SINGAPORE, Feb. 27, 2023 — Industrial chemical membrane technology company SepPure Technologies announced today that it had closed a US$12M Series-A round led by SOSV with participation from Anji Microelectronics, RealTech Fund, Seeds Capital, EPS Ventures, and others.

SepPure Technologies has developed a highly sustainable, chemical-resistant, nanofiltration solution that separates chemical mixtures at a molecular level with minimal energy usage. Industrial chemical separation processes today account for 15% of global energy usage and 10% of CO2e emissions. SepPure’s nanofiltration technology uses pressure-driven filtration instead of heat, which reduces energy consumption by 90%. The filter technology is applicable across a wide range of industries, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, semiconductor, maritime, and plant-based oils. 

“The problem with existing technologies,” said Dr Mohammad Farahani, “is that they burn through massive amounts of energy as they heat and cool chemicals through distillation and evaporation processes. In fact, these technologies have become one of the world’s largest silent polluters, accounting for up to 15% of the planet’s entire energy consumption. At SepPure, that is something we are determined to change.”

“Industries are racing to find less energy intensive, more climate friendly ways to re-invent their processes,” said Duncan Turner, general partner at SOSV and managing director at SOSV’s HAX, “and its spectacular that SepPure has  invented a separation technology that not only works across many industries, it is also far cost effective than the existing solutions. I can’t imagine a better example of a high-impact climate tech innovation.” 

In addition to energy savings and climate benefits, SepPure’s filters produce efficiencies that reduce operating expenses by up to 50%. The SepPure nanofiltration membrane in a standard industrial 4040 module (4″ in diameter and 40″ in length) contains thousands of patented, straw-like hollow fibers that provide 5x more surface area per volume than the competitor’s spiral-wound filters. Together with its unique high flux design, SepPure’s membrane module is 5-10x faster than the competition. In addition, SepPure’s module and nanofilters tolerate a wide range of temperatures and pH levels, and are available in various pore sizes to match separation requirements.

SepPure’s first filter production facility is under construction in Singapore.  “The state-of-the-art facility will produce enough products for several industrial projects that have been in development since 2021,” said Dr Farahani,  “As soon as we begin implementing our technology solutions at customer sites, we will quickly reach maximum capacity. In anticipation of growing demand for our modules, our team is already working on expansion plans.” 

SepPure’s  first commercial deployment is underway in Singapore, where the company’s technology has already been tested for plant-based oil applications with major industrial players. SepPure’s pipeline covers more than 50% of the top ten largest vegetable oil producers in the world. 

“SepPure’s membrane solution has the potential to revolutionize the chemical separation industry, much like how the reverse osmosis membrane has transformed seawater desalination in the 1980s. We can apply similar principles to the separation of solvents,” said SepPure’s CTO Dr Simon Choong, who joined the firm last November. Simon has an MIT PhD in membrane technology and in his last role, Gradiant International, he commercialized a proprietary membrane-based technology and produced  7 patents. 

About SepPure Technologies:

SepPure Technologies is a cutting-edge company specializing in nanofiltration technology, founded in 2018 by Dr Mohammad Farahani. The technology is derived from Dr Farahani’s PhD studies at the National University of Singapore and is designed to significantly reduce energy consumption and enable the recycling of solvent waste, making the food, pharmaceuticals, semiconductor, and chemical industries more sustainable and economical. With offices in Singapore and Canada, SepPure is committed to providing innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of businesses around the world.

SOURCE SepPure

STOCKHOLM, Feb. 28, 2023 — Swedish Biofuels AB announced today an investment by Mitsubishi Corporation to jointly accelerate commercial deployment of clean renewable fuels using Swedish Biofuels advanced alcohol to jet (ATJ) technology.

The technology produces fully formulated sustainable aviation fuel (FFSAF) from a variety of biogenic feedstocks. Swedish Biofuels FFSAF is different from other SAFs, as it is not a blend component but ready-to-use, real jet fuel. The FFSAF has been tested successfully by engine manufacturers under US DARPA, US FAA and Swedish FMV programmes.

Swedish Biofuels is now leading the way with the world’s first advanced ATJ technology, targeting the complete replacement of fossil jet fuel by FFSAF.

Swedish Biofuels MD, Dr Angelica Hull, stated that the company is honoured by Mitsubishi Corporation’s investment decision, which provides an exceptional strategic partnership for Swedish Biofuels, including access to feedstock, sales support, marketing and commercial operations. With this partnership, the company expects to accelerate the deployment of its advanced ATJ technology in its home market and beyond.

About Mitsubishi Corporation

Mitsubishi Corporation is a global integrated business enterprise that develops and operates businesses across virtually every industry including natural gas, industrial materials, petroleum & chemicals solution, mineral resources, industrial infrastructure, automotive & mobility, food industry, consumer industry, power solution and urban development.

