Participated · Series B · Jun 2024

GrayMatter develops physics-based, AI-powered robotics systems aimed at improving production-line efficiency and reducing waste in warehouse and manufacturing settings. The company says its systems deliver a 2–4x improvement in production-line productivity and a 30% or greater reduction in consumable waste. Large customers, including 3M, already use GrayMatter’s technology. Founded in 2020 and based in Southern California, the company emphasizes workforce well-being alongside productivity gains. Growth is evident in hiring activity — a recent roundup listed about 20 open roles — and is supported by ongoing venture funding, including a recent $45 million Series B. Leadership frames the approach as distinct from purely data-driven methods, combining physics-based models with AI to reduce data needs while handling process constraints.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2024

GrayMatter Robotics is a Los Angeles-based AI and advanced robotics company delivering autonomous robotic solutions for tedious and ergonomically challenging tasks such as sanding, polishing, grinding, coating, and finishing. It bundles proprietary AI technologies with robots, sensors, and tools and provides application-specific solutions in a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) format. Representative products include Scan&Sand™, Scan&Polish™, Scan&Buff™, and Scan&Grind™. The company serves manufacturers across aerospace & defense, specialty vehicles, maritime, metal fabrication, and consumer products such as sports equipment. Led by CEO Ariyan Kabir, GrayMatter aims to improve shop floor worker quality of life, enhance production capacity, and reduce scrap, repair, and rework costs. The company raised $45M in Series B funding to accelerate development and deployment of its AI-powered robotic solutions. GrayMatter Robotics delivers AI-driven robotic automation solutions aimed at tedious and ergonomically challenging manufacturing tasks. Its core products are smart robotic cells for high-mix surface finishing and surface treatment, sold to a range of manufacturing industries. The company says its systems help improve shop-floor worker quality of life, enhance production capacity, and reduce scrap, repair, and rework costs. Leadership is headed by CEO Ariyan Kabir and CTO Brual Shah. GrayMatter plans to use the new funding to expand its team across a wide range of roles and to accelerate development and deployment of its AI-robotic solutions. The article does not disclose revenue or user metrics. GrayMatter Robotics develops smart robotic assistants that help humans perform surface-treatment tasks like sanding and spraying on manufacturing lines. The company packages proprietary AI algorithms with commercially available robots, sensors, and tools so robots can program themselves and learn a new part in minutes. Its turnkey solutions aim to help manufacturers grow capacity, maintain consistent quality, and keep a digital trace for improving operations. GrayMatter is led by CEO Ariyan Kabir and is based in Los Angeles, CA. The company raised $4.1M in seed funding and will use the proceeds to scale hiring, accelerate development of its robots for sanding and finishing, and engage a wider customer base. Investors in the round include Stage Venture Partners, Calibrate Ventures, 3M Ventures, OCA Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, and B Capital Group.

Led · Equity · Mar 2023

Skupos provides a technology platform that connects retailers and brands to shoppers, enabling better understanding and service of customers across the convenience retail industry. The platform focuses on independent stores and small chains and helps drive revenue growth across all segments of convenience retail. Skupos serves a network of more than 15,000 customers across all 50 states. The company intends to use the funds to scale its product suite, expand go-to-market efforts, and maintain customer success and support. Skupos is led by CEO Jake Bolling. The company announced a $22.5M financing round. Skupos provides a software platform that collects point-of-sale transaction data in real time to power data-driven decisions for retailers, distributors, and brands in the convenience retail industry. The platform records billions of transactions each year and works with over 7,000 retail locations across all 50 states. Skupos has become a data hub for Fortune 500 brands and other industry participants, enabling collaboration and transitions from analog to digital workflows. The company says its customer base more than doubled recently from about 3,000 to over 7,000. Skupos plans to use its latest financing to continue product development and strategic expansion, with a focus on leveraging transaction data to create new revenue-driving strategies. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in San Francisco. Skupos is a data hub and analytics platform serving the $550 billion convenience-retail industry. Founded in 2016 and based in San Francisco, the company provides real-time transaction and inventory analytics to retailers, distributors, and CPG brands. The platform tracks and analyzes over 2 billion annual transactions and serves more than 2,000 customers, with a footprint across 43 U.S. states. Skupos offers tools to help retailers increase revenue and enables Fortune 500 CPG brands to forecast sales trends in the channel. The company plans to use new funding to continue expansion across North America and to hire and retain talent. It has raised $11 million to date, including a $6.4M Series A to accelerate its growth in the c-store industry. Skupos is a San Francisco-based provider of retail distribution software for the convenience store industry. Founded in April 2016 by Jake Bolling, Michael Glassman, and Linh Nguyen, the company offers a data-driven two-sided inventory management system that automates inventory management and ordering for convenience stores. The platform gives distributors and brands real-time inventory levels and the ability to generate re-orders. Its patent-pending technology integrates with existing point-of-sale systems to enable real-time inventory accessible from any device. Skupos has launched in over 200 stores and is accepting beta customers, both convenience stores and distributors. The company raised $2.41m in seed funding to continue product development.

