Fund 8 will continue Kinderhook’s buy-and-build strategy in the Environmental / Business Services, Automotive / Light Manufacturing, and Healthcare Services Sectors.

NEW YORK, June 18, 2024 — Kinderhook Industries, LLC (“Kinderhook“) today announced the final closing of Kinderhook Capital Fund 8, L.P. (“Fund 8”) with total capital commitments of $2.75 billion, inclusive of $250 million in commitments from the general partner and its operating partner network. After holding a first close in April 2024, Fund 8 exceeded its target of $2.0 billion and was significantly oversubscribed.

Kinderhook’s investor base is comprised of leading domestic and international endowments, foundations, family offices, pensions, and other institutional capital bases. Kinderhook welcomed several new investors that broaden the Firm’s Limited Partner base in the United States, Europe, and for the first time, in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

“All of us at Kinderhook are humbled by the overwhelming support we received from our existing and new investors and are extremely proud of our global investor base of thought-leading partners,” said Chris Michalik, Managing Director at Kinderhook. “Fund 8 plans to continue a similar investment strategy that Kinderhook has pursued for over two decades and will target our core sectors of focus where we have deep industry expertise.”

“We are pleased to continue our partnership with our long-standing investors, many of whom have supported Kinderhook since its founding,” said Liam Rogers, Managing Director and Head of Capital Formation & Investor Relations. “We are also excited to welcome our new partners to the Kinderhook family – the commitments we received from blue-chip LPs across the world is a testament to the strength of our team and the consistency of our investment strategy and results.”

UBS Private Funds Group served as exclusive global placement agent. Kirkland and Ellis, LLP served as fund counsel for Fund 8.

About Kinderhook Industries

Founded in 2003, Kinderhook Industries, LLC is a private investment firm that has raised $8.5 billion of committed capital. We have made in excess of 450 investments and follow-on acquisitions since inception. Kinderhook’s investment philosophy is predicated on matching differentiated, growth-oriented investment opportunities with financial expertise and our proprietary network of operating partners. Our focus is on middle market businesses with defensible niche market positioning in the healthcare services, environmental / business services, and automotive / light manufacturing sectors.

For more information, please visit: https://www.kinderhook.com/

SOURCE Kinderhook Industries

STAVANGER, Norway, June 18, 2024 — Stepwise AS, a leading emissions management platform that empowers companies within the energy sector to reduce their carbon footprint, announces the successful completion of a NOK 35 million capital raise. The funding enables accelerated growth plans and enhanced product offerings, on the path to becoming a market leader in emissions reduction for the energy sector.
 
“We founded Stepwise in 2021 with a clear vision of delivering a unified platform for sustainable emissions reduction and monitoring across operations and management, and we are now collaborating with some of the largest global energy companies,” says Matthew Johan, Co-founder and Executive Director of Stepwise. “This successful capital raise marks a significant milestone for us, underscoring our strong market potential and innovative business model.”
 
Stepwise is built by a global team of subject matter experts, with extensive experience working within the maritime and offshore energy domains for industry leaders including Aker BP, SLB and Equinor. The Stepwise team maintains local presence in Norway, the UK, US and UAE.
 
Strategic growth into offshore production
Stepwise is currently active with a solution for offshore well construction and pursues strategic expansion across the energy value chain, with a focus on growth into offshore production together with existing clients. Simultaneously, the company is actively positioning for future deployment of its solutions across the energy sector.
 
“We see a large growing potential for future expansion across offshore wind, fixed platforms, production (FPSOs), and land-based drilling. The potential is not limited to emission management on an asset level but extends to the whole enterprise,” Matthew Johan adds.
 
Sustainability is more than metrics
The energy sector faces increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions while maintaining efficiency and profitability. Energy companies must accurately monitor and manage emissions across their portfolios, complying with stringent sustainability regulations, such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. It was adopted in May this year, imposing significant penalties for non-compliance.
 
