• In the first 12 months on market, the ~8-minute FDA-cleared IntelliSep test has helped hospitals save lives and money while delivering patient-centered care
• These real world outcomes attracted investors to help accelerate commercialization and arm emergency departments across the U.S. with this early sepsis detection technology

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2024 — Cytovale^®, a commercial-stage medical diagnostics company focused on advancing early detection technologies to diagnose fast-moving and immune-mediated diseases, today announced it has raised $100 million in Series D funding led by Sands Capital. The round included participation from new investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), as well as existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Global Health Investment Corporation and Breakout Ventures, an early backer of the company. Cytovale will use the funding to build upon its early clinical success and accelerate commercial expansion of IntelliSep to more hospital emergency departments (ED) and health systems nationwide.

“Sepsis is the largest single condition presenting to the Emergency Department where there hasn’t been an effective diagnostic to quickly and effectively triage patients. Cytovale’s IntelliSep test has now been demonstrated, prospectively, to help save lives and money by doing just that,” said Parker Cassidy, partner, Sands Capital. “We’re excited to lead this financing and help accelerate Cytovale’s commercial launch.”

IntelliSep is the first and only U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared cellular host diagnostic indicated for use in the ED, where over 80% of sepsis cases present. The test, which takes only approximately eight minutes, provides clinicians a first-ever look into the biology that causes sepsis, enabling care teams to quickly and confidently identify the proper diagnosis and deliver appropriate, patient-centered care.

“Seeing sepsis is a major breakthrough; IntelliSep allows our care teams in the Emergency Department to quickly and accurately triage and diagnose suspected infection patients and put them on the right path for treatment,” said Dr. Christopher Thomas, chief quality officer, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. “The meaningful clinical, operational and financial benefits we have experienced have led us to implement IntelliSep across all major hospitals in our health system.”

IntelliSep launched in August 2023 at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, La. The hospital has reported that, as a result of an IntelliSep-driven screening process, patients with occult sepsis were detected earlier and had treatment initiated more than 60 minutes faster. The hospital also saw a 30% decrease in the risk-adjusted mortality index for sepsis patients. From an operational and financial perspective, patients tested with IntelliSep spent 1.28 fewer days in the hospital, and realized a savings of $1,400 per patient.

“Sepsis has historically been one of the most challenging and costly conditions for hospitals to manage due to the lack of rapid, objective diagnostic tools. Thankfully, that’s finally changing with IntelliSep, which holds the potential to transform sepsis care in the same way troponin tests did for cardiac care and rapid CT scans did for stroke diagnosis,” said Cytovale CEO Ajay Shah, PhD. “Cytovale is growing at an astounding pace to meet demand from other health systems looking to tackle this deadly condition. The additional investment will enable us to quickly scale across the U.S. with greater agility to serve health systems and their patients.”

About Cytovale^®
Cytovale is committed to improving patient care by pioneering early detection technologies that assess immune activation to accelerate the time it takes to get from triage to life-saving therapies. Cytovale’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration-cleared rapid sepsis diagnostic, IntelliSep^®, leverages machine learning and advanced microfluidics to provide Emergency Department clinicians with an objective and highly sensitive early detection tool for sepsis. IntelliSep measures the dysregulated immune system response to infection that would indicate sepsis and generates results in about eight minutes using a standard blood draw. Cytovale is based in San Francisco and venture-backed by Norwest Venture Partners, Sands Capital, Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC), CPP Investments, Breakout Ventures and other leading investors. For more information, visit www.cytovale.com and follow Cytovale on LinkedIn and X.

SOURCE Cytovale

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Thomvest Ventures leads the round with significant participation from M12; the privacy and security platform expects to double ARR in 2024

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2024 — Relyance AI, the leading AI-powered data governance platform that provides complete visibility and control over enterprise-wide data, today announced a $32.1 million Series B funding round to scale operations and meet the needs of the exploding use of artificial intelligence in the enterprise. Thomvest Ventures led the round. M12, Microsoft Ventures Fund, also participated in addition to Cheyenne Ventures and existing investors Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures.

