GERMANTOWN, Md., Sept. 28, 2023 — Maryland-based biotech company Deka Biosciences (“Deka”) today announced that it has successfully closed a USD $20 Million Series B2 financing with a syndicate of life science investors led by MPM BioImpact, and joined by additional investors including Leaps by Bayer, O-Bio (Echo Investment Capital), Viva BioInnovator, Alexandria Venture Investments, Amana Investments, Plains Ventures, ATEM Capital and CEO John Mumm. The proceeds of the financing will support the advancement of Deka’s pipeline and drug product manufacturing as they continue clinical trials following the receipt of a notice to proceed letter from the FDA for their investigational new drug (IND) application to evaluate DK2¹⁰ (EGFR). Additionally, Detlev Biniszkiewicz, Ph.D. of MPM-BioImpact, will join the Deka board.

 “This financing round is a significant milestone. We appear to be the only company that has dissociated IL-2 potency from toxicity,” said Dr. John Mumm, CEO of Deka. “It is gratifying to be supported by investors who recognize the potential of our innovative science to radically improve immunotherapy treatments by evaluating each patient’s immune system and combining biology with the power of precision medicine.

We have only raised $55 million to date and are already proceeding to dose our third cohort in our Phase 1 clinical trial. Thus far, we have established safety and clear signs of immune activation in our first 2 cohorts. We are encouraged by these results and believe that this combined approach will result in safer, more efficacious, and cost-effective immunotherapies.”

“Deka’s unique vision of rationally combining multiple cytokines in a single therapeutic, and the potential impact this could have for patients suffering from cancer and autoimmunity, was deeply intriguing to the MPM BioImpact team,” said Dr. Detlev Biniszkiewicz, Managing Director at MPM BioImpact. “We are impressed by the ability of DK2¹⁰ to improve the safety parameters of IL-2 while maintaining potent anti-tumor responses in cancer patients, and we are thrilled to be working with the Deka team in developing their innovative approach.”

The funding follows the seed round investment of USD $5 million led by CEO John Mumm, Series A financing of USD $20 million announced in November 2021, co-led by Leaps by Bayer and ECHO Investment Capital, and a USD $21.5 million Series B1 co-led by Lumira and Leaps by Bayer in 2022. The previous financings have enabled Deka to advance a pipeline of multiple Diakines^TM, conduct critical IND enabling experiments, manufacture drug substance/drug product with Cytovance Biologics, start the first Phase I clinical trial, as well as to expand into a new facility.

About Deka Biosciences
Deka Biosciences is a biotech company led by entrepreneur Dr. John Mumm, who is backed by a team of experienced academic, biopharma and CDMO innovators with expertise in drug discovery, product development, characterization, and testing. Deka has developed disease specific Diakines™ designed to maximize patient benefits through improved pharmacokinetics / pharmacodynamics function by the targeted accumulation of dual and complimentary cytokines into affected tissues. Through developing a better understanding of each patient’s immune response to different Diakines™, Deka hopes to maximize the impact of its Diakines™ by building specific targeted therapies for everyone.

SOURCE Deka Biosciences

— Proceeds Will Fund Completion of GT-30 Trial of Personalized Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine in Liver Cancer —

— Shanghai-based SHC Added to Geneos’ Investor Syndicate —

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Sept. 27, 2023 — Geneos Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotherapeutics company focused on the development of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines (PTCV), today announced that it has completed its Series A3 financing round with an additional investment of $5 million, totaling $10 million. This investment adds Shanghai Healthcare Capital (SHC) to Geneos’ investor syndicate. Dr. Jing Bao will join as a board observer, bringing extensive expertise in the pharmaceutical industry and with global clinical trials.

“We are pleased to add SHC to our investor syndicate and Dr. Bao to our team. The depth of knowledge the SHC team brings as well as their network in China will be invaluable to Geneos, especially as we pursue hepatocellular (liver) cancer as our initial target,” stated Niranjan Sardesai, PhD., president and chief executive officer of Geneos Therapeutics.

“The results that Geneos has achieved to date in the clinic with its personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine are impressive, and we are pleased to support Geneos’ further clinical development of this important treatment,” stated Jing Bao, MD, partner of SHC.

