NEW YORK, Nov. 7, 2023 — ELEMENT EIGHT, a premium brand bringing the cutting-edge advances of biomedicine to skincare through its proprietary OATH™: Oxygen Amplified Therapy, today announced that it has closed $6M in funding in a SAFE round. The brand reported $2.5M of investment from its existing investors, and was able to attract an additional $3.5M from new investors.

“With forty five percent of the round coming from surgeons, dermatologists, and PhD scientists, we have a strong validation of the scientific acumen of the brand. We were very pleased to also have participation from private family offices with experience in beauty investing, who accounted for thirty four percent of the round,” said Company Chairman Bradley Patt. “Finally, realizing fourteen percent participation from management, employees and members of the company’s board of directors shows excitement about the Company’s progress from the people inside.”

Including the successful SAFE Round that just closed, the Company has raised a total of $7.9M to date. Immediately upon closing this SAFE funding, the Company has announced it will proceed on to a new $6.25M Series A Round to continue to accelerate the growth of potent skincare products.

ELEMENT EIGHT is redefining the anti-aging skincare market by bringing cutting-edge advances from the world of biotechnology to skincare. With its proprietary OATH™: Oxygen Amplified Therapy technology, which mimics the function of hemoglobin to deliver 20x more oxygen directly to skin cells up to 700 microns deep, ELEMENT EIGHT addresses skin’s biological performance and counteracts the key signs of aging. This technology was developed by a team of world-renowned spine surgeons, biomaterial engineers, dermatologists and clinical researchers over the course of a decade, and has attracted investors and consumers on the forefront of the high-performance skincare industry to the brand.

Founder and Board Member Gerard Camme said “ELEMENT EIGHT has a unique point of difference thanks to the innovative technology of OATH™, and fits into the fastest growing segment of the global skincare market. As we look ahead, we’re excited to continue to innovate on the groundbreaking advances of our multi-expert team to bring new products to market and make ELEMENT EIGHT accessible on a wider scale.”

In addition to this newest round of funding, ELEMENT EIGHT announced the appointment of Jake Galtere as Chief Marketing Officer and Kristi McCluer as Vice President of Global Sales and Education to drive the brand’s global strategy and oversee continued expansion.

With over a decade of experience developing digital marketing strategies across the luxury market, Jake Galtere joins ELEMENT EIGHT after most recently serving as Vice President of Marketing for Ralph Lauren and Azzaro Fragrances. He has held posts at leading brands including Lancôme, YSL Beaute and Mugler, working to accelerate growth, driving innovation, awareness and consumer engagement.

“Joining Element Eight was an easy decision. The brand has an extremely distinct DNA, from its origin in spine surgery to the multi-expert team who continue to innovate for the consumer,” said Jake. ” Importantly, the products really do work. I’m extremely excited to help bring this brand to market.”

Appointed as Vice President of Global Sales and Education, Kristi McCluer joins the ELEMENT EIGHT team with over 15 years of experience in luxury sales. Coming from the L’Oréal Luxury Division, Kristi was responsible for omni-channel retailer business development and strategy. Most recently, she earned an Executive Certificate in Digital Marketing Analytics from MIT.

“I am thrilled to join ELEMENT EIGHT to advance the skincare industry. Our technology is unique and is proven through robust scientific research and clinical studies,” said Kristi. “I see a remarkable opportunity to empower customers and redefine the way we experience healthy skin.”

“Jake and Kristi bring a wealth of expertise in the luxury beauty industry, having played central roles at leading luxury brands. They bring with them extensive experience and a deep understanding of the beauty industry that will be pivotal to the development of our global strategy and expansion of the ELEMENT EIGHT brand,” said Gerard Camme. “I am incredibly pleased to appoint Jake and Kristi and look forward to supporting their vision for the brand in this next phase of our growth.”

As the Company rolls out its Series A offering it is pleased to announce it has joined Ohana & Co.’s incubation platform: “We have been following Element Eight since its inception and have been impressed with the traction gained and what CEO Gerard Camme has achieved in just one year since the launch,” said Ohana & Co. Managing Partner, Karine Ohana.

The Company is also excited to announce that Martin Brok, accomplished global executive with over 35 years of experience in senior roles, including as Global CEO of Sephora, Nike, Starbucks, and The Coca-Cola Co, will join the company’s Business Advisory Board and will participate in the Series A financing. “I see dozens of ideas in this space,” said Mr. Brok, “Element Eight stood out to me as a very different premium offering that is entering the most dynamic segment of the skincare market: heavy science and luxury leaning with a distinct voice that separates itself from the clutter and fills a white space. I am excited to be a part of this team.”

