MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 28, 2023 — Turn Biotechnologies co-founder Vittorio Sebastiano will share company data during a presentation on the potential of epigenetic reprogramming to increase human longevity during this week’s 10th Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting (ARDD), the world’s largest longevity forum.
Epigenetic reprogramming is prominent at this year’s meeting, which is expected to attract hundreds of scientists and investors to Copenhagen – and thousands more via video link.
Turn Biotechnologies
Sebastiano will speak during the “Emerging Science and Technology Workshop.” Details of his presentation include:
Title: “Cellular and Tissue Rejuvenation through Epigenetic Reprogramming”
Time: 10:50 a.m. CET on Aug. 31.
Location: Ceremonial Hall, University of Copenhagen, Frue Plads 4, 1171 Copenhagen, Denmark.
“It is an honor to have our work recognized by ARDD, alongside that of the world’s leading longevity experts,” said Turn Bio CEO Anja Krammer. “The fact that Dr. Sebastiano was invited to speak underscores how important the promise of our work is. We believe Turn Bio’s ERA epigenetic reprogramming technology not only has the potential to dramatically improve and people’s lives but also to change what medicine deems possible in the future.”
ABOUT TURN BIOTECHNOLOGIES
Turn Bio is a pre-clinical-stage company focused on repairing tissue at the cellular level and developing transformative drug delivery systems. The company’s proprietary mRNA-based ERA™ technology restores optimal gene expression by combatting the effects of aging in the epigenome. This restores cells’ ability to prevent or treat disease and heal or regenerate tissue. It will help to fight incurable chronic diseases. Its eTurna™ Delivery Platform uses unique formulations to precisely deliver cargo to specific organs, tissues, and cell types.
The company is completing pre-clinical research on tailored therapies targeting indications in dermatology and immunology, and developing therapies for ophthalmology, osteo-arthritis, and the muscular system. For more information, see www.turn.bio.
TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 24, 2023 — Irys Insurtech, Inc., a pioneering insurtech startup, has closed a seed funding round of $3.5 million, marking its entrance into the market dominated by stagnant legacy agency management systems. The funding round was led by Markd, known for its keen interest in groundbreaking insurtech innovations. This investment heralds a new era where traditional insurance distribution processes are challenged and redefined.
Irys, established in 2021, is an open API software platform with a mission to break down the barriers erected by large legacy competitors. Their cutting-edge platform utilizes machine learning (ML) and generative artificial intelligence (AI) to aid insurance brokers by providing critical information exactly when it’s needed.
“Parker Beauchamp, our lead investor, shares our vision of breaking free from outdated, restrictive insurance practices,” says Margeaux Giles, CEO of Irys. “We’ve assembled a group of intelligent, motivated, and unorthodox insurance entrepreneurs. We’re not just shaking the tree; we’re uprooting it.”
This seed round will fuel the scaling of the platform and implementation team, thereby providing the industry a much-needed escape route from the confines of traditional systems. Irys, with its revolutionary spirit and no-nonsense approach, is ready to demonstrate what the future of insurance distribution can and should look like.
Markd’s Beauchamp asserts, “In my distribution experience, there was never a bigger drag on growth, profitability, innovation, and customer happiness than an agency management system. I have no issue with legacy claims of those to be the original insurtechs. They certainly act like it.”
“In Margeaux and her team, we knew we had finally found someone who has been a successful insurance agency account and operations manager, and they created and will continually innovate an AMS other professionals like she all dream of having.”
With this successful funding round which included follow-on investment from prominent insurtech firms Brokertech Ventures, Revtech Labs, Cofounders Capital and Mtech Capital, Irys is geared up to bring a refreshing, innovative approach to an industry in desperate need of change.
About Irys Insurtech, Inc. Irys Insurtech, Inc. is a Tampa-based fintech SaaS company that brings innovative, AI-driven solutions to the insurance industry. Irys is an open APi cloud based management system. By offering a unified workspace that simplifies workflows and ensures data precision, Irys drives significant ROI, enabling companies to organically grow their books and amplify client satisfaction.
