GrayMatter Robotics and BetterWay Products Inc. Revolutionize Marine Manufacturing with Cutting-Edge Robotic Innovation

NEW PARIS, Ind., Nov. 9, 2023 — BetterWay Products, a premier supplier of composite components to the marine, recreational vehicles, and manufactured housing industries, has tackled labor shortages and boosted production efficiency by embracing bleeding-edge automation solutions. The growing demand in the composites industry for skilled labor prompted BetterWay to take a pioneering step in this direction. With the help of GrayMatter Robotics, BetterWay Products Inc. deployed the state-of-the-art AI-powered dual-arm robotic solution.

“Most of industrial robots are all point to point or programming type and not the autonomous robots like you see behind me. That is a new technology, we’re looking at the only two robots in the world that sand autonomously,” says Clint Decker, Group VP of Fiberglass BUs, Patrick Industries Inc.

Scan&Sand™, the brainchild of GrayMatter Robotics, is a turnkey solution that combines the power of GMR-AI, GrayMatter’s physics-informed AI, with industrial robotics and sophisticated sensing capabilities. This remarkable system redefines manufacturing operations, particularly in sanding processes, by significantly increasing speed, maintaining consistency, and enhancing overall effectiveness.

One of the key advantages of Scan&Sand™ is its user-friendly interface, enabling operators with no prior robotics or automation experience to operate the system with ease. For BetterWay Products, the introduction of this innovative solution resulted in a 4x throughput increase, a reduction of ⅓ of consumable usage, and a reduced onboarding time from 2 months for sanding parts manually to 1 day of sanding parts with robots, effectively alleviating workforce stress and increasing overall efficiency.

At the heart of Scan&Sand™ lies GMR-AI, a physics-informed AI that empowers robots to program themselves efficiently and operate safely in high-mix, high-variability manufacturing environments. The rapid deployment of this technology seamlessly integrates with existing operations, optimizing efficiency without causing disruption.

Scan&Sand™ is also a pioneering development in the world of specialty vehicles and marine manufacturing as it is the first dual-armed autonomous robotic sanding cell, setting new standards in surface finishing and high-mix manufacturing. BetterWay Products, known for its forward-thinking approach, is proud to be the first to adopt this cutting-edge solution and demonstrate its immense benefits to the marine industry.

For more information please visit www.graymatter-robotics.com.

GrayMatter Robotics
349 W 168th St
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 283-2335
[email protected]
https://graymatter-robotics.com/

SOURCE GrayMatter Robotics Inc.

$28M first close tops total raise of GO Philly Fund; new fund will invest primarily in Pennsylvania-based high growth technology companies already part of the Ben Franklin Network portfolio

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 9, 2023 — Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (“Ben Franklin“) has completed a first close of its Global Opportunity Pennsylvania Fund II, L.P. (the “GO PA Fund”), a growth stage venture fund to invest in technology-focused enterprises throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Anchor investors include Ben Franklin and Fulton Bank, as well as notable commitments from the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority (BFTDA), WSFS Bank, Robin Hood Ventures and Investors Circle.

Raising approximately $28 million in its first close, the GO PA Fund already has exceeded the total $24.3 million raised by Ben Franklin’s prior fund, Global Opportunity Philadelphia Fund I, L.P. (the “GO Philly Fund”). The GO Philly Fund invests in growth stage, technology-based enterprises in the Greater Philadelphia region.

The GO PA Fund seeks up to $100 million in capital commitments, and intends to primarily invest in follow-on investments selected from over 600 current and future portfolio companies of the statewide network of four Ben Franklin Technology Partner entities, serving Southeastern Pennsylvania, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Central and Northern Pennsylvania, and Southwestern Pennsylvania (collectively, the “Ben Franklin Network”). The GO PA Fund will seek to make investments of $1 million to $5 million per company, depending on the final fund size.

“The GO PA Fund will seek to capitalize on Ben Franklin’s investment experience, which includes investments in over 200 companies in the Philadelphia region. Building on the success of the GO Philly Fund, the GO PA Fund will have access to more than 600 Ben Franklin Network-backed ventures statewide,” said Scott Nissenbaum, President and CEO of Ben Franklin. “The GO PA Fund’s goal is to give Pennsylvania’s technology-focused companies even greater capital resources to thrive, while aligning investors within and beyond the Commonwealth with their success.”

