Participated · Series B · Jun 2026

Captura designs and manufactures a PFAS-free bipolar membrane electrodialysis platform that generates acid and base streams for applications including direct lithium extraction, industrial water treatment, long-duration energy storage, and CO2 management. The platform was originally developed to power Captura’s Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) system, which removes CO2 from seawater for permanent storage or utilization. Captura operates the only U.S.-based production plant that produces complete electrodialysis systems and plans to scale domestic manufacturing capacity following its Series B raise. The company reports that its technology offers greater performance with significantly lower energy consumption and capital costs compared with leading market alternatives. Captura recently secured multiple purchase orders for its first electrodialysis stacks addressing the lithium extraction market, with initial deliveries expected this summer. CEO Steve Oldham says the company is now manufacturing systems for customers while continuing to advance commercial deployment of DOC globally.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2026

TippingPoint Biosciences builds a novel drug discovery platform that recreates disease-specific chromatin environments to expose transient protein–protein interfaces within the epigenome that are otherwise inaccessible. The company aims to discover first-in-class, highly selective drugs that target these epigenetic interfaces while sparing healthy cells. TippingPoint’s initial therapeutic focus is on Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), an aggressive pediatric brainstem tumor driven by chromatin dysfunction. The company was co-founded by Laura Hsieh and chromatin biologist Geeta Narlikar and was spun out of Narlikar’s lab at UCSF. TippingPoint has raised $2.5 million in pre-seed financing including non-dilutive grants and foundation support, received several Golden Ticket awards, and has now closed a $4.5 million seed round to advance its lead program and expand its discovery platform. The platform is described as applicable to multiple disease areas including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and developmental disorders.

Led · Seed · Feb 2026

Sift Biosciences is a preclinical immunotherapy company creating “T-cell booster” peptides that activate infection-trained memory T cells, aiming to overcome the low immunogenicity that limits many current cancer treatments. Its proprietary platform combines artificial intelligence, metagenomics, and high-throughput immune profiling to identify microbial analogs of tumor-associated epitopes capable of rapidly amplifying immune responses. The initial pipeline targets solid tumors such as microsatellite-stable colorectal and ovarian cancers, while parallel research explores selectively expanding regulatory T cells for autoimmune disease. Founded in 2024 as a UC Berkeley spin-out and headquartered in San Carlos, California, the team is led by CEO and co-founder Clare Lou, Ph.D. The company has raised $3.7 million in pre-seed capital to fund in-vivo proof-of-concept studies, expand its AI-powered discovery engine, and select lead oncology candidates. Early preclinical data suggest the potential for faster, more potent, and durable immune responses compared with existing approaches. Financially, the company is still pre-revenue and focused on advancing its research programs toward clinical validation.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2026

Vivere Oncotherapies engineers cancer therapies that activate the immune system to detect and eliminate solid tumors that typically evade immune surveillance. Using a proprietary bioengineering platform created at UC Berkeley, the team designs delivery vehicles that reach tumors more efficiently and release highly selective, immune-stimulating payloads. The company’s scientific approach merges engineering, immunology, and translational expertise to crack the longstanding problem of immunologically cold tumors, which are resistant to conventional checkpoint inhibitors. With its technology, Vivere aims to bring a new generation of targeted and safer immunotherapies to patients who currently have few effective options and poor prognoses. Future plans include advancing these candidates toward clinical development and expanding the platform to additional hard-to-treat cancers. Financially, the company has secured over $10 million in new capital to fuel preclinical development and platform expansion; no other operating metrics or revenue figures were disclosed.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2025

Erg Bio is a Dublin, California–based bioindustrial startup focused on biomass valorization for the production of synthetic aviation fuels and critical chemicals. Its core product, Aspire™, is a low-temperature pretreatment and catalytic system derived from research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Joint BioEnergy Institute. The technology can process more than 30 different biomass types, allowing flexible sourcing of agricultural and forestry residues that would otherwise be discarded. By turning these wastes into high-value intermediates, Erg Bio aims to enhance supply-chain resilience, support rural economies, and advance domestic energy security. The company plans to use newly raised capital to expand engineering and bioprocessing teams, validate the technology technically, and move toward pilot-scale demonstrations. To date, Erg Bio has secured $6.5 million in seed funding; no revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article.