The Series B financing was co-led by ShangBay Capital along with Features Capital in addition to participation from Engage Venture Partners, JWC Ventures and a global strategic investor. Laplace Interventional plans to use the funds raised from this round to pursue their First-in-Human (FIH) and clinical feasibility evaluation of its transcatheter valve system.
MINNEAPOLIS, July 24, 2023 — Minnesota based Laplace Interventional, a medical device company developing a transcatheter tricuspid valve technology, announced today that it has completed its first close on its Series B financing co-led by ShangBay Capital along with Features Capital, including participation from Engage Venture Partners, JWC Ventures as well as a global strategic investor. The $12.9M Series B financing will fund Laplace Interventional towards achieving its early clinical feasibility milestones. The company also announced that Jenny Barba, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Features Capital, joined its Board of Directors and Todd Mortier, a serial MedTech entrepreneur had previously joined its Board of Directors.
Laplace Interventional’s device is designed to offer an increase in life expectancy and an improvement to the quality of life to patients diagnosed with Tricuspid Regurgitation (TR). Laplace Interventional is developing a prosthetic valve that will be delivered through through patient vasculature not requiring an open-heart surgery and thereby reducing complications in patients.
“Our team at Laplace has demonstrated feasibility of our technology in a preclinical setting and we are well positioned to execute our clinical feasibility evaluation in the near future,” said Ramji Iyer, Founder and CEO of Laplace Interventional. “We are grateful for the validation of our progress from our new and existing investors. We remain laser focused on our mission of improving the standard of care for patients suffering from tricuspid regurgitation.”
“The Laplace team has made tremendous progress in a very short amount of time. ShangBay is thrilled to co-lead this Series B round to be used towards ultimately making their technology useful in improving the lives of patients worldwide suffering from TR,” said William Dai, Founding Managing Partner at ShangBay Capital.
“Laplace has designed an ingenious medical technology and is positioned to solve one of the largest unmet clinical needs remaining in structural heart disease. Tricuspid valve patients and their physicians deserve an advanced world-class solution. Features is honored to support the remarkable Laplace team in pursuit of their goals,” said Jenny Barba, Managing Partner of Features Capital. “This investment very much aligns with our focus on supporting entrepreneurs to improve clinical outcomes, increase health access, and reduce costs through novel and differentiated MedTech innovation.”
Caution: Laplace Interventional’s device is in the early stage of development phase and is NOT approved or cleared by the FDA or any other regulatory body in any region of the world.
For more information: Laplace Interventional [email protected]laplaceint.com
SINGAPORE, 25 juli 2023 — Het in Singapore gevestigde Motion G, Inc. heeft een nieuwe financieringsronde afgesloten onder leiding van Episteme, Inc., waarmee een extra $ 16 miljoen is opgehaald. Door gebruik te maken van vooruitgang in machine learning-, AIGC-, data science- en digital twin-technologieën, wil het bedrijf een revolutie teweegbrengen in het engineeringproces om de productiviteit aanzienlijk te verhogen.
Via zijn AI-gestuurd generatief engineeringsplatform levert Motion G baanbrekende geïntegreerde oplossingen voor toepassingen in de sector, waaronder motion control en flexibel transport. Het legt de lat voor productiviteit hoger door projecten met ongeëvenaarde snelheid en nauwkeurigheid van concept naar realiteit te brengen. De oplossingen zijn snel toegepast in meerdere sectoren.
In zijn streven om traditionele testmethoden te transformeren, creëert Motion G ook een intelligent testsysteem dat engineers de mogelijkheid geeft om generatieve virtuele tests naadloos te combineren met realtime praktijktests, waardoor de algehele efficiëntie drastisch toeneemt.
Door middel van deze voorbeeldige innovaties is Motion G toegewijd aan het verleggen van de grenzen van wat mogelijk is en het ontwikkelen van een productiviteitsrevolutie in verschillende sectoren.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 24, 2023 — Frigade, a product onboarding and adoption solution for React, announced today $3 million in seed funding. The round was led by Craft Ventures and La Famiglia, with participation from Y Combinator, Defy.vc, and Magic.fund, as well as individual investors such as Vercel founder Guillermo Rauch, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi and Plaid CTO Jean-Denis Greze. This funding will enable Frigade to grow its library of onboarding experiences for developers and support additional web SDKs for B2B SaaS companies. Notable startup customers using Frigade include Encord, a machine learning platform, Replo, an ecommerce site builder, and SaaSGrid, a financial data and reporting platform for startups.