Proceeds Will Fund Completion of Phase 1b/2a GT-30 Program
GT-30 is evaluating the safety, and efficacy of PTCV (GNOS-PV02 plus plasmid-encoded IL-12) administered in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab, in 36 patients with unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who progress on, or are intolerant to, first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitors (sorafenib or lenvatinib). Study enrollment completed in June of this year with the top-line safety and clinical response data from the complete cohort of 36 patients is anticipated by the end of the year.  https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04251117. 

About Shanghai Healthcare Capital
With the approval of the Shanghai municipal government, Shanghai Industrial Investment (Holdings) Co., Ltd. (SIIC) established Shanghai Healthcare Capital (SHC) with market-oriented, professional and international operation principles. The total fund scale of SHC reached around 7 billion USD. By making full use of the comprehensive advantages of Shanghai, Shanghai Healthcare Capital utilizes the industrial resources to create a leading innovative investment platform in the life science industry based in Shanghai and Hong Kong, with strong links to the Yangtze River Delta and the world, so as to assist Shanghai to establish a top tier biomedical research and development center and manufacturing center in the world. The fund focuses on breakthrough biologics, innovative chemical drugs, high-end medical devices and diagnostics, and innovative business platforms, not only through the integration of capital and industrial resources but also international and domestic operations. For more information, please visit www.siicshc.com.

About Geneos Therapeutics
Geneos Therapeutics, a privately held, clinical stage biotherapeutics company, believes that the company’s personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines (PTCVs) may serve an important role in new immunotherapeutic paradigms for cancer. The company’s approach, using its proprietary GT-EPIC™ platform, is to target neoantigens (abnormal mutations produced by cancer cells) from individual patient tumors to develop novel and uniquely personalized treatments for cancer. Planning is underway for a potentially registrational clinical trial in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Geneos’ experienced management team has a track record of success in building immunotherapy-based companies. For more information, please visit www.geneostx.com.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to our business, including our plans regarding the development of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines, our expectations regarding our research and development programs, including the planned expansion and conduct of clinical trials and the availability and timing of data from those trials, and the use of our capital resources. Actual events or results may differ from the expectations set forth herein. There can be no assurance that any product candidate in Geneos’ pipeline will be successfully developed, manufactured or commercialized, that final results of clinical trials will be supportive of regulatory approvals required to market licensed products, or that any of the forward-looking information provided herein will be proven accurate. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, and Geneos undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements, except as may be required by law. 

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities.

SOURCE Geneos Therapeutics, Inc.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 27, 2023 — UnitX, a robotics company building next-generation AI vision systems at the forefront of quality and yield management in manufacturing, is proud to announce a $5 million investment from SE Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund backed by global energy and automation giant Schneider Electric.

UnitX, through its software-defined vision system (“OptiX”) and its edge AI compute platform (“CorteX”), delivers unparalleled inspection and defect detection capabilities to manufacturing customers. This technology can drive step-change improvements in the detection of visual defects that often escape error-prone and overworked human inspectors or legacy machine vision systems. By partnering with UnitX, customers can significantly reduce scrap, improve yield, and maintain the highest quality standards.

“We have looked at every major startup in this category in the past two years and it is clear to us that UnitX has cracked the right product and go-to-market approach to quickly deliver significant ROI to large enterprise customers,” said Varun Jain, General Partner at SE Ventures. “Moreover, they are focused on large yet underserved market segments like electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery manufacturing that are going to see a significant capacity expansion in the near future.”

“UnitX is one of the fastest growing players in our category and our systems are running on the production lines of the world’s top manufacturers in Li battery and automotive. That said, the deep domain knowledge of the SE Ventures team coupled with the complementary offerings with Schneider Electric’s market leading automation and software solutions will enable UnitX to deliver value to manufacturers on a larger scale,” said Keven Wang, CEO & Co-Founder of UnitX.

The investment from SE Ventures will also help UnitX to expand its geographic reach and accelerate its mission to radically elevate quality, traceability, and profitability of manufacturing operations.

