Participated · Series E · Nov 2021

Verbit provides an AI-driven automated transcription and captioning platform augmented by professional transcribers to deliver vertical-specific, compliant transcripts and captions. Its platform uses machine learning and natural language processing to build custom models by vertical and customer, enabling over 99% accuracy and turnaround times the company says are 10x faster than industry standard. Verbit serves more than 2,000 customers across media, education, corporate, legal and government sectors, including CNN, Fox, Disney, Coursera, Stanford, Harvard, Amazon, Microsoft and AT&T. The company reports 6x year-over-year revenue growth, over $100 million in annual recurring revenue, and a customer retention rate of 163%; it also describes itself as cash efficient. Verbit employs more than 470 staff across offices in New York, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Palo Alto, Canada, Tel Aviv and Kyiv, and leverages a global network of 35,000 freelancer transcribers and 600 professional captioners. Future plans include continued product development, vertical and geographic expansion (notably further European expansion), a continued acquisition strategy, and preparation for a near-term IPO. Verbit offers an interactive transcription and captioning solution that uses in-house AI technology to convert live and recorded audio and video into accurate captions and transcripts. The platform serves more than 1,500 customers across legal, media, education, government, and corporate sectors, including major media and academic customers. Led by CEO and founder Tom Livne, Verbit employs over 350 people and works with more than 30,000 transcribers globally. The company operates from offices in New York, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, and Kyiv. Following the Series D, Verbit plans to use the funds to improve and develop new products, add 200 new business and product roles, support research and development, and prepare for a public offering. The funding and scale position the company for continued product investment and commercialization at enterprise scale. Verbit provides a transcription and captioning platform that leverages a hybrid model of machine learning, natural language processing and a network of 22,000 human transcribers to deliver accurate, fast results. Its AI technology transcribes across accents, detects domain-specific terms, and filters background noise and echoes, while professional transcribers edit, review and incorporate customer-supplied guidelines to maintain quality. The company serves more than 400 enterprise-grade customers in the legal and higher-education industries, including universities and national court reporting agencies. Led by CEO and founder Tom Livne, Verbit operates across NYC, Palo Alto, Tel Aviv and Kyiv. It has raised over $100 million in total capital, including a $60 million Series C. The company plans to use the funds to innovate data-driven product capabilities, enter new verticals, increase language support, boost hiring, expand international reach and pursue M&A opportunities. Verbit offers AI-assisted transcription and captioning services to professional users, with a focus on the media and legal industries as well as educational institutions. Its machine-learning tools reach about 90% accuracy, and the company works with about 15,000 human transcribers to revise output to roughly 99% accuracy. Verbit has more than 150 customers, including Harvard, Stanford and Coursera, and it recently launched real-time transcription and opened a New York office. The company is three years old and is based in Tel Aviv and New York. It plans to use new funding to expand into new verticals, add new languages, and to double its headcount in 2020. Financially, Verbit has raised a total of $65 million to date, including a $23 million Series A in 2019 and the new $31 million Series B. Verbit offers a speech-to-text solution that combines AI transcription with an on-demand network of human transcribers to achieve about 99% accuracy and can transcribe one hour of video in roughly five minutes. The product is applied to traditional transcription and to captioning for video, with particular traction in academic and legal verticals where the company says it serves over 100 customers. Verbit reported revenue growth of more than 300% since its prior funding and expects another 300% increase in 2019. The company uses a dual human review process to correct machine output and feed edits back into its machine-learning models to improve accuracy over time. Verbit plans to use new funding to develop its solution further, add language support, invest in marketing and sales, and accelerate expansion into the U.S., including opening a New York City office and recruiting local talent. Management cites the rise of video and podcasting and shortages in court-reporting talent as drivers of demand for its combined AI-plus-humans model.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2021

Latent AI develops software that compresses and optimizes AI models—claiming roughly 10x compression—so they can run efficiently on devices without constant cloud connectivity. Its technology is targeted at use cases like local face-detection in cameras, instantaneous voice interfaces, and augmented-reality goggles. The company sells access to its tools on a subscription basis and customers deploy the tools on-premises. Latent AI reports a small but growing customer base, including an unnamed steel manufacturer using its tech in AR goggles and, reportedly, a U.S. government customer. The startup positions itself against TensorFlow, chip vendors like Xilinx, and rivals such as OctoML and Deeplite, arguing competitors focus on either compression or compiling rather than both. The team is roughly 15 people and is working to scale product development and customer deployments amid competitive pressure in edge AI optimization. Latent AI is a startup spun out of SRI International that builds the Latent AI Efficient Inference Platform (LEIP) to make edge AI workloads more efficient. LEIP is offered as standalone modules (compressor and compiler) or as a fully integrated system, and the company is launching LEIP Adapt to dynamically manage workloads. Using its proprietary compression and compilation process, Latent AI says it can compress library files by 10x and achieve 5x lower latency while using less power. Practical use cases include battery-powered smart doorbells that run in low-power mode until a larger model is needed, and the ability to offload to the cloud when required. The company was founded by CEO Jags Kandasamy and CTO Sek Chai, drawing on Kandasamy’s prior edge work at OtoSense and Chai’s SRI research on power‑aware compute. Latent AI has attracted interest from automotive firms, consumer product companies (including a camera and a hearing aid maker), a major telco, and a large CDN provider, and has raised a $6.5 million seed round. Latent AI develops a modular, fully integrated workflow platform for edge AI that trains, quantizes and deploys neural networks. Its platform is designed for the adaptive edge and includes LEIP Compress, a quantization optimizer supporting post-training and training-aware quantization, and LEIP Compile, which optimizes neural network processing for hardware targets. The company is led by co-founders Jags Kandasamy (Co-Founder & CEO) and Sek Chai (Co-Founder & CTO). Latent AI is a portfolio company of SRI Ventures, a division of SRI International. The article does not disclose operating metrics or revenue.