About Swedish Biofuels

Swedish Biofuels is a company based in Stockholm devoted to contributing to world safety by offering innovative, state-of-the-art technology to produce green, sustainable and high quality products meeting regulatory mandates and goals.

Swedish Biofuels is the inventor of the original ATJ technology, patented in 2004. Today the company provides custom-made solutions for its advanced ATJ technology, targeting maximum yield of fuel products for aviation and ground transportation.

www.swedishbiofuels.se

Contact

Sal Passanisi
Head of Strategic Projects
[email protected]
+46 703 573 800

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2010369/Swedish_Biofuels_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Swedish Biofuels AB

• Born out of Mass General Brigham, and led by healthtech veterans, CodaMetrix empowers health systems to use Artificial Intelligence to prevent revenue setbacks driven by manual coding inefficiencies
• Overhauling medical coding is now crucial for health systems grappling with physician burnout, billing backlogs and claim denials, skilled labor shortages, and a graying medical coding workforce
• AI-powered, multi-specialty, autonomous medical coding eliminates human intervention, reduces coding costs, improves coding quality and unlocks clinician capacity

BOSTON, Feb. 27, 2023 — CodaMetrix, the leading AI technology platform transforming healthcare revenue cycle management, today announced that it closed a $55 million Series A round led by SignalFire. Frist Cressey Ventures (FCV), Martin Ventures, Yale Medicine, University of Colorado Healthcare Innovation Fund, and Mass General Brigham physician organizations also participated in the round. Chris Scoggins, Partner at SignalFire, will join the CodaMetrix Board of Directors.

The capital injection will accelerate go-to-market with major provider organizations and health systems, as U.S. healthcare contends with high coding expense, increasing complexity and ongoing skilled labor scarcity further underscoring the critical need for automation to address the chronic inefficiencies that continue to waste 25-30% of every dollar spent in healthcare.

“CodaMetrix’s innovations in AI technologies and the experienced team of healthtech executives are a couple of key factors that went into our decision to partner with the company to systematically improve the way our health system accounts for patient care in both billing and clinical cycles”, said Chris Scoggins. “This platform literally wasn’t possible even a few years ago but now because of advances in AI and cloud computing, combined with unique training data from our world-class health system partners, CodaMetrix has built a platform that really works for physicians, financial administrators and health systems.”

Senator Bill Frist, M.D, Co-founder and Partner at FCV commented, “The proven outcomes, customer traction of the platform, and focus on quality coding are well in line with our goals of administrative streamlining to tackle wasteful spending in billing and insurance-related expenses”.

Hospital CFOs and revenue cycle VPs are facing a severe shortage within their revenue cycle management or billing departments. Medical coding is one of the costliest and most time-consuming roles to fill, based on job search and time for onboarding, and 30% of positions sit empty. Held largely by older Gen X-ers and Baby Boomers, medical coding needs have been outpacing the speed of healthcare innovation.

As it stands today, medical coding is still a highly manual and error-prone process that plagues hospital finances and contributes to physician burnout. Certified professional medical coders sift through clinical notes (non-standardized) to correlate each patient encounter with standard and regulated codes (e.g., Procedure (CPT) and Diagnosis (ICD)) for each claim submitted for reimbursement. Coders must navigate tens of thousands of classification options to choose codes mandated by varying payer rules, contributing to a 40% or more error rate. As such, coders are expected to “speak the language” of physicians and payers, a mistake-prone exercise that drains time from coders and physicians alike.

“As a company born out of one of the largest and most innovative health systems in the country, our team experienced firsthand the pain points caused by medical billing challenges, including delayed payments, claim denials, coder shortages, high costs, and the time they take time away from patient care,” said Hamid Tabatabaie, CodaMetrix President and CEO. “To address these challenges, medical coding, as the proxy for evidence of care provided, has to become largely autonomous. Beyond the clear cost and efficiency advantages, automation for the first time will make it affordable and practical to ensure selected codes include the clinical specificity required for use cases in population health, value-based care, care management, research, and quality initiatives. Our goal is to use our platform to bridge the gap between clinical and administrative use cases of medical coding, while continuously delivering actionable insights to make the revenue cycle faster, smarter, and less of a burden on physicians and the coding workforce.”

Currently in partnership with 10 health systems and major academic universities, including Mass General Brigham, University of Colorado Medicine, Yale Medicine, and Henry Ford Health Systems, CodaMetrix improves clinical coding accuracy and reduces revenue leakage. The platform uses AI in the form of machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing to continuously learn from, and act upon, the clinical evidence stored in electronic health records (EHRs). As a multi-specialty platform that classifies codes across radiology, pathology, surgery, gastroenterology, and inpatient professional coding, CodaMetrix is the first platform to have an impact across departments by alleviating administrative burdens from billing staff.

