Dr Andrew Forrest AO leads business with USD$500 million for Ukraine Development Fund with a call to other investors

LONDON, June 21, 2023 — Dr Andrew Forrest AO, the Chairman of Tattarang, is leading the investment of USD$500 million in founding funding for the official ‘Ukraine Development Fund’ (UDF) at the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023 jointly hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The President and UK Foreign Secretary welcomed Dr Forrest’s investment and leadership in kickstarting the UDF that will be critical in the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war, with a focus on the development of green energy and digital infrastructure. Dr Forrest called on other global investors to see Ukraine for what it is, an excellent long-term investment with major collateral social good.

Deputy Minister for the Economy Oleksandr Gryban welcomed Dr Forrest’s investment and leadership for the UDF. He said: “Dr Andrew Forrest has been there with us from the start. He brought this private investment fund idea to us modelled off the Marshall Plan and then has worked together with BlackRock to bring it to fruition. We will not only rebuild Ukraine but also make it an attractive place for global business as a major European green economy. Together with Dr Forrest and BlackRock, we will assist Dr Forrest with direct outreach to ensure other investors can get involved.”

Mr Charles Hatami, who oversees BlackRock’s Financial Markets Advisory group (BlackRock FMA) in his capacity as Global Head of the Financial and Strategic Investors Group, said: “BlackRock is honoured to assist the Ukrainian people by advising their government on the launch of the Ukraine Development Fund. We recently had the privilege of visiting Kyiv, where we met with President Zelenskyy and members of his cabinet. We were greatly impressed by the unwavering resilience demonstrated by the Ukrainian people. Preparations for the Fund are well underway, with a focus on rapid capital deployment as soon as hostilities cease. The Fund will play a crucial role in Ukraine’s modernization and transformation into an appealing international investment destination.”

The idea for the UDF was conceived and developed by Dr Forrest and inspired by the World War II Marshall Plan. After discussions with the Secretary General of the OECD and the President of the USA and his Chief of Staff at the White House in March 2022, Dr Forrest then approached Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, to seek advisory support for creating an investment vehicle. 

The UDF was announced by the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy and will be the most effective way to catalyse investment in Ukraine post the war. It will enable a secure, reliable pathway for private investment. It will complement the work of Ukraine and its public sector partners and build confidence in Ukraine as an investment destination.

Dr Forrest’s investment to various layers of the UDF will enable it to start the moment that hostilities cease to the satisfaction of the Ukrainian Government and BlackRock. He will be a strategic adviser in the establishment of the Fund and his investment groups in green strategic metals, green iron, green hydrogen and green electricity, will collectively act as an advisory team to the Ukrainian government.

Dr Forrest said: “We must not aim to build back what Ukraine was, with its antique soviet era infrastructure. We must imagine what it can be with vision, planning and availability of the world’s best technology, management and thinking. This will position the rebuilding of Ukraine not as simply a recovery, but as a major opportunity for national renewal. We will build a future that is digital, green, fair and corruption free. We are joining with all of the free world to help walk the Ukrainian people into a golden era, coming out of this dreadful war. To not build what it was, but build to its easily brightest future yet.

Dr Forrest spent nearly a week in Ukraine and visited Kyiv in June 2022, meeting the majority of Ukraine’s Cabinet including President Zelenskyy, where the early-stage principles for the strategy were agreed.

Following an introduction by Dr Forrest in September 2022, BlackRock’s Financial Markets Advisory (BlackRock FMA) group has worked closely with the Ukrainian Government, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) whereby BlackRock FMA is providing advisory support in developing an investment framework to attract private capital for the recovery and support of Ukraine’s economy.  In May 2023, the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy announced BlackRock FMA’s appointment to advise on the design of the Ukraine Development Fund.

The Forrests’ philanthropic organisation Minderoo Foundation has already contributed millions of dollars to help the Ukrainian people, including funding the first humanitarian grain shipment out of Ukraine in August, and providing critical grain storage facilities for farmers whose crops would have otherwise perished. Further, 180 generators were provided to assist with energy supply.

