Good day. With a few exceptions, dental health hasn’t captured much venture-capital attention. Founders of Revere Partners, a new venture investor specializing in oral health, see that as an opportunity.

Venture capitalists conventionally have been better-versed in other areas of healthcare, said Jeremy Krell, managing partner of New York-based Revere Partners, which has taken in $50 million from investors and intends to increase the total to $200 million.

Consequently, the dental-technology sector is fragmented, populated by many startups that have scraped to raise money from dentists, large companies in dental health, and venture capitalists who don’t specialize in their sector, said Dr. Krell, who is a dentist.

“There’s a lot of product options,” Dr. Krell said. But, “ There is no centralized investor perspective.”

The U.S. dental-services market will be worth about $196.18 billion by 2027, according to a 2021 report by market-research and consulting firm Precedence Research. Dr. Krell co-founded Revere in 2020 but the firm has kept relatively quiet until now, wanting to announce itself after it was better established, Dr. Krell said. Revere has made 24 investments and has had a successful exit from one of these companies, though it hasn’t publicly revealed the company’s name, Dr. Krell said.

Because of its specialization, Revere can assist portfolio companies in areas such as finding executives and co-investors best-suited to their business, Dr. Krell said. One sector Revere is targeting is revenue-cycle management technology for dental practices, he said. Many companies offer technologies to help dentists in areas such as handling patient payments, insurance verification and claims processing.

Revere invests in what it sees as the best startups in this sector and showcases them together at live events to illustrate their potential for dentists, he said.

And now on to the news...

Cancer drugs. Biotech startup Meliora Therapeutics Inc. has secured $11 million in seed funding to try to uncover how cancer medicines actually work and hopefully develop new ones that have a greater chance of stopping the disease. 

• Some 97% of cancer drugs fail in clinical trials, often for reasons that are unclear, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine by researchers including Jason Sheltzer, an assistant professor of surgery and genetics at Yale School of Medicine, and a co-founder of Meliora.
   
• Meliora founders say they’ve found at least one reason the failure rate is so high: Cancer drugs often don’t work the way their developers thought they would.
   
• Typically, companies design drugs to inhibit a protein believed to be vital to cancer cells. If that drug fails, it could be because the protein the drug hits isn’t as important to the cancer’s survival as previously believed. Meliora aims to use machine-learning and other tools to discover how cancer drugs do their work. This will enable these compounds to be honed to hit the most important target proteins.

Biotech startup Meliora Therapeutics Inc. has secured $11 million in seed funding to try to uncover how cancer medicines actually work and hopefully develop new ones that have a greater chance of stopping the disease, Brian Gormley reports.

Some 97% of cancer drugs fail in clinical trials, often for reasons that are unclear, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine by researchers including Jason Sheltzer, an assistant professor of surgery and genetics at Yale School of Medicine, and a co-founder of Meliora.

The company’s founders say they’ve found at least one reason the failure rate is so high: Cancer drugs often don’t work the way their developers thought they would.

Noodle Analytics Inc., a technology startup that develops supply-chain software, has raised $25 million from investors including the venture-capital arms of aerospace and industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. and business-software company ServiceNow Inc., WSJ Pro’s Marc Vartabedian reports. The financing highlights the growing interest corporations have in teaming up with startups they think can give them a leg up in streamlining their operations since the pandemic began disrupting supply chains more than two years ago.

Funds

KdT Ventures, which invests across therapeutics, diagnostics, chemicals, materials and agriculture, closed its third fund at $80 million. Earlier this year, the firm promoted Phil Grayeski and Rima Chakrabarti to partner, and Ketan Yerneni to principal. Austin, Texas-based KdT raised $50 million for its preceding fund in 2021.

People

5AM Ventures, which invests in early-stage life science companies, said Arthur Tzianabos and June Lee joined the firm as venture partners, with Joseph Loscalzo joining as a venture advisor. Mr. Tzianabos was previously president and chief executive of Homology Medicines Inc. Ms. Lee was chief operating officer, executive vice president and chief development officer at MyoKardia. Mr. Loscalzo was chief of cardiology at Boston University. 5AM Ventures has offices in San Francisco and Boston.

Kyros, a digital platform for the recovery community, added Nick Christianson as chief financial officer. He previously held the same position at Troy Medicare. In June, Kyros said it raised a $4.4 million seed round led by Rally Ventures.