Stepwise addresses these challenges by combining expertise in operational performance, power consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions with a sophisticated SaaS-platform, and value-added services. The platform offers real-time monitoring and seamlessly integrates with existing digital tools, allowing for precise tracking of emissions linked to specific operations.
 
The solution provides clear insights into carbon intensity and operational efficiency, supporting detailed planning and execution of emission reduction initiatives. This enables energy companies to prioritize the most cost-effective carbon abatement solutions as part of a continuous improvement approach.
 
Strong support
Since its inception, Stepwise has demonstrated rapid growth and innovation, supported by strong collaborations and dedicated investors. The proceeds from the capital raise is enabling continued development to meet the evolving needs of both existing and new customers. Specifically, the funding will fuel its ongoing expansion into the offshore production segment. The NOK 35 million raised consists of new equity, a convertible loan, and a credit line with a major Nordic bank.
 
“We believe Stepwise is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the opportunities ahead. The Stepwise team has demonstrated a capacity for innovation in developing a management tool that enables industries to substantially impact environmental sustainability on the road to Net Zero”, said Birgitte Angelil, Director of Stepwise and Partner at Eltek Holding. “Their proven track record and a clear strategic vision make them a compelling investment. We are excited to be part of their journey and look forward to their continued success.”
 
About Stepwise AS
Stepwise is a leading emissions management platform meticulously crafted to empower companies within the energy sector to reduce their carbon footprint. Instrumental in moving the energy sector faster towards Net Zero, it provides real-time monitoring, comprehensive tracking of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and seamless integration with existing digital ecosystems. The correlation of emissions and well data enables monitoring of the carbon intensity per meter drilled across D&W operations. Other key features include digitalization, record-keeping, data analysis, algorithms, assets, and wells performance comparisons, enabling substantiated well and field development planning and auditing. As a pioneering SaaS platform, Stepwise turns data into sustainable action. Its experienced team’s aptitude to continuously identify, implement, and measure emission reduction initiatives (ERIs) enables companies to reduce fleet-wide emissions, ensure regulatory compliance, and consistently deliver against set corporate goals.
 
Contact Information:
For further information, please contact:

Matthew Johan
Executive Director
Stepwise AS
+1 646 467 2606
[email protected] 
www.stepwise.no

Note to Editors:

Stepwise is a leading emission management platform for the global energy sector. For more information about Stepwise and its offerings, please visit www.stepwise.no

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/stepwise-as/r/stepwise-secures-nok-35-million-in-capital-raise-to-fuel-expansion,c4002276

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SAN DIEGO, June 17, 2024 — Primrose Bio, Inc. (“Primrose,” the “Company”), a company focused on developing and licensing its manufacturing technologies for nucleic acids and proteins used in therapeutics and vaccines, announced a significant equity investment from 1315 Capital, a Philadelphia-based, healthcare-focused growth equity firm.

These funds will enable the continued development and commercial expansion of its three major offerings:

• Prima RNApols™: proprietary RNA polymerase enzymes that significantly improve mRNA manufacturing by improving yields up to 5x, eliminating double-stranded RNA, and enhancing cap incorporation compared to the currently used T7 RNA polymerase standard.
• Pfenex Expression Technology^®: a validated microbial expression system used in five approved drugs which consistently shows 10-20x higher yields over E.coli, CHO, and yeast-based systems as well as an unparalleled success rate in complex proteins.
• PeliCRM^®: the only commercially available CRM197 conjugate vaccine carrier protein used in approved products.

“We are thrilled to have the support of such a high-quality organization and team at 1315 Capital who share our vision of expanding opportunities in biomanufacturing technologies for the pharmaceutical industry,” said Dr. Helge Zieler, CEO of Primrose. “With this investment, we are well-positioned to advance our therapeutic protein and nucleic acid manufacturing solutions with our existing large-pharma collaborators and future partners.”

“There has been a tremendous amount of innovation in therapeutics over the last decades, and relatively little in their production systems. Primrose’s validated technology platforms address an increasingly important challenge facing the industry as drugs get more complex, and pricing pressure continues to mount,” said Matt Reber, Partner at 1315 Capital. “We are excited to partner with Primrose as they continue to expand their commercial reach with their suite of proprietary technologies.”