FURTHER BACKGROUND

The Ukrainian Ministry of Economy appointed BlackRock’s Financial Markets Advisory Group (“BlackRock FMA”) in May 2023 to provide advisory services in support of the design of the UDF, on a pro bono basis. This reflects the continued partnership between BlackRock FMA and the Ukrainian Government after the initial signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) in November 2022 after Dr Forrest facilitated the process. The UDF will mobilise and attract public and private capital into the reconstruction of Ukraine by using a range of innovative and traditional financial instruments. The structure will comprise a multi-layered approach guided by strong governance and global standards for sound financial and risk management practices. The UDF will target key sectors of the Ukrainian economy including energy, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, and IT. The Fund will contribute to Ukraine’s efforts to build back the economy in line with best practices and become a key partner to the global community in the low carbon transition.

The UDF aims to mobilise private and public investments to support the post-conflict reconstruction and modernisation of key sectors within the Ukrainian economy. The latest World Bank damage assessment report estimates Ukraine’s total recovery and reconstruction needs at $411bn as of February 2023. Since the beginning of the war, a range of critical bilateral and multilateral financial aid initiatives have been launched to address humanitarian, military, budgetary, and short-term economic relief efforts in Ukraine.

SOURCE Tattarang

Funding led by Climate Investment will support Fero Labs’ white-box artificial intelligence (AI) and deployments of new features that drive real-time emissions reduction for steel, cement, chemical sectors

NEW YORK, June 21, 2023 — Fero Labs, an AI-driven manufacturing process optimization software company, today announced the close of a $15 million growth round led by Climate Investment (‘CI’, formerly OGCI Climate Investments), with additional participation from investors Blackhorn Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, and DI Technology. This round brings Fero Labs’ total funding to date to $30 million.

Today, the manufacturing industry accounts for 25% of global carbon emissions, two-thirds of which come from steel, cement, and chemicals. Fero Labs works with some of the largest global players in these sectors, using AI to help their engineers make more efficient production decisions. To date, Fero Labs’ software has uncovered upwards of $20M in savings for customers including Covestro, Gerdau and CELSA Nordic and reduced more than 100,000 tons of carbon emissions. With this new funding, the company plans to deploy new sustainability features that will accelerate commercialization across key industries, with the internal goal of reducing at least 800,000 tons of emissions by 2025.

“We are pleased to announce our latest funding as we continue to build our white-box AI technology to make factories greener,” said Berk Birand, co-founder and CEO at Fero Labs. “The industrial sector is notoriously hard to decarbonize, and hardware solutions like carbon capture and storage come with a hefty price tag and daunting implementation process. White-box AI software requires no capital expenditure and can be quickly implemented. This means companies can immediately start reducing emissions and quantify emissions reduction more accurately with easy-to-understand dashboards and reports. Tangible proof of impact is a crucial part of the sustainability journey. The participating investors are the perfect long-term partners for us to bring on as we continue to work toward hitting our sustainability goals.”

Fero Labs’ software provides plant operators, with little-to-no data science background, access to powerful insights, enabling them to understand the root cause of any issue and deploy updates to ensure their plants operate sustainably and at peak performance. Fero Labs is unique in the industrial space for using white-box AI, which reveals the reasoning behind its predictions. Unlike the black-box AI popularly seen in tools like ChatGPT, Fero Labs makes it possible for users to know if they can trust the results.

“Fero Labs’ AI software materially reduces industrial emissions in some of the highest emitting sectors,” said Felicity O’Kelly, Investment Principal at CI. “The white-box algorithm approach engenders confidence even at the operator level, which is something that we haven’t seen in the market before. Given CI’s focus on driving accelerated carbon emissions reduction through high impact innovations, such as Fero Labs, we’re excited to partner and support the next phase of the company’s growth.” Felicity has joined Fero Labs’ Board of Directors alongside CI’s Technology Director, Rick Cutright, who has joined as an observer.

“We’re excited to work with the Fero Labs team as they empower process engineering teams across ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors. The team’s expertise building AI and machine learning models that drive cost and emissions reductions throughout the manufacturing lifecycle makes them particularly well-suited to leverage applied deep learning for the energy transition. We believe differentiation in a crowded AI market can be found at the foundational data unit, and Fero Labs has a clear path to scale their advantage over time,” said Melissa Cheong, Managing Partner at Blackhorn Ventures. Melissa has also joined the Fero Labs board as an observer.

