–Firm Closed Record Number of Tactical Credit Investments in Q4,
Focused Principally on Specialty Finance and Corporate Lending–  

–Siguler Guff Also Launched its First Evergreen Credit Fund for Tactical Credit
and Its Credit Platform Raised Over $1.2 Billion—

NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2025 — Siguler Guff & Company, LP (“Siguler Guff” or the “Firm”), a multi-strategy private markets investment firm with approximately $18 billion of assets under management, today announced that it ended 2024 with a record quarter of deal activity across its Tactical Credit investment strategy. Tactical Credit, one vertical of the Firm’s private credit offerings, is an absolute return investment strategy focused on private credit across specialty finance and corporate lending, with the flexibility to capitalize on market dislocations within traded credit. The strategy seeks investments with stable income, low market correlation, and shorter duration.

The record quarter deal flow follows a strong overall fundraising year for the broader Siguler Guff credit platform, which raised over $1.2 billion in new commitments during the last twelve months.  During 2024, the Firm also brought to market its first evergreen fund, Siguler Guff Tactical Credit Evergreen Fund (‘TCEF’), which had its first closing in May 2024 and has accepted additional capital since then.

A highlight of certain deals closed in Q4 includes:

• Lead lender and administrative agent for a $54 million senior secured credit facility to support a private equity firm’s acquisition of a provider of asset-efficient auto logistics solutions for blue-chip auto manufacturers
• Sole lender and administrative agent for a $50 million senior secured credit facility to a digital transformation firm owned by an independent sponsor and family office
• Sole lender for $30 million B-Note of a senior secured loan to finance the third phase of luxury condominium development located in South Florida
• $50 million commitment to a programmatic forward flow agreement to purchase personal installment loans with an attractive equity cushion from a large, long-established originator
• $35 million secondary purchase of a portfolio of LP interests in 4 alternative credit funds

“We were pleased by the record pace and range of tactical credit investments during the fourth quarter,” said Michael Apfel, Partner and Head of Credit and Special Situations at Siguler Guff. “We are currently finding exceptional opportunities in asset-backed finance, lending to businesses with less than $50 million of EBITDA, and real estate lending, which we expect to continue in 2025. With our flexible mandate, we are fortunate in that we can take advantage of all market conditions.” 

Drew Guff, Co-Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Siguler Guff, added, “Siguler Guff has built an information and sourcing edge which the firm fostered over nearly 30 years. We believe the real value for investors in private markets is not in increasingly larger and more competitive deals, but rather in more difficult-to-access niches, smaller companies, and complex situations where demand for capital is at a premium and risk-adjusted return profiles are superior.”

Since 2002, Siguler Guff’s credit platform has invested $9 billion through evolving economic and market environments and provides a range of credit investment strategies focused on direct corporate lending, specialty finance, and special situations investing.

About Siguler Guff

Siguler Guff is a multi-strategy private markets investment firm with approximately $18 billion of assets under management and more than 29 years of investment experience. Siguler Guff seeks to generate strong, risk-adjusted returns by focusing opportunistically on market niches. Siguler Guff’s core investment strategies include private credit and special situations, small business private equity, real estate and emerging markets. Siguler Guff’s investment products include direct investment funds, multi-manager funds and customized separate accounts targeting specific areas of compelling opportunity. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in New York, Siguler Guff maintains offices in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Houston, TX, and West Palm Beach, FL. To learn more about Siguler Guff, please visit www.sigulerguff.com.

SOURCE Siguler Guff

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 6, 2025 — As electric-vehicle sales continue to increase, Presto, an all-in-one EV charging platform, announced today that it has raised $15 million in seed funding from Union Square Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, and Jetstream. Through Presto’s top-rated app and APIs, fleets can find, charge, and pay for reliable on-the-go charging across thousands of Presto’s partner public charging stations. These new funds will be used to onboard new fleets, integrate more chargers, and add new features.

Founded in 2023 by J.J. Raynor and Ashwin Dias, former Uber executives who launched Uber’s electrification program, Presto’s platform is used by some of the largest electric fleets, including Uber, Avis, Hertz and Zipcar.

Fleets and drivers are rapidly choosing electric vehicles for their lower total costs, reduced maintenance, and clean air benefits. As of Q3 2024, 9% of all U.S. car sales were electric. However, finding and accessing reliable public charging continues to be a barrier to EV adoption. There are now more than 200,000 public charging stations operated by over 50 different companies, each with their own software, mobile apps, and charging hardware. For fleets, navigating this diverse charging ecosystem while on-the-go is a challenge. 

