NANJING, China, April 18, 2023 — Recently, Chamlion, which focuses on the digitalization of the full process of dentistry, announced that it has completed the B round fundraising of 236 million yuan. This round of fundraising was led by 3H Health, followed by Vertex Ventures China, existing shareholder Zhencheng Capital, and Taihe Capital served as the financial advisor. The fundraising will be mainly used for the further expansion of the company’s domestic and overseas business, including the in-depth promotion and upgrade of their existing product line, to consolidate the company’s leading position in the field of dental digitalization.

Prior to this, Chamlion has successively secured tens of millions of yuan in the A round fundraising invested by Shandong Yinling Industry Investment Co., Ltd. and the 140 million yuan in the A+ round fundraising exclusively invested by Zhencheng Capital. In addition to the B round fundraising, the company’s cumulative fundraising exceeds 400 million yuan.

Chamlion focuses on realizing the digitalization of the entire process of dentistry with a new generation of technology, and provides one-stop dental 3D printing digital solutions. In May 2021, the company completed rebranding from “Chamlion Laser” to “Chamlion Technology”, and at the same time started an in-depth business model transformation, changing from a traditional 3D printing equipment supplier to a cloud printing service model. Chamlion applies the hardware as a service (HaaS) model in the field of dental 3D printing, intelligently connects 3D printers to the Internet, and builds a large-scale distributed dental manufacturing cloud factory, connecting the data-design-manufacturing process of dental processing, and building a digital service platform for the full process of dentistry.

Technology drives the continuing upgrade of the digital workflow

Benefiting from its solid R&D capability, Chamlion empowers the entire chain of dental processing with superior technology to achieve digital upgrades. Chamlion has developed DLP resin 3D printers to replace traditional manual plaster models; Chamlion applied metal 3D printers to replace manual casting processes; Chamlion has developed heat treatment furnaces, polishing machines and other post-processing equipment to greatly shorten post-processing time and fully cover the entire process of dental production and processing. At present, the installed capacity of Chamlion’s metal 3D printers has exceeded 1,000, leading the dental 3D metal printing market.

Through constant customer feedback, Chamlion recognizes the need to develop intelligent software solutions to meet the needs of highly developed 3D workflows and the ever-sophisticated hardware in the market place. Chamlion has successively developed 3D printing control software, 3D printing data processing software, and AI intelligent design software for dental production. Among them, the dental AI intelligent design software, based on artificial intelligence and big data, adopting graphic recognition algorithms and greatly improving the design efficiency through automatic matching. What is more, based on the shortage of skilled dental design and data processing workers in the industry, Chamlion has established a design team and data processing team of hundreds of people, built a global data center, and provided dental crowns and bridges for B-end dental lab clients around the world, offering digital design services for dental products such as crowns, partial frameworks, invisible orthodontics, etc.

In addition to software and hardware, materials are another core element that restricts the digitization of dental processing. Chamlion is making rapid and deep progress in the field of advanced materials in dentistry, gradually laying out the upstream raw material market, independently researching and developing metal powder, photopolymer resin, polishing salt and other materials, and promoting the construction of Chamlion’s entire industrial chain eco-system.

Using cloud service platform to create a new eco-system of digital dentistry

At present, 3D printing technologies applied in dentistry mainly include 2 categories. Metal 3D printing is mainly used to manufacture metal crowns, partial frameworks etc., and DLP resin printers are mainly used to make dental models, temporary crowns, implant guides, invisible orthodontic models, etc. According to the TMR report, by the end of 2025, the global dental 3D printing market will reach 3.441 billion USD, an increase of 16.5%. Obviously, 3D printing has brought opportunities for digitization of the industry. With the increasing maturity of 3D printing technology, the application of 3D printing technology in the entire dental field will be more in-depth and extensive, driving the digital, standardized and large-scale development of the dental industry.

Relying on the “Internet” + 3D printing, with Chamlion cloud service platform as the core, and in-house dental software, equipment, and materials as the cornerstone, Chamlion creates a new digital dentistry eco-system for dental processing. Rather than the digital upgrade of a single element, the cloud factory model can realize the continuous optimization and upgrade of software, hardware and materials in the eco-system, and also realize the coordinated development of the upstream and downstream industrial chains. Moreover, it can realize the integration of resources, the substantial improvement in efficiency, and the significant reduction of costs.

At present, digitalization has become the consensus of upstream and downstream enterprises in the dental industry, and 3D printing is the best technology to realize this. Chamlion cloud platform can provide inclusive dental 3D printing services. Users can choose digital design, data processing, 3D printing, post-processing and other services on demand without huge equipment and labor cost. Users just need to send task requirements through the Chamlion cloud platform, and the digital design team can carry out industrial CAD design and data processing online. The intelligent production scheduling system of the cloud platform will assign the printing tasks to the optimal cloud factory to complete the production of semi-finished or finished products. Finally, through a smart logistics system, the products can be quickly delivered to users. It is reported that Chamlion has entered 27 countries, and has established more than 260 cloud factories around the world, with a daily production of 80,000 dental crowns and 8,000 partial frameworks, providing services for 1,500 dental labs.