In 2022, Fero Labs tripled its revenue and number of customers which span sectors including steel, cement, chemical, energy, food and more. To learn more about Fero Labs, please visit ferolabs.com.

About Fero Labs
Fero Labs makes process optimization software that is powering the next wave of industrial manufacturing. Headquartered in New York, Fero Labs aligns with leading global manufacturers to increase profitability and sustainability at the same time. Since launching in 2015, Fero software has provided industrial customers an average ROI of 233% and saved 200 million pounds of CO2 emissions. Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Climate Investment 
Climate Investment, formerly OGCI Climate Investments, is an independently managed specialist investor focused on accelerating capital-efficient decarbonization of heavy emitting sectors. Operational since 2017, its team of investment and technical experts has built a portfolio of over 30 outstanding technology and business model innovations that have collectively delivered 57 MT CO₂e of greenhouse gas reduction in the period 2019-2022.

Climate Investment was founded by member companies of the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative (“OGCI”). They have invested in Climate Investment funds and deployed many of its portfolio innovations, supporting their early commercial development. Visit www.climateinvestment.com 

SOURCE Fero Labs

Company emerges from stealth to preview powerful new search technology and announce initial government contract award

ATLANTA, June 21, 2023 — Danti, pioneers in helping users find relevant information about physical places on our planet, today announced the closing of its $2.75 million Pre-seed funding round. The round was led by Tech Square Ventures with participation from Radius Capital. Also included Philip Krim and Raven One Ventures, Space.VC, Overline, Tareyton Ventures, Jordan Noone, Keith Masback, and Jeff Crusey. Funding will be used to accelerate development of Danti’s search engine technology for deployment with U.S. intelligence and defense customers, along with commercial partners in the property, insurance, and large scale infrastructure space.

Founded in 2023 by experts in the aerospace, space, and geospatial data markets, Danti is on a mission to make Earth’s data accessible to anyone looking for it. Powered by the latest AI and natural language processing (NLP) technologies, Danti allows expert and non-expert users alike to pose simple questions and get highly relevant results. For example, a query of “How old is the roof at 123 Main Street?” will return results that include county permit records, high resolution airborne images confirming roof changes, and analytics from firms who provide that information. 

“Today’s market for Earth data is a lot like the early days of the internet—there’s a staggering amount of data out there, but it’s all siloed and distributed. As a result, this valuable data is only available to experts who know exactly where to look for it and how to piece it together,” said Jesse Kallman, CEO and Founder of Danti. “Danti is on a mission to open access to data on physical locations by building the market’s first search engine—one that’s as easy to use as the popular search engines we all use to surf the web.” 

Along with the funding round, Danti also announced that it has won an open challenge put out by the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) and sponsored by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) titled geoSpatial Environment for Access, Retrieval & Content Hosting (“gSEARCH”). The gSEARCH program is focused on the search and discovery of multi-formatted geospatial content within government-managed and commercial data repositories. Danti’s cutting-edge technology was awarded the top prize for its ability to enable non-expert users with no geospatial background to quickly prioritize, analyze, and organize information into action. This program is now underway, and Danti is working alongside NGA and various DoD partners to provide a critical search tool to those protecting our nation.

“Every day, there are terabytes of data produced on physical places by satellites, drones, manned aircraft, analytics firms, social media, news, and other sources. The disorganization of this data is a compounding problem,” said Martice Nicks, CTO and co-founder of Danti. “We are building a search engine that brings order to the chaos. By leveraging the latest advancements in AI and NLP, Danti will empower our defense, intelligence and commercial customers to make searching their own data, and all publicly available data, as simple as searching the web.”

About Danti
Danti is the market’s first Earth data search engine that enables expert and non-expert users alike to pose simple questions about physical places on our planet and instantly gain access to the breadth of information generated daily by satellites, drones, analytics firms, social media and the like. By incorporating the latest AI tools and decades of experience in different data types, Danti provides highly relevant answers and correlating data sets to user inquiries. The team brings together expertise from the government and enterprise data systems market, along with leaders from across the earth observation market. For more information, visit https://danti.ai/.

