Venture Growth Equity Firm Raises New Fund to Continue Focus on Modernizing Healthcare

WASHINGTON and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2023 — Questa Capital Management, a venture growth equity firm exclusively dedicated to the healthcare industry, today announced the final close of Questa Capital Partners III, LP (the “Fund”) with $397 million of capital commitments, bringing the firm’s aggregate committed capital to more than $1 billion. The Fund will invest selectively in a portfolio of growth companies in three healthcare sectors of focus: services, technology, and medical devices. The firm has an investment team of ten led by Founder Ryan Drant and Managing Partners Brad Sloan and Shawn Conway, and currently manages eighteen portfolio companies across its three healthcare sectors.

The Fund secured commitments from a diversified blue-chip investor base comprised of leading endowments, family offices, foundations, consultants, pension plans and fund-of-funds.  

Questa Founder and Managing Partner Ryan Drant noted, “We are extremely pleased to close on Fund III despite a challenging fundraising environment. We are both grateful for the strong interest and ongoing support from our existing investors, and pleased to be starting long-term relationships with a small group of exceptional new limited partners.  We are honored to work closely with our portfolio companies, including marquee companies like Dispatch Health, Cortica, Medrio, and Calyxo.  We are also energized by the opportunity set we see in the market, and look forward to continuing to build differentiated and high-growth healthcare companies in close collaboration with strong management teams.  Questa will continue to partner with companies that share our vision and passion to improve clinical outcomes, efficiency, safety, and the patient experience to help address critical challenges in our healthcare system.”

Questa Capital’s record of being an active and collaborative partner for the companies in which it invests is a hallmark of the firm’s approach. The Questa team brings deep sector expertise in healthcare services, technology, and medical devices, and a deep network and industry experience to help guide portfolio companies toward leading market positions and accelerated growth.

Value-based care is an important investment theme at Questa, and Fund I portfolio company Cortica is an excellent example of Questa’s activity in the sector. “As Cortica continues to grow rapidly, Questa Capital has been an exceptional partner for our company as we build our team, broaden our relationships, and execute on our geographic expansion,” said Neil Hattangadi MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Cortica. “Ryan and Brad are both extremely valued leaders on the Cortica board of directors.  We congratulate them on their success in raising Fund III and look forward to our continued close collaboration.”

Gunderson Dettmer served as legal counsel and Acalyx Advisors served as advisors to Questa Capital.

About Questa Capital Management

Questa Capital is a venture growth equity firm focusing on investments in expansion-stage healthcare companies. Questa seeks out disruptive, technology-enabled business models that help improve patient lives, streamline market inefficiencies, and provide better quality care. The firm partners with superior management teams to help build innovative market leaders in the healthcare services, technology, and medical devices sectors. Questa is led by industry veterans Ryan Drant, Brad Sloan and Shawn Conway, leaders in healthcare investment and operations who have invested in and advised more than 60 growth-stage companies. More information is available at www.questacapital.com.

SOURCE Questa Capital

The funding round led by Premji Invest fast-tracks the growth of Ikigai’s No Code AI Platform Built with Large Graphical Models

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2023 — Ikigai Labs, a company that unlocks the power of generative AI for tabular data, today announced $25M of new capital by Premji Invest with participation from Foundation Capital and e& capital. The capital will further Ikigai Lab’s vision to revolutionize the way enterprises harness AI. Organizations can be trained to master AI leveraging the Ikigai Academy and using the Ikigai platform that is easy, fast and powerful by design.

Organizations are awash in data that is sitting in spreadsheets, databases, and cloud datastores, but making use of this tabular data brings a host of challenges that makes it difficult to build, maintain and mitigate risks with limited skilled resources. To effectively forecast and conduct scenario-based planning requires harnessing deep, complex data sources from disparate areas across the enterprise. Ikigai Labs solves these challenges by pairing its best-in-class time series forecasting with its no-code AI platform built on top of its three proprietary foundation blocks – aiMatch, for data reconciliation, aiCast, for prediction and aiPlan, for scenario planning and optimization – together with expert-in-the-loop (EiTL), an innovative addition for reinforcement learning. Along with this easy, fast and powerful platform, Ikigai Academy has already trained over 6000 students from 90+ countries on topics like “No Code AI” and “Time Series Forecasting“.

