Archives 2026

Business Wire India

Orient Electric Limited, part of the USD 3 billion CKA Birla Group, today unveiled Aero O2, a first-of-its-kind lifestyle innovation that evolves the ceiling fan from simple air movement to active air revitalization. Powered by patented Bio-Oxy Plasma ION+ Technology, Aero O2 is India’s first oxygen-enriching fan designed to create a fresher, more energizing indoor atmosphere for modern urban homes.

Urban consumers today spend more time indoors than ever before, often in enclosed, air-conditioned spaces where the air can feel heavy. Clubbed with challenges of urban deforestation and plummeting air quality, this presents a health hazard that deeply concerns today’s consumers. Aero O2 addresses this everyday reality by enriching indoor oxygen levels to improve breathing comfort, reduce fatigue, and support overall vitality. Powered by patented Bio-Oxy Plasma ION+ Technology, it releases active ions that break down pollutants such as PM2.5, smoke, and microbes to create a cleaner, oxygen-enriched environment.

Talking about this innovation, Ravindra Singh Negi, Managing Director and CEO of Orient Electric, said, “Urban consumers today are deeply concerned about the invisible health risks inside their homes, from toxic gases to declining oxygen levels in air-conditioned rooms. They are looking for solutions that don’t just ‘filter’ the air but actively improve its quality without the hassle of constant maintenance. Aero O2 is our direct response to this demand. By combining high performance cooling with patented Bio-Oxy Plasma technology, we are addressing a vital gap in the market- the need for a simple, zero maintenance way to detoxify and oxygenate indoor spaces 24/7.”

Tested by a NABL accredited laboratory, the fan has demonstrated results to raise oxygen levels by up to 90% in 8 hours and reduce toxic gases such as NO₂, SO₂, and CO₂ by up to 75%. It further neutralizes up to 99.99% airborne microbes and improves the Indoor Air Quality Index by up to 60%.

Powered by a 38W BLDC motor and 1200 mm aerodynamic blades, it delivers 250 CMM air with strong, uniform, and whisper quiet performance. Its contemporary design complements modern interiors, while features such as an adjustable canopy, Point Anywhere remote and reverse rotation winter mode add everyday convenience. The Bio Oxy Plasma ION+ system can also operate independently of air circulation function, ensuring continuous oxygen enrichment across seasons, in air-conditioned settings, or even colder months without maintenance.

With Aero O2, Orient Electric is redefining the ceiling fan category, moving from air circulation to air transformation, and reinforcing its commitment to premium, technology-led innovation for evolving Indian homes.

Business Wire India

WHOOP, the human performance company, today announced it has raised $575 million in Series G funding at a $10.1 billion valuation, advancing its global expansion and long-term vision for personalized health. The round was led by Collaborative Fund and includes global participation from 2PointZero Group, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Mubadala Investment Company, Abbott, Mayo Clinic, Macquarie Capital (entities administered by Macquarie Capital), Glade Brook, B-Flexion, IVP, Foundry, Accomplice, Affinity Partners, Promus Ventures, and Bullhound Capital alongside a group of prominent global athletes and individual investors.

 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260331399622/en/

 

 

 

Individual investors in the round include Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Rory McIlroy, Reggie Miller, Niall Horan, Karen Wazen, Virgil van Dijk, Mathieu van der Poel, and Shane Lowry, underscoring the deep connection between WHOOP and elite performance, health, and global culture.

 

This funding comes at a defining moment for WHOOP and the future of health. Chronic disease is rising globally, while many healthcare systems remain built for reactive care. At the same time, advances in AI and continuous biometric data are enabling a fundamentally new approach that predicts risk, guides behavior, and improves health in real time. WHOOP has spent over a decade building toward this moment. With this investment, the company will accelerate global expansion and scale its platform as a new standard for personalized, preventive health.

 

 

“Our raise brings together the world’s most sophisticated investors, leading health institutions, and iconic global athletes behind the mission to unlock human performance and healthspan,” said Will Ahmed, Founder and CEO of WHOOP. “We are building the personal health platform that people use to improve their health and livelihood.”

 

 

Accelerating International Growth

 

 

WHOOP is experiencing rapid global momentum amid an extraordinary period of growth:

 

 

• The company now has over 2.5 million members around the world
• In 2025, bookings grew 103% year-over-year, exiting the year at a $1.1B run rate
• In 2025, WHOOP operated cash flow positive
• WHOOP is hiring for over 600 new roles around the world this year to support research and development and international expansion

 

Proceeds from this Series G financing will fuel further U.S. growth and international expansion across Europe, the GCC, Latin America, and Asia.

