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Y Combinator-backed company raises $6.7M to build breakthrough AI foundation model and releases whitepaper detailing innovative approach to AI behavior modeling

SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / October 16, 2025 / ego AI, a pioneer in AI-driven character technology, today announced the launch of character.world, a character engine built on the company’s novel AI foundation model that mixes small language models with reinforcement learning to create human-like character behavior in games. In addition, ego is introducing its Character Context Protocol (CCP), an open source framework that enables AI characters to maintain persistent personalities, memories and relationships as they move seamlessly between games, apps, Discord servers, streaming platforms, and other digital environments. Together, these two solutions are setting a new standard for believable, persistent AI characters in game play.

“Games and digital worlds have always struggled with flat, scripted non-player characters (NPCs) that feel mechanical and forgettable. ego AI is tackling that head-on with characters who act, react and remember like real players,” said Vishnu Hari, CEO and founder of ego. “Our mission is to move beyond chat windows and give people living, persistent characters who can make games richer, worlds more alive and interactions more meaningful.”

To accelerate development, ego has raised $6.7 million in early seed funding from top institutional investors including Patron, Y Combinator, Accel, Boost VC, and prominent angels such as Balaji Srinivasan (former Coinbase CTO), Logan Kilpatrick (DeepMind), Arjun Sethi (Tribe Capital), Immad Akhund (Mercury), Siqi Chen (Runway), and technical staff from OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic. The funding is being used to train ego’s foundation model and scale its research and engineering teams.

“What excites me about Ego is their approach to one of gaming’s biggest challenges: creating characters that truly feel alive,” said Adam Draper, founder and partner at Boost VC. “Their foundation model is a breakthrough in AI character behavior. We’re entering a new era where AI characters will carry personality, memory, and emotion-indistinguishable from human players-and Ego is positioned to lead it. And Vish is the most resilient founder in the space.”

ego also released Behavior is All You Need, a comprehensive technical whitepaper that details the company’s approach to creating believable AI characters through four key components: personality, needs, emotion and memory. Unlike traditional chatbots designed for helpfulness, ego’s characters exhibit autonomous behavior, emotional reactivity and the ability to form lasting relationships with players.

ego aims to democratize character development and enable broad industry adoption by releasing CCP as an open-source standard. The protocol defines lightweight interfaces for perception, action and memory that allow developers to integrate persistent characters into existing games and applications with minimal setup. Early implementations of CCP are supporting characters in Unity, Unreal Engine, Roblox and various Discord applications, with plans to expand to additional platforms based on developer interest.

The company has already seen significant market traction, with its Roblox experience attracting over one million users in its first month, and its Discord AI-character game rolling out in partnership with MEE6, one of the platform’s most popular bots.

“Discord communities thrive on engagement and social interaction, but maintaining that energy 24/7 has always been challenging,” said Brian Cho, partner at Patron. “ego’s persistent AI characters bring communities to life even when human members aren’t online. These characters remember conversations, develop relationships with community members and contribute meaningfully to ongoing discussions. It’s transforming how we think about community management and engagement.”

To support the computational demands of training and serving human-like AI characters, ego has partnered with the Singapore government through AI Singapore, along with collaborations with the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

“Singapore is committed to advancing AI that delivers meaningful impact across industries,” said Dr. Leslie Teo, Senior Director of AI Products at AI Singapore. “ego’s character engine for human-like behavior marks a pioneering step in social and interactive AI. We look forward to our research collaboration with ego, including providing infrastructure support for training the behaviour foundation model, to accelerate innovation and create opportunities for both our local talent and the global AI and gaming ecosystem.”

Developers can access the CCP specification immediately, with SDK access available through a developer waitlist. The company is also launching “Accomplice,” an AI-powered social deduction game playable on Discord with a Steam release planned.

About ego AI

Founded in 2023, ego AI is building the next generation of AI-powered characters: persistent, believable, and cross-platform. With a team of engineers from Meta AI, Riot and Square and researchers from MIT, CMU, UPenn and the University of Toronto, ego’s vision is to power the future of games, social platforms, and digital experiences with human-like characters. Backed by Y Combinator, leading investors and supported by partnerships with the Singapore Government, ego is headquartered in San Francisco with additional research operations in Singapore and Tokyo. For more information, visit www.egoai.com.

ego Media Contact:
ego@songuepr.com

SOURCE: ego AI

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CAMBRIDGE, MA / ACCESS Newswire / October 16, 2025 / Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) today announced that it will host a live conference call and webcast at 8:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, November 6, 2025 to report its third quarter 2025 financial results, and provide a corporate update.

A live webcast of the call will be available under “Events and Presentations” in the Investors section of the Moderna website.

