Dr. J. Mark Jackson joins Company as Vice President, Clinical Development

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 28, 2023 — Evommune, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company discovering and developing new ways to treat inflammatory diseases, today announced the closing of an additional $7.5 million to its Series B financing from new investor Verition Fund Management, bringing the total raised in the Series B round to $57.5 million. The company previously announced the closing of the initial $50 million in April 2023. In addition, the company also announced the appointment of J. Mark Jackson, MD, as Vice President, Clinical Development. 

“As we continue to execute on our strategic plan and the development of our pipeline, we are excited to have Verition join our outstanding investor syndicate. We are also very pleased Dr. Jackson is joining our organization in a key clinical leadership position. His role will be to help direct our clinical programs, and to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with external stakeholders, including key opinion leaders, medical experts, regulatory agencies, and clinical trial investigators,” said Luis Peña, President and Chief Executive Officer of Evommune.

Dr. Jackson joins Evommune from his position as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Louisville. Besides his academic appointment, he also previously served as an advisor to multiple pharmaceutical companies including Abbvie, Amgen, Arcutis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Dermavant, Galderma, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, UCB, and held a leadership role in a clinical practice with Forefront Dermatology. He has been involved in clinical research for over 25 years, with a focus on early drug development. Dr. Jackson has authored over 50 articles in peer reviewed publications as well as chapters in numerous well-known dermatology textbooks. He has lectured nationally and internationally on topics involving lupus, neutrophilic disorders, psoriasis, eczema, acne, systemic therapies for dermatologic diseases, drug reactions, and advanced dermatologic disorders. He serves as an editor for JAMA Dermatology, and the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and served as President of the American Acne and Rosacea Society from 2019 to 2021. Dr. Jackson received his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and his medical degree from Texas A&M College of Medicine.

About Evommune, Inc. 
Evommune, Inc. is a private R&D company creating game-changing science to treat inflammatory diseases. The company is evolving immunology through its unique human tissue-based approach to discovering, developing, and delivering therapies that address symptoms and halt progressive disease. Evommune was founded in 2020 by an industry-leading team of R&D experts and biotech company builders, and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. For more information, please visit Evommune.com. 

Media Contact: 
Sheryl Seapy
949-903-4750
[email protected]

SOURCE Evommune, Inc.

The company introduces a first-of-its kind solution to restore trust in customers’ existing cyberdefense techstack

LAWRENCE, Kan., June 28, 2023 — Invary, a cybersecurity pioneer focused on detecting hidden malware and preventing costly ransomware attacks, has raised pre-seed funding to launch its innovative solution. The investment was led by Flyover Capital, with additional participation from NetWork Kansas GROWKS Equity program, and the KU Innovation Park.

The pre-seed funding round will fuel the launch of Invary’s flagship Runtime Integrity offering, designed to uncover and neutralize hidden threats that elude modern threat detection systems. This unique service debuts this summer, and will empower organizations to fortify their security postures and proactively safeguard their digital environment against high impact attacks.

Additionally, Invary’s free Runtime Integrity Score (RISe) service is available now, allowing customers to spot-check their system’s integrity and identify hidden malware.

The Invary leadership team brings decades of operational expertise in Trusted Computing research and reunites entrepreneurs with a successful history of collaboration. The company is spearheaded by CEO Jason Rogers, who has extensive experience building secure cloud-scale platforms, and scaling engineering & operations at category leader Matterport through IPO. The team’s security credentials are further bolstered by founder Dr. Perry Alexander, a distinguished authority in Trusted Computing research and his protege and former student, Dr. Wesley Peck, the CTO of Invary, who obtained his PhD under Dr. Alexander’s guidance.

The highly dynamic nature of today’s threat landscape poses a significant challenge to the security posture of all organizations, including those with advanced defenses like XDR, SIEM and CNAPP solutions. The primary flaw within these defense layers stems from their assumption that the operating system remains uncompromised. This leaves a critical gap in the overall security infrastructure that threat actors can discreetly exploit to prepare a ransomware attack or data breach. This oversight is incredibly problematic because a staggering 72% of cyberattacks occur in production according to Datadog’s latest State of Application Security report.

Invary plugs this security gap at runtime by mandating continuous validation of the operating system – making it an indispensable component of a “trust nothing” Zero Trust architecture. Built on an exclusive intellectual property grant from the NSA, Invary’s technology provides proven and superior protection for the digital environment, pinpointing compromise with high confidence, eliminating superfluous, noisy monitoring data.

Jon Broek, CEO of Tenfold Security, a leader in cloud security services, said, “Invary Runtime Integrity gives us an unfair advantage over the competition when deployed with our security solutions for cloud and virtual machines. It also provides a key component of keeping our customers secured end to end and preventing things like ransomware that are highly targeting our core customers in higher education.”  

