Led by investment from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock with participation from NVIDIA, Microsoft, Eclipse, Jabil, and Shinhan Securities and venture debt from J.P. Morgan, the new round will help Bright Machines meet skyrocketing demand as pressure builds to support AI hardware production

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25, 2024 — Bright Machines, an innovator in intelligent, software-defined manufacturing, announced today it has raised $126M in Series C funding, with $106M in equity led by investment from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and participation from NVIDIA, Microsoft, Eclipse, Jabil and Shinhan Securities, and with $20M in venture debt from J.P. Morgan. This brings the company’s total amount raised to more than $400M. The capital will be used to launch product innovations, expand its software stack for increased assembly flexibility, and grow strategic relationships with ecosystem partners.

Currently, electronics manufacturing is outdated and manual with isolated, inefficient processes that drive up costs. With the proliferation of AI driving up demand for compute power and subsequently, AI hardware, the industry faces a bottleneck across dozens of fragmented vendors that causes a supply chain traffic jam. Bright Machines was founded in 2018 by industry veterans who saw a unique opportunity to solve this problem and bring an unprecedented, data-focused approach to electronics manufacturing.

Bright Machines’ full stack solution provides centralized data visibility, traceability, performance benchmarking, and flexible automation. In Bright Machines’ digital ecosystem, valuable data is constantly generated and communicated to a central hub, thus creating a powerful engine for continual optimization. Leveraging this robust data network, Bright Machines’ Design for Automated Assembly (DFAA) tool provides virtual design recommendations to shorten products’ time to market. The company’s robotics utilize machine learning algorithms to help ensure quality control and traceability during assembly inspection. And once products reach their end of life, Bright Machines’ flexible disassembly capabilities help harvest and recycle components – achieving full circular manufacturing. By uniting this data network with agile robotics, modeling and simulation, Bright Machines provides a robust, modern factory that far exceeds what traditional factories can achieve.

“Adopting ecosystem-wide, software-defined manufacturing processes will ease the mounting burden from the industry’s biggest challenges, including a lack of skilled workforce; aging, rigid systems; disparate and fragmented supply chains; and an overall lack of standards across the value chain,” said Lior Susan, CEO and Executive Chairman at Bright Machines. “By collaborating with technology leaders such as NVIDIA and Microsoft, Bright Machines can deliver flexible, integrated, and intelligent manufacturing solutions to our customers, starting with Design for Automated Assembly (DFAA) and continuing – with unprecedented visibility – through every step of the process, right through to the circularity of recycling. As optimized manufacturing systems are faster, more resilient, and more efficient than their manual counterparts, our customers are more competitive in terms of cost, their products’ time-to-market, and customer delight. And in a world where we can now use AI and software to teach robotics systems how to build electronics, the opportunity to redefine how we will design and build electronics is unlimited.”

This funding round not only supports Bright Machines’ vision, but it also highlights the intense pressure that large cloud compute providers are facing to scale AI infrastructure across compute, data storage, and related network capabilities to meet increasing demand. Today’s investment news comes on the heels of Bright Machines’ integration and go-to-market partnership with Microsoft Azure, which will enable an accessible, efficient, and data-driven manufacturing process for electronics manufacturers. 

Supporting investor quotes:

“The demand for AI is catalyzing a transformation in electronics manufacturing. Supply chains and manufacturing and assembly processes are being redesigned to drive faster product innovation and time to market. With blue-chip industry leaders solving on Bright Machine’s software-defined solutions, the team is uniquely positioned to accelerate automation within the manufacturing industry and solve a very difficult, but necessary challenge to meet the pace of innovation and deliver tangible ROI for businesses.” – Matt Singer, Managing Director, BlackRock

“There is a fundamental shift in the way electronics manufacturing must adapt to enable the rapid progress and adoption of AI. Bright Machines’ full-stack solution changes the status quo by providing flexible automation across all stages of the manufacturing life cycle from product design to assembly to disassembly. The team at Bright Machines sees the power of combining robotics and AI in the physical world and is uniquely positioned to transform the manufacturing lifecycle through automation.” – Marc Stoll, Partner, Eclipse