• Webcast: https://investors.modernatx.com

The archived webcast will be available on Moderna’s website approximately two hours after the conference call and will be available for one year following the call.

About Moderna

Moderna is a leader in the creation of the field of mRNA medicine. Through the advancement of mRNA technology, Moderna is reimagining how medicines are made and transforming how we treat and prevent disease for everyone. By working at the intersection of science, technology and health for more than a decade, the company has developed medicines at unprecedented speed and efficiency, including one of the earliest and most effective COVID-19 vaccines.

Moderna’s mRNA platform has enabled the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases and autoimmune diseases. With a unique culture and a global team driven by the Moderna values and mindsets to responsibly change the future of human health, Moderna strives to deliver the greatest possible impact to people through mRNA medicines. For more information about Moderna, please visit modernatx.com and connect with us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Media Contacts

Investors:
Lavina Talukdar
Senior Vice President & Head of Investor Relations
617-209-5834
Lavina.Talukdar@modernatx.com

SOURCE: Moderna, Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

SASKATOON, SK / ACCESS Newswire / October 16, 2025 / Greatway Financial Inc. has been recognised with the 2025 Consumer Choice Award in the Life Insurance category for Saskatoon. Family-founded and committed to protecting what matters most for Canadians, the company equips insurance agents with the tools and training needed to guide clients through confident financial decisions.

Founded with a mission to make life insurance and protection planning more accessible and approachable, with a mission to make financial planning more accessible, approachable, Greatway supports its national network of agents with education and resources so families in Saskatoon and across Canada can receive clear, trustworthy guidance tailored to their needs and goals.

“At Greatway Financial, we believe preparing for the future should never feel overwhelming,” says the Greatway Financial team. “Being recognised with the Consumer Choice Award in Saskatoon reflects the trust our clients and partners place in us to help them secure what matters most – whether that’s family, freedom, or future.”

Empowering Agents, Supporting Families

As a Managing General Agency (MGA), Greatway Financial provides insurance agents with professional development, tools, and ongoing support so they can serve families effectively. This helps ensure that Canadians benefit from knowledgeable agents who can simplify important decisions about life insurance and financial protection.

The company’s collaborative approach not only strengthens the success of agents but also builds confidence for families at every stage of life, from young households beginning to plan ahead to retirees focused on protecting their legacy.

Recognition as a 2025 Consumer Choice Award recipient is an important milestone for Greatway Financial. It underscores the company’s dedication to empowering both agents and clients, and highlights its role as a trusted resource in Saskatoon’s life insurance and protection planning community.

A Commitment to Growth and Community

Looking ahead, Greatway Financial remains dedicated to supporting more families across Canada with straightforward, compassionate guidance. By continuing to expand its training programs, strengthen partnerships, and invest in its community, the company is committed to strengthening communities by ensuring licensed agents can provide accessible life insurance and protection to Canadian families.

To learn more about Greatway Financial Inc. or to connect with an agent visit www.greatwayfinancial.com.

About Greatway Financial Inc.
Greatway Financial Inc. is a family-founded Managing General Agency (MGA) dedicated to helping Canadians protect what matters most. By equipping insurance agents with the training and tools they need to succeed, Greatway ensures clients receive clear, confident guidance in life insurance and financial planning. Recognised as a 2025 Consumer Choice Award recipient, Greatway continues to strengthen its impact in Saskatoon and beyond. Learn more at www.greatwayfinancial.com.

About Consumer Choice Award
Since 1987, Consumer Choice Award has been recognising and promoting business excellence across North America. Through a rigorous selection process, only the most outstanding businesses in each category earn this prestigious recognition. Learn more at www.ccaward.com.

Contact Information:
Sumi Saleh
Communications Manager
ssaleh@ccaward.com

SOURCE: Consumer Choice Award

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / October 16, 2025 / CoTec Holdings Corp. (TSXV:CTH)(OTCQB:CTHCF) (“CoTec” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce Québec-based BBA Inc. (“BBA”) has been engaged to complete the Lac Jeannine Iron Tailings Project (“Lac Jeannine” or the “Project”) bankable Feasibility Study (the “FS”) to engineer and design its Iron Tailings reclamation Project in Québec, Canada.

Julian Treger, CoTec CEO commented: “Lac Jeannine exemplifies CoTec’s strategy to deploy innovative, environmentally responsible technologies which transform legacy waste sites into valuable resources. The Project has the potential to deliver strong economic returns while simultaneously addressing historical environmental liabilities. Furthermore, the inclusion of adjacent tailings in the Project has the potential to almost double the life of mine with limited additional capex, unlocking substantial upside potential.

