LOS ANGELES, Feb. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Laka, a Korea-based beauty brand recognized for its inclusive approach to lip makeup, is officially launching in the U.S. with its debut at Sephora. Marking the brand’s first major U.S. retail expansion, Laka is now available on Sephora.com and in 80 select Sephora stores nationwide.

Laka has built a strong global following for its lip-focused products that champion self-expression, comfort, and inclusive shade development. With this launch, the brand introduces its modern K-beauty philosophy to U.S. consumers who seek expressive color without rigid beauty standards.

Inclusive, Lip-Focused Expertise

At launch, Laka introduces three core lip products designed to complement a wide range of skin tones and personal styles:

• Fruity Glam Tint ($18): A lightweight, glossy lip tint that leaves a transfer-proof stain, available in 10 shades, and one of Laka’s most recognized, award-winning products in Asia.
• Fruity Lip Glotioner ($18): A high-shine lip serum–gloss hybrid formulated with peptides and raspberry seed oil for smooth, comfortable wear.
• Blonding Glow Lipstick ($16, online only): A hydrating, buildable lipstick designed for effortless everyday color.

Each product reflects Laka’s belief that lip makeup should adapt to the individual — not the other way around.

“Our launch at Sephora marks an important milestone as we expand Laka’s inclusive beauty philosophy to the U.S.,” said Jicheol Lee, CEO of Laka. “We’re excited to connect with consumers who view makeup as a form of self-expression rather than a set of rules.”

Availability

Laka will be available beginning February 20, 2026, on Sephora.com and in 80 select Sephora stores across the United States.

About Laka

Founded in Korea, Laka is a beauty brand built on inclusivity and self-expression, with a specialized focus on lip makeup. The brand creates products designed to complement diverse skin tones, identities, and personal styles—encouraging individuals to define beauty on their own terms.

Follow Laka:
Instagram: @laka.global
TikTok: @laka.beauty

Press Contact:
Laka
Chloe Kim
Email: lakapr@laka.co.kr

NYSE issues a pre-market daily advisory direct from the trading floor.

NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) provides a daily pre-market update directly from the NYSE Trading Floor. Access today’s NYSE Pre-market update for market insights before trading begins. 

Ashley Mastronardi delivers the pre-market update on February 20^th

• Investors digest a pair of key reports from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, including the December PCE Report, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.
• Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) CFO John DeSimone will join NYSE Live to discuss the nutrition company’s latest earnings and a new $7.5 million investment by soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo.
• Commercial space company Starfighters Space (NYSE American: FJET) will ring the Opening Bell as it aims to send payloads into space using jets that fly at Mach-2 speeds.
• NYSE’s third annual Space Summit will take place on Monday, bringing together pioneers, executives, and investors in the space industry.

Opening Bell
Starfighters Space (NYSE American: FJET) celebrates its IPO

Closing Bell

SheTO celebrates 6,000+ members building a global movement

For market insights, IPO activity, and today’s opening bell, download the NYSE TV App: TV.NYSE.com

Centrus Energy Rang Thursday’s Opening Bell

Delivering Optimized Piling Solutions Through Customized Configurations for Diverse Soil and Pile Conditions

SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — BRUCE Piling Equipment (hereinafter referred to as “BRUCE”) has announced the reinforcement of its project-specific operational framework, centered on its core deep foundation equipment lineup, including Hydraulic Vibro Hammers and Hydraulic Pile Hammers.

With over 30 years of industry experience, BRUCE is further strengthening its equipment selection guidelines tailored to specific site conditions. The company emphasized that in piling operations, equipment selection directly influences not only construction quality but also overall process efficiency and project stability. Moving beyond conventional equipment supply, BRUCE is systematically organizing and presenting optimized operational standards based on soil conditions and pile types for the global market.

[Core Technology] Ensuring Long-term Operational Stability via Balanced Design A key feature of BRUCE’s Hydraulic Vibratory Hammer is the “Balanced Double Side Eccentric Weights” structure. This design symmetrically distributes the dynamic loads generated by rotational eccentricity to both the left and right sides. By doing so, it effectively reduces the unbalanced loads typically concentrated on gears and bearings. This allows for stable vibration transmission even in extreme continuous operation environments, ensuring both equipment durability and work consistency.

Maximizing Process Efficiency with Site-Specific Lineups

In deep foundation projects, required equipment specifications vary significantly depending on soil characteristics and pile configurations. Reflecting these site-specific variables, BRUCE has developed a highly adaptable product lineup and continues to expand performance capabilities through ongoing research and development. The integration of premium-grade bearings and components further supports operational reliability and long-term durability.

