Dec 30, 2024

Aera Therapeutics Aera Therapeutics is a biotechnology company leveraging its proprietary protein nanoparticle (PNP) delivery platform to unlock the full potential of genetic medicines. Aera’s platform, based on endogenous human proteins, is being developed to address the limitations of today’s delivery technologies and to expand the reach of genetic medicines to different tissues and applications, in order to benefit more patients across more disease areas. Aera’s licensed technology also includes a therapeutic enzyme platform based on the discovery of novel, compact and programmable gene editing enzymes. Aera is headquartered in Boston and has raised $193 million to date from leading life sciences investors. To learn more, please visit www.aeratx.com . Category Amber Therapeutics Amber Therapeutics is developing Amber-UI, a breakthrough adaptive neuromodulation therapy to treat women suffering with mixed urinary incontinence with the hope of transforming the clinical outcome and quality of life of a large untreated population. Amber-UI runs on the Company’s fully implantable Picostim system that targets the pudendal nerve to both stimulate and sense physiological responses. The therapy is configurable to the individual’s need and can respond dynamically to different events, adapting as needed between modes of operation. Amber’s technology platform is highly versatile and can be used to explore other novel therapy applications in both the pelvis and the broader nervous system, demonstrated by the work being carried out by the Company’s academic partnerships. Learn more at  www.amber-tx.com . Category AvenCell AvenCell derives its name from the French word “avenir” to reflect the aim to be the FUTURE of cell therapy. AvenCell is building a truly transformative cell therapy company that targets difficult-to-treat cancers, with its lead programs focusing on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and additional programs targeting other hematological malignancies. AvenCell was formed with the goal to create truly allogeneic cells that persist as long or longer than autologous therapies and develop a universal and switchable construct that allows complete control and target redirection of T cells after they are infused into a patient. Integration of these two platforms allows for complete separation of the manufacturing of cells from ultimate patient and cancer target, thus providing significant scalability potential at orders of magnitude more efficient than current approaches. Learn more at avencell.com . Blispay Blispay makes financing easy and accessible for merchants and shoppers. The company provides point-of-sale financing with no integration and no additional costs to the merchant, ultimately helping businesses increase sales while providing consumers with better buying options everywhere they shop. Approved shoppers will additionally receive the Blispay credit card and continue to receive no interest, no payments on all purchases over $199 if paid in full in six months, plus automatic 2 percent cash back everywhere Visa is accepted. Located in Baltimore, Blispay’s team includes pioneers of the financing industry with experience that spans banking, credit and retail. Blispay was acquired by Alliance Data in 2019. Learn more at  www.blispay.com . Category Curie.Bio Curie.Bio is a founder-focused seed-stage venture firm combined with an industry-grade therapeutics accelerator focused on one thing: helping entrepreneurial founders launch viable therapeutics companies. Curie.Bio does this by giving founders access to a team of the world’s best drug hunters and drug makers, seed capital, and best-of-breed services – everything a founder needs to get from concept to a compelling quality dataset that enables an awesome Series A financing. In a nutshell, we want founders in control of their own company and focused on their area of expertise and creativity, while we help make the rest happen smoothly. Learn more at  Curie.Bio . Category Elementus Elementus helps solve the toughest blockchain data problems so organizations can navigate web3 safely and with confidence. Its intelligence platform is used by financial institutions to build the future of finance and commerce on the bedrock of blockchain, and by key U.S. governmental agencies to solve some of the most high-profile ransomware investigations. Elementus helps organizations investigate on-chain activities, identify risk, discover valuable market intelligence or a combination of all three. By providing a complete view into flows of funds at the most granular level, Elementus delivers actionable insights and transparency needed to grow and prosper safely in a web3 world. Learn more at elementus.io . Category Embark Embark Veterinary, Inc. launched in 2015 with a mission to end preventable disease in dogs. An Embark Dog DNA Test enables pet owners to learn about their dog’s breed, ancestry, health, and what diseases may be in the future – all with a simple cheek swab. By using 100 times more genetic information than any other test available, the company offers the most accurate results on the market. Embark was started by two brothers, Adam and Ryan Boyko, who have a passion for scientific research