About Primrose Bio, Inc.
Primrose Bio was formed in 2023 through the merger of Primordial Genetics, Inc. and Pfenex to create an integrated end-to-end technology platform for solving complex drug manufacturing and design challenges. Primrose major offerings include Prima RNApols: improved enzymes for mRNA manufacturing, Pfenex Expression Technology: a validated production system with up to 20x higher yields over other systems and an unparalleled success rate in making complex proteins, and PeliCRM197: the only commercially available CRM197 conjugate vaccine carrier protein used in approved products. Several of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies use Primrose Bio’s technology, including Merck, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Alvogen, Serum Institute of India, Arcellx, Arcturus and others. For more information, please visit www.primrosebio.com.

About 1315 Capital
1315 Capital is a private investment firm with over $1 billion of assets under management that provides growth capital to commercial-stage healthcare services, pharmaceutical & medical technology outsourcing, medical technology, and health & wellness companies. 1315 Capital targets both minority and majority investments in companies where high-quality management teams can rapidly scale platform companies into large and important businesses that positively impact patients, physicians, and the broader healthcare system. For more information, please visit www.1315capital.com.

SOURCE Primrose Bio

Round brings Finaloop’s total funding to $55 million as it revolutionizes the way e-commerce and retail brands handle their finances

NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, June 17, 2024 — Today, Finaloop, the real-time e-commerce accounting platform, announced it has raised a $35 million Series A round. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round with participation from Vesey Ventures, Commerce Ventures, and existing investors, Accel and Aleph. The latest funding round, which brings Finaloop’s total funding to $55 million, will be used to further invest in its AI-driven e-commerce accounting software automation, its inventory management capabilities, as well as to expand its go-to-market and partnership efforts with accounting firms and data-driven marketing agencies.

Launched in 2020 with offices in New York and Tel Aviv, Finaloop is revolutionizing the way e-commerce and retail brands handle their finances by offering an automated accounting and bookkeeping service that moves at the speed and scale of their online business.

Finaloop makes all financial data accessible to e-commerce stakeholders, driving better, more profitable business decisions — from periodic accounting to real-time finance metrics. Finaloop is the first real-time, AI-driven accounting service tailored for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands selling on Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, and many other online stores and marketplaces, as well as wholesale and multi-channel businesses.

The financing round comes following Finaloop’s success in demonstrating that the e-commerce market is craving a better solution to run its financial operations. In the last 12 months, Finaloop grew its customer base by 400%, now working with thousands of brands and managing over $13 billion in GMV on their platform.

At the heart of Finaloop’s automation capabilities sits Rico^ⓒ, the first AI-driven reconciliation engine. Out of more than 70 million transactions, Finaloop has successfully automated the categorization and reconciliation of over 94% of those transactions.

“The entire e-commerce industry is built on an advanced technological stack with players like Shopify, Amazon, Gusto, Stripe, and others but the accounting and bookkeeping solutions used by these companies were lightyears behind every other tool in their toolkit,” said Lioran Pinchevski, CEO and founder of Finaloop. “E-commerce operators were left with outdated and in many cases erroneous books using archaic software like Quickbooks, Xero, and Netsuite which were created more than two decades ago and that simply could not keep up with the pace of their unique business. I experienced it myself when I founded my own DTC brand. The result was inventory mismanagement, incorrect pricing decisions, and unreliable financial reporting.”

“We’re excited to be joining forces with Lightspeed who share our vision of becoming the financial source of truth for all retail brands. We’re seeing a tectonic shift in the e-commerce market from growth at all costs to profit-driven and financial management. By providing real-time, financial visibility, Finaloop helps brand founders develop their financial IQ and propels them to become not just great marketers, but also great overall operators.”

