Investment Round Led by Eclipse, Explorer 1, and RTX Ventures

DENVER, Nov. 30, 2023 — Ursa Major, America’s leading privately funded company focused solely on rocket propulsion, today announced that it closed $138 million in its Series D and D-1 funding rounds. The investments were led by Explorer 1 Fund and Eclipse, and include RTX Ventures, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Exor Ventures, Mack & Co., LLC, XN, and other institutional shareholders. 

With this investment, Ursa Major will continue to develop Lynx, the company’s innovative new solid rocket motor (SRM) program, while scaling production capacity and advancing multiple propulsion programs. While the initial Series D round was completed earlier in the year, Ursa Major extended fundraising to include a Series D-1 round due to strong interest in accelerating development on several future programs.

“In the year since our last funding round, Ursa Major has secured significant commercial and government customers, delivered dozens of flight-ready engines, introduced new engine concepts, and worked to address critical gaps in our nation’s defense. This includes developing Lynx, a line of solid rocket motors that can deliver urgently needed capabilities,” said Ursa Major CEO and founder Joe Laurienti. “This investment will support scaling our production capacity to meet strong market demand, as well as continued technology innovation for our medium- and heavy-weight propulsion systems.”

Since its last round of funding, Ursa Major has responded to deficiencies in the nation’s defense capabilities by introducing Draper, a revolutionary new storable liquid engine designed to defend against hypersonic weapons, and Lynx, a new solution for designing and manufacturing solid rocket motors for tactical applications.

Ursa Major has also redesigned and hot-fired the 50,000-pound-thrust Ripley engine, scaled production of the 5,000-pound-thrust Hadley engine to a rate of one per week, and qualified Hadley as the world’s first and only rocket engine for space launch, in-space, and hypersonic missions.

“Ursa Major propulsion systems fill a critical gap in the defense industrial base today,” said Greg Reichow, Partner at Eclipse and former Vice President of Production at Tesla. “For the U.S. and its allies, the ability to deter threats will depend on our ability to produce innovative solutions utilizing modern manufacturing methods that are not dependent on fragmented supply chains. Ursa Major’s team possesses the technical prowess to deliver the high production rates, low cost, and advanced technology needed to help maintain national security.”
Ursa Major’s propulsion-only approach disrupts the existing vertically integrated launch industry by providing vehicle-agnostic engines for a variety of launch and hypersonic applications. This approach stands as a safeguard against the kind of consolidation and stagnation in launch technology that kept America dependent on Russian-made rocket engines in the past.

Reliable rocket propulsion is critical to maintaining the space supply chain and growing the space industry. Ursa Major’s flexible rocket engines can be used for various Department of Defense (DOD) and non-DOD missions, from air launch to hypersonic flight and on-orbit missions. The company’s customers get to launch faster and without the development cost of building engines in-house. 

Additionally, Ursa Major has applied their lessons learned in liquid rocket engines for space launch to re-imagine solid rocket motor design and manufacturing. With their process, Ursa Major offers a revolutionary solution to America’s SRM shortage with a faster, more affordable process, leveraging 3D printing to manufacture multiple motors that outperform legacy systems.

Connect with Ursa Major on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

About Ursa Major

Ursa Major is the leading independent rocket propulsion provider and a critical player in building the defense industrial base in the United States. As the first American company to fire an oxygen-rich staged combustion engine—a milestone previously only achieved by Russian engine-makers—Ursa Major provides reusable, high-performing propulsion systems to commercial space enterprises, defense contractors, and the Department of Defense for launch, hypersonics, and national security missions. The company employs the country’s leading propulsion experts at its one-of-a-kind headquarters in Berthoud, Colorado, which houses engineering, manufacturing, and testing all in one campus. Manufactured using 3D printing for scalable production, Ursa Major propulsion systems save customers an average of five years and $50 million compared to building propulsion in-house. 