SOURCE Danti

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 21, 2023 — HighFive Healthcare (HighFive), a leading specialty dental partnership organization focused on endodontics and oral surgery today announced that they have closed a $100 million growth investment led by Norwest, a leading venture capital and growth equity investment firm. Norwest General Partner Dr. Ryan A. Harris and dental services industry veteran David Willens will join the company’s board of directors. The strategic investment and partnership will enable HighFive to continue its rapid growth across the southeast United States and beyond. HighFive doctors and management, Krowten Capital, LLC and Jemison Investment Co., Inc. also participated in the round.

HighFive experienced rapid growth in 2022, doubling its practice size through the acquisition of partnering practices and organic growth, and this momentum has continued in 2023. From 2021 to 2022, HighFive’s headcount increased by 142% and annual revenue increased by 150%. As specialty dental practices continue to consolidate across the country, HighFive is well-positioned to continue its positive trajectory.

“I am grateful for our doctor partners and the HighFive homebase team. Together we’ve led rapid innovation in the specialty dental space,” said HighFive Healthcare CEO and founder Chad Trull. “Our partnership with Norwest will only strengthen our ability to support industry-leading specialists in providing the highest quality patient care. Norwest shares our collective belief that high-quality patient care starts with supporting the best doctor partners and teams across the country, and has an established track record of building leading brands and businesses.”

“We’re excited to partner with HighFive in building a best-in-class specialty dental platform,” said Dr. Ryan Harris, General Partner at Norwest. “In getting to know HighFive’s clinicians and corporate team, we’ve found a laser focus on outstanding patient care. Together we are dedicated to developing partnerships with the country’s most talented, driven specialty dentists while maintaining HighFive’s patient-centered culture.”

“The transparency and culture of HighFive are unmatched. We are doing this totally differently. It is incredible to have the opportunity to own and manage a business of this scale, keep clinical autonomy, and watch the financial successes of all of my partners and peers,” said HighFive partner Dr. David Roden DMD, MD.

About HighFive Healthcare

HighFive’s partnership philosophy is simple: take care of your patients and HighFive will handle the rest. HighFive is an elite group of oral surgeons and endodontists and is majority doctor owned. This is not your typical DSO Model. The collaboration between the best surgeons, doctors and management team members elevates private practice with scale and optimization and maximizes the success of partnership. HighFive’s goal is for every patient to have an exceptional experience in each of its practices. HighFive’s transparent, fun and collaborative culture creates an innovative approach to operations, quality and buying power. The company, founded in 2018, is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama and was named a 2023 Best Places to Work by the Birmingham Business Journal. For more information visit www.high5health.com.   

About Norwest

Norwest is a leading venture and growth equity investment firm managing more than $12.5 billion in capital. Since its inception, Norwest has invested in more than 650 companies and currently partners with more than 200 companies in its venture and growth equity portfolio. The firm invests in early to late-stage businesses across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. The Norwest team offers a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com. Follow Norwest on Twitter @NorwestVP.

SOURCE HighFive Healthcare

Retail platform secures funding to grow to profitability

NEW YORK and CHICAGO, June 21, 2023 — Leap, the retail platform for modern brands, announced a $15 million infusion of capital. This fundraise was co-led by existing investors BAM Elevate and Costanoa Ventures with participation from Equal Ventures, Hyde Park Ventures and additional investors. This funding will enable the company to drive growth with existing and new brands, enhance platform capabilities and accelerate the company’s path to profitability.

The Leap platform – which launches and operates insight-driven retail stores — has more than doubled its network size and revenue since the platform’s Series B financing in January 2022. Today, more than 50 brands utilize the Leap Platform to power over 100 stores across 11 markets. Brands such as Frankies Bikinis, M.M.LaFleur, Public Rec and SET continue to expand their store count on the Leap platform, while Brumate, Nisolo. and True Classic recently opened their first stores with Leap. Leap will continue to focus its investments in building location density in active markets, resulting in impactful scale and efficiencies for brands who leverage the platform.