“The life sciences and technology sectors are thriving across the State of Pennsylvania,” said Lou Lombardi, Senior Vice President and Regional Commercial Executive of Fulton Bank. “Fulton has developed a niche Life Sciences & Technology Banking team specifically designed for the types of companies that Ben Franklin Technology Partners invests in. Fulton’s investment in this fund represents our commitment to providing much needed capital to help fuel the growth of the life sciences and technology sectors in Pennsylvania. We are very excited about this partnership.”

For more information about the GO PA Fund, visit www.gopafund.com. 

ABOUT BEN FRANKLIN TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS OF SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA 

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (“Ben Franklin“) is the Philadelphia region’s Partners with a Purpose. Nationally ranked among the most active seed and early-stage investors, Ben Franklin helps high-growth innovative enterprises plant and nurture their roots, creating both immediate connections and lasting economic growth. The nonprofit has supported more than 2,000 companies to deliver an impact of more than $5 billion and 32,000 jobs in the Philadelphia region. Whether in tech, life sciences, manufacturing, or industries and breakthroughs yet discovered, Ben Franklin works to raise the community of innovation higher, to benefit present and future generations of Pennsylvanians. Visit us at www.partnerswithapurpose.org, or follow us at @bftp_sep. 

This press release is not, and should not be construed as, an offer, invitation or recommendation to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any interest in the GO PA Fund. Limited partnership interests in the GO PA Fund are being offered only to “accredited investors” as such term is defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Information about investing in the GO PA Fund is only available in the form of a private placement memorandum and other offering materials (the “Offering Documents”), which will be furnished only to qualified accredited investors on a confidential basis for their consideration in connection with a private offering of limited partnership interests. Prospective investors should review such Offering Documents in their entirety, including the risk factors set forth therein. Ballard Spahr LLP acts as legal counsel to the GO PA Fund, and to its general partner and management company, on U.S. legal matters relating to the organization and management of the GO PA Fund and the offering of limited partnership interests in the GO PA Fund. A copy of the private placement memorandum containing more detailed information about the GO PA Fund, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Ben Franklin Network is available by request.

ANY INVESTMENT IN THE FUND INVOLVES A SUBSTANTIAL RISK OF LOSS. PAST PERFORMANCE DOES NOT GUARANTEE FUTURE RESULTS.

Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as disclosed in the Offering Documents. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent Ben Franklin’s and the GO PA Fund’s views as of the date of this press release and those views could change. While Ben Franklin, the GO PA Fund and/or their affiliates or representatives may elect to update the forward-looking statements contained herein at some point in the future, they each specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Ben Franklin’s or the GO PA Fund’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

SOURCE Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Investment supported by additional financing from a strong syndicate of new and existing institutional investors, along with industry leaders

Companies collaborate to train foundation models for chemistry, harnessing Terray’s massive experimental data to enable generative AI to design optimized small molecule therapeutics

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9, 2023 — Terray Therapeutics, a biotechnology company integrating scale experimentation and generative AI to improve the speed, cost, and success rate of small molecule drug discovery and development, today announced an equity investment by NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm. Additional financing included a strong syndicate of new and existing institutional investors, including industry leaders John Maraganore, founding Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and Bassil Dahiyat, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xencor.

“We’re proud to work with NVIDIA,” said Jacob Berlin, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Terray Therapeutics. “We believe the scale, precision, and quality of our experimental data uniquely position us to harness the power of NVIDIA technologies to train our foundation models for chemistry. These models enable our generative AI to efficiently explore a vast molecular space to solve complex problems in drug discovery.”

Terray will leverage NVIDIA DGX™ Cloud to develop the world’s most comprehensive chemistry foundation models for small molecules, some of which will be available on the NVIDIA BioNeMo™ cloud service for generative AI in drug discovery. Tapping into the NVIDIA AI software stack and NVIDIA’s full-stack computing expertise will help Terray optimize and scale the development of its foundation models. These developments will pave the way for Terray to leverage its proprietary experimental datasets to create powerful ligand-based and structure-based models to further propel Terray’s pipeline into the clinic.

