Participated · Equity · Feb 2019

Nuvaira develops a lung denervation system to treat obstructive lung diseases using a procedure called Targeted Lung Denervation (TLD). Its proprietary technology targets airway hyper-responsiveness, a pathophysiologic underpinning of COPD and asthma, and has demonstrated safety and feasibility in IPS-I/II, AIRFLOW-1, and the AIRFLOW-2 sham-controlled randomized trial. The Nuvaira Lung Denervation System is CE Mark approved and is under clinical investigation in the U.S.; it is not commercially available in the USA. The company will use the financing to support the pivotal AIRFLOW-3 clinical trial for FDA approval and to implement a targeted clinical development strategy in key European markets. Nuvaira closed a $79M equity financing to fund these efforts. The company is led by CEO Dennis Wahr, M.D., and recently added Lisa Rogan as senior vice president of market development. Holaira is a lung denervation company developing minimally invasive products to make breathing easier for patients suffering from obstructive lung diseases. The company is working on a novel catheter‑based system that has the potential to improve lung function, exercise capacity and quality of life for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Founded in 2008 and led by president and chief executive officer Dennis Wahr, Holaira is based in Plymouth, MN. It recently raised $42M in Series D funding to advance its clinical program. The company intends to use the funds to support the first randomized lung denervation clinical trial with a sham control. In conjunction with the funding, Dr. Lincoln Chee of Vertex Venture Holdings joined Holaira’s board of directors. Holaira (fka Innovative Pulmonary Solutions) develops minimally invasive medical devices to treat obstructive lung diseases, including a novel catheter-based system for Targeted Lung Denervation aimed at easing breathing for COPD patients. The company is working to advance its minimally invasive product portfolio and intends to use the new capital to continue development. Holaira is led by president and CEO Dennis Wahr, M.D. and was founded in 2008. The company is based in Minneapolis, MN. Financially, Holaira completed a $10M Series C financing to support its product development efforts. Identified backers include Advanced Technology Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, Split Rock Partners and Versant Ventures.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2019

Gynesonics develops minimally invasive, incision-free, uterus-preserving transcervical technologies for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, with a focus on treating symptomatic uterine fibroids. Its flagship product, the FDA-cleared Sonata System®, provides diagnostic intrauterine imaging and transcervical fibroid treatment and is CE-marked and approved for sale in the EU, UK, Switzerland, and the US. Sonata enables fibroid removal in roughly a 45-minute outpatient procedure, with most patients resuming regular activity the next day. The company is led by President and CEO Skip Baldino. Gynesonics intends to use the new funds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. Financially, the company has raised a total of $67.2M to date following the latest financing activity. Gynesonics develops minimally invasive, incision‑free, uterus‑preserving transcervical technologies; its flagship product is the Sonata System for diagnostic intrauterine imaging and transcervical treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids. The Sonata System is FDA cleared, CE marked, and approved for sale in the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. The company positions Sonata as a minimally invasive, incisionless alternative with proven clinical outcomes while noting common side effects and potential treatment risks. In early March Gynesonics appointed industry veteran Skip Baldino as President and CEO; he will also serve on the board, succeeding Christopher Owens. Gynesonics closed a $25M financing to help drive growth, accelerate adoption, and expand worldwide commercialization of the Sonata System. The company says its prior pivotal clinical trial, regulatory clearances, and initial product launch established a foundation of adoption and revenue growth to build on. Gynesonics develops minimally invasive, incision-free, uterus-preserving transcervical technologies for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in women’s health. Its core product, the Sonata System, combines real-time intrauterine ultrasound guidance with targeted radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to offer an incision-free, outpatient procedure for treating multiple uterine fibroid types. The company has secured FDA clearance for the Sonata System. The Sonata System is also CE marked and approved for sale in the European Union and the United States. Gynesonics is led by President and CEO Chris Owens. Financially, the company received a $50M senior secured term loan from Runway Growth Capital. Gynesonics develops minimally invasive, transcervical, uterus-preserving technologies, principally the Sonata System. The Sonata System combines the first intrauterine ultrasound with a proprietary radiofrequency ablation device to provide a transcervical, incision-free treatment for symptomatic uterine fibroids. Sonata enables targeting and optimizing ablations via the SMART Guide and is designed to access a wide range of fibroid types many current hysteroscopy methods cannot treat. The system has CE Mark approval for the European Union and received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance in August. Gynesonics will use financing proceeds to launch global commercialization, further develop the Sonata technology platform, and fund additional clinical research to support reimbursement and market development. The company is headquartered in Redwood City, California and projects a $3 billion–$4 billion global market opportunity for Sonata, including more than $1 billion in the U.S. Gynesonics develops the Sonata™ System, a minimally invasive, incision‑free device that uses radiofrequency energy under intrauterine sonography guidance to ablate uterine fibroids. The Sonata system includes the SMART Targeting Guide and provides transcervical, uterus‑preserving access designed to avoid the peritoneal cavity. Sonata is CE marked and approved for sale in the European Union but is not available for sale in the United States; the company announced FDA approval of the SONATA IDE pivotal trial in October 2014. Gynesonics is privately held and headquartered in Redwood City, California. The company will use the financing to fund its strategic clinical plan, including current and future U.S. and global trials, as well as programs in operations, R&D, market adoption, and global regulatory and reimbursement efforts. The announcement cites the large, underserved market for symptomatic fibroids and the potential to reduce invasive procedures such as hysterectomy.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2018

