VC Deals Only: SmartRent raises $60 million to manage connected b...

VC Deals Only: SmartRent raises $60 million to manage connected b...: SmartRent which provides smart home automation for property owners, managers, developers, and residents, today announced that it has raise...

SmartRent raises $60 million to manage connected buildings

SmartRent which provides smart home automation for property owners, managers, developers, and residents, today announced that it has raised $60 million. CEO Lucas Haldeman said the funding will enable the company’s next phase of growth as it expands its portfolio of offerings

According to Statista, revenue from the smart home market is anticipated to climb 18.3% from 2020 to 2023, resulting in market volume of $41 billion within the next three years. But appliances, lighting fixtures, and security cameras are often not user-friendly, which has threatened to impede adoption. A survey conducted by TechSee found that nearly 74% of respondents were “certain” or “very likely” to return a new smart home purchase if they found it difficult to install.

SmartRent promises to take the pain out of installation with a fully managed service approach. The company, which launched in the multifamily apartment space with a platform for single-family rentals, expanded to over 25,000 homes spanning 15 different states between 2014 and 2016. In early 2017, it relaunched with a “heightened focus” on multifamily communities and support for dual ownership, where a resident directly controls devices like smart locks, thermostats, and sensors, but a property manager monitors the system and supplies credentials.

SmartRent’s flagship product is Alloy Access, a cloud-based access control system that enables property managers to streamline the move-in and move-out process. There’s no need to collect fobs or keys — former residents and staff are automatically removed from the system once their contract, employment, or lease ends.

Alloy Access supports fobs for customers who choose to use them, as well as keyless entry and PIN codes and mobile credentials. Those credentials can be added to a mobile app or revoked, and managers receive alerts from that same app when doors are propped open or visitors arrive.

With SmartRent, customers can switch between communities to manage particular units and work orders. They’re able to create, assign, and manage units, leases, and unit-related work from the app and integrate the platform with existing software like Yardi, RealPage, Entrata, ResMan; single sign-on portals like Okta; and access control systems and hardware like Brivo or HID.

In addition to automated move in/out, SmartRent can handle vacant unit management and automatic hourly syncs, as well as tasks like reporting and analytics.

SmartRent works with property managers to inspect unit door locks and common area access points, as well as electrical, water, and network infrastructure. Depending on local municipal laws, geographic location, and property type, SmartRent’s channel partners design device packages for managers to choose from. SmartRent’s field staff installs selected hardware and performs platform activation, providing training and assistance for staff and residents.

Residents get features like climate control, keyless access, preprogrammed scenes, scheduled routines, and monitoring (of energy and usage), courtesy of devices from Yale, Honeywell, Nest, Amazon, Assa Abloy, Aeotec, and other popular manufacturers. SmartRent’s platform is fully compatible with assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. On the prospective renter side, it allows managers to offer self-guided tours that collect information like contacts and identification (i.e., a driver’s license) while providing a high-level overview of units, covering things like prices, bathroom counts, amenities, and ADA-accessible features.

Haldeman notes that the pandemic appears to be ushering in contactless experiences like SmartRent’s self-guided tours feature. In the payments arena, for instance, a Mastercard study showed that 79% of consumers who use contactless payments cite safety and cleanliness as the key drivers of adoption.

SmartRent says it encrypts connections using ciphers and keeps current on security incidents to patch its software as needed. The company also claims it walls off certain device usage data (like lock and air conditioning status) from property managers, excepting things like leak monitors, security and other cameras, and broken glass sensors. However, SmartRent concedes that it might disclose data when it’s necessary to “investigate, prevent, or take action” regarding “illegal activities, suspected fraud, [situations] involving potential threats to the safety of any person,” or during litigation. It also says it shares personal info with advertising and analytics providers and might provide “aggregated and de-identified” data with landlords and others for “research purposes.”

SmartRent competes with companies like Zego, as well as home builders, including Lennar and REIT BSR. But Haldeman says demand is on the upswing, with 600% of SmartRent’s customers in 2019 expanding their use of the platform to new units.