About Markd Markd is a venture capital company focused on funding and partnering with transformative insurtechs. It pays homage to the insurance industry’s legacy while helping design its future. Markd’s mission is to power substantial work and continually inspire more ideas to prevent hurt and loss.
SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 24, 2023 — FranklinWH Energy Storage Inc. (“FranklinWH”), a leader in whole-home energy management, today announced that it secured $25 million in Series B funding. The financing round was led by Particle Future to propel FranklinWH’s growth and solidify its position as an innovative leader in delivering whole-home energy freedom for every household in the United States and Puerto Rico.
The funding comes as the U.S. is in the middle of an energy transformation. More than 70% of the U.S. electricity grid is more than 25 years old and vulnerable to disruption. The U.S. Department of Energy announced that two thirds of the country is at risk of a power outage in summer 2023 alone. Today’s changing and complicated energy landscape must support bi-directional energy flow and a variety of renewable energy sources. These developments and other factors, such as infrastructure investments via the Inflation Reduction Act, are paving the way for the ‘age of the battery.’
The funding will support FranklinWH’s mission to create a seamless living experience by integrating diverse energy sources with home battery technology. FranklinWH envisions a world where energy independence is within everyone’s reach, regardless of geographical or socio-economic status. Funding will allow the company to focus on solving the challenge of energy storage and management, which has been a limiting factor in the broader adoption of renewable energy. FranklinWH plans to allocate the invested funds to expand its R&D capabilities, optimize supply chain and scale up its company operations and sales network.
“The best days of renewable energy are ahead of us,” said Gary Lam, Co-Founder of FranklinWH. “Battery storage systems are positioned to expand in the energy market because they are strong alternatives to the vulnerable, outdated and expensive energy grid. This funding from Particle Future will help FranklinWH advance home battery technology and make renewable energy options more accessible.”
Founded in 2019, FranklinWH is originally funded by Sequoia Capital and committed to bringing homeowners energy independence. Its team is well experienced in energy systems and designed the Franklin Home Power (FHP) solution, a whole-home energy management system with AC-coupled storage. After just over one year on the American market, FranklinWH has onboarded over 1,000 installation companies through its FranklinWH Certified Installer program. FranklinWH is AVL listed with multiple financial institutions, and its tier one lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cell access allows it to bring homeowners, installers and distributors the highest-value of battery products.
FHP is FranklinWH’s marquee offering to homeowners providing flexibility and energy independence to homes. FHP’s powerful, integrated home energy management system consists of the aPower battery — offering the highest LFP AC capacity on the market — and the aGate, an intelligent power control system that creates maximum home comfort. The solution is pre-assembled for fast and easy installation.
“Solar panels had their day in the sun over the past few years, but homeowners are becoming interested in pairing solar with other energy efficient technologies to balance a home’s energy supply,” said Vincent Ambrose, Chief Commercial Officer at FranklinWH. “Our Franklin Home Power system is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure and a mix of energy sources, including traditional generators and renewable energy technologies. This provides a smooth, pragmatic transition that minimizes disruption in households adopting renewable energy.”
For more information about FranklinWH, please visit the website.
About FranklinWH
FranklinWH Energy Storage is the manufacturer of the Franklin Home Power system. FranklinWH is a research-driven company focused on next-generation residential energy management and storage solutions. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, FranklinWH’s team has decades of experience in energy systems, from design, through manufacturing, to sales and installation. FranklinWH is also on the Approve Vendor’s List with multiple financial institutions. Learn more about how homeowners can achieve energy independence at franklinwh.com.
Bennin Brings 12 Years of Impact Investing Experience and Passion for Education to His Role as Director
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2023 — Building Hope, the non-profit leader in charter school facilities, financing, and services, today announced the appointment of education impact investor and strategist Andre Bennin to its Board of Directors. Building Hope’s Board now includes 11 directors.
