Investment to boost impact of recruiting platform on efficiency for talent acquisition teams and fairness for millions of applicants

NEW YORK, June 27, 2023 — Datapeople, the SaaS recruiting predictability platform, today announced the completion of an oversubscribed $13 million Series A funding round. The round is co-led by GreatPoint Ventures and New Markets Venture Partners, with the participation of existing investors including First Round Capital, NextView Ventures and Uncork Capital as well as operator syndicates Gaingels and FOG Ventures. The funds will be used to scale Datapeople’s go-to-market function and increase the delivery of new features and products.

“Hiring teams today are under pressure to efficiently drive and sustain growth with talent, which is exactly where Datapeople is having a real impact with its customers,” said David Resnekov, Associate Partner, GreatPoint Ventures. “We invested in Datapeople because they’re solving a major problem by giving recruiting leaders intelligence and control throughout the hiring process, starting with the job description.”

“What got us really excited about Datapeople was hearing from their customers, which include some of the world’s largest brands, on the impact and ROI that Datapeople has delivered to their recruiting efforts. Datapeople has been able to achieve impressive traction while also delivering on a promise of a more equitable future, which convinced us to be part of this journey,” said Robb Doub, Co-Founder and General Partner, New Markets Venture Partners.

“We began using Datapeople to elevate our job postings, primarily for our corporation hiring initiatives. We’ve seen numerous benefits despite the tough recruiting conditions – the number of applicants doubled (108% more female candidates), and we’ve reduced our time-to-fill by an average of 7 days,” said Neil Crumpton, Senior Director, Talent Acquisition at Conagra Brands. “The results have been so clear and the tool is so user-friendly that we have now rolled out Datapeople across all our 46 locations.”

Datapeople brings data-backed objectivity, efficiency and predictability to talent acquisition, beginning with optimized job descriptions and following with reporting and analytics on recruiting processes and performance. Since 2022, more than 10,000 users have edited 170,000 jobs in the Datapeople platform. According to Datapeople’s research, customers who follow Datapeople’s in-app recommendations see:

• 107% more qualified candidates
• 79% more qualified female candidates
• 18 fewer days needed to fill open roles

“Talent acquisition is facing multiple challenges today, including uncertain economic times, scrutiny on hiring spend, and labor market tightness, while also being expected to continue to deliver with leaner teams and smaller spend,” said Amit Bhatia, CEO and co-founder of Datapeople. “The control over processes and outcomes that Datapeople provides is essential, as well as our ability to help with meaningful improvements in hiring quality, diversity, speed, and cost.”

Today’s news follows the launch of Datapeople Anywhere, a browser extension update released in response to the rise of the use of Generative AI technologies for job postings, which works on top of any applicant tracking system to ensure all job descriptions, whether written by recruiters, hiring managers, or generative AI tools, are clear, compliant, and inclusive before posting.

Datapeople’s data-informed recommendations are powered by a database of over 65 million job posts and millions of hiring outcomes to examine job posts holistically: both on content (what is said) and language (how it is said). Beyond this, Datapeople’s bias guidance identifies eight forms of bias including racism, tokenism, ableism, ageism, sexism, nationalism, religious bias, and elitism. Datapeople’s Job Score helps users understand how their content is likely to perform in the local market across a range of dimensions including candidate pool volume, quality and diversity.

About Datapeople

Datapeople is a SaaS recruiting predictability platform that transforms recruiting teams into strategic partners by giving them the intelligence and control they need to meet their hiring goals, starting with their job descriptions. Datapeople has raised more than $21 million in financing from investors including GreatPoint Ventures, New Markets Venture Partners, First Round Capital, NextView Ventures and Uncork Capital. Datapeople is used by companies like DoorDash, Givaudan and Dentsu North America and customers in 80 countries. Datapeople is a remote-first company.

Media inquiries

[email protected] 

SOURCE Datapeople / BAM Communications

BOSTON, June 27, 2023 — Congruity360, the leading data management and data governance provider, has completed a round of growth capital funding with Boston-based capital firms Schooner Capital and G20 Ventures. Both firms seek out companies that challenge the status quo and are excited to join Congruity360’s Board of Directors. Congruity360 fits the “disruptor” mold as the only data management and data governance platform built on a foundation of data classification, offering complete unstructured data analysis, classification, and remediation within one end-to-end platform.

The investment supports Congruity360’s launch of new products built to simplify the complex process of continuous unstructured data management. The new offerings are powered by the Classify360 Platform, which delivers content-level analysis across petabytes of unstructured data in addition to business-driven remediation. The new offerings provide an introduction to the Classify360 Platform, allowing companies to quickly gain actionable insights into their data by pinpointing risk, redundant, and aged data.

