Have you ever seen the movie Fantastic Voyage? I hadn’t, but everyone I talked to at or around medical micro-robots startup Bionaut Labs kept telling me I had to.
Once I watched it, I saw why—the movie, released in 1966 and starring Raquel Welch, is about a futuristic technology allowing people to shrink down, so tiny that they can enter the human body to do surgery. The movie may be psychedelic and far-fetched, but if Bionaut has its way, that future is imminent (sort of).
Bionaut is building micro-robots that precisely deliver drugs to hard-to-reach areas in the human brain. The company’s goal is to build “an elegant solution…that can reach places in the body we previously just couldn’t go,” said Bionaut CEO and cofounder Michael Shpigelmacher.
So far, the company’s animal testing has been successful, and Bionaut has now raised more cash in anticipation of what will be the company’s biggest challenge yet: human clinical trials later this year.
Fortune can exclusively report that Bionaut’s raised an extension round, which involved the Mayo Clinic, along with existing investors Khosla Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and OurCrowd. Fortune has also learned that Bill Gates’ Gates Ventures has invested, per two sources familiar with the matter. (A Gates Ventures representative didn’t return two requests for comment.)
To date, Bionaut has raised over $70 million, Fortune can confirm. In 2022, the company closed its Series B, led by Khosla, bringing the total the company had raised by then to $63.2 million, according to Crunchbase. Bionaut declined to disclose valuation.
Bionaut’s micro-robot is about the size of a grain of rice and is meant to move through the human body’s bloodstream and tissue to deliver drugs far more accurately than we can today. The micro-robot is controlled through magnetism—Bionaut’s scientists and engineers move the robot through the body by tweaking the electromagnetic field.
“We think that this paradigm that we’re bringing in time could spawn a whole different generation of ways to treat diseases,” said Shpigelmacher, who previously cofounded PrimeSense, a 3D sensor technology company acquired by Apple in 2013 for a reported $345 million (some reports suggested as much $360 million or $400 million). PrimeSense’s technology became FaceID.
Eventually, the company aims to deliver a wide range of treatments dispersed throughout the body via “the Bionaut.” This in mind, Bionaut’s total addressable market is unknowable, but “any number you came up with would be big enough to justify the investment,” said Samir Kaul, Khosla Ventures founding partner and managing director. OurCrowd CEO and founder Jonathan Medved echoed that sentiment: “What I’m hoping for is that one tenth of the potential is realized.”
In the near-term, the company has decided to focus on the area most requiring precision drug delivery: the brain, with the goal of treating diseases like cancer and Parkinson’s. However, the first use case the company is bringing to bear in clinical trials will be comparatively simple: Dandy-Walker Syndrome, a condition characterized by accumulating brain fluid.
Still, Bionaut faces challenges by nature of what they do—biotech hardware is a famously tough-to-predict sector, said Kazi Y. Helal, PitchBook senior emerging technology analyst.
“They’re shooting for the stars by targeting neurology, so that’s a good moat,” he said. The trouble is, it doesn’t matter if you raise a Series C, D, or make it to an IPO, if you can’t get the technology to provide its practical, promised value.
“That’s the big risk for them, and that’s where I’m a little skeptical,” said Helal. “The validation of raising money’s nice, but what’s real is when it goes into a human and there are no toxic effects. We’re still waiting for that.”
So, is this just a far-fetched, psychedelic fever dream? Bionaut’s offices are decorated with sci-fi movie posters, so I’d say they know they’re dreaming—they just have the conviction to believe they can make their dream come true.
Ultimately, Bionaut’s moonshot is its purpose.
“This is what venture is meant for, right? These kinds of big, audacious ideas––not just functional, incrementally better technologies, but genuinely new modalities, truly revolutionary technologies,” Upfront Ventures partner Kevin Zhang told me.
If Bionaut’s successful, we could be far closer to something that, decades ago, was purely sci-fi. The Fantastic Voyage’s title card reads: “Someday, perhaps tomorrow, fantastic events you are about to see can and will take place.”
