Mike Millard

🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup has a new unicorn, a vision for Healthcare AI, insights on AI deployment, & collaboration across the Texas Bio Triangle infrastructure. 🧬 💰 Funding & Capital Signals Say hello to Austin's newest Bio & Health unicorn! Curative raised a $150M Series B at a $1.275B valuation to expand its $0 out-of-pocket, AI-enabled health plan into new markets. 🤝 Partnerships & M&A L7 Informatics is teaming with Leica Biosystems to integrate L7|ESP with Leica platforms to deliver AI-ready, end-to-end pathology lab informatics. 💡 Insights from Local Builders & Innovators 8VC’s “A Vision for Healthcare AI in America” argues that regulation, not technology, is the main bottleneck keeping AI out of direct care delivery. 🏙️ Community HIMSS Central Texas Chapter's December 12 CXO Forum is bringing together health and technology leaders. I will be moderating a panel with Kevin W. Barron, FHFMA, EHRC, FACHE, Brandon T., and Crystal Kilburn, MHA, RHIA, CRCR on AI in the revenue cycle. Come join us. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle Houston & San Antonio: Salarius Pharmaceuticals is partnering with Texas Biomedical Research Institute on avian flu studies to generate first in vitro data on pan-influenza candidates, including H5N1. Houston: Avance Biosciences, Inc. opened a Potency and Cell-Based Assay Center of Excellence in Houston to support GMP-compliant potency and functional assays for biologics, RNA therapeutics, vaccines, and cell and gene therapies. What’s Next? 🤠 🚀 🦾 🧬

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🧬 This week’s Austin Bio & Health Roundup has national recognition, important clinical milestones, and action across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 🏆 Recognition ClosedLoop, The Helper Bees, and Wheel were named to TIME’s 2025 World’s Top HealthTech Companies list. Diligent Robotics was selected for the inaugural Physical AI Fellowship from AWS, NVIDIA, and MassRobotics. 🔬 Research & Medical Advancements Faeth Therapeutics is reporting positive Phase 2 data in ovarian cancer to be presented as a late-breaking abstract at ESMO 2025. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle Houston: Eli Lilly finally confirmed their $6.5B biomanufacturing plant tied to its oral GLP-1 program. Houston: Coya Therapeutics, Inc. launched ALSTARS, a Phase 2 randomized study of COYA 302 in ALS. Houston: CNSide Diagnostics secured national UnitedHealthcare coverage for its CSF tumor diagnostic test. San Antonio: Texas Biomedical Research Institute is partnering with Advanced Virology to commercialize a reverse-genetics plasmid platform. What’s Next? 🤠 🚀 🦾 🧬

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🚀 From surpassing 1 GW of renewable computing projects to groundbreaking at Project Kati in Texas, 2025 has been a year of momentum for #Soluna. Now, we’re scaling even further with a $100M credit facility from Generate Capital to finance our pipeline of clean data centers. The future of computing is renewable. And we’re building it. More on the announcement: https://lnkd.in/dWpjC-pV #SLNH #RenewableComputing #DataCenters

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Drove along the Bay Bridge with Shaun Johnson, Founding Partner at AIX Ventures ($250M AUM), backing deep technical founders building category-defining AI companies from day zero. We talked about growing up in Texas selling refurbished computer parts, why he left CS for electrical engineering after a summer at Intel, and how building six startups before business school gave him the operator lens that now shapes his investing. We also got into AI’s leap from software to robotics, the case for humanoid form factors, and why AIX is betting big on TechBio, where AI-native companies are launching with 10+ therapies, skipping animal trials, and patenting proprietary wet-lab data.

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Thrilled to announce G2 Venture Partners' latest investment in Lumafield, alongside IVP, Lux Capital, Matter Venture Partners, and other incredible partners. Lumafield is revolutionizing industrial inspection with AI-powered CT scanning, enabling manufacturers to detect critical defects that traditional inspection methods such as vision often miss. Imagine being able to avoid catastrophic recalls like those seen with Takata Airbag, Samsung Galaxy Note 7, and GM Chevy Bolt. We first met Eduardo Torrealba in 2022 and were inspired by his vision to build the next >$100B company in inspection technology. Today, Lumafield serves manufacturers of all sizes—from global leaders like Unilever, Thermo Fisher, Axon, and New Balance to small businesses with as few as five employees. We look forward to partnering with the Lumafield team in their pursuit to help manufacturers ship with confidence. Check out our Why We Invested blog here: https://lnkd.in/g7AWev2g

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While some of us were debating the best pies for Thanksgiving (the undisputed champion revealed below), Koch Disruptive Technologies' portfolio companies continued their hot streak. Let's get to it, but leave room for dessert. 🛰️ Astranis Space Technologies introduced Vanguard, a new satellite-enabled mobile ad hoc network. By pairing an on-orbit MicroGEO satellite with field-proven terminals and networking gear, Vanguard lets defense, public safety, and industrial teams stand up a resilient, air-gapped network for voice, video, and data in minutes—not days. 🚨 🚨 AQUISITION ALERT: Celestial AI has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Marvell Technology in a deal valued at $5.5B! 🚨 🚨 AQUISITION ALERT x2: Mayhem was acquired by Bugcrowd. Navin Maharaj, my cube mate, said it best, "As software development accelerates and attack surfaces expand, integrated platforms like Bugcrowd’s are uniquely positioned to lead. This move strengthens their market presence and amplifies their ability to deliver long-term value across the enterprise landscape." 🚨 🚨 NEW investment alert: OnRamp announced their $15M Series A led by KDT to help accelerate their AI-powered capabilities and further strengthen their lead as the solution of choice for modern customer success teams. Hundreds of companies already rely on OnRamp's platform to accelerate customer adoption, strengthen relationships, and turn customer success into a revenue engine. So, tell me, what are you waiting on? Sema4.ai rolled out serious data upgrades to its Enterprise AI Agent Platform—DataFrames, re-architected Document Intelligence, enhanced Worker Agents, and an upgraded Agent Studio—so enterprises can automate complex workflows with accuracy you can audit, not just demo. Since launch, it has helped Fortune 500 companies automate more than 80% of work in areas like reconciliation, compliance, and contract processing, including invoice workflows at Koch, where AI agents are cutting costs, strengthening controls, and, as Koch’s CTO Matt Hoag put it, “setting a new standard for productivity and operational excellence.” Trackonomy's technology now orchestrates over 15 million shipments every day across 200+ airports across the globe, and their partnerships are stacking up. First, Delta Air Lines' cargo division announced their joint solution with Tracknonomy to optimize containers, pallets, ground support equipment and cargo. Second, and not to be outdone, Jettainer announced their new long-term IoT partnership to track over 100,000 ULDs worldwide. For you supply chain transformation folks out there, this quotation from CEO Erik Volkerink sticks out: "Behind the scenes, we're becoming the de-facto standard for scalable, reliable, and industrial-grade digital transformation across logistics." Dessert: It's pumpkin pie. Hands down. Don't @ me with some non-believable, "But you've never tried THIS apple pie." 🙂 I'll see you in the New Year with more updates.

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AI isn't just powering software. BrightAI just raised $51 million to automate inspection and other hardware-based AI capabilities. As Alexa von Tobel, co-founder of Inspired Capital put it: “So many people are so focused on the future of digital AI, but we’re excited about this new layer of AI: the physical world AI.” We are in the early innings of a series of AI-fueled innovations! https://lnkd.in/enhmafvH

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