Media Contacts

Ursa Major
[email protected]

SOURCE Ursa Major Technologies

• WELL Ventures is pleased to report that its portfolio companies continue to raise funds at attractive valuations with high quality capital allocators globally.
• Sun Life has invested $9.5 million in Pillway, a move that reinforces the value of Pillway’s digital pharmacy platform within Sun Life’s benefits management program.
• WELL Ventures has completed a new investment in ORX AI, a company that is leveraging advanced AI to optimize operating room efficiencies and streamline healthcare revenue management.
• WELL Ventures, investee doctorly GmbH, the only VC-backed startup in Germany authorized to sell practice management software, has attracted a new round of funding of €6.7M in Series A Extension. The Round was led by Dusseldorf based Simon Capital and included participation from Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungen KG, UNIQA Ventures and WELL’s investee HEALWELL AI (TSX: AIDX).

VANCOUVER, BC and TORONTO, Nov. 30, 2023 – WELL Health Technologies Corp. (TSX: WELL) (OTCQX: WHTCF) (“WELL” or the “Company“), a digital health company focused on positively impacting health outcomes by leveraging technology to empower healthcare providers and their patients globally, is pleased to announce series of strategic investment developments that highlight its leadership in fostering innovation within the digital health technology sphere.

Hamed Shahbazi, Founder and CEO of WELL, stated, “We are very pleased to announce our new investment in ORX AI and see our WELL Venture portfolio companies Pillway and doctorly continue to raise capital with exceptional partners in this difficult funding environment. We believe this is a testament to the quality of companies and operators that are at the heart of WELL’s investment program and our rigorous approach in due diligence and post transaction execution.

Amir Javidan, COO of WELL, added, “We also continue to be committed to intentionally aligning ourselves with the success of our investees by establishing thoughtful commercial partnering agreements in addition to our allocation of capital. This approach is working and elevating the value of our investments while delivering real operational value to both WELL and our investee partners.”

Sun Life Investment Elevates Pillway’s Market Position

Earlier this week, Sun Life announced a strategic investment of $9.5 million in Simpill Health Inc. (“Pillway“). This investment follows Sun Life’s launch of the Lumino Health™ Pharmacy app provided by Pillway in June 2023 to Sun Life Group Benefits Clients in Canada. The app currently offers the following features: access to live pharmacist support through chat or phone, prompt medication delivery within Canada, personalized medication pre-packaging, as well as convenient adherence tracking, refill & renewal management, and notifications via the app.

Pillway’s digital pharmacy platform is now a key component of Sun Life’s benefits management program. The platform’s seamless integration into Sun Life’s offerings demonstrate the tangible impact of Pillway’s technology on improving the management and delivery of health benefits. Through this partnership, Pillway’s digital platform is expected to enhance the user experience for Sun Life’s clientele, reflecting WELL’s continued investment in solutions that contribute to better patient care and efficient provider service.

WELL Ventures Announces Investment in ORX AI to Amplify AI Program

WELL Ventures is pleased to announce its investment in ORX AI, a leader in AI healthcare technology, under its AI Investment Program. ORX AI’s platform, Patient Compass transforms patient care by offering a user-friendly virtual agent that works alongside Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to allow patients to find care, get care, and advance care with greater ease.

Patient Compass is designed to empower patients in their healthcare journey, allowing them to manage and share their health data between WELL’s trusted AI products and providers. Patient Compass unlocks crucial healthcare data for many use cases like identifying rare diseases and updating care plans with the latest medical insights.

WELL Ventures’ investment in ORX AI is driven by WELL’s commitment to empowering healthcare providers, and grew from the successful Digital Technology Supercluster project, Health Compass, announced on January 13, 2023. This collaboration highlighted each organization’s shared commitment to advancing healthcare technology. ORX AI stands out in the healthcare technology landscape for its ability to harness healthcare data for AI enablement to support providers in world-class care and is a strategic move to support WELL’s ongoing deployment of WELL AI Decision Support through its exclusive partnership with HEALWELL AI.

doctorly Secures Additional VC Funding From Consortium Including HEALWELL AI

WELL Ventures investee doctorly GmbH (“doctorly“), has attracted a new round of funding of €6.7M in Series A Extension. The Round was led by Dusseldorf based Simon Capital and included participation from Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungen KG, UNIQA Ventures and WELL’s affiliate HEALWELL AI. This is a follow-on from the initial investment announced in March 2023. The investment underscores WELL’s strategic focus on international growth and innovation in healthcare technology. As the only venture capital-backed startup in Germany authorized to sell practice management software, doctorly is uniquely positioned to transform the medical software landscape, already proving to reduce administrative time for healthcare providers.

