Opendorse Raises $20M in Latest Funding Round

December was a big month for Serra company Opendorse, and it is not over yet. The company announced that it has raised $20M in its latest funding round, in which Serra Ventures participated. Opendorse says it will use the capital to meet its ever-increasing demand for advancing NIL platforms.

Opendorse was also featured in Sports Illustrated this week, accounting that it had launched its new “NIL Book,” which will help athletes navigate what they can expect from the platform, including earning expectations.

With new schools joining up with Opendorse daily, things will not be slowing down for this company any time soon.

VeriSIM Life Named “Predictive Analytics Solution of the Year” by BioTEch Breakthrough

VeriSIM Life, a Serra portfolio company in Serra III and SBIC, made an exciting announcement the first week of November that they had received the honor of being named “Predictive Analytics Solution of the Year” in this year’s BioTech Breakthrough Awards. Biotech Breakthrough is a leading independent market intelligence organization that evaluates and recognizes standout life sciences and biotechnology companies, products, and services around the globe.

VeriSIM Life is the leading artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled unique R&D decisions de-risker for breakthrough drug development. "We are honored to receive this award from BioTech Breakthrough,” said Dr. Jo Varshney, CEO of VeriSIM Life. “Being named Predictive Analytics Solution of the Year validates our recent BIOiSIM platform innovations. Technologies like our unique Translational Index™, which synthesizes the potential for clinical success of any drug candidate, enable smarter decisions about how to advance asset programs and ultimately improve the lives of patients in need.”

View the entire article here.

Vytelle a Sustainability Leadership Award winner

Vytelle, a Serra Ag Tech Fund portfolio company, recently received a special award for global sustainability. The Business Intelligence Group named Vytelle a Sustainability Leadership Award winner in the 2022 Sustainability Awards program. The Sustainability Awards honor those people, teams and organizations who have made sustainability an integral part of their business practice or overall mission.

Vytelle is developing genetic data and IVF technologies for cattle breeding.

To view the entire article, follow here.

Three Serra companies named to Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Company List

In the month of August, Serra companies Built In Chicago, Wrapify, and Paystand, were all named to the prestigious Inc 5000 list which recognizes the country’s fastest growing companies. This is the third time both Paystand and Wrapify have made the list in recent years. The team at Serra is proud to have these companies recognized for their growth, especially in light of the recent economic state.

The complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

Paystand Acquires Yaydoo

Paystand, the company that is changing B2B payments with a modern infrastructure built on SaaS, announced this week that it had acquired Yaydoo, one of Mexico’s 100 fastest growing startups. The acquisition comes amidst general economic uncertainty and a downcast Fintech environment, opening up a horizon of hope and opportunity, not only for other tech startups but also for Latin American businesses.

Jeremy Almond, CEO of Paystand shared “There is a significant market opportunity in front of Paystand and Yaydoo. With its scale, the combined company could be on a path to an Initial Public Offering (“IPO”) in the next 2 years, re-opening IPO capital access to the tech sector that is struggling in a recession-prone environment.”

Opendorse Launches NIL Marketplace for Fans

Just this week, Opendorse made a major announcement that it has launched online NIL Marketplace for fans. This will allow fans to financially support athletes through name, image and likeness deals by a few simple clicks. At Opendorse.com, school-specific pages will be available for universities that partner with the company. Through those pages, users can access athletes' profiles with rates for various services.“Collectives have dominated conversations about NIL, but where are the fans in that conversation?” Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence said, “It’s really to help sports fans: This is where you go, this is what you do and this is what it costs.”

It has been one full year since college sports changed forever, with thousands of athletes being able to benefit from NIL. The first year of the NIL era reached a total of $917M according to Opendorse data, and there is no doubt year two will reach over $1B. 

OnRamp AgTech Conference Held in Champaign; Serra a Presenting Sponsor

The last week of July marked the much anticipated OnRamp Agriculture Conference, which was attended by nearly 400 guests. The third annual run of this event, the conference was an exciting opportunity for the Champaign-Urbana community, being the first to host it in person, and bringing the industry’s leading corporations, startups and investors together all in the name of celebrating the future of Ag.

The event kicked off on Monday evening with a dinner and keynote presentation, with Serra CEO Tim Hoerr acting as emcee. The following day was the all-day event, consisting of several talks, a keynote presentation, tours, and afternoon meetings where investors and companies could connect.

