• Using type 1 hypervisor technology, Edera offers isolation at the container level, changing the way containers run and making container escapes impossible once and for all
• Companies both large and small can plug Edera in seamlessly and are poised to save millions in cloud costs
• From an all-female founding team to a diverse group of investors and a surprising set of technologies, Edera is anything but the status quo

SEATTLE, Sept. 18, 2024 — Edera, the world’s only secure-by-design Kubernetes and AI solution, today announced it has raised $5 million in a seed round led by 645 Ventures and Eniac Ventures with participation from FPV Ventures, Generationship, Precursor Ventures and Rosecliff Ventures. Angel investors include Joe Beda, Filippo Valsorda, Mandy Andress, Jeff Behl and Kleiner Perkins scout Nikitha Suryadevara, among others.

While Kubernetes turned 10 years-old earlier this year, running secure multi-tenancy workloads remains an unsolved problem that’s costing companies millions of dollars. Edera is introducing a diverse set of technologies with a diverse team of experts to solve what has been the decade’s defining enterprise security challenge.

Edera uses a type 1 hypervisor to offer isolation at the container level for the first time, enabling companies to realize the original promise of Kubernetes and to move quickly to run GPUs for emerging AI workloads. Instead of running containers in Linux namespaces, Edera’s platform treats a container like a virtual machine guest. There is no shared kernel state between containers, and a memory-safe Rust control plane further secures workloads. Edera can be used anywhere users run their containers (public cloud, private cloud and on-premise) and doesn’t require virtualization extensions or custom infrastructure. It’s simple, delivers peace of mind and saves companies millions in cloud costs. 

“Real innovation is rare. It’s more than a new application or gadget. Real innovation is born inside the brains of amazing humans who see a better way to do things, who crack the code and solve the puzzle,” said Hadley Harris, cofounder and general partner at Eniac Ventures. “That’s what is happening at Edera. They’ve assessed hypervisor technologies and new memory-safe principles and the Rust programming language to actually solve one of the biggest security challenges of this era. We couldn’t be more excited to support this work.”

While most enterprises today are using Kubernetes in production, nearly 70 percent have delayed deployments due to security concerns. Nearly 90 percent of those companies have reported at least one Kubernetes or container incident in the last 12 months and half have lost revenue and customers due to security incidents.

The evolution of the cloud and Kubernetes has resulted in security regressions that the industry has accepted as the norm. But as container adoption continues to grow, tools continue to sprawl and security incidents skyrocket, the wasted engineering time and tremendous cloud expense has become untenable.

“While companies have struggled for a decade to secure their Kubernetes workloads using a patchwork of tools and procedures that have never really worked, the answer has been sitting in front of us all along,” said Alex Zenla, CTO and co-founder at Edera. “Our product is built on proven technologies and introduces a memory-safe Rust control plane to radically change the Kubernetes security landscape. We’re incredibly excited to share what we’ve been able to build with our customers and the industry at large.”

Innovative vision will transform enterprise security and save millions of dollars industry-wide

Kubernetes security solutions today focus on detection after an attack occurs. Customers are layering tool upon tool, creating complexity on top of complexity with no real assurances in place. Edera runs containers securely from the start, eliminating the need for expensive, largely ineffective tools, and its paravirtualization mode removes the need for hardware virtualization support meaning you can run secure containers anywhere.

Edera is introducing the world’s only secure-by-design Kubernetes and AI solution to help security engineers eliminate vulnerability exploitation across clusters even before a vulnerability is reported and can become incidents that show up on a dashboard and to help CISOs gain the confidence that their organization won’t be the next one hit by attackers and splashed across social media. And by isolating critical infrastructure from container escapes, customers can finally be confident running real multi-tenancy environments, saving tens of millions of dollars in cloud costs.

“The original design goals for Kubernetes were for ‘soft’ multi-tenancy where there was a level of trust between users of a cluster. But as Kubernetes has found its way into more domains, the need for stronger security protections has become apparent,” said Joe Beda, angel investor in Edera and co-creator of Kubernetes. “Edera fills this gap by using virtualization to both reduce risks and, ultimately, reduce costs. It allows Kubernetes to go places it has never gone before!”

From an all-female founding team to a diverse group of investors and a surprising set of technologies, Edera is anything but the status quo.

