Participated · Seed · Aug 2026

idler develops datasets, evals, benchmarks, and reinforcement learning environments aimed at frontier AI labs. The company released ShelfLife, a public benchmark built as a digital twin seeded with operational data from a live, profitable multi-brand retailer (9 stores, 3 commerce platforms, and multi-supplier sourcing). idler plans to use its recently raised $9M seed to expand those evaluation and training assets and to hire additional staff. The team positions its benchmarks and environments as tools used by leading frontier labs to train and measure models. No revenue, user, or other operating metrics were disclosed in the announcement.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2024

Ribbon provides financial institutions with an inheritance center designed to ease the logistical burden of settling estates for grieving customers. The product is positioned as a low-IT-lift, highly compliant and secure solution that uses AI and natural language processing to verify a passing, manage cases, transfer assets, and maintain compliance. Ribbon says its service can save financial institutions at least 2% of deposits and liquidity annually by reducing churn caused by poor inheritance experiences. The company cites industry friction—average estates cost more than $14,000 to finalize—and attributes much of the pain to outdated systems that create avoidable work. Ribbon reports it is already in progress with financial institutions across the country to go live. The company was founded by Allan Oloo and a co-founder and is focused on reducing time and cost for grieving families while helping institutions retain funds.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2023

Hadrius builds an AI-native compliance platform that consolidates the compliance lifecycle into a single system of record for financial services firms. The company says its platform reduces false positives by 95%, cuts manual compliance work by 70%, and saves users more than 20 hours per week. Hadrius is used by more than 500 financial institutions and investment firms. By the end of 2026, the company plans to extend agentic AI capabilities across marketing, communications, people monitoring, trades, branch inspections, and firm audit readiness. The team is expanding its product and go-to-market organization, including hiring senior product and compliance veterans. Hadrius has raised $27 million in seed and Series A funding to fund these efforts.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2020

ABL Space Systems is a launch startup building the RS1 small rocket and associated ground systems to deliver rapid, flexible access to space. Its core focus is “responsive launch,” enabling missions to lift off on short notice without a predefined trajectory, orbit, or launch site. To achieve this, the company is developing operational capacity that can quickly adapt payload, launch location, and target orbit, in line with the U.S. Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Space goals. ABL is preparing for a second RS1 launch attempt from Alaska after a January flight was lost when all nine first-stage engines shut down simultaneously. The Space Force has also assigned the startup dedicated launch space at Launch Complex 15 in Cape Canaveral, supporting future growth. A recent $60 million STRATFI contract—matched by private investment—provides fresh capital to complete development and scale its on-call launch capabilities.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2018

Tizeti is a Lagos-based wireless ISP that uses solar-powered base stations and wide-area Wi‑Fi to provide unlimited high-speed internet to residential buildings, commercial establishments, and hotspot users. Through an extensive network across five Nigerian states it serves over three million users and has also launched operations in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The company plans to expand coverage to 15 Nigerian states, including Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abia, Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna. To finance that build-out Tizeti secured long-term debt financing from Chapel Hill Denham’s Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF). Tizeti will use the funding to construct new last-mile infrastructure and purchase additional equipment to increase capacity and coverage. CEO Kendall Ananyi said the expansion aims to make Tizeti the largest internet service provider in Nigeria by coverage and to deepen digital inclusion. Tizeti operates the Wifi.com.ng brand, delivering unlimited, uncapped high-speed broadband via solar-powered wireless towers to residences, businesses, events and conferences. The company says its network covers more than 70% of Lagos and has installed over 7,000 public Wi‑Fi hotspots, serving about 150,000 users since graduating from Y Combinator's winter 2017 batch. Tizeti has partnered with Facebook to offer Express Wi‑Fi and roll out hubs across Abuja. The startup plans to expand beyond Nigeria and is launching a new brand, Wifi.Africa, to enter the Ghana market. Its product strategy emphasizes cost-effective, point-to-multipoint wireless technology combined with solar infrastructure to lower data costs. Tizeti recently secured funding to support these expansion plans. Tizeti operates Wifi.com.ng, building and operating solar-powered towers to deliver reliable, affordable Wi‑Fi to hundreds of residential areas and SMEs across Lagos. The company also offers VOIP and video-on-demand services and has been constructing its own solar-panel towers to be more competitive on price. Tizeti provides an affordable and flexible payment structure for customers. It is led by Y Combinator alumni Kendall Ananyi and Ifeanyi Okonkwo (Winter 2017 cohort) and is based in Menlo Park, CA and Lagos, Nigeria. The company closed a $2.1M seed funding round to support expansion plans. Tizeti plans to extend services across Lagos and the South-South region by launching an Xfinity Wi‑Fi–like hotspot service and adding 3,000 new public hotspots across Lagos.