“I see the challenges that individuals face in understanding what can be done with their tabular data, together with the struggle for enterprises to leverage the latest technological innovations in AI,” said Devavrat Shah, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Ikigai Labs and Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Chair Professor of AI and Decisions at MIT. “With Ikigai, we see a clear opportunity to help the global workforce harness the power of AI. We are excited to work with Premji Invest, Foundation Capital, e& capital and luminaries like Diane Greene, who are enabling us to make Generative AI for tabular data truly effective across enterprises.”

“Ikigai’s founding team possesses a depth of industry and go-to-market expertise that can push the AI frontier to the center of business operations and decisions. Their innovation with large graphical models will be embraced by all enterprises that look to apply generative AI to drive meaningful business insights,” said Sandesh Patnam, Managing Partner, Premji Invest. “Premji Invest is focused on investing in innovative companies with exceptional growth potential and creating enduring value. In Ikigai, we see a company that brings all of this to bear while creating a N of 1, category defining company!”

“Ikigai is led by industry experts who uniquely possess a combination of enterprise expertise and deep research in the field of AI. Ikigai’s potential to help scale enterprises with AI by solving data engineering and modeling problems for the business user is truly unique,” said Ashu Garg, General Partner, Foundation Capital. “Ikigai’s ability to simultaneously solve several challenges with time series – missing data, forecasting with accuracy, learning from multiple time-series in presence of continual change – really positions them as a premier option for enterprise clients. We are excited about the early adoption Ikigai has established within enterprises, and their potential impact across all industries.”

Learn more about Ikigai’s solutions at https://www.ikigailabs.io. 

About Ikigai
Built upon years of MIT research, Ikigai’s AI app platform provides enterprises with the insight they need to make faster, better decisions to drive growth. Using breakthrough technology to conduct forecasting, scenario planning and data preparation and stitching, enterprises can generate data insights at scale and detect patterns to gain a competitive edge. With Ikigai’s Large Graphical Models, any data can also be trained to help businesses revolutionize the way they operate, scale and grow. To learn more and try Ikigai, visit https://www.ikigailabs.io. Follow our blog and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

For more information, contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Ikigai

Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), APERIO accelerates its mission to bring data quality to more Global 500 companies.

BOSTON, Aug. 24, 2023 — APERIO, a category leader in operational data quality, today announced it has closed $9M in Series A1 funding. The round was led by Momenta, the Industrial Impact venture capital + growth firm, and joined by investors including Chevron Technology Ventures, NextEra Energy, National Grid Partners, Delek US, and Bazan Group. The funding will be used to further grow the team, invest in the product, and improve the customer experience.

“In an extremely challenging market, we were able to secure multiple term sheets, partnering with Momenta to lead this funding round,” says Jonas Hellgren, CEO, APERIO. “We intend to expand the core team to meet increasing customer demand, as the need for our software continues to accelerate and expand into new industries.”

Expanding Market

“We are thrilled to invest in APERIO,” said Michael Dolbec, Managing Partner at Momenta. “Their solution directly addresses the data-quality roadblocks faced by manufacturers hoping to unlock the full potential of AI. APERIO’s tools and approach tackle data-quality issues at scale, enabling manufacturers to improve their operational technology data infrastructure and governance. Manufacturers will gain improved operational decision-making and a competitive advantage.”

Accelerating Growth and Vision

APERIO has been on a remarkable growth trajectory since its first round of funding in October 2020. Its solution is now in use by dozens of large industrial customers, including some who have invested in APERIO, to address the reliability of their operational data for optimizing performance and minimizing business risk.

