Led · Series C · Aug 2022

Interaxon develops the Muse EEG meditation headband and companion software that provides feedback to help users establish and maintain a meditation practice. The company announced a $9.5M Series C and is shifting toward a subscription membership and a hardware-as-a-service approach. A new subscription service is slated to arrive early next year and will include personalized insights and biosensor trend reports based on EEG readings. Interaxon plans to build a global meditation database and develop metrics to give users meaningful insights into brain health and lifestyle factors such as meditation, sleep, alcohol, stress, exercise and diet. The company has also launched an SDK initiative to explore uses of its brain-sensing technology for potential metaverse applications. The product faces a notable barrier to entry with roughly $300 upfront hardware cost, and the recent round was described as modest compared with 2022 standards. Interaxon’s flagship product, Muse, is a brain-sensing headband launched in 2014 that uses EEG sensors to provide real-time audio and visual feedback on a user’s meditative state via Android and iOS apps. The company has driven consumer adoption through retail partnerships with Amazon, Best Buy and others, and has begun offering specialized products for clinical, professional and wellness customers. In 2017 Interaxon licensed its technology to the Safilo Group for athlete eyewear and launched a SaaS product for professional and corporate wellness programs; the VR community is also working to integrate its brain-sensing technology. Interaxon plans to use new capital to expand further into the health and wellness space, release new Muse applications and services, enter tertiary clinician markets, and build out a developer marketplace. The company employs more than 50 people, including neuroscientists and engineers, at its Toronto headquarters and intends to grow the team to accelerate product and platform development. The recent financing positions Interaxon to scale its services-based brain health platform across consumer, professional and clinical segments. InteraXon develops Muse, a head-worn device with seven sensors that detects five bands of brainwave activity (delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma) and pairs with smartphone apps to train users' attention and reduce stress. Its first app, Calm, guides focused-attention exercises and gives real-time, session, and historical feedback by translating brain signals into wind sounds. Muse is sold direct and through retailers including Best Buy, Bloomingdales, Amazon, and Gaiam, and retails for $299 on the company website. The company ran an Indiegogo campaign in December 2012 that raised $287,000 and showcased the product at CES. InteraXon previously raised $7.2 million in two rounds from Horizon, OMERS Ventures, A-Grade, Felicis Ventures, and ff Venture Capital. According to an SEC filing, the company has raised an additional $11 million, bringing total funding to at least $18.2 million. InteraXon builds Muse, a six-sensor headset that monitors brainwaves for thought-controlled computing. The company positions Muse as leading in brainwave-enabled devices, applications and experiences and has been demoing the headset publicly. Muse is scheduled to launch next year and InteraXon plans to release it alongside a Brain Health System development platform and a brain-fitness application with cognitive exercises. The company says it plans to build numerous other Muse apps and expects developers to take the first version and start building applications immediately. InteraXon previously raised nearly $300,000 on Indiegogo and has now announced a $6 million Series A. CEO Ariel Garten projected it could take about 10 years before robust brain-based computer control is viable and up to 25 years to become a default interaction method.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2021

Cyabra provides a counter-disinformation platform built on proprietary AI to expose malicious actors, disinformation campaigns, bot networks and GenAI text and images. The platform delivers actionable insights for organizations and public-sector customers to counter election interference, brand-reputation attacks and impersonations. Cyabra has been hired for high-profile work, including assessing spam and fake accounts on Twitter and uncovering coordinated pro-Hamas activity online. The company reports 20x revenue growth over the past two years. Cyabra was founded in 2018 by CEO Dan Brahmy, COO Yossef Daar and CTO Ido Shraga and aims to serve as a filtering mechanism for online conversations used by enterprises and governments. Cyabra offers a SaaS platform that measures authenticity and impact within online conversations, detects false information and its authors, and analyzes proliferation to connect the dots. Its technology uses an AI lens and gathers data from tens of thousands of sources to train machine learning models and reach accuracy. The company’s Snowball Effect Analysis (proliferation modules) helps customers understand narrative velocity, how time shapes narratives, and which influential authors drive proliferation. Cyabra has an autonomous client notification system that lets users customize alerts around changes in authenticity and proliferation shifts in real time. It serves customers across industries including financial services, consumer brands, advertising agencies and public organizations, with clients such as the U.S. State Department, global agency TBWA and several large financial institutions. Cyabra reported 400% revenue growth in 2020 and plans to expand its global footprint in the U.S. and Asia, bolster R&D and add marketing, sales and other staff.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2021

