• Led by Andreessen Horowitz, latest fundraise supports Talkiatry as it scales high-quality, in-network care
• For leading national health plan, Talkiatry cut patient hospitalizations by 68%, emergency room visits by 32%, and saved $700 in total cost of care per member per month vs peers
• Psychiatric care visionary proves that outcomes-based, doctor-led mental health care can be delivered in value-based arrangements

NEW YORK, June 18, 2024 — Talkiatry, a leading provider of high-quality, in-network psychiatric care, today announced a $130 million equity and debt financing round. The equity round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Perceptive Advisors, and debt financing was provided by Banc of California. The Series C investment will fuel Talkiatry’s continued expansion of its value-based care model for behavioral health, reducing total cost of care, improving health outcomes, and producing real savings for patients, health plans, and health system or provider group partners. Talkiatry’s total raise to date is $245 million, with previous participation from investors including Left Lane Capital and blisce/.

Americans are spending billions on behavioral care each year, but for many, their mental health is not improving. Just 31% of adults believe their mental health is “excellent,” a 12% drop over the past 20 years. Although the mainstreaming of telehealth has aided in providing Americans with more behavioral care options, there is a dearth of outcomes and cost savings data, as well as a lack of physician-focused models, which previously limited health plans from establishing creative and scalable risk-based payment models.

Light years ahead of industry peers, Talkiatry has created a proven value-based behavioral health care model that expands access to quality treatment while improving outcomes and generating savings. A leading national health plan, for example, conducted a matched cohort analysis with both cohorts having similar demographics and conditions. One cohort received psychiatric care from Talkiatry’s providers, while the matched cohort received care from other behavioral health providers in their network. Talkiatry’s cohort achieved a 68% lower hospitalization rate, 32% fewer emergency room visits, and generated approximately $700 in savings per member per month on a total cost of care basis.

“Over the past few years we’ve built one of the country’s largest and highest-quality in-network psychiatric practices, while proving with real-world data that we deliver superior health outcomes and cost savings,” said Robert Krayn, CEO and Co-Founder, Talkiatry. “We’re thrilled to be part of the a16z family as we continue to bring more health plans into value-based contracts and expand to reach more Americans in need.”

Since its launch in 2020, Talkiatry has delivered high-quality telepsychiatry services across more than one million patient visits, including underserved populations that previously had little to no access to treatment. The company employs more than 300 full-time, licensed psychiatrists who serve patients with conditions including anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, OCD, PTSD, and more, across 43 states. A study of Talkiatry patients found that after an average of five appointments over 15 weeks, 67% no longer had clinically significant anxiety symptoms, and 62% no longer had clinically significant depression symptoms. Talkiatry is in-network with more than 60 health plans, including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Cigna, and Humana, covering more than 70% of commercial lives in the U.S.

“Talkiatry has mainstreamed outcomes-based psychiatric health care and risk-based payment models. The company has built a reputation for providing affordable, high-quality treatment for psychiatric patients while creating robust partnerships with a continually-expanding payor network,” said Scott Kupor, Managing Partner, a16z. “We look forward to working with Georgia, Robert, and the Talkiatry team to usher in a new era of innovation in this important area of mental health care.”

To partner with Talkiatry, please visit: https://www.talkiatry.com/cTypontact-us.

About Talkiatry
Talkiatry is a national mental health practice that provides in-network psychiatry and therapy. They were co-founded by a patient and a triple-board-certified psychiatrist to solve the problems both groups face in accessing and providing the highest quality mental healthcare. 60% of adults in the U.S. with a diagnosable mental illness go untreated every year because care is inaccessible, while 45% of clinicians are out of network with insurers because reimbursement rates are low and paperwork is unduly burdensome. With innovative technology and a human-centered philosophy, Talkiatry provides patients with the care they need—and allows psychiatrists to focus on why they got into medicine. Learn more at www.talkiatry.com and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact
[email protected] 

SOURCE Talkiatry

MONTREAL, June 18, 2024 — Ability Biologics (“Ability”) announced the final closing of its seed funding, raising a total of $18 million (US), a financing round led by founding investor Amplitude Ventures (“Amplitude”). Amplitude is joined by the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, Charles River Laboratories, Theodorus and Alexandria Venture Investments. Ability, a pioneer in the application of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to therapeutic discovery, focuses its platform on discovering and developing potent and selective antibody therapeutics for cancer and immune-related disorders. Ability Biologics, through its AbiLeap™ discovery engine, is generating novel, logic-enabled antibodies with the potential to become best-in-class or first-in-class therapeutics.