APERIO’s solution is designed to solve a wide range of operational data quality issues and has drawn a range of investors. “Improving the scale and quality of data is critical to the reliability of unattended facilities. APERIO’s technology has the potential to help solve the data quality problem at scale,” said Jim Gable, Vice President, Innovation and President of Technology Ventures at Chevron. “This is the latest investment from our Core Fund VII, which focuses on high-growth startups and breakthrough technologies that have the potential to improve Chevron’s core oil and gas business performance as well as create new opportunities for growth. We welcome APERIO to the portfolio.”

This new funding follows the release of APERIO DataWise 2.0 earlier this year, which added advanced tools like comprehensive root cause analysis and event pattern recognition, and was designed to improve the user experience through intuitive workflows and issue prioritization. More to come as this funding will add additional features, aimed at helping APERIO scale to meet customer demand.

About APERIO

About Momenta 

About Chevron Technology Ventures

SOURCE APERIO

Raise Follows 300% YoY Business Growth Driven by Demand for Proactive Innovative Solutions to Mitigate Surging U.S. Gun-Related Violence Epidemic

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 24, 2023 — ZeroEyes, the creators of the only AI-based gun detection video analytics platform that holds the US Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Designation, today announced it has secured $23 million in capital on the heels of dramatic growth surpassing 300% over the last year. The oversubscribed round was led by Octave Ventures, Alliance Holdings, and other existing investors.

Demand for the company’s AI gun detection and intelligent situational awareness software continues to accelerate as schools consider their safety readiness amid devastating statistics that show more than 200 reported school shootings in 2023 to date. The funds will be used to fuel continued growth with investments in R&D, channel partnership programs and business operations expansion.

The oversubscribed round further demonstrates the pressing need for innovative solutions to curb the gun-related violence epidemic in the United States. ZeroEyes is currently deployed in thousands of buildings for hundreds of customers in 37 states, with great momentum. Growth has been driven by demand from the original K-12 market, commercial sectors including retail, gaming and healthcare. Additionally, new gains have been fueled through growing contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense through ZE Government Solutions (ZEGS), a wholly owned subsidiary of ZeroEyes that delivers advanced dual use AI, proactive threat detection and situational awareness of complex threats for U.S. national security.

“ZeroEyes has demonstrated a remarkable ability to execute on its important mission and we are excited about their future as they continue to achieve wide adoption and staggering growth,” said Michael Kim, Founder of Octave Ventures.

“These funds will allow us to continue scaling to meet surging demand as schools, houses of worship, businesses, communities and even the Federal government seek viable, affordable and most importantly proactive solutions to address the gun-related violence problem in our country,” said Mike Lahiff, CEO and co-founder, ZeroEyes.

ZeroEyes provides AI gun detection and intelligent situational awareness software that is layered onto existing digital security cameras. When an illegally brandished gun is identified, images are instantly shared with the ZeroEyes Operations Center (ZOC), staffed 24/7/365 by specially trained U.S. military and law enforcement veterans. If these experts determine that the threat is valid, they dispatch alerts and actionable intelligence, including visual description, gun type and last known location, to local staff and law enforcement in as fast as 3 to 5 seconds from detection.

About ZeroEyes
ZeroEyes delivers a proactive, human-verified AI gun detection software solution that integrates into existing digital security cameras and helps to mitigate mass shootings and gun-related violence by reducing response times, providing actionable intelligence with images and delivering clarity among chaos – ultimately saving lives. ZeroEyes’ patented solution has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a promising anti-terrorism technology and is the first video analytics technology to receive SAFETY Act DT&E Designation.

