The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Oct 2018

Lumenari develops narrow-bandwidth LED phosphors, offering its flagship Emerald phosphor to expand color gamut and range in displays including televisions, tablets, laptops, monitors and smartphones. Emerald is positioned to minimize brightness degradation and color shift while enabling wider color gamut displays. The company says the funds will accelerate its go-to-market strategy with OEMs, packaged LED suppliers and display manufacturers. Lumenari was launched in 2013 and relocated from Silicon Valley to Lexington, Kentucky. The display panel market was valued at $164 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach $235 billion by 2023, supporting demand for wider color-gamut solutions. The company emphasizes commercial deployment in LCD display backlighting applications.

Participated · Series A · Dec 2015

SentryHealth (formerly Edumedics) provides workplace health services delivered at the worksite, near-site clinics, or remotely via telehealth, using mid-level practitioners and a proactive, programmatic outreach model. Its proprietary Healthward platform uses algorithms and program elements to identify members with chronic diseases or at risk, orchestrate outreach and ensure adherence to evidence-based clinical protocols. The company says its approach yields industry-best participation rates and recent quarterly results showing client savings exceeding 40% among program participants with chronic diseases, driving consistent double-digit cost reductions. SentryHealth positions itself between primary care and employer health program offerings to improve outcomes for employees with chronic conditions. The company was founded in 2010 by Alice Shade and Dr. Richard Goldstein and is based in Louisville, Kentucky. It plans to use new growth capital to accelerate expansion into states beyond its core Midwest populations. Edumedics delivers care management for individuals with or trending toward diabetes and other chronic conditions, focusing on populations such as self-insured employers and Medicare Advantage groups. The company puts Nurse Practitioners face-to-face with patients and uses its proprietary Healthward™ technology at the point of care. Over four years the delivery model has improved clinical outcomes and reduced costs—clients enrolled in programs have seen up to a 15% reduction in yearly costs, and one client saw diabetes improvement exceed 52% among the most at-risk members. Edumedics raised growth capital in a $4.2M Series A to fund expansion. The company plans to expand beyond its core populations in Kentucky and Maine to other states. It will also accelerate offerings to Medicare groups to help them achieve quality measures that impact HEDIS scores and Star ratings.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2014

TNG Pharmaceuticals is a Louisville, KY–based animal pharmaceutical company developing FlyVax™, a patented vaccine intended to reduce damage from horn flies in cattle. FlyVax was first developed by research scientists at Auburn University and licensed by TNG, and has shown effectiveness in initial laboratory testing. The company completed a $4.6 million Series A Preferred Stock financing to fund completion of all phases of product development and move toward commercialization. TNG says the financing will allow it to commercialize the vaccine in a timely fashion. The company originated at the University of Louisville in the Entrepreneurship MBA program and was named the 2011 Global Business Plan Champion. Management positions the product as offering significant health and economic benefits for the cattle industry.

Led · Equity · Feb 2010

Advanced Cancer Therapeutics (ACT) advances novel anti-cancer therapeutics discovered at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center under exclusive worldwide licenses. Under preset business terms with the Center, ACT selects discoveries and manages their development, commercialization and manufacture for the pharmaceutical industry. Its top programs include novel small-molecule inhibitors targeting PFKFB3 and Choline Kinase. The company is also advancing PU27, a sequence-specific DNA oligonucleotide that inhibits cancer cell proliferation and appeared well tolerated in a preliminary animal toxicology study. ACT recently raised capital to continue the development and commercialization of these therapeutic candidates. The company is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Advanced Cancer Therapeutics (ACT) focuses on developing anti-cancer therapies with the stated goal of bringing those treatments to market. The company operates as a for-profit private entity and began operations in October 2007. ACT is based in Louisville, Ky., and has progressed through early milestones since its founding. Financially, it received a final $250,000 investment from Commonwealth Seed Capital (CSC) ahead of schedule due to achieved progress and milestones. That payment brings CSC’s total investment in ACT to $500,000. CSC is an entity established by the Kentucky Economic Development Partnership Board to invest in seed-stage technology companies in Kentucky.