MARICOPA, Ariz., Sept. 13, 2023 — Biodel Ag, Inc., a regenerative agriculture company, today announced closing its Series A financing round led by Pangaea Ventures Ltd, a renowned venture capital firm with a focus on advanced materials and clean technology. The funding will support Biodel AG’s commitment to accelerating commercialization of novel solutions aimed at enhancing soil health, optimizing water utilization, improving nutrient efficiency, and sequestering carbon emissions from the atmosphere. As part of this financing, Janelle Goulard, a respected partner at Pangaea Ventures, has joined Biodel AG’s board of directors.

Ben Cloud, CEO of Biodel AG, stated, “This strategic investment by Pangaea Ventures solidifies Biodel AG’s position as a leader in regenerative agriculture and underscores our unwavering dedication to addressing the urgent challenges of our time. Pangaea’s investment not only validates our vision but also equips us with the resources needed to expedite our commercial progress. We firmly believe that our biological agriculture products represent the most compelling and cost-effective solution for sequestering substantial volumes of CO₂ and other greenhouse gasses from our atmosphere while revitalizing depleted soils.”

The agricultural practices of the 20th century have had detrimental effects on our soil, transforming it into mere dirt, depleting crucial soil microbes and carbon content, and impeding the capacity of plants to absorb water and nutrients due to salt accumulation. Vibrant, healthy soils require less water, reduced fertilizer inputs, promote a sustainable food supply, and play a pivotal role in capturing atmospheric carbon. Biodel AG is dedicated to reestablishing sustainability within our food supply chain while enabling the sequestration of greenhouse gasses through cutting-edge biological products, ultimately revitalizing soil health and functionality, and bolstering plant vitality.

“We recognize the immense value of Biodel AG’s innovative regenerative agriculture solutions, which promise to rebuild the earth’s depleted soil and its biodiversity in order to reverse climate change,” said Janelle Goulard, Pangaea Ventures partner. “Funding will enable Biodel AG to accelerate its transformative work, further solidifying the company’s role in building a sustainable future.”

About Biodel AG, Inc. 
Biodel AG, Inc is the developer of biological ingredients for the crop protection industry. Ingredients are suitable for regenerative agriculture and certified organic growers. The company also manufactures Sequester^®, a liquid, non-toxic biological soil amendment that is applied to depleted soils to restore soil function. Sequester is a regenerative tool that restores the soil’s ability to capture CO2 from the atmosphere to reverse the effects of climate change. For more information, visit: https://biodelag.com/

About Pangaea Ventures
Pangaea Ventures is the world leader in hard tech and impact investing, with offices in Vancouver, B.C., Canada and Phoenix, AZ, USA. With over two decades of hard tech impact investing experience, Pangaea’s portfolio includes companies that are solving fundamental challenges that impact the world including climate change, global food security, access to clean water and poor health outcomes. For more information, visit: www.pangaeaventures.com/

SOURCE Biodel AG

ELGIN, Ill., Sept. 13, 2023 — Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs (NBT), the foundation of the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA), has been awarded an $837,877 grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to expand the foundation’s programs throughout the country.

“NBT is poised for transformational growth over the next three years as the NIST award will fund NBT’s mission to inspire, encourage, and support the next generation of manufacturing workers. We are incredibly honored to receive this award, knowing that NIST has entrusted us to continue our good work of building the manufacturing workforce for the future,” said Ed Youdell, president and CEO.

NIST is an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce with the mission to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life. NIST is also home to the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a federal program dedicated to enhancing the productivity and technological performance of U.S. manufacturing. The MEP program has been a valuable resource for many companies in the metal fabricating community.

NBT will use the grant funds to expand its scholarship and manufacturing camp programs, as well as research and development activity for new initiatives that serve youth and adults and influence their pursuit of a manufacturing career. Specifically, NBT’s scholarship program will increase by 55 percent; the number of traditional summer manufacturing camps will grow by more than 20 percent; and the foundation will expand its newest program, inclusion manufacturing camps, by nearly 25 percent. Counting participants from all programs combined, the NIST grant will allow NBT to reach an estimated 1,000 additional future manufacturers in the first year alone.

