The round, led by Supply Change Capital, will fuel development of PartnerSlate’s Marketplace to streamline collaboration in the $200-billion contract manufacturing industry for food and beverage brands.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2023 — PartnerSlate, the online marketplace connecting food brands and contract manufacturers (co-mans), announced today that it raised a $4-million round led by Supply Change Capital. The funding will accelerate the growth of its online marketplace digitizing the $200-billion food and beverage contract manufacturing industry.

CPG brands that list in the marketplace get matched to nearly 6,000 co-mans in PartnerSlate’s database, the largest and most accurate of its kind in North America. Co-mans are able to search marketplace listings to find projects with requirements matching their specific equipment, capabilities, risk appetite and capacity. PartnerSlate has already connected over $1 billion dollars worth of food and beverage projects to co-mans in 2023.

“PartnerSlate can cut a brand’s search for the right co-man from months to days,” said Vince Tseng, PartnerSlate’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Our approach replaces cold-calling with data science, helping both parties save hundreds of hours of following mismatched leads to dead ends.” Prior to PartnerSlate, Tseng used the same approach to build a repair vendor matching platform as Chief Services Officer at SquareTrade, which Allstate acquired for $1.4 billion in 2017.

Food Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) is a $1-trillion-plus US industry that has undergone seismic changes in the last decade. Around 30,000 new CPG products launch in the US each year according to Nielsen IQ, and hundreds of them are listed on the PartnerSlate marketplace every month.

Innovations in retail and direct-to-consumer distribution have lowered barriers to entry for new products, while snacking, plant-based diets and the demand for global flavors are here to stay. But finding the right manufacturing partner can take 12 months or longer, and delays products from getting to market.

“We are thrilled to be leading PartnerSlate’s round,” said Shayna Harris, Managing Partner at Supply Change Capital and PartnerSlate board member. “Finding the right manufacturing partner is a bottleneck for both emergent CPG businesses and incumbent brands looking to adapt to changing consumer tastes. PartnerSlate’s leadership team has both the right food manufacturing and software development experience to build the platform the market so desperately needs.”

PartnerSlate plans to use its new funding to expand project management features to help expedite projects through production and to invest in sales and marketing.

“We’ve seen a 3x growth in projects since our beta launch 4 months ago,” said Matt Suggs, co-founder and Chief Business Officer. “Startups love that we can find the right-sized partners, Fortune 500 brands appreciate the breadth and speed of our network, and co-mans like that we are a one-stop shop to streamline business development.”

“PartnerSlate has transformed our ability to get new customers,” said Rob Hannusch, Sales Director at Thermal Kitchen, a Florida-based co-man. “It’s a great delivery service for high quality leads. We’re now working with multiple customers through PartnerSlate, and it’s been invaluable in helping us hit our 2023 growth goals.”

Additional investors joining the round included Cleveland Ave, ResilienceVC, Pacific Fin Capital, Mentors fund, Newlin VC, and the MBA fund.

About PartnerSlate 
PartnerSlate is a leading platform connecting brands and manufacturers in the food and beverage industry. Founded in 2021 by Matt Suggs and Vince Tseng, its project marketplace – PartnerMatch – helps supply and demand stakeholders find partners and collaborate more effectively in the multi-trillion-dollar global CPG market. Based in San Francisco, PartnerSlate is venture-backed by leading firms including Supply Change Capital and Cleveland Ave. For more information, visit partnerslate.com.

Media Contact: 
Tiff Quan 
213-221-5330 
[email protected]

SOURCE PartnerSlate

BOULDER, Colorado en NEW YORK, 8 juni 2023 — TIFIN AMP, de Artifical Intelligence (“AI”)-partner voor moderne distributie, is verheugd de succesvolle afronding van een Serie A-ronde aan te kondigen, alsook de oprichting van een nieuwe raad van bestuur onafhankelijk van moedermaatschappij TIFIN.

De ronde wordt geleid door Motive Ventures, de venture-tak van Motive Partners. Deze stap markeert een uitbreiding van de samenwerking tussen TIFIN en Motive Partners, voortbouwend op de investering die Motive Partners deed in TIFIN’s Serie D-ronde vorig jaar.

