MEMPHIS, Tenn., Feb. 5, 2025 — Pittco Management, LLC (“Pittco”) is pleased to announce its equity investment in Prescient Logistics LLC, d/b/a RepScrubs (“RepScrubs”) through a special purpose entity formed and managed by Rockmont Partners Management, LLC (“Rockmont”).

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Sanford, FL, RepScrubs is revolutionizing healthcare compliance with a closed-loop system that ensures full transparency, accountability and streamlined management of perioperative vendors across over 600 leading U.S. hospitals, health systems and surgery centers.  RepScrubs’ innovative platform simplifies vendor credentialing requirements, enhancing security and compliance in high-stakes healthcare environments. 

“We are excited to invest alongside the Rockmont team in RepScrubs,” said Pittco President and Chief Investment Officer Henry Guy, adding, “RepScrubs’ innovative technology gives healthcare systems and their staff peace of mind and has tremendous potential to help them do more with less.”

“We are honored to have Pittco as our partner in RepScrubs,” said Brian Fox, Managing Partner of Rockmont.  “Their connectivity and insights into the market made for a great strategic fit to help further propel RepScrubs into new markets and new products.  We couldn’t be more pleased to have Henry and his team of experts working with us on this exciting venture.”

About Pittco Management, LLC
Pittco is the single-family office for Joseph R. “Pitt” Hyde III, founder of AutoZone, and his wife, Barbara. Pittco was established over 30 years ago, and provides investment, accounting, tax, and financial services from its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.

For more information, please visit:  http://www.pittcomanagement.com.

Media Contact:
Pittco Management, LLC
[email protected] 
901-685-5455

SOURCE Pittco Management, LLC

Investment, led by Menlo Ventures, accelerates autonomous security platform for developers

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5, 2025 — Semgrep, a leading Application Security platform, today announced $100M in Series D funding led by Menlo Ventures. With added participation from existing investors including Felicis Ventures, Harpoon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, this round brings the company’s total funding to $204M to date.

Customers and security leaders tell Semgrep current code scanners are noisy and low efficacy, slow developers down, and are difficult to operationalize. Simultaneously, organizations face mounting pressure to secure increasingly complex codebases while maintaining rapid development cycles. Semgrep’s AppSec Platform enables developers and security engineers to establish Secure Guardrails, transitioning from traditional risk management to proactive security engineering. Semgrep is building the world’s best autonomous code security platform in three key ways:

• Delivering market-leading signal-to-noise ratio and prioritization;
• Product choices that keep developer productivity high and perception of security positive; and
• Enabling an effective AppSec program at an affordable price.

“The era of AI for security is here, and Semgrep is uniquely positioned to help organizations secure their code without sacrificing development velocity,” said Isaac Evans, CEO at Semgrep. “With the Semgrep platform, you can build an Appsec program with cost-effectiveness, security, and development speed.”

“AI is having a profound impact on all areas of technology. Semgrep’s approach to autonomous code security is a perfect example and represents the future of application security,” said Matt Murphy, Partner at Menlo Ventures and new Board Member of Semgrep. “Semgrep’s unique combination of AI capabilities and deep security expertise solidifies them as the leader in this increasingly critical market.”

AI Capabilities Expand the Semgrep Reach
Security teams are overwhelmed with the volume of code they have to secure. Launched just two weeks ago, Semgrep Assistant learns your organization’s software development life cycle, automatically finds, triages, prioritizes, and fixes the most important security issues as an agentic AppSec engineer. Through its LLM-powered platform, Semgrep automatically converts identified security bugs into secure guardrails, enabling developers to write more secure code without sacrificing speed.

Strategic Expansion and Leadership
Since the company’s Series C announcement in April 2023, Semgrep has built a massive technology advantage in its Appsec Platform which is now a Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), and Secrets product suite for hundreds of customers.

Semgrep is also bringing in external expertise to scale the company. Today the company  also announced the appointment of Garrett Souza, former SVP Americas at Matillion and Enterprise Sales Leader at Snyk, as Vice President of Sales, along with the addition of Mark McLaughlin, former CEO of Palo Alto Networks, as an Angel Investor and Advisor.

