• Elliephant

  Participated · Seed · Nov 2023

  Elliephant is a corporate gifting platform that integrates with HR, marketing, and sales tech stacks to automate personalised gifting campaigns. The system analyses recipients’ preferences and occasions to increase relevance and reduce waste in corporate gifting. The founders launched the company a year ago and ran an MVP in October last year, upgrading to a V2 in September ahead of the year-end gifting period. Clients already include SEEK, Quantium, APA and IXOM, and the startup was part of the 2023 Melbourne Accelerator Program at the University of Melbourne. The company positions itself against an industry problem where an estimated 40% of corporate gifts are unwanted, global corporate gifting totals about $300 billion per year, and US unredeemed gift cards are valued at $21 billion. With recent funding, Elliephant plans to expand its footprint across APAC beginning with a strategic launch in Singapore and to introduce AI-powered features into its platform.

• Nohla Therapeutics

  Participated · Series A · Nov 2016

  Nohla Therapeutics is a Seattle-based developer of universal, off-the-shelf cell therapies built on a proprietary notch ligand technology platform. Its lead candidate, dilanubicel, is being evaluated in two ongoing Phase 2 trials for patients undergoing allogeneic transplant and for AML patients with chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression. The company also pursues multiple preclinical and discovery programs in immune modulation and induction, genetically modified stem cells for gene therapy and editing, and CAR progenitor and NK cell therapies. Recent financing activity will support ongoing clinical development of dilanubicel and advancement of discovery programs from its platform. The company is led by President and CEO Katie Fanning. Nohla Therapeutics develops universal, off-the-shelf cell therapies, led by President and CEO Katie Fanning. Its lead product candidate, dilanubicel (NLA101), is being evaluated in two ongoing Phase 2 trials: for patients undergoing myeloablative allogeneic transplant and for AML patients with chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression after high-dose chemotherapy. The company closed a $45M Series B to fund its clinical and manufacturing plans. Nohla intends to use the proceeds to complete the ongoing Phase 2 trials, support a Phase 3 trial and commercial manufacturing needs, and to advance its cell-based therapy platform and pipeline. It is also pursuing multiple preclinical and discovery programs in the areas of immune tolerance and other diseases. Nohla Therapeutics develops NLA101, an off-the-shelf, ex vivo–expanded hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell therapy derived from umbilical cord blood that does not require HLA matching. NLA101 is intended to provide bridging hematopoiesis by rapidly generating mature, functional myeloid cells to prevent infection while a patient’s bone marrow recovers after myeloablative or high-dose chemotherapy. Clinical results to date suggest NLA101 can enable rapid hematopoietic recovery in patients who experience pancytopenia following high-dose chemotherapy or chemoradiation. Nohla’s platform uses an engineered Notch ligand to enable ex vivo expansion, direct stem cell fate, and lineage-specific differentiation with applications across multiple cell types and therapeutic areas. The company is currently conducting a randomized Phase 2b study in cord blood transplant recipients and is initiating a second randomized Phase 2 trial in adult AML patients at risk for myelosuppression following high-dose chemotherapy. Nohla recently received a $6.9 million grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine to support ongoing clinical development and the planned global Phase 2 randomized trial in AML. Nohla Therapeutics was spun out of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in September 2015 and is developing cryopreserved, on‑demand universal donor cell products that do not require HLA matching. Its lead programs, NLA-101 and NLA-102, are generated from a novel technology platform intended to promote hematopoietic and immune cell recovery in patients at risk for neutropenia and infection. To date, over 100 patients have been treated across multiple clinical studies using its products. NLA-101 is being evaluated in a multicenter, randomized open‑label Phase IIb study in the setting of myeloablative cord blood transplant, and NLA-102 is planned as a Phase II randomized study in the setting of high‑dose chemotherapy for AML. The company intends to use new funds to advance those two lead programs through clinical development. Management includes founder and CMO Dr. Colleen Delaney and interim CEO Michael Sistenich. Financially, the company has raised a total of $64.6M since inception. Nohla Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company developing ex vivo expanded hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell therapies derived from umbilical cord blood that require no HLA matching and are available off-the-shelf. Its lead product has been used in multiple clinical trials and has demonstrated reduced time to neutrophil and platelet engraftment, decreased rates of severe acute graft-versus-host disease, decreased transplant-related mortality, and improvements in overall survival. The expanded hematopoietic cell therapy has also been safely used after high-dose chemotherapy to prevent life-threatening complications from prolonged neutropenia. Nohla states the platform could additionally prevent and treat infectious complications in patients with neutropenia regardless of cause. The company intends to build a broad pipeline of allogeneic immunotherapies and to transform the treatment paradigm for stem cell transplants. Recently the company strengthened its board, signaling governance development alongside its clinical and commercial efforts.

No current team members are available.