Participated · Convertible Note · Mar 2025

Heartflow develops AI technology and the Heartflow One platform to transform coronary artery disease into a screenable, diagnosable and manageable condition. The platform provides non-invasive, precision coronary care across the guideline-directed CCTA pathway and includes Roadmap™ Analysis, FFRCT Analysis and Plaque Analysis. Heartflow One is supported by the ACC/AHA Chest Pain Guideline and backed by more than 600 peer‑reviewed publications. The company has helped clinicians manage over 400,000 patients worldwide. Under CEO John Farquhar, Heartflow is investing further in R&D to advance the CCTA+Heartflow pathway as the definitive standard for non-invasive CAD diagnosis and management. HeartFlow offers HeartFlow Analysis, a non-invasive personalized cardiac test that enables physicians to make care decisions for patients with suspected coronary artery disease. The company recently received FDA clearance for new products and now provides non-invasive coronary artery anatomy (RoadMap™ analysis), physiology (HeartFlow® FFRCT), and plaque information (Plaque analysis) based on CCTA. These products together aim to give physicians a more comprehensive understanding of a patient’s CAD and to better predict heart-attack risk. Led by CEO John Farquhar and based in Mountain View, CA, HeartFlow plans to use recently raised capital to extend demand for its commercial products, support clinical evidence, and advance its comprehensive product portfolio. The company emphasized expanding its commercial reach and continuing to build clinical validation for its offerings. HeartFlow commercializes the HeartFlow FFRct Analysis, a non-invasive technology that leverages deep learning to create personalized 3D models of patients' coronary arteries and simulate blood flow. The company will use proceeds from the financing to ramp up commercial expansion, continue technology innovation and fund additional clinical studies. Its analysis has been used by clinicians at more than 80 medical institutions and for more than 15,000 patients. In the United States several commercial payers issued positive coverage decisions and CMS assigned a New Technology APC payment; NICE issued a positive guidance recommendation in the U.K. HeartFlow says the technology reduces unnecessary invasive diagnostic coronary angiography and lowers healthcare costs for hospitals. The company is positioning the HeartFlow Analysis to become a global standard of care for diagnosing coronary artery disease. Heartflow builds noninvasive diagnostic software that reconfigures CT imaging into 3D models of coronary arteries to show blood flow and pinpoint lesions. Its flagship FFR-CT software recently received FDA clearance to market. The company says studies show its modeling method outperforms CT scanning alone. Heartflow has been venture-backed since 2009 and has raised more than $200 million to date, including a $100+ million round that closed last year. Per a regulatory filing, it has raised $35.8 million of a potential $46.3 million round; calls to the company about the new funding were unanswered and the filing did not state the purpose. The firm’s leadership and origins trace to Dr. Charles Taylor and Dr. Christopher Zarins from Stanford, and it has won recognition such as the 2011 EuroPCR Innovation Award. HeartFlow develops a noninvasive fractional flow reserve/computed tomography (FFRCT) test that uses high-performance computing and CT scan data to assess blood flow in coronary arteries. Results are transmitted through a secure web interface and presented as an interactive report to help physicians make diagnostic decisions. Initial clinical tests reportedly showed significant improvements in diagnostic accuracy over other noninvasive technologies, according to the company website. The company is recruiting participants for a multicenter clinical trial to further validate the technology. HeartFlow has secured nearly $75 million to advance its FFRCT program. It faces competition from other techniques that evaluate narrowed coronary arteries, including coronary angiography, intravascular ultrasound and CT coronarography; Boston Scientific recently had a new FFR/optical coherence tomography diagnostic tool cleared in Europe. The company was formed in 2007 by a group of Stanford University professors under the name Cardiovascular Stimulation Inc. and is based in Redwood City, California.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2022