and a lifelong love of dogs. Embark is an official research partner with Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Learn more at www.embarkvet.com . Category Ethena Ethena is a digital finance company focused on providing innovative solutions within the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors. The company offers services such as developing and managing stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional assets like the US dollar to minimize price volatility. Additionally, Ethena operates in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, enabling users to participate in financial activities like lending, borrowing, and trading without traditional intermediaries through the use of smart contracts on blockchain networks. Ethena also provides tools for managing digital assets, helping users securely store, transfer, and utilize their cryptocurrencies with services like wallets and investment products. The company is committed to leveraging blockchain technology for its transparency, security, and efficiency, aiming to bridge the gap between traditional finance and the digital economy. Through these efforts, Ethena makes it easier for individuals and businesses to adopt and benefit from cryptocurrency technologies. Learn more at ethena.fi . Category EVEN Financial Even Financial is an NYC based FinTech company focused on evolving how financial institutions connect with consumers and provide them with the best product recommendations at the right moment, facilitating an on-demand and personalized customer acquisition experience across the entire financial services ecosystem. The Even platform serves as a trusted intermediary for financial institutions – including Prosper, Lending Club and Marcus by Goldman Sachs – that helps find consumers and distribute their products digitally. Even’s industry-leading search, comparison and recommendation API is an infrastructure layer that enables hundreds of diverse partners – including Credit.com, Transunion, Money Under 30, Credit Sesame and The Penny Hoarder – to power comprehensive personal finance websites, mobile apps and other offerings with a modern platform that is proven to accelerate customer acquisition through optimal product recommendations, lowering cost of acquisition and maximizing monetization. Even Financial was acquired by MoneyLion in 2021. Category Hone Hone is a Live Learning Platform for organizations to teach transformational leadership, management, and people skills at scale. The company empowers HR and Learning & Development teams to tackle people development in a modern way, with easy deployment of small-group, live cohort learning at scale, and data and tools to measure its impact. Through a blend of live online cohort-based programs, world-class instructors, and a powerful behavior change platform, Hone cultivates soft skills with hard data, leading to lasting behavior change in 90% of learners who go through our programs. Hone has trained thousands of learners in 58+ countries, and serves a rapidly expanding list of clients including GoFundMe, ServiceNow, Rover, Grove Collaborative and more. For more information, visit www.honehq.com . Category Lighthouse Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight) is the leading commercial platform for the travel & hospitality industry. We transform complexity into confidence by providing actionable market insights, business intelligence, and pricing tools that maximize revenue growth. We continually innovate to deliver the best platform for hospitality professionals to price more effectively, measure performance more efficiently, and understand the market in new ways. Trusted by over 65,000 hotels in 185 countries, Lighthouse is the only solution that provides real-time hotel and short-term rental data in a single platform. We strive to deliver the best possible experience with unmatched customer service. We consider our clients as true partners—their success is our success. Learn more at mylighthouse.com . Category Mathison Mathison is the world’s first DEI Operating System. Its end-to-end platform transforms organizations’ hiring and retention strategies to increase diversity with a single place to build their DEI action plan, measure growth and mobilize every team with education and tools. A leader in DEI innovation and research, their book, Hiring for Diversity, was named a bestseller and is referenced by organizations across the globe. Mathison works with a wide range of employers of all sizes including companies like Sonos, TripAdvisor, 23andMe, HelloFresh, Bowery Farms, Bristol Myers Squibb and non-profits from Sundance Film to The World Economic Forum. Learn more at www.mathison.io . Category Mozper Mozper is bringing the weekly allowance into the digital era in Latin America. About 70% of the population in the region has never received formal financial education, and do not have the right tools to teach their children. In Brazil and Mexico alone, parents give more than $10B each year in pocket money to kids. Mozper offers a Visa debit card and an app where parents can give their kids an allowance, set spending rules (so they can’t blow it all on video games), assign chores and even create and track savings