This investment is poised to unlock the potential of patient EMR data through a strategic partnership between WELL, HEALWELL AI, and doctorly, aiming to tech-enable healthcare practitioners to improve patient care. The funds will boost doctorly’s expansion in Germany, focusing on feature development that helps minimize administrative costs, thereby allowing healthcare professionals to dedicate more time to patient-focused services.

WELL continues to strategically allocate capital and form commercial partnering agreements with emerging tech firms, focusing on fostering a health innovation ecosystem in Canada and beyond. Through a disciplined investment process, WELL selectively backs opportunities that align strategically and financially. This approach effectively nurtures healthcare innovations from their development phase through to their market launch, showcasing WELL’s commitment to meaningful partnerships with tech firms. By providing guidance and resources, WELL not only accelerates these ventures but also reinforces its role in cultivating a sustainable health innovation ecosystem, further establishing itself as a leader in healthcare technology.

For additional information about WELL Ventures, its portfolio companies, and its AI investment program please visit https://well.ventures/.

WELL HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES CORP.

Per: “Hamed Shahbazi”

Hamed Shahbazi

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director

About WELL Health Technologies Corp.

WELL’s mission is to tech-enable healthcare providers. We do this by developing the best technologies, services, and support available, which ensures healthcare providers are empowered to positively impact patient outcomes. WELL’s comprehensive healthcare and digital platform includes extensive front and back-office management software applications that help physicians run and secure their practices. WELL’s solutions enable more than 33,000 healthcare providers between the US and Canada, and power the largest owned and operated healthcare ecosystem in Canada with more than 150 clinics supporting primary care, specialized care, and diagnostic services. In the United States WELL’s solutions are focused on specialized markets such as the gastrointestinal market, women’s health, primary care, mental health, revenue cycle management, and practitioner recruiting. WELL is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “WELL” and on the OTC Exchange under the symbol “WHTCF”. To learn more about the Company, please visit: www.well.company.

SOURCE WELL Health Technologies Corp.

TAIPEI, Nov. 30, 2023 — Term Structure, a non-custodial fixed-income protocol that provides peer-to-peer, fixed-rate, and fixed-term borrowing and lending in decentralized finance (DeFi), has secured an initial funding of USD 4.25 million in a series seed fundraising round.

Cumberland DRW led this round, with participation from Decima Fund, HashKey Capital, Longling Capital, and MZ Web3 Fund. The seed fundraising increases Term Structure’s total funding to over $8 million to date. In speaking about why it led the funding round, Cumberland DRW said, “Fixed income products are a foundational element of traditional financial market structure, and demand for these products in DeFi markets is an important signal of the increasing maturity in this market sector. Term Structure, which is led by industry veterans, is an exciting investment for us and reflects our commitment to investing in innovative solutions that solve real market needs.”

In TradFi, fixed-income products enable institutions and individuals to predict future cash flows and evaluate the relative value of different investment opportunities. However, such products are currently absent in DeFi. With the Term Structure Protocol, users can use fixed-income products to earn periodic interest to ensure a reliable income stream or secure fixed rates to control funding costs. Moreover, once fundamental fixed-income products are established, they accelerate the full development of sophisticated financial products, including forwards, futures, and options. These tools can be used for hedging, valuation, and pricing financial instruments.

The Term Structure Protocol testnet is live at https://app.testnet.ts.finance/ on Ethereum Goerli. This protocol currently has two core markets on its platform. In the primary markets, users can place orders to borrow or lend tokens with fixed interest rates and fixed maturity dates. Once orders are matched, borrowers will receive borrowed tokens and must repay their debts before the maturity date to reclaim their collaterals. Lenders will receive fixed-income tokens, redeemable for principal plus interest upon maturity. In the secondary markets, users can buy and sell fixed-income tokens through the orderbook trading system.

