Participated · Seed · Aug 2026

Wippi builds screen-free learning and play products that combine conversational voice AI, storytelling and interactive play for children aged four and above. Its portfolio includes Character Cards, illustrated storybooks and Wippi Radio, enabling kids to interact with characters like Ram, Krishna, Alice, Cinderella and Aladdin. The company plans to expand its characters, languages and original content, and is developing collectible figurines and additional AI-powered conversational learning products. Wippi aims to reach 15,000 families over the next 12 months and to expand into global markets. The startup was founded by Rishabh Singhi and Siddhartha Jain and is headquartered in Bengaluru.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2024

Semaai is an agricultural technology services company focused on the agricultural services sector. It provides seeds and pesticides, farmland planting consulting, and crop sales. The company operates a trading-services application and supplies crops to B2B enterprises and supermarket chains. Semaai recently announced it raised $4.7 million in a Pre-A round via a combination of equity and debt financing. The financing was led by Japan-based corporate VC Cyber Agent Capital and included existing investors Surge, Accion Venture Lab and Beenext alongside new backers Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Ruvento, MyAsiaVC and Heracles Ventures. The article did not disclose operating metrics or uses of proceeds. Semaai builds a full-stack agri-tech platform offering customized agronomy consultancy, soil-testing technology, and fairly priced farming inputs like seed and fertilizer. The company primarily operates in Central Java and focuses on enabling toko tanis (agri-retailers) and rural MSMEs to better serve smallholders. In its first five months since launch, Semaai says gross merchandise value (GMV) of products sold to agri-retailers and MSMEs increased tenfold. The startup aims to deliver services and impact to up to 100,000 smallholders and rural MSMEs by next year. Semaai plans to expand its network of service delivery centers across rural Indonesia to scale distribution. A large portion of the new funding will be used to grow engineering and product teams in India, with a target to triple tech headcount by the end of 2022. The company was founded in April 2021 by Abhishek Gupta, Gaurav Batra and Muhammad Yoga Anindito.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2019

Alcatraz develops the Rock™, an AI-driven physical access control solution that authenticates people as they walk past entry points without taking photographs or storing biometric images. The company positions its technology as privacy-first facial authentication (not surveillance), designed to meet GDPR, CCPA, BIPA, and other compliance requirements. Its customers include leading AI data centers, major U.S. airports, energy companies, Fortune 100 enterprises, NFL teams, and top universities. In 2025 the company reported rapid adoption metrics: more than 300% year-over-year growth in data center adoption, 200% growth in new enterprise customers, and a fivefold expansion across Fortune 500 deployments. Alcatraz has raised over $100 million in total capital and plans to use the new funding to expand into new verticals and international markets and to grow its team.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2018

Akash Systems develops and plans to manufacture its "Diamond Cooling" substrates, devices and systems designed to improve thermal management in AI-focused data centers. The company is building a 40,000-square-foot cleanroom for advanced semiconductor manufacturing as part of a planned $121 million investment in West Oakland, California. The buildout and scaling effort will be supported by a combination of company funding, venture capital firms and other private investors. The U.S. Commerce Department has agreed to provide up to $18.2 million in government subsidy funding toward the project under the Chips and Science Act program. Akash says the funding validates its strategy to deliver solutions addressing thermal challenges in high-performance computing and communications systems. In November 2023 the company and the IUE-CWA union announced labor agreements covering construction and production workers, including a labor neutrality agreement for semiconductor production workers in West Oakland. Akash Systems develops and manufactures RF transmit/receive radio modules and GaN-on-Diamond power amplifiers aimed at improving satellite communications bandwidth, efficiency, and thermal performance. The company’s GaN-on-Diamond technology places the hottest part of a transistor near synthetic diamond to dramatically reduce waste heat, enabling smaller, more efficient satellite RF systems. Akash is currently manufacturing these power amplifiers and radio modules for satellite customers and says its radio products are on track for market availability in Q4 2019. The company plans to use new capital to scale its transmit/receive radio modules and power amplifier business and to move closer to profitability. Article investors and advisers described Akash as approaching commercialization and having already attracted major customers across the ecosystem. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in San Francisco. Akash Systems develops GaN-on-Diamond RF technology and components intended to enable smaller, lighter and higher-performing small satellites. The company sells GaN-on-Diamond MMIC power amplifiers that are currently on the market. Its patented GaN-on-Diamond science aims to reduce launch costs, lower cost-per-bit and increase communications throughput. Akash plans to move into designing small satellite (CubeSat) systems and transmitters as part of a phase-two effort by 2019. The company was founded in 2016 by Felix Ejeckam and Ty Mitchell and is based in San Francisco. Leadership emphasizes solving heat generation and efficient cooling limits in current satellite systems.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2013

GoCoin is a Singapore-based payments processor offering merchants the ability to accept bitcoin and multiple altcoins through its proprietary payments platform. Its core product is a merchant payments platform and the accompanying infrastructure to process digital-currency transactions. The company says it will use a new strategic investment from GAW Miners to continue developing its software offerings and expand infrastructure. GoCoin has formed partnerships with firms including PayPal and counts merchants such as Shopify, CheapAir and Hustler magazine in its network. It is exploring cooperative efforts with GAW, including plans to integrate GAW’s new altcoin, paycoin, into GAW’s payments service. GoCoin also highlights regulator outreach as an important part of its growth strategy. The firm has previously received strategic investments from BitFury, Bitcoin Shop, KnCMiner and ZoomHash. GoCoin operates a merchant payments processing platform for digital currencies, built to support bitcoin and to add alternative digital currencies as the market requires. Its core product is a payments processor that merchants can integrate to accept cryptocurrency payments. The company was added as a processing partner in PayPal's Payments Hub, alongside competitors BitPay and Coinbase, which the article frames as validation of its position in the market. GoCoin's CEO Steve Beauregard said the company expects the BitFury investment to bring new B2B clients to its existing customer base. The platform is positioned to expand beyond bitcoin to altcoins in response to market demand. Financially, GoCoin has received a strategic investment from BitFury Capital, though the amount and instrument were undisclosed in the article. GoCoin is a Santa Monica, CA-based international digital-currency payments platform that enables merchants to accept bitcoin, litecoin, dogecoin and other digital currencies. Founded in July 2013 by Steve Beauregard, it provides merchants with the ability to process multiple digital currencies. Customers include Perseus Telecom, Robocoin, Agreed.com, Bitcoin Shop, Inc., QikFunder and KnCminer. The company closed a $1.5M Series A equity financing and said it will use the funds to add engineers and ramp up its global sales force. The article does not disclose revenue or user metrics. GoCoin offers an open platform to facilitate purchases of goods and services using Bitcoin, targeting e‑commerce, digital content and interactive/social gaming verticals. The company was founded in July 2013 by CEO Steve Beauregard and chairman Brock Pierce and has been developing technology with engineers in Singapore, Argentina and the U.S. It is currently testing with its first merchants in private beta. GoCoin plans a public launch in November with an initial geographic focus on Asian and South American countries. The company raised over $550K in a seed round and intends to use the funds to bring its platform to market. Operations and development remain concentrated across its Singapore and Santa Monica bases.