CerraCap Cares has partnered with luxury electric vehicle maker Karma Automotive to launch InnoV8, a platform dedicated to supporting and funding women entrepreneurs in Southern California.
CerraCap Cares, launched in 2020, is a women-led foundation within Costa Mesa-based venture capital firm CerraCap Ventures.
“We are addressing the current needs to entrepreneurship and the funding gap that women face today,” CerraCap Ventures General Partner Nikki Arora told the Business Journal.
Arora said InnoV8 will mainly target women-led technology startups and businesses in the ideation phases.
CerraCap Cares, an ongoing impact fund, is raising $10 million and has invested $2.5 million since its inception, according to Arora.
InnoV8 opened applications for its first cohort in July at the beginning of the month.
Karma Partnership
Participants in the program will be housed in Karma’s Irvine headquarters and have access to the facility’s resources and equipment, including Karma’s software and hardware labs.
“I think what we can bring to the table is quite broad,” Karma President Marques McCammon told the Business Journal.
McCammon said Karma’s vehicles can also be a “great platform for piloting new technology.”
VR Experience Helps Prepare Kids for Surgery
A professor at University of California, Los Angeles wants to make surgery less scary for kids.
Warren Scott Comulada, co-founder of Before Inc., came up with a solution for pre-op nerves called Surgery Prep, a virtual reality app that walks patients through what happens the day of a procedure.
“The equipment, and even the sounds of an operating room, can be pretty terrifying if it’s something you’ve ever experienced before,” Comulada told the Business Journal.
Before Inc. teamed up with Saritasa LLC, a Newport Beach-based custom software company, for the development of Surgery Prep and officially launched in 2023.
“It’s always fun to take somebody’s idea and turn it into something that they can take to market,” Aaron Franko, vice president of immersive technology at Saritasa, told the Business Journal.
Surgery Prep was recently nominated a finalist in three categories for this year’s Bold Awards, which recognizes innovative technologies and is held in Venice, Italy.
The app is currently available to purchase for $9.99 in Meta’s App Lab.
Expanding Product Line
Comulada was inspired to create Surgery Prep after witnessing the anxiety his 6-year-old daughter at the time felt leading up to a minor surgery.
He enlisted the help of Justin Wagner, a pediatric surgeon at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital, to gain a physician’s perspective on the product.
Surgery Prep is currently self-funded, but Comulada said he wants to eventually start fundraising to expand marketing efforts and to add more medical procedures to Surgery Prep.