Founded by Navy SEALs, Special Operations military veterans, and technologists, ZeroEyes dispatches accurate and real-time actionable intelligence about the illegal brandishing of a gun near or in an occupied area or building, to local staff and law enforcement with an image of the shooter(s) and location of the threat, in as fast as 3 to 5 seconds from the moment the gun is detected. The ZeroEyes team also provides tech consulting, installation assistance and practice drills for active shooter events to enhance safety at schools, corporate and government facilities. Headquartered in the Greater Philadelphia area, the company’s affordable and effective gun detection solution has been adopted by the US Department of Defense, leading public K-12 school districts, colleges / universities, healthcare facilities, commercial property groups, manufacturing plants, Fortune 500 corporate campuses, shopping malls, big-box retail stores and more. Learn more about ZeroEyes at ZeroEyes.com.

SOURCE ZeroEyes

• Series C is led by Koch Disruptive Technologies and includes Bristol Myers Squibb, DFJ Growth, Willett Advisors and existing investors Eclipse, Decheng Capital, and 8VC
• Cellares’ commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater, NJ is a 118,000 sq ft facility with capacity for 40,000 cell therapy batches per year demonstrating a 10x increase in productivity compared with conventional CDMO facilities
• Cellares’ TAP program allows participating partners to automate and tech-transfer manual processes onto the Cell Shuttle manufacturing platform in only six months

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Aug. 23, 2023 — Cellares, the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) dedicated to clinical and industrial-scale cell therapy manufacturing, has secured $255 million in Series C funding led by new investor Koch Disruptive Technologies. In connection with the financing, David Mauney, Managing Director at Koch Disruptive Technologies, will join the company’s board of directors. Global biopharmaceutical company and cell therapy leader Bristol Myers Squibb also participated in the round, alongside DFJ Growth, Willett Advisors and existing investors Eclipse, Decheng Capital, and 8VC.

“Cell therapies have tremendous curative potential across a wide range of diseases. But right now, manufacturing by conventional CDMOs is expensive, failure-prone, and impossible to scale,” said David Mauney, managing director of Koch Disruptive Technologies. “Cellares is driving transformation in the marketplace by combining an Industry 4.0 approach with full vertical integration. As the first IDMO, Cellares is empowering cell therapy companies to build viable businesses, remain competitive, and meet the needs of fast-growing patient populations.”

Cellares will use the new funding to launch the world’s first commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory, which seamlessly integrates advanced robotics, purpose-built technology, and interconnected software. The 118,000 sq. ft. IDMO Smart Factory, located in Bridgewater, New Jersey, will be capable of producing 40,000 cell therapy batches per year^[1]. By leveraging integrated technologies, IDMO Smart Factories can produce 10 times more cell therapy batches per year than traditional CDMO facilities, even with the same footprint and the same workforce. Cellares’ Smart Factories will be deployed around the world to enable the cell therapy industry to meet global patient demand.

“The creation of the first IDMO marks the beginning of a new era, in which cell therapies will finally be able to reach patients in need,” said Cellares CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus. “We’ve developed integrated technologies for the entire drug development and manufacturing life cycle. Now we’re leveraging these technologies to offer global manufacturing services for the living drugs of the 21st century. Our partners are some of the best academics, biotechs, and large pharma companies in the world. We’re enabling them to meet total patient demand, improve consistency and quality, lower manufacturing costs, and accelerate expansion to new markets.”

The company’s flexible manufacturing technology supports both autologous and allogeneic cell therapy processes and about 90% of cell therapy modalities. The Cell Shuttle platform integrates all the technologies required for all unit operations and is successfully running CAR-T cell therapy processes with true walk-away, end-to-end automation. Compact automation leads to a 90% reduction in labor and facility size to produce the same number of batches, thus enabling the 10x increase in productivity of Cellares’ IDMO Smart Factories.

Cellares currently operates two Smart Factories in the US and is planning a third. Cellares’ first Smart Factory, located in South San Francisco, is currently being used for preclinical process development and tech transfer of manual processes onto the Cell Shuttle for existing partners. The South San Francisco Smart Factory will be cGMP-ready in the first half of 2024.