Het geïntegreerde distributieplatform van TIFIN AMP is het eerste in zijn soort in de vermogensbeheersector. Met behulp van geavanceerde machine learning en data science stelt het vermogensbeheerders in staat om onaangeboorde distributiemogelijkheden voor fondsen en beheerde accounts op te sporen binnen hun bestaande klanten- en prospectenbestand. Met de geïntegreerde Nurture-mogelijkheden die realtime feedback geven, kunnen vermogensbeheerders nu hun eigen aangepaste algoritmische platforms ontwerpen die automatisch leren en evolueren wanneer ze zich richten op vermogensbeheerders. In combinatie met gegevens die uniek zijn voor TIFIN AMP kunnen de algoritme- en feedbackmogelijkheden de manier veranderen waarop de sector producten distribueert naar adviseurs en consumenten.

Ramin Niroumand , hoofd van Motive Ventures, gaf als commentaar: “De sector van het vermogens- en activabeheer staat op een AI-kantelpunt – TIFIN AMP herkende dit lang voor de AI-hype. Hun sterke groei sinds de lancering, in combinatie met de zwaargewichten in hun pijplijn, zijn redenen waarom we in AMP geloven.”

Alvi Abuaf , Industry Partner bij Motive Partners, die zitting zal nemen in het TIFIN AMP-bestuur, licht toe: “AMP hervormt de manier waarop vermogens- en fondsbeheerders leads ontdekken en prioriteiten stellen op een moderne en efficiënte manier. Als externe AI-partner helpt AMP vermogensbeheerders met hun verkoop en distributie voor verschillende producten, segmenten en regio’s met toegang tot een overtuigende combinatie van datasets.” 

Dr. Vinay Nair, oprichter en CEO van TIFIN, voegt hieraan toe: “TIFIN heeft bedrijven gebouwd die mensen helpen in contact te komen met producten en advies. TIFIN AMP wil een nieuw paradigma vormen voor de distributie van ETF’s, Mutual Funds, managed accounts en alternatieve beleggingen met een op de gebruikersvraag en AI gebaseerde aanpak. We zijn verheugd om de onafhankelijkheid van TIFIN aan te kondigen met strategische steun van Motive, een investeringsbedrijf van zeer ervaren investeerders, exploitanten en vernieuwers, om de volgende groeifase van TIFIN AMP te ondersteunen.”

Sinds de lancering in december 2022 werkt TIFIN AMP samen met toonaangevende vermogensbeheerders, wat een radicale verandering heeft teweeggebracht in hun distributiestrategieën door de kracht van AI en datawetenschap. Samen luiden ze een nieuw tijdperk in van bewustwording, leadgeneratie en modernisering in de branche.

Over Motive Partners

Motive Ventures is de early-stage investeringstak van Motive Partners en richt zich op pre-seed tot serie A financiële technologie-investeringen in Noord-Amerika en Europa. Motive Ventures is gevestigd in Berlijn, Londen en New York. Motive Partners is een gespecialiseerde investeringsmaatschappij die zich richt op durfkapitaal-, groei- en buy-outinvesteringen in op technologie gebaseerde financiële en zakelijke dienstverleningsbedrijven. Motive Partners brengt gedifferentieerde expertise, connectiviteit en capaciteiten om waarde op lange termijn te creëren in financiële technologiebedrijven. Meer informatie over Motive Partners vindt u op www.motivepartners.com.

Over TIFIN

TIFIN is een AI- en innovatieplatform voor vermogen. TIFIN is opgericht om aantrekkelijke en intelligente vermogenservaringen te ontwikkelen voor een beter financieel leven.

TIFIN beheert Magnifieen consumentgerichte marktplaats die gepersonaliseerde beleggingen biedt via next-gen intelligentie en een AI-beleggingsassistent; TIFIN Wealth, een AI-engine die organische groei mogelijk maakt voor financiële adviseurs, vermogensondernemingen en financiële aanbieders op de werkplek door middel van beleggingsvoorstellen, marketingautomatisering en datawetenschap; TIFIN AMP, een AI-platform om de distributie voor vermogensbeheerders te moderniseren; en TIFIN Studios, een incubatieplatform voor het opzetten van nieuwe bedrijven.