Arevo develops high-speed continuous carbon-fiber composite additive manufacturing systems (Aqua 2) that combine robotics, software, and specialized composite materials. The company completed the world’s largest continuous carbon fiber composite additive manufacturing facility, hosting 70 shipping container-sized Aqua 2 systems and a range of post-processing capabilities. Its systems produce bicycle frames, sports equipment, automotive and aerospace parts, and architectural structures, and the company reports 76 cloud-connected systems operating across locations. Arevo holds over 80 patents and spent six years developing its core technology. With an initial focus on aerospace, defense, consumer electronics, transportation, and consumer goods, the company is positioning its platform for mass manufacturing and OEM services. Near-term product activity includes delivering Superstrata bikes and e-bikes, completing product engineering for Scotsman e-scooters, and launching a third consumer product; Arevo is also hiring engineers in the US and Vietnam. Arevo develops a platform for fabricating high-strength, low-weight carbon-fiber parts using large-scale 3D-printing processes and intends to sell parts rather than printers. The company demonstrated a proof of concept with its Superstrata 3D-printed bicycle and launched crowdfunding pre-orders. Arevo operates manufacturing facilities in Vietnam to prove scalability and already counts automotive and aerospace customers, including Airbus. Current production rates are about two frames per day per machine, with a next-generation system projected to reach about six frames per day. Sonny Vu took the CEO role after initially advising and providing bridge financing through his Alabaster vehicle, and the company has installed a new executive management team. Financially, Arevo closed a $25 million financing to support growth and previously raised $12.5 million in an earlier round led by Asahi Glass. Arevo develops software-controlled technology for direct digital additive manufacturing of ultra-strong composite parts, combining advanced composite materials, deposition technology, and software to optimize mechanical properties. The company offers additive manufacturing services to OEMs worldwide and targets industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, automotive, consumer electronics, sporting goods, medical, and oil and gas. Arevo intends to use new capital to accelerate mass commercialization and pursue full-scale commercialization of its technology across those industries. The company is led by newly named CEO Jim Miller and is based in Santa Clara, California. Arevo was founded in 2013 and has raised $19.5M to date. AREVO has developed an Additive Manufacturing (AM) solution for making ultra-strong, lightweight composite parts to replace metal parts for production applications. Its core technology relies on the synergy between software, advanced composite materials, composite deposition/process technology, and robotics to enable on-demand manufacturing of mass-customized, high-volume 3D-printed composite parts. AREVO offers additive manufacturing services to OEMs worldwide. The company says it has made steady progress in defense applications over the past year. AREVO is based in Silicon Valley, California. It announced a strategic investment and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel to support further technology development aligned with U.S. government needs. AREVO builds a multi-axis robotic additive manufacturing platform, advanced composite materials and cloud-based software to enable production-grade 3D printing of composite parts. Its composite material is described as having five times the strength of titanium and the software optimizes fiber placement in true 3D orientations to maximize strength-to-weight ratio. The company offers additive manufacturing services to OEMs worldwide and targets industries including aerospace, medical and automotive. AREVO is based in Silicon Valley/Santa Clara, California, and recently won the Autodesk REAL Deal Start Up competition. The company said the $7M financing will enable it to meet near-term product development objectives to be announced later this year.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2021

Fluid Biomed is a clinical-stage medical device company based in Calgary, Alberta, developing ReSolv™, the world’s first bioabsorbable polymer-based neurovascular stent for brain aneurysms. The ReSolv™ stent has been validated by years of scientific research and demonstrated functional benefits in a first-in-human clinical study. The technology was developed by co-founders John Wong, M.D. (CEO), and Alim Mitha, M.D. (President and CTO), both academic neurosurgeons at the University of Calgary. The company plans to use recent financing to further validate the ReSolv™ stent and its proprietary delivery system in expanded patient studies and to enable larger clinical trials. Fluid Biomed also intends to broaden its product pipeline with the additional strategic and financial capital. Fluid Biotech is commercializing a hybrid polymer-metal flow-diverting brain stent constructed of bioabsorbable polymer and metal to provide a scaffold that enables better healing and vessel visualization. Led by Dr. John Wong (CEO) and Dr. Alim Mitha (President and CTO), the company aims to cure intracranial aneurysms with this novel device. Fluid closed a $4.7M seed funding round to advance development. The company intends to use the funds to engage contract manufacturers to initiate production, complete regulatory milestones, and plan for first-in-human implantation. In conjunction with the raise, Fluid added two board members with capital and industry experience to support commercialization and regulatory progress. The company is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.