“We are thrilled to have secured this pre-seed funding, as it validates the need for  Invary’s novel technology to shore up existing cyber defenses against high impact hidden threats,” said Jason Rogers, CEO of Invary. “With the support of our investors, customers and partners, we are well-positioned to advance our mission of fortifying the security ecosystem by reinforcing Zero Trust principles.”

The IT team at LMH Health said, “One of the key challenges in combating destructive ransomware is the hidden malware within operating systems that often serves as the foundation for such attacks. Invary Runtime Integrity gives visibility into a part of the system overlooked by most other security tools. We are able to gain confidence that the operating system has not been compromised, but if there are cases where anomalies are detected, a wealth of information is provided to help determine if they are benign, intentional or potentially malicious.” 

“Ensuring the safety of our customers and cyber community is our #1 priority. Our pre-seed funding enables us to realize this dedication by continuously improving Invary’s Runtime Integrity Service while also making our agent open source. We’re proud to enhance operating system security for all by accelerating the industry’s progress toward truly comprehensive Zero Trust Architectures,” said Dr. Wesley Peck, CTO of Invary. 

The successful completion of the pre-seed funding round underscores Invary’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of Runtime Security. With this significant investment, Invary is poised to accelerate its growth, enhance its technology and expand its reach in preventing data breaches and ransomware attacks.

For more information about Invary and its Runtime Integrity solutions, please visit www.invary.com.

About Invary
Invary is the leader in operating system runtime validation and security. The company’s technology detects hidden, high impact threats to the operating system that are missed by other foundational defense systems including XDR, SIEM and CNAPP platforms. By securing the integrity of the operating system as a first class citizen in the “trust nothing” entity list of Zero Trust architectures, Invary becomes an indispensable part of modern cyberdefense. Based on an exclusive IP grant from the NSA and proven technology that has been deployed in real-world, critical infrastructure, Invary’s proprietary technology ensures malware, ransomware and other hidden, high impact threats commonly found in operating systems are exposed — before they can cause downtime and expand the blast radius of attack.

Media Contact
Kelsey O’Shaughnessy
BLASTmedia for Invary
317-806-1900
[email protected]com

SOURCE Invary

Company is rapidly scaling its proprietary distributed wastewater treatment systems

SUWANEE, Ga., June 28, 2023 — OnSyte Performance, LLC (“OnSyte” or the “Company”) announced today it has received a growth investment from funds managed by Ember Infrastructure (“Ember”) to scale its proprietary, end-to-end distributed wastewater treatment solutions.

Based in Suwanee, Georgia, the Company offers state-of-the-art treatment technology in a continuously monitored, wirelessly controlled system that is operated and maintained by licensed wastewater professionals. These distributed wastewater treatment units (“DWTUs”) can be deployed individually or as networks and are well suited for wastewater utility, municipality, commercial, industrial, and residential applications.

Each DWTU has advanced nutrient pollution removal capabilities, utilizing a suspended-growth, activated-sludge process in a miniaturized sequencing batch reactor tied to a proprietary programmable logic controller, operating in a secure networked environment. Licensed wastewater operators monitor these networks and are able to optimize system performance and perform remote supervisory control if a unit is operating out of specification. Additionally, the Company’s cloud-based performance dashboard product provides customers with real-time access across their network of DWTUs, delivering important information such as wastewater flows, system capacity, and nitrogen removal.

“We are excited to be able to invest in our business to meet demand as customers begin to see the enormous benefits of OnSyte’s solutions” said OnSyte COO Jim Easterling. “Ember has been a proactive, flexible partner who understands the potential of our product.”

OnSyte offers flexible solutions including hardware and software, installation services, and ongoing monitoring and maintenance based on customer needs. The Company also provides a fully-financed, turnkey Infrastructure-as-a-Service (“IaaS”) offering. IaaS allows the replacement of aging septic tanks or the development of new construction with modern distributed wastewater treatment technology at no upfront cost to real estate developers, builders, municipalities, or homeowners, with customers instead paying a predictable monthly fee for service.

“In OnSyte, we see a proven treatment solution coupled with a highly compelling commercial proposition for municipalities, utilities, developers, and individual homeowners who do not have access to traditional sewers,” said Ember Principal Caleb Powers, who will join the Company’s Board of Directors. “Advances in technology are enabling new business models, and we look forward to working with the OnSyte team to continue scaling the Company’s solutions.”

OnSyte also has a robust and growing service business with nearly 50 employees in Georgia and Florida, supplementing the turnkey DWTU service offering as well as performing traditional septic maintenance.

