Checkerspot Closes $5 Million Series Seed Financing

BERKELEY, Calif., June 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Checkerspot Inc., a materials innovation company, announced today that it has closed its Series Seed financing for over $5 million. The round was led by KdT Ventures, and included Viking Global Investors, Refactor Capital, Sahsen Ventures and Godfrey Capital. DIC Corporation also invested as part of its recently announced Joint Development Agreement with Checkerspot.

Cain McClary, general partner of KdT Ventures, will be joining the board of directors along with David Greenwood, who also participated in the financing and has worked with the company as an advisor since 2016.

Checkerspot's innovation platform integrates biology, chemistry and fabrication. The company's initial materials focus has been on materials derived from novel triglycerides (oils) from microalgae.

"We are so excited to support Checkerspot as they build capabilities that will allow for new green chemistries and fabrication to open doors to products and materials capabilities not yet imagined or even thought possible. The experience of the founding team and their integrated approach to partnerships and products across their disciplines is unique and a driving force at the company. Checkerspot's eventual expansion into a myriad of verticals will reveal the true power of the platform as their customers and the company itself forge new ground," said Cain McClary of KdT Ventures.

"At Checkerspot we've sought out partners, including investors, that think differently, share our passion for innovation and share our mission to create new-to-the-world high-performance materials and unique products that also take the environment into account. Existing, converging technologies are unlocking a whole new world of development, allowing us to design with intention and enable better ways of doing things," said Charles Dimmler, CEO and co-founder of Checkerspot.

"We see triglycerides as molecular scaffolds. Our technology platform leverages an understanding of biology, chemistry, materials science and fabrication, and through it, we believe we can imbue these molecules with properties that dramatically enhance the performance of Checkerspot's materials. As we grow, we'll continue to innovate around this platform, further developing its precision to allow us to penetrate into more and more applications areas," said Scott Franklin, CSO and co-founder of Checkerspot.

About Checkerspot: Checkerspot is a materials company. Advances in our understanding of biology, chemistry and materials science are converging with breakthroughs in data science and unleashing capabilities we once only imagined. Checkerspot's technology unlocks this potential, expands the palette of materials available to product designers and enables a more intentional way to design performance materials for specific applications. As a graduate of the Illumina Accelerator program, we are building a technology platform that enables the design – at a molecular level – of new materials. Through applications development, we prototype and iterate on specific product embodiments. By engaging directly with product users and partnering with socially responsible corporations, we design and bring to market superior products with better materials. For more information, please visit www.checkerspot.com.

About KdT Ventures: KdT Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on the enablement that data and frontier computational technologies have brought to the physical and life sciences. To this end, KdT invests in transformative technologies and platforms across the verticals of medicine, chemicals and agriculture, utilizing an extensive network of fellow entrepreneurs, advisors and funders to support its portfolio companies. For more information, please visit www.kdtvc.com.

About David Greenwood: Mr. Greenwood currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of Corium International, a drug development and delivery company. He served as executive chairman from 2012 to 2015. In addition, Mr. Greenwood is an advisor to a number of public and private companies. Mr. Greenwood is a former chief executive officer, chief financial officer and director of Geron Corporation, a biotechnology company in the fields of regenerative medicine and cancer. He was previously chairman of the board of Geron Bio-Med Limited, chairman of the board of TA Therapeutics Ltd., a board director of ViaGen Inc., Clone International and Parnell Pharmaceuticals. He also currently serves on the President's Task Force at Pacific Lutheran University and previously served on the board of regents, including on the executive committee and as chair of the development committee. From 1979 to 1995, Mr. Greenwood held various positions with JPMorgan & Co. Incorporated, an international banking firm. Mr. Greenwood holds a BA from Pacific Lutheran University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Contact: Genet Garamendi at [email protected]

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