Josh Clemente

🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup features key insights from other regions, exciting funding news, major research advancements, and significant developments across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💡Insights from Other Regions & My 2 Cents Patrick Sisson in Bisnow reported on the Research and Development District in downtown San Diego, a 1.7M sqft multi-use life sciences project. Costing $915M, it has 0 signed tenants just months before opening. Don’t forget that the San Diego region is one of the world’s top Bio & Health clusters. The critical issue: "To this day, much of the life sciences real estate in San Diego tends to be more office park or campus-style sites that aren’t in walkable urban neighborhoods." So, what does this have to do with Austin? You need alignment between location, infrastructure, & sector. I am not convinced that 80%+ of Bio & Health companies work downtown. Keep this in mind when people pitch a downtown Austin Life Science Innovation district. 💰 Funding Workweek, a publishing platform for business professionals, closed a $12.5M Series A.  This is in the Roundup because their vertical, run by Blake Madden, focuses on healthcare. It’s also another case of Austin funding Austin as the round was led by Next Coast Ventures. Congrats Adam Ryan! Koda Health, a digital care coordination company for advance planning, raised its oversubscribed Seed+ round led by Austin’s own Ecliptic Capital. Super pumped for you Tatiana Fofanova, Ph.D.! 🔬 Research & Medical Advancements Eliah Overbey, Professor of BioAstronautics (what a cool era we live in) at Austin’s newest university, the University of Austin, published a series of studies in Nature on what space flight does to humans. Professor Overbey led a multi-institutional research team that obtained 3,000 samples from the SpaceX 2021 Inspiration 4 flight, resulting in a “10-fold increase in publicly available human space cell health data." 🏆 Recognition Christian Keil & Ryan M.’s BuildList, a viral database of critical tech companies, features numerous Austin companies including Paradromics Inc. & Harmonic Bionics, Inc. in Bio & Health. Way to go Matt Angle and Mark Hunter! 🚀 Launches, Expansions, and Milestones Wheel launched Horizon, their new AI virtual care platform with predictive care pathways and configurable, patient-centered care programs. Amazing work Michelle Davey! Keyspan is bringing their affordable biomarker testing and personalized coaching to Austin Simply Fit to enhance their fitness programs. Kudos Nate Taylor! 🏙️ Community Join the BrainCheck-Alzheimer’s Association brain health panel on June 20th, featuring Briaincheck CEO Kim Rodriguez. Link to the event in the comments. I’ll be attending & hope to see you there! 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle Solugen, a synthetic biology unicorn, secured a $214 million loan from the Energy Department to build a Bioforge, marking a significant step for Houston’s industrial bio sector. What’s Next?

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio + Health Roundup highlights significant data trends, my stance on covering funding announcements, new partnerships, and action across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💰 Funding: The Way I Plan to Cover Funding Announcements You may have seen reports of a local Bio & Health startup’s funding round through an SEC report filing. While some outlets have covered this, my position is not to. I prefer to support our builders directly rather than trolling the filings for scoops. There is plenty of real investigative journalism that our city would be well served by if that is where they focused. Remember I am not a journalist and I am not the media. When the company is ready to announce their round officially, I’ll gladly shout it to the rooftops. 📊 Data Peter Walker at Carta reports that in 2017, Biopharma and Medical Devices captured just under 10% of all VC dollars. By 2023, this figure rose to 17.7%, and in Q1 2024, it reached 24%. The overarching tailwinds favor our sector and region with trends towards Bio & Health and the physical & digital intersection. Energy and hardware, two other sector blossoming in Central Texas, also saw similar share gains. 🤝 M&A and Partnerships Sensi.AI, a 24/7 senior care intelligence agent, is partnering with Caring Senior Service to deploy SensiAI’s platform in Caring’s 50 locations across the US. This partnership allows seniors a better opportunity to age gracefully in their homes. 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle BioMedSA is hosting an event called Women in Bioscience, Thursday June 20th. It’s designed to connect and empower women in the bioscience industry across Central Texas, and features Randi Brosterman Hutchens discussing "Building your Personal Board." Find the link to the event in the comments. Houston-based Lokum, a staffing solution to connect clinicians and clinical staff to health care facilities, has raised a $700K pre-seed round. Congrats Ayoade (Joy) Ademuyewo on the raise. What’s Next? #AustinNext #LifeSciences #Healthcare #Biotechnology