About ELEMENT EIGHT

Founded in 2022, ELEMENT EIGHT is bringing the latest advances in oxygen-infusing medicine to skincare. Developed by a world-renowned team of spine surgeons, biomaterial engineers, dermatologists, clinical researchers and systems group engineers. Collectively they hold 16 MD-PHDs, 120 medical patents and over 100,000 uses of technologies they have developed. The team spent over a decade developing the brand’s proprietary OATH™: Oxygen Amplified Therapy technology mimics the function of hemoglobin to deliver 20x more oxygen directly to skin cells up to 700 microns deep, counteracting the key signs of aging, all of which are caused by oxygen depletion in the skin.

True to the brand’s ethos of clean science, all ELEMENT EIGHT products are formulated without parabens, GMO’s PEG’s, sulfates, phthalates, formaldehyde or formaldehyde releasers, oxybenzone and octinoxate, hydroquinone, triclosan, coal tar, methylisothiazolinone and methylchloroisothiazolinone, and insoluble plastic microbeads. ELEMENT EIGHT is 100% vegan, gluten-free, cruelty-free and fragrance-free. ELEMENT EIGHT’s packaging was developed with environmental impact at top of mind and is recyclable and FSC certified. For more information, visit the brand at www.ELEMENTEIGHT.COM.

Media Contact: Paige Davis, [email protected], +1 502 472 8611

SOURCE ELEMENT EIGHT

Funds will help Kythera expand its products, partnerships, and people to meet increasing demand

FRANKLIN, Tenn., Nov. 7, 2023 — Kythera Labs, a leading healthcare technology and data analytics company for the Healthcare and Life Sciences industries, announces $20 Million in Series A and debt financing from BIP Ventures and CIBC. The company will use the funds to support the continued growth and scale of Wayfinder, its data-transforming technology platform, and accelerate the development and adoption of new and existing offerings. Kythera also plans to leverage financing to expand partnerships with industry leaders such as Datavant and Databricks.

In the first half of 2023, Kythera has achieved unprecedented growth. Kythera expects a 41% CAGR in 2023 and has seen a 245% year-over-year increase in platform utilization. Kythera has appointed a new Chief Science Officer (CSO) to lead Life Sciences and BioPharma initiatives and a Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) to accelerate business growth. 

Kythera Labs’ data technology platform, Wayfinder, provides access to real-world healthcare data spanning over 8 years, including over 320 million lives with 29.3 billion encounters. Wayfinder, built on Databricks, supports enterprise-grade scalability. Wayfinder corrects, enhances, and adds new dimensions to healthcare data, using a dynamically improving common data model that facilitates data integration. The platform provides benefits to Life Sciences’ market access and commercial segments with immediate access to high-fidelity analytics and RWD that accelerates and improves therapy innovation and patient outcomes.

“As investors in Life Sciences solutions and transformational technology platforms, we immediately saw the massive impact Kythera Labs has on changing how Life Sciences companies and Healthcare providers use Real-World Data (RWD) to accelerate solutions,” said BIP Ventures Partner Austin Poole. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Kythera Labs leadership team to help them build on their existing momentum.”  

“We have an amazing opportunity to redefine how Life Sciences and Healthcare providers access the data they need for conducting research and developing new therapies,” said Jeff McDonald, Co-Founder and CEO of Kythera Labs. “Eliminating data silos and reducing the uncertainty found in massive amounts of data will lead to the discovery of what’s hidden in the data and unlock the true potential of RWD.”

Roivant Sciences adopted Kythera Labs’ platform and refined analytics to more efficiently and accurately support its pre-commercialization activities. “Since partnering with Kythera Labs, we have saved a significant amount of time and resources. The combination of high-quality data that is intuitively organized enables our pre-commercial and commercial teams to easily and quickly find the information they need. We believe this partnership fundamentally can change how we interact with healthcare data,” said Brett Venker, Head of RWE, Roivant Sciences.

About Kythera Labs

Kythera Labs is a data and technology company that enables Healthcare and Life Sciences organizations to rapidly integrate, access, and analyze healthcare data with scale and speed using the Wayfinder data science platform and pre-configured data pipelines, data science toolkits, and remastered data sets for competitive advantages across markets.

Learn more at www.kytheralabs.com or follow Kythera Labs on LinkedIn.

About BIP Ventures

BIP Ventures, the North American-focused venture capital division of BIP Capital, is one of the Southeast’s largest and most active VC firms. BIP Ventures partners with extraordinary founders to drive exceptional outcomes. Since 2007, BIP Ventures has invested in the success of B2B software and tech-enabled service businesses at all stages of maturity. In addition to capital, it supports entrepreneurs with access to infrastructure, acumen, and talent, resulting in category-leading companies. For more information, visit bipventures.vc or follow BIP Ventures on LinkedIn, Instagram, or X @bipventures. 

SOURCE Kythera Labs

The company’s patent-pending AI-enhanced binary-to-source analysis engine detects, prioritizes, and helps remediate actual threats in both closed- and open-source software components throughout the entire software supply chain

TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 7, 2023 — Myrror Security, a pioneer in application security for organizations using open-source packages, launched today with $6M in seed funding from Blumberg Capital and Entrée Capital to secure enterprises’ SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) process amid a growing wave of software supply chain attacks exploiting open-source dependencies and CI/CD pipelines. The funds will enable the company to expand its product capabilities and scale its go-to-market distribution channels.