Edera is founded by three female-identifying individuals:

• Ariadne Conill, co-founder & Distinguished Engineer, creator of Wolfi and maintainer for Alpine Linux
• Emily Long, co-founder and CEO, former COO at Chainguard and Anchore, among others
• Alex Zenla, co-founder and CTO, an early contributor to the Dart programming language at 13 years-old and founder of the DSA IoT platform at 14

Emily Long comes from an operations and culture background, bringing to the position of CEO a people-centric view that is often lacking in early-stage startups. Eniac Ventures came in as a lead investor, in part, because of this background. Skills like recruitment, setting culture and conflict resolution are incredibly powerful in the earliest stages of a company and are not often skills that can be taught. This is in direct contrast to traditional VC-funded startups in which the CEO is usually a technologist that is believed can be “trained up” on people and leadership skills. History tells us that hardly ever works.

“We want to build something different at Edera, not just in the technology we deliver but in the way we build and deliver it. That means creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and contribute to our mission in a very direct way,” said Emily Long, CEO and co-founder at Edera. “We know diverse teams deliver better outcomes, and we’re here to represent that however many times it takes.”

With women, people of color and LGBTQIA+ among their founders and principals, 645 Ventures and Eniac Ventures round out Edera’s intentional focus on building a team that values diversity of thought, lived experience and technology backgrounds. The $5 million seed round will be used to build out the Edera team while supporting new customers and partnerships.

“What’s most exciting about Edera is the power of the technology itself. It can not only solve immediate, long-standing pain points like container escapes but can also be a game changer in the increasingly complex and changing world of securing and managing AI workloads,” said Mendy Yang, senior associate at 645 Ventures. “We are so excited to work with the team to build something truly revolutionary.”

Edera Protect Kubernetes is available to try now. Edera Protect AI is in development and accepting design partners. Edera also hosts Krata, a set of open source components written in Rust for secure hypervisor technologies. For more information, please visit: https://edera.dev/

About Edera  
Edera is changing the way containers are run and secured, making isolation a reality and fundamentally transforming computing in the process. It is an enterprise infrastructure company that delivers container isolation for the first time by using a type 1 hypervisor and a memory-safe Rust control plane. It enables security engineers to achieve multi-tenancy Kubernetes and AI workload security in a way that is secure from the start, simple and cost-effective. Edera is female founded and places the same value on soft and hard skills to create a balanced and innovative company and considers diversity of experience and thought a non-negotiable. For more information, please visit: https://edera.dev/

Media Contact for Edera
Jennifer Cloer
503-867-2304
[email protected]

SOURCE Edera

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Era brings a unique investment thesis to bear with the largest woman-led first-time fund.

NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2024 — Era Ventures, a pioneering venture capital firm focused on investing in a broad range of business model innovations to catalyze positive change in the built world, today announced the launch of its inaugural $88 million fund. Era Ventures will deploy capital across multiple stages and a full spectrum of sector-focused innovations, from enablement technologies that improve existing processes to truly disruptive platforms that reshape the industry. The firm has identified seven core business models driving change, including but not limited to SaaS and AI, marketplaces, embedded fintech, and hardtech ventures leveraging new technologies to optimize physical assets, and will actively invest across all of these categories.

Founded by industry veteran Clelia Warburg Peters, Era Ventures has already garnered support from a broad roster of leading institutional investors, including one of the country’s leading Ivy League Endowments, ICG Advisors, New York Presbyterian Hospital, The Ashforth Company, BentallGreenOak (BGO), Continental General Insurance Company (CGIC), Pelwood Holdings, First American, Bain Capital Ventures, Fenwick & West LLP and others. It marks a notable achievement during a year when very few new venture funds of this size were raised.

“We are proud to have invested in and to support Era Ventures in its mission to drive transformational change in the real estate sector,” said Jeff Assaf, Chief Investment Officer at ICG Advisors, one of the leading multifamily offices in the country. “We’ve seen specialist venture funds consistently outperform in similarly complex sectors like financial services and healthcare, and Era’s approach positions it to drive fundamental disruption in a massive, yet technologically lagging, industry.”

Peters has been a leading investor in the PropTech space since its early days — first as a co-founder of MetaProp, one of the original, strategically backed PropTech funds, and then as a Venture Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, a leading generalist venture firm. She is an authority on innovation in the real estate category and is the first woman to raise an initial fund of this size in the category.

