Tyler Mantel

We’re pleased to announce our newest investment from our pre-seed, Tributary Fund, AI-Ops. Based in Mobile, Alabama, AI-Ops uses deep reinforcement learning to optimize autonomous control models for various heavy industries (e.g., petroleum refineries, water treatment facilities, pharmaceutical manufacturing, etc.). The company’s AI models seamlessly integrate into existing control systems, adding various capabilities, including anomaly detection, time series forecasting, soft transmitters, and deep reinforcement learning for autonomous control actions. Users are empowered to develop and integrate their own AI models or opt for more customized models tailored to their process data. These models can then either directly control processes or offer actionable suggestions to operators and provide substantial ROI via (among other things) reduced process disruptions/increased uptime, as well as labor, energy, and other cost reductions. AI-Ops’ technology is truly impressive in its ability to quickly and comprehensively evaluate highly complex control systems (across a wide variety of industries and vendors), identify process bottlenecks and other areas of inefficiency at a granular level, and generate the detailed process adjustments needed to address them. We believe this will not only be a material driver of sales efficiency (even with very large enterprise customers) but also a significant barrier to entry for potential competitors down the road. While it’s still relatively early days for AI-Ops, we’re encouraged by the rate of customer adoption and the caliber of those customers (multiple Fortune 1,000 companies are already using the product). https://ai-op.com/

29

1 Comment

Today's Boring Biz: Pool Leak Detection Company - $2.3M Revenue - $610K Cashflow - South Carolina - Day 39 of "50 States In 50 Days" Note: We do not represent this deal, highlighting for informational purposes only for viewers What do they do? 1. Leak detection services 2. Electronic detection equipment 3. Pool inspections Investment Highlights 1. Strong market demand 2. Established reputation 3. Business systems in place Investment risks/concerns 1. What is the competition 2. Customer concentration 3. Length of contracts #SMB #ETA #finance #Cashflow #investing #search #searchfund #privateequity #microprivateequity #smallbusiness #venturecapital #vc #entrepreneur #business #businessowner #pool #leakdetection #southcarolina #servicecompany Disclaimer: Hypothetical and illustrative only. Please do your own research (DYOR) or work with tax and legal professionals before making a decision. This video are intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice, nor should be construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any security by SMB PE LLC or any third party

10

1 Comment

✨ Breaking: Halogen Ventures Announces New Fund.- Halogen Ventures Halogen Ventures focuses on early-stage consumer technology startups with at least one woman on the founding team. The fund announced a $10 million investment to support female founders in Alabama. https://halogenvc.com/ Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups #Venturecapital

8

✨ Breaking: Category Ventures Announces New Fund.- Category Ventures Category Ventures is a $160 million venture capital fund launched by Villi Iltchev. The fund focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups in enterprise software applications, infrastructure, developer tools, and artificial intelligence, with investment checks ranging from $1.5 million to $5 million. https://lnkd.in/dbw8mY6h Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups #Venturecapital

10

When I first started researching Chicago to build Velocity Catalyst Fund, I started looking at startup graduation rates…what percentage of seed startups get to Series A, Series B, etc. I soon realized that if we had an anemic Seed pool of startups then improving our funnel at that stage doesn’t really move the needle for Chicago’s economy. We needed to track and improve graduation rates from inception to Series A to see the change. Thank you so much Benjamin Sun for validating this thesis in your talk with Samir Kaji! While Ben and Primary Venture Partners are increasing graduation rates with true value platform teams, for Fund I we are set on improving graduation rates by increasing the likelihood of follow on Seed funding for our pre-seed investments with a hybrid fund of funds that invests in the best fund managers building the firms of tomorrow in our region. I think we’re the first to do this, but please, friends, tell me if you know of others! Around minute 15, you’ll hear the data on why graduation rates matter…and why early stage (pre-seed and seed) are the only stages where the power law (big multiples on invested capital) really happen. Thanks so much, guys, for your insightful podcast…perfect timing for us! https://lnkd.in/gNugYd9p