We are very excited to be working with BBA to complete the Feasibility Study and to position Lac Jeannine as a model for sustainable tailings redevelopment in Québec. During the Feasibility Study, discussions with strategic partners will be accelerated so the Project has the full support of all stakeholders, including the Government of Québec, First Nations and other interested parties. The results from the 2025 drilling and bulk sample, which are expected in Q1 2026, could also allow CoTec to increase its current resource estimate for Lac Jeannine.”

Lac Jeannine represents CoTec’s first stand-alone tailings reprocessing investment complementing the Company’s strategy to apply advanced technologies to unlock value from underutilized resource assets. The study will build on the positive results of the 2024 Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) announced on June 27, 2024ⁱ, which was based on only part of the total tailings and outlined a pre-tax NPV of US$93.6 million and an IRR of 38%, based on an initial capital investment of US$64.6 million. The Feasibility Study will include the application of the Salter Cyclone Multi-Gravity Separators (“MGS”) technology for the recovery of additional iron ore from the Project.

The Feasibility Study is expected to be completed through a staged approach by H2 2026. Lac Jeannine has the potential to produce high grade, critical mineral, iron ore concentrate at competitive cost structures which can deliver high purity iron concentrates for the green steel industry. The Lac Jeannine Project offers great potential for the resource industry to recover the economic benefit of large Fe tailing sites.

In September 2025, CoTec completed an infill and extension drilling campaign with the goal of upgrading to Indicated the existing Inferred Mineral Resource of 73 million tonnes at 6.7% total Fe, for 4.9 Mt of contained total Fe, and extending the Project to include a large part of the adjacent tailings not included in the PEA (“Adjacent Tailings”). The inclusion of the Adjacent Tailings has the potential to almost double the life of mine with limited additional capex, unlocking substantial upside potential. The Feasibility Study metallurgy testing will target the production of direct-reduction (“DR”) grade concentrate by the Project.

About Lac Jeannine

The Lac Jeannine Property comprises 31 mineral claims (exclusive exploration rights) covering 1,649 hectares in Québec’s Côte-Nord Region, approximately eight kilometres southeast of Gagnon and 290 kilometres north of Baie-Comeau. The Project encompasses the historic Lac Jeannine open-pit iron mine, which produced approximately 260 million long tons of ore averaging 33% Fe between 1961 and 1976.

The site includes a large Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) where concentrator tailings were deposited prior to mine closure and reclamation in 1984. CoTec’s focus is on reprocessing these tailings for residual iron recovery while rehabilitating the TSF.

The Independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 for the Lac Jeannine Mineral Resource, Mr. Christian Beaulieu, P.Geo., is a member of l’Ordre des géologues du Québec (#1072). The Qualified Person has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content of this announcement relating to the Lac Jeannine Mineral Resource

About CoTec Holdings Corp.

CoTec Holdings Corp. (TSX-V:CTH)(OTCQB:CTHCF) is redefining the future of resource extraction and recycling. Focused on rare earth magnets and strategic materials, CoTec integrates breakthrough technologies with strategic assets to unlock secure, sustainable, and low-cost supply chains.

CoTec’s mission is clear: accelerate the energy transition while strengthening strategic critical mineral supply chains for the countries we operate in. By investing in and deploying disruptive technologies, the Company delivers capital-efficient, scalable solutions that transform marginal assets, tailings, waste streams, and recycled products into high-value critical minerals.

From its HyProMag USA magnet recycling joint venture in Texas, to iron tailings reprocessing in Québec, to next-generation copper and iron solutions backed by global majors, CoTec is building a diversified portfolio with long-term growth, rapid cash flow potential, and high barriers to entry. The result is a game-changing platform at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and strategic materials.

For more information, please visit www.cotec.ca.

For further information, please contact:

Braam Jonker – (604) 992-5600

Forward-Looking Information Cautionary Statement

Statements in this press release regarding the Company and its investments which are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” which involve risks and uncertainties, including statements relating to the timing, scope, and completion of the Feasibility Study, the potential future value of the Project, the maiden resource estimate, the bulk sample extraction, the option exercise, and the Project, as well as management’s expectations with respect to the Lac Jeannine investment and other current and potential future investments, and the benefits to the Company which may be implied from such statements.

Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties affecting the Company, including but not limited to: resource and reserve risks; environmental risks and costs; permitting and regulatory risks; labor costs and shortages; uncertain supply and price fluctuations in materials; increases in energy costs; labor disputes and work stoppages; equipment leasing and availability; heavy equipment demand and availability; contractor and subcontractor performance; worksite safety issues; project delays and cost overruns; extreme weather events; and social, transport, or geopolitical disruptions.