“It is my pleasure, on behalf of Building Hope’s entire Board of Directors, to welcome Andre Bennin to our growing organization,” said Sheila Ryan-Macie, chair of the board of directors. “Andre has committed his career to moving the needle in education, particularly for underserved populations. His breadth and depth of experience in impact investing are invaluable additions as we create new ways for organizations to participate in the public charter school growth effort.”
Bennin currently serves as managing partner of Rethink Education, a leading impact venture capital firm focused on education, where he actively shapes the portfolio, positioning, and thesis. Previously, he held positions at Juvo Ventures and Strada Education Network, working as investment lead on several direct minority, control, and fund investments, and helped spearhead the creation of Indiana’s Next Level Fund while working in the Office of the Governor of Indiana.
“Education has been an extremely important part of my life, as my mother pushed the importance of education to my brother and me from a very young age,” said Bennin, who was born in Côte d’Ivoire before immigrating to the United States. “I have seen firsthand the doors that education opens and how education is a tool for economic mobility. It is in my ethos, and a huge part of who I am, to pay back the opportunities I have had by paying it forward and creating educational opportunities for others.”
Bennin earned both a bachelor of science degree in molecular biology and a juris doctorate from Brigham Young University. He has been recognized by Savoy Magazine as one of the Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America. Over the course of his career, Bennin has served on the boards of Authess, Cell-Ed, BridgeEdu, and Roadtrip Nation, and he has been an advisory board member of Kenzie Academy and GSV Ventures. He currently serves on the boards of Pathstream, a Rethink Education portfolio company, and Believe Circle City High School, a public college and career preparatory high school in Indianapolis.
About Building Hope
Building Hope is a national non-profit that empowers advancements in education through our work with charter schools providing unparalleled facility financing, real estate development, and operational services. We believe a facility should never be the barrier preventing a child from attending a great school. During our 20-year history, Building Hope has invested more than $482 million in high-impact charter schools serving nearly 200,000 children. For more information, visit www.buildinghope.org.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2023 — ExcepGen, a genetic medicine startup, emerged from stealth after the successful completion of its newest funding round. The most recent $4 million round, which brings the company’s total seed funding to $14 million, was led by RA Capital Management and backed by Gravity Fund, Apollo Projects (Sam Altman), and other premier investors.
ExcepGen has been quietly advancing its groundbreaking technology to make nucleic acid therapeutics much more powerful. It works by encoding a specialized “shield” protein alongside the main nucleic acid cargo, which improves how cells react to the foreign DNA or RNA and prevents negative cell signaling. By this mechanism, ExcepGen’s technology could massively expand the reach of both DNA-based and RNA-based genetic medicines by enhancing their effectiveness and tolerability.
“We are excited to support the potential of ExcepGen’s novel platform to enhance nucleic acid therapeutics across a broad range of indications”, said Cosmas Giallourakis, Venture Partner at RA Capital Management.
“Our mission at ExcepGen is to unlock nucleic acid medicines,” said Thomas Folliard, CEO and co-founder at ExcepGen. “This funding validates our aim to make RNA and DNA-based drugs a cornerstone of therapeutics. We are excited to use this new funding to prove out the value of our technology in different therapeutic spaces.”
“We couldn’t be more excited about supporting the ExcepGen team. Engineering cellular response to mRNA vaccines and therapeutics represents a significant leap forward in the development of mRNA technology and, we believe, ultimately allows mRNA technology to reach its full potential. It’s easy to get excited about ExcepGen from a technology and investment standpoint, but we’re most excited about what this technology potentially means in terms of patient outcomes.” said Seth DeGroot, a partner at Gravity Fund.
The newly secured funding will play a pivotal role in accelerating ExcepGen’s research and development efforts, as well as advancing its collaborations with other companies.
For media inquiries and more information, please contact: [email protected]
About ExcepGen:
ExcepGen is an early-stage biotechnology company at the forefront of the nucleic acid therapeutics revolution. Leveraging its proprietary platform, the company aims to expand the boundaries for RNA and DNA-based therapies and open the door to entirely new classes of genetic medicines. ExcepGen was co-founded by Barbara Mertins and Thomas Folliard and is based in San Francisco.
