Lion Herald Newsroom updates on Tuesday September 8th 2026

GHO Capital Partners has appointed Vivid Sehgal as an operating partner. He will work with the firm’s investment and operating teams, supporting businesses as they expand. He will help strengthen GHO’s network across healthcare and life sciences.

Sehgal brings more than 30 years of experience in operational and financial leadership. He was a founding member of medical technology company LivaNova and later served as interim group chief executive of OPEN Health. His earlier positions included chief financial officer at life sciences company LGC and senior roles at GlaxoSmithKline, Allergan and Gillette.

The appointment comes as GHO expands its global healthcare investment business. In May 2026, the firm announced a combination with Asia-focused healthcare investor CBC Group. The deal created what the companies describe as the world’s largest dedicated healthcare investment manager, overseeing $21 billion in assets. Sehgal’s experience will now be used to help portfolio companies manage growth and expansion.

Financial technology startup Outline has raised $3 million in pre-seed funding to build an AI-focused operating system for finance teams. Investors include 100IN, NewSchool.vc and angel backers.

Outline is starting with financial planning and analysis, known as FP&A. Its software aims to give finance teams the flexibility of Excel while reducing fragile spreadsheets, manual forecasts and slow what-if calculations. The company says traditional enterprise tools can cost more than $100,000 a year, while cheaper products often force businesses into rigid processes. It targets companies earning $10 million to $100 million annually.

Co-founders Antoine de Mereuil and Hubert Jaouen combine commercial and technical experience. De Mereuil previously worked at Frichti and Alan before co-founding Primo. Jaouen spent 12 years in data and AI roles at Spotify and Alan.

Ten finance chiefs are using the platform. Outline plans to add 10 more this month as it develops the product with early customers

London-based Veridue has raised $4 million in pre-seed funding to expand its AI platform for renewable energy and data centre deals. Episode 1 Ventures led the round, with support from HTGF, Pi Labs and experts Cameron Hepburn and Jeremy Palmer.

Veridue says its software can reduce project due diligence from four to ten weeks to a few hours. The platform combines large language models with a rules-based agent system trained on past deals. Its in-house energy experts oversee the work.

The company was founded in 2024 by former McKinsey adviser Daniel Csonth and Xander van den Eelaart, who developed AI for insurance underwriting at SCOR.

Veridue focuses on the full mergers and acquisitions process, from screening to investment committee reports. The funding will support development for renewable energy companies, power producers and investors. Demand is rising as more than 2,500 gigawatts of projects remain delayed in grid connection queues worldwide.

Paris-based AI company Mistral has raised €3 billion in a Series D round, lifting its valuation above €21 billion. That is almost twice its valuation after last year’s Series C, led by chip equipment maker ASML.

Samsung Electronics led the new investment. EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund and existing investor PSG Equity also took part, alongside several new and returning backers. Mistral says the deal is the largest equity raise completed by a European technology company.

Founded in 2023 by former Google DeepMind and Meta researchers Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample and Timothée Lacroix, Mistral now employs more than 1,000 people. It serves over 125 business customers in 20 countries, including Airbus, ASML and HSBC.

The company develops open-weight AI models that customers can run within their own systems. It will use the funding for advanced research, more computing capacity and international growth, alongside €4 billion already committed to European data centres.

Australian AI infrastructure company Firmus has signed a multi-year agreement to provide OpenAI with computing capacity from two data centres in Malaysia. The ChatGPT maker will become an anchor customer, lifting Firmus’ contracted capacity across all clients to more than 900 megawatts.

The contract comes before a possible stock market listing by Firmus this year. Such a deal could be one of Australia’s largest recent IPOs. Firmus was valued at more than $10.5 billion in its latest funding round, backed by Nvidia, Jane Street, Blackstone funds and Coatue Management.

Firmus operates AI data centres in Australia and Singapore, with five more being developed across the Asia-Pacific region. It plans to install Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin processors at scale.

Malaysia is Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing data centre market, although rapid construction has raised concerns about electricity and water use. Firmus did not disclose the contract’s value, and OpenAI did not immediately comment on the Reuters report.