Counteract Partners leads funding to scale CREW Carbon’s commercial operations with existing wastewater treatment partners, while expanding their technology to additional plants
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Oct. 30, 2024 — In order to meet global climate targets, ~10 gigatons of carbon dioxide needs to be removed from the atmosphere annually by 20501. CREW Carbon is on a mission to leverage its enhanced weathering approach within earth’s water cycle, focused initially on removing biogenic CO2 produced in wastewater treatment facilities. Significant amounts of CO2 are naturally concentrated within wastewater, creating an ideal environment to rapidly scale carbon removal. Developed through years of research at Yale University, CREW’s technology enhances the natural power of minerals to treat wastewater and store CO2 permanently, all while removing the cost barrier to optimize biological treatment in wastewater. The company is already operating at multiple plants and are on their way to scaling operations to remove thousands of tons next year. Seed funding will enable CREW to grow the team, deploy systems at additional wastewater plants, and continue building their proprietary carbon monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system.
CREW carbon team at the wastewater plant
The oversubscribed round was led by Counteract and included participation by ReGen Ventures, ANIMO, Connecticut Innovations, Ponderosa Ventures, Newlab, Echo River Capital, and the Carbon Drawdown Initiative.
“Robust greenhouse gas removal is needed, and needed swiftly, to limit the effects of climate change and to meet our climate goals,” said Dr. Joachim Katchinoff, CREW Co-Founder and CEO. “CREW has identified that water resource recovery facilities are one of the best locations for rapid carbon removal. As a society we have spent decades building amazing wastewater treatment infrastructure to keep our environment safe; now, with CREW’s technology, we can work with utility and industrial partners to supplement their treatment processes in a way that can measurably remove CO2 at scale while enabling safe and efficient wastewater treatment.”
The solution is resonating with investors, who see it as a scaleable, affordable way to address the climate problem. Andy Bonsall, Partner at Counteract who led the round and specializes in backing solutions for gigaton-scale carbon removal, said “We’re thrilled about CREW’s game-changing technology that scales measurable carbon removal while simultaneously delivering key improvements for wastewater facilities. By partnering with wastewater treatment plants, who are already important stewards of our communities and environment, CREW is tapping into existing infrastructure and keeping costs of deployment low. It’s a win for municipalities, industry, and our journey to net-zero, solving long standing challenges with a demonstrated, low-cost solution.”
Given the co-benefits for wastewater treatment operators, “CREW’s solution is an easy sell to partners in the wastewater sector,” according to Chris Morrison, Executive in Residence at ImagineH2O and former Division Vice President of Water Process Services at Ecolab/Nalco. “The CREW technology is sound – their pilots to date have achieved their goals of reducing costs and improving pH and alkalinity management. The technology is safer than existing solutions – removing harmful chemicals like caustic from operations. And the technology is innovative – it’s truly a first of a kind solution that transforms wastewater treatment plants into climate hubs. It’s a paradigm shift for the industry.”
About CREW
CREW Carbon is a carbon removal company that uses engineered enhanced weathering to remove CO2 from municipal and industrial wastewater systems. CREW’s technology enhances the natural power of minerals to help treat wastewater and store carbon dioxide permanently. CREW partners with wastewater treatment plants, leveraging existing infrastructure to enable measurable climate impact while simultaneously helping optimize biological treatment.
Neara closes Series C fundraise, led by some of the world’s largest private market investors and infrastructure owners, cementing its position as a global leader in critical infrastructure resiliency
SEATTLE, Oct. 30, 2024 — Neara, the first AI-powered predictive modeling software platform for critical infrastructure, today announced a US$31 million Series C funding round. The round was anchored by a consortium led by EQT (a leading global investment organization), with participation from Partners Group (one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry1) and Square Peg Capital (one of the company’s earliest investors), with additional support from existing investors Skip Capital and Prosus Ventures.
The funding will accelerate Neara’s global operations across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia Pacific as the company continues to address the increasing challenges of energy resilience and infrastructure modernization.
With operations across four continents, Neara’s 3D digital modeling technology enables utilities to adopt a more proactive approach to network optimization with simulations that surface safety and reliability risks and identify the most effective remediation actions. Neara’s utility partners, including CenterPoint Energy and Southern California Edison in the US, perform critical analyses in just hours and days that would otherwise take months or years. These analyses enable utilities to execute faster, more informed decisions about a wide range of issues, from routine operations and load growth planning to emergency scenarios and double and triple-digit million-dollar grid hardening decisions without the need for verification from manual surveys.
CenterPoint Energy partnered with Neara following 2024’s Hurricane Beryl to forecast, measure, and deliver network improvements as part of their mission to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country. Already, CenterPoint has dramatically accelerated critical field insight analysis, reducing processes that historically took a year and a half to just three hours in Neara.