Four years after the first high-magnitude SolarWinds attack, the rate of software supply chain attacks is rapidly growing, with a 740% increase in OSS (Open Source Software) supply chain attacks in 2022 alone. While these attacks on the SDLC occur via several vectors, the most accessible one is through incorporated open-source components, which is particularly concerning considering that OSS constitutes 70-90% of modern software. Traditional solutions mainly focus on known vulnerabilities without addressing unknown risks. Additionally, they flood overburdened security teams with alerts for vulnerabilities that aren’t even prevalent in the final code, leading to unnecessary alerts and a false sense of urgency. These teams are in dire need of a solution that can detect actual threats, while helping prioritize and remediate only reachable vulnerabilities so they can focus on the most important software supply chain risks.

The Myrror Security platform seamlessly unites the two essential pillars required to effectively address real threats in the modern software supply chain – the detection of malicious packages and CI/CD attacks, and the prioritization of known vulnerabilities. By employing proprietary binary-to-source code analysis capabilities with advanced AI matching techniques, the company detects known and unknown threats, such as malicious packages, malicious code, and CI/CD breaches, in real-time — before they even reach production. In addition, by using an advanced reachability model, the company’s Code Aware SCA (Software Composition Analysis) solution determines whether a vulnerable function is used in the code, reducing the noise generated by traditional SCA tools. Myrror Security also provides comprehensive mitigation plans to ensure companies can quickly and effectively remediate the risk.

“The integration of unverified open-source components into the software development process creates a massive attack risk on one hand, and a large amount of false positives for security teams on the other hand. Until now, there hasn’t been a solution on the market capable of tackling both of these problems effectively,” said Yoad Fekete Co-Founder and CEO at Myrror Security. “We founded Myrror Security to help security teams protect their organizations from attacks and sort through their mess of alerts before code gets to production, without requiring any engineering behavioral change. As this threat vector becomes more popular with attackers, we’re grateful for our investors’ trust to provide a unique security solution to keep companies and their customers safe, getting them to an SLSA Build L3 (Previously SLSA4) level.” 

Myrror Security’s Breach Detection solution harnesses a unique, AI-enhanced binary-to-source analysis process that reverse-engineers binary artifacts, which can then be compared to the original source code. When a discrepancy is found between the two versions, users receive alerts in real-time, preventing the compromised package from ever reaching the software.

“Malicious actors continue to shift their attention to the software development process – using open-source packages and CI/CD pipelines to infiltrate companies that otherwise have tight security in place,” said Ilia Shnaidman, Vice President at Blumberg Capital. “There is a clear market demand for a solution that detects attacks and prioritizes vulnerabilities and helps defenders address this risk. Myrror Security has the team and technology to lead the industry toward end-to-end software integrity by enabling risk prioritization, attack detection, and mitigation plans in a single platform. We look forward to the exciting journey ahead and welcome the team to our portfolio of companies transforming cybersecurity.”

“The use of open-source components like third-party dependencies, tools, and systems in application development has been an asset for developers who share and build upon each other’s progress, but it comes with significant risks – especially in the form of supply chain attacks whose ramifications spread well beyond the targeted organization,” said Zohar Alon, Chairman at Myrror Security. “Myrror Security addresses this pain by looking to the root of the SDLC security challenge with a pioneering binary-to-source analysis solution that is way ahead of the market.”

About Myrror Security

MyrrorSecurity is a pioneering DevSecOps company seamlessly uniting the two essential pillars required to effectively address real threats in the modern software supply chain – detecting malicious packages and CI/CD attacks and prioritizing known vulnerabilities. By employing proprietary binary-to-source code analysis capabilities with advanced AI matching techniques, the company detects unknown threats, such as malicious packages, malicious code, and CI/CD breaches, in real-time — before they even reach production. In addition, by using an advanced reachability model, the platform determines whether a vulnerable function is used in the code, reducing the noise generated by traditional SCA tools. Myrror Security also provides comprehensive mitigation plans to ensure companies can quickly and effectively secure their applications. Myrror Security is headquartered in Tel Aviv and backed by Blumberg Capital and Entrée Capital as well as prominent cybersecurity entrepreneur Zohar Alon. For more information, please visit: https://myrror.security/

Media Contact 

Sarah Schloss
Headline Media
[email protected]
1.914.506.5105

SOURCE Myrror Security

The Series B funding will allow ShippyPro to expand globally and accelerate innovation to become the shipping infrastructure for brands.

FLORENCE, Italy, Nov. 7, 2023 — ShippyPro, the leading shipping platform for commerce, today announced a new $15 million Series B round from Five Elms Capital. This investment will fuel the mission of the company to eliminate shipping complexities for businesses by optimizing every aspect of fulfillment.