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup covers new funding, insightful data, expanding footprints, local innovators' thoughts, recognitions, & booming developments across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💰 Funding Thoughtful AI has raised a $20M Series led by Drive Capital led by Nick Solaro. With that funding Thoughtful launched AI agents focused on claims processing, patient eligibility verification, and other healthcare back office functions. Congratulations to Alex Zekoff and the entire team! Drive Capital's investment in Thoughtful parallels their expansion into Austin putting feet on the ground with new Seed General Manager Anish Zuté. I expect we'll be hearing about more investments from them soon. Modicus Prime raised $3.5M to prevent drug product quality failures in biomanufacturing. A great example of Austin funding Austin as Silverton Partners led the round. Congrats to Taylor Chartier and team! A reminder: You may have seen some media covering SEC filings and trying to scoop startups on their funding announcements. I only announce funding when the companies do as I am not a “journalist” and I'm here to catalyze & support the builders 📊 Data Peter Walker released new Carta data breaking down the sector diversity of funding since 2022 in top. In Austin, Healthtech ranked number 3 at 13%, behind SaaS at 42% and Fintech at 13% (likely a decimal difference). Note that Carta breaks Bio & Health into three subcategories (Healthtech, Pharma/Biotech, and Med Device). Where would the sector rank when combined? Peter, any comment? 🚀 Launches, Expansions, and Milestones Neuralink, the brain computer interface company founded by Elon Musk, is expanding its presence in Texas with a new 100,000+ facility, further solidifying our region's position as a key neurotech hub. Given the recent news about the relocations of X to Austin and SpaceX to Starbase, Texas; might we see an even larger presence (maybe even HQ) for Neuralink in the future? 💡 Insights from Local Builders and Innovators Jaleh Daie, PhD shared her thoughts in SynBioBeta on building a durable bioeconomy and what it will take to get there. 🏆 Recognition Kerry Rupp, partner at True Wealth Ventures, has been appointed to the @Ascension Seton Foundation Board. Having VCs on the hospital boards (including the Foundation) will help further connect them to the innovation ecosystem. 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle Houston-based Octagos Health | The Future of Digital Health raised a $43 million Series B to advance AI-driven cardiac device monitoring. Congrats to Shanti Bansal, M.D. and the whole team! MD Anderson and Rice University are joining forces to launch a cancer bioengineering collaborative, focused on speeding up the movement of innovations from the lab to the market. What’s Next?

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Med Tech in Focus   Rotator Cuff Surgery Success Improved by Device Inspired by Python Teeth Engineers at Columbia University designed a device that mimics the backward curve of python teeth that nearly doubles repair strength in tendon-to-bone shoulder surgery. The device is made of biocompatible resin teeth set on a curved base. The sharp teeth are half the length of currently used staples, so they won’t break through the tendon and cause suture pull-through. The base can be customized to match a patient’s curvature of the tendon attachment site. Currently, successful reattachment is fraught with high failure rates estimated at 20% for younger patients with minor tears to 94% in elderly patients with massive tears. Most of the failures are the result of suture pull-through. It is estimated that about 600,000 rotator cuff surgeries are performed in the US annually at a cost of $3 billion. The engineers are now researching a bioabsorbable version that would dissolve when the tendon heals and reattaches back to the bone. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Any service provider to the Austin startup ecosystem is already very familiar with this news... Conspicuous in the Crunchbase findings is that AI only represents a mere 10% of total fundings in Texas. If you net out Saronic Technologies recent $175m Series B, that percentage would be even lower. Here's to wishing upon a star (the Lone Star State, to exact) that the early stage startup market will turn around here in the near future. 💫 https://lnkd.in/gzJmj3im

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Should you sell your practice to a VC-Backed MSO Startup? tldr: - new VC-backed startups are forming MSOs to roll up independent practices - The pitch is physicians receive early liquidity from the roll up and are granted ESOP shares that can be used for retirement - Problem is the use of ESOPs with independent practices is not a new concept and has been used with large group practices since the 70's - ESOPs do not grant full ownership and in order for the shares to be valuable for retirement, the practice needs to run the same if not better post roll up - With VC-backed startups being primarily operated by non-physicians with zero clinical or medical practice experience, the likelihood of this happening is extremely low making the entire concept high risk However, there is a viable path for continued ownership + liquidity for independent practices. Check out the article to learn more. ⤵ https://lnkd.in/gmGvTYwP