Southern California Edison counts on Neara’s technology to address problematic vegetation 50% faster in their wildfire-prone region.
As global energy challenges intensify, the public sector increasingly recognizes the role of technology in driving data-informed decisions and aligning public and private stakeholders behind the most critical projects to ensure timely funding and execution. Neara’s network-wide simulations help utilities gain regulatory support by objectively demonstrating how proposed upgrades, such as wind-resistant poles and flood-resilient network design, will improve reliability and resiliency. Neara’s software helps utilities significantly reduce outages, accelerate power restoration, and bring new infrastructure online much faster.
The company’s technology is also playing a central role in the energy transition by significantly simplifying the traditionally complex challenges of transmission design and construction hurdles. The simulation functionality also empowers utilities to optimize the utilization of existing infrastructure, accelerating the integration of renewable energy sources.
“We are asking the grid to do more in the next 10 years than we have in the last 50. Neara helps strengthen critical infrastructure to keep global communities safe, connected, and economically viable despite intensifying severe weather, age, and overuse. Reliable, affordable, clean energy depends on resilient high-functioning infrastructure, which demands the laser-focused, fast decision-making we’re empowering for utilities,” said Jack Curtis, Chief Commercial Officer at Neara.
The investment builds on Neara’s last funding round in September of 2023. Since then, the TIME 100 Most Influential Companies honoree has focused on scaling its presence in the United States and Europe. Globally, Neara has modeled over >1.5 million square miles of electricity infrastructure and 12 million infrastructure assets.
This funding round will accelerate Neara’s global operations as utilities worldwide face increasing resiliency challenges and the demands of the energy transition. The company will also expand its modeling and simulation capabilities to additional critical infrastructure sectors, including telecommunications and public transportation. Neara is already supporting broadband infrastructure projects in the US, helping providers fast-track efforts to connect underserved communities.
“This investment marks EQT’s first venture growth investment in an Australia-headquartered company, highlighting our ambition to support world-class platforms from early growth partnerships through to large-cap buyouts. We are excited to further advance Neara’s growth and impact by leveraging our global network and expertise across energy transition, infrastructure augmentation and best-in-class software development,” said Frank Heckes, Partner on the EQT Private Equity advisory team and Co-Head of EQT Private Capital Australia and New Zealand. “EQT is focused on making responsible investments that address global challenges and drive innovation for a better future. Neara exemplifies this by empowering mission-critical service providers to enhance infrastructure reliability and efficiency, unlocking bottlenecks, and accelerating energy transition in key markets,” added Sam Franklin, Managing Director on the EQT Infrastructure advisory team.
Cyrus Driver, Managing Director at Partners Group, said, “In many cases, infrastructure is lagging behind rapidly changing societal needs, including across the energy grid, transportation, and digital infrastructure. As a result, it’s never been more important that every dollar invested in infrastructure demonstrably improves performance. Neara’s industry-leading technology is essential for every asset owner to run high-functioning and resilient infrastructure. We have deep thematic conviction in Neara’s offering and we are already working with management on multiple opportunities to deploy its solutions within Partners Group’s global network.”
James Tynan, Partner at Square Peg, explained, “For most of us, infrastructure is invisible until there is a problem, but then it can be a matter of life and death. With infrastructure under pressure like never before, Neara’s unique ability to help intelligently and cost-effectively manage these critical assets could not be more important. At Square Peg, we concentrate our investments around a small number of outlier teams attacking critical, global problems, and we’re proud to be continuing to back Neara almost four years into our journey with them.”
About Neara
Neara’s AI-assisted predictive modeling software helps infrastructure owners drive critical proactive decisions by conducting precise analyses in hours and days that would otherwise take months or years in the field. Network-wide simulation analyses reveal how assets behave in real-world environments during any scenario — empowering better, faster, more cost-effective decisions. The model supports end-to-end network governance, from routine operational decisions to emergency scenarios and major grid-hardening investments — without verification from manual surveys. Neara’s technology has modeled >1.5 million square miles of global network territory featuring ~10 million assets, across four continents from California to Ireland and Australia. Neara’s utility customers identify outage risks 9x faster, restore power 3x faster, and save thousands of field visits per year. More information is available at www.neara.com.
EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization with EUR 246 billion in total assets under management (EUR 134 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT owns portfolio companies and assets in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas and supports them in achieving sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership. More info: www.eqtgroup.com. Follow EQT on LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Instagram.