ShippyPro has built a multi-carrier infrastructure that helps brands save time and millions of dollars in logistics budget every year by driving efficiency across all the fulfillment operations, from initial order intake through to tracking and returns.
With its data-driven technology, ShippyPro helps brands to choose the best shipping service for each order, automates shipping labels generation, turns the delivery experience for consumers into a strong competitive advantage and monitors all their delivery performances.

ShippyPro has built the largest library for logistics with over 165 carriers and 85 sales channels natively integrated that gives brands access to new shipping services in no-time making a valuable accelerator for global expansion and omnichannel orchestration.
 “One-click shopping has made commerce evolving beyond geographic borders,” said Francesco Borghi, co-founder and CEO of ShippyPro. “With consumers demanding their products in a shorter time and with an expectational service on every channel, fulfillment plays a key role in satisfying consumers’ expectations and expanding globally. We have designed ShippyPro to be universal from day one to help our customers accelerate their international expansion while enabling their transition to omnichannel commerce with services such as ship from store, return to store and same day delivery.”

ShippyPro currently processes millions of shipments per month for thousands of clients in more than 36 countries for important brands in different industries, including Diesel, Guess and Venchi that rely on the platform to automate shipping and offer a better customer experience.

The company has recently launched two new products. The first facilitates Out Of Home deliveries, granting brands the flexibility to let consumers receive their orders at diverse drop-off points, including postal offices, supermarkets, and local shops. The second, ShippyPro Data Optimize, is a sophisticated suite of business intelligence tools designed to illuminate shipping data, providing brands with unparalleled oversight and control over their shipping information. 

 “Innovation is what continues to motivate and inspire us and lies at the foundation of ShippyPro. We are able to continuously innovate thanks to the partnerships and the fruitful collaboration with our customers and all our partners,” said Borghi. “With this funding we will continue to focus on creating solutions that accelerate the transition towards sustainability in logistics and we will channel our efforts to simplify shipping data visibility for brands, giving brands the possibility to make more data-driven decisions”

ShippyPro started with a global mindset and the partnership with Five Elms is taking the Florentine-based company to a global stage. “We are thrilled to continue to evolve our strategic relationship with Five Elms through our partnership to accelerate our international presence and create the most talented team to support our vision of becoming the leading shipping infrastructure for global commerce.”

The $15 million raised in the Series B positions the company well for accelerated growth and expansion.

“ShippyPro continues to deliver a mission-critical solution that its customers can’t live without, which is demonstrated by some of the impressive global brands that utilize the software today,” said Stephanie Schneider, Partner at Five Elms. “We are excited to continue our partnership as we believe that the company is well positioned to continue scaling globally, especially given its advanced cross-border capabilities driven by robust API features and automated returns.”

About ShippyPro

ShippyPro is the all-in-one shipping management software for global ecommerce merchants and omnichannel brands. ShippyPro helps businesses save time and millions of dollars in logistics budget every year by providing a multi-carrier infrastructure and automating shipping rates comparison, label generation, tracking, returns and logistics data analysis. For more information, go to www.shippypro.com.

About Five Elms

Five Elms Capital is a leading growth investor in world-class software businesses that users love. Five Elms provides capital and resources to help companies accelerate growth and further cement their role as industry leaders. Five Elms maintains offices in North America and Europe and invests in the best software platforms globally. For more information, visit fiveelms.com.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2268312/Francesco_Borghi_CEO.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2268317/ShippyPro_Team_Round_B.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2268323/ShippyPro_Logo.jpg

SOURCE ShippyPro

Growth capital accelerates commercialization of May Mobility’s proprietary autonomous vehicle technology and its AV transit services

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 7, 2023 — May Mobility, a leader in the development and deployment of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, today announced the company’s closing of a $105 million Series D round as part of its ongoing fundraising efforts. The all-equity round has been led by Japanese telecommunications powerhouse, NTT Group and joined by new and existing financial and strategic investors including Toyota Ventures, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company, State Farm Ventures®, BMW i Ventures, Cyrus Capital and Trucks Venture Capital thus far. May Mobility’s Series B and C were led by Toyota Motor Corporation and SPARX Group Co. respectively. This latest round brings May Mobility’s total funding to approximately $300 million to date.

May Mobility will use the proceeds to accelerate the advancement and commercialization of its AV technology and services in the United States, Canada and Japan. Additionally, the funding will assist in scaling operations and pave a path for the company to reach profitability.

With this investment, NTT Group has acquired the exclusive rights to distribute May Mobility’s proprietary autonomous vehicle technology throughout Japan. The companies will work with Toyota Motor Corporation to develop an autonomous driving ecosystem, working with local stakeholders to deploy May Mobility-equipped autonomous vehicles across a variety of vehicle platforms. The companies will incorporate May Mobility’s technology to enhance Japanese transportation networks.

“Our success in this fundraising is a strong validation of May’s proven business model and provides the fuel and momentum to realize our next phase of growth,” said Edwin Olson, CEO and co-founder of May Mobility. “Our approach has been to work with best-in-class partners to bring our technology and services to market and we’re excited to partner with a leading multinational technology firm of NTT’s caliber and to develop our business in Japan together.”