Based in China and with a global layout, Chamlion has successively established branches in Vietnam, the United States, France, Turkey, built sales networks and companies covering many countries and regions around the world, and established localized and digital manufacturing centers. It is estimated that by the end of 2023, the number of global cloud factories will exceed 300, providing dental products to 30 million users around the world.

With the digital service platform as the core, Chamlion is driven by technology R&D and distributed manufacturing cloud factories. With horizontal expansion, Chamlion continues to upscale its superior products and services. Starting from removable partial dentures, it expands into resin teeth, zirconia blocks, invisible orthodontics and other new dental products. It also vertically extends the upstream and downstream industrial chains, continues to use technology to drive the upgrade of the entire industrial chain, enhancing the overall competitive advantage, and striving to build a new digital dental eco-system and leads the new digital wave of the industry.

3H Health Investment said: The dental industry is facing opportunistic transformation, and the global dental supply chain is developing in the direction of digitalization, intelligence and intensification. Digging deep into vertical scenarios and providing complete software and hardware solutions is the cornerstone of dental supply chain integration. Chamlion focuses on dental processing scenarios and is committed to providing digital and intelligent overall solutions for the dental industry. It adopts the cloud factory model to empower the global dental processing market and improve the overall level of the industry.

3H Health is very pleased to have the opportunity to become the lead investor of this round fundraising, and firmly supports Chamlion to deeply participate in the structural opportunity of the integration of the global dental supply chain with innovative solutions of “Intelligent Manufacturing in China“. With the efforts of the company’s professional team, we are optimistic that Chamlion will become a leader in supply chain integration and digital processing in the global dental industry, and 3H Health looks forward to creating a new chapter in the future dental industry with Chamlion.

Zhijin Xia, managing partner of Vertex Ventures China, said that with the self-developed 3D printing and digital design technology, as well as the rapidly expanding business model, Chamlion will be able to greatly improve the efficiency of the dental processing industry and contribute to the oral health of Chinese people. With the simultaneous expansion of the company both at home and abroad, we believe that Chamlion will become a great enterprise leading the transformation of the industry.

Jianwei Li, founding partner of Zhencheng Capital, said: Since the beginning of the A+ round of cooperation between Zhencheng Capital and Chamlion team, the management team has been firmly promoting 3D printing services and digital transformation of dentistry, and has achieved good results so far: The service income has increased by more than 10 times. Zhencheng’s domestic business is developing rapidly, and is also laying out the global market, and the competitive advantage is more obvious. We welcome the B-round investors 3H Health and Vertex Ventures China to join us. We believe that with the support of more high-quality investors, Chamlion will be able to go further in the direction of dental digitalization, 3D printing service and globalization.

SOURCE Chamlion

—Leading near real-time carbon management and accounting platform round led by Fifth Wall and a national US Energy Company—

RENO, Nev. and LUXEMBOURG, April 18, 2023 — nZero, the leading near real-time carbon management and accounting platform, today announced that it has closed a $16 million Series A funding round that will enable the company to scale amid a global call for better, more accurate tracking and reporting of energy, financial, and greenhouse gas emissions data across the public and private sectors. The influx of funding arrives as more organizations worldwide strive to use data to implement and reach climate change goals. The round was led by both Fifth Wall—the largest asset manager focused on improving, future-proofing, and decarbonizing the built world—and a national US energy company. Additional investors include Piedmont Capital Investments, Inc. with limited partner Henry Kravis, founder and co-chairman of KKR.

“We have a proven track record in providing the best near-real-time, granular data across all scopes of emissions, which business and government leaders can use for operational and capital planning, leveraging tax credits, and the evolving reporting standards. Since our inception, we’ve aggregated more than 1 billion data points across 12,000 buildings and 10,000 vehicles, all being tracked by nZero, and this is just the beginning of our upwards trajectory,” said Adam Kramer, CEO of nZero. “Our next chapter will enable us to grow as a data authority and bring our tech platform to scale, deepening our work with Fortune 500 companies, municipalities, government agencies and NGOs.”

nZero is the only 24/7 carbon management solution with the ability to sync automatically, analyze, and manage carbon emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 on a granular level, ultimately pairing financial and emissions data and insights that empower true business change. Offering continuous 24/7 tracking, nZero captures hour-by-hour emissions changes in an easy-to-use platform to help clients track, manage, and report out their sustainability goals. Since launching its services in April 2021, nZero has worked with various corporate, agriculture and government entities globally to help them understand their actual carbon impact and develop the most financially efficient and sustainable emissions reductions plans.

“nZero is experiencing significant tailwinds and, in turn, unprecedented growth from a global call for improved, more accurate ESG reporting. Their market-leading team is setting the new industry standard for how energy, financial, and greenhouse gas emissions data is tracked and managed across the public and private sectors,” said Jennifer Place, Principal on the Climate Technology Investment Team at Fifth Wall. “We’re supporting a startup that is leveraging technology to transform how companies and governments plan and set climate goals and adjust operations accordingly to reach those goals. Truth through better data is the fundamental reason we are backing nZero.”