“It is imperative for manufacturers to keep up with the pace of technology innovation across the full spectrum of markets such as AI tech, renewables and carbon reduction, or life-saving medical devices. Bright Machines significantly reduces the time it takes to go from design to production helping companies manufacture the products of tomorrow today.” – Matt Crowley, EVP Global Business Units,  Jabil

“Physical AI is powering the next wave of digitalization applications. Bright Machines, powered by NVIDIA Omniverse core technologies, will help accelerate a new era of AI-enabled industrial digital twins — from design to operation and optimization.” – Rev Lebaredian, VP of Omniverse and Simulation Technology, NVIDIA

“There is a global need for manufacturing transformation if we are going to reap the benefits of AI innovation. Bright Machines delivers reliable access to more AI hardware and transforms its manufacturing, ensuring the ecosystem can take advantage of all that AI has to offer.” – Damian Kang, Executive Director Global Equity Team, Shinhan Securities

For more information on Bright Machines and its services, see here.

About Bright Machines
Bright Machines is an industry-leading software and robotics company that offers a full-stack automation solution for manufacturing. Bright Machines’ flexible automated assembly specializes in building the AI backbone — AI hardware infrastructure. By leveraging computer vision, machine learning, and software applications, Bright Machines transforms the way products can be designed and manufactured.

With more than 200 employees worldwide, Bright Machines is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Bright Machines has been previously named “Best AI-based Solution for Manufacturing” by AI Breakthrough, “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum, and one of “America’s Most Promising Artificial Intelligence Companies” by Forbes.

For more information, visit www.brightmachines.com.

SOURCE Bright Machines

Seasoned Investors Take New Approach to Private Equity to Drive Software Innovation Success Stories

AUSTIN, Texas, June 25, 2024 — Elsewhere Partners today announced the closing of Elsewhere Partners III, L.P. (EP Fund III), with $285 million in additional capital focused on majority investments in growth-ready B2B software companies. Because of Elsewhere Partners’ distinct investment model and strong performance, an Ivy League Endowment and several returning and new prominent institutional investors backed EP Fund III.

Since its launch in 2016 by seasoned Austin Ventures alumni Chris Pacitti and John Thornton, Elsewhere Partners has sought to redefine software investment strategies and unlock the full potential of capital-efficient software companies with proven products constrained by suboptimized go-to-market practices. With decades of experience leading early stage investments and navigating transformational investments in capital-efficient software companies together since founding Elsewhere through its first and second funds, the evolution of the firm into an early stage private equity (PE) firm has been a natural progression.

“Over the years, our vision to become a reliable feeder system for later-stage financial sponsors has crystalized due to the success of our early portfolio,” noted Chris Pacitti, Founder and Partner at Elsewhere Partners. “We found a gap in the VC/PE ecosystem and have developed a low-risk/high-reward investment model and transformational playbook to become the ‘Series A’ private equity investor for B2B software companies. With the support of our new and existing limited partners, we look forward to continuing to fuel strategic growth in the software sector in both U.S. and international markets.”

With EP Fund III, Elsewhere Partners will further sharpen its focus on majority $20 million to $50 million investments in growth-ready software companies led by strong technical founders that have scaled to $3 – 12M in revenue. The firm’s dedicated Operating Partners and extensive Operating Advisor network provide the deep bench of seasoned operational leadership and functional support required to scale effectively.

About Elsewhere Partners
Elsewhere Partners, a tech-focused private equity firm, invests in growth-ready lower middle market software companies around the globe. Elsewhere’s team of experienced investors and software operators tailor growth plans for each unique portfolio company and offer complementary support across go-to-market, product, talent, finance, and strategy functions. Based in Austin, TX, Elsewhere has invested in 17 companies throughout North America, Europe and Israel since its inception in 2016. To learn more, visit https://elsewhere.partners.  