With more than 350,000 autonomy-enabled rides to date, May Mobilty’s goal is to transform cities through autonomous vehicle technology, driving more accessible and sustainable transportation and safer roads, while filling gaps in existing transportation infrastructure.

Focusing on a business-to-government (B2G) and business-to-business (B2B)  go-to-market strategy, May Mobility partners with cities, transit agencies, municipalities and government agencies to solve real transportation challenges for communities.  Our go-to-market strategy is designed to enable the company to achieve profitability faster through a lean and focused capital-efficient structure, in contrast to other AV companies.

May Mobility also takes a differentiated approach to its AV technology. With a deep understanding of the commercialization challenges, the company’s proprietary Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology can adaptively handle situations it hasn’t encountered before. The technology’s ability to imagine multiple scenarios in real time enables May Mobility to scale to new markets and cities on a fraction of the capital required by other AV systems. The company has deployed its AVs in 12 cities in the U.S. and Japan.

May Mobility’s recent deployments and upcoming sites in the United States include Arlington, Tex., Ann Arbor, Mich., Contra Costa, Cali., Detroit, Mich., Grand Rapids, Minn., and Sun City, Ariz. with more scheduled in the coming months.

“Autonomous transportation has a significant role to play in transforming our cities and improving our lives. With this financing, we expect to expand our vision of making transportation more safe, sustainable and accessible for all,” added Olson.

###

About May Mobility
May Mobility develops autonomous vehicle (AV) technology and deploys fleets of vehicles to municipal and business customers. Its proprietary Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) system is at the core of its mission to help make cities safer, greener and more accessible. MPDM’s proven track record has delivered more than 350,000 autonomy-enabled rides to date in several public transit applications across the U.S. and Japan. With key strategic partnerships including some of the world’s most innovative automotive and transportation companies, such as Toyota Motor Corporation and NTT, May Mobility aims to achieve the highest standard in rider safety, sustainability and transportation equity. For more information, visit www.maymobility.com.

SOURCE May Mobility

The transformational gift from philanthropist Richard H. Pickup will revolutionize clinical care for memory and cognitive disorders, including Alzheimer’s and related dementias, associated behavioral disorders such as anxiety, agitation, depression and other mood disorders afflicting our aging population. The gift will support integrative multidisciplinary support for patients and their families as well as ongoing research trials to advance innovative treatments.

• This gift will establish the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health.
• A cornerstone of the center will be the whole-family, comprehensive approach to prevention, detection and integrative care.
• Orange County’s over 65 population is growing by 15% annually. Alzheimer’s rates in Orange County have doubled between 2014 and 2021 and are projected to double again by 2040, creating a “silver tsunami” requiring more experts in brain health and aging.
• The center will be part of the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute which is ranked in the top 50 of over 4,500 hospitals in the US by US News and World Report.
• Cognitive and mental health disorders in seniors impair general health maintenance, predisposing them to repeat hospitalizations for physical disorders.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Nov. 6, 2023 — Hoag today announced a transformational $50 million gift that will establish the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health, a powerhouse of innovation that will pioneer new, whole family-centered approaches to brain health and healthy aging.

Long-time Newport Beach philanthropist Richard Pickup has made numerous gifts to Hoag throughout the years, including a $15 million gift naming the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute in 2017. This latest multi-year gift will revolutionize the advancement of brain health care and treatment for people in Orange County and beyond.

A cornerstone of the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health will be the whole-family approach to prevention, early detection and care for cognitive impairment and mental health disorders, including consideration for the ways in which these disorders impact overall physical health, erode quality of life and greatly increase health care costs for patience and their families.

“Most dementia centers are focused almost entirely on clinical research and clinical trials. While research is of crucial importance – and something that we will continue to promote at Hoag – it is only part of the picture. Until we find a cure for dementia, we need to emphasize supporting patients and their families to adapt to the day-to-day impact of dementia,” said Aaron Ritter,

M.D., Larkin Family Endowed Chair in Integrative Brain Health and director of the Memory & Cognitive Disorders Program at the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute. “Focusing on recognizing the treatable conditions that can cause cognitive impairment, we can slow if not reverse a person’s decline. This improves the quality of life for patients and their caregivers.”

Plans are being developed for a dedicated, expanded space on the lower campus of Hoag Newport Beach to house the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health. With comprehensive services under one roof, the center will facilitate needed collaboration and be better positioned than any program in the country to provide an extensive treatment plan for patients and their families.

Demand for age-related health care is outpacing the supply nationwide. In Orange County Alzheimer’s is expected to more than double by 2040. This “silver tsunami” is forcing increasing health care utilization, rising expenses and an explosion in unpaid caregiving – friends, family members and loved ones shouldering the burden and costs of care.