To learn more about nZero, please visit https://nzero.com.

About nZero
nZero is a near real-time (NRT) carbon management and accounting platform that gives NGOs, government agencies and organizations the accurate emissions data they need to reach net zero, communicate their story, and make smart decisions that benefit the health of the planet. Unlike carbon management offerings who rely on third-party data and opaque averages, nZero gathers accurate, first-party, contextual data into a comprehensive view, making it simple for organizations to pinpoint opportunities within their operations to implement carbon reduction actions and spend smarter along the way. nZero’s awards and recognitions include the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN) Existing Industry 2022 “Leader in Sustainability” Award, Business Intelligence Group’s 2022 Sustainability Product of the Year Award, a place on TIME Magazine’s 2022 Best Inventions List in the Sustainability Category, as well as an honorable mention on Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas List.

About Fifth Wall
Founded in 2016, Fifth Wall, a Certified B. Corp, is the largest asset manager focused on improving, future-proofing and decarbonizing the built world. Since 2016, Fifth Wall has raised the third-most capital of any venture firm globally ($2.9B), according to SEC Form D filings. With approximately $3.2B in commitments and capital under management, Fifth Wall is backed by a global mix of more than 110 strategic limited partners from more than 15 countries, including BNP Paribas Real Estate, British Land, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Hilton, Hines, Host Hotels & Resorts, Kimco Realty Corporation, Lennar, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Marriott International, MetLife Investment Management, MGM Resorts, Related Companies, Starwood Capital, Toll Brothers, and others. This consortium represents one of the largest groups of potential partners in the global built world ecosystem, resulting in transformational investments and collaboration with portfolio companies to cut emissions, improve efficiency, and maximize returns. Founded in Los Angeles and headquartered in New York City, Fifth Wall’s other offices include San Francisco, London and Singapore. For more information about Fifth Wall, its limited partners, and portfolio companies, visit www.fifthwall.com.

SOURCE nZero

Now valued at $10 million, THE LNK helps ethnically diverse brands overseas compete on a global stage using powerful marketing and AI tools

TORONTO, April 18, 2023 – THE LNK announces it has closed a $1 million seed capital raise in funding. This follows the startup’s initial public launch in late 2022 as the first global affordable luxury marketplace to exclusively represent ethnically diverse indie brands. Founded by Canadian entrepreneur Sonya Gill, THE LNK helps brands overseas sell and market directly to North American consumers, giving them much-needed exposure and tools to break through in a statured market. As a smart marketplace, online aggregator, and lead generation platform, THE LNK uses powerful marketing and AI tools to recommend relevant, high-quality, hidden gems from around the world to customers based on profile and shopping habits. THE LNK will include brands from India to Indonesia, Dubai, Morocco, Turkey, Lithuania, Vietnam, and Africa, specializing in women’s and men’s fashion, cultural fashion, functional beauty, skincare, and accessories.

The funding round was led by Reetu Gupta (Chairwoman and Ambassadress, The Gupta Group) and Suraj Gupta (Founder, Rogue Insight Capital), with participation from Manny Bahia (Founder, Daily Hive), Basem Hanna (Founder, Almega Corp. and TerrAscend), Mona Patel (Founder, Vasant Cosmetics), and other private investors. THE LNK will allocate the capital to further web development, expanding their team, and continuing to redefine eCommerce for unique indie brands around the world. 

Tied to this funding, Gill announces that THE LNK welcomes Stephanie Mark as the company’s new Head of Merchandising and Content Strategy, also known as the Co-Founder of luxury media company, Coveteur. Meanwhile, Gill remains backed by an established advisory board, including two recently announced members, Richard McMahon, Former Chief Strategy Officer of Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Alvina Patel, Former VP of Marketing of Farfetch.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the outpour of support from investors coming in from various industries. The seed will allow us to remove hurdles that brands on our platform face, giving them  more opportunities, new connections and exciting possibilities,” said Sonya Gill, Founder and CEO of THE LNK. “Until now, it was impossible for indie brands overseas to successfully market to consumers in North America. They had beautiful products but not the tools or expertise to break through all the noise online. Thanks to years of research and development, and overcoming the many challenges of international commerce, we’ve successfully built this unique global marketplace, doubling as a marketing portal, to help close this gap.”

How THE LNK “Closes the Gap”:

• Lead Generation: Offers merchants a lead generation platform that allows them to bid on keywords and create competitive retargeting campaigns at half the cost of other channels such as Facebook or Google.
• Highlight Top Products: Allows brands to highlight top-rated products, select merchandise for promotions, and the ability to offer specific incentives to customers via email or text.
• Aggregator Model: Brings in merchants through their existing websites so they can control their offerings and immediately populate THE LNK with all their products (descriptions, images, sizes, etc.) with the click of a button.
• User Experience: Only allows trusted merchants on the platform and optimizes online shopping experiences with an intuitive search and recommendation engine.
• Trust and Transparency: Provides credibility to less known brands who struggle with building trust, while handling shipping, returns, tax and duties, which can otherwise be confusing for shoppers.

