Greetings,

In this edition of our newsletter, we turn our attention to Azumo, our Chicago-based portfolio company developing innovative display and lighting solutions. Azumo’s cutting-edge LCD 2.0 display technology and innovative Thin Film Illumination solutions have the potential to reshape the display industry.

Their technical advancements enable mobile devices to be sunlight-readable (and better for our eyes) while simultaneously reducing power consumption of the display by an estimated 90%. From consumer electronics to medical devices, defense systems, industrial machinery, educational tools, and even automotive interfaces, Azumo’s technology can elevate and reimagine user experiences.

To date, the company has demonstrated steady revenue growth of 145% CAGR ('21 to '23). Management also reports starting the year with a healthy backlog in customer orders to help keep the company on this growth trajectory. 

Azumo kicked off 2024 making the rounds at several high-profile tech events, including at CES, Mobile World Congress (MWC), and LOPEC, where the company showcased its Thin Film Illumination and new switchable privacy display solutions to receptive industry partners and press.

At MWC, Azumo unveiled its Nano-Thin Film Illumination (Nano-TFI), which enables product designers to create enhanced “smart surfaces” that feature touch and dynamic, high-resolution illumination across a broad array of materials including glass, plastics, wood grain veneer, and carbon fiber.

Lenovo also debuted its award-winning Project Crystal – a fully transparent concept laptop that features Azumo’s Nano-TFI for the transparent keyboard.

We expect to see continued forward momentum from Azumo, as the company expands its intellectual property portfolio (currently more than 70 patents) and secures additional product design wins. As investors, we are eager to see Azumo’s display technology make its way into more of our everyday products like laptops, tablets, and electric vehicles and will look forward to sharing those exciting developments in future communications.

Best,

John Ho, Partner

PORTFOLIO COMPANY UPDATES

Niron Magnetics Secured Funding from Samsung Ventures, Allison Transmission, and Magna

Niron Magnetics, the company pioneering the world’s first high-performance, rare earth-free permanent magnets, received $25 million in new strategic funding. The round was led by Samsung Ventures, which has the investment mandate to closely track the strategic priorities of leading consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung and encompasses investments in consumer electronics, semiconductors, telecommunications, and more. Allison Ventures, the venture capital arm of Allison Transmission, leading designer and manufacturer of vehicle propulsion solutions, was also part of this funding round, along with one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, Magna.

With this new funding, Niron will expand its pilot production facilities, enhancing its ability to serve diverse clientele and support customer prototyping programs. The company will also scale up manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand and accelerate research and development efforts to drive continuous improvement in performance and efficiency.

The news was featured in Automotive Dive, Twin Cities Business, Audio Xpress and more.

CytoTronics Launched its Pixel System and Won the SLAS 2024 New Product Award

CytoTronics, a pioneer of semiconductor-based platforms for discovery in cell biology, revealed its new Pixel™ system at the 2024 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) international conference and exhibition in Boston, MA.

Pixel dramatically accelerates the scale at which cell biology applications can be executed, and the breadth and depth of live-cell insights obtained. For the first time, scientists can now assess live cell function with simultaneous monitoring of cell viability, morphology, electrophysiology, metabolism, and more while generating non-invasive electrical "images" with single-cell spatial resolution. CytoTronics also kicked off its early-access program for Pixel to empower cell biologists to unlock applications that were previously inaccessible.

The Pixel system received the 2024 New Product Award from SLAS 2024. The SLAS New Product Awards Review Panel rigorously evaluates newcomers based on technical merit and commercial feasibility, along with other criteria such as market opportunity, impact of the product, originality, and proof of concept.

The launch was covered by the Boston Business Journal, Drug Discovery World, and BCBN.

 GelSight Signed Global Partnership Agreement with Hexagon

GelSight, a pioneer in tactile intelligence technology, announced a global partnership agreement with Hexagon, a global leader in digital reality solutions, combining sensor, software, and autonomous technologies.

Following GelSight’s win at Hexagon’s second Sixth Sense open innovation platform last year, GelSight and Hexagon have now established this global reseller agreement for GelSight’s product line, including the GelSight Mobile™ and GelSight Max™. The formal partnership and collaboration between GelSight and Hexagon will also accelerate the time to market for future products that offer more complete solutions to pressing manufacturing issues, such as the shortage of qualified labor.

GelSight CEO Youssef Benmokhtar was also featured as a speaker at this year’s Sixth Sense event as part of a Fireside Chat on Powerful Partnerships, and shared how the Sixth Sense program unlocks opportunities for its cohort members.

The news was covered by Quality Digest, Metrology News, Automation.com and other trade publications.

South 8 Technologies Demonstrated Lithium Nickel Manganese Oxide (LNMO) Battery Electrolyte

South 8, the developer of LiGas®, liquefied gas electrolyte for advanced lithium-ion batteries, demonstrated high performance on cobalt-free, low nickel, and high-energy battery cells designed for next generation electric vehicles (EV). This work is supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) through the EVs for American Low-carbon Living (EVs4ALL) program. An automotive OEM is South 8’s partner in this project.

In the first six months of the three-year effort, South 8 demonstrated world-class performance on 18650 lithium-ion batteries. Specifically, LiGas electrolyte demonstrated full compatibility with a 4.6-volt commercial LNMO cathode. Energy retention at -20°C (-4°F) was measured at 96%. This compares to less than 5% retention for standard liquid LNMO electrolyte at the same temperature. Further LiGas electrolyte testing demonstrated 87% energy retention at -40°C (-40°F).