• Instant Insights | Insights into a single data source which requires no investment or commitment and can be leveraged to expose risk mitigation opportunities, help inform remediation strategy, and gain momentum in your data journey.
• Enterprise Insights | Insights across the entire unstructured data estate, on-premises and cloud sources, which can be leveraged to eliminate unnecessary data storage spend, unlock cloud migrations with intelligence, and reduce required investment on adjacent data security technologies.
• Cloud Insights | Insights into unstructured cloud data sources which can be leveraged to optimize cloud utilization, increase cloud adoption via intelligence, and help inform data remediation strategy.

A significant differentiator between the Classify360 Platform and competitors’ platforms is ease of use. No outside consultants, lengthy implementations, or add-on tools are required to gain never-before-seen insight at petabyte scale. The time to value is virtually instantaneous. Business leaders can make quick, informed decisions using the information gleaned from the Classify360 Platform, bringing them the most value in the shortest timeline.

“Congruity360’s extensive experience with storage infrastructure combined with data privacy expertise has resulted in an innovative, powerful platform that’s reinvented the way businesses govern their data,” said Orhan Gazelle, Principal at Schooner Capital. “We haven’t seen other platforms that independently offer the depth of file analysis, accuracy of classification, and defensibility of governance that the Classify360 Platform brings to the table.”

“The volume of unstructured data is exploding across enterprises, driving significant cost and risk to organizations of all sizes. We ran Congruity360’s Instant Insights against our data and within an hour had a clear view of our exposure with a simple path to remediation. Their product can pay for itself in-year through cost savings, but the bigger payoff may be the reduction in risk afforded by their efficient data governance capabilities,” said Bill Wiberg, Co-founder & Partner at G20 Ventures.

“We have listened to our customers and designed a comprehensive platform with both IT and ‘the business’ in mind to centralize decision making, eliminate point solutions, and reduce security vulnerabilities created by blind spots within your IT estate,” said Brian Davidson, CEO of Congruity360. “Scale and speed are a necessity to handle the complexity of massive data growth and the ever-changing compliance landscape. An end-to-end data-management platform is the only way to execute against the demands of audits, Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs), cloud-first mandates, and accelerated migration timelines.”

Unlike other providers of unstructured data migration and information governance tools, the Classify360 Platform is comprehensive, simple to implement, scale, and operate. Businesses leverage the Classify360 Platform for unstructured data discovery, classification, business workflows, remediation actions, and insightful reporting. Congruity360 continues to tackle additional data governance challenges through innovations to the Classify360 Platform to continue delivering revolutionary data governance and classification, at scale, to the enterprise world.

ABOUT CONGRUITY360

Congruity360 delivers the only data management solution built on a foundation of classification, by expert data storage engineers alongside expert data privacy consultants. The Classify360 Platform is easy to implement, requires no outside consultants, and quickly analyzes your data at the petabyte scale in days, not weeks or months. Learn more at www.congruity360.com.

CONTACT: Erin Grant, [email protected]com

SOURCE Congruity360

A new crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter sets the stage for the exciting debut of the Baoligame Earth Guardian Alliance’s Rnewelf Monster TCG Card Game.

NEW YORK, June 27, 2023 — Baoligame Earth Guardian Alliance Inc. is thrilled to announce the launch of a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in support of its highly anticipated Rnewelf Monster TCG Card Game launch. Set for a global release, this brand-new magical card and toy game is poised to capture the hearts of gaming enthusiasts and collectors alike. With its unique storyline centered around the rebirth of extinct creatures, Rnewelf Monster TCG Card Game presents an exciting opportunity for players to immerse themselves in a captivating fantasy world.

One of the standout features of the Rnewelf Monster TCG Card Game is its focus on regeneration and the significance of collecting. In contrast to the competitive nature of traditional trading card games, Rnewelf emphasizes the revival of extinct elf-like creatures, turning them into adorable pets. With a variety of card types, such as elf character cards, skill cards, energy cards, and Allies, players can explore the depths of their imagination and immerse themselves in the enchanting world of Rnewelf.

Rnewelf Monster TCG Card Game offers several advantages over existing card games in the market. The product boasts remarkable cost performance, delivering exceptional value for players and collectors. Additionally, Rnewelf presents immense investment potential and ample room for price appreciation, making it an enticing proposition for investors seeking new and promising ventures. Rnewelf Monster TCG Card Game differentiates itself from the popular Pokemon card game with a fresh and compelling concept. While the Pokemon card market has become saturated with fierce competition, Rnewelf offers a fresh alternative that captivates discerning collectors, leveraging the already established fan base of similar Pokemon-like games.

