Standout of the week
Ramona Optics
Durham microscopy instruments and analysis software
A $25 million Series A for live biological imaging.
Ramona's September 22 announcement names ARCH Venture Partners as lead, alongside Stealthpoint, ND Capital, Fall Line Capital, Hamamatsu, Murchison Capital Partners and Overlap Holdings. The company says the money supports a larger team across optics, machine learning, biology and industrial design. This announcement is treated as the financing represented by its March Form D, rather than a second round; the filing reported $26,037,360 sold. The two figures describe announced financing and filing-date proceeds, respectively.
Deep dives
Capital
1 round
The $25 million total uses Ramona's announced Series A amount. Its March filing is not added again. NC IDEA semifinalist selection is excluded: no SEED grants have been awarded in this announcement.
Infrastructure
Commercial developments
Sable Fermentation and Saku Biosciences offer one agreement from strain engineering through scale-up
The September 23 announcement pairs Wake Forest's Sable Fermentation with Los Angeles-based Saku Biosciences for US customers. Sable manages the customer relationship, with Saku's PicoShell screening integrated into bioprocess development and scale-up. The arrangement is a service partnership; the announcement reports no investment amount or completed hiring.
Vulcan Elements supplies magnets for Army drones
Axios reports a SkyFoundry supply contract. Value undisclosed.