Kirsty Barany - Gibson ( 科斯蒂 - كيرستي - कर्स्टी - קירס)

🚀 New Podcast Episode: Draper Founder Spotlight on #StartupSounds by Draper Startup House & Draper House Americas Meet Eloisa Arrarte, co-founder & CEO of POLYMERA, a Uruguayan biotech startup that started with a discovery in Antarctica 🧊 and is now building the future of sustainable super-absorbent materials 🌿. Eloisa shares how her team: Discovered a bacteria that produces a unique natural polymer 🧪 Is tackling one of the biggest unseen sources of waste: super-absorbents in diapers & hygiene products ♻️ Went from lab research to market validation through GRIDX and Draper programs 🚀 📌 “Nature had already invented what the industry needed — we just had to translate it.” 🎧 Listen to the full conversation: 👉 YouTube https://lnkd.in/dEDvzMby 👉 Spotify https://lnkd.in/dyr8hRB5 #StartupSounds #Biotech #Innovation #Sustainability #Uruguay #Entrepreneurship #DraperFoundersProgram

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🚀 Draper Founder Spotlight: FRANCISCO RAMIREZ, CEO of MEDPLACE CHILE Draper House Americas Draper Startup House Three years ago, Francisco made the bold decision to leave a senior role in healthcare to tackle one of Latin America’s biggest medical challenges: the shortage of doctors and nurses to cover hospital shifts. That leap gave birth to Medplace, a platform connecting validated health professionals with hospitals and clinics to ensure surgeries and procedures aren’t canceled for lack of staff. 📈 In just 24 months: 20+ clients onboarded 30,000+ professionals using the platform 19,000+ shifts covered across Chile, Brazil, and now expanding to Argentina & Mexico Francisco joined the Draper Founders Program in Chile, won the competition, and earned a scholarship to Draper University in Silicon Valley. That experience — as he says — “opened my head to the real scale of what’s possible.” On #StartupSounds by Draper House Americas 👉 Watch his full story here: https://lnkd.in/dZZGRGhX 🎧 Or listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dT6-vmzT We’re proud to see Draper Startup House founders transforming industries. 🌍

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🔔 Attention Miami founders, investors, and startup ecosystem players! 🔔 If you're raising or thinking about it, this is one you won't want to miss. Very excited to be participating on this panel tomorrow night (March 17th) at The LAB Miami, where we will bring 5 distinct fundraising perspectives together for what promises to be an insightful conversation. Here's who's on the panel: 🦄 2x Founder Michael Assraf - $60M raised across 2 companies (Vicarius and Flamingo) 💸 VC investor Anuj Maheshwari, CFA of Fuel Venture Capital - an investor in Replit's $3B Series C round 😇 Angel investor Sonja Markova - Executive Director at University of Miami Cane Angel Network 🚀 Serial entrepreneur Sam Payrovi of ARKHAUS - pursued alternative funding and raised across crowdfunding and private investors 📈 Early-stage investor & advisor Ryan Martin (me!) - Managing Partner at Five Spheres and Investor-in-Residence at Seaworthy Collective Moderated by Grace U. - angel investor and Director of Founder Institute Miami. We'll get into the things nobody puts in a pitch deck: → When you're too early to raise (and what to do instead) → How angels and VCs actually evaluate early-stage companies → What fundraising mistakes keep costing founders → Why "alternative" funding isn't a consolation prize If you're building in Miami, this conversation was designed for you. 📍 The LAB Miami | ⏰ 6:00 PM | 🗓️ March 17th Hosted by Founder Institute - the world's largest pre-seed accelerator, with an alumni base that's raised $2B+ in funding. RSVP link in the comments 👇

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Maternal health isn’t just a clinical issue - it’s a business and equity issue. In a new article I co-authored with Dr. Clara Mosquera-Lopez for Healthcare Tech Outlook, we share how BobiHealth is: 👉Using biometric data and AI to catch risks earlier in pregnancy 👉Supporting mental health and combating loneliness with our Bobi BFF chatbot 👉Helping employers and health plans understand the real cost exposure of preterm birth, NICU stays, and lost productivity If you lead benefits, population health, or value-based care initiatives, this is for you. 🔍 Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/gjhf9WFy #LetsMakePregnancySafer HITLAB, BioMedSA, Founder Institute, The PenFed Foundation for Military Heroes, FemInnovation

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Rediscovering Innovation: Tulum Energy’s Journey with Hydrogen Tech Tulum Energy's ability to leverage a two-decade-old curiosity into a groundbreaking hydrogen technology demonstrates how revisiting forgotten ideas can yield significant insights and funding—$27M in this case. At ElevenX Capital, we believe this is a testament to the importance of innovation in energy solutions. How do you evaluate the long-term potential of seemingly outdated technologies in your investment strategies? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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Investors/Pre-Seed Founders - Caduceus LAUNCH, an accelerator designed to propel pre-seed digital health startups toward transformative impact and profitable growth, is accepting applications for its spring cohort through 3/9. I am deeply grateful for Caduceus Capital Partners, LLC ongoing support of Vie Science! Some of the most experienced healthcare investors in the country working with me to build and scale Vie.