About SE Ventures:

SE Ventures is a €1B global venture capital fund backed by Schneider Electric. SE Ventures invests in big ideas and bold entrepreneurs who can benefit from Schneider’s deep domain expertise and global customer reach. Beyond providing capital, SE Ventures acts as a commercial accelerant for category-defining companies such as Augury, Claroty, AiDash, Aquant, AutoGrid, Poka, Scandit, Kojo, Enable and many other startups spanning climate tech, energy management, mobility, cybersecurity and industrial automation. To learn more, visit http://www.seventures.com

About UnitX:

UnitX is a robotics company pioneering next-gen AI vision systems that revolutionizes manufacturing by automating visual defect detection. Deployed across key manufacturing verticals, including lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, and automotive, UnitX enhances yields, reduces scrap, and elevates product quality. To learn more, visit https://www.unitxlabs.com

SOURCE UnitX

Axial Shift to Accelerate the Next Generation Operations Platform, Founded by Restaurant Veteran and Led by HotSchedules Founding Executives

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023 — Axial Shift, the restaurant operations software provider that is revolutionizing the restaurant industry by providing all-staff level data access, as well as team member competitions and rewards, today announces a new partnership and $4M in seed funding from Silverton Partners.

About the Platform

Axial Shift creates gamified incentives that empower and engage frontline managers and staff, while providing actionable insights through real-time data from POS systems. The platform aims to simplify restaurant management and make frontline jobs more appealing, thereby improving staff retention rates.

Managers are able to foster healthy competition among team members, create contests, and set goals for frontline teams. Staff can see – in real time – how they are performing throughout their shift. They can earn badges, chase monetary incentives, and create winning streaks. Their efforts are benchmarked across teams to create an experience that makes work feel more like play and increased sales feel more like personal accomplishments. The result is empowered frontline managers, engaged staff, and increased sales across locations.

Using the Axial Shift platform, managers can also run their shift from their phones, showing real time labor actuals vs forecast vs ideal. They can also understand tip percentages in real time, review sales mix, and see how targeted items are selling by team member or location.

The Axial Shift platform also includes integrated tools that allow operators to consolidate their current tech stack, such as solutions for tip pooling, improved online scheduling, messaging across the entire organization, time and attendance, and access to a marketplace that allows them to integrate with popular apps, such as Airtable, Google Apps, Slack, and more.

Axial Shift customer, Brian Pearson, who is CTO of Mendocino Farms said, “With Axial Shift, we’re not only improving the quality and timeliness of information we give to our operations teams, we are reimagining ways to drive new value!”

About the Leadership

The leadership of the company is a trio of seasoned professionals from the restaurant industry. Justin Buckley, CEO and President, and Matt Woodings, Chief Technology Officer were both founding members of the executive team at HotSchedules, which ultimately served over 70,000 restaurants in 27 countries. Ellis Winstanley, who serves as Executive Chairman, founded Axial Shift to solve firsthand challenges operating eight restaurants, including Austin’s famous El Arroyo.

Buckley said, “We’re excited to partner with Silverton Partners. This reinforces our mission to bring the next phase of innovation to restaurant operations and will expand our platform to help more restaurants increase sales and make work more enjoyable and rewarding for their teams.”

About the Funding

Mike Dodd, General Partner with Silverton Partners said, “With Axial, we see an extremely exciting opportunity to truly change an industry for the better. Axial brings a new approach to doing business that drives higher strategic sales growth across locations – and they are doing it with a leadership team that has a proven track record in this industry across the last 20+ years.”

Axial Shift CEO and President Justin Buckley said, “This funding is really a tribute to the hard work of the Axial Shift team and their continued enthusiasm for what we do. I could not be more pleased and proud to have the recognition and support of Silverton, and I look forward to the next phase of our business growth!”

About Axial Shift

Axial Shift is a restaurant operations software provider that is revolutionizing the restaurant industry by creating gamified incentives that empower and engage frontline managers and staff, while providing actionable insights through real-time data from POS systems. Based in Austin, TX and founded in 2017, the company is led by industry veterans Justin Buckley, CEO and President, and Matt Woodings, CTO. Axial Shift is ideal for restaurants of all sizes, from independent single units to large chains. Customers include Mendocino Farms, El Arroyo, Chicken Express, Johnny Rockets and Sugar Factory. For more information, visit https://axialshift.com.