In addition to the captivating gameplay experience, Rnewelf offers a diverse range of collection products to enhance the overall immersion further. These include exploration maps, exclusive poetry proof, emoji stickers, metal model flags，and With more than 11 different collectible items, Rnewelf presents a truly creative and content-rich world of elf collecting that distinguishes itself from existing franchises by incorporating unique concepts, card levels, and collectible purposes.

As Rnewelf Monster TCG Card Game enters the global stage, the company recognizes the importance of building visibility and generating excitement around its first generation of products.  On Kickstarter, Rnewelf empowers its dedicated fanbase, allowing them to actively participate in the project’s development and secure early access to limited edition items. This strategic approach ensures that influencers, investors, and collectors can join the Rnewelf journey from the start, taking advantage of exclusive opportunities.

Don’t miss the chance to embark on an extraordinary adventure with Rnewelf Monster TCG Card Game. Join the Kickstarter campaign today.

For more information, visit the following website and Kickstarter pre-browse page.

Media Contact:
Bob Adaya-aozi
+86 15201235689
[email protected]
Website: https://www.rnewelf.com/

SOURCE Baoligame Earth Guardian Alliance Inc.

LOS ANGELES, June 27, 2023 — Everytable, a mission-driven food company that fights for food justice by making fresh, nutritious food accessible and affordable for all, announced today that it has successfully raised $25 million in the initial closing of its Series C-2 preferred stock financing. The round was led by the Dohmen Company Foundation (DCF) through the Dohmen Impact Investment Fund, focused on investing in companies capable of preventing and reversing diet-related disease. Joining DCF are existing Everytable investors Creadev, Gullspång Re:foods and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.

The investment in Everytable is the first for the Dohmen Impact Investment fund since it was launched in March 2023 to accelerate the growth of for-profit social enterprises advancing proven food solutions that improve human health. The latest funding will be used to fuel growth of Everytable’s retail stores and food services business throughout Southern California, the Bay Area, and New York City. Everytable tripled its retail footprint in 2022 to nearly 50 locations and plans to open up to 25 additional stores by the end of 2023.

“We are inspired by the Dohmen Company’s long history in the healthcare industry and their dedication to our shared mission to make nutritious food accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said Sam Polk, CEO and founder of Everytable. “The continued commitment from our investors, despite a steep decline in venture funding overall, speaks volumes about their confidence in our ability to address one of the most pressing and persistent issues of our time.”

DCF and Everytable teams first connected through the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger Nutrition and Health, at which time both organizations committed to the President’s bold goal of ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases by 2030.

“The Dohmen Impact Investment Fund is proud to make its inaugural investment in Everytable to realize the Fund’s goal of making healthy eating ubiquitous,” said Rachel Roller, President and CEO of the Dohmen Company Foundation. “We encourage other foundations, socially conscious businesses, and investors to join us in prioritizing investments in healthy food solutions, such as Everytable, to address the growing diet-related disease epidemic.”

About Everytable
Founded in 2016, Everytable is a mission-driven food company based in Los Angeles that fights for food justice and equality by providing healthy and nutritious food that is both accessible and affordable for everyone. Everytable is a multi-channel, fresh-prepared food business blending stores, subscriptions, delivery, and SmartFridges supplied by a central kitchen, with meals priced according to the neighborhood. Everytable serves Southern California, the SF Bay Area, and New York, with more stores and regional meal delivery soon to come.

In 2021 Everytable launched a trailblazing Social Equity Franchise program with the support of the Cal Wellness Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, Common Spirit (formerly Dignity Health), Tarsadia Foundation, and Libra Foundation that sets social entrepreneurs from marginalized communities on an expedited pathway to potentially owning and operating an Everytable store. Everytable further seeks to support local communities with its Pay It Forward program which allows guests to purchase meals for those in need. In 2022, Inc.’s Best in Business list recognized Everytable for positively impacting food insecurity across communities, along with other accolades such as being named one of Fast Company’s top 10 most innovative dining companies. To date, Everytable has sold more than 17 million meals! For more information, please visit www.everytable.com or follow @foreverytable on Instagram.

About the Dohmen Company Foundation
With more than 165 years of healthcare experience, Dohmen has found a way to combine the rigor of business with the heart of philanthropy. After exiting the life science industry in 2018, Dohmen shareholders transformed the multi-generational family-owned business to a private foundation. Today, the Dohmen Company Foundation advances its vision of life without diet-related disease in three powerful ways: via a $60 million investment fund focused on accelerating the growth of for-profit social businesses with proven food solutions that improve human health, via a traditional endowment dedicated to increasing the impact of charitable organizations aligned with our vision, and via a fund dedicated to building public awareness of the surging rates of diet-related disease that threaten our national wellbeing. For more information, please see https://www.dohmencompanyfoundation.org.