One in four households in the U.S. is not connected to municipal sewer and wastewater treatment, instead relying on septic systems or cesspools, leaving property owners responsible for the up-front and long-term costs of installing, maintaining, and eventually replacing these on-site systems. Furthermore, these conventional systems were not designed for environmental protection and are a major source of nutrient pollution resulting in algal blooms, deoxygenation, ecosystem imbalance, and groundwater and marine contamination. Regulators are increasingly placing new restrictions on development and mandating legacy system replacements, even in areas where conventional sewer is not available. OnSyte solutions deliver superior wastewater treatment performance and remote monitoring & control, ensuring more equitable, cost-effective sewer access with better environmental outcomes.

About OnSyte Performance

OnSyte Performance develops, markets, and operates proprietary distributed wastewater treatment solutions and services that reduce groundwater pollution and provide utility-like simplicity beyond the reach of traditional sewer systems. Through its proprietary combination of next-generation modular wastewater treatment systems, industrial internet-of-things (“IIoT”) architecture, and industrial automation technologies, OnSyte is transforming the traditional wastewater treatment industry by eliminating the need to pipe wastewater from the customer to the treatment plant. For more information, please visit www.onsyte.com.

About Ember Infrastructure

Ember is a private equity firm investing in businesses delivering infrastructure solutions that reduce carbon intensity, enhance resource efficiency, and increase resilience to climate impacts. Headquartered in New York City, Ember invests across the energy transition, water, waste and industrial sectors. For more information, please visit www.ember-infra.com.

Media Contacts

OnSyte Performance
[email protected]

Ember Infrastructure
[email protected]

SOURCE OnSyte Performance, LLC

TORONTO , June 28, 2023 —

PitchBook and Collision Partner on Seventh Investor Survey Amid Market Volatility

• Artificial intelligence dominates investor interest at Collision, with nearly three-quarters of respondents indicating they’ve made investments in the space recently. Last year, fintech and blockchain were selected as the technologies with the most disruption potential.
• Investors are now reporting some pull back in investment in response to swiftly rising interest rates and economic uncertainty.
• Over half of investors believe it will become more difficult to raise capital from LPs in the next twelve months

PitchBook, the premier data provider for the private and public equity markets, today released findings from a new survey conducted in partnership with Collision, a Web Summit event and North America’s fastest growing technology conference, which takes place June 26-29, 2023 at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Ontario. PitchBook is sponsoring the Investor Lounge at Collision, where investors in attendance can work, take meetings and network.

This is the seventh survey PitchBook and Collision have partnered on at Web Summit conferences and provides an insight into investment strategies, representation of women in VC, and sentiment toward emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, climate tech and fintech have changed amid market uncertainty. Nearly 100 global venture capital (VC) investors attending the conference completed the survey.

“We’ve seen venture activity decline in response to ongoing headwinds in the market,” said Kyle Stanford, lead VC analyst at PitchBook. “VC fundraising could be on track to drop to levels not seen since 2017, in line with investor sentiment seen in the survey results, and dealmaking activity recently fell below the long-term growth trendline. Despite this, there is still significant dry powder available to deploy and it is encouraging to see investors report much of their existing funds are for new investments.”

Similar to other regions globally, Canada’s VC ecosystem has seen a pullback in activity following the exuberance of recent years. Canadian startups raised $3.5 billion in the first two quarters of the year. While this is a drop from 2022 and 2021 when investors poured $6.3 billion and $7.8 billion into Canadian startups, activity in 2023 is on pace to exceed the more normal numbers seen in 2019.

“For the most part, these findings correspond with what we’re seeing at Collision. There has been a huge pick up in AI startups attending Collision, with an increase of 27% each year, and overall growth of 105% since 2020. However, we have found that the percentage of startups who have received funding within the 12 months since Collision 2022 is healthy (11% of startups raised over US $565 million), despite the negative trend in fundraising activity,” said Ricardo Lima, Head of Startups and Investors at Web Summit.

See findings and comparisons with past surveys below:

Investment strategy

• When asked about the most exciting regions for investment, 68.6% of investors chose North America (up from 58% in 2022) followed by Asia (11.7%), Europe (11.6%), Africa (4.7%) and Latin America (3.5%). Looking closer at investor interest in Asia, India and Southeast Asia rose to the top with 7% and 3.5% of total responses, respectively.
• For the third survey in a row, the management team remains the most important criteria for evaluating investment opportunities, jumping from 26% of responses in 2022 to 48% in 2023. Potential returns (33%) far outweighed risk (9%) as a factor. The biggest economic threat to potential returns, according to investors, is economic growth.
• The VC ecosystem has been battered by economic headwinds and rising interest rates in recent months. Despite this, 68% of VCs say their pace of investment over the last 18 months remains at near-normal levels. However, 3.4% of respondents said they have halted all investment for the time being – a notable spike compared to November 2022 when no respondents said they had halted investments.
• Looking at the mix of new and follow-on investments in existing funds, 89% of respondents said at least half of their fund was for new investments. Seven months ago, that number was 82%.

Fundraising environment 

• When asked about fundraising activity, 59% of investors said they were not currently in the market raising a new fund and over half (54%) believe it will become more difficult to raise capital from LPs in the next twelve months.

