Participated · Series B · Oct 2021

NeuroBlade has developed a system-level data analytics accelerator that implements processing-in-memory (PIM) using its patented XRAM technology to eliminate major data movement bottlenecks. The company packages this technology in an easy-to-deploy appliance and claims it can speed processing and analysis more than 100× versus existing systems. NeuroBlade has begun shipping its data accelerator to leading customers and partners and reports more than 100 employees. The startup says partners are integrating the solution into large data centers and highlights collaborations with firms such as Intel and SAP. Financially, the company has received $110 million in total invested capital to date. Planned uses for the newest financing include expanding engineering teams in Tel Aviv and building out global sales and marketing. NeuroBlade builds an AI inference chip paired with a complete end-to-end software stack to increase efficiency and lower costs and power consumption for AI workloads. Its small-size chip is designed for deployment from edge devices to datacenters and targets servers, laptops, cars and cameras. The hardware-software solution enables businesses to run AI algorithms more affordably across device types. Founded in 2017 by Elad Sity (CEO) and Eliad Hillel (VP Product Strategy and CTO), the company is based in Hod-Hashron, Israel. Financially, NeuroBlade closed a $23M Series A that brought total funding to date to $27.5M. The company intends to use the funds to scale operations and expand development efforts to bring its AI chip to market.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2019

Bluespace.ai develops software systems to enable autonomous operation of full-size mass-transit vehicles on public roads. The company says its software enables verifiably safe AV operation without requiring the millions of miles of testing used by current-generation AVs. Its stated mission is to make urban mobility more equitable, accessible and sustainable through near-term mass transit automation. Bluespace.ai focuses on increasing capacity and efficiency on trunk transit routes rather than first- and last-mile slow-speed solutions. The team includes veterans from Drive.ai, Zoox, Lyft Level 5 and Voyage and has experience launching AV fleets in Texas, California and Florida. The company is currently in meetings with cities and transit providers and has raised seed funding to support initial deployments.

Participated · Series C · Oct 2017

Boston-based AtScale provides software that lets enterprises create a universal semantic layer, eliminating inconsistent data labels across disparate systems and ensuring uniform calculations for business intelligence tools like Excel and Power BI. By pushing queries down to the underlying data platform rather than copying data out, the product improves performance and governance simultaneously. Snowflake, Databricks and Google BigQuery are among the cloud data warehouses it supports, and the company stresses it will continue multi-platform compatibility. With more than a billion Excel users still relying on spreadsheets, management sees enduring demand for tools that blend traditional BI with modern cloud architectures. The new investment from Snowflake’s venture arm formalizes a deeper technical collaboration intended to simplify analytics for their shared customers. Prior to the latest financing, the company’s second-largest round came in 2018, when it raised $50 million. While revenue or user counts were not disclosed, analysts view AtScale as having a strong footprint among Microsoft-centric data teams, offering Snowflake an on-ramp to those customers.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2011

Easou Technology operates China's early mobile search engine Easou.com, launched in 2005 and based in Shenzhen. After six years of development the service reported 100 million active users and more than 130 million daily searches. The company recorded revenue of 100 million yuan in 2009, 160 million yuan in 2010, and expected 240 million yuan in the current year, with over 70% of revenue derived from advertising. It serves about 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and also generates income from music, games and software downloads. Management said newly raised funds will be used for recruiting, research and development, and brand building, and has discussed a possible Nasdaq IPO in 2013 or 2014. Venture capital investors hold more than a 40% stake while founder and CEO Frank Wang remains the largest individual shareholder.