“Generative AI is making an outsized impact on the biotech industry,” said Mohamed “Sid” Siddeek, corporate vice president and head of NVentures. “Terray’s novel approach to training AI foundation models on the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform will help Terray make important breakthroughs in drug discovery.”

Terray’s platform is built for generative AI-driven drug discovery, integrating chemical experimentation and computation on an unprecedented scale. Everything the company does is grounded in an iterative approach, producing massive amounts of precise, purpose-built data that gets increasingly valuable with each cycle of design and experimentation. This collaboration adds speed and computational power to further accelerate Terray’s internal and partnered preclinical pipeline.

About Terray Therapeutics
Terray is a biotechnology company with the technology, data, and mindset to radically change the way we discover and develop small molecule therapeutics. The company explores molecules and targets with a sophisticated integration of ultra-high throughput experimentation, generative AI, biology, medicinal chemistry, automation, and nanotechnology. Terray’s platform uniquely blends experimentation and computation to deliver on the promise of generative AI for small molecule discovery—finding solutions to the toughest therapeutic challenges. To learn more about Terray visit, terraytx.com.

SOURCE Terray Therapeutics

RESTON, Va. and BALTIMORE, Nov. 9, 2023 — Tidal Cyber, the threat-informed defense company, announced today the company raised $5 million, led by Squadra Ventures with participation from existing investors, in seed funding to accelerate the growth of its platform that enables security operations teams to proactively focus on critical threats, and take action to improve their cybersecurity posture.

Tidal Cyber is led by industry veterans from MITRE that helped drive commercial adoption of the MITRE ATT&CK framework, including CEO Rick Gordon, CTO Richard Struse, and CINO Frank Duff. Dedicated to expanding threat-informed defense, the team built the Tidal platform to help organizations easily and efficiently implement the cybersecurity best practices at the heart of ATT&CK at scale.

The Tidal Cyber platform provides Security Operations Center (SOC) teams with a trusted, independent set of tools and recommendations that customizes an organization’s defenses, and enables security teams to automate identification, triage, and remediation, reducing overall time spent by analysts.

“As threats multiply and companies add more tools, SOCs have become overwhelmed trying to understand which adversary TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) matter and how to best defend against them,” said Rick Gordon, Co-Founder and CEO of Tidal Cyber. “Harnessing a comprehensive set of TTPs, defensive capabilities, and our team’s deep knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK, our threat-informed defense platform allows security operators to focus their activities on the threats that are relevant to their organization, and take action at the speed of the adversary. With a framework to implement threat-informed defense more easily and efficiently, cybersecurity teams will gain more control over their time, and save money.”

Tidal Cyber provides an easy-to-use framework to embed MITRE ATT&CK, a knowledge base of specific adversarial tactics and techniques powered by real-world observations. The platform provides capabilities that allow teams to:

• Identify relevant threats: A threat profile builder that identifies and prioritizes the threats that are relevant to an organization.
• Take action: A prioritized to-do list with daily, defensive actions to enable a timely response to threats.
• Optimize your stack: A map of defensive capabilities in a company’s cyber stack that helps ensure companies are using the best configurations to defend against threats.
• Assess your posture: A proprietary confidence score that gauges an organization’s cyber posture, and streamlines communication about the cyber program.

“The Tidal Cyber team helped build the foundation of threat-informed defense at MITRE. Now, these world-class operators are providing organizations with the tools and techniques they need to operationalize MITRE ATT&CK, and efficiently secure their organizations against adversaries.” said Guy Filippelli, Managing Partner at Squadra Ventures. “With a track record of developing industry-leading standards, the team has the right combination of vision and drive to propel a new wave of security operations.”

Tidal’s Enterprise Edition has been adopted by enterprises across the financial services, healthcare, and other critical infrastructure sectors. The platform allows security analysts to identify the threats most relevant to their organizations and align those threats with the right defensive tools, driving hardened cyber posture. 

Tidal’s Community Edition is a free-to-use platform that enables organizations to assess, organize and optimize their cyber defenses based on a deep understanding of the threats and adversaries that are most relevant to them.