About NBT and FMA 

Through its manufacturing camp and scholarship programs, Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs^® (NBT) is inspiring the next generation of manufacturers, inventors, and entrepreneurs. 

NBT is the foundation of the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association™ (FMA). Founded in 1970, FMA is the leading educational association for the metal processing, forming, and fabricating industry. 

For more information, visit nbtfoundation.org.

CONTACT: Cindy Day, [email protected]

SOURCE Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, Int’l (FMA)

With Funding Led by Augment Ventures and Joined by Beringea, Optilogic Advances SaaS Supply Chain Network Design Innovation and Drives Rapid Growth

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 13, 2023 — Supply chain network design software innovator, Optilogic, has secured funding from new partners Augment Ventures and Beringea and existing investors MK Capital and Multiverse Investments. The funding supports Optilogic’s rapid growth and makes a new era of supply chain design a reality with industry-exclusive features in its Cosmic Frog platform that enable companies to:

• Automatically compare hundreds of future-state supply chain scenarios to select the most resilient designs
• Implement incremental strategic supply chain changes on realistic timelines
• Develop action plans to reduce the impact of supply chain disruptions
• Design supply chains that balance cost, service, risk, and sustainability

Pressures of persistent economic and political uncertainty expose the weaknesses of traditional supply chain network design technologies that are slow, require costly capital and IT investment, and have lengthy implementation processes.

One-hundred percent SaaS-based Cosmic Frog network optimization runs 40% faster than competitor solutions, is accessible from anywhere, and uses hyperscaling technology to allow hundreds of models and scenarios to run in parallel on enterprise-scale computing resources.

“We are backing the vision of Don Hicks and his team to make supply chain design and optimization empower all functions across an organization,” said Sonali Vijayavargiya, founder and managing partner of Augment Ventures, which invests in technology companies that are transforming traditional industries. “We believe Optilogic’s cloud-native approach provides customers unmatched power, speed, and scalability. In addition, the platform goes beyond the competition by layering risk ratings to its optimization and simulation engines.”

“The Optilogic team has developed an impressive cloud solution, one that moves the industry forward in ways that are unique and differentiated from competitors and incumbents,” noted Ben Bernstein, principal at Beringea, a transatlantic venture capital investor which supports rapidly scaling entrepreneurial companies. “We are excited to back a team from our home state that has had proven success before. We look forward to helping the company realize their vision and scale the business in a way that allows their customers to design optimized supply chain systems with a superior user experience.”

Optilogic CEO and Founder, Donald A. Hicks, sees this funding as a significant step in the company’s growth. “This new investment partnership recognizes the critical nature of the technology we’re building: Optilogic gives any company the ability to envision and design a future supply chain without having to stumble into it. To not just reach the ‘efficiency curve’ of the current supply chain, but to shift the entire curve.”

About Optilogic

Optilogic offers cloud-native supply chain design solutions that enable businesses to evaluate trade-offs across financial performance, service levels, and systemic risk to design resilient supply chains even in the most dynamic, challenging environments. Its Cosmic Frog supply chain design solution tackles enterprise data at scale, runs models faster than ever, automatically converts legacy models, and requires no IT footprint. Cosmic Frog is the only supply chain design platform to combine optimization, simulation, and risk engines, and includes a risk rating on every scenario. Solutions include network design, intelligent greenfield analysis and site selection, M&A analysis, near-shoring/reshoring, CapEx planning, cost-to-serve, product flow, and many more. Stay in touch with Optilogic on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and visit www.Optilogic.com.