Media Contact:
Erica Camilo
Connexa Communications for Elsewhere Partners
C: 610.639.5644
[email protected] 

SOURCE Elsewhere Partners

PALM BEACH, Fla., June 25, 2024 — Pytheas Energy, Inc is pleased to announce the addition of three producing oil and gas properties to its growing portfolio, the Andrews Crane Asset, the Bakken Asset, and the Minerva-Rockdale Asset. These represent both working and non-working interests in 620 oil and gas wells, with a combined gross current production of approximately 357 BPD.

Commenting, CEO Josh Zuker said, “We’ve grown considerably over the past three months. Today, Pytheas Energy holds interests in over 600 oil wells, which we acquired at what we believe were below-market prices. This is thanks to our proprietary, AI-enabled asset identification technology.

“In the coming weeks, we plan to start revitalizing dozens of wells, in an effort to increase our existing production by as much as four-fold in the next 12-18 months. We’re also exploring further acquisition opportunities and will continue to use our AI-based platform to identify new targets on existing properties.”

About The Acquisitions

Andrews Crane “AC” Asset
Situated among the Permian Basin, the AC Asset is located in Andrews and Crane counties in Texas. It consists of a 15% membership interest in Andrews Crane SPVI, LLC (“SPVI”), a Wyoming limited liability company, which owns a 16.9% non-operating interest in 113 conventional wells. An agreement is in place for Pytheas to acquire the remaining 85% interest in SPVI. The AC Asset currently generates 128 BPD and has a fair market value of ~$11 million. 

Management used the Company’s proprietary AI technology and industry knowledge to identify the Andrews Crane Asset as a neglected asset recently jettisoned by a large company. While no guarantees can be made, Management’s preliminary analysis estimates that the AC Asset’s BPD can be increased by as much as 120 BPD over the next 12 months, to a forecasted 200-250 BPD, thereby potentially doubling its market value.

Bakken Asset
The Bakken Asset consists of a 12% non-operating working interest in 19 wells located in North Dakota’s greater Bakken Region, the source of more than 10% of all oil produced in the U.S. This Asset has a fair market value of ~$2 million and generates an ongoing revenue stream of ~$450,000 per year via the production of approximately 19 BPD.
Management identified the Bakken Asset as having a motivated seller. As such, Pytheas was able to acquire a non-operating interest in the Asset at a discount, and with the aim of increasing the Company’s value.

Minerva-Rockdale “MR” Asset 
The MR Asset is located in the Minerva-Rockdale oil field of Milam County, Texas, and consists of a ~50% non-operating working interest in approximately 488 wells.

Based on Pytheas’s fourth-quarter 2023 internal management reports, the MR Asset has a fair market value estimated at ~$9.1 million. It generates an ongoing revenue stream of ~$8.0 million per year via the production of approximately 210 BPD from a portion of the property’s wells.

Currently, only a portion of the property’s wells are in production, producing between 100 – 150 BPD as management begins to stabilize the property and rehabilitate the wells. Management estimates that when all 488 wells are moved into production, and the entire asset is rehabilitated, the MR Asset’s production capabilities could increase by as much as four times.

Corporate Financing Update
Pytheas Energy is currently undertaking a capital raise via Regulation Crowdfunding on https://equifund.com. The offering launched in March 2024, and investors have since filled over $3.7 million of the maximum $5 million allowed in this raise. The financing is open to both accredited and non-accredited investors.

For more information on how you can invest in Pytheas Energy, please visit: https://invest.equifund.com/offering/pytheasenergy/details

About Pytheas Energy
Pytheas Energy, Inc is an oil and gas exploration and production company helping to revitalize America’s energy independence through the rehabilitation of existing wells, using its proprietary AI-enabled asset identification technology.

Contact
Hal Abraham Matheson, VP Investor Relations
620.320.3201
[email protected]

SOURCE Pytheas Energy Inc

BETHESDA, Md., June 25, 2024 — Marc Tropp, a senior managing director with Eastern Union, has arranged $10.1 million in financing toward ground-up construction of a five-story, 690-unit, self-storage facility in Davenport, FL. Davenport is situated approximately 65 miles east of Tampa.