About Creadev
Creadev is an evergreen investment firm operating worldwide, controlled by the Mulliez family, founders of one of the largest Business to Consumer retail platforms in the world. Creadev is committed to long-term collaboration with innovative, passionate and human-driven entrepreneurs that are focused on creating widespread access to essential goods and services such as healthcare, sustainable consumption and food. Based in Paris, and with offices in New York, Singapore and Nairobi, Creadev invests in companies well positioned to scale and become worldwide leaders in their respective sectors. Launched in 2002, Creadev has invested over $2 Bn in companies in stages ranging from venture to growth equity and buyout. More at www.creadev.com. 

About Gullspång Re:food
Gullspång Re:food is an evergreen investment firm based in Stockholm and San Francisco, originating from the Swedish family-office Gullspång Invest. Our mission is to solve food system challenges for future generations across four themes: healthy diets, alternative protein and fat, healthy soils, and sustainable supply chains. Our investment philosophy is based on systems thinking, leverage points and planetary boundaries summarized in our report Food is Solvable. In addition to Everytable, Re:food is backing Oatly, Nick’s, Mission Barns, Planted, Allplants, Agreena and circa ten other companies accelerating positive paradigm shifts in the food system.

Legal Representation
The Series C-2 offering was steered by Dirk Sampselle of Telos Arete, P.C., representing Everytable, PBC, and Dan Gawronski of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, representing Dohmen Company Foundation.

Media Contact:
Christina Gilmour
909-214-5874
[email protected] 

SOURCE Everytable

Extends Presence in Attractive Markets and Positions Platform for Continued Rapid Expansion

SAN FRANCISCO, June 27, 2023 — Percheron Capital (“Percheron”), a private equity firm focused on partnering with high-quality essential services businesses, today announced that its pest control services platform has established partnerships with Lookout Pest Control, LLC (“Lookout Pest Control”) and Any Pest, Inc. (“Any Pest”) – two leading pest control providers in the Southeast. These partnerships extend the platform’s presence in large and growing pest control markets, positioning the business for rapid growth throughout the region.

Established in partnership with industry leader Mike St. Clair, the platform is focused on building a premier network of pest control services providers through acquisitions and organic growth in the growing, resilient, and very fragmented pest control market. The high-growth platform is committed to providing exceptional customer service and being an employer of choice in the industry by supporting team members through training, technology, and career advancement programs. Percheron continues to seek additional partnerships and is in active discussions with several leading businesses.

Founded in 1983 and 1989, respectively, Lookout Pest Control and Any Pest provide general pest, termite control, and other pest control services in Tennessee and Georgia and have dedicated, long-tenured team members, loyal customer bases, and reputations for outstanding customer service.

“We are proud that over the last four decades our family business has been known for delivering high-quality service with the utmost integrity,” said Chad and Robb Haney, second-generation co-owners of Lookout Pest Control. “Maintaining that legacy and supporting our employees was paramount in selecting a partner, and it was immediately apparent that the Percheron team is strongly aligned with our core values.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Percheron to support Any Pest’s next stage of growth,” added Kathy and Nello Montesi, co-owners of Any Pest. “We look forward to leveraging Percheron’s substantial experience supporting high-growth, acquisitive services businesses.”

“Our partnerships are anchored with the shared mission of building an industry-leading pest control business that is the service provider, employer, and acquirer of choice in the markets we operate,” said Mike St. Clair, CEO of Percheron’s pest control services platform. “We are excited to continue building a premier network of pest control businesses with like-minded operators who, like Lookout Pest Control and Any Pest, are dedicated to providing their communities with high-quality pest control solutions.”

Chris Lawler, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Percheron, commented, “The Lookout Pest Control and Any Pest teams have built impressive businesses as demonstrated by their high customer retention rates, strong technician productivity, and consistent organic growth. We look forward to leveraging Percheron’s significant operational resources and Mike’s deep industry expertise to support the rapid expansion of a leading platform in this attractive industry.”

About Percheron Capital

Percheron Capital is a private equity firm focused on partnering with exceptional teams to build market-leading essential services businesses. The firm’s purpose is to support high-quality businesses to accelerate growth and enhance long-term value. Percheron has over $2 billion in regulatory assets under management and focuses on investing in strong services businesses in resilient end markets. For more information, please visit www.percheron.com.

About Percheron Pest Control Platform

Percheron Capital’s pest control services platform is focused on building a premier network of pest control services providers through acquisitions and organic growth in the growing, resilient, and very fragmented pest control market. The high-growth platform is committed to providing exceptional customer service and being an employer of choice in the industry by supporting team members through training, technology, and career advancement programs. The platform is actively seeking additional partnerships with best-in-class pest control businesses. For more information, please visit Percheron Pest Control Platform.