As demand for AI surges in the enterprise, global regulators are mandating data protection safeguards that companies find impossible to implement. At the same time, legal, security, and engineering teams are grappling with endless questions about how customer data is being used to train AI models. The impact? Executives are stifled by their inability to realize AI’s innovation potential, and according to KPMG, more than two-thirds (76%) of enterprises are worried about data privacy and security when they partner with third parties. The result could be catastrophic: more than a quarter of the Fortune 500 identified AI regulation as a risk in annual reports to the SEC, and many continue to struggle with established data privacy regulations such as GDPR, which led to a record €2.1 billion in fines in 2023.

This has become a business-critical problem for all enterprises that was impossible to solve before Relyance AI’s fully integrated governance platform. Until now, privacy and security have been seen as separate challenges, with one woefully unaware of the other. Privacy teams didn’t know if their commitments to regulations and customers were being met, and security teams didn’t know what data should be in AI models. Relyance AI marries the two into one joint solution, which is the only way to enable innovation while ensuring compliance in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.

“The era of accepting subpar privacy, DSPM, and AI governance solutions is over. Relyance AI sets a new standard where data protection and innovation are not mutually exclusive,” said Abhi Sharma, CEO and co-founder of Relyance AI. “It’s impossible to keep up with the current state of regulations, especially when GDPR, HIPAA, the EU’s AI Act, and a mosaic of local U.S. privacy laws are all different and sometimes at odds. We’re making it possible to demystify this and embolden the C-suite, engineers, and legal teams to urgently green-light AI in the enterprise with an integrated governance approach.” 

Relyance AI safeguards businesses from fines and reputation damage while boosting customer trust to accelerate business growth. The platform provides complete visibility into enterprise-wide data processing and compares it against contractual commitments, global privacy regulations, and compliance frameworks. The company has scaled significantly to meet recent demand for these capabilities. In the first half alone, Relyance AI increased its enterprise customer base by 30%, and the company is projected to double its annual recurring revenue in 2024. Its client list now includes Coinbase, Fivetran, Verkada, Snowflake, Logitech, Plaid, and Notion.

“We’re thrilled to lead the investment in Relyance AI, a unique, automated data governance platform that addresses the urgent need for real-time data visibility and compliance in a world of explosive data growth and emerging regulations,” said Umesh Padval, Managing Director, Thomvest Ventures. “Relyance AI empowers Chief Privacy, Security, and Information Officers to manage data privacy and compliance, avoiding costly penalties while driving safe and responsible AI adoption. We are excited to partner with CEO Abhi Sharma and his team, who have built a solution that transforms compliance into a competitive advantage, enabling businesses to scale AI with trust and transparency.”

“The future of AI governance isn’t about compliance alone – it’s about building trust, transparency, and accountability into every layer of your technology,” said Todd Graham, Managing Partner at M12. “Relyance AI is the catalyst for that transformation, paving the way for AI implementation that is both compliant and incredibly fast.”

“With Relyance AI, we established enhanced visibility of data processing activities, seeing an impressive increase of 1,660% within three weeks of deployment,” said Deborah Usry, Senior Privacy and Product Counsel at NextRoll. “What used to be a time-consuming manual process is now an automated task that produces a robust record of our processing activities.”

The funding will further develop Relyance AI’s platform and scale its go-to-market efforts in response to significant recent momentum. Learn more here.

About Relyance AI
Relyance AI is the new standard for organizations trust and data governance infrastructure. Relyance AI is the only platform providing real-time visibility into how and where data is being used compared to customer agreements, global privacy regulations, and compliance frameworks. Companies of all industries and sizes – including Coinbase, Snowflake, Logitech, Plaid, Notion, and more – trust Relyance AI to safeguard businesses from fines and reputational damage and to deliver the most complete customer trust experiences.

SOURCE Relyance AI

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LONDON, Oct. 10, 2024 — Gatemore Capital Management (“Gatemore”) is pleased to announce it has appointed Casey Herren as its new Director of Business Development.

Casey joins Gatemore to lead the firm’s partner relations and capital formation efforts, supporting its equities strategy focused on turnarounds, recoveries, and growth opportunities across public markets in the UK and US. Casey also oversees the fundraising and marketing efforts at GVP Climate, a Gatemore affiliate led by Brett Olsher, which focuses on early-stage clean technology investing. 

Casey brings over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry with a particular focus on advising institutional investors on their allocations to alternative investments such as private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds. Prior to joining Gatemore, Casey held similar roles with Lazard and Atlantic Investment Management in New York as well as Caymus Capital Partners, Highland Capital, Behringer Harvard, Vaughan Nelson, and Sourcerock Group in Texas.   