Exits

Prescription management platform Prescryptive Health Inc. acquired Northwest Pharmacy Services Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Redmond, Wash.-based Prescryptive is backed by investors including Morningside, SeaChange Fund and Pallasite Ventures.

Visus Therapeutics Inc. is expanding its ophthalmic drug development portfolio with its acquisition of all patents and other assets of ViewPoint Therapeutics Inc. Terms weren’t disclosed. Seattle-based Visus Therapeutics is backed by investors including Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc., RTW Investments and EQT Life Sciences. ViewPoint counted The Rise Fund and Novo Holdings as investors.

Pheon Therapeutics, a U.K.- and Cambridge, Mass.-based startup developing treatments for a wide range of hard-to-treat cancers, emerged from stealth with $68 million in Series A funding. Brandon Capital, Forbion and Atlas Venture co-led the round, which included participation from Research Corporation Technologies. Jonathan Tobin, partner at Brandon Capital, was appointed chair of Pheon’s board.

Sudo Biosciences Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical startup whose lead programs seek to treat immune-mediated inflammatory conditions, closed a $37 million Series A round led by Frazier Life Sciences and Velosity Capital.

Rippl, a mental health startup focused on caring for seniors with dementia and other neurocognitive conditions, launched with a $32 million seed investment. Led by ARCH Venture Partners and General Catalyst, the round included contributions from GV, F-Prime Capital and Mass General Brigham Ventures.

Form Bio Inc., a computational life sciences platform that spun out from Colossal Biosciences, launched with $30 million in Series A funding led by JAZZ Venture Partners. The company is based in Dallas and Austin.

XP Health Inc., a San Carlos, Calif.-based vision-care startup, raised a $17.1 million Series A round. HC9 Ventures, Valor Capital Group and ManchesterStory led the investment, which included additional support from Canvas Ventures, Cameron Ventures, Core Innovation Capital, GSR Ventures, Plug and Play and others.

careviso Inc., a Falls Church, Va.-based diagnostic testing technology provider, secured more than $17 million in Series B financing. Ballast Point Ventures led the round, which saw participation from Mercury Fund and Lytical Ventures.

Qnovia Inc., a Richmond, Va.-based startup developing inhaled therapeutics with an initial focus on nicotine replacement therapy, landed $17 million in Series A financing. Lead investor Blue Ledge Capital was joined by DG Ventures, Evolution VC Partners, Gaingels, TL Capital and Vice Ventures in the round. 

Elucidata, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biomedical data platform, fetched $16 million in Series A funding. Led by Eight Roads Ventures, the round included participation from F-Prime Capital, IvyCap Ventures and Hyperplane Venture Capital.

Doccla, a London-based provider of virtual ward and patient monitoring technology, closed a £15 million Series A funding round. General Catalyst led the investment, with Managing Director Chris Bischoff joining the company’s board.

Optellum Ltd., a U.K.-based provider of an artificial intelligence platform to diagnose and treat early-stage lung cancer, collected $14 million in Series A funding. Mercia Asset Management led the investment, which saw participation from Intuitive Ventures, Black Opal Ventures, IQ Capital and others.

Cionic, a San Francisco-based bionic clothing startup, picked up $12.5 million in Series A financing. BlueRun Ventures led the round, which included support from Caffeinated Capital, EPIC Ventures, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund and LDV Capital. BlueRun’s John Malloy will join the board.

DocSpera, an intelligent surgical planning platform, snagged a $10 million Series B round led by Pier 70 Ventures and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc.

• The science-backed strategies that will actually help you eat better
   
• Biogen agrees to pay $900 million over alleged improper physician payments
   
• Alzheimer’s blockbuster might spur investor bonanza, higher Medicare costs
   
• Recession fears save pharma from drug-pricing concerns

• On the Texas-Mexico border, a bold plan to diversify Alzheimer’s research takes shape (STAT)
   
• The pandemic created a ‘perfect storm’ for Black women at risk of domestic violence (MIT Technology Review)
   
• When will the pandemic truly be ‘over?’ (Wired)
   
• In survival mode, Exicure cuts to the bone — pausing all R&D and chopping headcount by 66% (Endpoints News)

This newsletter was compiled by Brian Gormley, Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc