Participated · Series D · May 2022

SkySpecs offers autonomous drone inspections, blade and drivetrain software, and integrated asset-health analytics for the renewable energy industry. The company operates a fleet of autonomous drones and claims the largest blade data repository, having inspected over 270,000 turbines and serving 125 global customers. In 2024 SkySpecs reported its highest-ever number of onshore and offshore drone inspections and launched new autonomous blade-inspection technology for both internal and external inspections. The company has expanded through strategic acquisitions in performance monitoring, condition monitoring, and financial analytics, and is integrating diverse data streams including inspection, SCADA, CMS and financial data. SkySpecs says it will scale further in 2025, accelerating development of cutting-edge technologies and expanding its global impact. The business emphasizes driving predictive maintenance, operational streamlining, and cost savings for owner-operators. SkySpecs offers autonomous drone inspections, AI-based fault detection, and software solutions to help owners monitor and optimize renewable energy assets across the asset lifecycle. The company expanded from blade-inspection services to broader diagnostics and analytics for multiple wind asset components to enable earlier fault detection and prioritized maintenance. SkySpecs said the new funding will accelerate expansion of its software offerings and grow its geographic footprint to increase renewable performance and displace fossil fuel generation. The company closed an $80 million strategic capital raise led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management with participation from a NextEra Energy Resources subsidiary and existing investors. SkySpecs manages approximately 118 gigawatts of renewable assets across more than 30 countries, monitors about 45% of North American wind turbine blades, and has inspected over 300,000 blades. The company employs more than 200 people globally and positions its solutions to extend asset useful life, reduce operating costs, and simplify asset ownership. SkySpecs builds operations and maintenance solutions for the wind energy sector, using AI, machine learning, robotics and software to optimize repair decision-making and proactive planning. Its Horizon asset-management solution enables smart repair planning and supports autonomous wind-turbine inspections. The company offers autonomous inspection services and asset-management functionality intended to improve O&M efficiency. SkySpecs operates in 19 countries across five continents and maintains offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Led by CEO Danny Ellis and CTO Tom Brady, the company plans to expand its team in the United States and Europe and continue developing Horizon’s functionality. SkySpecs is an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based automated infrastructure inspection company that provides a platform to enable customers to make more information-rich decisions about the condition of their energy assets and infrastructure. Co-founded by Danny Ellis and Tom Brady, the company combines robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine-based analytics to advance renewable infrastructure inspection. Its solution enables wind farm owners, ISPs, and OEMs to monitor and track the health of their wind turbines with a 15-minute automated robotic inspection. SkySpecs will use the Series B proceeds to scale international operations and develop inspection software. The company raised $8m in Series B financing led by Statkraft Ventures, with participation from UL Ventures and Capital Midwest and follow-on investments from Venture Investors, Huron River Ventures and other existing investors.

Participated · Series B · Mar 2016

Sight Machine provides an analytics platform purpose-built for discrete and process manufacturing, using artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics to address quality and productivity challenges across the enterprise. The solution creates AI-enabled digital twins of the entire production process to enable continuous improvement in productivity, quality and profitability. Its platform is optimized to run on major cloud providers including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and AWS. The company serves Global 500 customers and large enterprises across automotive, food and beverage, packaging, and pulp and paper sectors. The business is led by CEO and co-founder Jon Sobel and is based in San Francisco, CA. No financial metrics or revenue figures were disclosed in the article. Sight Machine is a San Francisco-based digital manufacturing platform led by CEO Jon Sobel. Its analytics platform uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics to address quality and productivity challenges across the enterprise. The solution is optimized to run on major cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and AWS, and the company partners with system integrators such as Fujitsu, consultancies, and E.ON. Sight Machine stream-processes and continuously analyzes manufacturing data across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Global 500 companies in the automotive, food and beverage, and pulp and paper sectors use the platform, including Nissan Motor Co., Heineken N.V. and Westrock Co. The company announced a $29.4M Series C in April 2019. Sight Machine offers an end-to-end big data platform built specifically for manufacturing that transforms process, parts, and people data into real-time production, quality, and supply chain insights. The platform provides retrospective analysis of product variation and failures, predictive analytics to support process improvement, and benchmarking at contractor, factory, line and tool levels. Enterprise customers include auto OEMs and Tier One suppliers, a major consumer brand, and global leaders in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and industrial materials. Early results cited include detecting and eliminating five times the quality defects for a Detroit Three automaker, reducing asset downtime by more than 50%, and improving asset performance by 25% over a one-month period. Sight Machine will use the Series B proceeds to expand its sales and marketing efforts and continue technology development. Investors and partners such as GE Ventures framed the company as central to the digital transformation of manufacturing and the realization of the "brilliant factory." Sight Machine develops a cloud-based manufacturing analytics platform that captures, processes, and analyzes the torrent of structured and unstructured sensor and machine data generated on the factory floor. The platform delivers real-time reporting of quality problems, retrospective analysis of product variation and failures, predictive analytics for process improvement, and defensive recordkeeping. Sight Machine targets global manufacturers with complex operations and supply chains that are adopting Industrial IoT. Customers include a major automotive OEM and one of the world’s largest apparel manufacturers. The company operates offices in San Francisco, southeastern Michigan, and Asia and plans additional hiring across those locations. Sight Machine will use the proceeds from its recent venture round to fund ongoing technical and market development efforts.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2015