Voor vragen kunt u contact opnemen met onze perswoordvoerder:  
AJ Boury  
[email protected]

De hierin opgenomen informatie mag op geen enkele wijze worden opgevat of geïnterpreteerd als een uitnodiging tot het verkopen of aanbieden van adviesdiensten. Alle inhoud is alleen voor informatieve doeleinden.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1962153/TIFIN_AMP_Lockup_3__1_Logo.jpg 

SOURCE TIFIN

MEDELLIN, Colombia, June 8, 2023 — The Green Coffee Company (GCC), a Legacy Group portfolio company and Colombia’s largest coffee producer, announced today that it has closed its $25 million Series C equity funding round.

The company’s financing to-date has been funded by more than 450 individual accredited and high-net-worth individual investors primarily from the U.S., who have invested over $60 million in the business. Direct investments from ‘mass affluent’ or high-net-worth individuals is a growing trend for Legacy Group’s emerging market opportunities.

“The Green Coffee Company is offering unprecedented access to investment in one of the world’s most timeless and in-demand commodities: Coffee. We’re the only operator at-scale giving accredited international investors this opportunity,” said Cole Shephard, founder of GCC and partner at Legacy Group. “The $25 million Series C equity raise is a testament to the credibility we have in the market. With our ever-expanding investor base, this raise brings our total equity funding to-date to over $60 million. In a market like Colombia, the impact we can have with this capital is market-defining and will be globally disruptive to how we drink coffee.”

Proceeds from the funding round will expand the company’s Colombian farming operations, as it looks to become the world’s largest producer of arabica coffee, to accelerate its U.S.-based coffee roasting operations and to enable the company to launch lines of liquors and spirits distilled from coffee cherries and other coffee ‘waste.’ The company is currently seeking $65 million of institutional debt capital to supplement the equity raise in order to execute on its expansion plans.

Kevan Zipin, an investor since 2018, said of the company, “Being a part of this raise is phenomenal. What Cole, Adam, and the whole team are bringing to the world of coffee is incredibly compelling and unique. With their constant communication and insight, every new step has me feeling like I am a part of the developmental process.”

Since its founding in 2017, GCC now has total landholdings in excess of 9,000 acres and more than 11,500,000 coffee trees under ownership, which makes the company more than two times larger than any other coffee producer in the country. With intentions of becoming the world’s largest producer of arabica coffee in the next two years, GCC is considering a potential 2026 U.S. IPO exit.

About the Green Coffee Company

The Green Coffee Company is a consolidated coffee farming operation headquartered in the U.S. with operations based in Colombia. GCC has complete control of the supply chain: from cultivation to processing to direct trade with end-clients. GCC’s holistic approach to the coffee sector and commitment to best environmental practices not only establishes the long-term profitability and sustainability of the business, but also improves the quality of the coffee produced on the farms.

About Legacy Group

Legacy Group is a leading investment firm in Latin America with a strict focus on high-quality LATAM businesses for international high-net-worth & accredited investors that can produce outsized returns. With over $60 million of investment under management, our mission is to continue to build and source a concentrated portfolio of disruptive businesses for our clients through our on-the-ground experience that can quickly become market leaders in underinvested yet macroeconomically significant industries in Latin America. As just one example, in 2017, Legacy Group founded the Green Coffee Company, which has since become Colombia’s largest coffee producer. For more information contact Legacy Group at [email protected] or visit their website at https://legacy-group.co/.

SOURCE Legacy Group

Early-stage investment firm joins other strategic investors to drive growth of artificial intelligence in Proptech

MINNEAPOLIS, June 8, 2023 — Rice Park Capital Management LP (“Rice Park”), a Minneapolis-based, private investment firm, announces its venture capital strategy (“RPC Ventures”) has made an investment into Purlin, a technology company that designs, creates, and delivers advanced AI solutions for the real estate market. Purlin provides enterprise-level software tools to real estate brokerages, real estate teams, and agents to help them more effectively generate more leads, promote properties, target potential buyers, and manage the buying and closing process.

“Rice Park’s venture strategy is about identifying companies that are the right fit and investing in them early. We saw a space with significant tailwinds around AI to support the real estate transaction process,” said Nick Smith, CEO and Managing Partner at Rice Park. “We are impressed with Purlin’s enterprise-level engagement and what its team has built over the past few years. Additionally, we believe there is opportunity for an even broader application within the mortgage market, title, and the closing process.”