The news was covered by Emerging Technology News, Power Progress, Batteries News and other trade publications.

NTx Appointed Steven Evans as Chief Scientific Officer

Nature’s Toolbox (NTx), a life sciences company building next generation platforms to manufacture RNA and protein, appointed Steven Evans, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of R&D.

With a distinguished career at global pharmaceutical leaders like Pfizer and GSK, Steve brings a wealth of drug development strategy and knowledge, as well as scientific leadership spanning multiple disease areas. His expertise in translational pharmacology and immunology has been pivotal in the development of different drug modalities from discovery through clinical phases as well as driving organizational investment into novel drug development platforms and first-in-class assets. At NTx, Steven will leverage his extensive skills in executive leadership, strategic planning, and cross-collaboration to drive the company’s R&D initiatives to new heights.

BioFlyte Appointed Clark Griffin as Vice President of Engineering

BioFlyte, a bioaerosol surveillance firm with a disruptive new class of fieldable biological threat collection, detection, and identification solutions, appointed Richard C. (Clark) Griffin as Vice President of Engineering. In this role, Griffin will lead BioFlyte’s engineering group, executing full lifecycle product development and commercializing its groundbreaking bioaerosol surveillance solutions.

Griffin has over four decades of experience in all aspects of product development – from concept, technical requirements and design to integration, testing and production. He has a proven track record of successfully launching products into the automotive and defense markets and a methodical approach to engineering teams that improves outcomes. Griffin comes to BioFlyte from The Boeing Company where he led systems engineering efforts for multiple laser development programs.

ANZU PARTNERS UPDATES

Anzu Joins Ven^x: The First Deep Tech Venture Capital Collaborative in Boston

Anzu Partners is excited to be a founding member of  Ven^x (ven^x), a hub in downtown Boston for venture capital firms to collaborate, share knowledge, and build synergies to become a force multiplier for the deep tech ecosystem. Anzu Partners is joining forces with Hitachi Ventures, Myriad Venture Partners, SkyRiver Ventures, and commercial real estate consulting firm The Steele Group, to create Ven^x .

Each firm has a strong connection to Boston’s deep tech heritage and well-regarded universities that regularly spin out innovative deep tech startups, which have been built upon scientific or engineering breakthroughs. The collaborative will share access to an office space to foster collaboration, to host events for the local deep tech community, and to bring other VC firms into the fold. To learn more about Ven^x or to join the community, please contact our Partner, John Ho. 

Ven^x launched with a cocktail party at its Boston office in late February, and was covered by TechCrunch, Boston Business Journal, BostInno, and other publications.

Upcoming Events

Anzu representatives will be attending the following events in the coming weeks: 

March

• CERAWeek 2024 – March 18-22 in Houston, TX
• Future of Utilities Energy Transition Summit – March 20-21 in Amsterdam, NL
• Future Food Tech – March 21-22 in San Francisco, CA

April

• American Academy of Cancer Research Annual Meeting– April 5-10 in San Diego, CA
• SBIA West Coast Capital Summit & CapitaLinx – April 11 in Los Angeles, CA
• Energy Tech Summit – April 10-11 in Bilbao, Spain
• Solar & Storage Live USA – April 10-11 in Philadelphia, PA
• VC Platform Summit – April 15-17 in Miami, FL
• BNEF Summit – April 16-17 in New York City, NY
• Innovation Zero – April 30 – May 1 in London, UK

Please reach out to info@anzupartners.com if you’re interested in meeting with us at any of these events.

Welcome to Anzu

Wilson Poole, Investment Director

Wilson Poole is based in Atlanta. A Georgia native, Wilson attended Georgia Tech where he earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering along with a certificate in finance. Prior to Anzu, Wilson worked for an early-stage manufacturing company in the aerospace and defense industry. In this role, Wilson’s responsibilities included leading prototype developments, researching and qualifying new government and consumer technology programs, and crafting white papers and formal contract proposals. At Anzu, Wilson will conduct diligence and source new technologies in the industrial materials and climate technology sectors.

ADDITIONAL ANZU & PC MEDIA COVERAGE

• XGS Energy was profiled in The Journal of Petroleum Technology following its recent financing.
• Voltaiq was included in a story in Autoweek on the costs of starting up a battery plant.
• Niron Magnetics CEO Jonathan Rowntree gave an interview to Automotive Industries about its Clean Earth Magnet technology. 
• Sofregen was featured in a Works in Progress article about the future of silk. 
• NTx was mentioned in a Bloomberg article about biologic supply chain dependence on China.
• BioSkryb Genomics was featured in a GenomeWeb piece on single cell analysis companies.
• OTI Lumionics' co-founder Jacky Qiu was quoted in a CNBC piece on Apple’s Vision Pro and OLED panels.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Anzu Partners and our portfolio companies are hiring

Browse the open roles here and learn more about joining our amazing teams.

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ABOUT ANZU PARTNERS

Anzu Partners is an investment firm that focuses on industrial and life science technology companies with the potential to transform their industries. Anzu works with entrepreneurs to develop and commercialize technological innovations by providing capital alongside deep expertise in business development, market positioning, intellectual property, global connectivity, and operations. For more information, please visit https://anzupartners. com/.