goals. Mozper is currently available in Mexico. Learn more at www.mozper.com . Category nChromaBio nChroma Bio is a pioneering biotechnology company redefining the future of in vivo targeted genetic medicine to treat a wide array of diseases and bring cures to patients. The company’s integrated product engine tackles significant limitations of existing genetic medicine approaches by enabling safe, precise and specific in vivo delivery. nChroma’s near clinical-stage development candidate, CRMA-1001, is a liver-targeted therapy in development as a potential functional cure for chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis D that leverages the power of epigenetics, nature’s innate mechanism for gene regulation. Guided by a world-class team at the forefront of genetic medicine, founded by renowned pioneers in the field, and supported by top-tier investors, the company is uniquely positioned to deliver groundbreaking therapies with programmable tissue specificity, unlocking highly potent, durable and targeted gene regulation for the liver and beyond. Learn more at nchromabio.com . Category Nebula Genomics Nebula Genomics is a human genome sequencing and health big data company on a mission to usher in the era of genomic sequencing by building a large and trusted genomic and health data marketplace for consumers, researchers and the medical community. Using blockchain to ensure that consumers maintain control of their data and are compensated for its use, the Nebula marketplace will aggregate a critical mass of rich genetic information that researchers can analyze in order to accelerate drug development, streamline clinical trials, and usher in the era of truly personalized medicine. Nebula Genomics was acquired by ProPhase Labs in 2021. Category Optimus Ride The unique makeup of the Optimus Ride team includes over 30 years of shared experience on the cutting edge of interdisciplinary research in self-driving technologies, electric vehicles, mobility-on-demand and other transportation systems. The team also has a decade of industrial and entrepreneurial experience spanning manufacturing robots, medical robots, shared vehicle fleet management and urban design. Building on this significant knowledge, the company will continue to leverage the latest advances in complex sensor fusion, mapping, computer vision and machine learning to ultimately deploy a new form of transportation system that enables safe, sustainable and equitable mobility access. This company was acquired by Magna in 2022. Category Quovo Quovo is a data platform providing connectivity to consumer financial accounts. Quovo centralizes, organizes, and enriches data from millions of accounts across more than 14,000 institutions to provide businesses with a comprehensive picture of each customers’ financial identity. With industry-specific solutions, clients from emerging fintech startups to Fortune 500 companies rely on Quovo for its seamless technology and rich data insights to deliver more personalized and frictionless customer experiences. Quovo’s unparalleled coverage of the financial ecosystem, powerful data analytics, and flexible deployment options propel businesses in uncovering opportunities to grow their relationships with customers. Quovo was acquired by Plaid in 2019. Learn more at  www.quovo.com . Category RIGImmune RIGImmune is a platform biopharmaceutical company developing a novel investigational class of RNA immunotherapies termed “SLRs” for the potential pan-viral treatment and prophylaxis of viral respiratory diseases and selected cancers. The RIGImmune development candidates act to specifically modulate RIG-I, a host surveillance pathway that triggers the innate immune system to enhance an intrinsic response to RNA viruses, including influenza, RSV, rhinovirus, and SARS-CoV-2, and tumor DNA. The lead development candidate at RIGImmune is RIG-101. The company was co-founded by the prominent Yale University professors, Anna Marie Pyle, Ph.D. and Akiko Iwasaki, Ph.D., who currently serve as scientific advisors to the company. Dr. Pyle co-discovered the RIG-I receptor family and conducted many of the first structural and biochemical investigations on the cytosolic protein, RIG-I. Dr. Pyle is also a specialist in RNA structure and design. She designed the stem-loop RNA therapeutics (SLR) for selective targeting of RIG-I using crystal structure data of RIG-I complexed with RNA and developed them as antitumor and anticancer compounds in collaboration with Dr. Iwasaki, whose expertise in  mucosal immunity  has been highly sought during the COVID-19 pandemic. RIGImmune is a  UConn Technology Incubation Program (TIP ) company located in Farmington, CT, was founded by Yale scientists, and has an experienced management team of successful biotech entrepreneurs and world-renowned scientists. Learn more at rigimmune.com . Category Rippl Rippl is a new kind of mental health company focused on seniors and obsessed with its clinicians. Seniors with mental health challenges, especially neurocognitive conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, are overlooked and under cared for, often without access to high quality, real-time, practical care. Leveraging a value-based approach, disruptive technology, and