“I’ve seen firsthand the need for a new approach to physical world innovation that combines the creativity and quality of the generalist investing approach with the sector knowledge and relationships brought by specialist funds,” said Clelia Warburg Peters, founder and Managing Partner at Era Ventures. “Era Ventures is leveraging our unique blend of institutional backing, top-tier venture experience, and deep real estate expertise to bring both rigor and care to driving transformational change in the physical world.”

The fund’s launch comes at a critical juncture for the nearly $380 trillion global real estate industry, which has long resisted technological disruption. With productivity in construction rising just around 1% annually over recent decades and buildings consuming 30% of global energy, the need for innovation has never been more urgent.

“Era is not about playing it safe — we’re not just looking to digitize old processes in real estate and construction,” said Raja Ghawi, Partner at Era Ventures. “As innovation in our built world enters a new generation, we believe founders and startups will learn from their predecessors’ mistakes, bringing more transformational, efficient, and profitable businesses to market.”

Era Ventures is building a concentrated, high-conviction portfolio of transformative startups reimagining how we build, manage, and interact with our physical environment. Fund I has already backed founders across multiple stages:

Marketplaces and tech-enabled services:

• Honey Homes, a digital handyman subscription service provider.
• Latii, a cross-border construction-materials marketplace.
• Welcome Homes, a platform to manage and build custom homes online.
• Ostrich, a next-generation real estate listing service in the UK.

Fintech:

• Shepherd, an embedded insurance platform designed for the construction industry.
• Truehold, a single-family rental company that combines home sales and rental leases.
• Homeward, an embedded financial platform powering residential real estate transactions.

Hardtech:

• PassiveLogic, an AI-enabled platform for autonomous buildings.
• ViaBot, a Robotics-as-a-Service facility management platform.

Vertical AI and SaaS:

• Indigo, an AI-powered platform to facilitate residential real estate transactions.

“Clelia and Raja have a deep and considered viewpoint on what makes companies great. They use a qualitative and quantitative approach to understand their portfolio companies and apply that to provide helpful guidance and advice,” said Vishwas Prabhakara, the Founder and CEO of Honey Homes. “In particular, I’ve appreciated how they have helped Honey Homes better understand our target customers and informed our pricing strategy. Just as important, they have shown themselves to be a steady partner amidst the ups and downs of a startup journey.”

About Era Ventures:
Era Ventures is a venture capital firm dedicated to transforming the physical world through collaboration with companies that have the potential to disrupt outdated business models and create new systems. Founded by industry veteran Clelia Warburg Peters with a rare combination of expertise across real estate, technology, and venture capital, Era backs visionary entrepreneurs reimagining how we build, manage, and experience physical environments. The firm invests across stages, from seed to growth, in startups poised to revolutionize the $380 trillion global real estate industry. For more information about Era Ventures, visit www.eraventures.com.

SOURCE Era Ventures

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NUEVA YORK, 18 de septiembre de 2024 — FeedbackNow, líder mundial en análisis operativo para espacios físicos, ha anunciado hoy su ronda de Serie A. La ronda ha sido liderada por Motivate VC, Uncorrelated Ventures y AI Growth Capital Partners. El grupo compró la empresa a Forrester, el anterior propietario, como parte de la ronda. Steve Peltzman, antiguo ejecutivo de Forrester, será el consejero delegado de la empresa.

Además del nuevo capital, la empresa anuncia el lanzamiento de su nueva plataforma. Esta plataforma digital es capaz de ingerir datos de cientos de sensores que miden datos en tiempo real y el tráfico a través de ubicaciones físicas como estadios, aeropuertos, hospitales y tiendas de comestibles. Al normalizar los datos y crear cuadros de mando que correlacionan la actividad con la satisfacción del cliente y el gasto, la nueva plataforma de FeedbackNow ayuda a las empresas a optimizar los costes laborales, la experiencia del cliente y los ingresos. La plataforma proporciona alertas, análisis y predicciones de las mejores acciones para que las empresas puedan comprender y optimizar todo lo que ocurre en sus espacios.

Steve Peltzman, consejero delegado, explicó: “La mayoría de la gente conoce FeedbackNow por los botones de los baños de los aeropuertos y las colas de seguridad, pero, en los últimos dos años, nuestra expansión a tiendas de conveniencia y hospitales nos ha abierto los ojos ante la enorme oportunidad de optimizar la plataforma para todo tipo de datos y muchos nuevos casos de uso. La rapidez y sencillez con la que podemos integrar nuevos sensores y correlacionar resultados sobre una gran cantidad de tipos de datos es una ventaja competitiva y la razón por la que cientos de clientes han elegido FeedbackNow”.

