Participated · Series A · Feb 2024

Areteia Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech focused on developing oral inflammation and immunology therapies, initially targeting severe eosinophilic asthma with dexpramipexole. Dexpramipexole is an oral small-molecule eosinophil maturation inhibitor that lowered blood eosinophil counts in Phase II testing and was well tolerated. The company has initiated late-stage development, running three Phase III trials in partnership with Population Health Partners’ development unit, Validae Health. Areteia was created by Population Health Partners and Knopp Biosciences and is backed by a syndicate led by Bain Capital Life Sciences alongside other life-sciences and strategic investors. Financially, Areteia has secured up to $425 million in Series A commitments after an additional $75 million expansion, strengthening its capitalization to support late-stage development and commercial supply. Planned uses of proceeds include expanding Phase III development into Japan and additional global markets, expanding manufacturing, and life-cycle management such as a once-daily formulation. Areteia Therapeutics was launched to develop dexpramipexole, a first-in-class oral eosinophil maturation inhibitor and the company’s lead drug candidate. Dexpramipexole is described as an oral small molecule that inhibits maturation and release of eosinophils and is in Phase 3 development for eosinophilic asthma. In a Phase 2 study, dexpramipexole produced a significant, dose-dependent reduction in blood absolute eosinophil counts and was well tolerated with no serious adverse events or discontinuations. Areteia plans to conduct late-stage development including Phase 3 clinical trials, secure commercial supply, and pursue potential next-generation medicines. The company was created by Population Health Partners and Knopp Biosciences and will partner with Population Health Partners’ Validae Health unit on the development program. Jorge Bartolome has been appointed CEO and a board including representatives from Knopp, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Population Health Partners, and Arch Ventures will oversee the company.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2023

Performance Plants Inc. develops and patents stress-resistant crop seed technologies, including its Yield Protection Technology (YPT®), designed to improve tolerance to drought and speed recovery after watering. Its traits are being evaluated internally and in partnership with major seed companies such as DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred, Syngenta Biotechnology, Stine Seed Company, RiceTec Inc. and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. PPI is conducting multi-year field trials of YPT® corn in the United States (third year) and planned trials in South America later in the year. The company is also developing non-food biomass crops — switchgrass, Miscanthus and hemp — for biofuels and industrial feedstock use, and has a multi-year agreement with Lafarge Canada to grow biomass for a cement plant in Bath, Ontario. PPI recently purchased a biotechnology research facility in Waterloo, New York to serve as its biofuels research center. The company completed a $13 million equity financing to accelerate commercialization of its food crop traits, expand its trait portfolio, and develop its biofuels business and industrial partnerships.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2018

Yieldstreet operates a technology-driven private markets investment platform offering access to alternative assets across ten asset classes, including real estate, private credit, private equity, and art. The company reports having over 500,000 members using its platform. Yieldstreet closed an initial $45 million equity investment as part of a planned $60 million Series D to fund growth and continue delivering private market alternatives. Management says the new capital will be used to accelerate growth plans and enhance the company’s technological infrastructure. Investors and partners highlighted Yieldstreet’s distribution and platform capabilities as core strengths. The financing is described as strengthening Yieldstreet’s financial footing as it expands private markets opportunities for investors. Yieldstreet operates an online marketplace that lets eligible retail investors access private-market alternatives such as real estate, private credit, private equity, art and other asset classes. The company creates funds and products with lower minimums to widen access to investment strategies that were previously mostly available to institutions and ultra-wealthy individuals. Yieldstreet emphasizes partnerships with asset managers, sponsors, and originators to source diversified opportunities across litigation finance, small business, consumer, private funds and real estate. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York City, Yieldstreet has attracted more than 400,000 users and over $3 billion in funding on its platform to date. The company positions itself to scale its product suite and increase the number and scope of offerings for its investor base. Management says additional capital and financing capacity will accelerate deal flow and platform growth. Yieldstreet is a multi-asset alternative investment platform that gives retail investors access to alternative investments previously reserved for institutions and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Its technology platform offers products across asset classes including Real Estate, Commercial, Consumer, Art, Marine, Legal Finance and Aviation. Since its foundation in 2015, Yieldstreet has funded over $2.5 billion of investments and has over 325,000 members on its platform. The company is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Brazil, Greece and Malta. Yieldstreet plans to use new capital to advance its technology roadmap, expand sales and marketing capabilities, and grow its international distribution. Its stated mission is to help millions generate $3 billion of income outside the traditional public markets by 2025, and it is backed by venture capital firms, large family offices and private equity investors. Yieldstreet operates an online marketplace that fractionalizes institutional-style, asset-backed investments (real estate, art, marine/shipping, legal finance, commercial loans) for retail investors. The company has funded nearly $1.9 billion on its platform and reports about 300,000 consumers signed up, up from roughly 100,000 in February 2019. Since inception it says it has provided nearly more than $950 million in principal and interest payments to investors. Yieldstreet expects over 50% revenue growth in the current year versus 2020. The firm plans to use new capital to expand its user base, develop new investment products, pursue strategic acquisitions and explore international expansion into Europe and Asia. Yieldstreet was co‑founded by Milind Mehere and Michael Weisz and maintains headquarters in New York City with offices in Brazil, Greece and Malta. YieldStreet operates an online platform that offers access to alternative investments across asset classes including real estate, marine/shipping, legal finance and commercial loans. The company has attracted more than $600 million invested on its platform from over 100,000 members, with an expected 12% IRR and more than $300 million in principal and interest paid to investors. Until now the platform has required users to be accredited investors; YieldStreet also offers YieldStreet Wallet, a savings product paying 2.2% interest that is open to everyone. The new capital will be used to expand the platform and create investment vehicles that do not require accredited status, and the company is working through the legal and regulatory aspects of those products. Management is also exploring ways to enable retirement and IRA account access for users. YieldStreet operates in the U.S. and positions itself as a democratising force to broaden access to products previously reserved for institutions.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2016