Mineralys Therapeutics operates in the biotechnology sector, concentrating on the development of therapeutic innovations. The company recently drew attention amid a broader surge in biotech valuations. According to the article, Mineralys secured $9.5 million in new capital from Findell Capital Management, giving it additional liquidity to advance its research initiatives. While the report does not outline specific drug candidates or clinical programs, the fresh funding underscores investor confidence in the firm’s scientific direction. The financing also signals the company’s intent to accelerate upcoming milestones and strengthen its operational footing. No revenue figures, user metrics, or detailed pipeline information were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series B · Jan 2022

Kyverna Therapeutics is a clinical-stage cell therapy company focused on engineering a new class of therapies for autoimmune diseases. Its lead programs, KYV-101 and KYV-201, are anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapies that target CD19 on B cells. The company is advancing clinical studies in the U.S. and Europe and intends to use recent financing to accelerate those trials. Kyverna specifically highlights applications in autoimmune conditions including lupus nephritis. The company has attracted investment from biopharma and life-science investors backing its clinical-stage programs. Kyverna Therapeutics engineers a new class of cell therapies for serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases using advanced T-cell engineering and synthetic biology. Its platform includes next-generation CAR T therapies in autologous and allogeneic settings and synReg T cells, a synthetic version of regulatory T cells. The company holds exclusive worldwide licenses from the NIH to use a novel anti-CD19 construct across autologous and allogeneic CAR T therapies. Kyverna intends to advance KYV-101, an autologous anti-CD19 CAR T candidate, into clinical development for B cell-driven autoimmune diseases in the first half of 2022. It is also developing KYV-201 in collaboration with Intellia, combining its CD19 CAR construct with Intellia’s ex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based allogeneic platform. Kyverna has a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Gilead to develop engineered T-cell therapies based on its synReg platform and Kite’s synNotch technology and is led by CEO Dominic Borie in Emeryville, California. Kyverna Therapeutics is a Berkeley, Calif.-based cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It raised $25 million in a Series A equity financing from Vida Ventures and Westlake Village BioPartners. The company’s platform combines advanced T cell engineering and synthetic biology technologies, including a synthetic Treg platform and synNotch™ technology from Kite (a Gilead company), to target autoreactive immune cells at the root cause of disease. Kyverna intends to use the proceeds to advance its therapeutic strategy and to conduct research activities and initial clinical studies through proof-of-concept for programs covered by its collaboration. Kyverna entered a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Gilead under which Gilead paid an upfront $17.5 million and Kyverna may earn up to $570 million in development and commercialization milestones; Gilead has an option to assume further clinical development and commercialization upon exercise. Leadership and board changes accompanied the financing: Fred Cohen of Vida Ventures will serve as chairman; Dominic Borie, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed CEO and will serve on the board; Jeffrey Greve, Ph.D., remains CSO; and investor representatives from Westlake Village BioPartners and Vida Ventures were named to the board. Kyverna will also continue to advance proprietary programs beyond the Gilead collaboration.

