Participated · Series B · Aug 2025

Softwear Automation builds the SEWBOT® platform, a fully autonomous sewing solution that combines advanced robotics, machine vision, and AI/ML to automate sewn-goods production. The company targets the $1.1 trillion sewn products industry with a focus on localized, scalable, and sustainable manufacturing. Its SEWBOT® worklines aim to reduce waste, shorten cycle times, and improve cost efficiency while enabling on-demand and closer-to-consumer production. Softwear is progressing toward commercialization of its automated worklines and is expanding its R&D capabilities to support broader product categories. The company plans to scale its production footprint and enter new geographies to meet growing global demand. Softwear positions its technology as a tool to enable more circular, demand-driven apparel production and to improve supply-chain transparency. Softwear Automation develops sewing robots, called SewBots, and uses robotics and artificial intelligence to automate the manufacturing of sewn goods such as clothing, towels and footwear. The company says its SewBots make it cost efficient to manufacture textiles anywhere in the world, and according to its website it was not taking orders for the robots until July 2022. Softwear spun out of Georgia Tech after seven years of research, supported by grants from The Walmart Foundation, DARPA and the Georgia Research Alliance. Founded in 2012 and based in Atlanta, the startup expanded into a 50,000-square-foot industrial space in 2017 and that year raised $4.5 million and doubled its workforce. Financially, the company began raising its latest round in 2019 and reported closing about $12 million that year; it subsequently reported closing an $18.1 million Series B in a Feb. 1 SEC filing. SoftWear Automation develops robotic sewing worklines branded as Sewbots™ for apparel, footwear and home goods. The company uses patented computer vision systems that track fabric and exact needle placement to within half a millimeter. Led by Chairman and CEO Palaniswamy “Raj” Rajan, SoftWear positions its technology to allow manufacturers to move supply chains closer to customers and lower production costs. The company received $4.5M in financing to accelerate its product development. It intends to use the funds to speed development of fully automated sewn-good worklines specifically for apparel production in the United States and to add 20 employees. The company is based in Atlanta. SoftWear Automation is an Atlanta, Ga.-based developer of robotic sewing technologies for the garment industry. The company provides machine vision, robotics, and computing technologies and products for the apparel manufacturing and sewn products industries. Its core product set is designed to automate garment production lines. SoftWear completed a $3M Series A round of financing. The financing was made by VC firm CTW Venture Partners. K.P. Reddy, a CTW partner, has joined SoftWear as CEO.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2022

Brown Foods, a one-year-old Y Combinator Winter 2022 alum with teams in Boston and India, is developing UnReal Milk using mammalian cell culture to produce real whole cow’s milk in the lab. The founders—Sohail Gupta, Avhijeet Kapoor and Bhavna Tandon—say they validated major macronutrients (proteins, fats and carbs) and achieved nutrient profiles similar to conventional milk. Their product can mimic taste and texture more closely than plant-based alternatives and can be converted into dairy products such as butter, cheese and ice cream. The company estimates its cell-cultured milk will have a roughly 90% smaller carbon footprint than conventional dairy. Brown Foods is currently pre-revenue and has completed laboratory validation; scaling remains a key technical and commercial challenge. Management plans a small scale-up in the next year and will use funding to advance bioprocess, scale-up and product development.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2022

Xook is a Singapore-based robotic restaurant startup that develops autonomous kiosks to assemble prepared meals. Its first kiosk, the Xook Primus, can assemble salads and meal bowls across various global cuisines. CEO Raja Natarajan disclosed that Xook raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding from a group of investors. The company plans to use the funding to roll out its kiosks in the US and target corporate buildings. Xook will install kiosks for free in corporate locations and intends to generate revenue by selling prepared meals to employees.

Led · Series A · Jun 2021

Meddo equips independent OPD clinics with technology-enabled digital solutions—ERM systems, diagnostic support, medicine delivery and more—to turn them into full-service medical centres. Launched in 2018 by Saurabh Kochhar (ex‑CEO, Foodpanda) and Dr Naveen Nishchal (co‑founder, Cygnus Hospitals), the company reverse-integrates clinics into its brand. It positions itself as an omnichannel healthcare player aiming to organise India’s fragmented ambulatory services sector and offers services such as L1 COVID centres, tele-consultation, diagnostics and a healthcare membership called MeddoSure. The startup says it has served almost 600,000 patients, onboarded over 400 doctors and rebranded close to 250 clinics across Delhi/NCR. Planned uses of new funding include expanding national footprint (more clinics in NCR and other cities), pursuing organic and inorganic growth through technology investments, building big-data capabilities to tailor offerings, and doubling down on the MeddoSure membership to broaden coverage from OPD to hospitalization.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2020

Fakespot uses AI to identify fake listings and fraudulent or AI-generated reviews across major online marketplaces. The company launched a consumer-facing Chrome extension that has been downloaded 300,000 times and has seen millions of visits to its Fakespot analyzer. Its database contains more than 8 billion reviews, which the AI uses to spot inorganic review activity and fake upvotes. Fakespot currently scans marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Walmart and Sephora, and plans to add Shopify assessments soon. The product is free today; the company expects to monetize by adding a suite of paid tools atop the free offering and via potential lead-generation deals with verified vendors. The founder has acknowledged that mobile apps need more attention as shopping shifts to mobile, a stated product focus going forward.