Frigade gives developers the power to easily create quality onboarding flows, activation checklists, and product tours without needing backend development support. The platform offers out-of-the-box user targeting and state management features to simplify development, all while following industry best practices. It also provides React components that can be fully customized to match any brand and app, empowering developers to create singular and seamless user experiences. Now businesses can focus on their core roadmap and let Frigade take care of the hardest parts of onboarding infrastructure.
Most existing digital adoption platforms are built for marketers and managers rather than developers, so they sit on top of products instead of feeling native. Since they’re not defined in the codebase, these solutions often break without teams noticing, and there are limits to what can be built with them. Frigade translates the growth playbooks of leading software companies into ready-made React components, so any company can build and launch quality user onboarding in hours, rather than weeks and months.
“We see many product-led companies building sophisticated onboarding from scratch – reinventing the wheel – since existing no-code tools are too rigid,” said Eric Brownrout, Frigade co-founder and CEO. With Frigade, we’re giving developers a third option: build high-quality, flexible onboarding in code, faster.”
Eric Brownrout and Christian Mathiesen, CTO, first met at LinkedIn in 2015. They saw the potential of internal developer platforms for onboarding and how companies like LinkedIn, Uber, Pinterest, Figma, and more have built them to accelerate growth. Now, the founding duo are creating the off-the-shelf equivalent that makes it easy for all software companies and builders to get the same platform capabilities.
Frigade’s vision is to become the comprehensive customer journey management platform. This includes activating customers with personalized registration flows and getting-started guides, engaging customers with tailored announcements and upsells, and ultimately, retaining customers through regular feedback loops and communications.
“We believe core products should be owned by development and product teams. This produces the delightfully simple user experiences that we all love and expect,” Ryan Hrabak, Investor at Craft Ventures. “Existing digital onboarding and adoption solutions are stubborn and inflexible, and are largely designed for marketers, which leads to disruptions at critical points in the user journey. Frigade’s SDKs put the power of building in-app product onboarding workflows back into the hands of the developer, enabling them to configure and launch seamless guided experiences in far less time, with far fewer resources.”
Frigade recently completed Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 accelerator program. To learn more, visit frigade.com.
About Frigade
Founded by second-time cofounders Eric Brownrout and Christian Mathiesen in 2022, Frigade offers ready-made React components for product onboarding and adoption. Frigade is backed by Y Combinator, Craft Ventures, La Famiglia, Defy.vc, Magic.fund, and Guillermo Rauch. Learn more at Frigade.com.
ATLANTA, July 24, 2023 — Eagle Merchant Partners (“Eagle”), a private equity firm investing in lower middle-market franchise, consumer and industrial companies, today announced the closing of its inaugural fund, Eagle Merchant Partners I, L.P.
The fund closed with over $265 million, well in excess of its initial target. Investors include U.S. and international institutions, endowments, foundations, wealth managers and family offices. Led by Stockton Croft and Bill Lundstrom, Eagle leadership has invested more than $1 billion of equity and is committed to growing founder-owned businesses in the Southeast with $2 million to $20 million of EBITDA.
“We are grateful for the support from our previous investors and the positive response we received from our diverse group of new investors. We appreciate their confidence in our focused investment strategy and experience across our core sectors,” said Stockton Croft, Partner and Founder of Eagle.
“The Eagle team is excited about the six platform investments we have already made in Fund I, all of which are representative of our strategy,” said Bill Lundstrom, Partner and Founder of Eagle. “As we deploy the rest of the fund, we look forward to partnering with additional founders, owners and management teams to help them create value and achieve sustainable growth.”
Having invested in the Southeast for over 20 years, Eagle maintains deep networks in the region, providing strong access to business founders and key intermediaries in the region. The firm applies its Eagle operating playbook to build A+ management teams, invest in portfolio company infrastructure and accelerate growth through acquisitions, new unit development and organic initiatives.
Aviditi Advisors served as exclusive placement agent for the fund and Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal counsel to Eagle.
