Participated · Equity · Mar 2025

Paperplane Therapeutics develops therapeutic virtual reality solutions to manage pain and anxiety in healthcare, targeting the North American dental market. Its immersive VR platform is designed for patients of all ages with an emphasis on pediatric care, aiming to improve patient comfort, streamline clinical workflows, and reduce clinician burden. The company positions its technology to transform dental procedures into more manageable experiences and address widespread dental anxiety—citing that about 36% of individuals experience anxiety during dental visits, 12% suffer extreme dental fear, and 22% postpone appointments. Paperplane is Quebec-based. The company closed a $1.5 million funding round to continue deploying VR therapies in the dental sector across North America. The investment will also support expansion into Europe through a strategic partnership with French company HypnoVR and its CE Marking certification.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2024

OraQ AI is a Calgary, Canada-based healthtech startup that offers an AI-driven clinical decision support platform for dental practices. Its platform analyzes patient records to provide risk assessments across seven areas: medical risk, sleep disorders, gum health, bite and jaw issues, cracks and teeth, cavity profiles, and esthetics. Founded in 2021 by Dr. Amreesh Khanna, Dr. Mike Parchewsky, and Wayne Madhlangobe, the company aims to empower dentists to make standardized, evidence-based decisions. OraQ plans to expand across North America with a focus on small dental offices. Financially, the company secured CA$2.6M in seed funding in November 2024. The capital will be used to fuel growth, enhance practice management features, and drive revenue opportunities for dental practices.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2024

RetiSpec develops AI solutions applied to non-invasive retinal images to identify neurodegenerative disease markers and provide real-time results at the point of care. Its first clinically validated AI is intended to predict amyloid burden to aid evaluation for Alzheimer’s disease. RetiSpec’s solutions are currently available for Research Use Only. The company aims to enable widespread early and accurate detection of neurodegenerative disease through a routine eye exam. Leadership is headed by co-founder and CEO Eliav Shaked. The company is based in Toronto, Canada and has raised $17M USD to date.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2024

Roga is a Los Angeles-based neurotech and mental-health company focused on relieving severe stress and burnout. Founded by Dr. Alison Smith and Ami Lebendiker, the company develops a paired wearable/app device that combines peripheral nerve stimulation with personalized guided meditation. It launched its first device in 2023. Roga raised $1.2M in a Pre-Seed round and intends to use the funds to support the launch of its wearable device to reduce chronic stress and burnout. The company positions the product as a safe, effective, convenient and cost-effective solution. Roga is supported by LBAN at Stanford University and Velocity at the University of Waterloo.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2024

Mesosil develops nanometre-scale, silica-based additives that act as a self-assembled hard-material sponge loaded with an antimicrobial drug designed for very slow release to kill bacteria and prevent device-associated infections. The company has finalized its flagship material and is scaling up production to meet demand in the dentistry space. Mesosil is working with professional dental companies in the U.S. and Europe and supports clients through regulatory approval processes related to its material. Management sees near-term applications in dental fillings, bone cement and antifouling coatings, with longer-term potential in orthopedics and other medical or industrial uses. The technology originated from University of Toronto research (work began in 2015; spun out as an independent business in 2018) and the company filed its first patent in 2017. Mesosil closed a C$2.2M equity seed and has total funding of nearly C$3.1M to support commercialization and production scale-up. Mesosil is a Faculty of Dentistry startup from the University of Toronto that launched in early 2018. The company is developing responsive antimicrobial dental materials designed to prevent infection at the medical device–tissue interface and extend lifetime effect to stop bacteria wedging between fillings and the tooth. Mesosil completed a pre-clinical animal study last year. The new $675,000 financing will help the company scale up production of its material and grow the team to meet demand. The company is working with an industrial partner to develop a range of bioactive dental materials and aims to expand into applications within and outside dentistry. CEO Cameron Stewart, a postdoctoral fellow for Professor Yoav Finer, leads the company and said the funds will help bring the materials to patients.