The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Aug 2024

Trace Machina develops a native, Rust-based simulation platform (NativeLink) that enables developers to test and validate software updates for autonomous systems before deployment. Its first product, NativeLink, is open source and provides a native link between developers and autonomous hardware to create realistic staging environments. The platform is designed to run simulations on resource-constrained devices such as embedded Nvidia GPUs, addressing gaps left by existing developer toolkits like Docker and Kubernetes. Trace Machina targets safety-critical applications including self-driving cars and warehouse automation to prevent defective updates from impacting critical infrastructure. The company emerged from stealth and is early-stage, having announced a $4.7 million seed investment. Founders Marcus Eagan and Nathan Bruer bring experience from MongoDB, Google X, and autonomous vehicle work at Toyota Institute.

Participated · Series D · Mar 2022

RapidAPI provides an API marketplace and management platform built around an API Hub with tools for discovery, testing and development. The company uses a freemium model and serves a roughly even split of individual self‑service users and enterprise customers. RapidAPI added 1 million developers in the last year, bringing its total to 4 million, and reported revenue growth of 110% in the same period; about 25,000 individuals signed up for paid plans in 2021. Product expansion has come from both organic development (new testing and development tools) and acquisitions such as API development tool Paw. The team says it plans to build a “full OS for API usage,” expanding beyond a marketplace into a full suite covering the entire API lifecycle. Management highlights gaps it intends to address around API visibility, security, and data governance as part of that roadmap. RapidAPI is a next-generation API platform and marketplace that lets developers and enterprises find, connect to, and manage thousands of APIs. Its product portfolio includes the public Marketplace, RapidAPI Enterprise Hub (a white‑labeled marketplace), and RapidAPI for Teams private workspaces. Over the past year the company added capabilities including Gateway integration, support for Kafka, RapidAPI Testing and RapidAPI Design via the acquisition of Paw. The platform reports almost 3 million developers, more than 35,000 APIs, over a trillion API calls, more than 55,000 teams, 750,000 new developers in the last 12 months, and 12,000 new paid API subscribers. RapidAPI has doubled its number of enterprise customers and serves Fortune 500 organizations across financial services, insurance, telecom, and hospitality. The company raised $60M in a Series C and has raised $122.5M to date; the new funding will support developer growth, onboarding of API providers, and expansion of the platform and Enterprise Hub to serve enterprise customers. RapidAPI operates a marketplace and API-management platform that unifies disparate API interfaces behind a single API key and SDK, covering free and paid, public and private APIs. The product includes RapidAPI for Teams and an enterprise tier that lets customers build white‑label, in‑house marketplaces for staff and customers. The company monetizes through subscriptions to its API management services and by serving paid APIs. RapidAPI reports more than one million developers on the platform and 18,000 teams using the Teams product; the marketplace tracks 20,000 APIs and adds roughly 1,000 APIs per month. Since January it added about 300,000 developers (a six‑fold monthly increase versus the same five months of 2019), and paid subscriptions have grown by 30,000. Enterprise uptake is rising in financial services, insurance, carriers and healthcare, and the company says its remote-native team culture has suited the shift to digital transformation during COVID‑19. RapidAPI operates a marketplace where developers can search for, pay for, and connect to public APIs and manage API usage. The company lists 10,000 APIs in its marketplace (which it estimates covers about 33% of public APIs) and reports 1 million developers making roughly 500 billion API calls per month. RapidAPI offers tools for developers and is launching RapidAPI for Teams to help groups manage public and private/internal APIs (free for up to five developers, then $10 per user per month). The startup has about 50 employees across San Francisco, Tel Aviv and Ukraine and counts customers and API providers including Microsoft, SendGrid, Nexmo, Google, Skyscanner, Cisco, Hyatt, SAP, Delta and Reddit. RapidAPI previously acquired Mashape in 2017 and notes an additional ~20,000 stale or private APIs outside its public count. The company intends to expand the size of its marketplace and the suite of developer tools, with a strategic move into private/team API management. RapidAPI operates a developer-focused API marketplace and standardized gateway, listing roughly 8,000 APIs and supporting around 500,000 developers. The platform centralizes discovery, usage, billing and analytics for third-party and internal APIs, and is expanding into enterprise customers such as Cisco and Hyatt. Its most popular category is communications, while AI-based APIs are the fastest-growing segment. RapidAPI processes about 400 billion API calls each month and takes a roughly 1% cut on each call. Revenues are described as "in the millions," indicating early monetization at scale. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Iddo Gino, with Mickey Haslavsky as GM, and maintains offices in San Francisco, Israel and Kiev.