About Silverton Partners

The Silverton team partners with entrepreneurs who are dedicated to tackling growth markets and building lasting companies. In partnering with Silverton, companies benefit from its vast network and expertise from decades of growing and investing in successful businesses. Silverton Partners is based in Austin, TX, and was the initial institutional investor for AlertMedia, Billie, SailPoint, Storable, Silicon Labs, Self Financial, Apprentice, TurnKey Vacation Rentals, Ontic, WP Engine and The Zebra among others. For more information, please visit https://silvertonpartners.com. 

SOURCE Axial Shift

Gem Security’s CDR platform significantly shortens the time to detect, investigate, and contain cloud-native threats – redefining security operations for the cloud era

NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2023 — Gem Security, the Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) company, today announced $23 million in Series A funding led by GGV Capital and joined by IBM Ventures, Silicon Valley CISO Investments (SVCI), an array of notable angel investors, and existing investor Team8. This oversubscribed Series A, hot on the heels of Gem’s Seed funding round, reflects investor trust based on solid market validation. This round follows the Seed round led by Team8, and brings Gem’s total funding to $34 million.

The adoption of cloud infrastructure is rapidly increasing and diversifying the attack surface for organizations. In fact, organizations today maintain, on average, 65% of their infrastructure in the cloud, with 72% leveraging multi-cloud¹. This new environment poses unprecedented threats and complexity, requiring novel approaches. As Gartner notes, “Modern malware and data breaches in cloud environments are often fileless and operate either solely in memory without leaving any trace on disk, or via APIs or integrated SaaS offerings, making it increasingly difficult or impossible to properly investigate with traditional forensic methods and tooling.”²

Since launching in early 2023, Gem Security has dramatically scaled ARR by helping secure cloud operations for dozens of global organizations in diverse verticals including financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, and information technology. The company has also been recognized in Gartner® research twice this year; in the Cool Vendors™ for the Modern Security Operations Center report³ as well as a Sample Vendor for Cloud Investigation and Response Automation (CIRA) in the Hype Cycle for Workload and Network Security, 2023⁴.

While legacy approaches to detection and response have existed for some time, these traditional approaches fall short of solving the problem in the cloud era. The proliferation of cloud services across infrastructure, platforms, and software has fragmented the security landscape. Without tooling, security operations teams today struggle to manually collect and correlate the explosion of associated telemetry.

Gem Security delivers a purpose-built Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) platform that significantly shortens the time to detect, investigate, and contain cloud-native threats before it’s too late. Moreover, it centralizes real-time visibility into multi-cloud environments, as well as provides cloud-native forensics and automated incident timelining to understand the root causes of a cloud breach.

Gem Security not only supports all major infrastructure platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Kubernetes), but has also successfully collaborated with the AWS and Azure teams to identify and fix vulnerabilities, improving security for millions of users. Gem’s platform easily integrates with existing security tools and workflows (SIEM/SOAR, CSPM, etc.), as well as leading platforms like identity providers, ticketing, source code repositories and secrets managers, leveraging the additional data for context analysis too.

“The cloud changes everything for security operations and incident response teams,” said Gem Security Co-Founder & CEO Arie Zilberstein. “Traditional detection and response approaches weren’t designed to address the dynamic and complex nature of multi-cloud environments, and cloud expertise is in short supply.

“Gem is redefining security operations for the cloud era, empowering teams with a simple, automated, and efficient approach that allows organizations to respond faster and minimize the impact of attacks in the cloud. Over the past year, we have earned the trust of our customers and partners and together we’ll keep enabling cloud transformation while minimizing risk.”

Gem Security’s holistic approach for Cloud Detection and Response bridges the gap between security operations and cloud complexity. The Gem team has years of experience as incident responders working on some of the most sophisticated cloud attacks in the world. Those lessons have been built directly into Gem’s comprehensive platform and workflows, enabling organizations to prepare, detect, investigate, and respond effectively.

“With the shift to the cloud, the security operations model needs to evolve,” said Oren Yunger, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. “Security teams don’t reliably know when they are being attacked, let alone why or how those attacks are occurring. Gem has built a unique platform that allows CISOs and their teams to prepare, detect, respond, and remediate cloud security attacks – with context and fast.”

¹ 2023 State of Cloud Threat Detection and Response Report, Google Cloud.