Rob Schultz, Managing Partner with Serra, hosted a talk on Tip, Trends and Traps in the Ag space. It was a tremendous experience, exploring and learning from business and industry leaders in the Ag space. Serra Ventures is proud to have been a presenting sponsor of this event.

Artio Medical Closes $28M in Additional Series A Financing

Artio Medical, Inc., the medical device company that is developing innovative products for the peripheral vascular, neurovascular, and cardiology markets, announced this week the closing of $28 million in oversubscribed Series A2 and Series A3 financing. This brings the total amount raised to date to $74 million.

Artio is a Serra Capital III and Serra Capital III SBIC company.

VeriSIM Life, Total Brain to develop drugs for broad range of neurological disorders

VeriSIM Life, a Serra Capital company, announced this week that it was partnering with Total Brain to develop new drugs for the treatment of a wide array of neurological disorders. This collaboration will integrate VerisSIM’s BIOSIM artificial intelligence-enabled drug development decision engine with Total Brain’s mental health and brain performance database to develop new therapies.

“We are excited to partner with Total Brain to combine the power of their high-dimensional data with our drug prediction engine to open new doors for drug discovery specifically addressing neurological conditions — something that has never been explored this way before,” Jo Varshney, PhD, founder and CEO of VeriSIM Life.

Ag Tools Selected as an Orange Silicon Valley Decarbonization Challenge Finalist

Ag Tools, the latest Serra investment in the Serra Ag Tech Fund, was selected as a finalist in a Decarbonization Challenge hosted by Orange Silicon Valley in San Fransisco. The event aims to fight against climate change. More than 100 North American climate tech startups were identified for this challenge, with only 5 finalists selected. Orange Silicon Valley’s Challenge builds on Orange’s goal of reaching Net Zero Carbon by 2040. Via this project, Orange Silicon Valley intends to accelerate the matchmaking process between startups, the Orange Group, and the broader ecosystem of corporations and investors.

AgTools is a worldwide SaaS platform that gathers real-time government and institutional data for over 500 specialty crops and commodities. A platform built for agribusiness operators, this startup helps operators make faster, more informed decisions that help them increase profits and reduce food waste in their supply chain.

EVISORT RAISES $100M TO REIMAGINE LEGAL DOCS

Evisort, a Serra Capital III and Serra Capital III SBIC company, announced on May 11 that it had raised $100M in funding in a Series C round. Evisort uses AI to compile, analyze and manage contracts–from drafting to signing and fulfillment–without human supervision. The company has secured major customers such as Microsoft and Keller Williams.

To view the complete article, follow here.

Cardea Receives a $1.1 million Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Cardea, a Serra Capital II and Serra Capital II Follow-on-Fund company, announced on May 3 that it had received a $1.1 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Cardea, which is integrating biology with modern electronics, said the grant will fund work that someday could detect infectious diseases like COVID and cancer via odor. Emerging countries will be targeted for this project, with the goal to verify that Cardea can deliver bio-sensing receptors that work as an “electronic nose” through integration into its Biosignal Processing Unit platform, or BPU.

“Using our BPU platform to bring novel and feasible diagnosis capabilities to developing countries was a major driver as to why we started Cardea in the first place,” said Michael Heltzen, chief executive of the company. “Developing an electronic nose with the potential to diagnose diseases like COVID, malaria, cancer and so on is literally a dream come true.”

To view the entire story, follow here.

Opendorse and LEARFIELD Join Forces To Maximize NIL Opportunities For Student-Athletes

Opendorse, a Serra Capital III portfolio company, has announced that it has formed a major partnership with LEARFIELD. The relationship will streamline access to name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities for student-athletes as they engage with their schools’ corporate brand sponsors. LEARFIELD is a media and technology services leader in intercollegiate athletics.

“LEARFIELD is unmatched in its support of the college athletics ecosystem,” said Blake Lawrence, CEO, Opendorse. “Today’s announcement ushers NIL forward with increased opportunity and support for college athletes everywhere. There are nearly 500,000 student-athletes who are at the center of our business, and this new collaboration brings the necessary players together to truly impact those athletes through greater visibility and ease-of-use when identifying new NIL opportunities.”

To view the entire article, follow here.