Spark Capital led this latest funding round, with participation from Fifth Wall Ventures, Energy Impact Ventures, the Amazon Alexa Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, and RET Ventures. It brings Scottsdale, Arizona-based SmartRent’s total raised to over $100 million, following a $32 million series B in June 2019.

Alongside the funding, SmartRent hired Darian Hong as its new chief financial officer and CJ Edmonds as chief revenue officer.

Source. Venture Beat, Kyle Wiggers, May 27, 2020

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VC Deals Only: First Dollar Raises $5M in Seed Funding

VC Deals Only: First Dollar Raises $5M in Seed Funding: First Dollar , an Austin, Texas-based human-centric health care savings platform, closed a seed funding round of $5M. The round was led b...

First Dollar Raises $5M in Seed Funding

First Dollar, an Austin, Texas-based human-centric health care savings platform, closed a seed funding round of $5M.

The round was led by Next Coast Ventures with participation from Meridian Street Capital.

Backers included former athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, Everlywell CEO Julia Cheek, Bright Health CTO Brian Gambs and Capital Factory.

The company intends to use the funds to recruit a top team of engineers and designers to scale the HSA offering and build new functionality for its platform.

Co-founded in October 2019 by Jason Bornhorst and Colin Anawaty, First Dollar provides a platform for people to save for out-of-pocket expenses and find health care for a fair price. The company targets Millennials and Gen Z, a generally healthy population that typically spends too much per year for more coverage than they need.

Source. FinSMEs, May 6, 2020

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VC Deals Only: Immunai Launches With $20M Seed Funding And Plan T...

VC Deals Only: Immunai Launches With $20M Seed Funding And Plan T...: Immunai came out of stealth mode Thursday with two things: a mission to map the entire immune system and its functions using machine learni...

Immunai Launches With $20M Seed Funding And Plan To Map The Immune System

Immunai came out of stealth mode Thursday with two things: a mission to map the entire immune system and its functions using machine learning, and a capital infusion of $20 million in seed funding.

Two Israeli investment firms, Viola Group and TLV Partners, led the seed round for the New York City-based company that is building the largest proprietary data set in the world for clinical immunological data for better detection, diagnosis and treatment of disease. By leveraging single-cell technologies and machine-learning algorithms, Immunai has mapped out millions of immune cells and their functions, Immunai CEO Noam Solomon told Crunchbase News.

Over the last several years, cell therapies and cancer immunotherapies have become the latest innovation in treatment options. Immunotherapy uses the body’s immune system to target and destroy cancer cells.

Cancers, such as melanoma and lung cancer, have responded well to immunotherapy drugs, also known as immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, the immune system is complex and it is not yet known how drugs affect immune cells. And for costly cell therapies, a slight variation in cell therapy products can have a significant influence on a patient’s response to the therapy, Solomon said.

“Drugs that improve immune response to cancer are transformational for some patients, but don’t work in 50 (percent) to 70 percent of other patients,” he said. “We are trying to understand what therapies work—when they work—by measuring the immune system at high resolutions. We can then use those insights to improve the design of combination therapies.”

Immunai leverages single-cell technologies to profile cells from a blood sample. Its proprietary database then uses machine-learning algorithms to map the hundreds of cell types and their states to create an immune profile. That profile is then used to support biomarker discovery and insights that identify how a cell responds to its changing environment.

Solomon and Immunai CTO Luis Voloch founded the company in January 2019, and were later joined by cancer immunology scientist Ansu Satpathy, and data scientist Danny Wells, a member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

The company has offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, Israel, and has already established clinical partnerships with 10 medical centers, as well as multiple commercial partnerships for cell therapy and checkpoint blockade with biopharma companies.

Immunai closed on the new round of funding three months ago and will use it to further the development of its technology and business functions while expanding its team of scientists, engineers and machine-learning experts, Solomon said.