Well, perhaps not tomorrow, but maybe someday soon.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter:@agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- NinjaOne, an Austin, Texas-based IT automation platform, raised $231.5 million in Series C funding. ICONIQGrowth led the round and was joined by Frank Slootman, AmitAgarwal, and others.
- Starship Technologies, a San Francisco-based provider of autonomous delivery services, raised $90 million in funding from Plural and Iconical.
- IONIX, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based platform designed to identify and remediate risks across all of an enterprise’s network, raised $42 million in Series A funding from Maor Investments, HyperwiseVentures, Team8, and U.S. Venture Partners.
- Colossyan, a London, U.K.-based AI-powered video platform for workplace learning, raised $22 million in funding. Lakestar led the round and was joined by Launchub, Day One Capital, and Emerge Education.
- Kin, a Chicago, Ill.-based home insurance provider, raised $15 million in funding from ActivateCapital.
- Synthetaic, a Delafield, Wis.-based provider of AI-powered visual data analysis software, raised $15 million in Series B funding. LupaSystems and TitletownTech led the round and was joined by IBM Ventures and Booz Allen Hamilton.
- RealReports, a New York City-based AI-powered platform designed to provide detailed information about homes and properties, raised $2 million in seed funding from TTV Capital, ModerneVentures, Erez Capital, and others.
- Flaunt, an Indianapolis, Ind.-based enterprise loyalty management platform, raised $1.8 million in funding. High Alpha led the round and was joined by Square Deal Capital, Service Provider Capital, and others.
- Cimba.AI, a Seattle, Wash.-based platform designed for enterprises to build their own AI agents, raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding. Ripple Ventures led the round and was joined by SeaChange, PackVC, and angel investors.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Novo Holdings agreed to take Catalent(NYSE: CTLT), a Somerset, N.J.-based drug manufacturer, private for $16.5 billion.
- Thoma Bravo agreed to take Everbridge (Nasdaq: EVBG), a Boston, Mass.-based platform designed to assist organizations in anticipating and managing critical events, private for $1.5 billion.
- Aquiline Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Health Prime International, a National Harbor, Md.-based revenue cycle management provider for physician practices. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Investcorp’s Strategic Capital Group acquired a minority stake in Banner Ridge Partners, a New York City-based private markets investment firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Outdoor Living Supply, a portfolio company of TrilanticNorthAmerica, acquired The Rock Place, a Nashville, Tenn.-based distributor of stone, porcelain, and landscape products. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- CBRE Group agreed to acquire J&J Worldwide Services, a Franklin, Tenn.-based provider of aseptic cleaning, maintenance, engineer, and other services for federal government and healthcare facilities, from Arlington Capital Partners for up to $1.05 billion.
- A consortium including Investindustrial and Sammontana agreed to acquire Forno d’Asolo Group, a Maser, Italy-based manufacturer and distributor of frozen bakery products, from BC Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Kinderhook Industries acquired Compactor Rentals of America, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based provider of waste compactor and baler equipment rental solutions, from Bestige Holdings. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- NeOnc Technologies, a Westlake Village, Calif.-based developer of oral and intranasal brain cancer therapies, plans to raise up to $75.9 million in an offering of 3.8 million shares priced between $18.75 and $20.75. Neucen Biomedical backs the company.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- Episode 1, a London, U.K.-based venture capital firm, raised £76 million ($95.3 million) for its third fund focused on early-stage B2B companies.
- Bessemer Venture Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, promoted Ariel Sterman to partner.
- TPG (NASDAQ: TPG), a New York City-based private equity firm, hired Scott Lebovitz as a partner and head of infrastructure for TPG Rise Climate. Formerly, he was with Goldman Sachs.
- YL Ventures, a San Francisco and Tel Aviv, Israel-based venture capital firm, hired Justin Somaini as a partner. Formerly, he was with Unity Technologies.
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