Led · Series D · Jun 2021

Claroty develops an industry-centric cyber-physical systems (CPS) protection platform that delivers asset visibility, exposure management, network protection, secure access, and threat detection across cloud (xDome) and on-premise (Continuous Threat Detection) deployments. In 2025 the company introduced the AI-powered CPS Library, created with Schneider Electric and Rockwell Automation, to improve asset cataloging accuracy, and it has forged strategic alliances with AWS, Google Security Operations, and Parsons' SealingTech. Claroty now serves hundreds of organizations at thousands of sites, including 24 of the Fortune 100, and was named a Leader in Gartner’s 2025 CPS Protection Platforms Magic Quadrant and Forrester’s Q3 2025 IoT Security Wave. The firm reported an 80% valuation jump since its prior financing in March 2024. Recent executive hires include former Ford AI chief Gil Gur Arie as CPO and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Jen Sovada to head public-sector efforts. Proceeds from the latest round will fund global expansion—both organic growth and acquisitions—as Claroty pursues its goal of building the market’s most comprehensive CPS protection suite.

Led · Series B · Jun 2021

Poka is a connected worker platform built specifically for manufacturers that empowers factory workers to learn, share, and collaborate at the point of need. Its core product centralizes operational knowledge and enables workers to solve problems and drive continuous improvement on the production floor. Poka is used by global manufacturers including Nestlé, Danone, Bosch, Kraft, Johnson & Johnson, and Tetra Pak. The company was recognized with the 2020 Open Bosch Award and appeared in Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Operations Strategy. Poka positions its platform as a response to workforce skills shortages, operational complexity, and pandemic-driven volatility. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate product development and to scale go-to-market teams to serve a growing global customer base. Poka builds a connected worker platform designed for manufacturers that centralizes operational knowledge and enables workers to learn, share and collaborate on the factory floor. The company calls its product a single hub for operational knowledge and collaboration, replacing in-person shift changeovers, classroom training and paper forms. Poka plans to use the new funding to broaden its global market reach through new distribution strategies and to accelerate product development. The startup has adapted implementations to be done remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic and says the crisis has increased urgency for manufacturers to adopt its platform. Financially, Poka has now raised C$6.4M in its most recent round and reports total funding to date of $23.4M, after prior financings including a $10M round in 2018. Poka was founded in 2014 and is based in Quebec City. Poka offers a mobile and web app targeted at factory floors that enables employees to capture and share critical real-time multimedia information. The platform creates standardized multimedia guides and training content for specific machines and stations to accelerate onboarding and improve operational knowledge. Poka’s tools aim to help employees communicate problems more effectively and reduce downtime. The company says it addresses an industry skills gap driven by an aging workforce and increased automation. Poka has commercial customers including Thomas & Betts, ArcelorMittal, WestRock and Danone. Leadership and investors say the funding will support the company’s development and international expansion. Poka develops a social platform for manufacturing companies that focuses on training, enabling employees to share video and images, knowledge retention and real-time information. Led by CEO and co-founder Alexandre Leclerc, the company builds tooling to improve frontline worker training and on-the-job knowledge capture. The funds from the most recent round will be used to accelerate product development and grow the engineering team. Poka also plans to expand into new markets across North America and Europe. The company closed a $2.5m funding round to support these efforts. Poka is based in Quebec City.

Participated · Series C · May 2021

Asapp is an AI-native Customer Experience Performance (CXP) company that provides a platform to help enterprises drive differentiated customer experiences, revenue, cost reductions, and automation. Its platform is designed to support employees in customer service and sales through AI-driven automation and performance tools. Led by founder and CEO Gustavo Sapoznik with Tim Stone as COO and CFO, the company serves global enterprise customers. Asapp has offices in New York, Silicon Valley, Buenos Aires, London, and Bozeman. In May 2021 it raised $120M in a Series C, bringing total funding to $400M and valuing the company at $1.6 billion. The company intends to use the funds to continue increasing investment in its platform. Asapp builds a real-time, machine-learning-driven platform that tells customer care and sales agents the right thing to say and the right action to take during interactions. Its models continuously learn and predict from every customer interaction, reducing the need for manual programming or extensive training. The platform is used by many of the world’s largest companies in telecom, financial services and travel. Led by founder and CEO Gustavo Sapoznik, the company operates offices in New York, Silicon Valley, Raleigh, London and Buenos Aires. Financially, Asapp completed a significant Series B that increased its total funding to $260M. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.