The new Smart Factory in Bridgewater, New Jersey is dedicated to commercial-scale manufacturing. With 118,000 sq. ft. of space, the site has capacity for 50 Cell Shuttles and will be able to produce 40,000 batches per year. The New Jersey site will be cGMP-ready in the second half of 2024. While the company can support clinical trials in Europe out of its US Smart Factories, it will also break ground on the first IDMO Smart Factory in Europe in 2024.

Manual processes can be automated and tech transferred onto Cellares’ automated Cell Shuttle platform in only six months via the company’s Technology Adoption Partnership (TAP) program. Under the TAP program, participating cell therapy developers can tech-transfer their cell therapy processes onto a Cell Shuttle at any stage – during pre-clinical development, in the clinic, or after regulatory approval. Thanks to automation, standardization, and software-defined manufacturing (SDM), every tech transfer thereafter is instantaneous, to any other Cell Shuttle in any other Smart Factory anywhere in the world.

Please visit cellares.com/partnering/ to learn more about the TAP program and request a meeting with a business development representative.

About Cellares

Cellares is the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) and takes an Industry 4.0 approach to mass manufacturing the living drugs of the 21st century. The company is both developing and operating integrated technologies for cell therapy manufacturing to accelerate access to life-saving cell therapies. The company’s Cell Shuttle integrates all the technologies required for the entire manufacturing process in a flexible and high-throughput platform that delivers true walk-away, end-to-end automation. Cell Shuttles will be deployed in Cellares’ Smart Factories around the world to meet total patient demand for cell therapies at global scale. Partnering with Cellares enables academics, biotechs, and pharma companies to accelerate drug development and scale out manufacturing, lower process failure rates, lower manufacturing costs, and meet global patient demand.

The company is headquartered in South San Francisco, California with its commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The company is backed by world-class investors and has raised over $355 million in financing.

For more information about Cellares, please visit cellares.com.

Media Contact
[email protected]

^[1] Based on a 7-day autologous process. With shorter processes or allogeneic approaches, the IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater, NJ can produce even more doses per year.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1503684/Cellares_Logo.jpg 

SOURCE Cellares

Founder Nathan Baschez leverages product development and media background

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23, 2023 — Lex announced today its $2.75 million seed round, led by early stage venture capital firm True Ventures. Lex is building an AI-powered word processor that gives writers instant access to copy editing, writing advice, brainstorming, and more. Lex spun out of founding CEO Nathan Baschez’s previous company, Every Media, a newsletter publisher focused on technology, AI, and productivity.

“Today, when most people think of AI writing tools, they think of mediocre content generated en masse,” said Baschez, “But AI doesn’t just have to be about decreasing the cost of writing. More importantly, it can help increase the quality. We’re building AI to help people think more deeply, communicate more effectively, and achieve their best work.”

“We believe in the potential of AI to enhance the creative process and put the power of deep editing prowess in the hands of many rather than the few,” said Natasha Sharma of True Ventures. “Nathan and Lex are not just enhancing writing workflows but also changing how we think about the act of writing – what was once a solitary task can now be uniquely expansive.”

“The goal is to create the best place to write—which is partially about AI, but it’s also about nailing the basics,” said Baschez. Lex is designed to be easy and fast enough to use for daily notes, but powerful enough for even the most demanding types of document collaboration.

To read about the story and motivation behind Lex from the founder’s perspective, click here. To try Lex today and unlock your best writing, click here.

About Lex

Lex is an AI-powered writing platform that helps people unlock their best writing. Founded in 2023 by Nathan Baschez, Lex is a California-based technology company.

About Nathan

Nathan Baschez is a writer, programmer, and designer based in Los Angeles, CA. He created Lex over nights and weekends in the fall of 2022 as an incubation project within Every, his previous company. Prior, he was the first employee at Substack, and co-created Product Hunt. He was also head of product at Gimlet Media, a podcasting network acquired by Spotify in 2019.

SOURCE Lex AI, Inc

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23, 2023 — Modyfi, an AI-native design platform and image editor, today announced the launch of its full public beta, which grants immediate, free access to the platform for all designers, creatives, art directors, marketing professionals, artists, agency teams and content creators, among others. Modyfi brings next-generation technology to design through a high-performance, web-based AI-powered application that enables greater creativity, teamwork and collaboration.

