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Argon AI Seeks to Help Life-Sciences Clients Make Better Decisions
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By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Startups are creating artificial intelligence for increasingly specific applications, a trend illustrated in the $5.5 million seed financing for Argon AI, whose software is geared toward life-sciences consultants and pharmaceutical companies.
New York-based Argon seeks to help clients quickly generate insights from diverse data sets. A commercial team at a drug developer, for instance, may need to generate a report on the competitive landscape to decide if the company should move into a specific market.
Argon says its system melds Argon’s industry database—which includes information on areas such as clinical trials, medical literature and analyst reports—with the client’s internal data.
It also can generate insights based on those data, according to Chief Executive Samy Danesh, who co-founded Argon in late 2023 with Chief Technology Officer Cyrus Jia. Argon can generate insights on the competitive landscape in minutes, something that could take humans weeks to accomplish, according to the company.
From there, humans verify Argon’s insights. To assist with verification, Argon’s platform provides sources used to generate the intelligence. Once the insights are verified, humans can act on them to make better decisions, according to Danesh.
While humans verify the intelligence, Argon still saves them time because its technology significantly reduces the upfront drudgery of gathering data, according to the company.
Argon plans to use this seed financing, led by Crosslink Capital and Wireframe Ventures, for tasks including building its team and investing in its engineering and life-sciences expertise.
Note to readers: The VC newsletter won’t publish on Friday due to the Fourth of July holiday. We are back on Monday.
And now on to the news ...
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Henry Kravis, one of the founders of KKR, is flanked by Jacob Vogelstein, left, and George Petrocheilos, co-founders of Catalio Capital Management. KKR acquired a minority stake in Catalio in 2023. PHOTO: YANA KOVALEVA
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Life-sciences fundraising. Catalio Capital Management has gathered just over $400 million for its latest biomedical venture fund.
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Catalio beat its $400 million target for Catalio Nexus Fund IV, which tops the $381 million raised for its predecessor in 2022. Managing Partner George Petrocheilos co-founded the firm in 2020 with Managing Partner Jacob Vogelstein. Investment firm KKR acquired a minority stake in Catalio in 2023, and Henry Kravis, a founder of KKR, is now chairman of Catalio.
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Catalio succeeded in its fundraising by consistently returning capital to investors, Petrocheilos said. Since 2020, its venture group has delivered more than $300 million in cash to limited partners, he said. Last year, Catalio portfolio company ArriVent BioPharma went public, as did Catalio-backed Recursion Pharmaceuticals in 2021.
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Catalio has made 16 of an expected 30 to 35 investments from this latest fund, which it plans to invest across biotech, medical device, diagnostics and life-sciences tools companies. It invests globally in early to later-stage companies, including some publicly traded businesses.
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Nordic Capital Acquires Healthcare Analytics Company Arcadia
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European investor Nordic Capital has acquired healthcare analytics company Arcadia Solutions to leverage artificial intelligence’s potential to improve healthcare and save money, WSJ Pro PE reports. The Nordic acquisition marks an exit for earlier investors, such as healthcare specialist Peloton Equity, whose predecessor firm Ferrer Freeman acquired Arcadia in 2012. Other backers include drugmaker Merck’s digital-health venture-capital arm and private-credit firm Vista Credit Partners. Nordic is investing
from Nordic Capital Fund XI, a €9 billion vehicle that closed in 2022 and targets companies valued at more than 300 million euros, or about $351 million. Healthcare investors tout AI’s potential to improve both patient care and safety, as well as make healthcare more affordable as the sector moves toward consumer-centered care models.
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People
Marea Therapeutics, a startup developing medicines for cardioendocrine diseases, appointed Shishir Gadam as chief technical officer. He most recently held the same position at Cargo Therapeutics.
Exits
AbbVie agreed to acquire Capstan Therapeutics, a startup developing a potential treatment for B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, for up to $2.1 billion in cash.
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Field Medical, a Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif.-based startup developing pulsed field ablation technologies for the treatment of complex cardiac arrhythmias, completed a $35 million Series B round co-led by BioStar Capital and Cue Growth Partners.
Portal Biotech, a London-headquartered proteomics platform technology startup, secured $35 million in Series A financing co-led by NATO Innovation Fund and Earlybird Venture Capital.
Gallant, a San Diego-based veterinary medicine startup, closed an $18 million Series B round led by Digitalis Ventures.
Circulate Health, a Seattle-based startup dedicated to harnessing the potential of therapeutic plasma exchange to advance human healthspan and lifespan, raised $12 million in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures.
MediShout, a London-based digital infrastructure platform connecting hospitals with medical suppliers, landed $9 million in Series A funding led by Heal Capital.
Juniper Genomics, a Toronto-based in vitro fertilization embryo screening startup, was seeded with a $4.6 million investment. Company Ventures led the round, which included participation from Amboy Street Ventures and others.
Epigenica, a Sweden-based epigenetic screening tools and solutions provider, picked up a $2.2 million investment led by Voima Ventures.
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New work requirements could go into effect by 2027, though states can request a delay up until 2028. PHOTO: LEIGH VOGEL/GETTY IMAGES
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