• Bench IQ

  Participated · Seed · Mar 2024

  Bench IQ is an AI-powered judicial intelligence platform that aggregates proprietary judicial data and uses AI agents to surface how individual judges think and rule. It has built a proprietary dataset intended to capture the reasoning behind the roughly 97% of rulings that lack written opinions, supplementing traditional case-law platforms. Its AI agents identify patterns in judges’ reasoning and turn that data into actionable insights for litigation strategy; leading AmLaw 200 law firms — including four of the top five — use the product. The company says the new funding will be used to expand the proprietary dataset, advance its agentic AI tools, and grow the team in the U.S. and Canada. Bench IQ was founded in 2023 and is headquartered in Toronto; the leadership team includes co-founder and CEO Jimoh Ovbiagele, CTO Maxim Isakov, and CCO Jeffrey Gettleman. The company positions its product as enabling litigators to anticipate judges’ perspectives in high-stakes matters and craft strategies that can affect case outcomes. Bench IQ builds an LLM-powered judicial intelligence platform that infers judges’ decision-making patterns by leveraging a proprietary dataset that covers 100% of rulings. The company was founded by CEO Jimoh Ovbiagele, CTO Maxim Isakov, and Jeffrey Gettleman and launched by the team behind ROSS Intelligence. Bench IQ’s dataset and some technical details are confidential due to pending patents. It is partnered closely with 12 AmLaw 100 firms and keeps those relationships private to preserve client advantages. The company positions its product as improving lawyers’ effectiveness in court by revealing judge-specific insights rather than only offering traditional legal-research efficiency. Bench IQ recently closed a $2.1 million pre-seed round to advance its product and commercial partnerships.

• Gander

  Participated · Seed · Jun 2022

  Gander builds tools that surface user-generated video on e-commerce sites so shoppers can see products “in real life,” and it operates a creator marketplace connecting brands to video creators. The product launched in late 2021 and has already gained traction with several undisclosed high-profile clients. Founder Kimiloluwa Fafowora started the company from insights gained while scaling consumer brands and during her time at Stanford GSB. The company says its product captures data that helps e-commerce brands humanize their stores and improve customer buying confidence. With the fresh capital, Gander plans to increase hiring on its sales and engineering teams and further scale the business. Financially, the company closed a $4.2 million seed round to fund those growth plans.

No current team members are available.