Serra Set to Sponsor OnRamp Agriculture Conference

Serra Ventures is very excited to announce the OnRamp Agriculture Conference back in person on July 26, 2022 in Champaign. Serra is a proud sponsor of the event. 

The OnRamp conference seeks to bring together the agriculture and food industries’ leading corporations, investors, and startups.

“Moving the OnRamp Agriculture Conference to Champaign was a goal we have had for some time, as our community is a magnet for truly disruptive innovations in the ag and food industries,” said Dennis Beard, Managing Partner at Serra Ventures. “Collaboration and cooperation are innate to our community’s culture and represent two of our signature values. We look forward to bringing others into the fold.”

To find more information about the event, including how to be a sponsor, or register to attend as either an individual or as a startup, click the link below. 

OnRamp Agriculture Conference

Paystand Delivers First Business Expense Card With Rewards Paid out Exclusively in Cryptocurrency

Paystand, a Serra Capital portfolio company and the leader in blockchain-enabled B2B payments, announced this week the first ever business expense card with native crypto rewards. Called the DeFi Corporate Card, it offers instant provisioning of virtual and physical cards, advanced spend controls, and real-time expense reporting alongside bitcoin rewards.

PayStand is a next generation payment & eCommerce checkout system that enables any organization to receive money in their website, social network, or web application without transaction costs. They are the first multi-payment gateway that accepts credit cards (Visa/MasterCard/ Amex/Discover), eCheck (ACH/Dwolla), and eCash (Bitcoins) with 0% transaction fees.

Droneseed Partners with Shopify

Droneseed, a Serra Capital Ag Tech Fund portfolio company, announced on March 29 that it had partnered with Shopify, a leading provider of essential internet infrastructure for commerce. The two climate-focused companies have partnered up on carbon removal, and the restoration of forests affected by wildfires through a new type of forward-looking carbon offset. Shopify confirmed that it had purchased carbon offsets from Droneseed to remove 50,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere.

DroneSeed is scaling reforestation to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. As bigger, hotter and more frequent fires devastate more forested land each year, natural forest regeneration is in decline and additional infrastructure and technology is needed to regenerate native forests more quickly and completely. Acting as a one-stop-shop for reforestation, DroneSeed provides a wide range of reforestation services to get forest restoration projects up and running in weeks, not years; these services include seed collection, seedling cultivation, aerial drone-based seeding, and carbon offset generation.

To view the complete article, follow here.

Timedoc Health Raises $48.5M From Aldrich Capital Partners

TimeDoc Health, a Serra Capital portfolio company and the leader in virtual care management activation, has closed a $48.5 million Series B round from Aldrich Capital Partners.

The deal will allow the expansion of staff and allow developers to expand the company’s technology capabilities.

To view the entire press release, follow here.

Vytelle Expands Network of Bovine In Vitro Fertilization Labs

Vytelle, a Serra Capital Ag Tech Fund company, announced this week that is has expanded its network of laboratories used for Bovine In Vitro Fertilization. They plan to have three additional labs accessible to cattle producers by the end of the first quarter.

Vytelle is a precision livestock company reshaping how cattle producers worldwide optimize their herds. Through Vytelle’s integrated technology platform, generations of genetic gains can be made in just a few years. This allows producers to sustainably deliver more protein with fewer inputs, helping to ensure meat and milk are viable, competitive food choices for future generations.

Artio Medical One of 10 Companies to Watch

Artio Medical, a Serra III and Serra III SBIC portfolio company, was recently listed on KC Inno’s Inaugural Startups to Watch list. Artio Medical is developing novel, endovascular medical devices for the treatment of peripheral and neurovascular diseases. Artio's first products enable precise and immediate occlusion and rapid sealing of cerebral aneurysms and other target vessel segments using an over-the-wire microcatheter platform.

To see the full article, follow here.

Hazel Technologies Featured on Good Morning America

Hazel Technologies, the company that is trailblazing the way to extending the shelf-life of perishable foods, had a tremendous month in February. Aidan Mouat, CEO of Hazel, appeared on “Good Morning America” over the superbowl weekend - explaining how Hazel had teamed up with Sysco and Avocados from Mexico to optimize their Game Time Guac Box kits.

Hazel is a Serra Capital III portfolio company and is developing new solutions to reduce waste in order to improve the efficiency of the fresh produce supply chain. To view the entire GMA interview, follow here.