San Mateo, Calif. – October 06, 2026 -- Avarra has closed a $17 million Series A round after growing annual recurring revenue more than 400% year-over-year, betting that AI should upskill sales teams rather than automate routine tasks.

Duration Ventures leads round with Zoom, Lightspeed backing

The round was led by Duration Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Draper Associates, GTMfund, Alumni Ventures, and a strategic investment from Zoom. Avarra runs natively on Zoom's platform.

Contracted enterprise ARR jumps 698% year-over-year

Contracted ARR from mid-market and enterprise customers grew 698% year-over-year, and sales teams now run more than 10,000 AI coaching and role-play sessions on the platform each week. Customers including Elastic, Masimo, Proofpoint, Netskope, and Owner.com report ramp times cut roughly in half and measurable lifts in win rate.

Irvine, Calif. – October 06, 2026 -- Comtrend has secured FCC conditional approval for its PBL-6201 Wi-Fi 6 Bonded VDSL Gateway, giving broadband service providers a certified equipment option as fewer vendors continue manufacturing DSL gear.

Rural Providers Still Rely Heavily on Copper Networks

According to NTCA's 2025 Broadband/Internet Availability Survey, 40.8% of surveyed rural broadband providers still serve some customers over copper lines. With equipment vendors increasingly exiting the DSL gateway market, replacement and upgrade options for these providers have narrowed.

Parsippany – October 06, 2026 -- Ferrero is committing more than $50 million across its portfolio for a 2027 Super Bowl marketing push, the largest individual campaign investment in the company's history.

Nutella makes its first-ever Super Bowl appearance after a viral space mission boosted sales

The campaign follows Nutella's appearance aboard NASA's Artemis II mission in April 2026, which Ferrero says drove a 60.7% year-over-year increase in search volume for the brand. Unit sales on Amazon rose 20.2% above Nutella's own pre-event baseline between April 6 and May 8, 2026, according to internal company data. The new ad will also promote Nutella Peanut, which Ferrero describes as the brand's first product innovation in 60 years.

New York – October 06, 2026 -- Prospect HQ's community now spans student-athletes from more than 500 colleges and universities nationwide, just nine months after the hiring platform launched in January 2026.

Platform reaches 500 schools within nine months of January 2026 launch

The platform connects current and former student-athletes across all NCAA Divisions, NAIA, and club sports with employers seeking culturally aligned talent. The rapid expansion gives subscribing employers a single access point to recruit across a broad pool of majors and career stages, rather than pursuing school-by-school outreach.

San Francisco – October 06, 2026 -- Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) has named Diana Colella executive vice president of its architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) business, the company's largest industry unit. She succeeds Amy Bunszel, who announced her retirement and will remain at Autodesk through November 2, 2026, to support the transition.

Colella will steer Autodesk Forma as the core growth engine for AEC

Colella takes charge as Autodesk enters what it calls the next phase of AEC growth, anchored by Autodesk Forma, its industry cloud that links data, context and workflows to deliver AI and project intelligence across the building lifecycle. Her mandate includes advancing the Forma strategy while tying desktop products such as Revit and Civil 3D more closely into Forma workflows.

Boca Raton, Fla. – October 06, 2026 -- C5 Biomedical LLC CEO Tim Maye, CTBS, is being honored tonight in San Francisco as one of 50 individuals named to the Association for Advancing Tissue and Biologics' (AATB) one-time "50 at 50" list, marking the organization's 50th anniversary.

Maye's 28-year tissue banking career includes six years chairing AATB's Standards Committee

Maye has held his Certified Tissue Bank Specialist (CTBS) credential since 1999 and spent six years chairing AATB's Standards Committee, the body responsible for the tissue banking standards the industry operates under today. He founded C5 Biomedical in 2021 and remains on the Standards Committee.

Sandy Springs – October 06, 2026 -- SpecialtyRx, the nation's largest privately owned long-term care pharmacy, will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 4 for its new 14,000-square-foot Sandy Springs pharmacy, marking its latest regional expansion into the greater Atlanta market.

Sandy Springs facility already serves over 5,000 patients with room to scale to 15,000

The pharmacy, operational since earlier this year, currently supports more than 5,000 patients and has capacity to serve up to 15,000 as regional demand grows. It joins SpecialtyRx's network of 15 regional pharmacy locations and functions as the company's central hub for Georgia operations.

Buffalo Grove, Ill. – October 06, 2026 -- KNIPEX Tools has landed its first-ever spot on the 2026 Fortune Best Workplaces in Manufacturing & Production List, ranking 23rd in the small & medium company category.

Great Place To Work and Fortune base the ranking on 106,000 employee survey responses

The list is derived from analysis of survey responses from over 106,000 employees at Great Place To Work Certified companies within the manufacturing and production sector. The broader annual workforce study underpinning the ranking draws on more than 1.3 million survey responses and data from companies representing over 7.3 million employees nationwide.

Rochester Hills, Mich. – October 06, 2026 -- FANUC America will demonstrate a collaborative robot that executes packaging tasks from spoken natural-language commands at PACK EXPO International 2026 in Chicago, part of a broader exhibit addressing labor shortages in packaging and food processing.

At Booth N25217, the company's CRX-20iA cobot -- rated for 20 kg payloads -- will respond to verbal production requests by using Generative AI to convert speech into AI-generated Python code and robot actions, a method FANUC calls "vibe coding."

FANUC expands cobot palletizing capacity to 40 kg with new vision-guided unit

The new CRX/30-18A collaborative robot, equipped with integrated 3D vision guidance and a dual-case gripper, handles heavier palletizing loads than earlier cobot models while retaining standard ease-of-deployment features.

San Francisco – October 06, 2026 -- Corgi Insurance has launched Specialized Trucking Coverage, an excess and surplus lines insurance program targeting new trucking ventures, owner-operators and growing fleets.

Corgi expands transportation lineup with trucking-specific excess and surplus lines policy

The program covers physical damage to trucks and trailers, accidents causing injury or property damage, and general liability claims arising from daily trucking operations. It joins Corgi's existing Auto Liability product, broadening the carrier's transportation insurance portfolio.