Participated · Equity · Jun 2021

Neurala offers VIA, a vision-AI software platform built on its Lifelong-DNN (L-DNN) technology to reduce the time, cost and skills required to build and maintain production-quality custom computer-vision solutions. The product is positioned for in-line quality inspection, enabling faster, more accurate and scalable defect detection on manufacturing production lines. Over the last year the company expanded work with system integrators threefold and broadened engagements with OEMs to increase deployment capacity. Neurala launched a European subsidiary in Trieste, Italy to support its growing international footprint while remaining headquartered in Boston, MA. The company says the new capital will be used to evolve VIA for a wider range of applications and accelerate global adoption as manufacturers prioritize automation and Industry 4.0 initiatives. Total invested in Neurala now stands at $26 million. Neurala builds vision AI software focused on industrial and real-world applications, emphasizing edge deployment. Its Lifelong-DNN (L-DNN) technology lowers data requirements and enables continuous learning in the cloud or at the edge. The company helps industrial customers improve quality inspection and monitoring, with deployments across manufacturing, drones, robotics, and smart devices. Neurala’s edge-trained models are designed to extract actionable insights from IIoT sensor and camera data and to be set up by operators without specialized expertise. The company positions its technology as a core enabler of Industry 4.0 initiatives through on-machine, edge AI. Neurala builds the Neurala Brain SDK (marketed as Brains for Bots) to run machine learning locally on resource-constrained devices, enabling incremental learning and on-device updates without continuous network connectivity. The platform is hardware-agnostic, scales from low-end CPUs to high-end GPUs, and integrates with frameworks such as TensorFlow; the SDK supports Linux, Android and iOS. For customers needing custom models, Neurala offers a data ingestion and training service, and it also provides a server-based solution, yielding three complementary business models. The company targets time-sensitive and offline use cases (for example, drones inspecting power lines) and aims to put AI in the hands of toy makers, drone builders and IoT engineers. Early customers include Teal Drones, and Motorola Solutions is noted as an early customer; the founding team and leadership (CEO Massimiliano Versace) have cognitive and neural systems Ph.D.s from Boston University. The article does not disclose revenue or other operating metrics. Neurala builds deep-learning software that enables robots to learn and be instructed by people rather than be explicitly programmed. Its core technology applies artificial neural networks (ANNs) running on GPUs, and the company holds a fundamental patent for that approach. Led by CEO and co-founder Massamiliano Versace, Neurala has secured contracts with NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Labs to develop deep learning controllers. Use cases cited include autonomous exploration of Mars-like environments, collision avoidance for unmanned aircraft, and persistent surveillance. The company will use the recently raised seed funds to develop practical commercial applications for both flying and ground-based robots that utilize its learning software. Neurala is based in Boston, MA.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2016

Chatbooks’ app creates custom photo albums, prints and holiday cards from images pulled from Instagram, Facebook, Google Photos or a user’s Camera Roll. Users can order one-off items or subscribe to automatically print favorite or most-liked photos into soft- or hard-cover albums. The company has expanded its product line beyond albums to include prints and holiday cards and partners with stationers such as Rifle Paper Co. for premium designs. Chatbooks is based in Provo, Utah and employs about 40 full-time workers. Married co-founders Nate and Vanessa Quigley plan to use new funding to develop products (including ways to turn videos into physical assets), expand in U.S. and international markets, and hire as-needed labor. The company reports that almost half of its users had never previously tried photo-printing services. Chatbooks operates a subscription-based service that automatically converts users' digital photos into printed photo books (every 60 photos become a book). The product is designed for simplicity and rapid creation, with books starting at about $8 each. The company sold its first book in June 2014 and reached 1 million shipped books after rapid early growth—500,000 in its first 12 months and another 500,000 in the subsequent six months. Chatbooks reports a proven recurring revenue model. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate sales and marketing and to expand into new markets. Leadership cited strong emotional engagement from users as a core business driver.

Participated · Series B · Mar 2013

Domo offers The Business Cloud, a business optimization platform that connects employees to the data and people they need to improve business results. The platform is used by decision makers across industries including retail, media and entertainment, manufacturing and finance to identify and act on strategic opportunities in real time. Led by founder and CEO Josh James, Domo positions its product to serve users from the CEO to the front-line worker. The company said it will use the new financing to fund international expansion. Financially, Domo has now raised close to $700M to date. The recent financing valued the company at $2.3 billion post-money. Domo is an enterprise data-management platform that offers data management platforms and business-insights tools for the enterprise market. The company launched an app store with about 1,000 free and freemium apps that can be customized for customers. Domo also introduced a free messaging service called Buzz with threaded conversations, positioned as a Slack competitor and designed to put business insights at the center of conversations. The company serves more than 1,000 customers, including eBay and MasterCard, reports $100 million in bookings, and says revenue is doubling. Domo has about 800 employees and said it may hire another 500 in 2016. Founder and CEO Josh James said the company plans to go public within the year. Founded nearly five years before this article, Domo has built a platform to collect, normalize and visualize business intelligence from more than 300 data sources. The product offers highly customizable dashboards aimed at executives and other roles, with use cases across marketing, e‑commerce, sales and finance. Domo has more than 1,000 customers who pay roughly $2,000 per user per year with a minimum contract of $25,000, and the company previously operated under strict NDAs while onboarding clients. The company had roughly 600 employees and was on track to exceed $100 million in sales for the year, with expectations to double in 2016 and an already nine‑figure revenue run rate. Domo moved from a closed onboarding model to a public launch with a self‑service signup and customer conference called Domopalooza, signaling a push for broader growth. Domo offers a cloud-based executive management SaaS platform that gives users direct, real-time access to all the business information they care about. The platform serves executives across industries including media and entertainment, retail, travel and leisure, technology, healthcare, financial services and higher education. Launched by Omniture co-founder Josh James and led by president Chris Harrington, the company is positioned to expand its go-to-market efforts. Domo closed a $125M Series C that brought total funding to more than $250M, and the company says it intends to use the proceeds to further expand sales. The business is actively hiring to support that growth. No operating metrics (revenue/users) were disclosed in the article. Domo provides a cloud-based executive management platform that gives users direct, real-time access to business information in one place. Led by Josh James, the company offers a SaaS product for executives across industries including media and marketing, telco, retail, travel and leisure, technology, financial services and professional services. Domo reports 100 paying customers. The company has been hiring. Financially, it has completed earlier financings including a $33M Series A closing in July 2011, a $20M Series A extension in February 2012, and raised more than $10M from angel and individual investors. Domo is based in American Fork, Utah.