Participated · Seed · Jan 2026

Tivara develops artificial-intelligence agents that answer patient phone calls, coordinate appointment scheduling, manage prescription refills, and generally remove administrative friction from medical visits. The company targets large specialty physician groups with 20 to 500 doctors, and early customers include the Los Angeles Cancer Network and Astera Customer Care. Unlike many clinical AI tools, Tivara intentionally focuses on back-office tasks, aiming to free clinicians from paperwork rather than influence medical decision-making. Co-founders Tej Seelamsetty and Aumesh Misra validated the problem by shadowing numerous doctors before building the product. Tivara is backed by Y Combinator and currently employs five full-time staff members. The recent seed financing gives the startup $3.6 million of capital, which it plans to use primarily for team expansion and product development. No revenue or user numbers were disclosed in the article.

Led · Series A · Dec 2025

Valar Atomics is developing advanced nuclear reactors intended for scalable deployment and is pursuing clusters of small reactors—sometimes called "gigasites"—to serve high-demand users such as data centers and manufacturing. Founded in 2023 and based in California, the company is also exploring applications beyond grid electricity, including producing synthetic fuels and supplying industrial heat. Its technology and commercial approach target energy-intensive industries and the growing electricity needs driven by AI infrastructure. Financially, Valar recently raised approximately $450 million (about $340 million equity and $110 million debt) at a reported $2 billion valuation, following a prior $130 million raise in 2025. The company is backed by defense-tech investors including Palmer Luckey and Shyam Sankar.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2025

Lantern was born out of Headphones.com’s need to boost repeat purchases, evolving into a standalone loyalty infrastructure that integrates directly with Shopify stores. The platform handles customer account creation, loyalty points, referrals, and even forum-based engagement, all embedded natively in the Shopify checkout flow. For Headphones.com, Lantern lifted repeat purchase rates from 30% to 50% and shortened the average time to a second purchase from 198 days to 98 days. Current customers include skincare brand Counter (>$200 million in annual revenue) and footwear company Vessi. The startup differentiates itself from rivals like LoyaltyLion and Yotpo by supporting flexible, non-points-only reward mechanics and an in-checkout “wallet” experience that avoids pop-ups or redirects. Lantern employs eight full-time staff, including two former Shopify designers who helped build the Polaris design system. With fresh funding, the team plans to incorporate AI-driven insights and recommendations to further improve merchant retention strategies.

Participated · Seed · May 2025

Filed offers an AI-first tax preparation platform that reads documents, applies firm-specific tax strategy reasoning, and enters data into clients' existing software systems. The product flags scenarios that require human input, keeping humans in control while automating low-value tasks. Founders Leroy Kerry (CEO) and Atul Ramachandran (CTO) designed the AI specifically for tax workflow and emphasize direct integrations rather than forcing clients to overhaul tech stacks. The company positions itself against others in the space, including Black Ore and Basis, by focusing on tax-specific reasoning and system integrations. Filed plans to use fresh capital to expand its team and hire more tax engineers. Its long-term vision is to become foundational AI infrastructure for the entire tax industry, extending beyond return preparation to client collaboration, document management, and audit preparation.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2025

Durin is developing drilling rigs outfitted with sensors and automation to reduce the labor and cost of minerals exploration. The company started designing its first rig earlier this year; the prototype can bore about 300 meters deep and 2.5 inches wide. That rig is currently manually operated but instrumented to gather data for future automation models. Durin is also building an automatic pipe-loading contraption to remove manual tasks on site. The startup has embarked on its first drilling program and expects to have enough data by the end of the year to begin building its automation model. Founder and CEO Ted Feldmann, who grew up in a mining family, aims to cut the labor-intensive portion of exploration — drilling consumes roughly 70% of exploration capital and labor represents about 60% of drillers' costs — and anticipates rigs could run unattended in two to three years.