Hydraulic Vibro Hammer: Designed for temporary structures and specialized piling applications—including sheet piles, casings, and H-beams—this system offers high operational stability where continuous reliability is critical. By maintaining component consistency across clamps, power packs, and related systems, and by providing site-specific operational guidelines, BRUCE minimizes downtime and enhances workflow stability.

Hydraulic Pile Hammer: Engineered for soil conditions requiring precise penetration control and efficient energy transfer, the Hydraulic Pile Hammer plays a critical role in maintaining structural integrity and construction precision. By analyzing pile specifications, project objectives, and operational cycles at the equipment selection stage, BRUCE helps reduce quality deviations in repetitive tasks while optimizing construction outcomes.

“In deep foundation projects, equipment reliability directly determines project performance,” said a representative from BRUCE. “Built upon three decades of engineering expertise and core design capabilities, we will continue to deliver differentiated foundation solutions tailored to the evolving demands of global infrastructure markets.”

www.powerquip.co.kr

PARIS, Feb. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Carrefour, a leading global food retailer, and Vusion, the global leader in digitalization solutions for physical commerce, today announce the signing of a strategic partnership.

Carrefour and Vusion join forces to deploy the smart store at scale

As part of its “Carrefour 2030” plan, Carrefour has chosen the Vusion platform to digitalize all of its hypermarkets and supermarkets in France by 2030.

This major industrial partnership covers the deployment of latest-generation electronic shelf labels, smart rails, and AI-driven cameras to transform operational efficiency and the in-store customer experience.

Following a massive initial deployment in the United States with Walmart, Vusion and Carrefour are sealing a major technological alliance for Europe. In this context, Carrefour is joining the International Advisory Board of the technology platform.

Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and CEO of Carrefour, declared: “Carrefour 2030 is a growth plan that relies notably on accelerating tech and AI. By partnering with Vusion, a French technological champion with global reach, we are propelling our stores into a new era. The digitalization of our shelves is the essential foundation for deploying our vision of modern retail, serving competitiveness, quality of life at work for our employees, and customer satisfaction.”

Thierry Gadou, Chairman and CEO of Vusion, commented: “With Carrefour, we share the same vision of a modern store at the heart of tomorrow’s omnichannel commerce. We are going to make this vision a reality in the coming years. Following Walmart’s decision to deploy EdgeSense across all its stores in the US, Carrefour is the first major European retailer to deploy the latest-generation Vusion platform at scale. The objective is threefold: to improve the banner’s performance and the satisfaction of both customers and employees.”

By equipping its shelves with millions of smart labels connected to the cloud, Carrefour is taking a decisive step in the digitization of its physical assets. This massive deployment positions Carrefour as the most advanced retailer in Europe in terms of store technology, echoing the transformation initiated in food retail with Vusion across the Atlantic. It follows successful pilots launched since June 2025.

The solutions deployed will combine:

• The Vusion IoT infrastructure: For real-time price updates and light-guided assistance for employees (“pick-to-light”)
• EdgeSense™ technology: Bluetooth-connected rails allowing automatic product geolocation to optimize e-commerce order preparation and shelf restocking
• Captana Artificial Intelligence: Micro-cameras continuously analyzing shelves to automatically detect out-of-stocks, price discrepancies, and planogram errors

For Carrefour, this alliance directly serves the financial and operational objectives of the 2030 plan:

• Productivity: Automation of low value-added tasks to redeploy teams towards customer service, equipping them with smart data and AI-driven tools to guide priority actions and improve compliance
• Customer Experience: Time savings, personalized services, and real-time interaction for a smoother shopping journey
• Sales: Reduction of out-of-stocks to maximize product availability
• E-commerce: Performance improvement thanks to geolocation
• Retail Media: Creation of a new digital communication channel directly on the shelf and monetization of data

For Vusion, this contract validates the relevance of its technology platform with the world’s largest retailers and accelerates its penetration of the European market.

Co-innovation for the commerce of tomorrow

Beyond deployment, the two groups are committing to close collaboration on innovation. Carrefour joins Vusion’s “International Advisory Board,” thereby participating in defining future technological standards for the sector. A joint laboratory (“Next Retail Experience Center”) will be set up to invent the commerce of tomorrow, particularly around the use of AI to improve operational performance and personalized customer experience, agentic commerce, and the activation of consumer data in-store.

About Carrefour

With a multi-format network of over 15,500 stores in more than 40 countries, the Carrefour Group is one of the world’s leading food retailers. In 2025, Carrefour generated €91.5 billion in revenue. Its network of integrated stores employs over 300,000 people, who contribute to making Carrefour the global leader in the food transition for all, providing high-quality, accessible, and affordable food every day. In total, more than 500,000 people work under the Carrefour banner worldwide. For more information, visit www.carrefour.com, or find us on X (@news_carrefour) and LinkedIn (Carrefour).