Company Contact

For business leaders interested in partnership opportunities, please contact Priya Saraswati.

Priya Saraswati, Head of Business Development
Percheron Capital
[email protected]com
(415) 738-4358

Media Contact

Woomi Yun / Erik Carlson
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
(212) 355-4449

SOURCE Percheron Capital

Cutting-edge cyber insurance automation platform, 1Fort, gets strong backing to accelerate the evolution of its solution, simplifying the cyber insurance procurement process for middle to large businesses and insurance brokers.

NEW YORK, June 27, 2023 — 1Fort, a leading cyber insurance automation platform, today announced it has completed a successful $2 million pre-seed round of financing. Major investors included Village Global, 8-Bit Capital, Operator Partners, Character, Company Ventures, BrokerTech Ventures, along with other venture firms and angel investors.

With the rise in cyber attacks, insurers have started requiring stringent security controls from businesses seeking cyber insurance as a way to mitigate loss ratios. However, the complexity and resources required to implement these security controls pose challenges for businesses, and brokers often struggle to guide their clients through the process.

1Fort addresses these challenges by providing an easy-to-use platform that enables middle to large businesses to efficiently meet security control requirements for cyber insurance. By connecting via API to the tools used by businesses, 1Fort provides teams real-time visibility into their inside-out security posture and helps them remediate the gaps to become insurable and secure better coverage terms and pricing. Businesses using 1Fort are able to reduce the time it takes to obtain coverage from months to weeks, while also elevating their cyber resilience by proactively fixing security vulnerabilities.

“All businesses deserve easy access to a financial safety net from cyber attacks,” said Anthony Marshi, Co-Founder and CEO of 1Fort. “We’re honored to have the support of leading brokerages, investors and strategic advisors as we aim to democratize cyber resilience.”

1Fort is offered to businesses through its partnerships with retail brokers, enabling them to better support their clients through the security control requirements and place cyber deals more efficiently.

“For our clients, cyber risk is a constantly moving target,” stated Monica Minkel, VP of Enterprise Risk at Holmes Murphy. “1Fort saves me time because it helps my clients hit the mark and get their cyber insurance coverage in place faster and at a lower cost, while providing great guidance on reducing cyber risk exposures.”

1Fort recently participated in the BrokerTech Ventures (BTV) accelerator, a group representing 13 of the largest independently owned insurance brokerages and 14 of the largest insurance companies in North America, with a combined multi-billion dollars in annual distribution capacity. Partnering with BTV has enabled 1Fort to expand its collaboration with top brokerages and further demonstrate the impact of its solutions.

This funding represents a significant milestone for 1Fort as it aims to transform the cyber insurance landscape by bridging the gap between cybersecurity and insurance. The investment will be used to further product development, make key hires and strengthen relationships with brokers.

“The biggest opportunity in the cyber insurance market today is getting businesses through the complex process of implementing security controls required by insurance providers,” says Anne Dwane, Co-Founder and Partner at Village Global. “The 1Fort team is building a solution that brings cutting-edge technology to automate the cyber insurance readiness process. We’re excited to back the team as they move forward on this journey.”

About 1Fort

1Fort is a leading cyber insurance automation company that simplifies the acquisition and management of cyber insurance for businesses. 1Fort seamlessly integrates with a business’ existing tools, empowering them to automatically detect and immediately resolve security issues. With a dedicated team and strong venture backing, 1Fort is committed to democratizing cyber resilience and bringing financial security to the digital world.

Media Contact:
Toby Hung
[email protected]

Related Links
https://1fort.com

SOURCE 1Fort

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and BOCA RATON, Fla., June 27, 2023 — JuliaHub has announced $13 million in a strategic new investment led by AE Industrial Partners HorizonX (“AEI HorizonX”). AEI HorizonX is AE Industrial Partners‘ venture capital investment platform formed in partnership with The Boeing Company.

Based in Cambridge, MA, JuliaHub is a leader in technical computing and scientific machine learning. JuliaHub was founded by the creators of Julia, an open-source programming language that solves the two language problem by combining the ease of Python with the speed of C++. Julia allows researchers, engineers and developers who previously used different programming languages to share a common language to design, build and deploy technical systems. The JuliaHub platform is the perfect companion for the Julia developer, providing collaboration, private package development, parallel and GPU computing, reproducibility, governance, and a host of features that accelerate the development of mission-critical products in regulated industries.