“We have closed a substantial contract with a Fortune 100 company and will sign a few others in the next few weeks,” he said. “We are providing partnership models with hospitals, academia, biotech and biopharma partners with a goal of finding biomarkers for resistance and toxicity for drugs and to help partners accelerate the FDA approval of their drugs.”

Source. Crunchbase, May 14, 2020

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VC Deals Only: Artms Closes US$19M Series A Financing

VC Deals Only: Artms Closes US$19M Series A Financing: Artms, Inc. , a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based developer of technology that transforms the production of diagnostic imaging isot...

Artms Closes US$19M Series A Financing

Artms, Inc., a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based developer of technology that transforms the production of diagnostic imaging isotopes, raised US$19m in Series A financing.

The round was led by Deerfield Management Company with participation from GHS Fund (Quark Venture LP and GF Securities).

The company intends to use the funds to continue to collaborate with industry partners with the aim of developing cyclotron produced 68Ga-based diagnostic and to expand the commercialization of the QISTM for the production of additional critical medical isotopes.

Led by Charles S. Conroy, Chief Executive Officer, Artms provides the QUANTM Irradiation SystemTM (QISTM), which enables decentralized, and local production of important medical isotopes including gallium-68 (68Ga), zirconium-89 (89Zr), technetium‐99m (99mTc) and copper-64 (64Cu).

The technology utilizes locally-based medical cyclotrons, empowering the user to control their supply chain and produce high volumes of innovative high-quality radiopharmaceutical products.

Source, FinSMEs, May 20, 2020

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VC Deals Only: Berlin-based Zenjob gets €27 million to take its s...

VC Deals Only: Berlin-based Zenjob gets €27 million to take its s...: Today the digital staffing service, Zenjob , has successfully secured a Series C funding round of €27 million. The lead investor in this rou...

Berlin-based Zenjob gets €27 million to take its student job site international

Today the digital staffing service, Zenjob, has successfully secured a Series C funding round of €27 million. The lead investor in this round was Forestay Capital, who is joined by Redalpine, Acton Capital, Axa Venture Partners and Atlantic Labs.

Zenjob was founded in 2015 by Fritz Trott, Cihan Aksakal and Frederik Fahning, and has since become a team of 250 people. Their main goal is to act as a digital staffing service that provides temporary work to students, as well as helping companies on the other side find employees. Using the Zenjob app, students can find and book jobs on an hourly basis and can flexibly decide when, where and for whom they work. Each month, more than 15,000 students are employed in sectors such as logistics, events, retail and catering. 

Currently, the startup’s services are deployed and used in 14 German Cities. The new funds raised will primarily be used to support their expansion across more cities in Germany, as well as subsequently expand internationally. As well as this geographic expansion, the new funding will be used to develop the technology behind the service, using algorithms to further predict staff demand in the future.

Fritz Trott, co-founder and CEO of Zenjob comments: “We continue to invest further in our technology and expansion. Soon, more companies across Germany and Europe will be able to book staff by the hour and with fewer than 24 hours’ notice. The same applies to employees, particularly students, who also benefit from the flexibility and ease-of-use that Zenjob’s technology provides. Instead of paperwork and unnecessary interviews, a student goes directly to the right job with the help of the app. The coronavirus crisis requires social distancing, which has created increased demand for staffing in, especially, logistics and retail. Our service means that we can assist in the almost effortless digital hiring of hundreds of new students every day to fill these gaps.”

Forestay Capital’s Managing Partner, Frederic Wohlwend, said: “We are delighted to have invested in Zenjob and are very much looking forward to working with Fritz and his highly talented team. Zenjob is a company that has deployed disruptive technology to shake-up the temporary employment market and which, prior to this coronavirus crisis, had already proven itself to have an exciting future. Now, during this pandemic, its flexible digital recruiting service has, in our eyes, further been confirmed as a model for keeping the working world moving.”