 

Building the Preeminent Global Health Platform

 

 

This financing will accelerate WHOOP in building the world’s leading personal health platform – an intelligent, unified system designed to extend healthspan, optimize performance, and prevent disease before it begins.

 

 

Abbott, a global healthcare leader, joins as a strategic investor. With a broad portfolio spanning diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition, and generic medicines, Abbott brings deep healthcare expertise, scale, and a track record of health tech innovation, creating solutions that are more responsive, connected, and personalized. WHOOP and Abbott share a commitment to empowering people to take control of their health.

 

 

Powered by more than 24 billion hours of physiological data and purpose-built AI models, WHOOP delivers predictive, personalized health insights. Members open the app an average of over eight times per day – almost three times higher than other screenless wearables – to understand how they slept, whether they are recovered, how hard to push or pull back, and how daily behaviors like training, nutrition, and stress are impacting their performance and long-term health. These insights go beyond sleep and fitness, helping members identify early warning signs, reduce risk, and take action that can prevent serious health events. From world leaders and executives to elite athletes and artists, WHOOP has become an essential platform for those committed to performing and living at their highest level.

 

 

“WHOOP has become one of the most important tools I use to support my long-term health,” said Cristiano Ronaldo, a WHOOP investor and global ambassador. “I am proud to participate in this round because I believe in the future we are building together. No other company has created a health platform this powerful that people are proud to wear.”

 

 

To learn more about the company’s vision for the future of health, click here. Press materials, including imagery, are available here.

 

 

About WHOOP

 

 

WHOOP delivers a wearable membership to help people live healthier, longer lives and unlock extraordinary potential. Through a powerful 24/7 wearable with a 14-day battery life, WHOOP provides intelligent health guidance across sleep, recovery, strain, fitness, and longevity. The health platform includes an FDA-cleared ECG, a Healthspan longevity feature, Blood Pressure Insights, and Advanced Labs blood biomarker analysis. Research shows that people who wear WHOOP daily log more than 90 additional minutes of exercise per week, get over two extra hours of sleep, and have 10% higher heart rate variability.

 

 

Trusted by millions of members worldwide including athletes, global leaders, military operators, executives, and artists, WHOOP has become a modern symbol of disciplined, intentional living. WHOOP was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Boston. The company has raised more than $900 million in venture capital, ships to 56 countries, and operates in six languages. To learn more or start a one-month free trial, visit whoop.com and connect with WHOOP on Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

 

 

 

 

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260331399622/en/

 

Business Wire India

AGEasy, the consumer products brand under Antara Senior Care—India’s most comprehensive and fully integrated senior-care ecosystem—has introduced the country’s first adult diaper pants featuring Smart Liquid Distribution™ technology. Re-engineered specifically for seniors, it features a unique three-layer design that offers measurably improved absorption over ordinary adult diapers, reduces sagging and delivers more reliable protection for everyday ease and joy. AGEasy has redesigned each layer and how they work together, creating a technology unlike any other. The in-house innovation is currently awaiting grant of patent.

 

AGEasy Adult Diaper Pants with Smart Liquid Distribution™ marks a significant step in addressing one of the most common yet poorly addressed problems of ageing: incontinence. Existing chronic conditions and ageing exacerbate incontinence, instilling a fear of stepping out in seniors. Making the right protection, therefore, is not only a hygiene choice but a gateway to independence. This makes well-designed hygiene solutions an important enabler of dignified and active ageing.

 

Existing adult hygiene products continue to fall short on leakage protection, fit, odour control, and skin safety despite growing acceptance. Recognising these gaps, AGEasy conducted extensive research into the real-life challenges faced by seniors to re-engineer the adult diaper.

 

Rajit Mehta, Managing Director & CEO of Antara Senior Care, said, “At AGEasy, seniors have always been at the heart of everything we do, pushing us to innovate. We looked at incontinence and asked ourselves how we can deliver dignity and independence. Designing adult hygiene products is about understanding what seniors like to do but get restricted by fear. The answer couldn’t just be better absorption; it had to be a product that’s secure, safe, comfortable, that moves with them, and doesn’t announce itself. We challenged our team to go back to the very architecture of how adult diapers work, and they came up with AGEasy Adult Diaper Pants (with Smart Liquid Distribution™).”

 

Ishaan Khanna, CEO, Antara Assisted Care Services, said, “Our research revealed a key insight. In many adult diapers, the top sheet is often the weakest link. If liquid does not move quickly through this layer to reach the absorbent core, even the most advanced core cannot perform effectively. We addressed this with a uniquely perforated top sheet that enables near-immediate liquid transfer. But we didn’t stop there. We also redesigned the standard acquisition distribution layer with a proprietary architecture that distributes the liquid uniformly across the entire diaper surface. This prevents pooling in one area, which is the root cause of sagging, leakage, and skin discomfort. Together, these interventions form the basis of the Smart Liquid Distribution™ technology.”

