Ascend Capital Partners (Ascend), a female-led venture capital firm based in Luxembourg, has been making waves in the startup world this year.
The company has recently announced four successful investments into promising companies in the mobility and medtech sectors.
Piur Imaging, Nanoflex Robotics, MXD, and DriveU.auto are the four companies that have received funding from Ascend this year.
The investments are part of Ascend’s larger initiative to invest up to €60 million over the next few years into promising startups across Europe and Asia.
Founded by Monita Mo, founding partner, and a serial entrepreneur, Ascend takes a distinctive approach as a lead investor in startups, actively advising and guiding investments at the board level and operationally.
Since 2002, Ascend has generated hundreds of millions of USD in returns from successful investments across Asia and Europe.
Ascend’s latest success was with the sale of Grundium Oy in 2022.
Following this exit and the strong performance of its wider portfolio, Ascend is launching its second wave of investments into industry-changing tech companies.
Closed four deals
So far, the firm has closed four deals this year and has its sights set on further investments in the medtech and mobility sectors.
Piur Imaging is an Austria-based company that has developed a hardware/software solution that bridges the gap between 2D ultrasound and standard 3D imaging modalities. The technology enables tomographic 3D ultrasound imaging for a wide range of clinical applications, with a current focus on thyroid nodule diagnosis.
Ascend led Piur Imaging’s Series A investment round, investing a total of €2.13 million to help the company achieve FDA and CE certifications and ramp up sales.
Nanoflex is developing a robotic system that allows for the precise movement of specially-made catheters using electromagnetic controls. The technology enables surgeons to quickly and accurately navigate catheters with extreme precision throughout the vascular system.
Ascend led Nanoflex’s Series A investment round with €5 million, which will be used to grow the team at a faster rate and move along their clinical regulatory pathway.
MXD, a Shanghai-based startup, focuses on automotive chassis domain control. The company offers intelligent chassis domain control computing platform solutions based on artificial intelligence, novel fusion algorithms, digital twins, and machine learning.
As the principal investor, Ascend invested $5 million in seed funding to establish offices and manufacturing space and ramp up commercialization efforts.
DriveU.auto has developed a software-based technology that enables consistent low latency for 4k video, audio, and other streams crucial for a wide range of autonomous and teleoperated vehicles.
Ascend acted as the lead investor in DriveU’s funding round with participation from existing shareholders.
Looking to invest in 10 startups
As a financial investor with a strong strategic mindset, Ascend is looking to invest in up to 10 startups in the mobility and medtech sectors, particularly those with growth potential in Asia.
While Ascend usually takes on the lead investor role, they are open to co-investments and syndicate partners that align with Ascend’s strategic thinking.
“I believe that the healthcare and mobility sectors have the ability to change how we live. Healthcare guides how humans treat life-threatening diseases and provides preventative measures so that we can live longer and healthier lives. Mobility helps us live fulfilling lives by enabling us to travel to places that enrich our life experiences. We also have our internal environmental, social, and governance goals that we adhere to when assessing potential investments. Both of these sectors have direct and indirect impact on our livelihood and I am proud that me and my team have worked hard to move these industries forward. I want to leverage our team’s skills to help others live better lives,” says Jerry Hong, CEO of Ascend Capital Partners.
