Participated · Equity · Jun 2021

Neurona Therapeutics is developing allogeneic, off-the-shelf regenerative neural cell therapy products intended to provide long-term targeted repair of the nervous system following a single administration. Its lead candidate, NRTX-1001, comprises GABAergic interneurons and is being evaluated in two ongoing open-label multicenter Phase 1/2 trials for drug-resistant unilateral and bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (NCT05135091 and NCT06422923). The company presented updated Phase 1/2 data showing in a five-subject lower-dose cohort a median seizure reduction of 75% at six months, with four of five subjects reporting >50% reduction and two subjects reporting durable >95% reduction at 16 and 21 months; NRTX-1001 has been well tolerated and neuropsychological testing suggests absence of neurocognitive impairment. The FDA granted NRTX-1001 Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation in June 2024 based on these positive clinical data. Neurona plans to expand indications to neocortical focal epilepsy and other CNS disorders. Financially, the company has received multiple grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), with cumulative CIRM commitment of $18.5M across five grants, and completed a $120M private financing in February 2024 co-led by Viking Global Investors and Cormorant Asset Management. Neurona Therapeutics is a San Francisco–based clinical-stage biotherapeutics company focused on developing regenerative, allogeneic, off-the-shelf cell therapy candidates with single-dose curative potential. Its candidates are designed to provide long-term repair of dysfunctional neural networks across multiple neurological indications. The company's lead investigational candidate, NRTX-1001, is being evaluated in an ongoing open-label, single-arm Phase I/II clinical trial for treatment of drug-resistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). NRTX-1001 also has potential application in Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders of the nervous system. Led by CEO Cory R. Nicholas, Ph.D., Neurona intends to use newly raised capital to advance its wholly-owned pipeline of off-the-shelf cell therapies. The company recently raised $120M and announced that Raymond Kelleher, M.D., Ph.D., of Cormorant will be joining its board of directors. Neurona Therapeutics develops neural cell therapies intended to provide long-term repair of dysfunctional neural networks in chronic neurological disorders. Its lead candidate, NRTX-1001, is a neuronal cell therapeutic derived from human pluripotent stem cells comprising GABA-secreting interneurons designed as a one-time administration to provide local long-term inhibition. The company is advancing wholly-owned, off-the-shelf neuronal, glial, and gene-edited cell therapy candidates across multiple indications, initially targeting temporal lobe (focal) epilepsy. Neurona plans a Phase 1/2a clinical study for NRTX-1001 planned to launch later this year. The company completed a $41.5M financing that will be used to advance the pipeline; total proceeds raised to date are $135 million. Neurona describes its platform as based on a novel neural cell lineage with single-dose curative potential. Neurona Therapeutics is a pre-clinical biotechnology company focused on the transplantation of selected neurons to treat intractable neurological diseases. The company develops regenerative cell-based therapeutics composed of unique cell compositions that can be precisely targeted and integrated into damaged neural circuits. Its approach emphasizes activity-dependent regulation once transplanted into host circuitry. Neurona was founded by neuroscientists and stem cell researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, including Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, Arnold Kriegstein, John Rubenstein and Cory Nicholas. The company is led by interim CEO Tim Kutzkey and launched with a $23.5M Series A financing. Neurona is based in South San Francisco, CA and remains in the pre-clinical stage.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2020

DayDayCook is a direct-to-consumer, content-driven meal solutions brand founded in 2012 with a fast-growing omnichannel sales network in China and a global online presence. The company sells ready-to-heat (RTH), ready-to-cook (RTC) and plant-based food products and builds brand recognition through culinary and lifestyle content across major social media and e-commerce platforms. DDC reports over an aggregate 3 billion video views and more than 10 million orders worldwide, indicating significant engagement and traction. The company has announced strategic partnerships with Nestle China and OATLY to incorporate plant-based products into ready-to-cook meal kits, with launches expected later in the year. DayDayCook has terminated a proposed SPAC merger with ACE Global Acquisition Corp and is pursuing a direct IPO on Nasdaq while raising additional pre-IPO capital. Management says the new funds will be used to grow its customer base and execute accretive acquisition opportunities in China and Southeast Asia. DayDayCook creates short-form cooking video content and operates a direct-to-consumer business selling ready-to-cook meal solutions targeted at Gen-Z and other consumers in China. The company produces broadly distributed video content (more than 1.4 billion views globally) and reports millions of active viewers and paid customers nationwide. DayDayCook serves millions of customers each year across Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong with a full suite of convenient, healthy product offerings. Its stated mission is to be the leader of healthy and convenient food choices and to inspire Gen-Z to enjoy cooking and discover a better lifestyle. The company emphasized expanding exposure and awareness in the food tech market as a rationale for its new investor partnership. The announcement frames the relationship with the investor as a strategic step to grow DayDayCook’s presence in food tech channels. DayDayCook operates a multifunctional food platform combining an app with recipes and food videos, cooking classes in malls, and a product line of branded ready-to-eat/cook food packs and kitchenware. The company says its own branded products account for 80% of its revenues, enabling higher margins via private-label development. DayDayCook has built audience reach across social channels (about 60 million followers) and reports 2.3 million registered app users and 2.2 million paid users ordering through e-commerce channels, a 12x year-over-year increase. The startup emphasizes content-driven brand stories that convert followers into customers and highlights established suppliers, distribution, logistics and shipment capabilities. Founded by banker-turned food blogger Norma Chu, the eight-year-old company is Hong Kong-based with a user base mainly from mainland China. Management intends to use the new funding to expand its multifunctional food platform and scale its content-to-commerce model.