 

The product has been tested in NABL-accredited laboratories and is ISI-marked, demonstrating significantly faster absorption and improved dryness compared to market-leading alternatives.

 

AGEasy’s vantage point is unlike that of any other player in the senior care products category. At Antara, we have spent over a decade learning from seniors so we can build for them. That institutional knowledge is what powered the Smart Liquid Distribution™ technology. The AGEasy Adult Diaper Pants deliver on every dimension that existing products have long compromised on:

 

• Smart Liquid Distribution™ technology for superior dryness
• Anti-sagging performance for a discreet fit
• Up to 12 hours of protection for uninterrupted confidence
• Anti-bacterial core for hygiene and skin safety
• Wetness indicator that signals when it is time for a change
• Skin-friendly, soft material designed for all-day comfort

 

The product is designed to be worn like a regular undergarment that remains hidden under clothing. It is available on the AGEasy website and partner marketplaces.

 

AGEasy continues its mission of making ageing easier by offering thoughtfully curated products that address chronic health needs across fall prevention, joint care, lung care, diabetes management, gut care and adult hygiene. With this launch, AGEasy further strengthens its position as an innovation-led brand dedicated to improving the quality of life for India’s seniors, empowering them to live with ease, joy, and independence.

Business Wire India

R Systems International Limited, a global leader in digital product engineering, today announced the appointment of Farooq Ahmad as Chief Revenue Officer. Based out of California, Ahmad will lead the company’s global sales engine, strengthening its go-to-market and accelerating growth across key markets.

“As global organizations move from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment, they are seeking strategic partners to help them integrate AI and deliver sustained value. Ahmad joins with a clear focus on deepening our enterprise footprint and expanding our presence in key markets by enabling our clients translate their priorities into scalable, real-world outcomes. He brings a strong combination of client insight, sector depth, and execution discipline and I am excited to welcome him to R Systems, and partner in our next phase of growth,” said Nitesh Bansal, Managing Director & CEO, R Systems.

His appointment comes at a time when R Systems is seeing increasing traction in AI-led digital product engineering, with growing demand from global enterprises looking to combine engineering depth with scalable execution. In this role, Ahmad will lead R Systems’ global sales engine as the company supports customers with increasingly complex, multi-cloud, enterprise-wide data and AI initiatives.

Ahmad brings nearly three decades of experience in the IT services industry, spanning global business development, P&L management, and client leadership across industries. He joins R Systems from Brillio, where he served as Regional Revenue Officer and Managing Director, and has previously held senior leadership roles at high-tech industry business of HCL Technologies.

Farooq Ahmad, Chief Revenue Officer, R Systems, said, “What stands out to me about R Systems is the strength of its engineering culture and the trust it has built with clients over time. The opportunity now is to build on this foundation and scale it with sharper focus and I am excited to work with the teams to translate this momentum into sustained growth.”

This appointment reinforces R Systems’ focus on strengthening its leadership team and investing in capabilities that enable long-term, scalable growth.

Business Wire India

Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) today released its Value Report 2025, offering a holistic perspective on the company’s approach to sustainable value creation. The report marks the completion of PMI’s 2025 Roadmap, communicating achievements for each aspiration introduced by the company in 2020, and introduces its Value Plan 2030+, set to guide the company’s continued path to sustainable growth.

 

“For more than a decade, PMI has pursued an industry-leading shift away from cigarettes—a transformation that goes far beyond product innovation to encompass how we allocate capital, engage stakeholders, and measure success,” said Jacek Olczak, Group Chief Executive Officer. “‘change in motion’ captures the reality that transformation is not a project with a defined end date, it is the continuous work of improvement, innovation, and adaptation that keeps us relevant and resilient. We transform continuously because markets evolve, science advances, stakeholder expectations rise, and new opportunities emerge. This is who we are: a company perpetually in motion toward a better future, refusing to stand still even as we celebrate how far we have come.”

 

 

Built on the progress that PMI has made over the past decade, the report explains how the company is securing the resources, capabilities, and stakeholder trust that will sustain its business for decades to come. The sustainability of the business is PMI’s strategy; it is how it secures resources, manages risk, meets stakeholder expectations, and future-proofs a business built to deliver results today, while securing the ability to deliver tomorrow.