Chris Bixby, Managing Director of Venture Capital Strategies at Rice Park said, “We’re excited about this new partnership and joining Purlin’s board. We believe its platform is unique because it has the flexibility to digest and utilize AI developments in this rapidly expanding sector. Purlin built its business innovatively by developing and integrating cohesive teams in Los Angeles and Armenia consisting of PhDs, computer scientists and data experts, which we believe provides the foundation for growth in this market.”

Purlin’s competitive advantage is grounded in its ability to apply its AI and machine learning tools to each step of the real estate process. Given the existing real estate transaction environment, brokerages are increasingly focused on delivering tools to their brokers that can help them generate leads and close processes faster. Today, Purlin’s customers include Douglas Elliman Realty and the Eklund | Gomes Team.

“This additional investment will enable us to take Purlin to new levels. Rice Park is the perfect partner for us because of its deep understanding of the real estate and mortgage markets,” added Giorgi Chigogidze, Founder and CEO of Purlin. “A few years ago, we embarked on a mission to deliver on the promise of AI in real estate. Our new partnership with Rice Park proves that our mission and roadmap is being realized beyond brokerages, in large adjacent categories.”

Rice Park joins New Valley Ventures, an investment vehicle managed by Douglas Elliman Inc., Redwood Trust Inc., through its strategic venture investment platform, RWT Horizons, SUM Ventures, Mission Gate, and Fredrik Eklund and Julia Spillman-Gover, of The Eklund | Gomes Team as investors in the business.

About Rice Park Capital Management
Rice Park Capital Management LP is a private investment firm managing funds and investment vehicles on behalf of institutional investors, family offices and high net worth individuals. Its investment focus is to deliver cycle-resistant returns to its limited partners by unlocking value in complex opportunities in the residential and commercial mortgage and real estate sectors. RPC Ventures seeks to provide active capital to early-stage real estate and mortgage technology businesses.

Learn more about Rice Park at www.riceparkcapital.com.

No Offer or Solicitation. This press release is for information purposes only and is not intended to and does not constitute, or form part of, an offer, invitation or the solicitation of an offer or invitation to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, sell or otherwise dispose of any securities.

SOURCE Rice Park Capital Management

GAITHERSBURG, Md., June 8, 2023 — Hememics Biotechnologies, Inc. has entered into a strategic partnership with General Graphene Corporation of Knoxville Tennessee, the culmination of a four-year collaborative effort to develop a scalable, non-clean-room process for the manufacturing of the company’s 32-plex, graphene biosensor chips. Combined with Hememics’ expertise in long-shelf-life detection biology, this partnership promises to revolutionize point-of-care diagnostics tools for pathogens and environmental toxins.

In the past nine months alone, Hememics in conjunction with General Graphene has manufactured more than 100,000 graphene biosensors. Using its patented desiccation technology for detection biology, Hememics has functionalized and tested these biosensors through numerous molecular and antigen tests to detect SEB and ricin at consistent sensitivities in the low picomolar range and get results within 5 minutes.

The 100,000+ sensor tests are part of a broader program for perfecting chip designs. “Feedback from these tests will help a great deal in furthering products targeted for human trials,” said John Warden, CEO of Hememics.

These chips are capable of detecting multiple pathogens from a single saliva or blood sample with a level of detection more than 100x more sensitive than lateral flow, a common point-of-care test format.

“We are more than delighted with the performance of our penny-sized, 32-plex graphene sensor array,” said Sri Aithal, Director of Research and Development at Hememics.

“In the highly competitive world of diagnostics, speed and cost define whole product categories. At single-digit picomolar levels of detection, five-minute test times and non-cleanroom manufacturing techniques, we broke through three significant barriers at once,” said David Ho, President and CSO of Hememics.

“Our collaboration with Hememics has been extremely positive and productive from day one. As a pure-play graphene foundry, General Graphene seeks partners who possess the application expertise necessary to commercialize graphene-based applications. Hememics has been an excellent fit for us with their vast knowledge and expertise in graphene-based biosensors,” said Greg Erickson, CEO of General Graphene.

