Hi everyone,

We hope your summer is off to a wonderful start. We kicked off the season by hosting the 2023 Anzu Partners Portfolio Company Senior Executive Summit in Boston. It was the first time we were able to bring our community together since 2019, and the energy was positive and collaborative. More than 70 senior executives joined us for two days of interactive learning sessions, industry-focused breakout groups and networking opportunities. 

Here at Anzu, we are proud of our portfolio support model, which we believe is a differentiating factor in the venture capital ecosystem. While we usually spend hundreds of hours on diligence, we often spend thousands of hours on support for any given portfolio company. The vast majority of our efforts are spent supporting our companies to grow efficiently, make the commercial connections, mitigate risk, build talented teams, share their stories, and much more. The Senior Executive Summit is a core tool that we use to foster connections, share lessons and inspire solutions within the portfolio, all in the effort to help our portfolio companies thrive.

This year’s participants ranged from CEOs and founders to COOs and technology development executives. Many delivered presentations or joined panel discussions on a wide spectrum of topics, such as fundraising, intellectual property, operations, and the future of AI.

It was a great way to reconnect in real life, after a few years of Zoom rooms. We hope everyone in attendance will continue to utilize and nurture their new connections and take key learnings back to their individual teams.

We have received such enthusiastic feedback from many of our portfolio executives and we are looking forward to an even strong event next year.

Thank you for your continued support, 

David Michael, Managing Partner

PORTFOLIO COMPANY UPDATES

Niron Magnetics Featured in Forbes

Amy Feldman, a Senior Editor at Forbes, recently published a profile on our portfolio company Niron Magnetics, titled Inside The Startup Whose Technology Promises An American Energy Transformation. The article offers an in-depth look at the Niron founding story, insights from their leadership team, customer input, and the company’s plans for growth in the near future.

Anzu Managing Partner David Michael also contributed to the story and commented on the work that the Niron team is doing with their rare-earth free magnets – “This is a major moonshot effort to come up with a new recipe.”

e-Zinc Awarded as 2023 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum

e-Zinc, the company enabling sustainable, long-duration energy storage with its zinc-air battery, was selected among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum’s “Technology Pioneers.” As a Technology Pioneer, e-Zinc CEO James Larsen will be invited to engage with the World Economic Forum, working with global leaders to help address key industry and societal issues. Technology Pioneers will also be invited to join Forum events and discussions throughout the year, bringing together leading stakeholders from the public and private sector. 

“It’s an honor for e-Zinc to be acknowledged as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum,” said Larsen. “Our company and team are dedicated to accelerating the clean energy transition to realize our vision of a zero-carbon future. We look forward to engaging in the Forum’s Centre for Energy and Minerals, to share insights and collaborate with other global leaders in the field.”

 NUBURU Announces Subsequent Private Placement to Increase the June 2023 Capital Raise to $9.2 Million from Existing and New Investors 

NUBURU, Inc., a leading innovator in high-power and high-brightness industrial blue laser technology, announced that, subsequent to the Purchase Agreement previously announced on June 12, 2023 which raised approximately $8.0 million, on June 16, 2023, the Company entered into an additional Note and Warrant Purchase Agreement with certain investors including existing investors, for the sale of (i) convertible promissory notes in the aggregate principal amount of $1.3 million, and (ii) warrants to purchase up to 1,889,535 shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.0001 per share. 

“Our ability to attract both existing and new investors to complete a second funding transaction this month provides further indication that our next-generation technology and market opportunity are resonating with the financial community,” said Dr. Mark Zediker, CEO and Co-Founder of the Company. “This additional capital will help us continue our commercialization and execute our product development roadmap and deliver dramatically improved manufacturing capabilities to our customers in our primary markets: welding, metal additive 3D printing and consumer electronics.”

UC San Diego Partners with Xendee for Testing and Evaluation of Microgrid Controller

Xendee, a leading Distributed Energy Resources, and Microgrid EV infrastructure design and operation software provider, announced that UC San Diego’s Center for Energy Research has entered into an agreement with Xendee to conduct testing and evaluation of its enhanced Xendee Operate control platform at one of UCSD’s test facilities. The project, funded by a CalTestBed Voucher, aims to integrate, validate, and evaluate new AI-enabled forecasting and control algorithms, as well as communication networks, of Xendee Operate. 

Xendee Operate is a cloud-based software solution that enables the efficient deployment of microgrids, following the IEEE 2030.7 standard. By connecting to distributed energy resources (DERs) through standard communication protocols, Xendee Operate optimizes DER scheduling based on local and real-time information. The controller platform will be tested at UC San Diego, allowing for the evaluation of its performance and effectiveness upgrades. 

The announcement was covered by CleanTech San Diego.

 Liquid Instruments and IEEE India to Strengthen Engineering Education with Workforce Development and Modern Tools

Liquid Instruments, a leading innovator of precision software-defined instrumentation, announced that it is partnering with IEEE India’s Global IEEE Institute for Engineers to develop exclusive tools, programs, and activities to increase technical capabilities for engineering students in India. The organizations will focus their efforts on workforce development, advocacy, and creating technical communities equipped with the latest test and measurement solutions.

The partnership, outlined in a memorandum of understanding, will include private and government sector support to set up technical labs with Moku test and measurement equipment, as well as co-hosted seminars to benefit engineering students across India.

ADDITIONAL PC MEDIA COVERAGE

• Voltaiq's partnership with PDF Solutions on AI-enabled battery manufacturing was covered by eeNews Power. 
• Niron Magnetics was profiled in the University of Minnesota’s Alumni Magazine.
• Intervenn's new research was covered in Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News following the company’s presentation at the 2023 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. 

ANZU UPDATES

Summer Analyst Class of 2023

Nooriel Banayan, Senior Summer Analyst

Nooriel is working on his Ph.D. in Computational Biophysics at Columbia University, specializing in protein engineering. His thesis is on building easy-to-use computational tools to expedite drug-target development and discovery. Nooriel was also a former Venture Fellow at Columbia Technology Ventures.

Ishaan Bhattacharya, Senior Summer Analyst

Ishaan is currently an MBA student at Wharton. After completing an undergrad in Physics from Cornell, he worked in consulting at BCG’s New York office for several years, including a year-long stint at the firm’s Vietnam office. He's passionate about soccer, poker, and science fiction. He also recently started learning golf, which is one of the most difficult challenges he's undertaken so far.

Rose Yin, Senior Summer Analyst

Rose is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at MIT, specializing in T cell immunity research. Her primary research focus is on developing computational and analytical models to investigate the link between persistent infection and autoimmunity. In addition to research, Rose was a former Venture Fellow for the Castor Ventures Fund at Alumni Ventures.

James Hou, Summer Analyst

James is currently studying at California Institute of Technology focusing on Computer Science and Business, Economics and Management. He has a strong background and research experience in AI, having written and published AI papers while attending programs at UCSD and Stony Brook University as a Simon’s Fellow. His research in AI spans a multitude of areas including, bioinformatics, AI fairness & policy, computer vision and even disaster response, with his solutions being implemented in the US Geological Survey’s systems. His work has also garnered him recognition as one of the nation’s top young researchers as a Regeneron Scholar.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Anzu Partners and our portfolio companies are hiring

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

FOLLOW US

To stay up to date on the latest news from both Anzu and our portfolio companies, follow us on social media.

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/