About Vusion

Vusion (formerly VusionGroup) is the global leader in AI-powered digitalization solutions for physical commerce, serving over 350 major retail groups in the world.

The group develops technologies that bring together the Internet of Things (IoT), data, and artificial intelligence (AI) to power Connected Commerce — transforming physical stores into intelligent, efficient, and sustainable environments for retailers, associates, and shoppers. It provides stores with solutions for operational excellence, local ecommerce, data-driven commerce, and retail media & shopper experiences. Through its integrated ecosystem, comprised of three layers, Vusion Intelligence, Vusion Connect, and Vusion Retail IoT, Vusion delivers the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AioT) for retail, helping the industry unlock higher performance, better experiences, and more responsible growth.

A pioneer in Positive Commerce, Vusion is committed to building a more sustainable, transparent, and human-centered retail future. The company supports the United Nations Global Compact initiative and has received a Platinum Sustainability Rating from EcoVadis, the world’s reference for business sustainability ratings.

Vusion is listed in compartment A of Euronext™ Paris and is a member of the SBF120 Index.

Ticker: VU  –  ISIN code: FR0010282822  –  Reuters: VU.PA  –  Bloomberg: VU.FP

https://www.vusion.com/

vusion@apellaadvisors.com  

Carrefour and Vusion join forces to deploy the smart store at scale

SINGAPORE, Feb. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Strutt Inc., the award-winning mobility brand recognized by the Red Dot: Luminary and the CES Innovation Award, announced today that global pre-orders for its flagship ev¹, the world’s first Smart Everyday Vehicle, have surpassed initial sales targets within a month of its early-bird launch. The demand exceeded the company’s preliminary projections, signaling a shift in expectations for high-end personal mobility.

The response underscores a significant, unmet demand for mobility solutions that harmonized advanced engineering with standout industrial design. By combining everyday practicality with intelligent, vehicle-grade capability, the ev¹ has quickly gained traction among early adopters and tech enthusiasts worldwide.

“The velocity of these pre-orders confirms that we’ve struck a chord with a community that has been underserved by traditional mobility options for far too long,” said Tony Hong, Founder and CEO of Strutt. “The response to our January 2026 pre-order launch and subsequent roadshow has been remarkable, with about 75% of test-drive participants placing a new order or securing an existing pre-order immediately after their experience. This conversion rate gives us the confidence to accelerate initial production and move faster on commercial expansion.”

A Co-Designer Edition for Early Supporters

All customers in the first production batch will receive a special Co-Designer Edition of the ev¹. As early believers in the brand, these customers are recognized as foundational contributors to the product’s evolution and will receive an official Co-Designer Certificate commemorating their participation.

This initiative reflects Strutt’s belief that innovation is community-driven. With over-the-air (OTA) updates and continuous feature refinement, early customers will play an active role in shaping the long-term development of the ev¹ platform, helping raise the experience for the broader community over time.

Strategic Production and Delivery Acceleration

To address the influx of orders, Strutt is executing a coordinated operational scale-up across manufacturing, supply chain, and channel infrastructure to ensure disciplined growth and consistent quality.

Prioritized Fulfillment

Early-bird customers will retain priority delivery status under Strutt’s allocation framework. Production sequencing will follow confirmed order sequence by country and region, with phased fulfillment designed to preserve transparency and customer confidence. With capacity adjustments now underway, Strutt expects first customer deliveries to begin in Q2 2026.

Supply Chain Expansion

Strutt is reinforcing upstream component sourcing and deepening collaboration with core manufacturing partners to increase throughput while maintaining the precision engineering and rigorous quality controls required for its award-winning design. Additional logistics measures are being implemented to mitigate bottlenecks and strengthen production resilience as volumes scale.

Channel Support

To sustain demand conversion and support market expansion, Strutt is scaling its global test-drive and experiential roadshow network. The company is working closely with international partners to optimize regional allocation planning, enhance pre-order management, and strengthen localized customer support infrastructure.

“We are scaling with discipline,” said Tony Hong. “Our priority is not just delivery, but durability and reliability, and the operational and after-sales backbone needed for long-term category leadership.”

Pre-Orders Reopened

Following the rapid sell-out of its initial run, Strutt has released an additional allocation and reopened their pre-order. Pre-orders will remain open through the end of February via Strutt’s official website: Strutt ev¹ Pre-Order Deposit

About Strutt

Strutt is a Singapore-incorporated robotics company redefining personal transport through advanced sensing, self-driving technology, and award-winning industrial design. Since its global unveiling at CES 2026, the Strutt ev¹ has defined a new category in intelligent personal mobility, engineered to deliver electric-vehicle-level safety, intelligence, and control in a compact personal vehicle built for everyday use.