Participated · Seed · May 2025

Gardin builds an optical photosynthesis sensor combined with AI to measure crop photosynthesis in real time, providing growers early insight into plant health and development. The system is deployed across more than 20 crop species, from algae to tomatoes. Led by CEO and founder Sumanta Talukdar, the company is based in Oxford, UK. Gardin plans to use the new funding to enhance its platform and expand its commercial team to grow its customer base across continents. The article reports a $4.5M Seed 2 financing, which represents the company’s latest outside funding. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. Gardin combines remote optical sensors with machine learning to provide growers detailed, non-destructive measurements of individual-plant physiological performance. Its sensors can detect growth anomalies such as underwatering days earlier than expert agronomists, enabling faster corrective action. The product targets controlled-environment agriculture — greenhouses and indoor/vertical farms — where light and temperature can be regulated. Gardin plans to expand its product lineup with crop forecasting and nutritional density mapping, ramp up production capabilities, and continue marketing across Europe and North America. The company has seen strong interest from the sector and reports a steady sales pipeline. Since launching in 2020, Gardin has raised a total of $12 million, including the recent seed round. Gardin develops optical phenotyping hardware and accompanying analytics software to measure and monitor nutritional value of food across the supply chain. The company uses multispectral data fusion, remote sensing and computer vision to capture biochemical signatures and quantify plant physiology and compound density with high fidelity. Its full‑stack product is designed to run like an OS in the background, integrate with existing producer architectures, and optimise growing environments to lower costs, reduce carbon footprint and cut waste. Gardin targets both traditional agriculture and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and aims to become a new food‑production gold standard. The startup has partnered with crop and plant physiologists and phenotyping experts to identify key biochemical mechanisms for different crops. Gardin has secured pilot trials with supermarket chains, food producers and vertical farms that are ready to go live early this year, and recently raised external pre‑seed funding.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2023

NoTraffic develops an AI-powered mobility platform that connects and optimizes traffic signals as a cloud-based digital grid to improve efficiency, sustainability, and safety. The company operates a proactive Operations Center offering 24/7 monitoring, remote diagnostics, and over-the-air updates to support agency teams and deployments. Its platform has been adopted by traffic agencies across more than 40 U.S. states and Canada, including deployments in Houston, Phoenix, and Oklahoma. The company is led by CEO Tal Kreisler and is based in Overland Park, KS. Financially, NoTraffic recently completed a $90M Series C to fund expansion of operations and further product development.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2022

Founded in 2020 by Juan and Santiago Gavito and Iker Garay, Quinio acquires, operates and builds consumer packaged e-commerce brands focused on home & kitchen, beauty and personal care, baby, health and household categories. The company owns and operates several brands with a presence in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and the U.S. Quinio has doubled down on business development and M&A, implemented tighter acquisition criteria filters, and shifted to be more product-centered and technology-driven. Management says tech tools have reduced non-strategic employee tasks, improved revenue and cost projections, aided catalog expansion and product development, and optimized marketing ROI. The company is profitable, has over 100 employees, and its brands report solid growth while gaining regional presence. Quinio expects to end 2022 with over $50 million in annual recurring revenue and plans to use the new capital to continue acquiring, operating and scaling brands across Latin America. Quinio acquires medium-sized marketplace brands and centralizes operations to increase sales, improve operational efficiency and optimize cost structures. The company targets sellers with $100,000 to $20 million in annual revenue and emphasizes locally sourced products, planning over 60% of its portfolio to be local. Quinio launched last year and will begin the new year with 10 brands representing a $10 million revenue run rate and has recorded double-digit monthly growth so far. The startup currently has 33 employees and plans to expand its headcount to over 100 by the end of next year. With over 80% of new capital earmarked for acquisitions, Quinio plans roughly three acquisitions per month and aims to add more than 30 brands to its portfolio. It is preparing geographic expansion beyond Mexico into Chile, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina.