Eastern Union, based in New York, is one of America’s largest providers of commercial mortgage brokerage and capital markets advisory services. Together with senior managing director David Merkin, Mr. Tropp oversees the firm’s Mid-Atlantic Region office in Bethesda, MD.

The climate-controlled property will have a gross square footage of 103,020 square feet and 76,431 square feet of rentable space.

“Today’s owners and developers are operating in the most challenging market environment since the crash of 2008,” said Mr. Tropp. “It’s highly difficult to secure construction financing. Eastern Union takes pride in our ability to come through for our clients under conditions like this.”

“The closing of this construction transaction directly reflects Marc Tropp’s keen familiarity with the lending marketplace,” said Abe Bergman, president and co-founder of Eastern Union. “The client’s own bankers had declined to finance this deal. Thanks to Marc Tropp’s extensive knowledge of the lender universe, Eastern Union was able to close this transaction.”

The financing carried a 65-percent loan-to-cost value. The loan’s term was four years, with four years of interest-only payments. The interest rate was set at SOFR plus 3.875 percent. The identities of neither the owner nor the lender were disclosed.

The facility will be operated by CubeSmart, a real estate company focused on the ownership, operation, acquisition, and development of self-storage facilities in the United States.  

About Eastern Union

Founded in 2001, Eastern Union is a national commercial real estate firm that provides both financing services and capital markets advisory services. It employs more than 90 real estate professionals and closes billions of dollars worth of transactions annually. Eastern Union leverages its relationships with lenders and its marketplace knowledge to secure the best available rates and terms.

The company’s Mid-Atlantic Region office, led by Marc Tropp and David Merkin, is located in Bethesda, MD.

Eastern Union secures financing for transactions of all sizes across the United States. Transactions, which can include multi-state and multi-site portfolios, encompass conventional commercial mortgages, structured debt, healthcare, hospitality, manufactured home properties, single-family rentals, investment sales, and — handled in conjunction with company affiliate Eastern Equity Advisors — equity placement.

For more information, visit www.easternunion.com.     

Media contact:
Steve Vitoff
Eastern Union
516 652 0785
[email protected] 

SOURCE Eastern Union

New programs launched to build with founders and corporations across every stage from early idea development to scaling for growth in the market

PALO ALTO, Calif. and TOKYO, June 25, 2024 — Moon Creative Lab, a venture studio that powers the creation of new businesses, today announced new programs to build new businesses with founders and corporations. These programs based out of its Palo Alto, California and Tokyo, Japan studios bring a diverse and global community of entrepreneurs and corporations together across every stage of new business creation, from idea development to scale for growth in the market.

“Moon Creative Lab was founded over 5 years ago to help Mitsui & Co., create innovative new businesses that will have exponential impact on the world,” said Kaichi Yokoyama, Chief Executive Officer, Moon Creative Lab. “We are expanding on this vision by creating new markets and discovering unforeseen business opportunities with a unique community of founders and teams from Mitsui, other corporations, and startups. It will be a powerful combination of builders working together.”

Learn
Moon’s experts in design, product, and engineering guide participants through the process of human-centered innovative business design:

• Spark is Moon’s one week, in-person business-building Make-a-Thon in Tokyo. The goal of the program is to help participants build a tangible representation of a business idea in the form of a real working website, while learning about business creation along the way – all in one week. To apply for Spark’s Summer 24 cohort which runs Wednesday, August 28 to Tuesday, September 3, visit here.
• Learning Labs is Moon’s Tokyo-based foundation-building program. Learning Labs are short-term engagements, anywhere from a few hours to 3 days, between Moon and corporate partners aimed at building foundational knowledge in business creation, product/service design, and more. To speak with Moon about Learning Labs, visit here.
• Design x AI Workshops in Palo Alto utilize emerging design and generative AI tools to help build stronger business ideas. For more information on Moon Workshops in Palo Alto, visit here.

Build
Moon works with founders and corporations to provide geo-specific support to incubate early-stage startups with a human-centered approach.