In 2025 and beyond, Semgrep will use the funds in a series of ways, including hiring world-class AI and program analysis talent to extend the company’s competitive edge, in addition to increasing awareness of what its product offers beyond a security practitioner audience. Lastly, the funds will boost the company’s Go-To-Market team with veterans and advisors from organizations like Hashicorp, Elasticsearch, Snyk, and others – leveraging its unique position as a rare company at the intersection of OSS and security.

For additional information on this announcement, please see Isaac Evans’ blog post.

About Semgrep
Semgrep is an application security platform for scanning code for security, reliability, & other issues. Semgrep’s mission is to profoundly improve software security and reliability by bringing world-class security tools to engineers—software and security alike. Semgrep’s conviction is that the security process must enable rapid software development, instead of hindering it. Semgrep is funded by Felicis Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, and has become an essential safeguard for code at customers like Snowflake, Dropbox, and more.

SOURCE Semgrep

GetWhys accelerates marketing teams at companies like Docusign, Commvault, and Docker, by bringing customer insights directly to their workflows

BOISE, Idaho, Feb. 5, 2025 — GetWhys today announces $2.75MM in seed funding to accelerate the growth of its AI-powered customer insights platform. The round was led by Next Frontier Capital, with participation from Tuesday Capital and Capital Eleven. This investment brings GetWhys’ total funding to $3.5MM and will be used to expand the engineering team, fuel product development, and support customer growth.

“We invested in GetWhys because of Philippe and Tyler’s unique vision and expertise, informed by years of experience supporting some of the largest global software companies,” says Erika Nash, Partner at Next Frontier Capital. “Their pioneering approach to AI-driven market intelligence will revolutionize the way customer-facing teams (marketing, product, sales, success) work.”

Prior to GetWhys, GTM teams could only augment their limited internal data by investing thousands of dollars into individual expert network interviews, or tens-to-hundreds of thousands of dollars into market research projects. In addition to being expensive, these projects were time-consuming (hours of their individual time + weeks to complete) and difficult to multi-purpose. Founded by former Big Tech market researchers, the GetWhys platform combines a proprietary database of in-depth interviews with software customers alongside enterprises’ existing internal data, such as call recording and market research assets—an instant, cost-effective alternative.

“Back when we were consultants, our most successful customers always prioritized research, giving insights teams a seat at the decision-making table,” said Philippe Boutros, CEO and cofounder of GetWhys. “We realized that LLMs made it possible for us to bring insights directly to our users’ workflows. Instead of limiting research to conference room discussions, we could level-up the work our users spend their time on by bringing insights directly to them.”

The GetWhys platform is powered by InsightDB, GetWhys’ proprietary database of research interviews. GetWhys’ trained interviewers have anonymized conversations with customers to fill in enterprise blind spots. GetWhys users primarily use two products as part of their workflow—Compass and Echo.

Launched last year, Compass helps go-to-market teams (including product marketers and researchers) gather competitive intelligence, build buyer personas, and develop their GTM motions. Unlike tools that synthesize internet data—which is difficult to validate, polluted by marketing materials, and non-differentiated—Compass surfaces never-before-documented firsthand experiences, providing users with the same competitive advantage as conducting their own research, but at a fraction of the cost.

“We rewrote our positioning in a week,” said Andy Ramirez, SVP Marketing at Docker. “I can’t express how valuable GetWhys was throughout the process.”

Today’s launch of Echo brings a new approach to content development. From web copy to SDR emails, Echo helps users make sure that every word resonates, every time, by using authentic customer perspectives and behavioral data to run an instant focus group. Marketers particularly appreciate that Echo enforces messaging discipline, making sure that customer communications are always inline with their organization’s messaging frameworks, buyer personas, and other foundational materials.

“Echo made my messaging 5x-10x better,” said Casey Samulski, Director of Product Marketing at Mission.

