Latest news with #BreyerCapital
Business Wire
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Circle Co-Founder Sean Neville Takes Catena Labs Out of Stealth with
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Catena Labs today announced its plan to establish the first fully regulated AI-native financial institution (FI) designed to serve the unique needs of the emerging AI economy. As a first step toward their long-term vision, today the company released a new open-source project defining protocols and patterns for agentic commerce. The company also confirmed an $18 million financing round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Pillar VC, Stanford Engineering VF, and visionary angels including Tom Brady, Bradley Horowitz, Hamel Husain, Kevin Lin, Peter Mattoon, Sam Palmisano, and Balaji Srinivasan. 'Sean and the Catena team have the expertise to meet that challenge. They're building financial infrastructure that agentic commerce can depend on, and we're excited to support their vision," said Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner, a16z crypto. Share Catena was co-founded by Sean Neville, who previously co-founded Circle Internet Group, Inc., and invented the USDC stablecoin. The company aims to address the shortcomings in legacy financial systems that make them poorly suited to the needs of AI agents and agentic commerce. These challenges include the inability to handle agent identity and trust, slow and expensive payment rails, and a broad lack of capabilities designed for AI commerce. "AI agents will soon conduct most economic transactions, but today's financial systems are unprepared and resistant to interactions with automated intelligence," said Sean Neville, CEO and co-founder of Catena Labs. 'That's why we're building an AI-native financial institution that will give AI agents, and the businesses and consumers they serve, the ability to transact safely and efficiently.' Catena plans to use the new funding to accelerate the development of their AI-native FI and its underlying technology. Key investors expressed confidence in the company's approach to enabling the AI economy. "The rise of AI agents is reshaping what's possible in online commerce, making it clear that we need a financial layer built specifically for how these systems operate—one that can handle authentication, payments, and trust at scale,' said Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner, a16z crypto. 'Sean and the Catena team have the expertise to meet that challenge. They're building financial infrastructure that agentic commerce can depend on, and we're excited to support their vision." 'I've been very fortunate to have worked closely with Sean since co-leading Circle's Series A in 2013 and have seen firsthand his rare combination of deep expertise in payments, fintech, AI, and stablecoins. He's uniquely qualified to lead the creation of the first AI-native bank,' said Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of Breyer Capital. 'Integrating AI into commerce demands a rebuild of financial infrastructure. Legacy systems cannot always keep up — and that's why Catena is so compelling.' As Catena works toward its vision for AI financial services, the company is building upon protocols, patterns, emerging standards, and open source components to address new requirements AI agents create for identity and payments. Today, the company released the open source Agent Commerce Kit (ACK), which defines several of these open source building blocks. The company is building on ACK and other emerging standards to offer a broad suite of licensed financial services addressing new risk, security, and compliance challenges that arise from AI systems working as independent economic actors. 'Today's financial infrastructure creates significant friction for AI agents, with slow, fragile, and expensive legacy payment rails constraining the potential for AI commerce,' said Matt Venables, CTO and co-founder of Catena Labs. 'While we are integrating existing payment networks as we bridge into the future, we're focused on transforming how money moves in the AI economy by using regulated stablecoins that offer near-instant settlement, minimal transaction costs, and easy integration with AI workflows.' About Catena Labs Catena Labs is building a regulated financial institution designed for the AI era. The company is developing new financial infrastructure and services to enable AI agents, businesses, and consumers to participate safely and efficiently in the growing AI-driven economy. Catena is actively seeking collaboration with developers, businesses, and partners involved in the AI space.