“It’s great to see Zenjob going from strength to strength since the early days. We strongly believe in Zenjob’s unique digital offering in the temp staffing market. The team has built a very powerful platform to match high-quality temp staff with businesses, quickly and flexibly across all industries. This financing round is an important milestone for the company to further strengthen its market position in Germany and expand internationally,” adds Harald Nieder, Partner at Redalpine.

Source. EU Startups, Charlotte Tucker, May 12, 2020

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VC Deals Only: Sound Agriculture Raises $22M in Series C Funding

VC Deals Only: Sound Agriculture Raises $22M in Series C Funding: Sound Agriculture , an Emeryville, Calif.-based agtech company, closed a $22m Series C funding. The round was led by S2G Ventures (Seed 2 ...

Sound Agriculture Raises $22M in Series C Funding

Sound Agriculture, an Emeryville, Calif.-based agtech company, closed a $22m Series C funding.

The round was led by S2G Ventures (Seed 2 Growth), with participation from existing investors Cultivian Sandbox, Fall Line Capital, Cavallo Ventures and Syngenta Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Sanjeev Krishnan, Managing Director and CIO of S2G Ventures, joined the Board of Directors, along with new independent board member and Chair of the Board, Cheryl Martin, Ph.D., Founder and Principal of Harwich Partners.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the development of novel bio-inspired plant traits and chemistries, as well as new business development efforts across food and agriculture.

Led by Adam Litle, CEO, Sound develops innovative crop solutions. Its first commercial product, SOURCE™, was launched last year to unlock nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil, supporting plant and soil health, and on-farm efficiency. By harnessing existing nutrients in the field, Source provides an average corn yield increase of 8-10 bushels per acre without requiring more fertilizer.

Source. FinSMEs, May 19, 2020

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VC Deals Only: Quartz Systems Raises $7.75M in Pre-Seed and Seed ...

VC Deals Only: Quartz Systems Raises $7.75M in Pre-Seed and Seed ...: Quartz Systems , a San Francisco, CA-based construction technology company leveraging advanced perception systems to understand everything o...

Quartz Systems Raises $7.75M in Pre-Seed and Seed Funding

Quartz Systems, a San Francisco, CA-based construction technology company leveraging advanced perception systems to understand everything on a construction site, raised $7.75m in pre-seed and seed funding.

The round was led by Baseline Ventures with participation from Felicis Ventures, Lemnos, and Bloomberg Beta.

The company intends to use the funds to further develop their solutions for construction professionals.

Led by Jeremy Conrad, CEO, Quartz is an integrated hardware and software platform that uses cameras and machine learning to provide construction teams with actionable insights to be safer and more productive. Its initial product offering utilizes an advanced crane camera system and a reporting dashboard to provide real-time, 360-degree visibility into everything that happens on a construction site. 

Using a wireless, multi-camera setup, Quartz streams 4K live feeds anywhere in the world, with high resolution, low latency video. Project managers and superintendents are able to see both live and historical data remotely, without ever having to step foot on site or in an office and can monitor security from afar, with night vision, motion detection, and alerts. 

Rugged hardware paired with image recognition and software analytics power the customer dashboard, providing specific daily insights into project progress. In addition to live and historical view, Quartz users can see construction delivery and crane utilization metrics, enabling project managers to react, plan, and deliver on time and on budget. Features in development include tools to understand and improve site safety and concrete cycle productivity.

Quartz is installed on jobs worth over $3.3 billion, covering over 6.9 million square feet.

Source. FinSMEs, May 16, 2020

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Are you a Canadian GP/LP/CI or a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.

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VC Deals Only: Nanit raises $21 million for its baby monitor, app...

VC Deals Only: Nanit raises $21 million for its baby monitor, app...: The developer of a machine learning-enhanced baby monitor, Nanit , has managed to nab $21 million in financing even amid the teeth of an ...

Nanit raises $21 million for its baby monitor, app and new line of wearables for infants

The developer of a machine learning-enhanced baby monitor, Nanit, has managed to nab $21 million in financing even amid the teeth of an epidemic that has slowed venture financing across the board.