“Frustrated by the lack of quality autonomous solutions out there, we built CodaMetrix through the lens of healthcare revenue cycle experts, addressing real health system and physician concerns. Our outcomes — a 70% reduction in manual labor — 59% reduction in denials due to coding, and a significant increase in cost savings — is the proof.” said Michael Mercurio, Vice President of Physician Revenue Cycle Services at Mass General Brigham.

About CodaMetrix
CodaMetrix (CMX) is a SaaS technology company providing an AI-powered platform to facilitate healthcare revenue cycle management and medical coding. The company’s cutting-edge platform combines machine learning (ML), deep learning, and natural language processing (NLP) to translate clinical notes automatically, accurately, and autonomously into billing and diagnostic codes that satisfy coding requirements while reducing human coding workload. CodaMetrix’s AI continuously learns from and acts upon the clinical evidence in electronic health records (EHRs). That knowledge is applied to improve the efficiency and quality of medical coding and to enable providers to code less and care more. For more information, visit https://www.codametrix.com.

Media contact
[email protected]

SOURCE CodaMetrix

SUZHOU, China and SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2023 — Eluminex Biosciences (Suzhou) Limited (Eluminex) officially announced today the closing of a Series B financing of over $40 million (USD). Financing was led by Cenova Capital with additional participation from Guangzhou Yuexiu Industrial Investment Fund Management, 3E Bioventures Capital, Oriza Holdings, and Series A investors.

Eluminex is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to the research and development of global innovative therapeutics with a major focus in ophthalmology and recombinant human collagen technology. Its headquarters and research and development center are located in BioBAY of Suzhou Industrial Park, China, with a clinical and registration center located in South San Francisco, California.

Dr. Jinzhong Zhang, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Eluminex, said: “We have made substantial pipeline progress since our $50 million Series A closure in November 2020, which was co-led by Lilly Asia Ventures, Hillhouse Capital, and Quan Capital. With the Series B raise, the Company will use the proceeds to further mature our innovative ophthalmic pipeline as well as the recombinant human collagen technology platform to meet the needs of patients in China and globally. We are grateful to the four well-known institutional investors and current shareholders for their recognition and support of Eluminex.”

Eluminex’s pipeline programs include novel multi-targeted antibody molecules for vision-threatening retinal diseases, an oral small molecule for rare inherited pediatric retinal dystrophies, and the clinical development and manufacturing of recombinant human collagen-based products with the potential to be world’s first biosynthetic cornea for the treatment of corneal stromal blinding diseases. The Company is currently building a GMP facility in BioBAY of Suzhou Industrial Park for the manufacturing of the recombinant human collagen biosynthetic cornea and other collagen-based products and is expected to operate in mid-2023.

About Eluminex Biosciences (Suzhou) Limited

Founded in February 2020, Eluminex Biosciences (Suzhou) Limited is a global biotechnology company focusing on ophthalmic diseases and recombinant human collagen technology. The company’s headquarters and research and development center are located in BioBAY of Suzhou Industrial Park, with a US-campus based in South San Francisco, California. For more information, visit www.eluminexbio.com.

About Cenova Capital

Headquartered in Shanghai, Cenova Capital is one of the earliest healthcare funds dedicated to early and growth-stage investments in the life sciences and healthcare sectors in China. Since inception in 2010, Cenova now has 7 funds under management with investments in healthcare services, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and digital health. Cenova’s investors are mainly large domestic and international institutional investors including Asian sovereign wealth funds, government institutions, insurance and financial institutions and multinational companies.

About 3E Bioventures Capital

3E Bioventures Capital is dedicated to investing in cutting-edge life sciences and biomedical technologies, with a focus on breakthrough first-in-class therapies and disruptive cross-disciplinary innovations in medical devices and diagnostics. 3E Bioventures takes on a science-driven, entrepreneur-friendly investment philosophy by working closely with companies and research institutions to develop drugs or products that have strong unmet medical needs. With offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and the San Francisco Bay Area, 3E Bioventures leverages its experience, capabilities, and network to help companies tap into markets and resources across the Pacific and advance with greater speed and capital efficiency. The motto of 3E Bioventures Capital is captured in its name 3E: Expertise, Efficiency, Execution.

SOURCE Eluminex Biosciences

NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2023 — Tradewind Finance today announced the successful completion of EUR 18 million in new funding for a silicon metal producer that is at the forefront of sustainable innovation in the industry. The firm’s tailor-made financial solution, which includes credit protection, will deliver immediate working capital to the silicon maker to invest in their business and enable them to trade smoothly and securely.