To secure users’ assets, the zkTrue-up scaling solution, a customized ZK Rollup, is in place to achieve data availability and enable users to place and cancel orders without gas fees. Users can also initiate Forced Withdrawal on the zkTrue-up contract to directly withdraw funds in case of censorship or any issues. If the withdrawal request is not fulfilled, users can activate the Evacuation Mode and perform the evacuation on the L1 contract to protect their assets.

A workshop will go live on December 4th, 2023 on YouTube to introduce the protocol, and the AMA will be held on December 5th, 2023.  Furthermore, a trading competition will be organized after the testnet launch. Prizes, including 10,000 USDC, will be awarded to winners. Programmatic trading APIs and SDKs will also soon become available for professional traders. Please visit Term Structure’s official website, https://ts.finance/, to stay updated.

Media Contact: Weiting Chen, weiting.chen@tkspring.com

SOURCE Term Structure Labs

SYDNEY, Nov. 29, 2023 — Rich Data Co (RDC) – a leading AI decisioning platform that helps banks make high-quality lending decisions efficiently and safely – has successfully raised US$17.5m in its Series B round.

The funding round was led by major Australian bank Westpac (ASX: WBC) and global leader in cloud banking nCino (NASDAQ: NCNO), and supported by a reinvestment from Australian funds management firm BMYG and new Singapore-based investor Octava Fund. The funds raised will be used to help accelerate RDC’s expansion into North America and grow its industry-leading position as an AI decisioning platform in the global banking sector.

Founded in Australia in 2016, RDC uses explainable AI to provide banks with deeper insight into borrower behaviour, enabling more accurate and efficient lending decisions to businesses. To date, RDC has helped major banks in Australia and New Zealand, notably Westpac’s Australian business lending operations, to leverage AI in accelerating lending coverage of its existing customers.  

Over the past 18 months, RDC has been expanding into North America, and in late 2022, established a global resale agreement with nCino, which enables nCino’s business and commercial lending customers to enhance the lending process with AI decisioning and greater intelligence.

Ada Guan, CEO and co-founder of RDC, says: “With this investment we are strengthening our relationship with Westpac and deepening our partnership with nCino. Securing such a significant amount of investment within challenging fundraising conditions, speaks to the opportunity that Rich Data Co’s AI Decisioning Platform offers the industry, which is pleasingly being recognised by our investors. Now that the B round has closed, we can get on with doing what we love to do and that is disrupt current lending approaches and grow our industry leadership in the exciting AI Decisioning space. I am incredibly proud of our people and our growing team of industry and AI experts.” 

Shane Howell, Managing Director Business Lending, Westpac, says: “At Westpac, our ambition is to enable Australian businesses to achieve their goals.  We strive to support our customers with the right solutions and a seamless banking experience so they can focus on their business. Since January we have benefited from partnering with global innovator RDC, to enable faster decisions for customers by using RDC’s decisioning tool and advanced analytic techniques, meaning cash is in our customers hands quicker, particularly important in these economic times.”

Anthony Potts, Head of Strategic Investments, Westpac says: “Westpac’s investment in RDC reflects our strategy to pursue meaningful capability partnerships, investments and acquisitions. With the rapid evolution of AI, our strategic investment not only enhances our business lending offer but also allows us to stay close to global developments as RDC scales internationally.”

Davis Brannan, EVP of Ecosystem and Strategic Growth at nCino, says: “nCino is proud of its heritage in helping financial institutions transform and outperform. Partnerships are an important part of our business strategy as they help us innovate and deliver value to customers even more quickly. We see the technology from RDC supporting elements of our nIQ and intelligence capabilities, and we’re excited to strengthen our collaboration with this investment.”

