Harvard University
Canvas Category Consultancy : Research : Academic
Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines who make a difference globally. Founded in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.
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Adden Energy Raises $15M to Expand Accessibility of Electric Vehicles
Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption is one of the most meaningful steps an individual can take to combat climate change. Yet, current battery performance is holding back many consumers from electrification. Beyond the issue of range, EV batteries are slow-charging, have short lifetimes, and are intrinsically dangerous systems. Adden Energy has developed lithium-metal solid-state battery technology that solves these issues. To scale production and bring this technology to car manufacturers, the company has raised $15M in a Series A round led by At One Ventures.
The funding, led by At One Ventures with participation from Primavera Capital Group, Rhapsody Venture Partners, and MassVentures, will be used to construct a roll-to-roll pilot line production facility at Adden Energy’s headquarters in Waltham, MA. The company has already demonstrated technology that can deliver the world’s fastest lithium metal battery in EV-compatible, commercially acceptable pouch cell form-factors. This Series A funded production line will enable them to scale the size of the batteries 100x.
Adden Energy’s next-generation batteries are on track to reach the ambitious goal of EV parity with internal combustion engines by 2028. Based on solid-state battery technology originally developed at Harvard, Adden Energy combines two technologies that have long been goals of the EV industry – lithium metal and fast charging.
Verve Motion Raises $20 Million in Series B Financing
Pioneering the future of industrial safety, Verve Motion, a Harvard University spinout, today announced it has reached a significant milestone by securing $20 million in Series B funding. This achievement, raising the company’s total funding to over $40 million, marks a crucial step in the company’s rapid expansion and the widespread adoption of its innovative industrial-use connected wearable technology, SafeLift™ exosuit.
The Series B funding round, which will play a pivotal role in supporting the company’s goals of market expansion and scaling manufacturing to meet demand, was led by Safar Partners, with new investments from Cybernetix Ventures as well as follow-on investments from existing investors, including Construct Capital, Pillar VC and OUP. The round also included participation from individual investors including Frederic Kerrest, Vice-Chairman and Co-Founder of Okta, and John McEleney, Co-founder of Onshape, and formerly CEO of SolidWorks.
Verve Motion’s technology evolved from work in the Biodesign Lab at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Researchers there developed a soft exosuit with the goal of mitigating fatigue and injury risks for military personnel, work that paved the way for the next generation of wearable robots. The work was supported by DARPA (the advanced research and development agency of the U.S. Department of Defense), the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
This Harvard dropout and her brother launched a company to conserve liquids in factories
That’s because Lu, and her older brother David, 25, have since launched and are now growing their own company, H2Ok Innovations, which uses a combination of hardware and software to improve the efficiency of factories by reducing how much liquid they use.
Since officially launching their sibling enterprise in March 2021, H20k Innovations has raised $6.8 million from investors including Construct Capital, Flybridge Capital, Techstars, 1517 Fund and 2048 Ventures. The company is headquartered out of Greentown Labs in Boston, and is booking revenue. Annie and David were recognized as 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 and in March, H20k Innovations was recognized at Unilever’s annual supplier summit and granted the “Start-up of the Year Award.”