Today, China dominates rare-earth mining and processing.
But that wasn’t always the case.
Solcoa’s @hoomanrenezhad explains how the West lost its rare-earth mojo:
"So contrary to popular belief, we do mine in the West. We have an enormous rare earth mine in Australia. There’s one in California."
“The actual raw feedstock is not rare."
“The bottleneck is what you do after it. It’s the processing. That is something that we’re completely unable to do in the West."
“We actually invented these processes in America."
"The technologies used to make rare earths in China today are American technologies from the Manhattan Project.”
“We built this technology and these systems, and then we shipped it to China. China dominated. They matured it. They took over.”
Now his company is trying to bring that capability back to the U.S. with a process built for today’s economics.
“If we were just copying that same technology stack again, it was impossible. The economics don’t close.”
Let’s make some metal!!
Rare earths are foundational to many of the world’s most important technologies. Producing them end-to-end in the U.S. was considered impossible by some, until @hoomanrenezhad and Artem Iurkovskyi did it in a year with @solcoatech.
@alysaaco discusses their journey.
Alysaa Co retweeted
Today we're announcing $75M to build Solcoa One, our 500-tonne rare earth metallization plant in Nevada.
At Solcoa, we believe rare earths are the foundation of America's next great industrial era. An era we intend to win on the merits, with superior American technology.
I'm honored to share that @BainCapVC is leading @solcoatech's $75M seed financing.
One year ago they were proving chemistry on a demo line, they've since scaled to a full production facility in Alameda, and today announce Solcoa One, their 500-tonne rare earth metallization plant in Nevada.
I'm grateful for @hoomanrenezhad and Artem's leadership at this critical time. They bring the ability to fundamentally rethink a process while moving faster than many thought possible.
We @BainCapVC are leading the $25M seed financing in @corridorbrokers
SMBs have been sold the leftovers of the health insurance market for decades. Corridor gets them the best.
May the human remain the best interface. Honored to on board.
Bain Capital reaches every corner of the economy, from Proterial to athenahealth and Canada Goose. As tech’s old boundaries disappear, its intersection with the real world has always been our domain.
Thrilled to announce BCV’s new $1.6B fund to back the founders using technology to transform the world’s most important industries.
Make money. Have fun. Live with integrity. Everything else can change.
Fund XI. $1.6B total capital for those who know that it will.
Alysaa Co retweeted
In 1987, when Bain Capital was ≈3 years old, the early partners came up with the briefest possible mantra for running the firm: make money, have fun, live with integrity.
Excited that BCV has another $1.6B to do that. @kevinzhang , @ChristinaPhili5 , and I wrote a bit about those principles and the role that capital should play in a technological revolution:
baincapitalventures.com/insi…
Make money. Have fun. Live with integrity. Everything else can change.
Fund XI. $1.6B total capital for those who know that it will.
Alysaa Co retweeted
AI labs figured out that curing cancer could be pretty good for the brand.
They might be right, but finding more molecules will only impact society if we change the long, expensive, and unpredictable process required to bring each one to market.
Our $150M Series C will help us scale the Forus network to change the economics of developing and launching new drugs. I shared more on @tbpn this week.
Investors should only back companies they’d quit their jobs to join ‼️
Forus is that company for me.
Over the last few months I’ve been fortunate to be forward deployed with the team. Seeing their speed up close has only increased our conviction.
Sahir has the rare combination of healthcare depth from his time leading product at Oscar, a transformational vision for Forus, and a magnetism to assemble one of the best applied AI teams anywhere.
Pair that with @kevinzhang ‘s decade-plus relationship with Sahir, and we couldn’t imagine not doubling down to lead Forus’ Series C after first backing the company at inception.
Unfortunately, @sahirjaggi still hasn’t offered me a FT gig.
We’re announcing that Forus has raised a $150M Series C at a $3B valuation to build the AI network for medicine.
Medicine will remain one of the world’s most important industries until humanity achieves immortality, and we are only at the beginning of a new era in what it can do. GLP-1s are changing obesity and cardiometabolic disease. Gene therapies can treat diseases at their genetic source. New cancer treatments are turning diagnoses that were once fatal into diseases people can live with. AI is enabling us to discover of new drugs even faster.
But discovery is only the beginning. It still takes more than a decade and billions of dollars to turn a new molecule into an approved medicine, and once it reaches market, more than a third of patients prescribed specialty treatments never receive their first dose.
Forus is creating the AI network to accelerate the entire medicine pipeline, from development and launch through prescription and treatment. We connect the companies creating medicines with the doctors who prescribe them and the patients who need them.
Today, Forus supports millions of people across all 50 states and is already used by providers to treat patients in 85% of U.S. residential ZIP codes. 9 of the top 15 global biopharma companies work with us, alongside many fast-growing biotechs. Our goal is to put Forus in every doctor’s office in the country and unlock an order of magnitude more medicine for society.
There is a generational opportunity to rethink how new medicine reaches people. Forus is becoming how medicine moves from discovery to treatment in America, and as we scale, we’ll become the most important company in life sciences.
Forus is not constrained by capital or customer demand; we are constrained by the talent and capacity of our team. To take on the opportunity in front of us, we need exceptional engineers and operators in New York who want to move fast and help us make something that matters. Come build with us.
Our Series C was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Redpoint, BoxGroup, Pear VC, Vast Ventures, and SV Angel investing alongside them.
Today, we’re announcing that Forus has raised a $150M Series C at a $3B valuation to build the AI network for medicine.
The round was led by @BainCapVC with participation from @ThriveCapital, @generalcatalyst, @Accel, @Redpoint @BoxGroup, @pearvc, @AvraCap, @humancapital, @neo, @vast_ventures, and @svangel
Forus supports millions of people across all 50 states and is already used by providers to treat patients in 85% of U.S. residential ZIP codes. 9 of the top 15 global biopharma companies work with us, alongside many fast-growing biotechs.
Our goal is to put Forus in every doctor’s office in the country and accelerate the medicine pipeline from discovery to treatment.
The opportunity ahead of us is much larger than what we can take on today. We aren’t constrained by capital or customer demand. We are constrained by the talent and capacity of our team.
We’re hiring exceptional engineers and operators in New York to help us take it on. Come build with us.
🤖 Made with AI
Alysaa Co retweeted
Sahir was the first person to tell me GLP1s would be big. He can identify errors of fact unaided in McKinsey reports about healthcare.
Three years ago, Sahir was the first to tell me how prior auth and overall complexity is creating a crisis in medication access. He’s come up with a work of art that aligns the health system to deliver the right therapies to the most patients. We signed up for the seed financing immediately.
Today, we’re honored to return to lead the Series C! Forus is one of the fastest growing companies in our entire portfolio, and already partners with 9 of the top 15 biopharma companies.
We’re announcing that Forus has raised a $150M Series C at a $3B valuation to build the AI network for medicine.
Medicine will remain one of the world’s most important industries until humanity achieves immortality, and we are only at the beginning of a new era in what it can do. GLP-1s are changing obesity and cardiometabolic disease. Gene therapies can treat diseases at their genetic source. New cancer treatments are turning diagnoses that were once fatal into diseases people can live with. AI is enabling us to discover of new drugs even faster.
But discovery is only the beginning. It still takes more than a decade and billions of dollars to turn a new molecule into an approved medicine, and once it reaches market, more than a third of patients prescribed specialty treatments never receive their first dose.
Forus is creating the AI network to accelerate the entire medicine pipeline, from development and launch through prescription and treatment. We connect the companies creating medicines with the doctors who prescribe them and the patients who need them.
Today, Forus supports millions of people across all 50 states and is already used by providers to treat patients in 85% of U.S. residential ZIP codes. 9 of the top 15 global biopharma companies work with us, alongside many fast-growing biotechs. Our goal is to put Forus in every doctor’s office in the country and unlock an order of magnitude more medicine for society.
There is a generational opportunity to rethink how new medicine reaches people. Forus is becoming how medicine moves from discovery to treatment in America, and as we scale, we’ll become the most important company in life sciences.
Forus is not constrained by capital or customer demand; we are constrained by the talent and capacity of our team. To take on the opportunity in front of us, we need exceptional engineers and operators in New York who want to move fast and help us make something that matters. Come build with us.
Our Series C was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Redpoint, BoxGroup, Pear VC, Vast Ventures, and SV Angel investing alongside them.
Alysaa Co retweeted
Simile has been selected amongst this year's IA40, the top private companies shaping the future of applied AI.
Proud to be building alongside this group.
The 2026 Intelligent Applications 40 is here.
Now in its sixth year, the IA40 recognizes the top private companies shaping the future of applied AI, from foundational infrastructure to full-stack intelligent applications.
This year's list reflects a market maturing fast:
→ 450+ companies nominated and voted on by 72 investors across 54 leading firms
→ $410B raised by this year's 45 winners since founding — more than 25x what the inaugural 2021 class had raised at the same point
→ 23 repeat winners and 22 new entrants, a 49% turnover rate, down from 68% last year, as some of 2025's breakout companies start to entrench
The big pattern this year is how companies are “Harnessing the Value of AI.” As frontier models become more capable and commoditized, the winners are increasingly the companies proving they can turn AI capability into real ROI, whether they're building the application, aggregating the models, or supplying the infrastructure underneath. Databricks remains the only company to appear on every IA40 list since we launched it in 2021.
Congratulations to all the 2026 IA40 winners. Your work is defining what's possible in this new era of intelligent applications.
Explore all 45 winners and our analysis of the companies, categories, and funding patterns defining this year’s list → ordnl.link/RAFgnA7
Thank you to our great partners: @AWSstartups, @GoogleStartups, @Microsoft, @NYSE, @Delta, and @McKinsey.
Join us on Aug 27th for a celebration of the latest and greatest addition to the Bain Capital portfolio, Gong cha 🧋
Next up… Canada Goose party?
Five months ago, Simile came out of stealth with a $100M Series A. Today, the company is announcing more than $200M in funding at a $2B valuation. It’s a reflection of their relentless execution, progress, and vision for a world with more humanity in it, and this is why @aaref , @rkhkimx and the @BainCapVC are doubling down.
Simile’s ambition is to capture that mix accurately and honestly, rather than flattening people into an average. As AI becomes more present in the decisions around us, preserving that human texture feels increasingly important. The New York Times has more today on the round, the research behind Simile and its role as the window into humanity.