The overseas market alone is valued at $1.7 trillion and continues to grow. Meanwhile, there is a massive addressable market for this shopping platform given the population of North Americans identifying as non-white is rapidly growing. Now shoppers from ethnic backgrounds who are searching for “fusion wear”, for example, can easily find something high-quality, truly unique, and with reasonable shipping timelines free of unexpected duties.

THE LNK vets thousands of indie labels for quality and logistics excellence and compiles only the best for consumers to shop. THE LNK has already recruited nearly 450 brands selling anywhere between 50 and 300 SKUs each and partnered with Canadian logistics company E-Shipper to deliver items from around the world within days to the customer’s front door.

About THE LNK

THE LNK was founded by Canadian entrepreneur Sonya Gill in 2022 as the first global affordable luxury marketplace to exclusively represent ethnically diverse indie brands. THE LNK closes the gap for these diverse indie brands overseas and helps them sell and market directly to North American consumers. As a smart marketplace, online aggregator, and lead generation platform, THE LNK uses its next-generation marketplace technology to recommend high-quality hidden gems around the world and gives these brands a winning chance to be discovered in an otherwise saturated market. THE LNK includes nearly 450 brands from India and other countries it is currently expanding to such as Indonesia, Dubai, Morocco, Turkey, Lithuania, Vietnam, and Africa, specializing in women’s and men’s fashion, cultural fashion, functional beauty, skincare, and accessories.

Find out more at www.thelnk.co and shop at www.shopthelnk.com.

SOURCE THE LNK

Formerly r2c, Semgrep rebrands and realigns for rapid growth in a funding round led by Lightspeed

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2023 — Semgrep, a code security solution designed for engineering-centric security programs, today announced $53M in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. With added participation from previous investors Felicis Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, this round brings the company’s total funding to $93M to date. Semgrep is designed for engineers – software and security alike – who need to maintain a fast cadence of software development and solve the root causes of security issues. Semgrep uniquely enables developers at all levels and security teams to customize their code scanning (no PhD required), which results in ROI significantly beyond that of traditional code scanning tools.

Companies need both security and velocity in their software development, but legacy tools were designed for older programming languages and development cycles where releases were months apart, rather than hours. With the rise of DevOps, 60% of engineers release code twice as quickly than traditional development processes, however improved speed comes with a cost: Almost half of enterprises knowingly release insecure code.

Semgrep solves these challenges with its engineer-centric approach: surfacing security findings during software development that are relevant to a given engineer. Once findings are presented, engineers can easily remediate, edit noisy rules, and provide feedback to the security team to strengthen security policies, thus making the security process collaborative.

“Our users are looking for complete security solutions rather than point solutions,” said Isaac Evans, Founder and CEO at Semgrep. “This round of funding will enable us to extend our application security platform to cover the entire modern development process, all built on top of the Semgrep engine, so as to profoundly improve software security and reliability for all.” 

“From our very first conversation, it was clear that Semgrep is not a traditional enterprise security company,” said Will Kohler, Partner at Lightspeed. “The Semgrep user base is passionate and engaged. Their product is customizable, scalable, and ultimately helpful for modern security teams. It was a no-brainer for us to get involved and we’re enthused to watch them grow their market share and develop additional products for modern security teams.”

Semgrep will use the Series C funds to invest in its product roadmap, expand its sales and growth marketing efforts, and expand internationally.

Rebranding r2c to Semgrep
The company’s funding round is coupled with the change in the company’s name from r2c to Semgrep. Since its launch in 2020, Semgrep has become the tool of choice for modern security teams looking to eliminate entire classes of vulnerabilities. The rise of Semgrep and its broad acceptance within the developer-focused security community has differentiated the company’s product. This rebrand is recognition of Semgrep as the technology layer that is underpinning the company mission now and going forward.  This is one small step in the company’s journey to reduce organizational tension between developer productivity and code security.

Rob Picard, Security Lead at Vanta said, “It’s easy enough to write rules for Semgrep that security and other engineering teams often reach for it to solve complex problems. The flexibility is a huge win, and the library of managed rules means we only have to write our own when we have custom problems.”

For additional information on this announcement, please see Isaac Evans’ blog post to learn more.

Semgrep is also hiring in a number of positions. For more information, on positions in the Bay Area and remote work, please see job openings.

About Semgrep
Semgrep is an open-source platform for scanning code for security, reliability, & other issues. Semgrep’s mission is to profoundly improve software security and reliability by bringing world-class security tools to engineers—software and security alike. It’s Semgrep’s conviction that the security process must enable rapid software development, instead of hindering it. Semgrep is funded by Felicis Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, and has become an essential safeguard for code at customers like Snowflake, Dropbox, and more.