The 2023-2024 U.S. News & World Report ranked Hoag one of the top 50 hospitals in Neurology and Neurosurgery. With the support of philanthropy, Hoag has provided resources to support at-risk individuals and their family members, delivering patient and physician education, tools for brain health screening, and early assessment of memory and cognitive impairment.

With attention to screenings, early detection, treatment and advancing technology and care, the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health will further develop a unique model that follows patients at each leg of their health journey, constantly striving to enhance their quality of life.

“As we get older, our neurologic health becomes more tenuous. When it comes to the brain, the solutions aren’t always as straightforward as doing surgery. It was the wisdom of my colleague, Michael Brant-Zawadzki, M.D., F.A.C.R., the Ron & Sandi Simon Executive Medical Director Endowed Chair of the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute and Senior Physician Executive at Hoag, to anticipate the changing demographics and address the community’s needs and demands for the next decade,” Dr. Ritter said. “There has been progress in treatments of heart disease and cancer, but the medical community as a whole hasn’t made the same degree of improvements in treating brain related issues. The concept of approaching the brain from multiple angles and multiple approaches is innovative. We have a unique position at Hoag, with the support and resources from the community, to take a multifaceted approach to brain issues.”

The Pickup family’s enduring generosity will benefit generations of community members, said Flynn A. Andrizzi, Ph.D., president of Hoag Hospital Foundation. “The groundbreaking work done every day at Hoag is possible through the generosity of the community we serve,” he said. “We are deeply grateful to Dick and his family for their extraordinary support.”

Like many of Hoag’s generous supporters, Mr. Pickup’s transformational gift for this center and the neurosciences in general was the result of his own family’s health history. Mr. Pickup’s brother lived with dementia before passing away.

“Hoag is making great strides in the understanding of brain health and Alzheimer’s disease. They are on the cutting edge, but there is still so much that is unknown about the brain,” Mr. Pickup said. “I trust that the passionate experts at Hoag will advance this area of medicine and give people, beyond Orange County, a place they can turn to and trust.”

Born and raised in Whittier, California, Mr. Pickup moved to Newport Beach in the 1960s where he became a successful stockbroker and personally invested in concentrated positions in small and midcap public companies. Mr. Pickup’s philosophy includes investing in public companies that have strong cash flow and solid fundamentals. This investment thesis led to the holding of select stocks for extended periods of time, in some cases decades. He was instrumental in facilitating his family’s acquisition of Balboa Bay Resort & Club and Newport Beach Country Club. Mr. Pickup laid the foundation for his son, Todd Pickup, and son-in-law, Kevin Martin, to create Eagle Four Partners, a private equity firm specializing in hospitality, golf, and lifestyle residential real estate investments. Eagle Four, its affiliates, and partners are the owners of the newly opened Pendry Newport Beach and VEA Newport Beach. 

“Mr. Pickup’s continued partnership and generosity will leave a history-making mark on the course of treatment, innovation, and understanding of brain disease,” said Hoag President and Chief Executive Officer Robert T. Braithwaite. “We will continue recruiting and retaining the best physicians and empowering them with the tools necessary to aim higher, lead discoveries, and educate the next generation of specialists to do the same. We are deeply grateful to the Pickup family for their support and trust.”

This gift will include support for attracting national experts, the creation of endowed chairs—honored distinctions that provide program funding to physicians—which will empower the center’s leaders to explore new treatment modalities and train the next generation of specialists.

“With the growing number of people living with memory and cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, and other mental health conditions common to aging, Hoag needs to elevate already exceptional care to the next level and integrate cognitive health with primary care, and also support chronic care conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease where patients’ cognition and mental health are impacted,” Dr. Brant-Zawadzki said. “This gift ensures long-term sustainability for decades, empowering Hoag to pioneer novel treatments, engage in the latest clinical trials and conduct research that would ensure our patients have the most advanced care available,” he said.

Hoag is one of the only health systems that combines the world-class medical expertise and innovation of an academic medical institution with the agility and personalized care of a private, not-for-profit hospital system, creating “privademic” health care. Hoag’s Pickup Family

Neurosciences Institute offers access to groundbreaking treatment options, such as a Phase 1 Alzheimer’s vaccine clinical trial, as well as other Alzheimer’s drug infusion trials. Also available are the latest diagnostic innovative technology such as MR/PET imaging for accurate diagnosis, and advanced AI neuropsychological based testing.

“The Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health will transform these tangible, patient-centered efforts into a more complete and meaningful difference – both in the landscape of Alzheimer’s disease internationally – and to the individuals and their family members whom we serve,” Dr. Ritter said.

ABOUT HOAG HOSPITAL FOUNDATION
Thanks in large part to philanthropy, Hoag has become one of the nation’s finest health care systems, serving a diverse and growing population. The Hoag Hospital Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Hoag, is an integral partner in Hoag’s vision to become a trusted and nationally recognized health care leader. Through the generosity of Hoag’s dedicated donors, the Hoag Hospital Foundation’s Boldly Hoag campaign is supporting the expansion of Hoag, starting on the Irvine campus. Scheduled to be complete in 2026, the new Sun Family Campus will provide increased access to specialized services for cancer, digestive health, and women’s health for communities throughout South Orange County. For more information, visit boldlyhoag.org or hoaghospitalfoundation.org.