La atención sanitaria ha sido el segmento de más rápido crecimiento para FeedbackNow, ya que los hospitales buscan optimizar la eficiencia laboral en medio de una creciente escasez de talento de enfermería. “Montefiore se dedica a proporcionar una atención excepcional, compasión y comodidad a cada paciente. Creemos que la experiencia del paciente es un componente crítico de la atención sanitaria de calidad. A través de nuestra innovadora asociación con FeedbackNow, hemos sido capaces de elevar las experiencias en una variedad de puntos de contacto de pacientes, visitantes y personal en tiempo real, incluyendo más de 1.200 camas de pacientes. Tenemos previsto explorar nuevas formas de utilizar esta tecnología para ofrecer una experiencia aún más excepcional”, comentó Tim Woodward, vicepresidente asociado de Servicios Medioambientales de Montefiore Health System.

“A medida que la IA se implanta en más áreas de la economía, creemos que los datos en tiempo real se van a convertir en un activo clave para que las empresas los integren en estos modelos, y FeedbackNow es el líder en datos en tiempo real para operaciones en espacios físicos”, destacó Rob May, socio de AI Growth Capital. “La empresa tiene una hoja de ruta innovadora que se alinea bien con hacia dónde creemos que se dirige la IA y encajaba a la perfección con algunas de nuestras tesis de inversión clave en torno a la IA, lo que nos impulsó a cerrar esta operación”.

FeedbackNow se centra actualmente en tres verticales clave: Sanidad, Tiendas de conveniencia y Viajes/Entretenimiento. La empresa cuenta con más de 250 clientes en 40 países. Para más información, póngase en contacto con [email protected].

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NEW YORK, 18. Sept. 2024 – FeedbackNow, der weltweit führende Anbieter von Betriebsanalysen für physische Räume, gab heute seine Serie A-Runde bekannt. Die Runde wurde von Motivate VC, Uncorrelated Ventures und AI Growth Capital Partners angeführt. Die Gruppe kaufte das Unternehmen im Rahmen der Runde von Forrester, dem vorherigen Eigentümer. Steve Peltzman, eine ehemalige Führungskraft von Forrester, wird als CEO des Unternehmens fungieren.

Neben dem neuen Kapital kündigt das Unternehmen auch die Einführung seiner neuen Plattform an. Diese digitale Plattform ist in der Lage, Daten von Hunderten von Sensoren zu erfassen, die Echtzeitdaten und den Verkehr an physischen Orten wie Stadien, Flughäfen, Krankenhäusern und Geschäften messen. Durch die Normalisierung der Daten und die Erstellung von Dashboards, die die Aktivitäten mit der Kundenzufriedenheit und den Ausgaben korrelieren, hilft die neue Plattform von FeedbackNow Unternehmen bei der Optimierung von Arbeitskosten, Kundenerfahrung und Umsatz. Die Plattform bietet Warnungen, Analysen und Vorhersagen für die besten Maßnahmen, damit Unternehmen alles, was in ihren Räumen geschieht, verstehen und optimieren können.

Steve Peltzman, CEO, merkte an, dass „die meisten Leute FeedbackNow für die Buttons in Flughafentoiletten und Sicherheitskontrollen kennen, aber in den letzten zwei Jahren hat unsere Expansion in Verbrauchermärkte und Krankenhäuser uns die Augen für die enormen Möglichkeiten zur Optimierung der Plattform für alle Arten von Daten und viele neue Anwendungsfälle geöffnet. Die Geschwindigkeit und Einfachheit, mit der wir neue Sensoren integrieren und Ergebnisse über eine Vielzahl von Datentypen korrelieren können, ist ein Wettbewerbsvorteil und der Grund, warum sich Hunderte von Kunden für FeedbackNow entschieden haben.”

