The Venture Codex

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.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2023

Fondo offers a subscription-based bookkeeping platform that combines software, AI, and accounting experts to serve startups and small- and medium-sized businesses. The company targets high-growth startups with an all-in-one solution that consolidates financial and tax operations. Fondo reports approximately 1,200 customers, $6 million in annual recurring revenue, and is profitable. Its customer roster includes Eleven Labs, Karat, PostHog, Campus and Limitless AI. The firm says it has saved customers over $75 million in Delaware Franchise Tax and helped them receive over $16 million in tax credits. Fondo currently has about 70 employees and is hiring across product, engineering, accounting and other roles. The company plans to invest in product and automation, build an AI agent for customers and internal teams, expand analytics and integrations, enhance tax-saving options, and explore support for international scaling and compliance. Fondo is an all-in-one accounting platform that helps companies file taxes, close books, and recover cash from the IRS. The platform guides founders through tax compliance and credits with clarity and speed. Founded in 2020 and led by CEO David J. Phillips, the company is based in San Francisco, California. In 2022 Fondo doubled its team to 54 people and nearly tripled revenue to $3M in annual recurring revenue. Today more than 500 startups use the platform, including Career Karma, Tydo, PostHog, Explo, and Bottomless. The company intends to use the new funding to invest in product development and grow the team.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2021

Greywing consolidates data from private and public sources into a mobile-first platform that produces navigable, actionable reports for vessel operators. Its core products include Crew Change (managing testing, quarantine and COVID-19 regulations), predictive reporting of risks like piracy and pandemic-related travel restrictions, and a newly launched carbon emissions tracking tool for crew changes. The carbon tool combines crew locations, home ports, routing waypoints and flight options, showing estimated emissions and price so operators can choose lower-emission, cost-effective itineraries. Greywing’s roadmap emphasizes moving from idle information reporting to real-time decision-making and predictive alerts as its algorithms become more complex and autonomous. The company says it is working to deploy on over 2,000 vessels (about 3.5% of the world’s commercial fleet) and projects those deployments could remove over 230,000 tonnes of carbon. Founded after the founders met at Entrepreneur First, Greywing is focused on expanding maritime data integrations and building intelligent vessel management systems.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2020

Tensil is developing Scenery, a full-featured video editing and production tool that runs in the browser. The founding team includes Mike Folgner, Ryan Cunningham, Ashot Petrosian and Chris Martin; Folgner previously sold Jumpcut.com to Yahoo and SnappyTV to Twitter. Scenery leverages WebGL, WASM and modern web tech to deliver performant, feature-rich editing in the browser and replaces the traditional timeline with a two-dimensional canvas. The company positions Scenery as a video production system designed for faster, collaborative workflows and to bring non-editors into the process similar to how Figma changed design collaboration. Tensil is currently developing and testing an alpha and is taking signups from testers. The company has raised $3.89 million in funding to support product development and testing.

Participated · Equity · May 2020

LoanSnap develops a smart loan platform powered by AI that analyzes a person’s finances, highlights where they are losing money, and sorts through thousands of options to make loan recommendations in seconds. The company also uses proprietary technology and automation to handle much of the loan process instead of relying on manual workflows. Led by CEO and co‑founder Karl Jacob, LoanSnap plans to use its new funding to expand into additional loan types and scale across the United States. The company announced a $30M Series B round and has added Olivia Man as CFO; Man brings more than 14 years of experience in financial services and previously led financial planning and analysis and capital markets work at SoFi. No operating metrics (revenue/users) were disclosed in the article. LoanSnap, based in San Francisco, offers a smart-loan platform that uses artificial intelligence to analyze a consumer's full financial picture and recommend loan options in seconds. Its technology automates much of the loan process, enabling loan closings in 15 days or less. LoanSnap reports it has saved borrowers nearly $60 million overall and that California customers save on average almost $900 per month. Users provide only a few data points and the system sorts through thousands of options and provides ongoing updates as financial situations evolve. The company emphasizes improving consumers' financial health and delivering faster, simpler refinancing and purchase experiences. LoanSnap has raised venture capital from a range of investors, supporting its expansion and product development. LoanSnap builds the world's first smart loan technology that uses artificial intelligence to analyze a consumer's finances and sort through thousands of loan and debt-reduction options in seconds. The product presents simple, plain-English recommendations (for example, “Save $1,200 a month”) and can update options as personal and economic factors change. By automating much of the loan process, LoanSnap reports it can close loans in 15 days or less. Since launch in 2018, the company says it has paid off $12 million in high-interest consumer debt and saved customers $8 million in future debt payments. LoanSnap offers web and mobile experiences (iOS and Android) and aims to scale its automated loan technology to improve Americans' financial outcomes. LoanSnap, based in San Francisco, builds AI-powered smart loans that analyze a consumer’s financial situation instantly and recommend the best options for their needs. Led by CEO and co-founder Karl Jacob, the product helps homebuyers find optimal mortgage, refinance and home equity solutions while helping consumers manage overall debt. Since its launch in July 2018, LoanSnap expanded its offerings to include VA Smart Loans serving active-duty and veteran service personnel. The company also launched Operation Home Foundation, a charitable arm funded by proceeds from VA Smart Loans and voluntary contributions to support U.S. military families transitioning to civilian life. Financially, the company had raised a total of $17M after an additional $4.7M funding infusion. LoanSnap intends to use the capital to expand its product offering and explore additional opportunities in collaboration with lead investor Thomvest Ventures. LoanSnap develops AI-driven technology that analyzes a person’s financial situation in seconds and sorts through thousands of loan options to identify the best personal loans. The company offers iOS and Android apps where users scan a driver’s license or enter their address and the last four digits of their Social Security number to receive smart loan options. Users can also access options via the company website or by consulting a loan officer by phone. The platform emails a smart loan summary to all users whether or not they choose LoanSnap. LoanSnap is led by CEO Karl Jacob and CTO Allan Carroll and is based in San Francisco, CA. The company has raised $12.3M to date.