“Ultimately, the goal of market research isn’t to produce insights, but to improve some sort of output elsewhere,” says Tyler Honsinger, CPO and cofounder of GetWhys. “Our products inject insights directly into our customers’ workflow, so that they can do better work, faster. This funding will allow us to further that mission and empower even more teams with the voice of their customers.”

To learn more about GetWhys and its AI-powered customer insights platform, visit www.getwhys.io.

About GetWhys:

GetWhys elevates modern marketing teams by improving their work output through unique customer insights. GetWhys applies AI to their proprietary database of interviews from verified customers, providing instant access to authentic customer research. GetWhys was founded by B2B market research consultants who discovered the value of bringing insights directly to their stakeholders’ workflows. See how the GetWhys platform can provide immediate value to your marketing team by visiting www.getwhys.io.

Media Contact:
Rick Medeiros
510-556-8517
[email protected] 

SOURCE GetWhys

Led by Wall Street veteran Justin Stevens, the fund guides startups solving the world’s biggest problems through their funding journey

NEW YORK, Feb. 5, 2025 — Overlap Holdings, a venture capital firm harnessing elements of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, today announced the final close of its first fund, Overlap Holdings Flagship Fund 1 (OHF1). The inaugural fund of $33 million will exclusively invest in early-stage (Seed through Series B) startups building technologies at the intersection of scientific innovation and hardware. The firm invests in frontier tech sectors such as Energy, Life Science, Materials Science, Space, Robotics, and Semiconductors.

Justin Stevens, a former Senior Partner at Apollo Global Management who spent nearly two decades in private equity, founded Overlap Holdings after observing the value his Wall Street wisdom and connections brought to startups struggling through their funding journeys. Frontier tech companies, in particular, require creative financing to bridge the “valleys of death” inherent to early development stages. Their capital intensity is a major reason venture investors have flocked to software over frontier tech — a trend that Stevens believes has had a detrimental effect on society as a whole.

“The mission of Overlap Holdings is to refocus venture on solving world-scale problems,” said Stevens. “Too often, frontier tech founders struggle not because they lack great ideas but because they lack access to the right type of capital, at the right time. The strategy for funding a startup’s entire capital journey is as important as the technology it creates. We believe that Overlap Holdings is the only frontier tech venture firm focused first and foremost on this capital journey.”

The fund, OHF1, sits at the heart of the firm’s integrated model, which combines equity investments with introductions to non-dilutive funding sources (primarily debt). Frontier tech companies often rely on such capital to build a factory, finance a first-of-a-kind project, or scale their business more efficiently than with equity alone. The firm’s team includes Chief Operating Officer Rob Morelli, who ran a debt desk at UBS for a decade before founding his own startup, and Associate Gauri Jaswal, an experienced frontier tech investor previously with Conscience VC.

“Overlap Holdings is not a typical venture capital firm. While most firms focus on engineering or operations, we bring 30-plus years of financial structuring expertise to this capital-intensive ecosystem,” said Morelli. “Whether funding a robotics breakthrough or securing a debt partner to advance a next-gen space company, we work tirelessly with founders to make their financing journeys easier.”

The firm has invested in 11 promising frontier tech startups, including Impulse Space, Hadrian, Integrated Biosciences, Anthro Energy, and Mendaera. It targets 30–35 total investments for OHF1, with average investments of approximately $700,000. The team leverages a deep network of technical experts across their main focus industries to assist in their underwriting and drive further value for their portfolio companies. “The connectivity with these industry leaders can be transformative for a startup,” said Jaswal. “This is part of Overlap’s special sauce—our ability to blend investment insight, market intelligence, and relationship science to provide a differentiated process and support.”

To Stevens, the best way to succeed in venture capital is to invest in companies solving the world’s biggest problems. “Our key societal indicators of well-being tell a stark story: GDP growth is underwhelming, life expectancy is stagnant, and people are unhappy in record numbers,” he said. “Venture capital should be a powerful force for true innovation. I founded Overlap Holdings to help make that happen.”

To learn more about Overlap Holdings or get in touch, please visit www.overlapholdings.com.