About Square Peg
Square Peg is a venture capital firm that helps founders from our corners of the world shape the future. Founded in 2012 in Australia, Square Peg combines the best of a local partner with a global network of companies and now backs founders early and repeatedly from three of technology’s most exciting regions: Australia & New Zealand, Israel, and Southeast Asia. Learn more at squarepeg.vc
About Partners Group
Partners Group is one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry, with around 1,800 professionals and approximately USD 150 billion in assets under management. The firm has investment programs and custom mandates spanning private equity, private credit, infrastructure, real estate, and royalties. With its heritage in Switzerland and its primary presence in the Americas in Colorado, Partners Group is built differently from the rest of the industry. The firm leverages its differentiated culture and its operationally oriented approach to identify attractive investment themes and to transform businesses and assets into market leaders. For more information, please visit www.partnersgroup.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
1 Acting on behalf of its clients
SOURCE Neara
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DARIEN, Conn. and LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30, 2024 — Tamarack Global, an early stage deep-tech venture capital fund, today announced the close of $72M for its Opportunities II fund, which closed earlier this summer.
The Opportunities II fund is more than twice the size of its flagship fund, bringing the firm’s total AUM to over $211M. The Opportunities II fund consists of global investors who are seeking long-term investments in transformative companies.
“Since our inception, we believed that the greatest compounding effect that we can have has been helping others to succeed. Our Opportunities I fund was launched with the aim of identifying visionary founders who were focused on building generational companies, while going after the largest end-markets in the world. We are delighted to close on Opportunities II, which will invest in solutions that solve the most pressing problems we face as a society today,” said John McCormick, founder and managing partner at Tamarack Global.
“Short-term volatility should not create drastic shifts in investment strategy, and instead can open new markets and foster innovation,” said Jamie Lee, managing partner at Tamarack Global. “As technological shifts continue to accelerate with rapid advancements in AI & ML—and the subsequent collapse of cost-curves within digital and physical industries—we remain steadfast in our focus on atoms & bits and founders who are driving change in their respective industries. We believe this will lead to some of the biggest opportunities on (and off) Earth and will continue to represent a massive opportunity for us and our investors.”
Tamarack’s Opportunities I fund, formed in 2019, raised $31.3M and invested an additional $55M alongside the fund via co-investments. Fund I invested in a portfolio of early seed and Series A companies, adding in break-out follow-on rounds in companies across the energy transition, defense-tech, the space economy, robotics & automation, AI, and more. Fund II will follow a similar strategy.
“Tamarack Global is one of a handful of under the radar funds that are truly backing deep tech and highly ambitious founders out to change the world,” said technology entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Figure, Brett Adcock.
Tamarack Global’s focus on advancing the manufacturing industry through technical innovations played an instrumental role in launching the New American Industrial Alliance (NAIA) during the summer of 2024 at the Reindustrilize Summit held in Detroit. The Company’s General Partner, Austin Bishop, who is also co-founder of Atomic Industries, wanted to capitalize on innovation happening in AI, robotics, materials, and software and believed that investors were looking to make meaningful investments in these opportunities. NAIA is laser focused on one goal—making industrial activities the powerhouse of the American economy once again through innovation and smart policy.
“NAIA is rapidly building a significant coalition across companies, institutional investors, and government officials to accelerate rebuilding U.S. industry, and to reduce reliance on at-risk global supply chains. This is very mission-aligned with the types of companies we invest in at Tamarack Global,” said Bishop.
About Tamarack Global
Founded in 2019, Tamarack Global seeks to find entrepreneurs shaping the world around them. As our world becomes more digital, networked, and connected, it also becomes infinitely more dynamic and complex. New technologies and markets are driving change at lighting speed, scope, and scale—that is almost impossible to comprehend. Tamarack Global strives to investigate deeper, to uncover those exceptional people who are solving the difficult problems of today and beyond, whose work brings new commercialization and opening new markets via new technologies.
The company also announced expansion to eight additional markets across the U.S., unlocking access to thousands of new dental practices, professionals, and DSOs
PHOENIX, Oct. 30, 2024 — Toothio, the leading digital staffing marketplace for the dental industry, today announced $5 million in additional financing led by nvp capital and Craft Ventures. Rho Capital, Marketplace Capital, Roosh Ventures, Burst Capital, Revere Partners, Karman Ventures, Az Crown, and Connexa Capital also participated. The capital infusion coincides with Toothio’s expansion into several new markets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Jose, Portland, Seattle, Baltimore, Charlotte, and Orlando.
Hiring qualified dental hygienists, assistants, and office staff remains a significant challenge for dental offices across the United States. Ninety-five percent of dentists report difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified dental hygienists and office staff. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the issue, with nearly 4% of dental hygienists leaving the industry altogether. With its on-demand staffing marketplace, Toothio is tackling this crucial labor gap – connecting credentialed dental hygienists, assistants, and receptionists with offices that rely on their essential work.