ABOUT HOAG

Hoag is a nonprofit, regional health care delivery system in Orange County, California. Delivering world-class, comprehensive, personalized care, Hoag consists of 1,800 top physicians, 15 urgent care facilities, 10 health & wellness centers, and two award-winning hospitals. Hoag offers a comprehensive blend of health care services that includes seven institutes providing specialized services in the following areas: cancer, digestive health, heart and vascular, neurosciences, spine, women’s health, and orthopedics through Hoag’s affiliate, Hoag Orthopedic Institute, which consists of an orthopedic hospital and four ambulatory surgical centers. Hoag is the highest ranked hospital in Orange County by U.S. News & World Report and the only OC hospital ranked in the Top 10 in California, as well as a designated Magnet^® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). For more information, visit hoag.org.

ABOUT HOAG’S PICKUP FAMILY NEUROSCIENCES INSTITUTE
Delivering a personalized, integrated approach using best-practice guidelines, the most advanced technology, and integration of medical specialists in the most appropriate facilities, the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute (PFNI) at Hoag provides world class care for patients with specific conditions of the brain and spine such as stroke, aneurysms and vascular malformations, brain tumors, epilepsy, movement disorders, memory and cognitive disorders, pain, minimally invasive spine surgery, multiple sclerosis, addiction medicine and sleep disorders, as well as the mind-body interface of behavioral health. Many of Hoag’s PFNI programs have received high acclaim. The Hoag Stroke Program was the first in Orange County and the second in California to be named a Certified Comprehensive Stroke Center by DNV GL Healthcare and was awarded the American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Performance Achievement for stroke care. And as one of the first centers in the U.S. to offer the most advanced radiosurgical treatment system available, Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™, the PFNI brain tumor program is the largest in Orange County and is also among the top volume programs in the western United States. Hoag has been recognized as a designated Level 4 Comprehensive Epilepsy Center by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. The PFNI’s memory and cognitive disorders program is nationally recognized. For more information, visit hoag.org/neurosciences.

SOURCE Hoag

NEW YORK, Nov. 6, 2023 — Llama, an access control and governance platform for smart contracts, raised a $6 million seed round from Founders Fund and Electric Capital. Other notable investors include Elad Gil (early investor in Stripe, Airbnb, Figma), Sandeep Nailwal (Cofounder, Polygon), Stani Kulechov (Founder, Aave), Will Gaybrick (President of Product, Stripe), Amplify Partners, and FJ Labs.

Smart contract applications have accrued billions of dollars in value locked and treasury holdings. However, securing and governing these protocols is still complex.

Llama has launched a fullstack platform that makes access control and governance more effective and secure. It allows protocols to encode roles, permissions, and execution strategies to define workflows to take onchain actions. Actions could include upgrading a protocol, transferring funds, updating a registry, changing protocol parameters, or activating an emergency pause.

Llama co-founders Shreyas Hariharan and Austin Green started their journey by contributing to protocols and communities. Llama has previously contributed to the largest organizations in crypto — Aave, Nouns, Lido, dYdX, and ApeCoin.

Hariharan said, “To scale our impact, we used our learnings to build the product we wish we had. In Llama, decentralization is achieved through access control. Each governance participant is granted the minimum amount of power to perform the function they are best suited to do.”

Llama is designed for role-based governance. For example, a risk service provider could be given permission to update risk parameters subject to a delay period that allows the action to be vetoed by token holders. Similarly, an operations team could initiate an emergency pause that is executed immediately once a high approval threshold is met.

Green added, “Today, protocols are wasting precious engineering resources forking open-source frameworks and hacking together custom front-ends. They understand the benefit of a vertically integrated solution.”

Llama is currently onboarding customers who are looking for an onchain access control and governance solution. Potential customers can book a demo or fill out their interest form.

Founders: Shreyas Hariharan, Austin Green

About Llama

Llama is an access control and governance platform for smart contracts. Llama enables protocols to securely take actions using onchain policies and custom execution strategies.

SOURCE Llama

All-Star DevTools Angels Rally Behind Vision to Enhance Developer Environments

NEW YORK, Nov. 6, 2023 — Daytona, a self-hosted “Development Environment Management” platform, announced that it has raised $2 million in Pre-Seed funding, vastly exceeding the initial target. This round achieved significant contributions from recognized founders and operators within the developer tool sector.

The backing from industry leaders such as Abhinav Asthana (Founder, Postman), Charity Majors (Co-founder, Honeycomb), Christian Bach (Co-founder, Netlify), Prashanth Chandrasekar (CEO, Stack Overflow), Zach Lloyd (Founder, Warp), Milin Desai (CEO, Sentry), and Paul Copplestone (Co-founder, Supabase) is a strong endorsement of Daytona’s vision. Venture capital support was led by 500, with notable contributions from Tiny.vc, Silicon Gardens, Darkmode VC, and Firestreak Ventures.