² Gartner, Emerging Tech: Security — Cloud Investigation and Response Automation Offers Transformation Opportunities, Lawrence Pingree and Mark Wah. 5 June 2023.

³ Gartner, Cool Vendors for the Modern Security Operations Center, Angel Berrios, Jeremy D’Hoinne, Pete Shoard, Evgeny Mirolyubov, Carlos De Sola Caraballo, 30 August 2023.

⁴ Gartner, Hype Cycle for Workload and Network Security, 2023, Charlie Winckless & Feng Gao, July 31, 2023

GARTNER, COOL VENDORS and HYPE CYCLE are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Gem Security
Gem Security is a rapidly growing Cloud Detection and Response platform provider that bridges the gap between security operations and cloud complexity. Headquartered in New York, Gem Security was founded by security industry veterans: CEO Arie Zilberstein, CTO Ron Konigsberg, and VP Product Ofir Brukner. Gem is funded by global investors such as GGV Capital, Team8, IBM Ventures, SVCI, and more. For more information, visit gem.security.

Media Contact:
Lazer Cohen
Concrete Media for Gem Security
[email protected]

SOURCE Gem Security

Capital raise to accelerate product and technology development and support expansion efforts to reshape communications to HCPs (healthcare professionals) across the globe

PARSIPPANY, N.J., Sept. 27, 2023 — Doceree, the leading global network of physician-only platforms for programmatic messaging, today announced a USD 35 million Series B round led by Creaegis, the leading digital and technology investment firm. Existing investors, Eight Roads Ventures, and F-Prime Capital, also participated in the round.

Driven solely by the mission to transform healthcare professional (HCP) marketing globally, the funds will enable Doceree to accelerate product development, augment technologies, scale global expansion, and expand team.

Founded in 2019, Doceree empowers pharmaceutical and life-sciences companies and healthcare media agencies with solutions that seamlessly reach HCPs on their networks and within their digital workflows, to achieve better patient health outcomes. The company, with its largest global network of HCP-only digital platforms, has made rapid strides in HCP communications through its programmatic messaging capabilities, to help clients across the globe maximize performance of their physician engagement initiatives.

“We are pioneering HCP messaging solutions that are first to market. It is incredible to watch our innovative products disrupt the space and drive adoption of programmatic technology in the life-sciences industry, not just in evolved markets like the US, but also elsewhere in the same vein. We have been able to simplify HCP engagement globally with our unique AI-enabled proprietary technology and offer quality end-to-end HCP-targeting solutions that have helped our clients succeed with profitable growth. The pharma messaging space is evolving at a fast pace and our solutions are aligned to meet the immediate requirements of the life sciences industry. The investment speaks volumes about the value we are creating in the space,” said Harshit Jain MD, Founder & Global CEO, Doceree. Jain further added, “We are growing massively and have competitive edge. We are thrilled about the future as we continue to expand and touch new horizons in the space.”

Doceree has grown more than 100% in the last one year with monthly revenue rising five folds between the Series A funding in April 2022 and now. The company has introduced category-first innovations on the demand and supply sides, including Doceree Enterprise, an HCP-focussed global Demand Side Platform (DSP), and Doceree Provider that empowers HCPs to improve health outcomes of their patients. Its HCP marketing ecosystem consists of custom-built solutions that equip life science marketers to engage with physicians at opportune moments with contextual messaging and evaluate campaign performances to improve script lift.

Prakash Parthasarathy, Managing Partner & CIO and Nitish Bandi, Partner, Creaegis, said, “We are excited to partner with Harshit and the Doceree team to support the company in its next phase of growth led by an industry leading digital platform driven by deep learning-based data models. Our past experience of investing in pioneering global SaaS companies and in the healthcare ecosystem will enable us to support the company’s mission to create superior outcomes for pharma brands, providers and patients.”

On the back of the huge response to its solutions in the US, India and the European markets, Doceree expanded its footprints to Africa, Southeast Asia (SEA), and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), curating and iterating solutions that serve the specific needs of marketers in these regions.

