Participated · Equity · Oct 2021

Exogene develops an AI platform paired with in-house, high-throughput wet-lab TCR screening to identify rare, natural TCRs for TCR-based cell therapies. The company raised US$2 million to produce core wet‑lab datasets to train and validate its AI and to advance a pilot project with Immunocore. Exogene says its platform can screen billions of TCRs in seconds, addressing scalability limits of current wet‑lab approaches. It plans to partner with pharma and biotech to discover TCRs for therapeutic applications and also to develop its own TCR‑based cell therapies for out‑licensing. Longer term, Exogene aims to expand beyond cancer into larger markets such as immune system rejuvenation by targeting senescent T cells. The company is based at the BioEscalator in Oxford, UK.

Participated · Seed · May 2021

Nanology Labs leverages a patented polymer-lipid platform to create nanoparticles that actively transport therapeutic and diagnostic payloads into cells and across the blood–brain barrier. Its lead product, T-MX (aka Manganescan), accumulates in cancer cells, is MR-detectable, and generates oxygen to reprogram hypoxic tumors from cold to hot, sensitizing them to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. T-MX is completing GLP-toxicology and GMP manufacturing in preparation for a Ph1/2 study in patients with oligometastatic brain cancer at Princess Margaret Cancer Center. The company reports extensive safety, efficacy, and manufacturing studies that have de-risked T-MX. Nanology’s platform can deliver proteins, nucleic acids, drugs, and imaging agents, and its work has been published in journals including Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Cancer Research, Advanced Functional Materials, and ACS Nano. The company secured an oversubscribed $3M seed round to advance development. Nanology Labs has developed Manganescan, a low-toxicity MRI contrast agent that uses manganese to improve visualization of early-stage tumours and produces oxygen in tumours to enhance radiation therapy effectiveness. Its platform enables active transport of diagnostic and therapeutic agents to brain tumour tissue. The company is advancing its system toward clinical translation and seeking further investment to reach the next inflection point, per CEO Mohammad Ali Amini. Nanology is a participant in the University of Toronto Early Stage Technology (UTEST) Program, which provides investment capital, mentoring, business strategy, and incubation space. Financially, the company recently received seed funding from FACIT’s Prospects Oncology Fund (amount undisclosed) and previously was one of six recipients of a $50,000 Ontario Brain Institute early-stage award.

Participated · Seed · May 2017

Fluent.ai builds language-agnostic voice interface software that learns the meaning of specific speech patterns and triggers actions on embedded devices and in the cloud. The company focuses on a software-first approach for voice interfaces and is leveraging proprietary IP originally developed within leading international research universities. Fluent.ai is led by CEO Niraj Bhargava and is graduating from the Montreal incubator TandemLaunch. The firm closed a CA$1.8M seed funding round and intends to use the proceeds to further the commercialization of its software. Its technology targets embedded-device applications as well as cloud deployments and emphasizes language agnosticism to reduce dependence on language-specific models.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2017

Agersens offers eShepherd, an IoT GPS-based animal wearable that lets farmers ‘fence,’ move, muster and monitor livestock remotely from a smartphone. The product is designed for fenceless farming and is particularly useful in regions where cattle farms cover extremely large areas. The startup operates in a niche with about three competitors in the fenceless farming space. The article highlights the device’s core capabilities—GPS-based location tracking and remote control of animal movement—delivered through a wearable. Agersens recently completed a financing event, indicating early-stage external investor interest in scaling the technology. No operational metrics or detailed future-planning information were provided in the article.