Participated · Series C · Jul 2026

Founded in 2019 in San Sebastián, Multiverse Computing builds AI solutions inspired by quantum computing techniques—notably tensor-network approaches—to compress large language models and produce energy-efficient AI. The company says its technology can reduce model size and energy use by up to 95%, deliver 4x–12x faster inference, and cut costs by 50%–80%, enabling deployment on constrained devices like smartphones, laptops and satellites. Multiverse has launched a new generation of optimized models, including an open-source model and a family of compressed models designed for resource-limited environments. It has formed strategic partnerships with firms such as Cohere, Axelera AI, Plain Concepts, Inetum, EY and PwC to accelerate adoption in finance, energy, logistics, space, health and defense. Financially, Multiverse closed a €189M Series B in June 2025 (led by Bullhound Capital and including SETT and other investors) and is currently finalizing a larger round that could total €500M, backed in part by a €107M SETT commitment.

Participated · Series D · Sep 2016

Shape Security provides omnichannel fraud prevention for web, mobile and API interfaces, protecting large enterprises from automated attacks and other online fraud. Its platform detects and blocks up to 2 billion fraudulent or unwanted transactions daily while preserving 200 million legitimate human logins and interactions. The company’s mobile SDK is deployed on more than 200 million iOS and Android devices worldwide, and it protects more than half of online banking in North America. Led by co-founder and CEO Derek Smith, Shape plans to use new capital to scale international operations and accelerate AI development. Financially, the company has raised $51M in this growth funding round at a $1B pre-money valuation and has $183M in total funding to date. Shape Security offers an AI platform that detects and shuts down automated attacks in real time, distinguishing real users from fraudsters even when criminals use manual methods. Its solution eliminates bots, fraud and unwanted automation for more than 20% of consumer brands in the Fortune 500. The platform protects over 100 million legitimate human logins each day. Shape is led by Co-Founder and CEO Derek Smith, with Sumit Agarwal (co-founder & COO), Shuman Ghosemajumder (CTO) and Xinran Wang (Chief Security Scientist) on the leadership team. The company has offices in Mountain View, London and Sydney. It intends to use the new funding to accelerate international expansion. Shape Security, based in Mountain View, CA and led by CEO Derek Smith, develops a platform for protecting web and mobile applications from automated cybercriminal attacks. The platform is covered by 23 U.S. patents and targets threats such as credential stuffing (account takeover), application DDoS, and unauthorized aggregation. Its customers include large financial institutions, retail and travel companies, and government agencies. The company has raised $106 million in total funding to date. Following the Series D, Shape intends to use the funds to expand sales across the U.S. and internationally, primarily in the APAC region. Shape's participation in the Hewlett Packard Pathfinder program includes a strategic sales partnership with HPE to offer the Shape solution to HPE customers worldwide. Shape Security provides technology that protects web and mobile applications from automated attacks and bot-enabled account takeover. Led by CEO Derek Smith and based in Mountain View, California, the company offers the Shape Botwall Service to detect and stop malicious bot traffic. Its technology targets attacks enabled by botnets and other forms of automation, which the article notes now account for more than half of traffic to login pages of major websites. Shape's solution is positioned to bypass protections that many enterprises use today, including WAFs, DDoS and fraud controls, and IDS/IPS. The company will use proceeds to accelerate deployments of the Shape Botwall Service with customers across the globe and to expand into China with support from Beijing-based Northern Light Venture Capital. Following the Series D the company has raised $91M in total. Shape Security offers an enterprise "botwall" product that fights automated malware and bots by altering the code served to clients in real time (an approach it calls "real-time polymorphism"). Today the solution is delivered as on-premises hardware that a client installs, though the company says it may virtualize the product in the cloud in the future. The funding will be used to continue developing the technology and to build out a global salesforce as the company moves from stealth into open marketing. Shape reports early-adopter customers in financial services, healthcare, and retail and says it has been inundated with inquiries worldwide since launch. The team includes co-founders Sumit Agarwal, Derek Smith (CEO) and Justin Call (CTO), and senior staff such as Shuman Ghosemajumder, formerly Google’s "Click Fraud Czar." Financially, the company has raised a total of $66 million to date following the latest round.

Led · Equity · Jul 2014

Hortonworks distributes a Hadoop open-source software stack used to store, process and analyze varied data types. The company has a strategic reseller and engineering partnership with Hewlett-Packard that enables HP customers to run Hortonworks’ Hadoop distribution as part of HP’s HAVEN software. Hortonworks and HP are collaborating to certify HP Vertica to work with Hadoop’s YARN component and to align engineering plans. The company has raised at least $275 million to date, including a $100 million round in March and the newly announced $50 million investment from HP. Hortonworks had about 450 employees at the time of the report and competes with Cloudera and MapR in the Hadoop market. The company’s near-term plans, as described in the articles, emphasize deeper integration with HP’s cloud and big-data offerings and joint engineering work. Hortonworks develops, distributes and supports the open-source Apache Hadoop data platform that integrates with existing IT investments and enables enterprises to build and deploy Hadoop-based applications. Led by CEO Rob Bearden, the company partners with strategic resellers to broaden market reach. Strategic resell partners named in the article include Microsoft, SAP, Teradata, HP and others. Hortonworks closed a $100M funding round to further support its go-to-market efforts. The company said it will use the funds to accelerate the enablement of these partners to sell HDP into their customer bases as part of their offerings. The article includes a related note of a prior $50M financing on 03/07/2013. Hortonworks develops and supports a Hadoop distribution aimed at data analytics and application in operations and transaction‑based systems. The company spun out of Yahoo! in 2011 and is a chief contributor to Hadoop 2.0 and Apache Hadoop YARN. Its business model revolves around a close association with Apache Hadoop as a data platform. Hortonworks faces competition from peers such as Cloudera and MapR, as well as startups like Datameer and Karmasphere and enterprise players including IBM and EMC. The company raised $50 million in new financing to accelerate growth and product development. The fundraising was reported as a sign of investor confidence as the Hadoop market expands and analytics adoption increases.