Participated · Series B · Dec 2021

SkySafe develops modular hardware and software airspace security and management systems that apply advanced radio technology, reverse engineering, and deep threat analysis to differentiate authorized drones from threats. Its offerings can be fixed, mobile or temporarily installed and tailored to specific regulatory environments to protect public spaces. The company positions its technology as infrastructure to enable commercial drone adoption for surveying, disaster relief, delivery, and other applications. SkySafe’s systems are deployed to customers in more than 30 countries, including international airports, prisons, stadiums, border patrol, law enforcement agencies and allied militaries. The company reached profitability in 2020 and says the new capital will accelerate strategic hiring, R&D, and expanded production. SkySafe is headquartered in San Diego and was founded in 2015. SkySafe develops radio-wave counter-drone systems that detect and stop unauthorized drones by projecting RF signals from a perimeter of nodes or a mobile vehicle (even a Jeep) to force unapproved drones to land or leave while permitting authorized flights. The company also builds a mobile defense vehicle intended to accompany armed forces and protect moving perimeters from drone attacks or surveillance. SkySafe says its RF approach can detect and deter drones at the same maximum range a drone can travel from a pilot and may be simpler to deploy than laser- or net-based alternatives. Now two years after launch, SkySafe raised an $11.5M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, following a $3M seed also led by Andreessen last year. SkySafe secured a $1.5M Department of Defense contract with Naval Special Warfare to provide counter-drone tech to the Navy SEALs. CEO Grant Jordan, an MIT graduate, worked on anti-drone technology for four years at the Air Force Research Lab and says the company plans demonstrations, tests, and exercises for DoD customers over the next year and aims to have systems in the field in 2018. SkySafe builds systems that detect and disable drones flying where they shouldn’t by monitoring airwaves, identifying drone signal signatures, whitelisting authorized craft, and taking control of malicious aircraft. Its technology focuses on surgical mitigation rather than broad jamming, allowing operators to safely assume control of a target drone. The company says it deploys perimeter nodes that monitor facilities and alert customers to unauthorized drones. Target customers include airports, prisons, stadiums, border protection, and other critical infrastructure and event venues. SkySafe is an early, six‑month‑old, six‑person company led by cofounder and CEO Grant Jordan, who has a background at MIT and the Air Force Research Lab. It is working with pilot customers and test installations and plans a broader launch in the fourth quarter of the year.

Led · Series A · Oct 2021

Risilience offers a SaaS analytics platform and "digital twin" technology that connects companies' internal systems to visualize and stress-test climate and transition risks, including extreme weather, regulatory change, litigation and customer sentiment. The product is designed to turn data into actionable insights for accurate disclosure and to support net-zero transition planning that updates as risks evolve. The company was spun out of the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Risk Studies in 2021 and already counts Nestlé, Maersk, EasyJet, Burberry and Tesco among its enterprise customers. Financially, Risilience has raised a $26M Series B and previously raised £6M ($7.4M) in a 2021 Series A. The new funding will be used to drive international growth, with a particular focus on expanding in the U.S. market. Risilience is a Cambridge, UK-based climate change business platform provider offering an analytics and SaaS platform for corporate customers to assess climate change risks and manage their transformation to reach net zero emissions. Its company-specific analysis delivers detailed, quantified results to support strategic decision making and business planning while balancing investment requirements. Over the past two years Risilience has served clients including Nestlé, Burberry, Reckitt, easyJet, Maersk, Informa, Abrdn, and AXA XL. The company is led by CEO Dr Andrew Coburn; its founders include Professor Danny Ralph (Chairman), Dr Michelle Tuveson (Chief Client Officer), and Simon Ruffle (Chief Product Officer). Risilience raised £6M in a Series A and intends to use the funds to develop its platform.

