Participated · Series B · Mar 2022

Silent Eight is a Singapore-based technology company that leverages AI to build compliance platforms enabling financial institutions to investigate suspicious transactions, beneficiaries, and customers in real time. Led by CEO and founder Martin Markiewicz, the platform is deployed in over 150 markets and the company maintains global hubs in New York, London, and Warsaw. It raised a $40M Series B funding round to support its growth. The company intends to use the proceeds to expand technology functions and support its customer base. Silent Eight expects to hire over 150 data scientists, developers and engineers in 2022 to accelerate product and engineering work. Kolya Miller from lead investor TYH Ventures is joining the board as part of the round. Silent Eight’s platform leverages AI to learn how to conduct investigations from past alerts, recognizing anomalous behavior by drawing on databases and watchlists and producing a decision with a summary of supporting evidence. The system can scan structured, semi-structured, and unstructured sources (news articles, screening engines, case management systems) and is capable of processing petabytes of data to identify potential relationships. The platform is in limited release with select customers, including Standard Chartered, which has used it since December 2018 across over 70 markets in the U.S., U.K., Singapore, and Hong Kong. Silent Eight says it plans to publicly launch the platform by the end of 2020 and has introduced an on-demand cloud-based AI solution for continuous real-time name, entity, and transaction screening. The company says it will charge customers only for fraud it helps solve rather than charging a license fee. The startup recently closed financing activity and has been expanding headcount and customer acquisition efforts to enter new geographies. Silent Eight provides an artificial intelligence-based solution that helps financial institutions combat money laundering and terrorism financing, including improving name-screening processes. Its system is designed to learn how people make decisions and can explain the reasoning behind every decision in plain English, allowing customers to adopt best practices and discard bad behaviors. The company says its transparent design suits high-stakes use cases where there is no room for mistakes. Silent Eight is Singapore-headquartered and has offices in Singapore, Warsaw, London, and New York. It raised USD 6.2 million in a Series A led by Wavemaker Partners and plans to use the capital to hire new employees and double headcount by the end of Q1 2020 to support a pipeline of large banks and insurance customers. Paul Santos of Wavemaker Partners joined the company's board following the round.

Led · Series A · Oct 2021

Sapreme Technologies develops an endosomal escape platform and compounds (notably SPT001) to improve delivery and efficacy of macromolecule therapeutics, including antibody-targeted antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs). The company applies this approach across its internal oncology pipeline and offers the platform for partnering across biologic modalities and indications. Preclinical data from 2020 and 2021 demonstrated SPT001's effectiveness, and recent in vivo data showed enhanced delivery of oligonucleotides to the liver using GalNAc targeting with strong gene knockdown at reduced doses. Following the Series A, Sapreme plans to mature and scale the platform, advance its proprietary pipeline, and expand collaborations with industry partners. Leadership is led by CEO Guy Hermans, Ph.D., and the company emphasizes further preclinical data generation to showcase its technology.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2021

InteRNA Technologies is a Dutch clinical-stage biotech developing a pipeline of proprietary microRNA (miRNA) therapeutics with a focus on cancer. Its lead candidate, INT-1B3, is designed to modulate multiple signaling pathways including PTEN, PI3K/Akt and Ras/MAPK to inhibit proliferation, induce apoptosis and affect the tumor microenvironment. INT-1B3 also triggers immunogenic tumor cell death, downregulates the adenosine‑A2A receptor pathway (via CD39/CD73 inhibition), and promotes CD8+ T cell recruitment, showing improved animal survival versus anti‑PD1 in preclinical studies. The company uses a miRNA discovery and functional validation platform combined with a 3rd generation drug delivery formulation to select and enable candidates. Proceeds from the recently extended Series B will enable the clinical evaluation of INT-1B3 in patients with advanced solid tumors and support development of additional preclinical programs to expand the pipeline. InteRNA emphasizes therapies that engage multiple targets simultaneously to address resistance and improve efficacy for hard-to-treat cancers. InteRNA Technologies develops cancer therapeutics based on microRNA (miRNA) using a proprietary technology platform for rapid identification and validation of therapeutic miRNAs. Led by CEO Roel Schaapveld, the company has established in vivo proof of concept for multiple pipeline candidates. InteRNA is pursuing partnerships to secure appropriate delivery technologies and expects corporate partnerships to advance several products into clinical development. It was incorporated as a spin-off from the Hubrecht Institute by Aglaia Oncology Fund I and is based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The company closed the final tranche of its Series A at US$10.5M and will use the funds to progress lead product candidates through preclinical studies toward clinical development and to expand the management team. Recent governance changes include additions to the Supervisory Board and the appointment of Hans Schikan as chairman. InteRNA Technologies develops microRNA (miRNA)-based therapeutics with a lead candidate, miR-3157, targeting melanoma. The company intends to use newly raised capital to advance miR-3157 through preclinical studies toward clinical development. miR-3157 has been granted a U.S. patent. In addition to its own program, InteRNA plans to partner development of other compounds with selected pharmaceutical companies. The company completed an equity financing of undisclosed size, backed by new institutional and angel investors. InteRNA was spun off from the Hubrecht Institute and is led by CEO Roel Schaapveld.