SOURCE Semgrep

Clerkie accelerates its mission to democratize financial wellness for everyday Americans through automation

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2023 — Clerkie, the leading AI-powered financial automation platform, today announced its $33M Series A round led by Left Lane Capital with participation from other notable investors including Wellington Management Company, Flourish Ventures, Citi Ventures, CMFG Ventures and Vestigo Ventures. Fintech visionaries David Velez, founder of Nubank, and Tom Proulx, founder of Intuit, also participated in the round. The company previously raised a $6M seed round during the pandemic and has now raised $41M to date. This time around, their impressive financial performance coupled with product differentiation led to an expedited and oversubscribed Series A financing. The funds will be used to grow the engineering team and rapidly scale the company’s debt workout solutions to support more partners and help more borrowers.

“The consumer debt market is fundamentally broken for consumers and the creditors that serve them, as evidenced by the predatory collections practices and the crushing amount of debt burdening American families” said Guy Assad, CEO and co-founder of Clerkie. “Today, tens of millions of Americans are struggling with their debts and are falling into delinquency. It’s a lose-lose situation for the borrowers and for the banks who are racking up billions in losses. Our goal is to support struggling American families by giving them better tools to responsibly fulfill their debt obligations and ease their debt burden.”

“We could not be more excited to partner with Clerkie. As consumer debt delinquency rises, we believe technology that makes the lending system more efficient and effective for all parties will be critical. The Clerkie team’s deep subject matter expertise and commitment to making this process as constructive and beneficial as possible to the consumer stood out. We believe in that mission and look forward to being part of the journey,” said Dan Ahrens, Managing Partner at Left Lane Capital.

The problem the company is solving is one that is deeply personal for Mr. Assad. Sourcing from his personal experiences as a person of color, Guy has seen firsthand, both in his family and in his community, the severe anxiety and financial hardship that can result from untenable debt burdens. After his own father was diagnosed and ultimately lost his battle with cancer, the medical bills and the credit card debts racked up. “It was just a lot. On one hand you’re dealing with this unthinkable grief and on the other hand you’re trying to manage this crippling financial stress. But, you just have to keep it moving and forge ahead because a lot of people are relying on you”, recounts Guy. It took him several months to haggle with the collections companies and the medical companies to find suitable repayment plans that would allow them to repay back these bills responsibly. “That was an incredibly painful process; and I was blessed enough to be one of the lucky few that understood how the system works”

For context, Guy went straight to McKinsey out of Stanford Business School to work with large banks on advising their digital transformation efforts. Over the course of many engagements, Guy and his co-founders, Sebastian Wigstrom and Gray Hoffman, saw an opportunity to modernize legacy banking systems and processes with modern digital solutions that can automate and address a significant problem for financial institutions: delinquencies. “These systems are incredibly arcane and rigid; we quickly saw an opportunity to help millions of at-risk borrowers pay back their debts responsibly and avoid delinquency if we could just modernize this infrastructure” said Sebastian, CTO and co-founder at Clerkie. From a borrower perspective, they learned that financial wellness was not all about money but more about access – access to simple financial solutions and sound financial guidance. “More specifically, borrowers needed guidance tailored to their specific financial needs and that guidance has to be easily executable and automated”, said Guy. Clerkie’s debt automation software seeks to deliver against that vision.

Today, Clerkie’s proprietary platform has become the go-to tool for creditors looking to manage their loan losses while simultaneously helping millions of borrowers get out of debt and improve their credit. The platform uses a number of data points to identify and help potentially delinquent borrowers avoid default. From there, the system proactively surfaces viable workout options for a given borrower, thereby helping them avoid the predatory collections process and ultimately helping them ease their debt burden and improve their financial health.

“We are honored to have partnered with Clerkie from the very beginning of their journey,” said Emmalyn Shaw, Managing Partner at Flourish Ventures, who understood the company’s vision very early on and co-led its Seed round. “With interest rates going up to a level not seen in approximately 20 years, significantly more Americans are at risk and the level of delinquent consumer debt is likely to exceed $130B. Clerkie’s debt automation platform is needed more now than ever and enables a true win-win outcome for lenders and borrowers alike.”

About Clerkie
Clerkie is an AI-powered financial automation platform that is purpose-built to help over 100 million Americans ease their debt burden. Clerkie’s systems help borrowers by providing personalized debt guidance and workout options to avoid delinquency and build their credit scores.

About Left Lane Capital: Founded in 2019, Left Lane Capital is a New York-based global venture capital and growth equity firm investing in internet and technology companies with a consumer orientation. Left Lane’s mission is to partner with extraordinary entrepreneurs who create category-defining companies across growth sectors of the economy, including software, healthcare, e-commerce, consumer, fintech, edtech, and other industries. Select investments include GoStudent, M1 Finance, Wayflyer, Bilt, Masterworks, Blank Street, Talkiatry, Tovala, and more. For more information, please visit www.leftlanecap.com.