“Now more than ever, brands want immersive retail stores to connect with high value customers directly,” said Amish Tolia, co-founder and CEO at Leap. “As Leap grows, our first-party data and operational efficiencies compound, resulting in advantages for both brands and landlords that the traditional in-house retail model simply can’t offer.”

“The Leap platform makes sense for us at this stage in our growth,” said Zach Goldstein, Founder and CEO of Public Rec. “We continue to scale our eCommerce business, and turned to Leap to launch and operate our retail fleet. Now, our Leap-powered stores help us acquire thousands of high value customers each month.”

About Leap
Leap is building the world’s largest network of branded retail stores – powered by data, technology, and scale. Leap’s platform enables brands to deploy stores that work in concert with ecommerce more rapidly at reduced cost and risk. Brand stores powered by Leap bring modern brands to life with compelling, immersive customer experience and operations driven and informed by millions of data points.
Learn more about Leap’s platform, and brand stores powered by Leap, at http://leapinc.com.

SOURCE Leap

VENICE, Calif., June 21, 2023 — Growth Street Partners today announced a minority growth investment in ECFX, the leading provider of electronic court notice management for law firms and corporate legal teams. The LegalTech Fund, a leading investor in innovative legal technology companies, also participated, as did Cove Fund and other existing investors. ECFX will use the $7M investment to expand its platform and further its leadership position in a rapidly adopting market.

ECFX was founded by Dan O’Day and Nelson Quintero, both lawyers and each with 25+ years of experience in the legal and legal technology industries. Many litigation firms still process notices manually, leading to increased risk and higher costs. Research has shown that over 50% of law firms report missing court notices. ECFX’s platform solves this, as well as minimizes non-billable hours that docketing teams, legal assistants, paralegals, and lawyers spend manually downloading, profiling, and distributing information from ECF notices from state and federal courts. Any firm can calculate their potential savings using ECFX’s ROI calculator.

ECFX is trusted by firms of all sizes across the country, including several Am Law 100 firms, such as DLA Piper LLP (US), Dentons US LLP, Cooley LLP, and Cole Scott & Kissane, P.A., which alone has processed 200,000 unique documents through ECFX this year.

“We are on a mission to help law firms reduce risk and increase efficiency,” explained Dan O’Day, CEO and Co-Founder of ECFX. “Partnering with Growth Street positions us to continue building out our team, investing in our industry leading product, and further expanding our leadership position in this growing category,” added Nelson Quintero, COO and Co-Founder of ECFX.

“Growth Street is excited to partner with Dan, Nelson, and the rapidly growing ECFX team,” said Nate Grossman and Steve Wolfe, the Co-Founders of Growth Street Partners. “ECF notices are growing rapidly as court systems across the country continue to go digital, and law firms are wasting time and money manually processing these notices. ECFX has the broadest court coverage, easiest to use platform, and best customer service in the industry. It is clear why so many leading law firms are adopting the platform to manage this critical workflow.”

In conjunction with the minority growth investment, Growth Street Partners will join the Board of Directors.

ECFX
ECFX was founded by legal and technology experts with a single goal: to address unmet automation needs in the legal industry. It is committed to filling in gaps in legal workflows with intelligently automated solutions, enabling firms to save time, gain control, mitigate risk, and improve visibility. Its premier product, ECFX Notice, automates the downloading, profiling, storing, and distribution of court documents in ECF notices for both state and federal courts — saving firms hundreds of hours a week to focus on the work clients value. Please visit www.goecfx.com to learn more.

Growth Street Partners
Growth Street Partners provides early growth capital to rapidly growing SaaS and technology-enabled services companies addressing underserved markets. The firm partners with founders who have personally lived through the problems their businesses solve. The firm has raised two funds and has over $200 million of assets under management. Investments include Pear Deck, LineLeader, Visual Lease, Hotel Effectiveness, Suralink, HR Acuity, Govenda, Pikmykid, PublicInput, uConnect, goHappy, PSTrax, and ECFX. If you are a founder from industry looking to scale your business without losing control or are simply interested in more information, please visit www.growthstreetpartners.com.

SOURCE Growth Street Partners

SHELTON, Conn., June 21, 2023 — Los Angeles based GreenLake Asset Management LLC (“GreenLake”) has funded a $34,400,000 refinance and construction loan for Fountain Square retail center in Shelton, CT.