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I recently sat down with Michael Batko, CEO at Startmate and Founder of Puddle Pod for Episode 11 of Insane Ambition. Startmate has invested in 230+ startups, much of it under Michael's leadership, and now has $3.5b in value across its portfolio companies. In this episode, we discussed: - Michael's journey from consulting, then living in the Amazon rainforest, to leading Australia's biggest startup accelerator - The future of Australia's startup ecosystem - The labour government's very stupid plan to make it harder for people to qualify as sophisticated investors (now thankfully shelved) - Startmate City! Startmate's plan to build Australia's first startup city. Probably the most ambitious idea I've ever heard from a startup accelerator. - The balance between visionary thinking and traditional startup advice (think Elon Musk's plan to colonise Mars, vs Y Combinator's problem/customer obsession) - "The Courage to Be Disliked", and its influence on Michael's approach to life and business. Links in the description below 👇

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A SAFE and convertible note had a baby and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was the midwife- out popped the D-SAFE! 👶🏽🎉 A new #climatetech funding instrument was announced by Elemental Excelerator last week. One of the company’s main goals is to support smaller, up and coming companies during the awkward “Scale Gap” phase between #VC funding and natural growth. It’s called the #DSAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and it aims to aid the process by giving companies a small amount of cash to overcome initial risks and expenses during the developmental stages of a product launch or company. How does it work? D-SAFE has a redemption clause meaning companies can choose to have their payments offered as a loan or convert to equity at the investor’s discretion. Funders and companies will have clear communication and expectations about where the money is going and how it will be applied to either the company or the projects at hand. Financiers and companies will work together with more #transparency, and that’s a great boon for #startups and VC alike. As of this month, Elemental has already invested using D-SAFE in eight different companies, including Dimensional Energy and Origen — both companies investing in innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to environmental issues! Seems like a win-win on the surface. What do you all think about the D-SAFE? Alfredo Coppola Momoka Ueda Tim Wagner Stephen D. Torres Olya Irzak Natsuho Toyama Noriya Tarutani Shin Ogawa

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3D printing is having a breakout moment, turning its long held promise into a reality that is arriving at pace and at scale. Over the next 5 years: - Consumers will expect customized products at scale - Computers will surpass human creativity and skill in product design - New infrastructure is needed to protect IP if anything can be printed anywhere  - Global supply chains will be meaningfully dismantled as products get printed at their point of sale I sat down with Philip DeSimone, Co-founder of Carbon, the most advanced 3D printing company already operating at scale serving customers in 17 countries ranging from Adidas to Ford. With over 300 patents filed, Carbon has raised $680M from the likes of Sequoia, Temasek, and Google. Check out 5YF Episode #14: 3D printing breakthroughs, AI designed products, mass customization, spare body parts, dismantling global trade, IP piracy, and the future of production w/ Carbon Co-founder Philip DeSimone https://pod.fo/e/234185 #3Dprinting

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup highlights new funding, intriguing data, and major commercial & scientific milestones 🧬 💰 Funding Hello Patient, building Gen-AI phone agents for healthcare providers, came out of stealth with a $6.3M seed raise. Congrats Alex Cohen! And it’s Austin funding Austin, with 8VC a key part of the round. Aspira Women's Health, focused on non-invasive AI-powered diagnostics, was awarded a $10M grant from ARPA-H to advance their blood test for endometriosis. Well done, Nicole Sandford, Sandy Milligan, MD JD & team. Maxwell Biosciences, a synthetic small molecule drug platform, received ~$3M from the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) to find assets that will prevent wound infection on the battlefield. Fantastic work, Joshua McClure & team. Reminder: I don’t cover SEC filings. When the builders themselves announce, I’ll shout it from the rooftops! 📊 Data Clutch VC released its Texas Seed Funding Update (YTD Q3): YTD 387 seed rounds raised for a total $636M. Though deal counts are down QoQ, capital invested has trended upward, making this the highest quarter since Q1 2023. Health was the second largest sector with 27% of all capital raised so far this year, up from 16% during the same time frame last year. Great data & insights Rajiv Bala, Steve Coffey, and Caitlin McHugh. 🤝 M&A and Partnerships Lumos Pharma entered a merger agreement with Double Point Ventures, going private at a $38M valuation. 🚀 Launches, Expansions, Milestones, and Wins Oracle Health announced updates to its Data Intelligence platform, with enhancements to Clinical, Analytics, and Care Coordination products. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle Houston-based Coya Therapeutics, Inc. shared positive results from a double-blind study of low-dose interleukin-2 (LD-IL-2) in Alzheimer’s, showing the therapy is safe and well tolerated with promising trends toward cognitive improvement. Amazing Howard Berman, PhD, Arun Swaminathan, and the rest of the team. Dallas-based Stone Mountain Ventures closed a $5M Fund II focused on health & AI. Fund I included Austin Bio & Health startups Legion Health and MDisrupt. Congratulations, John Diaz and keep looking at Austin for new opportunities! Quick Note: Some items this week actually happened last week, apologies if I missed them! Please tag or message me for future announcements so I can make sure to include them. What’s Next?