• Boost is Moon’s Tokyo-based intensive 3-month incubation program where Moon helps founders gain product market fit. Moon helps founders and corporations that have begun working on a new business idea and want to build or test prototypes with real customers. To apply for the next Boost cohort, which starts on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, visit here.
• In-Residence is Moon’s Palo-Alto based incubation program where founders and corporations can get expert advice and hands-on help for their early-stage business. Moon offers advisory, studio space, and select sprints for idea-, seed-, and early stage ventures. Applications are now open to join Moon’s Palo Alto-based In-Residence program. To apply, visit here.

Grow
Unlike other incubators/accelerators/investors, Moon has a diverse group of talent that can think creatively through a challenge or a new opportunity. We bring that innovative thought process to bear in our investment decisions. Moon aims to build large-scale businesses by working together with our community members of founders and innovators. Moon invests in pre-seed, seed-, and growth-stage startups that we believe will create new opportunities and new markets together, and will also make additional follow-on investments to help businesses grow and scale. Moon is especially interested in startups and corporations that:

• Add synergistic value to our existing portfolio and with Mitsui more broadly
• Want to expand their geographic reach, especially from the U.S. to Japan/AP and Japan/AP to the U.S.
• Need hands-on support from designers, engineers, product experts, and marketers to advance their business
• Are interested in teaming up with us to build a scalable/innovative business together in the form of joint investments and/or joint ventures

Moon Community
Moon is building a global community of founders and innovators who share a passion for unlocking their creative potential. Moon Community members gain access to:

• Moon’s Speaker Series: Every month, both Moon Palo Alto and Moon Tokyo will host an esteemed guest speaker or panel to educate and inspire
• Moon Community Lunches and Happy Hours: Moon hosts regular monthly lunches and happy hours around specific themes
• Open Office Hours: Founders can get feedback on their product, service, or business from Moon’s designers, engineers, and product managers
• Moon Lectures and Workshops: Every quarter, Moon will offer a variety of lectures or workshops to the public. Moon Community Members get advance access to sign up.

To apply to be a Moon Community member, visit here.

About Moon Creative Lab
Moon Creative Lab was first established in 2018 as a venture studio to deliver human-centered new business creation for the Mitsui & Co., group. With offices in Palo Alto, USA and Tokyo, Japan, we have established a hands-on support system with global and diverse professional human resources, including designers, engineers, product managers, and people with entrepreneurial experience, to create new businesses that will have a positive impact on the world. Based on this experience, Moon has expanded its support for new business creation beyond Mitsui & Co., to external corporations and startup teams. We aim to help teams and organizations unleash their creative potential to transform bold ideas into ventures that will have an exponential impact on the world. Visit us at www.mooncreativelab.com.

Media Contacts:
For US:
Anabelle Salom
[email protected]

For Japan:
[email protected]

SOURCE Moon Creative Lab

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 25, 2024 — Sift, the first unified observability platform for hardware sensor data, today announced it has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding led by GV (Google Ventures). This round brings Sift’s total funding to $25 million and will be used to accelerate the development of its platform, expand its team, and support customers across the full hardware development lifecycle.

Sift’s platform empowers engineers to ingest, analyze, and act on machine data in real-time, enabling them to accelerate development, conduct efficient reviews, and ensure reliable operation of complex machines. The company’s customers include pioneers in aerospace, aviation, defense, energy, and transportation, such as Astranis, Astrolab, K2 Space, Mach Industries, Parallel Systems, and True Anomaly.

“At GV, we’re always on the lookout for companies tackling critical challenges in industries undergoing rapid transformation. Sift is doing exactly that for the hardware innovation space,” said Crystal Huang, General Partner at GV. “Their unified observability platform is the missing piece that leading machine builders need to turn troves of sensor data into actionable insights and accelerate development. We’re excited to partner with the Sift team as they set a new standard for how groundbreaking hardware is developed and operated.”

