Participated · Seed · Jun 2026

Taste Labs is building data and infrastructure aimed at enabling AI models and agents to make better subjective judgments, with an initial focus on design. The company says it has collaborated with leading frontier model labs to develop post-training datasets and reinforcement-learning environments to improve model behavior. It has also worked with application-layer companies to create context and verification tools for agents to produce more on-brand and creative outputs. Taste Labs announced its launch out of stealth alongside an $18.5M seed round co-led by Amplify Partners and CRV and supported by multiple institutional and angel investors. The company framed its long-term ambition as making AI outputs not just technically correct but feeling "right." No revenue, user metrics, valuation, or founding year were disclosed in the articles.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2026

ArchAstro is developing an AI-powered platform and network of privacy-aware agents that automate secure, continuous connections, integrations, migrations, and bug fixes across corporate software environments. The company emerged from stealth in 2026 and was founded by engineering veterans from Microsoft, Stripe, Statsig, and Meta, including Vivek Sharma, Tore Hanssen, Robert Masson, Calvin Grunewald, Rafael Brandao Lobo, and Bruno Garcia. ArchAstro is based in the Seattle area and currently has a seven-person team. Its stated plans include building and refining agents capable of handling secure cross-company deployments and integrations. Financially, ArchAstro closed a $6.2M pre-seed round in June 2026 to fund product development and team growth.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2025

Vaudit is a real-time AI audit engine that monitors advertising campaigns 24/7, detects billing anomalies, and generates legally defensible audit evidence to help businesses recover wasted ad spend. The platform reconciles reported ad spend with actual billing from vendors like Google and Meta and produces structured reports to flag irregularities, dispute charges, and pursue refunds. Since launching late last year, Vaudit supports 1,000+ customers worldwide, has audited more than 558 million advertising events, and is auditing over $150 million in annualized ad spend. The company reports in some cases recording up to 30% in monthly overcharges for customers when reconciling billed traffic. Vaudit, formerly BlokID, plans to accelerate development of agentic workflows to automatically optimize ad spend, refine its AI models to increase anomaly-detection precision, and expand coverage to mobile in-app traffic and platforms such as TikTok, X, and Amazon. The company also appointed Piotr Korzeniowski as COO to focus on product development and scaling operations. BlokID builds blockchain-powered privacy protection solutions aimed at the digital advertising ecosystem, providing an independent, immutable source of truth for ad verification and attribution. Its platform enables advertisers to verify ads, run attribution audits, and guarantee privacy with bonded privacy insurance through one-click campaigns. The company integrates with Google, Facebook, DV360, Xandr, and The Trade Desk to support advertisers and agencies. BlokID plans to roll out Google Analytics plug-ins and Financial Identity features to further empower users and safeguard information. Founded in July 2023 and led by CEO Michael Hahn, the company intends to use the seed funds to accelerate product development, focus on user acquisition, and begin market expansion. It targets a product launch by Q2 2024.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2025

Paxton is an AI platform for the legal industry that automates complex tasks to help legal teams focus on strategic work. Its platform conducts primary research across laws, regulations, and case law, drafts complex legal documents, and analyzes large volumes of documents in seconds. The product provides real-time updates on U.S. laws and court rulings by scanning millions of sources daily. Paxton also offers a confidence indicator and AI Citator features to surface reliability insights and case law analysis. The company plans to use the new funding to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. Founded by CEO Tanguy Chau and CTO Michael Ulin and based in Bend, OR, Paxton has now raised $28M to date following a $6M seed in September 2023. Paxton offers a generative AI legal assistant focused on regulatory intelligence and legal research, using natural language processing and machine learning to produce intelligently analyzed first drafts. The platform is designed to avoid hallucinations by providing clear, accurate citations for every claim so practitioners can verify outputs. Users can upload their own research and documents for analysis, and Paxton's database is updated in real time to track US federal and state laws, rules, regulations, and guidance. The product can be deployed behind a firm firewall with options to isolate data access by practice group or matter. Paxton complies with SOC2 requirements (attestation pending) and follows the American Bar Association’s guidelines on legal AI. The company is led by co-founders and CEO Tanguy Chau and CTO Mike Ulin.

Led · Series A · May 2024

Kintsugi is an AI-enabled sales tax compliance platform that automates tax calculations and filings and integrates with Shopify, Stripe, Chargebee, QuickBooks, or custom APIs. The product offers free tax liability calculations, charges for tax filing, and provides an auto-remit option to file taxes automatically after ingesting revenue data. The company aims to support compliance across 171 countries and plans expansion into South America, Africa, India, and China. Founded in 2023 and based in San Francisco, Kintsugi targets small and medium businesses as well as larger customers. Kintsugi generated $3 million in annual revenue last year, reports profit margins above 93%, and targets over $10 million in revenue by the end of 2025. The startup serves 2,400 customers (45% SaaS), processes 5.5 million transactions valued at $7.7 billion, employs 95 people, and reports a 0.1% churn rate. Kintsugi automates sales tax compliance by connecting to companies’ billing and payment systems to determine state liabilities, register businesses in the correct jurisdictions, calculate taxes, and remit payments. The company uses in‑house AI models with humans in the loop, which the CEO says produces more accurate results than competitors relying on large language models. Founded in 2022 and based in San Francisco, Kintsugi launched its website in August 2023 and has grown to more than 1,100 users in the past year. The company has earned $1 million in revenue and offers a freemium approach: free, regularly updated analyses, $100 per tax filing, or custom plans. Competitors include Anrok, CereTax, and legacy outsourcing providers, but Kintsugi emphasizes easier onboarding and free ongoing reports as differentiators. Kintsugi plans to use new capital to expand its technology and to prepare for expansion into Canada and Europe. Kintsugi AI offers an end-to-end sales tax automation platform that handles real-time nexus monitoring, AI-enabled product categorization, rooftop-level tax calculation and validation, sales tax registration, filing, exemption certificate handling, and back-tax compliance. The platform is secure and encrypted, GDPR-compliant, and SOC 2 Type II compliant, aligning with the Trust Services Criteria for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. The company was co-founded by Pujun Bhatnagar, Barkin Doganay, and Jeff Gibson. Kintsugi intends to use the Series A proceeds to further develop its sales tax management solution. Financially, the company completed a $6M Series A at a $40M valuation. The product targets automation of sales tax compliance workflows for businesses.