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The Venture Codex

Lightbank

600 W Chicago Ave Ste 510, Chicago, Illinois, 60654, United States

Overview

Lightbank VC is a $700M AUM venture fund that invests in early-stage vertically focused AI, consumer, enterprise, healthcare, crypto, fintech and climate companies. It focuses on pre-seed, seed and Series A opportunities where they write initial checks between $250k - $5m. They have invested in over 150 companies such as Tempus, Udemy, Fiverr (NYSE: FVRR), Sprout Social (NYSE: SPRT), Boom Supersonic, Tastytrade (acq. $1B+), Extend, Attain, Paytient and Expel.

Total investments
109
Lead investments
44
Investments · 12mo
8
Active investors
8

Sector focus

  • EdTech
  • Enterprise Software
  • FinTech
  • Human Resources
  • Internet
  • Local
  • Mobile
  • Small and Medium Businesses
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Investment portfolio

  • Ours Privacy

    Led · Series A · Aug 2026

    Founded by Jessica Holton, Ours Privacy provides a HIPAA-compliant marketing and data infrastructure platform that helps healthcare organizations manage and clean personal health information before transmitting data to third parties. Its customer data platform integrates with various data sources, including websites and electronic health records. The company positions itself to enable secure digital marketing for healthcare providers, payers, and digital health companies. Ours Privacy aims to expand its footprint in healthcare while continuing product development and scaling operations. The firm is based in the United States and shares its product and company information on https://oursprivacy.com.

  • Valarian Technologies

    Participated · Series A · Jul 2026

    Valarian Technologies develops ACRA, a software layer described as a sealed operating room for AI workloads and sensitive applications that controls what data leaves systems, who can access it, and who can shut it off. The product is positioned to let governments and enterprises retain control while still using major cloud providers by enforcing policy and access controls outside those providers’ native stack. The company was founded and is led by Max Buchan, with co-founder Josh McLaughlin joining from a senior role at Palantir, and is based in London. Valarian’s positioning responds to geopolitical risks such as the U.S. CLOUD Act and recent restrictions on access to U.S.-based AI services. Financially, the company has raised $70 million to date, including a $50 million Series A led by NEA.

  • Letter AI

    Participated · Series B · Feb 2026

    Letter AI is an AI-first platform that unifies content, coaching, learning and buyer engagement to help go-to-market teams close deals more effectively. Instead of relying on static playbooks, the software ingests live CRM data and customer interactions to generate personalized guidance in the flow of a deal. Enterprises such as Lenovo, Adobe, Novo Nordisk, Plaid, Zip, RingCentral, Kong and SolarWinds use the system across more than 30 countries. The company was recently named G2’s Highest Momentum Leader in Sales Enablement and earned 21 badges in the G2 Winter Reports, underscoring strong customer adoption and satisfaction. Headquartered in Chicago, Letter AI was co-founded by CEO Ali Akhtar and CTO Armen Forget. With its latest capital infusion, the firm plans to scale product development, grow its global team and accelerate go-to-market efforts as it positions itself as an AI-native alternative to fragmented legacy tools.

  • Bearing

    Participated · Seed · Feb 2026

    Bearing develops the first physical security operations solution built natively on the ServiceNow AI Platform, enabling enterprises to manage physical security workflows, data, devices and assets within their existing system of record. By extending ServiceNow’s Workflow Data Fabric and AI agents, the software gives security teams greater visibility, coordination and governance across facilities, OT and physical infrastructure. More than 85% of the Fortune 500 already trust ServiceNow, and Bearing leverages that footprint to close the long-standing gap between physical and corporate security. The product delivers digital transformation, workflow automation and AI-driven incident resolution to help organizations increase awareness and respond faster to threats. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company plans to use new capital to expand headcount and accelerate product development, specifically around AI-powered security workflows. Bearing’s oversubscribed $4.5 million seed round marks its first disclosed financing and provides resources for continued growth and market penetration.

  • Kargo

    Participated · Series B · Dec 2025

    Founded in 2019, San-Francisco-based Kargo offers an integrated solution of computer-vision "towers" and lifts that automatically inspect freight, verify shipments against Bills of Lading, and stream inventory data into customers’ systems without manual scanning. The platform flags damage, manages OS&D claims with visual evidence, and coordinates scheduling, driver check-in and dock allocation in one workflow. Since its 2022 Series A the company has grown its enterprise customer count from three to more than 45, including Fortune 500 players such as Wayne-Sanderson, Aurobindo, Tillamook and Mercedes-Benz, and has deployed over 1,000 towers nationwide. Kargo reports tripling annual revenue from 2024 to 2025, driven by rapid follow-on orders once initial hardware is installed. Building on its proprietary data layer, the firm is now launching “Kargo Intelligence,” an agentic-AI suite that automates back-office tasks like invoicing, claims disputes and financial reconciliation. Management positions the product as a “universal interpreter” for supply chains, aiming to embed at every node for compounding data network effects.

Team