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How do we erase the $1.9T of healthcare cost from poor nutrition in the United States? 14T globally. Slowly. Then all at once. How will pressure from Ozempic change CPG, fresh, meat, retail, food science, ingredients, crops, processors, trucking, farmer profitability...... iSelect's 70 portfolio companies have been working on the core technology for nearly 10 years. Slowly. Knowing this moment would arrive. Each of the 60k Sku's in retail will move from cheap carbs to affordable nutrition. And consumers will internalize health cost into price elasticity in purchase decisions. Slowly, then all at once. Katie Stebbins Ellen Brown Sherry Frey

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio + Health Roundup brings exciting funding announcements, important community events, accolades, partnerships, and milestones from across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💰 Funding Humanaut Health has secured an $8.7M seed round to bring access to health optimization and longevity to the general population. It's Austin funding Austin, as Midnight Venture Partners joined the round. Don't miss my short interview with Co-founder and CEO Jim Donnelly below! Optmycare, an AI platform in healthcare & risk management, raised a $3 million in Series A funding, led by Austin's own LiveOak Ventures, to accelerate its growth and build out its technology. 🏙️ Community Mark your calendars for the Nucleate Texas Final Pitch Showcase on May 17th. Catch the final pitches from 1pm to 5pm at Highpoint 2222, and discover what's next in platform discoveries, diagnostics, and therapeutics. 🏆 Recognition BrainCheck, a brain health diagnostic and tools company, received the Care Management Innovation Award at the 8th annual MedTech Breakthrough Awards. Congratulations Kim Rodriguez and the entire team for the well-deserved recognition of your work.   🤝 M&A and Partnerships Babson Diagnostics has announced a new partnership with Cynergy Wellness LLC, to provide clinician oversight for Babson’s customer-initiated BetterWay blood tests. One more step in providing access to this novel technology. Congrats David Stein, Eric Olson and the rest of the Babson team. 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle San Antonio-based Hera Biotech has released promising interim results for their groundbreaking endometriosis treatment. The data showed 92% sensitivity, 95% specificity, and 94% overall accuracy compared to histopathology. Congrats Somer Baburek, MBA on this important step in the development of a greatly needed diagnostic. This week underscores breadth and depth of sector. Let's keep the momentum going! What’s Next? #AustinNext #LifeSciences #Healthcare #Biotechnology

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“Finding a proper workspace is too time-consuming for small startups.” At Colorado Health & Tech Centers (CHTC), we tackle this common frustration among start-up founders. Our team of experts seamlessly navigates the process of setting up your workspace for the technical specifications required for your research, allowing you to focus on the critical aspects of your business. https://coloradohtc.com/ #COHubforHealthImpact, #COLeadsLifeSciences, #Denverrealestate, #biotechnology, #Pharmaceutical, #biotech, #pharma, #innovation, #tech, #Technology, #CBSA, #CoBioscience, #cro , #cdmo , #laboratory,  #relocationspecialist, #Medicaldevice, #entrepreneurship, #startups, #future, #India, #USA, #UK, #UAE, #biomanufacturing, #Quantum, #Quantumtechnology