Press Contact:

Jennifer Randall
218-341-1318
http://www.optilogic.com

SOURCE Optilogic

• AWAK closes one of the largest MedTech fundraise in 2023 in Southeast Asia
• The Series B round was co-led by new investor Lion X Ventures and long-term investor Vickers Venture Partners, along with other new and existing investors
• AWAK’s ultra-portable peritoneal dialysis system enables kidney disease patients to undergo dialysis in the comfort of their homes as well as anywhere on the go, offering freedom, time and convenience
• The proceeds will help AWAK to complete the ongoing human pre-pivotal clinical trial, further enhance the products and portfolio, and get closer to a US-based pivotal trial before launching in the US market

SINGAPORE, Sept. 13, 2023 — AWAK Technologies (AWAK), a pioneering medical technology company focused on dialysis using regeneration technology for end-stage renal disease, today announced it has successfully raised US$20+ million in Series B funding. This milestone not only represents the most substantial MedTech fundraising event in Singapore for 2023, but also one of the largest in Southeast Asia this year. The round was co-led by Lion X Ventures and Vickers Venture Partners, both venture capital firms, with other key investors including Advanced MedTech, Eckuity Capital, a US-based healthcare venture capital fund, and an investment office with multibillion dollar assets under management in the healthcare sector.

AWAK PD, a wearable and ultraportable peritoneal dialysis (PD) system, offers patients the freedom to undergo dialysis at home as well as anywhere on the go, overcoming the challenge of long hours of stationary therapy and connection to large-size dialysis machines in hospitals and clinics, a challenge currently faced by patients who need dialysis.
AWAK’s patented technologies not only regenerate and reconstitute waste dialysis fluid into fresh usable fluid thus reducing the amount of dialysis fluid needed by up to 90 per cent, but also enable the miniaturisation of the dialysis machine to fit into a small carry bag; hence reducing the burden of therapy and increasing the patient’s quality-of-life by providing them with convenience and time.

The new proceeds will be used for several key initiatives, including completing AWAK’s ongoing human pre-pivotal clinical trial with Singapore General Hospital, making essential enhancements to the ultraportable PD device in anticipation of a final pivotal trial in the US that is expected to commence in 2025. It will also drive the development of new products, including complementary products to promote home dialysis and integrate digital solutions to improve the home-based care of chronic kidney disease patients.

Suresha Venkataraya, Chief Executive Officer of AWAK Technologies, said: “We are delighted to welcome new investors, as well as our existing investors, who believe in our mission to disrupt the kidney care industry by investing in our Series B round, even amidst challenging market conditions. The significant investment in this round, at a higher valuation than our Series A, is a testament to the remarkable progress we’ve made with our ultraportable device and strategic portfolio expansion. This investment now propels us towards new and exciting milestones, including further development of our PD product, and an upcoming pivotal clinical trial in the US. On behalf of our dedicated team and board, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all our investors who share our unwavering commitment to revolutionizing kidney care.”

Irene Guo, Co-CEO of Lion X Ventures, said: “With the dearth of innovation in peritoneal dialysis over the past decades whereas kidney failure is on the rise worldwide, we need new breakthroughs that fundamentally revolutionize dialysis. The next generation dialysis solution is ought to not only be lifesaving but also restore productivity and dignity with convenience and ease for the millions of ESRD patients. We are hopeful that AWAK Technologies is poised to debut the world’s first wearable kidney device that changes dialysis forever. A strong pipeline of relentless innovation at AWAK in sorbent-based regeneration technology, remote patient monitoring and AI will continue to transform the industry for better and for good, promoting kidney care decentralization and benefiting millions suffering. Lion X Ventures is thrilled to be part of this journey and looks forward to contributing to AWAK’s continued success.”

Mhamed Mengad, Board Member of AWAK Technologies and Vice President of Vickers Venture Partners, said: “We are excited to continue supporting Deep Tech companies like AWAK, as they are making tremendous progress towards bringing life-changing products and solutions to kidney patients. COVID-19 unveiled the intense strain healthcare providers are experiencing and the necessity to complement their capabilities with home therapies and care. AWAK is uniquely positioned to effectively manage kidney patients and support their transition to in-home care settings.”

Abel Ang, Chairman of AWAK Technologies and Group Chief Executive Officer of Advanced MedTech, said: “AWAK has demonstrated exceptional progress in its goal to disrupt the US$90B global dialysis market. The size of this series B round and valuation step up, despite challenging market conditions, brings AWAK one step closer to transforming the lives of kidney dialysis patients with its revolutionary portable dialysis device. I am proud of what the team has achieved, and am excited for how AWAK will change kidney care forever.”