Women in VC

• Two-thirds of VCs surveyed have invested at least 25% of their capital into women-led startups in the last 18 months. The number of investors reporting no investments in female founders, however, rose slightly from 32% in November 2022 to 33.3% at present.
• Survey respondents also reported fewer women in senior management positions at their firms, dropping to 69% from 75% just seven months ago.

Emerging technologies

• Investor interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning has skyrocketed in the past year, with 64% of respondents indicating AI/ML has the potential to be the most disruptive technology in the next five to 10 years. Compare that to just seven months prior at Web Summit 2022, where AI/ML secured the top spot with just 29% of investor responses.
• Backing their bullish sentiment, 74% of investors said they have made at least one investment in AI/ML in the past eighteen months and nearly 14% said they have made more than six investments in the space.
• Fintech and blockchain, the top response at Collision 2022 (30%), fell to fourth place with just 6.8% of investors selecting this previously hyped category, continuing the decline we saw with the November 2022 Web Summit survey (23%) results.
• Climate tech (11.5%) and digital healthtech (6.9%) rose to second and third place, respectively.

For more information about PitchBook, click here.

About PitchBook
PitchBook is a financial data and software company that provides transparency into the capital markets to help professionals discover and execute opportunities with confidence and efficiency. PitchBook collects and analyzes detailed data on the entire venture capital, private equity and M&A landscape—including public and private companies, investors, funds, investments, exits and people. The company’s data and analysis are available through the PitchBook Platform, industry news and in-depth reports. Founded in 2007, PitchBook has offices in Seattle, New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore and serves more than 90,000 professionals around the world. In 2016, Morningstar acquired PitchBook, which now operates as an independent subsidiary.

About Collision
Collision is considered the single most important tech deal-making event in the world, gathering the next generation leaders reshaping the world. Web Summit events have gathered half a million people across Web Summit in Lisbon, Web Summit Rio in Brazil and RISE in Asia since the company’s beginnings as a 150-person conference in Dublin in 2009. Our mission has been to create software that improves conferences and enables meaningful connections between the CEOs, founders, investors, politicians, cultural figureheads and members of the media who are reshaping the world. Collision recently announced that it would return to Toronto in 2024 for a sixth year.

About Web Summit
In the words of Inc. Magazine, “Web Summit is the largest technology conference in the world”. Forbes says Web Summit is “the best tech conference on the planet”, Bloomberg calls it “Davos for geeks”, Politico “the Olympics of tech”, and the Guardian “Glastonbury for geeks”.

SOURCE PitchBook

SINGAPORE, June 27, 2023 — SUNRATE, an intelligent global payment and treasury management platform announced today that Prosperity7 Ventures, the diversified growth fund under Aramco Ventures, has made an investment in the company in its latest D-1 funding round.

Prosperity7 Ventures led the D-1 funding round, which also included a subsequent investment by Softbank Ventures Asia.

According to FXC Intelligence, the global B2B cross-border payments market is expected to total $56.1tn in volume by 2030. SUNRATE is poised to capitalise on this massive market potential. SUNRATE intends to use the funds to spearhead further expansion plans, as well as make strategic investment to further deepen SUNRATE’s cutting- edge products and services, such as international payments and global collection services, to reinforce its position as a leading cross-border B2B payment platform in emerging markets.

Recently, SUNRATE also announced that it has successfully obtained the Capital Markets Services (“CMS”) licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”). SUNRATE is one of the few companies in Singapore which also holds a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence from MAS for Account Issuance Service, Domestic Money Transfer Service, Cross-border Money Transfer Service, Merchant Acquisition Service, and E-money Issuance Service, on top of the CMS licence.

Mr Paul Meng, co-founder at SUNRATE said, “in this tough macro-economic environment, having new and existing prestigious investors invest in SUNRATE is a testament to our sustained strong growth and proven capability. The investments from Prosperity7 Ventures puts us in a great position for accelerated growth and to sustain with the ever-increasing demand of our industry-leading global B2B cross-border payment solution in emerging markets with a plan to scale into other emerging markets such as the Middle East.”

“The application of cutting edge technology to address finance and payment challenges can unlock massive potential and have significant positive impact in transforming economy and society,” said Aysar Tayeb, the Executive Managing Director of Prosperity7 Ventures. “Over the past few years, SUNRATE has been successfully building an extensive B2B payment network that addresses an important bottleneck in facilitating quick and painless cross-border payments. We are very pleased to lead this round of investment, as we partner with SUNRATE and support the continued growth and expansion of their unique payment system across new geographies.”

