The Strength in Getting Naked
Your Friday VC Breakfast Rundown
Trust isn’t built in the pitch deck. It’s built in the pause, the one where you say, “I don’t know, but I’ll get back to you.” The one where you admit a mistake. The one where you put service before self-image. That’s what Getting Naked is about. And that’s what this week’s companies understand: that vulnerability isn’t weakness, it’s leverage.
These founders didn’t win with polish. They won with presence. They showed up without the mask. No false certainty. No puffed-up promises. Just deep conviction and an honest willingness to listen, adapt, and deliver more than what was asked. They aren’t afraid to say, “Here’s where we’re strong, and here’s where we’re still learning.”
That’s not small. That’s transformational. Because the teams that build this way? They don’t have to perform to be trusted. They serve with clarity. They scale with empathy. And the market feels the difference.
This week’s list isn’t just a showcase of product. It’s a signal of posture. Of founders who put the relationship above the optics. And that, in this ecosystem, is rare.
So here’s to the ones who build naked. Who lead without the armor. And prove that trust, once earned, is the greatest advantage of all. Before breakfast. And deep into the build.
HOPPR pulled a $31M Series A (Kivu Ventures, Greycroft, PSG Equity). Founded by Dr. Khan Siddiqui, MD, Dr. Oliver Chen MD, and Robert Bakos, Hoppr compresses medical AI dev cycles from years to months using Grace, a foundation model trained on over a petabyte of imaging across CT, MRI, X-ray. Now medical vendors can validate and fine-tune models in a regulation-ready sandbox that handles 65,000 shades of gray. Office locations in Chicago and Sacramento signal a buildout meant for scale.
Uncountable Inc. secured $27M Series A ( Sageview Capital, SE Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures). CEO Noel Hollingsworth, CTO Jason Hirshman, and CRO Will Tashman have transformed industrial R&D, capturing $13.1M ARR across 120 enterprises in 50 countries. Their cloud-native ELN / LIMS platform shaves months off experimental timelines with machinelearning, not hype. Compliance credentials (SOC2, ISO27001, FDA ready) mean labs can run smarter today.
Materna Medical closed $20M Series B2 ( InnovaHealth Partners, LP, Wavemaker Impact, KIMERA). CEO Tracy MacNeal and board chair Dr. Ariella P. Golomb, MD are taking pelvic health mainstream with FDA-cleared Milli and obstetrical dilator Ellora, backed by NIH-funded trials. Pilot data shows Ellora 100% prevents levator ani avulsion, no fluff, just biomechanical results. With global rollout planned, they’re turning a $25B market into meaningful impact.
GeneCentric Therapeutics announced an initial $8M Series C (Hatteras Venture Partners, IAG, Alexandria Venture Investments). Dr. Charles Perou, Dr. David Neil Hayes, and Dr. Myla Lai-Goldman, and CEO Michael Milburn (Ph.D.) are using RNA expression and liquid biopsy to predict cancer response across multiple tumor types. Their ExpressCT and GenomicsNext platforms uncover insights mutation-blind methods miss. Labcorp partnership accelerates diagnostic deployment in real-world precision oncology.
Tensec raised a $12M seed round (Costanoa Ventures, Quiet Capital, WillowTree Ventures). Founders Helcio Nobre, Sandrine Cousquer-Okasmaa, and Yang W. built an AI-powered cross-border finance stack that clears FX and payments across 150 countries in seconds. In just six weeks post-launch, they processed $4M in FX and now support $10B in trade. With offices in SF, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Mexico City, expansion into APAC and EMEA is next.
Tennr secured $101M Series C (IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, GV (Google Ventures). CEO Trey Holterman, CPO Diego Baugh, CTO Tyler Johnson and the RaeLM platform have slashed referral times from 10 days to 10 minutes. They process 10M docs monthly, powering an eight-figure ARR and launching the Tennr Network to stitch providers, specialists, and patients in real time. This is healthcare workflow done right.
Payabli closed $28M Series B (QED Investors, Fika Ventures, TTV Capital). Co-CEOs Joseph Elias Phillips and William Corbera built a payment infrastructure stack powering pay-in, pay-out, and ops for vertical SaaS in mortgages, utilities, edtech, and govtech. They process real traffic, multiple billions in volume, with 7× YoY growth and 50K+ merchants live. Branded cards, analytics, tokenization, PCID SS4.0, and AI assistant Amigo make it a holistic stack, not just a payments layer.
Grifin raised $11M Series A ( Nava Ventures, TTV Capital, Draper Associates). Co-CEOs Aaron Froug and Bo Starr and CSO Robin Froug turned everyday spending into investing, with 500K users and 100K installs in the last month. Each swipe invests a dollar into that merchant’s stock, Meet Taco Bell and SBUX gains. Especially strong uptake among women 40–60 makes this consumer fintech potent, behavior-driven investing.
Infinity Bio, Inc. landed $8M Series A (Illumina Ventures, PTX Capital, Blackbird Laboratories). Dr. H. Benjamin Larman (tech founder), Dr. Joel Credle, Dr. Steve Elledge and COO Joy M. Nassif have built MIPSA, a platform mapping antibody-protein interactions at scale. Their HuSIGHT, VirSIGHT, AllerSIGHT, MuSIGHT services decode immune responses in high-res to fuel drug and diagnostic R&D, soon EnviroSIGHT enters late 2025. Acquisition of Serimmune Inc. assets deepens proprietary reach into immune profiling.
Actio Biosciences, Inc. secured $66M Series B (Regeneron Ventures, Deerfield Management, Canaan). Dr. David B. Goldstein and Dr. John McHutchison, AO, MD are targeting rare genetic diseases with first-in-class small molecules: ABS-0871 in Phase 1 for CMT2C and ABS-1230 entering epilepsy trials by year’s end. Their Rare Disease Target Atlas spans 4,000 Mendelian disorders, translating variant-level insight into therapy. With $121M total raised, they’re armed for the long haul.
Let’s connect and keep the momentum going across the tech ecosystem. Whether you’re a founder shaping the future, a leader driving change, a VC backing bold ideas, or an investor spotting the next big thing—together, we’re pushing boundaries. Proud to be building the future with you.
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