SOURCE Clerkie

Funding Will Support Growth of Platform to Make Clean Energy Tax Credit Transactions Simple and Secure and Accelerate Fight Against Climate Change

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2023 — Evergrow, the all-in-one platform for clean energy tax credits, today announced the raise of a $7M second round of financing. The round was led by existing investors, including First Round Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Congruent Ventures, and Garuda Ventures. This brings Evergrow’s total funding to $14M after a $7M seed round that closed in late 2021. Evergrow will use this additional funding to expand the platform’s diligence, risk management, and transactional capabilities, in order to accelerate the market for clean energy projects and tax credits. The company also announced that it now has over $150M worth of clean energy projects on its platform that are expected to come online over the next year.

Evergrow’s recent momentum is enabled by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”), the largest investment in clean energy and climate protection in American history. The new law allocates hundreds of billions of dollars toward investment in clean energy. Nearly all of this funding comes in the form of tax credits. Developers of clean energy projects, including solar, wind, renewable natural gas, and storage, generate tax credits whenever they build a new project, and these are then sold to fund costs. By purchasing these clean energy tax credits, Evergrow and its partners provide critical funding for these projects, unlocking the full potential of the IRA.

“I started Evergrow to accelerate the development of clean energy projects in the United States,” said James Richards, CEO and founder of Evergrow. “Clean energy tax credits achieve this goal while also providing a compelling financial return for our partners. We look forward to broadening access to this unique, growing, and impactful segment of the capital markets while also enabling the development of more climate-positive infrastructure.”

In 2022, the tax equity market was estimated at $20 billion, and is expected to double by 2024. Therefore, demand for clean energy tax credits must also grow significantly, otherwise clean energy development could become slower, more expensive, or both. By providing a platform for market participants to transact, Evergrow is helping to increase liquidity for clean energy tax credits and democratizing access to an entire asset class that has historically only been available to a handful of Wall Street banks and the very largest corporations.

“We have full confidence in the Evergrow team and we’re excited to deepen our partnership with them.” said Bill Trenchard, Partner, First Round Capital. “The IRA is America’s largest ever investment in clean energy and carbon capture. We believe Evergrow will play a leading role in unlocking its full potential.”

About Evergrow
Evergrow provides funding for clean energy projects in the United States by financing clean energy tax credits. By partnering with Evergrow, developers, corporations, brokers, syndicators, and other market participants can easily transact in green tax credits, which provides funding for new clean energy infrastructure projects. For more information, visit https://evergrow.com.

Media Contact
Alexandra Pony
[email protected]
250.858.0656

SOURCE Evergrow

Led by GenHenn Venture Fund I, Xenocor will leverage the capital to facilitate launch and rapid adoption of the 5mm articulating Saberscope

SALT LAKE CITY, April 18, 2023 — Xenocor, creator of the FDA cleared Saberscope, the world’s first true HD, fog-free, articulating, single-use laparoscope, announced a $10 million Series A funding led by GenHenn Venture Fund I with participation from Baranco Investments, Inc., Barvest Ventures, Inc. and Patel Family Investments. Xenocor will use the capital for the 2023 launch of the Saberscope and to continue executing on its robust innovation roadmap. To help accelerate the company’s growth, Michael J. Hennessy Jr., GenHenn Capital will join the Xenocor board of directors.

“Xenocor is laser focused on facilitating the evolution of the 35-year-old laparoscopic visualization model to something that clearly better serves care givers and patients during minimally invasive surgery,” shared Charles DeCoster IV, CEO of Xenocor. “Our FDA cleared Saberscope improves visualization, dramatically diminishes workflow complexity, increases safety and reduces waste.”

With an addressable market of $4.5 billion in the U.S. alone, Xenocor has created the best technology on a scalable platform, hired the right veteran medical device leadership and is following the right strategic course to capture meaningful share of this dynamic market.

“We are beyond thrilled to be leading the Xenocor Series A. Based on the deep insights I have gathered during my long career in healthcare leadership, I believe Xenocor will have a transformational impact on minimally invasive surgery,” shared Michael J. Hennessy Jr., GenHenn managing partner. “Their unique technology coupled with their veteran leadership will change the future of laparoscopy forever.”

The Time for Single-Use is Now

The current reusable laparoscope model has been in place for 35 years and is the only option for minimally invasive surgeons. On a typical day in a hospital, before the surgeon enters the room, the staff has already brought in the equipment, warmed the scopes in a saline bath and put on a special light cord setting to avoid starting an OR fire. When the surgeon enters, they have to white balance the scope and 62.5% of the time the equipment is still not ready, and the surgeon needs to spend time troubleshooting⁽¹⁾. During the surgery the scope frequently fogs, it is difficult to see through smoke and steam and almost impossible to see around critical anatomy. Once the procedure is complete, the devices are wiped down and transported to sterile processing (usually not just around the corner from the OR). At sterile processing, staff are in incredibly short supply nationwide, have to thoroughly clean the scopes and properly route broken equipment through a complex repair and loaner process. The scopes that are deemed to be in working order must then be transported to the right place at the right time, which is no easy feat.

The Saberscope addresses every unmet need described above. When the staff get into the room, they open the Saberscope, plug it in and go. The Saberscope eliminates fog, sees better through smoke and steam and can articulate 90 degrees in any direction with a simple wrist movement, allowing the surgeon full visibility to the anatomy they need at any point during the procedure. Lastly, the scope is placed in a Xenocor recycle bin and a new one can be easily pulled off the shelf. It just makes sense.