Ability’s leadership team combines deep experience in immunology, antibody discovery, engineering and therapeutic development, from the bench to commercial stage, and is leveraging this experience to create next generation antibodies using powerful computational tools through its unique, proprietary AI platform. The AbiLeap™ discovery engine is an AI platform built on top of one of the largest databases of antibody-antigen interactions ever constructed, bringing together more than five years of discovery data and incorporating both public and private data sources. AbiLeap™ allows Ability to address a longstanding challenge by generating fully human antibodies that are logic-gated, enabling them to target specific tissues and cells based on the local microenvironment, including conditions such as secondary antigens, pH, temperature and/or the presence of specific metabolites.

“We’re seeing a need for a new generation of antibodies and modalities as simply binding, blocking or agonizing a single receptor is not enough to achieve therapeutic impact,” said Giles Day, Co-founder and CEO of Ability. “At Ability, our platform overlays multiple approaches in a single molecule, enhancing specificity and selectivity to develop potent therapeutics with broad therapeutic windows. To do so, our antibodies employ tried and tested IgG formats that enable easier manufacturing, storage and administration, avoiding complex formats that introduce multiple risks from manufacturing to immunogenicity,” concluded Giles Day.

“We are focused on solving the next set of complex biology challenges and one of them is to tackle the issue of on-target, off-tissue toxicity, which is limiting the utility of antibody therapy,” said Dion Madsen, CFA, Co-founder and Partner at Amplitude Ventures. “Ability’s proprietary platform stands out as an intelligent way of rapidly developing selective and potent, ultra-targeted biotherapeutics to enhance potency and patient outcomes.”

“The life science and biotech sector is in constant flux, and we are proud to provide financial backing for Ability’s ongoing innovations,” said Bicha Ngo, President and CEO of Investissement Québec. “Harnessing the latest technologies, like artificial intelligence, in the development of antibodies will solidify Québec’s expertise in an area that is critical to the treatment of various types of cancer, and ultimately other diseases, that affect many Quebecers every year.”

About Ability Biologics

Ability Biologics is the premier cell targeting company. Its powerful AbiLeap™ discovery engine combines massively parallel, continuously learning AI with an extensive database of antigen-antibody interactions to generate fully human, IgG-based multi-specific antibodies of exquisite selectivity and affinity. The antibodies respond to environmental signals within the cellular microenvironment, generating logic-gated therapeutics. Ability is dedicated to developing the most potent and selective antibody therapeutics for areas of great unmet need. To learn more, visit ability.bio, our linkedin page or contact us at [email protected].

About Amplitude Ventures

Amplitude is a full-stack venture capital firm using a unique growth model to build companies with world-class management teams and scale companies to breakout potential. With over $500 million under management and offices in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Amplitude applies a proven, evidence-based approach to investing in leading precision medicine companies. Learn more about Amplitude and its Pre-Amp venture studio at amplitudevc.com.

About the Fonds de solidarité FTQ

The Fonds de solidarité FTQ is a source of pride in Québec, fulfilling its mission through a unique business model created 40 years ago. Since then, the Fonds has rallied Québec into action thanks to the retirement savings of over 769,000 shareholders. With net assets of $18.9 billion as at November 31, 2023, the Fonds supports more than 3,700 companies through venture and development capital investments based on the belief that impact is created as much by financial as social returns. For more information, visit fondsftq.com.

About Investissement Québec

Investissement Québec’s mission is to play an active role in Quebec’s economic development by stimulating business innovation, entrepreneurship, and business acquisitions, as well as growth in investment and exports. Operating in all the province’s administrative regions, the Corporation supports the creation and growth of businesses of all sizes with investments and customized financial solutions. It also assists businesses by providing consulting services and other support measures, including technological assistance available from Investissement Québec Innovation. In addition, through Investissement Québec International, the Corporation prospects for talent and foreign investment, and assists Quebec businesses with export activities. For more information, visit investquebec.com.

About Theodorus

Theodorus is a venture capital fund targeting mainly high-potential spin-offs coming from the “Université Libre de Bruxelles” (ULB), though also open to all innovative ventures in life sciences. The fund invests primarily in early-stage biotechnology, medical technology and healthcare technology companies that have developed disruptive innovations. In addition to its financial role, Theodorus is actively involved in developing its portfolio companies and seeing them through to success. Today, Theodorus manages over $100 million in assets that have supported more than 40 businesses. Theodorus has offices in Montreal and Brussels. For more information, visit theodorus.be.