“As an investor, it is rare to identify a pain point as severe as the staffing shortage that persists in the dental industry,” said Jonathan Beda, Managing Partner at Connexa Capital. “Toothio’s best-in-class retention among dental professionals and dental practices on the platform reflects the company’s incredibly effective matching algorithm and management’s deep understanding of its users’ needs.”
Toothio gives private dental practices and Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) exclusive access to a vetted pool of over 30,000 highly qualified dental professionals. The company’s proprietary algorithm matches top-rated professionals with open shifts nearby, connecting dental offices with the most skilled staff for their unique needs. With an industry-leading 97% fill rate for open shifts, Toothio is making it easier than ever for dental offices and DSOs to streamline operations and maintain high-quality patient care.
The latest financing and market expansion follows a year of tremendous growth for Toothio, with over 15,000 dental professionals added to the platform in 2024 alone. Since its founding, the company has driven 300% year-over-year growth, filling thousands of open shifts for private practices and DSOs across the U.S.
“Toothio’s rapid expansion is a testament to their deep understanding of the dental industry’s staffing challenges and their innovative solution. Their work aligns perfectly with nvp capital’s healthcare thesis, where we support companies that solve key issues, including access to care. Staffing challenges have been an inhibitor across multiple industries, including dental. With this latest round, we’re confident Toothio will continue to scale and set the standard for dental staffing in 2025 and beyond. We’re proud to partner with them on this exciting journey,” said Vaughn Crowe, Managing Partner at nvp capital.
“With dental offices across the country struggling to maintain full staffing levels, we’re here to ensure both patient care and office efficiency are optimized,” said Ian Prendergast, co-founder and CEO of Toothio. “This additional capital will help us further expand the reach of our platform, delivering seamless, on-demand staffing solutions for dental offices across the country – while empowering staff through a more flexible model of work.”
Dental offices and professionals can join Toothio by visiting the company’s website or downloading the mobile app. To learn more, visit www.toothio.com.
About Toothio Founded in 2021, Toothio’s mission is to alleviate the staffing challenges faced by dentists by providing on-demand access to hygienists and assistants. Toothio’s staffing platform enables dental practices to quickly increase office production and better support their patients. Toothio offers dental professionals freedom and flexibility, making it the class-leading labor option for those in the dental industry. For more information about Toothio, visit toothio.com.
SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 30, 2024 — Databento, one of the fastest-growing companies in the financial data industry, today announced the successful close of $10 million in additional funding, increasing its total Series A round to $30 million. This caps off an extraordinary year that saw a 985% surge in revenue and over 7,000 new customers.
The round features follow-on investments from existing shareholders, while new participation from Belvedere Trading, Clear Street, Lightscape Partners, and several prominent asset management firms reflects the adoption of Databento across a broad range of use cases. This capital raise unites leading hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, banks, and brokerages, underscoring the company’s rapid emergence as the industry’s new gold standard for market data.
“We’re honored to join forces with such a representative cross-section of the financial industry,” said Christina Qi, CEO of Databento. “With this investment, we’re eager to accelerate new feature rollouts and usher in the future of consolidated equities data feeds.”
Looking ahead, Databento is set to introduce a series of product enhancements. Upcoming releases will extend data history and expand its coverage of European markets and global indices. As the company strengthens its international footprint and makes further performance upgrades, it is also adding new pricing plans to provide greater flexibility for its growing customer base.
Michael Tung, Investments and Business Lead at Belvedere Trading, said: “Belvedere Strategic Capital is excited to be a strategic investor in Databento. Databento’s advanced technology and highly customizable market data offerings are going to be a game changer for a wide variety of market data users across the ever-evolving financial industry.”
Chris Pento, Co-Founder and CEO of Clear Street, added: “We invested in Databento because they are crafting a truly developer-first product that makes it easy and delightful to get market data through thoughtfully designed APIs. Productizing high-fidelity market data is hard—your data models, delivery options, and documentation consistency all matter for creating amazing developer ergonomics. Databento is excelling on all these fronts.”
James Rowen, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lightscape Partners, commented: “We’re pleased to support Databento’s exceptional leadership and their innovative approach to market data solutions. Databento’s streamlined, scalable platform delivers high-quality data that empowers trading firms, hedge funds, and AI-driven companies, meeting the complex needs of today’s most demanding financial institutions.”
Many of the firms involved in this round also highlighted Databento as a pivotal force in the upcoming SEC-mandated retirement of the exclusive US equity SIPs and shift towards a competing consolidator framework. The round not only reflects strong product traction but a shared commitment to Databento’s vision of leading a new era for market data infrastructure.