“Doceree’s technology platform allows biopharmaceutical companies to connect with physicians like never before. The company’s impressive growth trajectory is an outcome of its unique, data-driven approach to enable communication with precision and relevance. It has been exciting to partner with Harshit and the team since their Series A round, and we are thrilled to continue supporting their pioneering work,” Ashish Venkataramani, Partner, Eight Roads Ventures.

A line-up of smart and connected solutions from Doceree’s product portfolio are awaiting launch in the months to come that will bring massive transformational change to the entire ecosystem globally. The products will facilitate HCP targeting like never before, enriching communications at multiple HCP touchpoints in the professional and clinical journeys of physicians.   

Investec advised Doceree on the Series B transaction.

About Doceree

Doceree is a global platform building unique solutions for healthcare professional (HCP) programmatic messaging with proprietary data tools. It facilitates messaging between life sciences brands and HCPs through an extensive global network of digital endemic and point-of-care platforms to programmatically deliver personalized communications to HCPs at scale. To learn more, visit doceree.com

About Creaegis

Creaegis is a growth investment firm focused on digital and technology businesses with a team history of investing in some of the digital pioneers in India and the US. The firm recently invested in companies such as Kale Logistics (Enterprise SaaS), Zopper (InsurTech) and Medikabazaar (HealthTech). http://creaegis.in/

About Eight Roads Ventures

Eight Roads Ventures is a global venture capital firm backed by Fidelity, with offices in India, China, Japan, and UK. Our 50-year history of investing includes partnerships with over 300 healthcare and technology companies. Eight Roads Ventures’ India healthcare portfolio includes Ashish Life Science, Bicara Therapeutics, Caplin Steriles, Carestack, Cipla Health, Core Diagnostics, Doceree, eKincare, Eywa Pharma, Elucidata, Enzene Biosciences, Enko, Everheal, Immuneel Therapeutics, Laurus Labs, Medwell Ventures, NOCD, Plasmagen Biosciences, Proximie, OZiva, PharmEasy, Richcore Lifesciences, Specsmakers, Spry, Toothsi, Trivitron Healthcare and Ujjala Cygnus. www.eightroads.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2223162/Harshit_Jain_MD.jpg
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1758952/4300121/Doceree_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Doceree Inc.

The leading virtual clinic delivering insurance-covered, expert care for women perimenopause and menopause, Midi Health plans major expansion of national footprint

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 27, 2023 — Midi Health, the emerging digital leader in women’s midlife healthcare, today announced the close of a $25M Series A funding round led by GV (Google Ventures). Investors Frederique Dame and Cathy Friedman from GV are joined by current investors Felicis, Semper Virens, Icon, 25M and Operator Collective, bringing the company’s total funding raised to date to $40M.

In the year since the company officially launched to consumers, Midi Health has already helped tens of thousands of patients and provides care covered by all the major insurance carriers, expanding to 50 states by January 2024. The company will leverage the new capital to expand operations nationwide and to launch additional partnerships with some of the largest hospital systems in the country, as well as major U.S. employers. Midi Health recently announced a partnership with fertility benefits leader, Progyny, to bring midlife care to employers across the US. Current employer clients include Stanford University and ServiceNow, and agreements are in place with healthcare systems clients such as Lifepoint Health.

“Midi has seen meaningful traction since its launch and takes an innovative approach to address an unmet need for nearly half the global population,” said Frederique Dame, General Partner at GV. “Midi’s world-class executive and advisory team has decades of clinical and healthcare expertise and a vision for personalized, affordable, and accessible midlife care. GV is proud to back Midi as they modernize perimenopause and menopause care for women everywhere.”

Every day in the U.S. 6,000 women hit menopause, which is defined as starting 12 months after a woman’s last period. They reach that milestone, on average, at age 51, but perimenopause, the precursor to menopause, can occur much earlier. This lead-up period, when hormones can fluctuate wildly and symptoms may be at their worst and most unpredictable, lasts four to seven years. Symptoms, which may include hot flashes, insomnia, anxiety, depression, brain fog, memory loss, joint pain, and genitourinary problems, have a significant impact on women’s quality of life and career growth. In fact, a recent Mayo Clinic study found that 15% of women cut back on hours or missed work entirely due to their symptoms, costing them about $1.8 billion a year in lost wages.