Press contact: Danielle Ostrovsky, [email protected]

About Tidal Cyber

Founded in January 2022 by a team of threat intelligence veterans with experience at MITRE, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and a wide range of innovative security providers, Tidal Cyber enables businesses to implement a threat-informed defense more easily and efficiently. Tidal helps its customers map the security requirements and capabilities of their unique environment against the industry’s most complete knowledge base of adversary TTPs, including the MITRE ATT&CK® knowledge base, additional open-source threat intelligence sources, and a Tidal-curated registry of security products mapped to specific adversary TTPs. Learn more at https://tidalcyber.com.

About Squadra Ventures

Squadra Ventures is a venture capital firm led by founder-operators that invests in early stage cyber and national security companies. Grounded in the belief that success is a combination of people, product, and planning, the Squadra team provides transformational support to startup leaders in the complex dual-use technology ecosystem. By applying a growth-stage mindset at the seed stage and a commitment to building alongside entrepreneurs, Squadra empowers extraordinary teams to win and leave a lasting positive impact on the world. Learn more at https://www.squadra.vc/.

SOURCE Tidal Cyber

Ex-Blackstone Asia Partner and former Better executive launch mortgage asset management and technology platform in Asia

SINGAPORE, Nov. 8, 2023 — LXA, a technology startup focused on reimagining Asia’s mortgage ecosystem, today announced the completion of its US$10 million seed funding round led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA), with participation from Openspace Ventures and EDBI. Geared towards matching institutional capital pools and residential mortgage borrowers, this platform aims to utilize end-to-end technology to streamline the entire mortgage lifecycle, from loan origination and borrower processing to loan servicing.

LXA was founded in early 2023 by seasoned executives across the asset management, insurance, mortgage, and technology industries to bridge the gap between mortgage assets and institutional capital in Asia, beginning with Singapore. Combining best practices from North American and European markets with a proprietary technology platform focused on digital credit decisioning and intelligent workflow orchestration, LXA provides the first of its kind solution to address strong demand from Asian insurers and borrowers for differentiated mortgage products. 

Founded by Kishore Moorjani, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, and by Shawn Low, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, the LXA team brings proven experience across a breadth of disciplines to the mortgage-based asset management industry. Mr. Moorjani has over 25 years of experience investing in the region, most recently as Blackstone’s Senior Managing Director and Head of Tactical Opportunities in Asia. Mr. Low was COO of Better, where he played an instrumental role in the transformation of the mortgage platform from its pre-revenue days to over $800 million in revenue and $150 million in profitability.

“We founded LXA to create an institutional channel for the large capital pools of insurance, pension funds, sovereign funds, and endowments to access the highly desirable local currency mortgage asset class,” said Kishore Moorjani, CEO of LXA. “Our technology platform is designed to create value for all stakeholders involved in the mortgage ecosystem. With our world-class executive team, support from top-notch investment partners and strong technology foundation, we are excited about bringing this innovation to Asia. Beyond being good business and highly customer-centric, this has the potential to drive economic growth and prosperity in Asia.”

Andrew Schoen, Partner at NEA, said, “We believe Kishore and Shawn’s visionary approach, experienced leadership, and commitment to innovation towards developing a modern mortgage platform is a game-changer. As Asia’s first modern mortgage asset manager, the LXA team has figured out how to coordinate the complex web of people, processes, and systems to create long-term change and drive significant economic value.”

About LXA

LXA is a Singapore-based fintech company that is unlocking non-depository capital for the Asian mortgage market. The company’s technology platform revolutionizes the mortgage industry by streamlining loan origination, processing, underwriting, and servicing. Founded by Kishore Moorjani and Shawn Low, LXA is poised to reshape the mortgage landscape throughout the Asian market.

Contact:
Asad Hassanali
[email protected]

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. Founded in 1977, NEA has over $25 billion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2023, and invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm’s long track record of investing includes more than 270 portfolio company IPOs and more than 450 mergers and acquisitions. For more information, please visit www.nea.com.

