Principal Technical Consultant

Technology intelligence: March 2026. Executive-level intelligence on the trends, people, and deals shaping the technology sector in March 2026 News and exec appointments. Google completed its $32bn all-cash acquisition of Israeli cloud security company Wiz, the largest deal in Google's history. AI security software company Darktrace has appointed Ed Jennings as its new CEO, who joins from Quickbase, where he served as CEO. Jennings is the former COO of Mimecast. OpenAI has acquired Promptfoo, a startup focused on securing LLMs and AI agents, with the technology set to be integrated into OpenAI Frontier. Meta acquired Moltbook, the AI-agent social network, with founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr joining Meta Superintelligence Labs. Deal terms were not disclosed. Matt Brittin, the former EMEA President for Business and Operations for Google has been appointed as Director-General of the BBC. Apple acquired MotionVFX, a developer of plug-ins and templates for Final Cut Pro. Financial terms were not disclosed. Lovable said it crossed $400m ARR in February after adding $100m in revenue in a single month, with just 146 employees. Cursor, an AI-native code editor, reportedly surpassed $2bn in annualized revenue, with enterprise customers now accounting for about 60% of revenue. Atlassian cut 10% of its workforce, around 1,600 roles, as it redirects more investment toward AI and enterprise sales. New Relic, the observability software company, appointed Michael Frendo as CTO, with the former Proofpoint engineering executive tasked with helping drive the company's AI-led observability strategy. SAP appointed Thomas Saueressig as Chief Customer Officer, expanding his remit to lead the new Customer Value Group across customer success, services and delivery. Wise appointed former Intercontinental Exchange CFO Scott Hill to its board as an independent non-executive director. Trustpilot appointed Marcus Roy, currently CFO of The Economist Group, as its new CFO, succeeding Hanno Damm later this year. The Trade Desk, a programmatic advertising technology company, appointed Reddit CFO Drew Vollero to its board of directors. FactSet, a financial data and analytics company, appointed Kate Stepp as Chief AI Officer and former Citi and JPMorgan executive Bob Stolte as Chief Technology Officer, as it steps up its enterprise AI push. Contentsquare, a digital experience analytics company, added three senior leaders: Costa Harbilas as President, Go-to-Market, Patrice Attia as Chief Revenue Officer, and Rachel Obstler as Chief Product Officer. Harbilas joins from Intapp, where he was CRO, while Attia and Obstler were promoted internally from SVP EMEA/APJ and SVP Product, respectively. Spendesk appointed Alan Wright as Chief Technical Officer, as the company said it had reached profitability. Wright previously served as VP of Engineering at Signal AI. Bluesky CEO Jay Graber stepped down and moved into a Chief Innovation Officer role, with Toni Schneider named interim CEO. Bluesky is a decentralised social network built on the open-source AT Protocol Fundraising. Nscale, the British AI infrastructure company, hit a $14.6bn valuation after a $2bn Series C. Harvey, a Legal AI company, confirmed a $200m raise at an $11bn valuation, with GIC and Sequoia co-leading the round. Quince, a direct-to-consumer retail brand, raised a $500m Series E at a $10.1bn valuation, led by Iconiq. Replit, an AI software development platform, raised a $400m Series D at a $9bn valuation, just six months after reaching $3bn. Legora, a Stockholm-based legal AI company, raised a $550m Series D at a $5.55bn valuation as the AI legal tech boom continues. French health insurance startup Alan reached a €5bn valuation. AMI Labs, co-founded by Yann LeCun, raised $1.03bn at a $3.5bn pre-money valuation to build "world models." Cloaked, a privacy and identity protection company, secured $375m in Series B and growth financing as it expands from consumer privacy tools into enterprise. Armadin, Kevin Mandia's new AI-native cybersecurity startup, raised $189.9m in combined seed and Series A funding. Eridu, an AI networking infrastructure startup, emerged from stealth with a $200m Series A. Israeli AI agent startup Wonderful raised a $150m Series B at a $2bn valuation. Granola, a London-based AI meeting notes platform, raised $125m at a $1.5bn valuation as it expands from meeting notes into broader enterprise AI workflows. Rox AI, a sales automation startup, reportedly hit a $1.2bn valuation in a new funding round led by General Catalyst. Mirage, the company behind the AI video editor Captions, raised $75m in growth financing and is positioning itself more clearly as an AI lab. Hiring trends. Whilst embracing AI is now an obvious strategic priority, the harder challenge is cultural. For some employees, AI is a force multiplier. For others, it threatens to commoditise their craft. In time, the best technology companies may operate with smaller engineering teams, heavily augmented by AI agents. But today's reality is more nuanced. Most AI coding tools remain immature, and teams are still learning how to use them effectively. Faster prototyping is often offset by slower debugging - particularly when dealing with AI-generated code. No Latency. No Latency provides long form analysis of the systems and strategies underpinning the technology ecosystem; About Neon River Neon River is a boutique executive search firm that helps technology and digital companies hire exceptional leadership talent. We work across VC-backed scaleups, PE-owned businesses, and global tech companies, bringing deep sector expertise, high-touch service, and a track record of delivering outstanding candidates quickly and effectively.

Intapp + FINARCH: accelerating AI adoption in private markets. Intapp has partnered with FINARCH to accelerate AI-driven transformation for private markets firms - specifically in the United States, Canada, APAC, and francophone regions. Through this partnership, FINARCH will resell Intapp DealCloud and use their deep expertise in implementation and digital transformation strategy to ensure firms achieve successful deployment and long-term business value.