“It’s clear that menopausal symptoms can derail women’s lives. With far too few practitioners trained in managing menopause, women are underdiagnosed, undertreated, and underserved,” said Midi Health CEO & Founder Joanna Strober. “Midi provides an insurance-covered solution that focuses on women’s unique needs, closing a major gap in health access, quality, and equity.”

To address that gap, Midi Health is rapidly expanding its team of clinicians trained in women’s health. They complete a rigorous training program and participate in ongoing education overseen by world class experts in perimenopause and menopause. The result: A patient CSAT score averaging 95 percent.

Every Midi Health patient receives a personalized care plan based on her health history (including any history of breast and other female cancers), genetic risk factors, ethnicity, and race. Care plans are holistic, combining hormonal and non-hormonal prescription medications, behavior change coaching, evidence-based supplements, and integrative therapy recommendations.

For images, logos and B-Roll please visit: https://www.joinmidi.com/press-room.

About Midi Health
Midi Health is the leading virtual care clinic focused exclusively on women navigating midlife hormonal transition. Our treatment protocols are designed by world-class experts in perimenopause and menopause, and delivered by a team of compassionate clinicians highly trained in women’s midlife health. Midi Health patients receive personalized care plans based on their unique symptoms and health history. Solutions include hormonal and non-hormonal medications, supplements, lifestyle coaching, and vital preventative health guidance. All services are covered by insurance, and conveniently accessible through telehealth visits and 24/7 messaging. With a patient satisfaction score of 95 percent, Midi Health is helping women reach their full potential in midlife and filling an immense gap in the healthcare system. To learn more, visit www.joinmidi.com.

About GV
GV supports innovative founders moving the world forward. We invest across the life sciences, consumer, enterprise, crypto, climate, and frontier technology sectors. With Alphabet as a sole limited partner, GV operates on long time horizons and deals in decades, not rounds. Our operating partners support startups at the earliest stages of company-building across design, equity, diversity & inclusion, talent, and engineering. We also help startups interface with Google, providing unique access to the world’s best technology and talent.

Launched as Google Ventures in 2009, GV has over $8 billion in assets under management and 400 active portfolio companies across North America and Europe. Notable investment outcomes include Uber, Nest, Slack, GitLab, Duo Security, Flatiron Health, Verve Therapeutics, and One Medical. GV is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in Cambridge, New York, and London.

Media Contact:
Lindsay Stevens for Midi Health
Email: [email protected]; M: 213-200-9638

SOURCE Midi Health

MONTREAL, Sept. 27, 2023 – Starpax Biopharma Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing a groundbreaking cancer treatment platform technology, is pleased to announce the launch of its Regulation A+ capital raise. This raise will provide an opportunity for US accredited and non-accredited investors to participate in the company’s mission to revolutionize cancer treatment.

Starpax Biopharma Inc., a biopharmaceutical research and development company, has conceived an unprecedented platform technology to treat cancer using living self-propelled Starpax Magnetodrones^™ that are sensitive to magnetic fields, swim within interstitial spaces of tumor tissues, transport anticancer drug attached to their surface, are non-pathogenic and die approximately 60 minutes after injection. The Magnetodrones are injected directly into the tumor and transport an anticancer molecule used in an FDA-approved treatment that has been used on millions of humans for 20 years. The trajectory of the Magnetodrones is controlled by the Starpax PolarTrak^™ in which the patient is positioned, and that is designed to generate precise 3D guidance magnetic field vectors in order to trap the Magnetodrones inside the tumor and force them to spread and release the anticancer drug throughout the volume of the tumor, including hypoxic zones — without circulating in the bloodstream, thereby avoiding side effects usually resulting from systemic cancer treatments.

The proceeds from the Regulation A+ raise will primarily be used for Starpax Biopharma’s ongoing research and clinical trials on humans for six unmet medical need cancer indications in the following organs: pancreas, prostate, head and neck, breast, colorectal and vulva.

Michael Gareau, founding president of Starpax Biopharma, stated, “We are excited to launch our Regulation A+ capital raise, providing an opportunity for a broader range of investors to join us in our mission to change the way cancer is treated. With the support of our investors, we believe that our technology has the potential to improve the lives of millions of patients worldwide.”

This investment opportunity offers a unique chance to participate in a never-before-seen technology that aims to change the way cancer is treated.