About Overlap Holdings
Founded in 2022, Overlap Holdings is a venture capital firm that supports frontier tech startups through an integrated investing and connecting model by offering both equity and debt support throughout the startup journey. Overlap seeks to bridge the financing gap for companies creating true innovation in sectors such as Energy, Life Science, Materials Science, Space, Robotics, and Semiconductors.

SOURCE Overlap Holdings

The Period Care Company Emerges from Stealth with Launch of Secure Period Tracking App

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 5, 2025 — Comma, a female-founded integrated period care company, proudly announces the launch of its secure period tracking app, Sara™, alongside a $2 million seed funding round.

From the rollback of Roe v. Wade to the recent shutdown of ReproductiveRights.gov, the future of reproductive health in America is riddled with concerns about data privacy and access. Comma aims to set a new standard and provide users with safe, secure and unbiased information about their health. The Tennessee-based company is harnessing the power of periods to bring predictive, personalized science to reproductive health through the use of secure technology and sustainable consumer product goods. Led by a team of reproductive health and cyber security experts, Comma has spent the last two years innovating and developing technology and consumer products that put autonomy at the forefront.

Comma graduated from the Techstars Physical Health accelerator in 2023, and Techstars venture fund followed on in this latest funding round. More than 50% of Comma’s seed investors are women, which reflects the company’s commitment to prioritizing reproductive health by centering those most impacted at every level.

“Comma is approaching menstrual health in a holistic way that hasn’t been done before in the consumer products and technology space,” said Trey Bowles, Managing Director of Techstars Physical Health. “We’re proud to invest in a more secure, sustainable future through this partnership.”

Alongside this round of funding, Comma launches its flagship product Sara™, a secure period tracking and disease detection app. Now available publicly, the platform helps users uncover patterns and concerns in their menstrual cycle, connecting them to relevant care partners and arming them with the data and knowledge needed to take control of their reproductive health. After conducting user beta testing, the Comma team was able to further innovate several functionalities, including a secure pregnancy tracking mode that emerged as an end-user priority.

Because Comma believes that period data is just as much personal health information as clinical trial findings or laboratory test results, they’ve invested in industry-leading security and privacy protocols to keep user data within Sara™ as safe as possible. By looking to HIPAA and healthcare best practices, Sara™ is more than just a period tracking app: it’s a safe and secure dashboard for a user’s reproductive health. Sara™ was thoughtfully built as a progressive web app (PWA), meaning users access the dashboard through an internet browser rather than downloading it to their phone from an app store. This ensures that users’ metadata is never tracked, and all information is kept strictly private.

“People shouldn’t have to choose between a better understanding of their bodies and the threat of surveillance, ” said Miller Morris, M.A., M.P.H., founder and CEO of Comma. “That is why we built Comma with security and autonomy at the forefront. Even as policies restricting reproductive rights surface, we remain committed to protecting user data and building community. Consumers deserve better, period.”

Beyond the technology, Comma has plans to revolutionize reproductive health in a variety of ways, including building out the ability to use the menstrual blood in a tampon to screen for potential reproductive health complications and beyond. With two team members sitting on the ISO/TC 338, Comma also plans to release the first-ever biodegradable single-use period product. Made with a compostable plant-based bio-resin applicator and 100% organic cotton, Comma is one step closer to changing menstrual healthcare for the better. In the future, Comma will launch its send-back diagnostics service, redirecting period products from the landfill to the lab to pioneer the use of menstrual blood biomarkers in healthcare.

For more information about Comma or to join Sara™, visit www.yourcomma.com/meet-sara.

About Comma
Comma is an integrated period care company. Founded and built by experts in reproductive health, Comma combines software, sustainable tampon products, and laboratory diagnostics to bring personalized and predictive medicine to reproductive care. Its flagship product, Sara™, is a hyper-secure period tracking app that uses HIPAA-based best practices as a benchmark for its data privacy and security standards. Sara™ helps users uncover patterns and concerns in their menstrual cycles and connect with relevant care partners. Comma is on a mission to transform reproductive health one period at a time. Learn more at yourcomma.com.