Fountain Square has generated significant interest as the first retail development in the market since 2021 and features a lineup of nationally recognized tenants including Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread and Taco Bell. Development had stopped due to various construction liens and complications in the partnership that owned the property. With the assistance of GreenLake’s loan, the Sponsor was able to settle outstanding financing and more than 60 vendor liens, as well as carry out a successful partnership buyout. Moreover, the loan provides the necessary funding to bring the project to completion and stabilization.

Peter Chang, Managing Principal at GreenLake stated, “The completion of this project involved navigating an intricate transaction with a significant number of liens and distressed mortgages. The sponsor has an impressive track record spanning more than three decades in commercial construction and development in the Northeast. We are confident that Fountain Square will thrive with its irreplaceable location, strong market and quality tenants.”

Founded in 2008, GreenLake Asset Management LLC and its affiliates provide short-term commercial bridge loans nationwide. GreenLake offers creative, flexible and time-sensitive capital solutions for a broad spectrum of real estate special situations. GreenLake lends across a range of asset classes including hospitality, industrial, multi-family, self-storage, mixed-use, office and retail.

Contact:

Kamau Coleman
Director, Originations
626.529.1084
[email protected]

Adam Frank
Vice President, Originations
646.766.0288
[email protected]

Renee Volaric
Vice President, Originations
646.766.0286
[email protected]

www.greenlakefund.com

SOURCE GreenLake Asset Management LLC

GWTT is a full-service provider of commercial water treatment services, including process and design engineering, system construction and startup, operations & maintenance, system optimization, and equipment sales and rentals. GWTT self-performs the vast majority of critical-path project milestones, mitigating risk and simplifying logistical challenges. GWTT has 25+ years of experience partnering with clients to solve complex water treatment challenges, including the cleanup of Superfund and former manufactured gas plant sites, civil and infrastructure dewatering, coal ash pond closure, and treating for emerging contaminants of concern that include PFAS compounds, 1,4-dioxane, hexavalent chromium, and many others, addressing some of the most important water quality challenges in the United States.

GWTT has been ranked in the Engineering News-Record Top 200 Environmental Firms (ENR 200) in each of the last six years.

“Ember is very excited to be partnering with the seasoned team at GWTT as we look to augment the company’s ability to support more projects in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and additional markets as its customers pull them into new geographies,” said Ember Principal Caleb Powers, who will join the Company’s Board of Directors. “GWTT, with Ember as a financial partner, now has the capability to grow all segments of our business, including expansion into new geographic markets.  With a partner like Ember, the opportunities for GWTT and our employees increase significantly, and we could not be more excited about the path ahead,” said GWTT President Rich Worthington.

Greenberg Traurig, LLP acted as legal adviser to Ember Infrastructure. Raymond James & Associates, Inc. acted as financial advisor and Winston & Strawn LLP acted as legal advisor to GWTT.

About GWTT

 GWTT designs, fabricates, installs, and operates dewatering and water treatment systems throughout the United States. GWTT’s service and product portfolio delivers innovative, customized, integrated water treatment solutions. GWTT’s headquarters and equipment fabrication center are located in Wharton, New Jersey, and the company also maintains a regional service center in Millbury, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit www.gwttllc.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 Contact

Ember Infrastructure
[email protected]com

SOURCE Ground/Water Treatment & Technology, LLC

Advancing a new class of alpha radioligand therapies based on lead-212 (Pb212), a best-in-class alpha-emitting isotope

Lead program, AB001, in the clinic for the treatment of prostate cancer

Co-founded by radiopharmaceutical veterans Roy Larsen, Ph.D., and Øyvind Bruland, M.D., in collaboration with F-Prime Capital and Radforsk, with backing from Omega Funds