Actifio provides multi-cloud data management software powered by its patented Virtual Data Pipeline™ technology. The company's platform delivers Data-as-a-Service to manage databases and to support security, DevOps, analytics, compliance and governance. Actifio serves more than 3,000 enterprises worldwide. Led by founder and CEO Ash Ashutosh and based in Waltham, Mass., the company raised $100M in financing in a round that values it at over $1.3 billion. The round was led by Crestline Investors with participation from North Bridge Venture Partners, 83North, Advanced Technology Ventures, Heritage Group, Andreessen Horowitz and other existing investors. Actifio intends to use the funds to continue to grow globally. Actifio builds a data storage platform using copy-data virtualization that lets businesses create a single master copy of production data and make changes to that copy. The company says its technology can cut storage costs by as much as 90% and reduce recovery times. Actifio reported 182% year-over-year bookings growth in 2013, serves over 300 enterprise users, and has customers in 31 countries with 44% of bookings from outside the U.S. It manages over 1 exabyte of data, including 14 petabytes of active app data and 55 petabytes of physical storage capacity. Actifio said it will use new funding to expand globally, develop new product features, extend into the mid-market, and enable cloud service provider partners to build businesses on its platform. The company has been discussing an IPO and said a public offering is likely in the following year. Actifio offers a copy data storage platform that virtualizes storage and manages a single "perfect copy" of production data, enabling application-centric, SLA-driven recovery from any point in time. The platform delivers recovery times in minutes and claims up to 90% lower total cost of ownership versus traditional models. The company closed a $50 million investment round to accelerate bookings growth and to invest in its global go-to-market model to target the estimated $44 billion copy data storage market. Actifio reported 700% year-over-year growth in FY2012, achieved ten consecutive quarters of double-digit sequential growth, and has over 100 referenceable users across 16 countries. Leadership tied to the financing includes Rick Kimball of TCV joining the board. The company is headquartered in Waltham, Mass., and is led by CEO Ash Ashutosh. Actifio builds a PAS platform that virtualizes management of data and manages copies of production data to address backup, disaster recovery and business continuity. The platform is expanding to support test and development, analytics, compliance, e-discovery and other business-critical uses. Customers include small and medium-sized businesses, large enterprises, and managed service and cloud service providers. The company was founded in 2010 and is led by CEO Ash Ashutosh, president Jim Sullivan and David Chang. Actifio has positioned its product as creating a new category of storage that consumerizes operations and enables SLA-driven services in the data center. Financially, the company has raised venture capital to support growth, including the most recent financing noted below. Actifio is a Waltham, MA-based provider of Data Management Virtualization (DMV) solutions. Its software suite comprises Actifio DP for data protection, Actifio DR for disaster recovery and Actifio BC for business continuity. The company closed a second round of venture financing to support growth. It will use the new capital to expand sales and marketing to grow its market share. The financing activity has brought the companys total capital raised to date to $24M.

