Congratulations EvoNexus Graduates

Congratulations EvoNexus Graduates

SAN DIEGO, CA / January, 2023 / We are pleased to announce the graduation of 14 EvoNexus portfolio companies. Throughout their time in incubation, we saw each of these companies come to fruition through their hard work and accomplishments. Acceptance into the EvoNexus incubation program is an intense process because we only allow the best to be admitted. We look forward to following all of their future successes.

“Startup founders are the definition of risk takers. They create companies, solve difficult technology problems, create compelling products, and identify markets that are nascent. Behind every founder there is a support system of family and friends cheering them on and often living vicariously through the accomplishments of the risk taker. EvoNexus has been fortunate to have worked with over 250 startups and played an important role in their journey. The companies that graduate from our unique program have proven that they have a plan to continue on outside the walls of EvoNexus and set an example for others to follow. I am personally proud of all of them.” Rory Moore, CEO & Co-Founder, EvoNexus

The first graduate company that will be highlighted is UCAP Power, a manufacturer of an ultracapacitor based power solution system called their POWERBLoK solution, intended for the rapid release and storage of energy. Through their time in our incubation program, CEO Gordon Schenk and the UCAP team have experienced many accomplishments, such as the following:

• Awarded a CalTestBed voucher, funded by California Energy Commission through EPIC Funds to conduct third-party testing on the POWERBLoK award winning energy storage solution.
• A loan guarantee that was awarded through the Climate Tech Finance program to give the Bay Area a clean energy boost.
• UCAP Power’s projects are estimated to reduce 680 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year in California by increasing the amount of wind turbine uptime and, therefore, zero-emission electricity production.
• Won Outstanding Venture-Emerging Markets and overall Best Venture Award at the NREL IGF 2022, which is a testament to their vision for the future of energy storage systems.
• Named a 2022 Edison Award winner for their award winning POWERBLoK ultracapacitor based energy storage solution.
• Completed acquisition of Maxwell Technologies assets from Tesla, bringing the roots back to the founders.

Through these and many other impressive achievements, UCAP Power has proved how important their POWERBLoK technology is for the future of sustainable energy solutions. Their reliable and adaptable power storage solutions offer a range of applications and use cases, providing industrial clients with a long-lasting source that can eliminate lead-acid and other hazardous batteries.

The next graduate company that we will be congratulating is Open Sesame Media, a developer of a B2B content platform intended to make applications to increase social connection using advanced technology. CEO Julian McCrea and the Open Sesame team provide a platform that aims at facilitating instant, intimate and social gatherings to build things together and create wealth together. Through their time in EvoNexus incubation, Open Sesame has accomplished the following:

• Accepted into the USC Startup Garage Cohort Company, which is sponsored by Amazon Alexa in 4Q19.
• Filed full patent in September 2022 and trademarked SyncStage.
• Has commercial telecom partnerships and reseller agreements with Singtel, SK Telecom, and Verizon.
• Accepted into the Quake Capital, Deutsche Telekom, and MedienGruppe RTL 5G Consumer Entertainment Accelerator in 2Q20.
• Closed a pre-seed round in 3Q20, led by Quake Capital.

Next we will be highlighting the MIT spin-off graduate company, Brelyon, a developer of headset-free virtual displays designed to replace traditional monitors and virtual reality headgear for metaverse applications. During their time in incubation, CEO Barmak Heshmat and the Brelyon team have experienced many great accomplishments, such as the following:

• Announced a strategic cooperation under which Brelyon will integrate LG Display‘s P-OLED technology into its ultra-immersive virtual monitors.
• Won the SPIE Prism Award in the displays category.
• Raised $15M Series A round to forge new metaverse experienced that go beyond headsets.
• Showcased the latest innovations set to transform the immersive simulation experience at I/ITSEC in collaboration with Lockheed Martin. The companies paired Brelyon’s Ultra Reality, the world’s first headset-free virtual monitor, and Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Pilot training aid.

We are also excited to congratulate, FarmTogether, a farmland investment manager powered by cutting-edge tech on their graduation from EvoNexus. During their time in incubation, CEO Jared Hine and the FarmTogether team have accomplished the following:

• The company’s full portfolio (an AUM worth $200M) has been certified through the Farmland Management Standard, a research program that aims to help agriculture grow faster.
• Announced the launch of its Sustainable Farmland Fund, furthering its mission to open a vital asset class for all investors as demand for sustainable and safe-haven assets reaches new levels.

