Led · Equity · Nov 2025

Founded in 2015 by Sneh Vaswani, Prashant Iyengar, and Chintan Raikar, Miko develops conversational learning robots such as Miko 3 and the smaller Miko Mini for children aged 5-12. The devices blend artificial intelligence, robotics, and IoT to deliver interactive, personalised educational experiences. Its product suite also includes Miko Chess Grand, the subscription-based content service Miko Max, and the secure family video-calling feature Mikonnect. The company claims to have a presence in more than 140 countries across the US, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. A newly announced partnership with iHeartMedia will embed iHeart’s audio content into Miko’s ecosystem, broadening educational and entertainment options. Miko is also expanding offline distribution and recently entered Costco’s North American retail network. The latest funding round positions the company to accelerate both content partnerships and global retail expansion.

Led · Seed · Mar 2023

Autio offers a location-based audio storytelling app that uses a user’s GPS location to deliver narrated stories about nearby landmarks, cities, and towns. The company was founded by Woody Sears, Bill Werlin, and Kevin Costner and is based in Santa Barbara. It originally launched in August 2020 under the name HearHere. On March 29, 2023, Autio announced it had raised $5.9 million in a funding round. The round was led by iHeartMedia. The article does not disclose additional operating metrics, valuation, or other participating investors. HearHere is a GPS-powered audio entertainment app that delivers immersive, location-based storytelling to road-trip travelers. Launched in August 2020 and based in Santa Barbara, the app pushes three- to five-minute stories to users as they drive, surfacing history, natural landscape, sports, music and local insights. HearHere currently has more than 100,000 registered users and offers over 8,880 stories across the continental United States; free accounts include five stories while paid subscriptions cost $36 per year for unlimited access. The company maintains a 26-person content team of researchers, writers, editors and narrators (primarily contractors), and actor Kevin Costner joined in 2020 as a co-founder, narrator and investor. HearHere plans to expand its content library, add offline listening, launch an Android app, and extend availability to Alaska and Hawaii later this year. The new funding will also be used to grow the team and expand functionality. HearHere produces short (three- to five-minute) narrated audio stories that trigger with users’ permission while they drive, surfacing local history, sports, music and lesser-known points of interest. The company has banked 5,500 stories across 22 states and plans to be nationwide by summer. It operates a content team of 22 researchers, writers, editors and narrators and currently has a five-person core team. HearHere offers five free stories per month and unlimited streaming for $35.99 per year. The roadmap includes opening to third-party contributors and incorporating AI and machine learning for language support and better personalization. HearHere has formed distribution and promotion partnerships with AAA, Camping World, Outdoorsy, RVshare and Cruise America.

Led · Series A · Feb 2022

Sounder is an end-to-end podcast management platform that brings Audio Intelligence to creators and media publishers. Founded in 2019 by former Google and Spotify executives and led by CEO Kal Amin, the New York-based company connects creators and enterprises to Audio Intelligence solutions to accelerate discovery, engagement, and monetization. The company plans to use the $7.7M Series A to expand its research and development team and build AI- and ML-powered tools to drive growth for audio creators. It also intends to build a complete ad system that supports publishers and advertisers of all sizes. With this round, Sounder’s total funding to date has reached $11.55M. Sounder is an end-to-end audio management and monetization platform for creators, led by Co-founder and CEO Kal Amin. The platform connects creators to the tools and services they need to grow audiences and revenue. Its Discovery Suite brings proprietary SEO, search, transcription and sharing technology to audio content, expanding the reach of every episode. The company will use the new funds to further advance its proprietary search, speech-to-text and contextualization technologies. Sounder also plans to establish a new R&D center of excellence in New York. Financially, it closed a $2.15M follow-on round, bringing total seed financing to approximately $4M raised in 14 months. Sounder provides an end-to-end podcast management platform that connects creators to tools and services to grow audiences and revenue. It leverages proprietary Pinpoint Audio Search technology to improve discoverability of audio content; the technology is described as patent-pending. Founded in 2019 by former Google and Spotify executives and led by CEO Kal Amin, Sounder has attracted thousands of shows and generated millions of streams in over 50 languages worldwide. The company closed a seed financing to support its growth and further product development. Proceeds will be used for select key hires, marketing initiatives and continued development of the platform and its patent-pending technology.

Participated · Series C · Nov 2019

Ozy Media is a daily digital magazine founded by Carlos Watson and Samir Rao in 2013. The company produces festivals, podcasts and digital shows and last year launched an in-house production arm called Ozy Studios to create TV shows and podcasts. Ozy reports around 50 million monthly visitors across its platforms. Management has used festivals, podcasts and digital programming to ramp up the brand while other digital media firms consolidate. Company plans include producing more and different TV shows, bringing Ozy Fest to additional cities, and launching more podcasts. Including the recent financing, Ozy has raised over $70 million to date. OZY Media is a daily online magazine that discovers and reports on politics, culture, sports, food and technology and organizes live events. Founded in 2013 and based in Mountain View, CA, the company has recently expanded its editorial product and email newsletters. Its newsletters deliver global coverage to over 2 million people worldwide. The company intends to use the newly raised funds to continue to create experiences and to expand its video team. Financially, OZY raised $10m in the reported round and has raised $35m in total to date. The company’s backers include corporate investors and prominent angels named in the filing. Ozy is a news and culture website that publishes news and cultural content. The company describes its approach as presenting news "in a completely different way." Its stated mission is to "vault you ahead" so readers see more of the dynamic, inspiring, diverse world. The article reports that Ozy received a $20 million investment from Axel Springer. No operating metrics, valuation, or detailed future plans are provided in the article.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2017

AutoLotto operates a mobile lottery app available nationwide on iOS and Android that allows users to play Powerball, scan tickets, and track results. The app emphasizes safety and security through identity, location, and age verification and promotes a “Tap, tap, ticket” approach with zero fees or commissions and 100% of winnings returned. AutoLotto plans to launch in-app ticket play across the $80 billion U.S. market and expand into international markets in the coming months. The company announced partnerships with iHeartMedia and Gatehouse Media to accelerate market coverage across multiple distribution mediums. AutoLotto has raised more than $19 million since inception, including the recently closed $17 million Series A. The new funding will be used to scale the team and further expand the company’s footprint in the U.S. and abroad.