Led · Series A · Jun 2022

Kukua is an educational entertainment company best known for Super Sema, a 10-year-old African girl superhero series that teaches STEAM themes and aims to provide positive African female role models. Super Sema launched on YouTube Originals in March 2021, has attracted more than 40 million YouTube views, and targets children aged 4–8, with 60% of its audience from the U.S.; the U.K. and Kenya are the next largest markets. The series was executive produced by Lupita Nyong'o, who is also a shareholder, and received an NAACP Image Awards nomination for Outstanding Animated Series. Kukua has expanded distribution to major African linear broadcasters and premiered a second season this month. Planned initiatives include a U.S. toy line with Just Play, a companion vlog called Let's Technovate with Super Sema, expanded North American publishing and licensing with Penguin Random House, Bendon and Bentex, and potential Roblox/metaverse experiences. The company appointed Matthew Ball to its board to support interactive and immersive IP expansion and recently raised $6M in Series A funding to accelerate these plans. Kukua creates locally inspired edutainment content and apps aimed at improving literacy across Africa, beginning its franchise rollout in Kenya. Its flagship property centers on Sema, a young African girl protagonist, and combines storytelling with phonics-based literacy methods and gamification. The company’s first app, SEMA Run, is used by roughly 30,000 children three times a week for an average of 30 minutes. Kukua is part of the Founder’s Factory edtech accelerator programme. Founder Lucrezia Bisignani has described the company’s commercial opportunity as monetising a single media property at a 360° scale, citing comparisons to major global franchises. Kukua positions itself at the intersection of education and media as it builds a multi‑format franchise and licensing strategy.

Participated · Series B · Aug 2021

DiA Imaging Analysis, based in Beer Sheva, Israel, provides FDA-cleared and CE-marked AI-based ultrasound solutions that help clinicians capture the right images and automatically identify clinical abnormalities. Its vendor-neutral, cross-platform LVivo Toolbox is deployed on ultrasound devices and healthcare IT systems and currently serves thousands of end-users in more than 20 countries. The company announced an additional $14M in funding and plans to use the proceeds to expand its portfolio of solutions and grow its global presence in Asia, Europe and the U.S. It intends to pursue new and expanded partnerships with ultrasound vendors, PACS/Healthcare IT companies, resellers, and distributors. DiA has established channel and commercial partnerships with major healthcare technology providers and distributors including IBM Watson, Philips, GE Healthcare, and Konica Minolta. The company also added Dr. Diku Mandavia to its Board of Directors as an industry board member. DiA Imaging Analysis develops FDA- and CE-cleared cognitive image-processing software that provides fully automated ultrasound analysis, with its first product line focused on echocardiography. Its tools use advanced pattern recognition and machine-learning algorithms to automatically detect borders and motion and produce quantitative data for clinicians. The company integrates its software within ultrasound devices, healthcare IT systems and cloud platforms through partnerships with vendors including GE Healthcare, Neusoft Medical System and Google Cloud. DiA has reference sites at leading U.S. medical centers including Yale, Mount Sinai, RUSH, USF and UCSD, and its scientific advisory board is supported by cardiology and primary care ultrasound specialists. Founded by Hila Goldman Aslan (CEO), Michal Yaacobi (VP R&D) and Arnon Toussia-Cohen (VP BD), the Be'er Sheva–based company plans to expand its portfolio and build support teams in the United States, Europe and Asia. DiA closed a $5M funding round to support market penetration of its automated tools and further product development. DiACardio, founded in 2010 and based in Beer Sheva’s Hi-Tech Park, develops FDA- and CE-approved software that automatically evaluates heart function from ultrasound images. The company leverages new image-processing methods and proprietary algorithms to provide automated cardiac evaluation. DiACardio has 10 employees and has already obtained initial sales. It raised $1.95M in a post-seed financing to support growth. The company plans to use the funds to expand its automated toolbox to other areas of the heart and to grow its business in the US, Europe and emerging markets. The founding team includes Arnon Toussia-Cohen, Hila Goldman-Aslan, Michal Yaacobi, Dr. Noah Liel-Cohen and Prof. Hugo Guterman.