The Venture Codex

Participated · Series D · Dec 2025

Palo Alto–based Mythic has developed Analog Processing Units (APUs) that collapse compute and memory into a single plane, achieving around 120 TOPS-per-watt—roughly 100 × the energy efficiency of top-tier GPUs—even when moving data. The chips, already in production and validated by the U.S. DoD, major auto OEMs and defense contractors, target four trillion-dollar markets: data centers, automotive, robotics and defense, while also scaling to 1-trillion-parameter large language models. Internal benchmarks show up to 750× more tokens-per-second-per-watt and as much as an 80× cost advantage per million tokens versus NVIDIA’s highest-end GPUs. Beyond standalone APUs, Mythic is commercializing “Starlight” sub-1 W sensing modules that integrate its compute-in-memory technology directly into image sensors for 50× performance gains in low-light scenarios. The company offers a mature CAMP SDK that supports ONNX, PyTorch and TensorFlow and has been rated best-in-class among compute-in-memory peers. Led by former NVIDIA executive Taner Ozcelik, Mythic’s roadmap includes enabling ChatGPT-class models to run locally on handheld devices at roughly 1/100th today’s cost. The recent $125 million raise gives the firm substantial runway to scale manufacturing and expand its product portfolio.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2025

Founded in January 2025 in Tokyo, UMIAILE is a Honda-spinout marine-robotics startup building small unmanned boats, branded "UMIAILE ASV," that act as an "artificial satellite at altitude 0 m." The craft leverage unique hydrofoil technology and swarm control to operate autonomously, withstand harsh offshore conditions, and collect high-resolution, real-time ocean data at scale. The company aims to mass-produce several thousand vessels annually and provide a data platform that can serve fisheries, energy, environmental monitoring, and national security applications. To reach full commercial deployment, it is prioritizing durability improvements, expanded field trials, and multi-vessel mission coordination. The newly raised capital strengthens its balance sheet for advanced R&D, prototype iterations geared toward mass production, expansion of demonstration sites, industry-academia-government collaboration projects, and aggressive hiring. While still pre-revenue, the company positions itself as a critical enabler of sustainable and secure use of ocean resources.

Participated · Series A · Jun 2024

Princeton NuEnergy is an advanced manufacturing leader in lithium-ion battery direct recycling, founded out of Princeton University and led by CEO Dr. Chao Yan. Its patented low-temperature plasma-assisted separation process (LPAS™) produces battery-grade cathode and anode materials suitable for direct reintroduction into cell manufacturing. The company says the process operates at roughly half the cost and with a much lower environmental footprint than conventional methods. PNE closed a $30M Series A and intends to use the funds to support construction of its first standalone, full-scale direct battery recycling advanced manufacturing facility, to be announced later this month. To date the company has raised over $55M, including multiple U.S. Department of Energy grants totaling $18M and a $7.9M seed & angel round. Strategic and corporate backers include Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Helium-3, alongside previous investors such as Honda Motor Co. Ltd., LKQ Corporation, SCG Group, Traxys Group, and Wistron Corporation. Princenton NuEnergy develops a patented low-temperature plasma-assisted separation process (LPAS™) to perform direct recycling of lithium-ion batteries. The LPAS process is designed to reduce costs, environmental waste, and carbon emissions and to enable higher critical-material recovery rates and superior material performance versus traditional recycling methods. The company is led by CEO Dr. Chao Yan and is based in Bordentown, New Jersey. PNE intends to use recent funding to support construction of an Advanced Black Mass and Cathode Manufacturing Center in the southeastern U.S. 'battery belt'. Financially, the firm completed a Seed round of $7M and has secured multiple U.S. Department of Energy grants totaling $18M for battery recycling research. Over the past six months it has raised $26.4M in Series A funding in total, including an additional $10.3M announced in May 2024. Princeton NuEnergy is a Bordentown, New Jersey–based clean‑tech company founded out of Princeton University that develops direct recycling technology for lithium‑ion batteries. Its patented low‑temperature plasma‑assisted separation process (LPAS™) produces battery‑grade cathode and anode materials suitable for direct reintroduction into cell manufacturing. The company reports recycling efficiency rates of over 95% and claims exceptional ESG performance at roughly half the cost and with a lower environmental footprint versus conventional methods. In 2022 PNE launched an end‑to‑end production‑scale lithium‑ion battery direct recycling line in the U.S. The company raised $16M in a Series A and intends to use the funds to construct a new recycling facility and procure equipment to increase processing capacity and support operations. PNE has also received multiple U.S. Department of Energy research grants (most recently $12M and $4.375M) and previously completed seed rounds totaling $7M. Princeton NuEnergy develops a patented Direct Battery Recycling technology that converts spent lithium‑ion batteries from electric vehicles and consumer electronics into high‑quality, high value‑added cathode active materials. The company says its process lowers operating costs while delivering sustainable energy and environmental solutions. Led by CEO Dr. Yan Chao, the team includes co‑founder and CTO Dr. Yang Xiaofang and technical advisors Prof. Yiguang Ju and Prof. Bruce E. Koel. Princeton NuEnergy was spun out from Princeton University in 2019 and is based in Bordentown, New Jersey. The company intends to use the newly raised funds to scale development and accelerate growth. No operating metrics (revenue/users) were disclosed in the article. Princeton NuEnergy of Bordentown, New Jersey is developing a novel lithium‑ion battery recycling process to directly recover and regenerate used battery materials. The company says its process is simpler, more cost‑effective, and more environmentally friendly than current industrial recycling methods. With the process, critical battery materials such as the cathode and anode can be recycled, restored, and reused in new batteries without breaking materials down into raw elements. Princeton NuEnergy completed Cleantech Open’s six‑month accelerator program of mentorship, business training, and investor and partner networking. The company won Cleantech Open’s 2021 U.S. National Grand Prize, which includes a $50,000 SAFE note plus consulting and legal support. CEO Chao Yan said the award will help execute a pilot production line in Q1 2022 and strengthen intellectual property, business strategy, and marketing.