Led by an experienced team of industry and radiopharmaceutical experts, including
 founding CEO Emanuele Ostuni, Ph.D., Chairman Ted W. Love, M.D.,
and independent director Susanne Schaffert, Ph.D.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and OSLO, Norway and LONDON and BASEL, Switzerland, June 21, 2023 — ARTBIO, Inc. (ARTBIO), a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing a new class of targeted alpha radioligand therapies (ART), announced its founding with a $23 million seed financing led by F-Prime Capital with Omega Funds. ARTBIO was founded in 2021 by Roy Larsen, Øyvind Bruland, Radforsk, and F-Prime Capital to create highly targeted cancer therapies by pairing the optimal alpha-emitting isotope Pb212 with ligands against proven tumor-specific targets. ARTBIO is also creating an entirely new approach to ART manufacturing to overcome production and distribution challenges. In early 2022, Emanuele Ostuni, formerly Head of Europe for Cell and Gene Therapy at Novartis Oncology, joined ARTBIO as CEO to start building its world-class team and advance its proprietary technology, while securing additional funding from F-Prime Capital and Omega Funds.

The financing enables ARTBIO’s ongoing clinical development of its lead program AB001 for the treatment of prostate cancer. The funds will enable the company to advance a differentiated pipeline, further develop its AlphaDirect™ Pb212 isolation technology, and expand its distributed manufacturing network.

“Our unique approach combines Pb212 best in class properties with rationally designed ligands against tumor-specific targets to unlock the full therapeutic potential of alpha radioligand therapy,” said Emanuele Ostuni, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ARTBIO. “Many cancer patients still have few or no treatment options. We focus on ARTs with Pb212 because they can selectively deliver lethal energy to tumors in an optimal timeframe, resulting in better outcomes for patients and easier management by health care professionals. We are equally focused on building a distributed manufacturing ecosystem to maximize the potential of these therapies through a footprint tailored to the short half-life of Pb212.”

A New Approach for Alpha Radioligand Therapy (ART)
ARTBIO’s unique approach is underpinned by a deep understanding of cancer biology and the infrastructure needed to effectively design, manufacture and distribute ARTs. 

There are four distinct pillars of development:

• The ideal alpha-emitter profile: Pb212 has a short half-life that matches the properties of the small molecule carriers used by ARTBIO, delivering most of its energy into the tumor quickly.
• A differentiated pipeline of ARTs: ARTBIO has one asset in clinical development, with additional assets in rapid pre-clinical development, each focusing on addressing unmet medical needs.
• Distributed ART manufacturing ecosystem: The company is building an end-to-end distributed manufacturing network for reliable and fast delivery of therapeutic candidates to the bedside.
• Proprietary Pb212 isolation technology: ARTBIO’s AlphaDirect™ technology delivers highly pure Pb212 from widely available raw materials.

An Expert Leadership Team
ARTBIO has assembled a world-class team of talented professionals spanning multiple disciplines and categories.

“ARTBIO’s team is highly skilled and passionate, bringing together a unique combination of expertise in the radioligand space, drug development and oncology,” said Ted W. Love, M.D., Chairman of the Board at ARTBIO. “I believe that ARTBIO’s approach represents the future of radioligand therapy that will radically advance cancer care.”

The leadership includes:

Management Team

• Emanuele Ostuni, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer; Former Head of Europe for Cell & Gene Therapy for Novartis Oncology
• Bharat Lagu, Ph.D., Sr. Vice President and Head of Discovery; Former Head of Drug Discovery at Mitobridge (acquired by Astellas)
• Victor Paulus, Ph.D., Sr. Vice President and Head of Regulatory Affairs; Former SVP of Regulatory Affairs at Fusion and Advanced Accelerator Applications.
• Vicki Jardine, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President of Clinical Development; Former Senior Clinical Development Leader (Alpha Radioligand Therapies) at Bayer
• Gjermund Olsen, Director of Manufacturing; Former Head of Technology Development (Radiotherapies) at Bayer

Scientific Advisory Board

• Øyvind Bruland, M.D.; ARTBIO SAB Chairman and Co-founder
• Roy Larsen, Ph.D.; ARTBIO Co-founder
• Oliver Sartor, M.D.; Director of Radiopharmaceutical Trials, Mayo Clinic
• Richard P. Baum, M.D.; President of the International Centers for Precision Oncology (ICPO) Academy and a Consultant at the Advanced Center for Radiomolecular Precision Oncology (RPO) at Curanosticum Wiesbaden-Frankfurt
• Dennis Benjamin, Ph.D.; Former Head of R&D at Seagen