In the arrangement, Tradewind is purchasing the receivables of the company and providing them with the bulk of the invoice amount upfront, removing any waiting period to receive payment that is common in today’s commercial transactions.

As part of today’s announcement, Tradewind continues their commitment to responsible funding for businesses that put a focus on sustainable practices and social good in their core structures. The firm’s finance products are pivotal in unlocking capital for growth for their customers, who trade internationally and range in size from small to large.

“We are thrilled to partner with our client and support their success story where they take a leading role in cutting-edge silicon metal production. Our flexible solutions will help them fulfill their liquidity needs so they can continue to thrive,” René Pastor, President of Global Commercial and CEO of the Americas at Tradewind, said about the new financing relationship.

“For a growing business, healthy cash flow is essential. Partnering with Tradewind has equipped us with an efficient source of capital to keep strengthening our company and remain a reliable silicon provider for our customers,” the CFO of the silicon innovator said.

The injection of liquidity from Tradewind will assist the company in further propelling the global silicon metal industry, slated to reach USD 10.27 billion by 2029, on a sustainable path for the future.

About Tradewind Finance

Founded in 2000, Tradewind Finance maintains a network of offices all over the world, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, India, Pakistan, Peru, Turkey, UAE, and the USA as well as the headquarters in Germany. Combining financing, credit protection, and collections into a single suite of trade finance products, Tradewind brings streamlined, flexible, and best-in-class services to the world’s exporters and importers.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Tradewind Finance

Typeface unites content velocity with brand personalization and control for enterprise-grade generative AI. Round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV (Google Ventures), M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), and Menlo Ventures.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2023 — Typeface, the generative AI application for enterprise content creation, is emerging from stealth to empower businesses to securely create exceptional, brand-personalized content faster and easier than ever before. The company launched with an oversubscribed $65 million round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV (Google Ventures), M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), and Menlo Ventures. Typeface is led by former CTO of Adobe, Abhay Parasnis, and a highly experienced team of AI, SaaS, and media technologists.

Generative AI platforms represent a major technological breakthrough that promises to create content at tremendous speed and scale. To successfully leverage its potential, enterprises must combine generative AI’s speed with a brand’s unique voice, audiences, and workflows to completely transform content creation while maintaining brand control.

“By adding brand affinity to generative AI, Typeface allows enterprises to harness their collective creative power for unique expression of their stories and imagination,” says Typeface CEO and Founder, Abhay Parasnis. “Now, any company can transform content into a value multiplier, connecting every department and empowering employees to achieve their creative and storytelling goals.”

“Typeface is at the forefront of a monumental shift in how businesses will create and collaborate,” said Ravi Mhatre, Partner at Lightspeed. “With a world-class team and category-defining vision, Typeface is the first company to address the significant need for a comprehensive platform that radically personalizes generative AI for the enterprise. By democratizing access to this technology, companies can supercharge iterative creation and meaningfully engage with customers unlike ever before.”

Typeface’s new product provides complete lifecycle content development with self-serve solutions to create with ease, speed, and brand authenticity across all departments, including marketing, advertising, customer support, sales, HR, and more.

• Graph: A multimodal content hub where users can upload visual assets, style guides, messaging, and more.
• Blend: Typeface’s Affinity AI self-learns and customizes creations to each enterprises’ voice and audiences across all digital mediums and use cases, including rapid ideation, cross-team collaboration, and personalized product campaigns.
• Flow: Self-serve workflows and templates that fit into existing processes and use natural language for ease of use. Templates include blog posts, creative briefs, social media ads, landing pages, job posts, and more.
• Safe: Enterprise-grade security and compliance to implement governance policies, asset control, and brand ownership.

Typeface is currently partnering with leading enterprises and digital-native brands to rapidly create and adapt content to their enterprise workflows. “We are already leveraging Typeface in our brand content development and are inspired by the endless creative possibilities it presents,” said Michele Floriani, CMO at Sequoia Benefits Group. “From ideation to refinement to stress-testing headlines to creating beautiful imagery, Typeface is a powerful solution that will scale our content standards across our organization.”

Typeface is excited to partner with enterprises and is now available for select customers. To join the waitlist, please sign up here.

Editor’s note: This press release was co-written with Typeface. Typeface was responsible for generating entire sentences and paragraphs of text, augmenting the human capability to create a more enjoyable, elevated collaboration process. 