Venture Growth Equity Firm Raises New Fund to Continue Focus on Modernizing Healthcare
WASHINGTON and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2023 — Questa Capital Management, a venture growth equity firm exclusively dedicated to the healthcare industry, today announced the final close of Questa Capital Partners III, LP (the “Fund”) with $397 million of capital commitments, bringing the firm’s aggregate committed capital to more than $1 billion. The Fund will invest selectively in a portfolio of growth companies in three healthcare sectors of focus: services, technology, and medical devices. The firm has an investment team of ten led by Founder Ryan Drant and Managing Partners Brad Sloan and Shawn Conway, and currently manages eighteen portfolio companies across its three healthcare sectors.
The Fund secured commitments from a diversified blue-chip investor base comprised of leading endowments, family offices, foundations, consultants, pension plans and fund-of-funds.
Questa Founder and Managing Partner Ryan Drant noted, “We are extremely pleased to close on Fund III despite a challenging fundraising environment. We are both grateful for the strong interest and ongoing support from our existing investors, and pleased to be starting long-term relationships with a small group of exceptional new limited partners. We are honored to work closely with our portfolio companies, including marquee companies like Dispatch Health, Cortica, Medrio, and Calyxo. We are also energized by the opportunity set we see in the market, and look forward to continuing to build differentiated and high-growth healthcare companies in close collaboration with strong management teams. Questa will continue to partner with companies that share our vision and passion to improve clinical outcomes, efficiency, safety, and the patient experience to help address critical challenges in our healthcare system.”
Questa Capital’s record of being an active and collaborative partner for the companies in which it invests is a hallmark of the firm’s approach. The Questa team brings deep sector expertise in healthcare services, technology, and medical devices, and a deep network and industry experience to help guide portfolio companies toward leading market positions and accelerated growth.
Value-based care is an important investment theme at Questa, and Fund I portfolio company Cortica is an excellent example of Questa’s activity in the sector. “As Cortica continues to grow rapidly, Questa Capital has been an exceptional partner for our company as we build our team, broaden our relationships, and execute on our geographic expansion,” said Neil Hattangadi MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Cortica. “Ryan and Brad are both extremely valued leaders on the Cortica board of directors. We congratulate them on their success in raising Fund III and look forward to our continued close collaboration.”
Gunderson Dettmer served as legal counsel and Acalyx Advisors served as advisors to Questa Capital.
About Questa Capital Management
Questa Capital is a venture growth equity firm focusing on investments in expansion-stage healthcare companies. Questa seeks out disruptive, technology-enabled business models that help improve patient lives, streamline market inefficiencies, and provide better quality care. The firm partners with superior management teams to help build innovative market leaders in the healthcare services, technology, and medical devices sectors. Questa is led by industry veterans Ryan Drant, Brad Sloan and Shawn Conway, leaders in healthcare investment and operations who have invested in and advised more than 60 growth-stage companies. More information is available at www.questacapital.com.
The funding round led by Premji Invest fast-tracks the growth of Ikigai’s No Code AI Platform Built with Large Graphical Models
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2023 — Ikigai Labs, a company that unlocks the power of generative AI for tabular data, today announced $25M of new capital by Premji Invest with participation from Foundation Capital and e& capital. The capital will further Ikigai Lab’s vision to revolutionize the way enterprises harness AI. Organizations can be trained to master AI leveraging the Ikigai Academy and using the Ikigai platform that is easy, fast and powerful by design.
Organizations are awash in data that is sitting in spreadsheets, databases, and cloud datastores, but making use of this tabular data brings a host of challenges that makes it difficult to build, maintain and mitigate risks with limited skilled resources. To effectively forecast and conduct scenario-based planning requires harnessing deep, complex data sources from disparate areas across the enterprise. Ikigai Labs solves these challenges by pairing its best-in-class time series forecasting with its no-code AI platform built on top of its three proprietary foundation blocks – aiMatch, for data reconciliation, aiCast, for prediction and aiPlan, for scenario planning and optimization – together with expert-in-the-loop (EiTL), an innovative addition for reinforcement learning. Along with this easy, fast and powerful platform, Ikigai Academy has already trained over 6000 students from 90+ countries on topics like “No Code AI” and “Time Series Forecasting“.
