Participated · Seed · Jan 2021

Forma Vision offers an enterprise-grade holographic meeting platform that captures and live-streams volumetric video, allowing remote users to appear as lifelike 3D holograms instead of avatars. The service runs on today’s commodity hardware and networks and can be viewed on any device, lowering the barrier for companies of all sizes to adopt immersive collaboration. Enterprises have already used the technology for executive town halls, training sessions and small-group meetings, proving its value in hybrid-work scenarios. By partnering with Accenture, the company plans to extend its real-time volumetric capabilities to a wider range of uses, from e-commerce and gaming to virtual healthcare, sports and product design. Forma Vision positions volumetric collaboration as the natural evolution of video conferencing, aiming to let every employee contribute meaningfully regardless of location. Financial details and operating metrics were not disclosed in the article.

Led · Seed · Oct 2017

Blue Canoe Learning has packaged the Color Vowel System into a mobile app and games that use machine learning to listen to users, identify pronunciation errors, and provide targeted corrective feedback. The product includes a card-game activity where users speak vocabulary words and receive error-specific guidance based on professionally annotated pronunciation data. Blue Canoe’s models were trained on accented speech annotated word-by-word by experts so the app can distinguish different error types (for example, varied realizations of /r/ or incorrect stress). The company is running pilot programs with several employers to build tailored curricula and vocabulary for industry use rather than a pure direct-to-consumer approach. Blue Canoe plans a broader public rollout around the second quarter of next year and intends to validate its automated pronunciation ratings against professional in-person ratings. Financially, the company recently closed a $1.4 million financing to expand operations and support its pilots, and has been accepted into the Allen Institute for AI’s new incubator in Seattle.