“We are very excited by this new strategic investment from AEI HorizonX,” said Dr. Viral Shah, Chief Executive Officer of JuliaHub. “In recent years, Julia’s superior speed and ease of use have been put to work for pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and United Therapeutics, and for aerospace applications at NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing. This investment allows us to continue to develop and help deploy Julia’s capabilities across all industries.”

Julia is seeing rapid adoption by companies that leverage computational methods to accelerate product design in engineering, manufacturing, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, finance and semiconductor design. It is being used today for drone guidance, aircraft collision avoidance, planning space missions, robot control and much more.

“The opportunity to leverage scientific machine learning is greater than ever in aerospace, and JuliaHub is the enabling platform,” said Tyler Rowe, Principal at AEI HorizonX. “We have been impressed with the leadership team and JuliaHub’s ability to solve the two language problem, and we are excited to partner with them. We are prepared to help JuliaHub accelerate adoption in priority markets with our resources.”

About JuliaHub: JuliaHub, founded by the creators of Julia, is a fast and easy-to-use code-to-cloud platform that accelerates the development and deployment of Julia programs, including artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific machine learning (SciML). JuliaHub users include innovative companies in a range of industries including aviation, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, automotive, energy, manufacturing, and semiconductors.

About Julia: Julia is a high performance, open source programming language that powers computationally demanding applications in modeling and simulation, drug development, design of multi-physical systems, electronic design automation, big data analytics, scientific machine learning and artificial intelligence. Julia solves the two language problem by combining the ease of use of Python and R with the speed of C++. Julia provides parallel computing capabilities out of the box and unlimited scalability with minimal effort. Julia has been downloaded by users at more than 10,000 companies and is used at more than 1,500 universities. Julia co-creators are the winners of the prestigious James H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software and the Sidney Fernbach Award.

About AEI HorizonX: AEI HorizonX was formed as Boeing’s corporate venture capital arm in 2017 and is now managed by AE Industrial Partners, a private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets, with $5 billion of assets under management. AEI HorizonX is an active participant in venture capital within its core strategic areas of focus, investing in more than 50 startups globally and building numerous relationships and partnerships across the aerospace, technology, and investing ecosystem. Learn more at www.aeroequity.com/horizon-x/.

SOURCE AE Industrial

First dual-specific PD-L1/PD-L2 antibody with killing function designed to treat the many “immune-excluded” cancers that are resistant to existing immunotherapies

Phase 1b will focus on tumors that are resistant to existing immunotherapy, which may include ovarian, colorectal, and triple negative breast cancers

HOUSTON, June 27, 2023 — ImmunoGenesis, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing science-driven immune therapies, and Cancer Focus Fund, LP, a unique investment fund established in collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to provide funding and clinical expertise to advance promising cancer therapies, today announced that Cancer Focus Fund plans to invest $4.5 million to support the Phase 1a/1b clinical trial of ImmunoGenesis’ lead candidate, IMGS-001. IMGS-001 is a dual-specific PD-L1/PD-L2 antibody designed to treat immune-excluded tumors, which are resistant to existing immunotherapy. The investment will support the portion of the IMGS-001 Phase 1a/1b multi-site clinical trial being conducted at MD Anderson. It coincides with ImmunoGenesis’ Series A financing, which is expected to close in the third quarter.

“Overcoming the widespread resistance to immunotherapy in immune-excluded tumors requires re-envisioning the starting point for treatment,” said Dr. Michael A. Curran, Founder of ImmunoGenesis. “We are addressing this challenge by developing a novel, dual–specific PD–L1/PD–L2 inhibitor engineered to include tumor-killing effector function – essentially addressing tumor pathology at the roots. Based on the results of preclinical studies, we believe that IMGS–001 has the potential to significantly improve clinical response over currently approved checkpoint inhibitors for patients with immune-excluded tumors.”

IMGS-001 is based on discoveries made by the laboratory of Dr. Curran, Associate Professor of Immunology at MD Anderson, and by the Oncology Research for Biologics & Immunotherapy Translation (ORBIT) platform, part of MD Anderson’s Therapeutics Discovery division. The technology was licensed to ImmunoGenesis in 2019.

“The Cancer Focus Fund Scientific Advisory Board is made up of expert scientists and clinicians and to be recommended for an investment by this group is an honor that we believe provides validation of the clinical potential for IMGS-001,” said James Barlow, ImmunoGenesis President and CEO. “We believe that IMGS-001 has the potential to become the foundational treatment for immune-excluded tumors where there is both significant unmet need and tremendous market opportunity. This funding, combined with our upcoming Series A financing, will provide the opportunity to establish the initial proof of concept for this groundbreaking approach and bring hope, and potentially life-saving treatments, to the patients battling these difficult tumors.” 