About Rich Data Co
Rich Data Co (RDC) was founded in 2016 in Sydney Australia. RDC is driven to increase global access to inclusive, fair and sustainable credit. The RDC AI Decisioning platform provides lenders with deeper insight into borrower behaviour, enabling faster and more accurate decisions that empower confident lending to Business and SME lending segments. This next-generation platform enables lenders to more accurately access credit risk and predict future business performance to enable access to sustainable credit. www.richdataco.com

SOURCE Rich Data co

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 29, 2023 — The seed funding round, led by LOVC, is joined by Reign Ventures with participation from BDMI, Florida Opportunity Fund, and McClatchy. Letterhead, a software platform for automating the creation and management of email newsletters, streamlines newsletter creation, distribution, and monetization for publishers and marketing teams to help produce meaningful content at scale. Leveraging AI, Letterhead empowers users to manage multiple newsletters with the workflow of one, improving efficiency and scalability while retaining the ability to create quality, personalized, and bespoke products. Letterhead’s software works with a customer’s existing content management system and email service provider, enabling any company to use its tools with minimal switching costs.

“Our vision is to help every company engage their audiences with meaningful media content,” said Christopher Sopher, co-founder and CEO of Letterhead. “As changes to cookies and privacy rules make owning your audience more critical than ever, we think it should be way easier for teams to create quality content products for every segment of their community. Our first step is making it possible for any business to create great newsletters in a fraction of the time.”

Letterhead is trusted by the publishers of over 1,800 newsletters, indicating a strong market fit and demand for more intelligent audience engagement software. Customers include leading brands like Techstars and Salon.

“While there are many traditional email marketing products, none are focused on content-driven engagement like Letterhead is,” said Nate Vasel, partner at LOVC. “We were impressed with the team’s vision for an owned audience future powered by AI and automation and their consistent execution to grow the business.”

Letterhead will use the funds to develop its platform further, expand its team, and accelerate growth as it continues to innovate how newsletters are produced and managed.

About LOVC:

LOVC is an early-stage venture fund investing in B2B software companies based in the Eastern US. Founded in 2016 by former entrepreneurs and headquartered in Florida, LOVC is now investing out of its $50M Fund II and typically leads $3–7M rounds with $1.5–2.5M checks in businesses with early commercial signals of product-market fit (typically $200K+ ARR). Our low-frequency and high-conviction investment approach (3-5 companies per year) allows us to be deeply collaborative and hands-on with the founders we partner with.

Contact Information:
media@lasolasvc.com

SOURCE Las Olas Venture Capital

WOBURN, Mass., Nov. 29, 2023 — Spear Bio Inc., a Harvard University biotech spin-off developing scalable solutions for ultrasensitive detection of protein biomarkers announced the completion of a raise of tens of millions of US dollars with its Seed Prime. The oversubscribed round was led by CDH Investments, with additional investments from earlier investors such as Maverick Ventures and YongHua Capital.

Spear Bio was co-founded in March 2021 as a spin-off from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute by Professor Peng Yin and Dr. Feng Xuan. The company is developing the next generation ultrasensitive immunodiagnostics and proteomics platform based on a breakthrough technology its founders developed and licensed from Harvard University: the Successive Proximity Extension Amplification Reaction, or SPEAR.

The SPEAR technology delivers two to three orders of magnitude higher sensitivity than current digital immunoassay platforms without the need for wash-steps or expensive proprietary readers thanks to its unique 2-factor authentication. SPEAR’s specially designed probes can differentiate sustained protein-to-protein contacts from transient interactions and translate “protein information” into DNA sequences with unprecedented specificity which can then be amplified and quantified with common qPCR devices.

The high specificity of SPEAR’s protein-to-DNA conversion combined with the exponential amplification of qPCR produces an extremely high signal-to-background ratio. It allows the detection of single digit counts of protein molecules in tiny sample volumes, down to a tenth of a microliter. Whether measuring low abundance biomarkers with microsampling techniques or carrying out a multitude of tests on precious samples with limited volumes, SPEAR is a powerful potential solution for both research applications and minimally invasive diagnostics.

Professor Peng Yin, Co-founder of Spear Bio, said “The SPEAR platform’s unique mechanism designed by Dr. Xuan achieves extreme sensitivity without the complexity typical of “single-molecule” technologies. SPEAR’s ability to quantify proteins at attomolar levels from sub-microliter sample will impact not only how protein biomarkers are measured clinically today but also how new ones will be discovered in the future. We hope Spear Bio can enable this technology to quickly benefit the research community and patients.”