Contact:
Erica Sunkin
[email protected] 

About EDBI

Investing since 1991, EDBI is a Singapore-based global investor in select high growth technology sectors ranging from Information & Communication Technology (ICT), Emerging Technology (ET), Healthcare (HC) and promising Singapore SMEs in strategic industries. As a value-creating investor, EDBI assists companies achieve their ambitious goals by leveraging our broad network, resources, and expertise. With our growth capital, EDBI supports companies seeking to grow in Asia and globally through Singapore. For more information, visit https://www.edbi.com.

About Openspace

Openspace is a leading Southeast Asian venture capital firm, finding and backing companies creating a transformative impact where tech meets life. It has 6 funds with $800M in committed capital and has 39 dedicated employees, including full-time specialists within the Portfolio Success team. It is co-headquartered in Singapore and Jakarta, with active offices in Bangkok, Manila and Ho Chi Minh City. Its portfolio of 40+ companies includes GoTo, Finnomena, Halodoc, and Kredivo Holdings. Visit www.openspace.vc 

SOURCE LXA

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8, 2023 — AltaIR Capital, I2BF, Yellow Rocks, and Smart Partnership Capital have launched a joint investment program, Pre-seed to Succeed, dedicated to early-stage startups with global ambitions.

The Pre-seed to Succeed program is designed for startups in the early stages with MVP and first traction. It focuses on a range of industries, including AI, B2B, SaaS, FinTech, Future of Work, Productivity Tools, Digital Health, and HR Tech, with a primary target market in the USA.

We are particularly interested in startups with the following attributes:

• A dedicated full-time team with a hacker and hustler onboard;
• A registered company with an active bank account;
• A working MVP and initial traction;
• Teams with prior experience in building startups;
• Startups created by laid-off founders.

The investment program offers initial funding from participating venture companies, ongoing support from seasoned experts and mentors, and 50% of the next round for proven startups.

By joining the program, startups will benefit in the following ways:

• Investment and networking expertise from four renowned VC firms boasting an impressive combined portfolio of more than 500 startups, including a plethora of unicorns, such as Miro, Deel, OpenWeb, Turing, FuboTV, and ServiceTitan;
• Six months of initial investment, guidance, and support throughout the fundraising journey;
• Continued investment from the VCs in startups that prove their viability and promise.

Igor Ryabenkiy, AltaIR Capital Managing Partner: “This is a unique program that embeds a startup from the very beginning in the investment process of several successful early-stage venture capital firms. It allows teams to leap from the earliest stage to the development stage and gives them a high probability of receiving initial and next-level funding within the $50M joint investment program.”

This joint program aims to address key challenges that startups face in the early stages, particularly with regard to fundraising. It provides startups with support from strong venture funds that boast impressive portfolios and proven expertise, ensuring seamless fundraising from the first round to the scaling stage.

Sergei Bogdanov, Yellow Rocks Managing Partner: “Fundraising is a challenging task for early-stage startups. In this program, we have decided to combine the pipelines, expertise, and resources of four venture companies to select the best startups for investment and help them with fundraising. This is the foundation for the sustainable development of startups that receive captable of the dream at the earliest stage. In addition, we will close 50% of the next round and co-invest further in proven candidates.”

Nikolay Kirpichnikov, Smart Partnership Capital Managing Partner: “Early-stage companies often approach dozens or even hundreds of investment funds without ever finding a reliable partner. My colleagues and I have joined forces to support startups that have a clear vision of how to build a sustainable business and the potential for impressive performance.”

The program co-founders have already reviewed 200 startups and the joint investment committee is currently discussing some possible investments. The best candidates will also get access to seasoned experts and mentors from various fields, as well as personalized guidance from a founding partner during the entire process. In addition, the program offers exclusive opportunities to join top-tier startup accelerators through the support of alumni from the founding partners’ portfolio companies.

Alexander Korchevsky, I2BF Global Ventures Managing Partner: “We see a lot of promising startups and talented founders that we can’t support from our main funds, because they are just too early for us. Furthermore, there is not so much institutional capital available at pre-seed stage, so this project helps founders address the challenge. This initiative introduces a very patient capital, as well as ongoing support and access to our network of operators. We believe that having all of these resources in one place is critical for founders to ensure a smooth take-off and maximize their chances of success.”

