The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Jun 2026

Spot Biosystems is developing an engineered extracellular vesicle (EV) delivery platform designed to encapsulate large nucleic acid cargo and enable repeat, non-viral dosing to skeletal muscle. The company reported a peer-reviewed study in Nature Biomedical Engineering showing EV-delivered full-length dystrophin mRNA produced sustained protein expression and improved muscle function in DMD knockout mice and sustained expression without organ toxicity in non-human primates. Spot has launched an investigator-initiated first-in-human trial at Shanghai Children's Medical Center, where the first two pediatric patients demonstrated respective 1000%+ and 2000%+ increases in dystrophin after one month and functional improvement lasting up to six months after dosing cessation. The platform is positioned to overcome limitations of AAV-based approaches by supporting larger cargo and repeat dosing. Financially, Spot emerged from stealth with $40 million in venture financing from a syndicate including LDV Partners, IDG Capital, Advantech Capital, Tiger Jade Capital, Shanda Ventures, the Stanford StartX fund, and Saltagen Ventures. The company intends to use clinical data from the IIT to inform future regulatory pathways and further clinical development for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2026

Axoft develops implantable brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) built from its proprietary bio-inspired Fleuron™ material, designed to improve biocompatibility and neural data quality. Fleuron is reported to be up to 10,000x softer than polyimide, offers greater region access and higher sensor/stimulator density per thread, and reduces signal attenuation versus standard flexible probes. The company has demonstrated first-in-human implants in more than 11 patients and completed a study at The Panama Clinic with four patients undergoing tumor resection, recording cortical and subcortical activity. Axoft has research published in Nature (December 2023 and June 2025) showing scalable single-cell electrophysiology enabled by its materials and interfaces. The company has commercialized Fleuron via an exclusive licensing agreement with Stanford and secured a joint development agreement with Kayaku Advanced Materials, alongside grant funding to build a GMP manufacturing facility. Co-founded in 2021 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Axoft has opened a subsidiary in Grenoble, France, and plans to scale manufacturing and expand engineering, microfabrication and chemistry teams as it advances clinical programs and regulatory work.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2025

Galatea Bio is a Miami-based, AI-driven genomic research and clinical genetic testing company that provides precision medicine through AI-enabled data analytics. Founded in 2021 by Carlos D. Bustamante, Ph.D., the company focuses on large-scale patient populations enriched in non-European ancestry and integrates clinical genomics with a proprietary biobank. It uses AI-enabled algorithms to accelerate biomarker and drug-target discovery, enhance clinical diagnostics, and support biopharma partnerships. In March 2025 Galatea raised $25M in funding from a syndicate of investors. The company plans to use the proceeds to expand its clinico-genomics platform to integrate multi-modal data and AI-driven applications to refine genetic risk analysis for Mendelian and complex diseases, enable biomarker discovery, and optimize clinical trials.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2024

Health in Her HUE is a digital health app focused on reducing health disparities for women of color by connecting members with healthcare providers and culturally tailored content. The platform offers educational health content, community forums, and a network of about 1,300 providers across 60 specialties, and it reports nearly 13,000 members. It runs a Care Squad program that delivers culturally tailored health education classes and plans to expand that program and add new topics including fertility, endometriosis, and postpartum recovery. The company also plans to launch a product to answer health questions via video from clinical experts. Founder and CEO Ashlee Wisdom said the startup balanced fundraising and revenue focus during a challenging raise. To date the company has raised $4.2 million and will use the new funds to expand products and programs and enhance membership experience. Health In Her HUE provides a digital health solution designed to meet the healthcare needs of women of color, with an initial focus on Black women. The platform helps users find and connect with culturally aligned and sensitive healthcare providers and offers culturally attuned health content and community. It already features nearly 1,000 culturally sensitive providers, including doctors, doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, therapists, and nutritionists. The company plans to develop a new platform and a membership experience that will offer customized care support via tailored content, consults, care recommendations, and other benefits and perks. HHH is led by CEO Ashlee Wisdom and COO Eddwina Bright. The company raised $1M in pre-seed funding to support these product and membership efforts.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2021

Spot AI is a San Francisco–based Video AI company co-founded by Rish Gupta, Sud Bhatija, and Tanuj Thapliyal. It transforms passive video security cameras into AI camera systems and Video AI Agents that help organizations unlock the value of their video data. The company serves more than 1,000 customers across manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and schools. Example uses include alerting stakeholders, delivering analytics, activating lights and sounds, playing voice messages, triggering machine starts and stops, and improving load and unload times. Spot AI says it will use the new funding to expand operations and advance its development efforts. Spot AI provides an AI camera system and cloud dashboard that turns footage from business security cameras into actionable video intelligence for security, safety, efficiency, and customer experience. Its solution combines cloud and edge computing and an Intelligent Video Recorder powered by new silicon and AI algorithms to enable responsive, first-of-its-kind applications. The modern cloud dashboard lets users search and consume insights across operational bottlenecks and unsafe behavior, and customers can use existing cameras or obtain them free from Spot AI. The company launched in Fall 2021 and has rapidly grown—reporting 5x revenue growth year-over-year and deployments at thousands of U.S. locations across 17 industries. Spot AI says it is the fastest-growing video intelligence company and plans to accelerate expansion and continue developing industry-first AI products with the new funding. The company was formed by engineers from Stanford, Cisco Meraki, and Samsara and is headquartered in Burlingame, California, with offices in San Francisco and Salt Lake City. Spot AI builds a software platform that “reads” security-camera footage from any camera and makes video searchable by keywords and image frames. The system comprises three parts: optional 5MP IP cameras the company gives customers free, edge network video recorders with AI chips that process and categorize footage, and a web dashboard for search, alerts and frame creation. The product is aimed at commercial customers (SpaceX, Cheeseman, Mixt, Northland Cold Storage are named customers) and is moving from stealth to general availability with additional features planned. Spot AI says it has been quietly building since 2018 and today has hundreds of customers and thousands of users. The company charges for software via subscription (deployments begin at $2,200) and offers optional cloud backup while supporting private/local storage to address customers with HIPAA and other requirements. Spot AI emphasizes a zero-trust architecture and multi-factor authentication to silo access between customers and reduce security risk; it does not intend to sell to public safety or government customers.