“I see the challenges that individuals face in understanding what can be done with their tabular data, together with the struggle for enterprises to leverage the latest technological innovations in AI,” said Devavrat Shah, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Ikigai Labs and Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Chair Professor of AI and Decisions at MIT. “With Ikigai, we see a clear opportunity to help the global workforce harness the power of AI. We are excited to work with Premji Invest, Foundation Capital, e& capital and luminaries like Diane Greene, who are enabling us to make Generative AI for tabular data truly effective across enterprises.”
“Ikigai’s founding team possesses a depth of industry and go-to-market expertise that can push the AI frontier to the center of business operations and decisions. Their innovation with large graphical models will be embraced by all enterprises that look to apply generative AI to drive meaningful business insights,” said Sandesh Patnam, Managing Partner, Premji Invest. “Premji Invest is focused on investing in innovative companies with exceptional growth potential and creating enduring value. In Ikigai, we see a company that brings all of this to bear while creating a N of 1, category defining company!”
“Ikigai is led by industry experts who uniquely possess a combination of enterprise expertise and deep research in the field of AI. Ikigai’s potential to help scale enterprises with AI by solving data engineering and modeling problems for the business user is truly unique,” said Ashu Garg, General Partner, Foundation Capital. “Ikigai’s ability to simultaneously solve several challenges with time series – missing data, forecasting with accuracy, learning from multiple time-series in presence of continual change – really positions them as a premier option for enterprise clients. We are excited about the early adoption Ikigai has established within enterprises, and their potential impact across all industries.”
About Ikigai Built upon years of MIT research, Ikigai’s AI app platform provides enterprises with the insight they need to make faster, better decisions to drive growth. Using breakthrough technology to conduct forecasting, scenario planning and data preparation and stitching, enterprises can generate data insights at scale and detect patterns to gain a competitive edge. With Ikigai’s Large Graphical Models, any data can also be trained to help businesses revolutionize the way they operate, scale and grow. To learn more and try Ikigai, visit https://www.ikigailabs.io. Follow our blog and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), APERIO accelerates its mission to bring data quality to more Global 500 companies.
BOSTON, Aug. 24, 2023 — APERIO, a category leader in operational data quality, today announced it has closed $9M in Series A1 funding. The round was led by Momenta, the Industrial Impact venture capital + growth firm, and joined by investors including Chevron Technology Ventures, NextEra Energy, National Grid Partners, Delek US, and Bazan Group. The funding will be used to further grow the team, invest in the product, and improve the customer experience.
“In an extremely challenging market, we were able to secure multiple term sheets, partnering with Momenta to lead this funding round,” says Jonas Hellgren, CEO, APERIO. “We intend to expand the core team to meet increasing customer demand, as the need for our software continues to accelerate and expand into new industries.”
Expanding Market
“We are thrilled to invest in APERIO,” said Michael Dolbec, Managing Partner at Momenta. “Their solution directly addresses the data-quality roadblocks faced by manufacturers hoping to unlock the full potential of AI. APERIO’s tools and approach tackle data-quality issues at scale, enabling manufacturers to improve their operational technology data infrastructure and governance. Manufacturers will gain improved operational decision-making and a competitive advantage.”
Accelerating Growth and Vision
APERIO has been on a remarkable growth trajectory since its first round of funding in October 2020. Its solution is now in use by dozens of large industrial customers, including some who have invested in APERIO, to address the reliability of their operational data for optimizing performance and minimizing business risk.
APERIO’s solution is designed to solve a wide range of operational data quality issues and has drawn a range of investors. “Improving the scale and quality of data is critical to the reliability of unattended facilities. APERIO’s technology has the potential to help solve the data quality problem at scale,” said Jim Gable, Vice President, Innovation and President of Technology Ventures at Chevron. “This is the latest investment from our Core Fund VII, which focuses on high-growth startups and breakthrough technologies that have the potential to improve Chevron’s core oil and gas business performance as well as create new opportunities for growth. We welcome APERIO to the portfolio.”