Liad Meidar, Managing Partner at Gatemore, said:

“We are delighted to have Casey on board. His proven track record of building strong relationships and extensive network will support Gatemore’s growth, helping reinforce the foundation from which we pursue our activist strategy.” 

Casey Herren, recently appointed Director of Business Development at Gatemore, said:

“I have long been impressed by Gatemore’s track record, entrepreneurial drive, and engaged investment approach. I am excited to be part of a visionary team and support the firm in articulating its compelling value proposition.”

For media enquiries:
Greenbrook Advisory
Rob White, Teresa Berezowski
+44 (0)20 7952 2000
[email protected]

About Gatemore Capital Management

Gatemore Capital Management manages an activist strategy focused on companies across consumer, industrial, healthcare, sports, media, and technology sectors. Gatemore primarily targets fundamentally sound businesses that are underperforming and/or undervalued but have strong potential for recovery and growth. Gatemore’s strategy is to influence outcomes and drive outperformance through thought leadership and deep engagement, aiming to effect positive change and unlock value within the companies in which they invest.

Learn more about Gatemore here.

SOURCE Gatemore Capital Management LLP

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Booster Therapeutics raises $15 million seed financing led by Apollo Health Ventures and Novo Holdings

Booster Therapeutics’ proteasome activation approach designed to achieve wider degradation of harmful proteins than current targeted protein degraders

Harmful protein accumulation implicated in range of complex diseases also linked to proteasome dysfunction

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 10, 2024 — Novo Holdings, a leading global life sciences investor, today announced the launch of Booster Therapeutics (Booster / the Company), a biotechnology company developing a new class of proteasome activator medicines to treat neurodegenerative and other diseases. The launch is accompanied by a $15 million seed financing round led by Apollo Health Ventures and Novo Holdings.

Novo Holdings will play a central role in helping to further build Booster in its next phase of growth, bringing hands-on operational expertise, strategic guidance and helping the Company access a larger network of talent. Novo Holdings will further leverage the expertise in its group of entrepreneurs-in-residence, as well as the Seed Lab wet-lab capabilities in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Proteasomes play an important role in the clearing of dysfunctional proteins. Booster is leading a new field of protein degradation via small molecules that activate and restore the function of 20S proteasomes. These proteasomes naturally and directly recognise and degrade a wide range of misfolded or otherwise damaged proteins in contrast to conventional protein degradation therapeutics, which only degrade one target protein at a time. Activation of the 20S proteasome can remove a wide range of disease-causing proteins and thus address more complex diseases caused by multiple concurrent proteinopathies.

With a vision of a multi-disease pipeline, Booster will initially focus on major neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. This group of diseases generally carries a tremendous burden of disease for patients, families and the healthcare system due to their progressive and severe nature and a lack of disease-modifying therapeutics.

Booster was founded by the pioneering work of Dr. Diogo Feleciano and University of California Irvine Professor Dr. Darci Trader, as part of the company creation efforts of Apollo Health Ventures. The Company was built on the idea that small molecules could be used to trigger natural proteasome processes. Their DGRADX™ platform, which was conceived in Prof. Trader’s laboratory, combines proprietary methods for automated high-throughput screening with advanced structural and computational tools to develop Booster’s novel proteasome activator compounds.

“Proteasome activation is a truly novel concept because it can potentially transform how we address some of the most multi-factorial diseases. Booster’s deep expertise in proteasome biology means it is well positioned to deliver on first-in-class medicines and expand the protein degradation landscape to more comprehensively address protein dysfunction and impact more disease areas,” said Dr. João Ribas, Principal at Novo Holdings, Seed Investments and Interim Chief Business Officer and Board Member, Booster Therapeutics. “We’re excited to join efforts with Apollo and the Booster team in order to take this novel therapeutic concept forward for the benefit of patients.”

The Company and corporate strategy will be led by Dr. Diogo Feleciano as Chief Scientific Officer and Dr. João Ribas as interim Chief Business Officer. Dr. Patrick Trojer, Co-Founder of Constellation Pharmaceuticals and current Chief Executive Officer & President of TRIANA Biomedicines will serve as Chair of Booster’s Board of Directors.