 

 

“Our approach to value creation is anchored in a simple conviction: long-term financial success depends on the health of the resources and relationships that make it possible.By investing in natural, human, social, intellectual, and manufactured capital—what we define as non-financial capitals—we strengthen the very foundations on which long-term financial success depends,” said Emmanuel Babeau, Group Chief Financial Officer. “This is fundamental to our growth, resilience, and identity as a forward-thinking organization.”

 

 

PMI achieved meaningful progress across both product and operational impact in 2025, as it closed its 2025 Roadmap.

 

 

PMI’s Business Transformation Metrics (BTMs) have provided stakeholders with clear, comparable indicators of our progress toward a smoke-free future. These metrics go beyond traditional reporting frameworks to capture aspects unique to PMI’s change of motion. They include the following:

 

 

• Around 43.5 million adult consumers of smoke-free products worldwide.ⁱ
• PMI’s smoke-free products were available for sale in 106 markets.ⁱⁱ
• PMI’s smoke-free business net revenues reached USD 16.9 billion and represented 41.5% of total annual net revenues.ⁱⁱⁱ

 

In addition, PMI celebrated progress on:

 

• 98% coverage of shipment volume with youth access prevention programs in its indirect retail channels.^iv
• 91% coverage of shipment volumes with PMI’s anti-littering programs for cigarette butts.^v
• 76% of PMI employees globally had access to structured lifelong learning opportunities. ^vi
• 99.6% of contracted farmers supplying tobacco to PMI made a living income by year-end 2025. This was achieved through initiatives aimed at boosting farm productivity and encouraging income diversification.^vii
• 99.3% of tobacco purchased at no risk of net deforestation of managed natural forest and no conversion of natural ecosystems.^viii
• 46% decrease versus 2019 on absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with the company achieving carbon neutrality in its direct operations^ix, and PMI’s absolute Scope 3 Forest, Land, and Agriculture (FLAG) GHG emissions decreased by 31% versus 2010.^x

 

“We have identified six strategic priorities that reflect what matters most to our stakeholders and our business: consumers and product health impact, circularity, climate change, nature and biodiversity, our own workforce, and workers throughout our value chain, which are consolidated in our Value Plan 2030+. This plan identifies where our actions intersect most significantly with business imperatives, ensuring our initiatives drive tangible outcomes across various forms of capital, creating a strategy that is comprehensive yet focused, ambitious yet pragmatic, and deeply integrated into how we operate and grow,” said Jennifer Motles, Chief Sustainability Officer. “Our plan is explicit about what we control directly and what requires the action of, and partnership with others, setting a strong foundation for effective action. That is the spirit with which we present our Value Plan 2030+, as an invitation to dialogue, a platform for collaboration, and a roadmap for the next chapter: turning sustainability into lasting business value.”

 

PMI’s Value Plan 2030+ sets the course for the company’s next chapter—a continuation of the change in motion that has defined PMI’s evolution over the past decade. It focuses on accelerating the growth of its smoke-free product portfolio, working to make cigarettes obsolete, and exploring adjacent avenues of growth in wellness, while maintaining responsible sales and marketing practices, investing in human and natural capital, and strengthening the operational resilience that underpins long-term, sustainable value creation.

 

 

PMI’s Value Report 2025 has been prepared with reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Universal Standards (2021) and relevant topic-specific standards. This report follows guidance from the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) of the IFRS Foundation, including SASB Standards, Integrated Thinking Principles, and the Integrated Reporting Framework. Beginning with the 2025 reporting cycle, the company renamed its annual disclosure from the ‘Integrated Report’ to the ‘Value Report’ to reflect its commitment to transparency, communicating how it creates, preserves, and enhances value over the short, medium, and long term. The Value Report continues to build on the foundation established by previous Integrated Reports, providing a comprehensive and integrated view of PMI’s strategy, management, performance, and outlook in relation to its most significant sustainability-related topics.

 

 

Please visit www.pmi.com/sustainability to learn more and read the full 2025 Value Report, as well as Stories of Impact.

 

 

Philip Morris International: A Global Smoke-Free Champion

 

 

Philip Morris International is a leading international consumer goods company, actively delivering a smoke-free future and evolving its portfolio for the long term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The company’s current product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, nicotine pouch and e-vapor products. Our smoke-free products are available for sale in over 105 markets, and as of December 31, 2025, PMI estimates they were used by over 43 million legal-age consumers around the world, many of whom have moved away from cigarettes or significantly reduced their consumption. The smoke-free business accounted for 41.5% of PMI’s full year 2025 total net revenues. Since 2008, PMI has invested over $16 billion to develop, scientifically substantiate and commercialize innovative smoke-free products for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke, with the goal of completely ending the sale of cigarettes. This includes the building of world-class scientific assessment capabilities, notably in the areas of pre-clinical systems toxicology, clinical and behavioral research, as well as post-market studies. Following a robust science-based review, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the marketing of Swedish Match’s General snus and ZYN nicotine pouches and versions of PMI’s IQOS devices and consumables – the first-ever such authorizations in their respective categories. Versions of IQOS devices and consumables and General snus also obtained the first-ever Modified Risk Tobacco Product authorizations from the FDA. With a strong foundation and significant expertise in life sciences, PMI has a long-term ambition to expand into wellness areas. References to “PMI”, “we”, “our” and “us” mean Philip Morris International Inc., and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.pmi.com and www.pmiscience.com.