About AWAK Technologies

AWAK Technologies Pte. Ltd. is a pioneering, patient-centric medical technology company with a mission to enhance the lives of people with kidney disease and their caregivers by providing solutions to deliver better outcomes and improve their quality of life.

Headquartered in Singapore with offices in Burbank, California, USA and Bengaluru, India, the company is dedicated to the research, development and marketing of novel, sorbent-based kidney dialysis machine for the treatment of patients with end-stage renal disease. For more information, please visit: www.awak.com

Contacts:

Dennis Wong / Maryanne Lee, Spurwing Communications, +65 6751 2021, [email protected] | Priyanka Arya, AWAK Technologies Pte. Ltd, +65 6950 5011, [email protected] 

SOURCE AWAK Technologies

A leader in the thriving internal developer portal space, Port has seen rapid product-led sales growth and built an active community 

TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 13, 2023 — Port, the open internal developer portal, today announced that it had raised $18M in new funding for a total of $23M raised. The Series A round was led by Team8 with participation from seed investor TLV Partners. Angel investors, including Yoav Landman (CTO of Jfrog), Shlomo Kramer (co-founder of Check Point, Imperva and Cato Networks), Aner Mazur (former CPO, Snyk), and Eyal Manor (former CPO, Twillo) joined the round. In the last several months, Port has seen rapid adoption, gaining dozens of paying customers and a vibrant community as software organizations invest in platform engineering.

Over the past year, Platform engineering has emerged as a major movement that seeks to provide a better, productized experience to developers, making them self-sufficient while leaving operations teams the time to innovate and improve the core platform.

The focus of platform engineering is to drive developer self-sufficiency and productivity, through the creation of reusable developer self-service flows that abstract away complex devops processes. Internal developer portals are a unified developer experience that’s streamlined through the use of a software catalog, self-service actions, scorecards and automations, all customized to each engineering group.

Port is the most open and flexible developer portal, allowing users to define their own data models of the software catalog and unify metadata that exists in silos all over the tech-stack, from CI/CD data, through vulnerabilities, alerts, incidents and more. This not only helps developers but also drives better engineering quality by setting organizational standards in scorecards and golden paths.

As part of Port’s commitment to building an open product, the company also announced the launch of Port Ocean, an open source extensibility framework that enables anyone to create exporters, self-service actions, automations and integrations and add them to Port.

Liran Grinberg, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Team8: “Platform engineering is taking off so fast because software companies are desperate to make sense of the hundreds of tools and processes that today’s developers are expected to worry about. Lightening that cognitive load for devs lets them soar. Of all the different approaches to solving the problem, Port truly understands that a developer portal needs to be able to meet the needs of a million different tech stacks while still being simple to implement and maintain. The company’s rapid success since its launch led us to back Port as the best, most flexible developer portal to deliver the platform engineering revolution.

“Every organization delivers software differently,” said Zohar Einy, Port’s Co-founder and CEO.
“This means that a developer portal must adjust itself to the developer’s specific needs, the SDLC, and the engineering tech-stack. Port provides platform engineers and developer experience groups the tools to build the portal they need, streamlined with how the business does engineering, instead of forcing an opinionated and rigid structure and tools.

Since Port launched last November, the company has gained hundreds of organizations using its developer portal, including dozens of paying customers. This success is driven by user involvement, with users offering features, creating integrations and sharing knowledge in Port’s community.

“Port’s operating mode is openness, with an open product community, an open product roadmap and an open free version of Port. We’re incredibly lucky to have this movement behind us and for all the support we’ve been getting from our users since day one,” continued Einy.

Media Contact
Lazer Cohen
[email protected]
347-753-8256

SOURCE Port

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Sept. 13, 2023 — Beat The Bomb, the world’s first interactive social video game company, announced it has raised a $15M Series B from New York and Paris-based Otium Capital, along with New York-based Conversion Venture Capital (CVC²). The Brooklyn company, which added locations in Atlanta and Washington D.C. in the past 12 months, will use the funds to expand across the United States, starting with Philadelphia in summer 2024. Additional openings are expected thereafter for Charlotte, Denver, Houston, and more.