About Booster Therapeutics
Booster Therapeutics is pioneering a new class of medicines that activate the cell’s natural quality control machinery to treat a range of complex indications. Booster’s small molecule therapeutics, discovered through the DGRADX™ platform, are designed to directly boost the activity of 20S proteasomes to restore the body’s ability to clear disease-causing proteins. The Company is developing a multi-disease pipeline, with an initial focus on neurodegenerative diseases associated with impaired proteasome function such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Booster is based in Berlin, Germany. For more information, visit www.boostertx.com

About Novo Holdings A/S
Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and the wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The purpose of Novo Holdings is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk A/S and Novonesis A/S and manages an investment portfolio with a long-term return perspective. Novo Holdings is a world-leading life sciences investor. Through its Seed, Venture, Growth, Principal Investments, Planetary Health Investments and Asia teams, Novo Holdings invests directly in life science companies at all stages of development. In addition, it manages a broad portfolio of Capital Investments, including equities, bonds, fixed income, real estate, and infrastructure assets. As of year-end 2023, Novo Holdings had total assets of EUR 149 billion. www.novoholdings.dk

SOURCE Novo Holdings

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LIMASSOL, Cyprus, Oct. 10, 2024 — Schwarzwald Capital, a venture capital firm committed to supporting fintech and creator economy startups, has facilitated a strategic partnership between Cartex, a fintech services marketplace and one of its key investment ventures, and Vesta, a leading real-time payment fraud detection platform. This collaboration is set to address growing concerns around fraud in high-risk payment sectors, including the creator economy, by providing advanced fraud management solutions.

As the digital content creation industry grows, it faces significant challenges due to its unregulated nature. In 2023, the creator economy was valued at an estimated $200 billion, which has attracted numerous scams, including payment fraud through stolen cards, and money laundering. These issues have created barriers to growth, with restrictions and higher transaction costs plaguing the industry.

Vesta, with nearly 30 years of experience protecting industries like telecommunications  and financial services, brings knowledge to the table. Their expertise in reducing fraud risks and maximizing approval rates for merchants, gateways, and acquirers is well-established. In partnership with Cartex, their combined goal is to introduce user-friendly, robust fraud management solutions, ultimately creating a safer ecosystem for all stakeholders.

Cartex, a key project for Schwarzwald Capital, serves as a marketplace uniting different payment solution services, including card issuance, payment gateways, and payout mechanisms for the creator economy. The Schwarzwald Capital plans to continue its efforts to enhance the creator economy by investing in more innovative startups.

“Like any fast-growing field, the creator economy is highly vulnerable to fraud. Vesta is recognized globally for its expertise in delivering tailored fraud prevention solutions across high-risk payment sectors. By collaborating with them, we’re taking steps to create a safer and more trustworthy environment for the startups that Schwarzwald Capital supports,” said Kyrillos Akriditis, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Schwarzwald Capital.

“We are excited to collaborate with Cartex’s leadership team to tackle the payment fraud challenges within the creator economies. By combining our expertise in real-time fraud detection with Cartex’s innovative marketplace solutions, we can help drive higher revenue while ensuring that all participants are protected,” said Paddy Beagan, General Manager of Vesta in Europe.

This partnership sets the stage for a more secure and transparent future in the creator economy and other challenging industries, driving growth while addressing the challenges of a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

SOURCE Schwarzwald Capital

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The medical software company closes the care gap in reproductive health by providing clinical decision support and virtual care pathways. 

—

• LEVY Health, an innovator in the field of reproductive health technology, has raised $4.5 million led by San Francisco-based venture firm XYZ Venture Capital, with additional participation from Atlantic Labs and Possible Ventures.
• The new funding will be used to integrate LEVY Health’s virtual care pathways, which reduce time to treatment from years to weeks, with electronic medical record software. It will also fuel the company’s growth across women’s health and reproductive care, with solutions for fertility clinics, fertility benefit providers, laboratories, and biopharma companies.

Tackling the Reproductive Care Gap

Studies show that 80-85% of women are diagnosed with an endocrine disorder at least once in their lifetime, and 20% of individuals in the U.S. struggle with fertility problems. However, the shortage of women’s healthcare providers and reproductive endocrinologists (REIs) leaves millions of patients facing long, excruciating wait times for diagnoses and treatment. LEVY Health bridges this gap by applying smart algorithms, enabling precision diagnostics and personalized recommendations for treatment.