Das Gesundheitswesen ist das am schnellsten wachsende Segment für FeedbackNow, da Krankenhäuser versuchen, die Arbeitseffizienz inmitten eines zunehmenden Mangels an Pflegekräften zu optimieren. „Montefiore ist bestrebt, jedem Patienten eine außergewöhnliche Pflege, Mitgefühl und Komfort zu bieten. Wir sind davon überzeugt, dass die Erfahrung der Patienten ein entscheidender Bestandteil einer hochwertigen Gesundheitsversorgung ist. Durch unsere innovative Partnerschaft mit FeedbackNow waren wir in der Lage, die Erfahrungen an einer Vielzahl von Berührungspunkten mit Patienten, Besuchern und Mitarbeitern in Echtzeit zu verbessern, darunter an über 1.200 Patientenbetten. Wir planen, neue Wege zu erkunden, wie wir diese Technologie nutzen können, um ein noch außergewöhnlicheres Erlebnis zu bieten”, sagte Tim Woodward, Associate Vice President of Environmental Services bei Montefiore Health System.

„Da KI in immer mehr Bereichen der Wirtschaft zum Einsatz kommt, glauben wir, dass Echtzeitdaten für Unternehmen zu einem wichtigen Vermögenswert werden, der in diese Modelle integriert werden muss, und FeedbackNow ist der führende Anbieter von Echtzeitdaten für den Betrieb in physischen Räumen”, sagte Rob May, Partner bei AI Growth Capital. „Das Unternehmen hat eine innovative Roadmap, die sich gut mit der Entwicklung der KI deckt und einige unserer Hauptinvestitionsthesen im Bereich der KI erfüllt, was uns dazu veranlasst hat, diese Transaktion zu tätigen.”

FeedbackNow konzentriert sich derzeit auf drei Schlüsselbereiche: Gesundheitswesen, Verbrauchermärkte und Reisen/Unterhaltung. Das Unternehmen hat mehr als 250 Kunden in 40 Ländern. Weitere Informationen erhalten Sie unter [email protected].

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Investment from Workday Ventures Recognizes Censia‘s Position as a Pioneer of Talent Intelligence AI Models and Solutions.

• Censia announces a strategic investment by Workday Ventures as part of Censia‘s Series B investment round.
• Censia‘s AI-powered data model and platform surfaces comprehensive, trusted and insightful talent information – directly in Workday, enabling smarter, faster, fairer talent outcomes without leaving the Workday platform.
• The investment will support Censia‘s product scale, model training and fine-tuning, collaboration with joint customers, and integration with Workday solutions.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 18, 2024 — Censia, a leader in AI-driven talent intelligence solutions, announces a strategic investment from Workday Ventures. This investment underscores Censia‘s innovative capabilities and positions it as a leading player in revolutionizing talent management through responsible artificial intelligence.

“AI has the potential to revolutionize talent intelligence, enabling organizations to make more informed hiring decisions, enhance employee development, and optimize workforce analytics,” said Barbry McGann, managing director and senior vice president, Workday Ventures. “We are excited to announce our strategic investment in Censia, supporting their mission to unlock an organization‘s full potential through advanced talent intelligence solutions.”

Empowering the Future of Talent Intelligence

Through integration with platforms like Workday, Censia‘s award-winning Talent Intelligence solutions are revolutionizing how HR teams operate by automating workforce and candidate discovery, and delivering actionable insights that inform talent decisions.

Powering these advancements is Censia‘s Talent Intelligence model which comprises trillions of data points from thousands of sources, encompassing hundreds of millions of professionals, companies, and industries.

“We are honored to partner with Workday, a testament to our commitment to transforming talent management through AI,” said Joanna Riley, CEO and Co-Founder at Censia. “This investment will help enable us to accelerate our innovation and deliver even greater value to our customers.”

Key Benefits for Customers Include:

• Enhanced talent management with Censia Talent Intelligence: Censia‘s AI-powered data model and platform will empower HR teams with skills-based workforce insights within talent management platforms, enabling smarter, faster, and fairer talent outcomes without leaving the platform.
• Smarter, faster and fairer outcomes with AI: Censia arms HR teams with hundreds of millions of prioritized, and AI-enriched profiles and insights to inform talent decisions, while reducing reliance on external sources and agencies.
• Reposition HR as a leader with generative AI capabilities: Censia‘s HR-trained generative AI capabilities simplify talent processes and rapidly accelerate talent outcomes. With Censia, HR teams can lead transformations, supported by capabilities like generative content creation for candidate and employee engagement, job spec creation, career planning, and intuitive prompt-based development.

Building the Future of Human Capital Management

This investment will help accelerate Censia‘s ability to scale innovative solutions such as personalized career planning and advanced workforce analytics. Censia is also developing fair generative use cases such as content creation for candidates, agent-driven employee engagement, intelligent job specification creation, and more.