Get to Know Typeface Now 
[Video] Introducing Typeface: Anything Imagined
[Website] Learn more about Typeface
[Product] Join Typeface’s Waitlist

About Typeface 
Typeface is the enterprise-grade generative AI application to supercharge personalized content. By uniting content velocity with brand personalization and control, any enterprise can now create exceptional, on-brand content faster and easier than ever before. We provide industry-first self-serve solutions for complete lifecycle content development, so every employee can craft captivating content with ease, speed, and brand authenticity. For more information, please visit typeface.ai and follow @typefaceai on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

SOURCE Typeface

—Bringing Fifth Wall’s total capital raised to $2.9 billion; the third
most of any venture capital firm founded in the last five years—

NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2023 — Fifth Wall announced the close of $1.5B of new funds in 2022, including a $866M Real Estate Tech Fund III, €140M European Fund and $500M Climate Fund. Since 2016, Fifth Wall has raised the third-most capital of any venture firm globally ($2.9B), according to SEC Form D filings. Separately, a Fifth Wall affiliate raised $620M between two SPACs, including FWAA, which completed a merger with the Fifth Wall portfolio company SmartRent in 2021, and FWAC, which announced a merger with Mobile Infrastructure Corporation in 2022. In addition, Fifth Wall grew its team to 75 investment professionals across five offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, and recently opened Singapore office.

Fifth Wall is the largest and most active investor in real estate tech (or “PropTech”). Today, the firm’s funds represent 64% of capital raised for dedicated PropTech funds. In addition to its PropTech funds, Fifth Wall recently started investing in Climate Tech to decarbonize the global real estate industry, raising $740M across early-stage and growth stage funds. Separately, the firm launched its climate infrastructure strategy led by Alok Sindher. Fifth Wall is also today’s largest VC fund that is a certified B Corp.   

Since the launch of its first $212M fund in May 2017, Fifth Wall has benefited from the explosive growth of PropTech and Climate Tech, which each now represent some of the largest venture capital categories. The firm became an early investor in many successful PropTech companies including Aurora Solar, VTS, and Lessen which recently acquired SMS Assist in the largest PropTech M&A transaction in history. In addition, Fifth Wall has invested in six companies that have gone public such as Procore—which recently became an investor in the firm’s Real Estate Tech Fund III—Opendoor, Blend, Doma, Hippo, and SmartRent—which completed a merger with Fifth Wall-sponsored FWAA in 2021. Nine of the Firm’s portfolio companies became unicorns in 2022, including Bilt, Cargomatic, ICON, Material Bank, ONE, SOURCE, Turntide Technologies, Veev, and VTS, totaling more than 25 portfolio companies that have become unicorns since Fifth Wall’s inception.

Founded in North America, Fifth Wall has rapidly expanded internationally with its European Fund, London and Singapore offices, and more than 110 strategic Limited Partners who represent some of today’s largest real estate owners from 15 different countries such as DAMAC (United Arab Emirates), British Land (United Kingdom), MERLIN Properties (Spain), MITSUBISHI ESTATE CO., LTD. (Japan) and NZ Super Fund (New Zealand), among many others. Fifth Wall boasts strategic Limited Partners from each major asset class across the real estate value chain, including Industrial (Prologis), Retail (Macerich), Multifamily (Camden Property Trust), Single Family (Invitation Homes), Homebuilding (Lennar), Healthcare (Physicians Realty Trust), Hotels (Hilton), Services (CBRE), and Listings (News Corp / Move, Inc.), among others.

“Fifth Wall was fortunate to be one of the first venture funds to identify the secular collision between the two largest industries in the U.S., real estate and technology. Because of our consistent track record of investing in category-leading businesses at this intersection, we have been able to meaningfully participate in fiscal as well as strategic value that has been created in what we today call PropTech,” shared Brendan Wallace, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Fifth Wall. “Our position at the driver’s seat in part comes from pioneering a unique model of boasting the largest real estate organizations in the world as our Limited Partners, because they are the biggest customers and end-users of the companies that we are investing in.” 

Fifth Wall’s Inception

Fifth Wall was founded by Wallace and Brad Greiwe in a Philz Coffee shop in Santa Monica, when they were in their early 30’s. A graduate of Princeton, Wallace began his career with Goldman Sachs’ and Blackstone’s real estate groups before going on to found two successful companies out of Stanford Business School, including one that was sold to Workday. Similarly, Greiwe, a Harvard graduate, started his career in investment banking at UBS and private equity with Tishman Speyer as well as Starwood Capital Group, before co-founding and serving as CTO for Invitation Homes, the largest owner of single family homes within the United States and now an investor in Fifth Wall’s PropTech and Climate Tech funds.

Fifth Wall was founded on an unproven idea, as no institutional-scale funds existed in PropTech and no funds had attracted real estate corporates as Limited Partners in 2016. After closing its first $75M that grew to $212M, the firm gained momentum, investing in many startups that have since become synonymous with PropTech such as Blend, Doma, Hippo, Lessen, Opendoor, and VTS. Its investments in 2016 to 2018 have already returned a net amount of more than $493M to-date to investors.