Forbes
24-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
A physician-venture capitalist Morgan Cheatham joins Jim Breyer to lead healthcare and AI strategy
Breyer Capital Partners Morgan Cheatham and Jim Breyer. Breyer Capital has named Morgan Cheatham as Partner and Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences, marking a significant step forward in the firm's strategy to champion breakthroughs in biomedicine and healthcare AI. Cheatham joins from Bessemer Venture Partners, where he served as Vice President and the youngest Board Director in the firm's history. Cheatham brings an uncommon perspective to venture capital. He's a soon-to-be MD from Brown's Warren Alpert Medical School and a notable published AI researcher who recently earned one of just two spots in the nation's top-ranked Pediatrics-Genetics program at Harvard/Boston Children's Hospital. He also serves on the Editorial Team at NEJM AI. As a rare hybrid of physician, informaticist, and investor, Cheatham is uniquely equipped to bridge the traditionally siloed worlds of healthcare delivery and biomedical discovery. Forbes 30 Under 30 - Morgan Cheatham Cheatham first met legendary investor Jim Breyer a decade ago at Brown University, when Breyer spoke at an entrepreneurship class for which Cheatham was a teaching assistant. 'That encounter shaped the arc of my career,' says Cheatham. 'It was the first time I'd heard someone articulate a grander vision of how computation and investment could reshape medicine on a non-linear scale. I became fascinated by this vision and decided to pursue venture capital after undergrad. Early in my venture career, Jim and I began co-investing,' said Cheatham. They built a shared thesis around computational medicine and transformative care models. Cheatham went on to become a Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners, where he led the firm's healthcare AI thesis and sourced over a dozen early-stage investments, including Abridge and Hinge Health. He also helped incubate and launch a cardiology business and served as Interim CEO at a fast-growing telemedicine company, increasing revenue by 200% in nine months. He was instrumental in Bessemer's biotech practice and co-founded Decoding Bio. Cheatham also launched initiatives like the Deep Health Seed Program and authored frameworks such as '10 Laws of Healthcare' and 'Six Imperatives for AI-First Companies.' He was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list for Venture Capital and honored by the NVCA in 2023. At Breyer Capital, Cheatham will lead healthcare and life sciences investing, with a focus on computational methods and precision medicine approaches. His appointment underscores Breyer Capital's deeper commitment to transformative healthcare innovation at the intersection of AI and biomedicine. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 05: Mogran Cheatham interviews Vineeta Agarwala, Daphne Koller, and ... More Shiv Rao at the 2023 Forbes Healthcare Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 05, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by) Jim Breyer, Founder and CEO of Breyer Capital, is one of Silicon Valley's most successful VCs. He was an early investor in over 40 companies that went public or were acquired, including Facebook, where returns exceeded 100x. Breyer has a strong personal and investment focus on long-term bets in AI, quantum computing, and computational healthcare. He has been named #1 on the Forbes Midas List of Tech's Top Investors three times and has earned multiple lifetime achievement awards in venture capital. SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 05: Jim Breyer attends the 11th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at ... More Barker Hangar on April 05, 2025 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/WireImage) Breyer Capital is a global firm backing long-term, idea-driven investments across AI, healthcare, life sciences, consumer tech, and enterprise software. Its portfolio includes companies such as Meta (Facebook), Grammarly, Circle, Epic Games, Legendary Entertainment, Etsy, and Spotify. The firm invests using Breyer's personal capital alongside select institutional co-investors. Since 2016, Breyer has forged deep ties with research universities like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, UCSF, and UT Austin. In 2025, Breyer Capital partnered with Harvard Medical School's Department of Biomedical Informatics to support AI-powered precision medicine, reinforcing the firm's leadership in healthcare innovation. Breyer contributes generational investing experience, while Cheatham offers deep healthcare and AI domain expertise. Their collaboration represents a rare combination of institutional foresight and next-gen perspective. Breyer Capital's healthcare portfolio includes Artera, Atropos Health, Cleerly, Iterative Health, OpenEvidence, Slope, and SandboxAQ. The firm continues to focus on reimagining the infrastructure of modern care by backing software-driven platforms addressing clinical needs. 'We are thrilled to welcome Morgan to the team,' said Jim Breyer. 'He brings clinical insight, venture experience, and a sharp eye for transformative science.' Cheatham added, 'Scientific and technological progress is outpacing the evolution of healthcare delivery. I'm excited to invest in the next generation of companies born at the convergence of discovery, clinical need, and institutional change.' The hire reflects Breyer Capital's growing conviction that the future of medicine lies in code-driven breakthroughs.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SandboxAQ secures $150m to accelerate quantitative AI