About Databento
Databento makes it simpler and faster to access institutional-grade financial data. With Databento’s APIs and no-code browser platform, users can instantly access petabytes of market data—and only pay for what they use. As an official distributor of data from over 45 exchanges, Databento’s servers are hosted in the colocation facilities of each trading venue for low-latency and high-fidelity data capture directly from the source.
Both real-time and historical data are available in over 15 formats, including L1, L2, and L3, with nanosecond-resolution timestamps. Databento has pioneered many industry firsts, including usage-based pricing and the delivery of full-exchange L3 feeds over the internet.
Toyota’s Growth Fund, Woven Capital, Invests in Shared Autonomy Forklift Technology that Drives Significant Enhancements in Warehouse Operational Efficiency and Safety
UNION CITY, Calif., Oct. 30, 2024 — Third Wave Automation, provider of autonomous high-reach forklifts powered by Shared Autonomy, today closed a $27 million Series C round led by Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund. Return investors Innovation Endeavors, Norwest Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures joined the round, bringing total capital raised to $97 million. The funding will enable Third Wave to scale its pioneering Shared Autonomy Platform, expand manufacturing of its multimode TWA Reach forklifts, and support future technology development that advances the use of autonomous forklifts in and around warehouse environments.
“In an industry grappling with a severely constrained labor market and intensifying market competition, Third Wave Automation’s approach of blending AI-powered autonomy with human expertise is transforming warehouse operations,” said Prashant Bothra, principal at Woven Capital, who is joining the Third Wave board. “Third Wave’s solution provides reliable automation for vertical movement and placement of goods while optimizing labor efficiency, enhancing safety and enabling data-driven improvements. With access to Toyota’s unparalleled bench of industrial automation and mobility experts, we believe Third Wave is well positioned to chart the future of intelligent material handling, unlocking unprecedented value across global logistics networks.”
Bringing Shared Autonomy to Dynamic Materials Handling Environments
“The partnership between Third Wave and Woven Capital creates a strong foundation to advance our company’s strategic vision, reshaping how warehouse operators perceive autonomous forklifts and the value they deliver,” said Arshan Poursohi, CEO of Third Wave Automation. “Collaborating with Toyota will play a vital role in expanding access to our AI-powered solutions and industry-leading autonomous forklifts. Together, we will empower more U.S. warehouse operators to boost productivity, enhance operational flexibility, address labor challenges and improve safety—all while delivering a fast, impressive ROI.”
Third Wave Automation pioneered materials handling automation with its Shared Autonomy Platform, enabling the TWA Reach line of forklifts to operate autonomously or seek help from remote operators who can take control from the safety of their office. The platform uses machine learning to ensure forklifts continue to adapt and improve over time.
The TWA Reach forklifts operate in four modes: fully autonomous, remote assist, remote operation and traditional manual operation. They are designed for high-reach applications, capable of horizontal and vertical movement of payloads, and used for end-to-end applications, from inbound, replenish and outbound tasks to all tasks in between.
The dynamic system includes the industry’s most efficient mapping solution. Using automotive-grade 3D lidar, Third Wave Automation can see from the floor to the roof and across aisles, reducing the time it takes to map fixed environments from months to days. The advanced camera warehouse perception system—including Collision Shield, the industry-leading autonomous obstacle detection system running on forklifts—provides remote operators with insights into potential obstacles and how to navigate around them, as well as better views of target pick-and-place locations than manual operators.
The platform, along with its industry-leading Armada Fleet Management System (FMS), enables a single operator to manage multiple forklifts. Integrating seamlessly with other warehouse management systems, the Armada FMS allows operators to execute and monitor workflows and dynamically configure warehouse zones, dramatically improving worker efficiency and safety.
“The value of Third Wave Automation is genuinely transformative,” said Brien Downie, president of 3PL firm Holman Logistics. “Their autonomous forklifts will help us streamline our processes, enable our organization to fulfill customer orders more efficiently and maintain our competitive position in the logistics marketplace. Additionally, the autonomous Third Wave forklifts will play an important role in supporting our core value of ensuring that we always provide a safe environment for our team members.”
About Third Wave Automation Third Wave Automation was founded in 2018 in Union City, Calif., to alleviate increasing supply chain stress using intelligent automation products and services. The TWA Reach is the only high-reach forklift automation solution on the market today that offers users the flexibility to deploy their fleet in four modes: fully autonomous, remote operation, remote assist, and manual operation. Third Wave Automation brings people and automated systems together to improve throughput, efficiency, and safety beyond what people or automation could achieve alone.
Leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to create its Shared Autonomy Platform, Third Wave Automation’s Armada Fleet Management System provides the visibility and tools needed to effectively manage fleets of automated high-reach forklifts and respond to edge cases in a timely and effective manner. The Third Wave Automation solution easily integrates into existing workflows without costly infrastructure changes commonly required by traditional automation solutions. Customers immediately realize the benefits from day one. For more information, visit thirdwave.ai.
About Woven Capital Woven Capital is Toyota’s growth fund dedicated to realizing the promise of mobility — how people, goods, information and energy can move. Our global team of investors connects the world’s most promising innovators with the world’s most trusted automotive brand. Founded in 2021, we are investing nearly $800 million in startups that create new ways to connect cities, advance automation, harness and store energy, further electrification, and make our vehicles smarter. Learn more at woven.vc.
SOURCE Third Wave Automation
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Financing supports advancement of lead programs LTX-002 and LTX-001 to first-in-human trials
WORCESTER, Mass., Oct. 30, 2024 — Leal Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics for patients with disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), today announced a $45 million financing. The round was led by Newpath Partners, with additional new investors Chugai Venture Fund and Alexandria Venture Investments, in addition to existing investors OrbiMed, Euclidean Capital and PhiFund. This latest financing round follows a previously disclosed $39 million financing.
The proceeds will be used to advance Leal’s pipeline of antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) and small molecule therapeutics for patients with CNS disorders. Leal’s lead programs are LTX-002, an ASO for patients with genetic or sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and LTX-001, a small molecule for patients with schizophrenia. The company plans to submit Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for LTX-002 and LTX-001 by the end of 2024 and commence first-in-human clinical trials in early 2025. Both programs address novel and well-characterized metabolic pathway targets that are dysregulated in disease states.
“We are pleased to have the support from this leading group of both new and existing investors that share our vision for better therapeutics for people with neurodegenerative or neuropsychiatric disorders,” said Asa Abeliovich, M.D., Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Leal. “This investment allows us to progress our lead programs in ALS and schizophrenia towards the clinic while also continuing our earlier-stage pipeline and platform development.”
In connection with the financing, Thomas Cahill, M.D., Ph.D., founder and managing partner of Newpath Partners, joined Leal’s board of directors. Dr. Cahill said, “We are excited to support Leal as they progress their lead programs in ALS and schizophrenia, two CNS disorders with major unmet medical needs, towards the clinic.”
“We look forward to supporting this world-class team with deep expertise and proven track record in CNS therapeutics,” said John Gustofson, head of Chugai Venture Fund. “Together with this strong syndicate, we are excited to help advance what we believe could be life-changing treatments for patients and their families.”
About Leal Therapeutics:
Leal Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel precision medicines for patients with high-need central nervous system disorders. Leal was launched in 2021 and is headquartered in Worcester, Mass.
About Newpath Partners:
Newpath Partners is a life science and biotechnology venture firm dedicated to excellent science and to forming partnerships based on trust and a shared vision. Newpath is focused on creating companies that pioneer transformative therapeutics to mitigate suffering and death from disease. To learn more, visit www.newpath.partners.
About Chugai Venture Fund:
Chugai Venture Fund is a pioneering investment firm focused on fostering innovation and driving transformative advances in the life sciences industry. As a subsidiary of Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., we leverage our parent company’s extensive expertise and global presence to identify promising start-ups and cutting-edge technologies. Our mission is to help entrepreneurs and visionary teams realize their breakthrough ideas and ultimately contribute to the betterment of healthcare and society. By providing strategic funding, mentorship and access to resources, we aim to create a collaborative ecosystem that accelerates the development and commercialization of breakthrough therapies and medical solutions. To learn more, please visit www.chugaiventurefund.com.
SOURCE Leal Therapeutics, Inc.
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EbsArgent targets urinary tract infections, with early indications of efficacy against many species of multidrug-resistant bacteria
STOCKHOLM, Oct. 30, 2024 — Thioredoxin Systems AB (TXN Systems), a pharmaceutical company developing a first-in-class antibiotic for multidrug-resistant urinary tract infections, today announced the close of an approximate SEK 25 million (USD 2.4M) Series A financing round to support the development of EbsArgent™, the company’s first-in-class bactericidal antibiotic for urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The round includes substantial investments from prominent life sciences entrepreneurs and investors Mikael Lönn, MD and Jens Mogensen, alongside GU Ventures, Vasa Angels, and the state-owned venture capital firm Annexstruktur – as well as from Gobia Enterprises, a family-owned investment firm focusing on life sciences.