The last decade has been defined by major advancements across a variety of web applications, and the past year has seen mainstream adoption of generative AI and text-generation tools like ChatGPT. On the contrary, design tools, including widely used desktop-based software, haven’t materially changed in decades or implemented generative AI in a way that improves the day-to-day process of design professionals. Modyfi fills the gap by allowing users to directly tap into the power of generative AI while designing and collaborating on their work.

Since June, Modyfi has been issuing new features weekly, listening to users to understand their needs and adapting the platform for their experience. Such features include proprietary versions of in-painting, generative-fill, SDXL and utilizing Meta’s SAM for layer splitting. These features add to Modyfi’s existing functionality which includes background removal, smart delete and the company’s flagship image guided generation. 

“At Modyfi, we inspire today and tomorrow’s creatives by simplifying the design process, removing mundane tasks, making teamwork easier and making image creation faster than ever. We want creators to be creative 100% of the time, not just 40% of the time,” said Joe Burfitt, Founder and CEO, Modyfi. “Modyfi is making design fun again. We are excited to get Modyfi into the hands of the creative community, combining the conventional tools designers expect with generative AI technology and bringing it directly to designers and their teams to allow for quick exploration and iteration of creative concepts.”

Modyfi is currently used by thousands of designers from hundreds of companies – including Nvidia, Stripe, Calm, Red Antler, Route and Spotify – who aim to simplify collaboration across the design process through generative AI.

In addition to today’s public launch, Modyfi has raised $7 million in seed funding led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA). The new capital will be used to fuel early user adoption and continued product development. Previous investors, including General Catalyst, participated in the round.

“We are proud to be partnering with the Modyfi team as they accelerate innovation across the graphic design industry,” said Luke Pappas, Partner, NEA. “Since launching only a few weeks ago, Modyfi is already seeing really encouraging early adoption, but it is the enthusiasm and can’t-work-without-it usage that early adopters have been exhibiting, that gets us really excited. Historically, this type of designer and design tool affinity is quite rare, and so we cannot wait to see how creators will continue to push the limits of Modyfi in the months to come.”

About Modyfi
Modyfi is a collaborative, AI-native, web-based design and image creation platform. Founded in 2022, Modyfi combines the essential tools of design and image making with next-generation AI-powered creative technology, affording professional graphic designers incredible control while allowing room for playful exploration. Modyfi removes mundane and cumbersome steps from designers’ workflows and enables creative teams to work together, provide feedback and iterate on design in real-time. For more information, please visit www.modyfi.com. 

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] 

SOURCE NEA

Funding comes in a record year for Gympass, as it nearly doubled its customer base to more than 15,000 and surpassed two million employee subscribers across its network of more than 50,000 partners

Gympass delivers the best network of gyms, studios, classes, personal trainers, and wellness apps – all in one employee benefit

New investment will accelerate Gympass growth globally as companies prioritize decreasing healthcare costs and improving employee wellbeing

NEW YORK, Aug. 23, 2023 — Gympass, the leading corporate wellness platform, today announced it has raised $85M in a Series F funding round at a valuation of $2.4 billion. The round was led by EQT Growth, with participation from Neuberger Berman on behalf of its client funds.

Gympass’ funding comes in a record year for the company, even with economic headwinds: it grew its customer base by 80% to more than 15,000 corporate customers and surpassed two million employee subscribers across its network of more than 50,000 partners. Regardless of the economic environment, organizations are recognizing that employee wellbeing doesn’t just positively impact retention, happiness and productivity–it also decreases healthcare costs. A Gympass study on the ROI of wellness programs discovered that physically active employees can reduce company healthcare costs by thirty-five percent after a twelve month period.