Led · Series C · Dec 2021

100 Thieves operates championship esports teams, a content and entertainment business, and a direct-to-consumer apparel line. The company reported record growth in 2021, with revenue more than doubling year-over-year and 111% top-line growth. It has built a community of over 100 million fans and has expanded its roster of creators and competitors. The business is using new capital to scale its core esports, entertainment, and apparel businesses while launching new businesses and pursuing strategic acquisitions. The company recently made its first acquisition of Higround, a gaming hardware company, and has pursued high-profile apparel collaborations such as with Gucci. Founded in November 2017 and based in Los Angeles, 100 Thieves positions itself as a diversified gaming culture brand. 100 Thieves operates across three revenue channels: competitive esports teams, creator-driven content, and a consumer apparel line. The org fields teams in Call of Duty (its team has won the last two tournaments), League of Legends and Fortnite (sending six players to the Fortnite World Cup). Its creator roster includes high-profile streamers such as Jack “Courage” Dunlop (nearly 1.9 million Twitch followers) and Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter (more than 800,000 Twitch followers). The apparel business has produced limited-edition drops that have sold out and the company runs an online 100 Thieves Shop. Founded in 2017 and led by CEO Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, the company is expanding into additional esports titles under consideration and plans to build a 15,000-square-foot Los Angeles HQ that will house streaming stations, a content production sound stage, and a retail storefront. Post-fundraise the company’s valuation increased to $160 million. 100 Thieves is a Los Angeles-based lifestyle, apparel and esports organization that fields teams in League of Legends, Fortnite, Call of Duty and Clash Royale. The company operates a fast-growing esports channel on YouTube and sells branded apparel. It has collaborated with Drake on custom gaming stations that traveled with his Scorpion tour, and additional apparel collaborations are underway. 100 Thieves completed an undisclosed Series A funding round. As part of the round, recording artist Drake and Scooter Braun became co-owners and will act as strategic advisors; Braun also joined the board. The company has raised over $25 million in funding to date.

Participated · Series D · Oct 2021

Deel offers a software platform that handles global payroll, compliance, and HR administration, allowing companies to overcome the complexities of currency exchange and international employment regulations. The company reports serving more than 35,000 customers and supporting over 1.5 million workers worldwide. Deel claims to have been profitable for the past three years and recently surpassed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, with September alone generating $100 million in revenue. Its value proposition centers on being a trusted brand for businesses seeking to manage far-flung teams efficiently. Backed by high-profile fintech and technology investors, Deel has scaled rapidly to decacorn status. Management continues to focus on expanding its customer base and product capabilities while maintaining profitability. The company now holds a $17.3 billion valuation following its latest financing.

Led · Series C · Sep 2021

Sisu is a Decision Intelligence Engine that enables analysts and business leaders to quickly and comprehensively leverage cloud data to understand what’s happening in their business, why it’s happening, and what actions to take. The company recently launched two capabilities, Explorations and Dashboards, which let users pivot, visualize, monitor metrics, and share key data drivers without writing code. These tools integrate with Sisu’s existing analysis capabilities to allow seamless transitions from descriptive analysis to root‑cause and action-oriented insights on a single platform. Over the past year Sisu nearly doubled its headcount, more than tripled its revenue, and reported strong customer traction. Customers named in the announcement include Mastercard, Samsung, Upwork, Wayfair, Gusto, Autodesk, Equinox, and Udacity. Sisu says it will use the new funding to accelerate growth and further invest in closing the “Decision Gap” between collected cloud data and the data actually used in decision-making. The company’s platform is based on years of research at Stanford University and aims to operationalize enterprise data to improve operations, revenue, and incident metrics. Sisu provides an operational diagnostic analytics platform combining machine learning and statistical analysis so users can determine why key business metrics are changing. The platform was developed from years of research at Stanford and proven at scale at Microsoft, Facebook and Google. Sisu targets enterprise operational analytics and already counts customers such as Samsung and Upwork. The company is led by founder and CEO Peter Bailis and is based in San Francisco, CA. Sisu plans to use the new capital to expand in the operational analytics market. Financially, the company announced a $52.5M Series B that brought total capital raised to $66.7M.