About Censia

Censia Talent Intelligence is unleashing the potential of the world‘s workforce. Censia‘s proprietary data model and solutions can be deployed across all talent decisions, from sourcing and recruitment to workforce planning, internal mobility, and more. By enriching existing systems with fair algorithms and one of the world‘s most advanced data platforms, Censia offers seamless integration that lets teams work the way they want to. For more information, visitwww.censia.com.

Media Contact: [email protected] 

SOURCE Censia

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 18, 2024 — PictorLabs, a pioneering software company transforming histopathology with AI-powered virtual staining, announced today the successful completion of its $30 million Series B funding round. The round was led by global software investor Insight Partners, with continued participation from M Ventures, the venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which had previously led PictorLabs’ Series A round. The infusion of capital will enable PictorLabs to further advance its technology, expand its market reach, and accelerate the adoption of AI-driven virtual staining in clinical and research settings.

Spun off from the UCLA Colleges of Engineering and Medicine, PictorLabs is at the forefront of reshaping the 150-year-old practice of histological staining, which is critical for researching and diagnosing cancer, infectious diseases, and other pathological conditions. Traditional staining methods rely on toxic reagents and can take hours or even days to produce results. PictorLabs’ innovative AI-powered virtual staining technology eliminates the need for these reagents and significantly reduces turnaround times, delivering digitally stained slides in just minutes. As the demand for faster, more accurate diagnostic tools continues to grow, PictorLabs is poised to play a crucial role in the digital transformation of histopathology.

“Securing this Series B funding is a testament to the transformative potential of our technology and the trust that our investors have in our vision,” said Yair Rivenson, CEO of PictorLabs. “With the support of Insight Partners and M Ventures, we are well-positioned to scale our operations, expand our team, and bring our revolutionary virtual staining technology to more histopathology labs, ultimately improving patient outcomes across the globe.”

“By digitizing the staining process, PictorLabs will increase the speed, consistency, and quality of pathology reports, both for patient treatment and life science research,” said Scott Barclay, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “Insight is proud to back Yair and this deep technology team who are so dedicated to science, to producing validated data, and to positively impacting pathologists and patients.”

Bauke Anninga, Investment Director at M Ventures, added: “We are excited by PictorLabs’ progress and continue to be impressed by their differentiated virtual staining technology. We look forward to supporting PictorLabs through their next phase of growth.”

PictorLabs’ innovative solution allows physicians to conduct virtually unlimited number of tests from a single specimen, empowering researchers to obtain better insights quicker, providing a more comprehensive understanding of examined tissue condition and enabling better-informed decisions. By reducing the time and resources required for traditional staining methods, PictorLabs is not only enhancing efficiency but also contributing to more sustainable laboratory practices.

About PictorLabs

PictorLabs is a software company that is transforming the practice of histopathology with AI-powered virtual staining. Based in Los Angeles and spun off from the UCLA Colleges of Engineering and Medicine, PictorLabs is a venture-backed startup leading the digital transformation of histological staining. By delivering digitally stained slides in minutes, PictorLabs enables faster results with better insights for research, pharma, and clinical applications, ultimately improving patient outcomes. For more information about PictorLabs and its AI-powered virtual staining technology, please visit www.pictorlabs.ai.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2023, the firm has over $80B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 800 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

About M-Ventures

M Ventures is the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. From its headquarters in the Netherlands and offices in Germany, USA and Israel, M Ventures invests globally in transformational ideas driven by innovative entrepreneurs. Taking an active role in its portfolio companies, M Ventures teams up with management teams and co-investors to translate scientific discoveries into commercial success. M Ventures focuses on investing along the two extensive investment areas Biotechnology and Technology in alignment with the strategic interest of the parent company. We cover the areas of Healthcare drug development, Life Science tools, Electronics, and Frontier Technology & Sustainability. For more information, visit m-ventures.com

SOURCE PictorLabs

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Leading nonprofit climate investor opens one of the first opportunities to access funding from the US EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund

New name – Elemental Impact – marks 15 year anniversary and expansion to broader platform

SAN FRANCISCO and NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2024 — Elemental Impact, a leading nonprofit climate technology investor formerly known as Elemental Excelerator, today announced that it is opening applications for projects to receive investments via a $100M funding program from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) historic and market-driven Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). This new funding, made possible through a subaward from the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC), will support entrepreneurs and climate technologies that are ready for scale and poised to deliver greenhouse gas emissions reductions and local community benefits. Companies can submit proposals at elementalimpact.com.