a relentless focus on empowering and enabling its clinicians, Rippl is pioneering a new care model to dramatically expand access to high quality, wraparound mental health care for seniors, their families, and caregivers. Rippl provides 24/7 support and personalized care when and where they need it – on the phone, online or in their living rooms. Learn more at www.ripplcare.com . Category Risklens RiskLens is the leading provider of quantitative cyber risk management software. Its platform is recognized as a mission-critical business application for cybersecurity and risk teams across the Fortune 1,000. RiskLens empowers large enterprises and government organizations to manage cyber risk from the business perspective by quantifying that risk in monetary terms. Clients depend on RiskLens solutions to better understand and communicate their cyber risk exposure in financial terms, prioritize their risk mitigations, measure the ROI of their security investments, and meet regulatory demands calling for the quantification of cyber risk. RiskLens is the only cyber risk quantification software purpose-built on FAIR, the standard quantification model for information security and operational risk. Learn more at www.risklens.com . Category Silq Silq is on a mission to bring radical visibility and real-time data from the factory floor to brands around the world. We power sourcing, manufacturing and shipping for apparel, footwear, home goods and accessory brands. Our on-site experts provide real-time updates into the production process directly from the factory floor. Paired with Silq’s proprietary technology platform, brands are able to accelerate speed-to-market and improve product quality. Our customers include direct-to-consumer (DTC) and wholesale fashion and apparel brands such as Barry’s, Mightly, Mizzen+Main and Lambert in addition to design and production houses such as Pinpoint Merchandising and Stars Design Group. Learn more at www.onesilq.com . Category Snapdocs Founded in 2013, Snapdocs is the industry’s leading digital closing platform. With its patented AI technology, Snapdocs is on a mission to perfect mortgage closings and transform a $2 trillion pillar of the U.S. economy. Powering over 750,000 closings a year, Snapdocs is leading the charge to modernize, streamline, and improve the mortgage process for lenders, borrowers, and settlement. Snapdocs is the only solution with a proven track record of creating a single, scalable process for every closing, whether wet, hybrid, or digital. Every day, over 50,000 mortgage professionals rely on Snapdocs’ technology to automate manual work and digitize paper processes that plague the industry. Snapdocs is a rapidly growing San Francisco based real estate technology company backed by prestigious Silicon Valley blue-chip venture capital funds, like Y Combinator, SV Angel, Sequoia Capital, and F-Prime Capital. Learn more at www.snapdocs.com . Category Stage Stage is on a mission to empower builders and innovators to create enduring technology. Stage is a dynamic monetization platform for early- and growth-stage software companies. Starting with flexible plans and paywalls, the platform gives product teams the ability to understand, measure, and capture value from customers with confidence. Stage was co-founded by CEO Patrick Despres-Gallagher and CTO Kaiser Leib in October 2021 with remote operations and hubs in California and Montana. Patrick was previously one of the early Product Managers at Loom and RapidSOS as well as a family office investor focused on enterprise software. Kaiser was previously an early Software Engineer at Juniper Square and SoFi. Learn more at  www.heystage.com  and follow them on  Twitter  and  LinkedIn . Category The Giving Block The Giving Block, a Shift4 company, is the platform helping nonprofits fundraise more effectively from modern philanthropists. Pioneers of the “Crypto Philanthropy” movement, The Giving Block developed the leading solutions for cryptocurrency donations, taking crypto and NFT donations mainstream in the nonprofit sector. The Giving Block’s team then developed a stock giving experience built to empower even more donors to give non-cash assets. When combined, The Giving Block’s product suite empowers more donors than ever to give assets to their favorite causes. Today, thousands of nonprofits are using The Giving Block to fundraise from modern philanthropists. Learn more at www.thegivingblock.com . Category Unison Unison is the leading provider of home ownership investments, modernizing home financing through long-term partnerships. Unison works with lenders, regulators and institutional investors to integrate home ownership investing into the U.S. housing finance system. Unison HomeBuyer helps purchasers buy the home they want with less debt and risk, typically by doubling the down payment. The larger down payment makes it easier to qualify for a loan, increases buying power, lowers the monthly payment and/or allows a buyer to reserve cash. Unison HomeOwner provides current homeowners with cash to eliminate debt, remodel, pay for school, invest or use as a cash cushion, without the added debt or payments of a home equity loan or HELOC. Learn more at  www.unison.com . Category