The below images are at the same time in the same anatomy and they show the stark difference between the Saberscope and the current reusable technology.

Xenocor is Ramping Capabilities

Due to the significant positive feedback received from across the laparoscopic community, Xenocor is investing in industry leading sales talent to support the long list of facilities where surgeon champions are ushering the Saberscope through the procurement process. A number of large academic systems have already issued purchase orders.

Xenocor has brought in additional manufacturing leadership to drive meaningful scale. Given the significant demand, new healthcare systems will be brought on in sync with the manufacturing plan, so no customer will have to experience disruptions in service.

Xenocor is building the operational capabilities to provide top of the line support to its incredible surgical champions and administrative allies. Xenocor’s culture puts the customer at the center, so investment into customer experience is critical at this stage.

About Xenocor

Xenocor is a privately held company that designs, develops, and commercializes medical devices including the Saberscope system. 

The Saberscope system is FDA cleared and is intended to be used in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for endoscopy and endoscopic surgery within the thoracic and peritoneal cavities including the female reproductive organs.

www.XENOCOR.com

Live procedure footage: https://vimeo.com/816722218

Xenocor contact: (844) 936-6267; [email protected].

About GenHenn Capital

GenHenn Capital is a family office venture fund established to invest in technology focused life sciences companies at all stages of their life cycle.

SOURCE Xenocor, Inc.

• S&P Global leads Series A round, alongside other new investors including Temasek Trust Capital, Blue Haven Initiative, Gunung Capital, and Tsao Family Office
• Ford Foundation and Radicle Impact, which co-invested in BlueMark’s seed round in January 2022, increase their capital commitments in the Series A round

NEW YORK, April 18, 2023 — BlueMark, a leading provider of independent impact verification and intelligence for the impact and sustainable investing market, today announced that it had closed its Series A funding round with $10 million in capital commitments from a diverse group of seven investors. The lead investor is S&P Global, with other new investors including Temasek Trust Capital and three family offices with significant experience in impact investing — Blue Haven Initiative, Gunung Capital, and Tsao Family Office.

Ford Foundation and Radicle Impact are also participating in the Series A round, having previously funded BlueMark’s seed round with $2.25 million in equity financing, with Ford Foundation as lead investor and Radicle Impact as co-investor.

The increase in funding will be used to accelerate BlueMark’s leadership position as a premier provider of impact verification, benchmarks, and analytics to institutional investors of all types. Founded in January 2020, BlueMark has completed 125 verifications to date for investors with a combined $206 billion in impact AUM. The firm’s experience with such a large swath of the impact investing industry allows BlueMark to generate a unique set of market information and data. By providing insightful and comparable interpretations of investor impact performance, BlueMark helps optimize capital allocations towards impact. BlueMark also plans to expand its presence across different industries and geographies, with a particular focus on Asia where three of its investors are based.

Christina Leijonhufvud, CEO of BlueMark: “This latest funding round shows how strong the appetite is for greater transparency, accountability, and integrity in the impact and sustainable investing market. BlueMark’s distinctive approach to impact verification, benchmarking, and analytics continually raises the bar on best practice impact management and reporting among investment managers and also helps asset allocators identify and engage with managers driving impact.”

Dr. Richard Mattison, President of S&P Global Sustainable1: “S&P Global is proud to be investing in BlueMark to support much-needed innovation in transparency for impact metrics. More than ever, companies and investors are seeking access to high quality data and advanced analytics relating to sustainability. This investment represents a step forward in enhancing market participants’ access to impact-focused insights.”

Roy Swan, Head of Mission Investments at Ford Foundation: “BlueMark’s work to help impact investors reach for a higher standard in tracking their performance has rightfully earned them a reputation as a leading authority on best practices in impact management and reporting. This next phase for BlueMark signals the growing awareness around the importance of impact investing as a whole, and Ford Foundation is excited to take our partnership a step further.”

Dawn Chan, Managing Director, Investments at Temasek Trust Capital: “Impact and sustainable investing is a focus at Temasek Trust Capital. We see significant growth opportunities for impact investing in Asia and around the world. Independent experts are vital in assessing and assuring that investors are delivering on their impact claims and commitments. BlueMark is a leader in this space, and we look forward to working with the BlueMark team to expand their verification and market intelligence services to new geographies and sectors.”

Kelvin Fu, Managing Partner of Singapore-based Gunung Capital: “We are excited to partner with BlueMark in expanding their impact verification and intelligence capabilities in Asia, a market where we see growing demand for sustainable investments and impact verification services. Having gone through our own journey of establishing impact and sustainable frameworks for investment, we view BlueMark’s methodologies, capabilities, and team as world-class.”

Bryan Goh, CEO at Tsao Family Office: “Tsao Family Office is delighted to support BlueMark in their vital work of bringing transparency, authenticity, and accountability to impact investing.  We believe that BlueMark’s work will enable capital allocators to make more informed decisions and at the same time drive best practice amongst impact asset managers.”