Presto simplifies charging by enabling fleets to seamlessly find, charge, and pay across thousands of charging stations operated by Presto’s charging partners through one easy-to-use app or API. Presto’s machine-learning recommendation engine ingests real-time information on charger availability and reliability to recommend chargers to fleets for reliable charging. 

“Presto addresses a critical gap in the EV ecosystem—a unified and effortless charging experience—that enables fleets and their drivers to charge across networks,” said J.J. Raynor, co-founder and CFO of Presto. “This new funding allows us to scale up our efforts to support more fleets and charging partners.”

Large fleets have found immediate success working with Presto. Car rental companies, including Avis, Hertz, and Zipcar provide the Presto app to their customers when they rent an EV, making it easier for them to charge during their rental. Uber drivers, who have been rapidly switching to electric vehicles, get access to special pricing with EVgo in addition to charging across networks via the Presto app. 

“J.J. and Ashwin saw a problem that EV rideshare drivers deal with every day and they jumped in to fix it,” said Rachel Pinkham, Head of US&C Electrification Operations at Uber. “What really stands out is their customer-centric approach—features like price discovery and the recommendation engine are clever, practical tools that genuinely help drivers save time and money.” 

“Easily accessible electric vehicle charging is crucial for a smooth member experience and to drive sustainable transportation further,” said Will Sowers, Senior Manager of Public Partnerships and Policy at Zipcar. “Since each Zipcar is shared between 50 to 90 members and sees more use than a personal vehicle, our professional fleet teams use Presto to help maintain our electric vehicle fleets in select cities.” 

For its charging partners, Presto helps them onboard more fleet charging demand, grow charger utilization and improve charging economics. EV chargers are expensive to deploy—a typical fast charger installation costs between $116,000 and $167,000. As a result, charging operators naturally want to maximize charger utilization while minimizing congestion and optimizing for customer experience.

“Presto has made onboarding new fleet customers easy for us,” said Kate Gridley, Business Development Lead at EVgo. “Presto’s platform provides fleets with the tools they need to charge seamlessly, and fleet usage has been an important driver of our rising network utilization.” 

Nick Grossman, partner at Union Square Ventures who led the firm’s investment in Presto said, “We believe in J.J. and Ashwin’s vision to create a unified platform that transforms EV charging into a magical experience.  Presto’s traction with both fleets and charge point operators speaks to the urgency and size of the opportunity.”

With the new funding, Presto plans to scale up its operations and continue investing in its technology to support more fleets and charging partners on their road to electrification.

About Presto
Presto is an electric vehicle (EV) charging platform that powers seamless and reliable charging experiences for fleets, mobility providers, and businesses. Presto’s platform makes working with fleets seamless for charging partners, while fleet partners can quickly and easily roll out an all-in-one charging solution using Presto’s highly-rated mobile app (available for iOS and Android) or integrate charging into their customer experiences using Presto’s easy APIs. Learn more at www.prestocharging.com.

Business Contact
[email protected]

Media Contact
Chris Allieri
Mulberry & Astor
[email protected]

SOURCE Presto

The Fund features a high-quality venture portfolio targeting top-performing, oversubscribed funds and companies

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., Feb. 6, 2025 — Leading global private markets investment management firm Hamilton Lane (Nasdaq: HLNE) today announced the final close of its Venture Access Fund (“VAF” or “the Fund”), which successfully exceeded its target fund size, raising $615.3 million in commitments. 

VAF, which closed 23% over its $500 million target, features a venture portfolio that targets top-performing, oversubscribed funds and companies, while leveraging the extensive platform, access and relationships Hamilton Lane has built over its nearly 30 years of investing in the space. The Fund’s unique composition of primary and secondary transactions is designed to accelerate capital back to investors and mitigate the J-curve, providing Limited Partners with a fee-efficient, best-in-class VC solution.

Building on Hamilton Lane’s extensive track record and nearly $117 billion in AUM and AUA* across venture and growth equity, VAF is the firm’s first globally distributed venture vehicle and represents an evolution of its Venture and Growth Equity Platform. The fundraise centered on attractive venture capital market dynamics and LP demand, with participation from a group of global and diversified investors, spanning public and corporate pension funds, financial institutions, Taft-Hartley plans, family offices and foundations and endowments.

Miguel Luina, Co-Head of Venture and Growth Equity at Hamilton Lane, commented: “We are thrilled to announce the final close of the inaugural Venture Access Fund, which surpassed our target fund size despite the difficult fundraising environment. This achievement is a testament to the confidence our clients and investors have in our ability to access premier venture opportunities and navigate a dynamic market. 

