Annual event introduces inaugural Excelerate Finance Hackathon, new Vena Certification program via Vena Academy, the Venny Awards program and more to celebrate and empower finance innovators

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vena, the Complete Planning platform loved by finance and trusted by business, today announced that tickets for Excelerate Finance 2024, the premier annual conference for finance, operations and business leaders, have sold out. The event will be held on May 15–16, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee with a free live stream available for the global community of finance and operations professionals.

With a focus on learning, training and finance-led innovation, Excelerate Finance will provide unprecedented access to the latest skills, best practices, methodologies and cutting-edge technologies—from automation to generative AI—transforming the strategic office of finance with increased productivity, operational efficiency, accelerated insights and strategic potential. Attendees will get to learn from strategies, success stories and eureka moments shared by finance visionaries at leading organizations, as well as discover how to harness the latest Vena innovations and advancements in Microsoft 365 tools and capabilities for Complete Planning use cases with hands-on learning labs.

At the event, Vena will introduce the new Vena Certification program with on-site professional development sessions available for conference attendees. The program will also launch on demand via Vena Academy, the ultimate venue for always on, self-serve training across FP&A, Microsoft for finance and Vena Complete Planning. In addition, Vena will provide an exclusive first look at Vena Copilot for FP&A, a Complete Planning generative AI copilot purpose-built for FP&A teams and the organizations they support, as well as other game-changing product announcements.

Also on the agenda will be the inaugural Excelerate Finance Hackathon, along with the first-ever Venny Awards program celebrating visionaries who are shaping the future of strategic finance for their organizations across various industries.

“We’re going full force with our most immersive experience yet, and are excited to be back in person alongside our community of finance, operations professionals, business leaders, partners, industry experts and sponsors to continue supporting the evolution of the strategic office of finance with programs and events that help propel personal, professional and business growth,” said Allison Munro, Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer at Vena. “Over the course of the conference, the strategic office of finance will be elevated to new heights with deep dives and previews of technology innovations paving the way for a new generation of finance— including Vena Copilot for FP&A. Those joining us in person will have a chance to participate in the Vena Academy learning sessions while those who join the live stream will have access to exclusive content in partnership with the Financial Modeling World Cup.”

Joining Vena for this year’s landmark event are sponsors Microsoft, ProLytics, Delbridge, Marcum, RVNA Tech, ScaleNorth and Citrin Cooperman.

For more information on Excelerate Finance 2024 or to register for the free virtual experience, please visit www.exceleratesummit.com.

About Vena

Vena is the only Complete Planning platform natively integrated with Microsoft 365. Vena streamlines financial and operational planning, reporting and analysis processes, and provides advanced analytics and modeling capabilities to help business, finance and operations leaders make agile and more informed business decisions. With Vena, you can leverage the power of Excel and AI-powered insights in a unified, cloud-based platform that enhances productivity, collaboration and insights. Over 1,700 of the world’s leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit venasolutions.com.

Contacts

Jonathan Paul

Vice President, Content Marketing

jpaul@venacorp.com

Guided by its Green Finance Framework, company secures financing led by Wells Fargo to fund at least eight new and existing data center sites

DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vantage Data Centers, a leading global provider of hyperscale data center campuses, today announced it has secured a $3 billion green loan from a bank syndicate led by structuring bank Wells Fargo Securities, LLC and joint bookrunners TD Securities, Truist Securities, Inc. and Scotiabank to fund the ongoing development of its North America data center platform.

The financing is a revolving credit facility with an initial collateral pool of eight leased and greenfield sites in both new and existing markets totaling nearly 1.4GW of IT capacity. Compared to typical project-specific construction loans, this model enables faster time-to-market for Vantage and its customers. Additionally, the loan affords Vantage the ability to add more North American assets to this credit facility in the future. Currently, Vantage’s North America platform includes 12 campuses across the United States and Canada.

“For the past several years, Vantage has prioritized innovative funding avenues to support our rapid expansion, and this revolving multi-asset development financing is no exception,” said Christophe Strauven, senior vice president, capital markets at Vantage. “We are dedicated to meeting our customers where they need us most. Our decision to pursue a flexible revolving credit facility allows us to access capital quickly and, therefore, begin development much earlier than project-specific loans, enabling Vantage to meet the ambitious timelines our customers require for critical IT capacity across North America.”

“Vantage would like to express our gratitude to our financing partners and the strategic long-term relationships we have with them,” said Sharif Metwalli, chief financial officer at Vantage. “We appreciate their backing, which underpins our ability to develop the digital infrastructure to support the next generation of technology, from cloud transformation to artificial intelligence (AI).”

This new financing, Vantage’s fifth green loan, was secured under the company’s Green Finance Framework and upholds its holistic approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles. Dedicated to the sustainable development, delivery and operation of its data center facilities, Vantage leverages its green loans to support the research and development of next generation sustainable features in areas such as energy efficiency, water management and pollution prevention and works to operate in alignment with its own and customers’ carbon reduction goals.

So far this year, Vantage has announced a total of nearly $10 billion in financing to drive the company’s continuing global growth. In addition to today’s announcement, the company also announced a $6.4 billion equity investment led by DigitalBridge and Silver Lake in January, followed by a $64 million loan to support the development of Vantage’s first campus in Taiwan in March.