119

6 Comments

A new flood of fresh funds is reshaping the venture capital landscape! 🚀 Recent highlights include TVM Capital Healthcare’s $250M Afiyah Fund LP, SVC's $30M investment into General Atlantic’s private equity fund, Golden Gate Ventures' $100M MENA-focused fund launch, and Investcorp's $570M fund closure. These announcements signal a broader trend of escalating financial commitments within the industry. MEA funds are heating up! 🌡️ Our data reveals a 74% YoY increase in the number of MEA-based funds being financed as of May 20th, 2024. Since Q4’23, there has been a notable surge in regional funds securing capital, with international investors also establishing localized funds. Stay informed with the latest trends in VC activity: https://lnkd.in/dP6ZkmCd By MAGNiTT Repost by : Salem Bagami Chief Executive Officer Digital Transformation Company & Managing Director 2080 Ventures Email: [email protected] Website: www.2080.ventures #VC #Funds #Investing

10

✨ Breaking: Humba Ventures Announces New Fund.- Humba Ventures Humba Ventures, the sister firm to Susa Ventures, has raised a $40 million fund to invest in deep tech and defense tech startups. The fund targets companies often working with the U.S. government and accepts funding primarily from countries such as the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Humba Ventures supports startups at various stages, focusing on technological viability and team capability to drive innovation in critical sectors. https://humbaventures.com/ Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups #Venturecapital

8

The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick

60

8 Comments

Led by Anduril, defense tech funding sets a new record this year | TechCrunch https://buff.ly/4129kts Anduril, a leader in defense technology, has driven defense tech funding to an unprecedented high this year. Investments in this sector have surged, reflecting a growing interest in advanced military solutions and cutting-edge innovations. This milestone underscores the increasing importance of tech-driven defense initiatives in modern security strategies. As global tensions rise, there's a notable shift towards integrating AI, robotics, and autonomous systems into defense operations. The record-breaking funding highlights the critical role technology plays in national and international security landscapes. #DefenseTech #InnovationInSecurity

1

Kettleborough VC has been active for ~6 years, invested in ~30 companies, gone through ~80 funding rounds, witnessed ~12 exits including ~4 instances of partial principal erosion, seen ~4 seed to $100M journeys, tracking ~29% XIRR across the portfolio. A couple of IPOs from the portfolio surely seem very much in line ahead.

257

16 Comments

According to Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, “the magic number is 90%. When oil prices go up 90% over a 10-to-12-month period, the U.S. has a recession.” Read more here ➡️ https://bit.ly/3Ao7aHp

5

1 Comment

🌟 Attention energy tech founders: Don't miss this critical advice on securing funding! ⚡ Having advised hundreds of startups that have raised billions, I understand the unique pressures you face. 🚀 Dive into the full podcast linked in the 1st comment of Healy Jones' original post to learn the metrics that matter most to investors in your space. 📊 #EnergyTech #StartupInvesting #VentureCapital #IndustryInsights

1

Exciting to see startups aiming to use AI to discover chemicals, materials, drugs, etc. Semi companies have taken notice: AMD is investing in and Cadence is acquiring them. Semi/EDA companies have broken out by becoming critical path, whether it’s through critical software, packaging, IP, design kits from foundries, or user communities. Aside from just making it easy to make new materials, these “AI for making X” companies also need to articulate a vision as to how they can establish monopolistic positions in their industries.