Led · Equity · Jul 2018

EndoGastric Solutions is a Redmond, Washington–based medical device company focused on incisionless surgical technologies for GERD, notably the EsophyX device and the TIF 2.0 procedure. The company positions TIF 2.0 as a safe and effective alternative to surgery, citing more than 140 peer‑reviewed publications and outcomes showing many patients can eliminate daily medications for up to five years. Over 35,000 TIF 2.0 procedures have been performed worldwide, and EGS emphasizes an exemplary safety profile. EGS closed an $18M financing to further drive growth and broaden commercialization of the TIF 2.0 procedure. The financing announcement coincided with a leadership transition: Darin Hammers was appointed President and CEO, replacing Skip Baldino, who will remain a strategic advisor. Management says the new capital will provide added fuel to accelerate the company’s commercial evolution and adoption among physician partners and patients. EndoGastric Solutions develops a minimally invasive treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) using its TIF 2.0 procedure and a proprietary device that corrects the root cause of reflux without surgery. The company reports having performed the procedure on 22,000 patients to date. It aims to expand the reach of its non‑surgical option to capture a larger portion of the GERD market. Financially, EndoGastric recently closed a $45M Series I financing and has raised about $251M since launching in 2003. Company leadership says the new capital establishes a strong financial foundation to pursue significant growth and long‑term commercial viability. EndoGastric Solutions develops and commercializes innovative, evidence-based, incisionless procedural therapy for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Its core offering is the TIF® procedure, which the company is commercializing to physician customers. The company plans to use new financing to continue commercial expansion of the TIF® procedure and to support its physician customer base. It also intends to invest in sustaining engineering initiatives aimed at optimizing gross margin. The company is led by President and CEO Skip Baldino. GERD is a chronic condition in which the gastroesophageal valve allows gastric contents to reflux into the esophagus, causing heartburn and potential injury to the esophageal lining. EndoGastric Solutions (EGS) is a Redmond, Washington–based medical device company focused on incisionless treatment of GERD via its Transoral Incisionless Fundoplication (TIF) procedure and EsophyX devices. The company markets EsophyX technology—cleared by the FDA in 2007 and updated with the EsophyX Z in 2015—to reconstruct the gastroesophageal valve and reduce reflux. EGS reports more than 17,000 TIF patients treated worldwide since clearance and cites over 50 peer‑review papers documenting outcomes on more than 800 unique study patients. Recent changes in coding and payment—CPT Code 43210 and APC 5331 for TIF procedures effective January 1, 2016—aim to improve patient access and reimbursement. EGS says it will use new financing to begin broad‑scale commercialization and to fund R&D on next‑generation products used in the TIF procedure. The company positions TIF as a minimally invasive alternative that can reduce long‑term PPI use for chronic GERD sufferers. EndoGastric Solutions develops products and procedures that combine gastroenterology and surgery to address unmet needs in gastrointestinal diseases. Its core product, the EsophyX device, was FDA cleared in 2007 and is commercially available in the United States. The EsophyX device is inserted transorally with visual guidance from an endoscope and is used in the TIF procedure to reconstruct the gastroesophageal valve, restoring its competency and reestablishing the barrier to reflux. The company, led by President and CEO Skip Baldino, intends to use newly raised funds to support publishing data from three randomized trials, bring new products to market, and establish clear reimbursement for its technology. Financially, the company completed a $30M Series G financing to support these plans. The article does not disclose operating metrics such as revenue or user counts.

Participated · Series B · Apr 2016

Second Genome develops novel medicines by integrating microbiome and host biology through a drug-discovery platform that identifies novel targets and candidate drugs. Its data analysis techniques enable identification of microbes and microbial biomarkers that influence disease states. The company combines these discovery capabilities with drug development expertise to accelerate the rapid discovery of therapeutic options across a range of microbiome-related diseases. Second Genome intends to use the new funds to accelerate translation of its microbiome discoveries into a pipeline of clinical opportunities. Leadership cited in the report includes newly appointed CEO Glenn Nedwin, Ph.D., CSO Karim Dabbagh, Ph.D., and chairman and co-founder Corey Goodman, Ph.D. Second Genome leverages a microbiome discovery platform that combines genomics technologies, computational biology, and phenotypic screening to identify novel proteins, peptides, and metabolites that play causal roles in human disease and wellness. The company is led by CEO Peter DiLaura and is based in South San Francisco, CA. It closed a $42.6M Series B and has raised $59M in total to date. Second Genome plans to use the funds to expand its Microbiome Discovery Platform across indications tied to barrier function, insulin sensitivity, and immune regulation. The company will also advance the clinical investigation of SGM-1019, a small-molecule inhibitor targeting a microbiome-mediated pathway, through human proof-of-concept studies. The platform-driven approach supports discovery of molecules intended to address inflammation and pain in ulcerative colitis and other indications. Second Genome develops a Microbiome Signature Discovery Platform to identify and validate microbiome signatures rapidly and accurately. The company focuses on microbiome-based personalized medicine for gastrointestinal diseases and disorders, including IBS, IBD, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and necrotizing enterocolitis. It partners with academic researchers and manufacturers of novel and existing therapies — including developers of probiotic, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical products — to study therapy impacts on the gut microbiome and develop response signatures. The company intends to use the new funding to further develop its personalized medicine solutions for GI conditions. Second Genome was founded in 2009 as PhyloTech and is led by President and CEO Peter DiLaura and co-founder and Chairman Dr. Corey Goodman. The company is based in San Francisco, CA.