About SUNRATE

SUNRATE is an intelligent global payment and treasury management platform for businesses worldwide. Since its inception in 2016, SUNRATE is recognised as a leading solution provider and has enabled companies to operate and scale both locally and globally in 150+ countries and regions with its cutting-edge proprietary platform, extensive global network, and robust APIs. With its global headquarters in Singapore and offices in Hong Kong, Jakarta, London and Shanghai, SUNRATE partners with the top global financial institutions, such as Citibank, Standard Chartered, Barclays and is the principal member of both Mastercard and Visa.

To learn more about SUNRATE, visit https://www.sunrate.com/

About Prosperity7 Ventures

Prosperity7 Ventures (P7) is the diversified growth fund of Aramco Ventures, a subsidiary of Aramco, the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals company. The fund’s name derives from ‘Prosperity Well’, the 7th oil well drilled in Saudi Arabia and the first to strike oil. Taking forward this pioneering history, we invest globally, with a long term-view, in breakthrough technologies and transformational business models that will bring prosperity and positive impact on a vast scale.

https://www.prosperity7vc.com/

Important note: This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of securities of SUNRATE in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale of these securities would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

SOURCE Sunrate

Blueprint has helped over 4,500 clinicians provide data-driven care to more than 180,000 patients, with patients experiencing a 44 percent faster response to treatment     

CHICAGO, June 27, 2023 — Blueprint, the technology platform helping mental health clinicians deliver higher-quality care in less time, today announced its $9 million Series A co-led by Ensemble VC and Lightbank, with participation from Bonfire Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, TAU Ventures, Data Tech Fund, and select angel investors. Blueprint provides easy-to-use software for mental health clinicians to help them deliver effective, efficient, and personalized patient care through actionable data and insights. With the help of Blueprint’s platform, over 180,000 patients have access to higher-quality mental health care.

“Blueprint’s mission is to empower clinicians to provide high-quality care in less time, so that we can save lives and improve care for patients suffering from mental health conditions,” said Danny Freed, founder and CEO at Blueprint. “Our actionable and easy-to-use software is helping our customers transition to providing measurement-based care, creating a new standard for measuring outcomes where there have been none, and saving valuable time and resources to reduce burnout and help more patients.”

Despite the fact that the U.S. has the highest number of mental health clinicians per capita compared to any other country, the mental health crisis has reached epidemic levels. A record-high 29 percent of adults report being diagnosed with depression in their lifetime. The U.S. spent $280 billion on mental health in 2020, yet only 13 percent of patients with access to care achieved lasting improvement. The industry has traditionally lacked technology solutions to help clinicians track data and measure and improve effectiveness of treatment over time.

In contrast to this status quo that is still largely based on subjective assessment and trial-and-error treatment, Blueprint provides data-driven insights to help clinicians inform their work and improve patient outcomes. Patients have the ability to share honest feedback and perspectives about their therapeutic sessions, and these findings give their clinician a “blueprint” to help inform their future treatment. Patients using Blueprint respond to treatment up to 44 percent faster compared to conventional mental health services.

“The secret sauce to company success lies in the founders and teams who turn ideas into game-changing products,” said Conrad Shang, Managing Partner at Ensemble VC.  “We were impressed by Danny and his team’s ability to fundamentally transform the way clinicians measure, track, and deliver better patient outcomes. We’ve seen Blueprint’s profound impact on clinicians and patients, and believe the company will continue shaping the future of mental health care.”

For clinicians, Blueprint:

• Offers suggested session plans to surface the most important changes and events since the last session.
• Provides in-session guidance to deliver the right evidence-based interventions at the right time.
• Auto-generates clinical documentation for each session based on discrete data captured before, during, and after sessions, saving clinicians up to two hours per week on administrative work.
• Drives a 25 percent reduction in no-shows and cancellations, helping increase effectiveness of treatment and keeping patients stay on track toward their goals.

For patients, Blueprint:

• Makes treatment more efficient and effective, helping save patients time and money while ensuring better health outcomes.
• Provides progress tracking across symptoms, sleep, exercise, and treatment goals to stay connected and confident through the inevitable ups and downs of a mental health journey.
• Offers therapeutic homework and quick assignments to put learnings from a session into practice throughout the week and keep patients on track between sessions.
• Gives patients safety nets with easier access to crisis resources in times of need.

“Blueprint has become an essential tool for our practice, saving us hours a week on documentation and paperwork and empowering us to spend more quality time with our patients,” explained Amy Green, LCSW, PMH-C, IMH-E, ERYT, founder and executive director at Nashville Collaborative Counseling Center. “My team and I are focused on providing our patients with the best care possible. Blueprint helps us track results and suggest areas of improvement during treatment plans to help patients feel better faster.”

Since Blueprint announced its seed round in 2020, the company has experienced rapid growth and impact in improving access to high-quality mental health care. Approximately 4,500 clinicians across 34 states are utilizing its platform. Blueprint has generated insights from more than one million completed sessions, creating one of the world’s largest multimodal mental healthcare datasets equating to 10 million days of information.