The round came from existing investors, including: Jerusalem Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures, RRE Ventures and Rho Capital Partners, and brings the company’s total capital to $50 million.

Nanit said it would use the financing for continued product development and global expansion.

For Nanit, the social distancing required to stop the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic has proven to be a huge boost for business. Families with grandparents, aunts and uncles make up 20% of the company’s active users, according to a statistic provided by Nanit.

The company didn’t even have to tap outside investors or go on a road show for its recent raise, according to chief executive Sarah Dorsett. So far, Nanit has sold more than 150,000 cameras and has at least twice as many users who are accessing the company’s app for remote monitoring of newborns and one-year-olds.

Prices for the sleep monitoring and video device range from $299 for a wall-mounted camera to $379 for one attached to a floor stand. Currently, Nanit sells its monitoring devices in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

The company’s app is free for the first year and then costs $5 per month to connect three users to the app. Upgrades are available for $10 per month for more users or $30 per month for unlimited users. And the company’s new line of wearable breathing bands, swaddles and sleeping bags range from $19.99 to $59.99.

Nanit does more than just provide a live, shareable feed of movements. The company is getting set to launch a new feature that would capture when a baby smiles or when they begin to move around in a crib, according to Dorsett.

“The company has experienced incredible growth from 2018, and our recent funding points to the confidence and demand in the marketplace for innovative consumer products,” Dorsett, said in a statement. “Having a baby is one of the most significant life moments not only for parents but for the entire family. We are so fortunate to be able to use our technology to keep families connected and sharing in this precious new journey, no matter where they are.”

Nanit has also launched a new line of wearables called Breathing Wear that track their infant’s breathing motion by reading the pattern printed on the fabric without putting sensors on their skin.

“Nanit has solved the age-old problem of teaching your baby to fall asleep. The company’s products are expanding our understanding of ‘life in the crib’ and giving families more ways to share in the joy of parenting. The company has achieved incredible product-market fit and we believe Nanit is well-positioned to address a wide range of health and wellness questions for families and physicians,” said Will Porteous, general partner, RRE Ventures, in a statement.

Source Jonathan Shieber, TechCrunch, May 12, 2020

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VC Deals Only: Stellar Health Raises $10M in Series A Funding

VC Deals Only: Stellar Health Raises $10M in Series A Funding: Stellar Health , a New York City-based value-based healthcare technology company, raised over $10m in Series A funding. The round was le...

Stellar Health Raises $10M in Series A Funding

Stellar Health, a New York City-based value-based healthcare technology company, raised over $10m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from existing investors Primary Venture Partners.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development and engineering, and support operations including the expansion of services to new markets and to double the size of its team within the next year looking to hire across multiple departments, including Engineering, Product, Operations, and Business Development.

Founded in 2018 and led by Michael Meng, CEO, Stellar Health provides a cloud-based, point-of-care platform which tracks data and actions to help primary care providers achieve value-based care goals for their patients and rewards them with real-time incentives.

The company has developed a payor and provider network across 11 states in the U.S., and, by the end of 2020, expects to have 100,000 patient lives managed through their platform.

Source. FinSMEs, May 12, 2020

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VC Deals Only: Carbon Health's $26M add-on investment fuels cross...

VC Deals Only: Carbon Health's $26M add-on investment fuels cross...: Carbon Health, a primary care provider blending in-person and virtual care services, has announced a $26 million Series B1 raise from prior ...

Carbon Health's $26M add-on investment fuels cross-country telehealth expansion

Carbon Health, a primary care provider blending in-person and virtual care services, has announced a $26 million Series B1 raise from prior backer DCVC.

WHAT THEY DO

San Francisco-based Carbon Health runs a series of clinics in California. These brick-and-mortar locations are supported by a Carbon Health mobile app, through which patients can view their health records, schedule appointments, handle their payments or receive their care through a video telehealth visit.

This round adds on to a $30 million raise announced last June, which was preceded by $6.5 million back in 2017.