“There hasn’t been a new class of antibiotics developed since 1987, and I’m incredibly excited about the potential of EbsArgent. With its novel mechanism of action on a new target, and extensive testing that has demonstrated its effectiveness against a wide range of drug-resistant pathogens, EbsArgent could give us a valuable new weapon in the fight against antibiotic resistance,” Lönn said. “TXN Systems’ world-class science is backed by a proven strong team, and we look forward to supporting the company as it advances EbsArgent into the clinic.”
A study published in the journal The Lancet in September 2024 estimates the world could see more than 39 million deaths directly caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) from 2025 to 2050. More than 2.8 million bacterial infections occur in the U.S. each year, and 35,000 people die because of them, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country’s public health agency. Europe sees similar numbers, with about 35,000 AMR-related deaths occurring annually, according to the European Commission. AMR happens when pathogens evade the medicines intended to kill them.
TXN Systems will use proceeds from the Series A to complete preclinical studies of its patented EbsArgent and initiate Phase I clinical trials of the therapeutic in UTIs. Multidrug-resistant UTIs have become a pressing problem for the medical community, and managing urological procedures in hospitals is emerging as a growing challenge due to antibiotic resistance. Almost a quarter of all infections are UTIs, and studies have shown that approximately 9 percent of all urological inpatients develop complicated UTIs during their hospital stay.
“Urinary tract infections, once easily cured, are becoming more and more resistant to multiple antibiotics and some standard treatments no longer work,” said TXN Systems CEO Elias Arnér, MD, PhD. “However, the burden of antimicrobial resistance across healthcare will be of unprecedented levels, in all geographic regions. We have evaluated EbsArgent against a wide range of clinically derived bacterial strains of many different species, each with pronounced resistance against most, or all, of the currently available antibiotics. EbsArgent shows strong efficacy against all of them. We’re extremely pleased to attract such high-caliber investors, and grateful for the confidence they have in our novel technology. We look forward to working with them to advance EbsArgent.”
EbsArgent is a combination drug containing silver ions and the compound ebselen to achieve a novel mechanism of action. By utilizing ebselen to disable the essential bacterial thioredoxin enzyme system and leveraging silver ions to synergistically enhance ebselen uptake, EbsArgent achieves a high level of bactericidal activity. Several studies have validated the bacterial thioredoxin reductase enzyme as a novel target for antimicrobial therapeutic development. No occurrence of cross-resistance with other antibiotics has been observed, likely because the thioredoxin system is not targeted by commercially available antibiotics and ebselen is a novel type of molecule compared to other antibiotics.
In mouse models, EbsArgent has demonstrated safety, low toxicity, and good efficacy in multidrug-resistant gram-negative infections and multidrug-resistant urinary tract infections specifically. It also shows promising activity against the formation of biofilms with many bacterial strains, including E. coli, which is preferable because bacteria grown as biofilm make complicated UTIs more difficult to treat.
About Thioredoxin Systems AB Thioredoxin Systems AB (TXN Systems) is a private pharmaceutical company developing a first-in-class antibiotic to treat multidrug-resistant urinary tract infections. The company’s patented EbsArgent™, a combination drug containing silver ions and the compound ebselen, has a novel mechanism of action that uses ebselen to disable the essential bacterial thioredoxin enzyme system and silver ions to synergistically enhance ebselen uptake, to fight bacterial infections in new ways and without triggering resistance. TXN Systems aims to combat the growing global health threat of antimicrobial resistance that world health authorities predict could directly cause about 35 million deaths worldwide by 2050. The company was founded by the late Professor Arne Holmgren, a leading expert in redox biology, whose groundbreaking work led to the discovery and development of EbsArgent. TXN Systems is based in Solna, Sweden and funded by leading venture capitalists and private life sciences investors. For more information please visit www.thioredoxinsystems.com.
— Oversubscribed financing brings together leading syndicate of life sciences investors —
— Proceeds to support clinical development of first-in-class therapies for neurological disorders –
BOSTON, Oct. 30, 2024 — Axonis Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the development of novel neuromedicines, announced today the successful completion of an oversubscribed $115 million Series A financing. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Axonis’ lead development candidate, AXN-027, through clinical proof-of-concept in patients. AXN-027 is a first-in-class oral small molecule designed to potentiate the function of KCC2, a major CNS chloride transporter essential for inhibitory neurotransmission, for the treatment of epilepsy and pain. Proceeds will also enable the development of next generation compounds targeting KCC2 in these and other indications, including psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Cormorant Asset Management and venBio Partners co-led the financing with significant investments from Sofinnova Investments, MRL Ventures Fund, Perceptive Advisors, Lumira Ventures and Solasta Ventures. In conjunction with this financing, Axonis named Raymond J. Kelleher, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Director at Cormorant Asset Management and Jonathan Leff, M.D., Executive Partner, Private Equity, from Sofinnova Investments to its Board of Directors. Eos Bioinnovation, Hatteras Venture Partners, SCI Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Tachyon Ventures, BoxOne, Iaso Ventures and Pathway Bioventures also participated in the financing.