“Beat The Bomb is using real-world video games to reimagine the future of social entertainment,” said CEO and founder Alex Patterson. “Since 2017, we have turned hi-tech digital rooms, multiplayer games, and incredible special effects endings into one of the most memorable group activities in the world. Over 500,000 friends, families, students, and co-workers have now visited our locations, which have been featured on NBC’s  Today Show, ABC, FOX5, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta. This fundraising will allow us to expand to an additional 7 cities by mid-2025, on our way to bringing Beat The Bomb to 100 cities and millions of people a year globally by 2030.”

“We are very much looking forward to the next development phase of Beat The Bomb and the opportunity to contribute to achieving Beat The Bomb’s ambitions, both in the U.S. and internationally,” said Aurélie Pasquet Bessiere, Partner at Otium Capital. “We invest several tens of millions each year in retail, e-commerce, and omnichannel brands in the U.S. and Europe. We look for the next generation of brands and experiences with ambitious long-term visions and we believe Beat The Bomb to be such a key player for the future.”

As inspiration for Beat The Bomb, Patterson looked to mix the best elements of video games, escape rooms, party games, TV game shows, and action movies in an experience that would resonate in real life. “Most video games isolate a person in front of a screen,” said Patterson, a graduate of Harvard College and UVA Law School and an early executive at Tough Mudder. “Beat The Bomb is using video game technology to create social gaming experiences that bring people together, creating shared memories and building stronger relationships.”

During the 1-hour Beat The Bomb Game, teams of 4-6 players choose from a Paint Bomb Mission or Foam Bomb Mission, put on hazmat suits, and step into a series of interactive video game rooms to earn time on a “Bomb Clock.” Each room tests a different skill, with game names like Hack Attack, Sequencer, Crypto Laser, Echo Chamber, and Cyberbot, and requires the active participation of all players on the team. In the fifth and final room, teams attempt to disarm The Bomb before their timer runs out. Failure means getting blasted in an epic explosion of paint or foam, after which the Bomb Room becomes a photo/video booth. 10% of teams win and earn Pro League Status and access to tournaments with money prizes. Losing teams can come back to re-attempt the same Mission, or play new Missions with different games, all created by Beat The Bomb’s in-house Game Studio. 

Beat The Bomb’s state-of-the-art 10,000 sq ft locations welcome 100,000 visitors annually. Built by design-build firm ARCO/Murray, they feature multiple glass-walled Bomb Rooms looking out onto The Bomb Bar, a futuristic full-service bar serving signature cocktails and colorful slushies, with a menu built around casual favorites like nachos, pizzas, sliders, hot dogs, and salads. For groups that want to hang out and play interactive games while enjoying food and drink, locations have multiple “Game Bay” lounges for rent, which are 150 sf, 3-walled gaming zones where players can select from dozens of shorter interactive social games that include team-vs-team and free-for-all formats.

In addition to a broad customer base of kids’ birthday parties, family outings, school trips, and adult social nights out, Beat The Bomb is fast becoming a premier destination for corporate team offsite events, with a newly-created event sales department managing a client list including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Microsoft, Delta, PWC, Capital One, and Citibank. For companies with remote and hybrid work arrangements, the company also offers a top-rated 1-hr hosted team-building experience, Beat The Bomb Virtual, with various multiplayer Game Pack to choose from. In late 2022, Beat The Bomb also began offering STEM workshops in partnership with nonprofits such as Girls Who Code, STEM for Her, and the Michelle Obama STEM Academy.

For additional information on Beat The Bomb, visit www.beatthebomb.com
For hiring information across various roles and upcoming locations, visit https://beatthebomb.applicantpro.com/jobs/

About BEAT THE BOMB

BEAT THE BOMB is the world’s first interactive social video game company. The company’s first location of its innovative location-based multiplayer gaming challenge opened in 2017 in Brooklyn, New York, followed by Atlanta in 2022 and Washington, D.C. in 2023. The company has now hosted over 500,000 players from across the U.S., and the world, including thousands of corporate team outings, school groups, and non-profit organizations. With over 10,000 5-star Google Reviews, it is among the highest-ranked activities in New York City, and an annual recipient of TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Award. Beat The Bomb also offers a full range of special event services, including Corporate Events, STEM Camps, Kid and Adult Birthday parties, and Bachelorette parties. Visit www.beatthebomb.com and follow the company on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @beatthebomb.