General Graphene Corporation is a pure-play CVD graphene foundry manufacturing large-area, roll-to-roll (R2R), chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene. Using its proprietary roll-to-roll CVD graphene manufacturing processes, General Graphene is equipped to drive meaningful CVD graphene-based R&D at scale and accelerate the commercialization of CVD graphene materials across various markets.

Hememics uniquely uses graphene-based sensors with its patented bio preservatives to bring handheld, lab-quality testing performance to wherever needed – whether it is a farm, emergency room or battlefield. This rugged, low-cost platform consists of a portable, easy-to-use reader utilizing a single-use biochip with 32 sensors that can be individually programmed to detect molecular, antigen and antibody targets.  We put a whole lab in your hand so you can make decisions when and wherever necessary – simplifying workflows with results within 5 minutes.

Media Contact: 
John Warden, Jr. 
240-800-1113 
[email protected]

SOURCE Hememics Biotechnologies, Inc.

BOULDER, Colo. and NEW YORK, June 8, 2023 — TIFIN AMP, the Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Partner For Modern Distribution, is delighted to announce the successful close of a Series A round and the establishment of a new board independent from parent company TIFIN.

Leading the round is Motive Ventures, the venture arm of Motive Partners. This move marks an expansion of the collaboration between TIFIN and Motive Partners, building on the investment Motive Partners made in TIFIN’s Series D round last year.

TIFIN AMP’s integrated distribution platform is the first of its kind in the asset management industry. Powered by advanced machine learning and data science, it empowers top-tier asset management firms to unearth untapped fund and managed account distribution opportunities within their existing client and prospect base. With its integrated Nurture capabilities that provide real-time feedback, asset managers can now design their own custom algorithmic platforms that are learning and evolving automatically when targeting wealth managers. When combined with data that is unique to TIFIN AMP, the algo and feedback capabilities can change how the industry distributes products to advisors and consumers.

Ramin Niroumand, Head of Motive Ventures, commented: “The wealth and asset management industry is at an AI tipping point – TIFIN AMP recognized this long before AI was hyped. Their strong growth since launch, combined with the heavy-weight players in their pipeline, are reasons that we believe in AMP.”

Alvi Abuaf, an Industry Partner at Motive Partners, who will serve on the TIFIN AMP board, commented: “AMP is reshaping the way asset and fund managers conduct lead discovery and approach prioritization in a modern and efficient way. By acting as an outsourced AI partner, AMP helps asset managers with their sales and distribution across products, segments, and geographies with access to a compelling combination of datasets.” 

Dr. Vinay Nair, the Founder and CEO of TIFIN, added that “TIFIN has been building companies that help connect people to products and advice. TIFIN AMP aims to shape a new paradigm for the distribution of ETFs, Mutual Funds, managed accounts and alternative investments with a user demand and AI-based approach. We are thrilled to announce its independence from TIFIN with strategic backing by Motive, an investment firm of deeply experienced investors, operators and innovators, to support the next phase of growth for TIFIN AMP.”

Since its launch in December 2022, TIFIN AMP has been working with leading asset managers, revolutionizing their distribution strategies through the power of AI and data science. Together, they are ushering in a new era of awareness, lead generation, and modernization in the industry.

About Motive Partners

Motive Ventures is the early-stage investment arm of Motive Partners, focused on pre-seed through to Series A financial technology investments in North America and Europe. Motive Ventures is based in Berlin, London and New York. Motive Partners is a specialist investment firm focusing on venture, growth equity and buyout investments in technology-enabled financial and business services companies. Motive Partners brings differentiated expertise, connectivity, and capabilities to create long-term value in financial technology companies. More information on Motive Partners can be found at www.motivepartners.com.

About TIFIN

TIFIN is an AI and innovation platform for wealth. TIFIN was created to build engaging and intelligent wealth experiences for better financial lives.

TIFIN manages Magnifi, a consumer-focused marketplace that delivers investment personalization through next-gen intelligence and an AI investing assistant; TIFIN Wealth, an AI engine that enables organic growth for financial advisors, wealth enterprises, and workplace financial providers through investment proposals, marketing automation, and data science; TIFIN AMP, an AI platform to modernize distribution for Asset Management firms; and TIFIN Studios, an incubation platform for new business creation.