Trunomi is a Bermuda and London, UK-based provider of customer consent and data rights and privacy software solutions. Its core product is customer consent and data rights management technology that enables businesses to request, receive, capture and prove the legal basis for processing customers' data. The platform helps companies comply with EU GDPR and ePrivacy Regulation and other global data privacy laws. Trunomi aims to automate compliance and replace inefficient and costly legacy approaches. The company raised $3.5M in a round of financing. It plans to use the funds to manage a rapid increase in demand for its technologies and to continue its global expansion. Trunomi provides mobile and web consent-based technology that enables financial institutions to securely connect with customers through a consent-based data-sharing platform. The company's core product focuses on customer consent management and permissioned personal data sharing. Led by founder and CEO Stuart Lacey, Trunomi has signed strategic partnerships, including with Widerpool, which invested to develop its telecoms market proposition. The company raised $3m in seed funding to support product development. Trunomi plans to use the funds to continue evolving its technology and to grow in Asia and globally. It is based in Mountain View, California. Trunomi offers a proprietary consent-based KYC data-sharing platform that accelerates, simplifies and secures customer data collection and sharing. Its enterprise solution expedites customer onboarding, helps institutions realize new revenue streams, and minimizes regulatory and reputational risk. Customer-facing mobile and web applications let consumers control and manage consent to share their personal data across industry participants. The platform creates auditable, digitized sets of customer identification data designed to comply with international privacy and regulatory requirements. Trunomi has offices in Bermuda, the U.S. and Europe and has expanded its reach since its official launch in October 2014, earning recognition such as inclusion on the 2015 European FinTech 50 and finalist placements in the Benzinga FinTech Awards and Visa Europe Collab Startup Competition. The company recently closed a $3 million capital raise to fund continued progression of its technology and market growth. Trunomi offers a B2Me platform that enables regulated entities and consumers to create auditable “Golden Source” digitized KYC datasets and securely share them. Its enterprise TruHub product simplifies KYC capture and review, enabling audit-level data extraction, real-time surveillance, and faster customer onboarding. TruMobile lets consumers manage permissioning, provisioning, and updating of their PII from a mobile device, with real-time consent, biometric authentication, and multiple patent filings backing the approach. The company says its platform can onboard customers five times faster at around 20% of the cost of manual processes, and it cites a co-development relationship with Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services. Trunomi planned public demonstrations of TruHub and TruMobile at Money20/20 and BAI Retail Delivery. The company has said it is poised to expand its services to additional regulated industry verticals.

Participated · Series B · May 2016

BiOWiSH Technologies develops microbial and biologically enhanced fertilizer and crop products based on its HoloGene 3™ technology, including BiOWiSH® Crop Liquid which can be coated onto dry fertilizer or mixed with liquid fertilizer. The company positions its products to optimize yield potential, express plant vigor, and improve soil productivity while offering industry-leading shelf life and low cost to farmers. BiOWiSH works with more than 60 agronomy partners globally across technology validation, regulatory, and commercialization stages. Recent collaboration with SABIC Agri-Nutrients focuses on commercializing SABIC AN Bio-Enhanced Urea powered by BiOWiSH®, a product designed to improve soil productivity and plant vigor across varied climates and crop types. As part of the partnership, BiOWiSH will expand R&D support and advance customizations across SABIC AN high-efficiency fertilizers. The company emphasizes sustainable, scalable agronomic solutions and global commercialization of its bio-enhanced mineral fertilizer offerings. BiOWiSH develops microorganism-based technologies to increase fertilizer efficiency, promote drought resistance in crops, and extend the shelf life of fresh fruit and vegetables. The underlying microbial technology was first discovered in Southeast Asia in 2007 and the company moved into commercialization with a pool-related product launched last year. Its agricultural product suite includes BiOWiSH Crop (a coating for traditional fertilizers), solutions for hydroponics, aquaculture, beef, dairy and pork farming, and a Fruit & Vegetable Wash that lengthens storage life and reduces wash-chemical use. The company emphasizes that its biotech increases the efficiency of existing nutrients rather than supplying bulk micronutrients, aiming to improve soil health and farmer economics. BiOWiSH has been in quasi-stealth mode until this funding and has a diverse shareholder base including a Fortune 500 company, private-equity funds, Saturn Partners, high-net-worth investors and invested staff. The company will use new proceeds to support expansion and commercialization across markets and regulatory regimes; to date it has raised $40 million in total capital.