VC Summer Slowdown Who? 27 Companies Raised Over $371M
Over the last two weeks, startups funded included a musculoskeletal (MSK) recovery platform, a couple familiar web3 features (welcome back?), and a stealth open source silicon project, among others 🚀
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If you’re new here, I’m Abigail! I’m a mechanical-engineer-turned-investor at Hyperplane, a venture capital firm in Boston investing in seed stage machine learning companies. Every two weeks, this newsletter serves to list Boston’s latest financings and highlight ecosystem players and happenings. Be sure to open this email in your browser to get the full issue.
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Welcome back! Big two weeks for Boston startups as we saw 27 startups raise (and—key here— successfully close) capital across equity, debt, and grant financings. Trying out a few new formatting things this week. One paragraph for local updates.
Boston soundbites: MassChallenge announced 186 startups, this year split between two cohorts, Growth and Foundations. Rapid7 laid off 18% of the company. The wait time for Boston residents to join the government's Global Entry program sits at about 7 weeks, so you might want to get in line now. The Pats picked up running back C.J. Marable and offensive lineman Micah Vanterpool— and dropped linebacker Olakunle Fatukasi and rookie Jourdan Heilig. Aryeo, Hyperplane portco (!!) and BC-founded, Boston-sweetheart real estate media startup announced it was acquired by Zillow. Congrats to Branick, Brendan, and Matt on a successful exit. Replacing the aging Sagamore bridge to Cape Cod is Governor Healey’s latest commitment, estimated to cost billions (cue the monster that will be the resulting traffic).
Maui: Another climate disaster announcement that has hit personally: If you haven’t heard, Maui’s wildfires have devastated the island. My little brother lives there now, and he is safe for the time being, thankfully. But the town next door is still burning, and like all Maui residents right now, he’s constantly on high alert. What he’s hearing and feeling? Complete disarray and a glaring hostility amongst residents towards Hawaii’s government action and their handling of the situation. Wildfire victims and Maui residents are critiquing the government’s response, very much in line with this Washington Post article. Another climate disaster, and another call to donate where you can. Resources here.
And so, with that, let’s get into it.
Boston Financings of 08/01-08/15
Financings are listed from smallest to largest. Biotech financings over $80M+ are usually not covered.
Healthcare (Drug Development) is our newest industry category as I attempt to refine the categorization of healthcare companies in light of the current cadence of healthcare companies funded.
The total amount of disclosed funding over the last two weeks hit $371.2M.
DemandQ | $300K debt | Energy
Provider of an energy demand analysis platform for energy suppliers, utilities, EVs, and commercial buildings, DemandQ, has raised $300K of convertible debt towards a $2M total offering. DemandQ’s platform, The Intelligent Demand Platform (pretty darn good name if you ask me), manages cycling loads “behind the meter” by easily integrating with Building Automation Systems and EV Charging software for automatic and continuous real-time demand control. The C-Suite comprises of ex-consulting executives from BCG, Accenture, and EBI.
Bilayer Therapeutics | $300K debt | Healthcare (Drug Development)
Development-stage biotech developing therapeutics in partnership with the Langer and Traverso Labs at MIT for gastrointestinal issues and metabolic conditions, Bilayer Therapeutics, has raised $300K in debt from 1 investor towards a $1M total offering. Using a naturally occurring bile acid (CDC), Bilayer can increase GLP-1, the key hormone targeted in weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic.
ImprezzAI | $510K | Ad Tech
ImprezzAI, a performance marketing startup leveraging ML for advertisers to more effectively measure and optimize return on ad spend, has raised $510K from angel investors. Founded by Dave Galvin and Ivan Ceraj, ImprezzAI was a product of having worked together at CarGurus building their performance marketing machine. The company is currently building an alpha product.
Filebase | $1M | Web3
Decentralized data storage for enterprises (and now startups, too), Filebase, has raised $1M from 1 investor towards a $3M total offering. Because I’m not fluent in decentralized speak, I’ll copy the description of their product offering from a past press release, “The Filebase platform offers a browser-based dashboard and an S3-compatible API to deploy, access and manage data across several decentralized storage networks.” They last raised a $2M Seed round in 2021 led by Multicoin Capital.
