Categories
Small Business Funding

Alkira Caps Landmark Year with Series C Funding, Major Industry Recognition, and Significant Product Innovation | PR Newswire [Video]

On-demand network infrastructure leader paves way for strong growth and market leadership in 2025

, /PRNewswire/ — Alkira, the leader in Network Infrastructure as a Service, today announced significant achievements across all aspects of its business in 2024, including a major funding round, industry recognition, product innovation, and customer growth.

The company secured $100 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global in May 2024. New investors Dallas Venture Capital, Geodesic Capital, LIAN Group, and NextEquity Partners joined existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and Sequoia Capital in the round. This was the company’s first funding round since 2020, and it underscored strong investor confidence in Alkira’s vision and growing market position. The funding announcement coincided with Alkira being named #25 on the Deloitte Fast 500 list of North America’s fastest-growing companies, ranking #6 in the Bay Area with a 7,194% growth rate over three years.

“2024 was a transformative year for Alkira as we continued to deepen our customer …

Watch/Read More
Categories
Small Business Funding

Trump's federal grant pause creates confusion over Medicaid funding [Video]

The Trump administration's freeze on federal grants sparked chaos and confusion at state Medicaid agencies on Tuesday.Although the White House insisted that Medicaid, which provides health insurance to more than 72 million low-income Americans, was not affected by the freeze that it announced Monday evening, state Medicaid officials found themselves locked out of the federal funding portal for hours on Tuesday. They started to regain access to the system in the afternoon.The administration sent conflicting messages about Medicaid. The Office of Management and Budget memo announcing the pause on Monday said Social Security, Medicare and direct assistance to individuals would not be affected, but did not mention Medicaid. The office issued a Q&A the following day stating that "mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps) will continue without pause."But during the first White House press briefing of President Donald Trumps second term, press secretary Karoline Leavitt could not immediately answer a question on whether Medicaid funding was included in the freeze, telling reporters that she would have to check and get back to them on whether enrollees might get cut off. Leavitt later posted on X that the White House knows the Medicaid portal is down and said it "will be back online shortly.""We have confirmed no payments have been affected they are still being processed and sent," she posted.A federal judge on Tuesday afternoon temporarily blocked part of the Trump administrations plans to freeze federal aid.No access to fundingState Medicaid agencies lost access to the Department of Health and Human Services Payment Management Services (PMS) system on Tuesday.A notice was posted in red on the PMS site stating: "Due to Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments, PMS is taking additional measures to process payments. Reviews of applicable programs and payments will result in delays and/or rejections of payments.""My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last nights federal funding freeze," Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, posted on X on Tuesday afternoon. "This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed."Connecticut's Department of Social Services told CNN that state Medicaid officials could not log in to the system on Tuesday morning but said access was restored in the afternoon. Medicaid policy experts also told CNN they were hearing reports of additional states being able to sign in.State Medicaid agencies use the PMS system to draw down funds to pay hospitals, doctors and other providers that treat Medicaid recipients, as well as to pay insurers, which contract with states to cover enrollees. Many states access the system on a quarterly basis, but some draw down the needed funds near the end of each month to make payments at the start of the next one.