“Gympass is revolutionizing corporate wellness at a time where every company is making investments to drive efficient growth and reduce spending,” said Cesar Carvalho, CEO and Co-Founder of Gympass. “Organizations are shifting from reactive and traditional healthcare benefits that increase costs, to more holistic and preventative wellness benefits that reduce costs and improve employee wellbeing and productivity. Our accelerated growth and new round of funding reflects validation of our model, that Gympass is uniquely positioned in any economic environment as companies seek innovative partners to reduce healthcare costs and improve employee wellbeing.”

“For years we have watched the Gympass team exceed expectations again and again. Their powerful recurring model, which now reaches 11 markets globally, sees clear and strong network effects the more it scales,” said Carolina Brochado, Deputy Head of the EQT Growth Advisory team. “It enables Gympass to deliver a diverse and growing network of partners, thereby reaching employees who might not have previously had access to wellness activities and as a result further expanding the market. We are really excited to be helping this stellar management team continue to build a healthier, happier, and more productive corporate world.”

Since 2012, Gympass has led innovation in the corporate wellness category, offering the best global network of gyms, studios, classes, personal trainers, and wellness apps – all in one employee benefit. Companies can improve employee wellbeing and reduce healthcare costs by offering a benefit that is proven to drive higher employee participation. On average, Gympass more than doubles the number of employees engaged with wellness.

The funding news comes on the heels of several significant milestones for Gympass, including:

• Surpassing 15,000 corporate customers in July (up 80% YoY), including Aflac, Citizens Financial Group, Dignity Health, and Zendesk.
• Achieving industry leading levels of engagement, surpassing two million employee subscribers in July and 300 million total member check-ins to its network of more than 50,000 partners.
• Announcing new partnerships with leading wellness organizations, including 24 Hour Fitness, Barry’s Bootcamp, CorePower Yoga, Headspace, Lifetime, MyFitnessPal, Orangetheory Fitness, Sleep Cycle and Thrive Global.
• Expanding into new, non-physical wellness categories including mental health, nutrition and financial wellness.
• Releasing its first Return on Wellbeing Study, a survey of more than 2,000 human resource leaders that found 78% of wellness programs save companies money on healthcare expenses.

Gympass’ mission to make wellbeing universal has never been more critical. More than four out of five employees globally believe wellbeing is equally important to salary and 53%, of U.S. workers and 44% globally say they’re stressed on a daily basis. Today’s employees understand the value of wellbeing and are increasingly demanding it, which is putting pressure on employers to adapt.

Gympass will use this new funding to continue to fuel its global expansion and product innovation, investing in its platform to enhance the user experience for both employers and employees. With an accessible, affordable, and flexible platform, employees are empowered to embark on their individual wellness journey with confidence, motivation, and a sense of community.

In addition to the Series F funding led by EQT Growth, General Atlantic and Moore Strategic Ventures are also doubling down on their investments in Gympass by purchasing existing shares from earlier investors and current and former employees.

About Gympass
Gympass is the most loved corporate wellness platform, offering the best network of gyms, studios, classes, personal trainers, and wellness apps – all in one employee benefit. More than 15,000 companies use Gympass to help their employees move, eat, sleep, and feel better with access to fitness and wellness partners in subscriptions that cost up to 50% less than traditional memberships. Gympass more than doubles the number of employees engaged with wellness. This widespread participation results in workforces that are 40% less likely to turnover and save their companies up to 35% on healthcare costs. Investing in employee wellbeing is investing in company performance. Get started at gympass.com.

Media Contacts:
[email protected]

SOURCE Gympass

Tesla and GM veteran leads manufacturing software startup helping to bolster U.S. green infrastructure, empower mid-sized factories, and replace outdated manual methods

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 22, 2023 — Pico MES, a software company that is enabling digital transformation for small to medium-sized American factories, today announced a $12.35M Series A investment led by Bosch Ventures and joined by new investors from Counterpart Ventures and Momenta. Existing investors Lemnos, Congruent Ventures, Union Labs, and SE Ventures participated in the round as well. Since its founding in 2019, Pico MES has integrated 10,000 processes into digital data streams from over 700 workstations and connected over 1,900 devices to its platform.

