicles in operation will be battery powered. Access to rich data sets, including EV charging station reliability, is key to realizing this expansion. As a neutral platform, Paren synthesizes fragmented data across the ecosystem into a unified model, addressing the limitations of closed-loop systems, and enabling more powerful applications to be built on top of its dataset. Paren’s reliability analysis has been validated by a recent charger health study (source).

“We are thrilled to have the support of Base10 and our other investors as we address the foundational aspects of the EV charging infrastructure with unified data insights”, said Florent Breton, CEO and Co-Founder of Paren. “With the continued momentum at Paren alongside the acquisition of EVAdoption, we welcome Loren as one of the most well-regarded experts in the industry.”.

“Based on our lengthy EV driving experience, we know that charging on the public network requires seamless access to availability, reliability, pricing, amenities, and safety data,” noted Bill Ferro, CTO and Co-Founder of Paren. “Our solutions are designed to empower automakers, map makers, fleet operators, and other enterprise customers to elevate the driver experience. Combining with EVAdoption’s data will broaden our platform and allow for more robust product offerings.”

This investment will allow Paren to grow its team, expand data sets, and scale its platform to meet the demand of enterprise partners. Notably, Paren is expanding its API access to reliability, plus augmenting its data sets around amenities, pricing, and safety to be seamlessly available to drivers using the national EV infrastructure.

“Paren’s data offers unique insights into the EV charging industry that continue to unlock key business opportunities for us,” said Brandon Stritch, CEO of StritchCo, a Charge Point Operator based in Florida and Paren Customer. “We look forward to benefiting from their expanded data sets and services to help us drive future revenue growth.”

“Charging anxiety is one of the biggest blockers to EV adoption, and much of that is the result of charger reliability. This is a huge problem today that is only getting more acute as EV adoption and production goals uptick,” noted Rexhi Dollaku, General Partner at Base10 Partners. “The team at Paren has deep industry expertise, familiarity with this point, and understanding/collaboration with the key market stakeholders. Paren has created a platform that we believe is uniquely positioned to solve the charger anxiety crisis.”

About Paren
Founded by Florent Breton (CEO) and Bill Ferro (CTO), Paren Inc is based out of San Francisco, Ca. Acting as a neutral platform, Paren aggregates, enriches, and serves the most comprehensive data on the essential aspects of EV charging. Its data is accessible via an online application or API Gateway.

About Base10 Partners
Founded by Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian, Base10 is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund investing in founders who believe purpose is key to profits and in companies that are automating sectors of the Real Economy.