Engine Ventures

It is crucial to diagnose blood cancer patients as early as possible, as there are few cures that exist and many existing treatments are highly toxic. Predicta Biosciences was founded at Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab Longwood by leading academic and clinical experts from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who are clinicians in multiple myeloma and cancer genomics spanning Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The Predicta team is building a platform that provides targeted information for diagnosis, treatment decisions and monitoring - providing patients with non-invasive tests to optimize treatment plans. Congratulations to Predicta on the $5.2M seed round. https://lnkd.in/eBdEt9tS

Thank you to Maria Gallucci at Canary Media Inc. for speaking with Katie Rae and our portfolio companies Boston Metal and Sublime Systems about The Engine Ventures Fund III news.  Her coverage eloquently depicts how we’re succeeding in our mission to help fill the vast funding gap for Tough Tech companies, including those working to decarbonize heavy industries. As Tadeu Carneiro, CEO of Boston Metal puts it: “From the start, The Engine Ventures has recognized the importance of decarbonizing steelmaking and has been instrumental in helping us grow and scale our technology.  Anyone who knows climatetech knows that Katie Rae is a real changemaker.” Leah Ellis of Sublime Systems agreed: “The Engine has played a pivotal role in building this needed capital base and ecosystem that supports companies like Sublime as we work towards swift and massive impact.” Check out the coverage: https://lnkd.in/e3Mri5aR

VEIR CEO and MIT alumnus Tim Heidel spoke with MIT News about his education + professional journey and the company’s mission to transform the power grid. “We can deploy much higher power levels at much lower voltage, and so we can deploy the same high power but with a footprint and visual impact that is far less intrusive, and therefore can overcome a lot of the public opposition as well as siting and permitting barriers,” Heidel says. https://lnkd.in/dvScGjCw

Fusion energy is key to solving our current climate crisis and Commonwealth Fusion Systems is leading the way to ensure the industry pursues fusion in a responsible, measured way. Read CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard’s open letter to rally the ecosystem to build public trust and advance the commercialization of the science: https://lnkd.in/eSzHz5xA

Lithium is a key component in electric vehicle batteries that is abundant but can be hard to process. This week, Lilac Solutions released a long-awaited white paper on its ion exchange technology for direct lithium extraction. Lilac’s technology combines higher lithium recoveries, rejection of impurities, longer cycle and higher throughput, increasing lithium extraction, and unlocking a wider range of resources. In fact, the technology can recover more than 90% of the lithium found in many brine formations, and it has cut the construction cost of its system by 50%. On the release of its 24-page white paper, CEO Raef Sully said: “With this technology, we’re not just improving lithium extraction efficiency; we’re also enhancing the sustainability and economic viability of lithium production.” Read more about Lilac’s technology milestone in Reuters: https://lnkd.in/e_cPavKB https://lnkd.in/eWGJx2c4

Today, Foray Bioscience announced $3 million in seed funding. Congratulations to the team! Foray has developed an advanced plant cell culture platform that eliminates the need for conventional harvesting. Unlocking biomanufacturing for plant-based industries is essential to ensuring access to plant-sourced goods while protecting and restoring our natural ecosystems. https://lnkd.in/gBvQp7Gt

Today we are thrilled to announce the final closing and launch of The Engine Ventures’s Fund III. With $398M in fresh capital, our latest fund brings the firm’s total assets under management to more than $1 billion. With Fund III, we will continue to deploy across the brightest and most ambitious founders, scaling our investment model to help bridge the gap from discovery to commercialization for climate, human health, and advanced systems technology.  More here: https://lnkd.in/eQddsdky https://lnkd.in/e4pwf6ZY

DBOS, Inc. is reimagining a secure, resilient operating system for the cloud computing era. On June 18th, DBOS co-founder Dr. Mike Stonebraker and a group of MIT & Stanford researchers are hosting a live webcast discussing how rethinking the cloud-native stack can dramatically increase developer productivity.  Register here: https://lnkd.in/eJbq5YBw

Steel is a critical material in our infrastructure, but its production currently contributes to two billion tons of global CO2 emissions annually. Boston Metal presents a revolutionary approach: coal-free, emissions-free, and modular industrial steel production powered by electricity. This innovative method ensures steel is efficiently produced at reduced costs while emitting zero greenhouse gasses. Since spinning out of MIT in 2012, Boston Metal has seen incredible traction. Last week, it was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential Companies. Congratulations to the team for this well-earned recognition. https://lnkd.in/gUiCX8Yc

Congratulations to RISE™Robotics on their $15M raise. At a time where the demand for electrically powered heavy machines is rapidly increasing, this financing - along with over $11M in funding through commercial and defense projects - will enable RISE to further its mission of revolutionizing the way industries operate heavy machinery. https://lnkd.in/eH2M7Tt8