Truvian Sciences, a San Diego, CA-based healthcare company at the intersection of diagnostics and consumer technology, closed a $27.1m Series B financing round.

The round, which brought total funds raised to date to $46.3m, was led by GreatPoint Ventures with participation from DNS Capital and Tao Capital Partners and existing investor Domain Associates.

The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts.

Led by Jeff Hawkins, President and CEO, Truvian develops an automated benchtop system developed to produce lab-accurate results for a full-suite of health tests using a small sample of blood. Powered by patented technologies and intelligent integration, the company’s system delivers an alternative to off-site labs, providing insights to inform healthcare decisions in 20 minutes.

The platform’s dry reagent technology allows consumables to be stored at room temperature, eliminating cold chain and refrigeration needs. Further, results will be delivered electronically to individuals through a digital platform. The company is working toward a CE Mark in the European Economic Area and a submission to the FDA for a 510(k) clearance along with a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) waiver application that will allow for its system to be used in a retail setting or doctor’s office.

The company also added Katherine Atkinson as Chief Commercial Officer and industry veteran Paul Meister to its Board of Directors.

Dena Marrinucci, PhD, a life science entrepreneur who also co-founded Epic Sciences, is Truvian’s Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Business Operations.
Truvian’s Board of Directors is chaired by Truvian Co-founder Kim Kamdar, Ph.D., a Partner with Domain Associates.

FinSMEs

BOSTON, Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Activ Surgical, a pioneering digital intelligence company focused on improving surgical efficiency, accuracy, patient outcomes and accessibility, today announced the close of an additional $11 million from Series A round funding. The financing was led by DNS Capital, and will allow the company to accelerate commercialization of its proprietary, software-centric and hardware agnostic technology. Other investors in the round include GreatPoint Ventures (GPV), Tao Capital Partners, SONY Innovation Fund, Rising Tide Financial, WS Investment Company and Mintz.

“The enthusiasm and level of support from a diverse group of investors validates our unique and proprietary technology,” commented Todd Usen, Chief Executive Officer, Activ Surgical. “The funding will be used to continue to grow the organization and prepare for the 2020 launch of ActivSight, an advanced software and sensing platform that will provide clinicians around the world with intraoperative visual data and images not currently available through existing technologies.”

Michael Pucker, Chairman and CEO of DNS Capital, said, “Activ Surgical’s integration of advanced imaging technology and artificial intelligence positions the company to have an enormous impact on the future of healthcare by improving patient outcomes, reducing healthcare costs, and addressing unintended surgical complications. We look forward to working closely with the experienced Activ Surgical team and the company’s other investors to support their long-term growth plans.”

Series A financing was led by an entity advised by DNS Capital, LLC.

About DNS Capital
DNS Capital is the private investment office for Gigi Pritzker Pucker, Michael Pucker and their immediate family. DNS Capital takes a long-term and flexible approach to investing, and focuses on people, relationships and culture. For more information, visit www.dnscap.com.

About Activ Surgical
Founded in 2017, Activ Surgical is a first-of-its kind digital surgery company focused on improving surgical efficiency, accuracy, patient outcomes and accessibility for both endoscopic and robotically-assisted procedures. Activ Surgical’s scalable and patent-protected surgical software platform technology is driven by computer vision, artificial intelligence, analytics and machine learning to enhance a surgeon’s intra-operative decision making, and reduce unintended and preventable surgical complications.

ActivSight (the company’s first planned commercial launch in fall 2020) is an advanced software and sensing platform which works dynamically and seamlessly to “ACTIVATE” any installed base of surgical visualization and robotics systems to provide real time intraoperative visual data and images not currently available to surgeons through existing technologies.

More information can be found at www.activsurgical.com.

For more information:
Claire Nolan
Associate Chief of Staff, Activ Surgical
617.333.8162 x401  Background on additional Investors:

About GPV
GreatPoint Ventures (www.gpv.com) is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm typically leading Series A and B investments. The firm is managed by Ray Lane, Andrew Perlman and Ashok Krishnamurthi, serial entrepreneurs who’ve founded, operated and built more than 15 companies, several of which have gone on to IPO.

About Tao Capital Partners
Tao Capital Partners is a San Francisco-based family office that invests in technology, alternative energy and transportation, healthcare, education, sustainable food & agriculture, consumer, and real estate businesses that have a positive impact. Tao is an active investor with the ability to support companies through various stages of their life-cycle.

About Sony Innovation Fund
Established in July 2016 by Sony Corporation, Sony Innovation Fund engages with pioneering startups to help fuel the development of disruptive technologies and launch new businesses. In addition to investment, Sony Innovation Fund closely collaborates with the startups in which it invests, connecting them with businesses throughout Sony and its worldwide network of partners, providing guidance and advice, and collaborating with them to help achieve common success. Learn more at: www.sonyinnovationfund.com.

About Rising Tide Financial
A Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm with roots in the US, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. As a collegial partnership with diverse areas of expertise, we seek to team with visionary companies breaking barriers and creating new markets, especially those leveraging technological advancements in big data analytics, computer-aided design, optical sensors, mobile applications in vertical markets, and community-connected networks and services. We are stage agnostic, but single-mindedly focused on character, commitments and results.

About WS Investment Company
The investment affiliate of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a premier provider of legal services to the life sciences and technology industry.

About Mintz
Established in 1933, Mintz is a versatile Am Law 100 law firm with 500 attorneys serving clients worldwide. With exceptional breadth in a broad range of industries, notably technology, we regularly represent companies in milestone events — mission-critical investments, licensing agreements, initial public offerings, acquisitions, intellectual property issues, and bet-the-company litigations. Our offices are strategically located to meet our clients’ needs. You will find us in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and London.