“Cancer Focus Fund was founded with the goal of assuring that innovative early-stage cancer therapies had the opportunity to undergo the rigorous clinical testing needed for advancement,” said Ross Barrett, a founder and Managing Partner of Cancer Focus Fund. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to invest in the exciting new approach to cancer immunotherapy pioneered by Dr. Curran – our first investment in a discovery made at MD Anderson and developed by a biotechnology company located here in Houston. Immune-excluded tumors are thought to represent more than half of all cancers and contribute to the high failure rates that limit the potential of cancer immunotherapy for too many patients. We welcome the opportunity to support ImmunoGenesis by investing in this promising candidate and look forward to the results of this important clinical trial.”

About the IMGS-001 Phase 1a/1b Clinical Trial
This funding will support a Phase 1a/1b, first-in-human, open-label, dose-escalation and dose–expansion study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, immunogenicity, and preliminary anti-tumor activity of IMGS-001. Phase 1a is a dose-escalation study that aims to determine the safety, tolerability, and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of IMGS-001 in adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors refractory to appropriate standard of care treatments. Phase 1b is an open-label, dose-expansion cohort study of patients with prespecified tumors intended to further assess the safety and preliminary antitumor activity of IMGS-001. Dr. David S. Hong, Professor of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at MD Anderson, will serve as Principal Investigator of the trial.

About IMGS-001, a PD-L1/PD-L2 Dual-Specific Inhibitor
IMGS-001, the lead program at ImmunoGenesis, is a PD-L1/PD-L2 dual-specific inhibitor with engineered cytotoxic effector function. IMGS-001 is the first molecule to target PD-L2 in addition to PD-L1. This means that IMGS-001 has the potential to shut down the entire PD-1 pathway and provide a superior blockade compared to other PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors. The engineered effector function enables IMGS-001 to kill immunosuppressive PD-L1- and/or PD-L2-expressing cells present in the tumor microenvironment, which may enable it to overcome immune resistance in immune-excluded tumors. Preclinical data showed that IMGS-001 drove substantially higher response rates in head-to-head studies vs. currently available immunotherapies. With its innovative multi-tasking mechanism of superior blockade and killing function, IMGS-001 may provide a new foundation for combination therapies.

About ImmunoGenesis
ImmunoGenesis is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology biopharmaceutical company re-envisioning the treatment of immune-excluded tumors. Immune-excluded tumors, which account for more than half of all cancers, are characterized by having mechanisms of resistance that suppress the immune response. ImmunoGenesis is creating therapies based on the pathology of these immune-excluded tumors that are rationally designed to overcome immune exclusion and thereby drive an effective immune response. For more information, visit www.immunogenesis.com. 

About Cancer Focus Fund
The Cancer Focus Fund LP is a unique investment fund established in collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The fund provides investment support to advance promising cancer therapies that are close to being tested in humans or are in early clinical development, along with the clinical trial expertise and infrastructure of MD Anderson and strategic partners Ochsner Health System Precision Cancer Therapies Program New Orleans and the LSU Feist Weiller Cancer Center Shreveport. The Fund’s objective is to leverage this unique combination to provide investors with superior risk-adjusted returns by supporting significant advances in cancer treatments. In collaboration with partner MD Anderson, the Cancer Focus Fund provides both capital and translational research expertise with the goal of accelerating the development of novel cancer therapies that result in better outcomes for patients while generating returns for investors.

Disclosures
Dr. Curran’s financial relationship with ImmunoGenesis is managed and monitored by the MD Anderson Conflict of Interest Committee.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s relationships with Cancer Focus Fund and ImmunoGenesis, and all research conducted at MD Anderson related to Cancer Focus Fund or ImmunoGenesis, have been identified as institutional financial conflicts of interest by MD Anderson’s Institutional Conflict of Interest Committee and therefore are managed under Institutional Conflict of Interest Management and Monitoring Plans.

SOURCE Cancer Focus Fund and ImmunoGenesis

This latest funding round bolsters the company’s position as a pioneering company digitizing the mobility industry and sets the stage for further growth and innovation

TEL AVIV, Israel and PALO ALTO, Calif., June 27, 2023 — NoTraffic, the leading mobility platform, announced today the successful completion of a $50 million Series B funding led by M&G Investments with participation from VNV Global and UMC Capital, as well as existing investors Grove Ventures, Vektor Partners, Next Gear Ventures, North First Ventures, Meitav Investment House, Alchimia Investments, and TMG. The new round allows NoTraffic to accelerate its growth momentum, increasing production, R&D and sales into new global markets including Japan, Italy, Germany, and the UK.