Ultra-sensitive digital immunoassay platforms typically rely on extensive wash-steps, expensive proprietary readers, and high-affinity antibodies. By contrast, SPEAR has a wash-free workflow that can be easily automated with microfluidics or liquid handlers, runs on ubiquitous qPCR instruments, and does not require high-affinity antibodies to achieve high sensitivity. This gives SPEAR the unique advantage of being readily implementable and scalable in most laboratories.

Dr. Feng Xuan, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Spear Bio, stated “Our first goal is to bring SPEAR to every lab, and make it as routine as established technologies like ELISA and chemiluminescence. SPEAR’s extreme sensitivity will provide a unique solution for studying early-stage disease protein biomarkers with minimally-invasive micro-sampling technologies. With its ease of adoption, SPEAR will greatly accelerate new biomarkers’ discovery and validation, and eventually bring about early diagnoses of chronic diseases through less invasive, more efficient, and broadly accessible protein biomarkers monitoring.”

Spear Bio has successfully launched NAB-Sure™, its first assay and commercial proof-of-concept, for ultrasensitive quantification of SARS-Cov-2 neutralizing antibodies from challenging samples such as finger-stick dried blood spot (DBS) and nasal swabs. During the pandemic, NAB-Sure has been validated and adopted in major labs, enabling precise tracking of immunity, vaccine response, and COVID-19 sero-surveillance. Spear Bio is now focused on bringing to market ultrasensitive immunoassays for areas such as neurology, immunology, and oncology.

Dr. Dan Liu, Senior Partner of CDH Investments commented “Providing ultra-sensitivity in microsamples with a simple workflow through qPCR instruments is a very attractive solution since these are now nearly ubiquitous post-COVID. This will help accelerate adoption and increase impact to areas where ultra sensitivity and microsamples can make a significant difference such as infectious diseases, immunology, and neurology. For example, recently approved Alzheimer’s Disease therapies, together with the many in development, are creating a need for accurate, minimally invasive, and cost-effective blood-based screening. Spear Bio can meet this new market demand better than competitors.”

David Singer, Managing Partner of Maverick Ventures, and Spear Bio’s earliest investor, concluded “Spear Bio’s technology was validated and adopted early on by major commercial laboratories. Excitingly, customers have been enthusiastic with the performance of the SPEAR platform as well as with the ability to implement it at scale on standard lab equipment. This real-world evidence gave us confidence in Spear Bio’s commercial potential and momentum.”

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Spear Bio

BOSTON, Nov. 29, 2023 — Seacoast Capital (“Seacoast”), a lower-middle market non-control growth capital investor, announced today its recent investment in Focus Technology Solutions (“Focus” or the “Company”). Seacoast provided Focus with a combination of equity and debt to support a majority recapitalization of the Company by members of its management team and to provide working capital in support of its continued growth. In concert with the transaction, Doug Alexander stepped down as Focus’ CEO, but plans to continue his strategic relationship with the Company as a member of its Board of Managers. Focus’ prior CFO Chris Caprio was simultaneously promoted to CEO of the Company.

The financing marked the first investment out of Seacoast’s fifth fund, Seacoast Capital Partners V, L.P. (“Seacoast V”), a $280MM fund established to invest non-control equity and debt capital alongside of manager/owners of privately held businesses in support of growth, recapitalizations and management/shareholder buyouts. Seacoast held a closing on Seacoast V in August 2023. 

Focus, headquartered in Boston, MA, is an award-winning provider of hardware, software and managed IT and professional services to businesses across the U.S. The Company’s service offering includes managed security, outsourced IT helpdesk and data center services as well as cloud implementation/migration, cloud assessment, network buildout and data analytics/consulting services. Focus also offers IT software and equipment from leading global OEMs to provide customized, leading-edged solutions for the development of customers’ critical IT infrastructure.

Chris Caprio remarked, “We evaluated a number of potential equity and debt partners to support us in our management buyout and Seacoast’s unique focus on working directly with management teams in these types of situations was a major differentiating factor for us. Alan and the Seacoast team were instrumental in helping us navigate the complexities of the transaction and in them we found the perfect partner to help us accelerate our growth plan over the coming years.” 

