Participated · Series B · Oct 2025

DermaSensor’s core product is a wireless, handheld optical-spectroscopy device that assesses skin lesions at a cellular level, delivering automated skin-cancer detection for use in primary care settings. Cleared by the FDA via the De Novo pathway in early 2024, it is the only automated skin-cancer detection device available to U.S. primary-care physicians. Since its mid-2024 commercial launch, clinicians have scanned more than 20,000 lesions with the device, and usage is growing at an average quarterly rate of 117%. Published studies report sensitivity between 96-100% and specificity up to 77% for pigmented lesions, performance that has been highlighted in Nature and honored by TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. The company’s AI training dataset has already grown several-fold beyond the original 2,000 lesions, and management cites approximately 2,000 suspicious cancers detected for referral to dermatology. Beyond the cleared algorithm, DermaSensor has three active pipeline programs that will run on the same hardware. To date the company has attracted $43 million in total investment, supporting both commercial expansion and additional clinical evidence generation.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2024

Pelvital USA, Inc. is a women’s health medical device company based in Eagan, Minnesota, led by President and CEO Lydia Zeller. Its first product, Flyte, is an FDA-cleared, novel in-home treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and weakened pelvic floor muscles that delivers mechanotherapy to the pelvic floor. Flyte is reported effective for mild, moderate, and severe SUI, with a typical treatment regimen of five minutes per day for six weeks. The company positions Flyte as a convenient, clinician-backed pelvic floor therapy that can be used outside clinical settings. Pelvital recently closed an additional $2.32M in a seed-plus financing to accelerate commercialization of Flyte. Pelvital, based in Eagan, MN, develops Flyte, an FDA-cleared at-home intravaginal device that delivers mechanotherapy to treat stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and strengthen pelvic floor muscles. Flyte’s mechanism pairs mechanotherapy with an active pelvic floor contraction to stimulate tissue repair and create neuromuscular memory. The device was originally developed by physicians from the Arctic University of Norway with collaborators in gynecology, muscle rehabilitation, and urinary incontinence treatment. Pelvital is led by President and CEO Lydia Zeller. The company recently closed a $2.68M seed funding round, providing capital to complete development of its next-generation product. Management plans to use the proceeds to accelerate commercialization and expand reach to clinicians and women seeking conservative, in‑home SUI treatment.

Led · Equity · Dec 2023

Vital View Technologies is commercializing Vital Sense, a flat under-mattress sensor that uses radio-frequency dielectric sensing to detect total body fluid change and early signs of fluid overload. The device continuously monitors patients at home and alerts the patient and care team when fluid exceeds individualized thresholds. The company highlights Vital Sense as a contactless alternative to implantables and wearables and says it could reduce hospital readmissions for heart failure. Vital View expects the device to be prescribed by doctors and covered by insurance, targeting a large cardiology market. The startup is part of the University of Notre Dame IDEA Center and built its technology on discoveries by Notre Dame professor Dr. Thomas Pratt; its team includes co-founder and CEO Ray Fraser and chief medical officer Dr. Rick Snyder. Management says the same sensing platform could extend to additional sensors for heart rate, respiratory rate, and other patient groups such as dialysis patients.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2023

KayoThera is developing first-in-class, oral small-molecule inhibitors that target the retinoid pathway. The platform originated from biology discovered at Princeton University by Mark Esposito and Yibin Kang. The company is advancing lead programs in diabetes and oncology, including therapies for late-stage and metastatic cancers. KayoThera states the additional resources will support IND-enabling safety studies and position programs for strategic partnering. To date the company has secured $14 million in total financial support, comprised of equity and non-dilutive grant funding. Recent grants include NIH SBIR awards (NIDDK and NCI) and funding from the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund. KayoThera is an early-stage therapeutics company developing a new class of cancer immunotherapies grounded in research from Princeton University. The company was co-founded in 2019 by Mark Esposito and Yibin Kang and has identified a family of key enzymes targetable with novel small molecule inhibitors. KayoThera is advancing a lead oncology program aimed at treating late-stage and metastatic cancers, including breast, lung, pancreatic, colorectal, brain, and kidney cancers. The firm plans to move its lead program toward the clinic to translate its discoveries into therapies for patients with advanced disease. Leadership includes Dr. Esposito as Vice President of Research and Development and Dr. Kang as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. Financially, KayoThera received initial backing from Foundation Venture Capital Group and has recently closed a Series A to fund development.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2023

Community provides a hyper-personalized conversational SMS product that gives customers unique 10-digit numbers to engage audiences free of social-algorithm interference, spam, and ads. The platform serves celebrities, musicians, creators, small businesses, enterprises and Fortune 500 clients, and has expanded into sports teams, entertainment companies, and music labels. Community reports strong engagement metrics—98% open rates within the first five minutes, 45% average click-through rates, and 30% average response rates. The product includes integrations with Salesforce, Shopify, Zapier, ActBlue and others to support enterprise workflows. Leadership changes have accompanied its enterprise push: Diankha Linear was named President and CEO after joining as COO, and Robert Wolf became Executive Chairman in mid-2022. The company also runs Community Cares to improve equitable access and plans to leverage generative AI enhancements expected later this year. Community operates a text-messaging platform that enables Leaders (people, businesses and brands with a 10-digit Community number) to have one-on-one conversations with Members at scale. Since launching in July 2019 the platform has facilitated more than 3 billion text messages and has welcomed over 26 million Members. The company reports strong engagement metrics, including 95% open rates and 60% clickthrough rates on Leader messages. Community says the new funding will support accelerated growth, expansion, and additional marketing and communications avenues via text messaging. The business emphasizes privacy and direct connection free from social algorithms, unlawful data sharing, ads, or shortcode spam. Community is headquartered in Santa Monica and operates as a fully-remote organization with more than 130 employees across the U.S. and EMEA. Community (formerly Shimmur) pivoted from a Reddit‑style app to a direct‑messaging text‑marketing platform that supplies clients with 10‑digit phone numbers to message fans. The company charges monthly or annual service fees for audience reach, segmentation and text marketing campaigns rather than relying on ads. Community is currently in private onboarding with companies and celebrities and has not completed a public launch. Founders Matthew Peltier and Josh Rosenheck relaunched the business after attracting support from entertainment investors. TechCrunch reports the startup has raised nearly $35 million in two convertible notes following a recapitalization earlier this year, and earlier as Shimmur it raised roughly $7 million from VCs. Sources told TechCrunch the company has been valued at upwards of $200 million, though Community’s spokesperson said there is no valuation attached because of the nature of the recap and convertible notes.