About ALEX PATTERSON

Alex Patterson is the Founder and CEO of Beat The Bomb. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Alex began his career as an attorney at Davis Polk in New York City and was the first CMO of global events company Tough Mudder. In 2016, he undertook a yearlong research project to create a multiplayer digital game room experience that became Beat The Bomb. A graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law, Alex has been a guest on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and has been quoted in USA Today, TimeOut New York, and the NY Post. He holds a U.S. Patent for Beat The Bomb’s concept of a ‘Multi-Game Challenge with Accrued Time.’

About OTIUM CAPITAL

Otium Capital is a US & Europe-based family office managing the assets of French serial entrepreneur Pierre-Edouard Stérin. The firm’s entrepreneurial DNA allows it to closely support entrepreneurs and answer their needs. Otium invests $200M per year across various strategies in tickets ranging from $1M to $30M, to take minority or majority stakes. Above all, the firm seeks to participate in the strong growth of projects led by ambitious founders. Visit us at https://www.otiumcapital.com/en

SOURCE Beat The Bomb

Layer N plans testnet with new funding from Founders Fund

NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2023 — Layer N, a hyper-performant and scalable layer 2 blockchain backed by Founders Fund, dao5, and Kraken Ventures, is officially coming out of stealth with experienced DeFi co-founders Dima Romanov, David Cao, and Sheheryar Parvaz.

Layer N is uniquely designed as a network of highly specialized rollups for the financial ecosystem. These rollups offer hyper-performance and EVM composability under a shared liquidity and a shared communication layer, with the ultimate goal of Layer N becoming infrastructure optimized for financial applications and dedicated to onboarding institutional liquidity.

Dima Romanov, co-founder of Layer N, commented on the news: “We spent two years building, talking to users, engaging institutional firms, and experienced first-hand the many challenges that protocols faced. We designed a novel layer 2 to address those challenges and eliminate friction in performance and user experience, streamline institutional onboarding, and allow protocols to focus on what’s most important to them, building a great product.”

Layer N’s fully modular architecture allows the network to be optimized along every single component of the stack making Layer N the top choice for companies building complex financial protocols and easing the transition for more traditional firms and institutions to enter the on-chain world.

Layer N will not only enable high-frequency applications but also highly intensive and complex computations and transactions that are currently impossible to deploy on existing blockchains.

“The first step towards a web2 to web3 transition is to solve the infrastructure scalability problem by enabling applications to run on truly fast and scalable blockchains. With Layer N, we can finally enable a whole new class of powerful applications”, says David Cao, co-founder of Layer N.

The round was co-led by Founders Fund, and dao5, with participation from SALT, Kraken Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Amber Group, Spencer Noon, Karthik Raju, and more. This marks one of the first public investments in crypto by Founders Fund since Joey Krug joined the firm after leaving Pantera. The backing of the San Francisco-based venture capital firm, whose portfolio includes Lyft, Facebook, and AirBnB further supports that Layer N is a team aiming to bridge the gap with traditional finance.

In the coming weeks, Layer N will be deploying a public testnet where people can observe and experience the performance improvements of Layer N firsthand. The first project that will go live on testnet is Nord, a specialized exchange rollup offering 10-100x better throughput than existing scaling solutions, and sub millisecond latency. Nord was built to be the first ever on-chain order book infrastructure that is comparable to existing centralized exchanges from a performance, user experience, and computing perspective. Additionally, it is fully composable with a public smart contract EVM layer through the Layer N shared communication layer.

Layer N has already secured major liquidity partners and is beginning its process of talking with early-stage teams and developers to grow its ecosystem ahead of its public release.

About Layer N
Layer N is a novel layer 2 network designed to hyper-scale financial applications on Ethereum. It aims to provide performance and user experiences similar to modern financial networks, but fully on-chain and decentralized. Developers can build hyper-performant financial applications leveraging shared liquidity and seamless composability. Layer N is bringing the global financial system to Ethereum.