For media inquiries, please contact:
AJ Boury
[email protected]

The information contained herein should in no way be construed or interpreted as a solicitation to sell or offer to sell advisory services. All content is for informational purposes only.

SOURCE TIFIN

The round, led by ICONIQ Growth, will allow Pigment to drive sustainable growth and further product innovation to help companies ‍like Klarna, Miro and PVH adapt to change, with confidence

 SAN FRANCISCO , June 8, 2023 — Pigment, the business planning platform, today announced an $88 million Series C funding round led by ICONIQ Growth. The Series C investment brings the company’s total amount raised to $248M in under three years. Felix Capital, as well as previous investors Meritech, IVP and FirstMark have also joined the round.

This latest infusion of capital comes off the back of a 600% increase in revenue and a 10x increase in users throughout 2022, with companies such as Klarna, Miro, PVH (including brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein), Airtable, Figma, Webhelp and Poshmark choosing Pigment to help plan, make decisions, and drive growth.

“In today’s economic climate, far too many companies are being held back because they don’t have the right tools in place to get a full view of their business, manage changes, and grow. They’re forced to plan and make decisions with inaccurate, incomplete and siloed information,” said Eléonore Crespo, co-CEO and co-founder, Pigment.

“Our vision from the beginning has been to help people and organizations of all sizes make better business decisions. With this infusion of funding, we are on a clear path to drive innovation and change the status quo in an industry desperately in need of it. Pigment has never been more critical and relevant than it is today,” added Romain Niccoli, co-CEO and co-founder, Pigment.

Pigment will use the funds to drive sustainable growth at the company, with headcount expected to increase by 25% by the end 2023, across enterprise sales, partnerships and product teams. The company will also invest in product innovation for decision-makers across disciplines, including:

• Pigment AI, a chat-like interface to automate tasks, bring more people into the planning process and accelerate decision-making
• New automations to enable collaborative planning across teams to reduce the budgeting cycle and increase forecasting accuracy
• New HR and Sales planning features to aid specific teams to plan and report according to their needs, with organizational chart visualizations and territory heat maps

“We’ve had a great partnership with Pigment since the beginning and product innovation is a key reason our relationship continues to deepen,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO, Klarna. “With Pigment’s AI and workforce planning investments, I am confident that Klarna is and will continue to be better equipped to make the right decisions about our business in the best interests of our customers.”

“At Figma, our finance team wears many hats – we’re responsible for circulating business information, quickly diagnosing issues, and presenting leadership with solutions. Pigment allows us to understand our levers and make timely decisions for the business while remaining lean,” said Praveer Melwani, CFO, Figma.

ICONIQ Growth, Pigment’s newest investor, has made meaningful investments in some of the world’s largest technology companies including Adyen, Datadog, Gitlab, Miro, Snowflake, and more. “We are delighted to support Pigment with our global platform as they continue to expand their footprint in the US and beyond,” said Matt Jacobson, General Partner at ICONIQ Growth. “We’ve been incredibly impressed by Eléonore and Romain’s intense focus on product velocity and remarkable customer care, which has translated into exceptional growth and affinity,” added Seth Pierrepont, General Partner, ICONIQ Growth.

In the past year, Pigment has strengthened its North American presence, opening an office in Toronto and hiring senior leadership in the U.S. and Canada. Notable recent hires include Sean Brophy, Global Head of Sales, who joined from Alteryx where he led enterprise sales; and Vanessa Brangwyn, Global Head of Customers, who joined from Achievers, where she was Chief Customer and Revenue Officer.

About Pigment

Pigment is a business planning platform. By bringing together people, data and processes into an intuitive, adaptable, integrated platform, teams can quickly build trusted strategic and operational business plans to drive growth, react to change and future-proof their business. Industry-leading companies like Klarna, Figma, Airtable, PVH and Webhelp trust Pigment every day, allowing them to make confident and accurate decisions. Learn more at www.gopigment.com.