Founded by three women in 2021, LEVY Health has developed clinical decision support based on medical guidelines, clinical studies, and lab data. The company’s software combines health information with lab results, defining virtual care pathways for patients. Patients and providers benefit from dynamic medical history intake, automated lab orders and interpretation of results, patient triaging to lower and higher complexity treatments, patient education, and direct virtual care. LEVY Health’s software supports 152 diagnoses and provides treatment recommendations in line with ASRM, ESHRE, and ACOG standards, ensuring accurate diagnoses in weeks instead of years.

“Our platform can be seen as a clinic’s highly educated, virtual care coordinator, completing patient’s fertility work-up and educating them about next steps,” says Caroline Mitterdorfer, Co-founder and CEO of LEVY Health. “Physicians can choose at which point they’ll take over, and for those customers who don’t provide care themselves, we have an offering that helps them partner with providers across most US states. Either way, we enable providers to focus on treatment planning at the first consultation.”

Healthcare providers using the software see a reduction in treatment timelines from an average of 145 days to just 45, with significantly less physician time required per patient. By automating many administrative tasks, LEVY Health’s platform enables providers to dedicate more of their time to patient care and treatment.

The company’s clients include industry leaders such as fertility, family building, and women’s health benefits provider, Progyny, US fertility clinic groups Boston IVF and Texas Fertility Center, the Mexican fertility group Fertilidad Integral, as well as the US-based egg donation agency, Everie.

Plans for the Future

The global fertility market was valued at $34.7 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $62.8 billion by 2033. Due to the shortage of providers in the United States, clinics are increasingly turning to software solutions to improve efficiency and triaging, creating significant opportunities for companies like LEVY Health. “We started LEVY Health with a clear vision: to close the reproductive care gap and ensure that more women are accurately diagnosed in a timely manner, thereby lowering treatment costs and increasing their chances for a healthy pregnancy”, says Mitterdorfer. “This funding will allow us to access more verticals in women’s health and to build tailored solutions for women in different reproductive phases of their lives.” The company is currently working on applications for fertility clinics, fertility benefit providers, laboratories, and biopharma companies.

“LEVY Health is demonstrating to the entire healthcare market what is possible when you build solutions that help providers expedite the parts of their job that keep them from providing the standard of care they wish they could”, says Ross Fubini, Founder & Managing Partner of XYZ Venture Capital. “This makes life better for everyone – providers can serve their patients better while unlocking new revenue models, and patients themselves no longer have to sit with uncertainty during crucial moments. I have conviction this is just the beginning of the change LEVY Health is going to make.” 

About XYZ Venture Capital
XYZ Venture Capital is a pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco. Founded in 2017, it’s known for its investments in Anduril and other emerging leaders in public sector and defence technology, as well as in breakout startups Verkada, Newfront Insurance, Apex Space, and Chapter. The XYZ team looks to invest in founders with lived experience and key insights into tech-forgotten industries, and specialises in helping them optimise their future rounds of funding. More at xyz.vc.

For more information, please visit www.levy.health or contact:

Lena Jäkel
Head of Marketing
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (415) 969-3373

SOURCE Levy Health USA, Inc.

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ROCHESTER, N.Y., Oct. 9, 2024 — CYRISMA, an all-in-one risk management platform, announced its Series A financing today. Led by Blueprint Equity, with participation from SaaS Venture and Golden Ventures, the funding will accelerate CYRISMA’s platform development, fuel customer success, and expand sales and marketing initiatives.

CYRISMA accelerates security programs for MSPs by providing a cost-effective, all-in-one solution to identify, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities, track compliance requirements, and manage AI security risk.

“In partnering with Blueprint Equity, we are excited to leverage their expertise and resources to further enhance our platform and support our customers,” said Liam Downward, co-founder and CPO of CYRISMA. “This investment will allow us to continue delivering an affordable and comprehensive risk management solution, empowering MSPs to protect their clients effectively. Additionally, it enables us to enter into new markets, expanding our reach and increasing brand awareness.”