NoTraffic’s core infrastructure market is currently experiencing significant tailwinds and its most successful period to date, thanks in part to the $1.2 trillion US infrastructure bill. In addition, several structural factors continue to drive demand for digital transformation in the mobility space, not least of which is the pressing need to reduce traffic fatalities, alleviate road congestion which grows 12% each year, and reduce CO₂ road emissions, which account for 29% of the US total. NoTraffic is well placed to support this digital transformation with its effective, practical and economical solutions.

Over 100 years have passed since the first electric traffic light was installed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. Now, with countless industries witnessing a digital overhaul and most traffic signals still operating on pre-set timing plans, the traffic industry is ripe for innovation and modernization. With a seamless deployable solution that is retrofitted onto existing infrastructure, NoTraffic offers a first-of-its-kind AI-powered platform paired with a software-defined SaaS platform, empowering Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and other stakeholders to manage traffic in real time. Acting as a one-stop shop for all mobility needs and cutting down interdependencies on expensive legacy vertical solutions with limited interoperability, NoTraffic offers a first-ever mobility marketplace with access to multiple services for enhanced safety, data analysis, efficiency, detection and more. In addition, by leveraging a network of smart sensors deployed at signalized intersections, conflict points, or complex roadways, the platform gives traffic authorities and infrastructure operators the ability to fully control and prioritize traffic flow for all kinds of transportation — cars, bicycles, buses, pedestrians and more. NoTraffic utilizes edge computing technology, pioneering unparalleled software-defined infrastructure that facilitates real-time decision making at both local and cloud levels.

“NoTraffic is poised to elevate traffic management beyond its legacy infrastructure boundaries. Much like mobile phones disrupted the fixed line of their business, it was Apple’s AppStore that opened the door to a vast range of new applications, business models and revenue pools. NoTraffic’s SaaS platform is designed to similarly create unique insights and functionalities that can flexibly be provided to stakeholders without changes to the infrastructure,” said Tal Kreisler, Co-Founder and CEO of NoTraffic. “This funding is another step in our mission to revolutionize the way traffic is being managed today and enables the next generation of advanced mobility services to help better adapt our infrastructure for the rise of autonomous vehicles.”

NoTraffic quickly transforms any signalized intersection into a cloud connected and dynamic network capable of understanding the complete traffic picture in any given area to respond instantly to all road users. The system fuses and shares data generated by NoTraffic’s proprietary intelligent edge sensors together with connected and autonomous vehicles (V2X) data and other data sources to manage traffic flows in real-time. This technology is enabling a turning point for communications between road users and traffic infrastructure and is poised to be a fundamental milestone in the rise of the next generation of mobility.

“NoTraffic is solving longstanding urban problems while simultaneously taking critical steps to prepare roads for an era of connected and autonomous vehicles,” said Carl Vine at M&G Investments.

“NoTraffic’s obvious value proposition is supported by its robust business model and clear vision for the future. We believe the company can scale its cutting-edge technology solution to capture a significant share of this exciting and important sector. In doing so, NoTraffic will make our urban environments cleaner, safer, and more efficient,” added Praveg Patil, from M&G Investments’ Catalyst team.  

NoTraffic works with a network of partners and distributors to support local and state Departments Of Transportation to provide an efficient and affordable platform that seamlessly integrates with existing infrastructure. It is currently deployed in numerous locations across North America, including in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Georgia and more, serving millions of drivers per day. The company’s innovative technology was recognized and awarded as a TIME100 Most Influential Company in 2022. 

About NoTraffic
NoTraffic, the developer of the world’s leading mobility platform, is on a mission to digitize the backbone of transportation and streamline the next generation of traffic mobility. The company’s end-to-end, plug-and-play autonomous traffic management platform leverages AI and edge computing to reconfigure signalized city intersections into one fully automated, cloud-connected hub. In less than 2 hours of installation, the platform can classify all road users including – private vehicles, public transportation, emergency services, pedestrians and more – and respond accordingly to traffic conditions in real-time to reduce travel times and CO₂ emissions and improve safety. Ranked in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies list, NoTraffic is trusted by leading states in North America and has formed strategic partnerships with major communication giants such as AT&T and Rogers Communications. The company was founded in 2017 by Tal Kreisler, Uriel Katz, and Or Sela.

To learn more about NoTraffic, visit: https://www.notraffic.tech

About M&G Investments
M&G Investments have made this investment from funds that include its Catalyst strategy. Catalyst is a global, flexible strategy investing in companies with innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest environmental and social challenges.” 
M&G Investments is part of M&G plc, a savings and investment business with over $425 billion of assets under management (as at 31 March 2023). M&G plc has customers in the UK, Europe, the Americas and Asia, including individual savers and investors, life insurance policy holders and pension scheme members.

For more information, please visit: https://global.mandg.com/

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SOURCE NoTraffic