Doug Alexander stated, “I’m excited for Chris and the rest of the management team. I am eager to continue working with Focus and Seacoast as a member of the Board and think the Company’s best days lie ahead. Seacoast was transparent throughout the entire process with us, they did what they said they were going to do, and ultimately, I believe they will be a great partner for Focus going forward.” 

Alan Rich, a Partner at Seacoast, added “We are thrilled to partner with Focus, a company that has garnered an excellent reputation within the managed IT services industry and is well-positioned to capitalize on attractive macro tailwinds, particularly within the cybersecurity space. The Company has assembled a very strong management team and we look forward to working together with them and Doug in his new role on the Board.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

About Focus Technology Solutions 

Founded in 1997 and based in Boston, MA, Focus is a leading information technology firm that offers organizations new ways to consume technology. By designing and implementing innovative IT solutions through personalized service, Focus delivers positive results that support its customers’ strategic vision. Focus’ team of experienced industry-certified solutions architects provides customized solutions specifically designed to address each client’s unique business requirements. 

With expertise in next-generation data center infrastructure, managed IT services, cloud solutions and cyber security, Focus is one of the top IT solutions providers in the Northeast. The Company has earned numerous awards and accolades, including CRN MSP Elite 150, CRN MSP Security 100, CRN Fast Growth 150, CRN Tech Elite 150, CRN Triple Crown Winner, Boston Business Journal’s Best Places to Work and Boston Business Journal Fast 50.

About Seacoast Capital

Founded in 1994, with offices in Boston, MA and San Francisco, CA, Seacoast Capital invests non-controlling capital in partnership with management in lower middle market private companies. Seacoast is industry agnostic and typically invests $5 million to $30 million of capital in companies with $10 million or more in revenue and $2 million or more of EBITDA. Capital is used to support growth, refinancings, acquisitions, family ownership and wealth transfers, shareholder liquidity events, and partnership or management buyouts. Geographically, Seacoast invests anywhere in the United States. Since its inception, Seacoast has managed over $1B of capital, which the firm has invested in 90+ transactions. Now managing its fifth fund, Seacoast continues to actively seek new investment opportunities. Learn more by visiting www.seacoastcapital.com.

SOURCE Seacoast Capital Managers LLC

With Fund III, Tola Capital will invest $230 million to fuel early-stage AI startups that change the way the world works

SEATTLE, Nov. 29, 2023 — Tola Capital, a venture capital firm investing in the next generation of enterprise software enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), today announced the close of Tola Capital III, LP at $230 million. The fund will be deployed to Seed and early-stage startups that are revolutionizing the enterprise software industry with the use of AI. The latest fund brings Tola Capital’s total funds raised to date to $688 million.

Tola Capital backs early-stage founders who are building the next wave of AI companies. The team has overseen more than a dozen exits from its portfolio companies, including Clipchamp (acquired by Microsoft), OSIsoft (acquired by AVEVA), hybris (acquired by SAP), and has sold portfolio companies to numerous other enterprise players including Oracle, Cisco, Verizon, Mastercard, and Rapid7.

Tola Capital was founded in 2010 by experienced software operators at the forefront of cloud computing’s rise. Prior to co-founding Tola Capital, managing director Sheila Gulati owned the enterprise IT strategy for Microsoft, launched the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, and ran the database and developer tools businesses. Gulati uses her deep knowledge of how software can change and grow businesses to help drive the growth of AI companies alongside her team. The Tola team is composed of former operators who built and led cloud and enterprise software businesses at Microsoft and also invested in, partnered with, or acquired dozens of now-leading enterprise software companies.

IDC forecasts the overall AI software market will approach $791.5 billion in revenue in 2025. Tola has been at the forefront of the rise of AI since its founding and invested in startups leveraging AI, including Pulumi, Klarity, Simpplr, and Nooks. Going forward the firm will use the new capital to invest in companies specializing in multiple areas of AI, including enterprise scaffolding for AI, responsible AI, AI security, app layer AI as well as others.