The new funding will go toward supporting key hires across marketing, customer success, and engineering, launching new products and features, and driving clinicians nationwide towards measurement-based care. To learn more, visit: https://www.blueprint-health.com/.

About Blueprint
Blueprint is a technology platform that helps mental health clinicians provide the highest-quality care and improve outcomes for patients. Blueprint’s solution is used to monitor patients between sessions and generate a data-driven “blueprint” for clinicians at the point of care to help inform treatment decisions. Thousands of clinicians across the country use Blueprint to generate better outcomes more quickly for hundreds of thousands of patients. Based in Chicago, Illinois, the company has raised $14 million in total funding to date. To learn more, visit: https://www.blueprint-health.com/.

SOURCE Blueprint

Round is co-led by Roger Ehrenberg via IA Sports Ventures and Eberg Capital, and Fuel
Venture Capital

MIAMI, June 27, 2023 — Betr Holdings Inc. (“Betr” or the “Company”), today announced its $35M Series A2 round of financing valuing the company at $300M pre-money. The Company held a set of initial closings for its Series A2 round of financing in Q2 and is scheduled to conduct a final closing in Q3. The round is co-led by Roger Ehrenberg via IA Sports Ventures and Eberg Capital, and Fuel Venture Capital, with Fuel expanding their investment size in Betr from $10M invested to date to $20M total. Both co-founders – Joey Levy via a personal investment and Jake Paul via Anti Fund – participated in the round, and other major existing investors including FinSight Ventures, Florida Funders, and Aliya Capital Partners have invested significantly beyond their pro rata.

Betr’s gaming division, Betr Gaming, is an online sports betting (“OSB”) business focused on a unique product experience with a simplified UI/UX that is catered to the casual sports fan, enabling Betr to capture more of the underpenetrated online gaming addressable market. Betr Gaming began with a microbetting-only product, allowing users to bet on individual plays and events – such as pass or rush on the next play in football or the outcome of the next pitch in baseball, and is expanding its product offering to include additional markets with full sportsbook capabilities. Betr Gaming is licensed and operational in Ohio and Massachusetts, is licensed in Virginia with plans to launch soon, and holds market access in Indiana and other jurisdictions that will be announced soon. In addition to OSB, Betr Gaming will be unveiling two additional real money gaming verticals, which will be announced over the coming weeks and months, signifying the Company’s commitment to diversification and innovation within the gaming industry. Betr Gaming has also established itself as the leader in responsible gaming across the real money gaming industry by being the first and only operator to proactively ban credit cards as a method of depositing for all users, while imposing monthly deposit limits for young consumers aged 21-25 years old.

Betr recently acquired the Chameleon platform from FansUnite (TSX: FANS), which will enable Betr Gaming to launch V1 of its OSB product, Betr Betting, with full sportsbook capabilities which will include pre-match and in-play core markets, parlays, same game parlays, futures, props, and other bet types, along with 20+ additional sports. In addition to bolstering Betr Betting, the Chameleon platform will also support the two additional real money gaming verticals the Company plans to announce.

Betr’s media division, Betr Media, is the fastest growing sports betting media brand in the United States, already surpassing 1.3B impressions on social media in its first 10 months. Betr Media is focused predominantly on original and short-form content, which the Company believes will be the primary form of sports media consumption for the 21-34-year-old male demographic outside of consuming live sporting events themselves. Betr Media’s unique approach of creating culture as opposed to reposting culture is also informing unprecedented media-audience-to-product conversion, with over 20% of Betr Media’s estimated Ohio audience already converting to real money gaming customers for Betr Gaming. In just its first year, Betr Media was awarded Best Sports Betting Content in the sports media industry at the 2023 Hashtag Sports Awards and was also nominated for two other awards, including Best Original Content for the Company’s flagship franchise BS w/ Jake Paul and Best Use of Gamification for the Company’s Betr Ticket contest.

Betr Media is driving low-to-no-CAC for Betr Gaming, positioning the Company to have the best unit economics in the OSB and iGaming markets, which is projected to reach over $40B in the United States and $150B globally by 2030. The Company has laid the foundations for a powerful flywheel – where it can capitalize its business and monetize users directly via Betr Gaming products, invest this capital in content creators via Betr Media to further drive brand awareness and brand affinity, and then funnel this incremental audience growth and engagement to Betr Gaming products.

“I am thrilled to announce our Series A2 round of financing, which we opportunistically raised after successfully laying the foundations for Betr Gaming and Betr Media while validating some of our core theses,” said Joey Levy, Founder and CEO of Betr. “Our ability to rapidly scale Betr Media’s audience, and then convert this audience to Betr Gaming at low-to-no-CAC, will enable us to have the best unit economics in the regulated real money gaming industry, positioning Betr to create more value than incumbent operators over time. The three pillars of our business are 1) low-to-no-CAC supported by unique social media expertise, 2) strong user engagement and retention supported by brand affinity and a differentiated product, and 3) a focus on responsible gaming supported by a team that believes in doing the right thing. We have seen material validation of pillar one, we have demonstrated leadership and still have more planned with respect to pillar three, and we will be better positioned to validate pillar two after launching our two other real money gaming verticals and V1 of Betr Betting on top of the recently acquired Chameleon platform.