About Eagle Merchant Partners Eagle is focused on partnering with founder-owned businesses based in the Southeast with unique growth opportunities and targets investments in leading franchise, consumer, and industrial businesses. The partnership is one of the region’s most experienced private equity investors. Eagle serves as a strategic partner and is committed to long-term value creation for its companies at critical transition points. For more information, visit www.eaglemerchantpartners.com
Backed by General Mills, MassMutual, and Bank of America, the firm invests in early-stage food technology companies
LOS ANGELES, July 24, 2023 — Supply Change Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in the future of food, today announced the close of its inaugural $40M Fund. One of the largest Latina-led funds, the firm has deployed over $13 million across 15 early-stage food and agriculture technology companies since June 2021. Investments include deep tech food, agriculture and ingredient companies, supply chain technology, and enterprise software. Latinx, Black, and/or Female Founder/CEOs comprise 80% of the portfolio.
Supply Change Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in the future of food, today announced the close of its inaugural $40M Fund. One of the largest Latina-led funds, Supply Change Capital is led by industry veterans Noramay Cadena and Shayna Harris.
“Supply Change Capital represents the future of food and the venture industry,” said Johnny Tran, managing director, 301 INC, the venture capital arm of General Mills. “As a leading investment firm in early stage food and agriculture technology companies, Supply Change Capital has a pulse on the cultural, demographic, and sustainability shifts needed to usher in the next wave of groundbreaking innovations for our industry.”
Limited Partners in Supply Change Capital include 301 INC, MassMutual through its First Fund Initiative, the Office of the Illinois Treasurer through the Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, Bank of America, Illumen Capital’s Catalyst Fund, and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Supply Change Capital is female and Latina-owned, a rarity in the world of venture capital. According to Pitchbook just 16.1% of venture capital decision-makers are female;1 LatinxVC reports that only 2% of venture capitalists are Latina/Latino.2
“From our intersectional set of investors to our robust portfolio, we’ve seated a venture firm platform that can endure and thrive. Ultimately, each LP, founder, and stakeholder in our community understands the same thing we do: we are on the precipice of a transformative change at the intersection of food, culture, and technology,” said Noramay Cadena, Founder and Managing Partner of Supply Change Capital. “With 40 years of combined operating and investing experience, we’ll be the team leading investments through this evolution to a more inclusive and sustainable food system.”
Supply Change Capital is led by Noramay Cadena and Shayna Harris, two industry veterans who met in business school at MIT Sloan in 2009. With four degrees from MIT and a Fulbright Scholarship between them, the partners have made more than 100 investments to date. Cadena is a mechanical engineer who spent over a decade bringing complex space programs to market at Boeing and then pivoted to venture capital in 2015, investing across sectors and stages. Harris is a sought-after food industry expert, with C-Suite executive leadership and strategy experience in fast-growth food and software startups, and a tenure as a global lead for sourcing and impact at Mars.
Cadena and Harris evaluated the market and uncovered the overlooked and underinvested-in trends that were impacting the $10 trillion global food industry.3
“Supply Change Capital invests in the technologies that underpin a more resilient food system. We invest through the lens of climate and culture, table stakes given the current existential crisis that our planet and society faces,” said Shayna Harris, Founder and Managing Partner of Supply Change Capital. “The food industry is responsible for a third of climate emissions. Multicultural citizens account for nearly all of US population growth; by 2050 there will no longer be a ‘minority’ in the US. However, according to Pitchbook, 98%4 of venture capital dollars go to male founders while Diversity VC estimates that 70% of venture-backed founders are white5, leaving the remaining population nearly untapped for early stage funding and creating a significant opportunity loss for further innovation.”
The Supply Change portfolio illustrates the pivotal opportunity to invest with a sustainability, health, and diversity lens in the food and agriculture industry.
100% of the portfolio companies have positive impacts on environmental, health, and/or diversity outcomes.
73% are focused on positive environmental outcomes related to the atmosphere, soil health, biodiversity and/or water.
60% of the portfolio offers products and services to improve health.
“As an early investor, Supply Change Capital has been an instrumental partner since our pre-seed round,” said Michelle Ruiz of Hyfé, a biotechnology company repurposing food processing wastewater to alternative feedstocks for biomanufacturing. “Noramay and Shayna bring valuable investing, operator, and industry expertise to the cap table. We have recommended other founders to Supply Change and they are one of our strongest investment partners.”
About Supply Change Capital:
Supply Change Capital invests in the future of food. With a lens for culture and climate, investments focus on early stage technology companies that are responding to the seismic shift that is occurring in the $10 trillion global food industry. The firm is women and Latina-owned. Backed by 301 INC (the venture capital arm of General Mills), MassMutual through its First Fund Initiative, the Office of the Illinois Treasurer through the Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, Bank of America, Illumen Capital’s Catalyst Fund, and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, they have invested in 15 companies to date out of their debut fund; Latinx, Black, and/or Female Founder/CEOs comprise 80% of the portfolio.
