Participated · Series A · Dec 2015

Soft Robotics is a Bedford, Massachusetts–based company that develops compliant soft robotic grippers and an AI/computer vision platform for handling fragile and variably sized items, particularly in food production. Its core product, the mGripAI system, combines 3D vision with soft gripping hardware to pick up meat, produce, and other inconsistently sized foodstuffs. The company has emphasized food production as a major go-to-market strategy and has seen increased demand as soft robotics grippers have become more in vogue. Soft Robotics reported that pandemic-related dynamics helped produce the four largest sales quarters in its eight-year history. The firm announced a $26 million Series C to accelerate deployment of its mGripAI system. The round was led by Tyson Ventures, with Marel and Johnsonville joining as new investors. Previously, Soft Robotics raised a $23 million Series B and a $10 million extension in June of last year. Soft Robotics develops soft, pneumatic-powered robotic grippers combined with 3D perception and AI to allow robots to handle fragile and variable food products. Its technology augments widely available industrial robots with hand-eye coordination for tasks typically done by human workers. The company targets food-supply-chain use cases such as agriculture, food processing and logistics, where product variability and unstructured environments challenge traditional robots. Demand for its automation solutions has risen during the COVID-19 pandemic amid labor shortages and concerns about disease transmission. Tyson Foods is an existing customer and Tyson Ventures has joined the investor list. Founded in 2013 and based in New England, the company has raised roughly $58 million to date after the latest extension. Soft Robotics designs soft-material end-effectors (grippers) that allow robots to more easily grip varied objects without the precise tolerances and complex programming required by traditional industrial claws. The company has established relationships with large global clients and the article notes it likely isn’t hurting for revenue. Product efforts include the mGrip gripper and an integrated system tied to FANUC’s Mini‑P controller for easy use with FANUC robots. The new capital will fund growth initiatives to increase gripper variability and expand applications in food packaging, consumer goods, e‑commerce and logistics. Soft Robotics plans to target automation of returns processing in e‑commerce, a highlighted pain point. The company has previously raised $20M in 2018 and $5M in 2015, each described as oversubscribed rounds. Soft Robotics develops soft, air-filled robotic grippers made from rubbery materials that are more compliant than traditional robotic hands. Its grippers reduce the need for extensive pre-programming and on-board vision by adapting to a variety of objects. The company has primarily served the food industry, handling delicate products like produce and pizza dough, and counts Just Born Quality Confections (makers of Peeps) as a customer. It has also demonstrated a low-cost, AI-driven warehouse system to retrieve products from bins and fulfill retail orders with minimal oversight. Soft Robotics announced a $20 million funding round to expand operations, following a $5 million Series A in late 2015. The company plans to use the new capital to push further into food and beverage categories and to grow its presence in retail, logistics, and warehouse fulfillment. Soft Robotics has developed novel, proprietary soft-robotic technology for manipulation and material handling, capable of handling fresh produce, electronic components, consumer goods, clothing and other objects without tool changes or software modifications. The company was founded in 2013 out of the Whitesides Research Group at Harvard University and is led by CEO Carl Vause. It brought its technology to market in June 2015 and is deploying solutions with industry partners and end users across consumer products, advanced manufacturing and food handling. Soft Robotics is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. The company intends to use recently raised funds to grow commercial deployment of its technology and to support continued product development. No operating metrics (revenue or users) were disclosed in the article.