“Axonis’ vision is to advance a pipeline of oral KCC2 therapeutics to restore functional inhibition in the CNS to treat neurological disorders without disabling side effects,” said Joanna Stanicka, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, President, and co-founder of Axonis. “As we head into the clinic later this year, this financing is a significant milestone for Axonis as we translate our exciting science into efficacious and well-tolerated treatments for patients suffering from neurological disorders.”
“We’re delighted that this accomplished group of investors share our mission to translate Axonis’ science into impactful medicines,” said Corey Goodman, Ph.D., Executive Chair and co-founder of Axonis. “I’m pleased to see how far the science has progressed at Axonis; what the team has accomplished is remarkable. We are now well positioned to bring our lead therapeutic program through clinical proof of concept and expand into related arenas and build a leading biotechnology company.”
Despite the approval of several drugs for epilepsy and pain, many patients do not tolerate or respond to current first-line therapies due to impaired synaptic inhibition, which can contribute to drug resistance. Axonis’ oral KCC2 potentiators are designed to restore functional inhibition and overcome drug resistance in patients.
“I’m enthusiastic about the potential of Axonis’ novel precision approach to re-shape how we treat patients with neurological disorders, particularly epilepsy and pain where modulation of synaptic inhibition has great therapeutic promise,” said Raymond J. Kelleher, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Director at Cormorant. “Axonis’ scientists have done amazing work. We’re very excited about what this program could mean for patients and their families.”
Leadership Team
Axonis is led by Joanna Stanicka, Ph.D., co-founder and co-inventor of Axonis’ underlying IP. She is a Harvard-trained scientist, drug hunter, and entrepreneur, and a recipient of the Massachusetts Next Generation Award, a prize in leadership for woman-CEO in life sciences. Shane Hegarty, Ph.D., is the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, co-founder, and IP co-inventor. He was previously a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, faculty member in Neuroscience Department of University College Cork, and recipient of the Neuroscience Ireland Investigator Award.
In conjunction with the financing, Axonis also announces the appointments of Donald Manning, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer and Jeff Imbaro, M.B.A., as Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Manning is a clinician-scientist with comprehensive experience in acute and chronic clinical practice, research and management. He brings to Axonis over 25 years of executive experience, having overseen the filings of seven INDs and five NDAs that have led to nine approved products. Mr. Imbaro brings over 20 years of company building expertise, having led Business Development and General and Administrative functions of several successful biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He was a member of the founding team of Semma Therapeutics, which was later acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 2019 for nearly $1 billion.
About Axonis Therapeutics
Axonis Therapeutics is a neuro-focused biotechnology company developing first- and best-in-class medicines targeting KCC2, the critical mediator of inhibitory neurotransmission within the brain, by translating breakthrough discoveries spun out from Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard and Université Laval. The company has built a proprietary KCC2 discovery engine, based on several years of world-leading know-how, to become the leaders in this potential blockbuster drug space. Axonis is grateful for grant awards and support received from National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense SCIRP, ISS National Lab, CURE Epilepsy, Wings for Life, Massachusetts Life Center, SynGAP Research Fund, Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, Creative Destruction Lab, Springboard Enterprises and MassChallenge. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information, visit www.axonis.us.
About venBio Partners
Since inception in 2011, venBio has raised roughly $2 billion in capital commitments and led investment rounds in 40+ companies, including Labrys Biologics (acquired by Teva), Aragon Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Seragon Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Roche), Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AUPH), Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: APLS), Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CMPI, acquired by Regeneron), Turning Point Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TPTX, acquired by BMS), Akero Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AKRO), Harmony Biosciences (NASDAQ: HRMY), Pharvaris (NASDAQ: PHVS), CinCor Pharma (NASDAQ: CINC, acquired by Astra Zeneca), RayzeBio (NASDAQ: RYZB, acquired by BMS), and many others. For more information, visit the venBio website at www.venbio.com and follow on LinkedIn.
About Cormorant Asset Management
Founded in 2013, Cormorant Asset Management, LP (“Cormorant”) is a leading life sciences-focused investment firm with over $3 billion of assets under management. Cormorant is driven by a deep focus on fundamental scientific principles and provides financial resources to support the most innovative and promising publicly traded and private companies in biotech and allied sectors. Cormorant is among the most active crossover investors in life sciences, with investments in over 100 privately held, life science-focused companies during the past decade.