Daytona is meticulously crafting a platform that simplifies the creation of standard and secure developer environments, automates environment setup on new project branches, and facilitates environment sharing among team members. The platform is designed to be compatible with any IDE & GIT provider, adhering to industry standards like Dev Container. In essence, Daytona offers functionalities akin to Github Codespaces, but with the added advantage of being self-hosted on an organization’s own infrastructure.

Daytona’s journey began in 2009 with a project called PHPanywhere, which later evolved into Codeanywhere. Over a 14-year span in the Cloud Development sector, the founders acquired a unique and deep understanding of consumer needs and challenges. Daytona leverages this insight to create a much-needed dev tool that has not yet been introduced to the market.

“This funding propels us to actualize our mission is to become the industry standard in Development Environment Management, starting with the enterprise sector. The overwhelming support from individuals and institutions deeply rooted in the DevTools industry is not just a validation, but a collaborative stride toward transforming the developer environment landscape,” said Ivan Burazin, co-founder and CEO of Daytona.

“I’m thrilled to back Daytona’s vision of creating a standard in the Development Environment space. With a deep-rooted understanding of the cloud development sector, the Daytona team is uniquely positioned to address the challenges developers face,” said Abhinav Asthana, Founder and CEO of Postman, one of the most popular dev tools.

The funds from this round will be channeled into accelerating product development, hiring to expand the Daytona team, and intensifying market penetration, especially within large organizations where self-hosted environments are paramount.

For more information about Daytona and to join the waitlist, visit https://www.daytona.io.

About Daytona
Based in NY but fully distributed globally, Daytona is a self-hosted “Development Environment Management” platform. Daytona simplifies the process of creating standard and secure environments, automates environment setups on branches, and shares environments seamlessly. It also integrates with your IDE or Git provider, adhering to Dev Container standards. Daytona serves as an enterprise-grade GitHub Codespaces that is operable on your own infrastructure. The company has raised $2 million in Pre-Seed from All-Star Dev Tools Angels, 500 Global and others.

SOURCE Daytona Platforms, Inc

Augmented reality and digital interactives connect employees and visitors to the company’s history, culture and philanthropic efforts from the past 65 years.

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 6, 2023 — Dimensional Innovations (DI) is proud to announce its collaboration with American Century Investments to integrate immersive storytelling elements into the $210 billion* investment firm’s global corporate headquarters. Augmented reality, generative art, sculptural design, and built components create a tech-forward environment where American Century’s employees, clients and visitors can explore the investment firm’s compelling 65-year history through more than 25 touch points throughout the lobby scanned via smartphone application.

Upon entering, guests and employees are greeted by the American Century Investments Cultivation Wall — a 15-foot-tall, multi-dimensional, kinetic LED display commemorating employees, and highlighting custom messages to engage the community at large. Multiple interactive activations are woven throughout the lobby at various stations to help effectively tell the company’s story with the use of augmented reality integration. Users can scan a QR code via smartphone and interact with the surrounding environment through personal and engaging technology.

“American Century Investments is a bedrock of the global financial world, so we were thrilled to help establish a remarkable and interactive touchpoint that tells their story to anyone who visits their Kansas City headquarters,” said Tucker Trotter, CEO, Dimensional Innovations. “Understanding a company’s principles and vision is important, so each element provides foundational knowledge and tells their brand story in new and innovative ways to their team and clientele base.”

“Helping people is what drives us and differentiates us, so we are constantly thinking ahead on how we can best serve clients and inspiring them with new ideas and solutions to build optimism and trust in a better future,” said Jonathan Thomas, president and CEO of American Century. “As we celebrate our 65^th anniversary, our new storytelling experience reflects our thriving culture, rooted in kindness, collaboration and a higher purpose.”

Another notable component to the lobby renovation is the engraved Stowers Art Wall, which highlights the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, the controlling owner of American Century Investments and a world-class biomedical research organization dedicated to better understanding human health and life-threatening diseases. The generative art display encourages visitors to learn how the unique ownership structure has sent nearly $2 billion of the investment firm’s profits to the Stowers Institute and its groundbreaking research since 2000. Additionally, a captivating grand sculpture consisting of 34 rows of mirrored elements that shift, change, and reflect light honor the legacies of American Century and Stowers Institute founders James and Virginia Stowers.

The compelling new elements and redesign were unveiled to coincide with the firm’s 65th anniversary. American Century Investments aims to foster a strong sense of community, warmth and trust by way of intricate design that will help illustrate the brand’s rich history while simultaneously illustrating their forward-thinking capabilities. To learn more about the project and each element, visit Dimensional Innovations’ website/project page.

Images and video are available here.

*Assets under supervision as of 10/12/23.

SOURCE Dimensional Innovations