Participated · Series A · Mar 2026

Ateios Systems develops RaiCure™, a curing technology for lithium-ion battery electrodes that replaces slow, energy-intensive thermal curing and avoids PFAs. The RaiCure technology was developed in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The company aims to scale its electrode production and supply battery manufacturers at commercial scale by embedding its solution into existing production lines. Ateios has active commercial partnerships with companies including Eastman Kodak and Vianode and plans to use new funding to increase production capacity and manufacturing capabilities. Its recent $7.25M Series A follows earlier support including a million-dollar investment from the TitletownTech Start-up Draft and participation in ORNL’s Innovation Crossroads program.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2023

Rhaeos is a clinical-stage medical device company focused on addressing unmet needs in the care of people with hydrocephalus and developing wearable sensors for chronic conditions. Its core product, the FlowSense shunt monitor, is a wireless, non-invasive thermal sensor delivered as a small, bandage-sized patch that adheres above implanted shunt tubing. FlowSense rapidly monitors shunt function and wirelessly transmits critical data to a mobile app in minutes to support clinical decision making. Rhaeos received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for FlowSense in 2020 and is currently evaluating the device in a multi-center FDA pivotal study in the US. The company intends to use the Series A proceeds to support an in-hospital launch of FlowSense and anticipates making the monitor commercially available to physicians and patients in 2023. The company is led by CEO Anna Lisa Somera. Rhaeos is a private, clinical-stage medical device company based in Evanston, Ill., formed out of the John A. Rogers Research Group at Northwestern University. The company is developing FlowSense™, a noninvasive wireless wearable sensor that addresses a clinical unmet need for patients with hydrocephalus and is initially targeted at the neurosurgical suite. Rhaeos has received support from federal and nonprofit sources, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as foundations and pediatric device consortia. The company closed a $2.2M seed financing and has secured more than $8M in total dilutive and non-dilutive financing to date. Proceeds from the seed round will be used to prepare for the 2022 commercial launch of FlowSense. Additional institutional and accelerator supporters include MedTech Innovator and several pediatric device accelerators and consortiums.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2022

Ejara provides a mobile investment app that lets users buy, sell, exchange and store crypto using non‑custodial wallets and access tokenized savings products such as government bonds. The company recently launched a savings product that tokenizes government bonds and enables users to deposit as little as 1,000 CFA franc (~$1.5) and earn up to 10% interest on two‑year deposits. Ejara serves Francophone Africa (starting in Cameroon) and supports cross‑border transactions via stablecoins, and it obtained a license to extend offerings to the French‑speaking diaspora in Europe. The startup has pursued financial education initiatives to boost adoption, targeting women, girls and other underserved groups, and plans to expand its product suite — including a yet‑to‑launch fractional investing product — toward becoming a one‑stop financial app. Operating metrics cited in the articles include growth from 8,000 users last October to more than 70,000 users across nine Francophone African countries, 10x revenue growth and 15% month‑on‑month transaction volume growth since last October. Ejara positions itself as a web3‑focused contender against traditional asset managers by prioritizing user key ownership and accessibility. Ejara was founded by Nelly Chatue-Diop with cofounder Baptiste Andrieux to build a blockchain-based mobile investment platform for Francophone Africa. The product issues non-custodial wallets that let users securely buy, sell, exchange and store crypto assets. Ejara partners with MoonPay to enable remittances and serves more than 8,000 users across Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Senegal and francophone Africans in the diaspora. The company reports initial traction was achieved with zero marketing budget and classifies users as savers planning for the future and business customers who transact frequently. Ejara plans to expand into other asset classes including fractional shares, stocks and commodities. The startup intends to use its recent seed funding to drive growth, deploy roadmap features and expand its product and tech teams.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2022

CNote operates an impact investing platform that routes investor funds into fixed-income and time deposit products designed to advance economic equality, racial justice, gender equity and climate-change adaptation. The platform leverages technology and a community-first framework to enable corporations, institutions and individuals to invest at scale and delivers regular reporting on the social impact of deposits and investments. CNote places funds through a network of over 2,000 impact-driven community financial institutions that serve low- to moderate-income communities, support women and people-of-color entrepreneurs, fund affordable housing and provide other forms of economic inclusion. The company reports it is deploying about $300 million in cash and fixed-income investments via its platform and serves roughly 1,900 corporate, foundation and individual investors. Notable investors on the platform include AMD, Patagonia, Xylem, Apple, Mastercard, Netflix and PayPal. CNote plans to use recent funding to advance its technology, expand its sales team and deepen its network of community financial institutions. CNote is a women-led financial technology platform that makes it easy to invest in economic inclusion through diversified community investments. The company uses technology to unlock proven community investments targeting racial equity, economic justice and gender equity. It aims to help close the wealth gap in underserved communities across America and generate economic mobility and financial inclusion. Led by CEO Catherine Berman, CNote packages impact investments for investors seeking socially responsible opportunities. The company intends to use recent funding to extend its reach in the socially responsible investing space. CNote is based in Oakland, California.

Participated · Seed · May 2022

Masa Network is building a decentralized, privacy-first marketplace for personal data that leverages zero-knowledge and fully-homomorphic encryption to preserve user privacy. The platform lets users contribute data and earn rewards in Masa's native token while granting developers permissioned access to train AI models and build applications. Masa describes itself as a “Decentralized Google” for personal data and emphasizes data sovereignty and fair compensation for creators. The project plans a Q1 mainnet launch on a dedicated Avalanche Subnet through a strategic partnership with Avalanche. Since launching in August 2022, Masa reports over 1 million connected wallets, more than 15 million permissioned data points, and over 23,000 testnet node operators, with early adoption from projects like Avalanche, QuickSwap, Injective, and Celo. Financially, Masa announced a $5.4M Seed round that brings total funding to $9.2M. The company was incubated by Coinlist’s Seed Program and Binance’s Most‑Valuable‑Builder Accelerator. Masa Finance is a hybrid credit protocol and decentralized credit bureau that aggregates off-chain and on-chain data to create non-fungible on-chain credit reports. The platform links traditional financial accounts and credit bureau data with crypto holdings and on-chain signals, integrating over 10,000 off-chain sources across 78 countries and 26 on-chain integrations (exchanges and wallets such as Binance, Coinbase, FTX, Gemini and MetaMask). Built on Celo and Ethereum, Masa aims to give users ownership and sovereignty over their credit history and eventually migrate governance to a DAO structure. The company is launching out of beta with about 36,000 people signed up, most users in sub‑Saharan Africa (notably Nigeria and Kenya), more than 2,100 node operators on its live testnet, roughly 300 developer registrations and seven projects registered to integrate. Masa is preparing credit products including a credit builder loan, uncollateralized loans and an SME line of credit through its app, and hopes to partner with lending protocols such as Goldfinch. Financially, Masa raised $3.5M in pre‑seed funding, reports double‑digit growth each month since the start of the year, and plans a seed round to fund hires, the protocol's production release, a public token sale, and scale-up of node operators and developer and lender onboarding.