Media Contact: Philippe Périou Communications-Marketing, [email protected], +1 450.831.4414 (GMT – 4h)

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Fund 8 will continue Kinderhook’s buy-and-build strategy in the Environmental / Business Services, Automotive / Light Manufacturing, and Healthcare Services Sectors.

NEW YORK, June 18, 2024 — Kinderhook Industries, LLC (“Kinderhook“) today announced the final closing of Kinderhook Capital Fund 8, L.P. (“Fund 8”) with total capital commitments of $2.75 billion, inclusive of $250 million in commitments from the general partner and its operating partner network. After holding a first close in April 2024, Fund 8 exceeded its target of $2.0 billion and was significantly oversubscribed.

Kinderhook’s investor base is comprised of leading domestic and international endowments, foundations, family offices, pensions, and other institutional capital bases. Kinderhook welcomed several new investors that broaden the Firm’s Limited Partner base in the United States, Europe, and for the first time, in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

“All of us at Kinderhook are humbled by the overwhelming support we received from our existing and new investors and are extremely proud of our global investor base of thought-leading partners,” said Chris Michalik, Managing Director at Kinderhook. “Fund 8 plans to continue a similar investment strategy that Kinderhook has pursued for over two decades and will target our core sectors of focus where we have deep industry expertise.”

“We are pleased to continue our partnership with our long-standing investors, many of whom have supported Kinderhook since its founding,” said Liam Rogers, Managing Director and Head of Capital Formation & Investor Relations. “We are also excited to welcome our new partners to the Kinderhook family – the commitments we received from blue-chip LPs across the world is a testament to the strength of our team and the consistency of our investment strategy and results.”

UBS Private Funds Group served as exclusive global placement agent. Kirkland and Ellis, LLP served as fund counsel for Fund 8.

About Kinderhook Industries

Founded in 2003, Kinderhook Industries, LLC is a private investment firm that has raised $8.5 billion of committed capital. We have made in excess of 450 investments and follow-on acquisitions since inception. Kinderhook’s investment philosophy is predicated on matching differentiated, growth-oriented investment opportunities with financial expertise and our proprietary network of operating partners. Our focus is on middle market businesses with defensible niche market positioning in the healthcare services, environmental / business services, and automotive / light manufacturing sectors.

For more information, please visit: https://www.kinderhook.com/

SOURCE Kinderhook Industries

STAVANGER, Norway, June 18, 2024 — Stepwise AS, a leading emissions management platform that empowers companies within the energy sector to reduce their carbon footprint, announces the successful completion of a NOK 35 million capital raise. The funding enables accelerated growth plans and enhanced product offerings, on the path to becoming a market leader in emissions reduction for the energy sector.
 
“We founded Stepwise in 2021 with a clear vision of delivering a unified platform for sustainable emissions reduction and monitoring across operations and management, and we are now collaborating with some of the largest global energy companies,” says Matthew Johan, Co-founder and Executive Director of Stepwise. “This successful capital raise marks a significant milestone for us, underscoring our strong market potential and innovative business model.”
 
Stepwise is built by a global team of subject matter experts, with extensive experience working within the maritime and offshore energy domains for industry leaders including Aker BP, SLB and Equinor. The Stepwise team maintains local presence in Norway, the UK, US and UAE.
 
Strategic growth into offshore production
Stepwise is currently active with a solution for offshore well construction and pursues strategic expansion across the energy value chain, with a focus on growth into offshore production together with existing clients. Simultaneously, the company is actively positioning for future deployment of its solutions across the energy sector.
 
“We see a large growing potential for future expansion across offshore wind, fixed platforms, production (FPSOs), and land-based drilling. The potential is not limited to emission management on an asset level but extends to the whole enterprise,” Matthew Johan adds.
 
Sustainability is more than metrics
The energy sector faces increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions while maintaining efficiency and profitability. Energy companies must accurately monitor and manage emissions across their portfolios, complying with stringent sustainability regulations, such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. It was adopted in May this year, imposing significant penalties for non-compliance.
 