With its extensive, nationwide portfolio of projects, Elemental will draw on its history of direct investing into venture-backed climate companies and place-based deployments across energy, transportation, water, agriculture, and industry, and make equity and debt investments to scale climate solutions and deliver local community impact.

Now in its 15th year, the organization also announced today a rename to Elemental Impact, a name that reflects its expansion to an investing platform with a family of funds working in concert to mobilize capital from philanthropy, government, and private investors. The Elemental Impact platform is anchored by a non-profit supported by $210M in philanthropy and public funding to date and will expand its non-profit investing and tailored community engagement support with this initial $100M in GGRF funding. The platform also includes the $94M venture fund Earthshot Ventures, which was launched from the Elemental nonprofit in 2021. Elemental Impact will continue to expand to meet the evolving needs of climate entrepreneurs with additional fund strategies and vehicles in the future.

“We have invested in more than 150 companies working to scale important innovations, and the challenge is clear. The sector needs not only innovation in technology, but also in finance, community partnership, and project implementation. Today, we are expanding our platform to meet this need – because where we invest our time and our capital over the next five years will impact the next hundred,” said Dawn Lippert, founder and CEO of Elemental Impact.

“Through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund we will make historic investments in the fight against climate change and give leaders like Elemental the resources needed to bring clean energy investments to all communities, including those historically underserved by finance. By building scalable, inclusive projects, Elemental is doing the critical work to build green infrastructure with a community-focused approach,” said Eli Hopson, Chief Administrative Officer of CGC.

Elemental will also continue to play a supportive role in the deployment of GGRF across multiple participants by building a national pipeline of projects. In addition to being a subawardee to CGC, Elemental is collaborating as a transaction partner to Climate United and a deployment partner to Power Forward Communities, and will remain a convener of and collaborator with investors from across the climate ecosystem. Elemental Impact plans to leverage its extensive network of co-investors, which already number more than 1,000 firms, to amplify the $100M in line with U.S. EPA’s goal for GGRF to mobilize financing and private capital to stimulate additional deployment of GHG- and air pollution-reducing projects.

“Philanthropy is at its best when we’re helping our partners overcome obstacles and address systemic gaps,” said Maria Kozloski, Senior Vice President of Innovative Finance at The Rockefeller Foundation. “We’re proud that our support of Elemental helped make critical projects happen in frontline communities and look forward to the additional impact they will make with this new investment.” 

“This is exactly what entrepreneurs and the climate innovation field needs – investment dollars and expert support to mobilize private capital and enable scale. And this is exactly what Elemental has been consistently delivering since its founding,” said Naveen Sikka, board member of Elemental and CEO of Terviva, one of Elemental’s earliest investments. “In this next chapter, Elemental is poised to make an even greater impact for communities.”

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Elemental Impact

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AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 18, 2024 — Knit, the platform dedicated to streamlining the consumer research process using AI, today announced the closing of a $9 million funding round and partnerships with brands like T-Mobile, NASCAR, the WNBA, Mars Wrigley, Overtime, and JBL. The round was led by Revolutions’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, with participation from new investors Osage Venture Partners, GFT Ventures, Visible Ventures, and Massive Ventures and existing investors Silicon Road Ventures, Felton Group, and Alumni Ventures.

Knit enables insights professionals and researchers to conduct agency-quality research in days, not weeks, marrying quantitative and qualitative data in the same survey for comprehensive, thorough insights. In the past year, Knit has onboarded more than 30 enterprise brands and grown its annual recurring revenue 5X. The team has used the funds to launch its latest offering: Report-Ready Insights, which helps researchers run agency-quality quantitative and qualitative research at DIY costs, by taking the most time-intensive research tasks off their plate through Researcher-Driven AI.

“At Knit, our goal has always been to make researchers’ jobs easier,” says Aneesh Dhawan, Co-Founder and CEO of Knit. “We’re excited about Report-Ready Insights because it does just that – allowing our customers to go from business questions to stakeholder-ready top line reports in days, without compromising speed, cost, or quality. It’s ultimately changing the way research is done.” 

Through Knit, a researcher’s expertise and institutional knowledge are the engine, and Knit’s AI is the navigator, optimizing the research process so it’s faster, more customizable, and more focused on what matters most.