Psy Therapeutics | $1.2M | Healthcare (Drug Development)
Developer of therapeutics for high-potential central nervous system diseases, Psy Therapeutics, has raised an additional $1.2M in debt towards a filing for $20.4M. Led by serial biotech executive, David Barlow, Psy Therapeutics discovers drug candidates via a risk-contained, integrated translational approach, their farthest-along pipeline project being an alternative to opioids, a non-addictive analgesic. They last raised $5M in Seed funding from JLS Fund, WPSS Investments and Ayuh Ventures.
Nurture Genomics | $1.7M | Healthcare
Developer of a genomics-guided care platform offering whole genome sequencing of newborns, Nurture Genomics, has closed $1.7M towards a $5M offering. Co-founded by Harvard Medical School and Weill Cornell Medicine professors, Nurture’s core technology is based on research and is currently operating in stealth mode. The company last raised on a convertible SAFE note from HealthTech Capital and ImpactAssets- likely the reason for the filing.
CRIO | $1.8M | Healthcare IT
Provider of a clinical research workflow management platform for pharma, biotech, and academic research centers, CRIO, has raised $1.8M from 9 investors. The company standardizes data collection, centralizes patient recruitment, and helps facilitate study design, regulatory and financial compliance, and EDC entry. They last raised a $9M Series B in 2022 led by Abbhi Capital.
Hueson Wire | $3.21M | Manufacturing
Based in Northbridge, MA, Hueson Wire & Cable manufactures industrial-grade cables and wires, and has raised $3.21M from 27 total investors. Before becoming the specialty wire and cable job shop they are today, the initial focus was supplying insulated single conductor lead wire products to private labelers and local distributors. This is the first time the company has raised equity financing.
Entri | $3.5M | EdTech
Provider of a vernacular language learning platform for India focused on helping people acquire relevant job skills, Entri, has raised $3.5M from 7 total investors. Entri offers test-prep and job-oriented courses for preparing India’s workforce and is a part of LearnLaunch, a Boston-based EdTech accelerator. They raised a $6M Series A round in 2022 led by Omidyar Network with participation from Innospark Ventures and Veda Venture Capital, among others.
zeroRISC | $5M | AI Infra
zeroRISC, an open-source silicon company described by its cofounder and CEO, Dominic Rizzo, OpenTitan’s Project Director, as, “a stealthy start-up committed to making hardware security foundations transparent and trustworthy”, has raised $5M from 22 investors. Also listed on the filing are esteemed professors from Stanford and University of Cambridge, Zakir Durumeric and Robert Mullins. All listed on the filing are actively involved in lowRisc, a nonprofit open source silicon project spun out of University of Cambridge, presumably the foundation for zeroRISC. Check out Dominic Rizzo’s talk on OpenTitan and lowRISC’s collab.
Filter Labs | $5M | Data Infra
Developing AI-powered tools designed to automate the ingestion and analysis of alternative data, Filter Labs, has raised $5M from 4 investors. Filter Labs’ platform collects and analyzes data in “hard-to-reach corners of the internet”, powering data for use-cases for alternative analysis. Their recent release, Filter Russia, is a site analyzing Russian sentiment towards the Ukraine war, turning hyper local conversations into usable data. Their work was cited in the New York Times.
HarborMoor | $5.25M | Consumer
Provider of local online directory services for boat owners, HarborMoor, has raised $5.25M from 85 investors. HarborMoor offers a community to local boaters, allowing them to compare and engage with boats locally while also generating ideas for boat-specific renovations. The platform is free to boaters, and according to Pitchbook, the company sells data to state and federal governments.
Golden Hearts Games | $5.5M | Gaming
Digital charitable promotional games company, Golden Hearts Games, has raised $5.5M towards a $9.8M total offering. Golden Hearts offers casino-style promotional games where players win real cash and support their favorite charities, They last raised $11M in Seed-2 and Seed-3 funding in a deal led by Accomplice VC in 2021.
FeelBetter | $5.9M | Healthcare IT
Providers of a “pharmaco-clinical” (a new term) intelligence platform to fuel better medication management within our health systems, FeelBetter, has raised a $5.9M round led by Firstime Ventures and Shoni Health Ventures. Every year, the issues posed by taking multiple or wrong medications, called suboptimal medication, cost the US healthcare system $528.4B and 275,000 deaths. FeelBetter identifies and manages interventions of at-risk patients, leveraging a wide array of clinical and population health data. CEO Liat Primor had more.