In turn, Fifth Wall became synonymous with PropTech and is sought out by leading entrepreneurs and venture capital funds to help accelerate their businesses through the Firm’s distribution lanes which grew from seven to more than 110 Limited Partners in seven years across every major subsector of the real estate industry. The firm followed up its $212M Fund I with its $503M Fund II and $866 Fund III, each of which were the largest PropTech funds at the time they closed.

Fifth Wall earned the reputation as a firm that can accelerate its portfolio companies through partnerships with its strategic Limited Partner base, among the Firm’s most notable partnerships is Opendoor & Lennar.

“What makes Fifth Wall’s model so powerful is that it delivers specific, differentiated value through its unmatched network of real estate relationships with many of the most influential firms in North America and globally,” stated Max Simkoff, Founder & CEO of Doma, a Fifth Wall portfolio company that acquired North American Title—a subsidiary of Fifth Wall Limited Partner, Lennar—in 2019.

In addition to its numerous funds, Fifth Wall IPO’ed $620M across two SPACs, “FWAA” and “FWAC.” FWAA merged with the Firm’s portfolio company SmartRent, which included a $150M PIPE from Fifth Wall’s Limited Partners and SmartRent’s customers including Lennar. FWAC, recently announced its merger with Mobile Infrastructure Corporation.

Fifth Wall leveraged its leadership position in PropTech to build its Climate business, which emerged as the largest investor in tech to decarbonize the built environment, raising $740M. The Firm has invested in pioneering Climate Tech businesses such as Ascend Elements, Electric Hydrogen, RoadRunner, Runwise, SPAN, and Sealed, as well as announced Alok Sindher as a Partner to expand into infrastructure investing. 

About Fifth Wall

Founded in 2016, Fifth Wall, a Certified B Corporation, is the largest venture capital firm focused on technology for the global real estate industry. With approximately $3.2B in commitments and capital under management, Fifth Wall connects many of the world’s largest owners and operators of real estate with the entrepreneurs who are redefining the future of the Built World. Fifth Wall is backed by a global mix of more than 110 strategic Limited Partners from more than 15 countries, including BNP Paribas Real Estate, British Land, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Hilton, Hines, Host Hotels & Resorts, Ivanhoé Cambridge, Kimco Realty Corporation, Lennar, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Marriott International, MetLife Investment Management, MGM Resorts, Starwood Capital, Toll Brothers, and others. Fifth Wall believes this consortium represents one of the largest groups of potential partners in the global Built World ecosystem, which can result in transformational investments and collaborations with promising portfolio companies as well as decarbonization technologies. For more info about Fifth Wall, its Limited Partners, and portfolio, visit www.fifthwall.com.

SOURCE Fifth Wall

Financing led by MidCap Financial and Castlelake

Marco lent $100 Million faster than any other LatAm fintech in 2022, financed over $254 million in under two years of operations and saw 1,500%+ CAGR in financing with no losses between 2021 and 2022.

MIAMI, Feb. 27, 2023 — Marco — the first tech-enabled trade financing platform built for small and medium-sized businesses in Latin America and the United States— announced today it has received a $200 million credit facility from leading middle market lender MidCap Financial and global asset-based private credit specialist, Castlelake. Marco has also announced it raised $8.2 million in equity funding, led by Arcadia Funds LLC. The new funding will support Marco’s growing client base and portfolio to expand its trade finance platform and suite of trade services aimed at closing the $2 trillion global trade finance gap that disproportionately impacts small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

SMEs power global business. They account for more than 50% of all employment worldwide, — 80% in developing countries — represent 90% of all businesses and contribute up to 40% of GDP in emerging economies. However, the biggest obstacle to their growth is access to financing; banks reject 50% of SME applications globally and fewer than 10% of SMEs in Latin America (LatAm) have access to financing despite accounting for 90% of all businesses in the region. Banks have largely retreated from SME trade lending following a tighter regulatory climate driven by the 2008 financial crisis. Legacy lenders fail to understand SME risk and depend on outdated, lengthy financing processes that stifle growth of small and mid-sized businesses. This has led to a $2T global trade finance gap — estimated at $350 billion in (LatAm) — that blocks too many exporters from global markets.

Marco takes a unique approach to closing this trade finance gap: it couples smart decision models with best-in-class industry experts. The company is the first operating system for SMEs in trade in LatAm addressing the most pressing problem in today’s lending climate: providing them the liquidity and tools they need quickly, seamlessly, and during bear market cycles.

