Participated · Equity · Jun 2023

Vernal Biosciences is a fully integrated contract development and manufacturing organization focused on manufacturing and formulating mRNA and LNP-mRNA. It offers end-to-end services including cell banking, plasmid DNA production, mRNA synthesis, and formulation into a variety of lipid chemistries, leveraging platform process and analytical technologies. The company is completing its first state-of-the-art GMP manufacturing facility, scheduled to be online July 2023, and is wrapping up cGMP manufacturing readiness for that site. Vernal plans to accelerate a second site next year to support larger-scale cGMP manufacturing for commercial mRNA drug products. Financially, Vernal announced a $20MM funding round led by Ampersand Capital Partners and Charles River Labs and previously completed a $21MM round in May 2022 that included Alloy Therapeutics. The company has scaled to 65 employees, added dozens of new customers, and increased scale by a factor of 20x. Vernal Biosciences is a Colchester, VT-based company that manufactures mRNA and formulates LNP-mRNA. It offers a complete range of mRNA-related services and products, including sequence design and screening support, scaled-down and scaled-up manufacturing of high-purity mRNA and LNP-mRNA, and platform process development technologies. The company plans to expand to full GMP manufacturing capabilities to support drug discovery through clinical development. Use cases cited include gene editing and regulation, cellular programming, vaccines, mRNA replacement, oncology, autoimmune conditions, and protein degradation. Led by CEO and founder Christian Cobaugh, Vernal recently closed a $21 million financing to support growth and its planned GMP buildout. The company’s board will include existing member Errik Anderson (Alloy Therapeutics) and new board members David Anderson (Ampersand) and Gustavo Mahler (Dynamk). Vernal Biosciences develops and provides high‑purity mRNA manufacturing services for research, preclinical, and planned clinical programs. The company offers manufacturing‑research‑use mRNA today while scaling a universal, Quality‑by‑Design platform to simplify regulatory interactions and accelerate client projects. Vernal is fine‑tuning processes to enable clients to move more quickly from discovery to clinical manufacturing without starting from scratch. The team is led by founder and CEO Christian Cobaugh, an mRNA veteran with prior process and manufacturing leadership at Omega Therapeutics, Translate Bio, Arcturus Therapeutics, and Alexion. Vernal is already engaging clients on research and preclinical projects and is scaling operations to add GMP clinical manufacturing capability. The company was founded in 2021 and is located in Colchester/Burlington, Vermont.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2017

Pwnie Express provides an IoT security platform that continuously identifies and assesses all devices and IoT systems to prevent IoT-based threats from disrupting business operations. The platform operates without the need for agents or changes to network infrastructure. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate development efforts and roll out new versions of its IoT security products. It plans to launch its Stampede and channel programs for managed security service providers (MSSPs), value-added resellers (VARs), and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Pwnie Express raised $8m in the round, bringing total invested to date to $28m. Leadership changes accompanied the funding: Todd DeSisto was appointed CEO and former CEO Paul Paget moved to executive vice president focused on strategy. Pwnie Express is a Boston-based provider of device threat detection solutions offering a SaaS platform to detect, identify, assess and respond to device threats. Its platform gives security professionals visibility and control over wireless, wired and Bluetooth devices in and around their networks. Led by CEO Paul Paget, the company serves over 100 customers across industries including financial services, healthcare, government, energy, manufacturing and retail. Pwnie Express raised $12.9M in a Series B and intends to use the funds to build out its sales, marketing and engineering teams. The financing is positioned to support go-to-market expansion and product development efforts. Pwnie Express develops penetration-testing products for the distributed enterprise. Its initial product was the patent-pending Pwn Plug; in 2013 it introduced the Pwn Pad and released Citadel PX, a scalable enterprise-class offering for security assessments across multiple branch offices. Founded in 2009 by Dave Porcello and based in Berlin, Vermont, the company targets distributed enterprise security testing. It recently closed a $5.1M Series A financing to support growth. Pwnie Express intends to use the funds to broaden its technology and product base and to expand sales and marketing capabilities. The company will also soon open a Boston office.

Led · Convertible Note · Jul 2012

Yonder, operated by Green Mountain Digital LLC and launched in 2013 by David Tyler, is a mobile platform for outdoor enthusiasts to connect and share adventures globally. The company powers interactive web experiences and hosts user-generated multimedia for brands and organizations including the National Forest Foundation, The North Face, Burton and Xanterra. Its platform already reaches in excess of 1 million users. Yonder offers Android and iOS products and integrates partner brands into its product. The company intends to use new funding to expand platform infrastructure, maintain innovation of its mobile products, integrate technology to accelerate deployment of partner brands, and improve infrastructure for monetization. Founded in 2009 as Green Mountain Digital and now rebranded to NatureShare, the company develops mobile and web applications for outdoor and nature enthusiasts, including the Audubon Guides mobile field guide series (which it exclusively licenses). Its app partners have included The Orvis Company, Gardener’s Supply Company and Sailing World Magazine. NatureShare’s apps have been downloaded over 750,000 times and the company reports it doubled registered users since the beginning of 2012; it regularly has 4 or 5 of the top 20 apps in Apple’s App Store reference category. The company plans to launch a social platform later this fall to connect outdoor users online and via mobile. NatureShare intends to use new funding to build out its technology team and continue improving and expanding its app catalog. Brendan Cahill serves as CEO and framed the rebrand as a step to connect people to the outdoors through a web and mobile community.