About the Participating VC Firms:

AltaIR Capital is an international investment company founded by Igor Ryabenkiy. The company has invested in over 300 tech companies and is active in Future of Work, FinTech, InsureTech, and Digital Health. AltaIR’s portfolio includes such unicorns as Miro, Deel, PandaDoc, Albert, OpenWeb, Sunbit, and Socure – most of which the company invested in at the early stage. https://altair.vc/

Yellow Rocks, based in San Francisco and Lisbon, invests in Future of Work, EdTech, Gaming, Web 3.0, and FinTech with a focus on early-stage capitalization of fast-growing startups with a clear global expansion strategy. https://yellowrocks.vc/

Smart Partnership Capital is an international investment firm with a focus on B2B SaaS, FinTech, Future of Work, AI, Digital Health, Productivity Tools, HR Tech and Customer Engagement Technology across US, Western Europe and UK from early seed to Series A. https://www.spc-vc.com/   

I2BF Global Ventures is a New York-based venture capital group focused on early-stage technology investments, with $400 million under management, I2BF’s portfolio includes more than 30 companies working in cleantech, biotechnology, materials science, IT, and space technology. https://www.i2bf.com/

Contact:
Daniya Shumilkina
+351938311177
[email protected]

SOURCE AltaIR Capital

• The Company’s self-administered, quantitative blood testing platform enables remote risk stratification of chronic kidney disease and heart failure patients.
• New Lead Investor IAG Capital Partners (IAG), joins investor syndicate and global strategic partners, for the development of Jana Care’s platform.

WATERTOWN, Mass., Nov. 8, 2023 — Jana Care, Inc., the pioneering developer of at-home self-administered testing technologies for chronic kidney and heart disease management, today announced the initial closing of a Series B financing, from a syndicate of new and existing venture firms. In addition to its ongoing partnerships with global leaders in diagnostic technologies and pharmaceutical development, Jana Care welcomes lead investor IAG Capital Partners. Jana Care will use the funds to expand the development of Jana Care’s quantitative blood testing platform. The platform is designed to enable self-administered blood tests at-home and allows clinicians to review the test results remotely as needed. The platform capabilities aim to overcome distance and socioeconomic hurdles that currently hinder the timely detection and monitoring of chronic kidney and heart disease progression.

“Building on the strength of our global strategic partnerships, we are proud to expand our investor base in our fight to bridge the access gap for many chronic disease patients – especially in these post-pandemic times.” said Anh Hoang-Lindsay, Chief Executive Officer of Jana Care. “We are thrilled to support Jana Care and its mission to increase quality of life for patients with chronic illness and are honored to support the management team.” said Dr. Ehsan Jabbarzadeh, Venture Partner, IAG Capital Partners and new Board of Directors member. The recent pandemic accelerated the adoption of telehealth services which has benefited the management of acute and chronic conditions. This trend has highlighted that the need for reliable at-home and technologies that can provide a more convenient alternative for measuring critical analytes in remote, hard-to-reach settings and address the challenges of adherence to recommended testing guidelines. In the case of chronic kidney disease patients, adherence is just 20%. This is especially important for populations that are disproportionately impacted by hospital readmissions.

Health-related quality of life is significantly lower for patients with cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) conditions a new patient management approach recently defined by the American Heart Association. “Patients who have multiple metabolic risk factors such as chronic kidney disease, and heart failure should be managed holistically instead of treating each risk separately. This is because these diseases are interconnected and an increased risk for one disease may accelerate the progression of another condition. By treating them together, doctors can improve a patient’s overall health and reduce and predict complications.” Said Dr. Carolyn Lam, Senior Consultant Cardiologist, National Heart Centre Singapore and Professor, Duke-National University of Singapore. Dr Lam continued “The availability of an accurate, home-based blood test would provide a means to directly address this goal and is a potential game-changer for the field.”

“Unfortunately, the key blood tests needed to risk stratify individuals with CKM conditions, creatinine, potassium or NT-proBNP, are not yet available at-home for layperson use. The availability of this system would simplify or eliminate the barriers associated with adherence to testing and would reduce disparities in care, and support enhanced disease management resulting in reduced hospitalizations and healthcare cost reductions,” said Dr. James Januzzi, cardiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Hutter Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Cardiometabolic Faculty at Baim Institute for Clinical Research. Dr. Januzzi serves as the Chief Medical Advisor at Jana Care.