This new funding follows the release of APERIO DataWise 2.0 earlier this year, which added advanced tools like comprehensive root cause analysis and event pattern recognition, and was designed to improve the user experience through intuitive workflows and issue prioritization. More to come as this funding will add additional features, aimed at helping APERIO scale to meet customer demand.
Raise Follows 300% YoY Business Growth Driven by Demand for Proactive Innovative Solutions to Mitigate Surging U.S. Gun-Related Violence Epidemic
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 24, 2023 —ZeroEyes, the creators of the only AI-based gun detection video analytics platform that holds the US Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Designation, today announced it has secured $23 million in capital on the heels of dramatic growth surpassing 300% over the last year. The oversubscribed round was led by Octave Ventures, Alliance Holdings, and other existing investors.
Save Time and Save Lives with ZeroEyes AI Gun Detection Solution
Demand for the company’s AI gun detection and intelligent situational awareness software continues to accelerate as schools consider their safety readiness amid devastating statistics that show more than 200 reported school shootings in 2023 to date. The funds will be used to fuel continued growth with investments in R&D, channel partnership programs and business operations expansion.
The oversubscribed round further demonstrates the pressing need for innovative solutions to curb the gun-related violence epidemic in the United States. ZeroEyes is currently deployed in thousands of buildings for hundreds of customers in 37 states, with great momentum. Growth has been driven by demand from the original K-12 market, commercial sectors including retail, gaming and healthcare. Additionally, new gains have been fueled through growing contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense through ZE Government Solutions (ZEGS), a wholly owned subsidiary of ZeroEyes that delivers advanced dual use AI, proactive threat detection and situational awareness of complex threats for U.S. national security.
“ZeroEyes has demonstrated a remarkable ability to execute on its important mission and we are excited about their future as they continue to achieve wide adoption and staggering growth,” said Michael Kim, Founder of Octave Ventures.
“These funds will allow us to continue scaling to meet surging demand as schools, houses of worship, businesses, communities and even the Federal government seek viable, affordable and most importantly proactive solutions to address the gun-related violence problem in our country,” said Mike Lahiff, CEO and co-founder, ZeroEyes.
ZeroEyes provides AI gun detection and intelligent situational awareness software that is layered onto existing digital security cameras. When an illegally brandished gun is identified, images are instantly shared with the ZeroEyes Operations Center (ZOC), staffed 24/7/365 by specially trained U.S. military and law enforcement veterans. If these experts determine that the threat is valid, they dispatch alerts and actionable intelligence, including visual description, gun type and last known location, to local staff and law enforcement in as fast as 3 to 5 seconds from detection.
About ZeroEyes ZeroEyes delivers a proactive, human-verified AI gun detection software solution that integrates into existing digital security cameras and helps to mitigate mass shootings and gun-related violence by reducing response times, providing actionable intelligence with images and delivering clarity among chaos – ultimately saving lives. ZeroEyes’ patented solution has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a promising anti-terrorism technology and is the first video analytics technology to receive SAFETY Act DT&E Designation.
Founded by Navy SEALs, Special Operations military veterans, and technologists, ZeroEyes dispatches accurate and real-time actionable intelligence about the illegal brandishing of a gun near or in an occupied area or building, to local staff and law enforcement with an image of the shooter(s) and location of the threat, in as fast as 3 to 5 seconds from the moment the gun is detected. The ZeroEyes team also provides tech consulting, installation assistance and practice drills for active shooter events to enhance safety at schools, corporate and government facilities. Headquartered in the Greater Philadelphia area, the company’s affordable and effective gun detection solution has been adopted by the US Department of Defense, leading public K-12 school districts, colleges / universities, healthcare facilities, commercial property groups, manufacturing plants, Fortune 500 corporate campuses, shopping malls, big-box retail stores and more. Learn more about ZeroEyes atZeroEyes.com.