Liesel Pritzker Simmons, Co-Founder and Principal of Blue Haven Initiative: “BlueMark’s industry-leading approach to impact verification brings greater clarity and accountability to the process of selecting and engaging with managers, and ultimately makes life easier for allocators like Blue Haven Initiative. We look forward to working with the BlueMark team to extend BlueMark’s verification services and unique data to the rest of the market.”

The latest funding for BlueMark comes at a pivotal time in the maturation of the impact investing industry. According to the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), there is now more than $1 trillion in impact assets under management globally. Now more than ever, the market needs an accountability mechanism to ensure that investors’ claims about their sustainability and impact goals, practices, and results are reliable, accurate, and decision-useful for allocators and other stakeholders.

BlueMark’s impact verification service encompasses an analysis of an investor’s (a) impact management practice (the policies, tools, and processes necessary to execute on their impact strategy) and (b) impact reporting (the completeness and reliability of their reported impact performance).

By aggregating data from these verifications, BlueMark is also able to generate a wealth of insights into industry trends, market challenges, and emerging best practices. BlueMark regularly shares these insights with the impact investing field via a research series on impact management practices (“Making the Mark”) and a series on impact reporting (“Raising the Bar“). These research reports, which have been supported by catalytic funding from organizations like The Rockefeller Foundation and the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing, are widely shared across the impact investing industry and can be used as a guideline to best practices for both new and established impact investors.

BlueMark became a certified B Corp in November 2022, joining thousands of businesses around the world that are committed to using business as a force for good.

About BlueMark
BlueMark is a leading provider of independent impact verification and intelligence for the impact and sustainable investing market. Founded in January 2020 as a spinoff from Tideline, an expert consultant to the impact investing industry, BlueMark’s mission is to “strengthen trust in impact investing” by providing investors with market-leading impact verification services, benchmarks, and analytics. BlueMark’s verification methodologies draw on a range of industry standards, frameworks, and regulations, including the Impact Management Project (IMP), the Operating Principles for Impact Management (Impact Principles), the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), SDG Impact, and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). Learn more about BlueMark and impact verification at www.bluemarktideline.com.

Media Contact: Dmitriy Ioselevich | 17 Communications | [email protected]

SOURCE BlueMark

Midwest emerging growth companies set to present in-person in Ann Arbor

ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 18, 2023 — Organizers of the Midwest Growth Capital Symposium (MGCS) announced today that Louis Cannon, MD, Founder and Senior Managing Director of Biostar Capital, and Dug Song, Co-Founder and President of the Song Foundation, will keynote the 2023 program. More than 300 entrepreneurs, researchers, investment professionals, and business executives are expected to attend the two-day venture investment conference.

For 2023, MGCS will include panel discussions on venture capital, technology, healthcare, acquisition, and more led by industry experts, as well as presentations from high-growth Midwest ventures. Featured panelists for MGCS include:

• Pete Wilkins, Managing Director for Hyde Park Angels
• Jeff Sloan, Angel Investor, CEO of Startup Nation, CEO of Aria Ventures
• Alan Davis, Managing Director of Biostar Capital
• Jake Cohen, Partner with Detroit Venture Partners and Co-founder of Signal Advisors
• Chin Weerapuli, NIL Advocate for University of Michigan Athletes
• Michael Spath, Client Executive for Kapnick Insurance, Executive Director for A2 New Tech
• Ashley Williams, Founder & CEO of RIZZARR
• Bill Baumel, Managing Director of the Ohio Innovation Fund
• Dr. Tom Shehab, Managing Partner of Arboretum Ventures
• Jing Liu, Executive Director of the Michigan Institute for Data Science

The growing ventures featured in the MGCS showcase span the life sciences, medical devices, agriculture/food, and tech industries. All featured companies will be seeking seed, Series A, or Series B funding. In addition to their on-demand virtual pitches, presenting companies will be in attendance to connect with potential investors.

“The goal from the onset of the Midwest Growth Capital Symposium is to bring together private growth companies and venture capital and private equity investment firms from all parts of the country,” said David Brophy, founder of the Midwest Growth Capital Symposium and University of Michigan professor emeritus. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, VCs and other investors have been searching to make good deals with cutting-edge companies. The Symposium connects these investors with growing ventures that have an early track record of success – many that lack visibility as they are based in the Midwest.”

The 2023 Symposium will return in person to Ann Arbor May 23 & 24. The Symposium will be held at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.        

For more information on applying, attending, or sponsoring the symposium, please visit www.midwestgcs.com or email Hannah Burke [email protected].

About the Midwest Growth Capital Symposium

The Midwest Growth Capital Symposium (MGCS) is the original university-based venture investment fair. First held in 1980, this decades-old event is the largest Midwest venture fair of its kind that brings together venture capital investors, angel investors, high-growth companies, university tech transfer officers and research faculty. The Symposium is presented by the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.            

SOURCE Midwest Growth Capital Symposium