About Jana Care

Jana Care Inc is a venture-backed medical technology company that develops point-of-care testing platforms for the screening and management of chronic diseases – heart failure, chronic kidney disease and diabetes. Its novel digitally connected platform enables real-time testing using fingerstick blood samples at-home, with new tests for NT-proBNP, potassium and serum creatinine in development-biomarkers that are critical for managing kidney and heart disease patients. Jana Care is headquartered in Watertown, USA, and has established a product development and production facility in Bangalore, India

The CDC estimates that six in ten adults in the U.S currently live with a chronic disease- a leading cause of death and disability and leading driver of the Nation’s $4.1 trillion annual health care costs. Within this population, distance to healthcare providers and socioeconomic barriers impede adequate and timely detection and monitoring of disease progression and the adjustment of therapies. 

This round of investment was supported by a syndicate of new investors IAG Capital Partners, Agent Capital, First Avenue Ventures, Minocherhomjee Family Trust and existing investors Patamar Capital, Team Fund LP, MK Energy Corporation

About IAG Capital Partners

Founded in 2017, IAG Capital Partners is a venture capital firm based in Charleston, South Carolina. The firm seeks investments in early-stage companies and partners with innovative leaders to build companies that will change the world. Ehsan Jabbarzadeh, IAG Venture Partner is Jana Care’s new addition to its Board of Directors. Dennis Sacha, IAG Principle, will also join as a Board Observer.

SOURCE Jana Care

Aims to Launch Fully Onchain Persistent World Built and Governed by Players

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8, 2023 — Yee-Haw Monster Trucks, a gaming studio building a new kind of virtual world built and governed by players, today announces its $3.3 million seed round. The round was led by 1kx, with participation from Shima Capital, Hashed, Matchbox DAO, Ready Player DAO, and several angel investors.

While the MMO gaming landscape has experienced stagnation, the Yee-Haw Monster Trucks team believes that one of the most compelling use cases for blockchains in gaming is addressing the longstanding problems faced by persistent worlds since their inception in the 1980s. Unlike both traditional games and most blockchain games to date, The Citadel will host all of its game state, assets, and logic directly on blockchain smart contracts instead of conventional server-based architecture. For the first time in the history of virtual worlds, this will enable players to truly own, build, and govern the world they inhabit without permission from its creators.

In late 2021, a group of bitter virtual world enthusiasts, Jack Stoops, Max Sallinger, Martino Olmo Fabro, Austin Henderson, Connor Skific, and Will Sanford, began working on The Citadel, a fully on-chain and decentralized game built on the Ethereum blockchain. When they first started out, the idea of building a full game – let alone a persistent world – entirely on the blockchain was relatively unheard of. With The Citadel, Yee-Haw Monster Trucks aims to redefine what an MMO can be while simultaneously demonstrating the true potential of decentralized technology for game worlds.

“This Citadel was born out of the incredible experiences we’ve had in other worlds,” said Will Sanford, a co-founder of Yee-Haw Monster Trucks.  “As well as all the ways those experiences were diminished by decisions we as players had no say over. We wanted to make the kind of world we wanted to experience ourselves. We believe we are still in the early era of not only blockchain gaming, but virtual worlds as a unique medium.”

“Our motivation is not to merely port over designs we already know how to build to the blockchain with minor tweaks, but to build a world that never could have existed without it. And, ultimately, we believe much of this discovery will be the result of empowering passionate players we haven’t met yet to create things we could never imagine.”

“The Citadel is the most ambitious project we’ve seen in the autonomous worlds ecosystem to date,” said Peter Pan, a partner at 1kx.  “The team is deeply focused on re-imagining the possibilities of virtual worlds by pushing the capabilities of what is possible with a blockchain today in a way we haven’t seen before. At 1kx we’re extremely proud to partner with such a capable and thoughtful team.”

“We believe The Citadel will be one of the most innovative on-chain games to hit the market and will truly unlock the player-owned gaming economy,” said Yida Gao, Founder and Managing General Partner at Shima Capital. “Its community of players and creators will be able to build mods from the core elements of The Citadel’s game design, driving operational costs down and sustaining gameplay beyond the typically short shelf life of games today.”