SandboxAQ, a provider of enterprise quantitative AI platforms, has raised $150m in new funding, bringing its Series E round to more than $450m. The latest funding round saw participation from notable investors including Google, Nvidia, Ray Dalio, Horizon Kinetics and BNP Paribas. These investors join a consortium of existing supporters such as Alger, Breyer Capital, Eric Schmidt, Paladin Capital, S32, TIME Ventures, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates. BNP Paribas Corporate and Institutional Banking Global Markets head Olivier Osty said: 'AI and advanced computing are having a powerful impact on financial services, and BNP Paribas Global Markets is proud to be at the forefront of this trend. 'I look forward to working with SandboxAQ to explore innovative solutions at the cross-roads of AI and quantum techniques.' The capital will be used to expedite innovation in quantitative AI and bolster the company's impact across various industries. Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said: 'I bet on the SandboxAQ team and its approach to large quantitative models (LQMs) because I'm impressed by them both.' Originating at Alphabet in 2016, SandboxAQ spun out in 2022 to independently offer firms AI and quantum computing software. Since then, the company has raised more than $950m. The B2B company delivers solutions at the intersection of AI and quantum techniques, with its LQMs advancing life sciences, financial services, navigation, and other sectors. In January 2025, SandboxAQ teamed up with Google Cloud to offer its LQMs on Google Cloud. This collaboration aims to streamline the procurement and deployment of SandboxAQ's solutions via the Google Cloud Marketplace. In December 2024, SandboxAQ raised more than $300m in funding, achieving a pre-money valuation of $5.3bn. This round included contributions from Breyer Capital, Fred Alger Management, Mumtalakat, Parkway Venture Capital, Rizvi Traverse, and T. Rowe Price Associates. Nvidia and SandboxAQ joined forces in November 2023 to simulate chemical reactions to develop new materials and chemical compounds. Under the alliance, SandboxAQ uses NVIDIA's quantum platforms to simulate the quantum mechanics that underlie contemporary material science, chemistry, and biology. "SandboxAQ secures $150m to accelerate quantitative AI" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Forbes
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Top AI Stars Of SXSW 2025, From Waymo Uber To Woolly Mouse
Anime drawing of Waymo and Woolly Mouse at SXSW 2025 created with ChatGPT's new image generation ... More feature. With all of the recent advancements in AI assistants, it seemed only logical that deep reasoning, autonomous agents like ChatGPT would have been crawling all over SXSW this year. But what stole the show were Waymo robotaxis on the Uber app hitting the roads in Austin and a tiny gold mouse with the genes of a Woolly Mammoth taking center stage for the keynote. SXSW has been following Woolly Mouse's creator Colossal Biosciences for years in its pursuit to revive extinct mammals. In 2024, cofounder and CEO Ben Lamm took the stage in an interview with actor Seth Green (Austin Powers) and this year with actor Joe Manganiello (True Blood, Deal or No Deal Islands) to discuss where the technology is heading. Both actors are investors in the company, along with a star-studded roster that includes Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers), Paris Hilton, Jim Breyer of Breyer Capital and the Winklevoss twins, who told me in 2021 when the company launched that it's a moonshot worth taking. In an interview with Manganiello, he shared his excitement over the prospects of the computational biology platform finding cures for epigenetic diseases, where gene expression becomes altered by generational trauma. His great grandmother who survived the Armenian Genocide gave birth to his grandmother while fighting a host of autoimmune diseases that got passed on. 'One of the purposes of my life is tracking all of that down,' Manganiello said, explaining why he's planning to take an active role in the company. Although the company's focus is on de-extinction species preservation, he is hopeful that AI-powered DNA research may lead to eradicating syndromes that continue to baffle doctors. 'I think in the next 15 years we'll have a cancer vaccine,' said Lamm, 'and in the next 20 years, we will achieve longevity.' With a hat tip to Bryan Johnson, the Don't Die guru who also was speaking at SXSW, Lamm added, we already look younger than previous generations, explaining that he's the same age as Wilfird Brimley who was 49 when he played a senior in Cocoon, the 1985 film about retirement home residents who discover the fountain of youth. Riding the AI boom, the company has raised nearly a half billion dollars and is now valued at more than $10 billion, which sounds like a big number for a moonshot, but a mere drop in the bucket when considering that ChatGPT maker OpenAI just announced the largest private round in history, $40 billion at a $300 billion dollar valuation. Plus Woolly Mouse just made its debut appearance on Saturday Night Live. There were other notable AI appearances at SXSW including Rivian, which is on the road to Level 3 autonomy and had a thrilling Electric Joyride where passengers could experience how well the electric car handles tricky terrain and steep curves. Other fun AI-adjacent activations included FX Alien: Earth, Museum of the Future, Paramount Lodge and Escape to Prime Video. At Baratunde Thurston's Life With Machines session, there was an AI assistant that participated as a panelist. And there was an entire track, including my session, dedicated to exploring how we're going to generate enough power to keep up with AI eating the Not AI Ben Affleck steered clear of AI in his action thriller, The Accountant 2, in which the head master of a Hogwarts house of hackers guides him as a smiley face on a cell phone, but is not an AI assistant that could have solved the mystery in the first minute of the film. Poppi founder Allison Ellsworth spoke to me about how their not using AI in their innovation kitchen. The probiotic soda was then acquired by Pepsi for $2 billion immediately following the show. The main takeaway from SXSW 2025 was that AI is now a big part of consumer life. There are 400 million people walking around with ChatGPT in their pocket, asking it every question they used to ask Google as this Perplexity ad spoofs. By next year, that could well be a billion people and the world is going to start looking a lot different as AI takes center stage.