“The complexity of modern machines has outpaced the tools engineers use to build and operate them, leading to costly delays, preventable failures, and a ceiling on innovation,” said Sift CEO and Co-Founder Karthik Gollapudi. “At Sift, our mission is to empower the pioneers building the future by providing them with the first observability platform purpose-built for hardware development. This funding will allow us to accelerate our product roadmap and provide even greater value to our customers as they push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

With the Series A funding, Sift will continue to scale its infrastructure, build out its manufacturing automation suite, enhance its platform with AI/ML capabilities, and deliver more ways for customers to identify and recover from anomalies quickly. The company will also expand its team across engineering, product, sales, and customer success.

Jeff Dexter, Sr. Director of Software at Astranis Space, shared “with Sift’s advanced observability stack, we’re automating much of the manual data review process to increase reliability while accelerating development. Their platform will be a critical tool in our mission to deliver reliable, cost-effective internet to those who need it most.”

For more information about Sift and its unified observability platform, visit https://www.siftstack.com/.

About Sift

Sift is the first unified observability platform for hardware sensor data, empowering engineers to accelerate development, conduct efficient reviews, and ensure reliable operation of complex machines. Founded by former SpaceX engineers, Sift is headquartered in El Segundo, CA. To learn more, visit https://www.siftstack.com/.

SOURCE Sift

ATLANTA, June 25, 2024 — CereTax, the next-generation sales tax solution, today announced a $9 million financing led by S3 Ventures, with participation from Wild Basin Investments and Leaders Fund.

CereTax revolutionizes sales and use tax automation by combining the modernization of a true cloud solution with a relationship-first team of indirect tax experts. Unlike older tax systems plagued by long implementations, inflexibility, and scalability limits, CereTax provides a modern solution that meets the high demands of today’s businesses with ease. This year, CereTax’s revenue has more than tripled year-over-year while enabling 20+ channel partners.

“Sales and use tax determination and compliance is complex and burdensome,” said Aaron Perman, Partner at S3 Ventures. “The legacy solutions used by the vast majority of enterprises struggle to handle the complexity and scale of modern business, and errors can result in significant tax liabilities and penalties. We are excited to partner with CereTax for the long haul as they build the first new enterprise SaaS platform for indirect tax in twenty years.”

“With CereTax Sales Tax, we’ve seen a dramatic reduction in time spent on manual processes. The new system has truly streamlined our operations,” Lina Pinskaya, Controller of Ideal Living. “Having a knowledgeable support team made all the difference. They were responsive to our specific questions and helped us feel supported throughout the transition and after.”

With the new funding, CereTax will further invest in product innovation and supporting customers and partners. Key early hires to scale the company and grow the business include Dario Salas Machado as Vice President of Finance, bringing over 15 years of finance and business expertise, and Marni Burger as Vice President of Marketing, with over 15 years of experience in B2B software and SaaS marketing.

CereTax is also excited to announce the addition of Robert Alvarez to the board of directors. With a proven track record at companies like BigCommerce, Robert’s expertise in scaling high-growth technology businesses will be invaluable to CereTax’s future endeavors. Robert’s deep understanding of financial strategy and operational excellence will enhance CereTax’s commitment to innovation and customer success.

“By growing the leadership team and expanding the board, CereTax is strategically positioning itself for a new era of growth and innovation,” said Mike Sanders, CereTax’s CEO and Co-Founder. “Their combined expertise and vision will be invaluable as we continue our relentless focus on customer and partner success while achieving substantial growth in the years to come.”

About CereTax

CereTax is a next-generation sales tax automation solution that leverages the latest advancements in cloud technology to revolutionize how a sales tax calculation platform operates. CereTax processes millions of transactions per month for some of the largest enterprises, enabling companies to do business reliably and in compliance. CereTax was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more about CereTax at https://www.ceretax.com/.

About S3 Ventures

Founded in 2005, S3 Ventures leads Seed, Series A, and Series B investments in Business Technology, Digital Experiences, and Healthcare Technology. Backed by a single limited partner — a highly philanthropic family with a multi-billion-dollar foundation — S3 Ventures empowers visionary founders with the patient capital and true resources required to grow extraordinary, high-impact companies. Learn more about S3 Ventures at https://www.s3vc.com/.