WHAT IT'S FOR

This virtual component of Carbon Health's offerings have become a particular focus for the company over the last few months. As part of the funding news, the company said that it increased its staff from 100 employees to more than 300, and has now expanded its virtual-care service to treat patients in 15 additional states – many of which are among the largest and hardest hit by COVID-19. These virtual visits cost patients $49.

“Expanding our testing efforts and virtual care footprint will help to reduce the pressure on local hospitals and clinics focused on COVID care, provide non-COVID patients the care they need without putting themselves at risk of exposure, and ensure communities across the country are healthy and well as we look towards reopening our economies," Eren Bali, CEO and cofounder of Carbon Health, said in a statement. “We are aware that millions of Americans have lost their jobs and their health insurance at a time when getting medical care is critically important. ... We are focused on getting our virtual care services up and running across the country so that seeing a doctor is easy and affordable for anyone who needs care.”

THE LARGER TREND

Like Carbon Health, several tech-enabled primary care providers have stepped up their virtual offerings in response to the epidemic. 98point6's text message-based service said last month that its $43 million raise would expand its offerings in response to spiking demand, while Heal's house call and telehealth app platform recently added a telepsychology service to its offerings.

Carbon Health's COVID-19 response also includes its in-person testing services. Although the company noted in today's announcement that it has administered more than 12,000 of these across its clinics, the provider is likely keeping a keen eye on home-testing and sample-collection developments after it was caught up in the regulatory confusion of mid-March.

ON THE RECORD

"In a matter of weeks, this amazing team has tripled in size and driven dozens of initiatives at the front lines of this pandemic, serving thousands of patients across California," Bali said. "I’m excited to begin expanding our reach nationwide at a time when our communities need healthcare resources more than ever.”

Source. Mobile Health News, Dave Muoio, May 11, 2020

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VC Deals Only: Dyno Therapeutics Raises $9M in Seed Financing

VC Deals Only: Dyno Therapeutics Raises $9M in Seed Financing: Dyno Therapeutics, Inc. , a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology company applying artificial intelligence (AI) to gene therapy, raised $9m ...

Dyno Therapeutics Raises $9M in Seed Financing

Dyno Therapeutics, Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology company applying artificial intelligence (AI) to gene therapy, raised $9m in not previously announced seed financing round.

The round – secured when Dyno spun out of the lab of Prof. George Church of Harvard – was co-led by Polaris Partners and CRV. 

Led by Eric Kelsic, Ph.D., CEO and Co-founder, the company has also launched from stealth mode with its proprietary platform, CapsidMap™. The platform applies proprietary artificial intelligence technology to discover and design novel AAV capsids, the cell-targeting protein shell of viral vectors. CapsidMap systematically generates and then evaluates millions of new AAV variants at scale, accelerating the identification of improved AAV vectors. It uses advanced machine learning search algorithms, combined with high-throughput experiments generating massive quantities of in vivo data, to accelerate the creation of superior synthetic AAV capsids. Through its R&D and collaborations with biopharmaceutical companies, Dyno has active programs focused on novel gene therapy vectors for ophthalmic, muscle, central nervous system (CNS), and liver diseases. The platform builds on certain intellectual property developed in the lab of George Church, Ph.D., who is Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a Core Faculty member at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Dyno has an exclusive option to enter into a license agreement with Harvard University for this technology. Church is a co-founder of Dyno and Chairman of the company’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Alan Crane, a co-founder of Dyno and Entrepreneur Partner at Polaris Partners, and Dylan Morris, General Partner at CRV, have joined Dyno’s board of directors, with Alan Crane serving as Dyno’s Executive Chairman.

In addition, founders include Sam Sinai, Ph.D., Lead Machine Learning Scientist, Adrian Veres, Ph.D., Scientific Advisor, and Tomas Bjorklund, Ph.D., a scientific advisor of Dyno who is Associate Professor at Lund University and a leader in AAV capsid engineering.

Source. FinSMEs, May 11, 2020

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Are you a pre-seed to late stage funded Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.