“The Citadel is the collective effort of a team who fully understands the merits of blockchain technology for gaming and modding,” said Jun Park, an investor at HASHED. “HASHED believes that the team can transform their on-chain experimentation into Autonomous Worlds in the most discreet and aggressive manner, eventually serving the true purpose of decentralized ownership, autonomy, governance and content creation.”

Yee-Haw Monster Trucks plans to launch a public playtest for The Citadel in the near future, with a big update coming next week announcing more details. To stay up to date, follow The Citadel on Twitter at twitter.com/0xCitadel or join the Discord server at discord.gg/thecitadel.

Yee-Haw Monster Trucks is also actively hiring passionate and talented artists and engineers who love to build player-driven worlds, enquire at: [email protected]

About The Citadel

The Citadel is an upcoming sci-fi virtual world built entirely on the Ethereum blockchain. It aims to create an independent world for and by its community of players. With no centralized servers to keep alive, it will have the potential to persist as long as the Ethereum network itself. Players will be able to contribute directly to the development and governance of the world via its decentralized and fully open source architecture.

About Yee-haw Monster Trucks

Formally incorporated in 2023 by a team working together since 2021, Yee-Haw Monster Trucks is a game studio dedicated to building The Citadel, a new type of decentralized virtual world. The six original co-founders came together in 2021, united by a shared passion for hardcore sandbox worlds like Ultima Online and EVE Online. The studio plans to launch The Citadel in 2024.

Contact:
***@yeehawmonstertrucks.com

PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12992998

SOURCE Yee-haw Monster Trucks

BOSTON, Nov. 8, 2023 — Mendoza Ventures, a female and Latinx-founded Fintech, AI, and Cybersecurity Venture Capital firm, today announced that Truist Ventures is investing in its Early Growth Fintech Fund as a limited partner. The fund is targeting $100M and will invest in early growth-stage startups with a focus on diverse teams.

 Mendoza Ventures announced its third fund in January. With this investment, Truist became the third financial institution invested in Mendoza Ventures, joining Bank of America and Grasshopper Bank.

Adrian Mendoza, General Partner at Mendoza Ventures, stated, “Our vision has always been to redefine how venture funds collaborate with financial institutions to support portfolio companies strategically. Truist Ventures’ support validates our approach and empowers us to create substantial outcomes for diverse-led startups and investors alike.”

This investment lays a foundation for a partnership and active collaboration between Truist Ventures and Mendoza Ventures and its portfolio companies that embraces external innovation promotes knowledge exchange and helps empower positive social change.

“Mendoza Ventures supports innovative, early-stage companies that are shaping the future of finance,” said Tarun Mehta, Head of Corporate Development and Truist Ventures. “This partnership fuels our shared ambition to drive advancements and increase inclusion in the broader fintech industry.”

Mendoza Ventures recently launched a new non-profit initiative called Mendoza Impact, which aims to provide early-stage diverse founders with greater access to capital and educational resources. By addressing gaps in funding and knowledge, Mendoza Impact seeks to empower a new generation of diverse entrepreneurs.

About Mendoza Ventures
Mendoza Ventures is a fintech, AI, and cybersecurity venture fund based in Boston and San Francisco. The firm is run by husband and wife Adrian and Senofer Mendoza, prior entrepreneurs and veterans of the startup ecosystem. The firm focuses on diversity playing an important role in its investment decisions. Started in 2016 with the launch of its pilot fund, the firm launched its Fund II in 2019. Mendoza Ventures is the first LatinX-owned venture fund on the East Coast. Learn more at www.mendozaventures.com

About Truist Ventures
Truist Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE: TFC). Truist Ventures delivers touch and technology to Truist clients through partnerships with and investments in innovative companies and exceptional management teams with novel solutions to help Truist shape the future of finance. Truist Ventures’ investment focus includes financial technology, payments and money movement, and regtech and stretches into other adjacent, disruptive technologies. Learn more at TruistVentures.com.

Contact

Senofer Mendoza; [email protected]; 617-505-6070

SOURCE Mendoza Ventures