 

 

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

 

 

This press release contains projections of future results and goals and other forward-looking statements, including statements regarding business plans and strategies. Achievement of future results is subject to risks, uncertainties, and inaccurate assumptions. In the event that risks or uncertainties materialize, or underlying assumptions prove inaccurate, actual results could vary materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements. Pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, PMI is identifying important factors that, individually or in the aggregate, could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements made by PMI.

 

 

PMI’s business risks include: marketing and regulatory restrictions that could reduce our competitiveness, disrupt our SFP commercialization efforts, eliminate our ability to communicate with adult consumers, or ban certain of our products in certain markets or countries; excise tax increases and discriminatory tax structures; health concerns relating to the use of tobacco and other nicotine-containing products; litigation related to tobacco and/or nicotine products and intellectual property rights; intense competition; inability to anticipate changes in adult consumer preferences; use and reliance on third-parties; the adverse effects of global and individual country economic, regulatory and political developments, natural disasters and conflicts; geopolitical instability affecting international trade; the impact and consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; changes in adult smoker behavior; continued decline of tax-paid cigarettes; lost revenues as a result of counterfeiting, contraband and cross-border purchases; governmental investigations; unfavorable currency exchange rates and currency devaluations, sustained periods of elevated inflation, and limitations on the ability to repatriate funds; adverse changes in applicable corporate tax laws; disruptions in the credit markets or changes to its credit ratings; recent and potential future tariffs imposed by the U.S. and other countries; adverse changes in the cost, availability, and quality of tobacco and other agricultural products and raw materials, as well as product components for our electronic devices; and the integrity of its information systems and effectiveness of its data privacy policies. PMI’s future profitability may also be adversely affected should it be unsuccessful, in key markets or systemically, in its efforts to introduce, commercialize, and grow smoke-free products or if regulation or taxation do not differentiate between such products and cigarettes; if it is unable to successfully introduce new products, promote brand equity; if there are prolonged disruptions of facilities used to produce its products; if it is unable to enter new markets or improve its margins through increased prices and productivity gains; if other market participants are more successful in their SFP commercialization efforts; if it is unable to attract and retain the best global talent; or if it is unable to successfully integrate and realize the expected benefits from recent transactions and acquisitions. Future results are also subject to the lower predictability of our smoke-free products performance.

 

 

PMI is further subject to other risks detailed from time to time in its publicly filed documents, including PMI’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2025. PMI cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not a complete discussion of all potential risks and uncertainties. PMI does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that it may make from time to time, except in the normal course of its public disclosure obligations.

 

 

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i Total PMI smoke-free users is defined as the sum of total IQOS users, total oral smokeless users, and total e-vapor users of PMI products and considering poly-users across PMI’s smoke-free product categories. For definitions, see Glossary in PMI’s Value Report 2025.

ii For definition of available for sale, see Glossary in PMI’s Value Report 2025.

iii For definition of net revenues related to smoke-free, see Glossary in PMI’s Value Report 2025. This information should be read in conjunction with the Reconciliation of non-GAAP measures in PMI’s Value Report 2025.

iv Total shipment volume includes cigarettes, other tobacco products (OTPs), and smoke-free product consumables. See PMI’s Non-financial KPI hub for further details.

v See PMI’s Non-financial KPI hub for further details.

vi See PMI’s Non-financial KPI hub for further details.

vii Excludes China, Thailand, Switzerland, and India (flue-cured). See PMI’s Non-financial KPI hub for further details on methodology.

viii For definitions, please see PMI’s Zero Deforestation Manifesto and PMI’s Non-financial KPI hub.

ix Ambition achieved in early 2026 against 2025 emissions; data refer to yearly gross emissions from the reporting year minus the retroactive offsetting of the previous year’s emission. See PMI’s Non-financial KPI hub for further details.

x For further details on scope 3 calculation, please refer to PMI’s Value Chain Carbon Footprint Methodology Overview and PMI’s Non-financial KPI hub.

 

 

 

 

 

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260331272710/en/