Used by some of the most well-known DTC brands in the space like Heart & Soil, Duradry, Crossnet, Netrition, and Marcella NYC, Finaloop helps e-commerce founders, operators, and forward-thinking bookkeepers and accountants make smarter, data-driven decisions by removing the financial blind spots. The result is faster growth, better cash flow management, and more accurate COGS and inventory planning. Jack Benzaquen, CEO of Duradry and one of Finaloop’s earliest customers, swears by Finaloop: “The magic of Finaloop is that they simplify the financial process and finally give me trust in my numbers. Having this visibility is key and it never existed before.”

“Finaloop is shaking up an industry that hasn’t seen material change in over 30 years. They are at the forefront of reshaping accounting and bookkeeping for e-commerce by solving their biggest pain points,” said Tal Morgenstern, Partner at Lightspeed. “We’re excited to support the Finaloop team with their goal of providing e-commerce companies real-time financials, giving them an invaluable edge over their competitors.”

About Lightspeed
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Affirm, Carta, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Faire, Forty Seven, Guardant Health, Mulesoft, Navan, Netskope, Nutanix, Rubrik, Sharechat, Snap, Udaan, Ultima Genomics and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $25B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. www.lsvp.com

About Finaloop
Finaloop is an AI-driven, automated e-commerce accounting platform providing bookkeeping and accounting services that fully reconcile all the financial data in real-time, supplying consumer brands with flawless books, tax-ready financials, inventory costs management, and actionable insights 24/7 with complete accuracy. Combining deep accounting domain expertise built into software, and utilizing AI supervised by accounting and e-commerce experts, Finaloop provides the financial data brands need to stop wasting time and money, make smarter decisions, and focus on growing their profits.

For additional company information, please visit https://www.finaloop.com

SOURCE Finaloop

New Office Will Be Led by Japanese Venture Finance Leader, Makio Inui

MALIBU, Calif., June 17, 2024 — Soul Ventures, a leading venture capital firm focused on disrupting our daily lives and building a better future, today announced a significant milestone with the establishment of Soul Ventures Japan, marking the firm’s expansion into the Japanese market. Through Soul Ventures Japan, the firm will be able to further the reach of its global network, invest in leading Japanese companies and offer more opportunities to its prominent portfolio companies like Anthropic, Cohere, SpaceX, Neuralink, and Reddit.

“Japan presents a vibrant landscape brimming with exciting opportunities for investment,” said Warren Hui, founding partner at Soul Ventures. “By opening an office here, we are signifying our commitment to investing in Japan’s tech landscape and helping unlock the region’s remarkable growth potential.”

Leading the charge of Soul Ventures Japan is Makio Inui, a seasoned venture capital and finance expert boasting over 30 years of experience navigating the dynamic landscapes of Tokyo. Inui brings a robust background as an equity analyst and investment banker, particularly in the TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecommunications) sectors. His expertise is widely recognized, with a remarkable 16 appearances on the Institutional Investor rankings. Inui’s pivotal roles in major transactions such as the NTT privatization and the NTT DoCoMo IPO highlight his deep market insights and strategic prowess.

“I’ve long been impressed by what the Soul Ventures team has been able to accomplish around the US and Asia, including notable investments this year into the leading AI companies,” said Makio Inui.” “With Soul Ventures Japan, we will facilitate the flow of global innovation into Japan and conversely, introduce Japanese advancements to the world stage. I’m very excited to be joining the Soul Ventures team, which is now uniquely positioned to unlock the full potential of the Japanese market.”

About Soul Ventures
Founded in 2021, Soul Ventures has established itself as a visionary in the venture capital landscape, focusing on early to growth-stage investments in sectors poised for transformative change. With a keen eye for disruptive technologies and a commitment to nurturing innovation, Soul Ventures has become a leading name in the investment community. Soul Ventures aims to partner with the most disruptive technology companies and invest from Series C all the way to pre-IPO. For more information visit www.soulvc.com.