Redona Therapeutics | $5.95M debt | Healthcare (Drug Development)
Developer of RNA drugs designed to treat various diseases, Redona Therapeutics, has raised $5.95M in the form of convertible debt from 8 investors. Redona’s pipeline of therapeutics are developed by researching short non-coding RNAs that inhibit target gene expression. According to Pitchbook, Redona last raised an $83M Series A round led by Novartis’ Venture Fund, Sofinnova Partners and MPM Capital in June of 2022.
AI Proteins | $8.3M debt | Healthcare (Drug Discovery)
Provider of an AI-based protein engineering platform for drug development, AI Proteins, has raised $8.3M in debt towards a $10M total offering. AI Proteins uses computational protein design and advanced laboratory robotics to create and engineer protein activity from scratch (“de novo”). The company raised a $18.2M Seed round from Lightchain Capital and Cobro Ventures in 2022.
MarvelBiome | $10M debt | Healthcare (Drug Development)
Early-stage biotech company developing treatments for various diseases by leveraging microbes, MarvelBiome, has raised $10M in the form of convertible debt from 1 investor. MarvelBiome’s core technology is based on research by cofounders at MGH and Harvard University, ultimately harnessing the therapeutic power of microbiome.
Ozlo Sleep | $10M | Consumer Hardware
Developer of Ozlo Sleepbuds®, a headphone designed specifically for sleep, Ozlo Sleep has emerged from stealth mode and raised a $10M Series A round led by LifeArc Ventures and ARTIS Ventures. Cofounded by three former Bose employees, Ozlo’s Sleepbuds leverage certain acquired and licensed proprietary sleep-related technology from Bose Corporation, going beyond what most sleep monitoring tools do to simply report data on your prior night’s sleep.
PureTech Health | $11.4M Grant | Healthcare (Drug Development)
Clinical-stage biotherapeutics company, PureTech Health, has been awarded an $11.4M grant from the US Department of Defense for their therapeutic candidate LYT-300 (oral allopregnanolone), treating Fragile X-associated Tremor Ataxia Syndrome. The funding will be used for Phase-2 clinical trials in collaboration with UC Davis and is PureTech’s fourth DoD grant on behalf of its Wholly Owned Programs in addition to five grants secured on behalf of its Founded Entities.
Akkio | $15M | Enterprise SaaS (AI)
Akkio, a company offering a no-code platform to help businesses deploy AI, has raised a $15M Series A led by Bain Capital Ventures and Pandome, Inc. With AI becoming a must-have for enterprises, Akkio has lowered the barrier to entry with no-code tools to quickly build and deploy AI for tasks like churn reduction, attrition prediction, fraud detection and sales funnel optimization. The company last raised a $3M Seed round also led by Bain Capital Ventures.
Boston Micro Fabrication | $24M | Additive Manufacturing
Developer of micro-precision 3D printing technology for customers in healthcare, the life sciences, electronics, and machining, Boston Micro Fabrication, has raised a CNY 170M ($24M USD) Series D round led by Guotai Junan Securities. BMF employs Projection Micro Stereolithography (PμSL) technology, integrating light, customizable optics, and a movement platform to manufacture precision 3D prints. They raised a CNY 300M ($41.3M) Series C round led by Shenzhen Capital Group in 2022.
Figur8 | $24.6M | Healthcare IT
Figur8, a platform for standardizing musculoskeletal (MSK) health and injury recovery data, has raised a $24.6M Series A-1 round led by First Spark Ventures. Founded as a collaboration between MIT, MassGen Orthopaedics, and the Boston Red Sox, Figur8’s product, bioMotion Assessment Platform (bMAP) incorporates hardware, software and biomechanics AI to accurately analyze MSK health, producing accurate, precise and objective data for care and injury recovery.
Axena Health | $26.8M | Healthcare
A company focused on commercial-stage medical devices targeted at women’s pelvic health, Axena Health, has closed $26.8M towards a $40M offering. Women-led and founded, Axena provides the Leva® Pelvic Health System, available by prescription only, helping women train and strengthen their pelvic floor muscles in just 5 minutes a day. This round was announced in February as a $25M Series A led by AXA IM Alts through its Global Healthcare Private Equity Strategy.