Stepwise addresses these challenges by combining expertise in operational performance, power consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions with a sophisticated SaaS-platform, and value-added services. The platform offers real-time monitoring and seamlessly integrates with existing digital tools, allowing for precise tracking of emissions linked to specific operations.
 
The solution provides clear insights into carbon intensity and operational efficiency, supporting detailed planning and execution of emission reduction initiatives. This enables energy companies to prioritize the most cost-effective carbon abatement solutions as part of a continuous improvement approach.
 
Strong support
Since its inception, Stepwise has demonstrated rapid growth and innovation, supported by strong collaborations and dedicated investors. The proceeds from the capital raise is enabling continued development to meet the evolving needs of both existing and new customers. Specifically, the funding will fuel its ongoing expansion into the offshore production segment. The NOK 35 million raised consists of new equity, a convertible loan, and a credit line with a major Nordic bank.
 
“We believe Stepwise is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the opportunities ahead. The Stepwise team has demonstrated a capacity for innovation in developing a management tool that enables industries to substantially impact environmental sustainability on the road to Net Zero”, said Birgitte Angelil, Director of Stepwise and Partner at Eltek Holding. “Their proven track record and a clear strategic vision make them a compelling investment. We are excited to be part of their journey and look forward to their continued success.”
 
About Stepwise AS
Stepwise is a leading emissions management platform meticulously crafted to empower companies within the energy sector to reduce their carbon footprint. Instrumental in moving the energy sector faster towards Net Zero, it provides real-time monitoring, comprehensive tracking of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and seamless integration with existing digital ecosystems. The correlation of emissions and well data enables monitoring of the carbon intensity per meter drilled across D&W operations. Other key features include digitalization, record-keeping, data analysis, algorithms, assets, and wells performance comparisons, enabling substantiated well and field development planning and auditing. As a pioneering SaaS platform, Stepwise turns data into sustainable action. Its experienced team’s aptitude to continuously identify, implement, and measure emission reduction initiatives (ERIs) enables companies to reduce fleet-wide emissions, ensure regulatory compliance, and consistently deliver against set corporate goals.
 
Contact Information:
For further information, please contact:

Matthew Johan
Executive Director
Stepwise AS
+1 646 467 2606
[email protected] 
www.stepwise.no

Note to Editors:

Stepwise is a leading emission management platform for the global energy sector. For more information about Stepwise and its offerings, please visit www.stepwise.no

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

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SAN DIEGO, June 17, 2024 — Primrose Bio, Inc. (“Primrose,” the “Company”), a company focused on developing and licensing its manufacturing technologies for nucleic acids and proteins used in therapeutics and vaccines, announced a significant equity investment from 1315 Capital, a Philadelphia-based, healthcare-focused growth equity firm.

These funds will enable the continued development and commercial expansion of its three major offerings:

• Prima RNApols™: proprietary RNA polymerase enzymes that significantly improve mRNA manufacturing by improving yields up to 5x, eliminating double-stranded RNA, and enhancing cap incorporation compared to the currently used T7 RNA polymerase standard.
• Pfenex Expression Technology^®: a validated microbial expression system used in five approved drugs which consistently shows 10-20x higher yields over E.coli, CHO, and yeast-based systems as well as an unparalleled success rate in complex proteins.
• PeliCRM^®: the only commercially available CRM197 conjugate vaccine carrier protein used in approved products.

“We are thrilled to have the support of such a high-quality organization and team at 1315 Capital who share our vision of expanding opportunities in biomanufacturing technologies for the pharmaceutical industry,” said Dr. Helge Zieler, CEO of Primrose. “With this investment, we are well-positioned to advance our therapeutic protein and nucleic acid manufacturing solutions with our existing large-pharma collaborators and future partners.”

“There has been a tremendous amount of innovation in therapeutics over the last decades, and relatively little in their production systems. Primrose’s validated technology platforms address an increasingly important challenge facing the industry as drugs get more complex, and pricing pressure continues to mount,” said Matt Reber, Partner at 1315 Capital. “We are excited to partner with Primrose as they continue to expand their commercial reach with their suite of proprietary technologies.”

About Primrose Bio, Inc.
Primrose Bio was formed in 2023 through the merger of Primordial Genetics, Inc. and Pfenex to create an integrated end-to-end technology platform for solving complex drug manufacturing and design challenges. Primrose major offerings include Prima RNApols: improved enzymes for mRNA manufacturing, Pfenex Expression Technology: a validated production system with up to 20x higher yields over other systems and an unparalleled success rate in making complex proteins, and PeliCRM197: the only commercially available CRM197 conjugate vaccine carrier protein used in approved products. Several of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies use Primrose Bio’s technology, including Merck, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Alvogen, Serum Institute of India, Arcellx, Arcturus and others. For more information, please visit www.primrosebio.com.