Participated · Series B · May 2020

DefinedCrowd operates a smart data curation platform and a contributor community (Neevo) that supplies labeled data for NLP, voice recognition, and computer vision via APIs and a web interface. The company leverages more than 290,000 contributors in 195 countries who supply over 500,000 samples per day, and supports more than 50 languages and 79 dialects with claimed labeling accuracy up to 98%. Its tools allow customers to filter contributors by demographics and language proficiency and offer specialized workflows, templates, and off-the-shelf solutions as well as the ability to upload proprietary data. DefinedCrowd serves enterprise customers across customer service, automotive, retail, and healthcare, counting clients such as BMW, Mastercard, Nuance, and Yahoo Japan. The company reported 656% year-over-year revenue growth last year and has a staff of over 100 across offices in Portugal, Seattle, and Japan. DefinedCrowd plans to double headcount to 500 and open additional R&D labs by 2021. DefinedCrowd offers a SaaS platform (Web API and Web UI) that combines human intelligence, automated tools, and machine learning to collect, enrich and structure data for AI and ML models. Its capabilities focus on speech and NLP and support use cases including virtual assistants, customer review analysis, autonomous vehicles, content categorization, pattern recognition, and surveillance systems. The company supports 46 languages via its Neevo community of 45,000+ skilled members and serves customers such as BMW, Mastercard, Nuance, and Yahoo Japan. Founded in 2015 by CEO Dr. Daniela Braga and headquartered in Seattle, the company plans to use new funding to develop product offerings, expand the team, and increase global market share. Financially, DefinedCrowd completed an $11.8M Series A, strengthening its balance sheet for growth. DefinedCrowd provides a SaaS platform that combines machine learning and data science with crowdsourcing to help enterprises improve quality, scalability, and time-to-market for AI and natural language processing applications. The company operates a global crowdsourcing audience across more than 36 countries covering over 30 languages and 100+ dialects. Led by CEO Dr. Daniela Braga and CTO Dr. João Freitas, DefinedCrowd also maintains a research and development center in Lisbon, Portugal. The company is based in Kirkland, Washington. DefinedCrowd raised $1.1M in seed funding from Sony Innovation Fund, Amazon Alexa Fund and Portugal Ventures. It intends to use the proceeds to accelerate development of its SaaS platform.

Led · Series A · Dec 2018

Iota Biosciences develops tiny, millimeter-wide implantable "motes" that harvest ultrasound to power a piezoelectric crystal and a chip that monitors and reflects electrophysiological activity. The devices can be attached to single nerves or muscle fibers to transmit continuous monitoring data and can also deliver voltage for potential therapeutic use. The team emerged from UC Berkeley research led by co-founders Jose Carmena and Michel Maharbiz and has demonstrated the technology in vivo. Initial applications will target the peripheral nervous system rather than the brain, and devices are contained in implant-safe materials and can be installed laparoscopically or via a tiny incision. The company is currently in a prototype phase and plans to use recent funding to reach a production-ready version suitable for FDA submission. FDA approval and longer clinical testing will be required before human use; broader deployment will likely need additional funding and multi-year trials.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2018

Boxbot develops a three-dimensional conveyor system designed to increase storage density for parcels inside a significantly smaller footprint. The product shares DNA with systems like Attabotics and Autostore but is tailored specifically for parcel handling. The company pivoted from autonomous last-mile delivery (including a branded van) to warehouse-focused parcel storage after strong customer interest in its package retrieval technology. Boxbot has piloted the system with customers and identified multiple sites for testing across last-mile delivery centers, bonded storage warehouses, and customer pickup locations. Its roadmap for the next year includes deploying production-level systems into real-world operating environments and then scaling across multiple facilities and additional customers. The Alameda-based startup has about 20 employees, is hiring, and will use recent funding to accelerate go-to-market efforts. Boxbot is developing self-driving delivery vehicles that combine robotics and autonomous systems to tackle last-mile logistics. The company was co-founded in 2016 by Austin Oehlerking and Mark Godwin and is based in Oakland, CA. Its team includes engineers with experience at Tesla, Uber, Amazon, Getaround and Northrop Grumman. Boxbot raised $7.5M in a seed round led by Artiman Ventures. With this round the company has raised a total of $9.0M to date. The company previously raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding from Pear Ventures, Afore Capital, The House Fund, The Graduate Syndicate and angel investors. Boxbot is a stealth startup building a last-mile delivery solution that the founders suggest could combine aspects of autonomy and drones. The company was founded by Austin Oehlerking and Mark Godwin, who have backgrounds at Tesla, Uber and in academic robotics research. Boxbot won the Pear Berkeley Challenge and received a $250,000 equity commitment from Pear VC. At the same time it secured seed investments from House Capital, Afore Capital and The Graduate Syndicate. Pear’s $250,000 award includes a provision gifting 10% of Pear’s equity stake back to UC Berkeley. Beyond the prize and seed backers, Boxbot has not disclosed additional product details or financial metrics while remaining in stealth.