“The market is filled with ‘off-the-shelf’ AI analysis tools, which often lead to generic outputs, forcing the researcher to spend time, money, and manual efforts converting data to stakeholder reports. What we are doing is different.” says Raahish Kalaria, Co-Founder and CTO of Knit. “Knit is taking a unique approach to AI – one that begins with the human researcher.”

“We’re excited to continue to back Knit as they redefine the landscape of consumer insights,” says David Hall, Managing Partner, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. “We’ve been impressed by Knit’s rapid adoption among leading brands. Their innovative approach to AI-assisted research clearly resonates, and we’re excited to support their continued momentum as they launch Report-Ready Insights.”

“We’re inspired to see Knit pushing the boundaries of consumer insights with their researcher-driven AI,” says Ross Kimbel, Managing Director and Partner at Silicon Road Ventures. “The team’s ability to quickly partner with top brands and deliver insights is a testament to their deep customer and market understanding. We’re proud to back them as they continue to shape the future of the insights industry with their launch of Report-Ready Insights.”

“Knit is changing the game on how brands gather, assess and act on consumer insights with remarkable speed and precision,” says Sean Dowling, Managing Partner at Osage Venture Partners (OVP), who joined Knit’s Board of Directors upon OVP’s investment. “Their unique AI-driven platform stands out in a crowded market of solutions. Their growth reflects the real value they’re delivering, and we’re excited to be part of their journey as they continue to innovate in this space.”

Knit recently presented alongside Mars Wrigley at the Corporate Research Conference (CRC) on customer research innovations in New York on September 16-17, 2024. The team will also present with T-Mobile at The Market Research Event (TMRE) on October 8, 2024.

ABOUT KNIT
Knit is the end-to-end, AI-native platform automating the consumer research process. Founded in 2021, Knit believes AI has the power to democratize rigorous, agency-level research across enterprise organizations – enabling brands to make better and more data-backed decisions for their customers. For more information about Knit, visit https://goknit.com.

Media Contact:
Ludington Media
(551) 795-5950
[email protected]

SOURCE Knit

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NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2024 — FeedbackNow, the world leader in operational analytics for physical spaces, announced today their Series A round. The round was led by Motivate VC, Uncorrelated Ventures, and AI Growth Capital Partners. The group purchased the company out of Forrester, the previous owner, as part of the round. Steve Peltzman, a former Forrester executive, will serve as the company’s CEO.

In addition to the new capital, the company is announcing the rollout of their new platform. This digital platform is able to ingest data from hundreds of sensors that measure real-time data and traffic through physical locations like stadiums, airports, hospitals, and convenience stores. By normalizing the data and building dashboards that correlate activity with customer satisfaction and spend, FeedbackNow’s new platform helps companies optimize labor costs, customer experience, and revenue. The platform provides alerts, analytics, and predictions for best actions so that companies can understand and optimize everything happening in their spaces.

Steve Peltzman, CEO, noted that “Most people know FeedbackNow for the buttons in airport bathrooms and security lines, but, over the past two years our expansion into convenience stores and hospitals has opened our eyes to the massive opportunity to optimize the platform for all types of data and many new use cases. The speed and simplicity with which we can integrate new sensors and correlate outcomes over a host of data types is a competitive advantage and the reason hundreds of customers have chosen FeedbackNow.”

Healthcare has been the fastest growing segment for FeedbackNow, as hospitals seek to optimize labor efficiency amid an increasing labor shortage of nursing talent. “Montefiore is dedicated to providing exceptional care, compassion, and comfort to every patient. We believe that patient experience is a critical component of quality healthcare. Through our innovative partnership with FeedbackNow, we have been able to elevate experiences at a variety of patient, visitor, and staff touchpoints in real-time, including over 1,200 patient bedsides. We plan to explore new ways to use this technology to provide an even more exceptional experience,” said Tim Woodward, Associate Vice President of Environmental Services at Montefiore Health System.

“As AI is implemented in more areas of the economy, we believe real-time data is going to become a key asset for companies to integrate into these models, and FeedbackNow is the leader in real-time data for operations in physical spaces,” said Rob May, a Partner at AI Growth Capital. “The company has an innovative roadmap that aligns well with where we think AI is going and was a strong match to some of our key investing theses around AI, which prompted us to put together this deal.”

FeedbackNow currently focuses on three key verticals: Healthcare, Convenience Stores, and Travel/Entertainment. The company has more than 250 customers, across 40 countries. For more information contact [email protected].

SOURCE FeedbackNow, Inc.

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