Portfolio Companies Step Up In Response To Covid-19

A roundup of activity from our portfolio related to the novel coronavirus:

• Airway Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing new interventions for acute and chronic lung diseases, is investigating whether its protein replacement therapy could be used to treat novel coronavirus.  Airway has filed with the respiratory diseases branch of the National Institutes of Health to evaluate its lead drug candidate, AT-100, as a possible therapeutic option.  You can read coverage of it in Forbes.
• Prolonged school closures caused by COVID-19 forced schools to abruptly shift to a model of remote and virtual learning.  Access to a school's digital education resources have never mattered more.  Education technology company Abre responded immediately, by offering its software Hub free to school districts.  The Hub can be up and running in a district in minutes, and gives students, parents, faculty and school staff a single place with a single sign-on to access all of a school's software.  As featured on TechOhio.
• Portfolio company LISNR, which is developing a contactless payment platform that enables devices to connect securely via ultrasonic frequencies, sees opportunity in a COVID-19 world, in which consumers are increasingly wary of touching touchscreens and cash, and social distancing keeps us six feet apart.  The Business Courier spoke with LISNR co-founder Chris Ostoich.
• ReadySet Surgical was asked by a client hospital to create a tracking system for its fleet of respirators, which are being sent to field hospitals.  ReadySet, which offers software to manage surgical inventory and supply chain, is offering the ventilator tracking software free for the next six months.