SOURCE Activ Surgical

Related Links
https://www.activsurgical.com

Recogni, Inc., a San Jose, CA-based designer of a vision-oriented artificial intelligence platform for autonomous vehicles, raised $25m in Series A financing.

The round was led by GreatPoint Ventures with participation from Toyota AI Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Faurecia, Fluxunit and DNS Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to develop its platform and grow its engineering team.

Led by RK Anand, CEO, Recogni provides an artificial intelligence system which uses a vision cognition processor to solve the endpoint inferencing problem with autonomous vehicles, allowing them to see farther and make driving decisions faster than humans while consuming minimal amounts of energy.

The company, which also has operations in Munich, Germany, is currently in discussions with multiple auto manufacturers, to provide them with the full suite of enabling technology from modules to the software.

FinSMEs

RapidAPI, a San Francisco, CA-based API marketplace for developers to find and connect to thousands of publicly available APIs, raised $25m in Series B financing.

The round, which brought total funding to date to $37.5m, was led by M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), with participation from DNS Capital, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Green Bay Capital. Mony Hassid, General Manager and Managing Director at M12, joined RapidAPI’s board of directors.

The company intends to use the funds to continue scaling its API marketplace.

Led by Iddo Gino, Founder and CEO, RapidAPI is an API marketplace where over a million developers find and connect to thousands of public APIs, as well as share and collaborate on internal APIs.

The public marketplace features over 10,000 APIs used by 1,000,000 developers who process over half a trillion API calls each month.

The APIs available within the marketplace include Microsoft, SendGrid, Nexmo, Telesign, Google, Skyscanner, Crunchbase and many others. RapidAPI also works with large enterprise clients, including Cisco, Hyatt, SAP, Delta, and Reddit.

The company has also expanded its marketplace offering by introducing RapidAPI for Teams, a self-serve platform for developers to publish, share and collaborate on internal APIs and microservices, as well discover, test, enable, and manage the consumption of both internal and external APIs, all in one place.

The company is based in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, and Kiev, where it has a team of 50 people.

FinSMEs

Oversubscribed Round Led by an Entity Advised by DNS Capital (DNS) with Participation from New and Existing Investors

CHICAGO, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — RedShelf, Inc., a leading distributor of digital course materials in higher education, today announced the closing of a $25 million Series C financing led by an entity advised by DNS Capital (DNS). The new financing will fuel RedShelf’s employee growth, product innovation, customer service, and expansion within the higher ed market.

Since 2012, RedShelf has worked alongside campus bookstores, professors, universities, and students in higher ed to streamline the selection, adoption, purchase, and distribution of digital course materials. RedShelf currently partners with over 600 campus bookstores and offers more than 500,000 digital titles across 400 publishers.

RedShelf’s impact on the higher ed industry is demonstrated by its recent recognition as the nation’s second fastest-growing private education company and 121st fastest-growing private company overall by Inc. magazine. With user growth that has doubled year-over-year since 2012 and is expected to increase even more significantly in 2019, the company continues to play a leading role in transitioning the higher ed sector from print to digital course materials.

“RedShelf was founded to provide best-in-class, student-focused education software that makes course materials more affordable, accessible, and effective,” said RedShelf CEO and co-founder Greg Fenton. “The industry is undergoing a massive transition from print to digital, and with this Series C financing, we’ll continue to be one of the industry’s fastest growing edtech companies and be equipped to take digital course materials to the next level.”

The Series C positions RedShelf to continue expanding its product suite which currently includes:

• RedShelf eReader: An accessible web-based eReader solution on which students access their digital textbooks anywhere, from any device
• RedShelf Inclusive: A scalable content delivery program that provides students access to the most affordable digital course content on their first day of class
• RedShelf Bookstore: A customizable solution for in-store and eCommerce transactions
• RedShelf Adopt: An independent tool that streamlines the adoption process between bookstores and professors

“RedShelf is at the forefront of educational technology, helping modernize the way students access and interact with their learning materials while improving outcomes across higher education,” said DNS Capital Chairman & CEO Michael Pucker. “They have the right strategy, technology and team to lead this important digital transformation, and we look forward to working closely with the RedShelf team and the company’s other investors to support RedShelf’s long-term growth plans.”

In addition to the investment made by DNS, several new investors participated in the Series C round including former COO and CTO of Morningstar Tao Huang, CEO of Trading Technologies Rick Lane, and Executive Chairman and co-founder of Shiftgig Eddie Lou. Managing Director of DNS Capital, Charles Tollinche, will be joining RedShelf’s Board of Directors.

RedShelf was advised by Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. and its legal counsel was Foley & Lardner LLP.  DNS Capital was advised on legal matters by Latham & Watkins LLP.

ABOUT REDSHELF
As a leading distributor of digital learning materials in higher education, RedShelf collaborates with publishers, institutions, campus bookstores, and strategic partners to provide the technology to accelerate the transition to digital and make learning materials more accessible and affordable. For more information, visit www.about.redshelf.com or follow on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.  

ABOUT DNS CAPITAL
DNS Capital is the private investment office for Gigi Pritzker Pucker, Michael Pucker and their immediate family. DNS Capital takes a long-term and flexible approach to investing, and focuses on people, relationships and culture. For more information visit www.dnscap.com.  

Media Contact:
Ashleigh Mavros
ashleigh.mavros@redshelf.com
419.366.2345

SOURCE RedShelf

Related Links
https://redshelf.com/