Next, we will highlight Forest Park, a graduate company that develops a liquidity tool called LoanOS which is intended to make trade execution and external coordination easier. During their time in incubation, CEO Jack Doherty and the Forest Park team have accomplished the following:

• Released the second generation of LoanOS, DynamicMars, in March 2021, which utilized DAG-based cryptographic schemes to create private communications among groups of accounts, enabling 1-n secure channels for transactions.
• With the release of LoanOS 3.0 CosmicJuniper in December 2021, the system gained powerful compliance and access controls with the ability to sync with historical transaction data in the Cloud.
• The release of LoanOS 4.0 ObsidianTurn in December 2022 allowed the system to take a “Quantum Leap into the Future”.

Infima, a Stanford University spin-off company developing technologies that enable mortgage market participants to identify valuable opportunities, reduce risk, and cut costs, is the next graduate company that we are highlighting. Throughout their time at EvoNexus, CEO Hendrik Bartel and the Infima team have made large strides as shown through the following achievements:

• Emerged from stealth and raised a $5M funding round led by AI-focused Radical Ventures. Additional investors include Franklin Templeton and ThirdStream Partners.
• Launched their full solutions suite, partnering with Numerix to offer advanced MBS analytics.
• Set new mortgage-backed security analytics standards with their deep learning technology, broadening standards coverage.
• Presented at Federal Reserve Banks‘s Mortgage Market Research Conference in May 2022.

Our next graduate company that will be highlighted is Noonum. Noonum is a FinTech knowledge engine designed to offer a comprehensive analysis of companies through machine learning and artificial intelligence. Throughout their time in incubation CEO Shankar Vaidyanathan and the Noonum team have achieved the following, but are not limited to:

• An agreement was reached between Credem Group, one of the main and most trusted Italian banking groups, and Noonum. Noonum was selected by Credem from the Franklin Templeton Silicon Valley FinTech Incubator.
• CTO, Steven Gustafson, welcomed as a RAISE guest speaker. He gave a very insightful talk on the difference between practicing artificial intelligence at the university and in industry.
• Launched Noonum Research. Follow along at research.noonum.ai

Pontoro is the next company that is in the 2022 graduating class. They are the financial technology company creating the first institutional-grade digital asset securitization and liquidity platform. CEO Antonio Vitti and the Pontoro team have many impressive accomplishments throughout their time in EvoNexus incubation, listed below:

• Announced a $6 million preferred seed funding round led by Ulu Ventures, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Neva SGR the venture group of Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, Illuminate Financial, Adit Ventures, Fin Venture Capital, Viking Maccabee Ventures, Bloccelerate Ventures, Nevcaut Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, and others.
• Published in the Forbes magazine article, “The Real Value In Asset Tokenization Platforms Has Arrived”.

The next graduate company that we will be highlighting is Propel(x). This is a company that operates an investment platform intended to connect investors with growing startups. It allows individual investors to source, evaluate and fund pioneering science and technology startups, enabling fellow start-up companies to raise capital from a range of investors. Throughout their time in incubation CEO Swati Chaturvedi and the whole Propel(x) team have experienced many great accomplishments, such as the following:

• CEO Swati Chaturvedi was recognized by NYC FinTech Women as an inspiring female FinTech founder.
• Closed a $5.5M funding round including funding from Franklin Templeton, FreeS Venture Capital, Sky Saga Capital, ZhenFund, MIT Alumni Angels of Northern California, and several other family offices and individual angels.
• Positron Dynamics raised a $1.5M round on the Propel(x) patented technology platform.

Next, we will highlight the achievements of the company, QuSecure. They are a developer of quantum-proof security technology designed to offer multi-layer security to protect the entire network from quantum and classical threats. To congratulate CEO Dave Krauthamer and the QuSecure team’s graduation from the EvoNexus incubation program, we have listed some of their achievements below:

• Announced as one of the 2022 winners in The Govies Government Security Awards competition.
• Introduced their quantum orchestration platform, QuProtect™, the industry’s first end-to-end PQC software-based solution uniquely designed to protect encrypted communications and data with quantum-resilience using quantum secure channels. With QuProtect, for the first time organizations can leverage quantum resilient technology to help prevent today’s cyberattacks, while future-proofing networks and preparing for post-quantum cyberthreats.
• Awarded Industry’s First Phase III Designation for Post-Quantum Cybersecurity.
• Announced their QuProtect PQC solution supports all of the post-quantum cryptography algorithms selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for standardization in PQC solutions.
• Won Army’s xTechSearch 6 Competition for Innovative Technology.
• Named the winner of Quantum Cybersecurity New Product of the Year Award 2022 as Best Quantum Cybersecurity Solution.
• Announced that Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer (CPO) Rebecca Krauthamer has been honored in the 19th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business awards program as an award winner in the Most Innovative Women of the Year.

