The Venture Codex

Led · Seed · Oct 2024

Stitch3D provides a browser-based platform for handling massive 3D point-cloud files that traditional cloud services struggle to transmit. The product lets users navigate detailed 3D maps, measure dimensions, and annotate scenes with notes and colors via a web interface. Founder Clark Yuan, a U.S. Army veteran who worked on LiDAR systems, built the product after seeing military inefficiencies in transferring terabyte-scale scans. The company has secured a $1.8M Air Force grant and a $750K pre-seed from friends and family to develop the technology and support product work. Stitch3D positions itself for military use cases (e.g., assessing airfield damage and coastal erosion) and commercial markets including forestry, mining, architecture, surveying, and oil drilling. The team also sees potential future applications in augmented reality using phone LiDAR and AR devices, though they are not pursuing mobile AR aggressively yet.

Led · Debt Financing · Jul 2023

IncludeHealth is a leading digital musculoskeletal (MSK) solution provider that partners with health systems, physical therapy networks, orthopedic practices, and the government to extend care beyond the clinic. Its platform uses computer vision, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to deliver personalized, measured, and interactive physical-therapy care directly through patients' devices without additional hardware or downloads. The company is used for remote therapeutic monitoring and value-based care and has been recognized with over 40 innovation and health awards. IncludeHealth plans to enhance its hybrid MSK platform to autonomously deliver mission-specific training protocols while collecting advanced, objective performance data to evaluate and prevent musculoskeletal injuries. The innovations developed for the Department of Defense effort will also be made available to IncludeHealth’s commercial customers, advancing musculoskeletal care across the industry. The company announced a $1.5 million TACFI award from the U.S. Air Force to support these efforts. IncludeHealth provides MSK-OS, a computer-vision powered platform that digitizes physical therapy and delivers personalized, measured care through patients’ own devices without additional hardware or downloads. The platform offers an interactive link-based experience for patients to complete at-home care while collecting objective adherence and performance data. IncludeHealth positions MSK-OS to improve delivery and outcomes of musculoskeletal care for health systems, physical therapy networks, orthopedic practices, and government customers. The company developed MSK-OS in collaboration with Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center, the US Air Force, Google, and ProMedica. Led by CEO and founder Ryan Eder and based in Columbus, OH, IncludeHealth partners with clinical and government organizations to deliver hybrid musculoskeletal care. The company recently raised financing to support expansion of its remote care platform.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2023

Lumia Health is a Boston-based health-tech startup building Lumia 2, a sub-gram smart earring that uses the company’s PreciseLight sensor to track real-time blood flow to the head and translate those signals into actionable insights on cognition and performance. The device, which pairs with interchangeable huggie hoops, cuffs, and studs, also captures sleep, temperature, menstrual-cycle, and readiness data, positioning the ear as a cleaner, more continuous sensing site than the wrist or finger. Lumia originated in collaboration with researchers at Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Harvard to aid patients with conditions like POTS and Long COVID, but its second-generation product targets a broad consumer audience. The hardware is accompanied by iOS and Android apps and will debut in the U.S. and Canada; Lumia 1 owners receive free upgrades through the Edge Access Membership. Founded in early 2020 by former Bose engineers and serial entrepreneurs, the 35-person company holds or has pending 11 patents in blood-flow sensing, miniaturization, and ear-based wearables. Peer-reviewed studies in the Journal of the American Heart Association and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology have validated its science. Lumia has raised $17.2 million to date, including government contracts and grants, and is currently positioning its product for lifestyle insights while evaluating diagnostic capabilities for future FDA submission.

Led · Grant · Mar 2020

Slingshot Aerospace develops AI-powered software that ingests imagery from satellites and small aerial drones and turns it into actionable insights for customers in defense, disaster response and commercial markets. Its flagship product for the military, Slingshot Edge, streams and analyzes real-time drone video to support Air Force Special Operations Command missions. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with an additional office in El Segundo, California, the company focuses on accelerating decision-making by fusing multi-source data through proprietary algorithms. Slingshot won a competitive U.S. Air Force Rapid Innovation Fund SBIR award, reflecting both technical merit and perceived commercial viability. The company has attracted venture backing from ATX Venture Partners and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, which provided matching capital for the new Air Force contract. This dual-sourced financing approach underscores Slingshot’s strategy of pairing government demand with private investment to speed product deployment. Financial details beyond the current $3 million package were not disclosed, and no user or revenue metrics were provided in the article.

Participated · Grant · Aug 2019

Ario Technologies builds an AR SaaS productivity platform used by industrial companies, including Fortune 500 firms, to increase productivity, connect data with equipment, reduce training time and capture workforce knowledge. The platform offers augmented reality software tools aimed at the industrial workforce. The company was founded in 2016 by CEO Joe Weaver and COO Nate Fender and is based in Norfolk, VA. Ario plans to use recent funding to expand its market presence in the United States and internationally and to continue iterating on its product offerings. Its current funding includes a venture capital round and a U.S. Air Force SBIR grant that together provide early-stage capital for growth. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. Ario Technologies develops Ario, an augmented reality software-as-a-service platform that lets teams create and share real-time spatial information using real-world data. The platform is positioned for industrial enterprise use, with applications in training, reducing manufacturing downtime, improving safety, and providing remote expert assistance. The company intends to use recent funding to expand its industrial enterprise product offering and accelerate its go-to-market strategy. Ario emphasizes real-time spatial collaboration in physical environments rather than purely virtual experiences. The product targets organizations seeking operational efficiencies and remote support capabilities in industrial settings. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.