PeachWorks (formerly WhenToManage) provides a subscription-based cloud solution for the restaurant management industry. Its platform features recipe and inventory management, point-of-sale analytics and staff scheduling tools. The company serves restaurants, hospitality, specialty retail and food service markets. Founded by Jeff Schacher, who now serves as chief product officer, PeachWorks is led by newly appointed CEO Mark Symonds. The company closed a $4M Series A and intends to use the funds to scale sales and marketing and build out its suite of cloud-based management tools. PeachWorks is based in Southfield, Michigan.

Led · Equity · Jan 2015

Sportsman Tracker offers a mobile app that provides maps, hunting and fishing locations, ways to record field results, and a proprietary algorithm that predicts optimal times and places to hunt or fish. The app targets both hunters and fishers so it is used year-round rather than seasonally. The company says its algorithm generated more than 4 million predictions and the app saw 270,000 users during the 2014 hunting season; its user base previously hit 80,000. The company traces early support to Start Garden, which awarded founder Jeffrey Courter $5,000 in May 2013 and later invested $100,000 after the user milestone. Sportsman Tracker aims to scale its platform and become an outdoor-sports destination for a broad range of sportsmen. Its recent funding is intended to support scaling and market adoption.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2014

TechCrunch's Crunch Report notes that FarmLogs raised $22 million to make agriculture a more predictable business. The article provides only a brief mention and does not describe the company's core product in detail. No operating metrics (revenue, users) are reported in the piece. The report also does not list investors, the financing instrument, prior rounds, founding year, or location. The mention appears as an item in the 'Today's Stories' segment of the Crunch Report. Further deal specifics would need to be obtained from the original TechCrunch coverage. FarmLogs builds farm-management software that ingests data — including from low-cost Bluetooth hardware — to help crop farmers forecast profits, track expenses, schedule operations, and optimize crop rotations. The company graduated from Y Combinator’s winter 2012 class, was founded in Silicon Valley, and later relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since launching, FarmLogs tripled its market share in the first six months of 2014. Its product focus includes intelligent prediction of crop rotations and automating activity data collection. Financially, FarmLogs has raised $15 million to date, including a $4 million Series A about 12 months earlier. The new capital will be used to further the company’s technology and to hire engineers, data scientists, and designers to scale the business. FarmLogs offers a mobile web and app-based farm-management platform that uses GPS and historical weather data to help crop farmers forecast profits, track expenses, and schedule operations. The product emphasizes mobile friendliness (iPad-ready) and lets farmers jot notes and input data from the field. The company is building features to intelligently predict and optimize crop rotations and to automate activity data collection. FarmLogs plans to ingest data from modern farming equipment—using low-cost Bluetooth hardware to analyze and upload equipment data in real time. The startup reports that roughly 5% of U.S. farms use its software and says it has helped thousands of farmers worldwide. FarmLogs is Michigan-based and is a Y Combinator alum (graduated early 2012). FarmLogs provides farm management software for row crop farmers to plan, manage and analyze operations via smartphone or web browser. Founded in 2011 by CEO Jesse Vollmar and CTO Brad Koch and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the company is an alum of Y Combinator's winter 2012 batch. Its platform includes a dashboard giving users a daily snapshot of a farm’s performance, plus maps, calendars, weather conditions, market prices and relevant news. FarmLogs raised $1M in seed funding to support its growth. The company intends to use the capital to expand its team and further develop its mobile applications in time for the 2013 planting season. The product targets row crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat.