XP Health, a company developing a digital-first vision benefits platform, raised $17.1 million in a Series A funding round led by HC9 Ventures, Valor Capital Group and ManchesterStory. 

Additional investors include Core Innovation Capital, GSR Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Plug and Play, CameronVC, Ken Goulet, Kevin Hill, Jeff Epstein and Brett Rochkind. This recent funding round followed a $5.5 million raise in 2021.

"This round of funding enables us to strengthen the platform’s functionality and provide a stellar consumer experience in the most affordable way to employers, insurance carriers and employees," Antonio Moraes, cofounder and CEO of XP Health, said in a statement.

"We have a game-changing offering for how people access and experience employee benefits – with an ultimate goal to positively impact hundreds of millions of lives through high-quality, accessible and affordable health benefits."

Lung-health company Optellum announced closing a $14 million Series A funding round led by U.K. venture capital firm Mercia, with participation from U.S. firms Intuitive Ventures and Black Opal.

Its Virtual Nodule Clinic software is used to track, assess and characterize nodules in the lungs. The company attained FDA clearance in the U.S., CE-MDR in the European Union, and UKCA in the United Kingdom for the platform. A CE mark certificate (CE-MDR) is needed to commercialize medical devices in the EU. The U.K. Conformity Assessed marking indicates a product conforms with applicable requirements to be sold in Great Britain.

"[Virtual Nodule Clinic] can help physicians identify and track at-risk patients, and optimally diagnose the signs of lung cancer early – so treatment can be started sooner for patients with tumors, and to minimize invasive procedures such as biopsies on benign lesions," the company said in a press release. 

The company behind the Cionic Neural Sleeve received $12.5 million in a Series A funding led by BlueRun Ventures, with participation from EPIC Ventures, LDV Capital, Caffeinated Capital and JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund. 

This round of funding follows Cionic Neural Sleeve’s FDA clearance in early 2022. The leg-worn device provides electrical stimulation so that people with foot drop and muscle weakness can walk more easily. Cionic has so far received $23 million to build its platform focused on human mobility. 

The new round of funds will help the company expand manufacturing and delivery of its mobility technology, and accelerate research trials and commercialization of its products for new indications. 

"Forward-looking investors realize that we need to take action today, and we are proud to be backed by a group of investors who recognize the need for better solutions and have joined us in our mission to redefine human mobility," Cionic founder and CEO Jeremiah Robison said in a statement. 

Kaleidoscope, a cloud-based research platform that maps data usage by R&D teams, solidified a $6 million seed financing round.

It was co-led by Hummingbird Ventures and Dimension, with participation from SV Angel, Hawktail, Caffeinated Capital and individual investors.

The funding will help the company further develop the platform’s product and expand the company’s team, especially with software engineers. 

"The way people work in research is changing. Kaleidoscope bridges the gap between teams on a platform that integrates with other software tools. The funding will enable us to deliver the best product and user experience to make research more collaborative, reproducible and scalable," Bogdan Knezevic, CEO and cofounder of Kaleidoscope, said in a statement.

Arcascope, a health technology company focusing on circadian rhythm disruption, announced it closed a $2.85 million seed round.

The round was led by Supermoon Capital, with participation from New Dominion Angels, Inflect Health, Inception Health, the Accelerate Blue Fund, the Monroe Brown Seed Fund, AIoT Health, HealthX Ventures and other angel investors. 

The company is launching a circadian rhythm management platform, currently accessible via the smartphone app, Shift, to address the sleep needs of shift workers. 

Surge, a company developing machine learning technology to decode a patient’s blood sample to forecast the risk of postoperative complications, announces a $2.6 million round co-led by HCVC and Boutique Venture Partners, with participation by Nicolas Godin. 

The company also obtained the exclusive license to the patented postoperative complication prediction technology from Stanford University, which includes 10+ years of research on surgical risk prediction. Surge also signed a research agreement with Stanford intending to develop biotech innovations. 

This new round of funding will support the company in developing its team further and in conducting clinical studies with more hospitals.