Led · Series A · Oct 2024

AcreShield builds and sells Yield Optimizer™, an AI seed-selection platform that uses independent seed trial data to predict yield and offer performance guarantees. The company manages its own seed trials to produce unbiased datasets that feed its machine-learning model. AcreShield sells through a distributor network, reports paying customers and demonstrated revenue success, and is expanding its distributor-partner program. The product includes a yield protection feature that can pay up to $100 per acre and is backed by major reinsurers with AM Best A+ ratings. AcreShield operates as a DBA of OptimalAg Solutions Inc. and positions its offering to help farmers close the Yield Gap and improve profitability. The company is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2021

Amira Learning develops an AI-powered literacy tutor that listens to students reading aloud, detects mispronunciations, skipped words and other errors, and provides real-time corrective feedback. The product is grounded in roughly two decades of research and pilots that the article says have shown users making two to three times the typical progress on standard reading assessments in some cases. Amira offers teacher-facing analytics to support guided reading, can flag students who may be at risk for language learning disorders for further screening, and emphasizes privacy by treating data as belonging to the district. After offering the product free during the pandemic, the company has hundreds of districts provisionally on board and a distribution partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is also an investor. The company is using a newly raised $11 million to scale the app, convert free users into paying customers, expand capabilities into middle school, build out management tools, and launch a parent-focused app. The article highlights Amira’s focus on designing for real-world classroom conditions and teacher workflows and mentions partnerships and celebrity support (NFL player Brennan Scarlett covering costs for 100 students) to aid adoption. Amira Learning builds a speech‑powered reading assessment and practice tool that listens to K–3 students read aloud, detects mispronunciations, offers prompts, and reports indicators of reading disorders such as dyslexia. The company licensed its core algorithms from Carnegie Mellon University and its assessment content from the University of Houston and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; the professors who created the work serve as advisers and consultants. Amira is currently used in about 20 U.S. school districts and sells Amira Assessment for about $5 per student per year, a Dyslexia Screener for about $2.50 per student, and interactive Amira Practice for about $10 per user. The startup has about 15 full‑time employees and plans to hire additional data scientists and customer support specialists. Leadership plans include international expansion, development of a direct‑to‑consumer product, and adding Spanish language support. Founded in March 2017 (originally as Lexa Reading) and based in San Francisco, the company raised new capital to scale its footprint.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2017

Intabio is a Newark, Calif.-based developer of instrumentation systems for biotherapeutic precision analysis and quality assessment throughout bioproduction. Led by CEO and co-founder Lena Wu, Ph.D., the company is developing analytical solutions to facilitate biotherapeutic development and manufacturing, aiming to provide early product quality characterization and efficiency gains across all stages of biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing. Its first product, the Blaze system, is a microchip-based instrument that provides rapid detection and identification of subtle protein modifications that can undermine the stability and efficacy of biotherapeutic drugs such as monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. Intabio raised $18M in a Series B financing. The company intends to use the funds to build its commercial team and prepare for launch of the platform. Intabio was launched in 2016 by CEO Lena Wu, Ph.D., and is based in Newark, CA. The company offers Blaze™, a microchip-based instrument platform for comprehensive analysis of antibody and protein biopharmaceutical products. Blaze is designed to deliver higher throughput than traditional methods and to provide rapid detection and identification of subtle protein modifications. Those subtle modifications can undermine the stability and efficacy of biotherapeutic drugs such as monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. Financially, Intabio completed a $3.2M Series Seed in 2017 and has since raised a $9.5M Series A. The Series A included board appointments from investors, reflecting continued investor engagement. Intabio, based in Sunnyvale, develops instrumentation to accelerate biotherapeutic drug development. The company is commercializing the Blaze™ system, a bench-top instrument paired with a microfluidic chip and reagent kit that rapidly detects and identifies subtle protein modifications. Blaze performs charge heterogeneity analysis to separate protein isoforms, images at 280 nm for quantitation, and prepares samples for electrospray delivery into an adjacent mass spectrometer to identify unknown modifications. Leadership includes CEO and co-founder Lena Wu, Ph.D., and CTO and inventor Erik Gentalen. Intabio intends to use the financing to advance commercialization of its quality characterization system for biotherapeutics. Dr. Bill Hyun joined the company as a technical advisor.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2014

PowWow provides an application delivery platform that allows companies to move existing Windows or web applications to any mobile device in minutes, making them feel native so users can use the applications and devices of their choice. The company sells its services via direct and OEM relationships. PowWow was founded in 2012 by CEO Andrew Cohen and Jonathan Kaplan and is based in San Francisco, CA. It raised $2.5M in Series A financing and intends to use the funds to go to market and to expand its engineering teams. The raise should support commercialization and product development efforts as the company scales its sales channels. No operating metrics (revenue or users) were disclosed in the article. PowWow provides a virtual application delivery and collaboration platform that runs Windows and web applications on any mobile device in minutes, using an adaptive user-interface technology that requires no coding. Its patent-pending software layer lets IT or expert users configure per-device gestures, keyboard and UI, and its protocol converts single-user apps into multi-user collaborative apps for real-time co-authoring when a document owner grants control. The platform can be deployed on-premise, via the cloud, or in hybrid environments and integrates with existing back-end hardware and software while preserving IT security and control. PowWow launched its flagship product and is offering it immediately, priced at $25/month per user with a free trial available for select enterprises. Several enterprise customers are already using the product, including a top-five bank, a top-three pharmaceutical company, a Fortune 100 insurer and a Fortune 10 conglomerate. The company has raised $1.1 million in seed funding.