Marco unleashes the big power of small businesses by simplifying, accelerating, and reimagining cross-border trade with cutting-edge technology. Its tech-powered risk solutions outperform traditional financing methods, enabling SMEs to receive a decision within days instead of weeks and 24-hour approval turnaround, accelerating their ability to participate in the global economy.

“Marco is addressing one of the most pressing yet under-recognized economic issues of today: the ongoing inability for small exporters in emerging markets to swiftly access capital,” said co-founder and COO Peter D. Spradling. “We believe that when there’s economic uncertainty is exactly the time when lenders should help businesses. The umbrella should be given to businesses when the forecast shows rain, not when it’s sunny.”

The credit facility and equity financing follow a year of significant growth for the three-year-old fintech. Last year, Marco lent $100 million faster than any other LatAm fintech, it has financed over $254 million with zero losses since inception and saw 1,500%+ CAGR in funding between 2021 and 2022. Marco aims to fund $750 million by the end of 2023, focusing on target segments in the U.S. and across LatAm, specifically in Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, where total exports exceed $490 billion.

The Miami-based fintech — which also has offices in Montevideo and New York — plans to expand its ecosystem to continue providing SMEs with critical trade finance products, such as factoring, purchase order financing, and asset-based lending, and to grow its exporter-focused trade services suite.

Marco’s leadership team includes industry experts Barry Kastner and Fred Leder who jointly have almost a century of experience in asset-backed lending. The company recently hired its chief technology officer, Nik Bougalis, who previously served as director of engineering at fintech company Ripple Labs, where he spent the past decade building a more open and accessible financial system. At Marco, Bougalis will leverage this experience, leading a growing team of engineers working to democratize and streamline access to financing for SMEs today – and developing the vision and infrastructure for the cross-border trade ecosystem of the future.

“We’re extremely proud to have provided small businesses with more than $250M of liquidity in two short years, but the best is yet to come,” said Marco co-founder and CEO Jacob Shoihet. “Our team is working on some revolutionary products that address exporters’ critical needs, crafted by our new CTO, Nik Bougalis. Our new financing comes during a tremendous period of growth at Marco and demand for our services and will help us meet the pressing liquidity demands of small exporters who are increasingly vital to a healthy, thriving, and resilient global and borderless economy.”

About Marco
Marco is on a mission to simplify and accelerate cross-border trade by providing reliable working capital and critical tools for SMEs in the United States and Latin America. It addresses the $1.5 trillion global trade finance gap by developing proprietary risk models that process data in real time to dynamically assess risk and mitigate capital loss. The company is the first operating system for SMEs in trade in LatAm addressing the most pressing problem in today’s lending climate: providing them the liquidity and tools they need quickly and seamlessly. Marco unleashes the big power of small businesses by simplifying, accelerating, and reimagining cross-border trade with cutting-edge technology. . Founded in 2020 by Peter D. Spradling and Jacob Shoihet, Marco is headquartered in Miami, FL, with additional offices in New York and Montevideo. For more information on how Marco can help power your business with working capital, please visit marcofi.com.

About MidCap Financial
MidCap Financial is a middle-market focused, specialty finance firm that provides senior debt solutions to companies across all industries. As of September 30, 2022, MidCap Financial provides administrative or other services for over $43.6 billion of commitments*. MidCap Financial is managed by Apollo Capital Management, L.P., a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, Inc, pursuant to an investment management agreement. Apollo had assets under management of approximately $523 billion as of September 30, 2022, in credit, private equity and real assets funds. For more information about MidCap Financial, please visit http://www.midcapfinancial.com. For more information about Apollo, please visit http://www.apollo.com.

*Including commitments managed by MidCap Financial Services Capital Management LLC, a registered investment adviser, as reported under Item 5.F on Part 1 of its Form ADV

SOURCE Marco

The nation’s longest-running edtech and workforce technology VC has generated outsized returns and measurable social impact by investing in evidence-based solutions

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2023 — New Markets Venture Partners, the nation’s premier edtech and workforce technology venture capital firm today announced that it successfully raised more than $160M for its new fund, New Markets Education Partners III, LP. Founded in 2002, this is the DC-based firm’s fifth fund and is specifically designed to advance New Markets’ strategy of investing in early- and growth-stage companies with demonstrated efficacy in improving student and workforce outcomes.

Over the last two decades, New Markets has made equity investments in 41 companies, with a particular focus on edtech and workforce technology companies, measurably improving economic mobility for more than 47 million Americans while generating $3.3 billion in value for shareholders. With 26 realizations since 2012, New Markets has one of the strongest proven records of successful exits, cash distributions back to limited partners, and positive social returns of any impact investor in the country.