Media Contact
[email protected]

SOURCE Comma

• Rasmal Ventures inaugural VC fund is the first fund to join the $1 billion venture capital program from QIA  
• Qatar-based VC firm Rasmal Ventures launched its home-grown fund in June 2024 to drive innovation and investment in Qatar and the MENA region  
• Commitment from QIA’s Fund of Funds program will enable the fund to grow its presence across the region and execute the highly selective investment strategy  

DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 5, 2025 — Rasmal Ventures LLC, Qatar’s first independent venture capital (VC) company, which was established in 2023, has today announced funding from QIA as part of its Fund of Funds program.  

The funding is received into Rasmal Venture’s inaugural, home-grown venture capital fund, Rasmal Innovation Fund I LLC which targets high-performance startups and scales up across a variety of innovative technology sectors, including fintech, B2B SaaS, HealthTech and AI.  

Rasmal Innovation Fund I LLC is the first fund announcement as part of QIA’s $1 billion Fund of Funds program announced as open to applicants in February 2024.  

To date, the Rasmal Innovation Fund I LLC has closed funding from QIA’s Fund of Funds, corporates, family offices and individual high-net-worth investors with an aim to reach $100 million in investment commitments. The Fund is only open to professional investors as defined in QFCRA regulation. 

Alexander Wiedmer, Co-Managing Partner of Rasmal Ventures, said “As the first private VC fund based in Doha, we have forged strong partnerships with leading Qatari institutions to work closely with exceptional founders, stimulate innovation, and meet the region’s unique needs. While still in the early stages of capital deployment, we take pride in our first investments in proprietary tech startups. The trust QIA and our other investors placed in us is a testament to our team’s capabilities and dedication. We will continue to grow our presence across the region and execute our highly selective investment strategy to establish ourselves as a key player in the MENA VC landscape.” 

The Rasmal Innovation Fund I LLC is managed by a highly experienced team of VC experts that have collectively managed more than 100 VC deals, along with impressive exits.  

About Rasmal Ventures Innovation Fund I LLC   

The Rasmal Ventures Innovation Fund I LLC targets investments in innovative and high-performance technology startups and scaleups across Qatar, the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and internationally at pre-Series A, Series A and Series B stages. While the fund will scout all technology sectors agnostically, it will have a strategic interest in  fintech, supply chain logistics, HealthTech, B2B SaaS and Artificial Intelligence (AI).  

The launch of Rasmal Innovation Fund I LLC aligns firmly with the country’s Third National Development Strategy (NDS3) as it aims to contribute to the creation of a buoyant tech ecosystem which is underpinned by easy access to a range of investment and funding opportunities.  

About QIA’s Fund of Funds Program   

The Fund of Funds program aims to develop a strong start-up and venture capital ecosystem in Qatar, attract leading venture capital funds and entrepreneurs to the region and help close the current funding gap for local and regional entrepreneurs.  

The program, first announced in February 2024, will invest more than USD 1 billion in international and regional venture capital funds and will place a priority focus on the tech and healthcare sectors.  

The Fund of Funds program has a dual investment mandate to achieve good financial performance and deliver a positive development impact on the Qatari venture capital ecosystem. 

SOURCE Rasmal Ventures

New funding to be used to expand Lorikeet’s platform and market presence, helping more companies across complex and regulated industries use AI agents to offer human quality support at scale 

SYDNEY, Feb. 4, 2025 — AI customer experience pioneer Lorikeet today announces it has raised an additional AUD $9 million in funding from Blackbird and its existing investors Square Peg and Skip Capital, fueled by breakout growth in 2024 across key financial centers in Australia, Asia, and the US and just four months after announcing its USD $5 million seed round fundraise last year. 

Since launching in October 2024, Lorikeet has increased bookings by 3.5 times, and added several unicorns and public companies in the US and Australia as customers and pilot partners, including market leaders such as Eucalyptus in healthcare, Step in banking, and MagicEden in Cryptocurrency. The new funding will be used to further enhance Lorikeet’s intelligent graph technology, expand the company’s enterprise capabilities, and accelerate go-to-market initiatives across key industries including healthcare, financial services, technology, and more.