Media Contact

[email protected]

SOURCE Layer N

Hospitality commerce platform unveils fast and flexible solution for full-service restaurants; Debuting at FSTEC September 13-15

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 13, 2023 — GoTab, a leading hospitality commerce platform, today announced the launch of its Pocket Point-of-Sale (POS), an all-in-one, pocket-sized ordering and payment device designed for busy servers on the go.

Ideal for fast-paced environments offering table service, GoTab’s Pocket POS is strikingly compact and easy-to-use, enabling team members to take orders, manage tabs, process payments, and communicate with the front- and back-of-house from anywhere in real-time, all from one sleek device the size of an average mobile phone. With a larger screen, longer battery life and smaller build than virtually any other mobile POS on the market, GoTab’s Pocket POS maximizes utility and embraces on-demand service for a guest-centric experience, no wait time or clunky hardware required. In addition, when it’s time to process payments, the product transforms into a customer-facing digital check presenter, allowing guests to view, split, add a tip and pay their tab, with the option to leave feedback and receive an order confirmation directly to their mobile device.

“Restaurants shouldn’t have to choose between staying busy or delivering a great guest experience,” said Tim McLaughlin, Co-Founder & CEO at GoTab. “With our Pocket POS, we’re unlocking significant operational efficiencies, enabling servers to communicate with the front- and back-of-house from anywhere and equipping them with the tools needed to manage tabs tableside and meet guests where they are for a personalized, seamless dining experience. It’s the easiest solution for servers navigating a fast-paced dinner rush while driving unmatched hospitality.”

The Pocket POS embraces every feature of GoTab’s popular stationary POS, including unique capabilities such as shared tab control, smart kitchen management and advanced administrative features that allow staff to manage inventory, menus, shifts and more, all on-the-go. Leveraging the Pocket POS, operators are empowered to mitigate errors, reduce costs, grow revenue and enable a frictionless guest and team member experience.

“The Pocket POS was created to help restaurant staff while enhancing and simplifying every guest interaction and is especially convenient when it comes to large parties, which are traditionally great from a revenue perspective but logistically tough on servers,” McLaughlin added. “Its ability to effortlessly split, move and merge guest’s tabs on the fly saves team members time and energy, which is vital in a fast-paced restaurant environment. Complete with all of the solutions found in our traditional POS, this is one of our most versatile products yet, and its pocketsize just can’t be beat.”

The launch of GoTab’s Pocket POS comes on the heels of the company’s recently announced capital raise, closing on an $18 million Series A funding round that will help scale its digital ordering and payment solutions for the hospitality industry, such as the Pocket POS.

To learn more about GoTab and its Pocket POS, please visit https://gotab.com/demo-request or stop by Booth #265 at FSTEC on September 13-15 for a live demonstration.

About GoTab, Inc.

GoTab, Inc., a Hospitality Commerce Platform, is helping all sizes of restaurants, breweries, bars, food halls, hotels, resorts, and other venues run lean, profitable operations while making guests even more satisfied. The platform includes a sophisticated point-of-sale (POS) or can optionally integrate with other popular POS and property management (PMS) systems. GoTab allows patrons to order and pay via staff on the POS, on a kiosk, or using their own mobile devices, according to guest preference and venue operating model(s). Tightly integrated kitchen displays (KDS) and bidirectional messaging are then used for highly optimized operations and delivery. Guests never need to download a mobile app or use a password. In addition to typical on- and off-premises sales, GoTab enables eCommerce, memberships, subscriptions, and deeply integrates with event, reservation, and ticketing systems. Founded in 2016, GoTab processes over $500M in gross merchandise value (GMV) annually with operations across 39 U.S. states, Canada and growing and is PCI DSS Level 1. For more information, consult our media kit, request a demo or learn more at https://gotab.com/.