Blueprint Equity’s Sheldon Lewis, who will join CYRISMA’s Board of Directors, commented, “With the rise of security threats for SMBs, there’s been an increasing number of businesses outsourcing their cybersecurity to MSPs. This has accelerated demand in the market for strong, multi-tenant cybersecurity solutions for MSPs to best serve their clients.” He added, “We were drawn to the breadth of the CYRISMA platform and their strong customer satisfaction. Oliver Downward, CEO, Liam, and the team have an unparalleled insight into the MSP market, and we’re honored to partner with CYRISMA during their next phase of growth.”

About CYRISMA

CYRISMA is an all-in-one risk management platform for Managed Service Providers. With the rise in security threats and demand for cybersecurity services, CYRISMA provides MSPs with an effective, all-in-one solution to manage their cybersecurity initiatives for clients in a multi-tenant platform. To schedule a demo of CYRISMA, please visit https://www.cyrisma.com/.

About Blueprint Equity

Blueprint Equity provides expansion capital to high-growth, capital-efficient enterprise software and technology-enabled services businesses worldwide. Blueprint has $275 million of assets under management and is based in La Jolla, CA. For more information, please visit www.onblueprint.com.

Media Contact:
Oliver Downward
[email protected]

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Led by McCourt Global, the funding round will support and accelerate MeWe’s ongoing migration while expanding decentralized products and services to platform users. The social media company seeks an additional $6 million to close out the Series B round.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9, 2024 — MeWe, the pioneering privacy-first social media network, announced today it is launching a growth agenda to accelerate its efforts to bring Web3 to its 20+ million users. The opening of the Series B round, led by McCourt Global, will accelerate MeWe’s growth and open doors for further innovation within MeWe, including the further development of new technologies such as AI integration, the launch of new Web3 product features, strategic user acquisition through targeted marketing efforts, and the rollout of a native token to enhance user growth, platform engagement and platform utility.

MeWe has undertaken an unprecedented transformation over the past year to integrate with the Frequency blockchain and migrate its users to Web3 at scale. Since making this commitment, the platform has hit a major growth milestone and cemented its position as one of the world’s largest Web3 user bases by seamlessly migrating more than 1 million MeWe users to the Frequency chain, a Layer 1 blockchain built on the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP) and designed to enable individual ownership of personal data and content. The project is an extraordinary validation of the technology’s dependability and scalability, a signal that social media users do not have to sacrifice privacy or data to engage online, and the foundation for MeWe to innovate and expand Web3-based experiences and opportunities for its growing user base.

“MeWe is excited to accelerate our journey to bring Web3 technologies to more of our users and continue growing our community,” said Jeffrey Edell, Chairman and CEO of MeWe. “This Series B round and the continued success of our migration to the Frequency blockchain allows us to accelerate this unprecedented transition and expand our ambitions to bring the benefits of an open, decentralized web to users of our platform in new and exciting ways. We look forward to more forward-thinking investors joining us as we continue to pioneer the future of the web.”

“MeWe is leading the tech industry into the future by demonstrating there are viable, scalable technology alternatives in our hands today that allow social media networks to protect people’s privacy and empower them with control over their own data,” said Divya Narendra, MeWe Advisory Board Member. “MeWe is on the frontlines of the broader movement to Web3, and we are proud to continue our efforts to accelerate the transition to an open, decentralized internet.”

In August, as part of MeWe’s integration with Frequency, MeWe announced that more than 600,000 MeWe users now control ownership of their complete social graph on the Frequency blockchain. That number will continue to increase over time and the Series B funding round will directly support efforts to bring more users along on this migration.

About MeWe

Launched in 2016, MeWe has amassed a global reputation as the leading privacy-first social network with over 20 million users and 700,000+ interest groups worldwide. MeWe has a strong focus on user empowerment, offering a range of features that allow users to create groups, interact and control the flow of their data. It is an ad-free platform with no targeting, news feed manipulation, or amplification of misinformation. Available on iOS, Android, and desktop in over 20 languages across 200+ countries, it prioritizes user control and privacy. Since 2021, under the leadership of CEO Jeffrey Edell, MeWe has grown and integrated the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP) developed by Project Liberty. It now has over 1.1 million users on-chain via the Frequency Layer 1 blockchain.

For more information visit MeWe.com.

Contact: Lisa Gibbons, [email protected]

SOURCE MeWe

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Century is the first fully-integrated demonstration of several fusion power plant-relevant technologies, including one of the largest tests of a plasma-facing liquid metal blanket to date. Century has already demonstrated a test run of more than 1,000 consecutive plasmas in less than three hours into a chamber lined with flowing liquid metal.