Led · Equity · May 2015

XCOR Aerospace develops the Lynx suborbital spacecraft to carry tourists and payloads on short suborbital trips. The company plans to conduct test flights of Lynx later this year and is focused on maturing a challenging wing design enabled by advances such as 3D-printed titanium parts and improved composite materials. XCOR has sold over 300 tickets for its suborbital flights, with more than 10% sold to mainland Chinese customers. Company representatives say recent capital will be used to finish Lynx, expand marketing and sales, and support the test program. XCOR will not be doing manufacturing in China despite the investor’s broader offering of Chinese manufacturing and market access to other portfolio companies. The team includes former COO Andrew Nelson in a consulting role and Col. Rick Searfoss as Chief Test Pilot, both cited positively in the article. XCOR Aerospace is a Mojave, California–based company focused on research, development, production and maintenance of reusable suborbital and orbital launch vehicles, rocket engines and propulsion systems. Led by founder and CEO Jeff Greason and COO Andrew Nelson, XCOR builds rocket-powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and rocket piston pumps for aerospace prime contractors and government customers. Its core product effort is the XCOR Lynx, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered suborbital spaceplane that takes off and lands horizontally. The Lynx family of vehicles serves research and scientific missions, private spaceflight and microsatellite launch (only on the Lynx Mark III). The company intends to use the $14.2m Series B proceeds to bring the Lynx suborbital spaceplane to market and is creating an R&D center in Midland, Texas and an operational and manufacturing site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A smaller second closing of the financing is scheduled over the summer. XCOR Aerospace, based in Mojave, California, develops and produces reusable rocket-powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies. The company is building the Lynx, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered vehicle that takes off and lands horizontally. The Lynx family of vehicles is intended for research and scientific missions, private spaceflight, and microsatellite launch (the latter only on the Lynx Mark III). XCOR works with aerospace prime contractors and government customers on major propulsion systems while concurrently producing the Lynx. The recently closed $5M funding round is intended to fund the company through production of its Lynx Mark I suborbital vehicle. The board was reformulated after the financing to include Esther Dyson, Stephen Fleming, Jeff Greason and Dan DeLong. The company was founded by CEO Jeff Greason and COO Andrew Nelson. XCOR Aerospace is a privately funded California corporation developing safe, reliable and reusable rocket engines and rocket-powered vehicles. The company recently secured $187,500 in equity financing to support development of rocket engine pump technology. That investment qualifies XCOR for a Department of Defense program that matches private capital four to one, up to $750,000. XCOR plans to use the funds to continue work on the rocket engine pump, a critical component for a reusable suborbital vehicle. The company is pursuing a combination of government contracts and additional private investment to advance a suborbital vehicle for space tourism, microgravity research and microsatellite launches. XCOR is expanding operations and consolidating into a new 10,000 square foot facility on the Mojave Airport flight line in Mojave, California.

Led · Series C · Apr 2015

1366 Technologies develops and sells its "Direct Wafer" furnace technology, which can produce multiple wafers at a time and reportedly drive wafer costs below $0.15 per piece. The company says the new funding will be used to further develop its Direct Wafer furnaces and to advance ongoing research and development initiatives. 1366 emphasizes wafer‑level innovation as a shift from prior industry focus on cell and module improvements. The company is headquartered in Bedford, MA and was founded in 2007. Since founding it has raised $107 million in venture capital and previously received a $150 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2016 it entered a long‑term strategic partnership with Wacker Chemie AG. 1366 Technologies develops the Direct Wafer process, a single-step method that pulls wafers directly from molten silicon rather than using multi-step ingot-based production. The company says this produces a new class of silicon wafers at substantially lower energy and capital cost, aiming to deliver solar at a cost less than coal. 1366 combines its technology with lean manufacturing and has begun preparing for large-scale commercial manufacturing with a planned plant. To support commercialization, it announced a 700 MW wafer supply commitment to Hanwha Q Cells and secured a strategic supply agreement and technical collaboration with Wacker Chemie. Wacker will provide the majority of the polysilicon for the plant at competitive terms and invest $15 million as an extension of 1366’s Series C to fund working capital and prepay initial silicon needs. The partnership with Wacker also includes transfer of silicon know‑how and facility design, engineering and construction expertise to support scale-up. 1366 is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts. 1366 Technologies develops Direct Wafer™ manufacturing technology to make silicon wafers in a single step by pulling them directly from molten silicon. The process is presented as a lower-energy, lower-capital alternative to traditional cast-and-saw wafer production, yielding significant wafer production cost savings. The company says the technology breaks historic efficiency and cost tradeoffs in photovoltaics and aims to deliver solar at a cost less than coal. 1366 combines its technology with lean manufacturing and a team of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to commercialize the approach. The company received a $10 million investment from Hanwha Investment Corporation to fund the construction of its first large-scale commercial factory, scheduled to be online in 2017. 1366 Technologies is a silicon wafer manufacturer that developed Direct Wafer®, a process that forms multi-crystalline wafers directly from molten silicon. Direct Wafer replaces multiple energy- and capital-intensive steps with a single process, uses 50% less silicon, eliminates slurry and halves silicon waste. The company positions the technology as delivering significant cost and sustainability benefits and aims to "deliver solar at the cost of coal." 1366 is preparing to build a 250 MW full-scale commercial manufacturing facility in the United States that will initially produce 60 million standard silicon wafers per year—enough to power more than 30,000 American homes. The company is headquartered in Bedford, MA. Financially, 1366 has raised $69.5M to date, including a recent Series C extension. 1366 Technologies develops and manufactures silicon wafers using its Direct Wafer™ technology aimed at reducing the cost to transform silicon into wafers. The company recently opened a demonstration factory in Bedford, Massachusetts and is led by CEO Frank van Mierlo. It will use the new funding to build a full-scale manufacturing facility that will initially produce 250 MW (about 60 million standard wafers) per year and later ramp to 1 GW annually. Building of the facility is scheduled to commence in 2014. Operational targets include accelerating production to reach more than 3,500 wafers per day (approximately 5 MW per year) for each furnace. After the Series C, the company has raised a total of $62M to date.