Next Play Ventures
Not provided, Menlo Park, California, 94025, United States
Overview
Our mission is to coach and invest in entrepreneurial leaders building world-class, purpose-driven organizations. Led by Jeff Weiner and Brian Rumao. Sector focus areas include B2B / enterprise software, financial tech, consumer apps, health and wellness and education. We are interested in productivity software and virtual work, direct-to-consumer / e-commerce, SaaS, and data and AI/ML-powered platforms.
- Total investments
- 25
- Lead investments
- 2
- Investments · 12mo
- 3
- Active investors
- 2
Sector focus
- E-Commerce
- Education
- Information Technology
- Internet
- Software
Investment portfolio
- Century Health
Participated · Seed · May 2026
Century Health develops the Century Health Abstraction & Retrieval Model (CHARM), an AI-powered platform that automates identification, curation, and enrichment of fragmented clinical data into research-ready real-world evidence. CHARM has achieved 97% accuracy when validated against clinical expert judgment. Over the past year the company grew its specialty provider data network 60x, spanning neurology, nephrology, ophthalmology, respiratory, metabolic, and immunology, and counts multiple Top 5 pharma companies as partners. Century Health is continuing to expand its disease-specific registry network, deepen pharma collaborations, and advance CHARM for complex abstraction and data harmonization. The company raised a $5M seed round to scale collaborations, grow its provider network, and expand its AI-powered data curation infrastructure.
- Arbor
Participated · Seed · Feb 2026
Arbor is an AI research platform built to help enterprises capture and analyze frontline employee and customer conversations at scale. By automating thousands of AI-powered interviews simultaneously, the software converts qualitative feedback into executive-grade insights within minutes, replacing slow, consultant-driven research processes. Early enterprise customers—including transportation giant First Student and food manufacturer Lyons Magnus—report 85-90 percent participation rates and have identified operational bottlenecks that translate into seven-figure cost savings. The full-stack system serves manufacturing, logistics, retail, and other operationally complex sectors, delivering real-time pattern detection that informs executive decision making. Founded by Veronica Ma, Kelly Zhou, and Ashish Dsa, Arbor is headquartered in New York and is expanding its engineering, product, and go-to-market teams. The company plans to accelerate product development to address additional industries and use cases. Financially, Arbor has secured $6.3 million in seed and pre-seed funding to support these growth initiatives.
- Armstrong
Participated · Equity · Oct 2025
Armstrong is a San-Francisco-based robotics startup creating general-purpose robots for commercial kitchens, with an initial focus on fully automating dishwashing. The system combines advanced neural networks, millimeter-level 3D perception, and custom grippers to recognize dishes in messy stacks, grasp them reliably, and wash them to commercial standards. The robots integrate with standard commercial dish machines and are delivered under a single monthly subscription covering installation, operation, and maintenance. Armstrong already has multiple units deployed at one of the nation’s largest full-service restaurant chains, where they run 24/7 and collectively wash more than one million dishes each year. Founded by Axel Hansen and Jonah Varon—who previously sold a company to LinkedIn—the company positions itself as a labor-saving solution for hard-to-staff kitchen roles. To date, Armstrong has secured $12 million in funding to support continued product development and wider rollout.
- Neura Health
Participated · Seed · May 2023
Neura Health operates a virtual neurology clinic aimed at improving access and quality of care for patients suffering from chronic neurological conditions such as migraine, sleep disorders, seizures, TBI, stroke, tremors, long COVID, and memory disorders. The platform combines tele-neurology visits with integrated symptom tracking, personalized educational content, and dedicated care coaching. Since launch, the company has treated more than 43,000 patients across the United States and partners with health systems like Sentara Health to extend neurology capacity. It is in-network with over 40 health plans, including Aetna, Blue Shield of California, Cigna, Anthem Blue Cross, TriWest, and Medicare, which broadens patient affordability and reach. Co-founded by Elizabeth Burstein and Sameer Madan, Neura Health plans to use new capital to scale operations and advance product development. The company has now raised a cumulative $22 million in venture funding, reflecting growing investor confidence in its tele-neurology approach. No revenue figures were disclosed in the article, but the patient volume and payer relationships indicate early commercial traction.
- Airspeed
Participated · Seed · May 2023
Airspeed offers a suite of Slack apps designed to foster authentic connection and recognition among employees. Its family of apps—Intros, Celebrations, Icebreakers, Shoutouts, and Maps—helps teams welcome new hires, track milestones, run quick team icebreakers, send kudos, and coordinate in-person meetups. The company was conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic and is led by CEO and founder Doug Camplejohn, formerly GM of Sales Cloud at Salesforce. Airspeed is currently in an Early Access period with apps available via its website and the Slack App Directory and free through the end of the year; a free forever tier will remain once pricing is announced. Financially, Airspeed announced a $5M Series Seed and also secured a $2.5M debt line, positioning the company to expand product availability and go-to-market efforts. Investors backing the company include Greylock, Venrock, Salesforce Ventures, Next Play Ventures and a number of angel CEOs and executives.