Led · Debt Financing · Dec 2018

DrChrono offers a platform combining EHR, practice management, medical billing, revenue cycle management and partner API solutions for medical practices. The company is used by thousands of physicians and its providers care for over 28 million patients. DrChrono reports it has facilitated millions of appointments and processed more than $11 billion of medical billing to date. The company intends to expand its telehealth offerings, grow operations, and enhance its EHR, practice management, medical billing and partner API areas. Its product set targets operational and revenue-cycle needs for modern medical practices. The platform and services are positioned to support continued growth in digital care delivery and billing volume. DrChrono develops a platform and services for modern medical practices to enable more informed, interactive, and personalized care decisions. The open DrChrono Platform powers electronic health record (EHR), practice management, medical billing, and revenue cycle management solutions for physicians and patients. It is fully extensible via an API and a marketplace of applications and services. The platform is currently used by thousands of physicians and over 17.8 million patients. The company raised $20M in growth funding from Orix Growth Capital. DrChrono intends to use the proceeds to invest further in its technology platform (EHR, medical billing and API) and to expand engineering, sales, and support functions to increase market share. DrChrono offers an integrated EHR and practice management platform with medical billing, revenue cycle management and a patient portal. The product includes customizable medical forms, e-prescribing, real-time patient eligibility checks, an App Directory of healthcare apps and an API for developers. The company has built native experiences for iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and the web. Led by Daniel Kivatinos, Co‑Founder and COO, DrChrono serves physician practices and integrates billing and practice workflows. The company raised $10M in venture debt to support growth and technology investment. DrChrono intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand engineering, sales and support, invest in its technology platform and grow market share. drchrono provides an integrated medical practice management platform handling electronic medical records, billing, and scheduling for small practices. The company has been listed among the fastest-growing private companies and says it has served more than 8 million patients and processed over $3.5 billion in medical claims. drchrono is an Apple mobile enterprise partner, enabling integration of patient information on iPads, smartphones and the Apple Watch. It has integrated with larger service providers such as ZocDoc and DemandForce. The company plans to expand its software and mobile applications into larger hospitals and medical clinics to win customers leaving legacy EHR platforms. drchrono reports $12 million in annual recurring revenue and will use the new funding to accelerate marketing and build out infrastructure. drchrono offers a mobile electronic health record (EHR) platform that lets providers access and input patient medical data directly from Android and iOS devices. The company also operates a patient-facing app called onpatient that allows patients to track medical data and receive health updates from their doctor. drchrono has extended its platform to wearable devices with physician- and patient-facing Apple Watch apps and added Touch ID support for iPad and iPhone to improve security and convenience. In a Black Book survey of more than 30,000 physicians, drchrono was ranked the number one mobile EHR. Financially, the company has raised $2 million in its latest financing and has taken in at least $8.25 million in total funding to date.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2017

Ink builds hardware and software to simplify campus printing, offering a touchscreen SmartStation that pairs with HP printers and an inkTouch product that works with existing printers while providing cloud-based services. Students authenticate with their campus ID card, access Dropbox, Google Drive and other cloud services, and Ink stores a keychain on the ID card to streamline future logins. The platform also supports AirPrint, lets users scan and sign documents on the touchscreen, and enables quick photo editing and emailing from the device. Ink says its system reduces the typical ~10-minute campus printing process to under a minute. The company has two pricing models: it will deploy machines for free and charge about $0.09 per page, or lease machines to schools so they handle student payments. Ink plans to be live in about 30 schools by the end of the year, including Stanford, UCLA and SUNY, and has raised a total of $15 million to date.