Participated · Series C · Oct 2023

Seurat Technologies provides a 3D metal printing system designed for high-volume, decarbonized industrial production. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate its 3D metal printing technology and move from prototype to production. Seurat plans to deploy printing factories at or near customer sites worldwide to produce parts closer to demand, reshore supply chains, and reduce emissions from transportation and global logistics. Its pilot factory in the Greater Boston area will have capacity to produce more than 25 tons of metal parts annually and is already oversubscribed. Seurat has commitments to develop 59 tons of additively manufactured metal components for Siemens Energy over six years, LOIs from six customers totaling 4,000 tons of material, and over $750 million in projected revenue over the next several years. The company anticipates its technology could directly mitigate as much as 100 million tons of CO2 by 2030 and holds over 275 patents and trademarks, granted and pending. The company is led by CEO James DeMuth and is based in Wilmington, MA. Seurat Technologies provides scalable metal additive manufacturing technology and components manufacturing via its patented Area Printing platform. The Area Printing process decouples resolution and speed, enabling gains in lead time, cost, and quality. The technology originated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; CEO and co-founder James DeMuth was a co-inventor and key developer. Seurat holds over 130 patents granted and pending. The process can be powered by 100% renewable energy and allows greater materials recycling, positioning the company to significantly reduce carbon emissions—0.15 GT of annual emissions displacement is expected by 2025. Seurat's commercialization program is slated to launch this year, and the company has received LOIs from leaders in automotive, aerospace, energy, and industrial manufacturing. Funding will support the initial commercial rollout, hiring, and development of a production-grade system. Seurat Technologies commercializes Area Printing, a metal additive manufacturing process that focuses over two million controllable laser points on a bed of metal powder to produce production-grade components. The process emphasizes per-point control of laser power and duration to deliver resolution, part integrity, and reliability at scale. Seurat says its first system generation will cut cost per part by about 50% versus today’s additive manufacturing technologies and that future printers could reach manufacturing costs below conventional die casting by 2030. The technology originated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was developed by a team that included Seurat’s CEO and co-founder James DeMuth. Seurat plans to use new funding to accelerate development and commercialization of Area Printing. The company is based in Wilmington, Mass., and previously raised $13.5 million in a Series A led by True Ventures in January 2018. Seurat Technologies builds industrial-scale metal printers aimed at cost-effective, high-throughput metal additive manufacturing. Its approach leverages technology originally developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the company has applied for more than 20 patents. Seurat’s printers are designed for industrial scalability, likened to large-format laser engraving machines for manufacturing. The company intends to use new funds to accelerate commercialization of its metal additive manufacturing technology. Seurat was founded in July 2015 and is based in Boston, MA. Prior to this round it raised a $3.41M seed financing in June 2016 led by True Ventures.

Participated · Series C · Aug 2023

Helm.ai develops AI software for autonomous driving and the automation of robotics, with a focus on high-end ADAS and L4 autonomy. The company supplies technology for automotive and robotics customers and partners. Founded in November 2016 and led by CEO Vlad Voroninski, it is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Helm.ai intends to use new capital to advance R&D and to productize its self-driving technologies. The company also plans to further execute on commercial engagements with customers and partners in the automotive and robotics sectors. The Series C increased the company's total reported funding to $102M. Helm.ai develops an unsupervised learning software stack that trains neural networks without large-scale fleet data, simulation or human annotation, and is sensor- and compute-agnostic. The company positions its product for high-end ADAS and L4 autonomous solutions and sells to OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. Helm.ai says its approach reduces cost and expedites development timelines compared with conventional annotation- and simulation-heavy pipelines. The startup has attracted customers including Honda and other partners under NDA. It operates with a roughly 50-person workforce and will use new funding to add employees, invest in R&D and build commercial partnerships. The company is a six-year-old Menlo Park, California-based startup with a post-money valuation reported at $431 million and $78 million raised to date. Helm.ai develops AI software for high-end ADAS and Level 4 autonomous driving, using its Deep Teaching unsupervised learning technology based on mathematical modeling to train on large datasets with little or no human intervention. Led by CEO Vlad Voroninski, the company has grown in revenue and secured commercial contracts with multiple OEMs. It also reports partnerships with Tier 1 suppliers, chip and sensor companies, including previously announced collaborations with NVIDIA and Honda via Honda’s Xcelerator program. Helm.ai intends to use the new capital to grow its customer base and accelerate product expansion. The company is based in Menlo Park, California and has raised a total of $44M to date. The business focus remains on expanding commercial deployments of its autonomous-driving software. Helm.ai builds software that interprets vehicle sensor data using an unsupervised learning approach so neural networks can be trained without large-scale fleet data, simulation, or human annotation. The company is software-only and agnostic to compute platforms and sensors. Its product aims to match human-like understanding of sensor data to power driving systems. Helm.ai plans to license its software for Level 2/Level 2+ advanced driver assistance and Level 4 autonomous fleets. The startup has a small team of about 15 people and says it already has customers, some beyond the pilot phase. It will use new funding to expand engineering and R&D, hire more employees, and lock in and fulfill customer deals.