To learn more about the company’s expanding global portfolio, visit https://vantage-dc.com/data-center-locations/.

About Vantage Data Centers

Vantage Data Centers powers, cools, protects and connects the technology of the world’s well-known hyperscalers, cloud providers and large enterprises. Developing and operating across five continents in North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific, Vantage has evolved data center design in innovative ways to deliver dramatic gains in reliability, efficiency and sustainability in flexible environments that can scale as quickly as the market demands.

For more information, visit https://www.vantage-dc.com.

Contacts

Mark Freeman

Vantage Data Centers

mfreeman@vantage-dc.com
+1-202-680-4243

Robin Bectel

REQ for Vantage Data Centers

vdc@req.co
+1-202-936-6335

SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Accacia, a decarbonisation platform focusing on the Real Estate and Infrastructure sectors, has closed a US$6.5m pre-Series A round led by Illuminate Financial – a specialist VC firm focused on enterprise fintech companies building solutions for the financial services industry with offices in New York, London and Singapore. Southeast Asia based AC Ventures also participated in this round, alongside continued support from early backers Accel and B Capital.

Real estate and construction activity contribute to about 40 percent of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The sector lacks robust tools to measure climate risks and define decarbonisation pathways. Founded in 2022 by INSEAD alumni Annu Talreja and co-founders Piyush Chitkara and Jagmohan Garg, Accacia offers an AI-enabled SAAS platform that helps real estate asset managers, owners and developers track their emissions, and design their decarbonisation journey.

“This funding comes at a crucial juncture as the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) have announced regulations on carbon emissions’ reporting, underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive and real-time climate risk data. We have already deployed our solution to over 25m sqft of real estate and are poised to leverage this opportunity and scale globally,” said Annu Talreja, Founder and CEO at Accacia.

Illuminate Financial, with its extensive network of financial services’ industry LPs, has a unique perspective of this evolution where climate risk is becoming a must-have metric for investors. “Measuring and managing climate risks has become imperative for large financial institutions especially on real estate which is one of the most significant and most affected asset classes in their portfolio. With Annu’s background and industry experience in real estate, we felt Accacia is the right fit to take on a leading position in the global real estate decarbonization market and are pleased to partner with the Accacia team,” said Rezso Szabo, Partner at Illuminate Financial.

“While real estate is one of the single largest contributors to GHG emissions, it is also a very hard-to-decarbonize sector given the complexity of value chain emissions (construction vs operations) and the variety of asset uses. Given our deep interest in climate, we were confident that the sector demanded a custom solution designed for nuances of the real estate sector and loved what Accacia has built,” said Helen Wong, Managing Partner at AC Ventures.

Decarbonisation of real estate is one the biggest opportunities today – a staggering US$18 trillion of investment is required over the next decade to get the real estate industry to net zero. Accacia’s tech platform integrates with existing Property Management, Energy Management and Procurement systems to automate real-time data capturing and tracking, making it the quickest and most affordable solution for real estate companies on their path to net zero. The Real Estate industry has recently become the focus for climate solutions with several large VC funds raising dedicated capital to decarbonise buildings.

For more information about Accacia, please proceed here.

About Accacia

Accacia is an AI-enabled SAAS platform that provides Real Estate Developers, Asset Managers and Financial Institutions the key metrics and decisions they need to decarbonize their portfolio. The platform allows customers to measure and benchmark the Transitional Risks on their portfolios, while the AI-enabled recommendation engine suggests decarbonization strategies at the asset and portfolio level.

About Illuminate Financial

Illuminate Financial is a thesis-driven venture capital firm investing in enterprise fintech companies building solutions for the financial services industry. With offices in London, New York, and Singapore, Illuminate’s deep networks and trusted partnerships with major financial institutions for the past decade provide real insight into what the industry needs and helps their portfolio companies achieve their full potential.

About AC Ventures

AC Ventures (ACV) is a top venture capital firm that invests in tech-enabled businesses focused on Indonesia and Southeast Asia, with over US$500 million in assets under management. The firm empowers entrepreneurs with more than capital by combining operational experience, industry knowledge, deep local networks, and resources. ACV’s team has invested in over 120 regional tech companies since 2012. With a team of more than 35 professionals led by Adrian Li, Michael Soerijadji, Helen Wong, and Pandu Sjahrir, it has offices in Jakarta and Singapore.

About Accel

Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, CrowdStrike, DJI, Dropbox, Dropcam, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, FreshWorks, Jet, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, UiPath and Vox Media are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 35 years.

About B Capital

B Capital invests globally in extraordinary founders and businesses shaping the future through technology. With more than $6 billion in assets under management and dedicated stage-based funds, the firm focuses on seed to early- and late-stage venture growth investments, primarily in the technology, healthcare and climate sectors. Founded in 2025, B Capital has an integrated, global team across nine locations in the U.S. and Asia. The firm’s value-add platform, together with the consulting expertise of its strategic partner, The Boston Consulting Group, provides entrepreneurs with the tools and resources to scale quickly and efficiently, expand into new markets and build market-leading businesses. For more information, click here.

Contacts

Media Contact Information
Prosek Partners on behalf of Accacia

kkzhemanovska@prosek.com