• Jiff

  Participated · Series C · May 2015

  Jiff operates an enterprise health benefits platform that aggregates digital health vendors and delivers personalized incentives, real-time analytics, and an easy-to-use experience to drive employee engagement. The company emphasizes driving utilization—reporting 73% of participants interact weekly and 35% daily—and says its platform achieves two-to-five times the utilization of typical point solutions. Jiff has expanded its client base by 32% and increased the number of employees on the platform by 40% since the start of the year. The company recently introduced three product packages: Jiff Enterprise Navigator, Jiff Total Wellbeing, and Jiff Launch Pad, and integrates over 40 pre-integrated services including partners like Garmin and MyDietitian. Jiff employs about 120 people across its Mountain View headquarters and an Oakland office and has alliances with Willis Towers Watson and Mercer. The company plans to use new funding to further expand its product offering and continue product development. Jiff is a Palo Alto, CA–based health technology company that operates an enterprise health benefits platform for self-insured employers. The platform enables employers to deliver customized benefit programs to each employee and serves a range of Fortune 500 companies. Customers named in the article include inVentiv, Qualcomm, and Uber. The company is led by CEO Derek Newell and intends to use recent funding to continue to grow operations. Jiff is set to launch Jiff Navigator, a home screen for health benefits that lets employers manage existing benefits, create custom programs, and access real-time data analytics. Financially, Jiff completed a $23.3M Series C round led by Rosemark Capital with participation from GE Ventures, Venrock Associates, Aberdare Partners and Aeris Capital. Jiff offers a software platform that gathers data from a wide range of wearable devices (Fitbit, Jawbone, Misfit Shine, etc.) and mobile fitness-tracking apps, enabling employers to reward and engage employees in digital health programs. Its HIPAA-compliant applications are available on web, iOS, and Android and can be branded and themed by employers. The platform supports social challenges, contests, spouse/friend invitations, and rewards for meeting personalized health goals, and lets employers curate which devices and services to support. Jiff charges employers roughly $1–$2 per employee per month for its digital health applications, allowing companies to avoid buying devices for employees. The company plans to use new funding to expand sales and marketing, grow its network of sales and distribution partners, and build out its network of digital health partners across categories. The article notes a large addressable market with over 40,000 mobile health apps and devices and a $330 million digital fitness device market in 2013. Jiff is a Palo Alto–based developer of a HIPAA-compliant private healthcare social network and a digital health apps platform. The company offers a platform that lets consumers and health care professionals build private, personalized communities of care and run health and well-being applications. Jiff announced JiffPad, an iPad educational app that converts conversations and images into videos patients can reference and share. The company plans to use the new capital to deploy its healthcare social network, develop a suite of health, well-being, care and community apps, and publish a software development kit to allow third-party developers to build on the platform. Jiff was founded in 2010 and is led by newly appointed CEO Derek Newell.

