Tech tackles deadly allergies + 40K UAE residents scammed
A weekly selection of news and investment opportunities from OurCrowd, the global venture investing platform
Startup of the Week
Ukko: mRNA vaccine for life-threatening food allergies
Hundreds of millions of people suffer from food allergies, and experts predict the numbers will continue to climb in the coming years. To date, there are only two FDA-approved therapies which provide some relief, but they are suboptimal products for both patients and clinicians. Ukko, a US-Israeli startup, employs AI and protein design to develop mRNA vaccines for the prevention of life-threatening allergic reactions. The vaccines modulate the immune system to induce tolerance, while minimizing risk of allergic reactions that are the challenge for current standard of care. The company’s platform micro-engineers allergenic proteins with the goal of eliminating allergenicity and retaining the allergen’s ability to re-educate the immune system. Ukko’s lead program is an mRNA peanut allergy vaccine which the company projects will enter clinical trials in 2026. OurCrowd has an allocation in Ukko’s oversubscribed Series B-3 round led by Israel Biotech Fund with participation from Khosla Ventures, Bayer Leaps, and Fall Line Capital.
CLAAS farm machinery connects with CropX platform
CropX, OurCrowd’s global platform for precision agronomy, established a powerful new digital connection with CLAAS, a global manufacturer of agricultural machinery based in Germany that enables CLAAS users to import their machine data into CropX for visualization, analysis, and creation of variable rate application tasks. The integration between CropX's agronomy platform and CLAAS' digital farm and fleet management platform is the latest in a series of similar deals with other major agricultural equipment manufacturers around the world, enabling farmers to drive down costs and boost production by saving water and fertilizer while increasing crop yields. “The seamless integration of agronomic data into the CropX platform enables customers to boost their productivity through informed decision-making, thereby enhancing the efficiency of practices such as irrigation,” says Wolf-Christian von Wendorff, SVP of Global Digital Solutions at CLAAS. CropX is currently funding on the OurCrowd platform.
NeuReality CEO seizes ‘once in a lifetime’ AI opportunity
Before founding AI inference chipmaker NeuReality, Moshe Tanach served as Director of Engineering at Marvell and Intel, Antoine Tardif reports for Unite AI. As CEO of NeuReality, an OurCrowd portfolio company, Tanach is at the forefront of developing the future systems that will help make AI affordable and efficient. “ NeuReality was built from inception to solve for the future cost, complexity and climate problems that would be inevitable with AI inferencing – which is the deployment of trained AI models and software into production-level AI data centers,” Tanach says. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to really transform AI system architecture for the better based on everything I learned and practiced for 30 years, opening the doors for new AI innovators across industries and removing CPU bottlenecks, complexity, and carbon footprints.” NeuReality’s new round is now funding on the OurCrowd platform.
BioCatch: 40,000 UAE residents lost millions to online scams in past year
More than 40,000 UAE residents lost millions of dollars to scams in 2023-24, with only 9% of victims able to recover their losses, according to The State of Scams in the United Arab Emirates, a new report from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and OurCrowd portfolio company BioCatch, conducted for the UAE Government Cybersecurity Council and TRENDS Research & Advisory. Credit cards and bank transfers are the top payment methods exploited by scammers. According to the survey, 19% did not attempt to recover their funds while 57% tried but were unable to recover any money. The survey found that most scams are delivered via instant messaging, with WhatsApp by far the most popular scam-delivery platform in the UAE. Online scams are now accepted as part of everyday life – more than half of respondents said they encountered one at least once a month – but they still leave victims emotionally shaken, the report says.
OSSIO raises $27.6M for orthopedic implants
OSSIO, OurCrowd’s fast-growing medical device company, raised $27.6M in equity funding in a round led by Questa Capital with participation from existing investors ‒ MVM Partners, OCV, Ortho-Vision, and Courage Capital. Since the company’s first product launch in 2019, more than 50K OSSIOfiber implants have been used in a broad range of orthopedic procedures. OSSIOfiber implants provide strong fixation while leaving nothing permanent behind, avoiding the risk of complications associated with metal and similar materials. After serving their fixation function, they fully integrate and are replaced with the patient’s natural bone. “This new investment in OSSIO strengthens our ability to build upon our proven claim as the most innovative and differentiated implant technology to enter the $16B orthopedic fixation market,” says OSSIO CEO Brian Verrier.
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EVERY wins US DOD grant to onshore manufacturing
The EVERY Co., an OurCrowd portfolio company crafting highly functional protein ingredients without animals, won a $2M award from the US Department of Defense to conduct a feasibility assessment of a US site to onshore its biomanufacturing from Europe and Asia. The US site would manufacture EVERY’s two core proteins: a highly soluble protein designed for protein-boosting and ovalbumin ‒ a product designed for functional egg and egg white replacement for which it was recently granted a foundational patent. EVERY will also develop military use cases for its proteins, chiefly using its soluble protein to deliver superior quality nutrition in high-density formats. “Our technology allows us to bring novel applications to market using our soluble protein. Imagine a glass of water that looks and tastes like water, but contains 20 grams of protein,” says EVERY CEO Arturo Elizondo.
SeeTrue installs 100th AI-based baggage screening system
OurCrowd portfolio company SeeTrue installed its 100th X-ray checkpoint system as more airports and travel hubs adopt its AI-based threat detection software to screen passenger luggage and other items. The system was recently tested at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, among other major facilities. Every month, SeeTrue systems scan more than 2.7M bags around the world, intercepting more than 1.5M prohibited items. “We’re proud to help customers around the world make checkpoints seamless and secure. This milestone of more than 100 checkpoints is evidence of our partnership with our customers and the value they get from our technology,” says Assaf Frenkel, Co-founder & CEO of SeeTrue.
Tala marks 10 years, $5B loans to 10M underbanked customers
Tala, the OurCrowd portfolio company that offers financial services and credit to underserved customers worldwide, has reached 10M customers across three continents while providing 40M loans totaling more than $5B since it began operations in Kenya in 2014, Woman.ph reports. Founder and CEO Shivani Siroya’s vision is to provide financially underserved populations with access to financial services through innovative solutions. “Financial inclusion is our mission in Tala. Achieving 10M customers reflects our longstanding commitment to serving the Global Majority, or those who historically have been excluded from accessing traditional financial services due to a lack of credit score or history,” says Moritz Gastl, General Manager of Tala Philippines.
Arrow Global selects SEI as strategic growth partner
Arrow Global, a leading European alternative-asset manager whose private debt offerings are accessible to OurCrowd investors, selected SEI (NASDAQ: SEIC) to support its fund administration, loan operations, and investor services for its private credit fund domiciled in Luxembourg. SEI is the largest administrator for private market funds in Luxembourg and the largest private credit fund administrator by assets globally. “As access to the alternatives market continues to expand, asset managers like Arrow Global are looking to meet investor demand through technology and operational solutions that are tailored to their needs and increase efficiency,” says Bryan Astheimer, Head of SEI’s Investment Managers business in Europe.
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Startup Beat is a weekly selection of news and investment opportunities from OurCrowd, the global venture investing platform.
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OurCrowd is a global venture and private market alternatives investing platform. To date we have more than $2.3 billion in commitments, 240,000 registered investors, 480 portfolio companies, 58 venture funds and 68 exits.