Participated · Series B · Sep 2021

Activ Surgical develops artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies to improve surgical procedures, primarily through its ActivSight endoscopy imaging system. ActivSight, cleared by the FDA in April 2021, attaches to standard laparoscopes and arthroscopes and uses machine‑learning algorithms to add real‑time measurements of blood flow, tissue perfusion, and vascularity to the camera feed. The system is housed on the ActivEdge platform, which also hosts ActivInsights — augmented‑reality overlays powered by robotics and advanced AI trained on the company’s annotated imaging data. The company plans a worldwide launch and rollout of ActivSight and says the new funding will be used to scale the business and add resources for that debut. Financially, Activ added a $15M extension to its Series B, bringing that round to $60M and substantially increasing its lifetime fundraising since 2020. Hikma Ventures will support deployment efforts, including introductions in the Middle East. Activ Surgical builds intraoperative imaging hardware and software to give surgeons enhanced visualization during minimally invasive procedures. Its primary product, ActivSight, is a hardware module that fits between an endoscope and a white-light camera to visualize blood flow and other structures in real time without injectable dyes. ActivSight received FDA 510(k) clearance in April 2021 and has been tested in a 70-patient clinical trial at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the University of Buffalo. The company plans near-term commercialization of ActivSight in hospital systems across seven states and seeks CE certification to enter seven European countries in 2022. Longer term, Activ Surgical is developing an AI software suite called ActivInsight to analyze intraoperative data, autonomously annotate key structures (nerves, arteries, veins) and return machine-learned guidance to surgeons. The company has raised $45 million in this Series B and $77 million in total to date to support commercial rollout and its AI roadmap. Activ Surgical develops computer vision and AI-powered surgical vision software and connected imaging hardware for use in laparoscopic and arthroscopic procedures. Its ActivEdge platform ingests real-time data from surgical implements outfitted with company sensors to power machine-learning and AI visualizations that guide surgeons and surgical systems. The company’s first product, ActivSight, is a small, connected imaging coddle that can be attached to existing surgical instruments. The platform launched to market in May, and Activ is working with eight U.S. hospital partners on pilot projects. The company is tracking toward FDA clearance for its hardware by Q4 this year. Activ Surgical has raised a total of $32 million in funding to date. Activ Surgical is a digital surgery company that develops patent‑protected, software‑centric and hardware‑agnostic surgical intelligence technology driven by computer vision, AI, analytics and machine learning. Its platform is designed to enhance intra‑operative decision making and reduce unintended and preventable surgical complications for endoscopic and robotically‑assisted procedures. The company’s first planned commercial product, ActivSight, is an advanced software and sensing platform slated for a fall 2020 launch that aims to “ACTIVATE” existing surgical visualization and robotic systems. Activ Surgical intends to use the newly raised funds to accelerate commercialization of its proprietary technology. The company was founded in 2017 and is led by CEO Todd Usen. Activ Surgical develops the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), a surgical robotics system that uses near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) markers to deliver a biocompatible, near-infrared 3D tracking system for tissue and surgical tools. STAR was developed out of Children’s National Medical Center and is positioned as an improvement over standard optical tracking technology. The company aims to integrate advanced computer vision, artificial intelligence and robotics to fit within operating-room workflow and provide advanced imaging and diagnostic accuracy during surgery. Activ describes a future in which robots could autonomously engage in soft tissue surgery under the supervision of a surgeon. Financially, the company has raised nearly $13 million to continue STAR’s development and filed a Form D with the U.S. SEC on July 1 indicating it had been seeking nearly $19 million. In March, Activ named Todd Usen, the former president of Olympus Medical Systems, as its first CEO.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2021

Founded in 2018, Washington-DC–based Sorcero offers an Agentic AI platform—comprising Sorcero Medical, SciComms, Safety and Medtech—that is specifically trained on life-science data and built to meet stringent regulatory and privacy requirements. The system unifies hundreds of global data sources to create a 360° view of more than 40 million healthcare professionals and 100 million scientists, enabling customers to analyze 263 million publications and 1.3 billion citations for real-time insights. One-third of the top 30 global pharmaceutical firms use Sorcero, achieving up to 92 % productivity gains in evidence generation, 72 % faster insight discovery, and publication timelines shortened by two to five months. The platform delivers 96.1 % clinical inclusion accuracy—exceeding FDA regulatory thresholds and PhD-level human performance. Sorcero’s offerings support medical affairs, safety, scientific communications, and medical devices, and are available directly and through channels such as the Google Cloud Marketplace and NIH STRIDES. Recent strategic moves include the acquisition of Axiom Health to bolster its med-device capabilities and partnerships with Google Cloud, Springer Nature, ServiceNow, USDM Life Sciences, and Snowflake. With a cumulative $59 million raised, the company plans to scale globally and further develop its insight-driven engagement model for precision medicine.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2021

Algolux develops computer vision and image-optimization solutions that treat the camera as part of the overall perception stack, using computational imaging and physical camera models to address harsh cases such as low-light, low-contrast, and obstructions. Its algorithms aim to improve object detection, imaging, and geometric estimation while reducing training-data requirements. The company plans to accelerate adoption of its products across mobility markets, grow engineering and customer-enabling teams to scale worldwide support, and expand into additional verticals enabled by camera applications. Algolux is led by CEO Allan Benchetrit and has offices in Montreal, Palo Alto and Munich. The company announced the appointment of Matthias Schulze as Vice President Europe and Asia to help accelerate its go-to-market strategy. No operating metrics or revenue figures were disclosed in the article. Algolux develops machine-learning stacks and deep perception technology for autonomous vision and imaging, addressing challenges such as extreme lighting and adverse weather. Its technology targets deployments in ADAS and autonomous vehicles, accurate video security systems, and mobile imaging in harsh circumstances. The company is led by co-founders Dr. Felix Heide (CTO) and Allan Benchetrit (CEO). Algolux closed a $10M Series A-1 funding round to support its growth. The company intends to use the new capital to advance its technology and expand global business development activities. Algolux is based in Montreal, Canada. Algolux, based in Montreal, develops computational optics technology and software that enables cameras to capture crystal-clear images with existing lenses. Its technology also allows camera manufacturers to produce thinner, lighter camera modules at lower manufacturing costs. The company's solutions can be implemented across camera types, including video surveillance, in-vehicle cameras, medical imaging and wearables, and it is focusing efforts on smartphones and tablets. Led by President & CEO Allan Benchetrit, Algolux intends to use the Series A funds to commercialize its software while continuing to build out its IP portfolio. The company secured $2.6M in Series A financing and currently has 15 employees. The round was led by Real Ventures with participation from unnamed angel investors.