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The Venture Codex

Category Ventures

445 Douglass St, San Francisco, CA, 94114, United States

Overview

Category invests in ambitious technical founders looking to build the next generation category defining companies. We invest $1.5-5M and lead pre-seed and seed rounds in enterprise software startups - AI, infrastructure, developer tools, and applications.

Total investments
5
Lead investments
4
Investments · 12mo
5
Active investors
3

Sector focus

  • Venture Capital
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Investment portfolio

  • HeyMilo

    Led · Seed · Jun 2026

    HeyMilo builds an agentic recruiting platform that starts structured, interactive screening the moment candidates apply, using voice, video, phone, SMS, and resume agents and returning rubric-scored results and transcripts into ATS systems. The company says it has screened more than one million candidates in production and has onboarded customers including Randstad, WilsonHCG, and Neo Financial across staffing, BPO, and high-volume corporate hiring. HeyMilo is introducing three new agent types: AI Scenario Assessment to evaluate candidate interaction with AI, Candidate Recommendations to resurface and rank previously screened applicants, and Notetaker to capture structured notes from live interviews. The company positions its product as a recruiting intelligence layer aimed at improving fairness and recruiter efficiency in high-volume hiring. HeyMilo was founded in 2023 and has raised $6 million to date.

  • Antioch

    Led · Seed · Apr 2026

    Antioch develops simulation tools that let robot builders spin up digital instances of hardware and connect them to simulated sensors that mimic real-world data. The company focuses primarily on sensor and perception systems used in applications like autonomous vehicles, farm and construction machinery, and aerial drones. Antioch starts with models from partners such as Nvidia and World Labs and builds domain-specific libraries to improve usability and fidelity. Its founders include Harry Mellsop (CEO), Alex Langshur, Michael Calvey, Collin Schlager, and Colton Swingle, who bring experience from Transpose, Google DeepMind, and Meta Reality Labs. Early customers include both startups and large multinationals, and researchers such as MIT’s David Mayo have used the platform for experiments. The company raised an $8.5 million seed round at a $60 million valuation in its most recent financing.

  • Soma Energy

    Led · Seed · Apr 2026

    Soma Energy provides a platform that uses AI-driven real-time dispatch and control to optimize generation, battery storage, and load across sites or pools of data centers. The technology connects on-site generation, storage, and load into a single control layer to enable facilities to act as flexible grid assets and to help power producers lower cost per MWh and reduce price volatility. Today the company is optimizing two gigawatts of electricity for power-producing clients and is actively working with five data center customers. Soma intends to use its recent funding to grow engineering and commercial teams and to accelerate deployments across North America. The company is led by CEO Ath Caramanolis, CTO Mario Souto, Ph.D., and Chief AI Scientist Henrique Hoeltgebaum, Ph.D.

  • Mandel AI

    Participated · Seed · Mar 2026

    Mandel AI builds an AI supply chain coordination platform that sits atop existing email and ERP systems and uses purpose-built AI agents to read supplier communications, extract critical data, reconcile purchase order confirmations and invoices, and act autonomously. Its agents follow up with suppliers, flag discrepancies, and escalate issues according to company-defined rules, replacing email-and-spreadsheet workflows. The company reports it has processed more than $1 billion in material spend for clients across aerospace, pharma, industrials, and other complex manufacturing sectors. Mandel says one procurement manager using its agents can coordinate work that previously required an entire team by handling hundreds of supplier emails per day, around the clock. The startup aims to become an API for global trade communication and enable self-coordinating supply chains across manufacturers and distributors in North America and Europe. It is led by founder and CEO Nick Gospodinov.

  • Myriad AI

    Led · Seed · Sep 2025

    Myriad AI, headquartered in both San Francisco and Prague, offers an enterprise software platform that continuously monitors global regulatory changes and translates them into real-time, actionable tasks for clients. Its core features include horizon scanning for upcoming rules, a compliance navigator that guides companies through obligations, automated document review, and real-time dashboards for oversight. The solution targets heavily regulated sectors such as financial services, insurance, and healthcare. Founded by Ralf Schonherr and Jan Špidlen, the startup positions itself as a comprehensive replacement for manual, resource-intensive compliance processes. With fresh seed financing, the company plans to expand its engineering teams across the EU and the US, accelerate global go-to-market initiatives, and further advance its AI capabilities. To date, Myriad AI has raised $7.8 million, providing the financial runway to scale its product and customer base.

Team