SOURCE CereTax

New Product Leverages Generative AI While Preserving Traditional Research Workflow

SANTA MONICA, Calif.   , June 25, 2024 — Upword, an emerging knowledge management solutions provider, announced today the launch of its AI-powered research companion tool as well as the completion of a $3 million pre-seed funding round. The research companion uses Generative AI to transform how research is conducted and managed by leveraging data provided by the user. The tool delivers a personalized experience that adheres to traditional research methods while significantly boosting productivity.

The new tool’s public launch follows a successful beta that engaged 30,000 users and 1,000 paying customers. Upword was designed for researchers and students, but among beta users, 50% of paid subscriptions were professionals outside of academia, suggesting broad appeal across industries.  The beta was featured as Product of the Day and listed as one of the top AI products of the year on Product Hunt.

Researchers, marketers, analysts, academics, and students often require highly tailored and context-specific outputs that general AI chatbots struggle to provide. Despite AI’s potential benefits, such as summarization, organization, and knowledge management, 9 out of 10 knowledge workers were disappointed with chatbot outcomes for “important research.”

Upword addresses these concerns by leveraging AI’s capabilities while ensuring high levels of personalization, tailoring, and contextualization for important research. Unlike traditional AI chatbots, Upword operates through a sophisticated interface designed specifically for research management. This interface includes:

• AI Managed Content Library: Leveraging advanced auto-tagging and vectorizing technologies, the library automatically organizes and classifies the user’s research documents, making it significantly easier to locate and utilize information. 
• AI Co-pilot: Leveraging multiple leading large language models (LLMs) like Open AI, Anthropic, and Gemini, the co-pilot enhances professional content, providing tailored suggestions and support that adapt to the user’s specific needs. Unlike chatbots, it continuously learns about the user’s requirements and research, ensuring more tailored and context-based results.
• User-Centric Research Experience: Upword is designed to put the user at the center of the research process and ensures an intuitive step-by-step experience. The user-friendly interface allows for seamless navigation through research activities, keeping the user in control.
• Upword Fetch: This feature harnesses AI search engines and content recommendation engines to suggest materials from the web and the user’s library that could be used for each project based on the user’s project description. – The feature will roll out to all Upword users in the coming weeks.

Additionally, Upword has “Quick AI tools” like translation and summarization to help with daily tasks. 

Upword offers professionals the tools they need to enhance their work while maintaining the familiar structure of traditional research methods, ensuring users can fully leverage AI’s potential without compromising the integrity of their work.

In parallel to its product launch, Upword also announced today the completion of its $3 million pre-seed round from prominent investors, including Telefonica (Wayra X), Go Ahead Ventures, and Goodwater Capital. The funding will be used for further development of the new product as well as expansion into additional markets. 

“For researchers, the advancement of AI has had little effect on the way they work,” said Roee Barak, Founder and CEO of Upword. “The rigorous, step-by-step methodology that defines research has made AI chatbots overwhelming and often inconvenient. While studying in law school, my vision was to build productivity tools that kept me in control, accommodating the need for nuance and rigor in scholarly work while providing the benefits of generative AI. Upword was the result. Now, students, academics, and professionals across many industries have access to a tool that delivers on the promise of GenAI.”

About Upword
Upword provides AI-powered research and knowledge management solutions that enhance productivity and efficiency while maintaining traditional research methods. Leveraging state-of-the-art Generative AI, Upword offers tailored and context-specific support to help organize knowledge more efficiently. Headquartered in Israel and California, Upword has raised over $3 million from prominent investors, including Telefonica. For more information, please visit www.upword.ai.

Media Contact
Elya Cowland
Gova10 for Upword
[email protected]
+972 58-582-9494

SOURCE Upword

New funding to scale automotive virtual sensors that replace hardware, add advanced features and enable car-centric apps as the industry shifts to software-defined vehicles.