• Curetis

  Participated · Series B · Nov 2014

  Curetis develops and commercializes the Unyvero molecular diagnostic platform that delivers rapid multi-parameter pathogen and antibiotic-resistance marker detection in only a few hours. The company intends to further develop and validate complementary technology assets and associated IP, fund clinical trials, and integrate the recently acquired GEAR database and assets into its platform. The financing is targeted to accelerate R&D activities and to broaden the pipeline of applications for Unyvero. Founded in 2007 and based in Holzgerlingen near Stuttgart, Germany, Curetis focuses on fast, cost-effective diagnostics for severe infectious diseases. To date the company has raised EUR 44.3 million in an IPO on Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels and over EUR 63.5 million in private equity, and it has now entered into an EIB debt facility up to EUR 25 million. The funding is expected to cover up to 50% of Curetis’s expected medium-term R&D project requirements, including R&D staff costs, external R&D operating expenses and related capital expenditures. Curetis is a German developer of next-generation molecular diagnostics centered on its Unyvero platform. The Unyvero system is a comprehensive diagnostics platform for severe infectious diseases in hospitalized patients, using a variety of cartridges to diagnose conditions such as pneumonia and implant and tissue infections within four to five hours. The Unyvero P50 Pneumonia and i60 Implant and Tissue Infection applications are already approved for use in Europe. Curetis will use the new funds to support the European product rollout and to run a U.S. clinical trial of Unyvero; the company is also looking to bring its tests to Asian markets. Management said it is pursuing attractive future exit opportunities including strategic partnerships, M&A or an IPO. The new financing increases the company’s total equity raised to more than $79.2 million and, according to the company, finances operations well into 2017. Curetis AG announced the closing of a Series B financing totaling EUR 12.5 million. The round was led by HBM Partners, which took an EUR 6.0 million equity stake in Curetis. Dr. Alexander Asam of HBM Partners will join Curetis' supervisory board. The announcement was presented as portfolio news. No other investors or financing instruments were disclosed in the article. No operating metrics, past rounds, founding year, or location were provided. Curetis, founded in 2007 and based in Holzgerlingen near Stuttgart, Germany, develops and commercializes rapid molecular diagnostic solutions. Its core product, the Unyvero System, is designed to detect pathogens and antibiotic resistance markers within a few hours. The technology aims to enable clinicians to diagnose causes of severe infections faster and begin targeted antibiotic regimens immediately for critically ill patients. The company is led by CEO Oliver Schacht, PhD, with CTO Andreas Boos and COO Johannes Bacher. Curetis has been advancing commercialization alongside continued development of its diagnostic platform. Recent financing activity has supported its near-term growth and Board expansion. Curetis AG develops and commercializes in vitro diagnostic products for infectious diseases, centered on its Unyvero product platform. The company intends to use newly raised funds to prepare for commercial launch and roll-out of Unyvero together with a CE‑marked IVD test cartridge for pneumonia and antibiotic resistances. Unyvero is a hardware platform designed to detect a broad panel of bacteria and antibiotic resistances from a single sample in one run. Curetis is based in Holzgerlingen, Germany, and recently appointed Oliver Schacht, PhD, as CEO. Financially, the company has been capitalizing its commercialization push through equity financing, including a prior €18.5m raise in 2009.

• Butterfly Network

  Participated · Equity · Nov 2014

  Butterfly’s core product, the Butterfly iQ, is a $2,000 handheld ultrasound device that uses a semiconductor ultrasound-on-a-chip (CMUT) architecture to deliver whole-body imaging. The iQ pairs with a smartphone app that uses AI and computer-vision "Tele-Guidance" to direct probe placement and uploads encrypted scans to a SOC II–certified, AES 256-bit cloud service that the article describes as HIPPA-compliant. The device was cleared by the FDA in October 2017 for abdominal, cardiovascular, fetal, gynecological, urological, musculoskeletal and other clinical applications. Butterfly says its chip contains up to 10,000 transducer channels and can perform roughly half a trillion operations per second, enabling three-dimensional imaging. The company has begun shipping first units to tens of thousands of customers who reserved them and plans to sell more than a quarter-million devices in the next 18 months. Butterfly is also developing two new products: an ultrasound monitoring patch and an ingestible pill that images internally. Butterfly Network is a Guilford, CT- and NYC-based healthcare startup. It was founded by Jonathan Rothberg and a group of physicists and engineers from MIT and Lincoln Laboratories' through-wall radar team, including Max Tegmark, Nevada Sanchez, Greg Charvat and Tyler Ralston. The company aims to transform medical imaging and non-invasive surgery by leveraging advances in semiconductors, deep learning and cloud computing. Butterfly Network is incubated within 4Combinator, a healthcare startup incubator. The company raised over $100m in funding, with backers that included Aeris Capital and Stanford University. As of the article the company was hiring.

