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The Venture Codex

Z21 Ventures

2120 University Ave, Suite 706, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States

Overview

z21 Ventures is a US based, community-focused, operator-led, venture capital fund that capitalizes on opportunities in early-stage technology startups in the US-India corridor. It is founded by Abhinav Shashank (Co-founder and CEO of Innovaccer), Raj Singh (Founding exec at Innovaccer, Co-founder at HyperspecAI and International Battery Company). Jyotika Gupta (BizOps leader at Glassdoor) and Sudarshan Jha (co-founder of Letstransport) are founding partners in the fund. z21 Ventures innovates early-stage venture investing through its community-based approach involving 150+ founders, experienced operators and investors in the US-India corridor.

Total investments
12
Lead investments
0
Investments · 12mo
6
Active investors
4

Sector focus

  • Venture Capital
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Investment portfolio

  • Greenjets

    Participated · Series A · Jul 2026

    The company develops low-cost drone interceptors aimed at protecting the UK and allied forces, emerging from three years of research, validation and low-volume production. Founders frame the business within a broader vision of more electric, accessible and autonomous aviation while emphasizing immediate defense applications. The team has validated capability through trials and early production runs prior to this Series A. With the new funding, leadership plans to scale production, expand internationally and broaden the product line. The company has secured both venture capital and strategic investors, including NATO Innovation Fund and NSSIF, to support overseas expansion. Existing investors such as Tanglin Venture Partners, z21 Ventures and the Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office have participated again, marking a third investment from some backers.

  • Develo

    Participated · Series A · May 2026

    Develo has built a pediatric-specific, AI-native operating system that integrates clinical workflows, billing and family engagement into a single platform designed around modern interoperability (native FHIR). Its product embeds AI-driven features such as medical scribes, automatic pediatric fee capture, intelligent reporting and workflow automation directly into core operations. The company emphasizes family-centered care models and aims to replace fragmented legacy EMR toolchains common in pediatric practices. Founded in 2022 by pediatrician Aaron Sin and CTO Han Ke, Develo supports hundreds of pediatric providers in more than two dozen states. After raising $14 million in its latest financing, the company plans to accelerate product development and expand customer support as it scales its platform across the U.S.

  • hosted.ai

    Participated · Seed · Mar 2026

    Hosted.ai is building an operating system for the GPU-powered AI economy that optimizes GPU utilization and enables multi-tenant and federated GPU resource sharing. Its software aims to allow GPU cloud operators to run multiple workloads on the same GPU simultaneously and improve GPU economics for infrastructure operators and AI developers. The company launched publicly in 2025 after being founded in 2024 and maintains teams across the US, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. With the newly raised seed funding, Hosted.ai plans to roll out its GPUaaS offering to target GPU cloud operators. The article does not disclose revenue, user counts, or a valuation.

  • HEN Nozzles

    Participated · Series A · Jan 2026

    Founded in 2020, HEN Technologies has engineered fire-suppression nozzles that boost suppression rates up to 300 % while cutting water use by 67 %. The firm has expanded its line to monitors, valves, overhead sprinklers, pressure devices and the forthcoming Stream IQ flow-control and discharge-control systems, all containing custom circuit boards and, in some cases, Nvidia Orion Nano processors. These devices stream real-time data—such as flow, pressure, GPS location and weather—into HEN’s cloud platform, giving incident commanders granular insight into water usage and operational conditions. The company has filed 20 patent applications (with six granted) and employs about 50 people drawn from Adobe, NASA, Tesla, Apple and Microsoft. Commercial traction includes 1,500 fire-department customers, sales to the Marine Corps, US Army bases, NASA and Abu Dhabi Civil Defense, distribution through 120 resellers and shipments to 22 countries. After launching products in Q2 2023, HEN generated $200 k that year, grew to $1.6 m in 2024 and $5.2 m last year, and is projecting $20 m in revenue this year. The rapidly expanding installed base is building a unique data lake that the company plans to monetize via predictive-analytics applications beginning next year.

  • Risa Labs

    Participated · Series A · Jan 2026

    RISA Labs develops BOSS Console, an AI-driven operating system that plugs into cancer centers’ EMRs, payer portals and other systems to automate patient access, benefits verification, and prior authorization. Its agent-based software reads, reasons and acts across disparate data sources, adapting in real time to changing payer rules and clinical requirements. Deployed at leading U.S. oncology networks, the platform has freed roughly 80 % of administrative staff time, cut denials by up to 40 %, achieved 97.8 % first-pass approval rates, and reduced authorization turnaround from an 8-day backlog to under 24 hours (with a goal of <2 hours). More than 20 full-time equivalents at one site have been redeployed to higher-value tasks, improving both capacity and financial performance. The company’s immediate roadmap includes expanding AI-driven workflows across the full continuum of cancer care and extending its technology to specialty pharmacy operations. Financially, RISA Labs has secured $11.1 million in Series A funding to accelerate nationwide deployment. Founded by CEO Kshitij Jaggi and CTO Kumar Shivang, the company operates out of Palo Alto, California.

Team