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VC Deals Only: SVT Robotics Secures $3.5M in Seed Funding

VC Deals Only: SVT Robotics Secures $3.5M in Seed Funding: SVT Robotics , a Norfolk, Va.-based provider of a software platform that accelerates and simplifies deployment of industrial robotics, compl...

SVT Robotics Secures $3.5M in Seed Funding

SVT Robotics, a Norfolk, Va.-based provider of a software platform that accelerates and simplifies deployment of industrial robotics, completed a $3.5m seed funding round.

The round was led by Cowboy Ventures with participation from Dynamo Ventures, Schematic Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, and NRV.

The company intends to use the funds to scale up the product and customer success teams and expand its offering.

Co-founded by Michael Howes and A.K. Schultz, SVT Robotics provides a robotic Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) that enables companies to connect their enterprise systems to any robot or automation. The company is now expanding its product feature set to support this customer growth and market demand.

Source. FinSMEs, May 5, 2020

This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian startup market; offering strategic communications & public relations services to Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.

Are you a pre-seed to late stage funded Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.

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VC Deals Only: Covariant Raises $40M in Series B Funding

VC Deals Only: Covariant Raises $40M in Series B Funding: Covariant , a Berkeley, CA-based developer of artificial intelligence for robotics, raised $40m in Series B funding. The round, which br...

Covariant Raises $40M in Series B Funding

Covariant, a Berkeley, CA-based developer of artificial intelligence for robotics, raised $40m in Series B funding.

The round, which brought total funding raised to date to $67m, was led by Index Ventures and Radical Ventures with participation from Amplify Partners, etc. In conjunction with the funding, Mike Volpi, partner at Index Ventures, will be joining Covariant’s board.

The company will use the funds to expand its research, engineering and commercial teams, add partnerships, and launch AI Robotics to new industries.

Founded in 2017 by Pieter Abbeel, president, chief scientist officer and Peter Chen, CEO, Covariant is building the Covariant Brain, a universal AI to give robots the ability to see, reason and act on the world around them. In 2020, the company launched from stealth and later announced partnerships with ABB and Knapp.

Source. FinSMEs, May 7, 2020

This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian startup market; offering strategic communications & public relations services to Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.

Are you a pre-seed to late stage funded Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.

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VC Deals Only: Orca Security Raises $20M in Series A Funding

VC Deals Only: Orca Security Raises $20M in Series A Funding: Orca Security , a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cloud security startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. The round, which brought total funding ...

Orca Security Raises $20M in Series A Funding

Orca Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cloud security startup, raised $20m in Series A funding.

The round, which brought total funding raised to date to $26.5m, was led by GGV Capital with participation from YL Ventures and Silicon Valley CISO Investments.

The company intends to use the funds to expand operations in Israel and US.

Co-founded in 2019 by Avia Shua and Gil Geron, Orca Security provides a cloud security software platform that enables companies to get visibility into Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Delivered as SaaS, its patent-pending, SideScanning™ technology reads a given cloud configuration and workloads’ runtime block storage out-of-band, detecting vulnerabilities, malware, misconfigurations, lateral movement risk, weak and leaked passwords, and high-risk data such as PII, without agents.

The company currently has 37 employees.

Source. FinSMEs, May 6, 2020

This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian startup market; offering strategic communications & public relations services to Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.

Are you a pre-seed to late stage funded Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.

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Tehama Raises £8M in Series A Funding

Tehama, an Ottawa, Canada-based provider of SaaS tools to deploy a global workforce, raised £8M ($10M) in Series A funding.

The round was led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from BDC Capital’s Industrial, Clean and Energy Technology (ICE) Venture Fund.

Led by Paul Vallée, CEO and Founder, Tehama provides a cloud-based SaaS platform that delivers highly secure virtual offices, rooms, and desktops anywhere in minutes. With no professional services required, no infrastructure to install, no laptops to ship, no networks to retool—Tehama can run in any web browser on any device. Tehama is SOC 2 Type II-certified and ensures high levels of security and compliance via policy controls, activity monitoring, and forensic auditing. Developed at Pythian, a global IT services company founded in 1997 by Paul Vallée, Tehama launched to the public in September 2018, spun out from Pythian in September 2019, and now has more than 150 enterprises using the platform.