About 1315 Capital
1315 Capital is a private investment firm with over $1 billion of assets under management that provides growth capital to commercial-stage healthcare services, pharmaceutical & medical technology outsourcing, medical technology, and health & wellness companies. 1315 Capital targets both minority and majority investments in companies where high-quality management teams can rapidly scale platform companies into large and important businesses that positively impact patients, physicians, and the broader healthcare system. For more information, please visit www.1315capital.com.

SOURCE Primrose Bio

Round brings Finaloop’s total funding to $55 million as it revolutionizes the way e-commerce and retail brands handle their finances

NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, June 17, 2024 — Today, Finaloop, the real-time e-commerce accounting platform, announced it has raised a $35 million Series A round. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round with participation from Vesey Ventures, Commerce Ventures, and existing investors, Accel and Aleph. The latest funding round, which brings Finaloop’s total funding to $55 million, will be used to further invest in its AI-driven e-commerce accounting software automation, its inventory management capabilities, as well as to expand its go-to-market and partnership efforts with accounting firms and data-driven marketing agencies.

Launched in 2020 with offices in New York and Tel Aviv, Finaloop is revolutionizing the way e-commerce and retail brands handle their finances by offering an automated accounting and bookkeeping service that moves at the speed and scale of their online business.

Finaloop makes all financial data accessible to e-commerce stakeholders, driving better, more profitable business decisions — from periodic accounting to real-time finance metrics. Finaloop is the first real-time, AI-driven accounting service tailored for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands selling on Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, and many other online stores and marketplaces, as well as wholesale and multi-channel businesses.

The financing round comes following Finaloop’s success in demonstrating that the e-commerce market is craving a better solution to run its financial operations. In the last 12 months, Finaloop grew its customer base by 400%, now working with thousands of brands and managing over $13 billion in GMV on their platform.

At the heart of Finaloop’s automation capabilities sits Rico^ⓒ, the first AI-driven reconciliation engine. Out of more than 70 million transactions, Finaloop has successfully automated the categorization and reconciliation of over 94% of those transactions.

“The entire e-commerce industry is built on an advanced technological stack with players like Shopify, Amazon, Gusto, Stripe, and others but the accounting and bookkeeping solutions used by these companies were lightyears behind every other tool in their toolkit,” said Lioran Pinchevski, CEO and founder of Finaloop. “E-commerce operators were left with outdated and in many cases erroneous books using archaic software like Quickbooks, Xero, and Netsuite which were created more than two decades ago and that simply could not keep up with the pace of their unique business. I experienced it myself when I founded my own DTC brand. The result was inventory mismanagement, incorrect pricing decisions, and unreliable financial reporting.”

“We’re excited to be joining forces with Lightspeed who share our vision of becoming the financial source of truth for all retail brands. We’re seeing a tectonic shift in the e-commerce market from growth at all costs to profit-driven and financial management. By providing real-time, financial visibility, Finaloop helps brand founders develop their financial IQ and propels them to become not just great marketers, but also great overall operators.”

Used by some of the most well-known DTC brands in the space like Heart & Soil, Duradry, Crossnet, Netrition, and Marcella NYC, Finaloop helps e-commerce founders, operators, and forward-thinking bookkeepers and accountants make smarter, data-driven decisions by removing the financial blind spots. The result is faster growth, better cash flow management, and more accurate COGS and inventory planning. Jack Benzaquen, CEO of Duradry and one of Finaloop’s earliest customers, swears by Finaloop: “The magic of Finaloop is that they simplify the financial process and finally give me trust in my numbers. Having this visibility is key and it never existed before.”

“Finaloop is shaking up an industry that hasn’t seen material change in over 30 years. They are at the forefront of reshaping accounting and bookkeeping for e-commerce by solving their biggest pain points,” said Tal Morgenstern, Partner at Lightspeed. “We’re excited to support the Finaloop team with their goal of providing e-commerce companies real-time financials, giving them an invaluable edge over their competitors.”