“Finally, I am thrilled this round has served as a platform to deepen the Company’s relationship with Roger Ehrenberg, one of the most successful venture investors of the past two decades who is investing over 10x his pro rata in this round, and Fuel Venture Capital, one of the preeminent Miami-based venture capital firms, who is doubling their investment in the company from $10M invested to date to $20M total after this round. I am grateful for the continued support of Roger, Fuel Venture Capital, and many of our other great investors.”

“Betr is poised to change the dynamics of the OSB landscape by moving “entertainment” front and center through compelling content, a superior user experience and deeper engagement across both major and alternative sports,” said Roger Ehrenberg. “Sports have a special ability to bring people together, and no company is better positioned to accelerate and benefit from this trend than Betr.”

“Joey, Jake, and the incredible Betr team are truly creating something remarkable,” said Jeff Ransdell, Founding Partner & Managing Director of Fuel Venture Capital. “They are addressing a genuine need in the sports media and betting world, catering directly to the end consumer. The overwhelming demand from investors wanting to join this journey is a testament to the validity and promise of what they’re building.”

About Betr

Founded in 2022 by Joey Levy and Jake Paul, Betr is a leading sports betting and sports media company through Betr Gaming and Betr Media, respectively. Betr Gaming is an online sports betting and gaming business focused on a unique product experience with a simplified UI/UX that is catered to the casual sports fan, enabling Betr to capture more of the underpenetrated online gaming addressable market. Betr Gaming began with a microbetting-only online sports betting (OSB) product, allowing users to bet on individual plays and events – such as pass or rush on the next play in football or the outcome of the next pitch in baseball, and is expanding its OSB product offering to include additional markets with full sportsbook capabilities, as well as planning to expand into other real money gaming verticals. Betr Media is the fastest growing sports betting media brand in the United States that has grown to over 1.4 million followers, 1.3 billion impressions, and 70 million engagements across its social channels since publicly launching in August 2022. Betr is creating a unique flywheel by investing in content creators to drive brand awareness and affinity, which drives more audience and engagement with the Betr brand, allowing Betr to monetize its user base through a suite of gaming products and enabling further investment in content and brand affinity.

For more information on Betr, visit betr.app or follow @betr on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. To learn more about responsible play, please visit betr.app/responsibility.

SOURCE Betr Holdings, Inc.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, June 27, 2023 — Carbon Recycling International (CRI) is pleased to announce the closing of a 30-million-dollar equity investment round that was announced at the company’s annual general meeting last year. Equinor Ventures is leading a group of new investors joining CRI’s shareholder group. Along with Equinor Ventures Gildi, Sjóvá and Lífeyrissjóður Vestmannaeyja have also participated in the investment round. 

Equinor Ventures is Equinor’s corporate venture capital arm dedicated to investing in ambitious early-phase and growth companies. Equinor is an international energy company headquartered in Norway.

Lars Klevjer, Head of Equinor Ventures:

„Equinor Ventures is pleased to partner with CRI as we aim to deepen our engagement in carbon removal technologies and their role in developing production of emerging fuels. We look forward to working with CRI.”

Björk Kristjánsdóttir, CEO of CRI:

,,We are happy to welcome Equinor Ventures and other new investors to CRI’s shareholder group. Their experience and knowledge are valuable for CRI as the company enters a scale-up phase to meet the increasing market demand for the technology solutions and services CRI provides. At CRI, we are looking forward to continuing to develop and implement our technological solutions and play our part in one of the most important projects of our time, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.”

Sigurlína Ingvarsdóttir, Chairman of CRI’s board of directors:

“The 30 M USD investment of Equinor Ventures and the other strong investors joining the shareholder group of CRI is an incredible validation of CRI’s technology and market potential. The company is poised for international growth, with a unique technology that has a significant role to play in the transition to greener fuels and feedstocks. CRI will now be able to bring on board a host of new talented professionals for challenging roles in a high tech company making a significant impact for the future”

CRI offers a world-leading process technology to produce methanol from carbon dioxide. CRI enables its customers to produce methanol in an environmentally friendly way from carbon dioxide and hydrogen, which can be used as fuel and in chemical products. The company’s technology, which was developed and proven in Iceland, has since been implemented in the largest factory of its kind in the world. Among the current largest shareholders are Geely, Methanex and Eyrir Invest.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2141896/4138575/Carbon_Recycling_International_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Carbon Recycling International

Following a successful launch of its open-source “Monocle” AR device, coupling AR with AI, Brilliant Labs’ seed round saw participation from Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri, Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble, along with VCs like Plug & Play

SINGAPORE, June 27, 2023 — Brilliant Labs, a developer of generative AI-embedded AR glasses, today announced that it has raised US$3.0 million in seed funding led by Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri, Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble, Plug & Play Ventures, among others.