SOURCE Soul Ventures

PRINCETON, N.J., June 17, 2024 — Princeton NuEnergy (PNE), a leader in lithium-ion battery direct recycling furthering America’s circular economy, today closed a Series A funding round with a strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Samsung’s corporate venture arm, investing in breakthrough technologies across industries and from Helium-3 Ventures. Investor demand for this 50% oversubscribed round brought PNE’s Series A total to $30 million. Samsung Venture and Helium-3 join the round’s previous investors, including Honda Motor Co. Ltd., LKQ Corporation, SCG Group, Traxys Group, and Wistron Corporation.

The funds will support construction of PNE’s first standalone, full-scale direct battery recycling advanced manufacturing facility, which will be announced later this month. In total, the company has raised over $55 million, including multiple U.S. Department of Energy grants totaling $18 million and a $7.9 million seed & angel round.

Commercializing technology initially developed at Princeton University, PNE’s flagship innovation will be instrumental in driving America’s circular economy for battery recycling, one where materials stay in-country, from consumption through reuse, to recycling and remanufacturing.

PNE is commercializing a lithium-ion battery recycling process that is significantly faster and less costly than traditional recycling while dramatically reducing environmental waste and carbon emissions by 70%. Unlike traditional battery-recycling processes which use significantly greater amounts of power, water and often generate difficult to manage toxic byproducts, PNE’s patented low-temperature, plasma-assisted separation process (LPAS™) recovers up to 95% of materials found in all lithium-ion battery chemistries, reduces 70% energy consumption and lowers the cost over 40%.

“The incredible interest in our Series A round, capped off by a strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Helium-3 Ventures, speaks to the importance of supporting a circular economy for lithium battery manufacturing here in the U.S.,” said Dr. Chao Yan, PNE’s Co-Founder and CEO. “This funding enables us to implement and demonstrate our capabilities at commercial scale, helping America meet the growing demand for high-performance batteries while also creating high-quality clean energy jobs.”

About Princeton NuEnergy 
Princeton NuEnergy (PNE) is an advanced manufacturing leader in lithium-ion battery direct recycling, furthering America’s circular battery economy. Founded out of Princeton University and named to Time Magazine’s “America’s Top Greentech Companies 2024”, PNE is revolutionizing the critical materials supply chain with its patented direct recycling technology for lithium-ion batteries. PNE’s patented low-temperature plasma-assisted separation process (LPAS™) produces battery-grade cathode and anode materials suitable for direct reintroduction into cell manufacturing at half the cost and a much lower environmental footprint than conventional methods. The company has received over $55 million in grants, strategic and venture funding including investments from Honda Motor Co. Ltd., LKQ Corporation, Samsung Venture, Shell Venture, Traxys Group, Wistron Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Energy. For more information, visit www.pnecycle.com.

For more information:
Inkhouse for Princeton NuEnergy
[email protected]

SOURCE Princeton NuEnergy

SAN FRANCISCO and TOKYO, June 17, 2024 — Autify, an AI platform for quality engineering, today announced that it has completed a Series B funding round of $13 million and released a beta version of Zenes, an autonomous AI agent for software quality assurance.

Leading the round are Globis Capital Partners, a leading venture capital fund based in Tokyo, Japan, and LG Technology Ventures, the Silicon Valley-based venture capital arm of LG Group, which focuses on AI, enterprise software, and energy transformation. Autify, leveraging the recent round of funding plans to expand into the Korean market and strengthen its collaboration with LG CNS, making Korea a key market of focus alongside existing core markets such as the US and Japan.

Existing investors WiL (World Innovation Lab), Salesforce Ventures, Archetype Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures also participated in the round.

Please refer here for more details on this funding round.

Autify is a platform that supercharges developer and QA teams and optimizes the software quality engineering process. The company aims to enhance people’s creativity through AI and technology. Since its inception in 2016, the company has gained a number of global enterprise customers in the B2C and B2B verticals, including DeNA, NEC, NTT Smart Communication, Yahoo, ZOZO, and Q4.

With this recent round of funding, Autify plans to expand its capabilities to support code-based test automation and build a comprehensive Generative AI-powered quality engineering platform featuring its newest product, Zenes.

Supercharging Quality Engineering with Zenes

Zenes is an autonomous AI agent for software quality assurance — in effect, an AI QA engineer working for you. It generates test cases by analyzing product requirement documents, writes automated test codes, and maintains the test codes automatically.

