Safar Partners
Canvas Category Consultancy : Company : Venture Capital
Safar Partners is a seed- to growth-stage venture fund investing primarily in technology companies out of MIT, Harvard, and the University of Rochester. We invest in platform technologies in the cleantech and advanced materials, AI/IT and robotics, and life science/medical device areas.
Assembly Line
Active Surfaces Secures $5.6M in Oversubscribed Pre-Seed Funding to Revolutionize Solar Technology
Active Surfaces, an innovative flexible solar panel startup spun out from MIT, announced it has raised $5.6 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round. The round was led by Safar Partners, a prominent deep tech venture capital fund. Additional participants—including QVT, Lendlease, Type One Ventures, Umami Capital, Sabanci Climate Ventures, New Climate Ventures, SeaX Ventures, and others—reflect a diverse support base ranging from institutional VCs to corporate backers.
Active Surfaces is pioneering the next generation of solar technology with its lightweight, flexible solar panels that can be integrated into virtually any surface. Unlike bulky traditional solar panels, Active Surfaces’ technologies will seamlessly blend into everyday environments, from small consumer products that can go anywhere to large commercial, office, and industrial buildings.
Quaise Energy Raises $21 Million to Accelerate Terawatt-Scale Deep Geothermal Energy
Quaise Energy, the company unlocking terawatt-scale geothermal, announced the closing of a $21 Million Series A1 financing round led by Prelude Ventures and Safar Partners. Mitsubishi Corporation and Standard Investments are among several new investors participating in the round. This latest funding will enhance Quaise field operations and strengthen the company’s supply chain position, while ongoing product development will continue with pre-existing capital.
Quaise is uniquely positioned to harness deep geothermal energy worldwide at 3-20 km below the Earth’s surface. To achieve such a feat, the company has advanced a novel technique to vaporize rock using high-power microwaves in the millimeter range, based on more than a decade of research at MIT and recent testing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The original MIT experiments have now been scaled up 100x, with field demonstrations commencing this year.
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.
RightHand Robotics Secures $66 Million in Series C Funding
RightHand Robotics, a leader in data-driven, autonomous robotic picking solutions for order fulfillment, announces today that it has secured $66 million in a Series C financing led by top growth investors: Safar Partners, a technology venture fund; Thomas H. Lee Partners L.P. (“THL”), a leading investor in automation and supply chain; and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, which is part of the SoftBank Group. Zebra Technologies, Epson and Global Brain also join this round, along with previous investors GV, F-Prime Capital, Menlo Ventures, Matrix Partners and Tony Fadell’s Future Shape. Previous rounds were led by Menlo Ventures and Playground Global.
RightHand Robotics intends to use the funds to accelerate product and business development, while scaling its global presence and partner network. The company will also expand its offices and invest in talent acquisition to support overall growth plans.