For further details regarding risks and uncertainties facing the Company, please refer to “Risk Factors” in the Company’s filing statement dated April 6, 2022, a copy of which may be found under the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca). The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements in this press release except as required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release and are encouraged to read the Company’s continuous disclosure documents available on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca).

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

ⁱ For further details, please refer to the technical report entitled “Mineral Resource Estimate, Preliminary Economic Assessment and NI 43-101 technical report for CoTec’s Lac Jeannine Fe Tailings Project, Québec, Canada” dated August 5, 2024 and having an effective date of March 19, 2024 prepared by Addison Mining Services Ltd., JPL GeoServices Inc., Soutex Inc., Amerston Consulting Ltd. and Axe Valley Mining Consultants Ltd. A copy of the technical report is available under CoTec’s profile on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.com) and the Company’s website

SOURCE: CoTec Holdings Corp.

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• Enterprise platform, queried through natural language, to help pharma, biotech, and investors make better decisions.

• High-quality biological patient data, enriched and integrated for use by AI agents.

PARIS, FRANCE / ACCESS Newswire / October 16, 2025 / Owkin today announces the launch of K Pro, its co-pilot bringing advanced agentic AI to biomedical research and drug development. K Pro helps pharmaceutical companies and biotechs make smarter decisions across the discovery and development pipeline, increase clinical success rates, and deliver decision-grade, data-driven biological insights fast enough to change program trajectories.

Built on a decade of Owkin’s AI innovation and in close collaboration with leading academic and industry partners, K Pro is a scientist-first co-pilot, accessible to both researchers and executives. Through natural language interaction, users can ask complex biological questions and receive actionable, clinically relevant answers, unifying fragmented workflows into an insight-driven research experience.

At its core, K Pro integrates Owkin Zero, a fine-tuned biological LLM that performs biological reasoning with higher performance than other leading LLMs (read the full paper). Leveraging high-quality, multimodal biomedical datasets, K Pro gives researchers access to one of the deepest, curated, AI-ready multimodal oncology datasets available (including MOSAIC). Biopharma and academic clients can securely upload their proprietary datasets to leverage K Pro’s advanced AI reasoning and data analysis.

Thomas Clozel, MD, Owkin Co-founder and CEO, said: “K Pro brings us closer to intelligence that evolves with the complexity of biology. By combining advanced biological reasoning with an agentic co-pilot architecture, it represents a key step towards our mission of achieving Biological Artificial Super Intelligence (BASI), AI capable of modelling and engineering biology beyond what humans are capable of to deliver transformative therapies to patients faster.”

K Pro has already accelerated internal drug target identification by 70% (from 12+ months to 3 months); built an IND-ready asset positioning strategy in hours instead of months of traditional analysis; and written a specialist review in one day, which was later published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

K Pro builds upon Owkin’s proven approach to agentic AI biomedical discovery, validated through collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi.

Ben Mellows, managing director at the biotech company Micregen, used Owkin K to formulate his investor pitch and shared his experience: “We wanted to get our product pitch across to investors. That process could take weeks to work through with all of our experts, but Owkin K really helped. It assimilated all the information we provided evidencing how our regenerative stem cell-derived platform and products could have a major impact on healthcare and delivered a clear story tailored to investors from different backgrounds. The literature set is huge. I would say the task would have been nearly impossible to achieve at the scale that Owkin K handled in just a few work sessions.”

Owkin’s AI has already delivered results for pharmaceutical clients, including: preventing Phase 2 clinical trial futility by identifying high-risk combination therapy populations; discovering new multimodal disease endotypes; reducing trial duration by three years (35%) by identifying the right patient segment to inform enrolment and identifying novel oncology targets.

About Owkin:
Owkin is an AI company on a mission to solve the complexity of biology. It is building the first Biology Super Intelligence (BASI) by combining powerful biological large language models, multimodal patient data, and agentic software. At the heart of this system is Owkin K, an AI co-pilot and its new LLM finetuned on biology called Owkin Zero, used by researchers, clinicians, and drug developers to better understand biology, validate scientific hypotheses, and deliver better diagnostics and therapies faster.

About the State of Agentic AI in Biopharma Report:
To ensure K Pro addresses the real-world challenges facing pharma, Owkin partnered with STAT Brand Studio to produce the State of the Nation report, surveying over 200 pharma executives (full report here). Nearly half of respondents identified overcoming data challenges as the area where agentic AI could deliver the greatest value. Early discovery, clinical trial optimisation, and translational research were also highlighted as top priorities, underscoring the immediate need for agentic AI solutions that translate complex biomedical data into actionable insights.

SOURCE: Owkin

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