Autify has applied Zenes to its own QA process, successfully reducing the time spent creating test cases by 55%.

How it works:

After users upload their product requirement document in any file format (.html, .pdf, .docx, .md, etc.), Zenes will generate a group of outlined test cases covering the product specs. Users can then edit these test cases to increase the accuracy of subsequent steps.

After any edits have been made Zenes then generates automated test codes, e.g. the test case steps in Gherkin format. Users can use generative AI-powered code completion within the product to edit this Gherkin output.

Please check out the full demo here.
https://youtu.be/NtFzWvVUrr8

“AI is poised to drastically improve productivity in the software development process,” said Ryo Chikazawa, Autify’s co-founder & CEO. “We believe that AI is not here to replace humans. It’s here to enhance human capability so that we can be more creative. The software development process and its quality assurance will be redefined with Generative AI, and we are thrilled to redesign this process with our AI-powered product suite.”

Users can take a closer look at Zenes and join the waitlist for access here:
https://zenes.ai/

About Autify

With a mission to enhance people’s creativity through technology, Autify, Inc. has developed an AI-powered quality engineering platform. Since its launch, Autify has been implemented by many global organizations whose development teams use Autify to automate their software testing. Test automation often presents several challenges, such as a lack of resources or the time required to create test cases, maintain end-to-end (E2E) test code, and debug tests. Autify’s product suite addresses these issues utilizing generative AI. Learn more at https://autify.com/

SOURCE Autify Inc.

CHICAGO, June 17, 2024 — Nurse Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in nurse-led enterprises providing innovative solutions in healthcare, announced today the close of its inaugural $1M Fund. The Nurse Founders Fund will invest in Late Seed and Series A rounds of startups founded and led by Registered Nurses (RNs) who are launching innovative products and services that improve patient health and wellness, safety and treatment approaches.

“With all the money being raised for healthcare ventures, bright, talented nurses with great business ideas still struggle to get the resources they need to launch their businesses,” said Marla J. Weston, PhD, RN who with partner Beth A. Brooks, PhD, RN co-founded Nurse Capital in 2022 to “disrupt the nursing care ecosystem, impact healthcare delivery, and empower nurse entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into reality.”

The Nurse Founders Fund will make investments in startups that are producing promising new healthcare devices and equipment; technology platforms that improve the management of patient treatment programs and protocols; enterprise software solutions; patient education; and health and well-being products and services.

Weston and Brooks, both of whom hold doctorates in nursing science, have more than 50 years of combined experience in executive leadership roles in healthcare administration, academia, and business consulting and executive coaching. Most recently, Brooks spent nearly six years as President of Resurrection University, a health sciences and nursing university in Chicago before launching her own strategic business consultancy for health-tech startups. Weston served for nine years as Chief Executive Officer of the American Nurses Association and then opened her own consulting practice to serve as a strategic advisor to numerous healthcare startups, government agencies and non-profit associations.

The partners launched Nurse Capital to fill a funding gap they witnessed for startups founded and led by nurses.

“We see more nurse founders bootstrapping, crowdsourcing and winning pitch contests, yet when their idea is mature enough and ready for Late Seed and Series A funding, there’s no one in that space,” noted Nurse Capital Co-founder Brooks. That’s where the Nurse Founders Fund will focus its investments.

“We’re also breaking down stereotypes about nurses,” Brooks added, “that nurses don’t have the skills to innovate and run a business, and they lack the financial wherewithal to be investors.”

Both assumptions are outdated, the partners insist. “Nurses have a frontline view of where the healthcare system is working or not working for patients, at the bedside,” said Brooks. “The very work of professional nursing is outlining the issues and potential solutions. So who better than nurses to bring new solutions to the market?”

As for the ability of nurses to raise a successful venture fund, Weston and Brooks have assembled a carefully curated group of limited partners, all of whom are RNs with extensive senior executive leadership and operator experience in hospital staffing, patient care, safety and quality, and legal and finance operations.

