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Zal Bilimoria just raised its fourth $50 million Refactor Capital fund and continues to enjoy the status of a stand-alone GP

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Zal Bilimoria has been a solo complementist since 2018 and has no plans to stop. And he attributes this decision to former colleague David Lee, who co-founded Refactor Capital with him in 2016.

He said he would not have been able to start the Burlingame-based company if it weren’t for Lee, a former Google executive who led Ron Conway’s seed-stage enterprise capital fund, SV Angel, for several years. Together, they raised a seed fund of $50 million. When Lee decided to retire in 2018, he wanted Bilimoria to stay Refactoring as an independent family doctor.

Zal Bilimoria, sole general partner of Refactor Capital (Image source: Refractor Capital
Image credits: Refactoring capital / Refactoring capital

Being an independent GP means having full authority to make your personal investment decisions, while also having full responsibility for things similar to fundraising. And while this level of freedom may sound great, it also means there aren’t any vesting partners to push and force VCs to analyze investment decisions in ways that will not have occurred to them. Even though business angels do that, they spend their very own money. The sole investor invests on behalf of the limited partners, who trust that this person will make their money grow.

“He convinced me to stay on my own, and this was at a time when stand-alone primary care physicians were not in vogue,” Bilimoria told TechCrunch. “He told me that since I loved my independence and power and loved spending time with the founders, I should stay alone. I was very nervous, but the more I thought about it and talked to other people, I realized this was what I wanted to do and I haven’t looked back. If I can help it, I will be an independent GP for the rest of my career.”

Bilimoria will not be without its own unique lineage. Prior to joining Refactor, Bilimoria spent almost three years as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he helped launch the $200 million Bio Fund. Before a16z, Bilimoria spent ten years constructing technology products for tech giants including Google, Netflix, LinkedIn and Microsoft. He was also the founder of the consumer mobile startup Sniply.

With Refactor, it invests in corporations “solving the biggest challenges facing society,” he said. In fact, the term “refactor” comes from computer science and refers to making code more efficient.

Being an independent GP hasn’t slowed down Bilimoria one bit. It has subsequently raised three additional funds and has now closed a fourth fund value $50 million in capital commitments to put money into the biotech, climate and hard tech startup spaces.

Since its launch in 2016, Refactor has invested in greater than 100 corporations, 4 of which have turn out to be unicorns, including Solugen, which uses synthetic biology to remove hydrocarbons from the chemical industry, and Astranis, which produces microsatellites.

Last week, Solugen received approx $214 million loan from the Department of Energy’s Office of Loan Programs to construct one other Solugen Bioforge in Minnesota, which can produce chemicals from corn sugar somewhat than crude oil. DOE award given to a small number of startups made a similar loan to Tesla in 2010.

He added that Bilimoria was able to raise the latest fund in lower than 90 days. Ninety percent of the fund was raised by existing limited partners, including firms similar to Knollwood Investment Advisory. The majority of LPs are institutional investors, and the entire group of LPs are U.S. investors.

“I feel very lucky to have this group of LPs,” he said. “I’ve been chasing one institutional investor for the last four funds and I finally got them into this fund, so they’re part of my new 10%.”

Bilimoria is ending investments from the third fund, but has already committed part of the capital from the fourth fund.

This latest fund will proceed to lead pre-seed and seed investments in startups operating in areas similar to novel battery technologies, cancer therapies, in vitro fertilization advances and chemicals. The checks are typically value between $1 million and $2 million and will probably be distributed amongst 20 to 25 corporations over the next three years, Bilimoria said.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident

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Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.

In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”

Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500

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Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.

The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.

More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)

Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.

The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.

Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.

Image credits:Raspberry Pi

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers

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Vision Pro headset

According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.

However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.

Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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