The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Feb 2026

Myrias Optics is a provider of wafer-level metaoptics, diffractive optics, and AR waveguides built on a proprietary all-inorganic additive nanoimprinting process. Its technology delivers thermally stable, high-performance optical components with higher refractive indices, improved alignment tolerance, and lower cost than conventional semiconductor-based manufacturing. The company’s products target system designers in augmented reality headsets, high-speed AI data-center interconnects, consumer electronics, industrial equipment, and medical imaging platforms. Customers engage Myrias to overcome bottlenecks in durability, environmental stability, and scalable production economics. Proceeds from recent funding are being used to scale manufacturing capacity, expand pilot production lines, and execute active customer programs with Tier-1 supply-chain partners. Since inception, the firm has secured $6.9 million in capital, including venture funding and a National Science Foundation Direct-to-Phase II award, to accelerate commercialization of its metaoptic solutions.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2025

florrent is an energy technology company that produces supercapacitors using a proprietary bio-derived activated carbon called Contoured Carbon. Their material diverts domestic biomass waste from landfills and sequesters carbon while enabling high-power, lower-cost, smaller-footprint energy storage. florrent’s supercapacitors are made in the U.S. and designed to integrate front-of-meter and behind-the-meter, offering grid-forming capabilities, fast frequency response, and improved power quality. The company emphasizes social and environmental impact through sourcing strategies that create economic participation for historically underserved communities. florrent plans to scale production of Contoured Carbon, expand product development, and commercialize broadly while building a pilot manufacturing facility in Northampton, MA, scheduled to begin operations in 2026. The business frames its product as a solution to a reported $150B/year power quality problem during the ongoing grid transformation.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2022

Theromics Inc. develops injectable nanopolymer gels, including its flagship HeatSYNC and CryoSYNC products, that enhance energy-directed soft-tissue ablation and enable localized drug delivery. The company's HeatSYNC nanogel is designed to augment ablation energy and allow controlled, drug-infused combination therapy with potentially fewer systemic side effects. Theromics plans to submit its products to the FDA this year with commercialization expected to begin in 2025. The company received a $1M STTR Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation to support Phase II studies of HeatSYNC focused on safety, performance, and computer modeling of energy-augmentation effects. Phase II work will be led by Chief Science Officer William Park with investigators at Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Kansas State University and will include a chronic safety study as a critical step toward FDA clearance. Founded in 2016 at Brown University and based in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Theromics is pursuing applications in targeted drug delivery, women's health, and orthopedic nerve ablation for chronic pain relief and recently added Dr. Bruce B. Lee to its advisory board to guide its women's health effort. Theromics develops a proprietary thermal accelerant gel called HeatSYNC™ designed to optimize and augment soft tissue thermal ablations. HeatSYNC™ is based on a protein naturally found in the body and is intended to improve focus and patient-centric delivery during ablation procedures. The company is initially targeting tumor ablations and plans to expand into applications including pain and abnormal uterine bleeding. Longer-term plans include using the thermal technology as an oncolytic intratumoral drug/immunotherapy delivery platform to potentially enhance efficacy and safety profiles of approved medicines. Theromics is led by CEO Ronald Murphy and has added John L. Brooks III to its Board of Directors. The company is advancing FDA-required testing and preclinical/clinical studies at institutions including Dartmouth College, Brown University, Purdue University, and Kansas State University.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2019

Aclarity develops Octa™ PFAS destruction systems that use proprietary electricity-driven technology to sever carbon–fluorine bonds and destroy persistent PFAS "forever chemicals." The company is led by founder and CEO Julie Bliss Mullen and is based in Mansfield, MA. It closed a $15.9m Series A funding round to support commercial expansion and continued innovation. The Series A was led by Aqualateral, with participation from HG Ventures, Bidra Innovation Ventures, Nor’easter Ventures, MassVentures, and Burnt Island Ventures. Aclarity positions its technology as an alternative to conventional PFAS removal and disposal methods—such as landfill disposal, incineration, and deep well injection—that can reintroduce concentrated PFAS into the environment. The company intends to use the proceeds to enter a new phase of commercial expansion and product development. Aclarity develops a proprietary electrochemical reactor that destroys PFAS and other contaminants by generating strong oxidants (free electrons, hydroxyl radicals, ozone and chlorine) inside a flow-through reactor, producing inert byproducts rather than transferring contaminants to filter media. The system treats multiple contaminants including PFAS, ammonia, cyanide, volatile organic compounds and pathogens and is sold as an alternative to capture-and-incinerate, deep-well injection or landfill disposal. Aclarity targets owners of centralized waste treatment facilities that process concentrated industrial wastewater and landfill leachate and completed its first commercial multi-reactor install in late 2021, processing 11 gallons per minute to destroy cyanide with an initial six-month payback. The company says its system costs roughly $6 per 1,000 gallons with an indicated payback around two years, versus customers currently paying about $60 per 1,000 gallons under existing approaches. Aclarity plans to double its team to 13 employees this year, complete two long-term pilots at customer sites and develop a model for a 2023 pilot, aiming to scale deployment of its technology amid a large market opportunity. Aclarity is a Springfield, MA–based cleantech company addressing global water crises with water purification devices. Its core patent-pending product, launched in Spring 2019, uses electricity to destroy harmful pathogens, metals, bacteria and other impurities for homes, offices and industrial facilities. The company began commercial sales in mid-2019 and is currently taking orders. Aclarity raised over $1m in pre-seed funding to accelerate its go-to-market strategy. It plans to use the capital to expand into new product lines and scale operational capacity. Since 2017 the company has participated in early technology commercialization training programs from local and national accelerators and received a National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I Grant.