Source. FinSMEs, May 5, 2020

This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian startup market; offering strategic communications & public relations services to Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.

Are you a pre-seed to late stage funded Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.

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VC Deals Only: MEDcraze Raises $3M in Seed Financing

VC Deals Only: MEDcraze Raises $3M in Seed Financing: MEDcraze LLC , an Atlanta, GA-based online platform startup that provides patient information and access to new medical technologies, comp...

MEDcraze Raises $3M in Seed Financing

MEDcraze LLC, an Atlanta, GA-based online platform startup that provides patient information and access to new medical technologies, completed a £3m seed funding round.
This financing has been made exclusively by JG Griffeth Investments LLC.

The company will use the proceeds to make key hires and continue to build out additional platform features, expand advertising efforts and opportunities for medical device, biotech and pharmaceutical companies that have recently launched new products.

Led by Carey Markey, Founder and CEO, and Manny Trujillo MD, Plastic Surgeon and Co-Founder, MEDcraze is an online community which allows recently diagnosed patients with an upcoming surgical procedure to obtain access to applicable advancements in medical technology. They can then take this information and have an elevated discussion, based on technology, with their healthcare provider.

Source. FinSMEs, May 4, 2020

This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian startup market; offering strategic communications & public relations services to Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.

Are you a pre-seed to late stage funded Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.

VC Deals Only: London-based Lifebit Biotech clinches $7.5 million...

VC Deals Only: London-based Lifebit Biotech clinches $7.5 million...: Lifebit Biotech , a London-based big data processor for medical research, has raised $7.5 million (£6 million) in Series A funding to fuel o...

VC Deals Only: Sqreen Closes $14M Series A Funding Round

VC Deals Only: Sqreen Closes $14M Series A Funding Round: Sqreen , a San Francisco, CA-based Application Security Management (ASM) company, closed a $14m Series A funding. The round was led by Gre...

VC Deals Only: Alume Biosciences CLoses $5.5M Series A Financing ...

VC Deals Only: Alume Biosciences CLoses $5.5M Series A Financing ...: Alume Biosciences, Inc. , a La Jolla, Calif.-based biotechnology company developing nerve-targeted pharmaceuticals for surgical and therapeu...

Alume Biosciences Closes $5.5M Series A Financing Round

Alume Biosciences, Inc., a La Jolla, Calif.-based biotechnology company developing nerve-targeted pharmaceuticals for surgical and therapeutic use, completed a Series A funding in the amount of $5.5m

Backers included co-founder Chrysa Mineo (formerly of Receptos and Neurocrine Biosciences) and Dan Bradbury (co-founder and Executive Chairman of Equillium, Inc. and former CEO of Amylin).

Founded by Quyen Nguyen, MD, PhD, with co-founders Brett Berman, MD, FACC, Chrysa Mineo and scientific co-founder Mike Whitney, PhD, Alume is a biotechnology company that is developing nerve-targeted pharmaceutical agents for surgical and therapeutic use. The company’s first product, ALM-488, is a fluorescently labeled peptide-dye conjugate that makes human nerves “glow,” helping surgeons reduce injury to critical nerves during surgery.

Alume intends to develop agents including ALM-488 to be used as an adjunct during surgery to help surgeons see nerves better compared to current visualization with white light alone.

The company’s technology has the potential to improve the accuracy of nerve identification, decrease operative time, and lead to better outcomes for patients.

Intellectual property underpinning Alume was licensed from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where Dr. Nguyen is a Professor in the Department of Surgery and Director of the Facial Nerve Clinic.

Source. FinSMEs, May 1, 2020

This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian startup market; offering strategic communications & public relations services to Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.

Are you a pre-seed to late stage funded Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience. 

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