About Lightspeed
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Affirm, Carta, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Faire, Forty Seven, Guardant Health, Mulesoft, Navan, Netskope, Nutanix, Rubrik, Sharechat, Snap, Udaan, Ultima Genomics and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $25B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. www.lsvp.com

About Finaloop
Finaloop is an AI-driven, automated e-commerce accounting platform providing bookkeeping and accounting services that fully reconcile all the financial data in real-time, supplying consumer brands with flawless books, tax-ready financials, inventory costs management, and actionable insights 24/7 with complete accuracy. Combining deep accounting domain expertise built into software, and utilizing AI supervised by accounting and e-commerce experts, Finaloop provides the financial data brands need to stop wasting time and money, make smarter decisions, and focus on growing their profits.

For additional company information, please visit https://www.finaloop.com

SOURCE Finaloop

New Office Will Be Led by Japanese Venture Finance Leader, Makio Inui

MALIBU, Calif., June 17, 2024 — Soul Ventures, a leading venture capital firm focused on disrupting our daily lives and building a better future, today announced a significant milestone with the establishment of Soul Ventures Japan, marking the firm’s expansion into the Japanese market. Through Soul Ventures Japan, the firm will be able to further the reach of its global network, invest in leading Japanese companies and offer more opportunities to its prominent portfolio companies like Anthropic, Cohere, SpaceX, Neuralink, and Reddit.

“Japan presents a vibrant landscape brimming with exciting opportunities for investment,” said Warren Hui, founding partner at Soul Ventures. “By opening an office here, we are signifying our commitment to investing in Japan’s tech landscape and helping unlock the region’s remarkable growth potential.”

Leading the charge of Soul Ventures Japan is Makio Inui, a seasoned venture capital and finance expert boasting over 30 years of experience navigating the dynamic landscapes of Tokyo. Inui brings a robust background as an equity analyst and investment banker, particularly in the TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecommunications) sectors. His expertise is widely recognized, with a remarkable 16 appearances on the Institutional Investor rankings. Inui’s pivotal roles in major transactions such as the NTT privatization and the NTT DoCoMo IPO highlight his deep market insights and strategic prowess.

“I’ve long been impressed by what the Soul Ventures team has been able to accomplish around the US and Asia, including notable investments this year into the leading AI companies,” said Makio Inui.” “With Soul Ventures Japan, we will facilitate the flow of global innovation into Japan and conversely, introduce Japanese advancements to the world stage. I’m very excited to be joining the Soul Ventures team, which is now uniquely positioned to unlock the full potential of the Japanese market.”

About Soul Ventures
Founded in 2021, Soul Ventures has established itself as a visionary in the venture capital landscape, focusing on early to growth-stage investments in sectors poised for transformative change. With a keen eye for disruptive technologies and a commitment to nurturing innovation, Soul Ventures has become a leading name in the investment community. Soul Ventures aims to partner with the most disruptive technology companies and invest from Series C all the way to pre-IPO. For more information visit www.soulvc.com.

SOURCE Soul Ventures

PRINCETON, N.J., June 17, 2024 — Princeton NuEnergy (PNE), a leader in lithium-ion battery direct recycling furthering America’s circular economy, today closed a Series A funding round with a strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Samsung’s corporate venture arm, investing in breakthrough technologies across industries and from Helium-3 Ventures. Investor demand for this 50% oversubscribed round brought PNE’s Series A total to $30 million. Samsung Venture and Helium-3 join the round’s previous investors, including Honda Motor Co. Ltd., LKQ Corporation, SCG Group, Traxys Group, and Wistron Corporation.

The funds will support construction of PNE’s first standalone, full-scale direct battery recycling advanced manufacturing facility, which will be announced later this month. In total, the company has raised over $55 million, including multiple U.S. Department of Energy grants totaling $18 million and a $7.9 million seed & angel round.

Commercializing technology initially developed at Princeton University, PNE’s flagship innovation will be instrumental in driving America’s circular economy for battery recycling, one where materials stay in-country, from consumption through reuse, to recycling and remanufacturing.

PNE is commercializing a lithium-ion battery recycling process that is significantly faster and less costly than traditional recycling while dramatically reducing environmental waste and carbon emissions by 70%. Unlike traditional battery-recycling processes which use significantly greater amounts of power, water and often generate difficult to manage toxic byproducts, PNE’s patented low-temperature, plasma-assisted separation process (LPAS™) recovers up to 95% of materials found in all lithium-ion battery chemistries, reduces 70% energy consumption and lowers the cost over 40%.