Participated · Series B · Apr 2018

Mimetas develops organ-on-a-chip products and tissue models, centered on its OrganoPlate® platform which supports 3D cell culture under continuous perfusion with membrane-free co-culture and epithelial and endothelial tubules. The company develops and validates customized disease, toxicology and transport models and has models for the kidney, liver, gut, brain and a range of oncological applications. Since its commercial launch in 2014 it has grown its customer base to half of the global top-50 pharmaceutical companies and also serves chemical, food and consumer goods firms; it also has operations in Japan. Mimetas was co-founded by Jos Joore and Paul Vulto. The company will use the proceeds from the recent financing to expand its global commercial presence with the OrganoPlate® platform, broaden its product portfolio, establish tissue production facilities, develop novel OrganoPlate® products and expand into clinical market segments, including personalized medicine. Mimetas recently raised a Series B financing to support these plans. Mimetas B.V. is a Leiden, The Netherlands-based developer of organ-on-a-chip technology. Led by co-founder and Chief Business Officer Jos Joore, the company develops predictive Organ-on-a-Chip cell culture models for tailored medicines. Its OrganoPlates™ feature organotypic screening models that can be screened at high throughput. Mimetas has a range of disease, toxicology and ADME models in its pipeline in various stages of development and validation. The company raised $5.2m in funding from Zeeuws Investerings Fonds (ZIF) and Participatiemaatschapij Oost Nederland (PPM Oost), which joined forces with national and regional partners. It intends to use the funds for development and sales of its 3D disease- and tissue-modelling technologies.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2017

Macrophage Pharma is an immuno-oncology R&D company based in Windsor, England, focused on macrophage modulation in the tumour microenvironment. The company is advancing its ESM™ technology platform to deliver small-molecule drugs selectively to macrophages. Its lead program is a macrophage-targeting p38 MAPK inhibitor with clinical trials scheduled to start in 2018. The financing will enable completion of the first clinical study of that lead candidate and the advancement of two additional discovery candidates into preclinical development. Macrophage Pharma also plans to add a fourth macrophage-targeted project to its pipeline. Macrophage Pharma, based in Windsor, UK, focuses on discovery and development of therapies designed to enhance anti-tumour immune responses by targeting tumour-associated macrophages. The company acquired global rights to the Esterase Sensitive Motif (ESM) platform from Chroma Therapeutics, a technology that delivers small-molecule drugs selectively to tumour-associated macrophages. Its lead program is a novel macrophage-targeting p38 MAPK inhibitor with clinical trials scheduled to start in 2018, and the company also has additional discovery-stage proprietary programmes. Macrophage plans to use the funds to complete preclinical development of its lead p38 MAPK inhibitor and to advance two additional discovery candidates into preclinical development. The ESM platform is described as enabling next-generation immunotherapies across multiple cancers by activating the body’s natural immune system to fight tumours. The company is led by interim chair Ian Miscampbell and is advancing both its drug candidates and the newly acquired platform toward clinical development.