Hartland, Wis. – September 29, 2026 -- Batteries Plus has signed a four-store development agreement with franchise owners Clint and Jolene Coates to expand into Lake County, Florida, with the first location opening in The Villages within the next year.

Beijing – September 29, 2026 -- ReTo Eco-Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: RETO) will cut its outstanding Class A share count from 145,814,975 to approximately 7,290,749 through a 20-to-1 reverse share consolidation, with post-combination trading starting October 2, 2026.

San Francisco – September 29, 2026 -- America's small businesses added 28,000 net new jobs in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, marking the eighth consecutive month of positive hiring, according to Gusto's Small Business Jobs and Pay Report.

Dallas – – September 29, 2026 -- MassChallenge, ranked the No. 2 accelerator in the U.S. by TIME and Statista, has named Dallas its second U.S. headquarters, backed by a renewed two-year grant from Lyda Hill Philanthropies. The investment extends a five-year partnership at Pegasus Park and will fund two ten-week accelerator tracks in Health & Life Sciences and Security & Resiliency, plus Founder Access Clinics connecting early-stage founders with academic, clinical and corporate stakeholders.

Denver – September 29, 2026 -- Adswerve has secured an Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform (Real-Time CDP) specialization, a formal recognition from Adobe requiring a verified number of successful client implementations and certified team members before approval.

Milwaukee – September 29, 2026 -- PBS Biotech has embedded Rockwell Automation technology into its MiniPRO multi-parallel bioreactor platform, a system with up to 24 independently controlled bioreactors designed to speed cell therapy process development and reduce risk during scale-up to commercial manufacturing.

Nashville, Tenn. – – September 29, 2026 -- Thyme Companies has appointed Carolyn Starrett as executive vice president of new ventures, tasking her with identifying and scaling new businesses beyond its existing Thyme Care platform. Starrett reports directly to Executive Chairman Robin Shah, marking her second collaboration with him after their tenure together at Flatiron Health.

Las Vegas – September 29, 2026 -- Arity, a mobility data and analytics company founded by The Allstate Corporation, has introduced Arity Lead Platform, an insurance-native operating layer designed to give carriers direct control over customer acquisition spend and decisions across publishers, marketplaces, agents, and call centers.

Atlanta – September 29, 2026 -- The Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation (JAJF) has completed 20 years of funding fully-paid family trips for parents with terminal cancer diagnoses, a model now formally prescribed by oncologists across the United States as part of patient treatment protocols.

Shreveport, La. – September 29, 2026 -- Praeses has secured a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract with Air Force Global Strike Command carrying an initial ceiling value of $79 million over a five-year term.