“Our Fund offers both the financial resources and the expertise of our team of investors to support these entrepreneurs with professional guidance and introductions to market leaders, potential customers and other investors,” said Weston.

Nurse Capital will invest strictly in businesses where the top leader (Founder/CEO) must be an RN. The Fund does not have a specific gender focus though 90% of all nurses are women, the partners note. Considering that female-only led startups receive less than 2% of venture capital investments—a figure that has not budged for years—Weston and Brooks have joined a growing ecosystem of women-led venture capital funds that are accelerating more VC investments in scalable, tech-empowered startups founded and led by women and underrepresented founders.

“Our Fund exemplifies nurses’ having what it takes to be successful, on both sides of the table,” said Brooks. “We have the money to invest and we have the know-how to run businesses.”

About Nurse Capital

Nurse Capital is a women-founded and managed venture capital fund based in Chicago that makes early-stage investments in nurse entrepreneurs leading high-growth-potential businesses that are transforming the future of healthcare. Learn more at https://nursecapital.net/.

To submit a pitch deck, contact Nurse Capital at https://nursecapital.net/contact/

SOURCE Nurse Capital

New capital will fuel further product innovation and international expansion — helping ecommerce companies transform product discovery with AI

SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2024 — Constructor, the leading AI-powered product discovery and search platform for enterprise ecommerce companies, today announced that it has closed a $25 million Series B round, bringing the company’s valuation to $550 million. This marks a nearly triple valuation since its 2021 Series A and brings total funds raised to date to more than $85 million. Sapphire Ventures led the round with participation from existing investor Silversmith Capital Partners. With this new capital, Constructor will continue to accelerate product development and innovation — applying the cutting-edge clickstream-based AI it pioneered to further improve ecommerce product discovery — and continue its rapid international expansion.

The oversubscribed Series B round came at a time when Constructor was not actively fundraising. The fresh funds also cap off record-setting growth and momentum for the company – with proof points of recent success, including:

• Doubled revenue for the third year in a row.
• Powered more than 100 billion shopper interactions over the past six months, enabling some of the world’s biggest businesses to drive hundreds of millions of personalized experiences every day.
• Increased headcount by 45% over the past year.
• Increased overall customer base by 50% over the past year. Leading ecommerce companies and household names — including Under Armour, Petco, Sephora, Birkenstock, Target Australia and many more — use Constructor’s AI to improve how buyers search for and discover the best items for them.
• Maintained an average 98.5% client retention rate over the last three years, by far the highest in the industry.
• Unveiled AI Shopping Assistant (ASA), an award-winning conversational product discovery tool blending generative AI with Constructor’s personalization technology.
• Expanded internationally — particularly across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), where it has tripled revenue since 2022 and increased customer-facing headcount by 133% since the beginning of this year.

“In today’s competitive ecommerce environment, having a powerful AI search solution that can best capture shopper intent is crucial to driving topline revenues — yet until now, existing tech has remained rudimentary,” said Rajeev Dham, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, who will be joining as a Board Director. “With more than a decade of experience in the field, Eli and the team at Constructor have developed a state-of-the-art, AI ecommerce search engine that has delivered best-in-class ROI for many household enterprise brands. We are incredibly excited to partner with the team as they set a new standard in powering a hyper-personalized shopper experience.”

Eli Finkelshteyn, CEO and Co-founder of Constructor, said: “We’re very proud of this fundraise, but it’s important for us to remember that it’s only a symptom of doing good work for our customers. If we don’t use this to do better for them, then we’re missing the point. We started Constructor off with what, at the time, seemed like a crazy idea to most of our industry: that learning shoppers’ preferences via AI can give them a far better search and product discovery experience than simply matching on the keywords they type. We believe putting AI at the core of our system from the beginning has played a large role in the successes we’ve been able to bring our customers — but also believe there’s always room to serve them better, and that’s the main thing we want to use this investment for. Our success will always be a symptom and function of theirs. And through our partnerships with Sapphire Ventures and Silversmith Capital Partners, we’re extremely excited to build out more ecommerce functionality and expand to additional geographies — driving more value for our customers around the world.”