Participated · Series C · Jan 2022

Founded in 2014 with operations in South San Francisco and Paris, DNA Script develops Enzymatic DNA Synthesis (EDS) as an alternative to traditional chemical DNA synthesis. The company’s first commercial product is the SYNTAX Platform/System, a benchtop enzymatic synthesis instrument that enables labs to print synthetic nucleic acids on demand. SYNTAX is positioned to let researchers iterate more rapidly by removing multi‑day waits for third‑party oligo providers. DNA Script says the platform targets genomics and molecular biology applications and aims to increase access to oligo manufacturing. The company frames SYNTAX as a step toward a new paradigm for DNA and RNA synthesis and to transform life‑sciences research. Financially, DNA Script completed a second tranche of its Series C, raising $200 million and bringing total capital raised to $315 million since founding. DNA Script is pioneering enzymatic DNA synthesis (EDS) and is commercializing the SYNTAX benchtop DNA printer to put DNA writing capabilities directly in research and clinical labs. The SYNTAX system is intended to make writing DNA as simple and straightforward as reading DNA, enabling same‑day synthesis of oligonucleotides for faster experiment iteration and diagnostic development. The company plans testing with a select group of partners, a beta program later this year, and to accept orders for the printer next year. Recent funding will accelerate development of its suite of EDS technologies, support the commercial launch of SYNTAX, and help ramp commercial and manufacturing capabilities. DNA Script is also participating in the Molecular Encoding Consortium with the Broad Institute and Harvard University to develop deployable DNA data storage and retrieval technology, a project funded by a $23 million IARPA grant. The company was founded in 2014 in Paris. DNA Script develops enzymatic DNA and RNA synthesis technology to produce rapid, affordable, high-quality synthetic nucleic acids. The company has demonstrated the ability to synthesize 200 nucleotides of DNA with high accuracy, showcased at an academic conference. Its platform combines novel biochemical processes and nucleotide chemistry intended to enable genome-scale synthesis and same-day results. DNA Script positions its technology for applications across drug discovery, diagnostics, agriculture, industrial and food technologies, and DNA data storage. The company was founded in 2014 in Paris. The Series B financing announced in this article provides additional capital to further develop its enzymatic platform and expand applications. DNA Script develops a novel enzymatic process for de novo DNA and RNA synthesis that mimics natural biochemical mechanisms. The company’s platform aims to produce long DNA constructs with higher quality, faster turnaround and reduced use of harsh chemicals compared with traditional chemical synthesis. DNA Script positions this technology to address unmet manufacturing needs in cell and gene therapy and to accelerate genomics research. The company cites potential applications across therapeutics, sustainable chemical production, improved crops and DNA data storage. DNA Script was founded in 2014 in Paris and has been described as aiming to become a global leader in biomanufacturing for cell and gene therapy. Financially, the company has raised $27M to date and was recently awarded $2.7M in non-dilutive financing from Bpifrance. DNA Script develops enzymatic DNA and RNA synthesis technology that mimics natural processes to produce de novo synthetic nucleic acids. Its biochemical approach aims to deliver faster turnaround, higher quality, and greater manufacturing flexibility than traditional chemical synthesis while minimizing the use of harsh chemicals. The company positions itself to accelerate innovation across life sciences, with applications in therapeutics, sustainable chemical production, improved crops, and DNA data storage. Management says recent breakthroughs on the platform have advanced development and the company aims to become a global leader in synthetic DNA manufacturing. The synthetic nucleic acids market exceeds $1 billion annually and DNA Script is focused on scaling to meet demand. Financially, the company has raised $24M to date, including a $13M Series A in September 2017 led by Illumina Ventures.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2021

Acrivon Therapeutics disclosed a $130 million financing on April 9 that increased confidence in then-pending data for its lead asset, ACR-368 (prexasertib). ACR-368 is a selective small-molecule inhibitor targeting checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) and CHK2. The drug is undergoing testing in a potentially registrational phase II trial across multiple tumor types. The announced financing was presented in the context of those pivotal-readout expectations. The company’s program and this capital raise also affected competitive dynamics in the CHK1 inhibitor space. Specifically, the financing raised the stakes for rival Boundless Bio Inc., which is developing CHK1 inhibitor BBI-355. Acrivon leverages its Acrivon Predictive Precision Proteomics (AP3) platform to create drug-tailored OncoSignature® companion diagnostics that identify patients whose tumors are directly regulated by drug-relevant protein signaling. The company’s lead asset, ACR-368 (prexasertib), is a potent CHK1/2 inhibitor in Phase 2 that has shown durable single-agent activity, including complete responses, across multiple solid cancers and has been tested in over 1,000 patients. ACR-368 was in-licensed from Eli Lilly and has received orphan drug designation for anal cancer. Acrivon plans to advance ACR-368 and additional undisclosed pipeline programs with clinical trials that selectively enroll patients predicted to benefit by its OncoSignature® tests. The company intends to use the recently raised capital to support clinical development, expand headcount, and broaden its pipeline to realize the broader applicability of AP3. Acrivon also operates a phospho-proteomic and drug discovery hub in Lund, Sweden, collaborating with academic leaders in proteomics while maintaining operations in Watertown, Mass.