“The incredible interest in our Series A round, capped off by a strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Helium-3 Ventures, speaks to the importance of supporting a circular economy for lithium battery manufacturing here in the U.S.,” said Dr. Chao Yan, PNE’s Co-Founder and CEO. “This funding enables us to implement and demonstrate our capabilities at commercial scale, helping America meet the growing demand for high-performance batteries while also creating high-quality clean energy jobs.”

About Princeton NuEnergy 
Princeton NuEnergy (PNE) is an advanced manufacturing leader in lithium-ion battery direct recycling, furthering America’s circular battery economy. Founded out of Princeton University and named to Time Magazine’s “America’s Top Greentech Companies 2024”, PNE is revolutionizing the critical materials supply chain with its patented direct recycling technology for lithium-ion batteries. PNE’s patented low-temperature plasma-assisted separation process (LPAS™) produces battery-grade cathode and anode materials suitable for direct reintroduction into cell manufacturing at half the cost and a much lower environmental footprint than conventional methods. The company has received over $55 million in grants, strategic and venture funding including investments from Honda Motor Co. Ltd., LKQ Corporation, Samsung Venture, Shell Venture, Traxys Group, Wistron Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Energy. For more information, visit www.pnecycle.com.

For more information:
Inkhouse for Princeton NuEnergy
[email protected]

SOURCE Princeton NuEnergy

SAN FRANCISCO and TOKYO, June 17, 2024 — Autify, an AI platform for quality engineering, today announced that it has completed a Series B funding round of $13 million and released a beta version of Zenes, an autonomous AI agent for software quality assurance.

Leading the round are Globis Capital Partners, a leading venture capital fund based in Tokyo, Japan, and LG Technology Ventures, the Silicon Valley-based venture capital arm of LG Group, which focuses on AI, enterprise software, and energy transformation. Autify, leveraging the recent round of funding plans to expand into the Korean market and strengthen its collaboration with LG CNS, making Korea a key market of focus alongside existing core markets such as the US and Japan.

Existing investors WiL (World Innovation Lab), Salesforce Ventures, Archetype Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures also participated in the round.

Please refer here for more details on this funding round.

Autify is a platform that supercharges developer and QA teams and optimizes the software quality engineering process. The company aims to enhance people’s creativity through AI and technology. Since its inception in 2016, the company has gained a number of global enterprise customers in the B2C and B2B verticals, including DeNA, NEC, NTT Smart Communication, Yahoo, ZOZO, and Q4.

With this recent round of funding, Autify plans to expand its capabilities to support code-based test automation and build a comprehensive Generative AI-powered quality engineering platform featuring its newest product, Zenes.

Supercharging Quality Engineering with Zenes

Zenes is an autonomous AI agent for software quality assurance — in effect, an AI QA engineer working for you. It generates test cases by analyzing product requirement documents, writes automated test codes, and maintains the test codes automatically.

Autify has applied Zenes to its own QA process, successfully reducing the time spent creating test cases by 55%.

How it works:

After users upload their product requirement document in any file format (.html, .pdf, .docx, .md, etc.), Zenes will generate a group of outlined test cases covering the product specs. Users can then edit these test cases to increase the accuracy of subsequent steps.

After any edits have been made Zenes then generates automated test codes, e.g. the test case steps in Gherkin format. Users can use generative AI-powered code completion within the product to edit this Gherkin output.

Please check out the full demo here.
https://youtu.be/NtFzWvVUrr8

“AI is poised to drastically improve productivity in the software development process,” said Ryo Chikazawa, Autify’s co-founder & CEO. “We believe that AI is not here to replace humans. It’s here to enhance human capability so that we can be more creative. The software development process and its quality assurance will be redefined with Generative AI, and we are thrilled to redesign this process with our AI-powered product suite.”

Users can take a closer look at Zenes and join the waitlist for access here:
https://zenes.ai/

About Autify

With a mission to enhance people’s creativity through technology, Autify, Inc. has developed an AI-powered quality engineering platform. Since its launch, Autify has been implemented by many global organizations whose development teams use Autify to automate their software testing. Test automation often presents several challenges, such as a lack of resources or the time required to create test cases, maintain end-to-end (E2E) test code, and debug tests. Autify’s product suite addresses these issues utilizing generative AI. Learn more at https://autify.com/

SOURCE Autify Inc.