Founded in 2019, Brilliant Labs is pioneering a new era of human-machine interactions through the convergence of Augmented Reality (AR) and wearable Generative AI, starting with its eponymous open-source AR device, Monocle.

Introducing Monocle, New Conduit for Generative AI

Monocle, which began shipping in February 2023, is a developer kit that empowers developers to experiment and build next-generation generative AI applications for a simple, fashion-forward, ready-to-wear monocle form factor. Monocle is meticulously designed with a highly portable single-lens form factor that easily clips onto existing eyewear. 

With an embedded microphone, computer vision-ready camera, display and hackable FPGA accelerator chip, developers can build applications that directly interface with ChatGPT or other generative AI apps, to enable the AI-enhanced digital world to feel more more naturally embedded within the purview of how people see and experience the physical world. Brilliant Labs describes this design approach as “embodied intelligence.” By unshackling AI from the desktop computer, and injecting its generative capabilities into the physical reality of day-to-day life, embodied intelligence augments and enhances everyday interactions, tasks, and experiences for anyone, anywhere.

With up to a total 6 hours of battery life with the charging case, and fast charging technology baked-in, Monocle is sleek and compact, reminiscent of the convenience that true-wireless earbuds have to offer in its grab-and-go nature.

In fact, Brilliant Labs is announcing the launch of arGPT, the company’s first ChatGPT integration, enabling users to interact with and experience ChatGPT commands right from one’s eyes. Developers can also enjoy the convenience that a ChatGPT-embedded Monocle has to offer by making it easier than ever to build creative ChatGPT apps on top of arGPT. 

This new ChatGPT integration from Brilliant Labs heralds a new era for society and its relationship with wearable AI. It earmarks the first key enabling technology that’s not only a breakthrough in human-machine interactions, but also offers the first killer application for the daily use of an AR wearable, be it for using Monocle’s ChatGPT feature for work, or even leisure.

Brilliant Labs’ Investment and the Future of Monocle

With over US$3.0M in seed funding, Brilliant Labs will seek to expand its team, invest into R&D, and grow its operations. The funds will be allocated to a dual-approach of nurturing an open-source AR ecosystem that fosters innovative generative AI applications that transforms human-computer interaction, while building as-yet-unannounced AR wearables in a more comfortable and compact form factor that makes AI more easily accessible to everyone.

“We believe that Generative AI is the key enabler for AR, so at Brilliant Labs, we’re building an open-source ecosystem to support developers and creatives reimagining the future, and Monocle is just the beginning. We’re excited to see what developers create with it,” said Bobak Tavangar, Founder and CEO of Brilliant Labs. “We’re thrilled to have the support of our investors as we usher in a new era of embodied intelligence – the intersection of AI and AR.”

“Brilliant Labs’ Monocle represents a significant leap forward in merging generative AI and augmented reality. It enables creators to unleash their creativity by seamlessly integrating their generative AI applications into the physical world through AR experiences,” said Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri. “The team at Brilliant Labs has demonstrated a deep understanding of the potential of combining AR and AI, and their passion for empowering creators is evident in their product.”

“As investors, we are excited to be part of Brilliant Labs’ journey in shaping the future of augmented reality with Monocle,” said Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble and former partner at Y Combinator. “Brilliant Labs’s commitment to enhancing people’s day-to-day lives with wearable AI, sparked by support of a vibrant developer community offers the confidence that Brilliant Labs is heralding a new future.”

About Brilliant Labs

Brilliant Labs, founded in 2019 by ex-Apple employee Bobak Tavangar, along with co-founders Raj Nakarja and Ben Heald, is reimagining human-device interactions with the development of generative AI-embedded AR glasses. A leading developer of generative AI-embedded AR glasses, Brilliant Labs is nurturing an open-source AR ecosystem to support hackers and creatives reimagining the future of wearable AI. The company’s flagship product, Monocle, introduces an eponymous, open-source wearable AR glasses designed to embrace next-gen AI-enabled applications, designed to augment human productivity and creativity.

Brilliant Labs has raised over US$3.0M in seed funding, led by prominent investors including Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri, Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble, Steve Sarowitz, founder of Paylocity and Chairman of Wayfarer Studios, Nirav Patel, former core team member at Oculus and founder of Framework, Francisco Tolmasky, member of the original iphone team, Plug and Play Ventures, Moveon Technologies, among others.

To learn more about Brilliant Labs, visithttps://brilliant.xyz/.

SOURCE Brilliant Labs