VAF represents a unique opportunity for investors to gain exposure to what we believe to be best-in-class venture capital managers, breakout companies, well-priced secondaries and high-potential co-investments. Our institutional approach to portfolio construction and strong relationships aimed to deliver a high-quality experience to investors of all types.”

“For those with scale, expertise and strong relationships, the current VC market presents compelling opportunities, driven by active company formation and rapid value creation from AI and other disruptive technologies, and lower overall capital availability. Specifically, the opportunity set within the secondary market is robust, as the trend of companies staying private longer persists, causing existing shareholders to seek alternative methods of liquidity,” said Matt Pellini, Co-Head of Venture and Growth Equity at Hamilton Lane.

The firm has been active in the venture and growth equity space for nearly three decades, with deep experience investing across separately managed accounts, including its annual commingled Hamilton Lane Venture Capital Fund series, which was first established in 2009. Hamilton Lane is focused on concentrating capital into what it believes to be best-in-class, high-growth companies through fund investments with venture and growth managers, direct investments and solution-oriented secondaries. The strategy is designed to produce an asymmetric return profile that limits losses, while capturing the attractive upside that venture and growth equity investments can provide. For more on the firm’s Venture and Growth Equity Platform, click here.

*As of 9/30/24

About Hamilton Lane

Hamilton Lane (Nasdaq: HLNE) is one of the largest private markets investment firms globally, providing innovative solutions to institutional and private wealth investors around the world. Dedicated exclusively to private markets investing for more than 30 years, the firm currently employs approximately 740 professionals operating in offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Hamilton Lane has $956 billion in assets under management and supervision, composed of nearly $135 billion in discretionary assets and more than $821 billion in non-discretionary assets, as of December 31, 2024. Hamilton Lane specializes in building flexible investment programs that provide clients access to the full spectrum of private markets strategies, sectors and geographies. For more information, please visit our website or follow Hamilton Lane on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Hamilton Lane

Funding Fuels Global Expansion with New Facilities that Strengthen Supply of Chitosan Chemistries.

BELLINGHAM, Wash., Feb. 5, 2025 — Tidal Vision, a biotechnology company transforming critical industries with chitosan-based chemistries, announced the closing of an oversubscribed $140M Series B financing round. The round exceeded its original target due to demand from strategically aligned investors including Cambridge Companies SPG, Eni Next (the corporate venture arm of Eni S.p.A), Milliken & Company, KIRKBI Climate, Convent Capital, SWEN Capital Partners’ Blue Ocean Fund, MBX Capital, Oman Investment Authority’s IDO Investments, and more.

This financing fuels Tidal Vision’s ability to continuously increase the performance, economics, and ease of adoption of chitosan-based solutions with greater production capacities and expanded research and development resources. The company is building new infrastructure in Europe, Texas, and Ohio, further expanding its footprint. Resources will also be invested in accelerating R&D in chitosan and adjacent technologies, adding to the company’s already impressive intellectual property portfolio. With a greater number of both commercial-scale and R&D facilities around the world, Tidal Vision will make chitosan-based solutions more accessible to customers globally.

“We are thrilled to have these strategically aligned capital partners onboard and supportive of accelerating our mission,” said Craig Kasberg, CEO of Tidal Vision. “We’ve already demonstrated it’s possible to make our biomolecular solutions outcompete. Now, we’re building infrastructure that’ll allow us to better serve customers who operate in critical industries providing the clean water, agriculture production, and materials necessary for everyday life.”

“We’re pleased to have led this $140M Series B growth equity round for Tidal Vision,” said Filipp Chebotarev, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Cambridge Companies SPG. “Tidal Vision is the global leader in chitosan extraction, modification, characterization, and commercial applications. These important investments will enable Tidal Vision to continue to apply these crucial scientific breakthrough technologies commercially across a variety of sectors.”

About Tidal Vision: 
Tidal Vision is a global leader in scalable biomolecular solutions for critical industries, such as water treatment, agriculture, and material science. Our mission is to create positive and systemic environmental impact. We’re building a world where chitosan-based technologies are more economical, better performing, and easier to adopt. We invite the leaders of modern industry to join us in creating systemic impact globally.

Learn more at www.TidalVision.com and on LinkedIn. 

SOURCE Tidal Vision

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOURCE Pittco Management, LLC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOURCE Semgrep

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About GetWhys:

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

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

SOURCE GetWhys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOURCE Overlap Holdings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Media Contact
[email protected]

SOURCE Comma