Board of Directors

• Ted W. Love, M.D.; Chairman of the ARTBIO Board; Chair of Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s (BIO) Board of Directors
• Alex Pasteur, Ph.D.; Partner at F-Prime Capital
• Otello Stampacchia, Ph.D.; Managing Director and Founder at Omega Funds
• Roy Larsen, Ph.D.; ARTBIO Co-Founder, Founder of Sciencons
• Anders Tuv, Partner at Radforsk
• Susanne Schaffert, Ph.D.; ARTBIO Independent Director; Former President of Novartis Oncology and Advanced Accelerator Applications
• Emanuele Ostuni, Ph.D.; Chief Executive Officer of ARTBIO
• Martin Taylor, Ph.D.; Senior Associate at F-Prime Capital (Observer)
• Francesco Draetta; Partner at Omega Funds (Observer)

“ARTBIO is a global company that was incubated in Europe, where there has been much innovative development in the radioligand therapy space,” said Alex Pasteur, Ph.D., Partner at F-Prime Capital. “Roy and Øyvind are serial entrepreneurs responsible for developing the only alpha particle emitting radiopharmaceutical product currently on the market. We look forward to working with this team to support the development of their pipeline and advance their vision of creating alpha radioligand therapies that are accessible, effective, and safe for patients around the world.”

About ARTBIO 
ARTBIO is a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company redefining cancer care by creating a new class of alpha radioligand therapies (ARTs). The unique ARTBIO approach selects the optimal alpha-emitting isotope (Pb212) and tumor-specific targets to create highly targeted therapeutics. The company’s AlphaDirect™ technology, a first-of-its-kind Pb212 isolation method, enables a distributed manufacturing approach for the reliable production and delivery of ARTs. ARTBIO is advancing three pipeline programs with lead program AB001 currently in first in human trials. ARTBIO is shaped by a long-standing scientific legacy with nearly a century of pioneering work in radiation therapy conducted at the University of Oslo and Norway’s Radium Hospital. For more information, visit www.artbio.com, and follow us on LinkedIn (@artbio-inc) and Twitter (@artbio_inc).

About F-Prime Capital
F-Prime Capital is a global venture capital firm investing in healthcare and technology to solve the greatest challenges in health and medicine while delivering on the conviction that everyone deserves a gold standard of care. For over 50 years and with a portfolio of nearly 300 companies and counting spread across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, our independent venture capital group combines singular and deep expertise in life science, healthcare, and technology to identify and support founders with the next big ideas in therapeutics, medtech, and healthcare IT and services. With over $4.5 billion dollars under management, our team has created or co-created over 30 companies including Denali, Beam, Innovent, Orchard and Sana and has helped build many others including Blueprint Medicines, Iora Health, PatientPing, Devoted Health, Prime Medicine and Ultragenyx. F-Prime is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with offices in London, UK and San Francisco, CA. For more information, please visit www.fprimecapital.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Omega Funds 
Founded in 2004, Omega Funds is a leading international venture capital firm that creates and invests in life sciences companies that target our world’s most urgent medical needs. Omega focuses on identifying and supporting companies through value inflection points across the full arc of innovation, from company formation through clinical milestones and commercial adoption. Omega Funds’ portfolio companies have brought 49 products to market in multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, rare diseases, precision medicine and others. Please visit www.omegafunds.com for additional information.

About Radforsk
Radforsk is an oncology focused investment company dedicated to developing immunotherapies, precision medicine and radiopharmaceuticals. The fund has an evergreen structure allowing flexibility and focus on investments that will create long-term value. Radforsk’s investment model is based on very active ownership as investors and also hands-on company builders. Radforsk portfolio of companies spans from early start-ups to public companies with products on the global market. Radforsk is heavily involved in developing a sound life sciences ecosystem in Norway to ensure that portfolio companies and new innovations have beneficial conditions enabling success. Radforsk is behind and has supported some of the most successful oncology biotechs in the Nordics. For more information, please contact Chief Investment Officer Anders Tuv ([email protected])

SOURCE ARTBIO