The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Jan 2026

Founded in 2018 by Aaron Hannon, Dr. Barbara Oliveira and Professor Martin O’Halloran, Luminate builds an ecosystem that lets cancer patients receive treatment at home rather than in hospital settings. Its first two devices, Lilac and Lily, are designed to mitigate common chemotherapy side effects—peripheral neuropathy and hair loss—and are currently in multi-center clinical trials across the US and Europe, with commercial launch targeted for 2027. The company plans to open access to home cancer care at 40 partner oncology clinics and introduce a patient-led home infusion technology by mid-2026. Clinical data from its neuropathy prevention study are expected in mid-2026, which will inform regulatory and market rollout. Luminate operates from Galway with additional offices in Chicago, San Antonio and Omaha. Including the latest raise, the startup has secured $50 million in funding to date, supporting product development, clinical validation and commercial expansion.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2025

Olio Labs operates an AI-powered therapeutic design platform centered on a combination design engine (CoDE) that integrates human medical records and biological data, in‑vivo phenomic screening, and neural and endocrine circuit maps. The platform fuses computational methods with biological expertise to shift pharmaceutical research from a molecule-first to a patient-first approach. Olio Labs highlights AI-powered integration of biological expertise as a core capability of CoDE. Led by CEO David Tingley, the company plans to use the new capital to expand operations and advance its development efforts. Its advisory board includes industry veterans Patricia Martin, Michael Schwartz, and Hugh Reinhoff. The company announced the funding in March 2025. Olio Labs uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to design combination therapeutics that account for complex interactions among thousands of proteins. Their AI-driven compute-experiment platform can design and test trillions of combinations, which the company says has accelerated discovery fourfold and reduced costs by 90%. Olio Labs is focused on discovering combinations that can outperform best-in-class obesity drugs and has reported promising results in animal models, including significant appetite reduction with associated decreases in nausea. The platform targets both combinations of existing drugs and novel targets. The company was founded by Dr. David Tingley and Dr. Tom Roseberry, whose backgrounds include Harvard, New York University, and Neuralink, and the team is expanding to accelerate research. Olio Labs participated in Y Combinator’s S23 batch and recently attracted investment from ZAKA VC.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2023

Current Surgical is developing a software-enabled "smart needle" intended to treat cancerous tumors with higher precision than traditional thermal ablation. The device combines novel ultrasound sensors and a software stack to let physicians see and destroy tumors in real time while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy anatomy. The company calls its offering a surgical platform and plans to expand indications beyond tumors to conditions such as chronic pain and cardiac arrhythmia. Current was founded in 2020 by CEO Alireza Mashal and CTO Chris Wagner. This week the company announced a $3.2M seed round, bringing total funding to $4M. The seed will be used to modestly grow the team—hiring 6–8 engineers over the next 24 months across electrical, mechanical and ultrasound—and to develop the clinical embodiment of the device for preclinical testing and FDA regulatory discussions.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2015

8i builds volumetric capture systems that stitch multiple camera feeds into three-dimensional holograms, primarily aimed at bringing celebrities and personalities into immersive AR/VR experiences. The company has focused on headset-based solutions but is moving toward phone-based augmented reality through a new app called Holo. Holo is slated to launch later this year on Google Tango–compatible devices, with the company open to supporting more basic camera configurations in the future. 8i Studios currently counts more than 100 partners using its capture technology. Growth is constrained by the technical complexity of high-end hologram creation—many captures require large, studio-grade setups—and the firm says its software is steadily improving. 8i is not pursuing hardware production and is instead anticipating more mobile volumetric capture devices that would enable simpler footage to be uploaded to its network. The company recently closed a $27 million Series B round of funding led by Time Warner Investments. 8i builds a consumer media platform that enables users to create, experience and share immersive, lifelike 3D video of real people. Its proprietary software transforms regular camera video into realistic, fully volumetric 3D video for VR, AR and the web, allowing viewers to move around people in a virtual environment while preserving human movement, face and hair detail. The company was founded in May 2014 by CEO Linc Gasking and is headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, having since expanded to Los Angeles and San Francisco. 8i has opened a showcase studio in Culver City, Los Angeles, and plans to offer free access to the recording studios alongside community events such as workshops and demonstrations. The company announced a $13.5M venture funding round, reflecting its current financial backing. No operating metrics (revenue/users) were disclosed in the article.