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AI and Med Tech in Focus   AI Used to Assess IVF Embryo Quality Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have developed a novel machine learning system called BELA that can accurately assess the chromosomal quality of IVF embryos using time lapsed images and maternal age. The system distinguishes whether an embryo has normal or abnormal numbers of chromosomes and is not based on subjective interpretation. Currently, IVF embryos are manually examined under a microscope and if a problem is suspected, a more risky biopsy-like procedure is done. BELA uses machine learning algorithms to analyze nine time-lapsed video images taken over five days to generate an objective score. That score is coupled with maternal age to predict whether the chromosomes are normal or abnormal. BELA results have been shown to be more objective, accurate, efficient and predictive. It is hoped that the system could be used to expand the availability of IVF to areas that don’t have access to current high-end testing and have efficacy to assess more general embryonic development. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Excited to announce that our True Wealth Ventures portfolio company Partum Health has expanded their services to *Dallas*. Partum provides pregnancy and postpartum care including doulas, lactation support, mental health, physical therapy and more -- all facilitated by a dedicated care coordinator to meet each growing family's goals and needs. Partum also provides services in Chicago and Houston. If you don't already know these appalling statistics ... -- "In the United States, more women die each year of pregnancy-related complications than in any other developed country, with the majority of those deaths happening between one week and one year of giving birth." -- "And in Texas, the need is especially acute. A 2022 study published by the Texas Medical Association ranked the state 50th among all states in access to high-quality prenatal and maternal care, citing barriers to health care before and after their hospital stay as a key factor." -- "Moreover, a report last year by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission found that 90% of the state's pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, recommending an improvement in care coordination and access to comprehensive health services to achieve better outcomes." Learn more in the linked press release below or on the company's website at https://lnkd.in/ggHWqi7m. https://lnkd.in/gjhawzDf

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many of the most impactful drugs for patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disease have brutal side effects, leaving patients with a tough choice between suffering intolerable toxic effects vs managing their disease without medication. Montara Therapeutics, Inc. is addressing this problem with a target-agnostic platform for two-drug combinations: an active, brain-penetrant drug combined with a peripheral blocker that counters toxic effects of the drug in the rest of the body. the concept isn't new - a similar strategy is employed by carbidopa/levodopa in Parkinson's, and Karuna's muscarinic agonist combo which was acquired by BMS for $14B last year. Montara is supercharging this strategy, building a more general approach that works across many different classes of targets and diseases. pumped to back Nicholas Hertz, Ph.D, Rishi Rakhit, Zachary Hill, Randall Chin, PhD Max Lebovitz, alongside SV Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), Two Bear Capital, and Dolby Family Ventures. feature in endpoints: https://lnkd.in/eQPK3pj3 press release: https://lnkd.in/ezUx-USV

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When I was a pre-partner at a VC firm, my job would be to review board decks with a founder ahead of the partners’ review. The function was usually top-notch, because our founders were amazing, but I would *obsess* over form, which, in retrospect, was a complete waste of time for everyone, especially the founder (lookin’ at you, Nicholas Vandivere – sorry I was so annoying 😬). Today, as a founder myself, I’ve completely thrown form out the window. If you’ve raised a few million dollars, are generally profitable, and are chugging along as a seven-figure business like Rescripted is, you should be having regular, informal update calls with members of your board and reporting to your investors at least quarterly (VCs require this, of course, but if you’re angel-funded like we are, you might not know the nuts and bolts!). Board meetings aren’t for reporting. That’s why form doesn’t matter. You should *constantly* be reporting. If you have a great and supportive board like we do, board meetings are for: 👩‍🏫 interpreting the reporting you've already done, 📣 providing commentary that isn’t obvious, 🤗 providing feedback to yourselves as a management team, 💫 and getting advice and insights from those people who believed in you enough to put their money where their mouths are. Tomorrow’s our board meeting. Wish Kristyn Hodgdon, Peregrin Marshall, and me luck! If you’re a founder, how do you run effective board meetings? #entrepreneurship #seedinvesting #angelfunding

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"We’re now completely sold out in the US until mid-2027"- Topher Haddad and remaining tasking availability is dwindling globally: https://albedo.com/reserve What is Albedo doing again?? We build and operate satellites that co-collect 10 cm/pixel visible imagery with 2 m/pixel thermal (LWIR) imagery. Native GSDs. ^ resolution comparable to that of imagery collected by planes, but we're doing it from space 🙃 We couldn’t be more excited about our initial customers and are stoked to see who all snags the rest of our remaining capacity. Be among the first commercial end users EVER to have access to this unprecedented dataset. Cheers! https://lnkd.in/gtBuW68c

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