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Today we officially kick off our $2M pre seed round for Salubrum (Backed by Forum Ventures), supported by Forum Ventures, Coeus Collective Ventures, and Draper House Americas. Healthcare companies spend over $30B a year trying to acquire patients. The problem is not media. The problem is timing. Every time a patient approaches a healthcare decision a moment opens. Which doctor to see. Which procedure to pursue. Which treatment to start. For the companies involved in that decision, knowing that moment exists is incredibly valuable. Salubrum (Backed by Forum Ventures) is building the intelligence layer that maps those decision moments across the U.S. patient population. Our system aggregates large healthcare datasets covering 300M+ patient identities and uses them to predict when individuals are approaching important healthcare decisions. That signal can then be used by providers, pharma companies, payers, and other healthcare organizations trying to reach patients at the right time. Our first wedge is patient acquisition for healthcare providers and brands, but the underlying intelligence layer has much broader applications wherever patient behavior influences economic decisions. Over the past months we have quietly built the foundation. • Early pilots validating our patient intent scoring system • Distribution partnerships forming across healthcare platforms • Backed by Forum Ventures, Coeus Collective Ventures, Draper House Americas, NEXT Canada and Metta World Peace Starting tomorrow we will be meeting investors as part of the Forum Ventures showcase. If you are an investor interested in building with us get in touch. Calendly: https://lnkd.in/e5j-VvGC Investor Memo: https://lnkd.in/e5HyemAp

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The COLABS Creative Collective began with a simple belief: impact isn’t created by business alone. It’s shaped by art, culture, creativity, and the people behind or its footprint in our society. My interest in art started from visiting the Facebook office in Mexico, and realizing they used the Artist in Residence program to work with local artists create each campus locally. What started as an effort to support Pakistan’s creative community naturally evolved into a platform that uplifts artists, nurtures ideas, and strengthens the cultural fabric of the region. Over time, the CCC has grown into a vibrant ecosystem bringing together artists, audiences, and collaborators through year-round programming and public engagement with support of Zarish Shahzad and CCC Team today Aimen Shah, Ayesha & the rest of COLABS. The CCC has grown steadily and intentionally, because it prioritizes authenticity over scale. Through the CCC’s art programs across monthly events, open-calls and our annual CCC AIR (Artist-in-Residence) program in particular, we have built a space where artists can pause, reflect, and grow with the support of their peers and mentors. This grounding has been further strengthened by the guidance of CCC Advisors, whose experience across art, education, and patronage continues to shape the Collective’s direction. Impact to date has been significant: - Supported 100+ artists across disciplines - CCC Art collection contains 200+ artworks - 10+ COLABS sites with curated artworks - 15+ exhibitions and initiatives - Launched 2 artist residencies under the CCC AIR Programme - Built a community of 50,000+ across digital and physical platforms - Monthly open call receiving over 250+ applications As COLABS expands into Saudi Arabia, the CCC enters its next phase. The vision is to carry this model forward by building a creative footprint in Riyadh that connects South Asia with the wider MENA region. This includes supporting artists through residencies, exhibitions, collaborations, and cultural exchanges, while opening new pathways for emerging voices from both regions to be seen and heard. In parallel with this growth, the CCC is strengthening its governance. We are proud to share that Ali Kazim has accepted the role of Chairperson of the Board of the COLABS Creative Collective, with Faaria Rehman Salahuddin joining as Vice Chair. Ali is one of Pakistan’s leading contemporary artists, with an internationally exhibited practice and a commitment to mentoring emerging artists and strengthening art institutions currently displayed at the British Museum, V&A and the Met. Faaria is a prominent cultural patron and an advisor of the Lahore Biennale Foundation, their work has been instrumental in advancing public art and cultural infrastructure in Pakistan. The mission remains unchanged and now with our entry into Saudi, we want to be able to take artists across borders and connect the region to create meaningful dialogue.

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🚀Pixieray have rebranded to IXI and have announced their $36.5m Series A. 👓Their vision is to improve your vision, with smart adaptive glasses. 🤝We’re thrilled to be a small investor, alongside many other great investors, including Plural, Maki.vc and Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company

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