Participated · Seed · Jun 2024

Tacalyx focuses on discovery and development of antibodies against tumour associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) for cancer treatment. The company is developing modalities including antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and other antibody-based therapies using a proprietary technology platform to exploit TACAs as targets. Its lead disclosed programme is TCX-201, an ADC directed at an undisclosed TACA, which the company plans to advance through preclinical development with proceeds from its recent financing. Tacalyx is expanding a differentiated pipeline of programmes built on its platform. The company is led by CEO Jean Engela and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

Participated · Series C · Mar 2024

Stilla Technologies builds digital PCR instruments and consumables based on its Crystal Digital PCR technology, including the Nio™ platform and the recent Nio™+ 7‑color system. The Nio™+ can detect 20+ biomarkers per assay, offering a 3–4x multiplexing advantage over competitors and sitting between qPCR and NGS on cost and data density. Stilla positions its systems to fit laboratory workflows, emphasizing ease of use and automation compatibility (e.g., the Ruby Chip). The company targets applications across cancer/liquid biopsy, cell and gene therapy, infectious disease diagnostics and monitoring, epidemiology, food and environmental testing. Over 10 years of product development includes a 3‑color system in 2016, a 6‑color system in 2021, the automation‑ready Ruby Chip in 2022, and the November launch of Nio™+. Financially, Stilla closed a €26.5M Series C and employs over 80 people. Leadership and board changes were made recently following the CEO's reappointment in October, and the company cites expanded executive and board teams as part of its next chapter. Stilla Technologies develops multiplex Crystal Digital PCR solutions, most notably the naica® system—the industry's first six‑color digital PCR platform. The company targets applications including cancer and liquid biopsy studies, cell and gene therapies, infectious disease detection, and food and environmental testing. Stilla recently launched the six‑color naica® system, which it says is in high demand among researchers and clinicians. The company plans to use new financing to expand its global commercial presence and to develop its next‑generation digital PCR platform. Stilla has U.S. headquarters in Boston and European headquarters in Paris, and maintains strategic distribution and business partnerships in China. Financially, Stilla secured €31.3 million in the form of €11.3 million of convertible bonds and €20 million in loan financing. Stilla Technologies develops the Naica System, a digital PCR platform that enables precise detection and quantification of DNA mutations for research organizations in molecular biology and genetic analysis. The company was founded in 2013 at Ecole Polytechnique by Rémi Dangla, its CEO. Stilla launched the first generation of the Naica System in 2016 and generated first revenues in 2017. The Series B proceeds will be used to boost development of its solution, with a focus on high analytical performance and adding 6-color detection capabilities. The company positions its product for research organizations requiring high-precision genetic analysis. Stilla Technologies is a Paris-based life sciences company that provides a flexible digital PCR (dPCR) solution, the Naica System, for next-generation genetic tests. Founded in 2013 at École Polytechnique and led by CEO Rémi Dangla, the company leverages microfluidic innovations to make dPCR a lab commodity across the life sciences. Its core product is the Naica System; Stilla plans to launch a second-generation solution and to begin clinically validating panels to run on the system, initially focusing on oncology. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate Naica sales and expand clinical validation efforts. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2021

Corti builds an AI "co-pilot" that assists clinicians in real time with triage, documentation, administrative coding, decision analysis and post-encounter coaching. The company says it has built its own models rather than relying on third-party large language models and intentionally does not employ physicians on payroll to avoid bias. Corti launched its platform around 2018 and saw accelerated adoption after the COVID-19 pandemic. Usage metrics in the article show Corti now works with roughly 100 million patients a year and is used about 150,000 times per day (it assisted 15 million consultations annually at the time of its 2021 Series A). Customers include emergency services in Seattle, Boston and Sweden as well as multiple hospitals and medical services. Corti claims its tools can improve outcome-prediction accuracy by up to 40% and make administrative tasks up to 90% faster. The company is expanding its contribution to healthcare but is not disclosing a valuation. Corti.ai has developed a patented AI platform that automatically listens during patient phone and video consultations to transcribe, document, code, and quality‑assure interactions in real time. Its machine learning models analyze thousands of variables and compare each patient's symptom description to millions of historical cases to provide real‑time decision support. The company started in emergency medicine—supporting emergency calls for cardiac arrest and COVID‑19—and has expanded to support consultations across healthcare, now analyzing roughly 250,000 low‑acuity consultations per month. Independent research, including work with Copenhagen Emergency Services, found Corti could reduce undetected out‑of‑hospital cardiac arrest cases by more than 40% with minimal personnel training. Corti plans to launch new products and use the recent funding to accelerate expansion into US primary care, targeting telehealth companies, clinical call‑centers, and general practitioners. Founded in 2016, the company has been recognized with awards such as VentureBeat's “Best Global AI Innovation 2018” and the European Commission's “Future Unicorn Award 2020.”