Constructor is well-positioned to continue its relentless pace of product innovation, helping customers apply multiple types of AI — including advanced algorithms, machine learning, large language models, transformers, natural language processing, generative AI and more — to improve product discovery while optimizing for ecommerce metrics that matter. Even as many retailers are tightening their belts under current economic conditions, there has been strong and escalating demand for Constructor’s platform, with companies doubling down on their investments to improve the customer experience. Customers report results including: 16.5% increase in average order value, 247% increase in revenue per visit, 13% increase in search conversions, 92% increase in recommendations conversions, a $40 million increase in revenue, greater than 20x ROI and more.

Leading pet health and wellness retailer Petco recently turned to Constructor to power and personalize search results, browse experiences, product recommendations and landing pages across its website and mobile app — driving a 13% increase in ecommerce conversions and 4% increase in site-wide revenue.

“The thing we liked about Constructor was that not only was it real AI, specifically made for our industry, but that their AI is incredibly transparent,” said Tony Gabriele, Vice President of Digital Strategy, Petco. “None of it is black box – so we don’t have to guess what it’s doing or why – and when we have questions, the Constructor team is always happy to talk us through it. We evaluated every vendor on the market, and Constructor was just different. The system is easy to use, the team is motivated and delightful to work with, and most importantly, it paid for itself plus the cost of switching in less than a year after we implemented it.”

According to a Forrester blog, “Improving product discovery is one of the most effective ways to have a meaningful, positive impact on digital metrics, with a clearly attributable return and relatively low investment (in terms of cost for tech and time to value).” Constructor’s technology and vision play a key role in this, and Constructor was recently ranked highest in the strategy category in “The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Search And Product Discovery, Q3 2023.”

“AI-first companies like Constructor are leading a shift in software away from simply offering workflow management, towards delivering business results,” said Silversmith General Partner, Sri Rao. “We are encouraged by the company’s ability to maintain its dedication to innovation and customer success while navigating rapid growth since our initial investment, and are excited to both expand our commitment as well as welcome Sapphire Ventures as Constructor enters the next phase of growth.”

About Constructor
Constructor is the only search and product discovery platform tailor-made for enterprise ecommerce where conversions matter. Constructor’s AI-first solutions make it easier for shoppers to discover products they want to buy and for ecommerce teams to deliver personalized experiences in real time that drive impressive results. Optimizing specifically for ecommerce metrics like revenue, conversion rate and profit, Constructor generates consistent $10M+ lifts for some of the biggest brands in ecommerce, such as Sephora, Petco, Birkenstock, The Very Group, home24, Grove Collaborative and Fisheries Supply. Constructor is a U.S.-based company that was founded in 2015 by Eli Finkelshteyn and Dan McCormick. For more, visit: constructor.com

About Sapphire Ventures
Sapphire is a global software venture capital firm with more than $10 billion in AUM and team members across Austin, London, Menlo Park and San Francisco. For over a decade, Sapphire has partnered with visionary management teams and venture funds to back companies of consequence. Since its founding, Sapphire has invested in more than 170 companies globally resulting in more than 30 Public Listings and 45 acquisitions. The firm’s investment strategies — Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners and Sapphire Sport — are focused on scaling companies and venture funds, elevating them to become category leaders. Sapphire’s Portfolio Growth team of experienced operators delivers a strategic blend of value-add services, tools and resources designed to support portfolio company leaders as they scale.

About Silversmith Capital Partners
Founded in 2015, Silversmith Capital Partners is a Boston-based growth equity firm with $3.3 billion of capital under management. Silversmith’s mission is to partner with and support the best entrepreneurs in growing, profitable technology and healthcare companies. Representative investments include ActiveCampaign, Appfire, Apryse, DistroKid, impact.com, Iodine Software, LifeStance Health, Onbe, and Webflow. For more information, including a full list of portfolio investments, visit www.silversmith.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Constructor