Breakout Ventures

The journey of bringing bio-based technologies from the lab to the market is anything but easy, and having a trusted guide can make all the difference.  𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦! These industry experts will support Breakout, our portfolio, and our broader ecosystem — from diligencing investment opportunities to commercializing new tech. 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠: ✨ Sridhar Iyengar, PhD: Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Elemental Machines ✨ Coco Krumme, PhD: Founder of Leeward Co ✨ Rebecca Nugent, PhD: VP of HTP Operations at Tessera Therapeutics ✨ Walter Solomon: Board Director and Advisor ✨ Ilan Zipkin, PhD: Founder and CEO of Supercede Therapeutics, Inc. Breakout Ventures is built on the theory that creative bioscience founders need more than just capital to take on the world's biggest challenges in human health and sustainability. Thank you to our venture partners, advisors, and community members for helping us build a bio-based future! 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞: https://lnkd.in/gp4SADTe

So great to see the accomplishments of Gabriel Lavella, PhD, Peter Ledochowitsch and the rest of the team at Canaery get some much-deserved love!

Thrilled to share the amazing technical progress Canaery has made in being the first to achieve scalable, digital olfaction Gabriel Lavella, PhD, Peter Ledochowitsch Jackson Streeter MD Dana Watt, PhD Pae W

You've heard about Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) for humans... but what about 𝐁𝐂𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐠𝐬? (Hang with us here - we promise it will make scents) 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: 👃 Breakout portfolio company Canaery is developing a "nose-computer interface" that could allow dogs to detect a vast range of odors—without the need for specialized training. 💻 Placed near the olfactory bulb, Canaery's neural implant senses what a dog or rat is smelling and decodes the signals via AI software, relaying the compound's identity to a human handler in real time. 🤝 Canaery is teaming up with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to refine the cutting-edge neural interface and confirm early results that the implant remains safe for it's four-legged wielders. 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 WIRED 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 Emily Mullin: https://lnkd.in/gS4RbcPJ

Seeing big upsides to turning CO₂ into valuable resources, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund has joined the push to back Twelve—a major step for decarbonizing industries like aviation, shipping, and manufacturing. 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: 🌎 On a mission to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund invests in startups bringing innovative technology and fresh thinking to diverse aspects of the climate change crisis 💸 The additional $83M from Amazon's Climate Pledge fund brings Twelve recent Series C and project funding total to $728M in the last year alone. Other investors include Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Development Bank of Japan Inc., Greycroft, and more. ♻️ Financing will support the launch of Twelve's AirPlant™ One facility, with uses the company's Opus™ technology to convert CO₂ into sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) and hydrocarbon-based materials. 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲: https://lnkd.in/d3fG_rmz

🌀 In the movie "Twisters," the movie scientists attempt to save their small town by shooting super absorbent polymer missiles into its funnel, hoping to absorb the moisture and weaken the tornado at its core. However, if you shot missiles of super absorbent polymers into a tornado, the damage would be much more destructive long term.  𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲. 🧷 Super absorbent polymers (SAPs) are considered 𝘯𝘰𝘯–𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 and can take several decades to break down. This is the stuff found in hygiene products such as 𝚋̲𝚊̲𝚋̲𝚢̲ ̲𝚍̲𝚒̲𝚊̲𝚙̲𝚎̲𝚛̲𝚜̲. In fact, 300,000 diapers enter landfills or are incinerated every minute. 🤯 I'm not sure we want to stop a category 5 tornado with 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 destruction. So what if there was a way to shoot SAP missiles into a tornado, without causing a catastrophic downpour of everlasting garbage? 🧪 𝙀𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙕𝙮𝙢𝙤𝘾𝙝𝙚𝙢. ZymoChem recently launched BAYSE™, the 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱'𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗯𝗶𝗼-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱, 𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰-𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗔𝗣 as a drop-in replacement for traditional, fossil-based SAPs, a key component in disposable, absorbent hygiene products. And they just announced a 𝗠𝗔𝗝𝗢𝗥 milestone: taking its small scale production of its biopolymer to 𝟰𝟱,𝟬𝟬𝟬–𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲. 👊 Is that enough to stop a category 5 tornado? The world may never know because the concept of the movie is 𝗔𝗕𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗬 𝗕𝗢𝗡𝗞𝗘𝗥𝗦 and scientifically inaccurate. But if we 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 make diapers more biodegradable and stop 432M diapers from entering the landfill in 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬, why wouldn't we give it a shot?

ZymoChem pulled off a major flex in industrial biotech - scaling their process to 45,000 liters to produce the first-ever biodegradable, bio-based super absorbent polymer (SAP). For those less fluent in diaper tech, SAP is the secret sauce that makes baby diapers (and other hygiene products) do their job. The problem? Traditional SAPs stick around in landfills for centuries. ZymoChem’s version? Same performance, zero microplastics, and built to break down. Scaling biomanufacturing is hard. This milestone proves that sustainable materials can hit industrial scale - and that "just as good as the old stuff" won’t cut it. They have to be better. Big congrats to Harshal Chokhawala and the entire ZymoChem team for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in bio-based materials. We're proud to be alongside them for this wild ride.

Promising new biologics therapies are taking the market by storm—but can innovation in their 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 and 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 keep up? 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: 🏥 Right now, many biologic therapies like monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) require intravenous administration in clinical settings—a major hurdle for patients who have to travel and wait for their treatments. 💉 Surf Bio's CEO and Co-Founder Bryan Mazlish sat down with Tom von Gunden to talk about how Surf's polymer-enabled SnapShot technology unlocks subcutaneous drug delivery by increasing solubility and stability. 🏠 Formulated for autoinjector administration, SnapShot opens doors to a future where patients can receive life-changing therapies on their own terms, in their own homes. 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 Drug Delivery Leader: https://lnkd.in/dXdZrQbr

Breakout Ventures really nailed it here. Why would anyone choose brain surgery when safer alternatives exist that are just as good, if not better? This seems like a no-brainer! Did you know that a substantial portion of individuals with quadriplegia still have residual intentional muscle activity in their limbs? Check out the link below to see a demo Meta did in collaboration with Douglas Weber at Carnegie Mellon University showing the use of forearm muscle signals (EMG) for computer control in the setting of quadriplegia...no brain surgery required! Safety matters, and the brain is not always the answer. In fact, the answer often lies within the body's natural means of control -- the muscle. 📍 https://lnkd.in/gZ7pWz4S

The ✨cool factor✨ of Brain-Computer Interfaces is undeniable—as is their potential for restoring mobility and improving lives. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦? 🏥 When it comes to biotechnology, real-world impact should always overrule hype. Experts argue that the future of human-computer interfaces will depend on our ability to focus on patient-first, scalable solutions. 🧠 Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) enable direct communication between the brain and external devices, allowing users to control technology through neural signals. Companies like Phantom Neuro are taking this one step forward, creating technology that translates human intention into movement 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘺. 💻 No matter the form, BCI-related tech must function safely, quickly, and reliably—whether controlling a prosthetic limb or a computer, even without WiFi. 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 Phantom Neuro 𝐂𝐄𝐎 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫, Connor Glass, 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 CES 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 Modev: https://lnkd.in/dQKmj-xC