New factory construction spending has more than doubled over the past year in the U.S., due to both a surge of funding and tax incentives from recently enacted laws like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and CHIPS Act and the need to accelerate our clean energy transition. However, most manufacturers are having trouble meeting increased production demand because they lack transparency in their systems, with a majority of factories still tracking operations via clipboards and spreadsheets. Additionally, 98 percent of U.S. manufacturers are small to medium, with 500 or fewer employees.

“Over 85 percent of our factory floor runs through Pico MES, which has allowed us to scale at the rapid rate needed to meet the growing demand for fast electric vehicle chargers across the country and around the globe,” said Glen Casey, COO of Tritium, a global leader in direct current (DC) fast chargers for electric vehicles. “With Pico MES digitizing our assembly lines, we can track our processes, validate quality control, and quickly implement stations to get DC fast chargers to market before competitors. This is critical for our business as we continue to boost production and maintain our position as a leading manufacturer of universal DC fast chargers in the U.S.”

Founded in Brisbane, Australia more than 20 years ago, Tritium holds the leading market share for universal DC fast chargers in the United States and opened its largest manufacturing facility to date in Tennessee last year. At peak capacity, the company’s Tennessee facility will be capable of producing up to 30,000 units annually.

Pico MES is designed for the average factory worker — connecting the tools and machines with the people who use them, measuring shop-floor processes, and digitizing assembly lines. Additionally, its affordable, no-code platform is exponentially faster than today’s analog methods and has an open API for connection to other critical systems on the shop floor. Pico MES is also fast to deploy, enabling remote installations in just hours.

“Digital manufacturing solutions provide massive efficiency gains for enterprises but have often ignored mid-size factories due to smaller sizes and budgets,” Ryan Kuhlenbeck, co-founder & CEO of Pico MES. “American manufacturing cannot succeed without the supply base of mid-size factories. Pico MES connects these factories with their OEM customers, enabling visibility up and down the supply chain and creating a new level of efficiency gains for all.” 

Digitizing labor-intensive product processes also helps U.S. factories compete with those overseas. The current status quo to track manufacturing processes uses pen and paper – creating errors, inefficiencies, and data silos. With Pico MES, manufacturers can look into any workstream, implement proven solutions to address challenges and maximize production. Factories that are optimized for success also increase career opportunities and boost local economies.

“In order for factories to remain competitive they need to digitize their labor‐intensive production setups,” said Ingo Ramesohl, Managing Director of Bosch Ventures. “Bosch has a large network of suppliers and like many enterprises drives towards increased transparency in the deeper supply chains. Pico MES emerges as the catalytic force and has the potential to set new standards for transparency, collaboration, and operational excellence for all stakeholders within this ecosystem.”

After spending nearly two decades at General Motors, Tesla, and Alta Motors, Kuhlenbeck and his co-founders Geoff Bucks and Zac Nelson started Pico MES because they experienced first-hand the frustrations between supplier and manufacturer. The founding team recognized most inefficiencies were due to poor access to data and created Pico MES as a mid-market manufacturing execution system.

Since its launch in 2019, Pico MES has been deployed in dozens of factories that operate as Tier 1, 2, or Tier 3 suppliers to larger OEMs in the EV, aerospace, and battery industries. This new round of funding will help expand Pico MES’ solution to more factories and advance its vision of creating connected supply chains for American manufacturing.

About Pico MES
Pico MES is digitizing the supply chain, starting with small to medium-sized manufacturers. Over two dozen American factories have migrated from legacy systems to Pico MES to gain visibility into their factory operations for continuous improvements. Pico MES serves American factories in battery manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, and more while also supporting jobs and local economies. The software is designed by end users, for future end users. Pico MES is a 100% remote-based company. Visit www.picomes.com to learn more. 

SOURCE Pico MES