About ICONIQ Growth

ICONIQ Growth partners with visionaries defining the future of their industries to transform the world. Our investment platform and unique ecosystem help amplify our portfolio companies’ success from early growth stage to IPO and beyond. Our portfolio includes Adyen, AirBnB, Alibaba, Alteryx, Automattic, BambooHR, Braze, Chime, Collibra, Coupa, Datadog, Docusign, Gitlab, Marqeta, Miro, Procore, Red Ventures, Relativity, ServiceTitan, Snowflake, Sprinklr, Truckstop, Uber, Wolt, and Zoom, among others. Elevated by our global community of founders, pioneers, and leaders, we are entrepreneurs backing entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit ICONIQGrowth.com.

SOURCE Pigment

Series A financing co-led by Westlake Village BioPartners and Versant Ventures

Company advancing systemically delivered, skeletal and cardiac muscle targeted, liver de-targeted capsid and cargo technology platforms

Initial pipeline addressing myotonic dystrophy type 1 and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy

Company grants Astellas Pharma Inc. exclusive license to KT430 to treat X-linked myotubular myopathy

SAN DIEGO, June 8, 2023 — Kate Therapeutics Inc. (“KateTx”), a next-generation gene therapy company, today emerged from stealth mode with a $51 million Series A financing co-led by founding investor Westlake Village BioPartners and Versant Ventures, with participation from Osage University Partners and UF Innovate | Ventures. In addition, the company has granted Astellas Pharma Inc. an exclusive, worldwide license to develop, manufacture and commercialize KT430 to treat X-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM), the details of which are described in a separate press release issued today.

There are a large number of genetically defined and complex muscle and heart diseases that cannot currently be addressed due to a lack of specific and effective delivery to these tissues. Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based capsids have shown promise to deliver therapeutic cargoes in other organs, but have been hampered for use in muscle and heart by limited potency, lack of tissue selectivity and minimal regulation of cargoes.

“We are excited to announce KateTx’s launch and what this means for patients suffering from muscle and heart diseases,” said Kevin Forrest, Ph.D., president, CEO and a director of KateTx. “KateTx is applying novel capsid and cargo technology platforms to enable skeletal and cardiac muscle targeting and liver de-targeting. We believe our technologies can provide safer and more effective medicines for patients.”

Proceeds from the financing and license agreement will support the advancement of KateTx’s initial internal portfolio of muscle and heart disease programs, including myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), which are two of the leading causes of adult-onset muscular dystrophy.

A differentiated approach to delivery
For capsids, KateTx’s DELIVER platform leverages directed evolution, stringent RNA-based selection of functional capsid variants and machine learning in various in vivo models. The platform already has yielded the MyoAAV class of capsids, which were developed by KateTx scientific co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Sharif Tabebordbar, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard while he was a supervisor, research scientist in the lab of Pardis Sabeti, M.D., Ph.D. Results were first published in Cell in 2021.

Technologies related to Dr. Tabebordbar’s work are licensed to KateTx. Internally, the company is also developing next-generation MyoAAV capsids with further targeting enhancements.

MyoAAV capsids target skeletal and cardiac muscle with dramatically higher efficiency across species compared with naturally occurring adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids including AAV8, AAV9 and AAVrh74. These breakthroughs have the potential to improve efficacy and safety of gene therapy and enable the pursuit of a broader set of targets that are otherwise difficult to treat with current technologies.

“My father lives with FSHD, so I saw firsthand the consequences of this devastating disease on patients and families. It is the reason I entered this field in the first place,” said Dr. Tabebordbar. “I am beyond excited that KateTx’s unique technologies are being used to develop first- and best-in-class gene therapies for patients living with serious muscle and heart diseases.”

KateTx’s cargo platform includes both internally generated proprietary capabilities and technologies licensed from the University of Florida that were developed in the laboratory of KateTx scientific co-founder Eric Wang, Ph.D. The overarching goal of the cargo platform is to ensure the company’s therapies are produced only in tissues of interest and not elsewhere in the body.

Near-term focus on progressing to the clinic
Beyond capsid and cargo platform efforts, KateTx has built a team with gene therapy discovery, development, manufacturing and disease area expertise. KateTx’s current focus is identifying and advancing clinical candidates for DM1 and FSHD, as well as for other genetic muscle and heart diseases.

“KateTx is leading the way to develop capsid and cargo combinations to address muscle and heart diseases in ways that have not been previously possible,” said Beth Seidenberg, M.D., co-founding managing director at Westlake and chair of KateTx’s board. “With Kevin at the helm and a world-class team, we look forward to the exciting future for the company and the medicines it will advance for patients.”