The firm’s disciplined investing strategy has consistently generated outsized returns for limited partners with a very low loss rate, while focusing on evidence-based solutions that generate authentic, measurable impact. This track record is the result of New Markets’ expertise in finding double-bottom-line companies led by visionary founders with research-based, efficacious interventions that drive systemic change and strong risk-adjusted returns in lockstep. The New Markets team has a long history as a double-bottom-line investor and has been driving sustainable social impact since pioneering work in the Socially Responsible Investor (SRI) movement of the early 1990s.

“We are fortunate to have this unique opportunity to provide capital and support to the most deserving mission-driven education and workforce entrepreneurs,” said Mark Grovic, Co-Founder and General Partner of New Markets Venture Partners, who has dedicated his life and career to market-rate impact investing since the early 1990s when he served as Portfolio Manager at the Calvert Group, a pioneer in impact investing. “Over the last three decades, we have accumulated the assets and experience to understand the challenges faced by the nation’s top education and workforce entrepreneurs and to help them overcome these challenges.”

Over the last three years, New Markets has invested in seven new companies and realized 10 investments including Credly, Presence, LearnPlatform, Signal Vine, Kickboard, Mursion, StraighterLine, Whiteboard Advisors, Galvanize, and Graduation Alliance, which totaled more than $1 billion in market value and returned over $100 million to limited partners.

As explained by Gregg Rosann, President, CTO, and Co-Founder of Graduation Alliance, the market-leading high school dropout recovery platform, which was acquired by KKR Global Impact, “Find an investor that understands you, your potential, your roadblocks and ways to overcome them. New Markets understood us – they were the right partner at the right time.”  

The continued growth of New Markets and its portfolio comes at a time when global edtech investing is down by nearly 50%, according to HolonIQ. The new fund underscores and strengthens New Markets’ proven ability to successfully navigate three previous recessions and commitment to invest in innovative, scalable companies with evidence-based solutions that focus on increasing the proportion of underserved Americans who achieve critical, research-based, developmental milestones in education, career, and life.

The Fund will target Series A and B investments and opportunistic recapitalizations focusing on companies generating $2M to $50M of revenue with a high potential to grow to $50M to $200M in revenue and reach profitability within three years of the initial investment.

Former entrepreneur Jason Palmer, General Partner of New Markets and previously Deputy Director of Education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, comments, “We are honored to work with the nation’s most innovative founders, scaling new technologies that can truly transform education and work. These entrepreneurs are literally re-inventing education-to-workforce connections, building more equitable pathways to the middle class for millions of Americans from underserved backgrounds – and doing so in a way that proves capitalism can do good.”

In raising this fund, New Markets received significant support from its existing investor base and also welcomed several new U.S. and European education-focused foundations and endowments. Equally importantly, New Markets received commitments from multiple publicly traded strategic investors validating the firm’s evidence-based investment strategy to drive collective impact, unique deal flow, and thought leadership. These new limited partners include academic publishers, global skills development leaders, human resources experts, and large-impact investment funds, among others.

Robb Doub, Co-Founder and General Partner of New Markets Venture Partners adds, “We are honored to be trusted by a group of limited partners with deep knowledge of the education and workforce industry. We look forward to continuing to work with exceptional management teams and fellow impact investors to build successful companies.”

New Markets’ hands-on approach and deep expertise along the education and workforce continuum help visionary entrepreneurs and their teams form partnerships with school districts, universities, states, and employers. These types of mission-critical relationships measurably improve the lives of students and workers throughout the United States, especially those from underserved backgrounds.

“New Markets played an instrumental role in supporting Presence from its infancy to our current leadership position in the special education teletherapy market,” said Kate Eberle Walker, CEO of Presence. “Their team brought a consistent and intentional focus to company building and evidence-based solution development focused on student outcomes. This expertise enabled our company to achieve rapid growth while remaining true to our mission to empower all who serve students with diverse needs. New Markets was a critical partner in our success over more than eight years, a thoughtful advisor through thick times and thin, and continues to support us as an important connector to emerging innovative partners in our sector. New Markets’ commitment to double bottom-line investing and efficacy-based solutions is unparalleled.”

About New Markets Venture Partners

New Markets Venture Partners is one of the nation’s leading impact venture capital firms that invests in and actively assists early- and growth-stage education and workforce technology companies. The New Markets team has three decades of experience supporting evidence-based, high-growth companies that improve economic and social mobility by leveraging deep relationships with centers of education and workforce innovation. New Markets prides itself on adding value to its portfolio companies before, during, and after the investment process, with the ultimate goal of improving both individual outcomes and America’s education and workforce system. To learn more, please visit www.newmarketsvp.com

Media Contact
Alyssa Miller
[email protected]
973-615-1292

SOURCE New Markets Venture Partners