The firm is led by two GPs who combine food domain expertise with tech and investing experience. Noramay Cadena is an aerospace engineer turned investor. She’s been investing for the last 8 years, including as the GP of a micro VC firm that invested in over 20 manufacturing and supply chain companies. Shayna Harris’ career spans two decades as a pioneering operator and visionary builder. As Chief Operating Officer, she built venture-backed Farmer’s Fridge to tens of millions in revenue. As an intrapreneur, she developed the sustainable commodities program at Mars. The duo met in business school in 2009 and share 4 degrees from MIT and +100 investments between them, including 15 in the Supply Change portfolio. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles and Chicago.
SINGAPORE, July 24, 2023 — Singapore-based Motion G, Inc. has closed a new round of funding led by Episteme, Inc., securing an additional US$16 million. By leveraging advancements in machine learning, AIGC, data science and digital twin technologies, the firm aims to revolutionize the engineering process to significantly drive productivity.
Through its AI-powered generative engineering platform, Motion G delivers groundbreaking integrated solutions for industry applications including motion control and flexible transport, raising the bar for productivity by accelerating projects from concepts to reality with unparalleled speed and accuracy. The solutions have been applied rapidly in multiple industries.
In its pursuit of transforming traditional testing practices, Motion G is also creating an intelligent testing system which will enable engineers to seamlessly combine generative virtual trials with real-time field testing, dramatically increasing overall efficiency.
Through these exemplary innovations, Motion G is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what is possible and engineering a productivity revolution across industries.
The web3 venture capital firm led this $6 million seed round
LOS ANGELES, July 21, 2023 — Shima Capital today announces its seed round investment in Artela Network, a blockchain infrastructure startup founded by a team of industry veterans. Other contributors in the round include A&T Capital, Big Brain Holdings, SevenX, Dispersion, Amino, and others.
The Artela team is pioneering a unique solution designed to answer the rising need for large-scale, decentralized apps by creating a base-layer blockchain network. The unique architecture of Artela encourages developers to create custom extensions in a modular style directly on the blockchain’s base layer. This facilitates improved programmability within the blockchain and equips developers to create custom functions in a nimble and dynamic fashion, speeding up the pace of innovation and widening the scope of possibilities.
“Artela formally brings to web3 the web2 paradigm of aspect-oriented programming by introducing an extensible blockchain network that allows builders to construct modules and extend modular services to achieve chain-native customization within a single public blockchain network,” said Yida Gao, Founder and Managing General Partner at Shima Capital.
Shima is excited for what the future holds at Artela. The company is also introducing an extension layer called Aspect which will allow the inclusion of a user-defined native extension. Aspect amplifies programmability and ensures seamless integration with existing smart contract models. The company has said it plans to release the Aspect whitepaper and kick off the first testnet later in 2023.
Shima Capital is a leading early stage VC firm, founded by Yida Gao in 2021, investing in disruptive blockchain companies. The fund is deeply focused on taking a hands-on approach and working closely with its portfolio companies to provide the most sweat equity per dollar invested. As teams in Web3 push the frontier of innovation, Shima helps hire talent, build community, amplify narratives, and foster the acceleration of technical research and development. Shima is composed of seasoned investors, accomplished operators, and former founders who align on a mission to support all-star teams with building and scaling generational companies. For more information visit https://shima.capital/.
LOS ANGELES, July 21, 2023 — Leveraging its revolutionary platform to link tech startups with the GenZ demographic, Ubique Network is making tremendous strides and exceeding expectations. By implementing a multi-channel strategy approach to startups’ growth, the company provides college students with valuable experiences and career opportunities, forging a path to success for its clients eager to market their product, and elevate their brand.
Doubble app – ambassador yacht party in Marina del Rey, CA.
AI powered headshot Corrado – Founder & CEO
Focusing heavily on optimizing clients’ messages and key performance indicators while ensuring a high conversion rate and low acquisition costs, Ubique Networks is quickly developing a niche in college marketing that resonates with the GenZ audience. Through collaboration with several respective colleges, the company secures talented and passionate individuals that possess various marketing, creativity, integration, and other results-driven skills to establish mutually beneficial relationships with startups. These are Ubique Network’s college-ambassadors.