“KateTx’s platform has the potential to bring life-changing new therapies to patients suffering from muscle and heart disease who have limited or no treatment options,” said Clare Ozawa, Ph.D., managing director at Versant and a KateTx board member. “With this Series A financing and licensing agreement, KateTx will be able to progress its deep pipeline of internal programs.”

About Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 (DM1)
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a progressive multisystem disorder affecting approximately 40,000 individuals in the United States. Common symptoms include weakness and myotonia (inability to relax muscles) of the lower legs, hands, neck and face, causing upper extremity disability and difficulty walking, and extramuscular symptoms including cognitive problems, daytime sleepiness and sleep disturbance, and arrhythmias. Adult-onset forms are the most common; child-onset and congenital forms are more severe and sometimes life-threatening. There are no approved medicines for DM1.

About Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD)
Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a heritable muscle disorder affecting approximately 40,000 people in the United States. FSHD onset is typically 15-30 years of age. Weakness usually progresses in a descending pattern, affecting the face, shoulders and upper arms, lower legs and hips. Upper extremity weakness is often most pronounced, but many patients will have significant difficulty walking, and about 20% eventually require a wheelchair. There are no approved medicines for FSHD.

About Kate Therapeutics
Kate Therapeutics (KateTx) is a patient-focused biotechnology company developing adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies to treat genetically defined muscle and heart diseases. The company is applying novel technology platforms that directly address the key limitations of current gene therapies, including tissue-specific delivery and gene regulation. These breakthroughs have the potential to improve the efficacy and safety of gene therapies and enable the pursuit of a broader set of targets that are otherwise difficult to drug with current technologies. For more information, please visit KateTx’s website at https://www.katetherapeutics.com/.

SOURCE Kate Therapeutics

BUDAPEST, Hungary, June 8, 2023 — Greenstic Europe Ltd. (Greenstic) has received a significant investment of approximately EUR 1.4 million from Hiventures, Hungary’s most prevalent VC. The funding will help Greenstic, a distributor and contract manufacturer of disposable, eco-friendly restaurant packaging materials, containers, and cutlery, to expand its regional activities and promote environmentally responsible practices in the catering sector.

The market for eco-friendly utensils has experienced significant growth in recent years worldwide. Greenstic also has shown dynamic business performance, quadrupling its revenue since its establishment in 2019. Greenstic enjoys a market leader position in the Hungarian market and last year expanded internationally by establishing a subsidiary in Romania and entering a franchise partnership in Slovakia.

Considering the favorable regulatory environment and consumer trends indicating further demand growth, Greenstic plans to allocate the fund from Hiventures to expand its manufacturing and logistics capacities and broaden its product range and customer base in Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania.

As part of its comprehensive service, Greenstic performs the biological composting of its customer-used serving utensils, thus promoting the adoption of circular economic model in the HoReCa sector.

Hiventures is one of the most active venture capital investors in Europe. Decisions are made carefully, based on several criteria: “In addition to clear market opportunities and environmentally conscious goals, the experienced management team at Greenstic played a crucial role in our investment decision, owing to their cohesive and successful track record,” said Dénes Szluha, the Head of Hiventures’ startup division.

About Hiventures

Hiventures, part of the Hungarian MFB Group, is one of the largest venture capital firms of Central and Eastern Europe. It supports the entire Hungarian entrepreneurial eco-system with its capital and professional competencies, including innovative start-ups with large growth potential, traditional SMEs and major corporations. Hiventures is committed to a sustainable and competitive entrepreneurial eco-system in the CEE region. For further details, visit the company website.

About Greenstic

Greenstic, a fully Hungarian-owned company, is a key player in the market of disposable containers and cutlery. Following their acquisition of a competitor at the end of 2021, Greenstic became market leader in the premium segment. In 2022, they embarked on international expansion by establishing a subsidiary in Romania and a franchise partnership in Slovakia, under the new brand identity of Greenstic Europe. The company aims to become the leading eco-conscious packaging supplier in Central Europe. www.greenstic.hu

SOURCE Hiventures Venture Capital Fund management PLC.