Participated · Series B · Jul 2021

Coave Therapeutics is a genetic medicines company based in Paris that develops technologies to improve genetic medicine delivery. Its proprietary ALIGATER™ platform is designed to enhance targeting, specificity, efficacy and manufacturability of genetic medicines. The company is focused on overcoming gene therapy delivery challenges to extra-hepatic tissues and is building a pipeline targeting CNS, neuromuscular and eye diseases. Led by CEO Rodolphe Clerval, Coave positions ALIGATER as a platform with broad clinical applications. The company raised €32M in a Series A to advance the ALIGATER platform. Emmanuelle Coutanceau from Novo Holdings and Jean Francois Morin from Bpifrance will join Coave’s board of directors in connection with the financing. Coave Therapeutics develops targeted genetic medicines using its proprietary ALIGATER™ platform, which chemically modifies AAV capsids or lipid nanoparticles to improve efficacy, safety, and manufacturability. The company’s conjugated vectors (coAAV) enable targeted delivery to the central nervous system and the eye, achieving improved transduction and biodistribution across species at low doses. Its lead disclosed program in the article, CTx-TFEB, is a coAAV-delivered TFEB gene therapy designed to promote autophagy and clear toxic protein aggregates in neurons as a potential pan-ALS treatment. Coave recently received grant funding from the ALS Association to advance CTx-TFEB through preclinical proof-of-concept and aims to establish robust preclinical data to support a clinical transition. The company is headquartered in Paris, France and states its pipeline targets both rare and prevalent neurodegenerative and ocular indications. Coave is backed by unnamed international life sciences investors mentioned in the company description. Coave Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech advancing gene therapies for rare ocular and CNS diseases using its AAV-Ligand Conjugate (ALIGATER) platform. Its lead candidate, CTx-PDE6b, is a first-in-class AAV-based gene therapy designed to deliver a full-length functional PDE6b gene for PDE6b-associated retinitis pigmentosa and is currently in a Phase I/II trial. The company has entered a licensing and co-development partnership with Théa Open Innovation to advance CTx-PDE6b through clinical development and commercialization in Europe and adjacent territories. Under the agreement Coave will co-develop the program with Théa and share development costs while retaining commercialization rights outside the partner territories, including the US. Financially, Coave will receive an upfront payment and an equity investment of €10 million and is eligible to receive up to €65 million in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, plus double-digit royalties on net sales in licensed territories. Coave is headquartered in Paris and is backed by investors including Seroba Life Sciences, Théa Open Innovation, eureKARE, Fund+, Omnes Capital, V-Bio Ventures, Kurma Partners, Idinvest, GO Capital and Sham Innovation Santé/Turenne. Coave Therapeutics, led by CEO Rodolphe Clerval and based in Paris, is advancing targeted gene therapies using its AAV-Ligand Conjugate (ALIGATER) platform to enhance AAV delivery and transduction. The company is progressing a pipeline that includes the lead clinical program CTx-PDE6b, currently in a Phase I/II trial, and preclinical candidates such as CTx-GBA1 (Parkinson’s disease and Gaucher disease) and CTx-ABCA4 (Stargardt’s disease). Coave will use proceeds to push CTx-PDE6b toward pivotal trials, further develop the ALIGATER platform, advance new preclinical coAAV programs in rare CNS and ocular diseases, and seek partnerships to accelerate clinic entry. The company is clinical-stage and focused on producing targeted gene therapy products via proprietary chemical conjugation of AAV vectors. Financially, the company has raised a total of €33.1M following the Series B expansion.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2021

Neurala offers VIA, a vision-AI software platform built on its Lifelong-DNN (L-DNN) technology to reduce the time, cost and skills required to build and maintain production-quality custom computer-vision solutions. The product is positioned for in-line quality inspection, enabling faster, more accurate and scalable defect detection on manufacturing production lines. Over the last year the company expanded work with system integrators threefold and broadened engagements with OEMs to increase deployment capacity. Neurala launched a European subsidiary in Trieste, Italy to support its growing international footprint while remaining headquartered in Boston, MA. The company says the new capital will be used to evolve VIA for a wider range of applications and accelerate global adoption as manufacturers prioritize automation and Industry 4.0 initiatives. Total invested in Neurala now stands at $26 million. Neurala builds vision AI software focused on industrial and real-world applications, emphasizing edge deployment. Its Lifelong-DNN (L-DNN) technology lowers data requirements and enables continuous learning in the cloud or at the edge. The company helps industrial customers improve quality inspection and monitoring, with deployments across manufacturing, drones, robotics, and smart devices. Neurala’s edge-trained models are designed to extract actionable insights from IIoT sensor and camera data and to be set up by operators without specialized expertise. The company positions its technology as a core enabler of Industry 4.0 initiatives through on-machine, edge AI. Neurala builds the Neurala Brain SDK (marketed as Brains for Bots) to run machine learning locally on resource-constrained devices, enabling incremental learning and on-device updates without continuous network connectivity. The platform is hardware-agnostic, scales from low-end CPUs to high-end GPUs, and integrates with frameworks such as TensorFlow; the SDK supports Linux, Android and iOS. For customers needing custom models, Neurala offers a data ingestion and training service, and it also provides a server-based solution, yielding three complementary business models. The company targets time-sensitive and offline use cases (for example, drones inspecting power lines) and aims to put AI in the hands of toy makers, drone builders and IoT engineers. Early customers include Teal Drones, and Motorola Solutions is noted as an early customer; the founding team and leadership (CEO Massimiliano Versace) have cognitive and neural systems Ph.D.s from Boston University. The article does not disclose revenue or other operating metrics. Neurala builds deep-learning software that enables robots to learn and be instructed by people rather than be explicitly programmed. Its core technology applies artificial neural networks (ANNs) running on GPUs, and the company holds a fundamental patent for that approach. Led by CEO and co-founder Massamiliano Versace, Neurala has secured contracts with NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Labs to develop deep learning controllers. Use cases cited include autonomous exploration of Mars-like environments, collision avoidance for unmanned aircraft, and persistent surveillance. The company will use the recently raised seed funds to develop practical commercial applications for both flying and ground-based robots that utilize its learning software. Neurala is based in Boston, MA.