144

5 Comments

Exciting News: Schematic is publicly available and we’ve raised $4.8M in seed funding! 🚀 I’m pumped to share that Schematic is now publicly available! We've also raised $4.8M in seed funding, led by MHS Capital with participation from NextView Ventures, Active Capital, Atlanta Ventures, and Ritual Capital—along with support from incredible founders of companies like CrowdStrike, LaunchDarkly, and Salesloft. A big thank you to our investors for believing in us, to our customers for guiding us, and to Benjamin Papillon, Jasdeep Garcha, Giovanni Hobbins, Vladyslav Len, Youssef Salah, Christopher Brady, Joseph Chrzan, Mohammed Almusaddar, and Markiian Simkiv for the opportunity to build this together. ➡️ Solving the last mile of pricing & packaging At every startup, one thing is certain: pricing and packaging will always change. Product and engineering teams shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time this happens. Most companies hard-code pricing and packaging into their applications, making it slow and painful to evolve as market demands shift. ➡️ What We’re Building We're building Schematic to transform pricing and packaging for B2B SaaS companies by getting product and engineering teams out of billing projects. With Schematic, B2B SaaS companies can change pricing & packaging without code changes or billing refactors. ➡️ How It Works With just a few lines of code, businesses can implement pricing and packaging into any application—end-to-end—from feature delivery through billing and customer experience. Quickly roll out new features and tie them to your pricing plans. Target specific plans to customers and adjust them without engineering support. Experiment, scale, and manage pricing & packaging operations: trials, plans, limits, entitlements, metering usage, handling exceptions, provisioning customers, & embedding front-end purchasing components —all without code changes. ➡️ Who we’re building for We’re building Schematic for B2B SaaS companies who want their pricing & packaging roadmaps to move in sync with their product roadmaps, without slowing down their engineering teams. Some key use cases our customers are already benefiting from: 🔹Outsourcing homegrown & hard-coded entitlement services. 🔹Programmatically managing feature access based on subscription plans. 🔹Metering usage and actually enforcing limits. 🔹Updating and managing plans, add-ons, bundling, and customer exceptions 🔹Delivering embeddable purchasing experiences (pricing tables, customer portals, upgrade/downgrade flows, etc). We’re still in the early innings, but the foundation is strong—we're already handling 500K entitlement flag evaluations every month. If you’re a founder or a product leader looking to avoid building what should be out-of-the-box (feature flags, entitlements, admin dashboards, customer portals), check out Schematic and let us know what you think.

183

84 Comments

Excited to announce our investment in Alta Resource Technologies alongside Leonardo Banchik (Voyager Ventures) with participation from Orion Resource Partners, Overture Ventures, and WovenEarth Ventures. Rare earths are critical in products from magnets to ceramics and it's important for the US to develop its own supply chain. While the US has some of the best rare earth resources, separating them has historically proven expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Alta through it's computationally designed and optimized proteins allows the US to bring back rare earth production with a cleaner, lower capex, and lower opex solution - and that's just the beginning. Congrats to Nathan Ratledge and the entire Alta team. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gbGnAJn3

60

4 Comments

The average time to exit for acquisitions has jumped from 4.6 years in 2005 to 6.3 years (2024). 6.3 years ago the YC 2018 Winter Batch was just wrapping up its demo day. From this YC cohort there were two major ($150M+) exits. Sqreen - exited to Datadog for ~$250M. Bear Flag (robotics) - exited to John Deere for ~$250M As the exit landscape evolves, I am still confident YC remains one of the best sources for outsized returns.

28

1 Comment

The ‘help’ VCs offer that founders wish they’d skip : From unsolicited intros to random conference invites 😐! -Making random introductions that weren’t requested -Inviting founders to conferences where the VC is speaking -Providing strategic advice without understanding the startup’s specific context -Conducting frequent check-ins without offering meaningful support -Forwarding articles about competitors -Recommending broad networking connections that aren’t relevant -Offering unsolicited product UX suggestions -Imposing rigid meeting schedules at inconvenient times -Sharing generic industry trends without actionable insights -Sending irrelevant templates or tools that don’t fit the startup’s stage or needs -Offering feedback that feels more critical than constructive -Making broad claims about experience without engaging with the startup’s unique situation For VCs, adding real value means aligning support with the founder’s specific needs and goals. Any other pointers you like to add? Cc. Ed suh #startups #venturecapital #frustrations

20

3 Comments