“The cloud was the catalyst for incredible value creation over the past decade. Having been at the forefront of that shift and opportunity, I foresee the same potential when it comes to AI, along with some key differences,” said Sheila Gulati, co-founder and managing director of Tola Capital. “AI will have a much broader impact – changing the way that we all work, creating tremendous productivity gains. It will also happen in a much faster timeframe. At Tola Capital, we are partnering with founders who are leading this transformation and ushering in the new world of work.”

Alexander Dreiling is the founder and CEO of Tola portfolio company Clipchamp which was acquired by Microsoft in 2021 and is now Microsoft’s core video product. Like many Founders in the Tola portfolio who have experienced liquidity events, Alexander is now an investor in Tola. “The Tola team was a true partner in our journey with Clipchamp, providing guidance and resources as we built out our go-to-market function and product roadmap for the enterprise. I am excited for the additional companies that will benefit from Tola’s third fund and expertise, just as we did.”

With its third fund, Tola Capital is aiming to invest in 25 to 30 companies globally. The average check size will range from $1 million to $4 million for Seed stage companies and $5 million to $15 million for Series A and B. The firm has already deployed capital to nine companies: Arcus, Bluebean, ESG Flo, FeatureByte, Fetcher, Holistic AI, Langsafe, Lumeus, and Zilla.

To learn more about Tola Capital, please visit www.tolacapital.com

About Tola Capital
Tola Capital is a venture capital firm that believes in the power of software, data, and AI to transform the way the world works. Founded in 2010 by experienced software operators at the forefront of cloud computing’s rise, the firm backs entrepreneurs who have enterprise technology experience and are building disruptive, industry transforming solutions with diverse teams. Tola Capital has successfully exited numerous startups, and continues to evolve as it supports founders into the era of AI. Visit www.tolacapital.com for more information.

SOURCE Tola Capital

LONDON, Nov. 29, 2023 — Paysend, a global fintech leader in international money transfers, has successfully raised an impressive $65 million in its latest funding round.

The investment round follows the partnership with Mastercard announced earlier this year, through which Paysend will enhance cross-border payments for SME’s via its Open Payments Network (OPN). In addition, Paysend has secured a strategic partnership with TelevisaUnivision, the world’s largest Spanish language media company. This innovative partnership is designed to target the lucrative USA–Latin America money-transfer corridors, and will see Paysend’s advertising featured on TelevisaUnivision’s network for the next three years, enhancing Paysend’s visibility and reach across the Hispanic community in the USA.

Existing investors, including Infravia Growth Capital, One Peak, and Hermes GPE Innovation Fund, also participated in the funding round, underscoring their continued confidence in Paysend’s mission and growth trajectory.

Since its inception in 2017, Paysend has experienced rapid expansion. The company’s integrated cross-border platform for businesses and consumers positions Paysend to capitalize on the $133 trillion market opportunity. Earlier this year, Paysend announced a number of strategic expansions, including the provision of digital payments for Western Union’s global consumer business.

Ronnie Millar, Co-Founder and CEO of Paysend, expressed gratitude for the continued support, stating, “This significant investment is a testament to the strength of Paysend’s vision: to build the best-in-class cross-borders solution for businesses and consumers, making money transfer simple for everyone. We are thrilled to welcome our new stakeholders, and we appreciate the unwavering support from our existing investors.”

Paysend’s latest funding round builds upon the success of its previous Series B round, where the company secured $125 million to accelerate the expansion of its global payments platform.

For media inquiries, please contact:

For further information visit https://paysend.com.
Media contact for Paysend: Rupert Bedell, [email protected] 

About Paysend
Paysend is a next-generation integrated global payment ecosystem, enabling consumers and businesses to pay and send money online anywhere, anyhow and in any currency. Paysend is UK-based and has global reach having been created in April 2017 with the clear mission to make money transfer simpler for everyone. Paysend now has over 8m registered customers and can send money to over 180 countries worldwide. As a global end-to-end payment platform, Paysend has its own global network of banks and international and local payment systems and has partnerships with the major international card networks as a principal member and certified processor.

SOURCE Paysend