Contact:
Madison McGillicuddy
[email protected]
(203) 268-8269

SOURCE GoTab

TechMet-Mercuria Participated in the $60 Million Series B, led by GM

TechMet-Mercuria will Serve as Exclusive Lithium Procurement Agent for Mitra Chem

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 13, 2023 — Mitra Future Technologies Inc. (“Mitra Chem”), a leading innovator in North American production of lithium-ion battery materials, today announced that TechMet-Mercuria (“TMM”) has invested in its current Series B round and will act as Mitra Chem’s exclusive lithium chemicals procurement agent. The investment by TMM and the other participants in the Series B, including GM, will fuel Mitra Chem’s mission to develop, deploy, and commercialize US-made iron-based cathode materials in an effort to enable mass-market electrification for electric vehicles, energy storage solutions, and beyond.  

“We are very excited about the opportunity to become a part of the Mitra Chem team. They are engaged in groundbreaking work for the EV world, and together, we are reducing dependence on critical mineral supply chains originating in China,” said TechMet Chairman and CEO Brian Menell.

TMM is a joint venture incorporated in Switzerland between TechMet and Mercuria. TMM combines TechMet’s track record in critical minerals investment for western supply chains and Mercuria’s position as a world-leading commodities trader – making them an ideal investor for Mitra Chem and shows the strength of their combined supply chain access.

“TechMet-Mercuria’s involvement in our investment round, combined with their commitment to acting as our exclusive lithium procurement agent, is a testament to our strategic alignment and shared missions. Their proven expertise positions them as an ideal fit for Mitra Chem, and we are very excited about this promising collaboration,” stated Vivas Kumar, CEO and Co-founder of Mitra Chem. “They will fit into the ecosystem coalition we are building around getting US-made IRA-compliant materials at scale with both upstream and downstream partnerships.”

This announcement comes on the heels of Mitra Chem’s completion of a $40 million first close of a $60 million Series B funding round led by GM Ventures. This investment will help GM and Mitra Chem develop iron-based cathode active materials (CAM) like lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) to power affordable and accessible EV batteries compatible with GM’s EV propulsion architecture, the Ultium Platform. GM’s funding will enable Mitra Chem to scale its current R&D and pilot operations while helping accelerate the development and commercialization of next generation cathode materials for the western battery materials market.

About TechMet
TechMet Limited is a leading technology metals investment company with a portfolio of assets that responsibly produce, process, and recycle the metals that are critical to the global energy transition and the electric vehicle revolution. Current assets in the TechMet portfolio include lithium extraction from both brine and hard rock sources, nickel and cobalt hydroxide production from laterite ores, vanadium chemical production from waste feedstocks, rare earth production and processing, tin and tungsten mining, lithium-ion battery recycling, and high performance cathode manufacturing. TechMet’s major shareholders include the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the global energy and commodity group Mercuria. www.techmet.com

About Mercuria
Established in 2004, Mercuria is one of the world’s largest independent energy and commodity groups, revolutionizing the commodity value chain through technology, expertise, and low-carbon solutions. The company has firmly positioned itself as a leader in the energy transition, with over 50 percent of its new investments directed towards renewables and transitional energy. Mercuria has made substantial contributions to projects such as renewable power, energy storage, grid optimization, critical transition minerals recycling, and environmental products, showcasing its dedication to a sustainable future.

About Mitra Chem
Mitra Chem is building the first North American lithium-ion battery materials product company that shortens the lab-to-production timeline by over 90%. Lithium-ion batteries are the key platform technology enabling electrification in transportation, consumer electronics, along with residential, commercial, and grid-scale energy storage. Mitra Chem’s first product category is iron-based cathodes for Western battery applications. Iron-based cathodes shift away from the use of elements such as nickel and cobalt, which are facing imminent supply crunches. Mitra Chem takes cathode products from lab to industrial scale faster than the competition by leveraging an in-house machine learning technology advantage to dramatically shorten the R&D timeline. The company’s goal is to transform the cathode from a specialty chemical to a platform technology that differentiates cell performance by end application.

About GM
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is a global company focused on advancing an all-electric future that is inclusive and accessible to all. At the heart of this strategy is the Ultium battery platform, which powers everything from mass-market to high-performance vehicles. General Motors, its subsidiaries and its joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Baojun and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety and security services, can be found at https://www.gm.com.

SOURCE Mitra Chem