Customer experience as we know it is broken. Support teams are scattered across time zones, struggling with sky-high turnover rates while customers wait hours or days for help. Basic AI chatbots have failed to fix the problem – they’re too rigid to handle anything beyond simple FAQ responses. Even highly funded Silicon Valley darling startups have failed to ship products that can reliably handle complex support cases. Lorikeet is changing that with an AI platform that doesn’t just match human agents, but can also uniquely handle complex support queries involving confidential patient information, movement of digital currencies, and more.

“We’re not satisfied with using AI to simply summarize FAQs, or implementing architectures passed on by OpenAI,” said Steve Hind, Lorikeet’s co-founder and CEO. “Our intelligent graph architecture is purpose-built ground up to enable AI agents to reliably handle complex workflows  in highly regulated industries that were previously impossible for AI to handle.”

The company’s proprietary intelligent graph technology orchestrates sophisticated workflows for tasks ranging from secure credit card replacements to effective triage of medical issues and cryptocurrency transaction verification. Lorikeet’s AI agents are distinctive in their ability to deliver high quality interactions on complex, multi-conditional customer problems, engage on highly sensitive or regulated topics, while knowing what they don’t know, so that they can avoid giving incorrect answers.

Eucalyptus, a global telehealth player, increased customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) by 10 points while doubling support volume in a year without growing the team. Magic Eden, a top NFT Hub who was facing surges in support volume due to the cryptocurrency bull market and increased interest and usage of their mobile app, adopted Lorikeet to handle the volume while seeing CSAT increase to 75%, up from 45% with their previous AI agent provider. Breeze, APAC-based fintech, was able to independently resolve 40% of their complex support volume with Lorikeet within 30 days, including questions about KYC reviews, transaction statuses and declines.

Global Growth From Down Under

“The Australian technology ecosystem continues to produce world-class innovations in artificial intelligence, and Lorikeet stands out as a prime example,” said Tom Humphrey, Partner at Blackbird. “The team’s product approach to solving complex customer support challenges through advanced AI workflows is differentiated. Support is perhaps the highest impact and lowest hanging fruit opportunity for enterprise adoption of AI, and the market scale is absolutely enormous.”

Lorikeet has seen strong traction globally, with special momentum in the U.S. across healthcare providers, financial institutions, and technology companies. The company has plans to aggressively expand into the United States, while also growing its local team in Sydney.

“What sets Lorikeet apart is our fundamental understanding that effective customer support requires more than just conversational AI,” said Jamie Hall, Co-founder and CTO of Lorikeet. “Our intelligent graph technology is unique in its ability to both solve complex customer inquiries and know what it doesn’t know to avoid giving incorrect answers or engaging on highly sensitive or regulated topics.”

For more information about Lorikeet’s AI-powered customer support platform, visit www.lorikeetcx.ai.

About Lorikeet

Lorikeet is revolutionizing customer experience with the most powerful AI support platform on the market. Through its pioneering intelligent graph technology, Lorikeet enables enterprises to deliver consistent, high-quality customer support at scale. Founded in Sydney, Australia, Lorikeet serves global customers across healthcare, financial services, technology, and other industries where complex, secure customer interactions are mission-critical. Learn more at www.lorikeetcx.ai.

SOURCE Lorikeet

DENVER, Feb. 4, 2025 — Nextworld, a leading provider of enterprise platforms, today announced the successful closing of a $65 million Series F funding round. The investment, led by the McVaney Investment Partnership, positions the company for significant growth in 2025 as it continues to redefine how businesses build, extend, and optimize their technology stacks.

This latest round of funding underscores the McVaney Investment Partnership’s confidence in Nextworld’s innovative approach to enabling businesses with AI-driven solutions that address the modern demands of scalability, flexibility, and interoperability.

“We are thrilled to have the continued support of our investors as we enter a pivotal year,” said Kylee McVaney, CEO of Nextworld. “This funding will empower us to accelerate product innovation, expand our global footprint, and double down on our mission to help enterprises achieve the freedom of agility without the need for disruptive system overhauls.”

