Participated · Seed · Jun 2019

Luminous is developing a custom AI supercomputer stack centered on proprietary silicon photonics to eliminate data‑movement bottlenecks and improve performance and programmability. The company is building nearly every part of the stack from chips to software, aiming for order‑of‑magnitude gains in performance and simplified programming models. Luminous says its work will enable much larger, more efficient AI models and support commercial‑scale AI applications. The company plans to double its engineering team and is actively recruiting photonics designers, digital and analog VLSI engineers, packaging and system integration engineers, and machine learning experts. Funding announced in the articles will support custom chip and software development and gearing up for commercial production. Luminous frames its mission around delivering useful, usable, and safe AI by providing the hardware needed to run tomorrow’s AI applications. Luminous Computing is developing photonics chips designed to handle AI workloads by using light to move and multiply dense arrays of data at high speed. The company says its approach will remove major bottlenecks that traditional processors struggle with, and its architecture is based on CTO Mitchell Nahmias’ Princeton research. The one-year-old, seven-person startup was founded by Michael Gao, CEO Marcus Gomez and Nahmias; Gomez and Gao have prior software and data-science experience. Luminous reports it already has working silicon and aims to ship development kits within the next few years. The company claims a single chip could replace the computing power of roughly 3,000 Google TPUs. It raised capital to grow the team and specifically hire people with semiconductor industry experience to accelerate engineering and development.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2019

Kargo applies ride-hailing concepts to trucking and logistics, allowing business customers to order trucks through a mobile app or website while partnering with truck operators and third-party logistics providers. The company has implemented safety measures for drivers, including disinfected pit stops and electronic proof of delivery to limit physical contact. Kargo has partnered with charitable organizations to deliver meals and medical supplies to hospitals and formed a $1 million relief fund for truckers; employees have contributed salaries and CEO Tiger Fang is not taking a salary for the next year. The startup has amassed more than 6,000 active shippers and a network of over 50,000 trucks across Indonesia. Investors include Silicon Valley and regional firms, and Uber founder Travis Kalanick is among its backers. The company plans to scale operations in Indonesia using the new capital and its platform capabilities. Kargo operates a mobile app and website that lets business customers order trucks while connecting them directly to truck operators and 3PLs rather than individual drivers or brokers. The platform aims to remove middlemen, increase pricing transparency, improve service quality and raise earnings for transporters. The company is initially focused on FMCG verticals, is piloting with a couple of large FMCG companies, and reports access to “thousands” of trucks on the supply side. Kargo launched in beta earlier this year after being started late last year by CEO Tiger Fang (an ex-Uber Asia executive) and CTO Yodi Aditya. The team is roughly 50 people, with a large chunk of staff drawn from Uber Asia. Management says it plans to expand across Southeast Asia and potentially beyond as it scales.

Participated · Series E · Jun 2018

Opendoor operates a platform that buys homes, uses data modeling to price and resell them, and offers a home-buying marketplace to consumers. The company focuses on improving pricing accuracy and shortening the time homes are held on its books. It reported that average time a home is held fell to 90 days from 140 in 2015, and more than 800,000 people toured Opendoor homes in 2018. Product plans include further refining pricing algorithms, faster conversion of sellers and buyers, and integrating mortgage tools, title and escrow, and contractor/service-provider estimates. Opendoor says it will concentrate on the private home-buying experience rather than expanding into other asset classes. The company will use new capital for product development and continued expansion into more North American markets. Opendoor operates an online marketplace that gives sellers an online offer within 24 hours and enables buyers to visit, shop, and purchase homes seven days a week via mobile. The company also offers a trade-in product that combines selling and buying into one seamless transaction. Since its founding in 2014 it has expanded to 19 cities, served more than 20,000 customers, and grown to over 900 employees while targeting 50 markets by 2020. Opendoor reports an annualized acquisition run rate of $3.8B, has reduced average seller fees to 6.5%, and says one in two true sellers who receive an offer choose to sell to Opendoor. Planned product work includes building a one-click platform that integrates title and mortgage, expanding market-level pricing models across 50+ cities, and developing applications to support local vendor ecosystems. The company will use new capital to accelerate technology initiatives, product launches, and market expansion. Opendoor operates an online marketplace that enables homeowners to receive instant offers and buyers to shop and purchase homes on-demand. The company purchases more than $2.5B in homes on an annual run rate and has seen adoption grow over 225% year‑on‑year, with more than one in two sellers who receive an offer choosing Opendoor. Opendoor has been used by nearly 20,000 customers and currently operates in ten cities with 650 employees. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company is expanding its services to include mortgage and title to create a single end-to-end experience. Opendoor plans to grow from 10 markets to 50 markets by the end of 2020 as part of its next phase of expansion. Opendoor operates a technology platform that enables homeowners to sell a home online in minutes and aims to streamline what is traditionally a months-long closing process. Led by CEO Eric Wu, the company focuses on reducing friction in residential real estate transactions through digital tools and services. Opendoor plans to use the new proceeds to continue expanding its operations and distribution. The company is partnering with homebuilder Lennar to tackle inefficiencies in buying and selling homes and to integrate digital distribution for mortgages, title and home insurance. Through Lennar’s Trade-Up Program, Opendoor expects a new channel to access customers, broadening its scope and scale. The company completed a $135M financing composed of equity and debt as part of its Series D. OpenDoor operates a marketplace in which it purchases homes directly from sellers, holds inventory, and then resells those properties. The company uses predictive analytics to project resale values and offers sellers an instant valuation; once accepted, OpenDoor pays for the home and attempts to flip it for a profit. Buyers get self-guided property tours enabled by smart locks and security cameras, a 180-point inspection, a warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. With the new capital the startup plans to expand its marketplace usage to 10 cities. OpenDoor currently employs about 200 people servicing the Dallas–Fort Worth and Phoenix markets, which together account for roughly $60 million in transaction volume per month. Norwest disclosed that OpenDoor carries “hundreds of millions” of dollars of debt that it uses to purchase properties, a financing approach the article highlights as potentially risky in an economic downturn.