DARMSTADT, Germany, June 25, 2024 — COMPREDICT, a pioneer in AI-powered solutions for software-defined vehicles, today announced a $15M Series B funding round led by Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, with continued support from existing investor Shift4Good. This infusion of capital will enable COMPREDICT to expand its global footprint, diversify its product offerings, and enhance large-scale deployment capabilities. By embedding its virtual sensors into more vehicles, COMPREDICT aims to unlock more data and enable any automaker to create new functionalities, enhance driving assistance systems, and boost revenue streams, all while improving the overall driver experience.

“We are thrilled to welcome Woven Capital as an investor. This is an exciting time for us as we approach large-scale series implementation with major partners and customers worldwide,” said Dr. Stéphane Foulard, co-founder and CEO of COMPREDICT. “Our team is well positioned to rapidly expand and provide automakers with valuable data-driven insights. We remain committed to advancing cutting-edge AI technologies in the automotive industry and help automakers realize their vision for vehicle-centric apps and digital services that deliver value to consumers.”

Traditional vehicle health and usage monitoring requires companies to add extra hardware and build extensive data pools across fleets and digital twin cloud infrastructures. COMPREDICT’s innovative approach is purely software-based and uses readily available vehicle signals to create meaningful insights directly in-vehicle. The company’s highly efficient AI process turns existing vehicle data into virtual sensor insights for a wide range of applications, including predictive maintenance, driver coaching and car health certificates, all while informing improved car design to better meet real-world conditions and usage. These insights provide significant value to automakers, consumers and partners alike.

As the automotive industry transitions to software-defined vehicle architectures, the computing power and software content of vehicles are set to grow rapidly. This shift will underpin advanced features like predictive maintenance, smart mobility, enhanced driving and comfort systems, and consumer-centric apps. McKinsey forecasts that the automotive software market will reach $80 billion in 2030.

“By using existing onboard vehicle signals and data to generate AI-based vehicle insights, COMPREDICT has demonstrated the vast potential of virtual sensors, a critical layer in the software-defined vehicle stack, reducing costs and unlocking revenue-generating digital services,” said Betty Bryant, Woven Capital principal who is joining the COMPREDICT board. “We are thrilled to back the COMPREDICT team, a company that is uniquely combining data science and vehicle engineering expertise to bring new innovative capabilities, such as predictive maintenance for next-gen vehicles.”

“COMPREDICT is a key enabler of the automotive industry’s digital transformation, boosting predictive maintenance capabilities,” added Matthieu de Chanville, partner at Shift4Good. “Since our initial investment in 2022, the team’s progress has been remarkable. We look forward to continuing our support for their growth.”

About COMPREDICT
COMPREDICT provides innovative solutions for sustainable mobility. By developing virtual sensors for mobility, COMPREDICT enables automakers around the world to optimize vehicle design, usage and maintenance while delivering greater value to customers via new features and lower cost. Learn more at compredict.ai.

About Woven Capital
Woven Capital is Toyota’s growth fund dedicated to realizing the promise of mobility — how people, goods, information and energy can move. Our global team of investors connects the world’s most promising innovators with the world’s most trusted automotive brand. Founded in 2021, we are investing nearly $800 million in startups that create new ways to connect cities, advance automation, harness and store energy, further electrification, and make our vehicles smarter. Learn more at woven.vc.

About Shift4Good
Shift4Good is an impact venture capital fund focused on the decarbonization of the transportation sector. It aims to invest in the transport for goods and people, which alone accounts for around 20% of global CO2 emissions. Backed by top-notch institutional financial investors, but also major mobility players, Shift4Good has built a unique model to identify and support the best entrepreneurs, those capable of developing and deploying the radical innovations required by the climate emergency. Shift4Good has offices in Paris and Singapore. Learn more at shift4good.com.

Contact:
Vijaylaxmi Sharma
[email protected]
[email protected]
+496151 3844614

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2442790/Compredict_GmbH_1.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2442789/Compredict_GmbH_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Compredict GmbH