Instylla | $30M | Healthcare (Drug Development)
Instylla, a company focused on developing next-generation liquid embolics for interventional radiology, has raised $30M from 31 investors. Their product, the Embrace™ Hydrogel Embolic System, enables clinicians to execute controlled, complete and persistent embolization in clinical conditions. They last raised a $25.4M Series B round from Catalyst Health Ventures, Ascension Ventures, Excelestar, and Angel Physicians Fund in 2020.
Solu Therapeutics | $31M | Healthcare (Drug Development)
Longwood Fund-founded developer of a drug discovery platform designed to unlock antibody-intractable targets to build next-generation medicines, Solu Therapeutics, has raised $31M in Seed funding led by Longwood Fund and Santé Ventures with participation from DCVC Bio. This funding will be used to develop Solu’s platform, The CyTaC (Cytotoxicity Targeting Chimera), and drug candidates that were licensed from GSK. The team was recruited by investors, and the interim CEO is the Executive Partner at Longwood Fund.
LightForce Orthodontics | $80M | Healthcare
Creator of personalized 3D-printed braces that reduce time required to wear them compared to normal brackets, LightForce Orthodontics, has raised an $80M Series D round led by Ally Bridge Group. Founded in 2015, Lightforce aims “to change the world of stock braces,” according to founder, Alfred Griffin III. Dr. Griffin joined forces with Dr. Lou Shuman — Invisalign® senior exec during its time of hyper-growth— to start LightForce. The company received formal FDA clearance and last raised a $50M Series C in 2021 from Matrix Partners.
Extras…
Skylark Bio | Amended Filing | Healthcare
ARCH Venture Partners new stealth company, Skylark Bio, has amended it’s original $23M filing to $35M filing, leaving $13M open. The round closed in 2022, and the expanded offering indicates the company is planning to receive extra funds as an expansion to the original round.
Formless | Accelerator Announcement | Web3
Formless, creator of SHARE, a decentralized digital media content distribution engine using peer-to-peer micro-transactions on the blockchain, has been announced as 1 of the 10 startups in Cohort S23 of web3 accelerator, Beacon.
Love Lace | Accelerator Announcement | Web3
Love Lace, a female-founded generative AI platform for VR, has announced it’s participation in the Fulcrum Venture Accelerator as part of its seventh cohort of early-stage startups.
All for now!
Your Macro Briefing + Headlines 📉
Covering the upcoming numbers to watch for (🔜) , the relevant numbers of last week (🔙), and the tech headlines of the last two weeks (🆕).
🔜 Economy watch this week: Highly recommend this site for more here.
📢 Number releases: Today: Import/Export Price Indexes, business inventories, retail prices. Tomorrow: Housing starts and building permits, industrial production. Thursday: Conference Board Leading Indicators, jobless claims. Friday: Baker Hugges Rig Count (oil stuff).
📣 Earnings: Target, Walmart, and Home Depot all report earnings this week. It’s highly anticipated, as it will likely have big signals about US consumer spending (for more color here, this is a big deal because US consumer spending is 70% of our economy).
Otherwise, check out the earnings numbers as they are released here.
🔙 Economy watch last two weeks:
🛍 Consumers: The US is experiencing record household debt, mortgage debt, auto loans, student loans, and credit card debt.
💼 AI regulation update: The US Department of Defense announces they are establishing a generative AI task force. What will it do? “Assess, synchronize, and employ generative AI capabilities across the DoD”. So, your guess is as good as mine.
💇♂️ Rate cut predictions: The next Fed meeting is on September 20th, and no one thinks it’ll move. But when will they start cutting rates? CME Group shows traders are saying the highest chances of a Fed rate cut don’t happen until May of next year. JPMorgan says it won’t start cutting rates until the Q3 of 2024, Morgan Stanley predicts Q1 of 2024, while Goldman Sachs’ analysts say Q2 of 2024 is agreeable for the first cut.
📈 Yield curve scrutiny: Confidence that we will not in fact be facing a recession is increasingly apparent amongst Wall Street analysts as they scrutinize the inverted yield curve in light of recent strong economic data.
💴 Global: China’s CPI numbers — a proxy for inflation— is down 3.5% annualized, and investors are predicting the indication of disinflation experienced by a global growth engine will have ripples around the world.
