Participated · Series A · Jan 2023

Atomos Space develops autonomous Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTVs) that can dock with, tow and reposition satellites to different orbits. The company starts with high-powered electric propulsion and views those systems as stepping stones to future nuclear OTV options for faster, longer-range missions. Its technology aims to lower costs for satellite operators by enabling simpler spacecraft that rely on OTVs for mobility; the company claims this approach effectively halves launch costs. Atomos is also positioning its propulsion and docking tech for broader applications, including asteroid deflection and deeper-space mobility. The firm has built and ground-tested docking and propulsion systems and is preparing to fly its first vehicles. With the new funding it plans to finish the first two full-size commercial vehicles and double the size of its team ahead of a launch booked in under 12 months. Atomos Space builds reusable orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) — space tugs — intended to tow multiple customers to their orbital destinations over each tug’s operational lifetime. Its Quark OTV is designed to carry tens of customers and operate for about five years; the company says its first two spacecraft are slated to launch in 2023 with another expected in late 2024. While Atomos intends to deploy nuclear-powered tugs (the Neutron vehicle) in the later 2020s, its initial vehicles will use solar-powered systems. The company has executed and won over $2 million in contracts with NASA, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force to support its OTV plans. Atomos paused an initial $5 million raise planned for spring 2020 due to the pandemic and reported it was funded through 2021 without additional capital. The startup emphasizes using nuclear propulsion long-term to scale in-space transportation, while acknowledging regulatory, technical and cost challenges for space nuclear applications.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2021

HaptX develops the HaptX Gloves, devices that physically displace the user’s skin to mimic real object contact and provide more than 130 points of tactile feedback per hand. The company’s products are used by Fortune 500 companies and governments for demanding applications in training and simulation, industrial design, and robotics. HaptX plans to use the new funding to commercialize next-generation products building on the HaptX Gloves DK2. The company is led by founder and CEO Jake Rubin and is headquartered in Redmond, WA, with offices in San Luis Obispo and San Francisco, CA. The round increases the company’s total funding to more than $58M, positioning it for broader commercialization. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. HaptX develops realistic haptic gloves for VR and robotics, led by founder and CEO Jake Rubin. Its flagship product is the HaptX Gloves DK2, an advanced haptic feedback glove. The company sold out its first DK2 production run in less than six months. New financing will be used to accelerate expanded production of the DK2 and to speed development and commercial introduction of new haptic products. Financially, HaptX has raised $35M in total funding, with Series A now at $28M after the latest credit facility. Prior investors include Verizon Ventures, Mason Avenue Investments, Taylor Frigon Capital Partners and Upheaval Investments. HaptX also maintains offices in San Luis Obispo and San Francisco, CA. HaptX develops realistic haptic technology and produces the HaptX Gloves DK2, described in the announcement as the world's most advanced haptic feedback gloves. The company targets enterprise use cases including training, design, and robotics, and sold out its first DK2 manufacturing run in less than six months, prompting a second run. HaptX announced a $12 million Series A-1 growth financing, bringing total funding to $31 million. The round included participation from existing investors Verizon Ventures, Mason Avenue Investments, Taylor Frigon Capital Partners, and Upheaval Investments. HaptX opened a new 15,000-square-foot headquarters in Redmond, WA, expanded its San Luis Obispo office footprint by 50%, and also maintains an office in San Francisco. Over the next 12 months the company plans to add dozens of new positions across mechanical engineering, software development, sales, and operations to scale manufacturing and meet growing demand. HaptX develops a sensor-packed glove that simulates haptic and resistance feedback for enterprise VR and robotics users. The system uses an external pneumatic box to expand and contract air pockets inside a glove to recreate the feel of virtual objects. HaptX has shifted from a VR-only pitch to also address robotics, positioning its offering around real-world input and output for design and visualization workflows. The company focuses on enterprise customers, where deployments have largely been in internal innovation hubs and pilot programs. HaptX announced $12 million in new funding to be dedicated to its next-generation glove hardware and has now raised $19 million to date. Alongside the financing, HaptX has partnered with Advanced Input Systems on product development, manufacturing, and go-to-market efforts. AxonVR is the creator of the HaptX Platform, a haptic textile that simulates lifelike touch and can be applied to wearables and other form factors. The technology is aimed at bringing realistic touch to digital experiences across enterprise use cases including location-based entertainment, training and simulation, and design and manufacturing. AxonVR plans to deliver HaptX technology to its first enterprise partners to enable more authentic VR interactions. The lightweight, flexible material can be applied to any surface and the company highlights integration with physics engines to produce realistic sensations. AxonVR was founded in 2012 by Jake Rubin and Dr. Robert Crockett and is based in Seattle, WA and San Luis Obispo, CA. Financially, the company has raised $7M to date, including a recently completed $5.8M seed round.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2019

Passbase provides developer-friendly, privacy-oriented identity verification infrastructure that helps companies meet KYC, AML, and age-verification requirements. Its product features an intuitive verification flow and back-office compliance tooling that can be integrated in as little as 30 minutes and supports over 6,000 IDs across 190 countries and 15 languages. In the last year the company grew revenue 8x by helping crypto, fintech, and other firms solve digital identity verification challenges amid rapidly changing global compliance requirements. Passbase plans to scale its team and operations and build a policy and workflow manager that sits on top of its verification service, plus industry-specific policy templates to help customers enter new markets faster. The company emphasizes a privacy-centric infrastructure and a developer-first approach to enable automated and branded verification flows worldwide. Passbase originated as a 2018 pivot from the cryptocurrency wallet Coinance and is pursuing a vision of becoming a digital identity infrastructure for web3 companies. Passbase, founded in 2018 and based in Berlin, builds a full-stack, privacy-preserving digital identity verification solution that uses video selfies and identity-document scans. Its self-service developer platform claims integrations within minutes, positioning it against legacy providers with long sales cycles and complex integrations. Security features include NIST-certified facial recognition, forensic ID authenticity analysis, and a patent-pending zero-knowledge sharing architecture to limit data exposure. The company says the product helps businesses detect stolen identity information and retain audit histories without sharing extraneous personal details. Financially, Passbase raised €3.3 million in its most recent round, six months after a €530k pre-seed. With the new funding it plans to bolster its identity verification product, launch a biometric reauthentication tool, and expand teams in New York and Berlin while targeting the $24.12 billion identity access management market. Passbase offers a full-stack identity engine and SDKs that let developers integrate facial recognition, liveness detection, ID authenticity checks and ID information extraction while embedding user privacy controls. The product claims deployment to web or mobile in under three minutes with seven lines of code and demonstrates a FaceID-style 3D selfie plus ID document scanning. Its architecture leverages public-private key encryption, blockchain ideas and biometric authentication to enable zero-knowledge authentications so users can prove identity or age without sharing full documents. The company is in closed beta with more than 200 companies signed up and five handpicked firms running closed pilots ahead of an open beta planned for mid-year. Planned features include PEP and OFAC screening to serve mobility, age-restricted products and eventually online banking/fintech KYC needs; the team is filing patents and pursuing certifications such as ISO and FIDO. Passbase partners with external security providers while maintaining in-house computer vision expertise for anti-spoofing and liveness detection, and the founders emphasize building an inclusive company culture alongside product development.