Participated · Series A · Jul 2026

Ognomy offers an AI-enabled virtual sleep care platform aimed at treating sleep apnea. The company plans to use its recently raised capital to expand access to its virtual platform, accelerate product development, and scale operations across the U.S. Ognomy secured $20 million in a Series A financing that included investments from UB Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships' Buffalo Innovation Seed Fund. The financing announcement frames the investment as part of regional efforts to support high-growth startups and the local innovation ecosystem. No revenue, user metrics, or founding year were provided in the article. The company is headquartered in Buffalo.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2023

Thread builds a robotics platform that autonomously collects inspection data from utility and energy assets using a self-contained device with an onboard processor, AI algorithms, and back-end management software. Customers deploy and control drones and robots through Thread to monitor oil, wind, gas, solar, and power transmission and distribution assets. The platform integrates with customers' existing software stacks and provides templated data pipelines for predictable, governable workflows and asset-performance insights. Thread counts customers including Xcel Energy, Constellation Energy, and Otter Tail Power, and has partnerships with companies such as Mistras Group. The company is also working with the U.S. Air Force (via AFWERX) on an approximately $1.2 million contract to develop a drone system for base security. Thread has about 50 full-time employees and plans to use Series A proceeds to recruit technical talent, launch a power-line inspection product, and scale sales and business development.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2022

Owl Autonomous Imaging develops patented monocular 3D thermal imaging and ranging solutions aimed at automotive active safety systems. Its flagship product is a patented 3D Thermal Ranging™ solid-state camera that delivers HD thermal video with precision ranging and produces ultra-dense point clouds and refined object classification. The core technology is an adaptation of a thermal ranging solution developed under a US Air Force challenge grant for tracking high-speed missiles. Owl positions the sensor as a redundancy and diversity modality for ADAS and AV stacks to detect pedestrians, cyclists, animals and other road users day or night and in foul weather. The company has offices in Silicon Valley and Rochester, NY, completed field trials with VSI Labs in Las Vegas during CES2022, and showcased field trial results and demonstrations at Photonics West. Financially, Owl announced a $15 million Series A financing led by State Farm Ventures.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2021

RealEats, led by founder & CEO Dan Wise, operates a weekly subscription meal delivery service that emphasizes the nutritional benefits of real food. The company is based in Geneva, NY. It raised over $16M in a Series A financing. RealEats said it will use the funds to take the brand national and accelerate its move into a new 80,000 square foot facility in Geneva. The company also plans to accelerate its product innovation pipeline and launch a new meal line debuting this year. As part of the financing, Yong Kai Wong of GNC joined RealEats’ Board of Directors.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2020

Casana provides healthcare technologies that enable integrated, in-home health monitoring. Its first product, the Heart Seat, is an IoT health-monitoring toilet seat that captures clinically relevant measurements including heart rate, blood pressure and blood oxygenation. The company is pursuing FDA clearance for the Heart Seat and intends to use the new funding to accelerate FDA submission with the goal of obtaining approval and bringing the device to patients in 2022. Casana is investing in several studies to investigate the potential value of the Heart Seat for health systems and risk-bearing organizations. Founded in 2018 by Dr. Nicholas Conn and led by CEO Austin McChord, the company is based in Rochester, N.Y. This round brought total capital raised to date to $46M. Casana (formerly Heart Health Intelligence) commercializes The Heart Seat, an IoT toilet-seat–based cardiovascular monitoring system that measures heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation, and cardiac output. The device is cloud-connected and designed to provide clinicians with consistent, passive in-home cardiac data without adding burden to clinical workflows. The Heart Seat has been tested in multiple peer-reviewed research studies and the company is pursuing FDA clearance to validate its clinical-grade technology. Casana plans to use its financing to bring The Heart Seat to market and to study benefits for heart failure patients with health systems and risk-bearing organizations, including the University of Florida and The Villages Health. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Rochester, N.Y. Following the Series A, Austin McChord stepped in as CEO to help accelerate commercialization. Heart Health Intelligence (HHI) has developed The Heart Seat, a cloud-connected, self-contained toilet seat that captures clinical-grade cardiovascular data from patients in their homes. The device measures over nine clinical-grade metrics and has been tested in over 300 subjects in partnership with the University of Rochester Medical Center, with results published in two peer-reviewed articles (2018 and 2019). HHI partnered with Bemis Manufacturing Company to produce The Heart Seat and leverage Bemis’s experience with FDA-regulated devices. The company plans to commercialize the product and pursue FDA clearance. HHI was founded in July 2018 based on research from the Rochester Institute of Technology and in partnership with the University of Rochester Medical Center. The technology is designed to enable daily, effortless heart-health monitoring without requiring users to change their habits.