“Ubique Networks is building, growing, and empowering a community of high-motivated young entrepreneurs by relying on ambassadors to accelerate the success of early-stage tech startups in the marketplace,” explained Corrado Summartia, founder and chief executive officer. “As a startup growth accelerator, we specialize in helping these companies reach their growth marketing goals. We also enhance their organic growth potential by assisting them with their messages, websites, and in-app developments through focus groups and pilot programs.”
An indispensable asset to the company, the ambassadors representing Ubique Network work closely with these brands to promote their products and services on campus, and within their circle of friends, and communities. More specifically, these vital participants utilize multichannel marketing processes to accurately and effectively convey each message – connecting the brand with the community.
Startups We’ve Worked With
Ubique Network has established business relationships with various startups, including the sustainable second hand thrift shopping app Teleport, the AI powered fashion startup Statement, the social media app Katchup, and the dating app Doubble. Instrumental in their success, Ubique has supported their growth initiatives and activations in college marketing operations, consulting, and strategy planning.
What does the future of Ubique Network look like?
Ubique Network plans to forge future partnerships with other startups with mutual interests in working with college students to market their mobile apps to the GenZ audience. The company also aims to empower these students to follow their passion and interest in their respective industries. Ubique Network is planning to assist three more startups in the dating, health and fitness, and social networking industry in the 2023 Fall college semester. Moreover, Ubique envisions continued growth by providing integrated college marketing solutions that build momentum and guarantee high efficiency in a fast-paced environment.
About Ubique Network
Initially launched in October 2022 as a one-man operation, Ubique Network’s digital presence began to take shape the following January. Today, Summaria leads a team of highly trained experts in their field and several contractors. Based in Los Angeles with an office in a co-working space in Beverly Grove at the startup company Spaces, Ubique is focused on connecting early-stage startups with the GenZ audience to attain better conversion rates for startups, and career opportunities for college students. Ubique also partners and supports nonprofit organizations through its extensive college network, and other relative partnerships with student-led organizations in developing targeted growth marketing strategies for user acquisition and brand awareness.
LISLE, Ill., July 21, 2023 — Hubly Surgical, a leader in neurosurgical innovation, has successfully closed its Series Seed funding round at an oversubscribed $3 million. The investment comes on the heels of the company’s recent FDA Clearance for the Hubly Drill, a groundbreaking and patented device poised to revolutionize bedside neurosurgery. The funds will be instrumental in bringing the Hubly Drill to market and driving further advancements in the surgical field.
Hubly Surgical
With FDA Clearance in hand, Hubly Surgical has achieved a significant milestone in its mission to redefine neurosurgical care. The rigorous regulatory approval process ensures the safety and efficacy of the Hubly Drill, giving investors confidence in the company’s trajectory toward financial growth and positive patient impact.
The oversubscribed $3 million Seed round comprises several key investors: the vast majority of the raise came from the Hubly Surgical commission-only distributor sales force, existing Hubly investors, and from neurosurgeons and physician-centric funds. Each group validates a core pillar of the company’s performance metrics and strengthens strategic partnerships.
The secured $3 million funding will drive Hubly Surgical’s growth objectives. The company will expand its commercial launch to three additional regions in the United States, increasing access to the flagship cranial drill product. Further, Hubly Surgical plans to invest in post-market clinical data collection and new product development efforts in partnership with Ontogen Medtech to address additional patient indications.
“FDA Clearance is our most significant milestone to date, but it wouldn’t be as powerful without the resources to commercialize. I am honored and thrilled to have solicited such strong support from our sales force, existing investors, and the neurosurgeon users, all of whom share our vision for transforming neurosurgical procedures,” said Founder/CEO of Hubly, Casey Qadir (m. Grage). “With this investment, we are well-positioned to provide innovative solutions that improve surgical outcomes in all settings.”
About Hubly Surgical Founded in 2019, Hubly Surgical is a medical device company with a mission to improve patient outcomes and quality of care for surgical procedures, inclusively, across standard and underserved settings, starting with bedside cranial surgery. The Company has developed and launched the Hubly Drill with a vision to become the standard of care for bedside cranial access, making its lethal complications a “never event.” The Company is located in Lisle, IL.
For media inquiries, please contact: Casey Qadir (m. Grage) [email protected] 1-(844)-HUBLY-42
