Participated · Series B · Jun 2023

Axuall operates a workforce intelligence platform that aggregates clinician data through a national, real-time practitioner data network. Its Workforce Intelligence Network pulls clinician information from nearly 7,000 data sources and directly from physicians, advanced practice providers, and nurses via an integrated digital credential wallet with smart applications. The platform is used to reduce onboarding and enrollment time for healthcare systems, staffing firms, telehealth providers, and health plans while supplying data insights for network planning, analytics, and reporting. Axuall’s technology connects to the systems, vendors, and processes that customers already use. Led by co-founder and CEO Charlie Lougheed, the company has raised over $41M from more than two dozen healthcare organizations. It most recently announced an undisclosed Series B-1 that added Frist Cressey Ventures following a $20M Series B in May 2023. Axuall provides workforce intelligence powered by a national real-time practitioner data network, enabling healthcare systems, staffing firms, telehealth companies, and health plans to reduce onboarding and enrollment time while offering data insights for planning, analytics, and reporting. Led by CEO Charlie Lougheed, the company’s technology integrates with credentialing and recruiting workflows to streamline practitioner management. Axuall’s network today consists of over 6,800 primary data sources. The company recently raised $20M in a Series B to support growth. Axuall intends to use the funds to grow its product, sales, and marketing teams and to develop its data partnerships across its network. It also plans to accelerate API integration into planning, recruiting, credentialing, enrollment, CRM, and electronic medical record systems. Axuall operates a national digital professional identity network that enables clinicians, healthcare systems, staffing firms, telehealth groups, and health plans to share and manage authenticated provider credentials and qualifications in real time. Built on a provider-centric model, the network aims to eliminate onboarding delays, reduce physician burnout, and enable workforce intelligence across the healthcare industry. The solution was developed and piloted with University Hospitals, MedStar Health, and MetroHealth and launched commercially in late 2020. Axuall was formed in 2018 and initially raised $3 million of venture funding to develop the network. The company plans to use new capital to accelerate R&D, implementations, sales, and marketing as it grows its customer base of healthcare organizations. Management positions the product as addressing provider data delays and blind spots that drive billions in annual costs and care inefficiencies. Axuall operates a real-time digital network for verifying identity, credentials, and authenticity to eliminate waste, prevent fraud, and manage risk in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, government, and other sectors. The network enables healthcare providers to request and receive digitally signed credentials from primary sources and securely share them with employers, health systems, and insurance plans. Axuall proactively monitors conditional events such as expirations and dependencies so practitioners can address issues as they arise, keeping credentials up-to-date and aligned with standards. Led by CEO Charlie Lougheed and based in Cleveland, OH, the company is preparing for commercial release. Axuall recently closed a $3M seed financing to support its near-term plans. The company intends to use the funds to hire additional software engineering and product personnel, run several large-scale pilots, develop its partner network, and complete R&D for commercial release.

Participated · Series C · Jun 2020

Surrozen designs tissue-specific antibody therapeutics that modulate the Wnt signaling pathway to drive organ and tissue regeneration. Its proprietary platforms — SWEETS (R-spondin‑mimetics) and SWAP (Wnt‑mimetics) — produce molecules that selectively activate or enhance Wnt signaling in target organs. Lead preclinical candidates include SZN-043 (liver‑specific SWEETS) and SZN-1326 (intestine‑specific SWAP), which showed hepatocyte proliferation, improved liver function and reduced fibrosis, and intestinal epithelial regeneration with anti‑inflammatory effects, respectively. The company plans clinical development of these two IND candidates, targeting filing in 2021 (liver) and 2022 (IBD), and intends to continue discovery to expand its pipeline across additional tissues and disease areas. The recent financing provides capital specifically to advance the two IND candidates to the clinic and to support ongoing discovery work. Surrozen is a San Francisco–based biopharmaceutical company led by CEO Craig Parker that discovers and develops novel antibodies for regenerative medicine. The company has developed two proprietary antibody platforms that can function as Wnt or R-spondin mimetics to stimulate cell- and organ-specific tissue regeneration. Proceeds from its recent financing will be used to advance antibody discovery and development programs in liver disease. Surrozen plans to expand its therapeutic platform into additional disease areas where Wnt modulation has therapeutic potential. The company recently secured financing to support these programs and expanded its Board of Directors with the appointment of Anna Berkenblit, MD. Dr. Berkenblit joins from ImmunoGen, where she is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, and brings prior clinical development experience from H3 Biomedicine and AVEO Oncology. Surrozen is a South San Francisco–based biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs that promote the repair and regeneration of human tissues by harnessing Wnt signaling. The company provides a broad-based drug discovery platform built around surrogate Wnt technology, with the principal invention credited to K. Christopher Garcia. Its scientific leadership and founders include K. Christopher Garcia, Roeland Nusse, Calvin Kuo and senior scientist Claudia Janda, all with strong academic credentials. Surrozen plans to use new financing to implement its drug discovery platform and advance its therapeutic approach. Financially, the company closed a $33M Series A led by The Column Group, which has taken board representation. The company is positioning its surrogate Wnt platform to translate academic discoveries into therapeutic programs.