Our next company is Unum ID, a developer of a web-based platform designed to help businesses identify online users through a shared and verified identity. The company’s single identity software links together many verifications about a user into one identity that is shared across companies, enabling businesses to replace passwords with a single identity for everything, online and offline. Throughout their time in incubation CEO Aidan McCarty and Unum ID team have accomplished the following:

• Co-Founders Aidan and Liam McCarty are both recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 in Consumer Technology.
• Raised a $2M strategic round led by 1414 Ventures and Outliers Ventures, with participation from Draper Associates, TappanHill Ventures, and others. This round of funding will cement Unum ID’s position as the leader in reusable identity, supercharging growth from thousands to millions of verified digital ID cards to crack the cold start problem of reusable identity.

Our next graduate company is Lobus, is an operator of an asset management platform intended to build an efficient, accessible, transparent, and booming ecosystem around cultural asset creation and collection – across digital to physical. To congratulate them for their graduation from the EvoNexus incubation program, we have listed some of CEO Lori Hotz and Lobus team’s achievements below:

• • Rasied $6 M from Upside Partnership, 8VC, Franklin Templeton, Dream Machine, Weekend Fund and BoostVC, among others. Angels participating in the round include Rob Hayes, Troy Carter, Suzy Ryoo, Rebecca and Cal Henderson, Henry Ward and Lex Sokolin.
  • Launched a Cultural Innovation Lab led by contemporary artist-entrepreneur Lucien Smith to further support the infrastructure for the evolving needs of the art industry as it meets the new realities of Web3.
  • In addition to having partnerships with around 300 active artists, Lobus has also sold their platform to collectors, artist estates and asset managers.

Next we highlight Micruity, a financial technology infrastructure company that connects insurers, asset managers, record keepers, and plan sponsors on a secure platform to power a lifetime of income products in retirement benefits plans to help everyone plan for a more secure retirement. To congratulate CEO Trevor Gary and the Micruity team for their graduation from the EvoNexus incubation program, we have listed some of their achievements below:

• Closed $5.1M in seed financing to accelerate the expansion of its income connectivity platform that powers annuities inside 401(k) plans, turning retirement savings into protected retirement income.
• Micruity has been attested by independent auditors as SOC2 Type 1 compliant. This means that Micruity’s data security practices meet the rigorous standards set by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA).

Our final graduate company that will be highlighted is iCoin, a pioneer of a new class of hardware wallets for the digital economy, blending consumer-grade ease-of-use with industrial-strength air-gap security. To congratulate CEO Chet Silvestri and the iCoin team for their graduation from the EvoNexus incubation program, we have listed some of their achievements below:

• Announced a first-of-its-kind iCoin Wallet System that includes a sleek hardware wallet which incorporates a 3-inch touchscreen display. It also incorporates a 13-megapixel camera that enables full Air Gap transaction security. An optional Bluetooth thermal printer allows for a convenient and error-free way to securely print and store a 24-word backup seed phrase, along with other important information such as account addresses and transaction receipts.
• Signed a distribution agreement with Verizon to sell the iCoin Wallet System.
• Following CES 2023, iCoin received an award as the Best Bitcoin Wallet by cryptocurrency research firm, Brave New Coin.

Congratulations to all of our new graduate portfolio companies! The doors of EvoNexus will always be open to these companies and their teams and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for each and every one of them. EvoNexus incubation may only be a two-year program, but companies graduate with invaluable experience, knowledge, connections, and mentors.

About EvoNexus
EvoNexus is California’s leading nonprofit technology startup incubator located in San Diego. EvoNexus has successfully incubated over 260 startups with a survival rate of over 85%. Since the incubator’s formation in 2010, EvoNexus companies have secured over $1.6B in venture funding, $8B in pre-exit valuation, and had over 40 acquisitions valued at over $2.1B. EvoNexus is supported by corporate partners, including some of the largest multinational corporations in the world. Learn more at evonexus.org.