Homes England's National Housing Bank Makes Significant Cornerstone Equity Investment in Starlight UK Build-to-Rent Fund II

Starlight Investments and the National Housing Bank Unite to Accelerate Rental Housing; Bank's phased investment of £100 million advances 6,000‑home pipeline through Starlight's platform

TORONTO, May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Starlight Investments has announced that the National Housing Bank, a Homes England company, has joined as a cornerstone investor in the Starlight UK Build-to-Rent (BTR) Fund II, supporting the acceleration of new rental home delivery across England. This investment reflects a shared commitment to expanding the supply of rental housing and enabling growth in places where new homes are needed most.

Homes England, the government's housing and regeneration agency, plays a central national role in addressing England's housing challenges, using its land, funding and expertise to unlock opportunities for development and support local leaders in bringing forward sustainable, well-designed communities. This equity investment is among the first made through Homes England's newly established National Housing Bank – the government's new vehicle for long‑term place‑shaping and housing investment. Operating as part of Homes England, the Bank deploys flexible, government‑backed capital across funds, platforms and partnerships to unlock housing and regeneration projects, crowding in private capital and accelerating delivery at scale.

Established in 2020, Starlight's UK residential asset management platform is dedicated to the BTR segment, with a vision to deliver thousands of new homes across major regional cities including Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds and key London Commuter Belt markets experiencing pronounced rental housing undersupply. With a UK portfolio of 4,000 homes and £1.1 billion in assets under management, Starlight is committed to supporting housing targets across the region and providing best-in-class rental options backed by strong operational stewardship. In executing its UK program, Starlight brings over three decades of global investment and asset management expertise in the multi-family sector. Starlight's established track record as an experienced, professional BTR operator was a key factor in Homes England's decision to align with the company's growing UK platform.

Building on the success of Starlight's first UK BTR fund, Fund II continues the company's long-term strategy of developing and operating professionally managed rental housing in structurally undersupplied markets. Starlight's disciplined investment approach also supports broader economic growth through sustained investment, job creation, regeneration, and the delivery of high-quality rental communities located close to employment, education, and transit. Homes England's investment, in addition to significant commitments from a diverse base of global institutional investors, enables the delivery of 6,000 much-needed homes through Starlight's Fund II platform.

Daniel Drimmer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Starlight Investments, said: "Starlight's UK residential strategy is rooted in responsible, long-term investment and a commitment to providing high-quality rental options for residents. Building on our expanding UK portfolio, this partnership marks an important milestone as we continue to grow our BTR platform and align private investment with outcomes that benefit local communities."

Simon Century, Chief Executive Officer, National Housing Bank, said: "This is exactly the kind of investment – made through the government's National Housing Bank – that will help to transform England's housing market. Supporting international capital to commit to building thousands of new homes in towns and cities across the country is a hugely encouraging sign that England's residential market is open for business and able to attract institutional investment to support growth. Starlight's approach to development, professional management and institutional ownership of mid-market rental housing aligns with our place-based priorities. We welcome this partnership as part of our efforts to help communities access the homes they need."

About Starlight Investments

Starlight Investments is a leading global real estate investment and asset management firm headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A privately held owner, developer and asset manager of over 70,000 multi-residential suites and over 7 million square feet of commercial property space with CAD $30 billion AUM, Starlight offers a range of investment vehicles across various real estate strategies. Starlight's guiding mission is to balance its tenure with visionary curiosity to create positive impact for investors and communities alike. At Starlight, we invest with impact.

Learn more at www.starlightinvest.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.

About Homes England

Homes England is the government's housing and regeneration agency. Together with their partners, they drive the creation of more affordable, quality homes and thriving places so that everyone has a place to live and grow.

They make this happen by working with thousands of organisations of all sizes, using their powers, expertise, land, capital and influence to bring investment to communities and get more quality homes built.

Learn more about them: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-england/about

National Housing Bank

The National Housing Bank, a Homes England company, delivers purpose-led finance for housing delivery. It aims to break down barriers to investment at scale and accelerate the delivery and regeneration of places.

Over the next decade, it will invest up to £16 billion through debt, equity, and guarantee products, stepping in where the market cannot.

The NHB aims to attract over £50 billion of private capital, enabling more homes, stronger places and thriving, sustainable communities.

The bank offers partners tailored and blended finance solutions alongside the full range of Homes England support. Its delegations and flexible approach means it can respond with agility to shifting market conditions, ensuring investment reaches the areas of greatest need.

Backed by government and driven by purpose, the National Housing Bank brings long-term investment for partners, to transform places and boost economic growth across England.

Contacts: Raj Mehta, President, Global Markets, +1-647-725-0498, rmehta@starlightinvest.com; Jonnie Milich, Head, UK Residential, +44-7930-373-945, jmilich@starlightinvest.com; Talia Schwebel, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, media@starlightinvest.com; Homes England, 0207-874-8262, media@homesengland.gov.uk

 

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Homes England's National Housing Bank Makes Significant Cornerstone Equity Investment in Starlight UK Build-to-Rent Fund II

HONG KONG, May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Taboola (Nasdaq: TBLA), a global leader in delivering performance at scale for advertisers, today announced new research highlighting growing advertiser adoption of AI-powered solutions and increasing interest in applying these capabilities beyond walled gardens.

While agentic AI has driven strong performance gains in search and social, marketers are increasingly focused on unlocking incremental growth beyond those channels—especially in environments that can offer similar AI-powered automation. The new study, titled, "The Agentic Advantage in Performance Marketing: Securing Incremental Growth Beyond Search and Social" explores how advertisers are approaching performance in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.

Key insights from the research include:

• Agentic AI is delivering performance advertising wins, but the benefits are confined to the walled gardens. A significant 76% of advertisers are already seeing meaningful performance uplift from AI-powered solutions, primarily on search and social platforms.
• Performance advertisers feel trapped with Agentic AI on search and social. The vast majority (80%) state they would immediately increase their ad spend on the open web if comparable agentic solutions existed, with 86% willing to allocate up to a quarter of their performance budget to the shift.

   

• The biggest advertisers are struggling the most with agentic AI. The number one challenge for advertisers adopting agentic AI is integrating it into existing workflows, but the struggle is disproportionately felt by large advertisers. Only 9% of advertisers spending $300K–$499K per month cite integration as a barrier, compared to a large 74% of companies spending $1M–$4.9M per month who call it the dominant roadblock.

 

"Advertisers of all sizes are leaning into agentic advertising, and the results are following. Our research shows a clear demand for advertisers that want the same "always-on," AI-driven performance they see in walled gardens applied to the open web, however," said Adam Singolda, CEO of Taboola. "They are looking for autonomous systems that learn continuously, pivot in real time, and turn every impression into a measurable outcome."

In April 2026, Taboola announced Realize+, an agentic solution that uses its supply, first-party data, and AI to scale performance through a Decision Engine that reallocates spend in real time and an Element Generator that automates creative and targeting. The company has now rolled out the Realize+ beta to help advertisers drive outcomes at scale.

About Taboola 

Taboola empowers businesses to grow through performance advertising technology that goes beyond search and social and delivers measurable outcomes at scale.

Taboola works with thousands of businesses who advertise directly on Realize, Taboola's powerful ad platform, reaching approximately 600M daily active users across some of the best publishers in the world. Publishers like NBC News, Yahoo, and OEMs such as Samsung, Xiaomi and others use Taboola's technology to grow audience and revenue, enabling Realize to offer unique data, specialized algorithms, and unmatched scale.

Disclaimer – Forward-Looking Statements

Taboola (the "Company") may, in this communication, make certain statements that are not historical facts and relate to analysis or other information which are based on forecasts or future or results. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future prospects, product development and business strategies. Words such as "expect," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believes," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means for identifying such statements. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there are risks that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved. You should understand that a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements, including the risks set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 under Part 1, Item 1A "Risk Factors" and our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company does not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

*Study methodology: Survey of 200 senior performance marketers at large advertisers and agencies representing organizations with monthly budgets of $500K–$4.9M.

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New Study Finds 76% of Advertisers See Performance Gains from Agentic AI; 86% Would Allocate Up to a Quarter of Advertising Budget to the Open Web with the Right Agentic AI Solution

New Study Finds 76% of Advertisers See Performance Gains from Agentic AI; 86% Would Allocate Up to a Quarter of Advertising Budget to the Open Web with the Right Agentic AI Solution