• Affimed

  Led · Series E · Sep 2014

  Affimed is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing highly targeted cancer immunotherapies from its base in Heidelberg, Germany. Its product candidates sit in the field of immuno-oncology and aim to harness the body's NK-cells and T-cells to attack tumors. Affimed's proprietary next-generation bispecific antibodies, called TandAbs, are designed to bridge either NK-cells or T-cells with cancer cells and trigger tumor cell destruction. The company announced committed financing totaling $29.7M (€22.2M) comprised of a $15.7M Series E equity round and a $14M loan. Of those commitments, $11M of the Series E and $5.5M of the loan have already been invested. The funding is dedicated to the continued clinical development of Affimed's cancer immunotherapies. Affimed develops unique TandAb bispecific tetravalent antibodies using a proprietary platform to produce fully human antibody formats for oncology and autoimmune indications. Its lead programs are AFM13 (CD30/CD16A) and AFM11 (CD19/CD3). AFM13 is in a Phase I trial for Hodgkin's lymphoma with results expected by December 2012, while AFM11 is in late-stage preclinical development and planned to enter Phase I in 2013. The company says TandAbs bind targets on tumor and immune cells to trigger immune-mediated tumor cell destruction. Affimed is a private spin-off from the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and employs 30 people in Heidelberg. Proceeds from the recent financing will be used to fund clinical development of its pipeline. Affimed develops therapeutic antibodies using its proprietary TandAb tetravalent bispecific platform to target tumor cells and activate T cells or natural killer (NK) cells. Its lead program, AFM13 for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, was expected to enter clinical phase I in Q3 2010, while AFM11 and AFM12 for Non‑Hodgkin’s Lymphoma were in preclinical development with phase I anticipated in 2011. TandAbs are described as tetravalent antibodies that bind target molecules on tumor cells and simultaneously activate immune effector cells to selectively destroy tumor cells. The company said the €20m Series C financing will fund clinical validation of its TandAb technology and ongoing development of its therapeutic antibody pipeline. Affimed employs 26 people and is a spin‑off from the German Cancer Research Centre. The company is based in Heidelberg, Germany. Affimed Therapeutics AG is a private Heidelberg, Germany–based biopharmaceutical company founded in May 2000 as a spin-off of Professor Melvyn Little's group. Its core platform is the proprietary TandAb tetravalent antibody format and the company reports one of the largest proprietary libraries of therapeutic antibodies and versatile antibody formats. Affimed's two clinical lead programs target Hodgkin's disease and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and it plans to advance additional preclinical antibody programs in oncology and anti-inflammatory indications. The company intends to use new funding to finance clinical development of its lead products and to move its antibody candidates into Phase II. Management and investors cite a strong IP position and industry expertise as support for rapid clinical advancement. BIO-IB Inc. and MedVenture Partners served as advisors to the transaction.

• Smaato

  Participated · Series E · Aug 2014

  Smaato provides advertising tools for mobile publishers and developers, including a supply-side platform for managing ad inventory and an exchange that connects multiple ad networks. The company leverages programmatic technology to match global demand with regional supply and reports a publisher base that grew from 11,686 to 78,000 since early 2011. Smaato says it is profitable and raised new funding to continue investing and looking forward rather than to cover operating costs. Management aims to recruit higher-end publishers and will launch private ad exchanges to support that move while maintaining its mid-tier publisher footprint. The company was founded in 2005 and operates a global business with offices in San Francisco (headquarters), New York, Hamburg, Singapore, and Jakarta. Teams in each market are largely independent and focused on their assigned regions as Smaato develops its programmatic offerings. Smaato operates SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising), a mobile ad optimization platform that aggregates 50+ leading ad networks to maximize publishers' mobile advertising revenue. More than 11,000 publishers in 220+ countries have signed up, and Smaato is processing close to 20 billion ad requests per month. The company partners with mobile publishers and app developers and offers a single sign-up process to access relevant local ads globally. Smaato plans to use new funding to fuel international expansion, particularly to extend its presence in Asia from its Asian headquarters in Singapore, and to grow its team beyond more than 55 staff worldwide. Management reported strong revenue growth in 2010 and expects further exponential revenue growth in 2011 through partnerships with leading mobile publishers and app developers. Smaato is present in Redwood Shores, Calif.; Singapore; and Hamburg, Germany, and has been recognized on industry lists such as the OnMedia 100 Top Private Companies. Smaato operates a mobile ad optimization and advertising platform, helping publishers and advertisers manage mobile ad networks. The company closed a $4.5M Series B to support its expansion plans. Management says the funds will be used to grow Smaato's global presence and expand its network of ad networks. Smaato recently opened an office in Singapore and will use the new capital to strengthen its position in other regions. CEO and Co‑Founder Ragnar Kruse indicated the round will help the company continue to provide choice and service to customers. The financing reflects an early-stage institutional investment to support international growth. Smaato offers the SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising) ad-server platform to connect next-generation mobile applications with targeted advertising. SOMA supports delivery across leading mobile operating systems, including Java, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Palm OS, as well as on mobile web pages. The company partners with ad-sales networks worldwide to provide access to mobile inventory and enhanced targeting features. Management positions Smaato as a pioneer in targeted mobile advertising and emphasizes innovation across devices. With support from an international investor group and an advisory board of globally connected individuals, Smaato plans to expand its reach within the industry on a global scale. The company recently received $3.5 million in financing from international media, advertising, mobile and financial community investors.

No current team members are available.