Aggressive growth plans for 2025
The funding will fuel Nextworld’s ambitious growth initiatives, including:

• Expanding strategic partnerships: Strengthening existing partnerships and forming new ones to deliver more pre-built integrations, deeper expertise, and innovative solutions for customers’ unique challenges.
• Driving innovation through RsD: Investing in cutting-edge technologies to further enhance the capabilities of its AI platform.
• Scaling go-to-market strategies: Amplifying marketing and sales efforts to reach more warehouse, finance, operations, and IT professionals worldwide.
• Building on customer success: Expanding proven customer satisfaction and retention by continuing to invest in value delivery, while preparing for growth in customer base and solution adoption.

Nextworld is gaining traction with enterprise customers across industries such as manufacturing, distribution, and software. Its platform is recognized for its ability to integrate seamlessly with existing ERP systems, enabling businesses to unlock new levels of efficiency without disrupting core processes.

“Nextworld is solving a massive problem for businesses facing the limitations caused by rigid legacy systems,” said Kevin McVaney, Managing Partner of the McVaney Investment Partnership. “We’re proud to support their vision and look forward to seeing them scale their transformative platform globally.”

About Nextworld
Nextworld is a leading enterprise platform provider, enabling businesses to create tailored software solutions that address their complex needs. From extending ERP functionality to driving intelligent process automation in inventory management and beyond, Nextworld empowers organizations to innovate and optimize. With no-code development, real-time data access, and seamless integrations, Nextworld helps businesses remain agile, competitive, and ready for the future.

For more information, visit www.nextw.com.

SOURCE Nextworld

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 4, 2025 — Zafrens, a pioneering biotech company transforming drug discovery, welcomes imec.xpand to its Series A syndicate, bringing the total capital raised to USD 31 million. imec.xpand is joined by existing investors Prime Movers Lab, Kofa Healthcare, and Global Brain in this financing.

Zafrens’ breakthrough platform allows scientists to create and test hundreds of thousands of potential medicines in a single experiment – a dramatic improvement over traditional drug discovery methods. This innovative approach significantly reduces the time and cost of finding new treatments while providing deeper insights into how these drugs work.

“Our platform represents a fundamental shift in drug discovery,” said Swamy Vijayan, CEO of Zafrens. “By creating and testing hundreds of thousands of potential drugs simultaneously and understanding exactly how they affect cells, we can identify the most promising treatments faster and with greater confidence in their safety. This means we can potentially bring life-changing drugs to patients more quickly and efficiently.”

The company has already demonstrated the value of its platform through successful collaborations with several leading pharmaceutical companies, focusing on multiple classes of drugs. The new funding will enable Zafrens to expand its capacity and engage in additional partnerships with pharmaceutical companies worldwide.

“Zafrens exemplifies the kind of breakthrough innovation imec.xpand seeks to support,” said Benoit Devogelaere, Partner at imec.xpand. “Their platform is fundamentally enabled through nanotechnology, and can accelerate the development of various types of modern medicines, from traditional small molecule drugs to advanced cell therapies and antibody treatments. We’re excited to support their mission to transform how these new medicines are discovered.”

For more information, please contact:
Swamy Vijayan, CEO
[email protected]

About Zafrens Zafrens is pioneering an ultra-high-throughput drug discovery platform to isolate, culture, image, and sequence hundreds of millions of cells per project. The proprietary Z-Screen platform transforms drug discovery by enabling a comprehensive analysis of therapeutic assets across efficacy, safety, and mechanism dimensions. Alongside developing an internal pipeline, Zafrens collaborates with leading pharmaceutical companies to accelerate breakthroughs in oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and more disease areas. For more information, visit www.zafrens.com.

About imec.xpand imec.xpand is one of the world’s largest independent venture capital funds dedicated to early-stage semiconductor innovation. It targets ambitious deeptech start-ups where the knowledge, expertise and infrastructure of imec, the world-renowned semiconductor and nanotechnology R&D center, can play a determining role in their growth. imec.xpand has an outspoken international mindset towards building disruptive global companies and strongly believes that sufficient funding from the start is key to future success.

SOURCE Zafrens