AI Product Releases
💬 Meta announced AudioCraft, a text-to-audio model generating audio and music from text-based user inputs.
🔬 Scale released Test & Evaluate for LLMs, to be tested at the upcoming White House hackathon announced last week.
🛰 IBM open-sourced their geospatial data with NASA satellite imagery on Hugging Face.
🪐 JupyterLab releases Jupyter AI, the official generative AI extension for JupyterLab.
🩺 DoctorGPT is an LLM that can pass the US Medical Licensing Exam. It works offline, it's cross-platform, & your health data stays private.
🖇 Consultants, you’re welcome. Cue, PitchPower, AI-generated project proposals for consultants.
🗣 Turn your browser into a language learning tool with Fluent, just released on Product Hunt.
🆕 Headlines:
🌍 A global alliance is… trendy? NATO raised $1B venture fund.
🧵 Sorry, Threads who? In the last 3 weeks, DAUs at Threads are down from 100 million to just 11 million (~80%).
🔥 A win for the climate disaster: A judge ruled Montana’s lack of consideration of the impact of warming temperatures when approving fossil fuel projects was unconstitutional, setting the tone for accountability moving forward.
🛒 Amazon is in the ring: Amazon is now developing generative AI infrastructure in the form of custom AWS chips, Inferentia and Trainium, that offer AWS customers an alternative to training their large language models on Nvidia’s GPUs.
🏞 Not the national park: Reed Jobs, Steve Jobs’ son, at 31-years-old, announced a $200M fund called Yosemite, for innovation in oncology treatments backed by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MIT, and John Doerr. The fund will also offer a grant program for academics and scientists.
🇺🇦 Ukraine update, Day 538: Russia raised interest rates this morning by 3.5 percentage points to 12%, underlining the scale of concern about Russia’s economic stability.
The United States will send new military assistance worth $200M that includes air defense munitions, artillery, anti-armour capabilities and mine-clearing equipment, Antony Blinken said in a statement.
In response to Russia backing out of year-long Black Sea grain deal, allowing Ukraine to export food and fertilizer internationally, Romania has said it plans to double transit capacity of Ukrainian grain via the Danube River.
🎬 We loved the movie— til now: Michael Oher has petitioned a Tennessee court to end ties with the Tuohy family, alleging that acclaimed Oscar-winning movie, The Blind Side, was largely fabricated for the Tuohys financial benefit.
🏥 Healthcare push: CVS Health allegedly plans to cut 5000 corporate jobs to increase bottom-line efficiency metrics and bolster their healthcare services offerings. Amazon is also pushing health initiatives forward with the Amazon Clinic now available in all 50 U.S. states.
📉 A reset in tow: Union Square Ventures has reportedly cut the value of seven of their funds by almost 26% this year, according to BI after receiving investment returns for UTIMCO obtained through a public records request.
🚔 SBF is up to the line and on his way down to jail: “He has gone up to the line over and over again, and I am going to revoke bail,” Judge Kaplan, appointed to the case, said of Sam Bankman Fried. Reportedly, Bankman-Fried will be detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Local Features
Select Events
🧑💼 Tech and Biz
Thursday, August 17th, 4:30PM: Venture Cafe in Cambridge hosts a weekly networking gathering for tech folks.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 5:30PM: TiE Boston hosts, Accelerating Innovations from Basic Science to Profitable Business for advanced materials.
Thursday, August 24, 5PM: Greentown Labs hosts, Bridging the Corporate and Startup Divide.
Friday, September 8, 4PM: MIT’s Delta V accelerator is hosting their Demo Day.
🤗 Other
Wednesday, August 6th, 8PM: Sunset Cinema at the MFA, a free outdoor screening of movies this summer.
Friday, August 18th, 5PM: The ICA hosts Vinyl Nights, outdoor all-vinyl DJ sets by some of Boston’s best DJs with waterfront views at the brand new ICA Wine + Coffee Bar.
Friday, August 18th, 5:30PM: The Museum of Science hosts a new pop-up experience and outdoor bar, Sips Under The Sky. Dog friendly!
Relevant Reads (Just a few!)
Warren Buffet’s latest bet is on the housing market with homebuilder stocks.
Series A funding data from Carta’s Head of Insights.
How Apple Will Save Billions of Dollars on Chips for New iPhone.
Scientists of Chinese descent leaving the US at an accelerating pace.