Zap’s $130 million Series D was led by Soros Fund Management LLC, with participation by new investors that include BAM Elevate, Emerson Collective, Leitmotif, Mizuho Financial Group, Plynth Energy and Xplor Ventures. Current investors participating in the new round include Addition, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, DCVC, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital and Shell Ventures.

The new funding will be used to continue parallel development of both plasma R&D and systems-level plant engineering and integration, including the next generation in the company’s FuZE device series and a cutting-edge pulsed power capacitor bank.

The team is now attempting to reach a milestone outlined as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, and hopes to do so by the end of the year.

“The race for fusion commercialization has historically been thought of as a triathlon: science, then engineering, then commercialization,” says Zap CEO Benj Conway. “But at Zap, we’re attempting to swim, cycle and run at the same time – such a parallel approach is key to delivering commercial fusion on a timescale that matters. Century is a vital part of the engineering leg and we’re quickly coming up to speed.”

Z-pinch fusion from lab to grid

Zap Energy’s fusion approach, known as a sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch, avoids large superconducting magnets and powerful lasers, and is far smaller than conventional systems.

To generate net energy from fusion, regardless of the type of device, the plasmas inside must satisfy fusion’s triple product: they must be hot enough, and dense enough, for long enough. With a track record of rapid progress in plasma physics using two workhorse fusion devices, and recent results reinforcing the viability of the path ahead, Zap has begun work engineering new devices to face greater extremes and harness fusion’s energy output.

“From its inception, Zap Energy’s founders had an idea of how a power plant based on our Z-pinch configuration would work,” says Zap Vice President of Systems Engineering Matthew C. Thompson. “Our job is to develop and validate those plans by actually building, testing and maturing key technologies. Century is our next major step in that effort.”

About Century

Century is the world’s first 100-kilowatt-scale repetitive Z-pinch system. Its goal is to integrate and test three major aspects of Zap’s power design: repetitive pulsed power supplies, plasma-facing circulating liquid metal walls, and technology for mitigating electrode damage.

Century is designed to simulate plant-like operation by:

• Firing high-voltage pulses of power every ten seconds in a steady sequence for more than two hours (>1,000 pulses at 0.1 Hz).
• Circulating 70 kilograms of hot liquid bismuth in its initial configuration and well over a ton in its final configuration. Air-cooled heat exchangers will remove the intense plasma heat absorbed by the liquid metal.
• Testing critical strategies for mitigating electrode damage due to extreme heat and neutron flux.

“Zap’s fusion approach is pulsed, so ultimately it will run like an internal combustion engine with cylinders firing all day long to produce steady energy output,” explains Thompson. “As you do that you also generate large neutron flux and heat loads in the system over time, which is exactly the energy output that you want, but requires unique engineering solutions. Century will test a lot of our assumptions and define the best path toward our first plant.”

Century’s structure is the first to take Zap’s sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch chamber design and orient it vertically. Pulsed power is injected through the top of the device while liquid metals circulate in a receptacle at the base. Independent test stands built over the past two years at Zap validated previous generations of each of Century’s subsystems.

The first test of plasmas and flowing liquid metal occurred on June 13 and a few weeks later completed a run of 1,080 consecutive shots. Century’s next aim is a milestone run for the DOE, which will be subject to confirmation by the program.

Next year the platform will gradually ramp to 100 kilowatts of average input power. For comparison, the 100 kilowatts that drives Century is roughly equal to taking the average power draw of 75 U.S. homes and concentrating it into a chamber the size of a hot water heater.

Century, with a central stack about the size of a double-decker bus, is close to the eventual size of a single Zap Energy module that will produce 50 megawatts of electricity. Future power plants will have multiple modules.

About Zap Energy

Zap Energy is building a low-cost, compact and scalable fusion energy platform that confines and compresses plasma without the need for expensive and complex magnetic coils. Zap’s sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch technology provides compelling fusion economics and requires orders of magnitude less capital than conventional approaches. Zap Energy has 150 employees in Seattle and San Diego and is backed by leading financial and strategic investors. Learn more at zapenergy.com.

High resolution images available upon request.

SOURCE Zap Energy Inc