Investors interested in participating in Starpax Biopharma’s Regulation A+ capital raise can get more information by downloading the offering circular and accessing the investor deck at investinstarpax.com 

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please consult the offering circular for more information about these risks and uncertainties.  

Media Contact: [email protected] 

SOURCE Starpax Biopharma Inc.

• Financing led by M Ventures, with participation from GreatPoint Ventures, Riverine Ventures and existing investors Cota Capital, Dynamk Capital, Elm Street Ventures, Embark Ventures, EGB Capital and Khosla Ventures
• Novel microfluidics-based cell engineering platform for ex-vivo cell transfection enabling efficient, flexible, and consistent payload delivery, superior cell health and streamlined workflows for seamless scalability from research to manufacturing
• Funding to advance the development of CellFE’s technology platform and support the company’s market launch and continued growth initiatives

ALAMEDA, Calif., Sept. 27, 2023 — CellFE Inc., www.cellfebiotech.com, a life sciences tools company developing a microfluidics-based cell engineering platform dedicated to transforming the development and manufacturing of advanced cell therapies, today announced the completion of a $22 million Series A financing led by M Ventures, with participation from Great Point Ventures and Riverine Ventures as well as existing investors Cota Capital, Dynamk Capital, Elm Street Ventures, Embark Ventures, EGB Capital, and Khosla Ventures.

The continued clinical and commercial success of advanced biologic therapeutics, such as engineered cell and gene therapies, is driving substantial growth opportunities in this emerging segment of life sciences. Therapy developers are forging partnerships with technology providers, such as CellFE, to advance innovative solutions, with the aim to benefit patients seeking better therapeutic options. CellFE’s innovative, non-viral, microfluidic cell engineering platform, Infinity MTx™ system, performs complex genetic cell editing through streamlined, advanced workflows. The platform ensures gentle cell treatment, rapid cell recovery, and superior yield of healthy cells, enabling unparalleled scalability and significant time and cost efficiencies in development and manufacturing. CellFE empowers therapy developers to accelerate the ongoing evolution of advanced cell therapies across a spectrum of therapeutic areas, unlocking a groundbreaking shift towards true decentralized and point-of-care manufacturing in the cell therapy sector. The launch of the Infinity MTx system at the recent ASGCT 2023 Annual Meeting elicited broad interest from top innovative cell therapy developers globally.

“With our clear path to help redefine cell therapy manufacturing, we are excited to have the backing of such esteemed investors who recognize the potential of our technology and the strength of our team,” said Alla Zamarayeva, CEO of CellFE. “Our vision of advancing the platform to a decentralized and point of care application will expand access to cell therapies for millions of patients.”

“While viral cell engineering methods have been dominating the industry to date, high costs, limited editing capabilities, regulatory hurdles, and safety concerns are driving a shift to non-viral methods. CellFE presents a unique technology platform addressing key industry pain points across viral, but also other non-viral methods,” said Christian Uhrich, Principal at M Ventures. “Offering efficient, flexible, and consistent payload delivery, superior cell health, user-friendly workflows, and process scalability from development to manufacturing, we believe the company offers a compelling value proposition for the increasing number of therapy developers seeking novel solutions. We are delighted to join the company that Alla and the CellFE team have built at this exciting time and to support the company’s future development, growth, and overall vision.”

For further information
CellFE Inc.
Alla Zamarayeva PhD, Chief Executive Officer
[email protected]

About CellFE

CellFE is an innovative microfluidics company, whose mission is to transform the development and manufacturing of lifesaving cell therapies to make them more accessible to patients. The company uses a microfluidic-based cell engineering platform with highest cell health and payload delivery, streamlined scalability and automated workflows. Platform benefits include increased cell yield and reduced expansion times that translate to drastically reduced vein-to-vein times and manufacturing costs currently associated with advanced cell therapies. CellFE is committed to enabling their partners’ success through close collaborations that aim to solve the challenges associated with the development and manufacturing of next generation cell therapies.
https://www.cellfebiotech.com/

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 identifying and financing novel solutions to some of the most difficult challenges, through company creation and equity investments in fields that will impact the vitality and sustainability of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s current and future businesses.
http://www.m-ventures.com/

SOURCE CellFE